Where is God in the Catholic Child Sex Abuse Scandal?

The bankruptcy of the Helena, Montana diocese is liable to be repeated in many dioceses around the world, such is the phenomenal prevalence of child sexual abuse within the Catholic Church.

I have read many articles from all over the world on this abuse and posted several. There is something utterly missing from any of the articles I've come across - any mention of God! No-one seemed concerned that they had sinned against God. No-one seemed to recognize that what evil they did to the children, they did also to Christ. "Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me." Matt 25:40.

One thing is certain, the pedophiles have/had no relationship with Jesus Christ. It's questionable whether the Bishops and Archbishops who enabled those priests have/had an actual relationship with Him. Certainly, there is no sign of the fear of God in any of their actions, or any compulsion to tell the truth as would be the case if the Holy Spirit were present.

It seems the latter groups were far more interested in protecting the church than in getting the wayward priests and the church right with God. Could it be they were worshiping their idol - the church?

But there is some good news. Two weeks ago, Pope Francis put things in perspective with a remarkably blunt and candid homily that gives one hope that maybe the Catholic Church can get right with God.

Pope Francis delivering homily at St Martha's Chapel

VATICAN CITY (Catholic Online) - Pope Francis, on Thursday morning, January 16, 2014, during his homily at daily Mass at the Chapel of St. Martha. 

Scandals in the Church happen because there is no living relationship with God and His Word. Thus, corrupt priests, instead of giving the Bread of Life, give a poisoned meal to the holy people of God: that's what Pope Francis affirmed in his homily Thursday morning during the Mass celebrated in the Santa Marta guesthouse. 

Commenting on the day's reading and responsorial Psalm which recount the crushing defeat of the Israelites by the Philistines, the Pope notes that the people of God at that time had forsaken the Lord. It was said that the Word of God was "uncommon" at that time . The old priest Eli was "lukewarm" and his sons "corrupt; they frightened the people and beat them with sticks." In their battle against the Philistines, the Israelites brought with them the Ark of the Covenant, but as something "magical," "something external." And they are defeated: the Ark is taken from them by their enemies. There is no true faith in God, in His real presence in life:

"This passage of Scripture," the Pope says, "makes us think about what sort of relationship we have with God, with the Word of God: is it a formal relationship? Is it a distant relationship? The Word of God enters into our hearts, changes our hearts. Does it have this power or not? Is it a formal relationship? But the heart is closed to that Word! 

It leads us to think of the so many defeats of the Church, so many defeats of God's people simply because they do not hear the Lord, do not seek the Lord, do not allow themselves to be sought by the Lord! And then after a tragedy, the prayer, this one: ' But, Lord , what happened ? You have made us the scorn of our neighbors. The scorn and derision of those around us. You have made us the laughing stock (it: favola) among nations! All the nations shake their heads about us. '"

And of the scandals in the Church, Pope Francis said:

"But are we ashamed? So many scandals that I do not want to mention individually, but all of us know...We know where they are! Scandals, some who charged a lot of money.... The shame of the Church! But are we all ashamed of those scandals, of those failings of priests, bishops, laity? 

Where was the Word of God in those scandals; where was the Word of God in those men and in those women? They did not have a relationship with God! They had a position in the Church, a position of power, even of comfort. But the Word of God, no! 'But, I wear a medal,' 'I carry the Cross ' ... Yes, just as those bore the Ark! Without the living relationship with God and the Word of God! I am reminded of the words of Jesus about those for whom scandals come ... And here the scandal hit: bringing decay (it: decadenza) to the people of God, including (it: fino alla) the weakness and corruption of the priests."

Francis concluded his homily, turning his thoughts to the people of God, saying:

"Poor people! We do not give the Bread of Life to eat; we do give - in those cases - the bread of Truth! And many times, we even offer a poisoned meal! 'Awaken! Why do you sleep, Lord?' Let this be our prayer! 'Awaken! Do not reject us forever! Why do you hide Your face? Why do You forget our affliction and oppression?' We ask the Lord that we never forget the Word of God, which is alive, so that it enters into our hearts and never to forget the holy people faithful to God who ask us to nourish and strengthen them. "

Man Gets 9 Months in Jail for 8 Serious Sex Offenses Against 8 Year Old

Queensland, Australia, Attorney-General urges appeals against child abuse, cabbie bashing sentences

The Queensland A-G has instructed the Director of Public Prosecutions to appeal against three sentences that were handed down this month on the Sunshine Coast and in Hervey Bay.

A child sex offender was convicted of eight serious offences involving the abuse of an eight-year-old child on the Sunshine Coast.

He was sentenced to three years in jail to be released after serving nine months in custody. You've got to be kidding. That's not much more than a smoke-break for this predator. I hope this sentence appeal embarrasses the judge that handed it down to the point where he/she takes child sexual abuse much more seriously.

QLD - Queensland

The other sentences to be appealed against are for Nathan Levy and Steve Drobny, who were convicted of violent offences relating to an assault on a taxi driver in Hervey Bay, which left the victim with permanent injuries.

Levy was sentenced to 30 months in jail but was released immediately on parole.

Drobny was placed on a 150-hour community service order.

Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie says the sentences are manifestly inadequate. Good for you, AG.

Diocese Files for Bankruptcy Protection after Lawsuits Claim 362 Children were Abused

A Roman Catholic diocese in the US state of Montana has filed for bankruptcy protection, amid claims hundreds of children were abused. I'm assuming we're talking sexual abuse here.

Two 2011 lawsuits against the diocese in Helena, the state capital, allege that 362 children were abused between 1940-1980.

Plaintiffs claim the diocese protected the offenders or turned a blind eye.

The filing precedes proposed settlements reached during confidential mediation sessions, US media report.

A Montana bankruptcy court will be responsible for approving disbursement of a reported $15m (£9m) in compensation for identified victims, plus an undisclosed amount to be set aside for those plaintiffs who come forward at a later date.

The bankruptcy reorganisation will help resolve the abuse claims, diocese spokesman Dan Bartleson said on Friday.

He said that victims would have the opportunity to vote on the proposed settlement.

Several of the diocese's 16 insurers have filed lawsuits challenging the claims, however, saying they should not have to pay out for alleged abuse which occurred before the policies went into effect.

The diocese, which covers western Montana, employs an estimated 200 people across its parishes, social-service programmes and schools.

3 Year old Raped in Library and Foster Father Abuses Boys in His Care

3 Year Old Raped in Canberra Library

A Canberra, Australia, serial child molester has been sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in jail for the public rape of a three-year-old girl and the racially motivated bashing of his neighbour.

In September, Shane Williams, 40, from Campbell, was making his way to a police station for his annual sex offender check-in when he decided to stop at the Belconnen Library to use the toilets.

He was browsing the books inside when a three-year-old girl wandered over to him and said hello. He then sexually assaulted her.

Police question witnesses at Belconnen Library

The child's mother was just metres away using a computer and did not initially notice that her daughter had wandered off.

She screamed when she spotted the toddler nearby in the arms of a crouching Williams.

Today in the ACT Supreme Court, prosecutor Sara Gul described the attack as despicable.

"It's clear that he is a significant danger to the community," Ms Gul said, before detailing Williams' extensive history of sexual assaults against young children stretching back more than two decades.

"He really is what can only be described as a chronic child molester." Why was he still walking around?

Williams' lawyer James Sabharwal agreed the attack was concerning and offered his client's only excuse that he was both drunk and high on drugs at the time.

"The only saving grace I can put to your honour is that the little girl was not required to give evidence," Mr Sabharwal said.

Chief Justice Helen Murrell said it was difficult to know if the victim would suffer any future impacts from the assault.

"She was too young to understand concepts such as stranger danger," Ms Murrell said.

"But one would have expected in those circumstances that their daughter would have been safe."

Lord, please put it in the hearts of judges to get chronic sex offender off the streets permanently.


Foster Father Pleads Guilty to Child Sex Abuse

Prosecutors in Perth, Australia, have called for a substantial jail term to be imposed on a former youth worker and foster carer who sexually abused three boys who were in his care.

Roderick Alexander Finch, 55, pleaded guilty to more than 20 charges of child sex abuse, dating back to the early 1990s.

The District Court was told Finch was the foster carer for two of the boys, whom he repeatedly sexually assaulted.

The third victim was a juvenile offender who was abused while doing community work at a camp in Western Australia.

Child sex abuse survivor Robert McAuley

Finch has been remanded in custody until he is sentenced next week.

Outside the court, victim Rob McAuley said he does not accept Finch's claims he is remorseful.

"I think about this almost every day and when he gets sentenced, then I might, just might, be able to forget it," he said.

"But until then, and he'll never apologise, so I'm not accepting that not to my face anyway."

He says he was not aware until recently of the other victims.

Pedophile Ring Tip of the Iceberg

A global online paedophile ring involving four New Zealanders is only the "tip of the iceberg", according to an anti-child abuse advocate.

Four New Zealand men have been arrested as part of Operation Hyper, a collaboration between Police, Internal Affairs and Customs.

Anti-child abuse group ECPAT welcomes the bust but warns there is still an "unhealthy" demand for child sex abuse images in New Zealand. No kidding, and just about everywhere else.

"It's the tip of the iceberg," says ECPAT director Alan Bell.

"Like anything else this is a simple formula of supply and demand and we'd have to say the demand in New Zealand is very unhealthy."

Operation Hyper began last June following a tip-off from Australian authorities over a central Auckland man believed to be involved in the network.

A raid on the man's house revealed objectionable material on his cellphones and laptop, and also uncovered information about three other Kiwi men.

The man has pleaded guilty to the possession of objectionable material and will be sentenced in March.

A Levin man, Gary Ronald Barnes, 53, has already been sentenced to two-and-a-half years in jail for the possession and distribution of objectionable material. 

Another two men accused of being in the ring have yet to be formally charged.

Levin, NZ

Police say the ring had been sharing explicit videos and images of the abuse of children as young as 4-years-old.

Many of the victims are from South East Asia and Eastern Europe. Investigators were relieved to discover none of those discovered during the operation were local.

However, three young girls were found in the homes of two of the four New Zealand men arrested. Police and Child, Youth and Family are confident the children were not abused and say they will monitor their well-being.

Lord, we pray for ECPAT, that you would guide them in their work and provide for their needs.

Child Sex Predator Pleads Guilty to 11 Years of Abuse

A man has been remanded in custody after he admitted sexually abused four young children over an 11-year period.

George Owen, 66, attacked the children mainly at properties in Prestwick, South Ayrshire, and Bellshill, North Lanarkshire, between 1971 and 1982.

He was caught in 2012 when a daughter of one of the victims confronted him.

At the High Court in Glasgow, Scotland, Owen admitted five charges of acting in a lewd and libidinous manner. Sentence was deferred for reports.

High Court, Glasgow

Paul Brown, defending, said Owen, of Holytown, North Lanarkshire, had wanted to avoid a trial in order to spare the victims giving evidence.

Judge Lord Turnbull placed Owen on the sex offenders' register and told him: "You have been convicted by your plea of predatory sexual behaviour directed at children and perpetrated over a lengthy period of time."

The court heard that the first victim was only five years old when Owen began attacking her.

He also started abusing an eight-year-old boy around the same time.

A second boy was also targeted - beginning at the age of five. This included a sex attack at a swimming pool cubicle in Ayr.

Owen's final victim was aged between eight and 10 when she was abused.

Prosecutor Bill McVicar told how Owen escaped justice for decades until a daughter of his first victim challenged him about the abuse in late 2012.

Owen then went missing, but police eventually discovered him in Dunoon, Argyll and Bute.

He told officers that his "past was catching up with him" and that he had "needed to get away".

Our sins will always catch up to us either in this life or at the Judgment Seat unless we repent of them and receive Jesus Christ as our Saviour and Lord.

Teenage Ottawa Girl Found Guilty on 27 Charges Including Forced Prostitution of Minors

An Ottawa, Canada, teen has been found guilty of beating, drugging and threatening other girls to force them into prostitution.

Justice Diane Lahaie started delivering the verdict in an Ottawa courtroom around 9:45 a.m. ET Wednesday, going one by one through dozens charges in a process that was expected to take about two hours.

By the end, the 17-year-old had been found guilty of 27 charges, including procurement for the purpose of prostitution, human trafficking, making child pornography, sexual assault, child luring, uttering threats and unlawful confinement.

Media scrum after verdicts announced

She was acquitted of three charges, including assault, unlawful confinement and inciting someone to take a stupefying drug. Two other charges were withdrawn.

The court took a quick break near the beginning of the proceedings to allow the teen to compose herself after she broke down in tears, according to the CBC's Laurie Fagan.

The girl was 15 when she was arrested in June 2012 as the alleged ringleader of a violent pimping operation.

She pleaded not guilty at the outset of the trial in April 2013.

The Crown said it will pursue an adult sentence for the teen, now 17, after a psychiatric assessment.

One of the victim's mothers told reporters outside court that she's thankful for the efforts of police and Crown prosecutors. To protect her daughter's identity, the woman can't be named.

"My daughter is my hero, because anybody that's a victim of any sort that is brave enough to come up and tell their story in front of everyone is a hero, and she is my hero, and every one of those victims are my heroes," the mother said.

"Don't trust any kids out there. It's kind of sad, but make sure you know where your kids are. Make sure you know who your kids' friends are.... And if you have a gut feeling, follow it, because I've been living with that guilt for a while.

"It's over now, it's not my fault, I didn't do it, I couldn't protect my daughter. But she's going to survive, and by standing strong and saying what she said and telling her story, she is going to survive because of that."

In September, two other teen girls entered mid-trial guilty pleas for their roles in the prostitution ring.

None of the accused can be named under provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

During the trial, three girls, between 13 and 17 years old at the time, described how they were delivered to johns and forced to hand over earnings for performing sex acts. 

Four other girls testified about their experiences. One described being photographed naked in a bathtub when she was too drunk to move.

The Crown did not pursue adult sentences for the two teen girls who pleaded guilty.

The youngest, who was 15 at the time of her arrest, pleaded guilty to three counts of human trafficking involving three girls, one count of making child pornography, one count of luring and one count of robbery.

Now 17, the girl was sentenced to the maximum three years in jail.

The oldest, who was 16 at the time of her arrest, pleaded guilty to one count of each human trafficking, robbery, uttering threats and breaching conditions. Lahaie rejected a joint sentencing submission from the Crown and defence that the teen be released with 12 months of time served and two years of probation.

That teen will undergo a psychological assessment before her sentencing. She is now 18.

How did these girls get so messed up that they would think they can do stuff like that? Please be praying my 3:15 PM prayer or your own version of it.

US/UK Sting Nets British Pedophile

A British man caught in an undercover US and UK police operation has been jailed for trying to arrange for a child to be abused to order online.

Mark Luscombe, 29, of Verwood, Dorset, contacted a US Homeland Security officer who was posing as a paedophile.

Mark Luscombe

Dorset is in southwest England.

He offered to send the officer indecent images of children in exchange for watching a girl being abused on webcam.

Luscombe was sentenced to five years in jail after pleading guilty to 16 sexual offences at Bournemouth Crown Court.

When he was arrested at his home near Bournemouth in December, police found more than 150 indecent images of children on his computer.

During questioning Luscombe told officers he was "wired differently".

Matthew J Etre, attaché for US Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in London, said: "Protecting children from exploitation is one of the most important missions we have and, as this case demonstrates, it takes the collaboration of law enforcement agencies around the world to tackle this crime."

At a previous appearance, Luscombe pleaded guilty to sexual activity with a child and arranging or facilitating the commission of a child sex offence, as well as eight counts of making indecent photographs of a child and five counts of distributing indecent photographs of a child,

He also pleaded guilty to another offence of possessing an extreme pornographic image.

5 years on 16 counts - doesn't sound long enough to short-circuit his perverted wiring.

Iraqi War Veteran Arrested for Child Sexual Abuse for Fifth Time

TULLY, NY -- An Iraqi war veteran who previously plead guilty to charges of child endangerment has been arrested again for sexual abuse.

Tully is just south of Syracuse, in upper-state New York.

Howard 'Bill' Draper

Howard “Bill” Draper plead guilty to child endangerment in July 2011.  He received one year of conditional discharge in exchange for his guilty plea.

Draper was arrested again by the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office for endangering the welfare of a child and sexual abuse.  He was arraigned in the Town of Tully Court and is scheduled to appear in court again on February 4.  His bail is set at $50,000 cash.

Draper was acquitted in 2009 on allegations that he sexually abused a seven-year-old girl he was taking care of while her mother was on active duty in Afghanistan.  At the time of the acquittal, prosecutor Dan Barry could not comment on the case because Draper had two other cases of child sexual abuse pending.

A week after the 2009 acquittal, investigators say Draper endangered the welfare of a child in East Syracuse.  This September 2009 incident resulted in his 2011 guilty plea.

Let's pray that they get this guy off the streets for awhile.

Vicar had '8,200 Child Sex Abuse Images'

An Anglican vicar was caught with more than 8,000 images of child sexual abuse, including 800 of the "worst kind", Liverpool, England, Crown Court heard.

Ian Hughes, 46, was a successful priest by day but by night was downloading thousands of indecent internet images of children, the court was told.

Hughes admitted 17 offences and was jailed for a year.

The Bishop of Chester said he was "deeply shocked" at Hughes' "unacceptable" actions.

Hughes has resigned from the priesthood.

Ian Hughes

Expressing his "profound regret", the Rt Rev Dr Peter Forster apologised to Hughes' former parishioners in Poulton and Seacombe in Wallasey.

He added: "They have been badly let down."

"Ian Hughes' court appearances and sentencing have come as a deep shock to all who know him. His actions have been totally unacceptable for a Christian minister, and his case will now be considered by the disciplinary procedures of the church," the bishop said.

Hughes told police he was relieved when they raided his vicarage in Wallasey last year. They found 8,200 images he had downloaded, including 800 that are categorised as the worst kind legally.

He told officers it was "like an addiction" and he had been attracted to young boys since he was a teenager and had "struggled" with his sexuality throughout his life.

Det Insp David Rich, of Merseyside Police's cyber investigations unit, said the sentence should "send out a very clear message to paedophiles that they cannot hide behind the anonymity of the internet to commit crimes against children and they will eventually be caught."

He added: "All the images represent children, in some way, being abused, and every time a picture is downloaded by a paedophile it creates a vicious circle of misery which eventually leads to more abuse and more victims."

We should be praying that pedophiles really do get the message. We should also pray that Ian Hughes gets his life back together when he gets out of prison.

Jakarta Troubled with Child Sex Abuse

While this story is a bit dated, it gives us an idea of child sex abuse in Jakarta, Indonesia's capitol city.

While Jakarta, Indonesia, strives to become a child-friendly city, the city’s police are busy handling numerous cases of sexual abuse, the largest number of which are recorded in Greater Jakarta.

In Cengkareng, West Jakarta, a stepfather allegedly sexually abused his 17-year-old daughter until she became pregnant.

“The victim is pregnant and she is currently being examined by a doctor. The suspect is currently in police custody,” West Jakarta Police woman and child protection unit head Adj. Comr. Slamet told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

Jakarta, Indonesia

He refused to reveal the details of the case as officers were still investigating.

The National Commission on Child Protection (Komnas Anak) recorded 87 sexual crimes against children in Greater Jakarta during the first three months of this year (2013). The commission said East Jakarta recorded the largest number of such crimes compared to other municipalities.

An investigation into a sexual abuse case involving an East Jakarta senior high school student progressed after more than two months when police obtained key evidence in the case, with the naming a former vice principal of the school, T, as a suspect on Monday, said Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Rikwanto.

He refused to disclose the main evidence obtained by the police and said the police had sent a letter to T, ordering him to present himself on Thursday for questioning as a suspect.

T, 46, was reported to the East Jakarta Police on Feb. 9 by a third-grader, MA, for allegedly forcing her to perform oral sex on four separate occasions.

The victim’s lawyer, Bambang Sri Pujo Sukarno Sakti, said the police had probably found a lead in the case after questioning 17 witnesses, including teachers and students from the school. “We are looking forward to hearing the progress on Thursday,” Bambang told the Post.

In another sexual abuse case involving a minor, the East Jakarta Police are still chasing two more suspects of a gang rape after a month’s investigation. The police arrested five out of the seven suspects on Saturday. One of the arrested suspects is underage.

“Based on our investigation, there were seven people who were involved in the case. The two fugitives are adults,” said East Jakarta Police spokesman Comr. Didik Hariyadi.

He said one of the suspects, IH, knew the victim through Facebook and persuaded her to meet him by offering a mobile phone.

He said the suspects were charged under Article 81 of the 2002 Child Protection Law, which carries a maximum of 15 years’ imprisonment if found guilty.

The victim, a 13-year-old girl identified as ESR, told media last week that she was sexually assaulted and held for several nights by around 10 men in March.

Salvation Army Grieved at the Horrific Treatment of Boys in Its Care

A Salvation Army officer in Sydney would send boys who were in care to the homes of adults to be sexually assaulted, an inquiry (Australia's Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sex Abuse) has been told.

The officer, Captain Lawrence Wilson, was moved by the Salvation Army between four boys' homes in Queensland and NSW between the late 1950s and 1977.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse began its investigation at a public hearing in Sydney on Tuesday into what happened at those homes -
The Alkira Home for Boys at Indooroopilly and
the Endeavour Training Farm at Riverview, both in Queensland, as well as
the Bexley Boys Home in Sydney and
the Gill Memorial Home in Goulburn, NSW.

All the homes have since closed.


Mr Wilson, who died in 2008, began his career in 1956 when he was posted as an assistant officer to the Riverview farm. He also worked as a welfare officer in NSW but left in 1965 following a severe reprimand for violence against a child.

Raymond Carlile, a former resident at Riverview, said on Tuesday he was eight when he was raped by Mr Wilson. He and his younger brother, identified only as EG, had been sent to the farm because they were being beaten by their father.

Alkira Home for Boys

Mr Carlile, who gave evidence by webcast from Gympie, Queensland, broke down as he told how he was tied by his ankles and suspended down a well because officers at the home thought he was trying to escape - although he had just fallen asleep in the bush after playing with other boys.

The brothers ate raw potatoes and onions because they were so hungry and drank water from a river polluted by animal carcasses, the commission heard.

Both men recalled Wilson being particularly brutal and told of beatings with straps, canes and planks until children bled.

EG was sent back to the home when he was a teenager and told the commission from the stand on Tuesday he witnessed one boy chained to a tree by the neck for a week.

Members of the advocacy group Care Leavers Australia Network, (CLAN) who were at the hearing, spontaneously applauded as both men gave evidence.

Simeon Beckett, counsel assisting the commission, said evidence would identify Mr Wilson as the most prolific of the alleged child sexual abusers in The Salvation Army Eastern Territory.

The commission has identified five officers of the Salvation Army about whom there are serious allegations - Russell Walker, John McIver, Donald Schultz, Victor Bennett (also deceased) and Mr Wilson.

Mr Beckett said Mr Wilson raped boys, forced them to have sex with one another, flogged them and threatened them with further punishment if they disclosed their treatment to anyone.

He said evidence is expected to detail "Wilson sending boys to the homes of adults to be sexually assaulted by them".

Victor Bennett (Major) was accused of picking up boys as young as 4 years old and punching them repeatedly in the face.

The Salvation Army has made a number of ex-gratia payments to victims ranging from $50,000 to $125,000.

Kate Eastman, senior counsel representing the Salvation Army told the hearing: "We (the Salvation Army) are grieved that such things happened. We acknowledge that it was a failure of the greatest magnitude."

This was a message repeated by the Salvation Army's territorial commander for the eastern region, Commissioner James Condon, outside the hearing.

Another Child Sex Assault Charge Against Scout Leader

A former Riverview, New Brunswick, Canada, scout leader is facing a fourth charge of indecent assault after another alleged victim came forward.

David Wolfe, 68, who now lives in Halifax, was not present in Moncton provincial court on Tuesday when a sentencing date was expected to be set on the other three charges against him.

The matter has been adjourned without plea until Feb. 14.

Wolfe may also be sentenced on that day, depending on his plea and whether a victim impact statement is required from the latest alleged victim.

Wolfe previously pleaded guilty to three counts of indecent assault involving young males in the Moncton area between 1964 and 1967.

He was scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 6, but his defence lawyer was sick and unable to attend court.

Now, ,a fourth person has come forward, accusing Wolfe of sexually abusing him between 1962 and 1964, at or near Port Elgin.

Codiac Regional RCMP charged Wolfe in 2012 after the first victim, Richard Dutkiewicz, went public with his story.

Dutkiewicz said he was repeatedly assaulted by Wolfe in the mid-1960s, when Wolfe was an assistant scout master. He went to police after he saw an investigative series by CBC News on sexual abuse within Scouts Canada.

Wolfe's two other victims came forward a short time later.

The investigation by CBC-TV's The Fifth Estate revealed that scout leaders abused about 340 children from the 1940s until present. These would only be the ones we know about.

It also found that Scouts Canada kept a "confidential list" of pedophiles barred from the organization and had also signed confidentiality agreements with child sex abuse victims.

About two months after the documentary aired, Scouts Canada issued a blanket apology to any former scouts who had been sexually abused by the group's volunteer leaders.

The youth organization also announced it had hired an outside company to review its past records and appointed an expert panel to examine whether its current child protection policies are working.

Retired L.A. County Fire Captain gets Six Years for Child Sex Abuse

A retired Los Angeles County Fire captain was sentenced Monday to six years in state prison for child sex abuse, prosecutors said.

Edward John Cervantes, 62, of Whittier pleaded no contest Jan. 8 to committing a lewd act upon a child and continuous sexual abuse, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

Cervantes was immediately taken into custody after he was sentenced in a Pomona courthouse, prosecutors said. Cervantes was also prohibited from contacting the victim for 10 years.

Cervantes was arrested Sept. 19 after the victim, a relative of Cervantes, told authorities she had been molested while she was in the fifth and sixth grades. Prosecutors said the acts took place from 2003 to 2005.

TV Weather Presenter Fred Talbot has been Charged with Child Sexual Abuse

TV weather presenter Fred Talbot has been charged with the sexual abuse of schoolchildren between 1968 and 1983. The 64-year-old was arrested in December on suspicion of indecent assaults on five former pupils.

The former teacher is accused of nine offences of indecent assault and one serious sexual assault against a total of five complainants, Greater Manchester Police said.

Four of the alleged victims attended Altrincham Grammar School for Boys and one was at a Newcastle school.

Mr Talbot is due to appear before Manchester magistrates next month.

Fred Talbot

Six counts of indecent assault relate to one alleged victim at a school where Mr Talbot previously taught in Newcastle, police said.

The other offences relate to four alleged victims from Altrincham Grammar School for Boys, where Mr Talbot also taught.

Nazir Afzal, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: "We have carefully considered all the evidence gathered by Greater Manchester Police in relation to allegations from five complainants that Fred Talbot sexually assaulted them between the 1960s and 1980s.

"Having completed our review, we have concluded that there is sufficient evidence and it is in the public interest for Mr Talbot to be charged with 10 sexual offences relating to five complainants, three of whom were under 16 years of age at the time."

Mr Talbot, of Bowdon, is best known for his work on the ITV programme This Morning in the late 80s and 90s when it was hosted by Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan.

He was also the weatherman on ITV's Granada Reports but has not appeared on the show since the claims emerged last year.

IJM Kenya Investigations help get Justice for a 9-year-old Raped at School

IJM - International Justice Mission - a global NGO, is a human rights organization that secures justice for victims of slavery, sexual exploitation and other forms of violent oppression. http://www.ijm.com/web/

January 17, 2014

IJM worked with Kenyan police to find and arrest a school guard who raped 9-year-old Nasimiyu.

NAIROBI, KENYA – Nine-year-old Nasimiyu* was waiting patiently in an empty classroom for her aunt to pick her up after school, just like any normal afternoon.

But, on this day, a man who worked at the school as a guard saw the little girl waiting alone. He sent her to collect something from a storage closet, then followed her inside, locked the door and raped her. After the attack, he disappeared from town.

Nasimiyu and her family were left devastated. They reported the rape to police, but, to them, it seemed impossible that her attacker would ever be caught. The police had few resources to pursue the case or find the guard. Without help, Nasimiyu’s case could sit unresolved for years—like thousands of other Kenyan girls before her.

But police in Nairobi enlisted the help of IJM, who they knew had success in investigating similar cases. IJM worked relentlessly with them over the next four months to track down the guard and find where he was hiding, in a town 140 miles away. When the team moved in for the arrest, the man tried to flee, but police caught him escaping through a back door. He was brought back to Nairobi and finally put on trial for the rape.

Seeing their daughter’s attacker held accountable was more than Nasimiyu’s parents had dreamed.

One IJM investigator says, “With nowhere else to turn, the parents had begun to lose hope that their daughter’s abuser would one day face the justice system. We felt our involvement to be so worthwhile in this particular arrest.”

For more than a year, IJM attorneys defended Nasimiyu in court and IJM social workers supported her family. They made sure the little girl was receiving counselling to heal from the abuse and helped her prepare to share the truth about what happened in court.

On January 16, 2014, the judge found the man who assaulted Nasimiyu guilty and sentenced him to 20 years in prison.

Nasimiyu, now 11 years old, is studying safely at a boarding school with lots of support from her parents.

*A pseudonym.

Chicago Diocese Files Confirm 'Circle the Wagons' Approach to Handling Child Sex Abuse

CHICAGO (AP) — Top leaders at the Archdiocese of Chicago helped hide the sexual abuse of children as they struggled to contain a growing crisis, according to thousands of pages of internal documents that raise new questions about how Cardinal Francis George handled the allegations even after the church adopted reforms.

Cardinal Francis George

The documents, released through settlements between attorneys for the archdiocese and victims, describe how priests for decades were moved from parish to parish while the archdiocese hid the clerics' histories from the public, often with the approval of the late Cardinals John Cody and Joseph Bernardin.

Although the abuse documented in the files occurred before George became archbishop in 1997, many victims did not come forward until after he was appointed and after U.S. bishops pledged in 2002 to keep all accused priests out of ministry.

George delayed removing the Rev. Joseph R. Bennett, despite learning that the priest had been accused of sexually abusing girls and boys decades earlier. Even the board the cardinal appointed to help him evaluate abuse claims advised George that Bennett should be removed.

"I realize this creates a rather awkward situation, but I believe I need to reflect on this matter further," George wrote in a Nov. 7, 2005, letter to an archdiocese child protection official. Also against the advice of his board, George had Bennett monitored by another priest who was a friend and who vacationed with Bennett.

Allegations against Bennett continued well after 2002. He has denied any wrongdoing in his communications with the archdiocese, but was forced out of ministry on Feb. 3, 2006, according to the newly public documents.

Norbert Maday
This Aug. 27, 2007 photo provided by
the Wisconsin Department of Corrections
Obviously, pedophiles are not treated very well in prison
This is probably why Cardinal George sought his early release

George tried to get another priest, Norbert Maday, released early from a Wisconsin prison, where he was serving time after a 1994 conviction for molesting two boys, documents show.

He also has apologized for how he handled allegations against former priest Daniel McCormack, who pleaded guilty in 2007 to abusing five children and whose case prompted an internal investigation of how the archdiocese responds to abuse claims.

"The issue is not when the abuse happened; the issue is what they did once it was reported," said Chicago attorney Marc Pearlman, who has represented about 200 victims of clergy abuse in the Chicago area.

While disturbing stories of clergy sexual abuse have wrenched the Roman Catholic Church across the globe, the newly released documents offer the broadest look yet into how one of its largest and most prominent American dioceses responded to the scandal, even years after the abuse occurred.

The documents, posted online Tuesday by victims' attorneys, cover only 30 of the at least 65 clergy for whom the archdiocese says it has substantiated claims of child abuse. Vatican documents related to the 30 cases were not included, under the negotiated terms of the disclosure. Victims' attorneys say they're working to get files on the other 35 priests.

The files are being released as George, a 77-year-old cancer survivor, awaits permission from Pope Francis to retire. Naming a successor for George will be the pope's first major appointment in the U.S. church.

In a letter distributed to parishes last week, George apologized for the abuse, and said the disclosures are an attempt to help victims heal.

The more than 6,000 pages include internal communications between church officials, disturbing testimony about specific abuses, meeting schedules where allegations were discussed and letters from anguished parishioners. The names of victims and details considered private under mental health laws were redacted.

When a young woman reported in 1970 that she'd been abused as a teen, for example, (Cardinal) Cody assured the priest that the "whole matter has been forgotten" because "no good can come of trying to prove or disprove the allegations."

Accused priests often were quietly sent away for a time for treatment or training programs. When they returned, officials often assigned them to new parishes and asked other priests to monitor them around children.

Cardinal Joseph Bernardin sits during a Mass
at St Peter's Church, Chicago

After a 13-year-old boy reported in 1979 that a priest raped him and later threatened him at gunpoint to keep quiet, the Archdiocese of Chicago assured the boy's parents that although the cleric avoided prosecution, he would receive treatment and have no further contact with minors.

But the Rev. William Cloutier, who already had been accused of molesting other children, was returned to ministry a year later and accused of more abuse before he resigned in 1993, two years after the boy's parents filed a lawsuit. Officials took no action against Cloutier over his earliest transgressions because he "sounded repentant," according to internal archdiocese documents released Tuesday that show how the archdiocese tried to contain a mounting scandal over child sexual abuse.

In one 1989 letter to Bernardin, the vicar for priests worries about parishioners discovering the record of the Rev. Vincent E. McCaffrey, who was moved four times because of abuse allegations.

"Unfortunately, one of the key parishioners ... received an anonymous phone call which made reference by name to Vince and alleged misconduct on his part with young boys," wrote the Rev. Raymond Goedert. "We all agreed that the best thing would be for Vince to move. We don't know if the anonymous caller will strike again."

The archdiocese released a statement Tuesday saying it knows it "made some decisions decades ago that are now difficult to justify" and that society has evolved in how it deals with abuse.

"The Church and its leaders have acknowledged repeatedly that they wished they had done more and done it sooner, but now are working hard to regain trust, to reach out to victims and their families, and to make certain that all children and youth are protected," the statement read.

For many victims, the abuse left a lifetime of emotional scars.

"Where was the church for the victims of this sick, demented, twisted pedophile?" one man wrote in a 2002 letter to George about abuse at the hands of the Rev. Norbert Maday, who was imprisoned in Wisconsin after a 1994 conviction for molesting two boys. "Why wasn't the church looking out for us? We were children, for God's sake."
Good question? Where was the love of God? Shouldn't it be administered by His anointed ones?

Australia's Royal Commission Turns it's Guns on Sally Ann

The fifth case study by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will start in Sydney on Tuesday.

The focus of the public hearing will be the response of the Salvation Army to child sexual abuse within four homes:

the Alkira Salvation Army Home for Boys at Indooroopilly,
the Bexley Boys in NSW;
Riverview Training Farm in Queensland;
and the Gill Memorial Boys Home in Goulburn in NSW.

As well as the movement of officers and staff, the Salvation Army's processes for dealing with allegations of abuse will be examined in the two-week hearing.

At a child abuse inquiry in Victoria last year it was revealed that since 1997 the Salvation Army has received 474 abuse claims, 470 of which arose from its children's homes, over 30 to 40 years.

Only in Australia would you find a name like 'Indooroopilly'.

Cottage Industry - Child Pornography - has Organized Crime Roots

By JASON GUTIERREZ, Agence France-Presse  January 26, 2014 1:43pm

IBABAO, Philippines - In a remote village, toddlers played oblivious at a nursery as the house next door became part of a horrifying child pornography ring, with live footage of children performing sex acts being streamed online to pedophiles around the world.

The depraved scenes in the bungalow were being repeated in many homes throughout Ibabao, a secluded community on Cebu island where Internet child pornography had for some of its 5,000 residents become more lucrative than fishing or factory work.

"In the beginning I was shocked, I could not believe this was happening in my town," mayor Adelino Sitoy told AFP last week, shortly after police announced they had cracked a global live-streaming pedophile ring in which Ibabao was a key source of the child pornography.

But while the village is currently in the spotlight, authorities and child rights advocates say the fast-growing global industry is infecting many parts of the mostly poor Philippines, with thousands of children having been abused.

At first look the coastal community of Ibabao, 550 kilometers (340 miles) south of Manila, is a typical close-knit rural Philippine village, where many of the long-time residents are relatives or enjoy close and longstanding ties.

In scenes echoed across the devoutly Catholic Philippines, its residents regularly attend masses held in quaint chapels along narrow footpaths and dirt roads.

But police and authorities said that behind the closed doors of the tiny wooden and brick homes, many parents directed their children for sex videos in front of webcams connected via the Internet to paying pedophiles overseas.

Other children were lured into the homes of neighbors and forced to perform sex acts in front of webcams, they said.

Sitoy said the trade thrived because children were locked secretly inside homes, as well as Ibabao's remote location and the fact some elected village leaders with relatives involved ignored the crimes.

But some of the videos eventually found their way into the computer files of a known British pedophile two years ago, triggering a global manhunt to track down the perpetrators.

The British man was convicted in March last year and sentenced to eight years in prison.

Shortly afterwards police in the Philippines began carrying out raids in Ibabao and nearby areas with the help of British, Australian and US authorities.

Brit Timothy Ford - Pedophile

One of the raids saw dozens of Filipino police and social workers break into the bungalow next to the day care center in September last year, arresting a couple and rescuing their three children, aged three, nine and 11.

Two days later, 13 other children who were being abused in other Ibabao homes were rescued, according to Philippine police.

Residents are generally wary of outsiders but some allowed AFP to interview them on condition of anonymity.

They said "cybersex dens" remained in operation, but security fears and the Filipino tradition of not interfering with a neighbor's affairs helped to ensure that people did not pry further or try to stop it.

Housewife Jennifer Canete, 38, was willing to talk openly about the crimes, confirming many people in the community were involved and that she feared her four young children could become victims.

Canete said one of her children attended the nursery located next to the house where the three children were being abused.

At any given moment       "We were angry that this could happen just 
750,000 pedophiles           near the day care," she said.
are online looking for
child pornography            "I was also afraid, we didn't know what could 
                                           happen to our children if they went to school because there were many here who were doing that."

Authorities say they do not know exactly when the trade arrived in Ibabao.

But, according to local social workers, a Filipina woman from outside the community believed to belong to an organized crime group relocated to the village several years ago and introduced locals to the get-rich-quick scheme.

That woman taught residents how to scout for clients in pornographic chat rooms and receive payments through international money transfers, according to the social workers, who did not want to be named for security reasons.

Some operators lured friends of their children into their homes and abused them, threatening to harm their parents if they told anyone, the social workers said.

One parent told AFP a neighbor who had tried to recruit her said clients paid as much as $100 dollars a session, a fortune in a region where the minimum daily wage is the equivalent of about $7.

She said the neighbor justified the trade by saying that no actual physical contact took place.

"I was angry. We were always taught to protect and love our children," the woman said.

"We are not rich, but we are also not poor and desperate. It was an evil thing to do."

Nevertheless, she said that staying silent and steering clear of those involved in the trade was the best thing to do, to avoid any trouble.

In announcing the dismantling of the pedophile network, Britain's National Crime Agency said in mid-January that 11 people had been arrested in the Philippines and 18 elsewhere around the world.

Another 733 suspects were being investigated, the agency added.

Andrey Sawchenko, Philippine head of the Washington-based International Justice Mission (IJM) who helped in the arrests, said 39 children had been rescued in Ibabao and elsewhere in the Philippines.

But this is widely believed to be just the tip of the iceberg, with the British crime agency describing online child sex abuse as a "significant and emerging threat".

"Extreme poverty, the increasing availability of high speed Internet and the existence of a vast and comparatively wealthy overseas customer base has led to organized crime groups exploiting children for financial gain," it said.

Dutch advocate group Terre des Hommes estimates that "tens of thousands" of children are being abused through the cybersex industry just in the Philippines.

Last year, the group created a virtual 10-year-old Filipina girl that was deployed in Internet chat rooms to lure pedophiles.

Over 10 weeks, 20,000 people from 71 countries approached the fake girl asking for sexual performances, according to Terre des Hommes, which passed the details of the pedophiles onto police. — AFP

I have nothing but praise for IJM, Terre des Hommes, Preeda, and the dozens of other agencies and NGOs that are fighting this horror; they need our support. But, I strongly suspect that the industry is growing much faster than all efforts to combat it. We need to be praying for God to intervene. Realistically, only He can turn this around. Are you praying  my 3:15 PM prayer, or something like it?

Couple Arrested for Horrific Sexual Abuse of their own Children

TALMADGE, CALIF. — A Mendocino County couple has been arrested on suspicion of sexually abusing at least two of their five children over a 13-year period.

Sheriff's officials say 61-year-old Donald Dunakin and 47-year-old Ina Medina of Talmadge were taken into custody Thursday night and each booked in county jail in lieu of $250,000 bail.

The suspects face multiple felony charges, including sodomy, continuous sexual abuse of a child, lewd act with a child, oral copulation of a child, penetration with a foreign object and torture.

Officials say sheriff's detectives began investigating the case on Wednesday when they were contacted by county Child Protective Services.

Officials allege the children were ages 3 to 16 when they were abused by the suspects, who have lived together in the Ukiah area for about 30 years.

Don't know how old the children are now as little has been released on this story so far. Obviously some are still children or Child Protective Services would not be involved. 

Talmadge is very close to Ukiah, CA, which is about 115 miles north of San Francisco on Hwy 101.

Please pray for all 5 children, whether all were abused or not, they will all emerge with major scars from this. Their own children!!!

Catholic Priest gets nearly 16 Years in Child Porn Case

DETROIT — Catholic priest Timothy Murray was never prosecuted for sexually molesting a 13-year-old boy in the mid-1980s. But as the onetime Catholic parish pastor awaited sentencing Thursday on child pornography charges, a federal prosecutor argued that it was finally time for Murray to pay for his assault on childhood innocence. This is so not Canadian!

U.S. Assistant Attorney Kevin Mulcahy described Murray's assault on the teenager and gestured toward a grown man in the courtroom, whom Mulcahy acknowledged was Murray's long-ago victim. The man, who was not identified, had also written to U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts about the assault, which Murray has admitted. Mulcahy asked the judge to consider that when sentencing Murray for possessing and sharing nearly 700 child porn videos on his home computers.

Timothy Murray

"The character of a man who could sit and watch children suffer" in child pornography, said Mulcahy, "is disgusting."

The priest went "largely unscathed" for his behavior, "and deserves no further break," Mulcahy said.

Roberts sentenced Murray, 63, of Novi, Mich., to 15 years and 8 months in federal prison for possessing and distributing child pornography.

"You should not be in contact with minors. The sentence that this court will impose will make sure that doesn't happen," said Roberts. She noted that Murray had never been charged with the assault on a minor but cited other factors for the length of the sentence. Mulcahy had argued for 22 years, while Murray's defense attorney asked for five years.

Beforehand, the disgraced priest addressed Roberts and apologized.

"I did download" child pornography, Murray said. Of the children victimized, Murray said, "I'm sorry for them, feel bad about that, and I will never do it again."

A federal investigation in 2012 found Murray had a large volume of child pornographic images on his home computers and nearly 700 videos of child pornography. Murray pleaded guilty in July to one count each of possession and distribution of child pornography.

Murray's case reveals the changing views and practices on handling child sexual assault. When Murray molested a 13-year-old in the mid-1980s, by touching his genitalia, the victim's family confronted the priest but didn't contact any other authorities. Murray admitted molesting the teenager, Mulcahy told the court Thursday.

It wasn't until 2004, after massive publicity surfaced regarding the Catholic Church's scandal of handling child sex abuse complaints, that the victim came forward and the Archdiocese of Detroit removed Murray as the pastor of St. Edith in Livonia, Mich. The archdiocese forbade Murray from working as, dressing like or identifying himself as a priest. The statute of limitations prevented Murray from being criminally prosecuted.

The archdiocese also required Murray to report to a monitor about any activities that could put him in contact with minors. But Murray did not tell archdiocese officials that he participated at Hope Lutheran Church in Farmington Hills, Mich., as a co-director of church plays and as an occasional "worship leader," as revealed in federal court documents.

Roberts told Murray that she found it hard to believe Murray's comments to court investigators and sentencing experts, in which he blamed the priestly celibacy requirement of the Catholic Church for contributing to his attraction to child porn and his past behavior — or that he didn't know viewing child porn in his home was illegal.

"This court is very hard-pressed to believe you when you say you didn't know it was a felony," Roberts said.

Roberts said psychological evaluations of Murray show he has pedophiliac tendencies.

"You have them and you have demonstrated them, so the public has to be protected from you," Roberts said.

Murray remains on bond and home confinement while awaiting a date to report for imprisonment. Huh? What happened to going from the courthouse directly to prison? Now you need an appointment?

The Survival of Erica through Typhoon Haiyan

This column is from Fr Shay Cullen of the Preda Foundation as printed in the Manila Times about a little girl's Haiyan nightmare.

Tacloban,  Leyte, The Philippines

I arrived here with the Preda team of social workers to prepare the way for a series of training seminars to combat human trafficking and give the many survivors in the squalid evacuation camps group therapy to cope better with the tragedy and great loss they have suffered because of typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda). For the children we have puppet shows that teach abuse prevention.  But I went first to find the missing orphans Here is the story of one of them.

We found Erica in a white canvas tent with her auntie and uncle about three hundred meters from where her parents’ house once stood. She was willing to tell us of  her tragic experience. The home Erica was half a kilometer from the shore line. On the night of November 7,  she,  her parents and two brothers slept  together in her parents’ small room as the rain was lashing down and the wind was rising. They woke after an hour.

“This is going to be a strong storm, everyone stay close tonight," her father told them. By 2 am the howling wind was tearing at the coconut trees and they could hear coconuts crashing into metal sheet roofs across their village. The family of five huddled together and embraced each other. It was to be their last embrace.

By 5 am on the November 8 a great wave of water about twenty to thirty feet high reared up from the ocean and driven by a 230 kilometer wind rushed inland across the open land towards the village. It knocked down everything before it. It was unstoppable,  mango trees toppled before this wall of water as if a dam had suddenly collapsed.

The great wave of water suddenly burst into their little bungalow house, smashing through the windows, collapsing the door and the water gushed in and quickly filled the house.  They cried out for help and were trying to swim to stay above the water. Erica’s father shouted to them to cling and climb into  the ceiling. But it was too late. The water engulfed them so quickly there was no escape.

Then the  roof was torn off like a scrap of paper ripped from a notebook and disappeared in an instant into the dark sky.  They were trying to swim and float on the rising water and a tree came rushing by and was held momentarily by the remaining wall of their little house.

“Grab the branches,  hold the branch,” her father shouted above the deafening noise of the wind. Her father and mother and two brothers caught the branches but Erica could not reach them she was clinging to the remains of the rafters. The water was up her neck. Her mother saw they were being separated and cried out in the storm: “Erica, we love you, we care for you,  survive , survive!"

Then they were swept away and Erica was also carried off with the surging waters. They disappeared into the darkness and that was the last Erica ever saw of them. She was carried on the wave and bumped into a coconut tree and she grabbed it and wrapped her arms around it and clung on for dear life.

After a long while the powerful wave began to lose its power and strength and receded. “I prayed to God to save me, save my family, to please to let me live,” she said.  She clung on  the  tree until the waters fully retreated. Exhausted and trembling, in shock she fell to the ground and Erica survived. Her parents and two brothers were lost.

Two months later she still has nightmares. “I cannot sleep so well I have bad dreams that I am drowning.  I miss my family,” tears welled in her eyes and she grew silent.

Then after a while we all walked slowly through the widespread destruction and ruins of the  entire village to where her little house once stood. It was just a heap of rubble,  half of a block wall remained.  There was a broken mirror, a hairbrush, a crumbled photo in the ruins.  Outside was a little white passenger van, its front window and roof crushed by a fallen tree. Her father once drove it for a livelihood.  The  landscape all around was one of utter destruction. Not a house was left standing.

Bodies of the dead were strewn around the day after the  great wave, some covered by debris, it took a week to uncover them  for burial.  Over two hundred people died in that village and more are missing, their bodies were never found. Perhaps they were carried out with the receding waters of the great wave.

As I looked around this scene of devastation there were fallen trees everywhere and the remaining coconut trees stripped of their palms stood starkly silhouetted against a gray wet sky.

Back in the tent that is now her home Erica said that she is thankful to be alive and she had relatives who are caring for her.

“I miss seeing my parents and brothers. I don’t know where they are,  but wherever they are, I pray for them to God, they are in God’s hands now.”

Asked about her future, she replies: “I have a hope to study and become a teacher, thank you for listening to my story.”  She seemed a little happier than when we first arrived.  Erica and other homeless children of Tacloban are being helped by the Preda Foundation, P. O. Box 68 Olongapo city.
shaycullen@preda. org,

Have You Been in Contact with this Man?

Surrey, British Columbia, RCMP have released the photo of a man charged with several sexual offences involving multiple children in the hopes more potential victims will come forward.

Mounties said 38-year-old Joel Scarff was arrested on Jan. 2 and charged with four counts of sexual interference and two counts of invitation to sexual touching involving several victims under the age of 16.

Joel Scarff

Scarff is alleged to have used social media to meet and date women in order to meet his younger victims, Mounties said.

Police said he lived in Coquitlam, but is known to have frequented various areas throughout the Lower Mainland.

Scarff appeared in court on Thursday and was subsequently released from custody on several conditions, according to officials.

He is not allowed to contact his alleged victims and is prohibited from attending areas where children may be present, including parks, playgrounds and schools.

He also cannot be employed or volunteer in a position that involves trust or authority involving young people.

Scarff can only be in the company of anyone under the age of 16 with another adult present who has been informed of his charges.

Mounties are concerned that there may be more victims who have not come forward based on the way Scarff is alleged to have approached them.

Surrey RCMP are requesting that anyone who has met Joel Scarff through social media come forward.

Woman, 22, Accused of Forcing 15-year-old Girl into Prostitution

A 22-year-old Ontario, Canada, woman who is accused of exploiting a 15-year-old and forcing her to work as a sex worker in Burlington, Ont., has been arrested, Halton Regional Police announced Friday.

On Wednesday and Thursday, Halton police officers identified and met with more than 20 sex trade workers operating in local hotels as part of a national initiative to identify victims of human trafficking and provide support to people working in the sex trade.

This sounds like a good idea positive communication instead of adversarial confrontation. Prostitutes will look out for victims and report them, I believe.

During one of those meetings, officers identified a 15-year-old girl being exploited as a sex worker at a hotel in Burlington.

The accused was “exercising control over the victim and facilitating her exploitation,” Halton police said in a Friday news release. The woman and the teen are not related, Det.-Const. Martin Dick told CBC News in Hamilton.

Dick would not elaborate on any details of the case as it “might identify the victim,” he said.

“We recognize there is a problem with human trafficking — not just in Halton,” he said. “We are aggressively targeting those responsible for exploitation.”

Martin did not elaborate on the details of the national initiative, citing the current investigation. He said it was a police-driven, two-day blitz initiated by multiple agencies and groups.

Youth trafficking 'a new trend'

The 22-year-old Angus, Ont., woman was arrested and charged with trafficking a person under the age of 18; procuring a person to become a prostitute; controlling a person to engage in prostitution; and living off the avails of a person under the age of 18.

The girl has been taken to a safe place, police say.

Halton police want people working in the sex trade industry to know police “really are there to help,” Dick said.

“This is victim-centric support. We’re here for the help and support they require.”

Workers in the sex trade looking for support can contact the Walk with Me and Chrysalis organizations, police say.

Sex trafficking involving teens and young adults is becoming increasingly common, said Timea Nagy, founder of Walk with Me, a support group created by human trafficking survivors for human trafficking victims.

“It's unfortunately a new trend,” she told CBC Hamilton, citing the recent sentencing of three teenage girls accused of running a teen prostitution ring in Ottawa involving girls between 13 and 17 years of age.

“It's the new way of making money. Traffickers recognize that so many youth are wandering the street, it's so much easier to lure them in than getting people from other countries.”

US Senate Aide Facing Child Porn Charges Hangs Himself

A former senior US Senate aide who was arrested on child pornography charges last month was found dead after hanging himself, authorities have said.

Jesse Ryan Loskarn, 35, was chief of staff to Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee until his arrest in December.

He was accused of possession and attempted distribution of child pornography.

Loskarn was living with his parents and wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet while awaiting trial.

"For everyone involved, this is a sad and tragic story from beginning to end," Mr Alexander, a Republican, said in a statement.

Mr Alexander sacked Loskarn after his arrest. A rising star in Republican politics on Capitol Hill, Loskarn had been Mr Alexander's chief of staff since 2011.

Loskarn's family members called police after finding him unresponsive in his parents' basement on Thursday, the Carroll County Sheriff's Office said in a statement.

Prosecutors alleged in court documents that Loskarn made several purchases from a website offering child pornography DVDs between November 2010 and March 2011.

He was also accused of offering illicit files for download from his home computer.

Investigators with the US Postal Service searched his home last month and found a portable hard drive that contained at least 200 videos of child pornography, prosecutors said in court filings.

Loskarn had faced up to 20 years in prison on the charges.