Bulletin Board v155

AG: Sandusky abused boys ages 8 to 17 — Prosecutors claim Jerry Sandusky sexually abused boys ranging in age from 8 to 17, eight of whom were molested on the Penn State campus, according to a document with new details about the case filed Thursday. The Pennsylvania attorney general’s office said in the document that crimes involving one of the 10 alleged victims took place in Florida and Texas, while another boy was abused at his own school.

A hope in hell: Pakistan school tries to get to abused kids before the Taliban does — The boy was 2 when his mother dumped him on the streets, 4 when he spent his first night in a tiny prison cell, being sexually assaulted by an older inmate. Prostitution for money and shelter followed, then hashish, and glue-sniffing. Now 10 and gangly, he fidgets and stares at the ground, speaking in a near-whisper. “I’m ashamed,” he says. Yet in this rugged frontier city in northwest Pakistan, where people carry guns as casually as they would a daily newspaper, this boy has hope.

Boys lives ruined by sex abuse, inquiry told — The father of a boy thought to have been a victim of serial pedophile Dennis John McKenna has broken down in tears while giving evidence at a special inquiry. Noel Parkin, 68, gave evidence today at an inquiry investigating allegations of sexual abuse against children at St Andrews Hostel in Katanning. It follows the jailing of McKenna, who sexually abused boys at the hostel where he was head warden from 1975 to 1990.

Has the Sexual Abuse of Boys Reached a Crisis Stage? — This is a presidential election year, so the biggest story of 2012 is likely to play out in early November. But the most important story of the year might be playing out right now–and it involves the ongoing revelations about the sexual abuse of boys, allegedly by men who were in positions of trust. The issue first hit the national radar last November, when criminal charges were brought against former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky. That quickly was followed by allegations against former Syracuse assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine.

Bulletin Board v154

A place for male victims to talk — When Glenn Allan told an acquaintance he had been sexually assaulted by his hockey coach as a boy, he got a surprising response. “I heard his clipboard and pen fall,” Allan, 47, recalled of giving a statement to the police officer. “He looked at me in shock and said, ‘That son of a bitch did the same thing to me.'” The reaction Allan got from the officer that day isn’t a shock to him anymore. For years, men who were the victims of sexual abuse as children have been disclosing past traumas to him.

Boy sues Scouts over sexual abuse, claims mass abuse cover-up — The Boy Scouts of America has until Friday to produce more than 5,000 records, kept secret for decades, detailing allegations of sexual abuse by scout leaders across the nation. The attorney for the plaintiff, Santa Barbara attorney Timothy Hale, told the Santa Barbara Independent that the files, which will not be made public on Friday, showed that the Boy Scouts of America has maintained thousands of secret “perversion files” detailing child molestation cases, involving up to 20,000 scouts abused by leaders during 1965-85 alone, and perhaps 100,000 since 1925.

Ex-NHL star Theo Fleury describes horror of sexual abuse — Graham James, the former junior hockey coach and convicted sex offender, is appearing before a judge in Winnipeg for a sentencing hearing Wednesday. He pleaded guilty in December to assaulting former Flames Theo Fleury and another male while coaching in the 1980s and 90s. Fleury held a press conference in Vancouver Wednesday morning to read from a complete and unedited copy of his victim impact statement.

L.A. teacher accused of having sex with male students — A female high school Spanish teacher in Los Angeles was arrested after two male students said they had sex with her, police said Thursday. Gabriela Cortez, 42, of Montebello, was arrested late Wednesday on suspicion of two felony counts of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, said Montebello police Lt. Luis Lopez. Cortez was arrested after an 18-year-old youth went to the police station last week and reported that he had a sexual relationship with her from 2008 to 2010 while he was a student at Roosevelt High School in Los Angeles, where Cortez taught Spanish, Lopez said. 

Bulletin Board v139

3 women in Zimbabwe charged in series of sex attacks on men — Police in Zimbabwe on Friday charged three women found in possession of 33 condoms containing semen with 17 counts of aggravated indecent assault in a case that may be a break in a string of sex attacks over the past two years by women targeting male hitchhikers. Prosecutor Michael Reza told a court in Harare that the counts were for each of the 17 men who had positively identified the women as having sexually assaulted them in 2010 or 2011. The women, all of them in their mid-20s, were arrested Sunday in Gweru, about 300 kilometers (186 miles) south of Harare, when their car was involved in an accident. Police found the condoms in the women’s car.

Afghanistan: Child Street Workers Vulnerable to Abuse — In the relentless heat of a summer’s day in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e Sharif, most people are trying to find some shade, but 11-year-old Mohammad Rafiq is walking the streets carrying a box full of shoe-shining equipment. Dripping with sweat, the boy asks passers-by, “Uncle, may I polish your shoes?” Although often rebuffed, he carries on walking undeterred, calling out, “Polish your shoes and slippers.” Mohammad Rafiq used to spend his days at school, but five months ago, his family moved to Mazar-e Sharif because of drought and unemployment in Faryab province, where they lived. He would love to carry on in school, but doubts he will able to do so.

Cleared man freed from La. prison after 30 years — Henry James was speechless when one of his attorneys told him he would be freed from prison Friday after 30 years behind bars for a crime he didn’t commit. James said it felt like a miracle when the lawyer called Thursday to tell him a judge had vacated his 1982 rape conviction and ordered him released from the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. “I was shocked,” he said during an interview at the offices of The Innocence Project New Orleans. “After 30 years, you’re finally getting a chance at justice.”

Erie mom, boyfriend arrested for locking boy in ‘inhumane’ conditions — An Erie woman and her boyfriend face charges of child abuse, false imprisonment and crimes against an At Risk juvenile after police say they locked a 14-year-old boy inside a small room in their mobile home, often with no food. Amanda Jolliff, 36, and Richard Smith, 31, were arrested late last month after a neighbor called police when he found the frightened boy hiding under his porch. “His mom was coming home and he didn’t want to be home with her and feel her wrath,” Chad Buss told FOX31 Denver on Friday. “He was terrified.”

Essex County priest, teacher, accused of exploiting boys — For nearly two decades, he was known as Father John, the Roman Catholic priest who passed out skimpy, tight-fitting bathing suits to young wrestlers and snapped pictures by the thousands. Sometimes, he’d join in the bouts, donning a Speedo himself and grappling with teenage boys, one accuser said. Amid claims of inappropriate conduct — and after a months-long stay at a treatment center for troubled clergy members — the Rev. John M. Capparelli was suspended from ministry by the Archdiocese of Newark in 1992.