It gets no lower than this. What life form pretending to be human would do these things, and seek and distribute these atrocities for, as Nocella put it, “her own perverse pleasure”?
She admitted to inviting another sicko to come to New York to spank and sexually abuse children.
The offender was licensed social worker Renee “Rina” Hoberman, who worked as a child therapist with an organization in Melville, New York—a center which serves children 17 and under. Hoberman uploaded, received and traded videos of sexual abuse with others and participated in multiple online “chats”—posing as a dad who abused “his” own children: stripping them naked, having sex with them, spanking them while the other children watched—all while “treating” child patients at her day job.
Renee Hoberman pleaded guilty June 18 in Central Islip federal court.
She admitted to receiving and distributing child pornography.
She admitted to sending out videos of the sexual torture of babies via encrypted social media messaging apps.
She admitted to inviting another sicko to come to New York to spank and sexually abuse children.
Renee Hoberman will get up to 20 years in prison.
There’s nothing in the Eastern District of New York US Attorney’s Office press release to indicate she showed any remorse.
But does it matter?
What matters is a person entrusted with the well-being of our most precious and vulnerable resource—our children—has egregiously betrayed that trust.
What matters is this is no isolated circumstance. In the preceding few months, the following cases passed through the same federal court in Central Islip, New York:
- In March, an active-duty senior airman in the United States Air Force was arraigned on the charge of posing as a 13-year-old boy and manipulating a nine-year-old girl to send him sexual images of herself for money. He betrayed the Airman’s Creed—a tradition of honor, duty and being true to the American way of life.
- In April, a Boy Scout leader was sentenced to 84 months for distributing images of child sex abuse, including the horrific rape of young children. He betrayed the Scout Oath and Law to be “trustworthy” and “morally straight.”
- In May, a former NYPD officer was sentenced to 23 years for targeting and sexually exploiting children online, manipulating them into sending him nude images of themselves with degrading phrases scrawled on their bodies. He did this while serving as a police officer. He betrayed his pledge to “value human life,” “respect the dignity of each individual” and “maintain a higher standard of integrity than is generally expected of others.”
Anyone with a sliver of a soul struggles to comprehend the depth of a betrayal so deep and so profound that there can be no compassion for the offender. A dry and monotone collection of words on a court document is woefully inadequate, yet it must serve when the perpetrator is at last brought to justice. And our one positive emotion—gratitude—goes to those who are bringing justice to individuals who exploit our young so cruelly.
The prosecutions noted above are all part of Project Safe Childhood (PSC), a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. US Attorney’s Offices harness federal, state and local resources to bring this scourge to heel.
Thanks to them all. May they make the world so safe for children that their task one day becomes unnecessary.
