Convicted child molester released early after serving months in jail: ‘Completely unjustified’

RANDOLPH COUNTY, Mo. (KFVS/Gray News) - A convicted child molester has been released from a Missouri prison despite pleas from the people he molested.

Nelson Paul Thompson was released on probation after serving four months of his 10-year sentence last week.

Last year, Thompson took a plea deal. The judge agreed to the plan, sentencing him to 10 years, but part of the deal offered him probation after a 120-day rehabilitation course.

In court last Thursday, his attorney shared the results of the rehabilitation program, showing Thompson is at a low risk for committing another crime.

His two victims, Carigan and Amber, spoke out at the courthouse.

“The judge kept saying that there was no risk, but standing here are two victims,” Carigan said.

Amber said she never agreed to the plea deal the state offered her molester.

“The trial was hard enough,” she said. “It came with a lot of things. And then, the amount of safety we felt to be ripped away and to feel completely unjustified.”

Ahead of the hearing, family and friends of the two victims started a petition asking the state not to release Thompson. The petition gathered more than 1,500 signatures.

Judge Scott Hays acknowledged the petition and the group gathered in the courtroom to the two women by saying he will not be swayed by “mob rule” and he has to follow the letter of the law.

Although Hays said in open court he didn’t want him in his neighborhood or around his loved ones, the judge said there was nothing he could do to keep him behind bars because of the plea deal.

Upon his release on probation, Thompson will be a ed sex offender.

Neither the prosecutor nor the defense attorney would take questions from reporters.

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