Oklahoma – A convicted sex offender who molested his niece when she was 7 years old moved in next door to his victim nearly a dozen years after he was sent to prison for the crime. Outraged, the Oklahoma woman, now 21, called lawmakers, the police and advocacy groups to plead with them to take action. Danyelle Dyer soon discovered that what Harold Dwayne English did in June is perfectly legal in the state – as well as in 44 others that don’t specifically bar sex offenders from living near their victims, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. READ MORE HERE

NEW RIVER, Arizona – A mother in New River is accused of molesting two young children, filming the incidents, and selling them over the internet. According to court documents, Keri Harwood, 28, is accused of molesting two children multiple times in the bathroom of her New River home. Harwood is also accused of videotaping the incidents and selling them over the internet. READ MORE HERE

Helping Children Recover Physically and Psychologically After Burn Injuries

No child should ever be abused, and yet, that is the reality for many children in America and around the world every day. It may seem inconceivable to be able to hurt your own children, but it happens, and when it does happen, the lasting effects can impact that child for the rest of his or her life. When a child is abused, there are physical, and emotional scars. They need to be helped, and supported.

There are millions of abused children in America, and as awareness increases on the epidemic of child abuse in the United States, so too does the number of referrals to relevant helping services. This means that more children can be helped because they have been reported, because someone knows about what it is happening to them.

An average of five children will die in the United States every day. More children will die in the United States from neglect and abuse than any other industrialized country. Neglect amounts to 75.3% of victimized children, 17.2% are physically assaulted, and 8.4% are sexually abused. 7.2 million children have been reported as abused, however only half of that have been helped.

Burn injuries amount to some of the worst physical abuse injuries a child can receive. Burns can leave physical scars that will stay with the child for the rest of his or her life. Burn injuries also amount to 10% of all child abuse cases. To put it into perspective, when a child enters the burn unit at a hospital, there is a 1 in 10 chance that the burn was intentionally caused by a family member.

Abused children who suffer from burns are typically far younger than other types of abuse. Most cases can be found in toddlers who are two years old or younger, however victims are typically always under the age of 10.

Here are some of the common, and horrific ways, an abused child will receive his or her burn:

1. Put in an Oven

One would hope that there is not anyone who could be monstrous enough to put their baby in an oven and turn it on, but it has happened. Children have been put in heated ovens. In 2002, there was a horrific case where one woman attempted to broil her toddler at 600 °F. Thankfully, she failed, but the child had to undergo dozens of reconstructive surgeries.

2. Immersed in Scalding Water

These burns are usually found when a parent or other guardian are “punishing” a child by immersing them into scalding hot water. The excuse by parents is that a child climbed into the tub with the scalding hot water. Studies show, however, that the pattern of the burn is all you need to determine whether an immersion burn was accidental or deliberate.

In the case of abuse, immersion burns are typically uniform in appearance and are also accompanied by bruising that arises when someone forces a child to stay still.

3. Contact Burns

These burns occur when a hot object is placed on a child. The most common type of contact burns seen in abused children are hot irons and cigarettes. It is easy to tell contact burns apart from accidents because of the location and severity of burns. If a burn was an accident it would be shallow, irregular, and not very defined. When a burn is deliberate, you can tell.
Examples of contact burns in abused children include branding, which means that the hot object was placed on the child for enough time that the object has been seared onto the skin. Abusers can also use mundane objects as their weapon, like the hood of a car that has been in the sun. Prolonged contact with the hot metal can easily cause 2^nd or 3^rd degree burns.

Burns cause deep, terrible scars both physical and emotional. Being burned at the hand of a caregiver who is supposed to care for you is a horrific reality that far too many children suffer from. Medical personnel are, thankfully, trained to recognize the difference between an accidental burn and deliberate ones.

Be Aware of the Signs

To help these abused children, you must first get them away from their abusers. That is why bringing awareness of child abuse and its signs is an essential way to get communities to look after their children. If a teacher sees signs of neglect or abuse, it should be reported immediately. Teach your children that, if your friend tells you about the bad things his or her parents do to them, you tell an adult immediately.

Shame can keep a child silent from reporting their own abuse, but so many are just too young to know any better. They don’t know it’s wrong, just that it hurts and they want it to stop. Teach children from a young age what abuse looks like and that it is wrong. Grow a society that knows and understands and will report abuse as soon as they see evidence of it. The worst-case scenario is that it was an accident.

What Happens After You Report

In extreme cases, abused children are removed from their parents’ custody and placed into the foster system. This typically occurs during extreme neglect. With abuse, however, the caregivers (or guardians) face criminal charges. Foster homes carry their own set of problems and traumas. Being in a foster home does not mean a child is safe, or happy. In many cases being alienated and alone in the foster system can wreck a child’s psyche.

PTSD

PTSD arises in adults who were abused as children. The severity depends on the many things, like the danger, the developmental state when the abuse occurred, the relationship they had with the perpetrator, the post-response, and many others. They can experience panic attacks, nightmares, depression, and anxiety. If they are triggered by something in the present that sends them back into the time when they were abused they can even “feel” the pain.

PTSD takes you back to the time when you were most scared and when you were hurt. It takes you back to that terrible point in your life and it makes you relive it. You can experience physical or emotional symptoms. Therapy and support are needed for every child who has suffered from abuse. Children who suffer from burn injuries are no different.

Getting Financial Compensation

While it may make you feel uncomfortable to press for financial compensation from the perpetrator on the behalf of an abused child, it shouldn’t do. Children age out of foster care all the time without support. This means that they are less likely to graduate high school or attend college. For instance, only 4% of children who had aged out of a foster home will have a college degree.

Further, not all abuse cases are at the hands of the parents.

To give these abused children a chance at life outside of a foster system, or to simply allow them more opportunities to help them later in life, they need financial support. In every case of criminal child abuse, a legal representative should be consulted. Attorneys at StephenBabcock.com take on burn injury cases, and they can for an abused child. They get compensation for the pain and press for punitive damages. Do beware that claims have to be made within certain time limits from the time of the incident, and this varies between states.

Getting compensation and punitive damages from the abuser is easier when the abuser is part of an institution, or one who is not a family member. It is, however, still possible for a legal guardian to sue the biological parents of an abused child for damages. Most parent abusers won’t have the finances to pay for compensation or punitive damages. Instead, these abusers will typically be incarcerated.

Parenting a child who has experienced abuse of this magnitude will need a lot of patience. Guardians should help build a child’s resilience by encouraging and nurturing the child’s relationships with others around them. Closing off is a huge risk that can complicate a child’s mental health and ability to function later. Encourage them to express themselves fully, that they don’t need to suffer in silence. Be patient, be consistent, be kind.

Being abused does not mean that a child will develop poorly. Assure the child that his or her safety will always be a priority. No one will lash out. No one will hurt them. It will take time and patience to grow that trust, but once it is earned, healing can begin.

There are many strategies, tips, and guides to help guardians parent abuse survivors. The key aspect is to be there. Bouncing from one foster family to the next is possibly the worst post-abuse lifestyle a child could experience. They need stability, love, and understanding to move on from the trauma of their past.

Saving a child starts with recognizing the signs of abuse. Abusers come in all sizes, and shapes, and abuse can come in a wide variety of forms. Knowing the signs of each type of abuse is the only way to save a child from their abuser. Healing can only begin once the trauma has stopped.

PENNSYLVANIA – A woman who helped put her husband behind bars for raping two children in Pennsylvania was sentenced on Monday to five to 15 years for also participating in the sexual assaults, PEOPLE confirms. Holly Greiner, 31, will be on probation for 15 years after her prison stint, court officials tell PEOPLE. She pleaded guilty in April to two counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child. She had the child rape charges against her dismissed after negotiating a plea deal with the prosecution. READ MORE HERE

A 10-year-old girl residing in the Indian city of Chandigarh has been denied an abortion after allegedly being raped repeatedly by a relative. The girl’s story has taken the country by storm after India’s Supreme Court rejected a petition to pursue an abortion. The plea was rejected on the ground that she is far into her pregnancy at 32 weeks. The rape-victim’s family, who signed on her behalf, expressed disappointment over the court order. According to the report, a doctor’s panel has advised the court that an abortion at this time would be “too risky” for her and the fetus was “doing well.” READ MORE HERE

CALIFORNIA – A paternity test has revealed that a California man is the father of his 13-year-old niece’s child. Rigoberto Castro, 42, could face life in prison after he was accused of impregnating the teen, who gave birth in May. Castro was charged with seven felony counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child, oral copulation with a person under 18, and continuous sexual abuse of a child. Prosecutors said Castro had numerous sexual encounters with his niece between September 2016 and February 2017. READ MORE HERE

A California judge has awarded $60 million to three female taekwondo competitors who were sexually abused by their coach. The judgment was issued last week in Los Angeles Superior Court against coach Marc Gitelman, 51, who is serving more than four years in state prison for molesting the female athletes between 2007 and 2013. During the time the abuse occurred, the three women — Yasmin Brown, Kendra Gatt and Brianna Bordon, all of whom agreed to be identified publicly — were minors and aspiring Olympic taekwondo athletes. READ MORE HERE

A surge in seizures of child-like sex dolls by border officers has led investigators to identify dozens of previously unknown suspected pedophiles. The lifelike silicone sex aids, which weigh around 55lb (25kg) and can cost thousands of pounds, are being imported into the UK after being sold by traders on sites including Amazon and eBay, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said. READ MORE HERE

OKLAHOMA – A couple have been arrested for allegedly sexually abusing a four-year-old girl and taking naked photos of the child. Kristina Koehn, 29, of Hominy, was arrested on Wednesday along with her 19-year-old boyfriend, Chance Hood. When questioned by police, Koehn and Hood admitted to taking the victim to a park in Sapulpa, where the boyfriend forced the toddler to touch and lick his privates, according to a probable cause affidavit. READ MORE HERE

OHIO – A 52-year-old Ohio school board superintendent and his wife — who is also a superintendent — were indicted Tuesday in connection with allegations of child rape involving a 13-year-old girl. Patrick O’Donnell, the superintendent at Indian Lake Schools in Logan County, is facing four counts of first-degree felony rape, four counts of second-degree felony sexual battery, five counts of third-degree felony gross sexual imposition and one count of fourth-degree gross sexual imposition, according to Logan County Prosecutor Eric C. Stewart.  O’Donnell’s wife, Heather, 46, the superintendent at Midwest Regional Educational Service Center, has been charged with two counts of third-degree felony child endangering, according to Stewart. Both have pleaded not guilty. Patrick O’Donnell has been released on $150,000 bond. Heather was released on $25,000 bail, according to Stewart. READ MORE HERE

Mark Redwine, the father of Dylan Redwine, 13, who went missing in Colorado in 2012 and his remains were found in June 2013 on Middle Mountain has been arrested.  He was arrested in Washington where he works as a truck driver. La Plata County Sheriff’s Dept. called Mark a person of interest in Dylan’s death years before.  Elaine Hall, Dylan’s mom said she believed Mark Redwine had something to do with the disappearance of her son early on in the case. Back in 2014 it was thought that Mark had been arrested, but he was actually taken to the hospital. READ MORE HERE

LANSING, MI – An Ingham County judge found Thomas McClellan guilty of first-degree murder Friday, meaning the 25-year-old Holt man will spend the rest of his life in prison for stabbing then burning Luna Younger, his 5-year-old stepdaughter. Ingham County Circuit Judge Joyce Draganchuk also found McClellan guilty of first-degree child abuse and first-degree arson. Draganchuk alone deliberated because McClellan’s attorney, Patrick Crowley, requested a bench trial instead of trial by jury. READ MORE HERE

German police have busted a child porn website with 87,000 members and arrested a man they accuse of running it. Officers detained the 39-year-old, who has not been identified, north of Frankfurt. Several suspected users were arrested across Germany and Austria  They are all accused of involvement in a forum called Elysium, which had operated on the ‘Darknet’ since the end of 2016. The website was used for the worldwide exchange of child pornography and to make appointments for the sexual abuse of children, prosecutors said. “Among the child pornographic images and video files exchanged by the members of the platform were recordings of the most serious sexual abuse of children, including toddlers and depiction of sexual violence against children,” it said. READ MORE HERE

YUKON, Oklahoma – A man was arrested after he allegedly conspired to sexually abuse a newborn baby. On June 8, the Midwest City Police Department contacted the Canadian County Sheriff’s Office after gathering evidence Daniel Thomas J. Deffner, 39, of Yukon, traded child pornography and was engaged in a discussion involving child exploitation with a person in Midwest City. Officials say the Midwest City Police found Deffner was messaging a pregnant woman, who lives in Midwest City, through Facebook. READ MORE HERE