A lady was sitting on a Southwest flight from Seattle to San Jose, CA and started looking over the shoulder of the man in front of her. What she saw on his cell phone dismayed her so much she turned him into authorities.
It’s not a happy subject on this Thursday evening:
An airline passenger saw a man sitting in front of her texting about sexually abusing children and used her own cell phone to capture his conversation, police said.
The alert woman then quietly notified crew members on the Seattle-to-San-Jose Southwest Airlines flight. They contacted authorities, leading to the man’s arrest when the jet touched down at Norm Mineta International Airport, according to investigators.
Michael Kellar, 56, was arrested on one charge of soliciting a sex crime and two counts of attempted child molestation, according to the San Jose Police Department.
The woman he was allegedly texting, Gail Burnworth, 50, was arrested at her Tacoma, Washington, home on charges of sexually exploiting a minor, child rape and dealing in child pornography, police said.
Kellar is being held without bail while Burnsworth remains in custody because she has been unable to raise the $1MN her bail has been set at.
Apparently, Keller was using a large phone with a large font, making it easy for the lady behind him to see what he was texting.
Kellar’s defense?
Kellar initially told officers he had done nothing wrong and was only engaging in role playing and sexual fantasy during his text conversations with Burnworth, police said.
Yeah…
Would You Turn In Your Seatmate?
What piqued my interest about this story is that I would never read my seatmate’s mobile phone or laptop. Obviously it is not hard if you want to do it, especially in this case with a large font size, but I find it an invasion of privacy and consciously look away. I have no desire to read anyone else’s texts.
I’d like to think that if I read something like that, I would turn them in too. But I honestly don’t think I’d look in the first place. What do you think? Do you look over the shoulder of your seatmates and read their text messages and emails?
If I glanced and saw an objectionable word or phrase, I might read more and, if the content was indicative of a crime planned or committed, I might consider alerting the authorities. (an example where a false alert might be triggered comes to mind, in the reports of misunderstandings about those who write or speak Arabic) If the phrase, upon further examination, was suggestive of child abuse or endangerment, I would, without hesitation, report the observation to the cabin crew and the police. In the medical field, some of us, in the course of performance of our duties, are regarded as Mandatory Reporters. We’re taught to report that which is suggestive of child or dependent adult abuse and let the investigatory process yield a determination of fault and render judgment and, if appropriate, penalty. While no such legal obligation exists when we are “off duty”, the ethical and moral imperative remains in full force, in my opinion. This is methodology is, for me, a struggle to maintain composure and control when in the (possible / probable) presence a person who has, or intends to, harm children. I really, really despise the vile subhumans who engage in this behavior.
I know it’s supposed to be “to each his/her own,” but his defense was that he was just fantasizing and role-playing about being a pedophile…? WTF.
I try not to read other people’s screens (even my own fiance’s), but sometimes your eyes just wander around and absent-mindedly land on nearby screens. If I read something like THAT, I would absolutely alert authorities. Yikes!
What would his best defense be?
What if he was just sexting with a friend? His life is basically destroyed. I don’t condone it but MYOB
i’m no saint to be the first to throw stones, so for something really minor i’ll just pretend I saw nothing. in THIS particular story, i support his action. one can debate about actual harm versus intentional to cause harm, but that’s for law enforcement and judiciary to decide.
in more obvious cases, e.g. when you highly suspect the old man and young girl is some sort of human trafficking, then yes everyone is obligated to speak up.
you might also end up screwing someone’s reputation over if you’ve misinterpreted what you saw and made erroneous assumptions and extrapolations when reporting the incident.
If invasion of privacy was considered a crime, then child molestation outweigh the prior offense. Is it?
In this case, the accusation proven to be true.
Afaik there was incident whereby a woman reporting the man next to her as a terrorist (because writing an arabic) symbol. The plane get back to terminal, the suspect was questioned by the police. Apparently he was a math proffesor scribing a math formula (or something like that).
Terrorism is obviously bigger than child molestation. So how about that?
On a recent flight, I ended up watching the movie a kid in front of me had on the screen and that of an adult across the aisle one row ahead. My point – if you can see it, it can catch your eye. If I noticed suggestions of child abuse, elder abuse, or animal abuse, I wouldn’t keep quiet. Financial misdeeds I would ignore. I think the person who notified authorities did the right thing. I’m not saying the parties involved are guilty (how could I know?) but there seems to be enough doubt to trigger an investigation, and, if as my local radio station claimed, the woman runs a childcare center that may be involved, HELL YES!
Injustices happen in this world because normally decent people stand by and do nothing …