COTTONWOOD HEIGHTS — A man was charged with second-degree felony child abuse after police say he hit his 5-year-old daughter. Michael Shaun Hall, 27, allegedly beat his daughter after she fed the family dog with food from the dinner table, according to Sgt. Corbett Ford of the Cottonwood Heights Police Department. The 5-year-old didn’t like what she was eating and when Hall stepped away from the table, she fed her food to the dog, Ford said. “Instead of disciplining, he takes it further and uses a belt and apparently a hanger, which caused substantial bruising and injury to her,” Ford said. READ MORE HERE

Washington – A child molester who was raped while held in the Garfield County Jail in Pomeroy is suing the county. The complaint filed Tuesday in Walla Walla Superior Court says the man suffers anxiety and nightmares. He’s seeking an amount of money that would be determined at a trial in the civil rights lawsuit. The Union-Bulletin reports the man was jailed in August 2011 for investigation of child rape when he was raped three times by cellmate John Markwell. READ MORE HERE

The Brooklyn father who fatally beat 7-year-old Nixzmary Brown also forced his son to rape a relative, according to reports. The new allegations were laid out on Wednesday against Cesar Rodriguez, who was convicted in the 2006 torture and killing of Nixzmary, in a case that shocked New York and forced a major shake up of the city’s child protection agency. Rodriguez’s now 15-year-old stepson, who has been charged with raping two relatives some eight years ago, told detectives that his stepfather forced him to commit at least one of the crimes, the New York Daily News reported. The father made the boy commit the act while he watched, sources told the New York Post. The alleged rape would have happened before his sister’s murder in 2006, when he was about 8 years old. READ MORE HERE

• Andrew Wheeler allegedly beat and choked the boy in front of cheering partygoers on Friday night
• Police found the victim lying in the street outside the home about midnight
• The concussed boy was rushed to hospital with facial and scalp contusions
  
• Homeowner Evadean Lydecker was allegedly home during the attack and has been charged 

An 18-year-old man has been charged with viciously assaulting an autistic boy at a Florida house party after sickening video of the attack went viral.  Andrew Wheeler allegedly kicked, punched and held a knife to the throat of the intoxicated 16-year-old boy before choking him until he lost consciousness on August 8. Disturbing footage shared on Facebook shows the boy cowering and screaming in pain as party-goers stood around and laughed. READ MORE HERE

The disturbing video has caused outrage online, with a Facebook group and a hashtag, #JusticeForAaron (reportedly the name of the victim) springing up quickly.

A 34-year-old Brooklyn woman who is six months pregnant was laid out cold in a vicious “knockout game” attack. The violent assault was caught on video. The victim, Jannatul Ferdous, was walking with her sister in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood Thursday when 33-year-old Willie Stephens slugged the pregnant woman with one single blow, knocking her unconscious. READ MORE HERE

Pregnant woman sucker-punched in unprovoked attack

Cops: Brooklyn Man Sucker-Punched Pregnant Woman

Kidnap Suspects Sexually Assaulted Amish Girls

The two Amish sisters from northern New York who were kidnapped this week and then found safe a day later were sexually assaulted, the St. Lawrence County’s District Attorneys office told NBC News. Investigators believe suspects Stephen M. Howells II, 39, and Nicole F. Vaisey, 25 had planned the kidnapping using “coercion tactics” and knew ahead of time they wanted to take the girls, St. Lawrence County Sheriff Kevin Wells told reporters Saturday. Howells and Vaisey are being held without bail on first-degree kidnapping charges in the abduction and could face 25 years to life in prison if convicted. Wells added that “there was the definite potential” for additional victims, and the suspects could be hit with more charges. READ MORE HERE

Charges: Couple took, intended to hurt Amish girls

Kidnappers of Amish girls carefully plotted crime

Hermon pair arrested in kidnapping of Amish girls (VIDEO)

• Roland Dow, 28, from New Hampshire has been jailed for 67 years
• He inflicted sadistic torture sessions on three-year-old James Nicholson 
• The boy was beaten, burnt and treated ‘like a caged animal’ by Dow 
• Dow even refused to have the child’s laundry mixed with his 
• James, now lame, is the son Dow’s girlfriend Jessica Linscott
• Linscott pleaded guilty to endangerment and will serve two to seven years
• The pair fled to Universal Orlando in Florida, where they were arrested

A man convicted of inflicting sadistic ‘torture sessions’ on his girlfriend’s three-year-old son before fleeing with her to a Florida theme park, has been jailed for 67 years. Roland Dow, 28, from Plaistow, New Hampshire, was sentenced yesterday for burning, blinding and treating James Nicholson, who is now lame, ‘like a caged animal’. He was convicted in June of assaulting the toddler, failing to get him medical help, coaching him to lie to a social worker and secretly recording the social worker’s visit. The young boy is the son of Dow’s girlfriend, Jessica Linscott, who pleaded guilty to child endangerment and witness tampering. She will be serving between two and seven years in prison. READ MORE HERE

A veteran Chicago police sergeant was charged with fondling the 9-year-old daughter of a police officer at a barbecue over the weekend, a spokesperson for the Cook County state’s attorney’s office said. Dennis Barnes, 61, a patrol sergeant in the South Side’s Wentworth police district, was charged Wednesday night with three counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse and one count of attempted predatory sexual assault, spokesperson Sally Daly said. READ MORE HERE

Man charged with capital murder in infant son’s death

TUSCUMBIA, Alabama – A Tuscumbia man has been arrested and charged in the death of his two-month old son. Thursday afternoon, a capital murder warrant was issued for 28-year-old Michael Wade Logan from the death of his biological son Michael Wade Logan Jr. this past weekend. Cuffed behind his back, Tuscumbia Police escort Michael Wade Logan to the Colbert County Jail. Tuscumbia Police Chief Tony Logan says a preliminary autopsy shows the infant died from multiple traumas to the head and body. READ MORE HERE

A Somerville teacher has been indicted on charges of four counts of rape of a child, among other charges, following her arrest in July after allegedly having a sexual relationship with a 13-year-old minor, according to a press release. Alexandra Romanos, 41, of Stoneham, was indicted on charges of aggravated rape of a child (four counts), indecent assault and battery on a child under the age of 14 by a mandated reporter (eight counts) and disseminating material harmful to a minor. Romanos is scheduled for arraignment on August 13 at 9 a.m., in Woburn Superior Court, Room 430. READ MORE HERE

KNOXVILLE — A 61-year-old Knoxville man was convicted child rape by a Knox County jury Tuesday, according to prosecutors. Troy Lee Love was found guilty on two counts of rape of a child and one count of aggravated sexual battery following a two-day trial, according to Knox County District Attorney General Randy Nichols’ office. The Knox County Sheriff’s Office launched an investigation in January 2013 into allegations that Love had sexually abused a 7-year-old child. He was arrested in August 2013. READ MORE HERE

The mayor of a Midwest town is facing a potential 125 years in prison after he was charged with the alleged sexual abuse of two young girls. Sheriff’s deputies swooped on the home of Joseph Manus, mayor of Oelwein, Iowa, acting on warrants charging him with five counts of second-degree sexual abuse. The 36-year-old is accused of abusing a 14-year-old girl four times and a nine-year-old girl once between July and August 2010. Each count carries up to 25 years in prison. The investigation was not initiated by the city’s own police department, according to reports. Manus was arrested by deputies from Fayette County Sheriff’s Office. READ MORE HERE

A 15-year-old girl was forced to live on a tiny waste-soaked mat by her parents, who beat and starved her until she weighed just 60lbs, police have said. The girl, who doctors believe has autism or another learning disability, was left earlier this month at an Atlanta hospital by her mother, who said she ‘could not do it anymore’. The 35-year-old mother, Jade Marie Jacobs, was arrested on malicious child cruelty and authorities in Gwinnett County are still looking for her husband, William Brown, 40, to charge him with the same. READ MORE HERE

Did these moms allegedly hurt their kids for attention?

What seemingly loving mother would want to intentionally hurt her child? According to experts, a disorder called “Münchausen syndrome by proxy” is a form of child abuse that causes a parent to do just that. Munchausen by proxy syndrome (MBPS) is a relatively rare form of child abuse that involves the exaggeration or fabrication of illnesses or symptoms by a primary caretaker. Also known as “medical child abuse,” MBPS was named after Baron von Munchausen, an 18th-century German dignitary known for making up stories about his travels and experiences in order to get attention. “By proxy” indicates that a parent or other adult is fabricating or exaggerating symptoms in a child, not in himself or herself. Munchausen by proxy syndrome is a mental illness and requires treatment. Find out more by taking a look at these alleged Munchausen by Proxy possible cases. READ MORE HERE