Camp Counselor Child Sex Case Exposes Flaws in Background Check System
A United Kingdom child sexual abuse case being pursued against a substitute schoolteacher who worked for 14 years as a counselor at a prestigious summer camp in Maine has exposed some gaps in the nation’s background check system.
Although the camp, which is a popular destination for the children of Wall Street bankers and lawyers, reportedly checked the background of Neil Challis, 35, before hiring him, his arrest in the U.K. probably wouldn’t have been revealed through a background check. That’s because it occurred outside the United States, and because, until recently, it was an ongoing case in which he had not been convicted, according to the Wall Street Journal. Before this year, Challis didn’t even have an arrest record.
The newspaper says the camp director told parents in a letter that it recently discovered “through its employment process” that Challis had been arrested in England in January for allegedly having inappropriate contact with a minor, who is now 8 years old. He pleaded guilty on June 24, the article says, “to raping the girl first when she was 5 and continuing a relationship with her for three years. He also admitted to taking indecent photographs and possessing almost 4,000 pornographic images of children,” some of which, U.K. authorities fear, may have been taken at the Maine camp.
Because many counselors are teenagers or foreign citizens, any criminal records they may have aren’t part of an FBI federal database of criminal information, the article says. Hence, a bill sponsored by Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) that would permit youth service organizations to get FBI background checks on employees and volunteers working with children on a permanent basis, even if it is enacted into law, will only do so much to provide camps with more information about their counselors.
Sentenced to 14 years in prison, Challis reportedly will now be put on a sex-offenders register and prohibited from working with children once he is released.
