Issue 188 – May 2026

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 188 – May 2026

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 2026 – All rights reserved. No reproduction of any material without written permission from the editor and individual authors.

Information in this issue includes:
The 2026 Online Annual SMART Ritual Abuse and Mind Control Conference August 2026
The Survivorship Trafficking and Extreme Abuse Online Conference May 2026
Conference Speakers
Ritual Abuse as Mind Control – Wendy Hoffman
Traces of Western Practices of Ritual Abuse in Mary Daly’s Gyn/Ecology and Other Texts – Lynn Brunet
Remembering Wholeness: Trauma-Informed Writing in Support of Voice, Safety, and Self-Trust – deJoly LaBrier
Unraveling the Tangled Mind: Psychotherapy with Survivors of Mind Control – Faige Flakser, LCSW
An Introduction to Neurofeedback for Trauma – Joshua Moore MA, LMHC, BCN
Intergenerational Occult Families, and One Father’s Fight for His Abducted Daughter – Iain Bryson
Manipulation, Coercion & Mistakes in Extreme Child Sexual Abuse Investigations – Dr. Rainer Kurz

Hidden in Plain Sight: Lessons From International Case Studies of Child Sexual Abuse in Early Childhood Education and Care Settings’
Sprawling investigation finds decades of sexual abuse among Catholic priests in Rhode Island
Eighteen And Under (Scottish charity SC026688) is carrying out research in collaboration with researchers in Umass University into technology assisted abuse.
Cesar Chavez, a Civil Rights Icon, Is Accused of Abusing Girls for Years
Harvey Weinstein is going on trial again in a New York rape case
Judge dismisses Trump $10B defamation lawsuit against Murdoch, WSJ about Epstein letter
Listen To The Jeffrey Epstein Tapes: ‘I Was Donald Trump’s Closest Friend’

The 2026 Online Annual Ritual Abuse and Mind Control Conference
August 15 – 16, 2026 If you are interested in participating in speaking at our conference, attending our conference or getting on a mailing list, please write: smartnews@aol.com https://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/

Speakers include:

Ritual Abuse as Mind Control – Wendy Hoffman
Rituals are common practice in satanic culture. This presentation explores how every moment of a ritual is used for mind control. Its purpose is to capture the minds of its victims and enforce its programs. Traumatic emotions are also an important part of mind control, and they will be discussed.
Wendy Hoffman has published four memoirs, three books of poetry and a co-authored book of essays. She does consultations for therapists working in the field of dissociative disorders and presentations on mind control internationally.

Family-Based Human Trafficking, Ritual Abuse, and Coercive Mind Control: One Father’s Fight for His Daughter
Iain Bryson’s daughter was taken fifteen years ago by his first wife and her family after she told him that her family was a “cult” and that she would be taking their daughter back to them because of “mind control.” At the time, Iain had no understanding of ritual abuse or trauma-based mind control, and only after his daughter’s abduction did he begin to reconcile his wife’s warnings with signs he had previously been unable to see. After seeking help from local and international authorities and receiving little assistance despite his daughter being a U.S. citizen, Iain attempted to expose what had happened and ultimately became entangled in the Polish criminal justice system, where he was incarcerated for fifty months before his release in 2015.
In 2024, Iain Bryson published an evidence-based, documentary-style memoir about his daughter’s abduction and continues to advocate for his daughter and raise awareness about ritual abuse and survivors’ experiences. Iain Bryson holds a Master’s degree in Political Science from the University of Connecticut (2003).

A Survivor’s Spiritual Journey – Neil Brick
Neil will discuss how he has worked through his survivor experiences and has grown as a person. He will talk about how his advocacy and service have helped him learn more about himself and others. He will discuss the different spiritual paths he has worked with to lead a happier and more mindful life.
Neil Brick is a survivor of ritualistic abuse. His work continues to educate the public about child abuse, trauma and ritualistic abuse crimes. His child abuse and ritualistic abuse newsletter S.M.A.R.T. https://ritualabuse.us has been published for over 30 years. http://neilbrick.com

The Survivorship Trafficking and Extreme Abuse Online Conference 2026 https://survivorship.org/the-survivorship-trafficking-and-extreme-abuse-online-conference-2026 Survivor Conference – Saturday and Sunday May 16 – 17, 2026 Clinician’s Conference – Friday May 15, 2026 Please write info@survivorship.org if you would like to get on their conference mailing list.

Conference Speakers

Ritual Abuse as Mind Control – Wendy Hoffman
Rituals are common practice in satanic culture. This presentation explores how every moment of a ritual is used for mind control. Its purpose is to capture the minds of its victims and enforce its programs. Traumatic emotions are also an important part of mind control, and they will be discussed.
Wendy Hoffman has published four memoirs, two books of poetry and a co-authored book of essays. She does consultations for therapists working in the field of dissociative disorders and presentations on mind control internationally. https://ritualabuse.us/smart/wendy-hoffman/

Traces of Western Practices of Ritual Abuse in Mary Daly’s Gyn/Ecology and Other Texts – Lynn Brunet
Mary Daly (1928-2010), born in Schenectady, New York, was a philosopher and theologian and described herself as a radical lesbian feminist, intent on exposing the extent to which the patriarchy exploits women and working towards changing this. This paper will not get into the politics surrounding radical feminism, which is multi-faceted and extensive, but instead will examine one of her key texts, Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism (1978). In this text there are multiple references to the experience of spinning. She describes the book as “an invitation to the Wild Witch in all women who long to spin” (Daly 1978, xv).
This talk will explore Daly’s use of language throughout Gyn/Ecology to suggest that concealed/revealed in her writing may be traces of western practices of ritual abuse, practices that only began to come to public attention in the mid-1980s. It will suggest that the author’s search for the most extreme examples of ritual torture of women across cultures, coupled with the idiosyncratic metaphorical language of ecstatic spiral journeying used in Gyn/Ecology and other texts, may have been a means of expressing a deeply internalised and repressed experience of childhood ritual abuse. As the following discussion will outline, hidden cultic practices of a Druidic nature appear to have been exported to the United States alongside conservative religious practices amongst migrant groups such as the Irish, the culture that Mary Daly celebrates as her own heritage.
Lynn Brunet (PhD) is an Australian art historian whose research examines the coupling of trauma and ritual in modern and contemporary western art and literature. In particular, it traces the connection between Masonic and other fraternal initiation rites and complex trauma in the work of various artists and writers of the 20th and 21st centuries. https://independent.academia.edu/LynnBrunet1

Remembering Wholeness: Trauma-Informed Writing in Support of Voice, Safety, and Self-Trust – deJoly LaBrier
As both a survivor of extreme abuse and a Life and Writing Coach, her work is informed by lived experience as well as years of supporting women on their healing journeys. In this presentation, she shares how trauma-informed writing practices can support survivors in reclaiming voice, coherence, and a sense of inner authorship after experiences that fracture identity and distort self-perception.
Rather than asking survivors to revisit traumatic material, this approach honors personal boundaries and nervous system readiness. Writing becomes a relational practice—one that allows meaning to emerge slowly, safely, and on the survivor’s own terms. This work reflects a deep belief that survivors are not broken, but adaptive—and that wholeness is not something to be earned, but remembered. This presentation recognizes dissociation and multiplicity as adaptive survival responses and offers trauma-informed writing practices that support safety, voice, and self-trust without requiring integration or disclosure.
deJoly LaBrier is a Life and Writing Coach, public speaker, and survivor of extreme abuse whose work focuses on trauma-informed writing practices for women impacted by trafficking, ritual abuse, and complex trauma. Drawing from lived experience as well as years of coaching, facilitation, and public speaking, she supports survivors in reclaiming voice, agency, and a sense of wholeness after experiences that fracture identity and distort self-perception. https://dejoly.com/shop

Unraveling the Tangled Mind: Psychotherapy with Survivors of Mind Control – Faige Flakser, LCSW
This presentation offers a clinical roadmap for psychotherapy with survivors of Organized and Extreme Abuse (OEA), including cultic abuse, ritual abuse, trafficking, and other coercive systems. It describes how this work frequently presents with complex trauma and dissociation, with dissociative parts and self-states, often including DID. Participants will be oriented to the core psychological binds created by mind control: confrontation with profound human cruelty and the systematic destabilizing of reality-testing through confusion, coercion, and terror-based conditioning. The presentation highlights three predictable trust ruptures that shape treatment from the first contact: mistrust of helpers, including realistic fears that perpetrators may pose as helpers; mistrust within family systems where grooming and recruitment have often occurred; and mistrust of one’s own mind in the aftermath of sustained manipulation. These ruptures complicate the formation of a therapeutic alliance and require a paced, relational approach that honors the protective functions of doubt, vigilance, and withdrawal.
Faige Flakser, LCSW, is a trauma therapist, consultant, and educator with a clinical focus on trauma, dissociation, and DID, as well as Organized and Extreme Abuse (OEA), including mind control and coercive systems. She holds leadership roles within the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD), where she is the former Chair of the OEA Special Interest Group and has presented at ISSTD conferences. She is Director of the Trauma Division at the Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy (ICP).

An Introduction to Neurofeedback for Trauma – Joshua Moore MA, LMHC, BCN
Neurofeedback is a non-invasive, evidence-based therapeutic modality that helps individuals to self-regulate brain activity through real-time biofeedback of brainwave patterns, often referred to as EEG entrainment. In the treatment of trauma, particularly post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), neurofeedback targets key neurophysiological features such as hyperarousal, emotional dysregulation, and altered brain connectivity resulting from traumatic experiences. By identifying specific neuro-markers associated with PTSD, practitioners can transform the often intangible nature of psychological trauma into visible representations on a computer screen or printout, facilitating targeted training to normalize brain function.
This approach serves as a promising adjunct to traditional trauma therapies, effectively reducing core PTSD symptoms—including intrusive thoughts, avoidance behaviors, and heightened arousal—without necessitating direct exposure to traumatic memories, which many clients find aversive. Recent systematic reviews and meta-analyses indicate moderate beneficial effects on PTSD symptoms, with neurofeedback demonstrating clinically meaningful improvements in symptom severity. Neurofeedback is also discussed for its potential utility in Bessel van der Kolk’s book, The Body Keeps the Score, which highlights innovative, body-oriented interventions for trauma recovery (van der Kolk, 2014). In this lecture, key research and outcomes will be reviewed, alongside clinical principles and skills, emerging protocols, practical resources for locating practitioners, and training to become a certified neurofeedback practitioner.
Joshua Moore is a licensed mental health counselor who incorporates a variety of treatments, including talk therapy, EMDR, QEEG brain mapping, family systems work, and neurofeedback. Joshua is passionate about making evidence-based quality neurofeedback more available to the community. Joshua provides neurofeedback mentorship to several clinics and creates online workshops for beginners and advanced clinicians in the field of healthcare. Clinically, he works with difficult cases, including dissociative identity disorder, PTSD, traumatic brain injuries, and complex or unclear diagnoses. Joshua holds a Master’s degree in Counseling from Multnomah University and a Bachelor’s degree in Theology, and he is board-certified in neurofeedback through the Biofeedback International Certification Alliance (BCIA).

Intergenerational Occult Families, and One Father’s Fight for His Abducted Daughter – Iain Bryson
Iain Bryson’s daughter was taken fifteen years ago by his first wife and her family after his first wife told him that her family is a “cult,” and that she would be taking their daughter back to them because of “mind control.” Iain had no idea what ritual abuse and trauma-based-mind-control were until his daughter was taken. He had to reconcile that fact with what his wife had warned and the signs that his mind had refused to see. Iain tried to get help from local authorities and international authorities. Despite the fact that his daughter is a United States citizen, the only advice given by the Embassy was to re-abduct his daughter given that Poland is out of the Embassy’s jurisdiction. Having to take matters into his own hands, Iain ended up in the Polish criminal justice system. He was incarcerated for fifty months in Poland because of his attempts to make the system aware on his daughter. Iain was released in 2015.
In 2024, Iain Bryson published an evidence-based, documentary style memoir of his daughter’s abduction. He continues to fight for his daughter, and for other survivors of the horrendous atrocity we know as ritual abuse.

Manipulation, Coercion & Mistakes in Extreme Child Sexual Abuse Investigations – Dr. Rainer Kurz
This presentation builds on findings of Prof Jane Ireland (2012) that 2/3 of psychological assessment reports trawled from UK Family Courts were found to be ’poor’ or ‘very poor’, and US Law Professor Joan Meier (2020) that in about half of child custody cases investigated the parent who raised concerns about Domestic Abuse and Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) lost custody. The underlying ‘Discourse of Disbelief’ of authority representatives is illustrated through three case studies.
Rainer Kurz is a Chartered Psychologist based in London. Since 1990 Rainer has worked in Research & Development roles for leading test publishers. His PhD dissertation was on enhancing the validity and utility of ability testing. Rainer developed 50+ psychometric tests and authored more than 100 publications. He was a Consultant Editor for Test Reviews at the Psychometric Testing Centre (PTC) of the BPS. He is a Patron of the International Society for Mental Health Advocacy and Action and was at the inaugural Delhi summit (January 2026) an Invited Speaker. Rainer has been investigating complex trauma assessment problems since 2012. He authored 40+ posters and presentations on trauma, dissociation and healing at international peer-reviewed conferences (most of which are available here https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Rainer_Kurz2 Five 2025 ISPCAN papers are accessible through the Winter 2026 issue of the Survivorship Journal and at Survivorship conferences.

Clinical Discussion Group – How Ethics and History Effect Present Practice
Survivorship Board Members will moderate a discussion on how ethics and history in the field of psychology effect present practice. The discussion will include historical events in the field of psychology, allegations of ethical lapses that happened in different psychotherapeutic settings and how historical misconceptions of the field and different diagnoses may effect present practice.

Discussion Group with the Survivorship Board Members
Attendees are invited to discuss their challenges in their own personal therapy and how they may feel stuck in therapy and how they worked through this. Presenters and attendees will discuss ways to find an RA/MC therapist and how they can manage if they can’t find one. Survivors will discuss different self help ideas. Moderators and attendees will discuss how survivors can use peer support and groups in recovery.

Woodlock D; Olejníková L; Salter M; Singh S; Young A; Whitten T; Rouse J; Griffiths P, 2026, ‘Hidden in Plain Sight: Lessons From International Case Studies of Child Sexual Abuse in Early Childhood Education and Care Settings‘, Child Maltreatment, http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10775595251414844

Abstract
Child sexual abuse (CSA) in early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings is sometimes perceived as rare or the subject of a “moral panic”. Recent high-profile cases challenge this characterisation, exposing systemic failures within contemporary childcare environments that enable the sexual abuse of very young children. This article examines six prosecuted CSA cases from high-income countries involving serial offending against children under the age of five to explore how such severe abuse can persist despite regulation and apparent safeguards, and contrary to persistent scholarly claims that child sex offenders do not target ECEC settings. Using gendered organisational theory, our analysis reveals how organisational cultures, gendered power dynamics, and failures in accountability contribute to the occurrence and concealment of abuse. By situating these cases within broader patriarchal structural contexts, the article offers a critical rethinking of institutional responsibility and proposes reforms to strengthen child protection in ECEC settings.
Early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings have long been associated with controversies over child sexual abuse (CSA). While high-profile allegations in the 1980s, such as the McMartin Preschool trial, led to widespread skepticism and claims of “mass hysteria” (Cheit, 2014; Jenkins, 1992), contemporary evidence challenges the view that such abuse is merely the product of moral panic.
Some scholars continue to frame concerns about CSA in ECEC as exaggerated (Munk et al., 2013). Others, such as Parkinson and Cashmore (2017), have argued that ECEC environments are relatively low risk for CSA as compared to those involving older children, claiming that child sex offenders are rarely interested in very young children and there is limited opportunity for abuse. Nonetheless, large-scale offending persists. Recently in Australia, over 1200 children were referred to health authorities after a childcare worker was charged with 70 sex offences (Brown & Higgins, 2025). This case, occurring alongside the prosecution of Australian childcare worker Ashley Griffith (Smee, 2024), exposes a recurring pattern of premeditated exploitation and child sexual abuse material (CSAM) production that mirrors earlier decades (Cheit, 2014), now facilitated by digital technologies.

This study presents a qualitative analysis of six prosecuted cases from high-income countries involving serial offending against children under the age of five. Collectively, these cases document the abuse of at least 245 children. The primary aim is to identify the institutional conditions that enable such abuse and undermine safeguarding mechanisms. Drawing on gendered organisational theory, our analysis seeks to understand how abuse is enabled, concealed, or disrupted by gendered organisational structures and patriarchal cultures (Acker, 1990). The article reviews existing research, outlines our gendered organisational framework, applies this lens to six international case studies, and proposes actionable recommendations for reform….

Case Study Analysis
This case study analysis draws on six contemporary, prosecuted cases of CSA in ECEC settings, spanning the period from 2009 to 2024. Each case was selected based on its alignment with the study’s inclusion criteria and capacity to reveal broader institutional patterns. By analysing these cases through the lens of gendered organisational theory, the study identifies recurring dynamics that allowed abuse to persist across varied settings. A detailed account of each case follows, highlighting the organisational conditions that facilitated harm….
Offender Networks and the Lone Offender Myth
These case studies challenge the prevailing view of CSA offenders as isolated individuals, revealing instead the existence of networks that facilitate the sharing of CSAM, the exchange of strategies, and mutual encouragement. The evidence in these cases demonstrates that offenders commonly operate within online communities, facilitated and camouflaged by encryption technologies, that normalise and reinforce abusive behaviour and share CSAM of children in their care. McCoole, for example, was a central figure in The Love Zone, a forum on Tor hidden services (the so-called “dark web”) dedicated to the exchange of CSAM, which also included Griffith (Staff Writers, 2023). McCoole later had his sentence reduced for assisting international investigations, including cases in Denmark (Opie, 2018). Once dismissed as the product of moral panic, claims about organised CSA offending have now been substantiated through forensic evidence (Salter, 2012). Indeed, organised offending has been a consistent theme in allegations and investigations of CSA in ECEC for over forty years (Cheit, 2014). However, the proposition that ECEC may be targeted by organised offender networks for the purpose of CSA has not been taken seriously in child protection frameworks and measures. This oversight can be understood through Acker’s (1990) concept of cultural symbols. The persistence of the “lone offender” myth serves a protective function for the institution; it allows ECEC providers to treat abuse as the result of a singular “bad apple” rather than interrogating how the gendered structure of the workforce might attract and shield organised abuse networks….
Internal Safeguarding Failures
In each case study, internal safeguarding mechanisms within the ECEC context failed to detect or respond adequately to CSA, and the abuse was discovered only after CSAM investigations or, in one instance, sexual assault of a child in public. As seen in the cases of Griffith, Doyle, George, McCoole, and Robert M., it was the discovery of CSAM that compelled institutions and authorities to take action. In the case of D.N. in Sweden, abuse only surfaced after a separate police investigation unrelated to institutional safeguards. Some institutions repeatedly dismissed or downplayed concerns raised by mothers and female staff, until external, undeniable evidence emerged. This systemic dismissal of female voices points to gendered workplace interactions (Acker, 1990), where the professional status of the male worker is privileged over the evidence provided by mothers and female colleagues. These patterns underscore how institutional responses often depend on proof rather than trust, suggesting that ECEC safeguarding systems may be structured to respond only when abuse becomes irrefutable, rather than working to prevent it.

Tolerance for Grooming Behaviour
Most of the offenders in the six cases were well-regarded by colleagues, trusted by families, and liked by the children in their care. Simply presenting as professional and caring often proved sufficient to gain the trust of colleagues, management, and parents, which often continued even after concerns were raised. In some instances, offenders socialised with management and parents, offered private babysitting, and were welcomed into families’ homes. For example, sentencing remarks in the case of Griffith noted that he was often cruel and mocking towards children during the abuse, as revealed in CSAM he produced (The King v Griffith, 2024). Despite this, he was invited to children’s birthday parties and formed close relationships with their families. The case studies corroborate previous research on how offenders often actively groom not only children, but also co-workers, parents, and the institution itself (Briggs, 2014)….
Poor Oversight and Cross-Institutional Tracking
The case studies demonstrated how weak regulatory structures, including a lack of oversight of staffing and hiring practices, enabled offenders to move between services without adequate scrutiny or shared information. In a context where child safety should be the central concern, these failures in information sharing and employment vetting reflect a lack of institutional accountability. Across the case studies, offenders gained access to ECEC roles through informal networks, as in the case of McCoole, or without standard hiring procedures, as was the case with George. In other cases, long professional experience led to misplaced trust. Even when concerns were formally raised, such as McCoole being deemed unsuitable to work with children, this did not prevent further employment with children. These vetting failures expose a dangerous organisational logic (Acker, 1990). By treating applicants as abstract, gender-neutral units of labour, the system failed to account for the specific risk profiles associated with the glass escalator phenomenon, where scrutiny was lowered to facilitate the rapid entry of men into the workforce…..

Conclusion
Our case analysis challenges prior claims that ECEC settings are a low risk for CSA or that concerns about child maltreatment in ECEC are a moral panic or otherwise exaggerated. It is perhaps timely to reflect on the legacy and consequences of such claims, which have received broad scholarly and media support in previous decades, given the cumulative evidence of serious and serial CSA offending in ECEC settings. Patterns across the case studies reveal the same institutional weaknesses: failure to act on concerns, over-reliance on external investigations, and a reluctance to question those in trusted roles. The development and evaluation of proactive safeguarding strategies tailored to the unique vulnerabilities of preverbal and very young children in ECEC environments, including the effectiveness of institutional grooming prevention, the promotion of institutional courage and workplace cultures of accountability and transparency, is needed.
This article has highlighted the paucity of research into the prevalence and characteristics of CSA in ECEC. There is a clear need for research into rates of suspected, reported and substantiated CSA cases in ECEC, the response of educators, institutions, regulators and the criminal justice system, and the impact of such abuse upon children and their families. Forensic studies of offenders targeting preverbal children would help to elucidate their specific motivations and strategies…. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10775595251414844

Sprawling investigation finds decades of sexual abuse among Catholic priests in Rhode Island
By KIMBERLEE KRUESI, MARYCLAIRE DALE and LEAH WILLINGHAM March 4, 2026

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) – Catholic priests in Rhode Island preyed on hundreds of children for decades, and were protected by bishops more concerned with the church’s reputation than the victims, according to a new report on clergy sexual abuse that echoes findings elsewhere.
The report, released Wednesday by Attorney General Peter Neronha, follows a multiyear investigation into the Catholic Diocese of Providence, Rhode Island….
The investigation found that 75 Catholic clergy molested more than 300 victims since 1950, but officials stressed that the number of victimized children and abusive priests is likely much higher.
The diocese, in response, acknowledged the scourge of child sexual abuse — especially by clergy — but said the report reflects the church’s willingness to share internal records under a 2019 agreement with the state. “The report presents this 75-year history in ways that might lead the reader to conclude these issues are an ongoing diocesan problem or that these are new revelations. They are not,” the statement said….
Church records show the diocese transferred accused priests to new assignments without fully investigating complaints or contacting law enforcement, a practice exposed in investigations in Boston, Philadelphia and elsewhere.
And, as in other cities, the Diocese of Providence opened a “spiritual retreat-style facility” in the early 1950s for accused priests to seek treatment. Later, when the abuse was deemed a mental health problem, priests were sent to more formal treatment centers. By the 1990s, accused priests were sometimes placed on sabbatical leave….
Most accused priests, the report found, avoided accountability from both law enforcement and the diocese. Neronha’s office has charged four current and former priests with sexual abuse for allegations stemming from 2020 to 2022. Three of them are still awaiting trial. The fourth priest died after being deemed incompetent to stand trial in 2022. Only 20 people — about a quarter of the clergy identified in the report — faced criminal charges, and just 14 were convicted. A dozen others were laicized or otherwise dismissed….
One survivor described being groomed more than a year before he was abused by the pastor of Immaculate Conception Church in Cranston in 1981. The survivor, who is not named in the report, said the late Monsignor John Allard showered him with attention. By ninth grade, he said, the sexual abuse began in the priest’s bedroom. “His comment to me was always, ‘You need a hug,’ and that’s something that I can hear him saying very clearly to this very day,” the survivor told officials in 2013.

While a review board deemed the abuse credible, the Vatican — at the urging of then-Providence Bishop Thomas Tobin — let Allard retire rather than be defrocked. The report lists Tobin advocating for several accused priests, a trend that Neronha repeatedly criticized….
The church turned over 70 years’ worth of material, including complaints from its secret archives, civil settlement records, treatment costs and other documents. Yet Neronha called the diocese’s help limited at times, saying it refused to provide diocesan personnel for interviews.
Neronha criticized the diocese on Wednesday for treating the report as “ancient history,” arguing that more needed to be done by clergy leaders to address ongoing concerns about abuse. His office outlined multiple changes for the diocese, which include providing clear investigative timelines and guidelines. He also stressed the need for the diocese to abandon the practice of requiring victims take polygraph tests and to stop refusing to investigate third-party complaints about priests. The diocese, in its response Wednesday, pushed back on that view, saying the report would not have been possible without the church’s cooperation.
“There are no credibly accused clergy in active ministry,” said Bishop Bruce Lewandowski in a video statement….
https://apnews.com/article/rhode-island-priest-abuse-f40c99b76870a2516999bf2d676aa144

Eighteen And Under (Scottish charity SC026688) is carrying out research in collaboration with researchers in Umass University into technology assisted abuse. We are seeking participants (aged 18 or over) who have experienced technology-facilitated abuse and might be interested in contributing to this research. Survivor voices are essential to designing prevention and intervention strategies that genuinely protect children. This research will hopefully contribute insight into factors that shape children’s safety and willingness to seek help. The findings can inform best-practice, child-protection training, and safer online environments that respond effectively to the realities of modern abuse. For further information email Laurie on lormac1053@aol.com

Cesar Chavez, a Civil Rights Icon, Is Accused of Abusing Girls for Years
An investigation by The New York Times found extensive evidence that the United Farm Workers co-founder groomed and sexually abused girls who worked in the movement. By Manny Fernandez and Sarah Hurtes
The reporters interviewed several women who told their stories for the first time, as well as more than 60 other people, including Cesar Chavez’s top aides and relatives. The reporters also reviewed hundreds of pages of union records, confidential emails, photographs and other material.
describes abuse allegations
….Ms. Murguia and another woman, Debra Rojas, say that Mr. Chavez sexually abused them for years when they were girls, from around 1972 to 1977. He was in his 40s and had become a powerful, charismatic figure who captured global attention as a champion of farmworker rights.
The two women have not shared their stories publicly before, and an investigation by The New York Times has uncovered extensive evidence to support their accusations and those raised by several other women against Mr. Chavez, the United Farm Workers co-founder who died in 1993 at the age of 66.
The questions raised by The Times about Mr. Chavez, one of the most consequential figures in Mexican American history, immediately prompted organizations with ties to him to try to distance themselves. The U.F.W. canceled its annual celebrations honoring Mr. Chavez, a response to what the union he once led called “profoundly shocking” accusations….
The abuse allegations appear to be part of a larger pattern of sexual misconduct by Mr. Chavez, much of which has never been publicly revealed. The Times investigation found that Mr. Chavez also used many of the women who worked and volunteered in his movement for his own sexual gratification. His most prominent female ally in the movement, Dolores Huerta, said in an interview that he sexually assaulted her, a disclosure she has never before made publicly.

Many of the women stayed silent for decades, both out of shame and for fear of tarnishing the image of a man who has become the face of the Latino civil rights movement, his image on school murals and his birthday a state holiday in California.
The findings are based on interviews with more than 60 people, including his top aides at the time, his relatives and former members of the U.F.W., which he co-founded with Ms. Huerta and Gilbert Padilla. The Times reviewed hundreds of pages of union records, confidential emails and photographs, as well as hours of audio recordings from U.F.W. board meetings.
The accounts of abuse from Ms. Murguia and Ms. Rojas were independently verified through interviews with those they confided in decades ago and in more recent years. Elements of their stories were also corroborated in documents, emails, itineraries and other writings from union organizers, supporters of Mr. Chavez and historians.
The Times spoke at length with Ms. Huerta, the renowned Latina activist who helped run the farmworkers’ union with Mr. Chavez and coined the social-justice rallying cry, “Sí, se puede,” loosely translated as “Yes, we can.” She said she has held on to a dark secret for nearly 60 years.
One night during the winter of 1966 in Delano, Calif., she said, Mr. Chavez drove her out to a secluded grape field, parked and raped her inside the vehicle. Ms. Huerta, who was 36 at the time, said she chose not to report the assault to the police because of their hostility toward the movement, and she feared that no one within the union would believe her. She also described an earlier encounter in August 1960, when she said she felt pressured to have sex with him in a hotel room during a work trip in San Juan Capistrano in Southern California….
A handful of Mr. Chavez’s relatives and former U.F.W. leaders have been aware for years about various allegations of sexual misconduct, but there is no evidence that they made efforts to fully investigate the accusations, acknowledge the victims or apologize to them. Instead, many of the women say they were discouraged from speaking out in order to preserve Mr. Chavez’s public image.
Internal emails dating back over a decade show union members discussing Ms. Murguia’s claims of abuse and the impact it had on her life. One of Ms. Murguia’s relatives confronted Mr. Chavez while he was still alive, in the 1980s. According to the relative, Mr. Chavez offered no defense and responded only by clearing his throat….
Nothing has emerged publicly to back up the claims made by Ms. Huerta. Her description of assault could not be independently verified because she said she had told no one, not even her children or closest friends, until just a few weeks ago.

But the paper trail of some of Mr. Chavez’s misconduct involving young girls can be found in the very archives built to preserve his legacy. In one handwritten letter on girlish stationery imprinted with roses, Ms. Rojas wrote to Mr. Chavez in January 1974 at the age of 13, shifting between childlike school updates and swooning devotion. She said she wrote the letter more than a year after he first kissed and fondled her in his office in 1972, when she was a 12-year-old seventh-grader. “I’m really glad I got to see you & spend time with you, well not like that, but just to know I was near you was enough,” she wrote, adding, “I think of you all of the time. Do you think of me?”
The letter is among thousands of documents and other materials in the Walter P. Reuther Library archives at Wayne State University in Detroit….
Elements of Mr. Chavez’s extramarital affairs with adult women were chronicled in at least two biographies, Matt Garcia’s “From the Jaws of Victory: The Triumph and Tragedy of Cesar Chavez and the Farm Worker Movement,” published in 2012, and Miriam Pawel’s “The Crusades of Cesar Chavez: A Biography,” published in 2014.
But neither raised issues of abuse of girls. While Mr. Chavez had eight children with his wife, Helen Chavez, the Times investigation showed that he also fathered at least four children with three other women. Two of these children and other family members were interviewed and confirmed the relationship. Additionally, 23andMe match results were reviewed for the four children, and they confirmed Mr. Chavez’s biological ties in each case….
Ms. Murguia said she was 13 when Mr. Chavez began inviting her into his office. He had an obsession with alternative healing therapies, and would sometimes put her on his desk and demonstrate the “pressure points” that could relieve stress and pain, she said. That eventually led to kissing, and then fondling. And then more.
“When I was on the yoga mat is when he would try to have sex,” Ms. Murguia said. Ms. Murguia said she wasn’t attracted to Mr. Chavez, and was initially surprised by his touches, but said she felt chosen. “Part of it was, why would someone like that like someone like me?” She said Mr. Chavez told her not to tell anyone because other girls and women would be jealous of their special bond.
He took her on tour with him, having her travel in his car and stand with him at events and marches. She appears next to him in several photographs — among them one of the most iconic images from the U.F.W.’s famous 1,000-Mile March in the summer of 1975, and an earlier shot alongside the folk singer Joan Baez.

But it was also during that time, two years after he first touched Ms. Murguia in his office, that things changed. By now age 15, she had accompanied Mr. Chavez on a trip to Los Angeles. At a fund-raiser’s home in Bel Air, she walked into the kitchen and found him kissing a woman. She left quickly. “I was disgusted,” she said. On the way back to La Paz, she rode with the guards and the dogs, refusing to share a car with him….
Several people corroborated her story. One family member said she learned of the abuse in the early 1980s, after Ms. Murguia told her about it. Another person said Ms. Murguia disclosed the abuse to him in 1989. One of the men present in the room when Ms. Murguia was kicked out of La Paz refused to comment. Another said he didn’t remember that time in his life.
For a long time, she felt she would be blamed for what had happened. That was how it worked back then, she said — girls were abused by family members, by people close to the family, and it was always kept quiet. And if anyone found out, she said, the question was never about the man. “It was always: ‘Well, what did you do? See what you did.’” There was one person at La Paz she knew she could share her story with, and that was Ms. Rojas….
One night, Ms. Rojas recalled, Mr. Chavez told her he was sending her home for a week. She was sad and confused, and thought she had done something wrong.
She was waiting at the bus station when Mr. Chavez drove up with one of his bodyguards. He invited her into the car, and they drove to a motel on Highway 99.
In the motel room he shared with her, she said, he had intercourse with her for the first time — rape, under California law. She was a virgin, and remembers that it hurt, and she was bleeding. But she also remembers the gun Mr. Chavez had placed on the night stand next to the bed. She couldn’t help but look at it every time she turned her head, and it scared her, she said. “I said, ‘What’s that for?’” Ms. Rojas said. “Don’t worry about it,” she said he told her. He said because of the death threats he received, he and his security team wanted to make sure they were safe.
Several people and documents corroborated the accusations made by Ms. Rojas, including a relative who said Ms. Rojas first told her in the late 1990s that Mr. Chavez had abused her….
Yet many of those who look back on those years at La Paz also say that Mr. Chavez was a man who could be nurturing one moment, only to use that same emotional intimacy to manipulate and abuse the next. Ms. Huerta said he abused her not only physically but emotionally.
Union records document an argument at La Paz between the two of them over missing financial receipts during a board meeting in 1979. Ms. Huerta demanded respect and pushed back against his suggestions that she had stolen money. Mr. Chavez responded by shouting at her with curses and insults, repeatedly calling her a stupid bitch, according to the audio recordings of board meetings The Times listened to…. htps://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/18/us/cesar-chavez-sexual-abuse-allegations-ufw.html

Harvey Weinstein is going on trial again in a New York rape case
By JENNIFER PELTZ April 14, 2026

NEW YORK (AP) — After years of #MeToo infamy, legal peril and prison, Harvey Weinstein is again going on trial on a rape charge in New York City.
Jury selection started Tuesday in the onetime movie mogul’s latest retrial, where jurors will weigh — for the third time — whether he raped hairstylist and actor Jessica Mann in a Manhattan hotel in 2013.
This time, jurors will consider only one charge based on one accuser, rather than the array of allegations that were aired at Weinstein’s previous trials in New York and Los Angeles. The Oscar-winning producer denies all the accusations and declared in court this winter that he had “acted wrongly, but I never assaulted anyone.”
Prosecutors might also seek to introduce new evidence. After Weinstein arrived in court Tuesday, but before jury selection began, Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Candace White told the judge that prosecutors might seek to include testimony from a court security officer about something Weinstein allegedly said six years ago.

According to White, the officer said he was on hand for Weinstein’s February 2020 sexual assault conviction — which was later overturned — and heard Weinstein say: “If you had seen these girls, you would have done the exact same thing.”….Weinstein wielded significant clout in the entertainment industry, having built his reputation on such critical and popular hits as “Shakespeare in Love,” “Pulp Fiction” and “Chocolat.” He also became a prominent Democratic donor. Then a series of sexual harassment and sex assault allegations against Weinstein began to emerge in news media in 2017, propelling the #MeToo movement. He was criminally charged in New York in 2018 and in Los Angeles two years later….Weinstein went to trial and was convicted of some — but not all — counts in both cases. His initial New York convictions were overturned, spurring a retrial last year.
The retrial verdict was mixed: Weinstein was convicted of forcing oral sex on production assistant and producer Miriam Haley in 2006, but he was acquitted of forcibly performing oral sex on model-turned-psychotherapist Kaja Sokola. The jury didn’t decide on the rape charge involving Mann because the foreperson refused to keep deliberating…..The defense claimed that Mann and his other accusers willingly entertained his sexual overtures because they wanted his help with their show-business aspirations. The women, by contrast, said Weinstein dangled his Hollywood influence to draw them into his orbit and then victimize them….
https://apnews.com/article/harvey-weinstein-rape-trial-metoo-4c1ab0f9aed5d563a1146c799dd0250d

Judge dismisses Trump $10B defamation lawsuit against Murdoch, WSJ about Epstein letter Mon, Apr 13 2026 Dan Mangan
A Florida federal court judge tossed out a $10 billion defamation lawsuit by President Donald Trump against media baron Rupert Murdoch and The Wall Street Journal. Trump claimed he was defamed in a Journal article that said he sent a birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein, his then-friend. Trump will be allowed to file an amended lawsuit in the case, Judge Darrin Gayles said in his ruling in U.S. District Court in Miami….
Gayles said he had to dismiss the civil complaint because Trump, who has adamantly denied sending the letter to his then-friend Epstein in 2003, had “not plausibly alleged that the Defendants published the Article with actual malice.”

Plaintiffs who are public figures like Trump must show that a defendant had actual malice when they made allegedly defamatory statements, according to legal precedent.
Gayles said Trump’s complaint “falls short of pleading actual malice,” and also said the president “comes nowhere close to” the standard for showing that the newspaper deliberately avoided investigating the truth of the statements it published about the letter. “The Article explains that, before running the story, Defendants contacted President Trump, Justice Department officials, and the FBI for comment,” the judge wrote.
“President Trump responded with his denial, the Justice Department did not respond at all, and the FBI declined to comment. In short, the Complaint and Article confirm that Defendants attempted to investigate.” And Gayles noted that the article included the fact that Trump denied writing the letter, which makes an allegation of actual malice less plausible. But the judge, in giving Trump a second chance in the case, pointed to another precedent that says a plaintiff “should have the opportunity to amend his complaint” if a lawsuit was tossed out for failing to plead facts in a suit “giving rise to an inference of actual malice.”….
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/13/trump-epstein-murdoch-wsj-lawsuit-dismissed.html

Listen To The Jeffrey Epstein Tapes: ‘I Was Donald Trump’s Closest Friend’
thedailybeast.com/listen-to-the-jeffrey-epstein-tapes-i-was-donald-trumps-closest-friend

THE PREDATOR AND THE PRESIDENT
Explosive tapes recorded by author Michael Wolff show Epstein claiming Trump liked to “f—” his friends’ wives and first slept with Melania on the “Lolita Express.” Exclusive
Jeffrey Epstein described himself as Donald Trump’s “closest friend” and claimed intimate knowledge of his proclivity for sex, including cuckolding his best friends, according to recordings obtained exclusively by the Daily Beast. The convicted pedophile even boasted of his closeness to Trump and his now-wife Melania by claiming, “the first time he slept with her was on my plane,” which was dubbed the Lolita Express.
Epstein spoke at length about Trump with the author Michael Wolff in August 2017, two years before being found dead in his jail cell. Wolff was researching his bombshell bestseller Fire and Fury at the time….The tapes tell Epstein’s version of the relationship between two former friends and their very different paths: One toward infamy, prison and suicide; the other toward power, the Oval Office and his own criminal conviction for paying hush money to a porn star. Trump’s camp referred to the tapes’ release as “false smears” and “election interference.” The tapes also offer unusual insight into the friendship of two wealthy, powerful men who frequently went out on the town together, prowling for women in New York and Atlantic City…. https://docs.house.gov/meetings/JU/JU08/20250227/117951/HHRG-119-JU08-20250227-SD006-U6.pdf

May 1, 2026 · Filed Under Newsletter 2026 - Issue 186 - 191