Who think that Shawn Hornbeck would have a better chance if he was put into a witness protection program?

Question

I am sickened by the way his family is carting him around like he is a piece of chattel. YOu can see that he is so confused and his emotions are ridden with guilt and need. You remember the other kid that was found after 7 years who eventually killed himself. THis kid has possibly been torture molested or just in a love triangle that he was abused mentally, socially, intellectually, physically, and what else we just don't know. He has a different reality than any kid his age. He probably has a distorted view of sex and love.
Please rescue this kid from these prents -- especilly tht step fther with his green suit nd crying eyes. Yes they sufffered but this kids will suffer more in their hands

Answer 1

I don't think he needs the witness protection program. I've read his parents haven't asked him about his ordeal on the advice of child advocacy experts. However, this media excursion that they're taking him on is RIDICULOUS. I can just imagine Oprah's people setting up the interview. "It's OK. We understand that you don't want Shawn interviewed. Even if Shawn doesn't speak, his just sitting there, quietly, in the audience will be so important." I haven't liked Oprah for some time. Her asking Hornbeck's parents (in Shawn's presence, no less) whether they thought he'd been sexually molested by Michael Devlin, did nothing to improve her status in my eyes.

Shawn Hornbeck might feel, in part, that he has to follow his parents around on these interviews, whether he wants to or not. He may not have the ability to say, "No, I don't want to do that." His healthy sense of boundaries has probably been eroded over the years with Devlin. He might fear that he'll lose his parents' love. So, he'll become the superboy now. He'll do whatever they want. I hope they already have him in therapy--good therapy. He's going to need it. I also think the parents need more professional guidance in helping their son readjust. No, I wouldn't recommend that he be taken away from them--again. That's the last thing this kid needs. Let's just improve the parenting of these two.

Answer 2

I understand how you feel. On the surface it seems that for his own good, Shawn should be forgotten by the media and allowed to grow up without the spotlights.

But there is a lot that we don’t know. I suspect that the reason Shawn is being featured so much on TV is to build him lots of good will because a bombshell might be about to explode. If Shawn was forced to commit a crime, he could be charged just like Patty Hearst. On Oprah, did you notice that Shawn refused to say what his reaction was the first time he saw Ben? A few moments later Shawn’s family was asked to leave before Ben’s family came on the stage. You would think the families would want to meet. It makes me worry that the sicko Devlin might have forced Shawn to help him. If the public were way sympathetic to Shawn the prosecutors might be more willing not to cause more harm to the boy.

So, I strongly suspect that for Shawn’s own good, he needs to become a media darling. I just hope someone has arranged for Shawn to collect a fee for each interview. The boy is going to need a nice trust fund to help him through the next few years. And folks like Oprah got undeservedly richer off of Shawn and Ben’s pain.

By the way, I noticed that Shawn seemed to favor his stepfather over his mother. It seemed that Shawn gave little face contact with his mother. You would think that a boy would care more about his mother then the stepfather.

Answer 3

ric makes some good points. Another reason the two boys and their families do not meet is probably so that they will not "contaminate" each other's testimony at the trial. This is a delicate issue when different people are witnesses in the same crime; if they talk to each other about it, they may unwittingly influence each other's testimony. Communication within the family is inevitable and necessary, of course.