Multiple Agencies Team Up To Help Child Molestation Victims

By: Kara Duffy - Email

Updated: Mon 5:20 PM, Dec 03, 2012

Thomasville, GA- Multiple agencies in the community are teaming up to help victims of child molestation.

More than 100 people from law enforcement agencies, social services, schools, and health care came out Monday for a workshop at Southwest Georgia Technical College.

It was led by Detective Mike Johnson from Plano, Texas, who specializes in child molestation cases.

The goal was to teach these professionals how to cooperate with one another throughout the investigation.

The idea is have the victim tell their story just one time and video-tape it. That video would then be distributed to all the departments involved in the investigation.

"By focusing on all of us coming together and working together, we reduce trauma to the child victim by reducing the number of times they have to relive the nightmare and retell their story over and over again," explained Assistant District Attorney, Catherine Smith.

Lieutenant Scott Woodell works for the Georgia State Patrol but is also the Chairman of the Treehouse Children's Advocacy Center in Thomasville, which works with victims of child molestion.

He said, "At 5 or 6 years-old or really even at 13, 14, 15 years-old, you really don't anticipate that much involvement just because you wanted to speak out about something. This kind of brings everybody together and puts it all into one pail."

The workshop will continue on Tuesday.

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