One Man Likes Feet a Little too Much - Especially the Ones He Finds in Libraries

Warrenville Public Library

Apparently one Chicago-area man really, really likes the feet of smart women - and he goes to local libraries to find and fondle them.  Seriously.

According to the Chicago Tribune and the Beacon News, this has been happening for at least ten years and the man has already served some light jail time for past offenses:

Omar Carlton, 44, of the 1000 block of Fifth Avenue, is charged with felony aggravated battery in a public place. He has been arrested and charged at least five other times for touching women's feet in suburban libraries.

Carlton is accused of putting his bare foot on top of a woman's open-toed shoes at least four times at the Warrenville Library April 20, DuPage County State's Attorney's officials said in a news release. The woman allegedly felt something brush up against her feet several times while she was working in a desk cubicle at the library, according to the state's attorney's office.

I am not comfortable with the idea that this man is going someday to end up locked up for a very long time - or injured or killed by the boyfriend or husband of one of the women he molested for a sex offense that most people first laugh about when they hear of it. But a sex offender is a sex offender, and this guy needs to be treated like one.  If he is this bad at controlling his impulses, he may be more dangerous than he appears.  Statistics show that treatment programs for sex offenders are not particularly successful when judged by the recidivism rate of those treated, so I don't know what the answer is.  

But, good grief.  When women aren't safe walking around inside public libraries, this is not something to laugh about.  With the ten-year history that this man has (as detailed in the article I linked to), maybe prison is the only answer.  Sad as that is.