Canada's 1st Nations Children Finally to be Compensated - But Will it Help?

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Canada agrees to ‘historic reparations’ for 200,000 indigenous children

Billions of dollars will be paid in compensation to the victims of ‘discriminatory’

First Nations child welfare system

A memorial in British Columbia for indigenous people subject to Canada’s residential School system. September 30, 2021. © Getty Images / Alex Ratson

The Canadian government has reached a “milestone” $31-billion settlement to compensate indigenous children and families harmed by the “discriminatory underfunding” of the child welfare system on First Nations reservations.

Two in-principle agreements – relating to compensation for more than 200,000 affected children dating back to 1991, and to future reform of the system – represent the “largest settlement in Canadian history,” Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller said on Tuesday.

Marc Miller is gaining a reputation for getting things done. As such, he stands out among Liberal Ministers.

Noting that “historic injustices require historic reparations,” Miller said that “no amount of money can reverse the harms experienced” and described the deals as an acknowledgement that successive governments had failed indigenous children.

Once finalized, the settlement will conclude a long-running legal battle, which began in 2007 with a complaint by the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society to the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal (CHRT). In 2016, the tribunal ruled that Ottawa had underfunded services for First Nations children relative to those for non-indigenous children.

The Canadian government appealed the CHRT verdict, which ordered it to pay compensation worth Can$40,000 (US$31,455) to every indigenous child who had been removed from their family through the system or been forced to leave their home.

After losing that appeal last year, the government entered formal negotiations with indigenous groups instead of taking the matter to the Supreme Court. The discussions concluded on New Year’s Eve. Justice Minister David Lametti said the government would withdraw its appeals once the agreements are finalized.

Describing the deal as “words on paper,” Cindy Blackstock, executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society, told Reuters that the Can$20 billion in funds earmarked for system reform may not tackle deep-rooted problems.

Deep-rooted is right. The roots go back well over 100 years to the residential school disgrace. Child abuse and child sexual abuse emerged from the inhumane treatment of 1st Nations people for over 100 years and continues today through generational abuse. 

I don't have the details of how this payment will work, but I have a lot of questions. I really hope it does work and brings closure to abused children and adults. However, Trudeau throws money around like there is no end to it. His father did the same and nearly bankrupted Canada. Justin, will certainly complete his father's failure. Where will the victims of child abuse stand when Canada goes under, and it will.

Having lived around indigenous people for many years, and having experience in fostering abused children, I know that in some 1st Nations communities there are more abused and neglected children than there are families who can foster those children. Social workers weren't always wrong in moving aboriginal children into homes of white families, not by a long shot. Some would probably not be alive otherwise.

How does the government improve the ability of parents and grandparents to be good child-carers when they have been abused themselves? I don't know the answer to that question. Perhaps 1st Nations people know the answer, but something needs to be done here or the government is just throwing money into the wind.

“I judge victory when I can walk into a community and a child is able to say to me, ‘My life is better than it was yesterday.’ Nothing in these words actually changes children’s lives until it’s implemented,” Blackstock said.

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Approaching Sodom > UNHRC Interfering in Internal Affairs; USAF and Gender Pronouns; Ex-Cop Wins Right to Criticize Xgenders; Governor Out to Destroy Families

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UN Human Rights Office to Litigate LGBT and Abortion

in Latin America

By Stefano Gennarini, J.D. | 

December 17, 2021

NEW YORK, December 17 (C-Fam) The UN human rights office has launched a new initiative to promote judicial activism on gender issues in Central and South America, including abortion and the LGBT agenda.

The UN human rights office established an organization to promote strategic litigation, legal reforms, and legal education on gender issues in Central and South America, regions where laws remain highly protective of children in the womb. While the organization, called the Latin American Network for Gender-based Strategic Litigation, focuses mostly on violence against women, it also promotes abortion as an international right following the recommendations of the UN human rights bodies.

The UN report on which the organization’s work is based describes “access to safe and legal abortion” as a human right and calls on advocates across Latin America to promote the denial of abortion as a criminal act of “reproductive violence.”

“To change laws, judicial practice, and the patriarchal culture that surrounds the investigation and punishment of crimes of sexual and gender based violence remains the central challenge,” said the coordinators of the group and American University professors Susana SáCouto and Claudia Martin in a blog.

The website of the organization promotes the rulings of Latin American courts promoting abortion as models to be followed, including controversial cases that have been dubbed judicial activism, or attempts by judges to impose their policy preferences in disregard of the will of the people as expressed by their elected representatives.

Despite much international pressure, Central and Latin America remain stubbornly pro-life, and democratic votes as well as referendums on abortion tend to yield pro-life results. That is why abortion advocates and the governments who back them are turning more and more to the judiciary and law-enforcement, even if this technically is a form of interfering in the internal affairs of countries, something prohibited by the UN Charter.

The initiative of the UN human rights office is only the latest effort of the UN office and powerful western countries to train judges, lawyers, activists, and law-enforcement personnel in the region to promote abortion.

Several UN agencies have long promoted the notion that denial of abortion should be a crime under international law. Ongoing programs from the UN human rights office as well as other programs carried out in the region with money from western donors link gender-based violence with the enforcement of abortion laws.

According to a 2014 Latin American Model Protocol for the investigation of gender-related killings of women prepared by the UN agencies, “deaths due to unsafe or clandestine abortions” should be considered “passive or indirect category of femicides.”

What about the deaths of the children being aborted? Are they not infanticide?

The UN rights office and UN agencies run workshops in the region for legal and law-enforcement personnel every year, according to reports prepared by the UN human rights office. In Central America, the regional offices of the UN human rights bureaucracy routinely promote abortion. And internal evaluations of the UN human rights office praise the role of “gender advisors” within the UN bureaucracy for promoting abortion and the LGBT agenda in Latin America and across the world.

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US Air Force embraces gender pronouns

19 Dec, 2021 16:27

FILE PHOTO © Reuters / Shannon Stapleton

The US Air Force has authorized the use of gender pronouns in electronic signature boxes, further embracing the controversial woke lexicon that other branches of government were criticized for adopting earlier this year.

The military division authorized using gender pronouns in a piece of correspondence earlier this month, which was made public over the weekend. The document states that while the “use of pronouns (he/him, she/her, or they/them) in an email signature is authorized,” it is “not required.”

The signature block in Air Force email templates is otherwise restricted to name, rank, service affiliation, duty title, organization name, phone numbers, and social media contact information. Under the new rules, pronouns will be added to that list.

It’s unclear if there was a specific incident that provoked the move on behalf of the Air Force or if this was simply part of the US military’s onward march toward wokeness under President Joe Biden and his Pentagon chief, Lloyd Austin, who has pledged to cleanse the military of “deep-rooted racism and discrimination.”

Biden’s pick to lead the Defense Department has ruffled some feathers in the military, as Austin has repeatedly suggested that some of the nation’s worst enemies “lie within our own ranks.” That image hasn’t improved with the department moving to dishonorably discharge those service members who choose not to receive the Covid-19 vaccine.

The Biden administration is determined to roll out the red carpet for LGBTQ recruits, running ads featuring a lesbian wedding and a Pride parade as well as ones featuring new military members describing themselves in ‘intersectional’ terms. Another video, this one the animated story of a real person, illustrated the upbringing of an army corporal with “two mommies.”

The administration’s embrace of woke-speak – especially gender pronouns – has attracted derision from political opponents. The State Department was mocked for celebrating ‘International Pronouns Day’ in October even as chaos seemingly broke loose around the world, from the ongoing failure to rescue Americans trapped in Afghanistan under Taliban rule to reports of China’s hypersonic missile launch. 

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‘Gender critical’ ex-cop wins free speech judgment

20 Dec, 2021 19:52

Police officers stand guard during a demonstration outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London.

October 28, 2021. © AFP / Tolga Akmen

A former police officer has scored a legal victory over a UK police policy that records “gender critical” views as “non-crime hate incidents,” after a court ruled it unlawfully interferes with the right to freedom of expression.

In January 2020, Harry Miller was visited by former colleagues at Humberside Police after a member of the public complained about his allegedly “transphobic” tweets. The complaint was designated as a non-crime hate incident and recorded on a national database.

On Monday, however, the Court of Appeal in London ruled that the guidance – issued by the College of Policing – had been unlawfully used, and noted it’d had a “chilling effect” on Miller’s freedom of speech. The presiding judges also found that, while the guidance had legitimate crime prevention purposes, those aims could be met through less intrusive means.

Following the verdict, Miller said that being offensive was one of the “cornerstones of freedom” and that it “is not, and cannot, and should not be an offence” unless “speech turns to malicious communication or targeted harassment against an individual.”

According to the guidance on hate crimes, a ‘non-crime hate incident’ can be “any non-crime incident which is perceived, by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by a hostility or prejudice.”

The complaint against Miller was in relation to a number of his tweets about transgender issues as part of the debate about reforming the Gender Recognition Act 2004. In one tweet, he reportedly wrote, “I was assigned mammal at birth, but my orientation is fish. Don’t mis-species me.”

Last year, the High Court had upheld Miller’s challenge against Humberside Police’s actions, ruling that they were a “disproportionate interference” with his right to free expression. However, it dismissed his case against the guidance on the grounds that it “serves legitimate purposes and is not disproportionate.”

However, Justice Victoria Sharp said on Monday that the “recording of non-crime hate incidents is plainly an interference with freedom of expression” and that the “knowledge that such matters are being recorded and stored in a police database is likely to have a serious ‘chilling effect’ on public debate.”

Mr Miller belongs to a group of people who could easily be stigmatized for their opinions and be subject to complaints by those offended by his views.

After the ruling, Assistant Chief Constable Iain Raphael of the College of Policing said it had tried to strike a balance “between the need to protect vulnerable people and communities from harm with the need to facilitate and protect freedom of speech.”

This is a brilliant judgment, although if Miller was an active policeman I can see problems with it.

Illinois Governor Signs Law Letting Teen Girls Get an Abortion

without Parents Knowing

Michael Foust | 

ChristianHeadlines.com Contributor | 

Wednesday, December 22, 2021

Saying he was “protecting reproductive rights,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signed a bill into law Friday that allows teenage girls to obtain an abortion without notifying their parents.

The new law, dubbed the “Youth Health and Safety Act” (HB 370), repeals a 1995 law that required minors to notify their parent or guardian 48 hours prior to having an abortion.

“With reproductive rights under attack across the nation, Illinois is once again establishing itself as a leader in ensuring access to healthcare services,” Pritzker said. “This repeal was essential, because it was the most vulnerable pregnant minors who were punished by this law: victims of rape and physical abuse in unsafe homes.”

Despite Pritzker’s reasoning, the 1995 law included an exception for victims of sexual abuse. It also allowed minors to petition for a court waiver if, for example, the minor came from an abusive home.

The new law’s legislative findings pointed to abortion restrictions in Mississippi and Texas and asserted that Illinois “again is called to be an example for the nation in the protection of reproductive health care” while also “working to establish healthy family communications, protecting the health and safety of youth including those who are pregnant and parenting, and investing in individuals throughout their lives.”

Of course, this law does the complete opposite. Communications breakdown between parents and children when one starts to lie to the other. This law encourages that to happen.

Supporters of the 1995 law, though, said the new law harms parent-child relationships.

“I am the father of a teenage girl. I love my daughter, and I care very deeply about what goes on in her life,” Jon Jones, a pastor at the Tinley Park campus of Christian Life Center in Illinois, said in urging legislators to back the ‘95 law. “If she were to get pregnant and consider an abortion, I would want to know so my wife and I could help her deal with the unexpected situation because we love her. We feel it is our duty to protect and guide her. We are family, and we deal with matters together. The state should not seek to interfere with our relationship.”

“The current law requiring that a parent or an adult family member be notified when a minor girl is seeking an abortion to us just makes common sense in a supportive family, which is the bedrock of society,” Jones said.

A March 2021 poll found that 72 percent of Illinois voters – including 58 percent of pro-choice voters – supported the parental notification law.

But, of course, the governor knows better!

The legislative findings of the 1995 law said, “the medical, emotional, and psychological consequences of abortion are sometimes serious and long-lasting, and immature minors often lack the ability to make fully informed choices that consider both the immediate and long-range consequences.”

The new law takes effect on January 1, 2024.

There's still time to reverse it!

Gender Madness - The #PCMadness of the Woke Generation is Destroying a Generation of Children and Their Families

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Australian authorities seize child, rule parents ABUSIVE for resisting hormone therapy to help daughter become son

29 Nov, 2020 21:53 

An Australian couple whose child was reportedly seized by state authorities is appealing a magistrate's ruling finding them abusive and “dangerous” for resisting testosterone therapy for their daughter, who identifies as male.

Lawyers for the unidentified parents filed papers last week seeking to appeal a magistrate's October decision, setting up what appears to be the country's first test case on parental rights regarding gender dysphoria medicine, the Australian newspaper reported on Saturday. Their child, then 15, was taken away from the family last year, after discussing suicide online.

“The authorities say we will not allow her to change gender, so it's dangerous for told her to come back to our house because we will mentally abuse her,” the father the Australian. “They want us to consent to testosterone treatment.”

The parents are seeking an independent psychological review of all possible causes of their child's depression, as well as consideration of non-invasive treatment options. The teen struggled after losing friends at 13, when the family relocated, and those difficulties were compounded by a difficult start to puberty and anxiety about eating and body image, the mother said.

The family migrated to Australia a decade ago, the newspaper said, without identifying their native country. The magistrate found that the teen likely suffered verbal abuse over “his feelings and expression of gender identity,” which the parents denied.

“the end of parenting as we knew it.”

Lawyers for the child earlier this month filed papers seeking approval to begin hormone therapy.

A Twitter commenter who said her own daughter suffered from rapid onset gender dysphoria, said state interventions such as in the Australia case mark “the end of parenting as we knew it.”

We have no rights. Our children can be seriously harmed by the government and medical profession, and we are powerless to stop it.

As the debate on treatment for gender dysphoria heats up in Australia, some US states are creating exceptions to parental consent laws to enable children to get such treatments as hormone therapy and sex-change surgeries without parental consent. 

Starting this year, children as young as 13 in Washington state have been allowed to obtain confidential treatment for gender dysphoria, billed to their parent's insurance plan and done without parental consent.

“Hard to overstate how radical this is,” Abigail Shrier, journalist and ‘Irreversible Damage’ author, tweeted. “States are intervening in a loving relationship between parent and minor child and declaring: 

‘We will physically transform the child against your wishes and behind your back.’”

What madness! More than 50% of girls who transition to boys attempt suicide afterward. 85% of gender-confused kids will revert to the biological sex after puberty. Puberty blockers should be illegal and are certainly utterly evil.

Dad Horrified as Public School Convinces Daughter She’s a ‘Boy’…and He Can’t Stop It

Jonathon Van Maren
LifeSite News

Over the past several years of writing on the subject of the transgender phenomenon, I’ve received many phone calls and emails from despairing parents. The details are always different, but the stories are always very much the same: Their child, often struggling with body image issues, autism, or mental illness, was persuaded by peers and the public school establishment that he or she—usually she—was transgender. Other possibilities are almost always rejected, and often the parents face threats from the school authorities or social services for not being “affirming” enough of their child’s desire to switch genders. The results are always heartbreaking.

One recent example was detailed this month in USA Today by Jay Keck, a suburban dad who lives just outside of Chicago. His nightmare began in April of 2016, when his 14-year-old daughter became convinced that she was in fact a boy—with the staff of the public school in Hinsdale District #86 emphatically endorsing this delusion and opposing Keck’s attempts to help his daughter every step of the way. In fact, the teenage girl, who had shown no indication of gender dysphoria or a desire to be male throughout her childhood, is on the autism spectrum—a fact her school ignored when she declared herself to be transgender after beginning to hang out with another girl who professed to be a "boy" trapped in a female body. 

Keck’s daughter chose a male name, and the school staff—“who had full knowledge of her mental health challenges”—began using that name without telling either Keck or his wife. They began to treat the teenage girl as a male, referring to her as “he” and “him,” and when her parents finally discovered what was going on and requested that their daughter be referred to by her legal name, they ignored their wishes. When challenged, the assistant superintendent of the school district claimed that this was because they were simply following the law, but as Keck pointed out, there was no such law, only a 2016 directive from the Obama administration “that said schools need to officially affirm transgender students”—guidelines that were blocked by a judge that same year and rolled back by the Trump administration in 2017.

Things soon got even worse. As Keck described it:

My daughter told me that the school social worker was advising her about halfway houses because he thought we did not support her. The social worker confirmed this when I scheduled a meeting with him to discuss it. This felt like a horrifying attempt to encourage our daughter to run away from home.

We had our daughter evaluated by a psychologist approved by the school district. He told us that it was very clear that our daughter’s sudden transgender identity was driven by her underlying mental health conditions, but would only share his thoughts off the record because he feared the potential backlash he would receive. In the report he submitted to us and the school, he did not include these concerns that he would only share in person.

In my attempts over the past several years to get help for my daughter, what I have learned has shocked me.

The National Education Association has partnered with the Human Rights Campaign and other groups to produce materials advocating automatic affirmation of identities, name changes and pronouns, regardless of parents’ concerns. In 18 states and the District of Columbia, including in my home state of Illinois, there are “conversion therapy” bans, which prevent therapists from questioning a child’s gender identity. No wonder my daughter’s therapist would only speak to me off the record.

Some agencies, like the New Jersey Department of Education, warn school districts to “be mindful of disputes” between children and their parents over gender identity. The department's “Transgender Student Guidance” document refers educators to the state’s "Child Abuse, Neglect, and Missing Children" webpage, suggesting that school staff might be encouraged to report parents if they disagree with their child transitioning.  

In short: the introduction of transgender curriculum in public schools is quite literally resulting in the recruitment of children to the transgender cause, introducing confusion that is having predictable but devastating effects. Parents are often afraid to speak out, and professionals often decline to state their actual analysis on the record for fear of being attacked by the LGBT mob. As a result children and teenagers are being given so-called “treatments” that are blocking puberty—and some are even getting mastectomies and orchiectomies (which consist of the surgical removal of the testicles.) The results are irreversible.

School officials are determined to cut parents who are desperate to help their children out of the equation—when Keck and his wife requested that her legal name be used at graduation, the school rejected this and used a male name, instead.

“Now, thanks in large part to my daughter’s school, my daughter is more convinced than ever that she is a boy and that testosterone may be necessary for her to become her authentic self,” Keck wrote. “She turned 18 in late June and life-altering, dangerous testosterone injections are just one ‘informed consent form’ away. She can turn to any one of Illinois’s 17 Planned Parenthood clinics for cheap and easy access. No extensive mental health assessment will be required, and there will be nothing I can do to stop her.”

I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again: The transgender phenomenon is destroying children and teens, and there will be much suffering in the years ahead as boys and girls grow up to grapple with the permanent decisions that adults are facilitating and enabling. In the meantime, if your children are in public school, pull them out—now. You won’t regret it. Our public schools are now the ground zero of a grand cultural experiment, and children are the guinea pigs. Make sure that your children are safe. 

There is already much suffering happening as suicide attempts by transgender youth is sky-rocketing. Not because they are bullied, but because they eventually realize they made a colossal mistake and have no way to correct it.

Gut-Wrenching Stories from UK-2; Ireland-2; India; Colombia; Iceland; So Africa; Australia; Russia on Today's Global PnP List

3 daughters ‘snapped’ & stabbed father to death after years of alleged abuse in Moscow horror drama

The Khachaturyan sisters. Images from social media.

His body lacerated with dozens of stab wounds, Mikhail Khachaturyan stumbled from his Moscow flat and collapsed dead by the elevator. Disturbingly, for his teenage daughters, his death came as a relief after years of abuse.

Khachaturyan’s daughters – Kristina, 19, Angelina, 18, and Maria, 17 – have been arrested and charged with stabbing their father to death on Friday, Russian law enforcement has confirmed.

While Mikhail Khachaturyan strove to present himself as a decent, religious type, neighbors called him a controlling, “abusive”“mafia boss” and his daughters readily admitted to the murder, claiming that they’d violently snapped after years of physical, mental and sexual abuse.

“We hated him and we wanted just one thing to happen – either that he disappeared or that we never knew him,” Kristina told the police. “We wanted him just to go away and never come back.”

Friends and neighbors claimed that Khachaturyan was a tyrannical father and husband, who had developed a heroin habit and reportedly had connections with the criminal underworld. Khachaturyan’s abusive behavior drove away his wife, the girls’ mother. Khachaturyan’s son, in his 20s, also lives away from home.

Left at home with the three girls, the 57-year-old fitted the family apartment with cameras to snoop on the girls while he was away, often forbade them from going to school, and subjected them to beatings if they dared to defy him.

“He was always beating them,” said a family friend. “Once he took them to a forest and threatened to kill them. The mother ran away from him, he banned all communication with her.”

Another friend told Telegram news channel Mash that Khachaturyan would beat the girls savagely, but would avoid leaving visible bruises, lest anyone find out the extent of his abuse. However, his punishments were often more creatively sadistic than simple beatings.

Another family friend alleges that Khachaturyan flew into a rage when he found a dog hair on the carpet. He summoned one of his daughters to the room, made her brush the dog and eat its hair as punishment.

By far the most severe allegations against Khachaturyan are sexual. According to 112, another local Telegram news channel, the father raped one of his daughters, driving the teenager to attempt suicide.

“After the sexual attack, she took a lot of pills but was rescued by doctors. The father persuaded the medics that it was not a suicide attempt but just a mistake,” 112 reported. A family friend corroborated the story, saying she knew at least one girl had been “sexually abused,” while another said that the depraved father was “constantly seducing” his daughters.

The girls’ estranged brother would sometimes visit. After he stopped by with a male friend, Khachaturyan became convinced that the girls had sex with the male visitor.

“So you all did it together with him, all three of you?” he raged at the girls. “All of you are whores, and you will die as whores,” he thundered, in a rant recorded on audio tape.

“You will suck all the time if you don’t go away,” he told them. “And if you go away I will find you, you whores...I will f**k you and you will regret it. You won’t have time to regret.”

“I will beat you...I will kill you. Go away, go away, don’t push me to sin,” he continued.

Accounts of Khachaturyan’s death vary. One Moscow news agency dramatically describes how the girls planned their father’s murder in advance, with 17-year-old Maria stabbing him 35 times in the neck and body, 18-year-old Angelina raining hammer blows onto his head, and 19-year-old Kristina emptying a can of pepper spray into his face before driving a knife through his heart.

According to another version, Khachaturyan returned home under the influence of drugs, and came at one of the girls with a knife, wounding her. The other girls overpowered their father, turning the knife on him and stabbing him to death.

While the blow-by-blow details of the fateful night have yet to be established, the girls have pleaded guilty to their father’s death.

“During the interrogation, the girls pleaded guilty and explained that they had developed hostile relations with their father because of moral suffering for them for a long time," a spokesperson for the Investigative Committee of Russia said on Monday. Charged with murder, the girls now face a maximum sentence of between 10 and 15 years imprisonment.

Khachaturyan presented himself in public as a devoted religious believer and allegedly forced his daughters to hang religious icons in the house. When police searched his Audi Q7 SUV, they found evidence of a different lifestyle. Two kilograms of heroin, two rifles, three handguns and a signal flare gun were all reportedly recovered from the man’s vehicle.

“I don’t know what happened,” an unnamed relative told REN TV. “I don’t know who to believe.”

The gruesome allegations have already raised a moral debate about the murder.

“When all your life is a long nightmare, full of constant traumas, physical and mental,” said a family friend, “Would you have done any different if you were in their shoes?”

Australian archbishop resigns over hiding child abuse

Yesterday a Cardinal; today an ArchBishop;

they can't resign fast enough for me.

By Danielle Haynes

UPI -- Pope Francis on Monday accepted the resignation of Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson less than a month after he was sentenced to a year in detention for failing to report decades-old child abuse allegations.

Wilson was the most senior Catholic official to be convicted on the charge. Magistrate Robert Stone sentenced the 67-year-old on July 3, but delayed a hearing to determine whether he could be given home confinement.

Wilson "decided that his conviction means he can no longer continue as archbishop because to do so would continue to cause pain and distress to many, especially to survivors and also in the Archdiocese of Adelaide," a statement from the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference said.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was among a number of political and religious leaders who called on Wilson to step down from his post. "There is no more important responsibility for community and church leaders than the protection of children," Turnbull said.

Wilson was convicted in May for concealing the abuse of pedophile James Fletcher during the 1970s. Fletcher was convicted in 2004 and died in prison.

Stone said Wilson failed to act because "he wanted to protect the church and its image." Wilson initially said he would step aside from his duties but wouldn't resign.

Instead of protecting the church's image, he reinforced it as a self-serving, hypocritical, embarrassment to God.

Dan Feenan, a victim of Fletcher, said "it is about time" for Wilson to resign.

"I would like thank Malcolm Turnbull our PM and other political and community leaders in Australia for their unwavering support in calling for Wilson to resign as his position was untenable. This will go a long way towards the healing process for myself and I'm sure other victims of James Patrick Fletcher," he said.

Wilson began his term as archbishop in 2001, replacing retiring Leonard Faulkner. Prior to that, Wilson was bishop of Wollongong for five years and served as president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference from 2006 to 2010.

Sex abuse trial against So. African boys water polo coach postponed

The case against the water polo coach who allegedly sexually assaulted pupils at Parktown Boys High has been postponed to August.

The case continued in the Palm Ridge Magistrate's Court on Monday where the accused's lawyer withdrew from the case, saying he hadn't been paid.

The suspect will now seek legal aid before his next appearance.

Convener of the Johannesburg Child Advocacy Forum, Luke Lamprecht explains how the children affected will be expected to testify.

Children should testify via an intermediary and what happens in those cases is somebody who sits in a separate room with children and it is seen via CCTV in the courtroom. The intermediary needs to ask the questions in a way that is developmentally appropriate and not traumatising to the child.

You might expect that the parents of the child witness would be in the courtroom, but certainly, when the child witnesses testify nobody should be in the courtroom except somebody who is directly pertinent to the case which would be a parent.

UK couple who tricked daughter into forced marriage in Bangladesh jailed for eight years

Father threatened to slit her throat and to 'chop her up'

if she did not agree

Harriet Agerholm, The Independent

A couple from Leeds have been jailed for a total of eight years for forcing their teenage daughter to get married.

The pair were convicted in May after they tricked the 18-year-old into travelling to Bangladesh, before threatening her with violence if she did not marry her cousin.

In 2016 the defendants told their children they were travelling to a Bangladesh for a holiday to visit relatives. When they arrived in a remote village, the victim was told she was to be married to her cousin. 

The teenager contacted the British High Commission and they collaborated with Bangladeshi authorities to bring her safely back to the UK.

In May, the parents were found guilty of forced marriage and using violence, threats and coercion.

Speaking at the time of the conviction in May, Michael Quinn from the CPS said: “This victim was cruelly and deliberately misled by her parents who were determined to take her to Bangladesh for a marriage she did not want. Once she was there, they told her that whether or not she agreed, she would be married, and that wedding arrangements were already in hand.

“When she refused, she was assaulted and threatened with further violence. She showed courage in contacting the authorities for help, and provided valuable assistance with the investigation and prosecution of these offences.

“This successful prosecution sends a clear message that forced marriage is a very serious crime and those responsible will be prosecuted.”

They will be prosecuted if the girl is as courageous as this one, otherwise, nothing will be done.

Shocking Acquittal in Iceland Child Sex Abuse Case

Yesterday, The Reykjanes District Court acquitted a man who had been charged with sexual violence against four children and one young man. The man was subsequently released, but he had been detained by police for more than six months. The verdict had not yet been posted on the court’s website last night, nor were lawyers willing to release it. The man was acquitted on all accounts.

The accused served as a support representative for Reykjavík Child Services, but the incidents he was accused of were not work-related. He was charged by the district prosecutor on May 11. The case received a great deal of attention, for an internal review of the Government Agency for Child Protection and the Reykjavík Welfare Division regarding how reports or tips to the Reykjavík Child services are to be handled, revealed that mistakes were made when officials failed to act in 2008, after the man was reported. The police, furthermore, admitted having made a mistake when the man’s alleged sexual violation was reported, by failing to look right away into what kind of employment he had. He, therefore, continued to work among children.

“In this case, there is not just one person filing charges, but five individuals, and not all of them are related,” Sævar Þór Jónsson, a lawyer and legal representative for two of the individuals who charged the man, told Morgunblaðið when the verdict was in.

“With regard to my clients, the testimony was very credible, records and more, but the judge did not believe there was basis for conviction,” Sævar added. He pointed out that the verdict describes his client’s testimony as credible, and that it states there is a probability of guilt. The judge noted, however, that the family of  the client had had time to discuss the matter among them and that diminished the credibility of the case.

What a disgraceful decision! Because of incompetence by Child Services and the police, it took 10 years to prosecute the guy. Consequently, the testimony of 5 victims is regarded as less reliable than that of the defendant. The judge should resign and Iceland's judicial system should try entering the 21st century.

A spokesperson for Stígamót, an education and counseling center for survivors of sexual abuse and violence, would not comment on the verdict without having read it, and the same was true for the head of the Government Agency for Child Protection.

Colombian authorities arrest 18 in child sex trafficking ring of 250+ girls

Colombian President Elect Ivan Duque pledged to step up efforts to fight sex trafficking in the tourist city of Cartagena, following the arrest of 18 people charged with the sexual exploitation of more than 250 women and girls.

Those arrested over the weekend include foreigners, hotel owners, policemen, a navy captain who forced his victims to tattoo his name on their bodies, and a Colombian woman known as ‘Madame’ who authorities say led a sex trafficking ring.

Charges include recruiting and selling girls aged 14 to 17 into the sex trade in Cartagena and abroad, and forcing them to have sex with locals and tourists. Cartagena, on the country’s Caribbean coast, attracts hundreds of thousands of foreign tourists a year to visit its colonial-era ramparts and squares. But the three-day sting operation, which ended on Sunday, has also exposed rampant child sex abuse.

“We will not allow Cartagena to become a sexual tourism destination,” Duque tweeted on Monday, promising to “attack human trafficking and the exploitation of women in our cities and tourist destinations.”

In separate tweets, Duque, who takes over the presidency on August 7, said those found guilty should receive the maximum prison sentences possible–up to 40 years–to help prevent such ‘atrocious’ crimes from recurring.

Over six months leading up to the bust, police and prosecutors collected evidence using hidden cameras in tourist areas, including hotels, squares and streets. It was one of the biggest operations to combat child sex trafficking and forced prostitution in Cartagena, authorities said.

In a statement, the attorney general’s office described the victims as “real slaves of the 21st century.” ‘Madame’ is charged with trafficking girls and young women abroad, in particular to nearby Caribbean islands, according to the attorney general’s office.

Traffickers would prey on girls and women living in Cartagena’s slums, promising them jobs and offering to arrange their passports and visas.

“When the victims arrived to the country where they hoped to work, they come across a very different reality,” the attorney general’s office said. “They were stripped of their documents, locked up and exploited sexually.”

Prosecutors are also investigating the ‘abhorrent’ case of a navy captain who, they said, has accepted the charges against him.

“There is abundant evidence that indicates that he located girls under the age of 14 on social networks, abused them, bought their silence, and ordered them to tattoo his name on parts of their bodies,” the attorney general’s office said.

Attorney General Nestor Humberto Martinez noted that many of the victims discovered during the operation were from neighbouring Venezuela. With their country embroiled in economic and political turmoil, about 672,000 Venezuelans have crossed the border since 2015, according to Colombian authorities.

Campaigners warn that many of the migrants are vulnerable to exploitation by traffickers, while some have joined the sex trade out of desperation.

How TISS team blew the lid off Bihar, India's

child sexual abuse case

By Aman Sharma, ET Bureau

NEW DELHI: When a seven-member team of young psychologists of the ‘Koshish Project’ of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) landed in Bihar last October for a social audit, they had little idea that they would end up exposing a sordid tale of sexual abuse of the scale that has surfaced. 

“I am sure nobody, the Bihar government or us, knew that this scale of sexual abuse would be prevalent at the institutions in Muzaffarpur. We built confidence with children, spoke to them like a  friend and they opened up to us,” Mohd Tarique, who headed the team, told ET.

The three women members of the team interacted at length with many of the nearly 30 girls against whom sexual assault has been proven now. The team camped in Bihar for almost seven months, travelling to 110 institutions over 38 districts but making it a point not to accept any hospitality or even refreshments such as tea from any institution. The team members also ensured that they got to speak to the girls in private. 

It was the report from TISS in May that blew the lid over the sexual abuse case, triggering a political storm and prompting the Nitish Kumar government to bring in the Central Bureau of Investigation. A team led by CBI inspector Vibha Kumari has landed in Muzaffarpur to begin a probe.

The TISS team was given a mandate by the Bihar government in July last year to do a social audit of all 110 government-run or supported institutions in the state that house a range of people such as old-age homes, children homes, adoption centres and rehabilitation centres of people into begging. 

“One must credit the Bihar government for having this social audit, which is not compulsory under law. Or this large-scale sexual abuse would have not come to light. Every state may not be so  confident as to say come and audit our institutions. We need to make these places safe for our children and quick action followed our report,” said Tarique.

“The most critical part is having a conversation with the people housed at these institutions. We focused on individuals as well as small and big groups of them, trying to understand their experience,” said Tarique. “Sexual abuse is something that especially the children are not very vocal about. They are not able to share it very easily. It wasn’t upfront that all the children spoke about it but there were some children who shared that this was happening. Some used another girl’s name saying that it happened with that person. It was basically indicating more like a pattern or the environment of the place.”

The TISS team leader said that the most important part was the body language employed by him and his colleagues. “It is important how you carry yourself in the institution. Like if you enter the superintendent’s office and two children bringing in tea for you notice you are comfortable with him, they take the message to the barrack that there is no point in telling these people anything. We avoided that – no refreshments were accepted,” he said.

Tarique said that when the TISS team spoke to the children in private, they strictly disallowed any institution member to enter the room on any pretext. “We had to warn the staff that if they come in on any pretext, we will have to complain to the government. This gave the children the confidence to speak up,” he said. The TISS team would also never counter-check what children told them with the staff there immediately in front of them. “If you do so immediately, the moment you leave, the child would be reprimanded and beaten up,” he said.

The key was to be realistic with the children. “We told them we may not be able to change everything, we did not make tall promises. But we assured them that whatever they would tell us, we would report it and it would go to the highest authority. The children related to us when we clearly told them this is how much we will be able to do and what we will not be able to do. Our mandate was not to investigate a crime – it is something we stumbled upon,” Tarique told ET.

He cited the example of some institutions having well-maintained registers that recorded minutes of meetings of children committees. “Two boys were part of the committee as per the register. Our team member talked separately to these boys to ask, ‘what did you decide in the last meeting’? We realised the boy had no idea about the committee,” he said.

TISS has recommended that children be made part of the evaluation process. “Till you do that, you are not going to be able to stop such abuse,” said Tarique. The team has also recommended that social audits be made compulsory. “Child protection officers focus mainly on the administrative side of a facility. Nobody spends time with users of the facility,” said Tarique.

Irish man jailed for sister's rape in

'house where sexual abuse was culture'

By Sonya McLean

A Meath man has been jailed for two years for the rape and sexual assault of his younger sister on their family farm and home which has been described as “a house where sexual abuse was culture”.

The 46-year-old man was convicted by a Central Criminal Court jury last March on two charges of sexual assault and one of rape on dates between August 1987 and September 1988.

The girl was aged between 11 and 12 years old at the time, while her brother was four years older. The court heard she was able to date the incidences by reference to her own confirmation and her sister's wedding.

Their older brother was convicted last January, following a separate Central Criminal Court trial, of four counts of raping and three counts of sexually assaulting another sister at various locations between 1983 and 1990. He was sentenced to 10 years with the final two and half years suspended last March.

Colman Fitzgerald SC, defending the 46-year-old accused told Ms Justice Úna Ní Raifeartaigh that the family home was “a house where sexual abuse was culture. A very unwell and dysfunctional household.”

A local garda agreed with him that his client told gardaí in interview that he had also been abused by his brother. He said in interview, following his arrest on these allegations, that something had happened him with his brother that “should not have” and he went into his sister's room and tried to have sex with her.

The man maintains though that the incidences which his sister reported to gardaí didn't happen. The garda confirmed that the woman also referred to her brother telling her during a rape that “an adult had said it was OK”.

Ms Justice Ní Raifeartaigh sentenced the man to five years in prison with the final three years suspended. She said there was no need for post release supervision as the man had not come to garda attention since the offence.

She noted that such abuse on a child by a family member, as evidenced by the woman's victim impact statement, “can seriously interfere” with their long term development. “The development of their sexuality and how that impacts on intimacy in later life, trust issues and their relationships with other family members, as it goes to the heart of the family,” Ms Justice Ní Raifeartaigh said.

The judge said that it was a “significant fact” that this was clearly the offending of a person who was a juvenile at the time “in the context of a very sad set of family dynamics”.

“The boundaries of behaviour in the sexual sphere may have been blurred,” the judge said before she added that she had to picture what a court would have done if he had come before the court when he was 15 years old.

She said a psychological report concluded that he was at a low risk of re-offending and that his mental functioning was “at a relatively low level”. Ms Justice Ní Raifeartaigh made a recommendation that the man not serve his sentence in the same prison as his brother following a submission by Mr Fitzgerald.

The now 42-year-old woman's victim impact report was read into the record by Carl Hanahoe BL, prosecuting. She said everything before the abuse was “an adventure” but the abuse “took the enjoyment out of her youth”. She described being filled with shame and secrecy and felt cut off from her loved ones.

“I knew it was wrong, it felt wrong,” the woman said. She said her brother “taunted and intimidated her” and his comments on her breasts; “guys like big boobs”, disgusted her and made her very conscious of them.

The woman said being abused destroyed her marriage because she was unable to connect with her husband intimately. She said she disclosed the abuse to her husband but yet continued to assist her brother with errands and lifts because she wanted to act as if everything was normal. This behaviour frustrated her husband and they have since separated.

She said during her college years she didn't want to go home at weekends and would think of excuses not to be there. “I am very sad that I lost many valuable years with my mother. It broke my heart telling her what had happened to me. It impacted our family life. It brought shame and embarrassment and split our family apart,” the woman continued.

She also spoke of a sense of loss when she observed other brother and sister relationships. “I feel he has no true remorse or regret, no awareness of the toil of his actions. I want him to admit what he has done. I want him to get whatever help he needs to make sure this doesn't happen again,” the woman's statement concluded.

Counsel handed in a booklet of reports and testimonials and told Ms Justice Ni Raifeartaigh that his client still maintains his position of innocence. A woman, who described the man as her best friend, gave evidence as a character reference.

She said she had known him for seven years and although she was aware of his conviction, she believed he was a fantastic father to his daughter and had allowed him to mind her own children on several occasions. “He is a gentleman. I am supporting him 100%. I would never have thought he was capable of this. He is a kind, honest and loving man,” the woman told Mr Fitzgerald.

She said she was shocked and devastated when she heard of the allegations. Mr Fitzgerald said his client has not been allowed to see his daughter since he was convicted.

Co. Meath, Ireland

'Yours sincerely, 4 heart broken families'

Relatives of men suspected of accessing child-abuse images bare their grief in heart-breaking letter

The letter sent to Liveline is below.

To the listeners of the Joe Duffy show;

Following on from your show last Monday where a wife wrote in to speak of her harrowing shock in discovering her husband had been accessing child abuse images and videos online and a perpetrator speaking on the show Tuesday. Myself and a group of others have felt obliged to write to you to tell you our collective story.

At different stages in 2016, four houses where raided by the Gardaí on the suspicion that men (both young and old) living in these homes with their families where suspected of accessing child sexual abuse images/ videos online.

In each house when the Gardaí finished seizing computers, lap tops and phones left, and the front door closed, four families descended into what I can only describe as hell and disbelief. Each family feeling isolated, shocked and lost in finding support or help, each family member of each home looking at their loved one, who was now an offender. These were people’s sons, brothers and fathers.

Each family sat alone in their homes, not knowing what to do or where to go, each putting on their brave face to continue numbly with their jobs, relationships and obligations as they could not talk to their friends, family members, employers etc for fear of judgement of being ‘guilty by association’ or ‘how could the family not know what was going on’, fear for their safety should a vigilante group learn of an offender residing in their community or a local community.

We collectively feared that our offending family members would be found dead after taking their own lives.

Families torn apart, in disbelief, experiencing hatred for someone they loved just the days and hours before that knock on the door from the Gardai. We grieved for the person we once knew, now we had what felt like a stranger in our home. We blamed ourselves ‘what did I do wrong?’, ‘how could I not have seen the signs this was happening?’

We all were very fortunate to find the One in Four organisation, that offered a treatment plan for offenders as part of their prevention strategy for child protection, they hold this at a secret location – again for fear of offenders being attacked. They offered a family support group for offenders engaged in this program and this is where we found each other. Finally after 18 months of group psychotherapy we understand that WE (FAMILY MEMBERS) DID NOTHING WRONG, WE ARE NOT TO BLAME.

It took us that long to accept we are innocent secondary victims of someone else’s abusive behaviour, but society won’t see it like that.

Despite our offending family members being caught within a timeframe of 5 months, we are all at different stages of the court system, one of whom is currently serving a sentence in prison for his offences. We are all still afraid for the safety of ourselves in our homes when our address is publicised in the national papers / apps/ circulated on social media and the safety of our offending family members in prison or when at home.

We are all living a life full of shame and fear. I would plead with the public to consider instead of inciting hate, try and understand families trying to ensure this never happens again by supporting the person in treatment and committing to a life of supervision of a family member to protect children, not hurt them.

In addition to our story we would like to highlight to the listeners who may have children with Smartphones, in today’s age of teenagers, it is common place for young people to swap naked pictures between themselves. Greater awareness to young people and parents that young people with naked pictures of under 17 year olds are in possession of child pornography, and if they send to a friend, it’s a distribution charge added to that. Child protection is struggling to keep up with technology and we need to do everything we can to educate and protect the children / young people of this country.

Yours sincerely,

Four heart broken families

My heart breaks every day doing this blog and knowing that the dozen or so perverts that I post about all have families of some sort and everyone in their family is affected by their perversion becoming public knowledge even if they were never touched by the pervert. So much shame and embarrassment, especially for teenagers. I wish people would think of the consequences to their families before heading down that disgraceful path.

Sexual abuse 'endemic' within aid sector: report

Report by UK parliament's International Development Committee humanitarian groups enact safeguards against sexual abuse

by James Rippingale, Al Jazeera

London, England - Sexual abuse and exploitation of some of the world's most vulnerable people by humanitarian workers is "endemic", according to a new report by British members of parliament.

Released on Tuesday following an inquiry by the International Development Committee, the report said: "the ease with which individuals known to be predatory and potentially dangerous have been able to move around the aid sector undetected is cause for deep concern and alarm."

For many living in crisis zones, sexual abuse by humanitarian staff is an everyday reality, according to victim testimonies gathered by Corinna Csaky, an international child development consultant who presented their accounts to the House of Commons.

"The people who are raping us and the people in the office are the same people," said a young Haitian girl interviewed by Csaky.

More than half of the 341 interviewees from South Sudan, Haiti and Ivory Coast recalled incidences of sexual coercion, with 250 of them aged between 10 and 17. Over half were girls.

"Without the protection and support from parents, many are using transactional sex just to survive," said Csaky.

"Abusers are both foreign and national staff. Some come from overseas, but many more are local people employed by international humanitarian organisations … From the perspective of victims and survivors, there is no difference between the two."

Victim and survivor approach

But victim testimonies do not convey the full scope of the problem. Speaking out carries huge risk and little reward, creating a culture of silence around the abused and relative impunity for abusers.

Virginity also carries immense social currency and raped girls are often sold off or married to attackers: victim stigmatisation causing dire economic consequences, the potential for further violence and deep psychological wounds.

In a statement at the House of Commons prior to the report's release, Save The Children's Chief Executive Watkins admitted: "We have very clear standards for what we do in water and sanitation or for how to build a school. Do we really have the same frameworks for safeguarding provision or trauma and counselling support? The answer is that no, we do not."

Csaky's primary recommendation - taken from victims themselves - is to build confidence in speaking out safely. Helping channel the belief that reporting incidents will bring positive change as well as effective medical, psychosocial and legal support.

"A victim and survivor approach is absolutely critical. Without this, you are designing a system in a vacuum that, essentially, nobody will use," said Csaky.

Major scandals

The report also focused on the scandals of Oxfam and Save The Children, which entered into formal inquiry via parliament's Charity Commission on February 12 and 11 April 2018.

In the case of Oxfam, revelations unfolded after top-level staff - including Haiti relief operations manager Roland van Hauwermeiren, were accused of paying Haitian earthquake survivors for sex in 2011, swiftly followed by similar accusations dating back to 2006 in Chad, a relief effort which van Hauwermeiren also led.

Earlier this year, Save The Children's former chief executive Justin Forsyth and chief strategist Brendan Cox were accused of sexual misconduct against three female employees between 2012 and 2015. Cox resigned before an internal disciplinary panel amid the allegations in 2015. Forsyth quit four months later, moving on to become UNICEF's deputy executive director - a position he later resigned from in February, citing his past coverage as damaging to the charity.

However, with major reports on humanitarian exploitation produced by the UNCHR in 2002 and Save The Children in 2008 continually recommending stringent safeguards, the absence of concrete policy as well as the UN's "lack of coherence" in their investigative approach presents stark evidence that little progress has been made, the report said.

'Stand up for rights'

Helen Stephenson, chief executive of the Charity Commission, suggested the commission's regulatory powers could be strengthened if serious-incident reporting were made statutory. "We seek to encourage more and more charities to comply with that but we cannot enforce it."

Mandatory incident reporting applies only to charities generating over 25,000 British pounds ($32,700) . With 17,000 smaller charities of the 168,000 registered by the Charity Commission as working overseas, incidents are thinly monitored - despite them being awarded five million British pounds ($6.5m) by the British government for the increased workload spurred on by the Oxfam and Save The Children scandals.

"We are very conscious of the need to make sure that we are encouraging and supporting the smaller charities while still holding them to account," said Michelle Russell, the commission's director of Investigations, Monitoring and Enforcement.

But what do the Charity Commission's suggestions for "robust" incident response frameworks or donor welcome packs for increased transparency mean for those vulnerable to abuse, living amidst squalor and destitution?

The report stated "a failure to listen to and consider the needs of victims and survivors of sexual exploitation and abuse will engender a response that is not only ineffective, but potentially harmful," adding that "it is important that whistleblowing systems exist for the instances when the established reporting mechanisms fail."

The primary focus should centre on those affected - those on the ragged edge of humanitarian crises, said Csaky. Working from the ground up to embolden their voices, strengthened by statutory staff protocols, screening procedures and most importantly, education, she added.

"Many of [the victims] said, 'if we knew about our rights we would know how to stand up for them.' They do not know that this is not an inevitable fact of life."

Two Families, a Priest, Mike Tyson Confession on Today's USA P&P List

Mike Tyson opens up about being sexually

abused as a child — 

‘It made me have to be tough for the world I lived in’  

BY BRETT BODNER

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Mike Tyson shared details of his life to ESPN's Jeremy Schapp like he never has before.

In an interview with Schapp on ESPN's "E:60," Tyson talked about the time he was sexually abused as a child. He told Schapp he was grabbed by a man who tried to pull him into a building, but wouldn't go into details about what was done to him.

"Well I don't like to talk about that, I like to keep that where it was in the past, but I was molested as a child," Tyson said.

When asked what kind of impact it made on him, Tyson said "It made me have to be tough for the world I lived in."

Schapp said he's interviewed Tyson several times over the last 25 years, but this topic was one that was never discussed.

"It was no one's business to know, people just don't talk about it because to some people they believe it's demasculating them," Tyson said.

The former boxing champ said he "probably" felt shame because of what happened to him.

"I learned that it doesn't make you any less of a man because it happened," Tyson said.

Schapp continued to ask Tyson about what happened, leading the boxer to ask the reporter why he wanted to continue talking about his past. When Schapp said it was because he never heard Tyson talk about it, the fighter said he never told anyone about it before.

Although he said he never talked about it, Tyson actually discussed being sexually assaulted by a stranger in SiriusXM's Opie Radio in 2014.

The former boxer said a man he didn't know snatched him off the street and abused him when he was seven-years-old. He eventually escaped by running away from the man.

"I'm not embarrassed or ashamed of anything from that perspective," Tyson said.

Florida man charged in Illinois with

sexual assault of child

Associated Press 

TROY, Ill. (AP) — A Florida man faces charges in southern Illinois that accuse him of luring a 12-year-old boy through social media and then sexually assaulting him in the early 2000s.

The (Alton) Telegraph and Bellville News-Democrat report Monday that 41-year-old Derrick R. Sepp, of Apopka, Florida, is charged with three counts of predatory criminal sexual assault. Each count carries a maximum 30-year prison sentence. He also faces one count of aggravated criminal sexual abuse.

Virginia man gets 6 more years in child sex case

Justin Faulconer 

An Amherst man was sentenced Monday to six years in prison on three counts of indecent liberties with a child by a person in a supervisory or custodial relationship, adding to an 8-year sentence he previously received this past spring on similar charges involving the same victim.

Carlton Eugene Adcock, 53, pleaded guilty to the charges in Amherst County Circuit Court. He previously was sentenced in May to eight years behind bars after Judge Michael Garrett found him guilty of two counts of indecent liberties with a child in the case involving the same victim.

Assistant Commonwealth’s He now will serve an active 14-year sentence on the combined charges.

Attorney Amber Drumheller said the victim was 17 last July when she reported the sexual abuse to the Amherst County Sheriff’s Office. The abuse from Adcock had been going on for several years and “intensified” over the previous two months, the victim told a deputy last July, Drumheller said.

Adcock, a paraplegic paralyzed from the waist down and confined to a wheelchair, was arrested in August 2016 and has since been in custody.

Drumheller also read in court, as part of prosecutors’ evidence, a string of sexually explicit text messages Adcock sent to the victim.

In accordance with a plea agreement, two counts of object sexual penetration by force against Adcock were dropped Monday.

The victim testified in a March 2017 trial in Amherst County Circuit Court the sexual abuse from Adcock was a “daily thing” and she suffers from post-traumatic stress.

At the conclusion of the trial in March Garrett found Adcock not guilty of 14 other sex-related felonies in the case.

Drumheller said Monday the victim was willing to testify once more but prefers not to go through the ordeal again.

Adcock’s attorney, E. Gordon Peters, referenced his client’s medical condition in court in saying the allure of any sex act “overrode his judgment.”

In addition to imposing the 6-year sentence, Garrett ordered 20 years of good behavior, two of which must be supervised. Adcock also is ordered to register as a sex offender upon his release.

Robert Warris:

Husband in 'house of sexual abuse' sentenced to 13 to 40 years in Pennsylvania

Lehigh County Courthouse, Allentown PA. (SHARON K. MERKEL / THE MORNING CALL)

Laurie Mason Schroeder, Of The Morning Call

The husband of an Allentown woman who was sent to prison in 2015 for sexually assaulting a child will begin serving his own state prison term this week for sexually assaulting a different child.

Lehigh County Judge Maria L. Dantos told the defendant, Robert Warris, that she could not fathom the debauchery that was going on in his home.

“I don’t think anyone can imagine what was going on behind closed doors in the Warris household,” Dantos said. “It was just a house of sexual abuse.”

Warris, 43, pleaded guilty in March to involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child, a first-degree felony.

In a separate hearing, Dantos found that Warris meets the legal criteria to be labeled a sexually violent predator under Megan’s Law. That means he’ll face lifetime police monitoring and mandatory counseling, and his neighbors will be notified when he’s released from prison and moves into a community.

I don’t think anyone can imagine what was going on behind closed doors in the Warris household. It was just a house of sexual abuse.

— Judge Maria L. Dantos

Warris is married to Rachel Warris, 41, who was sentenced in June to 15 to 33 years behind bars for sexually assaulting their son's 13-year-old friend while he was visiting their home.

Robert Warris admitted that he repeatedly sexually assaulted a boy in 2008 and 2009, starting when the victim was 9 years old. The allegations came to light after Rachel Warris’ trial.

In court Monday, it was revealed that Robert Warris also admitted to sexually assaulting a 5-year-old girl when Warris was 13 years old, and had been placed in a treatment facility for young sex offenders.

Apparently it did him no good at all.

The male victim, who is now 18, was in the courtroom but did not testify. His foster father and therapist talked to the judge, outlining the difficulties the teen has had as a result of the abuse.

“This is a very scarred child,” said Senior Deputy District Attorney Anna-Kristie Marks. “The lasting and permanent effects on him are unimaginable.”

Warris did not testify Monday, but mumbled a few times as the judge and prosecutors were speaking. Dantos asked him if he wanted to make a statement but he declined.

As a condition of Warris’ parole, he is banned from having any contact with children.

Another member of the Warris family is awaiting trial for sexually assaulting a child. Max Warris, 22, son of Robert and Rachel Warris, was arrested in October for allegedly sexually assaulting a 9-year-old boy. He has a court date in September.

Rachel Warris:

Judge blasts 'predator' with 33-year max for

teen sex assault

By Sarah Cassi, For lehighvalleylive.com

In the end, it was Rachel Warris' own words that a Lehigh County judge invoked before giving the Allentown woman the maximum sentence for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old boy.

Warris repeatedly proclaimed her innocence in the case, testifying at her trial in March that the victim pushed his penis in her face and she had to bite him to get him away.

Rachel Warris' trial on charges including involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and indecent assault began Tuesday morning.

Prosecutors presented a trove of evidence they said showed Warris, who was 39 at the time of the crime, was grooming the boy months before she sexually assaulted him Feb. 11, 2015.

A Lehigh County jury found Warris guilty on all counts -- involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, indecent assault, statutory sexual assault and corruption of minors.

On Tuesday, the 41-year-old Warris opted not to make a statement to Judge Maria Dantos before receiving her sentence.

Dantos confronted Warris about statements the defendant made in a pre-sentence investigation. The judge said it showed Warris had no remorse and took no responsibility for what happened, and that she was "predator" who "groomed him at an early age."

Dantos asked point blank if Warris bit the boy on his genitals, and she said yes, "but there was a reason."

"Your explanation of what happened is not credible, it was not believed by the jury and is, quite frankly, ridiculous," Dantos replied.

Before handing down the maximum sentence in the case -- 15 to 33 years in state prison, the judge read from a letter Warris wrote to her fellow inmates, following  misconduct in the jail.

"I hope you reflect on your behavior and how it affected me," Warris wrote to the other inmates. "Be mad at nobody but yourself."

The victim and his mother were not in the courtroom on Tuesday. "They're trying to move on," Senior Deputy District Attorney Anna-Kristie Morfi Marks.

Marks said Warris' sentence is one of the higher ones she has seen in cases where an adult sexually assaults a teenager.

Dantos said she was impressed by the victim, calling him bright and charismatic, and lauded his mother, who called police after seeing Facebook messages from Warris to her son.

Max Warris:

3rd member of Allentown family accused of

child sex assault

Please read the comments at the bottom of this post. Max, it would appear, is as much a victim of his parents as a perpetrator, if not more so.

By Sarah Cassi, For lehighvalleylive.com

A third member of an Allentown family has been accused of sexually assaulting a child.

Max Warris was arrested Friday in connection with the sexual assault of a 9-year-old boy between July 2008 and July 2009. Warris would have been 13 or 14 at the time of the alleged assault, police said.

The same age as his father when he first sexually assaulted a child (see above).

Warris, who is now 21 and living in Macungie, is charged with involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, sexual assault and indecent assault. He is free after posting $15,000 bail on Sunday.

Allentown police said investigators received information about the alleged sexual assault on June 15.

In an interview with police on June 27, the accuser disclosed that Max Warris sexually assaulted him, investigators said. In an interview with investigators, Warris reportedly admitted to the assault.

Warris' mother, Rachel, is serving 15 to 33 years in state prison, for sexually assaulting a different 13-year-old boy in 2015 at the family's home on Dixon Street in Allentown.

Rachel Warris maintained she was innocent in the case, and took the witness stand in her own defense to claim it was the accuser who attacked her.

A Lehigh County jury convicted her on all the charges.

Robert Warris, Max's father, is also accused of repeatedly raping a boy, starting when the accuser was 9 years old. Robert Warris, 42, was sentenced to 13-40 years in prison (see above).

When Robert Warris was arrested and charged last year in connection with the rape accusations, he was on probation as part of a first-time offender program, after he filed a fake police report against his wife's victim.

Rachel Warris was arrested and charged in her case on Feb. 18, 2015. The following day, Robert Warris called police and claimed the accuser in his wife's case exposed himself to the couple's son.

Former Brattleboro man receives 87 months in prison for child sex abuse images

By Bob Audette

CONCORD, N.H. — A man who formerly lived in Brattleboro, Vt., was sentenced Monday to 87 months in federal prison for possessing images of child sexual abuse.

Jeremiah Pless, 33, of Keene, was was convicted on April 11 by a jury that was presented with evidence found during a search of a residence in Hinsdale on Feb. 18, 2015.

The investigation, which was led by the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Hinsdale Police Department, began in May 2014, when Det. Matthew Raymond of the Vermont Office of the Attorney General, working with the Vermont Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, conducted what is known as "a proactive investigation to identify individuals distributing child pornography via peer-to-peer file sharing networks ..." according to the complaint filed against Pless in June 2015.

During the investigation, Raymond discovered that someone using a computer at Gateway Drive in Hinsdale was downloading illegal images.

Once the location was identified, the case was turned over to the New Hampshire ICAC for further investigation, and in October 2014 Faulkner was notified about the case. A search warrant was presented at the residence and while the search was being conducted, Pless at first denied any knowledge of illegal activity, though he eventually admitted during the interview that he had downloaded and viewed illegal images.

Following his prison sentence, Pless will be placed on 10 years of supervised release. He will also have to register as a sex offender.

2 South Carolina men facing child sex charges from years of alleged abuse

By J. Bryan Randall, Digital Content Manager 

AIKEN, SC (WFXG) -

Two Aiken man have been arrested, accused of sexually abusing a young girl over the course of several years.

Fulmer

According to an incident report from the Aiken County Sheriff's Office, deputies met with a woman, an acquaintance of the girl, on March 30. She told deputies that the girl told her that she had been sexually abused by several men since she was six years old and had recently had sex with a man in Windsor. She says the girl also told her she had recently been assault by two or three men at school.

The resulting investigation led to the arrest of two men on Friday, July 21: Cary Lathan Fulmer and Daniel Chase White, both of whom live on Wire Road in Aiken.

Fulmer is accused of encouraging the victim to drink alcoholic beverages, molesting her and forcing her to perform oral sex on him. These incidents reportedly occurred between Sept. 2009 and Sept. 2013.

White

He is charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor, four counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor, second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor and third-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor.

White is accused of molesting the victim, performing oral sex on her, forcing her to perform oral sex on him, using a vibrator on her and having sexual intercourse with her. These incidents all reportedly happened between Sept. 2007 and Jan. 2015. 

On April 30, 2016, the victim says White tied her down and forced her to have sex with him against her will. He is currently facing two charges of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, seventeen counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor, eight counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor, and three charges of third-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor.

Fulmer and White are being held at the Aiken County Detention Center.

A ‘monster of epic proportions’ sentenced for child sex abuse in NY

By SCOTT DESMIT

The victim did not appear in court.

Instead, she videotaped two speeches, one that was played in open court Monday morning and the other a tape that was strictly for the man who repeatedly molested her.

Scott A. Reed, 51, sat silent as the one video was played in Genesee County Court, moments before he was sentenced.

The girl, now a woman, said Reed subjected her to almost daily abuse, abuse that lasted 10 years as he “silenced” her and groomed her so that she would never tell.

She did tell, eventually, and for that Reed was arrested. In April, Reed, of Elba, admitted that yes, he did molest that child, over and over again beginning when she was a pre-teen and ending in 2008.

Reed, she said, “turned into a monster of epic proportions.”

“He never apologized to me and lied to everyone," she said. “He is a sick and disgusting person. He violated my trust and my innocence and gave me years of pain and trauma that I have to deal with.”

The victim was aware of the plea deal offered to Reed, one that would have him pleaded guilty to course of sexual conduct against a child with the promise of no more than six months in jail and 10 years probation.

“He deserves a year in jail for each of the 10 years he molested me,” she said. “I know that won’t happen but that’s what he deserves.”

Assistant District Attorney Robert Zickl said the deal was offered as the “best” way to serve and protect the community and noted that should Reed violate probation, he would face an almost certain state prison sentence.

Defense attorney Benjamin Bonarigo said the case has not only had a “profound and significant” effect on the victim, but Reed, as well.

Reed, he said, “immediately went into sex offender evaluation and admitted his actions over many years.”

“He said ‘this is all my fault. I did this. It’s my fault and I have to live with this every single day,’” Bonarigo said.

Reed has “basically lost everything he has known in his adult life” and has made significant progress in counseling.

A probation report stating that Reed blamed the victim and said that she “initiated” the sexual contact was “taken out of context,” he said.

“Please discount that,” he asked Judge Charles Zambito.

Reed also spoke before being sentence, breaking down in tears as he apologized to the victim, his family and friends.

“I hurt the people that I care about most,” he said. “I cannot put into words the feeling of what I have done. I am doing all I can so that I will never do this again.”

Zambito said he struggled to accept the plea deal but, in the end, decided to allow Reed to continue counseling and avoid a state prison sentence.

He also rejected Bonarigo’s plea of a weekend jail sentence to allow Reed to keep his job, noting that Reed abused the child for 10 years and “what she had to go through.”

He sentenced Reed to six months of straight time in jail and 10 years of strict probation.

Reed was arrested in March 2016. Two weeks later, his adopted son, Jonathan M. Reed, 23, was arrested and charged with having sexual relations with two girls, ages 14 and 16. He was sentenced to two years in prison.

Good grief! Another father and son duo of perverts!

Reed’s wife, Deborah, also was charged during the investigation of her husband, accused of endangering the welfare of a child for failing to protect the child after learning of her husband’s abuse.

Oklahoma Woman Charged With Child Abuse

Patti Weaver

(Stillwater, Okla.) – A Cushing woman accused of allowing a 3-year-old girl in her custody to be taken by a boyfriend to an unknown location when she knew that he had been accused of molesting a 5-year-old girl has been charged with child abuse by failure to protect from harm.

Elizabeth Nicole Joiner, 32, for whom an arrest warrant was issued last week, was not in the Payne County Jail on Monday morning, a sheriff’s spokesman told KUSH.

Joiner, who may be in Texas with the 3-year-old girl and the boyfriend, could be given as much as a life prison term if convicted, according to the felony charge filed by Payne County Assistant District Attorney Debra Vincent on July 20.

Cushing Police Officer Brad Kastl was sent on July 1 to a house on E. 8th Street regarding a sexual assault investigation on a juvenile, his affidavit said.

“During my interview with Joiner, she was very visibly upset and was crying,” the Cushing officer wrote in his affidavit.

Joiner said that the 5-year-old told her that day that Joiner’s boyfriend had sexually abused her, the affidavit alleged.

Joiner said that the 5-year-old had been seeing a counselor because for the past two years she had been performing sexual acts on her teddy bears, the affidavit alleged.

Joiner said that about six months ago, the 5-year-old told her that her 13-year-old female babysitter also touched her inappropriately, the affidavit alleged.

“I asked Joiner why she did not report the incident and she advised me she took care of the incident with the 13-year-old’s mother,” the Cushing officer alleged in his affidavit.

Joiner also said that about a year ago, the 5-year-old described a sexual abuse incident, which Joiner admitted she did not report, the affidavit alleged.

Joiner was advised by the Cushing officer to take both children to another location away from Joiner’s boyfriend, the affidavit alleged.

Two days later, on July 3, the 5-year-old girl was interviewed at the Saville Center in Stillwater, but she did not disclose sexual abuse during the interview, the affidavit said.

However, after the forensic interview, a registered nurse conducted an examination on the 5-year-old girl, who described to her various sexual acts performed on her by Joiner’s boyfriend, the affidavit alleged.

Three days later, on July 6, the Cushing officer conducted a follow-up interview with Joiner, who said she read books from the Saville Center to the 5-year-old girl on July 4, the affidavit said.

“Joiner stated to me the books were about ‘proper’ and ‘inappropriate touching,’” the Cushing officer wrote in his affidavit.

Joiner said that without being prompted, the 5-year-old girl said that Joiner’s boyfriend had done those things to her in Texas, the affidavit alleged. Joiner said that the 5-year-old said that he had done those same things to the 3-year-old girl, the affidavit alleged.

“Joiner told me she immediately stopped the conversation and called DHS and made them aware of the new information. She had also attempted to contact me at the Cushing Police Department,” the officer wrote in his affidavit.

Joiner denied that she had been in contact with her boyfriend since July 1 and said that he might have gone to Odessa, Texas, the affidavit alleged.

On July 17, a woman reported to Payne County Department of Human Services that Joiner “had told her she had left Cushing and was in Odessa, Texas,” the affidavit alleged.

Also on July 17, DHS was granted custody of both girls by a Payne County judge, the affidavit said.

DHS was able to obtain physical custody of the 5-year-old, but could not locate the 3-year-old or Joiner, the affidavit said.

“Payne County Child Welfare Supervisor Marley Miller advised me she had researched Elizabeth Joiner’s EBT card transactions and it showed her route to Odessa on I-240, based on store purchases along the way,” the Cushing officer wrote in his affidavit.

“It is clear from the information provided to Elizabeth Joiner by DHS, the Saville Center and myself, she knew the allegations against (her boyfriend) and the compelling evidence against him,” regarding the sexual abuse of the girls, the Cushing officer alleged in his affidavit.

“In spite of this information, Joiner is believed to have left the state,” with the 3-year-old girl and her boyfriend,” the Cushing officer alleged in his affidavit. No charges had been filed against Joiner’s boyfriend by Monday morning, court records show.

“Elizabeth Joiner’s inability and unwillingness to protect (the 3-year-old) is apparent through her actions,” the Cushing officer alleged in seeking an arrest warrant for her that was granted by Payne County District Judge Phillip Corley on July 20.

Lifetime registered sex offender arrested for alleged assault of child in Texas

By Samantha Forester, Digital Reporter

WICHITA FALLS, TX (KAUZ) -

A Wichita Falls man, who is a lifetime registered sex offender, is behind bars charged with Aggravated Sexual Assault of a Child.

In November 2014, the father of a 5-year-old girl came to the Wichita Falls Police station to report a sexual assault. The father said his daughter had disclosed about sexual abuse to him. 

The victim was taken to Patsy's House for a forensic interview. During the interview, the victim described sexual acts done to her by Gary Ray Cline, 50. 

The detective assigned to the case noted the victim was consistent with her description of the assaults to her father, stepmother, Child Protective Services and the forensic interviewer.

Cline was contacted by authorities and he denied the allegations made against him. Cline did confirm he was around the child during visits with the child's mother and stepfather. 

Cline is a convicted felon and a lifetime registered sex offender for having committed a crime against a child victim. He was arrested on Friday, July 21.

As of Monday afternoon, Cline was behind bars in the Wichita County jail on a $250,000 bond.

Priest in Pennsylvania charged with

sexual abuse of a minor

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A 74-year-old priest in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Greensburg has been charged with sexual abuse of a minor.

The Rev. John T. Sweeney was arraigned in Leechburg Monday afternoon on a charge of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a minor, with $50,000 unsecured bond under the condition that he stay away from minors and witnesses in the case.  

The abuse was alleged to have happened around 1991-92, according to a criminal complaint filed in the case. The victim came forward after watching the movie “Spotlight,” which was about the sexual abuse scandal in Boston. Father Sweeney was a pastor at St. Margaret Mary in Lower Burrell at the time of the alleged abuse, which reportedly happened at the school there. 

State Attorney General Josh Shapiro said at a press conference the charges were recommended by a statewide grand jury. Mr. Shapiro lauded the alleged victim as a “hero” seeking to protect other children. He asked anyone with information about abuse cases to come forward: “We care about you.”

Lower Burrell police started the investigation after reports were made to Westmoreland County Children’s Bureau. According to the criminal complaint, the priest forced the victim, then a fourth grader, to perform oral sex on him, warning him he would be in trouble if he didn’t comply. The victim said that Father Sweeney’s secretary brought him milk and cookies after the sexual assault. 

An attorney for Father Sweeney said they will defend against the charges “vigorously.”

In a statement from the diocese, spokesman Jerry Zufelt said, “The Diocese of Greensburg takes the protection of all children, young people and vulnerable adults seriously. Every report of suspected abuse of a child, young person or vulnerable adult — sexual, physical or emotional — that is made to the diocese is immediately reported to the PA ChildLine (1-800-932-0313) and the appropriate District Attorney.”

Mr. Zufelt said Bishop Edward C. Malesic is calling on all Catholics to pray for victims of sexual abuse. “... The diocese continues to educate the children and adults in the Diocese of Greensburg on how to spot and report abuse,” he said.

Citing an ongoing investigation, Mr. Zufelt said “the diocese can make no further comment.”

Mr. Shapiro said he could not comment “on what the Diocese knew or didn’t know at the time” the alleged abuse occurred.

Father Sweeney now lives in Greensburg at the Bishop Connare Center for priests. 

Iowa man charged with child sexual abuse

OTTUMWA — An Ottumwa man accused of sexually abusing a child had his bond set at $52,000 on Monday.

Armando Avelar Portillo, 49, was arrested Friday afternoon on warrants for indecent contact with a child and two counts of second degree sexual abuse. Authorities say he repeatedly put his hands down a young girl’s pants and touched her genitals.

Alvelar Portillo pleaded not guilty during a hearing Monday at the Wapello County Courthouse. Online court records did not make it clear whether he had an attorney.