Advocacy group backs order to send girls back to Italy — On Monday the Family Court dismissed the mother’s last ditch attempt to keep her four daughters in Australia after she brought them here two years ago from Italy, ostensibly for a short holiday. The Brisbane court ruled the children, aged between nine and 15, be returned to their father in Italy and they were immediately taken into the custody of the Queensland Department of Communities.
Boy Scouts admit response to sex abuse was ‘insufficient’ — As the Boy Scouts of America prepares for the court-ordered release of records detailing accusations of sex abuse by members and leaders, the organization acknowledged in an open letter this week that its response in some of the cases had been “plainly insufficient, inappropriate, or wrong.” The letter comes after the Oregon Supreme Court ordered the Boy Scouts to release “ineligible volunteer” files from 1965 to 1985 that chronicle suspected or confirmed instances of child sex abuse.
Boy Scouts kept files on gay men alongside paedophiles — It has been revealed that the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) kept tabs on members they suspected of being gay alongside records of scoutmasters and other volunteers who were suspected of being child molesters. The Boy Scouts says the files, known collectively as ‘perversion files’ were compiled to make sure pedophiles were kicked out and stayed out of Scouting. However an analysis of the files by Seattle’s KING 5 television channel shows top officials in the youth organization were keeping files on suspected gay Scouting volunteers as well.
Boy Scouts to review all allegations of sexual abuse — The Boy Scouts of America announced Tuesday that it would conduct a comprehensive review of files on suspected sexual predators to ensure that all allegations of abuse in the last 47 years have been reported to law enforcement. The move would mark the first time in the organization’s century-long history that it thoroughly studied its own confidential files, a blacklist meant to keep predators out of Scouting.
Children most often killed by mothers — New Zealand mothers kill more children than any other group in society and men are victims of domestic violence as often as women, a police investigation has found. The Family Violence Death Review, released today by police, found mothers were responsible for 45 per cent of children killed by domestic violence. The review of 95 family violence deaths involving 101 victims between 2004 and 2011 revealed some “inconvenient truths”, Family First national director Bob McCoskrie said.
Kenya: UNHCR moves to protect male rape victims — Disgusted by the rising cases of male rape victims in conflict and displacement situations, the UN refugee agency has issued guidelines to its staff and other aid workers on how to identify and support the victims, according to a new publication by UNHCR’s Division of International Protection. The new publication was launched Monday a debate in Geneva, Switzerland, on the rarely-broached subject.
Kids in solitary confinement: America’s official child abuse — No other nation in the developed world routinely tortures its children in this manner. And torture is indeed the word brought to mind by a shocking report released today by Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union. Growing Up Locked Down documents, for the first time, the widespread use of solitary confinement on youth under the age of 18 in prisons and jails across the country, and the deep and permanent harm it causes to kids caught up in the adult criminal justice system.
Lawsuit: Teen wrongly charged in sex abuse case — A Livingston County teenager was wrongly charged with sex abuse because of what an attorney claims was likely an illegal grand jury interview, a lawsuit alleges. A lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Rochester argues that a Livingston County assistant district attorney may have illegally elicited false testimony from a 3-year-old girl thought to be a victim of child abuse by her half-brother. During a videotaped interview, the prosecutor said that the girl’s mother was watching through a mirror.
Louisiana death-row inmate Damon Thibodeaux exonerated with DNA evidence — A little after 4 a.m. on July 21, 1996, Damon Thibodeaux, a deckhand on a Mississippi River workboat, cracked at the end of a nine-hour interrogation and confessed to the brutal rape and murder of his 14-year-old step-cousin, Crystal Champagne. “I didn’t know that I had done it,” Thibodeaux said at one point, according to a police transcript. “But I done it.” Before that day was over, Thibodeaux had recanted his confession, telling his court-appointed lawyer that he told police what they wanted to hear in response to threats of death by lethal injection and his grief over the death of his cousin.
Male Rape: The Resilient Taboo — “Something was either slipped into my drink or I effectively drugged myself, but either way it doesn’t matter; what matters is how that person took advantage.” Peter* is sitting down in an empty university classroom on a sunny afternoon. Although he starts off describing what happened to him in a very matter-of-fact tone, his words slowly become heavier with emotion, all while he holds himself. The 23-year-old student from Dublin, Ireland, was raped by another man two years ago, but it has been a long and dark journey before admitting it to himself in recent months.
Male sex-abuse survivors learn it’s OK to talk about it — Looking back, the story he wrote as a second-grader makes sense. Painfully so. A puppy dog was yipping for help, and yipping and yipping. But no one ever came. So he quit. The dog became silent. “That’s exactly the portrait of me,” says David Jensen, now a University of Colorado graduate, “eventually freezing to the point of just taking the abuse.” In a way, he froze his own memory, too — for survival, he says.
Man discusses 2 years of physical assaults, failed protective orders that leave him feeling vulnerable about abusive ex-girlfriend — What you’re about to see is a troubling story of domestic abuse. But in this case, the victim is a man. The abuser, now convicted, is a woman. And she’ll be sentenced in court Wednesday morning. The young man you’re about to meet has been tormented by an ex-girlfriend for more than two years, in two separate local jurisdictions. He felt compelled to speak out about the abuse, the failed protective orders and a system that’s left him feeling helpless and vulnerable.
Mother, Boyfriend Face Child Sexual Abuse Charges — Plymouth Township Police have filed charges against a 65-year-old man and 48-year-old woman, both of Plymouth Meeting, alleging that the two conspired to sexually abuse the woman’s 8-year-old son over a two-year period. The alleged abuse first came to the attention of police in early September when the boy’s father, who is divorced from his wife, brought in a videotape of a conversation he had with his son.
N.S. man accused of keeping boy in chains should have faced stricter monitoring: opposition — A Nova Scotia group that helps sexual assault victims said Friday it’s concerned some people accused of sexual abuse are being released on conditions that are too lax. Irene Smith of the Avalon Sexual Assault Centre in Halifax said she’s worried the province’s justice system failed in the way it released David James Leblanc, who is wanted on charges of confining and sexually assaulting a teenage boy for days. “I don’t think the conditions were serious enough and in line with the charges before him,” Smith said.
Paedophile allowed to care for 19 kids — A paedophile was given parental responsibility for 19 Aboriginal children by a government department that knew he was suspected of sexually abusing boys when he was scout leader in the 1990s. Steven Andrew Larkins, former chief executive of the Hunter Aboriginal Children’s Services (HACS), was convicted of child sexual assault and fraud charges and sentenced to jail after being caught with child porn last month.
Some of Boy Scouts ‘perversion files’ released online — 1,900 predators’ names revealed, including 13 New Yorkers — A significant portion of the Boy Scouts of America’s “perversion files,” a secret list of scout leaders accused of sex abuse, is now online for the world to see. Seattle attorney Tim Kosnoff released the names of 1,932 men accused — or convicted — of molesting children between 1971 and 1991. He did not release the full files, which contain victims’ names. The list includes 13 New York City residents. One New Yorker was convicted of plying kids from low-income families with alcohol and drugs in exchange for sex acts.
Trial describes abuse of teen boy — A Georgia teen was so malnourished he still had his baby teeth at age 18 and was so isolated that his sisters who lived in the same home had no contact with him aside from hearing his screams, detectives testified Thursday. “He screams for food and screams to go to the bathroom. That’s all they know of their brother,” said Detective Kyle Shelton with the Paulding County Sheriff’s Office. Eighteen-year-old Mitch Comer’s stepfather, Paul Comer, and mother, Sheila Comer, told investigators they confined the teen to the room for punishment.
Toy Soldiers 