50-year abuser gets 24 to life
50-year abuser gets 24 to life
October 18, 2002
Sue Lindsay, lindsays@RockyMountainNews.com
USA - Rocky Mountain News, CO -
Ex-Episcopal priest lured boys to home with candy, games The recounting of a Denver man's 50 years of sexual abuse of young boys "defies comprehension," the sentencing judge said Thursday before ordering him to serve 24 years to life in prison.
Denver District Judge Sheila Rappaport presided over the case of Donald Shissler, 69, who abused his foster son and an untold number of other young boys he lured to his home with candy, video games, a pool table and a hot tub where nudity was the norm.
"His house was a virtual Disneyland to these boys," prosecutor Kerri Lombardi said. "Unfortunately, the price of admission was their dignity" and submission to repeated sexual assaults.
Shissler assaulted one neighborhood boy from age 6 to 11 after showering him with special treatment and gifts, Lombardi said.
Shissler, who was an Episcopal priest in the 1960s and a foster parent for 17 years, lived in the 100 block of West Irvington lace in the Baker neighborhood.
He adopted a foster child at age 14, only to subject him to sexual abuse and offering him to other men for sexual acts, Lombardi said.
"You never had any intention of being a father to me," the man, now 32, said at the sentencing hearing.
"You saw a torn heart, a wayward soul. I wasn't your son. I was your object. At the weakest point in my life you took advantage of me."
Shissler pleaded guilty to repeated sexual assaults against two brothers when they were 9 to 11 years old.
Parents of the victims sobbed as they told the judge how Shissler destroyed their sons' lives.
"You ruined their childhood," the mother of the brothers said. "I'm afraid for my kids, how later on they might think about suicide. I don't know if they're going to get married, I don't know if they are going to like girls. I'll never forgive what you did to my boys."
One of her sons told the judge that Shissler should have to stay in prison "so he won't hurt anybody else."
Shissler "perceives his love of little boys, his pedophilia, to be absolutely normal," Lombardi said. "He does not comprehend the damage he has inflicted on what I think is hundreds of little boys. He has preyed for 50 years on young boys. This is a heart-wrenching case."
Parents trusted Shissler, as a former priest and licensed foster parent, encouraging their young sons to spend time with him, Lombardi said.
"He held himself out as a mentor and father figure," she said. "People trusted him. Parents entrusted him with their little boys."
Defense attorney Karen McGovern said that Shissler's "concern for young people somehow grew into a sickness. He realizes he could have scarred these children for life and feels very badly about that."
Shissler made no statement in court, but submitted a letter to the judge that was not made public.
His home was filled with framed photos of naked young boys, pornographic magazines and videos. Police found hundreds of sexually explicit photos and video clips of adolescent boys engaged in sexual activity at Shissler's home.
More victims came forward after Shissler was charged in June with raping the two brothers. He pleaded guilty to avoid more state sex assault charges and federal child pornography charges, Lombardi said.