Tuesday, September 30, 2014

High court to hear religious man’s child abuse case, Jehovah's Witness congregation sued for alleged child abuse

High court to hear religious man’s child abuse case
Stephen Herzog, News-Leader September 28, 2014

Missouri’s Supreme Court will hear arguments this week regarding whether a Springfield man who practiced a certain type of Christianity is guilty of abusing his children.

Peter D. Hansen, 50, was convicted by a jury in 2011 of abusing one of his children by locking him in a bathroom “for days at a time” and restricting what the child could eat. Judge Dan Conklin suspended a three-year prison sentence and placed Hansen on five years probation with 100 days in the Greene County Jail.

Hansen, who is a Seventh Day Adventist, argues that his religion encourages vegetarianism and that the punishment of his children does not constitute child abuse....

Prosecutors say there is sufficient evidence to prove Hansen “inflicted cruel and inhuman punishment by locking the minors in a small, dark and cold bathroom for days at a time.” Prosecutors also say Hansen’s withholding of food was a cruel and inhuman punishment.

Hansen says the state’s evidence failed to prove either of those convictions....

Hansen said the children were bad and had bad attitudes and were being punished.

At that time, the children were taken into protective custody and the parents were arrested, according to court records.

The children were taken to the hospital where a doctor determined the children were “receiving inadequate calories for appropriate weight gain and growth.”

A nurse noted the boy’s ribs and shoulder blades were “visibly prominent,” according to court records....
http://www.news-leader.com/story/news/crime/2014/09/28/high-court-hear-religious-mans-child-abuse-case/16410841/

Jehovah's Witness congregation sued for alleged child abuse      Two Vt. sisters claim repeated molestation in the 1990s By Stewart Ledbetter Sep 30, 2014

BURLINGTON, Vt. —Two women filed lawsuits Tuesday in state and federal courts alleging they were sexually abused as youngsters by an authority figure at their Jehovah’s Witness congregation in Bellows Falls in the mid-1990s, and claiming church elders did nothing to stop it.
 
The litigation, announced in Burlington, involves sisters Miranda and Annessa Lewis....

Lewis said she was 4 years old when she was first molested and fondled by...a "ministerial servant" in the congregation. Zalkin said that position is one approved by church elders.

She said her sister, Annessa, who now lives in Texas, was similarly assaulted....

“The Jehovah's Witnesses have a policy - a policy that is grounded in a code of silence,” Zalkin said, describing a secretive organization that regards protecting its own image as paramount even to protecting its children.

When the girls’ mother says she confronted church leaders with abuse allegations, in 1995 or 1996, they were called liars.  Mauvoleon-Folsom said the family immediately left the congregation.

Miranda Lewis said the abuse has caused ongoing anxiety, depression, and a range of other psychological issues. She now lives in Chester with her mother.

The Lewis sisters are seeking compensatory and punitive damages from..., the Bellows Falls congregation and from the national parent organization called the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, based in Brooklyn, N.Y....

Zalkin said his investigators have uncovered indications that the Lewis girls were not....first victims.
http://www.wptz.com/news/vermont-new-york/burlington/jehovahs-witness-congregation-sued-for-alleged-child-abuse/28338048

Monday, September 29, 2014

Suspect in Pittsfield triple murder sentenced to life in prison - Caius Veiovis

Suspect in Pittsfield triple murder sentenced to life in prison
Sep 29, 2014  By Chris Rueli, Digital Content Producer
SPRINGFIELD, MA (WSHM) -

A Pittsfield man convicted last week of killing three Berkshire County men was sentenced Monday afternoon in Hampden County Superior Court.

A judge ordered Caius Veiovis serve consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole on the murder convictions, as well as concurrent eight to 10 year sentences on other charges.

Veiovis was convicted Friday of the August 2011 slayings of David Glasser, Edward Frampton, and Robert Chadwell following a two-week trial and more than 36 hours of jury deliberations.

He was the third and final person convicted for the slayings....
http://www.cbs3springfield.com/story/26657272/suspect-in-pittsfield-triple-murder-sentenced-to-life-in-prison


Man with horn implants convicted of Massachusetts triple murder has criminal record in Maine
By Nok-Noi Ricker, BDN Staff Sept. 29, 2014
SPRINGFIELD, Massachusetts — A Massachusetts man with facial tattoos, forehead implants that resemble horns and other body modifications told jurors he would see them “all in hell” after he was convicted last week of murdering three men in 2011.

Caius Veiovis, 34, of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, was found guilty on Friday of three counts each of murder, intimidation of a witness and kidnapping, Berkshire District Attorney David Capeless said in a statement. Veiovis had previously been convicted under another name in Maine for assaulting an Augusta woman.

Veiovis was the last of three co-defendants convicted in the triple homicide....

Authorities say Veiovis, Hall and Chalue kidnapped and killed three Pittsfield men: David Glasser, 44; Edward Frampton, 58, and Robert Chadwell, 47. The three were last seen on Aug. 28, 2011, at an apartment shared by Glasser and Frampton.

The shot and dismembered bodies of the three men were uncovered by local and federal detectives 10 days later in Becket, Massachusetts....

Veiovis has a criminal history in Maine that includes felony convictions from 2000 for his role in a blood-letting ritual that included slicing the back of a 16-year-old girl and then licking the blood with another girl.

He was age 19, living in Augusta and known as Roy Gutfinski Jr. at the time. He was dating Deanne Jones, a 16-year-old who agreed to be treated as an adult when she pleaded guilty in November 1999 to elevated aggravated assault in the blood-drinking ritual.

Jones, who used a razor to cut the 7-inch gash across the other girl’s back on Aug. 21, 1999, was sentenced to a year in jail and six years of probation.

Gutfinski was charged with elevated aggravated assault, aggravated assault and reckless conduct for the girl’s attack, which required 32 stitches.

At Gutfinski’s waived-jury trial in 2000, prosecutor Alan Kelley portrayed Gutfinski as “a Satanic worshipper” who told police “he was a vampire and drank blood, his own as well as other persons.”

Gutfinski and Jones met the cutting victim in downtown Augusta two days before the incident occurred. Neither girl wanted Gutfinski prosecuted, Kelley said.

He was convicted in March 2000 and later sentenced to 10 years in prison with all but three years suspended, as well as four years of probation.

Gutfinski, who ended up serving more than seven years behind bars after various probation violations, changed his legal name to Caius Domitius Veiovis in July 2008 while at Maine State Prison.

He unsuccessfully applied in 2003 to have his name changed to “Diszade Trash Horror.” Veiovis was released from Maine’s probation system in July 2010.

In the years since, Veiovis has had hornlike objects implanted in his forehead, added facial tattoos, including the number “666,” sharpened his teeth and had his tongue split, according to the Berkshire Eagle....
https://bangordailynews.com/2014/09/29/news/nation/man-with-horn-implants-convicted-of-massachusetts-triple-murder-has-criminal-record-in-maine/ 

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Pittsfield Man With Implanted Horns Convicted Of Murder - Caius Veiovis

Pittsfield Man With Implanted Horns Convicted Of Murder
September 26, 2014
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) — A man who has bumps resembling horns implanted in his forehead was found guilty of murder and other charges Friday for his role in the kidnapping and slaying of three Massachusetts men in 2011.

“I’ll see you all in hell,” Caius Veiovis, 34, of Pittsfield, yelled at the jury that convicted him after deliberating over six days. Veiovis also was convicted Friday of kidnapping and intimidation of a witness.

The dismembered bodies of David Glasser, 44; Edward Frampton, 58; and Robert Chadwell, 47, of Pittsfield were found buried in nearby Becket 10 days after they disappeared in August 2011. The killings shocked Pittsfield, a town of about 41,000 in northwestern Massachusetts. The trials were moved to Springfield.

Two co-defendants in the case were convicted of the same charges earlier this year. They are serving life without parole, the mandatory term Veiovis faces at his sentencing Monday.

Prosecutors said Veiovis helped Adam Lee Hall, 37, of Peru, and David Chalue, 47, of North Adams, kidnap and shoot the victims weeks before Glasser was to testify against Hall, a Hells Angels member, in an assault case. The others were killed to eliminate witnesses, prosecutors said. Defense attorneys argued there was shaky evidence....
http://boston.cbslocal.com/2014/09/26/pittsfield-man-with-implanted-horns-convicted-of-murder/

Jury selection begins for trial of Caius Veiovis, last of triple-murder defendants
By Andrew Amelinckx, Berkshire Eagle Staff 09/03/2014

....Jury selection is set to begin Wednesday in Hampden Superior Court in the trial of 34-year-old Caius Veiovis, whose mug shot went viral after his arrest in September 2011 due to his horn implants and facial tattoos.

He is accused of participating in the kidnapping, torture, killing and dismemberment of three men along with 37-year-old Adam Lee "Leo" Hall -- who was then a ranking member of the local Hells Angels motorcycle club -- and David Chalue, a 47-year-old member of the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang.

Hall and Chalue are both serving multiple life sentences in prison after being found guilty of the crimes. Veiovis has pleaded not guilty to three counts each of witness intimidation, kidnapping and murder.

....According to the testimony at Hall and Chalue's trials, Hall and the other two men forced the three victims out of the residence at gunpoint before taking them to the woods. There, as the rain poured down, the victims begged for their lives while they were "tortured beyond torture" and then shot and stabbed to death.

Where the victims were actually killed remains a mystery, but investigators continue to believe Pittsfield State Forest somehow played a role. The murder weapons were never recovered.

The victims' remains were later found in plastic bags buried in a ditch on rural private property in Becket.

....Veiovis, until 2008 when he legally changed his name while serving time in a Maine prison, was known as Roy C. Gutfinski Jr.

In 1999, he was arrested by police in Augusta, Maine, after he and his teenage girlfriend allegedly slashed a 16-year-old's back with a razor and drank the girl's blood while they kissed one another, according to a Boston Globe report. Later, the two girls would claim he wasn't a participant in that ritual, but a judge found him to be a "principal actor" in it.

He was found guilty of elevated aggravated assault, aggravated assault and reckless conduct and served more than seven years in prison.

At the time Veiovis allegedly told police he was a Satanist and vampire who drank human blood.

He was also the lead singer for a Black Metal band "Deadhole" and went by the name "Trash."

In 2006, Veiovis was charged with kidnapping for allegedly holding two employees of the Foxy Lady, a New Bedford strip club, against their will. The women called police from a motel bathroom after Veiovis and another man shed their clothing, started snorting cocaine and refused to let the women leave, according to a Kennebec Journal article from 2007.

The kidnapping charges were later dismissed, but Veiovis was convicted of marijuana possession, triggering probation violation charges in Maine and leading to another 31 2 year prison stint on the violation....
http://www.berkshireeagle.com/news/ci_26456643/caius-veiovis-last-triple-murder-defendants-heads-court

Friday, September 26, 2014

Miramonte: LA school district's claim it shredded child abuse reports now in question

Miramonte: LA school district's claim it shredded child abuse reports now in question

Karen Foshay   September 25

Questions are being raised about the Los Angeles Unified School District's claim earlier this year that it shredded 20 years' worth of suspected child abuse reports in connection with the Miramonte abuse scandal.

In response to a judge's questions, about 100 current and former members of L.A. Unified's general counsel's office said they had no knowledge of the records being destroyed, and district officials have not answered similar questions posed by KPCC.

In April, KPCC was the first to report that LAUSD officials said the suspected child abuse reports, or SCARs, were ordered destroyed in 2008 after the district's general counsel concluded it was not legally allowed to hold on to them. The records dated back to 1988, according to a district spokesman.

L.A. Unified made its comments about the documents after attorneys representing dozens of children suing the district over the actions of former Miramonte teacher Mark Berndt requested that the school district produce all of its suspected child abuse reports.

In November 2013, Berndt pleaded no contest to 23 counts of lewd acts upon a child and was sentenced to 25 years in state prison....
http://www.scpr.org/news/2014/09/25/46970/lausd-s-claim-it-shredded-child-abuse-reports-now/

Thursday, September 25, 2014

Pope sacks Paraguay bishop accused of protecting abuser priest

Pope sacks Paraguay bishop accused of protecting abuser priest 

Pope Francis's latest crackdown on clerical sex abuse comes days after Vatican ordered Polish archbishop to be put on trial for allegedly abusing young boys
Livieres Plano, a member of the conservative Opus Dei movement, has been removed by Pope Francis from a Paraguayan diocese

By Nick Squires, Rome  25 Sep 2014

Pope Francis has sacked a bishop in South America who for years protected a priest accused of sexual misconduct.

The Pope, who has vowed to adopt a much tougher stance than his predecessors on priests accused of sexual abuse, forcibly removed Rogelio Ricardo Livieres Plano from his post as bishop of a diocese in Paraguay.

The bishop is accused of protecting an Argentine priest whose former superiors in the United States had described as a "serious threat to young people."

The bishop's removal was the result of an investigation instigated by the Vatican earlier this year.

He had refused to resign, leaving the Pope no option but to remove him in what the Vatican described in a statement as a "hard decision"....
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/the-pope/11121607/Pope-sacks-Paraguay-bishop-accused-of-protecting-abuser-priest.html

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Vatican Arrests Former Archbishop On Child Abuse Charges, Don’t turn a blind eye to child abuse or neglect

Vatican Arrests Former Archbishop On Child Abuse Charges
September 24, 2014

Jozef Wesolowski is the first high-ranking Vatican official to face criminal charges for sexually abusing children. Steve Inskeep talks to Joshua McElwee of the National Catholic Reporter.

....Vatican City, the home of the Catholic Church, is also a tiny, independent nation with its own laws. And today, one of its citizens is under house arrest. The Vatican took former Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski into custody. He had already been defrocked in June. All of this follows allegations that he sexually abused young boys while he was the Vatican's ambassador to the Dominican Republic. He's going to stand trial on a Vatican criminal court. Joshua McElwee, who is Vatican bureau chief for The National Catholic Reporter, is covering this story.

....Well, the Vatican had acted a couple months ago. What they'd done is they laicized Wesolowski, who was an archbishop, which basically made him a normal Catholic. He's no longer a priest. He's no longer an archbishop. And now they're saying that they're prosecuting him according to the laws of the Vatican City State for, apparently, accusations of abuse in the Dominican Republic.
http://www.npr.org/2014/09/24/351074916/vatican-arrests-former-archbishop-on-child-abuse-charges 


Don’t turn a blind eye to child abuse or neglect
By Yvonne Abraham Globe Columnist   September 21, 2014

How is it possible that Erika Murray’s oldest children went to school, had friends, and saw relatives, yet nobody raised the alarm about the horrors filling their Blackstone home?....

It all went to hell the summer before Spadaro turned 11, when she found her mother on the floor, in seizures. Doctors removed a brain tumor, leaving her mother with impaired judgment and impulse control, and dependent on sedatives.Her father, who had broken his hip and quit work years earlier, was also heavily medicated. Depressed, and with strained finances, her parents mixed alcohol with the drugs, descending into addiction.

“That combination of the unwashed people and the unwashed pets and the food that may be halfway round the bend,” recalled Spadaro, now 48. “You learn to function with the smell, but I don’t think you ever stop noticing it.”

She did what many kids do in these situations: She became the parent, at 11. She remembers trying to clear some of the mess away, hauling trash to the garage, and cleaning up after the beagle. For meals, she warmed frozen pizza in a toaster oven. She did laundry so that she and her sister — several years younger — would look presentable.

“I tried to keep things as best I could, but I could not be in charge of two parents, a younger sibling, and the pet,” she said.

For three years, none of the many adults in their lives came to their rescue....

Three years after the spiral began, her mother’s family took the girls in. Spadaro does not know why they decided to intervene then, and not sooner....

Several times, though, neighbors complained about pets being mistreated at the home. There was only one call about the children, found to be unsubstantiated. How those kids must have envied the dogs.....
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/09/20/don-turn-blind-eye-child-abuse-neglect/d1OaB8XQbdqPXdaoERXf8J/story.html

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Child abuse inquiry told of sexual assaults, beatings in Darwin home

Child abuse inquiry told of sexual assaults, beatings in Darwin home 

 Commission is hearing from members of the stolen generations who say they were abused in the Northern Territory
Helen Davidson theguardian.com, Monday 22 September 2014

Indigenous children were beaten, sexually assaulted, stripped and chained to beds, and forced to eat their own vomit, it has been alleged at the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse on Monday.

The 17th public hearing of the royal commission began hearing from members of the stolen generations who say they were sexually abused at a Darwin home.

It’s examining how the government and administrators responded to the allegations of child sexual abuse by employees at the Retta Dixon home between 1946 and 1980, when it closed.

Retta Dixon was one of the main government-run homes for children of mixed Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal descent forcibly removed from their families. Established by Christian missionaries in the 1930s, it also housed unmarried mothers and their babies, and temporary visitors. At its peak it held 120 people, according to the federal government’s 1997 Bringing Them Home report....

It is the first time the commission has held a hearing in the Northern Territory. It is also the first public hearing to predominantly involve Indigenous people.

A number of Aboriginal women gave evidence at the inquiry into the Parramatta Girls Home and Hay Institute.

Of all the people who have contacted the commission, 827 (18%) are Indigenous, the chief commissioner, Peter McClellan, said as he opened the public hearing on Monday morning.

He added that 9% of people coming to private sessions are from Aboriginal communities.

The inquiry into the Retta Dixon home is expected to run for about two weeks.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/22/child-abuse-inquiry-told-of-sexual-assaults-beatings-in-darwin-home

Monday, September 22, 2014

The Devil on the Doorstep - My Escape From a Satanic Sex Cult - Victim of satanic sex cult speaks out

'I was a schoolgirl by day and sex slave at night': Victim of satanic sex cult speak out   Sep 21, 2014     By Cathy Owen

Annabelle Forest was initiated into a sex cult when she was just seven, and was even abused by her own mother

The victim of a satanic sex cult has told how she will never forgive her "evil" mother for putting her through 11 years of hell at the hands of the sick group.

Annabelle Forest was initiated into a notorious sex cult that operated from a quiet Welsh cul-de-sac by her own mum at the age of seven.

Even worse, she was abused by her mother as a teenager under the orders of the cult’s leader Colin Batley - the man she can’t even bring herself to name.

Now a mum herself and living happily in another part of the UK, Annabelle has taken the brave step of recounting her horror in a bid to get others to speak out about suspected abuse.

She told WalesOnline : “Nothing can hurt me as much as my mum and that man."

“My mother was an evil woman and I’ll never forgive her.”

Annabelle has written a book that tells how she was just seven-years-old when first forced to watch her mother perform a sex act on Batley.

At the age of 11 she raped by him in her own home and three years later she was made to take part in group sex with her mother.

Batley was given an indeterminate sentence for public protection in 2011 with a recommendation he spend at least 11 years in jail....

Now Annabelle has revealed the true extent of the horror she suffered at the hands of the cul-de-sac cult in her memoir The Devil on The Doorstep: My Escape from a Satanic Sex Cult.

The cult’s twisted ideology, based on a bizarre text called the Book of the Law by Aleister Crowley, formed the backdrop to Annabelle’s childhood.

The children of the cult, based in a small cul-de-sac in Kidwelly, were cut off from other children, forced to take part in long church services and obey Batley’s every whim.

“We weren’t even allowed to look in his eyes,” says Annabelle.

“He ruled our little community with an iron will and we were made to do what he ordered for fear of angering the Gods.”

In Batley’s ‘Church’, children were led to believe they were proving themselves to the Gods by passing tests, which usually involved sex with either him or other cult members....

By the time of her escape she had slept with over 1,800 men – the proceeds of which had all gone towards ‘the Church’.

In 2011, her evidence helped convict Batley for life as well as three others, including her mother....

“It was astonishing to me that people who came into contact with these children thought they were behaving this way out of choice. When you have control over a child and you can intimidate them, they will do anything you say.

"It was the same for me. Too many people looked away, too many people ignored the signs. It astonishes me that we lived in that small cul-de-sac for so many years and not one person saw anything that gave them cause for concern,” she says....

“If there’s one thing I would like to achieve with my book, it would be for others to start really paying attention to the community they live in. You can’t just walk around living in a bubble. There are abused children everywhere – it just takes one person to see it and that life could be saved.”

The Devil on The Doorstep: My Escape From a Satanic Sex Cult by Annabelle Forest, published by Simon & Schuster....
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/i-schoolgirl-day-sex-slave-4297534

'My mother was an evil woman and I'll never forgive her': Victim of satanic sex cult speaks out about a lifetime of horror

    Sep 21, 2014
    By Cathy Owen

Victim of sex cult bravely recounts horror of 11 years under the rule of the Welsh ‘cul-de-sac cult’ in a bid to encourage others to speak out....
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/my-mother-evil-woman-ill-7803567


The Devil on the Doorstep
My Escape From a Satanic Sex Cult

By Annabelle Forest
with: Katy Weitz

Annabelle Forest was just seven years old when she was inducted into a twisted sex cult by her own mother. For the next few years she was brainwashed by the cult's leader, Colin Batley, who ran a harem of followers from his unassuming cul-de-sac in Kidwelly, Wales.

Batley ruled the cult with an iron will, his twisted ideology based on Aleister Crowley's Book of the Law, which informed their day-to-day lives. From the age of 11, Annabelle was repeatedly raped by Batley, and threatened with going to hell if she angered 'the gods' by refusing Batley's sick demands. Annabelle's mother joined in the sessions and even filmed them.

Annabelle lived a double life - a schoolgirl by day, a sex slave at night. It might have endured for years had she not fallen pregnant at 17 with Batley's baby. In February 2008 she gave birth to a daughter, Emily, who gave Annabelle hope and a reason to live. Now she knew she had to escape, especially after Batley forced her into prostitution when Emily was three months old.

She contacted relatives and found the courage to report Batley, her mother and the other cult members to the police. In 2011 her evidence helped convict 48-year-old Batley for life on 11 charges of rape and numerous other sexual offences. Annabelle's mother was also jailed, along with two others in a case that came to be known as the 'cul-de-sac cult'.
http://books.simonandschuster.co.uk/Devil-on-the-Doorstep/Annabelle-Forest/9781471136689

Friday, September 19, 2014

A survivor of a paedophile ring tells her story, Flying on Broken Wings, Ritual Abuse and the Fight Against Child Abuse

A survivor of a paedophile ring tells her story
Deborah Snow     September 19, 2014
Canadian-born Carrie Bailee suffered so much physical and sexual abuse as a girl that she was granted a special visa to live in Australia. Now she's turning her attention to helping other victims. By Deborah Snow.

There is something peculiar about the few family photos Carrie Bailee has kept from her childhood years. In all the pictures that used to feature both her adoptive parents, the image of her father has been excised - as if her mother, who wielded the scissors, wanted to erase any visual evidence that the man she married ever existed. Bailee, now 38, never reveals her father's name, but he is a huge, threatening presence in a book to be published on October 1.

Flying On Broken Wings (Affirm Press) is a shattering account of the physical and sexual abuse she endured at his hands between the ages of four and 14, in a small town on an island off the Canadian eastern seaboard. Her mother had been brutally beaten by her husband from early in the marriage, and divorced him when Bailee was seven. But that made the child even more vulnerable during the access visits she made to her father's house every fortnight. "[My mother] was no longer his prisoner," Bailee writes. "That became the role I took on - every other weekend."

Like many children, Bailee didn't speak up, shamed and manipulated into believing the abuse was her fault. Her mother didn't learn the truth until her daughter was well into her teens. In early adulthood, Bailee started writing a private memoir, but only recently became determined to publish her story.

That decision, she says, was sparked in part by the anger that swept over her after two notorious rape and murder cases in 2012: that of Jill Meagher, slaughtered in a Melbourne laneway, and Indian woman Jyoti Singh Pandey, violated and beaten by five men on a Delhi bus before dying an agonising death in hospital days later.... http://www.smh.com.au/good-weekend/a-survivor-of-a-paedophile-ring-tells-her-story-20140918-10eno2.html

Flying on Broken Wings

A Journey of Unimaginable Betrayal, Resilience and Hope.
By: Carrie Bailee

SOLD. She was nine years old.

Carrie Bailee fled Canada and came to Australia when she was twenty. Once here she was assisted by a number of Australian women, and was ultimately encouraged to apply for refugee status in order to stay in this country. So began her battle to be granted asylum in Australia. Carrie stood before the Refugee Review Tribunal and revealed the dark underbelly of child sexual abuse and organised crime rings in our privileged, first-world neighbourhoods. This is the story of one young woman’s heroic journey to survive, escape and soar above her shocking childhood experiences, and her powerful struggle for freedom and a beautiful life in Australia http://flyingonbrokenwings.com/

Ritual Abuse and the Fight Against Child Abuse
http://rachelgrantcoaching.blogspot.com/2014/09/ritual-abuse-and-fight-against-child.html

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Grandfather guns down six grandchildren and his daughter, 'Craigslist Killers' Sentenced to Life in Prison

'Craigslist Killers' Miranda and Elytte Barbour Sentenced to Life in Prison By Associated Press 09/18/2014

A newlywed couple whose Craigslist ad lured a stranger to his death were sentenced Thursday to life in prison without parole by a judge who said their "permanent removal" from society is appropriate.

Neither 19-year-old Miranda Barbour nor her 22-year-old husband, Elytte, displayed emotion as they sat with their lawyers in the Sunbury, Pennsylvania, courtroom while some of the victim's relatives described the grief and pain they have experienced since the Nov. 11 murder....

The couple pleaded guilty last month to second-degree murder, which carries a mandatory life sentence, in a plea deal that ruled out the death penalty....

In April, Miranda Barbour gained some notoriety when she claimed in an interview with the Sunbury newspaper, The Daily Item, that she had killed at least 22 other people in Alaska, Texas, North Carolina and California over six years as part of her involvement in a satanic cult.

Police said they couldn't substantiate her claims. But in a Monday telephone interview with The Daily Item from Muncy State Prison, Miranda Barbour stood by her confession to multiple murders.... http://www.people.com/article/craigslist-killers-sentenced-life-in-prison

Grandfather guns down six grandchildren and his daughter in Florida trailer home

Sep 18th 2014   By RYAN GORMAN

Six children and two adults, including the shooter, are dead after a mass shooting in Florida, authorities said.

Grandfather Don Spirit, 51, reportedly gunned down his adult daughter and her six children inside his Bell home, Gilchrist County Sheriff Robert Schultz said in a Thursday evening press conference. Local media is reporting the other adult victim is 28-year-old Sarah Spirit, but he declined to confirm....

The Thursday afternoon incident began as a domestic dispute, but it is not known what triggered the confrontation. Also not clear is what type of gun was used in the mass shooting.

"It started out as a family dispute and escalated," a law enforcement source previously told AOL News.

Donald Spirit has a criminal record, Schultz said, but declined to confirm his previous charges.

The gunman reportedly pleaded guilty to to shooting his eight-year-old son in in a 2003 hunting accident. He was released from prison in 2006, corrections records showed....

Other charges include possession, depriving a child of food/shelter and accidental death, records reportedly show.

Methamphetamine is also reportedly "a problem" in the trailer home where Donald Spirit lives.... http://www.aol.com/article/2014/09/18/mass-shooting-florida-six-children-eight-people-dead/20964648/

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

The Enslaved Queen: A Memoir about Electricity and Mind Control, Physical Punishment and Mental Disorders: Results From a Nationally Representative US Sample

The Enslaved Queen: A Memoir about Electricity and Mind Control
Author: Wendy Hoffman 

Written by a survivor of mind control and ritual abuse who is also a therapist, this memoir exposes the existence and practices of organized criminal groups who abuse children, helps survivors of those abuses, and provides important information for professionals about the dissociative brain. The author's poetic prose contrasts with the horror of the subject matter.

The adult journeys back to give voice to infant and child parts of her, describing her handlers' early interventions to destroy bonding and create dissociation, the foundation of reverse-Kabbalah suicide and pathway programming, and the installation of mind control. Scenes from ordinary life are interspersed throughout the memoir. Nazi post-war recruitment of American subjects during the 1940s and 50s (including the infamous Dr. Mengele), children used for prostitution, pornography and the drug trade along with the workings of the Illuminati leadership and their international Feast of the Beast rituals are all included.

The memoir also covers attempts at recovery, experiences with cult therapists in disguise and finally the author’s work with an honest, competent therapist, which led to healing and her brain melding together. The ending acknowledges spiritual experiences, the power of love, the memory process, and thoughts on living and surviving a life such as hers.

Publisher: Karnac Books 2014  ISBN 10 : 1782201483
http://www.karnacbooks.com/Product.asp?PID=35443

Physical Punishment and Mental Disorders: Results From a Nationally Representative US Sample
Tracie O. Afifi, PhD, Natalie P. Mota, MA, Patricia Dasiewicz, MS, Harriet L. MacMillan, MD, FRCPC, and Jitender Sareen, MD, FRCPC

....harsh physical punishment (ie, pushing, grabbing, shoving, slapping, hitting)
....RESULTS: Harsh physical punishment was associated with increased odds of mood disorders, anxiety disorders, alcohol and drug abuse/dependence, and several personality disorders after adjusting for sociodemographic variables and family history of dysfunction (adjusted odds ratio: 1.36–2.46). Approximately 2% to 5% of Axis I disorders and 4% to 7% of Axis II disorders were attributable to harsh physical punishment.

CONCLUSIONS: Harsh physical punishment in the absence of child maltreatment is associated with mood disorders, anxiety disorders, substance abuse/dependence, and personality disorders in a general population sample. These findings inform the ongoing debate around the use of physical punishment and provide evidence that harsh physical punishment independent of child maltreatment is related to mental disorders.
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2012/06/27/peds.2011-2947  

full text
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2012/06/27/peds.2011-2947.full.pdf

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Knowl View: '40 victims' in Rochdale school abuse probe, MP Cyril Smith

Knowl View: '40 victims' in Rochdale school abuse probe 
15 September 2014

Police investigating historical child abuse in Rochdale say more than 40 men have said they were victims of the former MP Cyril Smith or other men.

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said 24 men have alleged they were sexually and physically abused at Knowl View school in Rochdale between 1960 and 1987.

Twenty of those have said they were abused by Smith, who died in 2010.

At least one victim has told detectives he was raped by the man who was Liberal MP for Rochdale from 1972 to 1992.

Police said they had interviewed 21 men aged between 35 and 80 under caution for a variety of offences but there were still a number of other suspects to be traced and interviewed.

A separate investigation is focusing on Smith, who is alleged to have preyed on youngsters both at Knowl View, where five complainants have come forward, and another school in Rochdale for "difficult children", Cambridge House, from where 10 complainants have spoken to police.

Another five have said they were abused by Smith at various other locations, all in the Greater Manchester area....
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-29207921


Double child abuse agony for Rochdale family
By Jane Deith  16 September 2014

Two children from one family were sexually abused in separate paedophile scandals in Rochdale the BBC has found.

A boy was sexually assaulted at Knowl View School and a decade later his sister was groomed for sex by a gang of Asian men in the town.

Their mother only learned from the BBC that her son, who died recently, had been a victim.

She said she did not think it was a coincidence that both abuse scandals happened in the same town.

BBC Radio 4's File on 4 programme discovered the link while investigating Knowl View, a school for boys with special educational needs.

The former Rochdale MP Cyril Smith sexually assaulted young boys at the residential school.

The programme was shown a list of children who were at Knowl View during the 1990s....

Failure to end abuse

In the early 1990s, three official reports were written about sexual abuse at the school but they were not made public.

Greater Manchester Police is investigating whether there was a criminal cover-up.

Current MP for Rochdale Simon Danczuk is now questioning whether the failure to end the abuse at Knowl View led to a climate in which the subsequent child sex ring in Rochdale was allowed to emerge.

"I've often wondered whether there's a connection between the two and whether the culture was influenced by the fact that Smith's abuse had been ignored by people in the town and whether that impacted on the Rochdale grooming scandal.

"Knowl View links the historic to the recent is the point I'm making... it's a continuum of abuse by individuals, but also by groups because Knowl View is about groups of abusers coming together just like the grooming gangs that have been involved with the girls."....
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-29159427

Monday, September 15, 2014

Yorkshire MEP sent death threats over Rotherham scandal, Rotherham child-sex victim confronts her alleged abuser in the street but she is arrested

Rotherham child-sex victim confronts her alleged abuser in the street... but SHE is arrested by a van load of police
    Victim saw man she says abused her walking the town's streets
    The now 28-year-old challenged him over claims of grooming and violence
    But when police arrived, she was handcuffed and arrested by officers
    She was 'shoved into van' by two officers in 'thuggish' arrest, witness says
    Police later realised they had been hoping to interview her over claims
    She refused to speak to them after she was reportedly pushed against wall
By Richard Spillett for MailOnline
15 September 2014

....A damning report released last month detailed how 1,400 children were sexually exploited in the area over a 16-year period.

The Times reported that a woman whose case is being investigated by authorities - but has not yet been interviewed - was arrested after tackling a man she says groomed her when she was 15.

A witness accused the police of 'acting like insensitive thugs', telling the paper: 'A police van came and six male officers piled out.

....The arrest comes after an inquiry into long-running child abuse in the area revealed families who tried to step in were in some cases themselves detained by police.

The Jay report into the scandal stated: 'In two of the cases, fathers tracked down their daughters and tried to remove them from houses where they were being abused, only to be arrested themselves when police were called to the scene.'....
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2756140/Rotherham-child-abuse-victim-confronts-alleged-abuser-street-SHE-arrested-van-load-police.html


Yorkshire MEP sent death threats over Rotherham scandal
A EURO MP has had death threats for lifting the lid on the Rotherham child sex scandal.  By Scott Hesketh 14th September 2014

Jane Collins has been told to stay away from the town after she hit out at the council.

Now police have responded to a flood of menacing emails and phone calls to her house by installing a panic button. They also plan to put in a safe room.

In an exclusive interview, The Ukip MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber said: “I didn’t get death threats before.

“The more we reveal and the more we push the nastier it’s going to get.”

Meanwhile, more details emerged about controversial ex-councillor Jahangir Akhtar, who denies covering up for violent adult offender Arshid Hussain.

Hussain was named by 18 girls as their “boyfriend” when they were sent to a council organisation for the victims of paedophiles....
http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/399718/Yorkshire-MEP-death-threats-Rotherham-scandal  

Friday, September 12, 2014

The Witch-Hunt Narrative: "most of the charges brought against child molesters were grounded in some truth"

Research By the Dozens
By Lawrence Goodman  September/October 2014

....More than fifteen years in the making, The Witch-Hunt Narrative examines dozens of child sexual abuse cases from the 1980s. Over time, these cases ensnared dozens of defendants, some of whom were eventually cleared of any wrongdoing. Many experts believed these prosecutions came about when interrogators asked young children leading questions, resulting in a witch-hunt in which wrongful accusations were made against thousands of people.

Thanks in part to the work of Brown students, Cheit reviewed all the so-called witch-hunt cases and concluded that most of the charges brought against child molesters were grounded in some truth. At the very least, he says, there was enough credible evidence to begin police investigations.

Cheit, who holds a law degree and is also a professor of public policy, believes we are far too quick to dismiss the accounts of young children. “We have, over the last twenty years,” he writes in The Witch-Hunt Narrative, “discounted the word of children who might testify against sexual abuse. We have become more worried about overreacting to child sexual abuse than we are about underreacting to it.”....
http://www.brownalumnimagazine.com/content/view/3759/31/

Thursday, September 11, 2014

Rotherham chief executive tells MPs: We've lost child sex abuse reports, ‘Rotherham-style’ child abuse in Scotland probed, West Midlands child abuse cases to have 'no secrets' review

Rotherham chief executive tells MPs: We've lost child sex abuse reports
Sep 10, 2014 By Jack Blanchard

Rotherham Council’s chief executive Martin Kimber told MPs he cannot locate three vital reports into child sex abuse despite “extensive” searches
Bombshell files which revealed the scale of child sex abuse in Rotherham over a decade ago have disappeared from council offices, a town hall chief has revealed.

Rotherham Council’s chief executive Martin Kimber told MPs he cannot locate three vital reports into child sex abuse despite “extensive” searches.

“I still have not seen the 2002 report, even though I made extensive inquiries,” he told the Commons local government committee.

“The 2003 report I have never seen at all. I made extensive inquiries. The 2006 report I saw for the first time on Sunday evening.

“They are not in the council’s archives.”

The revelation files have gone missing will add to MPs’ fears that the scale of abuse in Rotherham was covered up by council and police officials.

Last month’s damning investigation by Professor Alexis Jay, which revealed at least 1,400 girls were abused over 15 years, told how the key reports had been repeatedly ignored by the council....
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/rotherham-chief-executive-tells-mps-4197611


‘Rotherham-style’ child abuse in Scotland probed
by DANI GARAVELLI
31 August 2014

POLICE are investigating the sexual exploitation of vulnerable children in Scotland by men from ethnic minorities in ­cases that bear striking ­similarities to the organised abuse of youngsters in Rotherham, Scotland on ­Sunday can reveal.

Detectives have launched two operations into the abuse of vulnerable teenagers, some of whom absconded from children’s homes, in Glasgow.

The first, Operation Cotswold, set up in 2011, focused on a group of Middle Eastern asylum seekers in the north of the city. At least 26 potential victims were identified and files were sent to the procurator-fiscal, but no prosecutions were brought.

It is understood vulnerable young girls were found in the home of one or more suspects, but many identified as at risk did not see themselves as victims and were reluctant to co-operate, making it difficult to gather evidence and get the case to court....
http://www.scotsman.com/news/scotland/top-stories/rotherham-style-child-abuse-in-scotland-probed-1-3526201 


West Midlands child abuse cases to have 'no secrets' review  11 September 2014
A review of child sexual exploitation cases in the West Midlands has been called by the new Police and Crime Commissioner.

David Jamieson said it would look for evidence of agencies missing abuse, as seen in Rotherham....

West Midlands Police currently has underway:

    57 live child sexual exploitation legal proceedings
    130 cases where child sexual exploitation is suspected
    67 investigations involving online sexual offences against children...

Agencies in the West Midlands have also been strongly criticised in recent years for their protection of children, following high profile cases such as the deaths of Keanu Williams and Daniel Pelka.

However, Mr Jamieson said there was no evidence of "wide scale abuse and widespread cover-up" in the West Midlands....
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-29156736

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Lawmakers Blast Child-Abuse Inquiry on Tax Shelter Jersey Island, 40 percent of women with severe mental illness are victims of rape, attempted rape

Lawmakers Blast Child-Abuse Inquiry on Tax Shelter Jersey Island
By Leah McGrath Goodman  9/10/14

Neil McMurray used to be a professional fisherman and crabber—until one of his children was repeatedly bullied in school and he found himself investigating what he began to view as a startling lack of concern for the welfare of children in his tiny island home.

“For the past decade, I have been writing about what I have come to see as a culture of concealment within our government, education and justice systems, which have repeatedly failed the most vulnerable members of our society, particularly children,” says McMurray.

McMurray lives on the island of Jersey, a $2 trillion tax shelter in the Channel Islands. Just 14 miles off the west coast of France, Jersey is part of neither Great Britain nor the European Union but a “Crown dependency”—meaning it is technically accountable to the queen of Great Britain but governs itself.

A 47-year-old married father of two, McMurray launched a humble but highly influential blog, Voice for Children, around the time the island’s police announced in 2008 that nearly 200 people from different parts of the world had come forward to report they had been victims of child predators on the island.

Since then, McMurray has assiduously covered child-protection issues in Jersey, gaining a following that includes global human-rights activists as well as the island’s locals, not excluding Jersey’s chief minister, Ian Gorst. But he has also gathered a good deal of notoriety....

Dubbed Operation Rectangle, the 2008 police investigation into widespread child abuse on the island yielded 151 suspects in Jersey, which is only 5 by 9 miles in size. Of those, 30 are now dead and fewer than a dozen were convicted, sparking widespread outrage from victims and witnesses and creating deep divisions on the island.

During Operation Rectangle, a dig under a government-run Jersey children’s home, Haut de la Garenne, unearthed the remains of children aged 6 to 12, according to a Jersey police press release, which noted that “no people are reported missing” and “there are no suspects for murder.” The probe closed in 2010 under questionable circumstances.

In July, a long-awaited Committee of Inquiry convened hearings in Jersey to investigate whether there may have been a cover-up of decades of atrocities against children. The inquiry stated September 5 that “new witnesses are coming forward all the time, and it is anticipated the hearings will last many months.”....
http://www.newsweek.com/lawmakers-blast-child-abuse-inquiry-tax-shelter-jersey-269447

40 percent of women with severe mental illness are victims of rape, attempted rape

September 3, 2014
University College London

Summary: Women with severe mental illness are up to five times more likely than the general population to be victims of sexual assault and two to three times more likely to suffer domestic violence, reveals new research.

Women with severe mental illness are up to five times more likely than the general population to be victims of sexual assault and two to three times more likely to suffer domestic violence, reveals new research led by UCL (University College London) and King's College London funded by the Medical Research Council and the Big Lottery.

The study, published in Psychological Medicine, found that 40% of women surveyed with severe mental illness had suffered rape or attempted rape in adulthood, of whom 53% had attempted suicide as a result. In the general population, 7% of women had been victims of rape or attempted rape, of whom 3% had attempted suicide. 12% of men with severe mental illness had been seriously sexually assaulted, compared with 0.5% of the general population....

"The number of rape victims among women with severe mental illness is staggering," says lead author Dr Hind Khalifeh of UCL's Division of Psychiatry. "At the time of the survey, 10% had experienced sexual assault in the past year, showing that the problems continue throughout adulthood. Considering the high rate of suicide attempts among rape victims in this group, clinicians assessing people after a suicide attempt should consider asking them if they have been sexually assaulted. Currently this is not done and so patients may miss opportunities to receive specialist support."

Men and women with mental illness were also found to be more likely to be victims of domestic violence than the general population. Domestic violence includes emotional, physical and sexual abuse. 69% of women and 49% of men with severe mental illness reported adulthood domestic violence.

Domestic violence from family members (other than partners) made up 63% of total domestic violence cases against psychiatric patients compared with 35% of the general population.... http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140903204125.htm

Monday, September 8, 2014

Matt Sandusky silent no more works to stop abuse, NCAA Restores Penn State's Postseason Eligibility, Rotherham child abuse scandal: council chief executive to step down, Irish Catholic leader apologises for child abuse as he steps down

Matt Sandusky, silent no more, works to stop abuse
By Elizabeth Simpson   The Virginian-Pilot    September 8, 2014
VIRGINIA BEACH

The turning point, for Matthew Sandusky, was the 2012 courtroom testimony of Victim No. 4.

The witness's description of sexual abuse mirrored Matthew's own experience so vividly it moved him to disclose to police that he, too, had been molested by former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky - who was also his adoptive father.

At the time, Matthew wished he also could have been identified by a number instead of a name, to shield his wife and children.

"Our world turned upside down," Matthew, 35, said in a phone interview from State College, Pa., last week. "We lost family. We lost friends. It felt like everyone was against us and blaming us for everything. We were really alone."

His father was convicted, and this year, Matthew has used that famous last name to become a national activist to help people disclose and recover from sexual abuse....

"I want to empower people to get help if they feel alone," he said.

It's been a brutal journey for him, one that led him to legally change his last name, and those of his wife and children, from Sandusky to one he doesn't publicize.

He now reserves the Sandusky name that once opened doors and secured him a tuition break at Penn State for another reason: to raise awareness of child sexual abuse.

Matthew was first listed as a witness to defend his adopted father, but during the trial, the testimony of Victim No. 4 was so similar to his own that he went to the police and disclosed the abuse, hoping it would not be made public.

An audio recording was leaked to the media, but he never had to take the stand in the 2012 trial. Jerry Sandusky was convicted of 45 charges of child sex abuse and given a sentence of 30 to 60 years in prison.

Matthew met him when he was 7 years old through The Second Mile charity camp. The abuse began the next year and continued into his teens, he said....

In the phone interview, Matthew said he was confused about the abuse as a child because it was not physically painful, and it seemed like a fair trade-off for the financial and emotional stability of the Sandusky household, something he didn't have from his biological family.

In the end, though, he realized there was nothing fair, or emotionally stable, about it.... http://hamptonroads.com/2014/09/matt-sandusky-silent-no-more-works-stop-abuse http://goo.gl/HIJ7N5
  

NCAA Restores Penn State's Postseason Eligibility, Football Scholarships 9/08/2014

There is likely nothing more horrifying or despicable in college football’s history than the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal. The legal fallout was immense, with Sandusky locked away for what most assume will be the rest of his life and another three Penn State officials are still standing trial for their alleged roles in covering up Sandusky’s actions. Many also called on the NCAA to drop the hammer on the football program that facilitated decades of child abuse, and the governing body did not disappoint: Penn State was forced to pay $60 million over a five-year period, plus the football team was hit with a four-year bowl ban and a loss of 20 football scholarships.


And yet on Monday, the NCAA announced that its executive committee has restored Penn State’s postseason eligibility, effective immediately, and next season the team will return to a full complement of 85 scholarships, which accelerates an easing of the sanctions already made last year. These changes are based on recommendations made in a report from George Mitchell, the school’s external athletic integrity monitor. Mitchell, who is responsible for monitoring Penn State’s efforts to enact recommendations made in the Freeh Report, cited the school’s progress since the sanctions were handed down two years ago, including the formation of a comprehensive compliance program.

It’s curious that the NCAA would agree to so radically mitigate sanctions stemming from what is the single most horrible scandal in its history, especially considering that the NCAA rarely diminishes punishments for even far less serious violations. For one example, Big Ten rival Ohio State was hit with NCAA sanctions in 2011 after it was discovered that some players traded memorabilia for money and tattoos; that punishment was never modified at a later date, and the team is still playing with a reduced number of scholarships.... http://www.forbes.com/sites/chrissmith/2014/09/08/ncaa-restores-penn-states-postseason-eligibility-football-scholarships/ 


SECOND ANNUAL REPORT OF THE INDEPENDENT ATHLETICS INTEGRITY MONITOR PURSUANT TO THE ATHLETICS INTEGRITY AGREEMENT AMONG THE NATIONAL COLLEGIATE ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION, THE BIG TEN CONFERENCE AND THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY AND AS EXTERNAL MONITOR APPOINTED BY THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY
http://www.dlapiper.com/~/media/Files/Insights/Publications/2014/09/NCAAMonitorsSecondAnnualReport.pdf 

Rotherham child abuse scandal: council chief executive to step down Martin Kimber,
chief executive of the council at the centre of the child exploitation scandal, will quit at the end of the year

    Helen Pidd, northern editor
    theguardian.com, Monday 8 September 2014

The chief executive of Rotherham council is to step down, saying a new leader would help the town recover after it emerged councillors, police and social services turned a blind eye to the abuse of at least 1,400 children....

The independent Jay inquiry into historical cases of child sexual exploitation highlighted serious failings by agencies in the town involved in protecting children and young people.

Jay said the most "blatant" failures took place from 1997-2009. Kimber joined the authority in 2009. His predecessors all insist they were unaware of the scale of abuse perpetrated under their watch.... http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/sep/08/rotherham-child-abuse-council-leader-martin-kimber-quits 


Irish Catholic leader apologises for child abuse as he steps down
Agence France-Presse September 8, 2014

Cardinal Sean Brady, who was criticised over his handling of abuse scandals, stepped down as leader of the Irish Catholic Church on Monday with an emotional plea for forgiveness.

"I too need to say sorry and to ask forgiveness and I do so again today," Brady told the faithful at a mass in Armagh in Northern Ireland.

Brady, who played a key role in the peace process after being appointed in 1996, had tendered his resignation to the Vatican last month after turning 75, the normal retirement age for senior clergy.

His years as leader of the Irish church coincided with a series of damning revelations of widespread clerical sex abuse.

Brady himself became directly embroiled in accusations that he mishandled child abuse allegations during an investigation into notorious paedophile Father Brendan Smyth.

In 1975, as a young priest and canon lawyer investigating the actions of Smyth, Brady did not report the allegations of abuse to the police. Smyth continued to abuse children until his arrest and conviction in the 1990s.

A television documentary in 2012 revealed Brady did not act when given the names of five other children abused by Smyth.... http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/140908/irish-catholic-leader-apologises-child-abuse-he-steps-down

Dublin Rape Crisis Centre releases ‘shocking’ report

Monday, September 8, 2014
THE Dublin Rape Crisis Centre’s (DRCC) Annual Report has revealed the highest number of calls to their 24-hour helpline since 2009.

A total of 12,192 contacts were answered by the DRCC’s National 24-Hour Helpline, including 9,614 “genuine” calls, an increase of five per cent compared with 2012 figures.

A total of 43 per cent of these calls relate to adult rape, an increase of three per cent compared to 2012.

The report also indicates that 231 victims of rape and sexual assault were accompanied by trained DRCC volunteers at the Rotunda Sexual Assault Treatment Unit in 2013....

Other findings include the fact that the majority of callers (78 per cent) were female and 22 per cent were men; 43 per cent of calls related to adult rape; nine per cent of calls related to adult sexual assault; 53 per cent of calls related to adult sexual violence, including rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment, and trafficking and 47 per cent of calls related to childhood sexual abuse, including ritual abuse and suspected abuse.... http://www.dublinpeople.com/article.php?id=4026&l=100

Thursday, September 4, 2014

Evidence on rampant violence against children worldwide: Hidden in plain sight, Federal Appeals Court Rejects Yeshiva Sex Abuse Lawsuit

"But violence is not inevitable; it can be prevented."

Evidence on rampant violence against children ‘compels us to act’ – UNICEF report

4 September 2014 – Violence against children is universal – so prevalent and deeply ingrained in societies it is often unseen and accepted as the norm – according to new, unprecedented data presented by the United Nations today.

A new UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report, Hidden in plain sight: A statistical analysis of violence against children, draws on data from 190 countries in order to shed light on a largely undocumented issue.

The report found that about two thirds of children worldwide between ages 2 and 14 (almost 1 billion) are subjected to physical punishment by their caregivers on a regular basis. And yet, only about one third of adults worldwide believe that physical punishment of some kind is necessary to properly raise or educate a child....

The data includes new figures on violent discipline - the most common form of violence against children as well as violence against girls - widespread rates of physical and sexual abuse. It also takes a look at homicide rates - a leading cause of death among adolescent boys.

In fact, one fifth of homicide victims globally are children and adolescents under the age of 20, resulting in about 95,000 deaths in 2012, and slightly more than 1 in 3 students between the ages of 13 and 15 worldwide are regularly bullied in school.

“Violence begets violence. We know a child experiencing abuse is more likely to see violence as normal, even acceptable and more likely to perpetuate violence against his or her own children in the future,” UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake said.

Perceptions on violence including shocking figures on children’s views and reluctance to report abuse was also reported. Hence, changing attitudes with respect to violence against children starts with knowledge. The report is an opportunity to go into the public domain, and say “now you have to do something,” noted Ms. Bissell....

The effects of violence against children can last a lifetime, as exposure to violence can alter a child’s brain development damaging their physical, mental and emotional health. Violence is also passed down from one generation to the next. But violence is not inevitable; it can be prevented.... http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=48639#.VAkiohYXMoE

New global data expose acute prevalence of violence against children: UNICEF

Major findings include:

• Sexual violence: Around 120 million girls under the age of 20 worldwide (about 1 in 10) have experienced forced intercourse or other forced sexual acts, and one in 3 ever-married adolescent girls aged 15 to 19 (84 million) have been victims of emotional, physical or sexual violence committed by their husbands or partners....

• Homicide: One fifth of homicide victims globally are children and adolescents under the age of 20, resulting in about 95,000 deaths in 2012...Among countries in Western Europe and North America, the United States has the highest homicide rate.

• Bullying: Slightly more than 1 in 3 students between the ages of 13 and 15 worldwide are regularly bullied in school....

• Violent discipline: About 17 per cent of children in 58 countries are subject to severe forms of physical punishment (hitting on the head, ears or face or hitting hard and repeatedly)....

• Attitudes towards violence: Close to half of all adolescent girls aged 15 to 19 (around 126 million) believe a husband is justified in hitting his wife under certain circumstances....Data from 30 countries suggest that about seven in 10 girls 15-19 years old who had been victims of physical and/or sexual abuse had never sought help: many said they did not think it was abuse or did not see it as a problem. http://www.unicef.org/media/media_75530.html

 
#ENDviolence against children
http://www.unicef.org/endviolence/

Hidden in Plain Sight: A statistical analysis of violence against children
http://www.unicef.org/publications/index_74865.html

 
Federal Appeals Court Rejects Yeshiva Sex Abuse Lawsuit

September 4, 2014
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) – A New York court has tossed out a $380 million lawsuit claiming at least 34 ex-students of Yeshiva University High School for Boys were abused, some sexually, from 1971 to 1992.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Thursday the statute of limitations had expired. It said the plaintiffs had enough information to take action decades ago.

The lawsuit claimed administrators ignored abuse complaints and said they only learned of an alleged school cover-up in 2012.

The plaintiffs’ attorney Kevin Mulhearn promised to appeal, calling the ruling “intellectually and morally bankrupt.”

The school called the case “trying for all involved.” It said its confidential counseling services remain available for anyone who was harmed....

In the lawsuit, one alleged victim claimed administrators offered him a deaf ear when he said a Judaic studies teacher had sodomized him with a toothbrush, according to a New York Daily News report.

The lawsuit said Finkelstein also targeted children of Holocaust survivors, and “implored these children not to add to their parents’ suffering by telling them about the assaults.”

Mulhearn said the alleged abuse “caused a lifelong devastating impact to a multitude of boys... http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/09/04/federal-appeals-court-rejects-yeshiva-sex-abuse-lawsuit/

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Increase in Sexual Violence, Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry: Child abused in care of Presbyterian Church in Australia - 131 NI children sent to Australia, Caged until 'broken': life for Mumbai's prostitutes

- ‘Disturbing’ increase in sexual violence
- Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry: Child abused in care of Presbyterian Church in Australia
- Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry: 131 NI children sent to Australia
- Caged until 'broken': life for Mumbai's prostitutes

‘Disturbing’ increase in sexual violence

Dublin Rape Crisis Centre says social media being used as a form of abuse
Kitty Holland

Wed, Sep 3, 2014

Increasing levels of violence are accompanying rape, the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre has said, and “particularly concerning” was the way social media is being used to film and distribute some assaults.

Angela McCarthy, DRCC’s head of clinical services, speaking at the publication of the centre’s annual report yesterday, said there had been a “disturbing increase in sexual violence” reported last year.

She said 27 per cent of all incidents of adult rape or sexual assault disclosed in therapy sessions included additional violence, predominantly physical abuse, psychological abuse and harassment or intimidation.

Some 21 per cent of all incidents of childhood sexual abuse were accompanied by additional violence, mainly psychological and physical abuse....

“Experienced therapists and counsellors have been very shocked at some of the violence. Age seems to be an issue, with younger people being raped by gangs while others are watching and sometimes filming the assaults.”....

Some 44 per cent of calls related to child sexual abuse and 42 per cent to adult rape. Nine per cent related to adult sexual assault – representing an increase of 21 per cent on the previous year, 2 per cent to ritual abuse, 0.9 per cent to sexual harassment, 0.5 per cent to suspected abuse, 0.3 per cent to trafficking, and, 0.1 per cent to under-13 sexualised behaviour.
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/disturbing-increase-in-sexual-violence-1.1917012


Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry: Child abused in care of Presbyterian Church in Australia
3 September 2014 

A pensioner has told an inquiry examining child abuse that he was physically and sexually abused as a young boy while in the care of the Presbyterian Church in Australia.

His migration was part of a scheme between the Presbyterian Church in the UK and Australia.

Speaking to the Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) Inquiry via video link, he outlined his childhood.

He is one of about 50 witnesses giving evidence from Australia.

The man said he was born into the Church of Ireland in west Tyrone in the 1940s to an unmarried mother.

When his mother died of TB, he was taken into a number of foster and care homes before being separated from his brother and sister and sent to Australia in 1950.

The witness said he wanted his brother to join him in Australia, but after being abused, he sent a letter home telling his brother not to come.
"I couldn't put him through that," he told the inquiry....

On Monday, the inquiry heard that 131 children from Northern Ireland, some as young as five, were sent to Australia as child migrants.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-29048447  


Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry: 131 NI children sent to Australia 1 September 2014
One hundred and thirty-one children from Northern Ireland, some as young as five, were sent to Australia as child migrants, an inquiry has heard.

The experiences of 50 of them will be heard by the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIA) either by oral or written evidence.

It is examining the extent of child abuse in religious and state-run institutions in NI from 1922 to 1995....

The chairman said it would become clear during their evidence that many had suffered severe hardship and "grave" sexual and physical abuse in the institutions to which they were sent in Australia....
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-29006251 


Caged until 'broken': life for Mumbai's prostitutes
02 September 2014
Channel 4 News gains exclusive access to brothels in Mumbai, where trafficked girls are kept in cages like slaves to stop them running away - and only allowed out to have sex with customers.

....I was taken into the reception area of the brothel, the space where the customers are taken to select a girl. On the ceiling I could see a small, open trap door. The madam disappeared, and I climbed up a wooden ladder and pushed through the small gap.

Suddenly I was face to face with a "box cage". I knew what I was looking at. The prostitutes I had met over years of investigating the sex industry in Mumbai had told me of the caged rooms and boxes they had been held in for months, even years. They told me they were held in the cages when they were first trafficked to the red-light district.

The madams would keep the girls like slaves in the cages until they were "broken" - the aim being to stop them running away. The girls told me they never knew if it was night or day when they were in the cages. They were only taken out to eat or to be given to a customer for sex. For years I had wanted to photograph these cages, to prove that these places actually exist....

Over those years, I have watched and photographed thousands of men visiting Kamathipura - they say they are looking for pleasure. But a red-light district is not a place of pleasure. It is a place of pain.

I have often wondered if men would come and have sex with these women if they knew their true stories, like Guddi's, if they knew how the girls have been trafficked, and that actually they are paying to rape a girl who is a sex slave. http://www.channel4.com/news/prostitution-mumbai-india-caged-trafficked-brothels

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Home Office worker investigating Rotherham child abuse 'had data stolen', 11-year-old victim was arrested

Home Office worker investigating Rotherham child abuse 'had data stolen'
Local council took data from office, accused me of insensitivity and tried to sack me, researcher claims on Panorama
Martin Williams The Guardian, Monday 1 September 2014

A Home Office official who investigated the sexual exploitation of children in Rotherham accused the council of being involved in the unauthorised removal of information from her office.

Her report in 2002 suggested there were then more than 270 victims of the scandal, which was finally exposed last week with revelations that at least 1,400 children were abused from 1997 to 2013.

She told Panorama that she had sent her report to both the council and the Home Office on a Friday, but when she returned on Monday she found her office had been raided.

"They'd gained access to the office and taken my data, so out of the number of filing cabinets, there was one drawer emptied and it was emptied of my data. It had to be an employee of the council," she said....

The Home Office researcher said that at one point the council tried to get her sacked and the report was never published.

A draft of the report severely criticised agencies working to tackle the child exploitation in the area, including "alleged indifference towards, and ignorance of, child sexual exploitation on the part of senior managers".

It said: "Responsibility was continuously placed on young people's shoulders rather than with the suspected abusers."

She met the victims at a youth organisation called Risky Business. "The workers in that project were the only people that those young people trusted, that they were telling the complete story to," she said.

"And some of the stories that I heard very early on were just so graphic that I don't think I will ever forget them.

"I was subjected to the most intense personal hostility – there were threats made from a range of sources. I've never seen back-covering like it and I still feel extremely angry about that."

Rotherham council and South Yorkshire police have both apologised for the abuse, but refused to be interviewed by Panorama.

Panorama identified one perpetrator who is still free, following a series of police failures to arrest him for exploitation. The man had 18 underage "girlfriends"....

Professor Alexis Jay, who wrote last week's independent report on the abuse in Rotherham, said people had been "punished for speaking truth to power"....
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/sep/01/home-office-rotherham-child-abuse-research-stolen-claim-panorama


Rotherham child abuse scandal: New victims come forward  2 September 2014
Twelve new victims have made allegations of child sexual abuse in Rotherham since a report found at least 1,400 children were abused, police say....

A report last week said hundreds of children were abused from 1997 to 2013.

Mr Crompton, who earlier announced he had commissioned an independent inquiry into South Yorkshire Police's handling of the scandal, was giving evidence to the Home Affairs Committee.

Mr Crompton said he now had 62 officers dedicated to dealing with child sex abuse, compared with three in 2010 and eight in 2012.

He told the committee 104 convictions had been secured since the start of 2013, while 40 more suspects were on bail.

South Yorkshire Police is conducting nine "multiple victim, multiple offender" investigations, including two in Rotherham, he said.

However, he was unable to give direct answers about specific failures highlighted in Professor Alexis Jay's report, including why an 11-year-old victim was arrested and why an officer described the rape of a 12-year-old girl by several men as "entirely consensual"....
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-29036742