I’ve used this headline several times before, but it always seems appropriate. I will admit to some surprise, because my source, The Philadelphia Inquirer, told us more than they might have. Then again, the reporter is Vinny Vella, whom I have previously noted might have gotten in trouble with his editors for telling too much of the truth.
A Skippack Township supervisor, already facing charges of soliciting child pornography, has been charged with sexually abusing a boy who was in his care for several years, investigators said Monday.
Here’s the part that several newspapers, and sadly, law enforcement agencies, hide: the sex of the victim. I have previously admitted that when I see a story written to conceal the sex of the victim, my first instinct is to guess that the sexual abuse was homosexual in nature. Mr Vella did not hide it, and it was even part of the headline.
Nicholas Fountain, 38, was arraigned late Sunday on charges of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, indecent assault, and related crimes, after investigators say he admitted to the crimes in an interview with Pennsylvania State Police detectives.
He remained in custody, denied bail. It was unclear if he had hired an attorney.
Fountain had been in custody since Sept. 24, when state police troopers arrested him on a warrant issued by the Hartford County Sheriff’s Office in northeast Maryland. He was charged with soliciting nude pictures from an undercover officer posing as a 14-year-old boy.
Naturally, the Inquirer didn’t include the photo of the accused, either in this story or the previous one cited in their article. I suppose it doesn’t matter, because all of the local Philly television news stations had his picture plastered all over their reports. Even Victor Fiorillo of Philadelphia Magazine, who has complained about Steve Keeley and Fox 29 News crime coverage, included Mr Fountain’s photo. Instead, the newspaper used a photo of the Skippack Township office building.
With the charges of seeking child pornography, and since he runs two daycare centers in Pennsylvania, state police detectives decided to see if there was more potential criminal activity by Mr Fountain, and began interviewing:
people close to him about any potential criminal activity, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest in Montgomery County.
In one of those interviews, the victim, now 18, told police Fountain sexually abused him, beginning when he was 9 years old and continuing until he was 16, the affidavit said.
There’s actually a lot to unpack in those two short sentences. While the story does not say so, the first question which came to my mind was: did any of the adults interviewed know of any suspicious activity by Mr Fountain? How did the detectives come to interview an 18-year-old boy? WPVI-TV’s report noted that Mr Fountain is married — yes, to a woman — and has two younger children along with a stepchild.
How, I have to ask, did Mr Fountain, if he is guilty of the charges against him, and he is innocent until proven guilty, manage to conceal all of this for so long? If the victim’s story is accurate, he started this at least nine years ago, when he would have been 31, and somehow left no clues? His wife never picked up on it? None of his friends noticed anything strange about him? A boy who was nine at first, continuing sporadically for seven more years, managed to keep it a secret from his parents and siblings — if he has any — and his friends? Make it make sense, because I certainly can’t understand it.
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