Missouri kidnapper in court; victim prayed for four years (Roundup)

By Pat Reber Jan 18, 2007, 22:50 GMT

Washington - Michael Devlin, 41, the man suspected of kidnapping at least two children in the midwestern state of Missouri, one of them for four years, entered a not guilty plea in a Missouri court Thursday.

Devlin pleaded not guilty in a Franklin County court on charges he had kidnapped 13-year-old Ben Ownby on January 8. He faces additional charges in neighbouring Washington County of armed kidnapping of another boy, Shawn Hornbeck, 15, four years ago.

Both boys were found alive in Devlin's suburban St Louis apartment last Friday after a series of vigilant observations by one of Ownby's classmates and police.

Hornbeck on Thursday answered some of the questions raised in the media about why he never tried to escape, even though he was sometimes seen outside alone and had access to the internet. He once even saw a poster with his picture as a missing child at a supermarket.

In an interview with Oprah Winfrey, the teenager said he was 'terrified,' according to Oprah's website. He said he prayed every day that his parents would find him and he would be reunited with them.

'There was a time when I was thinking about giving up, but then I just thought of what they (were) doing and searching for me and looking for me,' Shawn was quoted as saying. 'And then I knew they (weren't) giving up, so I figured I shouldn't.'

Child experts say Hornbeck could have succumbed to the Stockholm syndrome and identified with his captor, or been frightened that Devlin would kill him or his family if he tried to escape. Both factors have played into long-term hostage-takings, such as an Austrian teenager Natascha Kampusch who escaped last year after eight years of being held.

Devlin's arraignment occurred via closed-circuit television as a security measure, the St Louis Post Dispatch reported.

He is reportedly being held in a solitary cell for protection from other prisoners, on a 1 million-dollar bond in the Franklin County Jail in Union, Missouri.

A 3-million-dollar bond was set in Washington County, where Devlin will face armed kidnapping charges in the Hornbeck case.

Devlin's lawyers indicated they would seek a change of venue for the trial because the publicity will 'make it next to impossible to have a fair trial in the county,' said defence lawyer Michael Kielty in broadcast remarks.

ABC broadcaster reported that investigators were probing whether Devlin was involved in the disappearance of another three children in the area since the 1990s.

Hornbeck's mother, Pam Akers, told Winfrey she and her husband believe Shawn was sexually abused, but have not pushed him for information.

In the Winfrey interview, Hornbeck said he was grateful to Ben Ownby, whose disappearance to Devlin's apartment was quickly tracked by police, who freed him after four days.

He said he felt 'thankful' that the younger boy 'held in there for those couple of days, and I'm sorry for what he went through, because I told myself a long time ago, I never want any other kid to go through what I went through.'

Hornbeck and Ownby were among an estimated 800,000 children under 18 who go missing every year in the US, according to a 2002 study by the US Department of Justice. The vast majority returned home, a spokeswoman at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCME) said.

Speed is of the essence after a disappearance. Missing children information is now distributed through a nation-wide system called Amber Alert, named after a nine-year-old Texas girl who was kidnapped and murdered in Texas in 1996.

Details are broadcast over radio and television, in newspapers and on digital information boards on the highway system.

In addition to the standard advice about teaching kids to avoid strangers and other situations, the NCME urges parents to teach children 'that safety is more important than manners.'

'It is more important for children to get themselves out of a threatening situation than it is to be polite,' the website says.