Perverted Lives of the Rich and Famous > Man United ace arrested in 'extremely shocking' rape; CNN boss 'quits'; Anna Duggar needs help

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Police continue to quiz arrested England ace Mason Greenwood,

20, over 'rape and assault of 18-year-old student'

Manchester United suspend player after 'shocking' footage circulated

on social media - as father of 'victim' says her account 'was hacked'

By LIZ HULL and EMINE SINMAZ FOR THE DAILY MAIL

PUBLISHED: 18:29 EST, 30 January 2022

England footballer Mason Greenwood was in police custody last night after being arrested over allegations of rape and assault.

The Manchester United forward, 20, was detained after distressing pictures and audio circulated on social media earlier in the day alleging he attacked an 18-year-old student.

The images appeared to show the woman bloodied and bruised.

Another post included a voice recording of a conversation between a man and a woman, dated October last year, which purportedly chronicled the woman being attacked.

Within hours of the messages emerging and spreading across social media, his club put out a statement saying it was aware of them and they were making inquiries ‘to establish the full circumstances’.

It added: ‘Manchester United does not condone violence of any kind.’

Mason Greenwood (pictured with England manager Gareth Southgate) is at the centre of a police investigation and has been arrested on suspicion of rape and assault this weekend

The woman was interviewed by plain clothes officers at her family home yesterday afternoon.

A spokesman for Greater Manchester police said they had launched an investigation after being made ‘aware of online social media images and videos posted by a woman reporting incidents of physical violence’.

He added: ‘Following inquiries we can confirm a man in his 20s has since been arrested on suspicion of rape and assault. He remains in custody for questioning. Inquiries are ongoing.’

Forensic officers also arrived at Greenwood’s £2million mansion in the upmarket village of Bowdon, Cheshire, yesterday evening.

Manchester United suspended the rising star, who earns a reported £75,000 a week, shortly before news of his arrest emerged. In a second statement, the club hierarchy said the player would ‘not return to training or play matches until further notice’.

News of Greenwood’s suspension and arrest is also likely to put his lucrative sponsorship deal with Nike at risk. Yesterday a spokesman for the sports brand said they were ‘deeply concerned by the disturbing allegations’ and would be ‘closely monitoring the situation’.

The allegedly incriminating posts were online for just a few hours before being deleted. The woman’s father told the Daily Mail his daughter believed her Instagram account had been hacked.

Speaking from his £1million home in an upmarket Cheshire village, the company director, 61, described the allegations as ‘dreadful’.

‘I’m just coming to terms with it,’ he said. ‘As a father you don’t want to know things like this are happening to your daughter. She is devastated. But she is safe. It is in the hands of the police now.’

Campaigners and women’s charities also welcomed the investigation into the ‘shocking’ allegations.

Former chief prosecutor Nazir Afzal said the pictures, and particularly the voice note, were ‘shocking in the extreme’. ‘Manchester United must deal with it but it is also clearly a police matter,’ he said.

There is much more to this story, being called football's #MeToo moment, at the Daily Mail.

CNN president quits

Jeff Zucker failed to disclose romantic relationship with colleague

that came up during Chris Cuomo probe

Jeff Zucker © Mike Coppola / Getty Images for CNN

Jeff Zucker announced his resignation as president of CNN and chairman of Warner Media’s news and sports division on Wednesday, after nine years at the cable channel’s helm. 

As the reason for his move, Zucker said that he failed to disclose in a timely manner a “consensual relationship with my closest colleague, someone I have worked with for more than 20 years,” that he said “evolved in recent years.” 

According to the New York Times, the person in question is Allison Gollust, CNN’s executive vice president and chief marketing officer. Gollust said on Wednesday that she would remain at CNN.

“Jeff and I have been close friends and professional partners for over 20 years,” she said in a statement. “Recently, our relationship changed during Covid. I regret that we didn’t disclose it at the right time.”

Gollust and Zucker’s relationship came up during the investigation into the CNN tenure of Chris Cuomo, the younger brother of the now-former New York governor, Andrew Cuomo. CNN fired Cuomo in December 2021, saying he inappropriately used his position at the network to help his brother defend charges of sexual harassment. Andrew Cuomo had resigned in August, dogged by the accusations which did not result in criminal charges.

“Together, we had nine great years,” Zucker said in a memo to CNN employees on Wednesday. “I certainly wish my tenure here had ended differently. But it was an amazing run. And I loved every minute.”

Zucker, 56, came to CNN in 2013. He previously worked at NBC Entertainment, where he green-lit the reality TV hit ‘The Apprentice’, starring real-estate mogul and future US President Donald Trump. Riding on that show’s success, among other things, Zucker was promoted to chief executive of NBC Universal in February 2007. Just three years later, in June 2010, Comcast offered him up to $40 million to resign, after acquiring the company.

One unnamed TV executive told the New York Times’ Maureen Dowd at the time that Zucker was “a case study in the most destructive media executive ever to exist” who had “taken a once-great network and literally destroyed it.”

So, I'm wondering if the affair is a cover for his being fired. It used to be that if you were fired for sexual indiscretions that it would be covered with another excuse. That now seems to be reversed. 

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Anna Duggar - In a really bad place thanks to Josh

By CARLY STERN FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

PUBLISHED: 14:40 EST, 4 February 2022 

Anna Duggar has broken her silence about her sex offender husband Josh Duggar's child porn conviction, defending him and appearing to insist that he is innocent. 

Anna, 33, shared a short message on Twitter and Instagram on Thursday, her first since announcing the birth of their seventh child in November. 

'There is more to the story,' Anna wrote. 

Though she didn't elaborate, she included a link to her husband's motion for acquittal or a new trial.

Anna had accompanied Josh to court every day of the trial in December, and appears to believe the defense's argument that someone else could have been behind the horrific trove of photos and videos of children being sexually abused that were found on Josh's computer.

Yet she seems to be the only one steadfastly sticking by him: Several members of Josh's family had released statements in support of the conviction, and no one has liked Anna's post or tweet.

Anna Duggar has broken her silence about her sex offender husband Josh Duggar's child porn conviction, defending him and appearing to insist that he is innocent 

Anna has turned off comments on her Instagram posts, which has only got about 2,000 likes in 18 hours — far less than her previous post on November 15, which announced the arrival of her daughter Madyson Lily and got over 96,000 likes.

Though her sister Priscilla liked the post, not a single member of the Duggar family has.

Many of the Duggars — including Jill and Derick Dillard, Jessa and Ben Seewald, Joy Anna and Austin Forsyth, and Jinger and Jeremy Vuolo — wrote statements following Josh's conviction in which they expressed approval of the outcome. 

Though none of the Duggars approved of her post about Josh, however, they don't seem to be shunning Anna, who was present at the family's ugly sweater party in December.

While Anna managed to avoid critical comments on Instagram, they have flooded in on Twitter, with users calling her 'delusional' and 'brainwashed.'

'No dear just stop and save yourself. Have some self-respect,' wrote one.

There is a lot more on this story at The Daily Mail.

Anna seems to blame Josh's parents and Joe Biden for this conviction. I have personally witnessed someone who is a chronic liar cover up his sin by telling his wife and friends only as much as they can take without turning on him. Always blaming someone else, he put his wife and friends in an awful place. If that's what has happened here, Anna's going to need some serious help when she allows herself to believe the truth and comes to terms with it. IMHO Josh is despicable for putting her through this. Please pray for her.

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Powerful GOP Rep. Jim Jordan Accused of Turning Blind Eye to Sexual Abuse as Ohio State Wrestling Coach

by Corky Siemaszko

Rep. Jim Jordan, the powerful Republican congressman from Ohio, is being accused by former wrestlers he coached more than two decades ago at Ohio State University of failing to stop the team doctor from molesting them and other students.

The university announced in April that it was investigating accusations that Dr. Richard Strauss, who died in 2005, abused team members when he was the team doctor from the mid-1970s to late 1990s.

Jordan, who was assistant wrestling coach at the university from 1986 to 1994, has repeatedly said he knew nothing of the abuse until former students began speaking out this spring, and continued to deny it on Tuesday. His denials, however, have been met with skepticism and anger from some former members of the wrestling team.

Three former wrestlers told NBC News that it was common knowledge that Strauss showered regularly with the students and inappropriately touched them during appointments, and said it would have been impossible for Jordan to be unaware; one wrestler said he told Jordan directly about the abuse.

Former head coach Russ Hellickson, Jordan's mentor, said in a recent video — made by Mike DiSabato, a former wrestler — that Hellickson had told Strauss that he was being too "hands on” with students.

DiSabato, whose allegations against Strauss prompted Ohio State to open its investigation, called Jordan a “liar.” “I considered Jim Jordan a friend,” DiSabato said. “But at the end of the day, he is absolutely lying if he says he doesn’t know what was going on.”

DiSabato said he reached out to Jordan this year, before going to the university, to tell Jordan that he planned to go public with his allegations. Jordan told him to “please leave me out of it,” DiSabato said. “He asked me not to get him involved.”

"At the end of the day, he is absolutely lying

if he says he doesn’t know what was going on.”

Dunyasha Yetts, who wrestled at Ohio State in 1993 and 1994, said he and others told Jordan about Strauss.

“I remember I had a thumb injury and went into Strauss’ office and he started pulling down my wrestling shorts,” he said. “I’m like, what the f--- are you doing? And I went out and told Russ and Jim what happened. I was not having it. They went in and talked to Strauss.”

Yetts said he and his teammates talked to Jordan numerous times about Strauss.

“For God’s sake, Strauss’s locker was right next to Jordan’s and Jordan even said he’d kill him if he tried anything with him,” Yetts said.

Yetts admitted that he did time for bilking investors out of nearly $2 million. “I am not a perfect person, but ask any of the wrestlers and they will tell you everybody knew about Doc,” said Yetts, who served 18 months in prison.

As for Jordan, Yetts said, “He’s a great guy. We would have all these great talks with him and he talked about how one day he’d be the president of the United States."

"So it’s sad for me to hear that he’s denying knowing about Strauss," he said. "I don’t know why he would, unless it’s a cover-up. Either you’re in on it, or you’re a liar.”

A former teammate of DiSabato’s who asked not to be identified said he never told Jordan directly that Strauss had abused him. But there is no way Jordan could have avoided the rumors “because it was all over the locker room.”

“I love Jimmy to death,” the ex-wrestler said. “It was a head-scratcher to me why he would say he didn’t know anything. Doc used to take showers with the team even though he didn’t do any workouts, and everybody used to snicker about how you go into his office for a sore shoulder and he tells you to take your pants down.”

When the first stories about the university investigation appeared this spring, Jordan told The Columbus Dispatch, “I had not heard about any type of abuse at all.” He also said that “no one reported any type of abuse” to him.

After NBC News reached out to Jordan, the congressman’s spokesman repeated the denial.

“Congressman Jordan never saw any abuse, never heard about any abuse, and never had any abuse reported to him during his time as a coach at Ohio State,” his spokesman, Ian Fury, said in an email to NBC News.

After the NBC News story was published, Fury added the following statement: "He has not been contacted by investigators about the matter but will assist them in any way they ask, because if what is alleged is true, the victims deserve a full investigation and justice.”

Jordan, a founder of the House Freedom Caucus, a group of the most conservative representatives, is a staunch ally of President Donald Trump and is frequently mentioned as a possible replacement for the speaker of the House, Paul Ryan.

Ryan, via spokesman Doug Andres, also weighed-in on the Ohio State investigation. "These are serious allegations and issues," Andres said. "The university has rightfully initiated a full investigation into the matter. The speaker will await the findings of that inquiry."

DiSabato forwarded to NBC News an email he sent on April 24 to Jordan and the congressman’s brother, Jeff, who runs Jeff Jordan's State Champ Camp, a nationally known wrestling camp in Ohio. DiSabato sent the email 19 days after Ohio State announced on April 5 that it was investigating Strauss and the administrators of the wrestling program at the time, including the coaches, just as other colleges have done in similar circumstances.

DiSabato was concerned that the university would ultimately sweep his allegations under the rug, and he wanted to ensure that Jordan would back him up.

“I ask you to give your full attention to the information attached to this email,” DiSabato wrote. “We [are] watching you. … You have the platform to cut through the double talk, placation and finger pointing.”

Jordan and his brother did not reply to the email, DiSabato said. Jeff Jordan said in an email that he'd never attended or worked at Ohio State University.

Jim Jordan, who has made a name for himself in Congress by grilling investigators probing alleged collusion by the Trump campaign with the Russians, is among the witnesses expected to be questioned by the law firm that Ohio State hired to conduct the probe into Strauss’ misconduct, officials involved with the investigation said.

In the video that DiSabato made about the allegations against Strauss, which DiSabato sent to Ohio State in June, Hellickson, the former head wrestling coach, said he told school administrators about Strauss and also warned the doctor to steer clear of his wrestlers.

“I said, ‘You make the guys nervous when you shower with them,’” Hellickson said in the video. “His response was, ‘Coach, you shower with your guys all the time.’ And I said, ‘Not for an hour, Doc.’”

DiSabato and his former teammates said Jordan and Hellickson were close, and if the head coach had qualms about Strauss he would have shared them with his No. 2. “Jim was Coach Russ’ right-hand man,” one former wrestler said.

Hellickson, an Olympics silver medalist in wrestling in 1976 who has done commentary from the games for NBC Sports, did not return calls for comment.

In response to a series of questions from NBC, Ohio State emailed a statement saying that the law firm Perkins Coie was overseeing the probe into the Strauss allegations for the university. OSU said it has also reached out “to the Columbus Division of Police and the Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office for any potential criminal investigation.”

“To date, Perkins Coie has interviewed more than 150 former students and witnesses and is engaged in further investigative efforts,” the university said in the statement. “Ohio State has shared all additional information that has come to the attention of the university with the independent investigators whose work is ongoing.”

It’s unclear whether former Ohio State coaches or administrators could face any penalties from the university for not protecting wrestlers from Strauss.

“Our efforts will continue to be focused on uncovering what may have happened during this era, what university leaders at the time may have known, and whether any response at the time was appropriate,” the university’s statement said. “Once the independent investigation has been completed, we will be in a position to consider what further action might be appropriate.”

As of Friday, Jordan had not been questioned by the university-hired lawyers, Fury, his spokesman, said.

Jordan is wrestling royalty. Born and raised in Champaign County, Ohio, he was a four-time state wrestling champion. Competing for the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he won NCAA titles in 1985 and 1986.

But in the wrestling world, Jordan is best known for defeating future two-time Olympic gold medalist John Smith twice in an NCAA tournament in 1985.

Jordan returned home to Ohio and — while working as a coach — earned a master’s degree in education at Ohio State and later a law degree from Capital University in Columbus before launching his political career in 1994 when he was elected to the Ohio General Assembly.

An Ohio State University 1978 employment application information for Dr. Richard StraussA 1978 employment application information for Dr. Richard Strauss, from Ohio State University personnel files.Ohio State University via AP file

Strauss signed on at Ohio State as an attending physician in September 1978 and served as a team physician in the athletics department from July 1981 to June 1995, according to the university’s statement. He also worked as a part-time doctor in the university’s student health department from July 1994 to August 1996.

After resigning from the Ohio State medical staff in 1994, Strauss stayed on as an emeritus faculty member until he retired in July 1998 and moved from Columbus to Los Angeles, the university said.

Citing Los Angeles County coroner records, The Columbus Dispatch reported that Strauss died of suicide in 2005 after struggling with pain and other health issues.

Strauss’ relatives have not spoken publicly about the allegations since they surfaced. NBC News was not able to reach any of his relatives.

DiSabato, who runs a Columbus-based sports and entertainment agency called the Profectus Group, said the recent conviction of former Olympics gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar prompted him and other Ohio State athletes to come forward about Strauss.

Strauss’ primary job was to give wrestlers physicals, treat them for injuries and monitor their health, DiSabato said. He said Strauss also preyed on students who played other sports.

“Strauss sexually assaulted male athletes in at least fifteen varsity sports during his employment at OSU from 1978 through 1998,” DiSabato wrote in a June 26 email to Kathleen M. Trafford of Porter Wright Morris & Arthur, the Columbus-based law firm that represents Ohio State. “Athlete victims include members of the following programs: football, basketball, wrestling, swimming, cheerleading, volleyball, lacrosse, gymnastics, ice hockey, soccer, baseball, tennis, track and cross country.”

Chillingly, DiSabato added: “Based on testimony from victim athletes from each of the aforementioned varsity sports, we estimate that Strauss sexually assaulted and/or raped a minimum of 1,500/2,000 athletes at OSU from 1978 through 1998.”

Ohio State has confirmed that investigators have received “confidential reports of sexual misconduct committed by Strauss” from former athletes in 14 sports and from former patients in Student Health Services.

In the video, DiSabato said Strauss knew that many of the athletes were small-town kids who weren’t likely to protest if the doctor told them to disrobe, for fear of losing their scholarships. He said coaches knew that Strauss was a predator.

“Everybody knew before you were going into the [examination] room that Doc Strauss was going to touch you,” DiSabato said. “It was like a joke before you went in there.”

Strauss wasn’t the only Ohio State official who showered with the team, DiSabato said. After practice ended at 3:30 p.m., some university professors, administrators and others would show up in the shower stalls just as the athletes were arriving, he said.

It was, DiSabato said, like walking through “the gauntlet of sexual deviancy.”

Another former wrestler whose testimony appears on the video DiSabato submitted to investigators described how Strauss grabbed his penis during an examination.

“I didn’t do a thing,” he said when asked how he responded. “Probably, because I was scared.”

He broke down when asked why, after all these years, he was speaking out.

“Why am I doing this now? It’s just hard,” he said. “I don’t want this to ever have to happen to anybody else, ever … at The Ohio State University or any school.”

One Mississippi - The Life of Sexually Abused Comedian Tig Notaro

What Tig Notaro’s New Show Gets Right about

Child Sexual Abuse

By Sarah Newman, MA

In the new Amazon series One Mississippi, loosely based on the life of comedian Tig Notaro, she finds herself living back home in Mississippi following the sudden death of her mother. Staying in her childhood home with her stepfather, Bill, and her adult brother, Remy, Tig isn’t just facing the grief of losing her mother, she’s recovering from breast cancer, which resulted in a double mastectomy, and suffering from a C. diff infection. She’s also dealing with the ghosts of her past. Tig — as she’s also called on the show — was molested by her grandfather throughout her childhood.

Although it’s estimated that one in 10 children will be sexually abused before age 18, it’s rare to see a TV series deal with the reality of child sexual abuse. There’s so much about the issue that One Mississippi gets right.

One in 10 is a very conservative number. The best estimates are about 1 in 5 girls and 1 in 10 boys.

People are a part of the trauma even if they don’t want to be

Looking through a box of old photographs with her brother, Tig sees a picture of herself as a young girl sitting beside her grandfather. “Hey look, you’re being molested right now,” she says to the photo.

“Aw, come on, Tig!” her brother squirms.

“What? I was,” she tells him. “At least let me joke about it.”

“We should just throw that out,” he says grabbing the picture and leaving the room.

Hearing about child molestation can make people uncomfortable. It may be disturbing to imagine that your memories of a situation are tainted because in a back room or while your sister was away at camp she was being victimized. You don’t want to be a part of that reality — but neither does the victim.

Pretending that the past is over and that the pain doesn’t remain can’t fix anything. It’s alienating. It reinforces shame. It tells a victim, “This thing that happened to you is too grotesque for me to face and so I can’t be connected to you right now.”

Pretending it isn’t there, doesn’t make it go away

Tig’s molestation keeps coming up even at the most seemingly unrelated moments because it is related. It’s related to everything. Trauma is woven into the fabric of life. She’s at home — not just in the town, but in the very house she lived in during the abuse. She’s surrounded by the same individuals who were a part of her life during the abuse, even if they had no idea what was happening to her.

Each times her family tries to keep abuse out of the conversation, resentment wells up. When her stepfather’s cat disappears, he accuses Tig of letting her out. She claims he might have mistakenly let her out himself. “You miss a lot,” she tells him.

After a pause, as if it’s the furthest thing from his mind, her stepfather Bill says, “Oh I can’t believe you’re bringing up that again.”

“That? The fact that I was molested by a creepy old man my entire childhood?” she asks.

“It’s been over 30 years. The man is dead,” he says. “ You know, when are you going to let go of that? It’s in the past.”

Moving on from abuse takes more than just “leaving it” in the past and learning to cope requires empathy.

“The dark does not destroy the light; it defines it. 

It’s our fear of the dark that casts our joy into the shadows.” 

– Brené Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection: 

Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are

You can’t accept good memories without accepting the bad as well

That’s just how autobiographical memory works. Our experience — good and bad — informs everything we do every day.

“You say to move on,” she tells Bill. “Why not move on from the good, too? Like the day I learned to walk or birthday parties. Or when Remy pitched a perfect game? The good is in the past, too, Bill. You can’t pick and choose. Every chapter matters.”

“This is nonsense,” he says.

“You don’t seem to comprehend the impact all of this has had and continues to have on my life and Remy.”

It’s alienating when others won’t accept the bad. You lose closeness and trust in a way that can be difficult to repair.

“If you put shame into a petri dish and cover it with judgment, silence, and secrecy, it grows 

out of control until in consumers everything in sight — you have basically provided shame 

with the environment it needs to thrive. On the other hand, if you put shame in

a petri dish and douse it with empathy, shame loses power and starts to fade.

Empathy creates a hostile environment for shame — it can’t survive.”

– Brené Brown, I Thought It Was Just Me (But It Isn’t)

The truth wants to be told

It takes an inordinate amount of courage for a person to talk about the sexual abuse they suffered. When you’re very young, it’s difficult to understand what’s happening to you. You doubt yourself because it’s easier to imagine you’re misinterpreting the abuse than it is to accept the fact that you’re in a very dangerous situation. In this case, it would also mean having to accept that family, someone who is supposed to love and care for you, is hurting you.

Shame is paralyzing and, despite not being responsible for what’s happening to them, victims often blame themselves. Personally, I felt defective and damaged by the abuse I suffered. I observed that what happened to me at home wasn’t happening in my friends’ homes. But rather than wanting to tell, I felt deeply ashamed. I thought that if other people knew what happened to me they would think I was disgusting, contaminated, perverse. I thought they wouldn’t want to know me anymore. Simultaneously, I didn’t want to keep my abuser’s secret. I didn’t want to protect him, but I felt powerless and afraid of his wrath.

“Owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it.”

— Brené Brown

One can only live in denial for so long. The truth will come out. It shows up in your thoughts and behavior — panic attacks, anxiety, depression, trouble with intimacy, difficulty in relationships, and many other symptoms of complex post-traumatic stress disorder.

In a flashback, we see Tig’s grades have plummeted and her mother asks her to take her education more seriously. Decline in schoolwork — a sign of the insidious secret abuse. The truth wants to be told.

I dealt with molestation through denial. In the show, Tig appears to deal with it through humor. I think a lot of trauma survivors can relate to “inappropriate humor.”

“A tough sense of humor or biting wit can get you through hard times. As long as you keep people laughing, you maintain a certain perspective distance. And as long as you keep laughing you don’t have to cry.”

– The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse

by Ellen Bass & Laura Davis

Empathy is the first step in ending the shame surrounding child sexual abuse and listening to the victim’s story is part of that. Validating their feelings, instead of turning away and giving into your own feelings of shame and guilt, is an important first step.

Maybe if more shows and movies confronted the reality of child sexual abuse, people wouldn’t feel so uncomfortable with the subject, they wouldn’t be caught so off-guard when it touches their lives, and they might learn to respond with empathy. Instead of running away from the truth, we can be inspired by the victim’s strength and remind them that they are worthy of respect and connection.

“Yes, I am imperfect and vulnerable and sometimes afraid, but that doesn't

change the truth that I am also brave and worthy of love and belonging.”

— Brené Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection:

Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are

Shocking Malaysia into Awareness of Child Sex Abuse

KUALA LUMPUR - Sexual child abuse, unfortunately, has been making headlines in Malaysia recently. In the UK, Richard Huckle, now known as Britain's worst paedophile was convicted and given life in prison for the abuse of at least 23 children in Malaysia and Cambodia. This shed light on an issue that many in the strictly religious and rather sheltered nation deny is a problem. 

More recently, Malaysian activist Syed Azmi exposed a prolific chat group created to discuss sex with children and to share child pornography. The 751 members of the group would take images of children off the web, often from social-media sites, and discuss what they would like to do with the children. 

Also recently, journalists at Star Media's R.AGE exposed the 'grooming' activities of predators.  A lack of awareness, and poor-to-no sex education in Malaysia, particularly among rural and more strictly religious communities, has been pointed out as a factor that makes Malaysian children particularly vulnerable to predators like Huckle.

A national campaign launching today, spearheaded by Alvin Teoh, ECD at NagaDDB, hopes to change that.

It's personal 

"My 9-year-old daughter was a victim of a paedophile teacher two years ago, but thankfully she escaped before any serious damage was done because she planned her escape as soon as he made his moves on her," Teoh shared. "Needless to say, that was the time I felt most broken. But the lesson for us was that my daughter was empowered with awareness, thanks to the efforts of my wife. That saved her."

Teoh pointed out that before the Huckle case made headlines, there was next to no reportage on the issue in Malaysia. "Even now many here see it as a White-man disease, ignoring the fact that there are countless locals who are predators. These predators draw power from ignorance, and so many have gotten away."

The first phase of Nursery Crimes, targets parents of very young children and is about getting this taboo and misunderstood topic into the spotlight, said Teoh. "We want people to talk about it and we want to drive the microsite to seek information and to seek advice and help via PS the Children, an NGO that is at the forefront of the battle against this abuse."

This stage of the campaign rides on the fact that children can't tell the difference between love and sexual abuse. Statistically, many of the crimes are committed by people they trust: neighbours, teachers, caretakers, even parents and grandparents. "This is tragic as well as shameful and is quietly swept under the carpet," commented Teoh.

The campaign features three films, one each in English, Malay and Chinese, each of which leads to a microsite that provides information on how to spot the signs of abuse, how to react to a case of child abuse and where to seek help. "Then, each visitor to the site is invited to be an advocate of this mission just by passing on the knowledge by sharing information from the microsite."

Two years in the making 

It took Teoh two years to get this campaign off the ground, because when the idea was first proposed, it made the social workers that he consulted uncomfortable.  "They were afraid that children would not understand and would start to sing these nursery rhymes we had rewritten," he said. "So we put it on hold, out of respect. But after a year of waiting, these stories started to come out and we went ahead. But we did remember their advice and the videos will be online, and if it's on air, it will be in a timebelt where children are unlikely to be watching."

The videos are extremely difficult to watch. The appropriation of beloved nursery rhymes is shocking, and there is a genuine creeping sense of dread for the child in the video. "When we were casting, we had quite a few parents pull their children out when they read the script," Teoh said. "However in the end, we found parents who understood and were fully on board with the project."

Need to shock

Teoh believes that there is a need to shock, and that greater awareness and education on the issue outweighed the negatives. "It's controversial and straightforward," he said. "We knew we couldn't hold back on shocking people, and we didn't want to be too clever about it. People are meant to be angry, to be in denial. Any response is a good response."

    In Chinese with Malay subtitles

Teoh and his team donated their work to the project pro-bono, along with the production and audio houses involved. "When they heard what we wanted to do, they were keen to work on it free of charge," he said. But Teoh was firm that the project needed the full support of a legitimate NGO. "We could have carried the project, but we don't have all the necessary knowledge," he said. "We need experts, people working in the field to advise us. We 're not social activists, we're ad-agency people.

Sometimes intentions might be good, but you can cause a lot of damage because of ignorance. Someone's misery and pain is not a subject matter for award wins." PS the Children, said Teoh, was happy to work with NagaDDB on the project and is at the forefront of working with abused kids in Malaysia. "They have given us their full support."

More to do 

The campaign will air in TGV Cinemas, which has donated screen time to the campaign. Audio versions will be broadcast on Astro Radio, which has likewise given free air time to the project. "We're also in discussions with Astro to see how we can bring this topic to life via their talk shows," said Teoh.

"The media, publishers and key opinion leaders are also lending their support to amplify the project." This is only phase one, and there is much more to do, concluded Teoh. "There's cyber-stalking, the empowerment of survivors of child sex abuse and even child brides. Malaysians need to have proper conversations around these topics."

So do a lot of countries. God bless this project and use it to save many children from this sickening abuse.

New Film About School With History of Child Sex Abuse, Never Mentions It

School with a history of disgraceful child sex abuse and

refusal to accept any responsibility gets shiny, new

paint-job from Dustin Hoffman film

Dustin Hoffman poses for photographers at the Kennedy Center Honors gala
in Washington, D.C, Sunday, December 2, 2012. Olivier Douliery | MCT

By Shonna Milliken Humphrey, Special to the BDN

The Academy Award-winning film “Spotlight” compels audiences to re-think institutionalized child sex abuse and the systemic protections for those responsible. Because of “Spotlight,” it is now impossible to sanction intimate relationships between little boys and clergy members without first considering child safety.

But what about lesser-known, secular or smaller organizations with a similar history? Instead of victims numbering in the thousands, what happens when the victim count is in the mere hundreds? Or dozens?

As the real-life Boston Globe Spotlight news team reported its story in 2002, a lawsuit against the American Boychoir School was working its way through the New Jersey court system with similar details — decades of abuse and systemic protection of perpetrators.

However, whereas the Catholic Church is being held accountable by Mark Ruffalo’s hard-charging investigative “Spotlight” reporting, the American Boychoir School is now fictionalized and celebrated on film via “Hear My Song” with Dustin Hoffman cast as choirmaster to an unwanted and troubled young boy.

After the original film “Boychoir” experienced limited release in the United States, Hallmark acquired the film. Re-named “Hear My Song,” a national CBS broadcast was planned for this weekend — in April, during Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

I should not have to point out that this was a bad idea. But I did point that out. And many others did, too.

Sorry history

Descriptions of child sex abuse at the American Boychoir School are public knowledge. Accusations began in the 1950s, reached a nadir of complicit behavior in the 1960s and 70s, and continued into the 1980s and 1990s. In the early 2000s, a court case attempted to hold the school accountable.

In those court documents, the school argued its nonprofit status absolved responsibility for rape. When that approach was unsuccessful, administrators argued that a 12-year-old boy could consent to sex with his teacher — and was himself negligent in not reporting the relationship.

The school’s history is now accessible via any basic Google search, and when my husband studied there from 1988-90, he attests to spending 30 months afraid to sleep because of the sex abuse he saw, heard, feared and experienced at the staff, teacher, student and trustee levels. He began drinking coffee at age 11 to remain awake and vigilant at night.

Hallmark’s “Hear My Song” features the American Boychoir School, but it does not mention sex abuse in its story of a troubled and unwanted young boy with vocal talent taken under the stern, protective wing of Hoffman’s choirmaster.

Make no mistake: When I learned CBS decided to pull the film from its Saturday night lineup, my family was elated. We were relieved and thankful, too.

But would producers ever think of overlaying this same narrative onto the Catholic Church? Place the story within a Penn State locker room shower with a football coach?

There would be a pause to question the sensitivity, taste and wisdom. These pauses help keep kids safe.

I once watched a singer pause onstage to banter with the audience mid-song. He explained the progression of the bluegrass-style lyrics. “We’ve done the sinning part,” he said. “But we haven’t atoned yet.”

Pausing for safety — and atonement — is important.

In 2014, when “Hear My Song” (then “Boychoir”) was initially promoted, a former American Boychoir School dean was arrested for sexually assaulting a little boy.


Refusal to accept responsibility

To date, the American Boychoir School has not addressed the needs of victims outside a courtroom. No victim resources are made easily available to alumni members. No school official has ever publicly denied my husband’s experience — or the experience of many others, but no school official has ever accepted institutional responsibility for the abuse either.

To my husband’s knowledge, just one perpetrator during his time at the school was ever punished. A social studies teacher (whose assault my husband recalls as so violent it likely required surgery for the victim to heal) was fined $430 and placed on probation in 1991.

This absence of accountability sends the message to victims like my husband that his experience does not matter. Or, it matters less than portraying a happy story on film. Worse for him, though, was the recruitment tool and potential revenue generator “Hear My Song” and its national broadcast would have provided to the institution that oversaw his abuse.

Some might say, “But it happened a long time ago.” Or, more insultingly, “The current students are safe.”

To which, I ask how many boys must be raped and how violently, to cause concern? How much time must pass until sexual assault ceases to matter? What specific body parts must be touched? Does the size of the organization dictate the public response?

Instead of relying on these questions though, I suggest a simpler metric. “Given a history of sexual violence, what has an institution done to support the victims?”

The American Boychoir School planned to host a “Hear My Song” viewing party to celebrate themselves this weekend. Given the horrors my husband experienced while entrusted in the school’s care, I had the obligation to ask potential viewers to pause before watching.

Thanks to a decision to pull this movie from national broadcast, I no longer have to.

The American Boychoir School has done its sinning; “Hear My Song” does not help it atone.

Shonna Milliken Humphrey lives in Gorham. Her book, “Dirt Roads and Diner Pie: One couple’s journey toward healing from child sex abuse” (Central Recovery Press) is forthcoming in August.

‘It Can’t Be True’ Mentality Dangerous with Child Sex Abuse

BY SHEVAUN BRYAN
WHNT19 News

MADISON COUNTY, Alabama – The news of former Subway spokesman Jared Fogle seeking out sexual interactions with minors as well as possession child pornography is making headlines nationwide.

But to prosecutors who deal with these sorts of cases, the emerging facts bring to light the public tendency to deny that such things can happen.

“For those of us who do this work on a daily basis, we know that horror exists,” said Jason Scully-Clemmons of Madison County District Attorney Office’s Family Violence and Sexual Assault Unit. “So from a practical perspective, that denial is dangerous to the jury system.”

Scully-Clemmons went on to explain that it’s easier to deny it than accept that a ‘seemingly nice and normal’ person can possibly engage in such activity, making it harder on attorneys.

“That kind of denial, what it does is that it raise the burden beyond ‘beyond a reasonable doubt,’” Scully-Clemmons explained.

In Jared’s case, a ‘nice guy’ with an inspiring story adds another layer.

“People engage in denial because they have an image on how things are supposed to be and it’s accentuated by the celebrity of the person and their public persona,” said Scully-Clemmons.

But he knows from his experience that people, specifically children, rarely have reason to lie about such events. Furthermore, in private cases, the offender is most often someone that the victim knows.

As far as Jared Fogle’s case, Scully-Clemmons explains that a large percentage of those caught for possession of child pornography often later admit to engaging in sexual abuse with a minor as well.

This kind of denial is dangerous on so many levels. Aside from jurors not wanting to believe nice guys can be pedophiles, parents and teachers don't want to believe their own children when they come to them to complain. This attitude is improving, but still has a long way to go.

Then there is the denial by government officials of the incredible amount of child sex abuse that occurs in almost every country on the planet. Australia is dealing with it better than any country with their long and expensive Royal Commission, and Britain is being forced ever-so-reluctantly into a major inquiry. Beyond that, I see few other countries dealing seriously with the issue. India is trying but fighting many centuries of tradition, and the US is implementing Erin's Law in many states, a consequence of tireless work by Erin Merryn to convince state lawmakers of the need. Nothing major is being done nationally except for providing funding for the implementation of Erin's Law.

One other 'denial demographic' needs to be mentioned, and that may be you. The general population does not want to talk about it, read about it, or even think about it. That it will affect one-in-five of our children ought to have us all screaming from the roof-tops for something to be done. But we don't! The media knows it is not a subject people want to have brought up in the news daily, so they only present the most 'significant' stories. Consequently, the general population does not have a good concept of the extraordinary extent of CSA. And, because of that, we often don't prepare our children to deal with the possibility of becoming a victim. In other words - we are making the problem worse.

Sweden's Hell-Bent Determination to Commit Cultural Suicide

In 1975, the Swedish parliament unanimously decided to change the former homogeneous Sweden into a multicultural country. Forty years later the dramatic consequences of this experiment emerge: violent crime has increased by 300%.

If one looks at the number of rapes, however, the increase is even worse. In 1975, 421 rapes were reported to the police; in 2014, it was 6,620. That is an increase of 1,472%.

Sweden is now number two on the global list of rape countries. According to a survey from 2010, Sweden, with 53.2 rapes per 100,000 inhabitants, is surpassed only by tiny Lesotho in Southern Africa, with 91.6 rapes per 100,000 inhabitants.

Rape rate per 100,000 population, comparison by country (selected top and bottom countries),
2012 statistics taken from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

According to figures published by The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brottsförebyggande rådet; known as Brå) -- an agency under the Ministry of Justice -- 29,000 Swedish women, during 2011, reported that they had been raped (which seems to indicate that less than 25% of the rapes are reported to the police).

Strange explanations

Rather than doing something about the problem of violence and rape, Swedish politicians, public authorities and media do their best to explain away the facts. Here are some of their explanations:

Swedes have become more prone to report crime.
The law has been changed so that more sexual offences are now classed as rape.
Swedish men cannot handle increased equality between the sexes and react with violence against women (perhaps the most fanciful excuse).

A long-held feminist myth is that the most dangerous place for a woman is her own home -- that most rapes are committed by someone she knows. This claim was refuted by Brå's report:

"In 58% of cases, the perpetrator was entirely unknown by the victim. In 29% of cases the perpetrator was an acquaintance, and in 13% of cases the perpetrator was a person close to the victim."

Brå reports that there are no major differences between women of Swedish and foreign background when it comes to the risk of being raped. Significantly, the report does not touch on the background of the rapists.

Without parallel

Back in 1975, the year when politicians decided that Sweden was to become multicultural, the Swedish population stood at 8,208,442. By 2014 it had grown to 9,743,087 -- an increase of 18.7%. This growth is entirely due to immigration, as Swedish women on average give birth to 1.92 children compared to the 2.24 average of immigrant women. One should, however, keep in mind that in the statistics, second-generation immigrants are counted as Swedes.

Sweden's recent population growth is without parallel. Never before in the country's history has the number of inhabitants increased so fast. Sweden is now the fastest growing country in Europe.

Over the past 10-15 years, immigrants have mainly come from Muslim countries such as Iraq, Syria and Somalia. Might this mass influx explain Sweden's rape explosion? It is difficult to give a precise answer, because Swedish law forbids registration based on people's ancestry or religion. One possible explanation is that, on average, people from the Middle East have a vastly different view of women and sex than Scandinavians have. And despite the attempts by the Swedish establishment to convince the population that everyone setting foot on Swedish soil becomes exactly like those who have lived here for dozens of generations, facts point in an altogether different direction.

The latest statistical survey of immigrant criminality compared to that of Swedes was done in 2005. The results are practically never mentioned. Not only that; anyone who dares refer to them, for example on social media, is viciously attacked.

Swiss parliament building

Denigration of ethnic groups

Michael Hess, a local politician from Sweden Democrat Party, encouraged Swedish journalists to get acquainted with Islam's view of women, in connection with the many rapes that took place in Cairo's Tahrir Square during the "Arab Spring". Hess wrote, "When will you journalists realize that it is deeply rooted in Islam's culture to rape and brutalize women who refuse to comply with Islamic teachings. There is a strong connection between rapes in Sweden and the number of immigrants from MENA-countries [Middle East and North Africa]."

This remark led to Michael Hess being charged with "denigration of ethnic groups" [hets mot folkgrupp], a crime in Sweden. In May last year, he was handed a suspended jail sentence and a fine -- the suspension was due to the fact that he had no prior convictions. The verdict has been appealed to a higher court.

For many years, Michael Hess lived in Muslim countries, and he is well acquainted with Islam and its view of women. During his trial, he provided evidence of how sharia law deals with rape, and statistics to indicate that Muslims are vastly overrepresented among perpetrators of rape in Sweden. However, the court decided that facts were irrelevant:

"The Court [Tingsrätten] notes that the question of whether or not Michael Hess's pronouncement is true, or appeared to be true to Michael Hess, has no bearing on the case. Michael Hess's statement must be judged based on its timing and context. ... At the time of the offense, Michael Hess referred neither to established research nor to Islamic sources. It was only in connection with his indictment that Michael Hess tried to find support in research and religious writings. The Court therefore notes that Michael Hess's pronouncement was obviously not a part of any reasoned [saklig] or trustworthy [vederhäftig] discussion. Michael Hess's pronouncement must therefore be viewed as an expression of disdain for immigrants with an Islamic faith."

Have you ever heard anything so astonishing? Are Swiss judges really that stupid? What he's saying is that Hess's comments were true, but because he didn't document the proof when making the statements - he's a racist.

Statistical evidence

What may one conclude from the available statistics?

As part of the evidence Michael Hess presented in court, he made use of whatever statistics existed on immigrant criminality in Sweden before the statistical authorities stopped measuring. Michael Hess tried to find answers to two questions:

Is there a correspondence between the incidence of rape and the number of people with a foreign background in Sweden?
Is there a correspondence between the incidence of rape and some specific group of immigrants in Sweden?

The answer to both questions was an unequivocal Yes. Twenty-one research reports from the 1960s until today are unanimous in their conclusions: Whether or not they measured by the number of convicted rapists or men suspected of rape, men of foreign extraction were represented far more than Swedes. And this greater representation of persons with a foreign background keeps increasing:

1960-1970s – 1.2 to 2.6 times as often as Swedes
1980s – 2.1 to 4.7 times as often as Swedes
1990s – 2.1 to 8.1 times as often as Swedes
2000s – 2.1 to 19.5 times as often as Swedes

Even when adjusted for variables such as age, sex, class and place of residence, the huge discrepancy between immigrants and Swedes remains.

Research reports on crime in Sweden have become a rarity, but among the eighteen that were done during the 1990s and the 2000s, eleven dealt with rape. Two of these reports dealt with the connection between rape and immigration, and they both confirmed that there is a link.

These figures are available to the authorities, the politicians and the press, yet they insist that these numbers do not mirror reality.

Glaring discrepancy

How is it, then, that in 2008, Sweden's neighbor Denmark only had 7.3 rapes per 100,000 inhabitants compared to 53.2 in Sweden?

Danish legislation is not very different from Sweden's, and there is no obvious reason why Danish women should be less inclined to report rape than their Swedish counterparts.

In 2011, 6,509 rapes were reported to the Swedish police -- but only 392 in Denmark. The population of Denmark is about half the size of Sweden's, so even adjusted for size, the discrepancy is significant.

In Sweden, the authorities do what they can to conceal the origin of the rapists. In Denmark, the state's official statistical office, Statistics Denmark, revealed that in 2010 more than half of convicted rapists had an immigrant background.

We also know from this report that half of all rapes in Norway were committed by Muslims, and every single violent rape in Oslo for the past 5 years was committed by someone of non-western heritage.

Furthermore, it appears that almost all the rapist/traffickers/druggers/thugs who horribly abused more than 1400 young, white teenage girls in Rotherham, England, were Pakistani Muslims. One MP estimates that there may be one million girls being abused in the UK. Most, if not all of them are being abused at the hands of Muslims.

Foreigners overrepresented

Since 2000, there has only been one research report on immigrant crime. It was done in 2006 by Ann-Christine Hjelm from Karlstads University.

It emerged that in 2002, 85% of those sentenced to at least two years in prison for rape in Svea Hovrätt, a court of appeals, were foreign born or second-generation immigrants.

A 1996 report by the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention reached the conclusion that immigrants from North Africa (Algeria, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia) were 23 times as likely to commit rape as Swedish men. The figures for men from Iraq, Bulgaria and Romania were, respectively, 20, 18 and 18. Men from the rest of Africa were 16 times more prone to commit rape; and men from Iran, Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia, 10 times as prone as Swedish men.

Gang rapes

A new trend reached Sweden with full force over the past few decades: gang rape -- virtually unknown before in Swedish criminal history. The number of gang rapes increased spectacularly between 1995 and 2006. Since then no studies of them have been undertaken.

One of the worst cases occurred in 2012, when a 30-year old woman was raped by eight men in a housing project for asylum seekers, in the small town of Mariannelund. The woman was an acquaintance of a man from Afghanistan who had lived in Sweden for a number of years. He invited her to go out with him. She obliged. The Afghan man took her to a refugee housing project and left her defenseless. During the night, she was raped repeatedly by the asylum seekers and when her "friend" returned, he raped her too. The following morning she managed to call the police. Sweden's public prosecutor has called the incident "the worst crime of rape in Swedish criminal history."

Seven of the men were sentenced to between 4.5 and 6.5 years in prison. Prison time is usually reduced by a third, so it won't be long before the men will be ready for new assaults -- presumably on infidel women.

In cases of gang rape, culprits and victims are most often young and in almost every case, the perpetrators are of immigrant background, mostly from Muslim countries. In an astounding number of cases, the Swedish courts have demonstrated sympathy for the rapists. Several times the courts have acquitted suspects who have claimed that the girl wanted sex with six, seven or eight men.

One striking incident occurred in 2013, in the Stockholm suburb of Tensta. A 15-year-old girl was locked up while six men of foreign extraction had sex with her. The lower court convicted the six men but the court of appeals acquitted them because no violence had occurred, and because the court determined that the girl "had not been in a defenseless position."

This month, all major Swedish media reported on a brutal gang rape on board the Finnish Ferry Amorella, running between Stockholm and Åbo in Finland. Big headlines told the readers that the perpetrators were Swedish:

"Several Swedish Men Suspected of Rape on the Finland Ferry" (Dagens Nyheter).
"Six Swedish Men Raped Woman in Cabin" (Aftonbladet).
"Six Swedes Arrested for Rape on Ferry" (Expressen).
"Eight Swedes Suspected of Rape on Ferry" (TT – the Swedish News Agency).

On closer inspection, it turned out that seven of the eight suspects were Somalis and one was Iraqi. None of them had Swedish citizenship, so they were not even Swedish in that sense. According to witnesses, the group of men had been scouring the ferry looking for sex. The police released four of them (but they are still suspects) whereas four (all Somalis) remain in custody.

The internet radio station Granskning Sverige called the mainstream newspapers Aftonposten and Expressen to ask why they had described the perpetrators as "Swedish men" when they were actually Somalis. That is irrelevant, said the journalists. They were hugely offended when asked if they felt any responsibility to warn Swedish women to stay away from certain men. One journalist asked why that should be their responsibility.

"If the women knew, then perhaps they would have stayed away from these men and avoided being raped," said the reporter from Granskning Sverige. Whereupon the journalist slammed down the phone.

This is the kind of remarkable stupidity that will destroy Sweden in the next generation. The insane protection of Muslims who brutally rape Swedish girls, and the unwillingness to face the problem, even by the media, endangers every girl and young woman in Sweden. But it appears the government, the judiciary, and the media are fine with that!

Ingrid Carlqvist and Lars Hedegaard are editors-in-chief of Dispatch International.