Bill Cosby in Court, Surviving Sex Trafficking, Cult Survivor Years of Abuse, Seeing and Breaking the Chains: Steps for Recognizing On-Going Abuse and How to Break Free

- Bill Cosby Could Finally Face the Full Force of His Accusers in Court
Prosecutors push for 14 women to be allowed to testify against the comedian.
- Tennessee woman shares harrowing story of surviving sex trafficking
- Cult survivor tells of years of abuse, and urges other victims to speak
- Seeing and Breaking the Chains: Steps for Recognizing On-Going Abuse and How to Break Free by Arauna Morgan - Survivorship Conference 2013


Bill Cosby Could Finally Face the Full Force of His Accusers in Court
Prosecutors push for 14 women to be allowed to testify against the comedian.
by Joanna Robinson September 6, 2016

Though Bill Cosby has faced individual women in court accusing him of sexual assault over the years (accusations he’s repeatedly denied), he’s never had to reckon with the sheer volume of those accusations at once. But that could all change next year.

In a pre-trial motion for the criminal trial of Bill Cosby for the alleged rape of former Temple University employee Andrea Constand, the Montgomery County D.A.’s office requested that 13 of the more than 50 women who have come forward to accuse Cosby over the years be allowed to add their testimony to Constand’s in the trial. For the first time and under the public eye, Cosby would have to confront evidence of what the district attorney called “a pattern of serial sexual abuse.” If found guilty, Cosby faces a possible decade behind bars and millions in fines for three counts of second-degree felonies, aggravated indecent assault, against Constand.

No official word yet on whether Judge Steven O’Neill will allow the 13 women to testify against Cosby, but if they do, they’ll have a while to wait. Though the judge asked for a “speedy” and “expeditious” trial, Deadline reports that the case will likely be pushed until June 5, 2017, due, primarily, to scheduling concerns from Cosby’s lawyer Brian McMonagle. But this delay may come as something of a relief to the prosecution who described the task of investigating the accounts of these additional witnesses as “Herculean.”

Despite indicating that there was work still to be done, D.A. Kevin Steele presented a mountain of damning accusations from the 13 women in the pre-trial motion he filed. The document (which you can view in full via Deadline here) goes into unflinching detail about each woman’s accusation in 37 pages of sub-headed lists. The incidents date back to 1964 and allege a ritual abuse of power, age, and gender dynamics and Cosby’s now-infamous alleged preference for immobilizing intoxicants. Though the cases vary somewhat, there is one consistent sentence repeated for each of the 14 accusers, including Constand: “She did not consent to this sexual contact with the defendant....
http://www.vanityfair.com/style/2016/09/bill-cosby-trial-lawyers-accusers-race-card-location

Commonwealth's Motion to Introduce Evidence of Prior Bad Acts of Defendant - Commonwealth of Pennsylvania vs William H. Cosby, Jr.
https://pmcdeadline2.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/commonwealth_s-motion-on-bill-cosby-wm.pdf


Tennessee woman shares harrowing story of surviving sex trafficking
Samantha Fisher, WKRN Published: September 4, 2016

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) – Sex trafficking is a terrible reality in Middle Tennessee, and one woman is sharing her story of survival with WAVY News sister station WKRN.

As she clutched a teddy bear, the woman said she is afraid to be identified “because he’s still out there, because I didn’t have the courage to press charges when this all happened.”

She chose to speak with News 2 in hopes that it will help even one victim of trafficking and abuse.

“You are worth saving. You’re worth saving. I was worth saving,” she stressed, speaking out to victims.

She met her trafficker when she was just 15-years-old.

“He did some really bad things,” she explained.

He served prison time but came back into her life when she was 27, now divorced with a young daughter.

She thought he had changed.

“It took me a while to put together that he was drugging my drinks,” she told News 2.

But it did not take long for her to put together why....

She was one of the first to come into the court in February and is now the first graduate.

“I’m not a victim today. I’m a survivor today. I’m a graduate today,” she said proudly. “I have a higher power that didn’t put me through those things, but allowed me to go through them because I was strong enough to survive it. Maybe my story can help that one person break free from whatever it is they are going through....
http://wavy.com/2016/09/04/tennessee-woman-shares-harrowing-story-of-surviving-sex-trafficking/ 

Cult survivor tells of years of abuse, and urges other victims to speak
JOHN WEEKES, JACK BARLOW AND ILLYA MCLELLAN September 2 2016

Two former church members, one of whom was sexually abused as a girl, say the organisation they grew up in was a "cult" in which multiple abuses were carried out.

Sophia and her cousin Anna believe the old Commonwealth Covenant Church was as much a cult as any higher-profile religious group such as the Gloriavale community on the West Coast.

Now 36, Sophia – not her real name – says when she first raised sexual abuse allegations in the 1990s, she and her mother were bullied into leaving the church.

Sophia and Anna spent much of their youth in the CCC, based in urban centres, including Lower Hutt.

Jonathan John Edward Belcher, now living in Masterton, was jailed for the offending against Sophia.

This week, he said he had served his time, and was a changed man after undertaking a programme for sex offenders while in prison.

Though a jury found Belcher guilty, and the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court dismissed his appeals, he still accused Sophia of lying.

She believes he is not remorseful, and wants nothing to do with him.

The detective who investigated the case, Miles Horsnell?, said Sophia's case was one of the most disturbing he worked on.

"How long it went on for and the types of things he did ... It was a really bad one."

Sophia said the secrecy and patriarchal nature of the CCC was a factor in Belcher's abuse, which began when she was 4.

"He used a lot of religious stuff when he abused me. He used to pray and make me pray."

A common theme through the abuse, she said, was his making her feel as if she was to blame.

And when she raised allegations years later, she said the church dealt with those claims internally, rather than going to police.

"My mum went out and got a protection order against him. Then we were really bullied because of that."

The church in the 1980s and 90s was a cloistered, sexist institution, she said.

"We had really strict rules. Boys and girls weren't allowed to associate. We weren't allowed to cut our hair. No makeup.

"Women were taught to be subservient ... your place was to have babies.

"We didn't have radio, we didn't have TV. It was very much like Gloriavale."

And she said adherents were told going to police was immoral....
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/83820915/cult-survivor-tells-of-years-of-abuse-and-urges-other-victims-to-speak 



Seeing and Breaking the Chains: Steps for Recognizing On-Going Abuse and How to Break Free by Arauna Morgan - Survivorship Conference 2013

Arauna Morgan, survivor/therapist of generational ritual abuse and mind control. "The Family" cult was Masonic/Luciferian and I was also exposed to programming from those in the military, government and government contractors who had climbed the ranks to be allowed access to special sex slaves. I found freedom.

https://survivorship.org/seeing-and-breaking-the-chains-steps-for-recognizing-on-going-abuse-and-how-to-break-free-by-arauna-morgan-survivorship-conference-2013/

Presented at the Survivorship Ritual Abuse and Child Abuse 2013 Conference - Survivors Moving Forward in Oakland, CA

Arauna Morgan, MA will discuss “Seeing and Breaking the Chains: Steps for Recognizing On-Going Abuse and How to Break Free.” The road to freedom from the cult is long and arduous, but well worth the struggle. Through my own experiences of getting free and through talking with other survivors who have done the same, I find that there are similar stages that we all went through, even though our personal experiences were quite different. One significant barrier that stands out to me, for both therapists and survivors, is thinking that cult contact has stopped when it has only gone to a different level. What I present are the steps to recovery and what those stages look like to friends and therapists and the external changes that happen when freedom is achieved. This is geared for survivors and therapists.


Other conference presentations are at:
https://survivorship.org/survivorship-ritual-abuse-and-child-abuse-conference-online-presentations/ 

Self-Esteem Loosens Mind Control by Wendy Hoffman – Survivorship Conference 2016
https://survivorship.org/self-esteem-loosens-mind-control-by-wendy-hoffman-survivorship-conference-2016/ 

Internal Keys to Safety by Alison Miller – Survivorship Conference 2016
https://survivorship.org/internal-keys-to-safety-by-alison-miller-survivorship-conference-2016/