Everyday thousands of children are being sexually abused. You can stop the abuse of at least one child by simply praying. You can possibly stop the abuse of thousands of children by forwarding the link in First Time Visitor? by email, Twitter or Facebook to every Christian you know. Save a child or lots of children!!!! Do Something, please!

3:15 PM prayer in brief:
Pray for God to stop 1 child from being molested today.
Pray for God to stop 1 child molestation happening now.
Pray for God to rescue 1 child from sexual slavery.
Pray for God to save 1 girl from genital circumcision.
Pray for God to stop 1 girl from becoming a child-bride.
If you have the faith pray for 100 children rather than one.
Give Thanks. There is more to this prayer here

Please note: All my writings and comments appear in bold italics in this colour

Saturday 31 January 2015

Updates on America's Four Most Degenerative Mothers

One half of a Tallassee couple pled guilty in Elmore County Circuit Court on 
Monday to child sex abuse charges

Stephen and Brandy Conrad
Brandy Conrad, who has also been referred to in court documents as Brandy Jean Hughes, pled guilty to two counts of sexual abuse of a child less than 12. Prosecutors recommended a sentence of 10 years for each count.

Conrad's date for her sentence has not been scheduled, but could take place during Judge John Bush's next sentencing date of Feb. 24.

Brandy Conrad, 28, was originally charged in May 2013 with not reporting sexual abuse. Stephen Conrad Jr., 32, was originally charged in May 2013 with more than 100 counts of child sexual abuse, but those charges, along with Brandy Conrad's, were dropped the following November after allegations that his confession might have been coerced by the lead investigator on the case.

Brandy Conrad was then charged with two counts of sex abuse of a child younger than 12, two counts of first-degree sodomy and other counts, including first-degree rape and sexual torture. Her other charges were dropped as part of a plea agreement, according to the district attorney's office.

Stephen Conrad now faces four counts of sex abuse of a child younger than 12, three counts of first-degree rape, two counts of first-degree sodomy, two counts of child abuse, two counts of first-degree sexual abuse and other counts, including sexual torture, according to the district attorney's office.

The case against Stephen Conrad has been continued as he awaits a mental evaluation.


The second of America's most horrific mothers also agrees to a plea deal

Terrie, Chris and Deborah Sena
A Las Vegas mother has agreed to plead guilty in a revolting sex abuse case involving the videotaped rapes of her own children, allegedly committed by her ex-husband, herself, and the man's current wife, according to her lawyer.

Terrie Sena was charged along with Christopher Sena and wife Deborah Sena with the sexual assault of at least eight children over a span of more than 12 years.

Terrie Sena will plead guilty to one count of sexual assault, and will face charges of 10 years to life in prison, according to her attorney, Tom Pitaro, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

"It's a substantial punishment. I think it's fair, given all the circumstances," prosecutor Jim Sweetin told the paper. The plea deals will "save the children from having to come in and testify," he said.

Christopher Sena is seen in this undated photo with his current wife, Deborah.


The third degenerative mother has a few days to accept a plea deal or go to trial

The same plea arrangement was offered to Deborah Sena, prosecutor Jim Sweetin said Tuesday. She has a deadline of Feb. 5 to reply.

The three adults lived in a trailer with their children, who were raped, molested and forced to have sex with the family dog, authorities said. Police also found videos of the attacks.

Christopher Sena was arrested in September after Deborah Sena and a child told an attorney about the abuse. The lawyer contacted authorities.

Both women were later arrested after authorities viewed the pornographic videos. Their attorneys say they were held against their will and abused by Christopher Sena.

Dozens of charges including incest, sexual assault, and child pornography were filed against the three.


Wendy Wood Holland 

The fourth abomination of motherhood was sentenced  2 weeks ago

Wendy Wood Holland was sentenced to 219 years in prison and she deserves every one of them.

Friday 30 January 2015

Man Guilty of Raping 3 Year Old Boy at Lochaber Nursery

Mark Maclennan was on trial at the High Court in Glasgow, Scotland

Mark Maclennan
A man has been found guilty at the High Court in Glasgow of raping a young boy and of sexually abusing a girl from when she was 12 to 15 years old.

Mark Maclennan, 30, of Bath, was also found guilty of possessing and taking indecent images of children, something he had already admitted in court.

The boy, who was three, was raped at a nursery in the Lochaber area.

The girl was abused on numerous occasions in Stirling, Dunblane and Dunfermline.

He was also found guilty of having thousands of indecent images of children on a laptop that he donated to the nursery. 

He should also have been found guilty of spectacular stupidity!

Maclennan was cleared of a charge of sexually abusing a girl at the nursery when she was aged between four and five. The jury found that charge against him not proven.

'Very unpleasant'
During the trial a taped interview with the boy was played to the jury.

In the video recording the three-year-old was questioned by police officers about the incident and said: "Don't like Mark."

The rape happened some time between 1 August 2012 and 23 May 2013.

The girl, who is now 19, said Maclennan touched her, on occasions, over a period of almost three years, including at a pantomime costume fitting. The abuse happened between October 2007 and July 2010.

Judge John Morris QC told Maclennan: "Given what you have been convicted of a prison sentence is almost inevitable." Almost!?? Almost!!!??? Are you kidding me?

He was remanded in custody and sentence was deferred until 27 February at the High Court in Edinburgh for background reports.

The jury of nine women and six men took 90 minutes to reach their verdicts.

Afterwards judge Morris told them: "This has been a very unpleasant case for all those involved."

The police inquiry into Maclennan was sparked after the boy told his mother of an incident at nursery. It later emerged it had been a rape.

The three-year-old's parents and friends cried and hugged as the verdict was given. I wouldn't celebrate yet; it sounds like Judge Morris may give him little more than a slap on the wrist.

I was informed today that Craig Hyslop is also currently on trial for a serious assault on a one year old girl. I can't find anything on the internet about it, but will keep checking. Hyslop is another nutcase who should be locked up for the rest of his life.

Reality TV Star Heidi Montag's Dad Arrested for Alleged Child Sex Abuse

Heidi Montag has appeared on several 'reality' shows on television.

Heidi Montag's father has been arrested for allegedly committing years of sexual abuse and incest with a 13-year-old girl and according to authorities it went on for years ... but sources connected to Heidi and Spencer tell TMZ ... the alleged victim has significant credibility problems.

Heidi Montag
Bill Montag was picked up by Aspen cops Thursday night. Authorities say the sexual abuse continued until the girl turned 17. The complaint says he abused the child at least 50 times.

As for the time frame ... the alleged abuse occurred between 1993 and 1998. It does not line up with Heidi or her sister Holly.
 
According to the docs, Bill Montag "groomed her with back rubs in her bedroom in the basement of their home," and escalated by attempting to use a vibrator on her. At age 16 he began performing oral sex. It then gets extremely graphic.

The documents describe the last incident in 1998, when he allegedly crawled into bed with her, tried to pull down her underwear and said, "I want to have sex with you." Authorities say she rebuffed him by saying, "Get the hell out of my room, no!" And he responded, "I thought that's what you wanted. I thought you loved me the way I love you."

Our sources who are very close to Heidi and Spencer tell us ... they are very familiar with the accuser who "is determined to destroy the family."  They say she has stalked Heidi and Spencer at various public appearances to the point security had to remove her.  Heidi and Spence believe Bill Montag will be exonerated.

Bill Montag walked Heidi down the aisle in 2009 when she married Spencer Pratt



Jewish Leader Says It's Okay to Kill Jewish Police Informers

Prominent Chabad Community Member, Under police Investigation For Alleged Child Sex Abuse, Tells Community 
It's Okay To Kill Fellow Jews Who Cooperate With Police

This reads more like Islamic Law than anything else. This is what happens in legalistic societies where laws are interpreted for the benefit of the interpreter.

 Yeshivah College (Chabad) Melbourne Australia, "It is practical halocho [Jewish law] that a mosser [informer] may be killed, here and now in 21st century Australia, by anyone who is able to get away with it."

"Chabad" a Hebrew acronym for "Wisdom, Understanding, and Knowledge". Organizationally, it is the largest Jewish religious organization in the world. It's too bad that 'truth and compassion' are not part of the Chabad mantra.

St Kilda's Yeshivah centre
A Melbourne man wanted by police for questioning over an alleged sex offence at [Chabad's] St Kilda's Yeshivah centre wrote on an internet blog that it is acceptable to kill a Jew who reports another to secular authorities.

The man, who Fairfax Media has chosen to not to name, made his comments on an internet blog allegedly associated with prominent figures from Melbourne's Orthodox Jewish community.

Fairfax Media has confirmed the man, who is a member of one of the St Kilda Yeshivah centre's leading families and is presently overseas, is wanted for questioning by police in connection to an alleged sexual assault in the 1990s.

The man's extreme views were posted in 2011 and were made as part of a discussion on an ancient Jewish rule known as Mesirah, under which a Jew is forbidden from informing on a fellow Jew.

The case highlights the tension in some parts of the Jewish community, in which some people hold conflicting views about the appropriateness of reporting another Jewish person to authorities.  

In some cases, those who do assist police can be ostracised and given the derogatory label of "moser", which means an informer.

The issue is likely to be examined by the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse next week, with public hearings in Melbourne to examine how Orthodox Jewish communities handled reported cases of abuse.

"Some dangerous nonsense has been posted in comments, and it appears that at least one commenter imagines that mesiroh is some sort of peccadillo that can be winked at," the man posted in 2011.

"It is practical halocho [Jewish law] that a mosser may be killed, here and now in 21st century Australia, by anyone who is able to get away with it."

Fairfax Media earlier this week revealed tape recording and emails demonstrating the pressure placed on some Jewish sex abuse victims not to assist police.

Outspoken Melbourne victims' rights campaigner Manny Waks said on Thursday that the Royal Commission hearings would expose the extent of intimidation of several victims. He also hoped they would be a catalyst for a change in attitudes within the Orthodox Jewish community.

"It's critical that the public and the Jewish community are fully informed of the victim intimidation that has gone on in recent years. Sadly it seems to be the norm within the Orthodox segment of our community, both in Australia and globally. I believe that a combination of pressure from both external and internal forces will be the catalyst for change," Mr Waks said.

"The reality is, there are many other victims out there, and no doubt some of them have been intimidated into silence by virtue of what they have observed is happening within our community. Rabbis and other leaders are sending mixed messages. In some cases it is due to ignorance and in others it's to protect Jewish institutions and the reputation of our community."

Since 2010, the Rabbinical Council of Victoria has repeatedly and publicly encouraged members of the Jewish community to report sex offences to police and has ruled that such actions will not breach Jewish law.

However, in 2008, the council chose to conduct an in-house inquiry into alleged inappropriate touching and financial transgressions committed by a prominent member of Melbourne's Orthodox community.

Despite having up to 20 people come forward with allegations against the man, as reported by the Australian Jewish News newspaper in 2008, the council stated at the time that police would be contacted only if its inquiry determined crimes had been committed.

Honorary Victoria Police chaplain and head of the Organisation of Rabbis of Australasia Rabbi Meir Shlomo Kluwgant led the Victorian rabbinical council at the time of the 2008 inquiry.

Rabbi Kluwgant said this week that "there were rumours circulating within our community with regard to inappropriate behaviour by a trusted official in our community".

Rabbi Kluwgant said the extent of the rumoured inappropriate behaviour was not known and, as such, the inquiry was set up and people were encouraged to make confidential disclosures.

Asked why the council did not immediately alert police to the alleged inappropriate behaviour, Rabbi Kluwgant said he personally advised police of information brought to the council at the conclusion of its inquiry.



Secret Recording, Emails Show Victim Of Sex Abuse At Chabad Threatened, Intentionally Smeared, Over Cooperation With Police

Fairfax Media has also obtained a series of emails which show how three influential members of [Chabad's] St Kilda's Yeshivah community asserted that the victim's assistance to police in the Cyprys case had "crossed red lines" and had the "potential to undermine the [Yeshivah] centre." They warned that if the victim continued "to stick his nose where it doesn't belong", a new article about the victim would be posted on an "anonymous blog."

"I am not exactly delighted that another Yid [Jew] would assist police against an accused no matter whatever he is accused of and that is the reason why I was very disappointed," Mr Lewenberg, who was defending Cyprys at the time of the conversation, told the victim.

"Because there is a tradition, if not a religious requirement that you do not assist against Abraham and I was concerned about that…moser principle. Moser is well known."

Abraham must be horrified that his name is being used to enable pedophiles to go unreported and to continue with their perversion.

Mr Lewenberg was referring to the Jewish tradition of mesirah under which a Jew does not inform secular authorities about another Jew. Members of ultra-orthodox communities who assist police are often ostracised and given the derogatory label of "moser" or informer.

They warned that if the victim continued "to stick his nose where it doesn't belong", a new article about the victim would be posted on an "anonymous blog".

In comments posted online in 2013, the same victim was described by Yeshivah members as a "sick man" and a "coward" who should be "thrown out" of the community.

The victim's employer was also contacted by prominent members of Melbourne's Orthodox Jewish community and told about the assistance he had given to police.

Two men previously employed by the St Kilda Yeshivah school, security guard Cyprus and teacher David Kramer, are serving custodial sentences after last year being found guilty of serious child sex offences dating back to the early 1990s.

In Kramer's case, the school offered to pay for him to go to Israel after it received complaints about him from parents. He then went to the United States, where he raped a 12-year-old boy and served a lengthy jail sentence.

A third man,  Aron Kestecher, was last year to face court on child sex abuse charges allegedly committed at St Kilda's Yeshivah centre in the 2000s. But he took his own life before he went to trial.

Leading figures associated with the St Kilda Yeshivah are expected to face allegations in the royal commission hearings that they failed to report suspected abusers to police and sought to cover up crimes.

In Cyprys' committal in 2012, Victorian magistrate Luisa Bazzani said it was "unfathomable" that the former principal of the Yeshivah College in St Kilda, Rabbi Abraham Glick, did not know of the sexual abuse that was occurring there during the 1980s.


Thursday 29 January 2015

Pedophiles, Child Sex Abuse, Drugs, Bestiality, Child Porn, Kidnapping, Guilty

What drugs can do to otherwise nice kids
Kathryn Thompson leaving the courthouse
BARRIE, Ontario, Canada - One of the women involved with a slew of shocking sex offences involving children and animals pleaded guilty in Barrie court Thursday.

Kathryn Thompson, who turns 21 on Friday, pleaded guilty to 11 counts including conspiring with former boyfriend Shayne Lund to drug and sexually assault children, committing bestiality on a dog, and creating and possessing child pornography.

Standing in front of the court, Thompson broke down weeping as she repeated “guilty” to each count.

Sobriety can be a very painful thing when you confront what you did while stoned.

The Orillia woman will be sentenced Feb. 12 and the Crown said it will be seeking a long-term offender status with her sentence — which means after she serves her sentence she could be supervised for up to 10 years.

Thompson was arrested in October 2013 with Lund, 23, of Midland, and his girlfriend, Avery Taylor, 21, of Orillia.

Both Lund and Taylor remain in custody while Thompson, who played a lesser role in the offences, has been out on bail.

It is alleged Lund used the women to get access to children.

Shayne Lund, Avery Taylor & Kathryn Thompson
Initially Lund, the son of an OPP officer, (Ontario Provincial Police) was facing over 100 counts while the women faced about 26 counts each — but Lund’s charges have been paired down to 88.

Charges against Lund and Taylor include conspiring to kidnap, drug and sexually assault a child as well as charges of sexually assaulting animals and children, and making child pornography.

The Crown has said it will be seeking dangerous offender designations for Lund and Taylor, something that would mean an indefinite sentence.

Now that Thompson has pleaded guilty, the Crown has applied to re-open Lund’s preliminary hearing so that Thompson can testify for the Crown.


The hearing was set for closing submissions Friday, but the case is now stalled because Taylor has fired her lawyer and Legal Aid Ontario has refused to appoint a new one.

While that decision is being appealed, Lund’s lawyer has said this gives his client cause to consider a Charter application to have the charges thrown out for unreasonable delay.

Saudi Preacher Free After Paying Blood Money for Rape, Torture & Murder of Daughter

A Saudi preacher accused of raping, torturing and killing his five-year-old daughter, has reportedly been released from custody after agreeing to pay "blood money".

Fayhan al-Ghamdi was sentenced to eight years in prison and 800 lashes in 2013.


The court also ordered al-Ghamdi to pay his ex-wife, the girl's mother, one million riyals ($270,000) in "blood money".

According to some reports, al-Ghamdi had suspected his daughter had lost her virginity and had tortured her accordingly. He had beaten her and molested her in response. 

It was even suggested that he had raped her himself, although this was denied by Lama's mother.

Al-Ghamdi's daughter Lama suffered multiple injuries including a crushed skull, broken back, broken ribs, a broken left arm and extensive bruising and burns.

This lunatic should never be allowed to walk the streets of Riyadh or anywhere else. He is incredibly evil and/or insane. It wouldn't surprise me if al-Ghamdi raped his own daughter, then tortured and killed her because she lost her virginity - to him. Was it extreme guilt that he transferred to her?

The preacher - who is considered a celebrity in Saudi Arabia and often appears on Saudi television - admitted he used a cane and cables to inflict the injuries after doubting his five-year-old daughter's virginity and taking her to a doctor, according to the campaign group Women to Drive.

Lama died ten months later.


Al-Ghamdi, however, has now been released as "blood money and the time the defendant had served in prison since Lama's death suffices as punishment" a judge ruled, according to Albawaba News.

Al-Ghamdi served only a few months in jail before a judge ruled the prosecution could only seek blood money. I'll bet there's a judge in Saudi Arabia on a spending spree right now. 

The money is considered compensation under Islamic law, although it is only half the amount that would have been paid if Lama had been a boy.

Of course, we all know Islamic law is divine, that is, if you're a man. But even if killing one's own child can be compensated for by blood-money, that means he raped her, broke her back, skull, and left arm, and inflicted bruises and burns with which she had to suffer for 10 months, and he got no penalty for any of that. Islamic law is divinely evil.

Despite the fact Saudi Arabia hands out sentences of capital punishment, fathers cannot be executed for murdering their children in the country, Women to Drive said.

Many activists were disappointed that al-Ghamdi did not receive a life sentence.

The Times reported sources in the Saudi capital Riyadh as saying the royal family has been outraged over the release, with senior members intervening to ensure a stricter punishment is given.

One source told the newspaper, "The royal court is now looking at the case. He [al-Ghamdi] will stay in prison for a long time."

That would make a terrific first impression for the new king, at least in the west. It might put his life in danger though.

The release saw people taking to the social media to voice their dissent and outrage. On Twitter, the hashtag #AnaLama (which translates into "I Am Lama") has been set up.

Child Sex Abuse Victims Got Death Threats After Inquiry Published Emails

Survivors of historical abuse in the UK say committee chair Keith Vaz put them in danger by placing private details on Commons website

Child sex abuse victims say Keith Vaz’s decision to publish the emails
led to them receiving death threats
Survivors of child abuse say they have received death threats after the chairman of a commons committee released scores of emails containing the identities of four abuse victims.

In a letter to the home secretary, the victims, who have been campaigning for changes to the independent child abuse inquiry, condemned the decision by Keith Vaz, chair of the home affairs select committee, to place the emails which contain the victims’ names and disparaging comments about them, on the committee website.

The row is the latest controversy to engulf the independent inquiry, which has had to halt its work over complaints about its structure, lack of transparency and the actions and comments of some inquiry panel members.

Lucy Duckworth, of the Survivors Alliance, which represents several victims’ organisations, said: “Since this information was published the individuals have received death threats. In one of the emails a panel member says the panel should ignore the four survivors, calling them ‘these people.’”

In the letter from the survivors to Theresa May, they accuse Vaz and the panel members of a breach of trust, and say the comments about survivors in the published documents display “a lack of knowledge of survivor groups and a deep arrogance”.

“As individuals who are also survivors to experience this without the offer of support or apology from HASC, the secretariat or the Home Office, is a shameful reflection of process,” they wrote.

“The disclosure of confidential email discussion between panel members … including disclosure of personal contact details, reveals an appalling lack of respect by certain panel members for survivors, survivor groups and for fellow panel members … named individuals/survivors have been subjected to social media hate campaigns as a result of the disclosures and negative attitudes expressed by some panel members. This follows a catalogue of failures … in establishing the inquiry.”

After complaints from the victims, the select committee began to redact the names of individual survivors from the correspondence on its website. By Thursday 18 out of 96 pages contained redactions.

In a statement the committee said: “Last week, some material from the Independent Panel Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse came into the Committee’s possession in the course of our inquiry. The material included directions to Panel members about how they should answer questions from the Committee, as well as e-mail exchanges between Panel members about the Panel’s external communications strategy. These e-mails included the names of third parties. At the request of the individuals concerned the material has been redacted to remove references to these individuals. The names of all these individuals were already in the public domain.”

A committee source robustly defended the decision to publish the documents, saying the survivors involved had already publicly declared themselves quite clearly in one way or another.

Home Secretary Elizabeth May
May is due to announce a new chair for the inquiry and a statutory framework for its investigations in the next week in an attempt to rescue the process before the General Election.

I sincerely hope that Secretary May can get this inquiry on track next week. Her track record, however, is not exactly confidence-building.

Two chairs previously selected, Dame Elizabeth Butler Sloss, and Fiona Woolf, were forced to resign over their connections to the establishment, and there has been criticism of some panel members and complaints that the way panel members were selected lacked transparency.

The release of the documents came as Ben Emmerson, QC, counsel to the inquiry was called to the committee on Monday by Vaz to defend himself against allegations of bullying by a member of the indepenpent inquiry panel, Sharon Evans. It is not known who leaked the documents to the HASC committee.

Emmerson in his evidence robustly defended his actions. He said that Evans, a panel member who has given media interviews, had caused “a great deal of damage” to the inquiry by leaking information and by speaking to the media without approval. She was in breach of her duty of confidentiality, he said, and had made misleading statements that had an impact on the work of the inquiry.

Duckworth, who represents the Survivors Alliance said the four survivors named in the documentation felt “exposed and vulnerable” and the publication was “having a huge impact on our work and organisations.”

In their letter to the Home Secretary the survivors said: “The release of emails and correspondence constitute a breach of data protection and also a breach of trust. With disregard to who or how the information was leaked, the comments made by (Barbara) Hearn (a panel member) and Evans about us and our agencies demonstrate a lack of knowledge of survivor groups and a degree of arrogance in that..we would not understand the nuances of ‘evidence’.

“Additionally they demonstrate a view point that challenging views ‘should be directly corrected or ignored.’”

Could these problems be a symptom of disdain in class differences? The highly educated looking down on the less educated? 

Wednesday 28 January 2015

100,000 American Girls and Women are Coerced into Prostitution Each Year


The first part of the PBS documentary A Path Appears explores a pervasive problem

 Trafficking survivor Audrey Morrissey
It’s the dead of winter in Chicago. A man enters a hotel and rings the woman waiting for him in room 238. He found her number on Backpage.com, a Craigslist-style site that hosts listings for “adult entertainment” services.

The woman on the other end answers and invites him up. When he gets to her room, they negotiate a price – her services are advertised at $60 for half an hour. As soon as the man agrees, a loud beep alerts the undercover officers waiting next door. They rush in to bust the man for solicitation. Such clients are referred to as “johns”.

This scene is captured in A Path Appears, a new three-part documentary series based on a book by Pulitzer-prize winning journalists Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. The first part, airing on Monday, explores the devastating world of sex trafficking and how American women are coerced into prostitution.

The guys who buy sex, they really are the guys-next-door
As for the “johns”, most of them do feel terrible, says Michael Anton, a deputy chief with Cook County sheriff’s office. “They feel terrible because they got caught. They have no idea what goes on behind these girls they’re going after. They don’t know the abuse these girls have encountered and the life they had.”

The crackdown, called National Day of Johns Arrests, was conceived by Thomas Dart, the Cook County sheriff, as part of an effort to disrupt demand for prostitution by highlighting the role solicitors play in perpetuating the industry. In the past three years, the sting operations have spread to 28 law enforcement agencies in 14 states.

“If there were no johns, there would be no prostitutes,” Dart says in the film. On this particular day, deputies received 75 appointments after placing four ads on Backpage.com, though only 14 actually showed up. “It’s like shooting fish in a barrel,” Kristof remarks in the film.

During the 12-day nationwide crackdown staged in the run up to the 2014 Super Bowl, law enforcement officers arrested 359 would-be sex buyers and 14 pimps and traffickers, according to Demand Abolition, which tracks the arrests. Experts say the Super Bowl and other big sporting events attract higher incidents of sex trafficking due to the increased volume of men looking to buy sex in one area.

During the sweep, a Chicago area man was arrested wearing his blue hospital scrubs. When asked his highest level of education, the man said: “MD”. In Texas, deputies with the Harris County sheriff’s office arrested a constable from their department who came to buy sex wearing his uniform trousers, according to a press release.

The girls really do come from disadvantaged backgrounds. They’re not the girl-next-door. But the guys who buy sex, they really are the guys-next-door,” Kristof told the Guardian in an interview.

The documentary is in many ways an antidote to the issues raised by their book Half the Sky, in which the authors argue that the oppression of women is “a malignancy that is slowly gaining recognition as one of the paramount human rights problems of this century”. A Path Appears focuses on effective, and most importantly, scalable, solutions to some of the behemoth issues facing women and girls.

‘American women are being bought and sold like slaves’
To view sex trafficking as a fate that befalls foreign women who are smuggled into the US, kept in chains and forced to work as modern-day sex slaves is to ignore a whole different side to the story.

“The biggest surprise was that there was so much of it here in the US and that the problems run much deeper than we expected,” WuDunn told the Guardian. “Most of us don’t expect to see the people who are trafficked to be Americans who are trafficked from their own towns, within their own hometowns.”

In the past decade, the US Justice Department and the FBI have woken up to the issue, stepping up efforts to disrupt the trade domestically. “It’s sad but true: here in this country, people are being bought, sold, and smuggled like modern-day slaves,” the FBI says on its website.

Astonishingly, it’s often the women who spend time behind bars while the pimps and johns are rarely caught. One survivor said she had been arrested more than 100 times, while her pimp never ran into trouble. But there is a growing movement among state and local law enforcement agencies to treat prostitutes as victims rather than criminals, especially as more Americans realize the problem is very much a domestic one.

“A lot of the conversation about women’s rights in the US is about equal pay and about board representation and Title 9,” Kristof said. “These are certainly real issues and there’s real inequity in these areas but it sure does seem to me that the two biggest areas of gender inequity in this country are sex trafficking and domestic violence. They exist because by and large, society diverts its eyes,” Kristof said. “And while I certainly want to continue those conversations about board representation and unequal pay, etc, I think we should be much more engaged with what happens to the tens of thousands of girls who are trafficked each year.”

Actually, Nicholas, the biggest area of gender inequity by far is child sex abuse which encompasses child trafficking. Check out these stats.

‘It’s easy to traffic a young woman. It’s so lucrative’
Becca Stevens, founder of Thistle Farms
Compiling reliable data is nearly impossible given the shadowy nature of the industry, but experts estimate approximately 100,000 American girls are victimized by human trafficking each year. The average age girls enter the sex trade is 12 to 14.

“No five- or six-year-old girl dreams of growing up to be a prostitute,” said Becca Stevens, the founder of Thistle Farms, a Tennessee-based social enterprise that employs women who have survived prostitution, trafficking and addiction.

The three most common forms of sex trafficking involve pimp-controlled prostitution, commercial-front brothels, and escort services. Stevens says systemic failures, augmented by a personal history of sex abuse and poverty, send women spiralling into the hands of a trafficker. Speaking of her work with survivors over the past 18 years, she said: “I have never met a woman who’s never been raped.”

Recently, Stevens has started hosting a “johns” school to educate men who have been caught seeking prostitutes about the industry. In her view, breaking the cycle of demand so that selling girls is no longer a profitable business is paramount. “It’s easy to traffic a young woman. It’s so lucrative,” she said. “You can sell drugs once, but you can sell a girl 1,000 times.”

‘If you don’t give me a (oral sex), I’m going to arrest you’
Audrey Morrissey is the associate director of My Life My Choice, a survivor-led organization in Boston. She told the Guardian: “One message we have to get across to the men [who seek prostitutes]: ‘We don’t like you. You think we like you. We don’t like you.’”

Morrissey, 52, was lured into prostitution by the father of her first daughter at age 17. She says he took advantage of her love for him. “I was a teen parent. I thought I was in love. Honest to God truth, I look back on it now, and know I was in love. He was the father of my child. And one day, he just said to me: ‘If you love me you would do this and make us money.’”

Morriseey with Kristof
Her first encounter “in the lights” was on a dark and gloomy night around 1980. She was in the car with her boyfriend and his cousin, driving around the “combat zone”, a nickname given to the adult entertainment district of downtown Boston.

She said that in the 1980s, the prostitutes were glamourous. They wore mink coats and glittery dresses. “I didn’t see pain and misery from the car. I saw glitter and clothes and fashion. I was already attracted to what I thought looked good … I guess back then I couldn’t process that they had to have sex with men they don’t know.”

At some point, her boyfriend dropped her on the corner and told her to stand there until someone drove by to pick her up. Her first client pulled up. It was a police officer. Morrissey says that his first words were: “If you don’t give me (oral sex) I’m going to arrest you.” She climbed into the car sobbing like a baby. She said he could tell she was an amateur and eventually told her to leave before anything happened. He left her with words that would later echo in her mind of months to come: “Do you know you could be blowing some guy and he could slice your throat?’”

Morrissey was traumatized by the experience. But over time, her boyfriend was able to convince her to return to the streets.

After her boyfriend was arrested on unrelated charges and locked up, Morrissey said she considered leaving the trade. But by then, she’d formed a camaraderie with the other women, something which made her feel like she belonged. Because of her light skin, she had always felt like an outcast growing up: “In my neighborhood I felt I was too white to be black and when I went to school I was too dark to be white. There was the only place it was OK to be light-skinned. For many years, I developed this false sense of self-esteem.”

She continued to work for a decade, serving several pimps and developing drug addictions; her second daughter was born addicted to heroin and cocaine. At 30, Morrissey said she’d hit rock bottom and knew she needed help. She accessed a detox program and got clean; she has remained sober to this day.

Morrissey now helps mentor young women who share a similar fate. “They help me to stay on track because I don’t want to let them down. I don’t want to be the person that gave them hope, and then went back to standing on a corner,” she said.

‘Johns are upper middle class white males, married with a family’
Shelia McClain, who works at Thistle Farm
Forced prostitution is, under US law, a form of sex trafficking, defined as the coercion a person to perform sex acts in exchange for something of value. The DOJ’s guidelines are clear on the subject: “The coercion can be subtle or overt, physical or psychological but it must be used to coerce a victim into performing labor, services, or commercial sex acts.”

Under US law, anyone younger than 18 is a victim of sex trafficking – regardless of whether or not the trafficker used force, fraud, or coercion – because minors cannot legally give consent. The punishment for someone who traffics children ranges from 40 years to life in prison.

Morrissey wants to see more attention focused on the johns, rather than the prostitutes. Why would her daughters have to carry the stigma of having a mother who was a prostitute, while her clients’ daughters are shielded from knowing what their fathers did on their lunch breaks?

She said there’s a fallacy to think that johns are “creepy guys in trenchcoats”. “There’s just not enough creepy guys in trench coats to make this a multi-billion dollar business,” she said. “It’s men with money. It’s upper middle class white males from the suburbs married with a family.”

There’s no magic bullet, Morrissey said. In her view, the only way to make progress combating sex trafficking in America is to continue educating the public and to keep the heat on pimps and johns who prey on these young women: “This is a rollercoaster ride, and we’re in it for the long-haul.”

A Path Appears airs on Monday 26 January on Independent Lens on PBS at 10pm ET

2 Vanderbilt Football Players Guilty of Raping Unconscious Girl

The rape happened in a span of 30 minutes. The case has been pending 19 months. The trial took 12 days. The jury deliberations took just a little more than 3 hours.

When the verdicts came in at 4:52 p.m. Tuesday, former Vanderbilt University football players Brandon Vandenburg and Cory Batey were found guilty in the rape of an unconscious woman in a dorm on June 23, 2013. The announcement took less than four minutes.

Vandenburg and Batey
Batey, whose 21st birthday was Tuesday, did not visibly react. But his family members — his mother and uncles and cousins, who filled two rows of court benches — broke into sobs.

Vandenburg, 21, shook his head after the foreman read: "Count 1, we find Mr. Vandenburg guilty of aggravated rape." His father, Rob Vandenburg, yelled out into the courtroom, later wiping his eyes with a scarf. "That is terrible," he said. His grief nearly muted the foreman, who continued reading verdicts. All were guilty.

One juror appeared to have tears in her eyes. As the verdict was read, the victim — who does not remember the rape — held her mother's hand and held back tears.

In a statement, the victim — who sat through every day of the trial — thanked prosecutors, detectives and victims advocates.

"You are my heroes and I am so proud of and grateful for each of you," the statement read.

"I am also hopeful that the publicity this case has received will lead to a discussion of how we can end sexual violence on college campuses. Finally, I want to remind other victims of sexual violence: You are not alone. You are not to blame."

The trial has occurred amid national attention on issues of sexual assault on college campuses, and scrutiny of how colleges react to reports.

Penn State University football coach James Franklin, who was the football coach at Vanderbilt during the time of the rape, did not reply to requests for comment.

Vanderbilt U
District Attorney Glenn Funk said he hopes the case spurs change and sends a message that his office will prosecute cases of sexual violence.

"This case gives our entire community an opportunity to talk to each other and to our children, especially to our boys, about the way we treat women, both with our actions and with our words," he said. "No one deserves to be violated. Further, if you see someone who is being sexually assaulted, the right thing to do is to report it and try and get the person some help."

In trial, jurors watched videos and saw photos of the rape that detectives recovered from Vandenburg's, Batey's and Brandon E. Bank's phones. Banks and Jaborian "Tip" McKenzie, both 20, also are accused in the case. They are awaiting trial.

According to court testimony, Vandenburg and the victim were intoxicated when they arrived at Vandenburg's dorm, Gillette Hall, about 2:30 a.m. June 23, 2013. Vandenburg carried the unconscious woman in and put her on the floor like trash, Deputy District Attorney Tom Thurman said in his closing argument.

Within two minutes Batey began sexually assaulting the woman with his fingers. One of the men stuck a water bottle in the woman's anus. Vandenburg cheered his teammates on: "Squeeze that s***, Squeeze that s***."

Though Vandenburg did not inappropriately touch the woman, a jury found him equally responsible for his role. The count on which jurors returned the attempted aggravated rape charge related to whether Batey penetrated the victim with his penis. McKenzie had testified that it looked as if Batey was doing so, but in another statement McKenzie said Batey could not get an erection.

Jim Todd, who has been analyzing the case for The Tennessean, said putting Batey on the stand Monday was a good defense strategy and "the only strategy they had" when up against graphic photos and videos. Batey admitted some wrongdoing and then apologized in a "Hail Mary" defense, Todd said.

He called Vandenburg's defense, put on by Albert Perez Jr. and Fletcher Long, "the slash and burn approach" because of frequent objections that may have seemed antagonistic to the jury.


Thurman said the trial "could very well be" his final case as he weighs retirement.

Asked about the defendants' theory that the Vanderbilt culture affected Batey's actions, he said: "I don't know how culture can be blamed for someone raping, assaulting and urinating on a victim who's unconscious. I didn't think it merited very much consideration by the jury."

Perez started to tear up when asked about Vandenburg's reaction to the verdict.

"It's very difficult for a person who is young to understand what happened, because he asked me what happened … ," Perez said as he choked up.

Worrick Robinson, Batey's attorney, described the case as a "heavyweight bout" and said that "justice can be harsh." He later recalled to reporters what he told Batey after the verdict:

"I told him I loved him. I told him we're not going to abandon him. I told him that there are other processes to seek."

Batey and Vandenburg hugged their attorneys. Batey waved to his family members. "We love you, Cory," one man said.

Judge Monte Watkins ordered, per Tennessee law, that Vandenburg and Batey be taken into custody. Both men left through a door into a room where jailed inmates are held. They could face decades in prison.

In fewer than four minutes Tuesday, a jury announced its justice.

Tuesday 27 January 2015

Sitcom Star Charged with Voyeurism by Toronto Police

Spun Out star Jean Paul (J.P.) Manoux has also appeared on the series Community,
The Replacements and ER, according to the Internet Movie Database. (CTV)
A star of the CTV sitcom Spun Out has been charged by Toronto police with voyeurism.

Jean Paul Manoux was arrested on Tuesday after two women said they found hidden cameras and video equipment connected to the internet in a condo they had rented from him, according to investigators at 14 Division.

The 45-year-old actor, who lives in Los Angeles, is due to appear in a Toronto court on Wednesday morning.

Manoux currently plays Bryce on Spun Out, which is about to air its second season.

His other credits, as J.P. Manoux, include appearances on the series Community, The Replacements and ER according to the Internet Movie Database.


Police say Manoux has rented the condo at 1171 Queen St. W., near Dufferin Street, before, and that there may be other victims. 

Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 416-808-1400, or Crime Stoppers at 416-222-TIPS. 

Quebec Teen Raped by Sex Offender in Police Vehicle Suing for 'Gross Misconduct'

Woman suffered post-traumatic stress after 2011 attack,
according to psychological report
The woman, who was 17 at the time of the attack, alleges the officer showed 'an incredible lack of concern' for her safety.

A young woman from an Inuit village in northern Quebec is suing  for $400,000 after she was left handcuffed in a police vehicle with a repeat sexual offender and sexually assaulted.

The woman says she has suffered post-traumatic stress since the September 2011 attack in Tasiujaq, a lakeside community west of Ungava Bay that is only accessible by airplane, snowmobile or boat.

The lawsuit, which names the officer involved as well as the local police service and the regional government, alleges "a serious lack of professionalism and gross negligence," on behalf of the Kativik regional police.

It also states the officer's actions "show an incredible lack of concern for the safety of the plaintiff."

Neither the Kativik regional government nor the police force will comment on the events, citing the ongoing court case.

Inexperienced officer

Police had been called to remove the woman, who had been drinking while visiting relatives, from the premises at the request of the homeowner.

According to civil lawsuit documents filed at Quebec Superior Court last fall and initially obtained by La Presse, the woman was handcuffed and put in the back of a police car with a man who had been arrested earlier for causing a disturbance at another residence.

The man, Joe Kritik, had already been convicted of four sexual assaults at the time and was listed on the sexual offender registry.

He was not handcuffed.

The lone officer responsible, who had been on the job less than a month and was not authorized to carry a handgun, left the two in the back of the vehicle while she gathered details about the young woman from the complainant.

'The plaintiff was unable to defend herself'

According to the court documents, the officer returned and found Kritik with his pants down on top of the woman. The young woman testified in court that she was sexually assaulted.

The plaintiff was unable to defend herself, being handcuffed in her back and unable to leave the vehicle, the doors being locked,” the lawsuit claims.

The officer opened the door and pulled Kritik off her.

Both the young woman and Kritik were taken to the police station and put in different cells.

The lawsuit claims the same officer, the only one on duty at the time, slammed the cell door in the woman’s face, breaking her tooth. No rape kit was performed and the woman’s parents were not contacted.

Kritik eventually pleaded guilty to one count of sexual assault and was sentenced to 39 months.

The constable was suspended and later resigned. However, an internal investigation by the Kativik regional police Force cleared her of any criminal wrongdoing. 

Stupidity is not a criminal offense.

Tasiujaq is a small Inuit village located in northern Quebec. 

10 Catholic Priests Charged with Child Sex Abuse by Judge in Spain

A person believed to be one of the suspects sits with their head covered
in the back of a police car in Granada, Spain
Several suspects were arrested in November
A judge in the southern Spanish city of Granada has charged 10 Roman Catholic priests and two Catholic lay workers with child sex abuse.

The 12 are suspected of abusing four teenage boys between 2004 and 2007, the most serious offences occurring in a house used by the priests.

Pope Francis telephoned one of the alleged victims, now 24, in November to offer his apologies.

He acted after the man wrote him a letter about the alleged abuse.

Pope Francis says 2% of clergy are paedophiles
The pontiff, who has pledged zero tolerance of child sex abuse, then ordered a Church investigation.

Several arrests were made in November but the suspects are now free on bail.

In November they arrested 3 priests and one layman. Obviously, the circle has grown considerably. It seems unlikely that 10 priests in one city could practice pedophilia without being somehow linked. What a disgrace for the Catholic Church if all, or even most, are found guilty.

According to Spanish broadcaster RTVE (in Spanish), the young man in question and a friend had served as altar boys in the Diocese of Granada.

The Archbishop of Granada, Francisco Javier Martinez, and fellow priests
prostrate themselves in front of the altar of Granada's cathedral
It is alleged that they were invited by a priest to spend time at his parochial house and at another property, where the most serious assaults were committed.

Following the Pope's call to the alleged victim, the Archbishop of Granada, Francisco Javier Martinez, and fellow priests prostrated themselves in front of the altar of Granada's cathedral to seek pardon for sexual abuse in the Church.

Many survivors of abuse by priests are angry at what they see as the Vatican's failure to punish senior officials who have been accused of covering up scandals.

In July, Pope Francis begged forgiveness from the victims of sexual abuse by priests, and condemned the Church's "complicity" in hiding the "grave crimes" committed by clerics.

Monday 26 January 2015

UK Hospital Deals with 1,500 Cases of Female Genital Mutilation in Just Five Years

Birmingham, UK's, Heartlands Hospital saw 349 cases in 2013, following 288 cases in 2012, 316 in 2011 and 317 in 2010.


It is thought to be one of the centres which has seen a large number of the 463 cases now being identified in England every month.

NSPCC Head of Child Protection Operations John Cameron said: 'These figures show the NHS is consistently seeing a high number of FGM cases every month.

'FGM is a live public health issue and it is vital all health professionals are trained to spot the signs of FGM and that girls who are subjected to this brutal practice get the post-traumatic support they deserve.

'We need to ensure doctors, midwives and other healthcare professionals are working effectively together with children's services to support and protect FGM victims and their family members.'

The records show the number of women recorded as having been subjected to the practice, even if they were in hospital for another reason.

The vast majority of cases are women who underwent the procedure in Africa,
the Middle East or parts of Asia before moving to Britain.
Campaigners have pointed out that the numbers may be just the tip of the iceberg, as only those women who have sought specific medical treatment are included in the data.

It is believed the vast majority of cases are women who were born abroad and then moved to the UK in childhood or later life.

Victims are often identified when they come in to have infections and other conditions linked to the procedure treated, while others are noted when they attend for pre-natal checks.

IMPORTED PROBLEM: WHAT IS FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION?

Female genital mutilation (FGM) is the deliberate removal of all or part of the external female genitalia.

The World Health Organisation describes FGM as any procedure that injures the female genital organs for non-medical reasons. It is also referred to as female circumcision or female cutting.

FGM is mostly carried out on young girls in adolescence but is also carried out during childhood and sometimes on babies.

In some cultures, it is seen as a right of passage into womanhood and a condition of marriage. Some believe the genitals will be 'unclean' if the female does not have FGM.

There is also a common belief that women need to have FGM to have babies. But, infact, FGM can cause infertility and an increased risk of childbirth complications.

The procedure is often carried out by a woman with no medical training.

Anaesthetics and antiseptic treatments are not generally used and the practice is usually carried out using knives, scissors, scalpels, pieces of glass or razor blades.

The procedure can cause severe bleeding and infections, which can last the woman's entire lifetime.

It is estimated that 3 million girls are cut every year across the world. Around 23,000 of these are carried out in the UK. The practice is particularly rife in some African, Middle Eastern and Asian countries.

FGM in progress. Utter insanity!
FGM has been illegal in the UK since 1984 and since 2003 anyone taking a child out of the UK for the practice faces 14 years in prison.

Despite the rise in hospital cases and an increase in reports to police in 2014 there has not been a single conviction in the UK.

Research by the charity Equality Now and City University last year estimated more than 100,000 women have migrated to England and Wales after suffering FGM - up more than 50% since 2001.

The Birmingham hospital's figures were released after the Muslim Women's Network told the West Midlands Police and Crime Panel that the levels current support and counselling for victims - many of whom suffer flashbacks - are not good enough.

The charity said the latest case it uncovered was just last week and involved a young Yemeni girl from an unnamed Birmingham school.

Shaita Gohir MBE, who is chair of the charity, told the panel: 'We need to get funding for specific counselling in this area.'

Birmingham is one of the most ethnically diverse cities in Britain. (You mean it isn't an Islamic no-go zone? But the man on Fox said...) In the 2011 census, more than 280,000 residents - 26% of the city's population - gave their ethnicity as Asian or Asian-British, 93,000 said they consider themselves Black or Black-British and 10,900 listed themselves as Arab.

Earlier this month, Britain's top family judge, Sir James Munby called on local councils to do more to battle what he called 'the great evil' of FGM.

He said: 'Plainly, given the nature of the evil, prevention is infinitely better than cure.

'Local authorities need to be pro-active and vigilant in taking appropriate protective measures to prevent girls being subjected to FGM.

'The court must not hesitate to use every weapon in its protective arsenal if faced with a case of actual or anticipated FGM.' Unfortunately, it hasn't used any weapons in its arsenal. Does it know where the arsenal is?

*The NSPCC operates an FGM helpline. Anyone in need of advice should phone 0800 028 3550.

Fugitive Gets 30 Years for Raping and Abusing 5 Girl Relatives One Only 5 Years Old

A former West Jefferson man, who was on the run from authorities when he was indicted by a grand jury six years ago, pleaded guilty Monday (Jan. 26) to sexually abusing five girls, including four relatives as young as 5 years old.

Hugh Viera, 54, agreed to serve 30 years in prison in connection with the plea deal his attorney, Autumn Town, negotiated with Jefferson Parish prosecutors. By pleading guilty, he averted a trial, which was scheduled to begin Monday in 24th Judicial District Judge Conn Regan's court.

Hugh Viera
One of the charges Viera faced, had he gone to trial, was aggravated rape, which carries a punishment of mandatory life in prison. But prosecutors agreed to reduce that charge to attempted aggravated rape and cap the punishment at 30 years. He pleaded guilty as charged to the other nine counts, and he'll have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life, if he's ever released from prison.

The plea also meant that the victims did not have to testify. At the time the crimes happened, between 1995 and 2000, the victims' ages ranged from 5 years old to 16. NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune generally does not identify victims of sexual abuse.

Two of them provided impact testimony during Monday's sentencing hearing. One of them read aloud a poem she wrote, and the other said she was speaking for the other victims.

"They may have not been strong enough to face you and do what was necessary to get justice, but today I am their voice," she wrote in a statement that a district attorney's office employee read aloud in court.

"I trusted (you) to protect me, but instead you violated me," she wrote. "Shame on you. Shame on you. You have everyone fooled believing that you were such a nice guy. Well, Mr. Nice guy, your time has run out. I do want to thank you for this experience, because without it, I wouldn't be the woman I am today, and would be naïve to predators like you."

Prosecutors said that Viera fled his Jefferson Parish apartment in 2008, when detectives went to arrest him in connection with the sex abuse charges. A grand jury handed up 10-count indictment Dec. 18, 2008. But because Viera was at large, prosecutors had his case record sealed from public viewing.

At the time he was indicted, Viera was on the eastern Caribbean island of St. Vincent, prosecutors said. The prosecutors cited "confidential information," in saying Viera still was on St. Vincent in 2008.

They feared that if he learned he faced charges in Jefferson Parish, he would flee to another country and force U.S. authorities to restart the extradition process, prosecutors said. The case remained sealed for three years, until after prosecutors said Viera had been arrested.

He pleaded not guilty during his arraignment hearing in March 2013, more than four years after he was indicted. At the time, he identified his home as Stubbe Village, at St. Vincent. He has been jailed since his return to the United States to face trial.

On Monday, when jury selection was set to begin for his trial, Viera pleaded guilty to six counts of aggravated incest involving victims under age 13, one count of forcible rape, one count of attempted aggravated rape, one count of sexual battery and one count of oral sexual battery.

He was sentenced to 20 years in prison for each of the aggravated incest charges, 20 years for the forcible rape, 30 years for the attempted aggravated rape, and 10 years each for the sexual battery and oral sexual battery.  The sentences were run concurrently.

The abuse wasn't limited to Jefferson Parish, Assistant District Attorney Thomas Sanderson wrote in court documents. He asserted that while in Texas, Viera inappropriately touched and tried to have intercourse with one of the victims, when she was age 7 or 8. Viera also sexually abused the girl over a two-week period around Christmas in 1992, when they were in the Virgin Islands, Sanderson wrote.

Virgin Islands
Also while in Texas, Sanderson said Viera inappropriately touched another of the victims and made her masturbate him. She was five or six at the time. He also made her bathe with him while they were nude, the prosecutor said.

Also during Christmas of 1992, while they were in the Virgin Islands, Viera showed pornography to another of the girls, then 7 years old, "and solicited her to do what the adults in the video were doing," Sanderson wrote.

Despite the sexual abuse, young woman whose letter was read in court Monday said she had forgiveness for Viera. "I forgive you for taking away my innocence when I had no choice," she wrote. "I forgive you for causing me years of shame, pain, hurt, confusion and guilt. Today I leave all of that here and promise to work diligently to never go back to it again."

She also addressed the other victims, advising each of them to "live the rest of your life to the fullest, let this tragedy become your testimony to help someone else."