Secret shame: 'They're all nice guys'

Second in a four-part series.

UTAH STATE PRISON — Larry Burt groomed his young victim to always do what adults told her to do.

And for 11 years, she did. When she questioned his sexual touching that progressed to intercourse, he bought her gifts or showed her special treatment.

Burt, 46, is thoughtful and emotional as he describes his history during an interview at the prison. He tries to explain his thinking at the time — tries to answer the "How could you?" queries as best he can.

"I know I tried to make her believe that it's OK, I'm not physically hurting you," he said in an interview at the Utah State Prison, where he has spent the past 6 1/2 years. "You don't take into consideration it was hurting her emotionally and mentally."

Burt learned about the psychological damage he'd done in the prison's Sex Offender Treatment Program, which includes group therapy.

On this day, eight inmates who allowed reporters to sit in on the session, provided their names were not used, gathered around their therapist in their cell block's computer room. They ranged in age from their 30s to their 60s. One was black, the rest Caucasian. They were from communities along the Wasatch Front, from Orem to Roy. One was a transplant from Las Vegas.

One of them opens the discussion with belabored complaints about new rules that limit access to the computers, making it hard to complete his treatment assignments. Therapist Harold Blakelock uses the issue to help the inmates identify factors they can and cannot change. The inmate persists. He has to do his treatment exercises by hand, he complains. He has to walk from two halls down to do his work. He can't print it out as easily.

"The issue seems to be immediate gratification," Blakelock confronts the man. "Do you have a problem with immediate gratification?

"You're not going to complete treatment unless you take responsibility, change your thinking," he says. "Don't blame. Don't be a victim."

Observing the group, it is clear what Susanne Mitchell, director of the Salt Lake County Children's Justice Center, says is true. A sex offender is the guy who mows the lawn, pays taxes and fixes flat tires.

"Obviously, it doesn't fit the perception of the boogeyman monster," Mitchell said.