Thomas Leopold, a 42-year-old college professor principal wanted for downloading child porn is on the lam. He's especially dangerous, say authorities, because he underwent radiotherapy treatment for a thyroid condition before fleeing Britain.
Judge John Price said: "Please warn officers that when he is arrested he might be radioactive."Radioactive pedophile suspect at large (Via Arbroath)He added: "This is not a joke."
...
Defending, Jeannie Mackie, said her client was "chronically" ill and warned of the dangers his radioactive condition posed to people coming into contact with him.
She said: "His doctor confirmed that he is dangerous, in terms of radioactivity, for a period of six weeks after treatment and he had treatment on February 3."
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I think it'll be easier to find him at night time. :)
Worst Marvel superhero ever.
This sounds like something that Chris Morris would come up with.
The article doesn't use the words "professor" or "pedophile".
utter nonsense. People treated with radioactive iodine for thyroid cancer or hyperthyroidism should avoid close and prolonged contact with other people for 5 days. That´s all there is to it. This is not a joke. It´s something called "facts".
One should never underestimate the public's fear of nuclear-anything, but this seems just a tad ridiculous.
"If you see this man, call the police and DON'T DRINK HIS URINE!"
It's not like those radioisotopes are leaving the body through his skin and breath.
I believe we can chalk up this story to urban myth, as far as his supposed radioactivity goes...
"Lawrence J. Solin, MD, FACR, Professor of Radiation Oncology at the University of Pennsylvania:
Patients undergoing external beam radiation treatment are not radioactive after their treatments, and do not pose any radiation hazard to anyone around them. There is no hazard to young children, for example, even when playing or carrying them."
I'm radioactive
He was last spotted driving away in his blue 1966 Chevy Nova muttering,
"Ever been to Utah? Ra-di-a-tion. Yes, indeed. You hear the most outrageous lies about it. Half-baked goggle-box do-gooders telling everybody it's bad for you. Pernicious nonsense. Everybody could stand a hundred chest X-rays a year. They ought to have them, too. When they canceled the project it almost did me in. One day my mind was full to bursting. The next day - nothing. Swept away. But I'll show them. I had a lobotomy in the end."
HULK SMASH (little boys penis) !!!
I have graves' disease and occasionally undergo the same (or similar) radioactive procedure of which you speak, and it would be really, really hard to expose anyone to a meaningful amount of radiation this way...
The half life of the isotopes used to treat thyroid is usually about a day, and while you're supposed to avoid extended or intimate contact with others for a couple of days, people still manage to go about their regular lives, they go to work, the store, school, etc. If you're REALLY lucky, you might get a doctor who advises you to take a couple of days off. My last doctor told me it was fine to go back to work right after I drank the juice. Obviously, it depends a little bit on the dose but I hate to see fearmongering about what is a pretty common medical procedure. Fearmongering about radioactive criminal masterminds I can get behind, and I definitely want to know about any radioactive GANGS.
When I've had this done I've done my best to stay away from people, not because I was dangerous, but because I don't feel qualified to decide for others what kind of exposure they're comfortable with.
The fun part? You have to carry a card from the radiologist saying that you're radioactive because of a medical procedure, just in case you happen to set off an alarm!
CJB @ #6: Um, no. That says "Patients undergoing external beam radiation treatment"
That's not what they use for thyroid cancer. With thyroid cancer, they give you Iodine-131. Which collects in the thyroid and nukes it through beta decay.
I still very much doubt it's any hazard. Because beta particles don't get very far from inside the body. The danger is ingesting/inhaling the radioisotope. Which I suspect could only really occur from drinking their urine, as mentioned.
There's some gamma decay too, but that's not really going to be a significant risk. Probably on the order of getting an X-ray if you stand around him for long enough, soon enough after.
@ #5 posted by Alex_M:
...It's not like those radioisotopes are leaving the body through his skin and breath.
Given his past I don't think those are the bodily secretions we should be worried about.
#6
He probably had radioactive iodine, not external beam (which is what most people think of) so he would be radioactive, but not a whole lot...
In thyroid treatment you ingest isotopes bound to iodine, which is picked up by the thyroid and leeches out over the next day or so. So you are, in fact, emitting radiation. Thyroid diagnostic tests use a smaller amount of the same thing, and you generally go back at set intervals so that the tech can measure (by pointing a geiger counter at your neck) how much of the radioactive material you've taken up. The rest usually dissipates into the urine.
wow I bet he is glowing LOL
I've received radioactive iodine as treatment for my thyroid cancer. It's a bit more intense than the treatment LYDIA9 describes (I assume that mine was a higher dosage of radioactive iodine) and was isolated in the hospital for a couple of days.
After being released you're still required to keep your distance from people for a few days(especially children and pregnant women), use plastic/disposable utensils, flush the toilet multiple times,etc. You also need to limit contact with people to about an hour per day. Generally, after about 5-7 days almost all of the radioactive isotope has left the system.
sweet
Radioactive Pedophile Man! Please save us from these unmutated children!
college professor...
I'm wondering if the radiation warning wasn't so much OMG ATOMZ, and more to aid in catching the guy. While the amount of radiation he's emitting is obviously not dangerous, I know they installed radiation detectors in some traffic chokepoints around the US (there's been the odd story floating around of someone who just got radiation therapy getting stopped by the cops after passing through a tunnel in boston or NY). I'd assume they did something similar in the UK, passed the alert around noting that he might set off somebody's radiation detector, then it got passed around as OMG RADIOACTIVE PEDO IS GONNA GIVE YOUR KIDS CANCER.
He's hot to trot alright. He's glowing with radioactive child lust. Maybe it's his nuts that need to be nuked.
"Jimminy Jillick..-HEY!~"
This story appeared in the UK a couple of days ago. I had similiar doubts, figuring that if it's not gonna kill him when it's inside him 24/7 then if he drives past me I'm not gonna start vomiting and shedding hair, nevertheless this is how it's been reported by all the reputable news sources I've seen, and those are the warnings given by officials. The radiation certainly doesn't seem to be hindering him too much.
The suspect is considered...radioactive and dangerous.
I had Iodine 131 treatment as a teenager. When I was released from hospital, my oncologist told me not to sit close to my sister for extended periods of time over the next few months, because I could potentially damage her ability to grow as the residual radioactivity worked its way out of my system (I never got any taller than I was on the day they gave me the iodine, when I was fourteen). Since this guy is a pedophile, and Iodine 131 decay is potentially harmful to children, it seems a fair warning.
the still using radio-seeds? That could be persistent.
Hmm. Radiation aside, there's no evidence this guy molests children. That's not one of the charges against him. ("Making" indecent images of children could be copying or pshopping them, and if he was actually photographing them himself they'd've said so, because they want him to sound as bad as possible.)
I download pictures of adult men doing wonderful, terrible things to each other all the time. I'm no danger to anyone (trust me, even less of a danger than I'd like to be). It may be that when it comes to pedophiles there's a predictable slide from the pictures to the actual molestation, but let's not jump the gun here.
He's probably a bad person (though remember, he hasn't been convicted), but let's not make up things not justified by the facts, shall we?
I do have to say that "Radioactive Pedophile" DOES sound like a bad Marvel villain (which is probably redundant).
Whose more dangerous...this guy or the cop who beats up barefoot 15 year old girls?
I'm gonna have to go out on a limb here and say the cop.
#24 is correct. And I'm correct because we are ALL skilled professionals here. All of us.
But implanted seeds would probably present the most residual radiation. But the earlier comment about thyroid uptake of radioisotopes is more correct.
Excuse me. I've got to pick up the rest of these trash cans and then do the next street. Then it's back to brain surgery. And I'll fly my jet back home after that.
Ya know, it's really interesting comparing the different responses. On the one hand we have "Internet Experts" loudly proclaiming that radiation is perfectly harmless. On the other those with real first hand experience saying that yes, there is a real issue and you do present a danger to some people.
I think the culprit is language. People are talking about two different things. On the one hand, no, you are not in danger if he walks by you but yes, if he sits next to you for an extended period it like getting a chest X-ray over and over and over.
Public officials are charged with protecting the general population. This guy is clearly a danger, just by sitting next to you he can cause you real harm. The officials are right to issue a warning. The media is probably hyping it up however.
"I forgot what I was going to say."
"Well, it must not have been very important."
"Oh, yes, I remember. I'm radioactive!"
#30
Yup, that's pretty much it, NOEN. It's not like your hair will fall out and you'll get skin lesions by sitting next to this guy. However, prolonged exposure does put you at a higher risk of developing some kinds of cancer down the line - thyroid cancer being one of them.
I've never heard of the radiation lasting as long as is stated in this article. BTW I-131's half life is just over 8 days: http://www.iodine131.org/q2.htm
The radioactive boy scout is going to have to up his game.
Also, if you're really unlucky, you can get a radioactive implant. An actual chunk of radioactive material inside your body for a period of time to provide continuous radiation therapy.
Yep, I'd go for the cop, too, over someone accused of downloading/copying fewer than half a dozen dodgy pics, two years ago.
Still, the story is just so FUN! I could see it run and run...
"When your little Johnny comes back from college, does he look unhappy, even though he's glowing with health? Does he seem to shed a LOT of hair? When you turn off the light, does it look like he's hiding a torch in his pyjama bottoms? Well, be careful, because YOUR CHILD'S college principal might be... The Green Paedo!"
@9: "eyes melt, skin explodes, everybody dead..."
I'm trying to imagine this is a non-pedophilic context:
"Darling?"
"Yes?"
"Now that we've been intimate, there's something you should know about me."
"What's that?"
"I'm radioactive."
Brainspore @#2 WIN!
It's like Blight from Batman Beyond, only worse!
B3tard Butters is already all over this one:
http://www.b3ta.com/board/9223762
@28 youtube mash-up video at 11!
#7: There is no hazard to young children, for example, even when playing or carrying them.
On the contrary, I'd say there's definitely a hazard to young children. ESPECIALLY after "playing" them.