Reporter apologizes for ‘top 10 hottest women on the Texas sex offender’ list

Richard Connelly said his headline in The Houston Press was an attempt to ‘catch … eyeballs and clicks.’

The Houston Press, a weekly news and entertainment publication owned by Village Voice Media, published a list headlined, “The top 10 hottest women on the Texas sex offender.”

Writer Richard Connelly’s post quickly outraged groups that advocate for child abuse, women, rape victims, and others. (One woman on the list had raped a 2-year-old.)

In his apology
, Connelly explained that his story was an attempt to show that sexual offenders don’t fit a certain a profile, that some are successful lawyers and doctors, others are “unemployed losers,” as he put it.

Connelly continued:

An item on ’10 sex offenders who don’t look like sex offenders’ might have done the trick, but seemed boring.

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