A Florida woman is accused of beating her daughter, then sending her to middle school wearing a T-shirt that said, in handwritten text, that she had gotten a “good woopin” for getting bad grades. Melany Joyce Alexander, 31, is facing child abuse charges after authorities say she beat her daughter with a belt and then publicly shamed her, according to the Hernando County sheriff’s office. She was arrested Friday. READ MORE HERE

Grooming: How Child Molesters Create Willing Victims 

There’s an old urban legend that if you put a frog in a pot of boiling water, he’ll naturally hop out; however, if you place a frog in a pot of cool water and gradually increase the heat, you’ll end up with a cooked frog. I can’t say whether this is true for frogs, but it certainly is true for many children who are sexually molested. The gradual cooking process is known as “grooming,” and the increased heat is the evaporation of physical and emotional boundaries. The Webster’s Dictionary definition of “grooming” includes “training for a particular purpose.” For child molesters, that purpose is a sexual relationship.

The Real Danger

Most people still want to believe that child molesters are deviant strangers who abduct children or entice them with candy and puppies. We teach our children to be wary of strangers, to shout “NO!” or run away and tell a trusted adult if anyone should ever approach them in such a manner. We teach them about “good touches” and “bad touches” and believe they will tell us immediately if they receive a “bad touch.” Our intentions are good, but we’re preparing them for the exception, not the reality in sexual abuse.

In reality, the molester is more likely to be the trusted adult and the touch is more likely to feel good. There are family members, friends and neighbors, even teachers, coaches and clergy who treat children better than most adults, listen to what they are really saying and strive to meet their emotional, physical and spiritual needs as a means of fulfilling their own sexual needs and desires. The “nicer” the molester appears and the more “troubled” the child appears, the more difficult it is to detect and believe the sexual abuse. READ MORE HERE

INDIANAPOLIS – Joel Dale Hilton’s public defender said her client’s “greatest mistake was believing he could be normal.” Hilton, a 42-year-old Muncie man, was sentenced Friday to 50 years in prison — at his request — for six convictions stemming from his sexual abuse of three local girls, all under the ages of 9. Hilton was arrested last July after authorities determined he had posted images of those sex crimes on a website. READ MORE HERE

GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN – A Comstock Park couple’s rape of a 1-year-old girl while they video recorded the act has resulted in a possible life sentence for the woman and three consecutive life sentences for the male. Kent County Circuit Court Judge Dennis Leiber said the acts perpetrated by Michael Justin Emory, 26, and Stevie Marie Foehl, 28, were so heinous that he did not describe them in open court on Thursday, Feb. 19. “I don’t know how to quantify the horror visited upon this child,” Leiber said. READ MORE HERE

William Chris Nelms, 40, is charged with rape, sodomy and the sexual abuse of a child under the age of 12, according to Morgan County jail records. He is being held in the jail in lieu of more than $116,000 bond. Further information on the case against Nelms was not immediately available. Court records show that he has an extensive criminal history, including a 1995 conviction for child abuse. READ MORE HERE

 Man Charged with Murder of 6-YO Girl

MISSOURI – Police in Branson are investigating what they are calling a suspicious death after a missing six-year-old little girl was found dead in a motel room. The Taney County Coroner is also investigating at the Windsor Inn on 76 Country Boulevard. Police began searching after reports that the girl was missing. Shortly after arriving at the Inn they found Jasmine Miller unresponsive. READ MORE HERE

(Reuters) – The strangled body of a 6-year-old girl was found at a Missouri hotel on Saturday evening shortly after she was reported missing and a man was charged on Sunday with her murder, police said. Jasmine Miller was found dead in a room at the Windsor Inn near the city of Branson, a tourist destination in the Ozark Mountains known for its numerous entertainment theaters, many of which feature country music stars. READ MORE HERE

Man charged with murder after girl’s body found in Missouri hotel

Amber Alert Issued For 6-year-old Girl Missing From Corpus Christi

BANGOR, Maine — With a ski mask, a fake Facebook profile and a plan, police say Kyle Dube thought he could make himself a hero. Now the 21-year-old Maine man is set to go on trial, charged with killing a teenage girl in what authorities call a botched attempt to look like he was rescuing her from a kidnapping. READ MORE HERE

A special education teacher faces life without parole after being accused of sexually assaulting a girl when she was 4 and again when she was 9. In court Thursday, Milton Cole, 32, told the judge he teaches at a private school on Kirby. He is charged with super aggravated sexual assault of a child and aggravated sexual assault of a child. If convicted of the super aggravated charge, a recent law that is used when the child is under 6 years old, Cole faces a minimum of 20 years in prison and could land behind bars for life without parole. Cole’s attorney, J.L. Carpenter, noted that accusations that he assaulted a girl in his home arose in the middle of divorce proceedings. READ MORE HERE

FATHER TO REMAIN BEHIND BARS AFTER USING BABY AS WEAPON

PRETORIA – A Pretoria father accused of murdering his own daughter by using her as a weapon to attack his girlfriend will remain behind bars for another week before applying for bail. Police arrested the 32-year-old Cameroonian man on Sunday night near the flat he shared with his girlfriend and newborn daughter. The child was declared dead on arrival at the Kalafong Hospital. The Pretoria Prison Court heard how Alexander Forba allegedly grabbed his three-day-old daughter from her mother’s back during a domestic dispute. He allegedly gripped the child by her legs and used her body as a clubto attack his girlfriend. READ MORE HERE

‘He forced me to have a home abortion’: Daughter reveals she fell pregnant twice and gave birth to a son after being raped by her FATHER … as she finally sees her attacker jailed

A woman who was abused by her father and went on to have his baby has revealed she is starting to rebuild her life after her attacker was jailed. Hollie Davey, 26, from Essex, was abused, molested and raped as a young girl by Paul Davey falling pregnant with his child twice – the first she lost after he carried out a home abortion. She tracked him down at the age of 13 after being raised by an adoptive family. Speaking for the first time about her ordeal since her father was jailed, Miss Davey said she will ‘never get over’ what he did to her after he stole her childhood away from her. READ MORE HERE

Father and stepmother charged with torture and abuse after they ‘locked 12-year-old son in basement for 11 days’ and claimed he was missing

Prosecutors have brought torture and child abuse charges against the father and stepmother of a 12-year-old Detroit boy who was found in his father’s basement last year after an 11-day disappearance. Charles Bothuell IV, 46, and Monique Dillard-Bothuell, 37, systematically physically abused the child, forced him to live in the basement and didn’t allow him to socialize, Wayne County prosecutors said. The boy, Charlie Bothuell V, was found by police in the basement of his family’s condominium on June 25, 2014, – 11 days after he was reported missing by his father and stepmom. Detroit police arrested the Bothuells this morning, the prosecutor’s office said. They have each been charged with one count of torture, punishable by up to life in prison, and second-degree child abuse, which carries a maximum penalty of four years in prison. READ MORE HERE

GRANTS PASS — An Oregon couple involved in online pornography was arraigned Wednesday on murder by abuse charges that alleging they allowed their 7-week-old son to starve to death. Stephen Michael Williams Jr., 26, and Amanda Marie Hancock, 21, of the small timber town of Glendale, are accused of causing the infant’s death through neglect and maltreatment. The two were ordered held without bail when they appeared in Douglas County Circuit Court in Roseburg, Deputy District Attorney Shannon Sullivan said. READ MORE HERE

MICHIGAN – A woman whose child-abuse convictions sparked an effort to pass “Wyatt’s Law” and create a child abuser registry was sentenced to 33 months in prison for her most recent case. Rachel Edwards, 32, of Warren, received the sentence Thursday from Judge Richard Caretti after previously pleading no contest to second-degree child abuse for inflicting severe injuries on Wyatt Rewoldt, now 2, in November 2013. The offense is punishable by up to 10 years in prison, and the guideline range was 19 to 38 months in prison. The sentencing followed an emotional statement by Erica Hammel, 26, of St. Clair Shores, whose online petition to create a registry has drawn more than 13,000 signatures and the attention of lawmakers who intend to pursue establishing a registry. READ MORE HERE

‘Wyatt’s Law’ child-abuse case could establish abuse registry

Erica Hammel on Wyatt’s law – Detroit Free Press

Local mother wants to start petition for child abuser registry

A former College Township resident was charged with 91 felony counts in connection with the rape and abuse of a child over four years, according to court documents. Stephen Davis Lucas Jr., was arraigned Monday before District Judge Stephen Lachman on 18 counts of rape, 10 counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, nine counts of statutory sexual assault, nine counts of sexual assault, two counts of aggravated indecent assault, 40 counts of indecent assault, one count of corruption of minors, one count of endangering the welfare of children and one count of sexual abuse of children, all felonies. He also was charged with 40 counts of indecent exposure, a misdemeanor. READ MORE HERE