Twenty six men and two women appeared before a judge at Leeds Crown Court charged with offences including rape, trafficking, sexual activity with a child, child neglect, child abduction, supplying drugs and making of indecent images of children. The 29th defendant, who is in custody, did not appear for the hearing on Thursday. The defendants were greeted by protesters outside the court building, where a number of police were on duty. The allegations are non-recent sexual offences, dating back to between 2004 and 2011, and relate to 18 women, who were children at the time. The youngest child involved was 11 years old. READ MORE HERE

‘Adrian’s Act’ would hold anyone who keeps quiet on child abuse accountable

TOPEKA – A Kansas City, Kansas lawmaker has introduced a bill that would create an added penalty in child abuse cases in the wake of the death of a young boy who had been tortured and abused in his family’s home. Rep. Louis Ruiz, a Kansas City, Kan., Democrat, introduced Adrian’s Act on Friday. Ruiz said he and other members of the Wyandotte County delegation felt they should take responsibility and try to help. READ MORE HERE

Kansas Democrat introduces Adrian’s Act after death

A Roman Catholic nun from Japan has been arrested and charged on suspicion of helping priests sexually abuse children at a school for youths with hearing disabilities in Argentina. Kosaka Kumiko, 42, was charged with helping the priests with anal and vaginal rapes, fondling and oral sex, which were allegedly committed in the bathrooms, dormitories, garden and a basement at the school in Lujan de Cuyo, a city about 620 miles northwest of Buenos Aires. The case against Kumiko began after a former student accused her of making her wear a diaper to cover up a hemorrhage after she was allegedly raped by priest Horacio Corbacho. READ MORE HERE

NEVADA – A father is suspected of murdering of his 13-year-old son after family members found a nearly skeletal body that had been left decomposing for months. Paul Darell Jones, 33, who was already in jail for an unrelated child abuse case in 2015, has been named as a suspect in the death of his son, Aaron Jones. Two cousins searching for Aaron, who was last seen on December 31, found human remains wrapped up and covered with large rocks in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Tuesday. READ MORE HERE

FREEHOLD, N.J. – A convicted pedophile who used the messaging service on his Xbox to solicit nude photos from four boys in three states is heading to prison. Prosecutors in Monmouth County, New Jersey, say Gary Wolchesky received a 46-year sentence Friday. The 28-year-old was convicted in November on charges of aggravated sexual assault and child endangerment by manufacturing child pornography. READ MORE HERE

URUGUAY – The murder of Felipe Romero, age 10, at the hands of his soccer coach Fernando Sierra has shocked the country of Uruguay. The body of the child was found in a town near Montevideo. According to the local police chief, Sierra shot the boy in the head and then shot himself dead. “The adult had his back to the ground and the boy, face down, was partially holding the man with his head near his chest,” Sergio Mozzo, who was in charge of the autopsy. Mozzo also declared that the boy had been sexually abused on different occasions. “There was a violation. The marks that were found in the child showed erosion that possibly were from the same day or the previous day. He had signs of previously being abused repeatedly around the dimensions of the genital area.” READ MORE HERE

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico – Neighbors in a quiet Westside neighborhood say they were woken up to sirens and commotion. “When we looked outside to see what was going on, the place was surrounded by a bunch of cop cars,” said a neighbor. Officers were called to a home on Sheffield Place for an unresponsive 3-month-old baby. According to a criminal complaint, Anthony Serna is the father of the 3-month-old. He’s been charged with child abuse with great bodily harm. READ MORE HERE

Shauna Prewitt was a 21-year-old college senior in 2004 when she was raped and impregnated by her attacker. Her decision to keep her child — a baby girl — brought with it an unexpected twist: her rapist sought custody of their daughter when she was born.

Prewitt is not alone.

Women in seven U.S. states can be legally forced to share custody of their children with their rapist fathers — including in Maryland, where an all-male panel failed April 10 to pass legislation that would have allowed victims who have children from rape to block rapists’ parental rights. READ MORE HERE

TEXAS – Thirteen male athletes have been arrested at a Texas high school for what is being characterized as a sadistic hazing ritual where they allegedly anally raped at least 10 underclassmen with various objects. The small town of La Vernia, Texas, has been rocked by a major sexual assault case where nearly a dozen student athletes are accused of raping other students as a sports initiation practice, according to police. Three members of the basketball team at La Vernia High School, Colton Weidner, 18; Christian Roberts, 18; and John Rutkowski, 18, were arrested on a charge of second-degree felony sexual assault on Tuesday. This brings the total number of men arrested to 13, as six adult and seven juvenile students have been accused of the sexual assault where they allegedly raped at least 10 other male students with Gatorade and Coke bottles, flashlights and the threaded end of a carbon dioxide tank, according to police. READ MORE HERE

DELAWARE – Federal prosecutors have charged two airmen stationed at Dover Air Force Base with sexually abusing a teenage runaway they harbored on base. According to court records unsealed Thursday, Dalian Washington, 25, and Akeem Beazer, 21, waived their rights to preliminary hearings and are being detained pending trial. Both men are charged with sex abuse of a minor. Washington is also charged with sex trafficking of a child. READ MORE HERE

Facebook should not be a safe space for pedophiles and terrorists to share ‘hateful’ pictures and videos, the Home Secretary insisted last night. Amber Rudd spoke out after the social media site was accused of endangering the lives of youngsters by refusing to remove child abuse images. Child protection charities said sex abuse pictures on Facebook act like a gateway drug to would-be pedophiles, encouraging them to abuse youngsters in real life. Material including sexual images of children and gruesome terror videos were still rife on the social network yesterday. READ MORE HERE

Healthcare staff ‘backed off’ a mother who jumped to her death while holding her newborn baby because she was ‘middle class and articulate’, a new report revealed today. Charlotte Bevan, 30, vanished from St Michael’s Hospital in Bristol with her four-day-old daughter Zaani Tiana Bevan Malbrouck in her arms. She walked off the maternity ward holding her four-day-old child and walked past at least four nurses without being stopped. The new mother – who had a long history of mental illness – threw herself into Avon Gorge in November 2014 still cuddling Zaani around 40 minutes after leaving hospital. READ MORE HERE