CHARLOTTE, North Carolina – Former KREM anchor Maureen O’Boyle has taken to Facebook to make an impassioned plea to keep the man who raped her 30 years ago locked up.
O’Boyle, 52, is now a news anchor for WBTV in her hometown of Charlotte.
On her Facebook page she shares a video of herself asking for the public’s help to keep her rapist in prison and also shares a link to her change.org petition. On the change.org website she talks about what happened to her in Macon, GA 30 years ago and asks people for their signatures to keep convicted rapist James Starling from being paroled from prison.
“It’s not easy to share such a personal trauma,” wrote O’Boyle. “However, I am starting this petition to protect other women and young girls from a serial predator and convicted rapist. James Starling is up for parole and should not be let loose on society when there is no chance his deep-seeded criminal behavior has been cured or can be fixed.”
O’Boyle said she did a Google search and found out Starling had a chance for parole in April.
O’Boyle worked as an anchor in Wilmington, North Carolina after attending college. Then she moved to Macon to work as a news anchor for WMAZ for a few years. It was during her time in Macon in 1986 when the crime occurred.
She moved to Spokane shortly afterwards to work as an anchor at KREM for a few years.
In 1990 she left KREM to replace anchor Maury Povich on the nationally syndicated show A Current Affair until she left that position in 1995. She continued in several host and anchor roles until she landed at WBTV as an anchor in Charlotte in 2004.
