TUCSON – A Tucson man has been arrested on felony child abuse charges after an investigation that determined extensive injuries to his 7-week-old son were not caused by him being dropped in the shower, as the man claimed. David Hollenbeck, 26, was arrested for one count of Child Abuse, after Tucson Police and Dependent Child Unit detectives investigated the explanation for his child’s injuries, according to a TPD news release.  READ MORE HERE

Martial Arts Instructor Wanted for Molesting At Least 6 Girls

APPLE VALLEY, CA — Sheriff’s deputies are searching for an Apple Valley martial arts instructor facing child molestation charges. Umar Love, 30, was arrested Dec. 14 on suspicion of committing lewd acts on a child, after a 14-year-old girl reported that he had touched her inappropriately on a number of occasions. Sheriff’s investigators eventually uncovered a total of six females between ages 14 and 16 who reported that they had been molested by Love.  READ MORE HERE

Love is believed to be traveling with his girlfriend, Suzann Elizabeth Angel, 24, in a green 2001 BMW 325i, California license number 4SYK536. Anyone with information about their whereabouts or about possible additional victims is asked to contact the Apple Valley Police Department at (760) 240-7400 or (760) 245-4211 for the 24-hour sheriff’s dispatch.

GRAND TERRACE, CA — Sheriff’s deputies are searching for a man who allegedly locked his 2-year-old daughter in the garage while he got food and watched TV. The toddler’s grandmother went to the home of her father, Terrence Ford, 46, just before 11 a.m. Tuesday in the 22400 block of Terrace Pines Drive in Grand Terrace.  READ MORE HERE

SOMERVILLE, NJ–A high-ranking Somerville educator is under arrest after allegedly videotaping boys as they showered in the locker rooms at Immaculata High School in New Jersey. Patrick J. Lott, 54, is accused of surreptitiously filming boys in the showers for nearly three years, according to court filings obtained by Courier News. He is set to be arraigned Wednesday.  READ MORE HERE

A mother-of-three was shot to death in the parking lot of a McDonalds by her former husband as her children waited inside. Donna Marie Royer, 40, from Denver, was shot three times in the chest last night just after 5pm after her estranged husband Mark Royer drove up to her in the parking lot. About 90 minutes after the shooting, police found Royer’s body near his truck at a trailhead near Ponderosa HighSchool, said Parker Police Sgt Doreen Jokerst.  READ MORE HERE

A 70-year-old Bremerton man convicted of child molestation in California in 1964 was arrested recently for allegedly molesting an 11-year-old Port Orchard girl, the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office reports. According to the sheriff’s office, the suspect did not have to register as a sex offender in Kitsap County, even though he had a prior conviction.  READ MORE HERE

A WOMAN and child held captive in a Utah home were rescued after the mother was able to sneak on to Facebook and plead for help. Their alleged captor, Troy Critchfield, 33, was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping, sodomy, child abuse and animal cruelty, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. Police said Critchfield had held the woman and her 17-month-old son captive for about four or five days, taking her mobile phone and keeping her locked in a home in Sandy, Utah, south of Salt Lake City.  READ MORE HERE

Legislation that would remove time limits on filing civil claims in child sexual abuse cases is stalled in both houses of the state Legislature, which has advocates for abused children demanding action. Advocates held a press conference on Thursday, according to NJ.com, demanding votes on the bill and they hand-delivered copies of a letter to the governor and legislative leaders asking “for their support in passage of the bill, which was introduced late last year.”

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Christmas calls to Childline up after debt stress

SAD: Children’s charity had call every minute

ALMOST one child a minute contacted Childline for support on Christmas Day. The ISPCC said 1,384 youngsters looked for help on Christmas Day — 38pc up on last year — with many experiencing family difficulties and loneliness. Margie Roe, national Childline manager, said for most children Christmas is a time to have fun and spend time with family, but for many others it can be a time of fear, stress and trauma with alcohol abuse having a huge negative impact. READ MORE HERE

AN international karate champion is facing jail after being convicted of child abuse against a girl of 13. Liam O’Grady, a World and European gold medalist, collapsed in the dock after being convicted by a jury which heard he texted her 4,759 times over eight months. He sent the girl sex texts and pictures and abused her in his house, his car and men’s toilets, York crown court heard.  READ MORE HERE

CALGARY — A dramatic rise in crimes against children is prompting Calgary police to bump up its child abuse unit. The addition of seven investigators, nearly doubling the unit, is designed to help police deal with an increasing workload of disturbing cases of violence against youngsters. “It’s not just Calgary that’s seen this dramatic increase. It’s right across Canada and the U.S. It’s a dramatic, notable increase in offenses against children,” said Calgary police Chief Rick Hanson. In Calgary last year, there were 873 cases of children being beaten, sexually abused or killed. That’s up from 713 in 2006.  READ MORE HERE

A couple who allegedly left four young children alone in an apartment covered with algae, mold and feces have been charged in court. While the children were alone, two of the four boys climbed on the edge of a second-story balcony drawing concern from neighbors. Jonathan Robert Brown, 30, and Warintip Loto, 24, both of Tamuning, are being held on $5,000 cash bail after being charged with multiple counts of felony child abuse, said Carlina Charfauros, a spokeswoman for the Office of the Attorney General.  READ MORE HERE

Authorities Say Toddler Had Bruises, Skull Fracture

STOKES COUNTY, N.C. — Authorities said a 22-year-old Stokes County man has been charged with abusing his son.The child’s mother, Jennifer Daehnke, said she was at work last Dec. 4 when she received a call that her 5-month-old son, Payton, had been injured. READ MORE HERE

LOS ANGELES — A man in police custody after allegedly having sex with and pimping a 12-year-old girl. Michael Vincent Pree, 23, was arrested last week on charges of sexual assault of a minor, according to LAPD. According to LAPD, Pree contacted the victim, who was under the age of 12, took her to his home and forced her to have sex with him.

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The 24-year-old San Jose mother who dropped her toddler from a two-story windown on Christmas morning has been booked on attempted murder, child abuse and assault with a deadly weapon charges, San Jose police said Monday. Sgt. Jason Dwyer did not know whether Lupita Cotez had been “paper booked” and was still in the hospital suffering from broken bones in her ankles and feet, or whether she had been physically taken into jail custody. A jail spokesman did not immediately return comment to determine her exact location.

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More charges for Iowa mom accused of failing to stop boyfriend from molesting her daughters

DAVENPORT, Iowa — More charges have been filed against a 29-year-old Davenport woman who’s accused of doing nothing to stop her boyfriend from molesting her three daughters. The woman had already been charged with misdemeanor child endangerment. Scott County Attorney Mike Walton told television station WQAD that the new charges include three counts of neglect and three of child endangerment. Three of the counts are felonies.

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The Mount Diablo Unified School District Custodian who was arrested on child molestation charges last week worked at at least two Concord elementary schools, according to sources. Law enforcement & the school district aren’t saying where 44-year-old Walnut Creek resident John Astor worked, but we’re hearing it was at Holbrook Elementary & Cambridge Elementary, which are both located in the City of Concord.

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Shame of the Nation:

Sexual Violence in America

Many sex-related stories captured popular attention in 2011.  Most upsetting, many of the incidents involved sexual violence.  Taken together, they indicate something bigger, deeper, taking place in America, a social crisis.  It’s as if the body politic is moaning, declaring that sexual intimacy, too, is a terrain of the mounting social crisis.

A number of nonviolent incidents are illustrative.  Most pathetic, the outing of Herman Cain for an increasing number of disturbing actions involving women (e.g., pay-offs related to sexual harassment suits and an extramarital “friendship” with a woman his wife didn’t know about) forced him out of the Republican presidential race.  The Cain incident followed the outings of Congressmen Anthony Weiner (D-NY), Chris Lee (R-NY) and Mark Souder (R-IN) for inappropriate sex-related conduct, conduct that led to their resignations.

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Professor charged with rape of child

NORMAN — Multiple felony charges of rape and lewd acts with a child were filed Monday afternoon against a suspended University of Oklahoma professor. The case involves at least three teen girls, court documents show. Dwain A. Pellebon, 54, was charged with two counts of rape in the first degree of a victim under age 14, two counts of child sexual abuse by lewd acts and two counts of lewd acts with a child under 16.

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A state Governor and her appointees obstruct an investigation into repeated coverups of child rape. When they find they can no longer stave off the inevitable, they destroy the evidence. Along the way they try to have the prosecutor disbarred. The Governor later becomes a member of the President’s Cabinet. These are the makings of a major scandal that should be plastered across the front page of every newspaper in America. Instead, hardly anyone has heard of it. Why?

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‘I spent 32 years afraid to breathe’

Tricia McKnight is no stranger to domestic abuse and her mission is to share her story in the hopes it will encourage and help other women get out of violent, abusive situations.”A lot of them are like me,” said McKnight, 48, of Breese. “They were ‘trained’ to behave in a certain way and accept certain things and not think anything about it. It becomes a pattern of abuse. I spent 32 years afraid to breathe, literally afraid to breathe.”

READ MORE HERE

Tricia is a BlogTalk Radio Host for child abuse survivors. Please tune-in and listen to her shows here:

 http://www.blogtalkradio.com/dreamcatchers/2011/12/24/survivors-speak-out

Lawyers for the state of Kentucky went back to court Thursday seeking to block the immediate release of hundreds of pages of uncensored records in cases involving child-abuse deaths and injuries — one day after Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd ordered them produced for his review.Lawyers for the Cabinet for Health and Family Services said they want a chance to appeal any decision Shepherd makes about releasing records that contain details they believe should be withheld, or redacted.

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