http://www.wrdw.com/home/headlines/1851301.html
Special Assignment: In Plain Sight, Part 2
Updated: Wed 4:30 PM, Jun 21, 2006
By: Laurie Ott
Special Assignment: In Plain Sight, Part 1
November 10, 2005
There are 11,000 sex offenders on the state registry in Georgia, and those are only the ones tracked by the GBI. But soon hundreds of them will fall off the registry, their pictures will disappear from the website and they’ll be free to roam undetected in the communities where you live. As we found out in this News 12 special assignment: that’s just one way more and more sex offenders can hide in plain sight.
Back in June, convicted child molester Christopher Marshall Banks was arrested after he’s caught on tape teaching kids in Richmond and Aiken Counties martial arts. Banks’ photo was missing from the GBI website listing sex offenders.
Melanie Klaus counsels victims of rape and other crimes, including children who fall prey to predators. She says we have every right to ask why that picture was missing.
“I think sure it’s a fair question. Why don’t they? What’s the story? Where is the breakdown? This case with the karate instructor, it’s a case in point, it’s very clear we need pictures, we need to be able to recognize them.” Klaus said.
District Attorney Danny Craig not only agrees, he’s working with lawmaker to require all sex offenders to wear tracking devices and serve a minimum 25-year sentence for the more serious offenses. He says we have to make it easier to track offenders because of one simple fact.
“In this office, we have never seen a child molester or a sex offender rehabilitated,” Craig said.
And that’s what makes this next fact so scary: more than 300 convicted sex offenders fall off the state registry, their pictures, their names, their addresses, no longer there for you to see, no longer tracked by the GBI, they are free to move around and live where you live, hiding in plain sight.
“Law enforcement will know about it, but the public won’t,” said John Bankhead, GBI.
Only those convicted of the worst crimes will stay on the Georgia registry for life, the others slip back into our communities without a warning, without knowing who they are.
So what can you do? If you want to see the laws changed, and made tougher, tell your lawmaker. Click here to contact your lawmaker.
And there’s something else we’re doing to help. Because hundreds of sex offenders are falling off the registry, we’re going to start showing you their pictures, it may be the last time you see them. We want to take away the cloak of secrecy, as the district attorney calls it, we are putting sex offenders in plain sight. Starting November 17, and every Thursday after that, we’ll show you sex offenders were you live.
GA Sex Offender Registry
SC Sex Offender Registry
Columbia County Sex Offenders
Richmond County Sex Offenders
Special Assignment: In Plain Sight, Part 2
Updated: Wed 4:30 PM, Jun 21, 2006
By: Laurie Ott
Special Assignment: In Plain Sight, Part 1
November 10, 2005
There are 11,000 sex offenders on the state registry in Georgia, and those are only the ones tracked by the GBI. But soon hundreds of them will fall off the registry, their pictures will disappear from the website and they’ll be free to roam undetected in the communities where you live. As we found out in this News 12 special assignment: that’s just one way more and more sex offenders can hide in plain sight.
Back in June, convicted child molester Christopher Marshall Banks was arrested after he’s caught on tape teaching kids in Richmond and Aiken Counties martial arts. Banks’ photo was missing from the GBI website listing sex offenders.
Melanie Klaus counsels victims of rape and other crimes, including children who fall prey to predators. She says we have every right to ask why that picture was missing.
“I think sure it’s a fair question. Why don’t they? What’s the story? Where is the breakdown? This case with the karate instructor, it’s a case in point, it’s very clear we need pictures, we need to be able to recognize them.” Klaus said.
District Attorney Danny Craig not only agrees, he’s working with lawmaker to require all sex offenders to wear tracking devices and serve a minimum 25-year sentence for the more serious offenses. He says we have to make it easier to track offenders because of one simple fact.
“In this office, we have never seen a child molester or a sex offender rehabilitated,” Craig said.
And that’s what makes this next fact so scary: more than 300 convicted sex offenders fall off the state registry, their pictures, their names, their addresses, no longer there for you to see, no longer tracked by the GBI, they are free to move around and live where you live, hiding in plain sight.
“Law enforcement will know about it, but the public won’t,” said John Bankhead, GBI.
Only those convicted of the worst crimes will stay on the Georgia registry for life, the others slip back into our communities without a warning, without knowing who they are.
So what can you do? If you want to see the laws changed, and made tougher, tell your lawmaker. Click here to contact your lawmaker.
And there’s something else we’re doing to help. Because hundreds of sex offenders are falling off the registry, we’re going to start showing you their pictures, it may be the last time you see them. We want to take away the cloak of secrecy, as the district attorney calls it, we are putting sex offenders in plain sight. Starting November 17, and every Thursday after that, we’ll show you sex offenders were you live.
GA Sex Offender Registry
SC Sex Offender Registry
Columbia County Sex Offenders
Richmond County Sex Offenders
http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/2005/06/18/met_456317.shtml
Originally created 06/18/05
Offender jailed on violation
By Staff Writer
Authorities arrested a convicted sex offender Friday who they said was violating his probation by teaching at a North Augusta martial arts academy.
Christopher Marshall Banks, 54, of the 4700 block of Luckeys Bridge Road in Thomson, was jailed at the McDuffie County jail Friday afternoon on a probation violation, Augusta Judicial Circuit District Attorney Danny Craig said.
Mr. Craig said a confidential informant told his office that Mr. Banks had been teaching at Southern Tang Soo Do martial arts studio for several months.
Mr. Craig said Mr. Banks served six years in the Georgia prison system for convictions on child molestation and aggravated child molestation charges in 1990 and was scheduled to serve probation until late 2007.
One of the special conditions of probation imposed by the courts was that Mr. Banks was not to work or volunteer with an organization or employer that would put him in contact with children younger than 16, the district attorney said.
Mr. Craig also said the judge had ordered that Mr. Banks could have supervised contact with his biological children.
A judge can now revoke Mr. Banks' probation, pending a revocation hearing.
Mr. Craig said Mr. Banks was scheduled to chaperone a sleep-over at the academy - which teaches martial arts to children from age 5 through adolescence - on Friday night, and that he had been involved with activities at a sleep-over in May. Mr. Craig said his office was not aware of any wrongdoing during the sleep-over or other activities.
Robert Valentine, the owner of Southern Tang Soo Do, which recently moved to its North Augusta location from Peach Orchard Road, did not return phone calls seeking comment Friday night.
Mr. Craig said even with awareness of sex offenders and Internet registries, that doesn't stop some sex offenders from breaking the rules.
"This is what goes on in the mind of a sex offender," he said. "His behavior is a fixation, and he is not in any way deterred or distracted by the fact that he may be behaving in a way that may be drawing attention to himself."
Reach Jeremy Craig at (706) 823-3409 or [email protected].
Related Searches
MCDUFFIE COUNTY JAIL FRIDAY GEORGIA JUDICIAL EVENT AUGUSTA JUDICIAL CHRISTOPHER MARSHALL BANKS SOO DO ROBERT VALENTINE CIRCUIT DISTRICT ATTORNEY GEORGIA PRISON MCDUFFIE COUNTY DANNY CRAIG DISTRICT ATTORNEY (706) 823-3409 JUDGE PERSON COMMUNICATION AND MEETINGS JEREMY CRAIG [email protected] LAW_CRIME INTERNET REGISTRIES
Originally created 06/18/05
Offender jailed on violation
By Staff Writer
Authorities arrested a convicted sex offender Friday who they said was violating his probation by teaching at a North Augusta martial arts academy.
Christopher Marshall Banks, 54, of the 4700 block of Luckeys Bridge Road in Thomson, was jailed at the McDuffie County jail Friday afternoon on a probation violation, Augusta Judicial Circuit District Attorney Danny Craig said.
Mr. Craig said a confidential informant told his office that Mr. Banks had been teaching at Southern Tang Soo Do martial arts studio for several months.
Mr. Craig said Mr. Banks served six years in the Georgia prison system for convictions on child molestation and aggravated child molestation charges in 1990 and was scheduled to serve probation until late 2007.
One of the special conditions of probation imposed by the courts was that Mr. Banks was not to work or volunteer with an organization or employer that would put him in contact with children younger than 16, the district attorney said.
Mr. Craig also said the judge had ordered that Mr. Banks could have supervised contact with his biological children.
A judge can now revoke Mr. Banks' probation, pending a revocation hearing.
Mr. Craig said Mr. Banks was scheduled to chaperone a sleep-over at the academy - which teaches martial arts to children from age 5 through adolescence - on Friday night, and that he had been involved with activities at a sleep-over in May. Mr. Craig said his office was not aware of any wrongdoing during the sleep-over or other activities.
Robert Valentine, the owner of Southern Tang Soo Do, which recently moved to its North Augusta location from Peach Orchard Road, did not return phone calls seeking comment Friday night.
Mr. Craig said even with awareness of sex offenders and Internet registries, that doesn't stop some sex offenders from breaking the rules.
"This is what goes on in the mind of a sex offender," he said. "His behavior is a fixation, and he is not in any way deterred or distracted by the fact that he may be behaving in a way that may be drawing attention to himself."
Reach Jeremy Craig at (706) 823-3409 or [email protected].
Related Searches
MCDUFFIE COUNTY JAIL FRIDAY GEORGIA JUDICIAL EVENT AUGUSTA JUDICIAL CHRISTOPHER MARSHALL BANKS SOO DO ROBERT VALENTINE CIRCUIT DISTRICT ATTORNEY GEORGIA PRISON MCDUFFIE COUNTY DANNY CRAIG DISTRICT ATTORNEY (706) 823-3409 JUDGE PERSON COMMUNICATION AND MEETINGS JEREMY CRAIG [email protected] LAW_CRIME INTERNET REGISTRIES
http://www.georgia-sex-offenders.com/maps/offender.php?id=72041
(link not active, is now a redirect to a different website)
Banks, Christopher Marshall
339 Johnson St, Warrenton 30828
Crime: Agg child molestation child molest
Year of birth: 1950 (62 years ago)
Conviction date: 09/05/1991 (20 years ago)
Conviction state: GA
Registration date: 09/04/1997
Residence verification date: 12/11/2010
View printer friendly version of this page.
View offender's actual record in the registry containing more information.
View all sex offenders in Warrenton on map.
Receive e-mail alerts anytime anyone in Warrenton has been added to the Georgia Sex Offender Registry.
(link not active, is now a redirect to a different website)
Banks, Christopher Marshall
339 Johnson St, Warrenton 30828
Crime: Agg child molestation child molest
Year of birth: 1950 (62 years ago)
Conviction date: 09/05/1991 (20 years ago)
Conviction state: GA
Registration date: 09/04/1997
Residence verification date: 12/11/2010
View printer friendly version of this page.
View offender's actual record in the registry containing more information.
View all sex offenders in Warrenton on map.
Receive e-mail alerts anytime anyone in Warrenton has been added to the Georgia Sex Offender Registry.