Investigation finds foster parent
raped, abused children for four years
• Elizabeth
Nouryeh @NouryehNeighbor
• Jun
12, 2020 Updated Jun 12, 2020
Chattahoochee Hills Police Department has
charged a Fairburn foster parent with multiple felony rape and child
molestation charges.
Johnny Lee Summers, 55, was
arrested on multiple charges by the North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
Department of Public Safety June. The Fairburn man has been charged in Georgia
with the following:
• Two
felony counts of rape
• Two
felony counts of aggravated child molestation
• Three
felony counts of child molestation
• Two
felony counts of cruelty to children
• One
felony count of enticing a child for indecent purposes
• Two
misdemeanor counts for battery family violence
• Two
misdemeanor counts of simple assault
Chattahoochee Hills Police
Department requested the Georgia Bureau of Investigation in December to
investigate allegations of child molestation made against Summers, who was a
foster parent. At the time of the allegations, Summers, and his wife, were
fostering four siblings in their home.
The investigation has revealed
that Summers molested and/or abused all four children in his care. The children
range in age from 8 to 16-years-old and lived in the home for approximately
four years.
Additional charges are expected.
Summers is presently in custody at the Horry County, South Carolina Sheriff’s
Office and awaiting extradition.
Berlin authorities placed
children with pedophiles for 30 years
The 'Kentler Project' in West
Berlin routinely placed homeless children with pedophile men, assuming they'd
make ideal foster parents. A study has found the practice went on for decades.
Starting in the 1970s psychology
professor Helmut Kentler conducted his "experiment." Homeless
children in West Berlin were intentionally placed with pedophile men. These men
would make especially loving foster parents, Kentler argued.
A study conducted by the
university of Hildesheim has found that authorities in Berlin condoned this
practice for almost 30 years. The pedophile foster fathers even received a
regular care allowance.
Helmut Kentler (1928-2008) was in
a leading position at Berlin's center for educational research. He was
convinced that sexual contact between adults and children was harmless.
Berlin's child welfare offices
and the governing Senate turned a blind eye or even approved of the placements.
Several years ago two of the
victims came forward and told their story, since then the researchers at
Hildesheim University have plowed through files and conducted interviews.
What they found was a
"network across educational institutions," the state youth welfare
office and the Berlin Senate, in which pedophilia was "accepted,
supported, defended."
Kentler himself was in regular
contact with the children and their foster fathers. He was never prosecuted: By
the time his victims came forward, the statute of limitations for his actions
had expired. This has also thus far prevented the victims from getting any
compensation.
The researchers found that
several of the foster fathers were high-profile academics. They speak of a
network that included high-ranking members of the Max Planck Institute,
Berlin's Free University, and the notorious Odenwald School in Hesse, West
Germany, which was at the center of a major pedophilia scandal several years
ago. It has since been closed down.
Berlin's senator for youth and
children, Sandra Scheeres called the findings "shocking and
horrifying."
A first report on the
"Kentler experiment" was published in 2016 by the University of
Göttingen. The researchers then stated that the Berlin Senate seemed to lack
interest in finding out the truth.
Now Berlin authorities have vowed
to shed light on the matter.