ROcky Mountain News: Pedophile gets 210 years
Posted by: "Christopher M. MacNeil"
Tue Jul 17, 2007 3:44 pm (PST)
74-year-old pedophile gets 210 years for assaults on 3 boys
STORY TOOLS
By Sue Lindsay, Rocky Mountain News
July 17, 2007

A pedophile was sentenced to 210 years in prison Monday for sexually assaulting
neighborhood boys he lured to his Denver home.
Donald Shissler, 74, was convicted last week on nine charges involving assaults
on three adolescent boys between 1997 and 2002.

Prosecutors said Shissler lured the boys to his home by equipping it with a pool
table, computer and video games, a hot tub and drawers full of candy.

But the price they had to pay for admission to this "Disneyland" was their
innocence, said Prosecutor Kerri Lombardi.

Shissler often was nude or wore only thong underwear when the boys were around.
He also encouraged the boys to take off their clothes and sleep nude during
overnights at his home, when many of the sexual assaults took place.

A number of victims testified during the trial, including Shissler's adopted
son, who was not a named victim in the charges.

Parents said they trusted Shissler, whom they knew to be a former Episcopalian
priest and foster parent, Lombardi said.

Prosecutors sought a maximum sentence to give victims a sense of justice and to
ensure that Shissler never assaults another child.

Denver District Judge Martin Egelhoff called the case the worst case of sexual
assault on children that he had seen. He said it was a tragedy that Shissler
still does not believe he did anything wrong.

Egelhoff commended the victims for coming forward, having the courage to testify
and enduring the lengthy court process that began five years ago.

Defense attorneys denied that the assaults took place, arguing that the boys
first denied or gave varying accounts of the alleged incidents.

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