Police have arrested 45 men believed to be involved in the biggest child sex ring ever seen in the UK, it emerged today. The arrests come after a year-long investigation into sex abuse allegations across three towns in West Yorkshire.  Most of the suspects – said to be white and Asian – are in their 20s but some of are said to be middle aged, up to their 60s.  Members of the gang are alleged to have abused four girls – some as young as 13 – over several years. READ MORE HERE

Salem, Oregon – Sarah Beth Hopkins, a 35-year-old Oregon woman, was jailed Sunday after she allegedly had a seven-month long sexual relationship with her friend’s 11-year-old son. According to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, an investigation was launched after the boy’s mother learned at a church revival that her son had been sexually involved with Hopkins. Hopkins is the mother’s neighbor and close friend, according to the criminal complaint. READ MORE HERE

London (CNN) — Reports that a Scottish teenager took his own life after becoming the victim of an alleged Internet blackmail scam have heightened concerns in Britain over online abuse. Daniel Perry, from Dunfermline, was reportedly the victim of blackmailers who recorded his interactions via Skype with a person he believed was an American girl his own age. They then threatened to show his family the footage unless he paid up, UK media reports say. Instead, the 17-year-old jumped from a bridge last month. READ MORE HERE

Daniel Perry suicide: Family of blackmailed teenager call on David Cameron to help hunt down “scum”

A cop decided he had better things to do at work.  Herbert Eugene Miller, 44, was an auxiliary officer with the Greeneville Police Department until it was discovered that he was using his patrol car computer to search for child pornography.  READ MORE HERE

Montgomery teacher Lawrence Joynes charged with sexual abuse of 15 students

A Montgomery County music teacher has been charged with sexually abusing 14 of his elementary school students during the past eight years and with repeatedly having sex with a seventh-grader in the 1990s, according to court documents released Tuesday. Lawrence W. Joynes, 54, had been a teacher in Montgomery County schools since 1985, and he allegedly abused children in his care as early as 1991 and then from 2005 until shortly before he was arrested in February on a pornography charge, according to court documents. Police wrote in court filings that a principal and later a teacher had been made aware of Joynes’s inappropriate actions with girls in his classroom at New Hampshire Estates Elementary School in Silver Spring and that as a result, his access to students was restricted. READ MORE HERE

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HUNTSVILLE, AL – Officials are now confirming that the man who was killed in an officer-involved shooting in Huntsville last Friday was a fugitive from South Carolina already convicted of child sex crimes. Madison County Coroner Craig Whisenant identified the man who was shot as 57-year-old Brent Dotson. Dotson was convicted last year of raping a 6-year-old girl. Records show Dotson never showed up for his trial in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina last December, and had not been seen since he was convicted ‘in absentia’. READ MORE HERE

Authorities said Jay Thomas Morgan, who was arrested last year as part of a two-county child pornography investigation, committed suicide in jail Monday morning. In a statement, Johnson County Sheriff Bob Alford said Morgan, 50, was found dead in his cell at the county’s Law Enforcement Center. Investigators acting on a tip allegedly found child pornography at Rosalyn Burdett’s home in rural Johnson County on July 30, 2012. Burdett then implicated Morgan. READ MORE HERE

In the private prison industry, longer sentences earn more money from the state. Since 2003, Ciavarella received millions of dollars in bribes for condemning minors to maximum prison sentences. In one case, Ciavarella sentenced a 10-year-old to two years in a detention facility for accidentally bottoming out his mother’s car. READ MORE HERE

Erica Lynn Parsons, 15, last seen November 19, 2011, leaving adoptive parents’ home in Salisbury, North Carolina

The FBI and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation have joined the search for a 15-year-old girl who was last seen two years ago, but was not reported missing until late last month. Police became aware of Erica Lynn Parsons’ disappearance only July 30 when her 19-year-old brother contacted them and said that she was last seen leaving the Salisbury home of her parents in November 2011. An attorney hired by Erica’s adoptive parents, Casey and Sandy Parsons, claimed that his clients were under the impression that the 15-year-old went to live with her biological grandmother and wanted to be left alone, the Charlotte Observer reported. READ MORE HERE

A third trial of former Indiana state trooper accused of murdering his wife and children in 2000 got off the ground Monday after his two previous convictions have been overturned on appeal. Prosecutors and defense attorneys began questioning 150 prospective jurors in the trial of David Camm to determine whether Camm is guilty of shooting and killing Kimberly Camm, 35, his 7-year-old son Bradley and 5-year-old daughter Jill. Defense attorney Stacy Uliana said both sides began jury selection by weeding out people who had hardships that would prevent them from serving or who had already decided Camm’s guilt or innocence. READ MORE HERE

SAVANNAH, GA — WTOC has learned new information about the arrest of a Guyton man on child molestation and exploitation charges. More charges could be on the way against 19-year-old Brandon Fanning. Homeland Security gave the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force in Effingham County a tip about the Guyton man and potential connections to child porn and other materials originating in Effingham County. They busted him for molesting and exploiting a child. READ MORE HERE

WOODSTOCK, Ill.  – A young child was abused, suffered a head injury, and spent nearly a week in the hospital; two adults were home with the girl at the time, yet no one has been criminally charged. There was only an Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) case on the incident. READ MORE HERE

SAN DIEGO — Authorities in San Diego on Friday positively identified the second body found in a burning home in Boulevard as that of 8-year-old Ethan Anderson. DNA harvested from the boy’s bone marrow was used to make the identification, authorities said. The boy’s body was found Sunday along with that of his mother, Christina Anderson. The positive identification was announced just hours after a possible sighting was reported of the boy’s sister Hannah and her alleged kidnapper James DiMaggio in Idaho. READ MORE HERE

Kidnapping Suspect James DiMaggio’s Friend Worries Of Suicide

Ethan Anderson remains confirmed, brother of Hannah, son of Christina died in home of James DiMaggio

According to new government statistics in Hong Kong, the number of cases of sexual abuse against children last year had its biggest jump nine years of available public data. In 2012, 336 children were abused, and for the first half of this year, officials have already registered more than half that figure, or 183 cases. Why the increase? “One possible reason is the popularity of social networking websites on the internet where children are susceptible to sexual abuse pitfalls,” a government spokeswoman told the Wall Street Journal (paywall). READ MORE HERE