Opinion ID: 151874
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Reports of the Psychiatrist and Psychologist

Text: In connection with sentencing defense counsel hired two experts in the field of psychology and psychiatry, and he furnished their reports to the court. One of the reports was from Dr. Fred Berlin, who is board-certified in both general and forensic psychiatry. Although he did not testify at the sentence hearing, his report is mentioned in the Presentence Report, a copy of it was attached to defense counsel's objections to the Presentence Report, and it was discussed by Dr. Shaw, who did testify at the hearing. Dr. Berlin reported that Irey has a psychiatric disorder known as heterosexual pedophilia, which means he experiences a strong sexual attraction to prepubescent girls; girls who ordinarily are less than thirteen-years-of-age. Dr. Berlin stated that Irey was capable of relating intimately to an adult woman, but he found that Irey experienced intense sexual cravings for female children as well. Irey was highly sexualized and admitted to having engaged in other forms of sexually disordered behavior with prostitutes (e.g. sadomasochistic acts), and . . . having viewed images involving bestiality on the Internet. Nonetheless, Dr. Berlin asserted that to the best of my knowledge and belief, he has never coerced an unwilling person against their will. [6] Dr. Berlin gave his opinion that a sexual disorder such as pedophilia does not develop as a consequence of a volitional decision. He also stated, however, that [a]lthough it is not [Irey's] fault that he has the disorder, it is his responsibility to do something about it. Dr. Berlin thought that Irey needed professional treatment but he also pointed out that [e]ven without treatment, in the past, he had been able to refrain from any sexual contact with children within the United States. Dr. Berlin's report stated that he had found no evidence to suggest that Irey was characterlog[icall]y flawed, and concluded that he was not generally anti-social or psychopathic in his psychological makeup, nor was he a man who has generally lacked a sense of conscience. Instead, he thought that Irey had often simply been unable to readily appreciate the extent of his improprieties with the children. Dr. Berlin denied that Irey had a malicious disregard for the well-being of the girls in question. Instead, in his professional opinion, Mr. Irey did have a genuine affection and concern for those youngsters at that time and actually thought he was helping the little girls he was sexually abusing. [7] Dr. Berlin's view is that, except for the fact that he had spent four or five years raping, sodomizing, and sexually torturing some of the most vulnerable children in the world, Irey is an otherwise decent man. Dr. Ted Shaw, a psychologist, was also retained by the defense, and he submitted a psychosexual evaluation report on behalf of Irey. When Dr. Shaw evaluated Irey on August 23, 2007, Irey was at the Lifestream Behavioral Center in Leesburg, Florida, on conditional release from jail. He was undergoing treatment for alcohol abuse problems and sexual addiction. According to Dr. Shaw, a review in May 2007 indicated that Irey was making appropriate progress, although his wife and children refused to attend personal counseling as part of the family sessions. Irey admitted to Dr. Shaw that he had used prostitutes in this country and in doing so had contracted a venereal disease, which he passed along to his wife. Irey had also experimented with bisexuality and had enjoyed consensual bondage with adult females. Irey described a lack of interest in well-endowed women, telling Dr. Shaw that when he married his wife she was thin and had small breasts, but [h]er physique has changed over the years. Irey admitted that he had visited child brothels in Cambodia for the past five years. He did, however, lie to Dr. Shaw about some of the details of his sexual abuse of children. [8] Irey acknowledged, though, that the children suffer the most and are victims. Dr. Shaw's report noted Irey's escalating sexual interest over the preceding ten years, which could be described as a `sexual addiction,' with many behaviors and an obsessive fixation which included frequent masturbation, anonymous sex with prostitutes and the eventual use of brothels in Cambodia. He described Irey as sexually obsessed for at least the last ten years, and stated his opinion that Irey's paraphilias clearly drove his behaviors, in spite of being an otherwise moral and responsible individual, upon whom many people, including family, clients and employees, depended. Under one of the risk assessments that Dr. Shaw applied, Irey's score places him in the Medium-Low risk category for sexually re-offending. Another one, the Minnesota Sex Offender Screening Tool-Revised, resulted in a score that placed Irey in the Moderate Risk Range. More specifically, Dr. Shaw said, the five-year, ten-year, and fifteen-year recidivism rates for individuals in the development research study with Mr. Irey's score are 12%, 14%, and 19%. Overall, he reported, the dynamic and static factors, suggest a moderate to low moderate risk of a new charge, which can be reduced through continued treatment and informed supervision upon his release.