DECATUR, Illinois – The father of a 4-year-old Decatur girl who died after being brought to an emergency room unresponsive and with scabs and bruises covering much of her body is facing a first-degree murder charge. 29-year-old Darrell A. Reynolds appeared Thursday in Macon County Circuit Court, where he was arraigned. If convicted, he faces 20 years to life in prison. He’s scheduled to return to court Sept. 28.

NASHVILLE, Tennessee — A lawsuit by a Tennessee high school basketball player who was raped and assaulted by teammates claims officials knew athletes were being abused but did nothing. The victim, identified only as John Doe, was a freshman at Ooltewah High School in December when he was held down by two older players while a third forced a pool cue into his rectum, tearing his bladder.

U.K. – Four pedophiles who abused children over five decades were branded ‘monsters of the deepest, darkest depths’ by a judge as he jailed them for a combined 63 years. Joseph Foster, 74, Logan Morris, 71, Stephen Amos, 62, and Martin Belgium, 55, were convicted of 27 offences against nine victims. The predators raped and molested seven girls and two boys – some as young as five – in a ‘morass’ of offending spanning from the late 1970s to 2012 that often went unreported, and one victim claimed was as regular as ‘washing up.’

OCALA, Florida – A 10-year-old North Florida boy has been arrested on a manslaughter charge in connection with the death of his 2-year-old cousin. The Marion County Sheriff’s Office tells news outlets the boy was booked into a juvenile detention center Wednesday, more than two months after he and his sister told deputies their cousin, Journee Blyden, fell out of a playpen in her Ocala home on June 21 and stopped breathing. The toddler died a few days later of severe head trauma.

Nearly 50 million children throughout the world are ‘uprooted,’ forcibly displaced from their home countries by war, violence or persecution, UNICEF has revealed. In its analysis of global data, UNICEF found there were also one million asylum seekers whose refugee status is pending and approximately 17 million children displaced within their own countries lacking access to humanitarian aid and critical services. Children are also increasingly crossing borders on their own: more than 100,000 unaccompanied minors applied for asylum in 78 countries last year, tripling 2014’s numbers.

Minnesota elementary school teacher, Aric Babbitt, 40, and his husband, Matthew Deyo, died in a murder-suicide following reports of a teen boy who told police the married couple had sex with him. The South St. Paul teacher refused to discuss the allegations when police searched the couple’s home last month, according to court records obtained. Nine days later, the couple was found dead on Lopez Island in Washington state.

DECATUR, Illinois – The parents of a 4-year-old Decatur girl who died at a local hospital face preliminary charges in her death. An affidavit from Decatur police Detective Erik Ethell says that Amarrah C. Reynolds died Wednesday after being brought to the emergency room unresponsive and with scabs and bruises covering much of her body.

A Beaumont man accused of raping a 3-month-old child is facing a minimum 25-year prison sentence after a Jefferson County grand jury indicted him on aggravated sexual assault charges. Cedric Madison, 41, was caught earlier this month sexually assaulting a family member on Betty Lane, according to a probable cause affidavit released Wednesday by the Jefferson County district attorney’s office.

CNN – The remains of Jacob Wetterling, a Minnesota boy abducted from a rural road 27 years ago, have been found, the Stearns County Sheriff’s Office said Saturday. The release didn’t say whether anybody has been charged. The sheriff’s office said investigators will evaluate new evidence and “expect to be in a position to provide more detailed information early next week.” The abduction of the 11-year-old boy led to the 1994 Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act, which requires states to maintain sex offender registries and guidelines.

The attorney for a woman charged with child abuse for allegedly beating her son with a coat hanger says Indiana’s religious objections law gives her the right to discipline her children according to her evangelical Christian beliefs. Kihn Par Thaing, 30, of Indianapolis was arrested in February on felony abuse and neglect charges after a teacher discovered her 7-year-old son’s injuries. Thaing is accused of beating her son with a coat hanger, leaving him with 36 bruises and red welts. Her attorney, Greg Bowes, argues in court documents filed July 29 that the state shouldn’t interfere with Thaing’s right to raise her children as she deems appropriate. He cited Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act as part of her defense, saying it gives her the right to discipline her children according to her beliefs. Court documents cite biblical Scripture and state that a parent who “spares the rod, spoils the child.”

Children’s services are investigating Anthony Weiner after a lewd selfie he took of his erect manhood while lying in bed next to his four-year-old son and sent to a woman was revealed. The Administration for Children’s Services has launched a probe into the disgraced former Congressman. The agency’s officials showed up at the apartment in Manhattan’s Union Square that Weiner shared with his estranged wife Huma Abedin on Tuesday, the newspaper reports.

A teenager who vanished from Myrtle Beach, S.C., in 2009 was repeatedly raped in a gang “stash house” for several days – then she was shot dead and fed to alligators when her disappearance generated too much media attention, the FBI said last week. The shocking new details about the mysterious disappearance of 17-year-old Rochester, N.Y., native Brittanee Drexel came largely from a “jailhouse confession” that was subsequently substantiated by others with “tidbits” and “secondhand information,” FBI Agent Gerrick Munoz testified in a federal court transcript.

PARKESBURG, PA – A man who police say has ties to scouting groups, emergency medical providers and volunteer fire companies in Chester County has been charged with child sexual abuse. Thirty-eight-year-old Michael Kellon of Parkesburg was arrested Wednesday and charged with involuntary deviant sexual intercourse, statutory sexual assault of a minor and related offenses. Police say the arrest followed an investigation into alleged child sex abuse dating back to 2011.

ATLANTA – A Hall County babysitter is faces criminal charges after deputies said a 5-month-old baby left in her care suffered at least four broken bones. According to investigators, the little girl suffered those injuries over a period of a month while she was in the care of 38-year-old Robin Carter Capulin of Gillsville.