Houston man charged with child porn possession after Google cyber-tip, BBC News – Google ‘reveals user’ over Gmail child abuse images, Hamill: Court ruling allowing parents to spank their kids could lead to further abuse, Child abuse cases reach record 73,765 in Japan
August 5, 2014 Comments Off on Houston man charged with child porn possession after Google cyber-tip, BBC News – Google ‘reveals user’ over Gmail child abuse images, Hamill: Court ruling allowing parents to spank their kids could lead to further abuse, Child abuse cases reach record 73,765 in Japan
– Houston man charged with child porn possession after Google cyber-tip
– BBC News – Google ‘reveals user’ over Gmail child abuse images
– Hamill: Court ruling allowing parents to spank their kids could lead to further abuse
– Child abuse cases reach record 73,765 in Japan
Houston man charged with child porn possession after Google cyber-tip
Tim Wetzel, KHOU 11 News July 30, 2014
HOUSTON – A cyber-tip generated by Google and sent to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children led to the arrest of a 41-year-old Houston man who is charged with possessing child pornography.
Police say Google detected explicit images of a young girl in an email that John Henry Skillern was sending to a friend, the company then alerted authorities….
Skillern is a registered sex offender who was convicted of sexually assaulting an 8 year old boy in 1994….
“He seemed like a nice, normal man,” said neighbor Yesenia Gonzales. “Thank goodness for Google.”
After obtaining a search warrant, investigators said they found child porn on Skillern’s phone and tablet device. They also found text messages and e-mails where he talked about his interest in children.
According to police, Skillern worked as a cook for a Denny’s restaurant in Pasadena. They say he had video on his cell phone of young children visiting the restaurant with their families.
Skillern has been charged with one count of possession of child pornography and one count of promotion of child pornography. He’s being held on a $200,000 bond….
http://www.khou.com/story/news/crime/2014/07/30/houston-man-charged-with-child-porn-possession-after-google-cyber-tip/13378459/
BBC News – Google ‘reveals user’ over Gmail child abuse images
4 August 2014
Google has revealed the identity of a user after discovering child abuse imagery in the man’s Gmail account in Houston, Texas, according to a local news report.
It alerted a child protection agency, which notified the police and the man was arrested, KHOU 11 News reported….
Police in Houston told the local news station that Google detected explicit images of a young girl in an email being sent by John Henry Skillern. After the existence of the email was referred to them by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the police obtained a search warrant and arrested the man.
The 41-year-old is a convicted sex offender. He has been charged with possessing child pornography, it was reported….
Google works with the IWF and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children extensively, he said, adding: “We have built technology that trawls other platforms for known images of child sex abuse. We can then quickly remove them and report their existence to the authorities.”
Google automatically scans email accounts to provide ads within Gmail, which has more than 400 million users worldwide….
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-28639628
Hamill: Court ruling allowing parents to spank their kids could lead to further abuse
The New York Appellate Division ruled on July 19 that it was a ‘reasonable use of force’ when a Long Island father spanked his 8-year-old son for cursing at a party. The spanking also did not constitute excessive corporal punishment, the panel ruled. But this ruling sets a scary legal precedent and seems to be following a national pattern of making corporal punishment of children acceptable.
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Monday, August 4, 2014 BY Denis Hamill….
The New York Appellate Division ruled on July 19 to overturn a child abuse case against a Long Island man who spanked his 8-year-old son for cursing at a party. He was also accused of beating the child with a belt on his bare buttocks and legs when he got him home.
The court ruled that the allegations involving the belt were unsubstantiated. Of course they were. It was a little kid’s word against an adult’s.
“The father’s open-handed spanking of the child as a form of discipline after he heard the child curse at an adult was a reasonable use of force and, under the circumstances presented here, did not constitute excessive corporal punishment,” the four-judge panel ruled in a unanimous decision….
The Daily News on July 20 reported that a federal appeals court in California ruled last year that a woman who hit her 12-year-old daughter in the rear with a wooden spoon should not be labeled a child abuser. Another federal panel in Florida found that a single spank does not qualify as domestic violence. And the Minnesota Supreme Court cleared a father who hit his 12-year-old son 36 times on the upper thighs with a wooden paddle, ruling that spanking isn’t necessarily abuse….
According to Safe Horizon, an organization that monitors child abuse, one in 10 kids is maltreated in America; 45% of maltreated kids are under age 5; 1,593 children died in America from abuse in 2012; 85% of those fatalities were white children and 80% of the abusers were parents. The gender breakdown of abusers was 45.3% male and 53.4% female….
But this ruling sets a scary legal precedent and seems to be following a national pattern of making corporal punishment of children acceptable….
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/court-ruling-spanking-lead-child-abuse-article-1.1891698
Child abuse cases reach record 73,765 in Japan
The Japan News/Asia News Network Tuesday, Aug 05, 2014
A record 73,765 cases of child abuse were brought to the attention of 207 child consultation centers across the nation in fiscal 2013, according to a preliminary report released Monday by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry.
It was the highest figure since the ministry began carrying out this type of survey in fiscal 1990, and topped the figure for fiscal 2012 by 7,064. It was also the first time in the survey’s history that the nationwide figure exceeded 70,000.
“Active responses to child abuse are a significant factor behind the increase in reported cases,” a ministry official said. The situation remains serious, however, as cases in which abused children have died continue unabated….
http://news.asiaone.com/news/asia/child-abuse-cases-reach-record-73765-japan
CNN photo of Thatcher with ‘pedophile’ Jimmy Savile, Child Abuse in China, National Child Abuse Prevention Month – Obama
April 9, 2013 Comments Off on CNN photo of Thatcher with ‘pedophile’ Jimmy Savile, Child Abuse in China, National Child Abuse Prevention Month – Obama
– Conservatives outraged over CNN photo of Thatcher with ‘pedophile’ Jimmy Savile
– Jimmy Savile sought Margaret Thatcher Stoke Mandeville help
– Spare the rod, please (China)
– National Child Abuse Prevention Month – Obama
Conservatives outraged over CNN photo of Thatcher with ‘pedophile’ Jimmy Savile By David Edwards Monday, April 8, 2013
Conservative supporters Margaret Thatcher expressed outraged on Monday after CNN marked the death of the the former British prime minister by airing a photo of her with former BBC television presenter Jimmy Savile, a suspected pedophile.
In a CNN Starting Point segment soon after the news of Thatcher’s death broke on Monday, the morning show displayed the black and white photo of Thatcher and Savile appearing together at an event in the 1980s to support the NSPCC children’s charity. CNN showed the photo at least four times during the five-minute segment.
Scotland Yard announced that in 2012 that it had launched an investigation about a year after Savile’s death in October 2011 into allegations that he had sexually abused hundreds of children.
Wall Street Journal Social Media Editor Neal Mann noted on Twitter that CNN “obviously didn’t get the memo” when it ran the photo of Thatcher with Savile.
“That is the picture CNN chose to run for Margaret Thatcher’s obituary? A pedophile?” Michelle Malkin’s Twitchy website asked, accompanied by a list of tweets by conservatives slamming CNN’s decision….
video from CNN’s Starting Point, broadcast April 8, 2013. http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/04/08/conservatives-outraged-over-cnn-photo-of-thatcher-with-pedophile-jimmy-savile/
Jimmy Savile sought Margaret Thatcher Stoke Mandeville help
27 December 2012
Jimmy Savile met Margaret Thatcher several times to get support for his Stoke Mandeville Hospital appeal, newly released government papers show.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20797726
Spare the rod, please
Apr 3rd 2013 by C.S.-M. BEIJING
….In 2005 the All-China Women’s Federation, a state-controlled body, issued a report on child abuse that was sponsored by UNICEF. It found that almost half of current university students had suffered physical abuse as children, from a sample of 3,500 who were surveyed. The violence they had suffered often took place in schools, where teachers were the principal perpetrators. There are no reliable nationwide statistics on the frequency child abuse in China. But the number of reports that appear in the state press—and are disseminated widely by social media—demonstrates a growing awareness of the practice. And with the awareness, a new intolerance for it; attitudes towards corporal punishment are changing. The practice now looks to many like a real problem.
The spread of “black” or unregistered kindergartens is partly to blame. China’s preschool capacity has been stretched thin and reputable kindergartens have become unaffordable for many families. (The teacher pictured above is working as a volunteer, with the children of migrant workers who cannot afford private tuitions.) Many schools cut costs by hiring untrained and unlicensed teachers….
Despite their being condemned by public opinion, even serial wrongdoers often walk free. The police detained Ms Yan but then she was released without charge. Critics say China’s laws for protecting children are flawed in that they refer only to abuse by the family, not by teachers or anyone else for that matter. Prosecutors must also prove that physical harm has been done—which means that any and all abusive acts that cause no lasting, visible damage go unpunished. To fix this, the Shanghai Women’s Federation has proposed that China’s legislative body, the National People’s Congress, introduce a definition of child abuse into the criminal code. In the uproar that followed Ms Yan’s release more than 20,000 “netizens” participated in a straw poll in order to vote in favour of a prohibition on child abuse….
http://www.economist.com/blogs/analects/2013/04/child-abuse
National Child Abuse Prevention Month – Obama
By Daniel S Friedlander, Friedlander Communications, Ltd., Community Contributor
April 8, 2013
Proclamation by United States President Barack Obama and statement by Terri Zenner Greenberg, executive director of CASA Lake County (Court Appointed Special Advocates) on April being National Child Abuse Prevention Month.
Proclamation by President Barack Obama, President of the United States:
America is a country where all of us should be able to pursue our own measure of happiness and live free from fear. But for the millions of children who have experienced abuse or neglect, it is a promise that goes tragically unfulfilled. National Child Abuse Prevention Month is a time to make their struggle our own and reaffirm a simple truth: that no matter the challenges we face, caring for our children must always be our first task….
Our Government shares in that obligation, which is why my Administration has made addressing child abuse a priority. Since I took office, we have advocated for responsible parenting and invested in programs that can give our sons and daughters a strong start in life. I was also proud to sign measures into law that equip State and local governments with the tools to take on abuse, like the CAPTA Reauthorization Act and the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act….
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/suburbs/northbrook/community/chi-ugc-article-national-child-abuse-prevention-month-obama-3-2013-04-08,0,4813927.story
Preaching Virtue of Spanking, Even as Deaths Fuel Debate
November 11, 2011 Comments Off on Preaching Virtue of Spanking, Even as Deaths Fuel Debate
Preaching Virtue of Spanking, Even as Deaths Fuel Debate
By ERIK ECKHOLM November 6, 2011….
The pastoral mood in the hills of Tennessee offered a stark contrast to the storm raging around the country over the Pearls’ teachings on child discipline, which advocate systematic use of “the rod” to teach toddlers to submit to authority. The methods, seen as common sense by some grateful parents and as horrific by others, are modeled, Mr. Pearl is fond of saying, on “the same principles the Amish use to train their stubborn mules.”
Debate over the Pearls’ teachings, first seen on Christian Web sites, gained new intensity after the death of a third child, all allegedly at the hands of parents who kept the Pearls’ book, “To Train Up a Child,” in their homes. On Sept. 29, the parents were charged with homicide by abuse.
More than 670,000 copies of the Pearls’ self-published book are in circulation, and it is especially popular among Christian home-schoolers, who praise it in their magazines and on their Web sites. The Pearls provide instructions on using a switch from as early as six months to discourage misbehavior and describe how to make use of implements for hitting on the arms, legs or back, including a quarter-inch flexible plumbing line that, Mr. Pearl notes, “can be rolled up and carried in your pocket.” The furor in part reflects societal disagreements over corporal punishment, which conservative Christians say is called for in the Bible and which many Americans consider reasonable up to a point, even as many parents and pediatricians reject it….
Mr. Pearl, 66, and Mrs. Pearl, 60, say that blaming their book for extreme abuse by a few unstable parents is preposterous and that they explicitly counsel against acting in anger or causing a bruise. They say that their methods, properly used, yield peace and happy teenagers….
Some conservative Christian parents reject the Pearls’ teachings and have started a petition drive asking sellers like Amazon not to stock their books.
Crystal Lutton, who runs Grace-Based Discipline, one of several Christian blogs that oppose corporal punishment, said the danger with the Pearls’ methods is that “if you don’t get results, the only thing to do is to punish harder and harder.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/07/us/deaths-put-focus-on-pastors-advocacy-of-spanking.html
Casey Anthony trial – Child Abuse Connection, Shedding Light on Religious Child Maltreatment
July 18, 2011 Comments Off on Casey Anthony trial – Child Abuse Connection, Shedding Light on Religious Child Maltreatment
WENDY J. MURPHY: Casey Anthony trial an exercise in absurdity
By Wendy J. Murphy GateHouse News Service
Jun 27, 2011
Recently dubbed the “Trial of the Century”, the prosecution of Florida mom Casey Anthony for the murder of her toddler daughter, Caylee, could more aptly be called the Trial of the Absurd. The prosecution seems desperate to prove Anthony’s innocence while the defense can’t manage a single reference to the evidence that actually proves Casey did not kill her child.
Casey knows more than she’s saying about who and why Caylee is dead, which is why she was offered immunity early on. The prosecution squeezed her very hard – even putting the death penalty on the table – but Casey resisted and the prosecution all but conceded defeat last week when they rested their case after presenting a woefully small pile of evidence.
….The prosecution’s case raised more questions than it answered, and it failed address the following important issues:
….3. In May and June of 08, when Caylee was sleeping with Casey at a friend’s apartment, Casey got a phone call in the middle of the night, in response to which, she roused Caylee from sleep and delivered her to some unknown location. Then she returned to her friend’s apartment and went to sleep. Casey also delivered Caylee to unknown locations on other occasions when she claimed to be bringing Caylee to a “nanny.” Where did she bring her? Why?
4. Why is the docket sheet in the case under seal? It would show what motions were filed to “seal” certain evidence. It would also show that the case has been designated a sex crime prosecution – which is important given that a sex crimes detective was involved in the early stages of the investigation. Why?
5. Casey searched the internet to learn how to make chloroform; a substance commonly used to sedate children in the making of child porn. The public thinks Casey used chloroform to kill her child, but the drug is popular among parents who pimp their kids because it’s cheap and it causes amnesia so that victims can’t remember being abused.
Pimping kids is dangerous business and Casey apparently made someone very angry. Maybe she cut out an earlier “business” partner or ripped someone off. A “Zenaida Gonzales” reported her laptop stolen in early June.
The distortion of truth in this strange case will lead to Casey’s acquittal, which begs the real question: will the prosecution then have the guts, and the political will, to file new charges against Casey for what she REALLY did to that poor little girl. http://www.patriotledger.com/archive/x898079778/WENDY-J-MURPHY-Casey-Anthony-trial-an-exercise-in-absurdity
WENDY MURPHY: Why Casey Anthony will be acquitted
GateHouse News Service
Jun 09, 2011
There has never been a more reviled criminal defendant than Casey Anthony, the Florida mom on trial for murdering her nearly 3-year-old daughter, Caylee, in 2008. Casey behaved like a raving psychopath after her child went missing. She went out partying, didn’t shed a tear, and got a tattoo that read “beautiful life.”
Her lawyer claims she acted weird because she was sexually abused as a child.
Maybe she was, which would help explain evidence uncovered during the murder investigation that showed Casey may have been working as a prostitute at the time Caylee was killed. Studies show that well over 90 percent of prostituted women were sexually abused as children. http://www.patriotledger.com/opinions/x1459481866/WENDY-MURPHY-Why-Casey-Anthony-will-be-acquitted
Breaking Their Will: Shedding Light on Religious Child Maltreatment by Janet Heimlich
High-profile cases such as the child sexual abuse scandals in the Catholic Church and “faith healing” deaths in certain fundamentalist Christian congregations have made the public aware that religion can sometimes mask deviant and harmful behavior. But the extent of the problem is far greater than most people realize. In this revealing, disturbing, and thoroughly researched book, award-winning journalist Janet Heimlich exposes a dark side of faith that most Americans do not know exists or have ignored for a long time—religious child maltreatment.
After speaking with dozens of victims, perpetrators, and experts, and reviewing a myriad of court cases and studies, Ms. Heimlich explains how religious child maltreatment happens. She then takes an in-depth look at the many forms of child maltreatment found in religious contexts, including biblically-prescribed corporal punishment and beliefs about the necessity of “breaking the wills” of children; scaring kids into faith and other types of emotional maltreatment such as spurning, isolating, and withholding love; pedophilic abuse by religious authorities and the failure of religious organizations to support the victims and punish the perpetrators; and religiously-motivated medical neglect in cases of serious health problems.
In a concluding chapter, Ms. Heimlich proposes changes in societal attitudes and improved legislation to protect children from harm and pushes for more people to recognize and acknowledge children rights.
http://religiouschildmaltreatment.com/breaking_their_will/
Breaking Their Will: Shedding Light on Religious Child Maltreatment by Janet Heimlich Prometheus Books 2011 ISBN: 978-1-61614-405-0
http://www.prometheusbooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=90_199&products_id=2047