A gang of Eastern Europeans were yesterday found guilty of subjecting girls as young as 12 to horrific sexual abuse. Two adults and three boys were convicted of rape and sexual assault in what prosecutors described as one of the worst cases they had ever seen. A court heard how the group, of Czech, Slovak and Kurdish origin, groomed five vulnerable girls between 12 and 14 and then abused them in a range of locations, including near a playground, in 2012. READ MORE HERE

MICHIGAN — Glenn Norton, 48, of Detroit is accused of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old boy. Hazel Park police say Norton was a friend of the boy’s family and frequently took the child to the Koei Kan Karate-Do club on John R. Road where he was an instructor and the boy was a student. Police say that’s where the child was violated. READ MORE HERE

An Arkansas woman who is featured in a reality television series has been charged with the rape of a teenage boy. Andrea Clevenger, one of the moms fromTLC’s “Cheer Perfection,” a show about competitive cheerleaders, turned herself in to authorities Tuesday, according to KATV. Clevenger is charged with one count of rape and one count of engaging children in sexually explicit conduct for use in a visual or print medium, according to KARK. Police began an investigation following a tip from the Arkansas Child Abuse Hotline in November. READ MORE HERE

‘Swiss Cheese Pervert’ On The Loose In Mayfair, Pennsylvania

The Mayfair Town Watch of Mayfair, Penn., posted a warning on Facebook Thursday that residents should “please be aware of the Swiss Cheese Pervert!” The suspect in question allegedly drives around town “exposes himself to women” and “offers them money to watch him put swiss cheese on his privates.” The group also posted a photo of the suspect. READ MORE HERE

A 73-year-old from Tunbridge Wells has been jailed for more than eight years for sexually abusing a four-year-old girl. John Luker, of South View Road, appeared at Maidstone Crown Court and pleaded guilty to charges of oral rape, two offences of sexual assault and one of causing a child to engage in sexual activity. READ MORE HERE

‘My father raped me then told me it was better to lose my virginity to him than a random person in a hotel’

A young woman who was raped by her father at the age of 12 has shared her story in the hope it will help other victims of sexual abuse. Gemma Schembri, now 21, from Lincolnshire, revealed her father, Mark, had always been controlling but took his abuse further after he split up with her mother.  She said: ‘He started to sexually abuse me when I stayed with him and it went on for over a year. He was very manipulative and controlled my thoughts to make me believe it was normal. ‘The first time he raped me he said afterwards, “Well it was better that it was with me than with some random person in a hotel”.’ Gemma said she didn’t realize what her father was doing was wrong and it took her years to pluck up the courage to reveal she was a victim of abuse.  READ MORE HERE

Robert W. Thomas Jr., 36, allegedly posted online ad asking if anyone would help arrange marriage of their daughter to him

ALLIANCE, Ohio – An Ohio man accused of trying to buy a 10-year-old girl Saturday has been arrested. Robert W. Thomas Jr., 36, of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio posted on a website that he was looking for anyone willing to arrange a “marriage” between him and their daughter.  An officer from Alliance, Ohio who works with the Ohio Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force saw the posting and responded to Thomas. READ MORE HERE

Police reportedly planning their first arrests in the Maddie McCann case

London police appear poised to make an arrest in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, the girl who was 3 when she vanished while on a Portuguese vacation with her family nearly seven years ago. The arrests of a trio of alleged burglars who had been active in the neighborhood would be the result of Operation Grange, the reopening of the McCann investigation three years ago. “We can confirm that a second International Letter of Request has been sent to the Portuguese authorities by the Crown Prosecution Services this week… in connection with Operation Grange,” Scotland Yard told ABC News in a statement. The authorities would not discuss any further details. READ MORE HERE

British police ‘preparing to make arrests’ in Madeleine McCann case

Madeleine McCann Cops Poised to Make Arrests in Her Disappearance

Reports: Arrests ahead in Madeleine McCann disappearance

A 4-year-old boy was found dead in a luxury New York apartment with “horrific” cigarette burns and cuts to his face and body, police said. Myls Dobson had been abused for several days before he was found dead in a bathtub of the Ritz Plaza building, in Midtown Manhattan, according to the NYPD on Thursday. The boy’s babysitter, 27-year-old Kryzie King, has been arrested on suspicion of first-degree assault and reckless endangerment of the first degree. She has not yet been charged, police said. READ MORE HERE

Horrific cell phone footage shows teen girls ‘beating their 16-year-old friend before holding her down to be raped’ 

A 16-year-old girl was allegedly beaten by other girls before being held down to be raped in a horrifying attack that was filmed on a cellphone, it was revealed today. Patricia Montes, 15, and 16-year-old Erica Avery are accused of punching, kicking and pepper-spraying the girl before holding her down to be raped by Jayvon Woolfork, 19, police said.  The barbaric attack was filmed on a cell phone by Lanel Singleton, 18, and shows the girl writhing half naked and weeping in the yard of a home in Hollywood, Florida while her attackers leer over her. READ MORE HERE

A 34-year-old Washington woman who sadistically and systematically tortured her 13-year-old brother-in-law by beating him with a baseball bat, slicing his skin with a heated knife and forcing him to remain tied naked to a dog house without food and water has been sentenced to 31-years in jail. Silverdale mother Viviana Gunn was sentenced on Monday after she pleaded guilty in August to hanging 13-year-old Jordan Gunn from the rafters of her house for gruesome hours long ‘sessions’ of abuse according to court proceedings. Torturing the teen over the course of last year, Gunn once clamped the boys hand in a bench vise, tightened the jaws and drove a nail through his hand with a hammer. The teen told the shocked court that he could see the nail coming out the other side of his hand. READ MORE HERE

A Philadelphia mother allowed her 3-year-old daughter to starve to death while she stole her disability checks to spend the money at casinos and nightclubs. Nathalyz Rivera, who suffered from an undiagnosed genetic condition that left her partially blind and unable to walk or talk, starved to death in September. The child died in her father’s bug-ridden home, as her mother, Carmen Ramirez, 27, abandoned her to spend more time with her new boyfriend. READ MORE HERE

When she fell pregnant as a teenager in Ireland in 1952, Philomena Lee was sent to the convent of Roscrea, Co. Limerick, to be looked after as a ‘fallen woman’ and at the age of three her baby was whisked away and ‘sold’ to America for adoption. Coerced into signing a document promising ‘Never to Seek to Know’ what the Church did with him, she never saw him again. She would spend the next fifty years searching for her son, unaware that he spent his life searching for her.

Philomena’s son, renamed Michael Hess, grew up to be a top lawyer and then a Republican politician in the first Bush administration. But he was also gay and in 1980s Washington being out and proud was not an option. He not only had to conceal not only his sexuality, but, eventually, the fact that he had AIDs. With little time left, he returned to Ireland and the convent in which he was born to plead with the nuns to tell him who his mother was, so that he might see her before he died. They refused.

“The Lost Child of Philomena Lee” is the story of a mother and a son, whose lives were blighted by the forces of hypocrisy on both sides of the Atlantic and of the secrets they were forced to keep. A compelling narrative of human love and loss, Martin Sixsmith’s moving account is both heartbreaking yet ultimately redemptive.

FEATURE NEWS ARTICLE:

Early in 2004, I was approached by a woman who knew I had been a reporter. She said she had a friend who thought I could help her solve a family mystery. I told her that wasn’t my sort of journalism; but she insisted and I went to the meeting.  The woman’s friend was called Jane, a financial administrator from St Albans. She was in her late 30s and had been through an emotional experience.  Just before Christmas, her mother Philomena, tipsy on festive sherry, had revealed a secret she’d kept for 50 years: she had a son that she had never spoken about to anyone. The reason for the secrecy was that he had been born illegitimate in Ireland at a time when such things were considered shameful and to be hushed up. Jane said her lost brother would be in his early 50s and probably living in the United States. READ MORE HERE

PURCHASE PUBLISHED MEMOIR: The Lost Child Of Philomena Leeby Martin Sixsmith

Twenty private schools are facing compensation claims from former pupils who say the Jimmy Savile scandal has made it ‘easier’ for victims of sex abuse to come forward. Among the institutions which are facing legal action are some of the country’s most expensive schools including those attended by Nick Clegg, Boris Johnson and Tony Blair. The allegations range from rape to fondling and date from the 1950s to 90s, the Sunday Times has revealed. READ MORE HERE