Accusatory letter that prompted Buckley child porn investigation disclosed

Stonewall Review Gay News
The letter that New Hampshire state Representative Steve Vaillancourt sent to Governor John Lynch accusing Raymond Buckley of possessing child pornography has been released.

The text, as reported by the Concord Monitor, follows. Two sentences were deleted by the Monitor because of profanity.

December 26, 2006

Dear Governor Lynch,

I have followed with interest your comments about getting tough on those who use the Internet to prey on children and about how you want to put those who indulge in kiddie pornography away for a long time. I trust your concern and that of Attorney General Kelly Ayotte is genuine. When the Foley situation surfaced in Washington, there seemed to be some question as to how much Speaker Hastert knew in advance. For your benefit, I shall give you details here and an indication of how you can learn more about a particular individual should you so choose. I deliberately avoided doing this during the campaign, so as not to make it a political issue. However, I am not the only one privy to this information. I fear it is about to come forward from other sources and could prove harmful to the Democratic Party and the State of New Hampshire, especially at a time when the first in the nation primary is so much in the news.

The New Hampshire Democratic Vice Chair (and apparently a candidate to replace Kathy Sullivan as party chair) and Manchester City Chair Raymond Buckley has a long history with kiddie pornography. You may choose not to believe me, but the man lived in my home for 16 years, and I know details that would make the average person both sick and furious. I would be willing to take a lie detector test and suggest that others, including former and current elected officials, would, if so tested, tend to verify what I say. . . . I know for a fact that Mr. Buckley used to smuggle kiddie porn from Amsterdam and Denmark into the United States inside Newsweek and other magazines. You could not enter his room without stepping over kiddie porn strewn on the floor. I will never forget how Mr. Buckley became furious at me one day for letting Donna Soucy in the house and escorting her upstairs to his room without warning him in advance.

In 1998, Grolen Communications supplied Manchester Democrats with a computer. Mr. Buckley took it for his personal use and I discovered that under my roof, he began more and more to use the Internet to search for kiddie porn. That was one reason (of several) I was forced to evict him in July, 1999. I am a libertarian who believes that people should be free as long as they do not harm others. I also believe we have enough laws on the books now to crack down on those who harm others. In Mr. Buckley's case, we're not talking about shades of gray. We're not quibbling over a year or two regarding the age of consent. We're not talking about abuse of 12 and 13 year olds; we're talking about pre-pubescent four through nine year olds of a specific type. . . .

I cannot say I have ever seen Mr. Buckley having sex with children, and I cannot say he has continued his kiddie porn passion after I evicted him in 1999, but if a long history of possession of kiddie pornography is something you believe society needs to look at, here's a place to start looking. I can only assume that even a cursory investigation will convince you that Mr. Buckley is not the person Democrats or New Hampshire want in a leadership position.

Sincerely,

Steve Vaillancourt

161 Faith Lane, Manchester, NH 03103

The Concord Monitor article is at www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070112/REPOSITORY/701120394/1030 .