RIVERSIDE, CA — A dad in Riverside has taken out a restraining order against a 4th-grader who allegedly threatened his son with a knife. A judge has granted a temporary order requiring the classmate to stay at least 20 feet away from Robert Casteel’s 10-year-old son, Christopher. The school district and the classmate — whose name has not been released — were served with the order on Tuesday.

A Ukrainian hockey coach was charged today in federal court with traveling for the purpose of engaging in illicit sexual conduct and transporting a person to engage in criminal sexual activity. The case is being investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). Ivan Pravilov was accused of molesting a 14-year-old boy in his apartment in the Mt. Airy section of Philadelphia.

OCALA, FL — A 13-year-old girl was brutally beaten on a school bus, all because she wanted to sit down, authorities said. In all, seven children were arrested for the attack, which happened in Ocala, Florida. The beating was caught on the bus’ surveillance camera. The teenage victim suffered a concussion before the driver could break things up. The girl’s mother says the reason for the fight was petty.

A Special Forces soldier has been jailed after being accused of using an electric dog collar to punish two small children. Michael Lee Mitchell is also accused of torturing the girls by making them carry out extreme physical exercise until they vomited. The eight-year-old girl told authorities Mitchell would put the dog collar on arm after and use it to shock her if she stopped running. She told police Mitchell threatened to put the device on her neck before wrapping it around her arm.

MANCHESTER, Tenn. – A Manchester man charged with child abuse, domestic violence and drug possession is recovering after inmates in the Coffee County jail attacked him on January 11. Jeremy Neal had to be taken to Vanderbilt University Medical Center for reconstructive surgery on his teeth, face and eyes. The Coffee County sheriff estimates the medical cost for the county will reach $100,000. The county will cover the cost because Neal was in county custody when he was attacked.

STERLING, Colo. — More than 200 people gathered to remember the life of 3-year-old Caleb Pacheco, a toddler whose body was discovered underneath a mobile home on Sunday. “Why did this have to happen like this, they could have done something, like an amber alert or something,” said relative Rose Pacheco. Investigators in Logan County discovered the boy’s body after receiving tips from family members that the child had not been seen or heard from for several months. The Pacheco family is hoping an investigation into complaints at the Logan County Social Services office could help uncover the timeline that lead to the child’s death.

The Academy Award winning actress Halle Berry has been interviewed by police and CPS in conjunction with allegation by their nanny that Gabriel Aubry, Nahla’s dad, pushed them against a door – and that this was not the first time he has done so. According to RadarOnline.com, the nanny, Alliance Kamdem, went to pick up Nahla from school last Wednesday when she discovered that the girl had been kept home by Aubry for the last two previous days. She then went to Aubry’s home, where she got into an argument with him over the fact that she was not told that the child was kept home.

A paedophile whose partner smothered their two children to death in a Spanish hotel has been found hanged in his jail cell. Martin Smith, 46, was discovered by prison officers shortly after eating his evening meal. They battled to resuscitate him but he was pronounced dead half an hour later. His partner Lianne Smith, 44 – the mother of his sex abuse victim – has been placed on suicide watch in a Spanish prison where she is being held. Smith, who claimed to be a psychic and hypnotist, was jailed for 16 years last March.

HOUSTON — A woman’s baby is dead and her boyfriend is in jail, accused of killing him. Now, she’s telling us what she says happened. Tiffany Wells is grieving. “I miss him so much,” Wells said. But she is also angry. “Y’all need to get your facts together before you start posting (expletive) all over the news,” she told us. After several attempts by Eyewitness News to reach her on Monday, she came home to the west Houston apartment she shared with her 16-month-old son, Casen Wells, and her fiance, Joshua Beall. Casen is now dead, and police believe Beall is responsible.

A primary mission at the National Association of Adult Survivors of Child Abuse is to help abused people who have reached maturity get into recovery. If you are a man or woman who experienced sexual abuse, violence, severe neglect or emotional trauma in your youth, and are still suffering its lasting effects, we want to help you have a happy, healthy, productive life, and meaningful relationships.

The contestants are set for Super Bowl Sunday. Fans from Pittsburgh, Green Bay and around the world will travel to Dallas starting next week for the festivities. It’s disgraceful but for some those festivities will include engaging in sex for pay with underage victims. Child sex trafficking is a year-round, worldwide problem. Numerous organizations, including our parent LexisNexis, are battling to end this tragedy. Now you can too, by petitioning the Super Bowl Host Committee to make a statement against child sex trafficking at the event.

On Sept. 1, 2010, the U.S. Marshal Service added Bruce Sawhill as a Top Five Fugitive during Operation Guardian — an initiative designed to track down the country’s worst sex offenders. Sawhill has continued to elude authorities, and now they need your help in tracking this dangerous sex offender down.

Today, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) released the results of its latest survey regarding the number of registered sex offenders located in the U.S. The organization’s most recent survey of states found there are 747,408 registered sex offenders in the country today, which represents an increase of 7,555 offenders from the previous survey in June 2011.

Dorri Olds was a lonely, vulnerable 13-year-old girl when she was gang raped by a group of teenage boys. Thirty-eight years later, one of the boys who raped her appeared on her Facebook page under the “People You May Know” section. Olds bravely wrote about her experience in an incredibly moving piece for The New York Times and talked to HLN’s Dr. Drew about her experience.

A red-headed schoolboy has been told he has to be taught in isolation — because he is being bullied by classmates for being ginger. Flame-haired Tyler Walsh, 12, has been taunted for months by cruel bullies because of the color of his hair. But after one incident last week when he was chased into a toilet by a group of year 10 students his mum Emma said the school told her it was best for Tyler to be taught away from other pupils. Ms Walsh, from Bristol, said: “Tyler is effectively being bullied out of school for being red-headed. “It should be the bullies who are excluded from school, not their victim.

DETROIT — Even if you don’t remember her name, you remember her story. At 14, Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped from her Utah home in 2002 while her younger sister watched in terror. Smart was held captive for nine months and repeatedly raped by a man who claimed that he was a prophet and that she was his second wife. The kidnappers, Brian David Mitchell and a woman he claimed was his first wife, Wanda Barzee, were caught after a passerby recognized him from photos of a sketch based on Mary Katherine Smart’s memory. Mitchell was sentenced to life in prison.

When a toddler has a broken bone, paediatricians may be more likely to suspect abuse if the family is lower-income, a new study finds. Researchers found that paediatricians who read a fictional case report of a toddler with a leg fracture were more likely to suspect abuse if the child was described as coming from a lower-income family. A hypothetical child’s race, on the other hand, did not appear to influence doctors’ opinions. The second finding is somewhat surprising, according to the researchers. Studies looking at real-world cases have found that minority children are more likely to be evaluated for abuse than white children are. And it’s well known that the child welfare system in the US has a disproportionate number of minority kids.

CHATTANOOGA – A Hamilton County Corrections Officer has been arrested on assault and child abuse charges. According to the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office, a Grand Jury returned indictments against Robert Medford on charges of aggravated assault, official oppression and misdemeanor child abuse. The Sheriff’s Office says on December 29, a juvenile inmate sprayed a germicide liquid on Medford.

A Houston woman has been sentenced by a Fort Bend County Judge to a total of 40 years in prison after pleading guilty to sexually abusing a young girl who was friends with her own children. Rowena Manuela Klinker was sentenced to 20 years in prison on each of two counts of Aggravated Sexual Assault of a Child after pleading guilty to the indictments. Klinker was eligible for probation.

More than half of social workers and a third of police officers feel powerless to intervene in suspected cases of child neglect, a report has revealed. The poll commissioned by Action For Children revealed while teachers, health workers and nursery staff are increasingly aware of child neglect they are often unsure what action should be taken. More than 4,000 people, including the general public, professionals and 47 local authorities, took part in the research through polling and focus groups.

A young Palestinian woman who was imprisoned for 10 years in a series of dark rooms by her father revealed today she survived the ordeal by listening to the radio, dreaming of seeing sunshine again and finding small pleasure in an apple she was fed each day. Baraa Melhem, 20, said she was enjoying her first taste of freedom after a decade of isolation and threats of rape and abuse, and she hopes to use her experience to help others.

On Sunday, Jan. 22, Orlando Harley-Davidson hosted a motorcycle ride along Interstate 4 to raise awareness of the Tri County Chapter of BIKERS AGAINST CHILD ABUSE (BACA), a nonprofit organization whose mission is to help create a safer environment for abused children. Hundreds of riders took part in the charitable police escorted ride and after-party. “We are honored to have teamed up with BACA in an effort to put an end to child abuse,” said Anne Deli, President of Orlando Harley-Davidson. “We were happy to provide motorcycle enthusiasts with an opportunity to support BACA by raising awareness for this worthy cause. It was a fun and meaningful day!”

Fort Wayne, IN – Chandra Greene, a 32-year-old Indiana woman was jailed Wednesday after she allegedly beat her son in the head with a hammer because “He ate her food.” According to police, an Indiana Department of Child Services caseworker went to Greene’s residence after the agency received a tip alleging that her middle-school age son had been hit in the head with a hammer.

A DEPRAVED pervert who was caught with sickening pornographic images of children and animals has been jailed indefinitely after a judge branded him a danger to the public. Gareth Owen, 22, was jailed last week for performing sex acts with his pet dog. Yesterday, he was locked up indefinitely under public protection laws at Teesside Crown Court after he was caught with a sick collection of child and extreme animal pornography. The court heard warped Owen lived in a world dominated by his deviant sexual fantasies and posed a high risk to the public.

Nevada cops are on the manhunt for Aldo Gonzalez, a man they say committed one of the most heinous crimes they’ve ever seen: kidnapping and raping a 12-year-old mentally-challenged girl. After being released by her captor, the young girl bravely led cops to the house where she was assaulted and identified the suspect as Aldo Gonzalez. Gonzalez plead guilty to the charges but fled while awaiting sentencing. Now, the U.S. Marshals have joined the manhunt for this brazen predator.