Up to 85% of child abuse in England undetected study says, Paedophile ring used boys home

“An ”organised ring” of paedophiles believed to include Anglican and Catholic clergy used a Sunday afternoon ”children’s Christian program” in the 1970s to sexually abuse boys at a church-run Wallsend boys home.”

Up to 85% of child abuse in England remains undetected, study says

Ben Quinn  Monday 23 November 2015

Urgent action is needed to identify and prevent child abuse according to a major new study that suggests only one in eight victims in England comes to the attention of authorities.

About 50,000 cases of sexual abuse were recorded by police and local authorities in the two years to March 2014 but the findings indicate that official figures vastly underestimate the true scale of child sexual abuse. The actual number of children abused in that period is thought to be as many as 450,000.

The report, by the Office of the Children’s Commissioner (OCC), found that about 85% of sexually abused young people are not receiving help and treatment.

The majority of victims remain unidentified because the services that should protect them, including police and social services, rely on children to speak out, says the report. Two-thirds of cases, both known and unknown to the authorities, are believed to be victims of abuse in the family.
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/nov/24/85-percent-child-abuse-england-remains-undetected-study

Paedophile ring used boys home
September 23, 2013   Joanne McCarthy

An ”organised ring” of paedophiles believed to include Anglican and Catholic clergy used a Sunday afternoon ”children’s Christian program” in the 1970s to sexually abuse boys at a church-run Wallsend boys home.

”These men just came, got the boys, used them, and put them back,” said a Hunter woman whose husband has told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse he was sexually assaulted by multiple offenders at Woodlands Boys Home.

The United Protestant Association has issued an unreserved apology for the ”tragedy” of what occurred to child sex victims at Woodlands, where some of the smallest and youngest boys were targeted by the Sunday group.

”From what the victims have told us, these men changed from week to week, suggesting a larger, organised ring,” UPA general manager Steve Walkerden and after-care support worker Graham Hercus said on Friday.

”We are aware of a group of men who did come to the home in the 1970s for a number of years on a Sunday afternoon, ostensibly to conduct a children’s Christian program, but who routinely took smaller boys into downstairs rooms in the building and abused them.”

Anglican priest Peter Rushton – acknowledged by the church in 2010 as a sexual abuser of children – and ”volunteer carer” and convicted child sex offender Robert Holland, are believed to have taken boys from the home, or to have had links with Woodlands.

A third ”volunteer carer” at Woodlands was quietly convicted of child sex offences more than a decade ago….

”If the boys reported what happened, they were flogged. My husband can still hear it today, the screaming of the boys when they were taken downstairs and flogged for saying what had been done to them.”….
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/paedophile-ring-used-boys-home-20130922-2u7w6.html

Bill Cosby Rape Allegations, Organised Child Sex Abuse ‘widespread in England,’ British Murder Allegations of Paedophile Network of MPs and other VIPs

“Detectives are investigating an allegation that a young boy was murdered by a Conservative MP during a sickening sex attack.
The Metropolitan Police Service’s paedophile unit, under ‘Operation Midland’, is also investigating a claim that a second boy was murdered during a depraved sexual assault in the presence of a former  Conservative cabinet minister….the police are also investigating the murder of a third boy around 30 years ago by members of a paedophile network of MPs and other VIPs.”

– Bill Cosby’s Silence On Rape Allegations Makes Huge Media Noise
– Bill Cosby raped me. Why did it take 30 years for people to believe my story?
– Dr. Huxtable & Mr. Hyde
– Bill Cosby Under Fire The Comedian Settles a Case Accusing Him of Sexual Abuse—but Other Women Make Similar Claims
– Barbara Bowman Speaks About Bill Cosby Sexual Abuse Allegations
– One Very Important Thing Is Missing From the New Cosby –  Biography: A Timeline of the Abuse Charges [Updated]
– In interview with tabloid, Bill Cosby discusses molestation allegations

– Organised child sex abuse ‘widespread in England’, MPs say
– Alexis Jay: Years of missing records mean Rotherham child abuse numbers ‘much higher’ than 1,400
– ‘Operation Midland’ investigates Tory MP over boy’s murder
Met also probes slaying of second boy in sex attack in front of former cabinet minister
– Historical abuse inquiry: Police examine ‘possible homicide’

Bill Cosby’s Silence On Rape Allegations Makes Huge Media Noise
November 17, 2014  Eric Deggans

But in the recent explosion of attention to allegations that the comedy superstar drugged and sexually assaulted several women years ago, in incidents reaching back to the late 1960s, Cosby has remained uncharacteristically silent — epitomized by his interview with NPR’s Scott Simon, who found the comic would only shake his head and utter no sound when asked about the allegations.

His attorney did provide a statement posted on Cosby’s website that said, in part, “decade-old, discredited allegations against Mr. Cosby have resurfaced. The fact that they are being repeated does not make them true. Mr. Cosby doesn’t not intend to dignify these allegations with any comment.”

Later, a joint statement from Cosby’s attorney and a lawyer for Andrea Constand, a woman who settled a lawsuit with Cosby over such allegations in 2006, was posted on the site that read, in part: “The statement released by Mr. Cosby’s attorney over the weekend was not intended to refer in any way to Andrea Constand. As previously reported, differences between Mr. Cosby and Ms. Constand were resolved to the mutual satisfaction of Mr. Cosby and Ms. Constand years ago.”

News of Cosby’s silence rocketed across media; the moment was covered everywhere from NBC’s Today show to CNN, USA Today and The Washington Post, which called it “perhaps the most significant dead air in the history of National Public Radio.”

When NPR most recently spoke to Cosby, four women had come forward publicly with rape allegations: Constand, Beth Ferrier, Tamara Green and Barbara Bowman. (See this story for a more detailed account of their allegations.) Over the weekend, another woman, 66-year-old publicist Joan Tarshis, also told media outlets she was drugged and raped by Cosby when she was 19 years old. Constand filed a lawsuit in 2005 that included 13 women willing to tell similar stories, Greene and Bowman among them; the suit was settled, no terms were disclosed and Cosby was never charged with a crime….
http://www.npr.org/2014/11/17/364736453/bill-cosbys-silence-on-rape-allegations-makes-huge-media-noise
Bill Cosby raped me. Why did it take 30 years for people to believe my story?
Only when a male comedian called Cosby a rapist did the accusation take hold.
By Barbara Bowman November 13

In 2004, when Andrea Constand filed a lawsuit against Bill Cosby for sexual assault, her lawyers asked me to testify. Cosby had drugged and raped me, too, I told them. The lawyers said I could testify anonymously as a Jane Doe, but I ardently rejected that idea. My name is not Jane Doe. My name is Barbara Bowman, and I wanted to tell my story in court. In the end, I didn’t have the opportunity to do that, because Cosby settled the suit for an undisclosed amount of money.

Over the years, I’ve struggled to get people to take my story seriously. So last month, when reporter Lycia Naff contacted me for an interview for the Daily Mail, I gave her a detailed account. I told her how Cosby won my trust as a 17-year-old aspiring actress in 1985, brainwashed me into viewing him as a father figure, and then assaulted me multiple times. In one case, I blacked out after having dinner and one glass of wine at his New York City brownstone, where he had offered to mentor me and discuss the entertainment industry. When I came to, I was in my panties and a man’s t-shirt, and Cosby was looming over me. I’m certain now that he drugged and raped me. But as a teenager, I tried to convince myself I had imagined it. I even tried to rationalize it: Bill Cosby was going to make me a star and this was part of the deal. The final incident was in Atlantic City, where we had traveled for an industry event….

They, like other sexual assault victims, deserve our support. It’s the perpetrators who should be facing public humiliation – not the victims….
http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/11/13/bill-cosby-raped-me-why-did-it-take-30-years-for-people-to-believe-my-story/

Dr. Huxtable & Mr. Hyde
Who is Bill Cosby? What’s happened to the man who taught us to laugh at ourselves — and what do we do with him now? By Robert Huber   June 9, 2006

…. A young Canadian woman he met in Philadelphia through Temple University is accusing him of drugging her and then, when she was in a near-comatose state, molesting her. It went nowhere legally — the woman, Andrea Constand, waited a year before going to police, it boiled down to a he said/she said (Cosby claimed the sex was consensual, according to ABC News), and the police dropped the case for lack of evidence. But Constand filed a civil complaint in federal court in Philly last year, suing for an unspecified amount of money over $150,000. It is still Cosby’s no against her yes, except for one difference: Thirteen women are waiting to be deposed in the suit; in a court filing, Constand’s lawyer says that all of them — with nothing to gain, with no payout waiting, with their own statutes of limitations run out — have stories about Bill Cosby as well, and some of them will claim a similar drug-and-fondling M.O.

….The Story That Andrea Constand Tells
She met Bill Cosby in late 2002 when she was director of operations for Temple’s women’s basketball. He became a friend and mentor. In January 2004, Cosby invited Constand to his home in Elkins Park. She went there at about 9 p.m. Constand wanted to change careers and told Cosby she felt stressed. Cosby offered her three blue pills — herbal medication, he said, that would help her relax. She took the pills….

….The Story That Tamara Green Tells
Back in the ’70s, before Green became a lawyer, Cosby hired her to help him open a club in L.A. A week into the job, she felt sick, and called Cosby at Figero, a restaurant he owned, to say she was leaving for home. He invited her to the restaurant for lunch — it might make her feel better. She went. Cosby asked if she wanted some Contac, then handed her two gray-and-red capsules. She took them….

….The Story That Beth Ferrier Tells
Ferrier, 47, met Bill Cosby in 1984 when she was modeling in New York. They started an affair that lasted about six months. Cosby ended it without explanation. Then he called her one night in Denver, where she lived; they met backstage at a nightclub there, where he was performing. He said, “Here’s your favorite coffee, something I made, to relax you.” She drank it….

….The Story That Barbara Bowman Tells
Bowman’s incident with Bill Cosby occurred 20 years ago, when she was an aspiring actress. She told a lawyer. The lawyer laughed at her. She never mentioned it to an authority figure again. Bowman won’t disclose details of what happened before she’s deposed. But when she read about Andrea Constand, she decided that enough was enough — she couldn’t sit in silence any longer.
http://www.phillymag.com/articles/dr-huxtable-mr-hyde/

Bill Cosby Under Fire By Alex Tresniowski  The Comedian Settles a Case Accusing Him of Sexual Abuse—but Other Women Make Similar Claims    December 18, 2006    Vol. 66     No. 25

….What Cosby never mentioned was the civil lawsuit he settled just two days earlier with Andrea Constand, 32, a former Temple University employee who claimed Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her in his Philadelphia-area mansion in 2004. Constand’s lawyers Dolores Troiani and Bebe Kivitz ended up with 13 witnesses, most referred to in court documents as “Jane Does,” who came forward voluntarily with strikingly similar claims of drugging and or abuse by Cosby. Terms of the settlement, reached before any of the women could testify, were not disclosed. But PEOPLE reporters have interviewed five of the women and share three of their stories now.

As in so many cases alleging sexual assault, these women make imperfect witnesses. They are talking about events two or three decades old. Many of their recollections are fragmentary, and in some cases, they are not even sure what happened between them and Cosby, though that is not unusual in cases where a possible date-rape drug is involved. None of the women ever contacted police with their stories, either at the time of the alleged assaults or in the years leading up to Constand’s revelations, and two of the five women reached by PEOPLE allowed Cosby to pay part or all of their travel and/or living expenses for some time. Three accepted cash from him years after the incidents, and two even went on to have consensual relationships with him.

But none of them stand to profit from suing Cosby for monetary damages; the statute of limitations on all their charges has expired. And their stories, which take place in several cities and span two decades, illustrate the same pattern of behavior….
http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20059561,00.html

Barbara Bowman Speaks About Bill Cosby Sexual Abuse Allegations
By Katie J.M. Baker 2/12/14
Last week, Newsweek interviewed Tamara Green, one of 13 women who accused Bill Cosby of drugging and sexually assaulting them in a civil lawsuit brought by Andrea Constand in 2004, and settled under undisclosed terms in 2006. Now, a second woman is speaking out: Barbara Bowman, a 46-year-old artist who says Cosby took her under his wing in the late ‘80s, when she was a teenager — and repeatedly emotionally and physically abused her.

Both Bowman and Green joined the 2004 lawsuit as witnesses after hearing about it on television; neither had anything to gain financially, as the statute of limitations had expired for both of them….

Why do you think people find it so hard to believe celebrities can be sexual assaulters?
The media creates this idealized image of celebrities: that they are untouchable, that they’re not one of us… I don’t think people want to believe it; to believe would shatter the illusion….
http://www.newsweek.com/barbara-bowman-speaks-about-bill-cosby-sexual-abuse-allegations-228837

One Very Important Thing Is Missing From the New Cosby Biography: A Timeline of the Abuse Charges [Updated]
By Matt Giles
http://www.vulture.com/2014/09/timeline-of-the-abuse-charges-against-cosby.html

In interview with tabloid, Bill Cosby discusses molestation allegations
By Bill Bergstrom ASSOCIATED PRESS  March 4, 2005

PHILADELPHIA – Comedian Bill Cosby, responding to a woman’s allegations of sexual molestation, said “words and actions can be misinterpreted,” but he insisted he wouldn’t give in to any attempt to “exploit” him because he’s a celebrity….

The 67-year-old entertainer, best-known as a warm, wisecracking TV dad, was cleared of criminal charges in connection with the allegations. Attorneys for the Canadian woman said they plan to file a civil lawsuit against Cosby next week.

In the interview, Cosby said he didn’t speculate on whether money was the woman’s motive. “Let’s not go there,” he said. But he asserted: “I am not going to give in to people who try to exploit me because of my celebrity status.”….

The woman, who lives in Ontario, told Canadian authorities that, after a night out with friends in January 2004, Cosby gave her medication that made her dizzy, then fondled her.

Cosby denied the allegations. The accuser’s family had described Cosby as a friend and mentor to the woman, which he didn’t deny. He told the tabloid a role as mentor can lead to trouble.

“Sometimes you try to help people and it backfires on you and then they try to take advantage of you,” Cosby said.
http://www.utsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050304/news_1n4cosby.html

Organised child sex abuse ‘widespread in England’, MPs say
17 November 2014
Organised child sex abuse is widespread in England, a report by MPs on the Rotherham exploitation scandal says.

A review of child protection systems across the country has been called for by the Commons’ Communities and Local Government Committee.

Its report also said Rotherham Council and Ofsted had “failed” the victims targeted in the town.

It suggested the council’s protection policies were “divorced from reality”, enabling the abuse to continue.

MPs said, however, the town was “not an outlier” for abuse and all councils needed to review child protection policies.

‘More rigorous inspection’

Their inquiry was prompted by a report by Professor Alexis Jay, which revealed up to 1,400 children were estimated to have been victims of abuse in the South Yorkshire town between 1997 and 2013….
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-30083835

Alexis Jay: Years of missing records mean Rotherham child abuse numbers ‘much higher’ than 1,400  11/17/04

….Inquiry author Professor Jay said five years of data from Rotherham Council about victims is missing, while South Yorkshire Police was unable to record the scale of the problem before 2013 as it did not categorise child sexual exploitation as a form of crime until last year.

Four years’ worth of meeting minutes discussing child abuse cases between 1999 and 2003 have also disappeared.

A letter Prof Jay sent to the Communities and Local Government Committee has been made public ahead of a report by MPs being published tomorrow. She said a category for recording child sexual exploitation cases was introduced by police only in 2013, meaning the force was ‘unable to quantify the scale of the problem’ prior to last year.

While social services did officially recognise the issue from 2001, she said some victims were wrongly classified as being ‘out of control’.

Prof Jay said Rotherham Council provided information for only 11 of the 16 years covered by the inquiry.
http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/local/alexis-jay-years-of-missing-records-mean-rotherham-child-abuse-numbers-much-higher-than-1-400-1-6956491

‘Operation Midland’ investigates Tory MP over boy’s murder
Met also probes slaying of second boy in sex attack in front of former cabinet minister
By Mark Conrad  15 November 2014

….Detectives are investigating an allegation that a young boy was murdered by a Conservative MP during a sickening sex attack.
The Metropolitan Police Service’s paedophile unit, under ‘Operation Midland’, is also investigating a claim that a second boy was murdered during a depraved sexual assault in the presence of a former  Conservative cabinet minister…. http://www.exaronews.com/articles/5409/operation-midland-investigates-tory-mp-over-boy-s-murder

Historical abuse inquiry: Police examine ‘possible homicide’
By Tom Symonds Home Affairs correspondent   14 November 2014
The man says he was first abused by his own father before being “handed over” as a young boy to the group

Child abuse investigations

Police are investigating “possible homicide” linked to what has been described as a paedophile ring involving powerful people in the 1970s and 1980s.

The group is alleged to have included senior figures in public life, the military, politics and law enforcement….

A key witness who has spoken to police has told the BBC that he was abused for nine years as a boy….

Speaking anonymously to the BBC but using the name “Nick”, the alleged victim said he had given three days of video-taped evidence to detectives.

His accounts are being assessed as part of Operation Midland, a new Scotland Yard investigation which is under the umbrella of its inquiry into historical abuse, Operation Fairbank.

Nick, now in his 40s, says that he was first abused by his own father before being “handed over” as a young boy to the group.

“They were very powerful people and they controlled my life for the next nine years,” Nick added.

“They created fear that penetrated every part of me, day in day out. You didn’t question what they wanted, you did as they asked without question and the punishments were very severe.”

Nick said the group was “very organised” and would arrange for chauffeur-driven cars to pick up boys, sometimes from school, and drive them to “parties” or “sessions” at locations including hotels and private apartments in London and other cities.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-30052726

Witchcraft-based child abuse: Action plan launched

Witchcraft-based child abuse: Action plan launched

14 August 2012

The government has launched an action plan to tackle child abuse linked to witchcraft or religion in England.

High-profile cases include the murders of Kristy Bamu and Victoria Climbie but experts fear much more abuse is hidden.

The key aims are to raise awareness and set out “urgent practical steps to identify and protect children at risk”.

Children’s Minister Tim Loughton said: “Child abuse is appalling and unacceptable wherever it occurs and whatever form it takes.

“Abuse linked to faith or belief in spirits, witchcraft or possession is a horrific crime, condemned by people of all cultures, communities and faiths – but there has been a ‘wall of silence’ around its scale and extent.

“There can never be a blind eye turned to violence or emotional abuse or even the smallest risk that religious beliefs will lead to young people being harmed.”

The government says that cases of adults inflicting physical violence or emotional harm on children they regard as witches or possessed by evil spirits occur across the world, often in sub-sects of major religions, such as Christianity….

Scotland Yard says it has conducted 83 investigations into cases of faith-based child abuse in the past decade including those of Victoria Climbie who was eight when she was murdered in 2000 and the headless torso of “Adam”, a five or six-year-old boy, which was found in the Thames in 2001.

Ministers are concerned that although the investigations number just a few dozen, other abuse is going on, “under-reported and misunderstood”.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-19248144

Paedophile priests still play active church role – England and Wales

Shanley clergy abuse recovered memory case
http://ritualabuse.us/research/memory-fms/shanley-recovered-memory-case/

– Channel 4 News report finds many of the Catholic clergy jailed in England and Wales remain in the priesthood – Riazat Butt The Guardian, 15 September 2010  More than half of the Catholic clergy jailed for paedophile activity in England and Wales remain in the priesthood – with several receiving financial support from church authorities, raising serious questions about depth of church commitment to child protection and overshadowing the start of the papal visit. There are also claims the church has breached guidelines it agreed to in 2001 by not punishing offenders appropriately and that it has even relaxed some of the rules on how to treat them….at least 14 of the 22 priests who have served a year or more behind bars are still members of the clergy and 10 of these appear in the most recent edition of the Catholic Directory, the official yearbook of the church. Only eight of the 22 men have been dismissed from their positions.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/15/paedophile-priests-active-church-role

2011 Ritual Abuse Conference, Vatican Accountability for Human Rights Abuses

articles:
Church sex abuse victims call on Pope to take action
The Case of the Pope: Vatican Accountability for Human Rights Abuses
Ex-bishop in Belgian abuse scandal goes to hiding
http://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/

A conference to help survivors of severe child abuse (ritual abuse) and torture will be held on August 5  – 7, 2011, between 8 – 5 PM Saturday and Sunday at the DoubleTree Hotel near Bradley International Airport, 16 Ella Grasso Turnpike, Windsor Locks, CT 06096 (between Hartford, CT and Springfield, MA).  This conference will help educate survivors of this abuse and their helpers.  Pre-registration is preferred.  For information write  S.M.A.R.T., P. O Box 1295, Easthampton, MA 01027-1295 E-mail: smartnews@aol.com, conference information is at:  http://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/

Church sex abuse victims call on Pope to take action  11 September 2010 Abuse survivors want to pass their testimonies to the Pope Campaigners who say they were sexually abused by Catholic priests as children have demanded “action not words” from the Pope. They plan to compile messages to the Pope in a book to give to him during his visit to Scotland and England. The campaigners want a statutory inquiry into clergy sex abuse, pastoral care and funding to support victims. The Catholic Bishops’ Conference said the church in England and Wales has put in place measures to protect children. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11267301

The Case of the Pope: Vatican Accountability for Human Rights Abuses by Geoffrey Robertson Terry Eagleton welcomes a coolly devastating inquiry into the Vatican’s handling of child abuse Terry Eagleton The Guardian, Saturday 11 September 2010 The first child sex scandal in the Catholic church took place in AD153, long before there was a “gay culture” or Jewish journalists for bishops to blame it on. By the 1960s, the problem had become so dire that a cleric responsible for the care of “erring” priests wrote to the Vatican suggesting that it acquire a Caribbean island to put them on. What has made a bad situation worse, as the eminent QC Geoffrey Robertson argues in this coolly devastating inquiry, is canon law – the church’s own arcane, highly secretive legal system, which deals with alleged child abusers in a dismayingly mild manner rather than handing them over to the police. Its “penalties” for raping children include such draconian measures as warnings, rebukes, extra prayers, counselling and a few months on retreat. It is even possible to interpret canon law as claiming that a valid defence for paedophile offences is paedophilia. Since child abusers are supposedly incapable of controlling their sexual urges, this can be used in their defence. It is rather like pleading not guilty to stealing from Tesco’s on the grounds that one is a shoplifter. One blindingly simple reason for the huge amount of child abuse in the Catholic church (on one estimate, up to 9% of clerics are implicated) is that the perpetrators know they will almost certainly get away with it. For almost a quarter of a century, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the man who is now Pope, was in supreme command of this parallel system of justice – a system deliberately hidden from the public, police and parliaments and run, so Robertson maintains, in defiance of international law.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/sep/11/pope-vatican-abuse-geoffrey-robertson

Ex-bishop in Belgian abuse scandal goes to hiding   By RAF CASERT  Associated Press Writer Sep 11, 2010  BRUSSELS (AP) — The former Belgian bishop who resigned in April after admitting he sexually abused a nephew for years said Friday he would go into hiding to assess his future, despite calls for him to leave the church immediately. Roger Vangheluwe said in a statement he would immediately leave an abbey in his bishopry of Bruges, where he has been staying since his April 23 resignation. His bishopry has urged him to seek another place to live, and several victims of sexual abuse by clergy as well as a prominent senator have called on him to leave the church as an institution. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CHURCH_ABUSE_BELGIUM?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2010-09-11-08-29-55