SYCAMORE – Authorities have exhumed the body of a 7-year-old Sycamore girl who was kidnapped and murdered more than 50 years ago, and the man accused of killing her is on his way to Illinois to face charges. Monique Bond, spokeswoman for Illinois State Police, said this morning while in Elmwood Cemetery in Sycamore that the DeKalb County State’s Attorney’s Office had a court order to exhume the remains of Maria Ridulph. The girl was abducted from a Sycamore street Dec. 3, 1957, and her remains were found nearly five months later in Jo Daviess County.

READ MORE HERE:

http://www.nwherald.com/2011/07/27/childs-body-exhumed-in-connection-with-decades-old-case/aa7qk92/

BESSEMER CITY, N.C. – 32-year-old Shanna Lanham is behind bars on charges including involuntary manslaughter and felony child abuse for the death of her two-year-old daughter, Addison. Lanham is already on three years probation for a felony drug conviction in 2009.  Her family tells FOX Charlotte they blame Lanham for the little girl’s death but they also blame the Department of Social Services.

READ MORE HERE:

http://www.foxcharlotte.com/news/nc-news/Family-Blames-Toddlers-Mom–DSS-for-2-Year-Olds-Death-126298143.html

The Hawkins County Sheriff said Wednesday he knows who is responsible for the child abuse death of a three-year-old girl, but charges have not yet been filed against that woman. Sheriff Ronnie Lawson said Emily Barnard died Monday after she was found unresponsive by deputies on Saturday.

READ MORE HERE:

http://www.wbir.com/news/article/177544/2/Hawkins-Sheriff-Woman-caused-childs-death

Say you’re a child welfare investigator. You get numerous reports that children in a particular family are being abused. Most recently, you hear they are being tied up and confined to a bathtub. How can you tell if these allegations are true? This is where your skill, training and experience as a professional investigator comes in. You go to the house and ask the parents if they are abusing their children. They say no. And that’s that. Case closed. No need to see the children. Why would their parents lie?

READ MORE HERE:

http://www.parentdish.com/2011/07/27/florida-child-welfare-investigators-criticized-for-imcompetance/

Deputies Cited In Park County Incident Involving 4 Children

FAIRPLAY, Colo. — Two Teller County Sheriff’s Office deputies have been fired after they were issued summonses on misdemeanor child abuse charges.The incident happened early Saturday at a home in Park County.When deputies arrived in the 38000 block of Park County Road 77 (Tarryall Road) at 12:30 a.m., they found four children and two intoxicated adults in the home, according to Park County Sheriff Fred Wegener.

READ MORE HERE:

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/28684955/detail.html

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles police have arrested a woman they say attacked an infant in a stroller in the downtown toy district and claimed she was trying to break the baby’s arm off “so she could eat it.” Natasha Hubbard, 36, was arrested and has been charged with aggravated assault. The attack took place on July 21st around 1 p.m., according to detectives.

Joshua Carrier, a former Colorado Springs police officer, was already facing allegations of molesting six children with 78 child sex assault counts, but is now accused of sexually assaulting a total of 22 children and faces 189 counts of felony child sex assault, Fox31 reports. In May, The Huffington Post reported that Carrier was arrested for buying child pornography and then re-arrested a week later on suspicion of sexually assaulting several children.

READ MORE HERE:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/26/joshua-carrier-former-col_n_910213.html

Accused Child Rapist Says, “What I did was shameful, but not illegal!”

TACOMA, Wash. — Marc Gilbert says what he did was wrong, and he’s ashamed of it. But because he wants to set the record straight, he agreed to an exclusive jailhouse interview with KOMO News.  “There was some activity that took place that I’m not proud of,” he said. “It was activity that was condoned behind closed doors, but publicly is excruciatingly embarrassing.”

READ MORE HERE:

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/126222733.html?skipthumb=Y

A Taekwondo instructor in Lithonia was indicted Tuesday on charges that he raped a female student, according to authorities. A DeKalb County grand jury returned a three-count indictment against Adrian Thomas Spellen, who authorities say assaulted a girl at his school, Powerkicks Martial Arts, in the 3000 block of Miller Road in Lithonia.

READ MORE HERE:

http://www.ajc.com/news/dekalb/lithonia-taekwondo-instructor-indicted-1048960.html

Child rape and sex abuse surface in US Buddhist Temples

Sexual abuse of children… it’s not just for Catholic priests any more. And, as it turns out, enabling and cover-ups are not a Catholic monopoly either. According to a July 24 article in the Chicago Tribune, Theravada Buddhist monks are walking away from sex abuse accusations and temple superiors are frustrating law enforcement by insisting they have no control over monks’ actions or whereabouts.

READ MORE HERE:

http://www.examiner.com/atheism-in-los-angeles/child-rape-and-sex-abuse-surface-us-buddhist-temples

LAS CRUCES, New Mexico — Nearly three weeks after a baby boy was transported to University Medical Center, he continues his fight to survive, while his mother and her boyfriend, are in jail for allegedly abusing him.The statement of facts contains graphic details about the abuse 7-month-old Malakai Workman suffered, allegedly at the hands of his mother, Danielle Workman, 22, and her boyfriend, Jaime Cardenas Jr., 24.

READ MORE HERE:

http://www.kvia.com/news/28675852/detail.html

Florida lawmakers have rejected more than $50 million in federal child-abuse prevention money. The grants were tied to the Obama administration’s health care reform package, which many lawmakers oppose on philosophical grounds. The money, offered through the federal Affordable Health Care Act passed last year, would have paid, among other things, for a visiting nurse program run by Healthy Families Florida, one of the most successful child-abuse prevention efforts in the nation. Healthy Families’ budget was cut in last year’s spending plan by close to $10 million.

In many situations, a child may be unable or unwilling to report their own abuse or neglect. Therefore, it is important that the network of adults in a child’s life are vigilant advocates, giving abused children a voice. A child may not report abuse because they cannot talk, do not understand what is happening, are afraid, or have no one to talk to. That is why there are mandated reporters, people and professions who have a legal requirement to report child abuse or neglect to the State. Many times, these people are in the best position to recognize signs of possible abuse…

PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO:

http://www.jdsupra.com/post/documentViewer.aspx?fid=d6c4fe58-0aeb-48cd-9f2b-4be9685fcf04

We don’t normally comment on the views expressed by judges as they’re sentencing criminal defendants, but in this case, we’ll make an exception. Mower County District Court Judge Donald E. Rysavy launched verbal barb after verbal barb at Brian and Charity Miller last week while sentencing the Dexter couple to one year in jail as punishment for chaining their 5-year-old son to his bed and depriving both their sons of food. Rysavy used words like “outrage,” “abhorrence” and “incomprehensible” to describe the Millers’ crimes.

READ MORE HERE:

http://www.postbulletin.com/news/stories/display.php?id=1462135