Man sentenced to 165 years in prison for sexually abusing children in Haiti, Army Child Abuse Cases Jump 40% From 2009

Man sentenced to 165 years in prison for sexually abusing children in Haiti By Elisha Fieldstadt, NBC News  7/31/2013

A man who sexually abused children at a center for poor youth that he operated in Haiti was sentenced to 165 years in prison in Florida on Wednesday, according to prosecutors.

Matthew Andrew Carter, 68, was charged in February with five counts of travelling in foreign commerce from the U.S. to Haiti in order to pursue illicit sexual conduct with children and one count of attempting to do so, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of Florida. Judge Joan A. Lenard sentenced Carter to 165 years in prison — the maximum prosecutors requested during Carter's February hearing. The judge tacked on a lifetime of supervised release if he's ever freed.

A U.S. Department of Justice statement said the evidence presented at Carter’s trial showed he traveled to Haiti under the guise of helping impoverished children at a home he ran called Morning Star. The children who lived at Morning Star came from homes in which their families could not financially support them.

“For 15 years, Matthew Carter, under the guise of serving as an international humanitarian, sexually abused more than 50 Haitian children,” said acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman. “He held himself out as a savior to vulnerable children in Haiti, but in fact cruelly forced those children to choose between poverty and submitting to repeated sexual abuse,” he added....
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/07/31/19801515-man-sentenced-to-165-years-in-prison-for-sexually-abusing-children-in-haiti

Army Child Abuse Cases Jump 40% From 2009: Report (PLUS: What's Being Done About It) The Huffington Post By Eleanor Goldberg 07/31/2013
Incidents of child abuse in the Army are on the rise, an alarming trend that coincides with the return of tens of thousands of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.

According to an investigation conducted by the Army Times, 3,698 cases of Army child abuse and neglect were reported last year, a 40 percent increase from 2009.

While the military has not drawn any concrete conclusions as to why such crimes are on the rise, some experts say that abusers may be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, which could lead to their taking their frustrations out on their children. Others cited in the report were quick to note that this type of maltreatment doesn’t always come at the hands of the spouse wearing a uniform.

A 2007 Pentagon study concluded that mothers were three times more likely to mistreat their children while their soldier husbands were away, than when they were home.

Whatever the cause, the disturbing spike raises questions about how the Army investigates such cases of child abuse and the effectiveness of its advocacy programs....
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/31/army-child-abuse_n_3677851.html

The Army's hidden child abuse epidemic
30,000 kids abused, 118 killed; Army saw 40 percent increase in cases from 2009 to 2012 Jul. 29, 2013

....While the Army’s intense public attention has been focused on suicides, domestic violence and sex assaults in the ranks, Liyah is part of an epidemic of child abuse inside the Army so under the radar that even top brass were unaware of its scope and an alarming spike in cases. Nearly 30,000 children have suffered abuse or neglect in Army homes over the past decade, an Army Times investigation shows.

Beatings, torture and starvation claimed the lives of 118 Army children.

More than 1,400 children were subjected to sexual abuse.

“The Army put a lot of focus on domestic violence because there’s been a lot of political pressure,” said Dr. Rene Robichaux, social work programs manager at Army Medical Command. “There hasn’t been a concurrent interest in child abuse.”

Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. John Campbell said he was not aware of the extent of the epidemic.

When the Army suspects child abuse or neglect, Campbell said, “we’ll investigate and prosecute and try to make sure we have the right program in place to take care of the soldiers and their families and do what’s right there.”

Of the 29,552 cases of child abuse and neglect in active-duty Army families from 2003 through 2012, according to Army Central Registry data, 15,557 were committed by soldiers, the others by civilians — mostly spouses.

The Army’s rate of child abuse was 4.5 cases per 1,000 children for 2011. The civilian rate was 27.4 per 1,000 children, according to the Children’s Bureau of the Department of Health and Human Services.

But the number of Army cases has spiked 28 percent between 2008 and 2011, while the number of civilian cases has increased by 1.1 percent....
http://www.armytimes.com/article/20130729/NEWS06/306170030/The-Army-s-hidden-child-abuse-epidemic