Sex Abuse Cases – Marci Hamilton, Capturing the Friedmans – The Victims speak out

Sex abuse cases: ‘I have a personal stake in this’ (Video)
Mar 28, 2013  Jeff Blumenthal     Reporter- Philadelphia Business Journal

Last week, I interviewed Marci Hamilton, a lawyer representing victims in the Sandusky and Philadelphia Archdiocese child abuse scandals, as part of our Inside the Reporters Notebook series….

Hamilton’s pointed response explained what she says is a personal reason for her involvement. She is a professor at Cardozo School of Law and not a litigator by trade. But she said she was incensed on February 10, 2011, when a Philadelphia Grand Jury released a report following an investigation into allegations that two priests and a teacher sexually abused a 10-year-old boy at St. Jerome Parish in Philadelphia, and that another priest assigned to St. Jerome sexually assaulted a 14-year-old boy.

It was that report, Hamilton said, that caused her to contact her co-counsel Jeff Anderson, and say she wanted to participate in the litigation.

“I have a personal stake in this,” Hamilton said. “My children are Catholic. My daughter was baptized by a pedophile priest. I have family pictures with a pedophile at one of the most important ceremonies of a child’s life. So I am in it, yes, in Philadelphia. Because its the only way to make this Archdiocese to do the right thing.”
http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/blog/jeff-blumenthal/2013/03/sex-abuse-cases-i-have-a-personal.html

Capturing the Friedmans
At a time when child sexual abuse has been identified as a major public health crisis, the new film “Capturing the Friedmans” takes a skeptical attitude regarding believing children. The 1989, Arnold Friedman and his son Jesse plead guilty to multiple charges of sodomy and sexual abuse against young boys who took computer classes taught in the basement of their home. Jesse now claims he was wrongly convicted.

Our research into the case shows that the director of the film sacrificed truth in favor of creating artistic ambiguity. Clear evidence is omitted and facts are distorted. In addition, the film  relies on  popular but erroneous myths about child sexual abuse. As a result, uncertainty is created about the guilt of two confessed pedophiles — who are recast as victims — while the real  victims — the boys and their families — are portrayed as  untrustworthy.
http://www.leadershipcouncil.org/1/ctf/1.html

In Their Own Words:  Jesse’s Victims Speak Out
….The Film “Capturing the Friedmans” about a case of child molestation in Great Neck, Long Island has been nominated for an Academy Award.  We are two of the victims of Arnold and Jesse Friedman writing to you, asking you to hear out side of the story, writing on behalf of the other victims and ourselves. We were abused, tortured, and humiliated by Arnold and Jesse Friedman in computer classes in Arnold’s basement.  Many of us have physical scars from what was done to us; all of us have psychological scars. Although it has been 16 years, we live with the knowledge of these crimes every day of our lives. Some of us have had bad dreams, some of us slept with baseball bats under our bed for years for fear of reprisals.  Many years ago, we thought we could not tell what was happening to us because we felt too guilty and embarrassed and were constantly threatened. Our parents thought Arnold was calling our houses so often because he was such a concerned teacher. His calls were to make sure we were not telling and to repeat the constant threats.
http://www.leadershipcouncil.org/1/ctf/vict.html

Holy Hell – one family’s story of sexual abuse by their priest, Artist Graham Ovenden accused of being paedophile, Sandusky speaks from prison, Satanic sex cult paedophile guilty, Ritual abuse laws

Holy Hell – one family’s story of sexual abuse by their priest
By Carol Duncan (ABC Local Radio) 26 March, 2013

When senior NSW Police Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox told ABC TV’s Lateline programme that the Catholic Church had covered up crimes by paedophile priests, silenced investigations and destroyed evidence to avoid prosecution – the public outrage triggered a Royal Commission into institutional child abuse. One of the stories that led to this is that of Patricia Feenan’s son, Daniel, a 14-year-old altar boy when first raped by a priest in the Newcastle/Maitland diocese….

Patricia Feenan says that one of the problems with the media coverage was that there no reporting of the ‘culture of grooming’ and that discussing it, educating people about it means they’re more aware but also hopefully more likely to tell someone and to seek help.

“The reaction I’ve had from many people, and many victims who are positive and thankful, means I know I’ve helped people. One man wrote that he’d never disclosed his abuse but he read the book and gave it to his mother, telling her ‘This is what happened to me.’

Sadly, Patricia fears that sexual abuse by the clergy continues, and will continue.

“We hear that it’s historical, and I’ll concede that the church is trying very hard now with protocols put in place to deal with victims who come forward now, but when they say it’s historical, that’s true the offence was historical, but the impact is with us every day, and it’s certainly with my son every day of his life. If people understand that more, maybe they can walk some of the journey. Emotional support is what victims want, not ostracisization.”… http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2013/03/26/3723929.htm

Artist Graham Ovenden accused of being paedophile
Graham Ovenden Graham Ovenden denies the charges 11 March 2013

An internationally-acclaimed artist has been described in court as a paedophile who blindfolded girls and committed indecent acts.

Graham Ovenden, 70 – who has had work hung at the Tate Gallery – is accused of sexually abusing children in London and Cornwall. Truro Crown Court heard Mr Ovenden’s “target of abuse was young girls.”

He denies nine charges of indecency with a child and indecent assault on victims aged between six and 14. When he was arrested over the alleged abuse of one of the girls, Mr Ovenden admitted he had taken photographs of her – a few of them being “nudies”, the court was told. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-21745915

Sandusky speaks from prison: Witness’s ‘story changed a lot’
By Mark Morgenstein, CNN  Mon March 25, 2013

Jerry Sandusky has been interviewed for the first time since going to prison in October. Documentary filmmaker John Ziegler shares the convicted pedophile’s comments on Joe Paterno, and on the prosecution’s key witness, with Piers Morgan, at 9 p.m. ET Monday on CNN.

(CNN) — Jerry Sandusky will probably be incarcerated for the rest of his life for child sex abuse convictions, but the former Penn State assistant football coach is making sure he has his say outside the prison walls.

Documentary filmmaker John Ziegler interviewed Sandusky, 68, for a project he calls “The Framing of Joe Paterno.” On Monday, NBC’s “Today” show aired a portion of a phone conversation between the two men.

In the broadcast excerpts, Sandusky questioned the credibility of prosecution witness Mike McQueary, another former Penn State assistant coach, who testified that he walked in on Sandusky raping a child in the showers at a school facility.

“I think there’s a lot of things that transpired. I think these investigators, the way they went about business, you know, his story changed a lot. I think he said some things, and then it escalated on him,” Sandusky said. “I don’t understand how anybody would have walked into that locker room from where he was and heard sounds associated that was sex going on. (laughter) You know, like he said that could’ve been, I mean, there was … that would have been the last thing I would have thought about. I would’ve thought maybe fooling around or something like that. (laughter)”

Sandusky also discussed what Joe Paterno, the legendary Penn State head coach who was forced out as a result of the scandal, knew — or didn’t know.

“If he absolutely thought I was (a pedophile), I’d say no. If he had a suspicion, I don’t know the answer to that,” Sandusky said….

Sandusky was sentenced in October to 30 to 60 years in prison for abusing 10 boys during a 15-year period….http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/25/us/pennsylvania-sandusky-interview/index.html

Satanic sex cult paedophile guilty http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2011/03/10/satanic-sex-cult-paedophile-guilty-91466-28312166/

He stole my life”: How a teenager was forced to join a satanic sex cult… by her evil uncle http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/real-life-stories/teenager-forced-into-a-satanic-sex-cult-904455

Ritual abuse laws http://goo.gl/1Hekd

Police ‘protection’ of celebrities ‘allowed serial abusers Cyril Smith and Jimmy Savile to escape prosecution for decades’, 280,000 girls accept sex abuse as being normal

Police ‘protection’ of celebrities ‘allowed serial abusers Cyril Smith and Jimmy Savile to escape prosecution for decades’

Information on high profile suspects was reportedly marked as ‘secret’ or ‘restricted’ and only available to a small number of officers

Charlie Cooper  Wednesday 20 March 2013

Celebrities and politicians were protected from child sex investigations because hundreds of police intelligence files were kept so secret that investigating officers could not access them, it has been reported.

Information on famous suspects was marked “secret” or “restricted”, allowing only a small number of officers to access it, to offset the risk of police officers or staff leaking the information to the media, according to The Times.

However, the burying of information is understood to have helped serial offenders such as Jimmy Savile and Sir Cyril Smith MP escape prosecution for decades. Campaigners for the victims of child sex abuse said that police had “put protecting celebrities above child protection”.

The problem has emerged in a review of police information handling by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary, in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal. Since the exposure of the former TV presenter as Britain’s most prolific child sex offender, police have been inundated with reports from members of the public of “historical abuse”, often by prominent politicians, celebrities and VIPs.

Valuable intelligence on Savile was recorded in 1964, 1998 and 2003 by Scotland Yard, the inspectorate found, but other forces were unable to access it. The inspectorate said the restriction of access to intelligence files was “an area we are concerned about”…..
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/police-protection-of-celebrities-allowed-serial-abusers-cyril-smith-and-jimmy-savile-to-escape-prosecution-for-decades-8541473.html

280,000 girls accept sex abuse as being normal
Rob Hastings  Wednesday 29 February 2012

As many as 280,000 teenage girls are suffering from sexual abuse
because they believe it is an accepted part of relationships or do
not believe they can stop it, the NSPCC has warned.

In a disturbing report, the charity said fewer than 20 per cent of cases are reported by young people, as opposed to the majority of cases in which adults are abused. “Many girls are being forced to carry out sexual acts and in some cases are even being raped,” said Jon Brown of the NSPCC….
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/280000-girls-accept-sex-abuse-as-being-normal-7463699.html

Teenage sex slave raped 90 times in one weekend, Report suggested that Savile could have been stopped decades ago

- Teenage sex slave raped 90 times in one weekend despite authorities saying she wasn’t at risk
-  UK Police Had Jimmy Savile Abuse Records In 1960s: Report
- Jimmy Savile police ‘reluctant to investigate because of celebrity status’
- Jimmy Savile investigator offers to help round up 1980s paedophile ring

Teenage sex slave raped 90 times in one weekend despite authorities saying she wasn’t at risk
Girl gave evidence to committee despite still being ‘deeply traumatised’
CSJ report claims efforts to tackle slavery in a state of crisis
More than 1,000 adults and children trafficked into or within UK in 2011/12

By James Rush

10 March 2013

A teenage girl was raped 90 times in one weekend it has been revealed, in a shocking report into modern-day slavery in the UK.

The report, due to be published tomorrow by the Centre for Social Justice, contains evidence from the girl, who was 16 at the time she was taken into slavery and raped by 90 men.

The girl, who gave evidence to the committee despite still being ‘deeply traumatised’ by the attacks, did not come from a background which put her at risk, but became enslaved after befriending girls vulnerable to abuse, it has been reported….
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2291037/Centre-Social-Justice-Teenage-sex-slave-raped-90-times-weekend-despite-authorities-saying-wasnt-risk.html

UK Police Had Jimmy Savile Abuse Records In 1960s: Report
03/11/13
LONDON — An independent report into how British police handled allegations against disgraced late BBC entertainer Jimmy Savile said Tuesday that police held records that connected him to sexual abuse as early as 1964, but failed to carry out an investigation.

Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, an independent police oversight group, found that police recorded five allegations and two pieces of intelligence against Savile during his lifetime.

Once one of Britain’s most popular entertainers, Savile’s reputation took a dive after his death in 2011 at age 84, when hundreds of witnesses and victims came forward accusing him of sexual abuse. Police have since described the television and radio presenter as a serial sexual predator who used his fame to target young victims across Britain.

Tuesday’s report suggested that Savile could have been stopped decades ago.

The earliest found intelligence record held by the pedophile unit at Scotland Yard dates from about 1964, but was only uncovered last year, the report said. The record, which just contained brief notes, referred to Savile as a “well known disc jockey” and to sexual abuse involving students at a children’s home. No investigation was carried out as a result of that intelligence, the report said.

“Its existence suggests that, by 1964, Savile was known to (police) officers investigating sexual offences against children,” the report said. “On the basis of what we know now, there appears to have been, at the very least, an opportunity to investigate his behavior then.”

The second intelligence record was an anonymous letter sent to police in 1998. It urged Scotland Yard to stop Savile’s activities, but police marked it as “sensitive” because of his celebrity status. It was never investigated and not shared with other police forces….

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/12/jimmy-savile-sex-abuse-uk-police-records_n_2860530.html

Jimmy Savile police ‘reluctant to investigate because of celebrity status’

Watchdog highlights failures in information sharing between forces and reveals DJ could have been stopped in 1964

Josh Halliday and Haroon Siddique
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 12 March 2013
Jimmy Savile’s celebrity status contributed to the police’s failure to prevent him sexually abusing hundreds of young people over five decades when they could have stopped him in the 1960s, the compiler of a highly critical report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) has said.

The watchdog’s inquiry into the police’s handling of Savile revealed that the disgraced DJ, who died in October 2011, could have been stopped as early as 1964 but police mishandled evidence and dismissed victims.

Drusilla Sharpling, from HMIC, said police appeared to be reluctant to investigate Savile because of his high public profile….

The inspectorate described a “cultural mistrust” of evidence from children, warning that procedures adopted by various agencies over many years had left vulnerable young people unprotected by the criminal justice system….

In 1963, a Cheshire man was told by a police officer to “forget about it” and “move on” when he reported an allegation of rape by Savile, according to HMIC.

Another man who tried to report an assault his girlfriend had suffered at a recording of Top of the Pops was told by police he “could be arrested for making such allegations” and dismissed….
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2013/mar/12/jimmy-savile-police-celebrity-status

Jimmy Savile investigator offers to help round up 1980s paedophile ring

MARTIN HICKMAN
Tuesday 12 March 2013

Mark Williams-Thomas, the child protection expert who exposed Jimmy Savile, has offered to help catch an alleged establishment paedophile ring that used its connections to escape justice decades ago.

The former police officer – who researched and presented ITV’s documentary on the dark side of the BBC star – said that victims reluctant to report the abuse they experienced at Elm Guest House in London could contact him directly. Mr Williams-Thomas said he would consider making a documentary about the case if a new police inquiry, Operation Fernbridge, turned out to be unsuccessful.

He stressed that he had “100 per cent faith” in the inquiry into claims that children in care were abused at the property in Rocks Lane, Barnes, in the early 1980s by powerful figures from across public life.

But he urged anyone who felt able to report their experiences to come forward, saying it was crucial for Scotland Yard to collect more evidence before making any further arrests.

He also divulged that he had already passed evidence to the police about the case, adding that the stories he was hearing about it were “horrendous”.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/jimmy-savile-investigator-offers-to-help-round-up-1980s-paedophile-ring-8531705.html

Police force under fire over Savile sex probe mistakes, Savile accusations ‘censored’

Police force under fire over Savile sex probe mistakes  Tuesday 12 March 2013
WEST Yorkshire Police held virtually no information about Jimmy Savile’s sex abuse before he died despite more than 40 of his victims coming from the county, a damning report reveals today.

Inspectors from a police watchdog criticised mistakes by forces nationwide in sharing information about the disgraced presenter as they expressed “serious concerns” that so many victims felt unable to come forward.

Only five allegations and two pieces of intelligence were recorded by police in the entire country though one dated back as early as 1964, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary revealed. And although Savile lived in West Yorkshire for much of his life and had dozens of local victims, the only significant recorded information about his criminal activities were held by other forces.

Officers in West Yorkshire held no “intelligence reports” about Savile which would have prompted further investigation and only one minor “information report”. This was despite newspaper reports being freely available online revealing that Savile was interviewed by West Yorkshire Police in 1958 and that he had been due to appear in court over sexual abuse allegations. The report said mistakes by officers in Surrey, London and Sussex meant no one force was able to piece together the full extent of the Leeds-born DJ’s sexual abuse. And it claimed inconsistencies in the way they shared information meant there was a “distinct possibility” officers could fail to prevent another similar scandal from happening again….
http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/at-a-glance/general-news/police-force-under-fire-over-savile-sex-probe-mistakes-1-5488305

Savile accusations ‘censored’
Friday 22 February 2013

Detailed accusations about Jimmy Savile’s sex crimes were censored after viewers tried to post them on a BBC tribute web page.

The comments, which included one person who wrote “One of my best friends in 1972 was molested by this creep Savile. He was never the same again. Killed himself in 1985. How’s About That Then?”, were stopped from being published by a team of moderators employed by the corporation.

The details were included in thousands of pages of evidence gathered during an inquiry by former journalist Nick Pollard into Newsnight’s decision to drop its Savile investigation which were published today by the BBC.

A transcript of an interview between Mr Pollard and former director general George Entwistle refers to examples of the comments, including one person who wrote: “He was a paedophile. You may not like the truth but he was. It will all tumble out now.”

Another wrote: “Sorry to rain on the parade of all the well-wishers, but he was infamous in Scarborough. I would not have been letting my son sit on his knee.”….
http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/at-a-glance/general-news/savile-accusations-censored-1-5435108

Pope should be tried over the church’s sex abuse scandals: Corrigan, Gang rape in Cambodia, George: Any ties to sexual abuse could disqualify papal candidate

- Pope should be tried over the church’s sex abuse scandals: Corrigan
- Cardinals Start to Ponder Subtleties of a Big Task
- George: Any ties to sexual abuse could disqualify papal candidate
- Gang rape widespread in Cambodia

Pope should be tried over the church’s sex abuse scandals: Corrigan  Thursday Mar 07, 2013

An international lawyer says that the Roman Catholic Church and Pope can be sued in the International Court of Justice over hundreds of filed sexual abuses cases.

The comments come as the leader of Catholic church Pope Benedict XVI has officially resigned, ending an eight-year pontificate shaped by struggles to move the church past sex abuse scandals. Meanwhile international lawyers are looking into former Pope Benedict XVI’s legal status to see whether the former pontiff is liable to a legal action over failing to stop child sex abuse by church priests….

Corrigan: Well, if it goes to the International Court of Justice I think certainly the Roman Catholic Church can be sued.

Priests, bishops, archbishops, all along the hierarchy have been sued successfully in the past and there are a number, maybe even hundreds of sexual abuse cases which have been filed against the church, many of which have been upheld and sometimes they are dealt with internally through Canon law and internal secrecy which is supposed to protect the victim but also certainly has the appearance of protecting the church and sort of hiding this problem which needs to be brought up in the open and there have been numerous priests and other religious figures who have been convicted of sexual abuse of children and women and others.

So certainly the church can be sued….
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/03/07/292357/pope-could-be-sued-over-sexual-scandal/

Cardinals Start to Ponder Subtleties of a Big Task
By DANIEL J. WAKIN March 4, 2013 VATICAN CITY….

On Monday, a senior American cardinal made a rare mention of the clerical sexual abuse scandal in that discourse. Cardinal Francis George, the archbishop of Chicago, said the new pope “obviously has to accept the universal code of the church now, which is zero tolerance for anyone who has abused a child.” Speaking in answer to a question at a news conference, Cardinal George said, “There’s a deep-seated conviction, certainly on the part of anyone who has been a pastor, that this has to be continually addressed.”….
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/05/world/europe/cardinal-george-of-chicago-urges-zero-tolerance-of-sex-abuse.html

George: Any ties to sexual abuse could disqualify papal candidate
By Manya A. Brachear, Chicago Tribune reporter March 7, 2013

ROME — Days before Pope Benedict XVI resigned and Roman Catholic cardinals descended on Rome to select his successor, Scottish Cardinal Keith O’Brien was, for all intents and purposes, fired.

As one of the cardinal electors for the next pope, O’Brien, who later apologized for sexual misconduct with other clergy, could have had a say in the next pope. Technically, he could have become the next pontiff.

But in an exclusive interview with the Tribune before the American cardinals’ moratorium, Chicago’s Cardinal Francis George said there are attempts to vet candidates to avoid surprises. He also said ties to anyone guilty of sexual misconduct — whether intended or unintended — could put a man’s candidacy in question if it could distract from his spiritual mission.

David Clohessy, executive director of the Chicago-based Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, also known as SNAP, said that kind of vetting should have been taking place for decades. On Wednesday, Clohessy’s group issued a list of a dozen cardinals whose selection as pope would cause further offense to victims of sex abuse by priests….
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/religion/ct-met-sex-abuse-0307-20130307,0,7784915.story

Gang rape widespread in Cambodia
Published on Mar 7, 2013

In a recent survey, five percent of men reported they participated in gang rape in Cambodia, one of the highest rates in the Asia-Pacific region. Still, fewer than 20 gang-rape cases were prosecuted in Cambodia last year. A law against domestic violence, passed in Cambodia in 2005, has led to a 15 percent reduction in violence in the home. There is increasing recognition that sexual violence needs to be tackled in the Southeast Asian nation. Al Jazeera’s Aela Callan reports from Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyxhEfBubGI

Pope’s child porn ‘normal’ claim sparks outrage among victims, Pope conclave tainted by abuse scandal, Police warn on kidnap of new born babies, children in Abia

- Pope’s child porn ‘normal’ claim sparks outrage among victims
- Pope conclave tainted by abuse scandal: Our view
- Abia House tasks security agencies on kidnapping, child trafficking
- Police warn on kidnap of new born babies, children in Abia

Pope’s child porn ‘normal’ claim sparks outrage among victims

Victims of clerical sex abuse have reacted furiously to Pope Benedict’s claim yesterday that paedophilia wasn’t considered an “absolute evil” as recently as the 1970s.

In his traditional Christmas address yesterday to cardinals and officials working in Rome, Pope Benedict XVI also claimed that child pornography was increasingly considered “normal” by society.

“In the 1970s, paedophilia was theorised as something fully in conformity with man and even with children,” the Pope said….

The Pope said abuse revelations in 2010 reached “an unimaginable dimension” which brought “humiliation” on the Church.

Asking how abuse exploded within the Church, the Pontiff called on senior clerics “to repair as much as possible the injustices that occurred” and to help victims heal through a better presentation of the Christian message.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/popes-child-porn-normal-claim-sparks-outrage-among-victims-28577483.html

Pope conclave tainted by abuse scandal: Our view
The Editorial Board March 5, 2013
Cardinals tied to coverup should not take part.

In Rome, where 115 cardinals are gathering to elect a new pope, the conclave will include these luminaries:

Cardinal Roger Mahony, former archbishop of Los Angeles, who in the 1980s plotted with an adviser to conceal child molesting priests from law enforcement.
Cardinal Sean Brady, the leader of Ireland’s church, who failed in the 1970s to follow up on incriminating evidence against a priest, who went on to become a notorious serial molester.
Cardinal Godfried Danneels, the former head of the Belgian church, who once advised an adult victim of 13 years of childhood abuse against making “a lot of noise” about it because his molester, a bishop, was about to retire.
Cardinal Justin Rigali, former head of the Philadelphia archdiocese, where it took two grand juries issuing scathing reports of abuse before the cardinal saw fit in 2011 to suspend 21 priests accused of molesting children.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/03/03/pope-conclave-child-abuse-scandal/1961031/

Abia House tasks security agencies on kidnapping, child trafficking
February 26, 2013

BY ANAYO OKOLI

UMUAHIA —  ABIA State House of Assembly has called on security agencies and other relevant authorities to strictly enforce the law against kidnapping, child trafficking, among others to check the rising cases of child trafficking in some parts of the state.

There are reports of increasing cases of kidnapping of children and child trafficking among related crimes in the state especially in Abia South.

Reports of missing children and in some cases, some of them are found dead with vital body parts removed.

Last week, while giving five additional new Hillux Pick-up vans to the Commander of 14 Brigade, Ohafia, Brigadier General Abubakar, Governor Theodore Orji tasked him to tackle head-on the rising problem of child trafficking.

The governor lamented that some of the children have had the misfortune of being killed for  ritual purposes among others….

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/02/abia-house-tasks-security-agencies-on-kidnapping-child-trafficking/

Police warn on kidnap of new born babies, children in Abia
Friday, 08 February 2013
The Police Command in Abia State has alerted the public on the resurgence of kidnapping of new born babies and children by unknown gunmen in the state.

The command’s acting spokesman, Mr Jonathan Amaechi, gave the warning in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Umuahia on Wednesday.

Amaechi said that the police was currently investigating cases of abduction of children in different parts of the state.

“Recent intelligence reports showed the presence of hoodlums that specialise in stealing new born babies and children.

“Such victims are either on errand in markets, going to or returning from school or church,” he said.

Amaechi said that the criminals operated in buses, tricycles, motorcycles, posh cars and fanciful jeeps….

http://tribune.com.ng/news2013/index.php/en/component/k2/item/4831-police-warn-on-kidnap-of-new-born-babies-children-in-abia

JIMMY SAVILE ‘NAKED IN SATANIC SEX CLUB’, Sexual abuse ‘in the DNA of Roman Church’, How next pope must tackle child sex abuse, All the President’s Neuroscientists President Obama’s proposed Brain Activity Map Project, Iran moves to legalize marriage for girls under 10 years old

JIMMY SAVILE ‘NAKED IN SATANIC SEX CLUB’
ABOVE: Savile is thought to have participated in Satanic rituals
25th February 2013  By Jerry Lawton
POLICE are probing claims that disgraced DJ Jimmy Savile was filmed cavorting naked in a Satanic sex club.

Operation Yewtree detectives investigating the shamed star’s sordid antics are hunting for the footage which is said to have been preserved on DVD.

The sleazy film is said to show other celebrities and civic bigwigs taking part in naked Satanic rituals at a secret club called The Chamber.

The meeting place in Whitby, North Yorks, had a ceremonial whipping post in the centre of the room. Occult symbols including pentagrams and goat’s heads adorned the walls.

Detectives probing Savile’s paedophile past are to travel to the seaside town to investigate the club….

The bizarre new line of inquiry could lead to more arrests by Yewtree officers investigating links to the ex-Top Of The Pops host, who died in 2011, aged 84.

They will want to establish if all the activities at the club involved consenting adults or whether anyone was abused.

The Whitby investigator, who has not been named, claimed there was “a substantial amount of information” to show Savile was invited to Satanic rituals in the town.

“Someone once made a recording of what unfolded and that film is still said to be in existence in DVD form,” he said.

“From what I understand this was not so much serious Satanic ritual but celebrities and local dignitaries dancing around naked with a Satanic theme going on.”….
http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/view/300538/Cops-hunt-for-DVD-of-Savile-naked-in-a-Satanic-sex-club-/

Sexual abuse ‘in the DNA of Roman Church’
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 26/02/2013
Reporter: Emma Alberici

Former monk and priest, and now advocate for victims of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church, Patrick J Wall, says sexual abuse of children has been part of the culture of the Catholic Church as far back as 60 AD and despite constant attempts by the Popes to curtain the problem, it has never been snuffed out….

PATRICK J WALL: Well after 12 years in the monastery and six years as the priest, all six years I was assigned to follow perpetrators, I came to the conclusion in my early 30s that if I wanted to be a defence lawyer and to defend child abusers the rest of my life, that was going to be my next 40 years.

And at that point after, you know, discovering that this is just not an isolated phenomena to the diocese or the religious order I belong to, it’s really a worldwide phenomena, I had to pull the plug and leave in ’98….

PATRICK J WALL: Well the pretty constant threat analysis you have to do is after, you know, decades of cases that generally about 6 per cent of the Roman Catholic clergy is going to offend against a child in their lifetime….

EMMA ALBERICI: Why wasn’t your role as a so-called fixer to take the issues to police?

PATRICK J WALL: That was never, ever part of the culture. And that’s why I bring it up with everybody that whether you look at the documents in Los Angeles, you look in the documents in Dublin or you look in the documents in Sydney, they’re all exactly the same. The culture is to keep it internal, deal with it inside and never ask for help outside ever….
http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2013/s3699078.htm

How next pope must tackle child sex abuse
By Jeff Anderson, Special to CNN Wed February 27, 2013

(CNN) — As Pope Benedict XVI steps down, the moral authority and future of the Roman Catholic Church depends on the next pope forcefully dealing with child sex abuse in its ranks.

Benedict had the power to effect fundamental, institutional change from the top that would have protected children of future generations. Benedict failed to change the Vatican’s traditional methods of handling child sex abuse by priests and so abuse of children continued, with thousands of more cases.

Before his installation as pope, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was the keeper of the traditional papal secrecy around sexual abuse as the leader of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. He issued Vatican orders directing cardinals, archbishops and bishops to keep credibly accused priests in ministry, to move them to a different parish or to keep them in the priesthood because they were too young, too infirm or their removal would cause too much scandal for the church.

As pope, he condemned the abuse more strongly than his predecessors, but he did nothing to really change the situation….
http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/27/opinion/anderson-next-pope-avoid-abuse/index.html

All the President’s Neuroscientists

President Obama’s proposed Brain Activity Map Project could lead to cures for Alzheimer’s, autism, and schizophrenia. But members of Congress should read the fine print when the $3 billion proposal hits their desks next month — because the project might also provide the first viable means of remotely controlling the human mind. By Luke Dittrich February 21, 2013

I was reading up on President Obama’s hugely ambitious, quite expensive, and yet-to-be-officially-announced Brain Activity Map Project. The first public hint of the project came during last week’s State of the Union address, when Obama, after noting that the federal government’s investment in the Human Genome Project during the eighties and nineties had led to a 140-fold return on investment, declared that “today our scientists are mapping the human brain,” and that “now is the time to reach a level of research and development not seen since the space race.”

Since then, more details have begun to trickle out. The project, which is slated to cost north of $3 billion, is already well into its planning stages, and funding for it will probably be part of next month’s federal budget proposal. A handful of scientists have come forward and revealed that they have been instrumental in the project’s planning. Interestingly, most of these same scientists collaborated last year on an article in the academic journal Neuron. The article is called, “The Brain Activity Map Project and the Challenge of Functional Connectomics.”….
http://www.esquire.com/the-side/feature/obama-brain-control-map

Neuron  NeuroView
The Brain Activity Map Project and the Challenge of Functional Connectomics
Paul Alivisatos, Miyoung Chun, George M. Church, Ralph J. Greenspan, Michael L. Roukes, and Rafael Yuste  DOI 10.1016/j.neuron.2012.06.006

The function of neural circuits is an emergent property that arises from the coordinated activity of large numbers of neurons.To capture this, we propose launching a large-scale, international public effort, the Brain Activity Map Project, aimed at reconstructing the full record of neural activity across complete neural circuits. This technological challenge could prove to be an invaluable step toward understanding fundamental and
pathological brain processes.
http://download.cell.com/neuron/pdf/PIIS0896627312005181.pdf

Iran moves to legalize marriage for girls under 10 years old
By Darren Weir Jul 25, 2012

When Saudi Arabia announced three months ago that girls as young as 10-years old would now be allowed to marry, Iran decided to drop the age limit even further.
Iranian Christian news service Mohabat News reports a member of the Iranian Parliament (Majiles) Mohammad Ali Isfenani, “we must regard 9 as being the appropriate age for a girl to have reached puberty and qualified to get married. To do otherwise would be to contradict and challenge Islamic Sharia law.”

He argues,”Before the revolution girls under 16 were not allowed to marry. Parents determined to get around the law would often tamper with their daughter’s birth certificate. Under the previous constitution, people were legally regarded as adults when they were 18. After the revolution the age at which children were regarded as going through puberty was lowered to 9 for girls and 15 for boys….
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/329317

California statute of limitations bill, All of Me – Kim Noble and MPD

Beall Introduces Bill to Bring Justice for Victims of Child Sex Abuse January 25, 2013 SACRAMENTO

A proposal to eliminate the statute of limitations for victims of child molestation to file lawsuits against their abusers has been introduced by Sen. Jim Beall, D-San Jose.

Senate Bill 131 addresses the inability of victims to seek damages because of repressed memories that do not surface until after the deadline to file a lawsuit has passed. Currently, the law states that an action must be filed by the plaintiff’s 26th birthday or within three years of the date that the adult plaintiff reasonably discovers that the psychological trauma he or she is suffering from is linked to sexual abuse. Beall said the law needs to be updated to reflect recent medical findings.

“Well documented medical literature has been developed since the last time the statute of limitations for civil claims was last extended,” he said. “The medical evidence shows psychological injuries stemming from sexual abuse emerge later in life and well past the age of 26…. http://sd15.senate.ca.gov/news/2013-01-25-beall-introduces-bill-bring-justice-victims-child-sex-abuse

HATTIE the novel begins with the end—the end of a woman’s life. In a spare and powerful narrative—delivered in three parts “In The Meadow,” “By the Stream,” and “Through the Woods” —this soulful novel takes us on an intimate journey through the meaning of Hattie’s life and life in general. It delves fearlessly into the complexity of our human relationships, our yearning for the divine, and the ways in which these paths cross throughout our lives. http://annabozenabowen.com http://annabozenabowen.com/hattie-the-novel/

All Of Me: My incredible true story of how I learned to live with the many personalities sharing my body  Kim Noble and Jeff Hudson  Piatkus Publishing 2011 ISBN-10: 0749955902

ALL OF ME
Kim Noble is an accomplished artist and a mother of a 14-year-old girl. She is bubbly and vivacious. To meet her you wouldn’t think anything was wrong. There’s just one problem. To all extents and purposes, Kim Noble does not exist. . .
At some point before her third birthday, as a result of repeated and horrific abuse, Kim Noble’s mind shattered. Her body now plays host to many different personalities. Suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) her body is occupied by a little boy who only speaks Latin, a gay man and an anorexic teenager. Some age with her body; others are stuck in time. http://www.piatkusbooks.net/all-of-me/

Kim Noble  is a  woman who, from the age of 14 years, spent 20 years in and out of hospital until she made contact with Dr Valerie Sinason and Dr Rob Hale at the Tavistock and Portman Clinics.  In 1995 she began therapy and was diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder (originally named multiple personality disorder). D.I.D is a creative way to cope with unbearable pain. The main personality splits into several parts with dissociative or amnesic barriers between them. It used to be a controversial disorder but Kim has had extensive tests over 2 years by leading psychology professor at UCL, John Morton, who has established there is no memory between the personalities and that she has the misfortune of representing the British gold standard over genuine dissociation.

Kim has 20  main personalities, many fragments and 14 of the main personalities are artists. Having no formal art training, 14 of the main alters became interested in painting in 2004 after spending a short time with an art therapist. These 14 artists each have their own distinctive style, colours and themes, ranging from solitary deserts, sea scenes and abstracts to collages and paintings with traumatic content. Many alters are unaware that they share a body with other artists. http://kimnoble.com/

The Benefits of Positive Parenting, Children’s Memory May Be More Reliable Than Adults’ In Court Cases

The Benefits of Positive Parenting
By DAVID BORNSTEIN  February 20, 2013

Is there a science to parenting?

For all the current discussion in the United States about gun violence and mental illness, there has been little attention paid to root causes. Any effort aiming to reduce gun violence — or child abuse, intimate partner violence, suicide or sexual abuse — must include a serious discussion about how society can improve the quality of parenting.

In 2010, children’s protective service agencies investigated 1.8 million referrals of child abuse and neglect pertaining to 3 million children. Although only 20 percent of these were substantiated, researchers report that physical abuse, including harsh physical discipline that is equivalent to abuse, is vastly underreported and may be 20 times more prevalent than is reflected in official statistics. (In other countries, including Spain, India and Egypt, harsh punishment is even more prevalent.) In Philadelphia, this behavior has recently been linked to the recession and the rate of mortgage foreclosures. When lenders put people out of their homes, one unforeseen consequence is that more kids end up with traumatic brain injuries.

It is now well accepted that children’s protective service agencies is not only less effective than other non-coercive methods, it is more harmful than has often been understood — and not just to children. A review of two decades worth of studies has shown that corporal punishment is associated with antisocial behavior and aggression in children, and later in life is linked to depression, unhappiness, anxiety, drug and alcohol use and psychological maladjustment. Beyond beating, parents can also hurt children by humiliating them, labeling them in harmful ways (“Why are you so stupid?”), or continually criticizing their behavior….
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/20/helping-the-parents-to-spare-the-children/

Children’s Memory May Be More Reliable Than Adults’ In Court Cases

Mar. 17, 2008 — The U.S. legal system has long assumed that all testimony is not equally credible, that some witnesses are more reliable than others. In tough cases with child witnesses, it assumes adult witnesses to be more reliable. But what if the legal system had it wrong?….

They say children depend more heavily on a part of the mind that records, “what actually happened,” while adults depend more on another part of the mind that records, “the meaning of what happened.” As a result, they say, adults are more susceptible to false memories, which can be extremely problematic in court cases…..

This research shows that meaning-based memories are largely responsible for false memories, especially in adult witnesses. Because the ability to extract meaning from experience develops slowly, children are less likely to produce these false memories than adults, and are more likely to give accurate testimony when properly questioned.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080313124445.htm