New York – The man accused of kidnapping two Missouri boys and holding one of them for four years said life was good for him in that period, a newspaper reported Sunday.
Michael Devlin, 41, said his parents, who live nearby, have not visited him since his arrest this month, The New York Post reported.
“I don’t know how I’m going to explain myself to my parents,” Devlin said in two 15- minute interviews at Franklin County jail in Union, Mo., in his first public comments aside from a court appearance. “It’s much easier talking to a stranger about these things.”
He is accused of taking Ben Ownby, 13, after the boy got off a school bus Jan. 8 in Beaufort, Mo. A schoolmate’s tip about a white pickup led authorities to Devlin’s apartment in Kirkwood, Mo., a St. Louis suburb, where they found Ben and Shawn Hornbeck, 15, on Jan. 12. Shawn had been missing since 2002.
“I guess I was relatively happy” for those four years, Devlin said.
He pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges of kidnapping Ben. He also is charged with kidnapping Shawn but has not entered a plea in that case.
He said he “was never really interested” in romantic relationships but wouldn’t say whether he was attracted to women.
“I can’t talk about that because it has to do with the case,” he said.
Devlin’s attorneys, Michael Kielty and Ethan Corlija, criticized jail security Sunday and said they had advised their client against talking to the media.
They said the reporter who got in to see Devlin presented herself as a “family friend” to jail officials. Kielty also said the woman told Devlin she was writing for a university publication.
The New York Post did not respond to the allegations but said it stood by its published report.
