Woman Sentenced 50 Years for Filming Sex Crimes Against 4 Year Old
Posted by
Cheryl BuchananMarch 06, 2008 6:08 PMSikat's boyfriend, David Shoutyh Hwang, 36, plead guilty to 60 counts of child molesting in October 2006 and is now serving a term of 50 years to life in prison. -cbs2.com March 6, 2008
Judge Gary Paer in Rancho Santa Margarita made it clear today that complicit conduct in the course of egregious child rape is just as evil as the actual rape itself. A 28 year old woman, Sheila Sikat, was sentenced to 50 years in prison for filming the acts of penetration and oral copulation committed by her boyfriend. What makes her sick behavior almost unimaginable, is that the crimes she participated in were being perpetrated aganst her own 4 year old niece.
Usually, I think that a long prison sentence in a case of this nature serves a greater service of removing a danger from society (in this case the home as opposed to the streets) than actually serving as a deterrent to others. This sort of disturbed behavior probably can't be curbed simply be weighing the consequences of a harsh sentence. However, there is an interesting message to institutions that ought not be overlooked. If what this young woman was doing was really equivalent to providing access to the child, watching and not helping the child, and failing to report the abuse of the child... is it really all that different from what we have seen over and over in the churches, schools, Boy Scouts, and so many other problematic places where children have been abused? I am greatly encouraged that the conflicted coworkers, supervisors, secretaries, assistants, colleagues, and friends, of some of the active pedophiles out there may have some new incentive to do the right thing.