Serial Spanker Faces Charges

Virginia businessman Henry Allen Fitzsimmons offered a deal to single mothers, recovering drug addicts, and other young women needing help: He'd give them an allowance, a home, and promised to pay for their college education—if they'd agree to be spanked if they broke his rules, like failing to call him or drinking too much alcohol. Six of the women now say his "scholarship program" went too far, and Fitzsimmons is facing multiple charges, AP reports. The women received some $200 a week, although he told them they weren't ready for college.

Fitzsimmons, 54, is facing two felony abduction charges and three felony object sexual penetration charges after two of the women say he forced them to submit to beatings, and a third says he sexually assaulted her with a curtain rod, a hairbrush, and a horse riding crop. Several other spanking-related assault charges were dropped after prosecutors acknowledged that the women had agreed to be spanked. Fitzsimmons' lawyer says his client is weird, but not dangerous. "He's providing money to these so-called victims. Who's the victim here?" the lawyer asked. (More spanking stories.)