Prosecutors to Fight Molester's Parole

Scott Coppersmith/CNS

September 18, 2009

Santa Ana  - When a man who has served three years in prison for molesting three girls -- and kept another girl as his sex slave for years -- appears before a parole board on Monday, Orange County prosecutors plan to fight his release.

George Joseph England, who is now 65, was found guilty in 1977 of sexually assaulting three girls, but fled before he could be sentenced.

He spent 29 years on the run, much of that time with another girl he claimed was his adopted daughter, whom he'd bought from her Vietnamese mother when the girl was 5 years old, said Susan Kang Schroeder of the Orange County District Attorney's office.

When he was finally caught, he was sentenced to the maximum of six years in prison based on 1977 sentencing laws. Under today's laws, England would have had to serve 45 years to life in prison for child sexual abuse.

He never served time for abusing his "daughter" because the statute of limitations expired before he could be prosecuted, Schroeder said.

Having served half his sentence, England is scheduled to appear at a parole hearing at 1 p.m. Monday at Salinas Valley State Prison in Soledad.

"The only way to stop serial child molester George England is to keep him in prison, away from young girls," District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said.

"He has robbed many little girls of a normal childhood, especially (the girl from Vietnam), who lives with the guilt and torment caused by the abuse by the man who used her as his possession," he said. "The Orange County District Attorney's office will do everything in our legal arsenal to make sure England never again has access to little girls."

Although it is likely his parole will be denied, prosecutors cannot stop England from being released from prison at the end of his sentence, in January 2013. But at that point, they intend to ask that he be confined to a mental institution, Schroeder said.

England is unapologetic and has never received treatment while in custody, Schroeder said.

He bought the 5-year-old girl in Vietnam in 1972, when he was working as a civilian contractor, Schroeder said.

He moved to Costa Mesa in the 1970s with the girl and forced her to have sex with him several times a week, and started giving her alcohol when she was 7 years old, Schroeder said.

England also encouraged the girl to invite her friends over and used a bathroom peephole to spy on them, and installed a camera near the bathtub to take pictures, she said.

England molested several young girls while living in Costa Mesa in the mid-1970s, but most of the attacks weren't reported to authorities, Schroeder said.

He was arrested in July 1977 for molesting three girls ages 9 to 10 after one of the girls told her mother about the attacks because she feared England would go after her younger sister, Schroeder said.

While his trial was pending, England told his "daughter" that if he were convicted, she would end up with a foster family that would rape her or force her into prostitution. He also told her she was too old to be adopted and that he was the only one who could protect her, Schroeder said.

The girl did not testify against him, but the three other girls did and he was convicted.

But he fled before he was sentenced and spent 29 years as a fugitive, moving around the country before settling in Florida and using the identity of a boy who died when he was 11 months old in Santa Barbara, according to Schroeder.

England continued to sexually assault the girl in a variety of ways, and even forced her to have sex with animals, Schroeder said.

He got her pregnant six to eight times, and made her get abortions until she got pregnant at age 13 and the pregnancy was discovered too late for an abortion, Schroeder said.

England convinced a social worker that a boy had impregnated her after she got drunk at a party, and the baby boy was put up for adoption, Schroeder said.

He continued having sex with the girl until she was 16 and threatened to kill herself. She got married at 21 and has not been in contact with him since 1995, Schroeder said.

England renewed his phony passport in 1997 and 2003, but in May 2005, the U.S. Department of State Diplomatic Security Service discovered he was living under an assumed identity, Schroeder said.

The woman he had sexually abused for years told a neighbor who was an FBI agent about the abuse and federal authorities arrested England in Florida in May 2005, Schroeder said.

He pleaded guilty in federal court to two counts of fraud and misuse of passports and other entry documents on Sept. 15, 2005, and was sentenced to 14 months in federal prison.

After that, he was sent to Orange County to be sentenced for the 1977 sexual assaults.