Tag: child abuse

South Shore cult ‘elder’ guilty of child rape to serve at least 30 years in prison

A leader of a South Shore religious sect will spend at least 30 years in prison after he was found guilty last month of raping and abusing two girls in the “tribe,” officials said.

Nehemyah Smith, 37, was convicted of all 25 charges last month, including 12 counts of aggravated child rape and multiple counts of indecent assault and battery. 

Smith was sentenced in Fall River Superior Court Wednesday to 13 to 18 years in prison for rape and child rape charges. He will then serve 17 to 22 years for aggravated child rape charges with a ten year age difference, according to the court clerk.

Smith, of Plymouth, was a “trusted elder” within the Twelve Tribes, an international religious organization led by men where families give up their possessions and live communally, according to court records. The known abuse took place between 2016 and 2020. 

The Twelve Tribes has communities in Milton, Raynham, Hyannis, and Plymouth, where members run a restaurant called the Yellow Deli. Smith’s victims were abused in all of those towns except Plymouth, according to court documents.

The group’s website describes it as “an emerging spiritual nation” whose members aim to live like the early disciples and follow the Old and New Testament. 

An investigation from the Denver Post in 2022 described the Twelve Tribes as a cult that exploits members, pushes racist, misogynistic, and homophobic teachings, and fails to protect children from sexual abuse.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit advocacy group, said Twelve Tribes is a white supremacist cult that extensively beats children who misbehave and believes that homosexuality should be punished by death.

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Psychologist, 53, who works at Tavistock clinic remains FREE to practice despite being caught grooming a schoolboy, 15, for sex in a park

A child psychologist at the controversial Tavistock hospital trust remains free to practise despite being caught grooming a schoolboy for sex in a park.

Dr Ross Canade was entrusted to treat youngsters’ mental health as lead psychologist at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, which became infamous for its gender clinic helping children to transition to a different sex.

Canade was snared by a group of self-styled ‘paedophile hunters’ in an online sting after he sent sexually explicit messages to a youngster who told him he was aged 15.

The 53-year-old psychologist met up with his would-be victim in a Nando’s restaurant, then arranged to go to a local park to have sex. 

The pair were ‘ambushed’ by members of a vigilante group posing as friends of the youngster who had been monitoring their interactions, a court heard.

Canade pleaded guilty on July 29 to attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming. On Monday, he was handed a 12-month suspended sentence by a judge at Wood Green Crown Court.

Although he was spared jail, he was sacked by the Tavistock.

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US Catholic diocese agrees $320mn sex abuse payout

A US Roman Catholic diocese in Long Island, New York has announced a massive bankruptcy settlement under which it will pay out $323 million to hundreds of alleged survivors of sexual abuse by clergy members.   

The Rockville Center reached a preliminary settlement on Thursday with about 600 plaintiffs who claimed abuse by priests as children, according to a law firm representing the survivors.   

The diocese had previously offered the survivors a $200 million settlement, which they reportedly rejected.  

“After nearly four years we do have a global resolution,” Corrine Ball told US Bankruptcy Court Judge Martin Glenn in Manhattan. Glenn said the deal represented “enormous progress” and that it came “within a hair’s breadth” of failure.

Rockville Center will contribute $234.8 million to the settlement fund, while four insurers will contribute $85.3 million, a spokesperson for the diocese said.  

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Paedophiles: A Protected Class

Let’s dive straight in by quoting from some mainstream outlets.

Via The Guardian (31st July 2024):

How the Huw Edwards scandal might affect the BBC’s reputation

As it faces accusations of being caught out, corporation has decisions to take on pay and use of archive footage.

Mark Sweney

Wed 31 Jul 2024 17.14 BST

The former BBC presenter Huw Edwards’ guilty plea to charges of making indecent images of children has sent the corporation into damage limitation mode, raising questions about management’s handling of the scandal and the impact on its reputation.

“The BBC is shocked to hear the details which have emerged in court today,” said a spokesperson for the corporation. “There can be no place for such abhorrent behaviour and our thoughts are with all those affected.”

The 62-year-old, the face of the BBC’s coverage of national events including the funeral of the late queen and the coronation of King Charles and a main presenter on BBC One’s News at Ten, admitted to having 41 indecent images of children that had been sent to him at his request by another man on WhatsApp.

They included seven category A images, the most serious, showing abuse including penetrative sexual activity, two of which showed a child aged between about seven and nine.

Edwards, who is facing a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and will be sentenced on 16 September, was the BBC’s highest-paid newsreader, pocketing between £475,000 and £479,000 in the year to 31 March.

He continued to be paid, including receiving a £40,000 pay rise, despite not working for most of that time, having been suspended by the BBC since last July.

It is just unreal. Edwards continued to get paid the whole time throughout his suspension. With British taxpayer money. Should the British Broadcasting Corporation be renamed as the ‘Paedophile Broadcasting Corporation’ aka PBC?

It is sick.

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State police investigating social media claims about VT pedophile MAP gathering this weekend

The Vermont State Police today commented on intense local, state and online social media buzz about a MAP (Minor Attracted Persons) gathering reportedly scheduled to occur in Washington County beginning on Thursday, September 19. Minor Attracted Persons is another term for pedophiles.

The social media posts have named two Washington County individuals as playing a role in the reported gathering, and also have speculated on the location. VDC is withholding these names and other details, as neither the event nor the Sept. 19 event have been confirmed. A website promoting a Washington County MAP event was taken down from the internet.

Vermont Daily Chronicle reached out to the Vermont State Police today for their comment. Spokesperson Adam Silverman responded:

“The Vermont State Police is aware of reports circulating online that a gathering of individuals calling themselves “minor-attracted persons” might be taking place this weekend in Washington County.

“VSP is unable to monitor events or groups that engage in activities that courts have ruled are protected by the First Amendment regardless of the views those groups express. If we receive reports of criminal conduct, we would be able to open an investigation.

“That said, since being made aware of this potential event, VSP has been working to understand what this event might entail and how best to manage any security-related and safety-related concerns for those involved and everyone in the vicinity.”

At today’s noontime press conference, VDC asked Gov. Scott if he had any updates on these reports. He passed the question along to Vermont Department of Public Safety Deputy Commissioner Daniel Batse, who said they have heard “conflicting reports.”

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Illegal migrant accused of raping Nantucket pre-teen child went free on bail before ICE could nab him

Local authorities in Massachusetts allowed an illegal migrant accused of raping a pre-teen child to walk free on bail — and never called immigration authorities, according to a shocking report from ICE.

Bryan Daniel Aldana-Arevalo, 28, was charged on July 26 on the wealthy island of Nantucket with one count of rape of a child with a 10-year age difference and two counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14, authorities said.

Three days later, he was released on bail by Nantucket District Court.

ICE officers ultimately arrested Aldana-Arevalo on Sept. 10 after tracking him down.

He is in federal custody awaiting his day in immigration court.

ICE Boston Field Office Director Todd M. Lyons called Aldana-Arevalo’s alleged crimes both “detestable and disturbing.”

“He represents a significant danger to the children of our Massachusetts communities. ERO [ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations] Boston will not tolerate such a threat to the most vulnerable of our population. We will continue to prioritize the safety of our public by arresting and removing egregious noncitizen offenders from our New England neighborhoods,” said Lyons.

Aldana-Arevalo made his way to the island of Nantucket after sneaking into the US from El Salvador.

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Philippines police say ‘alarming details’ uncovered in new allegations against celebrity preacher

Police in the Philippines said on Wednesday more people had come forward alleging sexual abuse by celebrity pastor Apollo Quiboloy, pointing to what they called an alarming pattern of crimes by the wealthy, self-proclaimed “Appointed Son of God”.

Quiboloy, who is facing a raft of charges in the Philippines and the United States including sex trafficking, money laundering and child abuse, was arrested on Sunday after a weeks-long search of his church’s sprawling 30-hectare (74-acre) compound by more than 2,000 security personnel.

Quiboloy for years cultivated an image as a charismatic spiritual leader with divine powers, earning him millions of followers, a lavish lifestyle and powerful friends in the country’s political elite.

“These courageous victims have spoken up, revealing their harrowing experiences. The abuse they endured shows an alarming pattern of manipulation and exploitation,” Philippine police chief General Francisco Marbil said in a statement.

Those included girls as young as 12 and were part of a group of what police called “inner-circle pastorals” who have been crucial in uncovering the full extent of Quiboloy’s alleged crimes, Marbil added.

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Federal Government Placing Alien Children in Trafficking Ring

The federal government delivered alien children to a trafficking ring in Florida, according to a bombshell new investigation by journalists from Muckraker.com.

Muckraker journalists conducted a months-long investigation into the Unaccompanied Children Program run by the Department of Health and Human Services, and discovered that children were being placed by the federal government in the hands of a trafficking ring.

Even worse, Muckraker alleges that when the federal government was made aware of the situation, nothing was done to remedy it or locate the alien children who had been placed with the traffickers.

“We have now obtained first-hand testimonies from children who were delivered to a trafficking ring in Florida,” Muckraker tweeted.

According to insiders, the Department of Health and Human Services has known about this trafficking case for 3 years but did nothing to find the trafficked children.

“According to the children we found, they were encouraged to come to the United States after hearing radio advertisements in Guatemala promoting the journey.

“Upon reaching the United States, the ‘sponsor’ who received them held a debt over their head and has been extorting them for years. This same sponsor is linked directly and indirectly to many more children who have been smuggled into the U.S.”

Muckraker will release a full exposé of the Unaccompanied Children program soon, “including confrontations with the CIA contracting group that delivers the children, and testimonies from trafficked children who have been delivered across America and forgotten.”

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Child abuse images removed from AI image-generator training source, researchers say

Artificial intelligence researchers said Friday they have deleted more than 2,000 web links to suspected child sexual abuse imagery from a dataset used to train popular AI image-generator tools.

The LAION research dataset is a huge index of online images and captions that’s been a source for leading AI image-makers such as Stable Diffusion and Midjourney.

But a report last year by the Stanford Internet Observatory found it contained links to sexually explicit images of children, contributing to the ease with which some AI tools have been able to produce photorealistic deepfakes that depict children.

That December report led LAION, which stands for the nonprofit Large-scale Artificial Intelligence Open Network, to immediately remove its dataset. Eight months later, LAION said in a blog post that it worked with the Stanford University watchdog group and anti-abuse organizations in Canada and the United Kingdom to fix the problem and release a cleaned-up dataset for future AI research.

Stanford researcher David Thiel, author of the December report, commended LAION for significant improvements but said the next step is to withdraw from distribution the “tainted models” that are still able to produce child abuse imagery.

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New York Cop Sentenced to Ten Weekends in Jail for Raping 13-Year-Old Girl

An upstate New York cop has been sentenced to serve just ten weekends in jail after pleading guilty to raping a 13-year-old girl.

Shawn Jordan, a 40-year-old former Rochester police officer, had the shockingly light sentence handed to him on Wednesday after making a plea deal concerning the 2022 rape of a South Bristol teen, WHEC reported. 

He will also be on probation for ten years and registered as a sex offender.

The mother of the victim “begged” Ontario County Judge Kristina Karle to send her now-15-year-old daughter’s rapist to prison, but Karle refused. 

Ontario County Assistant District Attorney Kelly Wolford acknowledged that Jordan’s sentence is weak but justified the decision by pointing out that the girl will not have to relive the trauma by testifying in a courtroom. 

“I’m not entirely satisfied with the sentence … but, ultimately, as a prosecutor, I have to weigh things like the impact of actually having to testify on the victim of this crime,” Wolford said. “And she’s a child, and she was going to have to face her accuser in the courtroom. And when I was given the opportunity to consider whether or not we’d take a guilty plea — absolutely, all day, in a circumstance like this.”

“I’m thankful that it’s over for the victim and her family, who were here today in court. It’s been a long process to get to this point but, ultimately, just thankful they can move on and start to heal,” the prosecutor added, according to the local outlet. 

Jordan has reportedly been bragging about receiving such a lenient punishment for his heinous crime. 

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