Sen. Al Franken Hit With Second Groping Allegation, Eight women say Charlie Rose sexually harassed them, Trump sexual harassment accusers

– Sen. Al Franken Hit With Second Groping Allegation
– Sen. Al Franken groped Arianna Huffington in 2000 photo shoot, NY Post reports
– Tapper runs through Trump sexual harassment accusers: ‘People in glass White Houses shouldn’t throw stones’
– Eight women say Charlie Rose sexually harassed them — with nudity, groping and lewd calls
– Charlie Rose Accused of Crude Sexual Advances by Multiple Women

Sen. Al Franken Hit With Second Groping Allegation
November 20, 2017 Susan Davis
Minnesota Democratic Sen. Al Franken is facing a second allegation that he groped a woman without consent while her husband took a photo of her with the senator at the Minnesota State Fair in 2010.

Franken “pulled me in really close, like awkward close, and as my husband took the picture, he put his hand full-fledged on my rear,” said Lindsay Menz, who told her story to CNN. “It wasn’t around my waist. It wasn’t around my hip or side. It was definitely on my butt,” she said.

CNN confirmed the account with Menz’s husband, mother and father, whom she told of the interaction at the time….
https://www.npr.org/2017/11/20/565350546/sen-al-franken-hit-with-second-groping-allegation

Sen. Al Franken groped Arianna Huffington in 2000 photo shoot, NY Post reports
William Cummings, USA TODAY  Nov. 20, 2017
Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., touched Huffington Post co-founder Arianna Huffington on the breast and buttocks during a 2000 photo shoot, The New York Post reported Friday. Huffington said there was nothing “remotely inappropriate” about the photos.

The Post published two photos: one showing Franken touching Huffington as the pair stood back to back, and the other showing Franken grabbing her breast as he hugged her from behind…..

Huffington said the photos were intended to reference a comedy sketch the two had performed together.

“The notion that there was anything inappropriate in this photo shoot is truly absurd,” Huffington said in a statement, according to the Post.

“Al and I did a comedic sketch for Bill Maher’s Politically Incorrect called Strange Bedfellows, in which the whole point, as the name makes clear, was that we were doing political commentary from bed,” Huffington told the Post. “This shoot was looking back at the sketch, and we were obviously hamming it up for comedic effect.”

“I’ve been great friends with Al and his wife Franni for over 20 years and there has never been anything remotely inappropriate in our interactions,” she said.

Two women have accused the Minnesota senator of sexual misconduct. Lindsay Menz, 33, told CNN that Franken grabbed her buttocks when she posed for a picture with him at the Minnesota State Fair in 2010. Leeann Tweeden said Franken “forcibly kissed” then later pretended to grope her while she was sleeping during a USO tour in the Middle East to entertain U.S. troops in 2006.

Here is how the Post’s unnamed source described the encounter:

“Franken was clowning around, but it really isn’t funny,” said a source from the shoot. “That’s his tactic, pretend like it’s all a big joke. Arianna was pushing his hands away. He was groping her. There was some fun attached to it, but she wasn’t enjoying it. She definitely told him to stop and pushed him away …

” … Franken stood there with his hand on her bottom for a long time, because there are numerous frames, each taken seconds apart, and his hand was there the whole time — his hand wasn’t just there for a quick moment,” the source said.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2017/11/20/al-franken-arianna-huffington-harassment/883718001/

Tapper runs through Trump sexual harassment accusers: ‘People in glass White Houses shouldn’t throw stones’
On “The Lead,” Tapper shared the photos and stories of 12 women who have accused Trump of sexual misconduct, harassment and assault between the 1980s and 2000s.

By Avery Anapol – 11/17/17

CNN host Jake Tapper torched President Trump Friday over his “double standard” treatment of sexual misconduct scandals.

On “The Lead,” Tapper shared the photos and stories of 12 women who have accused Trump of sexual misconduct, harassment and assault between the 1980s and 2000s.

Tapper called out the president for attacking Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) over his own sexual misconduct allegations but maintaining that the women who have accused Trump are lying.

“In Trump’s world, we’re supposed to believe the very compelling claims of Leeann Tweeden,” Tapper said, referring to Franken’s accuser. “But we are not supposed to believe these women — at least 12 women who have brought forward claims, on the record, about President Trump’s past behavior.”

Trump repeatedly denied the claims during his campaign. The White House has said that its official stance is that the women who have accused him of kissing and groping them without consent, as he bragged of doing on a leaked “Access Hollywood” tape, are lying.

“Total fabrication, the events never happened,” Trump said during the campaign. “All of these liars will be sued after the election is over.”

Tapper noted that the only suit filed so far has been one of the accusers suing Trump for defamation…..

http://thehill.com/homenews/media/360956-tapper-runs-through-trump-sexual-harassment-accusers-people-in-glass-white

Eight women say Charlie Rose sexually harassed them — with nudity, groping and lewd calls
By Irin Carmon and Amy Brittain November 20
Eight women have told The Washington Post that longtime television host Charlie Rose made unwanted sexual advances toward them, including lewd phone calls, walking around naked in their presence, or groping their breasts, buttocks or genital areas.

The women were employees or aspired to work for Rose at the “Charlie Rose” show from the late 1990s to as recently as 2011. They ranged in age from 21 to 37 at the time of the alleged encounters. Rose, 75, whose show airs on PBS and Bloomberg TV, also co-hosts “CBS This Morning” and is a contributing correspondent for “60 Minutes.”

There are striking commonalities in the accounts of the women, each of whom described their interactions with Rose in multiple interviews with The Post. For all of the women, reporters interviewed friends, colleagues or family members who said the women had confided in them about aspects of the incidents. Three of the eight spoke on the record….

Most of the women said Rose alternated between fury and flattery in his interactions with them. Five described Rose putting his hand on their legs, sometimes their upper thigh, in what they perceived as a test to gauge their reactions. Two said that while they were working for Rose at his residences or were traveling with him on business, he emerged from the shower and walked naked in front of them. One said he groped her buttocks at a staff party….

She said she told Yvette Vega, Rose’s longtime executive producer, about the calls.

“I explained how he inappropriately spoke to me during those times,” Godfrey-Ryan said. “She would just shrug and just say, ‘That’s just Charlie being Charlie.’ ”

In a statement to The Post, Vega said she should have done more to protect the young women on the show.

“I should have stood up for them,” said Vega, 52, who has worked with Rose since the show was created in 1991. “I failed. It is crushing. I deeply regret not helping them.”

Godfrey-Ryan said that when Rose learned she had confided to a mutual friend about his conduct, he fired her….

The environment brimmed with the young and potentially vulnerable, hungry for scarce television jobs. “There are so few jobs,” said one of the women who said Rose groped her. “You know if you don’t behave a certain way, there’s someone else behind you.”

Rose traveled frequently, jetting off to interview world leaders across the globe and splitting time between two New York City residences and homes in Bellport — on Long Island — and North Carolina. Often at his side was a rotating cast of young assistants and producers.

The young women who were hired by the show were sometimes known as “Charlie’s Angels,” two former employees said. Rose frequently gave unsolicited shoulder rubs to several of them, behavior referred to among employees as “the crusty paw,” a former employee said….

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/eight-women-say-charlie-rose-sexually-harassed-them–with-nudity-groping-and-lewd-calls/2017/11/20/9b168de8-caec-11e7-8321-481fd63f174d_story.html

Charlie Rose Accused of Crude Sexual Advances by Multiple Women
By KIM BARKER and ELLEN GABLER NOV. 20, 2017
After allegations surfaced Monday that the longtime television host Charlie Rose made crude sexual advances toward multiple women who worked on his show over a dozen years, CBS suspended him from its morning program and PBS announced that it would no longer distribute his long-running nightly interview show.

Eight women, including three who talked on the record, told The Washington Post that he made lewd phone calls to them, walked around naked in front of them or groped them. In addition, two women told The New York Times that he made unwanted advances toward them, trying to kiss them without their permission. The women spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared Mr. Rose’s power over their careers and what some described as his volatile temper.

In a statement, Mr. Rose said he did not believe all the allegations were accurate but also apologized.

“It is essential that these women know I hear them and that I deeply apologize for my inappropriate behavior. I am greatly embarrassed. I have behaved insensitively at times, and I accept responsibility for that,” he said. “I always felt that I was pursuing shared feelings, even though I now realize I was mistaken.”….

Current and former employees of the “Charlie Rose” show described an occasionally hostile work environment, with no human-resources department and Mr. Rose essentially running his own fief. Although the show operated out of the Bloomberg building, employees of “Charlie Rose” had little recourse if they had problems.

After Mr. Rose moved his broadcast from the PBS station to the Bloomberg offices, he got rid of many of the senior staff members, former employees said, instead hiring interns as staff members and then recruiting new interns. Eventually, he settled a class-action wage lawsuit filed by former interns.

Even as Mr. Rose hired a lean young staff, he also fostered a work environment in which a personal assistant and some employees worked out of his home instead of the office. The women were often young, just out of college….
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/20/us/charlie-rose-women.html

4 More Women Accuse Roy Moore of Misconduct, Al Franken accused of “Forcible Kissing & Groping”

– 4 More Women Accuse Roy Moore of Misconduct
– New Roy Moore accuser: ‘He didn’t pinch it; he grabbed it’
– Alabama G.O.P. Says It Stands Behind Roy Moore
– Al Franken Issues Apology After Accusation of Forcible Kissing and Groping
– Historical child abuse reports to Welsh police ‘increase’

4 More Women Accuse Roy Moore of Misconduct
By ALAN BLINDER NOV. 15, 2017
GADSDEN, Ala. — Alabama’s increasingly bizarre Senate race was convulsed again as four more women came forward on Wednesday to describe encounters with the Republican candidate, Roy S. Moore, and Mr. Moore’s campaign sharply questioned the credibility of another accuser.

The newest accusations came from women who ranged in age from about 18 to 28 at the time. They complained of being groped, forcibly kissed or subjected to unwanted advances.

One of them, Becky Gray, now 62, a retired teacher living in Gadsden, Ala., said in an interview that she was puzzled by Mr. Moore’s repeated overtures when she worked in the Gadsden Mall.

“I just couldn’t figure out why a man of his age spent every Friday and Saturday at the mall,” said Ms. Gray, who was then in her late teens or early 20s.

She said she frequently saw Mr. Moore, then in his 30s, talking with young women and did her best to avoid him. Ms. Gray said she eventually complained to her manager that he would not leave her alone and was later told that Mr. Moore had been banned from the mall.

Nine women have now come forward with accusations, and state Republican leaders were pondering increasingly baroque mechanisms that have the potential to deny their own candidate a Senate seat…..

Another woman, Gena Richardson, told The Post that Mr. Moore had left her frightened after he gave her a “forceful” kiss when she was about 18 and Mr. Moore was in his 30s.

Separately, Kelly Harrison Thorp said that Mr. Moore had sought a date with her when she was 17 and he was in his 30s, and Ms. Gray told The Post about Mr. Moore’s advances.

Karen Lancaster, 63, a retired schoolteacher, confirmed Wednesday that Ms. Gray had told her, in the late 1980s, that Mr. Moore repeatedly tried to ask her out during those years at the mall.

“I’ve known for over 20 years that he was a predator, that he preyed upon girls in the mall,” she said. “It’s common knowledge.”

Ms. Thorp, in a subsequent interview with The New York Times, recalled asking Mr. Moore if he knew how old she was.

“‘Oh yeah, I go out with girls your age all the time,’” she remembered him replying…..
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/15/us/roy-moore-alabama-republicans.html

New Roy Moore accuser: ‘He didn’t pinch it; he grabbed it’
November 15, 2017 By Anna Claire Vollers

A Gadsden woman says Roy Moore groped her while she was in his law office on legal business with her mother in 1991. Moore was married at that time.

In the past week, Moore has been accused by five other women of a range of behaviors that include sexual misconduct with a woman when she was 14, and sexual assault of another when she was 16. This is the first public accusation of physical contact that happened after Moore was married.

In recent days, Moore has publicly denied any wrongdoing, and has denied knowing some of the women.
….Almost from the moment she walked in to Moore’s office, Johnson said, Moore began flirting with her.

“He kept commenting on my looks, telling me how pretty I was, how nice I looked,” recalled Johnson. “He was saying that my eyes were beautiful.”

It made her uncomfortable. “I was thinking, can we hurry up and get out of here?”

Johnson was 28 years old, in a difficult marriage headed toward divorce, and unemployed. She was at the office to sign over custody of her 12-year-old son to her mother, with whom he’d been living. Her mother had hired Moore to handle the custody petition.

Johnson had two young daughters at the time with her then-husband, and her son said he wanted to live with his grandmother.

At one point during the meeting, she said, Moore came around the desk and sat on the front of it, just inches from her. He was so close, she said, she could smell his breath.

According to Johnson, he asked questions about her young daughters, including what color eyes they had and if they were as pretty as she was. She said that made her feel uncomfortable, too.

Once the papers were signed, she and her mother got up to leave. After her mother walked through the door first, she said, Moore came up behind her.

It was at that point, she recalled, he grabbed her buttocks.

“He didn’t pinch it; he grabbed it,” said Johnson. She was so surprised she didn’t say anything. She didn’t tell her mother.

She said she told her sister years later how Moore had made her feel uncomfortable during that meeting. Her sister told AL.com she remembers the conversation

…..”This is not a politics thing with me,” she said. “It’s more of a moral and religious thing.” It has bothered her over the years to see Moore on TV, talking about his Christian faith.

She wanted to come forward publicly now, she said, because it’s hard for victims of harassment to talk openly about their experiences.

“I want people to know that it’s OK to finally say something,” she said. “I guess I’m ashamed I didn’t say nothing, didn’t turn around and slap him.”

….Thorp said local women have not spoken publicly against Moore before now because he had power in town and in the state, and they didn’t think they would be believed.

“Everybody knew it wouldn’t matter,” she said, “that he would get elected anyway because his supporters are never going to believe anything bad about him.”

Johnson said the answer was even more simple.

“It’s because somebody asked,” she said. “If anybody had asked, we would have told it. No one asked.”
https://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2017/11/new_roy_moore_accuser_he_didnt.html

Alabama G.O.P. Says It Stands Behind Roy Moore
By ALAN BLINDER NOV. 16, 2017
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The Alabama Republican Party on Thursday offered unqualified support to the embattled candidacy of Roy S. Moore, ignoring the condemnation of national Republican leaders and brushing aside worries that he could lose a Senate race in a solidly conservative state — or be expelled from Congress if he wins.

….On Thursday, a parade of Christian activists, many of them from outside Alabama, gathered at a hotel here to declare their sustained backing for Mr. Moore and to beseech voters to look past the allegations.

But the event was often as much about criticizing the news media and Mr. Moore’s detractors as it was about shoring up the campaign.

“I believe he’s a man of God for the hour that we’re in, and he’ll represent us well,” said the Rev. David Floyd, a pastor at a Baptist church in Opelika. “By the way, we down here in Alabama, we don’t need Mitch McConnell or John McCain telling us who can be our representative in Congress. I believe that’s our choice to make.”….
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/16/us/roy-moore-alabama-republicans.html

Al Franken Issues Apology After Accusation of Forcible Kissing and Groping

By NICHOLAS FANDOS NOV. 16, 2017
WASHINGTON — A growing national outcry over sexual harassment reached the Senate on Thursday, when a radio newscaster accused Al Franken, Democrat of Minnesota, of kissing and groping her without consent during a 2006 U.S.O. tour of the Middle East before he took public office.

Mr. Franken, who has been mentioned as a possible presidential candidate, almost immediately released an apology to the newscaster, Leeann Tweeden, who said that Mr. Franken forcibly kissed her during a rehearsal and groped her for a photo as she slept…..

She also presented evidence, including a photograph of Mr. Franken, his head turned toward the camera, with his hands placed over Ms. Tweeden’s breasts as she slept.

According to Ms. Tweeden’s account, Mr. Franken wrote a bawdy script that included a kiss for the two to perform onstage. When it came time to rehearse the skit, she wrote, Mr. Franken insisted on kissing despite her protestations.

“I immediately pushed him away with both of my hands against his chest and told him if he ever did that to me again I wouldn’t be so nice about it the next time,” Ms. Tweeden wrote. “I walked away. All I could think about was getting to a bathroom as fast as possible to rinse the taste of him out of my mouth.”

“I felt disgusted and violated,” she added.

Ms. Tweeden said that no one else witnessed the kiss, and she did not tell the tour’s organizers. She said Mr. Franken retaliated against her with insults and, she learned after the trip ended, the compromising photograph.

Ms. Tweeden said the photograph was taken while she was asleep on a flight back to the United States from Afghanistan and that she saw it only later, after the trip ended.

“I felt violated all over again. Embarrassed. Belittled. Humiliated,” she wrote. “How dare anyone grab my breasts like this and think it’s funny?”….
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/16/us/politics/al-franken-sexual-harassment-groping-forcible-kissing.html

Historical child abuse reports to Welsh police ‘increase’
16 November 2017
Allegations of non-recent sexual offences recorded against children have risen sharply in the last four years, according to the NSPCC.

Welsh police forces recorded 947 offences in 2016-17, up from 520 in 2013-14, the children’s charity said.

The increase may be due to coverage of high-profile cases, it said.

North Wales Police recorded the most over that time with 1,317 cases, while South Wales Police saw 690, Dyfed-Powys had 569 and Gwent Police recorded 58….
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-42010080 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

GLOWING REFERENCES FOR OFFENDERS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Masego Rahlaga | March 3, 2015

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

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

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

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

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

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

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