ABUSE TRACKER

CONNECTICUT
NECN

[with video]

Matt Austin

A federal jury has awarded $20 million to a man who accused a prominent Connecticut rabbi of repeatedly raping and molesting him when he was a teenager.

“The jury wacked him and the school for a $20-million verdict. Justice was done,” Antonio Ponvert III, attorney for Eliyahu Mirlis, said.

Rabbi Daniel Greer and his Yeshiva of New Haven were ordered Thursday to pay Mirlis $15 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages.

Mirlis alleged in a lawsuit that Greer, the school’s principal, sexually abused him for three years while he was a student at the Jewish boarding school from 2001 to 2005.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By James Hancock

“Very substantial progress” has been made towards setting up a proposed national redress scheme for victims of child sexual abuse, with no state or territory government ruling out signing up to the project, according to Social Services Minister Christian Porter.

He met with Attorneys-General and representatives of various church and community groups in Melbourne on Friday morning to discuss details of the scheme.

The Federal Government has allocated $33 million for its establishment by the middle of next year, with victims to receive up to $150,000 in compensation.

The Commonwealth lacks the powers to force the states to sign up, but Mr Porter is confident after the meeting that any issues can be resolved.

“Now each of them have offered up views and suggestions and nominated challenges but these are things I think, based on the goodwill and good faith of today’s discussions, can be worked through,” he said.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NEW YORK
New York Times

By SHARON OTTERMAN
MAY 18, 2017

Seven men who were abused as children by priests of the Archdiocese of New York revealed on Thursday some of the details of the settlements they had received through the archdiocese’s new sexual abuse survivor compensation fund.

Since October, more than 100 victims have settled their sex abuse cases with the archdiocese by taking their claims to the Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program. But very few details have been revealed because the program keeps the cases confidential, and no victims have yet spoken out.

The seven victims who revealed details on Thursday did so through their lawyer, J. Michael Reck. He said that they had received settlements of $150,000 to $350,000 each from the archdiocese. And he named the men’s abusers, saying his clients hoped that other possible victims would come forward and file claims.

“It’s a public safety imperative, because these are individuals who in many cases have an extended history in the archdiocese,” Mr. Reck said.

New York Archdiocese Offers Compensation Program for Sexual Abuse Victims OCT. 6, 2016

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

Joanne McCarthy
19 May 2017

TWO months after telling the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that he needed a long break to think about his future, possibly beyond the Anglican Church, retiring Newcastle Anglican Bishop Greg Thompson will be farewelled at a service on Sunday night.

The bishop who exposed the culture that supported crimes against children for decades – and who was made to feel “not welcome in his own cathedral” for doing so – will be thanked at a service in Newcastle’s Christ Church Cathedral.

“In his short time as our bishop he has been the catalyst for deep cultural change around the protection of children and the support of victims of abuse. He called us to face our past and in doing so shape a healthy future. This will be his enduring legacy,” Bishop Peter Stuart said in a statement this week on behalf of the diocese.

Bishop Thompson became the head of the Anglican church in the Hunter in February 2014. In a later interview with the Newcastle Herald he said returning to the region where he was born and raised forced him to confront abuse in his past.

In a statement to the royal commission Bishop Thompson said he was sexually abused as a child by boarders who stayed at his family home, and later by Anglican clerics Canon Eric Barker and Bishop Ian Shevill.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
New York Times

By MIKE HALE
MAY 18, 2017

What quality does a true-crime story need most to become a national conversation piece? Lurid details (“The Jinx”)? A complicated mystery (“Making a Murderer”)? A social-justice angle (“Serial”)?

“The Keepers,” a seven-part Netflix documentary series (available on Friday) bidding to be the next true-crime must-watch, has all of those in abundance. It incorporates a half-century-old unsolved murder case, shocking details of sexual abuse and devastating indictments of the indifference and obstructionism of the Roman Catholic Church as well as of the Baltimore and Maryland criminal justice systems.

All of these make “The Keepers,” directed by Ryan White (“The Case Against 8”), an often fascinating and devastating experience. If it’s not quite as addictive, across seven hours, as the best of its competition, it’s not for lack of effort or craft. But yoking together the disparate elements of the story Mr. White is trying to tell would have been a tall order for anyone.

The show’s primary hook is its cold case, the murder of Sister Catherine Cesnik, a young Baltimore nun and schoolteacher who disappeared in November 1969 and whose body was found two months later, dumped in a field. No one was ever charged in her death. Mr. White starts with that story and immediately introduces two memorable and appealing figures: Gemma Hoskins and Abbie Schaub, former students of Sister Cesknik’s who have devoted themselves in recent years to investigating her case.

But there’s more. In the series’s second episode, we meet Jean Hargadon Wehner, who figures significantly in the Cesnik case but has her own, separate story to tell, about horrific abuse at the hands of a male faculty member at the same school where Sister Cesnik taught.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PENNSYLVANIA
Altoona Mirror

MAY 19, 2017

KAY STEPHENS
Staff Writer
kstephens@altoonamirror.com

HOLLIDAYSBURG — A Blair County judge is being asked to examine the validity of fraud, constructive fraud and conspiracy allegations in one of two civil lawsuits filed last year on behalf of a pair of sisters who said they were sexually molested by an Altoona priest between 1975 and 1981.

In courtroom arguments Thursday, an attorney on behalf of the Altoona-Johnstown Catholic Diocese and two related defendants advised Judge Jolene G. Kopriva that arguments on behalf of Renee Rice provide no valid legal basis for the civil case to move forward.

It was the diocese, said Pittsburgh attorney Eric N. Anderson, that sent Rice a letter in July 2006, acknowledging her allegations and suggesting she take part in additional review.

“The diocese asked her to come to them … so how can she project any fraud?” Anderson asked.

But why did the diocese make that request, Altoona attorney Richard Serbin asked in court, pointing out that Rice had already provided details to a diocesan investigator.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
Catholic Herald (UK)

Archbishop Fisher said parts of the media and legal systems were already treating the cardinal as guilty

Public prosecutors have submitted recommendations to Victoria Police on whether to try Australian Cardinal George Pell on decades-old abuse allegations, but their advice has not been made public.

Until police decide how to proceed, Archbishop Anthony Fisher has said he will not be commenting on the case.

“Justice must be left to run its course,” Archbishop Fisher said in a statement this week.

Archbishop Fisher said Cardinal Pell, currently head of the Vatican Secretariat for the Economy, “has cooperated in every way with multiple police, parliamentary and Royal Commission investigations.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
Warwick Daily News

A SOUTHERN Downs man who was this month charged with nine historical child sex offences faced court in Armidale on Wednesday.

Granted conditional bail during his first court appearance, the former priest was ordered this week to continue serving the same bail arrangements and the case was adjourned until June 21.

Aged in his 70s, the man was extradited to New South Wales from Warwick Magistrates Court earlier this month to answer to allegations of indecent assault upon a male.

Police said four alleged victims had come forward in relation to alleged offences between 1970-1982 in the Armidale area.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MASSACHUSETTS
Lowell Sun

Sun Staff Report

LAWRENCE — Two weeks after Central Catholic’s dean and basketball coach resigned for allegedly sending inappropriate messages to a former student, another school employee has resigned for alleged misconduct, according to The Eagle Tribune.

John Housianitis, the social studies teacher who allegedly posted “compromising photos” of himself online, has resigned, the school’s president announced on Thursday.

Housianitis has been on administrative leave since late April. He is a former Lawrence School Committee member.

“I accept Mr. Housianitis’ resignation with regret. John’s violation of our policies was regrettable, however, it was not physically harmful to any student,” Central Catholic President Christopher Sullivan said in a statement released Thursday. “John’s service to the school and its students will long be remembered. I wish him well in the future.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

IRELAND
Galway Independent

Sinn Féin Senator Trevor Ó Clochartaigh has called on Minister for Children Katherine Zappone to challenge her Cabinet colleagues to do much more to bring clarity to the Tuam Mother and Baby Home scandal, and allow access to records and documents which would help survivors to come to terms with what happened to themselves and their family members.

Speaking during a Seanad debate in relation to the Interim Report of the Commission on Mother and Baby Homes, Senator Ó Clochartaigh said, “The relatives and campaigners don’t want sympathy and feign praise, they want information and access to records and the truth. Many of them believe that the state and establishment are closing ranks to ensure that doesn’t happen and are becoming increasingly frustrated and angry.

“When we debated this issue with the Minister in March I asked questions on a number of specific issues which have not been answered. I challenged her to clarify if she had questioned Galway County Council in relation to allowing relatives and researchers such as Catherine Corless access to public records.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CONNECTICUT
New Haven Independent

by CHRISTOPHER PEAK | May 18, 2017

Hartford — A federal jury Thursday ordered prominent Rabbi Daniel Greer and his Elm Street yeshiva to pay a former student $15 million in compensatory damages because the rabbi raped and repeatedly abused him 15 years ago.

The jury awarded an additional $5 million in punitive damages, to pay the lawyers.

In adjudicating a civil lawsuit brought by Eliyahu Mirlis, a former high school student at the Yeshiva of New Haven, the jury deliberated in U.S. District Court here for 12 hours over two days before coming to its unanimous decision.

The eight jurors slapped Greer with the eight-figure bill for the emotional suffering he caused Mirlis by assaulting and battering the boy over a three-year period, from his sophomore to senior years at the high school. The panel calculated the total after also concluding that Greer and the yeshiva had shown recklessness and intentional infliction of emotional distress and the school separately had displayed negligence and negligent infliction of emotional distress.

That sum was less than half of the $38 million that the plaintiff’s attorney, Antonio Ponvert III, had requested.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MASSACHUSETTS
Eagle-Tribune

By Kiera Blessing kblessing@eagletribune.com

LAWRENCE — A second staff member has left Central Catholic High School following allegations of inappropriate behavior.

John Housianitis, a social studies teacher at the school and a graduate of the Class of 1977, resigned his position after he was found to have posted “compromising photos of himself on an adults-only, password-protected website,” according to Central Catholic President Christopher Sullivan.

“I accept Mr. Housianitis’ resignation with regret. John’s violation of our policies was regrettable, however, it was not physically harmful to any student,” Sullivan said in a statement released Thursday. “John’s service to the school and its students will long be remembered. I wish him well in the future.”

Sullivan announced Housianitis’ resignation Thursday afternoon, but said his departure from the school was effective beginning April 26, the day he was placed on leave from the school.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NEW YORK
New York Daily News

Seven men abused by priests as children were paid nearly $2 million total through a settlement program founded by Timothy Cardinal Dolan, their attorney said Thursday, urging more victims to come forward.

The men, whose identities were not revealed, were abused by six priests in separate incidents, attorney Mike Reck said during a press conference at the Hotel Pennsylvania. Each victim received $150,000 to $350,000 through the Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program founded by the Archdiocese of New York.

“This is a full measure of accountability and it is a way of saying that this happened. It was wrong. And it was not your fault,” attorney Mike Reck said.

Five of the alleged abusers — Msgr. John O’Keefe and priests Peter Kihm, Gennaro “Jerry” Gentile, Francis Stinner and Ralph LaBelle — have been defrocked. A sixth, Richard Gorman, has been removed from the ministry and is awaiting a proceeding about whether he will be defrocked, Archdiocese spokesman Joseph Zwilling said. Most of the ex-priests could not be reached. LaBelle declined to comment.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NEW YORK
Catholic League

Bill Donohue comments on lies told by the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) about the New York Archdiocese compensation program for victims of sexual abuse:

When it comes to clergy sexual abuse, the New York Archdiocese has one of the best records in the nation: it has not only handled the relatively few cases brought before it with diligence, it instituted a program to compensate victims. But to some, it is never enough. Worse is when critics lie about the facts.

SNAP is a disgraced outfit whose ethically challenged leaders recently did themselves in. Now someone whom we have never heard of has surfaced demanding that the New York archdiocese publish the names of six miscreant priests, the implication being that there is a cover-up.

This is a non-starter: the names of the offending priests have already been published by the archdiocese. It is scurrilous to imply otherwise.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CANADA
CBC News

By Tori Weldon, CBC News

Former Catholic priest Yvon Arsenault was back in court Thursday to face a charge of indecent assault against a male dating back to the 1970s. He’s already in prison for molesting nine boys between 1971 and 1980.

The 74-year-old man is accused of assaulting a male between January 1970 and December 1973 in Shediac. The charge reflects the Criminal Code at the time. The age of the alleged victim was not provided.

Arsenault appeared without a lawyer and is scheduled to return to court June 22.

At his court appearance Thursday, Arsenault appeared to be heavier, with a beard, glasses and a buzz cut that he didn’t have at his sentencing in February.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
Reveal: The Center for Investigative Reporting

By Trey Bundy / May 18, 2017

A former Jehovah’s Witness in Australia is scheduled to appear in court this week to face charges that he sexually abused four teenage boys between 1993 and 2013, according to a news report.

The case is significant because it stems from an ongoing investigation by the Australian Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which found that Jehovah’s Witnesses do not to report child sexual abuse to law enforcement as a matter of policy.

The commission obtained records from the religion’s headquarters in Australia detailing allegations of child abuse going back to 1950. Investigators identified 1,006 alleged abusers, none of whom had been reported to authorities. The commission referred hundreds of those cases to law enforcement and now we’re starting to see criminal charges filed.

“We hope that this arrest is one of many that police make against perpetrators within the JW faith that have got away with their crimes for far too long,” said Lisa Flynn, an attorney who has represented hundreds of victims of child sexual abuse, including former Jehovah’s Witnesses and some who have appeared before the Royal Commission. “It is a very positive step that we are seeing police investigations, and now, subsequent arrests.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CONNECTICUT
Forward

May 18, 2017 By Josh Nathan-Kazis

A prominent New Haven, Conn. rabbi facing a civil lawsuit in federal court has refused under questioning to say whether he forced his accuser to have sex with him.

“Did you force Eli Mirlis to have sex with you when he was a child?” Mirlis’s attorney asked Rabbi Daniel Greer at a May 11 hearing, according to a report in the New Haven Independent.

Greer’s attorney interjected to advise Greer to invoke his Fifth Amendment rights. “I invoke the right to privilege,” Greer said, according to the paper.

The trial began early this month. Mirlis claims that Greer sexually abused him while he was a student at Greer’s yeshiva in New Haven. Greer denies the charges.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Democrat

By Dave Sutor
dsutor@tribdem.com

Rev. Charles Bodziak and Renée Rice sat inside a Blair County courtroom on Thursday, separated by only a few feet, decades after the priest allegedly sexually abused the then-young child.

Neither spoke.

But they were the key figures in a civil case brought by Rice against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona–Johnstown, retired Bishop Joseph Adamec, and the estate of deceased Bishop James Hogan. She has accused them of committing fraud, constructive fraud and conspiracy. Bodziak is also included in the conspiracy charge.

Afterwards, both talked to reporters.

“All I know, myself as a priest, (I’m) a victim because I’m innocent. I never did anything,” said Bodziak before his attorney, Thomas Foor, subtly guided him away from reporters.

When asked how it felt to learn her alleged abuser called himself a victim, Rice said, “It’s hard. It’s really hard.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Democrat

By Dave Sutor
dsutor@tribdem.com

A Blair County judge is expected to decide on Thursday if a civil case involving the alleged sexual abuse of two children decades ago can continue.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona–Johnstown, retired Bishop Joseph Adamec, and the estate of deceased Bishop James Hogan are accused of fraud, constructive fraud and conspiracy in the case.

Last June, sisters Cheryl Haun and Renée Rice, now in their late 40s, filed the case, alleging they were molested by Rev. Charles Bodziak, who is also named as a defendant, when he served at St. Leo’s in Altoona during the 1970s and into the 1980s. (The Tribune-Democrat does not normally identify alleged victims of sexual crimes. The sisters, however, have publicly identified themselves and spoken with reporters.)

The defendants are asking for the dismissal since the statute of limitations has expired for the crime of child sexual abuse in the case of Bodziak. The request has been made specifically in the Rice accusations.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

May 19, 2017

REBECCA URBAN
JournalistMelbourne
@RurbsOz

Cardinal George Pell and his alleged victims should know within weeks if police will lay charges over historical child-sex-abuse allegations, as concerns mount about whether a fair trial would be possible.

Victoria Police Commissioner Graham Ashton yesterday said a decision would be made quickly. However, the assurance of a deadline is understood to have been met with scepticism by church officials, given the matter has gone back and forth between police and prosecutors for more than a year.

Combined with the long-running Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which has probed allegations of child sex abuse by some Catholic priests and others, claims against Cardinal Pell that date back about 40 years have been the subject of extensive media attention and public scrutiny. Interest culminated this week with the high-profile release of a book about him.

The Law Council of Victoria has raised concerns about publicity and whether it has jeopardised Cardinal Pell’s chance of receiving a fair trial should he face an Australian court.

Cardinal Pell has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

Amy Remeikis

Social Services Minister Christian Porter has begun the delicate job of convincing the states and other groups to join a Commonwealth scheme designed to compensate survivors of institutional child sexual abuse.

Mr Porter will sit down with attorneys-general from across the nation in Melbourne on Friday to discuss the scheme in the first step towards convincing the states and territories to join it.

Separate meetings will be held with leaders of churches, charities and other non-government institutions as part of the same mission, with the government hoping for a “nationally consistent approach” to compensating about 60,000 survivors, which has been estimated to cost about $4 billion.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

By Jean Hopfensperger Star Tribune MAY 18, 2017

The judge overseeing the bankruptcy of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis expressed concern Thursday over the legal fees being racked up in the case — about $15 million to date.

“It bothers me so much that all these attorney fees are being run up,” U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Robert Kressel said at a hearing Thursday, adding that legal fees are consuming funds that could be directed to survivors of archdiocese clergy sex abuse.

In an attempt to curb the spending, Kressel ordered that no expert witnesses be hired for the time being. He also ordered an expedited schedule for both parties to argue their legal objections to each other’s compensation plan, setting a June 15 status conference to review them.

“I’m trying to save money and time and get this decided,” Kressel said.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MASSACHUSETTS
Telegram & Gazette

By Dianne Williamson
Telegram & Gazette Staff

Until this week, Susan Manter hadn’t set foot in a courtroom in five years, not since her shocking testimony about a beloved priest roiled a parish and sent the clergyman to jail.

In May of 2012, the Rev. Charles Michael Abdelahad of Shrewsbury was convicted of physically abusing the vulnerable mother of three during bizarre counseling sessions in which he slapped her, swore at her, kicked her in the shins, struck her with a miniature bat, knocked her head against a radiator, ripped her clothes off and bit her breasts. When she complained, the priest known affectionately as Father Mike explained that the two were engaged in “spiritual warfare” and that her body was “a battleground.”

Today, Manter said she wants people held accountable “for what they did.” More accurately, perhaps, she also wants them to pay for what they didn’t do, as these horrific counseling sessions dragged on for three years.

On Tuesday, the 49-year-old Holden woman sat in the front row of a Worcester Superior Court courtroom while her lawyer recounted the stunning actions of the priest and shameful inaction of those who knew what was happening at St. George Antiochian Orthodox Cathedral, but did little to confront the priest or protect his victim. Manter has filed a civil suit against Father Mike and three others. One of the defendants is the late primate of the Antiochian Archdiocese of North America, Philip Saliba, who did nothing to intervene even when notified about the sessions. Archbishop Saliba died in 2014.

“I’m really looking forward to having my story told,” Manter said Tuesday. Asked if she was nervous about seeing the man who abused her, she said, “I’m angry. Nauseated. Nervous? Of course I’m nervous. It’s human nature.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY
STEPHEN REX BROWN
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Updated: Thursday, May 18, 2017

An attorney for church sex abuse survivors will name and shame priests from the Archdiocese of New York, who allegedly molested his clients when they were kids, on Thursday.

The seven men each received settlements between $150,000 and $350,000 through a compensation program founded by Timothy Cardinal Dolan.

“It is some measure of justice,” said the victims’ attorney, Mike Reck.

“They’ve been handled professionally in the program. They’re treated with respect.”

Six priests abused his clients, according to Reck. Some of the clergymen are well known, Reck said; others have not been publicly identified. He will share details of the cases, some of which he said involve “the most horrific abuse you can imagine” during a press conference at the Hotel Pennsylvania.

The seven victims — whose identities will remain secret — were all part of Phase I of the Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program created by Dolan. That phase was open only to people who previously documented allegations of abuse to the Archdiocese. By accepting the settlements, they agreed they’d never pursue their cases in court.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

BURUNDI
Iwacu

LORRAINE JOSIANE MANISHATSE 05-18-2017

The police arrested Abbot Jean Marie Ciza, the principal private secretary of the Archbishop of Gitega in the afternoon of 16 May 2017. He was sent to Gitega Central Prison for raping a minor, police spokesman says.

According to sources from Gitega central province, Jean Marie Ciza was arrested in the evening of 16 May on the orders of the Attorney General of Gitega province. Police sources say he was directly sent to Gitega Central Prison because he could not spend the night in Gitega Commune dungeon due to his fragile health.

Pierre Nkurikiye, the spokesman for the police says Abbot Jean Marie Ciza is accused of raping an under-age girl.

“The victim filed a complaint against the abbot accusing him of having raped her. The girl showed the police a video she recorded when the priest was raping her, “Nkurikiye says. The police spokesman says the video showed the priest dancing naked.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED KINGDOM
Premier

Thu 18 May 2017
By Eno Adeogun

A paedophile has been jailed for two years and eight months after confessing his crime to a priest with the false belief that the chaplain was bound to keep the secret.

Stanley Wood, 66, admitted that he had sexually assaulted a six year old girl to the clergyman while he was in Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham for hip surgery.

Prosecutor Robert Price told Wolverhampton Crown Court: “He asked for God’s forgiveness and said he had had sex with a six year old girl.

Wood expected the admission to be kept secret but the cleric told the safeguarding nurse on the ward who according to the Express and Star, notified the defendant that the police would be informed.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

Neil Pang | The Guam Daily Post

May 18, 2017

“We think we know where he lives, but our special process server can’t seem to find him.” – Attorney David Lujan

A former Catholic priest who has been named in at least five sex abuse complaints may still be residing on island.

Raymond Cepeda, a former priest who was defrocked in December 2009 following an investigation into abuse allegations, is believed to be currently residing in Canada, Barrigada, according to attorney Gloria Rudolph, of the Law Office of Lujan and Wolff LLP, which represents the plaintiffs in the cases currently pending in federal court.

During a scheduling conference held before Magistrate Judge Joaquin Manibusan of the District Court of Guam, prosecutor David Lujan responded to questions from the judge about Cepeda, confirming that the former Guam priest has not yet been served a summons.

“We think we know where he lives, but our special process server can’t seem to find him,” Lujan told the judge.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CHILE
Univision

[Victim of clergy abuse accuses the Vatican of massive cover-up of cases of pederasty. Juan Carlos Cruz, who was abused by a priest in Chile, says that Pope Francis’ confession after his trip to Fatima that there are 2,000 cases of clergy abuse backlogged at the Vatican is contrary to what the pontiff promised in 2014 when he created the commission of inquiry.]

Juan Carlos Cruz, qiuen fue abusado por un sacerdote en Chile, dice que la confesión de Francisco tras su viaje a Fátima, que hay 2000 casos de violaciones acumulados, es contrario a lo que prometió el pontífice en el 2014 cuando creó la comisión investigadora.

Por: Jorge Cancino

Una víctima chilena de abusos del clero criticó este lunes el reconocimiento del papa Francisco, quien el fin de semana dijo que el Vaticano tiene acumulados 2,000 casos de abuso sexual cometidos por sacerdotes.

“La situación es tremendamente frustrante”, dijo a Univision Noticias Juan Carlos Cruz, una de las víctimas chilenas del sacerdote Fernando Karadima, quien el 16 de febrero de 2011 la Congregación para la Doctrina de la Fe (exSanto Oficio) declaró culpable de abusos sexuales contra menores con violencia y abuso de potestad eclesiástica. “Puedo asegurar que los 2,000 casos son muchos más, esto es un encubrimiento masivo”, agregó.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By court reporter Karl Hoerr

Lawyers for Catholic Archbishop of Adelaide Philip Wilson, accused of concealing child sex abuse in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese, have fronted court again for their third attempt to stop the case against him from going ahead.

Wilson, who has retained his position amid the criminal proceedings, is accused of failing to pass onto police information he had between 2004 and 2006 that might have helped convict Father Jim Fletcher.

It is alleged a boy told the senior clergyman, he had been indecently assaulted by Father Fletcher several years earlier.

Prosecutors claim Wilson came to believe the allegation decades later, after learning of other cases

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

SCHWEIZ
Blick

[Although the sexual abuse of Friborg’s Daniel Pittet (57) by Father Joël (76) is legally barred, the Swiss capuchin province wants to deal with the case with a neutral investigation commission.]

LUZERN/FREIBURG – Obwohl der sexuelle Missbrauch Freiburgers Daniel Pittet (57) durch Pater Joël (76) rechtlich verjährt ist, will die Schweizer Kapuzinerprovinz den Fall mit einer neutrale Untersuchungskommission aufarbeiten.

Die Schweizer Kapuzinerprovinz will den Fall um den pädophilen Pater Joël (76) aufarbeiten – mithilfe einer neutralen Untersuchungskommission. Die Ergebnisse dieser Kommission sollen bereits in einigen Monaten vorliegen.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

DEUTSCHLAND
NDR

[Diocese of Hildesheim: Transparency becomes a dilemma.]

von Florian Breitmeier

Die Staatsanwaltschaft Hildesheim hat das Vorpreschen des Bistums wegen eines möglichen Missbrauchfalls an der katholischen Marienschule am Mittwoch kritisiert. Das Bistum hatte am Dienstag unter anderem bekanntgegeben, dass neben den kirchlichen Ermittlungen auch Anzeige bei der Staatsanwaltschaft erstattet worden sei. Die Diözese steckt nach der zögerlichen Informationspolitik bei früheren Missbrauchsvorwürfen offenbar in der Klemme. Offenbar wollte das Bistum unbedingt den Eindruck vermeiden, dass man aus früheren Fällen nichts gelernt habe. Ein Bistumssprecher erklärte auf Nachfrage, man habe die Öffentlichkeit angemessen und zeitnah bei Wahrung der Persönlichkeitsrechte informieren wollen.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

ROM
Radio Vatikan

[Cardinal George Pell, the Vatican financial chief, has once again rejected abuse charges against his person.]

Der vatikanische Finanzchef Kardinal George Pell hat erneut Missbrauchsvorwüfe gegen seine Person zurückgewiesen. Er respektiere aber, dass die Staatsanwaltschaft im australischen Bundesstaat Victoria der Polizei eine Anklage gegen ihn empfohlen habe und werde „selbstverständlich vollständig kooperieren”, sagte der frühere Erzbischof von Melbourne in einem TV-Interview.

Pell droht Medienberichten zufolge eine Anklage wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs. Die neuen Vorwürfe gegen den Kardinal beziehen sich nicht auf Vertuschung von Missbrauchsfällen durch ihm zugeordnete Kleriker, sondern auf angeblichen Missbrauch durch Pell selbst.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
news.com.au

MAY 18, 2017

Tom Rabe
Australian Associated Press

The NSW boys school where a Catholic brother is alleged to have raped and beaten young boys in the 1970s and 80s was “not for the faint-hearted” his defence has told a Sydney court.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, faces 125 charges including indecent assault and buggery at the school for intellectually disabled and “criminally inclined”.

“This organisation, this school, was not for the faint-hearted, by any stretch of the imagination,” defence counsel Alex Radojev told the Downing Centre District Court on Thursday.

“Bad things happened. Evil things happened.”

But Mr Radojev stressed the trial was not about the Catholic Church, rather the actions of an individual.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MARYLAND
MyHighPlains

(CNN) – A DNA sample taken from the exhumed remains of former priest A. Joseph Maskell does not match the DNA from the murder scene of Sister Catherine Ann Cesnik, according to Baltimore County Police.

Police announced on Wednesday that they had received results from Bode Cellmark Forensics laboratory in Lorton, Virginia, excluding Maskell as a contributor to a DNA profile developed from evidence taken in 1970 from the scene in Maryland where the decomposed body of Cesnik was found by a father and son out hunting. The 26-year-old nun had been missing for nearly two months.

County police opened Maskell’s grave on February 28, after securing an order from the state’s attorney, according to Elise Armacost, director of public affairs for Baltimore County Police.

Baltimore County Police have compared the DNA of several other people as part of their investigation into the never-closed case, according to Armacost, but those tests did not match the DNA profile from 1970.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

The head of Victoria Police has indicated a decision is likely in the next few weeks on whether to charge Catholic Cardinal George Pell in relation to sexual abuse allegations dating back to the late 1970s.

Police confirmed on Wednesday they had received advice from Victoria’s Director of Public Prosecutions [DPP] and were considering whether to lay charges.

Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton said a decision would be made on the basis of the evidence and the likelihood of conviction.

“They’re the litmus tests here and that’s the decision that needs to be taken now,” Commissioner Ashton said.

“It doesn’t need to be too long from now if we’ve got advice back.

“Generally the process from here, on cases of this nature, are generally done fairly quickly within a case of a few weeks.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
The Advertiser

Mitch Mott, The Advertiser

THE victim of sexual abuse by a former Christian Brothers College teacher has told an Adelaide court that his childhood was destroyed — and that he and his family continued to suffer decades after the abuse had ended.

Stephen John Hamra, 61, abused the boy, who was not a student at the school, between 1977 and 1986.

His victim, who is now an adult, read an emotional victim impact statement to Judge Paul Rice in the District Court yesterday, outlining the difficulties that he has faced since the abuse.

“Before the abuse, I was a happy, fun-loving child,” he told the court.

“Afterwards I was angry, depressed and suicidal. I wonder where my life would have been without this abuse.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

GUAM
KUAM

Updated: May 18, 2017
By Krystal Paco

Another victim of clergy sex abuse surfaces.

57-year-old B.J. was neither altar boy nor boy scout but met Father Louis Brouillard when he was around 11 or 12 while playing baseball in the village. The priest offered to take him and friends to Lonfit River to swim. During one such trip, while they were alone, the priest allegedly tied B.J. to the ground and told him he was going to teach him rescue skills because B.J. said he wanted to join the military. The priest stated, “It’s okay, don’t worry, I’m going to teach you how to get out of this and escape if you ever get tied up.” The priest performed sex acts on the boy and raped him multiple times. The boy reported bleeding and feeling like he was dying. When the priest was finished, he told the boy he was “blessing him” and compared the experience to confession in which it was between B.J., Brouillard, and God.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

GUAM
KUAM

Updated: May 18, 2017
By Krystal Paco

Roy Quintanilla started it all, as he announced in 2016, “I have been silent for 40 years mainly because I thought all this time I was your only victim and because I was embarrassed, humiliated, degraded, and terribly confused about what to do. I thought if I said anything that people would not believe me or people would retaliate against me for coming forward. Archbishop Apuron, I will not be silent anymore.”

This week marks one year since the first victim of clergy sex abuse surfaced. Quintanilla is now joined by nearly 70 others who are suing the Archdiocese of Agana. In some cases involving former priest Father Louis Brouillard, the Boy Scouts of America and Boy Scouts of America Aloha Council Chamorro District are also named defendants.

On the docket today, 11 cases. For those involving Father Antonio Cruz, plaintiffs’ counsel David Lujan clarified for the court they aren’t naming his as a defendant because he passed away in 1986. As for Raymond Cepeda who was defrocked, Lujan says they have yet to formally serve him. “We tried. We think we know where he lives but our processor can’t seem to find him,” he said.

A similar case for Brouillard who Lujan states “I don’t think we’ve served him. We attempted to depose him through his counsel but that fell apart.”

While some defendants were no-shows, counsel for the Boy Scouts was present today, attorney Patrick Civille noting they’ve filed a motion to dismiss. Patrick Civille said simply, “Read it. It’s fascinating reading.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Luke Buckmaster
@lukebuckmaster
Wednesday 17 May 2017

Litigation thrillers and courtroom dramas are not necessarily the same thing – and a movie encompassing both can do one better than the other.

Don’t Tell – debut director Tori Garrett’s well made, if heavy-handed movie about speaking out in the most challenging and degrading of circumstances – is also a reminder that films depicting real-life events are in just as much danger of indulging in caricature and ham-handed dialogue as anything from the realm of pure fiction.

Adapted from a non-fiction book by Queensland lawyer Stephen Roche, Don’t Tell recounts a landmark 2001 civil litigation case against the Anglican Church’s Toowoomba Preparatory School. In a cinematic context, one is tempted to peg it as a sort of Spotlight Down Under, given the obvious similarities in subject matter.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

Joanne McCarthy
18 May 2017

FORMER Hunter priest Archbishop Philip Wilson, the most senior Catholic cleric in the world to be charged with concealing the child sex crimes of another priest, has launched his third attempt to stop the case against him from proceeding.

Barrister Bret Walker, SC, for the archbishop, told three judges of the NSW Court of Appeal on Thursday that the charge against his client was invalid because of changes to the law since 1971, when Hunter priest Jim Fletcher is alleged to have sexually assaulted a 10-year-old boy at Maitland.

Archbishop Wilson was charged with failing to tell police between 2004 and 2006 of what he allegedly knew or believed about Fletcher, based on alleged conversations with two alleged victims of Fletcher in 1976.

Police allege the information might have helped in 2004 after Fletcher was charged with offences against a third victim, and convicted of serious child sex offences. Fletcher died in jail in 2006. The police case is that a Hunter woman and a priest told Archbishop Wilson in 2004 that Fletcher had sexually assaulted a fourth victim.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VIRGINIA
Fauquier Times

Hannah Dellinger May 17, 2017

A judge last week delayed the indecent liberties trial of model and pop singer Jordan David Baird, and fired his defense attorneys due to a possible conflict of interest.

Baird, 27, of Warrenton, is the son of a Manassas megachurch leader. Court records show one of his defense firm’s lawyers also oversaw a church investigation into allegations Baird had an inappropriate relationship with an underage girl.

Baird – second-place winner of CW’s singing competition show, The Next, in 2012 — is charged with seven counts of indecent liberties with a minor while in a custodial position for alleged sexual abuse at The Life Church, according to a criminal complaint filed in Prince William County Circuit Court. Baird has maintained he is innocent since the allegations went public, according to his attorneys.

According to prosecutors, Baird was a youth pastor at The Life Church in Manassas and was in a supervisory role over the girl during several alleged acts of sexual abuse between January and September 2015. However, his attorneys say Baird was the church’s director of music and was never employed as a youth pastor.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

KENTUCKY
The Messenger

By Laura Harvey Lead Reporter lharvey@the-messenger.com

MADISONVILLE — The Commonwealth of Kentucky Court of Appeals has denied a request from disgraced Life Temple Church pastor John Price to overturn his 2001 sexual assault convictions based on a recent Kentucky Supreme Court decision he believes modified what constitutes as “forcible compulsion.”

Price filed his appeal with the commonwealth in 2016 after filing an unsuccessful petition with Hopkins Circuit Court contending that the prosecution failed to produce sufficient evidence that he physically forced sexual contact with his victim, a female member of his church.

Price, now 62, was found guilty by a Hopkins County jury in 2001 of two counts of first-degree rape, first-degree sodomy, first-degree attempted rape and five counts of first-degree sexual abuse in events stemming from numerous sexual encounters that took place from approximately 1983-1993.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

Annelies Gartner

‘Don’t tell, no one will believe you anyway,” 12-year-old Lyndal was told of her sexual abuse at a prestigious Anglican school in Toowoomba in 1990.

Almost 10 years after she was abused Lyndal was a tormented young woman suffering flashbacks and self-medicating in an attempt to block out memories of the molestation she endured at the hands of her boarding master Kevin Guy.

Lyndal returned to her home town and with lawyers Stephen Roche and Jodie Collins and barrister Bob Myers took on the powerful church that denied her abuse for over a decade.

Guy was never brought to justice for his crimes. He committed suicide 40 minutes before he was due to face criminal charges in court, leaving the Church and its legal team believing the case against them ended with his death.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

KENTUCKY
WHAS

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) — A former Louisville priest and teacher has now entered into a plea agreement in his ongoing sex abuse case in Meade County. The terms of the deal have not yet been released.

Hemmerle, who previously worked at Trinity High School, is charged with two counts of sexual abuse in the first degree and five counts of sodomy and faced the possibility of life in prison if convicted at trial.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MARYLAND
Angelus

Baltimore, Md., May 17, 2017 / 04:32 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- No one knows who killed Sister Catherine Ann Cesnik. A young nun who was on a year’s leave of absence, Sister Cathy, as friends called her, was murdered sometime while running an errand on the evening of November 7, 1969. She was 26 years-old.

Her body was found in a dump two months later, though authorities have never been able to identify her killer. This summer, a Netflix documentary series called “The Keepers” is reopening the case, talking to witnesses and examining the evidence before the case goes cold forever.

The circumstances surrounding the death of Sr. Cathy are precarious. A member of the School Sisters of Notre Dame since the age of 18, Sr. Cathy and her friend Sister Helen Russell Phillips both took a leave of absence in 1969 and moved out of the convent into an apartment together. A thoughtful and well-liked teacher, Sr. Cathy had taught English at Archbishop Seton Keough Catholic High School for several years before transferring to Western Public High School in 1969.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

GUAM
Pacific News Center

Written by Janela Carrera

The alleged victim says he was only 11 or 12 years old at the time and he begged Father Louis Brouillard to stop, screaming “I think I’m dying.”

Guam – Horrid details have been revealed in the latest sexual abuse lawsuit filed against former priest and Boy Scout master Father Louis Brouillard. This latest case describes a rape so violent that it might be hard for some people to stomach.

But the Boy Scouts is moving forward in seeking dismissal of the cases even with a confession from the disgraced priest.

It’s perhaps the most disturbing and frightening one yet. A lawsuit filed against the Archdiocese of Agana and Boy Scouts of America revealing the horrid details of how a minor was repeatedly raped while he was tied up to a tree back in the 1970s.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CALIFORNIA
Daily Mail (UK)

By Hannah Parry For Dailymail.com

A female churchgoer claims she was sexually assaulted by a former parish priest – and when she complained to the church was told ‘what man wouldn’t want a piece of a** every now and then?’

Dorothy Small, filed a lawsuit against Rev. Renerio Sabuga Jr., the Sacramento Catholic Diocese, and Holy Rosary priest Jonathan Molina, on Monday over the alleged assault and the church’s handling of it, the Sacramento Bee reports.

Her suit describes how Sabuga – known as Father Jong – became a close confidante after he joined Woodland’s Holy Rosary Catholic Church, California, in April 2014.

The 62-year-old said the priest began by inviting her along for bicycle rides and for dinner, but the relationship changed and he began pursuing her romantically, according to her lawsuit.

The situation escalated until February 17, 2015, when she claims the priest ‘cornered (Small) in her bedroom and sexually assaulted’ her.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

KENTUCKY
WDRB

By Chris Turner

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — A Kentucky priest accused of molesting a boy forty years ago pleaded guilty to reduced charges one day before his trial was set to begin.

On Wednesday, a Meade County, Kentucky, judge accepted Father Joseph Hemmerle’s guilty pleas to two counts of first degree wanton endangerment and five counts of third degree sexual abuse, in exchange for a recommended sentence of two years of prison followed by eight years of probation.

Hemmerle made an Alford plea, in which he does not admit guilt but acknowledges prosecutors have enough evidence to warrant a conviction. Legally, it carries the same weight as a guilty plea.

The case involved allegations that Hemmerle abused a boy in the summers of 1977 and 1978 at Camp Tall Trees, a Catholic youth camp in Meade County.

Formal sentencing is scheduled June 29.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MARYLAND
Fox Baltimore

by Christine Boynton
Wednesday, May 17th 2017

BALTIMORE COUNTY, Md. (WBFF) – DNA from the remains of a former Baltimore priest does not match DNA from the murder scene of Sister Catherine Ann Cesnik, police announced on Wednesday.

The nun’s murder has been under investigation for almost 50 years.

The body of former priest Joseph Maskell was exhumed on February 28, 2017 so that DNA could be compared to evidence gathered at the crime scene.

“Maskell is not the first suspect whose DNA has been compared to the crime scene sample,” police wrote in a release. “Over the years, BCoPD detectives have developed DNA profiles of about a half-dozen suspects and compared them against the crime scene evidence. None of these suspects’ profiles have matched.”

Investigators say their best hope now lies with interviewing anyone willing to come forward with information.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MARYLAND
The Baltimore Sun

Alison Knezevich
The Baltimore Sun

DNA evidence from a priest whose remains were exhumed does not match crime-scene evidence from the unsolved killing of Baltimore nun Sister Catherine Ann Cesnik, Baltimore County police said Wednesday.

The Randallstown grave of the Rev. A. Joseph Maskell was exhumed in February so detectives could compare his DNA to physical evidence. Police had previously tested the DNA of about six other suspects in the nun’s death.

“The fact that the DNA profiles of the various suspects have not matched the crime scene evidence — it doesn’t necessarily exonerate them,” police spokeswoman Elise Armacost said.

Cesnik, who taught at Archbishop Keough and Western high schools, went missing in November 1969. Her body was found in January 1970 in Lansdowne.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MARYLAND
CBS Baltimore

BALTIMORE (WJZ) — A DNA sample taken from the remains of former Baltimore priest A. Joseph Maskell does not match DNA from the murder scene of Sister Catherine Ann Cesnik, according to the Baltimore County Police Department.

In January 1970, Sister Cathy’s decomposed body was discovered in a field in Lansdowne.

A recent WJZ investigation revealed that the 26-year-old was about to blow the whistle on widespread sexual abuse at the hands of Maskell.

Baltimore County police revealed first to WJZ that they exhumed Maskell in February to get his DNA.

Maskell, a former guidance counselor at Archbishop Keough High School, has long been suspected in Cesnik’s death. Cesnik also worked at the school.

But on Wednesday, police say they received lab results from Bode Cellmark Forensics in Lorton, Va., that excluded Maskell as a contributor to DNA preserved from the crime scene.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MARYLAND
WBAL

Wednesday, May 17, 2017
Tyler Waldman, WBAL NewsRadio 1090

A DNA sample from the exhumed remains of a former priest doesn’t match DNA from the murder scene of a Catholic nun whose death has attracted renewed interest 47 years later.

Baltimore County police on Wednesday said they got the results from an accredited laboratory that ruled out A. Joseph Maskell as a contributor to DNA preserved from the scene where Sister Catherine Ann Cesnik was killed.

Her body was found in a Lansdowne dumping area in January 1970. She was last seen alive at her Baltimore City apartment before she left to run errands in Edmonson Village the previous November. Police believe whoever killed Cesnik accosted her as she was returning from the store and forced her back into her car. They believe she was driven to Monumental Avenue, where she was assaulted and murdered. Her car was found in the early morning hours the next day.

At the time, Cesnik was on sabbatical from the church and teaching at Western High School in the city.

Cesnik’s death is the subject of a seven-episode Netflix series premiering Friday titled “The Keepers.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
Washington Post

By Tom Jackman May 17

The unsolved slaying of Sister Catherine Ann Cesnik in Baltimore in 1969 hit another dead end Wednesday when police learned that DNA from a long-deceased priest did not match crime scene evidence that Baltimore County cops have preserved for almost five decades.

In February, police exhumed the body of the Rev. A. Joseph Maskell, the former chaplain at Archbishop Keough High School in Baltimore, where Cesnik had taught. Years after Cesnik disappeared in November 1969, and was discovered in the Lansdowne area of Baltimore County in January 1970, a number of women came forward and accused Maskell of sexually abusing them while he was at Keough. Two of the women sued Maskell, the high school and the Archdiocese of Baltimore in 1994, but the suit was dismissed due to an expired statute of limitations. Maskell became a suspect in Cesnik’s death but denied any involvement to police. He died in 2001.

The death of the popular “Sister Cathy” is the subject of an upcoming documentary series, “The Keepers,” to be released Friday on Netflix.

Baltimore County police said Maskell’s DNA was sent to Bode Cellmark Forensics in Lorton, Va., to develop a DNA profile. The profile was compared with crime scene evidence and did not match, police said.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CONNECTICUT
New Haven Independent

by CHRISTOPHER PEAK | May 17, 2017

Hartford — After two full days of testimony from the plaintiff’s witnesses, Rabbi Daniel Greer’s team presented a short-winded rebuttal Tuesday morning in a civil trial here over accusations of long-running sexual abuse.

Defense attorneys called only two witnesses — Greer and his longtime secretary, Jean Ledbury — and wrapped their questioning after less than 45 minutes.

Throughout the trial, the defense lawyers have tried to slight the rabbi’s accusers, Eliyahu Mirlis and Aviad Hack, as a troublemakers with ulterior motives. Mirlis filed the suit in U.S. District Court charging that Greer, a prominent rabbi who built an Orthodox community and renovated homes around a yeshiva in New Haven’s Edgewood neighborhood, repeatedly sexually abused him from 200 through 2005. Greer invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination when asked on the stand about those allegations.

On Monday, Sarah Greer, the rabbi’s wife, testified that she never liked her husband’s accuser, from the time he started at the Yeshiva of New Haven. On Tuesday, Ledbury recounted an episode when Mirlis stole and made a copy of the school’s keys. More recently, she added, she saw Facebook pictures of him waterskiing, allegedly showing him apparently unfazed by his the trauma of his teenage years.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED STATES
Catholic League

Bill Donohue comments on a Netflix documentary series, “The Keepers,” that will premiere on May 19:

Netflix is about to air a series that imputes the integrity of the Archdiocese of Baltimore for its handling of a miscreant priest from the 1960s. It relies heavily on conjecture and voodoo psychology. It must: it lacks the evidence to make its case. But it will surely feed the appetite of those ready to believe the worst about the Church.

The series focuses on the unresolved murder of Sister Cathy Cesnik. It invites the audience to consider whether she was killed to cover-up sexual abuse at the high school where she worked, Archbishop Keough in Baltimore.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
Northern Daily Leader

Breanna ChillingworthBreanna Chillingworth
@breannachill

17 May 2017, 6 p.m.

A FORMER New England priest accused of indecently assaulting young boys has appeared in open court for the first time, two weeks after he was extradited from Queensland by detectives.

David Joseph Perrett was flanked by his brother, Ron Perrett, also a retired priest, in Armidale Local Court on Wednesday morning.

He is facing nine counts of indecent assault on a male after a lengthy investigation spearheaded by Armidale detectives.

Perrett, now aged 79, was not required to enter pleas to the charges as the DPP sought court orders for a brief of evidence.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
Catholic Register

BY CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
May 17, 2017

SYDNEY – Public prosecutors have submitted recommendations to Victoria Police on whether to try Australian Cardinal George Pell on decades-old abuse allegations, but their advice has not been made public.

Until police decide how to proceed, Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher said he will not be commenting on the case.

“Justice must be left to run its course,” Archbishop Fisher said in a statement May 17.

Archbishop Fisher said Cardinal Pell, currently head of the Vatican Secretariat for the Economy, “has cooperated in every way with multiple police, parliamentary and Royal Commission investigations.”

“Everyone supports just investigation of complaints, but the relentless character attacks on Cardinal Pell, by some, stand the principle of innocent-until-proven-guilty on its head,” Archbishop Fisher said. “Australians have a right to expect better from their legal systems and the media. Even churchmen have a right to ‘a fair go.'”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

May 18, 2017

TESSA AKERMAN
ReporterMelbourne
@TessaAkerman

PIA AKERMAN
ReporterMelbourne
@pia_akerman

Cardinal George Pell is expected to return to Australia voluntarily if police lay charges over histor­ical sex-abuse allegations but health fears could force him to take a slow sea voyage.

As Victoria Police detectives weigh up whether to initiate proceedings after further advice from the Director of Public Prosecutions, senior Australian Catholics threw their support behind the cardinal and turned on his critics for denying him a “fair go”.

Cardinal Pell, 75, is serving as prefect of the secretariat of the economy to the Vatican, a role he has held since 2014.

He has strenuously denied all allegations. Although Australia has no extradition treaty with the Vatican, supporters of Cardinal Pell believe Australia’s most senior Catholic would return home voluntarily to face court if he were charged on a brief of evidence that prosecutors have now sent back to detectives for a second time, without a recommendation on court action.

Speaking in Rome, Cardinal Pell strongly denied any wrongdoing, declaring: “I’d just like to restate my innocence, I stand by everything I’ve said at the royal commission and in other places.’’

Asked if he was prepared to ­return, Cardinal Pell replied: “I will continue to co-operate fully.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Tuesday, May 16, 2017

By Fiachra Ó Cionnaith
Irish Examiner Political Correspondent

Cabinet ministers will be told today to make a decision “quickly” on the potential excavation of the entire Tuam mother and baby home in order to identify the people buried at the site.

Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone will issue the call as she outlines plans for a Government group to begin appointing technical experts to oversee the work.

Earlier this year, the Government confirmed the presence of the bones of hundreds of babies and children at a former septic tank on the grounds of the Tuam site.

Ms Zappone is expected to say that specific decisions on the appointment of technical experts must now be taken “quickly” to have the best chance of identifying remains and assisting relatives of the people involved.

The Irish Examiner understands the minister will tell Cabinet colleagues these measures will include site excavation options; best international practice for identifying the remains; and technical work on how to protect human remains on the site during excavation.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

IRELAND
IrishCentral

James Wilson @jameswilson1919 May 17, 2017

Ireland’s Minister for Children Katherine Zappone is seeking cabinet permission to order a complete excavation of the notorious mother and baby home in Tuam.

The Irish Examiner reported that she will urge colleagues to “quickly” back her call so her department can begin to put together a working group to oversee the project.

The excavation is expected to be lead by experts from overseas and is expected to comply with international best practice. The team will also have to preserve the children’s remains on the site after excavation.

Currently, no excavation is planned for any of the other mother and baby homes in Ireland but it is expected that, in due course, they, too, will be excavated.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

TEXAS
Waco Tribune-Herald

By PHILLIP ERICKSEN pericksen@wacotrib.com

Baylor University on Tuesday night was served with a seventh Title IX lawsuit which alleges as many as eight football players drugged a student and took turns raping her in 2012.

The plaintiff, who filed the lawsuit as “Jane Doe,” remembers hearing the players yell, “Grab her phone! Delete my numbers and texts!” following the rape in an off-campus apartment with glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling, according to the suit.

The lawsuit comes as Baylor continues to deal with fallout from a sexual assault scandal that led to the firing of President Ken Starr and head football coach Art Briles and the resignation of Ian McCaw as athletics director almost a year ago.

“These girls affected by this are seeking their day in court,” Houston lawyer Muhammad Aziz, who represents the plaintiff, said by phone Wednesday. “We thought about this a lot, and me and my client thought about it and discussed it. Eventually, we decided to proceed. Really, what we are seeking to enforce is just a safe education environment for the girls at the school.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

IRELAND
Wicklow News

Former Rathnew priest Denis Nolan was sentenced to eight years in jail this week for the rape and sexual assault of a young boy.

The former priest has 20 previous convictions relating to sexual assault but refuses to admit his guilt.

He was described in court as “cold and calculating” he is already serving time for the abuse of another local boy.

The abuse of his victims first came to light in May of 2012.

The 64-year-old denied two counts of rape and four of sexually assaulting the boy in Co Wicklow between January 2005 and September 2006.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

Mindy Aguon | For The Guam Daily Post

“I never told anybody back then. Who was gonna believe me? Back then it was very strict.” – B.J., describing abuse by former Guam priest Louis Brouillard

As he walked with his cane into the grassy area leading to Lonfit River, there was trepidation in his step. This was the first time he’d been back in more than 40 years.

The hot sun beating down on him caused beads of sweat to run down his forehead as he became weak, having flashbacks of a traumatic trip to this river in the early 1970s.

“He told me it was time to become a man,” the 57-year-old man said as his voice faded.

B.J., using initials to protect his identity, was only 12 years old when he was brought to Lonfit River by then-Father Louis Brouillard.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

BURUNDI
La Depeche

Jean-Marie, prêtre burundais, a été accueilli en 2014 par le diocèse de Pamiers. Il en a profité pour commettre trois agressions sexuelles, dont une sur mineure de moins de 15 ans. À chaque fois, même scénario. Jean-Marie, rentré dans son pays depuis, se retrouve avec elles pour discuter, les prend dans ses bras, les colle contre lui alors que son sexe est en érection et les caresse. Pendant sa garde à vue, il a plus ou moins reconnu les faits. «Étant malade et privé d’activité valorisante, il a pu décompenser», note le psychiatre à propos de Jean-Marie. Ce qui ne manque pas d’étonner le ministère public : «Il ne peut plus dire la messe, donc il compense par des agressions sexuelles», ironise François Hébert.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

BURUNDI
Xinhua

BUJUMBURA, May 17 (Xinhua) — The Burundian police on Tuesday afternoon arrested a priest over rape accusations, the country’s police spokesman told a press conference on Wednesday.

“Abbot Jean Marie Ciza working in Gitega Archdiocese was arrested yesterday afternoon in Gitega town. The prosecutor who ordered his arrest accuses him of having raped a school girl,” Burundian Police Spokesman Pierre Nkurikiye said.

Nkurikiye indicated that the arrested priest was the private secretary of the Archbishop of Gitega, adding that he had recently escaped from France where he had committed rape.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MARYLAND
WJZ

BALTIMORE (WJZ)– There are shocking new allegations from a woman who told only WJZ she was sexually abused by a Baltimore County police officer and a priest when she was just 11 years old.

WJZ is protecting the identity of the woman who is being called Abby.

She is still terrified of police decades after horrific abuse by one powerful officer, who picked her up and raped her repeatedly for years.

Once Abby said he forced her to have sex with other officers and a catholic priest.

“He actually raped me with a cross,” she says.

“He” was Father Neil Magnus. Once he was finished, Abby said the Baltimore County police officer raped her next, then one by one other officers took turns.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIEN
Bluewin

Der australische Kurienkardinal George Pell – einer der höchsten Würdenträger im Vatikan – muss in seiner Heimat mit einer Anklage rechnen. Ihm wird zur Last gelegt, als junger Priester in den 1970er und 1980er Jahren mehrere Jungen sexuell belästigt zu haben.

Die Polizei im australischen Bundesstaat Victoria bestätigte am Mittwoch, dass eine Stellungnahme der Staatsanwaltschaft dazu geprüft werde. Der 75-Jährige war früher Erzbischof von Melbourne und Sydney. Heute ist Pell im Vatikan für den Haushalt zuständig und damit die inoffizielle Nummer drei der katholischen Hierarchie.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

SCOTLAND
The National

Janice Burns, Journalist / @janthenational

SURVIVORS of historic sexual abuse are today making a plea for more to be done to find Scotland’s missing abuse victims.

Seek and Find Everyone Abused in Childhood, also known as SAFE, has made the call to action with only two weeks left before the formal inquiry into historic abuse starts taking evidence.

SAFE, a group of survivors who have set aside their own time and money to campaign on this issue, want to send a message to all those survivors who are too afraid to speak out.

Survivor and spokesperson for SAFE, Dave Sharp, said: “We understand that victims are looking for like-minded people to connect with. Survivors are looking for people who understand their vulnerabilities and uncertainties and SAFE wants to help them find a path to justice and to have their voice heard.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

ITALIA/ARGENTINA
Rete L’Abuso

[Pope Francis has sent inspectors to Argentina to investigate the alleged abuse at a home for deaf children.]

Colpo di scena, almeno per noi che in Italia siamo abituati ad un eccesso di riguardo nei confronti del clero, ma in Argentina, pur restando il rispetto per l’abito talare, di fronte alla legge si è tutti uguali.

Ed è così che i due 007 inviati da papa Francesco per “indagare” sull’orribile vicenda degli abusi sessuali sui bambini sordi nell’Istituto cattolico Antonio Provolo di Mendoza, da investigatori, si sono trasformati in test per la procura, sottoposti quindi anche al segreto istruttorio e se entro venerdì non risponderanno a quelle che sono le richieste, potrebbero ritrovarsi anche incriminati per falsa testimonianza, come secondo l’articolo 275 del codice penale argentino che punisce con la reclusione da un mese a quattro anni.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
news.com.au

MAY 17, 2017

Megan Neil
Australian Associated Press

The absence of an extradition treaty with the Vatican would potentially complicate matters if Cardinal George Pell is charged with abuse offences unless he returns to Australia voluntarily.
Victorian police are deciding whether to charge Australia’s most senior Catholic over historical sexual assault allegations, which Cardinal Pell has repeatedly denied.

Australian National University professor of international law Donald Rothwell believes Cardinal Pell, who has been co-operating with the police investigation, will want to return to defend himself if charged.

“I really do not think that given what we know of Cardinal Pell and given what we know of the Pope’s position on these issues that it would come to a serious legal tussle,” he told AAP on Wednesday.

“I think more than likely Cardinal Pell would want to return to Australia to mount a vigorous defence to these charges if they are brought against him.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

CARDINAL George Pell has proclaimed his innocence, after the Herald Sun revealed Victoria Police had received the final advice to decide whether to charge him following historical sex abuse allegations.

Cardinal Pell on Wednesday said he would “just like to restate my innocence”.

“I stand by everything I have said at the Royal Commission [into institutional responses to child sexual abuse] and in other places,” he told Channel Seven at the Vatican.

“We have to respect due process, wait until it is concluded and obviously I will continue to co-operate fully.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
The Courier

Beau Donelly
17 May 2017

UPDATE: Ballarat’s Cardinal George Pell is being subjected to relentless character attacks instead of being regarded as innocent until proven guilty of abuse allegations, Sydney’s Catholic Archbishop Anthony Fisher says.

Victorian police are deciding whether to charge Australia’s most senior Catholic after receiving final advice from the state’s Director of Public Prosecutions about historical sexual assault allegations.

Archbishop Fisher said the decision rests with police and until then “we must wait and see”.

“Justice must be left to run its course,” he said in a statement on Wednesday.

“Everyone supports just investigation of complaints but the relentless character attacks on Cardinal Pell, by some, stand the principle of innocent-until-proven- guilty on its head.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

ROME
7 News

[with video]

Cardinal George Pell has proclaimed his innocence from Rome after allegations of child sexual abuse as Victorian detectives consider whether to lay charges.

Cardinal Pell addressed the allegations outside his Rome apartment on Wednesday and said he would “continue to cooperate fully” with a police investigation.

“(I would) just like to restate my innocence,” he said.

“I stand by everything I’ve said in the Royal Commission and other places.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail

By Brianne Tolj For Daily Mail Australia and Australian Associated Press

An ABC journalist claims Cardinal George Pell’s lawyers urged her to delete any correspondence between them after she asked for an interview.

Louise Milligan said she tried to contact the cardinal and his lawyers repeatedly while working on her book ‘Cardinal: The rise and fall of George Pell,’ which looks at the allegations of child sexual abuse surrounding him.

‘I made several attempts to try and engage with him, through his office and his lawyers and he declined to take up that invitation except on the most onerous grounds, which included giving him the entire manuscript of the book. I’ve never heard that happen in two decades of journalism,’ the 7.30 reporter told 9News.

‘When we refused to do that his lawyers asked us to destroy the correspondence and if we didn’t destroy the correspondence they wanted us to give it back to them.’

Cardinal Pell has since slammed Milligan’s recently published book as a ‘character assassination.’

He has strongly denied the allegations.

‘Each and every allegation of abuse and cover up against him is false. The book is an exercise in character assassination,’ a statement from Cardinal Pell’s office issued on Monday night reads.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
9 News

By Kate Kachor

An ABC journalist has claimed Cardinal George Pell’s lawyers demanded she destroy all correspondence between them or return it after refusing their “most onerous” terms in exchange for an interview with Australia’s most senior Catholic for her book on his role with the church.

Louise Milligan, an award winning reporter with 7.30, endeavoured to contact the Victorian-born Cardinal – who is now based in The Vatican – a number of times about the allegations of child sexual abuse against the Catholic Church and his role as one of its leaders for her book, ‘Cardinal: The Rise and Fall of George Pell’.

“I made several attempts to try and engage with him, through his office and his lawyers and he declined to take up that invitation except on the most onerous grounds, which included giving him the entire manuscript of the book. I’ve never heard that happen in two decades of journalism,” Milligan told nine.com.au.

“When we refused to do that his lawyers asked us to destroy the correspondence and if we didn’t destroy the correspondence they wanted us to give it back to them.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
The Advertiser

Mitch Mott, The Advertiser
May 17, 2017

A FORMER St Peter’s Woodlands Grammar School staff member has been charged with the sexual assault of a student more than 25 years ago.

The Glenelg primary school wrote a letter to old scholars, informing them a former teacher, now aged in his 50s, had been charged after an investigation began in 2015.

Principal Christopher Prance urged former students to contact police if they had any information or further accusations against the teacher.

“I have written this letter to you to keep you and others in the school community informed,” Mr Prance said in the letter.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

JAMAICA
Jamaica Observer

KINGSTON, Jamaica (JIS) – State Minister for Education, Youth and Information, Floyd Green, is encouraging the church to undertake more activities that support the government’s programmes aimed at curbing child abuse.

Speaking at a recent child abuse forum at the Webster Memorial United Church in St Andrew, the state minister said the church’s actions are critical in assisting to create the environment that assures an abused child that “there is somebody they can turn to for assistance”.

Green said child abuse poses a major challenge for Jamaica, as state agencies with responsibility for safeguarding children’s welfare receive an average of 1,200 reports of child abuse each month.

“We are talking about 1,200 children who are in very difficult and trying circumstances who need to be helped,” he added.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Peter Gunders

Child protection advocates hope a film dealing with one young woman’s battle to fight institutional cover up of abuse in Toowoomba will inspire others to tell their stories.

“I was brought up in an era where children had to be seen and not heard,” said author and lawyer Stephen Roche, for whom Don’t Tell is an intensely personal story.

Based on Mr Roche’s book of the same name, the film is the story of a Toowoomba school student, known only as Lyndal, her experience of abuse while a boarder at a prestigious Anglican school in the 1990s, and the legal proceedings that followed 11 years later.

“I think it’s a film about justice,” Mr Roche said.

The high-profile case has been credited by Bravehearts founder Hetty Johnston as an important step leading to the Royal Commission into Institutional Reponses to Child Sex Abuse.

“If she wasn’t such a courageous girl all those years ago, we wouldn’t know what had occurred at this place,” Mr Roche said.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

WEST VIRGINIA
Bluefield Daily Telegraph

By GREG JORDAN Bluefield Daily Telegraph

PRINCETON — After citing a lack of remorse and attempts to discredit a victim, a special judge sentenced an admitted transgender man to spend between two to 10 years in prison for first-degree sexual abuse.

James Lilly, 25, of Bluefield was brought before Special Judge John A. Hutchinson of Raleigh County, who was appointed after Circuit Court Judge Derek Swope recused himself. Lilly pleaded guilty in August 2016 in Mercer County Circuit Court to three counts of first-degree sexual abuse. Each charge carries a penalty of one to five years in prison.

Lilly, a former youth pastor, was arrested Jan. 12, 2016 and later indicted on 28 counts of first-degree sexual abuse as well as charges of third-degree sexual assault and incest. After his arrest, Lilly told detectives with the Bluefield Police Department that he was transgender and in the process of becoming a woman.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CALIFORNIA
Fox 40

WOODLAND — A Woodland woman has filed a lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento, alleging she was sexually assaulted by a former parish priest.

The suit accuses Father Renerio Sabuga Jr., took advantage of the woman being a victim of childhood sexual abuse, and abuse throughout most of her adult life, and positioned himself as a counselor to her, paying her visits at her home and sending her text messages.

She alleges Sabuga, also known as Father Jong, ultimately sexually assaulted her in her home. She didn’t file suit immediately, only after the church prohibited her from singing in the church choir. The woman also asked the Diocese to pay for more counseling.

Kevin Eckery with the Diocese of Sacramento released the following statement:

“In 2014, Fr. Jong received a written warning and was briefly suspended for what we understood to be an inappropriate relationship with an adult woman. In 2016, we received information that the relationship in question had resumed even after Fr. Jong had been suspended and warned to terminate the relationship and refrain from such conduct. As a result of that additional information, Fr. Jong was terminated, his visa was revoked and he returned to his native diocese in the Philippines.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

AAP

Cardinal George Pell is being subjected to relentless character attacks instead of being regarded as innocent until proven guilty of abuse allegations, Sydney’s Catholic Archbishop Anthony Fisher says.

Victorian police are deciding whether to charge Australia’s most senior Catholic after receiving final advice from the state’s Director of Public Prosecutions about historical sexual assault allegations.

Archbishop Fisher said the decision rests with police and until then “we must wait and see”.

“Justice must be left to run its course,” he said in a statement on Wednesday. “Everyone supports just investigation of complaints but the relentless character attacks on Cardinal Pell, by some, stand the principle of innocent-until-proven- guilty on its head.

“Australians have a right to expect better from their legal systems and the media.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

[with video]

Beau Donelly, Melissa Cunningham

Cardinal George Pell maintains he is innocent of historical child sexual assault allegations as police decide whether to charge the senior Catholic figure.

Victoria Police received advice from the Director of Public Prosecutions about its investigation into Cardinal Pell, days after fresh details of the claims were aired.

Police and the DPP would not comment on the advice, but is understood the brief suggests that there is sufficient evidence to charge Cardinal Pell.

Cardinal Pell, who was a priest in Ballarat before becoming Archbishop of Melbourne, is accused of sexually abusing a number of boys.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

ROME
9 News

[with video]

Cardinal George Pell has proclaimed his innocence as detectives in Australia investigate abuse allegations against him.

“I’d just like to restate my innocence, I stand by everything I’ve said in the Royal Commission,” he told 9NEWS outside the Vatican this afternoon.

“We have to respect due process, and wait until it’s concluded. Obviously I’ll co-operate fully.”

The cardinal did not answer directly when asked whether he would return to Australia amid investigations over historical sex abuse allegations against him.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
Associated Press

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australian police said Wednesday they were a step closer to deciding whether to charge a top Vatican cardinal over allegations of sexual assault dating back decades.

Cardinal George Pell, Pope Francis’ top financial adviser and Australia’s most senior Catholic, has long been dogged by allegations he mishandled cases of clergy abuse when he was archbishop of Melbourne and, later, Sydney. More recently, Pell has faced accusations of child abuse himself when he was a young priest in the 1970s. Pell, who runs the Vatican’s economy ministry, has repeatedly denied all the allegations.

Last year, detectives from Australia’s Victoria state flew to the Vatican, where 75-year-old Pell agreed to be interviewed over allegations of sexual assault, police said.

A police statement on Wednesday said investigators have since received advice from Director of Public Prosecutions John Champion, the state’s top prosecutor, on the sexual assault investigation.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NEW JERSEY
NJ.com

BY THOMAS MORIARTY tmoriarty@njadvancemedia.com,
NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

NEWARK — A former member of Sacred Heart Parish who attended Seton Hall Preparatory School is suing both institutions and the Archdiocese of Newark, claiming they failed to protect him from repeated sexual abuse by two priests in the 1960s.

The plaintiff, whose representatives asked that he be identified only as “John Doe,” claims Revs. Robert Gibney — who was a priest at the now-closed Vailsburg church — and William Giblin, the former headmaster of Seton Hall Prep, both sexually abused him in the 1960s.

Gibney, who died in 2012, is alleged to have abused the boy on several occasions. Giblin, who died in 2011, is alleged to have abused the boy at the prep school, according to John Doe’s lawyer, Mitchell Garabedian of Boston.

In addition to the priests’ alleged injuries to him in violation of New Jersey law, Doe’s two complaints in state Superior Court seek punitive damages for what the lawsuits claim were gross negligence and intentional misconduct by the institutions, whose officials he says should have known of the abuse and prevented it.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CONNECTICUT
New Haven Independent

CHRISTOPHER PEAK | May 16, 2017

Hartford — During the three years when Eliyahu Mirlis claimed Rabbi Daniel Greer sexually molested him, why didn’t Mirlis try to stop it?

Why didn’t the teenaged student phone his parents in New Jersey and flee to another school in another state?

Why didn’t he fend off the 60-year old man, weakened by a hernia?

Why didn’t he admit the alleged abuse to the assistant dean, Aviad Hack, another one of Greer’s alleged victims, or to Ezi Greer, the rabbi’s son and Mirlis’s closest friend?

Why didn’t he report the case to the state’s child welfare agents, who were investigating the Yeshiva of New Haven?

“That’s probably a hard question to answer, but I want to ask you to try,” Antonio Ponvert, Mirlis’s attorney, said after his client took the witness stand on Monday afternoon here in U.S. District Court.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
The Age

Beau Donelly

Victoria Police has received advice from the Director of Public Prosecutions about its investigation into Cardinal George Pell, days after fresh details of historic sex abuse allegations were aired.

Detectives from the Sano taskforce, the squad set up to investigate historic child abuse allegations, will now consider the DPP’s advice, police spokeswoman Creina O’Grady said on Tuesday night.

“Victoria Police can confirm that it has received advice from the Director of Public Prosecutions relating to a current investigation into historical sexual assault allegations,” she said.

“As with any investigation it will be a decision for Victoria Police as to whether charges are laid. As this remains an ongoing investigation, we will not be commenting further at this time.”

Police would not comment on any recommendations contained in the brief.

Cardinal Pell, Australia’s highest ranking Catholic official, was interviewed by three members of Victoria Police in Rome last October. The 75-year-old took part voluntarily.

Cardinal Pell has always vehemently denied sex abuse allegations made against him.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

James Campbell and Keith Moor, Herald Sun
May 16, 2017

TWO MEN CLAIM PELL SEXUALLY ABUSED THEM

POLICE have received their final advice from the Director of Public Prosecutions on its investigation into historic sex abuse allegations against Cardinal George Pell — and the force must now decide whether to charge Australia’s highest-ranked Catholic.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal that the Victorian police force has received key advice from John Champion SC regarding a brief of evidence prepared by officers after they interviewed the 75-year-old in Rome last October.

It is understood that Victoria’s DPP has advised police that based on its assessment of the evidence they can charge the Cardinal. But despite the green light, the DPP advice makes it clear that ultimately it is up to police whether to act.

Asked about the status of the case, police spokesman Charlie Morton said: “Victoria Police can confirm that it has received advice from the Director of Public Prosecutions relating to a current investigation into historical sexual assaults.

“Detectives from Taskforce Sano will now take time to consider that advice. As with any investigation it will be a decision for Victoria Police as to whether charges are laid. As this remains an ongoing investigation, we will not be commenting further.”

The Daily Telegraph ­revealed in February last year that the Sano taskforce was investigating allegations that Cardinal Pell sexually abused up to 10 boys between 1978 and 2001 during his time as a priest in Ballarat and when he was archbishop of Melbourne.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail

By Sinead Maclaughlin For Daily Mail Australia and Australian Associated Press

Advice on historical sex abuse allegations against Cardinal George Pell has been sent to Victoria Police by the state’s Department of Public Prosecutions.

It must now be decided whether Australia’s most senior Catholic official will be charged over allegations of sexual abuse.

Allegations the Cardinal abused boys while a priest in Ballarat were aired last year and a new book released on Monday makes further claims.

The 75-year-old has denied all abuse allegations made against him and called the book, titled Cardinal: The rise and fall of George Pell, ‘an exercise in character assassination’.

Victoria Police confirmed in a statement on Tuesday night that it had received advice from the DPP ‘relating to a current investigation into historical sexual assault allegations’.

‘Detectives from Taskforce Sano will now take time to consider that advice,’ the statement reads.
‘As with any investigation it will be a decision for Victoria Police as to whether charges are laid. As this remains an ongoing investigation, we will not be commenting further at this time.’

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
Sky News

Victorian police have received advice from the state’s Director of Public Prosecutions regarding further historical sex abuse allegations involving Cardinal George Pell.

Detectives from Taskforce Sano will now take time to consider the advice before deciding whether or not to take further action.

‘As with any investigation it will be a decision for Victoria Police as to whether charges are laid,’ the force said in a statement issued on Tuesday evening.

‘As this remains an ongoing investigation, we will not be commenting further at this time.’

News Corp newspapers reported that the advice relates to allegations against Australia’s most senior Catholic official, who has vehemently and repeatedly denied all abuse allegations made against him.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

May 17, 2017

TESSA AKERMAN
ReporterMelbourne
@TessaAkerman

JOHN FERGUSON
Victorian EditorMelbourne
@fergusonjw

The decision on whether to charge George Pell with historical sexual-abuse allegations now rests with Victoria Police after the Office of Public Prosecutions ­yesterday returned the brief of evidence.

A police spokesman confirmed advice from Victoria’s Director of Public Prosecutions John Champion SC concerning the investi­gation of Cardinal Pell had been received.

The OPP advised police that, based on its assessment of the evidence, they could charge the cardinal, Melbourne’s Herald Sun reported last night. Despite the green light, the advice made it clear that ultimately it was up to the police whether to act. “Detectives from Taskforce Sano will now take time to consider that advice,” police spokesman Charlie Morton said last night. “As with any ­investigation, it will be a decision for Victoria Police as to whether charges are laid.”

Cardinal Pell has strenuously denied all allegations.

It is understood the latest ­development took lawyers for the cardinal by surprise.
Cardinal Pell, Australia’s highest-ranking Catholic, had been sent to the OPP.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
Crux

Police in Australia will “take time to consider … advice” from prosecutors over the allegations Cardinal George Pell engaged in inappropriate behavior with young people decades ago. The cardinal, currently the head of the Vatican’s Secretariat for the Economy, has issued a “vehement” denial of all accusations against him.

According to multiple media reports, Cardinal George Pell, currently the head of the Vatican’s Secretariat for the Economy, could face legal charges in his native Australia over decades-old allegations of sexual abuse.

Police in the Australian state of Victoria, in which Pell’s home Diocese of Ballarat is located, confirmed on Tuesday they “received advice from the Director of Public Prosecutions relating to a current investigation into historical sexual assault allegations.”

Pell has long denied the allegations vehemently.

The police investigations surround accusations that Pell inappropriately touched two young boys while swimming in the late 70s, and that he exposed himself in a change room in a surf club in the 1980s.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
The Canberra Times

Katie Burgess

The barrister contracted to independently review the Canberra-Goulburn Catholic Archdiocese’s decision to place a disgraced priest next to two Canberra primary schools has quit.

Sydney barrister Jane Seymour had been brought on to scrutinise the breakdown in communication that led Father Brian Hassett, a priest with substantiated complaints of improper conduct towards children, to be housed next to Sts Peter and Paul Primary School and Malkara School without either principals being told of his background.

But Ms Seymour handed back the brief several weeks ago to take up a role with the NSW Industrial Relations Commission, The Canberra Times has learnt.

A spokeswoman from the archdiocese confirmed Ms Seymour was no longer conducting the review and had been replaced by another Sydney barrister, Juliet Lucy.

“As per the brief given to Jane, and subsequently Juliet, the timeline is for the review to be finalised by the end of May. The archbishop will then respond to the report by the end of June,” the spokeswoman said.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

TENNESSEE
The Greenville Sun

By Ken Little
Staff Writer

A Sullivan County judge has denied a petition for post-conviction relief seeking a new trial for former Catholic priest and Greene County resident William Casey.

Casey’s lawyer said Monday he will file an appeal on the April 26 ruling by Criminal Court Judge James F. Goodwin.

Casey, now 83, was found guilty of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and two counts of aggravated rape in 2011 by a Sullivan County Criminal Court jury.

The longtime Camp Creek community resident was sentenced in November 2011 to a 35-year prison term. Casey won’t be eligible for parole consideration until 2025 when he is 91, according to the state Department of Correction.

The sex abuse charges stemmed from conduct that occurred in 1979 and 1980, while victim Warren Tucker attended a Kingsport school associated with St. Dominic Catholic Church in Kingsport. Casey was a priest at the church and Tucker was an altar boy.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CALIFORNIA
Sacramento Bee

BY SAM STANTON
sstanton@sacbee.com

Dorothy Small met the new priest at Woodland’s Holy Rosary Catholic Church in April 2014, and almost immediately the Rev. Renerio Sabuga Jr. began inviting her out for bicycle rides or dinner, Small says.

Within weeks, she said, the priest – known to parishioners as “Father Jong” – would confide in her with intensely private thoughts.

“I’m a man like any other man,” she recalled him telling her. “I can do everything like any other man, just from the waist up.

“I can’t have sex.”

In a matter of months, that stance changed as Small and Sabuga became close and the priest pursued her romantically until Feb. 17, 2015, when the priest “cornered (Small) in her bedroom and sexually assaulted” her, a lawsuit filed Monday in Sacramento Superior Court alleges.

The allegations in Small’s lawsuit are explosive, charging that church officials routinely ignored Small’s requests for help. Her suit was filed by Sacramento attorney Joseph George against the Sacramento Catholic Diocese, Sabuga and Holy Rosary priest Jonathan Molina.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

DEUTSCHLAND
Bistum Hildesheim

[The bishopric of Hildesheim has filed a complaint against a teacher of the Hildesheimer Marienschule who admitted sexual assault against a teenager.]

16.05.2017

Das Bistum Hildesheim hat gegen einen Lehrer der Hildesheimer Marienschule Strafanzeige gestellt, der sexuelle Übergriffigkeit gegenüber einer jugendlichen Schülerin zugegeben hat.

Der Pädagoge wurde vom Unterricht suspendiert und fristlos entlassen. Außerdem darf er die Schule nicht mehr betreten.

Die Eltern der Schülerin informierten die Schulleitung in der vergangenen Woche über den Missbrauch. Der zuständige Direktor der Hauptabteilung Bildung im Bischöflichen Generalvikariat Hildesheim, PD Dr. Jörg-Dieter Wächter, lud den Lehrer daraufhin unverzüglich vor. Im Gespräch mit Wächter gab der Mann zu, sexuell übergriffig geworden zu sein.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

DEUTSCHLAND
inFranken

[The teacher of a Catholic school in Hildesheim has allegedly abused a minor pupil. Now he was dismissed summarily and reported to the police.]

Das Bistum Hildesheim hat gegen einen Lehrer der katholischen Marienschule in Hildesheim Strafanzeige wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs Schutzbefohlener gestellt. Der Pädagoge habe zugegeben, gegenüber einer jugendlichen Schülerin “sexuell übergriffig” geworden zu sein, teilte das Bistum am Dienstag (16. Mai) mit. Er sei vom Unterricht suspendiert und fristlos entlassen worden. Außerdem dürfe er die Schule nicht mehr betreten. Bischof Norbert Trelle zeigte sich “schockiert und bestürzt”.

Lehrer gibt Tat in Gespräch mit Schulleitung zu

Die Eltern der Schülerin informierten dem Bistum zufolge die Schulleitung in der vergangenen Woche über den Missbrauch. Der zuständige Direktor im Bischöflichen Generalvikariat Hildesheim habe den Lehrer daraufhin unverzüglich vorgeladen. Im Gespräch habe der Mann seine Tat zugegeben.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NEW JERSEY
Road to Recovery

“John Doe” has filed a civil action in Essex County Superior Court in Newark, New Jersey, alleging that two Archdiocese of Newark priests sexually abused him as a minor child on numerous occasions. “John Doe” originally contacted Attorney Mitchell Garabedian of Boston, MA

“John Doe” alleges that Fr. Robert Gibney sexually abused him as a minor child on numerous occasions when Fr. Robert Gibney was assigned to Sacred Heart Parish in the Vailsburg section of Newark, New Jersey, in approximately 1962/1963

“John Doe” alleges that Fr. William Giblin, a former Headmaster of Seton Hall Preparatory School, sexually abused him as a minor child from approximately 1966-1967 on numerous occasions when Fr. William Giblin was assigned to Seton Hall Preparatory School as Dean of Men and possibly another position or positions. Seton Hall Preparatory School was located at the time on the campus of Seton Hall University, South Orange, New Jersey

What
A press conference announcing the filing of a civil lawsuit in Essex County, Newark, New Jersey Superior Court, by “John Doe,” a victim of childhood sexual abuse in approximately the 1960s by two Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey, priests, Fr. Robert Gibney, and Fr. William Giblin

When
Tuesday, May 16, 2017 at 11:00 AM

Where
On the public sidewalk outside Seton Hall Preparatory School, 120 Northfield Avenue, West Orange, New Jersey, 07052

Who
Members of Road to Recovery, Inc., a non-profit charity based in New Jersey that assists victims of sexual abuse and their families, including its co-founder and President, Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D.

Why
Allegations:
“John Doe” was a minor child at Sacred Heart Parish in the Vailsburg section of Newark, New Jersey, in approximately 1962/1963 when he was sexually abused on numerous occasions by Fr. Robert Gibney who was assigned by the Archbishop of Newark to serve as a priest at Sacred Heart Parish in Newark, New Jersey. “John Doe” was a minor child attending Seton Hall Preparatory School in South Orange, New Jersey in approximately 1966/1967 when he was sexually abused on numerous occasions by Fr. William Giblin who was assigned by the Archbishop of Newark, New Jersey, to serve at Seton Hall Preparatory School in South Orange, New Jersey. “John Doe” has filed an action in the Civil Division of Essex County Superior Court, Newark, New Jersey requesting compensatory and punitive damages against the two named defendants and the Archdiocese of Newark; Sacred Heart Parish; Seton Hall University, and Seton Hall Preparatory School

Contacts
Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., Road to Recovery, Inc. – 862-368-2800 – roberthoatson@gmail.com

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | May. 16, 2017

VATICAN CITY
The Vatican’s financial watchdog registered a three-fold decrease in suspicious transactions undertaken in the city-state’s financial institutions in 2016, stating in a yearly report the downtick indicates more effective implementation of Pope Francis’ reforms.

The Financial Information Authority, or AIF, says in the report that it marked 207 activities as questionable last year and suspended four suspicious transactions worth a total of 2.1 million Euro. In 2015 the agency had marked 544 activities and halted 12 transactions worth 15.3 million Euro and $2.4 million.

The AIF says in the report, released Thursday, that the decrease indicates “an ever-increasing and effective implementation of reporting requirements.”

The agency also reveals it made 22 reports to the Vatican’s Office of the Promoter of Justice, the city-state’s prosecutorial division, for possible review of crimes including fraud and “serious tax evasion, misappropriation and corruption.”

The watchdog agency gave the statistics in its fifth annual report. The agency, which was started by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010 but continued and strengthened under Francis, has been working to bring the Vatican’s diverse set of financial organizations into compliance with international standards.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

PENNSYLVANIA
Altoona Mirror

MAY 16, 2017

BOSTON — A former Episcopal priest, who has been living in Bedford, Pa., has been given an 18-month sentence after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting a student during trips to Boston in 1973.

Howard “Howdy” White, 75, was associate chaplain at St. George’s School in Middletown, R.I., when he took a 15- to 16-year-old boy on several overnight trips, including two to Boston where the teen was sexually assaulted. White had been accused of five counts of assault and battery.

Since moving to Bedford in 2007 until last year, White had served as a part-time replacement priest at St. James Episcopal Church in Bedford. Church officials suspended him in January 2016, and Audrey Scanlan, Episcopal bishop for central Pennsylvania, formally removed White from the priesthood in October.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.