A Special Forces soldier has been jailed after being accused of using an electric dog collar to punish two small children. Michael Lee Mitchell is also accused of torturing the girls by making them carry out extreme physical exercise until they vomited. The eight-year-old girl told authorities Mitchell would put the dog collar on arm after and use it to shock her if she stopped running. She told police Mitchell threatened to put the device on her neck before wrapping it around her arm.  READ MORE HERE

MANCHESTER, Tenn. – A Manchester man charged with child abuse, domestic violence and drug possession is recovering after inmates in the Coffee County jail attacked him on January 11.  Jeremy Neal had to be taken to Vanderbilt University Medical Center for reconstructive surgery on his teeth, face and eyes.  The Coffee County sheriff estimates the medical cost for the county will reach $100,000. The county will cover the cost because Neal was in county custody when he was attacked. READ MORE HERE

STERLING, Colo. — More than 200 people gathered to remember the life of 3-year-old Caleb Pacheco, a toddler whose body was discovered underneath a mobile home on Sunday.  “Why did this have to happen like this, they could have done something, like an amber alert or something,” said relative Rose Pacheco.  Investigators in Logan County discovered the boy’s body after receiving tips from family members that the child had not been seen or heard from for several months. The Pacheco family is hoping an investigation into complaints at the Logan County Social Services office could help uncover the timeline that lead to the child’s death. READ MORE HERE

A primary mission at the National Association of Adult Survivors of Child Abuse is to help abused people who have reached maturity get into recovery. If you are a man or woman who experienced sexual abuse, violence, severe neglect or emotional trauma in your youth, and are still suffering its lasting effects, we want to help you have a happy, healthy, productive life, and meaningful relationships.

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Child Sex Trafficking Plagues a Marquee Event

The contestants are set for Super Bowl Sunday. Fans from Pittsburgh, Green Bay and around the world will travel to Dallas starting next week for the festivities. It’s disgraceful but for some those festivities will include engaging in sex for pay with underage victims. Child sex trafficking is a year-round, worldwide problem. Numerous organizations, including our parent LexisNexis, are battling to end this tragedy. Now you can too, by petitioning the Super Bowl Host Committee to make a statement against child sex trafficking at the event.  READ MORE HERE

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New Efforts Launched Against Sex Trafficking

Sex trafficking of human beings, particularly minors, is one of the greatest challenges facing law enforcement in the twenty-first century. The secretive nature of the crime, its perpetrators and its consumers make it difficult to combat, difficult to expose and difficult to quantify. There is no one solution to the plague, and various organizations are working around the world to raise awareness and help combat the illicit trade.  READ MORE HERE

Dorri Olds was a lonely, vulnerable 13-year-old girl when she was gang raped by a group of teenage boys. Thirty-eight years later, one of the boys who raped her appeared on her Facebook page under the “People You May Know” section. Olds bravely wrote about her experience in an incredibly moving piece for The New York Times and talked to HLN’s Dr. Drew about her experience. READ MORE HERE

A red-headed schoolboy has been told he has to be taught in isolation — because he is being bullied by classmates for being ginger. Flame-haired Tyler Walsh, 12, has been taunted for months by cruel bullies because of the color of his hair. But after one incident last week when he was chased into a toilet by a group of year 10 students his mum Emma said the school told her it was best for Tyler to be taught away from other pupils. Ms Walsh, from Bristol, said: “Tyler is effectively being bullied out of school for being red-headed. “It should be the bullies who are excluded from school, not their victim.  READ MORE HERE

When a toddler has a broken bone, paediatricians may be more likely to suspect abuse if the family is lower-income, a new study finds. Researchers found that paediatricians who read a fictional case report of a toddler with a leg fracture were more likely to suspect abuse if the child was described as coming from a lower-income family. A hypothetical child’s race, on the other hand, did not appear to influence doctors’ opinions. The second finding is somewhat surprising, according to the researchers. Studies looking at real-world cases have found that minority children are more likely to be evaluated for abuse than white children are. And it’s well known that the child welfare system in the US has a disproportionate number of minority kids.  READ MORE HERE

CHATTANOOGA  –  A Hamilton County Corrections Officer has been arrested on assault and child abuse charges. According to the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office, a Grand Jury returned indictments against Robert Medford on charges of aggravated assault, official oppression and misdemeanor child abuse. The Sheriff’s Office says on December 29, a juvenile inmate sprayed a germicide liquid on Medford. READ MORE HERE

A Houston woman has been sentenced by a Fort Bend County Judge to a total of 40 years in prison after pleading guilty to sexually abusing a young girl who was friends with her own children. Rowena Manuela Klinker was sentenced to 20 years in prison on each of two counts of Aggravated Sexual Assault of a Child after pleading guilty to the indictments.  Klinker was eligible for probation.  READ MORE HERE

More than half of social workers and a third of police officers feel powerless to intervene in suspected cases of child neglect, a report has revealed. The poll commissioned by Action For Children revealed while teachers, health workers and nursery staff are increasingly aware of child neglect they are often unsure what action should be taken. More than 4,000 people, including the general public, professionals and 47 local authorities, took part in the research through polling and focus groups. READ MORE HERE