For the second time in a year and a half, registered sex offender James F. Renick has been arrested while taking pictures at a swim meet.
The 70-year-old Renick was arrested for attending the Shamrock Invite at Notre Dame’s Rolfs Aquatic Center. Renick is a registered sex offender for life, and according to the local NBC affiliate, it is a felony for Renick to set foot on the property of any school. Per WNDU, police received a report that a “suspicious individual was taking pictures of participants” at the college invite last Friday.
WNDU reports that Renick pleaded guilty to molesting two boys under the age of 10 back in 1996, landing him on the sex offender registry.
This isn’t Renick’s first issue with violating the terms of his sex offender status. In August of 2018, Renick was arrested at a youth swim meet in Ohio. At the time, local media reported that Renick was dressed as a photographer and carrying professional photography equipment. When questioned, he originally claimed to be a freelance photographer, then claimed he was photographing a friend’s child. When he later admitted that he was a registered sex offender, police arrested him for obstructing justice.
For his more recent Notre Dame arrest, Renick had his bond set at $2000, though WNDU reports that he was still being held in local jail as of Wednesday.
The University of Notre Dame released the following statement:
“Notre Dame police officers were made aware Friday, January 24, of an individual in the spectators’ section of the Rolfs Aquatics Center taking photos of swimmers competing in an invitational meet. He was arrested and also received a no trespassing notice. The case was referred to the St. Joseph County Prosecutor’s Office. This individual has no affiliation with Notre Dame and does not reside in this part of the state.”
It happened again Man arrested after allegedly taking pictures of Culver Academies students on campus (wndu.com)
Was he taking photos at Culver? Did his camera get confiscated as evidence?
What is the point of a sex offender registry if he’s not registered in Indiana, only Pennsylvania? He’s been caught in Indiana many times, but this system seems broken that he’s back again at his alma mater Culver.
As a Culver swim coach, what did you do stop the sick perp?
How about a photo of him?
Question . Was this meet a College event?
And if he does it again, we’ll set his bond at $3,000!! That’ll teach him
Reminds me of this sicko with over 15,000 swim meet videos of girls. Parents, keep vigilant at all times.
https://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/2018/05/jeffrey_willis_trial_15000_hom.html
“For the second time in a year and a half, registered sex offender James F. Renick has been arrested while taking pictures at a swim meet” – All kinds of things wrong with that sentence. When will we realise that paedophilia is a psychiatric disorder and prison rehabilitation WILL NOT change people? Protecting children has to be of paramount importance – Like other psychiatric disorders, if a Paedophile hasn’t undergone rigorous work with mental health professionals and been cleared as safe to be in society, they should not be released. I’m not necessarily saying keep them in prison, but do we not treat this disorder like other disorders? There is no rehabilitating paedophiles without serious psychiatric intervention.
Truer words have never been spoken. Still, recidivism rates for pedophila treatment are exceedingly, even with the best of treatment models and communities. The best approach, IMO, is that of an addiction model, where the individual recognizes relapse risks and triggers, as well as the fact that they are always at risk for acting on something that is truly damaging and horrific.
When I was at University, there was a professor who had spent decades researching paedophilia. She was adamant we, as developed societies, need to change the conversation. She found a community of paedophiles who *never* acted upon their urges, many of them moved to extremely isolated locations to remove the ‘temptation’. She concluded that societal misunderstanding of paedophilia disorder had pushed repentant paedophiles underground and made them less likely to seek help, and thereby made them more likely to become child abusers.
Time to spend his twilight years in prison.
he is sick and needs help
He doesn’t need no help. No help will help him. He needs to be behind the bars forever.