Convicted Child Molester Caught Working In Hollywood As Child Casting Assistant

Jason James Murphy was convicted in 1996 of kidnapping and then molesting an 8-year-old boy and now it was been discovered that he went on to forge a successful career in Hollywood casting where he recruited children for various big budget movie roles. Among the casting agents biggest movies were the remake of Bad News Bears and the thriller Super 8.

Murphy moved to California after he finished a 5-year prison sentence in Washington state. While Murphy should have registered as a sex offender in the state he instead went under the alias Jason James and failed to provide his full name, allowing him to work in Hollywood undetected.

At this time there have been no complaints about Murphy acting inappropriately towards minors however police are investigating whether his failure to register as a sex offender broke any state laws.

Police were alerted to the sex offenders criminal past when Super 8 director JJ Abrams learned of his background this week and quickly notified Paramount who in turn notified the proper authorities regarding Jason James Murphy’s involvement with children actors.

Speaking about the situation JJ Abrams released the following statement:

“It’s shocking and it’s devastating, not just as a filmmaker but as a father and someone who is entrusted to make sure that everyone I work with, especially children, are safe … To think that someone like this was among us is unthinkable.”

Do you think that any industry that works with children on a day-to-day basis have better checks and balances in place for this type of occurrence?