Young Indonesian Woman Caned for Getting ‘Too Close’ to her Boyfriend

In countries where Muslims are a strong majority it is just a matter of time, I believe, before Sharia becomes the law of the land. In this portion of Indonesia it has been so for 15 years. My fear is that it will spread to the rest of the country. Muslims in Banda Aceh must be confused as to why God would allow a devastating tsunami to destroy more than a quarter million people and leave two-thirds of a million homeless just 3 years after adopting Sharia. One would think God would honour such a commitment if He actually wanted it. 

Does Sharia honour God? Can morality be legislated? Only the appearance of morality can be legislated which means immorality does not improve, it simply goes underground. Jesus understood that when He told us that the 'Law' says, 'You shall not commit adultery'; but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Morality is a function of conscience, and conscience is attached to 'the highest (morality) that you know'. If you have been taught high moral values you will be a moral person. But those values must be real, not superficial as Sharia teaches.

Moral behaviour is only holy when it is chosen by the individual not by the state.

A 20-year old Muslim woman gets caned after being caught in close proximity with her boyfriend in Banda Aceh on October 31, 2016. © Chaideer Mahyuddin / AFP

A 20-year-old woman has been publicly caned for getting “too close” to her boyfriend in the Indonesian province of Aceh – the latest such punishment in the conservative region, which implements Sharia law in full.

The woman was one of five people to receive a caning on Monday in front of a crowd outside the Masjid Al-Muttaqin mosque in the regional capital of Banda Aceh. The others included her 21-year-old boyfriend and three others who were accused of gambling.

After being read out their offenses, those judged “guilty” were brought on stage to receive their punishment before a crowd of hundreds. The mosque is located next to a busy market so the spectacle attracted many onlookers who were simply doing their shopping.

“It’s not to be laughed at or watched. But this is a lesson for us all to enforce complete Islamic law in in Banda Aceh,” a local official, Bakhtiar, said before the punishment, local media reported.

“If there are people who do not agree with Islamic law, please get out of Aceh,” he added.

Well, more than a quarter million people got out of Aceh in one terrible day. Was that a judgement? Or was it perhaps mercy? Did God remove those people from an evil, insane society for their sakes?

The couple were convicted of a charge known as “khalwat,” which is defined in the legal code as “any activity carried out by two or more individuals of opposite sex who are not bound as a family nor legally bound under marriage.” This can range from sexual intercourse before marriage to merely being in close proximity or holding hands.

A Muslim woman gets caned 23 strokes after being caught standing in close proximity with her boyfriend in Banda Aceh on October 17, 2016. © Chaideer Mahyuddin / AFP

Earlier in the month on October 13, people were similarly flogged, one of whom was a 21-year-old-woman who apparently stood too close to her boyfriend. Another woman was temporarily reprieved because she was pregnant, but officials confirmed she would be punished after giving birth.

Although Indonesia is officially a secular state, a number of provinces enjoy significant autonomy from the central government. Of these, Aceh is the only region to apply Islamic Sharia law in full, since special autonomy legislation was passed in 2001. The strict application of the Islamic codes means relatively innocuous behavior such as touching, hugging and kissing between unmarried couples is forbidden. Homosexuality and drinking alcohol are also prohibited.

Want Porn? Ask your Web Provider! Israeli Bill Seeks to Filter ‘Offensive’ Sites by Default

This is an awesome idea! Let's hope and pray that it get passed and implemented quickly and becomes a standard for the rest of the world to follow. We will never get rid of pornography completely, but making it far more difficult for children to access is absolutely necessary if we are ever to reverse the growing culture of rape in the world.

    © Reuters

The Israeli Ministerial Committee for Legislation has approved a bill requiring internet providers to block pornography by default, with lawmakers saying that finding adult material online is no more difficult for children than “buying an ice-cream.”

Under the terms of the proposed bill, users wanting to access pornography online would first have to notify their service providers in writing, by telephone, or via the service provider’s website.

It will be up to the Communication Minister (the serving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu) to set out specific censorship guidelines for service providers.

If approved by the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, the bill would trigger the creation of lists of internet users requesting access to pornographic and other sites “deemed offensive,” the Haaretz reported.

One of the lawmakers who proposed the bill, Shuli Moalem-Refaeli, stated that as things stand, children can freely consume “harsh content” online.

“The damaging influence of watching, and addiction to, pornographic and severe violence has been proven in many studies, with great harm to children. Today, it is easier for a child to consume harsh content on the internet than to buy an ice cream at the local kiosk,” Moalem-Refaeli said, Haaretz reported.

“We must prevent such access by making the default of the internet provider to filter such content, unless the customer has asked to be exposed to it,” she added.

Israeli law currently requires internet service providers to offer specific content-filtering systems that internet users can request to run for free. Although providers must notify their customers of the availability of such services, many parents have no clue about this option.

“The average age that children are (first?) exposed to pornographic sites is 8. I don’t think it is right for us to leave things like that,” one of the bill’s biggest advocates, Shuli Moalem-Refaeli, told Channel 2 News, according to the Times of Israel.

Lawmakers from nine of the Knesset’s 10 factions signed the bill. Only members of the Meretz left-wing party refused to back it, Haaretz reported.

Critics argue that the bill limits the freedom of information and is therefore a violation of privacy. Many also raise concerns that attempts to censor “difficult content” would inhibit access to unrelated content, like information on breast cancer and other medical-research material.

But Moalem says the proposed legislation is not meant to limit people’s right to view whatever they want.

“This isn’t Iran,” she noted.

“I am not interested in blocking a campaign for breast cancer awareness, as a woman and a survivor of breast cancer,” she said. “That is not what we are talking about. But during the process of legislation it will become clear what we are talking about,” Moalem added.

Israeli lawmakers have been trying to advance legislation to prevent children from viewing pornography online for nearly a decade. Five similar bills were introduced in the past three Knessets, but none advanced, Haaretz reported, adding that the newly proposed bill is likely to receive a large majority in the parliament thanks to overwhelming support from the governing coalition and opposition parties.

Ped Priest Ring, Ped Boyfriend, & Judge Who Blames 12y/o Girl for Getting Gang-raped While Unconscious

‘I believed he was a good person’: 

The unsuspecting partners of men who trade child sex abuse material online

By 9NEWS

When Leah Mouatt first suspected something was wrong with her relationship of nearly six years, she assumed her partner Phillip Vellio was having an affair.

But instead, the man she loved and believed was a good person, was living a sick double life; secretly viewing child sex abuse material online.

    Phillip Vellio and Leah Mouat

“Things happen to these children that you would never dream of and he was looking at that stuff,” Ms Mouatt told 60 Minutes reporter Peter Stefanovic.

Ms Mouatt was 25 when she met Mr Vellio. The pair hit it off, they bought a house and eventually settled down.

But in late 2014 the couple began drifting apart and Ms Mouatt began to suspect her partner was having an affair so she went online to find out what he was up to.

Her search took her to a dark corner of the internet, where Mr Vellio had uploaded pictures taken from her and her friend’s Facebook pages featuring her friend’s daughter.

Comments posted underneath the caption were sexually explicit.

“What he’d written underneath this photo told me what the reality was,” Ms Mouatt said.

“That reality destroyed my world in a second and I knew quite quickly after I saw what I saw that the police had to be called.”

Police seized Mr Vellio’s laptops and his iPad, finding more than 32,000 images and 854 videos, many showing children engaged in sexual acts.

Mr Vellio was convicted on two counts of possessing child abuse material and given a 12-month good behaviour bond.

Wow, that should really send a message!

“What upsets me most is maybe I’ve stopped him but who’s helping these kids?” Ms Mouatt said.

“He had hundreds of videos and thousands of images. How many kids is that?”

Ms Mouatt lost her house and her car and had to completely rebuild her life.

Detective Inspector Jon Rouse told 60 Minutes it’s impossible to know how many men view child sex abuse material but the number of arrests has risen dramatically.

The number is in excess of 750,000 people at any given moment, according to Terre des Hommes.

In a similar case, Natalie Walker found out her partner’s awful secret after a friend who serviced his computer stumbled on explicit images of children.

She told 60 Minutes their mutual friends shockingly rallied around her partner, trying to protect him and insisting she was ruining his life by exposing him.

Ms Walker has since founded PartnerSPEAK, the first support group of its kind, to help partners stigmatised by a crime that is no fault of their own.

Bishop's $2 million property to go to victims

of Ballarat paedophile priest ring

Abuse survivor Stephen Woods was on hand to see disgraced Bishop Mulkearns' Fairhaven

house go to auctioned. Picture: Alison Wynd

A survivor of the child sex abuse scandal attended

disgraced Bishop’s estate auction

NAVARONE FARRELL, Geelong Advertiser

A SURVIVOR of the child sex abuse scandal that plagued the Ballarat diocese has spoken out about the sale of disgraced Bishop Ronald Mulkearns’ assets.

Mulkearns died and went to Hell 3 April, 2016.

Stephen Woods, now 55-years-old, attended the auction of Mulkearns’ multi-million dollar Fairhaven home and called for the funds to be easily accessible to survivors.

“I was molested between the ages of 11 and 14. I was molested and raped by three clergymen, Brother [Robert] Best, Brother [Edward] Dowlin, and Father [Gerald] Ridsdale,” he said.

The three clergymen were among many the offenders that were touted as the worse among the scandal that spanned from 1971 to 1997.

“I’m a retired secondary school teacher. I had to stop after my body physically, emotionally and mentally just couldn’t handle it. I was studying my masters at a university in Melbourne and I collapsed and couldn’t keep going.

“That was in 2011. I’m on a disability pension, I’m just surviving. I’m always just trying to survive.”

Mr Woods’ brother was also a victim of similar abuse at hands of paedophile priests at St Alipius Primary School.

Mulkearns’ property sold after auction and the the church will benefit from approximately $2.1 million, which current Ballarat diocese Bishop Paul Bird has promised will go to survivors.

    56 Banool Rd, Fairhaven, former Bishop Ronald Mulkearns deceased estate.

“When you deal with so many survivors in the Ballarat diocese alone, this will only go so far, but the church must make it easily available to survivors because most of us are dead — we need it now,” Mr Woods said.

Several former Catholic Brothers were in attendance, whom Mr Woods recognised.

“It’s cathartic in a way because every time I’ve gone to either churches or funerals or weddings, I see how far I’ve come from Catholic heritage and healing things in the past,” he said.

Mr Woods’ brother, like many other survivors of child sexual abuse, has had a checkered past. Anthony Woods spiralled out of control with drug abuse and died of AIDS in 1990.with his eldest brother Anthony having died from AIDS in 1990.

“Every where I go, I meet people and hear stories like that.

“In my class there were approximately 36 kids in my class, of which five or six we know of have had premature deaths.

“Some obvious suicides, some, they’re typical country boys, they will drive their car off the road into a tree.”

The “nest” that was established in Ballarat was established through word of mouth according to Mr Woods.

“They used to speak to each other and tell each other — thew knew, and they were protected.”

   Former Bishop Ronald Mulkearns in his Fairhaven home in 2015. Picture:Ian Currie

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard hundreds of local children were molested by a nest of paedophile clerics while Mulkearns was bishop of Ballarat from 1971 to 1997.

In February, Mulkearns admitted to the inquiry that he had failed as a bishop.

“I’m terribly sorry that I didn’t do things differently,” he said. “I didn’t really know what to do or how to do it.”

Too bad you didn't know Someone you could go to for advice. Apparently, bishops don't believe God answers prayer.

Childhood sex abuse victim shares powerful story

Annelies Gartner - The West Australian

In a Sydney hotel room in 2012, WA playwright and director Hellie Turner turned on the television to be confronted with Xan Fraser reliving the horrific event that robbed her of her childhood.

In 1981, Xan was 12 years old and living in a small Queensland town. She left her house one evening with plans to meet a friend to go roller skating. On her way, another girl convinced her to make what would become a life-changing decision and instead go to a party.

Xan drank enough alcohol to render herself unconscious and throughout the night she was sexually violated by three men and left for dead.

During the subsequent trial a year later, Xan was required to appear as a witness.

    Xan Fraser, left, with members of the cast of Project Xan - Marko Jovanovic, Daisy Coyle, Nick 
    Maclaine and Siobhan Dow-Hall. Picture: Danella Bevis/The West Australian

In the Supreme Court before Justice John Macrossan, she was asked how much make-up she had on that night, how tight were her jeans?

The three men were found guilty of indecent dealing and attempted rape and were sentenced to two years probation. During sentencing remarks, Justice Macrossan said: “Had the girl ... retained some degree of consciousness, it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that in that condition she may have consented to your acts.

“Who’s to know?”

Why would it matter; she was 12 years old?

It wasn’t until 30 years after the trial that Xan read the judge’s remarks for the first time.

“I started reading and I was screaming, guttural screaming for over an hour at what he had said about me as that child,” Xan says.

It was her anger over his comments that prompted Xan to contact the media. Hellie tuned in to Xan’s story being told on the ABC’s 7.30 Report.

“I saw Xan and listened to her story and I ended up being really moved. I was crying, she was crying,” Hellie, who at the time was looking for a new documentary-theatre project, says.

Hellie contacted Xan via Facebook asking if she would be interested in her story being adapted into a work of theatre.

    Project Xan director and script writer Hellie Turner, centre, with Daisy Coyle and Xan Fraser. 
    Picture: Danella Bevis/The West Australian

She didn’t get a response to her message, so waited a month before calling.

“From the point of the first phone call, there was a little bit of connection,” Hellie explains.

“She grew to trust me, I suppose, and I was very careful not to blow that and I gave her the power to veto, the power of pulling the show.”

Xan had a passion for theatre that grew when her children became involved in community drama.

“I felt like this was the best platform for me to get the message across, to help others and also the process has been very therapeutic,” she says. “It’s almost like I had my own team of people to help me unpick the whole thing and then build a story around it to share it with others on a professional platform.”

After learning of Xan’s passion for theatre, Hellie asked if she would play herself in Project Xan alongside Daisy Coyle, who plays Xan at 12 years of age.

“She just doesn’t mind that I’m coaching her all the time,” Hellie explains. “I took a punt but it’s worked out well.”

Unfathomably, after Xan was gang raped, she was victim blamed by the small community where she lived.

“I was just blacklisted,” she says. “All the kids were obviously told, ‘Don’t go near her, she’s trouble’.

“I don’t know why but boys started picking on me at school and I would fight them and I then got expelled for fighting back.”

Lit cigarettes were put out on her legs and her jaw was dislocated but still Xan received no support.

“Lynch mobs coming up to me and to my house and calling me out and when I finally did leave my house, they got me,” Xan says.

At 13, Xan had a baby — to protect herself from the physical abuse.

“I knew people didn’t hit pregnant people and that’s why I chose to have a baby, to stop being hit,” Xan says.

Resonating at the heart of Hellie’s play is Xan’s story but it also shines a spotlight on rape culture and victim blaming.

“One of the things that we did was unpick the ‘why’,” Hellie says. “Why was this able to happen? Why is a young girl able to be raped?”

Three decades after the dark night that changed Xan’s life forever, rape and victim blaming continue to make headlines. US presidential candidate Donald Trump recently brushed off comments he made about “grab ’em by the p****” as locker room talk.

Last year, Stanford University student Brock Turner received a six-month sentence and was released after three for the sexual assault of an unconscious woman behind a dumpster.

Turner’s father asked that his son receive leniency, arguing the punishment was a “steep price to pay for 20 minutes of action out of his 20 plus years of life”.

Hellie was horrified that T-shirts were for sale online with the slogan, “Keep calm and rape a lot”, but pleasantly surprised to find the item of clothing had been pulled after public protest.

“I thought finally someone is speaking out because if they start with that one, maybe they’ll be able to see the errant connections to the other T-shirts that are out there, the billion other ones,” Hellie says.

Xan tries not to carry too much rage over her treatment but does have anger towards the judge who presided over the trial.

“They really had the choice to help me and they could’ve done the right thing and I don’t think they did,” Xan says.

No, Xan, they did exactly the wrong thing!

“I really felt victimised and I felt like I was blamed as a woman and that really makes me angry. The judge makes me angry.”

Xan was amazed by the number of people that contacted her after she shared her experiences and hopes her involvement in the play will empower others to tell their stories.

“That’s why I’m doing this,” she explains. “I’m doing this to just continue that — give people the permission to talk about it and to share.”

Project Xan is at PICA from November 8-19.

Fighting Sex Abuse, Kids Sketch Life Left Behind

The poor, voiceless children of Delhi

Mohammad Ibrar | TNN |

NEW DELHI: "When I was young, I used to be a rag picker. I also begged on the streets near the old Delhi railway station. There were many children there who used to do drugs. Staying with them, I too became an addict. In that state I was unaware of my surroundings and what people were doing to me," testified a 16-year old girl, who has since been rehabilitated and now teaches other impoverished children to fight sexual abuse.

She recalled her experiences on a video released by NGO Chetna, and like her, many other similarly placed children have welcomed the five-day child sexual abuse awareness campaign titled 'Jagruk Raho, Chuppi Todo' being currently run by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR).The youngsters believe that this would be reason for many street children to celebrate this Diwali.

The commission proposed to sensitise people at several places by way of street plays about children who face sexual abuse. Children once living on the streets and now empowered through NGOs believe, as one girl says, "these plays should be put up on a regular basis for lasting impact on the society".

The child victims have bitter memories. "I used to sell cucumber at railway stations and bus stops as my father was unable to raise us with his meagre income as a daily labourer," said a 17-year-old boy who came to Delhi in 2008. "The situation at the stations was terrible because children would become victims of men who offered them money for sexual favours."

A 24-year-old girl, who now teaches children at Chetna Foundation, remembered how on the road they lived on, people made lewd comments or tried to show them pornographic materials. "They also approached us to be sexually involved with them," she said.

Children have no voice

In such conditions, children are often unable to voice their concerns because they are under severe stress. "Many girls are scared to speak out for fear that their parents will only blame them instead. In fact, many parents themselves are abusers," rued a 22-year old girl who had to fight with their parents to go to various workshops to learn a number of crafts. She now mentors young girls on how to respond to such incidents.

According to Sanjay Gupta, director of Chetna, a comprehensive survey on the number of street children in the city is required. "If the government has data on children living on the streets, they could then find it easier to formulate a plan for them," he said. The victims themselves suggested that the government should sensitise policemen to the issue of child sex abuse — they claimed that children are wary of approaching policemen who almost always rebuff them.

15yrs of Torture & Rape: Australian Parents Jailed for Viciously Abusing own Daughter

The worst story you will read today

This couple are among leading candidates for my SPPY award -

The Sick, Perverted Parents of the Year

    © Henry Romero / Reuters

A couple from the New South Wales, Australia, has been sentenced to combined 64 years in prison for sexually abusing, raping, torturing and confining their own daughter for more than 15 years.

The court was told the father repeatedly raped and used a number of sharp gardening tools to torture the girl in a vicious 15-year campaign of abuse that started when she was five years old. He also held the girl’s head under water in a creek, wrapped her in barbed wire and threatened her with a chainsaw and a machete.

“If you ever tell anyone about anything that goes on here, I’ll kill you. It’s no one else’s business,” the father told the girl, as reported by the Australian newspaper.

The father, whose identity was not revealed, is a former elite athlete, who abandoned his professional career to train the girl and her two older sisters, who all showed high athletic potential, at an elite level.

However, even though the youngest daughter showed progress in training, he tied her up in a shed or in a plastic box in the family’s rural property for up to three days and sexually assaulted her.

On other occasions, the couple jointly committed sexual assaults on the girl. The mother, who is also an accomplished athlete and a schoolteacher, also began teaching the girl how to sexually arouse her father from the age of eight, AP reports.

“She breached the trust her daughter held in her in the gravest way,” Sydney District Court Judge Sarah Huggett, who handed down the sentence to the couple, said as cited by the ABC.

“[She] intentionally manipulated her daughter’s moral and emotional development … in circumstances where she should have protected her daughter,” the judge added.

The case first drew attention of the Australian authorities in 2011, when the victim was admitted to a psychiatric ward. The judge said that the victim suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and dissociative identity disorder as a result of the abuse.

“The lack of protection care and comfort from either of her parents led to disassociation as a primary survival strategy,” a psychologist told the court.

At the same time, the local community was “hoodwinked” into trusting the parents, the judge said. The couple was arrested in 2013.

The father, 59, was sentenced to 48 years in jail after being found guilty of 73 offences, including rape and torture. He will be eligible for parole only after serving 36 years, in 2049. Huggett admitted she had effectively given him a life sentence and he will probably die in prison.

At the same time, the judge stressed that the father “completely disregarded and exploited his youngest daughter’s vulnerability” and described him as a “completely depraved and sadistic” person. She also called the crimes “atrocious in the extreme.”

The mother, 51, was jailed for 16 years after being convicted of 13 offences, including not only abusing her youngest daughter, but also committing two assaults against the girl’s two older sisters. She will be eligible for parole in 11 years’ time, in 2027.

The parents showed no remorse and denied all the charges. The victim, who is now 24, said that she “will be forever damaged by the torture and inhuman treatment [she] has suffered.”

“I hope to have a moment in my life where I do not suffer from the trauma of the abuse,” she added.

Please pray this girl will find peace and all the help she needs to recover.

A Rabbi, A Yeshiva, A Child Care Agency, A Football Coach, and A Couple Sodomites on P&P List

Western Kentucky Man Charged with Child Sexual Abuse

Jesse Graham - Courtesy: Muhlenberg County Jail/Copyright 2016 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc.

A Muhlenberg County man is arrested on child sex abuse charges. Kentucky State Police arrested 48-year-old Jesse Graham on Thursday.

He faces two counts of 1st Degree Sodomy on a victim under the age of 12 and two counts of 1st Degree Sexual Abuse.

State Police are asking anyone with additional information on the case to contact them at (270) 676-3313.

    Muhlenberg, Co., KY

Pennsylvania Care Agency Must Pay $5.35 Million

in Child Sex Abuse Case

After being sexually abused in her foster home, a 7-year-old girl was returned to the same home just months later, and was abused again.

By Justin Heinze (Patch Staff) 

A Montgomery County foster care agency must pay $5.35 million in damages for repeatedly placing a young girl in a foster home where she was sexually assaulted, according to litigators.

Lawyers with Kline and Specter P.C. said that Presbyterian Children's Village, twice placed the child, who was 7 years old at the time, in the home of Walter and Deborah Scott, where she was sexually abused. Walter Scott, now 61, later pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting three different children in his care.

A Philadelphia jury ruled in a civil trial Friday that Presbyterian must pay $5 million in compensatory damages and $350,000 in punitive damages to the victim for placing her in that situation.

“This verdict is a message that child safety must be protected," said Nadeem Bezar, who tried the plaintiff’s case with Emily Marks, both attorneys with Kline & Specter PC of Philadelphia. "This is a message from the jury to PCV and all foster care agencies that they must be diligent."

In November 2012, the child was placed in the care of Deborah and Walter Scott for three days, litigators said. When she was moved to a new foster home, she reported the abuse to her new foster mother.

Despite knowing about the report, Presbyterian continued to place children with the Scotts, even after hearing another child make the same allegations, according to the suit. They then placed the original child with the Scotts for a second time in late February of 2013.

The child reported abuse for a second time, and officials soon were able to identify two more victims.

    Montgomery Co., PA

Brooklyn yeshiva agrees to pay $2.1M to victims of

child sex abuse, but doesn't have the money

Attorneys for the two boys claimed in lawsuits filed in 2006 that Rabbi Yehuda Kolko (c.), an elementary school teacher at the yeshiva, had sexually abused them when they were students at the school. (EGAN-CHIN, DEBBIE NEW YORK DAILY )

BY MICHAEL O'KEEFFE  NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

A Brooklyn yeshiva quietly became the first Orthodox Jewish school to compensate students who claim they were molested by a teacher when it agreed to pay more than $2 million to two boys and their families in 2014 — and now it may be the first Orthodox school to default on a settlement with sex abuse victims.

Yeshiva-Mesivta Torah Temimah, a prominent Orthodox school on Brooklyn's Ocean Parkway, agreed to pay one former student $900,000 and the other $1.35 million in a settlement reached in October 2014.

The agreements were originally confidential, but they became public earlier this month after lawyers for the boys filed papers in Brooklyn Supreme Court that said the school failed to make payments due earlier this year.

“This is the first time the public has known about these payments,” said sex-abuse expert Marci Hamilton, a lawyer and a distinguished scholar at the University of Pennsylvania. “This is the first settlement with a yeshiva that has been publicly disclosed. I was surprised as anybody to see this. This is a sizeable settlement.”

Attorneys for the two boys claimed in lawsuits filed in 2006 that Rabbi Yehuda Kolko, an elementary school teacher at the yeshiva, had sexually abused them when they were students at the school.

“Torah Temimah knew or should have known that Rabbi Kolko sexually abused young male students under his supervision or control,” one complaint said. “Torah Temimah knew or should have known of Rabbi Kolko's dangerous sexual predisposition and/or that he was unfit, dangerous and a threat to the health, safety and welfare of the minors entrusted to his counsel, care and protection at Torah Temimah.”


Yeshiva-Mesivta Torah Temimah

Those boys weren't Kolko's only victims, according to the court papers.

The filings say Rabbi Lipa Marguiles, the yeshiva's president and dean, had received multiple sex abuse complaints about Kolko for more than 25 years. But Marguiles continued to employ Kolko as an elementary school teacher and “give him unfettered access to young children,” the papers said.

Families that complained about sex abuse were bullied by Marguiles and Kolko, the court filings say.

“Rabbi Marguiles, in concert with Rabbi Kolko, additionally engaged in tactics of intimidation, threats, coercion and misrepresentation over a period of years with the intent of squelching any complaints or civil claims concerning Rabbi Kolko's misconduct,” the papers say.

Marguiles and an attorney for Torah Temimah, Avraham Moskowitz, did not return calls for comment.

Several other former students also filed lawsuits that alleged Kolko had sexually abused them, but those complaints were dismissed because they were filed too late.

New York state law bars sex abuse victims from filing civil complaints after they turn 23 years old. Orthodox Jewish organizations, along with the Catholic Church, have opposed bills that would raise or eliminate the statute of limitations and provide a one-year window for sex-abuse victims to pursue litigation regardless of age.

Kolko, 70, faced criminal sex abuse charges when the lawsuits were filed a decade ago. In a controversial deal reached with then-Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes, Kolko agreed to plead guilty to misdemeanor child endangerment.

Critics said the plea deal, which allowed Kolko to avoid a jail sentence and register as a sex offender, was proof that Hynes was afraid to pursue sex abuse in Brooklyn's politically muscular Orthodox community.

Attorneys for the boys who claimed they were sexually abused by Kolko did not immediately return requests for comment.

    Brooklyn, NY

New Mexico high school football coach arrested for numerous child rapes

MORIARTY, N.M. -– A New Mexico assistant football coach was arrested for  raping and harassing three underage schoolgirls on Wednesday, CBS affiliate KRQE reports.

The police chief of Moriarty told KRQE that Assistant Football Coach Damien Hyatt of Moriarty High School was arrested after a warrant from Torrance County. Moriarty Police Department served that warrant and took him into custody.


Charges include:

Criminal sexual contact and penetration
Criminal sexual communication with a child
Criminal solicitation to commit criminal sexual penetration
Bribery of a witness, contributing to the delinquency of a minor
Attempt to commit criminal sexual penetration
Manufacturing
Visual medium of sexual exploitation of children

Damien Hyatt is a former student of Moriarty High School in New Mexico and has worked as an assistant coach to its undefeated football team for two years.

The 25-year-old was arrested on Wednesday for sexually abusing three female students aged 15 and 16 at the school. 

Police believe he harassed the girls, telling them he would only leave them alone if they sent him nude photographs on Snapchat.

He is facing 24 child sex offences including 13 rape charges. 

Hyatt is accused of striking up a relationship with his first victim, a 15-year-old student, a year ago.

Investigators say the pair had sex more than once and exchanged nude photographs.

He then began accosting a 16-year-old girl at the same school, KRQUE reports.

Hyatt pestered the girl for sex repeatedly, it is alleged, and only left her alone when she sent him nude photographs on Snapchat.

Another girl said he begged her for sex but she declined. She says he also grabbed her buttocks.


The 25-year-old is an assistant football coach at Moriarty High School in New Mexico (above)


Hyatt has worked as an assistant coach to the Moriarty Pintos football team (above) for two years


Hyatt allegedly bought some of the girls alcohol at a local Walmart (above) to try to bribe them into having sex with him 

The assistant coach bought the third girl and her friends alcohol at a local Walmart to try to get her to sleep with him, she claimed. 

She eventually sent him explicit photographs after he threatened her family. 

Alongside 13 rape charges, Hyatt faces a handful of others including criminal sexual contact and penetration,  criminal solicitation to commit criminal sexual penetration and bribery of a witness. 

He was placed on administrative leave at the end of September. 

'We’re working closely with law enforcement to ensure the safety and security of students during the investigation and be respectful of privacy matters,' Tom Sullivan, superintendent of the Moriarty—Edgewood School District, told The Albuquerque Journal.

    Moriarty, NM

Alabama man held on charges of child sexual abuse

GCM STAFF REPORT

ROBERTSDALE, Alabama — A Robertsdale man is being held on two counts of sexual abuse of a child under 12 following an arrest Wednesday by the Robertsdale Police Department.

RPD Chief Investigator Lt. Rex Bishop said officers responded to a call on Saturday and based on their investigation arrested Dale Bradley Garrick, 47, of Robertsdale on Wednesday on charges of first degree sodomy and two counts of sexual abuse of a child under 12.

“In order to protect the victims there is not a lot we can say at this time,” Bishop said. “What we can say is that both victims were known to Mr. Garrick and we are conducting an ongoing investigation.”

Garrick is being held while awaiting a bond hearing, which will likely be Friday, Bishop said.

If you have information regarding this case, call the Robertsdale Police Department at (251) 947-2222.

    Robertsdale, AL

Former Islamic State Sex Slaves Awarded Europe's Top Human Rights Prize

Congratulations to these courageous young women. You are my heroes!

By Andrew V. Pestano  UPI

The European Parliament on Thursday announced Nadia Murad Basee Taha and Lamiya Aji Bashar, seen from left to right in this image made by political cartoonist Ali Farzat, are the 2016 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought laureates. The women were former Islamic State sex slaves. Image courtesy of European Parliament

STRASBOURG, France, Oct. 27 (UPI) -- The European Parliament has awarded the 2016 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought to Nadia Murad Basee Taha and Lamiya Aji Bashar, Yazidi survivors of sexual slavery by the Islamic State.

Both women were captured on Aug. 3, 2014, when the Islamic State killed all the men in the village of Kocho in Iraq's Sinjar District -- Murad and Aji Bashar's hometown. The village's women and children were enslaved. The women were bought and sold several times to be exploited as sex slaves.

"During the Kocho massacre, Murad lost six of her brothers and her mother, who was killed along with 80 older women deemed to have no sexual value," the European Parliament said in a statement. "Aji Bashar was also exploited as a sex slave along with her six sisters. She was sold five times among the militants and was forced to make bombs and suicide vests in Mosul after IS militants executed her brothers and father."

In November 2014, Murad was able to escape with the help of a family who smuggled her out of IS-controlled territory. She settled in a refugee camp in northern Iraq and then traveled to Germany.

In December 2015, Murad -- who was recently awarded the Council of Europe's Václav Havel Human Rights Prize -- addressed the United Nations Security Council's first-ever session on human trafficking about her experience as an Islamic State sex slave.

In September, she became the first U.N. Goodwill Ambassador for the Dignity of Survivors of Human Trafficking, a role in which she will attempt to raise awareness about the horrors of human trafficking.

Aji Bashar tried to escape the Islamic State several times before succeeding in April after her family helped pay local smugglers. As she fled the pursuing Islamic State on her way to Iraqi government-controlled territory a landmine exploded, which killed two people she was with and left her injured and nearly blind.

Though injured, she successfully escaped and was sent for medical treatment to Germany, where she reunited with her surviving siblings.

"Since her recovery Aji Bashar has been active in raising awareness about the plight of the Yazidi community and continues to help women and children who were victims of IS enslavement and atrocities," the European Parliament added.

The Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought recognizes individuals who fight intolerance, fanaticism and oppression to defend human rights and freedom of expression. It is named in honor of Soviet physicist and political dissident Andrei Sakharov, and has been awarded annually since 1988.

In 2011, the prize went to five representatives of the Arab Spring in recognition and support of their drive for freedom and human rights.

In 2015, the award was given to Raif Badawi, a Saudi Arabian blogger who was imprisoned and flogged publicly for criticizing the country's religious establishment. And is still imprisoned!

Scandal Erupts in Iran as Quranic Reciter Accused of Child Sex Abuse

Saeed Toosi was accused by his alleged victims

of conspiring with the supreme leader to cover up

his rape attacks

   Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif addresses the parliament in Tehran (AFP)

A Quranic reciter in Iran has been accused of sexually abusing young trainees, provoking a scandal in the conservative society.

Saeed Toosi, referred to by Al-Arabiya news as Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's "favourite reciter", is accused of raping seven students between the ages of 12 and 14 over seven years.

Toosi denied the allegations, which he dismissed in a statement as "bogus and total lies".

The scandal hit social media, where it was eventually picked up by the Persian Voice of America, which said it had audio and video evidence from the victims implicating Toosi.

One 12-year old, a first-prize winner in a Quranic competition, alleged Toosi had taken advantage of him while they were on a trip abroad.

“He touched my body while we were on the flight. He molested me,” he said.

“When we arrived at the hotel, we were supposed to get separate rooms but he organised for us to get one room. I was only 12.

"He betrayed me. While I was taking a shower, he came in naked. I was in shock, I couldn’t scream, my mind was locked. He did his thing.”

Another student said: "He took me to a public bathhouse, and there he did things on the pretext that he was giving me a massage.

"When we came out, he was frightened and pleaded with me not to tell anyone. I was in shock.”

One audio recording allegedly features Toosi saying Khamenei was aware of his situation and that they had persuaded the judiciary to cover up the case.

Various local Iranian news agencies picked up on the reports, including reformist papers like Shargh and Etemaad.

Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani, the judiciary chief, also defended his institution on Monday, saying those who cooperated with "hostile media" to defame him should be punished "so we know who is [loyal] to the revolution and who is not".

Suddenly it's about the revolution. The revolution was almost 40 years ago; it's not a revolution anymore! It seems you need a revolution from the revolution.

Toosi's alleged victims said they had filed a complaint to the office of the supreme leader.

The reciter is a permanent guest in the "Quranic councils" celebrated annually by Khamenei and last May inaugurated the Shura council session.

According to the Guardian, a spokesperson for the Iranian judiciary said this week that plaintiffs included four victims and that the matter has been given for review to an experienced judge.

Cardinal Pell Questioned by Police on Child Sex Abuse Claims

The Vatican’s Treasurer Has Been Interviewed by Australian Police Over Child Sex Abuse Claims

TIME Staff  

Cardinal George Pell Testifies To Child Sex Abuse Royal Commission - Rome

There are allegations that Cardinal George Pell abused

young boys in the 1970s and 1980s

Police from the state of Victoria, Australia, have flown to Rome to interview Vatican treasurer Cardinal George Pell over allegations of sexual assault.

A spokeswoman for Pell confirmed Wednesday that the Australian-born Cardinal had been interviewed and would continue to co-operate with police but said that he “repeats his previous rejection of all and every allegation of sexual abuse,” the Guardian reports.

Victorian police had previously confirmed that they were considering charging Pell in July, when allegations that the Cardinal had abused young boys in the 1970’s and 1980’s surfaced in Australian media.

Among the allegations were those made by two men who claimed on Australia’s ABC News that, when they were high school students, Pell had repeatedly touched their genitals while swimming with them at a pool in Ballarat, Victoria. Pell was episcopal vicar for education at the time.

“It’s about time Australia’s most senior Catholic was interviewed by the police,” Leonie Sheedy, the chief executive officer of Care Leavers Australia Network, a support group for people who were raised in orphanages, told the Guardian.

Pell has described the allegations as “utterly false” and “nothing more than a scandalous smear campaign.”

And, of course, we know a Cardinal would never lie!

Earlier in 2016 Pell testified from Rome via video link to an Australian inquiry into child sex abuse, where he said the Catholic Church had made “enormous mistakes” in dealing with claims of sexual abuse.

                       Ballarat, Victoria, AU

Child Sex Trafficking, Child Brides, MP Accused of Rape in Canada? Seriously?

Former OHL billet Neil Joynt found guilty of indecent assault

WARNING: Story contains graphic content

By Frédéric Pepin, CBC News 

   Former OHL billet Neil Joynt was found guilty of two charges of indecent assault on Oct. 27, 2016. 
   (Frederic Pepin/CBC)

A longtime Ontario Hockey League billet and gym teacher from Kingston, Ont., has been found guilty of two of three charges he was facing in a sexual assault trial involving allegations spanning three decades.

A jury in Napanee, Ont. found Neil Joynt, 75, guilty on two counts of indecent assault against a male, crimes dating as far back as 1962.

The jury found Joynt not guilty of a separate charge of sexual assault stemming from the 1980s.

The names of the victims are sealed to protect their identity. They accused Joynt, who was their physical education teacher at the time of the crimes, of touching their penises or masturbating them when they were between the ages of 12 and 14.

The Crown argued that the accused was in a position of trust and authority when the crimes took place.

Family members of one of the victims told CBC News that they were happy with the outcome of the trial, and hoped it would convince other potential victims to come forward.

Joynt was arrested in 2013 after the victims complained to police — in one case more than 40 years after the alleged events took place.

A pre-sentencing hearing is set for January 2017 in Napanee.

    Napanee, Ontario

Charges laid after 3 teen girls brought from Toronto area to work in Ottawa sex trade

3 victims are 15, 16, 17 years old, Ottawa police say

CBC News 

A man and a woman from Toronto face charges after three teen girls were brought from the Toronto area to work in Ottawa's sex trade, Ottawa police say.

Sgt. Jeff Leblanc is head of the Ottawa police human trafficking unit. (Chloe Fedio/CBC)

Sgt. Jeff LeBlanc of the Ottawa police human trafficking unit said patrol officers got a call from someone concerned about a young woman who may have been in the Centretown area early Monday morning.

As they investigated, officers went to a hotel and found "what appeared to be an operation being run out of a few hotel rooms that involved the advertisement and sale of sexual services involving underage females," Leblanc said.

The girls — 15, 16 and 17 years old — are all from the Toronto area, police said.

"We have reason to believe [the accused] had been operating for a longer period of time and in multiple jurisdictions," LeBlanc said in an interview.

"We've already been in contact with Toronto area police, we're dealing with Peel, Toronto and York, to kind of create a timeline as to what happened in the weeks and maybe even months leading up to them arriving in Ottawa."

Police believe the three teens and two accused had only been in Ottawa for a few days before they were found, Leblanc said.

On GTA police radar

GTA - Greater Toronto Area - A 27-year-old Toronto man and a 19-year-old Toronto woman were arrested at the downtown Ottawa hotel. They are each charged with:

Three counts of trafficking people under 18 years old.
Three counts of receiving material benefits for human trafficking.
Three counts of procuring persons under 18 years old to provide sexual services.
Three counts of advertising another person's sexual services.
One count of failing to comply with a judicial release.
The woman is also facing a charge of breach of probation.

They weren't known to Ottawa police but had been on the radar of police in the Toronto area, Leblanc said.

It's fairly common for human traffickers to move victims between Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal given their relatively close locations, he added.

Bountiful polygamists on trial for taking girl to U.S. to marry older man

Canadian girl taken to U.S. unlawfully where she was expected to marry a much older man

CBC News



At the heart of the Cranbrook trial is the lifestyle of a breakaway sect of Mormons in Bountiful who openly practiced polygamy and allegedly shared girls between sects.

A first of its kind trial has begun in Cranbrook, British Columbia where three people are charged with transporting an underaged girl across the U.S. border where she was expected to marry a much older man.

James Oler, Brandon Blackmore and Ruth Crossfield were charged over two years ago with unlawful removal of a child from Canada for sexual purposes.

The three are alleged polygamists from a breakaway Mormon sect in Bountiful, near Creston, B.C.

Blackmore and Crossfield are alleged to have taken part in shuttling the underaged girl into the U.S. to be married to an older American sect member, while James Oler was a leader of the B.C. sect at the time.

The evidence against the three came to light in the investigation of American polygamous leader Warren Jeffs, who was sentenced to life in prison for being an accomplice to rape. Jeffs was found guilty of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl and 15-year-old girl he had taken as child brides.

The evidence against the three people on trial in Cranbrook came to light in the investigation of American polygamous leader Warren Jeffs, who was sentenced to life in prison for being an accomplice to rape.

At the heart of the Cranbrook trial is the lifestyle of secretive fundamentalist Mormons who openly practiced polygamy and allegedly shared girls between sects.

The case will take weeks with legal arguments alone expected to last until mid-November. Arguments over legal procedures taking place this week can't be reported on.

A charge of polygamy was also laid against Oler and Winston Blackmore, Brandon Blackmore's younger brother, which will be tried separately.

With files from Bob Keating

Gerry Sklavounos, MNA accused of sexual assault, goes on medical leave

Woman accused former deputy house leader of 2014 sexual assault

CBC News 

Gerry Sklavounos, 41, was first elected as the member of the National Assembly for Laurier-Dorion in 2007. (Jacques Boissinot/Canadian Press)

Gerry Sklavounos, the MNA who left the Liberal caucus last week after being accused of sexual assault, has taken medical leave from the National Assembly.

Sklavounos announced the decision in a letter obtained by Radio-Canada addressed to Jacques Chagnon, president of the National Assembly.

MNA - Member of National Assembly, Quebec's provincial parliament. There is much about this story that I don't like. Please read below the photo of Quebec City for an explanation.

In the letter, Sklavounos wrote that the "present situation has greatly affected him."

"Over the last few days, public declarations putting my conduct into question have quickly escalated and have affected my reputation as well as the reputation of the person who has accused me," wrote Sklavounos.

"In this context, it seems appropriate to me to give as much space to authorities so that they can carry out their delicate task, out of respect for all people involved."

He does not say how much time he will be taking off.

"Under the advice of my close advisors, I consulted my doctor, who prescribed a leave to allow me to face the situation as best as I can, with the support of my family," wrote Sklavounos.

Alice Paquet first spoke publicly about the allegations last week. (Radio-Canada)

In the letter, Sklavounos said his team will continue to work in his riding while he is away.

The alleged assault happened in 2014.

Alice Paquet first went public with the allegation last week during a vigil for Laval University sexual assault victims, but initially didn't name her alleged assailant.

The next day she named Sklavounos as the man who allegedly assaulted her.

Sklavounos has not been charged with any crime. Quebec City police have an open investigation into the allegations.


He left the Liberal caucus on Oct. 20. Sklavounos was the deputy house leader under Premier Philippe Couillard and has served as the MNA for Laurier-Dorion since 2007.


Quebec City, Quebec

'A kiss is not a contract'

Paquet says she met Sklavounos when she was working in a restaurant.

He was there with other politicians.

She says he came to see her and asked what she thought of something they had been discussing. She told him she didn't want to discuss politics at work.

She says he asked if she wanted to have a drink with him and she thought it would be interesting to talk to an MNA, so she agreed.

She says she found him attractive and agreed to go to his room.

"Up to a point I consented," Paquet said.

"But a kiss isn't a contract. An embrace isn't a contract."

When Radio-Canada journalist Anne-Marie Dussault asked Paquet if she said "no," Paquet replied, "I never said 'yes.'"

Alice, by your own admission you consented 'up to a point'. If you didn't say 'no', at what point did your understood consent end, and how was Sklavounos supposed to know that it ended? How difficult is it to say 'no' or 'stop'? 

Do you actually require a written contract before having sex with someone? Because, if you do it's going to be a long time before it happens again.

I quite obviously don't understand all the circumstances here, but there is nothing in what she states here that would lead me to believe there was any kind of sexual assault. That goes completely against the grain of this blog for me to side with the man against a woman, but it looks to me like there is something very wrong with this accusation.

It's a point she made in a Facebook post about the incident, which was later deleted.

In the post she wrote, "No, I'm not sure I said 'No.' But without 'yes' it's 'no.' I was scared, and at all times in a sexual encounter we should feel totally comfortable. Free to stop, and not be blamed for it either."

She said after the first time they met up, she went to see him a second time and was sexually assaulted again.

"I was really confused," she said. "I went back, I'm not sure what I was expecting."