Molester lived months beside day care
By Dawn Cuthbertson
Local News - Thursday, August 18, 2005 @ 07:00
A child molester who has lived in a Kingston motel beside a day-care centre
moved yesterday amid growing alarm by neighbours.
Kevin Woodcock had planned to check out of the Hilltop Motel in the city’s
west end yesterday afternoon, said Rahim Bhimji, the motel’s manager.
Bhimji said he wasn’t aware that one of his tenants had a history of sex
crimes against children.
“If I knew what he had done, I wouldn’t have let him stay here,” Bhimji
told The Whig-Standard yesterday. “He seemed to be a nice guy.”
It was unclear where Woodcock was headed.
He was sentenced to eight months in jail in December 2003 after he was convicted
of molesting two young girls, aged 12 and 10, while their mother was next door
at a birthday party.
He fondled and performed oral sex on one girl.
He had been a guest at a Gananoque birthday party on Feb. 20, 2003, but walked
next door – with the parents’ permission – to watch an episode of the
Simpsons on television with the two girls.
The assault took place after the TV program when the girls went upstairs to bed.
Woodcock followed them and asked the 12-year-old for a hug. When she declined,
he tried to fondle her and she ran downstairs to call for help. Woodcock then
attacked the 10-year-old girl, fondling her and performing oral sex.
The mother returned home and witnessed the crime but couldn’t get Woodcock
away from her child. He finally apologized and left in his car after the father
was called.
Woodcock was ordered to undergo counselling for sexual deviancy and the judge
imposed three years probation at his sentencing. He served nine months in a
pretrial detention centre before he was sentenced.
He was also ordered to provide a DNA sample and stay away from day- care centres,
playgrounds, schools, or anywhere else where children under the age of 14 might
gather.
Kingston Police would not answer questions about whether Woodcock had violated
his probation by living next to a day care centre.
Kingston Police Det. Gerry Doherty said he knew of Woodcock’s whereabouts.
“I know he lives here,” Doherty said. “He has lived in Kingston all his
life.”
Tracy Woodman, a day-care teacher at Bunny Hat day care beside the motel, at
2287 Princess St., said she found out about Woodcock last Friday and was
immediately concerned for the children.
“We’re pretty surprised,” she said. “It was very upsetting to find out
that he was even there.”
The day care watches about 30 children daily during the work week, Woodman said.
Bhimji said he took over as manager of the Hilltop at the end of June when his
mother, the motel’s owner, returned to England for the summer.
“When I got here [Woodcock] was already here,” Bhimji said.
Long-term motel tenant Janet MacNeil has been helping Bhimji run the family
business since his mother left. She described Woodcock as a friendly man who
helped out by cutting the grass.
“Truthfully, he’s a nice guy,” MacNeil said yesterday, adding she was
shocked upon learning of his past.
MacNeil said Woodcock checked into the motel in September 2004 and kept a low
profile. “Everybody was friends with Kevin,” she said.
MacNeil said she became suspicious of her friend last week when police officers
showed up at the motel and asked to speak to Woodcock.
Woodcock’s probation officer called the motel on Tuesday and told him that he
had to find new accommodations, MacNeil said. That’s when Woodcock came clean
about his past and said he was leaving. He didn’t say where he was going, she
said.
“I don’t think [sex offenders] should be staying at motels because children
could be staying there,” she said.
“If the probation officers would have done their job, this wouldn’t have
happened.”
dawnc@thewhig.com
613-797-3237