CORTLAND, Ohio – A Trumbull County man was found guilty Friday on four counts of rape against a young girl. The jury handed down their decision Friday in the case against Frank Arcuri, 35, of Cortland. Arcuri was arrested at his Frostwood Drive home in April on rape charges. According to Bazetta Police, the Cortland man committed crimes against an 8-year-old girl, beginning in 2013 and lasting through earlier this year. READ MORE HERE

An increasing number of child abuse cases involving accusations of witchcraft and exorcism are being reported to police. In one incident, a boy of nine was called a “devil child” and thrown out of his home by his parents, detectives revealed. A specialist unit in London recorded 46 alleged crimes linked to faith last year- more than double the number in 2013, an investigation found. Project Violet, the specialist faith-based abuse team within the Metropolitan Police Service, has identified 60 incidents so far in 2015. The figures relate to crime reports flagged as involving abuse linked to faith or belief, and many of the cases involve children. READ MORE HERE

Rise in cases of ritual child abuse linked to witchcraft beliefs

Child abuse linked to witchcraft on the increase

Witchcraft – Child protection – Child abuse – Child rights

Child abuse linked to witchcraft and exorcism rising

A Newhall man was sentenced to 50 years to life in state prison Tuesday for murdering his 19-day-old daughter in January, officials said. Matthew Brendan Warner, 30,  killed his daughter, Ellorah Rose Warner, at their home while the baby’s mother was at work on Jan. 23, prosecutors said. Warner then claimed the baby had been kidnapped, which prompted a large-scale search operation for the newborn. Before the search for the child began, neighbors said they had seen Warner walk outside the couple’s home carrying a bundle while the baby’s mother was at work. READ MORE HERE

DELHI – Seema Shukla’s (named changed) tears can’t stop flowing as she squats on the floor of the gynaecological department at Safdarjung Hospital. Hair dishevelled, clad in a shabby saree, she keeps passing out even as a woman councillor holds her tight, trying to console her. Seema’s four-year-old daughter was brutally gang-raped by at least two men, and her entire body slashed with a knife on Friday evening near her home in Keshav Puram, northwest Delhi. READ MORE HERE

ARKANSAS – Boone County prosecutors said two people charged with child abuse admitted to taking out their rage out on a seven-week-old and 14-month-old multiple times. Rachel Clayton and Steven Simmons are now in jail, and newly-released court documents reveal gruesome details. Investigators said Rachel Clayton and Steven Simmons lived in a trailer in Omaha, Arkansas, without running water or electricity.  They said the two repeatedly abused two babies:  one just 14-months-old and the other just seven-weeks-old. READ MORE HERE

FLORIDA – A lawsuit filed Monday against the a Florida school district alleges that teachers and administrators didn’t do enough to prevent bullying that led to a 14-year-old boy’s suicide last year. Lamar Hawkins III, of Sanford, killed himself Sept. 10, 2014 with his father’s gun in a bathroom stall at Greenwood Lakes Middle School in Lake Mary. Attorney Matt Morgan said Lamar went missing for hours and school officials didn’t look for him— even after another student found a spent gun shell casing in the school’s bathroom and reported it to a teacher. READ MORE HERE

Three sisters abused by their stepfather as children tracked him down to Botswana via Facebook to help bring him to justice. James Lawton, 44, was arrested on a plane at Heathrow after the sisters tipped off police about where he was living. He has now been jailed. The girls kept the secret of their abuse from one another for 10 years but when they finally shared the terrible truth, they turned detective to hunt down the man who destroyed their childhood. READ MORE HERE

AKRON, Ohio — An Akron man will spend the rest of his life in prison for sexually abusing a young girl for more than five years. Summit County Common Pleas Judge Tammy O’Brien on Thursday sentenced Jeremy Scott, 35, to life in prison, with parole eligibility in 120 years. A courtroom full of spectators cheered as sheriff’s deputies led Scott from the courtroom in handcuffs. The group supporting the young girl wore green ribbons and brought her flowers. READ MORE HERE

A Millington man has been found guilty of running a teenage sex trafficking ring. A jury found 51-year-old Michael Lilley guilty on multiple counts of sex trafficking minors, along with other offenses. “Michael Lilley coerced vulnerable, underage teens into sacrificing their bodies sexually for his own monetary gain,” U.S. Attorney Edward Stanton said. “Because a jury recognized how reprehensible his criminal actions were, Lilley will now be spending many years in a federal prison with no chance of parole.” READ MORE HERE

READ: 11-page federal criminal complaint against Michael Lilley 

Four students were arrested Friday in Tuolumne, California, after police discovered a “detailed” plan to “shoot and kill as many people as possible” at a local high school, the sheriff said. Tuolumne County Sheriff James Mele didn’t identify the suspects in a news conference Saturday, although he said they were students at Summerville High School, where the alleged shooting was to have taken place, and that they were male. They haven’t yet been charged. READ MORE HERE

Baltimore County Police say the parents of a one-month-old boy who died after he was left in a ‘very hot’ bath have been indicted. Eugene Buchta, 25, of Fallston, Maryland, and Rachael Anne Johnson, 25, of Dundalk, Maryland, were charged this week with first-degree child abuse and other offenses. Baltimore County police spokesman Cpl. John Wachter stated that Buchta was giving his son a bath in a small tub on July 2 when he left the infant on his own. Wachter said that when Buchta returned, the child was submerged. When he took the baby out of the tub, he noticed the water was ‘very hot’. READ MORE HERE

A 4-year-old Indian boy was reportedly beheaded Wednesday in a ritual in a southern coastal region of the country in what was believed to be an offering to a deity. The New Indian Express reported that the boy had been studying when he was kidnapped in the Prakasam district. The family grew alarmed when the boy, named L. Manusagar, failed to return home that afternoon. READ MORE HERE

EASTLEIGH – A former Basingstoke College of Technology (BCoT) teacher was today facing a lengthy jail term after pleading guilty to 20 sex offences, including the rape of a child. Lloyd Dennis, aged 33, of Sopwith Road, Eastleigh, pleaded guilty at Southampton Crown Court to indecent assault on a male and gross indecency with a child, between July 1997 and August 1999. He had previously admitted, on July 31, to 18 offences that included the rape of a child aged under 13 and making and possessing indecent photos of a minor, between September 2013 and November last year. READ MORE HERE

Hampshire teacher Lloyd Dennis charged over sex offences

NORWICH – An ‘utterly depraved’ woman at the center of a sex abuse ring where children were ‘passed around like toys’ was jailed for life today. Former insurance worker Marie Black, 34, from Norwich, was told she would not be eligible for parole for at least 12 years after she orchestrated the abuse of five young children over six years. Black, her ex-husband, hospital porter Jason Adams, 43, and former boyfriend, coach driver Michael Rogers, 53, were found guilty of a string of abuse charges earlier this year. Black was convicted of 23 offences, including rape, conspiracy to rape and inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, after the trial at Norwich Crown Court, while her former partners were found guilty of a total of 27 counts – including cruelty, rape and inciting a child to engage in sexual activity. Both Rogers and Adams were sentenced to 24 years and made subject to sexual harm prevention orders. READ MORE HERE