Mom killed children in voodoo ritual, Circus sex ring sexually abused boys, Girl burned in voodoo ritual

Cops: Brockton mom killed kids in `voodoo’ ritual

Circus sex ring 'sexually abused and raped three boys under eight for two years 

Police: 5-year-old girl burned in voodoo ritual; 2 charged

Cops: Brockton mom killed kids in `voodoo’ ritual
Laurel J. Sweet, Brian Dowling Tuesday, February 06, 2018

A Brockton mother of five fatally stabbed her 8-year-old son 50 times with a kitchen knife as part of a “voodoo” ritual, then went after his little brother when she thought she had “failed” with the older child, authorities said.

“It came out ‘wrong’ with the first one and for that reason she had to move on to the second child,” assistant Plymouth District Attorney Jessica Kenny said of Latarsha L. Sanders, now held without bail for the murders of her two youngest children...

Cruz said, “We believe, based upon her comments, that she was involved in some form of rituals that she believed in. We’re gathering information as we speak. Suffice it to say it’s something she referred to throughout her life to other people in her family — in the last couple years, anyway, and it’s something we’re looking into.”

Sanders told police she attacked Edson “because of the voodoo stuff,” according to a report on her interview at Good Samaritan Hospital after waiving her Miranda rights.....

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/local_coverage/2018/02/cops_brockton_mom_killed_kids_in_voodoo_ritual 

Circus sex ring 'sexually abused and raped three boys under eight for two years  and forced them to drink their own BLOOD'

Seven people have been charged in Sydney over an alleged child sex abuse ring
Group, who are linked to a performing arts school, are accused of kidnapping three boys aged under eight before sexually abusing them over two years
Abuse included ritual where boys were forced to drink their blood, it is reported
Five women aged from 58 to 17 and two men aged 52 and 18 face 127 charges

By Chris Pleasance and Max Margan For Daily Mail Australia
6 February 2018 |

Seven members of a performing arts school have been accused of kidnapping, sexually abusing and raping three young boys as part of a sadistic sex ring.

The group, based in west Sydney, are accused of performing rituals in which the boys, all aged under eight, had their blood taken before being forced to drink it.

The abuse lasted for two years between 2014 and 2016, police said.

Five women aged between 58 and 17 and two men aged 52 and 18 have been arrested and are now facing a total of 127 charges.....
All of the suspects are linked to a performing arts school which caters to children, some with disabilities, and describes itself as 'a family friendly environment where students can learn in a safe and fun manner'.

Its owner, a 58-year-old woman, has been charged with 43 offences.

They included aggravated sexual assault of a child under 10, sexual intercourse with a child under 10 and aggravated kidnapping....
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5357049/Circus-sex-ring-abused-raped-three-boys-Sydney.html

Police: 5-year-old girl burned in voodoo ritual; 2 charged
Feb 3, 2018

EAST BRIDGEWATER, Mass. (AP) — Two sisters tied down and burned a 5-year-old girl, permanently disfiguring her, in a voodoo ritual meant to rid her of a demon causing her to misbehave, police said. The women also threatened to cut off the head of the girl’s 8-year-old brother with a machete, authorities said.

The boy said his sister was tied down on at least two occasions while the sisters blew fire over her face and cut her on the arm and in the collar area with a needle-like object, drawing blood, according to police. The girl said the women also poured over her eyes a substance that stung.

Peggy LaBossiere, 51, and Rachel Hilaire, 40, of East Bridgewater, denied injuring the girl and threatening the boy, the Brockton Enterprise reported . They pleaded not guilty on Jan. 29 to mayhem, assault and other charges. A public defender for the women didn’t return a call seeking comment on Saturday.

Police say the girl’s mother is a hair stylist of Haitian descent who has LaBossiere as a client and requested the ritual. She has not been charged but is receiving m ental health treatment.
http://www.pjstar.com/articles/20180203/police-5-year-old-girl-burned-in-voodoo-ritual-2-charged

Bill Cosby loses bid to get criminal case dismissed

Bill Cosby loses bid to get criminal case dismissed

Saranac Hale Spencer, Maria Puente, USA TODAY July 7, 2016

A judge on Thursday denied Bill Cosby's effort to compel the accuser in his criminal sex assault case to testify before trial, ruling the comedian shouldn't get a new preliminary hearing. 

NORRISTOWN, Pa. — Bill Cosby lost another bid to get criminal sexual-assault charges tossed, after a judge ruled Thursday that there is enough evidence to try Cosby even though he was unable to cross-examine his accuser at a preliminary hearing.

Cosby arrived at the courthouse here in suburban Philadelphia to ask Judge Steven O'Neill to reverse an earlier decision to send Cosby to trial on charges of aggravated sexual assault stemming from an encounter between Cosby and accuser Andrea Constand in 2004.

Cosby’s lawyers insisted a trial could not be held until Constand gets on the stand and they get a chance to cross-examine her. Constand did not testify at the May preliminary hearing; instead, prosecutors cited a recent court ruling they believe allowed them to use her police statement taken more than a decade after the encounter.

A lower court judge agreed and upheld the charges; Cosby wanted O’Neill to reconsider.

The judge ruled against Cosby's motion, which sought to compel Constand to testify and be cross-examined under oath, or dismiss the charges....

Cosby, 78, a mentor to Constand, 43, when she was working at Temple University, is accused of drugging and molesting her 12 years ago at his home in Montgomery County outside Philadelphia. She accused him to police a year later but charges were never filed, so she sued him in civil court. The two settled in 2006 and the case was sealed.

Then, after dozens of women began accusing Cosby of drugging and/or raping them in episodes dating back decades, a judge in 2015 released part of the transcript of a deposition Cosby gave in the Constand civil suit, in which he acknowledged obtaining drugs to give to women he sought for sex....
http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2016/07/07/cosby-lawyers-no-cross-examination-no-trial/86794196/

Texas judge recommends against innocence finding for ex-day care operators in sex abuse case

Texas judge recommends against innocence finding for ex-day care operators in sex abuse case THE ASSOCIATED PRESS   December 02, 2014

AUSTIN, Texas — A judge in Austin has recommended against a finding of innocence for two ex-day care owners who spent 21 years imprisoned on a child sex abuse conviction.

Dan and Fran Keller, who divorced in prison, seek exoneration in a case prosecutors say involved child abuse and satanic rituals. The Kellers were convicted of aggravated sexual assault of a child involving a 3-year-old girl.

The Kellers were released on bond last year when the physical evidence was found to be a mistake by an examining physician.

Judge Wilford Flowers, who presided over the trial, on Monday ruled the Kellers again failed to provide proof of innocence. It's the third such decision by Flowers. His recommendation goes to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

An attorney for the Kellers plans a rebuttal.
http://www.dailyjournal.net/view/story/d0ad50a4181c4ddea5fb1a130e9fe9d1/TX--Ritual-Abuse-Conviction-Challenged/ 

Information on the Keller/Fran’s Day Care Case  http://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/articles/frans-day-care/

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