"A lack of screening of oil spill cleanup workers meant a sex offender got a job"

Pascagoula, Mississippi (CNN) -- A lack of screening of oil spill cleanup workers meant a sex offender got a job, and left him free to rape a colleague according to a Mississippi county sheriff.

A CNN investigation into the incident reveals that basic background checks were not done on those hired to remove oil from the beaches in and around Pascagoula.

Jackson County Sheriff Mike Byrd told CNN he was shocked when he met with the head of BP security for the area several weeks before the alleged rape took place. He said the BP representative told him that only drug screenings, not background checks, were being conducted on the cleanup workers.

"I said, 'You're kidding me.' He said, 'No.' He said, 'There's so many of them, we were told to do drug screens and that was it.' And I said, 'Well, that's not good at all.' "

REST OF THE STORY

Re: "A lack of screening of oil spill cleanup workers meant a sex offender got a job"

My heart goes out to the woman - but the lack of a background check is not why she was raped. The article says there were 3 other known sex offenders working clean-up.

Re: "A lack of screening of oil spill cleanup workers meant a sex offender got a job"

I don't see why being a sex offender would disqualify you from this job.

Yes, they should be kept out of schools, daycares, hospitals, etc. of course

But this is cleaning up dirty oil? Am I missing something? If we don't allow criminals to earn some sort of living some way, they really don't have a choice but to end up back in jail.

Terrible that this happened and feel bad for the woman

Re: "A lack of screening of oil spill cleanup workers meant a sex offender got a job"

Posted by queensgal

I don't see why being a sex offender would disqualify you from this job.

Yes, they should be kept out of schools, daycares, hospitals, etc. of course

But this is cleaning up dirty oil? Am I missing something? If we don't allow criminals to earn some sort of living some way, they really don't have a choice but to end up back in jail.

Terrible that this happened and feel bad for the woman