Man Who Raped Child 200-300 Times Sentenced to 50 Years In Prison, Town Still Supports Him
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Darren L. Paden is a father, as well as a former volunteer fire chief and deployed member of the military. He’s also a confessed child molester who sexually assaulted a girl for over six years, raping her between 200-300 times starting when she was a toddler. But even though he’s admitted to his crimes, not all the people who reside in the small town of Dearborn, Missouri are condemning him; many are speaking out against his victim because she’s ruining a good man’s life.
The Kansas City Star reports that the unnamed victim, now 18, has been fighting a battle for the past two years that’s gone better in court than in the town at large.
“I know there are a lot of people who support me,” she said this week in a personal interview in Platte City. But what she has experienced most is the chill from “the people who refuse to believe me…”
“I called a lady about a house she was renting,” the victim continued, “and I told her my name, and she said, ‘What’s your name again?’ and I told her and she said ‘I don’t want to rent to you’ and then hung up on me.”
Paden’s friends and family wrote the court letters of support previous to Paden’s sentencing, citing Paden’s wife and children’s wellbeing and listing off his good deeds—his work helping in hospitals overseas, his status as a junior deacon in the local church. A trustee at Paden’s church sent in a letter saying that “only God, Darren, and the victim know what happened.”