Australia Gripped by Decades of Sexual Abuse of Children, Panel Finds

Australia Gripped by Decades of Sexual Abuse of Children, Panel Finds
By JACQUELINE WILLIAMS DEC. 14, 2017

Australia’s senior Roman Catholic prelate, Cardinal George Pell, in June became the highest-ranking Vatican official in recent years to face criminal charges involving accusations of sexual offenses.

SYDNEY, Australia — A royal commission investigating the sexual abuse of children in Australia found Friday that the nation was gripped by an epidemic dating back decades, with tens of thousands of children sexually abused in schools, religious organizations and other institutions.

The commission, the highest form of investigation in Australia, urged government action on its 189 recommendations, including the establishment of a new National Office for Child Safety and penalties for those who suspect abuse and fail to alert the police, including priests who hear about abuse in confessionals. It also urged Australia’s Roman Catholic leadership to press Rome to end mandatory celibacy for priests.

“Tens of thousands of children have been sexually abused in many Australian institutions,” said the report, which was particularly critical of Catholic organizations. “We will never know the true number. Whatever the number, it is a national tragedy, perpetrated over generations within many of our most trusted institutions.”

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the commission had exposed “a national tragedy.”

The commission’s chairman, Justice Peter McClellan, said that the panel heard from more than 1,000 witnesses over nearly 15 months in assessing the magnitude of the abuse.

“It is not a case of a few rotten apples,” the report said. “Society’s major institutions have seriously failed. In many cases those failings have been exacerbated by a manifestly inadequate response to the abused person. The problems have been so widespread, and the nature of the abuse so heinous, that it is difficult to comprehend.”

Australia created the commission in 2012 to investigate decades of sexual abuse in religious institutions, schools and other establishments — the only country in the world so far to initiate such a sweeping government-led inquiry. More than 4,000 institutions have been implicated in abuse allegations, the commission found.

Australian government investigators identified 4,444 victims of abuse and at least 1,880 suspected abusers from 1980 to 2015. Most of those suspected of abuse were Catholic priests and religious brothers. The report released Friday said 62 percent of the survivors who told the commission they were abused in religious institutions were abused in a Catholic facility….

The most damaging revelations about child sexual abuse have centered on scandals in towns like Ballarat, the hometown of Cardinal George Pell, who this year became the highest-ranking Roman Catholic prelate to be formally charged with sexual offenses….

The charges brought in June against Cardinal Pell, one of Pope Francis’ top advisers, followed years of criticism that he had at best overlooked, and at worst covered up, the widespread abuse of children by clergymen in Australia.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/14/world/australia/australia-sexual-abuse-children.html

Attacks on the credibility of abuse survivors are not justified by research, Flawed Theories to Explain Child Physical Abuse

– Attacks on the credibility of abuse survivors are not justified by research
– Courtroom Antics Cast Doubt on Child Abuse Findings
– Flawed Theories to Explain Child Physical Abuse
What Are the Medical-Legal Consequences?

“Physicians, researchers, academic medical centers, journalists, and legal scholars have a responsibility to repudiate scientifically unsupported theories that falsely purport to explain child abuse and abusive head trauma.”

“In fact, scientific studies find that children are far less suggestible than we have been led to believe. Brain imaging studies have identified the neurological mechanisms involved in the process of forgetting and then recalling sexual abuse as an adult.  Delayed disclosure and amnesia are now understood as normal coping mechanisms in response to abuse.”

Attacks on the credibility of abuse survivors are not justified by research
New science of trauma and memory has shown that the assertions of ‘false memory’ advocates are exaggerated

Michael Salter  Sunday 1 October 2017
For a quarter of a century, the concept of “false memories” has provided a scientific fig leaf for sceptics of child sexual abuse allegations.

The “false memory” argument is deceptively simple: children and adults are prone to invent false memories of child sexual abuse that never occurred, particularly if encouraged by a therapist or some other authority figure.

So-called “recovered memories”, in which adults recall sexual abuse in childhood after a period of amnesia, have been a particular focus of disbelief.

Abuse inquiry reforms would put more paedophiles in jail, experts say

In fact, scientific studies find that children are far less suggestible than we have been led to believe. Brain imaging studies have identified the neurological mechanisms involved in the process of forgetting and then recalling sexual abuse as an adult.

Delayed disclosure and amnesia are now understood as normal coping mechanisms in response to abuse….

However, the new science of trauma and memory has shown that the assertions of “false memory” advocates were exaggerated.

Overwhelming experiences of abuse are encoded differently in the brain than other memories, and can produce amnesia and forgetting. My research has found that many perpetrators of severe abuse deliberately traumatise children in order to take advantage of this mechanism and prevent victims from disclosing.

It is vital that abused children and adults receive therapeutic support to address the psychological changes caused by sexual abuse, and their testimony should be taken seriously by law enforcement and the criminal courts.

Nonetheless, the imperative to deny and suppress these allegations is as strong as ever. Sexual abuse is a crime of the status quo. Offenders get away with abuse because they are camouflaged within their legitimate roles (as parents, relatives, friends, clergy, teachers and so on) in the lives of children.

As a result, allegations of sexual abuse are always a challenge to authority, revealing the weaknesses and failings of treasured social institutions.

In response, many are driven to reject the allegations outright, rather than examine the uncomfortable truths they reveal. For instance, church representatives have accused journalists of pursuing clergy abuse as part of a secular attack on Christianity….

In this light, attacks on the credibility of abuse survivors and advocates, and on the findings of the royal commission, need to be placed in political context. Despite their appeals to scientific expertise, such attacks are not justified by research on sexual abuse and traumatic memory; far from it.

The royal commission has revealed the pervasiveness of sexual abuse in child-focused institutions. Recent prosecutions, and the brave testimony of survivors such as Cathy Kezelman, highlights how family dynamics are manipulated by perpetrators of incest, to the point where non-abused siblings may be entirely unaware of the plight of the victim and groomed to disbelieve them if they disclose….
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/oct/02/attacks-on-the-credibility-of-abuse-survivors-are-not-justified-by-research

Courtroom Antics Cast Doubt on Child Abuse Findings
Ingrid Hein  October 02, 2017
Flawed theories are being used in the courtroom to make the science that supports a diagnosis of physical child abuse look debatable, when, in fact, “there is no significant controversy about the diagnosis of physical abuse and abusive head trauma in clinical medicine,” according to an opinion piece published online recently in JAMA.

“When defense witnesses have decided to cite opinions that are not real diagnoses, or when they cherry pick information by looking at half a child’s findings and ignoring the other half, it’s upsetting,” said John Leventhal, MD, from the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, who cowrote the piece with George Edwards, MD, from the University of Texas in Austin.

“This is not how physicians work,” Dr Leventhal told Medscape Medical News. “We try to understand symptoms, look at physical findings, do laboratory tests, and come up with a specific scientific diagnosis.”

“The defense experts are seeing things that are not present on the x-rays. They are seeing things that aren’t there,” he said. “That’s not good medicine.”….

Dr Metz and his team use a multitiered approach to gather facts, which includes consulting with radiology, looking at lab work, examining the patient, and taking a history from family members….

Vigorous testing is the only way to rule out abuse or mimics and, in the current climate of controversy, child abuse specialists have become more cautious.

“We have doctors testing for things even when they are certain it’s abuse, just because they want to be sure the testing has been done in case it gets to court,” Dr Metz explained.

Improvements in radiology, genetic testing, and laboratory tests have made it easier to identify signs that a child might be suffering from a disease that causes bruising, fractures, or other physical injuries that present as abuse, said Cindy Christian, MD, professor of pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia….

“Sometimes injuries are not easily diagnosed,” she told Medscape Medical News. And “sometimes diseases look like an injury.”….

“I’ve seen radiologists and other physicians who think something is child abuse when it’s a disease, and I’ve seen cases where they think it’s a disease and its child abuse,” Dr Christian reported….

The systemic review questioning shaken baby syndrome “raises major medical concern,” and “may already have disrupted efforts to protect vulnerable children,” write Dawn Saunders, MD, from the Great Ormond Street Hospital NHS Trust for Children, Institute of Child Health, in London, and her colleagues (Pediatr Radiol. 2017;47:1386-1389)….

Dr Metz compared the deliberation over shaken baby syndrome with the one on climate change.

“A large majority of the scientific community has an overwhelming opinion about the science, while a very few loud people object, raising doubts in people’s minds,” he explained.

It is helpful to have a debate that pushes science and looks at where science falls short, “but when the science is irrefutable, or well documented, the debate does it an injustice,” he said….

American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) 2017 National Conference and Exhibition: H2115 Section on Child Abuse and Neglect Program. Presented September 17, 2017.
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/886422

Flawed Theories to Explain Child Physical Abuse
What Are the Medical-Legal Consequences?
John M. Leventhal, MD1; George A. Edwards, MD2
Author Affiliations Article Information
JAMA. Published online September 18, 2017. doi:10.1001/jama.2017.11703

….Proponents of these flawed theories argue that alternative diagnoses can look just like physical child abuse. They argue that if an alternative diagnosis is possible then it is not possible to conclude that abuse occurred. If it is not possible to conclude that abuse occurred, then no crime has been committed and there is no need to provide child protection. Some have even suggested that the shaken baby syndrome does not exist, despite documented admissions of shaking by perpetrators of abusive head trauma whose victims died or sustained serious neurological injuries.4

Some of these proponents of flawed theories have written articles about abuse or abusive head trauma; however, these articles have included unproven hypotheses, case reports with omitted facts and misrepresentations, descriptions of conditions that are fallacious, and commentaries or letters without supporting evidence.2,3 Such publications have then been cited or used in court to assert that there is no evidence base to support the diagnoses of abuse and abusive head trauma.

….Physicians who care for injured children must continue to use a scientific approach and careful clinical judgment in diagnosing abuse because it is critically important to get the diagnosis right. The same scientific approach and careful clinical judgment should be used by those who have advanced scientifically unsupported explanations of the findings of abuse. Denying that abusive head trauma occurs, quoting publications that describe flawed theories as if they are scientifically supported, and using fabricated diagnoses are actions that have no place in science or medicine. Furthermore, these flawed theories have no place in law or journalism. Advocacy of theories based on misrepresentation, omission, or both makes a mockery of scientific reasoning and does a disservice to children, families, and justice.

Physicians, researchers, academic medical centers, journalists, and legal scholars have a responsibility to repudiate scientifically unsupported theories that falsely purport to explain child abuse and abusive head trauma.
http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2654400

Child Abuse Research  https://ritualabuse.us 

Human trafficking is a global crime, preacher Victor Barnard pleads guilty to sexual assault, Force was routine in juvenile centre, Neil Brick advocate and researcher for survivors of child/ritual abuse

Trafficking in America Task Force Mission Statement:
To educate and empower local, state and federal law enforcement and the public with the tools to make a difference in the fight against human trafficking. To advocate for all victims and survivors of human trafficking with a focus on trafficked males….

Human trafficking is a global crime hidden in plain sight:
….According to social scientists there are an estimated 27 million victims of human trafficking in the world today. Only a small fraction of those have been found. (U.S. State Department)

The total market value of illicit human trafficking is estimated to be in excess of $32 billion. (United Nations)
According to the United Nations human trafficking generates $9.5 billion yearly in the United States.

….The average jail time served for someone found guilty of buying sex with a child is about 1.5 years. (Shared Hope International’s Demanding Justice Project)

….Responsible for child sex trafficking:
Immediate Family 36%
Boyfriends 27%
Friend of the family 14%
Employers 14%
(Typically labor trafficking)
Strangers 9%
(2015 EMSI Rescue and Restore Regional Conference to Combat Human Trafficking)

UNICEF estimates there are nearly two million children in the commercial sex trade
http://traffickinginamericataskforce.org/

Fugitive preacher Victor Barnard pleads guilty to sexual assault, will serve 30 years
Ex-fugitive gets 30 years under surprise plea deal.
By Jennifer Brooks Star Tribune
October 11, 2016

Fugitive preacher Victor Barnard will spend the next 30 years in prison for raping teenage girls entrusted to his care.

Barnard, who fled halfway across the globe to avoid prosecution, made a surprise confession in a Pine County courtroom Tuesday, accepting a plea agreement on two counts of felony sexual assault against young women he isolated from their families and molested for years.

Barnard, 55, accepted two consecutive 15-year sentences that almost guarantee that the leader of the cultlike River Road Fellowship will spend most or all of his life behind bars….

Barnard used to compare himself to Jesus, sometimes dressing in shepherd’s robes as he moved among his followers. Taking the plea deal, without having to go through the lurid details in court, might also allow him to cast himself in a new role as martyr, Tornambe said. That “is how he sees himself, as an apostle …[as] pretty much Jesus Christ in the flesh,” she said. “So he would take this on to spare the church.”

Tornambe spent years fighting to convince family, friends and Pine County officials that something terrible had happened to her during her years with the secretive River Road Fellowship. As the trial loomed, she had not been afraid of another fight in court….

‘Maidens’ at ages 12 and 13

Barnard had coaxed families in the River Road Fellowship to send their daughters to him, promising that a group of young women he called “maidens” would live lives of prayer and purity. Years later, two of the so-called maidens turned to Pine County authorities for help, saying Barnard began raping them almost as soon as he separated them from their families. They were 12 and 13 at the time.

Barnard left Pine County in 2009 amid rumors of sexual impropriety and financial bankruptcy. When Pine County brought charges against him in 2014, he fled, setting off an international manhunt….
http://www.startribune.com/accused-cult-leader-stands-trial-in-pine-county/396680501/

Child abuse reports written off as ‘unsubstantiated’ with no investigation, NT royal commission hears
Child protection services did not have time to get to reports and use of force was routine in juvenile centre, commission told on first day of hearings   Helen Davidson in Darwin

Tuesday 11 October 2016

Child protections services wrote off reports of possible abuse as “unsubstantiated” because they didn’t have time to get to them and the use of force inside Don Dale was “a matter of normal conduct”, the Northern Territory royal commission has heard.

The royal commission into the protection and detention of children in the Northern Territory began its first public hearing in Darwin’s supreme court on Tuesday….

Earlier, the commission heard from the national commissioner for children, Megan Mitchell, who told the court she had toured a number of detention centres around the country, including Don Dale in May.

“It was clear that isolation was frequently and routinely used and for very long periods of time,” she said, elaborating that some children were held in high-security isolation for 23 hours a day for several weeks.

“It was also clear that the use of force was routinely used as a matter of normal conduct of the business of the organisation, not just … when there was an incident or to overcome an incident.”

She said the poor conditions of the facility were also breaches of human rights….
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/oct/11/child-abuse-reports-written-off-as-unsubstantiated-with-no-investigation-nt-royal-commission-hears

Neil Brick is an advocate and researcher for survivors of child and ritual abuse. He has worked for years to expose child and ritual abuse crimes. Neil Brick has written many research papers on child and ritual abuse issues. Neil Brick runs several Internet lists to help survivors of child abuse as well as expose child abuse crimes and their cover up. https://independent.academia.edu/neilbrick   http://neilbrick.com

How Cues and Programming Work in Mind Control and Propaganda by Neil Brick
https://www.academia.edu/29062863/How_Cues_and_Programming_Work_in_Mind_Control_and_Propaganda

The Battle to Stop Ritual Abuse by Neil Brick
https://www.academia.edu/28972882/The_Battle_to_Stop_Ritual_Abuse

How to Avoid Being Mind Controlled at a Conference by Neil Brick
https://www.academia.edu/28973060/How_to_Avoid_Being_Mind_Controlled_at_a_Conference

Doing the right thing and getting stronger at the same time, a survivor’s path to recovery and helping others by Neil Brick   https://www.academia.edu/28973168/Doing_the_right_thing_and_getting_stronger_at_the_same_time_a_survivor_s_path_to_recovery_and_helping_others

How Cues and Programming Work in Mind Control and Propaganda by Neil Brick
https://www.academia.edu/29062863/How_Cues_and_Programming_Work_in_Mind_Control_and_Propaganda

stopritualabuse – Google+
https://plus.google.com/+stopritualabusetoday
child abuse, ritual abuse and mind control research – Information on ritual abuse, satanic ritual abuse, clergy abuse, cult abuse, child abuse

 

Paedophile ring headed by a senior Anglican priest forced children at a boys’ home to have group sex in a locked room

Paedophile ring headed by a senior Anglican priest forced children at a boys’ home to have group sex in a locked room – and cut them to symbolise ‘the blood of Christ’

A paedophile ring used an Anglican boys home to abuse children
St Alban’s Home in Newcastle was also used to gain access to the boys
Priest Peter Rushton is said to be the head of the paedophile ring
A two week hearing is being conducted by the Royal commission
Paul Gray testified to being raped by Rushton when he was 10

By Australian Associated Press And Cameron Phelps For Daily Mail Australia

2 August 2016

An Anglican home for boys in the Hunter region of NSW was used by a paedophile ring headed by a senior clergyman to access and sexually abuse children.

On Tuesday the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse opened a two-week hearing into what the Anglican Diocese of Newcastle did to stop priest Peter Rushton and a pedophile network of clergy and laypeople who preyed on children for decades.

Victim Paul Gray gave evidence and said he was taken to St Albans School for Boys in the Hunter Valley in the 1960s….

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3719197/Paedophile-ring-headed-senior-Anglican-clergyman-abused-children-St-Albans-School-Boys-Hunter-Valley.html

Man worked with his army abusers for decades after horrific apprentice ritual, Man jailed for 10 years for dozens of child abuse offences

Man worked with his army abusers for decades after horrific apprentice ritual
Daryl James tells royal commission he was assaulted in initiation ritual at army school of music on the Mornington peninsula
Royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse
Australian Associated Press
Thursday 23 June 2016

A promising young musician who was abused when he was a 15-year-old army apprentice says he had to work alongside his tormentors until he was medically discharged.

Adelaide man Daryl James told a child abuse royal commission hearing in Sydney on Thursday of “systemic, traditional and commonplace abuse” at the army’s apprentice school at Balcombe in Victoria in the 1970s….

James, who suffers from severe post traumatic stress disorder and has had surgery because of what happened at Balcombe, remembered early in his basic training a sergeant warned his class to protect themselves during “crab night”.

This was a ritual in which graduating senior apprentices victimised the new intake, called “sprogs”….

The abuse continued throughout his first year and he was too scared to report it….
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/jun/23/man-worked-with-army-abusers-decades-after-horrific-apprentice-ritual

Man jailed for 10 years for dozens of child abuse offences

Dean Farrar, 49, from Rochdale contacted thousands of underage girls on social media in attempt to persuade them to perform sexual acts on camera
Frances Perraudin  Monday 27 June 2016

A serial child abuser who contacted 11,000 minors across the world on social media in attempt to get them to perform sexual acts has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Dean Farrar, 50, from Rochdale, pleaded guilty to a catalogue of sexual abuse crimes, including inciting a child under the age of 13 to engage in sexual activity, causing a child under the age of 13 to watch sexual activity, and possession and distribution of indecent images of children.

Police said Farrar had used his iPhone to contact about 11,000 children using the video chat apps Skype, Kik, Oovoo and Yik Yak between 2011 and 2014. Of those he contacted, 308 have been identified, 48 of whom were in the UK.

He was charged with 41 offences against 19 girls, including one aged eight. The police were also able to identify a further 157 offenders with whom Farrar had shared imagery. Using false profiles of teenage boys, Farrar would initiate contact with underage girls using video messaging platforms and persuade them to perform sex acts on camera and share indecent images of themselves….
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jun/27/dean-farrar-rochdale-jailed-child-sex-abuse-offences-social-media

 

Lord Janner lied to child abuse inquiry, Child sexual abuse in sports clubs, Predatory paedophile walks from court

– Lord Janner lied to child abuse inquiry in 1992 documents reveal
– Child abuse victim allegedly infected with HIV by soccer coach
– Predatory paedophile walks from court despite sixth child abuse offence

Lord Janner lied to child abuse inquiry in 1992 documents reveal
Telegraph Reporters  4 April 2016

Lord Janner lied about evidence he gave to a child abuse inquiry – with the inquiry chairman’s permisson, newly-released documents reveal.

The peer gave evidence in private to the 1992 Kirkwood Inquiry into child abuse in Leicestershire care homes in the wake of the conviction of paedophile Frank Beck.

Documents obtained by the BBC show the inquiry looked into claims Lord Janner sexually abused a boy from a care home whom he had “befriended” in the 1970s.

The boy, as an adult in his 30s, reported the allegations to the police in 1991. They were then made public by Beck at his trial that year.

The 1992 documents show that after his questioning – on June 19, 1992 – Lord Janner asked the inquiry’s chairman Andrew Kirkwood QC if he could tell the media waiting outside that he had not been asked about allegations of child abuse against him.

Mr Kirkwood replied: “Of course, Mr Janner.”

The documents show this was not true, and the revelation that the real substance of the inquiry’s questioning was withheld from the media will further fuel allegations of a cover-up.

Lord Janner was not prosecuted at the time and he rubbished the child abuse claims in the House of Commons.

He also refused to answer police questions.

The Kirkwood files will be crucial evidence for the national child abuse inquiry, chaired by Justice Lowell Goddard, which will examine the Janner case, including whether the inquiry wrongly left out allegations against Lord Janner in its final report. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/04/lord-janner-lied-to-abuse-inquiry/

Child abuse victim allegedly infected with HIV by soccer coach
April 4, 2016

A royal commission has heard testimony from a woman who was allegedly sexually assaulted and infected with HIV by her soccer coach when she was eight years old.

Key points:

Royal Commission looking into institutional responses into child sexual abuse in sports clubs
Eight-year-old girl allegedly contracted HIV from soccer coach when he sexually assaulted her
Three boys sexually abused by a cricket coach in Queensland were afraid to report their abuse

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse today began a hearing about the experiences of men and women who were abused as children in sporting clubs.

The Sydney-based hearing is focusing on allegations of child sexual abuse involving a soccer coach, a cricket coach and a tennis coach, and how the relevant governing bodies responded to reports of the abuse at the time….

The principal then reported the abuse and BXK was later charged with three counts of sexual intercourse with a child under the age of 10. He pleaded not guilty and was later acquitted of all three charges.

He was later convicted of the abuse of several other children in 2002 and sentenced to five years in jail with a non-parole period of two and half years…. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-04/inquiry-hears-of-woman-sexually-abused-by-soccer-coach-as-8yo/7296174

Predatory paedophile walks from court despite sixth child abuse offence

A PREDATORY paedophile who was being sentenced for child abuse for the sixth time has walked free from court.

Rapist Sidney Hare, 88, repeatedly abused numerous youngsters during a quarter of a century, offering them cash and sweets or inviting them to see his tortoise.

And when he got seven years in 2006 a judge told him his age and ill heath, he was said to have late stage bowel cancer, were the only things stopping him getting life.

Now, almost ten years later, Hare has admitted molesting another youngster in 1981 during the latest depraved attack to come to light.

Colin Meeke, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court the dad of the 10-year-old victim, now a woman in her 40s, had worked with Hare in a factory.

Around Easter time in 1981, he said the girl and her sister were walking past the defendant’s house on Thorne Road, Eldene, when they saw him at the door.

He said that he offered them some money and sweets and after giving some to her sister he said he had nothing else in his pockets.

After inviting them into his house he took the little girl upstairs to go through the pockets of other clothes while her younger sister waited downstairs.

The pervert them pushed her on to the bed and climbed on top of her, simulating intercourse, as he pawed at her over her clothing before she fought him off.

Mr Meeke said: “She didn’t tell anyone about it, as people didn’t in those days.

“It wasn’t for some years, until she saw him at a birthday party about 20 years ago, that she first told anybody about it. Then, more recently, she has reported the matter to the police.”

When he was questioned by the police he was frank about what had happened and said he recalled the girl’s name and that she came to his house.

Hare, now of Ashmead Court, Trowbridge, pleaded guilty to one count of indecent assault.

He was jailed for seven years in 2006 after admitting raping and abusing two sisters starting when they were about four between, January 1974 and the end of 1983.

That hearing was told he had advanced cancer of the bowel, asbestosis and a heart pacemaker which had to be refitted every six months.

His first conviction was in 1973 when he received a suspended sentence for two indecent assaults on young girls aged eight and nine years old.

In August 1981 he was put on a two-year probation order for indecently assaulting a nine-year-old girl.

Two years later he received another suspended sentence for abusing the sister of the young girls he raped.

And in 2004 he was jailed for 12 months for indecent assaults on an eight-year-old girl dating from 1995 and 1996….

Passing sentence Judge Peter Blair QC said: “I have to punish you for something you did 35 years ago.

“In reality if it had been reported back then I expect you would have had probation as the sentence.”

He imposed an 18-month community rehabilitation order and told him to register as a sex offender for five years, though he has to register for life under his last sentence. http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/14401978.Predatory_paedophile_walks_from_court_despite_sixth_child_abuse_offence/

Bill Cosby May Face First Sex Assault Charges From Newly Elected Prosecutor, Brisbane Grammar counsellor ritually abused students, royal commission told

Royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse
Brisbane Grammar counsellor ritually abused students, royal commission told

Kevin Lynch, who committed suicide when he was exposed, operated in a soundproof room which acted as a ‘sick conveyor belt’ for his victims

Joshua Robertson Tuesday 3 November 2015

A counsellor at a prestigious Queensland private school ritually hypnotised students before masturbating them, slapping them in the face and putting acupuncture needles in one child’s genitals, the royal commission into institutional responses to child sex abuse has heard.

The scores of alleged victims of Kevin Lynch at Brisbane Grammar school included a boy who was sexually abused in a grief counselling session given after learning his father had committed suicide.

The commission hearing in Brisbane is examining the response to abuse claims against Lynch from the 1970s to the 1990s at Grammar and later St Paul’s Anglican school, and another former St Paul’s teacher, Gregory Robert Knight in the 1980s.

Also to come under scrutiny is former South Australian education minister Don Hopgood, who was a member of the same musical group in Adelaide as Knight when he gave him a glowing personal reference on parliamentary letterhead despite allegedly knowing a departmental inquiry found Knight engaged in “disgraceful” conduct with school students.

The royal commission also heard that Hopgood ordered that the South Australian education department rescind its dismissal of Knight and accept his resignation, which enabled him to get jobs in Queensland schools. Knight lost his job at St Paul’s over abuse allegations but then taught in the Northern Territory, where he was eventually jailed over indecent dealing with a student.

One alleged victim of Lynch, known only as BQK, told the commission that the counsellor’s “treatment [was] built around his convincing me that I could harness the power of my orgasms to gain an edge” in studies and sport.

“He would regularly masturbate me to the point of ejaculation and sometimes would make me ingest my own semen,” he said.

Lynch also slapped the boy in the face to “psyche me up about winning a metaphorical race”.

“Other times he would use acupuncture needles and put them into my testicles or stick his thumb in my anus,” BQK said.

BQK told the commission he “assumed this was a normal treatment method” and did not appreciate he had been seriously abused until “well into my adult life”.

He said he could not understand why Grammar staff had not questioned why Lynch operated out of a room that had two heavy, soundproof doors, red and green light signals controlling student access, and had significant stocks of tissues and towels, which he used to wipe up semen….

“I was badly let down by this culture of turning a blind eye and protecting the brand and it is hard not to see it is a deliberate cover up,” he said.

Counsel assisting the commission, David Lloyd, said that Lynch abused “significant numbers” of students at Grammar from 1973 to 1988 and then at St Paul’s Anglican school from 1989 to 1997.

The commission was in contact with 80 former students of both schools claiming abuse, Lloyd said.

Lynch committed suicide in 1997 a day after he was charged with sex offences against a St Paul’s student who had secretly recorded a confession.

The scale of Lynch’s abuse only came into public view following media revelations that Nigel Parodi, who shot three police then himself in 2000, was among his victims at Grammar….
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/nov/04/brisbane-grammar-counsellor-ritually-abused-students-royal-commission-told

Royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse
Former Brisbane Grammar headmaster says ‘unlikely’ he dismissed abuse claim

Raymond Cross, former junior school head, tells royal commission it was ‘most unlikely’ he rejected a student’s allegations against counsellor Kevin Lynch

Joshua Robertson in Brisbane Wednesday 4 November 2015

A former Brisbane Grammar junior school headmaster accused of dismissing a student’s complaint about suspected serial paedophile Kevin Lynch says he considered seeking the counsellor’s advice about his own son years later.

Raymond Cross, who the royal commission has heard told an alleged victim in 1977 that he should “not make up stories and that Lynch was a well respected man”, told the inquiry he could not rule out the conversation happening but that it was “most unlikely”.

Cross told the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse in Brisbane on Wednesday that when his second son had “settling issues” at Grammar in 1992, he “considered consulting [Lynch] about my son” even though Lynch had since moved to St Paul’s Anglican school.

The commission’s nine-day hearing is probing responses to Lynch’s suspected ritual sexual abuse of more than 60 students under the guise of “relaxation therapy” for more than two decades at both Grammar and St Paul’s.

Cross said while he found the green and red lighting system signalling student access to Lynch’s locked office “quite odd”, he was unaware of any formal record keeping or oversight of Lynch’s contact with students.

He said he felt shocked, disgusted and extreme disappointment in his own blindness to widespread allegations against Lynch which he only learned of through media reports after the counsellor’s suicide following his being charged with indecent dealing with a St Paul’s student in 1997….
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/nov/05/former-brisbane-grammar-headmaster-says-unlikely-he-dismissed-abuse-claim

Bill Cosby May Face First Sex Assault Charges From Newly Elected Prosecutor
The statute of limitations runs out in January, so the clock is ticking.
Reuters By Laila Kearney 11/04/2015

A newly elected suburban Pennsylvania prosecutor could be positioned to bring the first criminal charges of sex assault against comedian Bill Cosby, though the clock is ticking, legal experts said on Wednesday.

Kevin Steele, a Democrat, on Tuesday defeated opponent Bruce Castor, a Republican, in the race for district attorney in Montgomery County, where Cosby’s first named accuser filed a 2005 complaint against the actor.

The statute of limitations runs out in January on that case, in which the woman claimed Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her in his mansion in 2004….

In the years since the complaint by Andrea Constand, Cosby has been bombarded with accusations of sexual assault by more than 50 women, many of whom contend the actor slipped them sedatives before assaulting them….
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bill-cosby-andrea-constand-charges_563a943ae4b0b24aee48e821

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

GLOWING REFERENCES FOR OFFENDERS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Masego Rahlaga | March 3, 2015

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

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

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

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

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

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

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