Former priest alleges ‘system of abuse cover-ups’

Former priest alleges ‘system of abuse cover-ups’

A former New South Wales priest claims to have witnessed a “system of cover-ups” within the Catholic Church to hide child sexual abuse.

Kevin Lee was ordained as a priest 20 years ago and worked as a police chaplain for some of that time, but was relieved of his parish responsibilities in Western Sydney this year when he admitted to marrying a woman in secret.

His comments follow those of Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox who told Lateline on Thursday night that the Catholic Church is involved in cover-ups and paedophile priests have destroyed evidence to avoid prosecution.

Mr Lee told Lateline on Friday that abuse is widely covered up in the church and that he first became aware of it as soon as he was in the seminary.

“People used to tell me and people in the first parish I was in started to confess their frustration with the authorities and the church for not dealing with the abuse that happened to their sons,” he said.

“I became aware that some of the other priests were actually paedophiles and were not necessarily becoming priests because they wanted to help people, but because they were paedophiles who wanted the opportunity,” he said.

Mr Lee says a church protocol was in place for dealing with cases of child sexual abuse, but it was not actually used.

“I saw a system of cover-ups, a system of blind-eye turning and just ignorance of the fact that it was happening,” he said.

He says he took his concerns to superiors within the church but was knocked back.

“In my earlier years as a priest, I was having these people coming to me in confession or just sharing in counselling sessions their experience of frustration and anger with the church that had ignored their pleas of justice when their children had been abused and I started writing the notes down,” he said.

“I was speaking to a barrister at one point and I thought he was going to help my case by putting it forward in some legal process.

“He said ‘document everything you have’, and everything I had I took to authorities within the church and I was told I needed more evidence.”

Mr Lee says church authorities told him the allegation he brought them were hearsay.

“In the end I got frustrated with the fact that it was like the hierarchy in the Church was saying we don’t believe you, you’re a liar, you’re making it up,” he said….

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-11-10/former-priest-claims-to-have-seen-child-sex-abuse-cover-ups/4364572

BBC Crisis Over Jimmy Savile Sex Abuse Scandal, Convening of The International Common Law Court of Justice October 15, 2012

BBC Crisis Over Jimmy Savile Sex Abuse Scandal Widens; Chief Announces Inquiries
AP By JILL LAWLESS 10/13/2012

LONDON (AP) – The BBC is struggling to contain a crisis sparked by allegations of serial sexual abuse against the late Jimmy Savile, a longtime children’s television host.

Dozens of women have come forward to say that Savile, who died in October 2011 aged 84, sexually assaulted them when they were as young as 13. London’s Metropolitan Police, which is leading a national investigation, says it has identified 40 potential victims.

The publicly funded national broadcaster is facing questions about its failure to stop Savile’s predatory behavior, which was an open secret in showbiz circles during his heyday several decades ago.

BBC Director-General George Entwistle announced late Friday that the broadcaster would hold an inquiry into the “culture and practices of the BBC during the years Jimmy Savile worked here.”

“It will examine whether that culture and those practices allowed him or others to carry out the sexual abuse of children,” said Entwistle, promising a “forensic but also soul-searching examination.”

Some assaults are alleged to have taken place on BBC premises, others at hospitals and schools Savile visited as part of his charity fundraising….

The allegations against Savile were eventually aired in a documentary broadcast earlier this month on the rival ITV channel.

The British government said it would hold its own investigation into how Savile was appointed to lead a taskforce overseeing management restructuring at Broadmoor psychiatric hospital in the 1980s. Former patients at the hospital have claimed Savile abused them….

He was knighted by both Queen Elizabeth II and the Vatican for his charity work, but his reputation has been in free-fall since the abuse allegations were made public. Last week his family removed the headstone from his grave in Scarborough, northeastern England, and destroyed it, “out of respect for public opinion.” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/13/bbc-jimmy-savile-inquiry_n_1963347.html

Convening of The International Common Law Court of Justice October 15, 2012

My name is Kevin Annett – Eagle Strong Voice, and I am the chief consultant for the Prosecutor’s Office of the International Common Law Court of Justice.

Today is Monday, October 15, 2012, and marks the formal online convening of the five sworn judges of our Court, from Canada, the United States and Belgium. They are joined by fifty eight sworn citizen jurors from Canada, the USA, Ireland, England, Holland, Italy and Australia, who have been prepared to receive the evidence in the first of five cases in the Docket of our Court.

This first case involves the evidence that the government and churches of Canada entered into a criminal conspiracy to commit genocide and other crimes against indigenous people and their children for over a century; and that such crimes were committed by the defendants and their organizations, and continue today.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hr3lpMA58EE

On the Eve of A Final Accounting: An Update from Kevin Annett and The International Common Law Court of Justice

On the Eve of A Final Accounting: An Update from Kevin Annett and The International Common Law Court of Justice
Reverend Kevin Annett, M.A., M.Div. Salem-News.com Oct-05-2012

(BRUSSELS) – I’ve been traveling across Europe and North America since August, helping to establish our Common Law Court of Justice. This Court is something new and historic in the world, a grassroots movement of citizen-powered justice that on October 15 will begin to turn the tables on criminal bodies of church and state.

The Court is now functioning in seven countries, and will issue indictments and enforce its verdicts and sentences against those responsible for hideous crimes against children. More specific directions will be issued to all 58 of its citizen jurors before October 15.

Hundreds of people are on board now with the Court: citizen jurors, judges and prosecutors, and many eyewitnesses and plaintiffs. Summonses have been issued, including to the Pope himself and heads of state. And in response, a senior catholic Cardinal has shown a willingness to break from the Pope and negotiate some of our demands on behalf of a faction in the hierarchy.

And thanks to new information provided by church insiders, we are on the verge of revealing the unmarked graves of little children that scatter the lands of Canada, America, Ireland and other nations; and starting the process to bring those children home.

So here’s my report, written from Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, the USA and Canada….

Our action caused quite the stir in Holland. The top archbishop there wrote about our action to all his clergy, and that same week, over 20,000 people watched our broadcast from Holland about the launching of our International Common Law Court of Justice. (www.itccs.org, Sept. 15 and 17) In response, a German-Swiss television network broadcast our documentary Unrepentant to ten million people across Europe.

These kind of church occupations are definitely an Achilles Heel to criminal bodies like the Vatican, the Church of England and the United Church of Canada. Don’t forget that it was our March, 2007 occupations of Vancouver and Toronto churches and the massive media coverage of those actions that forced the government’s “apology” to residential school survivors a few months later.

But an even greater weapon in our arsenal is the hard evidence of church-sponsored crime and murder that will begin to go online globally on October 15. And this is clearly what churches and governments are worried about.

On September 18, an official with the European Union met with me for a day in Brussels and confirmed this.

“Parliamentarians here have been reading your documentation about the death rate in Canadian Indian schools, ever since your press conference in Rome two years ago” said the man.

“Some of us are preparing a motion to have Canada investigated for crimes against humanity, along with Pope Benedict. There is plenty of evidence showing collusion, thanks to your work.”

Equally encouraging, and a sign of the crisis in the Vatican, is that while in Brussels I received a communication from a senior Cardinal in Rome describing how an anti-Ratzinger element in the Curia wishes to discuss some of the Ten Requirements our Tribunal issued to the Pope on May 4 (www.itccs.org). Now that these kinds of divisions in the Vatican are starting to crack open, it’s clear that the tide is shifting.

http://www.salem-news.com/articles/october052012/canada-crimes-ka.php

The Redemption of Sinead O’Connor

The Redemption of Sinead O’Connor
By Michael Agresta Oct 3 2012

Twenty years ago today, Sinead O’Connor tore up a picture of the pope on Saturday Night Live—and the media largely misunderstood why. Is America finally ready to hear her out?

In the weeks and months after Sinead O’Connor tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II on live television, commentators in the media sought to explain the motives of her protest. Very few, however, made use of the traditional tools of journalism: interviews, research, and textual analysis. Instead, most commentators seem to have consulted their own imaginations….

Also inexplicably ignored were O’Connor’s own words, in an interview published in Time a month after her SNL appearance:

It’s not the man, obviously—it’s the office and the symbol of the organization that he represents… In Ireland we see our people are manifesting the highest incidence in Europe of child abuse. This is a direct result of the fact that they’re not in contact with their history as Irish people and the fact that in the schools, the priests have been beating the shit out of the children for years and sexually abusing them. This is the example that’s been set for the people of Ireland. They have been controlled by the church, the very people who authorized what was done to them, who gave permission for what was done to them.

Her interviewer seemed confused by the connection O’Connor was making between the Catholic Church and child abuse, so O’Connor opened up about her own history of abuse:

Sexual and physical. Psychological. Spiritual. Emotional. Verbal. I went to school every day covered in bruises, boils, sties and face welts, you name it. Nobody ever said a bloody word or did a thing. Naturally I was very angered by the whole thing, and I had to find out why it happened… The thing that helped me most was the 12-step group, the Adult Children of Alcoholics/Dysfunctional Families. My mother was a Valium addict. What happened to me is a direct result of what happened to my mother and what happened to her in her house and in school.

The interviewer remained skeptical of O’Connor’s characterization of Irish schools as playgrounds and training grounds for child abusers, and the interview moved on to different topics.

By now, the history of sexual and physical abuse in the Irish Catholic school system is familiar. As late as 2007, the Church controlled 93% of the schools in Ireland, giving most children no hope of escaping the often-sadistic system. As in America, serial child molesters like Brendan Smyth were shuttled from parish to parish and school to school to keep a step ahead of police and complaining parents. The culture of permissiveness towards abuse affected all communities, but probably the worst off were poor, orphaned, and troublemaking children sent to residential reformatory and industrial schools. To read the 2009 Ryan Report covering crimes carried out against children in these settings is to court a special sort of nausea—the kind that comes from bearing witness to an organized effort to deny the dignity of individual life and make the bodies of the powerless available to service the needs of the powerful. In this case, the powerless were disadvantaged minor teenagers and children.

Sexual abuse in several industrial schools was described as a “chronic problem.” Clergy whose behavior drew complaints from parents of day-school students were transferred to industrial schools where their abuses drew less attention. Some schools seem, on the evidence, to have been more labor camps than institutions of learning. At one notorious industrial school in Dublin, each child was required to string 60 rosaries each weekday and 90 on Saturdays. Students who did not reach their quotas were beaten….

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/10/the-redemption-of-sinead-oconnor/263020/

Boy Scouts helped alleged molesters cover tracks, ITCCS Kevin Annett update, Social Interaction in Early Life

articles:
- Boy Scouts helped alleged molesters cover tracks, files show
- A paper trail of abuse
- Urgent Update from the International Common Law Court of Justice
- Social Interaction in Early Life Affects Wiring to the Frontal Lobes

Boy Scouts helped alleged molesters cover tracks, files show

When volunteers and employees were suspected of sexually abusing children, Boy Scout officials often didn’t tell police, files from 1970-91 reveal. In many cases they sought to hide the situation.

By Kim Christensen and Jason Felch, Los Angeles Times

September 16, 2012

Over two decades, the Boy Scouts of America failed to report hundreds of alleged child molesters to police and often hid the allegations from parents and the public.

A Los Angeles Times review of 1,600 confidential files dating from 1970 to 1991 has found that Scouting officials frequently urged admitted offenders to quietly resign — and helped many cover their tracks.

Volunteers and employees suspected of abuse were allowed to leave citing bogus reasons such as business demands, “chronic brain dysfunction” and duties at a Shakespeare festival.

As The Times reported in August, the blacklist often didn’t work: Men expelled for alleged abuses slipped back into the program, only to be accused of molesting again. Now, a more extensive review has shown that Scouts sometimes abetted molesters by keeping allegations under wraps.

In the majority of cases, the Scouts learned of alleged abuse after it had been reported to authorities. But in more than 500 instances, the Scouts learned about it from boys, parents, staff members or anonymous tips.

In about 400 of those cases — 80% — there is no record of Scouting officials reporting the allegations to police. In more than 100 of the cases, officials actively sought to conceal the alleged abuse or allowed the suspects to hide it, The Times found.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-boy-scouts-files-20120916,0,6937684.story

A paper trail of abuse
Since at least 1919, the Boy Scouts of America has maintained “ineligible volunteer” files intended to keep sexual abusers, among others, out of its ranks. The records have been closely held by the Scouts, which contends that confidentiality is essential to protect victims, witnesses and anyone falsely accused.

The Times reviewed about 1,600 of the files dating from 1970 to 1991. In hundreds of cases, sexual abuse was not reported to law enforcement, and Scout officials at times actively hid it from parents and the public. In at least 50 cases, the Boy Scouts expelled men for alleged sexual abuse, only to discover later that they had reentered the Scouts and were again accused of molesting.

Here are files from some of those cases. The Times has redacted victims’ names and other identifying information. Some files include explicit accounts of sexual abuse.

http://documents.latimes.com/boy-scouts-paper-trail-of-abuse-documents/

This is an update from Kevin Annett dated September 17, 2012, and is the official issuing of the public summons to church and state officials.
Filmed at Freedom Central HQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wTSPVJzT5w&feature=youtu.be

Urgent Update from the International Common Law Court of Justice
Posted on September 17, 2012 by itccs

This is September 17, 2012, and I’m Kevin Annett with the International Common Law Court of Justice.

Today, the Prosecutor’s Office of our Court is issuing Public Summonses to thirty two officials of church and state around the world, charging them with criminal offenses and summoning them to appear in our court. This Summons and the names and positions of these officials will be read today so that the world is able to follow these historic proceedings.

This Summons has particular force right now because of the refusal of the named churches and persons to respond this week to ten measures of justice demanded of them by their victims – and by a consequential Banishment Proclamation that has been issued against these churches by organizations of abuse survivors around the world.

http://itccs.org/2012/09/17/urgent-update-from-the-international-common-law-court-of-justice/

Social Interaction in Early Life Affects Wiring to the Frontal Lobes
09/13/2012  Dr. Douglas Fields – Neurobiologist and author, ‘The Other Brain’ GET UPDATES FROM Dr. Douglas Fields

A study published in tomorrow’s issue of the journal Science shows that social interaction during a critical period of early life has irreversible effects on maturation of connections to the frontal lobes of the brain, disrupting social interactions and cognitive ability into adulthood. Children suffering severe neglect are known to have cognitive dysfunctions and impairments in social interaction as adults, but the mechanisms were not understood.

Situated behind the forehead, the prefrontal cortex is responsible for complex analysis, abstract thought, motivation, and controlling socially correct behaviors. Interestingly, connections from other brain regions to the prefrontal cortex are not fully developed until the early 20s. A team led by neurobiologist Gabriel Corfas at the Children’s Hospital in Boston reared mice in isolated cages for two weeks after they were weaned from their mothers. When these animals reached adulthood, the nerve fibers (axons) connecting to the prefrontal cortex had a thinner coating of electrical insulation (myelin) than in mice reared in standard cages. Myelin insulation, wrapped around axons like electrical tape, greatly increases the transmission speed of nerve impulses. Slower transmission of information to the frontal cortex could degrade performance of this critical brain region. Indeed, behavioral experiments showed that these animals had poor working memory and impaired social interaction as adults….

“The findings make sense and are consistent with what we’ve observed in clinical studies on effects of early stress on the brain,” says Martin Teicher, a neuroscientist in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard University. Using MRI brain imaging, Teicher and his colleagues have found that early life stresses, including childhood sexual abuse, witnessing domestic violence, and experiencing verbal abuse from parents or peers, affect the structure of the prefrontal cortex and disrupt fiber connections (called white matter) to this and other brain regions. This new study is a major advance, Teicher says, because human brain imaging can only provide correlations, but animal experiments can demonstrate causation and help identify the underlying mechanisms.

Many alterations in brain tissue could produce the differences seen by MRI in children suffering neglect, but by removing the tissue and examining it under an electron microscope, Corfas and colleagues were able to prove that indeed myelin was thinner on these axons in socially isolated mice. What’s more, they were able to identify the cellular and molecular mechanism responsible for the thinner myelin and then manipulate them to test whether thinner myelin was sufficient to cause the behavioral effects seen after isolation….

Corfas notes that white matter disruptions in this brain region have been related to schizophrenia, and variations in the gene for the neuregulin-1 receptor are also associated with the disorder. Mutation in this gene is not enough to cause disease, but Corfas speculates that an interaction between variants of this gene and environmental stresses could contribute to schizophrenia and to other neuropsychiatric disorders such as PTSD, depression, or anxiety disorders. “We are not saying that isolation is producing schizophrenia,” he says. “Rather that people with alterations in the neuregulin genes could be more sensitive to environmental stresses that could cause defects in myelination and contribute to neuropsychiatric disorders.” Regardless, even in individuals with no genetic problems, connections to the frontal lobes will not develop normally without social interaction in early life.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-douglas-fields/social-interaction-early-life-frontal-lobes_b_1864234.html

History of Survivorship, Suffer the Children – Father Ratigan and Bishop Finn

History of Survivorship and its Present Day Activities – 2012 conference transcript

Survivorship Presentation

Survivorship is an international non-profit organization for survivors of sadistic sexual abuse, ritualistic abuse, mind control, and torture. A history of Survivorship’s last twenty plus years of work helping survivors will be presented with interviews from members of Survivorship. The presentation will include Survivorship’s present day activities and ways survivors can learn more about the organization and get involved. Survivorship, FJC,470 27th St., Oakland, Ca 94612 survivorshipstaff@yahoo.com http://www.survivorship.org

http://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/2012-conference/the-history-of-survivorship-and-its-present-day-activities/

Suffer the Children By FRANK BRUNI Op-Ed Columnist September 10, 2012

Just how flagrant does a pedophile need to be before the people around him contact the police? Just how far beyond seeming to force himself on a boy in a shower or loading up his laptop with photos of little girls’ crotches does he have to go?

In the first instance I’m referring to Jerry Sandusky, whom Penn State officials allowed to continue working with children even after they were told that something was seriously amiss. In the second I’m referring to the Rev. Shawn Ratigan, a Catholic priest in Missouri whose superiors acted no less despicably.

In May 2010, the principal of a parochial school next door to the parish where Father Ratigan served sent a memorandum to the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, as Laurie Goodstein reported in The Times. It flagged his odd behavior, including his habit of instructing children to reach into his pockets for candy. In December 2010, hundreds of troubling, furtively taken photographs were found on his laptop, according to court testimony given too long after that fact. One showed a toddler’s genitals. In what jail or prison cell, you might ask, did Father Ratigan spend the first half of 2011? None.

After the photos were discovered, he attempted suicide, received counseling and was reassigned by Bishop Robert W. Finn, the head of the diocese, to a new post as a chaplain to an order of nuns. There he was allowed to celebrate Mass for youth groups and host an Easter egg hunt, and he was caught taking a photograph under the table, up the skirt of the daughter of parishioners who had invited him into their home.

In May 2011, a diocesan official finally told police about the extent of Father Ratigan’s cache of child pornography. He was convicted of possession of it last month. And last week Bishop Finn was convicted of failing to report him to law enforcement authorities, and got two years of probation….

The Boy Scouts of America covered up sexual abuse in its ranks. A recent Los Angeles Times review of files dating from 1970 to 1991 identified more than 125 cases of alleged molestation by men whom the organization had previously had reason to suspect of abusive behavior. “In some cases,” The Times noted, “officials failed to document reports of abuse in the first place.” In others, it failed to involve the police.

Over the last two decades the Catholic Church has spelled out stricter policies, including the prompt notification of law enforcement officials. And its defenders have complained that newly revealed instances of wrongdoing are usually old cases that predated better awareness of child sexual abuse, better education about it and a toughened resolve.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/11/opinion/bruni-suffer-the-children.html

Recent Child Abuse Crimes and Efforts to Unite Survivors – Neil Brick

Recent Child Abuse Crimes and Efforts to Unite Survivors – Neil Brick

http://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/2012-conference/recent-child-abuse-crimes-and-efforts-to-unite-survivors/

copied with permission

Transcript of speech given at the 2012 Annual Ritual Abuse, Secretive Organizations and Mind Control Conference in August 2012 in Connecticut.

During the last year there have been some major developments in the child abuse prevention field.  Several legal cases developed involving either cover ups or the networking of serial child abusers.

Probably the most famous case is the case of Jerry Sandusky and Penn State.

This case includes many media reports over the last few months. Sandusky faced 52 criminal counts for alleged abuse involving ten boys.

It was reported he wrote intimate letters to the victims. He had a charity, which tried to help children from disadvantaged families and broken homes. Sandusky kept a private list of boys the charity was helping. It is believed this list may have been a list of potential targets for him to abuse. Victims alleged that contact with Sandusky began with showering together and progress to abuse over time.

In June, Pennsylvania prosecutors considered bringing criminal charges against former top Penn State University officials for allegedly concealing what they knew about Sandusky’s  conduct.

Sources stated, that former university President Graham Spanier and others discussed whether they were obligated to tell authorities about a 2001 allegation involving a late-night encounter in a Penn State shower room between Sandusky and a young boy, both of whom were naked. They decided not to inform social services agencies. Later it was found that they decided this after meeting with Joe Paterno. It was alleged that Sandusky threatened  a victim that if he told, he would never see his family again.  Descriptions during the trial included ways Sandusky “groomed” his victims, including giving them tickets to football games. Three people in the late 1990s or early 2000s saw Sandusky in the showers with boys, one alleged he saw behavior that could be seen as sexual. There were also allegations of abuse in Sandusky’s basement. One victim hesitated talking to legal authorities, stating “Who would believe kids?”

During an interesting interview with NBC’s Bob Costas before the trial, Sandusky stated,
“And I didn’t go around seeking out every young person for sexual needs that I’ve helped. There are many that I didn’t have – I hardly had any contact with who I have helped in many, many ways.”

In late June, Sandusky’s adopted son stated he was molested also. Sandusky was found guilty on dozens of child sex abuse charges. There were convictions related to all 10 sexual abuse victims on 45 counts of sexual abuse. Two former Penn State officials face charges of perjury and failure to report suspected abuse in an alleged cover-up of the incident.

This case has important ramifications for the child abuse protection field.  It showed how institutions could cover up abuse for years. It shows how perpetrators find victims, groom them and threaten them so they don’t talk.  It shows how many people didn’t believe that he was abusing children, even verbally attacking those that stated he did.

I want to read a quote from an article in Boston Magazine.

In the Wake of Jerry Sandusky – To prevent child abuse, something has to change. So why won’t it? By Barry Nolan 6/25/2012

After the verdict came down in the Jerry Sandusky case, Linda Kelly, the Pennsylvania State Attorney General, stood before the assembled press and said something very important. She said: “One of the recurring themes of the witness’ testimony was … ‘Who would believe a kid?’”

Yes indeed, who would take the word of a mere child over that of a beloved coach like Jerry Sandusky about sexual abuse? Even though we know that such terrible crimes are far too common and the numbers are staggering, we can’t believe it. So, from 2005 to 2006 about 135,300 children were sexually abused.

Who would take the word of a child against a respected adult even though we know that in up to 93 percent of the time, the child knows his abuser and as many as 47 percent of the perpetrators are family members.

Who would take the word of a child even though in the vast majority of cases the only witness to child sex abuse  is the child?

The ugly truth about child sexual abuse is that we really don’t want to hear about it. And far too much of it happens after an initial complaint about a perpetrator has been made and it’s not investigated thoroughly.

Take the tragic sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, and just imagine how things could have been different if there had been real listening and forceful action early on. There were 10,667 complaints of sexual abuse against 4,392 priests and deacons between 1950 and 2002 and yet no serious or thorough investigation took place. And so the abuse was allowed to continue. Until the Globe’s Pulitzer Prize winning series compelled self-examination and change….

The first child to make a complaint in the Sandusky case came forward 14 years ago. But who was going to believe a kid over Jerry Sandusky? So the complaint was not thoroughly investigated and, tragically, the abuse continued….

Back in 1993, most people simply didn’t want to believe the awful things a kid had to say about what Jackson did behind closed doors. After all, Michael Jackson was a lavishly talented and beloved public figure. But Dimond, and a few others, listened carefully and pursued leads and looked at the evidence. And the awful truth began to come out. The boy in that case would eventually accept a settlement from Jackson that was widely reported to be in the range of $20 million.

I asked her for her thoughts on the bigger picture, the Sandusky case, the scandal in the church, and the Jackson matter. Here is part of what she sent me in an e-mail:

“Pedophiles are really the very person you think they could never be. They are the most charming, personable, charitable, and kid-friendly people you would ever want to meet. They pay their taxes, they go to church, they cloak themselves in acts of charity and they say they just want to help you raise your child by being a positive influence in their lives … Too often detectives believe the perpetrator’s version of events and they are freed to violate again.”

http://blogs.bostonmagazine.com/boston_daily/2012/06/25/jerry-sandusky-abuse/

Louis J. Freeh, the former federal judge and director of the F.B.I. spent seven months invesitgating the Sandusky scandal at Penn State. (from Abuse Inquiry Faults Paterno and Others at Penn State By KEN BELSON July 12, 2012 NYT)

His report stated:
The most senior officials at Penn State had shown a “total and consistent disregard” for the welfare of children, had worked together to actively conceal Mr. Sandusky’s assaults, and had done so for one central reason: fear of bad publicity. That publicity, Mr. Freeh said Thursday, would have hurt the nationally ranked football program, Mr. Paterno’s reputation as a coach of high principles, the Penn State “brand” and the university’s ability to raise money as one of the most respected public institutions in the country….

In 2000, a janitor at the football building saw Mr. Sandusky assaulting a boy in the showers. Horrified, he consulted with his colleagues, but decided not to do anything. They were all, Mr. Freeh said, afraid to “take on the football program.” “They said the university would circle around it,” Mr. Freeh said of the employees. “It was like going against the president of the United States. If that’s the culture on the bottom, then God help the culture at the top.”

….One new and central finding of the Freeh investigation is that Mr. Paterno, who died in January, knew as far back as 1998 that there were concerns Mr. Sandusky might be behaving inappropriately with children. It was then that the campus police investigated a claim by a mother that her son had been molested by Mr. Sandusky in a shower at Penn State. Mr. Paterno, through his family, had insisted after Mr. Sandusky’s arrest that he never knew anything about the 1998 case. In fact, he had testified under oath before the grand jury hearing evidence against Mr. Sandusky that he was not aware of the 1998 investigation.

But Mr. Freeh’s report asserts that Mr. Paterno not only knew of the investigation, but followed it closely. Local prosecutors ultimately decided not to charge Mr. Sandusky, and Mr. Paterno did nothing. Mr. Paterno failed to take any action, the investigation found, “even though Sandusky had been a key member of his coaching staff for almost 30 years and had an office just steps away from Mr. Paterno’s.” “In order to avoid the consequences of bad publicity,” the most powerful leaders of Penn State, Mr. Freeh’s group said, “repeatedly concealed critical facts relating to Sandusky’s child abuse from the authorities, the board of trustees, the Penn State community and the public at large.”….

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/13/sports/ncaafootball/13pennstate.html

Freeh Report on The Pennsylvania State University
The independent report by Louis Freeh and his law firm, Freeh Sporkin & Sullivan, LLP, into the facts and circumstances of the actions of The Pennsylvania State University surrounding the child abuse committed by a former employee, Gerald A. Sandusky

http://thefreehreportonpsu.com/

In mid July it was found that Penn State did not fully cooperate in the Sandusky prob, according to the state’s governor.  Coach Joe Paterno (the long time coach and football icon at Penn Sate had his statue removed.

In July, the NCAA levied unprecedented sanctions against the program for its role in the sexual abuse scandal involving former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, fining the school $60 million, imposing a four-year postseason ban on Penn State football, significantly reducing the number of scholarship players the team can field over the next four years and placing the program on probation for five years. All of Penn State’s football program wins from 1998 to 2011 were vacated.

Another large international child-porn network was uncovered this year.

….Authorities have identified more than 140 young victims so far and say there is no end in sight as they pore through hundreds of thousands of images found on the suspects’ computers. They are also trying to determine whether the men who talked about murder and cannibalism actually committed such acts or were just sharing twisted fantasies….
Robert Mikelsons, a 27-year-old day care worker who baby-sat the boy, was arrested. On his computer were thousands and thousands of images of children being molested and raped….

Photos and online chats found on computers owned by Diduca and Mikelsons led to more than three dozen other suspects in seven countries, including Canada, Britain, Germany, Sweden and Mexico. The oldest victim in the Netherlands was 4, the youngest just 19 days old….
Mikelsons also received an 18-year sentence, followed by indefinite psychiatric commitment, after confessing to sexually abusing more than 80 children….

Vast international child-porn network uncovered  By DENISE LAVOIE AP Legal Affairs Writer Aug 4, 2012 BOSTON (AP)

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CHILD_PORN_NETWORK?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-08-04-10-44-22

Another large case was Operation Ore – the UK wing of a huge FBI operation.
(50 police officers arrested in child porn raids Wednesday, Aug 01 2012)
Operation Ore is the UK wing of a huge FBI operation which traced 250,000 paedophiles worldwide last year through credit card details used to pay for downloading child porn. The names of British suspects were passed on by US investigators. Suspects were traced through the Landslide web site – a gateway to an international collection of child pornography sites. Thomas Reedy, who ran the web site and earned millions from it, is now serving several life sentences in the US. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-151784/50-police-officers-arrested-child-porn-raids.html

The Boy Scout case is also a large case revealing repeat child abuse allegations.

Boy Scout files reveal repeat child abuse by sexual predators
Los Angeles Times review of Boy Scout documents shows that a blacklist meant to protect boys from sexual predators too often failed in its mission.
By Jason Felch and Kim Christensen, Los Angeles Times August 5, 2012

For nearly a century, the Boy Scouts of America has relied on a confidential blacklist known as the “perversion files” as a crucial line of defense against sexual predators….
Scouting officials say they’ve used the files to prevent hundreds of men who had been expelled for alleged sexual abuse from returning to the ranks. They’ve fought hard in court to keep the records from public view, saying confidentiality was needed to protect victims, witnesses and anyone falsely accused….

A Los Angeles Times review of more than 1,200 files dating from 1970 to 1991 found more than 125 cases across the country in which men allegedly continued to molest Scouts after the organization was first presented with detailed allegations of abusive behavior….

In at least 50 cases, the Boy Scouts expelled suspected abusers, only to discover later that they had reentered the program and were accused of molesting again.

One scoutmaster was expelled in 1970 for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy in Indiana. Even after being convicted of the crime, he went on to join two troops in Illinois between 1971 and 1988. He later admitted to molesting more than 100 boys, was convicted of the sexual assault of a Scout in 1989 and was sentenced to 100 years in prison, according to his file and court records.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-boyscouts-20120805-m,0,5822319.story

A landmark Philadelphia priest sex-abuse trial occurred this year.

Allegations were made Msgr. William J. Lynn moved accused priests around to different parishes, enabling them to prey upon other children.

“Prosecutors say Lynn, 61, covered up child sex abuse allegations, often by transferring priests to unsuspecting parishes.  Lynn’s motive was to avoid scandal and any potential loss of money for the church, they argued. His job was to supervise 800 priests, which included investigating sex abuse claims, from 1992 to 2004. The defense said Lynn tried to handle documented cases of pedophile priests, making a list in 1994 of 35 accused predators and writing memos to suggest treatment and suspensions.”
Jury breaks without verdict in Philadelphia church abuse case June 7, 2012 PHILADELPHIA (Reuters)

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-usa-crime-churchbre8561g8-20120607,0,7146796.story

Philadelphia Priest Trial: Jury Reaches Split Verdict In Case Of Monsignor William Lynn By MARYCLAIRE DALE 06/22/12 PHILADELPHIA

“A Roman Catholic church official was convicted of child endangerment but acquitted of conspiracy Friday in a landmark clergy-abuse trial, making him the first U.S. church official branded a felon for covering up abuse claims. Monsignor William Lynn helped the archdiocese keep predators in ministry, and the public in the dark, by telling parishes their priests were being removed for health reasons and then sending the men to unsuspecting churches, prosecutors said. Lynn, 61, served as secretary for clergy from 1992 to 2004, mostly under Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua….He was convicted of only a single endangerment count, which carries a possible 3 1/2- to seven-year prison term. The jury could not reach a verdict for Lynn’s co-defendant, the Rev. James Brennan, who was accused of sexually abusing a 14-year-old boy in 1999….
The jury, however, did find that Lynn endangered the victim of defrocked priest Edward Avery, who pleaded guilty before trial to a 1999 sexual assault.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/22/philadelphia-priest-trial_n_1619355.html

As many people know, the West Memphis Three were released from prison last year after spending 18 years there. One of them was on death row before he was released.

The three entered what are known as Alford pleas, which in essence is that they admit there is enough evidence to possibly convict them, but at the same time they don’t have to admit guilt. The court then pronounced them guilty. This event revived interested in the West Memphis Three case. Many believe that the murders of the three eight year old boys were occult crimes. These murders occurred on a full moon and court testimony stated that the three murders belonged to a teenage cult.  A great deal of information has been written about the case from the perspectives of those that believe they were innocent and those that believe they were guilty.

The movies that have been or are being produced about the case are from the perspective of those that think they are innocent.

Most of the easily accessible information on the case on the Internet is from the perspective of those that think they are innocent.  I will list some resources for the perspective of those that think they are guilty below.

One good webpage for information on this case is http://wm3truth.com

Our webpage with information on the day care cases from the perspectives of the alleged victims has an article titled “West Memphis 3 confession, witness corroboration and physical evidence” http://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/articles/day-care-and-child-abuse-cases/

Another good page with information is http://callahan.8k.com
This is the most extensive web page on the case on the Internet, with information from both sides of the case, including many documents.

Dale Griffis, the longtime cult researcher, also has information on his perspective of the case, at:

Dale Griffis – West Memphis Three Case Information http://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/articles/dale-griffis-west-memphis-three-case-information/

Todd Moore wrote the below article in response to an editorial published in the Jonesboro Sun by Chris Wessel. He is the father of one of the West Memphis Three  murder victims.  Father of WM3 murder victim certain who killed 3 boys By Todd Moore
Guest Columnist  Opinion Section of the Jonesboro Sun on Tuesday, June 12, 2012

http://www.terryhobbs.com/2012/06/todd-moore-sets-record-straight.html

These many cases show the repeated cover ups of child abuse crimes and how child abuse exists worldwide.  The cover ups of these crimes are similar to the techniques used to cover up ritual abuse crimes today.

As survivors, we should educate ourselves about these cases and learn from them.  For many years, clergy abuse crimes were covered up. The Sandusky case was not investigated. Many of the techniques used against survivors in these cases are being used against ritual abuse survivors today. Abused children were not believed. Through hard work, some are now being believed.

Often times, what is missing from our side of the story is the research, which can help unify the survivor movement. This research strengthens our stories, and shows patterns across all areas of child abuse. Some of those on the other side want to divide us up.  Don’t let them. Make sure everyone hears our story and the stories of other abused survivors.  Continue to speak out.

The most important thing is to help others.  By speaking out, we do this.

Remember “Your silence will not protect you.”  Please continue to speak out. Thank you.

Priest charged with hiding sex crimes – Australia

Priest charged with hiding sex crimes
August 31, 2012  Joanne McCarthy

HE was the ”right-hand man” of a bishop, and a one-time acting bishop himself, but priest Tom Brennan has become the first Australian Catholic priest charged with concealing the alleged child sex crimes of another.

Father Brennan, 74, was arrested and charged yesterday with two counts of misprision of a felony – failing to disclose a serious crime – relating to alleged child sex offences by defrocked priest John Denham against two boys in the late 1970s.

The offences allegedly occurred at St Pius X, in the Newcastle suburb of Adamstown, where Father Denham was a teacher and Father Brennan was school principal.

Strike Force Georgiana’s Detective Sergeant Kristi Faber also charged Father Brennan with eight counts of sexually assaulting a boy, 8, at a Waratah church in 1984 and 1985, and two counts of assault.

In addition Father Brennan, of Toronto, south of Newcastle, was charged with assaulting the two boys by caning them after they allegedly reported being sexually assaulted by Father Denham, 70….

One of the men from the Hunter Valley, who alleged Father Brennan caned him in 1978 after he alleged Father Denham had repeatedly sexually assaulted him at the school, thanked police for a determined investigation.

”If this makes one person stand up and say, ‘This is what happened to me’, then I’ll feel better,” he said….

Father Denham has not entered pleas to 47 charges including indecent assault and buggery involving 14 boys in the 1970s. He will return to court next month.
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/priest-charged-with-hiding-sex-crimes-20120830-253bn.html

Sandusky Fits Sex Predator Profile, Report Says, Father Benedict Groeschel, American Friar, Claims Teens Seduce Priests In Some Sex Abuse Cases

Sandusky Fits Sex Predator Profile, Report Says
By MARK SCOLFORO 08/30/12

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky has been recommended for designation as a sexually violent predator, a legal status that would require lifetime registration with authorities, according to a person who has read an assessment board’s report to a judge in the case.

The recommendation from the Sexual Offenders Assessment Board was disclosed to The Associated Press on Thursday by the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the report’s confidential nature….
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/30/sandusky-fits-sex-predator-profile_n_1844831.html

Father Benedict Groeschel, American Friar, Claims Teens Seduce Priests In Some Sex Abuse Cases   The Huffington Post   By Meredith Bennett-Smith 08/29/2012

In a recent interview with the National Catholic Register, Father Benedict Groeschel, of the conservative Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, said that teens act as seducers in some sexual abuse cases involving priests….

In an interview with the National Catholic Register posted this week, Groeschel was asked about his work with the very conservative Friars of the Renewal, a breakaway order he founded 25 years ago. The conversation took an interesting turn, however, when the editor asked about the 78-year-old’s work with sexual abuse perpetrators.

“People have this picture in their minds of a person planning to — a psychopath,” Groeschel said. “But that’s not the case. Suppose you have a man having a nervous breakdown, and a youngster comes after him. A lot of the cases, the youngster — 14, 16, 18 — is the seducer.”

Pressed for clarification, the New York State-based religious leader explained that kids looking for father figures might be drawn to priests to fill an emotional hole in their lives.

Furthermore, Groeschel expressed a belief that most of these “relationships” are heterosexual in nature, and that historically sexual relationships between men and boys have not been thought of as crimes.

“If you go back 10 or 15 years ago with different sexual difficulties — except for rape or violence — it was very rarely brought as a civil crime. Nobody thought of it that way… And I’m inclined to think, on [a priest's] first offense, they should not go to jail because their intention was not committing a crime.”

The fact that the interview was published, without comment, in the National Catholic Register was significant due to the publication’s affiliation with disgraced Legion of Christ religious order.

In 1995 the legion was part of a group of investors who saved the National Catholic Register from closing. (The Legion later sold the paper, which is now owned by the Eternal World Television Network.)The powerful clerical order was also part of one of the most damaging scandals, involving its one-time leader, the Rev. Marcial Maciel, the highest-profile Catholic clergyman ever to be accused of sexual abuse, according to Time magazine….

Groeschel is an influential voice in the American Dioceses and continues to maintain a high-profile in the church, writing several books and appearing weekly on a religious television network….

Update: National Catholic Register has taken down the interview and Groeschel has offered this statement:

I apologize for my comments. I did not intend to blame the victim. A priest (or anyone else) who abuses a minor is always wrong and is always responsible. My mind and my way of expressing myself are not as clear as they used to be. I have spent my life trying to help others the best that I could. I deeply regret any harm I have caused to anyone.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/29/father-benedict-groeschel-teens-seduce-priests_n_1840900.html

422 sex abuse claims filed against Christian Brothers

422 sex abuse claims filed against Christian Brothers

Roughly 160 originate from Newfoundland and Labrador; religious order declared bankruptcy in 2011 CBC News Aug 23, 2012

The final number for claims against the Christian Brothers in North America is in, surprising even some of the lawyers handling them.  Christian Brothers entities in North America declared bankruptcy last year. The deadline for filing suit against the order expired Aug. 1. The total number of claims approved is 422. About 160 are from Newfoundland and Labrador. The rest originate from the United States….

The claims are for alleged sexual abuse only. Those from this province go back as far as 1940 and continue into the early 1960s. About a third of the American claims come from Washington state where the brothers had an orphanage. Another third come from New York state. The rest originate from places as scattered as New Jersey, Illinois, Montana, California and Hawaii.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/story/2012/08/23/nl-christian-brothers-claims-823.html