A man has been imprisoned for 23 years after numerous assault and robbery charges which many believe were in relation to vigilante action in dealing extrajudicial punishment to pedophiles.
Jason Vukovich, 43, was imprisoned for 23 years, February 2018, for a string of assault and robbery charged.
It was later revealed, however, that all of Vukovich’s victims were pedophiles.
Vukovich believed himself to be an “avenging angel seeking justice,” but won’t be released on parole until serving at least six years behind bars.
Vukovich, who was also a victim of sexual abuse at the hands of his stepfather when he was a child, states that he now takes “full responsibility for his actions” and signals that his crime spree–in spite of the nature of the victims–was not worth the punishment.
All the crimes took place during a five-day rampage where he used his state’s local sex offender registry list to hunt pedophiles, in June 2016.
One of the victims was reported knocked out with a hammer and had his truck and laptop stolen.
According to prosecutors, Vukovich had managed to gain access to a list of pedophiles on a notebook, including some of the victims of his rampage:
In a letter to Anchorage Daily News, Vukovich said:
“If you have already lost your youth, like me, due to a child abuser, please do not throw away your present and your future by committing acts of violence. There is no place for vigilante justice in an ordered society. I thought back to my experiences as a child and felt the overwhelming desire to act. I took matters into my own hands and assaulted three pedophiles.
“I began my life sentence many, many years ago, it was handed down to me by an ignorant, hateful, poor substitute for a father. I now face losing most of the rest of my life due to a decision to lash out at people like him. To all those who have suffered like I have, love yourself and those around you, this is truly the only way forward.”
As a victim of profound sexual, physical, and psychological abuse from his step father, Vukovich’s attorney, Ember Tilton, believed that he required psychological help instead of prison for his actions.
