Dec 17, 2002 By Jennifer Harr 3 min read

A Belle Vernon man was deemed a sexually violent predator Monday after a Fayette County judge told him he would have to accept the designation or lose his plea deal with prosecutors. After conversing with his attorney, Barry McCreary decided to accept the designation, which includes lifetime community notification of his sexual abuse conviction in exchange for a sentence of two to four years in prison.

McCreary, 48, pleaded guilty to aggravated indecent assault, indecent assault and corruption of minors for abusing an 11-year-old between July 2001 and April 2002. The victim has since turned 12.

“The two- to four-year sentence negotiated by the district attorney’s office does not make sense unless there is a way to make sure this (sexual abuse) does not happen in the future. If he doesn’t accept the classification, I will not accept the plea bargain,” said Judge Ralph C. Warman.

The judge also told McCreary he would have to waive the right to contest the classification.

In addition to a lifetime community notification, McCreary will have to notify police within 10 days any time he moves for the rest of his life, and be subject to a lifetime of counseling. Special child abuse prosecutor Jack R. Heneks Jr. agreed to the deal.

Dr. Allan D. Pass, an examiner with the state’s Sexual Offender Assessment Board, testified during the hearing that McCreary met the criteria of a pedophile as described in the DSM-IV, a book that describes that criteria for different mental illnesses.

Pass interviewed McCreary in the county prison on Nov. 12, about a month after he entered his guilty plea in the case.

During that interview, McCreary repeatedly blamed the victim, claiming she acted provocatively to entice the contact, testified Pass. McCreary also told Pass he was “helping (the victim) to develop her sexual feelings.”

Additionally, McCreary said that his contact with the girl got more frequent from September through April, said Pass.

“He admitted he could not stop his sexual involvement with the victim even though he knew it was, in fact, wrong,” testified Pass.

McCreary, according to police, threatened the girl to keep her from telling her mother about the contact, but the child eventually did.

Pass also testified that McCreary initiated the sexual contact only at night, after the child’s mother was asleep, further evidence that he was trying to hide his behavior.

With all of those factors, including a written confession to police the day he was arrested, Pass testified he felt McCreary was a sexually violent predator.

Before Pass was allowed to testify to his findings from the jail visit with McCreary, defense attorney Jack W. Connor challenged the validity of the hearing.

Connor claimed that the Sexual Offender Assessment Board had failed to establish guidelines for its examiners and the examination process, as directed by the General Assembly. Pass testified that there were guidelines, but that they were internal, and said that he did not believe those guidelines were made available to the public.

But when Connor could produce no documentation that the guidelines had to be made available to the public, Warman allowed Pass to testify.

McCreary will serve his sentence in a state prison.