Maryland attorney general releases report on decades of sex abuse by Catholic priests

 

Maryland attorney general releases report on decades of sex abuse by Catholic priests
April 5, 2023 By The Associated Press

 

BALTIMORE — The Maryland Attorney General's Office has publicly released a redacted version of an investigative report detailing sex abuse allegations against more than 150 Catholic priests and examining the Archdiocese of Baltimore's response.

 

The redacted findings were made public Wednesday afternoon, marking a significant development in an ongoing legal battle over its release and adding to growing evidence from parish es across the country as numerous similar revelations have rocked the Catholic Church in recent years.

 

Former Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh launched the probe in 2019 and announced its completion in November, saying investigators had reviewed over 100,000 pages of documents dating back to the 1940s and interviewed hundreds of victims and witnesses. The report's contents weren't immediately released because they include information obtained from church officials via grand jury subpoenas, which are confidential proceedings in Maryland.

 

Lawyers for the state asked a court for permission to release the nearly 500-page document, which identifies 158 priests accused of abusing more than 600 victims over the past 80 years, and Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Robert Taylor ruled last month that a redacted version should be made public. Officials recently started making the necessary redactions, which included removing the names and titles of 37 people accused of wrongdoing....

 

 

State lawmakers are currently considering whether to end the state's statute of limitations for when civil lawsuits related to child sexual abuse can be filed against institutions. Similar proposals have failed in recent years, but the issue received renewed attention this session and the current proposal is nearing passage in Annapolis, where lawmakers have until midnight next Monday to give final approval and send the bill to Gov. Wes Moore, who has said he supports it. Currently, victims of child sex abuse in Maryland can't sue after they turn 38. The bill would eliminate the age limit and allow for retroactive lawsuits....

 

 

When Maryland prosecutors asked to release the findings of their recent investigation, they summarized some of the report's contents, which paint a damning picture. Sexual abuse was so pervasive, the filing said, that some parishes, congregations and schools had more than one abusive priest at the same time — including one congregation where 11 abusive priests practiced over 40 years. In some cases, victims ended up reporting abuse to priests who were abusive themselves, prosecutors wrote.

 

 

The investigation also revealed that the archdiocese failed to report many allegations of sexual abuse to authorities, conduct adequate investigations, remove abusers from the ministry or restrict their access to children.

 

"Instead, it went to great lengths to keep the abuse secret," the court filing said. "While the Archdiocese reported a large number of allegations to police, especially in later years, for decades it worked to ensure that the perpetrators would not face justice....

 

https://www.npr.org/2023/04/05/1168217401/maryland-baltimore-archdiocese-report-sex-abuse-catholic-church 

 

_._,_._,_

New York joined more than a dozen states this year in significantly extending statutes of limitations for filing lawsuits over sexual abuse.

He Says a Priest Abused Him. 50 Years Later, He Can Now Sue.

A new law has created a “look-back window,” during which claims that had passed the statute of limitations can be revived.

By Rick Rojas Aug. 13, 2019

 

Major institutions across New York State, from the Catholic Church to the Boy Scouts of America to elite private schools, are bracing for a deluge of lawsuits now that adults who said they were sexually abused as children will be entitled to pursue formal legal action.

 

New York joined more than a dozen states this year in significantly extending statutes of limitations for filing lawsuits over sexual abuse. Previously, the state had required that such suits be filed before a victim’s 23rd birthday.

 

Under the new law in New York, the Child Victims Act, which was approved by the Legislature in January, accusers will be able to sue until they are 55.

The new law includes a one-year period, known as a look-back window, that revives cases that had expired, in many instances decades ago, under previous statutes of limitations.

 

The one-year period begins on Wednesday, and the impact could cause major financial stress for many institutions in New York, including the state’s eight Catholic dioceses, which have faced a series of scandals involving abuse by clergy....

 

In lobbying for the new law, advocates for abuse victims have highlighted the toll of sex abuse on children, and the decades it can often take before they are able to speak up about it, if they can at all.

 

It took Charlie d’Estries years to process the sexual encounters that he said he remembered having with a priest as a boy. They were naked together, as he recounted it, and their relationship became sexual. Still, for decades, Mr. d’Estries, 64, did not describe it as abuse, and refused to see himself as a victim.

But last year, when Mr. d’Estries returned to his Catholic school on Long Island for a reunion, a nun he had known as a student offhandedly called him “Billy’s buddy,” a reference to the priest.

In a moment, he said, everything shifted. He was deeply shaken. He realized he had been abused. He was a victim. And he wanted justice, he said.

 

But he discovered he could not sue until the law changed....

 

This year, far more than in past years, legislatures in nearly 40 states introduced proposals to expand statutes of limitations. New laws were enacted in 18 states and the District of Columbia. New Jersey was among them, passing a law that includes a two-year look-back window that opens later this year.

 

“The significance of it is a switch in the balance of power,” said Marci A. Hamilton, the chief executive of Child U.S.A., a think tank focused on child protection at the University of Pennsylvania. “There was a severe imbalance of power that led to their abuse in the first place. The culture shut them out of the legal system until now. For them, this is validation.”....

 

Lawmakers in New York had tried and failed for well over a decade to expand the state’s statutes of limitations, which were regarded as among the most restrictive in the country. “We used to call New York a ‘shut down state,’” Mr. Amala said.

 

Each time, the law’s supporters were thwarted in the Legislature by opposition from the Catholic Church, the Boy Scouts, Orthodox Jewish groups and the insurance industry.

 

In years of jostling over the legislation, the look-back window had been the single most disputed element.

The New York Catholic Conference said before the law passed that the look-back window would “force institutions to defend alleged conduct decades ago about which they have no knowledge and in which they had no role.” (Many of the clergy members named as credibly accused of abuse are dead, infirm or no longer affiliated with the church.)

 

The State Assembly had passed the legislation multiple times, but before this year, the Senate never took it up for a vote. The political calculus in New York changed, however, after Democrats won control of the Senate in November.....

 

In future cases, the Child Victims Act allows prosecutors several more years to bring criminal charges, and decades more to victims weighing lawsuits. But advocates and lawyers stressed that the new law does not apply retroactively, meaning that virtually every abuse survivor older than 23 must bring any claims through the look-back window.

 

In the Rockefeller University case, the endocrinologist, Dr. Reginald Archibald, who died in 2007, is accused of abusing scores of boys and teenagers....

 

The Rockefeller University Hospital, through a spokesman, declined to comment. In a statement last year, the hospital acknowledged reports of “certain inappropriate conduct during patient examinations,” and sent a letter alerting about 1,000 former patients to the allegations.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/13/nyregion/child-victims-act-lawsuit.html 

 

 

The 2019 Annual Child and Ritual Abuse Conference with Alison Miller, Neil Brick and Daniel Roemer

S.M.A.R.T.'s conference on August 17 - 18, 2019 in Connecticut Special low income prices are available.

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-2019-annual-child-and-ritual-abuse-conference-with-alison-miller-neil-brick-and-daniel-roemer-300885349.html 

https://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/ 

 

Explosive Report on Catholic Church Abuse, Protections for pedophile priests, Ritual Abuse Conference - Dr. Randy Noblitt and Neil Brick

 

-  Why the Explosive Report on Catholic Church Abuse Is Unlikely to Yield Criminal Charges

-  Tear down the protections for pedophile priests

-  The Credibility of Ritual Abuse Allegations

- Changes in Awareness of Severe Abuse and Child Abuse Crimes Over Twenty Five Years

-  Child and Ritual Abuse Conference Helps Educate Survivors and Their Helpers 

 

 

Why the Explosive Report on Catholic Church Abuse Is Unlikely to Yield Criminal Charges
By Dan Levin Aug. 15, 2018

 

The searing grand jury report issued Tuesday in Pennsylvania that accuses bishops and other Roman Catholic Church leaders in that state of covering up child sexual abuse by more than 300 priests has prompted growing calls for justice, while leaving Americans wondering about the broader impact of the revelations on the church and other institutions.

 

But a web of legal barriers stands in the way of prosecuting most of the cases, and efforts to ease those barriers have repeatedly run into political opposition and fierce lobbying by the church and other groups. Pennsylvania lags behind many other states in coming to grips with the problem, despite a series of grand jury investigations stretching back 15 years....

The nearly 900-page grand jury report is unlikely to lead to any new criminal charges or civil lawsuits over the abuse that it catalogs, because the statute of limitations has expired on those cases. Current state law allows victims of abuse as children 12 years to sue after they come of age at 18, meaning they must do so by age 30. Criminal complaints must be filed by the time the victim is 50. Those rules leave the vast majority of abuse survivors, who came forward later in life — the grand jury said they include people as old as 83 — with no legal recourse. Only two of the cases in the report have so far led to criminal charges....
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/15/us/pennsylvania-sex-abuse-statute-of-limitations.html

 

 

Tear down the protections for pedophile priests
By Editorial Board August 20
IN AN extraordinary communique to the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics, Pope Francis on Monday acknowledged the “atrocities” committed by pedophile priests and the church hierarchy that systematically covered up their crimes, recognized the inadequacy of efforts “to beg pardon” and admitted that the victims’ “wounds never go away.” In so doing, the pontiff provided a powerful rationale for dropping the church’s long-standing opposition to allowing decades-old cases of rape and molestation by priests to be subject to prosecution and lawsuits.

 

At last, after years of half-measures and tone-deaf remarks, the pope seems to have woken up to the scale of abuse and corruption sanctioned by the church. The question now is whether he is willing or able to turn the tide of institutional resistance in the Vatican and dioceses worldwide that too often has blocked victims from seeking justice and recompense....

Many states have extended or dropped limits on the number of years within which prosecutors are able to charge child sexual abuse felonies. In other states, including Maryland, New York and Pennsylvania, efforts to extend criminal statutes of limitations have failed. And the church has spent millions of dollars fighting changes in statutes of limitations to give victims, who often cannot speak for decades about the abuse they suffered as children, more time to bring civil lawsuits.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/tear-down-the-protections-for-pedophile-priests/2018/08/20/f2d6376a-a4ab-11e8-97ce-cc9042272f07_story.html

 

The Credibility of Ritual Abuse Allegations
Presenter: Randy Noblitt, PhD
https://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/2018-conference/the-credibility-of-ritual-abuse-allegations/

 

Changes in Awareness of Severe Abuse and Child Abuse Crimes Over Twenty Five Years Presenter: Neil Brick
https://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/2018-conference/changes-in-awareness-of-severe-abuse-and-child-abuse-crimes-over-twenty-five-years/

 

Child and Ritual Abuse Conference Helps Educate Survivors and Their Helpers; Speakers included Dr. Randy Noblitt and Neil Brick
https://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=227656

N.Y. pol says Brooklyn bishop offered $5G bribe for her to drop child-abuse reform, 22 life sentences for British pedophile who pleaded guilty to 71 child abuse offenses in Asia

EXCLUSIVE: N.Y. pol says Brooklyn bishop offered $5G bribe for her to drop child-abuse reform; diocese calls her allegation ‘patently false’

BY  Kenneth Lovett  Michael O’keeffe  Stephen Rex Brown  NEW YORK DAILY NEWS  Monday, June 6, 2016

The head of the Catholic Church in Brooklyn offered a $5,000 bribe to an Albany politician in exchange for dropping her support for the reform of a state law preventing victims of child sexual abuse from seeking justice, the pol claimed Monday.

Assemblywoman Margaret Markey, who has for a decade advocated for an overhaul of the state’s statute of limitations on claims of child sexual abuse, said she turned down the unholy hush money from Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio in 2010.

“I’m not a billionaire, but I don’t need $5,000 to buy me off,” Markey told the Daily News.

The offer came across as a payoff, not a campaign donation, she added.

Pol proposes constitutionally questionable child-sex abuse law

The Brooklyn Diocese called the allegation “patently false.”....

After declining the offer, DiMarzio targeted her with robocalls as she ran for reelection against Republican challenger Anthony Nunziato, saying she did not have Catholic values, Markey said.

“I do have Catholic values — but my Catholic values don’t include raping children,” said Markey, who easily won reelection in 2010....

The offer isn’t the first time DiMarzio allegedly played hardball with politicians over Markey’s bill, which would make it easier for victims to sue and also grant a one-year window for those whose statute of limitations had expired to bring a civil lawsuit.

In 2009, DiMarzio reportedly threatened lawmakers who supported Markey’s Child Victims Act, telling them he would close parishes in their districts — and say they were to blame.

The diocese denied that threat was ever made.

The state’s Catholic Conference spent $2.1 million between 2007 and 2015 lobbying against efforts to reform the law, as well as other measures. Others, like yeshivas and private schools, have also opposed Markey’s bill.

The church supports other bills that would extend the statute of limitations, but that does not include the one-year lookback, Erstad said.....
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/n-y-pol-claims-bishop-bribed-give-child-abuse-law-article-1.2663673



22 life sentences for British pedophile who pleaded guilty to 71 child abuse offenses in Asia
June 6, 2016, by CNN Wire Service

A London court handed 22 life sentences to a man Monday after he pleaded guilty to 71 child abuse offenses while in Southeast Asia.

Richard Huckle, 30, was arrested at Gatwick Airport near London in 2014 as he returned home from Malaysia, where he committed most of his crimes, Britain’s National Crime Agency said.

He confessed to abusing almost 200 children on a blog he published on the dark web, an area of the Internet not easily accessible to the general user.

According to Court News UK, Huckle posed as a Christian English teacher to groom and abuse children, including one as young as six months, in a poor Malaysian community over nine years.

He also committed child abuse in Cambodia, the National Crime Agency said. British law allows nationals to be prosecuted in their home country for offenses committed abroad.

The court heard the amateur photographer took pictures and videos of himself raping children that he groomed from schools and orphanages, and shared the images with other pedophiles on the dark web, according to Court News UK.

In his blog, Huckle awarded himself “Pedopoints” on a type of scorecard, claiming to have abused 191 children, according to Court News.

Huckle then tried to monetize his behavior, accepting bitcoin, the online currency, to continue the abuse and publish it online, Court News said.

He forced victims to pose with signs to advertise his business and wrote a 60-page guide entitled “Pedophiles & Poverty: Child Lover Guide” that the judge called a “truly evil document,” Court News said.

Huckle was caught when Australian police tipped off authorities in an investigation into a pedophile website that officials said had 9,000 members before it was shut down.

The NCA said officials had recovered more than 20,000 indecent images of children from Huckle’s computers and cameras, including more than 1,000 of which showed him raping and abusing children in his care....
http://fox6now.com/2016/06/06/22-life-sentences-for-british-pedophile-who-pleaded-guilty-to-71-child-abuse-offenses-in-asia/


Child, Clergy and Ritual Abuse Research https://ritualabuse.us

Catholic Church spent $2M on major N.Y. lobbying firms to block child-sex law reform, Child abuse inquiry turns to Kincora home and claims of MI5 blackmail, Hostages, drugs, grenades — Colombia cracks down on notorious “Bronx” slum, How child sexual abuse became a family business in the Philippines, Child sex abuse and the internet

- Catholic Church spent $2M on major N.Y. lobbying firms to block child-sex law reform
- Child abuse inquiry turns to Kincora home and claims of MI5 blackmail
- Hostages, drugs, grenades — Colombia cracks down on notorious “Bronx” slum
- How child sexual abuse became a family business in the Philippines
- A crime scene of unspeakable horror: child sex abuse and the internet

EXCLUSIVE: Catholic Church spent $2M on major N.Y. lobbying firms to block child-sex law reform
BY Kenneth Lovett NEW YORK DAILY NEWS ALBANY BUREAU CHIEF Monday, May 30, 2016

ALBANY — Not leaving it to divine chance, the state Catholic Conference has turned in recent years to some of Albany’s most well-connected and influential lobby firms to help block a bill that would make it easier for child sex abuse victims to seek justice.

The Catholic Conference, headed by Timothy Cardinal Dolan, has used Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker, Patricia Lynch & Associates, Hank Sheinkopf, and Mark Behan Communications to lobby against the Child Victims Act as well as for or against other measures.

All told, the conference spent more than $2.1 million on lobbying from 2007 through the end of 2015, state records show. That does not include the conference’s own internal lobbying team.

Filings show the lobbyists were retained, in part, to work on issues associated with “statute of limitations” and “timelines for commencing certain civil actions related to sex offenses.” Other issues included parochial school funding and investment tax credits....

While a far cry from the millions in lobbying top special interests spend in Albany each year, advocates for child sex abuse survivors say the $2.1 million spent likely represents a worthwhile investment to the Catholic Conference if it can continue to block legislation that would eliminate the statute of limitations on child sex abuse civil cases and open a one-year window to bring lawsuits for victims who can no longer sue under current law.

The Catholic Conference has argued that opening a one-year window to revive old cases could ultimately bankrupt the Church....
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/catholic-church-hired-lobby-firms-block-n-y-kid-rape-laws-article-1.2655010 


Child abuse inquiry turns to Kincora home and claims of MI5 blackmail
Inquiry will hear from men abused as boys at Northern Ireland children’s home and allegations that perpetrators were protected by working as spies  Henry McDonald Ireland correspondent Monday 30 May 2016

An inquiry into child abuse across a range of institutions in Northern Ireland will focus on Tuesday on the Kincora boys home scandal including allegations that MI5 blackmailed a paedophile ring which operated there in the 1970s.

The historical institutional abuse inquiry will hear evidence from men who were abused at Kincora when they were children and their allegations that the perpetrators were protected because they were state agents spying on fellow Ulster loyalists.

A number of Kincora abuse victims have tried through the courts to force the scandal to be included in the national investigation into allegations of establishment paedophile rings operating in Westminster.

Gary Hoy tried and failed last month to force the home secretary to include Kincora in the Westminster inquiry. Hoy and others fear that the Kincora inquiry, which is based in Northern Ireland and taking hearings at the court in Banbridge, County Down, will not have access to sensitive MI5 intelligence files on the people who ran Kincora.

Amnesty International has described the Kincora scandal as one of the most disturbing to emerge from the Ulster Troubles....

At least 29 boys were sexually abused by Kincora housemaster and prominent Orange Order member William McGrath and others at the east Belfast home....

Another of the abuse victims at Kincora, Clint Massey, told the Guardian last year that he even tried to file a report at a local police station in east Belfast about what was happening to him and other boys at the home in the mid-1970s. However, Massey said he was forcibly marched out of the RUC station by police officers and that his complaint was not recorded.

Former army intelligence officer and whistleblower Colin Wallace has consistently claimed that MI5, RUC special branch and military intelligence knew about the abuse going on at Kincora and used it to blackmail the paedophile ring to spy on hardline loyalists....

The historical institutional abuse inquiry is investigating 22 orphanages, care homes and other institutions where child sexual abuse took place. The inquiry team is expected to hear from around 450 witnesses, some of whom have travelled from as far as the United States and Australia to give evidence....
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/may/30/n-ireland-child-abuse-inquiry-turns-to-kincora-home-and-claims-of-mi5-blackmail

Hostages, drugs, grenades — Colombia cracks down on notorious “Bronx” slum
May 31, 2016  By Jim Wyss  BOGOTA, Colombia

It’s known as “El Bronx,” and for decades the slum in the heart of Colombia’s capital has been the stuff of nightmares: a sordid stew of drug dens, vagrants, prostitution and gambling.

Close to government buildings and tourism hotspots, the area has been a no-go zone for police — and anyone else who cared for their pocketbook or their safety.

Mayor Enrique Peñalosa calls it an “independent republic of crime.”

Starting Saturday, the police and heavily armed military began seizing control of the area, and the reports that have emerged prove the neighborhood’s fearsome reputation is merited.

Guns, Hostages, Grenades

Police said they had removed more than 2,000 people — many of them homeless drug addicts — from the neighborhood and rescued 136 minors, some of them victims of the sex trade. They also seized stockpiles of cocaine, marijuana and bazuco, an addictive crack-like substance.

In addition, they found hidden passageways used to smuggle drugs and weapons, and rescued a 23-year-old man who was being held hostage in a derelict building, bound hand and foot and with a chain around his neck.

“What we found in the Bronx went far beyond what we knew,” Daniel Mejía, the city’s undersecretary of security, told RCN radio on Tuesday. “We found caches of weapons and grenades, large amounts of drugs [hidden] in walls and ceilings, houses for satanic worship and places for the sexual exploitation of minors....

Luz Estela Cardenas, the director of Renacer, a foundation that works with sexually exploited children, said that many of the 18,000 minors her organization has helped over the last 28 years have emerged from the Bronx and neighborhoods like it.

Many victims start off visiting the areas to buy drugs, she said, before getting snared by criminal networks.

“This goes well beyond sexual abuse,” she said. “The issue is exploitation and the trafficking of girls and boys. Some of these children are sexual slaves.... Others have literally been kidnapped off the streets surrounding the Bronx....
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/colombia/article80874132.html

How child sexual abuse became a family business in the Philippines
Tens of thousands of children believed to be victims of live-streaming abuse, some of it being carried out by their own parents
by Oliver Holmes in Manila  Monday 30 May 2016 

When Philippine police smashed into the one-bedroom house, they found three girls aged 11, seven and three lying naked on a bed.

At the other end of the room stood the mother of two of the children – the third was her niece – and her eldest daughter, aged 13, who was typing on a keyboard. A live webcam feed on the computer screen showed the faces of three white men glaring out.

An undercover agent had infiltrated the impoverished village two weeks before the raid. Pretending to be a Japayuki, a slang term for a Filipina sex worker living in Japan, she had persuaded a resident to introduce her to the children, who played daily in the gravel streets.

Her guise was intended to put them at ease, to show them she worked in the same industry; she was one of them. She became close to the eldest, referred to as Nicole although that is not her real name. After a few days of chatting, Nicole causally told the agent about their “shows”.

“It was the first time we heard of parents using their children,” said the middle-aged woman.

Authorities considered that operation in 2011 to be a one-off case. But the next month, another family was caught in the same area. Then more cases of live-streaming child abuse appeared in different parts of the Philippines.

Now, the United Nations says, there are tens of thousands of children believed to be involved in a rapidly expanding local child abuse industry already worth US$1bn.

In some areas, entire communities live off the business, abetted by increasing internet speeds, advancing cameraphone technology, and growing ease of money transfers across borders.

And while perpetrators used to download photos and videos to their hard drives – providing authorities with a virtual paper trail and usable evidence – criminals have found anonymity in encrypted live-streaming programs....
“We think that what we are seeing, what we are dealing with, is a small part of what is out there,” she said. “It is big money. Big business.”

Children are made to perform around the clock, with morning live-streams catering to Europeans and Americans, and later in the day, an Australian-based clientele.

The number of ongoing live-streaming criminal cases in the Philippines is rising, from 57 in 2013, growing to 89 in 2014, and up to 167 in 2015....
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/31/live-streaming-child-sex-abuse-family-business-philippines 


A crime scene of unspeakable horror': child sex abuse and the internet
Perpetrators of online child sexual abuse will continue to take advantage of the latest technology to serve their purposes
Joanna Shields  Baroness Joanna Shields is the UK minister for internet safety and security Monday 30 May 2016

....Faster internet, anonymous access and cryptocurrency mechanisms all provide opportunities for criminals to access child sexual abuse images.

Images of child sexual abuse are uploaded and shared everyday. Some of these images are screen captures of live-streamed sexual abuse of children of all ages, even infants. Each image, each video depicts a crime scene of unspeakable horror.

Child sexual abuse is a global crime that transcends borders, and demands a global response. The WePROTECT Global Alliance to end online child sexual exploitation is that response.

The goal of WePROTECT is to eradicate child sexual exploitation online. Full stop. Its mission is to empower everyone with a responsibility to protect children online, to identify and safeguard victims, remove child sexual abuse material from the internet and track down perpetrators all over the world....
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/may/31/a-scene-of-unspeakable-horror-child-sex-abuse-and-the-internet 

Feds May Seek Racketeering Suit for Clergy Abuse in Diocese, Sex Abuse by UN peacekeepers

Feds May Seek Racketeering Suit for Clergy Abuse in Diocese
By The Associated Press PITTSBURGH  Apr 3, 2016

A federal prosecutor may file a racketeering lawsuit against a Roman Catholic diocese where a state grand jury found two former bishops helped cover up the sexual abuse of hundreds of children by more than 50 clergy over a 40-year period.

The ongoing investigation of the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese grew out of the prosecution of the Rev. Joseph Maurizio Jr., U.S. Attorney David Hickton said Friday.

The 71-year-old Somerset County priest was convicted last year of molesting two street children during missionary trips to Honduras. He was sentenced to nearly 17 years in prison, fined $50,000 and forced to pay his victims $10,000 each.

Hickton said the ongoing investigation concerns whether diocesan officials engaged in a pattern of criminal activity that would fall under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, commonly referred to as RICO.

The statute of limitations has lapsed on criminal racketeering charges, but there is no time limit for filing a RICO lawsuit, Hickton said. KDKA-TV first reported that Hickton was considering such a lawsuit. A diocesan spokesman didn't immediately comment.

"The remedy that would be available under a civil RICO would be some sort of injunctive relief," Hickton said. "If we were able to get a consent decree, that would be one route."

Injunctive relief is simply a court order requiring the diocese to do something. A consent decree is a voluntary agreement between prosecutors and a target that certain reforms would be enacted.... http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/feds-seek-racketeering-suit-clergy-abuse-diocese-38118342


The vile sex abuse by UN peacekeepers is leaving the United Nations in tatters
Cathy Newman Channel 4 News Presenter
14 April 2016

Sexual violence in war “is as destructive as any bomb or bullet”, the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said a couple of years ago....

Sexual violence in conflict is one of the oldest crimes....

There were no fewer than 99 allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation by the “blue helmets” – as UN military personnel are nicknamed – last year, and there have been 25 new claims this year. And those are just the ones we know about.

What’s perhaps even more shocking is that this isn’t the first time such claims have surfaced about the conduct of UN peacekeepers. There was an alleged paedophile ring in the Democratic Republic of Congo, UN police officers in Bosnia were paying for prostitutes and trafficking young women from Eastern Europe, and Pakistani peacekeepers were found guilty of sexual abuse in Haiti. There’s a track record going back decades.... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/politics/the-vile-sex-abuse-by-un-peacekeepers-is-leaving-the-united-nati/ 

Child Abuse Allegations Plague the Hasidic Community

Child Abuse Allegations Plague the Hasidic Community
By Elijah Wolfson On 3/3/16

....It’s widely accepted by child abuse experts and advocates that some kids are particularly vulnerable. Usually, they are disadvantaged in some way—family problems, rejection by their peer group—that perpetrators can exploit, particularly if they are teachers who also happen to be religious authorities.

....It was widely known that if you ratted out someone in the community for abuse, the community would turn its back on you. Gena Diacomanolis is the senior director of Safe Horizon’s Jane Barker Brooklyn Child Advocacy Center, where, over the past decade, she says, they have made tremendous strides in the Haredi communities. But the biggest barrier remains the pressure the community puts on individuals who want to come forward with stories of abuse.

“I can tell you tons of stories where they were so fearful of going forward,” she says. “I had one dad who said his son was sexually abused at school.” He decided not to press charges, Diacomanolis recalls. “He said, ‘I don't want you to think I don't love my child, but if I go forward, I won't find a marriage for my daughter.’”

Diacomanolis also says families are often harassed when they come forward. One client who charged her husband with abusing their child “left her house, and the whole block was papered with things saying terrible things about her.”

One mother who found out her son had been sexually abused by a teacher at United Lubavitcher Yeshiva Ocean Parkway (another Hasidic school in Brooklyn) says when she complained to the yeshiva’s principal, she was shunned. “I got thrown out of the community,” she says. “You can’t imagine what was said to me. The phone calls I got. I was an outcast. I was threatened.”

....Protecting the Predators

Chabad has a global network of synagogues, schools and other facilities that is often used to shelter abusers on the run. When rumors of abuse begin to bubble up, teachers are shuttled from school to school, city to city—like Reizes, shipped from Brooklyn to Miami and then back. In March 2008, eight students accused Malka Leifer, principal of the Adass Israel school for girls in Elsternwick, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia, of sexual abuse. Just days later, she hopped on a plane and fled to Israel. In September 2015, Australia’s Supreme Court awarded over $1 million in compensation to a 28-year-old abused by Leifer from 2003 to 2006.

According to court documents, it was discovered during the course of the trial that there was a concerted effort by the community to protect Leifer: The school’s president at the time, Yitzhok Benedikt, and board member Mark Ernst played key roles in arranging her escape to Israel. The two men are facing criminal charges; Leifer was arrested in Israel last year and is now fighting extradition to Australia.

In recent years, Australia has emerged as the country most willing to confront child abuse in the Hasidic world. In 2013, the government formed the Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, and in early 2015 it began a large investigation into the Hasidic community. Weeks of hearings led to a report detailing alleged abuses—and how yeshivas and rabbinical leadership cover up that abuse and systematically ostracize survivors and their families.

....In New York, survivors of most cases of child molestation have five years after they turn 18 to get the district attorney to prosecute. (In cases of sexual misconduct, legal proceedings must begin within two years after the offense was committed, regardless of the child’s age at the time of the alleged crime.) Many child abuse experts say that window is not nearly big enough for young men just starting to understand what happened to them. It’s no surprise that most of the abuse Newsweek uncovered happened long ago—no 10-year-old has the wherewithal to talk to the press about his abusive teacher. It takes a 25-year-old who has finally received a proper education to understand what was done to him 15 years ago.

For almost a decade, Assemblywoman Margaret Markey, from Queens, has been trying to pass a bill that would eliminate the statute of limitations on both criminal and civil cases of sex crimes against children. But she has faced fierce opposition from two political powerhouses: the New York State Catholic Conference and Agudath Israel of America.

The Hasidic world is starting to take allegations of abuse more seriously, and many of the individuals who talked on the record with Newsweek for this story say they finally feel comfortable speaking publicly about their personal histories with abuse because of the community support that has emerged in recent years.
http://www.newsweek.com/2016/03/11/child-abuse-allegations-hasidic-ultraorthodox-jewish-community-brooklyn-432688.html   

Bill Cosby deposed under oath in sexual assault civil lawsuit case, Defamation Suit Against Bill Cosby Will Go Forward in Massachusetts

Bill Cosby deposed under oath in sexual assault civil lawsuit case
By Miriam Hernandez Friday, October 09, 2015   LOS ANGELES (KABC)

Comedian Bill Cosby was interviewed under oath Friday in a sexual assault civil lawsuit after a woman claimed the entertainer sexually assaulted her when she was 15 years old....

Under the law, an adult who was victimized as a child has a longer period to file a civil lawsuit, but the statute of limitations has passed for a criminal case.

Cosby's lawyers long denied the claims in court and said they were "absolutely false."

Huth said she and a colleague met Cosby on a movie set and that later at the mansion, he served alcoholic beverages and proceeded to molest her.

But Cosby said that Huth has engaged in extortion. She threatened to take her story to a tabloid and asked for $100,000 to $250,000. His legal team has fought the current complaint all the way to the Supreme Court, arguing that there had been a procedural error.

But they lost, which led to Friday's deposition.

"We need to be able to question Mr. Cosby under oath," Allred said. "This is very serious. This is completely unprecedented in my almost 40 years of law practice. I have never seen so many allegations by so many accusers against one man."....
http://abc7.com/entertainment/bill-cosby-deposed-under-oath-in-sexual-assault-civil-lawsuit-case/1025700/ 

Defamation Suit Against Bill Cosby Will Go Forward in Massachusetts
By GRAHAM BOWLEY and SYDNEY EMBER OCT. 9, 2015

A Massachusetts federal judge refused Friday to dismiss a lawsuit by three women who say Bill Cosby sexually assaulted them and then later defamed them by allowing his representatives to brand their accounts as fiction.

Also on Friday, Mr. Cosby was to answer questions under oath in a separate California civil case brought by a woman, Judy Huth, who says the entertainer forced her to perform a sex act on him when she was 15.

In the Massachusetts defamation case, Tamara Green, Therese Serignese and Linda Traitz accuse Mr. Cosby of assaulting them in the 1970s. The women were unable to bring legal charges directly related to the assault accusations because of the statute of limitations.

Instead, they filed a defamation complaint, arguing that Mr. Cosby had depicted them as liars when his representatives denied their accusations.
 
Mr. Cosby’s lawyers argued that, among other things, his representatives were only speaking in his defense. But the judge in United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, Mark G. Mastroianni, wrote that Mr. Cosby’s motions to dismiss the case “are denied in their entirety.”

Joseph Cammarata, a lawyer for the three women, said the ruling meant he could now pursue the case aggressively and would question Mr. Cosby under oath....
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/10/business/defamation-suit-against-cosby-will-go-forward-in-massachusetts.html

Bill Cosby sued by model over alleged sexual assault, Judge won't dismiss woman's molestation suit against Bill Cosby

Bill Cosby sued by model over alleged sexual assault
7 October 2015

A 25-year-old model has sued US comedian Bill Cosby, alleging he sexually assaulted her at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles in 2008.

Chloe Goins claims Mr Cosby drugged and molested her when she was 17.

The civil lawsuit accuses Mr Cosby of "childhood sexual abuse" and demands damages of at least $75,000 (£49,000). Ms Goins is also seeking a jury trial.

Mr Cosby, 78, is facing a series of sexual assault accusations dating back decades. He has denied the claims.

The star is due to testify on Friday in a separate lawsuit brought by Judy Huth, who accused the comedian of sexually abusing her at the Playboy Mansion in 1974, when she was 15 years old.

More than 50 women have come forward publicly over the past year with allegations including drugging, sexual harassment, sexual assault and rape - all of which Mr Cosby denies.

In most cases, the alleged incidents date back decades, meaning they fall outside the time limit for legal action.

But Ms Goins' allegations do fall within California's statute of limitations, and prosecutors are also now reviewing the evidence for possible criminal charges.

The model told reporters: "Today I recognise that I've taken legal action that many of the other victims of Bill Cosby will never be able to take. This has gone on long enough, it's time Bill Cosby was held accountable for his crimes."....
http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-34463079  


Judge won't dismiss woman's molestation suit against Bill Cosby
AP October 7, 2015

A judge on Wednesday refused to throw out a lawsuit filed by a woman who accuses Bill Cosby of molesting her when she was 15, saying the comedian can still receive a fair trial despite procedural errors.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Craig Karlan's ruling came over the objections of Cosby's attorneys, who sought to dismiss Judy Huth's case because her previous attorney violated rules for how older sex-abuse cases should be handled.

Cosby's attorney Martin Singer argued the lawsuit improperly included Cosby's name, which caused the comedian harm and required him to defend himself against numerous other allegations from women who claim he abused them decades ago.

"This was the linchpin that triggered everything going forward," Singer said.

Huth's former attorney admitted Wednesday he erred by naming Cosby in the lawsuit filed in December 2014. Huth, 57, claims Cosby forced her to perform a sex act on him at the Playboy Mansion around 1974....

Karlan said in his ruling that he was troubled by the mistake by Huth's previous lawyer, but despite that he felt Cosby could still get a fair trial. He also noted Cosby's name would have eventually been disclosed in Huth's case and received widespread notoriety.

Huth's former attorney, Marc Strecker, acknowledged he overlooked a portion of the legal code that states claims by adult plaintiffs that they were victims of underage sexual abuse should omit the defendant's real name. "I made a mistake," Strecker said....
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/judge-wont-dismiss-womans-molestation-suit-against-bill-cosby/ 

Model Who Alleges Bill Cosby Drugged and Assaulted Her Speaks Out: I'll Never 'Get Over' What Happened, Bill Cosby loses latest legal skirmish

Model Who Alleges Bill Cosby Drugged and Assaulted Her Speaks Out: I'll Never 'Get Over' What Happened

By Aurelie Corinthios 09/08/2015

Model Chloe Goins says she's still suffering after coming forward with her claim that she was sexually assaulted by Bill Cosby.

The 24-year-old, whose allegations may be the first to fall within the statute of limitations and lead to a criminal case against the comedian, spoke recently with Dr. Phil McGraw along with four others among more than 40 women who have come forward over the past year accusing Cosby, 78, of drugging and assaulting them.

Many of their stories echo the experiences of the five women who first spoke to PEOPLE in 2006 for an article that helped to break open the scandal, which began after Andrea Constand, a former Temple University employee, filed a civil suit claiming that Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her in his Philadelphia-area mansion in 2004. Constand's suit was settled out of court.

On an upcoming episode of Dr. Phil, Goins alleges the comedian drugged and assaulted her at the Playboy Mansion in 2008....

Cosby is scheduled to give his testimony Oct. 9. The deposition will mark the first time he will speak about a sexual-assault allegation against him since a separate case in 2005....
http://www.people.com/article/chloe-goins-talks-bill-cosby-allegations-on-dr-phil


Bill Cosby loses latest legal skirmish
Jayme Deerwester, USA TODAY  September 5, 2015

Bill Cosby's legal team will be spending the Labor Day weekend licking their wounds after a judge denied their request to see documents that may explain how his 2005 sexual battery case deposition were leaked to the New York Times.

According to filings obtained by TheWrap.com, Cosby's attorneys filed a discovery motion in July, operating under the theory that accuser Andrea Constand and her attorney Dolores Troiani facilitated the leak, which, if true, violated a June court order.

On Friday, Judge John R. Radova ruled that the contents of the deposition are actually subject to the 2006 settlement agreement between Cosby and Constand rather than that court order.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2015/09/05/bill-cosby-loses-latest-legal-skirmish/71767786/

Bill Cosby to Be Deposed in Molestation Lawsuit, Meirion Jones: 'Everyone on right side of the Savile argument has been forced out of the BBC'

- Bill Cosby to Be Deposed by Sept. 30 in Molestation Lawsuit: 'We Are Looking Forward to That Day,' Says Accuser's Lawyer
- LAPD's Bill Cosby investigation could help establish pattern of abuse
- Barbara Kay: To understand Bill Cosby, start with Alfred C. Kinsey
- Meirion Jones: 'Everyone on right side of the Savile argument has been forced out of the BBC'

Bill Cosby to Be Deposed by Sept. 30 in Molestation Lawsuit: 'We Are Looking Forward to That Day,' Says Accuser's Lawyer
By Tara Fowler  07/29/2015
Bill Cosby will be deposed in the next two months in a molestation lawsuit, according to attorney Gloria Allred.

Allred, who represents Judy Huth and 16 other Cosby accusers, said Tuesday that a California judge has ordered the comedian to give a deposition in the civil suit filed by her client, according to a statement obtained by PEOPLE. That deposition, she said, is scheduled to come no later than Sept. 30....

Huth has claimed that Cosby, 78, molested her inside the Playboy Mansion when she was just 15 years old. She is just one of the nearly 50 women who've accused Cosby of some form of sexual abuse.

While the statute of limitations has expired for a criminal case, California law allows allegations of underage sexual abuse to come to court as a civil lawsuit even decades after the alleged incident happened.

Cosby and his lawyers have continually denied the allegations against him.... http://www.people.com/article/bill-cosby-to-be-deposed-molestation-lawsuit



LAPD's Bill Cosby investigation could help establish pattern of abuse  By Richard Winton
Of the many misconduct allegations made by women against Bill Cosby in Los Angeles over the decades, L.A. police are actively investigating just one.

It involves claims by a woman who says Cosby assaulted her at the Playboy Mansion in 2008, when she was 18.

She alleges Cosby gave her a drink that caused her to black out. When she awoke, she said, she found herself naked on a bed in the mansion with Cosby biting her toes with his pants around his ankles, according to her attorney. Cosby’s attorneys have denied the accusations.

In January, Chloe Goins, 24, was interviewed for 2 1/2 half hours by an LAPD detective. Officials say they are continuing to investigate, and prosecutors say detectives have not presented them with a case.

Earlier this year, the L.A. district attorney rejected another Cosby case presented by the LAPD because it happened decades ago. Goins’ case is more recent but also faces challenges.
Under California law, the legal deadline for prosecuting most rape cases involving an adult victim is 10 years.... http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-lapd-s-bill-cosby-investigation-could-help-establish-pattern-of-abuse-20150729-story.html 

Barbara Kay: To understand Bill Cosby, start with Alfred C. Kinsey
Barbara Kay  July 29, 2015
....But the most sophisticated strategy was the “Kinsey approach.” Hefner was a huge fan of Alfred C. Kinsey, an Indiana University zoologist, whose 1948 report, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, was the Sexual Revolution’s Ur-text (a “Human Female” volume came out in 1953). Hefner boasted of being “Kinsey’s pamphleteer,” proud to bruit the often-cited Kinsey mantra: “fornicate early, fornicate often, fornicate in every possible way” (including bestiality, which Kinsey described in more tender language than he applied to human sex).

....Young Lotharios may have gotten lucky with this ploy, but they were pushing what later researchers proved was bad science. Kinsey’s  “research” claimed such suspiciously high ratios of extramarital sex, abortions, homosexuality, bisexuality, bestiality and incest in the general population as to suggest that the only abnormal or deviant sexual condition was abstinence. According to W. Allen Wallis, past president of the American Statistical Association: “They were touting [Kinsey’s book] everywhere even though the statistics were appalling.”

Kinsey’s team, some of whom later lent their names to pedophilia advocacy, claimed that sexuality begins at birth, concluding it was normal for children to engage in peer and inter-generational sex. In the history of social science, no other academic researcher of early child development (Piaget, Maslow et. al) has publicly asserted that sexual intercourse, including incest, has no harmful effect on children. How did Kinsey arrive at this erroneous conclusion? Unethically.

For example (see Tables 30-33 of his Male volume), Kinsey reports that in sex-play experiments of male children from infancy to mid-teens, most arrived at orgasm, the youngest boy observed to climax being “two months.” A four-year old was reported to have had 26 climaxes in 24 hours. How did this non-consensual experimentation take place at all? This is not science. This is child abuse.

Kinsey’s claims were also based on feedback he solicited from convicted pedophiles. Rapists told Kinsey that their child victims enjoyed the sex (a common delusion amongst pedophiles), which he reported as fact. He protected one rapist actively being sought by the police, and accorded legitimacy to the views of another, on record for raping 800 children, the youngest two months of age. Not exactly a “community” sampling.... http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/barbara-kay-to-understand-bill-cosby-start-with-alfred-c-kinsey


Meirion Jones: 'Everyone on right side of the Savile argument has been forced out of the BBC'   Dominic Ponsford  29 July 2015

Three days after finishing work on Panorama documentary The Fake Sheikh Exposed, producer Meirion Jones was told his services were no longer required by the programme.

His previous job as head of investigations at Newsnight had been filled in his absence. He was effectively out of a job.

After 26 years at the BBC, Jones (pictured above, Reuters) felt like this career at the corporation had come to an end and he was being squeezed out.

Jones believes he was punished because he tried to expose the Jimmy Savile scandal at the BBC and spoke out about the way his Newsnight investigation of December 2011 was suppressed.

Liz MacKean, who worked on the Savile story with Jones, left after 23 years with the corporation in April last year. She also felt she no longer had a future with the BBC.

Speaking out in detail for the first time since he left the BBC in February, Jones paints a picture of a corporation which appears to have failed to learn the lessons of the biggest scandal in its history.

He believes those on the side of exposing the Savile scandal mistakes have been sidelined and encouraged to leave the corporation – while others involved in suppressing the Savile story have kept their jobs....

Press Gazette put Jones’ criticisms to the BBC.

A spokesperson said: "Meirion Jones has made his views known before and we have always been clear that nobody was forced out of the BBC for exposing the Savile scandal.... http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/meirion-jones-speaks-out-everyone-who-was-right-side-savile-argument-has-been-forced-out-bbc

Will Bill Cosby ever face prosecution over allegations of sexual misdeeds?, Scale of child abuse images online is 'shocking', says NSPCC

Will Bill Cosby ever face prosecution over allegations of sexual misdeeds?
By Paul Farhi July 20, 2015

There is little question that Bill Cosby’s revered reputation is in tatters. But will he ever be called to account for conduct that has led to multiple lawsuits and accusations of sexual misconduct from more than 40 women?

The one assault allegation against Cosby to progress through the legal system — a 2005 civil suit brought by a Temple University employee named Andrea Constand — was settled without any admission by Cosby. But Constand’s complaint set in motion events that could raise new legal troubles for Cosby and that have the potential to be powerful pieces of evidence against him in potential civil or criminal cases, plaintiffs attorneys and others say. The most problematic are Cosby’s own account contained in court records and his deposition in the Constand case.

The records, which have been unsealed or disclosed in the past two weeks, contain Cosby’s admission that he gave drugs to women he sought to have sex with, including Constand and some of the long line of women who have accused him of drugging and assaulting women since the late 1960s (Cosby has denied any criminal intent)....

Cosby, however, may still face criminal charges. The Los Angeles Police Department is investigating a sexual-battery complaint filed by Chloe Goins,a model who says Cosby spiked her drink during a party at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles in 2008 and then removed her clothes and masturbated in her presence after she passed out, according to Goins’s attorney, Spencer Kuvin.

The statute of limitations on the allegation won’t run out until next April, Kuvin said. He said the LAPD has questioned Goins twice since she came forward in December. If officials decline to pursue a criminal case, he said, he is prepared to file a civil suit on Goins’s behalf.

The LAPD has confirmed an ongoing investigation of Cosby’s behavior but has not identified the alleged victim. Gloria Allred, an attorney who represents 17 Cosby accusers, said one of her clients, Judy Huth, also has spoken to detectives....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/will-bill-cosby-ever-face-prosecution-over-allegations-of-sexual-misconduct/2015/07/20/c01fa5d6-2f24-11e5-8353-1215475949f4_story.html

Scale of child abuse images online is 'shocking', says NSPCC
Charity claims there are two convictions each day for indecent images and calls for urgent action two years after government promised crackdown

More than a quarter of those convicted of viewing abuse images were also found guilty of other sexual crimes.  Press Association Tuesday 21 July 2015

Two people are being convicted of child abuse image crimes every day on average, two years after a government pledge to crack down on the offence, the NSPCC says.

The charity said its analysis of news reports showed there had been at least 1,000 court cases involving indecent images of children since David Cameron’s July 2013 speech in which he threatened to impose tough new laws on internet companies if they failed to blacklist key search terms.

The NSPCC said a snapshot of 100 cases revealed that 4.5m child abuse images were discovered among them, with one in three of the 101 convicted criminals involved having held a position of trust or a role that allowed them access to children....

Six out of 10 were jailed. Those convicted included a father and son, and a teenager who confessed to viewing such pictures from the age of 12. More than a quarter were also convicted of other sexual crimes, including grooming, voyeurism, and indecent assault, and one in six already had criminal records for similar offences....
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jul/22/scale-of-child-abuse-images-online-is-shocking-says-nspcc

New child abuse scandal hits Mike Huckabee: Republican White House hopeful's co-author molested girl, 11, and escaped charges because of statute of limitations

New child abuse scandal hits Mike Huckabee: Republican White House hopeful's co-author molested girl, 11, and escaped charges because of statute of limitations

    John Perry co-authored Huckabee's 2008 campaign memoirs and is now revealed to have molested girl between ages of 11 and 14
    Police concluded abuse had taken place but they were alerted to it after statute of limitations had kicked in
    Perry tells Daily Mail Online 'the parties involved were reconciled and restored years ago' and abuse emerged because of vendetta
    No suggestion Huckabee knew Perry was an abuser but comes after Duggar family revealed to have covered up son Josh's molestation of sisters

By Francesca Chambers, White House Correspondent For Dailymail.com

11 June 2015

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee is facing fresh controversy over links to a child abuser today.

The evangelical Christian politician's co-author was revealed to have been found by police to have molested a girl when she was just 11, and continued the abuse for three years.

John Perry, a prolific author who helped co-write hit movie The Vow, was not prosecuted because the statute of limitations had passed by the time police became involved,Buzzfeed News reported as it revealed the abuse.

Perry is the second associate of Huckabee to have been revealed as an abuser, after Josh Duggar's abuse of his sisters was disclosed.

Perry today told Daily Mail Online that 'the parties involved were reconciled and restored years ago' and that the investigation had been prompted by an individual who had a 'vendetta' against his former church.....

Minutes of meetings from Covenant Presbyterian Church  - part of the national Presbyterian church - given to Buzzfeed by a parishioner show that Perry resigned from its deaconate in 2008.

At a separate meeting in 2010, Perry was reportedly excommunicated after 'he confessed to committing heinous and repetitive sin […] and has not shown evidence of repentance'.

Those same minutes were used as evidence in a 2012 lawsuit brought against the church by Mrs. Davis and her husband Austin Davis, who are no longer parishioners there.

The Nashville Police department told Buzzfeed, 'The alleged sexual battery was reported to have occurred when the victim was between the ages of 11 and 14.'

As a result of its 2012 investigation, 'the allegations of sexual battery were sustained, but it was determined that the statute of limitations had tolled, barring prosecution,' spokesman Don Aaron told Buzzfeed.

'The victim was age 18 when she first disclosed the allegations to non-law enforcement and said at that time she did not want the matter reported to the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services or the police.'

Perry's divorce proceedings are not a matter of public record. But Buzzfeed reports that, according to documents filed, Perry's ex-wife claims he 'admitted sexual abuse' of child.

His response to her claim, based on the documents, was that 'there was never any testimony or other evidence of any kind presented' nor were there 'any orders or findings of fact […] regarding any alleged sexual abuse of any minor child relative to the parties’ divorce or any other legal proceeding.'....
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3120240/New-child-abuse-scandal-hits-Mike-Huckabee-Republican-White-House-hopeful-s-author-molested-girl-11-escaped-charges-statute-limitations.html 

Ex-trooper: Duggars hid full extent of abuse, Up to 14 priests sexually abused children in Ballarat, commission hears, Paedophile Gerald Ridsdale admits another priest 'may have seen abuse'

- Ex-trooper: Duggars hid full extent of abuse
- Up to 14 priests sexually abused children in Ballarat, commission hears
- Paedophile Gerald Ridsdale admits another priest 'may have seen abuse'

Ex-trooper: Duggars hid full extent of abuse
Doug Stanglin, USA TODAY May 28, 2015

A former Arkansas state trooper claims the Duggar family concealed the extent of their son's alleged fondling of underage girls when the patriarch of the family turned to him for help disciplining the teenager more than a decade ago, In Touch reports.

The trooper, Hutchens, is currently serving 56 years in an Arkansas prison on child pornography charges. He spoke with In Touch on Wednesday through a local law firm, the publication says....

According to the police report, Jim Bob Duggar, the family patriarch, told police that he brought his son to then-State Trooper Joseph Hutchens, a personal friend, for a "stern talk" after Josh purportedly had gone through a Christian counseling program in 2003.

The report states that Hutchens said there was nothing more to do about the allegations, given that Josh Duggar had gone through a counseling program.

Michelle Duggar, Josh's mother, later told police that her son did not go through such a program but instead had stayed at a Little Rock home that a family friend was remodeling.

In Touch says that Hutchens' failure to report the abuse caused the police to halt their 2006 investigation because the statute of limitations had run out....

Hutchens disputes Duggar's account of the incident, saying Jim Bob Duggar only told him about a single incident of abuse.

He maintains that Jim Bob and Josh Duggar told him Josh had inappropriately touched one girl through her clothing while she slept. They said "it only happened one time," the former state trooper told In Touch.

Hutchens told In Touch that the Duggars' original account of the incident played a part in his decision not to report the alleged abuse....
http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2015/05/28/jim-bob-duggar-state-trooper-josh-duggar-fondling-sex-abuse/28058841/


Up to 14 priests sexually abused children in Ballarat, commission hears
Child sex abuse royal commission told there have been at least 130 claims and substantiated complaints of child sexual abuse against the diocese since 1980
Australian Associated Press Thursday 28 May 2015

As many as 14 priests have been found to have sexually abused children in Victoria’s Ballarat diocese, the child sexual abuse royal commission has heard.

Data before the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse shows there have been at least 130 claims and substantiated complaints of child sexual abuse against the Ballarat diocese since 1980.

Senior counsel assisting the commission Gail Furness said that number included seven claims jointly held against the Christian Brothers.
She said at least 14 priests of the Ballarat diocese have been the subject of one or more claim or substantiated complaint of child sex abuse. Ballarat bishop Paul Bird said he was not certain that all 14 had been substantiated and he thought it was a lower number, maybe 10 or 12....
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/may/29/up-to-14-priests-sexually-abused-children-in-ballarat-commission-hears


Paedophile Gerald Ridsdale admits another priest 'may have seen abuse'
Disgraced priest also accepts that he shared a house with George Pell in the 1970s and reveals details of the treatment arranged for him by the church   Oliver Milman Thursday 28 May 2015

....Pell, who is now a senior cleric at the Vatican, was an assistant priest in Ballarat from 1973 to 1983.
Paedophile Gerald Ridsdale says he did not tell George Pell about his child abuse

Ridsdale was a Catholic priest who lived in the St Alipius presbytery in Ballarat, a building that had two bedrooms on the top floor. Ridsdale was convicted of committing more than 140 sexual assaults against children as young as four over three decades until the 1980s.

The extent of the Catholic church’s desire to move Ridsdale to other parishes rather than report him to the police was further detailed in the Thursday hearing.

Despite three senior clerics being made aware of Ridsdale’s offending in Mortlake in the 1970s, he was moved to an administrative position in Sydney. Ridsdale told the hearing over a video link from prison that a boy from a prayer group stayed with him during this time.

Ridsdale was then moved to Horsham in Victoria, where he was an assistant priest from 1986 to 1988 and where he committed further offences....
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/may/28/paedophile-gerald-ridsdale-admits-another-priest-may-have-seen-abuse


Fran’s Day Care
May 20, 2015 case update:
State’s highest criminal court throws out 1992 convictions of sexual assault at Austin day care.
Court declines, however, to find Dan and Fran Keller innocent in case involving claims of satanic abuse.
https://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/articles/frans-day-care/

Rabbi Barry Freundel Taped Sex Encounters With 'Several' Women, The Definition of ‘Rape’ Cannot Change with a Marriage Certificate - India

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/

Evidence on rampant violence against children worldwide: Hidden in plain sight, Federal Appeals Court Rejects Yeshiva Sex Abuse Lawsuit

"But violence is not inevitable; it can be prevented."

Evidence on rampant violence against children ‘compels us to act’ – UNICEF report
4 September 2014 – Violence against children is universal – so prevalent and deeply ingrained in societies it is often unseen and accepted as the norm – according to new, unprecedented data presented by the United Nations today.

A new UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report, Hidden in plain sight: A statistical analysis of violence against children, draws on data from 190 countries in order to shed light on a largely undocumented issue.

The report found that about two thirds of children worldwide between ages 2 and 14 (almost 1 billion) are subjected to physical punishment by their caregivers on a regular basis. And yet, only about one third of adults worldwide believe that physical punishment of some kind is necessary to properly raise or educate a child....

The data includes new figures on violent discipline - the most common form of violence against children as well as violence against girls - widespread rates of physical and sexual abuse. It also takes a look at homicide rates - a leading cause of death among adolescent boys.

In fact, one fifth of homicide victims globally are children and adolescents under the age of 20, resulting in about 95,000 deaths in 2012, and slightly more than 1 in 3 students between the ages of 13 and 15 worldwide are regularly bullied in school.

“Violence begets violence. We know a child experiencing abuse is more likely to see violence as normal, even acceptable and more likely to perpetuate violence against his or her own children in the future,” UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake said.

Perceptions on violence including shocking figures on children’s views and reluctance to report abuse was also reported. Hence, changing attitudes with respect to violence against children starts with knowledge. The report is an opportunity to go into the public domain, and say “now you have to do something,” noted Ms. Bissell....

The effects of violence against children can last a lifetime, as exposure to violence can alter a child’s brain development damaging their physical, mental and emotional health. Violence is also passed down from one generation to the next. But violence is not inevitable; it can be prevented.... http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=48639#.VAkiohYXMoE

New global data expose acute prevalence of violence against children: UNICEF

Major findings include:

• Sexual violence: Around 120 million girls under the age of 20 worldwide (about 1 in 10) have experienced forced intercourse or other forced sexual acts, and one in 3 ever-married adolescent girls aged 15 to 19 (84 million) have been victims of emotional, physical or sexual violence committed by their husbands or partners....

• Homicide: One fifth of homicide victims globally are children and adolescents under the age of 20, resulting in about 95,000 deaths in 2012...Among countries in Western Europe and North America, the United States has the highest homicide rate.

• Bullying: Slightly more than 1 in 3 students between the ages of 13 and 15 worldwide are regularly bullied in school....

• Violent discipline: About 17 per cent of children in 58 countries are subject to severe forms of physical punishment (hitting on the head, ears or face or hitting hard and repeatedly)....

• Attitudes towards violence: Close to half of all adolescent girls aged 15 to 19 (around 126 million) believe a husband is justified in hitting his wife under certain circumstances....Data from 30 countries suggest that about seven in 10 girls 15-19 years old who had been victims of physical and/or sexual abuse had never sought help: many said they did not think it was abuse or did not see it as a problem. http://www.unicef.org/media/media_75530.html
 
#ENDviolence against children http://www.unicef.org/endviolence/

Hidden in Plain Sight: A statistical analysis of violence against children http://www.unicef.org/publications/index_74865.html
 
Federal Appeals Court Rejects Yeshiva Sex Abuse Lawsuit
September 4, 2014
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) – A New York court has tossed out a $380 million lawsuit claiming at least 34 ex-students of Yeshiva University High School for Boys were abused, some sexually, from 1971 to 1992.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Thursday the statute of limitations had expired. It said the plaintiffs had enough information to take action decades ago.

The lawsuit claimed administrators ignored abuse complaints and said they only learned of an alleged school cover-up in 2012.

The plaintiffs’ attorney Kevin Mulhearn promised to appeal, calling the ruling “intellectually and morally bankrupt.”

The school called the case “trying for all involved.” It said its confidential counseling services remain available for anyone who was harmed....

In the lawsuit, one alleged victim claimed administrators offered him a deaf ear when he said a Judaic studies teacher had sodomized him with a toothbrush, according to a New York Daily News report.

The lawsuit said Finkelstein also targeted children of Holocaust survivors, and “implored these children not to add to their parents’ suffering by telling them about the assaults.”

Mulhearn said the alleged abuse “caused a lifelong devastating impact to a multitude of boys... http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/09/04/federal-appeals-court-rejects-yeshiva-sex-abuse-lawsuit/

FBI: 168 kids rescued, 281 pimps nabbed in sex-trafficking crackdown, Deputies: Day care, mentoring program a front for Sanford child porn operation, Child abuse victims stung by Albany inaction (Child Victims Act)

FBI: 168 kids rescued, 281 pimps nabbed in sex-trafficking crackdown
CBS/AP June 23, 2014

WASHINGTON -- Nearly 170 victims of child sex trafficking, many of whom had never been reported missing, were rescued in the last week as part of an annual nationwide crackdown, the FBI said Monday.

Besides the 168 children rescued from the sex trade, 281 pimps were arrested during the same period on state and federal charges.

"These are not faraway kids in faraway lands," FBI Director James Comey said in announcing the annual enforcement push known as Operation Cross Country. Instead, he added, "These are America's children."

This is the eighth such week long-operation, which this year unfolded in 106 cities. The FBI says nearly 3,600 children have so far been recovered from the streets....

He said one concerning trend is the increasing prevalence of children who are being prostituted online.... http://www.cbsnews.com/news/fbi-168-kids-rescued-281-pimps-nabbed-in-sex-trafficking-crackdown/ 


Deputies: Day care, mentoring program a front for Sanford child porn operation  6/25/14

Sanford, N.C. — A pseudo day care and mentoring program operating out of the Sanford home of a convicted sex offender was actually a front for a child porn production operation, Harnett County Sheriff’s Office detectives said.

Four people have been arrested in the case. Investigators are searching for Tommy Wall, a fifth person who may be in the Raleigh or Fayetteville areas....

Investigators say Bailey Joe Mills, 33, who was convicted three times on charges related to sexual contact with children, ran the operation out of his former Nicole Drive home. They believe Mills ran the day care and mentoring program to attract young girls to his residence and to create a relationship with their parents. Mills then offered the girls money to have sex with men he found through different social media sites, authorities said....

Mills has had multiple arrests and convictions over the years....

The operation, which involves about 10 male and female victims ranging from ages 1 to 14, dates back to 2013, but it wasn’t discovered until Mills’ arrest in January. Investigators said they realized they had a much bigger case after going through Mills’ computer and cell phones.... http://www.wral.com/deputies-day-care-and-mentoring-program-a-front-for-child-porn-operation/13758447/


Child abuse victims stung by Albany inaction
By Shant Shahrigian 6/25/14

Horace Mann School graduate Joseph Cumming says it took him 34 years to fully realize his treatment at the hands of his music teacher Johannes Somary was sexual abuse. But by then, even if he had wanted to, it was far too late for him to take legal action. New York’s criminal and civil statute of limitations for sexual abuse of minors is five years after the victim turns 18.

After revelations of decades of abuse involving more than 30 victims at Horace Mann emerged in June 2012, the Bronx District Attorney’s office said the limitations prevented it from prosecuting any of the perpetrators.

The state legislature’s recent failure to take up the Child Victims Act — which would eliminate the criminal and civil statues of limitations for child sexual abuse and create a one-year window for past victims to seek justice — infuriated Mr. Cumming and other survivors....

“The main reason [the Child Victims Act] has not passed is that there is a caucus of centrist Democrats in the senate who have blocked it again and again,”....

A man who says he suffered sexual abuse at the Hackley School in Tarrytown, N.Y., which earlier this year acknowledged abuse of students in the 1960s, echoed Mr. Cumming’ point of view.

“These politicians end up protecting very bad people,” said the surivor, who did not want his name published.

The New York State Catholic Conference is strongly opposed to the act, saying it would unfairly subject the church — which has seen widespread allegations of child abuse by priests in recent years — to costly litigation. http://riverdalepress.com/stories/Child-abuse-victims-stung-by-Albany-inaction,54539

Bryan Singer sex abuse accuser names three more Hollywood bigwigs in lawsuits

Bryan Singer sex abuse accuser names three more Hollywood bigwigs in lawsuits   
 
Michael Egan III, 31, claims ex-NBC Entertainment head Garth Ancier forced him to have oral sex and both former Disney exec David Neuman and Broadway producer Gary Goddard also engaged in inappropriate behavior with him as a minor in the '90s.
BY Nancy Dillon NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Monday, April 21, 2014

The Nevada actor who publicly accused “X-Men” director Bryan Singer of sexually abusing him when he was 15 named three other Hollywood figures on Monday and said they too preyed on him during his teenage years.

Michael Egan III, 31, filed new federal lawsuits on Monday that accuse Garth R. Ancier, Gary Wayne Goddard and David Alexander Neuman of sexually assaulting him when he was as a minor in the late '90s.

Egan and his lawyer, Jeff Herman, who previously represented victims in the molestation lawsuits against “Sesame Street” puppeteer Kevin Clash, said the three men were allegedly part, along with Singer, of a “sordid sex ring” that preyed on teenage boys seeking stardom in Tinseltown. They allegedly attended “notorious parties” in Los Angeles and Hawaii, where underage boys were “groomed” to be sexually victimized and plied with drugs, alcohol and gifts — and sometimes subjected to violence, according to Egan and his lawyer.

Efforts to reach the three men for comment were not immediately successful....

Egan filed a separate federal lawsuit last week against the “X-Men” director, claiming that Singer repeatedly sexually abused him when he was a vulnerable teen in the late '90s. The accusations include forced sodomy.

Singer has denied the allegations, and his lawyer raising the possibility of a counter suit....
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/bryan-singer-sex-abuse-accuser-names-hollywood-bigwigs-lawsuits-article-1.1764009


Bryan Singer Accuser -- Alleged Sex Abuse Victim Accuses 3 More Hollywood Honchos
4/21/2014  BY TMZ STAFF

The man who has sued "X-Men" director Bryan Singer -- claiming he was sexually assaulted when he was 15 -- has just filed lawsuits against 3 other Hollywood big wigs, also claiming sexual assault.

The 3 men named in the new lawsuit are Garth Ancier, David Neuman and Gary Goddard.

Ancier has a slew of hits under his belt, including The Ricki Lake Show, which he created.  He headed up the Fox entertainment group and produced 21 Jump Street, Married ... with Children, The Simpsons and In Living Color.  He also developed Home Improvement at Disney.  And at NBC he put The West Wing on the air.

Neuman is the former president of Disney TV.  Goddard produced off-Broadway shows.

According to the new lawsuits, Ancier sexually abused Egan numerous times by sodomizing him, forcing oral sex and fondling him -- when he was 15 at an Encino estate.   The suit goes on to allege Ancier sexually abused Egan in Hawaii 2 years later.

The suit against Goddard and Neuman are similar -- alleging they were part of a Hollywood sex ring, giving Egan alcohol and drugs and sexually assaulted him at the Encino estate and in Hawaii....

The state of Hawaii has allowed alleged victims of sexual assault to sue, even if the statute of limitations has long since expired -- but the deadline for filing is Thursday.
http://www.tmz.com/2014/04/21/michael-egan-press-conference-hollywood-sex-ring-lawsuit-bryan-singer