Night Stalker serial killer who terrorized California with a spree of satanic murders dies in hospital after 24 years on death row, Experts see strong link between sexual abuse and obesity

- Night Stalker serial killer who terrorized California with a spree of satanic murders dies in hospital after 24 years on death row
- Food Addiction In Women Tied To Sexual, Physical Abuse During Childhood
- Abuse victimization in childhood or adolescence and risk of food addiction in adult women
- How Childhood Trauma Can Cause Adult Obesity
- Experts see strong link between sexual abuse and obesity

Night Stalker serial killer who terrorized California with a spree of satanic murders dies in hospital after 24 years on death row

Richard Ramirez, 53, died of liver failure while awaiting execution
Ramirez was convicted in 1989 of 13 murders and later tied to several more. He was a self-proclaimed follower of Satan
His trial was a horror show in which jurors heard about one victim’s eyes being gouged out and another’s head being nearly severed
He earned the nickname Night Stalker
By Associated Press Reporter and Daily Mail Reporter  7 June 2013

….Satanic symbols were left at murder scenes and some victims were forced to ‘swear to Satan’ by the killer, who entered homes through unlocked windows and doors.

After his conviction, Ramirez flashed a two-fingered ‘devil sign’ to photographers and muttered a single word: ‘Evil.’….
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2337625/Night-Stalker-serial-killer-terrorized-California-spree-Satanic-murders-dies-hospital-24-years-death-row.html

Food Addiction In Women Tied To Sexual, Physical Abuse During Childhood David Freeman 06/07/2013

But a shocking new study suggests that some cases of obesity grow out of sexual or physical abuse during childhood.

The study, conducted by scientists at Harvard Medical School, showed that women with a personal history of abuse are much more likely than other women to develop a food addiction.

For the study, a team led by Dr. Susan M. Mason, a postdoctoral fellow at the Connors Center for Women’s Health and Gender Biology, studied the link between childhood abuse and adult food addiction in 57,321 women enrolled in the Nurses’ Health Study II.

(Food addiction involves behaviors such as repeated episodes of eating despite the absence of hunger and experiencing withdrawal symptoms when cutting back on certain foods, Dr. Mason told The Huffington Post in an email.)

Dr. Mason’s team found that food addiction was almost twice as common among women who indicated that they had experienced sexual or physical abuse before age 18 than among women with no history of childhood abuse, according to a written statement released in conjunction with the research. Women who had experienced both sexual and physical abuse were even more likely to have food addiction.

Overall, the prevalence of food addiction ran from 6 percent in women with no history of childhood abuse all the way to 16 percent among women who had experienced both sexual and physical abuse….

But studies have turned up links between childhood abuse and obesity in men, Dr. Mason told The Huffington Post. One 2009 study of more than 15,000 adolescents found that men with a history of childhood sexual abuse were 66 percent more likely to be obese than other men, Time.com reported in 2010….

As Dr. Vincent Felitti, co-principal investigator of the California-based Adverse Childhood Experiences Study and an expert on the connection between childhood trauma and adult health problems, told Syracuse.com in 2010, “the relationship between childhood sexual abuse and obesity later in life is major, but, since childhood sexual abuse is a topic protected by shame and social taboo, it is concealed by time and by secrecy.”

Dr. Mason’s study was published in the journal Obesity.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/07/food-addiction-women-sexual-physical-abuse-childhood_n_3398173.html

Abuse victimization in childhood or adolescence and risk of food addiction in adult women
Susan M. Mason PhD,     Alan J. Flint MD,     Alison E. Field ScD, S. Bryn Austin ScD, Janet W. Rich-Edwards ScD DOI: 10.1002/oby.20500

Abstract

Objective: Child abuse appears to increase obesity risk in adulthood, but the mechanisms are unclear. This study examined the association between child abuse victimization and food addiction, a measure of stress-related overeating, in 57,321 adult participants in the Nurses’ Health Study II (NHSII). Design and Methods: The NHSII ascertained physical and sexual child abuse histories in 2001 and current food addiction in 2009. Food addiction was defined as =3 clinically significant symptoms on a modified version of the Yale Food Addiction Scale. Confounder-adjusted risk ratios (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated using modified Poisson regression. Results: Over eight percent of the sample reported severe physical abuse in childhood, while 5.3% reported severe sexual abuse. Eight percent met the criteria for food addiction. Women with food addiction were 6 units of BMI heavier than women without food addiction. Severe physical and severe sexual abuse were associated with roughly 90% increases in food addiction risk (physical abuse RR=1.92; 95% CI: 1.76, 2.09; sexual abuse RR=1.87; 95% CI: 1.69, 2.05). The RR for combined severe physical abuse and sexual abuse was 2.40 (95% CI: 2.16, 2.67). Conclusions: A history of child abuse is strongly associated with food addiction in this population.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/oby.20500/abstract

How Childhood Trauma Can Cause Adult Obesity
By Maia Szalavitz Tuesday, Jan. 05, 2010

….In recent years, studies by both Felitti and others have largely confirmed the association between sexual abuse — as well as other types of traumatic childhood experience — and eating disorders or obesity. A 2007 study of more than 11,000 California women found that those who had been abused as children were 27% more likely to be obese as adults, compared with those who had not, after adjusting for other factors. A 2009 study of more than 15,000 adolescents found that sexual abuse in childhood raised the risk of obesity 66% in males in adulthood. That study found no such effect in women, but did find a higher risk of eating disorders in sexually abused girls….
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1951240,00.html

Experts see strong link between sexual abuse and obesity
By Amber Smith July 25, 2010
Manlius, NY — More than half of the women Dr. Wendy Scinta takes care of at her Medical Weight Loss practice in Manlius have sexual abuse in their past.

Typically they lose weight, hit a plateau and put the pounds back on. Over and over again. Until they deal with their demons.

Scinta saw this happen so often, with up to 75 percent of her female patients, that the medical history she takes of new patients now includes questions about abuse. Her treatment involves helping patients be comfortable with the attention that comes with thinner bodies. Mandatory group therapy sessions take place weekly in her office’s conference room.

“If there’s obesity, there’s a good chance, especially if there’s morbid obesity, that something tragic happened in that person’s history, at one point or another,” she said. Those affected are mostly women, mostly 100 or more pounds overweight, and mostly binge eaters. All races, and all social classes are equally represented, she said….
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2010/07/linking_sexual_abuse_to_obesit.html

Rape charge against Stuart Hall deepens BBC scandal, Paedophile sent extreme net child-abuse images, Dr. Phil – The Rest of the Story – By Judy Byington, Author, Twenty-Two Faces

Rape charge against Stuart Hall deepens BBC scandal

LONDON Wed Jan 23, 2013

(Reuters) – A veteran British TV presenter was charged with rape and 14 counts of indecent assault on underage girls, police said on Tuesday, deepening concerns about sex abuse by top BBC personalities decades ago.

Stuart Hall, 83, best known for hosting “It’s a Knockout” in the 1970s and 1980s, was questioned after late broadcaster Jimmy Savile was exposed last year as a serial child sex abuser, prompting a flurry of further sex crime allegations.

Hall, who was still appearing regularly on BBC radio until recently, had already been charged with three counts of indecent assault, in December. He denied all charges….
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/01/23/uk-britain-bbc-arrest-idUKBRE90M00720130123

Paedophile sent extreme net child-abuse images
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
By Ted Davenport

A COMPUTER engineer has been jailed for sending extreme child-abuse images to other paedophiles on the internet.

Keith Gibson, 50, was found with more than 2,300 photos and movies after police were alerted by colleagues in the national Child Exploitation and Online Protection squad in London.

He was jailed after a judge at Exeter Crown Court told him his activities amounted to the worst case of child pornography he had encountered.

Gibson formed part of an internet paedophile ring which exchanged child sex fantasies and images in chat rooms where some posed as children.

The victims of the abuse included babies under six months old and two of the movies he distributed showed girls aged about three and 10 being raped….
http://www.thisisdevon.co.uk/Paedophile-sent-extreme-net-child-abuse-images/story-17929033-detail/story.html

forwarded with permission

Dr. Phil – The Rest of the Story – By Judy Byington, Author, Twenty-Two Faces
Dr. Phil: “Mentally Ill Moms” – January 11, 2013

As a retired Supervisor of Alberta Mental Health, CEO of Provo Family Counseling Center and therapist for 23 years, I have known and worked with many Dissociate Identity Disorder (DID or multipule personality) sufferers who claimed being ritually abused. Twenty years ago Jenny asked that I write her biography. Since then I have served as a friend, biographer and counselor, though have never done, nor been paid for doing therapy with her.

We intended Twenty-Two Faces as a voice for the ritually abused, explaining DID, exposing the rampant practice of ritual abuse and hopefully saving children from the trauma Jenny endured. We applied to be on the Dr. Phil show in anticipation viewers would gain a better understanding of DID and its tie-in to childhood trauma, specifically ritualized abuse.

We were optimistic, that with Dr. Phil’s help, we might secure Jenny an evaluation at the Colin A Ross Institute. For the last 29 years since she was diagnosed DID at the Utah State Psychiatric Hospital, Jenny has not received therapy for her multiplicity. She is seen by a clinician at Wasatch Mental Health who “maintains” her, but does no treatment for multiplicity. She also sees a psychiatrist twice a year for medication adjustment. For many years she has suffered from DID-related symptoms including Depression.

The Dr. Phil show was taped in 4 sessions. On September 10 just as we left to tape before the live audience, I was informed by staff:

1. Dr. Phil had not read Twenty-Two Faces.

2. Jenny would not be offered treatment.

3. The show producers did not believe Jenny’s story.

As I watched the version that viewers saw on January 11th, I was shocked at what they had done. Jenny’s actual life was apparently not what Dr. Phil intended to portray. His staff had cut and pasted the individual interviews and the taping done before a live audience which resulted in changing the story from a woman who has been without therapy for her multiplicity into describing a mentally ill woman who appears to have been taken advantage of by her therapist. Again, I have never acted as Jenny’s therapist.

Below are some examples of what was left out of “Mentally Ill Moms.”

Producers Revised Jenny’s Story

(1) During my individual taping sessions I was asked to corroborate what is in Jenny’s biography 22 Faces. In the version that aired, none of my answers from the individual tapings were included.

(2) Dr. Phil claimed that major segments of the mental health community believed that DID was a very controversial diagnosis; that some professionals felt it was “near on to impossible to have alter personalities” and in his 30 years of “doing this” he had never met a multiple personality.

Yet, a woman with multiple personalities was on his show last April. Viewers were not told that DID had been an accepted diagnosis included in the APA diagnostic manual, the DSM, since 1994.

(3) On the show Jenny stated that she hadn’t read 22 Faces. She clarifies in a notarized “Open Letter to Dr. Phil” on the 22 faces website ( http://www.22faces.com ) that the book is difficult for her to read because doing so “brings out bad memories” for her. However, she is aware of the contents portraying her life because she lived it and helped write her own biography.

(4) It was not until the very week the show aired in January that I realized they were portraying me as her therapist. I immediately emailed the producer and asked that he change my title to retired therapist. He emailed back that he changed my title on the CBS website, but could not change anything on the actual show.

(5) In August, 2013 producers asked for a video of Jenny changing personalities. We videotaped her changing into Alter J.J. and Homicidal Alter Jenese. It was not a therapy session as labeled on the show, but done with Jenny’s consent and at their request.

(6) I did not sue Robert as Dr. Phil announced. During the break Robert reminded him that it was not a lawsuit, but a Cease and Desist letter from my lawyer. Dr. Phil did not correct that fact that it was not a lawsuit and gave me no opportunity to correct it.

(7) In the taping before a live audience Dr. Phil appeared very surprised when I told him that multiple personalities could only be caused by childhood trauma. His eyes widened, he sat back, and immediately changed the subject. This also did not appear in the final version.

(8) Story rights and book proceeds

Dr. Phil asked, “What happens to the money? Does it go to you?”

I answered, “It’s placed in the 22 Faces account.”

Dr. Phil, “Then why did you make her sign over her rights to the story? You get the money, right?”

I was given no opportunity to answer as the audience was directed to applaud Dr. Phil’s question. After the applause I tried to explain more, but was cut off. My attempt to explain was not included in the final version.

The applause was later pasted in after Robert’s question to me. Again, I was given no time to respond to Robert.

The answer that I would have said if given the opportunity: I signed a legal contract with my literary agent, Paul McCarthy, so he could represent film, electronic and manuscript rights to Jenny’s story. He wanted to make sure that we had a contract with Jenny showing I had the rights to her story. If we were to spend time and money publishing the biography assurance was needed that we had copyright to the story. Thus, Jenny agreed to sign over her story rights. Jenny understood this legality as shown in her notarized “Open Letter to Dr. Phil” on the website ( http://www.22faces.com )

Also in that notarized “Open Letter to Dr. Phil” Jenny states, “I am fully capable of making my own decisions and if I wanted to set up a bank account for monies received from sale of my book I could and would do so. It has been my decision not to set up an account at this time.”

In my individual interviews it was related that the Hill family was upset that I was receiving money for 22 Faces while Jenny wouldn’t benefit from book proceeds. I replied that thus far I had received two royalty checks for $4.00 and $20.00, invested over $20,000.00 of my own money to edit, publish and publicize the biography, plus spent 20 years of my life writing it. It would be quite a while before the book made a profit, if ever. I explained that Hill’s story had never been about money for either Jenny nor myself. It was our purpose to publish Twenty-Two Faces so it could be a voice for the ritually abused and help make the public aware of children who are being traumatized through satanic worship. This answer from me was not in the final version of the show. What was portrayed to viewers was a “therapist” who was taking advantage of her mentally ill client.

Conclusion

I’ve been asked if I regret appearing on Dr. Phil. In part, yes.

Within a couple of days after the program aired 33 one-star negative reviews had been placed on the Amazon Twenty-Two Faces sale site. The majority didn’t refer to the book, but how I was portrayed on the Dr. Phil show. These also included personal attacks on my character. There are hundreds of negative comments under the reviews, while new negative one-star reviews and more personal attacks appear there daily.

On the other hand, the book has been highly publicized. And, many who experienced abuse similar to Jenny’s and their therapists have placed comments refuting these demeaning attacks. Most have thanked us for speaking out through Twenty-Two Faces and appearing on Dr. Phil.

My hope for Jenny is that we can find treatment for her multiplicity. The APA psychiatric manual DSM states that Dissociation affects a large section of the population. Thus, I am also in hope that Dr. Phil will revist DID or multiplicity and it’s relationship to childhood trauma with the purpose of educating his viewers on this growing problem.
http://22faces.com/dr-phil-the-rest-of-the-story/

Study of the Day: 1 in 4 Adults With HIV Were Sexually Abused as Kids

Study of the Day: 1 in 4 Adults With HIV Were Sexually Abused as Kids
By Hans Villarica Mar 23 2012

New research from Duke University shows that psychological trauma predicts increased vulnerability for HIV/AIDS and faster health decline.

METHODOLOGY: Duke University researchers led by Brian Pence monitored more than 600 HIV-positive patients, aged 20 to 71, in the “Coping with HIV/AIDS in the Southeast” study. They investigated possible links to traumatic experiences, HIV-related behaviors, and health outcomes.

RESULTS: A quarter of the respondents were sexually abused as children. Moreover, half of the patients had faced three or more traumatic experiences in their lifetime, including enduring physical abuse and witnessing domestic violence as a child, living through a parent’s suicide attempt or completion, or losing a child.

These painful experiences predicted worse health-related behaviors, such as instances of unprotected sex, missed antiretroviral medications, recent emergency room visits, and hospitalizations. Those who lived through such ordeals were also more likely to die or see their health decline during the two-year study period.

CONCLUSION: Psychological trauma heightens the risk for HIV infection, medication lapses, and disease progression.  http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/03/study-of-the-day-1-in-4-adults-with-hiv-were-sexually-abused-as-kids/254666/

J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr. 2012 Apr 1;59(4):409-416.
Childhood Trauma and Health Outcomes in HIV-Infected Patients: An Exploration of Causal Pathways.
Pence BW, Mugavero MJ, Carter TJ, Leserman J, Thielman NM, Raper JL, Proeschold-Bell RJ, Reif S, Whetten K.

METHODS:
In 611 outpatient people living with HIV/AIDS, we tested whether trauma’s influence on later health and behaviors was mediated by coping styles, self-efficacy, social support, trust in the medical system, recent stressful life events, mental health, and substance abuse.

RESULTS:
In models adjusting only for sociodemographic and transmission category confounders (estimating total effects), pasttrauma exposure was associated with 7 behavioral and health outcomes….

CONCLUSIONS:
These data suggest that past trauma influences adult health and behaviors through pathways other than the psychosocial mediators considered in this model. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22107822

Questions and Answers Regarding Dissociative Amnesia

” Scientific evidence shows that it is not rare for traumatized people to experience amnesia or delayed recall for the trauma.

Amnesia has been reported in combat, for crimes, and for concentration camp experiences and torture. The more severe the trauma, the more likely it is to be forgotten.

Overall, a recovered memory is just as likely to be accurate as a continuously remembered one.”

The sociocognitive model of dissociative identity disorder: a reexamination of the evidence.
” No reason exists to doubt the connection between DID and childhood trauma.”

Questions and Answers Regarding Dissociative Amnesia
by Stephanie Dallam RN, MS, FNP

….there is near-universal scientific acceptance of the fact that the mind is capable of avoiding conscious recall of traumatic experiences.

….Is dissociation a rare phenomenon?
No. Scientific evidence shows that it is not rare for traumatized people to experience amnesia or delayed recall for the trauma. Amnesia has been reported in combat, for crimes, and for concentration camp experiences and torture. Evidence of this process can be found in the early literature on World War I and World War II.

….Carlson, E., & Rosser-Hogan, R. (April, 1993). Mental health status of Cambodian refugees ten years after leaving their homes. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 63 (2), 223-231.

Dissociation is also a frequent finding in survivors extreme terror. Between 1975 and 1979, an estimated one to three million of a population of seven million Cambodians were killed or died of starvation. Carlson, E., & Rosser-Hogan selected 50 subjects at random from a list of all refugees (~500) resettled by nonprofit organization between 1983 and 1985. None had any formal education and had lived in the US for a mean of 5 years. 86% met the criteria for PTSD. The mean number of traumatic experiences the refugees endorsed was 14 and “90% reported amnesia for upsetting events.”

….Krell, R. (1993). Child survivors of the Holocaust: Strategies of adaptation. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 38 , 384-389.

Krell reported on 22 Holocaust survivors who, as children, hid from the Nazis.
“As children they were encouraged not to tell, but to lead normal lives and forget the past . . .”
“The most pervasive preoccupation of child survivors is the continuing struggle with memory, whether there is too much or too little . . .”
“For a child survivor today, an even more vexing problem is the intrusion of fragments of memory – most are emotionally powerful and painful but make no sense. They seem to become more frequent with time and are triggered by thousands of subtle or not so subtle events . . .”

Marks, J. (1995). The hidden children: The secret survivors of the Holocaust. Toronto : Bantam Books.

One holocaust survivor, Ava Landy, describes her amnesia:
“So much of my childhood between the ages of four and nine is blank….It’s almost as if my life was smashed into little pieces . . .
The trouble is, when I try to remember, I come up with so little. This ability to forget was probably my way of surviving emotionally as a child. Even now, whenever anything unpleasant happens to me, I have a mental garbage can in which I can put all the bad stuff and forget it . . . .
I’m still afraid of being hungry. . . . I never leave my house without some food….Again, I don’t remember being hungry. I asked my sister and she said that we were hungry. So I must have been! I just don’t remember.” (p. 188).

What types of traumas result in dissociative amnesia?
A review of 50 studies revealed that amnesia rates tend to increase with severity of trauma and is particularly high in victims of sex crimes….

What is the relation of memory recovery to psychotherapy?
Albach et al. studied 97 adult victims of extreme sexual abuse and a control group of 65 women, matched for age and education who reported on their memories of “ordinary unpleasant childhood experiences.”  The abuse survivors were broken into two groups.  One group had participated in psychotherapy while the other group had not. There was no significant differences in amnesia, memory recovery, or other memory phenomena between the survivors who participated in psychotherapy and those who did not.

…How accurate are recovered memories?
Dalenberg, C. J. (1996). Accuracy, timing and circumstances of disclosure in therapy of recovered and continuous memories of abuse. Journal of Psychiatry & Law,24 (2), 229-75.

Accuracy for Continuous Versus Recovered Memories
Percent with evidence supporting memory
Continuous  75%
Recovered   75%

Conclusion
Scientific evidence shows that it is not rare for traumatized people to experience amnesia or delayed recall for the trauma. Amnesia has been reported in combat, for crimes, and for concentration camp experiences and torture.
The more severe the trauma, the more likely it is to be forgotten.
Overall, a recovered memory is just as likely to be accurate as a continuously remembered one. However, recovered memories have a prominence of emotional and sensory-perceptual elements vs. declarative (verbal) elements. They are often fragmentary and incomplete and thus hard to make into coherent story.
http://www.leadershipcouncil.org/1/tm/amnesia.html

The sociocognitive model of dissociative identity disorder: a reexamination of the evidence.
Gleaves DH.

According to the sociocognitive model of dissociative identity disorder (DID; formerly, multiple personality disorder), DID is not a valid psychiatric disorder of posttraumatic origin; rather, it is a creation of psychotherapy and the media. Support for the model was recently presented by N.P. Spanos (1994).

In this article, the author reexamines the evidence for the model and concludes that it is based on numerous false assumptions about the psychopathology, assessment, and treatment of DID. Most recent research on the dissociative disorders does not support (and in fact disconfirms) the sociocognitive model, and many inferences drawn from previous research appear unwarranted.

No reason exists to doubt the connection between DID and childhood trauma. Treatment recommendations that follow from the sociocognitive model may be harmful because they involve ignoring the posttraumatic symptomatology of persons with DID.

Psychol Bull. 1994 Jul;116(1):143-65.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8711016

Childhood Trauma and Risk for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Childhood Trauma and Risk for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Association With Neuroendocrine Dysfunction – Journal: Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2009;66(1):72-80 Authors: Christine Heim, PhD; Urs M. Nater, PhD; Elizabeth Maloney, MS, DrPH; Roumiana Boneva, MD, PhD; James F. Jones, MD; William C. Reeves, MD, MSc

Context
Childhood trauma appears to be a potent risk factor for chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). Evidence from developmental neuroscience suggests that early experience programs the development of regulatory systems that are implicated in the pathophysiology of CFS, including the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. However, the contribution of childhood trauma to neuroendocrine dysfunction in CFS remains obscure.

Objectives
To replicate findings on the relationship between childhood trauma and risk for CFS and to evaluate the association between childhood trauma and neuroendocrine dysfunction in CFS.
Design, Setting, and Participants
A case-control study of 113 persons with CFS and 124 well control subjects identified from a general population sample of 19 381 adult residents of Georgia….

Results
Individuals with CFS reported significantly higher levels of childhood trauma and psychopathological symptoms than control subjects. Exposure to childhood trauma was associated with a 6-fold increased risk of CFS. Sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and emotional neglect were most effective in discriminating CFS cases from controls. There was a graded relationship between exposure level and CFS risk. The risk of CFS conveyed by childhood trauma further increased with the presence of posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms. Only individuals with CFS and with childhood trauma exposure, but not individuals with CFS without exposure, exhibited decreased salivary cortisol concentrations after awakening compared with control subjects.

Conclusions
Our results confirm childhood trauma as an important risk factor of CFS. In addition, neuroendocrine dysfunction, a hallmark feature of CFS, appears to be associated with childhood trauma. This possibly reflects a biological correlate of vulnerability due to early developmental insults. Our findings are critical to inform pathophysiological research and to devise targets for the prevention of CFS.
http://www.endfatigue.com/health_articles_c/Cfs_fm-child_abuse_can_lead_to_cfs_fibromyalgia.html

Man Arrested After Suing the Vatican, Trauma and adult mental health conference

Forensic Aspects of Dissociative Identity Disorder – Child Abuse Wiki

Man Arrested After Suing the Vatican By TIM HULL  November 01, 2010   SAN FRANCISCO (CN) – A man charged with assaulting a priest at a Jesuit retirement home has sued the Vatican, claiming it knew its priest had sexually molested him and others, and failed to protect him from being “raped, tortured, and forced to engage in sexual acts with his own brother,” when they were children.
William Lynch, 43, was arrested on Friday, 2 days after he sued the Vatican, the Oakland Archdiocese, the Jesuit Order, The Christian Family Movement and others in Federal Court. Lynch was accused of assaulting the Rev. Jerold Lindner, 65, in the lobby of a retirement home in Los Gatos, in May this year.
Lynch claims Lindner oversaw his rape, torture and abuse at a summer camp when he was 7, and that the religious defendants knew of Lindner’s propensities, and covered for him for decades.
“In May 1975, plaintiff was entrusted to a CFM [Christian Family Movement] children’s camp in Portola State Park in the state of California, whereat he was raped, tortured, and forced to engage in sexual acts with is own brother by Jesuit priest and CFM Camp Spiritual Advisor Jerold W. Lindner. Plaintiff was 7 years old at that time,” according to the complaint.
“Not only did the Jesuit Order know of Lindner’s propensities for child rape and abuse, Lindner was well known by his order as a ‘torturer of children.’ He was specifically known for sexual gratification while torturing his victims among his order, and his reputation and knowledge of his crimes extended all the way to the Holy See in the 1970s [and] 1980s.”….Lynch says in his complaint that the Vatican and the other defendants continue to protect the retired priest after “decades of abuse and hundreds of victims.”….The Associated Press reported on Friday, however, that “Father Lindner, 65, has been accused of abuse by nearly a dozen people, including his sister and nieces and nephews. … He has previously denied abusing the Lynch boys and has not been criminally charged. The abuse falls outside the statute of limitations.”
The AP report continued: “Father Lindner was removed from the ministry and placed at the Los Gatos retirement home in 2001. “He was named in two additional lawsuits for abuse between 1973 and 1985, according to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. The cases were included in a $660 million settlement struck between the church and more than 550 plaintiffs in 2007.”….”Lindner’s sexual abuse of children began in [the] 1950s, continued through the 1970s and persisted into the 1980s, when Lindner was actually promoted by defendants to a teacher post at an all boys school, Loyola High School in Los Angeles,” according to the complaint.
http://www.courthousenews.com/2010/11/01/31496.htm

Trauma and adult mental health conference
When: 30/11/2010 10.00am to 4.30pm
Where: ORT House Conference Centre, London NW1 UK
Childhood trauma as a result of abuse is frequently the catalyst for ongoing mental health related problems in adulthood. Statistics about trauma and adult mental health issues make shocking reading.
The impacts of trauma are far-reaching, touching every part of survivors’ lives. Social problems such as homelessness, physical manifestations such as self-harm and eating disorders and personal and emotional difficulties in forming healthy relationships are all possible outcomes. The conference will address some of the outcomes linked with childhood trauma; the pathways to recovery and possible therapeutic interventions that can be used….Substance misuse is a particular area of concern and the expert speaker will explore the links between trauma and substance misuse in adults.

The diagnosis of dissociative identity disorder will be analysed and explained – 90% of adults with dissociative identity disorder (DID) were abused as children.
A final session will revisit the issues around childhood abuse and describe ways in which early intervention can prevent the cycle repeating itself.

Chair: Adah Sachs Consultant Psychotherapist, Clinic for Dissociative Studies
Peter Saunders Chief Executive and Founder of NAPAC
Peter Jones Lecturer in Mental Health, Bournemouth University, and Chair, Counselling in Prisons Network
Jim Symington Deputy Director, National Mental Health Development Unit
Dr Nick Maquire Chartered Clinical Psychologist and Director, PG Cert in Cognitive Therapy, University of Southampton
Kathryn A Livingstone Voluntary Co-ordinator, Trainer and Trustee,First Person Plural
Jean Budge Support Services Supervisor, Beyond Trauma, Health in Mind
Rex Haigh FRCPsych Consultant Psychiatrist, Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, Clinical Advisor, National Personality Disorder Programme, Department of Health and Senior Fellow, Institute of Mental Health, Nottingham
Alan Corbett Former Director of Respond; former National Clinical Director of the CARI (Children at Risk in Ireland) Foundation and Psychotherapist
Jacqui Lovell Project lead, developing partners cic
http://www.pavpub.com/p-284-trauma-and-adult-mental-health.aspx?s=1

How Childhood Trauma Can Cause Adult Obesity

How Childhood Trauma Can Cause Adult Obesity By Maia Szalavitz Tuesday, Jan. 05, 2010

Felitti wondered if there was something similar barring weight loss in other patients – or causing obesity itself. In the late ’80s, he began a systematic study of 286 obese people, and discovered that 50% had been sexually abused as children. That rate is more than 50% higher than the rate normally reported by women, and more than triple the average rate in men. Indeed, the average rates of sexual abuse are themselves unsettling: according to a large 2003 study conducted by John Briere and Diana Elliott of the University of Southern California, 14% of men and 32% of women said they were molested at least once as children.

In recent years, studies by both Felitti and others have largely confirmed the association between sexual abuse – as well as other types of traumatic childhood experience – and eating disorders or obesity. A 2007 study of more than 11,000 California women found that those who had been abused as children were 27% more likely to be obese as adults, compared with those who had not, after adjusting for other factors. A 2009 study of more than 15,000 adolescents found that sexual abuse in childhood raised the risk of obesity 66% in males in adulthood. That study found no such effect in women, but did find a higher risk of eating disorders in sexually abused girls.
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1951240,00.html