Issue 118 – September 2014
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: http://ritualabuse.us/
Issue 118 – September 2014
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 the Masons and other 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 2014 – All rights reserved. No reproduction of any material without written permission from the editor and individual authors.
SMART wants to thank all those that have contributed resource information to the newsletter.
This issue includes: Westminster ‘chumocracy’, Jersey historical child abuse inquiry, Jersey Island, Westminster child abuse, Cyril Smith, Knowl View Rochdale school abuse probe, Savile Sex Abuse Scandal, Rotherham child abuse scandal, Cardinal Sean Brady, Child sex abuse royal commission, Cardinal George Pell, Flying on Broken Wings, Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry, Matt Sandusky, Penn State, Cliff Richard, St Helena, Former Radio 1 DJ Chris Denning, Scotland, West Midlands child abuse cases, KC diocese, Rev. Shawn Ratigan, Michael Jackson, Santa Rosa diocese, Pope Francis, Rev. Kenneth LaVan, Yeshiva Sex Abuse Lawsuit, UConn sex assault lawsuit, Online child abuse, Premier Silvio Berlusconi, Matthew Lane Durham, Charles Mozdir, Mumbai’s prostitutes, The Enslaved Queen, Wendy Hoffman, programming, Dr. Mengele, Illuminati, Satanic Craigslist Killers, Miranda Barbour, Elytte Barbour, Troy LaFerrara, satanic cult, Christian Assemblies International, Scott Williams, Zimbabwe, Christopher L. Roalson, satanic murder, Victor Manuel Alas, Jose E Reyes, torture report, enhanced interrogation, waterboarding, La Gran Familia, Rosa Verduzco, Don Spirit, female genital mutilation, forced marriage, Satanic Ritual Abuse, Ross Cheit, The Witch-Hunt Narrative, Keller, Frank Fuster, Judy Johnson, Ray Buckey, Jason Berry, Cardiovascular Problems, brain development, biological consequences, childhood neglect, trauma, sexual violence, campus sexual assault, DNA changes, Early Life Stress, Gene Methylation, clergy abuse victims, spanking, Japan, rape, severe mental illness, violence against children, Physical Punishment, Mental Disorders
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. S.M.A.R.T. recommends always bringing a support person to all conferences. If you are a survivor of mind control and/or ritual abuse, S.M.A.R.T. recommends that you try to bring a support person that is familiar with mind control techniques.
UK, Australia and Related News
Westminster ‘chumocracy’ has protected itself from paedophile revelations, claims Cameron’s advisor on child abuse
Claire Perry says politicians have ‘out of touch sense of entitlement’
Tory junior minister launched blistering attack on establishment cover up
Comes after Theresa May this week launched two probes into historic abuse
By Tom Mctague, Mail Online Deputy Political Editor 11 July 2014
David Cameron’s advisor on child abuse has lashed out at the Westminster ‘chumocracy’ that has protected itself from allegations of paedophilia. Tory junior minister Claire Perry said Parliament was full of ‘too many people with the same interests and the same out-of-touch sense of entitlement coming together to protect their own’. Her damning remarks come amid allegations that a paedophile network was operating in Westminster and was being protected by senior politicians….
Miss Perry added: ‘The other, and more worrying part of the problem is the way that the voices of victims were ignored for so long – children told to keep quiet, ridiculed, or threatened – with tragically the most vulnerable of all being more likely to be targeted for abuse. ‘That, to me, is the real scandal and we must do all we can to make sure that when victims speak out they are heard and action is taken.”….
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2688622/Westminster-chumocracy-protected-paedophile-revelations-claims-Cameron-s-advisor-child-abuse.html
Butler-Sloss steps down from child abuse inquiry 14 July 2014 Retired judge Baroness Butler-Sloss has stepped down as head of a probe into child sex abuse saying she was “not the right person” for the job. Lady Butler-Sloss has been under pressure to quit from MPs and victims concerned about her family links.Her late brother, Sir Michael Havers, was attorney general in the 1980s. http://www.bbc.com/news/business-28295282
Jersey historical child abuse inquiry to begin 21 July 2014 An inquiry looking into historical child abuse allegations in Jersey’s care system will begin later. The year-long £6m inquiry will probe reports of abuse in the island’s children’s homes and fostering services from 1960 to the present day….
A three-year, £7.5m investigation by Jersey police into historical child abuse in the island’s care homes began after allegations of abuse at former children’s home Haut de la Garenne. From September 2007, police took 1,776 statements from 192 victims, identifying 151 alleged abusers. Seven people were successfully prosecuted…. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-jersey-28408981
Lawmakers Blast Child-Abuse Inquiry on Tax Shelter Jersey Island
By Leah McGrath Goodman Filed: 9/10/14
Neil McMurray used to be a professional fisherman and crabber—until one of his children was repeatedly bullied in school and he found himself investigating what he began to view as a startling lack of concern for the welfare of children in his tiny island home.
“For the past decade, I have been writing about what I have come to see as a culture of concealment within our government, education and justice systems, which have repeatedly failed the most vulnerable members of our society, particularly children,” says McMurray.
McMurray lives on the island of Jersey, a $2 trillion tax shelter in the Channel Islands. Just 14 miles off the west coast of France, Jersey is part of neither Great Britain nor the European Union but a “Crown dependency”—meaning it is technically accountable to the queen of Great Britain but governs itself.
A 47-year-old married father of two, McMurray launched a humble but highly influential blog, Voice for Children, around the time the island’s police announced in 2008 that nearly 200 people from different parts of the world had come forward to report they had been victims of child predators on the island.
Since then, McMurray has assiduously covered child-protection issues in Jersey, gaining a following that includes global human-rights activists as well as the island’s locals, not excluding Jersey’s chief minister, Ian Gorst. But he has also gathered a good deal of notoriety….
Dubbed Operation Rectangle, the 2008 police investigation into widespread child abuse on the island yielded 151 suspects in Jersey, which is only 5 by 9 miles in size. Of those, 30 are now dead and fewer than a dozen were convicted, sparking widespread outrage from victims and witnesses and creating deep divisions on the island.
During Operation Rectangle, a dig under a government-run Jersey children’s home, Haut de la Garenne, unearthed the remains of children aged 6 to 12, according to a Jersey police press release, which noted that “no people are reported missing” and “there are no suspects for murder.” The probe closed in 2010 under questionable circumstances.
In July, a long-awaited Committee of Inquiry convened hearings in Jersey to investigate whether there may have been a cover-up of decades of atrocities against children. The inquiry stated September 5 that “new witnesses are coming forward all the time, and it is anticipated the hearings will last many months.”…. http://www.newsweek.com/lawmakers-blast-child-abuse-inquiry-tax-shelter-jersey-269447
Bradford paedophile ‘has information on Westminster child abuse’ 21 July 2014 A CONVICTED paedophile in West Yorkshire had his sentencing adjourned because he claims to have information on child abuse allegedly being covered up in Westminster in the 1970s. According to his barrister, Michael McAuliffe says he is also able to provide information about further child abuse and paedophile rings.
James Bourne-Arton QC, defending McAuliffe, asked the court whether his client’s case could be adjourned for police investigations into his claims to be made. Mr Bourne-Arton told Bradford Crown Court today that his client “has information to the abuse covered up in the 1970s in Westminster”.
“He also said there was other evidence of child abuse and paedophile rings he was able to give information of,” he added. McAuliffe was in court to be sentenced for a string of child porn image charges after an off-duty policewoman spotted him in London – where he had tried to escape justice by changing his name. The 50-year-old, who changed his name to Ashley Peters, was registered with West Yorkshire Police and legally bound to notify the force of any change in address following child porn convictions….
Today Michael Smith, prosecuting, told the court their position “is one of deep scepticism” regarding McAuliffe’s recent claims….
McAuliffe then said “Can I just say the names I’ve got…” before Judge Benson cut him off and sent him down to the cells. http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/main-topics/general-news/bradford-paedophile-has-information-on-westminster-child-abuse-1-6740888
UK police arrest 660 suspected paedophiles National Crime Agency detains suspected child abusers, including doctors and teachers, and takes more than 400 children into care Josh Halliday and Hatty Collier theguardian.com, Wednesday 16 July 2014
More than 600 suspected paedophiles, including doctors and teachers, have been arrested across Britain after a six-month investigation led by the National Crime Agency.
The agency, dubbed Britain’s FBI, announced on Wednesday it had arrested 660 suspected child abusers and taken more than 400 children into care in the first nationwide investigation of its kind.
Of the 660 arrested, 39 were registered sex offenders but the vast majority of suspected paedophiles were off the police’s radar. Those arrested include doctors, teachers, scout leaders, care workers and former police officers. The operation, which had remained secret until Wednesday, targeted people accessing indecent images of children online….
One of those arrested and subsequently charged was a doctor who allegedly kept more than 1m images of child abuse on his computers and had arranged to meet boys….
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jul/16/660-suspected-paedophiles-arrested-uk
Cyril Smith: ‘evidence of sex abuse’ was overruled CPS report shows Detective told chief constable in 1970 there was prima facie evidence of guilt – but DPP advised against prosecution Rajeev Syal theguardian.com, Wednesday 16 July 2014
A senior detective investigating sex abuse claims against Cyril Smith told the force there was prima facie evidence of the late MP’s guilt in 1970 – but this claim was overruled, newly released documents show. The detective’s report in 1970 to the chief constable of Lancashire said the Liberal MP would have been “at the mercy of a competent counsel”. The 14-page report also revealed “veiled threats” from a friend of Smith, thought to be a fellow senior Liberal. The director of public prosecution later advised against prosecuting. Smith died in 2010 aged 82. The documents were released on Wednesday night by the Crown Prosecution Service following a ruling by the information rights tribunal. Simon Danczuk, the Rochdale Labour MP, who first named Smith as a child abuser, said that the documents were another indication of the cover-up that had protected Smith from being disclosed as a paedophile. “This shows that police officers were certain of his guilt,” Danczuk said. “If they had been allowed to do their job they would have saved many more boys from being abused. We know that Cyril went on to abuse many more boys at Knowl View residential school, Elm guest house, and other places, during the 70s and 80s.”….
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jul/16/cyril-smith-sex-abuse-cps-1970-report-lancashire-dpp
Knowl View: ’40 victims’ in Rochdale school abuse probe 15 September 2014
Police investigating historical child abuse in Rochdale say more than 40 men have said they were victims of the former MP Cyril Smith or other men.
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said 24 men have alleged they were sexually and physically abused at Knowl View school in Rochdale between 1960 and 1987.
Twenty of those have said they were abused by Smith, who died in 2010.
At least one victim has told detectives he was raped by the man who was Liberal MP for Rochdale from 1972 to 1992.
Police said they had interviewed 21 men aged between 35 and 80 under caution for a variety of offences but there were still a number of other suspects to be traced and interviewed.
A separate investigation is focusing on Smith, who is alleged to have preyed on youngsters both at Knowl View, where five complainants have come forward, and another school in Rochdale for “difficult children”, Cambridge House, from where 10 complainants have spoken to police.
Another five have said they were abused by Smith at various other locations, all in the Greater Manchester area…. http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-29207921
Double child abuse agony for Rochdale family By Jane Deith 16 September 2014
Two children from one family were sexually abused in separate paedophile scandals in Rochdale the BBC has found. A boy was sexually assaulted at Knowl View School and a decade later his sister was groomed for sex by a gang of Asian men in the town.
Their mother only learned from the BBC that her son, who died recently, had been a victim.
She said she did not think it was a coincidence that both abuse scandals happened in the same town. BBC Radio 4’s File on 4 programme discovered the link while investigating Knowl View, a school for boys with special educational needs. The former Rochdale MP Cyril Smith sexually assaulted young boys at the residential school. The programme was shown a list of children who were at Knowl View during the 1990s….
Failure to end abuse
In the early 1990s, three official reports were written about sexual abuse at the school but they were not made public. Greater Manchester Police is investigating whether there was a criminal cover-up. Current MP for Rochdale Simon Danczuk is now questioning whether the failure to end the abuse at Knowl View led to a climate in which the subsequent child sex ring in Rochdale was allowed to emerge.
“I’ve often wondered whether there’s a connection between the two and whether the culture was influenced by the fact that Smith’s abuse had been ignored by people in the town and whether that impacted on the Rochdale grooming scandal.
“Knowl View links the historic to the recent is the point I’m making… it’s a continuum of abuse by individuals, but also by groups because Knowl View is about groups of abusers coming together just like the grooming gangs that have been involved with the girls.”…. http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-29159427
Chilling day Special Branch swooped to seize ANOTHER dossier on VIP abusers: 16 MPs’ names mentioned in 1984 report on paedophile lobby’s influence in Westminster
Police raided newspaper offices of Don Hale, editor of Bury Messenger
He’d recently been given sensitive files by Labour politician Barbara Castle
Documents included typewritten minutes of meetings that had been held at Westminster in support of paedophile agenda
Included details of a host of Establishment figures who had apparently pledged support to their cause
Also mentioned multiple times was Tory minister Sir Rhodes Boyson, a well-known enthusiast for corporal punishment, and Education Secretary Sir Keith Joseph
By Guy Adams 18 July 2014 The knock on the door came early one day in the famously dry summer of 1984. It was just after 8 am, and Don Hale, the young editor of the Bury Messenger, was reading the daily papers at his desk as his reporters were beginning to arrive at the office. As Hale, then 31, answered the door, a trio of plain-clothes detectives barged in, followed by a dozen police officers in uniform. What happened next was, in Hale’s words, ‘like something out of totalitarian East Germany rather than Margaret Thatcher’s supposedly free Britain’. The detectives identified themselves as Special Branch, the division of the police responsible for matters of national security. ‘They began to flash warrant cards and bark questions,’ says Hale. ‘It was as if they were interviewing a potential criminal rather than a law-abiding newspaper man. ‘The officers told me that I should abandon plans to print a story that was scheduled to run in our next edition. If I didn’t, they told me to expect a long jail sentence.’ Initially bewildered by their threatening tone, Hale soon worked out the purpose of the police visit. The focus of their attention was an incendiary dossier he had been handed a few days earlier by long-serving Labour politician Barbara Castle. A powerful feminist and stalwart of the traditional Left, who served in Harold Wilson’s Cabinet, she was for years the MP for nearby Blackburn.
One of her lifelong interests, as a principled advocate for the vulnerable and powerless, was child protection. To that end, she had become concerned at the rising influence of the paedophile lobby, which was then infiltrating the political Establishment, developing links with senior public figures, including MPs, peers, civil servants and police officers….
At this point, the officer produced a document, signed by a judge. It showed that his previous remark about not printing the story had not been a request, but an order. The document handed to Hale was a D-notice — a relic of wartime censorship that could be served on newspaper editors, allowing the Government to block any story that threatened national security. ‘If you don’t comply with this notice, we will arrest you for perverting the course of justice,’ the detective barked. ‘You will be liable for up to ten years in prison.’
At this point, Hale’s resistance collapsed. He had been plunged into a situation for which he had little experience. In his first editorship and married with two children, he says he couldn’t afford to casually put his family and career at risk. The papers from Mrs Castle were swiftly confiscated, as were Hale’s notes and even his typewriter….
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2697947/Chilling-day-Special-Branch-swooped-seize-ANOTHER-dossier-VIP-abusers-16-MPs-names-mentioned-1984-report-paedophile-lobby-s-influence-Westminster.html
Britain’s Crime of Complicity With the Savile Sex Abuse Scandal By LAURIE PENNY JULY 30, 2014 LONDON …. The Westminster inquiry will investigate not just the rape and assault of children at group homes going back decades but also accusations that child abuse by politicians and other public figures was deliberately covered up or even facilitated by members of the elite. The same Parliament has, it seems, spent 30 years failing to catch the pedophiles in its own house. Before the inquiry was even announced, it emerged that 114 files concerning allegations of abuse against children involving senior political figures had mysteriously disappeared. ….
In Britain in 2014, it is no longer a shock to see the face of a once beloved celebrity or well-known politician on the news in connection with pedophilia. During the past two years, the press has been peppered with reports of allegations and prosecutions of all manner of public figures, from politicians and pop stars to television hosts and senior staff members at exclusive private schools….
Worse, it became clear that a large number of people in show business knew about this abuse and did nothing because of Mr. Savile’s power and prestige. The entertainer, who was a friend of Margaret Thatcher, used his status to gain access to vulnerable young people in schools and even hospitals.
The posthumous disgrace of Jimmy Savile was just the beginning. A series of other public figures have now been accused or convicted of sexual offenses involving children. Among them was a once respected Liberal member of Parliament who died in 2010, Cyril Smith, who abused boys in a children’s home in his constituency. Those boys grew up into traumatized men who told the police about the “fat man” they were forced to sexually service before they were 10 years old.
What links all these convicted or alleged predators of children is not background or upbringing. Mr. Smith started out as a clerk in a tax office, while Mr. Savile first worked as a miner. Paul Gadd, previously convicted but now facing fresh charges, found fame as the singer Gary Glitter, but was brought up by an unmarried mother who worked as a cleaner. Rolf Harris, recently jailed, was an Australian animator who became a successful performer in Britain. What united them was power and access — and a sense of entitlement, acquired from Britain’s traditional elite, that came from the knowledge that their reputations were too great for them to be held accountable….
In many cases, investigation by the authorities was deliberately deflected. Nowhere is this truer than at Britain’s top “public schools,” as the private secondary, usually boarding, schools are known. In these, a culture of bullying and sexualized violence has been understood for more than a century as part of the process of training young men to be leaders. Teachers at 130 of these schools have been implicated; several schools are under criminal investigation by the police….
Irish Catholic leader apologises for child abuse as he steps down Agence France-Presse September 8, 2014 Cardinal Sean Brady, who was criticised over his handling of abuse scandals, stepped down as leader of the Irish Catholic Church on Monday with an emotional plea for forgiveness.
“I too need to say sorry and to ask forgiveness and I do so again today,” Brady told the faithful at a mass in Armagh in Northern Ireland.
Brady, who played a key role in the peace process after being appointed in 1996, had tendered his resignation to the Vatican last month after turning 75, the normal retirement age for senior clergy. His years as leader of the Irish church coincided with a series of damning revelations of widespread clerical sex abuse. Brady himself became directly embroiled in accusations that he mishandled child abuse allegations during an investigation into notorious paedophile Father Brendan Smyth.
In 1975, as a young priest and canon lawyer investigating the actions of Smyth, Brady did not report the allegations of abuse to the police. Smyth continued to abuse children until his arrest and conviction in the 1990s.
A television documentary in 2012 revealed Brady did not act when given the names of five other children abused by Smyth….
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/140908/irish-catholic-leader-apologises-child-abuse-he-steps-down
Child sex abuse royal commission speaks to parents of children allegedly abused in Victorian state care By the national reporting team’s Dan Oakes 15 Aug 2014
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has interviewed parents of children who were allegedly sexually and physically abused while in state care in Victoria….
Parents have called for the royal commission to hold public hearings over abuse in Victoria’s out-of-home care system, such as those already held regarding the Catholic Church, Salvation Army, Swimming Australia and after-school care operated by the YMCA.
The public hearings have exposed failings that led to the sexual abuse of children in the care of those institutions….
Public hearings about the Catholic Church’s “Melbourne response” to child abuse will be conducted for two weeks beginning on Monday.
The development comes after revelations in recent months by the ABC that children in residential care units have been targeted by paedophile gangs, and have been subjected to horrific sexual and physical abuse by older children.
Last month, a judgement handed down in a Victorian court savaged the Department of Human Services over its treatment of two young siblings who were allegedly raped by older children in residential care and witnessed the sexual and physical abuse of other children….
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-15/commission-speaks-to-parents-of-children-abused-in-state-care/5671688
Cardinal George Pell to give evidence at child sex abuse inquiry
Pell was archbishop of Melbourne when the church set up the Melbourne Response compensation scheme Australian Associated Press theguardian.com, Wednesday 20 August 2014
Cardinal George Pell’s role in setting up a Catholic Church compensation scheme for victims of pedophile priests will be scrutinised on Thursday at the child abuse royal commission.
Pell was archbishop of Melbourne in 1996 when the Melbourne archdiocese decided to respond to growing allegations of child sex abuse by its clergy. The church considered creating a legal entity that could be sued by victims, but designed the Melbourne Response compensation scheme instead.
Cardinal Pell told the royal commission earlier this year he believed the church should now create an entity that could be sued.
A Victorian parliamentary inquiry last year recommended the Catholic Church be incorporated so it could be sued….
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/21/cardinal-george-pell-to-give-evidence-at-child-sex-abuse-inquiry
Pell denies church responsible in abuse Friday, 22 August 2014 The Catholic Church is no more legally responsible for priests who abuse children than a trucking company which employs a driver who molests women, Cardinal George Pell maintains.
Victims’ families say it’s a ludicrous comparison and even the chair of the child abuse royal commission thinks the situation is quite different when it comes to a priest getting access to a child.
Cardinal Pell accepts the church has a moral obligation to victims, but when it comes to its legal responsibility, the actions of its priests are not necessarily its fault.
‘If the truck driver picks up some lady and then molests her, I don’t think it’s appropriate, because it is contrary to the policy, for the ownership, the leadership of that company to be held responsible,’ Cardinal Pell told the commission via video link from Rome on Thursday.
But Cardinal Pell said if the church had been warned about a priest or had bad policies or procedures in place, ‘then certainly the church official would be responsible’….
Commission chair Justice Peter McClellan said priests got access to children with the parents’ consent, unlike truck drivers.
‘The relationship between the priest and a child is quite different to that between the truck driver and the casual passenger, isn’t it?’ he asked Cardinal Pell. ‘Yes, I would certainly concede that,’ Cardinal Pell responded…. http://www.skynews.com.au/news/national/2014/08/22/pell-denies-church-responsible-in-abuse.html
Cardinal George Pell compares priests to truck drivers as he claims Catholic Church leaders should not be held responsible for child sex abuse
Cardinal Pell spoke at the royal commission via a video link from the Vatican in Rome on Thursday
He said the church was no more legally responsible for priests who abuse than a trucking company that employs a driver who molests women
The Vatican has refused to hand over the files of Australian priests accused of sex crimes to the child abuse royal commission
By Sarah Dean For Daily Mail Australia and Aap 21 August 2014
….When the Australian federal government announced the establishment of a Royal Commission in late 2012 into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Cardinal Pell also caused controversy when he stated that priests who hear confessions from people who commit child sex abuse must remain bound by the Seal of Confession.
‘If that is done outside the confessional (it can be reported to the police)…. (But) the Seal of Confession is inviolable. If the priest knows beforehand about such a situation, the priest should refuse to hear the confession… That would be my advice, and I would never hear the confession of a priest who is suspected of such a thing,’ he said.
On Thursday the Vatican also refused to hand over the files of Australian priests accused of sex crimes to the child abuse royal commission.
The Vatican said the commission’s request for documents on each allegation involving an Australian cleric was ‘neither possible nor appropriate’.
Reasons included ongoing church investigations, and that internal working documents were the sovereign property of the Holy See….
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2731340/Cardinal-George-Pell-compares-priests-truck-drivers-claims-Catholic-Church-leaders-not-held-responsible-child-sex-abuse.html
Child sexual abuse royal commission: O’Callaghan advised abuse victims on strength of cases By court reporter Peta Carlyon 20 August 2014 The man in charge of the Catholic Church’s so-called Melbourne Response to allegations of child abuse has rejected suggestions he failed to encourage victims to go to police. Peter O’Callaghan QC has been dealing with complainants and deciding whether they are eligible for compensation since the scheme began in 1996. He was repeatedly questioned about the legal integrity of his decision-making at today’s hearing of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Mr O’Callaghan has been a Queen’s Counsel for 40 years and said the Melbourne Response was based in canon law and “natural justice”.
He said when there was a dispute with a claim he would take on a role similar to a magistrate in a criminal case.
He was again asked repeatedly why he did not report cases of abuse to Victoria Police and why he took it upon himself to advise victims on the potential strength of their cases….
Yesterday he told the commission he had made more than 330 adverse findings against priests within the Melbourne archdiocese since the complaint’s procedure began.
The church has paid out more than $17 million to abuse victims through the scheme.
But victims were told if they chose to go to police, they were no longer eligible for compensation….
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-20/abuse-victims-advised-on-strength-of-their-cases-by-church/5684036
A survivor of a paedophile ring tells her story Deborah Snow September 19, 2014 Canadian-born Carrie Bailee suffered so much physical and sexual abuse as a girl that she was granted a special visa to live in Australia. Now she’s turning her attention to helping other victims. By Deborah Snow. There is something peculiar about the few family photos Carrie Bailee has kept from her childhood years. In all the pictures that used to feature both her adoptive parents, the image of her father has been excised – as if her mother, who wielded the scissors, wanted to erase any visual evidence that the man she married ever existed. Bailee, now 38, never reveals her father’s name, but he is a huge, threatening presence in a book to be published on October 1.
Flying On Broken Wings (Affirm Press) is a shattering account of the physical and sexual abuse she endured at his hands between the ages of four and 14, in a small town on an island off the Canadian eastern seaboard. Her mother had been brutally beaten by her husband from early in the marriage, and divorced him when Bailee was seven. But that made the child even more vulnerable during the access visits she made to her father’s house every fortnight. “[My mother] was no longer his prisoner,” Bailee writes. “That became the role I took on – every other weekend.”
Like many children, Bailee didn’t speak up, shamed and manipulated into believing the abuse was her fault. Her mother didn’t learn the truth until her daughter was well into her teens. In early adulthood, Bailee started writing a private memoir, but only recently became determined to publish her story.
That decision, she says, was sparked in part by the anger that swept over her after two notorious rape and murder cases in 2012: that of Jill Meagher, slaughtered in a Melbourne laneway, and Indian woman Jyoti Singh Pandey, violated and beaten by five men on a Delhi bus before dying an agonising death in hospital days later….
http://www.smh.com.au/good-weekend/a-survivor-of-a-paedophile-ring-tells-her-story-20140918-10eno2.html
Flying on Broken Wings A Journey of Unimaginable Betrayal, Resilience and Hope. By: Carrie Bailee SOLD. She was nine years old. Carrie Bailee fled Canada and came to Australia when she was twenty. Once here she was assisted by a number of Australian women, and was ultimately encouraged to apply for refugee status in order to stay in this country. So began her battle to be granted asylum in Australia. Carrie stood before the Refugee Review Tribunal and revealed the dark underbelly of child sexual abuse and organised crime rings in our privileged, first-world neighbourhoods. This is the story of one young woman’s heroic journey to survive, escape and soar above her shocking childhood experiences, and her powerful struggle for freedom and a beautiful life in Australia
‘Disturbing’ increase in sexual violence Dublin Rape Crisis Centre says social media being used as a form of abuse Kitty Holland Wed, Sep 3, 2014 Increasing levels of violence are accompanying rape, the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre has said, and “particularly concerning” was the way social media is being used to film and distribute some assaults. Angela McCarthy, DRCC’s head of clinical services, speaking at the publication of the centre’s annual report yesterday, said there had been a “disturbing increase in sexual violence” reported last year. She said 27 per cent of all incidents of adult rape or sexual assault disclosed in therapy sessions included additional violence, predominantly physical abuse, psychological abuse and harassment or intimidation.
Some 21 per cent of all incidents of childhood sexual abuse were accompanied by additional violence, mainly psychological and physical abuse….
“Experienced therapists and counsellors have been very shocked at some of the violence. Age seems to be an issue, with younger people being raped by gangs while others are watching and sometimes filming the assaults.”….
Some 44 per cent of calls related to child sexual abuse and 42 per cent to adult rape. Nine per cent related to adult sexual assault – representing an increase of 21 per cent on the previous year, 2 per cent to ritual abuse, 0.9 per cent to sexual harassment, 0.5 per cent to suspected abuse, 0.3 per cent to trafficking, and, 0.1 per cent to under-13 sexualised behaviour.
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/disturbing-increase-in-sexual-violence-1.1917012
Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry: Child abused in care of Presbyterian Church in Australia 3 September 2014 A pensioner has told an inquiry examining child abuse that he was physically and sexually abused as a young boy while in the care of the Presbyterian Church in Australia. His migration was part of a scheme between the Presbyterian Church in the UK and Australia. Speaking to the Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) Inquiry via video link, he outlined his childhood. He is one of about 50 witnesses giving evidence from Australia. The man said he was born into the Church of Ireland in west Tyrone in the 1940s to an unmarried mother. When his mother died of TB, he was taken into a number of foster and care homes before being separated from his brother and sister and sent to Australia in 1950. The witness said he wanted his brother to join him in Australia, but after being abused, he sent a letter home telling his brother not to come. “I couldn’t put him through that,” he told the inquiry…. On Monday, the inquiry heard that 131 children from Northern Ireland, some as young as five, were sent to Australia as child migrants. http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-29048447
Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry: 131 NI children sent to Australia 1 September 2014
One hundred and thirty-one children from Northern Ireland, some as young as five, were sent to Australia as child migrants, an inquiry has heard.
The experiences of 50 of them will be heard by the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIA) either by oral or written evidence.
It is examining the extent of child abuse in religious and state-run institutions in NI from 1922 to 1995….
The chairman said it would become clear during their evidence that many had suffered severe hardship and “grave” sexual and physical abuse in the institutions to which they were sent in Australia…. http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-29006251
British Police Search Property of Cliff Richard Over Sex Abuse Claim By KATRIN BENNHOLDAUG. 14, 2014 LONDON — Another prominent British public figure has been caught up in allegations of pedophilia. On Thursday, the police searched a property belonging to Cliff Richard, one of Britain’s most successful recording artists, as part of an investigation into a claim “of a sexual nature.” The allegation, which dates to the 1980s, involves a boy who was younger than 16 at the time, a police statement said. The claim relates to an alleged sexual assault at a 1985 faith rally in Sheffield where Billy Graham appeared, the BBC and The Guardian reported. The police did not say whether the search of Mr. Richard’s house made him a suspect or a witness or neither.
No arrests have been made and Mr. Richard, 73, who is currently out of the country, issued his own statement, calling the claim “completely false.”….
Leading the coverage was the explosive revelation in 2012 that Jimmy Savile, a former children’s television host with the name recognition of Johnny Carson, had raped and sexually assaulted scores of children. Mr. Savile, a BBC staple and friend of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, used his status and charity work to gain access to vulnerable children in schools and even hospitals. He died in 2011 at 84.
Since then, other well-known personalities have been accused or convicted of sexual offenses involving children, among them Rolf Harris, once one of Britain’s most popular television entertainers, who last month was sentenced to five years and nine months in prison for a range of sexual offenses committed decades ago against girls as young as 8. Others who have been convicted include Max Clifford, 71, Britain’s best-known publicist; and Stuart Hall, 84, a former broadcaster for the BBC.
The political establishment, too, has been in the spotlight, both for sexual misconduct and for apparently covering it up.
Cyril Smith, a once-respected member of Parliament who died in 2010, was accused of abusing boys in a children’s home in his constituency….
Probe launched by Foreign Office into allegations of child abuse on British territory of St Helena after claims were revealed by child protection charity
Foreign and Commonwealth Office promise independent investigation
Comes as social worker on island claims she was forced to resign
Said she was shocked over sheer volume of sexual abuse allegations
Claims she was harassed and threatened when she blew the whistle
By Louise Eccles 24 July 2014
A social worker on St Helena who claims she was forced to resign after authorities failed to tackle ‘appalling’ child sexual abuse on the island will have her shocking allegations probed by an independent investigation, Mail Online can reveal. The social services manager, who has asked not to be named, said she was shocked when she arrived on the British overseas territory by the sheer volume of sexual abuse allegations. But she claims she was harassed and threatened when she blew the whistle on the alleged failure of police to properly investigate such crimes. Now the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has promised an independent investigation will be launched into her claims. The probe comes after Mail Online revealed that a report by UK child protection charity The Lucy Faithfull Foundation found St Helena was rife with child sexual abuse, domestic violence and sexual exploitation. The charity was sent to the remote South Atlantic island by the British government, although the report was never released. A spokeswoman for the FCO said: ‘These are extremely worrying allegations which we take very seriously….
‘Paedophiles were found to be private foster carers. Staff were allowed to have sexual relationships with vulnerable adults. Reported rapes were not dealt with. ‘Paedophilia was not being tackled if it involved public officials or connected people. They were not being investigated or charged.’ She claims that she was constructively dismissed on 8 July 2014. The manager said she had ‘no choice’ but to resign because she had been targeted by officials ever since whistleblowing to the Department for International Development (DFID) and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in March. She was also threatened with perjury charges in relation to an adoption case – something she believes was done to ensure she would leave the island….
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2704718/Probe-launched-Foreign-Office-allegations-child-abuse-British-territory-St-Helena-claims-revealed-child-protection-charity.html
WATCH: The prison threat that stopped high profile child abusers being revealed
An investigative journalist claims he was threatened by the former MP Cyril Smith, and then raided by police, to stop him revealing the names of politicians who were trying to legalise sex with children. Don Hale was editor of the Bury Messenger in the 1980s. He says he was told he’d go to prison if he printed a story based on a dossier of Westminster documents. He’s given his first broadcast interview on the revelations to Ashley Derricott: http://www.itv.com/news/granada/story/2014-07-21/the-prison-threat-that-stopped-high-profile-child-abusers-being-revealed/
Former Radio 1 DJ Chris Denning admits 29 child sex abuse charges
Denning, 73, pleads guilty to offences against boys aged nine to 16 between 1967 and 1984, but faces trial on 12 other charges Press Association theguardian.com, Tuesday 5 August 2014
The former Radio 1 DJ Chris Denning has pleaded guilty to a string of sex offences against young boys. The 73-year-old admitted 29 charges involving boys as young as nine when he appeared at Southwark crown court in London on Tuesday. He denied a further 12 charges and will face trial on 24 November. The offences he admitted were committed between 1967 and 1984 and involved boys aged from nine to 16. Denning, of Basildon, Essex, was one of the original Radio 1 lineup when the BBC station was launched in 1967. He was also the first announcer heard on BBC2 when the television channel took to the air in 1964. He was first arrested by detectives from the sex crime inquiry Operation Yewtree in June last year…. http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/aug/05/former-radio-1-dj-chris-denning-admits-child-sex-abuse
Abuse Cases in British City Long Ignored, Report Says
1,400 Children in Rotherham, England, Were Sexually Abused, Report Says
By KATRIN BENNHOLD AUG. 26, 2014
LONDON — A report released on Tuesday on accusations of widespread sexual abuse in the northern England city of Rotherham found that about 1,400 minors — some as young as 11 years old — were beaten, raped and trafficked from 1997 to 2013 as the local authorities ignored a series of red flags.
Some children were doused in gasoline and threatened with being set on fire if they reported their abusers, the report said, and others were forced to watch rapes and threatened with the same fate. In more than a third of the cases, the victims appear to have been known to child protection agencies, but the police and local government officials failed to act….
Alexis Jay, the author of the report and a former chief inspector of social work, said that vulnerable girls as young as 11 and largely from disadvantaged backgrounds had been brutalized by groups of men.
“They were raped by multiple perpetrators, trafficked to other towns and cities in the north of England, abducted, beaten and intimidated,” she wrote.
The report described the failures of the political and police leadership as blatant. Even as social workers reported that the sexual exploitation of children was becoming a serious problem in Rotherham, senior managers in the local authority and South Yorkshire police ignored them. When victims came forward, Ms. Jay said, the police often regarded them “with contempt.”
Three earlier reports, published from 2002 to 2006, detailed the abuse, and according to Ms. Jay, “could not have been clearer in the description of the situation in Rotherham.” But the first one was “effectively suppressed” and the other two “ignored,” she said….
Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Exploitation in Rotherham (1997 – 2013) Independent inquiry CSE in Rotherham Information relating to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Exploitation in Rotherham http://www.rotherham.gov.uk/downloads/file/1407/independent_inquiry_cse_in_rotherham
Rotherham child abuse: Calls for police commissioner to quit 27 August 2014
….Rotherham abuse
1,400 children were abused, 1997-2013
+ 30% of victims were already known to social services
157 reports concerning child sexual exploitation made to police in 2013
9 prosecutions were made
Source: Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Exploitation in Rotherham
Key findings of the report
Children as young as 11 were raped by multiple attackers, trafficked to other towns and cities in the north of England, abducted, beaten and intimidated.
The “collective failures” of political, police and social care leadership were “blatant” over the first 12 years covered by the inquiry.
Police were said to have given child sex exploitation no priority, regarding many child victims “with contempt” and failing to act on their abuse as a crime.
The majority of those behind the abuse were described as Asian, while the majority of the reported victims were young white girls. The inquiry team noted fears among council staff of being labelled “racist” if they focused on victims’ descriptions of the majority of abusers as “Asian” men.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-28947707
Home Office worker investigating Rotherham child abuse ‘had data stolen’ Local council took data from office, accused me of insensitivity and tried to sack me, researcher claims on Panorama Martin Williams The Guardian, Monday 1 September 2014 A Home Office official who investigated the sexual exploitation of children in Rotherham accused the council of being involved in the unauthorised removal of information from her office.
Her report in 2002 suggested there were then more than 270 victims of the scandal, which was finally exposed last week with revelations that at least 1,400 children were abused from 1997 to 2013.
She told Panorama that she had sent her report to both the council and the Home Office on a Friday, but when she returned on Monday she found her office had been raided.
“They’d gained access to the office and taken my data, so out of the number of filing cabinets, there was one drawer emptied and it was emptied of my data. It had to be an employee of the council,” she said….
The Home Office researcher said that at one point the council tried to get her sacked and the report was never published. A draft of the report severely criticised agencies working to tackle the child exploitation in the area, including “alleged indifference towards, and ignorance of, child sexual exploitation on the part of senior managers”. It said: “Responsibility was continuously placed on young people’s shoulders rather than with the suspected abusers.” She met the victims at a youth organisation called Risky Business. “The workers in that project were the only people that those young people trusted, that they were telling the complete story to,” she said. “And some of the stories that I heard very early on were just so graphic that I don’t think I will ever forget them.
“I was subjected to the most intense personal hostility – there were threats made from a range of sources. I’ve never seen back-covering like it and I still feel extremely angry about that.”
Rotherham council and South Yorkshire police have both apologised for the abuse, but refused to be interviewed by Panorama. Panorama identified one perpetrator who is still free, following a series of police failures to arrest him for exploitation. The man had 18 underage “girlfriends”….
Professor Alexis Jay, who wrote last week’s independent report on the abuse in Rotherham, said people had been “punished for speaking truth to power”….
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/sep/01/home-office-rotherham-child-abuse-research-stolen-claim-panorama
Rotherham child abuse scandal: New victims come forward 2 September 2014
Twelve new victims have made allegations of child sexual abuse in Rotherham since a report found at least 1,400 children were abused, police say….
A report last week said hundreds of children were abused from 1997 to 2013. Mr Crompton, who earlier announced he had commissioned an independent inquiry into South Yorkshire Police’s handling of the scandal, was giving evidence to the Home Affairs Committee.
Mr Crompton said he now had 62 officers dedicated to dealing with child sex abuse, compared with three in 2010 and eight in 2012. He told the committee 104 convictions had been secured since the start of 2013, while 40 more suspects were on bail. South Yorkshire Police is conducting nine “multiple victim, multiple offender” investigations, including two in Rotherham, he said. However, he was unable to give direct answers about specific failures highlighted in Professor Alexis Jay’s report, including why an 11-year-old victim was arrested and why an officer described the rape of a 12-year-old girl by several men as “entirely consensual”…. http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-29036742
Rotherham chief executive tells MPs: We’ve lost child sex abuse reports Sep 10, 2014 By Jack Blanchard Rotherham Council’s chief executive Martin Kimber told MPs he cannot locate three vital reports into child sex abuse despite “extensive” searches Bombshell files which revealed the scale of child sex abuse in Rotherham over a decade ago have disappeared from council offices, a town hall chief has revealed. Rotherham Council’s chief executive Martin Kimber told MPs he cannot locate three vital reports into child sex abuse despite “extensive” searches. “I still have not seen the 2002 report, even though I made extensive inquiries,” he told the Commons local government committee. “The 2003 report I have never seen at all. I made extensive inquiries. The 2006 report I saw for the first time on Sunday evening. “They are not in the council’s archives.” The revelation files have gone missing will add to MPs’ fears that the scale of abuse in Rotherham was covered up by council and police officials. Last month’s damning investigation by Professor Alexis Jay, which revealed at least 1,400 girls were abused over 15 years, told how the key reports had been repeatedly ignored by the council….
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/rotherham-chief-executive-tells-mps-4197611
Rotherham child-sex victim confronts her alleged abuser in the street… but SHE is arrested by a van load of police
Victim saw man she says abused her walking the town’s streets
The now 28-year-old challenged him over claims of grooming and violence
But when police arrived, she was handcuffed and arrested by officers
She was ‘shoved into van’ by two officers in ‘thuggish’ arrest, witness says
Police later realised they had been hoping to interview her over claims
She refused to speak to them after she was reportedly pushed against wall
By Richard Spillett for MailOnline 15 September 2014
….A damning report released last month detailed how 1,400 children were sexually exploited in the area over a 16-year period.
The Times reported that a woman whose case is being investigated by authorities – but has not yet been interviewed – was arrested after tackling a man she says groomed her when she was 15.
A witness accused the police of ‘acting like insensitive thugs’, telling the paper: ‘A police van came and six male officers piled out.
….The arrest comes after an inquiry into long-running child abuse in the area revealed families who tried to step in were in some cases themselves detained by police.
The Jay report into the scandal stated: ‘In two of the cases, fathers tracked down their daughters and tried to remove them from houses where they were being abused, only to be arrested themselves when police were called to the scene.’….
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2756140/Rotherham-child-abuse-victim-confronts-alleged-abuser-street-SHE-arrested-van-load-police.html
Yorkshire MEP sent death threats over Rotherham scandal
A EURO MP has had death threats for lifting the lid on the Rotherham child sex scandal. By Scott Hesketh 14th September 2014
Jane Collins has been told to stay away from the town after she hit out at the council.
Now police have responded to a flood of menacing emails and phone calls to her house by installing a panic button. They also plan to put in a safe room.
In an exclusive interview, The Ukip MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber said: “I didn’t get death threats before.
“The more we reveal and the more we push the nastier it’s going to get.”
Meanwhile, more details emerged about controversial ex-councillor Jahangir Akhtar, who denies covering up for violent adult offender Arshid Hussain.
Hussain was named by 18 girls as their “boyfriend” when they were sent to a council organisation for the victims of paedophiles….
http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/399718/Yorkshire-MEP-death-threats-Rotherham-scandal
Rotherham child abuse scandal: council chief executive to step down Martin Kimber, chief executive of the council at the centre of the child exploitation scandal, will quit at the end of the year Helen Pidd, northern editor theguardian.com, Monday 8 September 2014 The chief executive of Rotherham council is to step down, saying a new leader would help the town recover after it emerged councillors, police and social services turned a blind eye to the abuse of at least 1,400 children….
The independent Jay inquiry into historical cases of child sexual exploitation highlighted serious failings by agencies in the town involved in protecting children and young people.
Jay said the most “blatant” failures took place from 1997-2009. Kimber joined the authority in 2009. His predecessors all insist they were unaware of the scale of abuse perpetrated under their watch…. http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/sep/08/rotherham-child-abuse-council-leader-martin-kimber-quits
‘Rotherham-style’ child abuse in Scotland probed by DANI GARAVELLI 31 August 2014
POLICE are investigating the sexual exploitation of vulnerable children in Scotland by men from ethnic minorities in -cases that bear striking -similarities to the organised abuse of youngsters in Rotherham, Scotland on -Sunday can reveal.
Detectives have launched two operations into the abuse of vulnerable teenagers, some of whom absconded from children’s homes, in Glasgow.
The first, Operation Cotswold, set up in 2011, focused on a group of Middle Eastern asylum seekers in the north of the city. At least 26 potential victims were identified and files were sent to the procurator-fiscal, but no prosecutions were brought.
It is understood vulnerable young girls were found in the home of one or more suspects, but many identified as at risk did not see themselves as victims and were reluctant to co-operate, making it difficult to gather evidence and get the case to court….
http://www.scotsman.com/news/scotland/top-stories/rotherham-style-child-abuse-in-scotland-probed-1-3526201
West Midlands child abuse cases to have ‘no secrets’ review 11 September 2014
A review of child sexual exploitation cases in the West Midlands has been called by the new Police and Crime Commissioner. David Jamieson said it would look for evidence of agencies missing abuse, as seen in Rotherham….
West Midlands Police currently has underway: 57 live child sexual exploitation legal proceedings 130 cases where child sexual exploitation is suspected 67 investigations involving online sexual offences against children… Agencies in the West Midlands have also been strongly criticised in recent years for their protection of children, following high profile cases such as the deaths of Keanu Williams and Daniel Pelka. However, Mr Jamieson said there was no evidence of “wide scale abuse and widespread cover-up” in the West Midlands…. http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-29156736
Former teacher Charles Napier charged with child abuse
19 August 2014 Charles Napier, 67, from Sherborne, Dorset, is accused of indecently assaulting 21 boys aged between eight and 13. The alleged offences are said to have taken place between 1968 and 1973. Mr Napier, who is the half-brother of MP John Whittingdale, will appear at Westminster Magistrates Court in London on 2 September…. http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-28852916
Clergy Abuse
For Nuncio Accused of Abuse, Dominicans Want Justice at Home, Not Abroad By LAURIE GOODSTEIN AUG. 23, 2014 SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — He was a familiar figure to the skinny shoeshine boys who work along the oceanfront promenade here. Wearing black track pants and a baseball cap pulled low over his balding head, they say, he would stroll along in the late afternoon and bring one of them down to the rocky shoreline or to a deserted monument for a local Catholic hero.
The boys say he gave them money to perform sexual acts. They called him “the Italian” because he spoke Spanish with an Italian accent.
It was only after he was spirited out of the country, the boys say, his picture splashed all over the local news media, that they learned his real identity: Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, the Vatican’s ambassador to the Dominican Republic….
The case is the first time that a top Vatican ambassador, or nuncio — who serves as a personal envoy of the pope — has been accused of sexual abuse of minors. It has sent shock waves through the Vatican and two predominantly Catholic countries that have only begun to grapple with clergy sexual abuse: the Dominican Republic and Poland, where Mr. Wesolowski was ordained by the Polish prelate who later became Pope John Paul II….
Mr. Wesolowski has already faced the harshest penalty possible under the church’s canon law, short of excommunication: on June 27, he was defrocked by the Vatican, reducing him to the status of a layman. The Vatican, which as a city-state has its own judicial system, has also said it intends to try Mr. Wesolowski on criminal charges — the first time the Vatican has held a criminal trial for sexual abuse.
But far from settling the matter, the Vatican has stirred an outcry because it helped Mr. Wesolowski avoid criminal prosecution and a possible jail sentence in the Dominican Republic. Acting against its own guidelines for handling abuse cases, the church failed to inform the local authorities of the evidence against him, secretly recalled him to Rome last year before he could be investigated, and then invoked diplomatic immunity for Mr. Wesolowski so that he could not face trial in the Dominican Republic….
A Dominican bishop, Victor Masalles, visiting Rome in late June, said in a Twitter message that he was surprised to see Mr. Wesolowski “strolling the Via della Scrofa,” in the city’s picturesque ancient center. He added, “The silence of the Church has hurt the people of God.”….
Mr. Wesolowski, 66, was ordained at 23 in Krakow by Archbishop Karol Józef Wojtyla, who later became Pope John Paul II. In 1999, he was appointed papal nuncio to Bolivia, and in 2002, he was reassigned to Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan….
Neither the cardinal, nor other church officials, reported the allegations to the local authorities, Dominican officials say. Vatican guidelines say that criminal sexual abuse accusations should be reported in countries where reporting is required….
The case has reverberated in Poland, where prosecutors have sought to extradite Mr. Wesolowski, who holds both Vatican and Polish citizenship. Poland has indicted another Polish priest, the Rev. Wojciech Gil, who fled the Dominican Republic last year amid allegations that he abused altar boys in his rural parish. Prosecutors in the Dominican Republic say that Father Gil and Mr. Wesolowski spent time with young boys at the nuncio’s beach house….
Polish archbishop appeals defrocking for sexual abuse: Vatican VATICAN CITY Mon Aug 25, 2014
(Reuters) – A Polish archbishop accused of child sex abuse in the Dominican Republic has appealed against a Roman Catholic tribunal’s decision to defrock him, the Vatican said on Monday.
Jozef Wesolowski, who had served as a Vatican nuncio or ambassador to the Caribbean nation, was sentenced in late June to be expelled from the priesthood, an extremely rare step against such a senior church official.
“Former nuncio Josef Wesolowski has recently appealed, within the prescribed limit of two months, against the most serious canonical sentence, that of a return to the lay state, which has been imposed upon him,” Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said in a statement….
If found guilty in a criminal trial, Wesolowski could risk extradition to the Dominican Republic, which has appointed a special prosecutor to investigate the case….
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/25/us-vatican-abuse-archbishop-idUSKBN0GP1QG20140825
Judge confirms that KC diocese must pay $1.1 million in breach of contract case
By JUDY L. THOMAS The Kansas City Star 08/14/2014 The Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese must pay the $1.1 million ordered by an arbitrator last spring for violating the terms of a 2008 settlement with priest sexual abuse victims, a judge has ruled. Calling the award a “scathing indictment of the defendant,” Jackson County Circuit Judge Bryan Round said in his ruling that “there can be no doubt that the diocese, through its leadership and higher-level personnel, failed in numerous respects to abide by the terms” of the 2008 agreement. Those terms included immediately reporting any abuse or suspicion of abuse to law enforcement authorities — something the diocese failed to do in the child pornography case of the Rev. Shawn Ratigan in 2010….
The plaintiffs pointed to the diocese’s failure to immediately report Ratigan after finding hundreds of disturbing images of young girls on the priest’s laptop computer in late 2010. They contended that the diocese broke the 2008 agreement by failing for almost a year to report allegations and concerns about Ratigan‘s behavior to police, withholding evidence of possible child pornography from law enforcement for months and leaving another credibly accused priest in a parish for nearly two years.
A Jackson County judge in 2012 found Finn guilty of failing to report suspicions of child abuse to police or state child welfare authorities in the Ratigan case. Finn was sentenced to two years of probation for the misdemeanor. Ratigan pleaded guilty to state and federal child pornography charges and is serving 50 years in prison.
In issuing the award, Hanover found that the diocese had breached five of 19 non-monetary terms of the 2008 agreement. He said he hoped “that I am dead wrong in my opinion that this diocese as presently constituted will not mend its ways.”….
In his ruling, Round rejected all of the diocese’s arguments and said the arbitrator’s findings could be best summarized by a passage from the award.
The diocese, the award said, “was and is constitutionally incapable of placing the preservation and protection of the clergy culture in a subordinate position to any other consideration, including the timely reporting to law enforcement of a priest involved in the use of diocesan children as pornography models.” http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article1225077.html
Santa Rosa diocese pays $3.5 million to settle sex abuse case BY JEREMY HAY THE PRESS DEMOCRAT July 15, 2014 The Roman Catholic Diocese of Santa Rosa has paid $3.5 million to a teenager who was molested by a Lakeport priest, one of the largest settlements paid out by the North Coast diocese in a series of sexual abuse cases that spanned more than two decades.
An attorney for the victim attributed the settlement’s size partly to the church’s failure to protect children from the Rev. Ted Oswald, even though it was aware he had abused others. Oswald molested the boy, then 12, in 2010, the same year the priest died, with some of the incidents taking place in the Lakeport parish church. “But for the diocese’s actions, it is entirely possible that this 12-year-old boy would never have been molested,” said Skye Daley, the victim’s attorney.
Bishop Robert F. Vasa, who has led the diocese since 2011, was on vacation Tuesday and unavailable for comment. Diocese spokesman Brian O’Neel rejected Daley’s assertion.
“When the diocese became aware of this most recent allegation, they removed Father Oswald from ministry and reported the situation to civil authorities,” O’Neel said. “The diocese could not do more than the civil authorities could.”….
In a statement, Vasa apologized to the boy and other victims who suffered at the hands of pedophiles in the church.
“I humbly apologize to this young person on behalf of the Church that failed to protect them. I also take this occasion to apologize to all victims for the harm done to them. This perversity, though prevalent in all parts of society, was allowed to persist in the Church for too long,” Vasa said.
The diocese, which serves about 160,000 Catholics from Petaluma to the Oregon border, has paid about $25 million to sex abuse victims since 1990…. http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/2394971-181/santa-rosa-diocese-pays-35
Did Pope Francis really say 2% of Catholic clergy are pedophiles? By Lauren Raab July 13, 2014
An interview that credits Pope Francis as saying about 2% of Roman Catholic clerics are pedophiles stirred controversy Sunday, as the Vatican sought to raise questions about the article’s accuracy and others called on the pope to take more action on the issue. The interview by Eugenio Scalfari, published Sunday, quotes the pope as calling the rash of sex abuse scandals “a leprosy in our home” and saying the pedophiles include “priests and even bishops and cardinals,” according to a CBS News translation…. Meanwhile, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, said the “real percentage of predator priests” is much higher than 2% and called on the pope to defrock clerics who participate in cover-ups…. At a United Nations hearing this year, the Vatican said it had defrocked 848 priests over the last decade and ordered 2,572 to “live a life of prayer and penance” because of abuse allegations. There are about 414,000 Roman Catholic priests worldwide, according to the BBC; if 2% are pedophiles, that would be more than 8,000…. http://www.latimes.com/world/europe/la-fg-wn-pope-francis-pedophile-priests-20140713-story.html
Rome- Pope estimates # of predator priests For immediate release: Sunday, July 13, 2014 Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ….Finally, “U.S. bishops have reported receiving allegations of abuse by 6,427 priests in 1950-2013, or 5.9% of the 109,694 U.S. priests active 1950-2002, according to the John Jay report. Including the 5,356 priests ordained since 2002 brings the total to 115,050, of whom 5.6% have been accused of abuse,” according to BishopAccountability.org.
Here are more specific numbers, from BishopAccountability.org:
–After the March 2009 release of audit documents by the NH AG, the names of 74 accused Manchester priests are known, or over 8.9% of the 831 diocesan priests, which extrapolates to 9,768 nationally
–Covington diocese states that 9.6% of its priests have been accused, which extrapolates to 10,531 nationally
–Over 10% of Providence RI priests have been accused, which extrapolates to over 10,969 nationally
–Richard Sipe estimates that 9% of U.S. priests have offended, which extrapolates to 9,872 priests nationally…. http://www.snapnetwork.org/rome_pope_estimates_of_predator_priests
Years ago, he was a young priest — and alleged rapist By Emily Gurnon 08/11/2014
The Rev. Kenneth LaVan began sexually abusing girls with his first parish assignment in the 1960s and later threatened to burn down a woman’s house and have her husband killed — yet he was not removed from active ministry in the Twin Cities until last year, according to court and internal church records. The Rev. Kevin McDonough told then-Archbishop Harry Flynn of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis in 2005 that while he knew of LaVan’s “boundary violations with adult females, I had forgotten that there were two allegations in the late 1980s concerning sexual involvement with teenaged girls.”….
An early allegation against LaVan was by a girl who said the priest raped her when she was 14 or 15 at the Church of St. Raphael in Crystal, where he served from 1965 to 1970.
Psychologist Gary Schoener was hired by the archdiocese to examine LaVan. He also evaluated the girl’s account and that of another teenager, who said LaVan kissed her “passionately,” backed her up against a wall and fondled her. The abuse began when she was between the sixth and seventh grade, she said….
LaVan denied “anything close to” a rape, though Schoener said he believed LaVan was minimizing events with both girls. “The alternative — that these stories are fabrications — seems extraordinarily unlikely,” Schoener wrote. Putting him back in a pastoral or counseling role, he said, would be “very risky.” But that is what the archdiocese did, after sending LaVan to a seven-month inpatient treatment program at the St. Luke Institute in Maryland….
http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_26315413/twin-cities-priest-accused-sex-abuse-job-until
Priest Diagnosed with Sexuality Disorder in 1989 Continued in Ministry until 2013 08/11/2014 KSTP.com By: Megan Matthews A file publicly released Monday, accuses the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis of ignoring the fact that a priest, Father Kenneth LaVan, was accused of inappropriate behavior multiple times. He continued in ministry until 2013.
The files, released by Jeff Anderson and Associates, say LaVan was first accused of inappropriate sexual behavior in the 1980s. He was sent for treatment twice and was diagnosed with compulsive sexuality disorder in 1989.
According to Anderson, LaVan’s history was reviewed in 1995, and despite the allegations and a lawsuit, the Clergy Review Board recommended LaVan continue in ministry. It wasn’t until December 2013, when Kinsale Management reviewed LaVan’s files, that he was removed from ministry. LaVan’s name was not part of the original list of credibly accused priests released by the Archdiocese last December; however, LaVan’s name was later added.
The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis released a statement Monday saying it made public that there were “substantiated claims of sexual abuse of a minor against Kenneth LaVan” in February 2014. A month later it released a statement saying LaVan was removed from ministry in 1989 to undergo treatment. He was only allowed to return to parish ministry at St. Joseph in Lino Lakes with monitoring, after he finished treatment…. http://kstp.com/news/stories/S3529733.shtm
Priest File of Father Kenneth LaVan Aug 11 2014
Father Kenneth LaVan, removed from ministry in December 2013, is a serial predator whom the Archdiocese continually disregarded as being a threat to women and children.
Allegations of inappropriate sexual behavior were made in the 1980s and twice LaVan was sent for treatment. A lawsuit involving one of LaVan’s victims was settled in 1985 and by 1989 LaVan was diagnosed with a compulsive sexuality disorder. In 1995 the Clergy Review Board examined LaVan’s history and recommended he continue in ministry. Archbishop Flynn was informed in 2005 that LaVan was not part of the monitoring system and Flynn advised Father Kevin McDonough to leave the situation alone. Finally, after a review of Church files by Kinsale Management LaVan’s faculties were removed in December 2013….
http://www.andersonadvocates.com/Posts/News-or-Event/1860/Priest-File-of-Father-Kenneth-LaVan.aspx
Fr. Kenneth LaVan
The secret personnel file of Kenneth LaVan shows a pernicious “blind spot” among Catholic officials at the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis: the stunning and heartless minimization of the sexual abuse of girls and women. This disregard for female victims cuts across the entire chancery staff, including Archbishop Flynn, who openly questioned the credibility of multiple female victims and decided they were not covered under the 2002 Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.
Even more shocking is that LaVan’s file is littered with allegations of violence dating back to the 1980s. Women and girls came forward and told how LaVan sexually abused them — including the forcible rape of a teen, sexualized kissing of children, and threats of arson and murder. Despite all of this — as well as two stints in treatment and two lawsuits — LaVan was not included in any Archdiocese list of accused priests until January 2014, more than 25 years after the Archdiocese knew he was a violent threat. LaVan’s predatory behavior first came to light in the 1980s when one of his victims — who was a teenage girl at the time of the abuse — came forward with a lawsuit. After the suit settled in 1985, LaVan faced another allegation of sexual contact with a parishioner at St. Francis of Assisi in Lake St. Croix Beach. In an interview, the woman told Bishop Carlson that LaVan boasted about his sexual exploits with numerous women….
Despite all of this information, the Clergy Review Board determined in 1995 that LaVan could remain in a parish, as long as he was under supervision. By 2002, at least two more female victims had come forward — a child and an adult. The adult was a patient under psychiatric care at the time of the abuse…. http://www.andersonadvocates.com/documents/Lavan/LaVan%20summary.pdf
Federal Appeals Court Rejects Yeshiva Sex Abuse Lawsuit September 4, 2014 NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) – A New York court has tossed out a $380 million lawsuit claiming at least 34 ex-students of Yeshiva University High School for Boys were abused, some sexually, from 1971 to 1992.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Thursday the statute of limitations had expired. It said the plaintiffs had enough information to take action decades ago. The lawsuit claimed administrators ignored abuse complaints and said they only learned of an alleged school cover-up in 2012. The plaintiffs’ attorney Kevin Mulhearn promised to appeal, calling the ruling “intellectually and morally bankrupt.” The school called the case “trying for all involved.” It said its confidential counseling services remain available for anyone who was harmed…. In the lawsuit, one alleged victim claimed administrators offered him a deaf ear when he said a Judaic studies teacher had sodomized him with a toothbrush, according to a New York Daily News report. The lawsuit said Finkelstein also targeted children of Holocaust survivors, and “implored these children not to add to their parents’ suffering by telling them about the assaults.” Mulhearn said the alleged abuse “caused a lifelong devastating impact to a multitude of boys… http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/09/04/federal-appeals-court-rejects-yeshiva-sex-abuse-lawsuit/
Other Cases
New Child Sex Abuse Claims Filed Against Michael Jackson By Melody Chiu 8/07/2014
Five years after his sudden passing, Michael Jackson is being accused of sexual abuse by a man who claims he was molested as a child by the superstar. In court papers filed Monday, James Safechuck, 36, alleges he was abused by the singer when he was 10 years old after appearing in a Pepsi commercial with him. After multiple visits to Jackson’s home (some of which were chaperoned by his parents) and several all-expense-paid cross-country trips, Safechuck joined the pop star on his “Bad” tour, which is when he alleges the first incident of sexual abuse occurred….
The papers allege Jackson gave Safechuck jewelry as a “reward” for sexual favors and taught him code words so others wouldn’t learn about their sexual activities. The Jackson estate slammed the allegations Wednesday in a statement to E! News….
Claiming he was the first to stay at Jackson’s famed Neverland Ranch after it was built, Safechuck states in the papers that the pop star “installed chimes in the hallway to his bedroom” so he could be warned of people approaching and had a “secret closet” in his bedroom where he engaged in sexual activities with Safechuck.
During the four years that Safechuck claims the abuse took place, Jackson engaged in sexual acts with him “hundreds of times – on tour, at Plaintiff’s home, at DECEDENT’s apartment/condominium … at DECEDENT’s … Condominium … and at Neverland,” the papers say.
When Safechuck hit puberty at 12 years old, Jackson began “grooming him for separation [that] spanned several months” and focusing his attention on a younger boy named Brett, Safechuck claims….
http://www.people.com/article/new-sexual-abuse-claims-against-michael-jackson
Wyoming couple accused of keeping child in a cage Robert Garrison, KUSA August 5, 2014
An affidavit reveals the family had at least eight previous contacts with authorities but the child remained at the home. LARAMIE, Wyo. – Authorities in Wyoming are pressing felony charges against a man and a woman alleging they kept a 7-year-old child in an outdoor cage. The child’s mother, Jena Harman, and her boyfriend, Alexander Smith, face one count each of child abuse and three counts each of felonious restraint. The pair were arrested July 24 after Albany County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a tip that the child was caged outside a home on Fox Creek Road.
The July 24 visit was not the only time the sheriff’s office was called to check on the child. Deputies went to the pair’s property on multiple occasions starting in February of this year.
Deputies said the child reported living in the 6-by-6-foot cage on and off for three weeks, taking meals there and sleeping there overnight, even during rainstorms….
The child’s school had complained to the sheriff’s office several times – saying the child had come to school with bruises and a limp. But each time, the sheriff’s office said the reports were unfounded. At one point, deputies witnessed the kid pulling food out of a garbage can and eating it in front of them. Neighbors told 9NEWS they saw the abuse firsthand but didn’t report it, because they were scared of retribution from the mother’s boyfriend….
http://www.9news.com/story/news/crime/2014/08/05/caged-child/13634807/
Houston man charged with child porn possession after Google cyber-tip
Tim Wetzel, KHOU 11 News July 30, 2014 HOUSTON – A cyber-tip generated by Google and sent to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children led to the arrest of a 41-year-old Houston man who is charged with possessing child pornography. Police say Google detected explicit images of a young girl in an email that John Henry Skillern was sending to a friend, the company then alerted authorities….
Skillern is a registered sex offender who was convicted of sexually assaulting an 8 year old boy in 1994….
“He seemed like a nice, normal man,” said neighbor Yesenia Gonzales. “Thank goodness for Google.” After obtaining a search warrant, investigators said they found child porn on Skillern’s phone and tablet device. They also found text messages and e-mails where he talked about his interest in children. According to police, Skillern worked as a cook for a Denny’s restaurant in Pasadena. They say he had video on his cell phone of young children visiting the restaurant with their families.
Skillern has been charged with one count of possession of child pornography and one count of promotion of child pornography. He’s being held on a $200,000 bond….
http://www.khou.com/story/news/crime/2014/07/30/houston-man-charged-with-child-porn-possession-after-google-cyber-tip/13378459/
BBC News – Google ‘reveals user’ over Gmail child abuse images 4 August 2014 Google has revealed the identity of a user after discovering child abuse imagery in the man’s Gmail account in Houston, Texas, according to a local news report. It alerted a child protection agency, which notified the police and the man was arrested, KHOU 11 News reported….
Police in Houston told the local news station that Google detected explicit images of a young girl in an email being sent by John Henry Skillern. After the existence of the email was referred to them by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the police obtained a search warrant and arrested the man. The 41-year-old is a convicted sex offender. He has been charged with possessing child pornography, it was reported….
Google works with the IWF and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children extensively, he said, adding: “We have built technology that trawls other platforms for known images of child sex abuse. We can then quickly remove them and report their existence to the authorities.”
Google automatically scans email accounts to provide ads within Gmail, which has more than 400 million users worldwide…. http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-28639628
Theme park employees caught in sex stings, child porn arrests By Kyra Phillips and Scott Zamost, CNN Investigations Mon July 14, 2014 Clermont, Florida (CNN) ….at least 35 Disney employees arrested since 2006 and accused of sex crimes involving children, trying to meet a minor for sex, or for possession of child pornography, according to a six-month CNN investigation that examined police and court records, and interviewed law enforcement officials and some of the men who have been arrested. Five Universal Studios employees and two employees from SeaWorld have also been arrested. So far, a total of 32 have been convicted, with the remaining cases pending. Two cases, which were for possession of child pornography, occurred on Disney property, according to police reports. None of the cases involved children or teenagers visiting the parks…. http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/14/us/theme-park-employees-child-sex-stings/
Jerry Sandusky Son Discusses Alleged Sexual Abuse HARRISBURG, Pa. — Jul 17, 2014
An adopted son of convicted child molester Jerry Sandusky is providing details of the alleged sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of his father.
Matt Sandusky, who was initially a foster child of the Sanduskys, tells Oprah Winfrey in a TV show airing Thursday night that his overnight visits with the family as a child were good “except for one part, bedtime.”
At bedtime in the Sandusky’s home in State College, he said, Jerry Sandusky’s “ritual began.”
“The overnight visits were — they were good. I mean, except for that one part, bedtime. Bedtime was the bad part. But any other time that we were in the home, that we were doing anything in the home with the family, it was fine and it was — again, you would look at that family and you would say, wow. Like I wish that I had brothers and sisters that cared about me. I wish that I had a mother who cooked dinner every night for the whole family. I wish that I had all of these things. But then at bedtime, his ritual began,” Matt Sandusky told Winfrey in a brief clip released by the network.
The network said Sandusky discusses the grooming, methodical control and manipulation he faced as a child.
He had also discussed the alleged abuse in a documentary, “Happy Valley,” shown earlier this year, and in an audiotape of a 29-minute interview with police detectives that NBC obtained at the time of Jerry Sandusky’s 2012 trial…. http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory/sandusky-son-talks-fathers-bedtime-ritual-24588858
Everything you missed from Matthew Sandusky’s interview with Oprah Winfrey By Soraya Nadia McDonald July 18, 2014 ….In an interview aired Thursday night on “Oprah Prime” on Winfrey’s OWN network, Matthew told Winfrey he felt it would have been better for his children and wife if he’d kept everything to himself instead of coming forward. Matthew initially offered grand jury testimony that Sandusky was not a child molester, but recanted during trial. After he told police he had also been abused, Matthew said his family, not just him, became the target of vicious character attacks.
“I can handle it,” Matthew said, even though the abuse drove him to attempt suicide shortly after he moved in with the Sanduskys when he was 16. “I can handle people attacking me. I handled the abuse. I can take it. My wife is an innocent. My children — they’re innocent. For people to attack them — yes, absolutely, the simpler answer would have been for me to keep it, to deal with it on my own.”
Matthew said he came forward about the abuse because he didn’t want to be a “coward.” When he heard the testimony of victim No. 4 during Sandusky’s criminal trial, Matthew said he was astonished at how similar the details were…..
More than 30 boys eventually came forward to say Sandusky molested them. To avoid further litigation, Penn State agreed to a $60 million settlement with 26 victims, including Matthew, and the university disbursed payments of varying sizes. Matthew said he had no knowledge of the settlement when he came forward.
Matthew met Jerry and his wife, Dottie Sandusky, when he was seven years old through Sandusky’s Second Mile charity camp. According to The Washington Post’s Joel Achenbach:
Prosecutors say that the Second Mile became a tool for harvesting children for abuse. Sandusky, they said, was a classic predatory pedophile, a man who befriended the most vulnerable boys, the ones needing a father figure, who became appreciative that someone would bring them to football games and make them feel special.
Matthew told Winfrey how he resigned himself to being molested almost as a tradeoff for being around an otherwise stable and loving family. He came from a broken home, he said, where there was physical abuse and even running water wasn’t something that could be taken for granted. He often lived with his grandparents….
Matthew began to act out when he was a young teenager. He tried to cut Sandusky out of his life altogether, but Matthew told Winfrey the coach would come to his biological mother’s home unannounced. He would pull Matthew out of school. There was no escaping him, and Matthew became a truant. He started doing drugs and stealing, and was eventually arrested.
Matthew had a choice: Move in with the Sanduskys, or go to juvenile detention.
The Sanduskys moved him into their home with five other children, all adopted. Matthew so dreaded Sandusky’s nighttime visits he tried to kill himself. He said after that, the sexual abuse largely stopped. The family legally adopted him when he was 18 and pressured him to take the family name so he would be privy to a tuition break thanks to Sandusky’s employment at Penn State….
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/07/18/everything-you-missed-from-matthew-sanduskys-interview-with-oprah-winfrey/
Matt Sandusky’s Oprah interview is a seminar in child sexual abuse that’s difficult to watch — but we all should By David Jones July 18, 2014 It is hard to watch. But just think of how much harder it was to experience. Matt Sandusky’s interview with Oprah Winfrey, aired last night, is wrenching and disturbing and visceral in the worst ways. It is not particularly graphic. It is just difficult to view a victim of child abuse try to put words to such horrific acts. So, why would anyone want to watch this? That’s a good question. I avoided it for most of the day, even knowing that it had made news. I just didn’t want to put myself through it. It was easier not to. And that’s why I think it might help if everyone watched it….
Because it puts a very specific description to what child sexual abuse is, how it is germinated, how victims are groomed and what the effects are. Knowing can prevent it. Just looking at Matt Sandusky’s face as he struggles to find the terms to articulate his memories and emotions during various stages of his childhood with a pedophile as his adopted father is enough to bring those effects home. In that way, it’s similar to Jeremy Schapp’s interview with MLB pitcher R.A. Dickey who was similarly abused as a kid. Part of the reason these sick people so often get away with what they do is that their acts are so repugnant that it’s our natural inclination to turn away. We just don’t want to know that such a thing is possible….
The best part about what Matt Sandusky does is the way he keeps himself together – though it’s clear how difficult that is – and explains in simple and clear detail without being lurid exactly how the progression of grooming was made….
http://www.pennlive.com/sports/index.ssf/2014/07/matt_sanduskys_oprah_interview.html
Matt Sandusky, silent no more, works to stop abuse By Elizabeth Simpson The Virginian-Pilot September 8, 2014 VIRGINIA BEACH The turning point, for Matthew Sandusky, was the 2012 courtroom testimony of Victim No. 4. The witness’s description of sexual abuse mirrored Matthew’s own experience so vividly it moved him to disclose to police that he, too, had been molested by former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky – who was also his adoptive father. At the time, Matthew wished he also could have been identified by a number instead of a name, to shield his wife and children. “Our world turned upside down,” Matthew, 35, said in a phone interview from State College, Pa., last week. “We lost family. We lost friends. It felt like everyone was against us and blaming us for everything. We were really alone.” His father was convicted, and this year, Matthew has used that famous last name to become a national activist to help people disclose and recover from sexual abuse….
“I want to empower people to get help if they feel alone,” he said.
It’s been a brutal journey for him, one that led him to legally change his last name, and those of his wife and children, from Sandusky to one he doesn’t publicize.
He now reserves the Sandusky name that once opened doors and secured him a tuition break at Penn State for another reason: to raise awareness of child sexual abuse.
Matthew was first listed as a witness to defend his adopted father, but during the trial, the testimony of Victim No. 4 was so similar to his own that he went to the police and disclosed the abuse, hoping it would not be made public. An audio recording was leaked to the media, but he never had to take the stand in the 2012 trial. Jerry Sandusky was convicted of 45 charges of child sex abuse and given a sentence of 30 to 60 years in prison. Matthew met him when he was 7 years old through The Second Mile charity camp. The abuse began the next year and continued into his teens, he said….
In the phone interview, Matthew said he was confused about the abuse as a child because it was not physically painful, and it seemed like a fair trade-off for the financial and emotional stability of the Sandusky household, something he didn’t have from his biological family. In the end, though, he realized there was nothing fair, or emotionally stable, about it…. http://hamptonroads.com/2014/09/matt-sandusky-silent-no-more-works-stop-abuse
NCAA Restores Penn State’s Postseason Eligibility, Football Scholarships 9/08/2014
There is likely nothing more horrifying or despicable in college football’s history than the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal. The legal fallout was immense, with Sandusky locked away for what most assume will be the rest of his life and another three Penn State officials are still standing trial for their alleged roles in covering up Sandusky’s actions. Many also called on the NCAA to drop the hammer on the football program that facilitated decades of child abuse, and the governing body did not disappoint: Penn State was forced to pay $60 million over a five-year period, plus the football team was hit with a four-year bowl ban and a loss of 20 football scholarships.
And yet on Monday, the NCAA announced that its executive committee has restored Penn State’s postseason eligibility, effective immediately, and next season the team will return to a full complement of 85 scholarships, which accelerates an easing of the sanctions already made last year. These changes are based on recommendations made in a report from George Mitchell, the school’s external athletic integrity monitor. Mitchell, who is responsible for monitoring Penn State’s efforts to enact recommendations made in the Freeh Report, cited the school’s progress since the sanctions were handed down two years ago, including the formation of a comprehensive compliance program.
It’s curious that the NCAA would agree to so radically mitigate sanctions stemming from what is the single most horrible scandal in its history, especially considering that the NCAA rarely diminishes punishments for even far less serious violations. For one example, Big Ten rival Ohio State was hit with NCAA sanctions in 2011 after it was discovered that some players traded memorabilia for money and tattoos; that punishment was never modified at a later date, and the team is still playing with a reduced number of scholarships….
http://www.forbes.com/sites/chrissmith/2014/09/08/ncaa-restores-penn-states-postseason-eligibility-football-scholarships/
SECOND ANNUAL REPORT OF THE INDEPENDENT ATHLETICS INTEGRITY MONITOR PURSUANT TO THE ATHLETICS INTEGRITY AGREEMENT AMONG THE NATIONAL COLLEGIATE ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION, THE BIG TEN CONFERENCE AND THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY AND AS EXTERNAL MONITOR APPOINTED BY THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY
http://www.dlapiper.com/~/media/Files/Insights/Publications/2014/09/NCAAMonitorsSecondAnnualReport.pdf
UConn to pay $1.3M in sex assault handling lawsuit Jul 18, 2014 By PAT EATON-ROBB Associated Press STORRS, Conn. (AP) – The University of Connecticut will pay $1.3 million to settle a lawsuit by five women who alleged the school did not take seriously their claims of sexual assaults on campus.
The bulk of the settlement, $900,000, will go to Silvana Moccia, a former UConn ice hockey player who alleged she was kicked off the team after reporting she had been raped by a male hockey player in August 2011.
The other four women will receive payments ranging from $25,000 to $125,000.
University officials adamantly denied that they have been indifferent to reports of assaults and did not admit any wrongdoing in the settlement. They said the legal fight would be costly and bad for UConn’s image. http://www.knoe.com/story/26052588/apnewsbreak-uconn-settles-sex-assault-lawsuit
Online child abuse reports surge, says US watchdog By Dave Lee Technology reporter, BBC News 17 July 2014 There has been a dramatic rise in reports of child abuse images posted to commonly used parts of the internet, according to a US watchdog. They include photos posted to publicly-accessible parts of social networks. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received a record number of reports in the first week of July, four times the weekly average. It comes in a week UK authorities arrested 660 people in connection with online child abuse. That investigation was believed to have been targeted at those using the so-called “dark net” – parts of the internet that are hidden and can be hard to access without special software. But the NCMEC stressed there was still a significant and growing challenge for law enforcement agencies to deal with material on the open internet as well as the harder-to-reach areas…. http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-28359143
Italian court acquits Berlusconi in sex case Associated Press By COLLEEN BARRY July 18, 2014 MILAN (AP) — An Italian appeals court on Friday acquitted former Premier Silvio Berlusconi in a sex-for-hire case, reversing a lower court conviction that had carried a seven-year prison sentence and a lifetime ban on holding political office.
The case has grabbed global attention, offering an unseemly peek into the 77-year-old three-time premier’s private life with witness testimony revealing raunchy, sex-fueled bunga-bunga parties at his private villa attended by a bevy of aspiring showgirls.
The prosecution alleged that Berlusconi had paid for sex with underage Moroccan prostitute Karima el-Mahroug, better known as Ruby, and then used his influence to cover it up.
He denied the charges, saying the case was politically motivated by magistrates trying to drive him from power. Both he and el-Mahroug, who was 17 when she frequented the then-premier’s villa, denied ever having had sex….
Berlusconi’s defense lawyer, Franco Coppi, said the decision “goes beyond the rosiest predictions,” adding that he would have been satisfied with an acquittal for lack of evidence. But the court went further, saying that no crimes had been committed….
Berlusconi also is on trial in Naples accused of political corruption, and under investigation in Milan accused of witness-tampering in the sex-for-hire trial and in another related case involving three aides who were convicted of procuring prostitutes for his parties….
http://news.yahoo.com/italian-court-acquits-berlusconi-sex-case-111848165.html
End ‘passing the trash’ of child-abusing teachers Friday, August 8, 2014 BY PAT TOOMEY, Special to the New Era ….Since Jan. 1, 275 teachers have been arrested across America for sexual misconduct with children. That is more than one for each day of the year….
Arrests only occur when we know about the charges and have the evidence to prosecute.
There are other cases, of course, and we know of some instances where school officials learned of sexual abuse by a teacher and they not only failed to report it, but also helped the predator be quietly reassigned. It’s called “passing the trash.” It is all too common, and it cost 12 year-old Jeremy Bell his life. A school in Delaware County quietly dismissed a teacher for molesting several children. But instead of acting to stop the predator, the school helped him land a new job in West Virginia, where he eventually sexually assaulted and murdered young Jeremy.
Stories of child abuse by educators are horrifying and heartbreaking: A 13-year-old girl raped 30 times by her teacher; a special-needs young boy assaulted by a teacher’s aide who was supposed to be leading him to the boys’ room; a kindergarten girl kept after class, so her teacher could sexually assault her; and numerous teachers arrested for possessing child pornography….
That’s why I introduced the Protecting Students from Sexual and Violent Predators Act, with Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin.
My bipartisan bill requires any state receiving federal funds to perform background checks on all employees and contractors — new hires and existing employees — who have access to children….
http://lancasteronline.com/opinion/end-passing-the-trash-of-child-abusing-teachers/article_7981ca82-1f35-11e4-beb2-0017a43b2370.html
Edmond teen to enter plea in Kenyan child abuse case Prosecutors say Matthew Durham engaged in sex acts with as many as 10 children Aug 08, 2014
OKLAHOMA CITY —An Oklahoma teen is scheduled to enter a plea to federal charges that accuse him of sexually abusing children at an orphanage in Kenya. Arraignment is scheduled Friday in federal court for 19-year-old Matthew Lane Durham of Edmond. Durham was indicted by a grand jury on three felony counts earlier this week that accuse him of traveling from Oklahoma City to Kenya so he could sexually abuse children. A federal judge has ordered that Durham remain in custody until his trial, which has not been set.
Prosecutors have alleged that Durham engaged in sex acts with as many as 10 children aged 4 to 10 while volunteering at the Upendo Children’s Home near Nairobi from April to June 2014….
http://www.koco.com/news/edmond-teen-to-enter-plea-in-kenyan-child-abuse-case/27373054
Man Charged in Oklahoma With Child Abuse in Kenya OKLAHOMA CITY — Jul 22, 2014 By SEAN MURPHY Associated Press An Oklahoma man has been charged with sexually abusing boys and girls while volunteering at an organization in Kenya that assists neglected children. Matthew Lane Durham, of Edmond, is accused of engaging in sex acts with as many as ten children aged from 4 to 10 years while volunteering at Upendo Children’s Home in Nairobi from April to June 2014. The complaint filed in the U.S. District Court of Western Oklahoma last week says the 19-year-old Durham has volunteered with Upendo since June 2012. Durham wrote and signed a confession that an Upendo official provided to the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, according to an affidavit filed by FBI agent Scott Lobb. In it, he admitted to sexually abusing boys and girls in a bathroom at the children’s home. At least one of the victims is HIV positive, according to the affidavit….
Durham’s attorney Stephen Jones said Tuesday the affidavit is riddled with inaccuracies and that his client is innocent…. http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/man-charged-oklahoma-child-abuse-kenya-24662622
US Grand Jury Indicts Oklahoma Child Abuse Suspect OKLAHOMA CITY Aug 5, 2014 By TIM TALLEY Associated Press A 19-year-old man is accused of traveling from Oklahoma City to Kenya so he could sexually abuse children at an orphanage there, according to charges in a three-count indictment handed down by a federal grand jury Tuesday.
Prosecutors have alleged that Matthew Lane Durham of Edmond engaged in sex acts with as many as 10 children aged 4 to 10 while volunteering at the Upendo Children’s Home near Nairobi from April to June 2014. He faces up to life in prison if convicted of engaging in illegal sexual conduct in foreign places, aggravated sexual abuse with children and other charges.
The indictment alleges that Durham traveled from Oklahoma City to Kenya in order to engage in illicit sexual conduct with children at Upendo, which specializes in assisting neglected Kenyan children by providing them with food, housing, clothes and academic and religious instruction.
The indictment also accuses Durham of engaging in illicit sexual conduct with minors under 18 years of age and aggravated sexual abuse of a child under 12….
“The defendant in this matter by his own detailed admission both orally and in writing has brutally raped and molested young girls and boys in an orphanage in Kenya,” the appeal filed in U.S. District Court alleges.
“He has confessed his crimes in writing, on video, and has admitted to a life-long struggle of desires to touch children and ‘child predation,'” it says.
An affidavit filed in federal court said Durham, who has volunteered with the children’ home since June 2012, wrote and signed a statement acknowledging the sexual misconduct. An Upendo official provided the statement to the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, the affidavit says.
But Jones has challenged Durham’s statements about the allegations and claims they were coerced by orphanage officials in Kenya who kept him in isolation and confiscated his passport….
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/oklahoma-man-accused-molestation-released-24845153
Charles Mozdir Killed In NYC Shootout That Started With Child Abuse Allegations AP By JAKE PEARSON and TOM HAYS 07/29/2014 NEW YORK (AP) — A California man who skipped town after being accused of molesting a boy was killed and three law enforcement officers trying to arrest him were wounded in a daytime shootout inside a small smoke shop in one of New York’s most bustling neighborhoods, officials said. The man, Charles Richard Mozdir, was recently featured on a CNN show about fugitives. He was wanted in a San Diego case and was charged with lewd acts upon a child younger than 14, a criminal complaint said.
The shootout Monday between Mozdir and members of the New York/New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force happened just after 1 p.m. in Greenwich Village not far from New York University in a highly trafficked tourist area bounded by jazz clubs, restaurants, a subway station and a basketball court. Mozdir’s handgun was recovered at the scene, and 20 extra rounds of ammunition were found in his pocket, Police Commissioner William Bratton said….
A $1 million bench warrant was issued for Mozdir’s arrest in June 2012 after he skipped an arraignment in San Diego Superior Court on child sexual assault charges, a spokesman for the San Diego County district attorney said. Mozdir, a wedding photographer, also had been charged with attempting to dissuade a witness from prosecution, the criminal complaint said. He had posted $250,000 bail.
Mozdir’s case had recently been featured on CNN’s “The Hunt with John Walsh.” Mozdir was accused of abusing the boy while babysitting him, and authorities later found evidence of child pornography and bestiality on his cellphone and computers, according to the show’s website, quoting federal authorities. Authorities had searched for him in Coronado, Georgia, California and Mexico, the show said…. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/29/abuse-suspect-dead-2-mars_n_5629699.html
Child abuse cases tumble out at camps Rajiv Kalkod, TNN Aug 13, 2014 BANGALORE: Over 2,000 schoolchildren in Bangalore have been sexually abused. A police drive led to this horrifying discovery during the course of camps conducted with Makkala Sahayavani (child helpline) in 60 schools.
Slowly but surely, the stories are coming out, in the form of experiences penned down on paper. Police officials are sifting through them, counseling the survivors and booking cases against the accused. The cases came to light at awareness camps attended by close to 6,000 children. The revelation was shocking: about 30-35% of the kids had been preyed upon by sexual predators. Police officials, accompanied by counsellors from Makkala Sahayavani, showed the children videos, and explained the appropriate and inappropriate touch….
They faced abuse both on campus and outside, and in homes too. This loss of innocence has led to many behavioural disturbances among the children: depression, suicidal tendencies, a drastic drop in academic performance. “Between March 2013 and April 2014, Makkala Sahayavani received 450 calls. We got at least 150 calls since the schoolgirl rape case was reported in mid-July,” Rani said….
WHO ARE THE CULPRITS?
10% — School teachers
20-30% — Stepfathers and close family members
Rest? Strangers, school bus driver, servants, neighbours….
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/City/Bangalore/Child-abuse-cases-tumble-out-at-camps/articleshow/40142799.cms
Caged until ‘broken’: life for Mumbai’s prostitutes 02 September 2014
Channel 4 News gains exclusive access to brothels in Mumbai, where trafficked girls are kept in cages like slaves to stop them running away – and only allowed out to have sex with customers.
….I was taken into the reception area of the brothel, the space where the customers are taken to select a girl. On the ceiling I could see a small, open trap door. The madam disappeared, and I climbed up a wooden ladder and pushed through the small gap.
Suddenly I was face to face with a “box cage”. I knew what I was looking at. The prostitutes I had met over years of investigating the sex industry in Mumbai had told me of the caged rooms and boxes they had been held in for months, even years. They told me they were held in the cages when they were first trafficked to the red-light district.
The madams would keep the girls like slaves in the cages until they were “broken” – the aim being to stop them running away. The girls told me they never knew if it was night or day when they were in the cages. They were only taken out to eat or to be given to a customer for sex. For years I had wanted to photograph these cages, to prove that these places actually exist….
Over those years, I have watched and photographed thousands of men visiting Kamathipura – they say they are looking for pleasure. But a red-light district is not a place of pleasure. It is a place of pain.
I have often wondered if men would come and have sex with these women if they knew their true stories, like Guddi’s, if they knew how the girls have been trafficked, and that actually they are paying to rape a girl who is a sex slave.
http://www.channel4.com/news/prostitution-mumbai-india-caged-trafficked-brothels
Ritual Abuse and Mind Control
The Enslaved Queen: A Memoir about Electricity and Mind Control Author: Wendy Hoffman
Written by a survivor of mind control and ritual abuse who is also a therapist, this memoir exposes the existence and practices of organized criminal groups who abuse children, helps survivors of those abuses, and provides important information for professionals about the dissociative brain. The author’s poetic prose contrasts with the horror of the subject matter.
The adult journeys back to give voice to infant and child parts of her, describing her handlers’ early interventions to destroy bonding and create dissociation, the foundation of reverse-Kabbalah suicide and pathway programming, and the installation of mind control. Scenes from ordinary life are interspersed throughout the memoir. Nazi post-war recruitment of American subjects during the 1940s and 50s (including the infamous Dr. Mengele), children used for prostitution, pornography and the drug trade along with the workings of the Illuminati leadership and their international Feast of the Beast rituals are all included.
The memoir also covers attempts at recovery, experiences with cult therapists in disguise and finally the author’s work with an honest, competent therapist, which led to healing and her brain melding together. The ending acknowledges spiritual experiences, the power of love, the memory process, and thoughts on living and surviving a life such as hers. Publisher: Karnac Books 2014 ISBN 10 : 1782201483 http://www.karnacbooks.com/Product.asp?PID=35443
Satanic Craigslist Killers Dodge Death Penalty for Man’s Vicious Murder By Dominic Gover IB Times – Wed, Aug 27, 2014 A young married couple who killed a man who answered their Craigslist advert, and then claimed more victims, have dodged the death penalty for murder. Miranda Barbour, 19 and Elytte Barbour, 22, admitted the murdered of Troy LaFerrara in Pennsylvania, United States, last year. Forty-two year-old LaFerrara was stabbed and strangled by the couple when he met them in a car, after making contact on the popular website Craigslist. Both Barbours pleaded guilty to murder, meaning they will not face a death sentence for the crime. The case saw them labelled the ‘Craigslist Killers’….
Police documents stated Elytte hid beneath a blanket in a car and then pounced upon LaFerrara when Miranda gave him a signal. She stabbed him repeatedly while Elytte strangled him from the back seat.
Following her arrest and charge for the murder of LaFerra, Miranda claimed to have killed 22 more victims and dumped their body parts in locations close to a venue where she previously worked as a go-go dancer.
Miranda said the alleged killing spree was motivated by her beliefs in Satanism. She also said her alleged victims were men who had “deserved it”.
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/satanic-craigslist-killers-dodge-death-penalty-mans-vicious-142856708.html
Craigslist Killers: Satanic murder married couple lure man to death with sex ad on website
Aug 27, 2014 By Christopher Bucktin
Troy LaFerrara, 42, was stabbed and strangled to death by 19-year-old Miranda Barbour and her husband, Elytte Barbour, 22, in Pennsylvania
A satanic teen killer and her husband have avoided the death penalty after they pleaded guilty to fatally stabbing a married man whom she lured to his death using the Internet.
Miranda Barbour, 19, and Elytte Barbour, 22, had previously pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder charges that carried a possible death penalty upon conviction.
Following her arrest the 19-year-old boasted from her prison cell on Valentine’s Day she had killed at least 22 other people over six years in a cross-country murder spree motivated by her satanic cult beliefs.
She said she dumped body parts in Big Lake, Alaska, and also in Mexico Beach, Florida where she worked as a 15-year-old lap dancer but police have failed to find any victims….
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/craigslist-killers-satanic-murder-married-4114957
‘Craigslist Killers’ Miranda and Elytte Barbour Sentenced to Life in Prison By Associated Press 09/18/2014 A newlywed couple whose Craigslist ad lured a stranger to his death were sentenced Thursday to life in prison without parole by a judge who said their “permanent removal” from society is appropriate. Neither 19-year-old Miranda Barbour nor her 22-year-old husband, Elytte, displayed emotion as they sat with their lawyers in the Sunbury, Pennsylvania, courtroom while some of the victim’s relatives described the grief and pain they have experienced since the Nov. 11 murder….
The couple pleaded guilty last month to second-degree murder, which carries a mandatory life sentence, in a plea deal that ruled out the death penalty….
In April, Miranda Barbour gained some notoriety when she claimed in an interview with the Sunbury newspaper, The Daily Item, that she had killed at least 22 other people in Alaska, Texas, North Carolina and California over six years as part of her involvement in a satanic cult.
Police said they couldn’t substantiate her claims. But in a Monday telephone interview with The Daily Item from Muncy State Prison, Miranda Barbour stood by her confession to multiple murders….
http://www.people.com/article/craigslist-killers-sentenced-life-in-prison
Christian Assemblies International: Former members detail abuse handed out by CAI leader Scott Williams ABC By Caro Meldrum-Hanna July 29, 2014
A four-year investigation by the ABC has uncovered shocking claims of abuse and torment in relation to NSW-based registered charity and religious group Christian Assemblies International (CAI).
Four Corners has revealed that self-styled religious guru Pastor Scott Williams was using his warped brand of evangelical Pentecostalism to run a clandestine homosexual sex ring while allegedly misusing vast amounts of member donations for personal use.
Courageous former members broke their silence and told of their torment living inside the group, which they said is not a Christian church but a horrendous cult run by one man.
The ex-members have remained in the shadows until now out of fear and shame. They detailed shocking acts of abuse ranging from spiritual abuse, financial abuse, verbal and physical abuse, and the sexual abuse of adult men.
They said bizarre sexual rituals were carried out in secret by Williams, who described himself as “The Anointed One” with the Lord’s authorisation to sidestep biblical commands against homosexuality and sexually train his male members into submission and obedience….
Former members say they were recruited by Williams as teenagers and young adults, with many still at school. They say they were brainwashed into believing Williams was The Anointed One, filled with the Holy Spirit and gifted with the divine power of healing…..
Katja’s husband, Steve, says women were treated as less than men.
“Women were second-rate citizens,” he said. “They were there to have children and stand in the kitchen and make food.”
Using biblical scripture, Williams also preached that children were born evil and that the evil had to beaten out of them with an iron rod.
Four Corners spoke to many children who were born into the cult who are now adults. They detailed disturbing policies of punishment, including children being publically beaten for making any noise during a Sunday sermon or for moving off a mat laid out at the front of the Assembly….
https://au.news.yahoo.com/nsw/a/24564053/christian-assemblies-international-former-members-detail-abuse-handed-out-by-cai-leader-scott-williams/
A woman is raped every 90 minutes in Zimbabwe – ZimStat by Staff Reporter 13 July 2014
AT least one woman is raped every 90 minutes in the country, preliminary statistics of the first quarter of 2014 leaked from the Zimbabwe National Statistics (ZimStat) office have revealed.The data shows that about 500 women were sexually abused monthly in the first three months of the year, translating to about 16 women being raped daily.
A total of 1 524 cases were reported in the first three months of this year, up from 1 285 recorded in the same period last year.
Of the total cases recorded in the first quarter of this year, 780 are children between the ages of 11 and 16 years while 276 were children aged between five and 10 years….
National Aids Council (NAC) Gender and Workplace co-ordinator, Ms Vimbai Mdege, expressed sadness at the indication that the majority of sexual abuse victims were children under the age of 16….
“….If you look at the figures you will see that the majority of the victims of rape are children under the age of 16. Most of the rape cases are for ritual purposes….”
http://www.bulawayo24.com/index-id-news-sc-national-byo-50485.html
Appeal by elderly Radisson woman’s slayer in satanic killing denied
By AP and Leader-Telegram staff 7/16/14
A state appeals court on Tuesday agreed with the homicide conviction of a man who brutally stabbed a 93-year-old woman to death in northern Wisconsin.
The 3rd District Court of Appeals in Wausau rejected the argument of Christopher L. Roalson of Radisson. He was convicted in 2012 of first-degree intentional homicide in the May 3, 2009, death of Irena Roszak in Sawyer County. Roalson, 32, was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Prosecutors said Roalson shouted satanic references as he stabbed Roszak while she prayed and begged for her life in her Radisson home. She was stabbed about 15 times.
Investigators said Roalson told them he is the “son of Satan,” and he had a crucifix in his house turned upside down, a sign the devil is “occupied and happy.”
….Davis, 20, was with Roalson at the time of the murder, saying he saw Roalson stab the woman and beat her with a chair. Davis was convicted in 2010 of being party to second-degree intentional homicide. He originally was sentenced to 25 years in prison, but that was reduced to eight years after his testimony….
http://m.leadertelegram.com/news/daily_updates/article_cecce74c-0ca7-11e4-8904-001a4bcf887a.html
Teen accused in ‘satanic’ murder of girl to stand trial as adult
KTRK By Deborah Wrigley Wednesday, August 06, 2014
HOUSTON (KTRK) — At age 16, Victor Manuel Alas is technically a juvenile. Today, before a judge, he was deemed old enough to stand trial as an adult for capital murder.
Alas and an alleged 17-year-old accomplice are accused in an especially horrific killing six months ago in clear lake. A 15-year-old girl named Corriann Cervantes was found dead inside a vacant apartment on El Camino Real. Investigators said at the time that the victim had been stabbed with a screwdriver, beaten and sexually assaulted. Her killers are also accused of carving an upside down crucifix on her body. Jose E Reyes, 17, was arrested shortly after the February murder. Alas was taken into custody shortly after that….
As for the motivation behind Cervantes’ murder, prosecutors read from a police report that said Alas told detectives, “He did it so he could sell his soul to the devil.”….
http://abc13.com/news/teen-to-stand-trial-as-adult-for-satanic-murder/244762/
Mutilated newborn still haunts detectives 28 years later August 12, 2014 by Mary Murphy
FAIRFIELD, Conn. (PIX11) – Detective Kerry Dalling was still in grade school when a dead newborn boy was left in the woods near Lake Mohegan in March 1986. His face was mutilated and a burlap altar was placed near his body, with fruit and coins tossed on top of it. “Whoever left this child wanted us to believe it was for a religious sacrifice,” Dalling told PIX 11 Investigates in a recent interview at her detective squad in Fairfield, Connecticut….
A review of child welfare records showed the household was troubled. “We discovered there were a lot of complaints of sexual abuse that were happening in the home” Dalling said….
http://pix11.com/2014/08/12/mutilated-newborn-still-haunts-detectives-28-years-later/
A warning on ‘torture report’ release By Michael Isikoff August 8, 2014 Yahoo News
….The memo, with its stark warnings about potential violence, is the latest development in a struggle between Feinstein’s committee and the CIA over how many details should be made public about the agency’s use of “enhanced interrogation” — including the near drowning technique known as waterboarding — of top terror suspects. The techniques were authorized by the Bush administration in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks, but were banned by President Obama when he took office .
Intelligence sources familiar with the report say it graphically describes — in some cases, with grisly details — the harsh tactics that agency officers and contractors used for weeks at a time to try to get top suspects like Abu Zubaydah and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to talk. The report also recounts the death of an Afghan suspect after he was shackled and left half naked in freezing temperatures in an agency interrogation facility known as “the Salt Pit” in 2002.
The committee accuses CIA officials of misrepresenting the program to Congress and the Justice Department, claiming it yielded important intelligence about potential terror plots that were actually learned elsewhere, the sources said. Another charge is that the agency undercounted the number of detainees who were subjected to such harsh methods, asserting in 2006 it was no more than 100, leaving out about 20 others who received similar rough treatment in Afghanistan. Both findings have been sharply challenged by former CIA officials who are planning a lengthy rebuttal when the report is released. When the intelligence committee approved, on a partisan vote, the report last April, Feinstein said “the results were shocking” and that the report “exposes brutality that stands in stark contrast to our values as a nation.” “This will be an ugly story when it comes out,” agrees one U.S. intelligence official familiar with the findings of the report….. http://news.yahoo.com/a-warning-on–torture-report–release-233244652.html
Rape, hunger and nameless kids at squalid children’s home in Mexico Reuters
A child playing a ball is seen through a barred window, inside a home known as “La Gran Familia”, in the western city of Zamora.
7/16/14 By By Lizbeth Diaz of Reuters
ZAMORA Mexico (Reuters) – Children in a squalid home for abandoned and troubled kids run by a controversial mother figure in western Mexico said hunger and regular beatings drove them to offer sex for food and get high by sniffing paint. Mexican police raided the refuge known as “La Gran Familia” (The Big Family) in the state of Michoacan on Tuesday, finding more than 450 kids in squalid rooms filled with trash and cockroaches. Many of the children, skinny and listless, described enduring years of abuse at the hands of home administrators including 79-year-old “Mama” Rosa Verduzco, who ran the home in the town of Zamora and has been detained on charges of deprivation of liberty and abuse. “I wanted to kill myself out of desperation,” said Carlos, an 18-year-old resident, showing knife cuts on his arm at the home on Thursday. “I want to get out of here now.” Dozens of families waited outside the home on Thursday, waiting to see their kids who were still being questioned by police.
The home was founded in 1947 and provided kids with schooling, workshops and youth orchestras. It received financial backing from individuals, the government and businesses, according to its Facebook page. Verduzco had won praise from politicians and respected academics for spending more than four decades sheltering children in Michoacan, one of the poorest states in Mexico and ravaged by some of the worst violence in the country’s drug war. But the raid this week revealed filthy conditions at the home. Behind dirt-encrusted, barred windows, kids in lodgings that smelled of urine and feces told reporters that many children were raped, beaten and sent out into the streets to beg…..
The allegations could not be independently confirmed but children at the home on Thursday said the abuse drove some kids to seek refuge in drug use, sniffing paint to get high. They faced beatings if they were discovered, they said.
Authorities launched the raid after receiving five complaints from parents who said administrators would not return their children to them. The plan is now to reunite children with their families where possible and find other homes for orphans…. (Reporting by Lizbeth Diaz, Writing by Alexandra Alper; Editing by Kieran Murray)
http://news.msn.com/in-depth/rape-hunger-and-nameless-kids-at-squalid-childrens-home-in-mexico
Grandfather guns down six grandchildren and his daughter in Florida trailer home Sep 18th 2014 By RYAN GORMAN Six children and two adults, including the shooter, are dead after a mass shooting in Florida, authorities said. Grandfather Don Spirit, 51, reportedly gunned down his adult daughter and her six children inside his Bell home, Gilchrist County Sheriff Robert Schultz said in a Thursday evening press conference. Local media is reporting the other adult victim is 28-year-old Sarah Spirit, but he declined to confirm….
The Thursday afternoon incident began as a domestic dispute, but it is not known what triggered the confrontation. Also not clear is what type of gun was used in the mass shooting. “It started out as a family dispute and escalated,” a law enforcement source previously told AOL News. Donald Spirit has a criminal record, Schultz said, but declined to confirm his previous charges. The gunman reportedly pleaded guilty to to shooting his eight-year-old son in in a 2003 hunting accident. He was released from prison in 2006, corrections records showed….
Other charges include possession, depriving a child of food/shelter and accidental death, records reportedly show. Methamphetamine is also reportedly “a problem” in the trailer home where Donald Spirit lives….
http://www.aol.com/article/2014/09/18/mass-shooting-florida-six-children-eight-people-dead/20964648/
Britain has looked the other way for too long over FGM The fear of offending culture and tradition is preventing us from treating FGM for what it is – appalling sexual abuse By Emily Dyer 30 Jul 2014 The Prime Minister’s Girl Summit showed that the Government is slowly waking up to the issue of female genital mutilation (FGM). Yet this encouraging step forward stands in the shadow of a much larger question: how is it that our fear of offending “culture” has allowed 137,000 girls living in England and Wales to have their genitals cut off? These hundreds of thousands of girls living in Britain – whose quality of life has been sacrificed to an ancient ritual of sexual control – deserve a clear answer. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/11000437/Britain-has-looked-the-other-way-for-too-long-over-FGM.html
FGM affects 137,000 women in England and Wales, reveals shocking new study A new study – published today, ahead of the UK’s first Girl Summit – shows a significant increase in the number of girls and women undergoing female genital mutilation and forced marriage. Radhika Sanghani reports By Radhika Sanghani 22 Jul 2014 The number of women living in the UK who have experienced female genital mutilation and cutting (FGM/C) has risen dramatically, a new report suggests. It shows that the practice has been carried out on 137,000 women and girls living in England and Wales. The City University London and Equality Now study comes as the Prime Minister today hosts the UK’s first ever Girl Summit, which aims to end FGM/C and forced marriage.
It shows that there are around 103,00 FGM/C survivors aged 15-49 in the UK, 24,000 women aged 50 and over, and 10,000 young girls aged under 15. These women and girls are thought to have migrated from countries where the practice of cutting girls’ genitalia – illegal in the UK – is carried out in the name of culture, tradition and religion…. More than 700 million women alive today were married as children, according to UNICEF, and more than 250 million of these before the age of 15….
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-politics/10980268/FGM-affects-137000-women-in-England-and-Wales-reveals-shocking-new-study.html
Child Abuse and Trauma Issues
Mythical Numbers and Satanic Ritual Abuse Ross Cheit Professor at Brown University 07/11/2014
There’s no evidence of hundreds of cases of false convictions of child sexual abuse in this era. In my new book, The Witch-Hunt Narrative, I examine dozens of specific cases from the 1980s and early 90s that are said to be wrongful prosecutions or wrongful convictions. Aided by dozens of research assistants, I spent fifteen years doing the painstaking work of original trial court research to figure out what kind of evidence actually existed in these cases….
In many of the cases proclaimed to be witch hunts, looking closely at the record revealed substantial evidence of abuse and compelling reasons that jurors voted to convict. It’s true that I also found cases where people were charged who shouldn’t have been. Yet even in some of those cases, there was strong evidence of abuse. A crime was committed and a child was assaulted by someone who was never apprehended, but only the false accusation story lives on…..
on the day that the 3-year-old complained to her mother about Dan Keller pulling down her pants and spanking her at day-care, she later screamed while she was urinating, “It hurts, it hurts.” That prompted her mother to take the preschooler to the emergency room.
The emergency room doctor found what he believed were two physical indications of sexual abuse: “what appeared to be lacerations of the hymen” and “a tear of the posterior fourchette,” a fold of skin on the vagina. It might surprise readers to learn that a year after the 1991 added emergency room visit, the doctor “didn’t have any independent recollection” of the exam and testified entirely from the medical records….omits that fact in reporting that, when contacted by a newspaper in 2009, the doctor described a revelation that supposedly happened “years after” the trial. We don’t know what year. But according to Dr. Mouw, while attending a professional training seminar, he saw a slide about normal variations in hymens and realized that what he thought had been lacerations in the Keller case were probably innocuous. In 2013, Dr. Mouw filed an affidavit to this effect. Notably, the affidavit does not withdraw his finding of a vaginal tear, which had been the more certain of his original findings….
Douglas Perry, a friend of the Kellers, confessed to being at a beer-and-sex party where adults sexually abused a boy and a girl who were under the Kellers’ care. He said that, “Fran had a pen and was sticking it in and out of the little girl’s vagina.” He identified the 3-year-old girl from the trial in a videotape. Perry later recanted his confession, but he also pleaded guilty to “indecency with a child by contact.” ….
The Fuster case originated with a child spontaneously talking about being abused. That clear statement caused two families to withdraw their children from Fuster’s home daycare, which they did without informing anyone else. Months later, a spontaneous statement from a different child, started an investigation by law enforcement. An articulate 5-year-old boy was soon located, who gave several detailed statements that were later corroborated in various ways. The case was tagged by some as “satanic ritual abuse” because children made statements about Fuster wearing masks, killing a bird and playing with feces. Those allegations quietly disappeared from the witch-hunt narrative when adult testimony and photographic evidence corroborated these statements….
When the charges emerged in the home daycare case, Frank Fuster was on parole for sexually assaulting a 9-year-old two years earlier. The jury that convicted Fuster in 1985 was unaware of this prior conviction….But the fact is that Fuster admitted in his parole violation hearing on the 1984 charges that, in the course of driving the girl home, he made her sit on his lap and he touched “her chest area” and “her vagina area.”….
But what did Judy Johnson do to set off the “witch-hunt?” She saw a spot of blood on her son’s anus and called the police, who told her to take him to a doctor, which she did. She was then referred to a pediatric specialist, who reported to the Manhattan Beach Police Department that “the victim’s anus was forcibly entered several days ago.” That’s why the original defendant, Ray Buckey, was arrested….
even the defense lawyer, Danny Davis, allowed that the genital injuries on one girl were “serious and convincing.” (His main argument to the jury was that much of the time that this girl attended McMartin was outside the statute of limitations.) They don’t mention that vaginal injuries on another girl, one of the three involved in both McMartin trials, were described by a pediatrician as proving sexual abuse “to a medical certainty.”….
many jurors believed the original defendant Ray Buckey was guilty and voted to convict him. Within an hour after the first trial ended in a hung jury, seven jurors held a press conference to announce that they thought children had been sexually abused. They spoke about the difficulty in proving such claims “beyond a reasonable doubt.”….
Now, while the media publicizes sexual abuse stories about celebrities and cover-ups of abuse in the past, and repeats the mythical numbers from the witch-hunt narrative, they overlook a real number that concerns real victims — the number of children being sexually abused today. It’s a major public health problem that gets almost no attention at all.
While this type of crime is, not surprisingly, difficult to quantify, studies over many years have found that 20 percent of women and 5 to 10 percent of men report having been sexually abused as children. Just last month, a study in the American Journal of Public Health showed much higher rates of male victimization than previously thought. There’s every reason to believe that child sexual abuse is still widespread. Yet how often do the media delve into that real problem? How often do they examine the enormous gap between the number of children — judging from studies — being abused today and the number of their abusers who end up in court, much less in prison? ….
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ross-cheit/mythical-numbers-and-sata_b_5578078.html
Research By the Dozens By Lawrence Goodman September/October 2014 ….More than fifteen years in the making, The Witch-Hunt Narrative examines dozens of child sexual abuse cases from the 1980s. Over time, these cases ensnared dozens of defendants, some of whom were eventually cleared of any wrongdoing. Many experts believed these prosecutions came about when interrogators asked young children leading questions, resulting in a witch-hunt in which wrongful accusations were made against thousands of people.
Thanks in part to the work of Brown students, Cheit reviewed all the so-called witch-hunt cases and concluded that most of the charges brought against child molesters were grounded in some truth. At the very least, he says, there was enough credible evidence to begin police investigations.
Cheit, who holds a law degree and is also a professor of public policy, believes we are far too quick to dismiss the accounts of young children. “We have, over the last twenty years,” he writes in The Witch-Hunt Narrative, “discounted the word of children who might testify against sexual abuse. We have become more worried about overreacting to child sexual abuse than we are about underreacting to it.”…. http://www.brownalumnimagazine.com/content/view/3759/31/
Evidence in the Keller Case July 10, 2014
This post elaborates on some of the evidence in the Keller case, discussed in an article that was just published on Huffington Post. The article, which is about the witch-hunt narrative writ large, argues that the evidence of abuse in the Keller case has been minimized or denied, while the “satanic” aspects of the case, which were never part of the charges, have been exaggerated.
Dr. Mouw’s Testimony
The Keller case began the day that a mother took her daughter to the Emergency Room, after the little girl screamed “It hurts, it hurts” while urinating. The Emergency Room doctor, Dr. Michael Mouw, found two different signs of sexual abuse. Seventeen years later, the doctor told a reporter that his diagnosis was likely incorrect.
Dr. Mouw’s claim has been accepted at face value, without any apparent skepticism or scrutiny by those advancing the witch-hunt narrative. Yet, on close examination, there are two reasons to discount Dr. Mouw’s current claim. First and foremost, it is flatly contradicted by his testimony in 1992, when he said repeatedly that he had “no independent recollection” of the exam….
Second, even accepting what Dr. Mouw now says at face value, his current position, contained in this affidavit filed in 2013, contradicts only one of the two findings in his 1992 report. Dr. Mouw claims that the “lacerations” he reported seeing in two places in the girl’s vagina were probably normal hymenal variations. But his affidavit did not withdraw his finding of a “tear in the posterior fourchette.”….
A civil complaint filed by the parents of one of the children who attended the Keller’s home daycare contains the allegation that a “longtime friend and confident” of Francis Keller was told about “Daniel Keller’s abusive habit toward children” (p. 2). If this allegation is true, it provides additional support, beyond the word of the children, for the allegation against the Kellers. But this evidence was never heard in court because the defendants were ultimately successful in an appeal that argued that such causes of action should not be allowed in Texas.
http://blogs.brown.edu/rcheit/2014/07/10/keller/
How the ‘Witch Hunt’ Myth Undermined American Justice Jason Berry 07.12.14 Innocent people persecuted by a legal system out of control? In The Witch-Hunt Narrative, Ross E. Cheit argues the media and courts have gone too far in dismissing evidence of abuse….
Accusations of ritual abuse and grisly cult behavior with Satanic overtones have been discussed at conferences on child abuse and treated in research literature since the mid-’80s. Kenneth Lanning, an FBI agent who specialized in child-abuse investigations for many years, found no evidence “of a well-organized Satanic cult” and said so in a research guide. And yet, writes Cheit, even though the FBI guide became Exhibit A for those scoffing at charges of Satanic abuse, “it actually recognized many activities described as ritual abuse and it cautions that there might be plausible explanations for children making such statements in other cases about sexual abuse.”
The absence of a well-organized cult does not mean the absence of ritualized abuse. Cheit provides several pages of numbing case studies on people who were prosecuted, sometimes with testimony from their traumatized children who finally grew old enough to unburden themselves. In Florida, a monster named Eddie Lee Sexton Sr. “ran his family like a cult, subjecting them to the kinds of rituals that…others claim is only imaginary,” Cheit reports. Sexton’s children showed authorities the burial place of an infant he had murdered. “Sexton, who told his children he was the devil, inflicted horrendous torture on his family, including sexual abuse.”
The most controversial case that Cheit explores, and the one he calls “the turning point” in the journalistic development of a witch-hunt narrative, is that of Margaret Kelly Michaels. In 1985, Michaels was arrested on the testimony of children at a New Jersey day-care center where she had worked. An attractive woman in her twenties, Michaels was convicted on 96 of 131 counts, with young children testifying. Michaels took the stand and denied the accusations.
Michaels was imprisoned while awaiting trial. An inmate she befriended would later testify that Michaels told her, “I didn’t mean to hurt those children.” The inmate had already been sentenced and made no deal with prosecutors. Cheit continues:
The jury did not hear additional evidence concerning disturbing sexual behavior in the Michaels family. The state offered evidence about her being groped by her father during an early jail visit. The incident was documented at the time and the prosecution found out about it only because a correctional official in a barbershop was heard talking about it… The judge deemed it too prejudicial to present to the jury….
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/07/12/how-the-witch-hunt-myth-undermined-american-justice.html
Child Sexual Abuse Raises Likelihood Of Cardiovascular Problems For Middle-Aged Women By Ben Wolford Jul 17, 2014 Women who were sexually abused as children are more likely to show the earliest signs of heart disease in their 40s and early 50s, researchers said Thursday….
Examining the health histories of 1,400 women ages 42 to 52, the researchers discovered those who suffered sexual abuse had thicker inner linings of their arteries, something doctors call intima-media thickness, or IMT. That thickness can lead to atherosclerosis, a buildup of plaque, and eventually blockage. About 14 percent of American children are victims of some kind of abuse, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In this study, the rates were higher: “About 16 percent of the women reported a history of childhood sexual abuse, across all racial groups, with the abuse as high as 20 percent among African-Americans,” the researchers reported….
But the new paper in Stroke found trends that couldn’t easily be explained. For one, women who reported suffering non-sexual child abuse weren’t any more likely to have IMT than those who were not abused. And, oddly, cardiovascular risk factors like obesity and high blood pressure were not predictors of IMT. In other words, abuse victims who were otherwise healthy still showed the higher rates of IMT.
Source: Thurston RC, Chang Y, Derby CA, et al. Abuse and Subclinical Cardiovascular Disease Among Midlife Women: The Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation. Stroke. 2014.
http://www.medicaldaily.com/child-sexual-abuse-raises-likelihood-cardiovascular-problems-middle-aged-women-293546
Effects Of Child Abuse And Neglect On The Brain Wednesday, July 23, 2014 Hundreds of thousands of children suffer from neglect, abuse and trauma during their early years. Many of the psychological consequences are well known, but it’s becoming increasingly clear just how damaging they are to the developing brain. Today in the final part of our series from WBUR called “Brain Matters: Reporting from the Frontlines of Neuroscience,” Iris Adler looks at a key issue in brain development: the biological consequences of early childhood neglect and trauma. http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2014/07/23/child-abuse-brain-effects
Official campus statistics for sexual violence mislead A school with a lower rate may just be better at discouraging students from reporting assault July 14, 2014 by Jennifer J. Freyd
Last month, The Washington Post released a compilation of reported rates of campus sexual assault nationwide. Such reports, which colleges and universities are required to release each year, are generally thought to be useful to the public. Parents of college-bound high school students who read that School A has a higher rate of reported sexual violence than School B can make more informed decisions about where their children will be safest. And they might very reasonably think that School A is a more dangerous school. However, the higher rate of reported sexual violence at School A likely indicates the opposite: that it is actually safer than School B. It means that School A is making it possible for — even encouraging — students to report sexual violence.
As a social scientist researching campus sexual violence, I know that even the highest rates of official reported victimization on campuses are substantially lower than what social science data suggest are the real rates of sexual assault. The best national estimate is that approximately 1 in 5 women experience sexual violence in college. But the reported rates are nothing like this, even at those colleges with the highest rates.
Why? Victims of abuse are often reticent about making official reports because they fear the consequences, including being stigmatized or not being believed. This tendency to remain silent is then amplified by institutional barriers to reporting. Colleges and universities have a perverse incentive to discourage sexually victimized students from reporting assault, due to the reputational hit colleges experience if their reported rates of violence are higher than those of their competitors. It’s a profoundly dangerous status quo, because encouraging reporting is one of the key ways colleges can make campuses safer.
Institutional cover-ups
Part of the challenge of tackling campus sexual assault is that sexual abuse typically starts in adolescence, prior to the beginning of college. Perpetrators have often been victimized themselves. Many college victims also have a prior history of abuse. These are important factors that my laboratory has studied for years. Ultimately we must address the underlying society-wide problem of child sexual abuse that contributes to college sexual violence. But in the meantime, college campuses offer a remarkable intervention point for sexual assault: They have resources. They are limited in number (thousands of institutions of higher education versus millions of families, for instance). They influence young people on the cusp of adult responsibility.
But only when such violence is reported can victims access services and colleges hold perpetrators accountable. For most colleges and universities, however, discouraging reporting appears to remain the norm. Colleges can make it difficult to determine how to report; they can also make life harder for students who do report by shaming, invalidating and even punishing them. This is why the reported rates likely tell us more about the campus climate than about underlying rates of sexual violence.
When schools discourage reporting, they collude with many societal forces to cover up sexual violence. Sexual violence thrives on secrecy; if students do not feel they can safely report, the assaults will continue unchecked….
http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/7/college-campus-sexualassaultsafetydatawhitehousegender.html
DNA changes linked to health effects of childhood abuse By Krystnell Storr NEW YORK Thu Jul 31, 2014 (Reuters Health) – Trauma has lasting effects on mental and physical health that may stem from changes to DNA which undermine a person’s ability to rebound from stress, according to new research.
The small study of abused children adds to a growing body of evidence suggesting that experiences can alter gene activity, explaining how mental anguish can translate to lingering physical effects, and possibly opening new avenues for treatment, study authors say.
“This could explain why children with stressful childhood experiences have a different range of problems like not doing well in school, having academic problems, or problems with judgment and decision making,” said senior study author Seth Pollak, a psychologist and child development researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
For example, one of the affected DNA sites Pollak’s team focused on is involved in responding to a nerve-cell growth factor that “is what allows the brain to grow and heal during childhood and to develop,” he told Reuters Health.
The findings, Pollak said, support research showing that “genes aren’t fixed and stable” as was once thought. Scientists have long known that a person’s genes interact with their environment, but this kind of finding helps to illustrate how that actually works, he notes.
The study looked at the blood cells of children who had been abused to examine changes in methylation – a chemical code along the DNA strand that helps control when genes are activated. More or less methylation can silence a gene or boost its activity….
After adjusting for differences associated with socioeconomic status, the researchers found that children who had been abused had extra methylation at three sites along the DNA and had less than the other kids at a fourth site. The changes suggest the GR gene might be silenced when it should normally be active and might be over-active in certain other circumstances….
“If this gene isn’t turned on and you are not able to actually use (cortisol), then you experience emotions like any other individual – you get upset, you get angry, you get aroused but you can’t shut down,” Pollak said.
“It would lead to high levels of stress, arousal, anger, irritation but kind of an inability to regulate and come back to a calmer state,” he said.
“These are the kind of behavioral problems that have been associated with child abuse for a very long time….. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/31/us-dna-stress-child-abuse-idUSKBN0G02AJ20140731
Associations Between Early Life Stress and Gene Methylation in Children. Romens SE, McDonald J, Svaren J, Pollak SD. Child Dev. 2014 Jul 24. doi: 10.1111/cdev.12270
Children exposed to extreme stress are at heightened risk for developing mental and physical disorders. However, little is known about mechanisms underlying these associations in humans. An emerging insight is that children’s social environments change gene expression, which contributes to biological vulnerabilities for behavioral problems. Epigenetic changes in the glucocorticoid receptor gene, a critical component of stress regulation, were examined in whole blood from 56 children aged 11-14 years. Children exposed to physical maltreatment had greater methylation within exon 1F in the NR3C1 promoter region of the gene compared to nonmaltreated children, including the putative NGFI-A (nerve growth factor) binding site. These results highlight molecular mechanisms linking childhood stress with biological changes that may lead to mental and physical disorders. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25056599
SNAP’s clergy abuse victims mark 25 years and eye new targets By David Gibson Religion News Service July 29, 2014 When victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests first organized into a small band of volunteer activists in the late 1980s, reports of clergy molesting children were still new and relatively few. Most were minimized as anomalies or dismissed altogether — much the way the victims were. But today, as the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, marks its 25th anniversary at a conference in Chicago (Aug. 1-3), its members can take satisfaction in seeing that its claims have been validated, and a few (though hardly all) of its recommendations have been implemented by the church hierarchy. And instead of facing constant verbal attacks and the occasional angry parishioner spitting on them at a protest, SNAP’s members today are far more likely to receive a handshake and a word of thanks, and maybe even a donation.
SNAP’s advocacy on the Catholic scandal also helped push the reality of sexual abuse into the public consciousness to the point that victims can regularly win in courts and get a hearing in the media, and they are much more likely to come forward to tell their stories, whether they were abused by clergy or by athletic coaches or Boy Scout leaders….
The group began life in the late 1980s, a couple of years after journalists — led by Jason Berry’s reporting on abusive clerics in Louisiana — began to pull back the veil of secrecy on the sexual abuse of children by Catholic clergy. As the reports came to light, Barbara Blaine, a lawyer and social worker who had been molested by a priest when she was growing up in Toledo, Ohio, started contacting as many other victims as she could find, posting ads and asking prosecutors and attorneys to put her in touch with other victims. SNAP soon developed a core membership of a few thousand people, mainly victims, who met in small support groups while also trying to push the issue onto the public agenda. It was a tough slog in the face of public indifference or outright hostility. Then in January 2002, The Boston Globe began its groundbreaking series of exposes on the widespread abuse of children by priests in the Boston archdiocese, and the cover-up by bishops. The story caught fire and led to similar revelations across the nation and to an unprecedented level of media coverage, prosecutions, lawsuits and billions in payouts by dioceses….
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/religion/snaps-clergy-abuse-victims-mark-25-years-and-eye-new-targets/2014/07/29/6bc92466-1752-11e4-88f7-96ed767bb747_story.html
Hamill: Court ruling allowing parents to spank their kids could lead to further abuse
The New York Appellate Division ruled on July 19 that it was a ‘reasonable use of force’ when a Long Island father spanked his 8-year-old son for cursing at a party. The spanking also did not constitute excessive corporal punishment, the panel ruled. But this ruling sets a scary legal precedent and seems to be following a national pattern of making corporal punishment of children acceptable.
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Monday, August 4, 2014 BY Denis Hamill….
The New York Appellate Division ruled on July 19 to overturn a child abuse case against a Long Island man who spanked his 8-year-old son for cursing at a party. He was also accused of beating the child with a belt on his bare buttocks and legs when he got him home.
The court ruled that the allegations involving the belt were unsubstantiated. Of course they were. It was a little kid’s word against an adult’s.
“The father’s open-handed spanking of the child as a form of discipline after he heard the child curse at an adult was a reasonable use of force and, under the circumstances presented here, did not constitute excessive corporal punishment,” the four-judge panel ruled in a unanimous decision….
The Daily News on July 20 reported that a federal appeals court in California ruled last year that a woman who hit her 12-year-old daughter in the rear with a wooden spoon should not be labeled a child abuser. Another federal panel in Florida found that a single spank does not qualify as domestic violence. And the Minnesota Supreme Court cleared a father who hit his 12-year-old son 36 times on the upper thighs with a wooden paddle, ruling that spanking isn’t necessarily abuse….
According to Safe Horizon, an organization that monitors child abuse, one in 10 kids is maltreated in America; 45% of maltreated kids are under age 5; 1,593 children died in America from abuse in 2012; 85% of those fatalities were white children and 80% of the abusers were parents. The gender breakdown of abusers was 45.3% male and 53.4% female….
But this ruling sets a scary legal precedent and seems to be following a national pattern of making corporal punishment of children acceptable….
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/court-ruling-spanking-lead-child-abuse-article-1.1891698
Child abuse cases reach record 73,765 in Japan The Japan News/Asia News Network Tuesday, Aug 05, 2014 A record 73,765 cases of child abuse were brought to the attention of 207 child consultation centers across the nation in fiscal 2013, according to a preliminary report released Monday by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry.
It was the highest figure since the ministry began carrying out this type of survey in fiscal 1990, and topped the figure for fiscal 2012 by 7,064. It was also the first time in the survey’s history that the nationwide figure exceeded 70,000.
“Active responses to child abuse are a significant factor behind the increase in reported cases,” a ministry official said. The situation remains serious, however, as cases in which abused children have died continue unabated….
http://news.asiaone.com/news/asia/child-abuse-cases-reach-record-73765-japan
40 percent of women with severe mental illness are victims of rape, attempted rape
Date: September 3, 2014 Source: University College London
Summary: Women with severe mental illness are up to five times more likely than the general population to be victims of sexual assault and two to three times more likely to suffer domestic violence, reveals new research.
Women with severe mental illness are up to five times more likely than the general population to be victims of sexual assault and two to three times more likely to suffer domestic violence, reveals new research led by UCL (University College London) and King’s College London funded by the Medical Research Council and the Big Lottery.
The study, published in Psychological Medicine, found that 40% of women surveyed with severe mental illness had suffered rape or attempted rape in adulthood, of whom 53% had attempted suicide as a result. In the general population, 7% of women had been victims of rape or attempted rape, of whom 3% had attempted suicide. 12% of men with severe mental illness had been seriously sexually assaulted, compared with 0.5% of the general population….
“The number of rape victims among women with severe mental illness is staggering,” says lead author Dr Hind Khalifeh of UCL’s Division of Psychiatry. “At the time of the survey, 10% had experienced sexual assault in the past year, showing that the problems continue throughout adulthood. Considering the high rate of suicide attempts among rape victims in this group, clinicians assessing people after a suicide attempt should consider asking them if they have been sexually assaulted. Currently this is not done and so patients may miss opportunities to receive specialist support.”
Men and women with mental illness were also found to be more likely to be victims of domestic violence than the general population. Domestic violence includes emotional, physical and sexual abuse. 69% of women and 49% of men with severe mental illness reported adulthood domestic violence.
Domestic violence from family members (other than partners) made up 63% of total domestic violence cases against psychiatric patients compared with 35% of the general population….
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140903204125.htm
Evidence on rampant violence against children ‘compels us to act’ – UNICEF report 4 September 2014 – Violence against children is universal – so prevalent and deeply ingrained in societies it is often unseen and accepted as the norm – according to new, unprecedented data presented by the United Nations today. A new UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report, Hidden in plain sight: A statistical analysis of violence against children, draws on data from 190 countries in order to shed light on a largely undocumented issue. The report found that about two thirds of children worldwide between ages 2 and 14 (almost 1 billion) are subjected to physical punishment by their caregivers on a regular basis. And yet, only about one third of adults worldwide believe that physical punishment of some kind is necessary to properly raise or educate a child….
The data includes new figures on violent discipline – the most common form of violence against children as well as violence against girls – widespread rates of physical and sexual abuse. It also takes a look at homicide rates – a leading cause of death among adolescent boys.
In fact, one fifth of homicide victims globally are children and adolescents under the age of 20, resulting in about 95,000 deaths in 2012, and slightly more than 1 in 3 students between the ages of 13 and 15 worldwide are regularly bullied in school.
“Violence begets violence. We know a child experiencing abuse is more likely to see violence as normal, even acceptable and more likely to perpetuate violence against his or her own children in the future,” UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake said.
Perceptions on violence including shocking figures on children’s views and reluctance to report abuse was also reported. Hence, changing attitudes with respect to violence against children starts with knowledge. The report is an opportunity to go into the public domain, and say “now you have to do something,” noted Ms. Bissell….
The effects of violence against children can last a lifetime, as exposure to violence can alter a child’s brain development damaging their physical, mental and emotional health. Violence is also passed down from one generation to the next. But violence is not inevitable; it can be prevented….
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=48639#.VAkiohYXMoE
New global data expose acute prevalence of violence against children: UNICEF Major findings include: Sexual violence: Around 120 million girls under the age of 20 worldwide (about 1 in 10) have experienced forced intercourse or other forced sexual acts, and one in 3 ever-married adolescent girls aged 15 to 19 (84 million) have been victims of emotional, physical or sexual violence committed by their husbands or partners….
Homicide: One fifth of homicide victims globally are children and adolescents under the age of 20, resulting in about 95,000 deaths in 2012…Among countries in Western Europe and North America, the United States has the highest homicide rate.
Bullying: Slightly more than 1 in 3 students between the ages of 13 and 15 worldwide are regularly bullied in school….
Violent discipline: About 17 per cent of children in 58 countries are subject to severe forms of physical punishment (hitting on the head, ears or face or hitting hard and repeatedly)….
Attitudes towards violence: Close to half of all adolescent girls aged 15 to 19 (around 126 million) believe a husband is justified in hitting his wife under certain circumstances….Data from 30 countries suggest that about seven in 10 girls 15-19 years old who had been victims of physical and/or sexual abuse had never sought help: many said they did not think it was abuse or did not see it as a problem. http://www.unicef.org/media/media_75530.html
#ENDviolence against children http://www.unicef.org/endviolence/
Hidden in Plain Sight: A statistical analysis of violence against children http://www.unicef.org/publications/index_74865.html
Physical Punishment and Mental Disorders: Results From a Nationally Representative US Sample
Tracie O. Afifi, PhD, Natalie P. Mota, MA, Patricia Dasiewicz, MS, Harriet L. MacMillan, MD, FRCPC, and Jitender Sareen, MD, FRCPC
….harsh physical punishment (ie, pushing, grabbing, shoving, slapping, hitting)
….RESULTS: Harsh physical punishment was associated with increased odds of mood disorders, anxiety disorders, alcohol and drug abuse/dependence, and several personality disorders after adjusting for sociodemographic variables and family history of dysfunction (adjusted odds ratio: 1.36–2.46). Approximately 2% to 5% of Axis I disorders and 4% to 7% of Axis II disorders were attributable to harsh physical punishment.
CONCLUSIONS: Harsh physical punishment in the absence of child maltreatment is associated with mood disorders, anxiety disorders, substance abuse/dependence, and personality disorders in a general population sample. These findings inform the ongoing debate around the use of physical punishment and provide evidence that harsh physical punishment independent of child maltreatment is related to mental disorders. http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2012/06/27/peds.2011-2947
full text http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2012/06/27/peds.2011-2947.full.pdf
Dublin Rape Crisis Centre releases ‘shocking’ report By Neil Fetherston Monday, September 8, 2014 THE Dublin Rape Crisis Centre’s (DRCC) Annual Report has revealed the highest number of calls to their 24-hour helpline since 2009. A total of 12,192 contacts were answered by the DRCC’s National 24-Hour Helpline, including 9,614 “genuine” calls, an increase of five per cent compared with 2012 figures. A total of 43 per cent of these calls relate to adult rape, an increase of three per cent compared to 2012. The report also indicates that 231 victims of rape and sexual assault were accompanied by trained DRCC volunteers at the Rotunda Sexual Assault Treatment Unit in 2013….
Other findings include the fact that the majority of callers (78 per cent) were female and 22 per cent were men; 43 per cent of calls related to adult rape; nine per cent of calls related to adult sexual assault; 53 per cent of calls related to adult sexual violence, including rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment, and trafficking and 47 per cent of calls related to childhood sexual abuse, including ritual abuse and suspected abuse…. http://www.dublinpeople.com/article.php?id=4026&l=100
-
Please use caution while reading all of these papers. Some of the information may be very heavy for survivors. If in doubt, download the page and wait to read it until you are with your therapist or a trusted support person.
Subscribe to SMART (RSS) - Subscribe to print or email version
-
Recent Newsletters
-
Newsletters By Year
- Newsletter 1995 – Issues 1 – 5
- Newsletter 1996 – Issues 6 – 11
- Newsletter 1997 – Issues 12 – 17
- Newsletter 1998 – Issues 18 – 23
- Newsletter 1999 – Issues 24 – 29
- Newsletter 2000 – Issues 30 – 35
- Newsletter 2001 – Issues 36 – 41
- Newsletter 2002 – Issues 42 – 47
- Newsletter 2003 – Issues 48 – 53
- Newsletter 2004 – Issues 54 – 59
- Newsletter 2005 – Issues 60 – 65
- Newsletter 2006 – Issues 66 – 71
- Newsletter 2007 – Issues 72 – 77
- Newsletter 2008 – Issues 78 – 83
- Newsletter 2009 – Issues 84 – 89
- Newsletter 2010 – Issues 90 – 95
- Newsletter 2011 – Issues 96 – 101
- Newsletter 2012 – Issues 102 – 107
- Newsletter 2013 – Issues 108 – 113
- Newsletter 2014 – Issues 114 – 119
- Newsletter 2015 – Issues 120 – 125
- Newsletter 2016 – Issues 126 – 131
- Newsletter 2016 – Issues 132 – 137
- Newsletter 2017 – Issues 132 – 137
- Newsletter 2018 – Issues 138 – 143
- Newsletter 2019 – Issues 144 – 149
- Newsletter 2020 – Issues 150 – 155
- Newsletter 2021 – Issue 156 – 161
- Newsletter 2022 – Issue 162 – 167
- Newsletter 2023 – Issue 168 – 173
- Newsletter 2024 – Issue 174 – 179
- Uncategorized
-
Archives
- November 2024
- August 2024
- June 2024
- April 2024
- March 2024
- January 2024
- October 2023
- September 2023
- July 2023
- May 2023
- March 2023
- January 2023
- November 2022
- September 2022
- July 2022
- May 2022
- March 2022
- January 2022
- November 2021
- September 2021
- June 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- December 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- March 2020
- January 2020
- November 2019
- August 2019
- July 2019
- May 2019
- March 2019
- January 2019
- November 2018
- September 2018
- July 2018
- May 2018
- March 2018
- January 2018
- November 2017
- September 2017
- July 2017
- May 2017
- March 2017
- January 2017
- November 2016
- September 2016
- July 2016
- May 2016
- March 2016
- January 2016
- November 2015
- September 2015
- July 2015
- May 2015
- March 2015
- January 2015
- November 2014
- September 2014
- July 2014
- May 2014
- March 2014
- January 2014
- November 2013
- September 2013
- June 2013
- April 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- November 2012
- September 2012
- June 2012
- April 2012
- February 2012
- December 2011
- October 2011
- August 2011
- June 2011
- April 2011
- February 2011
- December 2010
- October 2010
- August 2010
- June 2010
- April 2010
- February 2010
- December 2009
- October 2009
- August 2009
- June 2009
- April 2009
- February 2009
- December 2008
- October 2008
-
Related Sites
- Articles on “Capturing The Friedmans”
- Child Abuse Data - Child Abuse Data with Ritual Abuse and Satanic Ritual Abuse Information
- Child Abuse Wiki - The Child Abuse Wiki has been created to make public accurate and scientific information on child abuse issues.
- Extreme Abuse Survey News - Extreme Abuse Data with Ritual Abuse and Satanic Ritual Abuse Information
- McMartin Preschool Child Abuse Case - McMartin Case Information with Ritual Abuse and Satanic Ritual Abuse Information
- Ritual Abuse Articles with Satanic Ritual Abuse Information - Ritual Abuse Data with Ritual Abuse and Satanic Ritual Abuse Information