Elizabeth Loftus and the Hoffman Report, Jehovah’s Witnesses failed to report 1,000 alleged perpetrators, ‘I’m No Longer Afraid’: 35 Women Tell Their Stories About Being Assaulted by Bill Cosby, and the Culture That Wouldn’t Listen

– Elizabeth Loftus and the Hoffman Report
– Jehovah’s Witnesses failed to report 1,000 alleged perpetrators, child sex abuse royal commission hears
– Bill Cosby: 35 Women Accuse the Actor of Assault on New York Magazine Cover
– ‘‘I’m No Longer Afraid’: 35 Women Tell Their Stories About Being Assaulted by Bill Cosby, and the Culture That Wouldn’t Listen
– ‘Call Me Lucky’: A Documentary Of Friendship, Childhood Abuse And Survival – Barry Crimmins and Bobcat Goldthwait

Elizabeth Loftus and the Hoffman Report
July 22nd, 2015

The Hoffman Report, an independent investigation into the American Psychological Association’s involvement with government-sponsored torture programs, was released earlier this month.  As James Risen reported in the New York Times, the 542-page report concluded that the APA’s ethics office “prioritized the protection of psychologists — even those who might have engaged in unethical behavior — above the protection of the public.” The focus of the report is the involvement of the APA in sanctioning interrogation techniques that included torture. But the Report also contains an important footnote about the lax attitude towards ethics in the APA office long before the post-9/11 era:

The Ethics Office was not insulated from outside influence and the nature of the process allowed for manipulation at times. Koocher told Sidley that Raymond Fowler manipulated the adjudication process when there was a complaint filed against Elizabeth Loftus, a high-profile psychologist who did work on false memories. When Fowler found out there was an ethics complaint pending against Loftus, he reached out to her and told her she should resign her membership before a case could be formally opened against her. He later denied that he had done so and appointed one of his deputies to “investigate” how Loftus had found out about the complaint.

INDEPENDENT REVIEW RELATING TO APA ETHICS GUIDELINES, NATIONAL SECURITY INTERROGATIONS, AND TORTURE, July 2, 2015 (p. 485)

This footnote provides the only explanation that has ever made sense for why Professor Loftus resigned from the APA by fax, shortly after two ethics complaints had been filed against her. The complaints concerned Loftus misrepresenting the facts about two successful recovered-memory lawsuits. Her resignation made the complaints moot under rules that have since been changed to close that loophole….

Loftus testimony in Turner v. Honker, July 10, 1996 (p. 109)

Q: Is it your testimony that prior to your resignation you had no idea from any source that complaints had been filed?

A: I had absolutely no idea

Testimony in Seignious v. Fair, January 22, 1998 (p. 151)

Q: At the time that you resigned, Dr. Loftus, were there two ethics complaints pending against you?

A. There was no ethics investigation going on, but there were rumors two people had filed complaints.

Q. How did you learn about these rumors?

A. I read about it in a newspaper column in February or March of whenever it was, 1996.

Q. And was that the very first time that you learned that there were rumors that people had filed ethics complaints against you?

A. Yes.

Testimony in Liano v. Diocese of Phoenix, December 21, 2006 (p. 68)

Q: And I’m trying to understand. With regard to the [complaints], did you resign from that organization, the American Psychological Association, while those complaints were pending?

A. I don’t know. I resigned in January of ’96, but I didn’t know anything about any complaints.
http://blogs.brown.edu/recoveredmemory/2015/07/22/loftus-hoffman-report/

Jehovah’s Witnesses failed to report 1,000 alleged perpetrators, child sex abuse royal commission hears

By Nicole Chettle  July 27, 2015
More than 1,000 members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses have been identified by the church as perpetrators of child sexual abuse since 1950 but not one was reported to police, an inquiry has heard.

The Sydney hearing was told the church adopted a scriptural response to abuse, which it abhorred, and had files relating to 1,006 alleged perpetrators, dating back to 1950.

The process required witnesses to prove abuse took place, and no allegations were ever reported to police.

A 47-year-old woman, known to the inquiry as BCB, said she was sexually assaulted as a teenager by her family friend and church elder, Bill Neill, at Narrogin, south-east of Perth in the 1980s.

The commission heard Neill is now deceased.

BCB described feeling ashamed to give evidence because she still identifies as a Jehovah’s Witness despite suffering a nervous breakdown and depression as a result of the abuse.

“I would like the Jehovah’s Witnesses to take allegations of child abuse more seriously and report them to the police,” she said.

“I also think that those victims that are brave enough to report to elders should be properly supported and protected.

“I found the experience of reporting my abuse to a room full of men, including the man who had abused me, very distressing.”….

Elder admits destroying notes from meeting

A Jehovah’s Witness elder, Max Horley, said he destroyed notes from a meeting about the assault of BCB….

Church practice not to report sexual abuse

Justice McLellan then asked him if he was aware of his obligation to tell the authorities if a serious allegation of sexual assault was reported to him.

“If we have any hesitation we contact the branch for advice on how we should proceed legally and scripturally,” Mr Horley said.

“We don’t report it to the police. I think we encourage them to do that. But we give them the assistance to do that.”….
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-07-27/jehovahs-witnesses-child-sexual-abuse-royal-commission/6649340

Bill Cosby: 35 Women Accuse the Actor of Assault on New York Magazine Cover
Jul 27, 2015 By LESLEY MESSER via Good Morning America
Dozens of women have publicly accused Bill Cosby of assault since late last year.
In its new issue, New York magazine photographed 35 of them for a stunning cover story.
“The minute you see something from a bird’s eye view, you start to understand the scope,” explained the magazine’s director of photography, Jody Quon. “Once we organized it and put the women in chronological order based on the year of their alleged assaults, you started to see the only thing they had in common was Bill Cosby, and that’s when we thought, ‘This could be a really powerful photo essay.'”….

Through his attorneys, Cosby, 78, has denied the allegations of sexual assault and rape and has never been charged with a crime. Martin Singer, one of Bill Cosby’s attorneys, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News regarding the magazine cover.

Many of the women in the New York magazine portfolio, including model Beverly Johnson, have said over the past few months that they were drugged by the comedian in decades past. Others, including model Janice Dickinson, also alleged rape….
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/bill-cosby-35-women-accuse-actor-assault-york/story?id=32710622

‘I’m No Longer Afraid’: 35 Women Tell Their Stories About Being Assaulted by Bill Cosby, and the Culture That Wouldn’t Listen By Noreen Malone and Portfolio By  Amanda Demme July 26, 2015

More has changed in the past few years for women who allege rape than in all the decades since the women’s movement began. Consider the evidence of October 2014, when an audience member at a Hannibal Buress show in Philadelphia uploaded a clip of the comedian talking about Bill Cosby: “He gets on TV, ‘Pull your pants up, black people … I can talk down to you because I had a successful sitcom.’ Yeah, but you rape women, Bill Cosby, so turn the crazy down a couple notches … I guess I want to just at least make it weird for you to watch Cosby Show reruns. Dude’s image, for the most part, it’s fucking public Teflon image. I’ve done this bit onstage and people think I’m making it up … That shit is upsetting.” The bit went viral swiftly, with irreversible, calamitous consequences for Cosby’s reputation.

Perhaps the most shocking thing wasn’t that Buress had called Cosby a rapist; it was that the world had actually heard him. A decade earlier, 14 women had accused Cosby of rape. In 2005, a former basketball star named Andrea Constand, who met Cosby when she was working in the athletic department at Temple University, where he served on the board of trustees, alleged to authorities that he had drugged her to a state of semi-consciousness and then groped and digitally penetrated her. After her allegations were made public, a California lawyer named Tamara Green appeared on the Today show and said that, 30 years earlier, Cosby had drugged and assaulted her as well. Eventually, 12 Jane Does signed up to tell their own stories of being assaulted by Cosby in support of Constand’s case. Several of them eventually made their names public. But they were met, mostly, with skepticism, threats, and attacks on their character….

As Cosby allegedly told some of his victims: No one would believe you. So why speak up? But among younger women, and particularly online, there is a strong sense now that speaking up is the only thing to do, that a woman claiming her own victimhood is more powerful than any other weapon in the fight against rape….
http://nymag.com/thecut/2015/07/bill-cosbys-accusers-speak-out.html

‘Call Me Lucky’: A Documentary Of Friendship, Childhood Abuse And Survival
July 27, 2015  Barry Crimmins mentored Bobcat Goldthwait when they were up-and-coming comics in the ’80s. A film directed by Goldthwait details their relationship — and the sexual abuse Crimmins suffered as a child….

GROSS: This is FRESH AIR, and if you’re just joining us, I have two guests. Bobcat Goldthwait is a comic and a director and has made a new documentary about his good friend Barry Crimmins, who was also a comic who founded two important comedy clubs in Boston. And this documentary is about his contribution to the comedy scene, but it also is about his childhood when he was abused as a child and then later as an adult tried to out child pornographers and did a pretty successful job at getting some of them put behind bars….
http://www.npr.org/2015/07/27/426734424/call-me-lucky-a-documentary-of-friendship-childhood-abuse-and-survival

Josh Duggar – 19 Kids And Counting, satanic rape trial delay, Melbourne rapist jailed for torture, Fran’s Day Care/Keller Case, Priest convicted more than 100 charges of sexual abuse

– More Advertisers Drop ’19 Kids And Counting’ In Wake Of Child Molestation Scandal
– Broken copiers delay ‘satanic rape’ trial
– Violent Melbourne rapist jailed for torture of Dutch backpacker, 21, he kept as sex slave for six weeks

– Fran’s Day Care/Keller Case
throws out 1992 convictions, court declines to find innocence in case

– I was abused as a child: disgraced priest Gerald Ridsdale gives evidence at sex abuse royal commission in Ballarat
convicted of more than 100 charges of sexual abuse
says he worked with no restrictions at any of the parishes he was moved to amid numerous abuse allegations.

More Advertisers Drop ’19 Kids And Counting’ In Wake Of Child Molestation Scandal (UPDATE)
The Huffington Post  By Stephanie Marcus 05/27/2015

UPDATE: On Wednesday, TMZ reported that Walgreens, Jimmy Dean, Pure Leaf Iced Tea, Ace Hardware, David’s Bridal, ConAgra Foods, Party City and Behr have all removed their ads from the show, while CVS, H&R Block, Ricola and Keurig all said they have no plans of advertising with the series should TLC decide to keep “19 Kids and Counting” on the air.

EARLIER: It’s been four days since Josh Duggar confirmed tabloid reports that he was investigated for child molestation. Since then, TLC has merely temporarily pulled his family’s reality show “19 Kids and Counting” from its schedule.

As backlash against the family continues to grow, TMZ reports that more advertisers have pulled their ads from the show. Following the lead of General Mills last week, Payless ShoeSource and Choice Hotels confirmed to TMZ that they will not be running ads during the reality series, should it air….
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/26/advertisers-drop-19-kids-and-counting_n_7444344.html

Broken copiers delay ‘satanic rape’ trial
May 26 2015 By Shain Germaner

A boy was raped allegedly in a “satanic ritual “at the Full Gospel Church of God in Witfield, Boksburg.
Johannesburg – The court proceedings of four people including a pastor, accused of raping a child in an alleged satanic ritual, has been postponed because of a pair of broken photocopiers.

The child’s paternal grandparents, uncle and the 54-year-old pastor were arrested in February after an SAPS Occult Related Crimes Unit investigation.

Police suspect the group brought the then 7-year-old to the Full Gospel Church of God in Witfield, Boksburg, some time in 2013. The four – clad in robes and chanting – allegedly forced the boy to fondle their genitals before the uncle raped the child….
http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/broken-copiers-delay-satanic-rape-trial-1.1863379

Violent Melbourne rapist jailed for torture of Dutch backpacker, 21, he kept as sex slave for six weeks
Lucy Clarke-Billings Tuesday 26 May 2015

A sadistic drug addict who kept a Dutch backpacker captive in a hotel room where he violently raped and beat her has been jailed for 17 years.

Alfio Anthony Granata carved a cross into the forehead of his victim, then 21, with a knife and told her she was marked for death during the six week ordeal in a Melbourne hotel room in 2012.

The 47-year-old pleaded guilty to nine counts of rape and charges of theft, threats to kill and intentionally causing serious injury that left his victim with 54 bruises and abrasions….

Granata conducted a ritual that involved putting a photograph of the victim into an envelope along with her hair, nail clippings and blood, telling her the act symbolised her being no more….
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/violent-melbourne-rapist-jailed-for-torture-of-dutch-backpacker-21-he-kept-as-sex-slave-for-six-weeks-10275254.html

Fran’s Day Care/Keller Case
State’s highest criminal court throws out 1992 convictions of sexual assault at Austin day care.
Court declines, however, to find Dan and Fran Keller innocent in case involving claims of satanic abuse.

A unanimous Court of Criminal Appeals instead overturned their convictions based on false testimony by an emergency room doctor whose hospital examination had provided the only physical evidence of sexual assault during the Kellers’ joint trial. Dr. Michael Mouw later admitted that inexperience led him to misidentify normally occurring conditions as evidence of sexual abuse in a 3-year-old girl.

The nine judges did not provide an explanation for why they rejected the Kellers’ innocence claim except to say their decision was based on the findings of the trial judge “and this court’s independent review of the record.”  However, in a concurring opinion, Judge Cheryl Johnson said she would have found both Kellers innocent….
(Quotes above from Austin-American Statesman news article.)
https://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/articles/frans-day-care/

I was abused as a child: disgraced priest Gerald Ridsdale gives evidence at sex abuse royal commission in Ballarat
May 28, 2015 Jane Lee and Rania Spooner

A paedophile priest who was convicted of more than 100 charges of sexual abuse against children over about 30 years began offending before he was ordained and says he worked with no restrictions at any of the parishes he was moved to amid numerous abuse allegations.

Gerald Ridsdale, 81, told a royal commission on Wednesday he had spent his life feeling “uncomfortable” around adults, keeping secrets and in fear of being discovered as a paedophile. He also said he had been sexually abused as a child himself, and had had a three-year relationship while in prison.

The first time he abused a child was at a camp for disadvantaged children while he was still in training to become a priest at a seminary in Werribee.

Within a year of his ordination in 1961, the Catholic Church received its first complaint about Ridsdale abusing children. Then-Bishop James O’Collins threatened to send Ridsdale “off the mission” if he offended again, which meant he would no longer work as a priest.

Ms Furness asked if this threat played on his mind as he moved to different parishes and abused children. Ridsdale, who was also abused by a cousin and an uncle when he was younger than 12, said: “It could have.”

He repeatedly denied having to comply with certain conditions when he was moved to different parishes, despite parishioners’ complaints of his abusive behaviour.

“I’ve never had any restrictions or conditions put on me,” he said….
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/i-was-abused-as-a-child-disgraced-priest-gerald-ridsdale-gives-evidence-at-sex-abuse-royal-commission-in-ballarat-20150527-ghai91.html

Priest abused every young boy at regional Victorian school, inquiry hears, – Rabbi sentenced to six and a half years prison term for voyeurism, Reduced Child Abuse Sentence Causes Uproar in Argentina

Child abuse royal commission: Priest abused every young boy at regional Victorian school, inquiry hears
By court reporter Peta Carlyon  5/12/15

A notorious paedophile priest abused every boy at a regional Victorian school between the age of 10 and 16, the child sex abuse inquiry has heard.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is holding long-awaited public hearings in Ballarat to examine historical abuse suffered by children at a number of schools in the regional centre, at the hands of Catholic clergy and other members of the Church.

Some of Australia’s most notorious abusers were part of a paedophile ring operating in and around Ballarat for years, including Gerald Ridsdale, Robert Best and Edward Dowlan.

In her opening address, Senior Counsel Assisting the Commission, Gail Furness SC, outlined the extent of Ridsdale’s offending.

She said the inquiry would hear evidence of Ridsdale’s time at the Mortlake parish during the early 1980s, including comments from the priest who took over from Ridsdale.

“Father Dennehy told the Catholic church’s insurance investigator that he thought every male child between the ages of 10 years and 16 years, who were at the school, had been molested by Ridsdale,” she said.

Ms Furness said Ridsdale was a “prolific offender” during his time at Mortlake….

Ridsdale is serving an eight-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to 30 child sex offences in 2014.

It is the fourth time he has been jailed after three previous stints in prison for more than 100 other offences….
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-19/child-abuse-inquiry-begins-ballarat-hearings/6479902

Rabbi sentenced to six and a half years prison term for voyeurism
May 18, 2015 By Mike McDaniel, News Reporter
This is a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Bernard “Barry” Freundel, 63, of Washington D.C., a rabbi who had worked for a Jewish congregation in Washington, D.C., was sentenced today to a prison term of six years and six months on 52 counts of voyeurism stemming from a series of incidents between 2009 and 2014 in which he secretly took video recordings of women preparing for a Jewish ritual bath….

The National Capital Mikvah has two changing/showering rooms connected to the room with the ritual bath.  On numerous occasions between early 2009 and October 2014, the defendant installed and maintained electronic recording devices in the larger of the two changing/showering rooms.  Freundel did so for the sole purpose of secretly and surreptitiously recording women who were using the bathroom and shower; these women were totally and partially undressed before and/or after showering.  The women recorded did not know they were being recorded and did not consent to being recorded…..

In addition to the 52 recordings that were the subject of the plea, computer forensic examinations revealed that Freundel secretly and surreptitiously recorded approximately 100 additional women totally or partially undressed before and/or after showering in the large bathroom at the National Capital Mikvah between 2009 and September 2014.  These women did not know that they were being recorded and did not consent to being recorded….
http://www.wdam.com/story/29090052/rabbi-sentenced-to-six-and-a-half-years-prison-term-for-voyeurism

Reduced Child Abuse Sentence Causes Uproar in Argentina
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — May 18, 2015
Associated Press

Two Argentine judges are under fire for reducing the sentence of a convicted child abuser on the grounds that his 6-year-old victim had suffered earlier abuse and therefore had already been traumatized.

In the newly publicized 2014 ruling, the judges cut the sentence of Mario Tolosa, a sports club vice president, from six years to 38 months. They ruled that his acts should not be considered “gravely outrageous” in legal terms because the boy already “was making a precocious choice” of his sexuality, apparently a reference to homosexuality.

Other attorneys criticized the decision and the Argentine Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Trans has demanded the judges be removed from the bench for a ruling it said placed a 6-year-old victim “in the position of a suspect.”

One of the two judges, Horacio Piombo, defended the ruling Monday in interviews with Radio La Red and the television station Todo Noticias, saying that before Tolosa molested him, the child already had suffered “the initiation by his father into the worst of worlds, leading him to depravation.”

He said that “as a result of that experience with the father, the child had showed “signs of a transvestite conduct, of conduct we had to take into account.”….

Interior Minister Florencio Randazzo, who is running for the presidency, said via Twitter that the ruling was “an embarrassment.”

“It’s repugnant to say that the presumed sexual orientation of an abused six-year-old boy is a reason to reduce the sentence of the abuser.”
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/reduced-child-abuse-sentence-uproar-argentina-31129194

Child sex abuse inquiry: Rockhampton priest ‘raped me well over 100 times’, Victims give evidence at Royal Commission into abuse at Queensland orphanage, Cruel treatment at Lisburn’s Lissue House

– Child sex abuse inquiry: Rockhampton priest ‘raped me well over 100 times’, witness says
– Victims give evidence at Royal Commission into abuse at Queensland orphanage
– Childhood abuse drove me to prostitution
Carrickfergus man tells of the cruel treatment at Lisburn’s Lissue House which drove him to become a rent boy in London.

Child sex abuse inquiry: Rockhampton priest ‘raped me well over 100 times’, witness says
By William Rollo and Marlina Whop  Apirl 14, 2015

A witness at a child sex abuse inquiry says she was raped “well over 100 times” by a priest at St Joseph’s Neerkol Orphanage Rockhampton in central Queensland.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard the treatment of children at the orphanage was “vicious and sadistic”, while an earlier inquiry found hundreds of children were sexually abused, beaten and forced into hard labour there.

The inquiry has begun hearings into how the Sisters of Mercy, the Rockhampton diocese and the state government responded to complaints made by former residents of St Joseph’s Neerkol Orphanage.

The orphanage has already been the subject of several police and government investigations, and a 1999 inquiry led by former Queensland governor Leneen Forde.

After the so-called Forde Inquiry, the Queensland government at the time offered ex gratia payments of up to $40,000 to people as long as they dropped other legal action against the state.

Over the next two weeks, the royal commission will hear evidence from 18 witnesses, with 13 being former residents of the orphanage, who say they were abused by priests, workers, and nuns there from 1940 to 1975…. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-04-14/child-sex-abuse-inquiry-neerkol-orphanage-rockhampton/6391002

Victims give evidence at Royal Commission into abuse at Queensland orphanage
Michael Madigan, AAP  The Courier-Mail    April 15, 2015

….A FORMER resident of an infamous central Queensland orphanage says she tried to blow the whistle on sexual abuse she suffered while in care but was ignored by authorities.

A royal commission sitting in Rockhampton has heard that sadistic punishments and sexual abuse were rife at St Joseph’s Neerkol Orphanage, which was run by the Sisters of Mercy from 1885 and 1978.

Former resident Diane Carpenter, 62, told the second day of a public hearing that while at Neerkol in Rockhampton she was sexually abused by a priest called Father Michael Hayes and by a member of a foster family who took her in during holidays….

A CATHOLIC priest is alleged to have hypnotised a 12-year-girl with a silver fob watch before raping her, while another forced his victim to “confess her sin of impurity” after each attack.

In some of the more sinister evidence to come before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, two women yesterday told of a widespread climate of paedophilia mixed with religious piety in the Rockhampton Catholic community in the 1960s and ’70s.

Public floggings with a horse whip of runaway boys and ritual humiliation of bed-wetters, forced to stand in the communal dining room with their wet sheets on their heads, were alleged to be part of an often-sadistic climate at the Neerkol Orphanage, presided over by the Sisters of Mercy.

A 67-year-old woman told of being raped and attacked up to 100 times by local priest Father Reg Durham, the attacks continuing even as she trained to be a nun…. http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/victims-give-evidence-at-royal-commission-into-abuse-at-queensland-orphanage/story-fnihsrf2-1227304003352  

Childhood abuse drove me to prostitution
Carrickfergus man tells of the cruel treatment at Lisburn’s Lissue House which drove him to become a rent boy in London.

By Lisa Smyth – 15 April 2015
A local man has told how he turned to booze and became a rent boy as a result of the horrendous abuse he suffered as a child. Carrickfergus man Chris Donnelly is a former resident of one of the facilities currently being examined by the Historical Abuse Inquiry….
“Lissue House was a hospital for children with mental problems but my only problem was that I had been bullied.”

Mr Donnelly said official records of his time at the hospital show he was living in constant fear of beatings by staff and other residents.

“I was constantly looking over my shoulder and the records prove that,” he said.

“There are so many examples of beatings, getting kicked or slapped just became a normal way of life…. http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sunday-life/childhood-abuse-drove-me-to-prostitution-31144906.html

Former Knox head admits he impeded child abuse investigation on purpose, Oxford child abuse report’s key findings, Pastor held over ‘satanic sex abuse’

– Former Knox head admits he impeded child abuse investigation on purpose
– Former Knox Grammar headmaster Ian Paterson’s admissions rock Royal Commission  GLOWING REFERENCES FOR OFFENDERS
– Oxford child abuse report’s key findings  Up to 370 girls may have been the victims of child sexual exploitation
– Pastor held over ‘satanic sex abuse’
– Four alleged rapists, molesters granted bail

Former Knox head admits he impeded child abuse investigation on purpose
Ian Paterson told police investigating paedophile teachers at the school he was not aware of any complaints, which he admits was a lie, royal commission hears   Bridie Jabour and agencies
Tuesday 3 March 2015

The former headmaster of Knox Grammar school has admitted deliberately impeding a police investigation into paedophile teachers working at the school.

Ian Paterson was approached by Inspector Elizabeth Cullen from the child protection enforcement agency about complaints of child sex abuse at the school in 1996. Paterson told Cullen he was not aware of any complaints, which he has admitted was a lie.

He made the admission in his second day of evidence at the royal commission into institutional responses to child abuse.

He also directed Cullen to files he knew would contain no information. It was not until 2009 that teachers from Knox were charged with child sex abuse offences which dated back to the 1980s.

In reply to counsel advising the royal commission, David Lloyd, Paterson agreed he knew this would impede the investigation.

Paterson told the inquiry on Tuesday he did not believe a student who complained a teacher touched him inappropriately in the 1980s because the student was a “drama boy”.

He also admitted to not contacting police after another student had his genitals groped by a man in a balaclava – suspected to be a teacher – while the boy was in his bed in one of the boarding houses.

Paterson said he did not report either incident to police because it did not occur to him and he was not aware groping was a crime.

He began his evidence with a statement apologising to the victims of child sex abuse at the school, which he was the headmaster of from 1969 to 1998. During that time there are multiple allegations of child sex abuse by multiple teachers with charges laid against some teachers in 2009.
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/mar/04/former-knox-head-admits-impeded-child-abuse-investigation-purpose

Former Knox Grammar headmaster Ian Paterson’s admissions rock Royal Commission
March 04, 2015
THE former headmaster of Knox Grammar has addressed allegations he groped a teenage girl at a school musical production in 1989.

Lucy Perry, the CEO of a global women’s health charity has told a child sex abuse inquiry Ian Paterson cupped her bottom and put his hand near her genitals during rehearsals for a joint school production of Guys and Dolls.

Dr Paterson said on Wednesday it was “absolutely not” true that he had inappropriately touched the then 15-year-old girl.

Giving evidence at the inquiry, Dr Paterson earlier admitted deliberately impeding a police investigation into pedophile teachers working at the school.

Fronting the royal commission into child sex abuse, Ian Paterson said on Wednesday that when a police inspector from the child protection unit approached him in 1996 about six teachers at Knox about whom there had been complaints, he did not give her full information….

The admission follows evidence given yesterday, when the man who was the principal over three decades of sex abuse at the prestigious Sydney school said he didn’t know touching was a crime and “wasn’t aware” that touching, groping, and cases of sexual molestation reported to him were a matter for the police.

Appearing before the Royal Commission into Child Sex Abuse, former Knox Grammar headmaster Ian Paterson confronted claims he had covered up sex abuse over his 30 years at the school’s helm from 1969 to 1998….

When a boy complained in 1989 that teacher Damien Vance had groped and propositioned him Dr Paterson told the 15-year-old to take time out — go to the library and think about the allegations.

When pressed by David Lloyd, counsel assisting the royal commission, as to why he did not tell police Dr Paterson said: “Because the boy was a drama boy”….

Dr Paterson didn’t report the incident to police of the Department of Family and Community services (then DOCS). He said it never crossed his mind.

He denied covering up the attack for the sake of the school’s reputation, but had not considered “touching” a crime.

“I’m not aware that was a matter for the police or a crime.”

GLOWING REFERENCES FOR OFFENDERS

In 1991 Vance was given a “strong” reference by Dr Paterson. The reference allowed Vance to register with the Victorian Department of Education as a permanent teacher.

Dr Paterson was questioned about another incident, where a balaclava-wearing man hid under a boy’s dormitory bed and groped a 14-year-old student.

He had not considered this a “very grave sexual assault” and defended not calling the police.

The man was believed by students to be teacher Chris Fotis, the school’s boarding master at the time.

Fotis was later asked to resign over a separate incident when he was caught masturbating in a car outside the school, but didn’t leave without a glowing reference from Dr Paterson….

Fotis, a Knox old boy, was hired without any reference check. It later emerged he had two sex assault convictions….
http://www.news.com.au/national/courts-law/former-knox-grammar-headmaster-ian-patersons-admissions-rock-royal-commission/story-fns0kb3z-1227247304556

Oxford child abuse report’s key findings  3 March 2015
Up to 370 girls may have been the victims of child sexual exploitation (CSE) across the county over the past 15 years.

It comes after a gang of men were jailed in 2013 for abusing six girls in Oxford between 2004 and 2012.

Here are the key findings of the report by the Oxfordshire Safeguarding Children Board (OSCB).

The report found no evidence of wilful professional neglect or misconduct by police or social services but said there a “worrying lack of curiosity” about what was happening to the girls.

It said the issue of child sexual exploitation was not widely understood and officials failed to notice the signs of the abuse over a number of years.

Some of the girls were abused using objects such as knives and baseball bats while others were bitten, scratched, beaten or burnt.

The report said much of the extreme abuse was not escalated to senior managers but should have been.

In response to the question, “Could CSE have been identified or prevented earlier?” report author, Dr Alan Bedford, said: “The simple answer is yes.”

Professional work was not good enough and the failure to recognise the signs of CSE, and the fact that cases were seen in isolation, meant it continued for longer than could have been the case….

The language used by professionals indicated they saw the girls as the cause of their extreme behaviour instead of as victims and they received much less sympathy as a result, the report said.

“The child victims and their families feel very let down,” wrote Dr Bedford. “Their accounts of how they perceived professional work are disturbing and chastening.”….
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-31708492

Pastor held over ‘satanic sex abuse’
March 3 2015 By Shain Germaner

Johannesburg – A suspected satanic ritual at a Boksburg church is at the centre of a case in which a 9-year-old boy was allegedly raped and molested by his grandparents, uncle and pastor.

The case was originally not pursued in 2013, when the boy was younger.

However, the SAPS’s Occult-Related Crime Unit was later brought in to investigate, culminating in the arrest of all four alleged abusers last month.

….Lieutenant-Colonel Hendrik de Jager said interviews with the child had revealed that over a period – possibly of several years – the group had allegedly raped and molested the boy multiple times.

On one occasion, the grandparents and uncle had allegedly taken the child to their place of worship, the Full Gospel Church of God in Witfield, Boksburg, where the pastor was based.

The four adults donned masks and red robes and constructed a circle of red stones, surrounding the child while they prayed in strange tongues.

They gave the child something to drink, while the pastor and uncle took off their clothes and began having sex.

The child was asked to touch the private parts of each of the adults while they, in turn, fondled him.

De Jager said the child was then told to take off his clothes.

The uncle then stood behind him and penetrated him – though it was not clear if this was done with an object.

The lieutenant-colonel told the court that the granting of bail to the four accused would be detrimental to the child’s mental health, as there had been numerous threats against the boy and his parents.

De Jager said a man who identified himself as a relative had phoned him to get off the case and threatened to strangle the child and his mother.

The parents had also reported that the uncle’s wife had driven past their house screaming: “We’re going to get you!”

He said the reason the boy was particularly frightened of the grandfather was that the elderly man had pointed a gun at the child and threatened to kill him if he spoke about the abuse.

De Jager said that, based on information from the child, police were able to find the grandfather’s firearm – further proof of the alleged threat.

Defence lawyer Henk Strydom insisted that his four clients would deny all the allegations, and that they wished to prove their innocence in court.

He insisted that the State’s case was weak, as the medical reports taken in 2013 had indicated there were no signs of abuse.

Strydom said police had found no evidence of any satanic rituals going on at the church. No red robes or masks were ever found.

De Jager said the lapse in time between the laying of the charge and now meant much of the evidence could have been hidden….
http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/pastor-held-over-satanic-sex-abuse-1.1825989

Four alleged rapists, molesters granted bail
The magistrate granted bail, saying the case against the four accused wasn’t strong enough.

Masego Rahlaga | March 3, 2015

JOHANNESBURG – Four men accused of raping and molesting a nine-year-old boy at a church in Boksburg were granted bail in the Germiston Magistrates Court.

The boy’s grandparents, his uncle and a priest have been implicated and appeared in court on Tuesday afternoon.

The magistrate granted bail, insisting the case against the accused was not strong enough and gave the state time to investigate further.

The suspected satanic ritual allegedly happened at the Full Gospel Church of God in Boksburg.

The case was originally opened in 2013, but not pursued until the police’s occult-unit stepped in.

It was revealed in court on Monday that the abuse occurred over a period of several years and that the child and his parents had been threatened multiple times by the alleged perpetrators.

The four are expected back in court on 17 March….
http://ewn.co.za/2015/03/03/Alleged-rapists-molesters-granted-bail-in-Boksburg

 

Investigation Claims Jehovah Witnesses’ Watchtower Is Hiding Child Sexual Abuse Claims, Yeshivah abuse victim says scholarship was removed after he reported rape, Royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse, Rabbi pleads guilty to taping nude women at ritual bath

Investigation Claims Jehovah Witnesses’ Watchtower Is Hiding Child Sexual Abuse Claims
The Huffington Post By Kira Brekke   02/18/2015

Evelyn Selimaj, 30, left, of East Haven and her sister Sybelle Almodovar, 35, of North Guilford hold a photograph of themselves together with their brother Ferdinand Almodovar that was taken about the time that the three siblings say they began to be sexually abused by a ministerial servant who acted as a church leader in their congregation. They were child members of the New Haven East Spanish Jehovah’s Witnesses congregation. In October 2014 in New Haven, Connecticut, their attorneys filed ch

A new report out of the Center for Investigative Reporting claims that the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ parent organization in the United States has systematically hidden child sexual abuse cases for more than 25 years.

Trey Bundy, the Reveal journalist behind the report, explained to HuffPost Live on Tuesday that the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York has issued detailed memos since 1989 mandating spiritual leaders to immediately report any allegations of child abuse to the Watchtower’s legal department before the police.

“Essentially what they say is, ‘You don’t need to call police unless state law requires you to, and we’ll determine if that’s the case.’ They say not to warn other members of the congregation if you have a child abuser in your congregation, that’s confidential information,” Bundy told host Alyona Minkovski. “And they also … lay out a very sort of convoluted process for determining whether or not you’re even going to take child abuse seriously.”

But in the “many times” Jehovah’s Witnesses have been sued in civil court by alleged victims of abuse, Bundy explained, the freedom of religion has been invoked to protect them….

In a statement to Bundy in his article, Watchtower representatives defended the organization’s practices regarding abuse.

Watchtower officials say they instruct their members to obey state laws. Their policy memos direct elders who hear of alleged child abuse to “contact the Society’s Legal Department immediately” to learn whether the laws in their states require them to notify police….
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/18/jehovahs-witness-child-sex-abuse_n_6705852.html

Yeshivah abuse victim says scholarship was removed after he reported rape
Victim of jailed abuser David Cyprys says principal Rabbi Abraham Glick cancelled the award after telling him of incidents, royal commission hears
Yeshiva college
Rabbi Pinchus Feldman did not alert police when the alleged abuser said he might leave the country.

Melissa Davey Monday 9 February 2015

A child sex abuse victim who was repeatedly raped by a staff member of an Orthodox Jewish school said he was stripped of his scholarship when he told the principal what happened.

The victim, identified only as AVR, said a security guard at the Yeshivah centre and college in Melbourne, David Cyprys, raped him multiple times.

Cyprys was convicted of those offences in 2013, and is in jail….

His mother immediately flew to Melbourne see him, and together they reported the abuse to the principal of the school, Rabbi Abraham Glick, and the director, Rabbi David Groner, who is now dead.

“Rabbi Glick said my scholarship had been cancelled from that time,” AVR said. “I feel Rabbi Glick and Yeshivah did not want me there any more. They did not offer help or counselling. No one at Yeshivah would speak to us or help us. Even our own family members would not help us, and we had a lot of trouble getting back to the airport.”….

Cyprys was “a serial abuser of children”, the commission heard last Monday. AVR said his mother had stopped treatment for her cancer when she came to Melbourne to rescue him from Cyprys, and that she passed away a few years later, in 1995….

Last week, other victims told the commission how they were ignored by senior religious leaders within the orthodox Yeshivah community after reporting their abuse, and of being verbally abused and ostracised….
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/feb/09/yeshivah-abuse-victim-says-scholarship-was-removed-after-he-reported

Royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse
Latest news on Australia’s royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse
February 2015
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/royal-commission-into-institutional-responses-to-child-sexual-abuse

Rabbi pleads guilty to taping nude women at ritual bath
February 19, 2015 By JESSICA GRESKO

WASHINGTON (AP) — A prominent Orthodox rabbi acknowledged Thursday that for years he videotaped women in a changing room of a Jewish ritual bath, ultimately recording approximately 150 nude women.

Barry Freundel pleaded guilty to 52 counts of voyeurism during a hearing at D.C. Superior Court. Each count is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail.

Freundel’s attorney, Jeffrey Harris, acknowledged after the hearing that it was unlikely that his client would get a 52-year sentence but declined to say what sentence he would seek at a hearing set for May 15. Harris said his client was taking responsibility for his actions and was looking to move on with his life….

Freundel, 63, was a rabbi at the Kesher Israel synagogue in Washington for more than 25 years before his arrest in October on voyeurism charges. As part of the plea agreement Freundel entered into Thursday, he acknowledged that starting in 2009 he set up hidden recording devices in a changing and showering area of The National Capital Mikvah, a ritual cleansing bath affiliated with Kesher Israel. He acknowledged he secretly videotaped women who were partially or totally undressed before or after they showered.
http://helenair.com/news/national/rabbi-pleads-guilty-to-taping-nude-women-at-ritual-bath/article_0e282e91-f2cf-5966-9ccc-183bde2797f6.html

Rotherham abuse: Researcher’s warning ‘ignored in 2002’, Child abuse royal commission: Rabbi Yosef Feldman resigns as director of Yeshiva centre

Rotherham abuse: Researcher’s warning ‘ignored in 2002’
By Alison Holt Social Affairs Correspondent, BBC News 9 February 2015

A former Home Office researcher says a bullying culture at Rotherham Council led to her warnings of child sexual exploitation being suppressed in 2002, years before action was finally taken.

A report this month by government official Louise Casey concluded the council was not “fit for purpose”.

The way many in the authority denied a 2014 finding children were exploited between 1997 and 2013 was criticised.

The council says it is investigating researcher Adele Gladman’s claims.

At the time of the claims, Ms Gladman was undertaking research for a Home Office pilot. But she found her findings about the scale of sexual exploitation in Rotherham were also met with denial….
Ms Gladman was based at Rotherham Council when she carried out the work for the Home Office.

She describes being subjected to bullying and intimidation after her research found a small number of men, mainly of Pakistani heritage, were sexually exploiting a significant number of young people.

She says the council sent her on race awareness training and effectively suppressed her report.

“I had every aspect of my professionalism questioned,” she said.

“I had every aspect of my work questioned. I had data removed over a weekend so that I couldn’t substantiate my findings. Fortunately I had made copies.”

She says the bullying she faced went beyond the local authority and remembers a police officer approaching her outside her office.

“He and a colleague said words along the lines of ‘Wouldn’t it be a shame if these perpetrators found out where you and your family lived’.

“And I took that as a direct threat to my personal safety. The message was very clear.”….
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-31327781

Child abuse royal commission: Rabbi Yosef Feldman resigns as director of Yeshiva centre
Tue 10 Feb 2015

Rabbi Feldman called for leniency for paedophiles who had been treated and had not offended for decades during his testimony. (ABC News)

The director of the ultra-orthodox Jewish Yeshiva centre in Sydney has resigned after last week telling a royal commission hearing he did not know it was a crime for an adult to touch a child’s genitals.

Rabbi Yosef Feldman’s evidence at a Melbourne hearing of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was widely criticised by Australia’s broader Jewish community.

In a statement, Rabbi Feldman apologised for the comments he made to the royal commission and said he would step down from all responsibilities as the director on the board of management at Yeshiva….

During the royal commission hearing, Rabbi Feldman said not all abuse cases should be referred to police and that paedophiles should be granted leniency.

“I would be asking for more leniency on people who have shown that they haven’t offended in the last 20 years or decades ago, and have psychological analyses that this is the case,” he said on Monday….

Vic Alhadeff from the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies said Rabbi Feldman was unfit to be a leader in the Jewish community.

“The remarks which have come to light are repugnant to Jewish values. They are not representative of the Jewish community,” he said….
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-11/rabbi-yosef-feldman-resigns-after-royal-commission-evidence/6085654

Cardinal George Pell to give evidence at child sex abuse inquiry, Child sexual abuse royal commission: O’Callaghan advised abuse victims on strength of cases

“But victims were told if they chose to go to police, they were no longer eligible for compensation”

Cardinal George Pell to give evidence at child sex abuse inquiry
Pell was archbishop of Melbourne when the church set up the Melbourne Response compensation scheme

Australian Associated Press
theguardian.com, Wednesday 20 August 2014

Cardinal George Pell’s role in setting up a Catholic Church compensation scheme for victims of pedophile priests will be scrutinised on Thursday at the child abuse royal commission.

Pell was archbishop of Melbourne in 1996 when the Melbourne archdiocese decided to respond to growing allegations of child sex abuse by its clergy. The church considered creating a legal entity that could be sued by victims, but designed the Melbourne Response compensation scheme instead.

Cardinal Pell told the royal commission earlier this year he believed the church should now create an entity that could be sued.

A Victorian parliamentary inquiry last year recommended the Catholic Church be incorporated so it could be sued….
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/21/cardinal-george-pell-to-give-evidence-at-child-sex-abuse-inquiry

Child sexual abuse royal commission: O’Callaghan advised abuse victims on strength of cases
By court reporter Peta Carlyon  20 August 2014

The man in charge of the Catholic Church’s so-called Melbourne Response to allegations of child abuse has rejected suggestions he failed to encourage victims to go to police.

Peter O’Callaghan QC has been dealing with complainants and deciding whether they are eligible for compensation since the scheme began in 1996.

He was repeatedly questioned about the legal integrity of his decision-making at today’s hearing of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Mr O’Callaghan has been a Queen’s Counsel for 40 years and said the Melbourne Response was based in canon law and “natural justice”.

He said when there was a dispute with a claim he would take on a role similar to a magistrate in a criminal case.

He was again asked repeatedly why he did not report cases of abuse to Victoria Police and why he took it upon himself to advise victims on the potential strength of their cases….

Yesterday he told the commission he had made more than 330 adverse findings against priests within the Melbourne archdiocese since the complaint’s procedure began.

The church has paid out more than $17 million to abuse victims through the scheme.

But victims were told if they chose to go to police, they were no longer eligible for compensation….
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-20/abuse-victims-advised-on-strength-of-their-cases-by-church/5684036

Child sex abuse royal commission speaks to parents of children allegedly abused in Victorian state care, British Police Search Property of Cliff Richard Over Sex Abuse Claim

Child sex abuse royal commission speaks to parents of children allegedly abused in Victorian state care
By the national reporting team’s Dan Oakes
15 Aug 2014

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has interviewed parents of children who were allegedly sexually and physically abused while in state care in Victoria….

Parents have called for the royal commission to hold public hearings over abuse in Victoria’s out-of-home care system, such as those already held regarding the Catholic Church, Salvation Army, Swimming Australia and after-school care operated by the YMCA.

The public hearings have exposed failings that led to the sexual abuse of children in the care of those institutions….

Public hearings about the Catholic Church’s “Melbourne response” to child abuse will be conducted for two weeks beginning on Monday.

The development comes after revelations in recent months by the ABC that children in residential care units have been targeted by paedophile gangs, and have been subjected to horrific sexual and physical abuse by older children.

Last month, a judgement handed down in a Victorian court savaged the Department of Human Services over its treatment of two young siblings who were allegedly raped by older children in residential care and witnessed the sexual and physical abuse of other children….
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-15/commission-speaks-to-parents-of-children-abused-in-state-care/5671688

British Police Search Property of Cliff Richard Over Sex Abuse Claim
By KATRIN BENNHOLD AUG. 14, 2014
LONDON — Another prominent British public figure has been caught up in allegations of pedophilia.

On Thursday, the police searched a property belonging to Cliff Richard, one of Britain’s most successful recording artists, as part of an investigation into a claim “of a sexual nature.” The allegation, which dates to the 1980s, involves a boy who was younger than 16 at the time, a police statement said.

The claim relates to an alleged sexual assault at a 1985 faith rally in Sheffield where Billy Graham appeared, the BBC and The Guardian reported. The police did not say whether the search of Mr. Richard’s house made him a suspect or a witness or neither.

No arrests have been made and Mr. Richard, 73, who is currently out of the country, issued his own statement, calling the claim “completely false.”….

Leading the coverage was the explosive revelation in 2012 that Jimmy Savile, a former children’s television host with the name recognition of Johnny Carson, had raped and sexually assaulted scores of children. Mr. Savile, a BBC staple and friend of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, used his status and charity work to gain access to vulnerable children in schools and even hospitals. He died in 2011 at 84.

Since then, other well-known personalities have been accused or convicted of sexual offenses involving children, among them Rolf Harris, once one of Britain’s most popular television entertainers, who last month was sentenced to five years and nine months in prison for a range of sexual offenses committed decades ago against girls as young as 8. Others who have been convicted include Max Clifford, 71, Britain’s best-known publicist; and Stuart Hall, 84, a former broadcaster for the BBC.

The political establishment, too, has been in the spotlight, both for sexual misconduct and for apparently covering it up.

Cyril Smith, a once-respected member of Parliament who died in 2010, was accused of abusing boys in a children’s home in his constituency….
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/15/international-home/cliff-richard-britain-sex-abuse-scandal.html

Harrowing tales at abuse royal commission

Harrowing tales at abuse royal commission
By Australian Associated Press
29 June 2014

Forty years later in 2006 the man giving evidence read an article by Tommy Campion, another former resident of the North Coast Children’s Home….

In the 1980s he had been diagnosed with depression and attempted suicide several times. He now had leukaemia. In broken voice he told of beatings that left him scarred; of being left at a table for ten hours because he could not eat the food. If he threw up he would be made to eat the vomit.

A priest who seemed kind made him lie naked while he performed a pseudo-religious ritual that involved molesting him sexually….

His life has been no life just like many among the thousands of people who are coming forward to tell their stories – often for the first time….

Children of abuse survivors are learning for the first time why their mum or dad could never hug them. A landscape of broken lives, failed relationships, drug use, anger, suicides, bravery and extraordinary honesty while people struggle still for happiness is being painted by these witnesses.

Preparing for and giving evidence is a renewed trauma and the commission always has counsellors on hand to help them through.

Institutions, the Christian and Marist brothers, the Salvation Army, Catholic and Anglican dioceses, the YMCA, Scouts Australia, state run child-protection agencies and police forces across the country are trying to explain how it happened on their watch.

When a Salvation Army witness started to say how different standards of child discipline in the 1960s and `70s might explain why boys were beaten until they bled in homes in NSW and Queensland, commission chair Justice Peter McClellan interrupted to remind her she was talking about criminal assaults.

Brand protection, systemic failures, wilful ignorances, whether it be in the YMCA, the Scouts or the Catholic Church are being uncovered daily at these hearings.

The Catholic and Anglican churches moved abusers when complaints were made.

They kept no records that can now be produced.

In the case of the Marist Brothers, a man who was jailed for 12 years in 2006 was put on a plane to a clinic for sex-offending priests in Canada three days after the order knew police were investigating him for offences dating back years….
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/aap/article-2674516/Harrowing-tales-abuse-royal-commission.html