News Story of the Day

Which is why one passage in the Bible is a Get Out of Jail Free card for offenders, particularly when adhered to so strictly by those within religious organisations.

Timothy 5:19: demands followers “do not entertain an accusation against an elder unless it is brought by two or three witnesses”.

By Jonathan Flynn, March 13, 2017, ABC.net.au

Each one is different, a unique voice speaking out, usually after decades of painful, secretive silence. But there is a terrible consistency in the effect the abuse had on these people's lives:

"I feel pain and self-hatred. I tried to obliterate it with alcohol."

"I've lost my right to a normal life."

"I can no longer trust anyone, I always wonder whether they will betray my trust the way my abuser did."

"I didn't know who to trust, so I trusted no one."

"It made my life the living embodiment of hell."

By Beth Hundsdorfer, March 8, 2017, BND

SPRINGFIELD--St. Clair County State’s Attorney Brendan Kelly went before a Senate Committee on Tuesday to urge senators to pass legislation to eliminate the statute of limitations for felony sex crimes against children.

By GBFM News, March 7, 2017

Galway Bay fm newsroom – An Taoiseach has described the mass grave at the site of the former mother and baby home in Tuam as a ‘chamber of horrors.’

In a powerful Dail speech this afternoon, Enda Kenny said the men of the time are not blameless.

By Daniel Hamburg, March 6, 2017, WJAC

JOHNSTOWN – On Monday, Bishop Mark Bartchak of the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown announced sweeping changes in the Catholic church to protect victims of child sex abuse.

BY MITCH WEISS, ASSOCIATED PRESS, March 6, 2017

SPINDALE, N.C. (AP) -- At least a half-dozen times over two decades, authorities investigated reports that members of a secretive evangelical church were being beaten. And every time, according to former congregants, the orders came down from church leaders: They must lie to protect the sect.

Among the members of the Word of Faith Fellowship who coached congregants and their children on what to say to investigators were two assistant district attorneys and a veteran social worker, the ex-followers told The Associated Press.

The Sun Daily, March 5, 2017

NEW DELHI: Five nuns and a doctor are on the run in India after being accused of concealing the birth of a baby to a teenager who alleges that a priest raped her, police said Sunday.

Arrest warrants have been issued for the six and for two hospital staff. They are accused of concealing the 16-year-old's delivery from authorities and hiding the baby in a Catholic orphanage at Kunnur in the southern state of Kerala.

"They deliberately hid the incident from officials," Prajish Thottathil, a senior police officer, told AFP, adding some of the accused likely also knew about the alleged assault.

Irish Times, March 3, 2017

Human remains of a significant number of babies and infants up to three years of age have been found on the site of the former mother and baby home in Tuam, Co Galway. This follows work by the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation which carried out planned excavations there.

March 2017, A U Bulletin 

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) has introduced a revised version of the Child Victims Act that would remove the statute of limitations on prosecution of abusers in public and private institutions around the state.

Cuomo’s proposal would allow adults who were abused as children to file civil lawsuits up to 50 years after the attacks occurred, and would allow victims who couldn’t bring their cases to court due to current statute-of-limitations laws to have a one-year window to do so.