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Did Apartment Complex Do ANY Background Check Before Sexual Abuse By Worker?

I was shocked (actually, maybe flabbergasted is a better description) by a story I read on the WESH.com website today.  According to the piece, a man who had volunteered in an after-school program for kids was arrested yesterday on suspicion of several counts of sexaul assault on children.

Apparently, 18-year-old Charles Hayes, III was serving as a volunteer in an after-school program for young children being operated by an unnamed Pine Hills apartment complex.  Law enforcement officials say that Hayes was initially accused of inappropriately touching a seven-year-old boy in the stairwell of one of the apartment building.

As if that wasn't bad enough, when approached by authorities, Hayes admitted to the assault on the seven-year-old, and also confessed to molesting other children in the program.

In an unusual twist, it was reported that Hayes also told authorities that he hears voices telling him to hurt others.

As an Orlando child sex abuse attorney, I have to wonder what the people at the apartment complex were thinking in allowing someone like Hayes to be anywhere near children.  This man clearly has some SERIOUS problems that would appear to immediately demonstrate to anyone paying attention that he was not fit to work with children.  If I was a parent of the one of the abused kids, I would love to see what kind of background check, if any, was done on Mr. Hayes.  Any kind of child-centered program that features adults working closely with children has a clear legal duty to background check the adults.

If you have any questions regarding a child sexual assault or abuse, call Winter Park personal injury attorney Kim Cullen at 407-254-4901.