Judge throws book at pedophile ‘sex tourist’
A federal judge in Delaware today set aside sentencing guidelines and threw the book at a Wilmington man who was found guilty last year of sex tourism.
Thomas S. Pendleton, 67, was sentenced to 30 years in prison by U.S. District Judge Gregory M. Sleet for traveling to a foreign country with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor under the age of 16.
Federal guidelines usually call for a sentence of about 20 to 24 years.
Sleet said today's sentence would protect children from "further acts of depravity."
Pendleton was found guilty Sept. 17 in the sex tourism case. Prosecutors said Pendleton traveled to Germany in 1995 where he befriended a 14-year-old orphan and made arrangements for the boy to go biking with him. During the May 2006 bike trip, the boy woke up to find Pendleton fondling him, said David C. Weiss, U.S. Attorney for the District of Delaware.
The victim and a witness from the German camp site where the crime occurred traveled to Delaware last year to testify against Pendleton.
The case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Marshals Service.
Pendleton has three prior convictions for sexually molesting or assaulting children, Weiss said.
In 1981, Pendleton was convicted in the molestation of an 11-year-old while Pendleton was serving as a church camp counselor at the victim's church in Michigan.
In 1992, Pendleton was convicted in New Jersey of sexual abusing of a 12-year-old boy on biking trips in Virginia and New Jersey. Pendleton received a seven-year sentence for those offenses.
In 2001, three years after his release from the New Jersey prison, Pendleton was convicted in Latvia of sexually abusing a 9-year-old and a 13-year-old. Sentenced to three years, Pendleton was deported back to the United States in March 2005.
Fourteen months later, he traveled to Germany where he assaulted the orphan boy, Weiss said.
"The defendant thought he could avoid being caught by U.S. law enforcement by preying on children abroad. He was wrong," said John P. Kelleghan, special agent in charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in Philadelphia.
