Bill Cosby’s accuser has her dramatic, detailed day in court, How a Priest Got Away With the Murder of a Nun for 2 Decades, East Coast Child and Ritual Abuse Conference in Connecticut – August 2017

describes violence

– Bill Cosby’s accuser has her dramatic, detailed day in court
– The Other ‘Keepers’: How a Priest Got Away With the Murder of a Nun for 2 Decades
“She was later found strangled and stabbed more than 30 times, including nine wounds across her chest in the shape of an inverted cross, a satanic symbol. She was partially covered in an altar cloth, which had absorbed much of her blood. Blood was also smeared across her forehead as if her last rights had been administered.”
– East Coast Child and Ritual Abuse Conference in Connecticut – August 2017  https://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/

Bill Cosby’s accuser has her dramatic, detailed day in court
Steven Zeitchik June 6, 2017
In the nearly three years since women began stepping forward en masse to accuse Bill Cosby of sexual assault, none ever achieved what most abuse victims wish for: a day in court. No longer.
Andrea Constand took the witness stand at the Cosby trial Tuesday and faced off against her alleged attacker in a dramatic moment that has long been called for by survivors of sexual violence.

With that, the 44-year-old massage therapist from Toronto embarked on an emotional and detailed account of a friendship that began when she met Cosby while running operations for the women’s basketball team at Philadelphia’s Temple University in 2002, and continued through half a dozen dinners and social engagements in which he mentored her for a sports broadcasting career, till the night in January 2004 when she says he gave her with three pills and penetrated her with his fingers.
The testimony offered a full account, under oath, of a narrative similar to what other women had expressed only in scattered op-eds and TV appearances, often about encounters dating back many decades.?
Cosby is charged with three counts of aggravated indecent assault against Constand and could face a decade in jail if he’s found guilty. But for a moment in a suburban courthouse Tuesday afternoon, legal outcomes took a back seat to the importance of testimony, as a woman offered a first-person lens onto the evolving dynamic between a mega-celebrity and his alleged sexual assault victim.
“He was a Temple friend, somebody I trusted, a mentor, and somewhat of an older figure to me,” Constand said of the entertainer, who served as a trustee at the Pennsylvania school.After meeting Constand via a mutual friend, Cosby started calling her on her university-issued cellphone about issues such as renovations to the team’s facilities. Constand described the ways Cosby would soon come to inquire about her personal life and eventually act like a patron. He would introduce her to important people….
But Constand also recounted details that raised red flags, at least in retrospect. In an Ontario lilt, she told of the time he invited her to his show at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut and asked her to his room to share “baked goods,” then lay back on the bed and brushed his knee against her leg. Or a series of awkward dinners, in which Cosby would invite her to his mansion and have the chef prepare a meal that she would then eat by herself, with Cosby popping in only occasionally to check on her.

Constand appeared upbeat and relaxed as she entered the courtroom, and increasingly serious and impassioned as her testimony wore on. By the time she got to the January 2004 night, the tension had become almost cinematic.
“What are they — are they natural? Are they herbal?” she recalled saying when Cosby handed her three blue pills after a dinner at his home.
“He said ‘put them down [your throat]. They’re your friends; they’ll take the edge off,’” she said.
Constand was dubious. So many, she asked? She says he nodded and she told Cosby she trusted him — in their conversations about basketball they had discussed herbal supplements — and swallowed them all.
Things soon went awry, she testified: “I began slurring my words. I told Mr. Cosby I had trouble seeing him — that I could see two of him. My mouth was very cottony.” She said stood up and found that her legs could barely support her.

He led her to the couch, helped her lie down and provided a pillow for support, and she lost consciousness, she testified. An indeterminate amount of time later, she said, she was jolted awake by physical contact: “I felt Mr. Cosby’s hands groping my breasts under my shirt. I also felt his hand inside my vagina moving in and out. I felt him take my hand and place it on his penis and move it back and forth.”
Why didn’t she stop him? a prosecutor asked.
“I wasn’t able to.”
Push him away?
“In my head I was trying to get my hands to move or my legs to move but I was frozen and those messages didn’t get there.”

She said she could only retreat into her own mind. “I wanted it to stop,” she said on the stand, her voice cracking. “I felt really humiliated. I just wanted to go home.”Constand said she was finally was able to summon the strength at about 5 a.m. She rose and prepared to walk out the door, back to her car. She said Cosby was waiting for her in the kitchen, and offered her a muffin and tea. She had a few bites and sips, then left…..
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-billcosby-trial-day-2-story.html

The Other ‘Keepers’: How a Priest Got Away With the Murder of a Nun for 2 Decades
by Sal Bono June 6, 2017
As Netflix spotlights the mysterious 1970 murder of Sister Cathy Cesnik in The Keepers, the docuseries has fueled fresh interest in the savage killing of another nun a decade later.
There are striking similarities between the murder of Sister Cathy in Baltimore and the 1980 killing of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl in Ohio: Both slain nuns, decades of unanswered questions, allegations of a cover-up by authorities in a staunch Catholic community — and a priest at the center of it all.

The Keepers, which follows citizen sleuths trying to crack the unsolved murder of Sister Cathy, suggests the chaplain of Archbishop Keough High School — Father A. Joseph Maskell — was involved in the murder after at least one student confided to the nun that he was sexually abusing her.
Neither sexual abuse nor murder charges were ever brought against him, leading his former students to speculate whether there had been a cover-up by authorities. A judge refused to re-open the case years later since the statute of limitations had passed and Maskell passed away in 2001….

The Murder of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl
On April 5, 1980, the day before Sister Pahl was to celebrate her 72nd birthday, she was found murdered in the chapel of Toledo Mercy Hospital in Toledo, Ohio.

She had ministered over the sick and terminally ill inside the hospital, and worked as the chapel’s caretaker. On the morning of her death, she was inside the chapel preparing for the following day’s Easter services.
She was later found strangled and stabbed more than 30 times, including nine wounds across her chest in the shape of an inverted cross, a satanic symbol. She was partially covered in an altar cloth, which had absorbed much of her blood. Blood was also smeared across her forehead as if her last rights had been administered.
The grisly scene was made to look like a satanic ritual. It also appeared as if she’d been sexually assaulted, although that allegation remains unclear.

Two police officers were inside the hospital settling in for breakfast when a nurse came running to them frantic about the nun’s bloodied body. As the officers raced to the chapel, so did two chaplains at the hospital, Reverend Jerome Swiatecki and Father Gerald Robinson.

The Investigation
As the police kicked off their investigation, they questioned hundreds of hospital staffers, other Sisters of Mercy, the Catholic clerics who worked with her, as well as Father Robinson.
Robinson, who presided over Sister Pahl’s funeral, was questioned by police after they found a letter opener in his desk. At the time, the news of the sword-shaped letter opener, which authorities say fit the size of some of the stab wounds, was never made public.
Cops also reported he’d appeared cold and aloof after seeing the nun’s slain body.
The priest, who grew up in Toledo, was viewed as a pillar of the community….

The priest was never charged after police cited insufficient evidence, and Yonke, as well as multiple news outlets, speculated about a possible cover-up during the investigation.
“The police chief was a devout Catholic and very influential,” Yonke said. “There was pressure applied not to charge him.”….
As the Catholic Church came under fire in the early 2000s over rampant claims of abuse at the hands of priests, a woman wrote a letter to the Toledo dioceses in 2003 saying that she had been subjected to ritualized sex acts by members of clergy from the city.

In her letter, which was later passed to police, the woman named Father Gerald Robinson as one of her abusers.
“In that letter… Father Robinson was mentioned. We decided to reopen the case then,” Toledo Police Detective Steve Forrester told Inside Edition in 2004. “We re-interviewed all the old witnesses from 1980.”
By analyzing blood transfer patterns, an obscure new technology seldom used at the time, they could study the patterns of blood from objects when they are laid down.

The technology sparked outrage with Robinson’s lawyer, John B. Thebes, who told The New York Times in 2004: “It’s not DNA. It’s not blood spatter, which is blood you find on walls or other surfaces. It’s an imprint of some kind. Something happened that changed the nature of this case, and I don’t know what it is.”

Police also determined that the sword-like letter opener discovered in Robinson’s desk was the murder weapon.
In 2004, Robinson, who lived next door to the police station, was arrested and charged with the 1980 murder.
The Toledo dioceses banned Robinson from performing any priest activities and duties following his arrest. They also refused to pay any of his legal expenses….
Robinson was convicted of murder and sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. He continued to claim innocence, though he failed in a series of appeals….
http://www.insideedition.com/headlines/23706-the-other-keepers-how-a-priest-got-away-with-the-murder-of-a-nun-for

East Coast Child and Ritual Abuse Conference in Connecticut – August 2017
August 11 – 13, 2017
Special low income prices and reduced rates available before June 10, 2017
DoubleTree Hotel near Bradley International Airport Windsor Locks, CT
Internet conference information: https://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/
Please write smartnews@aol.com  for more information.

For  those looking for more information about the strong accuracy and validity of ritual abuse research: http://childabusewiki.org/index.php?title=Ritual_Abuse

Ritual abuse exists all over the world. There have been reports, journal articles, web pages and criminal convictions of crimes against children and adults. https://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/
Has additional articles and research about child and ritual abuse.

Articles by Neil Brick  http://neilbrick.com

Archdiocese fund for abuse victims to reach $130M, Former Guam priest admits abuse, says church knew, “Hyena” who had sex with kids in sexual cleansing ritual, Locals raid witch doctors after kids mysterious deaths

– Twin Cities Archdiocese fund for abuse victims to reach $130M
– Former Guam priest admits abuse, says church knew
– 3 more child sex abuse lawsuits filed against Guam priests
– HIV-ridden ‘DEVIL’ who had sex with kids in £3 ‘cleansing’ faces just FIVE YEARS in jail
– Naivasha locals raid witch doctors havens after kids mysterious deaths

Twin Cities Archdiocese fund for abuse victims to reach $130M
New insurance settlements boost archdiocese payout plan for 400 abuse victims.
By Jean Hopfensperger Star Tribune
November 15, 2016

The fund for victims of clergy sex abuse would double from a proposed $65 million to $130 million under an amended bankruptcy reorganization plan filed Tuesday by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

The increase comes primarily from new insurance settlements with the archdiocese. The archdiocese would contribute about $13 million to the fund, as would the parishes.

The proposal was swiftly criticized by victims’ attorneys as being too easy on insurers and too stingy on the part of the archdiocese.

More than 400 people have filed claims against the archdiocese in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, alleging its clergy sexually abused them as children. Under the new plan, each victim would receive an average payout of about $300,000….
http://www.startribune.com/130m-twin-cities-archdiocese-raises-amount-for-clergy-abuse-victims/401313485/

Former Guam priest admits abuse, says church knew
11 November 2016

A retired priest in Guam says the island’s Catholic Church leadership has known for decades about sex abuses committed by clergy since the 1950s.

Louis Brouillard, who is a confessed abuser, made his comment in a statement released in connection with civil lawsuits filed by several former altar boys, who allege sexual abuse at the hands of Guam priests decades ago.

Pacific Daily News reports Mr Brouillard saying his only form of punishment for molesting at least 20 boys at the time was to say prayers – as instructed by the then Archbishop Apollinaris Baumgartner.

Mr Brouillard, who is now 95 and living in Minnesota, said his sexual contact with children was known to other priests, including the Archbishop Baumgartner, who led the church on Guam for 25 years from 1945.

Mr Brouilliard served as a priest on island from the late 1940s to 1981.

He says the Catholic Church should be honest and truthful regarding what happened on Guam during his time there.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/317899/former-guam-priest-admits-abuse,-says-church-knew

3 more child sex abuse lawsuits filed against Guam priests
USA Today Network Haidee V Eugenio, Pacific Daily News (Guam) November 17, 2016

HAGATNA, Guam — Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron and former priest Louis Brouillard, along with the Archdiocese of Agana, face three new lawsuits alleging child sex abuse, which were filed Thursday afternoon by two former altar boys and by the estate of a deceased former altar boy.

The lawsuits are possible because of a recently passed Guam law that lifts the civil statute of limitations for those accused of abusing children, as well as the institutions that supported them….

Diaz, a resident of Barrigada, alleges that other priests and representatives of the Archdiocese of Agana, including Bishop Apollinaris Baumgartner and other defendants, were aware of Brouillard’s sexual abuses.

But Diaz said these other priests deliberately remained quiet and withheld such information from third parties, including his parents and law enforcement authorities in order to protect Brouillard and the archdiocese “thereby placing their loyalty above their duty to protect the minor children and their legal responsibilities.”

On Oct. 3, Brouillard released a signed statement admitting to sexually abusing at least 20 boys, and asked for forgiveness from his victims. Brouillard’s first public admission of his sexual abuses of boys on Guam was in August, during a phone interview with Pacific Daily News.

Brouillard has said the Catholic Church leadership on Guam knew about his actions for decades but he was only told to say prayers as a penance….
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/11/17/3-more-child-sex-abuse-lawsuits-filed-against-guam-priests/94052114/

HIV-ridden ‘DEVIL’ who had sex with kids in £3 ‘cleansing’ faces just FIVE YEARS in jail
A MONSTER with HIV who claims he was paid £3-a-time to have sex with children as young as 12 for “sexual cleansing” is facing only five years in prison.
By Henry Holloway / Published 17th November 2016

Eric Aniva, better known as the Hyena, claims the girls as young as 12 took “pleasure” in the abuse he subjected them too while he was paid by their parents in a “sexual cleansing ritual”.

HIV-positive Aniva confessed to having unprotected sex with 104 women and girls as part of a his bizarre rentalservice.

He did not tell families who hired him for the sexual initiation about his status before having sex with the women and girls….

The “sexual cleansing” is common practice in the southern region of his home nation Malawi.

Women and girls are expected to participate at various points in their life – such as when they hit puberty, if they have an abortion, or if their husband dies.

Young girls are sent to “initiation camps” by their family before they hit puberty where they are taught how to have sex by older men….

Presidential spokesman Mgeme Kalilani said: “While we must promote positive cultural values and positive socialisation of our children, the president says harmful cultural and traditional practices cannot be accepted in this country.”

He added: “These horrific practices, although done by a few, also tarnish the image of the whole nation of Malawi internationally and bring shame to us all.”….

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/562792/Hyena-Rapist-HIV-Eric-Aniva-Malawi-104-Rape-Sexual-Cleansing-Ritual-Girls-Camps-Court-Jail

Naivasha locals raid witch doctors havens after kids mysterious deaths
Nov. 17, 2016   By GEORGE MURAGE

Operations came to a standstill in Karagita estate, Naivasha, after residents conducted a major operation targeting witch doctors.

They moved door to door looking for the “traditional healers” accused of being behind their woes.

Trouble started two weeks ago when two children were reported missing and later found murdered in what are believed to have been ritual killings.

Police are holding a 12-year old boy in connection to the mysterious murders.

During the raids, residents found paraphernalia used by witch doctors to ‘treat’ their patients. Pictures of church pastors, women, and men from neighbouring areas were also found in one of the homes that was raided by more than 300 residents.

Youth leader Elijah Ngotho said the witch doctors were to blame for the disappearance of the minors in the area.

He said the operation was meant to rid the area of fake healers, a majority of whom he noted were from neighbouring countries.
http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2016/11/17/naivasha-locals-raid-witch-doctors-havens-after-kids-mysterious-deaths_c1457570

S.M.A.R.T.’s Ritual Abuse Page  https://ritualabuse.us

S.M.A.R.T (Stop Mind control And Ritual abuse Today) Newsletter
Issue 131 – November 2016
https://ritualabuse.us/2016/11/issue-131-november-2016/

Child abuse wiki – ritual abuse  http://childabusewiki.org/index.php?title=Ritual_Abuse

Articles by Neil Brick
http://neilbrick.com 

Weiner investigated for child abuse, Hunter Catholic diocese had nuns who didn’t think child sexual abuse was a crime

Anthony Weiner investigated for child abuse
Compiled by Tony Hicks  09/01/2016

Child welfare workers are investigating Anthony Weiner, after news surfaced he sent an inappropriate selfie of himself in bed next to his 4-year-old son, Jordan.

Sources reportedly told the New York Post the Administration for Children’s Services were looking into the matter, after the former congressman sent the photo to a woman.

The married 51-year-old resigned from Congress in 2011 after it was revealed he was sexting a woman who was not his wife. A bid to become mayor of New York was derailed by a similar controversy.

An agency worker visited the home of Weiner and his estranged wife Huma Abedin’s home, a worker there reportedly told the Post, though Weiner denied being contacted by the ACS….

Abedin, who announced Monday she is leaving Weiner, is a longtime trusted aide to presidential candidate Hillary Clinton….
http://www.mercurynews.com/celebrities/ci_30317222/anthony-weiner-investigated-child-abuse

Hunter Catholic diocese had nuns who didn’t think child sexual abuse was a crime JOANNE MCCARTHY 31 Aug 2016

THE Catholic Church has paid more than $25 million to Hunter child sex abuse survivors, the royal commission has heard on a day when a nun said she didn’t think the rape of a boy was a crime, and an abuse survivor told of wanting to grab knives and kill a paedophile priest when he was just 13.

“I didn’t do it. I should have,” Hunter man Gerard McDonald, 52, told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse about Father Vince Ryan on the first day of the 43rd public hearing, considering church responses to child sexual abuse in Maitland-Newcastle diocese.

The diocese has substantiated 158 claims by survivors involving 31 perpetrators. There have been 78 claims from former students of Marist Brothers schools at Maitland and Hamilton, and St Pius X College, Adamstown. The royal commission heard 56 per cent of claims involved priests.

The diocese has paid more than $25.7 million in compensation, with one victim of Vince Ryan paid $2.9 million, and another 12 Ryan victims paid a combined $2.9 million. The Newcastle Herald is aware of many other survivors of abuse who have not reported abuse or sought compensation.

“There is a long and disturbing history of suffering by children in the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle inflicted by diocesan priests and members of religious orders,” said counsel assisting the royal commission, Stephen Free, in his opening address.
The public hearing at Newcastle Courthouse will consider the case of Vince Ryan and Marist Brothers Romuald (Francis Cable), Patrick (Thomas Butler) and Dominic (Darcy O’Sullivan), who sexually abused boys over three decades.

It will hear evidence about how senior clergy, including Monsignor Patrick Cotter, and senior Marist Brothers including former principals Brother Christopher Wade and Brother Alexis Turton, responded after receiving child sex serious allegations….
http://www.theherald.com.au/story/4134529/history-of-suffering-revealed-at-the-royal-commission/

Child Abuse Wiki

Ritual Abuse
http://childabusewiki.org/index.php?title=Ritual_Abuse

Recovered Memories
http://childabusewiki.org/index.php?title=Recovered_Memories

Dissociative Identity Disorder
http://childabusewiki.org/index.php?title=Dissociative_Identity_Disorder

Catholic Church spent $2M on major N.Y. lobbying firms to block child-sex law reform, Child abuse inquiry turns to Kincora home and claims of MI5 blackmail, Hostages, drugs, grenades — Colombia cracks down on notorious “Bronx” slum, How child sexual abuse became a family business in the Philippines, Child sex abuse and the internet

– Catholic Church spent $2M on major N.Y. lobbying firms to block child-sex law reform
– Child abuse inquiry turns to Kincora home and claims of MI5 blackmail
– Hostages, drugs, grenades — Colombia cracks down on notorious “Bronx” slum
– How child sexual abuse became a family business in the Philippines
– A crime scene of unspeakable horror: child sex abuse and the internet

EXCLUSIVE: Catholic Church spent $2M on major N.Y. lobbying firms to block child-sex law reform
BY Kenneth Lovett NEW YORK DAILY NEWS ALBANY BUREAU CHIEF Monday, May 30, 2016

ALBANY — Not leaving it to divine chance, the state Catholic Conference has turned in recent years to some of Albany’s most well-connected and influential lobby firms to help block a bill that would make it easier for child sex abuse victims to seek justice.

The Catholic Conference, headed by Timothy Cardinal Dolan, has used Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker, Patricia Lynch & Associates, Hank Sheinkopf, and Mark Behan Communications to lobby against the Child Victims Act as well as for or against other measures.

All told, the conference spent more than $2.1 million on lobbying from 2007 through the end of 2015, state records show. That does not include the conference’s own internal lobbying team.

Filings show the lobbyists were retained, in part, to work on issues associated with “statute of limitations” and “timelines for commencing certain civil actions related to sex offenses.” Other issues included parochial school funding and investment tax credits….

While a far cry from the millions in lobbying top special interests spend in Albany each year, advocates for child sex abuse survivors say the $2.1 million spent likely represents a worthwhile investment to the Catholic Conference if it can continue to block legislation that would eliminate the statute of limitations on child sex abuse civil cases and open a one-year window to bring lawsuits for victims who can no longer sue under current law.

The Catholic Conference has argued that opening a one-year window to revive old cases could ultimately bankrupt the Church….
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/catholic-church-hired-lobby-firms-block-n-y-kid-rape-laws-article-1.2655010

Child abuse inquiry turns to Kincora home and claims of MI5 blackmail
Inquiry will hear from men abused as boys at Northern Ireland children’s home and allegations that perpetrators were protected by working as spies  Henry McDonald Ireland correspondent Monday 30 May 2016

An inquiry into child abuse across a range of institutions in Northern Ireland will focus on Tuesday on the Kincora boys home scandal including allegations that MI5 blackmailed a paedophile ring which operated there in the 1970s.

The historical institutional abuse inquiry will hear evidence from men who were abused at Kincora when they were children and their allegations that the perpetrators were protected because they were state agents spying on fellow Ulster loyalists.

A number of Kincora abuse victims have tried through the courts to force the scandal to be included in the national investigation into allegations of establishment paedophile rings operating in Westminster.

Gary Hoy tried and failed last month to force the home secretary to include Kincora in the Westminster inquiry. Hoy and others fear that the Kincora inquiry, which is based in Northern Ireland and taking hearings at the court in Banbridge, County Down, will not have access to sensitive MI5 intelligence files on the people who ran Kincora.

Amnesty International has described the Kincora scandal as one of the most disturbing to emerge from the Ulster Troubles….

At least 29 boys were sexually abused by Kincora housemaster and prominent Orange Order member William McGrath and others at the east Belfast home….

Another of the abuse victims at Kincora, Clint Massey, told the Guardian last year that he even tried to file a report at a local police station in east Belfast about what was happening to him and other boys at the home in the mid-1970s. However, Massey said he was forcibly marched out of the RUC station by police officers and that his complaint was not recorded.

Former army intelligence officer and whistleblower Colin Wallace has consistently claimed that MI5, RUC special branch and military intelligence knew about the abuse going on at Kincora and used it to blackmail the paedophile ring to spy on hardline loyalists….

The historical institutional abuse inquiry is investigating 22 orphanages, care homes and other institutions where child sexual abuse took place. The inquiry team is expected to hear from around 450 witnesses, some of whom have travelled from as far as the United States and Australia to give evidence….
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/may/30/n-ireland-child-abuse-inquiry-turns-to-kincora-home-and-claims-of-mi5-blackmail

Hostages, drugs, grenades — Colombia cracks down on notorious “Bronx” slum
May 31, 2016  By Jim Wyss  BOGOTA, Colombia

It’s known as “El Bronx,” and for decades the slum in the heart of Colombia’s capital has been the stuff of nightmares: a sordid stew of drug dens, vagrants, prostitution and gambling.

Close to government buildings and tourism hotspots, the area has been a no-go zone for police — and anyone else who cared for their pocketbook or their safety.

Mayor Enrique Peñalosa calls it an “independent republic of crime.”

Starting Saturday, the police and heavily armed military began seizing control of the area, and the reports that have emerged prove the neighborhood’s fearsome reputation is merited.

Guns, Hostages, Grenades

Police said they had removed more than 2,000 people — many of them homeless drug addicts — from the neighborhood and rescued 136 minors, some of them victims of the sex trade. They also seized stockpiles of cocaine, marijuana and bazuco, an addictive crack-like substance.

In addition, they found hidden passageways used to smuggle drugs and weapons, and rescued a 23-year-old man who was being held hostage in a derelict building, bound hand and foot and with a chain around his neck.

“What we found in the Bronx went far beyond what we knew,” Daniel Mejía, the city’s undersecretary of security, told RCN radio on Tuesday. “We found caches of weapons and grenades, large amounts of drugs [hidden] in walls and ceilings, houses for satanic worship and places for the sexual exploitation of minors….

Luz Estela Cardenas, the director of Renacer, a foundation that works with sexually exploited children, said that many of the 18,000 minors her organization has helped over the last 28 years have emerged from the Bronx and neighborhoods like it.

Many victims start off visiting the areas to buy drugs, she said, before getting snared by criminal networks.

“This goes well beyond sexual abuse,” she said. “The issue is exploitation and the trafficking of girls and boys. Some of these children are sexual slaves…. Others have literally been kidnapped off the streets surrounding the Bronx….
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/colombia/article80874132.html

How child sexual abuse became a family business in the Philippines
Tens of thousands of children believed to be victims of live-streaming abuse, some of it being carried out by their own parents
by Oliver Holmes in Manila  Monday 30 May 2016

When Philippine police smashed into the one-bedroom house, they found three girls aged 11, seven and three lying naked on a bed.

At the other end of the room stood the mother of two of the children – the third was her niece – and her eldest daughter, aged 13, who was typing on a keyboard. A live webcam feed on the computer screen showed the faces of three white men glaring out.

An undercover agent had infiltrated the impoverished village two weeks before the raid. Pretending to be a Japayuki, a slang term for a Filipina sex worker living in Japan, she had persuaded a resident to introduce her to the children, who played daily in the gravel streets.

Her guise was intended to put them at ease, to show them she worked in the same industry; she was one of them. She became close to the eldest, referred to as Nicole although that is not her real name. After a few days of chatting, Nicole causally told the agent about their “shows”.

“It was the first time we heard of parents using their children,” said the middle-aged woman.

Authorities considered that operation in 2011 to be a one-off case. But the next month, another family was caught in the same area. Then more cases of live-streaming child abuse appeared in different parts of the Philippines.

Now, the United Nations says, there are tens of thousands of children believed to be involved in a rapidly expanding local child abuse industry already worth US$1bn.

In some areas, entire communities live off the business, abetted by increasing internet speeds, advancing cameraphone technology, and growing ease of money transfers across borders.

And while perpetrators used to download photos and videos to their hard drives – providing authorities with a virtual paper trail and usable evidence – criminals have found anonymity in encrypted live-streaming programs….
“We think that what we are seeing, what we are dealing with, is a small part of what is out there,” she said. “It is big money. Big business.”

Children are made to perform around the clock, with morning live-streams catering to Europeans and Americans, and later in the day, an Australian-based clientele.

The number of ongoing live-streaming criminal cases in the Philippines is rising, from 57 in 2013, growing to 89 in 2014, and up to 167 in 2015….
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/31/live-streaming-child-sex-abuse-family-business-philippines

A crime scene of unspeakable horror’: child sex abuse and the internet
Perpetrators of online child sexual abuse will continue to take advantage of the latest technology to serve their purposes
Joanna Shields  Baroness Joanna Shields is the UK minister for internet safety and security Monday 30 May 2016

….Faster internet, anonymous access and cryptocurrency mechanisms all provide opportunities for criminals to access child sexual abuse images.

Images of child sexual abuse are uploaded and shared everyday. Some of these images are screen captures of live-streamed sexual abuse of children of all ages, even infants. Each image, each video depicts a crime scene of unspeakable horror.

Child sexual abuse is a global crime that transcends borders, and demands a global response. The WePROTECT Global Alliance to end online child sexual exploitation is that response.

The goal of WePROTECT is to eradicate child sexual exploitation online. Full stop. Its mission is to empower everyone with a responsibility to protect children online, to identify and safeguard victims, remove child sexual abuse material from the internet and track down perpetrators all over the world….
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/may/31/a-scene-of-unspeakable-horror-child-sex-abuse-and-the-internet

Pope’s efforts to stop church child abuse appear to unravel, Vatican riven by internal battle over handling of child abuse claims

Pope’s efforts to stop church child abuse appear to unravel
Will Carless, GlobalPost  February 15, 2016

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — A member of a commission set up by Pope Francis to advise him on child abuse says the group is a “token body” exercising in “smoke and mirrors” that won’t help children stay safe from abusive priests.

Peter Saunders, the commission member, is now on a leave of absence as he considers whether to continue with an effort he says he has lost faith in.

Meanwhile, new Catholic bishops are still being taught they’re not obliged to report cases of child abuse by priests to the police.

The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, which Francis set up with much fanfare in 2014, was supposed to issue guidelines for the Vatican on how to deal with child abuse. But the body was never consulted about the training for new bishops on exactly that topic.

These are just some of the signs that Francis’ reform efforts, and his pledge to clean up the Catholic Church’s most damaging crisis, seem to be unraveling before they’ve even really gotten started.

The problems come as Pope Francis pays a visit to Latin America, a region where, as GlobalPost has reported, the church is accused of reassigning and protecting many alleged predator priests. Among the latest scandals in the region, Chileans are outraged that the pope appointed a bishop accused of shielding the country’s most despised pedophile priest from investigation….
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2016/02/15/popes-efforts-stop-church-child-abuse-appear-unravel/80394122/

Vatican riven by internal battle over handling of child abuse claims
Rift comes amid signs that special commission created by Pope Francis to handle issue is being sidelined by senior church officials in Rome
Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Rome Tuesday 16 February 2016

A battle is being waged within the Vatican over how senior clergy ought to handle accusations of sexual abuse amid signs that a special commission created by Pope Francis to handle the issue is being sidelined by senior church officials in Rome.

The rift was exposed after a report in the Guardian about a training course that was offered to new bishops last year in which a controversial French monsignor instructed them that it was “not necessarily” their duty to report accusations of abuse to law enforcement authorities if local laws did not require it.

That stance was rejected this week by Pope Francis’s point man on abuse issues, Boston cardinal Seán O’Malley, who heads a special pontifical commission to protect minors.

“We, the president and the members of the commission, wish to affirm that our obligations under civil law must certainly be followed, but even beyond these civil requirements, we all have a moral and ethical responsibility to report suspected abuse to the civil authorities who are charged with protecting our society,” he said in a statement on Monday.

O’Malley also said that the special commission was committed to “extensive education efforts” within local churches since its founding two years ago, and that its members had reiterated their “willingness to provide this material at courses offered in Rome”, including at the training courses for new bishops and the offices of the Roman Curia, or bureaucracy.

But it is clear that these offers have not been accepted….
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/16/vatican-riven-by-internal-battle-over-handling-of-child-abuse-claims

Female genital cutting, Sloppy Police Work of Mormon Towns, Internet trolling: teenagers suffered online abuse, Catholic church alleged abuse at UK school, Twelve men jailed for sexually exploiting girl

– I’m a survivor of female genital cutting and I’m speaking out – as others must too
– Replace female genital mutilation with new rites of passage, says UN chief
– Expert Details Sloppy Police Work of Mormon Towns
– Internet trolling: quarter of teenagers suffered online abuse last year
– Catholic church pays compensation over alleged abuse at UK school
– Keighley abuse: Twelve men jailed for sexually exploiting girl

I’m a survivor of female genital cutting and I’m speaking out – as others must too
Maryum Saifee
My aunt cut my genitals when I was seven years old. The culture of silence surrounding this FGM/C means laws alone won’t stop it
Monday 8 February 2016

Ifor a final, only half-listening to a fellow classmate describe her research project. “Female genital mutilation is the partial or total cutting of the external female genitalia for non-medical reasons,” she mechanically described. “The procedure typically take places when the girl is seven years old. The process is usually carried out by an older female relative. And once the ritual takes place, it is almost never discussed.” As she spoke, goosebumps began to form and I sat paralysed in my seat. Memories I had suppressed since childhood came flooding to the foreground….

My aunt was a doctor. So when she led me downstairs to her clinic and instructed me to lie flat on my back on her operating table, I didn’t think to question her authority. With no anaesthetic and very little warning, she performed the ritualised cut. After it was over, we headed back to the party in silence….

When I confronted my parents, they were stunned. My aunt had carried out the ritual without their consent. My father felt a unique betrayal. This was the same little sister he encouraged to pursue medicine in the first place. He had no idea that female genital mutilation or cutting (FGM/C) was even practised within the Dawoodi Bohra community, a Shia subsect from India’s coastal state of Gujarat….

Like other forms of gender-based violence, FGM/C is a manifestation of power and means of controlling the sexuality of women and girls. In recent years, many countries have passed laws to criminalise the practice of FGM/C. Yet, it is an extraordinarily difficult crime to prosecute. Laws alone are not enough. For there to be a sustainable end to this practice, there has to be a radical culture change from the ground up, that promotes zero tolerance to any and all forms of excision….
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/feb/08/victim-fgm-speaking-out-cut-genitals-culture-of-silence

Replace female genital mutilation with new rites of passage, says UN chief
By Sebastien Malo  Mon Feb 8, 2016
NEW YORK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – New, unharmful rites of passage should replace female genital mutilation, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said on Monday after new data showed there were more victims of the custom than previously estimated.

The call by the U.N. Secretary-General was heard by diplomats, campaigners and survivors gathered at the U.N. headquarters in New York to mark the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, which fell on Saturday.

“I am especially inspired by communities that find better ways to mark the rite of passage into womanhood,” said Ban.

He gave the example of young girls in Kenya and Tanzania spending a week away from their families to learn life skills instead of being cut.

The U.N.’s children’s agency UNICEF said on Friday more than 200 million girls and women globally have suffered genital mutilation, far higher than previously estimated….
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-rights-women-fgm-idUSKCN0VH23R

Expert Details Sloppy Police Work of Mormon Towns
By JAMIE ROSS Friday, February 05, 2016 Courthouse News Service
PHOENIX (CN) – The Marshal’s Office in two towns on the Arizona-Utah border failed to investigate claims of child abuse or timely complete reports, an expert witness for the Justice Department testified Thursday during a religious discrimination trial.
Colorado City, Ariz. and Hildale, Utah are largely made up of followers of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Department of Justice sued the towns in 2012, accusing them of denying non-church members access to police protection, water and electricity. The sect’s leader, Warren Jeffs, is serving life in prison for sexually assaulting 12- and 15-year-old girls, whom he called his spiritual wives.
Joseph De Lopez, a former deputy superintendent for the Chicago Police Department hired to review policies of the Colorado City Marshal’s Office, told the jury the towns’ Marshal Office did not investigate reports that town members married underage girls.
“Not only should there be an Internal Affairs investigation if it involves an officer, but a criminal investigation,” De Lopez testified.
On Wednesday, the towns’ former Chief Marshal Helaman Barlow testified that the Marshal’s Office ignored claims of underage marriages.
“If it was a church marriage, I as a church member saw it as a valid marriage,” Barlow testified.
On Thursday, De Lopez said this was just one of the Marshal’s Office’s many “deficiencies” in investigating and documenting alleged crimes and failing to train its officers….
http://www.courthousenews.com/2016/02/05/expert-details-sloppy-police-work-of-mormon-towns.htm

Internet trolling: quarter of teenagers suffered online abuse last year
Survey of 13- to 18-year-olds reveals teenagers with disabilities and those from minority ethnic backgrounds are more likely to encounter cyberbullying
Four in five adolescents surveyed said they had recently seen or heard online hate.
Aisha Gani Monday 8 February 2016
One in four teenagers suffered hate incidents online last year, a figure described by experts as a “wake-up call” on the impact of internet trolling.

The survey of 13- to 18-year-olds found that 24% had been targeted due to their gender, sexual orientation, race, religion, disability or transgender identity. One in 25 said they were singled out for abuse all or most of the time.

Will Gardner, chief executive of the charity Childnet and director of the UK Safer Internet Centre, which published the study, said: “It is a wake-up call for all of us to play our part in helping create a better internet for all, to ensure that everyone can benefit from the opportunities that technology provides for building mutual respect and dialogue, facilitating rights, and empowering everyone to be able to express themselves and be themselves online – whoever they are.”

The survey also found four in five adolescents had seen or heard online hate during the previous 12 months. Researchers defined such abuse as offensive, mean or threatening, and either targeted directly at a person or group or generally shared online.

Teenagers with disabilities and those from African, Caribbean, Asian, Middle Eastern and other minority ethnic groups were more likely to encounter cyberbullying, the report concluded…..
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/feb/09/internet-trolling-teenagers-online-abuse-hate-cyberbullying

Keighley abuse: Twelve men jailed for sexually exploiting girl
8 February 2016
Twelve men who sexually exploited a vulnerable teenage girl in West Yorkshire have received jail sentences of up to 20 years.

Eleven were jailed at Bradford Crown Court after being convicted of raping the girl in Keighley from the age of 13.

Another man was sentenced for sexual activity with the same girl.

The trial heard how the teenager was repeatedly attacked over a period of 13 months, between 2011 and 2012….
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-leeds-35524340

Catholic church pays compensation over alleged abuse at UK school
Leslie Turner was paid £17,000 compensation after claiming two members of Christian Brothers abused him at school in Sunderland in 1960s
Jenny Kleeman and Helen Pidd
Leslie Turner: ‘The abuse was so common it became normal’
Wednesday 3 February 2016
The Catholic church continues to quietly pay out compensation to victims of alleged sex abuse at Catholic schools in Britain while refusing to accept liability.

Leslie Turner, a retired primary headteacher, was paid £17,000 in compensation by the Irish Christian Brothers in 2014, after claiming two members of the Catholic order sexually abused him at school in Sunderland in the 1960s.

Turner, now 66, has waived his anonymity in a film for the Guardian to allege he was molested from the age of 12 by two teachers at St Aidan’s Roman Catholic grammar school in Sunderland between 1961 and 1967. Both are long dead, but he sued after being diagnosed with delayed onset post-traumatic stress disorder in 2012 as a result of what he says he suffered as a child.

“After the abuse stopped was actually worse than when the abuse was taking place,” Turner told the Guardian. “I tried to become invisible. It never occurred to me to tell anybody. When the headteacher has been abusing you, who do you tell? I put it into a cupboard in my head and I shut the cupboard door.”

Turner is speaking out as the film Spotlight, is released in UK cinemas, which tells the story of the Boston Globe’s investigation into sexual abuse within the Catholic Church in Boston in 2002. The Globe’s investigation helped unveil a pattern of abuse by Catholic priests on a global scale…..
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/03/catholic-church-pays-compensation-over-alleged-abuse-at-uk-school

Catholic Church saves $62 million on sexual abuse claims, Priest warned police officer to drop investigation or lose job, child abuse hearing told, Lord Janner: Judge rules dementia sufferer is unfit to plead in child sex abuse trial

Catholic Church saves $62 million on sexual abuse claims
The Catholic Church avoided paying up to $62 million in compensation to sexual abuse victims by creating the controversial Melbourne Response program, which capped payments at $50,000 for each victim.
Internal documents also show church leaders ordered written records about sex abuse be “kept to a minimum” to avoid losing lawsuits, and hired one of the country’s best spin doctors in a bid to prepare for the scandal in the early 1990s….

In August 1996, Archbishop Pell discussed the idea of creating a special trust to “avoid an open-ended call on funding for counselling fees” for abuse victims, to only days later canvass suggestions of how the church could financially support three paedophile priests set to be released from prison.

Meetings also describe plans for multimillion-dollar property deals and commissioning a new painting of the archbishop, while senior leaders were also expressing concern about “being seen to apply the maximum penalty” against paedophile priests, the protection of church assets and their own exposure to liability in sexual abuse lawsuits…. http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/catholic-church-saves-62-million-on-sexual-abuse-claims-20151205-glgavf.html

Priest warned police officer to drop investigation or lose job, child abuse hearing told

Father Peter Taffe ‘told officer Denis Ryan he would be out of a job’ if he pursued an investigation into the Mildura parish priest Monsignor John Day

Australian Associated Press  Sunday 6 December 2015

A Victorian priest warned a police officer to drop his investigation into a colleague over child abuse allegations, an inquiry has heard.

Father Peter Taffe told the police officer he would be out of a job if he pursued an investigation into the Mildura parish priest Monsignor John Day, the child abuse royal commission was told.

Senior counsel assisting the commission, Gail Furness SC, said 140 people had made child sex abuse claims against priests and others in religious orders in the diocese of Ballarat since 1980. Ninety per cent of the claims were against seven priests, including 78 against Gerald Francis Ridsdale and 15 against Day.

Furness said a man had told Mildura assistant priest Taffe in January 1972 his son had been abused by Day. She said Taffe’s first words had been: “I thought he was over all this.”

A former Mildura police officer, Denis Ryan, had already been investigating complaints against Day, she said, and would tell the commission Taffe had warned him in December 1971: “Drop the inquiry into Monsignor Day or you’ll be out of a job.”

Ryan wrote to then Ballarat bishop Ronald Mulkearns setting out allegations from seven complainants. The inquiry was told Mulkearns had said he had been assured police were satisfied there was no substance to the charges, and it was impossible to move Day out of Mildura.

“Any such move would be tantamount to a public declaration that I consider him guilty,” he said….

Furness said Mulkearns had told another Mortlake victim’s mother: “How am I to take the word of a child over one of my priests?” http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/dec/07/priest-warned-police-officer-to-drop-investigation-or-lose-job-child-abuse-hearing-told

Lord Janner: Judge rules dementia sufferer is unfit to plead in child sex abuse trial
Court hearing on 87-year-old peer’s mental health is told former Labour grandee is suffering from ‘advanced and disabling’ dementia

By David Barrett, Home Affairs Correspondent
07 Dec 2015
Lord Janner has been declared unfit to plead in a criminal trial over a range of sex abuse charges dating back 50 years, a senior judge has ruled.

In a hearing at the Old Bailey on the 87-year-old’s mental health, Mr Justice Openshaw said the peer was suffering from “advanced and disabling” dementia.

He detailed reports from four leading psychiatrists and psychologists which had been commissioned by both prosecution and defence – all of which agreed the peer’s mental health was very poor. Janner did not attend the latest court hearing….

Janner is accused of 15 counts of indecent assault and seven counts of a separate sexual offence against a total of nine alleged victims in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.

Twenty-one of the offences relate to complainants who were aged 16 or under at the time…. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/12036837/Lord-Janner-Judge-rules-dementia-sufferer-is-unfit-to-plead-in-child-sex-abuse-trial.html

UK police 2,228 child abuse suspects, Catholic church knew it had abuse ‘time bombs’, child sex abuse inquiry hears

Operation Hydrant: UK police identify 2,228 child abuse suspects
1 December 2015

More than 2,200 suspects are being investigated by UK police probing historical child sex abuse allegations.  Figures from Operation Hydrant – which was set up by the National Police Chiefs’ Council – show the total has risen by almost 800 since May. It includes 302 people of “public prominence”, including 99 politicians and 147 from television, film or radio. Some 761 different institutions are now on the Hydrant database, including 288 schools and 204 children’s homes.

Operation Hydrant was set up last summer to oversee the investigation of allegations of “non-recent” child sex abuse within institutions or by people of public prominence. It does not conduct any investigations itself, but gathers information from other inquiries carried out by police forces in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Of the 2,228 suspects currently under investigation:
Some 286 are now dead, while 554 are classified as unknown or unidentified
Among those of public prominence, 39 come from the music industry and 17 from the world of sport
A total of 1,217 are alleged offenders who operated within institutions, including 86 religious institutions, 39 medical establishments and 25 prisons or young offenders institutes
Other institutions named include 22 sports venues, 10 community institutions, such as youth clubs, and 81 other institutions, such as guest houses….
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-34977255

Catholic church knew it had abuse ‘time bombs’, child sex abuse inquiry hears
‘The big time bomb was ticking away’ in Ballarat diocese, former Melbourne archdiocese vicar-general Bishop Peter Connors tells royal commission
Australian Associated Press Thursday 3 December 2015

The Catholic church knew it had child abuse “time bombs” ticking away in a number of Australian dioceses, an inquiry has heard.
A special issues committee meeting at the Australian Catholic Bishops conference in 1992 noted: “It was agreed that there are serious time bombs ticking away in a number of dioceses at the present time.”

That was the case in a number of dioceses, former Melbourne archdiocese vicar-general Bishop Peter Connors, who chaired the committee, told the child abuse royal commission.
It also included Melbourne’s Doveton parish, where a succession of paedophile priests were sent.

“There would certainly be other dioceses where that problem, of time bombs ticking away, existed,” Bishop Connors said.
“That would certainly be the case, I think particularly, in the diocese of Ballarat, the big time bomb was ticking away there.”
The meeting of special issues groups, set up to deal with allegations against priests, noted it was important the alleged offender be treated fairly.

Bishop Connors agreed with Gail Furness SC, senior counsel assisting the commission, who said there was little, if any, concern about the victims.
The commission heard there was a culture in the Catholic church of keeping abuse allegations secret.
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/dec/03/catholic-church-knew-it-had-abuse-time-bombs-child-sex-abuse-inquiry-hears

Spotlight Official Trailer #1 (2015) – Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton Movie HD, 7 life sentences handed to 2 mass murderers in KZN what appears to have been a witchcraft ritual

Spotlight Official Trailer #1 (2015) – Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton Movie HD

The true story of how the Boston Globe uncovered the massive scandal of child molestation and cover-up within the local Catholic Archdiocese, shaking the entire Catholic Church to its core.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56jw6tasomc

describes crimes

7 life sentences handed to 2 mass murderers in KZN
The pair hacked their family members to death in what appears to have been a witchcraft ritual.

Mia Lindeque October 30, 2015

JOHANNESBURG – Two people have been handed seven life sentences for killing eight family members in KwaZulu-Natal.

Last week, Thulani and Sibonelo Mncwabe killed their family members, including two young children and an elderly man, in a crime believed to involve witchcraft in Mabaleni on the south coast.

The two suspects pleaded guilty to all eight charges and were also given an additional 20 years each.

Hawks spokesperson Hangwani Mulaudzi say the accused, aged 26 and 28, hacked their family members to death in what appears to have been a witchcraft ritual.

He says the sentences will send out a strong message to other criminals practising witchcraft….
http://ewn.co.za/2015/10/29/Two-men-handed-7-life-sentences-for-hacking-KZN-family-to-death

Pope Francis says Chilean protests over alleged child abuse cover-up are ‘dumb’, ‘Open Secret’ Reveals Hollywood child abuse problem, Japan’s child abuse cases to record high

– Watch: Pope Francis says Chilean protests over alleged child abuse cover-up are ‘dumb’
– Calling Protesters in Chile ‘Dumb,’ Pope Francis Sets Off Uproar

– Controversial ‘Open Secret’ Reveals Hollywood Child Abuse Problem

– Poverty, isolation push Japan’s child abuse cases to record high

Watch: Pope Francis says Chilean protests over alleged child abuse cover-up are ‘dumb’
By Adam Taylor  October 8, 2015

Few global figures have enjoyed a more positive public image recently than Pope Francis, the remarkably popular leader of the Catholic Church. But a newly released video that appears to show the pope calling critics of the church’s actions in Chile “dumb” has prompted fresh protests in the Latin American country – and could also harm the pontiff’s reputation internationally.

The video, aired by a Chilean TV channel last week, was initially filmed at the Vatican in May. According to Catholic news Web site Crux, the video shows Jaime Coiro, a former spokesman for the Chilean Bishops Conference, greeting Francis in St Peter’s Square.

In the video, Francis talks about criticism that the Catholic church in Chile was facing at the time. The appointment of Bishop Juan Barros Madrid to the Osorno, Chile, diocese had drawn protests throughout the country due to accusations that Barros had helped cover up the sexual abuse of minors by his then-superior, the Rev. Fernando Karadima, and may have witnessed some of the abuse himself.

The Vatican found Karadima guilty of sexually abusing minors in 2011 and sentenced him to a “life of prayer and penitence.” While Barros spent more than 30 years working with Karadima, he has denied any cover-up, and the Vatican released a short statement offering a defense of the bishop’s appointment in March. The newly released video, however, shows Francis going much further – not only angrily defending Barros’s appointment, but seemingly insulting the intelligence of protesters.

In the footage, the pope tells a group of tourists that Osorno’s church has “lost its freedom, allowing politicians to fill people’s heads, judging a bishop without any evidence, a man who’s been a bishop for 20 years.” Francis goes on to say: “Think with your heads. Don’t let them lead you by the nose, all these fools who have stirred this thing up.”

The pope adds that “the only accusation against this bishop was dismissed by the court,” drawing out the syllables for emphasis. “Please, don’t lose your calm. Osorno is suffering, yes, but for being dumb,” he says in the video….

Notably, while the pope appears to say that the investigation into an alleged cover-up of Karadima’s abuses was closed, the New York Times notes that the investigation is, in fact, still ongoing. The pope’s reference to politicians in the video appears to be a reference to Chilean members of parliament who had signed a petition opposing Barros’s nomination.

The video of Francis’s comments was published online Friday and has sparked outrage against the Chilean Catholic Church, with renewed protests in St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Osorno over the weekend calling on the Vatican to remove Barros from his post….
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/10/08/watch-pope-francis-says-chilean-protests-over-alleged-child-abuse-cover-up-are-dumb/

Calling Protesters in Chile ‘Dumb,’ Pope Francis Sets Off Uproar
By PASCALE BONNEFOY OCT. 7, 2015

….In the video, Pope Francis asserted that the accusations against Bishop Barros were unfounded and that a Chilean court had dismissed such claims. However, a judicial investigation into the presumed negligence and cover-up of church officials regarding Father Karadima’s abuses is still in progress.

Three of Father Karadima’s victims filed a lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Church in 2012, demanding nearly $660,000 in compensation after a criminal investigation into abuses committed from 1980 to 1995 was dismissed in 2011 because the statute of limitations had expired.

One of the victims, Juan Carlos Cruz, contends that Bishop Barros was frequently present in Father Karadima’s bedroom when he and others were abused; threatened seminarians who dared denounce them; and destroyed letters reporting the abuses to the archbishop of Santiago at the time, Juan Francisco Fresno, when Bishop Barros was the archbishop’s personal secretary in the 1980s.

Bishop Barros is one of two dozen witnesses who the plaintiffs have requested be interrogated as part of the lawsuit.

“The pope’s statements are not surprising, but it is sad,” Mr. Cruz said. “The vision of a pope closer to abuse victims has been unmasked.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/08/world/americas/calling-protesters-in-chile-dumb-pope-francis-sets-off-uproar.html

Controversial ‘Open Secret’ Reveals Hollywood Child Abuse Problem  By David A. Patten    Thursday, 08 Oct 2015

When actress Ashley Judd recently revealed that an unnamed studio executive tried to “groom” her for sex by using his powerful position, Gabe Hoffman, a film producer and hedge-fund executive, was hardly surprised.

“The casting couch is almost as old as time,” he told Newsmax. But he adds, “I think the casting couch has just about run its course in our society. We don’t tolerate that stuff anymore. We shouldn’t.”

Hoffman is considered an authority on the subject because his documentary film “An Open Secret” reveals an even darker, unrelated predilection that he says plagues the entertainment industry: Sexual exploitation of child actors.

The film’s director, Amy Berg, was nominated for an Oscar for “Deliver Us From Evil,” her 2006 examination of sex abuse cases in the Roman Catholic Church.

Berg deftly wields all the narrative tools of the storyteller’s craft – rising action, suspense, plot twists, interludes, surprise endings – to create a documentary that holds together surprisingly well considering the abject subject matter. She offers a gut-wrenching, un-hyped account of the emotional carnage wreaked on children by industry predators.

The documentary introduces five erstwhile child actors identified only by their first names and last initials. Each story follows a predictable arc, how they were discovered, groomed, and ultimately used….

Many of the film’s sordid tales involve Marc Collins-Rector, the co-founder of the now-defunct Digital Entertainment Network, an attempt at online video streaming….

According to the film, Collins-Rector would invite high-profile entertainment mavens to join in sybaritic parties at an Encino, California, mansion. There, aspiring child actors would cavort about the pool and powerful adults – who held the power to realize or destroy their dreams of stardom – enticed them into the hot tub. Some of the children had not yet even reached their teens.

In 2004, Collins-Rector pleaded guilty to multiple counts of child sexual abuse. Among other heinous acts, he admitted to luring five minors across state lines for sex. At sentencing, he was credited with the time he’d spent in a Spanish jail prior to his extradition. He later fled the country after a court awarded a $4.5 million judgment to his accusers….

Sexual abuse involving children is hardly new. In 2011, actor Corey Feldman, who starred in the 1980s films “The Goonies” and “Stand By Me,” wrote a memoir, “Coreyography,” in which he stated he and his late co-star Corey Haim were sexually abused as children….
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/hollywood-open-secret-documentary/2015/10/08/id/695357/

Poverty, isolation push Japan’s child abuse cases to record high
Kyodo     Oct 8, 2015

Child welfare authorities dealt with nearly 90,000 child abuse cases in the fiscal year ending March, a government survey showed Thursday, with experts blaming the record-high figure on increased poverty and the isolation of some families.

Logging the largest-ever increase of 20.5 percent from the previous year’s 73,000, the preliminary survey by the health ministry showed the number of cases handled by 207 child consultation centers across the country in fiscal 2014 reached 88,931, up for the 24th consecutive year since the survey started in 1990.

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare attributed the rise to the widened scope of circumstances that can be reported as abuse following an August 2013 notice that instructed the centers to deal with siblings of abused children as they may also be suffering from psychological abuse.

The number of cases reported by police to the centers in which children witnessed abuse of a parent or other family member has also increased, it said….
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/10/08/national/social-issues/poverty-isolation-push-japans-child-abuse-cases-record-high/