At least five women from Iowa are facing charges of child endangerment charges after it was found they knowingly allowed children to live close to eight men with a history of sexual abuse and child pornography. Police have confirmed that at least six children were victims of child abuse, child neglect or child pornography. An online search also confirms that even now there are still seven known sex offenders living in the same Patriot Mobile Home Park and Apartments in Davenport, Iowa.

Child sex abuse victims, their families and friends, and, frankly, everyone except perpetrators and those who enable them, should be pleased about the progress toward victims’ access to justice in 2013. This past year, the pace of the movement quickened remarkably. Sadly, though, religious groups have gone back to the drawing board to find new ways to protect themselves from the law, so there is also a cloud on the horizon for victims as well. We need civil-rights advocates, children’s advocates, and survivors and their communities to work hard to make 2014 even better than 2013, and if we all work together, the prospects of our doing so are good.

Jacksonville, Florida — The man facing charges of kidnapping, raping and killing 8-year-old Cherish Perrywinkle appeared at a pretrial hearing Wednesday morning. For the first time, the victim’s mother was in court to face the accused.

GOSHEN, Indiana — Elkhart County police are asking for the public’s help in finding a man accused of child molestation. Police are seeking Scott Edward Culver, 50. He is described as a white male approximately 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighing around 165 pounds. According to a posting on the Elkhart County Sheriff’s Department Facebook page, Culver was last known to live in Goshen. However, there is a warrant out for Culver’s arrest and he may have left the state.

UNION, S.C. — A couple who carried out a plan to kill a registered sex offender and his wife showed little remorse when they were sentenced to life in prison Tuesday, with one shouting: “That’s what child molesters get.” Initially, Jeremy and Christine Moody apologized to the judge and asked for a 30-year sentence so they could see their children and grow old together. But after Union County Judge Lee Alford handed down the maximum punishment, they shared a brief kiss and then showed how they really felt.

KEY WEST, Florida — Authorities in the Keys have charged a man with incest. Brandon Williams, 34, of Stock Island was arrested and charged with having sexual relations with someone he is related to, a third degree felony. According to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, Williams was also charged with being over 24 years of age and having sexual relations with someone aged 16 or 17, a second degree felony.

A Donegal woman who was raped and sexually abused from the age of seven until she was sixteen, has broken her silence. Arylene Murphy is telling her story to let others know just how much the Donegal Sexual Abuse and Rape Crisis Centre can help. This is the first time that the Ballyshannon woman, who will be 50 next month, has ever spoken publicly about the sexual abuse she endured from the age of seven to the age of sixteen. Not understanding what had happened to her, she, like so many others, turned to drink and drugs in an effort to escape her pain.

A Michigan man has been found guilty of killing his girlfriend’s 1-year-old daughter who authorities say had bleeding in her brain and eyes, as well as alcohol and marijuana in her system. A Kalamazoo jury convicted Toren Hains, 22, Tuesday of felony murder and first-degree child abuse in the December 2012 death of Zoie Grace Johnston, of Oshtemo Township. Hains’ murder conviction comes with mandatory life imprisonment.

‘That man’s evil, he’s a beast, he’s a pedophile. In fact jail’s too good for him,’ says Tracy Brown. ‘I feel bitter towards him because he’ll never realize what he’s done.’ Tracy and her twin sister Rachel Steadwood, now 38 and from Edinburgh, were just six years old when their childhood came to an abrupt end. Unbeknownst to each other, both had been attacked and brutally raped by a man they considered to be family, the husband of their Aunt Mary, John McCallum.

Weeks ago, the United Nations released one of the greatest international indictments of the Vatican in years. Among the report’s concerns: “ritual beatings of children,” “torture and other cruel or degrading treatment” and sexual abuse and exploitation. Worse, the report said, the Catholic Church hadn’t just ignored pleas for reform. It had protected pedophile priests. “Well-known child sexual abusers have been transferred from parish to parish or to other countries in an attempt by the church to cover-up such crimes,” the United Nations alleged.

A “harrowing” parliamentary report from the Australian Defence Abuse Response Taskforce (Dart) will next month detail allegations of shocking sexual assault of hundreds of child sailors at a West Australian naval base. More than 210 navy junior recruits between the ages of 15 and 18 were raped or assaulted at the HMAS Leeuwin base in Fremantle between 1960 and 1980 by staff or fellow recruits, it has been alleged. HMAS Leeuwin operated as a junior recruit training facility from 1960 until 1984.

A Dallas judge’s handling of a rape case and her suggestion that the 14-year-old victim was lying has outraged the city’s top prosecutor, who said the case makes other victims reluctant to help authorities. State District Judge Jeanine Howard voluntarily rescued herself from the case of 20-year-old Sir Young, who pleaded guilty to raping the girl in 2011. Howard sentenced Young to probation and limited some of the conditions a sex offender might normally receive.

Daniel Simmons, 34, of Pike Creek, Del., who also happens to be aDelaware deputy attorney general with the New Castle County Misdemeanor Trial Unit, was arrested by the New Castle County Police on May 2 and charged with four counts of fourth-degree rape in connection with a series of alleged assaults on a 16-year-old boy who police say he met through “Grindr,” a social media app that connects gay and bisexual males. Officer Tracey Duffy, a spokesperson for the New Castle County Police, said the investigation into Simmons began a few months ago after information regarding Simmons and his victim first surfaced.

ANKARA — Turkey’s ruling AK Party will introduce a series of draft legislations targeting child sexual abuse, Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Ar?nç said on Monday. He said the planned laws would have people who had got aggravated life imprisonment for crimes against children serve more prison time.