Posts Tagged ‘ Evin Daly ’

by Mark Wigley
Winter 2009

While Pete Townshend is tuning up his guitar in preparation for his appearance at the forty-fourth Super Bowl in Miami, child activists across Florida are moving to block the British sex offender from taking the stage.

“This man admitted to using his credit card to view child pornography on the internet,” says advocate Kevin Gillick. “He was a registered sex offender in the United Kingdom. Not only should he be banned from the Super Bowl, he shouldn’t be allowed in this country at all.”

Townshend, 64, one of two surviving members of the iconic rock group The Who, will perform with Roger Daltry at the event in February. CBS made the NFL’s decision public on Thanksgiving day.

Pete Townshend was arrested in 2003 after getting caught viewing multiple kiddie-porn images, including a photo of a two year-old boy being raped by an adult. He excuses the act by claiming he was doing research for a planned book on child abuse. British authorities placed Townshend on their national sex offender registry for five years. He was also “admonished” by police: a quirk of the English justice system by which offenders are brought down to the local precinct and given a “good talking to.”

Gillick dismisses Townshend’s explanation: ”Everyone knows that when you do business with a child pornographer you place an order for his next victim.”

Kevin Gillick is the editor of The Guardian-Brevard, a free newspaper which publishes photos of child molesters along with explicit coverage of their crimes. The paper is distributed in Brevard County; a community on Florida’s East Coast.

“Florida is the place where Jessica Lunsford and Junny Rios-Martinez were murdered by child predators,” he said. “It is the place where Jimmy Ryce and Adam Walsh spent their last days on earth. If the NFL goes through with this performance, they and their sponsors are going to feel the resolve of the people who live here.”

“They will be shocked,” he said. “This is going to be breathtakingly ugly”

A child advocacy group In South Florida has asked NFL Chief Executive, Roger Goodell to drop Townsend from the entertainment venue.

“I trust you will act in the best interests of your audience and advertisers in deciding to drop Townshend from the line-up…” writes Evin Daly in his letter dated November 16.

Daly is the leader of Child AbuseWatch, an internet advocacy group based in Boca Raton. His letter to Goodell points out that Townshend published a salacious story on his blog, describing teenagers having sex. The fictional tale was removed from Townshend’s site after receiving complaints from European child advocacy groups.

The official Super Bowl XLIV web site schedules the game at Dolphin Stadium, February 7, 2010.

Gary Glitter was all set. After completing his 27 month sentence in a Vietnamese prison for molesting two little girls, the eighties rocker was back home in England and making money. Hewlett Packard was using Joan Jett’s version of his song “Do You Want To Touch ” to hawk their TouchSmart computer products. The royalty money began rolling in.

Then, Evin Daly (pictured) got mad. Sickened by the salacious lyrics which alluded to Glitter’s sexual predilections, Daly began a letter writing campaign that quickly turned into a worldwide, fist-shaking, fire-storm.

Glitter, whose real name is Paul Gadd, had no reason to believe his stream of income would be cut off by a web savvy gadfly from Boca Raton. He was free to do as he pleased in his native Great Britain despite his 1996 conviction for possession of child porn. H.P’s national ad campaign would bring in a pretty penny, and Daly’s initial complaints were brushed aside by corporate heads.

In October 2008, Daly turned up the heat. His web-based group Child AbuseWatch.net, called for an international boycott of Hewlett Packard products. A few weeks later, H.P. withdrew the ad campaign, and ceased paying Glitter. The National Football League also banned Glitter’s song: “Rock and Roll Part II, otherwise known as the “Hey” song.

All in a day’s work for Evin Daly, a Guardian Ad Litem for the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit in Palm Beach. The program provides legal representation for neglected and abandoned children who are before the court. His web site, “ButlerReport.com”, maintains a rolling commentary on a host of issues, particularly those concerned with child abuse. He is the founder of the AbuseWatch network that sent shivers up Hewlett Packard’s corporate spine.

In August, Protect Our Children picked Daly to receive the 2009 “Junny Award”. The annual award goes to the Floridian who has done the most to advance the American Child-Protective Movement. Daly, who was born in Sligo County Ireland, will be in Brevard November 21, to accept the award at the “Celebration In The Park”, in Cocoa.

“It is an unexpected honor…” he writes, “I am grateful to your board for their vote of confidence.”
Daly was the unanimous choice this year. Members of Protect Our Children were in awe of his activism. Executive Director Mark Wigley nominated Daly for the accolade:” It was a no brainer…” said Wigley, “his tenacious campaign to right a wrong inspired all of us.”

In 2008 Daly formed “Child AbuseWatch.net” as a compliment to the Guardian AdLiten movement. It is proving to be a potent force for pressing the agenda of child protectors. The group decries the use of children in reality TV shows, its website is filled with child safety information and links to useful sites on the internet.

“It has blossomed into an international mouthpiece for the protection of children and the education of parents,” says Daly. He asked that we recognize the organization on the award, a testament to his selfless commitment to the cause.

Daly’s restless activism moves on to the next issue. He was disgusted by the reaction of some members of the international film community after the arrest of pedophile director Roman Polanski.

Polanski had been on the run since his sentencing for assaulting a thirteen year-old in 1977. He was picked up by police in Switzerland in September and is being held for extradition to the United States. Prominent members of the film industry signed a petition protesting the arrest.

Daly has some words for them: “Shame on you and on the egocentric mentality that thinks that anything, any standing, any career, any contribution no matter how noble, can get you a free pass to the crime of child rape. It can’t, it won’t and it never will!”