- Sex offenders sue state after being denied leftovers from their Satanic feast
- Man who said he killed his girlfriend on behalf of ‘Satan’ takes plea deal
- Former Boarding School Owners Facing 102 Charges In 'Horrific' Child Abuse Case
" We use the BIBLE to teach them that they are to obey their parents and the authority over them."
- Facebook apps used in more than half of online child sex crimes
Sex offenders sue state after being denied leftovers from their Satanic feast
Clark Kauffman
Iowa Capital Dispatch
March 5, 2021
Clark Kauffman
Iowa Capital Dispatch
March 5, 2021
A group of convicted sex offenders is suing the state of Iowa, claiming their right to worship Lucifer with a weeklong feast of fried chicken, doughnuts and ice cream is being violated.
Lawsuits filed by prison and jail inmates are commonplace, and many of them allege violations of constitutional rights related to religious practices. But the lawsuit recently filed by a group of sex offenders housed at the state-run Civil Commitment Unit for Sexual Offenders is unusual even by the standards of prison litigation.
The six patients — once offenders are committed to the unit, they are considered patients, not inmates — are Dusty Hopkins, Bobby Messier, Jason Cook, Winston Halstead, Jarvis Burse and Cameron Jackson. They belong to what they call the “Luciferian Temple,” which suggests they are Luciferians, a group that traditionally views Satan and Lucifer as different aspects of the same being. They are suing the Iowa Department of Human Services, which runs the unit, in U.S. District Court.
They allege DHS officials are infringing on their religious freedom by refusing to let them keep the leftovers from their “Night of Transformation feast,” and by blocking access to written materials dealing with blood rituals, spells, vampirism and nudity.....
Court records indicate Hopkins has a 2009 conviction for third-degree sexual abuse and a 2008 conviction for third-degree sexual abuse.....
Jackson has a 2013 conviction for lascivious acts with a child; Messier has a 2003 conviction for third-degree sexual abuse; Halstead has a 1991 conviction for indecent contact with a child; Cook has a 2005 conviction for third-degree sexual abuse; and Burse has two 2013 convictions for third-degree sexual abuse.
The Civil Commitment Unit for Sexual Offenders provides secure, in-patient treatment for people criminally convicted of sex crimes. Patients typically have served prison terms and then, in a separate civil proceeding, they have been committed to the unit as sexually violent predators with the potential to reoffend. The unit is located in Cherokee on the campus of the Cherokee Mental Health Institute.
Man who said he killed his girlfriend on behalf of ‘Satan’ takes plea deal
October 16, 2020 Kayla Crandall
October 16, 2020 Kayla Crandall
BERNE, Ind. (WPTA21) - An Adams County man who said he stabbed his girlfriend dozens of times has taken a plea deal.
Austin Griffith was charged with the murder of 34-year-old Kayla Bentley. He admitted to stabbing her to death on Sept. 12, 2019, at her Berne home.
Griffith pleaded guilty but mentally ill to murder according to court documents filed earlier this week.
The plea agreement calls for Griffith to serve 65 years with 10 years suspended. ...
Griffith went on to say the so-called monster living inside Bentley would say things to provoke him, and at one point, it became too much for him.
“So, I stabbed her to death," Griffith told detectives.
Griffith said he was acting on behalf of his god, Satan, and that “My god, Satan, blessed her with no pain.”
Former Boarding School Owners Facing 102 Charges In 'Horrific' Child Abuse Case
“[It’s] one of the most widespread cases of sexual, physical and mental abuse patterns against young girls and women in Missouri history,” state attorney general Eric Schmitt said this week.
By Dorian Geiger
March 12, 2021
A southwestern Missouri couple was arrested this week and are now facing over 100 child abuse charges after accusations of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse of at least 16 girls at a boarding school they operated for years emerged.
Boyd Householder, 71, and Stephanie Householder, 55, are facing a total of 102 child abuse-related charges for crimes allegedly committed while running the now-closed Circle of Hope Girls Ranch and Boarding School in Humansville, Missouri, officials said. The boarding school was closed in August, according to NBC News.
“The charging documents allege extensive, and horrific, sexual, physical, and mental abuse perpetrated by the Householders,” Attorney General Eric Schmitt said in a statement.
Boyd Householder is facing 79 felony charges and one misdemeanor linked to the suspected abuse at the school between 2017 and 2020. Stephanie Household faces 22 felony charges of child abuse and child endangerment....
"Circle of Hope's goal is to help young ladies who were destroying their lives through poor choices and behaviors, change their future," the Yelp page about the school states. "They have been described as 'uncontrollable girls who won't let their parents help them.' We use the BIBLE to teach them that they are to obey their parents and the authority over them."
Facebook apps used in more than half of online child sex crimes
By Jonathan Wilson
Published Friday, March 26, 2021
More than half of the online child sex crimes in one year took place on Facebook-owned apps, according to data from the NSPCC, as the charity called for more to be done to tackle abuse in private messaging.
Facebook has previously revealed plans to make messaging across its apps, including Instagram and Facebook Messenger, end-to-end encrypted like another of its services, WhatsApp, in order to boost user privacy. End-to-end encryption is the practice of securing communications from everyone but the participants, including the platforms hosting the conversation.
The children’s charity argued that these latest figures, gathered through Freedom of Information requests to police forces, show that Facebook’s encryption plans will leave children at greater risk and accused the social media giant of “turning back the clock on children’s safety”.
The NSPCC said the data it received showed 9,477 instances of sexual or indecent image offences against children were recorded by police between October 2019 and September 2020 where the communication platform was known, with 52 per cent taking place on Facebook-owned apps.
The figures showed that Instagram was used more than any other Facebook platform – in more than a third of all instances, ahead of Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. The data were gathered from 35 police forces in England, Wales and the Channel Islands.
The NSPCC argued that should Facebook go ahead with its encryption plans, many of these offences could go unreported in future unless new safeguards were put in place....
