India Supreme Court Allows 13yo to Abort
32-Week Pregnancy
By Solange Reyner
A 13-year-old girl who said she was raped by her father's colleague has received permission from the Supreme Court of India to terminate her 32-week pregnancy, the BBC reported Wednesday.
The court had rejected a similar petition by a 10-year-old girl several weeks earlier, as India law does not allow abortions past 20 weeks of pregnancy. The 13-year-old girl's pregnancy was detected at 27 weeks after her parents took her to her doctor for obesity treatments.
"This is a path-breaking judgment by the Supreme Court," Nikhil Datar, the Mumbai-based gynecologist who discovered the pregnancy, told Reuters.
"I hope the Supreme Court now gives directions to the government to make amendments to India's abortion law."
Child sexual abuse is a major problem in India, with one in every two children reported as victims, according to a survey conducted by humanitarian aid organization World Vision India that surveyed 45,844 respondents. One in five respondents said they do not feel safe because of the fear of being sexually abused.
"Despite one in every two children being a victim of child sexual abuse, there continues to be a huge silence," World Vision India National Director Cherian Thomas said recently in India. "The magnitude of sexual violence against children is unknown."
One in every two children comes from a survey that found more boys admitting they were sexually abused than girls. This is unlikely to be the case in reality. There are many reasons why some girls/women would not report that they were sexually abused even in an anonymous survey. I suggest the real number of children in India who have been, or will be, sexually abused is much closer to two/thirds.
Watford teenager Harry Johnson admits multiple
child sex abuse charges
By martin ford
St Albans Crown Court
A teenager from Hertfordshire has admitted multiple charges involving the sexual abuse of children.
Harry Johnson, 19, a civil engineering student from Hunter's Lane in Watford, appeared before a judge at St Albans Crown Court this morning (Wednesday, September 6).
He spoke only to enter his plea to each of the 24 charges, his head bowed throughout the proceedings.
Johnson admitted 11 charges of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and two counts of causing or inciting the sexual exploitation of a child.
Rotherham child sexual abuse:
'No-one's fault at council'
From BBC Sheffield & South Yorkshire
No legal or disciplinary proceedings should be brought against any current or former senior officers at Rotherham Council over its handling of child sexual exploitation, a report has said.
The failure to tackle the problem was "not the fault of any one person" but was the result of "multiple and systemic failures", the report found.
Its author Mark Greenburgh said it was "more cock-up than conspiracy".
More than 1,400 children were sexually abused in the town from 1997 to 2013.
Six reports have been published by the council in response to the Jay Report's findings.
The independent investigations, carried out by solicitors Gowling WLG, covered areas including the performance of senior employees, taxi licensing in the town and reviews of how individual cases were handled.
Rotherham MP Sarah Champion has described the reports as a "wasted opportunity to allow the town to move forward" while survivor Sammy Woodhouse, who has waived her right to anonymity, said: "I want people held accountable and it just feels like it's never going to happen."
'Systemic failures'
On the response of senior officers the report said: "On the evidence available to us we have concluded that the way in which the council responded to CSE in Rotherham was not the responsibility or fault of any one person.
"It was the product of multiple and systemic failures.
"But there were key moments when a substantially different history may have occurred if individual judgements and responses had been better."
The report found "no culpable behaviour" to justify action against senior former employees including Martin Kimber
Regarding ex-officers, including former chief executive Martin Kimber and former head of children's services Joyce Thacker, the report said it had found "no culpable behaviour" to justify any legal action or regulatory involvement.
On current employees it said: "We have not identified that disciplinary and/or capability proceedings are warranted in respect of any senior manager currently in post at the council."
However it urged the current employers of an number of former staff including Ged Fitzgerald, chief executive from 2000-2003, and Jacqueline Wilson, head of children and families within social services from 2000 to 2004, to read the report into their handling of events.
It said: "We have not found that either of these people were uniquely culpable for the council's response to emerging evidence of CSE.
"But there are points at which each missed opportunities to have changed the outcomes."
The report concluded by saying Rotherham Council is "not the same institution it once was" adding: "Whilst the present day managers should look to see how the lessons learned are implemented, in our view it is vital that the council should continue to look forward."
'Wasted opportunity'
Rotherham's MP said in a statement: "I had hoped that today's publication of the reports into Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council (RMBC) preventing child sexual exploitation would draw a line under the catalogue of errors that led to our children being let down so badly by those supposed to protect them.
"However, despite these huge failures, leading to at least 1,400 victims being let down, it appears that no individual at RMBC has yet been held to account for their role."
Chris Read, leader of Rotherham Council said: "Today marks another step in our journey but nothing alters the fact that so many children were let down and that so many abusers have walked free in our town for too long.
"As a councillor, as a member of the Labour Party and as a citizen of Rotherham I'm still deeply sorry for what went wrong.
"We can't change the past, and God knows I wish we could, but I hope these reports help to give some solace and help to prevent further suffering in the future."
But you can change the future and are much more likely to if people were held responsible for the decisions they made to allow the incredible level of abuse continue for so many years. What's the incentive here to change? Labour seems quite happy with things as they are.
16th priest accused in Guam child sex abuse suit
Haidee V Eugenio
After former altar boys tearfully went public with allegations, a law was passed to open doors for lawsuits against the church, clergy and others. Wochit
Another Catholic clergy member on Guam has been accused of child sexual abuse, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court Tuesday.
Father Louis William Rink, who is now deceased, was sued by a former altar boy identified in documents only as R.R.C. to protect his privacy. The lawsuit accuses Rink of abusing the boy, who was 10, in Dededo in the 1980s. Rink is the 16th Guam clergy member accused in court of child sexual abuse.
Which begs the question - were there any priests in Guam who were not perverts?
Rink allegedly molested the boy in the Santa Barbara Catholic Church sacristy and told him that one of the 10 Commandments is "Thou shall Honor your mother and your father," which also includes the priest, the lawsuit states.
"Rink then told R.R.C., 'no one needs to know'," the lawsuit says. "Luckily, someone walked into the sacristy and R.R.C. was able to get away before sexual abuse escalated."
R.R.C., now 43, is the 104th person to file a lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Agana over alleged sex abuse by clergy or others affiliated with the Catholic church.
The lawsuit names the archdiocese, the Congregation of Holy Cross to which Rink belonged, and up to 50 others as defendants.
R.R.C. is represented by attorney David Lujan, and demands $5 million in minimum damages.
After the incident, R.R.C. told Monsignor Zoilo Camacho that Rink had sexually abused him, the lawsuit states.
Camacho told R.R.C that he just has to keep praying and asking for forgiveness, the complaint states. Camacho also is accused of sexually abusing a minor in a separate case, filed in federal court in June.
Rink first came to Guam in 1985 to serve as chaplain at Father Duenas Memorial School for a year, after spending several years in Congregation of Holy Cross missions to Uganda and Liberia, the lawsuit states. He returned to Guam in 1987 to work for the Archdiocese of Agana, and was assigned to many other places after that.
He died in 2013, when he was about 89, the lawsuit states.
Victorian MP Rachel Carling-Jenkins describes anguish of finding husband's child pornography collection
By state political reporter Richard WillinghamVictorian Upper House MP Rachel Carling-Jenkins has revealed that her estranged husband has been convicted for child pornography possession.
The Australian Conservatives MP said the discovery in February last year turned her life upside down and ended the marriage immediately.
Her husband, Gary Jenkins, has been sentenced to prison, but Dr Carling-Jenkins said he was refusing to sign divorce papers and continued to contact their son.
"These little girls would not be abused if people like my ex-husband did not provide a market," Dr Carling-Jenkins said.
In June, Dr Carling-Jenkins announced she was leaving the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) to join senator Cory Bernardi's Australian Conservatives party.
Dr Carling-Jenkins and her son made the grim discovery last year and reported Jenkins to police.
She told Parliament it was an extensive collection.
"I personally viewed deeply distressing images that have caused me immediate and ongoing anguish," she said.
"I have no regrets, as a mother or a wife, in reporting or exposing this dreadful crime, which occurred in the privacy of my home."
In March, Jenkins was sentenced to four months' prison for one count of knowingly possessing child pornography.
"I do not believe a sentence of a few months and inclusion on the sex offenders register was adequate," Dr Carling-Jenkins said.
I completely agree!
For some time, Dr Carling-Jenkins believed her husband had a mental illness but she said efforts to get him help were rebuffed.
"Gary does not have a mental illness, his behaviour stemmed from something much more sinister," she said.
I agree with that, too. Sinister, evil, demonic, etc., etc.
"Our lives were turned upside down the day of the discovery.
We were gutted. My marriage ended instantly."
Dr Carling-Jenkins said her husband was now subjecting her and her son to financial, psychological and emotional abuse.
She said he was refusing to sign a property settlement, leaving her in insecure accommodation. He has also resisted signing divorce papers.
"Our system is such that whomever holds the assets can continue to abuse, leaving survivors vulnerable," Dr Carling-Jenkins said.
She said she had been subjected to vile stories, harassment and threats.
The faces of the abused girls are etched in her mind, and she revealed that she unconsciously scans faces in the streets.
"These little girls have lost their innocence, their childhood
and control over their destiny."
Dr Carling-Jenkins was hugged by MPs from all sides of Parliament after giving the speech.
If I were there, I would hug you too. God bless you for speaking out.
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