No good deed goes unpunished.
A Missoula, Montana mental health employee is currently out of a job after reporting child pornography she found on the computer of a client, John Gribble, to the police, according to the Associated Press. The employee, who has not been named, first went to supervisors with her concerns, but was told not to contact authorities because her discovery did not meet the requirements for reporting an offense.
According to the Missoulian, court papers show that she contacted police on October 17, reporting concerns after she saw the words "female child nude" and "preteen nude girls by themselves" in the browsing history of Gribble's computer. Gribble was later charged with sexually abusing children after a DVD containing nude photos of children was found in his home, according to multiple reports.
Despite the fact that the worker was concerned for the safety of young girls Gribble babysat, and that her suspicions proved true, the company maintains that she violated their policies when she called police.
Alleged child pornographers have been outed in a number of odd ways recently. Kraig Stockard, a California man, found himself arrested after burglars actually contacted the police when they found child porn in the stash of goods they stole from him. Charges were not pressed against the thieves.
Earlier this month, the infamous hacker group Anonymous assisted in the fight against child pornography by exposing the IP addresses of 190 alleged child porn viewers. The attack specifically hit Freedom Hosting, a company that it accused of hosting over 40 child pornography websites and its users.
The news also comes on the heels of reports that school officials at Penn State covered up child-sex abuse allegations against former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky. According to the AP, Sandusky has been charged with 40 criminal counts accusing him of serial sex abuse of minors.
Joe Paterno, Penn State's head football coach, had said he will retire at the end of the season in light of the scandal.