Sheriff: 1-Year-Old Girl Severely Injured in Sexual Assault

By Jacob Beltran, San Antonio Express
 

Sheriff Javier Salazar speaks to the press at the Bexar County Sheriff Office on January 3, 2017 in San Antonio, Texas about a case involving the sexual abuse and stabbing of a child. Photo: Carolyn Van Houten / Carolyn Van Houten / 2017 San Antonio Express-News

As soon as investigators and medical personnel examined the severe injures of a 1-year-old girl who was reportedly attacked by dogs, they immediately knew her injures didn’t match the story provided by her relative to authorities, said Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar.

The toddler, he said, suffered life-threatening injuries consistent with a brutal sexual assault. Police arrested two people in connection with the alleged incident, including the child’s relative, Crystal Herrera, and her boyfriend Isaac Andrew Cardenas. Cardenas, 23, was being held on a charge of super aggravated sexual assault. Bail was set at $300,000.

Herrera, 22, was determined to have been providing false information to keep detectives from finding out what occurred. She was booked in the Bexar County Jail on a charge of injury to a child by omission.

Sheriff Javier Salazar holds images of suspects Isaac Cardenas and Crystal Herrera during a press conference about a case involving the sexual abuse and stabbing of a child at the Bexar County Sheriff's Office on January 3, 2017 in San Antonio, Texas.

“I can’t even begin to describe to you the level of depravity that went into this crime,” Salazar said. “It’s a horrendous case.”

Police said Herrera called 911 at 9 a.m. on Dec. 31 saying that the girl had wandered out of their home in the middle of the night and was attacked by dogs at their South Bexar County home.

But as detectives spoke to her and her boyfriend, they noticed their stories didn’t add up, Salazar said. Later, Animal Care Services officers told police that the dogs they were sent to pick up showed no aggression.

Medical personnel examining the child’s injuries quickly determined that she had suffered life-threatening stab wounds. Authorities said the girl’s stab wounds, located on her upper body and private parts, were “non-accidental.”

“I’ve got seasoned detectives and emergency room personnel that have all agreed that this is one of the worst cases they’ve seen,” Salazar said during his first news conference since being sworn in as sheriff.

“This is one of those cases, I’ll be honest with you, it’s something that I haven’t even seen the pictures, I don’t want to see the pictures,” Salazar said. “It’s been described to me and just imagining it is enough to chill any of us.”

The child was transported to University Hospital where she was in stable condition Tuesday.

“You can't even imagine what would possess somebody to do something like this to anyone, much less an innocent child that’s totally defenseless,” Salazar said.

Salazar said detectives are looking into any history of abuse of the girl, who was to be taken into CPS custody.

“A child this small to suffer these types of injuries …she’s going to carry this with her for the rest of her life, physically, emotionally, and also as a family” he said. “It’s a heartbreaking case.”

With a loving family and support from child-care experts, she has a chance to lead a fairly normal life. But while I have no empirical proof, I believe that sexual abuse combined with physical and/or emotional abuse is exponentially worse than sexual abuse alone, and sexual abuse is devastating enough. The victim will still have some serious emotional trauma ahead when she learns what she has just endured. Please pray for this child, she has a long and difficult road ahead.

Calls for Case into Child Sex Abuse Scandal at Prestigious Jakarta School to be Reopened

Glimmer of hope for Neil Bantleman

Foreign Correspondent By Samantha Hawley and Suzanne Smith


 Tracy Bantleman maintains her husband Neil is innocent. (ABC News)

A sexologist whose evidence was used to help jail a Canadian teacher on child abuse charges in Indonesia has cast doubt on the verdict, amid growing calls for police to reopen their investigation.

Canadian teacher Neil Bantleman, his Indonesian teaching assistant Ferdinand Tjiong and five school cleaners were sentenced to jail terms of up to 11 years.

But it has now emerged that part of the evidence against Bantleman hinged on how many times a week he had sex with his wife — with the court saying he was "abnormal" because it was only once a week.

Good grief. I guess most Canadians are abnormal.

Key points:

Canadian teacher, his assistant and five cleaners all given jail terms for allegedly abusing children
Evidence hinged on how many times a week teacher had sex with his wife
One of the male cleaners died in police custody
Seven staff from the Jakarta Intercultural School (JIS) are serving lengthy jail terms for allegedly sexually abusing kindergarten children.

It is also alleged that of the six cleaners, five were beaten into making confessions, while one female colleague was not harmed and never confessed.

One of the male cleaners died in police custody.

Now a former commissioner at a peak police integrity body has told Foreign Correspondent the investigation into the allegations was flawed, while a former Australian detective brought in to investigate the case says he is certain the men are innocent.


Doubt over court's 'deviant sexual behaviour' claim

Judges from the South Jakarta District Court who brought down the initial guilty verdict against the two teachers in part relied on evidence from Indonesian sexologist Dr Naek Tobing.

The doctor was used by the prosecution to assess whether Mr Bantleman's sex life caused him to become a paedophile.

The initial judgement found that the Canadian's sex life with his wife was "abnormal" because they had sex about once a week and sometimes less.

In their ruling, the panel of District Court judges found that "normally it happens every day or at least two or three time per week", and that "usually men would at least masturbate but he doesn't do it".

"The question is exactly how he channeled his sexual needs," the judges said.


Indonesian sexologist Dr Naek Tobing gave evidence to the South Jakarta District Court. (ABC News)

They concluded the Canadian had a "deviant sexual behaviour" and that his actions could be classified as "inclusive paedophilia".

But when interviewed by Foreign Correspondent, Dr Tobing said he had found nothing during his interviews with Mr Bantleman or his assistant Mr Tjiong that could determine whether the men were paedophiles.

"This testimony cannot relate to someone to be a paedophile," he said

"Even less than once a week we cannot make it as data to call them a paedophile. It needs data or — what do you call? ... A confession."


'Biased adults putting stories into the minds of children'

Former Australian detective Chris O'Connor said there was no evidence the three kindergarten boys were raped or that any of the seven people now in jail were guilty.

"It's not the case of children making up stories, it's a case of biased adults putting stories into the minds of children," he said.

"Once a child takes on a false report much of the research we have here indicated that a large number of children will embellish the false report."


Chris O'Connor, former head of the child exploitation unit and the sexual crimes squad in the Victorian police, believes there is not enough evidence. (ABC News)

Mr O'Connor was employed by the school, which caters to wealthy Indonesians and expatriates, as a child protection adviser and gave evidence for the defence.

He is the former head of the child exploitation unit and the sexual crimes squad in the Victorian police, with a career spanning 36 years.

"I am prepared to offer my personal and professional reputation to unequivocally declare that these seven people did not commit the offences for which they have been convicted," he said.

He has called on the United Nations to conduct an independent investigation into the case.


'I know Neil is innocent'

At the beginning of the year, Foreign Correspondent began filming with Mr Bantleman's wife, Tracy.

From Jakarta she is campaigning to free him. A judicial review is her last legal avenue, but it requires evidence not heard by the court previously.

"I know Neil is innocent, he knows he is innocent," she said.

"It needs to be known that I am standing beside my husband because he's an innocent man."

 
Tracy Bantleman is campaigning for the release of her husband, Neil Bantleman, and his teaching assistant, Ferdinand Tjiong (ABC News)

On the other side of Jakarta, another woman is living an almost parallel horror.

Sunarti is the wife of Agun Iskandar, one of the six Indonesian cleaners. Agun was sentenced to eight years in prison in December 2014.

The couple has a two-year-old daughter Nabila, who has only ever seen her father behind bars.

Like Ms Bantleman, Ms Iskandar has no doubt about her husband's innocence. She alleges he was beaten into confessing.

"He had to admit sodomising a kid — he didn't even know which kid," she said.

"[He told police:] 'Who is he sir? Which one? I don't know.'

"I said 'would you dare to swear to our unborn baby, that you didn't do what was accused of you?' He then whispered to my tummy, 'I swear that I never did such a thing'."


 Agun Iskander's wife, Sunarti and their daughter, Nabila. (ABC News)


Holding out for a judicial review

Mr Bantleman and Mr Tjiong were briefly released from jail at the end of last year when the Indonesian High Court overturned the conviction on appeal.

But in February the nation's highest court, the Supreme Court, overruled the acquittal and increased the teachers' jail terms from 10 to 11 years.

In the ruling the Supreme Court judges found the High Court made errors in its decision to release the men, including by dismissing the testimony of the alleged child victims.

It found although the children were not under oath, their testimony should be taken into account in conjunction with the statements made by the parents and psychologists.

Ms Bantleman hopes to have her husband out of jail by the end of the year, although most legal experts agree that is unlikely.

"Right now in my mind, I'm giving a very large timeframe for the judicial review," she said.

"For me the next best hope for Neil is that we can bring him home at Christmas.

"That's the target — you can't live past that, otherwise it will bring you down."

Dr Muhammed Nasser, a member of Kompolnas, the National Police Commission at the time of the arrests, told Foreign Correspondent the cleaners' confessions may have been made after physical abuse.

Dr Nasser wants the case relaunched.

"We suspect that the confession made by the people who got interrogated smells abusive," he said.

"We challenge the court decision and that is what we are doing now."

Please people, let's pray for this travesty to be made right.

After Girl Faces Rapist in Court, Judge Calls Child Sex Abuse an “Epidemic”

Lillian Schrock, Caspar Star-Tribune, Wyoming

Rene Bustillos-Carrillo

A teenage girl walked to the podium in a Casper courtroom Friday, cradling a caramel-colored teddy bear in her arms.

“The first time it happened, I found myself so weak and powerless,” the girl said with a loud, yet quavering voice. “It was ugly and horrific and downright repulsive. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.”

The girl recounted for a judge the years of sexual abuse she endured at the hands of Rene Bustillos-Carrillo, who sat just feet away from her, handcuffed and dressed in orange jail scrubs.

Epidemic 

After hearing testimony from the victim and her parents, Natrona County District Court Judge Thomas Sullins sentenced Bustillos-Carillo to 18 to 20 years in prison.

Just before handing down the sentence, Sullins called child sexual abuse “an epidemic” and said people must be deterred from committing such “horrible crimes.”

Unfortunately, it is an epidemic that few people are willing to talk about, so most don't know it's an epidemic. Is there something you can do to raise the awareness of this devastating evil?

“The message needs to be that these types of crimes have a high-victim impact, as we’ve seen in the courtroom today, and are absolutely inexcusable,” he said.

The judge said he was hesitant to honor a plea agreement made in the case. The District Attorney’s office charged Bustillos-Carillo last April with nine sex-abuse charges, which would have put him in prison for life. But prosecutors made a deal with Bustillos-Carrillo: If he entered pleas to two charges, they wouldn’t ask for more than 20 years.

With the help of a Spanish-speaking interpreter, Bustillos-Carrillo in September pleaded no contest to one count of third-degree sexual abuse of a minor and pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree sexual abuse of a minor.

The second charge pertains to another girl Bustillos-Carrillo molested.

Sullins said he’d go along with the agreement because he understands how extremely difficult sex abuse cases are to prosecute.

The second victim, a girl born in 2000, reported the abuse in February to police. After she came forward, authorities learned Bustillos-Carrillo had been abusing another girl.

Bustillos-Carrillo may face deportation to Mexico for the felony convictions. The defendant’s attorney, Richard Szekely, said it is up to the Wyoming Department of Corrections and the federal government to decide when Bustillos-Carrillo will be deported.


Victim impact devastating

The victim’s mother approached the podium with a clear plastic bag filled with her daughter's prescription medications.

“This is only a small amount of the medication she has to take every day because she can’t function, because he tortured her,” the woman said.

She said her daughter sleeps in bed with her now because she’s terrified Bustillos-Carrillo will come after her. The girl, who was born in 1998, said the abuse started when she was 10 years old.

For years, the woman said, her daughter suffered from physical ailments. She and her husband took the girl to see doctors, but they couldn’t figure out why she was suffering.

“I had no clue why this child had black eyes sometimes, and bruises on her arms and legs,” she said.

After the truth came out, the woman said she asked her daughter how many times Bustillos-Carrillo raped her. She’d lost count, the girl told her mom.

“He is evil,” the woman said. “He is so incredibly evil ... "”

The girl’s father told the judge his daughter is a hero for speaking out about what Bustillos-Carrillo did to her.

“He is a thief and a liar,” the man said. “He stole her innocence of being a child. He stole her childhood. He stole her happiness.”


In her own words

“When I was a little girl, I remember how happy I was,” the teenage girl said from the podium.

After the abuse started, she began abusing alcohol and harming herself. She couldn’t eat.

“It was the most traumatic and trying time of my life,” she said. “I was depressed, constantly.”

She said the abuse happened regularly for many years. Her attacker is going to prison, but she and her family are still recovering.

“Maybe I’m just going mad and I won’t get back to where I was before this happened,” she said. “I hope that’s not true.”

It's not true, sweetheart! You will recover with help; and you can be happy again in time. Right now, you are my hero! God bless and heal you!

People, please pray for this girl and the other two victims of this evil man.

Casper, WY

ISIS Sex Atrocities: Child Rape, Forced Virginity Surgeries

ISIS sex atrocities: Child rape, forced virginity surgeries 

exposed in UN report

Can you even imagine this girl's life?

Reuters / Youssef BoudlalReuters / Youssef Boudlal RT

New evidence has revealed how Islamic State fighters buy children as sex slaves and force them into marriage. Girls from Iraq and Syria told a senior UN official they were stripped, sold, and made to undergo over a dozen virginity reparation surgeries.

I knew this was done to little girls sold or abducted into sexual slavery in the far east, but was not aware of it in the Middle East until now. Virgins attract a much higher price than non-virgins in the sex-slave market.

“Girls are literally being stripped naked and examined in slave bazaars,” by Islamic State (IS, previously ISIS/ISIL) fighters, Zainab Bangura, Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict told the journalist during a briefing.

Bangura visited the Middle East between April 16 and 29 to talk to surviving rape victims. During her travels she stopped in Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. Bangura managed to interview women who had escaped and survived horrific sexual assaults at the hands of IS fighters.

The girls and children were treated like cattle, she said. They are “categorized and shipped naked off to Dohuk or Mosul or other locations to be distributed among ISIL leadership and fighters.”

One of the victims was married off over 20 separate times and after each time was forced to get a surgery that would repair her virginity.

“Women and girls are at risk and under assault at every point of their lives,” Bangura said, adding that this kind of violent treatment of women was actually encouraged as part of jihad.

“ISIL has institutionalized sexual violence and the brutalization of women as a central aspect of their ideology and operations, using it as a tactic of terrorism to advance their key strategic objectives.”

Horror and violence followed the girls “every step of the way…in the midst of active conflict, in areas under control of armed actors, at check-points and border crossings, and in detention facilities,” according to Bangura.

Militants even use trafficking, prostitution and ransom plots as a way to raise money, she added.

Sexual violence is used by IS as a tactic to punish, humiliate, and demoralize local populations, making it easier to get information from them and displace them.

As a result of these atrocities, these victims of child rape are growing into “a generation of stateless children,” who will remain vulnerable to IS recruitment tactics.

There have been reports that doctors have performed illegal abortions on pregnant girls as young as nine.

Mohammed legalized pedophilia for Islam

Many of the child victims are from the Yazidi religious minority in Iraq. Around 40,000 of them were reportedly kidnapped at gunpoint by IS militants last August. Other minorities at risk include Christians, Iraqi Turkmens and Shabaks.

A video surfaced on YouTube in November, showing IS militants laughing and joking while buying Yazidi slaves.

Many of the women have expressed feeling ashamed and are unable to restart their lives after surviving the brutal and humiliating attacks. No kidding! How do you go back to something resembling normal life after such horrific treatment. It's not like these girls/women are going to get counselling to deal with it.

Please pray for these girls/women who escape the sickening evil, and especially those still caught-up in it.