William Constable committed sexual assaults on children overseas for nearly 14 years, according to court records. Barnstable Police DepartmentBy Hilary Russ
STAFF WRITER
March 12, 2008
BOSTON — Wearing an orange inmate's jumpsuit and looking haggard, William "Howe" Constable of Nantucket pleaded guilty yesterday in U.S. District Court in connection with allegations he videotaped himself raping young girls overseas for nearly 14 years.
Constable, 54, is scheduled for sentencing June 10. He would get 25 years if Judge George O'Toole Jr. accepts the plea deal defense lawyer James Michael Merberg worked out with prosecutors, according to court documents.
Constable, a native of Providence, R.I., formerly served as an assistant coach of the Nantucket High School sailing team. He had been a self-employed contractor on the island for the past two decades.
The case came to light only after Constable left his camera at the Comfort Inn on Route 132 in Hyannis, where he stayed in October 2007 after missing his ferry back to the island. A hotel worker looked at images on the camera to try to identify its owner but instead found the shocking images.
STAFF WRITER
March 12, 2008
BOSTON — Wearing an orange inmate's jumpsuit and looking haggard, William "Howe" Constable of Nantucket pleaded guilty yesterday in U.S. District Court in connection with allegations he videotaped himself raping young girls overseas for nearly 14 years.
Constable, 54, is scheduled for sentencing June 10. He would get 25 years if Judge George O'Toole Jr. accepts the plea deal defense lawyer James Michael Merberg worked out with prosecutors, according to court documents.
Constable, a native of Providence, R.I., formerly served as an assistant coach of the Nantucket High School sailing team. He had been a self-employed contractor on the island for the past two decades.
The case came to light only after Constable left his camera at the Comfort Inn on Route 132 in Hyannis, where he stayed in October 2007 after missing his ferry back to the island. A hotel worker looked at images on the camera to try to identify its owner but instead found the shocking images.
A hotel lawyer called the police, who were there when Constable returned in a taxi to retrieve his camera. Constable's cottage in Madaket, near the western tip of the island, was searched and dozens of DVDs, videos and two camcorders and two computers were seized.
The video images, as described by federal prosecutors in court documents, are heinous. On the camera Constable left behind at the hotel, for instance, special agents found 40 videos and 500 still images. At first, he told police some of the "old-fashioned" images, which he had recorded on trips to South Asia, might offend them, Assistant U.S. Attorney Dana Gershengorn said in court.
In eight electronic folders on that camera, all the girls pictured with Constable appeared to be under the age of 8, according to investigators' estimates. Several screamed and cried while he penetrated them. One moved away, but Constable flipped her on her back. One girl appeared to scream but there was no audio. Another girl appeared to be 4 to 5 years old.
In one video, Constable pushes down on the abdomen of a girl, about 7, who has a rag in her mouth.
The vast majority of girls — Constable admitted there were about 30 — appeared to be younger than 12 years old and he had paid to have sex with them, Gershengorn said.
Constable told police at the time that he knew his behavior was illegal but that he "had a problem," Gershengorn said. He also told investigators he was trying to "recreate the moment" with his videos.
His travels were mostly to Thailand and began as far back as 1993 and continued, with the exception of one or two years, until 2007. For about the last five years his trips were to Cambodia and Vietnam.
Federal laws prohibiting so-called child sex tourism weren't passed until Constable had already been involved for a full decade. And though the evidence, which was not disputed in court by Merberg, makes Constable a poster boy for world-traveling pedophiles, he was not charged under the newer statutes, which were passed in 2003 and called the Protect Act.
"Criminal laws are typically not retroactive," said Marc Perlin, associate dean of Suffolk University Law School. It's a fundamental matter of fairness, he said, that a law must first exist before someone can be accused of violating it.
Trying to prosecute 10 years of Constable's behavior under one statute and seven years of the same behavior under another could have "muddied the waters," Perlin said.
Under the Protect Act, federal agents have arrested 67 people on child sex tourism charges, 47 of whom have been convicted, according to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman.
Constable pleaded guilty to seven counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, which has a 30-year maximum sentence and a 15-year minimum mandatory sentence. He also pleaded guilty to one count of possession of child pornography. He still faces child pornography possession charges in Nantucket District Court.
Three people were in court yesterday to support Constable, who waved meekly to a woman as he left court in shackles. One of the trio, who declined to give his name, said he had just come to support the family, which is well-respected on Nantucket.
If O'Toole accepts the plea deal, Constable would be nearly 80 when released from prison. He would be on probation for life and have to pay restitution and a fine of $50,000, according to court documents.
"One mistake by Mr. Constable results in basically a lifetime sentence," said Barnstable Police Detective John Murphy, who investigated the case locally along with Detective Jason Laber and Nantucket and federal investigators. "I'm happy he made that mistake."
The video images, as described by federal prosecutors in court documents, are heinous. On the camera Constable left behind at the hotel, for instance, special agents found 40 videos and 500 still images. At first, he told police some of the "old-fashioned" images, which he had recorded on trips to South Asia, might offend them, Assistant U.S. Attorney Dana Gershengorn said in court.
In eight electronic folders on that camera, all the girls pictured with Constable appeared to be under the age of 8, according to investigators' estimates. Several screamed and cried while he penetrated them. One moved away, but Constable flipped her on her back. One girl appeared to scream but there was no audio. Another girl appeared to be 4 to 5 years old.
In one video, Constable pushes down on the abdomen of a girl, about 7, who has a rag in her mouth.
The vast majority of girls — Constable admitted there were about 30 — appeared to be younger than 12 years old and he had paid to have sex with them, Gershengorn said.
Constable told police at the time that he knew his behavior was illegal but that he "had a problem," Gershengorn said. He also told investigators he was trying to "recreate the moment" with his videos.
His travels were mostly to Thailand and began as far back as 1993 and continued, with the exception of one or two years, until 2007. For about the last five years his trips were to Cambodia and Vietnam.
Federal laws prohibiting so-called child sex tourism weren't passed until Constable had already been involved for a full decade. And though the evidence, which was not disputed in court by Merberg, makes Constable a poster boy for world-traveling pedophiles, he was not charged under the newer statutes, which were passed in 2003 and called the Protect Act.
"Criminal laws are typically not retroactive," said Marc Perlin, associate dean of Suffolk University Law School. It's a fundamental matter of fairness, he said, that a law must first exist before someone can be accused of violating it.
Trying to prosecute 10 years of Constable's behavior under one statute and seven years of the same behavior under another could have "muddied the waters," Perlin said.
Under the Protect Act, federal agents have arrested 67 people on child sex tourism charges, 47 of whom have been convicted, according to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman.
Constable pleaded guilty to seven counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, which has a 30-year maximum sentence and a 15-year minimum mandatory sentence. He also pleaded guilty to one count of possession of child pornography. He still faces child pornography possession charges in Nantucket District Court.
Three people were in court yesterday to support Constable, who waved meekly to a woman as he left court in shackles. One of the trio, who declined to give his name, said he had just come to support the family, which is well-respected on Nantucket.
If O'Toole accepts the plea deal, Constable would be nearly 80 when released from prison. He would be on probation for life and have to pay restitution and a fine of $50,000, according to court documents.
"One mistake by Mr. Constable results in basically a lifetime sentence," said Barnstable Police Detective John Murphy, who investigated the case locally along with Detective Jason Laber and Nantucket and federal investigators. "I'm happy he made that mistake."
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