Largest anti-human trafficking sting, Ritual Abuse, Mind Control and Organised Abuse - Michael Salter, Psychiatric Impact of Organized and Ritual Child Sexual Abuse, Demystifying ritual abuse, La Luz del Mundo church sex abuse case, James Randi's Alleged Sex Tape

 

 

 

- Largest anti-human trafficking sting in Ohio history leads U.S. marshals to 45 missing children, more than 100 survivors

 

 

- Ritual Abuse, Mind Control and Organised Abuse: Examining our History and Looking Forward - Michael Salter

 

 

-  Psychiatric Impact of Organized and Ritual Child Sexual Abuse: Cross-Sectional Findings from Individuals Who Report Being Victimized

 

 

-  Demystifying ritual abuse - insights by self-identified victims and health care professionals

 

 

- Alleged groomer of teen victims in La Luz del Mundo sex abuse case says she was victim too - La Luz del Mundo church, based in Guadalajara, Mexico, and founded in 1926 by Garcia’s grandfather, claims more than 5 million followers worldwide, though some experts say that figure might be too high.  

 

 

- James Randi's Alleged Sex Tape  "The scientist's lawyers sought to discredit Mr. Randi by playing taped conversations of teen-age boys who called the magician's home allegedly for sex."

 

Largest anti-human trafficking sting in Ohio history leads U.S. marshals to 45 missing children, more than 100 survivors
By CNN October 28, 2020

PITTSBURGH, PA (KDKA) — In what is believed to be the largest anti-human trafficking operation in state history, Ohio authorities say they recovered 45 missing children, and more 100 other human trafficking survivors.
The operation, called “Autumn Hope” was a multi-agency raid spearheaded by the U.S. Marshals Service reports WBNS, it also included 50 law enforcement agencies.

During the operation, 169 arrests were also made by the Central Ohio Human Trafficking Task Force.
Ohio Attorney General David Yost said this is the largest anti-human trafficking effort in state history.
https://abc17news.com/news/national-world/2020/10/28/largest-anti-human-trafficking-sting-in-ohio-history-leads-u-s-marshals-to-45-missing-children-more-than-100-survivors/

Ritual Abuse, Mind Control and Organised Abuse: Examining our History and Looking Forward
.... I was entirely unprepared when, only a few years after the publication of those articles, a friend began disclosing ritual abuse in the context of a paedophile ring. These disclosures occurred without facilitation or encouragement by a mental health professional, and they did not conform to mass media warnings about ‘false’ and ‘recovered’ memories. She had never ‘forgotten’ her abuse and she was reporting attacks in the present that left behind undeniable marks and injuries. Her disclosures set me on the path to a career as a criminologist specializing in the study of organized child sexual abuse. 

 

 

I now chair the Ritual Abuse, Mind Control and Organised Abuse Special Interest Group (RAMCOA) which is full of people just like me: people who unexpectedly encountered survivors of extreme abuse and have sought to understand and address their particular needs. The SIG includes an important cohort of therapists who are also survivors, driven by personal experience and professional commitment to provide care for others who share their history.

 

 
....content analysis finds that over half of online child abuse material depicts explicit sexual activity and assaults, and 2% depict the kinds of torture disclosed by survivors of ritual abuse: bestiality, bondage, weapons, defecation/urination (Canadian Centre for Child Protection, 2016).

 

 

Over two thirds of abuse material appears to have been manufactured in a home setting. In 2017, the Canadian Center for Child Protection published the findings of a survey of 150 survivors of child sexual abuse imagery (Canadian Centre for Child Protection, 2017). Their findings include that: 

 

 
Half of survivors were victims of organized sexual abuse: that is, a group or network of offenders.
In the majority of organized abuse cases, the primary perpetrators were one or both parents.

Victimisation in organized abuse tended to begin before the age of four and continue into adulthood.
A significant group of survivors reported torture involving rituals, electroshock and near-drowning (Canadian Center for Child Protection, 2017).

 

 
https://news.isst-d.org/ritual-abuse-mind-control-and-organized-abuse-examining-our-history-and-looking-forward/

 

Psychiatric Impact of Organized and Ritual Child Sexual Abuse: Cross-Sectional Findings from Individuals Who Report Being Victimized

 

 
Johanna Schröder,* Susanne Nick, Hertha Richter-Appelt, and Peer Briken
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2018 Nov; 15(11): 2417.
Published online 2018 Oct 31. doi: 10.3390/ijerph15112417
PMCID: PMC6266763 PMID: 30384461

Organized and ritual child sexual abuse (ORA) is often rooted in the child’s own family. Empirical evidence on possible associations between ORA and trauma-related symptoms in those who report this kind of extreme and prolonged violence is rare.

 

 

 

The aim of our study was to explore socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of the individuals reporting ORA experiences, and to investigate protective as well as promotive factors in the link between ORA and trauma-related symptom severity. Within the framework of a project of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in Germany, we recruited 165 adults who identified themselves as ORA victims via abuse- and trauma-specific networks and mailing lists, and they completed an anonymous online survey....

 

 
Ideological strategies used by perpetrators as well as Dissociative Identity Disorders experienced by those affected are associated with more severe symptoms (η2p = 0.11; η2p = 0.15), while an exit out of the ORA structures is associated with milder symptoms (η2p = 0.11). Efforts are needed to improve health care services for individuals who experience severe and complex psychiatric disorders due to ORA in their childhood.

....Given the paucity of research in this field, we believe that this study contributes to closing this evidence gap, as it presents empirical data on reported practices of ORA and its impact on trauma-related symptom severity in self-identified victims, in which reported ideological/ritual strategies by the perpetrators and an exit out of the ORA structures play a major role. A key policy priority should therefore be to intensify efforts on the understanding of ORA-related structures, as well as the complex clinical presentation of those affected. 

 
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6266763/

 

 

Demystifying ritual abuse - insights by self-identified victims and health care professionals

 

 
Johanna Schröder 1 , Susanne Nick 1 2 , Hertha Richter-Appelt 1 , Peer Briken 1
Affiliations PMID: 32043938 DOI: 10.1080/15299732.2020.1719260
J Trauma Dissociation. May-Jun 2020;21(3):349-364. doi: 10.1080/15299732.2020.1719260. Epub 2020 Feb 11.

 

 

Abstract
Empirical evidence on organized and ritual child sexual abuse (ORA), that is, organized child sexual abuse with an ideological framework, is rare and definitions of the term "ritual" are often vague or inhomogeneous. The aim of the current study is to analyze contents, purposes and acts of violence in ORA.In a project of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in Germany, 165 adults who identified themselves as ORA victims as well as 174 health care professionals who supported ORA victims were recruited via various sources and completed anonymous online surveys.Both samples report experiences with ideological frameworks in organized child sexual abuse contexts at the same ratio (88%). Ideologies are mostly perceived as a means to facilitate violent acts (e.g. commercial sexual exploitation). 

 

 

Positive correlations between the manifestation of ideologies and all violent acts suggest that organized and ritual perpetrator groups use the same violent strategies, but ritual or ideological groups, in which perpetrators are more often family members, use them to a greater extent.A modified narrative of "ritual abuse" as a (pseudo-)ideological, domestic and more violent subtype of organized child sexual abuse could enhance the credibility and visibility of ORA in science as well as in society.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32043938/

 

Alleged groomer of teen victims in La Luz del Mundo sex abuse case says she was victim too
by LEILA MILLERSTAFF WRITER NOV. 3, 2020 

 

 
A woman accused of grooming teenage girls for the sexual pleasure of the head of La Luz del Mundo church has come forward and is now alleging through her attorney that she too was a victim.

 

 

Alondra Ocampo, who has reached a plea deal in the case set for trial in Los Angeles County Superior Court next month, suffered years of sexual abuse in the church as a minor, her attorney Fred Thiagarajah said.

 

 

Thiagarajah alleged in an interview that Ocampo was raped at age 8 by Samuel Joaquin Flores, a leader of La Luz del Mundo who was succeeded after his death in 2014 by his son, Naason Joaquin Garcia, the current head of the church. Both have been known by followers as “the apostle” of Jesus Christ.

 

 
Prosecutors have described Ocampo as someone who groomed girls who were later allegedly sexually assaulted by Garcia and coerced minors into pornographic photo shoots in hotel rooms in Whittier and El Monte. They’ve said the alleged victims were told that if they went against Garcia’s desires as the apostle they were going against God.

 

....La Luz del Mundo church, based in Guadalajara, Mexico, and founded in 1926 by Garcia’s grandfather, claims more than 5 million followers worldwide, though some experts say that figure might be too high.

 

 

....Thiagarajah said that a few years before his arrest, Garcia told Ocampo he wanted her to lead a church service group in East L.A. and procure girls for him. Ocampo came to preside over an exclusive group of about six girls, the attorney said.

“He identified which ones [girls] he liked and there was an understanding that Alondra would separate those,” Thiagarajah said.

 

 
Prosecutors allege that the group was known as “the dancers,” and its members would perform for Garcia while in lingerie or partially nude. Thiagarajah said Garcia would give Ocampo money to buy lingerie for pornographic photo shoots and that she would send him pictures of the girls.

 

 
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-11-03/alleged-groomer-teen-victims-la-luz-del-mundo-sex-abuse-case-says-she-was-victim-too

 

 

 

James Randi's Alleged Sex Tape
"The scientist's lawyers sought to discredit Mr. Randi by playing taped conversations of teen-age boys who called the magician's home allegedly for sex."

 

 
- James Randi, a magician known as "The Amazing Randi," had been involved in a lawsuit in which his opponent introduced a tape of sexually explicit telephone conversations Randi had with teenage boys.

 

 
https://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/articles/james-randis-alleged-sex-tape/

 

THE ORGANISED AND RITUALISED ABUSE OF CHILDREN: THE CURRENT INTERNATIONAL SITUATION

THE ORGANISED AND RITUALISED ABUSE OF CHILDREN: THE CURRENT INTERNATIONAL SITUATION– February 26, 2020 at the West Park Conference Centre, Perth Road in Dundee, Scotland

Child and ritual abuse researchers from across the globe came to Dundee to discuss the impact and prevalence of ritual abuse and organized abuse on children. The conference examined the present situation in the world and UK to help workers and supporters in the field of organized and ritualized abuse.

Organized abuse can involve multiple adults who plan and sexually abuse children. It includes trafficking, child abuse, sexual exploitation and pedophilia rings.

Ritual abuse can be defined as organized sexual, physical and psychological abuse, which can be systematic and sustained over a long period of time using rituals.

This is the second conference organized by Eighteen And Under and Izzy’s Promise. Conference goals included increasing awareness of ritual abuse to everyone in the survivor sector.

Eighteen and Under provides confidential support and information to any child or young person who has experienced any form of abuse or violence. https://www.18u.org.uk/

Izzy’s Promise provides information, resources and training for agencies that support ritual abuse survivors. They have over 10 years of experience delivering ritual abuse support training, providing confidential, practical and emotional support to RA survivors as well as conducting research into causes and prevention of ritual and organized abuse.  https://rans.org.uk/izzys-promise/

Dr Laurie Matthew OBE, coordinator of charity Eighteen And Under, who presented at the conference stated: “This conference provides a unique opportunity to raise awareness and learn more about organized and ritual abuse from leading experts, academics and practitioners in the field.”

Research review statistics – Dr. Laurie Matthew https://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/articles/research-review-statistics-dr-laurie-matthew/ 

Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (for people who grew up in care) https://www.childabuseinquiry.scot

Research review statistics – In the UK:  1 in 6 children suffer child sexual abuse. 21% of children in local authority care are exposed to suspected or confirmed sexual exploitation every year.
Others presenters at the conference included:

Dr Michael Salter, a Scientia Fellow and associate professor of criminology at the University of New South Wales. His research focuses on organized forms of child sexual abuse. https://unsw.academia.edu/MichaelSalter

Dark Justice, an organization who catch potential sex offenders who try to groom and meet up with children presented via video.

Neil Brick (a ritual abuse survivor) and creator of the S.M.A.R.T. (Stop Mind control And Ritual Abuse Today) newsletter. http://neilbrick.com

Misinformation Campaigns Against Survivors – Neil Brick
Child and ritual abuse survivors and their advocates have been attacked by misinformation campaigns the last several years. These campaigns use various harassment and propaganda techniques to distort the research and silence the efforts of those who are working to help trauma survivors and rape victims. These techniques will be compared to past and present public campaigns that have distorted information and used unethical tactics to manipulate public opinion. Propaganda and suggestion techniques used will be discussed and analyzed. https://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/articles/misinformation-campaigns-against-survivors-neil-brick/

Dr Sarah Nelson, Universities of Edinburgh and Dundee who has presented widely for decades on sexual abuse issues. https://edinburgh.academia.edu/SarahNelson/

In this presentation I want to make some reflections on belief and disbelief in ritual abuse, and on why backlash theories such as satanic panic and false memory syndrome were so readily believed and are still potent, despite their numerous flaws. But I also want to interconnect the disbelief by outsiders including professionals, many media and public with the disbelief and doubts of survivors themselves, and think about the interplay and mutual strengthening which has long taken place. I think that is perhaps a neglected aspect of the discourse of disbelief yet it is important and relevant. https://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/articles/the-organised-ritual-abuse-of-children-dr-sarah-nelson/

Ritual Abuse Network Scotland (RANS) provides information and a safe place to talk for survivors of ritual abuse. https://rans.org.uk/

Copied with permission from https://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/articles/the-organised-and-ritualised-abuse-of-children-the-current-international-situation/

Zen Groups Distressed by Accusations Against Teacher, Organised abuse and the politics of disbelief, NCRJ Reveals Itself

Zen Groups Distressed by Accusations Against Teacher

By MARK OPPENHEIMER and IAN LOVETT
February 11, 2013

Since arriving in Los Angeles from Japan in 1962, the Buddhist teacher Joshu Sasaki, who is 105 years old, has taught thousands of Americans at his two Zen centers in the area and one in New Mexico. He has influenced thousands more enlightenment seekers through a chain of some 30 affiliated Zen centers from the Puget Sound to Princeton to Berlin. And he is known as a Buddhist teacher of Leonard Cohen, the poet and songwriter.

Mr. Sasaki has also, according to an investigation by an independent council of Buddhist leaders, released in January, groped and sexually harassed female students for decades, taking advantage of their loyalty to a famously charismatic roshi, or master....

Such charges have become more frequent in Zen Buddhism. Several other teachers have been accused of misconduct recently, notably Eido Shimano, who in 2010 was asked to resign from the Zen Studies Society in Manhattan over allegations that he had sex with students. Critics and victims have pointed to a Zen culture of secrecy, patriarchy and sexism, and to the quasi-religious worship of the Zen master, who can easily abuse his status.

Disaffected students wrote letters to the board of one of Mr. Sasaki’s Zen centers as early as 1991. Yet it was only last November, when Eshu Martin, a Zen priest who studied under Mr. Sasaki from 1997 to 2008, posted a letter to SweepingZen.com, a popular Web site, that the wider Zen world noticed.

Mr. Martin, now a Zen abbot in Victoria, British Columbia, accused Mr. Sasaki of a “career of misconduct,” from “frequent and repeated non-consensual groping of female students” to “sexually coercive after-hours ‘tea’ meetings, to affairs,” as well as interfering in his students’ marriages. Soon thereafter, the independent “witnessing council” of noted Zen teachers began interviewing 25 current or former students of Mr. Sasaki.

Some former students are now speaking out, including seven interviewed for this article, and their stories provide insight into the culture of Rinzai-ji and the other places where Mr. Sasaki taught. Women say they were encouraged to believe that being touched by Mr. Sasaki was part of their Zen training. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/12/world/asia/zen-buddhists-roiled-by-accusations-against-teacher.html


Report on Joshu Sasaki Allegations
An independent Council of Buddhist leaders investigated allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct against Joshu Sasaki, who has taught thousands of American at his two Zen centers in California and New Mexico. Published: February 11, 2013

On Authority by Alan Hozan Senauke with Jan Chozen Bays and Grace Myoan Schireson

When ongoing questions of misuse of sexuality or power unfold in a spiritual community, it is rarely a matter of one person's actions. Reading through the painful and heartfelt accounts documenting Joshu Sasaki's sexual relationships with students at Rinzaiji down through the years, we see how, knowingly and unknowingly, the community was drawn into an open secret, and people's ability to practice the
dharma suffered. Despite individual and collective attempts to address boundaries, repentance, and rectification, these behaviors appear to have continued over more than four decades. We have reports that those who chose to speak out were silenced, exiled, ridiculed, or otherwise punished. Understanding that our practice is to bear what is unbearable and not to turn away from reality, how could this be so? We suggest it has something to do with a view of spiritual authority and "enlightenment" that we in the West have created in the name of Zen. To be fair, this is not just a problem of Zen. It arises in various Buddhist communities, and more widely in other religious
congregations. We are unfortunately susceptible to enthrallment, which is hardly "seeing things as they really are."

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/02/12/us/Joshu-Sasaki-investigation-report.html

Organised abuse and the politics of disbelief
Michael Salter
Faculty of Law
Faculty of Medicine
University of New South Wales
m.salter@unsw.edu.au

Organised abuse refers to any incident of child sexual abuse in which multiple adults act in a coordinated or premeditated way to sexually abuse multiple children.1 Although it is a relatively infrequent form of sexual abuse, organised abuse has been amongst the most incendiary issues in debates on child sexual abuse over the last thirty years (see Brown, Scheflin et al. 1998; Kitzinger 2004). This paper will explore how organised abuse came to play a central role in conflicts over the signification of child sexual abuse. As narratives of sexual violence have gained increasingly legitimacy in the public eye, it seems that organised abuse has come to represent a new frontier of disbelief....

Conclusion

During a period in which women and children’s testimony of incest and sexual abuse were gaining an increasingly sympathetic hearing, lobby groups of people accused of child abuse construed and positioned “ritual abuse” as the new frontier of disbelief. The term “ritual abuse” arose from child protection and psychotherapy practice with adults and children disclosing organised abuse, only to be discursively encircled by backlash groups with the rhetoric of “recovered memories”, “false allegations” and “moral panic”. Seeking to recast the debate on child abuse according to an older politics of disbelief, these groups and activists attempted to characterise sexual abuse testimony, as a whole, through the lens of “ritual abuse”:...

It does not take much effort to understand why people accused of child sexual abuse may engage in a vigorous defence of their innocence, nor why they might be joined by professional defence experts that make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year defending them. What does bear explaining is the purchase that their rhetoric found in the media, academia and the broader community. It seems that many Australian journalists and academics held deep seated concerns about the credibility of women and children as reliable witnesses to their own lives. After a period of relatively sympathetic media coverage on sexual violence, organised abuse was used as a frame through which concerns about women and children’s testimony could be made
legitimate again. The impact of this rhetorical strategy on the lives of adults and children with a history of organised abuse has yet to be measured, however, the controversy that has been the hallmark of the politics of disbelief has effectively displaced reasoned consideration of the challenges posed by organised and ritual
abuse. It seems that reports of organised abuse can be overlooked, ignored, or displaced onto minority groups, but it is too troubling a subject to approach directly without a framework of disbelief. Over the last thirty years, that framework has been in ready supply, stemming both from the long-standing medico-legal tradition of denial, and from the activism of lobby groups of people accused of sexual abuse.

Proceedings of the 2nd Australian & New Zealand Critical Criminology Conference
19 - 20 June 2008 Sydney, Australia

Presented by the Crime & Justice Research Network and the
Australian and New Zealand Critical Criminology Network
Edited by Chris Cunneen & Michael Salter

Published by
The Crime and Justice Research Network
University of New South Wales
December, 2008
http://www.cjrn.unsw.edu.au
ISBN: 9780646507378 (pdf)


NCRJ Reveals Itself
February 9th, 2013 

There was a powerful article in the Sunday New York Times Magazine on January 27 about the devastating effects of child pornography on victims whose images have been spread around the world on the Internet.  It is the kind of article that would seem to generate only sympathy and concern for victims. But the "National Center for Reason and Justice" proved otherwise. This...organization used the occasion to question whether real harms occurred and to smear Dr. Joyanna Silberg, one of the therapists named in the article. In a letter to the New York Times, published on the NCRJ website, the president of the organization, defense lawyer Michael Snedeker, claimed that "Joyanna Silberg, the therapist of one young woman in the story, is notorious for advocating the debunked myth of satanic ritual child abuse." Snedeker also asserted that "obsessive attention paid to victims can paradoxically make their feelings of trauma worse, or even cause them in the first place." He closed by expressing concern about giving "pseudoscientific, dangerous therapists another gravy train."

These statements are wrong in every particular. Dr. Silberg is not even the therapist for the woman she mentions in the story! That woman lives in another city. Dr. Silberg merely conducted assesments for the purpose of litigation. Dr. Silberg did not receive a percentage of any legal judgments, nor has she received any payment other than the set fees for conducting an evaluation. The insinuation that she may have engaged in therapy that made the woman worse is beyond false, it is defamatory....It is clear from the article that what Snedeker calls "feelings of trauma" were hardly caused by the therapists in this case. They were caused by the appalling actions of those who took these images and disseminated them. Moreover, Dr. Silberg has never advocated or endorsed anything pertaining to satanic ritual abuse. Instead, she is apparently a target for these smears because she has spoken up for victims of sexual abuse through the Leadership Council on Child Abuse & Interpersonal Violence.
http://blogs.brown.edu/recoveredmemory/2013/02/09/ncrj-reveals-itself/

Role of Ritual in the Organised Abuse of Children, Lawyer alleges church cover-up as late as 2005

The Role of Ritual in the Organised Abuse of Children
Michael Salter 13 NOV 2012  Child Abuse Review Vol. 21 Issue 5
DOI: 10.1002/car.2215

Over the last 30 years, allegations of ritual child sexual abuse have emerged from child protection cases and legal proceedings and from adults and children in psychotherapy. These allegations have been met with disbelief from many practitioners and academics. Children and adults disclosing ritual abuse continue to present in a range of circumstances and recent substantiations of ritual abuse allegations call for a grounded analysis of their claims. This paper is based on qualitative interviews with 16 adults who described experiencing ritual abuse in childhood. They described the ways in which sexually abusive groups generated shared rationales of religious or mythological justifications for organised abuse. Participants were forced to internalise these rationales in degrading and dehumanising ordeals, whereupon they became active in facilitating their own abuse and/or the abuse of others. Ritual abuse can therefore be conceptualised as a device or strategy that enjoins the participation of victims in organised abuse whilst simultaneously accomplishing exculpation for perpetrators.

"The evidence base for ritual abuse is complex, including successful convictions in child sex prosecutions where ritual abuse was alleged, and a range of studies documenting long-term and serious psychological harm amongst children and adults disclosing organised and ritual abuse (for a summary, see Noblitt and Perskin, 2000, chapter 6). In recent years, ritual abuse has been substantiated in criminal investigations in North America (for newspaper reports, see Gyan, 2010; Lemoine, 2008a, 2008b), the UK and Europe (de Bruxelles, 2011; Kelly, 1998), and it has been documented in African and European child trafficking networks (International Organization of Migration, 2001). A recent resurgence in publications on ritual abuse highlights that adults and children are continuing to disclose ritual abuse in a variety of settings (Epstein et al., 2011; Noblitt and Perskin-Noblitt, 2008; Sachs and Galton,  2008; Sarson and MacDonald, 2008)."

"Conclusion
This analysis of survivors’ accounts of ritual abuse has shown how rituals serve as legitimising practices within organised abuse. In participants’ accounts, abusive groups utilised ritual practices to generate a private discourse about the righteous domination of abusive men over women and children, a discourse often marked with references to the ‘natural’ or ‘supernatural’ order. In this context, ritualistic practices were not simply a deviant form of religious activity, but rather they served to imbue organised abuse with metaphysical or religious overtones, thereby recasting sexual abuse as a masculine right, even a duty, rather than as a practice of control and power. The internal and private discourses of abusive groups, with their copious mentions of Satan, magical powers and eternal damnation, may appear jarringly naive and even garish to those unfamiliar with the abusive contexts in which they have arisen. However, for victims of ritual abuse, they invoke a metaphysical order in which they are required to submit to further abuse and torture. Within traumatic rituals in which they were forced into contact with a range of taboo substances, participants’ views of themselves ultimately came to accord with the view of their abusers. In accordance with the mythos of the abusive group, they came  to view themselves as polluted and contaminated vessels whose lot was to endure ongoing abuse and violence at the hands of men who claimed a natural or supernatural mandate to do so."
  http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/car.2215/abstract



Lawyer alleges church cover-up as late as 2005
By Suzanne Smith   Wed Nov 14, 2012

The senior lawyer who reviewed the Catholic Church's Towards Healing protocols says the church was still covering up sexual abuse as late as 2005.

Professor Patrick Parkinson was cited by Cardinal George Pell as the man who had reviewed the church's protocols on two occasions and had given them his tick of approval.

But Professor Parkinson has told Lateline he has withdrawn his support for the protocol because the church failed to take action over clergy who do not comply.

He alleges a church cover-up as late as 2005 put children at risk.

And he says the church behaviour alleged by New South Wales Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox and Victorian police amounts to "organised criminality".

Responding to the announcement of a royal commission into institutionalised child sexual abuse, Cardinal Pell drew on the authority of Professor Parkinson.

"We follow the Towards Healing procedures here in Sydney. They were set in place in early 1997. They have been twice reviewed by Professor Parkinson, one of the leading authorities in the area," Cardinal Pell said.

"Since 1997 one of the significant protocols that's in place is, [it's] completely prohibited to shift priests who have been charged, to shift them around.

"If and where that has been done, that is against the protocols."

Professor Parkinson was involved in regularly reviewing the Towards Healing protocol up until 2009.

He says he no longer supports the document, or the church body that it established to investigate any failures.

"My disagreement with the Catholic Church has been that I have challenged them over failures to comply with the letter and spirit of the protocols," he said.

"As a matter of integrity I could no longer support the National Committee of Professional Standards while there was a gap between their rhetoric and their actions."
http://www.abc.net.au/news/4372512

Jimmy Savile, Gary Glitter, Rochdale child sex ring

- Jimmy Savile, Gary Glitter and the politics of paedophile rings
- Rochdale police and council 'repeatedly warned' about sex abuse risk in town
- Rochdale child sex ring: council head to be questioned by MPs
Leader to be asked why social workers 'missed opportunities', as lawyer for victims considers legal action against authority  
- Rochdale abuse scandal: Victims likely to sue


Jimmy Savile, Gary Glitter and the politics of paedophile rings  2 November 2012 Michael Salter

In Britain, the sexual abuse allegations against television personality Jimmy Savile have now implicated glam rocker Gary Glitter and comedian Freddie Starr. Police have intimated that other high-profile arrests are forthcoming.

These developments have finally given credence to the accounts of many victims – who over the years have maintained that Savile was part of an organised group of men who shared his sexual interest in minors....

Victims can find it very difficult finding someone to take them seriously. An independent 2010 report into child protection in Britain, which was not made public but was quoted in the UK print media, found child victims of sexually abusive groups were often ignored by the authorities. One victim complained:

    The authorities did not understand what was happening to us, either because they did not believe us or because they could not comprehend that something as serious as this was possible.

Until his death in 2011, Savile was a much-loved British media personality. Now, he is the subject of allegations of sexual abuse from at least 300 victims dating back decades. Questions have been raised about how much friends and colleagues knew about, and potentially colluded in, these crimes....

Accounts of organised abuse have circled around Savile for some years. They have not been acted upon until now. Investigations into Savile’s involvement in the abuse of children at the Haut de la Garenne children’s home in Jersey, dismissed in 2008 for “lack of evidence”, have now been reopened. New evidence has not emerged. Simply put, there is new pressure on the relevant authorities to be seen to be taking these allegations seriously....
 
https://theconversation.edu.au/jimmy-savile-gary-glitter-and-the-politics-of-paedophile-rings-10461



Rochdale police and council 'repeatedly warned' about sex abuse risk in town

NHS team made 83 referrals to borough council from 2004-10 in town harbouring gang of nine finally jailed over child sex ring      Rachel Williams      The Guardian, Wednesday 26 September 2012


Social workers and police in a town where nine men were found guilty of running a child sexual exploitation ring had been warned dozens of times that local girls were at risk of abuse in the years before charges were brought in that case, the Guardian can reveal.

Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that an NHS team providing sexual health services to vulnerable young people made 83 referrals to Rochdale borough council about girls they thought were either being sexually exploited, or were at risk of exploitation, between 2004 and the end of 2010.

Staff on the crisis intervention team (CIT) also made 44 referrals to Greater Manchester police in the same period.

The revelations come as Rochdale's safeguarding children board (SCB) publishes a review concluding there were "many missed opportunities" over the past five years to safeguard children and young people affected by sexual exploitation. A working group set up by the SCB in 2007 identified in its first year 50 young people affected by, or at risk of, exploitation, the report reveals.

At a Liverpool crown court trial this year, nine men were found to have "shared" five girls in Rochdale, plying them with fast food, drink and drugs so they could "pass them around" and use them for sex.

The victims, were raped, physically assaulted and forced to have sex with several men in a day, several times a week....

Rochdale MP Simon Danczuk said: "The Guardian's investigation shows without any doubt that police and social services ignored an endemic problem of abuse.

"Time and again, the local authority were alerted to the fact these girls were being abused and they failed to do anything. We now need to know what action is being taken against these people that turned a blind eye to abuse and ignored numerous cries for help from young, vulnerable girls."

The father of the victim referred to in the review said he believed that social workers were incompetent: "Case files show that social workers in Rochdale believed girls who were being systematically abused were 'making their own choices'. By their neglect, they were complicit in prolonging the abuse. If they had being doing their job, they could have stopped this abuse years ago."....
 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/sep/27/rochdale-police-sex-abuse-girls




Rochdale child sex ring: council head to be questioned by MPs

Leader to be asked why social workers 'missed opportunities', as lawyer for victims considers legal action against authority
    Lizzy Davies The Guardian, Thursday 27 September 2012

The head of Rochdale council will be questioned by MPs over why his social workers "missed opportunities" to stop the sexual exploitation of young girls, it has emerged, as a lawyer for some of the victims said it was "very likely" they would take legal action against the local authority....

It revealed that, in 2007, a working group set up by the RBSCB had identified 50 young people – most aged between 10 and 17 – whom it believed to be affected by or at risk of exploitation.

Figures obtained separately by the Guardian showed social workers and police had made dozens of referrals concerning girls considered either to be victims or potential victims.....
 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/sep/27/rochdale-sex-ring-council-legal-action


Rochdale abuse scandal: Victims likely to sue
Paul Keaveny  Thursday 27 September 2012

Victims of a child sex ring may take legal action against the authorities for failing to protect them after a damning report laid bare the extent of their failings.

Social workers, police and prosecutors "missed opportunities" to stop a child exploitation ring abusing young girls, a report into the scandal revealed today.

"Deficiencies" in the way children's social care responded to the victims' needs in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, were caused by "patchy" training of frontline staff, the Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Children Board (RBSCB) said in its 29-page report into child sexual exploitation (CSE)....

The picture which emerges from the report is one of vulnerable young girls, some as young as 10, who were being targeted for sexual abuse, being written off by those in authority who believed the girls were "making their own choices" and "engaging in consensual sexual activity".

In reality, girls were being raped and often violently beaten.

The judge who sentenced the nine men said they treated their victims "as though they were worthless and beyond any respect".

Richard Scorer, a solicitor for some of the abused girls, said it was "very likely" they would be taking legal action against the authorities for failing to protect them....

The gang of nine men received jail sentences of between four and 19 years in May.

The offences happened in and around Rochdale in 2008 and 2009.

The five girls - aged between 13 and 15 - were given alcohol, food and money in return for sex but there were times when violence was used.

Police said the victims were from "chaotic", "council estate" backgrounds and as many as 50 girls could have been victims of the gang.

A chance to stop the gang was missed in 2008 and both the police and the CPS were forced to apologise for their failings....

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/rochdale-abuse-scandal-victims-likely-to-sue-8181056.html

Organised Abuse and Testimonial Legitimacy

Organised Abuse and Testimonial Legitimacy
Michael Salter

This paper will discuss the relationship between sexual abuse, invalidation and testimonial legitimacy with a particular focus on organised abuse. Using qualitative data drawn from a study of adult survivors of organised abuse, the paper emphasises how strategies of invalidation, disbelief and minimisation are embedded in children’s experiences of organised abuse as well as in the response of others to organised abuse throughout their lifespan.

This analysis troubles the distinction between everyday and legalistic notions of credibility and emphasises instead how the denial of testimonial legitimacy to children and women in a range of contexts is underpinned by relations of power that compound the gendered risks and
harms of sexual abuse.

The findings of this study suggest that the denial of testimonial legitimacy is a serious barrier to the wellbeing and safety of victims of sexual abuse, such as those disclosing organised abuse, whose life histories render them particularly vulnerable to strategies of invalidation.

Background to the Research

Although most incidents of sexual violence involve one victim and one perpetrator, a significant proportion of victims report experiencing victimisation by more than one perpetrator (Kellogg and Hoffman 1997;
Horvath and Kelly 2009; Harkins and Dixon 2010). In the case of child sexual abuse, victimised children and adults reporting multiple perpetrators have typically experienced more severe victimisation than victims reporting one perpetrator (Finkelhor and Williams 1988; Long and Jackson 1991; Casey and Nurius 2005) and they exhibit greater psychological distress and mental illness (Briere and Conte 1991; Leserman et al
1997; Steel et al 2004).

Some of the most acutely ill survivors of multi-perpetrator sexual abuse disclose what La Fontaine (1993) has defined as ‘organised abuse’; that is, incidents of child sexual abuse that involve multiple adults acting in a coordinated way to sexually abuse multiple children.

Health and welfare workers in diverse contexts have reported contact with adult and child clients with histories of organised abuse (Creighton 1993; Bibby 1996; Cooper 2004), including clients disclosing sadistic, ritualistic or otherwise extreme experiences of sexual abuse (Sinason 1994; Noblitt and Perskin Noblitt 2008; Sachs and Galton 2008).

conference presentation at
ANZCCC: The Australian and New Zealand Critical Criminology Conference 2010
Institute of Criminology, Sydney Law School, The University of Sydney
http://sydney.edu.au/law/criminology

full paper at
http://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/bitstream/2123/7372/1/Salter_ANZCCC2010.pdf