While many celebrated Christmas this past year, law enforcement personnel, concerned citizen volunteers and the family of Sarah Foxwell were desperately searching for this young 11 year old who was abducted on the evening of December 23rd. Tragically, according to news reports, Sarah’s body was found badly burned in the late afternoon on Christmas day. Law enforcement indicates that all signs point to a Thomas Leggs, Jr., a convicted sex offender in Maryland and in Delaware.

My heart goes out to the Foxwell family as they cope with the unimaginable loss of young Sarah. The Foxwells and all Maryland families should not have to live in fear of sexual predators lurking around the corner and these tragedies should be preventable.

In the past, I sponsored Jessica’s Law that placed mandatory minimum sentences on child sex offenders. Following the passage of this law, we learned that predators were still eligible for up to 10 days a month in diminution credit (5 days for “good behavior” and 5 days for “work and education”) and thus sidestepping nearly one third of their entire mandatory minimum sentences. Over the years, there have been several appalling tragedies where offenders repeat offended and we must change this flaw in our laws.

Additionally, it appears that Maryland and Delaware had communication issues arising from Thomas Leggs, Jr. and that we were not able to display any way to determine that he had a record in Delaware. I will be working with our state’s Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services to try to find a legislative solution to this problem.

These are a few of the legislative remedies we will pursue as we work diligently to prevent more tragedies from happening in the future. Children are our future and we cannot afford to gamble on their safety, ever.