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PRIMETIME
Air Date: Thursday, January 19, 2006
Time Slot: 10:00 PM-11:00 PM EST on ABC
Episode Title: "N/A"
[NOTE: The following article is a press release issued by the aforementioned network and/or company. Any errors, typos, etc. are attributed to the original author. The release is reproduced solely for the dissemination of the enclosed information.]

�PRIMETIME� LOOKS AT CHILD MOLESTATION FROM BOTH SIDES: A COURAGEOUS WOMAN WHO TRACKS DOWN AND FACES HER ABUSER, AND A CONVICTED CHILD MOLESTER � WHO HAS SERVED HIS TIME AND MORE � HOW CAN HE RE-ENTER SOCIETY?

When Celesta Davis was five years old, she was molested � shaping a life filled with fear and silence, until one day when she learns that her abuser�s son is arrested and convicted on 16 counts of molestation. The news will trigger Celesta to embark on a mission to not only to find and confront her offender but to film it. Her emotional journey will include revisiting a past of rage and pain that she�s tried to forget and lead to an unbelievable face-to-face encounter with her offender. But Celesta�s bravery won�t stop there and she will boldly share her story in a way that helps many others, like her, who feel trapped in shame. Cynthia McFadden reports on �Primetime,� THURSDAY, JANUARY 19 (10:00-11:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network.

And: Forty-two-year-old Matthew Hedge is not only a convicted child molester, he is a sexually violent predator -- someone who is considered at high risk of re-offending � and he is being released. Hedge committed his first sexual offense at age 26, when he molested two young boys. Other crimes followed, including abusing two girls he encountered in a swimming pool, and masturbating in his car outside a school, and in 1986 he pleaded guilty to charges. But after spending six years in prison � his full sentence -- he was still considered a threat to society. It was determined he would be sent to a state mental hospital, Atascadero, for a controversial program aimed at controlling offenders� sexual cravings so they can be released. While most experts agree the disorder cannot be cured, Matthew Hedge will be only the forth person to graduate from the program. Chris Cuomo reports on the rehabilitation process and whether the system will work.

After Hedge�s eight years in intensive therapy, he is deemed ready to re-enter society� but is society ready for him? According to him, the harsher society becomes, the more molesters are likely to become violent. Regardless, Hedge knows staying away from children is his responsibility. The state mental health department�s responsibility will be to find a place for him to live. Enter San Diego, where he first offended, and a community in fear. After months of searching for willing landlords, it will take a judge threatening to release him with no conditions to find a location. �Primetime� follows him out the doors of the prison and to the one place they could all agree to put him�a trailer in the middle of nowhere. How does he handle his new freedom and respond to seeing children? How will people react to him? And the question on everyone�s mind�will he survive on the outside?

DIANE SAWYER, CHRIS CUOMO, CYNTHIA McFADDEN and JOHN QUINONES are the anchors of �Primetime.� DAVID SLOAN is the executive producer.

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