Court rules serial sex offender will not be freed

The Missouri Southern District Court of Appeals affirmed on Tuesday a Newton County commitment of a sexually violent predator.

Lou Martineau was convicted in 1993 of sodomizing a mentally retarded boy:

Viewing the evidence accordingly, and without belaboring his sexual deviancy, Martineau molested at least eight boys in the ten years before his imprisonment. He started molesting five-year-old Craig(FN4) in Rhode Island, then followed Craig's family's move to California to continue molesting the child there. He molested Craig about 100 times. He also molested Craig's brother. Martineau's other victims were boys from four to 14 years old. He molested them, in many cases, 10-15 times. Sometimes he plied his young victims with alcohol to break down their inhibitions. Virtually all such evidence of Martineau's sexual history was admitted without objection.

Based on this and other evidence, Dr. Kent Franks testified that Martineau is more likely than not to engage in predatory acts of sexual violence if not confined to a secure facility, and that he is a SVP. Again, these opinions and the whole of Dr. Franks' testimony were admitted with no objection pertaining to this appeal point.

Significant to Dr. Franks' prong 2 opinion was that Martineau had eight other victims for which he was never charged or convicted, as well as his deviant sexual preference. According to Dr. Franks, research clearly shows that unmarried homosexual pedophiles like Martineau, who target non-family male victims, are much more likely to re-offend than other sexual offenders. Indeed, they are at the highest risk to re-offend, with research indicating re-offense rates from 52% to 77%. There also was the predatory nature of Martineau's behavior -- his sophistication in selecting targets; befriending their families; and "grooming" his victims by building relationships with them and gaining their trust, then setting up situations where he could molest them. Furthermore, Martineau continued to act upon his deeply-ingrained sexual deviancy, even to the extent of crossing state lines and in spite of detection.

Dr. Franks testified that Martineau suffers "very -- extremely severe pedophilia." His completion of a nine-month treatment program in prison does not mean he is unlikely to re-offend; "he requires much more intensive treatment than he has received to date."