Convicted molester found sane
October 02, 2010, 01:09 AM By Michelle Durand Daily Journal Staff
The English software designer who said he didn’t know sexually abusing three young boys was wrong was ruled sane by the same jury who last week found the man guilty of 44 felonies.
The decision, which jurors returned Friday afternoon just over an hour after hearing closing arguments in Tarquin Craig Thomas’ sanity phase, means the 44-year-old man will spend life in prison rather than be treated at a state hospital and possibly released. He will be sentenced Dec. 3 and the bottom term of the life sentence could be in the hundreds, said Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe.
Defense attorney Richard Keyes declined to comment on the case and verdicts.
Thomas did not take the stand in the guilt phase of the trial but testified during the sanity section that he was uneducated about sex as a child in England and later felt having sex with minors was no different than the same acts with an adult. He told jurors the three boys, including a 9-year-old boy he was in the process of adopting, had instigated the sexual encounters and that he captured the acts on film and video because he photographed “everything.”
Those graphic images of Thomas performing and receiving sexual acts with Dylan, the 9-year-old, and Freddie, a teen he met through the San Francisco Boys and Girls Club, were a key element of the prosecution’s case. Keyes told jurors not every photo met the legal definition of specific sex crimes and that some solely of the child nude may not have had a lewd intent. However, jurors convicted Thomas of dozens of felonies of which most were variations of child molestation. They also convicted him of sending Dylan a picture frame with a hidden GPS device after the boy was taken from him and returned to Oregon officials because of a spanking incident. The jury deadlocked on an attempted kidnapping count which prosecutor Aaron Fitzgerald said was from Thomas trying to steal Dylan and take him back to England.
The GPS device led to Thomas’ arrest and subsequent discovery of the images that led to the child molestation charges. Thomas has been in custody since and, during that time, admittedly asked Freddie to use a blow torch to destroy a hard drive that may have contained other incriminating images.
That request was one reason why Fitzgerald told jurors Thomas was not insane and well aware that what he was doing was illegal. Fitzgerald also pointed to Thomas hiding a 4 gigabyte flash drive with images in the bottom of a laundry detergent box, where it went undetected during the police search but was later found by Freddie’s mother. He also got Thomas to concede he never spoke of the acts or child sexuality with friends, coworkers or neighbors. If the acts were acceptable, Fitzgerald reasoned, why would Thomas keep them to himself?
Thomas, particularly under direct examination, said he had little sexual knowledge or influence during his first decades in England short of overhearing other kids, watching a monkey masturbate and having a friend share a World War II movie about an adult soldier’s sexual relationship with a 12-year-old boy.
Fitzgerald told jurors Thomas, after moving to the United States to work for Barclays Investment Firm, set up a photography studio in his San Mateo home ostensibly to be around young children. Thomas, however, said he began the practice to foster Dylan’s interest in modeling.
When questioned about the graphic images of himself having sex with Freddie and Dylan, Thomas said they likely captured specific acts only one time because he was a “been there, done that” sort of person and didn’t care for repetition.
Thomas remains in custody on no-bail status.
Michelle Durand can be reached by e-mail: michelle@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 102.