Final Update: Christian Choate

WARNING: This is an update on Christian Choate. It contains non-fetish news accounts that are fairly graphic regarding child abuse. If this kind of thing upsets you, please skip this entry. 

 

Today I am writing what I expect will be my final update on Christian Choate. If you remember, Christian is the boy I first blogged about during the summer of 2011. His body had been discovered buried in concrete under a shed. It had come out that Christian had been severely abused for several years, after being caught playing "the humping game" with a sibling. He'd been murdered in 2009, and had spent at least one full year before his death confined to a dog cage - and a year or more before that locked in a closet. 

I wrote about him because, in the course of putting out news releases regarding their investigation, it came out that Christian had been kept mostly naked in a dog cage - but had, after defiantly smearing poo in the heating vents, been put into diapers. Investigators stated over and over that he'd been forced to wear diapers which had been purchased for the youngest child in the family - but which fit Christian because, after living on a steady diet of one packet of ramen for breakfast, one packet of ramen for lunch, and leftovers for dinner, he was severely malnourished and would have been the size of a typical seven year old (at age 11). 

This was outrageous enough, but Christian's older sister, who was basically let off the hook after she agreed to testify against the adults in the family, admitted that her responsiblities included forcing Christian to exercise and giving him ice cold baths. In one of the statements that had been released in PDF format (previoiusly linked from this blog) she admitted to diapering him and taking photos and video, including at least one session where she and her friends had chained Christian to a bedframe and had laughed when the bedframe fell on him, injuring him. She admitted that she did not like him and told him so, also giving him beatings - to avoid being beaten by her father, she claimed.

She told the investigators that she wasn't sure what had happened to the videos, and that they may have been recorded over. It had been two years since they had been made, after all. But anyone in our community who's spent a significant amount of time online knows that we have a small segment of our community who get their jollies posting photos of children in diapers. These may not techically be illegal, and they may not violate Facebook's terms of service - in fact, they do not, as recent screenshots sent to me will attest - but they are wrong, nonetheless. And one of the reasons they are wrong is that sometimes, such as cases like these, the young person isn't diapered by choice - they've been diapered by force. 

It's possible that Christian Choate's diaper pictures will never surface. But in another statement a family member admitted that Christian would be caged and ignored for entire days while his father, stepmother, and other family members spent the entire day surfing the internet and playing online video games. So we know that pictures were taken, and we know that these were people who loved their internet. Look at this kid's face. If you see anyone who looks anything like him as you click through diaper pictures online, you might be looking at torture and abuse.

RIP

Anyway, the reason I am updating this today is that both parents plead guilty and, just yesterday, his stepmother, Kimberly Kubina, was sentenced to 35 years in prison. This brings a little bit of closure to the situation, as Christian's father was sentenced to 80 years last month. He'd been looking at 120 years when he pleaded guilty. Let's pray neither of these two see the light of day again, ever. 

The other reason that I'm updating this story is because I know that it hit home for a few of you, including at least one person who was also abused as a child. I wouldn't even get updates on this case, but it comes up in my daily Google News update on "diaper news." And that really, really sucks. 

What sucks, also, is that there are people out there being abused like this kid is right now. So if you're one of the people who downloads and/or shared the under 18 photos, keep in mind this is what you might be sharing. Please think twice...

RIP Christian. And good riddance Riley Choate and Kimberly Kubina.