Ex-LAUSD teacher pleads no contest to molesting students, relative
by Jeremiah Dobruck May 29, 2014
A 58-year-old former Los Angeles Unified school teacher pleaded no contest Thursday to accusations that he molested students and a relative.
Robert Pimentel, who worked at George De La Torre Jr. Elementary School in Wilmington, sexually abused four girls between 2002 and 2012, according to the Los Angeles district attorney’s office.
As part of an agreement with prosecutors, Pimentel pleaded no contest to one felony count of continuous sexual abuse and three felony counts of lewd acts on a child.
He’s expected to be sentenced to 12 years in state prison, is required to register as a sex offender and is banned from approaching his victims for 10 years....
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-wilmington-teacher-pleads-no-contest-20140529-story.html
Thursday, May 29, 2014
AnnaLynne McCord: Why I'm Done Staying Quiet About My Sexual Assault
AnnaLynne McCord: Why I'm Done Staying Quiet About My Sexual Assault
As Told To Abigail Pesta
Celebrity Interviews & Gossip May 29, 2014
Onscreen, Dallas and 90210 star AnnaLynne McCord radiates pure confidence. But before she found Hollywood success, she survived a strict, violent upbringing and a sexual assault by a close friend. Now she's speaking out to help other women who don't have a voice.
When I was on 90210 a few years ago, the character I played, Naomi, was raped by someone she knew. I welcomed the story line, thinking it was important for viewers. I memorized my lines and rehearsed the scenes. I felt ready to go. Then when the cameras were rolling on an intense scene — a fight with an unsupportive friend after the assault — I broke down, sobbing uncontrollably. My castmates thought I had done a great job playing the part. They had no idea that I had actually been sexually assaulted by someone I knew in real life.
For you to understand what happened to me and my reaction to it — burying the assault deep down inside — first you need to know a few things about my life. I’m telling my story now because I think it’s time to talk about the truth. When I was a kid, my candor got me in a lot of trouble, and I learned to stay quiet, to keep my feelings to myself. But no more. I’m in spiritual warrior mode.
http://www.cosmopolitan.com/celebrity/exclusive/annalynne-mccord-sexual-assault
AnnaLynne McCord reveals she was suicidal after childhood abuse, sexual assault: 'It's time to talk about the truth'
The '90210' actress spoke out about traumatic incidents she experienced when she was younger as a way to let women know that 'they have a voice.'
BY Kirthana Ramisetti NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Thursday, May 29, 2014
AnnaLynne McCord can no longer remain silent.
The "90210" star has opened up about being raped when she was a child, then being sexually assaulted early in her Hollywood career, revealing these traumatic incidents in the July issue of Cosmopolitan. The actress said that she had decided to speak out now to empower other women and let them know that "they have a voice."
McCord, 26, described her childhood in Monroe, Ga., as "extremely religious and conservative," with a pastor father who believed in discipline that she said was more akin to abuse, describing it as "painful and ritualistic."....
The harrowing upbringing led a teenage McCord to have unhealthy relationships with men, including provoking them to be violent toward her. "My sexual relationships were dark and violently dramatic," she said.
It was only when she discussed it with her first boyfriend that she realized her parents' disciplinary tactics were actually abuse, and she confronted them about it, calling it "an important step."
When McCord moved to Los Angeles for her acting career at age 18, she was raped by a friend who staying overnight at her apartment....
McCord was able to pull through her depression with professional help and support of her family and friends — and said she wants to help others who have gone through similar trauma, including launching a college speaking tour this fall.
"Don't put yourself in a box," McCord advises. "Don't let the polite lies of society silence you. Honestly, I would endure everything all over again - it has led me to my own revolution."
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/annalynne-mccord-opens-abuse-rape-article-1.1810337
As Told To Abigail Pesta
Celebrity Interviews & Gossip May 29, 2014
Onscreen, Dallas and 90210 star AnnaLynne McCord radiates pure confidence. But before she found Hollywood success, she survived a strict, violent upbringing and a sexual assault by a close friend. Now she's speaking out to help other women who don't have a voice.
When I was on 90210 a few years ago, the character I played, Naomi, was raped by someone she knew. I welcomed the story line, thinking it was important for viewers. I memorized my lines and rehearsed the scenes. I felt ready to go. Then when the cameras were rolling on an intense scene — a fight with an unsupportive friend after the assault — I broke down, sobbing uncontrollably. My castmates thought I had done a great job playing the part. They had no idea that I had actually been sexually assaulted by someone I knew in real life.
For you to understand what happened to me and my reaction to it — burying the assault deep down inside — first you need to know a few things about my life. I’m telling my story now because I think it’s time to talk about the truth. When I was a kid, my candor got me in a lot of trouble, and I learned to stay quiet, to keep my feelings to myself. But no more. I’m in spiritual warrior mode.
http://www.cosmopolitan.com/celebrity/exclusive/annalynne-mccord-sexual-assault
AnnaLynne McCord reveals she was suicidal after childhood abuse, sexual assault: 'It's time to talk about the truth'
The '90210' actress spoke out about traumatic incidents she experienced when she was younger as a way to let women know that 'they have a voice.'
BY Kirthana Ramisetti NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Thursday, May 29, 2014
AnnaLynne McCord can no longer remain silent.
The "90210" star has opened up about being raped when she was a child, then being sexually assaulted early in her Hollywood career, revealing these traumatic incidents in the July issue of Cosmopolitan. The actress said that she had decided to speak out now to empower other women and let them know that "they have a voice."
McCord, 26, described her childhood in Monroe, Ga., as "extremely religious and conservative," with a pastor father who believed in discipline that she said was more akin to abuse, describing it as "painful and ritualistic."....
The harrowing upbringing led a teenage McCord to have unhealthy relationships with men, including provoking them to be violent toward her. "My sexual relationships were dark and violently dramatic," she said.
It was only when she discussed it with her first boyfriend that she realized her parents' disciplinary tactics were actually abuse, and she confronted them about it, calling it "an important step."
When McCord moved to Los Angeles for her acting career at age 18, she was raped by a friend who staying overnight at her apartment....
McCord was able to pull through her depression with professional help and support of her family and friends — and said she wants to help others who have gone through similar trauma, including launching a college speaking tour this fall.
"Don't put yourself in a box," McCord advises. "Don't let the polite lies of society silence you. Honestly, I would endure everything all over again - it has led me to my own revolution."
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/annalynne-mccord-opens-abuse-rape-article-1.1810337
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
'Mind pilots' steer plane sim with thoughts alone, World Cup 2014 First Ball To Be Kicked By Paralyzed Teen With Mind-Controlled Prosthesis
'Mind pilots' steer plane sim with thoughts alone
Seven test pilots demonstrate an X-Men-like ability to steer an airplane through a flight simulation with surprising accuracy.
by Michael Franco May 27, 2014
Electrodes attached to a cap convert brain waves into signals that can be processed by the flight simulator for hands-free flying. Technische Universität München....
New research out of the Technische Universität München (TUM) in Germany is hinting that mind control might soon reach entirely new heights -- even by us non-mutants. They've demonstrated that pilots might be able to fly planes through the sky using their thoughts alone.
The researchers hooked study participants to a cap containing dozens of electroencephalography (EEG) electrodes, sat them down in a flight simulator, and told them to steer the plane through the sim using their thoughts alone. The cap read the electrical signals from their brains and an algorithm then translated those signals into computer commands.
Seven people underwent the experiment and, according to the researchers, all were able to pilot the plane using their thoughts to such a degree that their performance could have satisfied some of the criteria for getting a pilot's license....
http://www.cnet.com/news/mind-pilots-steer-a-plane-with-thoughts-alone/
World Cup 2014 First Ball To Be Kicked By Paralyzed Teen With Mind-Controlled Prosthesis From ‘The Walk Again Project’ May 26, 2014
That quote, courtesy of David Prawel, Ph. D, is sure to get your attention. According to the report from Engadget, that’s exactly what he and the folks at Colorado State University have been working on according to the video above.
It describes a high-tech prosthesis designed as part of the “Walk Again Project,” a venture described by Duke University’s Immersive Virtual Environment (DiVE) as a “nonprofit, international collaboration among the Duke University Center for Neuroengineering, the Technical University of Munich, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, the Edmond and Lily Safra International Institute of Neuroscience of Natal in Brazil, The University of California, Davis, The University of Kentucky, and Regis Kopper of The Duke immersive Virtual Environment.”
“This is the first exoskelton that is getting feedback from the volunteer,” says Colorado State Vice President of Research Alan Rudolph, Ph. D. “who’s more integrated into the device and learning how to control the device through non-invasive signals, but more importantly through providing feedback about their world as they’re learning how to re-walk or learning again how to walk inside the exoskeleton.”
According to the Washington Post, the candidate, a Brazilian teenager paralyzed from the waist down and selected from a pool of 10, has been training for months with a virtual reality simulator. His legs will be stabilized by motorized metal braces, in turn stabilized by battery-powered gyroscopes. The desired result, of course, is that he will use this Iron Man-like prosthesis to translate human thought into mechanical motion on June 12 as part of the 2014 World Cup Opening Ceremony....
http://www.inquisitr.com/1268033/the-walk-again-project/
Seven test pilots demonstrate an X-Men-like ability to steer an airplane through a flight simulation with surprising accuracy.
by Michael Franco May 27, 2014
Electrodes attached to a cap convert brain waves into signals that can be processed by the flight simulator for hands-free flying. Technische Universität München....
New research out of the Technische Universität München (TUM) in Germany is hinting that mind control might soon reach entirely new heights -- even by us non-mutants. They've demonstrated that pilots might be able to fly planes through the sky using their thoughts alone.
The researchers hooked study participants to a cap containing dozens of electroencephalography (EEG) electrodes, sat them down in a flight simulator, and told them to steer the plane through the sim using their thoughts alone. The cap read the electrical signals from their brains and an algorithm then translated those signals into computer commands.
Seven people underwent the experiment and, according to the researchers, all were able to pilot the plane using their thoughts to such a degree that their performance could have satisfied some of the criteria for getting a pilot's license....
http://www.cnet.com/news/mind-pilots-steer-a-plane-with-thoughts-alone/
World Cup 2014 First Ball To Be Kicked By Paralyzed Teen With Mind-Controlled Prosthesis From ‘The Walk Again Project’ May 26, 2014
That quote, courtesy of David Prawel, Ph. D, is sure to get your attention. According to the report from Engadget, that’s exactly what he and the folks at Colorado State University have been working on according to the video above.
It describes a high-tech prosthesis designed as part of the “Walk Again Project,” a venture described by Duke University’s Immersive Virtual Environment (DiVE) as a “nonprofit, international collaboration among the Duke University Center for Neuroengineering, the Technical University of Munich, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, the Edmond and Lily Safra International Institute of Neuroscience of Natal in Brazil, The University of California, Davis, The University of Kentucky, and Regis Kopper of The Duke immersive Virtual Environment.”
“This is the first exoskelton that is getting feedback from the volunteer,” says Colorado State Vice President of Research Alan Rudolph, Ph. D. “who’s more integrated into the device and learning how to control the device through non-invasive signals, but more importantly through providing feedback about their world as they’re learning how to re-walk or learning again how to walk inside the exoskeleton.”
According to the Washington Post, the candidate, a Brazilian teenager paralyzed from the waist down and selected from a pool of 10, has been training for months with a virtual reality simulator. His legs will be stabilized by motorized metal braces, in turn stabilized by battery-powered gyroscopes. The desired result, of course, is that he will use this Iron Man-like prosthesis to translate human thought into mechanical motion on June 12 as part of the 2014 World Cup Opening Ceremony....
http://www.inquisitr.com/1268033/the-walk-again-project/
Monday, May 26, 2014
Mass grave of up to 800 dead babies exposed in County Galway, Pope to meet abuse victims with Boston’s O’Malley, Re-Watching Woody Allen The newly-chilling themes that you can see throughout his movies
Mass grave of up to 800 dead babies exposed in County Galway
Cahir O'Doherty May 26,2014
According to a report in the Irish Mail on Sunday, a mass grave has been located beside a former home for unmarried mothers and babies in County Galway. The grave is believed to contain the bodies of up to eight hundred babies, buried on the former grounds of the institution known locally as “The Home” in Tuam, north of Galway city, between 1925 and 1961
Run by the Bon Secours nuns, “The Home” housed thousands of unmarried mothers and their “illegitimate” children over those years.
According to Irish Mail on Sunday the causes of death listed for “as many as 796 children” included “malnutrition, measles, convulsions, tuberculosis, gastroenteritis and pneumonia.”
The babies were usually buried without a coffin in a plot that had once housed “a water tank,” the report claims. No memorials were erected, the site was left unmarked and unmourned.
The staggering mortality rate of “The Home” was apparently replicated elsewhere in Ireland....
http://www.irishcentral.com/opinion/cahirodoherty/Mass-grave-of-up-to-800-dead-babies-exposed-in-County-Galway-.html
Pope to meet abuse victims with Boston’s O’Malley
By John L. Allen Jr. Globe Staff May 26, 2014
ROME — Pope Francis said Monday that he plans to celebrate a Mass with a small group of victims of sexual abuse in the coming weeks and to hold a private meeting to hear from them, a session in which Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston will also take part.
Francis also revealed that three Catholic bishops are under Vatican investigation for matters related to sexual abuse, citing those inquiries as proof that there will be no “daddy’s boys” in the clergy who enjoy special privileges on his watch.
Francis did not make it clear whether those three bishops are being investigated for abuse they are alleged to have committed or for an alleged failure to respond properly to possible abuse by others....
http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2014/05/26/pope-francis-meet-abuse-victims-with-boston-malley/6iJGjmYr3ujHBmXpQLRpTN/story.html
Re-Watching Woody Allen The newly-chilling themes that you can see throughout his movies By Stephen Marche on February 4, 2014
....Nobody except Dylan Farrow and Woody Allen knows what happened in that attic, and no one else ever will. But the sheer vividness with which Farrow recounts the experience, as well as the forum in which she does so, is enough to make even the most ardent fan reevaluate an artist's entire body of work, especially one as personal as Allen's.
So what happens when you go looking for evidence of sex crimes in Woody Allen movies? If you look, you find it, again, and again, and again....
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/culture/dylan-farrow-woody-allen-movies
Cahir O'Doherty May 26,2014
According to a report in the Irish Mail on Sunday, a mass grave has been located beside a former home for unmarried mothers and babies in County Galway. The grave is believed to contain the bodies of up to eight hundred babies, buried on the former grounds of the institution known locally as “The Home” in Tuam, north of Galway city, between 1925 and 1961
Run by the Bon Secours nuns, “The Home” housed thousands of unmarried mothers and their “illegitimate” children over those years.
According to Irish Mail on Sunday the causes of death listed for “as many as 796 children” included “malnutrition, measles, convulsions, tuberculosis, gastroenteritis and pneumonia.”
The babies were usually buried without a coffin in a plot that had once housed “a water tank,” the report claims. No memorials were erected, the site was left unmarked and unmourned.
The staggering mortality rate of “The Home” was apparently replicated elsewhere in Ireland....
http://www.irishcentral.com/opinion/cahirodoherty/Mass-grave-of-up-to-800-dead-babies-exposed-in-County-Galway-.html
Pope to meet abuse victims with Boston’s O’Malley
By John L. Allen Jr. Globe Staff May 26, 2014
ROME — Pope Francis said Monday that he plans to celebrate a Mass with a small group of victims of sexual abuse in the coming weeks and to hold a private meeting to hear from them, a session in which Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston will also take part.
Francis also revealed that three Catholic bishops are under Vatican investigation for matters related to sexual abuse, citing those inquiries as proof that there will be no “daddy’s boys” in the clergy who enjoy special privileges on his watch.
Francis did not make it clear whether those three bishops are being investigated for abuse they are alleged to have committed or for an alleged failure to respond properly to possible abuse by others....
http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2014/05/26/pope-francis-meet-abuse-victims-with-boston-malley/6iJGjmYr3ujHBmXpQLRpTN/story.html
Re-Watching Woody Allen The newly-chilling themes that you can see throughout his movies By Stephen Marche on February 4, 2014
....Nobody except Dylan Farrow and Woody Allen knows what happened in that attic, and no one else ever will. But the sheer vividness with which Farrow recounts the experience, as well as the forum in which she does so, is enough to make even the most ardent fan reevaluate an artist's entire body of work, especially one as personal as Allen's.
So what happens when you go looking for evidence of sex crimes in Woody Allen movies? If you look, you find it, again, and again, and again....
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/culture/dylan-farrow-woody-allen-movies
Sunday, May 25, 2014
'Witchhunt Narrative Retells '80s Day Care Abuse, 299,933 indecent images with 478 of the worst kind in category five, including ritual and satanic abuse, Second UN panel criticizes Vatican on sex abuse, more than three million reports of child abuse
- 'Witchhunt Narrative' Retells '80s Day Care Abuse
" an awful lot of abused children deserve an apology"
- Former company director from Dewsbury had more than 300,000 indecent images of children
"Analysis revealed he had 299,933 indecent images with 478 of the worst kind in category five, including ritual and satanic abuse."
- Second UN panel criticizes Vatican on sex abuse
- Child abuse numbers aren’t pretty
"more than three million reports of child abuse are made in the United States each year and the U.S. has one of the worst records in the world"
'Witchhunt Narrative' Retells '80s Day Care Abuse
By Wendy Murphy
WeNews contributing editor
Friday, May 23, 2014
For readers who learned about these cases from conventional media, this book will be a shocking revelation of how reporters skewed criminal cases to the disadvantage of victims. Now it seems an awful lot of abused children deserve an apology.
(WOMENSENEWS)--In his explosive new book, "The Witchhunt Narrative," Brown University Professor Ross Cheit challenges everything you think you know about the "day care center" hysteria of the 1980s.
The infamous California McMartin case, for example, was widely perceived as a terrible injustice where innocent adults were persecuted based on statements from hysterical parents, bad cops, fascist prosecutors and incompetent children. But as it turns out in this book, it wasn't such an injustice after all.
Several of the teachers charged were innocent, but the underlying claims about many children being sexually abused by Ray Buckey (aided by his mother) were quite credible....
Cheit, a lawyer with a doctorate in public policy, meticulously documents the evidence from many of the high-profile cases and proves time and time again that nearly all the day care center cases were based on credible and compelling evidence. The children in many of the stories he discusses made statements independent from one another, free from the influence of parents, police or anyone else. Contrary to the theme of much media coverage, there was no reason to suspect the children were being made to lie by vindictive parents....
http://www.womensenews.org/story/books/140521/witchhunt-narrative-retells-80s-day-care-abuse
Former company director from Dewsbury had more than 300,000 indecent images of children May 24, 2014
A former company director from Dewsbury has been exposed as a child porn pervert collecting more than 300,000 of the worst images of girls on his computer.
Stephen Kay, 58, downloaded and distributed child porn from the internet to fuel his unnatural lust. He did it behind the backs of his wife and daughter while working for the IPS Group as a project engineer.
Kay was made redundant from his job and asked to leave the family home after a police raid seized his computers, USB sticks and a hard drive from his home in Carlton Road.
Analysis revealed he had 299,933 indecent images with 478 of the worst kind in category five, including ritual and satanic abuse. In addition he had 7,795 images of category seven of extreme pornography.
Kay appeared at Hull Crown Court for sentence on Monday after pleading guilty to six charges of possession of indecent images of children and one charge of distributing images....
Kay was given a two-year suspended prison sentence, given a Sexual Offences Prevention order and must undergo a sex offenders treatment programme. He was also banned from working with children and must sign on the National Sex Offenders’ Register for 10 years.
http://www.batleynews.co.uk/news/local/former-company-director-from-dewsbury-had-more-than-300-000-indecent-images-of-children-1-6636008
Second UN panel criticizes Vatican on sex abuse
By John L. Allen Jr. Globe Staff May 23, 2014
ROME — For the second time, a United Nations panel has criticized the Vatican for its response to the child sexual abuse scandals in the Catholic Church, charging it with failing to mandate that abuse charges be reported to police, moving clergy to evade discipline, and failing to see that victims obtain adequate compensation.
“Clergy . . . were transferred to other dioceses and institutions where they remained in contact with minors and others who are vulnerable,” the United Nations Committee against Torture charged in a new report, “and in some cases committed abuse in their subsequent placements.”
The report follows a similar indictment from the Committee on the Rights of the Child that appeared in February, which asserted that the Vatican had fostered “impunity” for abusers....
Unlike the earlier UN assessment, the new report mixes criticism with praise for steps taken by the Catholic Church over the last decade to combat child abuse, including tougher legal sanctions for clergy and the creation of a new papal commission in December 2013 to press for reform. That commission includes Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston.....
At the same time, the committee suggested that pledges of zero tolerance by church officials aren’t always effectively translated into action....
In its report, the panel said it was “concerned by reports’’ that Catholic officials “resist the principle of mandatory reporting’’ of abuse allegations....
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/05/22/second-panel-criticzes-vatican-sex-abuse/YuX300eGKJYDNUPVdTXcmJ/story.html
Child abuse numbers aren’t pretty
By Patsy Kelly Friday, May 23, 2014
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) – Local children are suffering every day. It’s a hidden epidemic of child abuse and neglect.
Nationally, more than three million reports of child abuse are made in the United States each year and the U.S. has one of the worst records in the world.
More than four children die every day as a result of child abuse. And it can have long-term effects throughout the next generations....
http://wthitv.com/2014/05/23/child-abuse-numbers-arent-pretty/
" an awful lot of abused children deserve an apology"
- Former company director from Dewsbury had more than 300,000 indecent images of children
"Analysis revealed he had 299,933 indecent images with 478 of the worst kind in category five, including ritual and satanic abuse."
- Second UN panel criticizes Vatican on sex abuse
- Child abuse numbers aren’t pretty
"more than three million reports of child abuse are made in the United States each year and the U.S. has one of the worst records in the world"
'Witchhunt Narrative' Retells '80s Day Care Abuse
By Wendy Murphy
WeNews contributing editor
Friday, May 23, 2014
For readers who learned about these cases from conventional media, this book will be a shocking revelation of how reporters skewed criminal cases to the disadvantage of victims. Now it seems an awful lot of abused children deserve an apology.
(WOMENSENEWS)--In his explosive new book, "The Witchhunt Narrative," Brown University Professor Ross Cheit challenges everything you think you know about the "day care center" hysteria of the 1980s.
The infamous California McMartin case, for example, was widely perceived as a terrible injustice where innocent adults were persecuted based on statements from hysterical parents, bad cops, fascist prosecutors and incompetent children. But as it turns out in this book, it wasn't such an injustice after all.
Several of the teachers charged were innocent, but the underlying claims about many children being sexually abused by Ray Buckey (aided by his mother) were quite credible....
Cheit, a lawyer with a doctorate in public policy, meticulously documents the evidence from many of the high-profile cases and proves time and time again that nearly all the day care center cases were based on credible and compelling evidence. The children in many of the stories he discusses made statements independent from one another, free from the influence of parents, police or anyone else. Contrary to the theme of much media coverage, there was no reason to suspect the children were being made to lie by vindictive parents....
http://www.womensenews.org/story/books/140521/witchhunt-narrative-retells-80s-day-care-abuse
Former company director from Dewsbury had more than 300,000 indecent images of children May 24, 2014
A former company director from Dewsbury has been exposed as a child porn pervert collecting more than 300,000 of the worst images of girls on his computer.
Stephen Kay, 58, downloaded and distributed child porn from the internet to fuel his unnatural lust. He did it behind the backs of his wife and daughter while working for the IPS Group as a project engineer.
Kay was made redundant from his job and asked to leave the family home after a police raid seized his computers, USB sticks and a hard drive from his home in Carlton Road.
Analysis revealed he had 299,933 indecent images with 478 of the worst kind in category five, including ritual and satanic abuse. In addition he had 7,795 images of category seven of extreme pornography.
Kay appeared at Hull Crown Court for sentence on Monday after pleading guilty to six charges of possession of indecent images of children and one charge of distributing images....
Kay was given a two-year suspended prison sentence, given a Sexual Offences Prevention order and must undergo a sex offenders treatment programme. He was also banned from working with children and must sign on the National Sex Offenders’ Register for 10 years.
http://www.batleynews.co.uk/news/local/former-company-director-from-dewsbury-had-more-than-300-000-indecent-images-of-children-1-6636008
Second UN panel criticizes Vatican on sex abuse
By John L. Allen Jr. Globe Staff May 23, 2014
ROME — For the second time, a United Nations panel has criticized the Vatican for its response to the child sexual abuse scandals in the Catholic Church, charging it with failing to mandate that abuse charges be reported to police, moving clergy to evade discipline, and failing to see that victims obtain adequate compensation.
“Clergy . . . were transferred to other dioceses and institutions where they remained in contact with minors and others who are vulnerable,” the United Nations Committee against Torture charged in a new report, “and in some cases committed abuse in their subsequent placements.”
The report follows a similar indictment from the Committee on the Rights of the Child that appeared in February, which asserted that the Vatican had fostered “impunity” for abusers....
Unlike the earlier UN assessment, the new report mixes criticism with praise for steps taken by the Catholic Church over the last decade to combat child abuse, including tougher legal sanctions for clergy and the creation of a new papal commission in December 2013 to press for reform. That commission includes Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston.....
At the same time, the committee suggested that pledges of zero tolerance by church officials aren’t always effectively translated into action....
In its report, the panel said it was “concerned by reports’’ that Catholic officials “resist the principle of mandatory reporting’’ of abuse allegations....
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/05/22/second-panel-criticzes-vatican-sex-abuse/YuX300eGKJYDNUPVdTXcmJ/story.html
Child abuse numbers aren’t pretty
By Patsy Kelly Friday, May 23, 2014
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) – Local children are suffering every day. It’s a hidden epidemic of child abuse and neglect.
Nationally, more than three million reports of child abuse are made in the United States each year and the U.S. has one of the worst records in the world.
More than four children die every day as a result of child abuse. And it can have long-term effects throughout the next generations....
http://wthitv.com/2014/05/23/child-abuse-numbers-arent-pretty/
Thursday, May 22, 2014
Photo Book Documents Child Sexual Abuse in South Africa - My Piece of Sky, 'Black magic' sex abuse trial: Jury fail to reach a verdict, Falmouth pagan refused appeal involved in “ritualistic” sexual abuse of children as part of a witches' coven
- Incredibly Moving Photo Book Documents Child Sexual Abuse in South Africa
- My Piece of Sky
- A look into the heart of child sex abuse
- 'Black magic' sex abuse trial: Jury fail to reach a verdict
- Falmouth pagan pervert Petrauske refused appeal
involved in “ritualistic” sexual abuse of children as part of a witches' coven
Incredibly Moving Photo Book Documents Child Sexual Abuse in South Africa
DL Cade · May 22, 2014
Editor’s Note: None of the images in this post are graphic, but the content and captions might be upsetting to some.
Photographer Mariella Furrer has spent over a decade of her photographic career focusing on the latter, documenting the stories of the survivors and families of child sexual abuse in South Africa.
Those stories — told through her photography, through interviews, and sometimes even though victims’ artwork and poetry — come together in her 700-page book My Piece of Sky, a culmination of what might be called Furrer’s life’s work....
This photographic journey began for Furrer in 2002, when she was asked to shoot a story about infant rape in South Africa for Marie Claire. However, after realizing just how shockingly vast this problem was, she knew that a single magazine article wasn’t going to cut it.
Thus began a now 12-year-old project at the Johannesburg-based Teddy Bear Clinic for Abused Children, where she has recorded the harsh realities of child sexual abuse in incredibly raw and hard-to-stomach photographs that never reveal the children’s faces, but do a tremendous amount to further their cause and tell their stories....
http://petapixel.com/2014/05/22/incredibly-moving-photo-book-documents-sexual-abuse-south-africa/
My Piece of Sky http://www.mypieceofsky.com
A look into the heart of child sex abuse
May 21 2014 By Tanya Farber Cape Town
....On another page, but in the same orbit of horror, a young rape survivor’s legs bear the welts of lacerations she received during a satanic initiation ritual from when she was eight years old.
....But there are 700 pages in the book. And thousands upon thousands of cases in the country which both amplify one another but also mask the individual story behind each one.
Photojournalist Mariella Furrer, who captured images of child abuse in South Africa over a period of more than 10 years before publishing them herself in a book called My Piece of Sky, says it has been a personal journey.
Thirty years ago, she was a survivor of molestation by a stranger, and this made her all too aware of the impact it has on a child’s being.
“You lose your childhood really, your innocence is snatched away, and what little is left of that once-pure child is now being transformed into a sexual being, a child with knowledge of things way before her time,” she said....
http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/a-look-into-the-heart-of-child-sex-abuse-1.1691582
'Black magic' sex abuse trial: Jury fail to reach a verdict
May 22, 2014 By Liz Keen
Prosecutors have been given two weeks to decide if they will seek a retrial at Cardiff Crown Court
‘Black magic’ wife Carolee Hickman and her husband, who deny abusing a Bridgend schoolgirl 40 years ago may face a second trial after a jury failed to reach a verdict in their case after more than six hours of deliberations.
Prosecutors have been given two weeks to decide if they will seek a retrial at Cardiff Crown Court.
The alleged victim, now 52, alleges she was sexually assaulted by Hickman and raped by her husband Albert Hickman in the 1970s at their home after threats of black magic and witchcraft petrified her into submission over a period of time.
The couple deny it, saying although they were each later jailed for offences against other children - information about which is available on the Internet - there was no incident in Bridgend....
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/black-magic-sex-abuse-trial-7155519
Falmouth pagan pervert Petrauske refused appeal
Wednesday 21st May 2014 in Cornwall
A pervert involved in “ritualistic” sexual abuse of children as part of a witches' coven has failed in a bid to challenge his convictions.
Peter Helmut Petrauske was jailed for 18 years at Truro Crown Court in December 2012, after being found guilty of indecent assault, aiding and abetting an attempt to rape and rape.
The 74-year-old, of Falmouth, yesterday (Tuesday) launched an attempt to have his convictions overturned at London's Criminal Appeal Court.
He maintained his denials, saying he had never had any sexual interest in children and argued that evidence of his “bad character” should not have been disclosed to jurors at his trial, as it was “prejudicial” to his defence.
But his appeal was rejected by three of the country's top judges, who said his trial was fair and his convictions “safe.”
Petrauske and his accomplice, 71-year-old Jack Kemp, also of Falmouth, were said to have worn ceremonial robes and had pagan paraphernalia when they abused girls in Cornwall during the 1970s.
Petrauske described himself as the high priest of a white witches' coven in St Ives, west Cornwall....
Kemp was also found guilty of indecent assault and indecency with a child, and was jailed for 14 years....
http://www.thisisthewestcountry.co.uk/news/cornwall_news/11225477.Falmouth_pagan_pervert_Petrauske_refused_appeal/
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
Police: Woman found 10 years after kidnapping, Dozens charged in New York City child porn case, Atlanta elementary school principal indicted in sex sting, Ian Watkins: Six police officers accused of 'gross misconduct' over investigations into paedophile singer, Nebraskan convicted in '85 cult murder gets commutation
Police: Woman found 10 years after kidnapping By GILLIAN FLACCUS of Associated Press 5/21/14 SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP)
A woman who disappeared as a teenager a decade ago was reunited with her family after she went to police and told them her mother's ex-boyfriend drugged and kidnapped her in 2004, forced her to marry him and fathered her child.
Isidro Garcia, 41, of Bell Gardens, was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping for rape, lewd acts with a minor and false imprisonment, the Santa Ana Police Department police said.
Police described a decade during which the victim — abused mentally, physically and sexually by her captor — was moved at least four times and given multiple fake identities to hide her from family and authorities.
Garcia allegedly told her that her family had stopped trying to find her, and that if she tried to contact them they would be deported.
"Even with the opportunity to escape, after years of physical and mental abuse, the victim saw no way out of her situation and lived a life with Garcia under sustained physical and mental abuse," police said in a written statement.
Neighbors were stunned, describing them as a seemingly happy couple who doted on their young daughter and liked to host parties at their apartment in the working-class community of Bell Gardens, about 20 miles from where she originally disappeared....
http://news.msn.com/crime-justice/california-kidnapping-sexual-assault-victim-found-alive-after-10-years-captor-arrested
Dozens charged in New York City child porn case By TOM HAYS of Associated Press 5/21/14 NEW YORK (AP) — A police officer, a paramedic, a rabbi, a nurse and a Boy Scout leader were among at least 70 people arrested in the New York City area in recent weeks as part of a sweeping investigation into the anonymous trading of child porn over the Internet.
The five were among at least 70 men and one woman charged in a five-week operation by the Homeland Security Investigations arm of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Federal officials, who planned to announce the arrests a news conference later Wednesday, call it one of the largest local roundups ever of people who collect images of children having sex — and a stark reminder that they come from all segments of society.
Consuming child porn "is not something that is just done by unemployed drifters who live in their parent's basement," said James Hayes, of ICE's New York office. "If this operation does anything, it puts the lie to the belief that the people who do this are not productive members of society."
Authorities say an alarming number of the defendants had access to young children, though there were no reports of abuse. The Boy Scout leader also coached a youth baseball team. The rabbi home-schooled his children and others. Another person had hidden cameras used to secretly film his children's friends.
One defendant was already on bail following his arrest last year on charges he used the Internet to direct women to record sex acts with young children. Court papers allege he "indicated the last video he had downloaded and viewed depicted a mother sexually abusing her 3- or 4-year-old child."....
http://news.msn.com/crime-justice/dozens-charged-in-new-york-city-child-porn-case
Atlanta elementary school principal indicted in sex sting By Reuters 5/9/14 ATLANTA (Reuters)
A suburban Atlanta elementary school principal has been indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly trying to entice a minor female to have sex with him, court records showed on Friday.
John McGill, 56, was arrested in March in a Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) sting operation called Operation Broken Heart. The investigation was aimed at people who meet children online and then travel to meet them for sex, according to the GBI.
McGill was one of 14 people arrested in the operation, the GBI said. He was suspended after the arrest, the school system announced....
http://news.msn.com/crime-justice/atlanta-elementary-school-principal-indicted-in-sex-sting
Ian Watkins: Six police officers accused of 'gross misconduct' over investigations into paedophile singer May 21, 2014 By Cathy Owen
One officer from South Wales Police, three from South Yorkshire Police and two from Bedfordshire Police have been served with the notices The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has served gross misconduct notices on three South Yorkshire Police officers, two Bedfordshire Police officers and a South Wales police officer as part of its ongoing investigations into the handling of allegations against Ian Watkins, it was announced today....
The IPCC is also investigating Bedfordshire Police's handling of information from a member of the public who reported an allegation of child abuse against Watkins to the force in October 2012. A sergeant and a constable have been served with notices advising them their conduct is under investigation.... http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/ian-watkins-six-police-officers-7150665
describes violence
Nebraskan convicted in '85 cult murder gets commutation Grant Schulte, Associated Press May 20, 2014 LINCOLN, Neb.
A Nebraskan who participated in a gruesome, cult-related murder in 1985 was granted a rare commutation Tuesday that will end his lifetime parole sentence later this year.
The Nebraska Board of Pardons voted unanimously to grant Timothy Haverkamp's request to stop his parole supervision. Haverkamp was released from his prison in 2009 after serving 23 years of a 10-years-to-life sentence....
Haverkamp, 52, was convicted of second-degree murder for his role in the torture and murder of James Thimm, a fellow cult member, at a farm compound near Rulo in southeastern Nebraska. He pleaded guilty and later testified against cult leader Michael Ryan, who remains on death row. Haverkamp also was a key witness against Ryan's son, Dennis....
Michael Ryan ordered Thimm's murder because he had displeased Yahweh, their god. Michael Ryan also was convicted in the beating death of the 5-year-old son of a cult member.
The Ryans and about 20 cult members lived on the farm. The group hated Jews and stored weapons in preparation for a final battle between good and evil....
http://www.argusleader.com/story/news/crime/2014/05/21/nebraskan-convicted-cult-murder-gets-commutation/9363277
A woman who disappeared as a teenager a decade ago was reunited with her family after she went to police and told them her mother's ex-boyfriend drugged and kidnapped her in 2004, forced her to marry him and fathered her child.
Isidro Garcia, 41, of Bell Gardens, was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping for rape, lewd acts with a minor and false imprisonment, the Santa Ana Police Department police said.
Police described a decade during which the victim — abused mentally, physically and sexually by her captor — was moved at least four times and given multiple fake identities to hide her from family and authorities.
Garcia allegedly told her that her family had stopped trying to find her, and that if she tried to contact them they would be deported.
"Even with the opportunity to escape, after years of physical and mental abuse, the victim saw no way out of her situation and lived a life with Garcia under sustained physical and mental abuse," police said in a written statement.
Neighbors were stunned, describing them as a seemingly happy couple who doted on their young daughter and liked to host parties at their apartment in the working-class community of Bell Gardens, about 20 miles from where she originally disappeared....
http://news.msn.com/crime-justice/california-kidnapping-sexual-assault-victim-found-alive-after-10-years-captor-arrested
Dozens charged in New York City child porn case By TOM HAYS of Associated Press 5/21/14 NEW YORK (AP) — A police officer, a paramedic, a rabbi, a nurse and a Boy Scout leader were among at least 70 people arrested in the New York City area in recent weeks as part of a sweeping investigation into the anonymous trading of child porn over the Internet.
The five were among at least 70 men and one woman charged in a five-week operation by the Homeland Security Investigations arm of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Federal officials, who planned to announce the arrests a news conference later Wednesday, call it one of the largest local roundups ever of people who collect images of children having sex — and a stark reminder that they come from all segments of society.
Consuming child porn "is not something that is just done by unemployed drifters who live in their parent's basement," said James Hayes, of ICE's New York office. "If this operation does anything, it puts the lie to the belief that the people who do this are not productive members of society."
Authorities say an alarming number of the defendants had access to young children, though there were no reports of abuse. The Boy Scout leader also coached a youth baseball team. The rabbi home-schooled his children and others. Another person had hidden cameras used to secretly film his children's friends.
One defendant was already on bail following his arrest last year on charges he used the Internet to direct women to record sex acts with young children. Court papers allege he "indicated the last video he had downloaded and viewed depicted a mother sexually abusing her 3- or 4-year-old child."....
http://news.msn.com/crime-justice/dozens-charged-in-new-york-city-child-porn-case
Atlanta elementary school principal indicted in sex sting By Reuters 5/9/14 ATLANTA (Reuters)
A suburban Atlanta elementary school principal has been indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly trying to entice a minor female to have sex with him, court records showed on Friday.
John McGill, 56, was arrested in March in a Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) sting operation called Operation Broken Heart. The investigation was aimed at people who meet children online and then travel to meet them for sex, according to the GBI.
McGill was one of 14 people arrested in the operation, the GBI said. He was suspended after the arrest, the school system announced....
http://news.msn.com/crime-justice/atlanta-elementary-school-principal-indicted-in-sex-sting
Ian Watkins: Six police officers accused of 'gross misconduct' over investigations into paedophile singer May 21, 2014 By Cathy Owen
One officer from South Wales Police, three from South Yorkshire Police and two from Bedfordshire Police have been served with the notices The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has served gross misconduct notices on three South Yorkshire Police officers, two Bedfordshire Police officers and a South Wales police officer as part of its ongoing investigations into the handling of allegations against Ian Watkins, it was announced today....
The IPCC is also investigating Bedfordshire Police's handling of information from a member of the public who reported an allegation of child abuse against Watkins to the force in October 2012. A sergeant and a constable have been served with notices advising them their conduct is under investigation.... http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/ian-watkins-six-police-officers-7150665
describes violence
Nebraskan convicted in '85 cult murder gets commutation Grant Schulte, Associated Press May 20, 2014 LINCOLN, Neb.
A Nebraskan who participated in a gruesome, cult-related murder in 1985 was granted a rare commutation Tuesday that will end his lifetime parole sentence later this year.
The Nebraska Board of Pardons voted unanimously to grant Timothy Haverkamp's request to stop his parole supervision. Haverkamp was released from his prison in 2009 after serving 23 years of a 10-years-to-life sentence....
Haverkamp, 52, was convicted of second-degree murder for his role in the torture and murder of James Thimm, a fellow cult member, at a farm compound near Rulo in southeastern Nebraska. He pleaded guilty and later testified against cult leader Michael Ryan, who remains on death row. Haverkamp also was a key witness against Ryan's son, Dennis....
Michael Ryan ordered Thimm's murder because he had displeased Yahweh, their god. Michael Ryan also was convicted in the beating death of the 5-year-old son of a cult member.
The Ryans and about 20 cult members lived on the farm. The group hated Jews and stored weapons in preparation for a final battle between good and evil....
http://www.argusleader.com/story/news/crime/2014/05/21/nebraskan-convicted-cult-murder-gets-commutation/9363277
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
President Obama signs child abuse bill honoring Kilah Davenport
President Obama signs child abuse bill honoring Kilah Davenport
Geoff Bennett, Washington, D.C. Bureau Tuesday, May 20, 2014
NATIONWIDE -- President Obama signed the Kilah Davenport Child Protection Act into law on Tuesday.
Republican Congressman Robert Pittenger introduced the bill in honor of a young North Carolina girl.
Republican Congressman Robert Pittenger repeatedly used the word “grateful” to describe how he feels now that President Obama has signed the Kilah Davenport Child Protection Act into law.
It's named in memory of 4-year-old Kilah Davenport, who was severely beaten by her stepfather in Union County back in 2012. Kilah Davenport died from those injuries earlier this year....
The law requires the Department of Justice to investigate state child abuse laws to make sure abusers are appropriately punished. North Carolina was among the states that had incredibly lenient child abuse laws and criminal penalties....
http://triadnc.twcnews.com/content/news/707897/president-obama-signs-child-abuse-bill-honoring-kilah-davenport
Geoff Bennett, Washington, D.C. Bureau Tuesday, May 20, 2014
NATIONWIDE -- President Obama signed the Kilah Davenport Child Protection Act into law on Tuesday.
Republican Congressman Robert Pittenger introduced the bill in honor of a young North Carolina girl.
Republican Congressman Robert Pittenger repeatedly used the word “grateful” to describe how he feels now that President Obama has signed the Kilah Davenport Child Protection Act into law.
It's named in memory of 4-year-old Kilah Davenport, who was severely beaten by her stepfather in Union County back in 2012. Kilah Davenport died from those injuries earlier this year....
The law requires the Department of Justice to investigate state child abuse laws to make sure abusers are appropriately punished. North Carolina was among the states that had incredibly lenient child abuse laws and criminal penalties....
http://triadnc.twcnews.com/content/news/707897/president-obama-signs-child-abuse-bill-honoring-kilah-davenport
Monday, May 19, 2014
Pamela Anderson reveals childhood sexual abuse, Black Magic Rituals, Minnesota cult leader called the girls 'brides of Christ' and he was 'Christ'
- Former fireman Albert Hickman, 64, is accused of raping a Bridgend schoolgirl more than 40 years ago - black magic rituals
- Minnesota cult leader called the girls 'brides of Christ' and he was 'Christ'
- Pamela Anderson reveals childhood sexual abuse, launches charity
'If I wanted to pin anybody down on the floor I don’t need the help of another person,' rape accused tells court
May 19, 2014 By Liz Keen
Former fireman Albert Hickman, 64, is accused of raping a Bridgend schoolgirl more than 40 years ago
A man accused of raping a Bridgend schoolgirl while his ‘black magic’ wife held her down told a jury he would not have needed any help to assault a child.
Former “fit” fireman and RAF mechanic Albert Hickman said the allegation, dating back 40 years, when there were allegedly books on witchcraft as well as pornography at his home, was not true....
Hickman, now 64, admitted being jailed for 10 years in the 1980s for the rape of a 13-year-old girl in Shropshire but said while he was stationed at RAF St Athan and attending Salvation Army meetings with his wife several years before he did no such thing.
The alleged victim, now 52, has told the jury she would ‘mitch off’ school and go to the Hickmans’ house after being befriended by his wife Carolee, who herself has admitted holding down another girl for a man to have sex with her during a black magic ritual.
The woman has accused Mrs Hickman of kissing and touching her over a period of time, frightening her into submission with witchcraft, before helping her husband commit rape....
He said he was never involved in black magic rituals himself and if ceremonies did take place at any of their homes he was unaware of it....
The couple were divorced while he served his sentence for abuse and his wife was serving a five-year term but later remarried - after she had had a second husband....
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/rape-accused-albert-hickman-says-7142685
Minnesota cult leader called the girls 'brides of Christ' - and he was 'Christ' By Karl Kahler Special to the Pioneer Press 05/19/2014
Lindsay Tornambe was just 13 when her parents dropped her off at a Christian camp in Pine County, Minn., where a charismatic cult leader had summoned her to be one of his 10 "Maidens" -- virgins who were to be "sacrificed to God" by being married to Christ.
"He started explaining that having sex with me was his way of showing me God's love, and that because he was Christ in the flesh, I could still remain a virgin even though I had sex with him," she said.
Now 27, Tornambe says she endured nine years of sexual abuse by Victor Barnard, 52, the head of a secretive cult who is believed to be hiding with followers in the state of Washington after he was charged last month in Minnesota with 59 counts of criminal sexual conduct -- chiefly charges of child rape.
I remember Barnard well, as I went to Bible college with him in Kansas in the 1980s, when we were both members of The Way International, a notorious Christian cult based in Ohio. In fact, I recognize the playbook he is alleged to have used to justify the sexual abuse of trusting followers, because he would have learned it from our former masters in The Way....
Karl Kahler is national editor of the San Jose Mercury News and author of "The Cult That Snapped: A Journey Into The Way International."
http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_25783953/victor-barnard-called-girls-brides-christ-and-he
Pamela Anderson reveals childhood sexual abuse, launches charity
The "Baywatch" star turned animal and environmental activist says she was sexually abused as a child and as a teen. Pamela Anderson made the revelations at a Cannes Film Festival event, where she launched her namesake foundation.
Christie D'Zurilla
Pamela Anderson has revealed a history of sexual assault, ticking off instances of molestation, rape and gang rape. Her revelations occurred at a charity event held on a luxury yacht at the Cannes Film Festival.
The "Baywatch" star and activist, 46, chose the occasion, which she co-hosted with Vivienne Westwood, to launch the Pamela Anderson Foundation, dedicated to "human, animal and environmental rights."....
"I did not have an easy childhood," Anderson said. "Despite loving parents, I was molested from age 6 to 10 by my female babysitter."....
"I went to a friend's boyfriend's house," she continued. "While she was busy, the boyfriend's older brother decided he would teach me backgammon, which led into a back massage, which led into rape -- my first heterosexual experience. He was 25 years old, I was 12."....
"My first boyfriend in grade 9 decided it would be funny to gang rape me, with six of his friends. Needless to say, I had a hard time trusting humans. I just wanted off this Earth."
Anderson said she couldn't tell her mother, whom she saw as already carrying too heavy of a burden, but instead turned toward animals and nature....
She told the Cannes audience that since finding her "voice" after "Baywatch," she'd helped change animal-welfare laws in more than 20 countries.
"I've spoken to press, parliament, presidents, kings, queens ... I know what I'm good at: I'm brilliant at connecting people -- communicating."
She also thanked Rick Salomon, her third and fourth husband, for his support, calling him the "only man" she trusts, other than her sons.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/gossip/la-et-mg-pamela-anderson-sexual-abuse-rape-20140519-story.html
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Pedophile teacher abused dozens as clues missed, Nigeria: How Two Teenage Students Escaped Ritual Murder in Gboko
Pedophile teacher abused dozens as clues missed
Michael Weissenstein and Tami Abdollah, Associated Press
FBI regards William Vahey as one of the most prolific pedophiles in memory.
He was one of the most beloved teachers in the world of international schools that serve the children of diplomats, well-off Americans and local elites. He was often the first to arrive in the morning, and last to leave. He led student trips to exotic places and gave out cookies and milk at bedtime.
That was the public persona of William Vahey until a maid stole a memory drive from him in November. On it was evidence that Vahey had molested scores of adolescent boys, possibly more.
The discovery of a man the FBI regards as one of the most prolific pedophiles in memory has set off a crisis in the community of international schools, where parents are being told their children may have been victims, and administrators are scurrying to close loopholes exposed by Vahey's abuses.
Apparently, not even Vahey's victims knew they had been molested. The double-cream Oreos that he handed out were laced with sleeping pills — enough to leave the boys unconscious as he touched them and posed them for nude photographs....
There were decades of missed opportunities to expose Vahey. An early California sex-abuse conviction didn't prevent him taking a series of jobs exposing him to children. Colleagues and supervisors failed to question why he was so often with boys overnight. And at least twice, boys fell mysteriously ill while under his care, and there was no investigation of Vahey's role.
In 1969, Vahey was arrested on child sexual abuse charges after police said he pinched the penises of eight boys, ages 7 to 9, at an Orange County, California, high school where he taught swimming. Vahey, then 20, told authorities he had started touching boys without their consent at age 14.
He pleaded guilty to a single charge of lewd and lascivious behavior. He received a 90-day jail sentence and five years' probation. After two, he was allowed to leave the country unsupervised in January 1972.
Vahey was required to register as a sex offender and update his address whenever he moved, but he never updated his information after the first time he registered and authorities didn't pursue the matter. When the state registry was put online in 2004, his name wasn't included because authorities discovered he was no longer living in California....
In early March, the maid handed the USB drive to school director Gloria Doll. On it, she found photos of unconscious boys, many blonde or red-headed and between the ages of 12 and 14, often being touched by Vahey.
Doll confronted Vahey, who told her, according to an FBI affidavit, that he had given the boys sleeping pills, adding: "I was molested as a boy, that is why I do this. I have been doing this my whole life."
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/05/13/pedophile-teacher-vahey/9026405/
Nigeria: How Two Teenage Students Escaped Ritual Murder in Gboko
By Peter Duru, 14 May 2014
Makurdi — A 13-year-old Junior Secondary II student of Government Secondary School Gboko, Dooyum Moar, and another female student of Gkoko High School, narrowly escaped being beheaded by a ritualist after being kidnapped by a commercial vehicle operator in Makurdi....
"My son said they were taken to a forest in Gboko where the kids were tied to the ground and presented before an aged woman in a shrine who wanted to behead them for rituals, but later changed her mind.
"At this time, my son said they were crying and begging for mercy, then the woman handed a machete to one of the kidnappers, instructing that they should be killed on their way back.
"However, by divine intervention, the kidnappers did not kill them as instructed, but dumped them at Apir on the outskirts of Makurdi, where a good Samaritan picked them up."....
http://allafrica.com/stories/201405140066.html
Michael Weissenstein and Tami Abdollah, Associated Press
FBI regards William Vahey as one of the most prolific pedophiles in memory.
He was one of the most beloved teachers in the world of international schools that serve the children of diplomats, well-off Americans and local elites. He was often the first to arrive in the morning, and last to leave. He led student trips to exotic places and gave out cookies and milk at bedtime.
That was the public persona of William Vahey until a maid stole a memory drive from him in November. On it was evidence that Vahey had molested scores of adolescent boys, possibly more.
The discovery of a man the FBI regards as one of the most prolific pedophiles in memory has set off a crisis in the community of international schools, where parents are being told their children may have been victims, and administrators are scurrying to close loopholes exposed by Vahey's abuses.
Apparently, not even Vahey's victims knew they had been molested. The double-cream Oreos that he handed out were laced with sleeping pills — enough to leave the boys unconscious as he touched them and posed them for nude photographs....
There were decades of missed opportunities to expose Vahey. An early California sex-abuse conviction didn't prevent him taking a series of jobs exposing him to children. Colleagues and supervisors failed to question why he was so often with boys overnight. And at least twice, boys fell mysteriously ill while under his care, and there was no investigation of Vahey's role.
In 1969, Vahey was arrested on child sexual abuse charges after police said he pinched the penises of eight boys, ages 7 to 9, at an Orange County, California, high school where he taught swimming. Vahey, then 20, told authorities he had started touching boys without their consent at age 14.
He pleaded guilty to a single charge of lewd and lascivious behavior. He received a 90-day jail sentence and five years' probation. After two, he was allowed to leave the country unsupervised in January 1972.
Vahey was required to register as a sex offender and update his address whenever he moved, but he never updated his information after the first time he registered and authorities didn't pursue the matter. When the state registry was put online in 2004, his name wasn't included because authorities discovered he was no longer living in California....
In early March, the maid handed the USB drive to school director Gloria Doll. On it, she found photos of unconscious boys, many blonde or red-headed and between the ages of 12 and 14, often being touched by Vahey.
Doll confronted Vahey, who told her, according to an FBI affidavit, that he had given the boys sleeping pills, adding: "I was molested as a boy, that is why I do this. I have been doing this my whole life."
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/05/13/pedophile-teacher-vahey/9026405/
Nigeria: How Two Teenage Students Escaped Ritual Murder in Gboko
By Peter Duru, 14 May 2014
Makurdi — A 13-year-old Junior Secondary II student of Government Secondary School Gboko, Dooyum Moar, and another female student of Gkoko High School, narrowly escaped being beheaded by a ritualist after being kidnapped by a commercial vehicle operator in Makurdi....
"My son said they were taken to a forest in Gboko where the kids were tied to the ground and presented before an aged woman in a shrine who wanted to behead them for rituals, but later changed her mind.
"At this time, my son said they were crying and begging for mercy, then the woman handed a machete to one of the kidnappers, instructing that they should be killed on their way back.
"However, by divine intervention, the kidnappers did not kill them as instructed, but dumped them at Apir on the outskirts of Makurdi, where a good Samaritan picked them up."....
http://allafrica.com/stories/201405140066.html
Sunday, May 11, 2014
Bill changes requirements for reporting child abuse
Bill changes requirements for reporting child abuse&
By Kristen Doerschner
Sunday, May 11, 2014
It took nine years and a national scandal for a bill that strengthens child abuse reporting requirements for school employees to make its way through the Legislature.
The bill -- which cleared the House on March 18 and the Senate Wednesday -- was first introduced in 2005 by Sen. Wayne D. Fontana, D-42, Pittsburgh. Fontana, determined to see the bill become law, said he has re-introduced the bill every session since then.
The bill was presented to Gov. Tom Corbett Thursday, and, after it is signed, it will take effect Dec. 31.
Two of the major changes regard who is required to report suspected abuse to the authorities and what types of injuries can be investigated.
School employees and anyone who provides a school-sponsored program, activity or service will be required to report suspect child abuse directly to the Department of Public Welfare’s ChildLine and to their school administrator.
http://www.timesonline.com/news/local_news/bill-changes-requirements-for-reporting-child-abuse/article_b250587e-3076-57bf-a883-c3d2744d9b58.html
By Kristen Doerschner
Sunday, May 11, 2014
It took nine years and a national scandal for a bill that strengthens child abuse reporting requirements for school employees to make its way through the Legislature.
The bill -- which cleared the House on March 18 and the Senate Wednesday -- was first introduced in 2005 by Sen. Wayne D. Fontana, D-42, Pittsburgh. Fontana, determined to see the bill become law, said he has re-introduced the bill every session since then.
The bill was presented to Gov. Tom Corbett Thursday, and, after it is signed, it will take effect Dec. 31.
Two of the major changes regard who is required to report suspected abuse to the authorities and what types of injuries can be investigated.
School employees and anyone who provides a school-sponsored program, activity or service will be required to report suspect child abuse directly to the Department of Public Welfare’s ChildLine and to their school administrator.
http://www.timesonline.com/news/local_news/bill-changes-requirements-for-reporting-child-abuse/article_b250587e-3076-57bf-a883-c3d2744d9b58.html
Friday, May 9, 2014
Zim border posts conduits for human trafficking, Child abuse at George Osborne's old school and a scandal that grows ever darker
"Representing an estimated $32 billion of the illegal international trade estimated at $650 billion per annum, human trafficking is the third largest income earning transnational organised crime, coming after drugs and arms trafficking."
Zim border posts conduits for human trafficking
May 9, 2014 in Feature Story Andrew Kunambura
Stories about human trafficking often appear to be fictitious Western-style movie material set in far-away places like cities in Mexico, Argentina, Pakistan, small towns in countries across the seas like Vietnam or rural parts of Cuba, but it in reality happens in cities, towns and villages all over the world.
Zimbabwe is apparently deeply involved in the criminal activity. The United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime, commonly known as the Palermo Protocol, defines human trafficking as “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of threat or use of force or other means of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability for purposes of exploitation”.
Adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2000, the protocol states prostitution, sexual abuse, forced labour or services, slavery, servitude or the ritual removal of organs as the major forms of exploitation victims are subjected to.
Zimbabwe’s young women, men and children are being trafficked at an alarming rate to other countries where they are forced to work as sex slaves in brothels or give slave labour in factories, mines, farms and other businesses.
Tempted by needs, hopes and dreams, victims encounter their traders who in turn are driven by profit, the need to possess and a will to deceive, exploit and violate laws. Minors are also being trafficked for ritual purposes and domestic servitude....
Representing an estimated $32 billion of the illegal international trade estimated at $650 billion per annum, human trafficking is the third largest income earning transnational organised crime, coming after drugs and arms trafficking....
https://www.newsday.co.zw/2014/05/09/zim-border-posts-conduits-human-trafficking/
Child abuse at George Osborne's old school and a scandal that grows ever darker
Allegations of historic sex abuse made against St John's School, London
Former pupils include Chancellor George Osborne and Dominic Grieve
Teacher Anthony Fuggle arrested in September after indecent images found
Arrest emerged last week, bringing abuse allegations into present day
Fellow teacher Tim Harbord was also arrested but later cleared by police
By Paul Bracchi and Tim Stewart 9 May 2014
Back in March, when the revelations first came to light, six teachers were implicated in the suspected sexual abuse of boys as young as ten between the Sixties and Eighties.
Former pupils who came forward claimed the authorities at St Paul’s hushed up the wrongdoing. Among the perpetrators, the former pupils alleged, was a housemaster who fondled boys in the dormitory, a choirmaster who paid boys half a crown after molesting them, a teacher who beat ‘naughty’ boys, and a maths tutor who kept a register of pupils he punished in private spanking sessions.
Now the number of suspects has risen from six to 18 — ten of whom taught at Colet Court and eight at St Paul’s. Some of the former schoolmasters are no longer alive.
A Scotland Yard detective, who headed the Jimmy Savile inquiry, is leading the St Paul’s investigation, which has been given its own codename: Operation Winthorpe....
It has been reported that visitors to the Elm, as it was known, included members of the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE), the pressure group that campaigned in the Seventies to lower the age of consent to four.
A former teacher at Colet Court was also a member of PIE during this period: choir- master Alan Doggett. There was gossip among his pupils that ‘half a crown’ was the ‘going rate for a session with Doggett’. They even coined a new verb — to ‘be Doggoed’, ie, groped and fondled.
Doggett took his own life in 1978, shortly after leaving Colet Court. Just hours before his death, he appeared before West London magistrates, charged with two indecent assaults on a ten-year-old boy from another school....
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2624730/Child-abuse-George-Osbornes-old-school-scandal-grows-darker.html
Zim border posts conduits for human trafficking
May 9, 2014 in Feature Story Andrew Kunambura
Stories about human trafficking often appear to be fictitious Western-style movie material set in far-away places like cities in Mexico, Argentina, Pakistan, small towns in countries across the seas like Vietnam or rural parts of Cuba, but it in reality happens in cities, towns and villages all over the world.
Zimbabwe is apparently deeply involved in the criminal activity. The United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime, commonly known as the Palermo Protocol, defines human trafficking as “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of threat or use of force or other means of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability for purposes of exploitation”.
Adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2000, the protocol states prostitution, sexual abuse, forced labour or services, slavery, servitude or the ritual removal of organs as the major forms of exploitation victims are subjected to.
Zimbabwe’s young women, men and children are being trafficked at an alarming rate to other countries where they are forced to work as sex slaves in brothels or give slave labour in factories, mines, farms and other businesses.
Tempted by needs, hopes and dreams, victims encounter their traders who in turn are driven by profit, the need to possess and a will to deceive, exploit and violate laws. Minors are also being trafficked for ritual purposes and domestic servitude....
Representing an estimated $32 billion of the illegal international trade estimated at $650 billion per annum, human trafficking is the third largest income earning transnational organised crime, coming after drugs and arms trafficking....
https://www.newsday.co.zw/2014/05/09/zim-border-posts-conduits-human-trafficking/
Child abuse at George Osborne's old school and a scandal that grows ever darker
Allegations of historic sex abuse made against St John's School, London
Former pupils include Chancellor George Osborne and Dominic Grieve
Teacher Anthony Fuggle arrested in September after indecent images found
Arrest emerged last week, bringing abuse allegations into present day
Fellow teacher Tim Harbord was also arrested but later cleared by police
By Paul Bracchi and Tim Stewart 9 May 2014
Back in March, when the revelations first came to light, six teachers were implicated in the suspected sexual abuse of boys as young as ten between the Sixties and Eighties.
Former pupils who came forward claimed the authorities at St Paul’s hushed up the wrongdoing. Among the perpetrators, the former pupils alleged, was a housemaster who fondled boys in the dormitory, a choirmaster who paid boys half a crown after molesting them, a teacher who beat ‘naughty’ boys, and a maths tutor who kept a register of pupils he punished in private spanking sessions.
Now the number of suspects has risen from six to 18 — ten of whom taught at Colet Court and eight at St Paul’s. Some of the former schoolmasters are no longer alive.
A Scotland Yard detective, who headed the Jimmy Savile inquiry, is leading the St Paul’s investigation, which has been given its own codename: Operation Winthorpe....
It has been reported that visitors to the Elm, as it was known, included members of the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE), the pressure group that campaigned in the Seventies to lower the age of consent to four.
A former teacher at Colet Court was also a member of PIE during this period: choir- master Alan Doggett. There was gossip among his pupils that ‘half a crown’ was the ‘going rate for a session with Doggett’. They even coined a new verb — to ‘be Doggoed’, ie, groped and fondled.
Doggett took his own life in 1978, shortly after leaving Colet Court. Just hours before his death, he appeared before West London magistrates, charged with two indecent assaults on a ten-year-old boy from another school....
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2624730/Child-abuse-George-Osbornes-old-school-scandal-grows-darker.html
Thursday, May 8, 2014
Child Sexual Exploitation Ring: 22 arrested, Amanda Spencer found guilty of running child sex ring in Sheffield, Prostitute raped, tortured, crucified in Italy, serial killer. speculation that the murder could have been a ritual killing
- Child Sexual Exploitation Ring: 22 arrested
- Amanda Spencer found guilty of running child sex ring in Sheffield
- Prostitute raped, tortured, crucified in Italy; case mirrors 2013 attack
- Italy: Florence gripped by fear as police hunt serial killer "speculation that the murder could have been a ritual killing"
CHILD SEXUAL EXPLOITATION RING: 22 arrested
By Folkestone Herald May 07, 2014
POLICE have arrested 22 people in connection with an investigation into child sexual exploitation across the UK.
Officers carried out a series of early morning raids at addresses in Kent, the Midlands and Yorkshire, in an operation focused on an organised criminal network believed to be involved with the sexual exploitation of young girls from the Slovakian Roma community, in Margate, Folkestone, Dover and Gravesend.
Chief Superintendent Alison Roden of Kent Police, who has been co-ordinating the operation, said: ‘We have arrested a number of people across the country as part of an ongoing investigation into child exploitation offences.
‘This is part of an in-depth investigation and today’s operation is a response to reports from the community and intelligence gathered about allegations of child exploitation in Margate, Dover, Folkestone and Gravesend. Arrests have also been made in Leeds and Birmingham.
‘The protection of children and vulnerable young victims is a key priority for Kent Police and our partner agencies....
http://www.folkestoneherald.co.uk/Police/story-21067808-detail/story.html
Amanda Spencer found guilty of running child sex ring in Sheffield
Kashmira Gander Author Biography
Friday 02 May 2014
A woman from Sheffield has been found guilty of running a child sex ring, after she reportedly coaxed “weak and vulnerable” underage girls into prostitution using drugs and alcohol.
23-year-old Amanda Spencer was found guilty of 16 counts relating to child prostitution at Sheffield Crown Court on 1 May.
On Friday, the jury was discharged after failing to reach a verdict on 14 remaining charges, according BBC News.
She was cleared of seven charges including arranging or facilitating child prostitution, intentionally causing or inciting a person to become a prostitute, and one count of trafficking within the UK for sexual exploitation.
Spencer ran the ring between 2006 and 2011, and made girls have sex with men, both at her own flat, and at other homes across South Yorkshire.
During the trial which lasted over two months, Prosecutor Michelle Colborne QC told the court that Spencer supplied the girls with alcohol and drugs and “when [they were] weak, introduced them to a life of prostitution,” according to BBC News.
"She hung around the town centre identifying and befriending vulnerable children.
“She made them feel loved, she gave them a shoulder to cry on, a friend who purported to understand whatever sadness they were experiencing in their lives and in turn lured them into a life of abuse, which she exploited and profited from.”....
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/amanda-spencer-found-guilty-of-running-child-sex-ring-in-sheffield-9318958.html
Amanda Spencer trial: 'Grotesque' abuse of Sheffield child sex ring victims 6 May 2014
A victim of child sex ring leader Amanda Spencer has described the shocking physical and psychological brutality she used to trap vulnerable girls in a life of prostitution.
Spencer, 23, from Sheffield, has been convicted of 16 charges relating to child prostitution after jurors heard her victims were controlled using drugs, alcohol and violence.
She was just 16 when she began befriending her victims - some as young as 13 - and forcing them to have sex for cash.
One girl, who had been sleeping rough in the city's Abbeyfield Park, told Sheffield Crown Court she thought Spencer would protect her but was left fearing for her life when she was locked in a room where seven men paid to abuse her....
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-27290220
Prostitute raped, tortured, crucified in Italy; case mirrors 2013 attack
Romanian immigrant Andrea Cristina Zamfir was found dead Monday morning, her wrists taped to an overpass in Florence. Authorities say the 26-year-old's murder is similar to the near murder of 46-year-old Alle Bartoline, who was found naked and screaming, her wrists taped to the same barrier.
BY Meg Wagner NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Wednesday, May 7, 2014
talian police are hunting for a monstrous serial attacker who raped and tortured a prostitute in Florence before "crucifying" her naked body on a bridge.
The brutal killing mirrors another attack on the same overpass last March.
Police found the body of Romanian immigrant Andrea Cristina Zamfir on Monday morning. The 26-year-old had been forced to kneel with her outstretched arms taped to a horizontal barrier under the bridge, Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper reported.
Police said she had been sexually tortured before she was left to die, and bruising showed she struggled throughout the horrific assault, police say. Her clothes and purse were found about a half-mile away....
During the past 10 years, six or seven more prostitutes have been killed in the area, Florence investigator Lorenzo Bucossi told the Daily Beast....
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/prostitute-raped-tortured-crucified-italy-article-1.1783067
Italy: Florence gripped by fear as police hunt serial killer
gbtimes Italy, Milan
Wednesday, May 7, 2014
A mysterious homicide is reviving painful memories in Florence after the body of a prostitute was found under a bridge on Monday. Andrea Cristina Zamfir, 26, a Romanian national, was strapped to a bar, tortured and left to die slowly, her wrists tied in a crucifixion-like pose.
There is “a real possibility that a new serial killer is on a rampage,” ANSA news agency writes, quoting sources close to the investigation. According to the Italian press, six other attacks on women over the past 8 years bear resemblance to this latest incident, but only this one ended in the victim's death.
There are similarities between the killings in the choice of the victims, who are all drug-addicted prostitutes, and in the area where the crimes took place as well as the use of torture. The proximity of a cemetery is also fueling speculation that the murder could have been a ritual killing....
http://gbtimes.com/world/italy-florence-gripped-fear-police-hunt-serial-killer
- Amanda Spencer found guilty of running child sex ring in Sheffield
- Prostitute raped, tortured, crucified in Italy; case mirrors 2013 attack
- Italy: Florence gripped by fear as police hunt serial killer "speculation that the murder could have been a ritual killing"
CHILD SEXUAL EXPLOITATION RING: 22 arrested
By Folkestone Herald May 07, 2014
POLICE have arrested 22 people in connection with an investigation into child sexual exploitation across the UK.
Officers carried out a series of early morning raids at addresses in Kent, the Midlands and Yorkshire, in an operation focused on an organised criminal network believed to be involved with the sexual exploitation of young girls from the Slovakian Roma community, in Margate, Folkestone, Dover and Gravesend.
Chief Superintendent Alison Roden of Kent Police, who has been co-ordinating the operation, said: ‘We have arrested a number of people across the country as part of an ongoing investigation into child exploitation offences.
‘This is part of an in-depth investigation and today’s operation is a response to reports from the community and intelligence gathered about allegations of child exploitation in Margate, Dover, Folkestone and Gravesend. Arrests have also been made in Leeds and Birmingham.
‘The protection of children and vulnerable young victims is a key priority for Kent Police and our partner agencies....
http://www.folkestoneherald.co.uk/Police/story-21067808-detail/story.html
Amanda Spencer found guilty of running child sex ring in Sheffield
Kashmira Gander Author Biography
Friday 02 May 2014
A woman from Sheffield has been found guilty of running a child sex ring, after she reportedly coaxed “weak and vulnerable” underage girls into prostitution using drugs and alcohol.
23-year-old Amanda Spencer was found guilty of 16 counts relating to child prostitution at Sheffield Crown Court on 1 May.
On Friday, the jury was discharged after failing to reach a verdict on 14 remaining charges, according BBC News.
She was cleared of seven charges including arranging or facilitating child prostitution, intentionally causing or inciting a person to become a prostitute, and one count of trafficking within the UK for sexual exploitation.
Spencer ran the ring between 2006 and 2011, and made girls have sex with men, both at her own flat, and at other homes across South Yorkshire.
During the trial which lasted over two months, Prosecutor Michelle Colborne QC told the court that Spencer supplied the girls with alcohol and drugs and “when [they were] weak, introduced them to a life of prostitution,” according to BBC News.
"She hung around the town centre identifying and befriending vulnerable children.
“She made them feel loved, she gave them a shoulder to cry on, a friend who purported to understand whatever sadness they were experiencing in their lives and in turn lured them into a life of abuse, which she exploited and profited from.”....
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/amanda-spencer-found-guilty-of-running-child-sex-ring-in-sheffield-9318958.html
Amanda Spencer trial: 'Grotesque' abuse of Sheffield child sex ring victims 6 May 2014
A victim of child sex ring leader Amanda Spencer has described the shocking physical and psychological brutality she used to trap vulnerable girls in a life of prostitution.
Spencer, 23, from Sheffield, has been convicted of 16 charges relating to child prostitution after jurors heard her victims were controlled using drugs, alcohol and violence.
She was just 16 when she began befriending her victims - some as young as 13 - and forcing them to have sex for cash.
One girl, who had been sleeping rough in the city's Abbeyfield Park, told Sheffield Crown Court she thought Spencer would protect her but was left fearing for her life when she was locked in a room where seven men paid to abuse her....
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-27290220
Prostitute raped, tortured, crucified in Italy; case mirrors 2013 attack
Romanian immigrant Andrea Cristina Zamfir was found dead Monday morning, her wrists taped to an overpass in Florence. Authorities say the 26-year-old's murder is similar to the near murder of 46-year-old Alle Bartoline, who was found naked and screaming, her wrists taped to the same barrier.
BY Meg Wagner NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Wednesday, May 7, 2014
talian police are hunting for a monstrous serial attacker who raped and tortured a prostitute in Florence before "crucifying" her naked body on a bridge.
The brutal killing mirrors another attack on the same overpass last March.
Police found the body of Romanian immigrant Andrea Cristina Zamfir on Monday morning. The 26-year-old had been forced to kneel with her outstretched arms taped to a horizontal barrier under the bridge, Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper reported.
Police said she had been sexually tortured before she was left to die, and bruising showed she struggled throughout the horrific assault, police say. Her clothes and purse were found about a half-mile away....
During the past 10 years, six or seven more prostitutes have been killed in the area, Florence investigator Lorenzo Bucossi told the Daily Beast....
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/prostitute-raped-tortured-crucified-italy-article-1.1783067
Italy: Florence gripped by fear as police hunt serial killer
gbtimes Italy, Milan
Wednesday, May 7, 2014
A mysterious homicide is reviving painful memories in Florence after the body of a prostitute was found under a bridge on Monday. Andrea Cristina Zamfir, 26, a Romanian national, was strapped to a bar, tortured and left to die slowly, her wrists tied in a crucifixion-like pose.
There is “a real possibility that a new serial killer is on a rampage,” ANSA news agency writes, quoting sources close to the investigation. According to the Italian press, six other attacks on women over the past 8 years bear resemblance to this latest incident, but only this one ended in the victim's death.
There are similarities between the killings in the choice of the victims, who are all drug-addicted prostitutes, and in the area where the crimes took place as well as the use of torture. The proximity of a cemetery is also fueling speculation that the murder could have been a ritual killing....
http://gbtimes.com/world/italy-florence-gripped-fear-police-hunt-serial-killer
Tuesday, May 6, 2014
At UN, Vatican sex abuse compared with torture, Vatican Defrocks 848 Priests in 10 Years of Abuse, Disturbing new internet child abuse sees toddlers raped and burned live on webcam
- At UN, Vatican sex abuse compared with torture
- Vatican Defrocks 848 Priests in 10 Years of Abuse
- Disturbing new internet child abuse sees toddlers raped and burned live on webcam as paedophiles use Bitcoin to stop being traced, warns police chief
At UN, Vatican sex abuse compared with torture Monday, May 5, 2014
GENEVA — A U.N. committee compared the Vatican's handling of the global priest sex abuse scandal with torture Monday, raising the possibility that its failure to investigate clergy and their superiors could have broader legal implications.
But the Vatican's top envoy in Geneva, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, claimed that the Holy See was getting its house in order after a decade-long effort to deal with a global priest sex abuse scandal.
"There has been, in several documentable areas, stabilization and even a decline of cases in pedophilia," he told a committee of experts in charge of the U.N. Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which the Vatican ratified in 2002.
At the Holy See's first appearance before the committee, experts mainly peppered the Vatican with tough questions to be answered Tuesday. For instance, they asked why the report on its implementation of the treaty was almost a decade late, and why the Vatican believes its responsibility for protecting against torture only applies within tiny Vatican City, a nation of less than 1,000 inhabitants....
http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/international/2014/05/at_un_vatican_sex_abuse_compared_with_torture
Vatican Defrocks 848 Priests in 10 Years of Abuse
GENEVA May 6, 2014 By JOHN HEILPRIN and NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press
The Vatican revealed Tuesday that over the past decade, it has defrocked 848 priests who raped or molested children and sanctioned another 2,572 with lesser penalties, providing the first ever breakdown of how it handled the more than 3,400 cases of abuse reported to the Holy See since 2004.
The Vatican's U.N. ambassador in Geneva, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, released the figures during a second day of grilling by a U.N. committee monitoring implementation of the U.N. treaty against torture.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/vatican-defrocks-848-priests-10-years-abuse-23605974
Disturbing new internet child abuse sees toddlers raped and burned live on webcam as paedophiles use Bitcoin to stop being traced, warns police chief
Rob Wainwright, director of Europol, warned of depraved new trend
Paedophiles pay for sick online 'shows' using untraceable Bitcoin
Mr Wainwright warned that police and politicians struggle to keep up
by Kieran Corcoran 21 April 2014
One of Europe's top police officers has warned of a sickening online trade in child torture porn.
Rob Wainwright, the director of Europol, said offenders are using the untraceable online currency Bitcoin to pay for depraved 'shows', performed live on webcams, which see young children raped and burned.
He said: 'The level of depravity seems to be descending year on year, frankly, including what seems to be in vogue now, which is live webcam 'shows' of toddlers not just being raped but being burnt with cigarettes.
Sorry, but it's happening online and it's extremely difficult for us to identify.'
Mr Wainwright warned that Bitcoin - a 'crypto-currency' based on mathematical formulae and independent of any government or central bank - is propping up a criminal black market.
He also warned that police and politicians were struggling to keep up with the pace of online crime, thanks to widespread anonymity online, and easy access to encryption technology which can make criminals almost impossible to track down....
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2609971/Disturbing-new-internet-child-abuse-sees-toddlers-raped-burned-live-webcam-paedophiles-use-Bitcoin-stop-traced-warns-police-chief.html
- Vatican Defrocks 848 Priests in 10 Years of Abuse
- Disturbing new internet child abuse sees toddlers raped and burned live on webcam as paedophiles use Bitcoin to stop being traced, warns police chief
At UN, Vatican sex abuse compared with torture Monday, May 5, 2014
GENEVA — A U.N. committee compared the Vatican's handling of the global priest sex abuse scandal with torture Monday, raising the possibility that its failure to investigate clergy and their superiors could have broader legal implications.
But the Vatican's top envoy in Geneva, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, claimed that the Holy See was getting its house in order after a decade-long effort to deal with a global priest sex abuse scandal.
"There has been, in several documentable areas, stabilization and even a decline of cases in pedophilia," he told a committee of experts in charge of the U.N. Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which the Vatican ratified in 2002.
At the Holy See's first appearance before the committee, experts mainly peppered the Vatican with tough questions to be answered Tuesday. For instance, they asked why the report on its implementation of the treaty was almost a decade late, and why the Vatican believes its responsibility for protecting against torture only applies within tiny Vatican City, a nation of less than 1,000 inhabitants....
http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/international/2014/05/at_un_vatican_sex_abuse_compared_with_torture
Vatican Defrocks 848 Priests in 10 Years of Abuse
GENEVA May 6, 2014 By JOHN HEILPRIN and NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press
The Vatican revealed Tuesday that over the past decade, it has defrocked 848 priests who raped or molested children and sanctioned another 2,572 with lesser penalties, providing the first ever breakdown of how it handled the more than 3,400 cases of abuse reported to the Holy See since 2004.
The Vatican's U.N. ambassador in Geneva, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, released the figures during a second day of grilling by a U.N. committee monitoring implementation of the U.N. treaty against torture.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/vatican-defrocks-848-priests-10-years-abuse-23605974
Disturbing new internet child abuse sees toddlers raped and burned live on webcam as paedophiles use Bitcoin to stop being traced, warns police chief
Rob Wainwright, director of Europol, warned of depraved new trend
Paedophiles pay for sick online 'shows' using untraceable Bitcoin
Mr Wainwright warned that police and politicians struggle to keep up
by Kieran Corcoran 21 April 2014
One of Europe's top police officers has warned of a sickening online trade in child torture porn.
Rob Wainwright, the director of Europol, said offenders are using the untraceable online currency Bitcoin to pay for depraved 'shows', performed live on webcams, which see young children raped and burned.
He said: 'The level of depravity seems to be descending year on year, frankly, including what seems to be in vogue now, which is live webcam 'shows' of toddlers not just being raped but being burnt with cigarettes.
Sorry, but it's happening online and it's extremely difficult for us to identify.'
Mr Wainwright warned that Bitcoin - a 'crypto-currency' based on mathematical formulae and independent of any government or central bank - is propping up a criminal black market.
He also warned that police and politicians were struggling to keep up with the pace of online crime, thanks to widespread anonymity online, and easy access to encryption technology which can make criminals almost impossible to track down....
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2609971/Disturbing-new-internet-child-abuse-sees-toddlers-raped-burned-live-webcam-paedophiles-use-Bitcoin-stop-traced-warns-police-chief.html
Monday, May 5, 2014
Demand for return of hundreds of abducted schoolgirls in Nigeria mounts, Heartbroken father claims his married daughter, 32, was 'driven to suicide' by a 'death dance cult leader' who made her his 'sex slave'
Demand for return of hundreds of abducted schoolgirls in Nigeria mounts
By Azadeh Ansari and Tia Brueggeman, CNN May 4, 2014
Washington (CNN) -- International pressure on Nigeria is mounting with protesters taking to the streets around the world to demand the rescue of hundreds of schoolgirls abducted by the terror group Boko Haram....
In Nigeria, angry citizens contend authorities are not doing enough. They took to social media using hashtags #BringBackOurGirls and #BringBackOurDaughters to demand more from the government, a move that appears to have ignited a global call for action.
Despite the recent public outcries, the Nigeria's Defense Ministry said it is committed to the search.
Even so, protesters have said not enough is being done....
"Can you imagine if 234 girls were abducted from their school in Paris or in Chicago? This would be a nightmare, this would be an uproar," Nicole Lee, president of TransAfrica, an African-American foreign policy organization, said at the Washington demonstration.
"... People would care, people would take action and we would want the same for the girls in Nigeria."....
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/05/03/world/africa/nigeria-abducted-girls/
Heartbroken father claims his married daughter, 32, was 'driven to suicide' by a 'death dance cult leader' who made her his 'sex slave and plied her with mind-bending drugs'
Sharon Stern, 32, from Hollywood, Florida, committed suicide after being driven insane by her 'butoh' master, Katsura Kan, her family claims
Butoh is a form of Japanese dance that explores themes of pedophilia, homosexuality and death
Stern fell in thrall of Kan after she moved with her software engineer husband to Boulder, Colorado
She began to travel the world with him to put on dances and then he also allegedly began to ask her for money - totaling $30,000
In 2011 her distraught family found her in a psych ward in Denmark - her father claims Kan had given her mind-altering drugs
She divorced her husband to prove her love for Kan, and after one last disturbing email, committed suicide in 2012
Family is suing Kan for wrongful death claiming he 'stripped her of her free will' and 'used her as a sex slave'. She called him 'god'
By Donna Andersen 5 May 2014
....'Katsura Kan brainwashed her against her family and her life,' her heartbroken father told MailOnline, echoing the claims he made in the lawsuit.
He alleged: 'He made her forget everything that was happy about life, and told her she needed to experience pain and suffering, until he had full control over her. She called him god.'
The lawsuit, which Kan has not responded to, alleges that Kan 'systematically stripped away Stern's human dignity, free will and self-respect by subjugating Stern to Kan's total control.'
It reads: 'Kan seduced Stern to engage in a sexual relationship with him, abused, publicly humiliated, criticized, insulted and derogated Stern, induced Stern to ingest narcotic drugs.'
Kan has not responded to a request for comment by MailOnline.
Before meeting Katsura Kan, Sharon Stern never had a mental health issue in her life.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2618266/EXCLUSIVE-Heartbroken-father-claims-married-daughter-32-driven-suicide-death-dance-cult-leader-sex-slave-plied-mind-bending-drugs.html
By Azadeh Ansari and Tia Brueggeman, CNN May 4, 2014
Washington (CNN) -- International pressure on Nigeria is mounting with protesters taking to the streets around the world to demand the rescue of hundreds of schoolgirls abducted by the terror group Boko Haram....
In Nigeria, angry citizens contend authorities are not doing enough. They took to social media using hashtags #BringBackOurGirls and #BringBackOurDaughters to demand more from the government, a move that appears to have ignited a global call for action.
Despite the recent public outcries, the Nigeria's Defense Ministry said it is committed to the search.
Even so, protesters have said not enough is being done....
"Can you imagine if 234 girls were abducted from their school in Paris or in Chicago? This would be a nightmare, this would be an uproar," Nicole Lee, president of TransAfrica, an African-American foreign policy organization, said at the Washington demonstration.
"... People would care, people would take action and we would want the same for the girls in Nigeria."....
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/05/03/world/africa/nigeria-abducted-girls/
Heartbroken father claims his married daughter, 32, was 'driven to suicide' by a 'death dance cult leader' who made her his 'sex slave and plied her with mind-bending drugs'
Sharon Stern, 32, from Hollywood, Florida, committed suicide after being driven insane by her 'butoh' master, Katsura Kan, her family claims
Butoh is a form of Japanese dance that explores themes of pedophilia, homosexuality and death
Stern fell in thrall of Kan after she moved with her software engineer husband to Boulder, Colorado
She began to travel the world with him to put on dances and then he also allegedly began to ask her for money - totaling $30,000
In 2011 her distraught family found her in a psych ward in Denmark - her father claims Kan had given her mind-altering drugs
She divorced her husband to prove her love for Kan, and after one last disturbing email, committed suicide in 2012
Family is suing Kan for wrongful death claiming he 'stripped her of her free will' and 'used her as a sex slave'. She called him 'god'
By Donna Andersen 5 May 2014
....'Katsura Kan brainwashed her against her family and her life,' her heartbroken father told MailOnline, echoing the claims he made in the lawsuit.
He alleged: 'He made her forget everything that was happy about life, and told her she needed to experience pain and suffering, until he had full control over her. She called him god.'
The lawsuit, which Kan has not responded to, alleges that Kan 'systematically stripped away Stern's human dignity, free will and self-respect by subjugating Stern to Kan's total control.'
It reads: 'Kan seduced Stern to engage in a sexual relationship with him, abused, publicly humiliated, criticized, insulted and derogated Stern, induced Stern to ingest narcotic drugs.'
Kan has not responded to a request for comment by MailOnline.
Before meeting Katsura Kan, Sharon Stern never had a mental health issue in her life.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2618266/EXCLUSIVE-Heartbroken-father-claims-married-daughter-32-driven-suicide-death-dance-cult-leader-sex-slave-plied-mind-bending-drugs.html
Sunday, May 4, 2014
Vatican to craft sex abuse protocols
Vatican to craft sex abuse protocols
May 3, 2014 VATICAN CITY (AP) - Members of Pope Francis' sexual abuse advisory board said Saturday they will develop "clear and effective" protocols to hold bishops and other church authorities accountable if they fail to report suspected abuse or protect children from pedophile priests.Victims groups have long blasted the Vatican for refusing to sanction any bishop or superior who covered up for priests who raped and molested children. They have listed accountability as one of the key issues facing Francis and a key test for his new advisory board....
Victims groups have long cited the case of O'Malley's predecessor in Boston, Cardinal Bernard Law, who resigned in disgrace as archbishop after the sex abuse scandal exploded publicly there in 2002. But Pope John Paul II then appointed Law to the plum assignment as archpriest of one of the Vatican's four major basilicas in Rome. Even today, another U.S. bishop remains in office despite having been convicted of misdemeanor failure to report suspected child abuse....
The commission met on the eve of a U.N. committee meeting in Geneva in which the Vatican is expected to come under a second round of criticism for its handling of abuse. A U.N. committee monitoring implementation of a key treaty on children's rights blasted the Holy See earlier this year, accusing it of systematically placing its own interests over those of victims by enabling priests to rape and molest tens of thousands of children through its own policies and code of silence.
It recommended the Vatican immediately remove any priest suspected or known to have abused children, open its archives on abusers and the bishops who covered up for them, and turn the cases over to law enforcement.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/05/03/vatican-sexual-abuse/2128958/
May 3, 2014 VATICAN CITY (AP) - Members of Pope Francis' sexual abuse advisory board said Saturday they will develop "clear and effective" protocols to hold bishops and other church authorities accountable if they fail to report suspected abuse or protect children from pedophile priests.Victims groups have long blasted the Vatican for refusing to sanction any bishop or superior who covered up for priests who raped and molested children. They have listed accountability as one of the key issues facing Francis and a key test for his new advisory board....
Victims groups have long cited the case of O'Malley's predecessor in Boston, Cardinal Bernard Law, who resigned in disgrace as archbishop after the sex abuse scandal exploded publicly there in 2002. But Pope John Paul II then appointed Law to the plum assignment as archpriest of one of the Vatican's four major basilicas in Rome. Even today, another U.S. bishop remains in office despite having been convicted of misdemeanor failure to report suspected child abuse....
The commission met on the eve of a U.N. committee meeting in Geneva in which the Vatican is expected to come under a second round of criticism for its handling of abuse. A U.N. committee monitoring implementation of a key treaty on children's rights blasted the Holy See earlier this year, accusing it of systematically placing its own interests over those of victims by enabling priests to rape and molest tens of thousands of children through its own policies and code of silence.
It recommended the Vatican immediately remove any priest suspected or known to have abused children, open its archives on abusers and the bishops who covered up for them, and turn the cases over to law enforcement.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/05/03/vatican-sexual-abuse/2128958/
Friday, May 2, 2014
The Witch-Hunt Narrative, LAUSD Admits To Destroying Over Two Decades Of Child Abuse Records, The findings indicate that DID does not have a sociocultural (e.g. iatrogenic) origin
- Book review: A scholarly, engaging look at ‘witch-hunt’ narratives
- LAUSD Admits To Destroying Over Two Decades Of Child Abuse Records
- Court dismisses case against former Miramonte teacher
- Dissociative Identity Disorder and Fantasy Proneness: A Positron Emission Tomography Study of Authentic and Enacted Dissociative Identity States (findings indicate that DID does not have a sociocultural (e.g. iatrogenic) origin)
Book review: A scholarly, engaging look at ‘witch-hunt’ narratives April 27, 2014 By Anne Grant Special to the Journal
“THE WITCH-HUNT NARRATIVE: Politics, Psychology, and the Sexual Abuse of Children,” by Ross E. Cheit. Oxford University Press. 508 pages. $49.95.
Ross E. Cheit’s book begins with the 1983 charges against staff at the McMartin Preschool. The case stretched over seven years, but produced no convictions — only a widespread consensus that it had been a “witch-hunt” and had unfairly targeted the accused. That narrative prevailed until now.
In 1992, Cheit recovered his own memory of sexual abuse in adolescence, more than two decades earlier, at a summer camp. By then, he held a law degree and a professor’s chair at Brown University. He eventually won civil suits against the individual and the institution that had betrayed him.
Cheit found that a single storyline clung tenaciously even when medical evidence showed children had been harmed. In academia, courts and the media, those who should have looked further failed to challenge the popular myth that considers children suggestible, unreliable witnesses to their own abuse.
Recognizing that his personal experience could bias him, Cheit closely examined the original evidence and court records in three large childcare sex-abuse cases and dozens of smaller ones — identifying some instances of people falsely accused and many where guilt went unpunished. He recounts evidence with scholarly precision that is emotionally engaging and eminently readable....
http://www.providencejournal.com/features/entertainment/books/20140427-book-review-a-scholarly-engaging-look-at-witch-hunt-narratives.ece
LAUSD Admits To Destroying Over Two Decades Of Child Abuse Records
The L.A. Unified School District (LAUSD) has admitted that it destroyed decades of alleged child abuse records.
This is linked to the investigation into former Miramonte Elementary School teacher Mark Berndt’s sexual abuse of children. John Manly, one of the victims’ eight lawyers, accused the District of destroying documents earlier this month in court.
L.A. Unified spokesman Sean Rossall told KPCC that the District did indeed destroy the records of sexual abuse cases at L.A. public schools in 2008, with files going back to 1988. There may be no way of knowing whether other reports of allegations against Berndt exist.
The question that Manly, and frankly, everyone, is asking is why LAUSD would destroy these records. Rossall said it was because the District felt like they should not have the reports. In 2008, the school district lawyers determined, based on a section of the penal code, that they shouldn’t have the documents, resulting in the destruction of all reports. However, the section they referenced is saying that they merely shouldn't disclose the reports, not that they shouldn't keep the reports.
....Berndt pleaded no contest to his charges and was sentenced to 25 years in prison in November 2013....
http://laist.com/2014/05/01/lausd_admits_to_destroying_over_two.php
Court dismisses case against former Miramonte teacher
Rina Palta with KPCC staff February 5th, 2014
he criminal case against a former teacher at Miramonte Elementary School in Los Angeles who was charged with inappropriately touching a female student has been dismissed by the court after the prosecution's key witness said she would not testify.
The case against Martin Springer involved only one alleged victim, who was 9 or 10 at the time the abuse occurred. Prosecutors considered testimony from the girl, now 12, to be essential to the case, and without it they decided they could not proceed, said Alison Meyers, an L.A. County deputy district attorney in the sex crimes division.
"She felt very traumatized by the process and as the days approached to the trial she had expressed to us that she felt coming to court would cause her further trauma," Meyers said....
http://www.scpr.org/news/2014/02/05/42014/court-dismisses-case-against-former-miramonte-teac/
Case Dropped Against Second Miramonte Teacher Accused Of Sexual Abuse
....The trial for former third-grad teacher Martin Springer, 51, began this week, but was dismissed today when prosecutors were told by the victim's family that the 12-year-old girl was too traumatized to testify in court, according to the Los Angeles Times and KTTV.
....The L.A. Unified District fired Springer (who had taught at the school for 26 years) from his job and took away his state teaching credential, the Times reported. They had paid a $470,000 settlement to six other children who claimed they were molested by Springer.
http://laist.com/2014/02/05/case_against_miramonte_teacher_sexu.php
Dissociative Identity Disorder and Fantasy Proneness: A Positron Emission Tomography Study of Authentic and Enacted Dissociative Identity States
A. A. T. Simone Reinders PhD, Antoon T. M. Willemsen PhD
PET and SPECT in Psychiatry 2014, pp 411-431
Abstract
Dissociative identity disorder (DID) is a disputed psychiatric disorder. Research findings and clinical observations suggest that DID involves an authentic mental disorder related to factors such as traumatisation and disrupted attachment. A competing view indicates that DID is due to fantasy proneness, suggestibility, suggestion and role-playing. Here, we investigate whether dissociative identity state-dependent psychobiological features in DID can be induced in high- or low-fantasy-prone individuals by instructed and motivated role-playing and suggestion. Differences in neural activation patterns were found between the DID patients and both high- and low-fantasy-prone controls. That is, the identity states in DID were not convincingly enacted by DID simulating controls. The findings indicate that DID does not have a sociocultural (e.g. iatrogenic) origin.
http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-40384-2_16
- LAUSD Admits To Destroying Over Two Decades Of Child Abuse Records
- Court dismisses case against former Miramonte teacher
- Dissociative Identity Disorder and Fantasy Proneness: A Positron Emission Tomography Study of Authentic and Enacted Dissociative Identity States (findings indicate that DID does not have a sociocultural (e.g. iatrogenic) origin)
Book review: A scholarly, engaging look at ‘witch-hunt’ narratives April 27, 2014 By Anne Grant Special to the Journal
“THE WITCH-HUNT NARRATIVE: Politics, Psychology, and the Sexual Abuse of Children,” by Ross E. Cheit. Oxford University Press. 508 pages. $49.95.
Ross E. Cheit’s book begins with the 1983 charges against staff at the McMartin Preschool. The case stretched over seven years, but produced no convictions — only a widespread consensus that it had been a “witch-hunt” and had unfairly targeted the accused. That narrative prevailed until now.
In 1992, Cheit recovered his own memory of sexual abuse in adolescence, more than two decades earlier, at a summer camp. By then, he held a law degree and a professor’s chair at Brown University. He eventually won civil suits against the individual and the institution that had betrayed him.
Cheit found that a single storyline clung tenaciously even when medical evidence showed children had been harmed. In academia, courts and the media, those who should have looked further failed to challenge the popular myth that considers children suggestible, unreliable witnesses to their own abuse.
Recognizing that his personal experience could bias him, Cheit closely examined the original evidence and court records in three large childcare sex-abuse cases and dozens of smaller ones — identifying some instances of people falsely accused and many where guilt went unpunished. He recounts evidence with scholarly precision that is emotionally engaging and eminently readable....
http://www.providencejournal.com/features/entertainment/books/20140427-book-review-a-scholarly-engaging-look-at-witch-hunt-narratives.ece
LAUSD Admits To Destroying Over Two Decades Of Child Abuse Records
The L.A. Unified School District (LAUSD) has admitted that it destroyed decades of alleged child abuse records.
This is linked to the investigation into former Miramonte Elementary School teacher Mark Berndt’s sexual abuse of children. John Manly, one of the victims’ eight lawyers, accused the District of destroying documents earlier this month in court.
L.A. Unified spokesman Sean Rossall told KPCC that the District did indeed destroy the records of sexual abuse cases at L.A. public schools in 2008, with files going back to 1988. There may be no way of knowing whether other reports of allegations against Berndt exist.
The question that Manly, and frankly, everyone, is asking is why LAUSD would destroy these records. Rossall said it was because the District felt like they should not have the reports. In 2008, the school district lawyers determined, based on a section of the penal code, that they shouldn’t have the documents, resulting in the destruction of all reports. However, the section they referenced is saying that they merely shouldn't disclose the reports, not that they shouldn't keep the reports.
....Berndt pleaded no contest to his charges and was sentenced to 25 years in prison in November 2013....
http://laist.com/2014/05/01/lausd_admits_to_destroying_over_two.php
Court dismisses case against former Miramonte teacher
Rina Palta with KPCC staff February 5th, 2014
he criminal case against a former teacher at Miramonte Elementary School in Los Angeles who was charged with inappropriately touching a female student has been dismissed by the court after the prosecution's key witness said she would not testify.
The case against Martin Springer involved only one alleged victim, who was 9 or 10 at the time the abuse occurred. Prosecutors considered testimony from the girl, now 12, to be essential to the case, and without it they decided they could not proceed, said Alison Meyers, an L.A. County deputy district attorney in the sex crimes division.
"She felt very traumatized by the process and as the days approached to the trial she had expressed to us that she felt coming to court would cause her further trauma," Meyers said....
http://www.scpr.org/news/2014/02/05/42014/court-dismisses-case-against-former-miramonte-teac/
Case Dropped Against Second Miramonte Teacher Accused Of Sexual Abuse
....The trial for former third-grad teacher Martin Springer, 51, began this week, but was dismissed today when prosecutors were told by the victim's family that the 12-year-old girl was too traumatized to testify in court, according to the Los Angeles Times and KTTV.
....The L.A. Unified District fired Springer (who had taught at the school for 26 years) from his job and took away his state teaching credential, the Times reported. They had paid a $470,000 settlement to six other children who claimed they were molested by Springer.
http://laist.com/2014/02/05/case_against_miramonte_teacher_sexu.php
Dissociative Identity Disorder and Fantasy Proneness: A Positron Emission Tomography Study of Authentic and Enacted Dissociative Identity States
A. A. T. Simone Reinders PhD, Antoon T. M. Willemsen PhD
PET and SPECT in Psychiatry 2014, pp 411-431
Abstract
Dissociative identity disorder (DID) is a disputed psychiatric disorder. Research findings and clinical observations suggest that DID involves an authentic mental disorder related to factors such as traumatisation and disrupted attachment. A competing view indicates that DID is due to fantasy proneness, suggestibility, suggestion and role-playing. Here, we investigate whether dissociative identity state-dependent psychobiological features in DID can be induced in high- or low-fantasy-prone individuals by instructed and motivated role-playing and suggestion. Differences in neural activation patterns were found between the DID patients and both high- and low-fantasy-prone controls. That is, the identity states in DID were not convincingly enacted by DID simulating controls. The findings indicate that DID does not have a sociocultural (e.g. iatrogenic) origin.
http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-40384-2_16
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