Jehovah’s Witnesses: abuse, Sex Cult – Child Rape – Children of God Church, Priest Risdale 38 charges

– Inside the Jehovah’s Witnesses: A ‘perfect storm’ for abuse
“They love bomb you. They sell you this vision of a perfect community. It is anything but. It’s indoctrination. It’s a cult, it really is. But they convince you it’s a religion.”

–  Life after a sex cult: ‘If I’m not a member of this religion any more, then who am I?’
Children of God church “The report documented Berg’s proclivity for incest and witnesses testified that child rape was used as an excuse to “increase the tribe”, leading to many pregnancies in various communes.”

– Ridsdale’s fresh charges grow in number 
“More historical sex abuse charges have been laid against disgraced former Catholic priest Gerald Ridsdale. 38 charges, rape, buggery, indecent assault and assault offences against boys and girls”

Inside the Jehovah’s Witnesses: A ‘perfect storm’ for abuse
Rachel Browne March 10 2017

Then one morning a pair of Jehovah’s Witnesses knocked on the door to spread the word of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society. That was when Jodi’s nightmare began.

“These nice people were promising a community with no drugs, no alcohol and no crime – it sounded very appealing,” said Jodi, who asked that her name be withheld.

“They love bomb you. They sell you this vision of a perfect community. It is anything but. It’s indoctrination. It’s a cult, it really is. But they convince you it’s a religion.”

The Jehovah’s Witness church and its overarching body, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, came to the attention of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Sexual Abuse with a 2015 case study hearing more than 1000 allegations of paedophilia had been made against the organisation over 60 years yet not one complaint was reported to police.

This echoes Jodi’s experience. Now 35, she says she was abused by a church elder and his daughter when she was eight years old. When she was 13 she mustered up the courage to report the abuse to church authorities but was not believed and branded a liar. She left the church shortly after.

“They preach love but they don’t show love,” she said.

Another former member, Lara Kaput, describes the Jehovah’s Witnesses as “cruel”.

Ms Kaput, 44, was raised in a Jehovah’s Witness family in Victoria where close contact with people outside the church was discouraged, women were taught to obey men and the teachings of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society were unquestioned.

She left the Jehovah’s Witnesses when she was 19 and was shunned by the community. Over the past 25 years she’s had only sporadic contact with family members who are still involved in the church.

“You are ostracised from your entire family and friend network,” she said. “Prior to (leaving) they incorporated me as a regular family member. After that I was dead to them.”….

The commission has referred information about 514 alleged perpetrators within the Jehovah’s Witnesses to the police since the initial hearing….
http://www.smh.com.au/national/inside-the-jehovahs-witnesses-a-perfect-storm-for-abuse-20170309-guukur.html

Life after a sex cult: ‘If I’m not a member of this religion any more, then who am I?’
Michael Young grew up immersed in the Children of God church, which was labelled as a sect by the FBI and dogged by child abuse allegations
Sophia Tewa  Saturday 11 March 2017

Of his eight siblings, Michael Young was the most zealous street missionary. As a child growing up in Monterrey, Mexico, he preached up to 10 hours a day, three to four days each week. He spoke to strangers on the streets and often went door-to-door. He’d ask them, in broken Spanish, if they wished to go to heaven. If they said yes, he would pray for them. If they said no, he would ask for at least a donation to The Family International, a church formerly known as the sex cult The Children of God.

Young’s parents, devout American missionaries who moved to Mexico in 1998, told him that such work was his destiny and duty. The alternative was an afterlife spent in the slums of heaven, a place only slightly better than hell.

When he was eight years old, in 2000, Young’s family moved to Texas and started their missionary work anew in mini-malls and Walmart parking lots, handing out theological tracts about the imminent apocalypse that would soon wipe out the unbelievers.

Young says he was happy. “I was spiritual in a way that was kind of very obsessive and very determined,” he says.

But Young was unaware that his parents’ church was labelled as a sect by the FBI and hounded by child abuse allegations. In a 1974 report, The New York attorney general’s office had also called the Children of God a “cult”. The group’s practices drew investigations from the FBI and Interpol, which were on the hunt for its leader, David Berg. One anonymous informant spoke of rape, incarceration, kidnapping and incest inside the group….

The report documented Berg’s proclivity for incest and witnesses testified that child rape was used as an excuse to “increase the tribe”, leading to many pregnancies in various communes.

“A 14-year-old runaway who spent nine days at a COG commune testified that she was raped and because of her refusal to cooperate with the elders, was held in solitary confinement on no less than three separate occasions,” the report states.

The late actor River Phoenix, who grew up in the Children of God, told Details Magazine in 1991 that he was four when he first had sex while in the group….
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/11/children-of-god-church-sex-cult-texas-mexico-fbi

Ridsdale’s fresh charges grow in number   
Andi Yu – AAP on March 10, 2017

More historical sex abuse charges have been laid against disgraced former Catholic priest Gerald Ridsdale.

A prosecutor in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Friday said two new charges had been filed last week and this morning, adding to the original total of 36.

The 38th charge relates to the sexual penetration of a child under 10, the lawyer said.

Other charges include rape, buggery, indecent assault and assault offences against boys and girls across the state…..
https://au.news.yahoo.com/vic/a/34606087/ridsdale-faces-another-36-abuse-charges/#page1

Deepcut soldier ‘ordered to have sex with another squaddie before she died’ inquest hears, Rotherham child abuse trial: four men and two women found guilty, Former Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns apologises for his handling of abuse allegations

– Deepcut soldier ‘ordered to have sex with another squaddie before she died’ inquest hears
– Was girl soldier’s death covered up because she was raped on orders of Army top brass?
– Rotherham child abuse trial: four men and two women found guilty
– Child abuse royal commission: Former Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns apologises for his handling of abuse allegations

Deepcut soldier ‘ordered to have sex with another squaddie before she died’ inquest hears
A TEENAGED female soldier was ordered to have sex with another squaddie the night before she died, an inquest heard.
By Peter Henn Wed, Feb 24, 2016
Private Cheryl James, 18, was found with a fatal bullet wound in Deepcut barracks, Surrey, in November 1995.

She was one of four recruits to die at the army training camp over the space of seven years.

Fellow soldier Mark Beards told Woking Coroner’s Court that she had confided in him about the order and he had been “destroyed” by “carrying the guilt” of her death for 20 years.

But under cross-examination he was accused of being “a liar and a fantasist”.

He was also accused of assuming that Pte James was referring to sex the night before her death when she never used the word.

He told the inquest he bumped into Pte James at around 11.10pm and she told him she had been ordered by Sergeant Andrew Gavaghan to go into a room with Pte Ian Atkinson – known as Aki – to have sex.

He said: “I asked her what she was doing there and she said she had to meet Aki. I asked her why she had to meet Aki and she explained to me she had to go into the room with him.

“I asked her, ‘What do you mean?’. She said ‘I’ve got to do it’….
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/647229/Deepcut-soldier-Cheryl-James-inquest-ordered-to-have-sex

Was girl soldier’s death covered up because she was raped on orders of Army top brass?
THE death of a teenage soldier at a notorious army barracks where three other youngsters also died may have been covered up by the establishment because she was raped on the orders of her officers, it was claimed today.
By Nick Gutteridge  Mon, Jan 25, 2016

Police and army officials have conspired to keep the truth about the supposed suicide of 18-year-old Cheryl James from ever coming to light according to her family, who have fought a 20-year battle for justice.

But new evidence has now emerged suggesting that the young Private may have been ordered to sleep with a male colleague in the hours before her death by bullying officers who were “pimping out” female recruits at the infamous Deepcut barracks in Surrey.

The latest claims will rock the military and police establishment, both of whom have repeatedly insisted that her death was a suicide, even suggesting she may have killed herself because of complications with her love life….

But serious questions began to be asked several years later when it emerged that four young recruits had all died at the same barracks within a short space of time.

Detectives came under serious pressure to reopen their investigation after 17-year-old James Collinson was also found at the Deepcut base with a fatal gunshot wound in March 2002.

The calls became a clamour when it then emerged that there had been two more deaths at the notorious barracks – home to the Royal Logistics Corps – in the space of just seven years.

Private Sean Benton, 20, died a few months before Pte James, while 17-year-old Geoff Gray died in September 2001.

Surrey Police, which has been savagely criticised over its bungled investigations of the deaths, was then forced to admit that it had received almost 60 allegations of bullying and sexual assaults at the base in 1995 alone.

Her family are hoping that the truth will finally come out after a High Court judge quashed the verdict of her original inquest, with a fresh inquiry set to get under way next week.

And in a bombshell development a pre-inquest hearing held earlier this month was told how the young recruit, from Llangollen on the Welsh borders, had been subjected to “vile treatment”, sexual exploitation by senior ranks and may have been “sexually coerced or raped” the night before she was found dead….
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/637700/Deepcut-deaths-Private-Cheryl-James-inquest-claims-rape-army-officers

Rotherham child abuse trial: four men and two women found guilty
Gang including three brothers, led by Arshid Hussain, targeted 15 girls, one as young as 11
Lisa O’Carroll and Josh Halliday Wednesday 24 February 2016

Six men and women were found guilty of offences relating to the sexual exploitation of teenage girls in Rotherham, as it emerged that the conduct of more than 50 officers from South Yorkshire who had dealt with the victims is now under investigation.

A gang of three brothers, their uncle and two women were found guilty of 55 serious offences, some of which lay undetected for almost 20 years. They targeted 15 vulnerable girls, one as young as 11, and subjected them to brutal and degrading acts between 1987 and 2003 including rape, forced prostitution, indecent assault and false imprisonment.

Allegations by victims that those found guilty – Arshid, Basharat and Bannaras Hussain, their uncle Qurban Ali and their associates Karen MacGregor and Shelley Davies – were able to commit crimes for so long with apparent impunity are now the focus of two separate investigations into the police.

It can now be reported that the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has launched 55 separate investigations into how South Yorkshire police dealt with victims, in one of the biggest inquiries into potential neglect of duty and corruption in recent policing history.

The police watchdog said that 46 misconduct notices had already been served on 26 officers, and warned the figure could increase. It is understood that more than 50 officers are being investigated. Complaints cover “a range of allegations from a failure to act on reported child sexual exploitation to corruption by police officers,” it said….
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/feb/24/child-sex-abuse-rotherham-guilty-gang-hussain

Child abuse royal commission: Former Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns apologises for his handling of abuse allegations
By Margaret Paul and staff  2/25/16

Former Catholic bishop Ronald Mulkearns has told a royal commission he is not sure if he knew child abuse was a crime during his time in charge of the Ballarat diocese, but he knew it was wrong.

The former bishop made his much-anticipated appearance at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse via videolink from the nursing home in which he now lives.

Until now Bishop Mulkearns had been excused from giving evidence because he was too sick.

Asked if he referred paedophile Gerald Ridsdale for help because he knew he was abusing children, he said yes.

Bishop Mulkearns told the hearing he never asked priests directly if they were abusers but instead got reports from psychologists.

He conceded the only reason he sent priests off for treatment was because he believed they had been offending.

“I didn’t really know what to do or how to do it,” he said.

He apologised on Thursday for the way he handled complaints of abuse in his diocese….
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-25/royal-commission-former-ballarat-bishop-ronald-mulkearns-appears/7198260

What’s going to happen at first Bill Cosby criminal hearing?, UK: Cult Leader Sentenced to 23 Years for Abuse, Rape

What’s going to happen at first Bill Cosby criminal hearing?
Maria Puente, USA TODAY   February 1, 2016
Will the criminal sexual-assault charges against Bill Cosby ever go to trial?  A hint may come Tuesday in a courthouse in Montgomery County, Pa., outside Philadelphia.

Assuming no delay, Cosby faces his first hearing on criminal charges that he hopes to persuade a judge to dismiss.

And some legal analysts say Cosby may succeed.

“I feel that, unfortunately, the current prosecutor has overstepped his bounds,” says New York lawyer Jerry Reisman, who’s been following the case. “A former prosecutor made a representation on behalf of his office … that he would not prosecute (Cosby), so unless they can find some new circumstance, such as fraud, I feel that the case should be dismissed.”

If that happens, he says, the likelihood of Cosby being tried in this case is probably nil….
http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2016/02/01/whats-going-happen-first-bill-cosby-criminal-hearing/79526974/

UK: Cult Leader Sentenced to 23 Years for Abuse, Rape
By The Associated Press LONDON Jan 29, 2016

A cult leader was sentenced to 23 years in prison Friday for raping and sexually assaulting his female followers and keeping his daughter imprisoned in a secretive Maoist commune in London for three decades.

Prosecutors said 75-year-old Aravindan Balakrishnan, known as “Comrade Bala,” abused and brainwashed his followers into believing he had God-like powers, ensuring they were too scared to leave the tiny radical communist group he ran in south London.

His victims included two women and his daughter, 33-year-old Katy Morgan-Davies, who was born into the commune and was almost never allowed to go out in 30 years. Describing Balakrishnan as a “narcissist and a psychopath,” Morgan-Davies told British media he emulated people including Mao Zedong, Joseph Stalin and Saddam Hussein.

Sentencing Balakrishnan, Judge Deborah Taylor said his treatment of his daughter from her birth to the age of 26 “was a catalog of mental and physical abuse.”

“These are grave and serious crimes conducted over a long period of time and you have shown no remorse whatsoever,” she said.

Balakrishnan was convicted in December of rape, indecent assault, false imprisonment and cruelty to a child….
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/uk-cult-leader-sentenced-23-years-abuse-rape-36596744 

Rotherham victim’s sex abuse claims ‘dismissed by police officer’, Rotherham sex abuse trial: Arshid Hussain ‘had sex with child 100 times’

Rotherham victim’s sex abuse claims ‘dismissed by police officer’
Court hears that complainant, then aged 12, was accused of lying after telling officer about the abuse

Lisa O’Carroll Tuesday 15 December 2015

A police officer in Rotherham dismissed claims of child sexual abuse by a 12-year-old girl and told her she was lying, Sheffield crown court heard.

The complainant, who is now 31, reported the abuse she suffered to an officer after telling a staff member at the care home where she lived about being assaulted.

In an interview taped by police ahead of the trial and shown to the jury, she said the officer took her out of the home in a car to discuss the matter. He drove her down a country lane and told her she was making up the stories. The complainant said: “He ripped loads of paperwork up and said I was lying.”

He did not take a statement from her and she did not hear from any other police officers afterwards, the court heard. She said she did not know the officer’s name, but he was known by girls at the home as “Kimble the thimble”.

A second complainant in the trial said she had a baby after being raped by two of the defendants at a pub. The woman, now 36, claimed she started being abused, aged 11, at the hands of “Mad Ash”, a man the prosecution say is defendant Arshid Hussain….

Hussain denies having met the woman in person. The 39-year-old, of no fixed abode, denies one rape, five indecent assaults, one count of procuring a girl under 21 to have unlawful sexual intercourse with another, false imprisonment, three counts of indecency with a child, one count of procuring a woman under 21 to become a common prostitute, two assaults occasioning actual bodily harm, and one count of making threats to kill.

All seven defendants in the case deny all 52 counts including rape, indecent assault, conspiracy to rape, false imprisonment and procuring a woman for prostitution or sex with another….
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/dec/15/rotherham-victims-sex-abuse-claims-dismissed-police-officer

Rotherham sex abuse trial: Arshid Hussain ‘had sex with child 100 times’
From the section Sheffield & South Yorkshire   Wednesday 16 December 2015

An alleged victim of child sexual exploitation has said she was forced to have sex with Asian men against her will in houses, a park and churchyard.

The woman, who cannot be named, told Sheffield Crown Court she was given heroin in exchange for sex and beaten up when she tried to leave a house.

The woman said Arshid Hussain, one of seven defendants, had sex with her about 100 times from the age of 11.

All seven defendants deny the range of charges they face in court.

The woman said she was introduced by Mr Hussain to 10 or 11 other men for her to have sex with.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-35115874

Three chances to prosecute Labour peer Lord Janner for child abuse were missed, California court guts child abuse ruling against Jehovah’s Witnesses

Three chances to prosecute Labour peer Lord Janner for child abuse were missed: CPS admits mistakes were made but now it is too late because he has dementia

Lord Janner will not face prosecution despite facing credible evidence
Director of Public Prosecutions says decision comes with ‘deep regret’
Alison Saunders tells of botched investigations in 1991, 2002 and 2007
Former Labour MP allegedly preyed on boys in 1960s, 1970s and 1980s
By Chris Greenwood for the Daily Mail and Martin Robinson for MailOnline  16 April 2015
Lord Janner should have been charged with historic child sex offences on three occasions over 25 years and will now never be prosecuted because of the ‘severity’ of his dementia, the Crown Prosecution Service said today.

Alison Saunders, Director of Public Prosecutions, has expressed her ‘deep regret’ that the 86-year-old former Labour MP for Leicester West will not face trial because of botched investigations in 1991, 2002 and 2007.

The decision not to charge him with 22 alleged sex attacks on children has infuriated police and campaigners, who have called it ‘perverse’ and a ‘step backwards for justice’.

Leicestershire Police may appeal because they handed the CPS ‘credible evidence’, including videos, showing ‘this man carried out some of the most serious sexual crimes imaginable’….

More than a dozen people came forward to claim Lord Janner abused them during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, the CPS said.

Today they admitted there is enough evidence to prosecute the peer for 16 indecent assaults and six counts of buggery, but he is no longer fit to stand trial….

Lord Janner attended the House of Lords 15 times in November 2013 and 12 times in December 2013. Police searched his home on December 20, 2013 and he has not attended Parliament since….
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3041209/Labour-s-Janner-not-charged-alleged-child-abuse-Prosecutors-say-not-public-peer-86-trial-age-dementia.html

California court guts child abuse ruling against Jehovah’s Witnesses
By Trey Bundy April 14, 2015
Candace Conti drew worldwide attention in her fight against the Jehovah’s Witnesses when a jury awarded her $28 million in damages – the largest verdict for a single victim of child abuse against a religious organization in U.S. history.

The amount was later reduced to $15.6 million, including $8.6 million in punitive damages.

Now, three years later, an appeals court has eroded her courtroom victory even further by ruling that the leadership of the Jehovah’s Witnesses had no duty to warn congregants that a confessed child molester was one of their own. As a result, judges eliminated the punitive damages in the case. Conti still stands to receive $2.8 million.

The decision by the California Court of Appeal is the latest ruling in a rash of lawsuits aimed at Jehovah’s Witnesses policies directing elders to keep child abuse secret from their congregations and secular authorities.

Conti, who is no longer a Jehovah’s Witness, had sued her abuser, her former congregation in Fremont and the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York – the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ parent corporation – in 2011. She claimed that Watchtower policies allowed a Witness named Jonathan Kendrick to molest her repeatedly when she was 9 and 10 years old.

Kendrick had admitted to North Fremont congregation elders that he had sexually abused his stepdaughter. The elders informed the Watchtower of Kendrick’s confession in 1993, but in accordance with Watchtower policy did not notify police or warn the congregation. Soon after, Conti says, Kendrick began abusing her.

In their ruling Monday, the judges said forcing the leadership of Jehovah’s Witnesses to warn congregants about child abusers would be too burdensome….
http://www.revealnews.org/article/california-court-guts-child-abuse-ruling-against-jehovahs-witnesses/

Margaret Thatcher knew about paedophile MP Cyril Smith, awarded a knighthood to him

– Cabinet office in child abuse cover-up: MoS beats attempt by No10 to gag VIP file that shows Thatcher knew about paedophile MP Cyril Smith
– British MP slams ex PM Thatcher for pedophile cover-up
– Cyril Smith: Cabinet Office denies cover-up over files showing Margaret Thatcher knew of sex abuse claims against late MP

Cabinet office in child abuse cover-up: MoS beats attempt by No10 to gag VIP file that shows Thatcher knew about paedophile MP Cyril Smith

Downing Street tried to block release of files exposing scale of cover-up
Cabinet Office only caved in after being threatened with High Court Action
Papers expose how much Establishment knew about Cyril Smith’s abuse
Margaret Thatcher was told police had probed claims he abused teenagers
She was warned that handing him knighthood risked damaging ‘integrity of the honours system’ – but went ahead anyway

By Chris Hastings and Martin Beckford for The Mail on Sunday
8 March 2015

Downing Street cynically tried to prevent the release of damaging files exposing the scale of the cover-up over paedophile MP Cyril Smith.

The Cabinet Office repeatedly blocked The Mail on Sunday’s attempts to see the bombshell documents – and caved in only after being threatened with High Court action.

After the shocking year-long fight, we can reveal the content of the papers, which expose just how much the Establishment knew about the late politician’s sexual and physical abuse of young boys.

Nick Clegg and David Cameron, both Ministers in the Cabinet Office, have been accused of ‘colluding’ in the latest cover-up of evidence that could expose VIP paedophile rings.

The secrecy row will also focus attention on Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood, who has become known as ‘Sir Cover-Up’ after blocking the release of dozens of messages exchanged by Tony Blair and George W Bush ahead of the Iraq war.
Following The Mail on Sunday’s victory, it can be revealed for the first time that:

– Margaret Thatcher was personally told that police had investigated claims that Smith indecently assaulted teenage boys in the 1960s.

– Thatcher was explicitly warned that awarding a knighthood to the 29-stone Liberal MP risked damaging the ‘integrity of the honours system’, but went ahead anyway.

– A senior Whitehall mandarin took the ‘exceptional’ step of contacting the country’s top prosecutor and police to find out why Smith was never charged with abusing boys at a hostel he helped run….

Smith was knighted in 1988 as recognition of his service as a councillor, mayor and MP in Rochdale, Lancashire.

After his death at the age of 82 in 2010, Clegg said he was ‘deeply saddened’ by the loss and said everyone in Rochdale knew him ‘as a friend’.

But two years later claims emerged that he repeatedly spanked and sexually abused boys in care homes and hostels, but the authorities saw to it that he was never brought to justice….
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2984529/Cabinet-office-child-abuse-cover-MoS-beats-attempt-No10-gag-VIP-file-shows-Thatcher-knew-paedophile-MP-Cyril-Smith.html

British MP slams ex PM Thatcher for pedophile cover-up
March 08, 2015
Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was aware a Liberal MP was suspected of sexually abusing boys but “turned a blind eye” to it. She awarded a knighthood to Cyril Smith, secret documents, released after a yearlong fight for disclosure, reveal.

“There is no doubt about it now, from what we know, that she [Thatcher] turned a blind eye to people who were quite clearly pedophiles. That is absolutely clear,” said Labour MP Simon Danczuk, who exposed Cyril Smith’s abuse in Parliament.

Smith was investigated in 1970, 1988 and in 1999 on suspicion of “indecent assault against teenage boys” in the 1960s.

At the time, the authorities decided there was no reasonable prospect of conviction.

Later, Greater Manchester Police also admitted there had been “overwhelming evidence” Smith abused boys both physically and sexually.

This didn’t change Thatcher’s decision to knight Smith for his services as a counselor, mayor and MP in Rochdale, Lancashire….
http://rt.com/uk/238825-thatcher-ignored-mp-pedophile/

Cyril Smith: Cabinet Office denies cover-up over files showing Margaret Thatcher knew of sex abuse claims against late MP

Dossier on Smith’s knighthood shows the then-PM was aware of paedophile allegations against him – but he went before the Queen regardless

Adam Withnall   Sunday 08 March 2015

The Government has been accused of trying to suppress a dossier of secret files which reveal that Margaret Thatcher knew about child sex abuse allegations against the MP Cyril Smith – before he was knighted.

The documents, only made public this week after an intervention from the Information Commissioner, include an undated letter marked “secret” warning Ms Thatcher that there was “the risk that such an award could give rise to adverse criticism”.

Smith, who died in 2010, served as the Liberal and later Liberal Democrat MP for Rochdale between 1972 and 1992. He was accused of abusing eight boys in the late 1960s and, though he was not prosecuted at the time, police say procedural changes mean he would be today.

The Cabinet Office last night denied a “cover-up” after releasing the 19-page file following repeated demands from the Mail on Sunday, and said the case was “sensitive and complex”.

Among the letters relating to the decision to knight Smith in 1988, the warning letter from Political Honours Scrutiny Committee member Lord Shackleton spelled out to Ms Thatcher that police had investigated Smith in 1970 for “indecent assault against teenage boys”.

It said that that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had decided “there was no reasonable prospect of conviction”….
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/cyril-smith-cabinet-office-denies-coverup-over-files-showing-margaret-thatcher-knew-about-sex-abuse-claims-against-late-mp-10093829.html

Couple accused of abusing a child in ‘black magic’ case are found guilty of all counts

Couple accused of abusing a child in ‘black magic’ case are found guilty of all counts  Dec 22, 2014 By David Deans

Carolee Hickman, 64, indecently assaulted a schoolgirl and held her down while her husband Albert John Hickman, 65, raped her

A woman accused of using black magic to abuse a child, and her husband, who raped the child as she held her down, have been found guilty of all charges by a jury at Cardiff Crown Court.
Carolee Hickman, 64, was on trial for indecently assaulting a schoolgirl and holding the victim down while her husband Albert John Hickman, 65, raped her during the 1970s.

She had been accused of grooming and abusing the young schoolgirl when they lived in South Wales at the time, after petrifying her with black magic threats.
The couple, both of the Wheatlands, Baschurch, Shrewsbury, were found guilty on all counts….

“Carolee said she was a witch and would come and get me and would make my mother ill,” the victim said.
“She even said she could kill my mother if she wanted to.
“She had a knife with a jewelled handle kept in a wooden box with carvings on the top.
“She cut my hand and sucked the blood out of it.
“There were tarot cards, she used to tell our fortunes and she even had a black cape.”….

A large number of books on spells and the occult were found when officers arrested the grandmother and her husband at their home in Shropshire…..

Carolee Hickman told police they separated while he was serving 10 years (reduced to eight on appeal), and she five years for child sex offences, which they had been convicted of in 1982 in Northampton….
Mr Hickman was sentenced for five sex offences and Mrs Hickman for indecent assault and for aiding and abetting another man to rape a 14 year old girl as part of a devil worship ritual.
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/couple-accused-abusing-child-black-8331997

Woman tells court of black magic fears that led to abuse and rape

“The court heard the couple were jailed at Northampton Crown Court in November 1982. Mr Hickman was sentenced to five sex offences and she for indecent assault and for aiding and abetting another man to rape a 14-year-old girl as part of a devil worship ritual.”

‘She cut my hand and sucked the blood out of it,’ woman tells court of black magic fears that led to abuse and rape    
Dec 16, 2014   By Liz Keen

Albert Hickman, 65 and his wife Carolee Hickman have pleaded not guilty to historic charges of rape and sexual abuse dating back 40 years….

A schoolgirl terrified by threats of black magic, made by a woman claiming to be a witch has told a jury how she was sexually abused and raped over and over again.

The alleged victim, now in her 50s, said the horror of what she believes happened to her while at comprehensive school had been buried for 40 years before memories resurfaced.

She told Cardiff Crown Court she went to Carolee Hickman’s Bridgend home while mitching school with friends, aged 11, but was soon being terrified into submission.

“Carolee said she was a witch and would come and get me and would make my mother ill – she even said she could kill my mother if she wanted to,” the alleged victim said.

“She had a knife with a jewelled handle kept in a wooden box with carvings on the top….

“There were tarot cards she used to tell our fortunes and she even had a black cape.”….

Former RAF man Albert Hickman, 65, pleads not guilty to rape….

She said the abuse came back to her bit by bit when she started having counselling following a series of family tragedies, including close bereavements and cancer.

Her counsellor said alarm bells rang for her when the woman talked of a dark cloud hanging over her, not just since the illnesses and deaths as you would expect, but for 40 years.

“I asked about her childhood but she could remember very little”, the counsellor said

“I would ask her to try to think back – it was her choice – but she was so frightened she didn’t want to look there.

“She knew she lived under a black cloud but was petrified of finding out why.”

Eventually she did think back, it was said and the first returning memories were of black magic, pornography and a woman.

“She remembered darkness and suffocating because a man was top of her and a woman was holding her down….
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/threats-black-magic-led-daily-8299644

Woman accused of using black magic to abuse a child laughed out loud when police asked if she was a witch, court hears Dec 17, 2014  By Liz Keen

Carolee Hickman, 64, denies indecently assaulting a schoolgirl in the 1970s and said she has never seen the girl before….

Carolee Hickman, 64, denies indecently assaulting a schoolgirl and of holding the girl down while her husband Albert John Hickman, 65, raped her in the 1970s….

The court heard she told investigators: “I’ve got books on spells but I wouldn’t know how to do them – I wouldn’t know where to start.

“I had tarot cards too but I didn’t understand them either and a cloak ……and a wand which I bought on eBay. It was just a bit of stick -a right rip off.”

Detective Constable Joanne Lewis told the jury she had found a large number of books on spells and the occult when she arrested the grandmother and her husband, who denies the rape allegation, at home in Shropshire….

She accepted she has an interest in witchcraft but said that had not developed until she left Bridgend and was married for the second time following her divorce from Hickman in 1985.

The court heard the couple were jailed at Northampton Crown Court in November 1982. Mr Hickman was sentenced to five sex offences and she for indecent assault and for aiding and abetting another man to rape a 14-year-old girl as part of a devil worship ritual.

Pornographic material and items used in black magic were seized from that other man’s home….
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/woman-accused-using-black-magic-8306843

Briton Simon Harris guilty of child sex abuse in Kenya, Is This German Scouting Ritual Child Abuse?

Briton Simon Harris guilty of child sex abuse in Kenya  16 December 2014

The BBC’s Phil Mackie: “Harris would drive into the town of Gilgil and offer street children food and money to go home with him”

A British charity boss who preyed on vulnerable Kenyan street children has been found guilty of sexual abuse.

Simon Harris was convicted of eight charges of indecent and sexual assault on youngsters in Gilgil, and four of possessing indecent images of children.

Birmingham Crown Court heard he would lure boys to his house in Kenya by offering them food, shelter and money.

Harris, 55, of Pudleston, near Leominster, Herefordshire was cleared of 10 further charges, including rape….

Before the trial, Harris also admitted six offences of indecent assault against three boys aged between 13 and 14, when he was a teacher at Shebbear College, Devon in the 1980s….

Harris had faced 23 charges in total, including 18 allegations relating to assaults….

The offences in Kenya were committed while Harris was running a gap year charity he set up in the East African country, in the 1990s….

Harris was head of the gap-year charity VAE, which placed British volunteers in Kenyan schools….

It also emerged during the trial Harris had spent 15 months in a British jail for possession of indecent images of children following a 2009 conviction….
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-30495511

Is This German Scouting Ritual Child Abuse?
Though the country’s major scouting associations say the practice of “Pflocken,” in which children are tied down, isn’t acceptable, the timeworn practice continues.
Markus C. Schulte von Drach (2014-12-16)

MUNICH — It’s spring 2014 at a boy scout camp in southern Germany. Younger boys and adolescents are cavorting about, practicing, learning and generally having fun. Then word spreads that a boy named Mark is about to be targeted for “Pflocken,” so the boys gather to watch what’s about to happen. Mark, who’s about 11, has done something wrong, “something bad,” and he’s going to be punished.

Group leaders set him down on a table and bind his arms and legs, which are spread out. Gummy snake candy is then stuffed into his mouth. “Almost everybody thought it was funny,” say some of the kids who were there. But some boys didn’t find it funny at all. They may have worried they would face similar treatment one day.

The practice of so-called “Pflocken” usually happens outdoors. Online descriptions and photos confirm that. Four tent pegs are hammered into the ground, and the boy is tied to them with rope. The bound child doesn’t know what awaits him, so uncertainty and fear are part of the equation. He’s then tickled, body-marked with felt-tip pens and sometimes doused with water. There are stories on the Internet of kids being smeared with honey or leftover food.

How often this goes on is unclear. The Cologne-based Zartbitter association, whose mission is to protect boys and girls from abuse, reported in 2011 that groups used Pflocken either as punishment or as part of an induction ritual….

The three largest scout associations in Germany tell us that the practice is very well-known. In fact, according to Kerstin Fuchs, federal chair of the Catholic Saint George German Scout Association (DPSG), it used to be a timeworn tradition. But the associations all express surprise that the ritual is still happening….
http://www.worldcrunch.com/culture-society/is-this-german-scouting-ritual-child-abuse-/pflocken-bullying-torture-scouts-punishment-violence-controversy/c3s17675/#.VJEHRy7A3uA

Sandusky’s Son Speaks About Abusive Childhood, Jimmy Savile’s former chauffeur ‘Ugli’ Ray Teret found guilty of seven rapes and 11 indecent assaults

Sandusky’s Son Speaks About Abusive Childhood
December 5, 2014   By Jim Melwert

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — One of the most prominent victims from one of the most prominent sexual abuse cases in recent memory was a keynote speaker today at a conference on investigating child sex abuse.

Matt Sandusky, the adopted son of Jerry Sandusky, and also one his many victims, shared his story with a group of hundreds — prosecutors, investigators, social workers, and therapists….

He also talked about how hard it was for him to coming forward, knowing he’d lose his adoptive family, and the anger directed at him and his children.
http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2014/12/05/sanduskys-son-speaks-on-abusive-childhood/

Sandusky’s adopted son speaks out on abusive childhood
AP DEC 05, 2014

PHILADELPHIA — Jerry Sandusky’s adopted son Matt spoke out Friday about his two abusive fathers and called sexual abuse the ”single worst health epidemic that children face.”

Matt Sandusky, speaking to about 200 people at a conference in Philadelphia on child abuse intervention, said the public must work harder to end child sexual abuse.

”I will work my butt off to create a society that is safe and caring for survivors of child sexual abuse,” he said. ” … This is the single worst health epidemic that children face.”

Sandusky, who founded a nonprofit to raise awareness about child sexual abuse, spoke of his introduction to abuse at a young age….

Matt Sandusky met Jerry Sandusky through the former Penn State assistant football coach’s youth charity. He said perpetrators ”groom” their family and victims….
http://www.foxsports.com/college-football/story/jerry-sandusky-abuse-scandal-adopted-son-speaks-out-on-childhood-abuse-120514

Jimmy Savile’s former chauffeur ‘Ugli’ Ray Teret found guilty of seven rapes and 11 indecent assaults on star-struck girls as young as 13

Ex-Radio Caroline DJ was mentored by Savile in early days of his career
Court heard he followed paedophile TV star around ‘like a shadow’
He denied 18 counts of rape, two sexual assaults and 12 indecent assaults
Jury convict him of 7 rapes and 11 indecent assaults after deliberations
11 victims aged 13 to 15 and offences took place between 1962 and 1978
Teret played down links to Savile who he once described as ‘a genius’
But prosecutors said the pair preyed on young girl they met at disco
Police officer in case said Teret was a ‘devious, manipulative predator’
His lawyer urges judge not to sentence him for the rest of his life

By Richard Spillett 5 December 2014
A DJ friend of Jimmy Savile has been convicted of a catalogue of historical sex offences against ‘star-struck’ girls as young as 13.

Ex-Radio Caroline DJ Ray Teret, 73, used his celebrity status in the Manchester club scene in the 1960s and 1970s to prey on many of his victims.

Teret – known as ‘Ugli Ray’ – was mentored by Savile in the early days of his career and was described as following him around ‘like a shadow’, Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court heard.

Teret, of Altrincham, Greater Manchester, told the jury he had no interest in underage girls, despite a previous conviction for sexual intercourse with a 15-year-old girl in 1999, an offence he continues to deny.

He denied 18 rapes, two other serious sexual assaults, one attempted rape, 12 indecent assaults and one count of indecency with a child.

After more 60 hours of deliberations, he was convicted of seven rapes and 11 indecent assaults. He was cleared of the other charges….
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2862279/Jimmy-Savile-s-former-chauffeur-Ray-Teret-guilty-string-rapes-sex-attacks-children-1960s-70s.html