Child rapist deemed sexually violent predator
A Confluence man who admitted to raping a child and attempting to rape another was deemed a sexually violent predator at a hearing in Fayette County Court on Tuesday.
Brian T. Lynch, 45, was sentenced to a total of 25 to 50 years in prison for two cases in January after pleading guilty to both. Lynch admitted to kidnapping a 6-year-old boy who was playing in front of his Henry Clay Township home on May 4 and then taking the child to Westmoreland County and raping him in a car near a park.
In the course of investigating that case, police discovered Lynch tried on three occasions to coerce an 11-year-old boy he was babysitting into having oral and anal sex with him.
Herbert Hays, of the state Sexual Offender Assessment Board, testified that his determination, after reviewing records in the case and interviewing Lynch, was that Lynch meets the criteria of a sexually violent predator because he is a pedophiliac.
There is no cure for pedophilia, Hays testified. In addition to the two most recent cases, Hays testified Lynch also had a child sex assault case on his record from 1986, serving as proof that Lynch is likely to reoffend.
Hays said Lynch was cooperative during the interview, but there was one question that he shied away from answering fully.
“He was found with duct tape, rope and latex gloves, I believe, in his car,” Hays testified. “I asked him why he had it, he said he planned on using it, but didn’t say on whom. For what purposes, I don’t know.”
While Hays said the possession of bondage instruments was not a factor in his assessment that Lynch is a sexually violent predator, he called it “important information.”
According to Hays, Lynch reported during the interview that he was himself sexually abused as a child, by his father.
“He admitted he’s always had sexual thoughts about little boys, but he didn’t do anything about it after the 1986 incident because he didn’t want to go to jail,” said Hays.
Lynch’s attorney, Brian Salisbury, argued that the prosecution failed to meet its burden of proof and that Lynch should not be deemed a sexually violent predator, but President Judge John F. Wagner Jr. disagreed.
Wagner noted that as a Tier III sex offender under the Adam Walsh Act, Lynch will be subjected to a lifetime requirement that he appear at an approved registration site quarterly. Wagner also ordered Lynch to attend lifetime counseling at a minimum of one session per month, at his own expense.
Outside the courtroom, Hays said he could not recall the exact charge nor the disposition of the 1986 sex assault case he mentioned in his testimony, but that he believed it was statutorily similar to a charge of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse if Lynch had been arrested for the crime today.
Hays said that in 1986 Lynch was not required to be treated by mental health professionals, nor did the Adam Walsh Act exist, which would have required him to register as a sex offender.