N.S. reaches $29m settlement in Home for Colored Children abuse claim
EVA HOARE Staff Reporter Published June 3, 2014
The Liberal government announced a $29-million tentative settlement for the abuse victims of the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children on Tuesday.
It’s a first step in a proposed two-prong process the McNeil government had promised some 130 to 150 former residents of the Dartmouth home who had endured decades of severe physical, sexual and psychological abuse while there.
Most of the victims were black, orphaned, or from homes where families could no longer look after them. Their cries for the abuse to be acknowledged had largely gone unanswered, until the former residents launched a class action lawsuit against the province and the home itself for failing to protect them.
The home has already settled with the residents for $5 million, but the province, under Darrell Dexter’s government, continued to wage the battle against the action being certified. The total settlement, from the province and the home, amounts to $34 million and is to cover residents who suffered abuse at the facility from late 1951 to 1989. Residents' lawyer Ray Wagner of Wagners law firm in Halifax Lawyer said the distribution plan will go back to 1921....
http://thechronicleherald.ca/novascotia/1211893-ns-reaches-29m-settlement-in-home-for-colored-children-abuse-claim
Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children
For the people who were raped, abused, humiliated and terrorized when they lived as children at the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children, it has indeed been a “life journey,” as Premier Stephen McNeil aptly put it, to the tentative $29-million settlement of their class-action lawsuit announced Tuesday....
http://thechronicleherald.ca/tags/nova-scotia-home-colored-children
EDITORIAL: The road to healing
THE CHRONICLE HERALD Published June 3, 2014
http://thechronicleherald.ca/editorials/1211995-editorial-the-road-to-healing
Showing posts with label psychological abuse. Show all posts
Showing posts with label psychological abuse. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
Monday, May 13, 2013
Accused Kidnapper Ariel Castro Beat Wife, Threatened Neighbors, Police Records Say
Accused Kidnapper Ariel Castro Beat Wife, Threatened Neighbors,
Police Records Say
By RUSSELL GOLDMAN and MATTHEW JAFFE CLEVELAND May 13, 2013
Cleveland cops were summoned six times to handle accusations that accused kidnapper Ariel Castro had assaulted or menaced people, including three alleged beatings of his wife, but he was only convicted once and was never sentenced to any prison time.
One of the accusations against Castro was that he battered his wife while she was recovering from brain surgery, according to newly released police records.
It is unclear whether any of the reported incidents could have led police to the three women allegedly held as sex slaves for a decade in his house, but the number of times his name pops up in the Cleveland police database is far more than the two incidents police originally reported.
There was no immediate response today from police or prosecutors....
Castro's ex-wife, Grimilda Figueroa, who died last year, first accused Castro of assault in 1989, 1993 and again in 2005, three years after he allegedly abducted his first victim Michelle Knight in 2002.
Castro was "a monster," according to Figueroa's family members who spoke to ABC News last week on the condition of anonymity. He was "nice when he was outside but behind closed doors he was an animal. Two faced. He had done terrible things to her [Figueroa] and treated her like trash."
http://abcnews.go.com/US/accused-kidnapper-ariel-castro-beat-wife-threatened-neighbors/story?id=19169152
Ariel Castro, Cleveland suspect, has a dark past that foreshadowed crimes he’s now accused of
By Manuel Roig-Franzia, Jerry Markon and Luz Lazo, Published: May 11
Cleveland — Shorty needed a ride home.
She got confused sometimes, the result of some undefined mental condition, and wasn’t always sure where she’d wandered. Her family knew this about Michelle “Shorty” Knight, all 4 feet 7 inches of her, and that’s why they worried.
She got in a car.
It begins there, with that simple act, a 21-year-old — in many ways still very much a girl — got in a car. Aug. 22, 2002. If she’d looked up in that last moment of freedom, she would have seen a church steeple.
Eight months later, another girl. Same road. Two-tenths of a mile away.
Mandy had just finished her shift at Burger King, was still in her Burger King hat and shirt. Tomorrow would be Amanda “Mandy” Berry’s 17th birthday; a party was planned.
She got in a car.
The hunter of girls had found a rich hunting ground, a stretch of road clotted with used-automobile lots, discount jewelers, fast-food joints — and schoolgirls.
A year later, April 2, 2004, the hunter was back. Gina, just 14, was walking home with friends from Wilbur Wright Middle School, a stately brick building set on a shaded street two blocks from Burger King. Georgina “Gina” DeJesus broke off on her own, steps away from the spot where Knight was taken.
A car pulled up. The driver was the father of one of her best friends.
She got in the car.
For the next nine years, authorities say, Knight, Berry and DeJesus together endured an excruciating ordeal as captives in a seemingly normal house on a seemingly normal street in a busy residential neighborhood less than four miles away. Until their remarkable rescue last week, authorities say, they were physically, sexually and psychologically abused by their captor, Ariel Castro, a school bus driver who played salsa music in nightclubs and harbored a dark past that foreshadowed the crimes he’s now accused of committing.
At Castro’s home on Seymour Avenue, he chained the young women in his basement, according to a police report. Eventually, investigators say, he moved them to the second floor of his house, a two-story place with a small back yard, a saggy porch, peeling paint and faded white siding. Most of the time, they were trapped inside, and on the rare occasions they were allowed to venture into the yard, Castro forced them to wear wigs and sunglasses, the report says. He told them to keep their heads down.
Castro, now 52, raped all his captives, authorities say....
In the beginning, the romance between the 20-something Ariel Castro and Grimilda Figueroa went fine. But it quickly deteriorated.
In the early 1990s, the unmarried couple lived on the second floor of the home of Figueroa’s parents. Once, Castro shoved Figueroa down a steep flight of stairs, family members recall. Her father, aided by a pack of neighbors and relatives, beat Castro in retaliation. He didn’t fight back. “He didn’t fight no man,” Figueroa Jr. says.
Things only got worse when the couple moved to their own place; Castro’s beatings of his common-law wife became more frequent and more severe, Figueroa’s relatives say.
He exhibited strange, domineering traits. Grimilda Figueroa became a near-prisoner in her home, a sister, Elida Caraballo, says. Castro padlocked doors from the outside when he left. One day, Caraballo went into their house and saw Castro shoving Figueroa into a cardboard box and closing the lid....
More recently, neighbors say police have been contacted at least twice in the past two years because of suspicious activity. The first time, neighbor Elsie Cintron says she called police after spotting a child’s face in an attic window and hearing banging. Officers responded, Cintron says, but left when no one answered the knocks at Castro’s door. The next time, her son Israel Lugo says, a group of elderly women who were exercising in the area called police. According to Lugo, the women and his sister had all seen a naked woman on all fours with a dog collar around her neck in Castro’s back yard. Cleveland police say they have no record of the calls....
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/cleveland-suspect-ariel-castros-american-dream-darkened-by-allegations-of-violence/2013/05/11/61302bd8-ba44-11e2-92f3-f291801936b8_story.html
By RUSSELL GOLDMAN and MATTHEW JAFFE CLEVELAND May 13, 2013
Cleveland cops were summoned six times to handle accusations that accused kidnapper Ariel Castro had assaulted or menaced people, including three alleged beatings of his wife, but he was only convicted once and was never sentenced to any prison time.
One of the accusations against Castro was that he battered his wife while she was recovering from brain surgery, according to newly released police records.
It is unclear whether any of the reported incidents could have led police to the three women allegedly held as sex slaves for a decade in his house, but the number of times his name pops up in the Cleveland police database is far more than the two incidents police originally reported.
There was no immediate response today from police or prosecutors....
Castro's ex-wife, Grimilda Figueroa, who died last year, first accused Castro of assault in 1989, 1993 and again in 2005, three years after he allegedly abducted his first victim Michelle Knight in 2002.
Castro was "a monster," according to Figueroa's family members who spoke to ABC News last week on the condition of anonymity. He was "nice when he was outside but behind closed doors he was an animal. Two faced. He had done terrible things to her [Figueroa] and treated her like trash."
http://abcnews.go.com/US/accused-kidnapper-ariel-castro-beat-wife-threatened-neighbors/story?id=19169152
Ariel Castro, Cleveland suspect, has a dark past that foreshadowed crimes he’s now accused of
By Manuel Roig-Franzia, Jerry Markon and Luz Lazo, Published: May 11
Cleveland — Shorty needed a ride home.
She got confused sometimes, the result of some undefined mental condition, and wasn’t always sure where she’d wandered. Her family knew this about Michelle “Shorty” Knight, all 4 feet 7 inches of her, and that’s why they worried.
She got in a car.
It begins there, with that simple act, a 21-year-old — in many ways still very much a girl — got in a car. Aug. 22, 2002. If she’d looked up in that last moment of freedom, she would have seen a church steeple.
Eight months later, another girl. Same road. Two-tenths of a mile away.
Mandy had just finished her shift at Burger King, was still in her Burger King hat and shirt. Tomorrow would be Amanda “Mandy” Berry’s 17th birthday; a party was planned.
She got in a car.
The hunter of girls had found a rich hunting ground, a stretch of road clotted with used-automobile lots, discount jewelers, fast-food joints — and schoolgirls.
A year later, April 2, 2004, the hunter was back. Gina, just 14, was walking home with friends from Wilbur Wright Middle School, a stately brick building set on a shaded street two blocks from Burger King. Georgina “Gina” DeJesus broke off on her own, steps away from the spot where Knight was taken.
A car pulled up. The driver was the father of one of her best friends.
She got in the car.
For the next nine years, authorities say, Knight, Berry and DeJesus together endured an excruciating ordeal as captives in a seemingly normal house on a seemingly normal street in a busy residential neighborhood less than four miles away. Until their remarkable rescue last week, authorities say, they were physically, sexually and psychologically abused by their captor, Ariel Castro, a school bus driver who played salsa music in nightclubs and harbored a dark past that foreshadowed the crimes he’s now accused of committing.
At Castro’s home on Seymour Avenue, he chained the young women in his basement, according to a police report. Eventually, investigators say, he moved them to the second floor of his house, a two-story place with a small back yard, a saggy porch, peeling paint and faded white siding. Most of the time, they were trapped inside, and on the rare occasions they were allowed to venture into the yard, Castro forced them to wear wigs and sunglasses, the report says. He told them to keep their heads down.
Castro, now 52, raped all his captives, authorities say....
In the beginning, the romance between the 20-something Ariel Castro and Grimilda Figueroa went fine. But it quickly deteriorated.
In the early 1990s, the unmarried couple lived on the second floor of the home of Figueroa’s parents. Once, Castro shoved Figueroa down a steep flight of stairs, family members recall. Her father, aided by a pack of neighbors and relatives, beat Castro in retaliation. He didn’t fight back. “He didn’t fight no man,” Figueroa Jr. says.
Things only got worse when the couple moved to their own place; Castro’s beatings of his common-law wife became more frequent and more severe, Figueroa’s relatives say.
He exhibited strange, domineering traits. Grimilda Figueroa became a near-prisoner in her home, a sister, Elida Caraballo, says. Castro padlocked doors from the outside when he left. One day, Caraballo went into their house and saw Castro shoving Figueroa into a cardboard box and closing the lid....
More recently, neighbors say police have been contacted at least twice in the past two years because of suspicious activity. The first time, neighbor Elsie Cintron says she called police after spotting a child’s face in an attic window and hearing banging. Officers responded, Cintron says, but left when no one answered the knocks at Castro’s door. The next time, her son Israel Lugo says, a group of elderly women who were exercising in the area called police. According to Lugo, the women and his sister had all seen a naked woman on all fours with a dog collar around her neck in Castro’s back yard. Cleveland police say they have no record of the calls....
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/cleveland-suspect-ariel-castros-american-dream-darkened-by-allegations-of-violence/2013/05/11/61302bd8-ba44-11e2-92f3-f291801936b8_story.html
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Ariel Castro Allegedly Kept Sexually Abused Kidnap Victims In 'Chains And Ropes', Eric Toth, accused of child pornography, evaded authorities for 5 years
Ariel Castro Allegedly Kept Sexually Abused Kidnap Victims In 'Chains And Ropes'
05/08/2013
The three kidnapped women who endured a decade inside a rundown Cleveland home were bound by ropes and chains and rarely let outside, according to Cleveland's police chief.
"We have confirmation that they were bound and there was chains and ropes in the home," Police Chief Michael McGrath said Wednesday morning on the "Today" show. He also said they were "very rarely" permitted in suspect Ariel Castro's backyard.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/08/ariel-castro-had-ropes-an_n_3237412.html
Ohio man charged with kidnapping, rape By Meghan Barr and Thomas J. Sheeran Associated Press May 08, 2013
CLEVELAND (AP) — Kidnapping and rape charges were filed Wednesday against a man arrested after three women missing for about a decade were found alive at his home.
Homeowner Ariel Castro was charged while his brothers, Pedro and Onil Castro, were held but faced no immediate charges.
The men were in custody and couldn’t be reached for comment. Their brother-in-law has said the family is ‘‘shocked’’ after hearing about the women at the home.
The three women were subjected to prolonged sexual and psychological abuse and suffered miscarriages, a city councilman briefed on the case said Wednesday.
Councilman Brian Cummins said that many details remain unclear, including the number of pregnancies and the conditions under which the miscarriages occurred. He also said the women were kept in the basement for some time without having access to the rest of the house. Police said they were apparently bound with ropes and chains.
The horrific allegations came out as police built a case.
‘‘We know that the victims have confirmed miscarriages, but with who, how many and what conditions we don’t know,’’ Cummins said. He added: ‘‘It sounds pretty gruesome.’’....
A 2005 domestic-violence filing in Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Court accused Ariel Castro of twice breaking the nose of his children’s mother, knocking out a tooth, dislocating each shoulder and threatening to kill her and her daughters three or four times in a year.
The filing for a protective order by Grimilda Figueroa also said that Castro frequently abducted her daughters and kept them from her.
In 1993, Castro was arrested on a domestic-violence charge and spent three days in jail before he was released on bail. A grand jury did not return an indictment against him, according to court documents, which don’t detail the allegations....
http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2013/05/08/ohio-man-charged-with-kidnapping-rape/q3P6S4KfsEqM7Wx9T69ezO/story.html
Eric Toth, accused of child pornography, evaded authorities for 5 years
By Justin Jouvenal, Published: May 5
Eric Toth was on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list and had been featured on “America’s Most Wanted,” but last fall, one of the most notorious fugitives in America may have been set to take a stage.
He appeared to be booked to speak at a Las Vegas tech conference.
Colleagues knew the speaker under a different name as an Austin-based tech writer and computer technician they described as brilliant and friendly. But they now suspect that he is the same man who is accused of filming a sex act with a child while he was a teacher at the District’s exclusive Beauvoir school in 2007 or 2008.
They realized the night before the October speech that the tech writer had vanished. Calls and e-mails went unreturned. His Facebook page went dormant. They never saw him again.
His whereabouts remained a mystery until Toth, 31, was arrested in Nicaragua in April. Three people who saw arrest photos of the lanky man with long brown hair said he was the same person they knew from Austin. FBI officials declined to confirm their account. Toth’s attorney did not return a call for comment.
“My reaction was shock,” said Joel Stewart, one of the man’s former bosses at a computer repair store. “This was not an unlikable person. I think a lot of us came to think of him as something of a friend.”
During Toth’s five years on the run, the pattern played out again and again as the man the FBI says is an expert in social engineering and computers was able to invent fresh personas, allegedly obtain fraudulent documents and win the trust of unsuspecting people. When it appeared that he might be discovered, he would simply melt away.
All the while, the man, who authorities warned would not stop molesting children until he was caught, had contact with kids. The Washington Post has been able to reconstruct his time in hiding from the District to the Southwest to Latin America.
“It’s a case study in you never know who you are standing next to,” said Chris Bangs, who worked with the tech writer....
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/eric-toth-accused-of-child-pornography-evaded-authorities-for-5-years/2013/05/05/02813d9a-ae8f-11e2-a986-eec837b1888b_story.html
05/08/2013
The three kidnapped women who endured a decade inside a rundown Cleveland home were bound by ropes and chains and rarely let outside, according to Cleveland's police chief.
"We have confirmation that they were bound and there was chains and ropes in the home," Police Chief Michael McGrath said Wednesday morning on the "Today" show. He also said they were "very rarely" permitted in suspect Ariel Castro's backyard.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/08/ariel-castro-had-ropes-an_n_3237412.html
Ohio man charged with kidnapping, rape By Meghan Barr and Thomas J. Sheeran Associated Press May 08, 2013
CLEVELAND (AP) — Kidnapping and rape charges were filed Wednesday against a man arrested after three women missing for about a decade were found alive at his home.
Homeowner Ariel Castro was charged while his brothers, Pedro and Onil Castro, were held but faced no immediate charges.
The men were in custody and couldn’t be reached for comment. Their brother-in-law has said the family is ‘‘shocked’’ after hearing about the women at the home.
The three women were subjected to prolonged sexual and psychological abuse and suffered miscarriages, a city councilman briefed on the case said Wednesday.
Councilman Brian Cummins said that many details remain unclear, including the number of pregnancies and the conditions under which the miscarriages occurred. He also said the women were kept in the basement for some time without having access to the rest of the house. Police said they were apparently bound with ropes and chains.
The horrific allegations came out as police built a case.
‘‘We know that the victims have confirmed miscarriages, but with who, how many and what conditions we don’t know,’’ Cummins said. He added: ‘‘It sounds pretty gruesome.’’....
A 2005 domestic-violence filing in Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Court accused Ariel Castro of twice breaking the nose of his children’s mother, knocking out a tooth, dislocating each shoulder and threatening to kill her and her daughters three or four times in a year.
The filing for a protective order by Grimilda Figueroa also said that Castro frequently abducted her daughters and kept them from her.
In 1993, Castro was arrested on a domestic-violence charge and spent three days in jail before he was released on bail. A grand jury did not return an indictment against him, according to court documents, which don’t detail the allegations....
http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2013/05/08/ohio-man-charged-with-kidnapping-rape/q3P6S4KfsEqM7Wx9T69ezO/story.html
Eric Toth, accused of child pornography, evaded authorities for 5 years
By Justin Jouvenal, Published: May 5
Eric Toth was on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list and had been featured on “America’s Most Wanted,” but last fall, one of the most notorious fugitives in America may have been set to take a stage.
He appeared to be booked to speak at a Las Vegas tech conference.
Colleagues knew the speaker under a different name as an Austin-based tech writer and computer technician they described as brilliant and friendly. But they now suspect that he is the same man who is accused of filming a sex act with a child while he was a teacher at the District’s exclusive Beauvoir school in 2007 or 2008.
They realized the night before the October speech that the tech writer had vanished. Calls and e-mails went unreturned. His Facebook page went dormant. They never saw him again.
His whereabouts remained a mystery until Toth, 31, was arrested in Nicaragua in April. Three people who saw arrest photos of the lanky man with long brown hair said he was the same person they knew from Austin. FBI officials declined to confirm their account. Toth’s attorney did not return a call for comment.
“My reaction was shock,” said Joel Stewart, one of the man’s former bosses at a computer repair store. “This was not an unlikable person. I think a lot of us came to think of him as something of a friend.”
During Toth’s five years on the run, the pattern played out again and again as the man the FBI says is an expert in social engineering and computers was able to invent fresh personas, allegedly obtain fraudulent documents and win the trust of unsuspecting people. When it appeared that he might be discovered, he would simply melt away.
All the while, the man, who authorities warned would not stop molesting children until he was caught, had contact with kids. The Washington Post has been able to reconstruct his time in hiding from the District to the Southwest to Latin America.
“It’s a case study in you never know who you are standing next to,” said Chris Bangs, who worked with the tech writer....
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/eric-toth-accused-of-child-pornography-evaded-authorities-for-5-years/2013/05/05/02813d9a-ae8f-11e2-a986-eec837b1888b_story.html
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Scott Brown Tells '60 Minutes' He Was Molested as a Child
"Looking back, he explains, "It was certainly, back then, very traumatic."
Scott Brown Tells '60 Minutes' He Was Molested as Child Feb 16, 2011 Steven Hoffer Contributor
Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown has decided the time is right to publicly reveal a secret he has kept inside for many years.
In an interview scheduled to air on CBS's "60 Minutes" on Sunday, the Republican congressman reflects openly for the first time on his childhood hardships, including episodes of abuse from his stepfather and being sexually assaulted by a camp counselor when he was 10 years old....
Brown also mentioned that he has never discussed the incident. "When people find people like me at that young vulnerable age, who are basically lost, the thing that they have over you is, they make you believe that no one will believe you," he said.
"My mom will read about it for the first time. I haven't told anybody." http://www.aolnews.com/2011/02/16/scott-brown-tells-60-minutes-he-was-molested-as-child-video
Scott Brown Recalls Childhood Sexual Abuse In 60 Minutes Interview (VIDEO) 02/16/11 Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) reveals that he was sexually abused as a child multiple times in an interview scheduled to air on CBS' "60 Minutes" on Sunday evening....
Looking back, he explains, "It was certainly, back then, very traumatic."
"As predators do... He said 'If you tell anybody...I'll kill you. I will make sure that nobody believes you," recalls Brown of being threatened by the counselor. The interview with Brown comes just before the release of memoir Against All Odds. The Senator details the traumatic experiences he endured in the book. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/16/scott-brown-sexual-abuse_n_824159.html
Sen. Scott Brown Recalls Childhood Abuse
February 16, 2011
Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown tells Lesley Stahl he was the victim of physical, psychological and sexual abuse when he was a child. Stahl profiles the senator Sunday, Feb. 20, 7 p.m. ET/PT. http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7355810n
Scott Brown Tells '60 Minutes' He Was Molested as Child Feb 16, 2011 Steven Hoffer Contributor
Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown has decided the time is right to publicly reveal a secret he has kept inside for many years.
In an interview scheduled to air on CBS's "60 Minutes" on Sunday, the Republican congressman reflects openly for the first time on his childhood hardships, including episodes of abuse from his stepfather and being sexually assaulted by a camp counselor when he was 10 years old....
Brown also mentioned that he has never discussed the incident. "When people find people like me at that young vulnerable age, who are basically lost, the thing that they have over you is, they make you believe that no one will believe you," he said.
"My mom will read about it for the first time. I haven't told anybody." http://www.aolnews.com/2011/02/16/scott-brown-tells-60-minutes-he-was-molested-as-child-video
Scott Brown Recalls Childhood Sexual Abuse In 60 Minutes Interview (VIDEO) 02/16/11 Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) reveals that he was sexually abused as a child multiple times in an interview scheduled to air on CBS' "60 Minutes" on Sunday evening....
Looking back, he explains, "It was certainly, back then, very traumatic."
"As predators do... He said 'If you tell anybody...I'll kill you. I will make sure that nobody believes you," recalls Brown of being threatened by the counselor. The interview with Brown comes just before the release of memoir Against All Odds. The Senator details the traumatic experiences he endured in the book. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/16/scott-brown-sexual-abuse_n_824159.html
Sen. Scott Brown Recalls Childhood Abuse
February 16, 2011
Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown tells Lesley Stahl he was the victim of physical, psychological and sexual abuse when he was a child. Stahl profiles the senator Sunday, Feb. 20, 7 p.m. ET/PT. http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7355810n
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