—Her mother was asleep on the couch just a few feet away when her stepdad put his hands down her pants and molested her. She was eight years old. Scared, she finally pulled away and ran to the bathroom, but it got even creepier. When she opened the door, her stepdad was standing there, waiting for her. The monster in the dark, so to speak, put his arms around her and whispered into her ear. “I’m sorry. I thought you would like it it,” he said.

Derrick Baker was looking for a little sympathy as he sat on the stand this week testifying in his own trial. An admitted crack cocaine addict, he told the jury of his peers - well, not really, but that’s what we say in America - that he thought the house he burgled was “abandoned.” His real goal was some peace and a source of water. “I wanted to enjoy my high without any disturbance,” he said.