Girl told police she saw another child bound in back of alleged suspect’s van

CHICAGO — Chicago police say they are investigating the alleged kidnapping attempt of an 11-year-old girl who reportedly says a man tried to force her into his van in Englewood Monday. The victim, who managed to escape, told police she saw another young girl inside the alleged suspect’s van with her hands and feet duct-taped. The child allegedly told police the other girl was screaming for help.  READ MORE HERE

A Los Angeles-area woman and her boyfriend have pleaded not guilty to capital murder charges related to the 2013 death of her 8-year-old son, Gabriel Fernandez, who was routinely “abused, beaten, and tortured more severely than many prisoner of war,” according to a deputy district attorney who spoke to the Los Angeles Times. Pearl Sinthia Fernandez, 30, and her boyfriend, Isauro Aguierre, 37, of Palmdale, Calif., are accused of torturing the child for eight months, calling him gay, beating him when he played with dolls, striking him with belts and baseball bats, forcing him to eat cat feces and his own vomit, dousing him in pepper spray, and locking him inside a cabinet with a sock stuffed in his mouth and refusing to let him out to use the bathroom, according to court records and testimony from the child’s older siblings.  READ MORE HERE

The unidentified Moroccan beauty queen has reportedly been accused of funding a fake association that exploits homeless children in the production of child pornography, as well as using them as human shields in several political demonstrations and conflicts with the police. According to Egypt’s Yaoum7, the fake association that goes by the name “Biladi” or my country was co-founded by an American woman and her husband. The American couple are said to have stripped over 20 children and videotaped them naked in a minor pornographic production. READ MORE HERE

Mayor de Blasio pledged a “full investigation” Monday into the death of a toddler who died while in the apartment of a licensed child care giver in the Bronx over the weekend. Athena Skeeter, a 40-year-old child care professional licensed by the state, was charged with manslaughter and endangering the welfare of a child in the Saturday death of Cardel Williamson, who suffered blunt force trauma to the head and torso, authorities said. READ MORE HERE

Mother arrested after slamming daughter’s head into wall

OKLAHOMA CITY – A 25-year-old mother is being charged with child abuse after she allegedly slammed her child’s head against the wall. On Aug. 22, authorities were called to the Willow Cliff Apartments after a security guard was called to an apartment on a disturbance. When the security guard arrived, he says he noticed swelling on the child’s head. READ MORE HERE

Jury Rejects “Sexsomnia” Claim

Caleb Ruh, a 29-year-old Flagler County man accused two years ago of molesting a 7-year-old girl in his care, was found guilty of lewd and lascivious molestation in a jury trial that ended late this afternoon. Ruh faces life in prison and will be designated a sexual predator. He will be sentenced on Sept. 29 by Flagler County Circuit Judge J. David Walsh. Ruh was represented by public defender Regina Nunnally, who argued at trial that Ruh suffered from “sexsomnia” and committed the acts while asleep. READ MORE HERE

Four undergraduate students at North Carolina State University are attempting to produce a nail polish that will reveal the presence of “date rape drugs” such as Rohypnol and GHB by changing color in their presence. “With our nail polish, any woman will be empowered to discreetly ensure her safety by simply stirring her drink with her finger,” the Undercover Colors Facebook page says. “Through this nail polish and similar technologies, we hope to make potential perpetrators afraid to spike a woman’s drink because there’s now a risk that they can get caught,” the page continues. “In effect, we want to shift the fear from the victims to the perpetrators. We are Undercover Colors and we are the first fashion company empowering women to prevent sexual assault.”  READ MORE HERE

Special nail polish may help detect date-rape drugs

This nail polish may detect date-rape drugs – CNET

The Connecticut medical examiner has ruled the death of a 15-month-old boy who was left in his father’s car in July a homicide. The cause of Benjamin Seitz’s death was hyperthermia because of environmental exposure, the state medical examiner said on Wednesday. On July 7, Kyle Seitz was supposed to drop his son off at day care in Ridgefield, Connecticut, but the drop-off never occurred, his wife, Lindsey Rogers-Seitz told CNN last month. READ MORE HERE

Notorious killer sisters, who kidnapped and murdered babies, to become first women executed in India

Renuka Shinde was a poor teenage mother when she tried to steal a purse during a crowded festival at a temple in India. Caught in the act, Shinde feigned outrage and showed her accusers her young son. Would a thief take their child along, she asked. The crowd at the temple in Pune, 150 kilometres south-east of Mumbai, let her go. The experience spawned an idea in Shinde that would lead her and her sister to become India’s most notorious serial killers. READ MORE HERE

Filing criminal charges against a mother for reportedly ignoring claims her daughter was sexually abused is a rare move and will require prosecutors to show exactly what warnings the mother was given, experts say. The Iowa Department of Human Services began investigating the Newton, Iowa woman after a doctor’s appointment revealed her 12-year-old daughter was pregnant, a police report shows. During the doctor visit, the girl told her mother, “I tried to tell you several times” about the abuse, the report said. READ MORE HERE

More than 300 rapes were reported in British schools in three years, including a 12-year-old girl who was ‘stripped naked and raped by fellow pupils’. Police recorded a 40 per cent increase in the number of sex crimes reported to them between 2011 and 2013 – and more than half of the offenders were children. Easy access to online pornography is said to have driven the surge in abuse, according to the children’s charity NSPCC. READ MORE HERE

The 2014 North Dakota teacher of the year has been accused of having a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old student. Aaron Knodel, 35, had been on paid leave from his job as an English teacher at West Fargo high school since the investigation began in February. He faces five felony counts. Knodel began grooming the teen girl with text messages in December 2008, the student told police according to an affidavit cited by WDAY. She was a senior in his English class at the time. READ MORE HERE

HIGHLAND PARK, Michigan – Highland Park Police are investigating the finding of a newborn baby boy Saturday morning. The woman who claimed she found the baby has been identified by police as the baby’s mother. Police tell us it happened about 10:45 a.m. According to police, a newborn baby boy was found near a dumpster. He was very healthy and was taken to Children’s hospital. READ MORE HERE

Former Walworth County state’s attorney jailed without bail

PIERRE – The South Dakota Supreme Court disbarred Christopher Jansen last week while he waits in jail without bail, accused of engaging in sex with boys younger than 13 and distributing pornographic images of some of his alleged acts. A document obtained Tuesday from the clerk’s office of the South Dakota Supreme Court shows Jansen submitted a statement of resignation to the disciplinary board of the State Bar. The Supreme Court accepted the resignation and disbarred him from practicing as an attorney and counselor at law in all of the courts of the state. The judgment cancels and revokes his license to practice law in South Dakota. READ MORE HERE