Robin Pagoria and Money

According to court documents, Robin Pagoria filed for bankruptcy in 2009.  Christopher Lobban, the Australian man she was involved with online, is reportedly wealthy.  It's quite possible that Lobban's wealth made him more attractive to Pagoria, just as her access to minors may have made her more interesting to him than she otherwise would have been.

Given that Pagoria had apparently found spanking sexually stimulating from an early age and had also been spanked as a child, it may have been easier for her to rationalize her actions as "discipline."  In fact, if she'd done what the woman in the cartoon below had done, she might not have been charged at all.

Possible Extradition in Pagoria Case

Christopher Donald Lobben, from Mullaloo in Western Australia, faces possible extradition to Polk County, Florida in the Robin Pagoria case.  According to news stories, Lobben allegedly told Pagoria how to make a "spanking table" and encouraged her to videotape herself severely beating two naked girls with a paddle.

Some of the media's coverage seems a bit confused.  The Orlando Sentinel claimed that Pagoria allegedly uploaded the videos to a website called "spankolife" where Lobben could watch.  It's quite likely that she did indeed upload the files somewhere Lobben could access them, but it probably would not have been to spankolife.com.  Although Pagoria had a profile there, the site apparently does not support any kind of private video, nor does it tolerate anything involving minors.  According to The Ledger, Pagoria used a popular video-sharing site called Vimeo.com to upload the videos.  This actually makes more sense, since Vimeo supports password-protected videos.

From what I could put together, it's unclear whether this is the first time that Lobben has connected with a woman online who had access to children and persuaded her to send him videos.  Although most adults with a sexual interest in spanking do not seem to be predators, it's possible that secrecy and shame may help a predator get away with victimizing others.  It'd be a lot harder for someone in the closet to go to the police about something they saw or experienced on a kink site.

The outrage and disgust directed at Pagoria have been palpable, but corporal punishment of children continues to be widely accepted in the U.S.  The WA News story noted this in its final paragraph:

Florida still permits corporal punishment in schools and a number of books on child-rearing advocate spanking, with the more extreme "Christian" ones recommending doing it on bare buttocks.

Some of the articles made a point of saying that she'd used a "leather sex paddle" in an apparent effort to distinguish it from the wholesome wooden paddles that can still be legally used in Florida's public schools.  But the reason she moved to a leather paddle from a wooden one was that the wooden paddle left severe bruises.

Let's take a look at a couple of things she posted on her Spankolife profile.  She says that lying was "spanked out" of her as a child.

On her profile, she also indicates that her fascination with spanking began early.

Human sexuality is complex and not yet well-understood.  But some people do experience some sexual imprinting from early experiences, and a study has shown a correlation between being spanked as a child and later sadomasochistic behavior.  People's idea about what is normal is also shaped by their formative experiences.

The potentially sexual aspect of spanking can be confusing to children.  In an essay titled "I Don't Believe This Was God's Will," a young Christian man writes about his childhood experiences and his struggle to deal with his adult fetish.  "Taking My Medicine" is another story of growing up with frequent and severe physical punishment and developing a paraphilia.  Robin Pagoria arguably represents a far worse outcome, perhaps because she also developed a very impaired sense of boundaries.

Robin Pagoria and LDD

According to the affidavit, Robin Pagoria met her boyfriend on a site called spankfinder.com .  This looks a lot like her profile.

Given her current legal problems, she probably won't be in a position to tell us about her "other kinky interests" any time soon.  But her other profile provides ... well, probably way too much information.

"LDD" stands for "loving domestic discipline," which seems to be a combination of sadomasochism and bizarre headgames.  One partner, usually the man, "disciplines" the other partner to enforce rules.  There's an even stranger variation for fundies called "Christian domestic discipline" that allows them to claim that this lifestyle is "Biblical."  Presumably Pagoria's boyfriend would have been the partner who was (ostensibly) in charge.  It would be interesting to know whether he had found any other women on the spankfinder website who had access to children.  Is this really the first time something like this has happened?  It's not clear whether Robin Pagoria would have done something like this under her own steam.

We saw someone else in an earlier entry who was talking about being in a "domestic discipline" relationship.  Given that she'd also talked about spanking her daughter on the bare butt, I called a social services agency in North Carolina to express concern.  They told me that what the woman was doing was legal, so they wouldn't be taking any action.  It's sort of paradoxical -- getting caught with an image or video depicting a child getting spanked bare could mean a felony conviction and sex offender status.  But actually doing it to a child in real life is legal because it's considered "discipline."

Robin Pagoria

Robin Leigh Oplinger looks a lot like Robin Leigh Pagoria, a former Polk County Sheriff's deputy, was arrested yesterday for aggravated child abuse and production of child pornography.  She allegedly made videos of herself whipping two girls and sent the video to her boyfriend.  The affidavit is here.

We've previously seen people who seemed to be fixated on spanking kids, including a couple who were talking about sharing videos.  This woman is accused of taking it to the next level.

It's probably not too surprising that she'd show up on a site called "spankolife.com."

She expands on her interest in "domestic discipline."

It's sort of ironic that she's complaining about being "violated."  What about the girls who were whipped and videotaped?

She was also seen on launchpad.net asking questions about getting Skype videoconferencing running on Ubuntu Linux.  Do we want to know what she was transmitting via webcam?  Probably not.

Because spanking is considered an acceptable way to discipline children, boundaries can get blurred.  Florida, where Pagoria lives, still permits corporal punishment in schools.  A number of books on child-rearing advocate spanking, and a few of the more extreme "Christian" ones even recommend doing it on the bare butt.  The problem is that for many people, spanking can also be a sexual thing.  For example, Robin Pagoria recalled drawing a picture of "a girl bent over a bed with paddles and belts lying beside here" when she was "about 13."

Update: a video of Grady Judd, Polk County Sheriff, speaking about the case and Pagoria in court.  More information about her online behavior here.