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Post by artemis on May 12, 2012 15:58:29 GMT -5
"Police uncover 'second child sex ring' in Rochdale after woman says she was abused over six years
*Nine men have been arrested in what officers are treating as separate from that of the group of men jailed this week for similar offences
*The alleged victim is thought to be one of 47 girls questioned in relation to the original child sex ring
*Men arrested in latest inquiry are not thought to have known members from other grooming trial
*Arrests come as police continue to hunt other suspected members of original case
*Rochdale MP Simon Danczuk believes sexual exploitation is a 'wider problem' in the area
Nine men have been arrested by detectives investigating a second suspected child grooming ring in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, just days after a group of men when were jailed for a similar offences in the same town.
It is understood that inquiries began after one of the 47 girls questioned in relation to the earlier sex racket led officers to what could be another exploitation ring based in the same area.
Greater Manchester Police said the men arrested in the latest inquiry are not thought to have known each other.
The fresh inquiry comes just days after nine Asian men were jailed for a total of 77 years for raping and abusing up to 47 girls - some as young as 13 - after plying them with alcohol and luring them to takeaways.
The judge in that trial said they treated their five white victims 'as though they were worthless and beyond any respect'.
Liverpool Crown Court heard how five girls - aged between 13 and 15 - were given alcohol, food and money in return for sex and that on some occasions the men even used violence.
Those offences happened in and around Rochdale in 2008 and 2009.
The most recent arrests took place last Friday when two men, aged 24 and 26, were held on suspicion of sexual activity with a child.
A police spokesman said the arrests were the result of an inquiry into the sexual exploitation of a teenage girl, described as 'vulnerable' by men since 2005, but confirmed they are not in any way related to the group jailed this week.
'In total nine men have been arrested aged between 24 and 38 years old, on suspicion of sexual activity with a child,' he added.
'They have been bailed pending further inquiries.'
A file of evidence is expected to be handed over to the Crown Prosecution Service within weeks and local media reports suggest the men are all from Asian and Afro-Caribbean backgrounds.
The nine men involved in the seperate case concluded on Wednesday were convicted of conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with children under the age of 16 and other sexual offences including rape and trafficking for sexual exploitation.
In comments which appeared to conflict with police insistence that there was no 'racial or cultural' element to the crimes, Judge Gerald Clifton told the defendants: 'One of the factors leading to that was the fact that they were not part of your community or religion.'
The trial heard that the men - who are all from Pakistan, apart from one who is from Afghanistan - groomed and 'shared' the young white girls because they were vulnerable.
The gang's ringleader even branded the judge a 'racist b******' after he and eight other men were jailed.
The extraordinary outburst came after Judge Gerald Clinton's accusation.
In response to the events this week and the latest arrests Rochdale MP Simon Danczuk said today: 'There have been some who've said this is a one-off case but I have consistently said I believe it to be a wider problem and that's why I am pleased to see the police acting.
'My message for anyone thinking of getting involved in this kind of activity is that you do so at your peril because the full force of the law will come down very hard on you.
'We've seen inspiring bravery shown by victims in the recent trial.
'I hope the heavy sentences imposed will encourage other victims to speak out because this crime is being taken very seriously and we need to send out the clearest message that this behaviour will not be tolerated in Rochdale or anywhere else.'
On the latest arrests, one senior detective said: 'Enquiries are continuing. Just because the trial has finished and nine men have been convicted does not mean the operation has stopped.
'We are continuing to chip away, gaining the confidence of the girls.'
Although the latest inquiries are thought to involve men not known to those convicted this week detectives who brought down the grooming ring are poised to make more arrests - as the hunt continues for more than 40 other suspected members of that gang.
Police say they have identified four more suspects alleged to have abused the young witness whose evidence helped secure convictions at the end of the 11-week trial.
But many more remain at large as officers try to establish the real identities of men referred to in court only by nicknames such as Goofy, Ray, Juicy, Arfan, Ali, Manni, Mamma, Pino and Arfan.
The suspected abusers have proved difficult to track down and it is feared some of them have already fled the country."
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Post by artemis on May 12, 2012 16:10:35 GMT -5
All the lies,confusion and denail about religion boil down to one fact,religion is MAGIC!! It is just as much magic as satanism and witchcraft(if not more so).So of course you get the same abuses.These religions say magic is"bad" and we are"good".Magic is not"good"OR"bad"it is using"supernatural means to manipulate reality".Politics,technology,religion,music, etc.ALL use magic.If everyone just admitted they used magic then the world makes way more sense. I am NOT justifing abuse.Magic is NOT the same as abuse.The religions tell us that to scare us into believing their agenda(THAT is a magic trick!!). Quite confusing ur post, but let me tell u that religion isnt magic. WE ARE BRAINWASHED/CONDITIONED INTO BELIEVING IT IS. Nothing new... |
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Post by hotman637 on May 12, 2012 23:56:19 GMT -5
Yes,I admit my post was confusing,lol.My main point is that"satanism"and"witchcraft"are often called"magic"and they are bad.Most Christians(for example)are AGAINST"magic".The fact(IMO,lol)is Christianity,satanism,witchcraft are ALL magic.
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Post by artemis on May 14, 2012 15:39:52 GMT -5
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Post by artemis on May 16, 2012 5:12:58 GMT -5
"Legion of Christ Rocked By More Sex Charges"
"A prominent American priest in the Legionaries of Christ, a troubled Catholic order whose founder was denounced by the Vatican for sexual improprieties, has admitted having a sexual relationship with a woman and fathering her child.
Father Thomas Williams, who has appeared on CBS and NBC and was interviewed by ABC News for a 2010 report on the Legion, made the acknowledgement after an activist who had sought reform in the order contacted the Vatican with his suspicions.
"I am truly sorry to everyone who is hurt by this revelation," said Williams in a statement. He said that he would be taking a year's leave from his public duties "to reflect on my commitments as a priest."
According to the National Catholic Reporter, the Legion has confirmed that seven other priests are now being investigated for the alleged abuse of minors. The Legion has more than 800 priests.
The Legion of Christ was founded by Mexican priest Marcial Maciel in 1941, who built it into a powerful international order with 70,000 followers and many wealthy benefactors. Maciel, however, was accused of sexual abuse, drug abuse and of fathering multiple children with women in Europe and Mexico. In 2006, Pope Benedict banned Maciel from active ministry after 20 men testified that he had molested them when they were teens.
After Maciel's death in 2008, the Legion issued a public statement acknowledging "reprehensible actions" by its founder. The Vatican began investigating the Legion's finances. In 2010, the Vatican denounced Maciel and appointed an outsider to oversee the Legion and manage its reform. The Vatican said Maciel had committed "objectively immoral acts," committed "true crimes," and lived a "life without scruples or authentic religious sentiment."
The Legion's top official in North America sent a letter to members Tuesday after Williams made his public statement. "In the wake of all we have been through as a movement in the past several years, it won't surprise me if you are disappointed angry or feel your trust shaken once again," said Father Luis Garza.
Williams did not say give an age or gender for his child or identify the mother. "A number of years ago I had a relationship with a woman and fathered her child," he said. "I am deeply sorry for this grave transgression and have tried to make amends. . . . I am truly sorry to everyone who is hurt by this revelation, and I ask for your prayers as I seek guidance on how to make up for my errors."
The activist who alleged that Williams had fathered a child also claimed that Williams had been involved in sexual relationships with female students while stationed in Rome. Williams did not comment on those charges. Williams, a Michigan native, has appeared on CBS, NBC and other networks as a religion analyst and has authored more than a dozen books."
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Post by artemis on May 30, 2012 15:43:06 GMT -5
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Post by artemis on May 31, 2012 16:04:44 GMT -5
"Queens DA Brings Additional Sex Abuse Charges Against Teacher Wilbert Cortez
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – There are more victims, allegedly.
Queens District Attorney Richard Brown today accused Wilbert Cortez of sexually abusing three additional male students. The new charges relate to incidents between 2007 and 2011.
Cortez, 49, was charged in February with inappropriately touching two young boys in his computer class at P.S. 174 repeatedly over the course of the 2010-11 school year.
“These are serious accusations in which a school teacher – who should serve as a role model to students – is instead accused of using his position to gain access to children for his own gratification,” said Brown. “Schools should be safe havens where students are protected from harm.”
Cortez was arraigned on the new charges Wednesday night. He faces up to seven years in prison if convicted.
Cortez was freed after posting $50,000 bail in February. The children he was accused of abusing in those incidents are now ages 8 and 9.
In 2000, when Cortez was at P.S. 184 in Brooklyn, a letter went out to the Department of Education, saying Cortez allegedly ”inappropriately touched two male students.” The letter adds that one of the accusers reported the alleged abuse to another teacher, but “on three separate occasions, he failed to report the information to the principal.”
A letter was placed in Cortez’s permanent file. Nonetheless, shortly after the letter, Cortez was transferred to P.S. 174, where he has taught for 11 years.
Because Cortez slipped through the cracks 12 years ago, Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott announced changes to the review system, saying they’ll look at records going back to 2000. Anyone who was flagged from then to now will be fired.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently pushed for an initiative that would make it easier to fire teachers suspected of sex abuse."
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Post by artemis on Jun 9, 2012 16:54:30 GMT -5
"Erika Susan Perdue, Texas Socialite, Faces Child Porn Charges
DALLAS — A wealthy Texas woman married to an attorney has been charged with collecting and trading child pornography online in what experts say is a rare case of a woman being caught up in such activity.
Erika Susan Perdue has been undergoing addiction treatment since her April arrest on federal charges that she accessed child pornography from the computer in her $1.4 million, 4,000-square-foot home in the well-heeled Dallas enclave of University Park.
FBI agents who raided the home found child pornography on the computer, and Perdue admitted she'd been collecting it for 12 years, according to court records. She told investigators she used file-trading software every day to exchange images while her husband, an attorney who specializes in intellectual property cases, was at work.
"I've seen cases of women collecting or trading child porn, but not very often and not somebody in that socio-economic strata," said Nancy Hagan, the longtime executive director of the Alliance for Children, a Fort Worth child advocacy center.
A four-count indictment claims Perdue, 41, engaged in transporting, shipping, receiving and possessing child pornography. If convicted, she could face maximum prison sentences of 20 years for three of the counts and 10 years for the other.
She isn't accused of creating the images.
The search of Perdue's home was prompted by federal agents who, working undercover, logged into file-sharing programs and obtained 21 downloaded files containing child pornography, according to an FBI affidavit. The agents traced the IP address to Perdue's home, the affidavit states.
George "Buck" Johnson, one of three attorneys representing Perdue in the case, declined to comment.
Perdue and her husband, Mark, have been married since December 2009, records show. Mark Perdue is not named in the criminal complaint.
According to a court filing by the defense team, Perdue has been undergoing unspecified treatment since her arrest at a center outside Dallas. The facility identified in the document specializes in addressing "addictive behaviors and associated conditions," according to its Web site.
The filing says Perdue suffered a "serious psychiatric/medical setback" in early May, about two weeks after she was charged, making her unable to help with her own defense.
"Her counselor (at the center) remains optimistic that her mental state will improve with continued treatment, but not for several months," the document states.
Toby Shook, a Dallas criminal defense attorney who previously served as a state court prosecutor, said he has seen cases where women were involved in the distribution of child pornography, usually under the direction of men. But he said he couldn't recall one in which a woman was interested in trading or purchasing the images.
"It's very rare that women have an interest in sharing files," Shook said. "Almost all of the cases you see, as far as trading files, involve men."
Two Dallas-area women have been sentenced to prison for federal offenses related to child pornography within the past year, but both were involved in creating sexually explicit images, not simply viewing them.
Psychiatrist Fred Berlin, director of the Sexual Behavior Consultation Unit at Johns Hopkins University, said it's unusual for a woman to access images of child pornography but not outside the realm of possibility. Such a woman may have been abused herself as a child, he said.
"It's the exception to the rule, but it's certainly an exception that's not unheard of," Berlin said.
Berlin stressed that viewing or collecting child pornography doesn't mean a person is likely to harm children.
"There are marked differences among people who are accessing these materials," he said, "and one of the things we need to determine is the extent to which they do or do not reflect a danger to the community."
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Post by artemis on Jun 15, 2012 16:32:15 GMT -5
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Post by artemis on Jun 24, 2012 8:00:26 GMT -5
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Post by artemis on Jun 26, 2012 15:23:36 GMT -5
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Post by treegenus on Jul 2, 2012 14:42:45 GMT -5
Yeah, apparently...or shipped elsewhere? "The teenagers, who are all U.S. citizens, were HANDCUFFED and held in police custody until they could be placed with child welfare organisations." |
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Post by artemis on Jul 2, 2012 15:24:16 GMT -5
...and we all know what these "child welfare organisations" are all about...
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Post by artemis on Jul 6, 2012 4:38:44 GMT -5
"2 ex-Argentine dictators convicted in baby thefts
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Former Argentine dictator Jorge Rafael Videla was convicted and sentenced to 50 years Thursday for a systematic program to steal babies from prisoners who were kidnapped, tortured and killed during the military junta's war on leftist dissidents three decades ago.
Argentina's last dictator, Reynaldo Bignone, also was convicted and got 15 years. Both men already were in prison for other human rights abuses.
"This is an historic day. Today legal justice has been made real — never again the justice of one's own hands, which the repressors were known for," prominent rights activist Tati Almeida said outside the courthouse, where a jubilant crowd watched on a big screen and cheered each sentence.
The baby thefts set Argentina's 1976-1983 regime apart from all the other juntas that ruled in Latin America at the time. Videla other military and police officials were determined to remove any trace of the armed leftist guerrilla movement they said threatened the country's future.
The "dirty war" eventually claimed 13,000 victims according to official records. Many were pregnant women who were "disappeared" shortly after giving birth in clandestine maternity wards.
Videla denied in his testimony that there was any systematic plan to remove the babies, and said prisoners used their unborn children as "human shields" in their fight against the state.
Nine others, mostly former military and police officials, also were accused in the trial, which focused on 34 baby thefts. Seven were convicted and two were found not guilty.
Witnesses included former U.S. diplomat Elliot Abrams. He was called to testify after a long-classified memo describing his secret meeting with Argentina's ambassador was made public at the request of the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, a human rights group whose evidence-gathering efforts were key to the trial.
Abrams testified from Washington that he secretly urged that Bignone reveal the stolen babies' identities as a way to smooth Argentina's return to democracy.
"We knew that it wasn't just one or two children," Abrams testified, suggesting that there must have been some sort of directive from a high level official — "a plan, because there were many people who were being murdered or jailed."
No reconciliation effort was made. Instead, Bignone ordered the military to destroy evidence of "dirty war" activities, and the junta denied any knowledge of baby thefts, let alone responsibility for the disappearances of political prisoners.
The U.S. government also revealed little of what it knew as the junta's death squads were eliminating opponents.
The Grandmothers group has since used DNA evidence to help 106 people who were stolen from prisoners as babies recover their true identities, and 26 of these cases were part of this trial. Many were raised by military officials or their allies, who falsified their birth names, trying to remove any hint of their leftist origins.
The rights group estimates as many as 500 babies could have been stolen in all, but the destruction of documents and passage of time make it impossible to know for sure.
The trial featured gut-wrenching testimony from grandmothers and other relatives who searched inconsolably for their missing relatives, and from people who learned as young adults that they were raised by the very people involved in the disappearance of their birth parents.
Prosecutors had asked for 50 years for Videla and four others. Almeida, the rights activist, said that "in some cases we would have preferred longer sentences, but since they're such old men now, it's almost like a perpetual sentence."
Videla, 86, received the maximum sentence as the man criminally responsible for 20 of the thefts.
He and Bignone, 84, already have life sentences for other crimes against humanity, and are serving time behind bars despite an Argentine law that usually permits criminals over 70 to stay at home.
Seven others were convicted and sentenced by the three-judge panel on Thursday: former Adm. Antonio Vanek, 40 years; former marine Jorge "Tigre" Acosta, 30; former Gen. Santiago Omar Riveros, 20; former navy prefect Juan Antonio Azic, 14; and Dr. Jorge Magnacco, who witnesses said handled some of the births, 10.
Former Capt. Victor Gallo and his ex-wife Susana Colombo, were sentenced to 15 and five years in jail, respectively. Their adopted son, Francisco Madariaga, testified against them and said he hoped their sentences would set an example.
Retired Adm. Ruben Omar Franco and a former intelligence agent, Eduardo Ruffo, were absolved.
According to Argentine judicial procedure, the basis for the convictions and sentences won't be revealed until Sept. 17, said the president of the judicial tribunal, Maria del Carmen Roqueta."
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Post by artemis on Jul 7, 2012 6:07:36 GMT -5
A totally lost battle...
"China arrests 802 for alleged child trafficking, rescues 181 children in 15-province operation
BEIJING, China - Chinese police arrested 802 people on suspicion of child trafficking and rescued 181 children in a major operation spanning 15 provinces, the Chinese Ministry of Public Security said Friday.
The recent operation broke up two trafficking rings and led to the arrests of the ring leaders, the ministry said in a statement posted on its website.
Trafficking in children is a big problem in China. Its strict one-child policy — which limits most urban couples to one child and rural couples to two if their first-born is a girl — has driven a thriving market in babies, especially boys because of a traditional preference for male heirs.
Many trafficked babies are abducted, but some are sold by families who are too poor to care for a baby or do not want a baby girl.
The national operation was set up earlier this year after local police spotted trafficking signs, including frequent appearances of out-of-town pregnant women in a clinic in north China's Hebei province, the ministry said. State media reported that parents wishing to sell their babies could find potential buyers through the clinic.
A doctor at the clinic was arrested, state media said. It was unclear whether the pregnant women were among those arrested.
In central China's Henan province, an inspection of a long-distance bus turned up four suspects who tried to sell four infants, the ministry said.
State media report that a baby girl can fetch 30,000 to 50,000 yuan ($4,800 to $8,000) and that a baby boy sells for 70,000 to 80,000 yuan ($11,200 to $12,800). Last year, China rescued more than 8,000 children who were abducted or willingly sold by parents.
Chinese courts often hand down harsh punishments, including death sentences, to child traffickers."
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