When news of the Jerry Sandusky/Penn State sex abuse scandal broke, one of the most horrifying aspects of the case was that Sandusky used a youth charity to gain access to the children he would sexually assault and rape. In late October, a Tulsa man was accused of similar acts, bringing children home from a shelter where he volunteered in order to sexually abuse them.
Investigators say Timothy Shawn Cato, 50, sexually abused at least 5 boys, aged 7 to 17, from 2009 until his arrest in 2015. They say Cato admitted to checking two children, aged 7 and 8, out of the Laura Dester Shelter on overnight passes. Once he had them home, he would bathe with them and sleep with them in a room separate from his wife and child.
The younger children say that, while at Cato's home, they met two older teens, aged 16 and 17, and all five of them slept in the room together. The older teens say that they met Cato through a boys' program at church, and that he took them swimming for several months before he began taking them home, bathing them, and sleeping pressed up against them.
Cato reportedly told investigators that he had a long history of volunteering with children, initially claiming to be a youth pastor, the owner and operator of a Christian school, a volunteer at Falls Creek youth camp, and a DHS volunteer with the Laura Dester emergency children's shelter. Many of those organizations have distanced themselves from the accused, saying he was not a youth pastor, he was only a marginal volunteer with sporadic attendance at the church, that there is no record of his presence at the youth camp, and that he was a teaching assistant at the now-closed school--not an owner.
Cato was initially charged with 8 counts of sexual abuse, but prosecutors have added several more charges. He will now face trial on 14 criminal counts:
If convicted, the accused faces significant prison time. Possession of child pornography has a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and sex offender registration for 15 years; however, the child sexual abuse charges are much more serious. Each count of child sexual abuse is punishable by a maximum of life in prison, and the sexual abuse of a child under 12 carries a minimum sentence of 25 years. Sexual abuse of a child is a level 3 sex offense, which means that anyone convicted of this crime must register as a sex offender for life.
