Italy in Shock as Mayor, Medics & Others Caught Brainwashing Kids to Sell Them into Foster Care

Many of them sold to some very disturbing people

© gettyimages

Italians are reeling from the revelation that a crime ring, which includes a mayor, doctors and social workers, had been brainwashing children to say their parents abused them, so as to easily sell them on to foster families.

So far eighteen people, including the mayor of the town of Bibbiano, near Reggio Emilia in northern Italy, have been arrested.

They were suspected of working together to brainwash the kids, who were taken from disadvantaged families under false pretexts, into believing they’d been abused at home. This was later used as a justification to seize the children and, basically, to sell them to foster parents at a high price.

The psychologists at the Hansel and Gretel Association in the town of Moncalieri, near Turin, have used a variety of bizarre techniques to achieve their sinister goal.

They relied on persuasion to make their victims believe that their parents hurt and sexually abused them; showed fake, childlike drawings with added sexual details and even enacted plays, dressing up in scary masks to represent their moms and dads as being vile and dangerous.

The police said the children were also subjected to small electric shocks, referred to as “the little memory machine” by the shrinks.

An affected girl told La Repubblica paper that when she said that she couldn’t remember and was asking why she couldn’t see her dad anymore, she was told: “But don’t you remember you said you didn’t want to see him? I remember this.”

The psychologist then explained: “Yes, you said you didn’t want to see him because you were afraid that he would hurt you… that he might seek vengeance… or take you away. Do you remember the fear you felt? Do you remember now?”

But the child insisted that she couldn’t remember anything of the sort and that she cried over being separated from her father.

The police also said that they discovered dozens of letters and gifts from biological parents, which the perpetrators had never passed on to the kids.

Foster Carers a Nightmare

The people to whom the boys and girls were handed over reportedly included sex shop owners, persons with psychological disorders and parents whose children had committed suicide. It was under this ‘foster care’ that at least two of the victims suffered actual sexual abuse, according to reports.

The separation from their parents and the psychological torture have taken a heavy toll on the affected kids, with some losing hope for a future and resorting to self-harm.

The criminal organization was busted by police as part of an operation codenamed “Angels and Demons,” which was launched in late summer 2018 after an unnaturally high number of child sex abuse reports were spotted as coming from an area in the Reggio Emilia province.

Those arrested, as well as 27 others under investigation, have been charged with mistreatment of minors, violence, abuse of office, fraud and falsifying public records.

Italian PM Giuseppe Conte called the crime “frightening and shocking”, while Minister for Families and Disabilities, Lorenzo Fontana, described it as a “shockingly serious” development and promised a probe into the country’s adoption system.

Italians on the internet said they were praying for the estimated 30 kids who were affected, and demanded an appropriate punishment for the wrongdoers, whom they branded as “animals.”

“Forgive us for what was done to you, dear children. You are our future. I believe in the fairness of our judicial system,” one of the users wrote.

Dr.; Shambhala; 12 Tribes; LDS Lead Some Nightmare Stories on Today's USA PnP List

'A living hell': Central Pa. man guilty of sex abuse of intellectually disabled kids

Candy Woodall, York Daily Record

A 63-year-old central Pennsylvania man was found guilty Friday of 25 charges related to the rape, beatings and imprisonment of four intellectually disabled children. 

The victims, who were between 6 and 12 years old, suffered in a "living hell," Assistant District Attorney Fritz Haverstick told a Lancaster County jury. 

The jury deliberated for about two and a half hours before delivering guilty verdicts to the charges facing Donald A. Moyer, who will be sentenced by Lancaster County President Judge Dennis Reinaker after a background investigation is complete, according to a news release from the Lancaster County District Attorney's office. 

Moyer, of Lancaster Township, locked the children in a room for extended periods of time and raped them, Haverstick told the jury. The children were beaten, sometimes with objects, according to the news release. 

The crimes were "acts of torture," Haverstick said to the jury. 

A principal testified that the children often arrived at school dirty and starving, and other witnesses said the refrigerator at home had a lock on it. There were numerous locks throughout the home, the witnesses said. 

No explanation of the relationship between the monster and his victims, unfortunately.

Families speak out against WVa Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints over sex abuse allegations

By CHO PARK, ERIN BRADY, JUJU CHANGandEAMON MCNIFF

The Church told ABC News in a statement, "These allegations are false, offensive, and unsubstantiated. As soon as Church leaders learned of abuse by this individual, they encouraged the parents of the abused children to report to West Virginia police and confirmed the report."

The lawsuit was settled for an undisclosed payment in 2018.

The Jensens

Martinsburg, West Virginia 2005

Michael Jensen, the plaintiffs said, was part of a prominent family in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

In 2005, the Jensen family moved to Martinsburg, West Virginia. In West Virginia, according to plaintiff testimony, members of the family quickly advanced to high positions within the local church. Michael's father, Christopher Jensen, became a high priest, while his mother, Sandralee Jensen, as president of the Relief Society, was in charge of administering to the needs of the women in her local church. Meanwhile, back in Utah, Michael's grandfather was said to have held various leadership roles in the church's national infrastructure.

"That was always the Jensens. They always held very high callings," said Spring, one of the plaintiffs who filed a lawsuit against the church. ABC News has omitted the names of the alleged minor victims and the last names of their parents at the parents' request.

"They seemed to be people of good character, integrity. I mean, usually in higher positions like that, they do call people more of a higher status in the church," she said.

On the surface, the plaintiffs say that Michael Jensen appeared no different. He was regularly seen at church, volunteering in various roles. As with his family members, he appeared well-adjusted, and was well-liked by his peers.

"He was a boy that put himself out there as a very selfless, giving person, and the family portrayed that image as well," Helen said, another plaintiff in the lawsuit. "They just were considered a very well-respected, worthy, righteous family within the church."

For members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as the Mormon Church, the plaintiffs say that the church isn't simply a center of faith. It's an all-encompassing way of life with fellow members commonly referred to as "brothers" and "sisters." On a local level, members are assigned to "wards," akin to congregations, depending on where they live. The plaintiffs said that local church leaders, such as bishops, are held in high esteem, and play active roles in members' lives.

"Within the church, there is a belief that leaders are called of God and they operate under the inspiration of God while they are holding that leadership position," said Dave Campbell, the Packey J. Dee Professor of American Democracy at the University of Notre Dame. "The idea is that the Lord would speak for the bishop or to the bishop through the Holy Spirit. And that would help the bishop and those who are working with him make decisions over who should profile which role within the congregation."

According to Spring and Helen, the Jensens were integral to church life in Martinsburg. They say that Sandralee was especially active in her role -- as Relief Society president, she addressed the needs of the women and family in their ward, including welfare issues that could arise.

"I think, to many members of the Church their ward is really like an extended family," said Campbell. "Typically the woman serving as the Relief Society President is someone in the ward who is widely respected."

Families sued local church officials in Martinsburg, West Virginia as part of their civil lawsuit against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ABC

In 2007, two years after the Jensens moved to West Virginia, Spring says that she confided in Sandralee about marital issues she was facing.

"She approached me and said, 'You know -- if you ever need to get away or you guys want to go out on a date night, Michael's available to babysit. He's a great babysitter and he needs to earn money for college," Spring said Sandralee told her.

Spring says she eventually decided to take Sandralee up on her offer for Michael to babysit her two sons on Nov. 10 of that year. Her husband, who was a marine, was going out to celebrate the Marine Corps birthday. Spring wanted to go out with the other wives to have dinner.

"I fully trusted Sandralee," Spring said. "She was a person that I did look up to, she was a person that I cared for a lot and I trusted her judgement."

When Spring returned home, she said besides a messy house, nothing seemed amiss at first. Her two boys were still awake, watching television. Michael even told Spring, she says, that he thought her boys were cool when she drove him back to his home.

But over the next few years, Spring says that she started noticing some small, but troubling changes in her children. According to Spring, her oldest son, who had been an active 4-year-old boy, now seemed to suffer from severe separation anxiety. Both boys, who had been potty trained, had started wetting the bed and experiencing night terrors.

It would be a little after four years when Spring says she would find out what had happened to cause the changes in her children. One night in January 2012, Spring's then-husband called her into their living room, where he had been playing video games with their younger son. He asked their son to repeat to Spring what he had just said. Their son proceeded to tell Spring that on the night in 2007 when Michael had babysat him, Michael sexually molested him (3rd story on Link).

There is much more to this story. It can be found on ABCNews.

Virginia man faces child sexual abuse,

child porn charges in NY

Chenango County Sheriff Ernest Cutting Jr. reported that a Virginia man was arrested Friday and charged with third-degree criminal sexual act, possessing a sexual performance by a child, possessing an obscene sexual performance by a child, and endangering the welfare of a child.

According to a media release, detectives arrested Randolph L. Browning Jr. following a complaint made by a concerned citizen. The reporting person described an older man looking for a room at a local motel to bring a female younger than 16. Detectives said they found that Browning had sexual contact with a child younger than 16 years old and also possessed child pornography.

Browning was held at the Chenango County Correctional Facility on other charges and is awaiting his court date.

Rochester, NH man charged with soliciting child for sex

 By Kyle Stucker

Fosters.com

  

DOVER — A registered sex offender could face 3½ to 7 years in prison if found guilty of soliciting a child to have sex with him earlier this year.

Vincent Burke, 52, who has a last known address on Old Dover Road in Rochester, has been indicted on one Class B felony count of endangering the welfare of a child or incompetent.

The indictment, handed down by a Strafford County grand jury in June, alleges Burke knowingly solicited a child under the age of 16 to have sex with him in Rochester on March 12.

An indictment is not an indication of guilt; rather, it means a jury found sufficient evidence to warrant a trial. Burke was scheduled to be arraigned on the indictments in Strafford County Superior Court at 9 a.m. on Friday, June 28.

Burke has been a registered sex offender since he was found guilty in Norfolk County (Massachusetts) Superior Court in 1987 of two counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault, one count of attempted aggravated felonious sexual assault, two counts of sexual assault and one count of kidnapping, according to the state’s sex offender database.

FBI Documents Show Alleged Child Sex Abuse,

Drug Trafficking at Twelve Tribes

BY BOWEN XIAO

   

The FBI released redacted documents this week on the cult community known as “Twelve Tribes,” revealing numerous allegations against the group including child sexual abuse, drug trafficking, ritual abuse, and forced labor.

The 61-page document—released by the bureau’s Vault library on June 25—included separate complaints detailing the alleged crimes, mostly against children. The cult has communes all over the United States including Vermont, New York, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Florida, California, Tennessee, and more.

Twelve Tribes, file photo

In 2013, a preliminary investigation was conducted by the FBI based on a complaint the bureau received from the Alexander County Sheriff’s Office that children were being “sexually exploited” at a Twelve Tribes compound at Hiddenite, North Carolina. The case was closed in the same year.

Twelve Tribes has communes around the world, with the Hiddenite location being one of its training centers.

Documents showed that drugs were used at the commune and placed into “ritual” bread—usually LSD and hallucinogenic plants as well as heroin and meth. There were also ritual ceremonies once a month that involved the bread being broken and gang rapes.

Punishment within the cult involved being beaten with a rod and having the wife or children of the accused being sexually assaulted by other cult members. The sheriff’s office had been aware of the Hiddenite location since 2006 and that much of the land in the area was owned by the cult since families who joined had to turn over their property.

Members of the Hiddenite compound also allegedly were forced to go to a location and work all night and day for “three straight days” in what was known as a “push” that involved three or six members. Those working were allowed to drink coffee that may have had something added to it to keep them awake.

In a prior complaint included in the released documents, a name that was redacted called the public access line to report child sexual abuse in a Twelve Tribes commune located in Manitou Springs, Colorado. The person, whose name was redacted, had said the children were threatened not to tell the police or anyone else about the beatings or sexual abuse and that the cult ran a restaurant in the area.

Yet another document, this one in 2010, detailed how a former member was allegedly sexually and physically abused by cult members as a child but had repressed the memories. In 2009 the former member had seen a psychologist who reported the abuse to local authorities and had also contacted national leaders of the cult to inform them of her abuse. She also started personal meetings with the cult leaders.

After a meeting with the former member and cult leaders on a date that was redacted, the woman was killed in a car crash that “was not accidental” and was allegedly “orchestrated” by cult members to prevent the woman from “propagating the claims of abuse.”

In the Twelve Tribe cult, members were also “allowed to punish any child belonging to the community.” The FBI document detailed how members would take their children to be “wooped,” meaning beaten, if they smiled at another child during a gathering, of if they were “horsing” around.

“Bigger children have missed ‘gathering’ for a couple of days at a time because they were beaten so badly and left in a condition where they could not attend,” the documents said, based on an interview with an FBI agent.

One former member said that they were once “locked in a cellar, beaten, and deprived of food.”

Maryland man and woman indicted on charges

related to alleged sex abuse of minor

Mary Grace Keller

Carroll County Times

A Taneytown woman and a Westminster man were each indicted in the Circuit Court of Carroll County for charges related to alleged sexual abuse of a minor.

Jeremy E. Blizzard, 21, was charged June 13 with alleged sexual abuse of a minor while being a household or family member to the victim, third-degree sex offense, second-degree child abuse while being a household or family member, and second-degree assault between Nov. 1, 2018, and Jan. 30, 2019, in Taneytown, according to the indictment.

If convicted, Blizzard could face up to 25 years incarceration for sexual abuse of a minor, up to 10 years for third-degree sex offense, up to 15 years for second-degree child abuse, and up to 10 years and/or fines up to $2,500 for second-degree assault, the indictment read. The first three charges are classified as felonies, while the fourth is a misdemeanor.

Blizzard was being held without bond as of Friday afternoon, according to online court records. A hearing is scheduled for July 19 in Carroll County Circuit Court.

April L. White, 39, was charged June 13 for conspiring with Blizzard to cause sexual abuse to a minor — with Blizzard being a household or family member to the victim, according to the indictment. Additionally, White was charged with conspiring with Blizzard to commit a third-degree sex offense upon the victim and contributing to, encouraging, causing, or tending to cause an act that rendered a minor in need of supervision, the indictment read. All of the alleged offenses occurred between Nov. 1, 2018, and Jan. 30, 2019, in Taneytown, police say.

If convicted, White could face up to 25 years incarceration for conspiring to cause sexual abuse to a minor, up to 10 years for conspiring to commit a third-degree sexual offense, and up to three years and/or fines up to $2,500 for contributing to the condition of a child, according to the indictment. The charges are classified as misdemeanors.

White’s warrant was served Monday, and she was initially held without bond until a Thursday bail review, after which she was released on her own recognizance, according to online court records.

A trial is scheduled for Aug. 27 in Carroll County Circuit Court.

Hilton Head, SC, man indicted on child rape charges. Police found video of the crimes

BY MANDY MATNEY

The Island Packet

A Hilton Head Island man who is accused of raping multiple children and videotaping the acts has been indicted by a grand jury and denied bond twice since his arrest in March.

Timothy Lamar Herndon, 42, was indicted June 13 by a Beaufort County grand jury on one count of first degree sexual exploitation of a minor, first degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor, and second degree criminal sexual conduct, according to court documents.

According to the affidavit, Beaufort County Sheriff’s deputies found video and photo evidence of Herndon raping two children between the ages of 8 and 11. Herndon is not related to the victims. 

The child sex crimes took place between Aug. 1, 2018, and March 26, 2019 at Herndon’s home on Bluebell Lane, according to the affidavit. 

On March 28, a complainant who is not named in the police report, told deputies he had digital evidence that Herndon “had been sexually assaulting young children.”

After investigating, detectives obtained a search warrant around 10:30 p.m. March 28 and arrested Herndon. He was initially denied bond after his arrest, according to court records.

On May 9, Herndon was denied bond because it was determined by the court that his release “will result in an unreasonable danger to the community.” According to court records, the court may “re-visit” Herndon’s bond on Aug. 9 (90 days after it was decided).

The investigation is still ongoing, according to Maj. Bob Bromage, spokesperson for the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office. “Investigators are still evaluating evidence to determine whether other incidents occurred,” Bromage said. 

Conviction of first degree sexual exploitation of a minor carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, according to South Carolina law.

“One in four girls and one in six boys will be sexually abused before they turn 18 years old,” according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center. The Center reports that only 12 percent of child sexual abuse is reported.

Pediatrician who sexually abused Blackfeet children

could lose retirement benefits

By TOM LUTEY tlutey@billingsgazette.com

An Indian Health Service pediatrician convicted of molesting children on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation could lose retirement benefits as federal officials weigh revoking the doctor’s honorable discharge.

The U.S. Public Health Commission Corps disclosed on Wednesday that it is launching a board inquiry into Stanley Patrick Weber.

In January, Weber was convicted by a U.S. District Court in Great Falls of aggravated sexual abuse of a child and two counts of attempted aggravated sexual abuse of a child, all felonies. The charges stem from his 1993 to 1995 employment as an IHS pediatrician on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. He faces a trial on separate child sexual abuse charges at Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

IHS doctor sexually abused boy after checking him out of a South Dakota juvie (6th story on link)

Doctor sentenced for child sexual abuse in 1st of 2 more Reservations (16th story on link)

Weber was honorably discharged by the IHS and receives more than $100,000 a year in retirement benefits. The honorable discharge has become a sticking point with U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., who earlier wrote Health Secretary Alex Azar asking that Weber’s retirement with honors be changed.

The board inquiry into Weber is the response to that request, according to Brett P. Giroir, U.S. Assistant Secretary of Health, who wrote Daines about the inquiry.

“I’m glad to see HHS (Health and Human Services) respond to my demand and take action in finding a way to prevent this convicted child pedophile from receiving a dime of his government pension,” Daines said in a prepared statement. “This disgusting situation should never have happened in the first place.”

The senator also has a bill to deny pensions to government employees convicted in the future of child sexual abuse.

U.S. District Judge Brian Morris sentenced Weber earlier this year to 18 years and four months in prison, and fined the pediatrician $200,000. The case has been appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. Weber faces 10 more charges stemming from alleged child sexual encounters on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. The Pine Ridge accusations span 13 years occurring after Weber’s time in Montana.

Working in Browning, Weber performed sex acts on a boy younger than 12 and attempted to have sex with another boy younger than 16, according to prosecutors.

Yorkville, Ill, man arrested on sexual abuse,

exploitation of a child charges

By KENDALL COUNTY RECORD

A Yorkville man has been arrested in connection with a case involving the alleged sexual abuse, exploitation and battery of a child.

In a statement issued Friday, June 28, Yorkville police identified the suspect as Brian J. Sicilia, 43, of the 2800 block of Old Glory Drive.

Police said Sicilia has been charged with attempted aggravated criminal sexual abuse, battery and sexual exploitation of a child.

According to police, the charges stem from an incident that occurred at a residence in the 2800 block of Old Glory Drive on June 20.

Police said Sicilia surrendered to police at 9:36 am. June 28 at the Kendall County Courthouse in Yorkville. He is being held at the Kendall County Jail on $75,000 bond.

Second former Boulder, CO, Shambhala member accused of sexual assault on a child

By MITCHELL BYARS | The Boulder Daily Camera

For the second time in five months (5th story on link), police have arrested a former member of Boulder’s Shambhala Center on allegations of sexually assaulting a child he was introduced to through the Buddhist community.

Michael Smith, 54, was arrested Friday morning on suspicion of sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust.

According to a news release, the named was sexually assaulted by Smith multiple times beginning in 1997 when she was 13 years old. Smith was introduced to the girl through his membership in the Boulder Shambhala.

Boulder police said a second woman came forward and said she was victimized by Smith when she was 11 years old at a Buddhist retreat center in Barnet, Vermont. Because the assault reportedly took place outside of Boulder, that case will be investigated by law enforcement in Vermont.

There is no statute of limitations on sex offenses involving children under the age of 15.

Farmington, ME, man arrested on sex abuse charges

Posted by Ben Hanstein

FARMINGTON - A local man was arrested Wednesday, having been charged with sexually abusing a child under the age of 14 years old.

Nathan Wing, 42 of Farmington, has been charged with unlawful sexual contact, a Class C felony, as well as misdemeanor unlawful sexual touching. The charges stem from an incident that allegedly occurred last summer.

According to an email from Farmington police Sgt. Michael Lyman, the investigation began with a referral from the Department of Health and Human Services. It is alleged that the abuse occurred when the juvenile was under the age of 14 years old.

Lyman arrested Wing Wednesday and he was transported to Franklin County Detention Center. He was released on $250 cash bail later that evening.

Positive Stories in the War on Child Sex Abuse Episode XIV

India Rules Sex With a Child Bride Is Always Rape in a Massive Win for Girls’ Rights

It’s a landmark change to India’s marital rape laws.

A young actress plays the role of Giorgia, 10, forced to marry Paolo, 47, during a happening organised by Amnesty International to denounce child marriage, on October 27, 2016 in Rome. Embed from Getty Images

India’s top court has ruled that sex with a child is always rape, quashing a clause that allowed men to have sex with underage girls if they were married to them. 

The Supreme Court’s landmark decision on Wednesday closed a legal loophole that has historically allowed perpetrators of rape to escape punishment.

While the age of consent in India is 18, there was a clause in India’s rape laws that lowered the age of consent to 15 if the girl was married. 

But the court has now ruled that the clause is “discriminatory, capricious, and arbitrary”, and “violates the bodily integrity of the girl child”. 

“This is a landmark judgement that corrects a historical wrong against girls,” Vikram Srivastava, the founder of campaign group Independent Thought, told the BBC. “How could marriage be used as a criteria to discriminate against girls?”

Girls under 18 will now be able to report their husbands for rape, as long as they lodge a complaint within a year of it happening. 

“The judgement is a step forward in protecting girls from abuse and exploitation, irrespective of their marital status,” Divya Srinivasan, from women’s rights organisation Equality Now, told Global Citizen. 

“This positive decision by the Supreme Court will hopefully encourage the Indian government to protect all women by removing the marital rape exemption in all cases,” she said. 

Commentators say the ruling will be difficult to enforce in the country, however, due to the high rates of child marriage. 

India is ranked 10th in the world for child marriage, with an estimated 47% of girls married by the time they turn 18, according to the campaigning organisation Girls Not Brides. 

Girls are often seen as an economic burden, particularly in poor, rural areas, and many parents marry off their children in the hope of improving their financial security. 

There is also a shame associated with pre-marital sex that can lead to girls’ parents forcing them to marry their rapists, according to news agency AFP. 

Child marriage is a serious barrier for the girls involved, often leading to them dropping out of school to focus on their domestic responsibilities, or suffering health problems from giving birth at a young age.

India’s rape laws have, prior to this ruling, specifically excluded married couples. Men can currently still have non-consensual sex with their wives without it being classed as rape. 

While Wednesday’s ruling represents progress, there are still steps to be taken in criminalising marital rape.

A challenge to the laws on marital rape is currently going through the Indian courts, reported AFP, but the government has said it opposes criminalising marital rape as it would damage the institution of marriage. 

The government has said that criminalising marital rape could “destabilise” marriages and could be used by wives as “an easy tool for harassing the husbands”.

Workshop over child sexual abuse held at Kashmir school

This is a small thing, for sure, but it's a beginning, and a badly needed one

Rising Kashmir News

Aagosh, a local NGO Sunday conducted a first school-based workshop over Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) here. Titled as ‘Rubaroo’, the event was an interaction with teachers and parents regarding child sexual abuse awareness and prevention. 

Aagosh works against child abuse and is mainly composed of human rights activists, doctors, psychologists and journalists. The workshop was conducted at Blue Bells School, Khanyar and was attended by a large number of teachers, parents and caregivers. 

The speakers discussed the pertinence of speaking about child sexual abuse in Kashmir due to the rising number of cases that are being reported. 

There was a session with a psychologist who discussed with the audience the ways of detection of abuse in children, the ways to approach such kids and ways of dealing and reporting. The abuse in specially-abled children and those in special settings was discussed as well. 

A teacher trainer and a social activist Samreen Hamdani did a small exercise (toolkit) with those present on the occasion. She gave a preliminary training to the caregivers on prevention of abuse and the proper way of educating children about the child abuse. Other speakers talked about medical, medico-legal and reporting aspects of the child abuse. 

This was followed by a free distribution of literature and guidelines, compiled by Aagosh and other world renowned bodies, among the audience. 

Aagosh has been working for raising awareness among masses about the issue of CSA, and becomes a first social group to do such a workshop in the setting of a school. 

And God bless and prosper you in your efforts.

One of the founding members of the platform, Dr. Khawar Khan Achakzai, thanked the school and all the participants and vowed to continue their humble efforts at education and raising awareness. 

"Children can't prevent abuse but adults can, so we continue with however we can to prevent our children against the abuse," he said.

Khanyar, Kashmir

Punjab Chief Minister orders effective measures to control sexual abuse and child pornography

Regional Police Offices and District Police Offices should take strict measures to avoid such incidents: CM

LAHORE, Pakistan (Dunya News) - Chief Minister Punjab (India), Sardar Usman Buzdar has ordered effective measures to control incident of sexual abuse of the children and child pornography.

He said that a comprehensive action plan should be evolved to avert such incidents and the police should take strict action against the people involved in such incidents. The chief minister also issued instructions to the Inspector General Punjab (IGP) Punjab to control such incidents.

The chief minister said RPOs and DPOs should take strict measures to avoid such incidents. He said indiscriminate action should be taken against the people involved in such incidents and action against such incidents should be visible.

He said he is very concerned about such incidents. The children are our future and this is responsibility of the state to provide them protection. The criminals cannot be allowed to ruin the lives of the innocent children.

The accused involved in the incidents of assault of the children and child pornography should be arrested and brought to the justice. The report of the action against such people should be submitted to the CM office.

This is a good start for the Punjab, although the CM's statement was completely devoid of any specifics. The IGP needs to find the right person to head a team to develop the laws and procedures needed to combat child sex abuse. That team needs to be considerable in size as there are so many aspects to child sex abuse that experts are needed in many different fields. I pray you get it right the first time.

New law doubles the time allowed for Texans to

sue for child sex abuse

Governor Abbott recently signed a law that gives victims of child sexual abuse more time to sue their abusers in civil court.

The law doubles the statute of limitations on these types of cases.

Advocates for sexual assault victims are calling this new law a victory for people dealing with the lifelong effects of this type of child abuse.

Kellie Addison from the Purple Door says, “We’re talking about sexual violence. we’re talking about the whole spectrum. and there’s not as much blame or guilt and shame that survivors are feeling around that.”

Formerly, people who were sexually abused before the age of 18 only had 15 years to sue their alleged abusers in civil court to hold them accountable for things like medical fees and counseling services.

“and that therapy and those bills alone can cost up to 115 dollars a session.” Sharra Rodriguez from Crime Victims Assistance says.

Now victims have 30 years to sue their alleged abusers for compensation. Advocates say the new law gives victims double the window of time to begin their healing process.

“It’s very rare when we see people have the courage to come forward and say they were sexually assaulted,” Rodriguez says, and that could be ten, fifteen, thirty years later.”

Directors at the purple door, our local women’s shelter, say there are several reasons victims of childhood sexual abuse often don’t come forward for years.

“but that doesn’t mean that that survivor’s voice or experience is invaluable,” Addison says, “that they shouldn’t be believed and that they shouldn’t have the opportunity to hold that offender accountable.”

This new law was signed by Governor Abbott on June 14 and goes into effect on September 1.

Child Miners Aged Four Living a Hell on Earth so You Can Drive an Electric Car

Awful human cost in squalid Congo cobalt mine

By BARBARA JONES FOR THE MAIL ON SUNDAY

Picking through a mountain of huge rocks with his tiny bare hands, the exhausted little boy makes a pitiful sight.

His name is Dorsen and he is one of an army of children, some just four years old, working in the vast polluted mines of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where toxic red dust burns their eyes, and they run the risk of skin disease and a deadly lung condition. 

Here, for a wage of just 8p a day, the children are made to check the rocks for the tell-tale chocolate-brown streaks of cobalt – the prized ingredient essential for the batteries that power electric cars.

And it’s feared that thousands more children could be about to be dragged into this hellish daily existence – after the historic pledge made by Britain to ban the sale of petrol and diesel cars from 2040 and switch to electric vehicles.

Eight-year-old Dorsen is pictured cowering beneath the raised hand of an overseer who warns him not to spill a rock

video 0.19

It heralds a future of clean energy, free from pollution but – though there can be no doubting the good intentions behind Environment Secretary Michael Gove’s announcement last month – such ideals mean nothing for the children condemned to a life of hellish misery in the race to achieve his target.

Dorsen, just eight, is one of 40,000 children working daily in the mines of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The terrible price they will pay for our clean air is ruined health and a likely early death.

Almost every big motor manufacturer striving to produce millions of electric vehicles buys its cobalt from the impoverished central African state. It is the world’s biggest producer, with 60 per cent of the planet’s reserves.

The cobalt is mined by unregulated labour and transported to Asia where battery manufacturers use it to make their products lighter, longer-lasting and rechargeable.

The planned switch to clean energy vehicles has led to an extraordinary surge in demand. While a smartphone battery uses no more than 10 grams of refined cobalt, an electric car needs 15kg (33lb).

He then staggers beneath the weight of a heavy sack that he must carry to unload 60ft away in pouring rain

Goldman Sachs, the merchant bank, calls cobalt ‘the new gasoline’ but there are no signs of new wealth in the DRC, where the children haul the rocks brought up from tunnels dug by hand.

Adult miners dig up to 600ft below the surface using basic tools, without protective clothing or modern machinery. Sometimes the children are sent down into the narrow makeshift chambers where there is constant danger of collapse.

Cobalt is such a health hazard that it has a respiratory disease named after it – cobalt lung, a form of pneumonia which causes coughing and leads to permanent incapacity and even death.

Even simply eating vegetables grown in local soil can cause vomiting and diarrhoea, thyroid damage and fatal lung diseases, while birds and fish cannot survive in the area.

Girls are sexually assaulted

No one knows quite how many children have died mining cobalt in the Katanga region in the south-east of the country. The UN estimates 80 a year, but many more deaths go unregistered, with the bodies buried in the rubble of collapsed tunnels. Others survive but with chronic diseases which destroy their young lives. Girls as young as ten in the mines are subjected to sexual attacks and many become pregnant.

Dorsen and 11-year-old Richard are pictured. With his mother dead, Dorsen lives with his father in the bush and the two have to work daily in the cobalt mine to earn money for food.

When Sky News investigated the Katanga mines it found Dorsen, working near a little girl called Monica, who was four, on a day of relentless rainfall.

Dorsen was hauling heavy sacks of rocks from the mine surface to a growing stack 60ft away. A full sack was lifted on to Dorsen’s head and he staggered across to the stack. A brutish overseer stood over him, shouting and raising his hand to threaten a beating if he spilt any.

With his mother dead, Dorsen lives with his father in the bush and the two have to work daily in the cobalt mine to earn money for food.

Dorsen’s friend Richard, 11, said that at the end of a working day ‘everything hurts’.

In a country devastated by civil wars in which millions have died, there is no other way for families to survive. Britain’s Department for International Development (DFID) is donating £10.5million between June 2007 and June 2018 towards strengthening revenue transparency and encouraging responsible activity in large and small scale artisanal mining, ‘to benefit the poor of DRC’.

There is little to show for these efforts so far. There is a DRC law forbidding the enslavement of under-age children, but nobody enforces it.

The UN’s International Labour Organisation has described cobalt mining in DRC as ‘one of the worst forms of child labour’ due to the health risks.

Soil samples taken from the mining area by doctors at the University of Lubumbashi, the nearest city, show the region to be among the ten most polluted in the world. Residents near mines in southern DRC had urinary concentrates of cobalt 43 higher than normal. Lead levels were five times higher, cadmium and uranium four times higher.

The worldwide rush to bring millions of electric vehicles on to our roads has handed a big advantage to those giant car-makers which saw this bonanza coming and invested in developing battery-powered vehicles, among them General Motors, Renault-Nissan, Tesla, BMW and Fiat-Chrysler.

Chinese middle-men working for the Congo Dongfang Mining Company have the stranglehold in DRC, buying the raw cobalt brought to them in sacks carried on bicycles and dilapidated old cars daily from the Katanga mines. They sit in shacks on a dusty road near the Zambian border, offering measly sums scrawled on blackboards outside – £40 for a ton of cobalt-rich rocks – that will be sent by cargo ship to minerals giant Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt in China and sold on to a complex supply chain feeding giant multinationals.

Challenged by the Washington Post about the appalling conditions in the mines, Huayou Cobalt said ‘it would be irresponsible’ to stop using child labour, claiming: ‘It could aggravate poverty in the cobalt mining regions and worsen the livelihood of local miners.’

Human rights charity Amnesty International also investigated cobalt mining in the DRC and says that none of the 16 electric vehicle manufacturers they identified have conducted due diligence to the standard defined by the Responsible Cobalt Initiative.

Monica, just four-years-old, works in the mine alongside Dorsen and Richard

Encouragingly, Apple, which uses the mineral in its devices, has committed itself to treat cobalt like conflict minerals – those which have in the past funded child soldiers in the country’s civil war – and the company claims it is going to require all refiners to have supply chain audits and risk assessments. But Amnesty International is not satisfied. ‘This promise is not worth the paper it is written on when the companies are not investigating their suppliers,’ said Amnesty’s Mark Dummett. ‘Big brands have the power to change this.’

After DRC, Australia is the next biggest source of cobalt, with reserves of 1million tons, followed by Cuba, China, Russia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Car maker Tesla – the market leader in electric vehicles – plans to produce 500,000 cars per year starting in 2018, and will need 7,800 tons of cobalt to achieve this. Sales are expected to hit 4.4 million by 2021. It means the price of cobalt will soar as the world gears itself up for the electric car revolution, and there is evidence some corporations are cancelling their contracts with regulated mines using industrial technology, and turning increasingly to the cheaper mines using human labour.

After the terrible plight of Dorsen and Richard was broadcast in a report on Sky News, an emotive response from viewers funded a rescue by children’s charity Kimbilio. They are now living in a church-supported children’s home, sleeping on mattresses for the first time in their lives and going to school.

But there is no such happy ending for the tens of thousands of children left in the hell on earth that is the cobalt mines of the Congo.

And little Monica? Did they just leave her there?

Human Trafficking Survivor Says Indigenous Women and Girls Especially at Risk

One Survivor's Story

Now an anti-sex trafficking lobbyist, Bridget Perrier shares her story

Rhiannon Johnson · CBC News 

Bridget Perrier, 43, is a survivor of human trafficking and an advocate for other survivors.

(Rhiannon Johnson/CBC)

At the age of five weeks, a baby born in Thunder Bay to an Anishinaabe woman from Northern Ontario was adopted by a non-Indigenous family. It was 1976.

Thousands of Indigenous children were taken from their families and placed into non-Indigenous homes from the 1950s to the 1980s, known as the Sixties Scoop.

Bridget Perrier says she had a good childhood until she was molested by a family friend at age eight. She began acting out and was relinquished by her adoptive parents to the Children's aid society when she was 11. She was placed in a group home, from which she would be lured into a path of sexual exploitation and violence for a decade. 

Perrier, now 43, lives in Toronto with her children and grandchild. She is an anti-sex trade advocate calling for more support for survivors of human trafficking. 

"I knew that there was more for me and I knew I wanted to help people," she says. 

Human trafficking is a largely hidden but pervasive issue in Canada and Indigenous women and girls are affected at disproportionate levels.

According to a 2016 Statistics Canada report based on police reported data, 72 per cent of human trafficking victims between 2009 and 2016 were under the age of 25. Two-thirds of the more than 1,000 offences recorded in that time period were reported in Ontario.

'I knew that there was more for me and I knew I wanted to help people,' says Bridget Perrier. (Submitted by Bridget Perrier)

In a 2014 report by the Canadian Women's Foundation, service agencies estimated that of the trafficked or sexually exploited women and girls they served, 51 per cent of trafficked girls were or had been involved with the child welfare system and 50 per cent of trafficked girls and 51 per cent of trafficked women were Indigenous.

A report by prepared by the Ontario Native Women's Association in 2016 lists a history of sexual exploitation, poverty, lack of awareness or acknowledgement of sexual exploitation and a legacy of colonization as trafficking risk factors. 

Lured and recruited

One evening when she was 12, some of the older girls in the group home told Perrier they were going to go make some money. 

"I asked how, and they told me to 'just laugh.'"

The girls sat around an old man and "manually stimulated" him.

"The more you laughed, the more $100 bills were left under the Kleenex box," she said.

"For a little girl, that's a lot of money."

When she was five weeks old, Bridget Perrier was adopted into a non-Indigenous family. She is at the top right, wearing glasses. (Submitted by Bridget Perrier)

She ended up running away from the group home with the older girls and says that no one really looked for her. Sometimes the police would bring her back but she says that she would just run away again as soon as the car was out of the driveway. 

This was her introduction to the sexual exploitation and violence that would encase her life for the next decade.

At 12, she was recruited by a woman who ran a brothel in Thunder Bay. She said the woman spotted that Perrier was a young Indigenous girl who was caught in the child welfare system and had already been abused. She said she bought Perrier nice things and played on her insecurities.

"She never forced me to stay," says Perrier.

Perrier said the madame used manipulation more than force so she would stay, saying that she was the only one who understood her and if she went back to her parents they would just send her away again. 

While there were countless horrific experiences, she says that the worst time was when she was 14 in Thunder Bay and was held captive for 43 hours and was raped and tortured repeatedly.

At the time, Perrier was still at the madam's agency but she wasn't getting enough calls so she was going out to make some money.

"He was going to kill me," she said. "He had these big snip things for my bones, he told me."

She was able to escape and required medical attention and internal stitches. The man was caught and served two years in a federal penitentiary, which Perrier says seems like nothing for what he did to her. - That's Canadian justice - minimal sentencing.

He was going to kill me

- Bridget Perrier

The madam Perrier was being exploited by owned two brothels, the one in Thunder Bay and one in Halifax, and Perrier would travel between them. 

"She had said to me, 'watch out because there's pimps in this town' and then I met him." 

Move to Toronto

Her second exploiter was a pimp she met at the Toronto airport. 

In a similar fashion to the madam, the pimp groomed Perrier, sometimes acting like a boyfriend. When they met, she told him she was going to Halifax, which is where he said he was from. They met up again there and when he asked Perrier to come to Toronto, she did. 

The pimp would have Perrier stand on street corners and move her around from hotel to hotel. She stayed under a threat of violence. She says he would beat her and hit her with a scalding metal coat hanger if she wasn't obedient. 

Perrier shows off some of her tattoos. (Rhiannon Johnson/CBC)

She eventually called her adoptive mom to come get her and escaped the pimp, but later became involved with an organized crime syndicate after meeting a member in Oshawa.

She had a son when she was 16 who developed acute lymphoblastic leukemia at nine months. He died when he was five. 

"I was so encased in prostitution that I didn't even regard that servicing men would put him in jeopardy for a bevy of childhood illnesses," said Perrier. 

After his death, "I knew I was done," she said. "My son had died and I just couldn't give it anymore."

In 1999, Perrier was pregnant again. Her daughter was delivered in Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto and Bridget then entered transitional housing at Nekenaan Second Stage Housing.

She worked to stay out of the sex-trade, getting her high school diploma then going to George Brown College to study social work. She co-founded the anti-sex trafficking lobbying group Sex Trade 101. 

Connection to MMIWG 

Addressing the sexual exploitation of Indigenous women and girls needs to be seen as a national priority, she says, as well as the connection between sexual exploitation and murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls.

In the decade that she was exploited, Perrier says she was careful not to say she was an Indigenous woman because she says they experience the most violence and heinous acts in the sex trade. 

Part of the final report of the inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, released June 3, takes a "deeper dive" looking at the sex industry, sexual exploitation and human trafficking, informed by testimonies of survivors who experienced physical and sexual violence while engaged in sex work. 

Five of the report's calls for justice relate to sex trafficking. They call for support for sex-trafficking victims through trauma and addiction treatment programs being paired with mental health, sexual exploitation and trafficking services; call for support for Indigenous-led prevention initiatives related to sex-trafficking and barrier-free exiting; and call for mandatory training for transportation services, hospitality services, social workers and those implicated in child welfare to recognize signs of sexual exploitation. 

Bridget Perrier and her cousin.

(Submitted by Bridget Perrier)

Perrier says she is tired of empty promises and wants to see non-Indigenous men charged with committing a hate crime if they murder an Indigenous woman. 

"It's not the streets that kill our women; it's not the laws that kill our women. It's the men that are killing our women," she says. 

She said she also thinks police forces need to be held accountable for the poor policing that Indigenous people have been subject to and there need to be anti-poverty strategies to protect Indigenous women and girls. 

The MMIWG inquiry's final report also found that police services struggle to respond to cases of human trafficking and that current laws are not effective in protecting Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people.

Perrier says she always had a love-hate relationship with the police where generally they were "horrible" with her, but there were certain police that she crossed paths with who she knew and respected. But overwhelmingly, she says, they never did anything to help her. 

According to ONWA, 95 per cent of women involved in sex work said that they are involved in prostitution involuntarily. The Criminal Code also says that children and youth under the age of 14 can't legally give informed consent to sexual activity. 

"I think there has to be a real understanding that [for] victims of human trafficking, it's not a choice," says Suzanne Smoke, who works in community outreach and engagement/anti-human trafficking for Muskoka Parry Sound Sexual Assault Services. 

But Perrier says that Indigenous women should be seen as survivors, not victims. 

"They think we're broken, but we're not," she says. "I have a good resilience, I just have a lot of fractures."