Epstein’s island: What really happened there?

 

Epstein’s island: What really happened there?

Accusers say billionaire’s private paradise of Little St James in US Virgin Islands was centre of international sex trafficking ring
Io Dodds San Francisco 12/7/2021

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/crime/epstein-island-little-st-james-maxwell-b1970539.html

 

 

The guests came from across the world, and from the highest ranks of society: celebrities and scientists and members of royal families, touching down in a private jet and then boarding a helicopter to the island. Its owner liked to call it "Little St Jeff"; locals called it "paedophile island".

 

But what is the truth about Little St James, the 75-acre private paradise in the US Virgin Islands that billionaire sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein once called home?

 

The island is now at the centre of a web of lawsuits and criminal investigations seeking to untangle the life of Jeffrey Epstein, who died in prison in 2019 at the age of 66 in what authorities claimed was a suicide.

A criminal complaint from the attorney general of the US Virgin Islands, which is attempting to seize Little St James as government property, described it "the perfect hideaway and haven for trafficking young women and underage girls for sexual servitude, child abuse and sexual assault".

 

On this island, the compaint says, "Epstein and his associates could avoid detection of their illegal activity from Virgin Islands and federal law enforcement, and prevent these young women and underage girls from leaving freely and escaping the abuse."....

 

It was in the Virgins that Epstein registered as a sex offender in 2010, following his first conviction for child prostitution in 2008. He also based his shell companies in a small unmarked office in a seaside strip mall on St Thomas, alongside a Sam’s Mini-mart and a salon called Happy Nails.

 

In 1998, he bought Little St James from venture capitalist Arch Cummin via a shell company, reportedly paying just under $8 million (£6 million). The new owner quickly scoured away all the native vegetation and replaced it with 40-foot palm trees.

 

Starting in 2007, Epstein began a massive programme of building and remodelling that drew suspicion from local officials. His main compound nearly doubled in size, sprouting into a plush mansion with an outside terrace connecting the master bedroom and the swimming pool, along with a desalination system.

Satellite photos show a sprawling network of terraces, cottages, beach houses, swimming pools, docks, utility buildings, a helipad, a tennis court, slipways, some kind of enclosed lake or lagoon, and various huts of unknown purpose, all connected by palm-lined roads where golf buggies ferried guests from place to place (a journey across the island reportedly took about five minutes)....

 

Who did Epstein host on his island?

 

Of course there were always guests. Among the famous names reportedly hosted by Epstein were theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, Nobel laureate Lawrence Krauss, comedian Chris Tucker, actor Kevin Spacey, Victoria’s Secret magnate Les Wexner, model Naomi Campbell, former Tony Blair aide Lord Peter Mandelson, and Prince Andrew of the United Kingdom.

 

It has been claimed that Bill Clinton was also a guest, though he denies ever having been there. Donald Trump reportedly flew on one of Epstein’s private jets, but it is unclear if he visited the island. The magician David Copperfield is even said to have proposed to supermodel Claudia Schiffer there....

Didn't anyone notice Epstein's alleged sex trafficking?

 

Certainly they did. From the start, locals on St Thomas whispered darkly about Epstein’s activities, calling his private jets "the Lolita Express". When scuba divers swam near the island, security guards would reportedly appear to patrol the edge of the water.

 

At one point, Epstein was ferrying about 200 workers back and forth every day to build his projects. “When he was there, it was keep to yourself and do your thing,” one of them told the Associated Press, adding that the mogul would sometimes give away old material or surplus material.

 

Airport staff on St Thomas could see who Epstein was bringing with him on the Express. “On multiple occasions I saw Epstein exit his helicopter, stand on the tarmac in full view of my tower, and board his private jet with children – female children,” a former air traffic controller told Vanity Fair....

 

Another airstrip employee said: "There’d be girls that look like they could be in high school. They looked very young. They were always wearing college sweatshirts. It seemed like camouflage, that’s the best way to put it.

“I could see him with my own eyes. I compared it to seeing a serial killer in broad daylight. I called it the face of evil.... it was like he was flaunting it." Sometimes the girls would be carrying shopping bags from designer brands such as Gucci and Dior.

 

The Alexanders also grew suspicious. "They looked like they had stepped out of an underwear catalogue," Cathy told the Mail. "They walked around with very few clothes on or lounged around by the pool with nothing on. It was like that most of the time. I was concerned about their ages. A few of them looked very young and I couldn’t help but wonder if their mothers knew where they were."

 

 

Miles Alexander added that he had sometimes had to refuse Epstein’s requests to smuggle in female guests by boat without logging their names and passport numbers with the government of St Thomas....

What really happened on Epstein's island?

 

That is the subject of multiple ongoing court cases, but the accusations are shocking.

According to a lawsuit filed by Prince Andrew’s accuser, Virginia Giuffre, Little St James was the centre of a worldwide grooming scheme in which recruiters working for Epstein targeted young women who were open to abuse and manipulation, played on their hopes and fears, dazzled them with "displays of vast weath and power", and then force them to have sex with clients while keeping them in line with threats and blackmail.

Ms Giuffre says that Prince Andrew sexually abused her on Little St James when she was 17, which the prince "unequivocally denies".

The Virgin Islands attorney general’s office makes similar claims, saying: "Between 2001 and 2019 the Epstein Enterprise transported underage girls and young women to the Virgin Islands, who were then taken via helicopter or private vessel to Little St James where they were deceptively subjected to sexual servitude, forced to engage in sexual acts and coerced into commercial sexual activity and forced labour...

"To accomplish his illegal ends, Epstein formed an association with multiple defendants and others (both companies and individuals, who were willing to participate in, facilitate, and conceal Epstein’s criminal activity in exchange for Epstein’s bestowal of financial and other benefits, including sexual services and forced labour from victims."...

 

The complaint also alleges that Little St James served as a prison for the victims, with Epstein controlling all communication with the outside world. It says one 15-year-old tried to escape by swimming, but Epstein organised a search party, recaptured her and confiscated her passport.

"Remember, he owns a whole island," said attorney general Denise George in 2020. "So it wasn’t a situation where a child or a young woman would be able to just break away and run down the street to the nearest police station."

 

One alleged victim told CBS News that she had been raped in Epstein’s office in St Thomas, and that he had a gun strapped to the bedpost in his bedroom on Little St James. The complaint says Epstein kept a computerised list of underage girls in or near the Virgin Islands who could be brought to the island....

Aylesbury child sex abuse sentencing six men to jail for 82 years for abusing girls in Buckinghamshire, Man convicted in Satanic hotel slayings in Barrie appeals, Man charged with attempted murder

- Aylesbury child sex abuse: 'bad parenting made girls vulnerable'
Judge made the comments while sentencing six men to jail for 82 years for abusing girls in Buckinghamshire
- Man convicted in Satanic hotel slayings in Barrie appeals
- Dobson guilty of first-degree murder in double Satanic slaying in Barrie
- Man charged with attempted murder
a crucifix which a witness stated Gonzalez had taped to the wall upside down, and what the witness said appeared to be a satanic altar which had teeth affixed to it

Aylesbury child sex abuse: 'bad parenting made girls vulnerable'
Sep 8, 2015 Judge made the comments while sentencing six men to jail for 82 years for abusing girls in Buckinghamshire

Poor parenting made young girls vulnerable to sexual abuse committed by a gang of men in Buckinghamshire, a senior British judge said during sentencing.

Judge John Bevan QC said the attackers, who were all of Asian descent, may have targeted white girls because of the opportunity presented by "inadequate parenting leading to rebellious children".

He made the comments as he sentenced six members of a paedophile ring in Aylesbury to a total of 82 years in prison for their roles in the child abuse, The Times reports.

The abuse occurred between 2006 and 2012 and included multiple rapes of a child under 13, child prostitution and administering a substance to "stupefy" a girl in order to engage in sexual activity.

The men groomed the vulnerable girls from troubled backgrounds for sex "for the price of a McDonald's, a milkshake and cinema ticket," said Judge Bevan. He added that if the men pursued Asian under-age girls, "they would have paid a heavy price in their community."....
http://www.theweek.co.uk/65123/aylesbury-child-sex-abuse-bad-parenting-made-girls-vulnerable


Man convicted in Satanic hotel slayings in Barrie appeals
Barrie Advance By Janis Ramsay   Sep 03, 2015

Mark Dobson is hoping a judge will find him not criminally responsible for the Satanic slayings he committed at a Barrie hotel in May, 2012.

He has appealed his conviction of two counts of first-degree murder while serving life behind bars and is awaiting a court date for his appeal to be heard.

Dobson, 25, was handed the life sentence in jail in January for killing Helen Dorrington, 52, and 32-year-old Mary Hepburn at a Bayfield Street hotel.

Dobson, from British Columbia, met the women through a website called Joy of Satan.

He ended up living with Hepburn in Barrie and Dorrington travelled from Alberta to take part in a suicide pact with the pair.

Court was told Dobson was under orders of the gods of Hell when he killed the women so they could go to another planet and on to paradise. His suicide attempt failed and he was arrested in the blood-soaked motel room....

http://www.simcoe.com/news-story/5824942-man-convicted-in-satanic-hotel-slayings-in-barrie-appeals/  


Dobson guilty of first-degree murder in double Satanic slaying in Barrie
Barrie suicide-pact killer tells judge he believed he did “the right thing”
Barrie Advance By Rick Vanderlinde   Jan 15, 2015

.... Dobson’s defence lawyer Mitch Eisen claimed he was unable to appreciate the significance of the acts because he suffers from schizophrenia and argued his client was not criminally responsible.

However, Justice J.A Watt rejected that claim this morning and found Dobson guilty of two counts of first-degree murder, which carries an automatic life sentence without chance of parole until 25 years.

“Nothing supports that Mark Dobson did not appreciate that he was cutting the throats of  Helen Dorrington and Mary Hepburn. That was his very purpose,” Watt said.

Watt agreed Dobson has likely been suffering from schizophrenia for years, but determined he knew and appreciated the murders were against the law and morally wrong.

“The existence of a mental disorder does not (excuse) anyone from criminal responsibility,’ Watt said in his ruling. “It’s only if it renders the person incapable of knowing the act was wrong.”

Watt said evidence throughout the trial showed Dobson himself understood the significance of his crimes when he made admissions to paramedics, hospital staff and ultimately a Barrie police detective.

“In a police interview he said it didn’t matter what happened to him. He said he thought he’d get the death penalty or life in prison. He was willing to accept that. Mark Dobson said: ‘I’ll be looked at as a monster. I know that.’”

At one point after his arrest, Dobson was asked by a psychiatrist if he would have carried out the murders if there was a police officer standing in the room.

“Mark Dobson said he would have waited because the officer would have seen it as murder,” Watt said.

Watt also noted that Dobson had mentioned on more than one occasion that he would prefer to be found not criminally responsible so he would go to a psychiatric hospital instead of prison....
http://www.simcoe.com/news-story/5259471-dobson-guilty-of-first-degree-murder-in-double-satanic-slaying-in-barrie/ 

Man charged with attempted murder
Accused of throwing a knife at a woman September 2nd, 2015
Staff Report
PACOLET — A resident of the Pacolet community was charged with attempted murder by the Union County Sheriff’s Office on Monday.

Luis Angel Gonzalez, 18, of 166 Cedar Lane, Pacolet, was charged with attempted murder around 2 a.m. Aug. 31.

Union County Deputies responded to the Cedar Lane residence for an assault involving a knife, and while en route, deputies were advised that Gonzalez had run into the woods. When officers arrived, they were met by four people who stated Gonzalez had assaulted a woman by throwing a knife at her....

A man turned over the knife Gonzalez allegedly threw at the woman, a crucifix which a witness stated Gonzalez had taped to the wall upside down, and what the witness said appeared to be a satanic altar which had teeth affixed to it. Deputies took the altar and knife as evidence and photographed the crucifix....
http://uniondailytimes.com/news/1307/man-charged-with-attempted-murder-3 

FBI: 168 kids rescued, 281 pimps nabbed in sex-trafficking crackdown, Deputies: Day care, mentoring program a front for Sanford child porn operation, Child abuse victims stung by Albany inaction (Child Victims Act)

FBI: 168 kids rescued, 281 pimps nabbed in sex-trafficking crackdown
CBS/AP June 23, 2014

WASHINGTON -- Nearly 170 victims of child sex trafficking, many of whom had never been reported missing, were rescued in the last week as part of an annual nationwide crackdown, the FBI said Monday.

Besides the 168 children rescued from the sex trade, 281 pimps were arrested during the same period on state and federal charges.

"These are not faraway kids in faraway lands," FBI Director James Comey said in announcing the annual enforcement push known as Operation Cross Country. Instead, he added, "These are America's children."

This is the eighth such week long-operation, which this year unfolded in 106 cities. The FBI says nearly 3,600 children have so far been recovered from the streets....

He said one concerning trend is the increasing prevalence of children who are being prostituted online.... http://www.cbsnews.com/news/fbi-168-kids-rescued-281-pimps-nabbed-in-sex-trafficking-crackdown/ 


Deputies: Day care, mentoring program a front for Sanford child porn operation  6/25/14

Sanford, N.C. — A pseudo day care and mentoring program operating out of the Sanford home of a convicted sex offender was actually a front for a child porn production operation, Harnett County Sheriff’s Office detectives said.

Four people have been arrested in the case. Investigators are searching for Tommy Wall, a fifth person who may be in the Raleigh or Fayetteville areas....

Investigators say Bailey Joe Mills, 33, who was convicted three times on charges related to sexual contact with children, ran the operation out of his former Nicole Drive home. They believe Mills ran the day care and mentoring program to attract young girls to his residence and to create a relationship with their parents. Mills then offered the girls money to have sex with men he found through different social media sites, authorities said....

Mills has had multiple arrests and convictions over the years....

The operation, which involves about 10 male and female victims ranging from ages 1 to 14, dates back to 2013, but it wasn’t discovered until Mills’ arrest in January. Investigators said they realized they had a much bigger case after going through Mills’ computer and cell phones.... http://www.wral.com/deputies-day-care-and-mentoring-program-a-front-for-child-porn-operation/13758447/


Child abuse victims stung by Albany inaction
By Shant Shahrigian 6/25/14

Horace Mann School graduate Joseph Cumming says it took him 34 years to fully realize his treatment at the hands of his music teacher Johannes Somary was sexual abuse. But by then, even if he had wanted to, it was far too late for him to take legal action. New York’s criminal and civil statute of limitations for sexual abuse of minors is five years after the victim turns 18.

After revelations of decades of abuse involving more than 30 victims at Horace Mann emerged in June 2012, the Bronx District Attorney’s office said the limitations prevented it from prosecuting any of the perpetrators.

The state legislature’s recent failure to take up the Child Victims Act — which would eliminate the criminal and civil statues of limitations for child sexual abuse and create a one-year window for past victims to seek justice — infuriated Mr. Cumming and other survivors....

“The main reason [the Child Victims Act] has not passed is that there is a caucus of centrist Democrats in the senate who have blocked it again and again,”....

A man who says he suffered sexual abuse at the Hackley School in Tarrytown, N.Y., which earlier this year acknowledged abuse of students in the 1960s, echoed Mr. Cumming’ point of view.

“These politicians end up protecting very bad people,” said the surivor, who did not want his name published.

The New York State Catholic Conference is strongly opposed to the act, saying it would unfairly subject the church — which has seen widespread allegations of child abuse by priests in recent years — to costly litigation. http://riverdalepress.com/stories/Child-abuse-victims-stung-by-Albany-inaction,54539

Japanese mayor: Wartime sex slaves were necessary, Oxford exploitation trial: Guilty verdicts over child rapes

Japanese mayor: Wartime sex slaves were necessary
By MALCOLM FOSTER Associated Press 5/14/13

TOKYO (AP) — An outspoken nationalist mayor said the Japanese military's forced prostitution of Asian women before and during World War II was necessary to "maintain discipline" in the ranks and provide rest for soldiers who risked their lives in battle.

The comments made Monday are already raising ire in neighboring countries that bore the brunt of Japan's wartime aggression and have long complained that Japan has failed to fully atone for wartime atrocities.

Toru Hashimoto, the young, brash mayor of Osaka who is co-leader of an emerging conservative political party, also said that U.S. troops currently based in southern Japan should patronize the local sex industry more to help reduce rapes and other assaults.

Hashimoto told reporters on Monday that there wasn't clear evidence that the Japanese military had coerced women to become what are euphemistically called "comfort women" before and during World War II....

Historians say up to 200,000 women, mainly from the Korean Peninsula and China, were forced to provide sex for Japanese soldiers in military brothels.

China's Foreign Ministry criticized the mayor's comments and saw them as further evidence of a rightward drift in Japanese politics under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

"We are appalled and indignant about the Japanese politician's comments boldly challenging humanity and historical justice," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at a daily media briefing. "The way they treat the past will determine the way Japan walks toward the future. On what choice Japan will make, the Asian neighbors and the international community will wait and see."

Asked about a photo of Abe posing in a fighter jet with the number 731 — the number of a notorious, secret Japanese unit that performed chemical and biological experiments on Chinese in World War II — Hong again urged Japan not to whitewash history so as to improve relations with countries that suffered under Japanese occupation.

"There is a mountain of definitive iron-hard evidence for the crimes they committed in the Second World War. We hope Japan will face and contemplate their history of aggression and treat it correctly," Hong said.

Abe posed, thumbs up, in the aircraft during a weekend visit to northeastern Japan.

South Korea's Foreign Ministry expressed disappointment over what it called a senior Japanese official's serious lack of historical understanding and respect for women's rights. It asked Japan's leaders to reflect on their country's imperial past, including grave human rights violations, and correct anachronistic historical views....
http://news.yahoo.com/japanese-mayor-wartime-sex-slaves-were-necessary-042050746.html 


describes crimes
Oxford exploitation trial: Guilty verdicts over child rapes 14 May 2013  Seven members of a sex grooming ring have been convicted of abusing children from Oxford.

An Old Bailey jury heard six girls were drugged and suffered sadistic abuse while aged between 11 and 15.

The court heard victims were plied with alcohol and drugs before being forced to perform sex acts. Some had also been beaten, burnt and threatened.

Nine men had denied charges including rape, arranging child prostitution and trafficking between 2004 and 2012.

Two were acquitted of all charges....

The abuse began in Oxford but some of the victims would be later taken around the country to be offered to other men who were in contact with the gang.

Victim: "I was scared to say no"

The court heard how the men identified vulnerable girls for abuse then groomed each one of them until they were under the control of the gang....

The Old Bailey was told the key members of the group used and abused the six victims in a systematic and organised sex trafficking ring over eight years until their arrest in 2012.

The court heard how the men identified vulnerable girls for abuse and then groomed each one of them until they were under the control of the gang.

They were then each either abused by the men themselves, given to their friends or offered at a price to others who were not on trial.

The youngest girl to be targeted was 11-years-old. The girls were mostly chosen because their unsettled or troubled lives made them easier to manipulate....

One of the victims had complained to police twice but no one was charged.

A care home manager, who was later sacked, refused to pay her taxi fare when she returned after running away and the 14-year-old was driven back to Oxford where she was raped....
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-22438623

Unspeakable: Father-Daughter Incest in American History, Most Mass Shootings Target Women and Families

- Child Pornography: A Modern Day Childhood Gonorrhea Epidemic
- Most Mass Shootings Target Women and Families; Study Finds Men With Legal Guns Are to Blame


Child Pornography: A Modern Day Childhood Gonorrhea Epidemic
By James R. Marsh on February 26, 2013

I am reading a fascinating book by Lynn Sacco, an assistant professor of history at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, entitled Unspeakable: Father-Daughter Incest in American History.

Unspeakable

Unspeakable is an excellent book which explains how cultural mores and political needs distorted attitudes toward and medical knowledge of patriarchal sexual abuse at a time when the nation was committed to the familial power of white fathers and the idealized white family.

For much of the nineteenth century, father-daughter incest was understood to take place among all classes and legal and extra-legal attempts to deal with it tended to be swift and severe. But public understanding changed markedly during the Progressive Era, when accusations of incest began to be directed exclusively toward immigrants, blacks, and the lower socioeconomic classes. Focusing on early twentieth-century reform movements, Sacco argues that middle- and upper-class white males, too, molested female children in their households, even as official records of their acts declined dramatically.

One of the most interesting chapters in Unspeakable discusses the revolution in medicine in the early 20th century when doctors were first able to diagnose gonorrhea vulvovaginitis. Guess what they discovered?

When physicians began to use the new technology, however, they were shocked to discover that gonorrhea vulvovaginitis was widespread among American girls.…But though condemning child prostitution among the working class was one thing, explaining how girls from good families had become infected with a sexually transmitted disease was another. On the cusp of moving from the margins to the center of American health care, doctors used their professional authority, if not their medical skills, to twist the etiology of girls’ infections into existing narratives that fit more seamlessly with what doctors believed than with what they had discovered. In the process, doctors attributed fewer infections in girls to sexual assault.

Over the next ten years, doctors diagnosed gonorrhea vulvovaginitis so often that by 1904 an epidemiologist writing in the Journal of Infectious Diseases declared it an "epidemic" among girls. In 1909, Dr. Flora Pollack, who treated girls at the Johns Hopkins Hospital Dispensary, estimated that at least a thousand girls in Baltimore became newly infected each year, and she visited police stations and met with community groups to press for more aggressive prosecution of their assailants....


In terms of child pornography, it is not possible to provide an exact number of people trading child pornography across the world. UNICEF and the United Nations have provided some estimates. UNICEF estimates that there are more than four million websites featuring sexually exploited minors. Further, the number of child pornography websites is growing: 480,000 sites were identified in 2004 compared to 261,653 in 2001. More than 200 new images are circulated daily, and UNICEF estimates that the production and distribution of child pornographic images generates in between 3 and 20 billion dollars a year.

The United Nations released a report in July 2009 asserting that there are approximately 750,000 sexual predators using the Internet to try to make contact with children for the purpose of sexually exploiting them....
http://www.childlaw.us/2013/02/child-pornography-a-modern-day.html 



Most Mass Shootings Target Women and Families; Study Finds Men With Legal Guns Are to Blame
Data suggests that a gun present in a domestic violence situation increases the risk of homicide for women by 500 percent.  AlterNet By Steven Rosenfeld  February 24, 2013 

A new analysis of 56 mass shootings across America since 2009 finds women and family members are the most frequent victims, and that the shooter almost always acquired his guns legally, in cases where the gun source is known.

“In at least 32 of the cases (57 percent), the shooter killed a current or former spouse or intimate partner or other family member, and at least eight of those shooters had a prior domestic violence charge,” the Mayors Against Illegal Guns report on mass shootings said, suggesting that the problem of gun violence is far more related to violence against women in homes than rampages in public settings such as schools and theaters.

The study also found that in the cases where the source of the guns was known, almost all were acquired legally: only two examples were given of mass killings with a stolen or illegal gun. That finding runs counter to the gun lobby’s oft-cited rhetoric that only criminals abuse guns.

“We had sufficient evidence to judge whether the shooter was a prohibited gun possessor in 42 of the 56 incidents,” the report said, referring to laws barring ex-felons, mentally ill people, drug addicts and other categories of people from owning guns. “Of those 42 incidents, 15 (36 percent) involved a prohibited possessor and 27 (64 percent) did not.”

MAIG's analysis should help focus the national debate about curbing gun violence, whether the most horrific mass shootings or ongoing violence where 33 Americans are killed daily from guns (not counting suicides). The report strongly suggests that better background checks before buying guns are needed, as well as far more discussion of domestic violence and violence against women....

“Assault weapons or high-capacity magazines were used in at least 13 of the incidents (32 percent),” the report said. “These incidents resulted in an average of 14.8 total people shot—135 percent more people shot than in other incidents (6.8)—and 8.0 deaths.”      
http://www.alternet.org/most-mass-shootings-target-women-and-families-study-finds-men-legal-guns-are-blame

Matt Sandusky details alleged sex abuse by his father, Teen prostitutes rescued, pimps held, in FBI sweep

"He estimated that at least 100,000 minors were victims of child prostitution and trafficking each year...."
NBC exclusive: Matt Sandusky details alleged sex abuse by his father

By Michael Isikoff, NBC News

Jerry Sandusky’s adopted son Matt told police he was sexually molested by his father for years — and once fled in fear from the Sandusky home — during a secret police interview that took place in the middle of his father’s trial for child sex-abuse, according to a copy of the tape obtained by NBC News....

NBC News has exclusively obtained the 29-minute audiotape, which was recorded by police detectives on June 15, four days after the Jerry Sandusky trial began. At the time, the detectives were preparing Sandusky’s son to testify as a surprise prosecution witness at his father’s trial.   

For years, Matt Sandusky had publicly stood by his father and even showed up on the first day of the trial, sitting with the rest of the Sandusky family. But after listening to the first day of testimony from a young man known in court documents as "Victim 4," Matt Sandusky contacted police and volunteered to testify on behalf of the prosecution. The prosecutors’ plan was to use Matt Sandusky as a rebuttal witness if Jerry Sandusky took the stand in his own defense. 

It turned out to be a crucial turning point in the Sandusky trial. When Jerry Sandusky learned that his own adopted son was prepared to testify against him, it was a “complete shock," and it played a big role in his decision not to take the witness stand, according to one of his lawyers, Karl Rominger....

In his interview with police, Matt Sandusky was asked directly why he decided to change his previous denials of abuse and cooperate with police.    

“I came forward, I mean, for different reasons,” he said. “But I mean for my family you know so that they can really have closure and see what the truth actually is. And just to right the wrong, honestly, of going to the grand jury and lying.”....http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/06/26/12417694-nbc-exclusive-matt-sandusky-details-alleged-sex-abuse-by-his-father

Teen prostitutes rescued, pimps held, in FBI sweep
Lily Kuo Reuters June 25, 2012

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Seventy-nine teenagers held against their will and forced into prostitution were rescued at hotels, truck stops and storefronts in a three-day sweep of sex-trafficking rings across the United States, law enforcement officials said on Monday.

The FBI said 104 alleged pimps were arrested during sting operations in 57 U.S. cities including Atlanta, Sacramento, and Toledo, Ohio. The operation lasted between Thursday and Saturday and involved state and local authorities as well as the FBI....

One of the minors recovered in the sweep reported being involved in prostitution from the age of 11, according to Kevin Perkins, acting executive assistant director of the FBI's Criminal, Cyber, Response and Services Branch.

He said the cases were not "one-off" incidents, but evidence of "criminal enterprises" that lure minors in, often through social media, hold them against their will through threats to them or their families, and then traffic them through different U.S. cities.

Child prostitution is "a problem that happens in all kinds of American cities and it happens to American kids," said Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children....

He estimated that at least 100,000 minors were victims of child prostitution and trafficking each year but said assessments were hampered due to under-reporting and other data complications....

To date about 2,200 children have been rescued in the program, the FBI said, adding that its figures do not take into account children recovered by other state and local investigations. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-usa-prostitution-childbre85o19h-20120625,0,1822308.story

The rights of children have collided head-on with the First Amendment rights of others in a suit filed by Backpage.com over a landmark law in Washington State

2012-06-19
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is representing the Internet Archive in a fight against a Washington state law designed to prevent the sex trafficking of minors. EFF, which bills itself as "Defending Your Rights in the Digital World, is a Washington, DC special interest group and long-time supporter of near absolute Internet "freedom."

This article in the august National Law Journal provides a good overview of the case. What the article doesn't tell you is that the new plaintiff in the Washington litigation (which was brought by ...Backpage.com and Village Voice Media Holdings), the Internet Archive, shares a board member with EFF, Brewster Kahle....

It's also curious that the newly minted plaintiff, Internet Archive, is funded by the American people through "institutional support" from the National Science Foundation and the Library of Congress....

EFF, which is funded by ....craigslist, also deserves a closer look....http://www.childlaw.us/2012/06/eff-joins-the-child-exploitati.html




Backpage.com Sues Washington AG Over Child Prostitution Law
By Sue Reisinger  Corporate Counsel June 6, 2012
Update: U.S. District Judge Ricardo Martinez in Seattle on Tuesday issued a temporary restraining order against enforcement of a new Washington State law targeting child prostitution.

Martinez said Backpage.com “has shown a likelihood of success on the merits of its claim . . . as well irreparable harm, the balance of equities tipping strongly in its favor, and injury to the public interest, justifying injunctive relief.”

The restraining order takes effect immediately and continues for at least 14 days. The court set Backpage’s motion for a preliminary injunction for a hearing on June 15.

-----

The rights of children have collided head-on with the First Amendment rights of others in a suit filed by Backpage.com over a landmark law in Washington State.

The online classified-ads site filed a complaint [PDF] against Washington State attorney general Rob McKenna and the state’s county prosecutors on Monday to try and stop them from enforcing a new law that would require providers like Backpage to verify the ages of people in ads offering “adult services,” which can include prostitution.

When the bipartisan bill passed the legislature in February, child protection advocates hailed it as the first of its kind in the nation. It is to take effect on Thursday, unless the U.S. District Court in Seattle grants Backpage’s motion for a temporary restraining order while the suit is heard.... http://www.law.com/jsp/cc/PubArticleCC.jsp?id=1202557433632


EFF challenges as overbroad Washington state law targeting child trafficking ads

By Sheri Qualters The National Law Journal June 18, 2012
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is helping an online library fight a Washington state law that could expose third parties to criminal charges for content related to sex trafficking of minors. EFF's intervention comes on the heels of similar measures introduced in New York and New Jersey and poised to take effect in Tennessee. http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202559922324&sl

Child traffickers thrive on disasters

Child traffickers thrive on disasters
GENEVA, 26 March 2012 - Disasters and climate related catastrophes are increasing the dangers facing children today such as child trafficking, according to a recent report by Najat Maalla M'jid, the UN Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.

"Children's vulnerability is significantly increased when they are separated from their families, unaccompanied, orphaned or displaced following humanitarian crisis," warned M'jid at a review of the report at the 19th Session of the Human Rights Council which ended on Friday.

"Some people exploit the chaotic environment that follows a natural disaster to engage in criminal activities, such as selling children for the purpose of illegal adoption, forced labour or sexual exploitation", stated the report.

"The situation enables them to circumvent national and international standards and remove children from their communities or national territory. Furthermore, the collapse or absence of a State system during and after an emergency results in a protection vacuum for children who may become separated from their families", the report said.

UNISDR United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction

http://www.unisdr.org/archive/25934

Human Experimentation Survivor - Day Breaks Over Dharamsala book

One of the 2011 NAUTILUS AWARDS SILVER WINNERS for the category of MEMOIR / PERSONAL JOURNEY

DAY BREAKS OVER DHARAMSALA: A Memoir Of Life Lost and Found by Janet Thomas publisher Nutshell Books http://www.nautilusbookawards.com/2011_Silver_Winners.html

The Nautilus Awards recognizes Books and Audio Books that promote spiritual growth, conscious living & positive social change, while at the same time they stimulate the "imagination" and offer the reader "new possibilities" for a better life and a better world. http://www.nautilusbookawards.com/Home.html

Day Breaks Over Dharamsala - A Memoir of Life Lost and Found by Janet Thomas - Day Breaks Over Dharamsala was a 20-year writing journey that started in 1990.

book excerpt:
I've tried to heal from the electric shocks that could never happen but did; the sexual slavery as a child that only my body remembers; the experiments that happened to someone else In my body; the days and nights in the dark that made indistinguishable my self from all that did not exist; the places where I became an animal, where being debased for the enjoyment of others was my charm and my glory. I heal from it all, even as I know it could never have happened to me. It is what I don't know that has both saved me and condemned me. And it seems, at times, as though there is no difference.

I do bear one visible scar. It's four inches long and reaches down the inside of my left forearm. On my left hand are five-year old fingers and a thumb that does not bend. There is not much feeling in this hand. It is a hand that is always cold, always numb, always looked after by my other hand-the right one, the one that writes, that does everything. "The scar is real," it writes. It is a huge scar. It is connected to medical experiments and electric shocks to see if the severed nerve would grow, and electric shocks to make sure I didn't remember the electric shocks. And shocks to obliterate the memory of the sexual exploitation, the manipulation of my mind, and the banishment of my self to a place of hiding so profound it would take me fifty years to get her back..

Many children were experimented on in the 40s and 50s; they still are. Many children were used for child prostitution and pornography; they still are. Many children, and adults, too, had their minds experimented upon through electric shock and drugs and by the destruction of the bonds that make life possible. It is everywhere. Yet it is ultimately our healing that matters. Only in healing that which is invisible is there hope. Nutshell Books (November 2009) ISBN-13: 978-0615329215 http://www.daybreaksoverdharamsala.com/

Facebook and Child Pornography, Federal crackdown on child prostitution

Facebook and Child Pornography
By James R. Marsh on November 9, 2010
Infamous child pornographer ...whose trademark....is a longtime, well-recognized tag for hardcore child pornography, has a Facebook interest group with almost 300 fans.
Unfortunately, there's lots more thanks to an anonymous reader of this blog who assembled a damning cornucopia of profiles and links to such Facebook interest groups as "incest," "preteen hardcore," "our little group," and "lolita."....All of this material was assembled in a few hours by an amateur slooth.
http://www.childlaw.us/2010/11/facebook-still-promoting-cp.html

Federal crackdown on child prostitution results in 884 arrests By Michael Martinez, CNN November 9, 2010 (CNN) - A three-day federal crackdown on child prostitution rings across the country has resulted in the recovery of 69 children and the arrest of 884 people, including 99 pimps, federal authorities said Monday....
The three-day federal sweep, called Operation Cross Country V, involved 40 cities nationwide and is part of the Innocence Lost National Initiative, authorities said. "Child prostitution continues to be a significant problem in our country, as evidenced by the number of children rescued through the continued efforts of our crimes against children task forces," said Shawn Henry, executive assistant director of the FBI's Criminal, Cyber, Response and Service Branch, in a written statement. http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/11/08/us.child.prostitution/index.html

Child Prostitution Busts in the United States

FBI: 69 children, 99 pimps found in national bust - Associated Press November 8, 2010 More than five dozen child prostitutes have been found in the last three days as part of a nationwide crackdown on the sexual exploitation of children, the FBI said Monday. FBI spokesman Jason Pack said 69 children were removed from prostitution and 99 suspected pimps were arrested in 40 cities across 30 states and the District of Columbia. Authorities arrested 785 other adults on a variety state and local charges, Pack said. All the children found in the last three days have been placed into protective custody or returned to their families.

The children were found during Operation Cross Country V, a three-day roundup targeting child traffickers and pimps. The largest group of child prostitutes, 24, was found in and around Seattle, according to the FBI. FBI executive assistant director Shawn Henry said the children found ranged in age from 12 to 17....Since 2003, when the FBI and the Justice Department launched the Innocence Lost National Initiative, about 1,250 child prostitutes have been located and removed from prostitution.
http://napavalleyregister.com/news/national/govt-and-politics/article_c7801d0e-ac1b-5ff7-9bb1-18c836a27051.html


Indictment: Somali Gangs Trafficked Girls For Sex - 29 Indicted In Juvenile Sex Ring Allegedly Run By Somali Gangs; Girls Prostituted In 3 States Nov. 08, 2010 MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Twenty-nine people have been indicted in a sex trafficking ring in which Somali gangs in Minneapolis and St. Paul allegedly forced girls under age 14 into prostitution in Minnesota, Tennessee and Ohio, according to an indictment unsealed Monday. The 24-count indictment, unsealed in U.S. District Court in the Middle District of Tennessee, said one of the gangs' goals was recruiting females under age 18, including some under age 14, and forcing them into prostitution so the defendants could get money, marijuana or liquor. The indictment details several instances in which young Somali or African American girls were taken from place to place and forced to engage in sex acts with multiple people. One girl was under 13 when she was first prostituted. Another girl was 18 when she was raped by multiple men in a hotel room, the indictment said. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/11/08/ap/national/main7034588.shtml

child sex crimes in US sharply increasing, Sex Abuse Survivors Increased Disorders

Officials issue national strategy to fight child sex crimes By Terry Frieden, CNN Justice Producer August 3, 2010 Washington (CNN) -- With child sex crimes in the United States sharply increasing, federal officials Monday issued a "national strategy" to combat child exploitation in homes, on streets and over the internet. Top federal law enforcement officials led by Attorney General Eric Holder vowed to take new steps to stem rampant child pornography, online enticements, child prostitution and child sex tourism. In a detailed report submitted to Congress on Monday, the Justice Department says that since 2006, when the government launched Project Safe Childhood, federal prosecutions have increased by 40 percent, and more than 8,600 defendants have been indicted. More than 2,400 alleged sex offenders were indicted in 2009 alone. "Tragically, the only place we've seen a decrease is in the age of the victims," Holder said. Officials said the average age of girls targeted for child pornography is 12 to 14, while the average age of boys targeted is 11 to 13. http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/08/02/pol.strategy.child.exploitation/index.html


Office of Public Affairs FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Monday, August 2, 2010 Department of Justice Releases First National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction
U.S. Marshals Service to Launch Nationwide Operation Targeting Top 500 Most Dangerous, Non-compliant Sex Offenders
WASHINGTON – Attorney General Eric Holder today announced that the Department of Justice released its first-ever National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction. The strategy also provides the first-ever comprehensive threat assessment of the dangers facing children from child pornography, online enticement, child sex tourism, commercial sexual exploitation and sexual exploitation in Indian Country, and outlines a blueprint to strengthen the fight against these crimes. The strategy builds upon the department’s accomplishments in combating child exploitation by establishing specific, aggressive goals and priorities and increasing cooperation and collaboration at all levels of government and the private sector.
http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/August/10-opa-887.html

Sexual Abuse Survivors Have Increased of Psychiatric Disorders
ScienceDaily (July 12, 2010) — New research finds that a history of sexual abuse, regardless of the victim's gender or age when the abuse occurred, correlates strongly with a lifetime diagnosis of multiple psychiatric disorders. In the July issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings, researchers report that a history of sexual abuse is associated with suicide attempts, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety disorders, depression, and eating and sleep disorders. Additionally, associations between sexual abuse and depression, eating disorders, and post-traumatic stress disorder were strengthened by a history of rape....The study reports prevalence rates of sexual abuse in some populations are as high as 21 percent in adults and 33 percent in children. Furthermore, sexual abuse survivors can represent up to 25 percent of patient panels in primary care practices. Researchers also explored why some abuse survivors do not experience psychiatric symptoms and suggest that genetic variability may confer a level of protection. "The protective effect of certain genes against the development of psychiatric disorders in abuse survivors is an intriguing prospect.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100712133129.htm

DOJ report says child porn on the rise, hearing for FLDS sect leader Warren Jeffs

DOJ report says child porn on the rise (AP) – 8/2/10 WASHINGTON — The spread of child pornography, fueled by technology and the Internet, is outpacing efforts to combat it, the Justice Department said Monday in a report to Congress that promises more arrests, prosecutions and better coordination among federal, state and local authorities. Attorney General Eric Holder said the distribution of child pornography, the number of images being shared online and violence against child victims all have increased. "Tragically, the only place we've seen a decrease is in the age of victims," Holder said in a speech at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Alexandria, Va.

The report, ordered by Congress in legislation approved two years ago, concedes that the market for child pornography continues to grow rapidly and determining its size is impossible. "The number of offenders accessing the images and videos and the quantity of images and videos being traded is unknown," the report said....The increased attention to fighting child pornography already has led to record numbers of prosecutions and tips. More than 8,600 people have been prosecuted at the federal level since October 2006. State and local authorities focused on the use of the Internet in child sexual exploitation reported that documented complaints of online enticement of children more than tripled from 2004 to 2008 and complaints of child prostitution rose more than 10 times.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ikJwimhJLziWOIbrB1d8IYltbW-gD9HBH0FG0

Utah judge orders Aug. 18 hearing for FLDS sect leader Warren Jeffs July 28, 2010 SALT LAKE CITY - A Southern Utah judge has set an Aug. 18 date for a hearing on a request that polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs be granted a speedy trial. Jeffs was charged in 5th District Court in 2006 with two counts of felony rape as an accomplice. A jury convicted him of both counts the following year. But the Utah Supreme Court reversed the convictions Tuesday and sent the case back for a new trial. Within hours, Jeffs' defense attorneys, Wally Bugden and Tara Isaacson, filed a motion seeking a "speedy trial before a jury of his peers." Court papers also say Jeffs "has been incarcerated for many months."

At a news conference Tuesday, Bugden said he planned to seek bail for Jeffs, 54, the ecclesiastical head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The Southern Utah-based church practices polygamy in marriages arranged by FLDS Church leaders. On Wednesday, Judge James Shumate, who presided over the 2007 trial, ordered a hearing on a retrial. Deputy Washington County Attorney Brian Filter has said officials haven't decided how they'll proceed in the case. Prosecutors first plan to meet with the victim and law enforcement and conduct a legal analysis of the high court's ruling, Filter said. http://www.standard.net/topics/courts/2010/07/28/utah-judge-orders-aug-18-hearing-flds-sect-leader-warren-jeffs

Day Breaks Over Dharamsala - A Memoir of Life Lost and Found

describes abuse

Day Breaks Over Dharamsala - A Memoir of Life Lost and Found by Janet Thomas

Day Breaks Over Dharamsala was a 20-year writing journey that started in 1990. A year later, I moved to an island to finish it. I had no idea that I had another twenty years to go. To begin with, it was a book full of anguish, fear and loathing--for both self and other. It had no redeeming humor, no redemption, and no India. It chronicled a different trip, to California, down a highway of recrimination, shame and rage. I had a lot of healing ahead of me.

book excerpt:
I’ve tried to heal from the electric shocks that could never happen but did; the sexual slavery as a child that only my body remembers; the experiments that happened to someone else. In my body; the days and nights in the dark that made indistinguishable my self from all that did not exist; the places where I became an animal, where being debased for the enjoyment of others was my charm and my glory. I heal from it all, even as I know it could never have happened to me. It is what I don’t know that has both saved me and condemned me. And it seems, at times, as though there is no difference.


I do bear one visible scar. It’s four inches long and reaches down the inside of my left forearm. On my left hand are five-year old fingers and a thumb that does not bend. There is not much feeling in this hand. It is a hand that is always cold, always numb, always looked after by my other hand--the right one, the one that writes, that does everything. "The scar is real," it writes. It is a huge scar. It is connected to medical experiments and electric shocks to see if the severed nerve would grow, and electric shocks to make sure I didn't remember the electric shocks. And shocks to obliterate the memory of the sexual exploitation, the manipulation of my mind, and the banishment of my self to a place of hiding so profound it would take me fifty years to get her back....

Many children were experimented on in the 40s and 50s; they still are. Many children were used for child prostitution and pornography; they still are. Many children, and adults, too, had their minds experimented upon through electric shock and drugs and by the destruction of the bonds that make life possible. It is everywhere. Yet it is ultimately our healing that matters. Only in healing that which is invisible is there hope.
Nutshell Books (November 2009) ISBN-13: 978-0615329215
http://www.daybreaksoverdharamsala.com/

ritual abuse task force, child prostitution, mk-ultra, stopping child abuse

http://ritualabuse.us

Report of the Ritual Abuse Task Force - Los Angeles County Commission for Women - Ritual abuse is a brutal form of abuse of children, adolescents, and adults, consisting of physical, sexual, and psychological abuse, and involving the use of rituals. Ritual does not necessarily mean satanic. However, most survivors state that they were ritually abused as part of satanic worship for the purpose of indoctrinating them into satanic beliefs and practices. Ritual abuse rarely consists of a single episode. It usually involves repeated abuse over an extended period of time. The physical abuse is severe, sometimes including torture and killing. The sexual abuse is usually painful, sadistic, and humiliating, intended as means of gaining dominance over the victim. The psychological abuse is devastating and involves the use of ritual/indoctrination, which includes mind control techniques and mind altering drugs, and ritual/intimidation which conveys to the victim a profound terror of the cult members and of the evil spirits they believe cult members can command. Both during and after the abuse, most victims are in a state of terror, mind control, and dissociation in which disclosure is exceedingly difficult. http://www.geocities.com/kidhistory/ra.htm

Guatemalan Recounts Time As Gang Member NPR.org December 22, 2008 · El Flaco, as we call him here, was member of Mara Salvatrucha for 18 years, before quitting two years ago. He's 26, was born in El Salvador - and claims to have killed 22 people. Following are excerpts from an interview with NPR's John Burnett. I was part of the Mara Salvatrucha, a gang which started in the United States and then went to El Salvador. The truth is, I want to leave because I was tired of harming the people. There's a certain limit to where you get tired of doing bad things to people. I'm tired of living this life....What sorts of crimes did I commit? Various. Honestly, I considered crime my salary. We had a satanic cult in which we killed people....It's no joke. In MS-13, we sold our souls to the devil, practically, so that he'll give us everything we need. We sacrificed everybody, including innocent women and children. Every month or two we had to do a ritual. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98596425&ft=1&f=1004

From Confessions of a Whistle-Blower: Lessons Learned Author: Anna C. Salter DOI: 10.1207/s15327019eb0802_2 Published in: Ethics & Behavior, Volume 8, Issue 2 June 1998 , pages 115 - 124 http://ritualabuse.us/research/memory-fms/confessions-of-a-whistle-blower-lessons-learned/

"The argument between the field of child sexual abuse and the backlash against survivors is not an academic debate between two well meaning groups equally invested in ascertaining truth. It is not an academic debate at all; it is a political fight."
P. 121

“What wins political fights is organization and stamina and a refusal to be intimidated.” P. 122

describes severe crimes of abuse - The Evil Behind the Smiles By Nicholas D. Kristof 12/31/08 Phnom Penh, Cambodia - Sina is Vietnamese but was kidnapped at the age of 13 and taken to Cambodia, where she was drugged.... Sina mostly followed instructions and smiled alluringly at men because she would have been beaten if men didn’t choose her. But sometimes she was in such pain that she resisted, and then she said she would be dragged down to a torture chamber in the basement.“Many of the brothels have these torture chambers,” she said. “They are underground because then the girls’ screams are muffled.” As in many brothels, the torture of choice was electric shocks. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/01/opinion/01kristof.html

Vets sue CIA, DoD over military experiments By PAUL ELIAS, Associated Press Writer 1/7/09 SAN FRANCISCO – Six veterans who say they were exposed to dangerous chemicals, germs and mind-altering drugs during Cold War-era experiments filed a federal lawsuit against the CIA, Department of Defense and other agencies Wednesday. The veterans say they volunteered for military experiments as part of a wide-ranging program started in the 1950s to test nerve agents, biological weapons and mind-control techniques, but were not properly informed of the nature of the experiments. They blame the experiments for poor health and are demanding the government provide their health care. They also want the court to rule that the program was illegal because its administrators failed to get their consent....The suit, filed in San Francisco, alleges that at least 7,800 U.S. military personnel served as volunteers to test experimental drugs such as LSD at the Edgewood Arsenal near Baltimore, Md., during a program that lasted into the 1970s, and that many others volunteered for similar experiments at other locations. "In virtually all cases, troops served in the same capacity as laboratory rats or guinea pigs," the lawsuit states. The suit contends that veterans were wrongfully used as test subjects in experiments such as MK-ULTRA, a CIA project from the 1950s and '60s that involved brainwashing and administering experimental drugs like LSD to unsuspecting individuals. The project was the target of several congressional inquiries in the 1970s and was tied to at least one death. Harf said that MK-ULTRA "was thoroughly investigated and the CIA fully cooperated with each of the investigations." The plaintiffs say many of the volunteers' records have been destroyed or remain sealed as top secret documents. They also say they were denied medals and other citations they were promised for participating in the experiments. They are not seeking monetary damages but have demanded access to health care for veterans they say were turned away at Department of Veterans Affairs facilities because they could not prove their ailments were related to their military service. In 1988, the Justice Department agreed to pay eight Canadians a total of $750,000 to settle their lawsuit alleging they suffered psychological trauma from CIA-financed mind-control experiments that included the use of LSD. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090108/ap_on_re_us/cold_war_experiments_lawsuit