News articles about rape, trauma and child abuse: Peace Corps volunteers punished for reporting sexual assault, Fraternity pledge’s death, Bill Cosby allegations, Jehovah’s Witnesses did not report allegations to the police, Operation Hydrant: 2,228 child abuse suspects, Catholic church knew it had abuse ‘time bombs’, Catholic Church saves $62 million on sexual abuse claims, Priest warned police officer to drop investigation or lose job, 682 child abuse suspects arrested, Cardinal Pell, Rotherham victim’s sex abuse claims ‘dismissed by police officer’, Rotherham sex abuse trial, Lord Janner unfit to plead in child sex abuse trial, Convicted child abuser Walbran arrested teaching at Thai school and attempted murder recounted by teens – infatuation with Satanism.
Peace Corps volunteers blamed, punished for reporting sexual assault?
Nearly 7,000 Peace Corps currently serve in about 65 countries. Roughly one in five of them is sexually assaulted during that service, according to the results of a recent anonymous Peace Corps safety questionnaire, obtained exclusively by CBS News.
The report also shows that nearly half don’t report the assaults.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/cbs-news-finds-peace-corps-volunteers-blamed-fired-after-reporting-sexual-assault/
Fraternity president testifies against brothers in pledge’s death
A Pennsylvania college fraternity president says he and four others charged in a pledge’s death during a hazing ritual in the Poconos tried to “cover it all up” when they met weeks later. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/fraternity-president-testifies-against-brothers-in-pledges-death
Bill Cosby Lawyers Seek to Reseal Court Records
acknowledgment, under questioning, by Mr. Cosby that in the 1970s he obtained quaaludes to give them to young women with whom he wanted to have sex.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/03/business/media/cosby-lawyers-seek-to-reseal-court-records.html
Cosby sues 7 accusers for defamation, seeks damages and retractions
Cosby also denied he had sexually assaulted any of the seven women. He has not been charged with any crime. More than 40 women have come forward to publicly accuse Cosby, 78, of assaulting them over four decades, often saying he supplied them with drugs. Cosby’s lawyers or representative denied the accusations in the media.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/14/us/bill-cosby-sues-accusers/index.html
Jehovah’s Witnesses ‘fostered distrust’ of secular authority – royal commission counsel
Church’s response to child sexual abuse fell short of best practice
Since 1950 the church has received 1,066 allegations against its members and did not report any of them to police.
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/dec/01/jehovahs-witnesses-fostered-distrust-of-secular-authority-royal-commission-counsel
Operation Hydrant: UK police identify 2,228 child abuse suspects
302 people of “public prominence”, including 99 politicians and 147 from television, film or radio. 761 different institutions, including 288 schools and 204 children’s homes.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-34977255
Catholic church knew it had abuse ‘time bombs’, child sex abuse inquiry hears
Bishop Connors agreed with Gail Furness SC, senior counsel assisting the commission, who said there was little, if any, concern about the victims.
The commission heard there was a culture in the Catholic church of keeping abuse allegations secret.
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/dec/03/catholic-church-knew-it-had-abuse-time-bombs-child-sex-abuse-inquiry-hears
Catholic Church saves $62 million on sexual abuse claims
The Catholic Church avoided paying up to $62 million in compensation to sexual abuse victims by creating the controversial Melbourne Response program, which capped payments at $50,000 for each victim.
Internal documents also show church leaders ordered written records about sex abuse be “kept to a minimum” to avoid losing lawsuits, and hired one of the country’s best spin doctors in a bid to prepare for the scandal in the early 1990s.
In August 1996, Archbishop Pell discussed the idea of creating a special trust to “avoid an open-ended call on funding for counselling fees” for abuse victims, to only days later canvass suggestions of how the church could financially support three paedophile priests set to be released from prison.
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/catholic-church-saves-62-million-on-sexual-abuse-claims-20151205-glgavf.html
Priest warned police officer to drop investigation or lose job, child abuse hearing told
Father Peter Taffe ‘told officer Denis Ryan he would be out of a job’ if he pursued an investigation into the Mildura parish priest Monsignor John Day
Furness said Mulkearns had told another Mortlake victim’s mother: “How am I to take the word of a child over one of my priests?”
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/dec/07/priest-warned-police-officer-to-drop-investigation-or-lose-job-child-abuse-hearing-told
Teachers and medical staff among 682 child abuse suspects arrested
More than a hundred people in positions of trust among those arrested since March
A total of 399 children have been safeguarded as a result of the operation
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/dec/10/teachers-and-medical-staff-among-682-child-abuse-suspects-arrested
Cardinal Pell told to attend child abuse inquiry after video link request denied
Pell, Australia’s highest-ranking cleric, was due to give evidence about child sexual abuse that occurred in institutions run by Catholic church authorities in and around Ballarat, and evidence about measures taken by the archdiocese of Melbourne to investigate child sexual abuse, known within the church as “the Melbourne Response”, before Melbourne’s county court
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/dec/11/cardinal-george-pell-to-appear-in-person-at-child-sex-abuse-inquiry
Rotherham victim’s sex abuse claims ‘dismissed by police officer’
Court hears that complainant, then aged 12, was accused of lying after telling officer about the abuse
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/dec/15/rotherham-victims-sex-abuse-claims-dismissed-police-officer
Rotherham sex abuse trial: ‘had sex with child 100 times’
An alleged victim of child sexual exploitation has said she was forced to have sex with Asian men against her will in houses, a park and churchyard.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-35115874
Lord Janner: Judge rules dementia sufferer is unfit to plead in child sex abuse trial
Court hearing on 87-year-old peer’s mental health is told former Labour grandee is suffering from ‘advanced and disabling’ dementia
Janner is accused of 15 counts of indecent assault and seven counts of a separate sexual offence against a total of nine alleged victims in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.
Twenty-one of the offences relate to complainants who were aged 16 or under at the time.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/12036837/Lord-Janner-Judge-rules-dementia-sufferer-is-unfit-to-plead-in-child-sex-abuse-trial.html
Convicted child abuser Peter Dundas Walbran arrested teaching at Thai school
Police have detained a Sydney man jailed in 2012 over the rape and molestation of Indonesian boys as young as eight who was found teaching at a school in north-eastern Thailand.
http://www.smh.com.au/world/convicted-child-abuser-peter-dundas-walbran-arrested-teaching-at-thai-school-20151206-glgply.html
describes crimes
Attempted murder recounted by giggling teens
The girls had not given up on their infatuation with Satanism.
They’d sacrificed animals as part of their obsession. They’d shared blood.
But Sarah wanted more. She fantasised about killing people.
“Spill the blood of all!” she wrote on a blood splattered journal page.
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/crime-and-justice/crime-read-attempted-murder-recounted-by-giggling-teens/news-story/43f8756495bc1158f1a5e9a477b348f7