Steven Demink was a 41-year-old former car salesman in Michigan, who decided that he could have loads more fun pretending to be a psychologist on the internet.  Though warped in itself, that’s nothing compared to the advice he gave others.  From MLive.com :

An ex-car salesman from Michigan who spent hours upon hours at his home computer cajoling and even berating seven mothers to engage in sex acts with their young children was ordered by a federal judge to spend the rest of his life in prison.

But the judge, a U.S. Attorney, an aunt of two of the victims and even the defendant acknowledged Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Detroit that many lives already have been devastated by Steven Demink’s actions.

“You are like a pebble tossed into a pond; the effects of your actions will not only ripple into the lives of my sister and her two children, but their children as well,” said the sister of a mother charged in Indiana with molestation. “When I think of the sheer horror, fear and confusion they felt in their home that day, it makes me sick.”

Yes, that’s right.  A faux shrink on the internet told mothers to engage in sex acts with their children.  And they did.  Every time we think we’ve found the nadir of stupidity, gullibility and diseased minds, something new comes along to blow our socks off.

Time to make some obvious points.  Just because someone on the internet says they’re a professional does not mean it’s true.  Forget the pseudonymous, who may well believe that by calling himself “Joe the Lawyer” somehow means that the rest of the virtual world is compelled to bow to his expertise.  How many times must it be repeated that On the internet, nobody knows you’re a dog? 

Just because somebody on the internet tells you to do something wrong, disgusting, sick or evil, doesn’t mean you have to do it.  Pro Tip: They can’t reach through their computer and make you.  That you comply with their directions isn’t because they forced you to do it, but because you chose to do it.  No one on the internet can make you do anything. Ever.

No one on the internet can “berate” you without your permission.  Another Pro Tip: If you hit the little “X” in the corner, the internet goes away.  Don’t want to have some dog on the internet say mean things to you?  Click on the “X” and make them disappear.

And finally, mothers, engaging in sex acts with your children is sick.  Really sick.  While the dog on the internet who tells you to do such things is sick, so are you for doing it.  Get help, as you are deeply, seriously sick.

As for Demink, he offered a curious self-assessment at sentence:

“I’m not unsalvageable,” the 41-year-old Demink said. “I still think I can be a productive member of society without the court worried about me re-offending.

“I did not think of what consequences my actions were going to produce. I hope they can find it in their hearts one day to forgive me for what I have done. I need help and I want help.”

[Judge Gerald] Rosen was not convinced.

Nor am I.  Not that Demink is unsalvageable, though whatever diseased impulses drove him to engage in a year long effort to fake being a psychologist on the internet, get women to engage in such behavior and have them send him naked photos of their children.  What it will take to salvage this mutt is hard to say, but he’s hardly the worst around.

What I don’t buy is that he didn’t think of the consequences of his actions. Indeed, I bet that’s all he thought about, and that’s why he did this.  What he meant to say was that he thought more of his sexual gratification than he did of the harm he might cause, but this is at the heart of many crimes, putting self-interest above everything else.  In this regard, there’s nothing special about Demink.  He just did it in a particularly bizarre and disgusting way.

What makes this offense even more troubling, however, is that Demink could not have accomplished any harm alone.  No force was, or could have been, used to compel any mother to do anything.  Most of the women he tried to manipulate blew him off or let him know he was warped, and went about their lives without engaging in sex acts with their children. 

The ones who complied with Demink’s commands did so of their own volition.  Weak minds?  Low self-esteem?  Vulnerable?  There are entire industries dedicated to such people, selling everything from lipstick to brutally painful shoes that no right-thinking woman would wear.  That’s right, Jimmy Choo, you monster.

But the harm Demink caused wasn’t done by him alone.  Yet the sentence imposed, life in prison, puts him right up there with murderers.  Contrary to popular belief, that every crime above jaywalking demands a life sentence, this is both bad policy as well as a seriously disproportionate sentence. 

While it’s understandable that the disgust factor of his conduct could push a judge to treat him harshly, as well as discount his plea of salvageability, a critical aspect of sentencing someone who engages in such sick conduct relating to children is not to push the envelope so far as to make it viable that they personally engage in physical harm to children.  In other words, if he’s going to prison for life anyway, why not snatch a kid on the streets and rape him?  Why not murder the child so he won’t point the finger?  Why not?  If the defendant is sick to begin with, and calculating in his conduct, the potential for this is very real, and it’s something the sentence should be designed to discourage rather than encourage.

More to the point, there’s no indication that Demink ever laid a hand on a child, or anyone else for that matter.  As horrible as his conduct was, it cannot be equated with those who do engage in physical harm to others, whether children or adult.  Sure it’s sick, but that alone isn’t sufficient to explain a life sentence.

This case provides a wealth of lessons, both for the system as well as life on the internet. None of them good.  For crying out loud, people, it’s just a box with lights.  Do not believe it when it tells you to do something stupid or sick.  Just turn it off and walk away.