Library Staffer Identifies Patron As Sex Offender

http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/currentnews/newsarchive/2005abc/december2005ab/plymouth.cfm

$node.absurl

$node.contribution("Title")

$node.absurl

Posted December 16, 2005.

Library Staffer Identifies Patron As Sex Offender

An employee of the Plymouth (Mass.) Public Library identified a patron as a high-risk sex offender after a girl complained that the man took her picture with a cell phone at the library December 12. The unidentified staffer recognized Francis G. Janosko from photos posted around town, verified his identity in the online Sex Offender Registry Board, and alerted the police, the December 14 Quincy Patriot Ledger reported. Janosko had been using the library’s computers often over the past few weeks.

Police searched Janosko’s home later in the day and found him in possession of child pornography on his cell phone, although no photos of the girl at the library turned up. Under Massachusetts law he is classed as a Level 3 sex offender, a group considered the likeliest to continue committing crimes, and had been scheduled to appear in court in January for violating probation guidelines set after a 2003 conviction.

PPL Director Dinah O’Brien told the Patriot Ledger that the library’s 15 unfiltered computers are not monitored, but they are all in a high-traffic area where inappropriate use would be observed.

Posted December 16, 2005.