Seven Men Gang-Rape Two Toddlers in Shopping Mall Restroom and Post Video Online

FBI agents have arrested a Texas man on charges that he and six other men gang-raped two toddlers in the restroom at Houston's Galleria shopping mall and posted a video of the assault online. Hector Fernandez, 29, who worked at a kiosk in the Galleria, has been arrested on federal charges of sexual exploitation of children. He faces up to life in prison, and a federal magistrate has ordered him held without bond.

The case originated with the discovery by the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation of four videos in “a private, by invitation only, forum on the dark web.”

Horrifying story from Houston where up to 7 men were assaulting toddlers and filming it in the public restroom at the high-end mall.

They all need to burn.

What do you think the punishment should be for these POS? pic.twitter.com/6dVH0GGunP
— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) January 11, 2024

The FBI was consulted and, using image mapping software that searches social media accounts, was able to identify a child who looked like one of the two two-year-old victims in the video. A relative of the child who had posted the image on social media identified a "sanitized' image of the child from the videos. As a bonus, the relative also identified one of the men in the video.

Fernandez previously worked at a store in the Galleria that has since shut down, according to the complaint. Both children seen in the videos, ages 2 to 3, were related to women who also worked at the mall, the complaint said. The Houston Chronicle is not naming the stores or the women to avoid releasing identifiable information about the children.
The women sometimes took the children to their workplaces at the mall when they couldn’t afford or find child care, the complaint said. Both women considered Fernandez their friend and previously had allowed him to take the children around the mall while they were busy working, according to the complaint.
...
Fernandez was identified by two distinctive silver bracelets worn by a man present in three of the videos, according to the complaint. Both women identified the bracelets as belonging to Fernandez, and investigators found photo evidence on Fernandez’s social media accounts that also showed him wearing the bracelets, the complaint said.
Authorities are unsure when the videos were taken. One woman told investigators that Fernandez walked her relative around the mall once in December 2022 and took the child trick-or-treating without her present in October. The other woman said Fernandez took her relative around the mall once this summer.

I'm not going to make public judgments about Fernandez or his lifestyle based on his Instagram account, but YMMV.

This kind of stuff is becoming more and more common. There is an obvious parallel between Fernandez and six of his "besties" raping toddlers and another case in Atlanta that seems to have vanished from sight.

Investigation Might Have Just Uncovered Origins of LBGTQ Pedophile Ring

Hidden in Plain Sight: A Peek Into a Suburban Pedophile Empire

In my view, several things are driving this phenomenon.

Much of this could not happen without social media. It lets these people search out others with common interests. It lets them share videos and what I'd call "tactics, techniques, and procedures." While pedophiles may be the leading edge, I'm positive that right now, there is a similar “private, by invitation only, forum on the dark web” catering to serial killers.

Second, there is a reluctance by society to recognize that evil exists. Real evil. It is not a lack of impulse control or a personality disorder; we are seeing actual, garden-variety evil. Some people can't be deterred and can't be rehabilitated. We've become too "modern" to accept the presence of supernatural forces. Even Christians, whose entire religion is based on the supernatural, are left trying to find psychobabble explanations for what are patently and obviously evil actions.

Finally, much of society is reluctant to make judgments that would open them to accusations of bigotry. Would I have let @allegedly_hector have one-on-one access with my two-year-old, no matter how many rainbows were in his Instagram profile? No. Because any unrelated male acquaintance who wants to babysit a two-year-old is going to make my pedo-antenna start pinging. Maybe some related ones will trip the alarm, too.

As a side note, in May, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law a bill extending the death penalty to child rapists. This is a direct test of the 2008 Supreme Court decision in Kennedy vs. Louisiana that barred the death penalty for child rape. That court majority (Kennedy, joined by Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg, and Breyer) is gone, and the dissenters remain (Alito, joined by Roberts, Scalia, and Thomas) and have allies.

I'm not idealistic enough to believe these people can be deterred, but I think it is important that society express its disgust in a way that can't be mistaken.