Catholic Whistleblowers Join Forces on Abuse, Ex-swim coach accused of abuse

Church Whistle-Blowers Join Forces on Abuse
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN May 20, 2013

They call themselves Catholic Whistleblowers, a newly formed cadre of priests and nuns who say the Roman Catholic Church is still protecting sexual predators.

Although they know they could face repercussions, they have banded together to push the new pope to clean house and the American bishops to enforce the zero-tolerance policies they adopted more than a decade ago.

The group began organizing quietly nine months ago without the knowledge of their superiors or their peers, and plan to make their campaign public this week. Most in the steering group of 12 have blown the whistle on abusers in the past, and three are canon lawyers who once handled abuse cases on the church’s behalf. Four say they were sexually abused as children.

Their aim, they say, is to support both victims and fellow whistle-blowers, and identify shortcomings in church policies….

But the whistle-blowers’ group contends that vigilance is necessary because some bishops are violating the zero-tolerance policies, and abusive clergy (who now number 6,275, according to the bishops’ count of those accusations that they deem credible) still have access to children. They point to the revelations in the last month that a priest in Newark who was a convicted sex offender restricted by a court order from working with children had been ministering in a Catholic parish in Trenton, taking confessions from children and going on weekend youth retreats….

The whistle-blowers’ group plans to hold its first news conference this week in New York, and some members are bracing for the reaction. They said they know priests who spoke up and were removed from their parishes, hustled into retirement or declared “unstable” and sent to treatment centers for clergy with substance-abuse problems or sexual addictions…..
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/21/us/catholic-church-whistle-blowers-join-forces-on-abuse.html

Ex-swim coach accused of abuse appears in court
By Peter Schworm    Globe Staff    May 20, 2013

MEDFORD — When the young boy joined the Arlington Boys & Girls Club swim team in the late 1970s, his coach was Paul Collins, who also dated his family’s neighbor and would sometimes fill in as baby sitter.

On those occasions, when the boy went to sleep, Collins would sit at his bedside and “begin rubbing his back and chest,” according to allegations detailed in court documents released Monday. ­Collins would then massage the boy below the waist and tell him he should not talk about it to anyone else.

It was, he told the boy, “our ­little secret.”

The boy, now a middle-aged man, is one of four adults who in recent weeks have accused Collins of sexual assault, part of an expand­ing investigation into child abuse at the youth club. The men came forward after club officials announced in February that another former employee, William Sullivan, had allegedly sexually abused children at the club ­between the 1970s and 1990s. ­Sullivan is deceased.

On Monday, two days after being arrested in his Long Island home, Collins, 62, was arraigned in Cambridge District Court on charges of sexually assaulting the boys and ordered held on $250,000 bail. Collins pleaded not guilty to the accusations, but prosecutors said he had admitted to sexual contact with two accusers and told investigators he may also have had contact with the other two….
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/05/20/new-york-man-charged-with-sexually-abusing-children-arlington-boys-girls-club-late/dQnWc6GwgfQDC1WtXq5iMI/story.html

Theologo murder trial underway (apparent satanic ritual), Teacher suspended after Googling students discover he is a former ‘sex-cult leader’ tied to investigation into his wife’s murder, Predatory paedophile’s ‘twisted and depraved’ plot to ‘breed’ a daughter so he could sexually abuse her, Miss America Reveals Personal Child Abuse Story

Theologo murder trial underway
Govan Whittles  4/17/13
JOHANNESBURG – The trial of three men and a woman accused of dousing a Gauteng teenager with petrol and setting her alight in an apparent satanic ritual will resume in the Palm Ridge Magistrate Court on Wednesday.

Kirsty Theologo was attacked behind the Linmeyer Swimming Pool south of Johannesburg in October 2011.
The four people charged with the crime are believed to have been her friends at the time.
They’ve spent the past two years in custody….
http://ewn.co.za/2013/04/17/Kirsty-Theologo-murder-trial-gets-underway

Teacher suspended after Googling students discover he is a former ‘sex-cult leader’ tied to investigation into his wife’s murder
Tyler Deaton moved from Missouri to Texas and was hired teaching pre-calculus in Lancaster High School
Deaton’s wife, Bethany Ann, 27, was murdered last October in an alleged cover-up of a sex cult
Micah More, 23, has been charged with the murder and had initially implicated Tyler Deaton
By Daily Mail Reporter  16 April 2013

A Texas math teacher has been suspended from classes after his students came across disturbing news reports online tying him to an investigation into his wife’s sex-cult murder.

Tyler Deaton moved from Missouri to Texas and was hired by Lancaster High School Dallas in February to teach pre-calculus.

Since he has never been charged in connection to the 2012 killing of his wife, 27-year-old Bethany Ann Deaton, he passed a formal background check by the Department of Public Safety and an FBI database without raising any red flags.

However, his troubles started last week when some of his students decided to look up their fresh-faced teacher online, only to discover a string of news stories about Deaton’s alleged role as a leader of a sex cult who may have played a role in a cover-up linked to his wife’s death, Kansas City Star reported.

Micah Moore, 23, who was a member in Deaton’s religious sect and lived with him and his wife in Grandview, Missouri, has been charged with killing Bethany last fall and making it look like a suicide.

Moore initially accused Deaton of giving him the order to kill his wife for fear that she might tell her therapist about being the victim of several sexual assaults, according to court documents. But Moore later recanted his confession….

It was claimed in December 2012 that Tyler Deaton was involved in sexual affairs with at least three other men who lived at the religious community he led.

The charismatic Christian was in charge of a group whose members came to Kansas City from Texas to be part of the International House of Prayer.

After the arrest of Moore, several men who lived in the house told detectives they had been involved in ‘secret’ sexual relations with Deaton.

Court records have redacted these men’s names but, one witness told police that Deaton mentioned having dreamed that ‘he had killed his wife by suffocating her,’ a week after her death….
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2310164/Bethany-Deaton-Teacher-suspended-Googling-students-discover-sex-cult-leader-tied-investigation-wifes-murder.html

Predatory paedophile’s ‘twisted and depraved’ plot to ‘breed’ a daughter so he could sexually abuse her
Robin Malka, 38, hatched a plan to father his own victims
He said he believed having sex with babies was ‘natural and beautiful’
Also sent sickening images of infants being molested and raped
By Anthony Bond
3 April 2013
….Malka used the online username ‘dom4padeomom’ while he chatted with undercover officers ‘Stevie’ and ‘Craig’ about abusing two girls aged three and five.

He was also a member of sickening internet groups including ‘family fun incest’ and ‘all about incest’.

In addition to arranging a child sex offence in November last year, Malka also admitted possessing 721 indecent images, including pictures and movies at level five – the most serious category which includes images of sadism and bestiality.
….further admitted distributing more than 30 films and photos. He is now facing a lengthy jail term….
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2302976/Predatory-paedophiles-twisted-depraved-plot-breed-daughter-sexually-abuse-her.html

Miss America Reveals Personal Child Abuse Story
Mallory Hagan, Miss America 2013 takes on child abuse cause.
4/15/2013 ….Aside from being a national ambassador for — – on our hospitals our house a champion for child sexual abuse it’s my pop — called stop it now child sexual abuse until. How we’ve teamed up with murder and child abuse America for the — garden that’s happening tomorrow morning in Times Square and and it’s really excited to be back in New York City to bring awareness to a cause it’s so important to me and why is it important he would not support me because many of the women in my family — sexually abuse and although that didn’t happen to me….
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/video/miss-america-reveals-personal-child-abuse-story-18964378

Child Abuse and Ritual Abuse Newsletter May 2013

forwarded with permission

Child Abuse and Ritual Abuse Newsletter May 2013
http://ritualabuse.us/2013/04/issue-110-may-2013/

This issue contains information on the Super Bowl, Clergy Abuse, Los Angeles Archdiocese, Cardinal Keith O’Brien, Pope Benedict, Pope Francis, Jimmy Savile and Satanic rituals, Operation Yewtree, Cyril Smith, BBC, Kincora boys home, Magdalene Laundry system,  Jerry Sandusky, Canadian police and aboriginal women, Legion of Christ, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Frances Andrade, Joshu Sasaki, Michael Salter, India, Dutch clergy abuse, West of Memphis, West Memphis Three, ritual killings, Colin Batley, ritual Satanic killing,  satanic ritual, ritual abuse crime statutes, satanic cult, ritual sacrifice, Judy Byington, Twenty-Two Faces, sex-slave cult,  Defensores de Cristo, Defenders of Christ, Konstantin Rudnev Russian cult leader, Satanic ritual abuse, Laurie Matthew, Haut de la Garenne children’s home island of Jersey, Dissociative Identity Disorder, DID, The Holocaust, Nazi Ghettos and Camps, Dissociative Disorders, Scout abuse, Rape, Steubenville Rape Trial, Children’s Memory,  Bullying, Sybil in her own words, Shirley Mason, multiple personalities, Mass Shootings, Federal Child Porn_graphy Offenses, Gang rape, Statute of Limitations, False allegations of rape and domestic violence, Sexual Assault, Facebook http://ritualabuse.us/2013/04/issue-110-may-2013/

Ritual Abuse Conference August 2013

Ritual Abuse And Extreme Abuse Clinician’s Conference August 2013

850 BBC staff complain of bullying and sexual harassment in wake of Savile scandal, Shame of ‘theft, fraud and under-age sex’ at the BBC: Dossier reveals crimes that have never been reported to police

850 BBC staff complain of bullying and sexual harassment in wake of Savile scandal
Hundreds of BBC employees contact consultants as part of internal inquiry
Accusations involve harassment, sexual harassment and bullying
One senior BBC executive believed to be subject of more than 20 complaints
By Simon Cable 1 April 2013

More than 850 BBC employees have come forward to raise concerns about bullying and sexual harassment at the corporation, it has emerged.

The staff members have contacted private consultants brought in by the BBC as part of an internal inquiry set up in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal.

The Rose Review, overseen by human rights lawyer Dinah Rose QC, was launched last October following a wave of damaging claims from female presenters including Liz Kershaw and Sandi Toksvig who said they were routinely groped while working for the BBC.

Staff were asked to detail their experiences under a guarantee of anonymity, while one-to-one sessions have also taken place between BBC staff members and an outside company, Change Associates.

It is believed that one senior BBC executive is the subject of more than 20 complaints of bullying….

Among the hundreds who came forward to the enquiry, up to 20 former employees initially thought they would not be give evidence because they been paid off and made to sign contracts to stop them turning whistleblower.

Gagging clauses are typically part of ‘compromise agreements’ signed when an employee agrees to drop an employment tribunal claim in return for a pay-off.

However, it is understood that, following negotiations, their evidence was eventually allowed to go forward.

The BBC insists no-one has been barred from giving evidence, despite any previous agreements which may have been signed….

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2302558/850-BBC-staff-complain-bullying-sexual-harassment-wake-Savile-scandal.html

Shame of ‘theft, fraud and under-age sex’ at the BBC: Dossier reveals crimes that have never been reported to police
Dossier spanning four years show many crimes never reported to the police
High number of suspects in the 500 crimes a year were BBC employees
By Paul Revoir and Christian Gysin
1 April 2013

BBC staff are suspected of  a catalogue of crimes at work – many of which have never been reported to police.

A dossier spanning four years shows theft and fraud allegations running at more than 500 a year.

A significant number of the suspects were employees at the broadcaster.

Documents also reveal allegations of sexual or indecent assault, as well as incidents of suspected drug use.

Thefts of TVs, radios, iPhones, Blackberry devices and computers from BBC staff were endemic.

In one instance, an employee was accused of having under-age sex while on assignment. Because the allegation could not be proved, the log showed the staffer was given only a warning.

This allegation, like many others, was not passed on to police for further investigation because the BBC’s internal investigations service – which employs former police officers – decided it could not be substantiated.

The disclosures follow the Jimmy Savile revelations which saw the corporation accused of turning a blind eye to decades of sex abuse by the presenter….

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2302540/Shame-theft-fraud-age-sex-BBC-Dossier-reveals-crimes-reported-police.html

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

Clergy abuse victims call on Pope Francis to open files on Argentina’s pedophile priests, Indian legislators pass strict anti-rape law, Abuse inquiry to proceed under changed law

Clergy abuse victims call on Pope Francis to open files on Argentina’s pedophile priests

By Associated Press, Tuesday, March 19, 2013

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Activists against abuse by Roman Catholic clergy urged Pope Francis on Tuesday to apologize for what they called the Argentine church’s protection of two priests who were eventually convicted of sexually assaulting children.

The U.S.-based Bishop Accountability group cited the case of Father Julio Cesar Grassi, who ran the “Happy Children” foundation and was convicted of pedophilia in 2008, and Father Napoleon Sasso, convicted in 2007 of abusing girls at a soup kitchen in suburban Buenos Aires.

The Buenos Aires archbishop’s office didn’t immediately respond Tuesday.

The pope’s authorized biographer, Sergio Rubin, told The Associated Press before Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected pope last week that he had drawn an increasingly tough line on clergy abuse. Bergoglio insisted that accused priests face trial, and imposed a thorough screening process in an attempt to weed out future problems, Rubin said…..

Grassi was well known in Buenos Aires for persuading celebrities to donate to his “Happy Children” foundation, which ran orphanages and social outreach programs. Before he was convicted, Grassi praised Bergoglio for “never abandoning him.” Now he’s free on appeal, thanks in part to a church filing on his behalf.

Sasso, meanwhile, enjoys prison furloughs after serving half of a 17-year sentence for abusing five girls.

Sasso was assigned to the soup kitchen, at a chapel where his bedroom shared the only bathroom, after living in a home for wayward priests where he had been sent after accusations of pedophilia were raised against him in remote San Juan province.

“The bathroom had two doors. The girls would come in through the outside door, and the priest would bring them into his bedroom through the other, sexually abusing the girls,” Moreau said. “These were really poor people, who were there for free meals while their parents worked. They found an enormous amount of child pornography in his computer, semen, condoms.” It was a medical priest and a nun who discovered that Sasso abused 25 girls aged 3 to 16, but when they informed church officials, they were told to “remain patient,” and nothing was done, Moreau said.

Eventually, they sought higher authorities and the case was taken up by the criminal courts, but the mid-level officials who covered it up still have their positions, while the priest and nun were forced to work elsewhere, the lawyer said….

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/clergy-abuse-victims-call-on-pope-francis-to-open-files-on-argentinas-pedophile-priests/2013/03/19/ed810cb2-90c6-11e2-9173-7f87cda73b49_story.html

Indian legislators pass strict anti-rape law
By Rama Lakshmi Tuesday, March 19, 2013

NEW DELHI — The Indian Parliament’s lower house passed a landmark law Tuesday that sets tougher penalties for rapists and for police officers who refuse to file a woman’s complaint of rape, as well as criminalizing offenses such as stalking, voyeurism and acid attacks.

The amendments to existing law incorporate some of the sweeping changes that were demanded after the fatal gang rape of a young paramedical student in New Delhi in December, an incident that sparked a nationwide outcry against the lack of safety for women.

Despite the unprecedented protests that galvanized tens of thousands of Indians, the number of incidents of sexual assault has not diminished.

As lawmakers discussed the new law in Parliament on Tuesday, a British tourist fractured her leg when she jumped from the balcony of her hotel room in Agra, the city of the Taj Mahal, to escape being molested by the hotel owner, police said….

A provision requiring government approval for the trial of police officers, officials, politicians and judges on rape charges also has been lifted.

For the first time, the law criminalizes stalking and voyeurism, acts of sexual harassment that have long been grouped under the benign euphemism “love-teasing.” Hereafter, rapes that occur during religious and caste riots also will be treated as cases of aggravated sexual assault.

The law does not, however, address contentious issues such as marital rape or the legal impunity afforded to Indian military officers. Nor does it include a provision to prohibit politicians charged with rape from running for office….

Some activists working to end the trafficking of minors said the law is a watered-down version of what was initially proposed.

“Under the new law, trafficking of a minor is a crime only if rape or sexual exploitation occurs,” said Bhuwan Ribhu, a children’s rights activist….
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/british-tourist-jumps-from-indian-hotel-balcony-to-escape-sexual-assault-police-say/2013/03/19/1c25919c-9094-11e2-9173-7f87cda73b49_story.html 

Cardinal Mahony and Pope Election, Long-Term Effects Of Bullying: Pain Lasts Into Adulthood, A Personal Nightmare of Assault in India, Are women safe in India?

The Prelate as Scapegoat By FRANCIS X. CLINES February 21, 2013

Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles wants to participate in the election of the next Pope, and it seems likely that he will get his wish — even though he covered up child abuse when he was archbishop of Los Angeles and was officially relieved of public church duties at the end of January. Judging from the cardinal’s personal blog, if he travels to Rome he will arrive prayerfully accepting his role in the scandal — the role of “scapegoat.”….

For some, the cardinal represents nothing so theologically subtle. He’s just a plain embarrassment. One cardinal said his presence at the coming conclave would be “disturbing.” But Cardinal Mahony has every right and duty to be there, according to other church officials, including the current archbishop of Los Angeles, Jose Gomez, who had to rebuke his predecessor when records came to light detailing how the cardinal protected rogue priests….

http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/21/the-prelate-as-scapegoat/

Long-Term Effects Of Bullying: Pain Lasts Into Adulthood (STUDY)
02/20/2013
By: Stephanie Pappas, LiveScience Senior Writer
02/20/2013

Kids don’t easily outgrow the pain of bullying, according to a new study that finds that people bullied as kids are less mentally healthy as adults….

“To my surprise at least, there were some very strong long-term effects on their risk for depression, anxiety, suicidality, a whole host of outcomes that we know just wreak havoc on adult lives,” said study researcher William Copeland, a clinical psychologist at Duke University Medical Center.

How bullying hurts

Previous studies have found that both bullies and their victims are at higher risk for mental health problems and other struggles in childhood. One study, presented in 2010 at the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, found that bullies were at higher risk of substance abuse, depression, anxiety and hostility than non-bullies.

For bully victims, being targeted can result in increased suicide risk, depression, poor school performance and low self-esteem. But most studies on the effects of bullying focus on the childhood period….

They found that any involvement in bullying boded poorly in adulthood. Pure bullies did not show problems with emotional functioning as adults, Copeland said, which is unsurprising given that they had all the power in their childhood relationships. But they did show increased risk of developing antisocial personality disorder. People with this disorder have little empathy and few scruples about manipulating others for their own gain. The disorder is linked with a greater risk of becoming a criminal. Most bullies did not go on to have the disorder, Copeland said, but they were more likely to develop it than other groups.

Pure victims, on the other hand, were at higher risk for depression, anxiety, panic attacks and agoraphobia than kids uninvolved in bullying, the researchers found. Worst off were the bully/victims, who were at higher risk of every depressive and anxiety disorder in the book. [5 Ways to Foster Self-Compassion in Your Child]

For example, pure victims were four times as likely to develop an anxiety disorder in adulthood compared with kids who were uninvolved in bullying. Bully/victims had a five-times greater risk of depression than uninvolved kids, as well as 10 times the likelihood of suicidal thoughts or actions and 15 times the likelihood of developing a panic disorder.

“By far, being a bully and a victim meant having the worst long-term outcomes,” Copeland said….

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/20/long-term-effects-of-bullying_n_2728190.html

A Personal Nightmare of Assault in India By SHALINI KANTAYYA February 19, 2013

….I found myself awake in this nightmare, with a man violently gripping my mouth shut, attempting to rape me. I was biting and kicking, using every ounce of my energy to fight for my life. My mouth was badly bleeding and in the struggle we fell to the floor. He continued to violently grab my face, and said, “Shalini, don’t shout.” He knew my name. I recognized him as the hotel waiter who served my dinner that night.

I continued to scream and fight incessantly, until finally he relented. He picked up his lungi and said, “I’ll leave. Don’t tell the manager.” Then he ran out and shut the door. Did he really think he could try and rape me in my sleep, without protest and that I wouldn’t tell? Yes. He did. He counted on the fact that he lived in a culture that blamed the victim — that the stigma associated with sexual assault would force a woman to keep quiet. And although I had escaped the worst-case scenario, and prevented a rape, the nightmare was far from over.

In the days that followed, bruised and battered, with excruciating body pain, I managed to shuttle to and from government hospitals to be examined and police stations to file reports. I was well acquainted with India’s bureaucratic process, and in spite of my injuries, I wanted to make sure I had filled out all the paperwork correctly to obtain “justice.”

For several weeks, I tried to get a response from several American and Indian bureaucracies, but they all responded the same way: by doing nothing. Despite my formal complaints, in which I detailed the attack in full, these institutions offered no assistance – not even a single follow up call. I was devastated. I traveled to India on part of an American organization, and received no mental, physical or emotional support. As someone who has committed my life to artistic expression and social justice, I have never felt so voiceless….

http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/19/a-personal-nightmare-of-assault-in-india/

Are women safe in India? We ask if the country’s existing laws and the attitude of law enforcers are serving to compound or prevent sexual abuse. 24 Dec 2012

….There are reports that suggest that in India, a woman is raped every 20 minutes.

More than 24,000 rape cases in the country were reported last year alone, of which 570 were reported in the Indian capital, where already this year 635 rape cases have been registered.

The legal news service Trust Law says India is the worst country in the G20 to be a woman. It says women and girls continue to be sold, married off at a young age, exploited and abused as domestic slaves.

The number of crimes recorded against women, including kidnapping, abduction, and human trafficking exceeds 2.5 million.

Many activists say Indians are protesting against what they say is a culture of impunity.

There are 40,000 pending rape cases in the country and survivors have to wait years for their cases to be heard – even then the conviction rate is just 34.6 percent – according to the National Crimes Record Bureau.

The Indian Penal Code lists punishments of up to life behind bars, but those convicted are often let off after serving a short sentence….
http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/insidestory/2012/12/2012122472117251850.html

Discovery of father’s Scout abuse file triggers memories, Rape Is Rape, Wrong Is Wrong

Discovery of father’s Scout abuse file triggers memories, what ifs for brother and sister
February 17, 2013 Associated Press

On opposite sides of the world, the brother and sister sat transfixed before their computers, reading a stranger’s account of long-ago secrets and deeply buried sins.

The memo was just four pages long, about an incident in 1963 at a Boy Scout camp in New Jersey. A Scout executive had gotten drunk during an overnight outing, then was discovered gambling with a group of boys. But there was more.

The brother and sister read on — about how this man “was observed molesting an Explorer Scout sitting at his side.” About how he was admitted, voluntarily, to a mental hospital. They read about an investigation that determined he had tried to molest another Scout. It found that this man’s “problem,” as the document called it, had apparently existed for decades.

They read, too, about a call from this local Boy Scouts council for “suppression of spread of incident beyond group with knowledge of it.” ”We know enough to advise that Brandon P. Gray should never again be registered in any capacity with the Boy Scouts of America,” the memo stated….

According to his file, Gray started drinking on Feb. 2, 1963, at the Scouts’ Mt. Allamuchy camp in Stanhope, N.J., during the annual Klondike Derby, an event in which Scouts pull sleds. That evening, he was discovered playing cards for cash in a cabin with several Explorer Scouts, in violation of camp policy.

Gray, the file said, “was observed molesting” one of those Scouts, whose age wasn’t mentioned. An adult in the room moved the boy away from Gray, but took no further action “in an effort to avoid a ‘scene,’” the record stated. Gray continued to drink, grew agitated and attempted to hit someone. Adult Scouts then subdued him and eventually he fell asleep.

By the next morning, Gray’s wife, Ruth, had been contacted and Gray admitted himself to a mental hospital. The Scouts then met with the Explorer, who confirmed “the violation.” Upon his release from the hospital, Gray was terminated. No records identified by The Associated Press show any charges or convictions for Gray in connection with the incident or any other charges for sex abuse….

After his dismissal on Feb. 7, 1963, Gray went home to his family. Carol was 12 years old. Jim was only 7.

Old memories can flicker and fade. But for Carol and Jim, some memories simply aren’t there, an abyss they say protects them from remembering some of the worst of their abuse.

Carol believes hers began when she was 5 years old. Years of psychiatric help and attempts to recover memories haven’t yielded much more. But a fact from her past lingers: “I believe that mine stopped when Dad started abusing my brother.”

Brandon Gray’s removal from Scouting was, his son said, the beginning of a decade of sexual abuse. It began soon after that February day in 1963 and continued until Jim graduated high school and joined the U.S. Marines Corps.

Unlike Carol, Jim has little trouble remembering. His father would stalk up the stairs and push his way into Jim’s room. Once, when Jim was about 11 years old, his mother walked in to find him and his father engaged in a sexual act. She turned and walked out. A day later, she moved Jim’s entire bedroom upstairs, the posters in the same place they had been in his old room, the bed in the same spot.

It was, he said, his mother’s attempt at physically shunting off the problem she could no longer deny….

“The worst thing about the sexual abuse, mental health problems, alcoholism and all that … are the losses,” said Jim, 58. “The loss of being able to maintain healthy relationships, intimacy, having children. These things that most people take for granted, I won’t have those.

“By the time I recovered, it was too late to do those things.”….

Jim contacted The Associated Press after the files were released in mid-October. He did so because he said he wants to show that victims of sex abuse can, with a lot of work, live full lives. He believes that he and his sister are proof of that.

He also wants to show the real consequences of the Scouts’ inaction….

He still struggles with the memories of his abuse.

“Am I healed? I wish that were possible,” he said. “Like a person who has lost an arm or a leg, I have learned to adapt. I do not think I will ever be healed. I can say that I am happy more than I am sad.”
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/02/17/discovery-father-scout-abuse-file-triggers-memories-what-ifs-for-brother-and/

Rape Is Rape, Wrong Is Wrong, Where Is Decency?
02/19/2013  Stuart Muszynski

From the public outrage over the oxymoronic statements of this past election cycle about “legitimate rape” and “violent rape,” we learned, thankfully, that most Americans agree that rape of any kind is wrong. However, if you’re following the sordid story of the Steubenville High School “Big Red” football players who were charged with raping a 16-year-old girl from West Virginia, you see how the cruelty, immorality and true violent nature of rape is defended, diminished and deflected.

The allegations are that last August, two high school football players raped the girl, then dragged her unconscious from party to party while many people looked on and did nothing. Multiple cell phones recorded the events, and later onlookers posted the videos on the Internet. The video footage showed a naked girl, out cold, along with other football players laughingly boasting that “She’s dead” and “I’m going to join the rape crew.”

Clearly they knew what was happening, but they were caught up in the moment with their buddies. Some team members and their friends stood by and did nothing while others encouraged the rape or actively took part in it.

That’s bad enough, but what occurred next, after the girl’s parents reported the rape to the police, is just as shocking.

Big Red Football Coach Reno Saccoccia suspended the two players who allegedly raped the victim, but didn’t suspend any of the players who live-tweeted the attack while it was happening or joked about it afterward. The coach’s reason was that the boys said that that they didn’t think they had done anything wrong….

Consider the following statistics:….One third of high school girls will be involved in dating violence. Twenty percent of teens will be sexually assaulted.

While schools are trying to address bullying, they are not addressing decency, goodness, kindness or respect. Ultimately, not doing so has a cultural impact on both community and country.

Almost fifty years ago, in March, 1964, 38 people watched from their New York City apartments as Kitty Genovese was raped and then killed. Thirty years later, dozens of motorists on a Detroit bridge watched as a woman who, beaten during a road rage incident, jumped off the bridge to her death to avoid her assailant. Bystanders just sat in their cars.

When addressing rape, gun violence, bullying and other types of violent behavior, our country must depend on good people who recognize evil and do the right thing by standing up to help. To ensure decency, we have no choice but to rely on our schools because some parents just are not doing their jobs.

Anna Sewell, a British novelist who wrote Black Beauty, said, “If we see cruelty or wrong that we have the power to stop and do nothing, we make ourselves share in the guilt.”….

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stuart-muszynski/steubenville-rape-case_b_2718805.html

FMSF Origins, torso of ritual sacrifice identified, police dismiss rape case because of low IQs, sex slave cult, cult leader jailed for sex abuse

- Theoretical and Personal Perspectives on the Delayed Memory Debate By Jennifer J. Freyd
- 15-Year-Old Girl Raped, Police Dismiss the Case Because Victim and Attackers Have “Low IQs”
- Torso of African boy detectives believe was killed in a ritual sacrifice before being tossed into the Thames is ‘identified’ by key witness
- Sister’s persistence leads to murder charges
- Smashed: The sex-slave cult where women were ‘forced to sleep with men claiming to be reincarnation of Christ’ on Mexico-US border
- Konstantin Rudnev: Russian cult leader jailed for sex abuse

Theoretical and Personal Perspectives on the Delayed Memory Debate By Jennifer J. Freyd, PhD University of Oregon Eugene, OR 97403

A Presentation For: The Center for Mental Health at Foote Hospital’s Continuing Education Conference:
Controversies around recovered memories of incest and ritual abuse Saturday, August 7 1993 Ann Arbor, Michigan

….As many of you know, the False Memory Syndrome Foundation (FMSF) was founded and is now directed by, my mother, Pamela Freyd.

It is widely known that my parents claim to be “falsely accused” of the sexual abuse by their daughter.  Numerous newspaper stories about the FMSF have presented my parents’ status as falsely accused.

Just last month, on the NPR evening radio news show “All Things Considered” the reporter, Wendy Schmelzer, said “For the last year, Dr. Freyd has criss-crossed the country attending similar meetings; each time with the same message for her audience –– ‘you are not alone.  My husband and I were also falsely accused.’”   I am the daughter they claim has falsely accused them.

Not only is it widely known that my parents were accused of sexual abuse, and not only is it widely assumed that the accusations was “false”, but the details of their story are also –– most strangely –– widely known.  My mother published her version of being falsely accused under the name “Jane Doe” and this published story has been circulated widely.  Many people learn the story without knowing the identity of the characters, but believing the details to be accurate.  I find the latter situation unnerving; I find the former situation –– where people get exposed to Jane Doe thinking it is about me –– horribly invasive and violating.  As one clinician said at a national meeting recently about the FMSF: “there is persuasive evidence that this organization grew out of one family’s feud that’s overgrown its boundaries and come into the popular culture.”

In speaking about personal matters today, I would like to offer my truth in hopes that it will inform you of aspects of the context out of which FMSF grew.  I would never have chosen to be here today speaking about my personal life, were circumstances not what they are.  I make this decision partly because I have already lost so much of my privacy, and in such an unclear and distorted way, that I have come to desire clarity and public truth as the lesser of two undesirable situations.  I also speak about these matters today because I hope what I have to share will help, directly or indirectly, other abused children and adult survivors of abuse.  I hope that speaking my truth is, in the end, healing for myself and for others.

The truth I wish to speak about today pertains to patterns of behaviors.  I will speak about a pattern of behavior my parents have exhibited towards me in my childhood and continuing into the present:  A pattern of boundary violations, a pattern of invasion and control, a pattern of inappropriate and unwanted sexualization, a pattern of family and relationship dysfunction, and a pattern of intimidation and manipulation….
http://theawarenesscenter.blogspot.com/1993/08/theoretical-and-personal-perspectives.html

15-Year-Old Girl Raped, Police Dismiss the Case Because Victim and Attackers Have “Low IQs”
How police treat rape in America.    News & Politics   AlterNet  By Laura Gottesdiener February 13, 2013

In some of the most disturbing and sickening news of the day, New York state police have decided that a 15-year-old girl who was sexually assaulted by three boys was in fact not sexually assaulted because both she and the boys are mentally handicapped.

In May of last year, three boys attacked a 15-year-old mentally challenged student at Martin De Porres Academy, a school for students with special needs in Long Island. According to the police report, one of the boys repeatedly banged her head against the table while the other two forced her to give them oral sex and then tried to have forcible anal sex with her. In interviews with the police, the girl explained how she repeatedly said “no” and “stop” but that the boys continued to assault her. When she came home from school that day, her mother noticed that she had blood on her underwear.

But the Nassau County Police Department recently decided to drop the case after learning that the boys also had learning disabilities and mental handicaps, which apparently made the situation far too complicated for the police department.

The department’s spokesperson told the New York Daily News , “It was more of a consensual situation with their mental capabilities.”

Of course, head-banging, blood and repeated pleas to “stop” are never consensual situations–regardless of the IQ level of the attackers. But, in this case, the police department is even further off target. As the family’s lawyer explained, the girl has an IQ of about 50 points, which puts her below the cognitive functioning level to consent to sex at all….
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/15-year-old-girl-raped-police-dismiss-case-because-victim-and-attackers-have-low

Torso of African boy detectives believe was killed in a ritual sacrifice before being tossed into the Thames is ‘identified’ by key witness  Torso named Adam by detectives has been ‘revealed’ as Nigerian-born Patrick Erhabor
John Hall Thursday 07 February 2013

A torso found in the Thames, which detectives believe belongs to an African boy murdered in a ritual sacrifice, has reportedly been identified by a key witness.

Speaking to BBC News, Joyce Osagiede said the child was Nigerian-born Patrick Erhabor – a child she claims to have looked after in Germany before he was trafficked to the UK.

Ms Osagiede went on to say she had handed the boy over to a bogus asylum seeker and convicted people smuggler called Kingsley Ojo, who was deported back to Nigeria despite having offered to help with the inquiry.

The BBC said there is no evidence to suggest Ojo was involved in the murder or knew what would happen to the boy, however, and Ojo has always denied having anything to do with the killing.

The torso, which was found close to London’s Tower Bridge in September 2001, was named Adam by detectives. Forensic tests revealed he had come from Benin City in Nigeria….
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/torso-of-african-boy-detectives-believe-was-killed-in-a-ritual-sacrifice-before-being-tossed-into-the-thames-is-identified-by-key-witness-8485955.html

Sister’s persistence leads to murder charges
Fullerton detectives question a convicted murderer, who confesses to killing 3 men in 1981-82 and disposing of the bodies in what he called a Tibetan sky burial ritual. Feb. 13, 2013

By LARRY WELBORN / ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Kathy Tessanne never let it go.

Every so often for more than 30 years, Tessanne contacted Fullerton police and asked if there was any new information on a 1982 missing person case….

Last week, Fullerton police detectives gave Tessanne and her siblings grim but not unexpected news.

DNA tests conducted by the Orange County crime lab revealed that a partial skull found by hikers in 1985 near Big Bear has been identified as belonging to Frank Bartlett Marshall, Tessanne’s long-missing foster brother.

The detectives weren’t finished: the skull, they explained, had a bullet hole in it, confirming her worst fears. Marshall, who was last seen when he drove his motorcycle away from her family’s Fullerton home on Jan. 2, 1982, had been murdered.

The detectives had more.

New evidence led them to question a convicted killer serving two life terms for two murders of young men who had disappeared in very similar circumstances from Fullerton in late 1981.

And the detectives told Tessanne that inmate – David Richard Campbell, 67 – confessed to killing Marshall and spreading his remains in rugged terrain near Big Bear in what he called a Tibetan sky burial, according to Hughes….
http://www.ocregister.com/news/marshall-495651-fullerton-case.html

Smashed: The sex-slave cult where women were ‘forced to sleep with men claiming to be reincarnation of Christ’ on Mexico-US border
Cult was called the ‘Defensores de Cristo’ or ‘Defenders of Christ’
It allegedly recruited women to have sex with a Spanish man
Authorities raided house across the border from Laredo, Texas
By Leon Watson  30 January 2013
Mexican officials broke up a bizarre cult that allegedly ran a sex-slavery ring among its followers on the U.S. border, Mexican immigration authorities revealed today.

The ‘Defensores de Cristo’ or ‘Defenders of Christ’ allegedly recruited women to have sex with a Spanish man who claimed he was the reincarnation of Christ, according to an official of a victims’ advocacy group.

Followers were subjected to forced labor or sexual services, including prostitution, according to the National Immigration Institute that said it filed a complaint more than a year ago about the cult.

Federal police, agents of Mexico’s National Immigration Institute and prosecutors raided a house earlier this week near Nuevo Laredo, across the border from Laredo, Texas, and found cult members, including children, living in filthy conditions, according to the institute official….

But according to the cult’s website, the leader was Spaniard Ignacio Gonzalez de Arriba. He set up shop in Mexico about three years ago, after a stint in Brazil and other parts of South America, said Myrna Garcia, an activist with the Support Network for Cult Victims who has worked with victims of the Defenders of Christ cult.

He became involved in offering courses on ‘bio-programming,’ an esoteric practice that claims to allow practicants to ‘reprogram’ their brains to eliminate pain, suffering and anxiety, according to institute….

The Interior Department said the Defenders of Christ had not registered as a religious group, as required under Mexican law. Garcia said cells of the cult might still be active in Peru and Argentina
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2270550/Sex-slave-cult-Mexico-US-border-women-forced-sleep-reincarnations-Christ.html

Konstantin Rudnev: Russian cult leader jailed for sex abuse
A Russian cult leader who described himself as an “extra-terrestrial from Sirius” has been jailed for 11 years for sexually abusing his followers.
By Tom Parfitt, Moscow 08 Feb 2013

Konstantin Rudnev, 45, was convicted in a closed trial in Siberia of rape, drug trafficking, sexual assault and “creating an organisation that infringes on people’s personality and rights”.

It was the end of an extraordinary and bizarre journey for the self-proclaimed prophet, who also went under the moniker Great Shaman Shri Dzhnan Avatar Muni.

The former steelworker founded his strict, hierarchical cult called Ashram Shambala in the city of Novosibirsk in the late 1980s, cheating converts out of their belongings in exchange for a potpourri of esoteric and occultist teachings and the chance to “clean their energy channels” in mystical rituals.

The cult grew rapidly, acquiring up to 20,000 followers at ashrams across Russia….

Followers of the cult were persuaded to sell their apartments and cars and hand over the cash, while breaking links with their relatives.

“Psychological pressure was put on the adherents,” said Irina Zebrova, a Federal Security Service (FSB) spokesperson. “They were forced to unquestioningly follow the commands of the leader of the sect. People were punished with lack of food and sleep.”

Rudnev was originally arrested in 1999, but he escaped from a psychiatric hospital after being sent for checks. He was detained again in 2005 but his followers refused to give evidence against him.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/9857871/Konstantin-Rudnev-Russian-cult-leader-jailed-for-sex-abuse.html

Sexual violence is not a cultural phenomenon in India – it is endemic everywhere

Sexual violence is not a cultural phenomenon in India – it is endemic everywhere
Cases are not discussed nearly enough for how prevalent the crimes are
Owen Jones
Sunday 30 December 2012

….Rape and sexual violence against women are endemic everywhere. Shocked by what happened in India? Take a look at France, that prosperous bastion of European civilisation. In 1999, two then-teenagers – named only as Nina and Stephanie – were raped almost every day for six months. Young men would queue up to rape them, patiently waiting for their friends to finish in secluded basements. After a three-week trial this year, 10 of the 14 accused left the courtroom as free men; the other four were granted lenient sentences of one year at most.

Shocked? Again, let us Brits not get all high and mighty, either. Amnesty International conducted a poll in the United Kingdom a few years ago. Only four per cent of respondents thought that the number of women raped each year exceeded 10,000. But according to the Government’s Action Plan on Violence Against Women and Girls, 80,000 women are raped a year, and 400,000 women are sexually assaulted. It is a pandemic of violence against women that – given its scale – is not discussed nearly enough….

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/sexual-violence-is-not-a-cultural-phenomenon-in-india–it-is-endemic-everywhere-8433445.html