MAGNOLIA, TX — A 3-month-old girl was found hanging upside down in her car seat after being involved in a police chase that left the driver of the car dead, Texas police said Monday. Officers with the Magnolia Police Department said they pulled over a 2004 Chevy Impala Sunday afternoon just outside Houston, in search of a robbery suspect. After they pulled the driver from the vehicle, the passenger locked the doors and sped off, said the Texas Department of Public Safety. Officers said they followed the car in a high-speed chase that went through a construction zone.

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http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-dangling-tot-pursuit,0,6506874.story

“It’s Almost Tuesday” is a fictional story based on true events, using a young child’s exact words when possible. It depicts true incidents reported within the Texas Foster Care System. While this story is fictional in situations, it is based upon abuse that occurs every day, and all over our country. The foster homes are meant to be a placement of safety for children removed from their family homes due to abuse or neglect, and when other abuse occurs, statistically worse than before their removal, something is wrong. Foster children are more likely to be abused than children in their natural homes. We should give those children a voice through this story, if they are not heard, then tragedies will continue to be needlessly endured.

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http://www.helium.com/items/367267-horror-stories-of-child-abuse-parents-as-criminals

WARNING: (Graphic Content: True Story of Abuse)

AS my mother called out my name my body trembled with fear. I looked up to see a greasy-haired man, old enough to be my grandad, holding a grubby package and smiling at me. “Here,” he said throwing it at me. “Put this on.” I opened it up to find lacy red lingerie. I was just 10 years old. It wasn’t a suitable gift for a child, but to me this was all just a normal evening at our Midlands home in the summer of 1987. My parents Chris and Margaret were throwing one of their parties again, where they’d invite their mates along. But it wasn’t any ordinary bash. They were there to rape me and my four siblings. We knew that if we didn’t carry out their demands my father would kill us – he’d shown us a gun and threatened to use it.

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http://www.sundaymercury.net/news/midlands-news/2010/12/12/the-midland-s-josef-fritzl-i-saw-my-dad-kill-my-three-babies-66331-27809418/

Man wanted for sexually assaulting 10-year-old girl

Reports of child abuse up 39.77% in first half of 2010

TAIWAN — The number of suspected child abuse cases reported to authorities rose dramatically in the first half of 2010 compared to a year earlier, indicating increased awareness in society of the issue, the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) said yesterday. A total of 13,130 cases were reported from January to June, 40.4 percent more than during the same period in 2009, and 9,039 of those cases, an increase of 39.77 percent, were confirmed, according to MOI statistics. Those aged 6-11 accounted for 3,305, or 36.56 percent, of the victims, and those aged 0-5 accounted for 2,262, or 25.03 percent. On the background of the abusers, 6,512, or 75.02 percent, were the victims’ parents or foster parents. The number of abusers who were live-in partners of one of the parents was up 49.3 percent from last year to reach 212, while the number of abusers who were relatives of the victims but not their parents jumped 42.11 percent to 459.

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http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/national/national-news/2010/12/12/283353/Reports-of.htm

Dublin leader says orders face ‘last chance’ to make amends with victims

DUBLIN — Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has slammed Irish Catholic orders for concealing the extent of child abuse committed by their members. Martin said the orders face a “last chance” to make amends with victims. The comments published Monday in an Irish Times column are the harshest by a Catholic leader since investigators last week documented widespread abuse of children in schools run by 18 Catholic orders.

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http://rss.msnbc.msn.com/id/30925382/

(AND)

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20101212/tuk-archbishop-slams-catholic-church-e1cd776.html

Man’s 7,500-mile cross-country journey raises child-abuse awareness

A couple of individuals have crossed the United States on foot,  even before the movie “Forrest Gump,” to raise money and awareness for various causes. But how many have accomplished the feat three times? That is the goal of Louis Michael Figueroa. The 42-year-old has crossed America two and a half times in his life. “When I ran in 1982, I was a 16-year-old kid without gray hair,” Figueroa said as he ran his hand through his short hair, flecked with gray, as he sat for an interview in the lobby of the Lompoc Holiday Inn. Running straight across the country, the young Figueroa set a record, crossing the continent in 60 days, doing it to help inspire a boy fighting bone cancer.

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http://www.lompocrecord.com/news/local/article_4867aa9e-05bb-11e0-8843-001cc4c03286.html

Disney’s ‘Tangled’ Takes On the Serious Issue of Emotional Child Abuse

A week or so ago, thousands of Facebook users changed their identifying photos to cartoon characters in a vague attempt to “raise awareness” of child abuse. Ironically, at the same time a new hit movie was using animation to focus on the same subject in a more sophisticated manner. The movie? Disney’s “Tangled.” No kidding. Slipped inside the gorgeous images, entertaining songs and fairy-tale narrative is a clear-eyed look at the way predatory abusers maintain control of their victims. The villain may be Disney’s skin-crawlingly nastiest because her evil is so un-magically human.

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http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/12/11/disneys-tangled-takes-on-the-serious-issue-of-emotional-child/

An infant girl was scalded in a bathroom sink and her teenage parents arrested on suspicion of child abuse after failing to seek timely medical attention for her, authorities said Friday. Jiovanni McMillan, 18, of San Jacinto, put the 2-month-old in the sink to bathe her at a relative’s Perris-area home, turned on the water and looked away for a moment, a Riverside County Sheriff’s Department news release said. The water was scalding hot and the baby began to scream, the release stated. Neither he nor the 17-year-old mother, a Los Angeles resident whose name was not disclosed because she is a minor, sought medical help until more than 12 hours later, after the infant’s skin began to peel off from the burns, sheriff’s Sgt. Patrick Chavez said.

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http://www.pe.com/localnews/stories/PE_News_Local_D_sarrest11.1ee85bd.html

PHOENIX – It’s a tragic case of child abuse: a 3-month-old boy was beaten to death and police say his father is to blame. Now the boy’s mother speaks exclusively to FOX 10. The mother, who should have been enjoying motherhood, is now preparing to bury her young son. Police say the child’s father admitted to shaking his own son. The boy clung to life at an area hospital for three days before he passed away. “He was breathing and he died, but he died in my arms,” said Imari McClure, the boy’s mother. McClure never though she would be planning a funeral for her 3-month-old baby boy. Francisco Hernandez, Jr. died of shaken baby syndrome on Wednesday.

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http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/dpp/news/crime/shaken-baby-death-case-12102010