http://childabusewiki.org
Remarks at Release of the Ninth Annual Trafficking in Persons Report Alongside Leaders in Congress - Hillary Rodham Clinton - Secretary of State June 16, 2009
Around the world, millions of people are living in bondage. They labor in fields and factories under brutal employers who threaten them with violence if they try to escape. They work in homes for families that keep them virtually imprisoned. They are forced to work as prostitutes or to beg in the streets, fearful of the consequences if they fail to earn their daily quota. They are women, men, and children of all ages, and they are often held far from home with no money, no connections, and no way to ask for help.
This is modern slavery, a crime that spans the globe, providing ruthless employers with an endless supply of people to abuse for financial gain. Human trafficking is a crime with many victims: not only those who are trafficked, but also the families they leave behind, some of whom never see their loved ones again. http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2009a/06/124872.htm
U.S. Department of State - Trafficking in Persons Report 2009
http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2009/
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Sunday, December 20, 2009
False Memory Defense in court, retractor information
The "False Memory" Defense: Using Disinformation and Junk Science in and out of Court Charles L. Whitfield, M.D., F.A.S.A.M.- Journal of Child Sexual Abuse 9 (3 & 4) Haworth Press (2001)
...in a study of 30 malpractice law suits by retractors against their former therapists for "implanting false memories" or "implanting DID," Scheflin and Brown (1999) found that most of the 30 had recovered their memories and/or had the diagnosis of DID made before the sued therapist had seen them. There were many other kinds of direct and circumstantial evidence in these cases. Nearly all 30 retractors had been previously given multiple co-morbid psychiatric diagnoses that are extensively reported in the clinical scientific literature to be associated with or caused by childhood trauma, especially child sexual abuse (e.g., Herman, 1992; Whitfield, 1997c, 1998c). These included: major depression (e.g., Kendler, et al, 2000), anxiety disorders (e.g., McCauley, et al, 1997), PTSD (e.g,, Rowan, Foy, Rodriguez, & Ryan, 1994), major dissociative disorders (e.g., Whitfield, 1997c), personality disorders such as borderline personality disorder (e.g., Herman, 1992), and major addictions such as chemical dependence and eating disorders (e.g., Felitti, et al, 1998; Herman, 1992; McCauley, et al, 1997). Ninety percent (27 of the 30) had a diagnosis of either DID (11 retractors) or Dissociative Disorder, Not Otherwise Stated (DD-NOS) (17 retractors) (Scheflin & Brown, 1999).
Nearly all of the therapists sued had given the retractors appropriate stage-oriented trauma treatment. In none of the 30 cases was there any mention or evidence of "recovered memory therapy" or a single-minded focus on recovering memories of abuse. Scheflin and Brown (1999) said, ".later, after encounters with pro-false memory (mis)information, the patient came to misattribute the source of his/her abuse memory to the defendant therapist and forgot that it had been self-reported, sometimes being recovered outside the context of therapy" (p. 685). In fact Scheflin and Brown (1999) found that if any false information was implanted, it likely occurred by exposure to pro-false memory sources close to or after the time of the identified therapy sessions. They said, "in all 30 cases the plaintiff failed to report his or her vulnerability to post-therapeutic suggestive influences that might have been operative in the shaping of the retraction belief itself..the most striking finding from our analysis was [that] the significant post-therapeutic suggestive influences associated with the development of the retraction belief could be identified in every one of the 30 cases" (p. 687).
They conclude, "In our analysis of these 30 cases, significant exposure to false memory (mis)information occurred in the great majority of the cases and had a significant impact on the progressive shaping of retraction beliefs. .What do these data tell us? That sometimes litigious patients, plaintiff attorneys, and other individuals intentionally solicit other former patients in order to influence them" (Scheflin & Brown, 1999, p. 688). http://childabuse.georgiacenter.uga.edu/both/whitfield/whitfield24.phtml
...in a study of 30 malpractice law suits by retractors against their former therapists for "implanting false memories" or "implanting DID," Scheflin and Brown (1999) found that most of the 30 had recovered their memories and/or had the diagnosis of DID made before the sued therapist had seen them. There were many other kinds of direct and circumstantial evidence in these cases. Nearly all 30 retractors had been previously given multiple co-morbid psychiatric diagnoses that are extensively reported in the clinical scientific literature to be associated with or caused by childhood trauma, especially child sexual abuse (e.g., Herman, 1992; Whitfield, 1997c, 1998c). These included: major depression (e.g., Kendler, et al, 2000), anxiety disorders (e.g., McCauley, et al, 1997), PTSD (e.g,, Rowan, Foy, Rodriguez, & Ryan, 1994), major dissociative disorders (e.g., Whitfield, 1997c), personality disorders such as borderline personality disorder (e.g., Herman, 1992), and major addictions such as chemical dependence and eating disorders (e.g., Felitti, et al, 1998; Herman, 1992; McCauley, et al, 1997). Ninety percent (27 of the 30) had a diagnosis of either DID (11 retractors) or Dissociative Disorder, Not Otherwise Stated (DD-NOS) (17 retractors) (Scheflin & Brown, 1999).
Nearly all of the therapists sued had given the retractors appropriate stage-oriented trauma treatment. In none of the 30 cases was there any mention or evidence of "recovered memory therapy" or a single-minded focus on recovering memories of abuse. Scheflin and Brown (1999) said, ".later, after encounters with pro-false memory (mis)information, the patient came to misattribute the source of his/her abuse memory to the defendant therapist and forgot that it had been self-reported, sometimes being recovered outside the context of therapy" (p. 685). In fact Scheflin and Brown (1999) found that if any false information was implanted, it likely occurred by exposure to pro-false memory sources close to or after the time of the identified therapy sessions. They said, "in all 30 cases the plaintiff failed to report his or her vulnerability to post-therapeutic suggestive influences that might have been operative in the shaping of the retraction belief itself..the most striking finding from our analysis was [that] the significant post-therapeutic suggestive influences associated with the development of the retraction belief could be identified in every one of the 30 cases" (p. 687).
They conclude, "In our analysis of these 30 cases, significant exposure to false memory (mis)information occurred in the great majority of the cases and had a significant impact on the progressive shaping of retraction beliefs. .What do these data tell us? That sometimes litigious patients, plaintiff attorneys, and other individuals intentionally solicit other former patients in order to influence them" (Scheflin & Brown, 1999, p. 688). http://childabuse.georgiacenter.uga.edu/both/whitfield/whitfield24.phtml
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Study: Clergy sexual abuse an ongoing problem
More than 3 percent of adult women who attend religious services at least once a month have been victims of clergy sexual abuse, according to researchers at Baylor University, Waco, Texas. Four percent of respondents said they knew of a close friend or family member who experienced a sexual advance by a clergy member in their congregation, the study said.
Baylor researchers said their report is the largest scientific study into this issue in the U.S. "Because many people are familiar with some of the high-profile cases of sexual misconduct, most people assume that it is just a matter of a few charismatic leaders preying on vulnerable followers," said Diana Garland, dean of Baylor's School of Social Work and lead researcher in the study. "What this research tells us, however, is that clergy sexual misconduct with adults is a widespread problem in congregations of all sizes and occurs across denominations." http://www.thelutheran.org/article/article.cfm?article_id=8572
Baylor researchers said their report is the largest scientific study into this issue in the U.S. "Because many people are familiar with some of the high-profile cases of sexual misconduct, most people assume that it is just a matter of a few charismatic leaders preying on vulnerable followers," said Diana Garland, dean of Baylor's School of Social Work and lead researcher in the study. "What this research tells us, however, is that clergy sexual misconduct with adults is a widespread problem in congregations of all sizes and occurs across denominations." http://www.thelutheran.org/article/article.cfm?article_id=8572
Friday, December 18, 2009
Mohler Ritual Abuse Legal Case Articles
http://ritualabuse.us/2009/12/issue-90-january-2010/
describes crimes
Child incest pamphlets found in second search of Mohler property By DONALD BRADLEY The Kansas City Star 11/24/09 A second police search of the Independence property of Burrell Mohler Sr., charged with an array of sexual offenses against some of his grandchildren, turned up child incest pamphlets. Also seized were more adult movies, including a pornographic DVD about having sex with “Grandma & Grandpa,” according to new documents released today. Other items listed on search warrant affidavits include what authorities are calling “incest porn” as well as homemade videotapes, a Focus on the Family film series, and a Book of Mormon Stories for Children. That and other Mormon literature taken from a house and a shed indicate that some of the materials could belong to Mohler’s oldest son, Burrell “Ed” Mohler Jr., who also has lived in Independence. While the senior Mohler and most of his sons belonged to the Community of Christ Church, Ed Mohler, 53, joined the Mormon church in 1992 but was excommunicated in 2007 for personal conduct unrelated to child abuse. Mohler, 77, is in jail in Lexington, Mo., along with his four sons and a brother from Florida. Authorities say the men carried out years of sexual abuse on children as young as 5 in the extended family. Darrel Mohler is being held in Florida. In all, the Mohler men face 42 charges. The search of Mohler’s home in the 1300 block of Dodgion Street was conducted Friday by the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office. Authorities believe some of the alleged assaults against the Mohler children in past decades were photographed or taped. The first search of Mohler’s home turned up incest magazines, computers, tapes and recording equipment. Similarly, a search of a Columbia, Mo., house belonging to his son Jared Mohler, 48, also turned up computers, tapes and video equipment. http://www.kansascity.com/news/breaking_news/story/1591849.html
Many back Missouri incest suspect By Judy L. Thomas, Donald Bradley and Brian Burnes MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS 11/23/2009 KANSAS CITY ....Mohler's reputation as the strict but good patriarch would come crashing down. He's in jail now, after allegations from at least three grandchildren that "sleepovers" on his farm often meant incestuous rape, and that when granddaddy sang "Itsy-Bitsy Spider," his hands ended up in wrong places. After allegations that their uncles wedded and bedded first-graders in a chicken coop and that their father did unspeakable things to them less than a mile from that little white church. Once the charges - 42 so far - were filed, it seemed the Mohler family was shattered as irreparably as the bad-memory jars the little girls purportedly buried and authorities earlier this month hoped to dig up....Yet all or nearly all six children of Burrell "Ed" Mohler Jr. gave credence to the tales of twisted family relationships, according to court documents. Nor did it help the senior Mohler's legal defense or public image as a grandfather when police hauled incest pornography out of his home in Independence, Mo. While some question the validity of the accusations, others may ask why authorities did not investigate earlier. In the 1980s or early '90s, at least some of the grandchildren reportedly went to their mother about the abuse, according to police documents. Instead of going to law enforcement, she told the head of her Mormon church. And nothing happened.
An Overland Park, Kan., man, who once shared custody of his 7-year-old son with an ex-wife who married into the Mohler family, said he tried to alert the Lafayette County sheriff, the Missouri Division of Family Services and a court-appointed guardian to what he feared was happening at the Mohler place.
"I notified everybody I could notify in February 2000 about this." Then, three months ago, an Independence police detective told the man there were multiple victims, "and my son was on the list." "I said: 'You mean it took them nine years to figure this out?'"
Many of the allegations directed at the Mohlers defy what experts encounter in sex abuse situations - group encounters involving children within the same family are rare, primarily because they are less apt to be kept secret. Still, there are cases of incest being so ingrained in a household that, for some families, "the act becomes normalized ... a family value, as common as Sunday dinners or watching football on TV," said Joseph Beck, a therapy director at Spofford Home, a Kansas City nonprofit that treats children with severe emotional problems. "Although it's abnormal, it becomes, 'This is how we do things,'" Beck said, adding that victims can be trained early in life not to trust the outside world.
Clinicians widely believe that child molestation, especially within a household, is driven more by urges to be violent and exert power than act out instilled sexual practices. "It's not about sex. It's about power and control," said Judith Ann Cohen, who specializes in child-rape cases at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh. "A man who feels he is king of his castle gets to abuse his children because, well, you can if you're king of your castle." Beck agreed. "Usually it revolves around a single patriarch of a family, the man in power."
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/missouristatenews/story/27D98BFDEA8337BA86257677001848AB?OpenDocument
describes crimes
5 men charged with sex crimes against children AP By Bill Draper And Heather Hollingsworth 11/11/09 LEXINGTON, Mo. - Authorities on Wednesday were searching a rural property in western Missouri for bodies and buried glass jars containing notes written more than 15 years ago by children who may have documented sexual abuse by five members of their own family. Lafayette County Sheriff Kerrick Alumbaugh pleaded for the public's help, saying investigators "believe that there are other victims out there, and we believe people in the public can give us more information." Alumbaugh said authorities believe there may be bodies buried on the property outside Bates City, which is about 30 miles east of Kansas City. He refused to say to whom any of the bodies would have belonged. The property and a nearby home is owned by a man unrelated to the case who is cooperating with authorities....The five men were arrested Tuesday and are charged with several felonies, including forcible sodomy, rape with a child younger than 12 and use of a child in a sexual performance. The allegations, which include bestiality and forcing an 11-year-old to have an abortion, date from 1988 to 1995....Three of the five men are lay ministers in the Community of Christ church whose licenses have been suspended, church spokeswoman Linda L. Booth said....The woman who came forward claimed some of the men sexually abused her and her siblings, forced her to have sex with a dog, forced the siblings into fake marriages with relatives and forced her to watch as her brother was abused....."The church takes seriously the allegations that have been made and suspended the priesthood licenses of three lay ministers: Burrell Mohler Sr., David Mohler and Jared Mohler," the church said in a statement. Booth said one of the men, whom she refused to identify, had been registered to work with children but that license has been terminated. The Community of Christ, headquartered in Independence, split from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1860 and was known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints until 2001. It has about 250,000 members worldwide. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091111/ap_on_re_us/us_family_sex_crimes
Child sex abuse allegations may turn into a murder case By DONALD BRADLEY The Kansas City Star 11/11/09 LEXINGTON, Mo. They said they were just little girls trying to bury their horror in jars around the farm. They wanted somebody to know what happened to them. So, according to authorities, the sisters wrote notes about the years of sexual abuse at the hands of older relatives and hid them in the earth. Then the children - one was a boy - buried the pain and anguish within themselves. Years would pass. But on Wednesday, authorities came to the farm south of Bates City, Mo., to dig for the notes - and possibly a body. With a man and his middle-aged sons in jail, investigators descended onto the rural property looking for evidence of rape, sodomy, bestiality and possible homicide....The five men were charged with 14 felonies, including forcible sodomy and forcible rape with a child less than 12 years old and use of a child in a sexual performance. The sheriff said he expected more charges to be filed....The woman who came forward alleged that the abuse against her began at age 5, when the girls were forced to "rotate" sleeping in the same bed as the senior Mohler.
http://www.kansascity.com/105/story/1564393.html
describes crimes
Five charged for ritual child sex crimes By Donald Bradley, AAP November 12, 2009
A Missouri man and his four sons have been charged with the ritualistic sex abuse of his six grandchildren, and police are searching the family farm for buried bodies.
Officials declined to say whether the remains they were searching for were those of adults or children but said they were investigating allegations of murder. "There have been indications of a body or bodies in numerous locations," Lafayette County Sheriff Kerrick Alumbaugh told a press conference.
The backhoes began digging before noon on Wednesday, and a more careful search was undertaken to find glass jars filled with notes the children wrote describing the horrific abuse.
"When the victims were younger they were writing down what had happened to them and placing it in those jars and subsequently burying it in the property in hopes to forget about the occurrences," said Bill Lowe, a spokesman for the Missouri Highway Patrol.
The alleged crimes came to light in August when a 26-year-old woman approached police with the suppressed memories of years of abuse at the hands of her father, uncles and grandfather.
Her four sisters and brother are cooperating with police and more charges are expected to be filed, Lowe said. "We believe there are other victims out there," Alumbaugh said. "Pedophiles don't stop with just one. They keep going." The woman described nine incidents of abuse which she believes began when she was about five and ended after she became pregnant and was forced to have an abortion at age 11. The abuse included elaborate "wedding" ceremonies in which the girls would pick flowers to adorn their hair and wear special dresses....The alleged abuse occurred between 1988 and 1995 at the farm in Bates City, Missouri. The five men were formally charged with various counts of child sex abuse on Tuesday and remained in jail on Wednesday after a judge set bonds ranging from $US30,000 ($A32,275) to $US75,000 ($A80,690). Charged in the crime were: Burrell Edward Mohler Sr, 77; Burrell Edward Mohler, Jr, 51, the father of the six children; Jared Leroy Mohler, 48; Roland Neil Mohler, 47; and David A Mohler, 52. http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/newshome/6462729
Father Says Son Was Victim of Mohler Family - Kathy Quinn Meagan Kelleher, Web Producer
November 12, 2009 INDEPENDENCE, Mo. - The Lafayette County Sheriff said they are actively searching for more people who may have been sexually abused by the Mohler family men. Burrell Edward Mohler Sr., 77, his brother and his four adult sons have been charged with forcible sodomy and rape involving children under the age of 12.
In their search for more victims, detectives have contacted people like Mark Young's son, who was seven at the time of the alleged abuse. Young confirmed to police that his son was abused by one of the Mohler men.
Mark Young said he and his former wife, Pamela Robison, had a child together and that woman later married Burrell Edward Mohler, Jr. Young said Robinson and his son would disappear for days.
http://www.fox4kc.com/wdaf-mohler-victim-young-111309,0,1950952.story
UPDATE: Story of alleged 7th victim detailed on K.C.'s WDAF-TV 11/16/2009 J. Noedel-Publisher - Kansas City's WDAF-TV (Fox4) has reported that in 1999, a Kansas City area man named Mark Young divorced his wife. His ex-wife got custody of the former-couple's seven year-old son. The ex-wife then married Burrell "Ed" Mohler Jr. Not long after, Mark Young met Burrell Mohler Jr.'s own ex-wife. Burrell's ex-wife -- whose own six children the Mohlers allegedly abused -- told Young that she had learned that "Jr. was quite fond of (Young's) son and liked to sleep with him." Young quickly sued for custody of his boy, alleging the child was being abused....The probable cause statement says that a granddaughter of Burrell Sr. remembers being raped by her grandfather when she was six years old. The now-grown woman and one of her sisters also are quoted in the probable cause statement alleging that their great uncle Darrel Mohler raped two of the girls when they were five and six years old, and then their grandfather threatened to kill them if they were not quiet.
The Associated Press has reported, "The original complaint in the case includes allegations of bestiality, forcing children into fake marriages with relatives and making an 11-year-old have an abortion."
WDAF-TV, Channel 4, in Kansas City is reporting that three of the accused child abusers were lay ministers in an Independence, Mo. church.
A 77-year-old man and four of his middle-aged sons in western Missouri were charged yesterday on multiple charges of forcible sodomy and rape of children between 1988 and 1995. According to the Kansas City Star, a woman has told authorities of her and other children being forced to line up on a bed on their knees and each being assaulted by the men.
http://www.ngnn.com/content/2009/nov/16/update-story-alleged-7th-victim-detailed-kcs-wdaf-tv
Daugther Say Mohler Jr. Forced Them To Kidnap, Kill Man
http://www.kctv5.com/video/21637741/index.html
Three-page sworn probable cause statement from one Cynthia L. Schroer.
http://www.fox4kc.com/media/acrobat/2009-11/50484435.pdf
Group Asks Church to Help Other Potential Victims Come Forward Rob Low, edited by Jason Vaughn November 13, 2009 INDEPENDENCE, MO - Activists representing people who have been abused by clergy members traveled to the metro area on Friday to ask the Community of Christ Church to help bring other potential victims of a family accused of multiple counts of child rape.
Three members of the Mohler family were lay ministers of the Independence-based church.
http://www.fox4kc.com/wdaf-story-mohler-church-snap-111309,0,7506727.story
Search in family sex abuse case also is for bodies, Lafayette sheriff says By Donald Bradley The Kansas City Star 11/11/09 LEXINGTON | Authorities are searching a rural property near Bates City, Mo., looking for bodies, as well as buried jars of written memories of anguish and horror allegedly left years ago by sexually abused children. Indications are that “an individual or individuals were killed,” Lafayette County Sheriff Kerrick Alumbaugh said Wednesday as law enforcement personnel swarmed over a farm once owned by one of five men arrested the day before. Investigators also expect that even more than the five alleged victims of the decades-old “mock weddings” will come forward. Court documents indicate the case involved rape, sodomy and bestiality, Alumbaugh said at his Lexington office. Investigators see a “strong possibility” of more victims, he said. Five members of the Mohler family, a 77-year-old father and four of his middle-aged sons, were arrested Tuesday on multiple charges of forcible sodomy and rape after a woman related stories of her and other children being forced to line up on a bed on their knees and each being assaulted by the men.
http://www.kansascity.com/703/story/1563043.html
describes crimes
Child incest pamphlets found in second search of Mohler property By DONALD BRADLEY The Kansas City Star 11/24/09 A second police search of the Independence property of Burrell Mohler Sr., charged with an array of sexual offenses against some of his grandchildren, turned up child incest pamphlets. Also seized were more adult movies, including a pornographic DVD about having sex with “Grandma & Grandpa,” according to new documents released today. Other items listed on search warrant affidavits include what authorities are calling “incest porn” as well as homemade videotapes, a Focus on the Family film series, and a Book of Mormon Stories for Children. That and other Mormon literature taken from a house and a shed indicate that some of the materials could belong to Mohler’s oldest son, Burrell “Ed” Mohler Jr., who also has lived in Independence. While the senior Mohler and most of his sons belonged to the Community of Christ Church, Ed Mohler, 53, joined the Mormon church in 1992 but was excommunicated in 2007 for personal conduct unrelated to child abuse. Mohler, 77, is in jail in Lexington, Mo., along with his four sons and a brother from Florida. Authorities say the men carried out years of sexual abuse on children as young as 5 in the extended family. Darrel Mohler is being held in Florida. In all, the Mohler men face 42 charges. The search of Mohler’s home in the 1300 block of Dodgion Street was conducted Friday by the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office. Authorities believe some of the alleged assaults against the Mohler children in past decades were photographed or taped. The first search of Mohler’s home turned up incest magazines, computers, tapes and recording equipment. Similarly, a search of a Columbia, Mo., house belonging to his son Jared Mohler, 48, also turned up computers, tapes and video equipment. http://www.kansascity.com/news/breaking_news/story/1591849.html
Many back Missouri incest suspect By Judy L. Thomas, Donald Bradley and Brian Burnes MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS 11/23/2009 KANSAS CITY ....Mohler's reputation as the strict but good patriarch would come crashing down. He's in jail now, after allegations from at least three grandchildren that "sleepovers" on his farm often meant incestuous rape, and that when granddaddy sang "Itsy-Bitsy Spider," his hands ended up in wrong places. After allegations that their uncles wedded and bedded first-graders in a chicken coop and that their father did unspeakable things to them less than a mile from that little white church. Once the charges - 42 so far - were filed, it seemed the Mohler family was shattered as irreparably as the bad-memory jars the little girls purportedly buried and authorities earlier this month hoped to dig up....Yet all or nearly all six children of Burrell "Ed" Mohler Jr. gave credence to the tales of twisted family relationships, according to court documents. Nor did it help the senior Mohler's legal defense or public image as a grandfather when police hauled incest pornography out of his home in Independence, Mo. While some question the validity of the accusations, others may ask why authorities did not investigate earlier. In the 1980s or early '90s, at least some of the grandchildren reportedly went to their mother about the abuse, according to police documents. Instead of going to law enforcement, she told the head of her Mormon church. And nothing happened.
An Overland Park, Kan., man, who once shared custody of his 7-year-old son with an ex-wife who married into the Mohler family, said he tried to alert the Lafayette County sheriff, the Missouri Division of Family Services and a court-appointed guardian to what he feared was happening at the Mohler place.
"I notified everybody I could notify in February 2000 about this." Then, three months ago, an Independence police detective told the man there were multiple victims, "and my son was on the list." "I said: 'You mean it took them nine years to figure this out?'"
Many of the allegations directed at the Mohlers defy what experts encounter in sex abuse situations - group encounters involving children within the same family are rare, primarily because they are less apt to be kept secret. Still, there are cases of incest being so ingrained in a household that, for some families, "the act becomes normalized ... a family value, as common as Sunday dinners or watching football on TV," said Joseph Beck, a therapy director at Spofford Home, a Kansas City nonprofit that treats children with severe emotional problems. "Although it's abnormal, it becomes, 'This is how we do things,'" Beck said, adding that victims can be trained early in life not to trust the outside world.
Clinicians widely believe that child molestation, especially within a household, is driven more by urges to be violent and exert power than act out instilled sexual practices. "It's not about sex. It's about power and control," said Judith Ann Cohen, who specializes in child-rape cases at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh. "A man who feels he is king of his castle gets to abuse his children because, well, you can if you're king of your castle." Beck agreed. "Usually it revolves around a single patriarch of a family, the man in power."
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/missouristatenews/story/27D98BFDEA8337BA86257677001848AB?OpenDocument
describes crimes
5 men charged with sex crimes against children AP By Bill Draper And Heather Hollingsworth 11/11/09 LEXINGTON, Mo. - Authorities on Wednesday were searching a rural property in western Missouri for bodies and buried glass jars containing notes written more than 15 years ago by children who may have documented sexual abuse by five members of their own family. Lafayette County Sheriff Kerrick Alumbaugh pleaded for the public's help, saying investigators "believe that there are other victims out there, and we believe people in the public can give us more information." Alumbaugh said authorities believe there may be bodies buried on the property outside Bates City, which is about 30 miles east of Kansas City. He refused to say to whom any of the bodies would have belonged. The property and a nearby home is owned by a man unrelated to the case who is cooperating with authorities....The five men were arrested Tuesday and are charged with several felonies, including forcible sodomy, rape with a child younger than 12 and use of a child in a sexual performance. The allegations, which include bestiality and forcing an 11-year-old to have an abortion, date from 1988 to 1995....Three of the five men are lay ministers in the Community of Christ church whose licenses have been suspended, church spokeswoman Linda L. Booth said....The woman who came forward claimed some of the men sexually abused her and her siblings, forced her to have sex with a dog, forced the siblings into fake marriages with relatives and forced her to watch as her brother was abused....."The church takes seriously the allegations that have been made and suspended the priesthood licenses of three lay ministers: Burrell Mohler Sr., David Mohler and Jared Mohler," the church said in a statement. Booth said one of the men, whom she refused to identify, had been registered to work with children but that license has been terminated. The Community of Christ, headquartered in Independence, split from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1860 and was known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints until 2001. It has about 250,000 members worldwide. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091111/ap_on_re_us/us_family_sex_crimes
Child sex abuse allegations may turn into a murder case By DONALD BRADLEY The Kansas City Star 11/11/09 LEXINGTON, Mo. They said they were just little girls trying to bury their horror in jars around the farm. They wanted somebody to know what happened to them. So, according to authorities, the sisters wrote notes about the years of sexual abuse at the hands of older relatives and hid them in the earth. Then the children - one was a boy - buried the pain and anguish within themselves. Years would pass. But on Wednesday, authorities came to the farm south of Bates City, Mo., to dig for the notes - and possibly a body. With a man and his middle-aged sons in jail, investigators descended onto the rural property looking for evidence of rape, sodomy, bestiality and possible homicide....The five men were charged with 14 felonies, including forcible sodomy and forcible rape with a child less than 12 years old and use of a child in a sexual performance. The sheriff said he expected more charges to be filed....The woman who came forward alleged that the abuse against her began at age 5, when the girls were forced to "rotate" sleeping in the same bed as the senior Mohler.
http://www.kansascity.com/105/story/1564393.html
describes crimes
Five charged for ritual child sex crimes By Donald Bradley, AAP November 12, 2009
A Missouri man and his four sons have been charged with the ritualistic sex abuse of his six grandchildren, and police are searching the family farm for buried bodies.
Officials declined to say whether the remains they were searching for were those of adults or children but said they were investigating allegations of murder. "There have been indications of a body or bodies in numerous locations," Lafayette County Sheriff Kerrick Alumbaugh told a press conference.
The backhoes began digging before noon on Wednesday, and a more careful search was undertaken to find glass jars filled with notes the children wrote describing the horrific abuse.
"When the victims were younger they were writing down what had happened to them and placing it in those jars and subsequently burying it in the property in hopes to forget about the occurrences," said Bill Lowe, a spokesman for the Missouri Highway Patrol.
The alleged crimes came to light in August when a 26-year-old woman approached police with the suppressed memories of years of abuse at the hands of her father, uncles and grandfather.
Her four sisters and brother are cooperating with police and more charges are expected to be filed, Lowe said. "We believe there are other victims out there," Alumbaugh said. "Pedophiles don't stop with just one. They keep going." The woman described nine incidents of abuse which she believes began when she was about five and ended after she became pregnant and was forced to have an abortion at age 11. The abuse included elaborate "wedding" ceremonies in which the girls would pick flowers to adorn their hair and wear special dresses....The alleged abuse occurred between 1988 and 1995 at the farm in Bates City, Missouri. The five men were formally charged with various counts of child sex abuse on Tuesday and remained in jail on Wednesday after a judge set bonds ranging from $US30,000 ($A32,275) to $US75,000 ($A80,690). Charged in the crime were: Burrell Edward Mohler Sr, 77; Burrell Edward Mohler, Jr, 51, the father of the six children; Jared Leroy Mohler, 48; Roland Neil Mohler, 47; and David A Mohler, 52. http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/newshome/6462729
Father Says Son Was Victim of Mohler Family - Kathy Quinn Meagan Kelleher, Web Producer
November 12, 2009 INDEPENDENCE, Mo. - The Lafayette County Sheriff said they are actively searching for more people who may have been sexually abused by the Mohler family men. Burrell Edward Mohler Sr., 77, his brother and his four adult sons have been charged with forcible sodomy and rape involving children under the age of 12.
In their search for more victims, detectives have contacted people like Mark Young's son, who was seven at the time of the alleged abuse. Young confirmed to police that his son was abused by one of the Mohler men.
Mark Young said he and his former wife, Pamela Robison, had a child together and that woman later married Burrell Edward Mohler, Jr. Young said Robinson and his son would disappear for days.
http://www.fox4kc.com/wdaf-mohler-victim-young-111309,0,1950952.story
UPDATE: Story of alleged 7th victim detailed on K.C.'s WDAF-TV 11/16/2009 J. Noedel-Publisher - Kansas City's WDAF-TV (Fox4) has reported that in 1999, a Kansas City area man named Mark Young divorced his wife. His ex-wife got custody of the former-couple's seven year-old son. The ex-wife then married Burrell "Ed" Mohler Jr. Not long after, Mark Young met Burrell Mohler Jr.'s own ex-wife. Burrell's ex-wife -- whose own six children the Mohlers allegedly abused -- told Young that she had learned that "Jr. was quite fond of (Young's) son and liked to sleep with him." Young quickly sued for custody of his boy, alleging the child was being abused....The probable cause statement says that a granddaughter of Burrell Sr. remembers being raped by her grandfather when she was six years old. The now-grown woman and one of her sisters also are quoted in the probable cause statement alleging that their great uncle Darrel Mohler raped two of the girls when they were five and six years old, and then their grandfather threatened to kill them if they were not quiet.
The Associated Press has reported, "The original complaint in the case includes allegations of bestiality, forcing children into fake marriages with relatives and making an 11-year-old have an abortion."
WDAF-TV, Channel 4, in Kansas City is reporting that three of the accused child abusers were lay ministers in an Independence, Mo. church.
A 77-year-old man and four of his middle-aged sons in western Missouri were charged yesterday on multiple charges of forcible sodomy and rape of children between 1988 and 1995. According to the Kansas City Star, a woman has told authorities of her and other children being forced to line up on a bed on their knees and each being assaulted by the men.
http://www.ngnn.com/content/2009/nov/16/update-story-alleged-7th-victim-detailed-kcs-wdaf-tv
Daugther Say Mohler Jr. Forced Them To Kidnap, Kill Man
http://www.kctv5.com/video/21637741/index.html
Three-page sworn probable cause statement from one Cynthia L. Schroer.
http://www.fox4kc.com/media/acrobat/2009-11/50484435.pdf
Group Asks Church to Help Other Potential Victims Come Forward Rob Low, edited by Jason Vaughn November 13, 2009 INDEPENDENCE, MO - Activists representing people who have been abused by clergy members traveled to the metro area on Friday to ask the Community of Christ Church to help bring other potential victims of a family accused of multiple counts of child rape.
Three members of the Mohler family were lay ministers of the Independence-based church.
http://www.fox4kc.com/wdaf-story-mohler-church-snap-111309,0,7506727.story
Search in family sex abuse case also is for bodies, Lafayette sheriff says By Donald Bradley The Kansas City Star 11/11/09 LEXINGTON | Authorities are searching a rural property near Bates City, Mo., looking for bodies, as well as buried jars of written memories of anguish and horror allegedly left years ago by sexually abused children. Indications are that “an individual or individuals were killed,” Lafayette County Sheriff Kerrick Alumbaugh said Wednesday as law enforcement personnel swarmed over a farm once owned by one of five men arrested the day before. Investigators also expect that even more than the five alleged victims of the decades-old “mock weddings” will come forward. Court documents indicate the case involved rape, sodomy and bestiality, Alumbaugh said at his Lexington office. Investigators see a “strong possibility” of more victims, he said. Five members of the Mohler family, a 77-year-old father and four of his middle-aged sons, were arrested Tuesday on multiple charges of forcible sodomy and rape after a woman related stories of her and other children being forced to line up on a bed on their knees and each being assaulted by the men.
http://www.kansascity.com/703/story/1563043.html
Thursday, December 17, 2009
December 2009 Ritual Abuse Newsletter Prepared by ra-info.org
December 2009 Ritual Abuse Newsletter
Prepared by ra-info.org in affiliation with Survivorship
I am considering finding software that will make mailings easier. If I find something I like, the next newsletter may look different. Jeannie
1. http://www.ra-info.org has posted a translation of the FAQ into Finnish! While this is wonderful, it makes it even more ridiculous that the German translation is only one-third done, there is no Italian FAQ, and the French FAQ is awaiting proof reading. Can anybody help out? Polish, Greek, Russian, Hebrew, and other languages would also be very welcome.
2. Survivorship is looking for a volunteer editor for their Journal. This involves soliciting articles, copy-editing, some lay-out, and gathering permission to publish forms. The position comes with a superb proof reader and a pool of people who have published before. It's fun -- I've done it! If you are interested, write info@survivorship and put "Attention: Dvora" in the subject line.
2. Recordings of five presentations from S.M.A.R.T. 2009 Stop Ritual Abuse and Mind Control Conference are available at http://smart-talks.podomatic.com/ The talks by Lowell Routley and DeJoly LaBrier are also in transcript form. It's good to hear people's voices.
Lowell Routley 2009 - Dissociation and Time Management
Hal Pepinsky 2009: Reflections of a Believer
DeJoly LaBrier 2009: Life as a Onesie
Shamai Currim 2009: From Victim to Survivor to Advocate
Neil Brick 2009- Ritual Abuse: In the Trenches of the Stopping Child Abuse Movement
3. Survivorship continues with its Webinars. If anybody would like to give one, write me at jeannie@survivorship.org
Here is the latest schedule. Complete information is at http://www.survivorship.org/webinars.html
Saturday, January 9
“Understanding Nazi Influence in Ritual Abuse.”
Alik of the OwlClan System
Saturday, February 6
"Hope, Healing and Help through Music and Advocacy."
Mike Skinner
Saturday, March 13
“Art and Activism: What the Public Sees.”
Lynn Schirmer
Recordings of past Webinars are available without cost to Survivorship members.
4. The two surveys for survivors being conducted by ra-info are still open. If you haven't already taken them, go check them out at:
First survey: Terminology: The process in which a person is made to believe, think, or do something by a pereptator http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=ORROOWfBj2ei_2fjGiON153Q_3d_3d
Second survey: Terminology: The term used for the days on which abuse routinely occurredhttp://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=I70FS67q0986JBoimvSItw_3d_3d
If you are aware of other published surveys or if you have suggestions for future surveys, please write rahome@ra-info.org.
5. Survivorship has added a section on satanic ritual calendars found on the web. The source, when known, is cited. The calendar Survivorship publishes yearly is complied from reports of Survivorship members and includes polytheistic and Nazi as well as satanic dates.http://www.survivorship.org/resources/dates.html
May whatever you celebrate this season be peaceful and joyous.
Write jeannie@survivorship.org or rahome@ra-info.org contact her if you would like a copy, and send announcements for the newsletter to one of these e-mail addresses.
Prepared by ra-info.org in affiliation with Survivorship
I am considering finding software that will make mailings easier. If I find something I like, the next newsletter may look different. Jeannie
1. http://www.ra-info.org has posted a translation of the FAQ into Finnish! While this is wonderful, it makes it even more ridiculous that the German translation is only one-third done, there is no Italian FAQ, and the French FAQ is awaiting proof reading. Can anybody help out? Polish, Greek, Russian, Hebrew, and other languages would also be very welcome.
2. Survivorship is looking for a volunteer editor for their Journal. This involves soliciting articles, copy-editing, some lay-out, and gathering permission to publish forms. The position comes with a superb proof reader and a pool of people who have published before. It's fun -- I've done it! If you are interested, write info@survivorship and put "Attention: Dvora" in the subject line.
2. Recordings of five presentations from S.M.A.R.T. 2009 Stop Ritual Abuse and Mind Control Conference are available at http://smart-talks.podomatic.com/ The talks by Lowell Routley and DeJoly LaBrier are also in transcript form. It's good to hear people's voices.
Lowell Routley 2009 - Dissociation and Time Management
Hal Pepinsky 2009: Reflections of a Believer
DeJoly LaBrier 2009: Life as a Onesie
Shamai Currim 2009: From Victim to Survivor to Advocate
Neil Brick 2009- Ritual Abuse: In the Trenches of the Stopping Child Abuse Movement
3. Survivorship continues with its Webinars. If anybody would like to give one, write me at jeannie@survivorship.org
Here is the latest schedule. Complete information is at http://www.survivorship.org/webinars.html
Saturday, January 9
“Understanding Nazi Influence in Ritual Abuse.”
Alik of the OwlClan System
Saturday, February 6
"Hope, Healing and Help through Music and Advocacy."
Mike Skinner
Saturday, March 13
“Art and Activism: What the Public Sees.”
Lynn Schirmer
Recordings of past Webinars are available without cost to Survivorship members.
4. The two surveys for survivors being conducted by ra-info are still open. If you haven't already taken them, go check them out at:
First survey: Terminology: The process in which a person is made to believe, think, or do something by a pereptator http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=ORROOWfBj2ei_2fjGiON153Q_3d_3d
Second survey: Terminology: The term used for the days on which abuse routinely occurredhttp://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=I70FS67q0986JBoimvSItw_3d_3d
If you are aware of other published surveys or if you have suggestions for future surveys, please write rahome@ra-info.org.
5. Survivorship has added a section on satanic ritual calendars found on the web. The source, when known, is cited. The calendar Survivorship publishes yearly is complied from reports of Survivorship members and includes polytheistic and Nazi as well as satanic dates.http://www.survivorship.org/resources/dates.html
May whatever you celebrate this season be peaceful and joyous.
Write jeannie@survivorship.org or rahome@ra-info.org contact her if you would like a copy, and send announcements for the newsletter to one of these e-mail addresses.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
West Memphis 3 confession, witness corroboration and physical evidence
These articles describe graphic crimes of abuse
Death Penalty Recommended for Teen-Ager March 20, 1994 ...Prosecutors presented evidence suggesting Mr. Echols was a devil worshipper and the younger teen-ager his loyal follower. http://www.nytimes.com/1994/03/20/us/death-penalty-recommended-for-teen-ager.html?scp=18&sq=west+memphis+3+murder+case&st=nyt
Youth Is Convicted In Slaying of 3 Boys In an Arkansas City CORNING, Ark., Feb. 4 The teen-ager, Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr., 18, was found guilty of first-degree murder in the death of a boy whom he had admitted chasing down. He was convicted of second-degree murder in the deaths of the other two boys....Mr. Misskelley told the police in two tape-recorded interviews that he had watched as his two friends beat the boys, raped two of them and castrated one. The prosecution said the slayings might have been part of a Satanic ritual. http://www.nytimes.com/1994/02/05/us/youth-is-convicted-in-slaying-of-3-boys-in-an-arkansas-city.html?scp=11&sq=west+memphis+3+murder+case&st=nyt
Jessie Lloyd MISSKELLEY, Jr. v. STATE of Arkansas CR 94-848 S.W.2d Supreme Court of Arkansas Opinion delivered February 19, 1996
On June 3, 1993, the crime having remained unsolved, Detective Sergeant Mike Allen sought the appellant out for questioning. The appellant was not considered a suspect, but it was thought he might have knowledge about Damien Echols, who was a suspect. Detective Allen located the appellant and brought him back to the station, arriving at approximately 10:00 a.m. Later in this opinion, we will address in detail the circumstances surrounding the appellant's interrogation. For now, it is sufficient to say that the appellant was questioned off and on over a period from 10:00 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. At 2:44 p.m. and again at approximately 5:00 p.m., he gave statements to police in which he confessed his involvement in the murders. Both statements were tape-recorded....
In the early morning hours of May 5, 1993, the appellant received a phone call from Jason Baldwin. Baldwin asked the appellant to accompany him and Damien Echols to the Robin Hood area. The appellant agreed to go. They went to the area, which has a creek, and were in the creek when the victims rode up on their bicycles. Baldwin and Echols called to the boys, who came to the creek. The boys were severely beaten by Baldwin and Echols. At least two of the boys were raped and forced to perform oral sex on Baldwin and Echols. According to appellant, he was merely an observer.
While these events were taking place, Michael Moore tried to escape and began running. The appellant chased him down and returned him to Baldwin and Echols. The appellant also stated that Baldwin had used a knife to cut the boys in the facial area and that the Byers boy was cut on his penis. Echols used a large stick to hit one of the boys. All three boys had their clothes taken off and were tied up....
The appellant was asked about his involvement in a cult. He said he had been involved for about three months. The participants would typically meet in the woods. They engaged in orgies and, as an initiation rite, killing and eating dogs. He noted that at one cult meeting, he saw a picture that Echols had taken of the three boys. He stated that Echols had been watching the boys....
Damien Echols was observed near the crime scene at 9:30 p.m. on May 5. He was wearing black pants and a black shirt and his clothes were muddy. A witness testified that she had attended a satanic cult meeting with Echols and the appellant....a witness from the State Crime Lab testified that she found fibers on the victims' clothing which were microscopically similar to items in the Baldwin and Echols residences. http://courts.state.ar.us/opinions/1996/cr94-848.html
Damien Wayne ECHOLS and Charles Jason Baldwin v. STATE of Arkansas CR 94-928 S.W.2d Supreme Court of Arkansas Opinion delivered December 23, 1996
Where two witnesses testified that they overheard appellant Echols state that he killed the three boys, this was direct evidence; a confession is sufficient to sustain a conviction if it is accompanied by other proof that the offense was committed by someone....
There was substantial evidence of the guilt of appellant Echols where, among other things, the testimony of witnesses placed him in dirty clothes near the crime scene at a time close to the murders; where two independent witnesses reported Echols's statement that he had killed the three boys and was direct evidence of the statement; where a criminalist from the State Crime Laboratory and a State Medical Examiner testified concerning the similarity of fibers found on the victim's clothes with clothing found in Echols's home and the serrated wound patterns on the three victims that were consistent with, and could have been caused by, a knife found in a lake behind appellant Baldwin's parents' residence....
Echols admitted on cross-examination that he had delved deeply into the occult and was familiar with its practices and where various items that had been found in his room supported the State's theory of motive that the killings were done in a satanic ritual; where an expert in occult killings testified that there was significant evidence of satanic ritual killings; where a detective testified that Echols had made a statement regarding the mutilation of one of the victims that the jury could have reasonably concluded he would not have known about unless he had been involved in some manner; and where Echols's testimony contained additional evidence of guilt....
Echols admitted on cross-examination in the penalty phase of the trial that he had an altercation with his father in which a knife was involved and the police were called; where he admitted that he was hospitalized that same day and that when his father came to the hospital, "I told him I would eat him alive"; where headmitted that he tried "to claw the eyes out" of a student; and where a psychologist who testified for Echols admitted that Echols had "an all-powerful God-like image of himself," that his parents were concerned with his satanism or devil worship, and that Echols's medical records included notations of statements by Echols pertaining, among other things, to his rage and the drinking of the blood of others....
Where one witness testified that appellant Baldwin had told him that he had dismembered one of the boys, sucked the blood from his penis and scrotum, and put the testicles in his mouth, and where an expert on ritual killings stated that one of the facts that led him to believe that the killings were cult-related was that one of the victims had been castrated and had had the blood sucked from his penis, there was sufficient evidence of appellant Baldwin's participation in occult activities, and the trial court correctly allowed the evidence....
Twelve-year-old Christy VanVickle testified that she heard Echols say he "killed the three boys." Fifteen-year-old Jackie Medford testified that she heard Echols say, "I killed the three little boys and before I turn myself in, I'm going to kill two more, and I already have one of them picked out." The testimony of these two independent witnesses was direct evidence of the statement by Echols....
Dr. Dale Griffis, an expert in occult killings, testified in the State's case-in-chief that the killings had the "trappings of occultism." He testified that the date of the killings, near a pagan holiday, was significant, as well as the fact that there was a full moon. He stated that young children are often sought for sacrifice because "the younger, the more innocent, the better the life force." He testified that there were three victims, and the number three had significance in occultism. Also, the victims were all eight years old, and eight is a witches' number. He testified that sacrifices are often done near water for a baptism-type rite or just to wash the blood away. The fact that the victims were tied ankle to wrist was significant because this was done to display the genitalia, and the removal of Byers's testicles was significant because testicles are removed for the semen. He stated that the absence of blood at the scene could be significant because cult members store blood for future services in which they would drink the blood or bathe in it. He testified that the "overkill" or multiple cuts could reflect occult overtones. Dr. Griffis testified that there was significance in injuries to the left side of the victims as distinguished from the right side: People who practice occultism will use the midline theory, drawing straight down through the body. The right side is related to those things synonymous with Christianity while the left side is that of the practitioners of the satanic occult. He testified that the clear place on the bank could be consistent with a ceremony. In sum, Dr. Griffis testified there was significant evidence of satanic ritual killings....
Echols took the witness stand, and his testimony contained additional evidence of guilt. When asked about his statement that one victim was mutilated more than the others, he said he learned the fact from newspaper accounts. His attorney showed him the newspaper articles about the murders. On cross-examination, Echols admitted that the articles did not mention one victim being mutilated more than the others, and he admitted that he did not read such a fact in a newspaper....
Jason Baldwin does not contend that there was insufficient evidence of his guilt. This is, perhaps, in part, because of the testimony of Michael Carson, who testified that he talked to Baldwin about the murders. Carson's testimony, in pertinent part, was abstracted as follows:
I said, just between me and you, did you do it. I won't say a word. He said yes and he went into detail about it. It was just me and Jason [Baldwin]. He told me he dismembered the kids, or I don't know exactly how many kids. He just said he dismembered them. He sucked the blood from the penis and scrotum and put the balls in his mouth. http://courts.state.ar.us/opinions/1996a/961223sc/cr94-928.html
Death Penalty Recommended for Teen-Ager March 20, 1994 ...Prosecutors presented evidence suggesting Mr. Echols was a devil worshipper and the younger teen-ager his loyal follower. http://www.nytimes.com/1994/03/20/us/death-penalty-recommended-for-teen-ager.html?scp=18&sq=west+memphis+3+murder+case&st=nyt
Youth Is Convicted In Slaying of 3 Boys In an Arkansas City CORNING, Ark., Feb. 4 The teen-ager, Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr., 18, was found guilty of first-degree murder in the death of a boy whom he had admitted chasing down. He was convicted of second-degree murder in the deaths of the other two boys....Mr. Misskelley told the police in two tape-recorded interviews that he had watched as his two friends beat the boys, raped two of them and castrated one. The prosecution said the slayings might have been part of a Satanic ritual. http://www.nytimes.com/1994/02/05/us/youth-is-convicted-in-slaying-of-3-boys-in-an-arkansas-city.html?scp=11&sq=west+memphis+3+murder+case&st=nyt
Jessie Lloyd MISSKELLEY, Jr. v. STATE of Arkansas CR 94-848 S.W.2d Supreme Court of Arkansas Opinion delivered February 19, 1996
On June 3, 1993, the crime having remained unsolved, Detective Sergeant Mike Allen sought the appellant out for questioning. The appellant was not considered a suspect, but it was thought he might have knowledge about Damien Echols, who was a suspect. Detective Allen located the appellant and brought him back to the station, arriving at approximately 10:00 a.m. Later in this opinion, we will address in detail the circumstances surrounding the appellant's interrogation. For now, it is sufficient to say that the appellant was questioned off and on over a period from 10:00 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. At 2:44 p.m. and again at approximately 5:00 p.m., he gave statements to police in which he confessed his involvement in the murders. Both statements were tape-recorded....
In the early morning hours of May 5, 1993, the appellant received a phone call from Jason Baldwin. Baldwin asked the appellant to accompany him and Damien Echols to the Robin Hood area. The appellant agreed to go. They went to the area, which has a creek, and were in the creek when the victims rode up on their bicycles. Baldwin and Echols called to the boys, who came to the creek. The boys were severely beaten by Baldwin and Echols. At least two of the boys were raped and forced to perform oral sex on Baldwin and Echols. According to appellant, he was merely an observer.
While these events were taking place, Michael Moore tried to escape and began running. The appellant chased him down and returned him to Baldwin and Echols. The appellant also stated that Baldwin had used a knife to cut the boys in the facial area and that the Byers boy was cut on his penis. Echols used a large stick to hit one of the boys. All three boys had their clothes taken off and were tied up....
The appellant was asked about his involvement in a cult. He said he had been involved for about three months. The participants would typically meet in the woods. They engaged in orgies and, as an initiation rite, killing and eating dogs. He noted that at one cult meeting, he saw a picture that Echols had taken of the three boys. He stated that Echols had been watching the boys....
Damien Echols was observed near the crime scene at 9:30 p.m. on May 5. He was wearing black pants and a black shirt and his clothes were muddy. A witness testified that she had attended a satanic cult meeting with Echols and the appellant....a witness from the State Crime Lab testified that she found fibers on the victims' clothing which were microscopically similar to items in the Baldwin and Echols residences. http://courts.state.ar.us/opinions/1996/cr94-848.html
Damien Wayne ECHOLS and Charles Jason Baldwin v. STATE of Arkansas CR 94-928 S.W.2d Supreme Court of Arkansas Opinion delivered December 23, 1996
Where two witnesses testified that they overheard appellant Echols state that he killed the three boys, this was direct evidence; a confession is sufficient to sustain a conviction if it is accompanied by other proof that the offense was committed by someone....
There was substantial evidence of the guilt of appellant Echols where, among other things, the testimony of witnesses placed him in dirty clothes near the crime scene at a time close to the murders; where two independent witnesses reported Echols's statement that he had killed the three boys and was direct evidence of the statement; where a criminalist from the State Crime Laboratory and a State Medical Examiner testified concerning the similarity of fibers found on the victim's clothes with clothing found in Echols's home and the serrated wound patterns on the three victims that were consistent with, and could have been caused by, a knife found in a lake behind appellant Baldwin's parents' residence....
Echols admitted on cross-examination that he had delved deeply into the occult and was familiar with its practices and where various items that had been found in his room supported the State's theory of motive that the killings were done in a satanic ritual; where an expert in occult killings testified that there was significant evidence of satanic ritual killings; where a detective testified that Echols had made a statement regarding the mutilation of one of the victims that the jury could have reasonably concluded he would not have known about unless he had been involved in some manner; and where Echols's testimony contained additional evidence of guilt....
Echols admitted on cross-examination in the penalty phase of the trial that he had an altercation with his father in which a knife was involved and the police were called; where he admitted that he was hospitalized that same day and that when his father came to the hospital, "I told him I would eat him alive"; where headmitted that he tried "to claw the eyes out" of a student; and where a psychologist who testified for Echols admitted that Echols had "an all-powerful God-like image of himself," that his parents were concerned with his satanism or devil worship, and that Echols's medical records included notations of statements by Echols pertaining, among other things, to his rage and the drinking of the blood of others....
Where one witness testified that appellant Baldwin had told him that he had dismembered one of the boys, sucked the blood from his penis and scrotum, and put the testicles in his mouth, and where an expert on ritual killings stated that one of the facts that led him to believe that the killings were cult-related was that one of the victims had been castrated and had had the blood sucked from his penis, there was sufficient evidence of appellant Baldwin's participation in occult activities, and the trial court correctly allowed the evidence....
Twelve-year-old Christy VanVickle testified that she heard Echols say he "killed the three boys." Fifteen-year-old Jackie Medford testified that she heard Echols say, "I killed the three little boys and before I turn myself in, I'm going to kill two more, and I already have one of them picked out." The testimony of these two independent witnesses was direct evidence of the statement by Echols....
Dr. Dale Griffis, an expert in occult killings, testified in the State's case-in-chief that the killings had the "trappings of occultism." He testified that the date of the killings, near a pagan holiday, was significant, as well as the fact that there was a full moon. He stated that young children are often sought for sacrifice because "the younger, the more innocent, the better the life force." He testified that there were three victims, and the number three had significance in occultism. Also, the victims were all eight years old, and eight is a witches' number. He testified that sacrifices are often done near water for a baptism-type rite or just to wash the blood away. The fact that the victims were tied ankle to wrist was significant because this was done to display the genitalia, and the removal of Byers's testicles was significant because testicles are removed for the semen. He stated that the absence of blood at the scene could be significant because cult members store blood for future services in which they would drink the blood or bathe in it. He testified that the "overkill" or multiple cuts could reflect occult overtones. Dr. Griffis testified that there was significance in injuries to the left side of the victims as distinguished from the right side: People who practice occultism will use the midline theory, drawing straight down through the body. The right side is related to those things synonymous with Christianity while the left side is that of the practitioners of the satanic occult. He testified that the clear place on the bank could be consistent with a ceremony. In sum, Dr. Griffis testified there was significant evidence of satanic ritual killings....
Echols took the witness stand, and his testimony contained additional evidence of guilt. When asked about his statement that one victim was mutilated more than the others, he said he learned the fact from newspaper accounts. His attorney showed him the newspaper articles about the murders. On cross-examination, Echols admitted that the articles did not mention one victim being mutilated more than the others, and he admitted that he did not read such a fact in a newspaper....
Jason Baldwin does not contend that there was insufficient evidence of his guilt. This is, perhaps, in part, because of the testimony of Michael Carson, who testified that he talked to Baldwin about the murders. Carson's testimony, in pertinent part, was abstracted as follows:
I said, just between me and you, did you do it. I won't say a word. He said yes and he went into detail about it. It was just me and Jason [Baldwin]. He told me he dismembered the kids, or I don't know exactly how many kids. He just said he dismembered them. He sucked the blood from the penis and scrotum and put the balls in his mouth. http://courts.state.ar.us/opinions/1996a/961223sc/cr94-928.html
Friday, December 11, 2009
Post-traumatic stress may harm kids' brains
from http://ritualabuse.us
By Elizabeth Landau, CNN 12/9/09 (CNN) -- Psychological trauma may leave a visible trace in a child's brain, scientists say. A new study published in the Journal of Pediatric Psychology found that children with symptoms of post-traumatic stress had poor function of the hippocampus, a part of the brain that stores and retrieves memories. This is the first study to use functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, to look at the function of the hippocampus in youth with symptoms of post-traumatic stress, researchers said. The findings are in line with what has been previously found in adults. The study was led by Dr. Victor Carrion, and the senior author was Dr. Allan Reiss, both at the Center for Interdisciplinary Brain Sciences Research at Stanford University School of Medicine. Post-traumatic stress disorder is a condition that children and adults develop in response to a traumatic event. Intrusive memories, increased anxiety and emotional arousal are some of the symptoms, and typically they begin within three months of a traumatic event, according to the Mayo Clinic.Of youths who have experienced a traumatic event, 3 percent to 15 percent of girls and 1 percent to 6 percent of boys could get a PTSD diagnosis, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. By contrast, an estimated 6.8 percent of the adult American population has had PTSD at some point, the department said. http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/12/09/ptsd.brain.kids.memory/index.html
By Elizabeth Landau, CNN 12/9/09 (CNN) -- Psychological trauma may leave a visible trace in a child's brain, scientists say. A new study published in the Journal of Pediatric Psychology found that children with symptoms of post-traumatic stress had poor function of the hippocampus, a part of the brain that stores and retrieves memories. This is the first study to use functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, to look at the function of the hippocampus in youth with symptoms of post-traumatic stress, researchers said. The findings are in line with what has been previously found in adults. The study was led by Dr. Victor Carrion, and the senior author was Dr. Allan Reiss, both at the Center for Interdisciplinary Brain Sciences Research at Stanford University School of Medicine. Post-traumatic stress disorder is a condition that children and adults develop in response to a traumatic event. Intrusive memories, increased anxiety and emotional arousal are some of the symptoms, and typically they begin within three months of a traumatic event, according to the Mayo Clinic.Of youths who have experienced a traumatic event, 3 percent to 15 percent of girls and 1 percent to 6 percent of boys could get a PTSD diagnosis, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. By contrast, an estimated 6.8 percent of the adult American population has had PTSD at some point, the department said. http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/12/09/ptsd.brain.kids.memory/index.html
Monday, December 7, 2009
More than 500 claims filed against NW Jesuits
More than 500 claims filed against NW Jesuits - The Associated Press 12/6/09 SPOKANE, Wash. - More than 500 people in the Northwest filed claims against the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus in advance of a November deadline, alleging members of the Catholic order sexually abused them as children. The Spokesman-Review in Spokane reports the claims against the Jesuits span decades and range from Native Alaskan children to students at Spokane's Gonzaga Preparatory School. A federal judge overseeing the Chapter 11 reorganization of the province set a Nov. 30 deadline for people to file the claims. The organization includes Jesuits in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Alaska. The Jesuits already have settled 200 additional sex-abuse claims. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/06/AR2009120601957.html?hpid=sec-religion
Sunday, December 6, 2009
'Myth' of False Memory Syndrome, Adverse Childhood Experiences and Trauma
'Myth' of False Memory Syndrome. The Daily Mail (London, England) ; March 14, 2000
VICTIMS of childhood trauma who 'recover' memories in later life are unlikely to be suffering from False Memory Syndrome, say psychologists....a study in the British Journal of Clinical Psychology says as many as one-third of adults with recovered memories have already started to remember traumatic events before seeing a therapist. It says memory recovery techniques are far less likely to trigger recall than real-life events involving the victim's own children or having a baby.
Dr. Bernice Andrews, senior lecturer in psychology at Royal Halloway, University of London, who led the team involved, said there was consistent evidence that False Memory Syndrome could not explain all or even most examples of recovered memories. 'In many ways recovered memories are similar to those of victims affected by traumas that have never been in doubt, such as the King's Cross fire,' she said. 'The memories were fragmented but detailed, accompanied by high levels of fear as they relive the event. Between 40 and 50 per cent of adults who have recovered memories from events as children have independent corroboration of them, she said. http://www.thefreelibrary.com/%27Myth%27+of+False+Memory+Syndrome.-a0109626781
Adverse Childhood Experiences and Trauma - Editorial, Charles L. Whitfield
published in Whitfield CL: Adverse childhood experience and trauma. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 14(4):361-364, May, 1998 "If the trauma is accepted as real and the victims' or survivor's experience is validated and its expression supported, as happened in the Oklahoma City bombing incident, its short-term effects, also know as acute traumatic stress (American Psychiatric Association 1994), can be expressed, processed, ameliorated, or "metabolized" in a healthy way so that eventually few or no lasting detrimental effects remain (Herman 1992). However, if the reality of the traumatic experience is denied or invalidated by the victim-or by close or important others, such as family, friends, or helping professionals-then the person may not be able to heal completely from the adverse effects of the trauma. If the trauma continues, with still no validation and support in expressing its associated pain, it may develop into post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which Rowan & Foy (1993) and others believe is a core disorder among unrecovered survivors of trauma." http://www.cbwhit.com/ACEs.htm
The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Study:
(Summary by Charles L. Whitfield MD)
Felitti VJ, Anda RF, Nordenberg D et al: The relationship of adult health status to childhood abuse & household dysfunction. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 14(4):245-258, May 1998
This important study was conducted on a large number of people (9,508 respondents of 13,494 [70.5%]). These were adults who were recently medically evaluated and then completed a 68 question survey about 7 categories of childhood trauma (adverse childhood experiences[ACEs]). The authors found that a large percentage of this general medical population reported the following traumatic experiences from their childhood....
Two Other Studies Show Similar Results
McCauley J, Kern DE, Kolodner K et al: Clinical characteristics of women with a history of childhood abuse: unhealed wounds. JAMA 277 (17): 1362-1368, 1997
Here, 424 of 1,931 women surveyed (22%) reported physical or sexual abuse during childhood or adolescence. When compared to the 88% who did not so report, those with abuse histories had more: physical symptoms (p<.001) and higher scores for : depression, anxiety (fear), somatization (physical symptoms and problems) and low self-esteem (p<.001), and more likely to: abuse drugs+/or alcohol, have attempted suicide, have a psychiatric hospital admission, have difficulty in relationships and less likely to be married. Half of those abused as children reported being abused as adults. Walker E, Koss M, Bernstein D et al: Long-term medical outcomes of women with childhood sexual, physical or emotional victimization. Preliminary data, 1997.... Child abuse was associated with : 1) worse self-rating of health, 2) increased: * illness, * doctor office visits, * functional disability, * sexual and OB/GYN problems, *somatization, * dangerous risk taking (e.g. drinking and driving, alcohol abuse, smoking, not using seat belts, unprotected sex, promiscuity, overweight), and * current medical symptoms. http://www.cbwhit.com/ACEstudy.htm
VICTIMS of childhood trauma who 'recover' memories in later life are unlikely to be suffering from False Memory Syndrome, say psychologists....a study in the British Journal of Clinical Psychology says as many as one-third of adults with recovered memories have already started to remember traumatic events before seeing a therapist. It says memory recovery techniques are far less likely to trigger recall than real-life events involving the victim's own children or having a baby.
Dr. Bernice Andrews, senior lecturer in psychology at Royal Halloway, University of London, who led the team involved, said there was consistent evidence that False Memory Syndrome could not explain all or even most examples of recovered memories. 'In many ways recovered memories are similar to those of victims affected by traumas that have never been in doubt, such as the King's Cross fire,' she said. 'The memories were fragmented but detailed, accompanied by high levels of fear as they relive the event. Between 40 and 50 per cent of adults who have recovered memories from events as children have independent corroboration of them, she said. http://www.thefreelibrary.com/%27Myth%27+of+False+Memory+Syndrome.-a0109626781
Adverse Childhood Experiences and Trauma - Editorial, Charles L. Whitfield
published in Whitfield CL: Adverse childhood experience and trauma. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 14(4):361-364, May, 1998 "If the trauma is accepted as real and the victims' or survivor's experience is validated and its expression supported, as happened in the Oklahoma City bombing incident, its short-term effects, also know as acute traumatic stress (American Psychiatric Association 1994), can be expressed, processed, ameliorated, or "metabolized" in a healthy way so that eventually few or no lasting detrimental effects remain (Herman 1992). However, if the reality of the traumatic experience is denied or invalidated by the victim-or by close or important others, such as family, friends, or helping professionals-then the person may not be able to heal completely from the adverse effects of the trauma. If the trauma continues, with still no validation and support in expressing its associated pain, it may develop into post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which Rowan & Foy (1993) and others believe is a core disorder among unrecovered survivors of trauma." http://www.cbwhit.com/ACEs.htm
The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Study:
(Summary by Charles L. Whitfield MD)
Felitti VJ, Anda RF, Nordenberg D et al: The relationship of adult health status to childhood abuse & household dysfunction. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 14(4):245-258, May 1998
This important study was conducted on a large number of people (9,508 respondents of 13,494 [70.5%]). These were adults who were recently medically evaluated and then completed a 68 question survey about 7 categories of childhood trauma (adverse childhood experiences[ACEs]). The authors found that a large percentage of this general medical population reported the following traumatic experiences from their childhood....
Two Other Studies Show Similar Results
McCauley J, Kern DE, Kolodner K et al: Clinical characteristics of women with a history of childhood abuse: unhealed wounds. JAMA 277 (17): 1362-1368, 1997
Here, 424 of 1,931 women surveyed (22%) reported physical or sexual abuse during childhood or adolescence. When compared to the 88% who did not so report, those with abuse histories had more: physical symptoms (p<.001) and higher scores for : depression, anxiety (fear), somatization (physical symptoms and problems) and low self-esteem (p<.001), and more likely to: abuse drugs+/or alcohol, have attempted suicide, have a psychiatric hospital admission, have difficulty in relationships and less likely to be married. Half of those abused as children reported being abused as adults. Walker E, Koss M, Bernstein D et al: Long-term medical outcomes of women with childhood sexual, physical or emotional victimization. Preliminary data, 1997.... Child abuse was associated with : 1) worse self-rating of health, 2) increased: * illness, * doctor office visits, * functional disability, * sexual and OB/GYN problems, *somatization, * dangerous risk taking (e.g. drinking and driving, alcohol abuse, smoking, not using seat belts, unprotected sex, promiscuity, overweight), and * current medical symptoms. http://www.cbwhit.com/ACEstudy.htm
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Ritual Abuse Information - SMART Newsletter Issue 90 – January 2010
Issue 90 – January 2010
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 90 – January 2010
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 2009 – 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.
2010 conference information is at http://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference
The 2009 Twelfth Annual Ritual Abuse, Secretive Organizations and Mind Control Conference – August 14-16, 2009 CD information is at http://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/2009-conference/ or available by writing the above address.
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.
This issue includes information on the Roman Polanski Case, Mohler case, Alamo case, Pedophile ring allegation Plymouth, England, Irish Catholic Church coverup, ritual abuse podcasts, books, conference presentations, articles and laws, mk-ultra, child abuse research and effects
Legal Information
Polanski Case Articles
describes crimes
Dominic Lawson: Let’s not forget what Polanski did – The film director has been treated with extraordinary indulgence Tuesday, 29 September 2009 A man who drugged and sodomised a 13-year old girl would not usually receive the uncritical support of the political and literary establishments….There, the 44-year-old Polanski plied her with the drug Quaalude mixed in glasses of champagne. Then, after insisting that she join him in the Jacuzzi, Polanski said: “Let’s go in the other room”. From this point on, the testimony is harrowing, so skip the next few paragraphs if you are of a squeamish disposition.
“Q. What did you do when he said, ‘Let’s go into the other room’?
A. I was going ‘No, I think I better go home’, because I was afraid. So I just went and I sat down on the couch.
Q. What were you afraid of?
A. Him…. He sat down beside me and asked if I was OK. I said ‘No’.
Q. What did he say?
A. He goes ‘Well, you’ll be better’. And I go, ‘No I won’t. I have to go home. He said ‘I’ll take you home soon’.
Q. Then what happened?
A. Then he went down and he started performing cuddliness… I was kind of dizzy, you know, like things were kind of blurry sometimes. I was having trouble with my coordination… I wasn’t fighting really because I, you know, there was no one else there and I had no place to go.”
Q. Did he ask you about being on the pill?
A. He asked, he goes, ‘Are you on the pill?’ and I went, ‘No’ and he goes ‘When did you have your period?’ and I said, ‘I don’t know. A week or two. I’m not sure’… He goes, ‘Come on. You have to remember’. And I told him I didn’t…. and right after I said I was not on the pill… and he goes… and then he put me – wait. Then he lifted my legs up farther and he went in through my anus.
Q. Did you resist at that time?
A. A little bit, but not really, because…
Q. Because what?
A. Because I was afraid of him.”
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/dominic-lawson/dominic-lawson-lets-not-forget-what-polanski-did-1794717.html
The Smoking Gun Archive – polanski
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/polanskicover1.html
Reminder Roman Polanski raped a child – Broadsheet – Salon_com
http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/feature/2009/09/28/polanski_arrest/index.html
Whitewashing Roman Polanski
More than 30 years after he raped a 13-year-old girl, the fugitive director hoped a skewed documentary would reopen his case. Thankfully, a judge said no dice. By Bill Wyman
http://www.salon.com/ent/feature/2009/02/19/roman_polanski_documentary/
http://www.salon.com/ent/feature/2009/02/19/roman_polanski_documentary/index1.html
Polanski’s defenders lose sight of the true victim By Steve Lopez September 30, 2009
The grand jury transcripts of the sex abuse case paint a far more damaging picture of the events that allegedly unfolded between the director and a 13-year-old girl at Jack Nicholson’s home in 1977.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lopez30-2009sep30,0,1671827,full.column
(Victim’s Op-ed) Judge the Movie, Not the Man By Samantha Geimer February 23, 2003 I met Roman Polanski in 1977, when I was 13 years old. I was in ninth grade that year, when he told my mother that he wanted to shoot pictures of me for a French magazine. That’s what he said, but instead, after shooting pictures of me at Jack Nicholson’s house on Mulholland Drive, he did something quite different. He gave me champagne and a piece of a Quaalude. And then he took advantage of me. It was not consensual sex by any means. I said no, repeatedly, but he wouldn’t take no for an answer. I was alone and I didn’t know what to do. It was scary and, looking back, very creepy….We pressed charges, and he pleaded guilty. A plea bargain was agreed to by his lawyer, my lawyer and the district attorney, and it was approved by the judge. But to our amazement, at the last minute the judge went back on his word and refused to honor the deal.
Worried that he was going to have to spend 50 years in prison — rather than just time already served — Mr. Polanski fled the country. He’s never been back, and I haven’t seen him or spoken to him since. Looking back, there can be no question that he did something awful.
http://articles.latimes.com/2003/feb/23/opinion/oe-geimer23
Call Polanski’s crime what it was: rape By Wendy Murphy October 30, 2009 ….The word “rape,” which is what Polanski did to the child, appears only four times (twice because The Times was quoting someone else). “Rape” is the only word that clearly conveys criminal activity, and a child can never have “sex” with an adult. http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-oew-murphy30-2009oct30,0,780862.story
France appeals to Hillary Clinton on behalf of Roman Polanski From Times Online September 28, 2009 Polanski was accused of the rape in 1977 after photographing the teenager during a modelling session. The girl said Polanski plied her with champagne and part of a Quaalude sedative pill at Jack Nicholson’s house. Polanski was allowed to plead guilty to one of six charges, unlawful sexual intercourse, and was sent to prison for 42 days of evaluation. Lawyers agreed that would be his full sentence, but the judge tried to renege on the plea bargain. Aware the judge would sentence him to more prison time and require his voluntary deportation, Polanski fled to France where he has lived for the past three decades.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6852265.ece?token=null&offset=12&page=2
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6852265.ece
Mohler Case Articles
describes crimes
Child incest pamphlets found in second search of Mohler property By DONALD BRADLEY The Kansas City Star 11/24/09 A second police search of the Independence property of Burrell Mohler Sr., charged with an array of sexual offenses against some of his grandchildren, turned up child incest pamphlets. Also seized were more adult movies, including a pornographic DVD about having sex with “Grandma & Grandpa,” according to new documents released today. Other items listed on search warrant affidavits include what authorities are calling “incest porn” as well as homemade videotapes, a Focus on the Family film series, and a Book of Mormon Stories for Children. That and other Mormon literature taken from a house and a shed indicate that some of the materials could belong to Mohler’s oldest son, Burrell “Ed” Mohler Jr., who also has lived in Independence. While the senior Mohler and most of his sons belonged to the Community of Christ Church, Ed Mohler, 53, joined the Mormon church in 1992 but was excommunicated in 2007 for personal conduct unrelated to child abuse. Mohler, 77, is in jail in Lexington, Mo., along with his four sons and a brother from Florida. Authorities say the men carried out years of sexual abuse on children as young as 5 in the extended family. Darrel Mohler is being held in Florida. In all, the Mohler men face 42 charges. The search of Mohler’s home in the 1300 block of Dodgion Street was conducted Friday by the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office. Authorities believe some of the alleged assaults against the Mohler children in past decades were photographed or taped. The first search of Mohler’s home turned up incest magazines, computers, tapes and recording equipment. Similarly, a search of a Columbia, Mo., house belonging to his son Jared Mohler, 48, also turned up computers, tapes and video equipment. http://www.kansascity.com/news/breaking_news/story/1591849.html
Many back Missouri incest suspect By Judy L. Thomas, Donald Bradley and Brian Burnes MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS 11/23/2009 KANSAS CITY ….Mohler’s reputation as the strict but good patriarch would come crashing down. He’s in jail now, after allegations from at least three grandchildren that “sleepovers” on his farm often meant incestuous rape, and that when granddaddy sang “Itsy-Bitsy Spider,” his hands ended up in wrong places. After allegations that their uncles wedded and bedded first-graders in a chicken coop and that their father did unspeakable things to them less than a mile from that little white church. Once the charges – 42 so far – were filed, it seemed the Mohler family was shattered as irreparably as the bad-memory jars the little girls purportedly buried and authorities earlier this month hoped to dig up….Yet all or nearly all six children of Burrell “Ed” Mohler Jr. gave credence to the tales of twisted family relationships, according to court documents. Nor did it help the senior Mohler’s legal defense or public image as a grandfather when police hauled incest pornography out of his home in Independence, Mo. While some question the validity of the accusations, others may ask why authorities did not investigate earlier. In the 1980s or early ’90s, at least some of the grandchildren reportedly went to their mother about the abuse, according to police documents. Instead of going to law enforcement, she told the head of her Mormon church. And nothing happened.
An Overland Park, Kan., man, who once shared custody of his 7-year-old son with an ex-wife who married into the Mohler family, said he tried to alert the Lafayette County sheriff, the Missouri Division of Family Services and a court-appointed guardian to what he feared was happening at the Mohler place.
“I notified everybody I could notify in February 2000 about this.” Then, three months ago, an Independence police detective told the man there were multiple victims, “and my son was on the list.” “I said: ‘You mean it took them nine years to figure this out?’”
Many of the allegations directed at the Mohlers defy what experts encounter in sex abuse situations – group encounters involving children within the same family are rare, primarily because they are less apt to be kept secret. Still, there are cases of incest being so ingrained in a household that, for some families, “the act becomes normalized … a family value, as common as Sunday dinners or watching football on TV,” said Joseph Beck, a therapy director at Spofford Home, a Kansas City nonprofit that treats children with severe emotional problems. “Although it’s abnormal, it becomes, ‘This is how we do things,’” Beck said, adding that victims can be trained early in life not to trust the outside world.
Clinicians widely believe that child molestation, especially within a household, is driven more by urges to be violent and exert power than act out instilled sexual practices. “It’s not about sex. It’s about power and control,” said Judith Ann Cohen, who specializes in child-rape cases at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh. “A man who feels he is king of his castle gets to abuse his children because, well, you can if you’re king of your castle.” Beck agreed. “Usually it revolves around a single patriarch of a family, the man in power.”
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/missouristatenews/story/27D98BFDEA8337BA86257677001848AB?OpenDocument
describes crimes
5 men charged with sex crimes against children AP By Bill Draper And Heather Hollingsworth 11/11/09 LEXINGTON, Mo. – Authorities on Wednesday were searching a rural property in western Missouri for bodies and buried glass jars containing notes written more than 15 years ago by children who may have documented sexual abuse by five members of their own family. Lafayette County Sheriff Kerrick Alumbaugh pleaded for the public’s help, saying investigators “believe that there are other victims out there, and we believe people in the public can give us more information.” Alumbaugh said authorities believe there may be bodies buried on the property outside Bates City, which is about 30 miles east of Kansas City. He refused to say to whom any of the bodies would have belonged. The property and a nearby home is owned by a man unrelated to the case who is cooperating with authorities….The five men were arrested Tuesday and are charged with several felonies, including forcible sodomy, rape with a child younger than 12 and use of a child in a sexual performance. The allegations, which include bestiality and forcing an 11-year-old to have an abortion, date from 1988 to 1995….Three of the five men are lay ministers in the Community of Christ church whose licenses have been suspended, church spokeswoman Linda L. Booth said….The woman who came forward claimed some of the men sexually abused her and her siblings, forced her to have sex with a dog, forced the siblings into fake marriages with relatives and forced her to watch as her brother was abused…..”The church takes seriously the allegations that have been made and suspended the priesthood licenses of three lay ministers: Burrell Mohler Sr., David Mohler and Jared Mohler,” the church said in a statement. Booth said one of the men, whom she refused to identify, had been registered to work with children but that license has been terminated. The Community of Christ, headquartered in Independence, split from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1860 and was known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints until 2001. It has about 250,000 members worldwide. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091111/ap_on_re_us/us_family_sex_crimes
Child sex abuse allegations may turn into a murder case By DONALD BRADLEY The Kansas City Star 11/11/09 LEXINGTON, Mo. They said they were just little girls trying to bury their horror in jars around the farm. They wanted somebody to know what happened to them. So, according to authorities, the sisters wrote notes about the years of sexual abuse at the hands of older relatives and hid them in the earth. Then the children – one was a boy – buried the pain and anguish within themselves. Years would pass. But on Wednesday, authorities came to the farm south of Bates City, Mo., to dig for the notes – and possibly a body. With a man and his middle-aged sons in jail, investigators descended onto the rural property looking for evidence of rape, sodomy, bestiality and possible homicide….The five men were charged with 14 felonies, including forcible sodomy and forcible rape with a child less than 12 years old and use of a child in a sexual performance. The sheriff said he expected more charges to be filed….The woman who came forward alleged that the abuse against her began at age 5, when the girls were forced to “rotate” sleeping in the same bed as the senior Mohler.
http://www.kansascity.com/105/story/1564393.html
describes crimes
Five charged for ritual child sex crimes By Donald Bradley, AAP November 12, 2009
A Missouri man and his four sons have been charged with the ritualistic sex abuse of his six grandchildren, and police are searching the family farm for buried bodies.
Officials declined to say whether the remains they were searching for were those of adults or children but said they were investigating allegations of murder. “There have been indications of a body or bodies in numerous locations,” Lafayette County Sheriff Kerrick Alumbaugh told a press conference.
The backhoes began digging before noon on Wednesday, and a more careful search was undertaken to find glass jars filled with notes the children wrote describing the horrific abuse.
“When the victims were younger they were writing down what had happened to them and placing it in those jars and subsequently burying it in the property in hopes to forget about the occurrences,” said Bill Lowe, a spokesman for the Missouri Highway Patrol.
The alleged crimes came to light in August when a 26-year-old woman approached police with the suppressed memories of years of abuse at the hands of her father, uncles and grandfather.
Her four sisters and brother are cooperating with police and more charges are expected to be filed, Lowe said. “We believe there are other victims out there,” Alumbaugh said. “Pedophiles don’t stop with just one. They keep going.” The woman described nine incidents of abuse which she believes began when she was about five and ended after she became pregnant and was forced to have an abortion at age 11. The abuse included elaborate “wedding” ceremonies in which the girls would pick flowers to adorn their hair and wear special dresses….The alleged abuse occurred between 1988 and 1995 at the farm in Bates City, Missouri. The five men were formally charged with various counts of child sex abuse on Tuesday and remained in jail on Wednesday after a judge set bonds ranging from $US30,000 ($A32,275) to $US75,000 ($A80,690). Charged in the crime were: Burrell Edward Mohler Sr, 77; Burrell Edward Mohler, Jr, 51, the father of the six children; Jared Leroy Mohler, 48; Roland Neil Mohler, 47; and David A Mohler, 52. http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/newshome/6462729
Father Says Son Was Victim of Mohler Family – Kathy Quinn Meagan Kelleher, Web Producer
November 12, 2009 NDEPENDENCE, Mo. – The Lafayette County Sheriff said they are actively searching for more people who may have been sexually abused by the Mohler family men. Burrell Edward Mohler Sr., 77, his brother and his four adult sons have been charged with forcible sodomy and rape involving children under the age of 12.
In their search for more victims, detectives have contacted people like Mark Young’s son, who was seven at the time of the alleged abuse. Young confirmed to police that his son was abused by one of the Mohler men.
Mark Young said he and his former wife, Pamela Robison, had a child together and that woman later married Burrell Edward Mohler, Jr. Young said Robinson and his son would disappear for days.
http://www.fox4kc.com/wdaf-mohler-victim-young-111309,0,1950952.story
UPDATE: Story of alleged 7th victim detailed on K.C.’s WDAF-TV 11/16/2009 J. Noedel-Publisher – Kansas City’s WDAF-TV (Fox4) has reported that in 1999, a Kansas City area man named Mark Young divorced his wife. His ex-wife got custody of the former-couple’s seven year-old son. The ex-wife then married Burrell “Ed” Mohler Jr. Not long after, Mark Young met Burrell Mohler Jr.’s own ex-wife. Burrell’s ex-wife — whose own six children the Mohlers allegedly abused — told Young that she had learned that “Jr. was quite fond of (Young’s) son and liked to sleep with him.” Young quickly sued for custody of his boy, alleging the child was being abused….The probable cause statement says that a granddaughter of Burrell Sr. remembers being raped by her grandfather when she was six years old. The now-grown woman and one of her sisters also are quoted in the probable cause statement alleging that their great uncle Darrel Mohler raped two of the girls when they were five and six years old, and then their grandfather threatened to kill them if they were not quiet.
The Associated Press has reported, “The original complaint in the case includes allegations of bestiality, forcing children into fake marriages with relatives and making an 11-year-old have an abortion.”
WDAF-TV, Channel 4, in Kansas City is reporting that three of the accused child abusers were lay ministers in an Independence, Mo. church.
A 77-year-old man and four of his middle-aged sons in western Missouri were charged yesterday on multiple charges of forcible sodomy and rape of children between 1988 and 1995. According to the Kansas City Star, a woman has told authorities of her and other children being forced to line up on a bed on their knees and each being assaulted by the men.
http://www.ngnn.com/content/2009/nov/16/update-story-alleged-7th-victim-detailed-kcs-wdaf-tv
Daugther Say Mohler Jr. Forced Them To Kidnap, Kill Man
http://www.kctv5.com/video/21637741/index.html
Three-page sworn probable cause statement from one Cynthia L. Schroer.
http://www.fox4kc.com/media/acrobat/2009-11/50484435.pdf
Group Asks Church to Help Other Potential Victims Come Forward Rob Low, edited by Jason Vaughn November 13, 2009 INDEPENDENCE, MO – Activists representing people who have been abused by clergy members traveled to the metro area on Friday to ask the Community of Christ Church to help bring other potential victims of a family accused of multiple counts of child rape.
Three members of the Mohler family were lay ministers of the Independence-based church.
http://www.fox4kc.com/wdaf-story-mohler-church-snap-111309,0,7506727.story
Search in family sex abuse case also is for bodies, Lafayette sheriff says By Donald Bradley The Kansas City Star 11/11/09 LEXINGTON | Authorities are searching a rural property near Bates City, Mo., looking for bodies, as well as buried jars of written memories of anguish and horror allegedly left years ago by sexually abused children. Indications are that “an individual or individuals were killed,” Lafayette County Sheriff Kerrick Alumbaugh said Wednesday as law enforcement personnel swarmed over a farm once owned by one of five men arrested the day before. Investigators also expect that even more than the five alleged victims of the decades-old “mock weddings” will come forward. Court documents indicate the case involved rape, sodomy and bestiality, Alumbaugh said at his Lexington office. Investigators see a “strong possibility” of more victims, he said. Five members of the Mohler family, a 77-year-old father and four of his middle-aged sons, were arrested Tuesday on multiple charges of forcible sodomy and rape after a woman related stories of her and other children being forced to line up on a bed on their knees and each being assaulted by the men.
http://www.kansascity.com/703/story/1563043.html
Pedophile ring allegations – Plymouth, England
Spotlight on trio of child abusers By Sarah White and Dan Bell BBC News 10/1/09
A nursery worker and two others have pleaded guilty to a catalogue of child sex abuse.
Vanessa George, who worked at a nursery in Plymouth, admitted sexual abuse of children and then sharing pictures of her crimes with Colin Blanchard and Angela Allen, who she met on Facebook.
Blanchard and Allen also pleaded guilty to multiple sexual assaults on children and to taking and sharing pictures of the attacks. Here are profiles of the three people….The 39-year-old from Plymouth has now pleaded guilty to 13 charges including sexual abuse of children and making and distributing indecent images of children….Colin Blanchard was arrested in June after his business partner accidentally found indecent images of very young children on his laptop….Abusive images were found both on his laptop and iphone and Blanchard has admitted 19 counts of sexual assault and distributing indecent images of children.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8282764.stm
Tracy Lyons – new woman accused over paedophile ring – was also nursery worker From Times Online 10/13/09 A second woman nursery worker has been charged in connection with the paedophile ring involving nursery worker Vanessa George. Tracy Lyons appeared before magistrates in Portsmouth on Saturday charged with the sexual abuse of a child, taking an indecent image of a child and distributing indecent images of a child….The 39-year-old was arrested following information from Greater Manchester Police, which investigated Colin Blanchard, 39, from Rochdale. Blanchard had a co-ordinating role in the paedophile ring which also included George, 39, from Plymouth, and Angela Allen, 39, from Nottingham. The trio have admitted child sexual abuse and swapping images over the internet….George, Blanchard and Allen will be sentenced at Bristol Crown Court next month for 37 child sex offences. Lyons was remanded in custody and will appear in court again on January 18…..George, who worked at Little Ted’s Nursery in Plymouth, also said she knew the abuse was “vile” and “disgusting”.http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article6872780.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=2015164
describes crimes
Vanessa George and Angela Allen abused toddlers for Facebook ‘friend’ they never met From The Times 10/2/09 Sitting alongside the nursery worker from Plymouth were Angela Allen, a single mother from Nottingham, and Colin Blanchard, a businessman from Smallbridge, Greater Manchester. The three had exchanged photographs of themselves abusing children as well as thousands of text messages detailing their obscene sexual fantasies. None of them had met before they were led into the dock at Bristol Crown Court, and they did did even glance at each other. In total, they admitted 38 charges of child abuse. George, 39, a married mother of two teenage daughters, admitted taking hundreds of photographs of herself abusing infants in her care.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article6857687.ece
describes abuse – New Charges Added in Daycare Sexual Abuse Case 10/6/09 SAN DIEGO – Prosecutors on Tuesday added multiple-victim and substantial sexual conduct allegations against a woman charged with her husband with molesting and sexually assaulting four children at the daycare facility they ran out of their Mission Valley apartment….According to evidence presented at a preliminary hearing in April, an investigation started in September 2007 when one of the alleged victims — who ranged in age from a few months to just over 2 years old — suffered vaginal injuries….Kennedy told a judge that the four alleged victims were all in good health and uninjured until they went to the couple’s daycare.
The alleged victims had “unique and very troubling injuries,” Kennedy told Judge Polly Shamoon.
“With each of them, it’s their genitals that are damaged,” Kennedy said.
http://www.sandiego6.com/news/local/story/New-Charges-Added-in-Daycare-Sexual-Abuse-Case/kY6yZb8GlkqZvf_9nLVBhg.cspx
Alamo Case Sentencing
Evangelist Who Took Child `Brides’ Is Sentenced to 175 Years – November 13, 2009 TEXARKANA, Ark. (AP) – Tony Alamo, an evangelist, was sentenced Friday to 175 years in prison for taking under-age girls across state lines for sex. Mr. Alamo, 75, was convicted in July on a 10-count federal indictment. Judge Harry F. Barnes of Federal District Court said Mr. Alamo had abused his status as father figure and pastor and threatened the girls with “the loss of their salvation.”….A woman Mr. Alamo took as a child “bride” at age 8 challenged him from the witness stand on Friday to submit himself to God’s judgment. Reading from lined notebook paper, she said Mr. Alamo had torn her family apart and described how she shook uncontrollably when he first molested her. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/14/us/14alamo.html
Evangelist Alamo sentenced to 175 years on sex charges – November 13, 2009 (CNN) – Evangelist Tony Alamo is likely to spend the rest of his life in prison after an Arkansas judge sentenced him to 175 years Friday on charges that included taking minors across state lines for sex, according to prosecutors. A jury convicted Alamo in July on 10 federal counts covering offenses that spanned 11 years and dated back to 1994, according to documents from the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas. Alamo, the 75-year-old founder and leader of Tony Alamo Christian Ministries, will serve the sentences on each count consecutively, for a total of 175 years in prison, prosecutors said. In addition to his sentence, Alamo was fined $250,000, court documents showed….An indictment released in November 2008 accused Alamo of transporting five girls across state lines for sex. The criminal complaint included accounts from three girls, two of whom were 17 when the complaint was released last year, and one who was 14. All three said Alamo sexually abused them.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/13/arkansas.evangelist.trial/
Irish Catholic Church Coverup
Report: Police and clergy protected pedophile priests – A New report on clerical abuse from 1975 to 2004 details the cover-up of abuse allegations. By Conor O’Clery – GlobalPost November 27, 2009
DUBLIN, Ireland – Police officers, government officials and bishops of the Catholic church in Ireland have been harshly censured in a report on clerical child abuse over three decades in the Archdiocese of Dublin. Coming just a few months after an equally harsh report on the ill-treatment of children in Church-run industrial schools, the latest revelations have shocked Catholics and non-Catholics alike throughout the island.
An official commission investigated 320 allegations against a sample of 46 out of 183 priests from 1975 to 2004. It found that several cardinals and bishops protected criminal priests while taking no action to protect children….
The driving force behind the report is Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, who came from Rome in 2003 to take over the archdiocese and handle the growing scandal.
Yesterday, at a news conference, holding his hand over his heart, and with tears in his eyes, Martin apologized as a man and a bishop. “How do I feel when I have to unveil here before you the revolting stories of the sexual assault and rape of many young children and teenagers by priests of the archdiocese?” he said. “To each and every survivor my apology, my sorrow and shame for what happened.”
The report of the commission found that the protection of pedophile priests was facilitated by “the structures and rules of the Catholic Church.” Government prosecutors and police facilitated the cover-up by allowing the church institutions to be beyond the reach of the normal law enforcement processes. Over the period the welfare of children was not even a factor to be considered. “Instead the focus was on the avoidance of scandal and the preservation of the good name, status and assets of the institution and of what the institution regarded as its most important members – the priests.”
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/ireland/091126/abuse-report-catholic-church-dublin
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/ireland/091126/abuse-report-catholic-church-dublin?page=0,1
Report Says Irish Bishops and Police Hid Abuse By Sarah Lyall November 26, 2009 London — The Roman Catholic Church and the police in Ireland systematically colluded in covering up decades of child sex abuse by priests in Dublin, according to a scathing report released Thursday.
The cover-ups spanned the tenures of four Dublin archbishops and continued through to the mid-1990s and beyond, even after the church was beginning to admit to its failings and had professed that it was confronting abuse by its priests. But rather than helping the victims, the church was concerned only with “the maintenance of secrecy, the avoidance of scandal, the protection of the reputation of the church, and the preservation of its assets,” said the 700-page report, prepared by a group appointed by the Irish government and called the Commission of Investigation Into the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin….The report is the latest in a series of damning revelations about the church. In May, a report chronicled the sexual, emotional and physical abuse of orphans and foster children over 60 years in a network of church-run residential schools meant to care for the vulnerable and the disadvantaged….The report, which took three years to prepare, focused on the way complaints about abuse by priests had been handled.
It looked into the cases of 46 priests who had been the subject of scores of complaints from about 320 children from 1975 to 2004. Of the 46 priests, 11 have pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting children or have been convicted of that crime. The rest are dead or have not been prosecuted. The report said the Irish police effectively gave the church impunity and often referred abuse complaints back to the archdiocese for internal investigations….The report details examples of priests who were blatant, notorious abusers, but who were allowed to continue without punishment or censure. One priest admitted to abusing more than 100 children. Another said he had abused, on average, a child every two weeks for 25 years. One parish priest whose case was examined in the report, the Rev. James McNamee, was locally infamous for his behavior over more than 30 years. Early in Father McNamee’s career, an altar boy said he had seen the priest “bathing with naked adolescent boys and placing the boys on his shoulders”; a parishioner said he had seen the priest exercising in the nude with boys in his backyard. Numerous complaints against Father McNamee were looked into at various times, and various officials expressed concern, but no action was taken, by either the priests or the nuns who worked with him, the Catholic officials who fielded dozens of allegations, or the police. Father McNamee died in 2002, professing that he had done nothing wrong. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/27/world/europe/27ireland.html?_r=2&hp
Report damns Irish Catholic Church for covering up ‘evil’ sex abuse Dublin By Agence France-Presse Thursday, November 26th, 2009 — The Catholic Church in Ireland covered up widespread allegations of “evil” child sex abuse by priests for decades, according to a damning report released on Thursday. Four archbishops routinely protected abusers and failed to inform police of the allegations, according to a three-year investigation into the Dublin Archdiocese, the country’s largest. Responding to the report — the latest to reveal the scale of Catholic sex abuse — the government immediately apologised for failing to protect children in Church care, and vowed in a statement that “this can never happen again”. “Whatever the historical and societal reasons for this, the government, on behalf of the state, apologises, without reservation or equivocation, for failures by the agencies of the state in dealing with this issue,” it said. The judicial probe discovered that the archbishops did not report abuse to police until the 1990s as part of a culture of secrecy and an over-riding wish to avoid damaging the reputation of the Church….The 750-page landmark report by judge Yvonne Murphy is damning in its criticism of failures to protect vulnerable children. The probe examined complaints of abuse of over 320 children involving a representative sample of 46 priests in the Dublin Archdiocese between 1975 and 2004. One priest admitted to sexually abusing over 100 children, while another accepted that he had abused on a fortnightly basis over 25 years.
http://rawstory.com/2009/11/report-damns-irish-catholic-church-covering-evil-sex-abuse/
Coakley made deal in 1995 priest case – Did not prosecute in boys’ complaint “I agonized over every one of those cases,” said Martha Coakley of her work as head of the Child Abuse Prosecution Unit By Michael Rezendes Globe Staff / November 23, 2009
When Martha Coakley was the Middlesex district attorney, her office prosecuted the Rev. John J. Geoghan based on an allegation that he squeezed the buttocks of a 10-year-old boy a single time at a public swimming pool. The highly publicized 2002 conviction won Coakley widespread praise for bringing the first successful criminal case against the widely accused pedophile, a priest many had called “Father Jack.”
But seven years earlier, Coakley, then the head of the Middlesex child abuse unit, had Geoghan in her sights and took a dramatically different approach. Back then, three grade-school brothers told investigators that Geoghan had inappropriately touched them during numerous visits to their Waltham home, and had made lewd telephone calls to them. Rather than prosecute, Coakley agreed to grant Geoghan a year of probation in a closed-door proceeding that received no media attention at all.
Because of the deal, Geoghan faced no formal charges and no criminal record.
In sanctioning the 1995 probation agreement, Coakley, now the front-runner in a special election for the United States Senate, never pressed the Boston Archdiocese for any prior complaints against Geoghan. It’s not clear that the archdiocese would have readily obliged, but it was holding in its files thousands of pages of documents detailing abuse complaints against Geoghan made by dozens of victims dating back to the 1960s.
Coakley, in a lengthy interview last week, said she handled the case appropriately, pressing the best case possible given the specific contact described by the three young brothers. She also said she successfully negotiated specific terms of Geoghan’s pretrial probation – a routine way of expediting minor criminal cases – requiring Geoghan to undergo psychiatric testing and be barred from unsupervised contact with children for a year.
“None of the boys disclosed any touching that was basically an indecent assault and battery,” Coakley said. Coakley also said she did not believe she could have won a conviction in the case on anything more serious than the charge of making harassing telephone calls, a misdemeanor….
Mitchell Garabedian, the attorney who represented the mother of the Waltham boys, said news of the lawsuit was a catalyst. Within two years, he said, he found himself representing more than 50 of Geoghan’s victims, and would ultimately represent 145 of them.
http://www.boston.com/yourtown/waltham/articles/2009/11/23/coakley_details_her_role_in_1995_probation_deal_for_geoghan/
MEXICO: Child Sexual Exploitation Fuelled, Protected by Economic Clout
By Adrián Reyes MEXICO CITY, Jul 27, 2009 (IPS) – While the Mexican government is touting the imprisonment of businessman Jean Succar, accused of running a child sex ring, as evidence of its tough stance against child sexual exploitation, authorities also admit that the number of minors subjected to such crimes has increased from 16,000 to 20,000 over the last six years.
Paedophilia and sexual exploitation of minors are not classified as serious offences in almost half of Mexico’s 31 states, increasing the likelihood of impunity, according to Ana Rosa Payán, general director of the Office and System of Integral Development for Family Welfare (DIF), created in 1970….
Journalist Lydia Cacho told IPS that the Mexican state has failed to effectively address the needs and protection of victims, and some organisations, such as the DIF, have even “allowed some minors to fall into the hands” of sexual abusers.
“Mexico is a paradise for child prostitution and pornography, because these rings have enough economic power to corrupt and operate with impunity,” said Cacho. Her book, “Los demonios del Edén” (The Demons of Eden), contains the personal accounts of minors who talk about the sexual abuse they suffered at the hands of a child prostitution and pornography racket she alleges was run by Succar.
She added that the abuse and sexual exploitation of minors is closely linked to other phenomena, such as organised crime, drug trafficking and money laundering.
The 43-year-old activist and writer herself has been under police protection since she began to receive threats last year, after she was arrested by the police, driven 900 km to the state of Puebla, held for 30 hours, mistreated and threatened….
When the news of her arrest broke, the rights watchdog Amnesty International, the World Organisation Against Torture, the Inter-American Press Association and other international groups raised an outcry, and Cacho was released on bail.
Cacho, also the co-founder of the Centro Integral para Mujeres VÃctimas de la Violencia (CIAM), a shelter for victims of domestic violence and rape in the southeast tourist mecca of Cancún, has also warned of paedophilia rings in Jalisco and Guerrero, southwestern states with major tourism resorts like Puerto Vallarta and Acapulco.
Deputy Rodrigo Iván Cortés, of the ruling conservative National Action Party (PAN), agrees that the paedophilia case in Cancún is not an isolated incident, saying Acapulco also is plagued with the scourge, fuelled by people with great economic clout.
Cortés, a member of the special parliamentary commission on children, adolescents and family, lamented that the “pettiness” of other political sectors in the Chamber of Deputies blocked significant progress on more stringent legal measures that would have facilitated the fight against organised crime….
The legislator pointed to the creation of the “Cyber Police,” in the Office of the Public Prosecutor, as a major step forward in combating and stamping out paedophile rings. The task force has shut down more than 400 Internet sites that had been distributing child pornography.
Mexico has joined the fight against international paedophile rings and has focused particularly on the distribution of material over the Internet, said Cortés. He added that perpetrators tend to become addicted to their deviant behaviour and progress to more serious crimes….
Cacho, who worked with several of the victims through her organisation, told IPS that the younger victims “suffered horrifying and unimaginable abuse – they were tortured.” All the more reason for judicial authorities and the federal government to ensure that this high profile child abuse case does not go unpunished, she added.
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34126
describes crimes
Teens become prey in Charlotte sex trade РHuman trafficking case shows the desperate plight of girls forced into prostitution by Franco Ordo̱ez 10/4/09 The FBI estimates that some 18,000 people are trafficked into the United States for sex or forced labor. About a fourth end up in the Southeast; thousands come to the Carolinas. Most victims of the sex rings are from Latin America, others from Asia and Eastern Europe. http://www.charlotteobserver.com/topstories/story/983851.html
describes crimes
Forced labour and rape, the new face of slavery in America – In the Midwestern heartland, police are encountering a new social evil: trafficking, often involving women and children who are forced to work as prostitutes or unpaid labour; and the outcomes can be brutal. Paul Harris in Dayton, Ohio The Observer, Sunday 22 November 2009 Figures from the State Department reveal that 17,500 people are trafficked into the US every year against their will or under false pretences, mainly to be used for sex or forced labour. Experts believe that, when cases of internal trafficking are added, the total number of victims could be up to five times larger….Anti-trafficking campaigners point out that cases in the US come in a wide variety of forms involving men, women and children. One major area is that of trafficked labour with people used for domestic work or, more commonly, for back-breaking labour in agricultural industries. But trafficking cases have also occurred in businesses such as restaurants, hair salons and beauty parlours. The overwhelming majority of the rest are sex cases, usually involving young women or children forced into prostitution. The methods used to keep people vary. They include confiscating the passports of those brought in from a foreign country or the threat of extreme violence. Other tactics are to threaten family members if a victim does not comply or, as in Flores’s case, to use blackmail. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/22/people-trafficking-usa-prostitution-ohio
describes abuse – Tyler Perry recounts childhood abuse on Web site 10/6/09 ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) — Tyler Perry has, for the first time, revealed graphic details about the sexual, physical and emotional abuse he says he suffered as a child…. Perry is an executive producer of the movie, which tells the tale of Claireece “Precious” Jones, an illiterate, obese 16-year-old girl from Harlem who is emotionally and physically abused. The 40-year-old producer says he can identify with the character, and he recalls a number of incidents from his childhood. http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Movies/10/06/tyler.perry.abuse.precious/index.html?iref=mpstoryview
FBI rescues 52 kids from prostitution (AFP) WASHINGTON – 10/09 US authorities rescued 52 children, including one as young as 10, from prostitution rings and arrested nearly 700 people during a nationwide sting operation over the weekend, the FBI said Monday.
The three-day push in 36 US cities “led to the recovery of 52 children who were being victimized through prostitution” and the arrest of close to 700 others, “including 60 pimps, on state and local charges,” the Federal Bureau of Investigation said.
“Child prostitution continues to be a significant problem in our country, as evidenced by the number of children rescued through the continued efforts of our crimes-against-children task forces,” said Kevin Perkins, assistant director of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division.
The roundup, which officials said took place over the previous 72 hours, was part of a larger FBI program called “Innocence Lost,” whose task forces have removed nearly 900 children from the streets since 2003, convicted 510 people and seized 3.1 million dollars in assets, the FBI said.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hpWjbXRoFnIba-7c0Qh65RUDBCpg
No sect members on polygamist sex case jury By TERRI LANGFORD Houston Chronicle Oct. 28, 2009 ELDORADO – The issue of polygamy and how it pertains to a child sexual assault case is expected to be a contentious issue when opening statements in the first criminal trial involving a West Texas religious sect begin today….Raymond Merril Jessop, 38, is the first of 12 men from the FLDS to stand trial following a raid of the breakaway Mormon sect’s ranch in Eldorado in 2008, when Texas Rangers and other law enforcement officers descended upon the Yearning for Zion Ranch after child welfare workers found several underage girls there who were pregnant or already were mothers….Evidence seized from the ranch in 2008 includes a journal dictated to followers from now jailed prophet, Warren Jeffs. That dictation indicates the group kept one of Jessop’s eight spiritual wives, a 16-year-old girl, from going to the hospital after she appeared to be struggling through labor for three days. Jessop is also charged with bigamy. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6689679.html
Britain, Australia saying sorry to child migrants AP 11/15/09 By Jill Lawless LONDON – Britain and Australia are saying sorry to thousands of British children who were promised a better life overseas, only to suffer abuse and neglect thousands of miles from home.
The British government said Sunday that Prime Minister Gordon Brown will apologize for 20th-century child migrant programs that saw thousands of poor British children sent to Australia, Canada and other former colonies until the 1960s. Many ended up in institutions or were sent to work as farm laborers.
Brown’s office said officials would consult with representatives of the surviving children before making a formal apology next year. The Australian government says Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will offer his own apology Monday to the child migrants, as well as to the “forgotten Australians,” children who suffered in state care during the last century. The British government has estimated that a total of 150,000 British children may have been shipped abroad under a variety of programs that operated between the early 19th century and 1967.
A 2001 Australian report said that between 6,000 and 30,000 children from Britain and Malta, often taken from unmarried mothers or impoverished families, were sent alone to Australia as migrants during the 20th century. Some of the children were told, wrongly, that they were orphans…..Former Australian Prime Minister John Howard resisted calls to apologize to institutionalized children and Australian Aborigines, arguing that contemporary Australians should not take responsibility for mistakes made by past generations. Rudd reversed the policy after he was elected in 2007, apologizing to Aborigines for 200 years of injustice since European settlement. At a ceremony Monday in Canberra attended by hundreds of former child migrants, Rudd will apologize for his country’s role in the child migrants program and say sorry to the 7,000 survivors of the program who still live in Australia. He also will apologize to the Australian children – more than 500,000, according to a 2004 Australian Senate report – who were placed in foster homes, orphanages and other institutions during the 20th century. Many were emotionally, physically and sexually abused in state care.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091115/ap_on_re_us/child_migrants_apology
Thousands of UK children trafficked for `sex parties’ Paedophiles are trafficking children as young as 10 By TED THORNHILL – Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Thousands of children as young as 10 are the victims of ‘organised abuse’ in the UK with paedophiles moving them around the country to ‘parties’ where they are forced to have sex.
Children’s charity Barnado’s says that these children are the victims of organised trafficking and accuses councils of not doing enough to help them.
Its report Whose Child Now? says that of the 200 local authorities in Britain, only 40 have departments dedicated to helping victims of sexual exploitation.
The report’s author, Lisa Stacey, told BBC News: ‘Wherever we have been asked by a council to carry out research we have come across young people who have been exploited.
‘This is organised sexual abuse and it can often involve the victim being moved from one place to another. More than half the victims regularly go missing.’
The victims often feel unable to speak out about their ordeals because they are threatened with violence or beaten up.
Ms Stacey says that the children return to their care home or family with the explanations such as ‘I’ve been staying with friends’.
She adds: ‘The children are basically brainwashed. Some will even believe that the man who is grooming them is their boyfriend. It can take some of them a year of counselling to realise that they’ve been abused.
‘We’re talking about gangs of men, perhaps with a legitimate front. In Scotland, we discovered children being brought from outlying areas into cities. We know of children being moved from north-east England to London, or from Yorkshire to London or Manchester.’
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?Thousands_of_UK_children_trafficked_for_%91sex_parties&in_article_id=771190&in_page_id=34
Lucy Liu film highlights child trafficking By SARAH EL DEEB (AP) – 11/12/09 CAIRO — Actress Lucy Liu, who has produced a film about children sold into the sex trade in Cambodia, says the fight against human trafficking will be long. Liu praised several projects funded by the U.N. children’s agency in Egypt, where she was promoting the film “Red Light” at the Cairo International Film Festival. The actress co-produced and narrated the movie, which follows the stories of a number of girls over the course of four years as they are kidnapped and sold to brothels in Cambodia. Liu said Wednesday it “is really going to take a really long time” to fight human trafficking, labeled the third most profitable business in the world after weapons and drugs trading. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hvt-970i78ozD-g-DoQ6QOFA7OFwD9BU033O0
Ritual Abuse and Mind Control Information
Smart-Talks – Stop Ritual Abuse and Mind Control 2009 Conference Online Podcasts
Lowell Routley 2009 – Dissociation and Time Management
Hal Pepinsky 2009: Reflections of a Believer
DeJoly LaBrier 2009: Life as a Onesie
Shamai Currim 2009: From Victim to Survivor to Advocate
Neil Brick 2009- Ritual Abuse: In the Trenches of the Stopping Child Abuse Movement
http://smart-talks.podomatic.com/
Four new ritual abuse book articles
http://childabusewiki.org/index.php?title=Cult_and_Ritual_Abuse
Cult and Ritual Abuse discusses the idea that ritual abuse is an age-old phenomenon and it is found in many cultures throughout the world. It explores the many specific psychiatric symptoms caused by ritual abuse, including dissociative identity disorder. The book gives suggestions for effective ways to deal with the legal and social problems that can result from this severe form of abuse. A new diagnosis “Cult and ritual trauma disorder” is proposed in this edition.
Noblitt, J.R.; Perskin, P. Cult and Ritual Abuse: Its History, Anthropology, and Recent Discovery in Contemporary America (2000) Greenwood Publishing Group, p. 269 ISBN 027596664X http://books.google.com/books?id=zJkTTpfyJ-8C
http://childabusewiki.org/index.php?title=Ritual_Abuse_in_the_Twenty-First_Century
Ritual Abuse in the Twenty-First Century contains articles from two dozen international authors who write about the psychological, forensic, social and political consequences and ramifications of ritual abuse in modern times. The book explores cross-cultural reports of abusive ritual life-threatening ordeals. It includes information on diagnosis, controversy, cult brainwashing, satanic abuse, police and media handling, prayer, inner healing, patterns in mind control, and therapy. Its chapters discuss current issues including ritually based crime and civil suits involving allegations of ritual abuse. Ritual trauma for diagnostic and treatment applications are also discussed.
Noblitt, R.; Perskin, P. Ritual abuse in the Twenty First Century (2008) Reed Publishers, Bandon, OR p. 552 ISBN 1-934759-12-0 http://www.rdrpublishers.com/catalog/item/6339393/5820690.htm
http://childabusewiki.org/index.php?title=Treating_Survivors_of_Satanist_Abuse
Treating Survivors of Satanist Abuse discusses the clinical issues around the treatment of survivors of ritual Satanist abuse. Authors from the United States and the United Kingdom look at the historical foundations of ritual abuse and clinical accounts from children and adults. The book has definitions of ritual Satanist abuse. It discusses issues in psychotherapy involving clients suffering from ritual abuse. Valerie Sinason is the director of the Clinic for Dissociative Studies, London and a psychoanalyst and consultant research psychotherapist at the Psychiatry of Disability Department at St George’s Hospital Medical School, London.
Black, D. M. (Autumn 1995) British Journal of Psychotherapy 12 (1): 119-131. “Most of the book is written by therapists who have lived through a very real trauma themselves: that of slowly coming to believe that the appalling stories they are hearing may be literally true. Some therapists have further paralleled their patients’ experience by meeting disbelief or dismissiveness in their professional colleagues. Far from an overeagerness to accept these stories, virtually every contributor describes initial extreme reluctance to believe them, only gradually overborne by the weight of the evidence….we also meet the courage and devotion of many impressive therapists, who have persevered and very often won through, and we are also, very practically, given a great deal of helpful and directly useful information: what to do and who to turn to if we think we may be faced with these issues. This book is not fun, but it is admirable and necessary.” http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/119961579/abstract
Sinason, V. Treating Survivors of Satanist Abuse Routledge, New York 1994 ISBN 0-415-10543-9
http://childabusewiki.org/index.php?title=Breaking_the_Circle_of_Satanic_Ritual_Abuse
Breaking the Circle of Satanic Ritual Abuse: Recognizing and Recovering from the Hidden Trauma was written about satanic cult ritual abuse. It describes what it is, what its signs are, how survivors can recover from it, and work being done to fight this problem. The book discusses mind control, torture and ritual abuse. Ryder was a Certified Chemical Dependency Counselor and Licensed Social Worker who had worked with ritual abuse victims for many years. He stated that he had been an abuse victim in childhood and wanted to bring the reality of this abuse before the public
Satanic Ritual Abuse: the Evidence Surfaces by Daniel Ryder, CCDC, LSW “my research shows it does exist. And indications are we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg of a social phenomenon that, when totally exposed, will rock the core of societal beliefs.”
http://web.archive.org/web/20080125051057/http://home.mchsi.com/~ftio/ra-evidence-surfaces.htm
Ryder, CCDC, LSW, D. Breaking the Circle of Satanic Ritual Abuse: Recognizing and Recovering from the Hidden Trauma Compcare Pubs. Minneapolis 1992 p. 265 ISBN 0-89638-258-3
Sachs, A. ; Galton, G. (Eds). (2008) Forensic Aspects of Dissociative Identity Disorder http://www.karnacbooks.com/product.php?PID=25876 Karnac Books. ISBN 10 : 1855755963
The book Forensic aspects of dissociative identity disorder looks at the role of crime in the lives of people that suffer from Dissociative Identity Disorder. It is a collection of essays written by several international researchers. It explores the legal, moral, ethical and clinical questions that psychotherapists and other professionals face while working with those suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder. Authors that have contributed to the book come from the fields of psychotherapy, counseling, psychology, medicine, law, police, psychoanalysis and social work. Chapters include discussions on ritual abuse, dissociative identity disorder, mind control, extreme abuse, survivor accounts and criminal convictions.
http://childabusewiki.org/index.php?title=Forensic_Aspects_of_Dissociative_Identity_Disorder
describes crimes
Ritual Abuse: Canada’s Most Infamous Trial On Child Abuse – Kevin Marron – It began as a highly unusual custody battle and escalated into the most infamous child abuse trial in Canadian history. Two sisters, not yet eight years old, recounted explicit stories of being sexually molested by their mother, her boyfriend and their violent estranged father. As appalled social workers listened, the girls revealed horrific episodes of pornography, orgies, cannibalism, and ritual murder involving many other children – allegations so extreme so bizarre, so graphic in detail it seemed impossible they could have been made up. The book describes the children’s allegations and the way they were investigated, as well as the startling revelations and unexpected developments that emerged during the course of 18 months of court testimony. It also puts the case in the context of an ongoing debate about how society can respond to extreme allegations of ritual child abuse and pornography. Excerpt “Child abuse is just one of many frightening realities that it would be more comfortable to ignore. There is overwhelming proof of its pervasiveness, but many people work very hard at denying the seriousness of the problem. In this context, it is not surprising that few people would want to believe young children’s bizarre stories of cannibalism and ritual murder. In looking at the documented cases of child exploitation that surround us, in observing the images of violence and dehumanized sexuality that are part of our everyday cultural landscape, it is not hard to believe that, conspiracy or no conspiracy, the Satanists’ goal could easily be achieved without much effort on their part.” Seal Books, McClelland-Bantam Inc., Toronto. 1988 ISBN: 0-7704-2250-0 http://kevinmarron.com/book.html
describes crimes
Survivors of Extreme Abuse – The Awful Rowing Toward Social Emancipation
For survivors of extreme abuse, the disclosure of the crimes they experienced and the public identification of the perpetrators of those crimes can be monumentally daunting tasks. Among the impediments they may face in their pursuit of personal and social justice are their own psychological challenges, due to the complex, and sometimes debilitating effects of having experienced severe trauma, the dangers inherent in exposing criminals or criminal networks, and social denial of their plight on almost every level….
IMAGINE
Survivors have an invaluable gift to share with society: intimate knowledge of crimes perpetrated in their midst, and the criminals who committed them. Their knowledge and insight could theoretically lift the great rock of our cultural denial and officially sanctioned version of reality, and expose the dark and dangerous world of child, drug and arms traffickers, rapists, child pornographers, serial killers, cults, secret societies and government corruption. And that exposure would surely mark the beginning of the end of the widespread abuses that plague our society now. But that doesn’t happen. http://akaunk.wordpress.com/
http://www.scribd.com/doc/21821911/Survivors-of-Extreme-Abuse-The-Awful-Rowing-Toward-Social-Emancipation
Presentation at the Twelfth Annual Ritual Abuse Conference in August 2009 – Neil Brick – Ritual Abuse, the trenches of the stopping child abuse movement “Ritual abuse crimes are often the most difficult to believe because of the extreme nature of these crimes. Societies have a tendency in general to not want to believe that horrible things can happen right next door or down the street from them. Many of the atrocities that have happen throughout history have occurred in populated areas. Yet members of societies have stated after the fact that they did not know that anything was going on.”
http://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/2009-conference/ritual-abuse-the-trenches-of-the-stopping-child-abuse-movement/
Healing from Ritual Abuse and Mind Control: Survivor Trish Fotheringham Speaks Out
Trish’s years of ritual abuse and mind control remained secret, even from herself, until she was 30 years old, reaching conscious awareness during college social work classes about child abuse. The decade-spanning healing journey that followed led Trish on a path of discovery that has now culminated in her life’s purpose of spreading understanding, hope and inspiration.
In this DVD set, Trish describes the process of mind control torture and tackles some of the most difficult challenges survivors face as they work to resolve their trauma. She tells how she worked through her abuse and integrated her dissociated identities into a cohesive whole sense of self. She also displays artwork illustrating her previously dissociated personalities, her inner world, and her breaking free of the bonds in which her abusers sought to trap her.
Speaking out to promote peace, happiness and love in the world helps Trish give value to the nightmarish hell in which she grew up and to the huge amount of hard, lonely work it took to become healthy, happy and whole.
Order Information:
Healing from Ritual Abuse and Mind Control: Survivor Trish Fotheringham Speaks Out, by Trish Fotheringham and Ellen Lacter, Ph.D.
To order this DVD set, go to http://www.MoreThanAnIdea.ca/id74.html
Direct any additional questions about your order to: Trish@MoreThanAnIdea.ca
(prices are available at the website above)
To Pay by Check or Money Order:
Make Payable To: Ellen Lacter Mail to: #185- 911 Yates Street, Suite #582, Victoria BC, Canada, V8V 4Y9
describes crimes
Post-Abortive Stress and the RA Survivor – Its Causes, Impact on RA Survivors and the Healing Steps towards Freedom – Freedom Run Ministries – 2009 Conference Presentation
http://www.freedomrunministries.org/articles/PostAbortiveStressRA.pdf
Lowell Routley’s August 2009 transcribed conference presentation from the Twelfth Annual Ritual Abuse, Secretive Organizations and Mind Control Conference. Lowell Routley is executive director of Heartland Trauma Initiative, created to serve survivors of extreme trauma. Over his 36 years of clinical experience in the Midwest, Lowell has listened to survivors to find what works, what doesn’t, and why. Out of those observations, he developed The Core Integrity Model. Through Heartland Trauma Initiative, Lowell provides training and consultation for therapists and survivors to explore, understand, and resolve impasses in healing. His topic is: Dissociation and Time Management.
http://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/2009-conference/dissociation-and-time-management/
Lincoln Memorial Speech – written by Kathleen Sullivan, NAFF founder and president for the FASCA Rally in Washington DC on 11/14/09 My name is Kathleen Sullivan. I am a survivor of extreme abuse and a former slave. I am also a clinical social worker. Today, I’m here to represent the North American Freedom Foundation (NAFF), a nonprofit foundation that I started in 1996….many victims of extreme abuse are still being held against their will, even if there are no shackles or prison bars. Although some are kept in cages and tunnels and basements and other physical prisons, the majority are kept in prisons inside their heads. This is why so many of us use the term “mind control” when we refer to the psychological abuse that we’ve endured….very few of us truly understand the lasting neurobiological effects of extreme abuse.We’re still learning how the worst forms of abuse and trauma affect victims. One of the most telling signs that a person has experienced extreme abuse is that he or she displays extreme reactions. Three extreme reactions that are quite common in the extreme abuse survivor community are extreme fear and distrust; Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD); and Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). http://naffoundation.org/Lincoln%20Memorial%20Speech.htm
describes experiments
MKULTRA Legacy: The Stain of Dishonor and the Prerequisites for Redemption – Gordon P. Erspamer, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed 10/18/09 Despite the passage of four decades, America and its military have never come to grips with its own ghastly programs of using soldiers as guinea pigs to test chemical or biological weapons such as LSD, sarin, nerve gases, plague, mescaline, anthrax and hundreds of others. At the same time, they also conducted mind-control experiments, as soldiers and others were administered drugs, and septal implants were inserted in the sinus cavities a la “The Manchurian Candidate.” The secret research programs, originally code-named MKULTRA but continued under a long succession of other code names, were conducted mainly by the US Army from 1943 until at least 1975. However, the CIA provided planning, financial support and field testing. Participants in the experiments were recruited by the Army and lured by promises of no KP duty, a four-day workweek, the promise of medals and special recognition. At the same time, they were sworn to secrecy and forced to sign a general consent form without informed consent or even knowing the nature of the toxic substances that were sprayed in their faces, applied to their skin or injected into their veins. And the government continues to try to hide the fact that Nazi members were recruited to help devise these experiments as part of Operation Paperclip…. http://www.truthout.org/101809C
Book I: Foreign and Military Intelligence – Testing and Use of Chemical and Biological Agents by the Intelligence Community http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/church/reports/book1/html/ChurchB1_0197a.htm.
Project MKULTRA, The CIA’s Program of Research in Behavioral Modification: Joint Hearing Before the Senate Select Committees on Intelligence and Human Resources, 95th Cong. (1977), Testimony of CIA Director Admiral Stansfield Turner at http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/history/e1950/mkultra/Hearing03.htm
decribes crimes
NC couple sentenced in Satanism abuse case Nov. 27, 2009 DURHAM, N.C. — A North Carolina couple has been sentenced on misdemeanor charges in a case involving abusing other adults during Satan worship. WRAL reported that 25-year-old Joseph Scott Craig and his 30-year-old wife Joy Johnson were each sentenced Friday to two 60-day suspended sentences and a year of probation. Search warrants said the victims were a man and a woman who moved in with Craig and Johnson after they became friends through their satanic interests. The victims say Craig beat them, shackled them to beds, kept them in dog cages and starved them. Craig entered an Alford plea, which means he maintained his innocence but acknowledged prosecutors had enough evidence for a conviction. Johnson pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting her husband. http://www.wral.com/news/state/story/6504134/
Ritual abuse laws
(this section may be very triggering)
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts (2001)
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General court assembled, and by the authority of the same as follows:
Chapter 265 of the General Laws is hereby amended by inserting after section 43 the following three sections: –
Section 44. No person shall commit ritualistic mutilation, dismemberment, or torture of a person as a part of a ceremony, rite, initiation, observance, performance, or practice.
Any person who commits, attempts tp commit or conspires with another to commit a violation of this section shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for life or for any term of years.
Section 45. No person shall commit ritualistic physical or psychological abuse, including sexual abuse of a child or of a physically or mentally disabled adult as part of a ceremony, rite, initiation, observance, performance, or practice.
Any person who commits, attempts to commit or conspires with another to commit a violation of this section shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for life or for any term of years.
Section 46. Whoever commits any of the following acts upon, with, or in the presence of a child age 18 or under shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for not more than ten years, or by imprisonment in a jail or house of correction for not more than two and one-half years, and whoever commits a second or subsequent such offensive shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for life or any term of years.
1. Actually commits or simulates the killing of, tortures, or mutilates or sacrifices any animal or human being.
2. Forces the ingestion, injects or in any other ways applies the use of a narcotic, drug, hallucinogen or anaesthetic or mind altering substance for the purpose of dulling sensitivity, cognition, resistance, memory or to distort perception of any criminal or unlawful activity.
3. In any way forces the ingestion of or external application of human or animal urine, feces, flesh, blood, body parts, body secretions, drugs or chemicals.
4. Forces or entices the child to have sexual contact with another human or animal during a ritual ceremony, or rite or other related observance.
5. Places a child in a coffin or grave.
6. In way threatens the child with death or serious harm to the child, the child’s parents, family, friends or pets.
7. Unlawfully dismembers, mutilates or incinerates a human corpse.
8. Forces a child to be placed in areas in which the child will come close to or in contact with human body parts.
9. Simulates the performance of surgery and placing imaginary foreign object within the child for the purpose of creating fear within the child.
10. Forces a child to participate in any ceremony, observance, practice or rite, purporting to be a marriage to any deity or other person and following such ceremony, observance, practice or rite with sexual contact or torture….
http://dissoc.de/massachusetts.html
ILLINOIS LAW ON RITUAL ABUSE OF CHILDREN The State of Illinois Public Act #87-1167 Effective January 1, 1993
Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Illinois:
RITUALIZED ABUSE OF A CHILD
1. A person is guilty of a felony when he commits any of the following acts with, upon, or in the presence of a child as part of a ceremony, rite, or similar observance:
1. actually or in simulation, tortures, mutilates or sacrifices any warm-blooded animal or human being;
2. forces ingestion, injection or other application of any narcotic drug, hallucinogen or anaesthetic for the purpose of dulling sensitivity, cognition, recollection of, or resistance to any criminal activity;
3. forces ingestion or external application of human or animal urine, feces, flesh, blood, bones, body secretions, non- prescribed drugs or chemical compounds.
4. involves the child in a mock, unauthorized or unlawful marriage ceremony with another person or representation of any force or deity, followed by sexual contact with the child;
5. places a living child into a coffin or open grave containing a human corpse or remains;
6. threatens death or serious harm to a child, his or her parents, family, pets, or friends which instills a well-founded fear in the child that the threat will be carried out; or
7. unlawfully dissects, mutilates or incinerates a human corpse.
http://dissoc.de/illinois.html
Idaho House Bill No. 817 Chapter 15, Title 18, Idaho Code 18-1506A.
RITUALIZED ABUSE OF A CHILD — EXCLUSIONS -PENALTIES – DEFINITION.
1. A person is guilty of a felony when he commits any of the following acts with, upon, or in the presence of a child as part of a ceremony, rite or any similar observance:
1. Actually or in simulation, tortures, mutilates or sacrifices any warm-blooded animal or human being;
2. Forces ingestion, injection or other application of any narcotic, drug, hallucinogen or anaesthetic for the purpose of dulling sensitivity, cognition, recollection of, or resistance to any criminal activity;
3. Forces ingestion, or external application, of human or animal urine, feces, flesh, blood, bones, body secretions, nonprescribed drugs or chemical compounds;
4. Involves the child in a mock, unauthorized or unlawful marriage ceremony with another person or representation of any force or diety, followed by sexual contact with the child;
5. Places a living child into a coffin or open grave containing a human corpse or remains;
6. Threatens death or serious harm to a child, his parents, family, pets or friends which instills a well-founded fear in the child that the threat will be carried out, or
7. Unlawfully dissects, mutilates, or incinerates a human corpse….
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: 19-402
(3) A prosecution under section 18-1506A. Idaho Code, must be commenced within three (3) years after the date of the initial disclosure by the victim.
19-3024A
(a) “Child witness” means a person who is under the age of sixteen (16) years and who is alleged to have been witness of, or a witness to an alleged violation of the provisions of sections 18-1501, 18-1506, 18-1507, 18-1508, 18-1506A, 18-1514, 18-6605 and 18-6608, Idaho Code.
18-5003 CANNIBALISM DEFINED – PUNISHMENT
1. Any person who wilfully ingests the flesh or blood of a human being is guilty of cannibalism.
2. It shall be an affirmative defense to a violation of the provisions of this section that the action was taken under extreme life-threatening conditions as the only apparent means of survival.
3. Cannibalism is punishable by imprisonment in the state prison not exceeding fourteen (14) years. http://dissoc.de/idaho.html
Louisiana Statutes:
#107.1. Ritualistic acts
…. 2.
1. For purposes of this Subsection, “ritualistic acts” means those acts undertaken as part of a ceremony, rite, initiation, observance, performance, or practice that result in or are intended to result in:
1. The mutilation, dismemberment, torture, abuse, or sacrifice of animals.
2. The ingestion of human or animal blood or human or animal waste.
2. The acts defined in this Subsection are hereby determined to be destructive of the peace, health, morals, and safety of the citizens of this state and are hereby prohibited.
3. Any person committing, attempting to commit, or conspiring with another to commit a ritualistic act may be sentenced to imprisonment for not more than five years or fined not more than five thousand dollars, or both.
3.
1. No person shall commit ritualistic mutilation, dismemberment, or torture of a human as part of a ceremony, rite, initiation, observance, performance, or practice.
2. No person shall commit ritualistic sexual abuse of children or of physically or mentally disabled adults as part of a ceremony, rite, initiation, observance, performance, or practice.
3. No person shall commit ritualistic psychological abuse of children or of physically or mentally disabled adults as part of a ceremony, rite, initiation, observance, performance, or practice.
4. Any person who commits, attempts to commit, or conspires with another to commit a violation of this Subsection shall be sentenced to imprisonment for not less than five nor more than twenty-five years and may be fined not more than twenty-five thousand dollars….
Added by Acts 1989, No.637, # 1
HISTORICAL AND STATUTORY NOTES
Acts 1989, No. 637, which enacted this section and Revised Statutes 14:30(A)(7), became law without the signature of the governor.
http://dissoc.de/louisiana.html
Journal articles and child abuse and trauma information
Child abuse research and effects
Traumatic Childhood Might Take Years Off Adult Life – ScienceDaily (Oct. 7, 2009) – Many U.S. children face a terrible burden of stressors that can harm the development of their brains and nervous systems. These stressors can lead to health problems and diseases throughout their lives, ultimately causing some to die prematurely, according to the lead author of a new study. David W. Brown., D.Sc., an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and colleagues found that children who were exposed to six or more “adverse childhood experiences” or ACEs were at double the risk of premature death compared to children who had not suffered these experiences. On average, the children at highest risk eventually died at age 60, compared to low-risk children who lived to age 79. The study appears in the November issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Conducted by Kaiser Permanente in San Diego and the CDC, the study looked at the long-term effects of these childhood experiences: undergoing verbal or physical abuse, having a battered mother and witnessing domestic violence, living in a household with substance abuse or mental illness, having an incarcerated household member or having parents who separated or divorced. Data came from 17,337 adults who visited Kaiser Permanente from 1995 to 1997 and completed a standardized medical questionnaire that included questions about their childhood. Researchers followed participants through the end of 2006, using the National Death Index to discover who had died. “Overall, 1,539 people died during follow-up,” Brown said. “People with six or more ACEs died nearly 20 years earlier on average than those without ACEs. It is also disturbing that two-thirds of study participants – persons who were relatively well off – had at least one of the ACEs.” Brown DW, et al. Adverse childhood experiences and the risk of premature mortality. Am J Prev Med, 37(5), 2009 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091006115140.htm
High Rates Of Childhood Exposure To Violence And Abuse In United States, New Study Finds
ScienceDaily (Oct. 7, 2009) – A new study from the University of New Hampshire finds that U.S. children are routinely exposed to even more violence and abuse than has been previously recognized, with nearly half experiencing a physical assault in the study year.
“Children experience far more violence, abuse and crime than do adults,” said David Finkelhor, director of the UNH Crimes against Children Research Center and the study director. “If life were this dangerous for ordinary grown-ups, we’d never tolerate it.”The research was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) and supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The research results are presented in the journal Pediatrics and an Office of Justice Programs/OJJDP bulletin titled “Children’s Exposure to Violence: A Comprehensive National Survey.”UNH researchers asked a national sample of U.S. children and their caregivers about a far broader range of exposures than has been done in the past. According to the research, three out of five children were exposed to violence, abuse or a criminal victimization in the last year, including 46 percent who had been physically assaulted, 10 percent who had been maltreated by a caregiver, 6 percent who had been sexually victimized, and 10 percent who had witnessed an assault within their family….The study found that more than a third of the children had had two or more different kinds of exposures in the past year and 11 percent had five or more….The study was conducted in 2008 and involved interviews with caregivers and youth about the experiences of a nationally representative sample of 4,549 children ages 0-17. In addition to Finkelhor, the authors include Heather Turner, professor of sociology at UNH, Richard Ormrod, research professor of geography at UNH, and Sherry Hamby, research associate professor of psychology at Sewanee, the University of the South. Study information is at Crimes Against Children Research Center http://www.unh.edu/ccrc/index.html
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091007081351.htm
Children’s Exposure to Violence: A Comprehensive National Survey David Finkelhor, Heather Turner, Richard Ormrod, Sherry Hamby, and Kristen Kracke ….The survey confirms that most of our society’s children are exposed to violence in their daily lives. More than 60 percent of the children surveyed were exposed to violence within the past year, either directly or indirectly (i.e., as a witness to a violent act; by learning of a violent act against a family member, neighbor, or close friend; or from a threat against their home or school) (for full details on these and other statistics cited in this Bulletin, see Finkelhor et al., 2009). Nearly one-half of the children and adolescents surveyed (46.3 percent) were assaulted at least once in the past year, and more than 1 in 10 (10.2 percent) were injured in an assault; 1 in 4 (24.6 percent) were victims of robbery, vandalism, or theft; 1 in 10 (10.2 percent) suffered from child maltreatment (including physical and emotional abuse, neglect, or a family abduction); and 1 in 16 (6.1 percent) were victimized sexually. More than 1 in 4 (25.3 percent) witnessed a violent act and nearly 1 in 10 (9.8 percent) saw one family member assault another. Multiple victimizations were common: more than one-third (38.7 percent) experienced 2 or more direct victimizations in the previous year, more than 1 in 10 (10.9 percent) experienced 5 or more direct victimizations in the previous year, and more than 1 in 75 (1.4 percent) experienced 10 or more direct victimizations in the previous year.
Reports of lifetime exposure to violence were generally about one-third to one-half higher than reports of past-year exposure, although the difference tended to be greater for less frequent and more severe types of victimization. (For example, more than three times as many respondents reported being victims of a kidnapping over their lifetimes as did in the past year.) Nearly seven in eight children (86.6 percent) who reported being exposed to violence during their lifetimes also reported being exposed to violence within the past year, which indicated that these children were at ongoing risk of violent victimization. The reports of lifetime exposure also indicate how certain types of exposure change and accumulate as a child grows up; nearly one in five girls ages 14 to 17 (18.7 percent) had been the victim of a sexual assault or attempted sexual assault, and more than one-third of all 14- to 17-year-olds had seen a parent assaulted. http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/227744.pdf
Report: Five Children Die Each Day From Abuse or Neglect – Lawmakers Urge Congress to Increase Spending to Curb Neglect By Mary Bruce Oct. 21, 2009 A new report out today found that on average, five children died from abuse or neglect every day in the United States between 2001 and 2007. The report by the advocacy group Every Child Matters, estimated that more than 10,000 children died over the same time frame. In 2007 alone 1,760 children died, a 35 percent increase over the death rate in 2001. And, due to poor reporting and record-keeping in many states, the actual number is estimated to be as much as 50 percent higher. http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/children-die-day-abuse-neglect-us/story?id=8883519
The Myth of Epidemic False Allegations of Sexual Abuse in Divorce Cases by Merrilyn McDonald It is commonly believed that false allegations of sexual abuse in the context of divorce are epidemic, that most allegations made in the context of divorce are made by vindictive mothers and that these allegations are almost always false. These beliefs are not supported by scientific evidence. It is widely believed that at least 50 percent of all allegations of child sexual abuse are false, and that an accused person appearing in a court of law is quite likely to have been falsely accused. Those who defend accused child sexual offenders want us to believe that 50 percent of individuals brought to trial are innocent. These beliefs are not supported by scientific evidence, either….False allegations of sexual abuse in divorce are a rare occurrence. False allegations of sexual abuse in general are rare. Unsubstantiated is not the same as false. Child sexual abuse is a common experience . Child sexual abuse is grossly underreported …Children recant because of pressure or a desire to get their family back http://www.omsys.com/mmcd/courtrev.htm
This profile of local S.N.A.P. director Barbara Dorris was my first round entry into the Project:Report journalism contest sponsored by The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, YouTube, Sony, & Intel. The assignment was to profile someone making positive change in the community….For more information on the midwest chapter of S.N.A.P. visit: www.SnapMidwest.org.
http://kimfischeronline.com/Site/Videos/Entries/2008/10/4_Barbara_Dorris-You%E2%80%99re_Not_Alone.html
Kevin Annett at the Vatican, 11 oct 2009 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbMlXzdZv44
Doctor explains amnesia – CNN video – Kacie Peterson 10/26/09 How could a young woman have lost her memory and turned up thousands of miles from home? http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/health/2009/10/26/fink.jane.doe.amnesia.cnn
describes abuse
The International Violence Against Women Act: What Are We Waiting For? by Patricia T. Morris 10/13/09 by the Women’s International Perspective….According to the United Nations at least one in three women and girls around the world is beaten or sexually abused in her lifetime and some four million women and girls are trafficked annually into forced marriage, prostitution, or slavery. At least 60 million girls who would otherwise be alive are missing, mostly in Asia, as a result of sex-selective abortions, infanticide, or neglect. According to the World Health Organization, between 10-52% of women report having been assaulted by an intimate partner. The UNFPA estimates that 130 million girls and women around the world have undergone female genital cutting (FGC) and at least 2 million girls every year – nearly 6,000 per day – are at risk of undergoing FGC. Despite increased public awareness and two recent UN Security Council Resolutions (1820 and 1888), rape is increasingly used as a weapon of war in armed conflicts. The UN reports that during the Rwanda genocide between 200,000 and 500,000 women were raped, and in Bosnia during the conflict there between 20,000 and 50,000 women were raped. http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/10/13-9
Most Female Child Molesters Were Victims Of Sexual Abuse, Study Suggests ScienceDaily (May 13, 2008) – A University of Georgia study that is the first to systematically examine a large sample of female child molesters finds that many of them were themselves victims of sexual abuse as children. The finding, published in the April issue of the Journal of Interpersonal Violence, has the potential to help break the cycle of abuse by improving treatment for offenders and their young victims. “This study informs us about the pathway to becoming sexually deviant for females,” said study author Susan Strickland, assistant professor in the UGA School of Social Work. “With that knowledge, we can improve treatment and reduce the likelihood of future sexual assaults on children.” Strickland said the sexual abuse of minors by women has been largely ignored by the general public, the legal system and by academic researchers. Many people believe that women are not capable of committing such acts, she said, and the abuse of boys by women is often dismissed as the boys sowing their oats or even being lucky. The truth is that both boys and girls are molested by female perpetrators and these victims often suffer a myriad of consequences affecting their sexuality, relationships and beliefs about themselves and others. Childhood sexual abuse also has been linked to a host of emotional and behavioral problems, such as substance abuse and eating disorders. The true prevalence of female sexual abuse on children is unknown, but a commonly accepted figure is that five to seven percent of sex crimes are committed by females. Studies on female sex offenders are rare, and most have been descriptive in nature, used small samples and have not used valid statistical measures or control groups. Strickland’s study, the largest of its kind, surveyed 130 incarcerated females – 60 of which were sex offenders and 70 of which were nonsexual offenders – and examined factors such as childhood trauma, substance abuse, emotional neediness and personality disorders. While the majority of both groups reported being the victims of childhood maltreatment, the sex offenders were significantly more likely to experience pervasive, serious and more frequent emotional abuse, physical abuse and neglect. “We’ve pretty much known that the majority of women in prison have had bad childhoods and that many suffered childhood sexual abuse,” Strickland said. “But the subgroup of female sex offenders has suffered significantly more abuse, particularly sexual abuse.” http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080513101605.htm
Up to 64,000 women in UK ‘are child-sex offenders’ After Plymouth case shocked the nation, police say number of women abusing children is rising Mark Townsend and Rajeev Syal The Observer, 10/4/09 ….Child sex abuse by women is significantly more widespread than previously realised, with experts estimating that there could be up to 64,000 female offenders in Britain. Researchers from the Lucy Faithfull Foundation (LFF), a child protection charity that deals with British female sex offenders, said its studies confirmed that a “fair proportion” of child abusers were women. Donald Findlater, director of research and development, said results indicated that up to 20% of a conservative estimate of 320,000 suspected UK paedophiles were women….
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/oct/04/uk-female-child-sex-offenders
Diagnosis: ADHD-or Is It Trauma? Hyperactive, yes. Attention problems, check. But it’s not ADHD
By Maia Szalavitz for MSN Health & Fitness Medically Reviewed By: George T. Grossberg, M.D.
…In Chemtob’s 9/11 study, even children who saw people jump from the towers tended not to have lasting problems. But preschoolers who had experienced multiple traumatic events were 16 times more likely to have attention problems-and 21 times more likely to be overly emotionally reactive and/or to show symptoms of depression and anxiety-than children who had not had such experiences.
But, if other studies of similar children are a guide, many of these severely affected children would probably not meet criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder. Studies following children with known trauma exposure find that they are much more likely to suffer other anxiety disorders or depression than classic PTSD.
Indeed, despite the high prevalence of potentially traumatizing experiences, less than half a percent of the children followed in the North Carolina study could be diagnosed with PTSD. However, 40 percent of those who had had such experiences qualified for at least one diagnosis, often depression or anxiety disorders.
As a result, many traumatized children whose behavior has clearly been affected by their experiences aren’t diagnosed with PTSD-or diagnosed at all. Chemtob notes that “virtually none” of the children in his study were getting any kind of treatment, despite symptoms severe enough to warrant it.
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…Trauma can also produce what’s known as a “dissociative” reaction. When a threat is physically inescapable, the body prepares for injury by slowing heart rate and breathing. The brain is flooded with endogenous opioids-the brain’s own painkillers-which cause numbness. In extreme cases, the person feels like he has “left his body” and is watching events from outside.
A sight, sound, smell or memory can trigger a return to this state. “Children may space out and appear to be daydreaming,” Putnam says. “They lose contact with reality and become involved in an internal world. Teachers see a child who is never paying attention. They still have their math book out when the teacher has moved on to history.”
Many children who are diagnosed with ADHD, Putnam believes, may actually be suffering from trauma. “There is probably a significant group of kids with traumatic hypervigilance or dissociation that interferes with attention and increases arousal and activity levels,” who are misdiagnosed, he says.
What’s worse, children suffering trauma symptoms actually have higher than normal levels of neurotransmitters like adrenaline and noradrenaline (norepinephrine), according to Putnam. These same transmitters are raised even further by stimulants like Ritalin that are commonly prescribed for ADHD.
http://health.msn.com/health-topics/adhd/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100191637
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