Survivorship Conference May 2018 - Conference Speakers

Dear Friends, 

We are now accepting conference registrations. We have special prices for those that register before February 1, 2018.  

The Survivorship Ritual Abuse and Mind Control 2018 Conference  
https://survivorship.org/ritual-abuse-and-mind-control-2018-conference/

When: 
Regular Conference - Saturday and Sunday May 19 - 20, 2018 
Clinician's Conference - Friday May 18, 2018  

Where: 
Courtyard Marriot Long Beach Airport 
3841 N. Lakewood Blvd 
Long Beach, CA 90808 

 Please write conference2018@survivorship.org for more information.  


Regular Conference Speakers - Saturday and Sunday May 19 - 20, 2018  

For Those Who Condemn Themselves for Acts Coerced Under Torture 

Presenter: Ellen Lacter, Ph.D. Synopsis: One of the most disturbing horrors described by survivors of extreme abuse is having been subjected to torture to coerce them, while being tortured, to harm or kill other victims. Many survivors describe clear memories of first being subjected this form of abuse as young children. The subsequent moral injury is devastating. This workshop will explain how specific torture methods predictably work to coerce victims to harm and kill others; the various psychological responses of victims while they are being coerced to harm others; and abuser methods to coerce victims to harm others outside of immediate torture. This workshop will assign all guilt, shame, and moral responsibility for coerced harm to the perpetrators who execute the torture and will work to help survivors stand in solidarity with other survivors of extreme abuse to do everything in their power to to overcome all self-condemnation for having been coerced through torture to harm other victims. Participants will be provided with a list of statements by the speaker and participants in the clinicians conference proclaiming the innocence of victims coerced to harm others under torture. Note: Survivors should carefully consider beforehand whether to attend this workshop as the material is extremely painful. 

 Ellen P. Lacter, Ph.D., is a Psychologist and Academic Coordinator of the Play Therapy Certificate Program at University of California- San Diego, Division of Extended Studies. She specializes in the treatment of dissociative disorders and complex trauma, including victims of ritualistic abuse and mind control, has published on this subject, and is an activist on behalf of victims and survivors based in her website: https://endritualabuse.org/. She has also written: A Coloring Book of Healing Images for Adult Survivors of Child Abuse, illustrated by Robin Baird Lewis and Jen Callow (2015).  

Encouraging a Supportive Environment for Survivors: An Interactive Discussion 
 Presenter: Randy Noblitt, PhD  

Randy Noblitt, PhD, is a clinical psychologist (licensed in Texas) and professor of clinical psychology at the California School of Professional Psychology at the California School of Psychology at Alliant International University, Los Angeles. In the course of his practice, Randy has treated more than 300 individuals who met the criteria for dissociative identity disorder. He is the principle author of Cult and Ritual Abuse: Its History, Anthropology and Recent Discovery in Contemporary America (Praeger, 1995. 2000), and its third edition, Cult and Ritual Abuse: Narratives, Evidence and Healing Approaches (Praeger, 2014). He is also co-editor and contributing author of the book, Ritual Abuse in the 21st Century: Psychological, Forensic, Social and Political Considerations (Robert Reed, 2008).  

Changes in Awareness of Severe Abuse and Child Abuse Crimes Over Twenty Five Years Presenter: Neil Brick

 The awareness of severe abuse and child abuse crimes has changed over the last 25 years. In the early 1990s, severe abuse survivors were often believed and supported. Then a backlash started and severe abuse survivors and their supporters were harassed and attacked. The child abuse survivor movement changed and adapted. Ten years ago, research began again to help expose severe abuse crimes. More recently, first in the UK and Australia and now in the United States, a variety of child abuse, severe abuse, sexual harassment and rape cases are bringing public awareness again to the mainstream media of severe abuse crimes. This presentation will discuss the changes of the last 25 years, with an emphasis on the more recent exposures of organized child abuse crimes and social systems that have been part of the cover up of these crimes.  

Neil Brick is a survivor of ritual abuse and mind control. His work continues to educate the public about child abuse, trauma and ritual abuse crimes. His child abuse and ritual abuse newsletter S.M.A.R.T. https://ritualabuse.us has been published for over 22 years. http://neilbrick.com 

Clinician's Conference Speakers - Friday May 18, 2018  

For Those Who Condemn Themselves for Acts Coerced Under Torture Presenter: Ellen Lacter, Ph.D. Synopsis: One of the most disturbing horrors described by survivors of extreme abuse is having been subjected to torture to coerce them, while being tortured, to harm or kill other victims. Many survivors describe clear memories of first being subjected to this form of abuse as young children. The subsequent moral injury is devastating. This workshop will educate therapists about the methods of torture that predictably work to coerce victims to harm and kill others; the various psychological responses of victims while they are being coerced to harm others; abuser methods to coerce victims to harm others outside of immediate torture, and how to work with survivors and their self-states to overcome the consequent moral injury, including specific things to say that the speaker has found can make a difference and developing more of these together with participants in this workshop. 

 Ethics, the Community Standard, and the Credibility of Ritual Abuse Allegations 
Presenter: Randy Noblitt, PhD 
Synopsis: To what extent do mental health and other helping professionals believe the stories of ritual abuse survivors? This presentation systematically reviews the empirical research on the credibility of ritual abuse allegations. After presenting the findings there will be a discussion that welcomes the opinions of the attendees regarding their own conclusions including considerations of the community standard, professional ethics, related forensic questions, and advocacy for extreme abuse survivors. 

 Introduction to Using Sensorimotor Psychotherapy with Clients with DID 
 Presenter: Cynthia Henrie, MFT 
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy is a body-oriented, talking therapy developed in the 1980s by Pat Ogden, informed by the work of Ron Kurtz (1990) and the Rolf Method of Structural Integration (Rolf 1987) and enriched by the contributions from the fields of attachment, neuroscience, and dissociation. Sensorimotor Psychotherapy blends cognitive and emotional approaches, verbal dialogue, and physical interventions that directly address the implicit memories and neurobiological effects of trauma. By using bodily experience as a primary entry point in trauma therapy, rather than the events or the “story,” we attend to how the body is processing information, and its interface with emotions and cognitive meaning-making. A Sensorimotor Psychotherapy approach is a useful tool in the work of treating survivors of ritual abuse, mind control and Dissociative Identity Disorder. When used mindfully, Sensorimotor Skills can aid in building a sense of safety and “belonging” within one’s own body. It can help inform both the client and clinician of different alter experiences in their own physical space, and is a useful approach that aids in resolving traumatic experiences, decreasing dissociation and grieving developmental wounding in an individual’s life experience. This is an introduction to the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy approach and some of the ways it can be useful in the treatment of Dissociative Disorders and survivors.  

Cynthia Henrie, MFT, is a Board Certified Expert in Traumatic Stress, a Feminist Therapist and specializes in the treatment of trauma and dissociation. Ms. Henrie is the founder and director of the Los Angeles Therapy Network, a network of private practice therapists whose mission is to help women through feminist empowerment, trauma survivors, persons with Dissociative Identity Disorder, LGBTQIA issues, rape/sexual assault, human trafficking/slavery and torture. Ms. Henrie graduated from Antioch University with her MA in Clinical Psychology with a Focus on Adolescence & Feminist Therapy. She is trained in the treatment of trauma and dissociation through the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation, is a Level II EMDR Practitioner and has completed two years of Sensorimotor Psychotherapy which focuses on the treatment of trauma and developmental attachment problems. She is also Sandplay Practitioner. Ms. Henrie is the cofounder of the Los Angeles Dissociative Disorder Study Group, along with Randy Noblitt, PhD which is held at Alliant University. 

 https://survivorship.org 
Survivorship is one of the oldest and most respected organizations supporting survivors of extreme child abuse, including sadistic sexual abuse, ritualistic abuse, mind control, and torture. Survivorship provides resources, healing, and community for survivors; training and education for professionals who may serve survivors; and support for survivors’ partners and other allies. 

Sincerely, 

The Survivorship Conference Committee

Polygamist leaders used underage girls for sex as part of a religious ritual, YouTube’s Child-Abuse Problem Is Getting Worse

After polygamist leaders used underage girls for sex, lawsuit says, one teen was forced to be a scribe for the rituals
Paighten Harkins December 27, 2017 

 Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints President Warren Jeffs, along with other officials in the church and its former land trust, is accused of carrying out a “calculated plan” to sexually abuse underage girls as part of a religious ritual, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday. The lawsuit also cites for alleged wrongdoing the United Effort Plan Trust, Warren Jeffs’ brothers Lyle and Seth Jeffs, former FLDS President and convicted bigamist Wendell Nielsen, and the church. The lawsuit filed in 3rd District Court alleges that as part of their FLDS beliefs, men have historically sexually abused and assaulted underage girls. 

However, under Warren Jeffs’ leadership, the lawsuit’s plaintiff — a 21-year-old woman identified as R.H. — says a new practice involving ritualistic sexual intercourse with young girls began. Starting when she was 8 years old, the woman says, she would be taken from her home, wearing a bag over her head, to an unknown location — typically an FLDS temple in the Colorado City, Ariz., area or other church- or trust-owned properties — where she would be assigned a number for a religious ritual, according to the lawsuit. There, she was reportedly sexually assaulted by the Jeffses, Nielsen or other church members and leaders. 

When the men weren’t assaulting her, she says, they watched. The 21-year-old said Warren Jeffs warned her that if she told anyone about the abuse, according to the lawsuit, “God would destroy her and her family immediately.” He also reportedly said that if she cried during the ritual, “God would punish her.”

 The rituals reportedly occurred five to six times a week until the woman turned 12. When she was 14 years old, the lawsuit alleges, she was forced to watch and document other girls’ ritualistic abuse with church leaders. The woman’s attorneys cite evidence recovered from the FLDS Church’s temple in Eldorado, Texas — on the compound where Warren Jeffs lived before his arrest and conviction for sexually assaulting two girls — as proof of the abuse. The woman says the abuse continued when she turned 16 and began taking part in “Ladies Class” to learn to be a good wife. 

During those classes, she says, Warren Jeffs would escort her out of class and into his sound-proof office, where he would sexually assault her “under the guise of further teachings” in the class. The lawsuit says the church and its former land trust are liable because they hired the church leaders and, therefore, aided in the abuse. The woman is requesting physical and emotional damages and has asked for jury trial, according to the lawsuit.

 
 Her attorneys — Michael Worel, Alan Mortensen and Lance Milne — also represented Elissa Wall, who filed a lawsuit against Warren Jeffs and many of the same defendants in 2005 over being forced to marry when she was 14 years old. Wall’s case was resolved in September, when a judged ordered that Warren Jeffs pay Wall $16 million in damages. The woman came to Worel, Mortensen and Milne because they represented Walls, Worel said. The 21-year-old wanted to file the lawsuit, he said, because she believes the alleged abuse is still happening in the church. “The whole point of filing the lawsuit is she's hoping to empower others to come forward and to speak out and to see if we can make this stop," Worel said.... http://www.sltrib.com/news/2017/12/28/after-polygamist-leaders-used-underage-girls-for-sex-lawsuit-says-one-teen-was-forced-to-be-a-scribe-for-the-rituals/  


YouTube’s Child-Abuse Problem Is Getting Worse
By Paris Martineau December 27, 2017 In the wake of a viral Medium post calling attention to some very disturbing YouTube channels apparently aimed at children, YouTube has pledged its commitment to ensuring that its channels are safe, clean, and family-friendly. 

The problem is, well, it’s hard to clean up a site to which hundreds of hours of video are uploaded every minute — and there are videos that might be even worse than merely “creepy.” A recent investigation by The Times found that pedophiles have been using the site as some sort of twisted “shop window” to show off abused children and reach out to other members of the “community.”....
http://nymag.com/selectall/2017/12/youtubes-child-abuse-problem-is-getting-worse.html 

McKayla Maroney says USA Gymnastics tried to silence her abuse story

McKayla Maroney says USA Gymnastics tried to silence her abuse story
by Sarah Fitzpatrick and Tracy Connor

When Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney came forward this fall with her story of being repeatedly molested by the team's doctor, USA Gymnastics publicly praised her for having the "courage" to hold a predator accountable.

But a lawsuit filed Wednesday by Maroney alleges that USA Gymnastics actually tried to silence her nearly a year earlier by making her sign a non-disclosure agreement as part of a financial settlement she needed to pay for psychological treatment.

Maroney's attorney, John Manly, called the confidentiality agreement "hypocritical, immoral and in this case illegal."

USA Gymnastics said in a statement that "the concept of confidentiality" was initiated by Maroney's attorney at the time of the settlement, Gloria Allred, who asked the organization to take part in a "confidential mediation process.” ....

 “That agreement was written by USA Gymnastics lawyers, and it was designed to do one thing, which is keep their secret from the public.”

The agreement was inked just a few months after the first public accusations against Dr. Larry Nassar, who has since pleaded guilty to molesting 10 girls and possessing child pornography. At the time, law enforcement was encouraging women who were abused under the guise of treatments to come forward.

Maroney's suit, filed in Superior Court in California, alleges that USA Gymnastics insisted on a confidentiality agreement so "it could further conceal and shield from public scrutiny, outside investigation, and law enforcement, the true nature of Nassar's horrific sexual abuse of minors."

"Plaintiff alleges that Defendant USAG had a plan to keep the sexual abuse of Nassar quiet, and allow Nassar to quietly leave USAG, further silencing his victims," the suit charges....

 Since then, more than 140 girls and women have filed complaints against Nassar. In October, Maroney became the highest-profile athlete to go public, posting on Twitter a harrowing account of abuse that allegedly occurred on three continents as Nassar traveled with the team.

"I had a dream to go to the Olympics, and the things that I had to endure to get there, were unnecessary, and disgusting," she wrote....

Nassar was sentenced this month to 60 years in federal prison on the pornography charges and is awaiting sentencing on state sex abuse charges.....

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/mckayla-maroney-says-usa-gymnastics-tried-silence-her-abuse-story-n831416

Record sexual harassment settlement exposes byzantine congressional process, Attorney still waiting on expert report in sex cult abuse case

Record sexual harassment settlement exposes byzantine congressional process
by Leigh Ann Caldwell Dec 17 2017

WASHINGTON — Of all the secret deals cut on behalf of accused members of congress, the one that resulted in the largest settlement yet uncovered may be the most surprising. The details provide a window into a process so opaque, convoluted and confusing that even the accused congressman was left in the dark about exactly how and why his accuser ended up being paid $220,000 for her claim.

With new harassment accusations being revealed on a nearly daily basis in Congress, documents obtained by NBC News from this one case shed light on how taxpayer money ends up being used to essentially sweep such incidents under a bureaucratic rug with little accountability....

The Complaint

In 2011, Winsome Packer, a congressional staffer who worked for the United States Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (known as the Helsinki Commission) filed a complaint against the commission, alleging that its chairman at the time, Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., made unwanted sexual advances toward her and that she was threatened with retaliation.

The details of Packer’s specific allegations are recorded in the complaint she also brought in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Publicly filed court documents in that lawsuit show that Packer alleged that she “was forced to endure” repeated “unwelcome sexual advances, crude sexual comments and unwelcome touching” by Hastings. In describing the incidents, Packer alleged that Hastings had hugged her multiple times, sometimes in front of witnesses at public events, pressing his whole body against her, and his face to her face.

Packer also claimed that after she complained to the commission’s staff director, she was subject to threats of retaliation by both the director and Hastings himself, including “threats of termination.”

Hastings, who has been in Congress since 1993, has denied Packer’s allegations. He called them “malicious” and “absolutely false” in a letter obtained by NBC News....

The Office of Congressional Ethics referred the matter to the House Ethics Committee in 2010. After reviewing more than one thousand pages of documents and interviewing eight witnesses, the committee closed the case after finding that while the congressman admitted to having made some unprofessional comments, it had found “no additional evidence supporting [Packer’s ] allegations.” ....

Packer eventually received a settlement payment of $220,000, an amount confirmed by documents reviewed by NBC News and the largest known about since the Congressional Accountability Act was passed in 1995.

One document obtained by NBC News details early draft terms of Packer’s settlement, and it is one of few such documents that have become public. The others have not been released because confidentiality requirements, established by Congress and signed into federal law as the Congressional Accountability Act, bind accuser, accused and other legal entities from disclosing any terms or details.

Despite these confidentiality requirements, Packer said she had decided to speak out because the environment has changed for accusers and she has little to lose. Packer, 60, who worked for the commission from 2007 until 2014, said she has not worked since the settlement was reached nearly four years ago, and is now living with her sister in Florida. ...

Congress has wrestled with these issues in a more urgent way since the recent wave of sexual misconduct allegations began sweeping through virtually every sector of America over the past months, including several high-profile cases that have brought down members of the House and Senate.

Rep. Gregg Harper, R-Miss., chairman of the House Administration Committee, told NBC News that he will introduce bipartisan legislation next week to reform the entire adjudication process for accusers and the accused as a way to provide more transparency to the public....

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/record-sexual-harassment-settlement-exposes-byzantine-congressional-process-n829401

Attorney still waiting on expert report in sex cult abuse case
By FELIX SARVERE Dec. 14, 2017

JOLIET – A five-year-old case involving a woman charged with sexual abuse of an underage boy as part of a sex cult ritual may come closer to concluding next year.

On Thursday, Daniel Locallo, attorney for Margarita Hernandez, 38, a former Troy Township Democratic committeewoman charged with aggravated criminal sexual abuse, told a Will County judge he was still waiting to receive a report from a psychological expert on Hernandez that could be used at trial or for legal mitigation....

Hernandez was arrested in October 2012 after her 81-year-old boyfriend John Gabriel was investigated by the FBI for teen sex videos made at their home. She has been free on bond.

Since her arrest in 2012, the case has yet to go trial. The case was scheduled for jury trial at least twice, according to court records.

Gabriel, a retired journalist for The Times Weekly and Weekly Reporter, recorded sexual activities of Hernandez and others, which he claimed was a religious ritual, according to court files.

Will County prosecutors have said video was seized of Hernandez having sex with two boys who appear younger than 18.

Gabriel was convicted in 2015 of manufacturing child pornography for making videos allegedly showing Hernandez having sex with teenage boys. He was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison.
http://www.theherald-news.com/2017/12/14/attorney-still-waiting-on-expert-report-in-sex-cult-abuse-case/axmhnat/

FIFTH ESTATE Trudeau government gag order in CIA brainwashing case silences victims, lawyer says

FIFTH ESTATE  Trudeau government gag order in CIA brainwashing case silences victims, lawyer says
 
Daughter of survivor of brutal experiments ‘nervous’ to speak out after non-disclosure demand
By Harvey Cashore, Lisa Ellenwood, Bob McKeown, CBC News Dec 15, 2017

Forty years after revelations that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency funded brainwashing experiments on unsuspecting Canadians, the Trudeau government is continuing a pattern of silencing the victims, a lawyer for one of the families says.

A recent Department of Justice gag order in an out-of-court settlement was designed to avoid responsibility and avert compensation to more victims and their families, said Alan Stein, who has represented numerous survivors who were once patients at the Allan Memorial Institute in Montreal.

Stein told CBC News that successive federal governments have demanded confidentiality agreements in at least five of the cases he has settled in the last few decades.

"If they hadn't been confidential and the settlements had the publicity that they should have had, a lot of the victims would have come forward and gone to court," he said.

The Trudeau government's quiet non-disclosure payment in March 2017 to the daughter of a now-deceased victim is just the latest development in a decades-old scandal that saw both the CIA and the Canadian government fund brutal science experiments on unsuspecting patients.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/canadian-government-gag-order-mk-ultra-1.4448933

Australia Gripped by Decades of Sexual Abuse of Children, Panel Finds

Australia Gripped by Decades of Sexual Abuse of Children, Panel Finds

By JACQUELINE WILLIAMS DEC. 14, 2017

 

Australia’s senior Roman Catholic prelate, Cardinal George Pell, in June became the highest-ranking Vatican official in recent years to face criminal charges involving accusations of sexual offenses.  

 

SYDNEY, Australia — A royal commission investigating the sexual abuse of children in Australia found Friday that the nation was gripped by an epidemic dating back decades, with tens of thousands of children sexually abused in schools, religious organizations and other institutions.

 

The commission, the highest form of investigation in Australia, urged government action on its 189 recommendations, including the establishment of a new National Office for Child Safety and penalties for those who suspect abuse and fail to alert the police, including priests who hear about abuse in confessionals. It also urged Australia’s Roman Catholic leadership to press Rome to end mandatory celibacy for priests.

 

“Tens of thousands of children have been sexually abused in many Australian institutions,” said the report, which was particularly critical of Catholic organizations. “We will never know the true number. Whatever the number, it is a national tragedy, perpetrated over generations within many of our most trusted institutions.”

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the commission had exposed “a national tragedy.”

 

The commission’s chairman, Justice Peter McClellan, said that the panel heard from more than 1,000 witnesses over nearly 15 months in assessing the magnitude of the abuse.

 

“It is not a case of a few rotten apples,” the report said. “Society’s major insitutions have seriously failed. In many cases those failings have been exacerbated by a manifestly inadequate response to the abused person. The problems have been so widespread, and the nature of the abuse so heinous, that it is difficult to comprehend.”

 

Australia created the commission in 2012 to investigate decades of sexual abuse in religious institutions, schools and other establishments — the only country in the world so far to initiate such a sweeping government-led inquiry. More than 4,000 institutions have been implicated in abuse allegations, the commission found.

 

Australian government investigators identified 4,444 victims of abuse and at least 1,880 suspected abusers from 1980 to 2015. Most of those suspected of abuse were Catholic priests and religious brothers. The report released Friday said 62 percent of the survivors who told the commission they were abused in religious institutions were abused in a Catholic facility....

 

The most damaging revelations about child sexual abuse have centered on scandals in towns like Ballarat, the hometown of Cardinal George Pell, who this year became the highest-ranking Roman Catholic prelate to be formally charged with sexual offenses....

 

The charges brought in June against Cardinal Pell, one of Pope Francis’ top advisers, followed years of criticism that he had at best overlooked, and at worst covered up, the widespread abuse of children by clergymen in Australia.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/14/world/australia/australia-sexual-abuse-children.html

 

Salma Hayek sexually harassed by Harvey Weinstein, Ritual sex abuse of boys, Jehovah’s Witness rape victims claim abuse was covered up, Former sex slave recalls brutal life in brothels, abused, tortured and brainwashed evangelical church 'cult'

- Salma Hayek reveals Harvey Weinstein endlessly stalked and propositioned her before forcing her to do a nude lesbian sex scene after she refused his advances - and once threatened to have her KILLED

-  Harvey Weinstein Is My Monster Too 

-  Portugal bogus sect members jailed for ritual sex abuse of boys 

- SILENT WITNESSES Jehovah’s Witness rape victims claim abuse was covered up because it would bring shame on the religion
 

Victims say the secretive organisation instructs members not to report crimes to the police

-  'Every 45 minutes, I was sold for $120 to $350:' Former sex slave recalls brutal life in brothels 

-  Nobody saved us... I just wanted it to end': Lawyer describes how he was abused, tortured and brainwashed from the age of four at a North Carolina evangelical church 'cult'

Salma Hayek reveals Harvey Weinstein endlessly stalked and propositioned her before forcing her to do a nude lesbian sex scene after she refused his advances - and once threatened to have her KILLED

Salma Hayek is revealing that she was sexually harassed by Harvey Weinstein for years, claiming she repeatedly turned down his advances

After close to a decade of refusing his demands for showers, naked massages, oral sex and threesomes, Hayek claims Weinstein refused to let her star in Frida
Weinstein even once appeared at the door of Hayek's hotel while she was working on a film for a rival studio

When she managed to pull the film together on her own Weinstein demanded she do a nude sex scene to get the film released

Hayek said she was nauseous and suffered a nervous breakdown realizing she would finally be getting naked for Weinstein after years of his demands
In the end, Hayek was nominated for an Oscar and the film scored six nods total, winning two Academy Awards

By Chris Spargo For Dailymail.com 13 December 2017

Salma Hayek has claimed she was harassed and propositioned by Harvey Weinstein for close to a decade.

In a powerful op-ed published on Wednesday in The New York Times, Hayek reveals that after years of saying no to 'taking a shower with him,' 'letting him watch [her] take a shower,' 'letting him give [her] a massage,' 'letting a naked friend of his give her a massage,' 'letting him give [her] oral sex,' and 'getting naked with another woman,' Weinstein finally found a way to corner the actress.

Weinstein even once appeared at the door of Hayek's hotel while she was working on a film for a rival studio claims the actress.

After jumping through countless hoops to complete work on her dream project, the Frida Kahlo biopic Frida, Weinstein told her he would not release the picture unless there was a naked lesbian sex scene.

Hayek also details her experiences with Weinstein's notorious temper, claiming he once told her: 'I will kill you, don’t think I can’t.' ....
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5176071/Salma-Hayek-says-Harvey-Weinstein-harassed-years.html

Harvey Weinstein Is My Monster Too

By SALMA HAYEK Dec. 12, 2017

....Little did I know it would become my turn to say no.

No to opening the door to him at all hours of the night, hotel after hotel, location after location, where he would show up unexpectedly, including one location where I was doing a movie he wasn’t even involved with.

No to me taking a shower with him.

No to letting him watch me take a shower.

No to letting him give me a massage.

No to letting a naked friend of his give me a massage.

No to letting him give me oral sex.

No to my getting naked with another woman.

No, no, no, no, no …

And with every refusal came Harvey’s Machiavellian rage.
 

I don’t think he hated anything more than the word “no.” The absurdity of his demands went from getting a furious call in the middle of the night asking me to fire my agent for a fight he was having with him about a different movie with a different client to physically dragging me out of the opening gala of the Venice Film Festival, which was in honor of “Frida,” so I could hang out at his private party with him and some women I thought were models but I was told later were high-priced prostitutes.

The range of his persuasion tactics went from sweet-talking me to that one time when, in an attack of fury, he said the terrifying words, “I will kill you, don’t think I can’t.”

When he was finally convinced that I was not going to earn the movie the way he had expected, he told me he had offered my role and my script with my years of research to another actress.

In his eyes, I was not an artist. I wasn’t even a person. I was a thing: not a nobody, but a body.

At that point, I had to resort to using lawyers, not by pursuing a sexual harassment case, but by claiming “bad faith,” as I had worked so hard on a movie that he was not intending to make or sell back to me. I tried to get it out of his company.....

But why do so many of us, as female artists, have to go to war to tell our stories when we have so much to offer? Why do we have to fight tooth and nail to maintain our dignity?

I think it is because we, as women, have been devalued artistically to an indecent state, to the point where the film industry stopped making an effort to find out what female audiences wanted to see and what stories we wanted to tell.

According to a recent study, between 2007 and 2016, only 4 percent of directors were female and 80 percent of those got the chance to make only one film. In 2016, another study found, only 27 percent of words spoken in the biggest movies were spoken by women. And people wonder why you didn’t hear our voices sooner. I think the statistics are self-explanatory — our voices are not welcome.

Until there is equality in our industry, with men and women having the same value in every aspect of it, our community will continue to be a fertile ground for predators.

I am grateful for everyone who is listening to our experiences. I hope that adding my voice to the chorus of those who are finally speaking out will shed light on why it is so difficult, and why so many of us have waited so long. Men sexually harassed because they could. Women are talking today because, in this new era, we finally can.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/12/13/opinion/contributors/salma-hayek-harvey-weinstein.html

Portugal bogus sect members jailed for ritual sex abuse of boys
Reuters

LISBON (Reuters) - A Portuguese court has handed long prison sentences to six members of a bogus religious cult that sexually abused boys, including their own children, under the pretence of rituals on a farm just southeast of Lisbon.

Tuesday's verdict by the Setubal district court sentenced Rui Pedro, the 36-year-old leader of the self-proclaimed Celestial Truth sect, to 23 years after finding him guilty of rape, procuring prostitution, child pornography and other crimes, a court official said on Wednesday.

His wife and four other men were sentenced to prison terms of between 7 and 19 years. Two women were acquitted. The crimes were committed between 2011 and 2015, mostly on a farm rented by the group in 2014.

Prosecutors told the court that the cult was fake, and its rituals set up as a means to lure and scare the children.

The eight victims, including the leader's son and the son of another of the sentenced men, had been told that the sect's "Master" had supernatural powers and could perform "acts of purification" on them, which was the term for sexual abuse.

The boys, aged between 5 and 16 at the time of the crimes and mostly from the Setubal area, were kept in fear of his powers so they never disclosed what happened to anyone.

Their families had been led to believe the children played football or studied and received psychological counselling or religious guidance on the farm....

http://www.businessinsider.com/r-portugal-bogus-sect-members-jailed-for-ritual-sex-abuse-of-boys-2017-12 

SILENT WITNESSES Jehovah’s Witness rape victims claim abuse was covered up because it would bring shame on the religion

Victims say the secretive organisation instructs members not to report crimes to the police
By Felix Allen 21st November 2017

CHILDREN who were raped and abused by Jehovah’s Witnesses were told by church elders not to report it because it would shame the religion, it is claimed.

Victims from across Britain have told the BBC how they were routinely abused – but it was hushed up by the secretive organisation.

One victim, Louise Palmer, said she was told reporting her rapist brother to police would “bring reproach on Jehovah”.

The 41-year-old, formerly of Halesowen, West Mids, was born into the organisation along with her brother Richard Davenport, who started raping her when she was four. He is now in jail.

She said of the moment she went to elders: “I asked, ‘what should I do? Do you report it to the police, do I report it to the police?’

“And their words were that they strongly advised me not to go to the police because it would bring reproach on Jehovah.”....

The BBC said it also spoke to male and female victims in Birmingham, Cheltenham, Leicester and Glasgow who told gave similar accounts.

They claim the religion’s organising body “self polices” sins but insists on two witnesses before a congregation will act on any alleged transgression.

But that is impossible in most cases of sexual abuse....

Victims also told the BBC church elders teach members to avoid interaction with outside authorities and not to take another member to court.

Breaking this rule could lead to expulsion from the religion, they say.

Child abuse lawyer Kathleen Hallisey believes there could be thousands of victims across the country who have not come forward because of the “two witness” rule....

The organisation described child abuse as a “heinous crime and sin” and said it did not “shield abusers from the authorities of the consequences of their actions”.

It said: “Any suggestion that Jehovah’s Witnesses covered up child abuse was absolutely false”....

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/4954162/children-raped-jehovahs-witnesses-report-abuse-shame-religion/

'Every 45 minutes, I was sold for $120 to $350:' Former sex slave recalls brutal life in brothels
Tribune MARY MURPHY Dec 6th 2017

QUEENS (WPIX) — At 21, Shandra Woworunti was a financial analyst in her native Indonesia but in 1998, she lost her job in the Asian banking crisis. She had a baby daughter and needed to provide a future for her.

In 2001, at age 24, she answered an ad for a six-month seasonal job in the United States thinking she would work as a waitress in the hotel industry. She said a man named Johnny Wong picked her up at Kennedy Airport in Queens and delivered her to another man at the Sheraton Hotel near Main Street in Flushing.

"I saw the man hand a big envelope of money to Johnny Wong," Woworunti recalled.

Woworunti was entering the world of human trafficking.

She was turned over to other men and ended up at a house in Bayside, Queens, she said, where the owner put Woworunti and two other young women in the attic.

She said he ordered them to undress to make sure they didn't have a skin disease. Woworunti said that when she refused, the man put a gun to her forehead.

She remembered that pretty soon the man took her in a car to a new location and told a madame in the next house there was a new girl ready to work.

"I saw the security with a baseball bat," Woworunti told PIX11. "I saw a little girl, 12 or 13 years old, beaten by another bouncer."

Woworunti said she quickly realized she would have to comply with the wishes of her customers, who were "black, Asian and white."

"Every 45 minutes, I was sold for $120 to $350," Woworunti said.

"I was trafficked in Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan. Up and down I-95. I used to get trafficked to Foxwoods Casinos."

When Woworunti heard she was getting sent to Boston for work, she had a bad feeling and made a plan to escape.

She was at a house in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, and said she climbed up on the window ledge of a second-floor bathroom. She decided to jump.

"And one little girl, who was 15 years old, jumped with me," she recalled.

This was still 2001. The two managed to get a cab to Manhattan and landed at a hotel, where Woworunti said they checked in with some money they had stashed on the side....

https://www.aol.com/article/news/2017/12/06/every-45-minutes-i-was-sold-for-120-to-350-former-sex-slav/23299201/ 

Nobody saved us... I just wanted it to end': Lawyer describes how he was abused, tortured and brainwashed from the age of four at a North Carolina evangelical church 'cult'

Jamey Anderson, 29, describes his experiences growing up in the World of Faith Fellowship in North Carolina
He claims physical abuse was common for all members and he was frequently beaten and verbally abused
Anderson says he was once locked in isolation for a year watching videos of the church founder preaching

He left the church at age 18 and is speaking out now to help trapped children

By Associated Press 13 December 2017

....As part of an ongoing investigation into Word of Faith Fellowship, dozens of former congregants have told the AP that church members were regularly beaten in an effort to 'purify' sinners - even children. But despite allegations of abuse spanning two decades, authorities have done little to intervene.

As a child, Anderson said, he was questioned by social services investigators in church co-founder Jane Whaley's office, but was too afraid to tell the truth. In 2003, he said, the church forced him to sign an affidavit saying he had not been abused and that 'church discipline' was 'God's mercy on my life.'

Anderson was about four years old when his mother joined Word of Faith. He describes his childhood as nothing short of hell.

Throughout his adolescence, he was singled out as a rebel and suffered some of the most brutal treatment in the church, nearly two dozen former congregants told the AP. Among his transgressions: making a funny face at a classmate....

Anderson would be pulled from the classroom and brought to another room where he would be 'brutally paddled,' she said.

'You could hear the loud whacks through the wall,' she said. 'You just sat there, hoping you weren't next.'....

To understand what Anderson lived through, it is necessary to understand Word of Faith. Founded in 1979 by Whaley, a former math teacher, and her husband, Sam, the church has grown to a congregation of nearly 750 people in rural Spindale with hundreds more followers extending to Brazil, Ghana and other countries.

Jane Whaley is the unquestioned leader, presenting herself as a prophet. Over the years, she has decreed ever more stringent rules, dictating how followers dress, where they live, who they marry and even when they have sex. Birthday celebrations, television and music are strictly off-limits....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5174189/Nobody-saved-Man-describes-childhood-abusive-cult.html 

56 female lawmakers call for Oversight probe into sexual allegations against Trump, Woman speaks out about torture endured at the hands of her abusive father

 

-  56 members of the Democratic Women's Working Group (DWWG) ask Oversight Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) and ranking member Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) to open an investigation into the matter after more than a dozen women have "publicly accused the President of sexual misconduct."

 

-  She says she was subjected to 18 years of controlling and manipulative behaviour by her father Louis Didier, who was an alcoholic and belonged to an esoteric lodge of Freemasonry which believed in the occult.

 

 

56 female lawmakers call for Oversight probe into sexual allegations against Trump
By Olivia Beavers - 12/11/17

 

Nearly 60 Democratic female lawmakers are calling on the House Oversight Committee to open an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct against President Trump.

 

In a letter, 56 members of the Democratic Women's Working Group (DWWG) ask Oversight Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) and ranking member Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) to open an investigation into the matter after more than a dozen women have "publicly accused the President of sexual misconduct."

 

The DWWG plans to hold a press conference at the Capitol on Tuesday to emphasize their calls, one day after three of Trump's accusers united to tell their stories at a joint news conference....

http://thehill.com/homenews/house/364387-nearly-60-female-lawmakers-call-for-probe-into-sexual-allegations-against 

 

 

describes violence

 

 

 

Girl's father gave her electric shocks and forced her to drink alcohol 'to make her superhuman'

Maude Julien, now 60, documented her experiences in her memoir ‘The Only Girl in the World’
Lydia Smith December 11, 2017

 

A woman has spoken out about the torture she endured for years as a child at the hands of her abusive father.

 

Maude Julien, who is now 60 and a renowned psychotherapist, was forced to hold onto an electric fence for 10 minutes at a time without showing feeling.

The ritual, which she endured twice a week, was considered to be a test of her willpower by her father, who wanted to make Ms Julien “superhuman”....

 

She says she was subjected to 18 years of controlling and manipulative behaviour by her father Louis Didier, who was an alcoholic and belonged to an esoteric lodge of Freemasonry which believed in the occult.

 

Didier reportedly believed his daughter had been chosen as his protector, so sought to indoctrinate her and make her withstand torment by making her participate in cruel experiments.

Once a month, Ms Julien writes, she was locked overnight in a rat-infested cellar to “meditate about death”....

 

The three lived in a remote mansion in northern France, which Ms Julien was forbidden to leave for a decade.

Ms Julien says she was sexually abused between the ages of three and 13 by a labourer working in the estate....

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/girl-father-torture-electrocuted-alcohol-superhuman-maude-julien-book-louis-didier-a8101851.html

 

Ex-USA Gymnastics doctor sentenced to 60 years on child porn charges

Ex-USA Gymnastics doctor sentenced to 60 years on child porn charges              
By Elizabeth Joseph, Ray Sanchez and Eric Levenson, CNN Thu December 7, 2017
Victims speak out after Larry Nassar sentencing

 

(CNN) Larry Nassar, the disgraced former USA Gymnastics team doctor who admitted to sexually abusing underage girls, has been sentenced to 60 years in federal prison on child pornography charges, a court official said Thursday.
US District Judge Janet Neff essentially imposed a life prison term on the 54-year-old physician, sentencing Nassar to 20 years for each of three counts, which are to be served consecutively, according to the docket.

But the child porn charges are not the most serious accusations against Nassar.

In November, he pleaded guilty to seven counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and admitted to using his position to sexually abuse underage girls. Three of those charges related to victims who were under age 13. He will be sentenced on those state charges in January.

More than 140 women and girls have accused him of sexual misconduct, including several American gymnasts on the "Fierce Five" team that won gold at the 2012 Olympics....

 

Rachael Denhollander, a former Michigan gymnast who filed the first criminal complaint against Nassar, said after the sentencing that the case represented failures on many levels, from university athletics programs to sports governing bodies.

"It is victim blaming and victim blaming at its finest," Denhollander told reporters. "And that should terrify us. Because ladies and gentlemen, this is the culture of abuse. This is what keeps victims silent. This is what keeps predators in power. And this is what's endangering the next generation of girls."

http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/07/us/larry-nassar-usa-gymnastics-sentence/index.html

CULT NUNS ‘forced girl into satanic sex ritual' - Smyllum Park orphanage, Weinstein’s Complicity Machine

-  CULT NUNS Nuns ‘forced girl into satanic sex ritual where devil attacked her and buried her alive overnight in a drain’ at Smyllum Park orphanage

-  Revelations of mass grave and abuse claims, At least 400 children from Smyllum Park Orphanage in Lanark are thought to be buried in an unmarked grave at the town’s St Mary’s Cemetery

-  Weinstein’s Complicity Machine: The producer Harvey Weinstein relied on powerful relationships across industries to provide him with cover as accusations of sexual misconduct piled up for decades.

CULT NUNS Nuns ‘forced girl into satanic sex ritual where devil attacked her and buried her alive overnight in a drain’ at Smyllum Park orphanage
The traumatised former orphanage resident known only as ‘Janie’ told a child abuse inquiry a man referred to as the 'devil' assaulted her while she lay on a slab surrounded by candles
By Paul Thornton, Home Affairs Editor
6th December 2017

She said before the alleged attack, she and other girls were taken from their dorms at night to a nearby field where Catholic sisters from the “cult-like” home danced in a circle around a tree.
The inquiry heard they were later taken to the back of a candlelit chapel and went downstairs.

Janie, of primary school age at the time, said: “There was a square slab and everyone sat round.
“I was given a lollipop and told that the devil was coming out.”
She said she was assaulted then taken back outside and “buried alive” in a drain all night.

After she was let out the next morning, she said she was put in a “blood bath” — believed to be filled with coloured dye — as part of a terrifying ritual.

The witness also told the Edinburgh probe a nun forced her to perform a sex act on a woman at a house near the Lanark orphanage.
She also said she was tied to her bed and beaten and warned not to speak about her ordeal.

And she claimed she was regularly gagged and had her hair cut off.
She only told police about what she had endured years later.
Janie said: “It was like a cult. We deserve justice. People who abused me should be taken to court and jailed....
The long-running probe before Lady Smith is expected at a later to date to examine claims that the bodies of at least 400 children were buried in an unmarked mass grave near Smyllum Park.

The orphanage, run by the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul, closed in 1981.
https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/1938839/girl-forced-into-satanic-sex-ritual-where-devil-buried-her-alive-at-smyllum/ 

HOUSE OF HORRORS Smyllum Park survivors urged to come forward after revelations of mass grave and abuse claims at Lanark orphanage
At least 400 children from Smyllum Park Orphanage in Lanark are thought to be buried in an unmarked grave at the town’s St Mary’s Cemetery

By Matt Coyle 11th September 2017
....The orphanage, run by the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul, was home to more than 10,000 children between opening in 1864 and closing in 1981.
Smyllum Park Orphanage is one of the institutions being examined by the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry into historical allegations of the abuse of children in care.
https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/1545490/smyllum-park-survivors-urged-come-forward-mass-grave-abuse-lanark-orphanage/

Weinstein’s Complicity Machine

The producer Harvey Weinstein relied on powerful
relationships across industries to provide him with cover
as accusations of sexual misconduct piled up for decades.

By MEGAN TWOHEY, JODI KANTOR, SUSAN DOMINUS, JIM RUTENBERG and STEVE EDER DEC. 5, 2017

Harvey Weinstein built his complicity machine out of the witting, the unwitting and those in between. He commanded enablers, silencers and spies, warning others who discovered his secrets to say nothing. He courted those who could provide the money or prestige to enhance his reputation as well as his power to intimidate.

In the weeks and months before allegations of his methodical abuse of women were exposed in October, Mr. Weinstein, the Hollywood producer, pulled on all the levers of his carefully constructed apparatus.

He gathered ammunition, sometimes helped by the editor of The National Enquirer, who had dispatched reporters to find information that could undermine accusers. He turned to old allies, asking a partner in Creative Artists Agency, one of Hollywood’s premier talent shops, to broker a meeting with a C.A.A. client, Ronan Farrow, who was reporting on Mr. Weinstein. He tried to dispense favors: While seeking to stop the actress Rose McGowan from writing in a memoir that he had sexually assaulted her, he tried to arrange a $50,000 payment to her former manager and throw new business to a literary agent advising Ms. McGowan. The agent, Lacy Lynch, replied to him in an email: “No one understands smart, intellectual and commercial like HW.”

Mr. Weinstein’s final, failed round of manipulations shows how he operated for more than three decades: by trying to turn others into instruments or shields for his behavior, according to nearly 200 interviews, internal company records and previously undisclosed emails. Some aided his actions without realizing what he was doing. Many knew something or detected hints, though few understood the scale of his sexual misconduct. Almost everyone had incentives to look the other way or reasons to stay silent. Now, even as the tally of Mr. Weinstein’s alleged misdeeds is still emerging, so is a debate about collective failure and the apportioning of blame.

Executives at Mr. Weinstein’s film companies who learned of allegations rarely took a stand, cowed by their volatile boss or worried about their careers. His brother and partner, Bob, participated in payoffs to women as far back as 1990....
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/12/05/us/harvey-weinstein-complicity.html

He Was No Hippie: Remembering Manson, Prison, Scientology, and Mind Control, Frank Olson, working for the CIA, secretly dosed with LSD, MK-Ultra, Google YouTube child abuse videos

- He Was No Hippie: Remembering Manson, Prison, Scientology, and Mind Control
auditing with post-hypnotic techniques he had learned in prison, with geographical isolation and subliminal motivation, with sing-along sessions and encounter games, with LSD and mescaline, with transactional analysis and brainwashing rituals

- Wormwood Trailer: Netflix's Groundbreaking Mystery
Olsen's CIA colleagues were working on the agency's secretive mind control project known as MKUltra at the time. More than two decades after his death, his family was awarded a $750,000 settlement from the CIA.

- Google to hire slew of moderators amid outcry over YouTube child abuse videos
Google is hiring thousands of new moderators after facing widespread backlash for allowing child abuse videos and other violent and offensive content to flourish on YouTube.

He Was No Hippie: Remembering Manson, Prison, Scientology, and Mind Control
As I was diving into my research, I received a letter from Charlie himself.
By Paul Krassner / AlterNet  November 26, 2017

When Charles Manson was a prison inmate, he got introduced to Scientology by fellow prisoners, and his ability to psych out people was intensified so that he could zero in on their weaknesses and fears. In 1967, he was released and went to the Scientology Center in San Francisco. A friend who accompanied him there told me, “Charlie said to them, 'I'm Clear – what do I do now?'”

But they expected him to sweep the floor – shit, he had done that in jail. However, in Los Angeles, he went to the Scientology Celebrity Center. Now this was more like it – there he could mingle with the elite. I was able to obtain a copy of the original log entry: “7/31/68, new name, Charlie Manson, Devt. No address. In for processing = Ethics = Type III.” The receptionist – who, by Type III, meant “psychotic” – sent him to the Ethics office but he never showed up.

At the Spahn Ranch, Manson combined his version of Scientology auditing with post-hypnotic techniques he had learned in prison, with geographical isolation and subliminal motivation, with sing-along sessions and encounter games, with LSD and mescaline, with transactional analysis and brainwashing rituals, with verbal probing and sexual longevity that he had practiced upon himself for all those years in the privacy of his cell. He was also raped by fellow inmates.

Ultimately, in August 1969, he sent his well-programmed “family” off to slay actress Sharon Tate, some friends, and her unborn baby. Tate's husband, film director Roman Polanski, was in London at the time. A few months later, when the family members were captured and charged with homicides, Manson was portrayed by the media as a hippie cult leader, and the counterculture became a dangerous enemy. Hitchhikers were shunned. Communes were raided. In the public's mind, flower children had grown poisonous thorns. But Manson was never really a hippie.

He had grown up behind bars. His real family included con artists, pimps, drug dealers, thieves, muggers, rapists, and murderers. He had known only power relationships in an army of control junkies....
https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/he-was-no-hippie-remembering-manson-prison-scientology-and-mind-control

Wormwood Trailer: Netflix's Groundbreaking Mystery Series Will Suck You in Over the Holidays
by Kyle Munzenrieder December 4, 2017

....It's the work of legendary documentary filmmaker Errol Morris, and touches on everything from LSD to the CIA, from mind control to corruption. Dramatic reenactments are interspersed with documentary-style testimonials from real life figures.

Sarsgaard stars as Frank Olson, a bacteriologist, who, while working for the CIA in the '50s, was secretly dosed with LSD. Just days after the dose he wound up falling from the window of a New York City hotel room. The death was officially ruled a suicide, but to this day some maintain that his death was a murder. Complicating the matter is that many of Olsen's CIA colleagues were working on the agency's secretive mind control project known as MKUltra at the time. More than two decades after his death, his family was awarded a $750,000 settlement from the CIA. To this day, however, Olson's son Eric continues to raise questions about the mysterious circumstances of Olson's death. In Wormwood, Morris tackles both the elder Olson's death and the younger Olson's lifelong devotion to unraveling the mystery.
https://www.wmagazine.com/story/wormwood-trailer-netflix-errol-morris-peter-sarsgaard

Google to hire slew of moderators amid outcry over YouTube child abuse videos
Sam Levin in San Francisco Monday 4 December 2017
YouTube has faced scrutiny in the wake of reports it allows violent content to slip past filters on YouTube Kids, its app for children.

The company, which owns YouTube, will bring on thousands of moderators following a stream of negative press over violent and offensive content

Google is hiring thousands of new moderators after facing widespread backlash for allowing child abuse videos and other violent and offensive content to flourish on YouTube.

Google, which owns YouTube, announced on Monday that next year it would expand its total workforce to more than 10,000 people responsible for reviewing content that could violate its policies. The news from YouTube’s CEO, Susan Wojcicki, followed a steady stream of negative press surrounding the site’s role in spreading harassing videos, misinformation, hate speech and content that is harmful to children....
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/dec/04/google-youtube-hire-moderators-child-abuse-videos

Child abuse inquiry: Boy 'abused' by head of Catholic school

Child abuse inquiry: Boy 'abused' by head of Catholic school                                 
29 November 2017 UK

A head teacher of a Catholic boarding school invited a young pupil into his study and then sexually abused him, the inquiry into child abuse has heard.

The hearing heard the boy was told to pretend to go to bed in his dorm at Ampleforth College, in North Yorkshire, and then to get up and go to his study.

Two other ex-pupils also talked about being abused and beaten at the school.

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse is currently examining abuse in the Roman Catholic Church.

The Church is one of 13 public organisations being scrutinised by the public inquiry, which is being headed by Prof Alexis Jay.

The third day of hearings into allegations involving the Church examined abuse at Ampleforth College, a private school run by Benedictine monks.

In a statement, read out to the inquiry, a man said he was abused by the head teacher of Gilling Castle - Ampleforth's preparatory, or primary, school - in the mid 1960s.

He said he was under the age of 10 when the abuse took place....

The men said they were also sexually abused by a monk and Father Piers Grant-Ferris, who was jailed for abuse in 2006....
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-42170433

Former resident tells historical sexual and physical abuse inquiry that nuns oversaw regime of terror at Smyllum in Scotland

Boy, 6, died after nun kicked him in head in care home, inquiry hears

Former resident tells historical sexual and physical abuse inquiry that nuns oversaw regime of terror at Smyllum in Scotland

Smyllum House, formerly Smyllum Park orphanage, a children’s home in Lanark run by the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul

Severin Carrell Scotland editor Tuesday 28 November 2017

A former Catholic care home resident has alleged a six-year-old boy died after a nun kicked him repeatedly in the head during years of sexual and physical abuse at the home.

David, a pseudonym for the former resident, told an official inquiry into historical sexual abuse in Scotland that nuns and staff oversaw a regime of terror at Smyllum House, a children’s home in Lanark run by the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul.

It emerged in September that up to 400 boys and girls who had lived at Smyllum, which closed down 1981, had been buried in unmarked mass graves after dying at the home, often from TB, pneumonia and pleurisy, and mostly between 1870 and 1930.

Physical abuse was routine in the home, including beatings, slaps to the head, and verbal abuse for the slightest mistake, David said, as he gave evidence on the first day of oral testimony about abuses at three care homes run by the Daughters of Charity.

One of 23 former residents due to give evidence in person, David said several nuns and female staff at Smyllum sexually abused him and other young boys, inducing the children to have sex with them and handling their genitalia.

David said his six-year-old friend, Sammy Carr, was hospitalised after a nun flew into a rage at him in the early 1960s. She had repeatedly kicked him in the head and upper body until David shielded him from the attack.

He last saw Carr, still aged about six, being taken into an ambulance after 10 days in the Smyllum House sick bay. Wiping tears from his eyes and halting several times to compose himself, David recalled being taken by the same nun to see his friend’s freshly dug grave.

A police investigation earlier this year into David’s allegations confirmed that Carr had died of a brain haemorrhage but there was no evidence in the postmortem linking that to an assault. Medical evidence suggested instead that Carr may have had a fungal brain infection, perhaps brought on by malnutrition.

After being moved to another care home run by the order, St Vincent’s in Newcastle,he and one of his brothers were taken to a staff member’s house where they were both sexually abused by two men. Violence was endemic at St Vincent’s too, David said. In his written testimony to the inquiry, he said it was “just another place run by psychopaths. Most of them were absolutely mad.”....
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/nov/28/boy-6-died-after-nun-kicked-him-in-head-care-home-inquiry-hears

Harvey Weinstein scandal: New claim alleges sex trafficking, When Sexual Assault Victims Are Charged With Lying, Chinese capital probe into alleged child abuse

- Harvey Weinstein scandal: New claim alleges sex trafficking
"According to the complaint, Weinstein called an unnamed Weinstein Company producer, who told the actress that she needed to be “a good girl and do whatever (Weinstein) wished,” and if she did, “they would work” with her further. Weinstein then began groping her, pulled her into a bathroom, and forced her to fondle him."

- When Sexual Assault Victims Are Charged With Lying
"In all three instances, the women were charged with lying. In all three instances, their reports turned out to be true. The men who raped them were later identified and convicted."

- Chinese Kindergarten Principal Fired, Teacher Detained Amid Child Abuse Scandal
"Staff were found to have “used needles and intimidation tactics to abuse many of the children under their care on multiple occasions" 

Harvey Weinstein scandal: New claim alleges sex trafficking
Erin Jensen, USA TODAY Nov. 27, 2017

The Harvey Weinstein scandal continues to unfold.

The Hollywood producer, who stands accused of sexual assault and harassment by dozens of women, also faces a growing number of lawsuits. 

The latest updates:

A civil claim of sex trafficking filed in New York

British actress Kadian Noble filed a civil suit on Monday in New York alleging that Harvey Weinstein forced her into sexual acts while abroad in 2014. Even more damning: The suit, obtained by USA TODAY, claims The Weinstein Company violated federal sex trafficking law "by benefiting from, and knowingly facilitating" Weinstein's foreign business travels in which he would "recruit or entice female actors into forced or coerced sexual encounters on the promise of roles in films or entertainment projects."

Noble says she was summoned to the producer's hotel room at Cannes Film Festival in 2014 to talk about a role. He began massaging her shoulders and told her to "relax." According to the complaint, Weinstein called an unnamed Weinstein Company producer, who told the actress that she needed to be “a good girl and do whatever (Weinstein) wished,” and if she did, “they would work” with her further. Weinstein then began groping her, pulled her into a bathroom, and forced her to fondle him.

The suit says Bob Weinstein and The Weinstein Company "knowingly participated in Weinstein's" trips to foreign countries for such purposes.

“I filed under the Federal sex trafficking law because I believe the facts as alleged in the complaint fit squarely within the statute," Jeff Herman, Noble’s lawyer, told USA TODAY in a statement. "The benefit of filing under this Federal law is that it allows us to bring a claim in the United States for an assault that occurred overseas and it has a 10 year statute of limitations.”

Noble and her lawyer will hold a news conference in New York on Tuesday.

Weinstein repeated his denial that anything non-consensual occurred. “Mr. Weinstein denies allegations of non-consensual sex," his representative Holly K. Baird told USA TODAY in a statement. "Mr. Weinstein has further confirmed that there were never any acts of retaliation against any women for refusing his advances.”

Weinstein resigns from Directors Guild

Facing disciplinary action from the Directors Guild of America, Weinstein has announced that he's resigning from the entertainment guild....
https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2017/11/27/harvey-weinstein-civil-claim-uk-lodged-accusers-news/896904001/


When Sexual Assault Victims Are Charged With Lying
By KEN ARMSTRONG and T. CHRISTIAN MILLER NOV. 24, 2017

The women accusing the Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore of sexual misconduct have faced doubt and derision. Other women, who have alleged sexual assault or harassment by powerful men in Hollywood, Silicon Valley and elsewhere, have become targets for online abuse or had their careers threatened. Harvey Weinstein went so far as to hire ex-Mossad operatives to investigate the personal history of the actress Rose McGowan, to discourage her from publicly accusing him of rape.

There are many reasons for women to think twice about reporting sexual assault. But one potential consequence looms especially large: They may also be prosecuted.

This month, a retired police lieutenant in Memphis, Tenn., Cody Wilkerson, testified, as part of a lawsuit against the city, not only that police detectives sometimes neglected to investigate cases of sexual assault but also that he overheard the head of investigative services in the city’s police department say, on his first day in charge: “The first thing we need to do is start locking up more victims for false reporting.” It’s an alarming choice of priorities — and one that can backfire.

In 2015 we wrote an article for ProPublica and the Marshall Project about Marie, an 18-year-old who reported being raped in Lynnwood, Wash., by a man who broke into her apartment. (Marie is her middle name.) Police detectives treated small inconsistencies in her account — common among trauma victims — as major discrepancies. Instead of interviewing her as a victim, they interrogated her as a suspect. Under pressure, Marie eventually recanted — and was charged with false reporting, punishable by up to a year in jail. The court ordered her to pay $500 in court costs, get mental health counseling for her lying and go on supervised probation for one year. More than two years later, the police in Colorado arrested a serial rapist — and discovered a photograph proving he had raped Marie.

What happened to Marie seemed unthinkable. She was victimized twice — first raped, then prosecuted. But cases like hers can be found around the country. In 1997, a legally blind woman reported being raped at knife point in Madison, Wis. That same year, a pregnant 16-year-old reported being raped in New York City. In 2004, a 19-year-old reported being sexually assaulted at gunpoint in Cranberry Township, Pa.

In all three instances, the women were charged with lying. In all three instances, their reports turned out to be true. The men who raped them were later identified and convicted.

In 2001, a 13-year-old in White Bear Lake, Minn., reported being abducted and molested. “You keep lying and lying and lying and lying,” a police detective told her. In 2015, a physical therapist in Vallejo, Calif., reported being kidnapped and sexually assaulted. The police called her story a hoax. One lieutenant said that she “owes this community an apology.” In both instances, video footage later surfaced affirming the victims’ reports....
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/24/opinion/sunday/sexual-assault-victims-lying.html 


Chinese Kindergarten Principal Fired, Teacher Detained Amid Child Abuse Scandal
2017-11-27

A kindergarten in the Chinese capital has fired its principal amid a probe into alleged child abuse of children and toddlers that has rocked the nation.

New York-listed RYB Education said it had removed the principal of its New World kindergarten in Beijing’s Chaoyang district, and also fired a 22-year-old teacher surnamed Liu, who is now being detained by district police on suspicion of abuse.

Chaoyang authorities said they have ordered an immediate safety review of all childcare facilities operating in the district.

Police last week confiscated surveillance footage and carried out forensic tests, amid reports from parents that their children had been sexually abused, while others said pupils had been “pierced by needles and given unidentified pills,” it said.

Several teachers at the kindergarten have been suspended, amid reports from parents that children as young as three said a naked adult male had conducted "medical check-ups" on unclothed pupils, Reuters cited media reports as saying.

But Chinese lawyer Zhang Tingyuan said the police had only made very vague statements about the allegations so far.

“There has been no transparency, for example about whether they were raped, or sexually assaulted, or physically abused or deliberately harmed,” Zhang said. “They should let people know exactly what kind of abuse was involved.”

“And yet, we’ve only had one incidence of abuse detailed by the police,” he said. “People should be told, and the more bitty the information, the more people will suspect it.”

In 2015, a court in Jilin province found two teachers guilty of physically abusing children at another RYB kindergarten in Siping city.

Staff were found to have “used needles and intimidation tactics to abuse many of the children under their care on multiple occasions," it found.

Investigation at second facility

Meanwhile, further abuse allegations are being investigated at a second childcare facility in Beijing, media reports indicate.

Staff at the Huanyu Kindergarten, also in Chaoyang district, confirmed to RFA on Monday that they are “in the process of trying find out” about allegations that children there were also pricked with needles.

But the staff member said those teachers accused by parents were currently still working at the kindergarten, which has 300-400 pupils....
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/chinese-kindergarten-principal-fired-teacher-detained-amid-child-abuse-scandal-11272017144608.html