“Mental capacity of a toddler” does not mean that he literally has the brain of a toddler. There are SO many adults with disabilities who have the mental capacity of small children who also have libidos and experience romantic and/or sexual attraction to others. I’m not saying that it was possible for her to obtain…

I would tend to agree with you but a potentially important difference is that as someone with an adult body this man likely does have more in the way of sexual urges and desires than a toddler.

That’s quite the statement. Do you have an example of a male teachers sexually abusing their severely disabled student and getting away with little to no punishment, or are you just hoping no one will ask you for citations?

Why not just test her ability to ‘assist’ in his communication? Send her out of the room. Tell him a word. Let her back in the room. Tell her to assist him in typing out the word.

40 years may be excessive for rape in general (although I’m still debating that, personally, given the circumstances of this case), but the argument I’m seeing from some people for why (that male rapists get off easy, so let’s allow a female rapist off easy, too!) aren’t logically sound. Let’s fight to get all rapists…

I hate when we infantilize people with severe disabilities. He does not have the mental capacity of a “toddler.” He is not a “toddler” in an adult body. I completely agree that IF he made claims to her of a loving or sexual nature, then she needed to have had someone else assist him with verifying those claims before…

I find these cases very upsetting and difficult. (Mentally) handicapped people may have the mind of an X year old, yes. They also have an adult body with sexual urges. My severely handicapped aunt and her severely handicapped son (you can guess how that happened) have sex lives, yet they don’t understand them beyond…