Anti-abortion activist jailed for molesting Northern Ireland girl
A Florida activist with ties to anti-abortion violence again insisted he was innocent of molesting a 15-year-old girl from Northern Ireland as a judge sentenced him to more than 18 years in prison.
A jury last month convicted John Burt, 66, on five counts of lewd or lascivious molestation or conduct with a child under 16.
The girl, now 16, gave evidence from Northern Ireland on a satellite television link that Burt improperly touched her and wrote a note propositioning her at Our Father’s House, a home for troubled girls Burt and his wife, Linda, ran in the Florida city of Milton, near Pensacola.
Judge Ron Swanson sentenced Burt to 18 years, four months in prison and ordered Burt to remain in the Santa Rosa County Jail until he holds a hearing to determine if he can be released pending appeal.
Linda Burt afterwards said her husband was set up because of his activism.
She said the victim ran away and then made up the accusations in hopes she could return to Northern Ireland where her mother lives.
“I will fight this to the very last breath that I have in me,” Linda Burt said. “If I thought that my husband was diddling with a 15-year-old girl I would not be here fighting for him. He would not be in my life, period.”
She also said the TV evidence from a foreign land violated her husband’s constitutional right to confront his accuser. The state did not send anyone to Belfast to oversee the evidence from that end.
John Burt has been a key figure in anti-abortion protests and violence in Pensacola.
He had associated with Michael Griffin, now serving a life sentence for fatally shooting an abortion doctor in 1993, and Paul Hill, executed last year for shooting to death another doctor and clinic escort in 1994.
In the 1980s, Burt served jail time for bursting into a clinic and damaging equipment. He also demonstrated in support of two young couples who bombed three clinics.
