Posts Tagged ‘sex abuse case’

Entertainer Rolf Harris arrested in fallout from Jimmy Savile sex-abuse case

Entertainer Rolf Harris arrested in fallout from Jimmy Savile sex-abuse case
London — The Associated Press  Friday, Apr. 19 2013

Rolf Harris, a veteran entertainer who has released hit singles and painted the Queen’s portrait, has been arrested as part of a police investigation into sexual abuse allegations stemming from the Jimmy Savile scandal, British media reported Friday.

Major media outlets followed The Sun newspaper in identifying Harris, an Australian-born artist, musician and television host who is a household name in Britain….

Harris, who lives in Berkshire and turned 83 on March 30, has been a British entertainment stalwart for decades. He has had musical hits with “Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport” – which he once performed with The Beatles – and “Two Little Boys.”

He also has hosted television shows, painted an official portrait of the queen for her 80th birthday in 2006, and performed at the monarch’s Diamond Jubilee concert last year….

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/entertainer-rolf-harris-arrested-in-fallout-from-jimmy-savile-sex-abuse-case/article11400305/

Judge: No new trial for Penn State’s Sandusky in sex abuse case, Justice Shouldn’t Expire – HBO Films presents: MEA MAXIMA CULPA: SILENCE IN THE HOUSE OF GOD

Judge: No new trial for Penn State’s Sandusky in sex abuse case  By Mark Scolforo , The Associated Press  1/30/13

Jerry Sandusky lost a bid for a new trial Wednesday when a judge rejected his argument that his lawyers were not given enough time to prepare for the three-week proceeding that ended with a 45-count guilty verdict.

Judge John Cleland’s 27-page order said lawyers for the former Penn State assistant football coach conceded that their post-trial review turned up no material that would have changed their trial strategy.
“I do not think it can be said that either of the defendant’s trial counsel failed to test the prosecution’s case in a meaningful manner,” Cleland wrote. “The defendant’s attorneys subjected the commonwealth’s witnesses to meaningful and effective cross-examination, presented evidence for the defense and presented both a comprehensive opening statement and a clearly developed closing argument.”….

Sandusky is serving a 30- to 60-year state prison sentence for sexual abuse of 10 boys, including violent attacks on the children inside Penn State athletics facilities.
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/30/16774674-judge-no-new-trial-for-penn-states-sandusky-in-sex-abuse-case

Justice Shouldn’t Expire – HBO Documentary
By James R. Marsh on January 31, 2013
HBO Films presents: MEA MAXIMA CULPA: SILENCE IN THE HOUSE OF GOD http://www.childlaw.us/2013/01/justice-shouldnt-expire—hbo-.html

MEA MAXIMA CULPA: SILENCE IN THE HOUSE OF GOD investigates the secret crimes of Father Lawrence Murphy, a charismatic Milwaukee priest who abused more than 200 Deaf children in a school under his control. The film documents the first known public protest against clerical sex abuse in the U.S., which led to a case that spanned three decades and ultimately resulted in a lawsuit against the pontiff himself. The investigation helped uncover documents from the secret Vatican archives that show the Pope, who must operate within the mysterious rules of the Roman Curia, as both responsible and helpless in the face of evil.  https://www.hbo.com/documentaries/mea-maxima-culpa/index.html

Candace Conti Awarded $28M In Jehovah’s Witness Sex Abuse Case, In the Stillness: A Spiritual Response to Ritual Abuse by Cath C.

Candace Conti Awarded $28M In Jehovah’s Witness Sex Abuse Case 06/16/12 AP

OAKLAND, Calif. — A Northern California jury has awarded $28 million in damages to a woman who said the Jehovah’s Witnesses allowed an adult member of a Fremont church to molest her when she was a child in the mid-1990s.

Alameda County jurors awarded $7 million in compensatory damages on Wednesday and another $21 million in punitive damages on Thursday to Candace Conti, her attorney, Rick Simons said.

“This is the largest jury verdict for a single victim in a religious child abuse case in the country,” Simons told The Associated Press.

In her lawsuit, Conti, now 26, said from 1995-1996, when she was 9 and 10 years old and a member of the North Fremont Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses, she was repeatedly molested by a fellow congregant, Jonathan Kendrick….

Conti also claimed in her suit that the religion’s national leaders formed a policy in 1989 that instructed the religion’s elders to keep child sex abuse accusations secret. Congregation elders followed that policy when Kendrick was convicted in 1994 of misdemeanor child molestation in Alameda County, according to Simons.

Kendrick was never criminally charged in the case involving Conti, but besides the 1994 conviction, he was later convicted in 2004 of lewd or lascivious acts with a child, records show….

Jim McCabe, an attorney for the congregation, said he planned to appeal the jury’s decision.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/16/calif-jury-awards-28m-in-_n_1602997.html

In the Stillness: A Spiritual Response to Ritual Abuse by Cath C. follows the life of educator Barbara B. in her recovery from ritual abuse torture. Born into a family that practiced satanism, torture, and sacrificial ritual, Barbara’s story illustrates four aspects of ritual abuse: the practice of mind control in ritual families, ritual desecration, the hardship and peril of escape, and the lasting impact of sexual exploitation.

Barbara’s recovery as an adult shows how each aspect of the evil was answered by and, ultimately, rendered ineffective through spirituality. Barbara shares what she did to achieve mental and physical wellness, spiritual strength, a productive career, and a satisfying personal life. In the Stillness: A Spiritual Response to Ritual Abuse offers hope to other survivors.  ISBN 9781477567883
http://web.me.com/katecollier/Stillness/Welcome.html

Penn State Officials Face Trial In Abuse Case, radio interview on child molesters

Penn State Officials Face Trial In Sex Abuse Case
by Jeff Brady
December 17, 2011

Accused of trying to cover up Penn State’s child sex abuse scandal, two former administrators will face a trial on perjury charges. A judge made that decision at a preliminary hearing on Friday, as NPR’s Jeff Brady reports. Warning: This segment contains language that may not be suitable for all audiences. http://www.npr.org/2011/12/17/143886780/penn-state-officials-face-trial-in-sex-abuse-case

Penn State officials to stand trial in abuse case
By Mark Shade HARRISBURG, Pa  Fri Dec 16, 2011

(Reuters) – A judge ruled on Friday that two former senior Penn State officials must stand trial on charges of lying to a grand jury about what they knew of sexual abuse allegations against former coach Jerry Sandusky.

District Judge William Wenner decided there was enough evidence against former Penn State athletic director Tim Curley and finance official Gary Schultz that they should be brought to trial. The ruling capped a court hearing where a key witness, Mike McQueary, testified in public for the first time that he saw Sandusky in a sex act with a 10-year-old boy in 2002.

The explosive allegations against Sandusky have shocked the university and the college-sports world, and focused national attention on the serious problem of child sex abuse. The story told by McQueary, a graduate assistant in the university’s football program at the time, is key to the case against the two Penn State officials and Sandusky.

This is because McQueary testified that he personally witnessed the abuse and then told his boss, former head coach Joe Paterno, who in turn told Curley. Even though McQueary’s account was passed up the line of authority at Penn State, no one told police and Sandusky’s alleged behavior continued for years.

Curley and Schultz deny that they lied to the grand jury and say that Paterno and McQueary only told them in general terms about the incident and not in graphic detail. Sandusky has been charged with 52 counts of child sexual abuse involving 10 victims over 15 years. The identity of two of the victims, including the boy in the shower, remains unknown, prosecutors said. Sandusky has said he is innocent….

“I believe he was sexually molesting the boy,” McQueary testified at the hearing in the Dauphin County Courthouse on Friday. http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/17/us-crime-coach-pennstate-idUSTRE7BF01R20111217

Radio talk show host Keith Hansen interviews researcher and former therapist, Lynn Crook, M.Ed., on current issues related to child molesters.   Where do we find them?  How do they operate?  When should we decide what to do if our child is molested? http://vyzygothraw.com/audio/crook.mp3

Mohler Family sex abuse case

http://ritualabuse.us

describes crimes

Father Says Son Was Victim of Mohler Family – Kathy Quinn Meagan Kelleher, Web Producer
November 12, 2009 NDEPENDENCE, Mo. – The Lafayette County Sheriff said they are actively searching for more people who may have been sexually abused by the Mohler family men. Burrell Edward Mohler Sr., 77, his brother and his four adult sons have been charged with forcible sodomy and rape involving children under the age of 12.
In their search for more victims, detectives have contacted people like Mark Young’s son, who was seven at the time of the alleged abuse. Young confirmed to police that his son was abused by one of the Mohler men.
Mark Young said he and his former wife, Pamela Robison, had a child together and that woman later married Burrell Edward Mohler, Jr. Young said Robinson and his son would disappear for days.
http://www.fox4kc.com/wdaf-mohler-victim-young-111309,0,1950952.story

UPDATE: Story of alleged 7th victim detailed on K.C.’s WDAF-TV 11/16/2009  J. Noedel-Publisher – Kansas City’s WDAF-TV (Fox4) has reported that in 1999, a Kansas City area man named Mark Young divorced his wife.  His ex-wife got custody of the former-couple’s seven year-old son. The ex-wife then married Burrell “Ed” Mohler Jr. Not long after, Mark Young met Burrell Mohler Jr.’s own ex-wife.  Burrell’s ex-wife — whose own six children the Mohlers allegedly abused — told Young that she had learned that “Jr. was quite fond of (Young’s) son and liked to sleep with him.”  Young quickly sued for custody of his boy, alleging the child was being abused….The probable cause statement says that a granddaughter of Burrell Sr. remembers being raped by her grandfather when she was six years old.  The now-grown woman and one of her sisters also are quoted in the probable cause statement alleging that their great uncle Darrel Mohler raped two of the girls when they were five and six years old, and then their grandfather threatened to kill them if they were not quiet.
The Associated Press has reported, “The original complaint in the case includes allegations of bestiality, forcing children into fake marriages with relatives and making an 11-year-old have an abortion.”
WDAF-TV, Channel 4, in Kansas City is reporting that three of the accused child abusers were lay ministers in an Independence, Mo. church.
A 77-year-old man and four of his middle-aged sons in western Missouri were charged yesterday on multiple charges of forcible sodomy and rape of children between 1988 and 1995.  According to the Kansas City Star, a woman has told authorities of her and other children being forced to line up on a bed on their knees and each being assaulted by the men.
http://www.ngnn.com/content/2009/nov/16/update-story-alleged-7th-victim-detailed-kcs-wdaf-tv

Daugther Say Mohler Jr. Forced Them To Kidnap, Kill Man
http://www.kctv5.com/video/21637741/index.html

Three-page sworn probable cause statement from one Cynthia L. Schroer.
http://www.fox4kc.com/media/acrobat/2009-11/50484435.pdf

Group Asks Church to Help Other Potential Victims Come Forward Rob Low, edited by Jason Vaughn November 13, 2009 INDEPENDENCE, MO – Activists representing people who have been abused by clergy members traveled to the metro area on Friday to ask the Community of Christ Church to help bring other potential victims of a family accused of multiple counts of child rape.
Three members of the Mohler family were lay ministers of the Independence-based church.
http://www.fox4kc.com/wdaf-story-mohler-church-snap-111309,0,7506727.story

Search in family sex abuse case also is for bodies, Lafayette sheriff says By DONALD BRADLEY The Kansas City Star 11/11/09 LEXINGTON | Authorities are searching a rural property near Bates City, Mo., looking for bodies, as well as buried jars of written memories of anguish and horror allegedly left years ago by sexually abused children. Indications are that “an individual or individuals were killed,” Lafayette County Sheriff Kerrick Alumbaugh said Wednesday as law enforcement personnel swarmed over a farm once owned by one of five men arrested the day before. Investigators also expect that even more than the five alleged victims of the decades-old “mock weddings” will come forward. Court documents indicate the case involved rape, sodomy and bestiality, Alumbaugh said at his Lexington office. Investigators see a “strong possibility” of more victims, he said. Five members of the Mohler family, a 77-year-old father and four of his middle-aged sons, were arrested Tuesday on multiple charges of forcible sodomy and rape after a woman related stories of her and other children being forced to line up on a bed on their knees and each being assaulted by the men.
http://www.kansascity.com/703/story/1563043.html

5 men charged with sex crimes against children AP By Bill Draper And Heather Hollingsworth 11/11/09  LEXINGTON, Mo. – Authorities on Wednesday were searching a rural property in western Missouri for bodies and buried glass jars containing notes written more than 15 years ago by children who may have documented sexual abuse by five members of their own family. Lafayette County Sheriff Kerrick Alumbaugh pleaded for the public’s help, saying investigators “believe that there are other victims out there, and we believe people in the public can give us more information.” Alumbaugh said authorities believe there may be bodies buried on the property outside Bates City, which is about 30 miles east of Kansas City. He refused to say to whom any of the bodies would have belonged. The property and a nearby home is owned by a man unrelated to the case who is cooperating with authorities….The five men were arrested Tuesday and are charged with several felonies, including forcible sodomy, rape with a child younger than 12 and use of a child in a sexual performance. The allegations, which include bestiality and forcing an 11-year-old to have an abortion, date from 1988 to 1995….Three of the five men are lay ministers in the Community of Christ church whose licenses have been suspended, church spokeswoman Linda L. Booth said….The woman who came forward claimed some of the men sexually abused her and her siblings, forced her to have sex with a dog, forced the siblings into fake marriages with relatives and forced her to watch as her brother was abused…..”The church takes seriously the allegations that have been made and suspended the priesthood licenses of three lay ministers: Burrell Mohler Sr., David Mohler and Jared Mohler,” the church said in a statement. Booth said one of the men, whom she refused to identify, had been registered to work with children but that license has been terminated. The Community of Christ, headquartered in Independence, split from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1860 and was known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints until 2001. It has about 250,000 members worldwide. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091111/ap_on_re_us/us_family_sex_crimes

Child sex abuse allegations may turn into a murder case By DONALD BRADLEY The Kansas City Star 11/11/09 LEXINGTON, Mo. They said they were just little girls trying to bury their horror in jars around the farm. They wanted somebody to know what happened to them. So, according to authorities, the sisters wrote notes about the years of sexual abuse at the hands of older relatives and hid them in the earth. Then the children – one was a boy – buried the pain and anguish within themselves. Years would pass. But on Wednesday, authorities came to the farm south of Bates City, Mo., to dig for the notes – and possibly a body. With a man and his middle-aged sons in jail, investigators descended onto the rural property looking for evidence of rape, sodomy, bestiality and possible homicide….The five men were charged with 14 felonies, including forcible sodomy and forcible rape with a child less than 12 years old and use of a child in a sexual performance. The sheriff said he expected more charges to be filed….The woman who came forward alleged that the abuse against her began at age 5, when the girls were forced to “rotate” sleeping in the same bed as the senior Mohler. http://www.kansascity.com/105/story/1564393.html

describes crimes
Five charged for ritual child sex crimes By Donald Bradley, AAP November 12, 2009
A Missouri man and his four sons have been charged with the ritualistic sex abuse of his six grandchildren, and police are searching the family farm for buried bodies.
Officials declined to say whether the remains they were searching for were those of adults or children but said they were investigating allegations of murder. “There have been indications of a body or bodies in numerous locations,” Lafayette County Sheriff Kerrick Alumbaugh told a press conference.
The backhoes began digging before noon on Wednesday, and a more careful search was undertaken to find glass jars filled with notes the children wrote describing the horrific abuse.
“When the victims were younger they were writing down what had happened to them and placing it in those jars and subsequently burying it in the property in hopes to forget about the occurrences,” said Bill Lowe, a spokesman for the Missouri Highway Patrol.
The alleged crimes came to light in August when a 26-year-old woman approached police with the suppressed memories of years of abuse at the hands of her father, uncles and grandfather.
Her four sisters and brother are cooperating with police and more charges are expected to be filed, Lowe said. “We believe there are other victims out there,” Alumbaugh said. “Pedophiles don’t stop with just one. They keep going.” The woman described nine incidents of abuse which she believes began when she was about five and ended after she became pregnant and was forced to have an abortion at age 11. The abuse included elaborate “wedding” ceremonies in which the girls would pick flowers to adorn their hair and wear special dresses….The alleged abuse occurred between 1988 and 1995 at the farm in Bates City, Missouri. The five men were formally charged with various counts of child sex abuse on Tuesday and remained in jail on Wednesday after a judge set bonds ranging from $US30,000 ($A32,275) to $US75,000 ($A80,690). Charged in the crime were: Burrell Edward Mohler Sr, 77; Burrell Edward Mohler, Jr, 51, the father of the six children; Jared Leroy Mohler, 48; Roland Neil Mohler, 47; and David A Mohler, 52. http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/newshome/6462729

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