A veteran Chicago police sergeant was charged with fondling the 9-year-old daughter of a police officer at a barbecue over the weekend, a spokesperson for the Cook County state’s attorney’s office said. Dennis Barnes, 61, a patrol sergeant in the South Side’s Wentworth police district, was charged Wednesday night with three counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse and one count of attempted predatory sexual assault, spokesperson Sally Daly said.

TUSCUMBIA, Alabama – A Tuscumbia man has been arrested and charged in the death of his two-month old son. Thursday afternoon, a capital murder warrant was issued for 28-year-old Michael Wade Logan from the death of his biological son Michael Wade Logan Jr. this past weekend. Cuffed behind his back, Tuscumbia Police escort Michael Wade Logan to the Colbert County Jail. Tuscumbia Police Chief Tony Logan says a preliminary autopsy shows the infant died from multiple traumas to the head and body.

A Somerville teacher has been indicted on charges of four counts of rape of a child, among other charges, following her arrest in July after allegedly having a sexual relationship with a 13-year-old minor, according to a press release. Alexandra Romanos, 41, of Stoneham, was indicted on charges of aggravated rape of a child (four counts), indecent assault and battery on a child under the age of 14 by a mandated reporter (eight counts) and disseminating material harmful to a minor. Romanos is scheduled for arraignment on August 13 at 9 a.m., in Woburn Superior Court, Room 430.

KNOXVILLE — A 61-year-old Knoxville man was convicted child rape by a Knox County jury Tuesday, according to prosecutors. Troy Lee Love was found guilty on two counts of rape of a child and one count of aggravated sexual battery following a two-day trial, according to Knox County District Attorney General Randy Nichols’ office. The Knox County Sheriff’s Office launched an investigation in January 2013 into allegations that Love had sexually abused a 7-year-old child. He was arrested in August 2013.

The mayor of a Midwest town is facing a potential 125 years in prison after he was charged with the alleged sexual abuse of two young girls. Sheriff’s deputies swooped on the home of Joseph Manus, mayor of Oelwein, Iowa, acting on warrants charging him with five counts of second-degree sexual abuse. The 36-year-old is accused of abusing a 14-year-old girl four times and a nine-year-old girl once between July and August 2010. Each count carries up to 25 years in prison. The investigation was not initiated by the city’s own police department, according to reports. Manus was arrested by deputies from Fayette County Sheriff’s Office.

A 15-year-old girl was forced to live on a tiny waste-soaked mat by her parents, who beat and starved her until she weighed just 60lbs, police have said. The girl, who doctors believe has autism or another learning disability, was left earlier this month at an Atlanta hospital by her mother, who said she ‘could not do it anymore’. The 35-year-old mother, Jade Marie Jacobs, was arrested on malicious child cruelty and authorities in Gwinnett County are still looking for her husband, William Brown, 40, to charge him with the same.

What seemingly loving mother would want to intentionally hurt her child? According to experts, a disorder called “Münchausen syndrome by proxy” is a form of child abuse that causes a parent to do just that. Munchausen by proxy syndrome (MBPS) is a relatively rare form of child abuse that involves the exaggeration or fabrication of illnesses or symptoms by a primary caretaker. Also known as “medical child abuse,” MBPS was named after Baron von Munchausen, an 18th-century German dignitary known for making up stories about his travels and experiences in order to get attention. “By proxy” indicates that a parent or other adult is fabricating or exaggerating symptoms in a child, not in himself or herself. Munchausen by proxy syndrome is a mental illness and requires treatment. Find out more by taking a look at these alleged Munchausen by Proxy possible cases.

A 24-year-old man allegedly beat his girlfriend’s baby boy to death with a leather belt because he urinated on him during a diaper change. Austin Hamilton is charged with first degree murder and aggravated child abuse for allegedly ‘losing control’ and repeatedly hitting one-year-old Sincere Williams on Saturday. Sincere died in hospital, with the medical examiner ruling the death a homicide.

A secret Catholic Church report found an Australian parish priest had been internally investigated and found guilty of child sex abuse, despite no criminal charges ever being laid against him. A report into a confidential investigation into Father Peter Searson of the Doveton parish, south east of Melbourne, in 1997 found he was guilty of the offences, ABC’s Four Corners reports. While Cardinal George Pell rejected a church cover-up of Father Searson’s crimes when he gave evidence at last year’s Victorian inquiry into child sex abuse, he did not make reference to the internal 1997 investigation or the finding that he had sexually abused children in his parish.

A 22-year-old Port Huron woman was arrested after her boyfriend’s child was found in critical condition in a bathtub in the 800 block of 13th Street in Port Huron. Charlisa Wood was charged Friday with torture, first degree child abuse, and assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder, according to the Port Huron Police Department.

An Obama Homeland Security TSA Inspector, George Hristovski, of Elverta in Northern, California, was arrested by the FBI after he allegedly sought to have sex with a mother and her 13-year-old daughter. A personal ad, allegedly placed by Hristovski, 54, in the “Casual Encounters” section of Craigslist sought a mother who wanted a man to teach her daughter about sex, reports the Sacramento Bee.

EMERTON, Washington— UPDATE: A Washington State teen is being held on a $1 million bond for the rape and murder of 6-year-old Jenise Wright. A Kitsap County judge read the charges against Gabriel Zebediah Gaeta, 17, including first-degree murder and first-degree rape during a court hearing Monday. He is being charged as an adult. The 6-year-old girl was last seen by her father in her bedroom at her Steel Creek Mobile Park Home in Bremerton the night of August 2. She wasn’t reported missing until the following evening. Her father told police it wasn’t unusual for his daughter to leave their home and play with friends in the neighborhood for an extended period of time. However, the girl’s father told police he became concerned when she didn’t check in with her family within the usual time frame.

British Police have charged five boys in their early teens with the rape of a 12-year-old girl. West Yorkshire police authorities announced late Wednesday that two boys aged 13 and three others aged 14 had all been charged with the rape of the female child. Two of the suspected rapists, one aged 13 and one 14, have been charged with two counts of rape of a child under 13, and one of the 13-year-olds has been charged with one count of rape of a child under 13 as well as sexual assault on a child under 13. The other two, both aged 14, have been charged with one count of rape of a child under 13, the authorities further noted.

A recent graduate of a prestigious New Hampshire boarding prep school has been charged with sexually assaulting a freshman as part of a student tradition in which seniors try to have sex with younger students. A police affidavit obtained by the Concord Monitor alleges 18-year-old Owen Labrie, of Tunbridge, Vermont, sexually assaulted a 15-year-old on campus two days before he graduated from St. Paul’s School in Concord June 1. Police say Labrie denied having sex with the girl. Results are still pending from a state lab, but the affidavit says a nurse reported observing a laceration consistent with forced intercourse.