A sadistic father has been jailed for four years after he beat his newborn daughter and told police he wanted to cause her pain. Joshua Stephens, 22, was violent towards the unnamed baby for the first six weeks of her life before he confessed to his wife about what he had done. Among the most brutal acts he carried out, Stephens held a pillow over the child’s face and forced her head under water while giving her a bath. Stephens, from Mirfield, West Yorkshire, was told by a judge that he posed a significant risk to the public after hearing that he had slapped the girl ‘as hard as you would hit a man’.

A man seeking to clear his name in a famous child molestation case has successfully petitioned a New York judge to release 25-year-old documents used in his prosecution. Lawyers working on behalf of Jesse Friedman, whose conviction was highlighted in the 2003 Oscar-nominated documentary ‘Capturing the Friedmans,’ want to review grand jury testimony and transcripts of witness interviews. ‘Every aspect, every part, every piece of paper generated in the matter of People V. Friedman’ will be released to Jesse Friedman’s defense team, state Supreme Court Judge F. Dana Winslow ordered following a brief hearing.

A Jehovah’s Witness who sexually abused a child and then had his wrongdoing covered up by the church has been jailed for 13 years. Gordon Leighton, 53, admitted sexually abusing a child when he was confronted with the allegations by church elders at Washington, Tyne and Wear. The elders knew about the 53-year-old’s admissions for three years, but refused to co-operate with the criminal investigation, and said what they had heard was confidential. Leighton hit the headlines in the 1990’s when his wife Yvonne, 28, died after refusing a blood transfusion after childbirth on religious grounds.

The girl, known only as ‘Jessica’ claims she was abused daily by a 24-year-old man after social services failed to accept that she was a victim grooming. On one occasion married father-of-two Arshid Hussain was even caught with the half naked schoolgirl under his bed but shocking documents released today reveal that police arrested her and let him go. Now ‘Jessica’ is one four women suing Rotherham council over ‘systematic failures’ to protect them from ‘sexual abuse by predatory men when they were children’ according to their lawyers.

Seven middle school children were waiting at a bus stop in Gary, Indiana when a car drove up and two men and two women got out and demanded the children give up their cellphones and lunch money, telling them that if they refused “something bad was going to happen to them.” One girl attempted to run away, but one of the female adults caught her by the hair and repeatedly punched her in the face; the other woman attacked her as well and she suffered from a bloody nose and lip.

WASHINGTON TWP., MI –Two-year-old Damian Sutton is on life support at Children’s Hospital in Detroit after family members say he was punched and kicked. Family believes the boy’s mother’s boyfriend is the attacker. Macomb County Sheriffs tell Fox 2 they are investigating an incident out of Washington Township that involves a 2 year-old in critical condition. They also say they have a man in custody related to that incident, but offered no further comment Thursday.

A North Carolina teen was sentenced to 10 to 12 years in prison on a reduced murder charge after she pleaded guilty on Monday to the stabbing death of her infant daughter. Authorities said Rebecca Jo Blackmore, who was 16 years old when her baby died in 2011, killed her newborn child by stabbing the baby girl to death with scissors.

GOLDEN CITY, MO — The body of a missing 12-year-old Missouri girl was found Wednesday, local media reports. Bobby Bourne Jr., 34, of Lamar, has been charged with kidnapping Adriaunna Horton following her disappearance after her first day of school Monday. She was last seen getting into an SUV thought to be Bourne’s about 5 p.m. at Hazel Park in Golden City.

An American fugitive’s Superhero tattoo was up, up and away the best way to identify him. Tobias Summers, 30, accused of kidnapping and raping a Los Angeles girl, 10, fled to a small Mexican village where he checked himself into a rehab clinic south of Tijuana — not exactly a fortress of solitude — under a pseudonym. Someone discerned Summers’ true identity and tipped off the FBI late Tuesday night and, the next day, Baja California state police identified him by the prominent Man of Steel emblem tattooed on his chest.

COMSTOCK PARK, MI – It’s a case that’s shocked and enraged West Michigan. Stevie Foehl and Michael Emory of Comstock Park are accused of raping a 1-year-old girl and filming it. Police believe the victim was assaulted on two occasions and say she was an acquaintance of the pair. The two were arrested in South Carolina after police say they fled from their apartment. They’re set to be extradited to Michigan facing charges of criminal sexual conduct and child sexually abusive activity.

The BBC is expected to pay out around £4million to 120 of paedophile presenter Jimmy Savile’s alleged victims. It works out at an average of £33,000 per person – but is less than the £4.1million the broadcaster gave its executive board in 12 months. The level of compensation is expected to be agreed towards the end of the year when former high court judge Dame Janet Smith, 71, publishes the findings of her probe into the “culture and practices” at the BBC during the Savile era.

Two brothers have been jailed for a raft of sexual offences including pimping out young girls to workers at a curry house for £150 sex sessions. Ahdel Ali, 24, was sentenced to 18 years in prison, while his 29-year-old brother Mubarek was handed a 14-year-term by Judge Patrick Thomas QC at Worcester Crown Court. During the brothers’ trial the court heard that the two men systematically groomed young girls for after hour sex sessions at the restaurant.

The father of a teenage girl who killed herself after months of bullying online has said changes to social networking site Ask.fm do not go far enough. David Smith wants the controversial website to ban all anonymous posts to stop online bullies hiding their true identities. He also said he has not received an apology after he accused Ask.fm of trying to ‘discredit’ his daughter by saying most of the abuse she received she sent to herself.

A mother subjected her toddler son to a sickening catalog of beatings, which left him looking like he had been ‘hit with a frying pan’. The son, just 22 months old at the time, suffered four broken bones in his arm and shoulder and numerous bruises to his head and body in a week. His horrific injuries were revealed at Preston Crown Court in Lancashire as the 22-year-old ‘depressed’ woman was jailed for four years.