To be annoyed I've 'funded a pervert'

[Outmuch]

I sat down to watch a scary film with a friend last night and I suggested the DVD Jeepers Creepers. My friend said 'you do realise the director is a peado and you've helped fund a pervert'.

I did some reading and sure enough the writer/director, Victor Salva, admitted to and was jailed in 1988 for grooming a 12yo and making/owning child porn.

Despite this he's had steady work in hollywood and I noticed he made a movie in 2011 with none other than metoo heavyweight Rose MCGowan! WTF!!!?? She called him a sweet and gentle man!

I'm sick to my stomach I own Jeepers Creepers and it's sequel and have just thrown them out, but equally confused that someone who went through what she did with Harvey Weinstein would work with a peado? Surely she would've been aware of his past?!

Anyway dunno what my AIBU is I'm just angry/confused/bewildered. Anyone else own this movie?

At risk of starting chaos and getting kicked off the site. I know someone who spent time behind bars for a child porn related activity and he's one of the nicest chaps I know. They are people too.

Are you taking the fucking piss?

What you mean is he’s nice to you, it’s just vulnerable children he abuses and traumatises.

Aren't most paedophiles (and many serial killers) "nice" to people? That's how they groom the children and the parents.

It's not child porn - it's images of child abuse. We have to stop using the word porn in a way that normalises it.

So your nice friend like to watch vulnerable little people being hurt and abused. Fucking hell, he sounds lovely (I'm not sure you've considered the lives he destroyed in the meantime)

Very true Lweji. Hope Francium doesn't have kids.

It’s a shit film and the sequel is even worse, so you’re not missing much.

There’s a difference between not vetting every single director, writer, actor or sound artist involved with a film and actively choosing to support them once you know about something criminal they have done.
I’d run your next film choice past your friend though, to save you wasting that popcorn. 🍿

@Francium He's not abused or hurt anyone
Seriously.You think them kids in the films were not hurt.Fuck off.Thats some whitewashing shit right there

He's not abused or hurt anyone

Of course he has. Even if he 'only' watched, he helped create a demand for a child abuse market, he gets aroused watching children going through pain and trauma. You should read the accounts of some child abuse victims and how knowing those videos are still out there being watched is yet another violation of them all over again.

@partysong I was just about to say the same thing - as a survivor of childhood sexual abuse the phrase 'child porn' turns my stomach.

OP Don't beat yourself up about this, you didn't know

@francium He hasn't hurt anyone? Are you fucking serious?! I'm sure the children in the videos that are abused because of the demand he, and people like him create, would disagree.

They're shit films anyway and yabu for using the words child porn, there's no such thing.

It's highly likely you know and get on with a nonce IRL. You just don't know about it... You can't cut yourself off from the world just in case.

Most ( if not every) society has had some form of sexualisation of children. Modern western society is on a witch hunt about it but it seems to a fundamental part of the human psyche so needs treatment not vigilantism

Are you a MAP? Utterly vile fuckers.

@pancake what's a MAP please? Never heard of that. I get the feeling maybe ignorance is bliss

Not sure of your age OP but I was 6 in 1988, so totally unaware of the history.
I don't know anyone who researches the cast and crew before watching a film.
You didn't know when you bought the DVD, you've now binned them and I guess you won't buy anything further by him so I don't see there's anything further you can do.
It's shit that Hollywood allows people like this to continue to work but by rejecting his films yourself you've got a clear conscience.

OP I’d not heard of him but see your point
Why does he get work?! Argh.

Please can posters refrain from using the term 'child pornography' - the correct term id CHILD ABUSE IMAGES.

Please also refrain from saying 'peado' - apart from sounding trite and infantile, it isn't even spelled correctly. .

You should watch the documentary An Open Secret on this topic - you’ll soon realise quite how widespread this is. And all those former child stars who go off the rails, get addicted to drugs and alcohol, arrested for bizarre things like stealing despite having plenty of money, acting out, destroying their credibility and reputation, sometimes committing suicide... it doesn’t take a genius to figure out the situation.

@Francium

my last post got deleted, presumably because I used the word "w....." so in language which is technically correct I repeat

He's not abused or hurt anyone and no I'm not taking the proverbial.
He's served his time and like anyone else who's served their time should be allowed to move on.

The children whose images he masturbated over were abused and hurt to get those images. They are probably still being abused and hurt.

Most ( if not every) society has had some form of sexualisation of children. Modern western society is on a witch hunt about it but it seems to a fundamental part of the human psyche so needs treatment not vigilantism

Most, indeed every, society has people who murder in it. We recognise that this is immoral and act against it.

none of us are 'all nice'. I don't consider his 'not nice' to be enough to make him not one of the nicest people I know.

Then you must know some utter scum. He's being superficially nice to you. That doesn't make him a decent person. It means he can turn on the charm when he wants to.

Fred West was friendly to his neighbours (I knew one who when his crimes were uncovered was shocked and found it difficult to comprehend).

OP, you did not knowingly buy something made by a child abuser, and you have destroyed it.

I agree that you're overreacting.

(And it's paedophile, not peadophile.)