Rob Porter White House aide resigns, Mother killed baby in Satanic Ritual, Circus school tied to sex abuse and ‘blood rituals’

– Mum ‘killed her eight-month-old baby in horrific Satanic ritual’ as police discover chilling evidence of ceremony
– Australian circus school tied to sex abuse and ‘blood rituals,’ police say
– Rob Porter, White House Aide, Resigns After Accusations of Abuse
– Ex-wife of Trump aide Rob Porter tells of abusive marriage
– Former Wives of Top White House Aide Rob Porter Both Told FBI He Abused Them

describes crimes

Mum ‘killed her eight-month-old baby in horrific Satanic ritual’ as police discover chilling evidence of ceremony
The infant’s mutilated corpse was discovered inside a home in central Mexico, and authorities found the mutilated body in the same building
By Dave Burke 9 FEB 2018

A mum has been arrested on suspicion of killing her eight-month-old baby in an horrific Satanic ritual.
Chilling footage shows the silhouette of a baby painted in black in the lounge of a home in central Mexico.
Authorities in the city of Chimalhuacan discovered the infant’s mutilated corpse in the same building.
In the same room police found ritual materials including candles, a human skull, devil figurines and oils. It was not clear whether the skull was real.
The mum, named in Mexico as Leticia N, reportedly named her child Belcebu – a variant of Beelzebub, which is sometimes another name for the devil….
But during a search of the house officers found blood stains and then the baby’s mutilated corpse.
A video that was shared on social networks shows the suspected scene of the alleged fatal ritual….

Her boyfriend, believed to have helped her during the ritual, was not found in the house and is being hunted by authorities.
Leticia was arrested and charged with homicide. She is being held in custody.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/mum-killed-eight-month-old-11997508

Australian circus school tied to sex abuse and ‘blood rituals,’ police say
by Kyle Swenson February 12
….Australian law enforcement now alleges the circus school was not a venue for big top entertainment but a horror show.
Last Monday, investigators arrested seven individuals — two men and five women — affiliated with the school for allegedly sexually abusing three young boys between 2014 and 2016, according to a news release from the New South Wales Police Force.

Altogether the accused face 127 criminal counts, including rape, kidnapping, aggravated sexual assault of a child and making child abuse material. Citing police documents, the Australian newspaper reported the young victims were used in “blood rituals” on at least one occasion. Law enforcement has not detailed how the victims knew the defendants. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported the three boys were not students at the school….

Citing court documents, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported last week at least one of the assaults occurred on April 25, 2016 — Anzac Day, an Australian holiday honoring military veterans. According to the network, Therese Cook and Yyani Cook-Williams allegedly raped two boys that day. The victims were 4 and 7. Cook-Williams also allegedly forced the two boys to have sex together on the same occasion.

Paul Cook stands accused of filming the aggravated sexual assaults. Meredith is accused of raping one of the victims seven times.
ABC also reported police say the victims were subjected to a “blood ritual” where they were forced to drink their own blood….
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/02/12/australian-circus-school-tied-to-sex-abuse-and-blood-rituals-police-say/?utm_term=.f93b37982eef

Rob Porter, White House Aide, Resigns After Accusations of Abuse
By MAGGIE HABERMAN and KATIE ROGERS FEB. 7, 2018

WASHINGTON — As the White House staff secretary, Rob Porter is not a public figure, but he is responsible for paper flow to the president, a job of crucial importance in the Trump administration. He frequently travels with President Trump on Air Force One, and he helped write Mr. Trump’s first State of the Union address last month.

But despite initial support from John F. Kelly, the White House chief of staff, and other West Wing staff aides, Mr. Porter announced his resignation on Wednesday, a day after his two former wives accused him in interviews of physical abuse when they were married to him.
His troubles were not a complete secret at the White House: Two people close to the White House said that the allegations against him made by his former wives, Colbie Holderness and Jennifer Willoughby, had contributed to a delay in granting him a permanent security clearance.
In a statement, Mr. Porter said that “these allegations are simply false,” even as details of the alleged abuse and photographs of one of his former wives with a black eye that she said he had given her were widely circulated…..

Ms. Holderness, Mr. Porter’s first wife, described their relationship as “verbally, emotionally and physically abusive” in an interview with The Daily Mail. In photographs she gave to The Intercept, Ms. Holderness has a blackened right eye and a swollen cheekbone.
In his statement, Mr. Porter said the pictures of Ms. Holderness were misleading….
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/07/us/politics/rob-porter-resigns-abuse-white-house-staff-secretary.html

EXCLUSIVE: ‘He pulled me, naked and dripping from the shower to yell at me.’ Ex-wife of Trump aide Rob Porter who’s dating Hope Hicks, tells how he called her a ‘f***ing b***h’ on their honeymoon and she filed a protective order against him

Jennifer Willoughby, the second wife of President Trump’s staff secretary Rob Porter has spoken on the record to DailyMail.com about her abusive marriage
Porter, 40, is considered one of the most important players in the Oval Office
Last week, DailyMail.com revealed that Porter and Hope Hicks are dating, and were seen kissing in a cab on the way back to her apartment
He has never been given security clearance by the FBI because of his dark past, sources tell DailyMail.com
Willoughby says she was ‘walking on eggshells’ during their marriage due to his explosive anger

On June 19, 2010, she filed a protective order against Porter because he violated their separation agreement and refused to leave their apartment
According to a complaint filed with the police, he punched the glass on the door to their home, cutting his hand in the process
His first wife Colbie Holderness told DailyMail.com: ‘He was verbally, emotionally and physically abusive and that is why I left’
But Willoughby said she never saw Porter take his anger out on other people – ‘not even road rage’ – but that is was all behind closed doors
By Louise Boyle In Arlington, Virginia, For Dailymail.com
7 February 2018
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5359731/Ex-wife-Rob-Porter-Trumps-secretary-tells-marriage.html

Former Wives of Top White House Aide Rob Porter Both Told FBI He Abused Them
Ryan Grim, Alleen Brown February 7 2018
February 7 2018
As the FBI conducted a background check on an incoming senior White House official last year, the bureau learned of the man’s history of domestic abuse. Rob Porter, a top aide to President Donald Trump, physically assaulted both of his previous wives, according to the two women. Porter’s first wife said she was physically abused for years, providing a photograph she took of herself after she said Porter hit her while on vacation in Florence, Italy — a photo she also shared with the FBI.

During the background interviews for Porter’s security clearance related to his senior White House role, FBI agents interviewed the two women. The former wives told the FBI that Porter was abusive during their marriages, according to interviews with the women. For Porter, the FBI interviews marked a collision of his professional ascendancy and his sometimes violent private life.

Colbie Holderness, Porter’s first wife, provided her correspondence with the FBI to The Intercept. (The FBI did not respond to a request for comment, and the agent involved in the exchange declined to speak about the case.) In an interview, she said the pattern of violence in her marriage to Porter began on their honeymoon in the Canary Islands in 2003 and continued from there. Photo was taken shortly after the alleged incident, in the hotel room in Florence.
“He only punched me once, in the eye,” Holderness said. It was during a vacation in Florence in 2005. She said, “He threw me down on the bed and punched me in the face. I think he was shocked that he had lost control to that extent.”….

“Up until then, he had always done it in a way that didn’t leave marks,” Holderness said. “I don’t know if that was conscious or not. He would get angry and throw me down on a soft surface — to his credit, it was always a soft surface like a couch or a bed — and he would lay on top of me shaking me, or rubbing an elbow or a knee into me. He graduated to choking me, not ever hard enough to make me pass out, or frankly to leave marks, but it was frightening and dehumanizing.”
“He was always a hair-trigger away.”….
https://theintercept.com/2018/02/07/rob-porter-wives-abuse-trump-aide/

The Survivorship Ritual Abuse and Mind Control 2018 Conference
https://survivorship.org/ritual-abuse-and-mind-control-2018-conference/

Child and Ritual Abuse Research https://ritualabuse.us

Articles and Research by Neil Brick http://neilbrick.com

Pregnant woman murdered in apparent satanic ritual, Military-style Christian sect leader charged in abuse case

– Pregnant woman murdered in apparent satanic ritual
– Ritual murders, rape and domestic violence rampant in this community
– Military-style Christian sect leader charged in abuse case
– NM religious group in spotlight for horrific crimes against children

Pregnant woman murdered in apparent satanic ritual
Aug 20, 2017  By Nicole Morley

A pregnant woman whose ashes were found on wasteland is thought to have been murdered in a Satanic ritual.
Fernanda Pereyra, 26, is believed to have been stabbed to death before being burned in a fire so hot that only a necklace was left by which to identify her.
It’s believed that Fernanda Pereyra, 26, was stabbed to death before being burned in a fire so hot that only a necklace was left to identify her.
Pereyra, who was six months pregnant, was found on kilometre six of Route Six near the town of Rincon de los Sauces, in the western Argentine province of Neuquen.

Investigators think the three sixes were chosen on purpose to represent the number 666 and say the killers used a large amount of petrol to burn the body to ash….

The suspects have also been linked with drug trafficking and are thought to practice Satanism and unidentified African religions.
Police investigators named San La Muerte (Saint Death), the paron saint of drug traffickers, and ‘Destranca Rua’, an entity linked with the Angolan ‘kimbanda’ religion as having featured in the alleged ritual.
Officers searching a suspect’s house say they found ‘Satanic’ music and images featuring tridents and women in flames.

A sheep in the courtyard was also suspected to have been used in the trio’s Satanic rituals….
Police say they have two hypotheses for the murder’s motivation beyond its religious significance.
The first is that Pereryra was murdered by her boyfriend because she got pregnant by another man.
The other is that it was to warn other citizens against interfering with drug-dealing gangs.
http://nehandaradio.com/2017/08/20/pregnant-woman-murdered-apparent-satanic-ritual/

describes crimes
Ritual murders, rape and domestic violence rampant in this community
Most of the recorded abuse cases involve women who are physically, emotionally and verbally abused by their partners.  18 August 2017

He said the organisation was also concerned about an increase in cases of ritual murders and rapes. He said TVEP received about 40 rape cases of rapes monthly and in recent months six cases of ritual killings had been reported in the district….
“We need to work together as a nation to end the number of rapes which are being committed in our country,” said Masikhwa.
Limpopo police spokesperson Moatshe Ngoepe said more resources had been dedicated to fighting domestic violence and ritual killings in the province.
http://www.health24.com/Lifestyle/Woman/News/ritual-murders-rape-and-domestic-violence-rampant-in-this-community-20170818

Military-style Christian sect leader charged in abuse case
By Russell Contreras? AP August 21

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A leader of a New Mexico military-style Christian sect is facing dozens of child sexual abuse charges in a case that authorities say is connected to widespread abuse by the religious commune.
Peter Green of the Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps in the remote community of Fence Lake faces 100 counts of criminal sexual penetration of a child, according to a criminal complaint filed August 15. Sect members Deborah Green, Joshua Green and Stacey Miller also face various charges ranging from child abuse, bribery and not reporting a birth.

KOAT-TV reports (https://goo.gl/Qtcsnr) that all four were arrested Sunday. Sheriff Tony Mace told the station that his office began investigating the group last year after two members claimed they had escaped the commune in the sparsely populated area of mostly ranchland. Those who escaped told deputies that Deborah Green and Stacey Miller allowed Miller’s 12-year-old son to die of the flu in 2014, Mace said.

Miller faces one count each of intentional abuse of a child age 12-18, bribery of a witness and not reporting a birth.
In a statement, the group said the allegations “are totally false” and similar to others the group has faced over the years….
The Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps describes itself as a group that is “aggressive and revolutionary for Jesus” and provides a free spiritual “ammo pack” to anyone who writes. Photos of members show them in military-style clothing and on missions in Africa.
Its website is laced with anti-Semitic language and anti-gay tirades about same sex marriage.

The Southern Poverty Law Center lists the Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps as a hate group.
The group has its origins in Sacramento, California, after Deborah and James Green founded “Free Love Ministries” but garnered media attention for its unique beliefs and its communal houses.
Former sect member Maura Alana Schmierer told The Associated Press on Monday by the group’s latest troubles and had been interview by investigators recently. “I’ve been trying to expose them for years,” said Schmierer, who left the sect in the late 1980s.

A 2012 National Geographic Television show “Escaped a Cult” documented Schmierer’s experience with the sect. She said Deborah Green ordered her to live in a shed with no toilet and with little food.
Schmierer sued the sect for mistreatment and forcing her to give up legal custody of three of her children. A judge in 1989 awarded her $1.08 million dollars but the group fled California and later resurfaced near El Paso, Texas, and then in western New Mexico….
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/religion/military-style-christian-sect-leader-charged-in-abuse-case/2017/08/21/ff1a3dee-86ae-11e7-96a7-d178cf3524eb_story.html

NM religious group in spotlight for horrific crimes against children
KOAT Updated: Aug 21, 2017 Megan Cruz
CIBOLA COUNTY, N.M. —
The leader and three members of a religious group based in Cibola County were arrested over the weekend for what investigators called horrific crimes against children.
Charges include over 100 counts of criminal sexual penetration of a minor and child abuse.

The Cibola County Sheriff’s Office says deputies arrested Deborah Green, Peter Green, Joshua Green, and Stacey Miller of the Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps Sunday morning. According to the group’s website, Deborah and her husband James are the “Generals” and command their army to spread Christian ideals throughout the world. They’re based out of Fence Lake in western Cibola County.
Sheriff Tony Mace says his office first started investigating the group last year when two members claimed they just escaped the commune. They told deputies Deborah and another member Stacey Miller allowed Miller’s 12-year-old son to die of the flu in 2014….

According to arrest warrants, no one took the boy to the hospital. Puss started leaking from his forehead and he lost his ability to speak and move his right side. He was buried on the property and no one reported his death.
Investigators asked Miller why she didn’t get her son help. She told them “she wanted to trust God.” Deputies arrested her from her home in Sierra County. She’s now charged with child abuse.

The warrants say Deborah controlled the group’s money and rarely wanted to pay for hospital visits, preaching that those who are sick “must repent to be healed.” She’s now charged with neglect resulting in the death of a child.
The Sheriff’s Office also charged Deborah with sexual assault of a minor and child abuse. Investigators say in 2001, Deborah sexually assaulted her daughter’s 5-year-old girl who they believe was smuggled in from Uganda as a baby with forged documents….
http://www.koat.com/article/nm-religious-group-in-spotlight-for-horrific-crimes-against-children/12040259

Rotherham Child Sexual Exploitation, Operation Midland Inquiry Ends, Australia Sexual Abuse and Domestic Violence Against Women with Disabilities

-Police chief to step down after force’s handling of child abuse cases criticised
“at least 1,400 children had been raped, trafficked and abused in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013”

– Operation Midland: Child abuse inquiry ends with no charges brought

– Australia’s most shocking statistic: Sexual abuse and domestic violence against women with disabilities
“90 per cent of intellectually disabled women in Australia have been sexually abused”
– Committee Inquiry into Violence, Abuse and Neglect against People with Disability in Institutional and Residential Settings

Police chief to step down after force’s handling of child abuse cases criticised  24/03/2016

The chief constable of South Yorkshire has announced plans to step down just hours after another report criticised his force’s past failures to tackle child sexual exploitation (CSE) in Rotherham.

David Crompton, 52, will leave his post in November, according to a one-line statement on the force website and on Twitter.

Mr Crompton’s four year tenure as chief constable has been plagued by a series of high profile problems, many of which began well before he joined the force in 2012.

As well as the Rotherham scandal, he has also had to deal with renewed controversy over the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, following the publication of the Hillsborough Independent Panel report in 2012, which led to new inquests.

And he has also faced a fresh campaign for an inquiry into police actions at the “Battle of Orgreave” during the 1984 Miner’s Strike.

But, as well as these historical matters, Mr Crompton also found himself in the headlines when Sir Cliff Richard’s home was searched in connection with an inquiry into alleged child abuse….

The inquiry led by Professor John Drew repeated many of the criticisms levelled at South Yorkshire Police in the 2014 report by Professor Alexis Jay, which sparked a national scandal when it said at least 1,400 children had been raped, trafficked and abused in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013.

The Jay Report outlined how police and social workers knew what was happening but failed to act.

Prof Drew found that, by today’s standards, the scale of response to child sexual exploitation 15 years ago was inadequate across the whole of South Yorkshire, with mistakes and missed opportunities until 2011 due to the low priority given to the crime.

But t he professor said the force had made “determined progress” since 2013 and that the police response to safeguarding children and young people from CSE was now adequate and, in some cases, of high quality.

Last month, the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) announced it was now looking at more than 194 allegations about the conduct of police relating to child sexual exploitation in Rotherham….
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/uk/police-chief-to-step-down-after-forces-handling-of-child-abuse-cases-criticised-34568628.html

Operation Midland: Child abuse inquiry ends with no charges brought
21 March 2016  UK
A Met Police inquiry into claims a VIP Westminster paedophile ring abused children in the 1970s and 1980s has closed without charges being brought, Scotland Yard has announced.

The controversial Operation Midland ended as ex-MP Harvey Proctor was told he faces no further action over claims against him of child abuse and murder.

He called on four Met chiefs to resign, but the force said it had been right to look into the single source claims….

The investigation, which began in November 2014, was triggered by allegations made by a man in his 40s known as “Nick”, who claimed he was abused for nine years from 1975, when he was seven, to 1984.

More people came forward to provide information but there was not enough evidence to charge anyone – although there was nothing to prove police had been knowingly misled by a complainant, the Met said in a detailed statement….
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-35863580

Australia’s most shocking statistic: Sexual abuse and domestic violence against women with disabilities
March 20, 2016
Jane Rosengrave, 53, is a proud indigenous women who grew up in institutional care and suffered years of sexual abuse and domestic violence.  Ginger Gorman

Jane has an intellectual disability, and over her lifetime she’s suffered unrelenting sexual and physical abuse by six different male perpetrators.

She is far from alone. On the contrary, 90 per cent of intellectually disabled women in Australia have been sexually abused….

It’s a shocking statistic made worse by the fact that most of the abuse happens when the victims are children.

For Jane, the sexual abuse started when she was just six years old. At the time, Jane was a ward of the state living at Pleasant Creek Training Centre in the Victorian town of Stawell. The facility operated from 1937 until 1999 and housed children and young adults with intellectual disabilities….
http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/news-life/australias-most-shocking-statistic-sexual-abuse-and-domestic-violence-against-women-with-disabilities/news-story/21246ae889850b1d958088fd80b880ae

AUSTRALIAN CROSS DISABILITY ALLIANCE
Senate Community Affairs References Committee Inquiry into Violence, Abuse and Neglect against People with Disability in Institutional and Residential Settings  August 2015
http://wwda.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/ACDA_Sub_Sen_Inquiry_Violence_Institutions.pdf

Scotland Yard to investigate satanic abuse claim, Bitcoin’s Blockchain Offers Safe Haven For Child Abuse, Sierra Leone: Wife beating

Enoch Powell is named by bishop in sex abuse probe: Scotland Yard to investigate satanic abuse claim – and demands to see filed held on serving MPs

Bishop of Durham Paul Butler names late Tory politician to Scotland Yard
Former Bishop of Monmouth, Dominic Walker, heard allegation in 1980s
Claim being examined by Operation Fenbridge – one of several such probes
Simon Heffer, Powell’s official biographer, branded allegations ‘nonsense’

By Glen Owen and Brendan Carlin for The Mail on Sunday
29 March 2015
The probe into an alleged paedophile network at the heart of the British Establishment took an explosive turn last night with the revelation that Enoch Powell’s name has been passed to police.

The Mail on Sunday can reveal that the late Tory MP, one of the most prominent and divisive politicians of the 20th Century, has been named to Scotland Yard by the Bishop of Durham. The claims relate to ‘ritual satanic abuse’.

And in a further development to the sex-ring investigations, police are to be given access to secret files held on MPs in the House of Commons archives as they hunt for evidence on suspected abusers, including former Liberal MP Cyril Smith….

Mr Walker is believed to have warned the Right Rev Butler that at the time he was told of the claims against Powell, unsubstantiated allegations of satanic rituals – often involving the abuse of children – were widespread….

Sources close to one of Scotland Yard’s sex-ring investigations say officers contacted Lawrence Ward, the Commons Serjeant at Arms – the Commons’ most senior security official – earlier this month to ask him to search the files kept on all MPs. It is understood that no information was uncovered implicating MPs in abuse, sparking fears at Scotland Yard that some of the evidence might have been shredded….
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3016399/Enoch-Powell-named-bishop-sex-abuse-probe-Scotland-Yard-investigate-satanic-abuse-claim-demands-filed-held-serving-MPs.html

Bitcoin’s Blockchain Offers Safe Haven For Malware And Child Abuse, Warns Interpol
Thomas Fox-Brewster  Forbes Staff 3/27/2015
The blockchain, the public ledger of all Bitcoin transactions, has all kinds of good uses outside of providing stability for the world’s most popular cryptocurrency, from decentralised data storage to super-flexible email. But it can also be put to malicious use. According to Interpol’s Christian Karam, speaking from the Black Hat Asia conference, it could be abused to store malware control mechanisms or provide access to illicit content such as child abuse images that would be extremely difficult to take down….
http://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2015/03/27/bitcoin-blockchain-pollution-a-criminal-opportunity/

Sierra Leone: Wife beating is still a common practice
28 March 2015
By Mariama Kandeh, Guest Writer, London, UK….

According to the Sierra Leone family support Unit, in 2012, the Western Area reported a total of 1,923 domestic violence cases while in 2013 the number rose to 2,073, the highest in the entire country and over 95% committed by husbands against their wives.

This excludes the provincial areas of the country that hosts the majority of the population. Meanwhile in 2014, a total of 11, 358 cases of child sexual abuse, domestic violence and rape against women and girls were recorded. Considering the fact that a good number of domestic violence cases is unreported, it displays a worrisome situation for Sierra Leone’s women….
http://www.thepatrioticvanguard.com/sierra-leone-wife-beating-is-still-a-common-practice-8231

Human trafficking epidemic 21st century slavery hits close to home, ‘A Culture of Silence’ speaks for Sierra Leone, Sexual Offences Bill to be published next week

Former journalist says human trafficking an epidemic
21st century slavery hits close to home By Maddy Lauria  Nov 13, 2014

Rehoboth Beach — The Sussex County Republican Women’s Club received a harsh reality check when veteran journalist Christine Dolan described a human trafficking case that struck close to home.

“Listen up … you don’t have a clue,” Dolan said as she began to discuss her more than decade-long experiences with human trafficking. “Just like the Industrial Revolution, just like the Victorian era, just like the African slave trade, you are living in the digital age of slavery in the 21st century. It is not just on the street. It is over the internet.”

Dolan, who worked for ABC and CNN in the 1980s, was commissioned by the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children to study child exploitation in 2000….

Dolan said Easton, Md., shows human trafficking occurs close to home. While many attendees raised their hands to say they were familiar with the town, most audience members voiced surprise that a brothel, operated a few doors down from a Mexican restaurant on Dover Street, was busted just a few years ago, leading to sex trafficking convictions in fall 2013….

Now Dolan is on a mission to spread the word that human trafficking crimes are proliferating throughout the world, which she outlined in her “Tots to Trafficking to Terrorism” presentation during the club’s dinner meeting Oct. 22. She said globalization and increased internet access provide ways for everything from child pornography to trafficking for torture to make a mark on international markets.

“Terrorism is a transnational, transcriminal network. Trafficking is transcriminal, transnational network,” she said. Dolan said groups like al-Qaida and the group known as the Islamic State are trafficking organizations with a hand in sex and labor trafficking as well as torture rituals.

Dolan outlined the main branches of human trafficking to include sex and labor, sex tourism, child pornography, child soldiers, organ trafficking, skin trafficking and ritual abuse torture. Dolan cited an evidence comparison by Interpol that 89 percent of online incidents affect victims between the age of 6 and 12, while 10 percent include victims age 3 and younger. She said there have been great efforts made since 2000, but the demand for younger victims has increased, with a jump from 3 percent in 2005 to the recently reported 10 percent of young trafficking victims….
http://capegazette.villagesoup.com/p/former-journalist-says-human-trafficking-an-epidemic/1261490

‘A Culture of Silence’ speaks for Sierra Leone
By Peter Keough  Globe Correspondent   November 13, 2014

For most people, the sufferings of African countries such as Sierra Leone, which has endured a hellish civil war only to be confronted with the Ebola epidemic, are regarded as passing news items.

For the documentary filmmaker Raouf J. Jacob, however, Sierra Leone is his beloved homeland. Forced to emigrate to America with his family in 1999 in the midst of the internecine conflict, he returns in “A Culture of Silence” to the place of his birth to see how it has rebounded from its bloody past. He and his partner and fellow filmmaker Lara M. Moreno tour the country with their camera to see how it has confronted its intransigent problems. These include poverty, the exploitation of resources by foreign corporations, cultural misogyny epitomized by the practice of female genital mutilation, and the legacy of war embodied by its most tragic victims — child soldiers kidnapped by warlords and forced to kill….
http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/movies/2014/11/13/movie-review-culture-silence-speaks-for-sierra-leone/ypwHqK9NW73pMBJsysudUK/story.html

Sexual Offences Bill to be published next week, says Minister for Justice
Legislation will strengthen laws on grooming, pornography and harassment
New legislation on sexual offences will strengthen laws on grooming, pornography and harassment, Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald has said.

Fiona Gartland
Thu, Nov 13, 2014,

….“It will include strengthened provisions on age of consent, grooming and harassment,” Ms Fitzgerald said. “And it will strengthen offences of acquiring pornography online.”

The department received approval from the Cabinet to draft the legislation last December. It had been described as “long overdue” by organisations working in the field and by politicians including Senator Jillian van Turnhout.

The Minister also said yesterday that she would bring forward legislation on victims’ rights and on domestic violence in the new year….

Victims’ rights The new victims’ rights legislation will be introduced in 2015 so that Ireland can comply with its obligations under the EU victims’ directive, which was adopted at European level in 2012.

The directive includes obligations to protect victims from harm and intimidation and provide access to information, services and compensation.

Ms Fitzgerald said the new legislation would be “a very important mark of a change of approach to victims” and would reposition victims so their needs are central to the criminal justice system….
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/sexual-offences-bill-to-be-published-next-week-says-minister-for-justice-1.1998434

2 ‘Sons of Guns’ reality stars arrested, Rotherham child abuse, Child Abuse ‘Rampant’ in British institutions, Victims of Domestic Violence , Japanese Wartime “Comfort Women”

– 2 ‘Sons of Guns’ reality stars arrested on cruelty to juvenile charges
More charges of forcible rape filed against ‘Sons of Guns’ actor
– Rotherham child abuse was raised ‘at highest level’
– Evidence submitted by a former Home Office researcher
– Child abuse ‘rampant’ in British institutions, says Archbishop of Canterbury as he apologises for ‘significant legacy of unacknowledged cases’ in the Church of England
– Victims of Domestic Violence Getting Longer Prison Sentences Than Their Children’s Abusers?
– Japanese Wartime Medical Orderly on Army’s Role in Maintaining “Comfort Women” System

2 ‘Sons of Guns’ reality stars arrested on cruelty to juvenile charges
Oct 24, 2014  By WAFB Staff
LIVINGSTON PARISH, LA (WAFB) –

Two stars of the now canceled reality show “Sons of Guns” have been arrested on child abuse charges.
Warrants were issued Thursday by the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office for the arrest of Kristafor Ford and his wife Stephanie Hayden. According to the arrest warrant from Livingston Parish, Kristafor is accused of hitting a 9-year-old with a leather belt on the child’s lower, right thigh. Reports say there was a large bruise on the child’s thigh and buttocks area.

Ford was arrested Friday afternoon and charged with cruelty to a juvenile.

Stephanie Hayden was arrested Friday and charged with principal to cruelty to a juvenile because she was allegedly in the room when the incident happened….

Investigators are looking into criminal cases against Will Hayden. He is accused of raping and molesting a number of young women.

Hayden’s daughter Stephanie claimed her father touched her inappropriately when she was 12 years old. He has not been charged in that case.

Hayden has been arrested and charged with three counts of aggravated rape and one count of indecent behavior with a juvenile, all separate victims. Two of the rape charges are in East Baton Rouge Parish, the other rape charge and indecent behavior charge is out of Livingston Parish….
http://www.wafb.com/story/26886988/2-sons-of-guns-reality-stars-arrested-on-cruelty-to-juvenile-charges 

More charges of forcible rape filed against ‘Sons of Guns’ actor
Sep 08, 2014 By Amber Stegall
BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) –

Deputies with the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office have added a charge of forcible rape to the list of charges against the founder of Red Jacket Firearms, 49-year-old William Hayden. The new charge is for the alleged rape of a 12-year-old female that happened about 22 years ago in East Baton Rouge Parish….
http://www.wafb.com/story/26476401/more-charges-of-forcible-rape-filed-against-sons-of-guns-actor

Rotherham child abuse was raised ‘at highest level’ 26 October 2014
Child abuse in Rotherham was raised “at the highest level” as far back as 2002 but officials apparently pressured a researcher to change her report.

The then chief constable Mike Hedges and the council’s director of education Di Billups were among those said to have been warned by the researcher.

Documents detailing her concerns, shown to the home affairs select committee in private, have been seen by the BBC.

The researcher said it was “a tragedy” her evidence was not looked at in 2002.

In her report to the committee the researcher, initially employed by the council to investigate prostitution, said she was pressured to present her findings in a way that presented services in Rotherham in “a better light”.
Scale of abuse

The researcher claimed she had “repeatedly” tried to raise concerns at senior levels “in the police force, social care and education”.

The scale of child abuse in Rotherham was not revealed until this year when Professor Alexis Jay’s report found at least 1400 children had been exploited….

Still concerned that children were being abused on a “daily” basis, the researcher submitted some of her evidence to Home Office evaluators.
That evidence is now missing. The researcher claimed there was a “raid” on her office the weekend after she submitted the evidence.

On coming into work, she claimed she found that all of the data relating to the Home Office work had been removed from filing cabinets. Documents on the office computer had been deleted, while others were created detailing the minutes of meetings….
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-29756051 

Evidence submitted by a former Home Office researcher
I am enclosing 3 copies of the documentary evidence that I think will assist the Select Committee prior to
and during my attendance on 9 September 2014
http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/home-affairs-committee/child-sexual-exploitation-and-the-response-to-localised-grooming-followup/written/12361.pdf

Child abuse ‘rampant’ in British institutions, says Archbishop of Canterbury as he apologises for ‘significant legacy of unacknowledged cases’ in the Church of England

Archbishop said abuse has been ‘rampant’ in CoE and other institutions
Justin Welby said there is a ‘significant legacy of unacknowledged cases’
Made admissions in letter to mother of three boys abused at CoE school

By Sara Malm for MailOnline

26 October 2014
Child abuse has been ‘rampant’ in the Church of England and other British institutions, the Archbishop of Canterbury has said.

Justin Welby also said there is a ‘significant legacy’ of cases of child abuse within the church which have been ignored and that its failure to hold abusers to account is ‘inexcusable’.

Archbishop Welby made the admissions in a private letter to a mother of three boys who were abused at a Church of England school, reports Exaro, the investigative website.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2808374/Child-abuse-rampant-British-institutions-says-Archbishop-Canterbury-apologises-significant-legacy-unacknowledged-cases-Church-England.html 

Victims of Domestic Violence Getting Longer Prison Sentences Than Their Children’s Abusers?
Sunday, 26 October 2014 12:40 By Alyssa Figueroa, AlterNet | Report

….Lindley’s story was reported in a Buzzfeed news investigation which exposed the dangerous outcomes of these “failure to protect” laws.  Buzzfeed found 28 mothers and domestic violence victims in 11 states who were sent to prison for at least 10 years for failing to protect their children from abuse:

“Almost half, 13 mothers, were given 20 years or more. In one case, the mother was given a life sentence for failing to protect her son, just like the man who murdered the infant boy. In another, the sentences were effectively the same: The killer got life, and the mother got75 years, of which she must serve at least 63 years and nine months. In yet another, the mother got a longer sentence than the man who raped her son. In one more, a father fractured an infant girl’s toe, femur, and seven ribs and was sentenced to two years; for failing to intervene, the mother got 30.”

Buzzfeed found that at least 29 states have failure-to-protect laws, such as injury to a child “by omission,” by “permitting child abuse” or “enabling child abuse.” Nineteen other states have laws that could also be used to prosecute parents, such as “criminal negligence in the care of a child.” Maximum prison sentences for breaking these laws vary from one year to life. And in some states, they carry the same sentence as child abuse itself.

While these laws are designed to both hold mother and father responsible for protecting their children, the law isn’t applied equally. Buzzfeed found a total 73 cases against mothers, yet only four against fathers. Women commit 34 percent of serious or fatal cases of child abuse.

“Mothers are held to a very different standard,” law professor Kris McDaniel-Miccio said. …
http://truth-out.org/news/item/27057-victims-of-domestic-violence-getting-longer-prison-sentences-than-their-child-s-abuser 

Japanese Wartime Medical Orderly on Army’s Role in Maintaining “Comfort Women” System
Sunday, 26 October 2014 By David McNeill, The Asia-Pacific Journal | Interview and Video
David McNeill introduction, Matsumoto Masayoshi testimony (Japanese and English transcript and video of testimony), translation by Miguel Quintana.

For years, Abe Shinzo, Japan’s prime minister, has been playing with diplomatic fire over a sordid episode of wartime history that has been at the center of a storm of controversy involving Japan, China, Korea and other outposts of Japan’s empire: the herding of thousands of women across Asia into Japanese military brothels. His decision this year to order an investigation into a landmark government apology to the so-called “comfort women” might have helped end the controversy. Instead, it has further ignited it, which may indeed have been Abe’s intention – he has campaigned for nearly two decades to undermine the apology.

The 1993 Kono statement, compiled in consultation with South Korea by Japan’s then chief cabinet secretary Kono Yohei, acknowledged the army’s role in forcing the women into sexual slavery. Nationalists, championed by the Yomiuri, Japan’s most popular newspaper, deny coercion and insist the women voluntarily provided “comfort” to frontline troops. They have repeatedly demanded the withdrawal of the so-called Kono statement, with potentially explosive diplomatic consequences….
http://truth-out.org/news/item/27054-japanese-wartime-medical-orderly-on-army-s-role-in-maintaining-comfort-women-system

Sexual abuse allegations shut down football season at New Jersey school, Hidden Marks: A study of women students’ experiences of harassment, stalking, violence and sexual assault

– Sexual abuse allegations shut down football season at New Jersey school
– Seven Sayreville football players suspended amid abuse scandal at New Jersey school
– Campus nightmare: female students on the rise of sexual harassment
– Hidden Marks
A study of women students’ experiences of harassment, stalking, violence and sexual assault
– NUS research reveals one in four students suffer unwelcome sexual advances

Sexual abuse allegations shut down football season at New Jersey school
October 10, 2014, by CNN Wire
SAYREVILLE, N.J. — The crunching sound of football cleats on hallway floors became the drone of dread for freshman at a New Jersey high school. As they marched into the locker room, an ugly hazing ritual allegedly awaited them.

Upperclassmen howled as they flipped off the lights then sexually abused their younger classmates at Sayreville High School, parents and players say.
Authorities are investigating, and the school’s superintendent has canceled the successful team’s football season.
The coach and officials won’t comment on details of the abuse, but it may have gone on for a year. A Sports Illustrated article indicated that it likely did not involve intercourse.

“There were incidents of harassment, intimidation that took place on a pervasive level, in which the players knew, tolerated and in general accepted,” says Superintendent Richard Labbe….
http://myfox8.com/2014/10/10/sexual-abuse-allegations-shut-down-football-season-at-new-jersey-school/

Seven Sayreville football players suspended amid abuse scandal at New Jersey school
The announcement came an hour before a vigil was to be held in town for the victims of the alleged hazing ritual. BY Bill Price NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Sunday, October 12, 2014

The seven Sayreville football players arrested over the weekend have been suspended from school, Jonathan Busch, the lawyer for the school board said in a statement, according to The Home News Tribune.
“While we are legally restricted from speaking about individual students, it would be fair to say that any student arrested in connection with the matter involving the football program is suspended from Sayreville War Memorial High School, and we are in the process of arranging for an alternative education pending further investigation,” Busch said in the statement.
The announcement came an hour before a vigil was to be held in town for the victims of the alleged hazing ritual….

A joint statement from county prosecutor Andrew C. Carey and Sayreville Police Chief John Zebrowski on Saturday said “seven juveniles have been charged with juvenile delinquency arising from the attacks upon four victims in four separate incidents at Sayreville War Memorial High School.”
The statement said “three of the juveniles were charged with aggravated sexual assault, aggravated criminal sexual contact, conspiracy to commit aggravated criminal sexual contact, criminal restraint and hazing for engaging in an act of sexual penetration upon one of the juvenile victims.”….
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/high-school/sayreville-suspended-school-report-article-1.1971879

Campus nightmare: female students on the rise of sexual harassment
Photographed in their beds, shamed on social media – and, for some female students, that’s just the beginning. So what are British universities doing about sexual harassment and assaults?
Sally Williams The Guardian, Friday 10 October 2014

….The extent of sexual assaults on British campuses emerged four years ago when the NUS published Hidden Marks: A Study Of Women Students’ Experiences Of Harassment, Stalking, Violence And Sexual Assault. One in seven respondents had experienced some form of serious physical or sexual assault, the report stated, and more than two-thirds had experienced some kind of verbal or nonverbal harassment in or around university. (The latest NUS survey revealed that 37% of women and 12% of men who responded said they had faced unwelcome sexual advances.) Being groped, having someone put their hand up your skirt at a club and sexual comments were so ubiquitous, the NUS concluded, they were almost a fact of life.

A report last year, by the Ministry of Justice, the Home Office and the Office for National Statistics, stated that female students in full-time education are at higher risk of sexual violence than the general female population. A particularly hazardous time, experts believe, is freshers’ week, when newcomers are invited to a raft of social events. “They are extremely vulnerable,” says Dr Alison Phipps, director of gender studies at Sussex University and coauthor of That’s What She Said, a 2013 report on women students’ experience in higher education. “Some of them are away from home for the first time, are trying to make friends and don’t know the campus, don’t know the city.”….
http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/oct/11/campus-nightmare-female-students-rise-sexual-harassment

Hidden Marks
A study of women students’ experiences of harassment, stalking, violence and sexual assault

Foreword
Welcome to Hidden Marks, the first ever nationwide report into women students’ experience of harassment, stalking, violence and sexual assault. We decided to undertake this research because women aged 16–24 have a higher risk of experiencing domestic violence, but there appeared to be little awareness of this amongst students. We wanted to find out from women students themselves about their experiences. We wanted to understand what was happening on campus, in halls of residences, and in
students’ unions, and we wanted to hear how women students felt about it.
In this report we provide a snapshot of the harassment and violence that a national sample of women students have faced whilst they have been at their current institution. The picture that we have revealed is disturbing. 14 per cent have experienced serious physical or sexual assault. 68 per cent have been subject to verbal or physical sexual harassment. Nearly one in four has experienced unwanted sexual contact.
http://www.nus.org.uk/Global/NUS_hidden_marks_report_2nd_edition_web.pdf

NUS research reveals one in four students suffer unwelcome sexual advances
Monday 15 September 2014
NUS President, Toni Pearce today called on UK universities to join NUS in its work on tackling lad culture on UK campuses. The call comes as new research reveals that one in four students (26 per cent) have suffered unwelcome sexual advances, defined as inappropriate touching and groping.

More than a third of women students (37 per cent) said they had faced unwelcome sexual advances.
In the survey of over 2,000 men and women students almost one third of respondents said they endure unwanted sexual comments about their body (12 per cent of men, 37 per cent of women).
Two thirds of respondents said they have seen students put up with unwanted sexual comments, with just under one third bearing witness to verbal harassment based on a student’s gender.

75 per cent of students are aware of online communities such as ‘Unilad’ and ‘Lad Bible’ with almost two thirds of women students (63 per cent) agreeing that these contribute to an unfair representation of women…. http://www.nus.org.uk/en/news/nus-research-reveals-one-in-four-students-suffer-unwelcome-sexual-advances/

Lawmakers Blast Child-Abuse Inquiry on Tax Shelter Jersey Island, 40 percent of women with severe mental illness are victims of rape, attempted rape

Lawmakers Blast Child-Abuse Inquiry on Tax Shelter Jersey Island
By Leah McGrath Goodman  9/10/14

Neil McMurray used to be a professional fisherman and crabber—until one of his children was repeatedly bullied in school and he found himself investigating what he began to view as a startling lack of concern for the welfare of children in his tiny island home.

“For the past decade, I have been writing about what I have come to see as a culture of concealment within our government, education and justice systems, which have repeatedly failed the most vulnerable members of our society, particularly children,” says McMurray.

McMurray lives on the island of Jersey, a $2 trillion tax shelter in the Channel Islands. Just 14 miles off the west coast of France, Jersey is part of neither Great Britain nor the European Union but a “Crown dependency”—meaning it is technically accountable to the queen of Great Britain but governs itself.

A 47-year-old married father of two, McMurray launched a humble but highly influential blog, Voice for Children, around the time the island’s police announced in 2008 that nearly 200 people from different parts of the world had come forward to report they had been victims of child predators on the island.

Since then, McMurray has assiduously covered child-protection issues in Jersey, gaining a following that includes global human-rights activists as well as the island’s locals, not excluding Jersey’s chief minister, Ian Gorst. But he has also gathered a good deal of notoriety….

Dubbed Operation Rectangle, the 2008 police investigation into widespread child abuse on the island yielded 151 suspects in Jersey, which is only 5 by 9 miles in size. Of those, 30 are now dead and fewer than a dozen were convicted, sparking widespread outrage from victims and witnesses and creating deep divisions on the island.

During Operation Rectangle, a dig under a government-run Jersey children’s home, Haut de la Garenne, unearthed the remains of children aged 6 to 12, according to a Jersey police press release, which noted that “no people are reported missing” and “there are no suspects for murder.” The probe closed in 2010 under questionable circumstances.

In July, a long-awaited Committee of Inquiry convened hearings in Jersey to investigate whether there may have been a cover-up of decades of atrocities against children. The inquiry stated September 5 that “new witnesses are coming forward all the time, and it is anticipated the hearings will last many months.”….
http://www.newsweek.com/lawmakers-blast-child-abuse-inquiry-tax-shelter-jersey-269447

40 percent of women with severe mental illness are victims of rape, attempted rape
September 3, 2014
University College London

Summary: Women with severe mental illness are up to five times more likely than the general population to be victims of sexual assault and two to three times more likely to suffer domestic violence, reveals new research.

Women with severe mental illness are up to five times more likely than the general population to be victims of sexual assault and two to three times more likely to suffer domestic violence, reveals new research led by UCL (University College London) and King’s College London funded by the Medical Research Council and the Big Lottery.

The study, published in Psychological Medicine, found that 40% of women surveyed with severe mental illness had suffered rape or attempted rape in adulthood, of whom 53% had attempted suicide as a result. In the general population, 7% of women had been victims of rape or attempted rape, of whom 3% had attempted suicide. 12% of men with severe mental illness had been seriously sexually assaulted, compared with 0.5% of the general population….

“The number of rape victims among women with severe mental illness is staggering,” says lead author Dr Hind Khalifeh of UCL’s Division of Psychiatry. “At the time of the survey, 10% had experienced sexual assault in the past year, showing that the problems continue throughout adulthood. Considering the high rate of suicide attempts among rape victims in this group, clinicians assessing people after a suicide attempt should consider asking them if they have been sexually assaulted. Currently this is not done and so patients may miss opportunities to receive specialist support.”

Men and women with mental illness were also found to be more likely to be victims of domestic violence than the general population. Domestic violence includes emotional, physical and sexual abuse. 69% of women and 49% of men with severe mental illness reported adulthood domestic violence.

Domestic violence from family members (other than partners) made up 63% of total domestic violence cases against psychiatric patients compared with 35% of the general population…. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140903204125.htm

Probe launched by Foreign Office into allegations of child abuse on British territory of St Helena

Probe launched by Foreign Office into allegations of child abuse on British territory of St Helena after claims were revealed by child protection charity

Foreign and Commonwealth Office promise independent investigation
Comes as social worker on island claims she was forced to resign
Said she was shocked over sheer volume of sexual abuse allegations
Claims she was harassed and threatened when she blew the whistle

By Louise Eccles 24 July 2014

A social worker on St Helena who claims she was forced to resign after authorities failed to tackle ‘appalling’ child sexual abuse on the island will have her shocking allegations probed by an independent investigation, Mail Online can reveal.
The social services manager, who has asked not to be named, said she was shocked when she arrived on the British overseas territory by the sheer volume of sexual abuse allegations.

But she claims she was harassed and threatened when she blew the whistle on the alleged failure of police to properly investigate such crimes.
Now the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has promised an independent investigation will be launched into her claims.
The probe comes after Mail Online revealed that a report by UK child protection charity The Lucy Faithfull Foundation found St Helena was rife with child sexual abuse, domestic violence and sexual exploitation.

The charity was sent to the remote South Atlantic island by the British government, although the report was never released.
A spokeswoman for the FCO said: ‘These are extremely worrying allegations which we take very seriously….
‘Paedophiles were found to be private foster carers. Staff were allowed to have sexual relationships with vulnerable adults. Reported rapes were not dealt with.

‘Paedophilia was not being tackled if it involved public officials or connected people. They were not being investigated or charged.’
She claims that she was constructively dismissed on 8 July 2014.
The manager said she had ‘no choice’ but to resign because she had been targeted by officials ever since whistleblowing to the Department for International Development (DFID) and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in March.
She was also threatened with perjury charges in relation to an adoption case – something she believes was done to ensure she would leave the island….
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2704718/Probe-launched-Foreign-Office-allegations-child-abuse-British-territory-St-Helena-claims-revealed-child-protection-charity.html

ITCCS Finney released from jail, ex-Radio 1 DJ Dave Lee Travis charged, Trauma and child abuse effects

– He’s Out! International intervention frees Canadian Prisoner of Conscience Steve Finney
– Political Persecution of Canadian activist Steve Finney in Ontario court to be investigated by International Human Rights Observers
– Dave Lee Travis Charged With Two More Offences
– Traumatic events do not occur at random
– Effects of child abuse can last a lifetime

He’s Out! International intervention frees Canadian Prisoner of Conscience Steve Finney

“Early morning call” to Ontario’s Attorney General spurred ITCCS leader’s release Posted on October 02, 2013 by itccs

Kitchener, Ontario: The courage and resolve of Steve Finney himself, and phone calls from the ITCCS and a United Nations non-governmental body to the Ontario government, stopped cold an attempt by local judges and police to silence Finney and his campaign to confront child trafficking in Kitchener, Ontario.

Finney was released this afternoon in a sudden about-face by local authorities less than two hours after Ontario Attorney General John Gerretsen spoke with two human rights officials who have monitored Finney’s unlawful arrest and imprisonment.

According to one of these officials, who is a legal advisor to the ITCCS in Brussels,
“We can’t disclose the conversation we had with the Attorney General, out of mutual agreement with Mr. Gerretsen. But I can tell you that we informed him that we were preparing a motion at the United Nations to censure his government for its treatment of Mr. Finney. We were also going to name Finney as a prisoner of conscience if he wasn’t released, since he was clearly incarcerated because of his political beliefs.”

Kitchener Judge Michael Cuthbertson had just yesterday told Steve Finney that he would not be released on bail unless he formally renounced his involvement with the ITCCS, and denied anyone connected to ITCCS the right to offer sureties for Finney. The Crown Counsel had also attacked ITCCS in the bail hearing and suggested that Finney’s wife Amy Smart could be arrested for posting ITCCS videos on youtube. “I feel fantastic” said Steve Finney in a brief telephone interview soon after his release.
http://itccs.org/2013/10/02/hes-out-international-intervention-frees-canadian-prisoner-of-conscience-steve-finney-early-morning-call-to-ontarios-attorney-general-spurred-itccs-leaders-release/

itccs.org
Political Persecution of Canadian activist Steve Finney in Ontario court to be investigated by International Human Rights Observers

Finney may be named as a Prisoner of Conscience and Political Prisoner Posted on October 02, 2013 by itccs

Brussels: Steve Finney, the unlawfully jailed Canadian leader of the International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State (ITCCS), was told yesterday by a Kitchener, Ontario court judge that he won’t be released on bail unless he disassociates himself from the Tribunal.

Ontario Court of Justice magistrate Michael Cuthbertson informed Finney through Duty Counsel Dave Woodbeck that no-one associated with the ITCCS would be allowed to post bail for him, and neither should Finney himself remain active with the ITCCS if he wished to “avoid another thirty days in jail”.

Steve Finney still faces no charges after his sudden arrest Sunday morning, the day after he spoke on international radio about his work to expose child trafficking in Kitchener involving government and police officials. Finney has been severely beaten by Kitchener police, assaulted and denied any contact or communication with anyone while in prison.
In response to such flagrant political persecution, the ITCCS and its United Nations affiliates have dispatched two accredited human rights observers to Kitchener to attend the Wednesday, October 2 bail hearing of Steve Finney.
http://itccs.org/2013/10/02/political-persecution-of-canadian-activist-steve-finney-in-ontario-court-to-be-investigated-by-international-human-rights-observers-finney-may-be-named-as-a-prisoner-of-conscience-and-political-pris/

Dave Lee Travis Charged With Two More Offences The Huffington Post UK   01/10/2013

DJ Dave Lee Travis has been further charged with two offences of indecent assault on a woman aged over 16 between January 1 1992 and December 31 1993.
The 68-year-old, whose real name is David Patrick Griffin, has been accused of assaulting a woman aged over 16 between January 1 1992 and December 31 1993, Scotland Yard said.

Travis, of Mentmore, in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, has already appeared in court to face 12 counts, including indecent assault and sexual assault.

The ex-Radio 1 DJ was first charged on August 15 as part of Operation Yewtree, the police investigation prompted by the Jimmy Savile abuse scandal, but the accusations against Travis have no connection to the disgraced television presenter.
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/10/01/dave-lee-travis-charged-indecent-assault_n_4022792.html

Traumatic events do not occur at random
30 September 2013

Dr. Katie McLaughlin is a clinical psychologist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Washington.  She received her doctorate in Clinical Psychology and in Epidemiology and Public Health from Yale University in 2008.  Her research seeks to identify psychological and neurobiological mechanisms linking child trauma exposure to the onset of psychopathology in children and adolescents. Today, Katie writes about what population-based data can tell us about trauma in U.S. children and adolescents….

We sought to understand how common traumatic experiences are in the lives of U.S. youths by conducting a study examining trauma exposure and PTSD in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication Adolescent Supplement (NCS-A), a nationally-representative sample of 6,483 adolescents aged 13-17. This study is the largest population-based study examining trauma exposure and PTSD in U.S. youths, and the findings reveal trauma and PTSD are significant public health problems in this population….

Trauma Exposure is Pervasive among U.S. Youths
A majority of U.S. youths have experienced a traumatic event by the time they reach adolescence.  Sixty-two percent of teenagers have experienced at least one traumatic event in their lifetime, including interpersonal violence, serious injuries, natural disasters and death of a loved one, and 19 percent have experienced three or more such events.  The prevalence of trauma exposure among children and adolescents is nearly as high as the prevalence in adults based on similar population-based studies.

Traumatic Events do not Occur at Random
Some types of trauma occur more frequently to younger children, including physical abuse by a caregiver, witnessing domestic violence, and kidnapping. Approximately half of all children who will experience these types of trauma in their lifetime have been exposed before the age of 8.
http://trauma-recovery.net/2013/09/30/traumatic-events-do-not-occur-at-random

Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Volume 52, Issue 8 , Pages 815-830.e14, August 2013 Trauma Exposure and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in a National Sample of Adolescents Katie A. McLaughlin, Ph.D., Karestan C. Koenen, Ph.D. ,Eric D. Hill, M.S.P.H., Maria Petukhova, Ph.D., Nancy A. Sampson, B.A., Alan M. Zaslavsky, Ph.D., Ronald C. Kessler, Ph.D.

Objective
Although exposure to potentially traumatic experiences (PTEs) is common among youths in the United States, information on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) risk associated with PTEs is limited. We estimate lifetime prevalence of exposure to PTEs and PTSD, PTE-specific risk of PTSD, and associations of sociodemographics and temporally prior DSM-IV disorders with PTE exposure, PTSD given exposure, and PTSD recovery among U.S. adolescents.

Method
Data were drawn from 6,483 adolescent–parent pairs in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication Adolescent Supplement (NCS-A), a national survey of adolescents aged 13 through 17 years. Lifetime exposure to interpersonal violence, accidents/injuries, network/witnessing, and other PTEs was assessed along with DSM-IV PTSD and other distress, fear, behavior, and substance disorders.

Results
A majority (61.8%) of adolescents experienced a lifetime PTE. Lifetime prevalence of DSM-IV PTSD was 4.7% and was significantly higher among females (7.3%) than among males (2.2%). Exposure to PTEs, particularly interpersonal violence, was highest among adolescents not living with both biological parents and with pre-existing behavior disorders. Conditional probability of PTSD was highest for PTEs involving interpersonal violence. Predictors of PTSD among PTE-exposed adolescents included female gender, prior PTE exposure, and pre-existing fear and distress disorders. One-third (33.0%) of adolescents with lifetime PTSD continued to meet criteria within 30 days of interview. Poverty, U.S. nativity, bipolar disorder, and PTE exposure occurring after the focal trauma predicted nonrecovery….
http://www.jaacap.com/article/S0890-8567%2813%2900338-9/abstract

Effects of child abuse can last a lifetime: Watch the ‘still face’ experiment to see why
By Brigid Schulte, Published: September 16, 2013

In one of the most sobering findings, the report highlighted that advances in brain research now show that child abuse and neglect damages not only in the way a developing child’s brain functions, but changes the actual structure of the brain itself, in such a way that makes clear thinking, controlling emotions and impulses and forming healthy social relationships more difficult…..

Some infants, however, become so distressed that that they’re unable to console themselves. Tronick and other researchers have found that neglect leads to increases in the heart rate, a flush of the stress hormone cortisol and to cell death in key regions of the brain.

In recent studies, Tronick and colleagues in Milan, have found that four-month-old infants exposed to the still face will remember it two weeks later, rapidly showing physiological changes to negative responses that infants exposed to it for the first time do not….

In studies of infants at orphanages who are fed and clothed, but not held, talked to or played with have found that some neglected children, literally, fail to grow. “Some of them actually died,” he said….

The report found that one of the biggest risk factors for child abuse and neglect is if the parent him or herself was abused or neglected. So Tronick and others are working to train professionals and educate and treat parents in an effort to break the cycle. And, one hopes, put an end to the wrenching effects of The Still Face.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people/wp/2013/09/16/affects-of-child-abuse-can-last-a-lifetime-watch-the-still-face-experiment-to-see-why/