News Story of the Day

California outlaws secret abuse settlements, hidden evidence

By Joelle Castiex, February 6, 2017, The Worthy Adversary

The era of secret child sex abuse settlements in California is over.

I am usually quick to beat up on California Governor Jerry Brown for his poor record on protecting institutions who cover-up child sex abuse. But a new law enacted January 1, 2017, slipped under my radar— and organizations who harbor men and women who prey on children should be on notice.


Royal commission into child sexual abuse: 1,880 alleged perpetrators identified in Catholic Church

By Philippa McDonald and Riley Stuart, February 5, 2017,  ABC.net.au

More than 20 per cent of the members of some Catholic religious orders — including Marist Brothers and Christian Brothers — were allegedly involved in child sexual abuse, a royal commission hearing in Sydney has been told.

Nearly 2,000 Catholic Church figures, including priests, religious brothers and sisters, and employees, were identified as alleged perpetrators in a report released by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.


Canon lawyers: Guam clergy abuse trials could rip open secret archives

By Haidee V Eugenio , [email protected], Pacific Daily News, 

Guam clergy sexual abuse trials could rip open secret archives that every bishop or archbishop is required to keep under canon law, U.S.-based experts on laws governing the Catholic Church said.

The church secret archives contain sensitive records that could pertain to priest misconduct such as their sexual abuse of children, substance abuse and alcoholism, as well as mental health challenges, lawyers said.


SOFT JUSTICE Peter Ball, paedo bishop and pal of Prince Charles is free from prison halfway through his sentence for abusing 18 teen boys

A PREDATORY paedophile bishop and close pal of Prince Charles has been freed from prison halfway through his sentence.

Retired Bishop of Gloucester Peter Ball, now 84, was jailed for 32 months in October 2015 for grooming and abusing 18 teenagers and young men.

One later committed suicide.


Elite private school allowed sex abuse for decades, grand jury finds

By Tony Rhodin,  lehighvalleylive.com, February 1, 2017

Students were sexually abused over more than 50 years at a small private school in Bucks County, and although administrators knew of the crimes, they weren't reported to authorities, a county grand jury report says.

Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub says charges won't be brought but changes must be made after a county grand jury's report details sexual abuse at Solebury School. (Kurt Bresswein | For lehighvalleylive.com) 

Most of the acts are past the statute of limitations so charges can't be brought, and the one case that could be prosecuted won't be at the request of the victim, the Bucks County District Attorney's Office said in a news release Wednesday.

 


State Senate reintroduces child sex abuse bill that lifts some time limits for lawsuits

By Steve Esack, January 30, 2017, The Morning Call

In a surprise move Monday, a Senate panel resurrected and then unanimously approved a controversial bill to lift time limits for some child sex abuse victims to sue their alleged abusers and employers who protected them.

But the bill, which is identical to Senate legislation that failed last session, would not permit victims, if they are 31 or older, to retroactively sue their perpetrators as the House had sought following scathing grand jury report into child sex abuse at a Catholic diocese in western Pennsylvania.


5th Navajo sues Mormon church for alleged child sexual abuse

Associated Press, January 27, 2017, Capital Journal

SALT LAKE CITY — A fifth person has filed a lawsuit against the Mormon church accusing religious officials of not doing enough to protect Navajo children from sexual abuse in a now defunct church-run foster program that placed thousands of American Indian children with Mormon families.

The new lawsuit was filed Wednesday in Navajo Nation court by a woman who says was sexually abused as a teenager over a three-year period from 1968-1971 by her foster father at a house in Spanish Fork, Utah. She says was 15-years-old when the abuse began.


Maneka is right about visa regulation for child sex offenders, and MEA should listen

By Geetika Mantri, The News Minute, January 25, 2017 

In 2013, Pastor George Fernandes of New Hope for Children orphanage in Bengaluru received an e-mail from a British citizen Richard Huckle. Huckle wrote that he was interested in spending time at the orphanage and click photographs.

The unsuspecting pastor allowed George to stay at the orphanage for two days, not knowing that he was a convicted paedophile who had abused and raped up to 200 children in Malaysia.

Pastor George said Richard was never left alone with any of the children at New Hope during his stay there and no case has been filed.


3 convicted for child abuse at religious Alabama private school

It was a case that almost didn't make it to trial.

"Everybody, from Alabama, Maine, Dallas, Houston, New York - it was a herculean task and it took a lot of people at the DA's office working hard to make it happen," said Keith Blackwood, Mobile County assistant district attorney, "to make sure I had what I needed to prove my case."

In the end, three leaders of a religious Alabama bootcamp for troubled teens were convicted on multiple counts of aggravated child abuse for what they did to the children in their care.

The convictions were thanks in large part to the testimony of five former students, who told the court about the physical and mental abuse they suffered at the school.


Pastors accused of abusing 12-year-old - Alleged victim vow to fight for justice

Jamaica Star, January 24, 2017
As far back as 2002, Pastor Jermaine Gibson had sexual relation with a young woman who was 12 years old at the time, the police Corporate Communications Unit alleged yesterday. The communication arm of the police force said that two years after Gibson allegedly abused the teen, another pastor, Paul Gardner, allegedly had sexual relations with her. Following investigations by detectives from the Centre for Sexual Offences and Child Abuse, both pastors were yesterday charged with carnal abuse.

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