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WEST JORDAN — A former teacher's assistant accused of having sexual intercourse with two 15-year-old students was arrested this week. Andrea Billingsley, 31, was picked up at her home Tuesday and arrested on suspicion of forcible sexual abuse, forcible sodomy and distributing pornographic materials to minors, said West Jordan police officer Dan Roberts. The former aide at West Jordan Middle School, 7550 S. Redwood, met the two boys while overseeing an in-school suspension class, Roberts said. Police believe the sexual encounters occurred between May and July. The alleged sexual activity would happen on school grounds, including an undisclosed location inside...

ROY -- The same day a 47-year-old Ogden High School teacher was accused of having a sexual relationship with a then 16- or 17-year-old former student, a Roy Jr. High teacher has been accused of the same thing with a former jr. high student. "They're victims. They're preyed upon. They're manipulated. They're not, by societal standards, mature enough to make some of these adult decisions on their own," said Roy police Chief Greg Whinham said. "We've been in this weird world where we're having one a week become the headline in the paper. There's definitely a problem." Ogden police and...

The Vatican has lashed out at criticism over its handling of its paedophilia crisis by saying the Catholic church was "busy cleaning its own house" and that the problems with clerical sex abuse in other churches were as big, if not bigger. In a defiant and provocative statement, issued following a meeting of the UN human rights council in Geneva, the Holy See said the majority of Catholic clergy who committed such acts were not paedophiles but homosexuals attracted to sex with adolescent males. The statement, read out by Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican's permanent observer to the UN, defended...

Findings from a nationwide study reveal that clergy sexual misconduct is more prevalent than many people believe.According to research by Baylor University, 3.1 percent of adult women who attend religious services at least once a month have been victims of clergy sexual misconduct since turning 18. In other words, seven women in every congregation of 400 adults have been victimized.Ninety-two percent of the sexual advances were made in secret and 67 percent of the offenders were married to someone else at the time of the advance."Because many people are familiar with some of the high-profile cases of sexual misconduct, most...

ROME, SEPT. 4, 2009 (Zenit.org).- A hundred online pedophile communities will be disconnected and prosecuted by U.S. and Italian authorities thanks to the work of the Meter Association, founded by Italian Father Fortunato Di Noto.ZENIT learned from the association that the networks consisted of some 18,181 people who used online community Web sites to host and exchange "thousands of images and video footage -- 27,894 pedophiliac photos and 1,617 videos -- as well as information regarding the trade of minors." The news was further publicized by Rome's Italian police force, in cooperation with other security forces. "Thousands of children were...

A sex offender was shocked after being arrested for attending church. According to North Carolina law, a sex offender could be forced to serve 12 more years in prison for worship. James Nichols was convicted of attempted rape and taking indecent liberties with a young girl. After serving a six year sentence, Nichols was released in September of 2008. Upon the release, Nichols began attending the Moncure Baptist Church in Chatham County, North Carolina. In March of the following year, he was arrested on the property owned by the church for being within 300 feet of a building with a...

New York, NY (AHN) - The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is recommending the voluntary teaching of sexuality education, including masturbation and aphrodisiacs, starting at age five to prevent HIV and sexually transmitted diseases. The recommendation is contained in the UNESCO report called "International Guidelines for Sexuality Education" released in June at the 19th World Association for Sexual Health (WAS) Congress held in Göteborg, Sweden. Under the UNESCO guidelines, children are divided into age groups and each group will have corresponding sexuality education topics. Kids age 5 to 8 will be taught what masturbation is while those...

(San Antonio)-Sean Michael Block broke down crying, but it didn't help. Sean Block, the northside bartender who was convicted of trying to sell his girlfriend's five year old daughter for sex, today was sentenced to thirty years in federal prison, 1200 WOAI news reports. "It's thirty years that children will be safe from Sean Block," Assistant U.S. Attorney Tracy Thompson Braun said following the sentence. "There is no doubt that he is a sexual predator, and we can stop him from harming children for thirty years." Block, 40, tearfully told U.S. District Judge Henry Hudspeth that his problems stem from...

Former Vancouver police officer Clyde Ray Spencer spent nearly 20 years in prison after he was convicted of sexually molesting his son and daughter. Now, the children say it never happened.Matthew Spencer and Kathryn Tetz, who live in Sacramento, Calif., each took the stand Friday in Clark County Superior Court to clear their father's name, The Columbian newspaper reported.Matthew, now 33, was 9 years old at the time. He told a judge he made the allegation after months of insistent questioning by now-retired Clark County sheriff's detective Sharon Krause just so she would leave him alone.Tetz, 30, said she...

Greensburg Man Charged With Raping 5-Month-Old POSTED: 4:01 pm EST March 7, 2008 UPDATED: 5:49 pm EDT March 10, 2008 GREENSBURG, Pa. -- An 18-year-old Greensburg man has been charged with raping a baby who police said was left in his care.Police said Scott Wade Smith raped his girlfriend's 5-month-old girl Friday morning at a home in the 500 block of Highland Avenue, where several people, including the infant's mother, were living.Authorities said the infant suffered severe injuries and was flown to Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, where surgery was performed. Police said the girl was crying so hard she nearly...

CORPUS CHRISTI — A 25-year-old man was sentenced Thursday to 70 years in prison for molesting his former fiancee’s 5-year-old daughter. Charles Cueva was found guilty last week of two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child and one count of indecency with a child by sexual contact. The jury on Monday sentenced him to two 70-year sentences and a 15-year sentence along with $30,000 in fines. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos decided the prison terms would run concurrently. Prosecutors had argued for consecutive sentences , which would have meant 155 years in prison. Cueva, whose attorneys filed a...

A 17-year-old Terrytown man was arrested on charges of aggravated rape and first-degree murder of an 8-month-old child Saturday afternoon, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office said. Arnold T. Ross, of 136 Friedrichs Road in Terrytown, was booked into the Jefferson Parish Correctional Facility. No bond is available on the first-degree murder charge. Ross was arrested after officers responded to a call of an unresponsive infant at 1656 Gary Court, Apt. B, near Gretna. The infant, Da-Von Lonzo, was taken to Ochsner Westbank where he was pronounced dead shortly after arrival, according to a release issued by Col. John Fortunato, a...

West Bank teen arrested in rape and murder of 8-month-old by C.J. Lin, The Times-Picayune Sunday June 07, 2009, 9:50 AM Arnold RossA 17-year-old Terrytown man was arrested on charges of aggravated rape and first-degree murder of an 8-month-old child Saturday afternoon, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office said. Arnold T. Ross, of 136 Friedrichs Road in Terrytown, was booked into the Jefferson Parish Correctional Facility. No bond is available on the first-degree murder charge.

A man accused of sexually assaulting his ex-girlfriend’s infant in an unincorporated area near west suburban Montgomery was ordered held on $250,000 bond this week. Joe P. Harvey, Jr., 27, of the 0-100 block of Marnel Road in Montgomery, was charged with one count of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child, one count of aggravated criminal sexual abuse and one count of criminal sexual assault, according to a release from the Kendall County Sheriff’s office. Harvey is accused of sexually assaulting his ex-girlfriend’s baby, whose gender and age was not immediately available, on Thursday in his home, the release...

Attorney General Wants Video Showing Planned Parenthood Sex Abuse Coverup Montgomery, AL -- Alabama Attorney General Troy king wants a copy of the full video footage activist Lila Rose took showing Planned Parenthood stuff covering up a potential case of sexual abuse. The video also shows the abortion business telling her how she could violate the state's parental consent law. See http://www.LifeNews.com/state4275.html

According to Mason County Court records, Curtis Kimble, 57, faces 31 counts of sexual abuse. POINT PLEASANT W.Va.-- Another case of sexual abuse hits a local school system. A Mason County elementary school teacher has been charged with numerous sex charges Thursday. According to Mason County Court records, Curtis Kimble, 57, faces 31 counts of sexual abuse. Court documents state that the alleged abuse happened for 10 year between 1980 and 1990. The charges also claims that one of the incidents happened at Hannan High School where he is a teacher. Kimble also teaches at Ashton elementary. Bond has been...

I'd been at Coalinga a couple of days when Mr Rigby showed me his dormitory. He'd been a high school sports coach before being convicted of molesting some of his students. He told me he was a great appreciator of the male physical form. Above his bed were photos of classical statues of male nudes. These gave me pause, since I knew some paedophiles like to justify their proclivities by citing the ancient Greeks' famous enthusiasm for pederasty. There was also a reproduction of a painting of young male ballet dancers, which had a definite erotic overtone. I asked one...

Memphis, TN -- A new undercover videotape shows staff at a Tennessee Planned Parenthood abortion clinic urging a client to lie about her potential sexual abuse so she could get an abortion. A girl who said she is 14 and sexually abused by a 31-year-old man was told to hide the information from a judge. The staff members at the nation's largest abortion business told the young woman to conceal the information so a judge would approve her request for an abortion without parental involvement, which is require by state law except in emergency cases. "Don't mention it. Just say...

Michael O'Herlihy used to be a Catholic priest. He was accused of abusing one of his students around 1980, at a time when he taught at Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx. In 1993 he was defrocked. In 2002 his name was included on a list of priests accused of sexual abuse that the Archdiocese of New York gave to Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau. And, yet, where is Michael O'Herlihy today? He is an assistant principal at a public high school -- Manhattan Comprehensive Night and Day High School. Should public school teachers receive special protection from sex...

<p>One current and five former students are suing East Stroudsburg University, claiming a top administrator pursued unwanted sex with them – including genital groping and oral sex – and school officials covered up his alleged crimes.</p> <p>The chief object of the complaint is Isaac Sanders, the ousted executive director of the ESU Foundation and vice president for advancement at the university.</p>

West Des Moines Police detectives arrested a Dowling High teacher for sexual exploitation by a school employee after the woman allegedly had sex with an 18-year-old male student

<p>A United Nations probe collected 217 allegations of abuse of girls and women by peacekeepers in eastern Congo, from sex with teenagers in the back room of a liquor store to threats of "hacking" victims for cooperating with investigators.</p> <p>The 2006 investigation found many allegations credible and said evidence suggests "frequent and ongoing" sexual exploitation in the region. But it could only establish proof against one of 75 peacekeepers accused of wrongdoing.</p>

Saudi Arabia's most senior cleric has told followers it is permissible for ten-year-old girls to marry and anyone who think they are too young are doing the youngsters 'an injustice'. Abdul-Azeez ibn Abdullaah Aal ash-Shaikh, the country's grand mufti, said: 'It is wrong to say it's not permitted to marry off girls who are 15 and younger. 'A female who is ten or 12 is marriageable and those who think she's too young are wrong and are being unfair to her,' he said during a Monday lecture. Al Sheikh's comments come at a time when Saudi human rights groups have...

ROCKLAND, Mass. – An elementary school teacher accused of having sex with a teenage boy pleaded not guilty to rape charges Friday. Christine A. McCallum, 29, of Rockland, is accused of having multiple sexual encounters with the boy that began when he was 13 years old. The alleged incidents occurred in Abington and Rockland. ... The married fifth-grade teacher has been fired ..

A married South Shore teacher was living a disturbed double life for nearly two years, police said, allegedly seducing a 13-year-old boy, plying him with booze and having sex with him on kitchen floors and couches, sometimes right under the nose of her husband. Christine A. McCallum, 29, who is on leave from her job at an Abington elementary school, was charged yesterday with seven counts of statutory rape for the serial liaisons in Rockland and Abington from February 2006, when she allegedly took the boy’s virginity, to November 2007. McCallum, a waifish bespeckled blonde who tightly clutched her husband’s...

Neighbors of a suburban schoolteacher who is accused of seducing a 13-year-old boy are still reeling from the shocking allegations lodged against the “clean-cut” woman who appeared to be dedicated to her husband and her job. “When you talk to her, she is quiet, really nice,” said Erica Mara, 20, who lives across the street from Christine McCallum, 29, who was charged Friday with seven counts of statutory rape. No one answered the door at McCallum’s home on Central Street in Rockland yesterday. Mara questioned how McCallum, a teacher at an Abington elementary school, would find time to have an...

NEW YORK (AP) — It started as a radio program discussion about a taboo subject: child molestation among members of the insular world of Orthodox Jews.Since he broached the subject on his radio show this summer, says a state assemblyman, dozens of people have come forward with stories about children being molested in the Orthodox community, which strictly follows Jewish law.Dov Hikind says as many as four people a day have come to him over the past three months with painful accounts of secrets often kept for decades, accusing more than 60 individuals.Hikind says he would eventually consider unmasking accused...

ALBANY — An Albany area rabbi has been arrested on sex abuse charges stemming from alleged incidents involving a 13-year-old boy.Albany police detectives arrested Yaakov Weiss, 28, of Loudonville Monday and charged him with two counts of third-degree sex abuse and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child, all misdemeanors.Details pertaining to the case were not immediately available, but Albany police spokesman Det. James Miller said the charges have to do with Weiss' alleged involvement with the boy on at least two occasions — one in November 2007 and the other earlier this year.The arrest was part of...

Moroccans and rights groups are speaking out against a recent fatwa that would allow parents to marry off their underage daughters. Opponents to Cheikh Mohammed Maghraoui's fatwa say the marriage of nine-year-old girls is a violation of human rights in general, and children's rights in particular. Maghraoui said that at the age of nine, girls are capable of marriage, just like Aisha was when the Prophet Mohammed married her. "We thought we were rid of those problems after the passage of the family code, which included a number of guarantees to protect children from early marriage, and after setting up...

A San Francisco radio host billed by his station as the "Lion of the Left" was sentenced yesterday to seven years of prison on a charge of e-mailing images of child pornography. Bernie Ward, a former Catholic priest who is now married with four children, hosted a Sunday radio program called "God Talk" on San Francisco-area radio station KGO-AM 810 and another program on weeknights devoted to news and politics. According to several reports, Ward earned his "Lion of the Left" nickname for his outspoken and staunchly liberal viewpoints. Ward came under FBI investigation last year after a woman with...

SYDNEY, Australia, JULY 19, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI expressed his deep sorrow for the suffering of sexual abuse victims during his homily at Mass with Australian clergy. Departing from his prepared homily during the Saturday liturgy at St. Mary's Cathedral, the Pope said, "Indeed, I am deeply sorry for the pain and suffering the victims have endured, and I assure them that as their pastor, I too share in their suffering." The Pontiff's prepared speech addressed acknowledge "the shame which we have all felt as a result of the sexual abuse of minors by some clergy and religious in this...

The father of a Florida girl abducted and buried alive in a trash bag by a sex offender has blasted a Massachusetts politician who said he'd have to torment young victims on the witness stand if mandatory sentences for offenders passed the state Legislature. Mark Lunsford, whose 9-year-old daughter died in 2005, told the Boston Herald that Rep. James Fagan, a defense attorney, should take the rights of victimized children seriously. “Why doesn’t he figure out a way to defend that child and put these kind of people away instead of trying to figure ways for defense attorneys to get...

By now, many of you have seen the outrageous comments of Massachusetts State Representative James Fagan, a Democrat. In defending a child rapist, he would tear apart the child on the stand and ruin the child's life forever. He made the comments arrogantly and shamelessly. Watch it here. FAGAN'S WEBSITE SHOWS HOW IS INVOLVED IN SEVERAL CHILDREN'S ORGANIZATIONS. ORGANIZATIONS: Massachusetts Academy of Trial Lawyers; Taunton Boys & Girls Club (Board of Directors); Taunton Little League; Taunton Youth Basketball Coach; Massachusetts Bar Foundation; Massachusetts Waterfowlers, Inc.; Babe Ruth League; High School Umpire; Bristol Ducks Unlimited; Southeastern New England Area Boys' Clubs...

ORLANDO, Fla. (CNS) -- Opening their spring general meeting in Orlando, members of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops got an interim report on the causes and context of child sexual abuse by priests and made quick work of proposals to revisit the ethical guidelines on feeding tubes and to declare a National Catholic Charities Sunday in 2010. In the first morning session of the June 12-14 assembly at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress, the bishops also took a preliminary look at two documents they will vote on later in the meeting. The first was a 700-page draft translation of...

A former pastor at Plano’s Prestonwood Baptist Church now faces six more counts of online solicitation of a minor, authorities said. Joe Barron was first arrested by the Bryan Police Department last month after he tried to meet with a person he believed to be a 13-year-old girl for sex, authorities said. The two had communicated online. Mr. Barron was charged with one count of online solicition of a minor. He later posted $7,000 bail and was released. He was arrested again Wednesday afternoon and faces four additional counts of online solicitation from the Bryan Police Department and two additional...

Blessed with a nest egg of nearly $1.5 million, a Woodland Hills parish donated almost all of it, leaving just $1,000 in its savings account. An Encino church offered a $100,000 interest-free loan. And a Boyle Heights parish decided it could spare $500 after ruling out the idea of raising money with tamale sales. With gifts large and small, parishes across the sprawling Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles are answering an appeal from Cardinal Roger M. Mahony to help the archdiocese dig out of the financial hole resulting from its multimillion-dollar legal settlements with victims of clergy sexual abuse...

CANON CITY, Colo. -- A Kent man who is an associate professor at Seattle University was arrested in connection with a variety of child sex crimes on Monday in Colorado, reported KIRO 7 Eyewitness News. Police said the arrest of Major Andrew Douglas Franz, 41, stemmed from an undercover Internet investigation by the Fremont County Combined Investigative Response Team. Police said Franz traveled from Washington to Fremont County in Colorado for the purpose of having sex with an underage girl. ...

Hynes’ office dissuaded families ready to let their children testify about alleged abuse. Questions about Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes’ willingness to press cases in the Orthodox community are now being reignited. by Hella Winston and Larry Cohler-Esses In a surprise move, Rabbi Yehuda Kolko, the Brooklyn yeshiva teacher charged with having sexually molested his students, pleaded guilty Monday to two lesser counts of child endangerment and was sentenced to three years’ probation. Under the plea agreement, Rabbi Kolko, 62, made no admission of sexual wrongdoing. He will not have to register as a sex offender, and pleaded guilty only to...

It would take months for the agency that licenses Oregon teachers to discipline a Salem-area teacher for inappropriately touching at least eight girls. To get Kenneth John Cushing, then 44, away from Claggett Creek Middle School students immediately, administrators cut him a deal: If Cushing resigned, they would conceal his alleged conduct — clutching students’ waists, touching their buttocks and massaging their shoulders — from the public. Cushing signed the pact — obtained by The Oregonian through public records requests — with Salem-Keizer Public Schools in 2004, and officials promised not to reveal the teacher’s behavior if potential employers called...

EthicsDaily.com reported 11 arrests, three convictions, two lawsuits and one suicide involving alleged sexual abuse by clergy in 2007.Other stories included a church that allowed a convicted sex offender to preach from its pulpit while knowing about his past and comments by the president of the Southern Baptist Convention denying clergy predators are a "systemic" problem and accusing victim advocates of using the issue for personal gain. Those stories were part of ongoing coverage of efforts by the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests to pressure the 16.3 million-member convention to establish an independent review board for clergy sex...

A Canadian man who sexually abused his 4-year-old daughter live on the Internet so another man could watch was sentenced Thursday to four years in prison.The father, whose name was not released to protect the identity of his daughter, was arrested in October 2006, just hours after he used a Webcam to expose his daughter to another man — who was actually an undercover police officer — during a chat room conversation. The father from St. Thomas, Ontario, pleaded guilty in October to seven criminal charges.In sentencing him, Justice John McGarry called it a "gross case; a sickening case of...

BLOOMINGTON -- A former minister and substitute teacher accused of sexually abusing teenage boys won’t go to trial in December because of a defense move to try to get concurrent sentences if he is convicted in state and federal courts. Defense attorney Steve Skelton asked that the state trial of James Love be delayed because of federal child pornography charges pending in Peoria. He said his client has a better chance of receiving a concurrent sentence if he pleads or is found guilty on the local charges after the federal trial, rather than before. The state charges say he sedated...

NEW YORK — When the Associated Press set out to investigate an apparent problem with sexual assault of children in public schools, the organization spared no expense. A congressionally mandated study by Hofstra University had already found school-based sexual abuse to be a big problem. “It was one of our priorities for the year,” said John Affleck, editor of the AP’s national reporting team.The result was a three-part series, available to editors throughout the country beginning Oct. 20, that revealed widespread and routine sexual assault of public school students throughout the country. The first story summarized: “Students in America’s schools...

The Rev. Robert Gray, the former Trinity Baptist Church pastor awaiting trial on child molestation charges, died Saturday, according to his attorney. He was 81. Gray had been hospitalized since mid-October and suffered from a variety of health problems. An exact cause of death was not available Saturday. Attorney David Barksdale, who represented Gray, released a statement saying Gray's family prays that everyone involved in the court cases can find peace and that the family would not comment further on Gray's passing. This month, a judge ruled Gray was too ill to stand trial Tuesday on six counts of capital...

Gone are the days when Jesuit priests were virile men who fully embraced the Catholic Faith and prayed to be worthy of a martyr's crown. Let's play "compare and contrast", shall we? First, here's a tale from the 1640s in the upstate New York wilderness:He [Fr. Isaac Jogues] did not yet know the cause of his companion's [Rene Goupil] death; but the old man who had caused him to be slain having invited him, some days later, to his cabin, and giving him food, when the Father came to offer the blessing and express the sign of the Cross, that...

Johannesburg-The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy has brought in an elite team of professional investigators from America to probe claims of abuse by an employee, the school told News 24 on Thursday. "We have engaged professional investigators of the highest standing from South Africa and the United States to conduct a fair and impartial inquiry into these claims," said school CEO John Samuel. Provincial co-ordinator of the police units investigating child abuse, superintendent Andre' Neethling, met with the team which included a retired Chicago policeman. The academy also provided psychological support and counseling services to pupils, following the scandal at the...

Child abuse has gone unchecked in the Church of England for decades amid a cover up by bishops, secret papers have revealed. Information that could have prevented abuse has been "lost or damaged", concerns about individuals have been ignored and allegations have not been recorded. It means that the Church has no idea how many paedophiles are in its midst. Lawyers warned last night that the Church faces a crisis as catastrophic as the one that engulfed the Roman Catholic Church and cost it millions of pounds in damages. Richard Scorer, a solicitor who has specialised in child abuse cases,...

More than 1,600 teaching licenses were revoked because of sexual-misconduct accusations from 2001 to 2005, but none came from the District, according to an Associated Press investigation. D.C. officials did not revoke the certification of a single teacher during that time, no matter how serious the crime. For example, Brandon C. Jones, a former gym teacher at Backus Middle School, was accused of having a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old student and entered an Alford plea in 2004 to a third-degree sexual offense for arranging an encounter with her at a Laurel hotel. Although treated the same as a guilty...

PORTLAND, Oregon (Reuters) - A lawsuit filed against the Mormon Church and the Boy Scouts of America expanded on Wednesday to include four more men charging the organizations with ignoring sex abuses committed decades ago by a man who served as a church teacher and a scout leader. The six men, who filed a new lawsuit in Oregon state Circuit Court in Multnomah County, allege that Timur Dykes, a former spiritual leader in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and former scout leader, repeatedly abused them when they were boys. Dykes, a convicted sex offender, is listed on...

Sydney - An Australian Roman Catholic who considers himself the rightful pope and claims to communicate with the Virgin Mary once a month was jailed on Friday for having sex with an underage girl in the cult community he led. Self-proclaimed prophet William Kamm, who received a six-year sentence, showed the girl letters he said were from the Virgin Mary that blessed their union. The 56-year-old, who is already serving a term for a similar offence, told the girl she was chosen by the Virgin Mary to help him populate the earth with his "mystical seed". The abuse began when...