Posted on: Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Hau'ula man gets 20 years in prison

By Ken Kobayashi
Advertiser Courts Writer

A 56-year-old Hau'ula man was sentenced to a maximum 20-year prison term yesterday for molesting one girl last year and then sexually assaulting another girl while free on bail in the first case.

Paul Keck, who has been diagnosed as a pedophile, faced a five-year prison term for molesting the two girls, ages 8 and 9 at the time, in separate cases, but Circuit Judge Steven Alm yesterday went along with the recommendation by city Deputy Prosecutor Lori Wada in imposing the enhanced sentence for the protection of the community.

The judge said what concerned him was that Keck committed the second offense while out on bail for the first sexual assault.

Alm also said Keck wanted the father of the second victim to kill him, which the judge likened to "suicide by cop" in which people want police to kill them and live with that guilt. Alm called Keck's actions "despicable and cowardly."

"He should have done it himself," said the father, who learned of Keck's motives at the hearing.

Keck earlier pleaded guilty to third-degree sexual assault of a 9-year-old girl at his home on April 9, 2004, and third-degree sexual assault of the 8-year-old girl at He'eia Kea pier on July 31, 2004. He committed the second sexual assault while free on $100,000 bond.

Keck told the judge he apologizes to the victims and the families.

A Vietnam War veteran who also suffers post-traumatic stress syndrome from his experiences as a combat infantryman, Keck said he wants to serve his prison term, then spend the rest of his life in treatment through the Veterans Administration.

He said people ask him why he did it and he asks that question himself. "I just don't have the answers," he said.

Both sets of parents of the victims told the judge that the sexual assaults changed their daughters' lives.

"My daughter has to live with this for the rest of her life," the father of the second victim said.

The parents said their daughter wrote a letter to the judge saying Keck should be locked up because she "doesn't want any other girl to feel like she does."

The mother of the 9-year-old girl said her daughter wrote a letter saying Keck should get the death penalty "so you can't molest any other child."

"I can't believe you could lie all that time and not feel guilty," the mother said her daughter wrote.

The parents later said they were pleased with Alm's sentence.

Keck's lawyer, Earle Partington, argued that by sentencing Keck to the same term as a first-degree sexual assault offender, Alm would not be differentiating between Keck molesting the girls through their clothes and violent rapists.

Partington said he will appeal the sentence.

Reach Ken Kobayashi at 525-8030 or kkobayashi@honoluluadvertiser.com.