An idyllic life shattered in a fortnight

Two weeks ago 45-year-old Conor Makem had the world by the string.
He worked as a part-time reporter and was a member of a renowned Irish folk band that tours the country playing traditional Irish music.
On Saturday he was packing up a U-Haul at his home on West Concord Street in Dover, most likely in hopes of getting away from the media that’s likely been hounding him since he was named in a search warrant affidavit that led to his arrest on Thursday.
Ironically, it’s the same media that in the past supplied him with a paycheck every couple of weeks.
We’re sure it’s not just money he’s missing.
You lose a lot of friends when you’re a suspect in the planting of a camera in a women’s bathroom. People tend to avoid you.
You lose a lot more when you’re implicated in child pornography. People don’t avoid you, they run from you.
Which is why Foster’s headline on Friday in its online edition - “Former reporter charged after police find child porn, bathroom images” – is so reckless.
Makem may be charged in the future with possession of child porn, but he hasn’t yet. It seems in the eyes of the Foster’s, his former employer, he already has.
Now the headline may be true, literally, in a chronological sense. But the inference in the headline is that he was “charged as a result.” Not true.
That’s likely small comfort for Makem, who didn’t want to give his side of the story to this reporter on Saturday.
It’s unlikely Makem will find much comfort anywhere, at least for a while.
We hope he gets the help he needs.

- HT