Horror, Sleaze and Trash.

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Matthew Hahn‘s case is unique: he risked spending the rest of his life in prison in order to save the life of a child and convict her molester. After Hahn broke open the safe he’d stolen from John Robertson Aitken’s house, he wasn’t prepared for what he was about to find: hidden in the safe were soiled baby diapers, new diapers, a .22 caliber pistol, and a memory card. To his horror, the memory card contained photos of a toddler being molested by Aitken, and at the end of the photos was what appeared to be a small, freshly dug grave.

Hahn knew he had to do something. Having spent most of his adult life in prison for nonviolent burglary offenses to support his meth habit, he was on his third strike; turning the evidence in would incriminate him, and land him a prison sentence of 400 years to life. He stuck the memory card in a neighbor’s mailbox, with an anonymous note explaining that the memory card was Robbie Aitken’s from a safe he’d stolen, and to turn it in: “please remove this animal from the streets”. After a brief investigation, Aitken quickly confessed to molesting his goddaughter, and police found thousands of photos of child pornography, and one of the girl’s dresses in his house.

After being arrested on unrelated charges months later, Matthew Hahn sacrificed his own chance at a trial and confessed to stealing the safe in order to convict Robbie Aitken. His case sparked nationwide debate about California’s three strikes law, and he received overwhelming support with people around the country petitioning on his behalf. He was sentenced to 14 years in Folsom prison on charges unrelated to the safe, but was paroled in 2012 after serving six years. During his time in prison, he enrolled UC Berkley, became a Buddhist, and stayed sober. Since 2012, he graduated from UC Berkley, traveled around the world, got married and lives in California. He recently signed a film agreement and is currently writing a book. He chronicles his experiences on a blog, and can be found on twitter, facebook, and tumblr. His story was featured on an episode of the true crime podcast Sword & Scale.