Brian E. Forwood, 34, of 410 Hidden Brook Drive, Glen Burnie, and Charles M. Buckingham, 59, of 8006 Mansion House Crossing, Pasadena, each pleaded guilty in April to sex abuse of a minor. They molested a 3-year-old boy and a 7-year-old girl, respectively, while they were supposed to be babysitting for the two families. Judge Silkworth on Tuesday sentenced Forwood and Buckingham to 25 years in prison each, but suspended 15 of those years, leaving 10 for each to serve. If they violate their probation after their release from prison, Judge Silkworth could order them to serve the remainder of the sentence. That comes in sharp contrast to the four-month jail sentence Judge Joseph P. Manck handed down in March to a Severna Park real estate agent convicted of molesting his daughter. And it’s far more harsh than the 5½ months of house arrest Judge Philip T. Caroom handed down to a mentally disabled Glen Burnie man in April.

James Matthew Thomas, 29, confessed to police he molested two children a decade ago. In his home, police found school schedules, a list of 100 potential victims, and journals that graphically described sex acts with children.

Both Forwood and Buckingham confessed to police they molested the children. “I love you all so much,” Buckingham wrote in an apology letter, according to charging documents. “I’m so sorry for touching you. … All this is not your fault.” Forwood told police he touched the toddler and forced the boy to touch him because he was horny and has an extremely high sex drive.

According to court documents, Forwood molested the boy multiple times. One time when the child said ‘no’, Forwood put him in timeout until he complied. Forwood also may have given the boy a sexually transmitted disease, police said. Buckingham molested his victim on two separate occasions in December 2006 and January 2007 while he was watching her and her brother, court records said.

Bleyle, 54, is in jail on $5 million bail after pleading not guilty to two counts of child molestation and 24 counts of child pornography. But Gunn said Bleyle molested many more patients over the past decade, preying on the hospital’s weakest of the weak, including youngsters who would never be able to speak.

For the next five years, Berry, now 20, became the victim of a child pornography ring via his computer and webcam. “At 13, I was asked to take off my shirt by a man on the Internet who thought I was going to be my new friend,” Berry told CTV’s Canada AM.

According to a recent survey from the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, 45 per cent of teenagers have been asked for their personal information by a stranger. Forty per cent would reply and talk with a stranger and only 18 per cent would tell an adult. Despite the fact Berry was living with his mother, she was unaware of the abuse that was happening while her son was online.

Berry was dissuaded from telling anyone about his ordeal because of threats he received. “After I had done some shameful things, after I had acted out on camera sexually, the pedophiles told me that if I were to go to any authorities and if I were to tell anyone, that I would be the one in trouble. And that’s what scared me,” Berry said.

Despite these threats Berry, with the assistance of a New York Times reporter, eventually contacted the authorities and co-operated with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the arrests of sexual predators. “As a matter of fact, I have received several death threats, up until this last month I just received one,” Berry said. “(There was) an anonymous one off the internet saying ‘kill Justin Berry.’ These people hate me and I hate to say it, but I hate these people too.”