A boy who was the victim of apparent bullying died Sunday at a Philadelphia-area hospital after being taken off life support, his family said. Bailey O’Neill, who turned 12 on Saturday, had been in a medically-induced coma since January, when he was allegedly beaten by two classmates on the playground during recess at his school. The sixth-grader sustained a concussion and broken nose, and suffered subsequent seizures, forcing doctors to induce the coma.

MYRTLE BEACH, SC – Brent Egan Dotson, 57, was convicted of Criminal Sexual Conduct with a Minor Under 11 Wednesday in an Horry County courtroom, even though he failed to show up for his own trial, according to prosecutor Candice Lively. Dotson was also found guilty of Lewd Act on a Minor. Dotson was dating the victim’s grandmother, when the victim said he molested her between 2009 and 2010, according to Lively.

LANSING, MI – Mercedes Kemp, 21, was found guilty Friday for the death of her 2-year-old son, Brandon. Kemp was originally charged with second-degree murder, torture and first-degree child abuse. Her ex-boyfriend, Marcus Hill, also was arrested and charged. He will tried in a separate trial. Brandon died in April last year at a local hospital under “suspicious” conditions.

The Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services has been under much scrutiny lately, following a series of highly publicized child deaths, a disgusting case of child abuse in Palmdale and, more recently, the publication of a scathing internal report, which The Times wrote about in the Feb. 14 article, “Report excoriates L.A. County agency in child deaths, torture.” Contrary to what some people believe, front-line social workers — the men and women who struggle every day to keep children safe and families whole — have long been calling for departmental reforms. Our suggestions, which follow, are common sense. And they could make all the difference in improving the lives of thousands of children

SACRAMENTO — Thousands of paroled child molesters, rapists and other high-risk sex offenders in California are removing or disarming their court-ordered GPS tracking devices — and some have been charged with new crimes including sexual battery, kidnapping and attempted manslaughter. The offenders have discovered that they can disable the monitors, often with little risk of serving time for it, a Times investigation has found. The jails are too full to hold them. “It’s a huge problem,” said Fresno parole agent Matt Hill. “If the public knew, they’d be shocked.”

NORTH STONINGTON, CT -Connecticut State Police said the two little boys found dead with their grandmother in a car all suffered from gunshot wounds and were the victims of a double murder/suicide. The horrific and tragic story unfolded Tuesday afternoon when state police said the North Stonington boys were taken from their day care by their grandmother. “We’ve gone over it in our heads a million times,” said Christine Hare, who owns the day care. Just after 4 p.m. Tuesday, state police said they received a report from the boys’ mother saying her children, 6-month-old Ashton Perry and Alton Perry, who was celebrating his second birthday on Tuesday, had been picked up by their grandmother, Debra Denison, 47, and all three could not be located.

A Milton boy, 3, is in critical condition at Sacred Heart Hospital after drinking what is believed to be Drano that was being stored in a sippy cup at an apartment where methamphetamine was being produced. Both parents and five other people are charged in the case. The incident occurred Feb. 20 in a unit in Pineywoods Place apartments in Milton, according a report released today by the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s office. On the evening of the incident, the child drank the chemical from a sippy cup in the bathroom of the apartment while unsupervised and suffered an immediate reaction.

36-year-old Phillip Raymond Hernandez, from South Natomas, CA, was charged with the heinous murder of his 9-year-old son, Matthew Hernandez. According to The Sacramento Bee, when Matthew’s great-grandmother saw Hernandez wielding a hatchet, standing over the sleeping 9-year-old, she tried to intervene but was viciously knockedagainst the wall.

A 21-year-old Texas man got thrown in the slammer for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in order to get revenge on her family. The criminal, Charles Andrew Capps, was allegedly sending lewd photos through Facebook to the 14-year-old when the teens mother found out, reports ABC News.

An app called Snapchat boasts 50-million “snaps” a day, but each of the images come and go in a matter of seconds. Our sister station, KMGH, investigates the dangers of the easy-come-easy-go picture app. “Anytime you can only show an image for 2 seconds to 10 seconds, you have to wonder why,” said Detective Mike Harris with the Jefferson County District Attorney’s office. That is exactly what Snapchat is about, sending images that disappear. “Why limit it and what’s the reason of limiting it? Because obviously you’re letting strangers who you don’t know have access to those pictures and often times those strangers are what we call ‘predators’ and what law enforcement and the kids call ‘creepers,'” said Harris.

Police in an area of Afghanistan where 109 British troops died and hundreds were wounded trying to secure peace are riddled with corruption, child abuse, drug taking, kidnap and murder, a devastating investigation by Panorama revealed last night. Weapons, ammunition and fuel paid for by UK taxpayers are being openly sold by Afghan officers – possibly to end-up with the Taliban – while senior police refuse to crackdown of the abuse of young boys by their officers. Some officers appear drug-addicted, others are kidnapping civilians for ransom while in the past five weeks, four boys suspected of having been used as ‘sex slaves’ have been shot – one in the face – while attempting to escape from police commanders believed to have abducted them from their families. Three have died.

Jon Snow told yesterday how the Jimmy Savile scandal has forced him to relive the abuse he suffered as a child. The Channel 4 News veteran described how when he was six years old he was ‘abducted’ by a member of the domestic staff at the school where his father taught. ‘He took me to his room and undressed me, and then himself. Thank heavens someone saw the abduction and eventually a member of staff intervened and rescued me,’ he said.

A 76-year-old Wisconsin woman accused of killing her infant daughter more than a half-century ago will serve 45 days in jail and 10 years’ probation, under a plea agreement approved Monday. Ruby Klokow was charged with second-degree murder in the 1957 death of her 6-month-old daughter, Jeaneen, only after her son, James Klokow Jr., came forward in 2008 with horrific stories of childhood abuse. District Attorney Joe De Cecco cited Klokow’s advanced age and health as factors in the agreement approved by Sheboygan County District Judge Angela Sutkiewicz.

BOYLE HEIGHTS, CA — Los Angeles Police Monday asked for the public’s help in identifying additional victims of an accused child molester, who worked at a daycare in Boyle Heights. Police arrested Enrique Ramos, 45, Thursday and booked him on three counts of lewd acts on a child. Ramos is accused of molesting three of the children whom he cared for at Cano & Ramos Child Care Center on Pennsylvania Avenue in Boyle Heights. Ramos is a co-owner of the facility.