A unique insight into why young children sexually abuse other children is to be revealed in a ground-breaking study. The research, which has yet to be formally published, was on boys aged 10 or under who have molested siblings, classmates, or friends. It found that they are invariably born into families in which abuse, violence and neglect has become routine over several generations. The peer-reviewed study found that the boys were unable to form healthy relationships as a result of neglectful and hostile parenting. Even before starting school, they were anxious, angry and detached; bed-wetting, nightmares, self-harm and eating problems were common.

With her dark hair neatly pinned back, glamorous sense of style and remarkably unlined skin, Gabriella Gillespie, 50, looks every inch the professional mother-of-five. But her immaculate looks conceal a dark secret, for unlike her neighbours in the quiet Bristol suburb that she calls home, Gabriella is a former child bride. Now, more than 20 years after escaping her violent rapist husband, she has written a memoir in the hopes that telling her story will help prevent other girls from going through the same trauma.

A 19-year-old missionary from Oklahoma sexually abused up to ten African orphans – some as young as four years old – while volunteering at the shelter where they lived in Nairobi, Kenya, according to federal charges filed against him. Matthew Lane Durham was arrested last Thursday at his parents’ home in Edmond, Oklahoma, after he fled Kenya when he was confronted with the sex abuse allegations. The founder of Upendo Children’s Home, Eunice Menja, told the FBI that Durham admitted to assaulting between four and ten children, aged four to ten – including one who is HIV-positive – while volunteering at the orphanage between April and June of this year. He allegedly wrote out a sickening confession for Mrs Menja in which he detailed horrific acts of sexual abuse against both boys and girls. According to court documents, he admitted in the written confession that he raped at least three children and forced others to watch the sex abuse.

A father has been sentenced to a minimum of 18 years and nine months in prison for beating his two-year-old daughter to death in an attack he had hoped would make her a lesbian. Donovan Lamar Haynes, 23, was sentenced in Flint, Michigan on Monday after pleading no contest to second-degree murder for the 2011 killing of Ti’Airra Woodward. A pre-sentence investigation report claimed Haynes had beat the girl to turn her gay in hope that she would avoid men like him, who had a history of treating women poorly, Mlive reported. Haynes’ attorney Elbert Hatchett called him ‘deranged’ before Genesee Circuit Judge Joseph J. Farah sentenced him to serve a concurrent five-to-15-years in prison for first-degree child abuse.

Believing his ex-girlfriend’s 11-year-old daughter caused their break up — a 42-year-old man snuck into the home and stabbed the 6th grader to death in gruesome fashion, authorities claim. Investigators say the wounds were extremely gruesome. Miami police say 11-year-old Marta Guzman did not slash her own wrists, or commit suicide. The Little Havana girl was found unresponsive at her own home on June 22. According to an arrest affidavit, police responded to the Little Havana apartment where Marta lived with her mother, Amaury Alvarenga. Alvarenga called police after arriving home around 2:30 pm to find her daughter’s neck and wrists slashed.

The mother and grandparents of a 7-year-old Pennsylvania boy were arrested last week after an investigation revealed that the mother allegedly had beaten and starved the boy to the point that he only weighed 25 pounds. The investigation was set in motion when Mercer County Youth Services sent caseworkers to the family’s home in Greenville, where they saw that the boy was ‘clearly under weight’ in early June. Caseworkers took the unidentified boy straight to the UPMC Horizon hospital before he was transferred to UPMC Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh, where he reportedly has gained 20 pounds since he first arrived on June 6.

A high school teacher who engaged in sexually explicit conversations with male students, including asking them for semen-stained tissues to make art projects, has been sentenced to 15 years jail. Charles Reilly admitted he also instructed the 17 boys, aged 12 to 16, at New Jersey’s Pine Hill Middle School how to masturbate over a five year period. Authorities said the 45-year-old soccer coach, who’d worked at the school for more than a decade, also had an inappropriate online conversation with an undercover cop who he thought was a young boy.

One of the men arrested in a crackdown on suspected pedophiles is a junior doctor working in pediatrics. Raza Laskar, 31, from Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, is accused of sexual activity with a child and possessing indecent images of children. He faces trial later this year. Chief Superintendent Caroline Ball said: ‘We know this man has worked in hospitals right across Greater Manchester and we understand the public will undoubtedly be concerned upon hearing about the offences with which he has been charged.’

CLEAR LAKE, Iowa – A local school district is dealing with the issue of bullying, only this time, it’s from coach to player. The family of Spencer Davidson, who graduated from Clear Lake High School this spring, filed a discrimination claim against football coach Fred Wieck. After mediation, the two sides came to a settlement, requiring the school district to pay $50,000 to the Davidson’s. Wieck is also required to write a formal apology letter, and changes will be made to the school’s anti-bullying policy. While district officials can’t comment on a personnel matter, the superintendent says a closer look at their anti-bullying policies is beneficial for everyone.

BAGHDAD — The United Nations accused Islamic State fighters in Iraq of executions, rape and forced recruitment of children during a campaign to seize much of northern Iraq, part of a conflict it said has killed almost 5,600 civilians this year. In a report, the U.N. focused on a range of violations committed against civilians, particularly by the Islamic State, though it also said Iraqi forces and allied fighters had not taken precautions to protect civilians from violence.

A seven-year-old girl ran sobbing for help to a neighbor after her mother’s husband shot the woman and then himself in a murder-suicide at their home, police said today. The girl, who has two brothers aged one and six, ran to the home of her mother’s friend following the fatal shootings in Houston, Texas. The shootings took place around 3am on Thursday, according to the Houston Police Department.

DAYTONA BEACH, FL — A Daytona Beach father who walked in on a man sexually battering his 11-year-old son Friday said he did what he had a right to do when he beat the suspect unconscious, leaving him in a puddle of blood, according to a 9-1-1 call. “I just walked in on a grown man molesting my son” the upset father told a dispatcher. “And I got him in a bloody puddle for you officer.” The father was acting like a dad, said Daytona Beach police Chief Mike Chitwood. Police responding to the Daytona Beach home at 1:07 a.m. Friday after the father called them found Raymond Frolander, 18, of Holly Hill lying motionless on the living room floor. Frolander had several knots on his face and was bleeding from the mouth, an arrest report states.

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – A missing pregnant woman has been found dead in the trunk of a vehicle that was driven by the suspect in her boyfriend’s homicide, and police say the accused killer committed suicide while in a car chase with authorities Thursday night. The deaths of 18-year-old Brooke Slocum and the suspect come after Wyoming police found her boyfriend, Charles Oppenneer, dead in Gezon Park on Wednesday, July 16.

Pedophiles could be given realistic child sexbots as part of their treatment, it has been claimed. Leading robotics experts say the emergence of ‘sexbots’ that resemble children is inevitable. They believe they could form an important part of treatment plans for pedophiles. ‘We’ve had sex toys for as long as mankind, and womankind, have been around,’ said Ron Arkin, Georgia Tech’s Mobile Robot Lab director, speaking on a robot ethics panel at Berkeley. ‘Child-like robots could be used for pedophiles the way methadone is used to treat drug addicts,’ Arkin said, according to Forbes.