M.dA.R.

Portuguese press reports today the conviction of a male babysitter at the Penha Longa Hotel, a Ritz-Carlton Resort for abusing children while on property. According to press reports, the babysitter was employed by the resort through a third-party contractor, a company called Talenter.

Last July the babysitter was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison for abusing three children, two of which were abused at the Ritz-Carlton resort while the perpetrator was babysitting hotel guests' children. Portuguese police suspected of many more victims but, the press report adds, the hotel did not fully cooperate with the investigation by providing the identities of foreign guests that used their babysitting services and several of the families the police did manage to reach through international police cooperation flat out rejected the idea their sons could have been victims of sexual abuse.

The hotel, owned by Carlyle Group and managed by Marriott through is Ritz-Carlton subsidiary, despite being fully aware of the charges and despite the fact that several of its employees and managers were subpoenaed to testify at the trial, still to this day employs the services of the same company that seconded the pedophile babysitter, Talenter. Reached by the newspaper, Penha Longa Hotel referred to an "alleged conviction of a pedophile babysitter" and refuted “any attempt of journalistic exploitation of information and/or opinions that are sensationalistic and alarmist" and threatened with legal action against any "slanderous" news reports.

News report (in Portuguese) can be found here (paid access).

EuropeanPete

Main concern is obviously for the victims and those now worried their family might be, but it does show how if you don’t have a brand group setting standards and values how dangerous and unpleasant Hotel management can act:

It’s a world away from the values the Ritz Carlton professes to have.

JackE

Female babysitters are less likely to be abusers, so it's crazy to employ male ones.

Dr. HFH

They may suddenly find religion after the civil suit is filed.

nancypants

The vast majority of males are not sex offenders; I see no reason to single out babysitters as being a profession unsuitable for male employment- what about paediatricians, school teachers, rabbis, male family members etc- should they also not be allowed unfettered access to children purely on account of their gender??

meanwhile females can be sex offenders, there is a lower detection/conviction rate of female sex crimes, etc

porciuscato

It's "gender profiling," but it's a reality. We always told our kids that if they got hopelessly lost, "find a nice mommy." I'm male, but I accept that the odds are much better with a female. There are 9 times more men than women incarcerated in the US. I would never hire a male babysitter for boys or girls.

EuropeanPete

And suddenly it’s like the 19th Century in here.

Smiley90

cite?

MSPeconomist

It's been reported here that some airlines have a policy of only seating UMs next to women and not men. To me, that seems unfair to the women in these cases: they're not the kid's mother and shouldn't be expected to care for or look after a strange child without compensation.

nancypants

Clearly we’re massively into OMNI territory here but I think in the 21st century education of small children, and indeed risk assessment models, need to have advanced a lot from men=unsafe women=safe

there have been too many recent cases of female sex abusers, including police checked and vetted females working in child care settings, for me to be more comfortable with them than males purely on account of their possession of a vagina

trooper

If an airline ever tells me that as a male I cannot sit in the seat I chose because I ended up next to a young person , I will produce my Government issued "Working with the Vulnerable" card...( issued after background checks and mandatory for all of us in Australia who work with children.) I wonder what would happen?

nancypants

Didnt one of the airlines get sued a few years ago for something similar? BA perhaps?

Dav77

Really?

if you want to discute at this (low) level ...what about there are more mothers than fathers who kill their children?

EuropeanPete

Let's hope he never gets in a taxi with a male taxi driver. Or marries an American, for that matter.

halls120

When my daughter was about just beginning to walk, she developed a nasty rash that would just not go away, so we finally took her to ER one night. When we got to the ER, my now ex-wife asked me to take her in to see the doc so she could rest. I declined, and said I’m not putting myself under suspicion. She was furious, and took her in. While there, after my daughter was treated, the doc asked my ex why she was so angry, and she told him. Doc says to my wife “ I don’t blame him, most of my colleagues who treat a young female with a vaginal infection brought in by the dad and not the mom will immediately think “I wonder what he’s covering up.”

Old prejudices die hard.