Norman – The vehicle involved in an Amber Alert more than two months ago has been discovered in Norman and the bodies of two people have been found, officials say.

Norman police were called to a rural area east of Norman at about 2:45 p.m. Monday by a citizen who located the car near Highway 9 and 108th Avenue Southeast.

The white Toyota Paseo driven by Lester Hobbs, suspected in the January 24th beating death of his estranged wife, Tonya Hobbs, has been sought for more than two months. Hobbs is also suspected of having abducted Tonya Hobbs’ daughter, seven-year-old Aja Johnson.
KFOR-TV reports the body of one person was found inside the vehicle while another body was found outside the car. The identities of the bodies discovered have not been released.

It’s unclear how long the vehicle has been there.

SOURCE:

http://www.ktul.com/news/stories/0310/720553.html

Professor also took part in alleged crime:

March 28, 2010

Florida (ChattahBox) – Jared Mitchell Harrell, a 24-year-old man being held on suspicion of the murder of 7-year-old Somer Thompson, was originally arrested on 50 counts of sexual abuse against another young girl.

Harrell, who at the time of Somer’s murder was living with his parents on her school route, was originally sought in connection to a sexual abuse case against another unnamed victim, who he allegedly raped and recorded it.

He was charged with 50 counts such as sexual battery of a child under the age of 12, and creation and possession of child pornography.

Somer was walking home from school with her siblings when she got into a fight with another child and hurried ahead of them. When they arrived home she was not there.

Police believe Harrell kidnapped her en route, assaulted her and then murdered her.

Her body was found in a landfill 50 miles away in the state of Georgia.

Harrell has pleaded ‘not guilty’.

Source

A Springfield man will spend the rest of his life in prison for forcibly raping and sodomizing a 9-year-old girl.

A Greene County judge Friday sentenced Robert Langford, Jr., 28, after a jury convicted him earlier this month.

Prosecutors say Langford was a friend of the girl’s family and was in the family’s East Pythian home when the incidents took place in late January.

READ MORE:

http://www.kspr.com/news/local/89344042.html

Larry Hendricks Connie Cordain, licensed marriage and family therapist, speaks with guests prior to her presentation at the annual kick-off of Child Abuse Prevention Awarness Month, during a luncheon sponsored by the Coconino County Coalition for Children & Youth Friday. (Larry Hendricks/Arizona Daily Sun)

“In the trenches.” The phrase need not refer to war, said Connie Cordain, a licensed marriage and family therapist, although fighting a war against neglect and abuse of children is noble.

Rather, asked Cordain, why not look at trenches the way a gardener would, where planting seeds ends in the cultivation and growth of a plant?

That was the message of this year’s kick-off of Child Abuse Prevention Month during a luncheon hosted by the Coconino County Coalition for Children & Youth Friday.

About 150 people from the criminal justice, law enforcement, education, social service and health care fields attended the event.

“Child abuse is real, which makes child abuse prevention necessary,” said David McIntire, president of the coalition.

The coalition’s mission is “to provide leadership in developing community-wide strategies that can enhance the well-being of children and youth in Coconino County,” according to information from the coalition.

Beginning her remarks, Cordain asked everybody to look across the room and at one another.

“Those here today represent that hope to strike down abuse,” Cordain said.

Cordain reminded the crowd of the painful year everybody has had as the recession deepened and budgets were cut. She painted a bleak picture of more youth committing suicide, living in homes with unemployed parents and living in poverty.

She spoke of children without health insurance and poor graduation rates.

STILL SOME GOOD NEWS

But, despite the setbacks, there’s still good news, Cordain.

“While it feels like we’re taking two steps forward and one step back, we are still moving forward to make change,” Cordain said, adding that the process sometimes takes decades.

Cordain said that according to an Annie E. Casey 2009 report, child abuse nationwide has decreased by more than 20 percent.

“Our work actually makes the lives of children safer,” she reminded the group.

She looked back at local events she considered good for youth — the school district bond override, expansion of St. Mary’s Food Bank Alliance, Flagstaff Project Connect, Girls on the Run and the Flagstaff Family Food Center reading room.

READ MORE:

http://www.azdailysun.com/news/local/article_14a77635-1221-5bec-bfed-187f713076e6.html

A Melrose man was arraigned on forcible rape charges last Thursday in Malden District Court after allegedly sexually abusing two young girls, one of whom reported the incidents to police, Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone announced.

Francis Watt, 68, of Melrose, faces two counts of rape of a child with force, three counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under the age of 14, and child enticement. Malden District Court Judge Lee Johnson ordered Watt held on $15,000 cash bail with the condition that he remain confined to his home with GPS monitoring with the exception of work, and that he have no contact with the alleged victims, potential witnesses, or children under the age of 16.

Police arrested Watt last week after one of his alleged victims reported the incidents and submitted a surveillance tape showing encounters between Watt and a second victim, who was 12 at the time and has special needs. When interviewed by police, Watt admitted to abusing the second victim, the district attorney’s office stated.

“Because of the brave actions of one of the victims in coming forward to police, the defendant’s sexual abuse against children was realized,” Leone wrote in a press release.

Melrose Police Chief Michael Lyle said his department would cooperate fully with the Middlesex District Attorney’s office during the investigation, which is ongoing.

“My heart goes out to the victims and their families,” he said.

READ MORE:

http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/melrose/2010/03/melrose_man_arraigned_on_child.html

Several other adults abused her trust by not acting to protect her or to act on the allegations when she confided in them during her time on the TV show.

And as our current laws stand, by staying silent about alleged abuse, these adults did nothing wrong.

To put it in perspective, think of it this way. Do 64km/h in a 60km/h zone and they’ll fine you. But if you stay silent when a child says he or she is being molested, chances are there’s little to suggest you could face any strife.

Monahan courageously told various members of her on-screen family she was being abused by her on-screen dad, Robert Hughes.

But did they report these allegations – which have been denied by Hughes – to NSW’s Sex Crimes Squad? No.

They say they did what they could to protect her, but they failed to take the only real action that would have put an end to the abuse – go to the police.

These actors, including Simone Buchanan and Ben Oxenbould, are now rightly copping criticism as they unite in a show of support for their young co-star.

To make matters worse, some of the Hey Dad! stars are reportedly being paid to show their concern on the pages of Woman’s Day and on our screens during A Current Affair.

But where the hell was all this public outrage 20 years ago?

What isn’t well known is that adults’ silence back then was totally legal.

And 20 years later in Victoria – and NSW, where the show was filmed – it seems that nothing has changed.

Unless you are a police officer, teacher, nurse or doctor, you are not legally required to report allegations of child abuse to authorities.

You can’t be held accountable. You can’t be charged. You can’t even be fined.

Well, guess what? That is outrageous.

All child abuse is serious, and must be reported and investigated immediately for the sake of the current and future victims.

READ MORE:

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/opinion/abuse-must-be-reported/story-e6frfhqf-1225847160321

L.A. County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, responding to the deaths of children who passed through the county’s child welfare system, on Monday renewed his call to update the computer system designed to provide child abuse investigators with information about a child’s jeopardy.

The Times reported Sunday that county’s system for sharing information about suspicious injuries, domestic violence and other key risk factors was among the unfinished reform efforts. The system has been repeatedly cited over the years as insufficient, and its shortcomings have played a critical role in numerous child deaths and abuse cases.

“Technology may not be a cure, but it is part of the treatment,” Ridley-Thomas said in a statement that also acknowledged the role of deep poverty, high social worker caseloads and multigenerational patterns of abuse.

“We must give the protectors of minors in the county’s custody or care [the] adequate tools for their mission to safeguard children,” he said. “We wouldn’t think of sending soldiers to war carrying jammed rifles; we can’t go on asking social workers to use an incomplete children’s data network just because it’s what we now have.”

READ MORE:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/03/in-response-to-more-child-deaths-la-supervisor-renews-call-for-updated-computer-system.html

Religious leaders in New York State continue to fight a proposed child abuse law that would temporarily lift the statute of limitations for lawsuits alleging the sexual abuse of children. According to The New York Times, opposition to the law, known as the Child Victims Act, is being led by the Catholic Church, and a loose coalition that includes leaders of the Hasidic and Sephardic Jewish institutions in Brooklyn.

The impetus for the Child Victims Act was the Roman Catholic Church child sexual abuse scandal that has rocked New York, as well as much of the country, over the past decade. Because of the current statute of limitations, hundreds of claims filed in recent years against Catholic priests and dioceses in New York have been dismissed.

Currently, the deadline for bringing such a lawsuit in New York is 5 years after a victim turns 18. The Child Victims Act would give victims a one-year exemption from the statute of limitations. Regardless of how long ago the alleged abuse occurred, they could file suit in civil court. At the year’s end, time limits on such claims would be restored, but with a wider window: Instead of a five-year period after turning 18, victims would have 10 years to file claims.

READ MORE:

http://www.newsinferno.com/archives/19434

AP

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., speaks at a rally on Capitol Hill in Washington on Feb. 24, 2010.

Senator Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is pushing for a national registry of child abusers. “Track child beaters like we do sex offenders,” blares one headline. It sounds like a righteous idea, at first glance. But although it may look like a huge step, and is certainly being announced as such, ultimately it will only make it easier for people to find out what other people already know. And it’s what we don’t know, in cases of child abuse, that tends to do the most harm.

Registries for child abuse already exist, on the state level, though federal law doesn’t mandate that states keep them. A key factor in the national registry — which was authorized in 2006, but which has not yet been put into place (an extensive feasibility report was published in May 2009) — is that it would centralize the information and allow child protective services easier access to it when abusers cross state lines.

Schumer compared the national registry for child abusers to registries for sex offenders. But that begins to make clear some of the potential shortfalls of the system: For one, tracking sex offenders is only one of the ways we work to prevent repeat crimes, and it doesn’t always work. And, just as in the case of the sex offender registry, this system would only work to track abusers who have been reported — which seems like a point so obvious it’s not worth bringing up, until you think about how underreported child abuse actually is. A report by the National Center on Child Abuse Prevention Research, the “Child Maltreatment Fact Sheet 2006,” gives a sense of it: In cases of fatalities caused by child abuse, only 16 percent of the families were known to child protective services.

READ MORE:

http://www.salon.com/life/broadsheet/2010/03/29/schumer_tracking_child_abusers/

Enid, OK - The phone rang in Robert Gamble’s house at 9:00 Wednesday morning – it was his daughter, Amanda Gamble. She had called to tell him his granddaughter, 22-month-old Evie, had been injured and she needed his help. Amanda told her father she woke that morning to find Evie’s head extremely swollen and bruised.

Robert rushed to his daughter’s home and when he arrived, I’m positive his heart broke into a million tiny pieces. “When she opened the door she had the baby in her arms, and the baby’s head was hugely swollen,” Robert said. “Her eyelid was swollen shut, and she held out her arms and said, ‘Papa.’”

Robert rushed the two to the emergency room and asked hospital staff to call law enforcement. According to Robert, “Evie’s ear was bent down because her head was so swollen on the left side,” and she had what appeared to be knuckle marks on the back of her ear. Her shoulders and neck were bruised. Evie must have tried her hardest to fend off the monster who attacked her – she had defensive wounds on the left side of her hand.

READ MORE:

http://www.dreamindemon.com/2010/03/27/who-beat-the-crap-out-of-little-evie-gamble/#more-9576

A Florida music teacher for the Royal Child Academy in Summerfield has been charged with 18 counts of criminal acts involving children, including four counts of lewd and lascivious molestation, one count of lewd and lascivious conduct, 12 counts of lewd and lascivious exhibition and one count of child abuse.

Police believe between early 2009 and 2010, David Solomon Lanham, of Ocala, had kissed, fondled, shoved to the ground and sexually assaulted at least four different children between the ages of 5 and 11.

According to the Ocala Star-Banner, the 29-year-old is also a “worship leader” at the Open Door Community Church, where the school is located.

The investigation began on March 13th, when parents of one of the victims contacted police after their child had told them that Lanham had touched his “private area”.

Lanham is also accused of kissing another young boy and making him touch his (Lanham’s) genital area as well as performing a sexual act on an 11-year-old in a bathroom while attending a summer camp.

That child also claims he was molested at the school.

READ MORE:

http://deadkidsofmyspace.com/

TORRANCE, Calif. (AP) — A Southern California fortuneteller has been convicted on nine felony sex counts for convincing two teenage girls he could turnaround bleak futures if they had sex with him.

A Torrance jury deliberated about a day before returning guilty verdicts Thursday against 47-year-old Cesar Duran on charges that included forcible rape and lewd acts with minors. He faces up to 30 years in prison when he’s sentenced in April.

Prosecutor Lana Kim said the Inglewood man tricked the girls into having sex with him by telling them bad things would happen and he could help by having sex with them.

READ MORE:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-us-fortuneteller-sex,0,6830048.story

Oklahoma – OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – A Senate budget panel has cleared a wide range of bills, allowing everything from teaching the Bible in public high schools to the death penalty for child rapists.

The Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday approved more than three dozen bills during a marathon session.

Among the bills approved was a measure that would allow the death penalty for convicted felons who rape a child age 6 or younger. Despite concerns from some members that the U.S. Supreme Court already struck down a similar Louisiana law just two years ago, Senate author Anthony Sykes says there are some notable differences. Sykes says he plans to amend the bill to require a previous conviction for child rape and require the offender to have the intent to kill the child.

SOURCE:

http://www.ktul.com/news/stories/0310/719163.html

The sexual assaults occurred in a home over more than two years, police say.

Carey

WILKES-BARRE – City police charged a man Friday on allegations he raped two girls and gave them money to keep quiet about it for more than two years.

James Carey, 53, of Barney Street, Wilkes-Barre, was charged with three counts of indecent assault, two counts each of statutory sexual assault, endangering the welfare of children, indecent exposure and corruption of minors, and one count each of rape and rape of a child. He was arraigned by District Judge Martin Kane in Wilkes-Barre and jailed at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility for lack of $20,000 bail.

Carey was charged after a three-month investigation by city police Detective Brent L. Sevison.

Police allege Carey sexually assaulted the two girls from March 2007 to December.

READ MORE:

http://www.timesleader.com/news/W-B_man_charged_with_raping_2_girls_03-27-2010.html

?

A Sept. 28 trial date has been set for a retired priest removed from his position in the Catholic Church after allegations of child sexual abuse in the mid-1970s surfaced.

During a pretrial conference Friday in Frederick County Circuit Court, Thomas Roy Bevan, 73, of Cascade, waived his right to a trial within 180 days of being charged.

On Jan. 22, a Frederick County grand jury indicted Bevan on two counts of child abuse by a custodian.

If convicted, Bevan could be ordered to serve as much as 15 years in prison for each of the offenses.

Bevan has denied the allegations.

Defense attorney Stephen F. Brennwald requested that the trial be postponed to give him more time to prepare and to consult with expert witnesses.

Assistant State’s Attorney Lindell K. Angel is prosecuting the case, which will be heard by visiting Montgomery County Circuit Judge Richard E. Jordan.

In late November, the Archdiocese of Baltimore announced an investigation had determined that the allegations against Bevan were credible.

READ MORE:

http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/news/display.htm?StoryID=102985

Slideshow

WEST PALM BEACH, FL–A West Palm Beach couple has been arrested for acts of child abuse so brutal that investigators say they often involved the couple using their fists, cable cords, ropes, belts and boards to beat their three young children.

According to a child abuse investigation, officers responded to reports of abuse after one of the couple’s children had run barefoot and crying to a neighbor’s house after being beaten. Investigators met with the child and she described being hit with a cord by her mother that afternoon. She also told investigators that her mother and step father would regularly hit, punch and choke her and her siblings for misbehaving.

READ MORE:

http://www.wptv.com/content/news/centralpbc/westpalmbeach/story/Arrests-made-in-child-torture-abuse/dUtxap2pVUWzaoe8vXgFJQ.cspx

While child abuse such as that meted out to Ryan Lovell-Hancox is sadly not uncommon in the UK, there are some cases over the past few years that have proved particularly shocking. The following are the most harrowing examples:

Baby P suffered more than 50 injuries after months of abuse despite over 60 visits from social workers

Khyra Ishaq had been denied food for five months and kept shut away from the world Photo: PA

Just weeks ago, the mother of seven-year-old Khyra Ishaq was jailed, along with her convict boyfriend, for starving her daughter and subjecting her to months of abuse. A High Court judge ruled that Khyra would “in all probability” have survived if welfare officers in Birmingham had acted on concerns that were reported to them and taken her away from the pair.

Baby Peter was 17 months old when he died in August 2007 at the hands of his mother Tracey Connelly, her boyfriend Steven Barker and their lodger Jason Owen. He suffered more than 50 injuries after months of abuse despite over 60 visits from social workers and being placed on the “at risk” register.

READ MORE:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/baby-p/7527795/Ryan-Lovell-Hancox-worst-cases-of-child-abuse.html

SAGINAW, Mich.– Police in Michigan say a 45-year-old woman with a cocaine habit allowed a 67-year-old man to have sex with her 10-year old granddaughter in exchange for the drug.

Angela A. Blackwell of Saginaw Township is charged with first-degree criminal sexual conduct and pandering.

She remained in jail Wednesday pending a preliminary hearing set for March 30.

Her lawyer did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

Police are searching for Johnnie L. Griffin on first- and second-degree criminal sexual conduct and firearms charges.

If convicted, the pair could be sentenced to at least 25 years in prison.

READ MORE:

http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-cocaine-girl,0,377264.story

A 50-year-old Texas man working as a Youth Minister for a local church has been arrested for aggravated sexual assault of a child.

Dwight Leonard Bullock, of Jasper, was apprehended by authorities following telephone calls from multiple parents who had told them that their children might have been possibly molested by the youth minister employed by the Moore Chapel CME Church.

After the alleged victims were examined, police powered with a search warrant; went to his home where they reportedly discovered various pictures of children being sexually abused by Bullock on his personal computer.

They also state they recovered Marijuana at home in Jasper, which might explain why he was charged with aggravated sexual assault.

READ MORE:

http://deadkidsofmyspace.com/

Krystal Gardner Used A Baby To Stop The Repo Man

Dallas, TX (The Weekly Vice) – Krystal Gardner, a 28-year-old Dallas woman was jailed Monday after she allegedly attempted to throw her 1-year-old through the open window of a moving car to prevent it from being repossessed.

According to Dallas police, Luke Ross came to Gardner’s residence around 4:00 p.m. and attempted to repossess a vehicle.

Investigators say Ross was pulling the vehicle away when Gardner threw her child into an open window, hoping to stop the repossession.

Ross immediately parked the vehicle and started to get out when Jessie Reyna, Gardner’s 15-year-old son, came out of the house with a 12-gauge shotgun and fired one round in the air, then another at Ross, shooting him in the leg.

Ross suffered minor injuries, but still managed to repossess the vehicle.

Gardner was booked into jail on charges of aggravated assault and child endangering. She also had several outstanding traffic warrants. She is being held in lieu of $4,000 bail.

READ MORE:

http://www.theweeklyvice.com/2010/03/krystal-gardner-used-baby-to-stop-repo.html

Pace for News

Former Christ the King boys basketball coach Bob Oliva faces life in prison after being indicted on two counts of raping a child by a Massachusetts grand jury.

Bob Oliva, the legendary Christ the King Regional High School boy’s basketball coach who resigned last year amid sex abuse allegations, was indicted on Thursday by a Massachusetts grand jury on two counts of rape of a child.

If convicted, Oliva could spend the rest of his life in prison.

The grand jury also indicted Oliva on one count of disseminating pornography to a minor, said Jake Wark, a spokesman for Suffolk County (Mass.) District Attorney Daniel F. Conley. The maximum penalty for that charge is five years in prison.

Wark said Oliva is not in custody and prosecutors have contacted the ex-coach’s attorney, Michael Doolin, to schedule an arraignment and discuss bail.

Wark said his office does not release the names of sexual assault victims, but a man named Jimmy Jimmy Carlino told the Daily News last year that Oliva, his coach at the St. Teresa of Avila youth basketball program in Queens, had molested him for several years during the 1970s.

Doolin said Oliva is not guilty of the charges.

EAGLE MOUNTAIN, Utah – Leslie Erickson, 48, is facing three counts of child abuse charges after taking her five-year-old girl to the hospital in critical condition. Erickson and her husband took their daughter to get medical help Sunday morning. They told police she fell and hit her head, but doctors at the hospital disagreed. They believe the child suffered blunt force trauma and showed signs of strangulation.

“They took the girl to surgery, they and had to remove a portion of her [victim's] skull to relieve pressure that was building inside her skull inside the brain, from the swelling…she is in critical condition, they weren’t sure she’d survive the night,” says Utah County Sheriff Sgt. Spence Cannon.

READ MORE:

http://www.fox13now.com/news/kstu-saratoga-woman-accused-child-abuse,0,2588572.story