“He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster.”

My friend EdWonk likes to post the occassional "wanker of the day" story, but since he is on vacation, I hope he doesn't mind if I borrow his little descriptor for this story. Of course, "wanker" implies that he just participates in "self-abuse," but THIS piece of sludge-- he deserves to be thrashed.

You have to read this to believe it. The bastard.

A Hazelwood man who injected his teenage sons with heroin and cocaine in 2005 was sentenced Thursday in St. Louis County Circuit Court to 10 years in prison.

The father, Stephen Pickle, 39, of Hazelwood, said he gave his children the drugs so they would understand how he felt when he did the drugs himself, according to court records. His youngest son also contracted hepatitis C as a result of the injections. His sons were ages 12 and 16 at the time.

Pickle pleaded guilty April 26 of five felony counts of endangering the welfare of a child, and one count of possessing drug paraphernalia.

Pickle stood emotionless Thursday alongside his attorney, Joel Schwartz, while Judge Emmett M. O'Brien handed down the sentence.

Prosecutor Teresa Bomkamp delivered harsh words to Pickle, who showed no remorse.

She called Pickle's conduct "cruel, thoughtless and completely incomprehensible." Bomkamp said Pickle "destroyed the childhood of both his sons. The oldest is now a drug addict; the youngest is with his mom" trying to get his life back together.

Pickles' oldest son, Douglas Pickle, was first injected with drugs in 2005. Bomkamp said Douglas Pickle's whereabouts are now unknown. The younger son, Ryan, and his mother have moved to outstate Missouri.

Stephen Pickle also injected his daughter with drugs in 2005, Bomkamp said, but he was not charged with that because the daughter was 18.

Four of the criminal counts involve Ryan and say he was injected with drugs between March and Oct. 21, 2005. The incidents took place at Ryan's grandmother's home in north St. Louis County, at a location at Washington Street and Interstate 270 in Florissant and at Stephen Pickle's apartment on Elm Grove Court in Hazelwood.

The fifth count involved drug injections of Douglas at Stephen Pickle's apartment in June 2005.

After Ryan Pickle told his mother and then police in the fall of 2005, Hazelwood police searched Stephen Pickle's apartment and found drug paraphernalia such as vials and syringes, authorities said.

Stephen Pickle, a postal employee for 14 years before his dismissal last year, refused to talk to Hazelwood police when they confronted him about the allegations.

In the interview with Luzette Wood, a caseworker at the Childrens Advocacy Center of St. Louis, Ryan Pickle told her that he was told by his father, "If he allowed his dad to inject him, Ryan might understand what it was like to be him."

His dad introduced him to heroin injections "as a way to come down without coming down," he told Wood.

Ryan said they washed the needles several times between injections but apparently not enough because his dad had hepatitis C and Ryan now has it as well, Wood reported.

Stephen and Lisa Pickle divorced in 1992, Family Court records show. Lisa Pickle got physical custody, but both parents got joint custody. Stephen Pickle was ordered to pay child support of $904 a month.

In September 2005, Ryan Pickle had disagreements with his mother and moved in with his father, court records indicated. He returned home in late October and later reported the drug use to his mother.

In court filings, Bomkamp said she had given the defense 294 pages of medical records involving Ryan from St. John's Mercy Medical Center, and listed the boys' sister as a witness along with James Barton, a friend of Stephen Pickle's.

Bomkamp said in an interview Thursday that Barton was present when Stephen Pickle injected his children.

Bomkamp told O'Brien at the sentencing that Pickle "was a drug addict who dragged these little boys down with him."

"Boys that age are supposed to be throwing a football or going fishing with their dad or doing the things sons do with their fathers," Bomkamp said. "He had a duty and obligation to protect them. Instead, he decided to take them down with him."

Hmm. One child with Hepatitis C. One child an addict and missing. Nearly all the time, I don't buy that whole "I am a victim of addiction" thing, because the person making that claim CHOSE to take the substance to which they then became addicted. But these two boys? No. When I think of wonderful people I know who can't have children, and then I think about this piece of putrescent possum-droppings..... And what idiot judge gave him joint custody?

This guy? Prison's too good for him.