Adam Croote, poster boy for abused kids, gets life sentence for rape
In this official White House photo from Jan. 19, 1996, US President Bill Clinton signs a memorandum ordering missing-children posters to be placed inside federal buildings. From left are Americans who have been involved in missing children cases, including Don and Claudine Ryce, Marc Klaas, Colleen Nick, Adam Croote and Linda Koerner.
Adam Croote, the one-time poster boy for abused children, received a life sentence on Friday for raping a 10-year-old girl, the Albany Times-Union reported.
A judge handed down the sentence after the 23-year-old New Scotland, N.Y., man pleaded guilty to predatory sexual assault against a child.
Croote, already a registered sex offender, was babysitting the girl after school, the Times-Union said.
The newspaper reported he reconnected with the family through Facebook after years of being estranged.
The Times-Union didn’t report what his relationship to the family was.
Croote told the girl’s father his previous conviction was for grabbing a woman who made him angry.
“Since he was a sex offender, we knew who he was, what he was, where he was,” Albany Sheriff Craig Apple told The Associated Press. “We just prayed that he didn’t re-offend. There is only so much we can do.”
More from GlobalPost: Doctor sentenced for plan to rape child
Croote’s own case was one that shocked and saddened many in the early 1990s.
When he was seven, Croote and his grandmother appeared next to President Bill Clinton in the Oval Office as he signed an order to place missing-children posters inside federal buildings, the AP reported.
When he was two years old, his father shot and killed his pregnant mother, leaving the boy alone with the body.
His grandparents on both sides of the family fought over custody, until his mother’s parents abducted him.
When he was 17, Croote assaulted a worker at a home for troubled teens.
More from GlobalPost: Germany’s war on solar
Every day, reporters and producers at The World are hard at work bringing you human-centered news from across the globe. But we can’t do it without you. We need your support to ensure we can continue this work for another year.
Make a gift today, and you’ll help us unlock a matching gift of $67,000!