Pa. accuser unleashes fury at Catholic Church
By MARYCLAIRE DALE, Associated Press – 4/30/12
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A 47-year-old man unleashed his fury Monday at the Roman Catholic Church, staring down a church official in a Philadelphia courtroom as he described being forced as a child to engage in sex acts with a priest.
The man glared Monday at Monsignor William Lynn at the defense table and complained that only one church representative, a priest friend, had ever apologized.
"It always felt wrong. A man should not touch a child," said the man, the ninth of 10 children in his Levittown family.
Testifying in the sixth week of a clergy abuse trial focusing on the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, the man broke down when he recalled telling his mother in 1998 about being abused by defrocked priest David Sicoli in the late 1970s....
The 61-year-old Lynn is charged with endangering children by keeping accused priests in ministry after reviewing abuse complaints kept in secret archives when he served as secretary for clergy from 1992 to 2004. His lawyers argue that he took orders from the cardinal.
Lynn is on trial with the Rev. James Brennan, who is charged with the attempted rape of a 14-year-old in 1996, when Brennan was on voluntary leave and the boy slept over at his West Chester apartment. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iXSVeSETzVINRai6wU34yvHjy9Ww?docId=97b8c0852a9944e3a5c89dba3a673266
http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Pa-accuser-unleashes-fury-at-Catholic-Church-3521684.php
Testimony: In 2008, priest admitted to sleepover, letting teen look at porn
By Sarah Hoye, CNN Mon April 30, 2012
Philadelphia (CNN) -- One of the two Philadelphia priests on trial in a landmark child sexual abuse and conspiracy case admitted in 2008 that he allowed a 14-year-old to view pornography and sleep in the same bed with him during an overnight visit in 1996, according to testimony given to church investigators.
Monsignor Kevin Quirk, the presiding priest over the 2008 canonical trial of Rev. James Brennan, read Brennan's testimony into the court record on Monday. Brennan is accused of attempted rape in the 1996 incident and is currently standing trial in criminal court.
"Did I allow it happen? Yes. I take full responsibility for it," Brennan testified in 2008, adding that the behavior was "borderline" inappropriate. Brennan denied touching the 14-year-old or exposing himself, according to the 2008 testimony that Quirk recounted for the court on Monday....
Also on trial is Monsignor William Lynn, the first high-ranking church figure charged with child endangerment. He's accused of knowingly transferring priests from parish to parish despite allegations of sexual abuse of minors, including Brennan.
Both have pleaded not guilty....
Two grand jury reports accused the archdiocese of failing to investigate claims of sexual abuse of children by priests.
The 2011 report led to the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office criminally charging four Philadelphia priests and a parochial school teacher with raping and assaulting boys in their care, while Lynn was accused of allowing the abusive priests to have access to children.
Days before the trial began March 26, defrocked priest Edward Avery of the Philadelphia Archdiocese pleaded guilty to involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and conspiracy to endanger the welfare of child after admitting that he sexually assaulted a 10-year-old altar boy during the 1998-1999 school year.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/30/justice/pennsylvania-church-abuse-trial/index.html
Monday, April 30, 2012
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Brain - Psychopaths, C.I.A. Data Show 14-Year Project On Controlling Behavior
Y! Big Story: What the brain tells us By Vera H-C Chan 4/28/12
....Finding how to stop extreme behavior. Thanks to crime literature and serial killer movies, Americans are aware of many different "-paths": sociopath, psychopath, and antisocial personality disorder. What has been a raging debate is if one is doomed to that diagnosis and basically lifetime incarceration, or if there's a window of intervention. One researcher went on a roadtrip into the heart of darkness: Using a mobile MRI unit, a University of New Mexico associate professor of psychology took a snapshot of 2,000 inmate volunteers.
He found that compared to the average offender, 60 percent of psychopaths re-offend within the next 200 days. Maximum-security juveniles showed a similar pattern: 68 percent of individuals who were at high risk for psychopathy re-offended.
Using images of the brain, [Kent] Kiehl said he could predict psychopathy as well as one can with clinical error. (April 23, Duke (University) Research Blog)
Among preliminary findings, Kiehl zeroed in on the interaction with a gene (MAOA) and a "stressful" upbringing and that treatment like group therapy actually ends in "violent failure" among adults. For juveniles, intervention's a different story and can show a 50% reduction in violent recidivism.
"We have a problem in the United States: We incarcerate a lot of people," he said. "We incarcerate more per capita than any other country. It's expensive—it costs $2.34 trillion per year, which is about the same as the annual estimate for all health care [in the country]." (April 23, Duke (University) Research Blog)
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/trending-now/y-big-story-brain-tells-us-000534638.html
C.I.A. Data Show 14-Year Project On Controlling Human Behavior; Data From C.I.A. Show Project on Human Behavior
By NICHOLAS M. HORROCK Special to The New York Times July 21, 1977
WASHINGTON, July 20 The Central Intelligence Agency conducted a 14-year program to find ways to "control human behavior" through the use of chemical, biological and radiological material, according to agency documents made public today by John Marks, a freelance journalist....
Marks: "To be sure, drugs were a part of it, " he said, " but so were such other techniques as electric shock, radiation, ultrasonics, psychosurgery, psychology and incapacitating agents, all of which were referred to in documents I have received."....
According to Mr. Marks's documents and an earlier Senate investigation, the C.I.A. conducted secret medical experiments from 1949 through 1963 under the code names Bluebird, Artichoke, MK Ultra and MK Delta. The C.I.A. inspector general's report in 1963 described the program as the "research and development of chemical, biological and radiological materials capable of employment in clandestine operations to control human behavior."
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60A1FFC3E59157493C3AB178CD85F438785F9
....Finding how to stop extreme behavior. Thanks to crime literature and serial killer movies, Americans are aware of many different "-paths": sociopath, psychopath, and antisocial personality disorder. What has been a raging debate is if one is doomed to that diagnosis and basically lifetime incarceration, or if there's a window of intervention. One researcher went on a roadtrip into the heart of darkness: Using a mobile MRI unit, a University of New Mexico associate professor of psychology took a snapshot of 2,000 inmate volunteers.
He found that compared to the average offender, 60 percent of psychopaths re-offend within the next 200 days. Maximum-security juveniles showed a similar pattern: 68 percent of individuals who were at high risk for psychopathy re-offended.
Using images of the brain, [Kent] Kiehl said he could predict psychopathy as well as one can with clinical error. (April 23, Duke (University) Research Blog)
Among preliminary findings, Kiehl zeroed in on the interaction with a gene (MAOA) and a "stressful" upbringing and that treatment like group therapy actually ends in "violent failure" among adults. For juveniles, intervention's a different story and can show a 50% reduction in violent recidivism.
"We have a problem in the United States: We incarcerate a lot of people," he said. "We incarcerate more per capita than any other country. It's expensive—it costs $2.34 trillion per year, which is about the same as the annual estimate for all health care [in the country]." (April 23, Duke (University) Research Blog)
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/trending-now/y-big-story-brain-tells-us-000534638.html
C.I.A. Data Show 14-Year Project On Controlling Human Behavior; Data From C.I.A. Show Project on Human Behavior
By NICHOLAS M. HORROCK Special to The New York Times July 21, 1977
WASHINGTON, July 20 The Central Intelligence Agency conducted a 14-year program to find ways to "control human behavior" through the use of chemical, biological and radiological material, according to agency documents made public today by John Marks, a freelance journalist....
Marks: "To be sure, drugs were a part of it, " he said, " but so were such other techniques as electric shock, radiation, ultrasonics, psychosurgery, psychology and incapacitating agents, all of which were referred to in documents I have received."....
According to Mr. Marks's documents and an earlier Senate investigation, the C.I.A. conducted secret medical experiments from 1949 through 1963 under the code names Bluebird, Artichoke, MK Ultra and MK Delta. The C.I.A. inspector general's report in 1963 described the program as the "research and development of chemical, biological and radiological materials capable of employment in clandestine operations to control human behavior."
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60A1FFC3E59157493C3AB178CD85F438785F9
Friday, April 27, 2012
Exclusive: Senate probe finds little evidence of effective "torture"
Exclusive: Senate probe finds little evidence of effective "torture"
By Mark Hosenball Reuters 4/28/12
A nearly three-year-long investigation by Senate Intelligence Committee Democrats is expected to find there is little evidence the harsh "enhanced interrogation techniques" the CIA used on high-value prisoners produced counter-terrorism breakthroughs.
People familiar with the inquiry said committee investigators, who have been poring over records from the administration of President George W. Bush, believe they do not substantiate claims by some Bush supporters that the harsh interrogations led to counter-terrorism coups.
The backers of such techniques, which include "water-boarding," sleep deprivation and other practices critics call torture, maintain they have led to the disruption of major terror plots and the capture of al Qaeda leaders....
Other coercive techniques included sleep deprivation, making people crouch or stretch in stressful positions and slamming detainees against a flexible wall.
The CIA started backing away from such techniques in 2004. Obama banned them shortly after taking office....
http://news.yahoo.com/exclusive-senate-probe-finds-little-evidence-effective-torture-051456121.html
By Mark Hosenball Reuters 4/28/12
A nearly three-year-long investigation by Senate Intelligence Committee Democrats is expected to find there is little evidence the harsh "enhanced interrogation techniques" the CIA used on high-value prisoners produced counter-terrorism breakthroughs.
People familiar with the inquiry said committee investigators, who have been poring over records from the administration of President George W. Bush, believe they do not substantiate claims by some Bush supporters that the harsh interrogations led to counter-terrorism coups.
The backers of such techniques, which include "water-boarding," sleep deprivation and other practices critics call torture, maintain they have led to the disruption of major terror plots and the capture of al Qaeda leaders....
Other coercive techniques included sleep deprivation, making people crouch or stretch in stressful positions and slamming detainees against a flexible wall.
The CIA started backing away from such techniques in 2004. Obama banned them shortly after taking office....
http://news.yahoo.com/exclusive-senate-probe-finds-little-evidence-effective-torture-051456121.html
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Landmark Children's Rights Case Now Before the Fifth Circuit
Landmark Children's Rights Case Now Before the Fifth Circuit
By James R. Marsh on April 25, 2012
During the past two years, victims of child pornography (represented by the Marsh Law Firm and pioneering attorneys Paul G. Cassell and Carol L. Hepburn) have been seeking restitution in federal courts throughout the country.
Almost twenty years ago Congress, led by then-Senator Joe Biden, passed a law as part of the Violence Against Women Act which requires federal district courts to award mandatory restitution to child pornography victims for the "full amount of the victim's losses." 18 U.S.C. § 2259(B)(3). Among the losses covered by the statute are psychiatric care, lost income, and occupational therapy.
Recently this issue has come to a head in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in two cases, In re Amy Unknown, No. 09-41238, and United States v. Wright, No. 09-3125.
The Fifth Circuit has scheduled a rare rehearing en banc before 16 judges in these two cases on Thursday, May 3, 2012 in New Orleans.
Amy will argue that the Fifth Circuit should not read a general proximate cause requirement into the statute. At least four judges on the Court agree with her.
Both the Government and the defendants in these two consolidated cases believe that proximate cause is required and limits the availability and amount of restitution.
A decision in the case is expected by the end of the year.
For more information on this issue, visit http://www.childlaw.us/restitution/
By James R. Marsh on April 25, 2012
During the past two years, victims of child pornography (represented by the Marsh Law Firm and pioneering attorneys Paul G. Cassell and Carol L. Hepburn) have been seeking restitution in federal courts throughout the country.
Almost twenty years ago Congress, led by then-Senator Joe Biden, passed a law as part of the Violence Against Women Act which requires federal district courts to award mandatory restitution to child pornography victims for the "full amount of the victim's losses." 18 U.S.C. § 2259(B)(3). Among the losses covered by the statute are psychiatric care, lost income, and occupational therapy.
Recently this issue has come to a head in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in two cases, In re Amy Unknown, No. 09-41238, and United States v. Wright, No. 09-3125.
The Fifth Circuit has scheduled a rare rehearing en banc before 16 judges in these two cases on Thursday, May 3, 2012 in New Orleans.
Amy will argue that the Fifth Circuit should not read a general proximate cause requirement into the statute. At least four judges on the Court agree with her.
Both the Government and the defendants in these two consolidated cases believe that proximate cause is required and limits the availability and amount of restitution.
A decision in the case is expected by the end of the year.
For more information on this issue, visit http://www.childlaw.us/restitution/
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Violence ages children's DNA, shortens their chromosomes
Violence ages children's DNA, shortens their chromosomes
By Liz Szabo, USA TODAY
....Study finds that exposure to violence can cause changes in DNA leading to seven to 10 years of premature aging.
In fact, a new study suggests that violence leaves long-term scars on children's bodies - not just in bruises on the skin, but also altering their DNA, causing changes that are equivalent to seven to 10 years of premature aging.
Scientists measured this cellular aging by studying the ends of children's chromosomes, called telomeres, according to Idan Shalev, lead author of a study in today's Molecular Psychiatry.
Telomeres are special DNA sequences that act like the plastic tips on shoelaces, which prevent the DNA in chromosomes from unraveling. They get shorter each time a cell divides, until a cell can't divide anymore and it dies....
In this study, researchers examined whether exposure to violence could make children's telomeres shorten faster than normal. They interviewed the mothers of 236 children at ages 5, 7 and 10, asking whether the youngsters had been exposed to domestic violence between the mother and her partner; physical maltreatment by an adult; or bullying. Researchers measured the children's telomeres — in cells obtained by swabbing the insides of their cheeks — at ages 5 and 10.
Telomeres shortened faster in kids exposed to two or more types of violence, says Shalev, a post-doctoral researcher at the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy in Durham, N.C. Unless that pattern changes, the study suggests, these kids could be expected to develop diseases of aging, such as heart attacks or memory loss, seven to 10 years earlier than their peers....
The study confirms a small-but-growing number of studies suggesting that early childhood adversity imprints itself in our chromosomes, says Charles Nelson, a professor of pediatrics and neuroscience at Harvard Medical School.
In a 2011 study, Nelson and colleagues found shorter telomeres in Romanian children who had spent more time in institutions, compared with children sent to foster care. http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/story/2012-04-24/violence-cellular-mark/54493338/1?csp=34news
Molecular Psychiatry , (24 April 2012) | doi:10.1038/mp.2012.32
Exposure to violence during childhood is associated with telomere erosion from 5 to 10 years of age: a longitudinal study
I Shalev, T E Moffitt, K Sugden, B Williams, R M Houts, A Danese, J Mill, L Arseneault and A Caspi
Abstract
There is increasing interest in discovering mechanisms that mediate the effects of childhood stress on late-life disease morbidity and mortality. Previous studies have suggested one potential mechanism linking stress to cellular aging, disease and mortality in humans: telomere erosion. We examined telomere erosion in relation to children's exposure to violence, a salient early-life stressor, which has known long-term consequences for well-being and is a major public-health and social-welfare problem. In the first prospective-longitudinal study with repeated telomere measurements in children while they experienced stress, we tested the hypothesis that childhood violence exposure would accelerate telomere erosion from age 5 to age 10 years. Violence was assessed as exposure to maternal domestic violence, frequent bullying victimization and physical maltreatment by an adult. Participants were 236 children (49% females; 42% with one or more violence exposures) recruited from the Environmental-Risk Longitudinal Twin Study, a nationally representative 1994–1995 birth cohort. ....Compared with their counterparts, the children who experienced two or more kinds of violence exposure showed significantly more telomere erosion between age-5 baseline and age-10 follow-up measurements, even after adjusting for sex, socioeconomic status and body mass index (B=-0.052, s.e.=0.021, P=0.015). This finding provides support for a mechanism linking cumulative childhood stress to telomere maintenance, observed already at a young age, with potential impact for life-long health. http://www.nature.com/mp/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/mp201232a.html
By Liz Szabo, USA TODAY
....Study finds that exposure to violence can cause changes in DNA leading to seven to 10 years of premature aging.
In fact, a new study suggests that violence leaves long-term scars on children's bodies - not just in bruises on the skin, but also altering their DNA, causing changes that are equivalent to seven to 10 years of premature aging.
Scientists measured this cellular aging by studying the ends of children's chromosomes, called telomeres, according to Idan Shalev, lead author of a study in today's Molecular Psychiatry.
Telomeres are special DNA sequences that act like the plastic tips on shoelaces, which prevent the DNA in chromosomes from unraveling. They get shorter each time a cell divides, until a cell can't divide anymore and it dies....
In this study, researchers examined whether exposure to violence could make children's telomeres shorten faster than normal. They interviewed the mothers of 236 children at ages 5, 7 and 10, asking whether the youngsters had been exposed to domestic violence between the mother and her partner; physical maltreatment by an adult; or bullying. Researchers measured the children's telomeres — in cells obtained by swabbing the insides of their cheeks — at ages 5 and 10.
Telomeres shortened faster in kids exposed to two or more types of violence, says Shalev, a post-doctoral researcher at the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy in Durham, N.C. Unless that pattern changes, the study suggests, these kids could be expected to develop diseases of aging, such as heart attacks or memory loss, seven to 10 years earlier than their peers....
The study confirms a small-but-growing number of studies suggesting that early childhood adversity imprints itself in our chromosomes, says Charles Nelson, a professor of pediatrics and neuroscience at Harvard Medical School.
In a 2011 study, Nelson and colleagues found shorter telomeres in Romanian children who had spent more time in institutions, compared with children sent to foster care. http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/story/2012-04-24/violence-cellular-mark/54493338/1?csp=34news
Molecular Psychiatry , (24 April 2012) | doi:10.1038/mp.2012.32
Exposure to violence during childhood is associated with telomere erosion from 5 to 10 years of age: a longitudinal study
I Shalev, T E Moffitt, K Sugden, B Williams, R M Houts, A Danese, J Mill, L Arseneault and A Caspi
Abstract
There is increasing interest in discovering mechanisms that mediate the effects of childhood stress on late-life disease morbidity and mortality. Previous studies have suggested one potential mechanism linking stress to cellular aging, disease and mortality in humans: telomere erosion. We examined telomere erosion in relation to children's exposure to violence, a salient early-life stressor, which has known long-term consequences for well-being and is a major public-health and social-welfare problem. In the first prospective-longitudinal study with repeated telomere measurements in children while they experienced stress, we tested the hypothesis that childhood violence exposure would accelerate telomere erosion from age 5 to age 10 years. Violence was assessed as exposure to maternal domestic violence, frequent bullying victimization and physical maltreatment by an adult. Participants were 236 children (49% females; 42% with one or more violence exposures) recruited from the Environmental-Risk Longitudinal Twin Study, a nationally representative 1994–1995 birth cohort. ....Compared with their counterparts, the children who experienced two or more kinds of violence exposure showed significantly more telomere erosion between age-5 baseline and age-10 follow-up measurements, even after adjusting for sex, socioeconomic status and body mass index (B=-0.052, s.e.=0.021, P=0.015). This finding provides support for a mechanism linking cumulative childhood stress to telomere maintenance, observed already at a young age, with potential impact for life-long health. http://www.nature.com/mp/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/mp201232a.html
Monday, April 23, 2012
Severe abuse in childhood may treble risk of schizophrenia, 30-60% overlap of child maltreatment and domestic violence
Severe abuse in childhood may treble risk of schizophrenia - Research links sexual, physical and emotional abuse, school bullying and parental neglect to schizophrenia in adulthood - Alok Jha, science correspondent guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 18 April 2012
Children who experience severe forms of abuse are around three times as likely to develop schizophrenia and related psychoses in later life compared with children who do not experience such abuse, according to a study that has brought together psychiatric data from almost 80,000 people.
The results add to a growing body of evidence that childhood maltreatment or abuse can raise the risk of developing mental illnesses in adulthood, including depression, personality disorders and anxiety.
Prof Richard Bentall of the University of Liverpool's Institute of Psychology, Health and Society, who led the study, showed that the risk of developing psychosis increased in line with the amount of abuse or trauma a child had gone through, with the most severely affected children having a 50-fold increased risk compared with children who had suffered no abuse. He also showed that the type of trauma experienced in childhood affected the subsequent psychiatric symptoms later in life....
Bentall's team analysed 36 published studies that contained data on childhood maltreatment (including sexual, physical and emotional abuse, death of a parent, school bullying and neglect) and psychiatric symptoms in almost 80,000 people, collected over the course of 30 years. People who experienced these types of trauma in childhood were between 2.7 and 3 times as likely to develop schizophrenia as adults, the team found. The research is published in the journal Schizophrenia Bulletin....
The latest results add to recent evidence that childhood abuse can lead to serious problems in later life. In 2011, scientists at the Institute of Psychiatry (IoP) at King's College London found that people with a history of abuse or maltreatment during childhood were more than twice as likely to have recurrent episodes of depression in adulthood and also 43% more likely to experience a poor outcome when it came to psychological or drug-based treatment. They examined data from 16 epidemiological studies involving more than 23,000 people in total and 10 clinical trials involving more than 3,000 people
The mechanisms behind the link between childhood maltreatment and schizophrenia are not yet understood. Earlier this year, psychiatrists at Harvard University found that being sexually or emotionally abused as a child correlated with reduced volumes of three important areas of the hippocampus, which is involved in the control of memory and regulation of emotions. Volumes were reduced by up to 6.5%. http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/apr/18/severe-abuse-childhood-risk-schizophrenia
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/04/21/severe-abuse-in-childhood-may-triple-risk-of-schizophrenia/
Childhood Adversities Increase the Risk of Psychosis: A Meta-analysis of Patient-Control, Prospective- and Cross-sectional Cohort Studies
Filippo Varese, Feikje Smeets, Marjan Drukker, Ritsaert Lieverse, Tineke Lataster, Wolfgang Viechtbauer, John Read, Jim van Os and Richard P. Bentall
Abstract
Evidence suggests that adverse experiences in childhood are associated with psychosis. To examine the association between childhood adversity and trauma (sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional/psychological abuse, neglect, parental death, and bullying) and psychosis outcome, MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsychINFO, and Web of Science were searched from January 1980 through November 2011. We included prospective cohort studies, large-scale cross-sectional studies investigating the association between childhood adversity and psychotic symptoms or illness, case-control studies comparing the prevalence of adverse events between psychotic patients and controls using dichotomous or continuous measures, and case-control studies comparing the prevalence of psychotic symptoms between exposed and nonexposed subjects using dichotomous or continuous measures of adversity and psychosis. The analysis included 18 case-control studies (n = 2048 psychotic patients and 1856 nonpsychiatric controls), 10 prospective and quasi-prospective studies (n = 41?803) and 8 population-based cross-sectional studies (n = 35?546). There were significant associations between adversity and psychosis across all research designs, with an overall effect of OR = 2.78 (95% CI = 2.34–3.31). The integration of the case-control studies indicated that patients with psychosis were 2.72 times more likely to have been exposed to childhood adversity than controls (95% CI = 1.90–3.88). The association between childhood adversity and psychosis was also significant in population-based cross-sectional studies (OR = 2.99 [95% CI = 2.12–4.20]) as well as in prospective and quasi-prospective studies (OR = 2.75 [95% CI = 2.17–3.47]). The estimated population attributable risk was 33% (16%–47%). These findings indicate that childhood adversity is strongly associated with increased risk for psychosis. http://schizophreniabulletin.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2012/03/28/schbul.sbs050
full article http://schizophreniabulletin.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2012/03/28/schbul.sbs050.full
The 30-60% overlap of child maltreatment and domestic violence in families indicates a need for child protection policy and practice that reflects this co-occurrence. In 2009, the NRCCPS collaborated with the Family Violence Prevention Fund (FVPF) and the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) to publish Child and Family Service Review Outcomes: Strategies to Improve Domestic Violence Responses in CFSR Program Improvement Plans to help child protection agencies develop and implement policy and best practice respond to the need for improving and deepening the child pro identified in the CFSR process. http://nrccps.org/special-initiatives/domestic-violence/
Children who experience severe forms of abuse are around three times as likely to develop schizophrenia and related psychoses in later life compared with children who do not experience such abuse, according to a study that has brought together psychiatric data from almost 80,000 people.
The results add to a growing body of evidence that childhood maltreatment or abuse can raise the risk of developing mental illnesses in adulthood, including depression, personality disorders and anxiety.
Prof Richard Bentall of the University of Liverpool's Institute of Psychology, Health and Society, who led the study, showed that the risk of developing psychosis increased in line with the amount of abuse or trauma a child had gone through, with the most severely affected children having a 50-fold increased risk compared with children who had suffered no abuse. He also showed that the type of trauma experienced in childhood affected the subsequent psychiatric symptoms later in life....
Bentall's team analysed 36 published studies that contained data on childhood maltreatment (including sexual, physical and emotional abuse, death of a parent, school bullying and neglect) and psychiatric symptoms in almost 80,000 people, collected over the course of 30 years. People who experienced these types of trauma in childhood were between 2.7 and 3 times as likely to develop schizophrenia as adults, the team found. The research is published in the journal Schizophrenia Bulletin....
The latest results add to recent evidence that childhood abuse can lead to serious problems in later life. In 2011, scientists at the Institute of Psychiatry (IoP) at King's College London found that people with a history of abuse or maltreatment during childhood were more than twice as likely to have recurrent episodes of depression in adulthood and also 43% more likely to experience a poor outcome when it came to psychological or drug-based treatment. They examined data from 16 epidemiological studies involving more than 23,000 people in total and 10 clinical trials involving more than 3,000 people
The mechanisms behind the link between childhood maltreatment and schizophrenia are not yet understood. Earlier this year, psychiatrists at Harvard University found that being sexually or emotionally abused as a child correlated with reduced volumes of three important areas of the hippocampus, which is involved in the control of memory and regulation of emotions. Volumes were reduced by up to 6.5%. http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/apr/18/severe-abuse-childhood-risk-schizophrenia
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/04/21/severe-abuse-in-childhood-may-triple-risk-of-schizophrenia/
Childhood Adversities Increase the Risk of Psychosis: A Meta-analysis of Patient-Control, Prospective- and Cross-sectional Cohort Studies
Filippo Varese, Feikje Smeets, Marjan Drukker, Ritsaert Lieverse, Tineke Lataster, Wolfgang Viechtbauer, John Read, Jim van Os and Richard P. Bentall
Abstract
Evidence suggests that adverse experiences in childhood are associated with psychosis. To examine the association between childhood adversity and trauma (sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional/psychological abuse, neglect, parental death, and bullying) and psychosis outcome, MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsychINFO, and Web of Science were searched from January 1980 through November 2011. We included prospective cohort studies, large-scale cross-sectional studies investigating the association between childhood adversity and psychotic symptoms or illness, case-control studies comparing the prevalence of adverse events between psychotic patients and controls using dichotomous or continuous measures, and case-control studies comparing the prevalence of psychotic symptoms between exposed and nonexposed subjects using dichotomous or continuous measures of adversity and psychosis. The analysis included 18 case-control studies (n = 2048 psychotic patients and 1856 nonpsychiatric controls), 10 prospective and quasi-prospective studies (n = 41?803) and 8 population-based cross-sectional studies (n = 35?546). There were significant associations between adversity and psychosis across all research designs, with an overall effect of OR = 2.78 (95% CI = 2.34–3.31). The integration of the case-control studies indicated that patients with psychosis were 2.72 times more likely to have been exposed to childhood adversity than controls (95% CI = 1.90–3.88). The association between childhood adversity and psychosis was also significant in population-based cross-sectional studies (OR = 2.99 [95% CI = 2.12–4.20]) as well as in prospective and quasi-prospective studies (OR = 2.75 [95% CI = 2.17–3.47]). The estimated population attributable risk was 33% (16%–47%). These findings indicate that childhood adversity is strongly associated with increased risk for psychosis. http://schizophreniabulletin.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2012/03/28/schbul.sbs050
full article http://schizophreniabulletin.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2012/03/28/schbul.sbs050.full
The 30-60% overlap of child maltreatment and domestic violence in families indicates a need for child protection policy and practice that reflects this co-occurrence. In 2009, the NRCCPS collaborated with the Family Violence Prevention Fund (FVPF) and the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) to publish Child and Family Service Review Outcomes: Strategies to Improve Domestic Violence Responses in CFSR Program Improvement Plans to help child protection agencies develop and implement policy and best practice respond to the need for improving and deepening the child pro identified in the CFSR process. http://nrccps.org/special-initiatives/domestic-violence/
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Philadelphia Priest Trial Painful, Poignant For Catholics
Philadelphia Priest Trial Painful, Poignant For Catholics
By MARYCLAIRE DALE 04/21/12
PHILADELPHIA -- Graphic testimony in a Philadelphia clergy-abuse trial this month has ripped open secret church files and reopened old wounds among Catholics as scarred men and women tell jurors that priests groped, molested or raped them as teens.
The testimony has proven both painful and poignant, especially that of a 48-year-old man who said he had been in love with his parish priest during a five-year sexual relationship that began in ninth grade – and jealous when the priest allegedly bedded down at his farmhouse with other teens.
The stories have been told before, in two Philadelphia grand jury reports and in lawsuits filed around the country.
But Monsignor William Lynn's decision to go to trial on child-endangerment charges stemming from his 12 years as secretary for clergy has brought the grand jury reports to life – and seemingly put the archdiocese on trial. The judge is allowing testimony about more than 20 accused but uncharged priests, because Lynn knew of complaints lodged against them or took part in internal church investigations.
The accused priests were left in ministry, often transferred to unsuspecting parishes.
Nearly a dozen alleged victims have testified, while internal church memos and Lynn's 2002 grand jury testimony have been read aloud. And jurors will soon hear from a former altar boy who says he was raped by two priests and his fifth-grade teacher....
Lynn is the first U.S. church official charged with helping the church cover up complaints of child sexual abuse. He faces up to 28 years in prison if convicted....
Lynn, 61, is on trial with the Rev. James Brennan, 48, who is charged with sexually assaulting a teen in 1996. Each has pleaded not guilty. Defrocked priest Edward Avery, 69, pleaded guilty to sexual assault charges days before trial, and is serving a 2-1/2 to 5-year prison term.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/21/pa-priest-trial-painful-p_n_1443041.html
By MARYCLAIRE DALE 04/21/12
PHILADELPHIA -- Graphic testimony in a Philadelphia clergy-abuse trial this month has ripped open secret church files and reopened old wounds among Catholics as scarred men and women tell jurors that priests groped, molested or raped them as teens.
The testimony has proven both painful and poignant, especially that of a 48-year-old man who said he had been in love with his parish priest during a five-year sexual relationship that began in ninth grade – and jealous when the priest allegedly bedded down at his farmhouse with other teens.
The stories have been told before, in two Philadelphia grand jury reports and in lawsuits filed around the country.
But Monsignor William Lynn's decision to go to trial on child-endangerment charges stemming from his 12 years as secretary for clergy has brought the grand jury reports to life – and seemingly put the archdiocese on trial. The judge is allowing testimony about more than 20 accused but uncharged priests, because Lynn knew of complaints lodged against them or took part in internal church investigations.
The accused priests were left in ministry, often transferred to unsuspecting parishes.
Nearly a dozen alleged victims have testified, while internal church memos and Lynn's 2002 grand jury testimony have been read aloud. And jurors will soon hear from a former altar boy who says he was raped by two priests and his fifth-grade teacher....
Lynn is the first U.S. church official charged with helping the church cover up complaints of child sexual abuse. He faces up to 28 years in prison if convicted....
Lynn, 61, is on trial with the Rev. James Brennan, 48, who is charged with sexually assaulting a teen in 1996. Each has pleaded not guilty. Defrocked priest Edward Avery, 69, pleaded guilty to sexual assault charges days before trial, and is serving a 2-1/2 to 5-year prison term.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/21/pa-priest-trial-painful-p_n_1443041.html
Friday, April 20, 2012
BishopAccountability.org Data on the Crisis The Human Toll
BishopAccountability.org Data on the Crisis The Human Toll
Thousands of Catholic clergy and religious have raped and sodomized tens of thousands of children—perhaps more than 100,000 children—since 1950. These crimes were committed in secret, and bishops nurtured that secrecy. Nearly 15,000 survivors have broken through the silence, and their accounts have created an in-depth picture of the crisis....
The U.S. bishops have reported receiving allegations of abuse by 6,115 priests in 1950-2011, or 5.6% of the 109,694 U.S. priests active since 1950....
Richard Sipe estimates that 9% of U.S. priests have offended, which extrapolates to 9,872 priests nationally....
Approximately two-thirds of sitting U.S. bishops were alleged in 2002 to have kept accused priests in ministry or moved accused priests to new assignments....
Fewer than 2 percent of sexual abuse allegations against the Catholic church appear to be false.
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AtAGlance/data.htm
Thousands of Catholic clergy and religious have raped and sodomized tens of thousands of children—perhaps more than 100,000 children—since 1950. These crimes were committed in secret, and bishops nurtured that secrecy. Nearly 15,000 survivors have broken through the silence, and their accounts have created an in-depth picture of the crisis....
The U.S. bishops have reported receiving allegations of abuse by 6,115 priests in 1950-2011, or 5.6% of the 109,694 U.S. priests active since 1950....
Richard Sipe estimates that 9% of U.S. priests have offended, which extrapolates to 9,872 priests nationally....
Approximately two-thirds of sitting U.S. bishops were alleged in 2002 to have kept accused priests in ministry or moved accused priests to new assignments....
Fewer than 2 percent of sexual abuse allegations against the Catholic church appear to be false.
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AtAGlance/data.htm
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Legacy of Native American Schools, Abuse as child linked to longer term homeless
Abuse as a child linked to longer term homeless ADELE HORIN 19 Apr, 2012
TWO-THIRDS of people in a national study of homelessness suffered physical or sexual violence as children or had been neglected or emotionally abused. About one-third had been sexually assaulted. The study by the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research was commissioned by the federal government....
The research is based on interviews with 1682 people flagged by Centrelink and another group that had not been flagged as homeless but identified by the researchers as having characteristics that also made them highly vulnerable. It found those exposed to violence or abuse as children were much more likely to experience longer periods of homelessness over their lifetime. This was also true for people who had been in foster or residential care as children. ''It's clear the experience of trauma as children affects the length of time they are homeless,'' a researcher, Rosanna Scutella, said. Contrary to expectations, the study found homelessness was not usually a short, one-off experience. Rather most of the people in the study had long, if broken, histories of homelessness, and found it difficult to make a permanent escape. They cycled between homelessness, marginal housing and stable housing. http://www.bellingencourier.com.au/news/national/national/general/abuse-as-a-child-linked-to-longer-term-homeless/2526979.aspx
Soul Wound: The Legacy of Native American Schools
U.S. and Canadian authorities took Native children from their homes and tried to school, and sometimes beat, the Indian out them. Now Native Americans are fighting the theft of language, of culture, and of childhood itself. By Andrea Smith March 26, 2007
....Dolphus is one of more than 100,000 Native Americans forced by the U.S. government to attend Christian schools. The system, which began with President Ulysses Grant's 1869 "Peace Policy," continued well into the 20th century. Church officials, missionaries, and local authorities took children as young as five from their parents and shipped them off to Christian boarding schools; they forced others to enroll in Christian day schools on reservations. Those sent to boarding school were separated from their families for most of the year, sometimes without a single family visit. Parents caught trying to hide their children lost food rations....
"Native America knows all too well the reality of the boarding schools," writes Native American Bar Association President Richard Monette, who attended a North Dakota boarding school, "where recent generations learned the fine art of standing in line single-file for hours without moving a hair, as a lesson in discipline; where our best and brightest earned graduation certificates for homemaking and masonry; where the sharp rules of immaculate living were instilled through blistered hands and knees on the floor with scouring toothbrushes; where mouths were scrubbed with lye and chlorine solutions for uttering Native words."....
The schools were part of Euro-America's drive to solve the "Indian problem" and end Native control of their lands. While some colonizers advocated outright physical extermination, Captain Richard H. Pratt thought it wiser to "Kill the Indian and save the man." In 1879 Pratt, an army veteran of the Indian wars, opened the first federally sanctioned boarding school: the Carlisle Industrial Training School, in Carlisle, Penn.
"Transfer the savage-born infant to the surroundings of civilization, and he will grow to possess a civilized language and habit," said Pratt. He modeled Carlisle on a prison school he had developed for a group of 72 Indian prisoners of war at Florida's Fort Marion prison. His philosophy was to "elevate" American Indians to white standards through a process of forced acculturation that stripped them of their language, culture, and customs.
Government officials found the Carlisle model an appealing alternative to the costly military campaigns against Indians in the West. Within three decades of Carlisle's opening, nearly 500 schools extended all the way to California. The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) controlled 25 off-reservation boarding schools while churches ran 460 boarding and day schools on reservations with government funds.
Both BIA and church schools ran on bare-bones budgets, and large numbers of students died from starvation and disease because of inadequate food and medical care. School officials routinely forced children to do arduous work to raise money for staff salaries and "leased out" students during the summers to farm or work as domestics for white families. In addition to bringing in income, the hard labor prepared children to take their place in white society — the only one open to them — on the bottom rung of the socioeconomic ladder....
Rampant sexual abuse at reservation schools continued until the end of the 1980s, in part because of pre-1990 loopholes in state and federal law mandating the reporting of allegations of child sexual abuse. In 1987 the FBI found evidence that John Boone, a teacher at the BIA-run Hopi day school in Arizona, had sexually abused as many as 142 boys from 1979 until his arrest in 1987. The principal failed to investigate a single abuse allegation. Boone, one of several BIA schoolteachers caught molesting children on reservations in the late 1980s, was convicted of child abuse, and he received a life sentence. Acting BIA chief William Ragsdale admitted that the agency had not been sufficiently responsive to allegations of sexual abuse, and he apologized to the Hopi tribe and others whose children BIA employees had abused....
Dolphus, now director of the South Dakota Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence, sees boarding school policies as the central route through which sexual abuse became entrenched in Native communities, as many victims became molesters themselves. Hopi tribe members testified at a 1989 Senate hearing that some of Boone's victims had become sex abusers; others had become suicidal or alcoholic....
A 2001 report by the Truth Commission into Genocide in Canada documents the responsibility of the Roman Catholic Church, the United Church of Canada, the Anglican Church of Canada, and the federal government in the deaths of more than 50,000 Native children in the Canadian residential school system.
The report says church officials killed children by beating, poisoning, electric shock, starvation, prolonged exposure to sub-zero cold while naked, and medical experimentation, including the removal of organs and radiation exposure. In 1928 Alberta passed legislation allowing school officials to forcibly sterilize Native girls; British Columbia followed suit in 1933. There is no accurate toll of forced sterilizations because hospital staff destroyed records in 1995 after police launched an investigation. But according to the testimony of a nurse in Alberta, doctors sterilized entire groups of Native children when they reached puberty. The report also says that Canadian clergy, police, and business and government officials "rented out" children from residential schools to pedophile rings....
While some Canadian churches have launched reconciliation programs, U.S. churches have been largely silent. Natives of this country have also been less aggressive in pursuing lawsuits. Attorney Tonya Gonnella-Frichner (Onondaga) says that the combination of statutes of limitations, lack of documentation, and the conservative makeup of the current U.S. Supreme Court make lawsuits a difficult and risky strategy.
Nonetheless, six members of the Sioux Nation who say they were physically and sexually abused in government-run boarding schools filed a class-action lawsuit this April against the United States for $25 billion on behalf of hundreds of thousands of mistreated Native Americans. Sherwyn Zephier was a student at a school run from 1948 to 1975 by St. Paul's Catholic Church in Marty, S.D.: "I was tortured in the middle of the night. They would whip us with boards and sometimes with straps," he recalled in Los Angeles at an April press conference to launch the suit. http://www.amnestyusa.org/node/87342
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Repressed Memories/Priest Liable for Abuse, Bill Protects Child Actors, Breivik
Articles
- Ex-Modesto priest found liable for abuse, removed from clergy "hearings centered on...sexual abuse memories of which he said he had repressed over the decades"
- Stockton Diocese accused of cover-up in Michael Kelly case
- Two former teen idols back bill to protect child actors
- Breivik: How I met 'Richard the Lionheart' in London cafe to plot 'how to seize power in Western Europe'
Ex-Modesto priest found liable for abuse, removed from clergy
By Jordan GuinnThe Record (Stockton) Apr. 06, 2012
The jury in a civil trial found that Father Michael Kelly should be held liable for three counts related to child molestation, according to the lawyer for his accuser.
Attorney John Manly said Friday a civil jury unanimously agreed that his client, a 37-year-old man identified in court papers as John TZ Doe, was molested by Kelly while he was a priest at Cathedral of the Annunciation in Stockton. The plaintiff was a student at Annunciation School in the 1980s....
Now that Kelly's verdict has been delivered, the same jury will start a second phase of the trial Wednesday to determine the diocese's role in the alleged abuse and liability. Manly said removing Kelly from the diocese is a substantial victory....
Friday's verdict is the culmination of four years of litigation and a seven-week trial, Manly said. The hearings centered on the plaintiff's allegations of sexual abuse, memories of which he said he had repressed over the decades. The defense challenged the legitimacy of those memories.
The plaintiff's attorneys also argued Kelly had victimized multiple children, but testimony from an alleged second victim was not allowed at the trial....
When the trial resumes Wednesday, the diocese's previous handlings of child molestation cases will be the focus. That includes the case of defrocked and criminally convicted priest Oliver O'Grady.
O'Grady, a native of Ireland, recently was convicted of pornography charges in that country. Before that, the former Roman Catholic priest in the Diocese of Stockton served time for child molestation in San Joaquin County.
Before his 1993 arrest, O'Grady had been a priest at St. Anne's Catholic Church in Lodi, the Church of the Presentation in Stockton, St. Andrew's Catholic Church in San Andreas and others.
Allegations against O'Grady have cost the Diocese of Stockton millions of dollars in settlements in more than 20 lawsuits brought by alleged victims. http://www.modbee.com/2012/04/06/v-print/2147587/ex-modesto-priest-found-liable.html
Stockton Diocese accused of cover-up in Michael Kelly case
Fri Apr 13, 2012
By Ross Farrow/News-Sentinel Staff Writer
Now that Father Michael Kelly has been held liable for sexual assault and removed as pastor of a Lockeford parish, his civil trial will focus on the Stockton Diocese's role in handling Kelly and other priests accused of childhood sexual abuse.
"The diocese made a concerted effort to cover up for Father Kelly," attorney John Manly told the jury in his opening statement on Thursday morning. "They value money, power and their reputation more than they do children. Ladies and gentlemen, that has got to stop."
The 10-woman, two-man jury found Kelly, 62, liable on Friday of sexually assaulting an altar boy in the mid-1980s. http://www.lodinews.com/news/article_2cc84273-73fd-5ac3-9452-f1d6fe4902da.html
Two former teen idols back bill to protect child actors
Todd Bridges and Corey Feldman, both of whom were molested by men with Hollywood connections, support legislation to require fingerprinting and background checks for those with unsupervised access to child performers.
By Dawn C. Chmielewski, Los Angeles Times
April 18, 2012
Three decades ago, they were teen idols. Todd Bridges played Willis on the popular sitcom "Diff'rent Strokes." Corey Feldman starred in "Gremlins,""The Goonies" and "The Lost Boys."
The two men held the same dark secret: Each had been molested in his adolescence by men with Hollywood connections, experiences that would lead to downward spirals and years of drug addiction.
Today, they are making a highly public case for California legislation they hope will protect child actors from sexual predators, a problem they say continues to bedevil the entertainment industry.
"We're not doing enough to protect children, period," Bridges said.
The bill that the two actors support would require talent managers, photographers and others whose jobs involve unsupervised access to child performers to provide fingerprints and submit to criminal background checks. It also would prohibit registered sex offenders from representing artists who are minors.
"If this bill can help save one child from the pain and consequences of being made a victim, then it is worth every effort," said the bill's author, Assemblywoman Nora Campos (D-San Jose). http://www.latimes.com/business/la-et-molest-survivors-20120418,0,7018231.story
Breivik: How I met 'Richard the Lionheart' in London cafe to plot 'how to seize power in Western Europe'
Mass killer draws inspiration from Islamist terror network's methods
Claims to have met three people in London to create Knights Templar in 2002
Said he met a Serbian 'war hero' in Liberia in 2002 by posing as a member of Unicef
Prosecutors said Breivik was not part of a sophisticated anti-Muslim group
By Daily Mail Reporter
18 April 2012
A meeting between Anders Breivik and an English anti-Islamic militant calling himself ‘Richard the Lionheart’ was outlined in court yesterday.
Nine years before his killing spree left 77 dead, the Norwegian said he was sitting in a London cafe with members of an extremist group called Knights Templar, to plot ‘how to seize power in Western Europe’.http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2131468/Anders-Behring-Breivik-trial-Norway-killer-says-I-dont-fear-death-execute-let-go.html
- Ex-Modesto priest found liable for abuse, removed from clergy "hearings centered on...sexual abuse memories of which he said he had repressed over the decades"
- Stockton Diocese accused of cover-up in Michael Kelly case
- Two former teen idols back bill to protect child actors
- Breivik: How I met 'Richard the Lionheart' in London cafe to plot 'how to seize power in Western Europe'
Ex-Modesto priest found liable for abuse, removed from clergy
By Jordan GuinnThe Record (Stockton) Apr. 06, 2012
The jury in a civil trial found that Father Michael Kelly should be held liable for three counts related to child molestation, according to the lawyer for his accuser.
Attorney John Manly said Friday a civil jury unanimously agreed that his client, a 37-year-old man identified in court papers as John TZ Doe, was molested by Kelly while he was a priest at Cathedral of the Annunciation in Stockton. The plaintiff was a student at Annunciation School in the 1980s....
Now that Kelly's verdict has been delivered, the same jury will start a second phase of the trial Wednesday to determine the diocese's role in the alleged abuse and liability. Manly said removing Kelly from the diocese is a substantial victory....
Friday's verdict is the culmination of four years of litigation and a seven-week trial, Manly said. The hearings centered on the plaintiff's allegations of sexual abuse, memories of which he said he had repressed over the decades. The defense challenged the legitimacy of those memories.
The plaintiff's attorneys also argued Kelly had victimized multiple children, but testimony from an alleged second victim was not allowed at the trial....
When the trial resumes Wednesday, the diocese's previous handlings of child molestation cases will be the focus. That includes the case of defrocked and criminally convicted priest Oliver O'Grady.
O'Grady, a native of Ireland, recently was convicted of pornography charges in that country. Before that, the former Roman Catholic priest in the Diocese of Stockton served time for child molestation in San Joaquin County.
Before his 1993 arrest, O'Grady had been a priest at St. Anne's Catholic Church in Lodi, the Church of the Presentation in Stockton, St. Andrew's Catholic Church in San Andreas and others.
Allegations against O'Grady have cost the Diocese of Stockton millions of dollars in settlements in more than 20 lawsuits brought by alleged victims. http://www.modbee.com/2012/04/06/v-print/2147587/ex-modesto-priest-found-liable.html
Stockton Diocese accused of cover-up in Michael Kelly case
Fri Apr 13, 2012
By Ross Farrow/News-Sentinel Staff Writer
Now that Father Michael Kelly has been held liable for sexual assault and removed as pastor of a Lockeford parish, his civil trial will focus on the Stockton Diocese's role in handling Kelly and other priests accused of childhood sexual abuse.
"The diocese made a concerted effort to cover up for Father Kelly," attorney John Manly told the jury in his opening statement on Thursday morning. "They value money, power and their reputation more than they do children. Ladies and gentlemen, that has got to stop."
The 10-woman, two-man jury found Kelly, 62, liable on Friday of sexually assaulting an altar boy in the mid-1980s. http://www.lodinews.com/news/article_2cc84273-73fd-5ac3-9452-f1d6fe4902da.html
Two former teen idols back bill to protect child actors
Todd Bridges and Corey Feldman, both of whom were molested by men with Hollywood connections, support legislation to require fingerprinting and background checks for those with unsupervised access to child performers.
By Dawn C. Chmielewski, Los Angeles Times
April 18, 2012
Three decades ago, they were teen idols. Todd Bridges played Willis on the popular sitcom "Diff'rent Strokes." Corey Feldman starred in "Gremlins,""The Goonies" and "The Lost Boys."
The two men held the same dark secret: Each had been molested in his adolescence by men with Hollywood connections, experiences that would lead to downward spirals and years of drug addiction.
Today, they are making a highly public case for California legislation they hope will protect child actors from sexual predators, a problem they say continues to bedevil the entertainment industry.
"We're not doing enough to protect children, period," Bridges said.
The bill that the two actors support would require talent managers, photographers and others whose jobs involve unsupervised access to child performers to provide fingerprints and submit to criminal background checks. It also would prohibit registered sex offenders from representing artists who are minors.
"If this bill can help save one child from the pain and consequences of being made a victim, then it is worth every effort," said the bill's author, Assemblywoman Nora Campos (D-San Jose). http://www.latimes.com/business/la-et-molest-survivors-20120418,0,7018231.story
Breivik: How I met 'Richard the Lionheart' in London cafe to plot 'how to seize power in Western Europe'
Mass killer draws inspiration from Islamist terror network's methods
Claims to have met three people in London to create Knights Templar in 2002
Said he met a Serbian 'war hero' in Liberia in 2002 by posing as a member of Unicef
Prosecutors said Breivik was not part of a sophisticated anti-Muslim group
By Daily Mail Reporter
18 April 2012
A meeting between Anders Breivik and an English anti-Islamic militant calling himself ‘Richard the Lionheart’ was outlined in court yesterday.
Nine years before his killing spree left 77 dead, the Norwegian said he was sitting in a London cafe with members of an extremist group called Knights Templar, to plot ‘how to seize power in Western Europe’.http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2131468/Anders-Behring-Breivik-trial-Norway-killer-says-I-dont-fear-death-execute-let-go.html
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Confessed Norway massacre killer Anders Behring Breivik
articles
- Confessed killer Anders Behring Breivik: Attacks were 'spectacular'
- Norway massacre: the real Anders Behring Breivik
note: Reprinting these article excerpts are in no way meant to support or promote Breivik's abhorrent ideas printed below.
Confessed killer Anders Behring Breivik: Attacks were 'spectacular' April 17, 2012
Anders Behring Breivik, the right-wing Norwegian fanatic who has admitted killing 77 people on the Norwegian island of Utoya and in the Oslo city center last July, told a court that he had carried out "the most sophisticated and spectacular political attack ... in Europe since World War II"
LONDON -- Anders Behring Breivik, the right-wing Norwegian fanatic who has admitted killing 77 people on the Norwegian island of Utoya and in the Oslo city center last July, told a court Tuesday that he had carried out "the most sophisticated and spectacular political attack ... in Europe since World War II."
The confessed 33-year-old killer was captured on video raising his right arm in a fascist-style clenched-fist salute as he entered the court in Oslo. His testimony, which began with a statement in which he sought to explain his actions, was not broadcast due to a judicial decision to avoid giving a televised platform to his violent anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant views. But his remarks were widely reported....
Breivik compared the killings to the U.S. use of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945, according to an Associated Press report, which quoted him as saying, "The attacks on July 22 were a preventive strike. I acted in self-defense on behalf of my people, my city, my country."....
Authorities charge that Breivik targeted an annual Labor Party political camp on Utoya, shooting and killing 69 young Norwegians, and blew up a government building in central Oslo, leaving eight people dead....
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2012/04/anders-behring-breivik-norway-massacre-witness-stand.html
Norway massacre: the real Anders Behring Breivik
Former friends and neighbours in Oslo talk about growing up with the boy who became a mass murderer.
By Robert Mendick
31 Jul 2011
Even as he languishes in solitary confinement in a prison that fittingly was once a Nazi concentration camp, Anders Behring Breivik continues to wage his demented war against Islam.
Having murdered 77 innocent victims, he is now entering the propaganda phase of his 21st-century crusade. Confined to his cell, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt that he spends his waking hours writing speeches or making bizarre requests to the authorities.
A narcissist and a fantasist, Breivik, 32, refuses to have his prison “mugshot” taken to ensure that the carefully stage-managed photographs he took of himself – in full Masonic regalia or clutching his rifle – are not replaced by more humbling images.
Having been refused permission to wear a combat uniform, he has demanded to wear a red Lacoste sweater for his public outings to court or to the police station. He will not wear anything else....
He had a drastic solution, too, for curing what he saw as the ills of multicultural Norway. He would slaughter government workers and the children of the Norwegian socialist elite as the opening salvo in a new crusade against what he perceived as the creeping Islamification of western Europe. His plan was laid down in his manifesto, 2083: A European Declaration of Independence. The year 2083 signals when Breivik was convinced the civil war he hoped to start would be over....
“I never felt comfortable with him. He was a little cold, although I never thought he was crazy,” says Lina Engelsrud, who lived in an apartment close by. “He used to spit in the basement and pee in the neighbour’s shed. He took great pleasure in killing ants.”....
In 2002, aged 23, Breivik writes of travelling to London to establish with other extremists the Knights Templar, a new crusading movement to crush Islamists. No extremist has come forward to admit being at the meeting, although Paul Ray, a founder member of the anti-Islamist English Defence League, admits he may have influenced Breivik’s thinking.
From then on, Breivik secretly plotted his attacks. His strategy in place, it’s not clear how he funded his enterprise but money appears to have been no great problem. By now claiming to be a committed Christian, he held a number of minor posts in the far-Right, anti-immigration Progress Party but abandoned conventional politics in 2003 after losing an Oslo City Hall election.
He was close to a small group of friends throughout his twenties and early thirties and lived a bachelor’s life in Oslo, going to the gym and latterly joining an Oslo gun club and the freemasons.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/norway/8672801/Norway-massacre-the-real-Anders-Behring-Breivik.html
- Confessed killer Anders Behring Breivik: Attacks were 'spectacular'
- Norway massacre: the real Anders Behring Breivik
note: Reprinting these article excerpts are in no way meant to support or promote Breivik's abhorrent ideas printed below.
Confessed killer Anders Behring Breivik: Attacks were 'spectacular' April 17, 2012
Anders Behring Breivik, the right-wing Norwegian fanatic who has admitted killing 77 people on the Norwegian island of Utoya and in the Oslo city center last July, told a court that he had carried out "the most sophisticated and spectacular political attack ... in Europe since World War II"
LONDON -- Anders Behring Breivik, the right-wing Norwegian fanatic who has admitted killing 77 people on the Norwegian island of Utoya and in the Oslo city center last July, told a court Tuesday that he had carried out "the most sophisticated and spectacular political attack ... in Europe since World War II."
The confessed 33-year-old killer was captured on video raising his right arm in a fascist-style clenched-fist salute as he entered the court in Oslo. His testimony, which began with a statement in which he sought to explain his actions, was not broadcast due to a judicial decision to avoid giving a televised platform to his violent anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant views. But his remarks were widely reported....
Breivik compared the killings to the U.S. use of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945, according to an Associated Press report, which quoted him as saying, "The attacks on July 22 were a preventive strike. I acted in self-defense on behalf of my people, my city, my country."....
Authorities charge that Breivik targeted an annual Labor Party political camp on Utoya, shooting and killing 69 young Norwegians, and blew up a government building in central Oslo, leaving eight people dead....
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2012/04/anders-behring-breivik-norway-massacre-witness-stand.html
Norway massacre: the real Anders Behring Breivik
Former friends and neighbours in Oslo talk about growing up with the boy who became a mass murderer.
By Robert Mendick
31 Jul 2011
Even as he languishes in solitary confinement in a prison that fittingly was once a Nazi concentration camp, Anders Behring Breivik continues to wage his demented war against Islam.
Having murdered 77 innocent victims, he is now entering the propaganda phase of his 21st-century crusade. Confined to his cell, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt that he spends his waking hours writing speeches or making bizarre requests to the authorities.
A narcissist and a fantasist, Breivik, 32, refuses to have his prison “mugshot” taken to ensure that the carefully stage-managed photographs he took of himself – in full Masonic regalia or clutching his rifle – are not replaced by more humbling images.
Having been refused permission to wear a combat uniform, he has demanded to wear a red Lacoste sweater for his public outings to court or to the police station. He will not wear anything else....
He had a drastic solution, too, for curing what he saw as the ills of multicultural Norway. He would slaughter government workers and the children of the Norwegian socialist elite as the opening salvo in a new crusade against what he perceived as the creeping Islamification of western Europe. His plan was laid down in his manifesto, 2083: A European Declaration of Independence. The year 2083 signals when Breivik was convinced the civil war he hoped to start would be over....
“I never felt comfortable with him. He was a little cold, although I never thought he was crazy,” says Lina Engelsrud, who lived in an apartment close by. “He used to spit in the basement and pee in the neighbour’s shed. He took great pleasure in killing ants.”....
In 2002, aged 23, Breivik writes of travelling to London to establish with other extremists the Knights Templar, a new crusading movement to crush Islamists. No extremist has come forward to admit being at the meeting, although Paul Ray, a founder member of the anti-Islamist English Defence League, admits he may have influenced Breivik’s thinking.
From then on, Breivik secretly plotted his attacks. His strategy in place, it’s not clear how he funded his enterprise but money appears to have been no great problem. By now claiming to be a committed Christian, he held a number of minor posts in the far-Right, anti-immigration Progress Party but abandoned conventional politics in 2003 after losing an Oslo City Hall election.
He was close to a small group of friends throughout his twenties and early thirties and lived a bachelor’s life in Oslo, going to the gym and latterly joining an Oslo gun club and the freemasons.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/norway/8672801/Norway-massacre-the-real-Anders-Behring-Breivik.html
Monday, April 16, 2012
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, ABUSE, and CHILD CUSTODY: Legal Strategies and Policy Issues
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, ABUSE, and CHILD CUSTODY: Legal Strategies and Policy Issues
Co-edited by Mo Therese Hannah and Barry Goldstein 2010
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, ABUSE and CHILD CUSTODY brings together experts from the US and Canada for a multi-disciplinary review of the most up-to-date research and recommendations for handling, domestic violence custody cases. The book's 25 chapters are written by those in the know: judges, lawyers, psychiatrists, psychologists, sociologists, journalists, domestic violence advocates, and others intimately familiar with the details of these cases.
These diverse experts approach the issue through the lens of different disciplines and professional experiences. Although they may not agree on every point, they do agree on at least one thing: that the family court system in this country is broken.
For more than two decades, protective mothers from every state in the country (as well as overseas) have been ordered to turn their children over into the care, and even the custody, of the children's abusive fathers. This occurs even when there is adequate evidence of child abuse, domestic violence, and other harmful behaviors on the part of the father.
http://www.domesticviolenceabuseandchildcustody.com/
Co-edited by Mo Therese Hannah and Barry Goldstein 2010
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, ABUSE and CHILD CUSTODY brings together experts from the US and Canada for a multi-disciplinary review of the most up-to-date research and recommendations for handling, domestic violence custody cases. The book's 25 chapters are written by those in the know: judges, lawyers, psychiatrists, psychologists, sociologists, journalists, domestic violence advocates, and others intimately familiar with the details of these cases.
These diverse experts approach the issue through the lens of different disciplines and professional experiences. Although they may not agree on every point, they do agree on at least one thing: that the family court system in this country is broken.
For more than two decades, protective mothers from every state in the country (as well as overseas) have been ordered to turn their children over into the care, and even the custody, of the children's abusive fathers. This occurs even when there is adequate evidence of child abuse, domestic violence, and other harmful behaviors on the part of the father.
http://www.domesticviolenceabuseandchildcustody.com/
Friday, April 13, 2012
CIA 'Guinea Pig' Case, Cult Members Rituals, U.S. priests - 700 cases in 2011
"at least 7,800 soldiers had been used as guinea pigs in Project Paperclip"
articles:
- Vets Get More Discovery in CIA 'Guinea Pig' Case
- Brazilian cult members accused of cannibalistic ritual
- U.S. priests accused in 700 sex cases in 2011: report
Vets Get More Discovery in CIA 'Guinea Pig' Case
By NICK MCCANN Monday, April 09, 2012
OAKLAND, Calif. (CN) - The Department of Veterans Affairs must disclose certain documents that a class of veterans hopes will prove they were used as guinea pigs by the CIA in Cold War-era drug experiments, a federal judge ruled.
Vietnam Veterans of America filed a class action against the U.S. government in 2009, claiming that at least 7,800 soldiers had been used as guinea pigs in Project Paperclip. The experiments were allegedly conducted at the Baltimore-area Edgewood Arsenal.
Soldiers were allegedly administered at least 250 and as many as 400 types of drugs, among them Sarin, one of the most deadly drugs known, amphetamines, barbiturates, mustard gas, phosgene gas and LSD.
Using tactics it often attributed to the Soviet enemy, the U.S. government sought drugs to control human behavior, cause confusion, promote weakness or temporary loss of hearing and vision, induce hypnosis and enhance a person's ability to withstand torture, according to the complaint.
The veterans say that some soldiers died, and others suffered seizures and paranoia.
They say the CIA knew it had to conceal the tests from "enemy forces" and the "American public in general" because the knowledge "would have serious repercussions in political and diplomatic circles and would be detrimental to the accomplishment of its mission."
The veterans' claims have changed over the course of discovery, and there are four remaining legal claims against the CIA, Defense Department, Army and Department of Veterans Affairs:
"1) whether the DOD and Army failed to provide adequate notice to test participants including notice of chemicals to which they were exposed and any known health effects; 2) whether the DOD and Army failed to provide medical care to test participants for any conditions arising out of participation in testing programs; 3) whether the Army, DOD, and CIA have failed to release participants from secrecy oaths; and 4) whether the Department of Veterans Affairs is an inherently biased decision-maker."
The veterans are still fighting for access to certain documents that the four agencies have withheld from discovery as privileged.
The government is required to provide a privilege log explaining the reason why certain documents or information is not available....
Veterans can also access an encrypted mailbox that DVA Affairs created to verify test subjects in mustard gas and Edgewood Arsenal experiments, Corley said, but it would be too burdensome for the department to produce 650 veteran claim files related to mustard gas exposure.
"Plaintiffs contend that the government failed to notify tens of thousands of individuals that they had been exposed to mustard gas and lewisite," the decision states. "The contents of the claim files of the 650 individuals who filed claims based on their exposure will shed little if any light on plaintiffs' notice claims.".... http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/04/09/45455.htm
Brazilian cult members accused of cannibalistic ritual
By Agence France-Presse Friday, April 13, 2012
RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazilian police announced Friday that they had arrested a man and two women on suspicion of having murdered and cannibalized at least two women in what was described as a purification ritual.
The three defendants formed a sect called “Cartel” that seeks to purify the world and reduce the population, police spokesman Democrito Honorato from the northeastern Brazilian town of Guaranhuns told AFP.
The three defendants, Jorge and Elizabeth Pires da Silveira, both 51, and Bruna da Silva, 25, intended to kill three women per year, police said.... http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/04/13/brazilia-cult-members-accused-of-cannibalistic-ritual/
U.S. priests accused in 700 sex cases in 2011: report
By Agence France-Presse
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
WASHINGTON — About 700 people launched new claims of sexual abuse against Catholic clergy in the United States last year, including 21 who are still minors, according to a new report released by US bishops.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops said in the report released Tuesday that of the 683 adults who reported allegations for the first time, “most allegations reported today are of incidents from previous decades.”
Sixty-eight percent of the complaints relate to events that took place between 1960 and 1984 — the majority from 1975 to 1979, the report says.
Many of the clergy members accused have since died, or been relieved of their church duties. More than 280 of them had been accused in the past, it said.... http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/04/11/u-s-priests-accused-in-700-sex-cases-in-2011-report/
articles:
- Vets Get More Discovery in CIA 'Guinea Pig' Case
- Brazilian cult members accused of cannibalistic ritual
- U.S. priests accused in 700 sex cases in 2011: report
Vets Get More Discovery in CIA 'Guinea Pig' Case
By NICK MCCANN Monday, April 09, 2012
OAKLAND, Calif. (CN) - The Department of Veterans Affairs must disclose certain documents that a class of veterans hopes will prove they were used as guinea pigs by the CIA in Cold War-era drug experiments, a federal judge ruled.
Vietnam Veterans of America filed a class action against the U.S. government in 2009, claiming that at least 7,800 soldiers had been used as guinea pigs in Project Paperclip. The experiments were allegedly conducted at the Baltimore-area Edgewood Arsenal.
Soldiers were allegedly administered at least 250 and as many as 400 types of drugs, among them Sarin, one of the most deadly drugs known, amphetamines, barbiturates, mustard gas, phosgene gas and LSD.
Using tactics it often attributed to the Soviet enemy, the U.S. government sought drugs to control human behavior, cause confusion, promote weakness or temporary loss of hearing and vision, induce hypnosis and enhance a person's ability to withstand torture, according to the complaint.
The veterans say that some soldiers died, and others suffered seizures and paranoia.
They say the CIA knew it had to conceal the tests from "enemy forces" and the "American public in general" because the knowledge "would have serious repercussions in political and diplomatic circles and would be detrimental to the accomplishment of its mission."
The veterans' claims have changed over the course of discovery, and there are four remaining legal claims against the CIA, Defense Department, Army and Department of Veterans Affairs:
"1) whether the DOD and Army failed to provide adequate notice to test participants including notice of chemicals to which they were exposed and any known health effects; 2) whether the DOD and Army failed to provide medical care to test participants for any conditions arising out of participation in testing programs; 3) whether the Army, DOD, and CIA have failed to release participants from secrecy oaths; and 4) whether the Department of Veterans Affairs is an inherently biased decision-maker."
The veterans are still fighting for access to certain documents that the four agencies have withheld from discovery as privileged.
The government is required to provide a privilege log explaining the reason why certain documents or information is not available....
Veterans can also access an encrypted mailbox that DVA Affairs created to verify test subjects in mustard gas and Edgewood Arsenal experiments, Corley said, but it would be too burdensome for the department to produce 650 veteran claim files related to mustard gas exposure.
"Plaintiffs contend that the government failed to notify tens of thousands of individuals that they had been exposed to mustard gas and lewisite," the decision states. "The contents of the claim files of the 650 individuals who filed claims based on their exposure will shed little if any light on plaintiffs' notice claims.".... http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/04/09/45455.htm
Brazilian cult members accused of cannibalistic ritual
By Agence France-Presse Friday, April 13, 2012
RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazilian police announced Friday that they had arrested a man and two women on suspicion of having murdered and cannibalized at least two women in what was described as a purification ritual.
The three defendants formed a sect called “Cartel” that seeks to purify the world and reduce the population, police spokesman Democrito Honorato from the northeastern Brazilian town of Guaranhuns told AFP.
The three defendants, Jorge and Elizabeth Pires da Silveira, both 51, and Bruna da Silva, 25, intended to kill three women per year, police said.... http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/04/13/brazilia-cult-members-accused-of-cannibalistic-ritual/
U.S. priests accused in 700 sex cases in 2011: report
By Agence France-Presse
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
WASHINGTON — About 700 people launched new claims of sexual abuse against Catholic clergy in the United States last year, including 21 who are still minors, according to a new report released by US bishops.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops said in the report released Tuesday that of the 683 adults who reported allegations for the first time, “most allegations reported today are of incidents from previous decades.”
Sixty-eight percent of the complaints relate to events that took place between 1960 and 1984 — the majority from 1975 to 1979, the report says.
Many of the clergy members accused have since died, or been relieved of their church duties. More than 280 of them had been accused in the past, it said.... http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/04/11/u-s-priests-accused-in-700-sex-cases-in-2011-report/
Thursday, April 12, 2012
The aftereffects of extreme child abuse and the resiliency of the human spirit
forwarded with permission
Survivorship Webinar
Saturday, April 21
12 pm Pacific Time
Presenter: Wanda Karriker
"The aftereffects of extreme child abuse and the resiliency of the human spirit."
Dr. Karriker believes that to deny the existence of ritual abuse and/or mind control is to desecrate the memory of victims who died at the hands of evil and to discredit the work of all people who have striven to expose crimes in which abusive rituals, mind control techniques, and similar forms of extreme abuse have been used to sexually exploit, physically harm, emotionally torment, and spiritually damage its victims. In this webinar, she will (1) discuss the rationale for and the development of the Extreme Abuse Survey Series conducted online in English and German in 2007; (2) share responses from more than 2,000 survivors, professional helpers, and child caregivers from six continents which validate that individual survivors are not alone in their struggles with the aftereffects of these unspeakable crimes; and (3) tell webinar participants about the efforts that the EAS researchers have made and will continue to make (via a book to be published later this year in English and German) to honor their commitment to provide opportunities for the voices of extreme abuse survivors to be heard around the world.
Wanda Karriker, Ph.D. is a retired psychologist who wrote the novel, “Morning, Come Quickly,” to share what she has learned personally and professionally about the after effects of extreme child abuse and the resiliency of the human spirit. She is a co-developer of the Extreme Abuse Survey Series. (http://extreme-abuse-survey.net)
http://www.survivorship.org/webinars.html
Survivorship Webinar
Saturday, April 21
12 pm Pacific Time
Presenter: Wanda Karriker
"The aftereffects of extreme child abuse and the resiliency of the human spirit."
Dr. Karriker believes that to deny the existence of ritual abuse and/or mind control is to desecrate the memory of victims who died at the hands of evil and to discredit the work of all people who have striven to expose crimes in which abusive rituals, mind control techniques, and similar forms of extreme abuse have been used to sexually exploit, physically harm, emotionally torment, and spiritually damage its victims. In this webinar, she will (1) discuss the rationale for and the development of the Extreme Abuse Survey Series conducted online in English and German in 2007; (2) share responses from more than 2,000 survivors, professional helpers, and child caregivers from six continents which validate that individual survivors are not alone in their struggles with the aftereffects of these unspeakable crimes; and (3) tell webinar participants about the efforts that the EAS researchers have made and will continue to make (via a book to be published later this year in English and German) to honor their commitment to provide opportunities for the voices of extreme abuse survivors to be heard around the world.
Wanda Karriker, Ph.D. is a retired psychologist who wrote the novel, “Morning, Come Quickly,” to share what she has learned personally and professionally about the after effects of extreme child abuse and the resiliency of the human spirit. She is a co-developer of the Extreme Abuse Survey Series. (http://extreme-abuse-survey.net)
http://www.survivorship.org/webinars.html
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
CDC : 10.5 percent of all high school-age girls have been sexually assaulted
Indiana Tops Nation For Sex Assaults Of High School-Age Girls April 9, 2012 BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (CBS)
In Indiana, girls have a higher chance of becoming the victim of sexual assault than almost any other place in the country.
As WBBM Newsradio’s Michele Fiore reports, 10.5 percent of all American high school-age girls have been forced into sexual intercourse, according to a report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention....
The Herald-Times also pointed out that researching the issue is a challenge, given that up to 50 percent of sexual assaults against women are never reported, and Indiana is one of three states – along with Mississippi and New Mexico – where law enforcement is not required to report sexual violence to the FBI.
Researchers also emphasized that 80 percent or more of rape and sexual assault involves people who know each other, not strangers, the newspaper reported. http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/04/09/indiana-tops-nation-for-sex-assaults-of-high-school-age-girls/
Rape Statistics: Over 17 Percent Of High School-Age Girls In Indiana Experience Sexual Assault The Huffington Post By Carolyn Gregoire 04/9/2012
According to recent national research conducted by the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, 10.5 percent of all high school-age girls have been sexually assaulted. And in the state of Indiana, those numbers are considerable higher than nearly anywhere else in the country. 17.3 percent of girls in grades nine through 12 in the state have reported experiencing rape or sexual assault.
But these statistics may not even reflect the true scope of the issue. CBS Chicago noted that because 50 percent of sexual assaults against women are unreported, it's difficult to estimate the actual number of instances. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/09/indiana-sexual-assault-17_n_1412507.html
In Indiana, girls have a higher chance of becoming the victim of sexual assault than almost any other place in the country.
As WBBM Newsradio’s Michele Fiore reports, 10.5 percent of all American high school-age girls have been forced into sexual intercourse, according to a report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention....
The Herald-Times also pointed out that researching the issue is a challenge, given that up to 50 percent of sexual assaults against women are never reported, and Indiana is one of three states – along with Mississippi and New Mexico – where law enforcement is not required to report sexual violence to the FBI.
Researchers also emphasized that 80 percent or more of rape and sexual assault involves people who know each other, not strangers, the newspaper reported. http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/04/09/indiana-tops-nation-for-sex-assaults-of-high-school-age-girls/
Rape Statistics: Over 17 Percent Of High School-Age Girls In Indiana Experience Sexual Assault The Huffington Post By Carolyn Gregoire 04/9/2012
According to recent national research conducted by the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, 10.5 percent of all high school-age girls have been sexually assaulted. And in the state of Indiana, those numbers are considerable higher than nearly anywhere else in the country. 17.3 percent of girls in grades nine through 12 in the state have reported experiencing rape or sexual assault.
But these statistics may not even reflect the true scope of the issue. CBS Chicago noted that because 50 percent of sexual assaults against women are unreported, it's difficult to estimate the actual number of instances. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/09/indiana-sexual-assault-17_n_1412507.html
Monday, April 9, 2012
Indiana ISP owner charged with 'sextortion' of minors,ritual sex abuse interview
Indiana ISP owner charged with 'sextortion' of minors; hundreds of victims might have been targeted By M. Alex Johnson, msnbc.com 4/9/12
The owner of an Internet service provider in Indiana has been charged with blackmailing children into performing sexually explicit acts over webcams, authorities said Monday.
Richard Leon Finkbiner, age 39, of Brazil, Ind., about 50 miles southwest of Indianapolis, was charged in a federal complaint last week with sexual exploitation of children. The allegations involve two 14-year-old boys, but the FBI said in court documents that it found thousands of sexually explicit images and videos on Finkbiner's computer that suggest "several hundred" other victims.
Authorities said the "sextortion" scheme worked this way:
Using the pseudonym "Josh Swaim," Finkbiner would befriend young boys on social media and capture sexually explicit video of them they had uploaded on what they thought was an anonymous video chat site, the complaint alleges.
He would then tell them that if they didn't record more sexually explicit videos, he would release the clips online or send them to their friends, it says....
"Analysis of FINKBINER's computer and other digital media uncovered thousands of video files depicting hundreds of individuals on various states of undress or engaged in sexually explicit conduct," the FBI said in court documents. "Many, if not most, of these individuals appear to be between the ages of 14-16 years of age," it said. http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/09/11103049-indiana-isp-owner-charged-with-sextortion-of-minors-hundreds-of-victims-might-have-been-targeted
Relationships 101 – Ritual Sex Abuse of a Boy
Dr. Beth (www.drbetherickson.com) spoke with Neil Brick (ritualabuse.us/smart/neil-brick) about his experience from infancy on as a victim of the ritual sex abuse he endured. We also spoke about how being sexually abused impacts the survivor’s intimate relationships in adulthood. http://webtalkradio.net/shows/relationships-101/
The owner of an Internet service provider in Indiana has been charged with blackmailing children into performing sexually explicit acts over webcams, authorities said Monday.
Richard Leon Finkbiner, age 39, of Brazil, Ind., about 50 miles southwest of Indianapolis, was charged in a federal complaint last week with sexual exploitation of children. The allegations involve two 14-year-old boys, but the FBI said in court documents that it found thousands of sexually explicit images and videos on Finkbiner's computer that suggest "several hundred" other victims.
Authorities said the "sextortion" scheme worked this way:
Using the pseudonym "Josh Swaim," Finkbiner would befriend young boys on social media and capture sexually explicit video of them they had uploaded on what they thought was an anonymous video chat site, the complaint alleges.
He would then tell them that if they didn't record more sexually explicit videos, he would release the clips online or send them to their friends, it says....
"Analysis of FINKBINER's computer and other digital media uncovered thousands of video files depicting hundreds of individuals on various states of undress or engaged in sexually explicit conduct," the FBI said in court documents. "Many, if not most, of these individuals appear to be between the ages of 14-16 years of age," it said. http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/09/11103049-indiana-isp-owner-charged-with-sextortion-of-minors-hundreds-of-victims-might-have-been-targeted
Relationships 101 – Ritual Sex Abuse of a Boy
Dr. Beth (www.drbetherickson.com) spoke with Neil Brick (ritualabuse.us/smart/neil-brick) about his experience from infancy on as a victim of the ritual sex abuse he endured. We also spoke about how being sexually abused impacts the survivor’s intimate relationships in adulthood. http://webtalkradio.net/shows/relationships-101/
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Irish Catholic Church unable to foot $1.84 billion abuse bill
Irish Catholic Church unable to foot $1.84 billion abuse bill
Government vows to pursue every means possible to get the compensation
By Dara Kelly, IrishCentral.com Staff Writer
Sunday, April 8, 2012
The Irish Minister for Education says that religious orders in the country found culpable in the sexual abuse of children are not able to pay their share of the compensation owed to victims.
However, he also went on to say that he is still going to pursue every means possible to get the compensation from them.
The total compensation package for victims of sexual abuse is some $1.84 billion dollars and the plan was for it to be split between Irish taxpayers and religious orders where abuse took place.
The Residential Institutions Redress Scheme is the authority that makes the awards to victims of abuse....
It now seems that the onus will be placed on the taxpayer to stump up more than the 50 percent originally planned.
Quinn is trying to get the orders to hand over deeds of schools and other property assets to redress the cash shortfall, but many of the properties are now owned by trusts and not directly by the orders.
http://www.irishcentral.com/news/news_from_ireland/Irish-Catholic-Church-unable-to-foot-19-billion-abuse-bill-146552675.html
Government vows to pursue every means possible to get the compensation
By Dara Kelly, IrishCentral.com Staff Writer
Sunday, April 8, 2012
The Irish Minister for Education says that religious orders in the country found culpable in the sexual abuse of children are not able to pay their share of the compensation owed to victims.
However, he also went on to say that he is still going to pursue every means possible to get the compensation from them.
The total compensation package for victims of sexual abuse is some $1.84 billion dollars and the plan was for it to be split between Irish taxpayers and religious orders where abuse took place.
The Residential Institutions Redress Scheme is the authority that makes the awards to victims of abuse....
It now seems that the onus will be placed on the taxpayer to stump up more than the 50 percent originally planned.
Quinn is trying to get the orders to hand over deeds of schools and other property assets to redress the cash shortfall, but many of the properties are now owned by trusts and not directly by the orders.
http://www.irishcentral.com/news/news_from_ireland/Irish-Catholic-Church-unable-to-foot-19-billion-abuse-bill-146552675.html
Saturday, April 7, 2012
May Child Abuse and Ritual Abuse Newsletter
fwd with permission
May Child Abuse and Ritual Abuse Newsletter
The newest issue of the child abuse and ritual abuse newsletter is at:
http://ritualabuse.us/2012/04/issue-104-may-2012/
This issue contains information on the Powell Family Tragedy, Josh Powell, Steven Powell, Susan Powell, Miramonte Elementary School, Edgar Friedrichs Jr., Tender Care Learning Center, Matthew K. Byars, Jerry Sandusky, Penn State Abuse Scandal, John Wayne Gacy, online pedophile network, Church Puts Legal Pressure on Abuse Victims’ Group, SNAP, Dutch Church Accused of Castrating Young Men, Philadelphia Catholic Clergy Abuse Trial, Clergy Abuse Cases, Fugitive Priests, Boy Scouts Abuse Case, T.J. Lane, underage forced prostitution, Village Voice - Backpage.com, Hollie Greig case, Foreign Exchange Students Sexual Abuse Case, Children Removed from Texas Home, Survivorship Ritual Abuse and Child Abuse 2012 Conference, ritual abuse of children, When the Devil Knocks, Cheryl Rainfield, West Memphis Three, Satanic Ritual Abuse, Military and Government Experimentation Lawsuit, MK-ULTRA, Bluebird, Artichoke, Mexican Family Accused of Human Sacrifices, Santa Muerte, child abuse, trauma information, pedophilia, Child abuse and neglect costs, SYBIL in her own words, Shirley Mason, MPD, child abuse consequences, brain studies, dissociative disorders and abuse, Public Secrecy About Child Sexual Abuse, Violence Against Women, Bradley Manning, R.A. Dickey, Rapists, Vanessa Williams
Several Excellent Child Abuse Conferences will be happening this year.
The Survivorship Ritual Abuse and Child Abuse 2012 Conference - Our Healing Journey: Past, Present, Future - Two days of survivor and professional workshops, a safe room, great price, good food, safe environment, a chance to mingle with others who share your experience, a chance to move the movement forward. May 19 - 20, 2012 Survivorship will hold a conference at Executive Inn & Suite 1755 Embaracadero Oakland, CA 94606 The keynote speaker will be: Caryn Stardancer http://survivorship.org/2012conference.html
Special discounts are available this spring for those that register and pay early for the conferences below.
August 2012 Ritual Abuse Conference for Survivors
http://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/
August 2012 Ritual Abuse Conference for Clinicians
http://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/ritual-abuse-and-extreme-abuse-clinicians-conference-2012
Smart-Talks Podcast Blog
This is a collection of talks given at the annual SMART conference in Connecticut. Speakers present to tell their stories of their experiences with ritual abuse and/or mind control, their experiences treating patients with such backgrounds, or to raise awareness of the various issues surrounding recovery from ritual abuse/mind control of efforts made to raise awareness with the general public of this issue.
http://smart-talkspodcastblog.blogspot.com/
May Child Abuse and Ritual Abuse Newsletter
The newest issue of the child abuse and ritual abuse newsletter is at:
http://ritualabuse.us/2012/04/issue-104-may-2012/
This issue contains information on the Powell Family Tragedy, Josh Powell, Steven Powell, Susan Powell, Miramonte Elementary School, Edgar Friedrichs Jr., Tender Care Learning Center, Matthew K. Byars, Jerry Sandusky, Penn State Abuse Scandal, John Wayne Gacy, online pedophile network, Church Puts Legal Pressure on Abuse Victims’ Group, SNAP, Dutch Church Accused of Castrating Young Men, Philadelphia Catholic Clergy Abuse Trial, Clergy Abuse Cases, Fugitive Priests, Boy Scouts Abuse Case, T.J. Lane, underage forced prostitution, Village Voice - Backpage.com, Hollie Greig case, Foreign Exchange Students Sexual Abuse Case, Children Removed from Texas Home, Survivorship Ritual Abuse and Child Abuse 2012 Conference, ritual abuse of children, When the Devil Knocks, Cheryl Rainfield, West Memphis Three, Satanic Ritual Abuse, Military and Government Experimentation Lawsuit, MK-ULTRA, Bluebird, Artichoke, Mexican Family Accused of Human Sacrifices, Santa Muerte, child abuse, trauma information, pedophilia, Child abuse and neglect costs, SYBIL in her own words, Shirley Mason, MPD, child abuse consequences, brain studies, dissociative disorders and abuse, Public Secrecy About Child Sexual Abuse, Violence Against Women, Bradley Manning, R.A. Dickey, Rapists, Vanessa Williams
Several Excellent Child Abuse Conferences will be happening this year.
The Survivorship Ritual Abuse and Child Abuse 2012 Conference - Our Healing Journey: Past, Present, Future - Two days of survivor and professional workshops, a safe room, great price, good food, safe environment, a chance to mingle with others who share your experience, a chance to move the movement forward. May 19 - 20, 2012 Survivorship will hold a conference at Executive Inn & Suite 1755 Embaracadero Oakland, CA 94606 The keynote speaker will be: Caryn Stardancer http://survivorship.org/2012conference.html
Special discounts are available this spring for those that register and pay early for the conferences below.
August 2012 Ritual Abuse Conference for Survivors
http://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/
August 2012 Ritual Abuse Conference for Clinicians
http://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/ritual-abuse-and-extreme-abuse-clinicians-conference-2012
Smart-Talks Podcast Blog
This is a collection of talks given at the annual SMART conference in Connecticut. Speakers present to tell their stories of their experiences with ritual abuse and/or mind control, their experiences treating patients with such backgrounds, or to raise awareness of the various issues surrounding recovery from ritual abuse/mind control of efforts made to raise awareness with the general public of this issue.
http://smart-talkspodcastblog.blogspot.com/
Friday, April 6, 2012
Judge won’t dismiss misdemeanor charges against Kansas City Roman Catholic bishop, diocese
Judge won’t dismiss misdemeanor charges against Kansas City Roman Catholic bishop, diocese
By Associated Press, April 5, 2012
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A Missouri judge refused Thursday to dismiss misdemeanor charges against a Kansas City diocese and its bishop, who is the highest-ranking U.S. Roman Catholic official criminally charged with shielding an abusive priest.
Bishop Robert Finn and the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph are charged with failing to report suspected child abuse. Prosecutors say each is a “mandatory reporter” under the state law. Defense attorneys argued the law is unconstitutionally vague, and that Finn wasn’t the diocese’s designated reporter.
“This Court finds and concludes that persons of ordinary intelligence have no difficulty understanding the meaning of ‘immediately report,’” Circuit Judge John Torrence wrote in his ruling....
Finn has acknowledged he was told in December 2010 about hundreds of images of small children, some of them pornographic, found on the Rev. Shawn Ratigan’s computer - several months before the diocese turned over a disk containing the photos to local police. The bishop also has acknowledged that a parish principal raised concerns about Ratigan’s behavior around children in May 2010, half a year before the photos were found....
Finn in turn sent Ratigan out of state for a psychiatric evaluation. When the priest returned to Missouri, Finn sent him to the Sisters of St. Francis of the Holy Eucharist, where he was to say Mass for the sisters and be away from children.
The diocese went to police with the photos last May after the church received reports Ratigan had violated orders to stay away from children.
Ratigan was charged that month with three state child pornography counts. He was then charged in June with 13 federal counts of producing, possessing and attempting to produce child porn. He has pleaded not guilty and remains jailed.
Finn has claimed Vicar General Robert Murphy and a diocese review board - not the bishop - were responsible for reporting suspected images of child pornography to the state.
But prosecutors insist that as the diocese’s top manager, Finn not only was a mandatory reporter, but acknowledged as much before a grand jury.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/judge-wont-dismiss-misdemeanor-charges-against-kansas-city-roman-catholic-bishop-diocese/2012/04/05/gIQALvahxS_story.html
By Associated Press, April 5, 2012
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A Missouri judge refused Thursday to dismiss misdemeanor charges against a Kansas City diocese and its bishop, who is the highest-ranking U.S. Roman Catholic official criminally charged with shielding an abusive priest.
Bishop Robert Finn and the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph are charged with failing to report suspected child abuse. Prosecutors say each is a “mandatory reporter” under the state law. Defense attorneys argued the law is unconstitutionally vague, and that Finn wasn’t the diocese’s designated reporter.
“This Court finds and concludes that persons of ordinary intelligence have no difficulty understanding the meaning of ‘immediately report,’” Circuit Judge John Torrence wrote in his ruling....
Finn has acknowledged he was told in December 2010 about hundreds of images of small children, some of them pornographic, found on the Rev. Shawn Ratigan’s computer - several months before the diocese turned over a disk containing the photos to local police. The bishop also has acknowledged that a parish principal raised concerns about Ratigan’s behavior around children in May 2010, half a year before the photos were found....
Finn in turn sent Ratigan out of state for a psychiatric evaluation. When the priest returned to Missouri, Finn sent him to the Sisters of St. Francis of the Holy Eucharist, where he was to say Mass for the sisters and be away from children.
The diocese went to police with the photos last May after the church received reports Ratigan had violated orders to stay away from children.
Ratigan was charged that month with three state child pornography counts. He was then charged in June with 13 federal counts of producing, possessing and attempting to produce child porn. He has pleaded not guilty and remains jailed.
Finn has claimed Vicar General Robert Murphy and a diocese review board - not the bishop - were responsible for reporting suspected images of child pornography to the state.
But prosecutors insist that as the diocese’s top manager, Finn not only was a mandatory reporter, but acknowledged as much before a grand jury.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/judge-wont-dismiss-misdemeanor-charges-against-kansas-city-roman-catholic-bishop-diocese/2012/04/05/gIQALvahxS_story.html
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Powell Bragged of Knowing How to Dump Body, Mexico Santa Muerte Cult Sacrifices, Vanessa Williams "I Was Molested"
articles:
- Josh Powell Friend Says He Bragged of Knowing How to Dump a Body
- Josh Powell Bragged About Committing Perfect Crime, Friend Says
- Mexico Santa Muerte Murders: Nacozari 'Death Saint' Cult Sacrifices Lead Police To Investigate Family
- Vanessa Williams In 'You Have No Idea': 'I Was Molested'
Josh Powell Friend Says He Bragged of Knowing How to Dump a Body
By Katie Kindelan Apr 5, 2012
The friend to whom Josh Powell once bragged that he knew “how to kill someone, dispose of a body and not get caught,” according to recently revealed court documents, said it was “scary that I even had that conversation with him.”
Powell boasted at a 2008 Christmas party he attended with now-missing wife Susan that he knew how to commit the perfect crime, thanks to his obsession with television crime shows, the friend told ABC-affiliate KTVX in Salt Lake City, Utah.
The TV report did not name the friend but ABC News has identified him as Scott Hardman.
“He was basically telling me about how the best way to dispose of a body would be down a mineshaft like a vertical one,” Hardman said in the KTVX interview. “It would be the best way of disposing one because they’re so unstable.”
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/04/josh-powell-friend-says-he-bragged-of-knowing-how-to-dump-a-body/
Josh Powell Bragged About Committing Perfect Crime, Friend Says
04/5/2012 David Lohr
In another startling development, the man who alleged to police that Josh Powell bragged he "could kill someone ... and not get caught" has taken his story to ABC-affiliate KTVX in Salt Lake City, Utah.
The media outlet did not name the man but ABC News has identified him as Scott Hardman.
Speaking with KTVX, Hardman said the conversation took place at a 2008 Christmas party, roughly a year before the disappearance of Powell's wife, Susan Cox Powell.
"He was basically telling me about how the best way to dispose of a body would be down a mineshaft like a vertical one," Hardman said in the KTVX interview. "It would be the best way of disposing one because they're so unstable."
Hardman said Powell was obsessed with television crime shows and credited them with teaching him how to get away with murder....
Hardman's tip prompted police to search dozens of abandoned mines outside of Ely, Nev., but they found no evidence that Susan Powell's body had been disposed of in a shaft.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/05/josh-powell-perfect-crime_n_1406657.html
describes crimes
Mexico Santa Muerte Murders: Nacozari 'Death Saint' Cult Sacrifices Lead Police To Investigate Family By FELIPE LARIOS and ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON 04/1/12
NACOZARI, Mexico - It was a family people took pity on, one the government and church helped with free food, used clothes, and farm animals. The men were known as trash pickers. Some of the women were suspected of prostitution.
Mexican prosecutors are investigating the poor family living in shacks outside a small town near the U.S. border as alleged members of a cult that sacrificed two 10-year-old boys and a 55-year-old woman to Santa Muerte, or Saint Death, a figure adored mostly by outlaws but whose popularity is growing across Mexico and among Hispanics in the United States....
Before last week, there have only been unconfirmed reports of human sacrifices related to the figure in Mexico in recent years, said R. Andrew Chesnut, chairman of Catholic studies at Virginia Commonwealth University and author of the book "Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint."
Chesnut said the 2007 shooting deaths of three men appeared to be related to Santa Muerte because the bodies were abandoned at a shrine to the figure outside the border city of Nuevo Laredo. But they showed no signs of being sacrificial killings.
He said that although most Santa Muerte devotees consider killing a "Satanic aberration of devotion," and that books about the Santa Muerte don't mention human sacrifice, some followers are extreme.
"With no clerical authority to stop them, some practitioners engage in aberrant and even abhorrent rituals," Chesnut said.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/01/mexico-santa-muerte-murders-family-investigated-cult-killings_n_1395176.html
Vanessa Williams In 'You Have No Idea': 'I Was Molested' 04/5/2012
When it comes to Vanessa Williams, "You Have No Idea." The 49-year-old's new memoir, which carries the mysterious title, reveals within the pages that as a child, she was molested by a woman.
The incident occurred when Williams was just 10 years old, making it hard for the young girl to comprehend just what was happening to her. In the latest issue of People magazine, on stands now, Williams details an incident in which an 18-year-old girl, Susan, a friend of a family friend whom the actress described as the "epitome of cool," inappropriately touched her....
Susan told Williams, "Don't tell anyone" -- and she didn't.
Williams kept her molestation a secret for years, not knowing how to comprehend the events that transpired that night in California.
"I didn’t really understand until college," Williams said of the moment she finally realized what had happened to her. "I was with my boyfriend and it hit me and I blurted out: 'Oh my god -- I was molested.'"
Williams' startling revelation led her to "become a bit more rebellious." The beauty admits that she smoked marijuana in high school and had an abortion her senior year.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/05/vanessa-williams-molested-woman_n_1406611.html
- Josh Powell Friend Says He Bragged of Knowing How to Dump a Body
- Josh Powell Bragged About Committing Perfect Crime, Friend Says
- Mexico Santa Muerte Murders: Nacozari 'Death Saint' Cult Sacrifices Lead Police To Investigate Family
- Vanessa Williams In 'You Have No Idea': 'I Was Molested'
Josh Powell Friend Says He Bragged of Knowing How to Dump a Body
By Katie Kindelan Apr 5, 2012
The friend to whom Josh Powell once bragged that he knew “how to kill someone, dispose of a body and not get caught,” according to recently revealed court documents, said it was “scary that I even had that conversation with him.”
Powell boasted at a 2008 Christmas party he attended with now-missing wife Susan that he knew how to commit the perfect crime, thanks to his obsession with television crime shows, the friend told ABC-affiliate KTVX in Salt Lake City, Utah.
The TV report did not name the friend but ABC News has identified him as Scott Hardman.
“He was basically telling me about how the best way to dispose of a body would be down a mineshaft like a vertical one,” Hardman said in the KTVX interview. “It would be the best way of disposing one because they’re so unstable.”
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/04/josh-powell-friend-says-he-bragged-of-knowing-how-to-dump-a-body/
Josh Powell Bragged About Committing Perfect Crime, Friend Says
04/5/2012 David Lohr
In another startling development, the man who alleged to police that Josh Powell bragged he "could kill someone ... and not get caught" has taken his story to ABC-affiliate KTVX in Salt Lake City, Utah.
The media outlet did not name the man but ABC News has identified him as Scott Hardman.
Speaking with KTVX, Hardman said the conversation took place at a 2008 Christmas party, roughly a year before the disappearance of Powell's wife, Susan Cox Powell.
"He was basically telling me about how the best way to dispose of a body would be down a mineshaft like a vertical one," Hardman said in the KTVX interview. "It would be the best way of disposing one because they're so unstable."
Hardman said Powell was obsessed with television crime shows and credited them with teaching him how to get away with murder....
Hardman's tip prompted police to search dozens of abandoned mines outside of Ely, Nev., but they found no evidence that Susan Powell's body had been disposed of in a shaft.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/05/josh-powell-perfect-crime_n_1406657.html
describes crimes
Mexico Santa Muerte Murders: Nacozari 'Death Saint' Cult Sacrifices Lead Police To Investigate Family By FELIPE LARIOS and ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON 04/1/12
NACOZARI, Mexico - It was a family people took pity on, one the government and church helped with free food, used clothes, and farm animals. The men were known as trash pickers. Some of the women were suspected of prostitution.
Mexican prosecutors are investigating the poor family living in shacks outside a small town near the U.S. border as alleged members of a cult that sacrificed two 10-year-old boys and a 55-year-old woman to Santa Muerte, or Saint Death, a figure adored mostly by outlaws but whose popularity is growing across Mexico and among Hispanics in the United States....
Before last week, there have only been unconfirmed reports of human sacrifices related to the figure in Mexico in recent years, said R. Andrew Chesnut, chairman of Catholic studies at Virginia Commonwealth University and author of the book "Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint."
Chesnut said the 2007 shooting deaths of three men appeared to be related to Santa Muerte because the bodies were abandoned at a shrine to the figure outside the border city of Nuevo Laredo. But they showed no signs of being sacrificial killings.
He said that although most Santa Muerte devotees consider killing a "Satanic aberration of devotion," and that books about the Santa Muerte don't mention human sacrifice, some followers are extreme.
"With no clerical authority to stop them, some practitioners engage in aberrant and even abhorrent rituals," Chesnut said.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/01/mexico-santa-muerte-murders-family-investigated-cult-killings_n_1395176.html
Vanessa Williams In 'You Have No Idea': 'I Was Molested' 04/5/2012
When it comes to Vanessa Williams, "You Have No Idea." The 49-year-old's new memoir, which carries the mysterious title, reveals within the pages that as a child, she was molested by a woman.
The incident occurred when Williams was just 10 years old, making it hard for the young girl to comprehend just what was happening to her. In the latest issue of People magazine, on stands now, Williams details an incident in which an 18-year-old girl, Susan, a friend of a family friend whom the actress described as the "epitome of cool," inappropriately touched her....
Susan told Williams, "Don't tell anyone" -- and she didn't.
Williams kept her molestation a secret for years, not knowing how to comprehend the events that transpired that night in California.
"I didn’t really understand until college," Williams said of the moment she finally realized what had happened to her. "I was with my boyfriend and it hit me and I blurted out: 'Oh my god -- I was molested.'"
Williams' startling revelation led her to "become a bit more rebellious." The beauty admits that she smoked marijuana in high school and had an abortion her senior year.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/05/vanessa-williams-molested-woman_n_1406611.html
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Josh Powell, National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month
"Rape and sexual assault inflict profound suffering upon millions of Americans every year. Nearly one in five women has been raped, and still more have endured other forms of sexual violence or abuse."
Susan Powell's Parents: Josh Powell's Dad Knows What Happened To Missing Daughter 4/4/2012
....Josh Powell, the primary "person of interest" in the missing person case, killed himself and his two sons by setting fire to his home earlier this year. Despite evidence suggesting Josh played a role in Susan's disappearance, he was never arrested by authorities in West Valley City, Utah. As a result, Susan Powell's family believe the authorities are at least partially responsible for the death of her two sons, Braden, 5, and Charles, 7....
Court documents unsealed on Friday revealed that Susan Powell left a letter in a safety deposit box saying she did not trust her husband and that if she were to die, "it may not be an accident, even if it looks like one," the Associated Press reported.
Authorities also found Susan Powell's blood on a floor next to a sofa, which appeared to have been recently cleaned and had two fans set up to dry it.
Josh Powell, who is described in the documents as "unwilling to help" the investigation, said he took his two sons on a late-night camping trip the night Susan Powell disappeared. Investigators found Susan's cell phone in her husband's car, which he "did not have an answer" to explain, the Associated Press reported.
Susan's purse, keys and credit cards were among some of the other belongings found in the couple's bedroom. The documents also show that Susan Powell had several life insurance policies, totaling $1.5 million in value. "There is direct evidence. There is circumstantial evidence. There is motive," Pierce County prosecutor Mark Lindquist told ABC News. "There is everything but the body."
The court documents also detail an apparent obsession Steven Powell had with his daughter-in-law. In a cabinet belonging to Steven Powell, authorities found several images of Susan, some of which showed her in her underwear, while others featured her face copied onto other women's naked bodies. Another image depicted Steven Powell masturbating to an image of his daughter-in-law. According to Susan Powell's personal journals, she did not want anything to do with Steven Powell, whom she described as a pedophile.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/04/susan-powell-josh-powell-charles-judy-cox-steven-utah_n_1403293.html
Presidential Proclamation -- National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month, 2012
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION
Though we have come far in the fight to reduce sexual violence, the prevalence of sexual assault remains an affront to our national conscience that we cannot ignore. This month, we stand with survivors of sexual assault, join together to break the silence, and recommit to ending this devastating crime.
Rape and sexual assault inflict profound suffering upon millions of Americans every year. Nearly one in five women has been raped, and still more have endured other forms of sexual violence or abuse. Tragically, these crimes take their greatest toll on young people; women between the ages of 16 and 24 are at greatest risk of rape and sexual assault, and many victims, male and female, first experience abuse during childhood. The trauma of sexual violence leaves scars that may never fully heal. Many survivors experience depression, fear, and suicidal feelings in the months and years following an assault, and some face health problems that last a lifetime.
It is up to all of us to ensure victims of sexual violence are not left to face these trials alone. Too often, survivors suffer in silence, fearing retribution, lack of support, or that the criminal justice system will fail to bring the perpetrator to justice. We must do more to raise awareness about the realities of sexual assault; confront and change insensitive attitudes wherever they persist; enhance training and education in the criminal justice system; and expand access to critical health, legal, and protection services for survivors. As we fight sexual assault in our communities, so must we combat this crime within our Armed Forces.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/04/02/presidential-proclamation-national-sexual-assault-awareness-and-preventi
Susan Powell's Parents: Josh Powell's Dad Knows What Happened To Missing Daughter 4/4/2012
....Josh Powell, the primary "person of interest" in the missing person case, killed himself and his two sons by setting fire to his home earlier this year. Despite evidence suggesting Josh played a role in Susan's disappearance, he was never arrested by authorities in West Valley City, Utah. As a result, Susan Powell's family believe the authorities are at least partially responsible for the death of her two sons, Braden, 5, and Charles, 7....
Court documents unsealed on Friday revealed that Susan Powell left a letter in a safety deposit box saying she did not trust her husband and that if she were to die, "it may not be an accident, even if it looks like one," the Associated Press reported.
Authorities also found Susan Powell's blood on a floor next to a sofa, which appeared to have been recently cleaned and had two fans set up to dry it.
Josh Powell, who is described in the documents as "unwilling to help" the investigation, said he took his two sons on a late-night camping trip the night Susan Powell disappeared. Investigators found Susan's cell phone in her husband's car, which he "did not have an answer" to explain, the Associated Press reported.
Susan's purse, keys and credit cards were among some of the other belongings found in the couple's bedroom. The documents also show that Susan Powell had several life insurance policies, totaling $1.5 million in value. "There is direct evidence. There is circumstantial evidence. There is motive," Pierce County prosecutor Mark Lindquist told ABC News. "There is everything but the body."
The court documents also detail an apparent obsession Steven Powell had with his daughter-in-law. In a cabinet belonging to Steven Powell, authorities found several images of Susan, some of which showed her in her underwear, while others featured her face copied onto other women's naked bodies. Another image depicted Steven Powell masturbating to an image of his daughter-in-law. According to Susan Powell's personal journals, she did not want anything to do with Steven Powell, whom she described as a pedophile.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/04/susan-powell-josh-powell-charles-judy-cox-steven-utah_n_1403293.html
Presidential Proclamation -- National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month, 2012
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION
Though we have come far in the fight to reduce sexual violence, the prevalence of sexual assault remains an affront to our national conscience that we cannot ignore. This month, we stand with survivors of sexual assault, join together to break the silence, and recommit to ending this devastating crime.
Rape and sexual assault inflict profound suffering upon millions of Americans every year. Nearly one in five women has been raped, and still more have endured other forms of sexual violence or abuse. Tragically, these crimes take their greatest toll on young people; women between the ages of 16 and 24 are at greatest risk of rape and sexual assault, and many victims, male and female, first experience abuse during childhood. The trauma of sexual violence leaves scars that may never fully heal. Many survivors experience depression, fear, and suicidal feelings in the months and years following an assault, and some face health problems that last a lifetime.
It is up to all of us to ensure victims of sexual violence are not left to face these trials alone. Too often, survivors suffer in silence, fearing retribution, lack of support, or that the criminal justice system will fail to bring the perpetrator to justice. We must do more to raise awareness about the realities of sexual assault; confront and change insensitive attitudes wherever they persist; enhance training and education in the criminal justice system; and expand access to critical health, legal, and protection services for survivors. As we fight sexual assault in our communities, so must we combat this crime within our Armed Forces.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/04/02/presidential-proclamation-national-sexual-assault-awareness-and-preventi
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Trial: Priest joked about abusing 3 boys in week
Trial: Priest joked about abusing 3 boys in week
By MARYCLAIRE DALE 4/3/12
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Jurors in a landmark priest-abuse trial heard Monday about a priest-turned-camp prowler and another who allegedly bragged about having sex with three boys in one week....
Monsignor William Lynn is on trial for child endangerment and conspiracy. Lynn, 61, is the first Roman Catholic church official in the U.S. charged for his handling of priest-abuse complaints. Prosecutors say he helped the church bury them in secret files, far from the prying eyes of investigators, civil attorneys and concerned Catholics.
In the day's most startling testimony, a detective read internal church memos about a priest who allegedly "joked about how hard it was to have sex with three boys in one week." His accuser also stated that the priest had a "rotation process" of boys spending time sleeping with him.
Defense lawyers argue that Lynn tried to address the problem as secretary for clergy from 1992 to 2004, but was blocked by the late Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua and others in the Philadelphia archdiocese.
The testimony Monday also included a 1992 complaint about a different priest who allegedly molested boys at a church-owned camp three decades earlier.
Several junior counselors complained in the early 1960s that the priest was on the prowl at night, molesting them in their tents. They said it was a well-known secret among teen counselors for several years.
The priest remained in ministry, working at three archdiocesan high schools and serving as assistant superintendent of Catholic schools through 2004. Confronted after a man complained to the archdiocese in 1992, the priest admitted to the "sin" of masturbation and said he had read up on that subject because so many people were mentioning it in the confessional....
His 28-year-old son, Arthur Jr., died of a drug overdose in 2006, after his civil lawsuit against the church accusing his high school principal of molesting him was thrown out because of legal time limits. The former principal, a Franciscan friar, is in prison for stealing nearly $900,000 from the school and the Franciscans, some of which fed the younger Baselice's drug addiction, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors are detailing allegations made against nearly two dozen priests since 1948 to show that Lynn and other archdiocesan officials kept suspected predators in jobs around children.
On cross-examination Monday, defense lawyers Jeffrey Lindy and Thomas Bergstrom had detectives concede that Lynn promptly interviewed both complainants and accused priests, and sent the priests to a church-run hospital for mental health evaluations and treatment....
He remained there until 2004, when a church panel reviewing complaints in the wake of the national priest-abuse scandal found the allegations against him credible. The priest only then admitted molesting three boys, and explained earlier denials on the fact he had confessed and moved past it.
The archdiocese restricted his ministry — 40 years after the camp allegations first surfaced.
http://news.yahoo.com/trial-priest-joked-abusing-3-boys-week-205857367.html
By MARYCLAIRE DALE 4/3/12
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Jurors in a landmark priest-abuse trial heard Monday about a priest-turned-camp prowler and another who allegedly bragged about having sex with three boys in one week....
Monsignor William Lynn is on trial for child endangerment and conspiracy. Lynn, 61, is the first Roman Catholic church official in the U.S. charged for his handling of priest-abuse complaints. Prosecutors say he helped the church bury them in secret files, far from the prying eyes of investigators, civil attorneys and concerned Catholics.
In the day's most startling testimony, a detective read internal church memos about a priest who allegedly "joked about how hard it was to have sex with three boys in one week." His accuser also stated that the priest had a "rotation process" of boys spending time sleeping with him.
Defense lawyers argue that Lynn tried to address the problem as secretary for clergy from 1992 to 2004, but was blocked by the late Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua and others in the Philadelphia archdiocese.
The testimony Monday also included a 1992 complaint about a different priest who allegedly molested boys at a church-owned camp three decades earlier.
Several junior counselors complained in the early 1960s that the priest was on the prowl at night, molesting them in their tents. They said it was a well-known secret among teen counselors for several years.
The priest remained in ministry, working at three archdiocesan high schools and serving as assistant superintendent of Catholic schools through 2004. Confronted after a man complained to the archdiocese in 1992, the priest admitted to the "sin" of masturbation and said he had read up on that subject because so many people were mentioning it in the confessional....
His 28-year-old son, Arthur Jr., died of a drug overdose in 2006, after his civil lawsuit against the church accusing his high school principal of molesting him was thrown out because of legal time limits. The former principal, a Franciscan friar, is in prison for stealing nearly $900,000 from the school and the Franciscans, some of which fed the younger Baselice's drug addiction, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors are detailing allegations made against nearly two dozen priests since 1948 to show that Lynn and other archdiocesan officials kept suspected predators in jobs around children.
On cross-examination Monday, defense lawyers Jeffrey Lindy and Thomas Bergstrom had detectives concede that Lynn promptly interviewed both complainants and accused priests, and sent the priests to a church-run hospital for mental health evaluations and treatment....
He remained there until 2004, when a church panel reviewing complaints in the wake of the national priest-abuse scandal found the allegations against him credible. The priest only then admitted molesting three boys, and explained earlier denials on the fact he had confessed and moved past it.
The archdiocese restricted his ministry — 40 years after the camp allegations first surfaced.
http://news.yahoo.com/trial-priest-joked-abusing-3-boys-week-205857367.html
Monday, April 2, 2012
Children Killed During Cult’s Ritual Sacrifices In Mexico Border Town
Children Killed During Cult’s Ritual Sacrifices In Mexico Border Town
April 2, 2012 HERMOSILLO, Mexico (AP) — Eight people have been arrested for allegedly killing two 10-year-old boys and a 55-year-old woman in ritual sacrifices by the cult of La Santa Muerte, or Saint Death, prosecutors in northern Mexico said Friday....
The grisly slayings recalled the notorious “narco-satanicos” killings of the 1980s, when 15 bodies, many of them with signs of ritual sacrifice, were unearthed at a ranch outside the border city of Matamoros, across from Brownsville, Texas.
http://houston.cbslocal.com/2012/04/02/children-killed-during-cults-ritual-sacrifices-in-mexico-border-town/
April 2, 2012 HERMOSILLO, Mexico (AP) — Eight people have been arrested for allegedly killing two 10-year-old boys and a 55-year-old woman in ritual sacrifices by the cult of La Santa Muerte, or Saint Death, prosecutors in northern Mexico said Friday....
The grisly slayings recalled the notorious “narco-satanicos” killings of the 1980s, when 15 bodies, many of them with signs of ritual sacrifice, were unearthed at a ranch outside the border city of Matamoros, across from Brownsville, Texas.
http://houston.cbslocal.com/2012/04/02/children-killed-during-cults-ritual-sacrifices-in-mexico-border-town/
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Mexican Family Accused of Human Sacrifices
Mexican Family Accused of Human Sacrifices
Published March 30, 2012
EFE
Mexico City – Eight members of a Mexican family were arrested in the northern state of Sonora on suspicion of committing ritual murders, authorities said.
The spokesman for the state Attorney General's Office, José Larrinaga, told Efe that the arrests made on Tuesday resulted from a recent report on the disappearance of a 7-year-old boy.
He said that when questioned by police on the matter, some of the boy's family members began contradicting each other and finally confessed that they had taken the youngster's life "as a sacrifice to Santa Muerte (Holy Death)."....
He said that those in custody were interrogated about another minor whose disappearance was reported about a year ago "and they admitted to killing him as well and finally confessed that they had also slain a woman."....
The AG's office spokesman said that the investigations are continuing to determine whether there were other participants in the murders or other if more people were sacrificed.
The Santa Muerte cult, popular among drug traffickers and some other Mexican criminals, is an eccentric blend of Christianity, Indian traditions and folk beliefs that arose in the 1940s in poor Mexico City neighborhoods and subsequently spread throughout the country....
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2012/03/30/mexican-family-accused-human-sacrifices
OfrecÃan a niños como sacrificio para la Santa Muerte, en Sonora
google translate
Offered to children as a sacrifice to the Santa Muerte, Sonora
Police dig up the bones Nacozari two ten year olds and a 55. There are eight detainees of the same family - Daniel Sanchez Dorame / Correspondent 2012-03-29
Hermosillo, March 29. - The remains of three people-two boys and a woman were unearthed by police officers in the municipality of Nacozari de Garcia, Sonora. Early research suggests human sacrifices made by a family in honor of Saint Death....
So far there are eight members of one family arrested for these acts, which led the police officers to the place where they had buried their victims and confessed to the crimes perpetrated in honor of Saint Death. http://www.excelsior.com.mx/index.php?m=nota&seccion=seccion-nacional&cat=1&id_nota=822425
Published March 30, 2012
EFE
Mexico City – Eight members of a Mexican family were arrested in the northern state of Sonora on suspicion of committing ritual murders, authorities said.
The spokesman for the state Attorney General's Office, José Larrinaga, told Efe that the arrests made on Tuesday resulted from a recent report on the disappearance of a 7-year-old boy.
He said that when questioned by police on the matter, some of the boy's family members began contradicting each other and finally confessed that they had taken the youngster's life "as a sacrifice to Santa Muerte (Holy Death)."....
He said that those in custody were interrogated about another minor whose disappearance was reported about a year ago "and they admitted to killing him as well and finally confessed that they had also slain a woman."....
The AG's office spokesman said that the investigations are continuing to determine whether there were other participants in the murders or other if more people were sacrificed.
The Santa Muerte cult, popular among drug traffickers and some other Mexican criminals, is an eccentric blend of Christianity, Indian traditions and folk beliefs that arose in the 1940s in poor Mexico City neighborhoods and subsequently spread throughout the country....
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2012/03/30/mexican-family-accused-human-sacrifices
OfrecÃan a niños como sacrificio para la Santa Muerte, en Sonora
google translate
Offered to children as a sacrifice to the Santa Muerte, Sonora
Police dig up the bones Nacozari two ten year olds and a 55. There are eight detainees of the same family - Daniel Sanchez Dorame / Correspondent 2012-03-29
Hermosillo, March 29. - The remains of three people-two boys and a woman were unearthed by police officers in the municipality of Nacozari de Garcia, Sonora. Early research suggests human sacrifices made by a family in honor of Saint Death....
So far there are eight members of one family arrested for these acts, which led the police officers to the place where they had buried their victims and confessed to the crimes perpetrated in honor of Saint Death. http://www.excelsior.com.mx/index.php?m=nota&seccion=seccion-nacional&cat=1&id_nota=822425
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