Molestation Taints Family's Dream Vacation
Jan. 15 -- Paul and Flora Gayter were immediately charmed by the young resort employee they met upon their arrival on the island of St.Thomas. They were thankful he was there to look after to their two young children during the family vacation — until their young daughter made a terrifying allegation.
Two weeks after their dream Caribbean vacation ended, the Gayters' 9-year-old daughter told them that the kids' activities director at St. Thomas' Wyndham Sugar Bay Resort & Spa had molested her.
"Just one Sunday morning she had been reading Chicken Soup for the Kids' Soul and there was a passage in it that said if anyone touched you inappropriately, put the book down and tell an adult right now. She told us," Flora Gayter said Wednesday on ABCNEWS' Good Morning America.
The Gayters reported Brian Hornby, who was arrested and convicted in a Virgin Islands court for unlawful sexual contact with a minor. He was sentenced to five years in prison.
After the criminal case was over, the Gayters opened a civil suit against Wyndham International, the resort's parent company, for compensatory and punitive damages.
The Gayters, who own a marketing-and-advertising business in Falls Church, Va., say three other children who had been in Hornby's care at the resort have come forward with similar stories since his arrest. Now the Gayters say they are left wondering about whether there may be more victims.
"At the moment, there's probably parents out there who don't even know that their child may have been molested by this person," said Paul Gayter, 47.
As part of their case, the Gayters have asked Wyndham to release the names of other children who may have come into contact with the Zimbabwe-born Hornby, now 26, who was employed at the Sugar Bay location before his arrest in May 2000.
The Gayters said Wyndham has not been cooperative in their effort to find other possible victims. They say Wyndham is hesitant because it is concerned about how further cases would affect future vacation bookings at the resort.
