BLOOMINGTON, Ill. (AP) — A psychiatrist has testified that a 35-year-old Bloomington man who has been in a state treatment program for sexually dangerous people since he was 15 is eligible to be released.
Dr. Melissa Weldon-Padera said Tuesday that John Guthrie lacks any mental health diagnosis to keep him in custody under a revised version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders released in 2013. She said the new manual “makes a distinction between having an interest and having a disorder related to sexual interest in children.”
The (Bloomington) Pantagraph reports that Guthrie was accused of molesting a girl who he was babysitting in May 1993.
He’s expected to be released from the program after a July 2 hearing on the proposed conditions of his release.