MORGANTOWN — A West Virginia teenager pleaded guilty to a first-degree murder charge Friday in the stabbing death of her one-time best friend. Shelia Eddy entered into a plea agreement Friday in Monongalia County Circuit Court in the July 2012 death of 16-year-old Skylar Neese. Eddy’s trial was scheduled to start next week. Under the agreement, prosecutors agreed to recommend mercy, meaning that the 18-year-old Morgantown woman would be eligible for parole after serving 15 years. In return for Eddy’s plea, a kidnapping charge and two counts of conspiracy will be dropped. READ MORE HERE

PITTSBURGH — The FBI and federal prosecutors were reviewing allegations against a college student from Russia who has been charged with possessing bomb-making and marijuana-growing materials, though police acknowledge the suspect told them he wasn’t planning on “blowing anything up.” No federal charges had been filed against Vladislav Miftakhov by early Monday. The 18-year-old was arraigned Saturday on state court charges filed after Altoona police said they found bomb materials in his rented room near the Penn State-Altoona campus, about 85 miles east of Pittsburgh. On Monday, Miftakhov was in the Blair County Prison, unable to post $500,000 bond. READ MORE HERE

Sunday mornings are filled with praise and worship in church buildings across the South, but when one grandmother began to jingle her keys to leave her home and go to her place of worship there were three little black grandchildren who began to shake with fear and trembling. That’s because Johnnetta McSwain and her sister and male cousin were forced to endure severe child incestand abuse by three older male cousins while their mother’s mother went off to church. And on Jan. 25, in a phone conversation with this past abuse victim, the Atlanta Top News Examiner learned why other children who suffer such abuse ask this question of McSwain when she goes to tell them how she overcame her victimization: How can you believe and talk about God when he allowed this to happen to you and to me? READ MORE  HERE

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Rising Above the Scars: Johnnetta McSwain

Libya’s Colonel Gaddafi  raped girls – and boys – as young as 14

It has been more than two years since the capture and death of Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan dictator whose reign subjected an impoverished people to four decades of murder and terror. When the bedraggled former leader was hauled out of a drainpipe and shot in October 2011, his death ended the bloody Nato-led civil war that had ravaged the country since the start of that year. The full horror of his brutality has been slow to emerge, with many Libyans still fearing retaliation by those who continue to be loyal to their late leader. But it can now be revealed that the most heartbreaking of Gaddafi’s victims include hundreds, possibly thousands of teenage girls who, throughout his 42-year reign, were beaten, raped and forced to become his sex slaves. READ MORE HERE

Fred Talbot charged with 10 sex offences against five boys – including three who were under 16

TV weatherman Fred Talbot has been charged with a string of offences following investigations into historic sexual abuse claims. The 64-year-old was today charged with 10 sexual offences dating back to his time as a teacher at Altrincham Grammar School for Boys and at a school in Tyne and Wear during the 1970s and 1980s. A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police said today’s charges related to the sexual abuse of five victims, three of whom were under 16 at the time. READ MORE HERE

Riverside Police Seek Public’s Help in Search for 2 Missing Girls

Riverside police asked for the public’s help Monday in locating two missing girls who were believed to have run away. Raylynn Bolt, 12, and Diana Tourdot, 14, were initially reported as having last been seen late Saturday night around midnight at Tourdot’s house, according to a news release from the Riverside Police Department. “The girls are friends and one was spending the night at the other’s home,” authorities stated in the release. “Extensive efforts have been made by police, family and friends to locate the two girls with no success.” READ MORE HERE

A former Los Angeles County fire captain accused of sexually abusing a young female relative was sentenced to six years in state prison on Monday. Edward John Cervantes, 62, had pleaded no contest on Jan. 8 to one count each of a lewd act upon a child and continuous sexual abuse. On Monday, he was immediately taken into custody after Commissioner Wade Olson sentenced him to six years in state prison during a hearing in Pomona Superior Court, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. READ MORE HERE

Two Detroiters charged in death of infant left near space heater

Detroit — A man and woman were formally charged today in connection with the death of a year-old infant who died from burns he received when his stroller was left too close to a space heater. Sanford McQueen, 22, and Karen Marie Geletzke, 23, both of Detroit, were arraigned Sunday in 34th District Court in Romulus on charges of second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and second-degree child abuse. They were not given bond. READ MORE HERE

Prosecutors say Julie Corey strangled her pregnant friend Darlene Haynes, then cut the fetus from her womb and took it.

WORCESTER, Mass. — Opening statements are getting underway in the trial of a Massachusetts woman charged with beating and strangling her pregnant friend, then cutting the fetus from her womb. Prosecutors and defense attorneys are scheduled to present their cases Monday in the murder and kidnapping trial of 39-year-old Julie Corey in Worcester Superior Court. Prosecutors say Corey killed Darlene Haynes, who was eight months pregnant, made an incision in Haynes’ abdomen and took her fetus in July 2009. The baby girl survived, and Corey told her boyfriend that the child was theirs. READ MORE HERE

A 3-year-old Florida boy is dead after enduring horrific torture including having been burned, beaten and thrown across a room – and, according to authorities, the boy’s 21-year-old mother is to blame.  Ghanson Debrosse was rushed to the Jackson North Medical Center about 3:30 am on Tuesday after his mother, Fafane Caze, called 9-1-1 to report that he wasn’t breathing. At the hospital, doctors determined that the 3-year-old boy had been dead for several hours. READ MORE HERE

Police identify 2 killed in Maryland shooting

Columbia, Maryland – Police have identified the two retail employees killed in a shooting at a Maryland mall. The Howard County Police said late Saturday that the victims were 21-year-old Brianna Benlolo of College Park, Md., and 25-year-old Tyler Johnson of Ellicott City, Md. The gunman also died. Both worked at Zumiez, which sold skate apparel and accessories. Police say the attack took place outside Zumiez on the upper level of the Mall in Columbia, a suburb of both Baltimore and Washington.
McMahon said authorities ran into difficulty in identifying the gunman because of concerns that he might be carrying explosives. Five other people were injured. READ MORE HERE

Donald Burrell ‘starting raping his victim in 1991’, when she was child

A man has been charged with over 2,000 rapes of the same female spanning 20 years – they are among a sickening 5,100 sex counts. Donald Burrell is said to have started raping his victim in 1991 when she was seven-years-old, according to Pennsylvania State Police. The abuse by the now 55-year-old continued ‘non-stop’ for more than 20 years, state police said, and led to Burrell’s recent arrest on more than 5,100 sexual abuse charges. Burrell remained locked up in the Bradford County Jail Tuesday night on $2.2 million bond.  Preliminary court hearings are pending. READ MORE HERE

Forced into marriage at 10, pregnant at 13, widowed by 14

Alemtsahye Gebrekidan was 10 when her childhood came to an abrupt end. ‘I was playing outside and my mum called me inside to the house,’ she remembers of the day her world changed forever. ‘She said “you’re going to marry”. I was surprised and I cried but I didn’t say anything to them [her parents].’ Her wedding, to a boy of 16, took place just two months later. Shocking though it might seem, her experience is by no means unique. According to World Health Organisation figures, 14.2 million girls under the age of 15 are forced into marriage each year. READ MORE HERE

NORTH CAROLINA –  A 77-year-old man was arrested on Saturday and charged with multiple counts of raping a child. Wayne Arland Kent, 77, of New London, is charged with three counts of rape of a child, three counts of indecent liberties with a child and three counts of crime against nature, according to the news release from the Stanly County Sheriff’s Office. READ MORE HERE