Stiles admits pedophilia in letters

In intimate letters written to girlfriends, accused child molester Chester Stiles admits he's a pedophile who sexually assaulted young girls.

He also expresses deep remorse.

Stiles, who described himself as a monster in the letters recovered by law enforcement, told the women that he was sexually abused as a child and is attracted to young girls because of their "purity of virtue."

"I'm very sorry to the girls I've abused. I wish I could take it back," wrote Styles, who has pleaded not guilty to more than 20 felony charges related to a videotaped sexual assault of a 3-year-old girl and allegations of groping a 6-year-old girl.

The multitude of charges against Stiles include sexually assaulting a minor and lewdness with a minor.

"I didn't rape or penetrate anyone," Stiles wrote in letters peppered with spelling and punctuation mistakes. "I was a diddler -- I couldn't physically hurt little girls but I'm guilty of continuing the cycle."

Stiles, 38, wrote the letters before he was arrested in October 2007 after a nationwide manhunt. He concealed them in a Starbucks Frappuccino bottle that he hid in the desert near Blue Diamond Road.

The FBI and Las Vegas police uncovered the letters after Stiles disclosed the location of the bottle during a brief interview after he was arrested.

The letters are addressed to four women, including his son's mother. They offer a glimpse of Stiles in his own words.

In the letters, Stiles wrote that he's been "intrigued" by young girls since he was 15. He wrote that he desperately wanted to get help but felt he couldn't because of the heinous nature of his desires.

He also wrote that he's afraid his son might follow in his footsteps and implored the boy's mother to get their son help if he shows signs of pedophilia.

Stiles wrote that his son "hasn't been abused but he is my son and please! find a way to dialog with him to help him in case he has similar urges."

Authorities learned of the letters on Oct. 15, 2007 after Stiles was arrested. He told the authorities that he kept a key to a Pahrump storage facility in a Starbucks Frappuccino bottle hidden in the desert. He said he wanted a girlfriend to have the key and wanted the letters to be mailed.

According to a court document, he also told the officers: "You don't have the right to read the letters."

The deputy public defenders representing Stiles are trying to keep the letters from being referenced during the trial, which was scheduled for next week but has been postponed. A new trial date has not been set.

Defense attorneys for Stiles declined to comment on the letters.

A Las Vegas police officer and a federal agent found the Frappuccino bottle concealed under a piece of plastic next to an electrical facility south of Blue Diamond Road.

It contained the letters, a title for Stiles' car and had a picture of Stiles visible through the glass in the bottle, according to an FBI document.

Stiles' habit of hiding things in the desert led to the discovery of the taped assault now being used as evidence against him.

On Sept. 8, 2007, a man in Pahrump found the videotape that authorities said shows Stiles sexually assaulting a 3-year-old girl.

That discovery launched a nationwide effort to find Stiles and identity the girl in the video.

The girl was later found to be living in Las Vegas. She was reported to be healthy and had no recollection of the events caught on tape.

Henderson Police arrested Stiles during a routine traffic stop at Green Valley Parkway and Sunset Road more than a month after the tape was discovered.

One of the women Stiles wrote to is Tina Allen, an ex-girlfriend who told CNN that she may have introduced Stiles to the child on the videotape. Allen said Thursday that she was unaware of the letters and didn't believe that Stiles was truly sorry for what he did.

In his letter to Allen, Stiles apologized for wasting so much of her time and said that she could have lived a much better life if she had never met him.

"He's wreaked havoc on my life for the last 10 years," Allen said. "He took all the love I had for him and used it against me."

Stiles wrote that he knows he hurt people but blames his own sexual abuse for much of his problems.

He said that his mother's habit of leaving him as a child with many different people to pursue "her lifestyle" left him vulnerable to predators. And the childhood abuse he suffered helped turn him into the man he is today.

"Somehow being abused made my consience a smaller voice that it should have been," he wrote.

"I'm a monster and what I've done there's no making up for -- I would get life in prison and they would kill me in there."

Contact reporter David Kihara at dkihara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039.