Wolf in the Fold

This LA Times article on Internet child pornography includes this:

On one wall is a "Star Trek" poster with investigators' faces substituted for the Starship Enterprise crew. But even that alludes to a dark fact of their work: All but one of the offenders they have arrested in the last four years was a hard-core Trekkie.

This comes in the wake of the arrest and indictment for pedophilia of a Dayton man (whom I don't know, thank God) who was the head of a small Star Trek club here in town, and was a major officer in a small national one. He also apparently molested kids in local soccer clubs and in my own town. Whether he will be found innocent is an open question; but it's certain that he was behaving with a great lack of propriety towards young boys.

And it's ten to one I've seen him around.

There's no denying that there are some creepy, creepy fans out there. But what's scarier is that some of them have social skills and not only gain acceptance, but take leadership roles among their fellows. Marion Zimmer Bradley's creepy husband Walter Breen, for example, who was one of the early members and apologists for NAMBLA.

We need to take this problem seriously, and protect children and inexperienced young fans from predators and the abusive. Fandom should be a safe place to play and socialize and grow, not an open hunting ground.

UPDATE: Well, the good news is that the quote was exaggerated.
And the bad news is that the quote was exaggerated.
Read all about it.