Issue 134 – May 2017


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 134 – May 2017

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.

Copyright 2017 – All rights reserved. No reproduction of any material without written permission from the editor and individual authors.


Special low income prices and reduced rates available before June 10, 2017.
The 2017 Annual Ritual Abuse, Secretive Organizations and Mind Control Conference
August 11 – 13, 2017 at the DoubleTree near Bradley International Airport Windsor Locks, CT
Freedom from Mind Control – Neil Brick
How to Decrease Internal System In-Fighting and Increase Respect for The Gifts of All Internal Parts – Eileen Aveni
Visual Art and Writing Workshops – Cynthia Mochowski and Pia Moorland
Mindfulness: Strive to Be in the Present – Manjot Singh Khalsa
Be Here Now – Manjot Singh Khalsa
https://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/
E-mail smartnews@aol.com if you have any questions

The Survivorship Ritual Abuse and Mind Control 2017 Conference
On May 19 – 21, 2017  Survivorship had two conferences at the Executive Inn & Suite in Oakland, CA.
Clinician’s conference:
Alison Miller will be presenting a full day presentation at this conference. Six CEs are available for professionals at this conference. Her presentation is titled: Working with Deliberately Structured Personality Systems
Saturday and Sunday Conference
Alison Miller – Confronting the Spiritual Issues in Ritual Abuse
Wendy Hoffman – Dirty Therapy – We know that satanic cult perpetrator groups infiltrate the very professions and organizations that survivors turn to for help.
Neil Brick – Freedom from Mind Control – Subliminal methods and mind control influence our lives in all areas.
https://survivorship.org/the-survivorship-ritual-abuse-and-child-abuse-2017-conference/
Please e-mail conference2017@survivorship.org if you have any questions.

This issue includes information on:  The Survivorship Ritual Abuse and Mind Control 2017 Conference, Alison Miller, Wendy Hoffman, Neil Brick, Subliminal methods, survivorship.org, Catholic priest Gerald Ridsdale, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Children of God church, David Berg, Movies about Cults, Holy Hell, Deprogrammed, Children of God, Colonia, John Smyth, human trafficking, sex slavery, Emma Willard School, Choate Rosemary Hall, forced or coerced intercourse, Former Penn State Administrators, Abuse Scandal, Jerry Sandusky, Gary Schultz, Tim Curley, Graham Spanier, Persons Against Non-State Torture, ritual abuse-torture, Andrew Brown, counts of possessing indecent images of children, Former Freemason Grand Master,  Alan Wright, Dr Phil, Child Trafficking Victim Comes Forward, Child Abuse May Lead to Early Puberty, modern-day slavery, I Am Jane Doe, victims of Sex Trafficking on Backpage.com,  Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), Satyananda Ashram, The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Australian cult The Family, Anne Hamilton-Byrne, Satanist’s Girlfriend Sentenced in Murders, satanic ritual and sacrifice,  1980 satanic cult murder, devil-worshipping prostitution ring, La Vernia sexual assault hazing scandal, Alleges Baylor Players Gang-Raped Women, U.S. Customs Officers Allegedly Assaulted Coworkers ‘Rape Table’ Ritual, Facebook’s internal rulebook on sex terrorism and violence, Mumbai cult leader sex racket operator


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/

Ridsdale’s fresh charges grow in number Andi Yu – AAP on March 10, 2017
More historical sex abuse charges have been laid against disgraced former Catholic priest Gerald Ridsdale. A prosecutor in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Friday said two new charges had been filed last week and this morning, adding to the original total of 36. The 38th charge relates to the sexual penetration of a child under 10, the lawyer said. Other charges include rape, buggery, indecent assault and assault offences against boys and girls across the state…..
https://au.news.yahoo.com/vic/a/34606087/ridsdale-faces-another-36-abuse-charges/#page1


Inside the Jehovah’s Witnesses: A ‘perfect storm’ for abuse  Rachel Browne March 10 2017
Then one morning a pair of Jehovah’s Witnesses knocked on the door to spread the word of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society. That was when Jodi’s nightmare began.
“These nice people were promising a community with no drugs, no alcohol and no crime – it sounded very appealing,” said Jodi, who asked that her name be withheld.
“They love bomb you. They sell you this vision of a perfect community. It is anything but. It’s indoctrination. It’s a cult, it really is. But they convince you it’s a religion.”
The Jehovah’s Witness church and its overarching body, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, came to the attention of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Sexual Abuse with a 2015 case study hearing more than 1000 allegations of paedophilia had been made against the organisation over 60 years yet not one complaint was reported to police.
This echoes Jodi’s experience. Now 35, she says she was abused by a church elder and his daughter when she was eight years old. When she was 13 she mustered up the courage to report the abuse to church authorities but was not believed and branded a liar. She left the church shortly after.
“They preach love but they don’t show love,” she said.
Another former member, Lara Kaput, describes the Jehovah’s Witnesses as “cruel”.
Ms Kaput, 44, was raised in a Jehovah’s Witness family in Victoria where close contact with people outside the church was discouraged, women were taught to obey men and the teachings of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society were unquestioned.
She left the Jehovah’s Witnesses when she was 19 and was shunned by the community. Over the past 25 years she’s had only sporadic contact with family members who are still involved in the church.
“You are ostracised from your entire family and friend network,” she said. “Prior to (leaving) they incorporated me as a regular family member. After that I was dead to them.”….
The commission has referred information about 514 alleged perpetrators within the Jehovah’s Witnesses to the police since the initial hearing….
http://www.smh.com.au/national/inside-the-jehovahs-witnesses-a-perfect-storm-for-abuse-20170309-guukur.html

Life after a sex cult: ‘If I’m not a member of this religion any more, then who am I?’
Michael Young grew up immersed in the Children of God church, which was labelled as a sect by the FBI and dogged by child abuse allegations
Sophia Tewa  Saturday 11 March 2017
Of his eight siblings, Michael Young was the most zealous street missionary. As a child growing up in Monterrey, Mexico, he preached up to 10 hours a day, three to four days each week. He spoke to strangers on the streets and often went door-to-door. He’d ask them, in broken Spanish, if they wished to go to heaven. If they said yes, he would pray for them. If they said no, he would ask for at least a donation to The Family International, a church formerly known as the sex cult The Children of God.
Young’s parents, devout American missionaries who moved to Mexico in 1998, told him that such work was his destiny and duty. The alternative was an afterlife spent in the slums of heaven, a place only slightly better than hell.
When he was eight years old, in 2000, Young’s family moved to Texas and started their missionary work anew in mini-malls and Walmart parking lots, handing out theological tracts about the imminent apocalypse that would soon wipe out the unbelievers.
Young says he was happy. “I was spiritual in a way that was kind of very obsessive and very determined,” he says.

But Young was unaware that his parents’ church was labelled as a sect by the FBI and hounded by child abuse allegations. In a 1974 report, The New York attorney general’s office had also called the Children of God a “cult”. The group’s practices drew investigations from the FBI and Interpol, which were on the hunt for its leader, David Berg. One anonymous informant spoke of rape, incarceration, kidnapping and incest inside the group….
The report documented Berg’s proclivity for incest and witnesses testified that child rape was used as an excuse to “increase the tribe”, leading to many pregnancies in various communes.
“A 14-year-old runaway who spent nine days at a COG commune testified that she was raped and because of her refusal to cooperate with the elders, was held in solitary confinement on no less than three separate occasions,” the report states.
The late actor River Phoenix, who grew up in the Children of God, told Details Magazine in 1991 that he was four when he first had sex while in the group….
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/11/children-of-god-church-sex-cult-texas-mexico-fbi

Top Movies about Cults You Can Watch on Netflix: “Holy Hell,” “Deprogrammed,” “Children of God,” “Colonia”  Charisse Van Horn April 5, 2017   Netflix provides plenty of movie and television watching experiences, but if you’re interested in learning about cults, you might find some of these movies make a great addition to your list. These include Holy Hell, Deprogrammed, Children of God, and Colonia.
A cult if often defined as an organization or group led by a leader that demands complete and total submission while discouraging freedom of thought and the expression of individualism. A form of mind control, cults frequently demand uniformity and submission and will use subversive techniques to ensure everyone obeys the group’s leader. While there are many different cults, most groups share similar traits. You can learn about cults and the tactics they use at the Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry (CARM) Cults, An Outline Analysis. This is not a secular site, but the explanation of a cult is applicable to all.
First and foremost, in order to ensure that individuality is suppressed, mind-control methods are utilized to prevent free will, free thinking, creative ideas, and the use of logic and reasoning. One of the most common ways to suppress individuality is by breaking off relationships with friends and family members, changing the names of members and referring to them by a new name, and forcing them to memorize the group’s teachings that originate with the cult leader.

Many cults operate on hierarchy type systems within the group that essentially provide control over the group. The leader will promote group members to positions where they are monitoring the cult members behavior and looking for any sign that a member is not following the leader’s orders. Punishments are often used to bring members who exhibit their own personality traits back into submission to the group and the leader.
Once a person is involved in a cult it can be difficult to leave and the emotional damage that is done can last a lifetime. Leaving is not an easy process but part of a life-long journey.
The following cult movies on Netflix show what happened inside the destructive group as well as the fight for freedom outside. They are all currently available on Netflix, but movies are always subject to change. The movies tell the stories from real survivors who lived their lives inside the cult, as well as one fictional dramatization based upon accounts of life inside a cult.
http://www.inquisitr.com/4121094/    top-movies-about-cults-you-can-watch-on-netflix-holy-hell-deprogrammed-children-of-god-and-colonia/

Claims John Smyth recruited victim – now head of top prep school – to help him carry out beatings  By Rozina Sabur 11 April 2017   A barrister at the centre of a child abuse scandal in the Church of England was assisted by one of his victims, now the headteacher of a top prep school, it has been alleged. ?John Smyth QC, who was investigated by police over claims he subjected young men to savage sadomasochistic beatings, recruited one of his victims, Simon Doggart, to carry out the abuse the BBC has claimed.
Doggart, who has been the head teacher of Caldicott preparatory school in Buckinghamshire for the last 20 years, was allegedly recruited by Smyth who asked him to administer further beatings to his friends.
?There is no suggestion that he has ever harmed any of his pupils at Caldicott Preparatory School.  “John Smyth beat me first, appallingly, with his usual force. Then Simon Doggart took over while John watched”, said one victim who wished to be anonymous.   “I recall immediately the absolute brutality of his beating – far, far worse than Smyth. There was no discussion, no emotion that I recall, just a fit sports man using all his force.  “Then it was over, this was going to be the new regime,” he told the BBC….
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/11/john-smyth-recruited-victim-now-head-top-prep-school-help/


Federal lawsuit filed in La Vernia sexual assault hazing scandal
ENS5.com Staff , KENS   April 12, 2017
LA VERNIA, Texas – The parents of a La Vernia rape victim filed a federal lawsuit seeking monetary damages after 10 students were arrested in connection with widespread hazing accusations at the high school, according to the family’s attorney.
The complaint was filed in the Western District of Texas Thursday “seeking injunctive relief and monetary damages arising from their son’s sodomization as part of a team ‘initiation’ ritual, allegedly known about by administrators and coaches in the La Vernia Independent School District.”
The lawsuit seeks damages for civil rights violations.
Specific allegations included in the lawsuit are as follows:
“The subject hazing rituals and traditions are a form of bullying and have been part of the culture of the School’s football team for at least a decade, according to news accounts, and possibly longer.
The teams’ coaches have sanctioned these rituals, while other school officials, including La Vernia ISD and the School’s principal, athletic director, and coaches, turned a blind eye toward the abuse, even after the abuse was reported to them.

Indeed, the Plaintiffs are but a fraction of the students who have been physically and sexually assaulted pursuant to these sadistic hazing rituals which include rape, sodomy, unlawful sexual penetration, and sexual abuse. In addition to seeking damages to compensate Plaintiffs for their psychological injuries, CHILD DOE, who still attends the School, also seek injunctive relief that will put an end to the hazing rituals, so that neither they nor future members of the School’s football team will be subjected to the same abuses Plaintiffs have suffered.”….
http://www.kens5.com/news/federal-lawsuit-filed-in-la-vernia-sexual-assault-hazing-scandal/430508982


Another La Vernia varsity football player arrested Wednesday  KENS  March 29, 2017
LA VERNIA – On Wednesday afternoon, another La Vernia High School athlete was put in handcuffs, charged with a felony offense of sexual assault. That makes 10 arrests so far: three adults and seven teens involved in a horrific hazing scandal.  Two court documents obtained by KENS 5 detail why two varsity football players were arrested on campus Monday, then another on Wednesday. When the news broke, it shocked the entire La Vernia community. As residents told us, this scandal is not one to forget, but they’re hoping everyone will at least forgive. Dustin Norman, Robert Olivarez Jr., and Alejandro Ibarra are three La Vernia High School varsity football players facing adult sexual assault charges. Criminal complaints reveal the assault happened in November of 2016 in a home off campus. The documents say that it was part of an initiation process after the 16-year-old victim moved from JV to the varsity football team.
The victim claims Norman, Olivarez, Ibarra and an underage suspect yelled “get him,” held him down on a bed, and used the threaded end of a CO2 air tank to sexually assault him.
Norman, Olivarez, and Ibarra are just three of 10 arrests so far. The others are minors…..
http://www.kens5.com/news/crime/another-la-vernia-hs-varsity-football-player-arrested-wednesday/426703757

New Lawsuit Alleges Baylor Players Gang-Raped Women As ‘Bonding Experience’
May 17, 2017  Camila Domonoske
A new federal lawsuit against Baylor University accuses football players of drugging and gang-raping young women as part of a hazing or bonding ritual — and the university of failing to investigate the pervasive sexual assault.
The players often took photographs and videos as they carried out the gang rapes, the suit alleges. It was filed by “Jane Doe,” who says she was raped by four to eight Baylor players in February 2012. Her Title IX suit says the school’s “deliberately indifferent response” effectively denied her educational opportunities.
The suit also describes dogfighting at football parties and burglaries carried out by football players, without consequence.

The alleged assaults and other criminal activities took place during former head football coach Art Briles’ tenure at the school in Waco, Texas.
Briles and former university President Ken Starr were both removed from their posts last year after a wave of sexual assault allegations against Baylor players.
The school’s regents said last May they were “horrified,” “shocked” and “outraged” to learn about the sexual violence that was happening on campus — and the “mishandling of reports” by the university…..
The suit also describes a culture of sexual assault woven into hazing rituals:
“Upon information and belief, prior to Plaintiff’s arrival at Baylor, members of the Baylor football team had already developed a system of hazing their freshman recruits by having them bring or invite freshman females to house parties hosted by members of the football team. At these parties, the girls would be drugged and gang raped, or in the words of the football players, ‘trains’ would be run on the girls.
“The gang rapes were considered a ‘bonding’ experience for the football players.
“Photographs and videotapes of the semi-conscious girls would be taken during the gang rapes and circulated amongst the football players. Based upon investigation, Plaintiff has confirmed that at least one, 21-second videotape of two female Baylor students being gang raped by several Baylor football players was circulated amongst football players…..
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/05/17/528804172/new-lawsuit-alleges-baylor-players-gang-raped-women-as-bonding-experience

Teen says she was forced to have sex with 1,000 men over 2 years   Mar 12, 2017  PHILADELPHIA — Lawyers in Pennsylvania say their client was sexually exploited at a motel for years, alleging the teen girl was a victim of human trafficking who was forced to have sex with more than 1,000 men.
“This child was forced into sex slavery, paid to do things with men double, triple, quadruple her age,” attorney Nadeem Bezar told reporters.
The teen’s lawyers are using Pennsylvania’s human trafficking law to sue the motel where they say their client was sexually exploited, marking the first civil suit under the law since it was enacted in 2014, CBS Philadelphia reports.
Lawyers allege employees at the Roosevelt Inn in northeast Philadelphia knew that a 14-year-old girl was being held against her will for two years. She was forced to have sex with more than 1,000 men for as little as $50, they said.
“She is devastated by what happened to her. She’s just trying to piece her life back together,” said Bezar.

The girl, now 17, wants the hotel to pay for what happened to her. Under the 2014 human trafficking law, she’s suing the motel’s owners, the motel’s management company and the manager himself. The lawsuit demands $50,000 in damages, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
According to the Inquirer, the girl managed to escape and reconnect with her family after two years at the motel. The Inquirer notes that those responsible for trafficking the teen were convicted and sentenced to prison. Her attorneys reportedly declined to identify her captors, fearing retaliation.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/philadelphia-teen-says-she-was-forced-to-have-sex-with-1000-men-over-2-years/

Report details decades of sex abuse at all-girls boarding school
By Joshua Rhett Miller  April 19, 2017
An elite all-girls boarding school in New York has released a report detailing nearly seven decades of sexual abuse and misconduct, with both male and female educators accused of engaging in improper relationships with students.
The 127-page report released Tuesday spans misconduct at the Emma Willard School in Troy from the late 1950s through the 2015-16 academic year, including instances of rape, sexual assault and harassment, as well as the “grooming” of young women for affairs.
In all, more than 75 people from the Emma Willard community participated in what the authors of the report called a candid and “sobering account of alumnae experiences.”….
The report comes just days after the results of a similar investigation was released by officials at Choate Rosemary Hall, a boarding school in Connecticut.
The report is a response, in part, to allegations made last year by former student Kat Sullivan, who said she had been raped by a male teacher, Scott Sargent, in 1998. Sargent, according to the Boston Globe, was fired after the incident but later found a job at a private school in Connecticut and did not face charges in the alleged rape.
“As a community, we collectively offer our compassion and support,” school officials said in a letter accompanying the report….
http://nypost.com/2017/04/19/report-details-decades-of-sex-abuse-at-all-girls-boarding-school/

Investigation uncovers decades of sex abuse at top prep school
By Associated Press  April 14, 2017
WALLINGFORD, Conn. — A new report names 12 former faculty and staff members at an elite Connecticut boarding school who allegedly engaged in sexual misconduct with students that went on for decades.
An investigator hired by Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford released the report Thursday that graphically recounts the alleged experiences of 24 former students.
The report says the alleged sexual misconduct took place between 1963 and 2010 and included “intimate kissing,” ”sexual intercourse” and “forced or coerced intercourse.”….
http://nypost.com/2017/04/14/report-reveals-decades-of-sexual-abuse-at-elite-boarding-school/

2 Former Penn State Administrators Plead Guilty To Roles In Abuse Scandal
March 13, 2017  Colin Dwyer
Two former high-level Penn State administrators pleaded guilty Monday to misdemeanor charges of child endangerment, for their roles in covering up child sex abuse by disgraced assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.
Former Vice President Gary Schultz and former Athletic Director Tim Curley each took a plea bargain that — if accepted by the judge — will carry a penalty of up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. As part of the plea bargain, the felony charges they originally faced were reduced to misdemeanors.
As Penn Live notes, the pleas also open the possibility they may testify against former university President Graham Spanier, the only remaining defendant in the case. Jury selection begins next week for Spanier, who has been charged with a conspiracy felony and a child endangerment misdemeanor.
The charges against all three men pertain to how they handled the multiple allegations of sexual abuse against Sandusky, who in 2012 was convicted of sexually abusing 10 boys over a 15-year span. “Prosecutors said Spanier, Curley and Schultz knew of complaints involving Sandusky showering with boys in 1998 and 2001,” The Associated Press reported in 2012….
“This was not a mistake by these men, this was not an oversight,” then-Pennsylvania Attorney General Linda Kelly said in 2012, as we noted at the time. “It was not misjudgment on their part. This was a conspiracy of silence by top officials to actively conceal the truth.”….
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/03/13/519996345/2-former-penn-state-administrators-plead-guilty-to-roles-in-abuse-scandal

‘Evil allowed to run wild’  Ex-Penn State president guilty in Sandusky case
Depicted by prosecutors as a bureaucrat whose inaction allowed “evil” to run wild on innocent children, the former president of Penn State University was convicted Friday of keeping a lid on the scandal surrounding notorious child-abusing coach Jerry Sandusky.
A jury in Harrisburg, Pa. deliberated 13 hours before finding Graham Spanier guilty of one count of child endangerment. The charge stemmed from Spanier’s handling of a complaint against Sandusky, a once-popular assistant football coach whose career at Penn State spanned three decades. Spanier was found not guilty of conspiracy and a second child endangerment count….
The trial centered on how Spanier and two other university leaders handled a complaint by a graduate assistant who said he reported seeing Sandusky sexually molesting a boy in a team shower in 2001. The administrators told Sandusky he could not bring children on to the campus any longer, but they did not report the matter to police or child welfare authorities.
Sandusky was not arrested until 2011 after an anonymous tip led prosecutors to investigate the shower incident. He was convicted the next year of sexually abusing 10 boys and is serving a decades-long prison sentence.
Four of the eight young men testifying at Sandusky’s trial said the abuse occurred after 2001.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2017/03/24/penn-state-graham-spanier-trial-jerry-sandusky/99595674/

Truro women working to end non-state torture Lynn Curwin   March 14, 2017 TRURO, N.S.
….In the Canadian Criminal Code there’s no law against ‘non-state torture.’ While some feel aggravated assault is suitable for dealing with such cases, the women disagree.
“Without saying it in words they’re pretty well saying that non-state torture is not as important as state torture,” said MacDonald. “People wouldn’t feel it fit to call state torture assault.”
There are places, including France, Queensland (Australia) and California, that have brought in legislation addressing non-state torture.
“There are no centres for rehabilitation for the survivors; that’s something that’s lacking all over the world,” said MacDonald. “We’re making some progress and we’ll keep at it until there’s a shift.”
She and Sarson formed Persons Against Non-State Torture and address issues including trafficking and ritual abuse-torture.
They don’t think people understand that non-state torture isn’t something that only happens in third world countries or large cities.
“It’s happening around us,” added MacDonald. “No country has evolved enough that we’re not harming one another and there’s no such thing as a day off when you’re an activist.”
http://www.trurodaily.com/news/local/2017/3/14/truro-women-working-to-end-non-state-torture.html

‘THIEVES PLANTED VILE PICS’ Private school governor claimed child abuse images on his computer were ‘put there by burglars’
Andrew Brown, 61, told cops the intruders planted the illegal files before trying to blackmail him, jury hears By Felix Allen 23rd March 2017
A GOVERNOR of a prestigious private school claimed child abuse images on his computer were put there by burglars, a court heard.
Andrew Brown, 61, told cops the intruders planted the illegal files before trying to blackmail him.  Thieves who raided his home in October 2015 swiped three memory sticks along with £300 cash and other valuables, a jury heard.
“At that stage no one thought it was more than a burglary,” said prosecutor Thomas Brown.
But three days later the home owner received a blackmail note from the burglars.
The prosecutor said: “It contained three indecent images of children and a demand for £8,000 in cash – otherwise the person writing the note would expose Andrew Brown.”
The note contained a phone number which allowed police to trace the author, Ryan Penfold, who later served a prison sentence for the burglary.

He had sold the memory sticks for £25 and told an associate “I do not want these, they contain child pornography”, the court was told.
Brown told police he knew nothing about how the images ended up on the stolen the memory sticks and suggested the burglar had put them there, jurors heard.
Police then discovered further images on Brown’s desktop computer, laptop and a separate hard drive.
He said someone else must have put the pictures on the devices, the court heard….
Brown denies three counts of possessing indecent images of children, three counts of making indecent images of children, two counts of possessing extreme pornographic images and one counts of possessing a prohibited image of a child.
The trial at Peterborough Crown Court continues.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3162479/ kings-private-school-peterborough-governor-child-abuse-images-trial/

Former Freemason Grand Master facing ten years in jail after being caught in sting by police as he waited to meet 14-year-old boy
Alan Wright, 75, was arrested last November trying to meet a ’14-year-old boy’
Wright had sent him pictures of his privates and arranged to meet over Grindr
But the boy was actually police officer working on an online sting operation.
The secret society member is now facing up to 10 years in prison
By Luke Barnes For Mailonline   5 February 2017
Suffolk police had set up an online sting operation to catch Alan Wright (pictured) with one officer posing as a 14-year-old boy
A former Freemason Grand Master is facing jail after he was caught in a police sting trying a lure a child into sex.
Alan Wright, 75, regularly went to meetings at Freemasons Hall in St James Street London.
He was described as a ‘significant’ figure of the organisation which is also popular with Prince Michael.
Wright was arrested last November at Bury St Edmunds railway station in Suffolk, the Express reported.
He thought he was there to meet a 14-year-old boy he’d talked to online, and sent pictures of his private parts.
But instead when he arrived he was greeted by Suffolk police, who’d set up an online sting after gathering information on Wright’s private life….
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4193914/Former-Freemason-caught-child-sex-sting-police.html

Dr Phil – March 21, 2017 – Child Trafficking Victim Comes Forward
Kendall claims the world of sex trafficking is the only life she’s ever known. The young woman claims her parents gave her – at birth – to a person she refers to as “the man who owns me.”
Claiming she was forced to have sex from an early age, Kendall says, “One of my first memories was thinking that it was normal for men to be fondling babies.”
She claims as part of an international sex trafficking ring, she traveled the world and was both sexually and physically abused by “extremely rich and prominent members of society,” her entire life – until she escaped.
“Since I left, everything has been so hard, and the only one who can help me is the man who owns me.”  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJNrzYHE-2s

Women tied to cult leader convicted of trafficking  By: Ador Vincent S. Mayol  March 29th, 2017
TWO women were convicted last Tuesday for recruiting girls to join a local cult where they were later molested by its founder.
Judge Jacinto Fajardo of the Regional Trial Court Branch 53 found Elvira Daño and Brenda Dioquino guilty of qualified trafficking and violating Republic Act 7610 or the Special Protection of Children Against Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act.
They were meted life imprisonment and ordered to pay a fine of P2 million.
Daño and Dioquino were also mandated to jointly pay the offended parties P200,000 as moral damages and P100,000 as exemplary damages.
The primary accused, Sulpicio “Daddy Divine” Daño, in his ’80s, died in 2013.
In his March 28 ruling, Judge Fajardo gave credence to the testimonies of three minors, aged 14, 15, and 16, who were sexually molested by Daddy Divine….
http://cebudailynews.inquirer.net/127800/women-tied-cult-leader-convicted-trafficking

Child Abuse May Lead to Early Puberty  By Rick Nauert PhD
New research establishes that child abuse can influence physical development as well as psychological maturity. Pennsylvania State University investigators discovered young girls who are exposed to sexual abuse are likely to physically mature and hit puberty earlier than non-abused peers.
While it has long been known that maltreatment can affect a child’s psychological development, the new study shows that the stress of abuse can impact the physical growth and maturation of adolescents as well.
Drs. Jennie Noll, director of the Child Maltreatment Solutions Network, and Idan Shalev, assistant professor of biobehavioral health, found that young girls who are exposed to childhood sexual abuse are likely to physically mature and hit puberty at rates eight to twelve months earlier than their non-abused peers.
Their findings appear in the Journal of Adolescent Health.
“Though a year’s difference may seem trivial in the grand scheme of a life, this accelerated maturation has been linked to concerning consequences, including behavioral and mental health problems and reproductive cancers,” said Noll.

The body is timed so that physical and developmental changes occur in tandem, assuring that as a child physically changes, they have adequate psychological growth to cope with mature contexts. “High-stress situations, such as childhood sexual abuse, can lead to increased stress hormones that jump-start puberty ahead of its standard biological timeline,” Noll explained.
“When physical maturation surpasses psychosocial growth in this way, the mismatch in timing is known as maladaptation.”
In the past, there have been studies loosely linking sexual abuse to maladaptation and accelerated maturation, but the longitudinal work completed by Noll and her team has been the most conclusive and in-depth to date, beginning in 1987 and following subjects throughout each stage of puberty….
“Due to increased exposure to estrogens over a longer period of time, premature physical development such as this has been linked to breast and ovarian cancers. Additionally, early puberty is seen as a potential contributor to increased rates of depression, substance abuse, sexual risk taking, and teenage pregnancy.”
https://psychcentral.com/news/2017/03/29/child-abuse-may-lead-to-early-puberty/118332.html

What Is Human Trafficking?  Tom Lowery, Contributor 03/26/2017
Human trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery. It’s the exploitation of people and involves the use of force, fraud or coercion to obtain some type of labor or commercial sex act.
Contrary to popular misconception, Human Trafficking exists in every country, including the United States. If you think it’s always about foreigners and poor people then it’s imperative for you acquaint yourself with the facts.
Victims can be any age, race, gender or nationality. They can also come from any socioeconomic group. They’re not dirty or sex mad or stupid. They’re victims of a wide network of underground criminals….
It’s estimated that Human Trafficking generates many billions of dollars in profits per year; second only to drug trafficking as the most profitable form of transnational crime.
Award-winning filmmaker Mary Mazzio (whom I’ve previously written about in my article We Are All Jane Doe), is the producer and director of the film I Am Jane Doe. This documentary followed the heart breaking journey of several middle-school daughters, victims of Sex Trafficking on Backpage.com….
“I was also struck by the fact that federal judges were excusing Backpage from all liability,” said Mazzio. “Even alleged criminal activity is shielded by an outdated internet freedom law, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, in a particularly stunning decision, told these Jane Doe children that even if Backpage participated in the federal crime of sex trafficking, the case had to be dismissed. It simply did not make any sense to me that it was legal to host ads for the sale of children here in the United States.” ….

Other types of crimes related to Human Trafficking include Forced Labor and Slave Labor. The International Labor Organization estimates are frightening:
Almost 21 million people are victims of forced labor – 11.4 million women and girls and 9.5 million men and boys.
Almost 19 million victims are exploited by private individuals or enterprises and over 2 million by the state or rebel groups.
Of those exploited by individuals or enterprises, 4.5 million are victims of forced sexual exploitation.
Forced labor in the private economy generates US$ 150 billion in illegal profits per year.
Domestic work, agriculture, construction, manufacturing and entertainment are among the sectors most concerned. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/what-is-human-trafficking_us_58d85f7ee4b0c0980ac0e789

I AM JANE DOE – TRAILER  Mary Mazzio
I AM JANE DOE chronicles the epic battle that several American mothers are waging on behalf of their middle-school daughters, victims of sex trafficking on Backpage.com, the adult classifieds section that for years was part of the iconic Village Voice.
Narrated by Academy Award-nominee Jessica Chastain, directed by award-winning filmmaker Mary Mazzio, and produced by Mazzio and Academy-Award nominee, Alec Sokolow, the film is a gut-wrenching human story and fresh look at a social and legal issue that affects every community in America.  For more, please visit IamJaneDoeFilm.com  https://www.youtube.com/  watch?v=Nt8jpxA_AY0

Europe Overtakes U.S. to Become Global Hub for Child Abuse Websites, Study Finds  By Eleanor Ross On 4/3/17   Europe is now the global hub of websites hosting child pornography, after a 19 percent jump in content since last year, a new report has found.
The report, conducted by the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), found that Europe hosted the greatest number of websites with graphic images and videos of children. The Netherlands has become the country with the most online sexual imagery of children in Europe. (For the purpose of the report, Europe includes Russia and Turkey.)
The IWF is a non-profit, responsible for finding and removing graphic sexual content from the internet.
Until recently, most child sexual abuse images were found in the United States (57 percent), but this has now shifted to Europe, which hosts 60 percent of all material says the report.
Child abuse content has fallen in the United States partly because of work undertaken by the U.S. industry to tackle the problem. Susie Hargreaves, director of the IWF, told the BBC criminals are forced to search harder for host websites where they can upload child pornography. Just 37 percent of abusive images now come from the United States.
“The situation is reversed from previous years. Europe is now the biggest host of child sexual abuse imagery, rather than North America,” Hargreaves told the BBC.  There have been no changes in Europe’s policy that would explain the shift, according to the IWF report….
http://www.newsweek.com/europe-worst-hosts-most-child-abuse-websites-study-finds-578022

Child trafficking in UK hits record high, figures show
Number of child victims referred rise by 30 per cent in a year, with biggest surge among British children and youngsters from countries affected by conflict      May Bulman   April 3, 2017
Child trafficking referrals in the UK have hit a record high after rising by 30 per cent in a year, statistics have revealed.
The number of children referred to the UK Government’s National Referral Mechanism (NRM), which identifies victims of human trafficking, increased to 1,278 in 2016, the highest figure on record, according to the latest figures from the National Crime Agency.
More than a third of all potential victims of trafficking were children aged 18 and under, with a majority of children drawn into exploitative labour, including forced criminality, such as cannabis cultivation. Overall, the NRM identified 3,805 potential victims of trafficking in 2016, a 17 per cent increase on 2015…..
All reported forms of exploitation affecting children – domestic servitude, labour exploitation and sexual exploitation – increased by considerable percentages, indicating a worrying diffusion of the types of abuses suffered by children.
Alarmingly, while numbers of potential victims of trafficking increased, positive conclusive decisions — which enable victims to access support — decreased to the lowest point in NRM history to 635, compared with 1,028 the previous year….
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/child-trafficking-referrals-in-uk-hit-record-high-figures-show-a7665201.html

‘My upbringing broke me’: Disturbing insider account reveals life growing up in ‘cult-like’ yoga ashram where a self-styled guru sexually abused and humiliated children
    The woman, who did not give her real name, lived at the ashram from age four
She was isolated from her mother when she lived there in the 70s and 80s
And children were punished for the smallest infractions, she revealed
The woman said her childhood left her broken and unable to hold down a job
By Khaleda Rahman For Daily Mail Australia
4 April 2017
A woman who was raised inside a notorious ‘cult-like’ yoga ashram has revealed horrific details of her traumatic childhood.
The woman, identified only as Sandra although that is not her real name, opened up about how her upbringing inside the Satyananda Ashram – now known as Mangrove Yoga Ashram – left her broken in a heart-breaking piece published on news.com.au.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse found children in the ashram – located in the foothills of Mangrove Mountain on the NSW central coast were raped, sexually assaulted and threatened with violence….
Sandra said she was forced to live in the ashram by her by her mother, who was attracted to the alternative lifestyle.
Once she got there though, she was isolated from her mother as renouncing family members and ‘worshipping’ the guru only was one of the ashram’s rules….
She says children were punished for the smallest things, like talking on the bus ride from school, had their heads flushed in the public toilets for not brushing their teeth, and were beaten in public is they said anything negative about the guru.
Sandra also revealed how at times, women and girls were forced to bathe in the creek where the water was below freezing, instead of taking hot showers like the men.
She said she didn’t cope with the tough conditions – and began taking drugs at 14 and was in a self-induced coma for three days when she was 16….
As an adult, she says she went from one abusive relationship to another – and ended up having a child with a physically abusive paedophile. Since discovering the latter fact, Sandra says she moved her two children away. She and her family have been in hiding ever since….
Last year, the royal commission found Satyananda Ashram was insensitive and defensive in its handling of abuse complaints from the 1970s and 1980s against its former spiritual leader Swami Akhandananda Saraswati.

The commission released its report into the ashram in September and revealed a culture of ‘violence and humiliation’ prevented victims from reporting the abuse – and some were even threatened with murder.
Ten women and one man gave evidence saying they had been sexually abused by him as children at the ashram.
Children as young as four were physically abused by Akhandananda or his former partner Shishy, former residents of the ashram reported.
The abuse ranged from slaps to repeated striking with heavy objects and forms of discipline included hard labour, starvation and humiliation through public nudity.
One victim said she was stripped, held down and had the skin between her breasts cut at the age of seven in an initiation ceremony – before Akhandananda raped her….
http://www.dailymail.com.uk/news/article-4379090/Woman-raised-Mangrove-Yoga-Ashram-cult-reveals-horror.html

Troubling details of life inside notorious Australian cult The Family have been laid bare
April 3, 2017  THE disturbing details of life inside infamous Australian doomsday cult The Family have been laid bare by survivors.  The notorious religious sect, whose leader Anne Hamilton-Byrne proclaimed she was the female reincarnation of Jesus Christ, preached a combination of Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity.
Under the influence of LSD, Hamilton-Byrne claimed she had a vision to collect children and raise them as her family to protect them from the coming global apocalypse.
The family, who represented a “master race”, would then educate the world after Armageddon.
Twenty eight children were allegedly taken and raised by the cult and dressed identically and had their hair bleached blond.
A number of professionals, including doctors and lawyers joined the cult under Hamilton-Byrne.
As the cult continued through the 1970s and 1980s, it was hit with allegations of child abuse.
Children who grew up in the cult were the subject of a documentary released last year which premiered at the Melbourne International Film Festival.
Now a book, The Family, written by Rosie Jones and Chris Johnston exposes what life was like within the sect, The Mirror reports.
The book includes testimonies from ex-followers of the sect and police involved in investigating it….
An extract from the book reads:
“The monotony would suddenly be broken by wild outbursts of punishment and violent anger.
“The children never knew exactly how to escape punishment because the rules changed all the time.
“They were not allowed to say they were unhappy.

“The children became hyper-vigilant, traumatised, anxious: scared of being punished but not sure how to prevent it.
“Compliance and silence became important to them, to save themselves.
“They learned to be helpless, while all the adults had absolute power.”
Allegations surrounding the cult include strict discipline that included beatings and a lack of food.
The children were reportedly denied access to the outside world and allegedly doped up with psychiatric drugs including LSD…..
http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/true-stories/troubling-details-of-life-inside-notorious-australian-cult-the-family-have-been-laid-bare/news-story/dc009f5430706ca3d3c406c158754901

Satanist’s Girlfriend Sentenced in Murders of Two Men in North Carolina
By Jeff Truesdell  March 10, 2017
An avowed satanist’s girlfriend, accused of killing one man and helping to bury the body of another in a suburban North Carolina backyard, pleaded guilty Thursday to her part in the crimes.
Authorities who accused Amber Nicole Burch, 27, first found themselves investigating a link to possible satanic ritual and sacrifice after the bones of two missing men, Joshua Wetzler, 32, and Tommy Welch, 31, were discovered in 2014 behind the red-bricked Clemmons home where Burch had lived with her boyfriend, Pazuzu Illah Algarad, and his mother.
Prosecutors charged Burch and Algarad — the former John Larson, a “weird goth kid” in the words of a former classmate, who had dropped out of school following his parents’ divorce and legally changed his name to mimic that of a demon in The Exorcist — with the murders.
A third person, Krystal Nicole Matlock, 30, was charged with accessory after the fact to murder.
On Thursday, Burch pleaded guilty in Forsyth County Superior Court to second-degree murder, armed robbery and accessory after the fact to murder, reports the Winston-Salem Journal….
“They seemed like a regular family with a young boy,” former neighbor Keith Bryson said, “but over the years the boy went astray,” developing a fascination for evil that he accented with a split tongue and teeth filed into spikes.
“He had a pentagram and ‘666’ tattoos all over his body,” Bryson said after Burch and Algarad were arrested. “He told me he practiced satanism.”
As part of an investigation into an unrelated criminal case, Algarad earlier told psychiatrists he engaged in religious practices that required a monthly animal sacrifice.

Police who entered the murder scene in 2014 to investigate found a home then filled with garbage, mold and animal feces. Algarad already was on their radar, having been charged as an accessory after the fact when he allegedly allowed the assailant in an involuntary shooting death to stay at the house in 2010. The next year, 2011, he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault after choking his mother, Cynthia Lawson. http://people.com/crime/satanists-girlfriend-sentenced-in-murders-of-two-men-in-north-carolina/

Lillelid murders still haunt East Tennessee, 20 years later  Matt Lakin , USA TODAY NETWORK April 2, 2017    ….One gunman turned to the other.  “What do you think we should do?” he asked. “Do you think we should let them go or do you think we should kill them?”
Six people, all serving life sentences with no chance of parole, know what happened next that Sunday evening of April 6, 1997. Each tells a slightly different story. In each story, another fires the fatal shots.
John Huffine can recite the events from memory. The retired detective knows every inch of the spot along Payne Hollow Lane in rural Greene County, right down to the number of feet from the spot where the van parked to the main road, to the nearest house, to the ditch where deputies found four bodies lying in a bloody pile. Twenty years later, he can point out all the landmarks.
….He remembers the killers, too, whose names, mug shots and fascination with devil worship, blood-drinking and the occult topped front pages, TV newscasts and tabloid covers for months after the killing, and whose motives still drive online debates among true-crime aficionados. Natasha Wallen Cornett, then 18; Karen Howell, then 17; Joseph Lance Risner, then 20; Jason Blake Bryant, then 14; Joseph Dean Mullins, then 19; and Crystal Rena Sturgill, then 18, all deny to this day they knew what was about to happen on the side of that gravel road.

The longtime investigator knows how the killers met their victims, can tell the story of how the family, devout Jehovah’s Witnesses headed home from a religious convention, stopped at the rest area on Interstate 81 South at just the right time to cross paths with six Kentucky youths on the run from police, parents and a community they hated. He knows the path they followed from there to the murder scene. He knows how many shots were fired, in what order and from what distance.
….Life had revolved around conflict, rebellion and escape since the time Cornett turned a teenager in the southeast Kentucky town of Betsy Layne. She starved herself to look thinner. She slashed her arms with razors and licked the blood. She wore black, pierced her eyebrows, read books on witchcraft and called herself Satan’s daughter. At age 14, she threatened her mother with a knife. The mother tried in vain to find treatment for her. Cornett told friends she’d talked to angels and demons since age 4. She wrote about the apparitions in her diary and gave them names, in between fantasies of macabre violence and tirades against her mother.
She’d tasted life away from home twice. The first taste came when she married at age 17 in a ceremony where the bride and her maids of honor dressed in black and wore chains. That marriage ended less than a year later when her husband dropped her off at her mother’s home and drove away without a word. The second came a few months later when Cornett and a friend drove to New Orleans and lived on the streets before coming home. She told friends she wanted to go back, that she dreamed of living out one of her favorite movies, “Natural Born Killers,” Oliver Stone’s ode to mayhem about a pair of lovers who leave a trail of bodies on their way to the Mexican border.
….That idea came up again during a Friday night party of drinking beer and getting high in a room at the Colley Motel in Pikeville, Ky., on April 4, 1997. Most of those in the room had known each other since at least high school, staying on and off with Cornett at her mother’s trailer. Karen Howell, a friend Cornett called her “soulmate,” shared a fascination with the occult and stories of childhood visions and sexual abuse. Dean Mullins was dating Cornett; Joe Risner had dated Cornett and now Howell. Crystal Sturgill, a newcomer no longer welcome in her home after reporting her stepfather for sexual abuse, had found a home with Cornett.

….News reports and word-of-mouth later told of séances, satanic rituals and an attempt to burn the number “666” into the motel room carpet. Bell, the prosecutor, believes Cornett birthed the plan there for a Mexico-bound murder spree. Witnesses say Cornett cried and commiserated with Howell about fighting with her mother, hating life in Kentucky and wanting out. Risner, the oldest of the group at 20, was on spring break from the local tech center, where he’d been taking trade classes after earning his GED. He had a car, a Chevrolet Citation registered in his mother’s name. He was up for a trip.
….Huffine, the detective, doesn’t buy any single version of the story told by the six. The story of a single shooter doesn’t match up with the forensics to him. He shakes his head at the popular theory of Satanism as a motive, too. In his view, it’s as simple as six people on the run looking for leg room and a working engine.
….“We always thought it might have been some kind of initiation,” Bell recalled. “They did it to get the van, and maybe that was the initial motivation. But I think they took advantage of the situation to engage in a satanic ritual. I think everybody participated in some fashion. I don’t have any direct proof of that. It’s all circumstantial, but that’s what I believe happened.”….
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/crime/2017/04/02/lillelid-murders-haunt-east-tennessee-20-years-later/99876020/

Woman convicted of 1980 satanic cult murder up for parole  by NBC 10 NEWS  Monday, March 27th 2017
A convicted killer who was involved in a devil-worshipping prostitution ring nearly 40 years ago will appear before a parole board in Natick Tuesday.
Police said Robin Murphy, 54, was 17 years old when she pleaded guilty to murdering Karen Marsden.
But authorities believe she’s responsible for killing two other people, as well, including Doreen Levesque and Barbara Ann Raposa.
The idea that Murphy has a chance at parole sends chills down the spine of a former detective, who is now a Massachusetts state representative.
“I arrested thousands of people — 40 homicides I investigated. I have never met anyone who is more vicious than she,” Rep. Alan Silvia told NBC 10 News.
Murphy was part of a satanic cult and prostitution ring that held rituals in area woods during the late 70s and early 80s.
While Silvia said Murphy was the ringleader and mastermind behind three homicides, Murphy only plead guilty to the 1980 murder of Marsden. She was the third and final victim….
Meanwhile, her testimony, which she since recanted, sent Carl Drew and Andrew Maltais to jail for life. She was acquainted with both men during the time of the murders….
http://turnto10.com/news/local/woman-convicted-of-1980-satanic-cult-murder-up-for-parole

Gauteng MEC: Police probing satanic links in Soweto boy’s murder
Gauteng Community Safety MEC Sizakele Nkosi-Malobane has urged community members to allow police to do their work instead of taking the law into their own hands.
Tebogo Tshwane 4/12/2017
JOHANNESBURG – Gauteng Community Safety MEC Sizakele Nkosi-Malobane says authorities are investigating possible satanic links and drug abuse in the murder of a five-year-old boy in Orlando East, Soweto.  Tinyiko Mongwe was stabbed to death by a 21-year-old man while playing with friends on Monday.  Residents claim the alleged murderer drank the child’s blood as part of a satanic ritual….
http://ewn.co.za/2017/04/12/nkosi-malobane-says-police-looking-into-soweto-alleged-satanic-killing


U.S. Customs Officers Allegedly Assaulted Coworkers In ‘Rape Table’ Ritual
One victim says it’s too extreme to be called “hazing.”
By Hilary Hanson   May 13, 2017
Several officers of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency have come forward with bombshell allegations against their colleagues at Newark Airport in New Jersey.
Three officers told NBC New York they were sexually assaulted as part of disturbing rituals that involved being duct-taped to a table other officers called the “rape table.” The victims said that while no one ever removed their clothes, other officers would forcibly rub their genital areas on the victims strapped to the table, as well as grab them. This practice has been happening for years, according to the officers.
One victim said that “hazing” is an understatement of what happened to them.
“Hazing wouldn’t do this justice,” CBP officer Vito Degironimo told NBC. “This is complete assault. They take you in a room and your fellow officers are all watching as officers grab you.”….
Charlie Smith, who was identified by the Daily Beast as a CBP agent,  corroborated the trio’s allegations in an interview with the news outlet, saying he’s heard stories of 17 similar assaults.
“Everybody has the same story,” he told The Daily Beast. “Their MO is always the same. There’s a supervisor who turned the lights off in the room. They’d call [the victim] into the room, so it was pitch-black when he came in. They threw him down on the table and did what they did.”….
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/customs-officers-newark-hazing-rape-table_us_5915d7bce4b0031e737d4297

Revealed: Facebook’s internal rulebook on sex, terrorism and violence
Leaked policies guiding moderators on what content to allow are likely to fuel debate about social media giant’s ethics
Nick Hopkins Sunday 21 May 2017
Facebook’s secret rules and guidelines for deciding what its 2 billion users can post on the site are revealed for the first time in a Guardian investigation that will fuel the global debate about the role and ethics of the social media giant.
The Guardian has seen more than 100 internal training manuals, spreadsheets and flowcharts that give unprecedented insight into the blueprints Facebook has used to moderate issues such as violence, hate speech, terrorism, pornography, racism and self-harm.
Facebook will let users livestream self-harm, leaked documents show
Internal manual shows how site tries to strike balance between allowing cries for help and discouraging copycat behaviour
There are even guidelines on match-fixing and cannibalism.
The Facebook Files give the first view of the codes and rules formulated by the site, which is under huge political pressure in Europe and the US.
They illustrate difficulties faced by executives scrabbling to react to new challenges such as “revenge porn” – and the challenges for moderators, who say they are overwhelmed by the volume of work, which means they often have “just 10 seconds” to make a decision.
“Facebook cannot keep control of its content,” said one source. “It has grown too big, too quickly.”
Many moderators are said to have concerns about the inconsistency and peculiar nature of some of the policies. Those on sexual content, for example, are said to be the most complex and confusing…..

The Guardian has seen documents supplied to Facebook moderators within the last year. The files tell them:
Remarks such as “Someone shoot Trump” should be deleted, because as a head of state he is in a protected category. But it can be permissible to say: “To snap a bitch’s neck, make sure to apply all your pressure to the middle of her throat”, or “fuck off and die” because they are not regarded as credible threats.
Videos of violent deaths, while marked as disturbing, do not always have to be deleted because they can help create awareness of issues such as mental illness.
Some photos of non-sexual physical abuse and bullying of children do not have to be deleted or “actioned” unless there is a sadistic or celebratory element.
Photos of animal abuse can be shared, with only extremely upsetting imagery to be marked as “disturbing”…..
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/may/21/revealed-facebook-internal-rulebook-sex-terrorism-violence

Leak: Secret Facebook rules on what violence, self-harm and child abuse can be posted
Internal Facebook documents advising moderators on what content is to be censored or allowed has leaked.
By Darlene Storm, Computerworld  May 22, 2017
Facebook allows users to livestream self-harm, post videos of violent deaths and photos of non-sexual child abuse, but comments which threaten to harm President Donald Trump are to be deleted, according to Facebook’s secret rule books for monitoring what its 2 billion users can post.
The Guardian got hold of leaked copies of over 100 internal Facebook manuals and documents that tell moderators how to handle content which includes violence, sex, hate speech, terrorism, nudity, self-harm, revenge porn and more controversial content – even cannibalism.
The giant social network has increasingly come under fire for how it handles disturbing content and for depending too heavily on users to report such content. At the beginning of May, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the company would hire 3,000 more people – on top of the 4,500 moderators it had – “to review the millions of reports we get every week.”
The leaked internal guidelines were given to Facebook moderators “within the last year,” the Guardian said. The documents show the fine line Facebook teeters on when deciding what content to censor without being accused of squashing free speech…..
http://www.computerworld.com/article/3197551/internet/leak-secret-facebook-rules-on-what-violence-self-harm-and-child-abuse-can-be-posted.html

Mumbai cult leader, sex racket operator: Sunil Kulkarni remained in the shadows
Sunil Kulkarni has been arrested on charges of trafficking and pushing girls into drug abuse. Cops are focusing on Nagpur, Mumbai and Delhi to nail him.
Apr 26, 2017  Rahul Mahajani and Manish Pathak Hindustan Times
He has been arrested on charges of trafficking and pushing girls into drug abuse. And police are focussing on three cities – Nagpur, Mumbai and Delhi – in their bid to nail Kulkarni, who came up against the law after parents of two young women in the Mumbai suburb of Malad moved the Bombay high court saying he had lured their daughters into a sex and drugs racket.
The police are looking for these two young women, who have gone into hiding, to find out what’s going on in the cult. The police say Kulkarni, who is in custody, is denying any wrong-doing and telling them that the two women will vouch for him.
The police are, however, exploring various angles. Sex clips found on Kulkarni’s phone and a pen drive has led the Mumbai crime branch to Delhi. Police suspect Kulkarni operates several firms there under different names.
Kulkarni’s world began to crumble on April 18, a couple from Malad who had approached the Bombay high court in December last year with a plea that the police trace Kulkarni, who they accused of luring their daughters, aged 21 and 23, into a ‘sex and drugs cult’ through social media. Last Wednesday, two more couples from the city approached the HC with similar allegations. Kulkarni almost got away as the Mumbai police found nothing to corroborate the claims, but the HC put its foot down and ordered the police to file a FIR.
Facebook and Twitter appear to be Kulkarni’s preferred hunting ground. On Twitter, he invited young women to be part of the fashion industry. On May 23, 2016, Kulkarni tweeted through his personal account, “We are launching a new promising television channel IFTV Indian Fashion Television. We invite support (sic).”….
“Once one is into the group, one is administered drugs, is hypnotised, and is made to have physical relations with Kulkarni himself, and with several others,” the plea in the HC claims. The plea also claims that Kulkarni has criminal antecedents and has various cases registered against him both in Mumbai and Delhi…..
http://www.hindustantimes.com/mumbai-news/mumbai-s-shifu-sunkriti-cult-drugs-and-sex-racket-leader-man-who-operates-in-the-shadows/story-HvT7J43XNlMrDLqB9fd1eN.html

May 23, 2017 · Filed Under Newsletter 2016 - Issues 132 - 137