The mother of a nine-year-old boy shot him five times in the home she shared with him and the boy’s father in Steamboat Springs, Colorado then turned the gun on herself, according to a preliminary investigation by the Routt County Sheriff’s Office . Lisa Marie Lesyshen shot and killed her son Asher on Tuesday, leaving a note by the child’s bed telling the father Michael Kirlan that he was to blame for her actions. Her husband was woken by the shots and called 911 as she asked him to kill her. She survived.  ‘Remember you are responsible for what has happened here and you are the person that caused it,’ she wrote, signing the note, ‘Lisa and Asher’. READ MORE HERE

‘Barbaric’ couple ‘water-boarded their own children during ten years of captivity and fed them through a hole in the wall’

A barbaric couple who ‘water-boarded’ their four children during ten years of captivity and abuse have gone on trial in Belgium. Parents Sebastien Hardenne and Isabelle Simon also kept their three girls and a boy in a locked room at night and ‘fed’ them through a small hole in the wall, it was heard. They beat them with sticks, an iron bar and whips and tortured them with an electric fly swatter, police have revealed. The father urinated in the children’s mouths and even practiced ‘water-boarding’ torture similar to that allegedly used at America’s Guantanamo Bay prison, the court was told. Two girls were also locked in a suitcase smeared with dog excrement and swung around a room, it was heard. READ MORE HERE

A young boy was forced to do horrible things by other classmates. A nine-year-old boy who has remained unidentified is speaking out about being forced into a bathroom and forced to perform oral sex on three classmates at Public School 194 in Harlem, New York and his mother is suing the Education Department for 6 million dollars.  Both the boy and his mother have remained unidentified for their safety, but the mother is suing the Education Department for not properly taking care of an atrocious situation that occurred in one of the public schools. READ MORE HERE

The first record case of child abuse in history is believed to have been uncovered in Egypt. Archaeologists say the 2-3 year old child, known only as ‘burial 159’, shows signs of having repeatedly had her bones broken, and being shaken repeatedly. The find is believed to be the oldest record of child abuse – and experts say it may stem from an Egyptian belief that children had to be ‘toughened up’ as they grow. The gruesome discovery was made by researchers excavating a cemetery in Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt, which has seen continuous human occupation since the Neolithic period. The 2- to 3-year-old, who lived around 2,000 years ago is the first recorded case of child abuse in history, the team say. READ MORE HERE

Three Filipino girls featured in a U.S. documentary on sex trafficking have helped to convict a Pennsylvania child pornographer who forced them to act out his disturbing sexual fantasies live through the internet. Jeffrey Herschell, 54, of Washington was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison on Tuesday after the brave girls described the horror they were made to endure from the age of eight to a CNN film crew, then to U.S. authorities. ‘Whatever the American client wants us to do, we must do it,’ ‘Gen’ told CNN in May 2011 for the documentary ‘The Fighters,’ which aired earlier this month. Traffickers in Manilas, who are behind the camera, charge men like Herschell around $27 an hour to ‘direct’ the online streams. READ MORE HERE

A Wisconsin high school teacher is accused of sexually assaulting at least two male students in less than a week. Megan Garland, 28, has been charged with child sex assault after a 14-year-old boy came forward claiming that the Messmer High School science teacher performed oral sex on him on May 23. According to the alleged victim, the abuse took place in the parking lot of Destiny Church and School. Neither Garland nor the alleged victim have any direct association to the school. They reportedly arrived at that location to attend an event.  READ MORE HERE

One final journey to the prison cell where he’ll rot

‘Evil’ Mark Bridger was told today he would never be released from prison after he was found guilty of abducting, murdering and disposing of schoolgirl April Jones. The judge at Mold Crown Court this afternoon gave the former abattoir worker a whole life sentence, calling him a ‘pathological and glib liar’, and a ‘paedophile who for some time harbored sexual and morbid fantasies about young girls.’ Justice Griffith-Williams also asked him to reveal what he did with April’s body for the sake of her parents Paul and Coral, who sat just feet away from him as he was jailed. READ MORE HERE

He was willing to hurt her and kidnap her — he just did not mean to kill her. Kyle Dube, 20, of Orono, Maine, created a plan to kidnap Nichole Cable, 15 of Glenburn, Maine, duct tape her mouth, throw her in his truck, and kidnap her, then  later on “find” her and save her to become her hero; but his plan fell apart when he accidentally killed the girl and dumped her in the woods. READ MORE HERE

The infant was found in a sewage pipe on Saturday in a residential building in the wealthy coastal province of Zhejiang, China. Firefighters in eastern China have rescued an abandoned newborn baby boy lodged in a sewage pipe directly beneath a toilet commode, state television reported, in a case which has sparked anger on social media sites. There are frequent reports in Chinese media of babies being abandoned, often shortly after birth, a problem attributed variously to young mothers unaware they were pregnant, the birth of an unwanted girl in a society which puts greater value on boys or China’s strict family planning rules. READ MORE HERE

BROKEN ARROW, Oklahoma -A Broken Arrow woman has been arrested on a felony warrant for child abuse by Munchausen by proxy syndrome. Victoria Lynn Lee, 37, was booked into the Tulsa County jail on Saturday afternoon and is being held in lieu of $35,000 bond. Munchausen syndrome by proxy is a form of child abuse in which a primary caregiver exaggerates or fabricates of illnesses or symptoms of a child to medical professionals. READ MORE HERE

LONDON – Police have launched investigations into allegations of child abuse at a former Catholic boarding school in the Highlands. It is alleged that monks running the Abbey School at Fort Augustus beat pupils and sexually assaulted them. The school was part of a Benedictine Abbey on the shores of Loch Ness and closed in 1993. With dwindling numbers of monks, the abbey itself closed in 1998 and was sold off as a holiday home development. READ MORE HERE

A pedophile attacked a sleeping five year-old girl in the same month his sex offender treatment was delayed because staff were off sick, it emerged today.  Daniel Veness, 23, had been ordered to carry out the treatment after being convicted of possessing over 600 child abuse images on his computer.  However, two years into his three-year community order he had still not joined the programmer.  It has now emerged that the urgent treatment was delayed for six months because staff were on sick leave. READ MORE HERE

BATES CITY, MO–The Lafayette County Prosecutor has charged the father of a 10-week-old baby with her violent death.  Alex Anthony Gilbert, 24, of Independence, was charged with second-degree murder. His daughter died four days after she was rushed to the hospital. An autopsy revealed the baby had brain damage from a skull fracture. In addition, the child had broken bones and contusions, including to her lung. She had fresh and old injuries. READ MORE HERE (and) HERE

FULTON COUNTY, KY – A Tennessee fugitive wanted on child rape charges was captured in Fulton County, Kentucky on Friday night. Deputies with the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office arrested 30-year-old David Bradley Hopper after they found him inside a home on KY 2134. The arrest occurred after the department received a tip from the Lake County, Tennessee Sheriff’s Office that Hopper might be in the county. READ MORE HERE