Young witnesses discuss abuse, Moscow bans Islamic sacrifice ritual for Eid, Ritual Chicken Slaughter Draws Fire in Brooklyn

Young witnesses discuss abuse
Thursday, October 2, 2014
By Greg Jordan FOR THE REGISTER-HERALD

PRINCETON — A teen girl and her younger sister testified Wednesday in Mercer County Circuit Court about a Bluefield man who allegedly used a claim of having magical powers to sexually abuse them.

James Rolan Irvin, 57, of Bluefield, faces 18 charges, including sexual abuse first-degree, sexual assault first-degree and sexual abuse by a parent or guardian. During an interview in April with Detective K.L. Adams of the Bluefield Police Department, the teen stated her mother was practicing wiccan and pagan practices with Irvin and “believed him to be a magical warlock,” according to the arrest report.

The 17-year-old teen testified Wednesday she was approximately 10-years-old when Irvin began to sexually abuse her, recalling that the year was 2006 or 2007. Irvin, who was living in Bluefield with the girls and their mother, said the acts were happening in order to help her mother, the teen stated when being questioned by Chief Assistant Prosecuting Attorney George Sitler....

The attorneys representing Irvin, William Huffman and Natalie Hager, have countered that the case was the result of a custody battle between the girls’ parents, and that the father has tried to portray Irvin as a wiccan and pagan. Hager said in her opening statement Tuesday that Irvin does not practice those belief systems....

Later the second sister, now 11 years old, took the stand; she was approximately 3 years old when the alleged abuse occurred....

“I don’t like him. The stuff that he said and the stuff that he did. He tried to use witchcraft on me,” she replied. In later testimony, she recalled Irvin touching her breasts and private areas.
http://www.register-herald.com/news/article_2d215e5c-4a30-11e4-834a-d7e1011ca568.html 

Moscow bans Islamic sacrifice ritual for Eid  02 October 2014 Thursday
World Bulletin / News Desk

Muslims in the Russian capital Moscow have been denied the right to celebrate the upcoming Eid al-Adhu (Feast of the Sacrifice) Islamic holiday after local authorities banned them from carrying out the traditional slaughter ritual.

The second of the two Eid holidays in the Islamic calender, Muslims typically celebrate the occassion by slaughtering a lamb, a cow or a camel and distributing its meat to relatives, neighbors and the poor.

However, a spokesman for the city's inter-regional cooperation, national policy and religious organizations department, told Interfax on Wednesday that the sale and slaughter of sacrificial animals will be banned in Moscow during the holiday.

Muslims will be allowed to fulfil the regilious rite in villages outside of the main city, he added....
http://www.worldbulletin.net/news/145548/moscow-bans-islamic-sacrifice-ritual-for-eid    


Ritual Chicken Slaughter Draws Fire in Brooklyn
By NICK DIVITO  Thursday, October 02, 2014

BROOKLYN, N.Y. (CN) - A Yom Kippur atonement ceremony involving the sacrifice of live chickens has drawn a lawsuit from animal rights activists.
     Crown Heights resident Rina Deych filed the action Tuesday in Kings County Court as a member of the Alliance to End Chickens as Kaporos.
     The 33-page complaint defines as "an event that involves the torture and slaughter of chickens on public streets and sidewalks."

     "It is veiled under the guise of a 'religious activity' of the Jewish faith, but this definition is questional at best," the complaint continues. "In fact, many observers of the Jewish faith have denounced this practice as barbaric and primitive, and label it as nothing more than a pure act of animal torture and abuse."

     The practice a person waving a live chicken - or sometimes a sack of coins - over his head leading up to Yom Kippur, a day of atonement and the most holy day for the Jewish faithful....
The practice is a "public nuisance, poses a health hazard, and involves dangerous and illegal activity," according to the complaint.

     Kaporos events cause "litter, blood, garbage, dirt, feces, urine, feathers and other unsafe, unsanitary and hazardous debris to be strewn on public areas," the complaint states.
     "Moreover, illegal makeshift slaughterhouses are erected and utilized on open public property under temporary tents," it continues....
http://www.courthousenews.com/2014/10/02/72075.htm  

Photo Book Documents Child Sexual Abuse in South Africa - My Piece of Sky, 'Black magic' sex abuse trial: Jury fail to reach a verdict, Falmouth pagan refused appeal involved in “ritualistic” sexual abuse of children as part of a witches' coven

- Incredibly Moving Photo Book Documents Child Sexual Abuse in South Africa
- My Piece of Sky
- A look into the heart of child sex abuse
- 'Black magic' sex abuse trial: Jury fail to reach a verdict
- Falmouth pagan pervert Petrauske refused appeal
involved in “ritualistic” sexual abuse of children as part of a witches' coven

Incredibly Moving Photo Book Documents Child Sexual Abuse in South Africa
DL Cade · May 22, 2014
Editor’s Note: None of the images in this post are graphic, but the content and captions might be upsetting to some.

Photographer Mariella Furrer has spent over a decade of her photographic career focusing on the latter, documenting the stories of the survivors and families of child sexual abuse in South Africa.

Those stories — told through her photography, through interviews, and sometimes even though victims’ artwork and poetry — come together in her 700-page book My Piece of Sky, a culmination of what might be called Furrer’s life’s work....

This photographic journey began for Furrer in 2002, when she was asked to shoot a story about infant rape in South Africa for Marie Claire. However, after realizing just how shockingly vast this problem was, she knew that a single magazine article wasn’t going to cut it.

Thus began a now 12-year-old project at the Johannesburg-based Teddy Bear Clinic for Abused Children, where she has recorded the harsh realities of child sexual abuse in incredibly raw and hard-to-stomach photographs that never reveal the children’s faces, but do a tremendous amount to further their cause and tell their stories....
http://petapixel.com/2014/05/22/incredibly-moving-photo-book-documents-sexual-abuse-south-africa/


My Piece of Sky  http://www.mypieceofsky.com 

A look into the heart of child sex abuse
May 21 2014 By Tanya Farber Cape Town

....On another page, but in the same orbit of horror, a young rape survivor’s legs bear the welts of lacerations she received during a satanic initiation ritual from when she was eight years old.

....But there are 700 pages in the book. And thousands upon thousands of cases in the country which both amplify one another but also mask the individual story behind each one.

Photojournalist Mariella Furrer, who captured images of child abuse in South Africa over a period of more than 10 years before publishing them herself in a book called My Piece of Sky, says it has been a personal journey.

Thirty years ago, she was a survivor of molestation by a stranger, and this made her all too aware of the impact it has on a child’s being.

“You lose your childhood really, your innocence is snatched away, and what little is left of that once-pure child is now being transformed into a sexual being, a child with knowledge of things way before her time,” she said....
http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/a-look-into-the-heart-of-child-sex-abuse-1.1691582   


'Black magic' sex abuse trial: Jury fail to reach a verdict
May 22, 2014 By Liz Keen
Prosecutors have been given two weeks to decide if they will seek a retrial at Cardiff Crown Court
‘Black magic’ wife Carolee Hickman and her husband, who deny abusing a Bridgend schoolgirl 40 years ago may face a second trial after a jury failed to reach a verdict in their case after more than six hours of deliberations.

Prosecutors have been given two weeks to decide if they will seek a retrial at Cardiff Crown Court.

The alleged victim, now 52, alleges she was sexually assaulted by Hickman and raped by her husband Albert Hickman in the 1970s at their home after threats of black magic and witchcraft petrified her into submission over a period of time.

The couple deny it, saying although they were each later jailed for offences against other children - information about which is available on the Internet - there was no incident in Bridgend....
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/black-magic-sex-abuse-trial-7155519 


Falmouth pagan pervert Petrauske refused appeal
Wednesday 21st May 2014 in Cornwall
A pervert involved in “ritualistic” sexual abuse of children as part of a witches' coven has failed in a bid to challenge his convictions.

Peter Helmut Petrauske was jailed for 18 years at Truro Crown Court in December 2012, after being found guilty of indecent assault, aiding and abetting an attempt to rape and rape.

The 74-year-old, of Falmouth, yesterday (Tuesday) launched an attempt to have his convictions overturned at London's Criminal Appeal Court.

He maintained his denials, saying he had never had any sexual interest in children and argued that evidence of his “bad character” should not have been disclosed to jurors at his trial, as it was “prejudicial” to his defence.

But his appeal was rejected by three of the country's top judges, who said his trial was fair and his convictions “safe.”

Petrauske and his accomplice, 71-year-old Jack Kemp, also of Falmouth, were said to have worn ceremonial robes and had pagan paraphernalia when they abused girls in Cornwall during the 1970s.

Petrauske described himself as the high priest of a white witches' coven in St Ives, west Cornwall....

Kemp was also found guilty of indecent assault and indecency with a child, and was jailed for 14 years.... 
http://www.thisisthewestcountry.co.uk/news/cornwall_news/11225477.Falmouth_pagan_pervert_Petrauske_refused_appeal/