ABUSE TRACKER

CHILE
El Mostrador

[In the coming weeks, the Court of Appeals will review the case in which the victims of Karadima accused protection of the Archbishopric of Santiago and requested compensation of $ 450 million pesos.]

por ALEJANDRA CARMONA LÓPEZ

20 abril, 2018

En las próximas semanas, la Corte de Apelaciones revisará la causa en la que las víctimas de Karadima acusaron protección del Arzobispado de Santiago y pidieron por ello una compensación de $450 millones de pesos. Los afectados por los maristas tampoco descartan echar mano a esa figura cuando resuelvan el aspecto penal. Como en otros países de Latinoamérica y Europa, el escenario más probable para la Iglesia chilena es comenzar a pagar indemnizaciones. Pero la institución no está sola, pues detrás de ella se encuentra Claro y Cía., uno de los bufetes más importantes de la plaza, que ha tenido entre sus clientes al propio Pinochet.

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CHILE
La Tercera

[With a brief statement, the Bishopric of Osorno reported this afternoon that the ecclesiastical authority of that city, Juan Barros, is “with some difficulty in his health”.]

Abril 19, 2918

“Se agradece la comprensión y oraciones”, dice un comunicado de la agrupación de esa ciudad. Hoy Ezzati sostuvo que el prelado “debiera dar un paso al costado”.

Con un breve comunicado, el Obispado de Osorno informó esta tarde que la autoridad eclesiástica de esa ciudad, Juan Barros, se encuentra “con alguna dificultad en su salud”.

“Se agradece la comprensión y oraciones”, dice el texto, y añade: “Reitera su permanente disponibilidad a las orientaciones del Santo Padre”.

Durante esta jornada, el arzobispo de Santiago, Ricardo Ezzati, señaló que Barros, cuestionado por su presunto encubrimiento en los abusos que cometió Fernando Karadima, debería renunciar “sin duda alguna”. “Yo no soy juez para decir si encubrió o no, pero por el bien del pueblo de Dios y de la Iglesia, el obispo Barros debiera dar un paso al costado”, dijo el cardenal.

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CHILE
La Tercera

[Ezzati criticizes the permanence of Barros as bishop: “For the good of the Church, should take a step to the side”]

Abril 19, 2018

Autor: Claudia Soto

La máxima autoridad de la Iglesia chilena aseguró que el Pontífice fue “engañado” sobre la información que recibió por el supuesto encubrimiento de Barros a Fernando Karadima.

Una dura conferencia de prensa ofreció hoy el arzobispo de Santiago, Ricardo Ezzati, en la que cuestionó la permanencia del obispo de Osorno, Juan Barros, como líder de la Iglesia de esa ciudad, luego de ser acusado por víctimas de abuso sexual y de la comunidad laica de haber encubierto los crímenes cometidos por Fernando Karadima.

Tras una asamblea extraordinaria con el clero chileno, la máxima autoridad eclesiástica rompió el silencio a días de haber recibido la carta que el Papa Francisco envió a los obispos en la que pide perdón a las víctimas y señala que recibió información poco clara sobre Barros. Consultado sobre la materia, Ezzati sostuvo que “yo no soy juez para decir si encubrió o no, pero por el bien del pueblo de Dios y de la Iglesia, el obispo Barros debiera dar un paso al costado”.

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CONNECTICUT
Associated Press

April 19, 2018

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A Connecticut priest convicted of selling methamphetamine won’t be sent back to prison despite failing drug tests while on parole.

WVIT-TV reports that federal Judge Alfred Covello decided Thursday that Kevin Wallin, a former pastor at St. Augustine Parish in Bridgeport, will remain on supervised release rather than return to prison.

Wallin, dubbed “Monsignor Meth” in some media reports, had been convicted of conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance and sentenced to 65 months in prison.

He was released in 2016 but failed a number of required drug tests, prompting his parole officer and prosecutors to recommend revoking his parole.

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MISSOURI
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

April 20, 2018

Aisha Sultan

Chris O’Leary started to sweat in church as he moved up the line of parents and kids waiting for a turn at the confessional. When they got to the head of the line, O’Leary was crying and trying not to pass out.

O’Leary’s panic attack hit as his son made his first confession.

He wasn’t sure why, but he wondered if it had something to do with hazy memories from his childhood confessions. Three years later, in 2005, his daughter made her first confession. He had another panic attack.

O’Leary had talked to church officials in 2002 when the New York Times broke a story involving sexual abuse allegations against Father Leroy Valentine, who had been a priest in O’Leary’s childhood parish. The story revealed that in the late 1990s the St. Louis Archdiocese had settled with three brothers who had accused Valentine of sexual abuse, paying them $20,000 each.

O’Leary wasn’t sure if his vague, uncomfortable memories with Valentine meant something inappropriate had also happened to him. He says then-Bishop Timothy Dolan reassured him back in 2002 that he was misreading the situations from decades ago.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By court reporter Emma Younger

An Anglican priest who was caught having online chats about raping boys as young as two, and who once said he wanted to watch a man sexually abuse his own son while in a “pedo mood”, has avoided jail.

Melbourne priest Philip Murphy, 54, pleaded guilty to using a carriage service to transmit child pornography over a series of explicit discussions he engaged in over Skype between December 2016 and February 2017.

Murphy, who worked in Sunshine in Melbourne’s west, told police he used his position as a priest to gain the trust of the men he was chatting to online, sending them photos of his clerical collar.

Under the name ‘pervert’, he used the gay dating app Grindr to find other men who wanted to chat about sexually abusing children.

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CHILE
Reuters

APRIL 19, 2018

SANTIAGO (Reuters) – The head of Chile’s Catholic Church said on Thursday that a Chilean bishop accused of covering up sexual abuse should resign, little more than a week after Pope Frances said he had made mistakes in handling Chile’s sexual abuse crisis.

Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati told reporters that Juan Barros, a Chilean bishop who allegedly concealed abuse of minors by his mentor Father Fernando Karadima, should resign “without a doubt,” while adding he would not judge “whether or not [Barros] had covered up” the incidents.

Barros did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

The Chilean Church’s call for his resignation follows a letter from Pope Francis earlier this month in which the Argentine pontiff said he had made “grave mistakes” in handling a sexual abuse crisis that has long racked the South American country.

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ALABAMA
LGBT Nation

By Alex Bollinger

April 18, 2018

Acton Bowen, a well-known youth pastor from Hoover, Alabama, was arrested last week on charges related to his sexual molestation of a teen boy. Now more victims have come forward.

Bowen was arrested after a six-month investigation into accusations from a teen boy whose family considered Bowen a “friend.”

Now four more individuals have come come forward to say that Bowen sexually abused them when they were between the ages of 12 and 17. Several of the victims are adults now.

“When we met with the first victim, our worst fear was that there could be more young boys who had been molested and preyed upon by Acton Bowen,” said Hoover police Captain Gregg Rector. “It appears our worst fears are now becoming reality. Sadly, this case continues to mushroom with each passing day.”

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ALABAMA
Gadsden Times

By Donna Thornton / Times Staff Writer

Posted Apr 18, 2018

Attorneys for Acton Bowen are seeking a change in bond set for the youth evangelist charged with multiple sex offenses against children in two counties — including Etowah.

Bowen was arrested Tuesday on four felony sex charges — two counts of second-degree sodomy and two counts of second-degree enticing a child to enter a vehicle or room with the intent of sexual contact — and three misdemeanor charges of second-degree sexual abuse. The alleged offenses, involving four victims, occurred as long ago as 2006 and as recently as the first four months of this year.

His bond on the charges totaled $500,000 cash; attorneys Richard Jaffe, Michael Whisonant Jr. and John D. Floyd filed a petition for habeas corpus Wednesday asking, basically, that it be changed to a surety bond.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

20 April 2018

A Catholic brother who was moved by his order to other schools interstate after he sexually abused students at De La Salle College in Malvern has been jailed for at least three years.

Former De La Salle brother Frank Terrence Keating, 75, was on Friday sentenced to five years and three months in jail for indecently assaulting eight students between 1969 and 1977.

Those crimes mean he has now been jailed for sexually abusing 26 children in total in Victoria and Queensland from the late 1960s to early 1980s.

County Court Judge Gregory Lyon said Keating’s “audacious” offending included sexually assaulting one boy in the child’s bed, after Keating had been invited to the family home for a dancing night; and molesting another boy during a drive, after which the Catholic brother had a cup of tea with his victim’s parents.

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MARYLAND
The Baltimore Sun

Alison Knezevich
The Baltimore Sun

April 19, 2018

Three women featured in the documentary “The Keepers” renewed calls Thursday for the Archdiocese of Baltimore to release its files on the priest at the center of the Netflix series.

“Open your books, release your records,” Abbie Schaub said at a conference at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Schaub, along with Lil Hughes Knipp and Teresa Lancaster, was featured in a panel at the annual symposium of the Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse, which is part of the public health school.

They questioned why the archdiocese won’t release its files on the late priest A. Joseph Maskell, who was accused of sexual abuse by multiple people, including Knipp and Lancaster.

“The Keepers” documentary focused on sexual abuse allegations at Archbishop Keough High School in the 1960s and 1970s and the unsolved 1969 killing of Sister Catherine Ann Cesnik, who taught there. It examined the theory that Cesnik was murdered because she knew about abuse committed by Maskell, who was the school chaplain and psychologist.

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CONNECTICUT
Associated Press

April 19, 2018

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A Connecticut priest convicted of selling methamphetamine is facing the possibility of being sent back to prison after failing his drug tests.

The Hartford Courant reports a federal judge will decide the fate of Kevin Wallin, a former pastor at St. Augustine Parish in Bridgeport, on Thursday.

Wallin, dubbed “Monsignor Meth” in some media reports, had been convicted of conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance and sentenced to 65 months in prison.

He was released in 2016 but failed a number of required drug tests, prompting his parole officer to seek to revoke his parole. Thursday’s hearing will determine if Wallin should be sent back to prison.

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PENNSYLVANIA
US News

April 19, 2018

BY DAVID DEKOK

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (Reuters) – Bill Cosby’s sex assault trial on Thursday focused on the drugs he is accused of giving a then-friend before raping her, with a toxicologist saying the pills could have left the comedian’s alleged victim feeling incapacitated or even paralyzed.

Andrea Constand, 45, contends the former star of “The Cosby Show” gave her three little blue pills he said would help her relax and then sexually assaulted her at his home outside Philadelphia in 2004.

Timothy Rohrig, a forensic toxicologist from Wichita, Kansas called as a prosecution witness, testified about the effects of Benadryl and Quaaludes, which Cosby, now 80, in a 2005 deposition said he used to seduce women.

Constand testified last week that after swallowing the pills she experienced double vision, slurred her words, had dry mouth, and her legs felt “rubbery,” even paralyzed.

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PENNSYLVANIA
New York Times

By GRAHAM BOWLEY and JON HURDLE

APRIL 18, 2018

NORRISTOWN, Pa. — Bill Cosby’s star defense witness, a veteran academic adviser who works at his alma mater, Temple University, testified here Wednesday that the woman who has accused Mr. Cosby of sexual assault had once remarked to her how it would be easy to fabricate such a charge to frame a celebrity and get money.

The adviser, Marguerite Jackson, said Andrea Constand, who was once the director of operations for Temple’s women’s basketball team, made the comment while they were watching television in a hotel room they shared on a trip by the team for a game in Rhode Island.

“She said it did not happen,” Ms. Jackson told the jury at the Montgomery County Courthouse.

Ms. Constand testified this week that while Ms. Jackson’s name sounded familiar, she had always roomed alone on trips.

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MICHIGAN
Lansing State Journal

RJ Wolcott, Lansing State Journal

April 18, 2018

EAST LANSING – Seven more women have filed a civil lawsuit alleging sexual abuse at the hands of former Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar.

The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court on Wednesday, alleges the plaintiffs are among the hundreds of women and girls who were sexually assaulted by Nassar under the guise of medical treatment. Their lawsuit adds to the more than 260 people suing MSU, USAG and others for failing to prevent Nassar’s abuses.

The lawsuit names as defendants MSU, its Board of Trustees, Nassar, USAG, and several current and former MSU employees, including former College of Osteopathic Medicine Dean William Strampel and former MSU gymnastics coach Kathie Klages.The majority of the woman in the latest lawsuit were abused as minors, according to the complaint.

“Defendant Nassar used his position of trust and confidence in an abusive manner causing Plaintiffs to suffer a variety of injuries including shock, humiliation, emotional distress and related physical manifestations thereof, embarrassment, loss of self-esteem, disgrace, and loss of enjoyment of life,” according to the complaint.

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CANADA
CBC News

Jorge Barrera · CBC News

Apr 18, 2018

A lone Conservative MP’s voice of dissent scuttled the quick adoption of a motion in the House of Commons Wednesday calling on Pope Francis to apologize for residential schools.

The NDP motion was opposed by Conservative MP Garnett Genuis whose voice broke the unanimous consent needed to adopt the motion. It will now go to debate and a standing vote.

Genuis, who represents the Alberta riding of Sherwood Park-Fort Saskatchewan, had telegraphed his position in a tweet posted about two hours before the motion was read out in the House of Commons.

“I believe very much in religious freedom and in the importance of separation of church and state,” Genuis told reporters after voicing his dissent.

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RHODE ISLAND/NORTH CAROLINA
Providence Journal

By Tom Mooney
Journal Staff Writer

Apr 18, 2018

Howard W. White Jr., the former associate chaplain at St. George’s School, in Middletown, now behind bars in Massachusetts for raping a prep school student in the 1970s, is facing numerous similar charges in North Carolina.

White, 76, who was stripped of his Episcopal priesthood last fall, faces nine counts alleging various sexual abuse of a juvenile boy and a girl back in the 1980s while he worked at Grace Church in the Mountains, in Waynesville, North Carolina.

The charges, filed after his formal indictment this month by the Haywood County Grand jury, are: one count of rape; four counts of second-degree sexual offense (described as other forms of penetration); one count of second-degree rape; one count of first-degree forcible sex offense; and two counts of indecent liberties with a child.

The charges come weeks before White is scheduled to be released from the Suffolk County House of Corrections. North Carolina law enforcement officials are working to extradite him when his sentence expires.

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NEW YORK
WIVB

By: Marissa Perlman

Apr 18, 2018

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) – – James Faluszczak says every time he learns something new about the sexual abuse scandal with the Catholic Diocese, he feels shocked and angry.

In a candid conversation, Faluszczak tells News 4 how he’s coping, and how these past few months have shaped his faith.

“Think the catholic church is the biggest organized crime syndicate in the world,” he said.

It’s been a month since James Faluszczak decided to tell go public and tell his story of abuse.

For him, it’s painful to to see how many people have since come out with a similar story, just like his.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Detroit News

Melissa Nann Burke, Detroit News Washington Bureau

April 18, 2018

Washington — Olympic gymnastic stars Jordyn Wieber and Jamie Dantzcher told a U.S. Senate committee on Wednesday that their abuse at the hands of Larry Nassar would not have occurred had the “adults” at USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University “done their job.”

“They are still refusing to admit what the problem really is and that they’re accountable for it,” Wieber, a DeWitt native, said about MSU, which employed Nassar through the London 2012 Olympics.

Asked by U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Township, how Interim MSU President John Engler is doing in his new role, Wieber replied: “He’s almost trying to fight the survivors, rather than trying to work with us,” adding that he hasn’t reached out to her.

“Why still is reputation of the university and money more important than the lives of hundreds of girls and women who were abused under their responsibility?” she said.

Wieber and Dantzcher, a 2000 Olympic bronze medalist, and other athletes asked the senators to hold the organizations accountable.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
USA Today

Christine Brennan, USA TODAY

April 18, 2018

WASHINGTON – It has now been more than 20 months since the USA Gymnastics sex abuse story broke right before the Rio Olympic Games in the summer of 2016. In that time, tangible results to combat the abuse of young American athletes have been few and far between.

To be sure, there has been progress. More than 150 gymnasts spoke out in January to ensure that former gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar will spend the rest of his life in jail. Other athletes in other sports, some inspired by the courage of the gymnasts, have turned the spotlight to athlete abuse in taekwondo, swimming and figure skating. Who knows what’s next, although logic tells us there will definitely be a next.

In February, President Trump signed the Protecting Young Victims from Sexual Abuse and Safe Sport Authorization Act, which requires adults who interact with amateur athletes to report suspected abuse to law enforcement within 24 hours. And yet, ask those athletes who have suffered abuse if they think their sports are still rife with it, and you’ll often get an affirmative answer.

So, where do we stand in the midst of the most horrifying scandal in U.S. Olympic history?

In a second-floor conference room of the Russell Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill, with four elite athletes telling their difficult stories to members of the Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, Insurance and Data Security.

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KANSAS
Wichita Eagle

BY TIM POTTER
tpotter@wichitaeagle.com

Updated April 17, 2018

A Wichita youth pastor began having sex with a church member right after she turned 15 and asked her to say she was older when it started and “that she had come on to him,” says an affidavit filed by a sheriff’s detective.

The criminal case against 48-year-old Chauncey Walker began this past August with a tip to the Wichita Police Department’s Facebook page. Detective Daniel Ribble, with the Exploited and Missing Child Unit, learned that the tipster obtained a taped admission from Walker, says the affidavit, received by The Eagle late Tuesday through a court record request.

The Eagle has previously reported on the taped admission after receiving a copy from an attorney for the alleged victim. Now 20, she is suing Word of Life Ministries and Schools Inc., senior minister Robert Rotola Sr. and his son, church school administrator Robert Rotola Jr. The lawsuit alleges that the church and the Rotolas neglected to supervise Walker, failed to fully investigate concerns about him and tried to cover up the allegations. In a court document, the church and the Rotolas have denied the allegations.

Walker has been charged with aggravated indecent liberties and two counts of criminal sodomy against the woman when she was 15. He remains in jail on a $100,000 bond and faces a June 4 trial. Walker’s defense attorney has declined to comment other than to say that they are working with authorities.

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ALABAMA
ABC 3340

April 19, 2018

GADSDEN, Ala. (WBMA) —
Acton Bowen’s alleged victims claim the pastor sexually abused them for months or years in complaints which date back from 2006 to as recently as last week according to court records revealed Wednesday morning.

For three years beginning in 2006, Bowen engaged in a deviate sexual relationship with a teenager, an arrest warrant states. A separate warrant claims Bowen had a three-year sexual relationship with a teenager from 2014-2017. The most recent complaint alleges Bowen propositioned a teenager during a period beginning in January 2018 until just last week.

Bowen was arrested Tuesday and booked into the Etowah County Jail with two counts of second degree sodomy, two counts of enticing a child for immoral purposes – all felonies – and three counts of second degree sexual abuse, which is a misdemeanor.

The Etowah County Sheriff’s Office says the charges are based off the alleged sexual abuse of four juveniles between the ages of 12-17. Some of the alleged abuse occurred a decade ago. Those alleged victims are now adults.

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CALIFORNIA
NBC Los Angeles

April 19, 2018

By City News Service

A pastor from a Glendale church pleaded not guilty Wednesday to committing a lewd act on an 11-year-old girl, who was visiting from China, in a Covina hotel room.

Douglas Rivera, 40, of Baldwin Park, is charged with one felony count each of a lewd act on a child and first-degree burglary with a person present, along with a misdemeanor count of indecent exposure.

He could face up to 15 years to life in state prison and lifetime sex offender registration if convicted as charged, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

Prosecutors say Rivera drove to the Vanllee Hotel and Suites, at 1211 E. Garvey St., and parked his truck in front of a room where two young girls were staying on Feb. 7. Prosecutors allege he exposed himself to the girls before entering the hotel room and inappropriately touching one of them.

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CALIFORNIA
KTLA

APRIL 18, 2018

BY KRISTINA BRAVO

A pastor accused of sexually assaulting a girl in a Covina hotel pleaded not guilty, officials announced on Wednesday.

Douglas Rivera, 40, was charged with lewd act upon a child, first-degree burglary and indecent exposure, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

Rivera allegedly drove to the Vanllee Hotel and Suites on Feb. 7 and parked his vehicle in front of a room where a 10- and 12-year-old were staying. The children were part of a Chinese tourist group, officials said.

Authorities said Rivera masturbated in his truck before going to the room, where he inappropriately touched one of the girls.

The Covina Police Department released surveillance images from the hotel on Feb. 9 and later named Rivera—apparently a pastor at God’s Gypsy Christian Church in Glendale—as a suspect.

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CALIFORNIA
ABC 7

By Melissa MacBride and ABC7.com staff

April 18, 2018

COVINA, Calif. (KABC) — A Glendale pastor charged with committing a lewd act on a child at a Covina hotel is back behind bars, the Los Angeles County district attorney said Wednesday.

Douglas Rivera, 40, was charged with three counts: lewd act upon a child, first-degree burglary and indecent exposure. He was arraigned in a Pomona courthouse, where the district attorney added a special enhancement, alleging the burglary was committed in order to commit lewd conduct or a sexual crime.

According to police, Rivera was caught on surveillance video lurking outside of a hotel room in Covina, touching himself and watching two young girls alone inside a room. Investigators described the girls as being between the ages of 10 and 12.

Rivera is then said to have forced his way into the room, assaulted one of the minors and fled in his truck, authorities said.

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NORTH DAKOTA
KVRR

April 18, 2018

Danielle Church

FARGO, N.D. — Fernando Sayasaya, the former Fargo Catholic priest accused of molesting two underage boys, made his second appearance in court this morning.

During a hearing in Cass County court in Fargo, Sayasaya’s attorney asked for more time. The judge agreed and set his next court date for May 17. Sayasaya pleaded not guilty in February to charges of molesting two brothers between 1995 and 1998.

He fled to the Philippines around Christmas of 1998 and was returned to Fargo last year. If convicted, Sayasaya could serve up to 20 years in prison.

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CYPRUS
Premier (UK)

Thu 19 Apr 2018
By Press Association

Cyprus’s Orthodox Christian Church has defrocked a priest for sexually abusing his stepdaughter when she was a child.

Kykkos Bishop Nikiforos said on Wednesday the Holy Synod’s decision, a first for the Cyprus church, was unanimous.

The case shocked the conservative east-Mediterranean island nation after the 29-year-old victim was found dead in her home last month.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Stephanie Dalzell

April 19, 2018

An Anglican priest prayed to God for forgiveness while he allegedly raped a 13-year-old girl in a church, the ACT Supreme Court has heard.

The 67-year-old man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is on trial for 18 charges of rape and acts of indecency allegedly committed against the girl in the 1980s, which started when she was 13.

The former priest has pleaded not guilty.

The alleged victim, who is now 44, broke down in tears as she gave a graphic account of the alleged sexual assault.

She alleged he first raped her in a Canberra church after she had finished violin practice.

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NEPAL
Himalayan News Service

Published: April 09, 2018

HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE
Kathmandu, April 8

The Central Investigation Bureau of Nepal Police arrested a 60-year-old Canadian national on the charge of paedophilia and rescued two minors from his clutches yesterday.

A special team deployed from the CIB raided a private house in Mandan Deupur Municipality of Kavre and apprehended Peter John Dalglish of Ontario, Canada, while he was molesting under-age Nepali boys.

Deputy Inspector General Pushkar Karki, who is CIB director, said Dalglish lured children with money, better education and foreign visit. He even took their guardians into confidence, telling them that he did social and community work through his Kathmandu-based organisation, Himalayan Community Foundation.

Kavre District Court today remanded Dalglish to five-day judicial custody for further investigation.

According to a CIB report, Dalglish was appointed the chief technical adviser for the UN’s child labour programme in Nepal in 2002. Between 2006 and 2010, he served as the executive director of the South Asia Children’s Fund, which promotes quality education for profoundly disadvantaged children in the region. Dalglish served as a senior adviser and deputy chief of party for UN-Habitat in Afghanistan from 2010 to 2014 and its chief of party until the end of July 2015.

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CONNECTICUT
WFWB

Apr 18, 2018

BRISTOL, CT (WFSB) –
The Archdiocese of Hartford is facing a lawsuit from a man who says a priest in Bristol sexually abused him for years.

Matthew Cornell filed the suit in New Haven Superior Court on Wednesday.

In the lawsuit, he accuses Father Gregory Altermatt, who was a priest at St. Matthew Church in Bristol, of sexually abusing him between 1976 and 1985.

Cornell says in the lawsuit that the abuse began when he was in grade school, and continued into the 1980s after his mother died and he spent more time with the priest.

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CONNECTICUT
NBC Connecticut

April 18. 2018

By Justin Schecker

A man who says he was sexually abused by a priest while growing up in Bristol is taking his case to court.

A civil lawsuit filed in New Haven Superior Court names the priest, Reverend Gregory Altermatt, and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford. It claims sexual abuse dating back to the 1970s and 1980s when the plaintiff, now in his 40s, was 7 to 15 years old.

Altermatt has not been charged with any crimes.

The lawsuit states the church should have known that Altermatt posed a danger to minors with whom he had contact.

Wieber, Other Athletes Testify on Systemic Abuse in Sports
“It’s not unusual that at this time of life an abuse victim finally says I can’t take this anymore,” Attorney Thomas McNamara said of his client, Matthew Cornell.

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CONNECTICUT
WTNH

By: Mario Boone
Apr 18, 2018

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) – The Archdiocese of Hartford and retired priest Fr. Gregory Altermatt are both facing damning allegations of sexual abuse in a new lawsuit.

Attorney Tom McNamara has successfully sued this Archdiocese before.

He made the latest claims during a Wednesday morning news conference in downtown New Haven announcing the legal action.

“The sexual abuse actually started in the home in Bristol,” McNamara said, referring to the alleged victim, Matthew Cornell. Then, he went on to lay out the shocking claims.

“The two counts against the Hartford Archdiocese are negligence and wanton conduct; and there are four counts against Gregory Altermatt, including intentional sexual assault, reckless and wanton sexual assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress and invasion of privacy,”

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IDAHO
Idaho Statesman

BY KATY MOELLER
kmoeller@idahostatesman.com

April 18, 2018

In mid-February, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Boise gave Rev. W. Thomas Faucher 60 days to get out of the house he’s been leasing from the diocese.

The 72-year-old retired priest, charged with 24 crimes including sharing child pornography and drug possession, was served with an eviction notice on Feb. 13, according to court documents.

The deadline for Faucher to leave the home has passed — but he has not had all of his belongings moved out of the house at Hill Road and Holly Hill Drive in northwest Boise, a complaint filed by the diocese Monday shows.

Faucher has been at the Ada County Jail for more than a month, after a hearing at which his bail was raised to $1 million. A magistrate judge found cause to raise bail from $250,000 to $1 million when additional charges were filed.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
USA Today

Rachel Axon, USA TODAY

April 18, 2018

For years, survivors of sexual abuse in Olympic sport have called for accountability for those who harmed them and officials who let it happen.

On Wednesday, four former athletes echoed those calls in a hearing before the Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, Insurance, and Data Security.

Testifying before the subcommittee, former gymnasts Jordyn Wieber and Jamie Dantzscher, former speedskater Bridie Farrell and former figure skater Craig Maurizi criticized the national governing bodies for their sport as well as the U.S. Olympic Committee and others for failing to prevent and stop sexual abuse.

The hearing was the latest since the Olympic movement came under scrutiny for its handling of sexual abuse cases following revelations that longtime USA Gymnastics physician Larry Nassar abused hundreds of women, including Olympic champions Aly Raisman, Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney, Gabby Douglas and Wieber.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

One request is to extend zero tolerance coverage, including bishops

Apr 18, 2018

by Brian Roewe

A Catholic watchdog group is challenging the U.S. bishops to make “substantial revisions” to their nearly two-decade-old policies regarding sexual abuse of minors, and to include abuse survivors and the laity in the process.

Among seven reforms to the guiding documents — the 2002 Charter for the Protection of Young People, or the Dallas Charter, and the Essential Norms for Diocesan/Eparchial Policies Dealing with Allegations of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Priests or Deacons — proposed by the Catholic Whistleblowers are:

* extending its zero tolerance policy regarding sexual abuse to any cleric, religious or church employee, including bishops complicit with abuse;

* posting to diocesan websites the names of any person affiliated with a diocese with substantial abuse allegations against them;

* and working with state legislators in every state to reform statutes of limitations laws.

The Catholic Whistleblowers, a group of priests, religious and laypeople who support abuse survivors and in several cases reported instances of abuse, outlined their requests in a letter dated April 1, Easter Sunday, and addressed to Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Copies of the letter were also sent to Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the U.S., and all American bishops, both active and retired.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Detroit Free Press

Todd Spangler, Detroit Free Press

April 18, 2018

WASHINGTON — Olympic gold medal gymnast Jordyn Wieber, a Lansing-area native, on Wednesday described for a U.S. Senate panel the sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of sports doctor Larry Nassar beginning at age 14, saying she believed if she raised concerns at the time it might have hurt her future goals.

“I knew that if I questioned his treatment I risked my chance at making the Olympic team or being chosen to compete internationally,” said Wieber, who has testified in court against the imprisoned former Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics doctor and who this week filed a lawsuit against him in a California court.

Wieber’s comments were part of a prepared statement she delivered to a U.S. Senate subcommittee investigating abuse against Olympic athletes and whether there need to be additional safeguards to prevent it from happening again. At least two other congressional committees are said to be investigating as well.

The abuses suffered by athletes by Nassar were revealed in a series of stories first reported by the Indianapolis Star.

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BUFFALO (NY)
WKBW

April 17, 2018

By Charlie Specht

But victims say he needs to release priest docs

Buffalo Bishop Richard Malone is selling his house.

The palatial mansion on Oakland Place — home to Buffalo’s bishops since 1952 — will soon be sold, possibly for upwards of $1 million, to help pay victims of sexually abusive Catholic priests in Buffalo.

“So it’s an important day, kind of a historic day, but I feel good about it,” Malone said in an afternoon news conference. “We do have some resources for that already, but we know we’ll need more, so we decided to put the house on the market.”

Abuse victims say the symbolism — the bishop will live in a vacant convent at St. Stanislaus Church on Buffalo’s East Side — is striking.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Associated Press

April 18, 2018

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) — The Latest on Bill Cosby’s sexual assault retrial (all times local):

3:35 p.m.

A key defense witness says the chief accuser at Bill Cosby’s sexual assault retrial talked about framing a celebrity before going to police with her allegations in 2005.

Marguerite Jackson is testifying Wednesday at Cosby’s retrial in suburban Philadelphia. She says Andrea Constand spoke of the plot while they were rooming together on a road trip to Rhode Island with the Temple University women’s basketball team. Both women worked at Temple.

Jackson says Constand told her she’d been assaulted, then switched gears and said she could fabricate an account to “sue and get that money.”

Constand has accused Cosby of drugging and molesting her in 2004. His lawyers say she made up the story to extort a big civil settlement.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Variety

April 18, 2018

By Emilie Lounsberry

NORRISTOWN, Pa. — The defense in the sexual assault retrial of Bill Cosby began its case on Wednesday morning and is poised to call a witness it hopes will cast a giant hole in the credibility of the woman who has testified that the comedian drugged and molested her back in 2004.

Just before the lunch break at Cosby’s retrial outside of Philadelphia, defense lawyer Kathleen Bliss announced that Margo Jackson, a key defense witness, will take the stand.

The defense has said in court papers that Jackson has told the defense team that Andrea Constand, the woman at the center of the criminal case against the entertainer, once remarked that she could say she had been sexually assaulted by someone famous in order to get a big financial settlement.

The prosecution, meanwhile, essentially wrapped up its case on Wednesday morning, although the jury is expected to hear from both a prosecution toxicology expert and a defense toxicology expert on Thursday.

The prosecution ended its case with more testimony about what Cosby said in a deposition in the civil lawsuit brought by Constand, including the entertainer’s admission that he used to give quaaludes to women before sex. Constand ultimately received a financial settlement of nearly $3.4 million from Cosby.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Daily Beast

NICOLE WEISENSEE EGAN
04.18.18

NORRISTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA—Famed book publisher Judith Regan took the stand at Bill Cosby’s criminal trial Wednesday morning to confirm that she told model Janice Dickinson she couldn’t include her account of being drugged and raped by Cosby in her memoir due to potential legal issues.

“I remember at one point she told me she’d been raped by Mr. Cosby, drugged and raped, and she wanted to include that in the book,” Regan told the jury. “And at that time I told her…after conversations with the legal department, without corroboration those sorts of stories would be impossible to publish because of potential legal problems.”

And by corroboration, Reagan said she meant “a witness.” She also said she believed Dickinson, calling her account “credible because of the way she told it, with great emotion.”

Dickinson was not happy with the decision and was “insistent and angry” about including it, Regan said.

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PENNSYLVANIA
New York Times

By GRAHAM BOWLEY and JON HURDLE

APRIL 18, 2018

The editor and publisher Judith Regan at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa., where she testified on Wednesday at the Bill Cosby sexual assault retrial. Credit Pool photo by Corey Perrine

NORRISTOWN, Pa. — Judith Regan, the publisher of a 2002 memoir by one of Bill Cosby’s accusers, testified on Wednesday that the author had told her about being drugged and raped by Mr. Cosby, but her company’s legal department would not allow publication of the accusation because it was not corroborated.

The author, Janice Dickinson, had told the jury last week that her efforts to publish the accusation had been blocked by the publisher of her book, “No Lifeguard on Duty: The Accidental Life of the World’s First Supermodel.”

Ms. Regan confirmed that account on the eighth day of Mr. Cosby’s retrial on sexual assault charges.

“She wanted the rape story in the book, and she was insistent and angry that we wouldn’t include it,” she said.

Pressed by Mr. Cosby’s lead attorney, Thomas A. Mesereau, on why she had not included the story in the book, Ms. Regan said, referring to the company’s legal department: “They objected to our including a story like this without a witness.”

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NETHERLANDS
Dutch News

April 18, 2018

A former teacher at an orthodox Jewish school in Amsterdam should be jailed for five years for sexually abusing six boys, the public prosecution department said on Wednesday.

Ephraim S, who denies the charges, is said to have carried out the assaults between 2011 and 2012 at the Cheider school in Buitenveldert on boys aged between 12 and 16.

The school authorities initially declined to press charges after holding an internal investigation and only reported the matter to police several months later after the education minister intervened.

S fled to Israel when the allegations first came to light, but was extradited to the Netherlands in 2016. He has since been held in custody.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Associated Press

April 18, 2018[

By MICHAEL R. SISAK

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) — As prosecutors wound down their case, jurors at Bill Cosby’s sexual assault retrial Wednesday heard the comedian’s explosive testimony about giving quaaludes to women before sex — an old admission that’s taken on new significance after a half-dozen women testified that he drugged and violated them.

A police detective read a transcript of the 2005 testimony as prosecutors saved for the very end of their case Cosby’s own words about using the 1970s party drug “the same as a person would say, ‘Have a drink.’”

Cosby, now 80, is being retried on charges he drugged and molested chief accuser Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. He says their encounter was consensual.

The defense was expected to begin its case Wednesday afternoon. Cosby’s lawyer told the jury in his opening statement last week that Constand was a “con artist” who leveled false allegations of sexual assault in hopes of getting a financial windfall from the comedian.

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WASHINTON (DC)
Detroit Free Press

Todd Spangler, Detroit Free Press

April 18, 2018

WASHINGTON — Michigan-born gymnast and Olympic gold medal winner Jordyn Wieber will testify before a U.S. Senate panel Wednesday afternoon a day after filing a lawsuit over sexual abuse involving former Michigan State sports doctor Larry Nassar.

Wieber on Tuesday filed a lawsuit in a California state court against Michigan State University, USA Gymnastics, the U.S. Olympic Committee and others involving abuse at the hands of Nassar, who had been a renowned sports doctor for gymnasts.

A native of DeWitt, Wieber is set to talk Wednesday afternoon to a Senate subcommittee at a hearing entitled “Olympic Abuse: The Role of National Governing Bodies in Protecting Our Athletes.” The hearing in Washington will also be streamed live at www.commerce.senate.gov.

Another Olympic gymnast who says she was abused by Nassar, Jamie Dantzscher, is set to testify as well.

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IRAQ
USA Today

Hannah Wiley, USA TODAY

April 17, 2018

Women and children in Iraq connected to Islamic State militants are being placed in refugee camps, where they are subjected to sexual abuse and denied basic needs like food and water, said an Amnesty International report released Tuesday.

Researchers believe the sustained mistreatment could lead to a new generation of supporters of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS.

“These women and children have such a deep sense of injustice, and the women kept telling us this will lead to a next cycle of violence and the next generation of ISIS,” said Nicolette Waldman, co-author of the report and Iraq researcher at Amnesty International. “These violations could very well lead to ISIS 2.0 and then it will be back to square one fighting another war in Iraq.”

ISIS began seizing Iraqi territories in February 2014 and swiftly extended its control throughout Iraq and into Syria and Libya. After four years of United States’ intervention in the region, Iraq claimed victory over ISIS in late 2017. But the cleanup efforts have only just begun, starting with arresting and putting to death suspected ISIS militants, and placing women and children connected to fighters in camps.

Journalists and humanitarian workers at the camp are worried about long-term implications from the sexual abuse, including pregnancies, unsafe abortions and sexually transmitted diseases.

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CYPRESS
Associated Press

April 18, 2019

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — A senior cleric says Cyprus’ Orthodox Christian Church has for the first time defrocked a priest for sexually abusing his step-daughter when she was a child.

Kykkos Bishop Nikiforos said Wednesday the Holy Synod’s decision was unanimous.

The case shocked the conservative east-Mediterranean island nation after the 29-year-old victim was found dead in her home last month.

Many were outraged when local media revealed that the priest kept his job after a criminal court jailed him in 2013 for the same crime, which took place in the ’90s. His conviction was upheld on appeal.

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CONNECTICUT
Hartford Courant

Dave Altimari

April 18, 2018

A lawsuit has been filed against the Hartford Archdiocese alleging that in the 1970s a priest assigned to churches in Bristol and Waterbury sexually abused a boy whose mother had died.

The lawsuit filed in New Haven Superior Court on behalf of Matthew Cornell names the Rev. Gregory M. Altermatt as the alleged abuser.

Cornell’s attorney, Thomas McNamara, held a press conference Wednesday to discuss the lawsuit. He said that Cornell didn’t want to file the lawsuit under a pseudonym because “he wanted (the church) to know who he was.”

McNamara said that the abuse started while Altermatt was a priest at St. Matthew Church in Bristol, which was his first assignment after being ordained as a priest in 1976.

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HONG KONG
South China Morning Post

18 April, 2018

Danny Mok
Clifford Lo

Hong Kong police were on Tuesday night looking into claims that a retired Anglican minister indecently assaulted at least two male church-goers more than a decade ago.

This came after the Hong Kong Anglican Church told police of one alleged assault, and a story by online news outlet HK01 disclosed two separate alleged crimes in 2004 and 2007.

The Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui (HKSKH), as the church is known locally, is one of the largest and most influential denominations in the city, with 40,000 followers. It expressed its “deep concern” over the report in a statement on Tuesday.

“To safeguard all parties involved, the HKSKH has made a report to police,” the church said.

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COLORADO
Western Slope Now

Camila Barco

Apr 17, 2018

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – Health care professionals around the Grand Valley are taking an extra step to help in the fight against child abuse and neglect.

In a single day Mesa County Department of Human Services answers an average of 30 phone calls.

“Locally we have four dedicated call takers that are on the phone,” said Nicci Surad, part of the Child Welfare Receiving & Outreach Team, picking up calls placed to the organizations Child Abuse Hotline –to help out children who are or have been victims of child abuse and neglect.

“Children are our smallest, most precious community members and they deserve to be protected. They don’t have voices of their own.”

The hotline is for someone to report when a child is being abused and is used as a guide to gather information about the parents or caretakers –whether it be positive or negative.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Wired

April 17, 2018

By JAMES TEMPERTON

Paedophiles have a powerful and worrying new tool to help them find images and videos of child sexual abuse: the humble website redirect. And it’s causing a major headache for those leading the global fight against abuse.

“It works in same way as advertising referrers work,” says Fred Langford, deputy CEO of the Internet Watch Foundation, a UK-based charity that last year found and removed 78,589 images or videos of child sexual abuse. For Langford and his small team, the so-called “disguised website” technique is the latest salvo in the evade and detection arms race.

Here’s how it works: when a paedophile visits a bulletin board or online forum to find images and videos of sexual abuse, they click on a link. When they do, they enter a convoluted redirection system. As they pass from redirect to redirect, they are handed session cookies that confirm the route they’ve taken. Without going down this elaborate path, the site at the end of the redirect displays legal content. But with the right session cookie, that exact same URL displays child sexual abuse content.

For paedophiles, it means images and videos stay online for longer. For law enforcement, it makes finding and removing such content significantly more difficult. “If you did a Google search and clicked on it you’d just get the legal content,” says Langford. “If you came from a bulletin board that is used by paedophiles then this system just seamlessly passes people through. It’s exactly the same page.” The IWF was the to first detect the disguised website technique and saw an 86 per cent year-on-year increase in its use in 2017. In total, the IWF found 2,909 disguised websites last year. And many more likely still evade detection. “It’s getting worse and worse,” says Langford.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

David Batty
Tue 17 Apr 2018 1

There has been a sharp rise in paedophiles and organised criminals hiding child abuse images on apparently legal commercial adult pornography websites, the Internet Watch Foundation has warned.

In the past year the number of such disguised websites, which provide a secret route to child sexual abuse content, had risen by 86%, said Fred Langford, the chief executive of the UK charity. The IWF uncovered 2,909 such websites in 2017, compared with 1,572 in 2016.

Langford said the technique of hiding illegal content, which involves using a shortened URL that directs the user through a back door to child abuse images and videos, has become increasingly popular with criminals because some international police forces and internet watchdogs still did not know how to identify such sites or take them down.

“The content is remaining live for longer, which is driving their popularity,” he said.

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UNITED STATES
Sojourners

By Mathew Schmalz, The Conversation 4-17-2018

In a letter on April 11 to the bishops of Chile, Pope Francis asked forgiveness for his “serious errors of assessment and perception.” His apologies were directed to the victims of Fr. Fernando Karadima, whose abuse of at least three men when they were children was witnessed and covered up by Chilean Bishop Juan Barros. Until recently, Pope Francis had maintained that Bishop Barros was actually the victim of “slander.” In 2011, the then 80-year-old Fr. Karadina was found guilty by a Vatican tribunal, and sentenced to a life of “prayer and penance.”

In times past, a personal apology from the pope would have been close to unthinkable.

Popes can make mistakes

Catholics believe the pope is the successor to the Apostle Peter, one of the first followers of Jesus. But Peter was a flawed human being: When confronted by a crowd, he denied his association with Jesus three times. Afterwards, according to the Gospel of Matthew, Peter “wept bitterly.”

For Catholics, Peter’s experience shows that even those specially chosen by God have deep-seated weaknesses for which they must show sorrow.

Popes are not always right in what they do, but their errors have been admitted only years – sometimes centuries – later. In 1992, for example, John Paul II apologized for the Catholic Church’s condemnation of Galileo that happened over 350 years earlier.

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SCOTLAND
BBC News

17 April 2018

One of Scotland’s top bishops claims the Catholic Church may be its own worst enemy in spreading its beliefs.

The Bishop of Galloway has released a letter suggesting: “It could be argued that the greatest obstacle to preaching the gospel today in Scotland is the Catholic Church itself.”

The clergyman’s letter came just days after a priest from his diocese was jailed for child sex abuse.

He said negative publicity was “embarrassing” to Catholics.

The pastoral letter from Bishop William Nolan said recent sexual abuse scandals involving clergy called into question the trust parishioners have in their priests.

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SCOTLAND
Scotsman

CHRIS MARSHALL

18 April 2018

A Catholic bishop has said the case of a paedophile priest has “poisoned relationships” within the clergy and helped undermine the work of the Church.

The Bishop of Galloway used a pastoral letter to express his concerns at the crimes of Father Paul Moore.

Fr Moore, 82, was last week jailed for nine years for sexually abusing three children and a student priest over a 20-year period.

Bishop William Nolan said the trial had been “embarrassing” for Catholics and called into question “the trust they have in their priests”.

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NEW YORK
Legislative Gazette

Written by MARIA ENEA, Gazette staff writer on April 16, 2018

Despite a robo call that suggests otherwise, the Republican candidate in the 37th Senate District, Julie Killian, is adamant she will vote in favor of the Child Victims Act with a one-year “look-back” window allowing victims to file lawsuits for sexual assault crimes committed decades ago.

Killian is running for senator against Democrat Shelley Mayer in a special election on April 24 to fill the seat of George Latimer who is now the Westchester County Executive. The district covers the communities of White Plains, New Rochelle, Harrison, Rye, Mamaroneck, North Castle and Bedford.

The robo call, which was activated last week, was recorded by Asher Lovy of ZA’A’KAH, an organization that visits Orthodox Jewish communities to help raise awareness about child sexual abuse.

The message states: “Because of Republican obstruction, thousands of hidden predators walk free and unidentified every year in New York leaving our children in danger. Now, these same Republicans are spending millions of dollars to elect Julie Killian to the state Senate.”

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

CATHERINA GIOINO
KENNETH LOVETT
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Thursday, April 12, 2018

An 87-year-old woman abused by a nun when she was a teenager rallied Thursday with other sex abuse survivors for legislation that would let them seek justice as adults.

Cecilia Springer said she was abused by her high school principal at St. Ursula, which runs the Notre Dame School of Manhattan — a private, Catholic secondary school for girls in the city.

Springer said her abuser was transferred to a different school at the end of that school year.

“I never told anyone so she was never reported,” Springer said. “I know of other people that she attempted to abuse.”

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MICHIGAN
Midland Daily News

ORI QUALLS

April 16, 2018

Five former priests, including three with local connections, were removed from ministry because of credible allegations of sexual abuse of minors, it was announced by the Diocese of Saginaw.

They are:

• John E. Hammer (former priest, associate pastor, Blessed Sacrament, 1991-1995)

• Jack E. Leipert (former priest, temporary administrator St. Philip Neri, Coleman, and St. Anne, Edenville, 1978, and Sacred Heart, Bad Axe, 1990-2001 )

• Leonard F. Wilkuski (former priest, assistant pastor, St. Brigid of Kildare, Midland, 1963-1965 and pastor, 1990-1999)

• Stanislaus A. Bur (former priest – deceased)

• Richard L Howard (former deacon)

Full assignment histories of the priests can be found here.

In addition, two priests are currently on administrative leave related to allegations under investigation. They are: Robert J. DeLand and Ronald J. Dombrowski

DeLand of Freeland was charged Feb. 26 with criminal sexual conduct for allegedly assaulting two males, ages 21 and 17. The 71-year-old DeLand has pleaded not guilty.

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CANADA
The Standard

April 18, 2018[

by Grant LaFleche

William O’Sullivan arrived at Penetanguishene, Ont, Friday expecting the worst but hoping he was wrong.

He wasn’t.

Donald Grecco, the former Catholic priest convicted of sexually abusing O’Sullivan as a boy, will soon be a free man.

After deliberating for more than four hours Friday, Ontario parole board members at the Central North Correctional Centre voted to grant Grecco’s request for early release after serving six months of an 18-month sentence.

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NEW YORK
WIVB

By: Marissa Perlman

Apr 17, 2018

WIVB, N.Y. (WIVB) – – The Buffalo Catholic Diocese has come up with a way to help pay settlements to victims who were sexually abused by priests.

The Buffalo Diocese says it’s going to put the Bishop’s mansion on Oakland place on the market.

This comes on the same day a law firm that represents sexual abuse victims released new details about 42 accused former Buffalo Priests.

This has been the Bishop of Buffalo’s home since 1952.

And Bishop Malone is the sixth out of 14 to have lived there. But faced with this sex abuse scandal,
The Bishop says the Diocese needs all of the resources it can get.

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NEW YORK
Union=-Sun and Journal

April 19, 2918

By Philip Gambini and Rick Pfeiffer philip.gambini@lockportjournal.com

Attorney Mike Reck returned to Buffalo on Tuesday to again demand the Catholic Diocese release a comprehensive list of clerics within its jurisdiction who have been credibly accused of sexual assaults against children or other abuses.

It is the second call Reck and his firm, Jeff Anderson and Associates, P.A., have made in as many months. The first occurred in March, when Reck’s firm released a list of 13 priests accused of committing sexual crimes against minors while serving in Western New York.

A subsequent disclosure by the diocese added 30 priests that the religious institution said had “credible” allegations of abuse brought against them.

The second batch of information released by the law firm on Tuesday included details about where the 42 named clergymen were assigned, while laying out a hierarchy of church leaders who oversaw the diocese between 1945 and 2017. They are individuals Reck said are “responsible for the current crisis.”

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NEW YORK
Spectrum News

By Jaclyn Cangro | April 16, 2018

ALBANY, N.Y. — On a rainy day in Albany, sexual assault survivor Kat Sullivan unveiled her latest message.

A new billboard on the side of I-787 reads, “90% of NY supports the Child Victims Act. Senator Amedore, why don’t you?” She got the idea from Oscar-winning movie “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.”

If the act is passed, minors will have no statute of limitations in bringing felony cases against someone who sexually abused them.

“We’re starting here, and there’s going to be more billboards going up,” says Sullivan.

Senator George Amedore has seen the billboard and calls it unfortunate. He disagrees with it, saying he supports child victims. To him, the problem is finding a bill the assembly, senate and governor all agree on.

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NEW YORK
Times Union

By Rachel Silberstein

April 16, 2018

ALBANY — Standing in the pouring rain in front of a billboard bearing the face of state Sen. George Amedore, activist Kat Sullivan called out the Republican and his legislative colleagues Monday for impeding the passage of a bill that would lift the statute of limitations for victims of childhood sex abuse.

The sign, which reads “90% of New Yorkers support the Child Victims Act. Why don’t you, Senator Amedore?” is one of three paid for by Sullivan, who says she was sexually abused and raped by a teacher during her time at Troy’s Emma Willard School 20 years ago.

The press conference at a junction off I-787 was followed by a sit-in at the state Capitol organized by Sullivan and fellow survivors from the Capitol Region, including Bridie Farrell, a champion speed skater from Saratoga who says she was abused by a teammate, and Mary Ellen O’Loughlin, of Perth.

Advocates have been targeting Republican senators in their districts, including Amedore, warning constituents of the lack of recourse for victims of childhood abuse, which they say allows predators to continue preying on children.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

Olivia Rudgard, social affairs correspondent
18 APRIL 2018

Almost one in three reported child abuse images are now taken by the children themselves, new figures from the Internet Watch Foundation show.

Children are increasingly filming or photographing themselves in explicit situations and sharing the footage, which then ends up on adult pornography sites or shared by paedophiles, the foundation’s annual report found.

The report shows that there were 78,589 confirmed child sexual abuse URLs found in 2017, up from 57,335 in 2016.

A growing number of images discovered by the foundation’s staff were those which children had taken themselves as photos or via livestreaming apps.

The number of cases which involved “self-generated” content rose from 349 in January 2017 to 1,717 a year later, rising from six per cent of the total in January 2017 to 26 per cent in January 2018.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News

April 18, 2018

The Internet Watch Foundation says it is finding more images of child sexual abuse online than ever before, according to its annual report.

It found over 78,000 website addresses containing child sexual abuse in 2017, up from more than 57,000 in 2016.

The charity actively seeks and removes these images from the net as well as responding to reports it receives from the public.

It said it had also processed over 80,000 reports of confirmed abuse.

Additionally, there was a rise in “disguised” websites, which are on the open web, where illegal content is shown only to people who access them via a particular pathway.

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NEW YORK
Times Record-Herald

April 17, 2018

So what will it be, Sens. John Bonacic and Bill Larkin?

Protect the victims of abuse or instead protect the insurance companies and the institutions, most notably the Catholic Church, that are more worried about what they might have to pay?

That’s what it comes down to in these final weeks of the legislative session as a series of bills long held hostage in the state Senate awaits yet another chance for passage.

The legislation is known as the Child Victims Act and it would have become law years ago had it not been for the opposition of the Senate Republican majority which has refused to even bring it up for a vote.

The facts have not changed. As yet another report said yet again last week, New York has some of the worst laws in the nation when it comes to the rights of victims of child molestation. Other states used to have similar laws. In fact, 39 have changed them since the abuse scandal in the Catholic Church received national publicity from the 2002 investigation by the Boston Globe, a story made even more prominent by the movie “Spotlight.”

Still, New York Republican senators resist.

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CONNECTICUT
Law Offices of Mitchell Garabedian

FIRST TIME PUBLIC ALLEGATIONS OF CLERGY SEXUAL ABUSE OF A MINOR ADDRESSED AGAINST FR. GREGORY M. ALTERMATT, ARCHDIOCESE OF HARTFORD

Civil Complaint Filed in New Haven Superior Court against Fr. Gregory M. Altermatt and The Hartford Roman Catholic Diocesan Corporation (The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford).
A press conference discussing a Civil Complaint Filed in Superior Court alleging sexual abuse of a minor by Fr. Gregory M. Altermatt: Matthew Cornell v. The Hartford Roman Catholic Diocesan Corporation and Fr. Gregory M. Altermatt.

The suit alleges that in approximately 1976 Altermatt became a close friend of the plaintiff’s family who were parishioners at St. Matthew Church in Bristol, Connecticut. The suit alleges counts of negligence and reckless and wanton conduct against the Hartford Archdiocese and a number of counts of intentional acts against Altermatt. The alleged abuse occurred between approximately 1976 and 1985. The acts intensified after the death of the plaintiff’s mother in 1979 after Altermatt offered to help the plaintiff’s father as a part time caretaker and babysitter, who now had to raise the plaintiff by himself as well as a disabled daughter. The suit claims compensation for psychological damages.

Attending:
Thomas M. McNamara, Esq. and Mitchell Garabedian, Esq.

When:
Wednesday, April 18, 2018 at 11:00 a.m.

Where:
New Haven Hotel, Executive Boardroom, 229 George Street, New Haven, CT

Contacts:
Thomas M. McNamara, Esq., 203.782.9241 (tmacesq@gmail.com) Attorney for Plaintiff
Mitchell Garabedian, Esq. 617.388.5252 (mgarabedian@garabedianlaw.com) Counsel to Matthew Cornell

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NEW YORK
The Tablet

April 16, 2018

By Frieda Vizel

Earlier this month, the New York State budget passed with new language that would somewhat relax the government education requirements for Yeshivas. Following this change, activists who left Hasidism and are fighting to enforce more secular education were quick to denounce the law. Shulem Deen wrote in the The New York Times “Why does New York Condone illiteracy?” and Hasidim took to Twitter to fight back. My Facebook feed is filled with outcries against corruption and uneducated children.

When Hasidic education is in the news, I bite my tongue. While I too was educated in the Hasidic community, I am a woman, and women are said to get more education, which is to say I learned more English. I left the Hasidic community when my son was five and still in Kindergarten in the Satmar community. But most of all, I find it hard to say anything because this conversation is so often reduced to moral absolutism. This is a fight in which both sides have set themselves up as the saviors of the children, the heroes to the victims, and anything besides heroism will get shouted down by indignant advocates whose work is here to save the day.

I understand their positions. On the one hand, Hasidic men like my father, still traumatized by the memory of the Holocaust, see their way of life as perpetually threatened, always on the verge of extinction. It’s why the language they use to discuss this issue includes words like meshimed, or a Jew who seeks to hurt his own people, or gezeyrah, an evil decree by the government, both loaded and theological. Comparisons to the persecutors of old abound, and the same old solutions are offered: Hunker down, do not give an inch, and quietly use political emissaries to overturn decrees. A modern day Rabbinic miracle is when political power saves the day from governmental villains.

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SOUTH CAROLINA
The State

BY EMILY BOHATCH
ebohatch@thestate.com

April 16, 2018

A former associate pastor at a Lexington church was arrested Thursday and charged with criminal sexual conduct, according to a statement from Lexington police.

Eduardo Elias Cornejo, 34 and a former pastor at Columbia First Seventh-Day Adventist Church, turned himself into police after a victim came forward earlier this year to report a sexual assault, according to the statement.

The female, who spoke with police Feb. 22, said Cornejo assaulted her in January 2017. She said Cornejo met with her and “used persuasion and physical force” to have sex with her, according to the statement.

The woman said she was very clear she didn’t want to have sex with Cornejo and repeatedly said no.

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CALIFORNIA
CBS SF Bay Area

April 16, 2018

REDWOOD CITY (CBS SF) — A former pastor was sentenced to eight years in prison for molesting three victims between September 2011 and May 2015, San Mateo County prosecutors said Monday.

Victor Tax-Gomez, 50, also known as Ever Oliveros-Cano, was a pastor for Senor Justicia Nuestra Church in Menlo Park, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office.

When the victims were 13, 15 and 17, Tax-Gomez committed the crimes while claiming to be praying with or cleansing the victims at the church, prosecutors said. Two of the victims were sisters and a third was a friend.

Two years later, one of the victims told a therapist that the crime had happened and the therapist reported it to Menlo Park police.

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CALIFORNIA
Daily Journal

April 16, 2018

A former pastor was sentenced to eight years in prison for molesting three victims between September 2011 and May 2015, San Mateo County prosecutors said.

Victor Taxgomez, 50, also known as Ever Oliveros-Cano, was a pastor for Senor Justicia Nuestra Church in Menlo Park, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office.

When the victims were 13, 15 and 17, Taxgomez committed the crimes while claiming to be praying with or cleansing the victims at the church, prosecutors said. Two of the victims were sisters and a third was a friend.

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MISSOURI
KSDK

Author: Sam Clancy
April 16, 2018

ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. – A youth pastor at a Clayton, Missouri, church is facing statutory sodomy charges after police said he had a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old.

Andrew Dickson, 30, was charged with two counts of statutory sodomy for an alleged sexual relationship with 15-year-old in March of 2018. He worked at Central Presbyterian Church but was fired when the church found out about the incident, a statement from the church said.

Charging documents said the relationship involved oral sex and fondling the male victim which took place at Dickson’s University City home. After his arrest by the University City police, he admitted to the crimes, charging documents said.

He was charged with two counts of statutory sodomy and one count of child molestation. His bond was set at $150,000 and he was ordered not to contact the victim or the victim’s family.

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MISSOURI
KMOV

Apr 16, 2018

A local youth pastor who had worked at a church in Clayton is accused of having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old.

Andrew Dickson, 30, of University City, is charged with child molestation and two counts of statutory sodomy.

Police say he admitted to engaging in a sexual relationship with the teen, which included oral sex and fondling.

The Central Presbyterian Church later released the following statement:

When Central Presbyterian Church learned of this deeply disturbing situation, we immediately reported it to the appropriate authorities and proceeded to terminate this individual from his position. We are fully cooperating with authorities investigating this matter. We are focused on caring for the victim and supporting our church community as we grieve and heal together. We are praying for all parties involved.

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MISSOURI
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

April 16, 2018

By Joel Currier St. Louis Post-Dispatch

UPDATED at 3:45 p.m. with statement from church and detail that the suspect was fired from his church job.

CLAYTON • A former youth pastor at the Central Presbyterian Church in Clayton has been charged with child molestation and statutory sodomy.

Andrew Dickson, 30, of the 800 block of McKnight Road in University City, was charged April 9 in St. Louis County Circuit Court with one count of child molestation and two counts of statutory sodomy.

Charging documents say that the crimes occurred between March 1 and April 1, and Dickson admitted to fondling and engaging in oral sex with a minor.

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NEW YORK
CNN

By Eric Levenson, CNN

April 17, 2018

(CNN)McKayla Maroney questioned whether or not her star gymnastics career “was really even worth it” because of the fallout from her sexual abuse at the hands of team doctor Larry Nassar, she said Tuesday.

“I wasn’t listened to, cared about or believed, and all of those things need to be weeded out of society, because that’s where things went wrong,” she said.

The statements marked Maroney’s first public remarks since she revealed on her Twitter account in October that Nassar had sexually abused her. Her comments Tuesday came during a luncheon for the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children at The Pierre hotel in New York.

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NEW YORK
Buffalo News

By Jay Tokasz

April 17, 2018

Bishop Richard J. Malone mentioned in March that no Catholic Diocese of Buffalo properties would be off-limits from the possibility of being sold to help compensate childhood victims of clergy sexual abuse.

The sell-off started on Tuesday, with Malone’s sudden announcement that he will put on the market his own residence, a palatial mansion on one of Buffalo’s most exclusive streets that’s been home to Buffalo bishops since 1952.

“This move underscores the importance we place on helping the victims of abuse to begin healing,” Malone said in a statement emailed to The News Tuesday afternoon.

The bishop’s residence at 77 Oakland Place, assessed at $1.3 million, has nine bedrooms and six bathrooms in 11,050 square feet of space.

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NEW YORK
Roman Catholic Diocese of Buffalo

Tue, Apr 17th 2018

Bishop Richard J. Malone announced that the Bishop’s Residence at 77 Oakland Place, Buffalo, will be placed on the market this summer and all proceeds from the sale of the property will be dedicated to the Diocese of Buffalo’s Independent Reconciliation & Compensation Program to assist victims of past sexual abuse by priests.

“This move underscores the importance we place on helping the victims of abuse to begin healing,” said Bishop Malone, noting that he consulted with the diocesan Finance Council, College of Consultors and the Presbyteral Council in making this decision.

The former convent at St. Stanislaus Parish on Townsend Street in Buffalo, will now serve as the Bishop’s Residence and as a venue for small events. “I am proud to move to the heart of Buffalo’s Polonia, especially as a way to be a small part of the renewal that is happening in so many ways in the Broadway-Fillmore neighborhood.”

The Diocese of Buffalo will also be selling the Sheehan Residence for retired priests on Linwood Avenue, Buffalo. Proceeds from the sale of that property will be devoted to the Retired Diocesan Priests’ Medical Benefits Fund. The three-story brick building at Linwood & Utica was originally built in 1928 as the rectory for what was then St. Joseph Cathedral on Delaware Avenue. The “New Cathedral” as it was known was demolished in the 1970’s and the former rectory has been used ever since as a residence for retired priests. The building features 12 suite-style units. There are three other diocesan residences for retired priests which can accommodate those now living at the Sheehan residence.

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NEW YORK
WBFO

April 17, 2918

By MICHAEL MROZIAK

Two valuable properties, including an E.B. Green-designed mansion, will be put up for sale by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Buffalo to help fund two programs, including the one it recently launched to assist past sexual abuse victims, church officials announced Tuesday.

(This story is developing.)

The Bishop’s Residence, located at 77 Oakland Place in Buffalo, will be put on the market this summer. So, too, will the Sheehan Residence for retired priests on at Linwood and Utica Avenues in Buffalo.

Proceeds from the sale of the Bishop’s Residence will go toward the Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program, which was announced in March to aid victims who have previously come forward with accusations of childhood sexual abuse at the hands of clergy.

“This move underscores the importance we place on helping the victims of abuse to begin healing,” said Bishop Richard Malone in a prepared written statement. He noted that the decision comes after consultation with the Diocesan Finance Council, College of Consultors and the Presbyteral Council.

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IDAHO
KTVB

Author: Katie Terhune
April 16, 2018

NOTE: This article contains graphic content that may be upsetting to some readers.

BOISE — The retired Boise priest facing more than 20 child pornography charges mused online about the “journey that he has taken down the path to Satan” and his desire to hurt others before the end of his life, according to prosecutors.

“‘Yes, I want to do something truly evil before I die,'” Prosecutor Kassandra Slaven recited in court Friday. “‘The thought of killing someone does begin to excite me.'”

Slaven was quoting from online chat logs obtained by police after they raided Father W. Thomas Faucher’s home in February. Investigators found more than 2,000 child pornography images and videos on Faucher’s computer and cell phone, including files depicting the “extremely brutal rape and torture” of children as young as infants and toddlers, according to the prosecutor.

Friday’s court hearing came after Faucher’s lawyer, Mark Manweiler, filed a motion to reduce the priest’s $1 million bond, decrying the amount as “excessive,” “unnecessary,” and ultimately unconstitutional.

“This case is what it is, it’s a serious case,” Manweiler argued. “A significant bond is certainly warranted, but not a million dollars – that’s ridiculous.”

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NORTH CAROLINA
Charlotte Observer

JOE MARUSAK
jmarusak@charlotteobserver.com

April 16, 2018

An ex-Episcopal priest imprisoned in Massachusetts for decades-old child sex crimes is now accused of sexually assaulting two children in the North Carolina mountains.

A Haywood County grand jury has indicted 76-year-old Howard “Howdy” Willard White Jr. on sex assault charges involving a girl and a boy, The Mountaineer newspaper in Waynesville reported. White is accused of the assaults when he served as rector of Grace Episcopal Church in the Mountains in Waynesville in the 1980s, according to the newspaper.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Associated Press

April 17, 2018

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) — The Latest on the Bill Cosby’s sexual-assault retrial (all times local):

12:25 p.m.

Jurors are hearing from a police interview in which Bill Cosby acknowledged fondling his chief accuser’s breasts and genitals after giving her pills at his suburban Philadelphia home.

Authorities are reading a transcript of the January 26, 2005, interview to the jury Tuesday. The interview was conducted about two weeks after Andrea Constand went to police.

The 80-year-old “Cosby Show” star says he gave Constand 1½ tablets of the cold and allergy medicine Benadryl to help her relax. He says she showed no ill effects from the pills and did not object when he touched her.

Cosby told investigators he had a social and romantic relationship with Constand.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Variety

April 17, 2018

By Emilie Lounsberry

NORRISTOWN, Pa. – Bill Cosby admitted to sexual contact with the woman who says that he molested her, but he told investigators back in 2005 that their “petting” was consensual and that she was not in any way incapacitated, the jury in his sexual assault retrial learned Tuesday morning.

Sgt. Richard Schaffer of the Cheltenham Township Police Department just outside of Philadelphia told the jury about Cosby’s January 2005 interview with him and several other investigators. It took place at a law office in Manhattan, he said, and Cosby described his relationship with Andrea Constand as a friendship that had become romantic.

“We were fully clothed. We were petting,” Schaffer quoted Cosby as having said, reading directly from the police report of that interview. “I enjoyed it.”

Cosby’s words underscore the he said, she said nature of the case of Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. William Henry Cosby Jr. – as the case against the entertainer is formally captioned.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Worthy Adversary

Joelle Casteix

UPDATED 4/17

Three Men to Watch: Wuerl, Persico, and Trautman
(and one to discount)

More rumors are circulating about who was called to testify and what the grand jury investigation will uncover. But one thing is clear:

There are three men to watch.

Cardinal Donald Wuerl

Wuerl, now the Cardinal Archbishop of Washington, D.C., was Bishop of Pittsburgh from 1988 to 2006. According to his Wikipedia page, one would think that he’s a champion for victims. Critics have called him the “Teflon Cardinal,” due to the fact that scandal seldom sticks to him. Outside of two known abusive priests that Wuerl did not warn parishioners about, what else will the grand jury investigation tell us?

I can only assume he was asked to testify. He was the bossman for 20 years.

Erie Bishops Lawrence Persico and Donald Trautman

The Diocese of Erie is in full protection mode. Earlier this month, officials there released a list of 34 priests and 17 lay people who have been credibly accused of abuse.

Yesterday, the boshop announced the expansion of the diocese’s child protection office.

If they were so concerned about such things (you know, exposing abuse and protecting kids), why didn’t they release these names before? Why not expand the Diocese of Erie child protection office in 2015 or in 2013?

They are getting ready for a bomb to drop.

Trautman was Erie’s bishop from 1990 to 2012. He retired at the mandatory age of 75. Persico took over in 2012.

And a man to discount: Nicholas Cafardi

Peter Smith at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote a great piece today about the upcoming grand jury report. He quotes Robert Hoatson, a wonderful advocate for victims, as well as some of the players mentioned below.

He also quotes Nick Cafardi, a former chairman of the US Bishops National Review Board for the protection of minors.

[Cafardi] said he doesn’t expect major surprises from Pittsburgh in the grand jury report.

This is the same Nicholas Cafardi who was general counsel for the Diocese of Pittsburgh itself.

*Ahem*

He was their LAWYER. So let’s just scratch him off the “credible” list.

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ISRAEL
Haaretz

By Aaron Rabinowitz

Apr 17, 2018

The invitation to the event explicitly states it will start at 9 P.M. But the hundreds of people gathered in the hall in the southern city of Kiryat Gat, during one of the intermediate days of the Passover holiday, were to endure a long wait. Only when the clock struck midnight did the music heralding the arrival of the star go off.

The “Holy Man” (Tzadik), the term used by Bratslav Hasidim for their rebbe, none other than Rabbi Eliezer Berland, had arrived. The excitement hit its peak. One of the followers ran to him and managed to touch the rabbi’s tallit (prayer shawl). The rest of the men pushed and shoved, climbed on chairs and even trampled those standing in the way between them and Berland. The few who succeeded returned to their seats beaming with excitement and with glazed eyes. A similar excitement could be seen looking up to the women’s section.

A full year has passed since Berland, the leader of the Shuvu Banim Hasidic sect, was released from prison. He had served a year of his 18-month sentence for sexual assault and indecent acts against two women before being released on parole – and returned to his eagerly awaiting flock of followers.

If anyone had thought that once released from prison, Berland would remain alone, unforgiven for the acts he had confessed to and bereft of followers – they were very wrong.

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NEW YORK
Jeff Anderson and Associates

Attorney to host conversation regarding sexual abuse in the Diocese of Buffalo

Cunningham Letter
Diocese of Buffalo Locations of Perpetrators Map
Fr. James H. Cotter Priest File
Officials of the Buffalo Diocese 1945-2018
Report Clerical Sexual Abuse in the Diocese of Buffalo Vol. 2

(Buffalo, New York) – Today, Attorney Mike Reck and others will:

• Release a second report containing the identities, histories and information on 42 priests accused of child sexual abuse in the Diocese of Buffalo;
• Invite the press to participate in an open conversation regarding sexual abuse in the Diocese of Buffalo;
• Release additional files and materials regarding the Diocese of Buffalo and participate in a Q & A session;
• Encourage full disclosure by the diocese regarding the still secret identities of additional Diocese of Buffalo priests accused of sexual abuse.

WHEN: Tuesday, April 17, 2018 at 11:00AM ET

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AUSTRALIA
Associated Press

April 17, 2018

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A lawyer for the most senior Vatican official to be charged in the Catholic Church sex abuse crisis told an Australian court on Tuesday that Cardinal George Pell could have been targeted with false accusations to punish him for the crimes of other clerics.

Defense and prosecution lawyers were making their final submissions in the Melbourne Magistrates Court in a hearing to determine whether the case against Australia’s highest-ranking Catholic was strong enough to warrant a trial by jury.

Magistrate Belinda Wallington will make her ruling on May 1 on whether Pell will stand trial.

Pell, Pope Francis’ former finance minister, was charged last June with sexually abusing multiple people in his Australian home state of Victoria. The details of the allegations against the 76-year-old have yet to be released to the public, though police have described the charges as “historical” sexual assault offenses — meaning the crimes allegedly occurred decades ago.

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AUSTRALIA
The Courier

April 17, 2018

Cardinal George Pell’s lawyers want the case against him thrown out, arguing the historical sexual offence allegations are impossible.

Defence barrister Robert Richter QC has also suggested the allegations may be motivated by a desire to punish Australia’s most senior Catholic over the church’s mishandling of sexual abuse by other priests.

Mr Richter said Pell should not have to stand trial on any of the charges, especially the more serious and “appalling” allegations.

“Their complaints ought to be regarded as impossible and ought to be discharged without batting an eyelid,” he told Melbourne Magistrates Court.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – The World Today

April 17, 2918

By Samantha Donovan

On the final day of the committal hearing for Cardinal George Pell in Melbourne, the court has been told that many of the allegations against Cardinal George Pell are simply impossible.

Australia’s most senior Catholic is facing multiple charges of historical sexual offences against multiple complainants, but he continues to vehemently deny all of them.

Cardinal Pell’s QC also said that many of the complainants are not sufficiently credible witnesses to bring the cases to trial.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

By Adam Cooper

17 April 2018

Allegations of sexual abuse against George Pell were the stuff of fantasy, impossible and made by witnesses with no credibility, the cardinal’s lawyer has told a court as he sought to have charges against Australia’s most senior Catholic thrown out.

Defence counsel Robert Richter, QC, on Tuesday urged magistrate Belinda Wallington to discharge Cardinal Pell of multiple historic sexual abuse charges rather than commit him to stand trial, because, he said, there was no way a jury could find the charges proven.

Cardinal Pell must now wait a fortnight before learning whether he will front a jury in a higher court, as Ms Wallington takes time to consider written and oral submissions from the 76-year-old’s defence team and prosecutors. Ms Wallington will announce her decision on May 1.

Rocking gently from side to side over almost two hours at the lectern in Melbourne Magistrates Court, Mr Richter expanded on a series of points as to why his client should not be sent to trial, focusing mainly on what he said were major flaws in the evidence of two accusers.

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AUSTRALIA
news.com.au

Jacqueline Le and Megan Neil
Australian Associated Press

APRIL 17, 2018

Cardinal George Pell’s lawyers want the “impossible” sex offence case against him thrown out, arguing the allegations are potentially motivated by a desire to punish the Catholic Church.

Defence barrister Robert Richter QC said Pell had been targeted as Australia’s most senior Catholic amid hatred and public furore over the church’s response to clergy abuse.

“We say that Cardinal Pell, representing the face of the Catholic Church, a prominent person, had been the obvious target of allegations that are not true but are designed to punish him, almost, for not having prevented sexual abuse for many years.”

Mr Richter suggested some of the allegations were the product of fantasy, mental problems or pure invention.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Calla Wahlquist @callapilla
Mon 16 Apr 2018

Cardinal George Pell has been targeted with historic sexual abuse allegations in an attempt to punish the Catholic church for its failure to prevent other instances of child sexual abuse, his lawyer has argued.

Pell, 76, has been charged with multiple historic sexual offences. He has vehemently denied the charges. Further description of the charges against Pell cannot be given for legal reasons.

On the final day of a four-week committal hearing at the Melbourne magistrates’ court on Tuesday, the head of Pell’s defence team, Robert Richter QC, suggested the most serious complaints against him had been invented by “thwarted” people to punish the church.

Both the defence and the prosecution have made extensive written submissions but also oral closing statements. Pell was not required to attend and was not in court.

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AUSTRALIA
Reuters

APRIL 17, 2018

MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Vatican Treasurer George Pell’s lawyer told a court on Tuesday the Australian archbishop should not be sent to trial on any of the multiple charges of historical sexual offences against him.

In a final submission to the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court following a month of pre-trial hearings, Pell’s lawyer Robert Richter said “public time and money ought not to be wasted” on a trial. Evidence showed the worst of the alleged offences could not have occurred, he said.

“To the extent that it’s possible to demonstrate anything, their complaints ought to be regarded as impossible and ought to be discharged without batting an eyelid,” Richter told the court.

Magistrate Belinda Wallington will hand down her decision on whether to send Pell to trial on May 1.

Pell, 76, was not present in court on Tuesday. He is the highest ranking Catholic worldwide to face such charges, the details of which have not been made public.

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AUSTRALIA
CNN

By Lucie Morris-Marr, CNN

Tue April 17, 2018

Melbourne (CNN)The lead barrister defending senior Vatican official Cardinal George Pell against historical abuse charges has argued for the case to be dropped because a trial would be a “waste of public money, time and effort.”

Robert Richter QC made the arguments at a court in Melbourne Tuesday, on the final day of submissions before Magistrate Belinda Wallington.

Wallington will announce on May 1 whether the case will proceed to trial, after weeks of testimony from accusers and witnesses to the alleged abuse.

Pell, 76, was charged last June and given leave by Pope Francis from the Vatican to contest the charges in his native country. Pell vigorously denies all allegations.

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CHILE
Catholic Courier

Jane Chambers / Catholic News Service | 04.16.2018

SANTIAGO, Chile (CNS) — Victims of clergy sexual abuse welcomed Pope Francis’ letter in which he apologized for underestimating the seriousness of the crisis in Chile.

James Hamilton, Jose Andres Murillo and Juan Carlos Cruz, victims of Father Fernando Karadima, released a statement April 11 saying they appreciated the pope’s letter and were “evaluating the possibilities” for meeting with the pope.

“The damage committed by the hierarchy of the Chilean church, to which the pope refers, has affected many people, not just us,” the victims said.

“The purpose of all our actions has always been about recognition, forgiveness and reparation for what has been suffered, and will continue to be so, until zero tolerance against abuse and concealment in the church becomes a reality,” they said.

Pope Francis’ letter, released by the Vatican April 11, asked “forgiveness of all those I have offended” and said he hoped to “be able to do it personally in the coming weeks.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

PETER SMITH
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
petersmith@post-gazette.com

APR 16, 2018

Since July 2016, a grand jury seated in Pittsburgh has been quietly hearing testimony on alleged rape and sexual abuse of children by priests and others associated with the Roman Catholic Church.

The scope of the investigation spans seven decades and from one end of Pennsylvania to the other.

What is expected in the coming weeks is a report that could be the most comprehensive and geographically expansive official report ever produced in the United States on the enormity of the scandal.

The 40th Statewide Grand Jury had an 18-month term, extended by four months to the end of April, according to those familiar with its work.

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AUSTRALIA
Gippsland Times

Julianne Langshaw

17 Apr 2018

THE Catholic Church in Gippsland is set to become embroiled in a landmark class action to be brought by alleged victims of child abuse, which could run into millions of dollars.

The proposed action relates to alleged historical child sex and physical abuse offences at St Patrick’s College, Sale, many of which are said to have occurred in the 1970s when the school housed boarders.

Two St Patrick’s cases have already been prosecuted in the criminal system, with another case against a Marist Brother, alleging multiple victims, set to go to trial later this year.

Another criminal case was unable to proceed after the accused lay teacher died.

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WISCONSIN
National Catholic Reporter

Apr 16, 2018

by Peter Feuerherd

Jack Ruhl, an expert on diocesan finances, frequently wanders through the thicket of church financial disclosures, but has never seen anything like the dissolution of the Diocese of La Crosse, Wisconsin, lay pension plan.

La Crosse lay diocesan retirees and employees received word about their pensions in a letter dated Feb. 27 from Bishop William Patrick Callahan, who has led the diocese since 2010. In the letter, retirees were told they could expect more than 90 percent of the value of their pensions in a lump-sum payment that will be distributed this summer.

Ruhl, a professor of accountancy at Western Michigan University, has studied finance statements of U.S. dioceses since 2004, looking for the impact of sex abuse settlements and their effect on priest pension plans. That issue arose in the aftermath of the scandals that enveloped the Boston Archdiocese.

Meanwhile, he has also studied the impact of the crisis on lay pension plans. He has seen a number of examples, including massive transfer of funds to special independent projects, such as the building of Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral in Los Angeles, that protected diocesan funds from sex abuse settlements.  

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PENNSYLVANIA
Reuters

April 16, 2018

David DeKok

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (Reuters) – Bill Cosby’s defence team on Monday sought to undercut the credibility of a woman accusing the comedian of sexual assault by pressing her about accusations she schemed to plant a false story of abuse to reap hush money.

Cosby, 80, is undergoing his second trial on charges that he drugged and raped Andrea Constand, 45, at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2014. At the time, she was director of operations for the women’s basketball team at Temple University, the entertainer’s alma mater.

The former TV star’s first trial ended with the jury unable to reach a verdict.

Constand has accused Cosby of attacking her when she visited him to discuss leaving her job. After she consumed three blue pills that he said would relax her, she said she became immobilized and awoke to find Cosby touching her breasts and vagina and using her hand to stroke his penis.

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PENNSYLVANIA
NPR

[with audio]

April 16, 2018

Heard on Morning Edition

BOBBY ALLYN

The jury heard last week from six accusers, including Andrea Constand, who says Cosby drugged and assaulted her in 2004. Her accusations prompted the only criminal charges filed against Cosby.

NOEL KING, HOST:

The woman whose story prompted the only criminal charges ever filed against Bill Cosby is back on the witness stand today in Cosby’s sexual assault retrial in Pennsylvania. Bobby Allyn of member station WHYY has the story.

BOBBY ALLYN, BYLINE: Andrea Constand has been here before. Last year, she testified over two days about what she says happened to her at Cosby’s home in suburban Philadelphia in 2004. But a jury couldn’t agree on a verdict, and the judge declared a mistrial, so she’s doing it again. Before addressing the court, she sat with her eyes closed, silently meditating. She told jurors in the midst of a career crisis, Cosby invited her over. Quote, “these are your friends,” she said Cosby said to her, handing her three pills. Quote, “they will take the edge off.” Lawyer Gloria Allred represents several Cosby accusers and was in the courtroom.

GLORIA ALLRED: She trusted him. She had ingested the three blue pills that he gave her that he had gone upstairs to get.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Page Six

By Emily Saul

April 16, 2018

Fallen funnyman Bill Cosby appeared amused Monday as prosecutors forced his accuser to again relive that night in 2004 when she claims she was drugged and molested by ​him.

Cosby, 80, kept his eyes closed as Andrea Constand recounted, step-by-step, how her mentor allegedly “touched my breasts, placed his fingers inside my vagina, and placed his hand on my hand, and my hand on his penis.”

Leaning back in his chair, Cosby’s typically expressionless face perked up, and he smiled as Constand, 45, repeated her claims. The incident ostensibly occurred at the TV pioneer’s Cheltenham, Pa., estate in January 2004.

His face remained animated throughout the afternoon — growing wide-eyed at the mention of his own penis, shaking his head as lawyers quibbled and openly chuckling when judge Steven O’Neill allowed a question through, saying “it’s not that leading.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
New York Times

By GRAHAM BOWLEY and JON HURDLE

APRIL 16, 2018

Defense lawyers for Bill Cosby hammered away at his main accuser’s account Monday, focusing on her cellphone records that they suggested contradicted her version of events.

The accuser, Andrea Constand, said she had called him as she drove up to his home on the night in January 2004 when she says he sexually assaulted her.

“Can you find one single call for the whole month of January to his Elkins Park number?” Thomas A. Mesereau Jr., a lawyer for Mr. Cosby asked Ms. Constand, as she reviewed the records.

“I might have been mistaken,” Ms. Constand replied.

Ms. Constand remained outwardly calm during two hours of cross-examination in the sexual assault retrial, fending off queries on a variety of topics that the defense brought forward to indicate she had converted a consensual sexual encounter with Mr. Cosby into a criminal assault in order to score a big payday.

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