Catholic priest sentenced to life for sex trafficking boys, Understanding Human Trafficking

 

Catholic priest sentenced to life for sex trafficking boys, manipulating opioid addictions Eduardo Cuevas USA TODAY Nov. 19, 2023

An Ohio priest was sentenced to life in prison Friday after he was convicted of grooming three boys and taking advantage of their opioid addictions to force them into commercial sex, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

In May, a federal jury in Toledo found the Rev. Michael Zacharias, a Roman Catholic clergy member, guilty of five counts of sex trafficking in allegations that spanned 15 years, from July 2005 to August 2020. Prosecutors said he abused his role as a teacher and priest at a Toledo parish school to groom the three boys into adulthood, force them into sex and enable their addictions to pain medications and heroin later in life.
“Michael Zacharias used his position as a trusted spiritual leader and role model for young boys and their families to exploit them in the most insidious ways, coercing his victims from childhood and beyond to engage in commercial sex with him,” said Kristen Clarke, the assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, in a statement.
Testimony and evidence at trial showed Zacharias developed relationships with the victims' families when they were young to gain their trust, prosecutors said. As the victims got older, he exploited their fears, their housing instability and their criminal records to force them into commercial sex....
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/11/18/catholic-priest-life-sentence-sex-trafficking-ohio/71639846007/

 

Understanding Human Trafficking
“Trafficking in persons,” “human trafficking,” and “modern slavery” are umbrella terms – often used interchangeably – to refer to a crime whereby traffickers exploit and profit at the expense of adults or children by compelling them to perform labor or engage in commercial sex. When a person younger than 18 is used to perform a commercial sex act, it is a crime regardless of whether there is any force, fraud, or coercion involved.

The United States recognizes two primary forms of trafficking in persons: forced labor and sex trafficking. The basic meaning of these forms of human trafficking and some unique characteristics of each are set forth below, followed by several key principles and concepts that relate to all forms of human trafficking....

International Labour Organization

The International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Walk Free Foundation, in partnership with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), released Global Estimates of Modern Slavery in September 2022. This report estimates that, at any given time in 2021, approximately 27.6 million people were in forced labor. Of these, “17.3 million are exploited in the private sector, 6.3 million in forced commercial sexual exploitation, and 3.9 million in forced labour imposed by state.” The definition of forced labor used in this report is based on ILO Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29), which states in Article 2.1 that forced labor is “all work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily.”

This report also estimates that 49.6 million people were in “modern slavery” at any given time in 2021, but this figure includes both the estimate for forced labor and an estimate for forced marriage. Consistent with current implementation of U.S. law, it is recommended to use only the 27.6 million estimate when referring to human trafficking. While some instances of forced marriage may meet the international or U.S. legal definition of human trafficking, not all cases do. Note further that the term “modern slavery” is not defined in international or U.S. law.
https://www.state.gov/humantrafficking-about-human-trafficking/

Breitbart’s Milo Yiannopoulos resigns following outrage over his past comments about pedophilia

"In a video interview early last year, Yiannopoulos condoned sexual relations with boys as young as 13 and joked about a sexual encounter he said he had with a Catholic priest as a teenager."

Breitbart’s Milo Yiannopoulos resigns following outrage over his past comments about pedophilia
By Paul Farhi February 21 at 7:15 PM

Milo Yiannopoulos, the incendiary writer who helped make Breitbart News a leading organ of the alt-right, resigned from the news organization Tuesday after a video of him endorsing pedophilia resurfaced online over the weekend.

Yiannopoulos has been a flame-throwing provocateur whose writing has offended women, Muslims, blacks and gay people ever since former Breitbart executive chairman Stephen K. Bannon hired him as a senior editor in 2014.

Bannon, now President Trump’s senior adviser, championed the British-born Yiannopoulos’s inflammatory commentary and promoted him as a conservative truth-teller and champion of free speech. In turn, his popularity helped raise Breitbart’s profile among Trump’s supporters and the alt-right, a vaguely defined collection of nationalists, anti-immigration proponents and anti-establishment conservatives. Adherents of the alt-right are known for espousing racist, anti-Semitic and sexist points of view.

“Breitbart News has stood by me when others caved,” Yiannopoulos said in a statement announcing his resignation. “They have been a significant factor in my success.”....

But Yiannopoulos’s views on pedophilia apparently went too far even for Breitbart.

The site was under pressure to take action against Yiannopoulos, 32, from its own staff, which had threatened to revolt if he wasn’t fired or disciplined, according to people familiar with the discussions.

In a video interview early last year, Yiannopoulos condoned sexual relations with boys as young as 13 and joked about a sexual encounter he said he had with a Catholic priest as a teenager.

“You’re misunderstanding what pedophilia means,” he told the hosts of a podcast. “Pedophilia is not a sexual attraction to somebody 13 years old who is sexually mature. Pedophilia is attraction to children who have not reached puberty.”....

Yiannopoulos, meanwhile, defended himself on Facebook on Sunday and Monday as the tide of controversy rose.

“I do not support pedophilia. Period,” he wrote. “It is a vile and disgusting crime, perhaps the very worst. There are selectively edited videos doing the rounds, as part of a coordinated effort to discredit me from establishment Republicans, that suggest I am soft on the subject.”

The openly gay writer made his name with a knack for taunting various groups and manipulating the outrage that followed. He led a Twitter campaign last year against “Ghostbusters” star Leslie Jones that was so vitriolic that Twitter banned him. He has called feminism “cancer” in his campus appearances, and he once wrote a Breitbart story headlined, “Birth Control Makes Women Unattractive and Crazy.” ....
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/milo-yiannopoulos-resigns-from-breitbart-news/2017/02/21/0217c128-f7cc-11e6-be05-1a3817ac21a5_story.html   

Chile court extends cult leaders sentences (Colonia Dignidad - General Pinochet), Catholic priest accused of organising orgies in rectory and pimping out 15 women, Azealia Banks Practice Witchcraft for 3 Years: 'Real Witches Do Real Things'

- Chile court extends cult leaders sentences
- Catholic priest accused of organising orgies in rectory and pimping out 15 women
- Azealia Banks Cleans Blood-Stained Room She's Used to Practice Witchcraft for 3 Years: 'Real Witches Do Real Things'

Chile court extends cult leaders sentences
31 Dec 2016

The sentences of three German men found guilty for their leadership roles at the infamous Colonia Dignidad in Chile have been increased.
Chile's highest court has increased the sentences of three Germans found guilty for their leadership roles at the infamous Colonia Dignidad, a sect that oversaw child molestation and other human rights abuses.

The court increased by one year the sentences set by an appeals court to five years and one day for Kurt Schnellenkamp, Gerhard Muecke and Karl van den Berg for the formation of a criminal organisation.

The court also issued similar sentences for former Chilean intelligence agents Fernando Gomez und Pedro Espinoza. Four other defendants were released....

Located in the Andean foothills 300 kilometres south of the capital Santiago, Colonia Dignidad - "Dignity Colony" - was a German commune founded by German-born cult leader Paul Schaefer in 1961.

The heavily guarded, 15,000-hectare colony was used as a secret detention and torture centre for political prisoners during the 1973-1990 dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet.

At its height, about 300 people lived at Colonia Dignidad under draconian conditions, sealed off from the rest of the world and subject to abuse that included the systematic sexual molestation of children.

Schaefer, an ex-Nazi corporal who convinced 250 German followers to emigrate with him to Chile after authorities began investigating him, was sentenced to 33 years for child sexual abuse and other crimes and died in prison in 2010....
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2016/12/31/chile-court-extends-cult-leaders-sentences 

Catholic priest accused of organising orgies in rectory and pimping out 15 women
Italian 48-year-old allegedly hid pornographic home videos in covers bearing the names of popes
Peter Walker

Catholic Father Andrea Contin, a parish priest in the northern city of Padua in Veneto, is under police investigation on suspicion of living off immoral earnings and psychological violence.

A variety of sex toys and videos, purportedly showing orgies taking place on the San Lazzaro church premises, have been seized after complaints from three female parishioners.

The 48-year-old also allegedly concealed pornographic home videos in covers bearing the names of various popes.

He is accused of farming out some of his lovers to men on wife-swapping websites, according to The Times.

The priest also allegedly took his female friends for stays at a naturist and swingers resort in Cap d’Agde on the southern French coast.

Catholic Father Andrea Contin, a parish priest in the northern city of Padua in Veneto, is under police investigation on suspicion of living off immoral earnings and psychological violence.

A variety of sex toys and videos, purportedly showing orgies taking place on the San Lazzaro church premises, have been seized after complaints from three female parishioners.

The 48-year-old also allegedly concealed pornographic home videos in covers bearing the names of various popes.

He is accused of farming out some of his lovers to men on wife-swapping websites, according to The Times.

The priest also allegedly took his female friends for stays at a naturist and swingers resort in Cap d’Agde on the southern French coast.....
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/catholic-priest-orgies-rectory-church-andrea-contin-padua-padova-veneto-italy-a7505851.html


Azealia Banks Cleans Blood-Stained Room She's Used to Practice Witchcraft for 3 Years: 'Real Witches Do Real Things'
By Dave Quinn December 30, 2016

Just when one thought 2016 couldn’t provide any more surprises, here comes Azealia Banks.

The 25-year-old rapper posted a series of disturbing videos to Instagram on Friday, where she admitted to practicing “three years worth of brujería” (the Spanish word for witchcraft) before beginning to clean the room she’s been using for the apparent animal sacrifices.

Panning the camera around what looks to be a closet in Banks’ apartment, the room is a troubling sight to see. Its walls are covered with what appeared to be hardened stains of blood — while a mix of feathers and a black substance cover the room’s wood-floors. It also looks like at least two dead chickens can be seen on the floor.

“The amount of crap that’s about to come off my floor right now guys? Oh my God,” she explains in the video. “You know I got to scrape all this s— up. I’ve got my sandblaster, and my goggles — it’s about to go down.”

“Real witches do real things,” she added.

Banks, who is wearing protective goggles and a bandana in her hair, then begins to clean the floors with a sander....
http://people.com/music/azealia-banks-witchcraft-brujeria-peta-statement/

Ottawa diocese repeatedly warned about local clergy's most notorious abuser

Ottawa diocese repeatedly warned about local clergy's most notorious abuser

Andrew Duffy, Ottawa Citizen
May 18, 2016

The Archdiocese of Ottawa continues to pay for the many sins of Rev. Dale Crampton.

Court documents reveal that the diocese has paid $741,783.44 in compensation to 10 of Crampton’s victims, who were sexually abused by the Catholic priest between 1963 and 1982.

More lawsuits are before the courts. The victims in those cases are seeking $3.7 million.

In total, the diocese now knows of at least 17 people who say they were victimized by the priest as children.

Through interviews and court documents, the Citizen has learned that members of the Ottawa clergy were warned at least seven times about Crampton’s sexual misconduct, beginning in 1965....

Crampton is the most notorious perpetrator in Ottawa’s clergy sexual abuse scandal, a pedophile and alcoholic who has cost the diocese and its insurance companies more money than any other priest....

At least four priests were told about Crampton’s abuse. What’s more, two complainants said they approached senior diocesan officials with allegations of abuse between 1980 and 1986....

“The archdiocese knew. They knew in the ’60s,” charged C.B., a retired educator. “A lot of other people could have been saved, and not subjected to abuse as I was, and more serious kinds of abuse … He was just getting started with me.”....


The diocese has publicly apologized to Crampton’s victims, but it has never admitted mistakes in how it dealt with the priest.

It has, however, changed the way it manages allegations of sexual abuse against Ottawa clergy.

In 2011, the Archdiocese of Ottawa issued a protocol that requires all clergy members and church employees to report any allegation of child sexual abuse to the Office of the Archbishop and to the Children’s Aid Society....

Lawyer Robert Talach, who has represented 10 of Crampton’s victims in lawsuits against the diocese, said that attitude is at the heart of the clergy sex abuse scandal.

The church, he said, operated behind “an institutional veil of secrecy” designed to protect its reputation, even at the expense of children’s safety.

It is why, Talach said, that he’s not surprised the Archdiocese of Ottawa was warned seven times about Crampton.

“It’s not unusual because what usually triggers more action is some kind of spectre of public knowledge,” he said.

More lawsuits are pending against Crampton and the diocese....

In 1974, he became one of the first two priests ever elected to the Ottawa Catholic School Board. Crampton collected more votes than any other trustee in that election.

The other priest elected that year was Rev. Kenneth Keeler, who would later plead guilty to sexually abusing three boys in the 1970s and 1980s.

Both Crampton and Keeler were re-elected as trustees in 1976....
http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/ottawa-diocese-repeatedly-warned-about-local-clergys-most-notorious-abuser

Catholic priest ran cult-like 'Charlie Brown' group to sexually abuse young girls, royal commission hears

Catholic priest ran cult-like 'Charlie Brown' group to sexually abuse young girls, royal commission hears

JANET FIFE-YEOMANS The Daily Telegraph
December 09, 2013

A CATHOLIC priest ran a cult-like group sexually abusing young girls giving them all the surname Brown, as in Charlie Brown from the Peanuts comic strip, the royal commission has been told.

Her voice wavering, one member of the group, Joan Isaacs, said Father Francis Derriman told her he was dying and had to have sex with her first.

He fathered a child with another girl in the group when she was 17.

Ms Isaacs said: "Frank Derriman used the Peanut comic as a platform and used the surname Brown in reference to himself, the other three children and me."

At the time in 1967 and 1968, Father Derriman was a priest with the Archdiocese of Brisbane and chaplain of Sacred Heart Sandgate in Brisbane, she told the commission.

After two committals and trial, Father Derriman was in 1998 eventually convicted of sexually abusing Mrs Isaacs, now aged 60, and sentenced to one year behind bars, to be suspended after he served just six months.

"Father Derriman created a cult like group which included myself and three other children," Mrs Isaacs, 60, said....

"I have maintained friendships with the other three children in the Brown group. The two girls out of the group have told me that Frank Derriman also sexually abused them. One of them took steps to have him criminally charged in respect of her sexual abuse and the other girl fathered Frank Derriman's child at the age 17 years."....

Mrs Isaacs said she later went through the Catholic Church's Towards Healing process expecting to be treated with warmth, dignity and respect but later discovered that everything that was said to her during the process, including the apology, had been drafted by a church lawyer beforehand.

Reluctantly she ended up signing a deed of release with the church that banned her from discussing what happened to her, including the Towards Healing process, with anyone including her husband or to make "disparaging remarks" about the church.

She received enough compensation to buy $5000 worth of Coles-Myer shares and a sewing machine....

She said she had felt silenced for the past 12 years since signing the confidentiality agreement with the church. The royal commission has negotiated with the church to lift all those suppression agreements....
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/catholic-priest-ran-cultlike-charlie-brown-group-to-sexually-abuse-young-girls-royal-commission-hears/story-fni0cx4q-1226778813498

History of Survivorship, Suffer the Children - Father Ratigan and Bishop Finn

History of Survivorship and its Present Day Activities - 2012 conference transcript

Survivorship Presentation

Survivorship is an international non-profit organization for survivors of sadistic sexual abuse, ritualistic abuse, mind control, and torture. A history of Survivorship’s last twenty plus years of work helping survivors will be presented with interviews from members of Survivorship. The presentation will include Survivorship’s present day activities and ways survivors can learn more about the organization and get involved. Survivorship, FJC,470 27th St., Oakland, Ca 94612 survivorshipstaff@yahoo.com http://www.survivorship.org http://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/2012-conference/the-history-of-survivorship-and-its-present-day-activities/
 
Suffer the Children By FRANK BRUNI Op-Ed Columnist September 10, 2012

Just how flagrant does a pedophile need to be before the people around him contact the police? Just how far beyond seeming to force himself on a boy in a shower or loading up his laptop with photos of little girls’ crotches does he have to go?

In the first instance I’m referring to Jerry Sandusky, whom Penn State officials allowed to continue working with children even after they were told that something was seriously amiss. In the second I’m referring to the Rev. Shawn Ratigan, a Catholic priest in Missouri whose superiors acted no less despicably.

In May 2010, the principal of a parochial school next door to the parish where Father Ratigan served sent a memorandum to the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, as Laurie Goodstein reported in The Times. It flagged his odd behavior, including his habit of instructing children to reach into his pockets for candy. In December 2010, hundreds of troubling, furtively taken photographs were found on his laptop, according to court testimony given too long after that fact. One showed a toddler’s genitals. In what jail or prison cell, you might ask, did Father Ratigan spend the first half of 2011? None.

After the photos were discovered, he attempted suicide, received counseling and was reassigned by Bishop Robert W. Finn, the head of the diocese, to a new post as a chaplain to an order of nuns. There he was allowed to celebrate Mass for youth groups and host an Easter egg hunt, and he was caught taking a photograph under the table, up the skirt of the daughter of parishioners who had invited him into their home.

In May 2011, a diocesan official finally told police about the extent of Father Ratigan’s cache of child pornography. He was convicted of possession of it last month. And last week Bishop Finn was convicted of failing to report him to law enforcement authorities, and got two years of probation....

The Boy Scouts of America covered up sexual abuse in its ranks. A recent Los Angeles Times review of files dating from 1970 to 1991 identified more than 125 cases of alleged molestation by men whom the organization had previously had reason to suspect of abusive behavior. “In some cases,” The Times noted, “officials failed to document reports of abuse in the first place.” In others, it failed to involve the police.

Over the last two decades the Catholic Church has spelled out stricter policies, including the prompt notification of law enforcement officials. And its defenders have complained that newly revealed instances of wrongdoing are usually old cases that predated better awareness of child sexual abuse, better education about it and a toughened resolve.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/11/opinion/bruni-suffer-the-children.html