Cherish Perrywinkle was abducted from Walmart by Convicted Sex Offender

Jacksonville, Florida ~ Just over an hour after a 56-year-old sex offender seen leaving a Northside Walmart Friday night with an 8-year-old girl was arrested Saturday morning, police say the girl’s body was found at a Northside church.  Police say Donald Smith left the Walmart on Lem Turner Road with Cherish Perrywinkle.  He was taken into custody in a traffic stop about 9 a.m. Saturday on Interstate 95, but the girl was not with him. About 10:15 a.m., an emotional Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office spokesman announced the victim’s body was found at a church on Broward Road. “We located the body of Cherish Perrywinkle,” Officer Shannon Hartley said. “A very difficult time, obviously, for everyone involved.” READ MORE HERE

NOTE: Williams declined to answer reporters’ questions about how Cherish died or what Smith did in the hours between his disappearance with the girl and his arrest, saying that the investigation remains open.

INFO ON SMITH:

Smith has been a registered sex offender since a 1993 conviction in Duval County for attempted kidnapping and selling obscene materials. He has been arrested several times since then, most recently in 2009 on a charge of child abuse after making obscene phone calls to a 10-year-old girl, making verbal threats, and impersonating a social worker with the Florida Department of Children and Families who claimed to be investigating the girl’s family. Smith pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges in that case and was released from jail May 31.

UPDATE: Donald James Smith, sex offender denied bail after being accused of abducting, killing Florida girl

1. Donald James Smith Charged in 2013 FL Slaying of Charish …

    

2. No Bail for Registered Sex Offender Charged in Murder of 8-Year …

    

3. No bail for Fla. sex offender charged in death – USA Today

    

4. No Bond For Sex Offender Charged In Girl’s Death « CBS Miami

    

5. No bail for Fla. sex offender charged in death | News – Home – WKMG

    

6. No Bail for Fla. Sex Offender Charged in Death – ABC News

    

7. Monsters Among Us: Convicted sex offender Donald James Smith …

    

8. Sex offender charged with murder of 8-year-old Cherish Perrywinkle …

What is child sexual abuse?

Child sexual abuse is any interaction between a child and an adult (or another child) in which the child is used for the sexual stimulation of the perpetrator or an observer. A central characteristic of any abuse is domination of the child by the perpetrator through deception, force, or coercion into sexual activity. Children, due to their age, cannot give meaningful consent to sexual activity.

Child sexual abuse includes touching and non-touching behaviors:

• sexual kissing
• inappropriate touching or fondling of the child’s genitals, breasts, or buttocks
• masturbation
• oral-genital contact
• sexual or digital (with fingers) penetration
• pornography (forcing the child to view or use of the child in)
• child prostitution
• exposure or “flashing” of body parts to the child
• voyeurism (ogling of the child’s body)
• verbal pressure for sex

READ MORE HERE

China executes official for child rapes after online uproar

Authorities in central China executed a former Communist Party official for raping 11 underage girls, state media said on Wednesday, following an online uproar about the latest case of abuse of power. Li Xingong, who was the party’s deputy head in Yongcheng city in Henan province, was found guilty of assaulting the girls during police interrogations starting from the second half of 2011, the official Xinhua news agency reported. Li appealed against the guilty verdict, but was rejected by the Supreme Court, Xinhua said. READ MORE HERE

A fugitive couple sought by the U.S. Marshals for child cruelty was recently seen in the Maywood area of Los Angeles. They had been recently added to the U.S. Marshals 15 Most Wanted List. U.S. Marshals were actively searching the region for Janet Killough Barreto and husband Ramon Barreto. The couple is suspected of traveling to Guatemala on multiple occasions to purchase children from an adoption agency, according to the L.A. County Sheriff’s Dept. READ MORE HERE

SUSPECT ACCUSED OF SHAKING BABY

OAKLAND PARK, FL – Detectives with the Broward Sheriff’s Office are telling CBS 4 that they are working to locate a child abuse suspect accused of shaking a baby. Sixteen-month-old Michael Zink appears to be just like any other child — walking, climbing and playing. But his mother Jennifer says that about a year ago she got a call from her then-boyfriend Michael Benner — who was watching her children. “He had called me and started panicking and told me that something’s wrong with Michael,” she told CBS 4?s Carey Codd. “He’s not acting normal.” Zink says she rushed home from work to her Oakland Park apartment. She says Benner had not called 911 so she did. “Somebody obviously hurt him,” she said. READ MORE HERE

Children’s Advocacy Centers (CACs), founded by former Madison County District Attorney and Congressman Bud Cramer and modeled after the National Children’s Advocacy Center, have been operating since 1985 and now number more than 800 in the United States, serving more than 276,000 children in 2012 alone. These programs have historically been supported through one primary federal funding stream, the Victims of Child Abuse Act within the U.S. Department of Justice, which currently provides $19 million to individual CACs, chapters, several training and technical assistance projects (including two at the National Children’s Advocacy Center), and an Accreditation program for these CACs. READ MORE HERE

Family set up sting on 30-year-old man after alleged sexual predator their daughter, 15, met on Facebook gave her an engagement ring and arranged to run away with her

A 30-year-old man who allegedly groomed a teenager online with promises that he would marry her has been caught after the 15-year-old girl‘s parents set up a Facebook sting. After the family of the Spokane girl discovered she had been meeting a man she met on Facebook, her mother posed as her daughter online and arranged a meeting. When Jason Richards arrived at the family home in Spokane, Washington, in the early hours of June 8, the girl’s father and his friends were waiting for him. READ MORE HERE

HOUSTON — A seven-year-old boy was beaten by his parents with a high heel, an extension cord, a ruler and a belt because he got in trouble at school, according to police. The boy’s father, Christopher Burrell, and his stepmother, Savannah Johnson, from Houston, Texas, were both charged with felony injury to a child. The boy had black eyes, a fractured arm and hand and numerous cuts and bruises to his head and body which were a mixture of old and new when he was taken to hospital. The Houston Police Department were alerted to the abuse after school administrators called CPS when the boy showed up to school with a black eye and a large bruise on his head. READ MORE HERE

Gang Member Convicted in Baby’s Shooting Death

COMPTON, California — A teen convicted in the shooting death of a one-year-old boy who was sleeping in his father’s arms was sentenced to 90 years to life in prison Friday. Donald Dokins, 16, was found guilty of murdering Angel Cortez in Watts on June 4, 2012. Jurors deliberated for only an hour and a half in April before convicting the teen of murder and attempted murder, along with a gang enhancement. On the night of the shooting, the baby’s father, Mauro Cortez, was outside his home with friends, holding his infant son. READ MORE HERE

NEW ZEALAND — An older woman tricks a preteen into having sex; now they’re both paying the consequences.  A New Zealand mother, 36, gave birth after having a months-long affair with her son’s 11-year-old schoolmate. According the The Times of India, the woman in question gave the Auckland boy “beer to drink and then later took part in a sexual encounter with him.” READ MORE HERE

Bronx teacher sent 10-year-old rape victim apology note after brutal attack

A twisted Bronx teacher emailed his 10-year-old student victim a sickening apology after raping the helpless fifth-grader in his parked car, prosecutors said. “I was too rough,” read the monstrous mea culpa sent by hulking Anthony Criscuolo, 40, one day after the attack Monday in a parking lot at Public School 195. “Sorry. It’s normal. You may feel pain for a few days . . . . How did it feel for you?” wrote the goateed teacher, whose vile behavior was hidden by his car’s tinted windows. READ MORE HERE

Ex-USC professor on FBI Top 10 Most Wanted list APPREHENDED in Mexico

A former professor at the University of Southern California suspected sexually abusing young boys and producing child pornography was yesterday arrested in Mexico. Walter Lee Williams, 64, was captured yesterday evening while drinking coffee near a park in the beach town of Playa del Carmen, on the country’s Carribean coast. He was on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list for charges of sexual exploitation of children and travelling abroad for the purpose of engaging in sexual acts with children. READ MORE HERE

Father’s grief at ‘suicide’ of 18-year-old son and girlfriend 15, after they were hit by train

The father of a teenage boy who died after stepping in front of a high-speed train with his girlfriend  in an apparent suicide pact has said he cannot stop crying. Mert Karaoglan, 18, and Charleigh Disbrey, 15, were found dead near a busy commuter station in Hertfordshire. The A-level student’s father Sakru, 48, said his son had told him he was ‘going out for one or two hours’ on Monday evening but he never returned. Today the grieving father, supported by relatives, visited the scene in Borehamwood where his son died on Monday evening. READ MORE HERE

Bellefonte man sentenced to 30- 60 years 

BELLEFONTE, CENTRE COUNTY – A Bellefonte man is sentenced to 30-60 years in state prison on over 300 counts of child rape and sexual abuse charges. 42 year-old Jeffrey Storms must register with Megan’s Law for the rest of his life.  After pleading guilty to more than 300 counts of child sexual abuse in his March jury trial, Jeffrey Storms, of Bellefonte, received a 30 to 60 year sentence in a State Correctional Facility, according to a release issued by the Centre County District Attorney’s office. The 42 year-old man’s charges include attempted child rape, attempted involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, dissemination and possession of child pornography and related sexual abuse charges. Storm committed these offenses over the span of 10 years on prepubescent children, “a young relative, friends of his daughters, and two young daughters of a good friend,” according to the release. READ MORE HERE