In San Bernadino, David Albert Lemus was arrested in 2005 after two teenage girls reported he molested them at the National Orange Show fairgrounds. Mr. Lemus is also known as a professional clown by the name of Trim Trim. The clown Trim Trim performed at many birthday parties across Southern California and was wearing a clown outfit when he assaulted the two teenagers at the fairgrounds. Mr. Lemus admitted he sexually abused children while wearing a clown outfit. Five other felony molestation charges were dismissed as part of a plea agreement. New stories report that he will spend approximately twelve years in prison for child molestation. On October 2, 2008, Mr. Lemus will be formally sentenced.
Pedophiles involved in organized pedophilia often use costumes while carrying out sex abuse acts on children. When a sophisticated pedophile relies on the use of costumes, strange masks, and strange props to carry out sex abuse, it may be an intentional use of tactics to create an element of doubt when a child shares details about the sex abuse. Because children often can not convey their message clearly, the details in a child victim’s stories may be so far fetched to the untrained listener, that a child’s story of sex abuse may be missed. Organized pedophiles also know how to provoke such fear that the child victim may or may not recall the actual sex crime details because the intense fear in response to the assault has caused traumatic dissociation, resulting in amnesia of some or all the details regarding an assault. Terror or fear may be more pronounced when sex crimes are carried out by adults in strange costumes and disguises or under the use of threats of violence or drugging. Pedophiles may drug their victims to the extent that the victim may not recall the event. The intentional provocation of dissociation in child victims of sex abuse is what, in part, helps organized pedophilia networks survive and profit.
