Rabbi Barry Freundel Taped Sex Encounters With 'Several' Women
Uriel Heilman (JTA)May 12, 2015
In addition to secretly recording women undressing for the mikvah ritual bath, Rabbi Barry Freundel engaged in sexual encounters with several women, according to prosecutors.
That’s one of several new details about the mikvah-peeping rabbi to emerge from two documents filed in D.C. Superior Court on May 8 — one each by the prosecution and defense — ahead of Freundel’s sentencing on Friday. The documents, which attempt to sway the judge’s sentencing, shed new light on Freundel’s behavior and offer some particulars about the rabbi’s life since his arrest on October 14, 2014 — including that he has resumed some rabbinic teaching.
Freundel pleaded guilty in February to 52 counts of misdemeanor voyeurism for installing secret cameras in the shower room of the mikvah adjacent to Kesher Israel, the prominent Washington Orthodox synagogue he led for some 25 years.
He used one to three cameras, hiding the devices in a digital clock radio, a tissue box holder and a small tabletop fan, and aiming them at the toilet and shower in the mikvah dressing room, according to the prosecution’s memo. In addition to the 52 women he filmed while they were completely naked between March 4, 2012 and Sept. 19, 2014, Freundel recorded an additional 100 women since April 2009 who were not part of the criminal complaint due to the statute of limitations.
In addition to his crimes, Freundel videotaped himself engaged in “sexual situations” with “several women” who were not his wife, according to the memo....
The prosecution memo notes that in addition to the hidden cameras at the mikvah, Freundel surreptitiously videotaped a domestic violence abuse victim in the bathroom and bedroom of a safe house that he had established for her so she could escape her husband’s violence....
http://forward.com/news/breaking-news/308069/rabbi-barry-freundel-taped-sex-encounters-with-several-women/
The Definition of ‘Rape’ Cannot Change with a Marriage Certificate
By Neeta Lal
NEW DELHI, May 12 2015 (IPS) - “I was brutally raped thrice by my husband. He kept me under surveillance in his Dubai house while I suffered from severe malnutrition and depression. When I tried to flee from this hellhole, he confiscated my passport, deprived me of money and beat me up,” recalls Anna Marie Lopes, 28, a rape survivor who after six years of torture, finally managed to board a flight to New Delhi from the United Arab Emirates in 2012.
Today, Lopes works at a non-profit in India’s capital, New Delhi, and is slowly picking up the shards of her life. “Life’s tough when you have to start from scratch after such a traumatic experience with no support even from your parents. But I had no other choice,” Lopes tells IPS.
Her story is different from that of thousands of Indian women only in that it has a somewhat happy ending. For too many others who are victims of marital rape, escape is not an option, keeping them trapped in relationships that often leave them broken.
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) estimates that over 40 percent of married women in India between 15 and 49 years of age have been beaten, raped or forced to engage in sexual intercourse with their spouses.
In 2011, a study released by the International Center for Research on Women, a Washington-based non-profit, said one in every five Indian men surveyed admitted to forcing their wives into sex....
The law expressly states that forced sexual intercourse by a man with his wife, provided the latter is not under 15 years of age, does not constitute rape.
Though the Domestic Violence Act passed in 2005 recognises sexual abuse in a marital relationship, legal eagles say it offers only civil recourse, which cannot lead to a jail term for the abusive spouse....
Marital rape has already been criminalised in the United States, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Canada, most European nations, Malaysia, Turkey and Bolivia.
This places India in a tiny global minority – along with China, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia – which refuses to criminalise this form of assault.
Some experts feel that the Indian government’s reservations over the issue may stem from fears about a communal or religious backlash. The Hindu Marriage Act 1955 states that it is a wife’s foremost duty to have sex with her husband....
Only about six of every 100 acts of sexual violence committed by men other than husbands actually get reported, reveals Gupta’s report....
http://www.ipsnews.net/2015/05/the-definition-of-rape-cannot-change-with-a-marriage-certificate/
Showing posts with label India. Show all posts
Showing posts with label India. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 12, 2015
Friday, June 20, 2014
Review of Penn State child-abuse probe. Dark net 'used by tens of thousands of paedophiles', Anti-paedophile police fight child porn 'epidemic', Pakistani woman raped, killed and hanged from tree: police, Indian Village Feels Aftershocks of Rape
- Review of Penn State child-abuse probe to be issued on Monday
- Dark net 'used by tens of thousands of paedophiles'
- Paedophile use of dark net increases for child abuse images
- Anti-paedophile police fight child porn 'epidemic'
- Pakistani woman raped, killed and hanged from tree: police
- Indian Village Feels Aftershocks of Rape
Review of Penn State child-abuse probe to be issued on Monday
Reuters 6/20/14
(Reuters) - A long-awaited probe into the investigation of former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky, who was convicted in 2012 of sexually abusing children, will be released early next week, Pennsylvania authorities said on Friday.
Sandusky, the once-legendary assistant football coach, was convicted in 2012 of abusing 10 boys from 1994 to 2009, some in the Penn State showers, and is serving 30 to 60 years in prison. In 2013, the school agreed to pay $59.7 million to the victims.
The report, prepared by former federal prosecutor H. Geoffrey Moulton Jr. at the request of state Attorney General Kathleen Kane, will be released at a news conference on Monday, the attorney general's office said in a statement....
http://news.yahoo.com/review-penn-state-child-abuse-probe-issued-monday-171146715--spt.html
Dark net 'used by tens of thousands of paedophiles'
By Angus Crawford BBC News 19 June 2014
Tens of thousands of paedophiles are using the so-called dark net to trade images of sexual abuse, an investigation by BBC News indicates.
One site receives as many as 500 page views per second, its founder says.
Figures from another site suggest Brits are heavily involved in producing and distributing illegal obscene images.
Britain's National Crime Agency warned in its 2014 threat assessment that abusers were turning to anonymous sites and encryption technology.
The dark net is the term used to refer to parts of the internet that are hidden and can be hard to access without special software.
One of the most popular products used to access such areas is called the TorBrowser....
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-27885502
Paedophile use of dark net increases for child abuse images
By Barclay Ballard 6/20/14
Tens of thousands of paedophiles are using the dark net to circulate images of sexual abuse, according to a report by the BBC.
The National Crime Agency said that abusers were increasingly turning to encryption software to maintain anonymity. The dark net is a hidden part of the Internet which can only be accessed by special software, one of the most popular of which is the TorBrowser.
This enables people to use Tor, an "onion-routing" system, which bounces encrypted data through several randomly selected servers on the network, making a PC's net address untraceable....
During the BBC investigation, the broadcaster contacted an active paedophile who ran one of the illegal chat rooms, until it closed in May 2014.
"We had over 40,000 user accounts on the site. We used to get sometimes 500 page views per second. My own collection is 12 gigabytes", he said....
http://betanews.com/2014/06/20/paedophile-use-of-dark-net-increases-for-child-abuse-images/
Anti-paedophile police fight child porn 'epidemic'
By Angus Crawford BBC News 18 June 2014
The internet trade in images that show child sex abuse is now "an epidemic", according to the head of the global initiative to combat the problem.
Police officers from around the world serve on the Virtual Global Taskforce.
Its chairman, Ian Quinn, tells the BBC there has been an "explosion" in cases handled by US authorities.
The US alone has 61 Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) units, each made up of state, local police and federal agents....
Online images accumulate
In 2002 the US National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reviewed and confirmed 45,055 examples of obscene images of children found online (some of these were duplicates)
In 2013 the figure had grown to 23,881,197
As of May 2014, the centre had reviewed 112 million files containing images of child sexual abuse....
Predator detentions
In 2003, 339 arrests were made worldwide in connection with Operation Predator
In 2013, the number had grown to 2,099
To date, the total number of arrests linked to the operation totals 10,608....
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-27872401
Pakistani woman raped, killed and hanged from tree: police
Reuters 6/20/14
MULTAN Pakistan (Reuters) - A 20-year-old woman has been gang-raped, killed and hanged from a tree in Pakistan in a case with a chilling resemblance to a double rape and murder that caused outrage in neighbouring India last month.
Pakistani police said Muzammil Bibi, 20, was attacked by three men in a field in the impoverished Layyah area of densely populated Punjab province....
http://news.yahoo.com/pakistani-woman-raped-killed-hanged-tree-police-163615646.html
Indian Village Feels Aftershocks of Rape
Politicians Visit Hamlet of Two Girls Killed Last Week as Families Recall 'Best Friends,' Their Final Walk to the Chili Field
By Jesse Pesta and Krishna Pokharel June 1, 2014
KATARA SADATGANJ, India—VIPs swept into this isolated village over the weekend as outrage rippled through India and beyond over the country's latest case of violent sexual abuse.
Two girls were allegedly raped and then hanged from a mango tree here last week. After a photo of the dead girls circled the globe, some of India's most prominent politicians came to this hamlet of mud-and-brick huts, while the murders have reinvigorated calls for India to address the persistent problem of violence against women.
http://online.wsj.com/articles/indian-village-feels-aftershocks-of-rape-1401669669
- Dark net 'used by tens of thousands of paedophiles'
- Paedophile use of dark net increases for child abuse images
- Anti-paedophile police fight child porn 'epidemic'
- Pakistani woman raped, killed and hanged from tree: police
- Indian Village Feels Aftershocks of Rape
Review of Penn State child-abuse probe to be issued on Monday
Reuters 6/20/14
(Reuters) - A long-awaited probe into the investigation of former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky, who was convicted in 2012 of sexually abusing children, will be released early next week, Pennsylvania authorities said on Friday.
Sandusky, the once-legendary assistant football coach, was convicted in 2012 of abusing 10 boys from 1994 to 2009, some in the Penn State showers, and is serving 30 to 60 years in prison. In 2013, the school agreed to pay $59.7 million to the victims.
The report, prepared by former federal prosecutor H. Geoffrey Moulton Jr. at the request of state Attorney General Kathleen Kane, will be released at a news conference on Monday, the attorney general's office said in a statement....
http://news.yahoo.com/review-penn-state-child-abuse-probe-issued-monday-171146715--spt.html
Dark net 'used by tens of thousands of paedophiles'
By Angus Crawford BBC News 19 June 2014
Tens of thousands of paedophiles are using the so-called dark net to trade images of sexual abuse, an investigation by BBC News indicates.
One site receives as many as 500 page views per second, its founder says.
Figures from another site suggest Brits are heavily involved in producing and distributing illegal obscene images.
Britain's National Crime Agency warned in its 2014 threat assessment that abusers were turning to anonymous sites and encryption technology.
The dark net is the term used to refer to parts of the internet that are hidden and can be hard to access without special software.
One of the most popular products used to access such areas is called the TorBrowser....
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-27885502
Paedophile use of dark net increases for child abuse images
By Barclay Ballard 6/20/14
Tens of thousands of paedophiles are using the dark net to circulate images of sexual abuse, according to a report by the BBC.
The National Crime Agency said that abusers were increasingly turning to encryption software to maintain anonymity. The dark net is a hidden part of the Internet which can only be accessed by special software, one of the most popular of which is the TorBrowser.
This enables people to use Tor, an "onion-routing" system, which bounces encrypted data through several randomly selected servers on the network, making a PC's net address untraceable....
During the BBC investigation, the broadcaster contacted an active paedophile who ran one of the illegal chat rooms, until it closed in May 2014.
"We had over 40,000 user accounts on the site. We used to get sometimes 500 page views per second. My own collection is 12 gigabytes", he said....
http://betanews.com/2014/06/20/paedophile-use-of-dark-net-increases-for-child-abuse-images/
Anti-paedophile police fight child porn 'epidemic'
By Angus Crawford BBC News 18 June 2014
The internet trade in images that show child sex abuse is now "an epidemic", according to the head of the global initiative to combat the problem.
Police officers from around the world serve on the Virtual Global Taskforce.
Its chairman, Ian Quinn, tells the BBC there has been an "explosion" in cases handled by US authorities.
The US alone has 61 Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) units, each made up of state, local police and federal agents....
Online images accumulate
In 2002 the US National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reviewed and confirmed 45,055 examples of obscene images of children found online (some of these were duplicates)
In 2013 the figure had grown to 23,881,197
As of May 2014, the centre had reviewed 112 million files containing images of child sexual abuse....
Predator detentions
In 2003, 339 arrests were made worldwide in connection with Operation Predator
In 2013, the number had grown to 2,099
To date, the total number of arrests linked to the operation totals 10,608....
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-27872401
Pakistani woman raped, killed and hanged from tree: police
Reuters 6/20/14
MULTAN Pakistan (Reuters) - A 20-year-old woman has been gang-raped, killed and hanged from a tree in Pakistan in a case with a chilling resemblance to a double rape and murder that caused outrage in neighbouring India last month.
Pakistani police said Muzammil Bibi, 20, was attacked by three men in a field in the impoverished Layyah area of densely populated Punjab province....
http://news.yahoo.com/pakistani-woman-raped-killed-hanged-tree-police-163615646.html
Indian Village Feels Aftershocks of Rape
Politicians Visit Hamlet of Two Girls Killed Last Week as Families Recall 'Best Friends,' Their Final Walk to the Chili Field
By Jesse Pesta and Krishna Pokharel June 1, 2014
KATARA SADATGANJ, India—VIPs swept into this isolated village over the weekend as outrage rippled through India and beyond over the country's latest case of violent sexual abuse.
Two girls were allegedly raped and then hanged from a mango tree here last week. After a photo of the dead girls circled the globe, some of India's most prominent politicians came to this hamlet of mud-and-brick huts, while the murders have reinvigorated calls for India to address the persistent problem of violence against women.
http://online.wsj.com/articles/indian-village-feels-aftershocks-of-rape-1401669669
Wednesday, June 11, 2014
Research Ethics and Private Harms (Taus v. Loftus), Satanic worshipper killed, dismembered and ate woman, Life in India for women and gender imbalance
- Research Ethics and Private Harms (Taus v. Loftus)
- Tennessee man killed, dismembered and ate woman before burying leftover body parts: police
- Astha Rajvanshi on life in India for women and what is being done to address the gender imbalance
Research Ethics and Private Harms
Gerald P. Koocher
DePaul University, Chicago, IL, USA
J Interpers Violence May 28, 2014 0886260514534986
Abstract
This commentary addresses the emotionally powerful account of Nicole Taus Kluemper from the perspective of a psychologist familiar with the administrative operation of the American Psychological Association (APA) and the ethics of the profession. The application of the APA’s Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct to the case is discussed, and alternative methods of response that researchers who have concerns about case studies might use are offered. The author concludes that existing ethical principles—the aspirational standards in particular—do bear upon the matter in question. However, the enforceable code of conduct is not sufficiently clear about obligations to those whom psychologists publicly discuss when the psychologist does not have a specific duty of care to an individual.
Keywords: case studies ethics Taus v. Loftus
http://jiv.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/05/28/0886260514534986
Tennessee man killed, dismembered and ate woman before burying leftover body parts: police
Gregory Hale, 37, admitted to police that he cut off Lisa Marie Hyder's head, feet and hands before burying the 36-year-old's torso in a burn pile. The alleged 'devil worshipper' also ate some of the woman and asked a neighbor in Summitville for help disposing of a body, police said.
BY Sasha Goldstein
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
A Satanic worshipper in Tennessee killed, dismembered and ate a woman he had just met in a disturbing ritualistic murder, police said.
Cops learned of Gregory Hale’s gruesome secret when the 37-year-old asked a friend for help in disposing of a body, The Tullahoma News reported.
By that point, Hale had already allegedly killed and beheaded Lisa Marie Hyder, 36, then cut off her hands and placed them in a plastic bucket. He also allegedly cut of her feet and other body parts and placed them in another bucket before burying the woman’s torso under a burn pile behind his home.
When cops caught up to and arrested Hale on Sunday, he admitted to the gruesome crime, cops said. Hale also told cops he ate part of the woman, whom he had met the day she died, which prosecutors believe was on Friday, WSMV-TV reported.....
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/tenn-man-killed-dismembered-ate-woman-police-article-1.1824786
Astha Rajvanshi on life in India for women and what is being done to address the gender imbalance June 10, 2014
AS A girl born in India, it was normally expected that I only ever step out on the street when accompanied by a male relative. For many Indian women, sexual harassment, catcalling and whistling are pervasive but regular parts of their lives. And every day, somewhere, this interaction crosses the line into something more fatal.
Reports coming out of India over the last few weeks on the abduction, gang rape and lynching of two teenage girls in Badaun were distressing, but not new. Neither was the honour killing of a pregnant woman in Lahore, who was stoned to death by her family for marrying the man she loved....
There are certain expectations of a woman in Indian society. Girls should be shy, not loud. They should learn how to cook and clean, not play sports. They should be modest; they shouldn’t wear clothes that are too short or revealing. They should keep to themselves; too much interaction with boys is no good....
The loud aftermath of the gang rape in Delhi has seen some progress. Over 1,300 rape cases and thousands of molestation cases have been reported, and anti-rape laws and better enforcement have been stressed, with the Indian Parliament passing a bill containing harsher punishments for rapists.
Under the Bill, stalking, acid violence, disrobing are all specific crimes attracting increased jail terms. And any protections afforded to police officers, allowing them to let complaints slide, have been removed. These changes have made women more willing to speak out and report the crimes against them.
On the other hand, a large number of honour killings because of caste divisions are still inherent in Indian society, leading to inter-caste violence and social oppression between marginalised groups. One in five cases of honour killings reported internationally comes from India....
Changing mindsets is perhaps the biggest challenge for India, which has ranked as the world’s fourth most dangerous country for women, behind Afghanistan, Congo and Pakistan.
Dr Manjula O’Connor, who has worked on various Indian campaigns and projects for gender-based violence, comments that a large reason behind such crimes is “the male patriarchal system, which is still going on in huge parts on the country”....
http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/astha-rajvanshi-on-life-in-india-for-women-and-what-is-being-done-to-address-the-gender-imbalance/story-fnixwvgh-1226950548741
- Tennessee man killed, dismembered and ate woman before burying leftover body parts: police
- Astha Rajvanshi on life in India for women and what is being done to address the gender imbalance
Research Ethics and Private Harms
Gerald P. Koocher
DePaul University, Chicago, IL, USA
J Interpers Violence May 28, 2014 0886260514534986
Abstract
This commentary addresses the emotionally powerful account of Nicole Taus Kluemper from the perspective of a psychologist familiar with the administrative operation of the American Psychological Association (APA) and the ethics of the profession. The application of the APA’s Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct to the case is discussed, and alternative methods of response that researchers who have concerns about case studies might use are offered. The author concludes that existing ethical principles—the aspirational standards in particular—do bear upon the matter in question. However, the enforceable code of conduct is not sufficiently clear about obligations to those whom psychologists publicly discuss when the psychologist does not have a specific duty of care to an individual.
Keywords: case studies ethics Taus v. Loftus
http://jiv.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/05/28/0886260514534986
Tennessee man killed, dismembered and ate woman before burying leftover body parts: police
Gregory Hale, 37, admitted to police that he cut off Lisa Marie Hyder's head, feet and hands before burying the 36-year-old's torso in a burn pile. The alleged 'devil worshipper' also ate some of the woman and asked a neighbor in Summitville for help disposing of a body, police said.
BY Sasha Goldstein
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
A Satanic worshipper in Tennessee killed, dismembered and ate a woman he had just met in a disturbing ritualistic murder, police said.
Cops learned of Gregory Hale’s gruesome secret when the 37-year-old asked a friend for help in disposing of a body, The Tullahoma News reported.
By that point, Hale had already allegedly killed and beheaded Lisa Marie Hyder, 36, then cut off her hands and placed them in a plastic bucket. He also allegedly cut of her feet and other body parts and placed them in another bucket before burying the woman’s torso under a burn pile behind his home.
When cops caught up to and arrested Hale on Sunday, he admitted to the gruesome crime, cops said. Hale also told cops he ate part of the woman, whom he had met the day she died, which prosecutors believe was on Friday, WSMV-TV reported.....
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/tenn-man-killed-dismembered-ate-woman-police-article-1.1824786
Astha Rajvanshi on life in India for women and what is being done to address the gender imbalance June 10, 2014
AS A girl born in India, it was normally expected that I only ever step out on the street when accompanied by a male relative. For many Indian women, sexual harassment, catcalling and whistling are pervasive but regular parts of their lives. And every day, somewhere, this interaction crosses the line into something more fatal.
Reports coming out of India over the last few weeks on the abduction, gang rape and lynching of two teenage girls in Badaun were distressing, but not new. Neither was the honour killing of a pregnant woman in Lahore, who was stoned to death by her family for marrying the man she loved....
There are certain expectations of a woman in Indian society. Girls should be shy, not loud. They should learn how to cook and clean, not play sports. They should be modest; they shouldn’t wear clothes that are too short or revealing. They should keep to themselves; too much interaction with boys is no good....
The loud aftermath of the gang rape in Delhi has seen some progress. Over 1,300 rape cases and thousands of molestation cases have been reported, and anti-rape laws and better enforcement have been stressed, with the Indian Parliament passing a bill containing harsher punishments for rapists.
Under the Bill, stalking, acid violence, disrobing are all specific crimes attracting increased jail terms. And any protections afforded to police officers, allowing them to let complaints slide, have been removed. These changes have made women more willing to speak out and report the crimes against them.
On the other hand, a large number of honour killings because of caste divisions are still inherent in Indian society, leading to inter-caste violence and social oppression between marginalised groups. One in five cases of honour killings reported internationally comes from India....
Changing mindsets is perhaps the biggest challenge for India, which has ranked as the world’s fourth most dangerous country for women, behind Afghanistan, Congo and Pakistan.
Dr Manjula O’Connor, who has worked on various Indian campaigns and projects for gender-based violence, comments that a large reason behind such crimes is “the male patriarchal system, which is still going on in huge parts on the country”....
http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/astha-rajvanshi-on-life-in-india-for-women-and-what-is-being-done-to-address-the-gender-imbalance/story-fnixwvgh-1226950548741
Sunday, January 5, 2014
Paedophile monster Ian Watkins to bank more than £150,000 from band break-up while behind bars, Pervert vicar facing prison sentence after pleading guilty to child pornography offences, Gang rape, killing of teen in India sparks outrage
Paedophile monster Ian Watkins to bank more than £150,000 from band break-up while behind bars
Lostprophets distributing assets having disbanded after conviction
Watkins, 36, currently serving 29 years for serial sex offences
Set to earn £147,497 in assets and more than £100,000 in royalties
By Mia De Graaf 4 January 2014
Paedophile rock star Ian Watkins will earn more than £150,000 while serving a 29-year jail sentence for child sex offences.
The singer's conviction forced his former band, the Lostprophets, to break up - and distribute their assets worth more than £700,000, it has been revealed.
Watkins, who is currently jailed in top-security Wakefield prison, is contracted to take £147,497 in the deal.
And music experts claim the convicted molesterer will earn more than £100,000 in royalties during his sentence.
The 36-year-old, from Pontypridd, pleaded guilty to three counts of child sexual assault at a trial in Cardiff Crown Court last month....
Lostprophets were founded in Pontypridd in 1997 and the band sold about 3.5 million albums worldwide.
His former bandmates have turned their back on him - saying they are 'heartbroken, angry, and disgusted' at his sex crimes and have urged more of his victims to contact police.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2533974/Sick-paedophile-Ian-Watkins-set-bank-150-000-bars.html
Pervert vicar facing prison sentence after pleading guilty to child pornography offences By Gary Stewart
3 Jan 2014
The Rev Ian Hughes made and possessed thousands of indecent images of children
A Merseyside vicar is facing jail after pleading guilty to making and possessing thousands of indecent images of children.
The Rev Ian Hughes, who was priest in charge of the Wirral parishes Poulton and Seacombe, admitted 16 counts relating to more than 8,000 images and movies when he appeared at Liverpool Crown Court today....
Hughes was charged following a search of his home on Brougham Road, Wallasey , on May 22 last year.
Pornographic material recovered included more than 6,000 images and movies at the lowest category of seriousness, more than 1,000 at category two, more than 500 at categories three and four and more than 60 at category five, the most serious....
After charges were brought against him a spokesman for the Church of England’s Diocese of Chester said: “Ian Hughes was suspended from all church duties as soon as these very serious and disturbing allegations became known to us.”
http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/pervert-wirral-vicar-facing-prison-6467573
Gang rape, killing of teen in India sparks outrage
January 4, 2014
KOLKATA, India (AP) — The father of a teenage girl who was allegedly gang raped and later died after being set on fire in eastern India is demanding a federal inquiry into the case, which has renewed public outrage over sexual violence in the country.
Hundreds of people protested Friday in the West Bengal city of Kolkata, accusing state authorities of failing to protect the family after the 16-year-old girl went to police in October to report she had been raped twice by the same gang.
The state's urban development minister defended the police response, noting that six suspects had been arrested in the rapes and another two for allegedly setting the girl on fire....
The girl reported being gang raped and left in a field near her home in late October in the Madhyamgram suburb of Kolkata, formerly Calcutta. The next day she was allegedly abducted by the same gang and raped again before being left unconscious by railway tracks, police said.
The girl's father, a taxi driver, said last week that his daughter was set on fire on Dec. 23 after being threatened with violence if she did not withdraw her police complaint. She died from her injuries on Wednesday....
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/01/04/gang-rape-killing-of-teen-in-india-sparks-outrage/4317079/
Lostprophets distributing assets having disbanded after conviction
Watkins, 36, currently serving 29 years for serial sex offences
Set to earn £147,497 in assets and more than £100,000 in royalties
By Mia De Graaf 4 January 2014
Paedophile rock star Ian Watkins will earn more than £150,000 while serving a 29-year jail sentence for child sex offences.
The singer's conviction forced his former band, the Lostprophets, to break up - and distribute their assets worth more than £700,000, it has been revealed.
Watkins, who is currently jailed in top-security Wakefield prison, is contracted to take £147,497 in the deal.
And music experts claim the convicted molesterer will earn more than £100,000 in royalties during his sentence.
The 36-year-old, from Pontypridd, pleaded guilty to three counts of child sexual assault at a trial in Cardiff Crown Court last month....
Lostprophets were founded in Pontypridd in 1997 and the band sold about 3.5 million albums worldwide.
His former bandmates have turned their back on him - saying they are 'heartbroken, angry, and disgusted' at his sex crimes and have urged more of his victims to contact police.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2533974/Sick-paedophile-Ian-Watkins-set-bank-150-000-bars.html
Pervert vicar facing prison sentence after pleading guilty to child pornography offences By Gary Stewart
3 Jan 2014
The Rev Ian Hughes made and possessed thousands of indecent images of children
A Merseyside vicar is facing jail after pleading guilty to making and possessing thousands of indecent images of children.
The Rev Ian Hughes, who was priest in charge of the Wirral parishes Poulton and Seacombe, admitted 16 counts relating to more than 8,000 images and movies when he appeared at Liverpool Crown Court today....
Hughes was charged following a search of his home on Brougham Road, Wallasey , on May 22 last year.
Pornographic material recovered included more than 6,000 images and movies at the lowest category of seriousness, more than 1,000 at category two, more than 500 at categories three and four and more than 60 at category five, the most serious....
After charges were brought against him a spokesman for the Church of England’s Diocese of Chester said: “Ian Hughes was suspended from all church duties as soon as these very serious and disturbing allegations became known to us.”
http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/pervert-wirral-vicar-facing-prison-6467573
Gang rape, killing of teen in India sparks outrage
January 4, 2014
KOLKATA, India (AP) — The father of a teenage girl who was allegedly gang raped and later died after being set on fire in eastern India is demanding a federal inquiry into the case, which has renewed public outrage over sexual violence in the country.
Hundreds of people protested Friday in the West Bengal city of Kolkata, accusing state authorities of failing to protect the family after the 16-year-old girl went to police in October to report she had been raped twice by the same gang.
The state's urban development minister defended the police response, noting that six suspects had been arrested in the rapes and another two for allegedly setting the girl on fire....
The girl reported being gang raped and left in a field near her home in late October in the Madhyamgram suburb of Kolkata, formerly Calcutta. The next day she was allegedly abducted by the same gang and raped again before being left unconscious by railway tracks, police said.
The girl's father, a taxi driver, said last week that his daughter was set on fire on Dec. 23 after being threatened with violence if she did not withdraw her police complaint. She died from her injuries on Wednesday....
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/01/04/gang-rape-killing-of-teen-in-india-sparks-outrage/4317079/
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
10-Year-Old Rape Victim Held Behind Bars After Trying To Report Rape
10-Year-Old Indian Girl Held Behind Bars After Trying To Report Rape
The Huffington Post By Meredith Bennett-Smith 04/10/2013
A 10-year-old girl who said she was raped was kept behind bars for several hours after trying to report the crime, according to multiple news outlets.
The incident occurred Monday in the Indian city of Bulandshahr, in the state of Uttar Pradesh, according to the Press Trust of India (PTI). The young girl and her mother approached a women's police station to report a rape, but the child was promptly put in a cell for several hours, the outlet notes.
CNN-IBN reports that at least two female officers at the station have already been suspended. An investigation is ongoing.
"The child is a minor," Senior Superintendent of Police Gulab Singh said in a press conference. "You can neither keep her behind bars nor can you hold her back as a victim in the station. This is wrong. If the lady constable has done this then we will definitely take appropriate action."
Local politician Rita Bahuguna Joshi told CNN-IBN that the incident was indicative of a bigger problem in Indian law enforcement.
"Instead of arresting the accused the police is arresting the girl," she said. "We have been saying this from one long time. No one is doing anything. I congratulate media for covering all these issues. We want strict actions to be taken against the guilty. UP government has failed to do anything. Insensitivity of police and UP government is shown here.".... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/09/10-year-old-rape-victim-india-girl_n_3046820.html
Uttar Pradesh: Uproar as minor rape survivor is locked up in women's police station
Shreya Dhoundial, CNN-IBN Apr 09, 2013
Bulandshahr: A ten-year-old rape survivor was put behind bars by the Bulandshahr police in Uttar Pradesh when she approached them for help. The child and her mother had gone to a women's police station to file the complaint of the rape.
The child and her mother, who spent several hours behind the bars, were freed only after locals created an uproar. Two women constables have been suspended while two sub-inspectors, including the station-in-charge, have been sent to police lines following the incident.
"The child is a minor. You can neither keep her behind bars nor can you hold her back as a victim in the station. This is wrong. If the lady constable has done this then we will definitely take appropriate action," SSP Gulab Singh said.
A local goon accused of raping the minor is absconding. The minor from Meerpur village was found lying unconscious in a field by her parents on Sunday night where she had been dumped after being allegedly raped.... http://ibnlive.in.com/news/up-uproar-as-minor-rape-survivor-is-locked-up-in-police-station/384100-3-242.html
10-year-old rape victim put behind bars
>Apr 8, 2013
BULANDSHAHR (UP): The callous response of police came to fore when a 10-year-old girl, who was allegedly raped, was put behind bars by women cops after she approached them to file a complaint along with her mother.
Two women constables have been suspended while two sub-inspectors including the station-in-charge have been sent to police lines following the incident, SSP Gulab Singh said.
The victim spent several hours behind the bars after her mother brought her to a women's police station to lodge a complaint against a local goon for allegedly raping her. She was rescued only after locals protested over the matter.... http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-04-08/lucknow/38372374_1_police-station-women-cops-police-lines
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Clergy abuse victims call on Pope Francis to open files on Argentina’s pedophile priests, Indian legislators pass strict anti-rape law, Abuse inquiry to proceed under changed law
Clergy abuse victims call on Pope Francis to open files on Argentina’s pedophile priests
By Associated Press, Tuesday, March 19, 2013
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Activists against abuse by Roman Catholic clergy urged Pope Francis on Tuesday to apologize for what they called the Argentine church’s protection of two priests who were eventually convicted of sexually assaulting children.
The U.S.-based Bishop Accountability group cited the case of Father Julio Cesar Grassi, who ran the “Happy Children” foundation and was convicted of pedophilia in 2008, and Father Napoleon Sasso, convicted in 2007 of abusing girls at a soup kitchen in suburban Buenos Aires.
The Buenos Aires archbishop’s office didn’t immediately respond Tuesday.
The pope’s authorized biographer, Sergio Rubin, told The Associated Press before Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected pope last week that he had drawn an increasingly tough line on clergy abuse. Bergoglio insisted that accused priests face trial, and imposed a thorough screening process in an attempt to weed out future problems, Rubin said.....
Grassi was well known in Buenos Aires for persuading celebrities to donate to his “Happy Children” foundation, which ran orphanages and social outreach programs. Before he was convicted, Grassi praised Bergoglio for “never abandoning him.” Now he’s free on appeal, thanks in part to a church filing on his behalf.
Sasso, meanwhile, enjoys prison furloughs after serving half of a 17-year sentence for abusing five girls.
Sasso was assigned to the soup kitchen, at a chapel where his bedroom shared the only bathroom, after living in a home for wayward priests where he had been sent after accusations of pedophilia were raised against him in remote San Juan province.
“The bathroom had two doors. The girls would come in through the outside door, and the priest would bring them into his bedroom through the other, sexually abusing the girls,” Moreau said. “These were really poor people, who were there for free meals while their parents worked. They found an enormous amount of child pornography in his computer, semen, condoms.” It was a medical priest and a nun who discovered that Sasso abused 25 girls aged 3 to 16, but when they informed church officials, they were told to “remain patient,” and nothing was done, Moreau said.
Eventually, they sought higher authorities and the case was taken up by the criminal courts, but the mid-level officials who covered it up still have their positions, while the priest and nun were forced to work elsewhere, the lawyer said....
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/clergy-abuse-victims-call-on-pope-francis-to-open-files-on-argentinas-pedophile-priests/2013/03/19/ed810cb2-90c6-11e2-9173-7f87cda73b49_story.html
Indian legislators pass strict anti-rape law
By Rama Lakshmi Tuesday, March 19, 2013
NEW DELHI — The Indian Parliament’s lower house passed a landmark law Tuesday that sets tougher penalties for rapists and for police officers who refuse to file a woman’s complaint of rape, as well as criminalizing offenses such as stalking, voyeurism and acid attacks.
The amendments to existing law incorporate some of the sweeping changes that were demanded after the fatal gang rape of a young paramedical student in New Delhi in December, an incident that sparked a nationwide outcry against the lack of safety for women.
Despite the unprecedented protests that galvanized tens of thousands of Indians, the number of incidents of sexual assault has not diminished.
As lawmakers discussed the new law in Parliament on Tuesday, a British tourist fractured her leg when she jumped from the balcony of her hotel room in Agra, the city of the Taj Mahal, to escape being molested by the hotel owner, police said....
A provision requiring government approval for the trial of police officers, officials, politicians and judges on rape charges also has been lifted.
For the first time, the law criminalizes stalking and voyeurism, acts of sexual harassment that have long been grouped under the benign euphemism “love-teasing.” Hereafter, rapes that occur during religious and caste riots also will be treated as cases of aggravated sexual assault.
The law does not, however, address contentious issues such as marital rape or the legal impunity afforded to Indian military officers. Nor does it include a provision to prohibit politicians charged with rape from running for office....
Some activists working to end the trafficking of minors said the law is a watered-down version of what was initially proposed.
“Under the new law, trafficking of a minor is a crime only if rape or sexual exploitation occurs,” said Bhuwan Ribhu, a children’s rights activist....
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/british-tourist-jumps-from-indian-hotel-balcony-to-escape-sexual-assault-police-say/2013/03/19/1c25919c-9094-11e2-9173-7f87cda73b49_story.html
Abuse inquiry to proceed under changed law
March 19, 2013 - AAP
The Senate has agreed to change the century-old Royal Commissions Act to facilitate the inquiry into institutional child abuse.
To allow the commission to hear all the anticipated evidence, victims will be able to tell their stories in private and hearings can be held before just one of the six commissioners.
The Royal Commissions Amendment Bill 2013 has already passed the House of Representatives, with Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus saying it was important for the commission to have the flexibility to make the best use of its resources.
It allows those who want to give evidence in a less formal setting to go before a private hearing, not swear an oath or affirmation but receive the same protections as those giving evidence at formal hearings.
http://news.brisbanetimes.com.au/breaking-news-national/abuse-inquiry-to-proceed-under-changed-law-20130319-2gcma.html
By Associated Press, Tuesday, March 19, 2013
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Activists against abuse by Roman Catholic clergy urged Pope Francis on Tuesday to apologize for what they called the Argentine church’s protection of two priests who were eventually convicted of sexually assaulting children.
The U.S.-based Bishop Accountability group cited the case of Father Julio Cesar Grassi, who ran the “Happy Children” foundation and was convicted of pedophilia in 2008, and Father Napoleon Sasso, convicted in 2007 of abusing girls at a soup kitchen in suburban Buenos Aires.
The Buenos Aires archbishop’s office didn’t immediately respond Tuesday.
The pope’s authorized biographer, Sergio Rubin, told The Associated Press before Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected pope last week that he had drawn an increasingly tough line on clergy abuse. Bergoglio insisted that accused priests face trial, and imposed a thorough screening process in an attempt to weed out future problems, Rubin said.....
Grassi was well known in Buenos Aires for persuading celebrities to donate to his “Happy Children” foundation, which ran orphanages and social outreach programs. Before he was convicted, Grassi praised Bergoglio for “never abandoning him.” Now he’s free on appeal, thanks in part to a church filing on his behalf.
Sasso, meanwhile, enjoys prison furloughs after serving half of a 17-year sentence for abusing five girls.
Sasso was assigned to the soup kitchen, at a chapel where his bedroom shared the only bathroom, after living in a home for wayward priests where he had been sent after accusations of pedophilia were raised against him in remote San Juan province.
“The bathroom had two doors. The girls would come in through the outside door, and the priest would bring them into his bedroom through the other, sexually abusing the girls,” Moreau said. “These were really poor people, who were there for free meals while their parents worked. They found an enormous amount of child pornography in his computer, semen, condoms.” It was a medical priest and a nun who discovered that Sasso abused 25 girls aged 3 to 16, but when they informed church officials, they were told to “remain patient,” and nothing was done, Moreau said.
Eventually, they sought higher authorities and the case was taken up by the criminal courts, but the mid-level officials who covered it up still have their positions, while the priest and nun were forced to work elsewhere, the lawyer said....
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/clergy-abuse-victims-call-on-pope-francis-to-open-files-on-argentinas-pedophile-priests/2013/03/19/ed810cb2-90c6-11e2-9173-7f87cda73b49_story.html
Indian legislators pass strict anti-rape law
By Rama Lakshmi Tuesday, March 19, 2013
NEW DELHI — The Indian Parliament’s lower house passed a landmark law Tuesday that sets tougher penalties for rapists and for police officers who refuse to file a woman’s complaint of rape, as well as criminalizing offenses such as stalking, voyeurism and acid attacks.
The amendments to existing law incorporate some of the sweeping changes that were demanded after the fatal gang rape of a young paramedical student in New Delhi in December, an incident that sparked a nationwide outcry against the lack of safety for women.
Despite the unprecedented protests that galvanized tens of thousands of Indians, the number of incidents of sexual assault has not diminished.
As lawmakers discussed the new law in Parliament on Tuesday, a British tourist fractured her leg when she jumped from the balcony of her hotel room in Agra, the city of the Taj Mahal, to escape being molested by the hotel owner, police said....
A provision requiring government approval for the trial of police officers, officials, politicians and judges on rape charges also has been lifted.
For the first time, the law criminalizes stalking and voyeurism, acts of sexual harassment that have long been grouped under the benign euphemism “love-teasing.” Hereafter, rapes that occur during religious and caste riots also will be treated as cases of aggravated sexual assault.
The law does not, however, address contentious issues such as marital rape or the legal impunity afforded to Indian military officers. Nor does it include a provision to prohibit politicians charged with rape from running for office....
Some activists working to end the trafficking of minors said the law is a watered-down version of what was initially proposed.
“Under the new law, trafficking of a minor is a crime only if rape or sexual exploitation occurs,” said Bhuwan Ribhu, a children’s rights activist....
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/british-tourist-jumps-from-indian-hotel-balcony-to-escape-sexual-assault-police-say/2013/03/19/1c25919c-9094-11e2-9173-7f87cda73b49_story.html
Abuse inquiry to proceed under changed law
March 19, 2013 - AAP
The Senate has agreed to change the century-old Royal Commissions Act to facilitate the inquiry into institutional child abuse.
To allow the commission to hear all the anticipated evidence, victims will be able to tell their stories in private and hearings can be held before just one of the six commissioners.
The Royal Commissions Amendment Bill 2013 has already passed the House of Representatives, with Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus saying it was important for the commission to have the flexibility to make the best use of its resources.
It allows those who want to give evidence in a less formal setting to go before a private hearing, not swear an oath or affirmation but receive the same protections as those giving evidence at formal hearings.
http://news.brisbanetimes.com.au/breaking-news-national/abuse-inquiry-to-proceed-under-changed-law-20130319-2gcma.html
Sunday, March 17, 2013
South Africa cardinal says pedophilia not a crime, Swiss cyclist gang-raped in India
South Africa cardinal says pedophilia not a crime Reuters 3/16/13
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A South African cardinal who helped elect Pope Francis this week has told the BBC pedophilia is an illness and not a crime.
Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier, the Catholic Archbishop of Durban, told BBC Radio 5 on Saturday that pedophilia was a "disorder" that needed to be treated.
"From my experience, pedophilia is actually an illness. It's not a criminal condition, it's an illness," he said.
Napier said he knew of at least two priests who became pedophiles after they were abused as children.
"Now don't tell me that those people are criminally responsible like somebody who chooses to do something like that. I don't think you can really take the position and say that person deserves to be punished. He was himself damaged."
The Catholic Church has had its image deeply tarnished by a widespread child sex abuse scandal.
Napier was one of the 115 cardinals in the Vatican conclave that elected Pope Francis on Wednesday, the BBC reported. http://news.yahoo.com/south-africa-cardinal-says-pedophilia-not-crime-155418854.html
South African cardinal says paedophilia is 'not a criminal condition'
Durban's Archbishop Wilfrid Fox Napier says those abused as children who become paedophiles 'have psychological disorder'
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 16 March 2013
A South African cardinal who helped elect Pope Francis has described paedophilia as a psychological illness and not "a criminal condition".
The Catholic Archbishop of Durban, Wilfrid Fox Napier, said that people who were abused as children and became paedophiles were not criminally responsible for their actions in the same way as somebody "who chooses to do something like that".
Cardinal Napier, who was among the 115 cardinals in the conclave at the Vatican that elected Pope Francis earlier this week, called paedophilia a "psychological disorder".
He said: "What do you do with disorders? You have got to try and put them right. If I as a normal being choose to break the law knowing that I am breaking the law, then I think I need to be punished ...
"From my experience, paedophilia is actually an illness, it is not a criminal condition, it is an illness." http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/16/south-african-cardinal-paedophilia-crime
Swiss cyclist gang-raped in India
Gang attacked couple and then gang-raped woman as they camped overnight in a Madhya Pradesh forest
Staff and agencies
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 16 March 2013
A Swiss cyclist was gang-raped after she and her husband were attacked while camping in India, police said.
Authorities detained and questioned 13 men in connection with the attack, which occurred on Friday as the couple camped out in a forest in Madhya Pradesh state after cycling from the temple town of Orchha, local police officer RK Gurjar said.
The men beat the couple and gang-raped the 39-year old woman, he said. They also stole the couple's mobile phone, a laptop computer and 10,000 rupees (£123)....
India has experienced outrage and widespread protests against attacks on women since December's fatal gang-rape of a young woman on a bus in New Delhi, the capital. The crime horrified Indians and set off nationwide protests about India's treatment of women, spurring the government to hurry through a new package of laws.... http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/16/swiss-cyclist-gang-raped-india
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A South African cardinal who helped elect Pope Francis this week has told the BBC pedophilia is an illness and not a crime.
Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier, the Catholic Archbishop of Durban, told BBC Radio 5 on Saturday that pedophilia was a "disorder" that needed to be treated.
"From my experience, pedophilia is actually an illness. It's not a criminal condition, it's an illness," he said.
Napier said he knew of at least two priests who became pedophiles after they were abused as children.
"Now don't tell me that those people are criminally responsible like somebody who chooses to do something like that. I don't think you can really take the position and say that person deserves to be punished. He was himself damaged."
The Catholic Church has had its image deeply tarnished by a widespread child sex abuse scandal.
Napier was one of the 115 cardinals in the Vatican conclave that elected Pope Francis on Wednesday, the BBC reported. http://news.yahoo.com/south-africa-cardinal-says-pedophilia-not-crime-155418854.html
South African cardinal says paedophilia is 'not a criminal condition'
Durban's Archbishop Wilfrid Fox Napier says those abused as children who become paedophiles 'have psychological disorder'
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 16 March 2013
A South African cardinal who helped elect Pope Francis has described paedophilia as a psychological illness and not "a criminal condition".
The Catholic Archbishop of Durban, Wilfrid Fox Napier, said that people who were abused as children and became paedophiles were not criminally responsible for their actions in the same way as somebody "who chooses to do something like that".
Cardinal Napier, who was among the 115 cardinals in the conclave at the Vatican that elected Pope Francis earlier this week, called paedophilia a "psychological disorder".
He said: "What do you do with disorders? You have got to try and put them right. If I as a normal being choose to break the law knowing that I am breaking the law, then I think I need to be punished ...
"From my experience, paedophilia is actually an illness, it is not a criminal condition, it is an illness." http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/16/south-african-cardinal-paedophilia-crime
Swiss cyclist gang-raped in India
Gang attacked couple and then gang-raped woman as they camped overnight in a Madhya Pradesh forest
Staff and agencies
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 16 March 2013
A Swiss cyclist was gang-raped after she and her husband were attacked while camping in India, police said.
Authorities detained and questioned 13 men in connection with the attack, which occurred on Friday as the couple camped out in a forest in Madhya Pradesh state after cycling from the temple town of Orchha, local police officer RK Gurjar said.
The men beat the couple and gang-raped the 39-year old woman, he said. They also stole the couple's mobile phone, a laptop computer and 10,000 rupees (£123)....
India has experienced outrage and widespread protests against attacks on women since December's fatal gang-rape of a young woman on a bus in New Delhi, the capital. The crime horrified Indians and set off nationwide protests about India's treatment of women, spurring the government to hurry through a new package of laws.... http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/16/swiss-cyclist-gang-raped-india
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Criminal investigation launched into paedophile ring involving UK politicians in the 1980s, India's New Focus on Rape Shows Only the Surface of Women's Perils
Criminal investigation launched into paedophile ring involving UK politicians in the 1980s
Police launch criminal investigation into MPs’ child sex ring
Martin Hickman Author Biography
Thursday 17 January 2013
Scotland Yard tonight launched a full investigation into allegations that Conservative politicians were members of a paedophile ring which abused children in care the 1980s.
Operation Fernbridge will centre on the alleged historic sexual abuse of children at Elm Guest House, in Rocks Lane, a suburban street in Barnes, south-west London.
Residents of a nearby care home run by Richmond Council claim they were sexually assaulted at the property by a network of prominent individuals, including Tory MPs, who used their connections to escape justice....
Saying that the file contained “clear intelligence of a widespread paedophile ring”, Mr Watson said at Prime Minister’s Questions: “One of its members boasts of a link to a senior aide of a former Prime Minister, who says he could smuggle indecent images of children from abroad....
In a short statement, Scotland Yard said: “The Metropolitan Police Service have today, Thursday 17 January, launched an investigation, Operation Fernbridge, into historic allegations of child abuse in the early 1980s at the Elm Guest House, Rocks Lane, Barnes, London.
“The investigation will be led by the Child Abuse Investigation Command.”
The statement went on: “The allegations under Operation Fernbridge were initially assessed under Operation Fairbank which was information passed to police by MP Tom Watson. Operation Fernbridge reached the threshold for a criminal investigation.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/police-launch-criminal-investigation-into-mps-child-sex-ring-8456434.html
India's New Focus on Rape Shows Only the Surface of Women's Perils
January 13, 2013
By GARDINER HARRIS / The New York Times
NEW DELHI -- Harassed for years by her husband and his relatives, an Indian woman was finally kidnapped, raped, strangled and tossed into a ditch.
For more than a year, the woman's father has tried without success to get the police to arrest those accused of killing her, including her husband, who were charged but remain at large. The father, Subedar Akhileshar Kumar Singh, an army officer, says he believes his daughter was killed because her in-laws were not satisfied with her dowry, according to an article on Thursday in The Indian Express.
Such crimes are routine in this country, where researchers estimate that anywhere from 25,000 to 100,000 women a year are killed over dowry disputes. Many are burned alive in a particularly grisly form of retribution.
While a horrific gang rape in New Delhi has transfixed India and drawn attention to a violent epidemic, rape is just one facet of a broad range of violence and discrimination that leads to the deaths of almost two million women a year, researchers say. Among the causes are not only sexual violence but also domestic violence, family disputes and female infanticide, as well as infant neglect and poor care of the elderly that affect girls and women far more than boys and men....
http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/world/indias-new-focus-on-rape-shows-only-the-surface-of-womens-perils-670266/
Police launch criminal investigation into MPs’ child sex ring
Martin Hickman Author Biography
Thursday 17 January 2013
Scotland Yard tonight launched a full investigation into allegations that Conservative politicians were members of a paedophile ring which abused children in care the 1980s.
Operation Fernbridge will centre on the alleged historic sexual abuse of children at Elm Guest House, in Rocks Lane, a suburban street in Barnes, south-west London.
Residents of a nearby care home run by Richmond Council claim they were sexually assaulted at the property by a network of prominent individuals, including Tory MPs, who used their connections to escape justice....
Saying that the file contained “clear intelligence of a widespread paedophile ring”, Mr Watson said at Prime Minister’s Questions: “One of its members boasts of a link to a senior aide of a former Prime Minister, who says he could smuggle indecent images of children from abroad....
In a short statement, Scotland Yard said: “The Metropolitan Police Service have today, Thursday 17 January, launched an investigation, Operation Fernbridge, into historic allegations of child abuse in the early 1980s at the Elm Guest House, Rocks Lane, Barnes, London.
“The investigation will be led by the Child Abuse Investigation Command.”
The statement went on: “The allegations under Operation Fernbridge were initially assessed under Operation Fairbank which was information passed to police by MP Tom Watson. Operation Fernbridge reached the threshold for a criminal investigation.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/police-launch-criminal-investigation-into-mps-child-sex-ring-8456434.html
India's New Focus on Rape Shows Only the Surface of Women's Perils
January 13, 2013
By GARDINER HARRIS / The New York Times
NEW DELHI -- Harassed for years by her husband and his relatives, an Indian woman was finally kidnapped, raped, strangled and tossed into a ditch.
For more than a year, the woman's father has tried without success to get the police to arrest those accused of killing her, including her husband, who were charged but remain at large. The father, Subedar Akhileshar Kumar Singh, an army officer, says he believes his daughter was killed because her in-laws were not satisfied with her dowry, according to an article on Thursday in The Indian Express.
Such crimes are routine in this country, where researchers estimate that anywhere from 25,000 to 100,000 women a year are killed over dowry disputes. Many are burned alive in a particularly grisly form of retribution.
While a horrific gang rape in New Delhi has transfixed India and drawn attention to a violent epidemic, rape is just one facet of a broad range of violence and discrimination that leads to the deaths of almost two million women a year, researchers say. Among the causes are not only sexual violence but also domestic violence, family disputes and female infanticide, as well as infant neglect and poor care of the elderly that affect girls and women far more than boys and men....
http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/world/indias-new-focus-on-rape-shows-only-the-surface-of-womens-perils-670266/
Friday, January 4, 2013
India rape case, rape case loophole, pedophilia article reply, abuse convictions
- India victim's male friend recounts Delhi rape attack
- Delhi women 'carry knives' on board buses
- US rape case loophole prompts uproar
- A response to Jon Henley’s article on paedophilia
- 123 child victims of Internet sex abuse identified -- one just 19 days old, US officials say
- Proof that children can be brainwashed into believing sadistic abuse is 'horseplay'
- Robert Sullivan "Worst case I've ever heard": Judge blasts sadistic paedophile who used young girls as "playthings"
- Website to boost rape reporting in London
India victim's male friend recounts Delhi rape attack 4 January 2013
The victim's friend, who witnessed the attack, speaks to Zee News
The friend of a woman who died after being raped on a bus in Delhi has given his first interview since the incident.
The man, who has not been named, told Zee News how he and the victim had boarded the bus and paid a fare, before he was beaten unconscious by men on board, who then attacked her.
He also criticised police for their slow response to the attack.
The woman died of her injuries last weekend, and five men are due to stand trial for her murder and rape. The five could face the death penalty if they are convicted. A sixth suspect is expected to be tried in a juvenile court.
The friend said the bus had tinted windows, and that he believed the group of men had laid a trap for them. "We tried to resist them. Even my friend fought with them, she tried to save me," he said. She tried to dial the police control room number 100, but the accused snatched her mobile away."
He confirmed earlier reports that the assailants had thrown them off the bus and tried to run them over. And he also criticised the authorities, accusing them of being slow to arrive, then arguing over jurisdiction, and eventually taking them to the wrong hospital.
"My friend was bleeding profusely. But instead of taking us to a nearby hospital, they [police] took us to a hospital that was far away," he said....
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-20916131
Delhi women 'carry knives' on board buses 3 January 2013
Indian authorities have charged five men with the kidnap, gang-rape and murder of a woman in Delhi last month.
The 23-year-old was travelling on a bus when the men beat her and her companion with iron bars, raped her for nearly an hour and then threw them out of the moving bus into the street, say police.
The attack has sparked mass protests in India and there have been calls to improve safety for women....
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-20903937
US rape case loophole prompts uproar 4 January 2013
California lawmakers have vowed to close a loophole that allowed a man's rape conviction to be overturned because his victim was not married.
An arcane state law says a person who gets consent for sex by pretending to be someone else is guilty of rape only if posing as the victim's spouse.
Julio Morales was initially convicted of rape after pretending to be the unmarried victim's boyfriend. A similar loophole has already been closed in the state of Idaho.
In the California case from four years ago, Morales went into a room and had sex with an 18-year-old woman after her boyfriend, whom she had fallen asleep beside, had left....
In its ruling on Wednesday, the California appeal court reluctantly decided that Morales was not guilty of rape, because he was pretending to be the woman's boyfriend and not her husband. A law dating back to 1872 makes it a crime for a man to have sex with a woman while posing as her husband, but not as a boyfriend....
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-20918642
A response to Jon Henley’s article on paedophilia Tom Watson MP January 4th, 2013
Jon Henley had a piece in yesterday’s Guardian, entitled “Paedophilia: bringing dark desires to light”. He’s received a furious response on social media and I can see why. Many involved child protection will find it hard to see it as anything other than the commentariat’s backlash, a contrarian response to a public outcry over recent revelations about child abuse by the rich and famous....
My main argument against this article is that this approach ignores the evidence of the experiences of abused children, the experiences of adult survivors of child abuse and the experiences of many professionals who work to protect children. It is a risky strategy at the current time because so many of those who promoted the rights of the ‘paedophile’ have in later years been convicted of sexual crimes against children. Equally, so many of those whom this lobby attacked have been vindicated in their efforts to protect and gain justice for children and survivors....
No wonder many more enlightened academics like Dr Liz Davies talk of the “child sex abuse lobby”. She argues some academic writings have to be located in the context of what is known about those who spread those viewpoints and their agendas. Their views were clearly expressed in a document dated 1975 where Paedophile Information Exchange submitted evidence to the Home Office.This proposed abolition of the age of consent and the removal of consensual sexual activity at all ages from the criminal law....
In order to sexually abuse a child a perpetrator will often groom the child and so it is not uncommon for a child to have some positive feelings towards the person harming them. The perpetrator may also be someone who is close to them and the child wants the abuse to stop but does not want to lose the relationship. This is no way suggests that the abuse is justifiable. In fact a state of confused emotions and responses adds to the severity of the trauma experienced by the child. That this is not obvious to Jon Henley is alarming to me.
Whether or not a child voluntarily entered into sexual relations with their abuser, and how positive or negative they felt about it at the time, is irrelevant when it comes to both the long-term effects of child sex abuse, and how seriously we should treat the abuse. Even if it is true that for some survivors of this type of consensual abuse there were no “undesirable outcomes” (though this is surely hard to quantify), this is certainly not true for all, or even many, if any, children who entered into abusive relationships voluntarily; and to draw a distinction between children who were violently abused and children who submitted willingly is irresponsible and damaging when children who submitted willingly are already more likely to feel shame, self-blame and not seek help due to their belief it was their own fault....
Survivors of child sex abuse commonly suffer from depression, anxiety disorders, panic attacks, phobias, flashbacks, disturbing thoughts, intrusive memories, self-harming, alcoholism, eating disorders, and feelings of shame, anger and worthlessness. This is the reality, but Jon Henley doesn’t voice it in his piece. http://www.tom-watson.co.uk/2013/01/6445
123 child victims of Internet sex abuse identified -- one just 19 days old, US officials say By Andrew Mach, NBC News
In just over a month, more than 120 sexually exploited children -- one just 19 days old -- were identified in an international operation that found them depicted in child pornography on the Internet, U.S. officials said Thursday.
In Operation Sunflower, led by agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigation unit from Nov. 1 to Dec. 7, 123 victims of child sexual exploitation were identified, ICE Director John Morton said at a press conference in Washington.
Of that group, 44 children had been living with their abusers, and 79 children were exploited by people outside of their home or were victimized as children and are now adults. Seventy female and 53 male victims rescued; 110 of the victims were identified in 19 U.S. states and the rest were identified in six foreign countries....
Of the victims identified during Operation Sunflower, five were under the age of 3, and one of those was just 19 days old. Thirty others were below the age of 10, officials said....
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/03/16327023-123-child-victims-of-internet-sex-abuse-identified-one-just-19-days-old-us-officials-say
Proof that children can be brainwashed into believing sadistic abuse is 'horseplay'
Parents who 'brainwashed' their three children to hide years of horrific abuse face jail
The Chorley, Lancashire, couple, who cannot be named for legal reasons, subjected their children to years of abuse but convinced them that their sadistic punishments were 'horseplay'
The parents were convicted of four counts of child cruelty having previously admitted five similar offences
By Nazia Parveen 6 December 2012
A care-home worker and her husband who subjected their children to years of horrific abuse were facing jail yesterday after being convicted of cruelty.
The couple hid their crimes for years by lying to social services and ‘brainwashing’ their daughter and two sons into believing their sadistic punishments were ‘horseplay’, a court heard....
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2244335/Parents-brainwashed-children-hide-years-horrific-abuse-face-jail.html
Robert Sullivan "Worst case I've ever heard": Judge blasts sadistic paedophile who used young girls as "playthings" By Luke Traynor 4 Jan 2013 One of his two victims was four when he first assaulted her
....The court heard the defendant used the girls as “playthings” to fulfil his own sexual gratification in a “cycle of violent and sadistic behaviour.”
The abuse went on between 1977 and 1984.
Sullivan was arrested in 2009 but went on the run for 22 months before being caught last July. He admitted 25 sex charges, including nine rapes....
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/robert-sullivan-sadistic-paedophile-jailed-1517508
Website to boost rape reporting in London 5 December 2012
A website aimed at boosting the number of reported rapes has been launched by the Metropolitan Police. Called My Decision, the site provides a step-by-step guide for anyone who has been raped or sexually assaulted.
It is designed to overcome barriers people may have to reporting such crimes - for example victims fearing they would not be believed. According to the Met only one in five rape victims go to the police and about 40% choose not to report it.
The Rape Crisis charity welcomed the fact the website will give information and answer victims' questions, but said it lacks links to "crucial support services"....
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-20605215
- Delhi women 'carry knives' on board buses
- US rape case loophole prompts uproar
- A response to Jon Henley’s article on paedophilia
- 123 child victims of Internet sex abuse identified -- one just 19 days old, US officials say
- Proof that children can be brainwashed into believing sadistic abuse is 'horseplay'
- Robert Sullivan "Worst case I've ever heard": Judge blasts sadistic paedophile who used young girls as "playthings"
- Website to boost rape reporting in London
India victim's male friend recounts Delhi rape attack 4 January 2013
The victim's friend, who witnessed the attack, speaks to Zee News
The friend of a woman who died after being raped on a bus in Delhi has given his first interview since the incident.
The man, who has not been named, told Zee News how he and the victim had boarded the bus and paid a fare, before he was beaten unconscious by men on board, who then attacked her.
He also criticised police for their slow response to the attack.
The woman died of her injuries last weekend, and five men are due to stand trial for her murder and rape. The five could face the death penalty if they are convicted. A sixth suspect is expected to be tried in a juvenile court.
The friend said the bus had tinted windows, and that he believed the group of men had laid a trap for them. "We tried to resist them. Even my friend fought with them, she tried to save me," he said. She tried to dial the police control room number 100, but the accused snatched her mobile away."
He confirmed earlier reports that the assailants had thrown them off the bus and tried to run them over. And he also criticised the authorities, accusing them of being slow to arrive, then arguing over jurisdiction, and eventually taking them to the wrong hospital.
"My friend was bleeding profusely. But instead of taking us to a nearby hospital, they [police] took us to a hospital that was far away," he said....
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-20916131
Delhi women 'carry knives' on board buses 3 January 2013
Indian authorities have charged five men with the kidnap, gang-rape and murder of a woman in Delhi last month.
The 23-year-old was travelling on a bus when the men beat her and her companion with iron bars, raped her for nearly an hour and then threw them out of the moving bus into the street, say police.
The attack has sparked mass protests in India and there have been calls to improve safety for women....
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-20903937
US rape case loophole prompts uproar 4 January 2013
California lawmakers have vowed to close a loophole that allowed a man's rape conviction to be overturned because his victim was not married.
An arcane state law says a person who gets consent for sex by pretending to be someone else is guilty of rape only if posing as the victim's spouse.
Julio Morales was initially convicted of rape after pretending to be the unmarried victim's boyfriend. A similar loophole has already been closed in the state of Idaho.
In the California case from four years ago, Morales went into a room and had sex with an 18-year-old woman after her boyfriend, whom she had fallen asleep beside, had left....
In its ruling on Wednesday, the California appeal court reluctantly decided that Morales was not guilty of rape, because he was pretending to be the woman's boyfriend and not her husband. A law dating back to 1872 makes it a crime for a man to have sex with a woman while posing as her husband, but not as a boyfriend....
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-20918642
A response to Jon Henley’s article on paedophilia Tom Watson MP January 4th, 2013
Jon Henley had a piece in yesterday’s Guardian, entitled “Paedophilia: bringing dark desires to light”. He’s received a furious response on social media and I can see why. Many involved child protection will find it hard to see it as anything other than the commentariat’s backlash, a contrarian response to a public outcry over recent revelations about child abuse by the rich and famous....
My main argument against this article is that this approach ignores the evidence of the experiences of abused children, the experiences of adult survivors of child abuse and the experiences of many professionals who work to protect children. It is a risky strategy at the current time because so many of those who promoted the rights of the ‘paedophile’ have in later years been convicted of sexual crimes against children. Equally, so many of those whom this lobby attacked have been vindicated in their efforts to protect and gain justice for children and survivors....
No wonder many more enlightened academics like Dr Liz Davies talk of the “child sex abuse lobby”. She argues some academic writings have to be located in the context of what is known about those who spread those viewpoints and their agendas. Their views were clearly expressed in a document dated 1975 where Paedophile Information Exchange submitted evidence to the Home Office.This proposed abolition of the age of consent and the removal of consensual sexual activity at all ages from the criminal law....
In order to sexually abuse a child a perpetrator will often groom the child and so it is not uncommon for a child to have some positive feelings towards the person harming them. The perpetrator may also be someone who is close to them and the child wants the abuse to stop but does not want to lose the relationship. This is no way suggests that the abuse is justifiable. In fact a state of confused emotions and responses adds to the severity of the trauma experienced by the child. That this is not obvious to Jon Henley is alarming to me.
Whether or not a child voluntarily entered into sexual relations with their abuser, and how positive or negative they felt about it at the time, is irrelevant when it comes to both the long-term effects of child sex abuse, and how seriously we should treat the abuse. Even if it is true that for some survivors of this type of consensual abuse there were no “undesirable outcomes” (though this is surely hard to quantify), this is certainly not true for all, or even many, if any, children who entered into abusive relationships voluntarily; and to draw a distinction between children who were violently abused and children who submitted willingly is irresponsible and damaging when children who submitted willingly are already more likely to feel shame, self-blame and not seek help due to their belief it was their own fault....
Survivors of child sex abuse commonly suffer from depression, anxiety disorders, panic attacks, phobias, flashbacks, disturbing thoughts, intrusive memories, self-harming, alcoholism, eating disorders, and feelings of shame, anger and worthlessness. This is the reality, but Jon Henley doesn’t voice it in his piece. http://www.tom-watson.co.uk/2013/01/6445
123 child victims of Internet sex abuse identified -- one just 19 days old, US officials say By Andrew Mach, NBC News
In just over a month, more than 120 sexually exploited children -- one just 19 days old -- were identified in an international operation that found them depicted in child pornography on the Internet, U.S. officials said Thursday.
In Operation Sunflower, led by agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigation unit from Nov. 1 to Dec. 7, 123 victims of child sexual exploitation were identified, ICE Director John Morton said at a press conference in Washington.
Of that group, 44 children had been living with their abusers, and 79 children were exploited by people outside of their home or were victimized as children and are now adults. Seventy female and 53 male victims rescued; 110 of the victims were identified in 19 U.S. states and the rest were identified in six foreign countries....
Of the victims identified during Operation Sunflower, five were under the age of 3, and one of those was just 19 days old. Thirty others were below the age of 10, officials said....
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/03/16327023-123-child-victims-of-internet-sex-abuse-identified-one-just-19-days-old-us-officials-say
Proof that children can be brainwashed into believing sadistic abuse is 'horseplay'
Parents who 'brainwashed' their three children to hide years of horrific abuse face jail
The Chorley, Lancashire, couple, who cannot be named for legal reasons, subjected their children to years of abuse but convinced them that their sadistic punishments were 'horseplay'
The parents were convicted of four counts of child cruelty having previously admitted five similar offences
By Nazia Parveen 6 December 2012
A care-home worker and her husband who subjected their children to years of horrific abuse were facing jail yesterday after being convicted of cruelty.
The couple hid their crimes for years by lying to social services and ‘brainwashing’ their daughter and two sons into believing their sadistic punishments were ‘horseplay’, a court heard....
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2244335/Parents-brainwashed-children-hide-years-horrific-abuse-face-jail.html
Robert Sullivan "Worst case I've ever heard": Judge blasts sadistic paedophile who used young girls as "playthings" By Luke Traynor 4 Jan 2013 One of his two victims was four when he first assaulted her
....The court heard the defendant used the girls as “playthings” to fulfil his own sexual gratification in a “cycle of violent and sadistic behaviour.”
The abuse went on between 1977 and 1984.
Sullivan was arrested in 2009 but went on the run for 22 months before being caught last July. He admitted 25 sex charges, including nine rapes....
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/robert-sullivan-sadistic-paedophile-jailed-1517508
Website to boost rape reporting in London 5 December 2012
A website aimed at boosting the number of reported rapes has been launched by the Metropolitan Police. Called My Decision, the site provides a step-by-step guide for anyone who has been raped or sexually assaulted.
It is designed to overcome barriers people may have to reporting such crimes - for example victims fearing they would not be believed. According to the Met only one in five rape victims go to the police and about 40% choose not to report it.
The Rape Crisis charity welcomed the fact the website will give information and answer victims' questions, but said it lacks links to "crucial support services"....
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-20605215
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Sexual violence is not a cultural phenomenon in India - it is endemic everywhere
Sexual violence is not a cultural phenomenon in India - it is endemic everywhere
Cases are not discussed nearly enough for how prevalent the crimes are
Owen Jones
Sunday 30 December 2012
....Rape and sexual violence against women are endemic everywhere. Shocked by what happened in India? Take a look at France, that prosperous bastion of European civilisation. In 1999, two then-teenagers – named only as Nina and Stephanie – were raped almost every day for six months. Young men would queue up to rape them, patiently waiting for their friends to finish in secluded basements. After a three-week trial this year, 10 of the 14 accused left the courtroom as free men; the other four were granted lenient sentences of one year at most.
Shocked? Again, let us Brits not get all high and mighty, either. Amnesty International conducted a poll in the United Kingdom a few years ago. Only four per cent of respondents thought that the number of women raped each year exceeded 10,000. But according to the Government’s Action Plan on Violence Against Women and Girls, 80,000 women are raped a year, and 400,000 women are sexually assaulted. It is a pandemic of violence against women that – given its scale – is not discussed nearly enough....
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/sexual-violence-is-not-a-cultural-phenomenon-in-india--it-is-endemic-everywhere-8433445.html
Cases are not discussed nearly enough for how prevalent the crimes are
Owen Jones
Sunday 30 December 2012
....Rape and sexual violence against women are endemic everywhere. Shocked by what happened in India? Take a look at France, that prosperous bastion of European civilisation. In 1999, two then-teenagers – named only as Nina and Stephanie – were raped almost every day for six months. Young men would queue up to rape them, patiently waiting for their friends to finish in secluded basements. After a three-week trial this year, 10 of the 14 accused left the courtroom as free men; the other four were granted lenient sentences of one year at most.
Shocked? Again, let us Brits not get all high and mighty, either. Amnesty International conducted a poll in the United Kingdom a few years ago. Only four per cent of respondents thought that the number of women raped each year exceeded 10,000. But according to the Government’s Action Plan on Violence Against Women and Girls, 80,000 women are raped a year, and 400,000 women are sexually assaulted. It is a pandemic of violence against women that – given its scale – is not discussed nearly enough....
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/sexual-violence-is-not-a-cultural-phenomenon-in-india--it-is-endemic-everywhere-8433445.html
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Indian teen kills self after pressed to drop rape case
Indian teen kills self after pressed to drop rape case
AFP December 28, 2012
AMRITSAR, India (AFP) - A 17-year-old Indian girl who was gang-raped committed suicide after police pressured her to drop the case and marry one of her attackers, police and a relative said on Thursday.
Amid the ongoing uproar over the gang-rape of a student on a bus in New Delhi earlier this month, the latest case has again shone the spotlight on the police's handling of sex crimes.
One police officer has been sacked and another suspended over their conduct after the assault during the festival of Diwali on November 13 in the Patiala region in the Punjab, according to officials....
The victim's sister told Indian television that the teenager had been urged to either accept a cash settlement or marry one of her attackers.
"The police started pressuring her to either reach a financial settlement with her attackers or marry one of them," her sister told the NDTV network.
Meanwhile, the Press Trust of India reported that a police officer has been suspended for allegedly refusing to register a rape complaint in the northern state of Chhattisgar....
Official figures show that 228,650 of the total 256,329 violent crimes recorded last year in India were against women.
The real figure is thought to be much higher as so many women are reluctant to report attacks to the police.
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/world/15727354/indian-teen-kills-self-after-pressed-to-drop-rape-case/
AFP December 28, 2012
AMRITSAR, India (AFP) - A 17-year-old Indian girl who was gang-raped committed suicide after police pressured her to drop the case and marry one of her attackers, police and a relative said on Thursday.
Amid the ongoing uproar over the gang-rape of a student on a bus in New Delhi earlier this month, the latest case has again shone the spotlight on the police's handling of sex crimes.
One police officer has been sacked and another suspended over their conduct after the assault during the festival of Diwali on November 13 in the Patiala region in the Punjab, according to officials....
The victim's sister told Indian television that the teenager had been urged to either accept a cash settlement or marry one of her attackers.
"The police started pressuring her to either reach a financial settlement with her attackers or marry one of them," her sister told the NDTV network.
Meanwhile, the Press Trust of India reported that a police officer has been suspended for allegedly refusing to register a rape complaint in the northern state of Chhattisgar....
Official figures show that 228,650 of the total 256,329 violent crimes recorded last year in India were against women.
The real figure is thought to be much higher as so many women are reluctant to report attacks to the police.
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/world/15727354/indian-teen-kills-self-after-pressed-to-drop-rape-case/
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Scientists Claim CIA Misused Work on Sleep Deprivation
also: Sex, Death and the Gods - video (Indian girls sold for sex at puberty)
"the maximum allowable period of sleep deprivation allowed under the CIA interrogation program was 264 hours, though no detainee was deprived of sleep for more than 180 hours, or 7½ days....he detainees were kept awake by being forced to stand, sit or recline in uncomfortable positions, with shackled limbs. At the same time, detainees could undergo stressful treatments, including significant dietary restrictions and violence, like waterboarding and walling."
Scientists Claim CIA Misused Work on Sleep Deprivation
By Michael Scherer Washington Apr. 21, 2009 German and French researchers whose work has been cited by the CIA and the Justice Department to help justify the legality of harsh interrogation techniques, including prolonged sleep deprivation, condemned the Bush Administration on Tuesday for misusing their scientific findings.
"It is total nonsense to cite our study in this context," said Dr. Bernd Kundermann, a professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the University of Marburg.
"I'm disappointed, upset, consternated and even hurt at seeing this," said Dr. S. Hakki Onen, a sleep specialist and geriatrician with the Hôpital Gériatrique A. Charial, part of the Hospices Civils de Lyon in France. "To see [the research] used in this manner is upsetting because [the CIA's] goals run counter to the therapeutic intent of our effort ... In publishing clinical findings like this, you're aware you lose control of them, because they can be read and even abused by people who may have other objectives in mind."
Kundermann and Onen are the second and third European sleep scientists to speak out this week against the CIA's use of published academic literature on sleep deprivation. On Monday, James Horne, a British researcher who was also cited by CIA medical experts in recently declassified memos, called the agency's medical reasoning "nonsense."....
According to the Justice Department memos, the maximum allowable period of sleep deprivation allowed under the CIA interrogation program was 264 hours, though no detainee was deprived of sleep for more than 180 hours, or 7½ days. Only three detainees had been subjected to sleep deprivation for more than 96 hours. The detainees were kept awake by being forced to stand, sit or recline in uncomfortable positions, with shackled limbs. At the same time, detainees could undergo stressful treatments, including significant dietary restrictions and violence, like waterboarding and walling.
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1892897,00.html
Sex, Death and the Gods - video
Interview with filmmaker Beeban Kidron, plus exclusive clips from her new film. Sex, Death and the Gods explores the complex world of India's devadasi, girls devoted to a goddess and then sold for sex at puberty
Beeban Kidron's film about the devadasi, Storyville: Sex, Death and the Gods, will be shown on BBC4 on Monday 24 January at 10pm
Lindsay Poulton and Joanna Moorhead
guardian.co.uk Friday 21 January 2011
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/video/2011/jan/21/sex-death-gods-video
"the maximum allowable period of sleep deprivation allowed under the CIA interrogation program was 264 hours, though no detainee was deprived of sleep for more than 180 hours, or 7½ days....he detainees were kept awake by being forced to stand, sit or recline in uncomfortable positions, with shackled limbs. At the same time, detainees could undergo stressful treatments, including significant dietary restrictions and violence, like waterboarding and walling."
Scientists Claim CIA Misused Work on Sleep Deprivation
By Michael Scherer Washington Apr. 21, 2009 German and French researchers whose work has been cited by the CIA and the Justice Department to help justify the legality of harsh interrogation techniques, including prolonged sleep deprivation, condemned the Bush Administration on Tuesday for misusing their scientific findings.
"It is total nonsense to cite our study in this context," said Dr. Bernd Kundermann, a professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the University of Marburg.
"I'm disappointed, upset, consternated and even hurt at seeing this," said Dr. S. Hakki Onen, a sleep specialist and geriatrician with the Hôpital Gériatrique A. Charial, part of the Hospices Civils de Lyon in France. "To see [the research] used in this manner is upsetting because [the CIA's] goals run counter to the therapeutic intent of our effort ... In publishing clinical findings like this, you're aware you lose control of them, because they can be read and even abused by people who may have other objectives in mind."
Kundermann and Onen are the second and third European sleep scientists to speak out this week against the CIA's use of published academic literature on sleep deprivation. On Monday, James Horne, a British researcher who was also cited by CIA medical experts in recently declassified memos, called the agency's medical reasoning "nonsense."....
According to the Justice Department memos, the maximum allowable period of sleep deprivation allowed under the CIA interrogation program was 264 hours, though no detainee was deprived of sleep for more than 180 hours, or 7½ days. Only three detainees had been subjected to sleep deprivation for more than 96 hours. The detainees were kept awake by being forced to stand, sit or recline in uncomfortable positions, with shackled limbs. At the same time, detainees could undergo stressful treatments, including significant dietary restrictions and violence, like waterboarding and walling.
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1892897,00.html
Sex, Death and the Gods - video
Interview with filmmaker Beeban Kidron, plus exclusive clips from her new film. Sex, Death and the Gods explores the complex world of India's devadasi, girls devoted to a goddess and then sold for sex at puberty
Beeban Kidron's film about the devadasi, Storyville: Sex, Death and the Gods, will be shown on BBC4 on Monday 24 January at 10pm
Lindsay Poulton and Joanna Moorhead
guardian.co.uk Friday 21 January 2011
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/video/2011/jan/21/sex-death-gods-video
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Church to overhaul Legionaries order, Conn. lawmakers pull statute-of-limitations bill
also Rescuing girls from sex slavery
Catholic Church to overhaul disgraced Legionaries order 05/02/2010 VATICAN CITY—The Roman Catholic Church will overhaul the ultra-conservative Legion of Christ whose late founder Marcial Maciel was disgraced after abuse scandals, the Vatican said Saturday. Maciel's "conduct... had consequences in the life and the structure of the Legion that are so serious as to require a journey of profound restructuring," a statement said. Pope Benedict XVI will name an interim leader within weeks, said Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi, in a major shakeup at a time when the Church faces intense pressure to crack down on abusers and their protectors in the hierarchy....
The Mexican-born Maciel, who died in the United States in January 2008 aged 87, was accused of molesting eight seminarians and secretly fathering children. The Vatican said that many members of the order had been unaware of Maciel's misconduct as he "created around him a defence mechanism that shielded him for a long time"....
Maciel founded the Legion of Christ in 1941 and ran it with an iron fist, requiring a vow of secrecy and barring any criticism of the order's superiors including himself. Before Maciel's fall from grace, he and his order enjoyed the adulation of Benedict's predecessor John Paul II. Just weeks before the Polish pope died in 2005 he hailed Maciel's and the Legionaries' work throughout the world as the Church battled tough competition from evangelical groups, notably in its Latin American stronghold....
Maciel's "very serious and objectively immoral actions confirmed by incontestable testimonies ... show a life without scruples nor authentic religious sentiments," the Vatican said. Last month in Mexico the order asked for forgiveness from two brothers claiming to be Maciel's sons who said he had abused them. Last year the order confirmed a report in The New York Times that Maciel had also secretly fathered a daughter. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/world/view/20100502-267620/Catholic-Church-to-overhaul-disgraced-Legionaries-order
Conn. lawmakers pull statute-of-limitations bill HARTFORD By SUSAN HAIGH Associated Press 4/30/10
Lawmakers on Friday pulled a bill that would have extended the statute of limitations for lawsuits involving sexual abuse, saying they didn't believe they had enough votes to pass the measure this legislative session.
Disappointed proponents said they would revive the issue next year. They also suggested that some kind of resolution could likely be reached in the coming months regarding victims of the late Dr. George Reardon, a former St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center physician who is believed to have victimized hundreds of children beginning in the 1950s. Some of his victims have been limited in pursuing lawsuits against the Hartford Archdiocese, the hospital or others because of the state's statute of limitations, which gives childhood sex abuse victims until age 48 to file lawsuits....
Michael Culhane, executive director of the Connecticut Catholic Conference, called the bill "horrendous" and said he was pleased it was withdrawn. Earlier this month, Roman Catholic bishops warned of potentially disastrous financial fallout....Scores of people claim Reardon molested them in his office at the hospital and took inappropriate photographs as part of a bogus "growth study." Reardon resigned from the hospital in 1993 amid the molestation accusations but never faced criminal charges. He died in 1998. The owner of his former home in West Hartford discovered more than 50,000 photo slides and more than 100 movie reels of child pornography in a hidden storage space while renovating the house in May 2007. Authorities said evidence links the images to Reardon. http://www.thehour.com/story/485788
Rescuing girls from sex slavery By Ebonne Ruffins, CNN April 30, 2010 Kathmandu, Nepal (CNN) ....By raiding brothels, patrolling the India-Nepal border and providing safe shelter and support services, Koirala and Maiti Nepal have helped rescue and rehabilitate more than 12,000 Nepali women and girls since 1993. According to the U.S. State Department, some 10,000 to 15,000 women and girls from Nepal are trafficked to India and then sexually exploited each year. http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/04/29/cnnheroes.koirala.nepal/
Catholic Church to overhaul disgraced Legionaries order 05/02/2010 VATICAN CITY—The Roman Catholic Church will overhaul the ultra-conservative Legion of Christ whose late founder Marcial Maciel was disgraced after abuse scandals, the Vatican said Saturday. Maciel's "conduct... had consequences in the life and the structure of the Legion that are so serious as to require a journey of profound restructuring," a statement said. Pope Benedict XVI will name an interim leader within weeks, said Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi, in a major shakeup at a time when the Church faces intense pressure to crack down on abusers and their protectors in the hierarchy....
The Mexican-born Maciel, who died in the United States in January 2008 aged 87, was accused of molesting eight seminarians and secretly fathering children. The Vatican said that many members of the order had been unaware of Maciel's misconduct as he "created around him a defence mechanism that shielded him for a long time"....
Maciel founded the Legion of Christ in 1941 and ran it with an iron fist, requiring a vow of secrecy and barring any criticism of the order's superiors including himself. Before Maciel's fall from grace, he and his order enjoyed the adulation of Benedict's predecessor John Paul II. Just weeks before the Polish pope died in 2005 he hailed Maciel's and the Legionaries' work throughout the world as the Church battled tough competition from evangelical groups, notably in its Latin American stronghold....
Maciel's "very serious and objectively immoral actions confirmed by incontestable testimonies ... show a life without scruples nor authentic religious sentiments," the Vatican said. Last month in Mexico the order asked for forgiveness from two brothers claiming to be Maciel's sons who said he had abused them. Last year the order confirmed a report in The New York Times that Maciel had also secretly fathered a daughter. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/world/view/20100502-267620/Catholic-Church-to-overhaul-disgraced-Legionaries-order
Conn. lawmakers pull statute-of-limitations bill HARTFORD By SUSAN HAIGH Associated Press 4/30/10
Lawmakers on Friday pulled a bill that would have extended the statute of limitations for lawsuits involving sexual abuse, saying they didn't believe they had enough votes to pass the measure this legislative session.
Disappointed proponents said they would revive the issue next year. They also suggested that some kind of resolution could likely be reached in the coming months regarding victims of the late Dr. George Reardon, a former St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center physician who is believed to have victimized hundreds of children beginning in the 1950s. Some of his victims have been limited in pursuing lawsuits against the Hartford Archdiocese, the hospital or others because of the state's statute of limitations, which gives childhood sex abuse victims until age 48 to file lawsuits....
Michael Culhane, executive director of the Connecticut Catholic Conference, called the bill "horrendous" and said he was pleased it was withdrawn. Earlier this month, Roman Catholic bishops warned of potentially disastrous financial fallout....Scores of people claim Reardon molested them in his office at the hospital and took inappropriate photographs as part of a bogus "growth study." Reardon resigned from the hospital in 1993 amid the molestation accusations but never faced criminal charges. He died in 1998. The owner of his former home in West Hartford discovered more than 50,000 photo slides and more than 100 movie reels of child pornography in a hidden storage space while renovating the house in May 2007. Authorities said evidence links the images to Reardon. http://www.thehour.com/story/485788
Rescuing girls from sex slavery By Ebonne Ruffins, CNN April 30, 2010 Kathmandu, Nepal (CNN) ....By raiding brothels, patrolling the India-Nepal border and providing safe shelter and support services, Koirala and Maiti Nepal have helped rescue and rehabilitate more than 12,000 Nepali women and girls since 1993. According to the U.S. State Department, some 10,000 to 15,000 women and girls from Nepal are trafficked to India and then sexually exploited each year. http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/04/29/cnnheroes.koirala.nepal/
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Priest worked in school after sex abuse allegations
Priest worked in school after sex abuse allegations Vatican in new abuse storm over priest in India by Mira Oberman Apr 5, 2010 CHICAGO (AFP)
A priest accused of sexually molesting two girls in the United States spent years working for Roman Catholic schools in India despite entreaties from a US bishop that he answer for his crimes, court documents showed....But despite numerous entreaties, and efforts by a Minnesota prosecutor to have him extradited on charges of child rape, Jeyapaul remained in his position as a secretary of the Diocese of Ootacamund's Education Commission, court records showed. "The only ones who knew about him being a rapist, were the bishop, the Vatican and that's it," said Jeff Anderson, a Minnesota lawyer who represents Jeyapaul's victim.
"They kept it a secret because they were concerned about the protection of their reputation and not about the children who are at grave peril," Anderson told AFP. "And as long as they keep secrets, they are complicit in these crimes."...."They did in this case what they always do which is nothing but impose secrecy and in this case allowed Jayapaul to not only continue in ministry but to supervise kids," said Anderson, who has filed scores of claims on behalf of victims of child sex abuse by priests. "What we hope to accomplish is first that any priest and/or bishop that has raped kids or a bishop that has been complicit in it be put in jail and defrocked," he said.
His further aim is to ensure that the Roman Catholic church be forced to publicly release its secret files on internal investigations into allegations of sexual abuse so that children can be protected from repeat offenders. http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100406/ts_alt_afp/vaticanreligionchildabuseusindia_20100406013951
A priest accused of sexually molesting two girls in the United States spent years working for Roman Catholic schools in India despite entreaties from a US bishop that he answer for his crimes, court documents showed....But despite numerous entreaties, and efforts by a Minnesota prosecutor to have him extradited on charges of child rape, Jeyapaul remained in his position as a secretary of the Diocese of Ootacamund's Education Commission, court records showed. "The only ones who knew about him being a rapist, were the bishop, the Vatican and that's it," said Jeff Anderson, a Minnesota lawyer who represents Jeyapaul's victim.
"They kept it a secret because they were concerned about the protection of their reputation and not about the children who are at grave peril," Anderson told AFP. "And as long as they keep secrets, they are complicit in these crimes."...."They did in this case what they always do which is nothing but impose secrecy and in this case allowed Jayapaul to not only continue in ministry but to supervise kids," said Anderson, who has filed scores of claims on behalf of victims of child sex abuse by priests. "What we hope to accomplish is first that any priest and/or bishop that has raped kids or a bishop that has been complicit in it be put in jail and defrocked," he said.
His further aim is to ensure that the Roman Catholic church be forced to publicly release its secret files on internal investigations into allegations of sexual abuse so that children can be protected from repeat offenders. http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100406/ts_alt_afp/vaticanreligionchildabuseusindia_20100406013951
Monday, April 5, 2010
Priest accused of US abuse working in India, Child abuse scandal US $3 bln
Shanley recovered memory case
Priest accused of US abuse still working in India By RAVI NESSMAN (AP) – 4/5/10 NEW DELHI — A Catholic priest charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in Minnesota is working in his home diocese in India and has no plans to return to the U.S. to face the courts, he and his bishop told The Associated Press on Monday. Church documents obtained by the AP show the Vatican was alerted to the accusations against the Rev. Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul more than three years ago but did not respond. The priest has received only a minor punishment and is currently working in his bishop's office processing teacher appointments for a dozen church schools in the diocese of Ootacamund in southern India. Jeyapaul is currently wanted on two counts of criminal sexual conduct stemming from accusations he assaulted a young, female parishioner in the fall of 2004 at the Blessed Sacrament Church in Greenbush, Minnesota, where he was working. Each charge carries a sentence of up to 30 years....In a telephone call with The Associated Press, Jeyapaul denied the charges....
At the time the accusations against Jeyapaul first surfaced in 2005, the priest had returned home to visit his ailing mother and officials in Minnesota's Crookston diocese told him he should stay in India, Jeyapaul said. "My mother told me to remain here, and the (Crookston) bishop also told me not to come back, because these allegations have come against you," he said.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ilg-XpU7rvtWx3qbEwd152oTmBiwD9ESS0U80
Vatican Declined to Pursue Accused Priest By LAURIE GOODSTEIN April 5, 2010
A Catholic priest who has been criminally charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in Minnesota six years ago is still working in his home diocese in India despite warnings to the Vatican from an American bishop that the priest continued to pose a risk to children, according to church documents made public on Monday. The documents show that the American bishop warned the Vatican that the priest was accused of molesting two teenage girls whose trust he gained by promising to discuss their interest in becoming nuns.
A county attorney in Minnesota is seeking to extradite the priest from India in a criminal case that involves one of the girls, who said the priest had forced her to perform oral sex and had threatened her and her family. The case took place during the papacy of Pope Benedict XVI, who has recently come under fire for his role in cases of sexually abusive priests in Germany and Wisconsin....In 2006, the Vatican recommended that the priest simply be monitored, a document shows. A lawyer for the Holy See said in a statement that the Vatican had recommended that the priest be defrocked, but that canon law specifies that the decision rests with the local bishop. The bishop in India sentenced the priest to a year of prayer in a monastery rather than seeking his removal from the priesthood, according to documents and interviews.
The priest, the Rev. Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul, was working temporarily in the Diocese of Crookston, Minn., which like many United States dioceses is bringing in priests from India because there are not enough American priests to serve its parishes. Father Jeyapaul ministered to three parishes simultaneously in Crookston, where he was accused of misappropriating church funds as well as sexual abuse.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/06/world/europe/06church.htm
Child abuse scandal cost US Catholic church $3 bln by Mira Oberman Apr 5, 2010
CHICAGO (AFP) – The pedophile priest crisis has cost the Roman Catholic church nearly $3 billion in the United States, but only a fraction of the perpetrators have been jailed and little been done to punish those who covered up the crimes. After years of painful revelations, massive payouts, soul searching and reforms, the child sex abuse scandal has spread across the globe and in recent weeks has struck the Church at its very core. Pope Benedict XVI, long celebrated for speaking out against abuse, is facing allegations that he helped protect predator priests when he was archbishop of Munich and later as the Vatican's chief morals enforcer....The allegations currently sweeping across Europe bear a stark similarity to those that first surfaced in the United States in the mid 1980s.
Victims were intimidated into silence. Abusive priests were left unpunished, or shuffled to unsuspecting parishes where they found new prey....researchers from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. They found that more than 4,392 Catholic priests and deacons sexually abused at least 10,677 American children between 1950 and 2002. Just 615 of those incidents had been reported to law enforcement and only 384 clergy members were criminally charged, resulting in 252 convictions. More than 700 priests and deacons were removed from or voluntarily left ministry between January 2002 and December 2003 due to allegations of sexual abuse. A further 3,091 abusive clergy and 4,568 victims were identified from 2004 through 2009, according to a report published last month.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100405/lf_afp/vaticanreligionchildabuseus
describes graphic crimes
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Ritual sacrifice of children on rise in Uganda By JASON STRAZIUSO (AP) 4/4/10 The practice of human sacrifice is on the rise in Uganda, as measured by ritual killings where body parts, often facial features or genitals, are cut off for use in ceremonies. The number of people killed in ritual murders last year rose to a new high of at least 15 children and 14 adults, up from just three cases in 2007, according to police. The informal count is much higher — 154 suspects were arrested last year and 50 taken to court over ritual killings....Human sacrifices have been recorded throughout history and occur still in many countries, including India, Indonesia, South Africa, Gabon and Tanzania. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iVKJwZGbjcGft_IsyTJWdY6UGlCQD9ESCS900
Priest accused of US abuse still working in India By RAVI NESSMAN (AP) – 4/5/10 NEW DELHI — A Catholic priest charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in Minnesota is working in his home diocese in India and has no plans to return to the U.S. to face the courts, he and his bishop told The Associated Press on Monday. Church documents obtained by the AP show the Vatican was alerted to the accusations against the Rev. Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul more than three years ago but did not respond. The priest has received only a minor punishment and is currently working in his bishop's office processing teacher appointments for a dozen church schools in the diocese of Ootacamund in southern India. Jeyapaul is currently wanted on two counts of criminal sexual conduct stemming from accusations he assaulted a young, female parishioner in the fall of 2004 at the Blessed Sacrament Church in Greenbush, Minnesota, where he was working. Each charge carries a sentence of up to 30 years....In a telephone call with The Associated Press, Jeyapaul denied the charges....
At the time the accusations against Jeyapaul first surfaced in 2005, the priest had returned home to visit his ailing mother and officials in Minnesota's Crookston diocese told him he should stay in India, Jeyapaul said. "My mother told me to remain here, and the (Crookston) bishop also told me not to come back, because these allegations have come against you," he said.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ilg-XpU7rvtWx3qbEwd152oTmBiwD9ESS0U80
Vatican Declined to Pursue Accused Priest By LAURIE GOODSTEIN April 5, 2010
A Catholic priest who has been criminally charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in Minnesota six years ago is still working in his home diocese in India despite warnings to the Vatican from an American bishop that the priest continued to pose a risk to children, according to church documents made public on Monday. The documents show that the American bishop warned the Vatican that the priest was accused of molesting two teenage girls whose trust he gained by promising to discuss their interest in becoming nuns.
A county attorney in Minnesota is seeking to extradite the priest from India in a criminal case that involves one of the girls, who said the priest had forced her to perform oral sex and had threatened her and her family. The case took place during the papacy of Pope Benedict XVI, who has recently come under fire for his role in cases of sexually abusive priests in Germany and Wisconsin....In 2006, the Vatican recommended that the priest simply be monitored, a document shows. A lawyer for the Holy See said in a statement that the Vatican had recommended that the priest be defrocked, but that canon law specifies that the decision rests with the local bishop. The bishop in India sentenced the priest to a year of prayer in a monastery rather than seeking his removal from the priesthood, according to documents and interviews.
The priest, the Rev. Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul, was working temporarily in the Diocese of Crookston, Minn., which like many United States dioceses is bringing in priests from India because there are not enough American priests to serve its parishes. Father Jeyapaul ministered to three parishes simultaneously in Crookston, where he was accused of misappropriating church funds as well as sexual abuse.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/06/world/europe/06church.htm
Child abuse scandal cost US Catholic church $3 bln by Mira Oberman Apr 5, 2010
CHICAGO (AFP) – The pedophile priest crisis has cost the Roman Catholic church nearly $3 billion in the United States, but only a fraction of the perpetrators have been jailed and little been done to punish those who covered up the crimes. After years of painful revelations, massive payouts, soul searching and reforms, the child sex abuse scandal has spread across the globe and in recent weeks has struck the Church at its very core. Pope Benedict XVI, long celebrated for speaking out against abuse, is facing allegations that he helped protect predator priests when he was archbishop of Munich and later as the Vatican's chief morals enforcer....The allegations currently sweeping across Europe bear a stark similarity to those that first surfaced in the United States in the mid 1980s.
Victims were intimidated into silence. Abusive priests were left unpunished, or shuffled to unsuspecting parishes where they found new prey....researchers from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. They found that more than 4,392 Catholic priests and deacons sexually abused at least 10,677 American children between 1950 and 2002. Just 615 of those incidents had been reported to law enforcement and only 384 clergy members were criminally charged, resulting in 252 convictions. More than 700 priests and deacons were removed from or voluntarily left ministry between January 2002 and December 2003 due to allegations of sexual abuse. A further 3,091 abusive clergy and 4,568 victims were identified from 2004 through 2009, according to a report published last month.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100405/lf_afp/vaticanreligionchildabuseus
describes graphic crimes
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Ritual sacrifice of children on rise in Uganda By JASON STRAZIUSO (AP) 4/4/10 The practice of human sacrifice is on the rise in Uganda, as measured by ritual killings where body parts, often facial features or genitals, are cut off for use in ceremonies. The number of people killed in ritual murders last year rose to a new high of at least 15 children and 14 adults, up from just three cases in 2007, according to police. The informal count is much higher — 154 suspects were arrested last year and 50 taken to court over ritual killings....Human sacrifices have been recorded throughout history and occur still in many countries, including India, Indonesia, South Africa, Gabon and Tanzania. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iVKJwZGbjcGft_IsyTJWdY6UGlCQD9ESCS900
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