Former L.A. priest pleads guilty to molesting a child 20 years ago

George Miller, 70, faces up to three years in prison. He also admits to three other cases that he can't be charged with.

By Richard Winton
December 3, 2008

A former Los Angeles priest pleaded guilty Tuesday to molesting a young boy 20 years ago and admitted to three other cases that he cannot be charged with because of a 2003 U.S. Supreme Court decision, the district attorney's office announced.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Ann Marie Wise of the Sex Crimes Division said the admission by George Miller, 70, means that the three victims whose cases cannot be prosecuted will be allowed to address the court when he is sentenced Jan. 30 by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Cynthia Ulfig.

Miller, who has been free on bail since his arrest in July 2007, faces a three-year prison term, Wise said. He must serve at least 85% of that term before being eligible for parole consideration.

"No amount of prison time is sufficient for the crimes he has committed," Wise said.

The defendant was charged with molesting a boy that he met while assigned to the Guardian Angel Church in Pacoima. Authorities said Miller befriended the victim's mother and became a frequent guest at the family home.

He was charged with molesting the boy between March 1988 and March 1991.

In 2002, Miller was charged with molesting the victim's older brother and two other boys. But those charges were later dismissed after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional the California law that had extended the statute of limitations on child molestation for decades-old sexual abuse.

The district attorney's office also had to dismiss more than a dozen other cases against priests or former priests accused of child molestation.

The new case against Miller was filed in July 2007 after the victim came forward. The defendant was charged with six molestation counts.

Miller pleaded guilty to a lewd act on a child under the age of 14. The remaining counts will be dismissed after Miller is formally sentenced.

Miller's victims were among the more than 500 civil plaintiffs who received a record $660-million settlement last year from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

Miller's confidential church files are the subject of a more than four-year court battle involving the district attorney's office and the archdiocese. Church officials argued that their disclosure to a county grand jury would violate priest-bishop communications and priests' privacy rights.

The archdiocese yielded after the U.S. Supreme Court in 2006 declined to hear an appeal.

Church officials said they got complaints about Miller in 1977 and 1989. In both cases, he denied wrongdoing.

In 1996, after Miller was accused of molesting a child, he was placed on leave. Church officials said Miller never returned to ministry and was reduced to lay status by the pope in May 2005.

Winton is a Times staff writer.

richard.winton@latimes.com

Times staff writer Duke Helfand contributed to this report.

Hello Again, I'm back

To everyone that follows my blog I'm sorry for not posting for a while, I'm just dealing with personal health problems at the moment almost all my time has gone to dealing with that. About a month ago I started having nightmares of my abuser still being alive and coming after my own child, that really shook me to the core and diverted me from posting.

Now I'm back with more passion to bringing more awareness to this horrible tragedy that so many people around the world face.

Again I like to thank all who frequent my blog, thank you for all the encouragement and support.

Charity: Aid workers raping, abusing children

This is a article from CNN back in May of 2008, I feel that I really needed to post it on my site today.

By Stephanie Busari
For CNN

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Humanitarian aid workers and United Nation peacekeepers are sexually abusing small children in several war-ravaged and food-poor countries, a leading European charity has said.

Children like this 15-year-old girl have suffered abuse at the hands of some UN soldiers and aid workers.

Children as young as 6 have been forced to have sex with aid workers and peacekeepers in return for food and money, Save the Children UK said in a report released Tuesday.

After interviewing hundreds of children, the charity said it found instances of rape, child prostitution, pornography, indecent sexual assault and trafficking of children for sex.

"It is hard to imagine a more grotesque abuse of authority or flagrant violation of children's rights," said Jasmine Whitbread, chief executive of Save the Children UK. Watch a report on the abuse »

In the report, "No One To Turn To" a 15-year-old girl from Haiti told researchers: "My friends and I were walking by the National Palace one evening when we encountered a couple of humanitarian men. The men called us over and showed us their penises.

"They offered us 100 Haitian gourdes ($2.80) and some chocolate if we would suck them. I said, 'No,' but some of the girls did it and got the money."

Save the Children says that almost as shocking as the abuse itself is the "chronic under-reporting" of the abuses. It believes that thousands more children around the world could be suffering in silence.

According to the charity, children told researchers they were too frightened to report the abuse, fearful that the abuser would come back to hurt them and that they would stop receiving aid from agencies, or even be punished by their family or community.

"People don't report it because they are worried that the agency will stop working here, and we need them," a teenage boy in southern Sudan told Save the Children.

The charity's research was centered on Ivory Coast, southern Sudan and Haiti, but Save the Children said the perpetrators of sexual abuse of children could be found in every type of humanitarian organization at all levels.

Save the Children is calling for a global watchdog to tackle the problem and said it was working with the U.N. to establish local mechanisms that will allow victims to easily report abuse.

"We are glad that Save the Children continues to shed a light on this problem. It actually follows up on a report that we did in 2002 with Save the Children. I think every population in the world has to confront this problem of exploitation and abuse of children," said Ron Redmond, chief spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva, Switzerland.

"The United Nations has a zero-tolerance policy. It's one that UNHCR takes very, very seriously. In refugee camps, we have implemented very strong reporting mechanisms so that refugees can come forward to report any abuses or alleged abuses."

In 2003, U.N. Nepalese troops were accused of sexual abuse while serving in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Six soldiers were jailed.

A year later, two U.N. peacekeepers were repatriated after being accused of abuse in Burundi, and U.N. troops were accused of rape and sexual abuse in Sudan.

Last year, the U.N. launched an investigation into sexual abuse claims in Ivory Coast.

The vast majority of aid workers were not involved in any form of abuse or exploitation but in "life-saving essential humanitarian work," Save the Children's Whitbread said.

But humanitarian and peacekeeping agencies working in emergency situations "must own up to the fact that they are vulnerable to this problem and tackle it head on," she said.

The aid agency said it had fired three workers for breaching its codes and called on others to do the same. The three men were dismissed in the past year for having had sex with girls aged 17, which the charity said is not illegal but is cause for loss of employment.

Other UK charities said they supported Save the Children's call for a global watchdog.

"Oxfam takes a zero-tolerance approach to sexual misconduct by its aid workers. All our staff across the world are held accountable by a robust code of conduct," said Jane Cocking, Oxfam charity's humanitarian director.

"We support Save the Children's calls for a global watchdog. We will do all we can to stamp out this intolerable abuse."

Disabled man pleads guilty to sex abuse in Niagara County

By Thomas J. Prohaska - NEWS NIAGARA BUREAU

LOCKPORT — A developmentally disabled man who has been deaf since birth pleaded guilty to three felony counts of child sexual abuse last week.

Christopher L. Eckert, who has been in a state psychiatric institution for the past five years, is expected to be spared prison time, although the maximum penalty for his offenses is 21 years behind bars.

Instead, he is likely to be placed on probation and committed to a state mental health facility, Niagara County Judge Sara Sheldon Sperrazza said Thursday. She scheduled sentencing for Dec. 18. In the meantime, Eckert signed a voluntary commitment order.

Eckert, 38, formerly of Limehouse Drive, Clarence, communicated with Sperrazza through American Sign Language used by his court-appointed attorney, Thomas Caserta Jr., and an official interpreter.

Caserta said Eckert reads at no more than a first-grade level and is “unable to perform daily tasks.” Despite that, he graduated from St. Mary’s School for the Deaf in 1991.

Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth R. Donatello said Eckert was ruled competent to stand trial earlier this year after almost five years of treatment by staff from the state Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities.

Eckert touched the private parts of three girls under the age of 11 in Niagara Falls and North Tonawanda.

“I did it. It’s my fault,” Eckert said. He pleaded guilty to sexual misconduct against one girl for a series of incidents between January 1999 and September 2001. He also pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree sexual abuse for single incidents with two other girls, both on March 22, 2003.

Eckert was indicted in June 2003 and arraigned in July of that year. By September 2003, Sperrazza had committed him to an institution.

Caserta said doctors concluded that Eckert’s brain damage and deafness were caused in the womb, because his mother contracted rubella, also known as German measles, while she was pregnant.

Sperrazza said there were many lengthy conferences in her chambers with Donatello, Caserta and state mental health officials, trying to resolve the case appropriately. The judge said Eckert is likely to be assigned to some type of residential facility.

Eckert, who wore a coat and tie to court, said through the interpreter that he would like to go home and see his brother. Not being allowed to do so “hurts my heart,” he said.

Salem man sentenced to 75 years prison for sex abuse involving child younger than 12

October 16, 2008

A 36-year-old man will spend the remainder of his life in prison for three convictions of sexual abuse involving a child.
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Francisco Almanza-Garcia, 36, received 75 years in prison on Tuesday from Marion County Circuit Judge John Wilson.

Almanza-Garcia's sentencing comes under Oregon's "Jessica's Law" that went into effect April 2006.

The law mandates that class A felony sex offenses involving a child under 12 carry a 25-year minimum sentence.

Almanza-Garcia was convicted of two counts of first-degree rape and one count of first-degree sodomy involving a child under the age of 12, said Marion County Deputy District Attorney Nicole Theobald, who prosecuted the case.

Almanza-Garcia knew the child before the offenses occurred, Theobald said.

Almanza-Garcia received consecutive sentences for each of his three counts, Theobald said.

In November 2007, Michael David Robinson of Salem received 138 years in prison under the same law for eight convictions of sexual abuse involving two young children.

Almanza-Garcia was indicted Aug. 7, 2007, and pleaded not guilty Sept. 11, 2007.

He was found guilty after a one-day trial Sept. 11 in front of Wilson.

Federal immigration charges also are pending against Almanza-Garcia, jail documents show.

Almanza-Garcia is from Mexico and had been living in the Salem area for less than a year, according to his attorney Mark Obert.

Man is jailed for child sex abuse

Colin Houghton, 40, of Hackworth Street, Ferryhill, committed "very serious" offences against a young girl, Teesside Crown Court heard.

Houghton was found guilty after a trial last month of 11 charges of indecent assault, sexual activity with a child and attempted rape.

He has been ordered to register as a sex offender for life and banned from living with children under 16.

Aboriginal child-abuse measures must stay: report

By ROD McGUIRK,Associated Press Writer AP - Monday, October 13

CANBERRA, Australia - A radical government crackdown on child sexual abuse among Aborigines should continue but in an altered form, an independent report found Monday.


The government-commissioned review of the first year of a crackdown on child abuse and neglect in Australia's Northern Territory has partially vindicated a scheme that critics condemned as discriminatory and an attack on indigenous culture.

The intervention _ which includes increasing police numbers as well as improving health care and housing in remote settlements _ is a drastic response to a report that found Aboriginal child abuse was rampant on Australia's northern frontier.

In June 2007, then-Prime Minister John Howard announced his government would use its constitutional powers over the territory to impose strict measures aimed at protecting children from abuse in Outback Aboriginal settlements.

Alcohol and hard-core pornography were banned from Aboriginal communities and Aborigines were forced to spend a portion of their welfare checks on family essentials like food.

Three members of the review panel, which included two prominent Aborigines, reported Monday to the new government of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd that some measures _ including the alcohol ban _ should stay.

But controls on how Aborigines spend their welfare money should be lifted except in cases where a court orders them or an Aborigine requests them, the report said.

Aborigines are an impoverished minority who die on average 17 years younger than other Australians.

The so-called federal intervention should continue because "the situation in remote communities and town camps was _ and remains _ sufficiently acute to be described as a national emergency," the report said.

Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin said she would consider the report and respond soon.

"The government remains committed to continuing and strengthening" the intervention, she said in a statement.

Swiss national charged with child abuse

Thu, Oct 9 02:45 AM

Kerala Police have registered a case against an 80-year-old Swiss national on charges of child abuse over the past five years. The case is likely to blow the lid on sex tourism thriving in the state.

According to the police, four complaints have been lodged against retired engineer Jacob Spalti, who has been staying at Kovalam, a tourist destination near Thiruvanathapuram, for the past 20 years. Children, two of them teenagers, have told the police that Jacob had repeatedly subjected them to sexual abuse. The children, all of them hailing from poor socio-economic background, were lured into the rented house of the foreigner, who offered them money and other facilities.

According to social activists, around 24 boys and teenagers had been subjected to sexual exploitation by Jacob.

Sources said the foreigner had even got one of the teenagers trained in professional massaging for his personal service. Jacob, who frequently shuttled between Switzerland and India, used to financially support the poor people at Chowara near Kovalam reportedly to win the confidence of the local people.,

Evangelist: 'Puberty' is age of sexual consent

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (AP) -- Since Tony Alamo's start as a California street preacher more than 40 years ago, the self-styled evangelist's story has been colorful and checkered.
Evangelist Tony Alamo claimed his late wife, Susan, would be resurrected and kept her body on display.



When his wife died of cancer, Alamo claimed that she would be resurrected and kept her body on display for six months while their followers prayed. It would be 16 years before her body was returned to her family.

For a time, his elaborately painted denim jackets were a must-have in Hollywood, but sales contributed to tax problems that landed him in prison for four years in the 1990s.

Alamo was charged but not convicted of other crimes, including child abuse. Now the 74-year-old is accused by former church members of abusing children and running an organization in which girls who just reached puberty can marry. Agents raided his southwest Arkansas compound Saturday and placed six girls in state custody.

On Monday, Alamo spoke of the allegations with a mix of denial and defiance, saying that he never promoted sexual abuse but that he believes there's a mandate from the Bible for young girls to marry.

"In the Bible, it happened. But girls today, I don't marry 'em if they want to at 14, 15 years old. Because we won't do it, even though I believe it's OK," Alamo said.

On Saturday, he had said that for girls having sex, "consent is puberty."

On Monday, he bristled at descriptions of his organization as a cult, saying enemies want to cast him as a "weirdo for preaching what the Bible says."

People who have left Alamo's organization say they have witnessed older men marrying girls who just reached puberty.

The U.S. Attorney's Office said in an e-mail that was inadvertently sent to media last week that agents expected to find children ages 12 to 14 who had been abused and that they expected to file charges. The e-mail said agents believed that child pornography was being produced at the compound in Fouke.

Alamo also denied creating any pornography.


Government agents "have got six of our girls in custody. Little girls. They probably disrobed them. I mean, it's the most filthy bunch of devils that I've ever heard of," Alamo said.

As for former followers making the allegations, Alamo said, "I've kicked a lot of people out of the church, and they'll say anything to get back at me."

He suggested that efforts to gather evidence against him will only bring more people to his ministry, noting that daily traffic on his Web site has grown more than 10-fold, to more than 1 million hits, since the raid.

"They're really making us famous," he said with a laugh.

Alamo, who now lives in California, said he still preaches daily. He bought land in Arkansas in 1975 for a complex near Alma and from there grew to own a number of businesses.

Fashion was his best-known business. His painted denim jackets were worn by celebrities for a time and even now are offered for hundreds or even thousands of dollars on the Internet. Alamo's Web site features a picture of Mr. T wearing one.

Alamo went to prison for tax evasion after the complex was raided in 1991. He fled with his followers before the raid, taking with him the body of his wife, who had died nine years earlier.

In order to be released from his sentence in 1998, Alamo followed a judge's order to return Susan Alamo's remains to members of her family.

And Alamo's property had been raided once before, in 1988 in Santa Ana, California, where state officials came to seize three boys and return them to their fathers' custody.

An 11-year-old boy told police that Alamo directed four men to strike him 140 times with a wooden paddle as punishment for minor offenses. Alamo briefly faced a child-abuse charge, but a prosecutor directed that the count be dropped, citing a lack of evidence.

In 1991, Alamo was acquitted on a charge that he threatened to kidnap a federal judge.

Alamo claims to be unique among Christian preachers because he was born a Jew and had a "supernatural experience" through which he became a born-again Christian.

"I am a completed Jew," he said, though he added that he had never believed in Judaism.

Alamo's anti-Catholic bias is evident as he speaks. He claims that the White House is in league with the Vatican, which he says also controls the United Nations.

He said that being a Jew gives him special insight.

"We wrote the Bible. I don't want these stinking gentiles in Rome telling me what it says. They don't know," he said.

Under state law, investigators have to make a court filing after a search warrant is executed that details what the search found. But Circuit Judge Jim Hudson said the document would be kept under seal because of the juveniles involved.

The six girls taken into state custody will require a hearing if they remain with the state on a long-term basis, but there was no indication Monday that a hearing had been set.

Arkansas Department of Human Services spokeswoman Julie Munsell said the children were taken from the compound because they were "in harm's way or in imminent danger." She said the state is trying to identify the children's parents.

As for what would inspire people to follow Alamo or other charismatic leaders, there is no single or easy answer, said David Bromley, professor of religious studies at Virginia Commonwealth University.

"These groups vary, and when they are at the hot stage, there is intense commitment. When people leave, when you have that kind of intensity, they tend to be rejected by the group, and they tend to be quite hostile when they leave," said Bromley, who is writing a book on why people join such movements.

Bromley said that such organizations may not be as strong as they seem.

"These groups are much more diverse than they appear on the surface. You have people who look and talk alike, but when you find out who the members are, you find the levels of commitment are enormously different," Bromley said.

"It looks pretty solid to you from the outside, but you find out people have different reasons for being there and that half are on their way in and half are on their way out," he said.

Alamo would not discuss how his organization operates beyond saying it accepts donations. He said he has workers who keep the books and pay the bills, including his $70,000 salary.
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"Even if I knew, I wouldn't tell, because the damn government would come right after [donors]," he said. "I wouldn't be that simple-minded to tell anybody where the money comes from.

"You must think I'm very stupid after 44 years of this stuff," Alamo said.

Children taken in raid to remain in state's custody

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (AP) -- Six girls removed from an evangelical compound as part of an investigation into the possible sexual abuse of minors will remain in state custody for the near future, a state official said Tuesday.
Authorities raided Tony Alamo Christian Ministries on Saturday after allegations of child sex abuse.


The Arkansas Department of Human Services had until Tuesday night to ask the court for permission to keep the children or return them to the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries compound. State and federal agents raided the compound Saturday looking for evidence that children were being molested.

Department spokeswoman Julie Munsell said she couldn't comment about the legal process surrounding the girls' future, but acknowledged they wouldn't be leaving the state's care Tuesday.

"If you don't see kids coming back today, you can assume we're moving forward in this process," Munsell told The Associated Press just before the deadline.

State lawyers will appear before a Miller County judge sometime in the next five days for a closed-door hearing about the girls' future. The judge will decide whether the state had enough evidence to warrant removing the children from their homes.

Investigators have identified the girls, who range in age from 10 to 17, but are trying to determine who their legal guardians are, Munsell said.

There have been no arrests in connection with the raid, but U.S. Attorney Bob Balfe said prior to the raid that he expects a warrant to be issued for Tony Alamo.

Alamo, 74, has denied the abuse allegations and called the raid an attempt to smear him. He has said he believes polygamy is allowed by the Bible and "consent is puberty" when it comes to young girls having sex.

Alamo was convicted of tax-related charges in 1994 and served four years in prison. Prosecutors in the tax case argued before sentencing that Alamo was a flight risk and a polygamist who preyed on married women and girls in his congregation.

In an interview posted on the ministry's Web site Tuesday night, Alamo said that police confiscated computers at the Fouke compound, as well as went through his personal effects.

"They tore my bedroom apart, they went through every book, all my papers, they took the computers that were in the office," he said. "I don't run computers at all because I'm legally blind. If I was into pornography, what good would that be? I can't even see it."

Teacher: Student, 13, 'was like a man to me'

OMAHA, Nebraska (AP) -- A former math teacher sentenced to federal prison for a sex crime with a minor says the age of the 13-year-old schoolboy she fled with to Mexico didn't matter to her.

Kelsey Peterson was sentenced to six years in federal prison for running off to Mexico with a student.



"We didn't see age anymore. ... In my mind he quit being a teenage boy. ... to me, he was a man," Kelsey Peterson said in a taped interview on ABC's "Good Morning America" that aired Wednesday.

Peterson, 26, was sentenced Monday to six years in federal prison and five years of supervised release. She also must register as a sex offender.

She pleaded guilty in July to a charge of transporting a minor across state lines to have sex.

Peterson was the boy's sixth-grade math teacher at Lexington Middle School in south-central Nebraska during the 2005-06 school year and started having sex with him in November 2006, according to court documents.

The pair disappeared in October, soon after the district's superintendent confronted Peterson about allegations of an inappropriate relationship with the boy.

She was arrested a week later in Mexicali, Mexico, after the boy made a cell phone call to his family.

Peterson still faces state charges that include kidnapping, felony child abuse and first-degree sexual assault. Dawson County Attorney Elizabeth Waterman said Monday that her staff will work to get custody of Peterson so she can face those charges.



Peterson said in the ABC interview that she was drawn to the boy, then 12, and thought to herself, "I can change this guy." She said her actions were wildly out of line with her upbringing in a Christian household.

She had expected to grow up and get married, she said, then have children and live in a house with a picket fence.

"I made choice after choice after choice that didn't allow that," Peterson said.

In a separate interview, her attorney, James Martin Davis, blamed the boy. Davis has publicly questioned the boy's age, saying he was likely at least 16, despite Mexican documents and statements from the boy's family.

Peterson also expressed remorse for how her actions have affected her family and especially her 9-year-old daughter.

"She was my life," Peterson said. "I owe her more apologies than I can ever give."

Costumed Child Abuse Suspect May Enter Plea

A plea hearing is scheduled on Monday for a man accused of abusing children. William Watkins, 54, was known for dressing up as the Grinch and Beetlejuice at a local haunted house. It's unclear where the alleged abuse took place.

Police found the costumed photographs at Watkins home and hoped releasing them would help bring more victims forward.

William Watkins, first popped up on police radar a couple years ago when a then 11-year-old girl accused him of sexual abuse. Then in December 2007, another girl came forward. Watkins was originally charged with first degree child molestation, possession of child pornography, and five counts of first degree statutory sodomy.

Since then, five new young victims have came forward. Watkins was charged with an additional eight new counts including three counts of first degree statutory sodomy, and five counts of first degree child molestation involving the girls under the age of 12.

Police said he dressed as Beetlejuice at a Metro haunted house, had several addresses in Independence and about four years ago moved his salon into his home.

Police said they pulled evidence including a computer containing child porn from the house, but they won't say what it is that makes them think Watkins has been hurting kids since 1982.

Watkins is scheduled to be in court Monday afternoon for a plea hearing

Rwanda: Police And Unifem in Fight Against Sexual Gender Based Violence

The New Times (Kigali)

30 September 2008
Posted to the web 30 September 2008

Joseph Mudingu
Kigali

The Rwanda National Police (RNP) together with the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) over the week launched a joint advocacy against child abuse and Sexual Gender Based Violence (SGBV) at the Police Headquarters in Kacyiru.

Despite a heavy thunderstorm at the beginning of the function, eight schools from Kigali went on to perform in a live drama competition about GBV.

During the official opening ceremony, the Minister of Education, Daphrose Gahakwa said that the police has done a commendable job of ensuring that there is peace in the country and stressed the need of fighting SGBV.

"We can not focus on development if we have gender based violence. So, I commend this move by the police and UNIFEM in getting seriously involved in fighting it," she said. She also thanked UNIFEM for their continued financial support to the police in fighting against the menace.

"Without this support, the police would not have registered so much success and we should continue working together to scale up the fight," Gahakwa advised.

UNIFEM donated a brand new four wheel drive Toyota Hilux, two Compaq laptops and an Hp printer to the National Police department that deals with Gender Based Violence.

The National Programme Officer UNIFEM, Donnah Kamashazi, said that they were proud of partnering with the police in the fight against SGBV and that they have created public awareness through schools and the progress is being followed up.

"Violence against women and girls fractures development and destroys life. So we congratulate the national police and all others involved in taking this fight against SGBV seriously," Kamashazi said.

At the same function, the acting Commissioner General of Police, Mary Gahonzire on behalf of the RNP thanked UNIFEM for the financial and technical support which has helped in fighting gender based violence.

"Sexual gender based violence greatly undermines human resource management, health peace building and justice. So we are appreciative for UNIFEM's financial and technical support in fighting it," Gahozire said.

She also recognized the role played by the government and the Ministry of Gender, the Justice sector, schools, Local Government on Community Policing and all others involved in preventing gender based violence.

Eight schools from around Kigali were awarded trophies for coming up with outstanding performance in the SGBV competition and treated the audience to rib-breaking drama.

Though all the schools performed extremely well, Lycee Notre Dame which emerged the best followed by Kagarama Senior Secondary, Saint André came third while Riviera high school was eighth.

Others that were involved in the competition were Lycee de Kigali, Essa Nyarugunga, Fawe girl's school and Solidarity academy.


The occasion was also attended by the Minister of Gender and Family Promotion, Jeanne d'Arc Mujawamariya and representatives from various NGOs.

Armed groups and government forces continue to abuse women and children in North Kivu

29 September 2008

Armed groups are still recruiting child soldiers to fight in the ongoing conflict in the province of North Kivu, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Those child soldiers who attempt to escape have been killed or tortured, sometimes in front of other children, to discourage further escapes. Children who are taken captive by the DRC army on suspicion of being armed group fighters, have faced ill-treatment and torture in military detention.

There is also continuing physical and sexual abuse of women and children in the conflict, according to the new Amnesty International report, North Kivu: No end to the war against women and children.

The report is based on research and eye witness testimony collected by an Amnesty International fact-finding mission in North Kivu in February and March 2008. It says that members of armed groups and government security forces continue to rape and sexually abuse women and girls and, in a smaller number of cases, men and boys. Infant children and elderly women are among the victims, many of whom have suffered gang rape or have been raped more than once.

These abuses are happening despite government and armed group commitments to immediately end these atrocities in a 23 January 2008 "Act of Engagement".

According to the Amnesty International report, of the former child soldiers who had been reunited with their families in North Kivu through a national demobilization programme, as many as half may since have been re-recruited by armed groups.

Beaten to death
One former child soldier told Amnesty International how two youths were beaten to death in front of him and other child recruits "as a lesson to all of us not to try to escape":

"[The boys] were brought out of a pit in the ground and presented to us during a training session. [An armed group senior commander] then gave the order to beat them. Two soldiers and a captain pushed them down into the mud. When they tired of kicking them…they beat them with wooden sticks. The punishment lasted 90 minutes, until they died."

Rape has been committed in public and in front of family members, including children. Some women have been abducted and held as sexual slaves. In many cases, sexual abuse and rape appear to be ethnically motivated and/or aimed at terrorizing and demoralizing communities suspected of supporting enemy groups.

One 16-year-old rape survivor described how she had been abducted by two junior army officers and held captive in an army camp in North Kivu for several days before she was released. In the camp, she was raped nightly by one of the officers.

"The other officers and soldiers in the camp didn't seem to care or be willing to take responsibility", she told Amnesty International. She now suffers flashbacks and persistent headaches.

In its report, Amnesty International issued comprehensive recommendations to the armed groups, DRC government and the international community aimed at stopping human rights abuses. The recommendations include a call on armed groups to immediately release all children associated with their forces, and measures to end to the horror of sexual violence.

Background to the conflict
Despite a peace accord signed in January 2008, armed conflict has persisted in North Kivu. The fighting involves the regular Congolese army (FARDC) and the CNDP armed group under the command of a renegade general Laurent Nkuna, as well as a number of local mayi-mayi militia and the Rwandan FDLR armed group. Civilians have borne the brunt of the violence.

More than 100,000 people have been displaced by renewed fighting in North Kivu since 28 August 2008, adding to more than 1 million people displaced by earlier violence in the region.

Documentary shows abuse victims

By CYNTHIA McCORMICK

cmccormick@capecodline.com

September 26, 2008

HYANNIS — One of the most heartbreaking images in a new documentary slideshow about child sexual abuse shows a wavy-haired toddler playing at the edge of the ocean.

The child, whose face is not revealed, is scampering joyfully across the sand. But the viewer knows that the toddler is a victim of a terrible crime, as are all of the children photographed by Carolyn O'Neill for the documentary featuring clients of Children's Cove. The local agency investigates child sexual abuse cases on the Cape and Islands and also counsels victims and their families.

By the end of the week, Carolyn O'Neill's documentary will be posted on the Children's Cove Web site: www.childrenscove.org

In a series of black-and-white images O'Neill captured, children are shown holding pets, riding a favorite skateboard and looking out of a bedroom window.

"These are actual individuals on Cape Cod," Children's Cove director Stacy Gallagher said of the documentary that debuted yesterday at the Resort and Conference Center of Cape Cod in Hyannis during the local agency's ninth annual conference. "Child sexual abuse truly does happen here."

The idea for a documentary was sparked when Kathleen Ecker, a nurse who formerly conducted forensic exams at Children's Cove, was talking with neighbor Carolyn O'Neill of Orleans about her work.

O'Neill, a photographer, volunteered to create a visual record about Children's Cove clients.

Protecting the young victims' anonymity was key. "At first we thought, 'How are we going to do this?' " she said yesterday in a telephone interview with the Times.

O'Neill, whose usual portrait work with families and children relies heavily on capturing facial expressions, decided to express the personality of the children by photographing their favorite activities, hobbies and possessions.

There's a closeup of a girl's hands holding a pet hamster. Another photograph shows a girl sitting on a bed, her face hidden by the bed's canopy. A teen boy is photographed with his skateboard.

"These are just kids, living normal kid lives, doing normal things," O'Neill said. "They are still just children and they are still innocent. These children all have a level of pain inside of them."

The photos in the nearly five-minute slideshow are interspersed with printed words that tell the viewer 1-in-4 girls will be a victim of child sexual abuse by age 18, as will 1-in-6 boys.

"That means in our circle of friends there's a lot of people" who have been affected by child sexual abuse, said O'Neill, who is moving to Bangkok next week. In Thailand, she plans to pursue her commercial photography as well as get involved in documentary work about trafficking in children and women.

The Children's Cove conference continues today for educators, health professionals, social workers and law enforcement personnel, with workshops and a morning address by state Sen. President Therese Murray.

Children's Cove is also known as the Cape & Islands Child Advocacy Center. The facility works closely with several local agencies and organizations including the Cape and Islands District Attorney's Office, Barnstable County and Cape Cod Healthcare Inc.

Team formed to probe alleged child abuse in Bacolod orphanage

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines — The Bacolod city government has formed a team to investigate allegations of child abuse at an orphanage here.

Eight children at the Bacolod Boys Home have executed sworn statements about the abuse, said Henry O. Streegan, a former consultant of the orphanage.

He said the children’s affidavits are with acting executive director Fr. Fernando V. Peralta. But Mr. Peralta, for his part, said only one child has executed a sworn statement accusing a city employee of sexual molestation.

"An investigation is underway. It could lead to other complaints of molestation at the Home, but the facts have to be established," Mr. Peralta said.

The orphanage was established in 1960 by Fr. Gratian Murray, one of the founders of La Salle-Bacolod.

He managed the home until he died in December 2000. The home, which is a project of the city, receives P3. 3 million annually from the local government.

Mayor Evelio R. Leonardia said there are moves to professionalize the institution and shield it from controversy so as not to scare off benefactors.

A policy-making board composed of representatives from the government and the private sector is being planned.

Child sexual abuse cases rise

by Jamie Belnap

The number of child sexual abuse cases in Tooele County is on the rise, but officials say pining down the reasons for that trend isn’t simple.

Just this year alone, the Tooele County Attorney’s Office has prosecuted 27 child sexual abuse cases — a 35 percent increase compared to the same time period last year. In fact, in 2007 as a whole, county prosecutors handled only one more case than they have handled from January to mid-September of this year.

Several officials believe the increase is due to more crimes being reported, rather than more being committed.

“This stuff has always been out there,” said Tooele County Attorney Doug Hogan. “But we are prosecuting more because more cases are bring turned in to authorities because there is a heightened awareness surrounding this type of crime. I don’t know that we have more [child sexual abuse incidents] going on, we are just catching more and prosecuting them.”

Hogan said it certainly feels like child sexual abuse cases are taking up an increased amount of his office’s time.

“It’s always feels like there are more and more cases coming in, and it seems like the nature of cases gets worse and worse,” he said.

Why an increase?

Some experts feel the increase in cases is being driven by population growth, as well as greater willingness on the part of victims to come forward.

The Tooele County Children’s Justice Center, a program created by the Utah Attorney General’s Office to provide a safe haven for children to tell stories of abuse, has seen a rise in the number of child sexual abuse interviews completed in the last four years as well, with 80 in 2005, 130 in 2006 and 162 in 2007, according to Lynne Smith, office manager for the CJC.

So far this year, the center has completed 151 child sexual abuse-related interviews — a total that center director Carolyn Jensen said will most likely eventually surpass all previous years.

“There are a number of things that are affecting the increase in interviews,” said Jensen. “First off, there is more education in the schools, so kids are getting these messages at a younger age. Secondly, we are just getting more and more people in Tooele, which unfortunately means more bad people too. The third thing I see is we have had a lot of high-profile cases lately that have been printed in the newspaper.”

Jensen said child or teen victims see these stories and realize what’s been happening to them is similar to what has happened to others, which ignites communication with parents or other trusted individuals.

“They see that someone can help them,” Jensen said.

Many of the recent high-profile cases Jensen refers to have occurred in situations where perpetrators were in a position of public trust:

Former East Elementary third-grade teacher Christopher Burton, 27, pled guilty on Aug. 21, 2007, to eight counts of aggravated sex abuse of a child after fondling students during class time. He was sentenced to eight to 30 years in prison.

Curtis Crittenden, 34, the former head of the Tooele County 4-H program, also pled guilty in August 2007 to fondling four boys — ages 12 to 14 — who attended a sleepover at his home. He was sentenced to six to 30 years in prison in late September of the same year.

Spreading awareness

Tooele County witness/victim advocate Holly Johnson said more children coming forward to tell stories of sexual abuse has shone a spotlight on the problem.

“Children have been learning more and more that it’s OK to talk about abuse and it’s OK to tell,” Johnson said.

Child sexual abuse cases are the most common type of cases that Johnson deals with.

“My statistics are continually rising,” Johnson said.

Fighting against child sexual abuse is almost as difficult as defining the reasons behind the problem.

The State Office of Education approved a child abuse awareness program developed by Prevent Child Abuse Utah for use in Utah schools a few years ago. The program, called Prevention Dimensions, is presented to kids in kindergarten through third grade once a year for a five-week period.

“We talk about what is appropriate versus what is inappropriate,” said Julie Spindler, a prevention coordinator for Valley Mental Health, which administers the program in the Tooele County School District. “We talk about not keeping secrets. We talk about who you can trust if something is happening to you or someone you are close to.”

Spindler said many children don’t understand what abuse is, especially if it has been happening for as long as they can remember.

“They think it must be OK, unless someone tells them it’s not,” Spindler said. “Kids need to be educated between what’s OK and what’s not OK. They need to know what to do if something is happening to them. They need to tell someone because we want the abuse to stop.”

Reporting abuse

Hogan feels like many victims don’t report incidents of abuse even if they realize it’s wrong because many are within familial situations, where the abuser may be a sibling, a parent or a step-parent. He said the 2007 inception of Jessica’s Law in Utah, which boosts the mandatory minimum penalty for those who sexually abuse children to 25 years to life in prison, has had the unintended consequence of putting pressure on victims as well.

“Even with your less egregious child sex abuse cases, the same penalty applies as for cases on the more extreme side of the spectrum,” Hogan said. “We’ve raised the stakes so high that people may be less likely to report because the [abuser], who they may be dependent on, may be lost out of their life.”

Others may want to see an abuser prosecuted, but are scared about having their own identify revealed, Hogan added.

“Kudos to those who do report,” Hogan said. “Those who report may prevent others from being victimized.”

Hogan said his office’s goal is to be very sensitive to the victims in these types of cases, but also to aggressively pursue perpetrators.

“We have a duty to not only the victim, but to the community as a whole,” Hogan said. “I hate when these cases come up because the whole community feels like they get a black eye, but how do we stop them if we don’t go after them?”

Johnson said in order to help victims feel comfortable coming forward with their stories, the community must not attach a stigma to victims of such crimes.

“Victims are afraid of how they will be perceived by society,” Johnson said. “We have to keep striving to make our community an open place. We need to have a nonjudgmental place. We do that by making it OK to talk about it. We need to hold offenders accountable. We need to surround victims with support and understanding.”

Anchorage man sentenced for child sexual abuse

by Angela Blanchard
Friday, Sept. 19, 2008

ANCHORAGE, Alaska-- An Anchorage man originally charged with 83 counts of child sexual abuse was sentenced to serve 30 years in prison Friday.

Back in June, 53 year-old James Kraus pled "no contest" to sexually abusing two girls, age six and seven, in his Fairview apartment.

Kraus could have faced 99 years in prison but the sentence was reduced under the plea agreement.

The victim's mother said the family had known and loved Kraus for more than 10 years but says the abuse has caused her daughter to suffer physical and emotional problems.

"There are places in town we no longer can go as a family, because it causes her to have flashbacks for what Jim did to her," said the victims mother in court. "My child does not feel safe in her own home the majority of the time and recently has been asking to move out of the state of Alaska to get away from this man."

Anchorage Superior Court Judge Patrick McKay acknowledged the pain and suffering Kraus has caused to the victims.

"It's unbelievable the innocence and the childhood that was stolen from these victims," said Judge Patrick McKay. "You have driven them to both physical and mental health problems as we've heard here today. Quite frankly I wasn't sure if it was long enough. I understand why the state enters into these agreements and I'm going to respect that."

Kraus, who will be 73 years-old when he's eligible for parole, did not address the court.

Sex offender's bond revoked after year of freedom

By Ashley Fantz
CNN

FT. LAUDERDALE, Florida (CNN) -- A former Florida teacher, who for a year avoided serving a 43-year sentence for sexually molesting a 13-year-old boy, was handcuffed and ordered back into state custody Friday.

Aaron Mohanlal, here in his sex offender registration photo, had been free pending appeal.

Aaron Mohanlal lowered his head as Broward Circuit Judge Marc Gold reversed a decision he made last summer granting the convicted sex offender a $610,000 bond while his conviction was appealed.

The bond was supposed to be secured with properties owned by Mohanlal's relatives. But evidence presented by prosecutors Friday showed there were no liens placed on the properties and they were not worth a fraction of the amount suggested by defense attorneys.

In April 2007, Mohanlal was convicted of 13 counts, including child abuse, molestation and lewd battery for forcing the boy, one of his students, to have sex in a classroom supply closet. Occasionally, the teacher would take the boy home during school hours for sex. He also purchased a cell phone for the teen and created nicknames for their genitalia to help keep phone sex a secret. The abuse went on for nearly two years.

Gold said on Friday that he weighed "the severity" of the case in deciding to revoke Mohanlal's bond.

"I can't believe it, I can't believe it, finally some justice," the victim's father said after the ruling as his voice cracked with emotion.

Gold granted the bond in July 2007. It allowed Mohanlal to remain free until his case was tried on appeal -- a process that could take years. Gold had agreed to the bond on the condition that Mohanlal's relatives have liens placed on three family properties as collateral. That meant that if Mohanlal left town, or did not show up for court, the family would -- in Gold's words -- "lose everything."

But records indicate the family had little to lose.

The total value of the bond properties was not a fraction of $610,000, said prosecutor Ellen St. Laurent.

Best Bail Bonds of Broward did not place liens on the properties and at least one of the homes is in foreclosure and for sale, according to evidence presented Friday. Mohanlal's defense attorney told Gold in 2007 that one collateral property -- a home in Sunrise, Florida, owned by Mohanlal's father -- was worth more than $250,000, according to St. Laurent. In fact, there are several mortgages on that home, which has no equity, said St. Laurent, who specializes in surety law.

St. Laurent told Gold that he had granted a "bogus" bond. "The basis under which you granted the bond was absolute misinformation," she said.

St. Laurent argued that because Mohanlal's relatives' properties are worth very little, there was a favorable chance the sex offender would leave town to escape his 43-year sentence.

Defense Attorney Diane Cuddihy argued that Mohanlal showed up to court when he was asked to during the original trial. She also argued that Mohanlal came to Friday's hearing from Port St. Lucie, where he lives.

She said Gold had no jurisdictional discretion to rule in the case. The case is in Florida's appellate courts, which should rule on whether the bond is legitimate, she said.

Gold disagreed. He blamed the defense for giving him "misinformation" at the 2007 bond hearing.

"There's no question that the information given to me was incorrect," Gold said. "Given the severity of the sentencing, I'm revoking this bond."

Tom Blomberg, dean of the College of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Florida State University, said granting the bond was a mistake.

"This guy had all the incentive to take off knowing what he would face in prison. So, to know that there was nothing holding him here -- that his family wouldn't suffer one bit if he skipped town -- that's an enormous screw-up," Blomberg said.

"To have no oversight on a bond is hard to imagine," Blomberg continued. "What would stop someone from Broward County from walking in and saying I have $1 million worth of property, so just believe me? You have to wonder what kind of checking system the courts in Broward County have."

St. Laurent said it is advised -- although not required -- that the courts check tax and mortgage information on properties used for collateral. That was not done in Mohanlal's case, she said.

There were no title searches conducted on any of Mohanlal's properties, and there were no appraisals of any of the properties during the year that Mohanlal was free on the bond, evidence showed.

A representative from Best Bail Bonds testified that she was not aware the company had agreed to the bond until St. Laurent called her last week.

The victim's father said Gold on Friday gave his son what Mohanlal should never have again -- freedom.

"My son must move on with his life and that monster should go away for the rest of his."

Woman charged with enabling child abuse

A Norman woman is accused of knowing two girls were being sexually molested without reporting it.

Deborah K. Roth, also known as Deborah K. Bentley, 46, was charged Wednesday with permitting and enabling child abuse.

The children were placed in protective custody last April, and David S. Bentley, 44, was charged with three counts of attempted rape; rape by instrumentation; two counts of lewd and indecent acts with a child; and use of a computer to furnish pornography to a minor.

Bentley is incarcerated in the Rogers County Sheriff's Office Detention Facility in Claremore. His preliminary hearing on the charges is set for 9 a.m. Oct. 15 before Special Judge Rod Ring.

Police said testimony from the child victims indicates Roth knew the girls had been taken out of school and were being molested, but did nothing to report it.

Also Wednesday, two Oklahoma City brothers were charged with first-degree rape by force and fear, and warrants were issued for their arrests, requesting they be held on $250,000 bonds.

Manuel Adrian Juarez Jr., 21, and Carlos Hernandez Juarez, 29, are accused, along with two unknown males, of going to the 18-year-old victim's Moore residence Sunday and forcing her to have sexual intercourse against her will.

Other felonies filed recently include:

· Thomas Edward Brown, 32, Weatherford, Texas, knowingly concealing stolen property; and false declaration of ownership in a pawn;

· Dewayne Deon Graham, 31, Oklahoma City, omitting to provide for a child;

· Jack Edward Spector, 19, Norman, knowingly concealing stolen property.

Jury issues guilty verdict in child-sexual abuse trial

By: Marlene DiGiacomo


PHILADELPHIA - A federal prosecutor Wednesday described John Jackey Worman as a "monster" and said while she can't repair the harm he's done to a dozen victims - some as young as 3 months old - in the horrific sexual abuse case, she can see that he is put behind bars for life.
"I think he is a monster," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle Rotella following the verdict in which the 41-year-old Worman of Colwyn was convicted of all charges.
The case involved more than 1 million images of child pornography - most snapped by the defendant while he committed anal, oral and vaginal sex on the youngsters ranging from infancy to 15 years old during a nine-year period.
"I am very happy he will never be in a position to hurt any other child," said Rotella. "I can't fix what he did to these kids. But I can make sure that he never gets out to hurt another child. He deserves life in jail. This is justice for all those kids."
She also hailed as a "hero" a 20-year-old who first came forward and reported to authorities what she had been enduring for years in an effort to protect her little brother from Worman's predatory actions.
Worman was convicted in U.S. District Court Wednesday of 55 counts of manufacturing child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography in what could be one of the worst cases of child pornography in the nation because of the sheer volume of images found in the defendant's possession.
Rotella said that while what occurred to the three babies was "horrible and vile," they, fortunately, will have no memory of their ordeals.
"The saddest thing of all was the sexual abuse that occurred to the older victims," she said. "They are profoundly impacted by what he did to them."
Among the victims were children left in the care of baby sitter Concetta Jackson, 45, of Colwyn, including a 3-month-old. Jackson has pleaded guilty for her part in the case and is awaiting sentencing.
FBI Agent Jennifer Coughlin said following Worman's conviction that the infant's mother was "stoic" while on the stand, but was "devastated" when police first informed her that her newborn daughter was among the victims.
The jury of seven women and five men deliberated about four hours over two days before reaching a verdict. During the proceedings, the panel had to endure the disturbing task of viewing the graphic videotapes and stills of Worman sexually assaulting the victims.
The jurors were obviously affected by the sickening material they had to watch. At one point during the six-days of testimony, as an image of an infant being victimized was being shown, a male juror raised his hand and asked U.S. District Judge Lawrence Stengel to call a recess.
It was that same juror who, as the foreman, Wednesday repeated the "guilty" verdicts to all of the 56 charges against Worman.
The defendant faces a mandatory 15 years in jail on each charge. Stengel set sentencing for 11 a.m. Dec. 18.
Rotella, who has spent about a decade prosecuting such child sexual-abuse cases, including five years while serving as a Delaware County prosecutor, said, "Absolutely," when asked if it was the worst case she's ever seen.
"I'm having a hard time getting it out of my head," she said.
During the trial, Rotella methodically and coolly handled her duties - that is, until Wednesday afternoon, when she fought back tears while giving her closing argument against co-defendant Dorothy Prawdzik, 44, accused of aiding and abetting Worman.
As she became emotional and reached for tissues to wipe away the tears, Rotella apologized, stating, "I'm sorry. I'm a mother."
The jury deliberated about an hour Wednesday involving the 14 charges that Prawdzik faces for her alleged part in the manufacturing of the child pornography. The panel is to return at 9 a.m. today to continue deliberating as to the offenses against Prawdzik.
Defense attorney Steven Laver argued there was insufficient evidence to hold the defendant accountable for Worman's crimes.
In her closing, Rotella played part of the tapes in which Prawdzik is seen and heard telling a child to "spread her legs" for Worman's camera. She is also seen performing a sex act with a 10-year-old girl and Worman.
Some of the children abused were in Prawdzik's care and Rotella said the defendant was the "last line of defense" for those youngsters.
"Instead of protecting them, she victimized them over and over again," said Rotella "She made a conscious choice - to allow John Worman to do what he did."

Thoughts

So yesterday at 300pm my time, I decided to watch Oprah and guess what the topic was child sex abuse. The last time I watched Oprah when she was talking about this subject was when I was 21 and I finally told my parents of my abuse. Yesterday was so mind boggling for me I can believe that there is a guide on the internet for how to molest a child, its so disgusting that these predators are so bold that they want to create a how to guide. I just can't believe that, it shakes me to the core of my being.

I know some have wondered how I am doing, I am taking things day-by-day like I have been since this happened to me as a child. For me I won't say that I am lucky, its more like I am blessed the life was token of the monster that did this to me when I was 16. It happened on Friday the 13th, to be honest with you it was the best day of my life, it was the first day that I did not even think of that bastard.It was funny I knew he was dead before anyone else did, I just had an overwhelming since of peace wash over me. He died by the hand of a bystander as he was trying to rob a bank. For me while he was alive I never ever got an apology, he never asked for forgiveness he just moved on with his life, he had kids and a fiance no one ever knew the predator that he was to me.

I can say that I am fine as a 28year old wife and mother of one, God gives me the strength to make it through. After all these years I did have to seek help by taking prozac to cope day by day, and my husband and son are another source of my strength. Blogging has truly been my salvation, I am finally able to express myself to the world and bring awareness to this horror.

Please watch todays Oprah!!!!

Help Pass Senate Bill 1738—The PROTECT Our Children Act

Hundreds of thousands of children are victims of sexual abuse each year. Due to the sheer lack of resources, law enforcement is unable to follow up on the majority of leads they have.

The PROTECT Our Children Act will:

• Authorize over $320 million over the next five years in desperately needed funding for law enforcement to investigate child exploitation.
• Mandate that child rescue be a top priority for law enforcement receiving federal funding.
• Allocate funds for high-tech computer software that can track down Internet predators.

Act Now!
Your U.S. senators will be voting on the bill soon, so it is crucial you contact them immediately.
Go to www.senate.gov to find contact information for the senators in your state. Search for your senator by name or state by clicking on the arrow from either dropdown menu. Contact information is provided here. To send an e-mail, click on "Web Form" below his or her name, and e-mail your letter to make a difference!

Mo'Nique: Big 'Push' Help Tell Of Her Own Incest

By Brennan Williams, BlackVoices.com

Over the past 10 years, Mo'Nique has become one of the foremost funny-woman in Hollywood.

But the plus-sized comedienne's recent revelation of teenage sex abuse is no laughing matter.

In the October issue of 'Essence,' the Baltimore native reveals that she was sexually abused by her brother at the tender age of seven.

"I was molested by my older brother," she tells writer Audrey Edwards during one of her most candid interviews ever. "And even when I confronted him and told my parents, he said I was lying, and nothing was really done."

'The Parkers' star said that her brother molested her four times over the course of four years, using certain tactics such as candy to lure her into the bathroom.

Her parents, she said, were in disbelief, but she didn't hold them accountable "because me and my brother were both their children, and I just don't know the kind of position they felt they were in."

However, the way her parents handled the situation left her bewildered.


"My father was very upset, but it never got mentioned again," she added. "I'll never forget my mother saying, 'If it's true, it will surface again,' and I remember thinking, 'Why would I lie? Why is there even an if in this?' I was angry with them for so long, because I felt as if they should have seen what was happening."

Mo'Nique's alleged sexual abuse came full circle when playing her latest role as an abusive parent in Lee Daniels'; forthcoming film, 'Push.' Based on the seminal 1996 novel of the same name by Sapphire, the story is a graphic account of a young black woman growing up in a cycle of incest and abuse.

"My brother was a monster to me," she commented. "When Lee [Daniels] would say 'Action,' I became my brother."

Her brother, she said went on to serve 15 years in prison for sexually abusing another girl and never made amends for the abuse.

"He still acts like he doesn't know what I'm talking about," she vented in the magazine, which hit newsstands today."So screw hurting your feelings. You need to get your feelings hurt, and you need to get some help."

Mo'Nique, who serves as Guest Editor of the magazine, a special issue dedicated to plus-sized women, admitted to being nervous about telling her painful truth but felt it was her duty.

"It makes me nervous. It's like, Oh, God, what will it do to him when people read this? And then another part of me is like, Goddamn it, it's my obligation to let people know, and to tell women to watch their children."


Mo'Nique is very brave to share her story with the world, and once again parents please listen and pay attention to your kids. The signs of sex abuse are always there.

If you or anyone you know are going through or have gone through this please contact the following organizations online.

rainn.org, nca-online.org,ncvc.org and jfcadvocacy.org.

Oliver O'Grady

Just to let you know our president, president Bush pardoned this bastard.


Oliver O'Grady (born 1946) is a former Irish Roman Catholic priest who has raped, molested and abused many children in California from 1973 onwards. He wrote a letter of confession to parents in 1976 and a copy was given to the Bishop of Stockton at that time.

Early life

Born in Limerick, Ireland, O'Grady was ordained into the priesthood at seminary in Thurles, County Tipperary during the late 1960s. He emigrated to the United States in 1971.^[1] He served as a priest at St. Anne's Catholic Church in Lodi, California from 1971 to 1978. He later served at Church of the Presentation in Stockton, California, Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Turlock, California, St. Andrew's Parish San Andreas, California, and St. Anthony's Catholic Church in Hughson, California.^[2] He later claimed to having been himself molested by a priest at the age of 10, and that he was involved in sexual abuse in his own family, both as perpetrator and victim.

Crimes

In 1993 he was convicted on four counts of "lewd and lascivious acts" on two minors, the brothers John and James Howard, and was sentenced to 14 years in prison. Attorney Jeff Anderson said the Howard brothers were repeatedly molested between 1978 and 1991, from age three to 13. Anderson argued that church officials knew that O'Grady had abused children as early as 1976 and 1984, but had done nothing. In 1998 a civil jury ordered the Catholic Diocese of Stockton to pay US$30 million in damages to the brothers. A judge later reduced the amount to $7 million.^[4] O'Grady was paroled from prison in 2000 after serving seven years, and went to live in Ireland after being deported from the United States.

In a 2005 video taped deposition, O'Grady revealed that he had abused as many as 25 children in and around Northern California.^[5] Recently, there have been lawsuits filed accusing O'Grady of abusing children while even in the seminary in Ireland.

Deliver Us From Evil

O'Grady is the subject of the 2006 Academy Award-nominated documentary, Deliver Us From Evil. In the film, O'Grady states, "I want to promise myself this is going to be the most honest confession of my life." He then details how he preyed on children, and claims that church officials knew about his abuses, but protected him by moving him from parish to parish.^[6][7] When questioned whether his bishop knew that he had abused children in 1976 and before, O'Grady confirmed this was true, and despite that he was made pastor of another parish.

When a policeman becomes a predator

Sleepovers took a sinister turn as a close friend betrayed a family's trust, writes Kate Benson.

IT WAS late one Friday afternoon last year when Michelle Adams* took a call on her mobile that would change her life.

Two Australian Federal Police officers wanted to see her urgently. Meet them at 6pm at the domestic terminal at Sydney Airport. No arguments. Bring your husband.

"I felt very, very sick. I had been burning a ballet DVD for my daughter's upcoming dance exams and I thought Big Brother had caught me."

But Adams's life was about to become a dance of a much darker kind. Photos and videos of her 10-year-old daughter, Megan, had been found on international child pornography websites, traded between pedophiles in the United States and discussed in chatrooms.

The nine photos, spread out by the officers, showed Megan, a happy, exuberant year 5 student, washing the car in a bikini, bouncing on a trampoline in her school uniform, and playing at the beach.

The photos had been cropped to focus on her crotch and chest, but Adams recognised the swimming costume and a freckle on Megan's upper thigh.

All of the pictures, plus videos of Megan undressing and showering, had been posted on the internet by one of Adams's most trusted friends, a police officer with a wife and young daughter, who played regularly with Megan.

The general duties constable had been arrested a fortnight earlier and granted bail, Adams was told.

He was charged with three counts of using the internet to transmit child pornography, after police found at his home 4900 photos and 204 videos of children as young as two simulating or performing sexual acts.

A bag of women's clothes, which he used in some of his sexual fantasies, was found in his locker at the police station, the court heard.

The child protection unit at the Sydney Children's Hospital, at Randwick, where Adams and her family were counselled, sees more than 760 children a year, some sexually abused, others neglected, beaten or poisoned.

Only two cases have involved internet pornography, but staff fear this number will rise.

"People have to be vigilant

about the photos they post on sites like MySpace and Facebook because the reality is that offenders will often use innocent photos and manipulate them in ways to get sexual gratification," says a social worker, Bernadette Walsh.

Many parents were also unaware that perpetrators were often family members or friends, well known to the child, she said.

"We caution children about stranger danger all the time and yet the vast majority of offenders are people within the family or known to the family and we don't give children the skills to talk about that."

The co-head of the child protection unit at the Children's Hospital at Westmead, Robyn Lamb, said staff had seen a surge in the number of children who were victims of internet pornography, including a recent case where a mother posted sexualised photos of her children on American child porn sites.

"We get quite a few cases where children have been coerced in chatrooms by people who they thought were of a similar age. These [perpetrators] are very clever - they know how to pick the vulnerable ones and gain their trust."

She said her unit had about 1200 referrals a year, and about half were victims of sexual abuse.

In the Adams case, the police officer had been trading explicit images of prepubescent girls for years, but had recently told an undercover FBI agent in a chatroom he had been planning to drug and rape Megan, but lost his nerve at the last moment. He had asked the agent if the act would have given him "a buzz".

"I remember driving home and feeling very numb. [My husband] David and I did not speak a word to each other," Adams says.

"I had seen [the officer] in that fortnight after he was arrested. We'd had coffee and he'd been quiet but he didn't mention anything was wrong. His wife had even been asking to have Megan for a play and a sleepover.

"I used to think what a great husband and father he was. Any time he came to dinner at our place he always made a sweet, and he used to do the cleaning and his own ironing and look after [his daughter] Charlotte all the time, and certainly do some fun things with her. They always invited Megan," Adams says.

"There were times when Megan didn't want to go and play with her and I'd say, 'Don't be mean. She's an only child and she's just looking for a good friend.' "

Adams's eyes fill with tears as she recalls this. "My head is spinning when I think about that."

She now knows that the officer was grooming Megan, buying her gifts and treats, and ingratiating himself with Adams, by regularly asking her out for coffee and involving himself in her family's activities.

The bubbly primary school student has never spoken of being molested by him, and seems oblivious to the sexual agenda of his photo collection, but Adams is still gripped with fear that she may have been assaulted without her knowledge.

"We were very nervous about what may have been done to her but I didn't want to frighten her by asking. She knew nothing about sex and I was worried that he may have told her he had a gun and he'd use it on her or us if she told anyone. It could have terrified her if I probed too much," Adams says.

Megan was never medically assessed for sexual assault because the examination must be done within 72 hours of the encounter and the results are notoriously unreliable, but Department of Community Services officers assured Adams her daughter did not exhibit any behavioural signs indicative of molestation, such as repeatedly touching her genitals or acting in a flirtatious manner.

"Megan told me that he gave her a Panadol once for no reason. I think he was testing the waters. He had some extraordinarily strong painkillers at his house and I think he was seeing if Megan could trust him enough to take a pill from him, and if she could swallow a pill," Adams says.

"I did take one last phone call from his wife. I was feeling very angry so I was not a very nice person towards her. [I asked her if she had] any idea what he was up to and her answer was no but that about five years earlier she had caught him with a disc of pornography and he promised her he would never do it again."

The police officer was sentenced to three years and three months in jail, to be served in protection at Grafton. He may be out on parole in August 2010, but Adams's face crumbles when she contemplates his release.

"I don't know what we'll do. Part of me wants to write a letter to all his neighbours telling them what he's done but that's because I'm still angry. Really, I think my goal now is to focus on my family. We need to look after ourselves and heal. The person I feel most sorry for is Charlotte. She is a lovely kid, a really nice little girl, and I feel for her because she's just an innocent person in a very mixed-up family."

* Names have been changed.

Social customs 'hide child sex abuse'

Socially accepted practices are being used to hide the sexual abuse of children in various parts of the world, according to a new report from an international advocacy group.

Girls are bought, through payment of a dowry, to provide sexual pleasure... and are then abandoned Carmen Madrinan, ECPAT executive director

The Bangkok-based international child protection campaign group, ECPAT (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes) reserves its harshest criticism for forced marriages of adolescents and children.

It says such marriage contracts can be found all over the Middle East and South Asia and are a cloak for child abuse.

BBC correspondent Stephen Cviic says international non-governmental organisations often tread a fine line in promoting a progressive view, and the strong criticism in this report may well be unpalatable to people in developing countries.

The ECPAT notes that in Iran the legal age for marriage is 13, which means that older men can have sex with young girls.

The girls are essentially "bought, through payment of a dowry, to provide sexual pleasure... and are then abandoned," says Carmen Madrinan, the executive director of ECPAT International.

And Egyptian children are often given to wealthy older men for a few weeks or months under legal short-term marriage contracts, it says.

Boy prostitution

The report also describes the problem of prostitution among underage boys in South Asia, which is never discussed openly because of religious and sexual taboos.

In Pakistan, it says, the use of boys as homosexual prostitutes for older men is virtually tolerated, but the boys themselves are unable to seek help from the police because they are seen as outcasts.

"It's a phenomenon that was hidden for a long time, and then we found that it's everywhere, but nobody really mentioned it," said Chitraporn Vanasapongse, who wrote the report.

The report describes other traditional practices which encourage abuse.

In Nigeria, it says, people traffickers often use traditional religion to cast spells which make their victims feel trapped and afraid.

And in Latin America, the use of children as domestic servants can also involve an assumption that such youngsters are sexually available to their employers.

Internet use

Ms Madrinan said that while quantifying commercial sexual exploitation of children is very difficult, there has been an increase in the number of arrests and international operations in the last few years and that images of abused children are more widely available on the internet.

"There is no better measurement of the growth of the exploitation of children than that," she said.

"It's one of the ways that enables us to quantify [the problem]."

Uganda: Child Sexual Abuse Eating Our Future Away

By: Anslem Wandega

The media recently reported various cases of child sexual abuse in Uganda. This social upheaval continues to rank high amongst other forms of child abuse in our country today.

In traditional African society, defilement was rarely heard of. It may, however, have been happening but the society at large had created a system where children were protected through many avenues, ranging from stringent taboos centered on relationships and living arrangements.

Anybody who touched a child inappropriately or even made an attempt to sleep with that child was not only considered an imbecile, but was severely punished by the society. Such a "societal predator" was better seen dead than alive by society members.

These days, things have changed! Our society's most trusted individuals-parents, relatives, church leaders, friends, teachers, etc have turned to wreak havoc on children. In faith-based institutions, some men of god have not escaped Satan's temptations as they have turned to vulnerable children for sexual gratification.

Schools which used to be safe havens for children have turned into places where teachers admire their pupils, proceed to establish sexual relationships with them only to be discovered when the girls get pregnant.

The dot com era has also brought with it pornography. Urban and peri-urban youths and adults after enjoying seeing pornographic materials in the mushrooming video dens and internet cafes resort to sexual abuse of children.

Some parents fear to report child sexual abuse in cases where alleged offenders or their relatives are richer or are in positions of higher authority. Others fear the cost involved in facilitating the police to arrest the alleged offenders and in meeting related medical exam fees. Many others fear "bringing shame" to their families when their close relatives are found to have defiled their children.

Sexually abused children are at a risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV. Pregnant teenagers who abort and do not receive proper treatment and support in time to save them from the complications of an aborted pregnancy die.

These children also suffer long term psychological trauma, which manifests in form of pelvic pains, headaches, asthma and gynecological problems. Some in the long run, even fail to make the best sexual and reproductive health decisions for themselves, and are often unable as adults to negotiate safe sex, or enjoy intimacy relationships. Many others accept victimization as an inevitable aspect of being female whereas others fail to trust even their husbands viewing them as potential defilers.

This should end or else children will continue to suffer and regard sexual abuse as normal and continue to be abused.

We urgently need a strong law against pornography so as to shield children from pornography-induced sexual abuse. The government should then earmark substantial financial and other resources to enforce it as well as other laws against child sexual abuse.

There is a need to build the capacity of non-governmental and governmental institutions to offer child-friendly services to enable child-victims of sexual abuse to return to normalcy. Other programs to uplift the social and economic standards of vulnerable families and encourage reportage of child sexual abuse with ease should be developed and executed.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) in one of his most popular pieces wrote that the only opportunity for evil to prevail is when good people sit back and watch. Time to save our society from becoming extinct is now.

Mr Wandega is a development worker in Addis Ababa , Ethiopi

Doctor Charged With Sexual Abuse

A Tulsa doctor has been charged with sexual abuse of a minor child.

Dr. Kirk Smith was arrested in July on a complaint of sexually abusing a 6-year old girl at his home in Bixby.

A police affidavit says the girl told her 10-year-old brother that Dr. Smith was doing "bad things" to her. And according to that report, it happened more than once.

Smith has been suspended from SouthCrest Hospital in Tulsa where he was working in family medicine and obstetrics.