Child abuse survey, Women in UK who can't report sexual abuse, Animal ritual sacrifice, Jehovah's Witnesses accused of silencing victims of child abuse

 

Survivorship Movie (the Survivorship edit)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BONGdkCuSiw
 

Survivorship Conference 2017 - Promo Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgq6z3F-Wgw 

For survivors of ritual abuse, mind control and torture and pro-survivors https://www.survivorship.org  info@survivorship.org 

 

- Scale of child abuse survey 'needed every 10 years'
- Secret world: The women in the UK who cannot report sexual abuse - ritual ceremonies
- Multiple arrests made Friday in possible animal ritual sacrifice
- Jehovah's Witnesses accused of silencing victims of child abuse

Scale of child abuse survey 'needed every 10 years' 3/25/18
Thousands of children should be surveyed to build a true picture of sexual exploitation, experts have said.

 

The government says it does not know how many girls have been groomed in the wake of questions about sexual exploitation in Telford.

But the Centre of Expertise for Child Sexual Abuse is designing a survey of children to run every 10 years to assess the scale of the problem.

 

Authorities raised 18,800 concerns of children at risk in 2016-17.

This was equivalent to 51 every day.

And there were 29,600 assessments of children by social services in England about other sexual abuse because of concerns raised by teachers, social workers and health services.

 

That works out at 16 assessments of whether children were at risk of child sexual exploitation (CSE) and 25 for sexual abuse for every 10,000 under 18s....

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-43399010

 

 

Secret world: The women in the UK who cannot report sexual abuse
By Megha Mohan BBC Stories 3/25/18
They often fled their homelands to escape sexual abuse - but for many asylum seekers, it continues in the UK. Fear of deportation often means they don't tell police, but one effect of the Harvey Weinstein revelations is that they have now begun to talk about their experiences among themselves.

 

At the age of 37, Grace has never had consensual sex.

"I am not the only one. There are many more women like me," she says, hunched over and looking down at the table. She indicates to the wall that separates the small meeting room from her friends in the adjacent room.

 

"We are the most destitute and vulnerable women in the UK."....

Grace and her sister were subjected to continuous physical, verbal and sexual abuse by their husband. They were also made to take part in superstitious ritual ceremonies that he believed would advance his political career - including drinking animal blood, she says with a shudder.

 

The young women relied on each other for support, afraid that if they spoke out their family would be harmed.

"Our husband was a powerful man," Grace says.....

"The asylum process is flawed and works against a victim of sexual harassment or abuse at many stages," says Girma.

"If you don't have legal status you are not considered a person in the eyes of the law. You are not really a human being.

 

"These women have endured a prolonged and continual cycle of abuse - fleeing sexual violence and walking straight into a life of abuse while in the UK."

The situation is worst for those who are living in the country without having applied for asylum.

"Currently there is data-sharing between police and UK immigration officers and we have heard of cases where women go to report abuse and are held in detention centres or even deported back to the countries they came from, and the deadly situations they were trying to escape. The current system prevents these women from reporting sexual violence and the predators know this," Girma says.....

http://www.bbc.com/news/in-pictures-43499374

 

 

 

Multiple arrests made Friday in possible animal ritual sacrifice in West Bexar County
By Chris Quinn, mySA.com / San Antonio Express-News Saturday, March 17, 2018
A gruesome scene unfolded Friday night as Bexar County Sheriff's deputies discovered dead and dismembered animals in a West Bexar County home after receiving calls that animals were being sacrificed.

 

Deputies responded to an animal cruelty call in the 11400 block of Bronze Sand Road about 7 p.m.

When deputies arrived, they saw more than a dozen people inside the garage of a residence where a woman was cutting up "animal parts," while another person was draining the blood of a chicken into a container, according to Sgt. Elizabeth Gonzalez.

"It appears that they were having some sort of unknown ritual," Gonzalez said. "They were speaking a different language the officer did not recognize." Gonzalez explained the responding deputy is fluent in English and Spanish.

 

During the investigation deputies found multiple dead and mutilated animals inside the residence as well, including "goat heads" and more chickens, Gonzalez said....

https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/crime/article/Multiple-arrests-made-Friday-in-possible-animal-12760899.php

 

Jehovah's Witnesses accused of silencing victims of child abuse
Scores of alleged victims come forward and describe culture of cover-up in religious group in UK
Sarah Marsh Sun 25 Mar 2018

More than 100 people have contacted the Guardian with allegations of child sexual abuse and other mistreatment in Jehovah’s Witness communities across the UK.

Former and current members, including 41 alleged victims of child sexual abuse, described a culture of cover-ups and lies, with senior members of the organisation, known as elders, discouraging victims from coming forward for fear of bringing “reproach on Jehovah” and being exiled from the congregation and their families.

 

A Guardian investigation also heard from 48 people who experienced other forms of abuse, including physical violence when they were children, and 35 who witnessed or heard about others who were victims of child grooming and abuse.

The stories told to the Guardian ranged from events decades ago to more recent, and many of those who came forward have now contacted the police.

 

They told the Guardian about:

An organisation that polices itself and teaches members to avoid interaction with outside authorities.
A rule set by the main governing body of the religion that means for child sexual abuse to be taken seriously there must be two witnesses to it.
Alleged child sex abuse victims claiming they were forced to recount allegations in front of their abuser.
Young girls who engage in sexual activity before marriage being forced to describe it in detail in front of male elders.

 

A solicitor representing some of the alleged victims said she believed there were thousands of complainants in the UK and that the people who have contacted the Guardian were “just the tip of the iceberg”.

 

One alleged victim, Rachel Evans, who has waived her right to anonymity, claimed there was a paedophile ring active in the 1970s, although details of the case cannot be divulged due to a current investigation.

“Within the Jehovah’s Witnesses there is an actual silencing and also a network where if someone went to the elders and said ‘there is a problem with this’ and they believe you, the whole thing will be dealt with in-house. But often these people are not dealt with, they are either moved to another congregation or told to keep their head down for a few years,” she said....

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/25/jehovahs-witnesses-accused-of-silencing-victims-of-child-abuse-uk

 

Child and Ritual Abuse Research  https://ritualabuse.us

 

Articles and Research by Neil Brick  http://neilbrick.com  

 

 

Jehovah's Witnesses: abuse, Sex Cult - Child Rape - Children of God Church, Priest Risdale 38 charges

- Inside the Jehovah's Witnesses: A 'perfect storm' for abuse
"They love bomb you. They sell you this vision of a perfect community. It is anything but. It's indoctrination. It's a cult, it really is. But they convince you it's a religion."

-  Life after a sex cult: 'If I’m not a member of this religion any more, then who am I?'
Children of God church "The report documented Berg’s proclivity for incest and witnesses testified that child rape was used as an excuse to “increase the tribe”, leading to many pregnancies in various communes."

- Ridsdale's fresh charges grow in number 
"More historical sex abuse charges have been laid against disgraced former Catholic priest Gerald Ridsdale. 38 charges, rape, buggery, indecent assault and assault offences against boys and girls"


Inside the Jehovah's Witnesses: A 'perfect storm' for abuse
Rachel Browne March 10 2017

Then one morning a pair of Jehovah's Witnesses knocked on the door to spread the word of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society. That was when Jodi's nightmare began.

"These nice people were promising a community with no drugs, no alcohol and no crime – it sounded very appealing," said Jodi, who asked that her name be withheld.

"They love bomb you. They sell you this vision of a perfect community. It is anything but. It's indoctrination. It's a cult, it really is. But they convince you it's a religion."

The Jehovah's Witness church and its overarching body, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, came to the attention of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Sexual Abuse with a 2015 case study hearing more than 1000 allegations of paedophilia had been made against the organisation over 60 years yet not one complaint was reported to police.

This echoes Jodi's experience. Now 35, she says she was abused by a church elder and his daughter when she was eight years old. When she was 13 she mustered up the courage to report the abuse to church authorities but was not believed and branded a liar. She left the church shortly after.

"They preach love but they don't show love," she said.

Another former member, Lara Kaput, describes the Jehovah's Witnesses as "cruel".

Ms Kaput, 44, was raised in a Jehovah's Witness family in Victoria where close contact with people outside the church was discouraged, women were taught to obey men and the teachings of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society were unquestioned.

She left the Jehovah's Witnesses when she was 19 and was shunned by the community. Over the past 25 years she's had only sporadic contact with family members who are still involved in the church.

"You are ostracised from your entire family and friend network," she said. "Prior to (leaving) they incorporated me as a regular family member. After that I was dead to them."....

The commission has referred information about 514 alleged perpetrators within the Jehovah's Witnesses to the police since the initial hearing....
http://www.smh.com.au/national/inside-the-jehovahs-witnesses-a-perfect-storm-for-abuse-20170309-guukur.html  


Life after a sex cult: 'If I’m not a member of this religion any more, then who am I?'

Michael Young grew up immersed in the Children of God church, which was labelled as a sect by the FBI and dogged by child abuse allegations
Sophia Tewa  Saturday 11 March 2017

f his eight siblings, Michael Young was the most zealous street missionary. As a child growing up in Monterrey, Mexico, he preached up to 10 hours a day, three to four days each week. He spoke to strangers on the streets and often went door-to-door. He’d ask them, in broken Spanish, if they wished to go to heaven. If they said yes, he would pray for them. If they said no, he would ask for at least a donation to The Family International, a church formerly known as the sex cult The Children of God.

Young’s parents, devout American missionaries who moved to Mexico in 1998, told him that such work was his destiny and duty. The alternative was an afterlife spent in the slums of heaven, a place only slightly better than hell.

When he was eight years old, in 2000, Young’s family moved to Texas and started their missionary work anew in mini-malls and Walmart parking lots, handing out theological tracts about the imminent apocalypse that would soon wipe out the unbelievers.

Young says he was happy. “I was spiritual in a way that was kind of very obsessive and very determined,” he says.

But Young was unaware that his parents’ church was labelled as a sect by the FBI and hounded by child abuse allegations. In a 1974 report, The New York attorney general’s office had also called the Children of God a “cult”. The group’s practices drew investigations from the FBI and Interpol, which were on the hunt for its leader, David Berg. One anonymous informant spoke of rape, incarceration, kidnapping and incest inside the group....

The report documented Berg’s proclivity for incest and witnesses testified that child rape was used as an excuse to “increase the tribe”, leading to many pregnancies in various communes.

“A 14-year-old runaway who spent nine days at a COG commune testified that she was raped and because of her refusal to cooperate with the elders, was held in solitary confinement on no less than three separate occasions,” the report states.

The late actor River Phoenix, who grew up in the Children of God, told Details Magazine in 1991 that he was four when he first had sex while in the group....

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/11/children-of-god-church-sex-cult-texas-mexico-fbi 


Ridsdale's fresh charges grow in number                                                                
Andi Yu - AAP on March 10, 2017

More historical sex abuse charges have been laid against disgraced former Catholic priest Gerald Ridsdale.

A prosecutor in the Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Friday said two new charges had been filed last week and this morning, adding to the original total of 36.

The 38th charge relates to the sexual penetration of a child under 10, the lawyer said.

Other charges include rape, buggery, indecent assault and assault offences against boys and girls across the state.....
https://au.news.yahoo.com/vic/a/34606087/ridsdale-faces-another-36-abuse-charges/#page1

Anthony Weiner’s sext featuring his son, Ex-Jehovah's witness reveals secrets of group, Holy Hell - Buddhafield, Lord Greville Janner

          
- Anthony Weiner’s sext featuring his son could lead to child neglect inquiry (Weiner’s wife, Huma Abedin, a top adviser to Hillary Clinton)

- Ex-Jehovah's witness reveals secrets of religious group
("they believe child abuse is only a sin, not really a crime")

- Holy Hell, Buddhafield, a mysterious spiritual sect

- Greville Janner's family pushes for delay in child abuse inquiry
"Lord Janner is alleged to have abused youngsters over a period spanning more than 30 years."

- Child Abuse Wiki  (Ritual Abuse, Recovered Memory, Dissociative Identity Disorder)

Anthony Weiner’s sext featuring his son could lead to child neglect inquiry
BY  Barbara Ross  Adam Edelman  Stephen Rex Brown NEW YORK DAILY NEWS  Monday, August 29, 2016,
Anthony Weiner’s latest cyber-sexcapades, featuring a photo of his sleeping son beside the pervy ex-pol’s bulging crotch, ended his marriage Monday — and could now lead to an investigation for child neglect, experts say.

“Any time adults draw children into their own sexual activity they have crossed the line. It is always inappropriate for an adult to connect any child to their sexual activities, however peripheral,” said Tim Hathaway, executive director at Prevent Child Abuse New York.

Hours after the sexts were made public, Weiner’s wife, Huma Abedin, a top adviser to Hillary Clinton, announced she was separating from her...hubby.

This time, the messages Weiner sent from his Twitter account — which was taken down Monday morning — reportedly included him cracking a joke and snapping a photo of his 5-year-old son, Jordan, jumping into bed beside him as his dad sexted with a woman....

It has been previously reported that Clinton’s people have wanted Abedin to leave Weiner because he could be a liability to her presidential campaign.

Sources said Weiner and Abedin had been estranged for some time and that her decision to separate was not due solely to his latest sexts. Their son was a major reason why they stuck together for so long, sources said....

NY1, where Weiner was a frequent guest, put him on indefinite leave on Monday.

The Daily News also said it would no longer publish his opinion columns.

Weiner and Abedin married in a 2010 wedding officiated by Bill Clinton. Weiner was considered a rising star in the Democratic Party, while she was practically a member of the Clinton family.

But Weiner’s online indiscretions derailed his once-promising political career in 2011 when he resigned from Congress and again in 2013 while embarking on a campaign for mayor.

Abedin stood by Weiner on both those occasions.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/anthony-weiner-sext-lead-child-neglect-inquiry-article-1.2770431


Ex-Jehovah's witness reveals secrets of religious group
The treatment of women, child abuse and how to prevent being visited by followers of the religion are among topics confronted by ex-member  29 August 2016      Samuel Osborne

A former Jehovah's Witness has offered a rare insight into the religious group, describing it as a cult that "tries to control emotions, thought, information and behavior of a person".

The man, who did not want to be formally identified, shared his experience of growing up as a Jehovah's Witness in Poland in an Ask Me Anything post on Reddit.

Using the username "Ohmyjw", the former Jehovah's Witness (JW) elder speaks out against the group's rules, such as prohibiting blood transfusion "even if that costs them their life" or believing the world "will end in Armageddon 'very soon'"....

Those who leave the faith are called "apostates" and are "disfellowshipped", a term for formal expulsion and shunning, where members are "prohibited from talking, and even from asying 'hello' to them", according to Ohmyjw.

In one situation where an elder started to lose his faith and challenge the group, he said they allegedly denounced him and spread gossip about him, pressuring him "so much he jumped into a river and killed himself".

When asked how women were regarded in JW society, the former elder said they were thought of as "a complement for a man", adding: "She should be submissive to her husband, who is the head of their family and it is he who makes all the important decisions.

"Women cannot teach in the congregation, they cannot deliver public talks or say public prayers. When they conduct a private Bible study or say a prayer with another person, while a man is around, she has to wear a scarf on her head as a sign of being submissive."....

He also criticised the group for having a "big problem with child abuse," saying "they believe child abuse is only a sin, not really a crime, the elders in almost all cases don't report to the authorities, instead they try to handle it inside the congregation".

The group allegedly requires "two witnesses to the event" and regularly decide to "leave the matter in the hands of Jehovah".

"They basically value the 'good name of the organisation' more than the safety of the children," he adds....
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/jehovahs-witnesses-religion-christianity-religious-group-what-is-it-like-a7214966.html


Holy Hell
Premieres Thursday, September 1, 2016
"Holy Hell" reveals an intimate, never-before-seen world inside Buddhafield, a mysterious spiritual sect that filmmaker Will Allen joined and became its unofficial documentarian for 22 years.
http://www.cnn.com/shows/cnn-films-holy-hell



Greville Janner's family pushes for delay in child abuse inquiry

Labour peer’s son says public inquiry’s investigation of his father should wait until after civil court cases
Lord Janner is alleged to have abused youngsters over a period spanning more than 30 years. His son said he was entirely innocent.  Press Association  Sunday 28 August 2016

The family of Greville Janner wants the public inquiry into child abuse to delay its investigation of the late Labour peer.

Lord Janner, 87, who died in December, is alleged to have abused youngsters over a period spanning more than 30 years dating back to the 1950s, with offending said to have taken place at children’s homes and hotels.

The allegations against him are due to be examined at hearings of the public inquiry next March.

But his son has said that as civil proceedings by some of his alleged victims have been started, the claims should go through the courts – where his father’s accusers can be cross-examined – before they feature in the inquiry.

Daniel Janner QC told the BBC he had prepared a submission for the home affairs select committee, which is due to question the home secretary, Amber Rudd, next month....
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/aug/28/greville-janner-family-pushes-for-delay-child-abuse-inquiry 


Child Abuse Wiki

Ritual Abuse
http://childabusewiki.org/index.php?title=Ritual_Abuse

Recovered Memories
http://childabusewiki.org/index.php?title=Recovered_Memories

Dissociative Identity Disorder 
http://childabusewiki.org/index.php?title=Dissociative_Identity_Disorder

Bill Cosby Lawyers Seek to Reseal Court Records, Jehovah's Witnesses 'fostered distrust' of secular authority

"Since 1950 the church has received 1,066 allegations against its members and did not report any of them to police. Stewart’s recommendations arise out of a public hearing into the Jehovah’s Witnesses and its oversight body, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Australia, in July." 

Bill Cosby Lawyers Seek to Reseal Court Records
By GRAHAM BOWLEY DEC. 2, 2015

Lawyers for Bill Cosby argued in a court filing on Wednesday that a federal judge in Philadelphia had violated Mr. Cosby’s rights and set a dangerous precedent for other public figures by unsealing court records from a 2005 lawsuit against the entertainer.
In the filing, the lawyers argued that the judge had been wrong in July to release the documents, which included an acknowledgment, under questioning, by Mr. Cosby that in the 1970s he obtained quaaludes to give them to young women with whom he wanted to have sex. Mr. Cosby’s team is seeking to have the documents resealed.
Mr. Cosby’s lawyers had fought the release of the court records after The Associated Press requested that they be unsealed....
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/03/business/media/cosby-lawyers-seek-to-reseal-court-records.html 


Jehovah's Witnesses 'fostered distrust' of secular authority – royal commission counsel
Church’s response to child sexual abuse fell short of best practice, says Angus Stewart QC in his damning submission, published on Tuesday
Australian Associated Press  Tuesday 1 December 2015 

A damning submission to the royal commission on child sexual abuse has recommended 77 adverse findings against the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Australia.

It was open to the commission to find the church fostered distrust of secular authorities and its response to child sexual abuse fell short of best practice, counsel to the commission Angus Stewart QC found in his submission, published on Tuesday.

Since 1950 the church has received 1,066 allegations against its members and did not report any of them to police.

Stewart’s recommendations arise out of a public hearing into the Jehovah’s Witnesses and its oversight body, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Australia, in July.
He said the Witnesses received about three or four reports of allegations of child abuse a month.

The Jehovah’s Witness organisation presented its members with “conflicting and ambiguous teachings regarding their relationship with secular authorities, thereby fostering a distrust of such authorities”, Stewart said....
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/dec/01/jehovahs-witnesses-fostered-distrust-of-secular-authority-royal-commission-counsel

Elizabeth Loftus and the Hoffman Report, Jehovah's Witnesses failed to report 1,000 alleged perpetrators, ‘I’m No Longer Afraid’: 35 Women Tell Their Stories About Being Assaulted by Bill Cosby, and the Culture That Wouldn’t Listen

- Elizabeth Loftus and the Hoffman Report
- Jehovah's Witnesses failed to report 1,000 alleged perpetrators, child sex abuse royal commission hears
- Bill Cosby: 35 Women Accuse the Actor of Assault on New York Magazine Cover
- ‘‘I’m No Longer Afraid’: 35 Women Tell Their Stories About Being Assaulted by Bill Cosby, and the Culture That Wouldn’t Listen
- 'Call Me Lucky': A Documentary Of Friendship, Childhood Abuse And Survival - Barry Crimmins and Bobcat Goldthwait

Elizabeth Loftus and the Hoffman Report
July 22nd, 2015

The Hoffman Report, an independent investigation into the American Psychological Association’s involvement with government-sponsored torture programs, was released earlier this month.  As James Risen reported in the New York Times, the 542-page report concluded that the APA’s ethics office “prioritized the protection of psychologists — even those who might have engaged in unethical behavior — above the protection of the public.” The focus of the report is the involvement of the APA in sanctioning interrogation techniques that included torture. But the Report also contains an important footnote about the lax attitude towards ethics in the APA office long before the post-9/11 era:

The Ethics Office was not insulated from outside influence and the nature of the process allowed for manipulation at times. Koocher told Sidley that Raymond Fowler manipulated the adjudication process when there was a complaint filed against Elizabeth Loftus, a high-profile psychologist who did work on false memories. When Fowler found out there was an ethics complaint pending against Loftus, he reached out to her and told her she should resign her membership before a case could be formally opened against her. He later denied that he had done so and appointed one of his deputies to “investigate” how Loftus had found out about the complaint.

INDEPENDENT REVIEW RELATING TO APA ETHICS GUIDELINES, NATIONAL SECURITY INTERROGATIONS, AND TORTURE, July 2, 2015 (p. 485)

This footnote provides the only explanation that has ever made sense for why Professor Loftus resigned from the APA by fax, shortly after two ethics complaints had been filed against her. The complaints concerned Loftus misrepresenting the facts about two successful recovered-memory lawsuits. Her resignation made the complaints moot under rules that have since been changed to close that loophole....

Loftus testimony in Turner v. Honker, July 10, 1996 (p. 109)

Q: Is it your testimony that prior to your resignation you had no idea from any source that complaints had been filed?

A: I had absolutely no idea

Testimony in Seignious v. Fair, January 22, 1998 (p. 151)

Q: At the time that you resigned, Dr. Loftus, were there two ethics complaints pending against you?

A. There was no ethics investigation going on, but there were rumors two people had filed complaints.

Q. How did you learn about these rumors?

A. I read about it in a newspaper column in February or March of whenever it was, 1996.

Q. And was that the very first time that you learned that there were rumors that people had filed ethics complaints against you?

A. Yes.

Testimony in Liano v. Diocese of Phoenix, December 21, 2006 (p. 68)

Q: And I’m trying to understand. With regard to the [complaints], did you resign from that organization, the American Psychological Association, while those complaints were pending?

A. I don’t know. I resigned in January of ’96, but I didn’t know anything about any complaints.
http://blogs.brown.edu/recoveredmemory/2015/07/22/loftus-hoffman-report/ 

Jehovah's Witnesses failed to report 1,000 alleged perpetrators, child sex abuse royal commission hears By Nicole Chettle  July 27, 2015
More than 1,000 members of the Jehovah's Witnesses have been identified by the church as perpetrators of child sexual abuse since 1950 but not one was reported to police, an inquiry has heard.

The Sydney hearing was told the church adopted a scriptural response to abuse, which it abhorred, and had files relating to 1,006 alleged perpetrators, dating back to 1950.

The process required witnesses to prove abuse took place, and no allegations were ever reported to police.

A 47-year-old woman, known to the inquiry as BCB, said she was sexually assaulted as a teenager by her family friend and church elder, Bill Neill, at Narrogin, south-east of Perth in the 1980s.

The commission heard Neill is now deceased.

BCB described feeling ashamed to give evidence because she still identifies as a Jehovah's Witness despite suffering a nervous breakdown and depression as a result of the abuse.

"I would like the Jehovah's Witnesses to take allegations of child abuse more seriously and report them to the police," she said.

"I also think that those victims that are brave enough to report to elders should be properly supported and protected.

"I found the experience of reporting my abuse to a room full of men, including the man who had abused me, very distressing."....

Elder admits destroying notes from meeting

A Jehovah's Witness elder, Max Horley, said he destroyed notes from a meeting about the assault of BCB....

Church practice not to report sexual abuse

Justice McLellan then asked him if he was aware of his obligation to tell the authorities if a serious allegation of sexual assault was reported to him.

"If we have any hesitation we contact the branch for advice on how we should proceed legally and scripturally," Mr Horley said.

"We don't report it to the police. I think we encourage them to do that. But we give them the assistance to do that."....
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-07-27/jehovahs-witnesses-child-sexual-abuse-royal-commission/6649340 


Bill Cosby: 35 Women Accuse the Actor of Assault on New York Magazine Cover
Jul 27, 2015 By LESLEY MESSER via Good Morning America
Dozens of women have publicly accused Bill Cosby of assault since late last year.
In its new issue, New York magazine photographed 35 of them for a stunning cover story.
"The minute you see something from a bird's eye view, you start to understand the scope," explained the magazine's director of photography, Jody Quon. "Once we organized it and put the women in chronological order based on the year of their alleged assaults, you started to see the only thing they had in common was Bill Cosby, and that’s when we thought, 'This could be a really powerful photo essay.'"....

Through his attorneys, Cosby, 78, has denied the allegations of sexual assault and rape and has never been charged with a crime. Martin Singer, one of Bill Cosby’s attorneys, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News regarding the magazine cover.

Many of the women in the New York magazine portfolio, including model Beverly Johnson, have said over the past few months that they were drugged by the comedian in decades past. Others, including model Janice Dickinson, also alleged rape....
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/bill-cosby-35-women-accuse-actor-assault-york/story?id=32710622 


‘I’m No Longer Afraid’: 35 Women Tell Their Stories About Being Assaulted by Bill Cosby, and the Culture That Wouldn’t Listen By Noreen Malone and Portfolio By  Amanda Demme July 26, 2015

More has changed in the past few years for women who allege rape than in all the decades since the women’s movement began. Consider the evidence of October 2014, when an audience member at a Hannibal Buress show in Philadelphia uploaded a clip of the comedian talking about Bill Cosby: “He gets on TV, ‘Pull your pants up, black people … I can talk down to you because I had a successful sitcom.’ Yeah, but you rape women, Bill Cosby, so turn the crazy down a couple notches … I guess I want to just at least make it weird for you to watch Cosby Show reruns. Dude’s image, for the most part, it’s fucking public Teflon image. I’ve done this bit onstage and people think I’m making it up … That shit is upsetting.” The bit went viral swiftly, with irreversible, calamitous consequences for Cosby’s reputation.

Perhaps the most shocking thing wasn’t that Buress had called Cosby a rapist; it was that the world had actually heard him. A decade earlier, 14 women had accused Cosby of rape. In 2005, a former basketball star named Andrea Constand, who met Cosby when she was working in the athletic department at Temple University, where he served on the board of trustees, alleged to authorities that he had drugged her to a state of semi-consciousness and then groped and digitally penetrated her. After her allegations were made public, a California lawyer named Tamara Green appeared on the Today show and said that, 30 years earlier, Cosby had drugged and assaulted her as well. Eventually, 12 Jane Does signed up to tell their own stories of being assaulted by Cosby in support of Constand’s case. Several of them eventually made their names public. But they were met, mostly, with skepticism, threats, and attacks on their character....

As Cosby allegedly told some of his victims: No one would believe you. So why speak up? But among younger women, and particularly online, there is a strong sense now that speaking up is the only thing to do, that a woman claiming her own victimhood is more powerful than any other weapon in the fight against rape....
http://nymag.com/thecut/2015/07/bill-cosbys-accusers-speak-out.html


'Call Me Lucky': A Documentary Of Friendship, Childhood Abuse And Survival
July 27, 2015  Barry Crimmins mentored Bobcat Goldthwait when they were up-and-coming comics in the '80s. A film directed by Goldthwait details their relationship — and the sexual abuse Crimmins suffered as a child....

GROSS: This is FRESH AIR, and if you're just joining us, I have two guests. Bobcat Goldthwait is a comic and a director and has made a new documentary about his good friend Barry Crimmins, who was also a comic who founded two important comedy clubs in Boston. And this documentary is about his contribution to the comedy scene, but it also is about his childhood when he was abused as a child and then later as an adult tried to out child pornographers and did a pretty successful job at getting some of them put behind bars....
http://www.npr.org/2015/07/27/426734424/call-me-lucky-a-documentary-of-friendship-childhood-abuse-and-survival

2nd Houston-area teen convicted in occult killing, Ex-MP Harvey Proctor questioned in child abuse inquiry, Jehovah's Witnesses to compensate woman over sex abuse

-  2nd Houston-area teen convicted in occult killing
" A Harris County jury has convicted a second Houston-area teenager of murder in the death of a girl who prosecutors say was killed as part of a satanic ritual."

- Ex-MP Harvey Proctor questioned in child abuse inquiry
"The alleged victim has told the BBC he was abused by senior political, military and "law enforcement" figures, and has also said children were abused at Army facilities in southern England.

- Jehovah's Witnesses to compensate woman over sex abuse
"A woman who claimed Jehovah's Witness elders failed to protect her from sex abuse carried out by a paedophile has won a £275,000 payout."

2nd Houston-area teen convicted in occult killing
Friday, June 19, 2015

HOUSTON (AP) — A Harris County jury has convicted a second Houston-area teenager of murder in the death of a girl who prosecutors say was killed as part of a satanic ritual.

Jurors on Friday found 17-year-old Victor Alas guilty in the February 2014 death of 15-year-old Corriann Cervantes at a vacant apartment southeast of Houston. The conviction carries an automatic life sentence.

Authorities investigated the case as a satanic ritual killing because a cross was carved into Cervantes' abdomen and because of objects found at the scene.

Alas' attorneys say they couldn't overcome a videotaped confession he gave to police.

Jose Reyes, then 17, also was convicted and received a life sentence last December. Authorities have said the pair hoped to make a deal with the devil by killing Cervantes.
http://www.theeagle.com/news/texas/nd-houston-area-teen-convicted-in-occult-killing/article_54f01523-9305-5ed4-8510-e37a9499fb13.html 

Ex-MP Harvey Proctor questioned in child abuse inquiry
19 June 2015
A former MP has been questioned by police investigating historical allegations of child abuse and murder.

Harvey Proctor, Conservative MP for Billericay until 1987, was interviewed under caution but was not arrested.

Police are investigating claims that a group of prominent men in public life sexually and physically abused children in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Mr Proctor, who has denied any part in abuse, said the interview on Thursday took place at his request....

The investigation began after a man in his 40s made a series of allegations last year.

The alleged victim has told the BBC he was abused by senior political, military and "law enforcement" figures, and has also said children were abused at Army facilities in southern England.

It is claimed that three children were murdered at different London locations.

In March, Mr Proctor denied any involvement in child abuse - some of which is alleged to have taken place at the Dolphin Square apartment complex in Pimlico, London.

He said: "I have never attended sex parties at Dolphin Square or anywhere else.

"I have not been part of any rent boy ring with cabinet ministers, other members of Parliament or generals or the military....

Harvey Proctor was born in Pontefract, West Yorkshire, and served as a Conservative MP from 1979 to 1987, representing the Essex constituencies of Basildon and then Billericay.

In 1987, he was fined after pleading guilty to gross indecency over sexual activity with men under the age of 21 - then the legal age of consent for gay men.

He said he believed the men were above the age of consent. The men were above the current age of consent, which is 16....
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-33201175 


Jehovah's Witnesses to compensate woman over sex abuse
19 June 2015
A woman who claimed Jehovah's Witness elders failed to protect her from sex abuse carried out by a paedophile has won a £275,000 payout.

The woman, now in her 20s, alleges she was abused as a child in Loughborough by ministerial servant Peter Stewart.

She had argued at London's High Court that he used his role to abuse her.

A judge ruled the organisation was liable for the abuse because it failed to take "safeguarding steps" after Stewart admitted abusing another child.

Mr Justice Globe said he was "satisfied" the defendants should be "held responsible" for the abuse, which took place between 1989 and 1994.

It is the first civil case in the UK of historical sexual abuse brought against the Christian-based religious movement.

The organisation - which accepted that Stewart, who died before facing justice, sexually abused the claimant - said it was "disappointed" with the decision and would appeal....

The woman, known only as C during the case, says she was abused by Stewart between the ages of four and nine.

At the time he was a trusted ministerial servant, whose role was to assist elders with religious and administrative duties.

Shortly after C's abuse began, Stewart was found to have abused another child in the Jehovah's Witness community.

He was removed as a ministerial servant in 1990 but because he told elders he had repented, he was allowed to continue with many of the activities he had performed in that role.

C alleges he continued to abuse her for another four years....

In 1995, Stewart was convicted of separate child sex offences, including rape and indecent assault, and jailed for five years.

He died, aged 72, in 2001, shortly before police arrived at his home to arrest him for sexually abusing C.

The court had heard C had "suffered hugely" as a result of the abuse, which had affected her education, career and relationships....

The damages and an interim payment of £455,000 towards C's legal costs will be met by the society's trustees. http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-33201010

MI5 accused of covering up sexual abuse at boys’ home, Did leaders of Jehovah's Witnesses cover up child sex abuse

MI5 accused of covering up sexual abuse at boys’ home
Court case to address alleged cover-up of British state involvement at the Kincora children’s home in Northern Ireland

Vikram Dodd and Richard Norton-Taylor

Sunday 15 February 2015

MI5 is facing allegations it was complicit in the sexual abuse of children, the high court in Northern Ireland will hear on Tuesday.

Victims of the abuse are taking legal action to force a full independent inquiry with the power to compel witnesses to testify and the security service to hand over documents.

The case, in Belfast, is the first in court over the alleged cover-up of British state involvement at the Kincora children’s home in Northern Ireland in the 1970s. It is also the first of the recent sex abuse cases allegedly tying in the British state directly. Victims allege that the cover-up over Kincora has lasted decades....

Amnesty International branded Kincora “one of the biggest scandals of our age” and backed the victims’ calls for an inquiry with full powers: “There are longstanding claims that MI5 blocked one or more police investigations into Kincora in the 1970s in order to protect its own intelligence-gathering operation, a terrible indictment which raises the spectre of countless vulnerable boys having faced further years of brutal abuse....

Children are alleged to have suffered sustained sexual abuse after being taken from the east Belfast children’s home, run by a member of a Protestant paramilitary organisation, to be offered to men.

Lawyers for the victims will argue in court that “there is credible evidence (and it is therefore arguable) that the security forces and security services were aware of the abuse, permitted it to continue and colluded in protecting the individuals involved from investigation or prosecution”, according to papers lodged with the Belfast high court....

Three men were jailed for their part in abuse at Kincora in 1981, but attempts to establish the truth about British state involvement have been blocked. It has persistently been alleged that William McGrath, Kincora’s housemaster and the leader of an extreme evangelical Protestant group called Tara, was an informant for British intelligence. McGrath was jailed for sexual offences in 1981 and is now dead.

There have been limited inquiries into Kincora, but officers of the former Royal Ulster Constabulary, army intelligence officers, a former Northern Ireland ombudsman, and the judges conducting those earlier inquiries all said the truth about what went on there – and why it was allowed to continue for so many years – had been suppressed.

RUC officers were repeatedly refused permission in the 1980s to interview a senior MI5 official about the affair....
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/feb/15/mi5-kincora-childrens-home-northwen-ireland-sexual-abuse 


Did leaders of Jehovah's Witnesses cover up child sex abuse
February 16, 2015
In San Francisco, a woman is suing the Jehovah's Witnesses for failing to protect her from a known child abuser when she was a child. The Center for Investigative Reporting has shed light on accusations that religious leaders led a cover-up of child sex abuse. Special correspondent Trey Bundy of the CIR’s Reveal reports on how the organization is using the first amendment to fight these charges.

GWEN IFILL: Next: an investigation into child sexual abuse among Jehovah’s Witness and accusations that religious leaders led a cover-up within inside some of the group’s 14,000 U.S. congregations....

TREY BUNDY: The case hinges on letters from Jehovah’s Witness leaders to the heads of local congregations. For almost 20 years, they have ordered them to send reports like this one for every known child abuser, to hide these cases from their congregations, and not to cooperate with law enforcement or the courts, unless instructed to.

They have refused judges’ orders to turn over these abuse reports, so no one knows how many cases like Conti’s are out there.

JAMES MCCABE, Jehovah’s Witnesses lawyer: Jehovah’s Witnesses abhor child abuse of any form.

TREY BUNDY: The Jehovah’s Witnesses insist that they comply with the law. And their lawyers argue that the First Amendment gives them the right to set child abuse policies as they see fit....

TREY BUNDY: Clarke never called the police. He followed Watchtower protocol. He wrote to New York headquarters, asking how to deal with Kendrick’s confession. They told him not to investigate the matter further.

Instead they said, “Provide him with strong scriptural counsel to avoid a repetition of such a serious offense.”

MICHAEL CLARKE: We don’t make that public to the congregation. It’s confidential.

TREY BUNDY: The elders didn’t warn other members that one of their own was a child abuser.

MAN: And that’s the policy and the practice of Jehovah’s Witnesses that you learned as an elder, correct?

MICHAEL CLARKE: Yes.

TREY BUNDY: Clarke says the elders told Kendrick not to be alone with children. But he was still allowed to join in congregation activities that included minors. A year later, one of those minors was Candace Conti....

TREY BUNDY: When Kendrick moved to the Oakley congregation, no one was told he was a child molester, not even Roger Bentley, who served as an elder there for 30 years. He reviewed this letter of introduction from Kendrick’s old congregation.

ROGER BENTLEY, Former Elder, Oakley Congregation: There’s no indication at all that he’s guilty of child abuse.

TREY BUNDY: So no mention of child abuse, but any mention of children?

ROGER BENTLEY: Well, if you read it, it very specifically says he’s a very interesting individual who has taken the lead with some young ones in the congregation and helped them from veering off course....

TREY BUNDY: The courts continue to grapple with the question: Should freedom of religion outweigh the responsibility to protect children?

In Candace Conti’s case, the jury overrode the First Amendment claims and decided the Watchtower and the North Fremont congregation were negligent and didn’t adequately protect her from abuse.

Kendrick maintains he never molested her. Pending appeal, she was awarded more than $15 million in compensation and damages. It’s the first time a jury has ordered the Watchtower to pay for its child abuse policies.

But for Kendrick’s other victim, her case against the Watchtower was thrown out. Even though Kendrick confessed to the abuse in this deposition and served about eight months in jail, the judge affirmed that the Watchtower’s policies were protected by the First Amendment. It wasn’t liable because the abuse occurred at home and not in the course of religious activity. The Watchtower had no obligation to warn the family about Kendrick’s past.

Kendrick is now free and still an active member of the Oakley congregation....
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/leaders-jehovahs-witnesses-cover-child-sex-abuse/ 

Jehovah's Witnesses under fire from former congregants who say child sex abuse was hushed, See Haunting Photos of the Sites of Child Abuse

Jehovah's Witnesses under fire from former congregants who say child sex abuse was hushed

$10.5 Million Lawsuit Against Jehovah's Witnesses Organizations Velicia Alston, who says she was molested as a child, wants to change the way Jehovah's Witnesses' leadership responds to child sexual abuse.
By Aimee Green December 01, 2014

Two people who say that as children they were sexually abused by a leader in a Hillsboro Jehovah’s Witnesses congregation filed a $10.5 million lawsuit Monday – among the first in Oregon to accuse the religious organization of hiding decades of sexual abuse.

Attorneys for Velicia Alston, 39, and an unnamed man said the Jehovah’s Witnesses leadership continues to cover up sexual abuse against children by leaders. They say it is more than a decade behind other organizations, such as the Catholic Church, that have been forced to address their problems through many years of civil litigation.

“There is a crisis of silence in the Jehovah's Witness organization," said Irwin Zalkin, one of several attorneys representing Alston and the man. Zalkin described the religious organization as "more concerned about protecting its reputation than it is about protecting its children."

For example, Zalkin said the seven men who make up the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Governing Body have a policy requiring a confession from the perpetrator or two eyewitnesses to the abuse before leaders will take any action.

“Even if they do disfellowship a perpetrator, they don’t tell the congregation why,” Zalkin said during a news conference Monday in Portland. “No one but the elders can ever know that there is a child predator lurking in that congregation.”

Zalkin said Jehovah’s Witnesses leaders don’t call police. Rather, Zalkin said, they take the position that although Oregon law defines clergy as mandatory reporters of child abuse, they don’t need to report the abuse because it was a privileged religious communication.....
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2014/12/jehovahs_witnesses_under_fire.html 


See Haunting Photos of the Sites of Child Abuse
Richard Conway 
The very ordinariness of both the context and the location of child abuse in Ireland struck photographer Kim Haughton as profoundly disturbing.

In a damning 2009 report, Ireland’s independently-run Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse – which spent nine years investigating thousands of allegations of abuse at religious-run institutions – spoke of a culture of “endemic sexual abuse” in the country’s Catholic boys’ schools and of the “deferential and submissive attitude” of the Irish state towards the religious orders who ran them.

What emerged from the investigation, and from a separate Dublin-specific inquiry concluded the same year, was that institutional child abuse was widespread and that it had occurred not only in schools, but in many places where young people were in the care of religious orders. The commissions also revealed that very often when children reported the abuse, they were largely ignored and even punished, with many of the adult perpetrators being relocated to new parishes by church officials. The state, too, had willfully turned a blind eye....
https://time.com/3608071/see-haunting-photos-of-the-sites-of-child-abuse/