Issue 135 – July 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 135 – July 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.

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
Special low income prices and reduced rates available.
How to Decrease Internal System In-Fighting and Increase Respect for The Gifts of All Internal Parts – Eileen Aveni
Freedom from Mind Control – Neil Brick
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

Video Presentations from The Survivorship Ritual Abuse and Mind Control 2017 Conference https://survivorship.org/the-survivorship-ritual-abuse-and-child-abuse-2017-conference/

Survivorship Conference 2017 – Promo Video https://youtu.be/mgq6z3F-Wgw
Neil Brick – Survivorship Conference 2017 – How to Avoid Being Mind Controlled at a Conference
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGoaYw3pEZs
Neil Brick – Survivorship Conference 2017 – Freedom from Mind Control
https://youtu.be/SxBO2HU4R_M
Alison Miller – Survivorship Conference 2017 – Confronting the Spiritual Issues in Ritual Abuse
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smVS24Fv__k
Alison Miller – Survivorship Conference 2017 – Working Through Your Traumatic Memories and Destroying the Mind Control https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5CS_3GqeVU
Wendy Hoffman – Survivorship Conference 2017 – Dirty Therapy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jq75igmOzXk

Information on Randy Noblitt and His Research
https://ritualabuse.us/smart/randy-noblitt/
Noblitt, PhD, J. R. – An Empirical Look at the Ritual Abuse Controversy (2007) http://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/articles/an-empirical-look-at-the-ritual-abuse-controversy-randy-noblitt-phd/
Fran’s Day Care – Keller Case – Randy Noblitt, PhD
https://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/articles/frans-day-care/

This issue includes information on:
Mind Control, Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry, Leah Remini Scientology Abuse, cults, cyberbullying, revenge porn, sextortion, trolls share fake news, sexual harassment, Catholic schools, Bill Cosby, Andrea Constand, The Keepers, Sister Margaret Ann Pahl, Father Gerald Robinson, Cardinal George Pell, Penn State frat Beta Theta Pi, Hypnosis grounded in science, Lee Kaplan, child sex abuse, USA Gymnastics, Women in Cults, Church Of England, Small ads sex trafficking Backpage, Lev Tahor cult, Fairbridge Society child migrant charity, historic child sexual abuse, child abuse Internet exploitation

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/

First hearings in child abuse inquiry to get under way Scotland
The first hearings in the Scottish child abuse inquiry are set to get under way in Edinburgh later. More than 60 institutions, including several top private schools and church bodies, are being investigated. The inquiry, which is being chaired by Lady Smith, will look in detail at historical abuse of children in residential care. It is expected to report in late 2019 – more than four years after it was set up. The inquiry states its purpose as being “to investigate the nature and extent of abuse of children whilst in care in Scotland”, while considering “the extent to which institutions and bodies with legal responsibility for the care of children failed in their duty”, in particular seeking any “systemic failures”…. http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-40093270

SCOTS ABUSE PROBE What is the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry? What is its aim and what organisations are being investigated?
The inquiry will raise public awareness of institutionalised abuse and reveal the reality of the suffering of child victims By Matt Coyle 30th May 2017 ….More than 100 locations identified as places children are believed to have been assaulted. Prestigious private schools including Fettes College and Loretto are among the sites being investigated. Eight institutions run by Christian religious orders are also named as part of the investigation. Under historic care arrangements, Scottish children were sent to countries including Canada, Australia and New Zealand and organisations in these countries will also be probed…..
The overall aim and purpose of the Inquiry is to raise public awareness of the abuse of children in care, particularly in the past It will allow the public to acknowledge the suffering of those children and a forum for validation of their experience and testimony…..
https:// www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/1080683/what-is-the-scottish-child-abuse-inquiry/

Leah Remini on Scientology’s Abuse: ‘It Should Be Everyone’s Fight’
Jim Halterman May 28, 2017 Nobody is as surprised as actress Leah Remini that her A&E series, Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath, was such a hit during its first season last year. Sure, she’s already written an autobiography (Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology) about her experiences in the organization and appeared on countless talk shows….
Now it’s time for the government agencies whose job it is to protect people from dangerous cults like this to do something about it.
And the IRS not to allow an organization such as this to stand behind the First Amendment and give them free reign to abuse people. That’s not why this amendment is there. It’s there to protect people, to protect real religions and beliefs. This is not that. These are not that. This and other cults like it should not be recognized under this amendment. I obviously need to do more. The headlines should be about the abuses and the people writing these stories should be just as shocked and not use my name. I’ve learned a little bit in that way to be a little bit more selective and demand that people do their job and not put it on me and [former Scientology executive] Mike Rinder as our fight. We’re not anti-Scientologist, we’re anti-bully and we’re anti-abuse….
https://www.tvinsider.com/194985/leah-remini-interview-scientology-and-the-aftermath-season-2/

Understanding the lure and persuasiveness of cults
Cults are groups that hold persuasive power over their members and demand extreme dedication and subservience. How do cults lure people in and what happens on the inside? Why do people join controlling groups and how difficult is it for them to leave?
There are many stories about cults that have been involved with fraud, embezzlement and abuse. One such story is that of Australia’s most notorious cult, The Family.
http://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/nightlife/understanding-the-lure-and-persuasiveness-of-cults/8560064

Cyberbullying, revenge porn and sextortion on the rise in Australia, as new laws promise jail time SEXTORTION, revenge porn, and cyberbullying are on the rise, Australia’s online safety agency says, and social networks and parents need to act now. Jennifer Dudley-NicholsonNews Corp Australia Network May 25, 2017
CYBERBULLYING, revenge porn, and sextortion are on the rise and the government agency tasked with fighting the scourge said social networks, parents, and teachers need to do more to stop their spread. The Office of the Children’s eSafety Commissioner today told a Senate Estimates Committee cyberbullying cases soared by 60 per cent over the past year, and warned Australia was “about 10 years behind in terms of education”.
Image-based abuse, including revenge porn and sextortion cases, had also risen so rapidly in Australia that the agency planned to drop the word “children” from its title and would invest $4.8 million in an “image-based” reporting tool due to launch later this year….
eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said the Office received more than 400 cyberbullying complaints from children and their parents who had reported inappropriate material to social media sites but received no action. “We’ve seen a 60 per cent increase in cyberbullying cases over the past year,” Ms Grant Inman said. “Our own research shows us one in five young Australians have been cyberbullied over time.”
http://www.news.com.au/technology/online/social/cyberbullying-revenge-porn-and-sextortion-on-the-rise-in-australia-as-new-laws-promise-jail-time/news-story/ec02183a861b5ca0f4df4b29cefbaf2c

Aussie mum Rachel Devine one of many caught up in sick Manchester pranks as trolls share fake news May 24, 2017 AUSTRALIAN photographer Rachel Devine has been forced to speak out after her daughter’s image was falsely circulated as a victim of the Manchester bombing.
The local mum is just one of many people around the world caught up in the heartless actions of sick internet trolls, in the wake of the devastating attack.
Rachel took to Facebook yesterday to confirm her daughter was not a victim.
“I’ll never understand the bizarre thing of pretending to be someone else online,” she said debunked the rumours…..
Not only are the internet trolls who are issuing fake pleas for help taking advantage of the tragedy that has seen 22 people die in a terror attack, but they are sometimes causing further unnecessary grief by circulating images of people long deceased….
In some cases, internet trolls target particular people because of their social or political views.
Mexican journalist Andrea Noel says she has been targeted in the past with thousands of rape and death threats for speaking out against sexual harassment.
In a tweet yesterday, Noel pointed out that “anti-feminani” trolls had reported her as one of the missing in Manchester while she was also being harassed live on Mexican radio….
http://www.news.com.au/world/aussie-mum-rachel-devine-one-of-many-caught-up-in-sick-manchester-pranks-as-trolls-share-fake-news/news-story/d15412372ffab4f07b82634e2bab42e0

Principals of Catholic schools throughout Australia have apologised for abuse KATHRYN POWLEY, Herald Sun June 1, 2017 PRINCIPALS of Catholic schools have jointly apologised for sexual abuse inflicted on students at their schools. In a move likened to the Australian Government apologising to the Stolen Generation, Edmund Rice Education Australia today led a “National Ritual of Apology” for victims of abuse at schools including St Patrick’s Ballarat, St Kevin’s College Toorak, and Parade College. In a special session at the organisations national principals’ conference in Canberra, executive director Wayne Tinsey read a “long overdue statement of acknowledgment and regret”, with principals and representatives of all 34 Edmund Rice Australia schools endorsing each point in unison saying “For this we apologise”.
Dr Tinsey read the statement, beginning: “Today we begin a journey of major change by publicly acknowledging the sexual abuse of students in our schools, some dead, some above, some unknown.
“Today we directly acknowledge the scarring harm of sexual abuse as abhorrent, sinful, shameful and disgraceful. And we also acknowledge that whatever was done can never be undone,”….
Young people had felt “betrayed” when they should have been nurtured. They had felt anger against their abusers and those who failed to protect them.
Dr Tinsey acknowledged the “sadness, grief and sense of loss” felt by victims.
Survivor Ian Whitehead.
“Today we directly acknowledge the alarming statistics of serial sexual abuse, assault and molestation of young people in our schools by Christian Brothers, Clergy and lay staff,” it said…..
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/principals-of-catholic-schools-throughout-australia-have-apologised-for-abuse/news-story/6de8ec5661047097ad2cf60c8012b9d7

Mistrial declared in Bill Cosby’s criminal trial as jury deadlocks By Ray Sanchez, Eric Levenson and Lawrence Crook III, CNN Sat June 17, 2017 Norristown, Pennsylvania (CNN)The high-profile case accusing Bill Cosby of aggravated indecent assault ended in a mistrial Saturday after a Pennsylvania jury was unable to come to a unanimous decision.
The outcome leaves one of America’s most recognized entertainers as well as his accusers without vindication, but prosecutors immediately announced they will retry the case.
About an hour into the sixth day of deliberations, Judge Steven O’Neill declared that the jury of seven men and five women were hopelessly deadlocked in a legal battle closely watched by the public as well as dozens of women who have accused Cosby of similar misconduct in the past.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/17/us/bill-cosby-verdict-watch/index.html

Bill Cosby’s accuser has her dramatic, detailed day in court
Steven Zeitchik June 6, 2017
In the nearly three years since women began stepping forward en masse to accuse Bill Cosby of sexual assault, none ever achieved what most abuse victims wish for: a day in court. No longer.
Andrea Constand took the witness stand at the Cosby trial Tuesday and faced off against her alleged attacker in a dramatic moment that has long been called for by survivors of sexual violence.
With that, the 44-year-old massage therapist from Toronto embarked on an emotional and detailed account of a friendship that began when she met Cosby while running operations for the women’s basketball team at Philadelphia’s Temple University in 2002, and continued through half a dozen dinners and social engagements in which he mentored her for a sports broadcasting career, till the night in January 2004 when she says he gave her with three pills and penetrated her with his fingers.
The testimony offered a full account, under oath, of a narrative similar to what other women had expressed only in scattered op-eds and TV appearances, often about encounters dating back many decades.?
Cosby is charged with three counts of aggravated indecent assault against Constand and could face a decade in jail if he’s found guilty. But for a moment in a suburban courthouse Tuesday afternoon, legal outcomes took a back seat to the importance of testimony, as a woman offered a first-person lens onto the evolving dynamic between a mega-celebrity and his alleged sexual assault victim.
“He was a Temple friend, somebody I trusted, a mentor, and somewhat of an older figure to me,” Constand said of the entertainer, who served as a trustee at the Pennsylvania school.After meeting Constand via a mutual friend, Cosby started calling her on her university-issued cellphone about issues such as renovations to the team’s facilities. Constand described the ways Cosby would soon come to inquire about her personal life and eventually act like a patron. He would introduce her to important people….
But Constand also recounted details that raised red flags, at least in retrospect. In an Ontario lilt, she told of the time he invited her to his show at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut and asked her to his room to share “baked goods,” then lay back on the bed and brushed his knee against her leg. Or a series of awkward dinners, in which Cosby would invite her to his mansion and have the chef prepare a meal that she would then eat by herself, with Cosby popping in only occasionally to check on her.
Constand appeared upbeat and relaxed as she entered the courtroom, and increasingly serious and impassioned as her testimony wore on. By the time she got to the January 2004 night, the tension had become almost cinematic.
“What are they — are they natural? Are they herbal?” she recalled saying when Cosby handed her three blue pills after a dinner at his home.
“He said ‘put them down [your throat]. They’re your friends; they’ll take the edge off,’” she said.
Constand was dubious. So many, she asked? She says he nodded and she told Cosby she trusted him — in their conversations about basketball they had discussed herbal supplements — and swallowed them all.
Things soon went awry, she testified: “I began slurring my words. I told Mr. Cosby I had trouble seeing him — that I could see two of him. My mouth was very cottony.” She said stood up and found that her legs could barely support her.
He led her to the couch, helped her lie down and provided a pillow for support, and she lost consciousness, she testified. An indeterminate amount of time later, she said, she was jolted awake by physical contact: “I felt Mr. Cosby’s hands groping my breasts under my shirt. I also felt his hand inside my vagina moving in and out. I felt him take my hand and place it on his penis and move it back and forth.” Why didn’t she stop him? a prosecutor asked. “I wasn’t able to.” Push him away?
“In my head I was trying to get my hands to move or my legs to move but I was frozen and those messages didn’t get there.”
She said she could only retreat into her own mind. “I wanted it to stop,” she said on the stand, her voice cracking. “I felt really humiliated. I just wanted to go home.”Constand said she was finally was able to summon the strength at about 5 a.m. She rose and prepared to walk out the door, back to her car. She said Cosby was waiting for her in the kitchen, and offered her a muffin and tea. She had a few bites and sips, then left…..
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-billcosby-trial-day-2-story.html

Bill Cosby trial Day 4: He’s confronted with his own words and admissions
Karl Baker, The (Wilmington) News Journal, Maria Puente June 8, 2017
NORRISTOWN, Pa. — Bill Cosby was confronted Thursday with his own words — what he told police in 2005, what he said in a civil deposition — on Day 4 of his sexual assault trial over an encounter with accuser Andrea Constand in 2004 .
Cosby’s trial on charges he drugged and molested Constand at his nearby home resumes Friday with a continuation of testimony about his deposition, plus the possibility that a toxicology expert and an expert on victims of sex crimes will be called by prosecutors to testify…..
In the civil case deposition, Cosby acknowledged he acquired drugs, including the now-banned sedative quaaludes, to give to women he sought for sex. He also acknowledged he repeatedly engaged in sexual relationships with young women he met as one of the most popular and powerful men in Hollywood.
The civil case deposition had been sealed since the 2006 settlement of the suit but parts of it were released by a judge on a petition from the media at a time when dozens of women had gone public to accuse Cosby of being a serial rapist. Those accusers believe Cosby’s words in the deposition back up their accusations….
https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/tv/2017/06/08/bill-cosby-trial-day-4-his-words-years-old-deposition-take-spotlight/102625900/

The Other ‘Keepers’: How a Priest Got Away With the Murder of a Nun for 2 Decades
by Sal Bono June 6, 2017
As Netflix spotlights the mysterious 1970 murder of Sister Cathy Cesnik in The Keepers, the docuseries has fueled fresh interest in the savage killing of another nun a decade later.
There are striking similarities between the murder of Sister Cathy in Baltimore and the 1980 killing of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl in Ohio: Both slain nuns, decades of unanswered questions, allegations of a cover-up by authorities in a staunch Catholic community — and a priest at the center of it all.
The Keepers, which follows citizen sleuths trying to crack the unsolved murder of Sister Cathy, suggests the chaplain of Archbishop Keough High School — Father A. Joseph Maskell — was involved in the murder after at least one student confided to the nun that he was sexually abusing her.
Neither sexual abuse nor murder charges were ever brought against him, leading his former students to speculate whether there had been a cover-up by authorities. A judge refused to re-open the case years later since the statute of limitations had passed and Maskell passed away in 2001….

The Murder of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl
On April 5, 1980, the day before Sister Pahl was to celebrate her 72nd birthday, she was found murdered in the chapel of Toledo Mercy Hospital in Toledo, Ohio.
She had ministered over the sick and terminally ill inside the hospital, and worked as the chapel’s caretaker. On the morning of her death, she was inside the chapel preparing for the following day’s Easter services. She was later found strangled and stabbed more than 30 times, including nine wounds across her chest in the shape of an inverted cross, a satanic symbol. She was partially covered in an altar cloth, which had absorbed much of her blood. Blood was also smeared across her forehead as if her last rights had been administered. The grisly scene was made to look like a satanic ritual. It also appeared as if she’d been sexually assaulted, although that allegation remains unclear. Two police officers were inside the hospital settling in for breakfast when a nurse came running to them frantic about the nun’s bloodied body. As the officers raced to the chapel, so did two chaplains at the hospital, Reverend Jerome Swiatecki and Father Gerald Robinson.

The Investigation
As the police kicked off their investigation, they questioned hundreds of hospital staffers, other Sisters of Mercy, the Catholic clerics who worked with her, as well as Father Robinson.
Robinson, who presided over Sister Pahl’s funeral, was questioned by police after they found a letter opener in his desk. At the time, the news of the sword-shaped letter opener, which authorities say fit the size of some of the stab wounds, was never made public.
Cops also reported he’d appeared cold and aloof after seeing the nun’s slain body.
The priest, who grew up in Toledo, was viewed as a pillar of the community….
The priest was never charged after police cited insufficient evidence, and Yonke, as well as multiple news outlets, speculated about a possible cover-up during the investigation.
“The police chief was a devout Catholic and very influential,” Yonke said. “There was pressure applied not to charge him.”….
As the Catholic Church came under fire in the early 2000s over rampant claims of abuse at the hands of priests, a woman wrote a letter to the Toledo dioceses in 2003 saying that she had been subjected to ritualized sex acts by members of clergy from the city.
In her letter, which was later passed to police, the woman named Father Gerald Robinson as one of her abusers.
“In that letter… Father Robinson was mentioned. We decided to reopen the case then,” Toledo Police Detective Steve Forrester told Inside Edition in 2004. “We re-interviewed all the old witnesses from 1980.”
By analyzing blood transfer patterns, an obscure new technology seldom used at the time, they could study the patterns of blood from objects when they are laid down.
The technology sparked outrage with Robinson’s lawyer, John B. Thebes, who told The New York Times in 2004: “It’s not DNA. It’s not blood spatter, which is blood you find on walls or other surfaces. It’s an imprint of some kind. Something happened that changed the nature of this case, and I don’t know what it is.”
Police also determined that the sword-like letter opener discovered in Robinson’s desk was the murder weapon.
In 2004, Robinson, who lived next door to the police station, was arrested and charged with the 1980 murder.
The Toledo dioceses banned Robinson from performing any priest activities and duties following his arrest. They also refused to pay any of his legal expenses….
Robinson was convicted of murder and sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. He continued to claim innocence, though he failed in a series of appeals….
http://www.insideedition.com/headlines/23706-the-other-keepers-how-a-priest-got-away-with-the-murder-of-a-nun-for

Cardinal George Pell charged with historical sex offences
Nino Bucci Tom Cowie Nick Miller June 29 2017
Cardinal George Pell, Australia’s highest ranking Catholic, has been charged with historical sex offences.
Victoria Police has confirmed Cardinal Pell has been charged on summons over multiple allegations and is due to face Melbourne Magistrates Court on July 18 for a filing hearing.
A statement from the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney said Cardinal Pell had been informed of Victoria Police’s “decision and action”.
“Cardinal Pell will return to Australia, as soon as possible, to clear his name following advice and approval by his doctors who will also advise on his travel arrangements….
Cardinal Pell is the third most senior Catholic at the Vatican, where he is responsible for the church’s finances….
“There are multiple complainants relating to those charges,” he said….
He has repeatedly and emphatically denied all allegations, but said he would continue to co-operate with the police investigation….
http://www.smh.com.au/national/cardinal-george-pell-set-to-be-charged-with-serious-sex-offences-20170628-gx0v8y.html

Top adviser to Pope charged with sexual assault offenses Laura Smith Spark-Profile-Image
By Joshua Berlinger and Laura Smith-Spark, CNN Thu June 29, 2017
Cardinal George Pell, a senior adviser to Pope Francis and the third-ranking official in the Holy See, is taking leave from the Vatican to fight historical sexual assault charges in his home country of Australia.
The case is the latest black mark against the Catholic Church, which has been reeling from sexual abuse scandals across several countries that date back decades. It could also have ramifications for Pope Francis, who counts Pell among his closest aides.
Australian police have not released a detailed list of charges against Pell and didn’t disclose any information about alleged victims, saying only that there were multiple charges and “multiple complainants.” ….
“I’m innocent of these charges, they are false,” Pell said. “The whole idea of sexual abuse is abhorrent to me.”….
Pell has previously denied covering up abuse committed by priests when he served as the Archbishop of Melbourne from 1996 to 2001. But he acknowledged his predecessor, Archbishop Frank Little, now deceased, had destroyed documents to protect priests.
A 2013 Australian government inquiry, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, found that 7% of priests in Australia were accused of abusing children, from 1950 until 2015. At least 1,880 alleged perpetrators were identified and 4,444 victims came forward…..
In the United States, analysis of information on 110,000 priests who served the Church between 1950 and 2002 found that 4% of them had been accused of abuse…..
http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/28/asia/cardinal-pell-australia/index.html

Penn State frat surveillance video from night of pledge’s fatal injuries played in court
By Gio Benitez and Emily Shapiro Jun 13, 2017
High-quality surveillance video that captured the final movements of Penn State pledge Timothy Piazza as he was fatally injured at the Beta Theta Pi fraternity house was played in court today, and the Piazza family attorney called the footage “gruesome.”
Piazza, a 19-year-old sophomore and pledge at Beta Theta Pi, died on Feb. 4 after he fell down the stairs during a pledge ceremony at the house on the night of Feb. 2. Fraternity members did not call 911 until the morning of Feb. 3, about 12 hours after Piazza’s fall, according to a report on the grand jury’s investigation. Piazza’s death “was the direct result of traumatic brain injuries,” according to the forensic pathologist.
Eighteen Penn State students are facing charges: eight for involuntary manslaughter, aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, and hazing, among other charges; four for reckless endangerment and hazing, among other charges; and six for evidence tampering. The Beta Theta Pi fraternity — which has since been barred from Penn State — is facing charges including involuntary manslaughter and hazing. The students have not entered pleas…..
http://abcnews.go.com/US/penn-state-frat-surveillance-video-night-pledges-fall/story?id=47981660

Hypnosis, grounded in science
Imagine a scenario where your mind had the power to cure debilitating anxiety, eliminate chronic pain or kick an addiction. Adriana Barton reports on the growing scientific support for hypnosis, the mind-body therapy bypassing hucksters for hospital wards
Adriana Barton The Globe and Mail Monday, Jun. 12, 2017….
Neuroscience studies have shown that this mind-body therapy affects the brain in extraordinary ways. Clinical trials have demonstrated its effectiveness in treating anxiety, phobias, skin rashes, irritable-bowel syndrome and acute and chronic pain.
In France and Belgium, anesthesiologists are offering hypnosis combined with local anesthetic as an alternative to general anesthesia in surgery. In North America, medical centres such as the Mayo Clinic have added hypnosis to their pain-management tools…..
As with mindfulness meditation, hypnosis harnesses the brain’s natural abilities to regulate the body and control the random thoughts that ricochet through our minds, says Dr. David Patterson, a University of Washington psychologist who has studied hypnosis since the 1980s, in a series of clinical trials financed by the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
But, he adds, meditation can take weeks or months of practice before it helps patients dial down pain. With hypnosis, “the relief is just a lot quicker and more dramatic.”
Hypnosis reduces our awareness of what’s going on around us, even as it increases our attention and openness to new ideas. The brain’s command centre lets its guard down, allowing the therapist’s suggestions to embed themselves into the parts of our grey matter that regulate our thoughts, perceptions and physiology, Patterson says. “It’s as if you’re talking directly to the brain.”….
Hypnosis stimulates specific brain activity, according to a 2016 study from Stanford University. Researchers found three brain changes in adults who scored high in susceptibility to hypnosis and these changes occurred only while they were hypnotized.

Using a brain-imaging technique called fMRI, researchers found decreased activity in the brain’s salience network, the inner “air-traffic controller” that processes stimuli and preps us for action. Secondly, they saw greater connectivity between the brain’s executive-control network and the insula, a grape-sized region deeper in the brain that helps us “control what’s going on in the body, and process pain,” the study’s co-author, psychiatrist Dr. David Spiegel, says. Finally, the researchers observed reduced connections between the executive-control centre and the “default-mode” network, involved in self-reflection. This could lead to a disconnect between a person’s actions and their awareness of their actions, Spiegel says.
He describes hypnosis as a “very powerful means of changing the way we use our minds to control perception, and our bodies.”….
About 10 per cent to 15 per cent of adults are “highly hypnotizable,” meaning they can easily slip into a trance and act on hypnotic suggestions. The same percentage of adults do not respond to hypnosis at all, while the rest are somewhere in between. (….Clinical trials generally use the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, originally developed in 1959.)….
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/health/science-hypnosis-change-mind-body/article35248316/

Lee Kaplan, man with 6 sister ‘wives,’ guilty of sex abuse By Ray Downs June 7, 2017
June 7 (UPI) — Lee Kaplan, a self-proclaimed prophet of God who molested and then married several young girls in the same family, was found guilty of 17 counts of child sex abuse by a Pennsylvania jury.
The Bucks County jury deliberated for nine hours before finding Kaplan guilty on every count he faced, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. At the time of his arrest in 2016, Kaplan was found to be living with nine sisters, their mother and two more children he fathered with the oldest sister, who is now 19-years-old. Kaplan considered six of the sisters, five of whom are underage, to be his wives.
Kaplan, 52, reportedly told police that the girls’ parents, Daniel and Savilla Stoltzfus, had “gifted” their eldest daughter to him when she was just 14-years-old. And having convinced the formerly Amish Stoltzfus couple that he was their prophet, Kaplan told Stoltzfus to have all the daughters and even his wife move in with him….
Kaplan, meanwhile, maintains his innocence….
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2017/06/07/Lee-Kaplan-man-with-6-sister-wives-guilty-of-sex-abuse/2351496856779/

Review: USA Gymnastics needs “complete cultural change” to stop abuse CBS/AP June 27, 2017
USA Gymnastics needs a “complete cultural change” to better protect athletes from sexual abuse, according to an independent review of the embattled organization’s practices.
The report released Tuesday by former federal prosecutor Deborah Daniels recommends that all USA Gymnastics members be required to immediately report suspected sexual misconduct to legal authorities and the U.S. Center for SafeSport. Daniels also suggested that USA Gymnastics prohibit adults from being alone with minor gymnasts “at all times” and bar unrelated adults from sharing or being alone in a sleeping room with gymnasts. She also recommended preventing adult members from having “out of program” contact with gymnasts through email, text or social media.
USA Gymnastics ordered the review last fall following a series of civil lawsuits filed against the organization and a former team doctor by a pair of gymnasts who claim the physician sexually abused them during their time on the U.S. national team. USA Gymnastics has denied wrongdoing. The organization stated it went to authorities quickly in the summer of 2015 after hearing claims of abuse against Dr. Larry Nassar — who’d been working with the U.S. Olympic and national teams, and other athletes, for three decades — but later amended the timeline following a Wall Street Journal report, saying it conducted a five-week internal review before going to the FBI.
To date, more than 60 women have filed complaints. Some believe that number may reach into the hundreds. …
A Michigan judge on Friday ordered Nassar to stand trial on charges of sexually assaulting six young gymnasts who said he molested them while they were seeking treatment for various injuries. It is one of four criminal cases against Nassar in the state…..
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/usa-gymnastics-needs-complete-cultural-change-to-stop-sexual-abuse/

Women in Cults The Conversation Prayers and preparation for the apocalypse – two women share with Kim Chakanetsa their experiences of life in strict religious communities they would call cults.
Natacha Tormey was born into an international evangelical group and led a highly regimented life in communes in Thailand, Indonesia and France. She says physical discipline and sexual abuse were common, and as children they were separated from their parents. As a teenager she began to question the ideas of the leaders, and at 18 she left the cult and her family behind. Natacha has now settled in the UK and is the author of ‘Cults – A Bloodstained History’.
Claire Ashman grew up in a strict religious community in Australia. She left at 18 to get married, but a few years later her husband joined them up to what she now calls a doomsday cult. Claire and her eight children spent their life behind barbed wire fences and there was limited contact with the outside world. Much time was spent preparing for an impending apocalypse. A decade ago, Claire and her family left. She now calls herself an anti-cult activist. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0548sbl

Church Of England ‘Colluded And Concealed’ Bishop’s Sex Abuse, Leader Says June 22, 2017 Colin Dwyer When faced with allegations of sex abuse against one of its bishops, the Church of England “colluded and concealed rather than seeking to help those who were brave enough to come forward,” the church’s leader acknowledged Thursday.
“For the survivors who were brave enough to share their story and bring Peter Ball to justice, I once again offer an unreserved apology,” Justin Welby, archbishop of Canterbury, said in a statement. “There are no excuses whatsoever for what took place and the systemic abuse of trust perpetrated by Peter Ball over decades.”
Welby was responding to the findings of an independent investigation into how the church handled the allegations against Ball, a former bishop who pleaded guilty in 2015 to indecent assault against young men. That report, also released Thursday, found that Ball “abused many boys and men over a period of twenty years or more.”
“That is shocking in itself but is compounded by the failure of the Church to respond appropriately to his misconduct, again over a period of many years,” Moira Gibb, who led the investigation, said in the report. “Ball’s priority was to protect and promote himself and he maligned the abused. The Church colluded with that rather than seeking to help those he had harmed, or assuring itself of the safety of others.”….
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/06/22/533931155/church-of-england-colluded-and-concealed-bishops-sex-abuse-leader-says

Small ads sex trafficking: the battle against Backpage Annie Kelly Sunday 2 July 2017
Backpage started out with small ads for household goods. So how did it grow into a major online market for child sex trafficking? Annie Kelly meets some of the survivors – and reveals how their fight for justice became a battleground for free speech on the internet
The first time Kubiiki Pride used Backpage, America’s largest classified website, was to buy a fridge. The second time she sold some clothes. The third time she was looking for her 13-year-old daughter.
The family had spent nine frantic months looking for MA, posting flyers, launching public appeals and scouring the streets. It took Kubiiki less than five minutes to find her on Backpage. “We were so desperate we were trying everything, but when my husband said check Backpage I was confused because I thought it was a site where you sold stuff you didn’t want any more. It never occurred to me that children were being bought and sold, too.”
My 13-year-old was starved, had her head shaved, was abused and then they sold her on Backpage like she was a used car
Kubiiki found the site and clicked on the adult section. “It took a minute for the page to load, but immediately the third link down from the top just caught my eye,” she says. “It was covered in hearts and these little flower pictures. It looked like something a kid would like, so I clicked on it and there was my baby.

Small ads sex trafficking: the battle against Backpage
Backpage started out with small ads for household goods. So how did it grow into a major online market for child sex trafficking? Annie Kelly meets some of the survivors – and reveals how their fight for justice became a battleground for free speech on the internet….
Over the past decade the enormous revenue streams created by the voracious appetite for online sex ads has thrown anti-trafficking campaigners into a state of acute alarm.
“The scale of child sexual exploitation is not something many people are willing or able to accept,” says Yiota Souras, senior vice-president at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). Some campaigners believe that up to 100,000 children like MA are exploited for profit across the country every year.
“What we do know for certain is that, since 2010, the number of reports of suspected sex trafficking has gone off the chart – we registered an 846% increase between 2010-2014 and this number is growing every year,” says Souras. “And we believe a large driver of this has been the increased use of the internet in the buying and selling of children.”

Souras says the unfettered and largely unregulated growth of the internet has been a gift for traffickers. Online classified websites, such as Backpage, have provided a cheap and relatively risk-free platform through which to conduct their business, with traffickers scattering children among the thousands of ads for private massages or escort services.
“All a pimp needs is a classified website to post ads and a cell phone. All the client needs is an internet connection,” says Souras…..
Nobody has a clear idea of how many children have been sold on Backpage but, currently, 73% of child sex trafficking reports NCMEC receives from the public relate to Backpage ads. NCMEC’s early collaborative relationship with Backpage soured when, Souras said, it became clear the site was using NCMEC as good PR but failing to implement adequate checks and balances that the centre believed needed to be put in place to protect vulnerable children…..
“They just kept on winning,” says Brad Myles, director of anti-trafficking group Polaris. Judge after judge accepted that Backpage was not accountable under US law for the child trafficking occurring on its website. Backpage was, according to the courts, no different from any other web publisher provided immunity for content posted by third parties under the 1996 Communications and Decency Act, where section 230 had been included to ensure that the burgeoning tech industry was not crushed by litigation. It has also emerged that not-for-profit special interest groups funded by companies including Google have supported Backpage’s legal battles and provided expert briefs in support of the site.
“The most disheartening indication of our judiciary’s legal priorities,” says Myles, “was the fact that judges would do nothing to hold a website that was profiting from the sale of children accountable to preserve the legal immunity of the billion-dollar tech industry.”

Kubiiki and MA were devastated by the judge’s decision not to let their case against Backpage go to trial. “These are children who are being raped, yet the whole debate around Backpage has become about the rights of internet companies to not get sued?” says Kubiiki…..
Mazzio’s documentary forensically timelines the legal assault waged against Backpage, first by Kubiiki and MA and then by other families along with state prosecutors and law enforcement officers. Her film also charts the astonishment and dismay as one by one their lawsuits bit the dust….
Regardless of which side you come down on, it looks as if the net could be closing around Backpage. When Carl Ferrer failed to answer a subpoena to appear before a Senate subcommittee in 2016 investigating child trafficking, the Senate’s response was to launch a full-blown investigation into the company. One of the closing scenes in Mazzio’s documentary is the moment when Larkin, Lacey and Ferrer are forced to appear before the subcommittee in January this year.
Earlier that day Backpage had finally closed its adult services listings. “Today, the censors prevailed,” wrote Lacey and Larkin in a statement. “The shutdown of Backpage’s adult classified advertising is an assault on the First Amendment. We maintain hope for a more robust and unbowed internet in the future.”
“They weren’t willing to invest in what we believed were comprehensive measures to protect children,” she says. “They were far more focused on hiring a legal team to ensure that their revenue streams could continue.”….
“For me, the biggest tragedy is that for seven years there has been all this debate about free speech and First Amendment rights. And the basic fact that these are children who are being raped and sold on a public website somehow got pushed to the background. What happened to the rights of my child?” asks Nacole, fury in her voice. “What if this was your daughter? How would you feel if this happened to you?”….
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/jul/02/fight-for-my-daughter-battle-against-backpage-child-sex-trafficking

Backpage has always claimed it doesn’t control sex-related ads. New documents show otherwise.
By Tom Jackman and Jonathan O’Connell July 11, 2017
A contractor for the controversial classifieds website Backpage.com has been aggressively soliciting and creating sex-related ads, despite Backpage’s repeated insistence that it had no role in the content of ads posted on its site, according to a trove of newly discovered documents.
The documents show that Backpage hired a company in the Philippines to lure advertisers — and customers seeking sex — from sites run by its competitors. The spreadsheets, emails, audio files and employee manuals were revealed in an unrelated legal dispute and provided to The Washington Post.
Workers in the Philippine call center scoured the Internet for newly listed sex ads, then contacted the people who posted them and offered a free ad on Backpage.com, the documents show. The contractor’s workers even created each new ad so it could be activated with one click.
Workers also created phony sex ads, offering to “Let a young babe show you the way” or “Little angel seeks daddy,” adding photos of barely clad women and explicit sex patter, the documents show. The workers posted the ads on competitors’ websites. Then, when a potential customer expressed interest, an email directed that person to Backpage.com, where they would find authentic ads, spreadsheets used to track the process show.

For years, Backpage executives have adamantly denied claims made by members of Congress, state attorneys general, law enforcement and sex-abuse victims that the site has facilitated prostitution and child sex trafficking. Backpage argues it is a passive carrier of “third-party content” and has no control of sex-related ads posted by pimps, prostitutes and even organized trafficking rings. The company contends it removes clearly illegal ads and refers violators to the police.
The discovery could be a turning point in the years-long campaign by anti-human trafficking groups, and Congress, to persuade Backpage to stop hosting prostitution ads, which many teenage girls have claimed were used to sell them for sexual exploitation. Lawsuits and criminal prosecutions of Backpage in the United States have nearly all failed because Backpage cites in its defense the federal Communications Decency Act, which grants immunity to websites that merely host or screen content posted by others…..
An investigation by a Senate subcommittee revealed earlier this year found that Backpage was editing ads to remove language indicating underage girls were available, rather than removing the ads. “Backpage has been righteously indignant throughout our investigation,” said Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), a subcommittee member, “about how we were infringing on their constitutional rights, because they were a mere passthrough.” She noted, however, that Backpage was not only changing ads but also was also guiding posters in how to conceal their true intentions.
“But that’s nothing compared to this” new information, McCaskill said after The Post described the data. “This is about as far from passive as you can get. This is soliciting. This is, really, trickery. .?.?. So I hope this opens the floodgates of liability for Backpage. Nobody deserves it more.”….
Among the sex ads posted on Backpage.com are those for underage boys and girls, authorities and advocacy groups say. The National Association of Attorneys General has described Backpage as a “hub” of human trafficking, which involves children or adults who are forced or coerced into prostitution. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children said that 73 percent of the 10,000 child sex trafficking reports it receives from the public each year involve ads on Backpage…..
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/backpage-has-always-claimed-it-doesnt-control-sex-related-ads-new-documents-show-otherwise/2017/07/10/b3158ef6-553c-11e7-b38e-35fd8e0c288f_story.htm

After ‘Jewish Taliban’ Leader’s Drowning, Young Boy Tells of Abuse: ‘This Is Hell’
Boy, 14, tells of men in Lev Tahor cult, now in Mexico, who ‘undressed me and beat me and kicked me many times. And did bad things to me many times.’
Allison Kaplan Sommer Jul 12, 2017
In the aftermath of the drowning of Rabbi Shlomo Helbrans, leader of the “Jewish Taliban” cult Lev Tahor in Mexico, the ultra-Orthodox press in Israel has been rife with reports regarding the location of his funeral and burial, and speculation as to which member of the cult will succeed him as leader of the reclusive group of 40 families believed to be in a remote southern part of Mexico, weeks after fleeing Guatemala, where they had lived for three years.
One ultra-Orthodox website, Kikar HaShabbat, published a short but disturbing video account of life inside the cult recorded in stealth by a 14-year-old member, describing severe abuse at the hands of men in Lev Tahor.
The blurred video showed only the boy’s hat, chest and sidecurls as he gives his testimony from a bowed position in halting Yiddish. The website bleeped the names of the Lev Tahor members he named.
“I’ve lived in Lev Tahor for 12 and a half years and I want to tell you everything,” the boy says. “I’ve been living in this hell that everyone claims is made up and untrue – it is true. I want to tell you about the things that are happening in Lev Tahor.

“I wrote down on a piece of paper all of the things I want to talk about,” he continues. “Bad things are happening here. First, I want to tell about XXXX. He is a bad teacher. He does bad things to children. He hits children, kicks them and does other bad things.”
The boy continues to charge that another member of the group “killed a baby and another man. He hits and kicks all of the children.” He added that the men he named “undressed me and beat me and kicked me many times. And did bad things to me many times. At first, I thought they were good Jews. But then I saw they were bad people.”
Another ultra-Orthodox website, B’Hadrei Haredim, published an interview with a Philadelphia rabbi who said he was in touch with two Lev Tahor members in Mexico. He denied there was abuse in the cult, saying only that they had a “strict regime.” The rabbi told the story of Helbrans’ death, saying that on Friday he was at a river and slipped, hit his head on a rock, was carried away by the current and lost consciousness, and that attempts by his followers to rescue him had been unsuccessful….
The group, the rabbi said, had only crossed the border to Mexico three weeks ago, after three years of living in multiple locations in Guatemala. They left, he said, because they feared apprehension by Israeli authorities. Families of Lev Tahor members have been pressuring the Israeli government for years to assist them in repatriating their relatives, claiming they are being drugged and abused, and that underage girls were regularly married off to older men. The group fled Canada three years ago, after authorities there investigated allegations that Lev Tahor was physically and sexually abusing children, and removed some of them from their homes….
http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.801059

Prince’s Trust apologise for Aust child abuse Thursday, 13 July 2017 The chief executive of a youth charity set up by Prince Charles has told a UK inquiry she is ‘deeply sorry’ for the sexual abuse of child migrants sent to Australian farm schools.
Dame Martina Milburn told the inquiry that the Prince’s Trust had in 2012 absorbed the Fairbridge Society – a former child migrant charity at the centre of multiple accusations of historic child sexual abuse.
The UK’s Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse is examining the abuse of child migrants sent from the UK to Australia from the 1940s to 1970 into the care of church and charity groups.
More than 3000 of nearly 7000 sent to Australia ended up in farm schools run by Fairbridge, which had powerful royal and aristocratic support in Britain.
http://www.skynews.com.au/news/national/national/2017/07/13/prince-s-trust-apologise-for-aust-child-abuse.html

26 people in custody after child abuse, exploitation investigation by Hannah Vogel Monday, July 10th 2017 Officials said since last Thursday, police took 26 people into custody for their involvement in child abuse and exploitation over the internet.
BENTON COUNTY, Wash. – Police told Action News they took 26 people into custody since last Thursday for their involvement in child abuse and exploitation over the internet.
Authorities said the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, the Washington State Patrol, local and county agencies helped through the investigation….
Officials said 26 suspects are now in custody after a major five-day child sex sting.
“The hard part of this job is not dealing with predators but seeing the devastation they actually do to children,” said Mjor. 45 law enforcement officials went undercover, posing as predators, children and even parents.
Officials went on common sites like Craigslist and Backpage, responded to ads of underage children for sex and made some of their own ads to entice predators. Officials told Action News over 100 people responded. Authorities said over two dozen traveled to meet who they thought were children for sex, but those kids turned out to be cops. “This operation potentially saved an unknown number of children who would’ve otherwise been victimized by these suspects,” said Mjor. Police released a full list of suspects, and say five additional suspects had access to children at risk of being abused…. http://keprtv.com/news/local/26-in-custody-after-child-abuse-exploitation-investigation

Upstate internet child abuse task force arrests 17 in sting operation By WSPA News Staff Published: July 11, 2017 GREENVILLE, SC (WSPA) – The Greenville Co. Sheriff’s Office and other agencies announced the results of a months-long operation aimed to stop internet crimes against children. Sheriff Will Lewis announced Monday that 17 people have been charged with sexual exploitation of minors. “These are people who you encounter on a daily basis, who have such a sick and twisted mind, that they choose to victimize children,” Sheriff Lewis says…..
http://wbtw.com/2017/07/11/upstate-internet-child-abuse-task-force-arrests-17-in-sting-operation

July 13, 2017 · Filed Under Newsletter 2017 - Issues 132 - 137