Carlsbad photographer Robert Koester has been sentenced to 25 years in jail for heinous acts carried out on teen models he was paid to photograph. There is evidence that some of the teens were drugged by Koester.
Koester was originally charged back in November, 2017, for allegedly assaulting a 16 year old girl. He’d been sub-contracted by the modeling firm, Frank, to take images of the young model. However, she accused him of sexual misconduct and reported him to police. Koester was then arrested at his home, where police also found evidence of child pornography. Following that initial arrest, three more teen models came forward and Koester was hit with a total of 35 felony charges. This week he was formally charged after pleading guilty to 23 charges. He will spend 25 years in State prison.
As a father of two young girls it’s very difficult for me to process such a case. Koester was sub-contracted by a modeling firm and, as the parents of one the victims and the Deputy District Attorney said, he had a solid reputation as a professional photographer. One can only assume that the parents and the modeling agency believed Koester posed no threat. Thus, has society now reached a stage where everyone needs a chaperone or a third person there to act as carer or witness? Indeed, at my university, we are no longer allowed to hold meetings with female students in our offices unless the doors are open and there are others in the vicinity. This has only been introduced in the last few years but is ubiquitous across Japan now. A (good) sign of the times?
Will measures such as these help to eliminate or at least reduce horrid crimes such as those committed by Robert Koester?