This Week's Catholic Pervs and Paedos List > Is Cardinal Cupich still hiding paedophile priests? Sex Offender Priest Nailed Again; Ottawa Reviewing Res School Abuse

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Cardinal Blase Cupich is still keeping secrets on child sex abuse by order priests

Cardinal Blase Cupich is now including members of Catholic religious orders in the Archdiocese of Chicago’s online list of clerics deemed to have been credibly accused of child sex abuse. But there are omissions and inconsistencies in what’s been added. Ashlee Rezin / Chicago Sun-Times

By Robert Herguth | Chicago Sun-Times

Oct. 22, 6 a.m. CT

 

Several years after Cardinal Blase Cupich began cracking down on religious orders to report their sexually abusive clergy members who preyed on minors, the Archdiocese of Chicago has added dozens of order priests to its online posting of predatory clergy.

But Cupich is still keeping secrets on clergy sex abuse of minors, a Chicago Sun-Times investigation has found.

Even though the archdiocese instantly nearly doubled the size of its list of clergy deemed to have been credibly accused of sexually abusing children, there are significant gaps in what’s been added.

Those include the omissions of some clergy members whose orders deemed them to have molested children or who were the subject of lawsuits over predatory sexual acts that church officials settled. Among them:

The Rev. John Baptist Ormechea, a priest from the Passionists order who was deemed by church authorities to have molested children while assigned to Immaculate Conception Church on the Far Northwest Side between the late 1970s and the late 1980s. The order and the archdiocese were both sued over his misconduct and settled cases.

Immaculate Conception Church at Talcott and Harlem avenues north of the Kennedy Expressway and the Rev. John Baptist Ormechea (inset), who was assigned there from the late 1970s to the late 1980s. Robert Herguth / Chicago Sun-Times, Passionists

The Rev. Terence Fitzmaurice, a now-dead Benedictine priest who was accused in lawsuits — including one that the archdiocese settled — of having sexually assaulted children while assigned to St. Procopius Church in Pilsen, including a girl he was accused of impregnating.

The Rev. Terence Fitzmaurice, a Benedictine priest accused of molesting children while assigned to a Pilsen parish. Provided to the Chicago Sun-Times

The Rev. Donald McGuire, a now-deceased Jesuit priest who worked at Loyola Academy in Wilmette whose order says the “range of his abuse spanned multiple incidents over multiple years at multiple locations.”

The Rev. Donald McGuire, a serial sex abuser who was part of the Jesuit religious order and served primarily in the Chicago area, including working at Loyola Academy in Wilmette. Wisconsin Department of Corrections Sex Offender Registration

There is much more on this article at WBEZ Chicago

Former priest arrested again, charged with possessing child sex abuse videos

by Rayna McGlynn

Tuesday, October 25th 2022

Timchak | Photo Credit: PSP Megan's Law Website

LUZERNE, LUZERNE CO, (WOLF) — A former priest was arrested Monday after allegedly downloading videos of children engaged in sex acts.

According to the affidavit, 56-year-old Robert Michael Timchak Jr., a registered sex offender, told detectives that he downloaded the videos from websites associated with pornography.

One video Timchak downloaded involved a boy, according to court records.

Officials say Timchak was a priest in the Diocese of Scranton and also served at several churches and parochial schools in the region in the 1990s and 2000s.

He was initially arrested in Pike County where he was an assistant pastor at St. Vincent de Paul, Milford, and St. John Neumann, Lord’s Valley, in 2009.

At the time, State Police at Blooming Grove found child sexual abuse materials on Timchak’s computers he attempted to delete, according to previous reports.

Timchak pled guilty to sexual abuse of children and was sentenced to 6 to 72 months in state prison. He was also ordered to register his address as a sex offender for 10 years. He was released in June 2012.

For his latest arrest, county detectives say they received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that was linked to Timchak’s email. The tip alleged that the email was used to download two videos of child sex abuse materials.

When speaking with detectives, Timchak admitted to visiting pornography websites but said his preferred age is 18 years old.

“He stated that he likes ‘young’ but legal,” detectives stated in court records supporting Timchak’s charges.

Timchak was arraigned on four counts of dissemination of photos or films of children involved in sex acts, two counts of criminal use of a communication facility, and a single count of child pornography.

He was jailed at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility for lack of $20,000 bail.

Luzerne Co., Pa

Ottawa reviewing student-on-student abuse cases at St. Anne's residential school

Re-examination recommended by 2021 court-ordered review

Olivia Stefanovich · 

CBC News · 

Posted: Oct 25, 2022 4:00 AM ET |

St. Anne's Indian Residential School, which was run by the Roman Catholic Church in Fort Albany, Ont., was infamous for physical and sexual abuse. (Algoma University/Edmund Metatabwin collection)

Ottawa is finally moving almost a year later on a court's call for a review of 11 cases of student-on-student abuse at one of Canada's most notorious residential schools, Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller says.

The federal government is looking at compensation claims from 11 survivors of the former St. Anne's Indian Residential School, which was run by the Roman Catholic Church from 1906 until 1976 in Fort Albany First Nation along Ontario's James Bay Coast.

"There is, for a very limited group of survivors, a potential of re-examination," Miller told CBC News.

Miller said the government would soon ask the court to appoint another independent official to review the 11 cases and recommend how they should be handled.

Evelyn Korkmaz, who attended St. Anne's from 1969 to 1972, said Miller should tell claimants whether their claims are among the 11 being reviewed.

"He's just putting like a piece of cookie out there for us to grab and say, 'OK, we're going to be satisfied with that,'" Korkmaz said.

"But there's more to this. Somebody needs to hold the government accountable for not complying with court orders. What good are court orders if you disregard them?"

Evelyn Korkmaz attended St. Anne’s Indian Residential School between 1969 and 1972.

(Submitted by Evelyn Korkmaz; Stephanie Jenzer/CBC)

The 11 cases initially were identified by an independent, court-appointed official, who examined 427 St. Anne's cases last year that were heard before the federal government turned over thousands of pages of police and court records to the residential school compensation process in 2014-2015.

For roughly the first seven years of the residential school compensation process, the federal government withheld records from an Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) investigation in the 1990s into historical abuse at St. Anne's.

The court-appointed official released a report in December 2021 concluding that the outcome of the 11 compensation cases, which dealt with student-on-student abuse, could have been affected by the information in those withheld records.

Miller 'open' to meeting with St. Anne's survivors again

The issue flared up in question period on Monday when NDP MP Charlie Angus — whose riding of Timmins–James Bay includes the former St. Anne's institution — demanded that Miller "look" at him as he pressed for the government to enter into mediation with survivors. 

Miller responded by saying he's asked his department to re-examine the 11 cases.

The Supreme Court of Canada rejected an appeal from St. Anne's survivors last Thursday in the years-long legal battle over Ottawa withholding thousands of OPP documents containing critical evidence from compensation claim hearings.

Speaker Anthony Rota calls out NDP MP Charlie Angus for demanding that Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller look at him during an exchange about St. Anne's residential school survivors.

Miller said the high court's decision clears the way for the government to complete the review of the 11 outstanding cases. 

"The whole compensation process, no matter how you look at it, doesn't fully replace or compensate people for the immeasurable harm that they suffered," Miller said.

"While the particular legal recourse has been exhausted, we'll always be there."

Miller also said he had a "frank" conversation with some St. Anne's survivors over Zoom a few months before they filed their leave to appeal with the top court. He said his "door is always open" for a follow-up meeting.

"It really is up to them," he said.

Edmund Metatawabin, another St. Anne's survivor, called the review a "first step" toward acknowledging the damage that survivors of this particular abuse endured.

"The young people suffered abuse and, through time, they were taught this behaviour," Metatawabin said.

"Minister Miller is acknowledging the fact that this has happened in residential school."

The court-ordered report that recommended the federal government review those 11 case files was released by Ontario Superior Court Justice Paul Perell, one of nine judges who oversaw the residential school settlement agreement.

Perell appointed retired justice Ian Pitfield to conduct the review. It concluded that Ottawa's refusal to release OPP and court documents for the first seven months of the residential school compensation process probably did not change the outcome for most of the 427 survivors.

Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller said he is open to meeting with survivors of the former St. Anne's Indian Residential School. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

But Pitfield concluded a review would make a difference for those 11 cases involving allegations of student-on-student abuse.

"There is little or nothing to indicate that on the claims where evidence of knowledge was required to prove a student-on-student assault claim, either the claimant or counsel had attempted to work with Canada to develop admissions," Pitfield's 2021 report said.

"I recommend that the claims that were dismissed because of lack of knowledge should be reviewed against any resulting admissions and appropriate awards made where the student-on-student abuse was not subsumed by other more serious claims of sexual abuse."

Survivors seeking compensation for student-on-student abuse have to show that school officials knew or should have known that abuse was taking place.

Edmund Metatawabin, a survivor of St. Anne's Indian Residential School, called the review a first step to recognizing the pain that survivors of student-on-student abuse endured. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

The OPP records from that 1990s investigation showed that abuse was rampant at St. Anne's.

"The government is not transparent," Korkmaz said.

"We have to hold them accountable."

This Week's Catholic Pervs and Paedos List > Diocese sells Basilica to pay Mt Cashel victims; Disturbing report from Germany; Another Priest charged in Res School abuse

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Historic St. John's Basilica sold for more than $3M

To help pay debts to victims of the Christian Brothers at Mount Cashel

CBC News · 

Posted: Jun 14, 2022 12:38 PM NT 

The Basilica Cathedral of St. John the Baptist complex in St. John's has been sold to a joint committee

for more than $3 million. (Heather Barrett/CBC)

An iconic piece of St. John's history and the city's skyline has been sold for more than $3 million — to a trio of Catholic groups hoping to save the building from developers. 

"The feeling we have is one of relief and euphoria and excitement for the future," Rob Blackie, a member of the joint committee who had been bidding on the historic property, told CBC News on Tuesday morning.

The basilica complex is one of some two dozen properties owned by the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corporation of St. John's being sold to help pay millions to the victims of sexual abuse by Christian Brothers at the former Mount Cashel orphanage.

In May, the three Catholic groups — the Basilica Heritage Foundation, St. Bonaventure's College and the St. Bon's Forum — said they were making the move to "maintain and protect a vital piece of our history, our culture and our city."

Now Blackie said their offer has been accepted by the accounting firm overseeing the sale of Catholic church properties in the St. John's area.

Blackie said the committee's bid was "north of $3 million" for the basilica, St. Bonaventure's College private school and the St. Bon's forum skating rink.

They received written notification on Monday from accounting firm Ernst & Young that they were the successful bidder, and the news was delivered to the 300-plus students and 50-plus staff at St. Bon's on Tuesday morning.

Blackie said committee members are "incredibly grateful and humbled" by the support of donors from across Canada.

"It's unbelievably good news," he said.

A spokesperson for Ernst & Young, the court-appointed monitor overseeing the sales, said information will be revealed later this week on the bidding process. The official would not comment on the sale.

The court still has to approve the winning bid.

5,700 Acts Of Sexual Abuse Committed By German Catholic Priests: Report

The diocese has official records on 610 abuse victims, according to the report by the University of Muenster -- around a third more than indicated by a previous study from 2018.

World Agence France-Presse 

Updated: June 13, 2022 10:01 pm IST

At least 600 young people were documented as having been abused by Catholic priests (Representational)

Berlin: At least 600 young people were documented as having been abused by Catholic priests in the German diocese of Muenster, but the actual number of victims could be 10 times higher, a report published Monday said.

The diocese has official records on 610 abuse victims, according to the report by the University of Muenster -- around a third more than indicated by a previous study from 2018.

However, historian Natalie Powroznik, who was involved in the study, said the true number of victims could be much higher with "about 5,000 to 6,000 affected girls and boys" in the diocese.

At least 5,700 individual acts of sexual abuse had been committed by a total of 196 clergymen, including 183 priests, according to the report.

Five percent of the clergymen involved were found to be serial offenders with more than 10 victims, and less than 10 percent had faced any legal consequences.

At the peak of the abuse during the 1960s and 1970s, there were on average two cases per week in the diocese, the report said.

Three in four victims were boys, the majority between 10 and 14 years old, with many of the acts committed against altar boys or at children's and youth camps.

The study reported considerable psychological consequences for the victims reaching into adulthood, including depression and suicidal thoughts, with indications of attempted suicide in 27 cases.

Widespread abuse

The bishop of Muenster, Felix Genn, is due to comment in detail on the study on Friday.

The authors accuse Genn, who has been the bishop of Muenster since 2009, of failing to take action against abusers.

In an initial response on Monday, Genn said he would "naturally accept responsibility for the mistakes I myself made in dealing with sexual abuse".

Germany's Catholic Church has been rocked by a string of reports in recent years that have exposed widespread abuse of children by clergymen.

A study commissioned by the German Bishops' Conference in 2018 concluded that 1,670 clergymen in the country had committed some form of sexual attack against 3,677 minors between 1946 and 2014.

However, the real number of victims is thought to be much higher.

In January, a report into the diocese of Munich and Freising found indications of sexually abusive behaviour in 235 people it investigated, including 173 priests, while there were at least 497 victims.

The report also found former pope Benedict XVI had knowingly failed to take action to stop four priests accused of child sex abuse in the 1980s, when he was the archbishop of Munich.

Another report published last year exposed the scope of abuse committed by priests in Germany's top diocese of Cologne.

Retired priest charged with indecent assault after

Manitoba residential school investigation

Charge part of RCMP investigation into Fort Alexander Residential School

Cameron MacLean · 

CBC News · Posted: Jun 17, 2022 9:06 AM CT

Students and staff at the Fort Alexander residential school are shown in this archival photo. A former employee at the school, retired Father Arthur Masse, was charged with indecent assault in connection with an alleged sexual assault of a 10-year-old girl at the school between 1968 and 1970. (National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation archives)

WARNING: This story contains distressing details.

A retired priest has been charged with indecent assault in connection with a decade-long RCMP investigation into a Manitoba residential school.

Retired Father Arthur Masse, 92, was charged in connection with the sexual assault on a 10-year-old girl, who was a student at the Fort Alexander residential school, northeast of Winnipeg.

The alleged assault occurred between 1968 and 1970, police said at a news conference Friday morning.

"The victim in this case has endured a lot throughout the investigative process and has stood firm in speaking out about what happened to her," RCMP spokesperson Sgt. Paul Manaigre said at a news conference on Friday.

"The most important thing to her, today, is she was heard."

Indecent assault charge laid after RCMP probe into abuse allegations at Manitoba residential school

Police arrested Masse at his home in Winnipeg on Thursday. He was released with conditions and will appear in court in Powerview on Monday.

This is the only current investigation into residential schools by Manitoba RCMP and with this arrest, the investigation is concluded, police said.

More than 80 investigators worked on the case, contacting more than 700 people across North America to search for witnesses and victims, and obtaining 75 witness and victim statements.

"The question may be asked: Why, with all this work, was there one charge laid and not many?" Manaigre said.

"Unfortunately, due to the passage of time, many of the victims are not able to participate in the investigation, whether that be for mental or physical health reasons, or because the victim is now deceased."

The Fort Alexander residential school, on Sagkeeng First Nation territory, opened in 1905 and closed in 1970. (National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation archives)

Potential victims were given time to consider whether they wanted to give statements to police and potentially go through the court process, RCMP said.

In addition to interviewing potential victims and witnesses, investigators went through thousands of documents and archival materials and did door-to-door canvassing. After consulting with prosecution services, police decided there will be no further charges laid in connection with this investigation.

"This arrest is the culmination of a decade of work by the RCMP investigators, who would not have been able to bring this to a conclusion without the incredible bravery of the victims and witnesses who were wiling to relive past trauma and speak about what took place," Manaigre said.

If any other potential victims decide to come forward, police will follow up, Manaigre said.

Regarding the charge of indecent assault, Manaigre said at the time the offence is alleged to have happened, the charge of sexual assault did not exist in the Canadian Criminal Code. 

The school opened in 1905 in the community of Fort Alexander, on the territory of Sagkeeng First Nation, and closed in 1970.

The Fort Alexander school had a reputation for abuse. Survivors told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission about starvation and harsh discipline.

Children from nearly two dozen First Nations attended the school for about 10 months of the year.

A criminal investigation began looking into the residential school in 2011.

Residential School Riot

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Tasting Freedom

One evening 60 years ago, some 100 students at the Edmonton Indian

Residential School took control in a little-known riot

Written by Wawmeesh Hamilton

Oct 15, 2021

WARNING: This story contains distressing details.

In her three years at the Edmonton Indian Residential School, Helen Johnson figures she opened hundreds of cans of Spork.

Working in the school’s cafeteria, it was her job to dole out small portions of the foul-smelling meat for her fellow students to eat — paltry meals that left Johnson with hunger pangs and painful migraines.

“It was like a place which was worse than the jail, I think. At least they had meals every day, three meals a day,” she said. “We’d eat pork, pork, pork every day. Tons of pork.”

They’d have other meals, too. Lumpy oatmeal in the morning. A single egg at lunch. But all the offerings were meagre, and every meal was supplemented by Spork.

Staff meals, on the other hand, consisted of chicken, pork chops, steak and other choice cuts of beef. Fresh fruit and vegetables. Bread and butter. Jam. Dessert.

One May evening in 1961, her anger about that disparity reached a breaking point.

She had had enough.

So when a staff member left the cafeteria early, leaving Johnson and her friend, Maria Douglas, unsupervised, they took advantage.

Hauling the boxes of Spork into the school’s hallway, they started throwing the cans against the wall. Curious students stopped to watch their breakfast, lunch and supper fly through the air.

​Listen to the radio documentary about the 1961 riot at the Edmonton Indian Residential School.

In the ensuing hours, what followed was a full-scale riot that saw approximately 100 students overpower an outnumbered staff, taking over the school until police put down their resistance.

The riot may be the only one in Canadian residential school history.

“Me, I felt like I had power,” Johnson said of that night. “I felt, ‘I have to have the power that was taken from me,’ and I felt good about it.”

Edmonton Res school

The Hallway

Johnson’s anger had been building for much longer than she realized.

At age 12, she and her older brother had been taken from their home in Lax Kw’alaams, in northern British Columbia. The pair were first brought to St. Michael’s Indian Residential School in Alert Bay, on Vancouver Island.

She was issued a number: 134. The number became a student’s identity, emblazoned on their books, equipment and even clothing.

Johnson spent three years in Alert Bay before being moved 975 kilometres away to the school near Edmonton, where a lot of Indigenous children from northern B.C. were moved. Right away, it looked all too familiar.

“I felt really sick inside because the colour of the school was the same thing as Alert Bay,” she said, describing the drab, red brick building.

Helen Johnson. (Ben Shannon/CBC)

Located on the city’s outskirts, in the town of St. Albert, the Edmonton Indian Residential School was managed by the United Church of Canada, operating from 1924 to 1968. The building housed both boys and girls, aged six to 17, in separate wings.

By the 1960s, the students lived at the school, but were bused into town to attend classes at a local public school. Early mornings, evenings and weekends were spent studying, doing laundry and cleaning the facility. Physical abuse was common, particularly if a student was caught speaking in their home language.

On that fateful morning, after they tired of tossing the cans of Spork, Johnson and Douglas started unpacking boxes of staff provisions — bread, butter, jam, apples, oranges and other treats — and started feeding it to a growing throng of fellow students.

Johnson said she felt for the younger students, sometimes too small to fend for themselves, and gave them their food first, telling them to go hide and eat it, before anyone tried to take it away.

“A lot of them were laughing, a lot of them were hollering — like ‘Yahoo! Way to go,’” she said. “They were happy.”

The Riot

There is much more to this story; it's a great read right to the end.

Alert Bay, Prince Rupert (top left), Edmonton (top right)

Today's Global Pervs and Paedos List > Res School Victims Compo; "Psychopath" Released from UK Prison; Iceland Footie Stars; Sick Mom Loses Kids

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Residential School victims making progress in fight with government for fair compensation.

81 St. Anne's residential school compensation cases require

'significant review,' says court filing

St. Anne's survivors battled Conservative, Liberal governments over

suppressed police records

Jorge Barrera · CBC News · 

Posted: Sep 02, 2021 4:00 AM ET 

Edmund Metatawabin is a former chief of Fort Albany First Nation who has led the legal battle for a compensation review on behalf of St. Anne's residential school survivors. (Erik White/CBC)

An official appointed by the Ontario Superior Court has found 81 compensation cases involving the notorious St. Anne's residential school require "significant review," as their outcomes could have been impacted by evidence contained in police records that the federal government failed to disclose.

According to an interim report filed with the court on Aug. 17, retired B.C. judge Ian Pitfield found those 81 cases included instances where survivors received either no compensation or a lower award over credibility questions around the severity of the alleged abuse.

"The claims that will require significant review ... number 81 in total," Pitfield wrote in the filing.

Pitfield was appointed last April to review 427 compensation cases that were resolved before an Ontario court ordered the federal Conservative government in 2014 and 2015 to turn over thousands of police records related to St. Anne's residential school.

He said he could not say when the review would be complete.

The horrors of St. Anne's

The records are from an Ontario Provincial Police investigation launched in 1992 into widespread historical physical and sexual abuse at the institution in Fort Albany First Nation, which sits along the coast of James Bay in northern Ontario.

The investigation lasted six years and produced thousands of pages of documentation, including about 900 statements from 700 victims describing assaults, sexual assaults, suspicious deaths and a multitude of other abuses.

St. Anne's survivors have been battling the current Liberal government over the past six years to have these compensation cases reopened, arguing the suppressed evidence in the police records would have substantiated claims of severe abuse that weren't believed.

Survivor Edmund Metatawabin, who has been one of the lead voices in the ongoing litigation, said he knows of one woman who was repeatedly sexually assaulted by a bishop at the school, but wasn't believed because there were no witnesses.

"Somebody that received a slap one or two times [would be believed], because the compensation amount and the seriousness of the allegations will be quite low and harmless, so they were acceptable," said Metatawabin.

"That is the kind of decisions that were being made."

Police records would back abuse claims

With the OPP records in hand, Metatawabin said the cases involving serious allegations would not have been so easily dismissed by adjudicators deciding compensation amounts.

"And that is why we went to court to show the seriousness of the incidents that happened," he said.

Pitfield's ongoing review still falls short, Metatawabin said, because survivors don't know their cases are getting a second look via a purely a paper review, and survivors have no opportunity to retain legal counsel or provide input.

"You are treating them as numbers. You don't know their personalities, their identity, the nature of their suffering or the effects of their suffering," said Metatawabin. "So they are still invisible people."

St. Anne's Indian Residential School is shown in Fort Albany, Ont., in the 1940s. The school was run by the Catholic orders of Oblates of Mary Immaculate and the Grey Sisters of the Cross from 1902 until 1976, and funded by the federal government beginning in 1906. (Algoma University/Edmund Metatawabin Collection)

The 2006 Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement created a compensation mechanism known as the Independent Assessment Process (IAP). Under the IAP, adjudicators would hear evidence from survivors to determine compensation amounts. The federal government provided the bulk of the documented evidence for claims and was also able to challenge allegations of abuse. 

For the first seven years of the IAP, the federal Department of Justice, under the Harper government, withheld thousands of pages of OPP records, along with criminal and civil records from cases involving St. Anne's.

Mentions of the OPP investigation and subsequent court cases were deleted from the St. Anne's school history — known as the school narrative — provided to survivors and their lawyers for preparing compensation cases. 

The Trudeau government then spent millions of dollars fighting attempts by St. Anne's survivors to reopen compensation cases based on the Justice Department's failure to disclose the police and court records. 

But in late March, as the IAP process wrapped up, the Justice Department, acting under the direction of Crown-Indigeous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett, requested the Ontario court review St. Anne's compensation cases. 

There is more to this story at CBC News. 

Notorious UK child murderer and rapist Colin Pitchfork

released from prison despite protests

1 Sep, 2021 12:12

Convicted child murderer and rapist Colin Pitchfork was released from UK prison on Wednesday after serving 33 years, despite several attempts to keep him behind bars.

Pitchfork – who was the first person in the UK to be convicted of a crime using DNA evidence – was sentenced to life in prison in 1988 for the rape and murder of two 15-year-old schoolgirls in Leicestershire between 1983 and 1986.

In June, however, Pitchfork was deemed “suitable for release” by a Parole Board panel, which cited the murderer’s “progress made while in custody.”

Despite protests and several attempts to keep him in prison – including from South Leicestershire MP Alberto Costa, who said he was “appalled” by the Parole Board’s “immoral, wrong and frankly dangerous” decision – Pitchfork was released on Wednesday.

The Ministry of Justice issued a statement extending its “heartfelt sympathies” to the families of Pitchfork’s victims, Lynda Mann and Dawn Ashworth, and assured the public that Pitchfork would be monitored under strict conditions.

“Public safety is our top priority, which is why he is subject to some of the strictest licence conditions ever set and will remain under supervision for the rest of his life,” a Ministry of Justice spokesperson explained, adding that if Pitchfork ever “breaches these conditions, he faces an immediate return to prison.”

The mother of victim Dawn Ashworth warned in June that though Pitchfork “can’t hurt me any more than he has already by killing my daughter,” there will always be “other 15-year-old girls in the streets” that could potentially fall victim.

“If he was released, he could search for any victim he wanted to. He is a psychopath who should be kept in prison where he belongs,” she declared.

Pitchfork was previously afforded a taste of freedom in 2017, when he was allowed to roam the streets of Bristol unaccompanied on day release. Photos of Pitchfork visiting several shops, buying a sandwich, and eating on a bench as members of the public completely unaware of the murderer’s identity walked by horrified Brits and made headlines.

Brits on social media called Pitchfork’s release “absolute sickening” and “a scary decision.”

“This isn’t right. Young women and girls are at massive risk,” tweeted feminist activist Jean Hatchet, while journalist Charlie Peters declared, “This naive insanity has got to stop.”

Pointing out that “1 in 5 murders are committed on parole,” Louise Perry – a New Statesman columnist and campaigner against sexual violence – wrote, “If Colin Pitchfork rapes and kills another child, the individuals responsible for this decision should be held accountable.”

Sure, that's not going to happen in this world. 

‘We need to start believing victims’: Football crisis in Iceland

as national stars accused of sexual abuse, prime minister shocked

2 Sep, 2021 12:28

Iceland prime minister Katrin Jakobsdottir has spoken about sexual abuse allegations against the nation's players © John Sibley / Action Images via Reuters | © Geirix / Reuters

Iceland's prime minister has called for the country's football association to address sexual abuse after the organization's entire board resigned following a woman's claim that a national team player assaulted her in a nightclub.

Thorhildur Gyda Arnarsdottir told public broadcaster RUV that an Iceland star attacked her in a Reykjavik nightspot in September 2017, adding that she had joined another woman in filing police reports against a player for sexual assault that night.

The 25-year-old went public after the chairman of the Football Association of Iceland (KSI), Gudni Bergsson, said that it had not received any complaints about sexual offenses by players – but the supremo and his board resigned in the aftermath of Arnarsdottir's allegations.

The head of state, Katrin Jakobsdottir, held a cabinet meeting over the scandal and said she was saddened that the allegations had been needed to launch a wider exploration of abuse within football in her country.

"I hope this will be a learning curve for the football movement," she said, adding that she has "great admiration for the victims" who went public.

Icelandic media reports say accusations have been circulating about current and former national team players, and Thorhildur told the Visir newspaper that at least six other players have been accused of sexual assaults.

"I just hope that this has shown us, as a society, that we need to start believing in victims when they step forward," she said, expressing relief that KSI's board had resigned.

Swedish club Gothenburg said that one of its players, who was not named, was reported to police regarding allegations of "sexual harassment in 2017".

"The police investigation did not lead to any prosecution, but the parties agreed on a settlement," it said, with club director Hakan Mild adding: "IFK Gothenburg takes this very seriously, even if the case, in the legal sense, is closed," said.

Is the creep still playing for IFK Gothenburg? If he is, you're still not taking this very seriously.

Dadi Rafnsson, the head of football development at top-flight side HK, said a "toxic boys' culture" exists around football in Iceland which is "so hard to work against".

"It permeates everything and is everywhere, so people do not see when things are not right," the doctor of psychology told Kjarnin.

"It is not limited to football but it is a problem for boys. We may be preparing them a little badly for the real world.

"It is as if they are to sail through things without putting in the effort while the women are supposed to be responsible and work hard and maybe they will get the progress – but the boys think they deserve it.

"The interesting thing is that when you reach out to boys and young men one by one, they know exactly what is true, good and right. But when they get together in a group, some bad culture arises."

Vidar Halldorsson, a professor of sociology at the University of Iceland, warned that accusations against footballers put parents in a difficult position when their children admire the team.

"This is naturally a huge issue in Icelandic society and it just shakes society," he told Visir. "There are our heroes, fallen from a pedestal, and role models for children and young people, so parents do not quite know which foot to step on.

"This is a very big issue and a very complex issue in many places and we know that this sexual harassment of women has been going on for centuries but is now manifested in this way in football.

"But this naturally applies to the whole of society; this is what women and girls have been fighting against for a long time, to eradicate this and bring it to the surface, and this is happening in all areas of society."

KSI issued a statement pledging to root out problems and work for change.

"Work is already underway with external professionals to review all responses to sexual offences and violence within the association and how support was and will be provided to victims," it said.

That's a start! Good for you, Thorhildur.

A British mum who sexually abused her children and even

urinated in their drinks was caught by the FBI

11 hours ago

The woman in her 20s boasted of urinating in the children’s juice cups and exchanged sick fantasies with paedophiles on the internet.

Oxford Crown Court heard the mum-of-two who cannot be named for legal reasons was snared in an FBI sting last summer, with the file passed to the UK authorities.

She was also found to have exchanged messages with a paedophile since jailed for more than a decade after an investigation by the Metropolitan Police.

Jailing her for six years on Thursday, Judge Nigel Daly said: “I find this behaviour quite impossible to comprehend.

“As you will appreciate, anything that appears on the internet will in all probability remain there forever and you have subjected your own infant children to this very real possibility.”

Prosecutor Lisa Goddard told the court that accounts belonging to the Oxfordshire woman were identified in a sting operation by the FBI’s child exploitation team last May and June.

The woman said she was living with her two children and urinating in cups and making them drink it.

An undercover FBI officer, posing as a paedophile, exchanged messages with the mum that betrayed the woman’s disturbing sexual interest in her own and other children.

She claimed it would be ‘hot’ to see a man be sexually aroused by the children and sent a naked image of herself with a baby’s foot touching her bottom.

Ms Goddard read another message from the defendant to the undercover officer in which she said she ‘needed to marry a paedophile’.

The woman was also found to be swapping messages with a paedophile later caught in a Met Police probe. She appeared to be arranging for her children to be abused by the man, although she told him: “I don’t really want them in pain or anything.”

How utterly motherly of you!

Police arrested her last summer and seized two phones on which were found 377 indecent images and videos of children in the most serious category including films showing the rape of babies. She had 313 images in category B and 191 in category C.

Also found on a phone was an app designed to hide image and video files.

The woman, who admitted sexual assault on a child under 13, sexual activity with a child, possession of an extreme pornographic image and making and distributing indecent images of children. She had no previous convictions.

Mitigating, James Reilly said his client was remorseful. She had had a ‘troubled childhood’, during which she was raped by an uncle, and had also been abused by a partner.

“She wants to get as much help as she can and try to move on,” he said. She wanted to teach English to adults in the future.

Mr Reilly added his client ‘hopes when they are older her children will seek her out’. He said: “That is the one thing that keeps her going.” She no longer had custody of the children.

Judge Daly imposed a sexual harm prevention order, which will run indefinitely. The woman will remain on the sex offender register for life.

Written by Tom Seaward

The Dark Legacy of British Columbia's St George's Indian Residential School

In the 1980s, I managed the little weather station located in Lytton. While I lived a half-hour south of there in Boston Bar, I got to know a few of the people including a missionary living in the area. We often talked about the darkness that held the area in its grip. That darkness was St George's Residential School and the child sex abuse that destroyed several generations and probably still afflicts residents of Lytton, Clinton, Lillooet and many other communities in the British Columbia's Cariboo Region.

Church, school officials must have known of rampant evil, judge says

BY KATHY BLAIR, - October 1, 1999

Besides the somewhat dry legal discussions of vicarious liability and the relative responsibilities of the Anglican Church and the federal government in the victim’s abuse, Justice Janice Dillon’s 106-page decision also documents the horrific details of supervisor Derek Clarke’s eight-year reign of terror.

First, Justice Dillon noted Mr. Clarke had no training in child care. Indeed, he had been employed as a child-care worker at another Anglican institution for less than a year when he was asked to leave because he was unqualified. The supervisor, however, arranged for him to work at St. George’s.

Justice Dillon said the late Ralph Dean, who was bishop of Cariboo at the time, must have known of the abuse. She also believes the principal of St. George’s Indian Residential School, Anthony Harding, also dead, deliberately covered up the abuse because he too abused boys. (Mr. Harding was found not guilty of such charges in a criminal trial about 10 years ago.)

The victim lived at St. George’s in Lytton, B.C., from 1969 to 1976. He was nine years old in 1970 when dormitory supervisor, Mr. Clarke, began to sexually assault him. Dormitory supervisors oversaw all the boys’ activities from the moment they awoke until bedtime, except for school instruction.

Mr. Clarke began his assaults by fondling the child under his blankets under the guise of “looking for things.” All other assaults, including forced oral sex and sodomy, occurred in Mr. Clarke’s room next to the dorm. Five other men testified before the judge that Mr. Clarke had assaulted them as well.

Mr. Clarke would line the boys up outside his room after bath in the evening and inspect each to see if he were clean. One of the boys was then taken to Mr. Clarke’s room for the night.

The assaults began soon after Mr. Clarke came to St. George’s in 1965, the judge found. The victims said they were assaulted two or three times a week each.

“Mr. Clarke told each boy not to tell anyone,” the judge wrote. “He gave his favoured boys chocolates, pop, gum and weekend trips. When he took a boy away from the school for a weekend trip, sexual assault occurred in motel rooms. These trips required the permission of the principal.”

The boys’ behaviour revealed these secrets, however, Justice Dillon said. While the boys did not discuss with each other what happened, it was the known subject of ridicule, jokes, innuendo and nicknames. By this time, St. George’s was no longer a school, just a residence.

A teacher at the school the boys attended, Lytton Elementary, noticed sexually inappropriate incidents in the playground and overheard the ridicule and jokes. She told the court she went to the school’s principal, Joseph Chute, and demanded the boys be questioned. This led to Mr. Chute calling his friend, Mr. Harding, the residence principal, who in turn questioned the boys. The judge concluded Mr. Chute did not inform either the police or the Department of Indian Affairs of the abuse.

Mr. Harding asked Mr. Clarke to resign – which he did – leaving the residence in less than half an hour. Mr. Harding later wrote a letter of recommendation for Mr. Clarke, expressing appreciation for past services and expressing hope that his “personal problems” would be cleared up.

Mr. Harding wrote to the Department of Indian Affairs to inform them of Mr. Clarke’s “resignation” but did not reveal the reason, although serious disciplinary matters with respect to staff were to be mentioned in reports to the department.

Anglicans in Canada: Controversies and Identity in Historical Perspective - By Alan L. Hayes

Based on hearsay evidence and testimony from the current bishop of Cariboo, Jim Cruickshank, the judge concluded the bishop of the day was very likely informed of the incidents. She noted that Bishop Cruickshank thought it “unimaginable” the bishop would not have been told, although the church argued in court that the question was unanswered. She also noted the incidents were known to school staff and some local parishioners.

“Nothing was done,” after Mr. Mowatt left, the judge noted. “The parents were not informed. None of the boys received counselling or parental or spiritual assistance. Nobody made further inquiry.”

Justice Dillon concluded that Mr. Harding, whose rooms adjoined the residence, also sexually assaulted male students at St. George’s, as several men testified during the trial. “Although Harding denied this and was acquitted of sexual assault following trial, it is not known who testified against Harding at his trial,” she said.

One man said that a few years after he told the principals of the residence and school of being abused by Mr. Clarke, Mr. Harding – who was by now an Anglican deacon, on his way to becoming a priest – sodomized and had oral sex with him in his room.

“The involvement of Harding in sexual misconduct and his failure to do anything for the boys as a result of their disclosures leads to the obvious inference that he did not care about Clarke’s behaviour as long as it was not known,” the judge concluded.

“The fact that he did not tell the department about the reason for the ‘resignation,’ even though he told Chute that he would do so, indicates that Harding did not want an investigation at the school.”

On the question of whether the church as the employer should be held liable for the crimes of an employee, Justice Dillon said the case was similar to the recent Supreme Court decision in Bazley v. Curry. In that case, a non-profit group was found vicariously liable after its child-care worker sexually assaulted a child under his care.

(Vicarious liability involves an innocent employer being held responsible for an employee’s crimes.)

The Supreme Court said the stronger the connection between the type of risk created by the work, the more likely an employer will be found vicariously liable, particularly if the employee is placed in a parental-type relationship.

In this case, supervision of Mr. Clarke was minimal, if at all, the judge found.

“The employer could not possibly have given an employee a greater opportunity to abuse children, except, perhaps, allowing the children to reside away from others in the supervisor’s own home,” she said, noting this was sometimes done when Mr. Clarke would take children away for the weekend.

In its defence, the church said Mr. Clarke was an employee of the federal government during the years he abused the plaintiff from 1970 to 1973. Maybe so, the judge said, but the change in employee status had little immediate effect upon the operation of the school as an Anglican institution. “The church had at least a reasonable degree of control over the hiring and dismissal of Derek Clarke.”

The judge found both the church and the government vicariously liable for the abuse. She also found that they both owed a duty of care to the victim and both breached their duty. The church was also in a position of trust regarding the victim, and the judge found the church breached that as well.

Justice Dillon concluded the church bears greater fault than the government “because of the failure of the Anglican Church to disclose Clarke’s abuse so that adequate investigation and care could follow.”

Justice Dillon upheld the federal government’s claim against the diocese of Cariboo for breaching the advisory service and chaplaincy contracts it held with the government. It should have provided pastoral counselling, moral guidance and personal assistance to Mr. Mowatt after the disclosure, she said. If the government and the church cannot agree on an amount for that particular claim, the matter will be referred back to Justice Dillon.

Anglican Clerics Seek to Heal Wounds of Residential School Abuse

ROBERT MATAS
LYTTON, B.C.
PUBLISHED OCTOBER 31, 2000
UPDATED APRIL 7, 2018

Catherine Morrison came here nine months ago to work as an Anglican priest in communities scarred by physical and sexual abuse at an Anglican-run residential school.

The community's response was brutal. People yelled obscenities at her and her husband, Will Hubbard, also an Anglican priest. They spit at their feet. They slammed doors in their faces. Some men propositioned Rev. Morrison.

Although the abuse was committed more than a generation ago, some spoke to the 29-year-old cleric as if she had committed the crime. You killed my brother, she was told. You abused me when I was a little boy.

St. George's Indian Residential School, which once was five kilometres outside Lytton, was closed 21 years ago and torn down 16 years ago. (Dates are from the year 2000).

But the fallout from sexual and physical abuse at the school continues to reverberate.

The story of St. George's has also turned into a national wake-up call for four of Canada's major churches -- Anglican, Roman Catholic, United and Presbyterian -- and the federal government, all of which have been in talks about compensating victims of residental schools for years.

The Anglican Diocese of the Cariboo, which includes Lytton, has nowhere near enough money to pay reparations. The Lytton Anglican Parishes, one of the poorest in the country, raised a paltry $7,000 last year. After a court judgment on the first claim filed against it, the diocese decided to declare bankruptcy.

If what happens here indicates what will happen nationally, the financial implications for the four churches will be devastating. Nationally, 6,000 lawsuits involving 16,000 former students have been filed against the federal government and the churches.

Deputy Prime Minister Herb Gray met recently with representatives of the churches and officials are to continue meeting even if an election is called.

"It's not the interest or desire of the government to place the churches in bankruptcy," Mr. Gray said. "We do not want to have the churches go bankrupt."

Meanwhile, government lawyers are negotiating with the Diocese of the Cariboo specifically on the lawsuits arising from St. George's.

Their efforts, however, have little impact on the street in Lytton, a village of 300 people, 250 kilometres northeast of Vancouver.

Ms. Morrison, who grew up hearing her part-Cree family's stories about their own experiences at an Anglican school near James Bay, said this week she was under no illusions when she took the job. She realized she was coming to one of the most difficult spots in the country for the Anglican church.

Even so, she underestimated the obstacles. "I found more resentment against the church than I'd ever seen before," she said during an interview at her home.

At the site of St. George's all that remains is a massive stone church, now boarded up, and a cluster of weather-beaten farm sheds. Tales of sexual and physical abuse surfaced a few years after the school was torn down. Derek Clarke, a dormitory supervisor, pleaded guilty in 1988 to sex offences involving several young boys.

Byron Spinks, a former Lytton First Nation chief, said in an interview that just about everyone in the village has been touched by the events at St. George's. The school's legacy is widespread alcohol and drug abuse, debilitating depression and a rash of suicides, he said.

He neglected to mention child sex abuse and incest. Suicides are frequently a consequence of incest or other child sex abuse. This is an area that needs to be studied much more than it is for I believe it is widespread through many remote aboriginal communities, especially those with a legacy of residential schools.

Despite the misery, Rev. Morrison and Rev. Hubbard have begun to transform the image of the church in Lytton. Wearing pink plastic hair clips in her long, dark hair that is pulled back in a ponytail, Rev. Morrison is part of a new generation of young clergy committed to working in areas considered the neediest by the church.

More than that, she is a bridge between the aboriginal heritage of her father and the British roots of her mother.

Rev. Morrison had what she describes as a typical middle-class suburban upbringing in Oshawa, Ont. At the same time, her father's family, which is Cree, came regularly from Moose Factory to visit.

Although animosity against the church is as strong as ever, the community's feelings about its two new clerics have warmed. "When we first arrived, we were symbols of 'the church' and now we are Catherine and Will," Rev. Morrison said. "They are beginning to trust us."

She has forged a bond with the community by looking to its members for direction.