A man who ‘enjoys destroying human beings’
Parole-eligible serial pedophile Peter Whitmore in ‘highest category of risk,’ criminal profiler says
A sadistic pedophile takes a walk in a neighbourhood park.
He spots a group of young children playing. His behaviour is just like the other adults standing there. He is likely chatty and charming.
But what he sees in those children is profoundly different than what we see, says Dr. Michael Bourke, chief psychologist with the U.S. Marshals Service and an expert in criminal profiling.
Sadistic pedophiles, a category he calls the “top tier” of high-risk child sex offenders, are aroused by inflicting pain and a desire “to humiliate, to degrade, to diminish.”
"What strikes me about the Whitmore case is that there were many opportunities for individuals to realize who he was." DR. MICHAEL BOURKE PSYCHOLOGIST
“These are individuals who are interested in destroying a child’s psyche,” Bourke says. “One offender told me . . . his goal was to take the happiest child on the playground.”
“He selected the child with the most sunshine in her face and in her laugh, and that was the child he selected because that was the child whom he wanted to destroy for the rest of her life.”
Another told him: “I see them as boxes. I see them as just flesh and there for me to do what I want to do with them to get gratification,’ ” says Bourke, who has been treating pedophiles for nearly two decades.
Canadian pedophile Peter Whitmore, currently eligible for parole from a life sentence for abducting and sexually abusing two young boys in 2006, fits the profile, says Bourke, who has never assessed Whitmore in person but reviewed details of his case for a Toronto Star/Global News 16x9 investigation.
“This is an individual who thrives and enjoys destroying human beings,” he says. “By his own admission, by his demonstrated behaviour and by any (risk assessment) that I could use, (Whitmore) would fall into the highest category of risk.”
Zachary Miller, whom Whitmore abducted and sexually assaulted repeatedly over two days in 2006, says his abuser beat him, forced him to watch child pornography and threatened him with death.
Whitmore served a series of prison sentences dating back to the early 1990s for sexual offences against nine children, as well as breaches of his parole conditions when he sought other young children, the Star reported Saturday. He also admitted in 1995 to having sex with at least10 more boys under the age of12 than he had been charged with.
Psychological and psychiatric assessments conducted on Whitmore over his lengthy prison stays dating back to the early 1990s repeatedly drew the same conclusions: He was at high risk to reoffend. One assessment placed that risk at 100 per cent.
Still, he was continually released from prison — often early — and quickly began hunting for children to exploit, records show. In some cases, his hunt began within hours of his release.
“What strikes me about the Whitmore case is that there were many opportunities for individuals to realize who he was,” says Bourke, who calls offenders like Whitmore a “syn- ergistic nightmare.”
“They have characteristics and traits, any one of which would be concerning, but in combination it makes a terrifying formula.”
Whitmore, who declined interview requests, has not requested a parole hearing. But in a recent interview his former lawyer says Whitmore wants out of prison eventually.
That, says Bourke, is a prospect fraught with risk.
“The most important thing to understand about serial child molesters and individuals who are pedophilic is that they are tigers who don’t change their stripes,” he says. “This is an enduring, biologically driven predilection. It doesn’t go away.”
He should remain incarcerated or hospitalized until he no longer poses a risk, Bourke says.
But such a situation rarely happens. Whitmore was released early from prison sentences three times prior to his last conviction. It’s the same story for many sexual offenders who are sophisticated in manipulating the justice system the same way they manipulate children, says Bourke.
“Offenders have told me that they wait for opportunities to be in front of individuals who give them the benefit of the doubt. They look for opportunities to play the system, to manipulate the system in their favour so they can find the holes in the system, they can find the opportunities to go out and do what they love to do.”
That manipulation needs to stop, says Christy Dzikowicz, a director with The Canadian Centre for Child Protection, which supports victims of child exploitation and abuse.
“Something needs to change. I think we have to be continuously examining the system that really doesn’t meet the needs of children.” The documentary about Zach Miller’s ordeal, which aired Saturday night on Global 16x9, is scheduled to broadcast again Sunday at 7 a.m. and 12 p.m. on Global Toronto.