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

Tuesday 31 October 2017

Spacey, Priest, Pilot, Elmo Among Today's USA PnP List

Rose McGowan attacks Kevin Spacey after actor apologises for sexual misconduct with 14-year-old

A STRING of Hollywood stars have slammed Kevin Spacey for his ‘calculated manipulation’ of sexual assault allegations, as more accusations come to light.

Nadia Salemme and staff writers
News Corp Australia Network

HOLLYWOOD stars have criticised Kevin Spacey for his handling of sexual assault allegations, branding his coming out as a “calculated manipulation”.

He's an actor. What do actors do?

Rose McGowan — who exposed Harvey Weinstein’s long history of rape and sexual misconduct — and Star Trek actor Zachary Quinto are among the Hollywood actors who have publicly slammed Spacey.

It comes after revelations the Oscar-winner groped actor Anthony Rapp when Rapp was 14 years old.

Quinto accused Spacey of using his homosexuality “to deflect attention from the very serious accusation”.

“It is deeply sad and troubling that this is how Kevin Spacey has chosen to come out,” Quinto said in a statement posted on Instagram.

McGowan also criticised the House of Cards actor: “Bye bye, Spacey goodbye, it’s your turn to cry, that’s why we’ve gotta say goodbye”.

Hmmmm. I think I can find some chords for that...

Comedian Rosie O’Donnell also weighed in with a series of tweets, including a stirring side-by-side photo of the victim and his abuser.

She also responded angrily to his claim that he could not remember what had happened with Rapp, tweeting: “u don’t remember the incident — 30 years ago? — f*** u kevin — like Harvey we all knew about u — I hope more men come forward.”

Netflix today revealed Spacey’s series House of Cards will be axed after its current sixth season. The series began production on its now-final season only a few weeks ago, nypost.com reports.

“Media Rights Capital and Netflix are deeply troubled by last night’s news concerning Kevin Spacey,” a joint statement from both companies stated.

“In response to last night’s revelations, executives from both of our companies arrived in Baltimore this afternoon to meet with our cast and crew to ensure that they continue to feel safe and supported. As previously scheduled, Kevin Spacey is not working on set at this time.”

Former House of Cards showrunner Beau Willimon called the allegations “deeply troubling” but asserted he was unaware of any inappropriate behavior during his four seasons on the show.

HOW SPACEY SEX ABUSE SCANDAL UNFOLDED

Rose McGowan this month revealed she was assaulted by Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein in the 1990s, a claim that has exposed Weinstein’s years of abuse and sexual misconduct.

It prompted a string of Hollywood actors to come forward with similar allegations.

In the wake of the Weinstein revelations, Star Trek: Discovery actor Rapp, 46, detailed an alleged incident at a 1986 party at Kevin Spacey’s house when Rapp was 14 years old and Spacey was 26.

Rapp was a child actor earning praise for a role in Broadway play, Precious Sons. Spacey was also on Broadway at the time, according to Buzzfeed.

Arriving at the party alone, Rapp said he was the only non-adult in attendance, and spent most of the evening in a bedroom watching TV.

Rapp alleged Spacey then appeared in the room visibly drunk. “He picked me up like a groom picks up the bride over the threshold. But I don’t, like, squirm away initially, because I’m like, ‘What’s going on?’ And then he lays down on top of me,” Rapp told Buzzfeed.

“He was trying to seduce me,” Rapp continued. “I don’t know if I would have used that language. But I was aware that he was trying to get with me sexually.”

Spacey said he was “beyond horrified” about Rapp’s allegations and that there had been “stories out there” about his private life over the years, in a statement that has divided Hollywood. “As those closest to me know, in my life I have had relationships with both men and women,” Spacey said.

“I have loved and had romantic encounters with men throughout my life, and I choose now to live as a gay man. I want to deal with this openly and honestly and that starts with examining my own behaviour.”

Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright in a scene from House of Cards, which has been cancelled in the wake of the scandal. Picture: Nathaniel Bell

Spacey’s statement continued: “The older I get, and the more I know, I feel very fortunate that something worse didn’t happen,” he said. “And at the same time, the older I get, the more I can’t believe it. I could never imagine (that) anyone else I know would do something like that to a 14-year-old boy.”

Rapp said it was the growing willingness to speak out about sexual misconduct in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein sex scandal that made him decide to go public with his allegations.

In his statement, Spacey said he did not recall the events Rapp alleged, “but if I did behave then as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behaviour, and I am sorry for the feelings he describes having carried with him all these years.”

MORE SPACEY ALLEGATIONS EMERGE

This is not the only allegation against the veteran actor. A former American TV anchor also accused Spacey of sexually inappropriate behaviour.

Heather Unruh tweeted that the American Beauty actor assaulted a loved one of hers. “The #weinsteinscandal has emboldened me … I was a Kevin Spacey fan until he assaulted a loved one,” she wrote. “Time the dominoes fell.”

Another woman, writer Nadine West, tweeted that her friend was groped by Spacey when he worked at a British theatre.

“KS [Kevin Spacey] groped my young male friend when they were both working at the Old Vic. Was apparently always known as one to avoid. Sadly unsurprised’.

Spacey is yet to comment on the latest allegations.





Kevin Spacey's brother claims 'Nazi' father
sexually abused him

'He was so determined to try to avoid the whippings that he just minded his Ps and Qs until there was nothing inside. He had no feelings,' says Spacey's brother
Maya Oppenheim 

Mr Fowler claims he was frequently whipped and raped
by their father EPA

Kevin Spacey's brother has said his father was a neo-Nazi who sexually abused him during his childhood.

Mr Fowler claimed his father, Thomas Geoffrey Fowler, was a fervent Nazi supporter and his home was brimming with Third Reich memorabilia in an interview with the Daily Mail back in 2004.         

Spacey's brother, who is a Rod Stewart impersonator, said his father withdrew him from Cub Scouts because the leader of the group was Jewish.

“There was so much darkness in our home it was beyond belief. It was absolutely miserable,” the eldest son told the paper.

Mr Fowler claimed he was frequently whipped and raped by their father and alleged their sister Julie was also subject to beatings before leaving home at the age of 18. 

He said his brother Kevin tried to ignore what was going on at home by emotionally blocking stuff out and disconnecting. He said: “Kevin tried to avoid what was going on by wrapping himself in an emotional bubble. He became very sly and smart.

"He was so determined to try to avoid the whippings that he just minded his Ps and Qs until there was nothing inside. He had no feelings.”

Mr Fowler’s account of his father massively differs to that of Spacey who described his father, who died on Christmas Eve in 1992, as a “very normal, middle-class man, born in Caspar, Wyoming” in an interview in 2002.

“But he had an absolute love of England. He spent the war here. I think he always fancied himself as an aristocrat. He admired things of that kind of sophistication; leather-bound books, beautiful watches, cufflinks ...,” he told Esquire magazine.

Spacey has been condemned by a string of Hollywood commentators for coming out as gay in the wake of the allegation.

“When power is used in a non-consensual situation, it is a wrong,” former Star Trek actor George Takei said. “For Anthony Rapp, he has had to live with the memory of this experience of decades ago." 

“For Kevin Spacey, who claims not to remember the incident, he was the older, dominant one who had his way. Men who improperly harass or assault do not do so because they are gay or straight - that is a deflection. They do so because they have the power, and they chose to abuse it.“

The Independent contacted a representative of Spacey to see if he wanted to respond to his brother's allegations about their late father.






Mount Airy man indicted after alleged abuse of 11 y/o
Gunner Wolfe
Carroll County Times

A Mount Airy man had bail set at $50,000 full secured at a hearing in Carroll County Circuit Court on Monday after he was indicted on four counts related to sex abuse of an 11-year-old child.

Gunner K. Wolfe, 24, who does not currently have a permanent residence, was indicted by a grand jury Thursday on one count each of sex abuse of a minor, continuing course of conduct; sex abuse of a minor; second-degree sex offense; and third-degree sex offense, according to electronic court records.

Circuit Court Judge Fred Hecker ordered Wolfe be under pretrial supervision and have no contact with the victim or other minors, the victim’s school or the victim’s mother during Monday’s hearing.

Investigation of the case began in August. Sex abuse of a minor, continuing course of conduct, alleges that three or more acts of abuse occurred over a course of 90 days or more. The maximum sentence is 30 years in prison.





Missoula man accused of sexual abuse of children
By MTN News
MISSOULA - A Missoula man has been charged with one count of sexual abuse of children.

53-year-old Sydney Cannon is charged with felony sexual abuse of children. He made his first court appearance on the charge Monday afternoon in Missoula County Justice Court.

In court documents, a neighbor of Cannon’s reported he witnessed Cannon asking a 5-year-old neighbor girl to pull her pants down an apartment building’s parking lot.

The neighbor told police he witnessed Cannon looking at the girl’s genitals. The neighbor said he took the child and brought her to his residence and called police.

The girl told police she knew the man and that his name was “Syd”.

Cannon told police he did talk to the girl, but noted nothing inappropriate happened. Cannon advised to police he never touched the girl or asked her to pull her pants down at any time.

If convicted Cannon faces 100 years in prison and/or $50,000 fine.

100 years in prison? Seriously? A good lawyer, a plea bargain, he should be able to cut that down to a few months.





Air taxi pilot takes a plea in sex abuse,
child pornography case
By DAVE BENDINGER

Air taxi pilot and flight controller Robert Joseph May, 42, from King Salmon pled guilty to two counts of possessing child pornography and will spend between two and four years in jail.

Robert Joseph May, 42, has begun a jail term of two to four years following a change of plea hearing in early October. The state dismissed five charges of second degree sexual abuse of a minor in return guilty pleas on two counts of possessing child pornography. The air taxi pilot and contract flight controller from King Salmon will be sentenced on Jan. 25, and Judge Michael Wolverton will determine whether his two two-year terms will run back-to-back or concurrently, or some combination.

The sentence will have 12 years of suspended jail time, and May will be on probation after his release and be required to register as a sex offender.

The disturbing allegations against May surfaced after a lengthy investigation by Alaska State Trooper Alfred Borrego, who had received a tip that the pilot may have been carrying on a relationship with a 15-year-old girl from a nearby village.

By the time charges were filed in June, 2016, Borrego had documented five times May had sex with the teenager between August 2015 and March 2016, twice while he was piloting his aircraft with the young girl as a passenger.

Troopers seized a GoPro camera and laptop computer during their search, and images of the illicit sexual activity with the minor while in flight were discovered. One photo with May and the minor had been labeled with a racially derogatory term suggesting a perverse way the pilot collected his fare.

The AST Technical Crimes Unit also turned up 147 images of child sexual exploitation on May’s laptop computer. “A number of those images included unidentified nude minors aged 7-14 years, posed and/or engaged in explicit sexual activities with adults,” reads the statement of facts May pleaded guilty to. The investigators believe May was involved in receiving and distributing child pornography, including the images he created with the young local victim.

The state agreed to dismiss the sexual abuse of a minor charges, though May acknowledged in his plea that he would likely have been convicted on the charges by a judge or jury. He faced a maximum of 99 years from all of the accused crimes.

See what I mean - 99 years reduced to 24 months by a plea deal. Good grief! This is justice?

The terms of May’s sex offender status are severe: he will rarely be allowed to have contact with any teenagers younger than 16, must complete a sex offender evaluation and any prescribed treatment, cannot possess any pornography, visit any adult materials stores, or even have an internet account. His home and any electronics will be subject to search while he is on probation.

His business license for RJ Aviation, first registered in 2011, expired at the end of 2016. May operated a Cessna 182 and a Piper Cherokee, flying routes between Alaska Peninsula and Iliamna Lake villages from his home in King Salmon. After charges were filed, he was fired as a Serco contract air traffic controller at the King Salmon tower. A few months later his then-partner Evelyn McClain filed for “custody of minor children,” according to court records.

After his June 2016 arrest, May was initially held on $100,000 bail, though that was reduced a few weeks later to the $25,000 he posted and was released. He remained out of custody until his Oct. 4 plea, when he remanded to begin his sentence.

May’s attorney, Josh Fannon, said he or his client will have more to say about this case and the investigation after sentencing in January.





California man stops trial to take plea deal in
sex abuse of two boys
BY ROSALIO AHUMADA

A 64-year-old Turlock man stopped his trial to take a plea deal and be sentenced to 12 years in prison for sexually abusing two boys over several years.

Elton Boyd Kelley on Oct. 23 pleaded no contest to continuous sexual abuse of a child identified in court as "John Doe 1" and oral copulation of a minor identified in court as "John Doe 2," according to a news release from the Stanislaus County District Attorney's Office. Deputy District Attorney Erin Peck prosecuted the case.

Prosecutors said Kelley repeatedly sexually abused John Doe 1, a relative of the defendant. The boy was abused from 2003 through 2010; abuse that started when the boy was 7 years old and ended when he was 13.

When John Doe 1 moved out of the state, he told his father about the sexual abuse. The boy's father then notified police. John Doe 1 told police that Kelley sexually abused him on multiple occasions at Kelley’s Turlock home.

Prosecutors said Kelley began sexually abusing John Doe 2 in 2011 and continued through 2013. The boy was 15-years-old when the abuse began and was 17 when it ended.

Kelley's trial began Oct. 16, in Stanislaus Superior Court. After several days of testimony from prosecution witnesses and the victims, the trial was halted when Kelley agreed to the plea deal.

In exchange for Kelley's no contest plea, prosecutors dropped charges of committing lewd acts with a child, oral copulation of an unconscious victim, sodomy of a minor, oral copulation of a minor, sodomy of a minor and sodomy of a drugged victim.

Judge Thomas Zeff scheduled Kelley to return to court Dec. 12, when the defendant will be formally sentenced. Kelley remains in custody at the Stanislaus County Jail.

Prosecutors said the continuous sexual abuse charge is considered a violent felony "strike" under the state's "Three Strikes" law, which requires Kelley to serve at least 85 percent of his prison sentence. The strike also can be used to lengthen a prison sentence if Kelley is convicted of another felony.

Kelley must serve 20 years and six months on parole after he's released from prison, according to prosecutors. Kelley also must register with authorities as a convicted sex offender annually for the rest of his life.





Testimony begins in trial of man accused of
child sex abuse
Brooke Crum, Abilene Reporter-News 

Testimony in the first day of the trial of an Abilene man accused of sexually abusing two young girls (3rd story on link) concluded Tuesday with a detective on the stand.

Howard Dee Sturgis, 56, is accused, along with 30-year-old Chelsea Diaz, of continuously sexually abusing two girls, each younger than 10 years old, over the course of more than two years, according to court documents.

Abilene police detective Jerame Montgomery testified Tuesday that he investigated this case after a 9-year-old girl made an outcry to a teacher about potential sexual abuse. Montgomery is a detective with the Crimes Against Children Unit, where he has been for four years.

Montgomery made contact with the girl at her school and her 7-year-old sister who also had contact with Sturgis, Montgomery testified.

Montgomery testified that the girls told him Sturgis would spray a cleaning solution known as "Jungle Juice" onto a cloth and have the girls sniff it, also known as "huffing." The detective testified that huffing is common in cases like these because it supposedly "enhances the sexual experience."

The girls each had a sexual assault examination, which confirmed their allegations against Sturgis, Montgomery testified.

The jury next was shown a video of an interview between Montgomery and Sturgis at the police station. Sturgis waived his right to an attorney and spoke with Montgomery while not under arrest.

In the interview, Sturgis admits to huffing but denies doing it around children. He says in the interview he does not have contact with children. Additionally, Sturgis denies having sexual contact with children.

Montgomery also testified that two more people came forward a month after the girls did and claimed that Sturgis abused them, as well. Both individuals were now adults, but the alleged abuse they described, which mirrored the girls' claims, occurred when they were children.

Initially, Lynn Ingalsbe, Sturgis' attorney, objected to Joel Wilks, assistant district attorney, bringing up the other two people who made outcries because they are not part of this case. Ingalsbe claimed Wilks only wanted to tell the jury about the other two to "assassinate" Sturgis' character.

Wilks argued that the fact Sturgis had been indicted for the alleged abuse against the two other people who came forward showed intent, motive, preparation and planning, and demonstrated that the alleged abuse against the girls was not a mistake.

Judge Lee Hamilton overruled Inglasbe's objection and allowed the jury to hear about the other two people who made outcries.

In June, a grand jury indicted Sturgis in 2007 and 2014 cases in which he is accused of molesting an 8-year-old girl and a young boy, respectively, according to the indictments.

In both cases, the abuse allegedly occurred on many separate occasions.

The continuous sexual abuse of a child charge is a first-degree felony punishable by five years to life in prison and a fine up to $10,000.

The indecency with a child charge is a second-degree felony punishable by two to 20 years in prison and a fine not to exceed $10,000.





Galesburg sex offender arrested for child pornography
By Robert Connelly 
The Register-Mail 

GALESBURG — Local authorities arrested a Galesburg man on charges of child pornography Tuesday morning.

Sean T. Glas, 43, North Cedar Street, was charged with possession and dissemination of child porn following a search warrant executed Tuesday morning at 775 N. Cedar St.

According to online Illinois State Police records, Glas is a registered sex offender for violating sex offender registration and aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a victim between the ages of 13 and 16.

The Knox County Sheriff’s Department announced the arrest by news release and said the Galesburg Police Department along with the Office of the Attorney General High Tech Crimes Bureau assisted in the case.

Several items were seized from the residence that contained evidence in the case, the news release said. That release said authorities were “making Halloween a little more safe.”

Glas could make a video court appearance in the case as early as Wednesday afternoon.





Former priest accused of sexually abusing minors
at California churches

Parishoner Kay Baker, 81, of Covina, left, hugs Father Chris Cunningham, of Covina, at his final farewell Wednesday (March 10, 2004) at St. Louise de Marillac Catholic Church in Covina. Cunningham has been removed as pastor for the church cy the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. (Photo by Jennifer Cappuccio/Freelancer/SVCITY)

By STEPHANIE K. BAER | sbaer@scng.com | San Gabriel Valley Tribune

A former priest who served in Southern California and was named in a 2015 child sexual abuse lawsuit allegedly molested at least four additional children at parishes in Palmdale, Redondo Beach and Covina, according to lawsuits recently filed in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Civil complaints filed in July and October allege former Rev. Chris Cunningham sexually molested boys ages 10 to 15 from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Palmdale, St. Lawrence Martyr Catholic Church in Redondo Beach and St. Louise de Marillac Catholic Church in Covina.

The lawsuits, which name the churches and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles as defendants, also allege the archdiocese knew of the allegations against Cunningham.

The archdiocese did not investigate, opting instead to transfer the priest to various assignments and destroy the complaints, according to the court filings. None of the plaintiffs is named in the lawsuits.

Robert Flummerfelt of Canon Law Services, which is representing Cunningham, said in an email that the former priest denies the allegations and has “never sexually abused anyone.

The new lawsuits come after a 2015 case filed by the same attorney, Anthony DeMarco, on behalf of a plaintiff who he said was sexually molested as a 12-year-old boy at St. Louise in Covina from 2001 to 2002.

“We’ve since that time learned of quite a few more victims of his abuse,” DeMarco said Tuesday. “Folks in charge of youth at every parish he was at leading up to St. Louise and at St. Louise were aware of that conduct and nearly all of them reported their suspicions and concerns to their superiors.”

All three complaints describe Cunningham as regularly having underage boys alone with him in his church living quarters, regularly wrestling with them on church grounds and regularly meeting with them without chaperones outside of church.

Cunningham was removed from active ministry in 2006.

The archdiocese said in a statement that Cunningham was reassigned from St. Louise in 2004 “due to management issues not related to misconduct” and that the church “was not aware of any alleged sexual misconduct until 2015,” when the initial lawsuit was filed.

“The archdiocese received allegations of improper boundary violations concerning Fr. Cunningham in August 2005,” the archdiocese said in the statement. “According to archdiocesan policy, the matter was investigated and an announcement concerning the allegations was made at the parish informing the parish community.”

However, in 2013 Archbishop Jose Gomez released a list of priests accused of sexually abusing children that included Cunningham’s name.

The list dated October 2008 was posted to the archdiocese’s website without mention, according to BishopAccountability.org, which discovered the addendum. The group aims to catalog and make available every document related to child molestation in the Catholic Church.

An archdiocese spokesperson said Cunningham was included on the list because of “improper boundary violations” reported in 2005 — not because of any sexual misconduct allegations.

The list, which was described as a “final addendum” to archdiocese’s “Report to the People of God: Clergy Sexual Abuse,” is no longer posted on the archdiocese’s website. But it can still be seen in archived internet pages.

The 2015 case is scheduled to go to trial later in November.





Former coach charged with child sex abuse was
'go-to guy' in community

Pedophiles are frequently among the most popular people in the community
Tanya Eiserer, WFAA 

KAUFMAN COUNTY, Texas -- Edward Mann is a hometown guy. People in Terrell call him Buddy. He was a youth league baseball coach, former school volunteer, volunteer fire chief, and the husband of a school board member.

“He was just kind of a go-to guy if the community needed something done,” Kaufman County Judge Bruce Wood, a former Terrell school superintendent, said.

So it's no wonder the sexual abuse allegations against Mann have shocked and upset the tiny town. Mann is in the Kaufman County jail, accused of molesting two different men when they were underage. His bond is set at $200,000.

Investigators are now looking into allegations involving two other potential victims. Both are now adults also.

“I've tried to think of a good adjective to describe it, but when I first heard it I just really couldn't believe what I had heard,” Wood said. “It's something that nobody expected.”

The sexual abuse allegations against Mann came to light earlier this month when a  20-year-old college student reported the abuse to his mother. He was home from college at the time.

“She came in reporting that her son had woken up in the middle of the night and was upset because he had seen the offender earlier that day,” says Jimmy Weisbruch, the Kaufman County investigator heading the case.

The young man told his girlfriend about the alleged abuse. She, in turn, encouraged him to tell his parents. He told police Mann abused him for about four years from the age of nine to 12. Mann was his baseball coach.

Kaufman County sheriff’s investigators searched Mann’s house and arrested him the same day. He got out of jail on bond, but was re-arrested Friday after another 20-year-old man told police he was 14 when  Mann touched him after high school baseball practice.

At the time, Mann had been acting as a self-appointed athletic trainer. Weisbruch says Mann exhibited classic “grooming patterns.”

“He started off just with innocent touches on the leg [and] comments that he would make to these kids that he would see if they were receptive to what he was doing,” the investigator said.

Mann volunteered with the district from 2007 until 2014. That’s when the district got a complaint about him from a 17-year-old student's guardian.

The guardian told district officials about a text conversation with Mann that made the student feel uncomfortable. Mann had been doing massage and stretching exercises to help the student work through a sports injury.

Gary Mork, chief of the Terrell school district police, says he felt the text messages had sexual overtones and it made him suspicious. The text messages spoke of Mann wanting to see him and wanting to come to his house.

“When we dug into it we could not come up with anything. The student we spoke with wouldn't substantiate any type of sexual contact,” Mork said. He also says the young man made no claims that Mann had touched him inappropriately and police found no evidence that a crime had occurred.

Mork says he spoke with Mann about the situation. “He said he had no intent as far as anything sexual,” Mork said. “He assured me that he was there for the interest of the kids and he assured me that he would never harm a child.”

Pedophiles don't believe they are harming children.

Mork says he advised Mann that he should stay away from students and shouldn’t be texting them.

As a result of the complaint, Mann was banned from volunteering for violating a district policy that bars contact with students  outside of school.

“I don't know how many victims there are, but if there's more we’re willing to help,” Mork says. “I just hope they will come forward.”

Mann's wife resigned from the school board following news of his arrest (6th story on link). Police do not believe his wife had any prior knowledge.

“She was genuinely shocked when we arrested him that night,” Weisbruch says.





Man Who Dressed as Elmo, SpongeBob SquarePants at Kids’ Parties Allegedly Sexually Assaulted 5 Boys
BY JEFF TRUESDELL

A Pennsylvania children’s entertainer who dressed up as Elmo and Spongebob Squarepants for kids’ parties now stands accused of sexually assaulting five boys as young as 5 years old, PEOPLE confirms.

None of the accusations against Michael Cripps, 43, of Colwyn, involved appearances he booked through M.C. Parties, which promoted $65-per-hour appearances by those costumed characters as well as Mickey and Minnie Mouse and Clifford the Big Red Dog, Delaware County District Attorney John J. Whelan said at a news conference Monday.

Rather, Cripps allegedly made friends with the single or divorced moms of the minors and then offered to babysit the children, who allegedly were molested at several different addresses between 2008 and 2017, according to the prosecutor and court documents in the case obtained by PEOPLE.

“Nope!” Cripps told reporters who asked if he was guilty of the charges as he was led Monday from the courthouse following his arrest, reports Philly.com.

Earlier sex-assault charges involving minors that led to Cripps’ arrest in 2003 and 2006 were withdrawn each time, according to the website.

Said Whelan at the news conference: “Make no mistake, this is a very serious child predator.”

The current investigation into Cripps began in July 2012 with a hotline call. “The report indicated that four boys between the ages of 8 and 17 were compelled to sleep in the same bed with Cripps on numerous occasions,” alleges a probable cause affidavit obtained by PEOPLE.

“When the children would resist,” the allegations in the affidavit continue, “Cripps would become angry with them. One boy in particular engaged in a physical altercation with Cripps over the refused request. Cripps would provide child care while the singe mother(s) would go to work. The boys would often sleep over at Cripps’ residence.”

One alleged victim told investigators Cripps would allegedly “often” solicit him “to participate in the sexual acts between Cripps and the younger boys,” and he recounted sexual abuse he allegedly witnessed by Cripps on boys approximately 7 and 8 years old “on numerous occasions,” according to the affidavit.

The alleged victim, who is now between the ages of 18 and 25, allegedly said he was subjected repeatedly to sex between the ages of 12 to 16 from late 2008 to 2011.

“As he became older, he tried to stay away from Cripps and also noticed that Cripps would bring other younger boys to the house, take them to his bedroom and then lock the door,” the allegations in the court documents state. The alleged victim further told investigators that “Cripps would frequently sleep with a boy in his bed when they stayed overnight.”

Cripps was charged with multiple counts including indecent assault on a person younger than 13; involuntary deviate sexual intercourse; corruption of minors; and endangering the welfare of children. He is being held on $250,000 bail, although the prosecutor said Cripps would not be released because he is also in violation of parole after serving prison time on a prior conviction for burglary.

Whelan said he believed the current allegations and charges were “the tip of the iceberg.”





Man faces sexual assault of a child charge
By MEGAN GRAY-HATFIELD
   
A 29-year-old man accused of sexually assaulting a child remained in the Cooke County Jail on Tuesday.

Corey Shane Houghton was indicted in September on charges of aggravated sexual assault of a child, a first-degree felony, and indecency with a child, a second-degree felony, in connection with allegations reported to the Gainesville Police Department in May.

Belva McClinton, a spokeswoman for Gainesville police, said Houghton is accused of sexually abusing a female child, who was around 5-6 years of age, at the time.

The reported sexual abuse occurred between December 2007 and February 2008, she said via email. “The child was the daughter of an acquaintance, and the offenses occurred in the city limits of Gainesville,” McClinton said.

Warrants for Houghton’s arrest were issued after his indictment, according to court records. Cooke County Sheriff Terry Gilbert said Houghton was transferred from the Houston County Jail to the Cooke County Jail.

Bail was set at $125,000.



No comments:

Post a Comment