Issue 129 – July 2016

S.M.A.R.T (Stop Mind control And Ritual abuse Today)
P. O Box 1295
Easthampton, MA 01027-1295 USA
E-mail: SMARTNEWS@aol.com
Home page: https://ritualabuse.us/

Issue 129 – July 2016

The purpose of this newsletter is to help stop secretive organizations and groups from abusing others and to help those who allege they have been abused by such organizations and groups. This newsletter is not a substitute for other ways of recovering from ritual abuse. Readers should use caution while reading this newsletter. If necessary, make sure other support systems are available during and after reading this newsletter.

Important: The resources mentioned in this newsletter are for educational value only. Reading the books cited may or may not help your recovery process, so use caution when reading any book or contacting any resource mentioned in this newsletter. Some may have a religious or other agenda that may be separate from your own recovery process. Others may have valuable information on secretive organizations, but have triggers or be somewhat sympathetic to those organizations. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, the views expressed in this newsletter constitute expressions of opinion, and readers are cautioned to form their own opinions and draw their own conclusions by consulting a variety of sources, including this newsletter. Resources listed, quoted and individual articles, etc. and their writers do not necessarily support all or any of the views mentioned in this newsletter. Also, the views, facts and opinions mentioned in this newsletter are solely the opinions of the authors and are not necessarily the opinions of this newsletter or its editor.

The 2016 Annual Ritual Abuse, Secretive Organizations and Mind Control Conference August 12 – 14, 2016 Windsor Locks, CT https://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/ Please write smartnews@aol.com for more information.

This issue includes information on: Mind Control, Conferences, Bill Cosby, Andrea Constand, Michael Jackson, Donald Trump, Joe Paterno, Jerry Sandusky, Mike McQueary, clergy sex abuse crisis, Catholic church, Assemblywoman Margaret Markey, statute of limitations, Catholic Conference, Child Victims Act, Rev. Dale Crampton, Goddard inquiry, Jimmy Savile scandal, Operation Hydrant, Dean Farrar, Operation Heartbreak, Mark Salling, Mormon Church, LDS Church, Childhood Sexual Abuse, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Child abuse inquiry, Kincora home, MI5 blackmail, historical institutional abuse inquiry, Victor Barnard, live-streaming abuse Philippines, child sexual exploitation online, Bronx slum Columbia, Richard Huckle, Malaysia child abuse, Domminich Shaw, Australian Military cadets raped, Ritual Abuse, Mind Control, Satanism in Britian, cult-like Ontario church, Fred King, CIA Torture Lawsuit, enhanced interrogation program, Books on Ritual Abuse, Lecture by D. Corydon Hammond, Hypnosis in MPD: Ritual Abuse, Greenbaum Speech, Wendy Hoffman, Karnac books, Misinformation, Disinformation, Ellen Lacter, Dissociative Identity Disorder, Multiple Personality Disorder, MPD, Childhood Trauma, Satanic Ritual Abuse, Michel Rostand, Holy Hell, Buddhafield, Reasons for Denial of Existence of Ritual Abuse, Jeffrey Franklin, occult, Devil worship-based, Satanic worship, Satanist, Pazuzu Illah Algarad, Satanist Gregory Scott Hale, satanic rituals, false childhood memories, False Autobiographical Events in Childhood, memory

Resources and Information Please note: Listing of these resources does not necessarily constitute our endorsement of them. They are for educational value only and some may be heavy for survivors to read. Some of the conferences listed may not necessarily be safe for all survivors. If you are a survivor of mind control and/or ritual abuse, S.M.A.R.T. recommends learning about mind control techniques before attending conferences or other survivor events. This article may be helpful: How to Avoid Being Mind Controlled at a Conference https://survivorship.org/survivorship-articles/how-to-avoid-being-mind-controlled-at-a-conference/

Bill Cosby to stand trial for assault charges, judge rules By Brian Vitagliano, Holly Yan and Kristina Sgueglia, CNN Tue May 24, 2016 Norristown, Pennsylvania (CNN)More than a decade after he was first accused of sexual misconduct, Bill Cosby will go to trial. A Pennsylvania judge found enough evidence during a hearing Tuesday to proceed with a criminal trial. It’s not clear when his trial will start. Cosby faces three counts of felony aggravated indecent assault from a 2004 case involving Andrea Constand, an employee at his alma mater, Temple University. She was the first of more than 50 women who have accused Cosby of sexual misconduct…. In the statement, Constand said Cosby invited her to his home in 2004 and told her to wear comfortable clothes. Constand said she had been grappling with issues in her life, and that Cosby gave her a few pills to “take the edge off.” Afterward, Constand’s statement said, Cosby sexually assaulted her. Constand was not in court for the hearing Tuesday, a fact that Cosby’s defense team tried to capitalize on. “After hearing the weak, inconsistent and incredible evidence presented, it is clear why the prosecution did not allow its witness to speak and be confronted by the person she has accused,” McMonagle said…. Cosby has been accused of sexual misconduct by more than 50 women. But he will never stand trial in the vast majority of cases because the statutes of limitations have passed…. Cosby has denied he sexually assaulted any women. http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/24/us/bill-cosby-hearing/

Bill Cosby Accuser Jennifer Thompson: One of the Teens He Had Sex With was Me Two days before Bill Cosby was ordered to trial on allegations he drugged and sexually assaulted a woman in 2004, a document re-surfaced in which he admitted having sexual contact with teens sent to him by a modeling agency. Jennifer “Kaya” Thompson, who spoke with PEOPLE exclusively in 2005, confirms she was one of those teens. The document, which was re-released Sunday by the Associated Press includes portions of Cosby’s depositions from 2005 and 2006 in a long-settled civil suit. During those depositions, Cosby was asked about an unnamed aspiring actress and model he met when she was 17, and he acknowledged that an agency would send “five or six” models each week to the studio where he filmed The Cosby Show. His contact with the young woman – which Thompson says is her – continued as she became 18 or 19…. http://www.people.com/article/bill-cosby-acciser-jennifer-thompson-teen-victim

Judge Says Sexual Assault Case Against Bill Cosby Can Go To Trial May 24, 2016 Dana Farrington A judge in Pennsylvania ruled Tuesday that there is sufficient evidence for a sexual assault case against comedian Bill Cosby to move to trial…. Cosby, who has been accused by dozens of women of sexual assault, has been charged with three counts of aggravated indecent assault in the case, which involves a former Temple University employee who says Cosby assaulted her in his home in 2004. Each count carries five to 10 years in prison…. The statement “said that Constand felt dizzy, had blurred vision … after Cosby allegedly gave her pills she thought were herbal medicine,” Allyn reports. Cosby says the pills were Benadryl and the sexual contact was consensual…. http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/05/24/479328215/judge-says-sexual-assault-case-against-bill-cosby-can-go-to-trial

Bill Cosby Admitted to Sex with Teens, Said Agency Sent Five or Six Models to His Studio Each Week Bill Cosby Admitted to Sex With Teens in Newly Released Deposition By Nicole Weisensee Egan 5/23/2016 Entertainer Bill Cosby admitted to having sex with at least two teen-aged girls and said an agency would send “five or six” models to his studio each week while he was filming one of his sitcoms, according to portions of Cosby’s deposition in a long-settled civil released by the Associated Press on the eve of a preliminary hearing on the lone criminal case against Cosby. Cosby said he would give the struggling, young actresses a “very, very good meal” and described a sexual encounter he had with one of them in 2000, according to the transcripts from the depositions Cosby gave in 2005 and 2006 for Andrea Constand’s civil suit against him. She was 17 years old at the time…. http://www.people.com/article/bill-cosby-admitted-sex-teens-agency-models

Bill Cosby Says He Became Andrea Constand’s Mentor Because He Wanted to Have Romantic Relationship with Her: Deposition By Nicole Weisensee Egan 05/26/2016 From the moment entertainer Bill Cosby laid eyes on Andrea Constand in November 2002, he had “a romantic interest” in her, he said in his deposition for her long-settled lawsuit, which was obtained by PEOPLE. A mutual friend introduced them at Temple University’s Liacouris Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Cosby said, but he kept his romantic interest quiet because “I don’t know her. She doesn’t know me,” he said. His plan was to “meet her” and then “perhaps to have some moments with her that would have to do with some sort of friendship,” he said. He never told Constand, then 29 and the director of operations for Temple University’s women’s basketball team, of his feelings for her and she never indicated she had any romantic feelings toward him, he said. Instead, for the next 14 months, he nurtured their relationship by “inviting her to my house, talking to her about personal situations dealing with her life, growth, education, access and thoughts to how to acquire a more aggressive attitude, protecting oneself in business,” he said. The nature of the relationship between Cosby and Constand is relevant in what happened at his Elkins Park, Pennsylvania mansion in January 2004, which is now the subject of sexual assault charges against Cosby. She says he drugged and sexually assaulted her; he says what happened between them was consensual. (He denies similar allegations by more than 50 women). She viewed him as a “mentor” and said they had a “sincere friendship,” but that she had “no interest whatsoever” in a romantic relationship with him, she told investigators…. In January 2004, Cosby invited her to his home to discuss her career plans, they both agree. He says he gave her some Benadryl to help her relax (she says he told her it was herbal medication). He says that what happened between them sexually that evening was consensual. She says whatever he gave her left her so incapacitated she couldn’t speak or move while Cosby was “fondling her breasts, put his hand in her pants… penetrated her vagina with his fingers” and “took her right hand and placed it on his penis.” One year later, Constand went to authorities about what happened that night. More than a decade later, on Dec. 30, 2015, Cosby was arrested…. http://www.people.com/article/bill-cosby-deposition-andrea-constand-mentor-sexual-relationship

The Sad Irony of Bill Cosby Finally Being Prosecuted What’s harder to believe: that it took a year for Andrea Constand to accuse the star of sexual assault, or that it’s taken 11 years and dozens more women coming forward for those accusations to be heard in court? Spencer Kornhaber May 25, 2016 ….To date, more than 50 women have accused Bill Cosby of sexual misconduct. Constand was the first. In January of 2005 she told police that a year earlier, Cosby had touched and penetrated her after drugging her. A prosecutor decided against proceeding with the case, and Constand followed up with a civil suit that resulted in a 2006 settlement. After that came an accelerating drip of women making allegations about incidents spanning a wide swath of Cosby’s career, from Kristina Ruehli (1965) to Chloe Goins (2008). ….The question of why many sexual-assault victims often delay in making allegations, especially against public figures, has been answered time and again. Justified fears of reprisal and disparagement have to be put into the cost/benefit calculation—and if anything, the Cosby situation has highlighted the costs. “People often these days say, ‘Well, why didn’t you take it to the police?’” another accuser, Tamara Green, told New York Magazine last year. “Andrea Constand went to the police in 2005—how’d it work out for her? Not at all. In 2005, Bill Cosby still had control of the media. In 2015, we have social media. We can’t be disappeared.” http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/05/cosby-andrea-constand-coming-forward-sooner-trial/484190/

Timeline Bill Cosby: A 50-year chronicle of accusations and accomplishments By Kyle Kim, Christina Littlefield and Mark Olsen April 26, 2016 http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-bill-cosby-timeline-htmlstory.html Bill Cosby loses bid to get criminal case dismissed Saranac Hale Spencer, Maria Puente, USA TODAY July 7, 2016 A judge on Thursday denied Bill Cosby’s effort to compel the accuser in his criminal sex assault case to testify before trial, ruling the comedian shouldn’t get a new preliminary hearing. NORRISTOWN, Pa. — Bill Cosby lost another bid to get criminal sexual-assault charges tossed, after a judge ruled Thursday that there is enough evidence to try Cosby even though he was unable to cross-examine his accuser at a preliminary hearing. Cosby arrived at the courthouse here in suburban Philadelphia to ask Judge Steven O’Neill to reverse an earlier decision to send Cosby to trial on charges of aggravated sexual assault stemming from an encounter between Cosby and accuser Andrea Constand in 2004. Cosby’s lawyers insisted a trial could not be held until Constand gets on the stand and they get a chance to cross-examine her. Constand did not testify at the May preliminary hearing; instead, prosecutors cited a recent court ruling they believe allowed them to use her police statement taken more than a decade after the encounter. A lower court judge agreed and upheld the charges; Cosby wanted O’Neill to reconsider. The judge ruled against Cosby’s motion, which sought to compel Constand to testify and be cross-examined under oath, or dismiss the charges.,,, Cosby, 78, a mentor to Constand, 43, when she was working at Temple University, is accused of drugging and molesting her 12 years ago at his home in Montgomery County outside Philadelphia. She accused him to police a year later but charges were never filed, so she sued him in civil court. The two settled in 2006 and the case was sealed. Then, after dozens of women began accusing Cosby of drugging and/or raping them in episodes dating back decades, a judge in 2015 released part of the transcript of a deposition Cosby gave in the Constand civil suit, in which he acknowledged obtaining drugs to give to women he sought for sex…. http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2016/07/07/cosby-lawyers-no-cross-examination-no-trial/86794196/

Michael Jackson Stockpiled Nude Images Of Children And Animal Torture, According To Police Report Authorities seized more than 80 video recordings and computer hard drives, as well as notes, diaries, documents, photographs and audiotapes. 06/21/2016 Stephanie Marcus Senior Entertainment Editor, The Huffington Post Police discovered Michael Jackson had a large collection of pornography, which included images of children, animal torture and gore, reportedly used in his bid to seduce young boys. The collection was revealed in newly surfaced documents obtained by RadarOnline that detail a raid on Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch estate in 2003, carried out as part of an investigation into child molestation charges against the singer. According to previously unseen reports from the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department, authorities seized more than 80 video recordings and computer hard drives, as well as notes, diaries, documents, photographs and audiotapes. Former Santa Barbara Senior Assistant District Attorney Ron Zonen, who helped prosecute Jackson’s case, told RadarOnline that many of the materials found were used to “desensitize” children. The police report describes several of the materials found at Jackson’s estate and notes that many of the books and images “can be used as part of a ‘grooming’ process by which people (those seeking to molest children) are able to lower the inhibitions of their intended victims and facilitate the molestation of said victims.” One of the books found in Jackson’s possession was titled, Room to Play, which “contained numerous photographs of children.” According to the report, some of the images contained children’s faces superimposed on adult bodies with their private parts exposed. Authorities also found numerous photos of children located inside a safe in the employee break room of Jackson’s home. Jackson was charged with seven counts of child molestation and two counts of administering an intoxicating agent for the purpose of a committing a felony in 2003 after a young boy came forward claiming the singer molested him. In 2005, a jury acquitted him of all charges after a 14-week trial…. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/michael-jackson-stockpiled-child-porn-animal-torture-photos-according-to-newly-surfaced-report_us_5769644fe4b0a75709b7d847

Why The New Child Rape Case Filed Against Donald Trump Should Not Be Ignored 06/29/2016 Lisa Bloom Legal analyst for NBC News and Avvo, attorney and bestselling author An anonymous “Jane Doe” filed a federal lawsuit against GOP presumptive nominee Donald Trump last week, accusing him of raping her in 1994 when she was thirteen years old. The mainstream media ignored the filing. If the Bill Cosby case has taught us anything, it is to not disregard rape cases against famous men. Serious journalists have publicly apologized for turning a blind eye to the Cosby accusers for over a decade, notwithstanding the large number of women who had come forward with credible claims. And now history is repeating itself…. More context: two prior sexual assault court claims have been made against Mr. Trump But Mr. Trump has been accused of worse than just misogynist language. Two prior women have accused Mr. Trump, in court documents, of actual or attempted sexual assault. (Mr. Trump denies all the allegations.)…. The new Jane Doe child rape claim against Mr. Trump is consistent with verifiable facts about Mr. Trump and his friend Jeffrey Epstein, and has a powerful witness statement attached to it. A third woman accused Mr. Trump of rape very recently. According to the Daily Mail, a woman filed an April 2016 lawsuit claiming that when she was thirteen years old she was held as a sex slave to Mr. Trump and his friend Jeffrey Epstein. The woman claimed to have a witness, “Tiffany Doe,” to the incidents. She filed the case in pro per, that is, without the assistance of a lawyer. The case was dismissed by the court for technical filing errors. She then obtained a lawyer and the case was modified and refiled in New York federal court, against Mr. Trump and Mr. Epstein. I’ve carefully reviewed this federal complaint. It is now much stronger than the one she filed on her own, which makes sense because she now has an experienced litigator representing her. Jane Doe says that as a thirteen year old, she was enticed to attend parties at the home of Jeffrey Epstein with the promise of money modeling jobs. Mr. Epstein is a notorious “billionaire pedophile” who is now a Level 3 registered sex offender – the most dangerous kind, “a threat to public safety” — after being convicted of misconduct with another underage girl. Jane Doe says that Mr. Trump “initiated sexual contact” with her on four occasions in 1994. Since she was thirteen at the time, consent is not an issue. If Mr. Trump had any type sexual contact with her in 1994, it was a crime….. It is exceedingly rare for a sexual assault victim to have a witness. But Tiffany Doe says: I personally witnessed four sexual encounters that the Plaintiff was forced to have with Mr. Trump during this period, including the fourth of these encounters where Mr. Trump forcibly raped her despite her pleas to stop…. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-bloom/why-the-new-child-rape-ca_b_10619944.html

Joe Paterno was told Jerry Sandusky abused a 14-year-old boy in 1976, according to testimony in newly unsealed documents BY Amara Grautski Leonard Greene NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Tuesday, July 12, 2016 Court documents say famed Penn State coach Joe Paterno was aware as far back as 1976 that his top assistant was abusing boys, and years later other coaches knew, too, including future Rutgers and NFL coach Greg Schiano. In testimony about the shameful Jerry Sandusky scandal, a graduate assistant said Schiano and another up-and-coming coach, Tom Bradley, kept silent about Sandusky’s crimes. The testimony came in 2015 from ex-Penn State assistant Mike McQueary, who was a key witness in the Sandusky criminal case because he reported to Paterno seeing Sandusky rape a boy in 2001. In his testimony, McQueary said he “briefly” discussed with Bradley what he had seen. Bradley, who is currently UCLA’s defensive coordinator, was a Joe Paterno assistant from 1979 to 2011 and replaced Sandusky as Penn State’s defensive coordinator. Bradley was Penn State’s interim head coach after Paterno was fired…. In 1976, a 14-year-old victim told Paterno that Sandusky touched him while attending a football camp at the university, penetrating his rectum with his finger as he showered, according to the Washington Post. John Doe 150, according to the newly unsealed court documents, testified that he told Paterno of the sexual assault and the coach ignored his complaint. “Is it accurate that Coach Paterno quickly said to you, ‘I don’t want to hear about any of that kind of stuff, I have a football season to worry about?’” the victim’s lawyer asked him in 2014. “Specifically. Yes … I was shocked, disappointed, offended,” the man replied. “I was insulted … I said, is that all you’re going to do? You’re not going to do anything else?…. Sandusky, 72, was convicted in 2012 of molesting 10 boys and is serving 30 to 60 years in state prison. http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/college/paterno-told-sandusky-child-abuse-1976-court-docs-article-1.2708038

New court documents suggest others at Penn State knew of Jerry Sandusky abuse A man testified in court in 2014 that Penn State football coach Joe Paterno ignored his complaints of a sexual assault committed by assistant coach Jerry Sandusky in 1976 when the man was a 14-year-old boy, according to newly unsealed court documents. By Will Hobson and Cindy Boren July 12, 2016 In 2014, a man testified that Penn State football coach Joe Paterno ignored his complaints of a sexual assault committed by assistant coach Jerry Sandusky in 1976 when the man was a 14-year-old boy, according to new court documents unsealed Tuesday in a Philadelphia court. Four other former assistant football coaches at the school also were aware of Sandusky acting inappropriately with boys before law enforcement was first notified in 1998, according to testimony contained in the documents. The allegations suggest that Paterno may have been made aware of Sandusky’s actions far earlier than has previously been reported, and that knowledge of Sandusky’s behavior may have been far more widespread among the Penn State football staff than previously known. Ohio State defensive coordinator Greg Schiano and UCLA defensive coordinator Tom Bradley, both former Penn State assistants named in the documents, denied the allegations Tuesday. The testimony of multiple victims who have settled with Penn State, and of former assistant Mike McQueary — who witnessed Sandusky raping a boy on campus in 2001 — comes as the specifics of what Paterno and others knew about Sandusky and when are still being debated in courts and in the court of public opinion in Pennsylvania…. The 1976 victim, identified in court records as John Doe 150, said that while he was attending a football camp at Penn State, Sandusky touched him as he showered. Sandusky’s finger penetrated the boy’s rectum, Doe said, and the boy asked to speak with Paterno about it. Doe testified that he specifically told Paterno that Sandusky had sexually assaulted him, and Paterno ignored it…. While law enforcement only first became aware of allegations against Sandusky in 1998, the documents released Tuesday include several incidents in the 1980s and 1990s when Penn State football coaches and officials were aware of improper behavior by Sandusky around boys. In 1987, according to a man identified as John Doe 75, he was a 13-year-old boy when Sandusky brought him to a coaches’ meeting room and put his hand down the boy’s shorts. Assistant coach Joe Sarra walked into the room and saw them, Doe 75 testified. Startled, Sarra immediately left and closed the door behind him, and Sandusky kissed the boy on his forehead, Doe 75 testified…. https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/new-court-documents-suggest-others-at-penn-state-knew-of-jerry-sandusky-abuse/2016/07/12/9752f5a6-4853-11e6-90a8-fb84201e0645_story.html

Annual report shows continued toll of clergy sex abuse crisis By Matt Rocheleau Globe Staff May 20, 2016 The Catholic church paid $153 million in the United States last year to settle lawsuits, and fielded hundreds of new accusations, as fallout continued from the clergy sex abuse scandal exposed in the early 2000s, a new report from church leaders says. The annual report from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, which covers July 2014 to June 2015, said 384 victims came forward with allegations the church deemed credible. The figure, while somewhat higher than the 330 allegations deemed credible in the prior year, generally fit into a trend in which the number of such allegations has declined in recent years…. Between 1950 and June 2015, more than 17,600 people made clergy abuse allegations that US Catholic officials have deemed credible…. More than 6,500 clerics were accused of abuse nationwide between 1950 and June 2015, church data show. Many of the cases deemed credible by the church were alleged to have occurred from the 1960s to the 1980s. Clergy preyed upon boys in the vast majority of reported cases. The alleged abuse most often began when victims were between 10 and 14. Between 1950 and the end of June 2015, about $3.5 billion was spent on settlement-related costs by US church officials, according to the church…. https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/05/20/new-report-shows-continued-toll-clergy-sex-abuse-crisis-catholic-church/nbjFHmj2w9rgZYuKGMUBCL/story.html

EXCLUSIVE: N.Y. pol says Brooklyn bishop offered $5G bribe for her to drop child-abuse reform; diocese calls her allegation ‘patently false’ BY Kenneth Lovett Michael O’keeffe Stephen Rex Brown NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Monday, June 6, 2016 The head of the Catholic Church in Brooklyn offered a $5,000 bribe to an Albany politician in exchange for dropping her support for the reform of a state law preventing victims of child sexual abuse from seeking justice, the pol claimed Monday. Assemblywoman Margaret Markey, who has for a decade advocated for an overhaul of the state’s statute of limitations on claims of child sexual abuse, said she turned down the unholy hush money from Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio in 2010. “I’m not a billionaire, but I don’t need $5,000 to buy me off,” Markey told the Daily News. The offer came across as a payoff, not a campaign donation, she added. Pol proposes constitutionally questionable child-sex abuse law The Brooklyn Diocese called the allegation “patently false.”…. After declining the offer, DiMarzio targeted her with robocalls as she ran for reelection against Republican challenger Anthony Nunziato, saying she did not have Catholic values, Markey said. “I do have Catholic values — but my Catholic values don’t include raping children,” said Markey, who easily won reelection in 2010…. The offer isn’t the first time DiMarzio allegedly played hardball with politicians over Markey’s bill, which would make it easier for victims to sue and also grant a one-year window for those whose statute of limitations had expired to bring a civil lawsuit. In 2009, DiMarzio reportedly threatened lawmakers who supported Markey’s Child Victims Act, telling them he would close parishes in their districts — and say they were to blame. The diocese denied that threat was ever made. The state’s Catholic Conference spent $2.1 million between 2007 and 2015 lobbying against efforts to reform the law, as well as other measures. Others, like yeshivas and private schools, have also opposed Markey’s bill. The church supports other bills that would extend the statute of limitations, but that does not include the one-year lookback, Erstad said….. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/n-y-pol-claims-bishop-bribed-give-child-abuse-law-article-1.2663673

EXCLUSIVE: Catholic Church spent $2M on major N.Y. lobbying firms to block child-sex law reform BY Kenneth Lovett NEW YORK DAILY NEWS ALBANY BUREAU CHIEF Monday, May 30, 2016 ALBANY — Not leaving it to divine chance, the state Catholic Conference has turned in recent years to some of Albany’s most well-connected and influential lobby firms to help block a bill that would make it easier for child sex abuse victims to seek justice. The Catholic Conference, headed by Timothy Cardinal Dolan, has used Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker, Patricia Lynch & Associates, Hank Sheinkopf, and Mark Behan Communications to lobby against the Child Victims Act as well as for or against other measures. All told, the conference spent more than $2.1 million on lobbying from 2007 through the end of 2015, state records show. That does not include the conference’s own internal lobbying team. Filings show the lobbyists were retained, in part, to work on issues associated with “statute of limitations” and “timelines for commencing certain civil actions related to sex offenses.” Other issues included parochial school funding and investment tax credits…. While a far cry from the millions in lobbying top special interests spend in Albany each year, advocates for child sex abuse survivors say the $2.1 million spent likely represents a worthwhile investment to the Catholic Conference if it can continue to block legislation that would eliminate the statute of limitations on child sex abuse civil cases and open a one-year window to bring lawsuits for victims who can no longer sue under current law. The Catholic Conference has argued that opening a one-year window to revive old cases could ultimately bankrupt the Church…. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/catholic-church-hired-lobby-firms-block-n-y-kid-rape-laws-article-1.2655010

Author, ex-prosecutor slams critics of Child Victims Act, urges New York to stop protecting abusers BY Linda Fairstein SPECIAL TO THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Wednesday, June 1, 2016, 8:12 PM There is no class of people more vulnerable to sexual predators than children. In the overwhelming number of cases, the perpetrators are people who have betrayed the trust of children in their care — relatives, foster families, educators, coaches, clergy and health care professionals — who are far more likely to commit the traumatizing acts than strangers our children are brought up to fear. The greatest damage has been done to child victims whose voices have long been silenced — first, by their abusers, and then by the senseless laws that have placed arbitrary limits on the time they have to seek justice. We cannot save many who have come before this, but we can change the outlook, the possibility of justice — both in criminal and civil court — for the thousands more who have suffered at the hands of predators and those whom we know will come next. The time to pass the Child Victims Act is now. There is no reasonable opposition to this argument. What is it opponents fear? Some have raised the concern of false reporting, but the statistics are abundantly clear that this problem represents a small fractional proportion — less than 2% of all claims. For example, California saw about five false claims out of 850 against the Catholic Church. False reporting occurs in every category of crime and it is certainly an issue in cases which fall within the statute of limitations. It is part of the job of every prosecutor to identify those complaints and get them out of the system. They are rare, and they should never be a barrier to the overwhelming number of valid complaints that deserve to be investigated…. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/ex-prosecutor-urges-n-y-approve-child-victims-act-article-1.2657762

N.Y. Legislature, Gov. Cuomo abandon child sex abuse victims: ‘Our elected officials chose predators over victims’ BY Kenneth Lovett DAILY NEWS ALBANY BUREAU CHIEF Saturday, June 18, 2016 ALBANY — In the end, state lawmakers protected the predators. The state Legislature ended the 2016 legislative session about 5 a.m. Saturday without acting on legislation to help survivors of child sex abuse. An all-night session to wrap up up the legislative year did not lead to a last-minute miracle that victims and advocates were hoping for. “The survivors were thrown a tattered raft in this stormy session,” said Kathryn Robb, an advocate and sexual abuse survivor. Gary Greenberg, an upstate investor who was sexually abused as a child in 1966, said survivors won’t forget when every seat in the Legislature is up for election. He said Gov. Cuomo, the Assembly and Senate “turned their backs on thousands and thousands of child sex abuse victims and their families across New York State.” “It was not a priority,” Greenberg added. “Our elected officials chose predators over victims.”…. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/n-y-legislature-gov-cuomo-abandon-child-sex-abuse-victims-article-1.2678921

Ottawa diocese repeatedly warned about local clergy’s most notorious abuser Andrew Duffy, Ottawa Citizen May 18, 2016 The Archdiocese of Ottawa continues to pay for the many sins of Rev. Dale Crampton. Court documents reveal that the diocese has paid $741,783.44 in compensation to 10 of Crampton’s victims, who were sexually abused by the Catholic priest between 1963 and 1982. More lawsuits are before the courts. The victims in those cases are seeking $3.7 million. In total, the diocese now knows of at least 17 people who say they were victimized by the priest as children. Through interviews and court documents, the Citizen has learned that members of the Ottawa clergy were warned at least seven times about Crampton’s sexual misconduct, beginning in 1965…. Crampton is the most notorious perpetrator in Ottawa’s clergy sexual abuse scandal, a pedophile and alcoholic who has cost the diocese and its insurance companies more money than any other priest…. At least four priests were told about Crampton’s abuse. What’s more, two complainants said they approached senior diocesan officials with allegations of abuse between 1980 and 1986…. “The archdiocese knew. They knew in the ’60s,” charged C.B., a retired educator. “A lot of other people could have been saved, and not subjected to abuse as I was, and more serious kinds of abuse … He was just getting started with me.”…. The diocese has publicly apologized to Crampton’s victims, but it has never admitted mistakes in how it dealt with the priest. It has, however, changed the way it manages allegations of sexual abuse against Ottawa clergy. In 2011, the Archdiocese of Ottawa issued a protocol that requires all clergy members and church employees to report any allegation of child sexual abuse to the Office of the Archbishop and to the Children’s Aid Society…. Lawyer Robert Talach, who has represented 10 of Crampton’s victims in lawsuits against the diocese, said that attitude is at the heart of the clergy sex abuse scandal. The church, he said, operated behind “an institutional veil of secrecy” designed to protect its reputation, even at the expense of children’s safety. It is why, Talach said, that he’s not surprised the Archdiocese of Ottawa was warned seven times about Crampton. “It’s not unusual because what usually triggers more action is some kind of spectre of public knowledge,” he said. More lawsuits are pending against Crampton and the diocese…. In 1974, he became one of the first two priests ever elected to the Ottawa Catholic School Board. Crampton collected more votes than any other trustee in that election. The other priest elected that year was Rev. Kenneth Keeler, who would later plead guilty to sexually abusing three boys in the 1970s and 1980s. Both Crampton and Keeler were re-elected as trustees in 1976…. http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/ottawa-diocese-repeatedly-warned-about-local-clergys-most-notorious-abuser

Police expect 30,000 new child abuse reports from Goddard inquiry Exclusive: Extent of child sexual abuse in England and Wales begins to become clear as inquiry passes on 100 cases a month Sandra Laville Thursday 19 May 2016 The scale of child sexual abuse in England and Wales is being exposed by evidence from thousands of victims, with cases being passed to police at a rate of 100 a month by the public inquiry set up following the Jimmy Savile scandal. Simon Bailey, head of the national coordinating unit Operation Hydrant, said his team was expecting to be given 30,000 reports of new child sexual offences by the end of the Goddard inquiry, and predicted the rate of referrals of allegations of abuse would increase. Reports of child abuse to forces across the country are continuing to rise, said Bailey, who is the chief constable of Norfolk. He calculated that the continuing increase would mean that by 2020 police across the country would be investigating 200,000 cases of child sexual abuse. Bailey added:….”We are seeing a significant rise in the number of referrals each month from the Goddard inquiry, and these allegations relate to abuse in a range of institutions from the church, to schools, the scouts and hospitals.” Justice Lowell Goddard is running 13 investigations into institutional abuse, which include inquiries concerning Westminster, the Catholic Church, Church of England, and Lambeth borough, and concerning grooming and sexual exploitation in Rochdale, Devon, Cornwall, Oxford and Rotherham, and at the Medomsley detention centre in Durham…. http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/may/19/child-sex-abuse-police-expect-30000-goddard-inquiry-cases

Man jailed for 10 years for dozens of child abuse offences Dean Farrar, 49, from Rochdale contacted thousands of underage girls on social media in attempt to persuade them to perform sexual acts on camera Frances Perraudin Monday 27 June 2016 A serial child abuser who contacted 11,000 minors across the world on social media in attempt to get them to perform sexual acts has been sentenced to 10 years in prison. Dean Farrar, 50, from Rochdale, pleaded guilty to a catalogue of sexual abuse crimes, including inciting a child under the age of 13 to engage in sexual activity, causing a child under the age of 13 to watch sexual activity, and possession and distribution of indecent images of children. Police said Farrar had used his iPhone to contact about 11,000 children using the video chat apps Skype, Kik, Oovoo and Yik Yak between 2011 and 2014. Of those he contacted, 308 have been identified, 48 of whom were in the UK. He was charged with 41 offences against 19 girls, including one aged eight. The police were also able to identify a further 157 offenders with whom Farrar had shared imagery. Using false profiles of teenage boys, Farrar would initiate contact with underage girls using video messaging platforms and persuade them to perform sex acts on camera and share indecent images of themselves…. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jun/27/dean-farrar-rochdale-jailed-child-sex-abuse-offences-social-media

238 arrested in “Operation Heartbreak” sting on child predators in California, 1,400 accused perverts busted nationwide BY Alfred Ng NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Tuesday, June 21, 2016 Hundreds of suspected child predators were busted in a two-month sting across Southern California, police announced Monday. Among the 238 people arrested in the “Operation Broken Heart III” sweep by the Los Angeles Regional Internet Crimes against Children task force were clergy members, community leaders, entertainers and white-collar professionals, John Reynolds, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigations special agent said at a press conference. There had been nearly 900 investigations with 250 search warrants out for possible predators during the sweep in April and May. “The incidents of child sexual exploitation has reached staggering proportions,” Reynolds told reporters…. On June 1, Kounzong Saebphang, a Buddhist monk from Laos, was arrested at his monastery in Riverside after investigators received a tip he was sharing child pornography. Police found child porn on the monk’s computer, and believe he also shared it through social media, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said. Saebphang had been staying in California on a religious worker visa. Former “Glee” star Mark Salling was charged with child pornography charges in Los Angeles on May 27. The region’s most high-profile arrest was Mark Salling, the former “Glee” star who was charged with receiving and possessing child pornography on May 27…. Nationwide, Operation Broken Heart III has busted up to 1,400 perverts. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/238-arrested-california-sting-child-predators-article-1.2682918 Mormon Church accused of turning blind eye to child abuse in foster care program The Mormon Church has been hit with another lawsuit saying that it did nothing to protect children in a church-run foster program from sexual abuse. Two Navajo siblings sued The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Navajo Nation court earlier this year. A second lawsuit made public Tuesday outlines similar allegations. A Navajo woman identified as B.N. says she was sexually molested and raped multiple times while in foster care and by health care providers in Utah, from 1965 to 1972. She was among thousands of American Indians who participated in the church’s Indian Student Placement Program. Attorneys representing the three plaintiffs say church leaders did not report the abuse to law enforcement and failed to protect the children who, as adults, suffer from emotional and physical distress…. http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/06/01/mormon-church-accused-turning-blind-eye-to-child-abuse-in-foster-care-program.html

Another Navajo Member Sues LDS Church over Childhood Sexual Abuse By Andrea Smardon June 1, 2016 A Navajo woman is suing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, saying she was sexually assaulted while participating in the church’s Lamanite Indian Student Placement Program. This is now the third claim of sexual abuse that has been brought against the Mormon Church by members of the Navajo Nation since March. The plaintiff identified as B.N. says she was sexually molested and raped between 1965 and 1972 while in church-run foster care in Utah. She decided to file suit after hearing of two Navajo siblings who sued the church earlier this year with similar allegations. “I just said, you know what, I’ve shut my mouth long enough, and it was just time,” B.N. says. The complaint filed in Navajo Nation District Court outlines sexual abuse by a foster father, a foster brother, and a medical examiner in a church facility. B.N., a member of the LDS Church, says she has been afraid to come forward. That’s what she hopes to change with the lawsuit. “Being able to speak up and have people trust their leaders, that they’re able to come forth with atrocious situations without fear and without being black-balled in any way.” Criag Vernon is an attorney representing the three plaintiffs. He says church leaders did not report the abuse to law enforcement and failed to protect children in their care…. http://kuer.org/post/another-navajo-member-sues-lds-church-over-childhood-sexual-abuse

Child abuse inquiry turns to Kincora home and claims of MI5 blackmail Inquiry will hear from men abused as boys at Northern Ireland children’s home and allegations that perpetrators were protected by working as spies Henry McDonald Ireland correspondent Monday 30 May 2016 An inquiry into child abuse across a range of institutions in Northern Ireland will focus on Tuesday on the Kincora boys home scandal including allegations that MI5 blackmailed a paedophile ring which operated there in the 1970s. The historical institutional abuse inquiry will hear evidence from men who were abused at Kincora when they were children and their allegations that the perpetrators were protected because they were state agents spying on fellow Ulster loyalists. A number of Kincora abuse victims have tried through the courts to force the scandal to be included in the national investigation into allegations of establishment paedophile rings operating in Westminster. Gary Hoy tried and failed last month to force the home secretary to include Kincora in the Westminster inquiry. Hoy and others fear that the Kincora inquiry, which is based in Northern Ireland and taking hearings at the court in Banbridge, County Down, will not have access to sensitive MI5 intelligence files on the people who ran Kincora. Amnesty International has described the Kincora scandal as one of the most disturbing to emerge from the Ulster Troubles…. At least 29 boys were sexually abused by Kincora housemaster and prominent Orange Order member William McGrath and others at the east Belfast home…. Another of the abuse victims at Kincora, Clint Massey, told the Guardian last year that he even tried to file a report at a local police station in east Belfast about what was happening to him and other boys at the home in the mid-1970s. However, Massey said he was forcibly marched out of the RUC station by police officers and that his complaint was not recorded. Former army intelligence officer and whistleblower Colin Wallace has consistently claimed that MI5, RUC special branch and military intelligence knew about the abuse going on at Kincora and used it to blackmail the paedophile ring to spy on hardline loyalists…. The historical institutional abuse inquiry is investigating 22 orphanages, care homes and other institutions where child sexual abuse took place. The inquiry team is expected to hear from around 450 witnesses, some of whom have travelled from as far as the United States and Australia to give evidence…. http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/may/30/n-ireland-child-abuse-inquiry-turns-to-kincora-home-and-claims-of-mi5-blackmail

Cult leader’s extradition from Brazil to Minn. to face rape charges suddenly called off Dispute between Brazil and U.S. over sentencing is behind the delay. By Paul Walsh Star Tribune May 19, 2016 Minnesota cult leader Victor Barnard was arrested in February 2015 while on the run in Brazil, where he remains imprisoned. Cult leader Victor Barnard was supposed to have been put on a flight from Brazil under guard of federal agents Thursday and returned to Minnesota to face charges that he raped young followers in his congregation, but an unexpected delay has popped up, a defense attorney said. The extradition is now on an indefinite hold. Barnard faces 59 counts of first- and third-degree criminal sexual conduct for allegedly molesting young girls he called “maidens” in his Pine County congregation. He fled to Brazil, was captured in February 2015 and has been imprisoned there ever since. Even though that nation’s Supreme Court has approved Barnard’s extradition back to Minnesota, a dispute between Brazilian and U.S. authorities over any potential sentence is delaying his return. ….one condition of the Brazilian court is that any potential sentence for Barnard in the United States not exceed 30 years, which is the maximum he would receive if prosecuted and convicted in that South American country…. http://www.startribune.com/cult-leader-s-extradition-from-brazil-to-minn-to-face-rape-charges-suddenly-called-off/380138201/

Minnesota cult leader charged with 59 counts of child sex abuse Published June 21, 2016 Fox News Latino PINE CITY, Minn. (AP) – A judge set bail at $1.5 million Monday for a religious sect leader who’s charged with sexually abusing girls at a secluded compound in rural Minnesota. Victor Barnard, 54, made his first state court appearance since his extradition from Brazil. U.S. marshals delivered him to the Pine County Jail on Saturday. Pine County prosecutors charged Barnard in April 2014 with 59 counts of criminal sexual conduct for allegedly having sexual relationships with two girls in his “Maidens Group” at his River Road Fellowship compound near Finlayson, about 90 miles north of Minneapolis. The U.S. Marshals Service put him on its most wanted fugitives list, and authorities finally caught up with him in a Brazilian resort town in February 2015. Brazilian authorities said he had arrived in Brazil in March 2012…. According to the criminal complaint, the two women told investigators they were among about 10 girls and young women who were chosen to live apart from their families in what was called the Shepherd’s Camp. One alleged Barnard started abusing her when she was 13, continuing until she was 22. The other said she was abused between ages 12 and 20. Investigators have said Barnard used religious coercion and intimidation to maintain his control over them. They’ve also said they believe Barnard abused other girls but were unable to get others to come forward…. http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2016/06/21/minnesota-cult-leader-charged-with-5-counts-child-sex-abuse/

How child sexual abuse became a family business in the Philippines Tens of thousands of children believed to be victims of live-streaming abuse, some of it being carried out by their own parents by Oliver Holmes in Manila Monday 30 May 2016 When Philippine police smashed into the one-bedroom house, they found three girls aged 11, seven and three lying naked on a bed. At the other end of the room stood the mother of two of the children – the third was her niece – and her eldest daughter, aged 13, who was typing on a keyboard. A live webcam feed on the computer screen showed the faces of three white men glaring out. An undercover agent had infiltrated the impoverished village two weeks before the raid. Pretending to be a Japayuki, a slang term for a Filipina sex worker living in Japan, she had persuaded a resident to introduce her to the children, who played daily in the gravel streets. Her guise was intended to put them at ease, to show them she worked in the same industry; she was one of them. She became close to the eldest, referred to as Nicole although that is not her real name. After a few days of chatting, Nicole causally told the agent about their “shows”. “It was the first time we heard of parents using their children,” said the middle-aged woman. Authorities considered that operation in 2011 to be a one-off case. But the next month, another family was caught in the same area. Then more cases of live-streaming child abuse appeared in different parts of the Philippines. Now, the United Nations says, there are tens of thousands of children believed to be involved in a rapidly expanding local child abuse industry already worth US$1bn. In some areas, entire communities live off the business, abetted by increasing internet speeds, advancing cameraphone technology, and growing ease of money transfers across borders. And while perpetrators used to download photos and videos to their hard drives – providing authorities with a virtual paper trail and usable evidence – criminals have found anonymity in encrypted live-streaming programs…. “We think that what we are seeing, what we are dealing with, is a small part of what is out there,” she said. “It is big money. Big business.” Children are made to perform around the clock, with morning live-streams catering to Europeans and Americans, and later in the day, an Australian-based clientele. The number of ongoing live-streaming criminal cases in the Philippines is rising, from 57 in 2013, growing to 89 in 2014, and up to 167 in 2015…. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/31/live-streaming-child-sex-abuse-family-business-philippines

A crime scene of unspeakable horror’: child sex abuse and the internet Perpetrators of online child sexual abuse will continue to take advantage of the latest technology to serve their purposes Joanna Shields Baroness Joanna Shields is the UK minister for internet safety and security Monday 30 May 2016 ….Faster internet, anonymous access and cryptocurrency mechanisms all provide opportunities for criminals to access child sexual abuse images. Images of child sexual abuse are uploaded and shared everyday. Some of these images are screen captures of live-streamed sexual abuse of children of all ages, even infants. Each image, each video depicts a crime scene of unspeakable horror. Child sexual abuse is a global crime that transcends borders, and demands a global response. The WePROTECT Global Alliance to end online child sexual exploitation is that response. The goal of WePROTECT is to eradicate child sexual exploitation online. Full stop. Its mission is to empower everyone with a responsibility to protect children online, to identify and safeguard victims, remove child sexual abuse material from the internet and track down perpetrators all over the world…. http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/may/31/a-scene-of-unspeakable-horror-child-sex-abuse-and-the-internet

Hostages, drugs, grenades — Colombia cracks down on notorious “Bronx” slum May 31, 2016 By Jim Wyss BOGOTA, Colombia It’s known as “El Bronx,” and for decades the slum in the heart of Colombia’s capital has been the stuff of nightmares: a sordid stew of drug dens, vagrants, prostitution and gambling. Close to government buildings and tourism hotspots, the area has been a no-go zone for police — and anyone else who cared for their pocketbook or their safety. Mayor Enrique Peñalosa calls it an “independent republic of crime.” Starting Saturday, the police and heavily armed military began seizing control of the area, and the reports that have emerged prove the neighborhood’s fearsome reputation is merited. Guns, Hostages, Grenades Police said they had removed more than 2,000 people — many of them homeless drug addicts — from the neighborhood and rescued 136 minors, some of them victims of the sex trade. They also seized stockpiles of cocaine, marijuana and bazuco, an addictive crack-like substance. In addition, they found hidden passageways used to smuggle drugs and weapons, and rescued a 23-year-old man who was being held hostage in a derelict building, bound hand and foot and with a chain around his neck. “What we found in the Bronx went far beyond what we knew,” Daniel Mejía, the city’s undersecretary of security, told RCN radio on Tuesday. “We found caches of weapons and grenades, large amounts of drugs [hidden] in walls and ceilings, houses for satanic worship and places for the sexual exploitation of minors…. Luz Estela Cardenas, the director of Renacer, a foundation that works with sexually exploited children, said that many of the 18,000 minors her organization has helped over the last 28 years have emerged from the Bronx and neighborhoods like it. Many victims start off visiting the areas to buy drugs, she said, before getting snared by criminal networks. “This goes well beyond sexual abuse,” she said. “The issue is exploitation and the trafficking of girls and boys. Some of these children are sexual slaves…. Others have literally been kidnapped off the streets surrounding the Bronx…. http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/colombia/article80874132.html

Richard Huckle faces life sentences for Malaysia child abuse 1 June 2016 UK A British man is facing multiple life sentences for numerous sex crimes against Malaysian children which he boasted about on the “dark web”. Richard Huckle, 30, from Ashford in Kent, admitted the offences against victims aged between six months and 12 years, from 2006 to 2014. It is believed Huckle abused up to 200 children. His sentencing hearing began at the Old Bailey on Wednesday, and is expected to conclude on Friday. The 91 charges related to 23 children from mainly poor communities in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur. He admitted 71 of the charges, and the prosecutor asked that the other counts “lie on file”. Huckle, a freelance photographer, was arrested at Gatwick Airport by National Crime Agency officials in December 2014. Paedophile manual Details of the abuse can only now be reported because investigators had previously sought a court order to ensure the victims were safe from other online sexual predators. Huckle, who presented himself as a practising Christian, first visited Malaysia on a teaching gap year when he was 18 or 19. He then went on to groom children while doing voluntary work. Investigators uncovered numerous indecent pictures and videos Huckle took of himself abusing girls and boys. More than 20,000 indecent images were found on his computer…. http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-36429385

British paedophile ‘planned to marry victim and abuse foster children’ Richard Huckle, who has admitted 71 sexual offences against children, wanted to ‘mould’ a young girl to ignore his continued abuse, Old Bailey told Richard Huckle targeted impoverished families in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur Caroline Davies Thursday 2 June 2016 A British paedophile who faces multiple life sentences for abusing Malaysian babies and young children dreamed of marrying one of his victims and becoming a foster carer so he could abuse “a cycle of children” coming through his home, a court has been told. Richard Huckle, 30, boasted on an online paedophile forum that he hoped to “mould” the young girl into turning a blind eye to his abuse for fear of losing her “middle class” lifestyle. Huckle, a freelance photographer from Ashford, Kent, has pleaded guilty to 71 charges of sexual offences against 23 identified children aged between six months and 13 years from an impoverished Christian community in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur. Huckle had posed as a Christian philanthropist and teacher to gain access to children. At his sentencing hearing at the Old Bailey, Brian O’Neill QC, prosecuting, said after his arrest Huckle told a psychiatrist he wanted to “put all this madness behind me” and, when released from prison, wanted to seek a South Indian woman. But O’Neill invited the judge to read an online posting by Huckle 18 months before his arrest, found on an online forum on the darknet, since taken down…. Huckle targeted poor Christian communities over nine years, beginning the abuse on a gap year to south-east Asia when he was 19. He had posted videos and pictures of him raping children, which were shared online on the darknet, and was in the process of publishing a paedophile guide on how to abuse children from impoverished areas without being detected. He boasted online that “impoverished kids are definitely much easier to seduce than middle class western kids”. O’Neill told judge Peter Rook the extent of Huckle’s abuse was likely to be greater as investigators had been unable to access six password protected heavily encrypted files on his computer…. However, prosecutors had been able to access more than 20,000 indecent images of children, as well as a “Paedopoints” ledger which Huckle had created to award himself points for acts of depravity on children. A total of 191 children were mentioned on his “scorecard”…. http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jun/02/richard-huckle-parents-threw-him-out-court-told

22 life sentences for British pedophile who pleaded guilty to 71 child abuse offenses in Asia June 6, 2016, by CNN Wire Service A London court handed 22 life sentences to a man Monday after he pleaded guilty to 71 child abuse offenses while in Southeast Asia. Richard Huckle, 30, was arrested at Gatwick Airport near London in 2014 as he returned home from Malaysia, where he committed most of his crimes, Britain’s National Crime Agency said. He confessed to abusing almost 200 children on a blog he published on the dark web, an area of the Internet not easily accessible to the general user. According to Court News UK, Huckle posed as a Christian English teacher to groom and abuse children, including one as young as six months, in a poor Malaysian community over nine years. He also committed child abuse in Cambodia, the National Crime Agency said. British law allows nationals to be prosecuted in their home country for offenses committed abroad. The court heard the amateur photographer took pictures and videos of himself raping children that he groomed from schools and orphanages, and shared the images with other pedophiles on the dark web, according to Court News UK. In his blog, Huckle awarded himself “Pedopoints” on a type of scorecard, claiming to have abused 191 children, according to Court News. Huckle then tried to monetize his behavior, accepting bitcoin, the online currency, to continue the abuse and publish it online, Court News said. He forced victims to pose with signs to advertise his business and wrote a 60-page guide entitled “Pedophiles & Poverty: Child Lover Guide” that the judge called a “truly evil document,” Court News said. Huckle was caught when Australian police tipped off authorities in an investigation into a pedophile website that officials said had 9,000 members before it was shut down. The NCA said officials had recovered more than 20,000 indecent images of children from Huckle’s computers and cameras, including more than 1,000 of which showed him raping and abusing children in his care….http://fox6now.com/2016/06/06/22-life-sentences-for-british-pedophile-who-pleaded-guilty-to-71-child-abuse-offenses-in-asia/

British paedophile sentenced to 85 years in US for trafficking child abuse images Domminich Shaw, a ‘kingpin’ of sexual violence against children, sent dozens of images online and discussed plans to assault and kill a child while on probation Jon Swaine in New York Wednesday 29 June 2016 A convicted British paedophile has been sentenced to 85 years in an American prison for running an online exchange of child abuse images while he was on probation. Domminich Shaw used the unprotected wireless internet connections of his neighbours in west London to traffic in dozens of videos and pictures of babies and toddlers being sexually abused. He also discussed a plan to kidnap, rape and murder a child. Shaw, 35, began trading the material almost immediately after being released from a three-year prison sentence in the UK in 2008 for sexually assaulting four young girls, prosecutors said, raising questions about the supervision of British sex offenders. Prosecutors said Shaw was “among the worst offenders involved in child pornography trafficking ever encountered by United States law enforcement” and they had requested a 570-year sentence. “No such person should be walking the streets,” they said. He was sentenced this week by a federal judge in Indiana after pleading guilty to 26 charges including conspiracies to receive, distribute and advertise child abuse images. He was extradited from the UK in December 2014. “Shaw was in every measurable respect the kingpin and primary promoter of sexual violence and abuse involving tragically young and vulnerable children” in his online circle of paedophiles, according to a court filing by the US government. He operated under the online name “Nepi”, an abbreviation of nepiophelia – sexual attraction towards babies and toddlers. He created and administered a website called “Nepi’s Kingdom” where paedophiles could download abuse images…. Shaw’s home in London was raided by the Metropolitan Police in January 2011. Officers found on a laptop, DVDs and memory sticks about 18,000 “carefully sorted” images of abused, dead and mutilated infants, a court filing said…. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jun/29/british-pedophile-domminich-shaw-sentenced-us

Australian commission: Military cadets raped as initiation By Rebecca Wright, CNN Wed June 22, 2016 Teenage recruits were raped by staff and forced to rape each other as part of initiation practices in the Australian military going back to 1960, a public inquiry heard on Tuesday. The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse is hearing evidence from men and women who say they were sexually abused when they were as young as 15, in certain divisions of the Australian defense force. This commission is focusing on alleged abuse at the naval training center HMAS Leeuwin in Western Australia and the army apprentice school Balcombe in Victoria during the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s and also among cadets with the Australian defense force since 2000. In total, 111 victims came forward to report abuse. More than a dozen of them will give evidence to the inquiry in Sydney, which continues until July 1. “On multiple occasions, I was snatched from my bed in the middle of the night by older recruits and dragged to a sports oval,” said one male witness who wasn’t named. The witness said he was forced to rape other recruits, and was raped himself by older recruits and staff. “The environment made it useless to resist,” he said. “One could stand only so much abuse before realizing that saying ‘no’ was pointless. After a while compliance and getting it over and done with seemed the best solution.” Many survivors say that when they reported the abuse, they were ignored, punished, or told it was “a rite of passage” in their initiation period…. http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/21/asia/australia-military-abuse/index.html

Man worked with his army abusers for decades after horrific apprentice ritual Daryl James tells royal commission he was assaulted in initiation ritual at army school of music on the Mornington peninsula Royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse Australian Associated Press Thursday 23 June 2016 A promising young musician who was abused when he was a 15-year-old army apprentice says he had to work alongside his tormentors until he was medically discharged. Adelaide man Daryl James told a child abuse royal commission hearing in Sydney on Thursday of “systemic, traditional and commonplace abuse” at the army’s apprentice school at Balcombe in Victoria in the 1970s…. James, who suffers from severe post traumatic stress disorder and has had surgery because of what happened at Balcombe, remembered early in his basic training a sergeant warned his class to protect themselves during “crab night”. This was a ritual in which graduating senior apprentices victimised the new intake, called “sprogs”…. The abuse continued throughout his first year and he was too scared to report it…. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/jun/23/man-worked-with-army-abusers-decades-after-horrific-apprentice-ritual

Ritual Abuse and Mind Control Satanism in Britian – 60 minutes https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=72OznY9ByZo https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=Z3kKRzp-awE

Former leader of cult-like Ontario church pleads guilty to assault Fred King admitted to spitting on people, kicking, punching or slapping church members and making some of them strip in front of the congregation. By The Canadian Press Tues., May 10, 2016 OWEN SOUND, ONT.—The former leader of a southwestern Ontario church that police have described as cult-like pleaded guilty Tuesday in an Owen Sound, Ont., court to nine counts of assault. Fred King, 57, of Chatsworth Township, Ont., is to be sentenced on Sept. 14. In an agreed statement of facts read in court by Crown Attorney Michael Martin, King admits to spitting on people, kicking, punching or slapping church members and making some of them strip in front of the rest of the congregation. While King pleaded guilty to the assault charges, 16 other charges — including sexual assault, sexual interference, and uttering death threats — were withdrawn by the Crown. Known as “The Prophet” at the Church of Jesus Christ Restored in Chatsworth, Ont., King’s charges relate to his time as leader of the Church from 1978 to 2008…. https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2016/05/10/former-leader-of-cult-like-ontario-church-pleads-guilty-to-assault.html
Judge Allows A CIA Torture Lawsuit To Move Forward For The First Time The three men at the heart of the case were beaten, held in coffin-sized boxes, and hung from metal rods. 04/22/2016 Jessica Schulberg Foreign Affairs Reporter, The Huffington Post SPOKANE, Wash. — A federal judge indicated Friday he will deny a request from two CIA-contracted psychologists to throw out a lawsuit filed on behalf of three victims of the agency’s now-defunct enhanced interrogation program. Https://www.aclu.org/feature/out-darkness

Books on Ritual Abuse https://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/books/

may be heavy for survivors Lecture by D. Corydon Hammond, originally entitled “Hypnosis in MPD: Ritual Abuse” but now usually known as the “Greenbaum Speech” delivered at the Fourth Annual Eastern Regional Conference on Abuse and Multiple Personality, Thursday June 25, 1992, at the Radisson Plaza Hotel, Mark Center, Alexandria, Virginia, United States of America. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FUersarZuo FORCEPS Poems About The Birth of The Self by Wendy Hoffman The search for my true past came in distinct waves. This collection of poems includes some from the long period when I knew something was drastically wrong but didn’t consciously know what that was and some from the breakthrough when I discovered my never-bloomed self. The poems cover the outskirts of my awakening, my plowing through and arrival in the middle of awareness. When dissociated memories and emotions exploded inside, eventually they filtered into a poem. The horror transmuted itself. These poems are that record. I have regained a real, not imposed, self. Karnac Books March 2016 ISBN 13 : 9781782204107 ISBN 10 : 1782204105 https://us.karnacbooks.com/product/forceps-poems-about-the-birth-of-the-self/38047/

Common Forms of Misinformation and Tactics of Disinformation about Psychotherapy for Trauma Originating in Ritual Abuse and Mind Control By Ellen Lacter, Ph.D., December 18, 2012. from http://endritualabuse.org/activism/misinfo/ This page on my website seeks to expose a number of common forms of misinformation and tactics of disinformation about psychotherapy for trauma originating in ritual abuse and mind control. Disinformation is distinguished from misinformation in that it is intentionally fraudulent. Misinformation and disinformation about ritual abuse and mind control trauma and psychotherapy to treat such trauma appear in both paper and electronic media, but are particularly abundant on the Internet on websites of individuals and organizations, bookseller reviews, blogs, newsletters, online encyclopedias, social networking sites, and e-group listservs. http://childabusedata.blogspot.com/2016/02/common-forms-of-misinformation-and.html

Evidence that Dissociative Identity Disorder (Multiple Personality Disorder or MPD) is caused by Childhood Trauma https://eassurvey.wordpress.com/2014/11/07/evidence-that-dissociative-identity-disorder-multiple-personality-disorder-or-mpd-is-caused-by-childhood-trauma/

UK Column Live – Satanic Ritual Abuse Special studio guest: child protection campaigner of 22 years’ standing Wilfred Wong, originally trained as a barrister and with expertise in Satanic ritual abuse. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=om9uHQZ9uoY

‘Holy Hell’: How One Man Documented 22 Years Inside a Sadistic Cult Former cult member’s documentary details over two decades of mind games and torture inside an L.A. cult By Jason Newman May 27, 2016 He was grooming me. I didn’t see it then, but it’s so obvious now. I wanted a mentor; a teacher. When I got around him more, that’s when I was like, ‘Oh my God, he’s an asshole.'” For 22 years, Will Allen immersed himself 24/7 in Buddhafield, a Los Angeles cult with hundreds of members and a narcissistic, sociopathic leader named Michel Rostand. The group would live, work and meditate together, banishing all ties to their family in the hope of finding greater enlightenment. Their spiritual guru would, in turn, psychologically torture and brainwash his disciples on a daily basis…. His insider document of two decades of life inside the cult, entitled Holy Hell, combines home movies and official footage from these years alongside new interviews with former members detailing the sadistic, predatory nature that lay behind their leader’s ostensibly gentle, omnipotent façade. Buddhafield’s service-oriented, off-the-grid approach to attaining peace and harmony — “It was our little utopia in the middle of this big giant city,” says one former member in the film — disguised its leader’s iniquities, ranging from total mind control and forced abortions to alleged widespread sexual abuse and rape. The carrot dangled to all adherents was “The Knowing,” a ritual in which Rostand would “transfer his energy” to the participant so they would truly know God. The resulting doc, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival last January, acts as both an extreme cautionary tale and a personal exorcism. In 2012, five years after leaving the cult, Allen, like many former Buddhafield members, was still suffering from PTSD and trying to move on…. It’s easy to see how Buddhafield members got initially sucked in by Rostand’s charisma; even the ones who now hate him describe him at first glance as “ethereal,” “magical,” “otherworldly” and “beautiful.” “I was floating walking home,” admits Vera Chieffo, who left the cult in 2009 after 27 years. “But he was also friggin’ weird.” The man known mainly as “The Teacher” would parade around the compound in speedos and Ray-Bans, demanding his disciples to be in peak physical and mental health through rigorous exercise, meditation and abstinence from sex, alcohol, drugs, caffeine and red meat. But while he was outwardly preaching asceticism, Rostand would prey on young men like Allen, “promoting” the filmmaker to be his personal driver and masseuse before allegedly sexually abusing him and other members on multiple occasions. “Some of them are still figuring it out that it was rape because it didn’t seem like that,” Phillipe Coquet, who spent 24 years with Buddhafield, says. (Rostand has not been charged or arrested in connection with the abuses.) Members would often receive mixed messages, with their leader often noting, for example, the joys of sex before immediately rebuking it as “simple” and unhealthy…. http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/news/holy-hell-how-one-man-documented-22-years-inside-a-sadistic-cult-20160527

Dissecting Disbelief: Possible Reasons for the Denial of the Existence of Ritual Abuse in the United Kingdom Kate Richardson Researcher in Child Abuse and Exploitation, United Kingdom (2015) www.crimejusticejournal.com IJCJ&SD 2015 4 (2): 77-93 ISSN 2202–8005 Abstract When allegations of ritual abuse first came to light in the UK, they were met primarily with a ‘discourse of disbelief’ that left little room for the possibility accounts could be based in genuine experience. Despite convictions, recent criminological, sociological and psychological literature appears fixed on debunking ritual abuse’s existence through highly debated concepts such as ‘false memory’. This paper proposes three broad ‘reasons’ for the creation and maintenance of disbelief around ritual abuse, high lighting the importance of key cases in shaping press coverage of the issue during the 1980s and 1990s, and the role survivor advocates have played in distancing ritual abuse from established knowledge within both psychology and child protection. I argue that the tangibility of death and abject horror within survivor accounts, as well as the perceived religious motivations of perpetrators, make ritual abuse both experientially and conceptually alien to most members of late-modern societies. https://www.crimejusticejournal.com/article/viewFile/228/pdf

Jeffrey Franklin’s dark writings foreshadowed his deadly attack on his family May 25, 2016, by Brian Lawson HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) — Even 18 years after high school student Jeffrey Franklin murdered his parents and attacked three of his siblings with a hatchet, his writings – collected by investigators after his arrest – still have the power to shock. Madison County District Attorney Rob Broussard – then an assistant DA – prosecuted Franklin. It was a death penalty case, but it never went to trial, as Franklin entered a guilty plea on the eve of the trial. The murders took place at the family’s home on Camelot Drive in south Huntsville on March 10, 1998. “If we didn’t have this material in front of us, I think we’d just have to speculate,” Broussard said. “But really when you absorb this material, you’re left with the feeling that there is evil present, and he is evil…. The Franklin case has drawn renewed attention because he is eligible for parole beginning in June. Franklin, who was 17 at the time of the murders, pleaded guilty to two counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder. He received five life sentences. No hearing date has been set, according to state records, but under Alabama law a person serving a life term is parole eligible after serving 15 years in prison…. Broussard described the writings as “the contents” of Franklin’s head in the run-up to the murders that took place at a home on Camelot Drive. “In this material, there’s meticulous planning, about how he’s going to kill his parents, even, even tactically,” Broussard said, “‘I know Dad will be home at this time and I’m going to be, I’ll wait by the front door, behind the little hutch, and I’ll hit him with a hammer. Mom will be out on a walk, when she comes back I’ll have the radio playing loudly, I’ll call Mom in the room and ask her what’s on the agenda for today, then I’ll kill her, and what about the brothers and sisters. Well, I’ll take them, I’ll strangle my little brother in this room and I’ll lure my other little brother into this room and strangle him. Then my sister I will rape her then I will finish her off.’ “And, it’s pretty chilling. All the way down to, ‘Even if they do catch me, I will plead insanity, and fool those stupid judges and prosecutors.’” The writings are also marked by an apparent fascination with the occult. “Devil worship-based,” Broussard said. “Very violent. Overtones of a sexual nature throughout the material. There are religious themes, sort of anti-God, kind of theme that runs through it. “I mean, the predominance, the predominant theme here, really is, that of Satanic worship, as you read through this material. And, very violent.”… Along with drug abuse, Franklin’s writings point to a darker side. McCutcheon described as Satanism. “He just felt like that he was doing what Satan, who at that particular time, based on his writings, was his god,” McCutcheon said. “He was doing what Satan wanted him to do.” But Tuten said he deosn’t believe the writings prove that. “I did not think he was actually devil-worshipping,” Tuten said. “His family was very staunch Catholics, and I think he was doing that out of rebellion, in an effort to make his parents mad. And I don’t there was anything else to it, other than that.” Broussard said the writings contain a Satanic and anti-God themes, along with descriptions and drawings of sexual violence….
http://whnt.com/2016/05/25/
jeffrey-franklins-dark-writings-foreshadowed-his-deadly-attack-on-his-family

North Carolina ‘Satanist’ And ‘Cannibal’ Arrested For Murder, Bodies Found In Shallow Graves In Backyard Tara Dodrill A “Satanist killer’s” home in North Carolina has been described as a house of horrors by law enforcement officers. Pazuzu Illah Algarad, 35, was arrested after the remains of two individuals were found behind his home in Clemmons, in a shallow grave. The North Carolina Satanist shared the home with Amber Nicole Burch, 24, who claimed to be his wife. Cynthia Lawson, Pazuzu Illah Algarad’s mother, also lived at the same address. The bodies found in a shallow grave in North Carolina have been identified as Tommy Welch and Joshua Wetzler. Both men were in their 30s. Amber Nicole Birch was also charged in the murders. Krystal Nicole Matlock, 28, has been charged as an accessory to murder. Clemmons police officers believe that the bodies of the two men were buried in 2009, with Algarad and Burch each committing one of the murders. Police video taken inside the home where satanic worship allegedly occurred is said to be “stomach-turning.” The walls were reportedly covered in pentagrams, depictions of the Devil, animal feces, and other putrid substances covering the floor and a “sea of trash” scattered about the North Carolina home. A friend of Pazuzu Illah Algarad claims that the alleged satanic worshipper “told everyone” about the bodies buried in shallow graves in the backyard – but no one believe him. Algarad also allegedly told his friend how Joshua Fredrick Wetzler and Tommy Dean Welch were killed in great detail. After killing the two men, the Satanist allegedly ate part of their bodies and burned the rest in a fire pit. Algarad’s neighbors told local authorities that he routinely performed both satanic rituals and animal sacrifices in his back yard as well. North Carolina law enforcement officers report that animal bones have been found on the property, and that more arrests are possible as the investigation moves along….
http://www.inquisitr.com/
1590101/north-carolina-satanist-and-cannibal-arrested-for-murder-bodies-found-in-shallow-graves-in-backyard

Feces-strewn floors, pentagrams on every wall and graves in the garden: Inside the North Carolina ‘Satanist killer’s’ house of horrors Pazuzu Illah Algarad, 35, was arrested October 5 after the remains of two people were found in a shallow grave behind the Clemmons home Algarad’s professed wife Amber Nicole Burch, 24, was also charged following the discovery of the bodies of Joshua Wetzler and Tommy Welch The couple lived in the filthy home with Algarad’s satanist mother Cynthia Lawson Krystal Nicole Matlock, 28, has been charged as an accessory to murder Police believe the victims were buried in 2009 and that Algarad killed one while Burch killed the other By Wills Robinson and Josh Gardner for MailOnline 6 November 2014 Police have released stomach-turning video taken from inside the disgusting home of accused North Carolina ‘Satanist killer’ Pazuza Algarad. Inside the Clemmons house, behind which police uncovered two long-dead bodies from a shallow grave last month, is a virtual sea of trash, animal feces and other putrescence within walls utterly covered in pentagrams and depictions of the Devil. The squalid scene lay behind a door covered in skulls and arcane symbols. Otherwise, the ranch-style brick home suggests none of the horrors police say took place inside and which date back as far as 2009. Early this past October, police dug two bodies out from the yard behind the home 35-year-old Algarad shared with his Satanist mother Cynthia Lawson and his self-proclaimed wife Amber Burch, 24. The first victim has been identified as 37-year-old Joshua Fredrick Wetzler while the second victim has been named as Tommy Dean Welch, 36. Police say they wound up dead and buried in the yard in 2009. Algarad was arrested and charged with murder October 5 after the two bodies were discovered at the house in Clemmons where neighbors say he has performed animal sacrifices and satanic rituals. A friend claims that he had ‘told everyone’ about the bodies, but nobody believed him, and he described how he killed them, ate part of them and then burned the rest in a fire pit. Burch was also charged with murder, while 28-year-old Krystal Nicole Matlock has been charged as an accessory with police alleging that she helped bury the bodies. Police have said they also found animal bones in the property and that more arrests as part of the investigation are possible…. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2823027/Feces-strewn-floors-trash-filled-rooms-pentagrams-wall-Inside-North-Carolina-Satanist-killer-s-house-horrors.html

Tennessee Satanist Gregory Scott Hale Arrested for Murder and Cannibalism By Kabita Maharana June 11, 2014 A Satanist who murdered and dismembered a woman before eating parts of her body, has been arrested in Manchester, Tennessee, according to reports. Gregory Scott Hale, 37, was arrested at his home in Coffee County and has been charged with first degree murder after he admitted to the murder of 36-year-old Lisa Hyder of Dekalb County, and performing the grisly ritual that followed. Devil worshipper Hale was reportedly seeking help from his neighbours to dispose of Hyder’s remains, when they became suspicious and contacted the police…. In the arrest affidavit, Hale said he cut off Hyder’s head, her hands and her feet before burying her torso outside his south-central Tennessee home. Hale also admitted eating portions of her corpse during a ritual. He claims to have never met the woman he killed. The deranged man was known to have performed satanic rituals using animal body parts, which he acquired from the slaughterhouse where he worked. Further evidence of his preoccupation with bloody ritual and death can be found on Hale’s Facebook page. http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/tennessee-satanist-gregory-scott-hale-arrested-murder-cannibalism-1452200

Child Abuse and Research

It’s easy to implant false childhood memories, right? Wrong, says a new review During the 1990s, groundbreaking work by psychologists demonstrated that human memory is flexible and vulnerable and that it’s very easy for people to experience “false memories” that feel real, but which are actually a fiction. One major implication of this was in the evaluation of adults’ accounts of how they’d been abused in childhood. In a recent journal editorial, for instance, one of the pioneers of false memory research argued that the same techniques used by therapists to recover repressed memories of abuse have been shown in the lab to “produce false memories in substantial numbers of research participants”. But there are some experts who believe the false memory researchers have gone too far. Chris Brewin and Bernice Andrews are two British psychologists with these concerns. In their new systematic review in Applied Cognitive Psychology they have taken a hard look at all the evidence, and they argue that we need to rethink the idea that false memories are so easily induced…. Consider one key experimental technique known as “imagination inflation”, which aims to provoke false memories in participants simply by asking them to write about fictitious events as if they had really happened. As a first step participants are surveyed about a range of things that might happen in a typical childhood, and then they are asked to use their imagination to write about one of these events that they believe didn’t actually happen in their own childhood. After this writing task, participants are asked again to rate how likely it is that they actually experienced this event in their own childhood. Overall, after completing the imaginative writing task, most people tend to shift their beliefs, to think that it’s more plausible that they may actually have experienced the event they wrote about. But in 13 of 14 the published datasets that Brewin and Andrews reviewed where this technique was used, belief only changed by one point or less on an eight-point scale (from strongly believing it didn’t happen on one end of the scale, to strongly believing it did on the other). As these shifts in belief often weren’t enough to tip participants over the scale’s half-way point, this supposed induction of “false memories” involved the sowing of doubt but not the creation of a new memory – most participants still considered that the events they’d written about hadn’t happen to them, it’s just that they were less confident in that belief…. The most powerful technique used to induce false memories is memory implantation. This approach involves parents and authority figures conniving over multiple sessions to persuade a participant that an event really happened in their childhood, going as far in some cases as doctoring photographs to produce incontrovertible proof. These studies often produce new recollections of some kind – up to 78 per cent of participants report new, false memories when doctored photographs are used – but Brewin and Andrews show that when an even more stringent definition of a false memory is used – that it must involve mental images – then this rate of new recollection drops to 25 per cent, and regarding memories that the participant is actually confident in, to only 15 per cent. Overwhelmingly, most participants in these studies disbelieve the childhood event ever happened, and they doubt any apparently new memories that arise, despite the pressure to think otherwise. Tellingly, when studies have collected ratings of the strength of any new memories from both the participants and the researchers, the researchers’ ratings are routinely higher. After hearing their parents’ stories, the participants typically become better able to narrate a plausible and even elaborate account that persuades the researcher a memory has been created. But often the participants themselves aren’t buying it, and they can draw the distinction between memory-like content and a true memory. It’s clear that false memory paradigms can shift how we evaluate past events, and can for a minority of participants provoke memory-like experiences. But the rates are very low and the effects variable, and the one that produces the strongest effect – memory implantation – is also the most invasive, and least likely to match the experiences of people in normal life or within a therapy session. Brewin and Andrews suggest their review “indicates that the majority of participants are resistant to the suggestions they are given” and that the rhetoric that false beliefs are easy to instil should be re-examined. http://digest.bps.org.uk/2016/05/its-easy-to-implant-false-childhood.html

Creating Memories for False Autobiographical Events in Childhood: A Systematic Review Brewin, C., & Andrews, B. (2016). Creating Memories for False Autobiographical Events in Childhood: A Systematic Review Applied Cognitive Psychology DOI: 10.1002/acp.3220 Summary Using a framework that distinguishes autobiographical belief, recollective experience, and confidence in memory, we review three major paradigms used to suggest false childhood events to adults: imagination inflation, false feedback and memory implantation. Imagination inflation and false feedback studies increase the belief that a suggested event occurred by a small amount such that events are still thought unlikely to have happened. In memory implantation studies, some recollective experience for the suggested events is induced on average in 47% of participants, but only in 15% are these experiences likely to be rated as full memories. We conclude that susceptibility to false memories of childhood events appears more limited than has been suggested. The data emphasise the complex judgements involved in distinguishing real from imaginary recollections and caution against accepting investigator-based ratings as necessarily corresponding to participants’ self-reports. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/acp.3220/abstract;jsessionid=5B1FB120F62930B9BB57453F86A0F172.f01t03

July 14, 2016 · Filed Under Newsletter 2016 - Issues 126 - 131

Issue 129 – July 2016

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