(CCN) The “Alaskan Avenger,” a victim of molestation and abuse as a child, is accused of vengefully attacking pedophiles with a hammer, using the online registry to find sex offenders.
According to Alfred NG of NY Daily News, using Anchorage’s public online sex offender registry to locate up to three offenders, Jason Vukovich allegedly broke into his victims’ homes and bashed in their heads with a hammer in June.
NG says, “One of his victims landed on the sex offender registry 10 years ago, after pleading no contest to attempted sexual abuse of a minor.”
“He said, ‘I’m an avenging angel, I’m going to mete out justice for the people you hurt,’” Wesley Demarest, one of the people Vukovich tracked down, told a local news station.
Police said Vukovich was arrested the same night he allegedly hammered in Demarest’s skull. Police also found a notebook with his victims’ names listed in it, with addresses he found from the registry. Vukovich, 41, is also accused of robbing the three victims after his vengeful beatings.
On the website, users can find sex offenders and child kidnappers through a database by name, zip code, and city, or through a map with details of the person’s address and photos, along with conviction dates, and employer’s information.
NG states, “the sex-offender avenger revealed he had been molested and beaten by his adoptive father when he was a child, he wrote in a letter from jail to the Anchorage Dispatch News.”
“’What I can say at this time is that after being physically and mentally abused by a predator, my life was forever changed,’ Vukovich wrote in his letter.
“He said he targeted sexual offenders in hopes of supporting children ‘in pursuit of their dreams,’ writing that kids should be able to live ‘without the threat of pedophiles lingering around them.’”
Vukovich plead not guilty to the charges of robbery and assault. He is being held on a $100,000 bail, and scheduled to return to court on Oct. 17. He faces up to 35 years in prison if convicted.
