A Pennsylvania man has been arrested after police discovered that he held captive 12 girls aged from 6 months to 18-years-old in his home in a truly chilling story. Lee Kaplan, 51, has been accused of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl, who was a gifted to him by Amish parents and fathering two children with an 18-year-old, who also lives at the home. Neighbor Jenn Betz of Festerville, PA called the authorities after she grew concerned about the girls she saw living on the property. She said that the home had boarded windows and weeds growing all around it, adding to its spooky appearance and suspicious circumstances.

Pedophiles are individuals who are preferentially or solely sexually attracted to prepubescent children, generally 13 years or less. There are distinct classifications for other attractions to children, depending on the developmental stage the adult is sexually attracted to. Those who find children on the cusp of puberty sexually attractive are known as “hebephiles”. “Ephebophiles” are individuals who are sexually attracted to children who have reached puberty.

A former Dorchester man accused of raping two young boys in the early 90s was arrested in North Carolina Wednesday, after authorities said he spent 23 years on the run. John Joseph Hartin, 46, was taken into custody without incident at his Walkertown home, according to an FBI statement. The arrest comes after a four-year multi-state media campaign from the bureau, offering a reward of up to $25,000 for information leading to Hartin’s capture.

A Cape Town man who preyed on young girls and boys through social media was on Wednesday sentenced to 20 years behind bars by the Western Cape High Court. Nizaam Ajam entered a plea and sentencing agreement after being charged with 148 counts of sex crimes against children. These included rape, extortion, sexual grooming of children, creation of child pornography and the distribution of child pornography between 2012 and 2014.

A Douglas County man was sentenced to 40 years after pleading guilty to charges in a child abuse case, Assistant District Attorney spokesman David Emadi said. Carmichael Crane was charged with two counts of cruelty to children and one count of aggravated battery for injuries he inflicted on his girlfriend’s daughter in November 2014. The mother left the 13-month-old in Crane’s care and went to work. When she returned home, she found the child lethargic and rushed her to the hospital.

URGENT! An international hunt has been launched for an Indian-origin man found guilty of repeatedly raping a six-year-old child in the UK. Pedophile Vijesh Kooriyil fled to India earlier this week, just a day before his trial was due to commence in Oxford on Tuesday. The 29-year-old business manager boarded a plane to Delhi on Monday night and was unanimously convicted of two rapes and sentenced in absentia to an extended prison term of 18 years at Oxford Crown Court on Friday.

LONDON – Detectives investigating the disappearance of a baby boy who went missing 11 years ago have arrested two women on suspicion of murder after the boy’s remains were found in boxes in a shed. The baby, has not been seen for more than a decade, but police have now made three arrests after the discovery of the skeleton in a garden shed of a home in West Hendon, north London. Officers have arrested a 31-year-old woman, named locally as mother-of-six Victoria Gayle, and a woman named as her former foster carer, Margaret, 50.

Alabama — The stepmother of a 9-year-old girl pleaded guilty to a reduced charge in the child’s running death Friday under a deal with prosecutors that let her avoid additional time in custody. Jessica Mae Hardin, 31, pleaded guilty to aggravated child abuse for the mistreatment of Savannah Hardin, according to a statement from Etowah County prosecutors. She had been charged with murder.

REYNOLDSBURG, Ohio – A babysitter has been charged with murder after giving an 8-month-old baby “a lethal dose of Benadryl to put him to sleep,” police said. Authorities received a call on Friday, May 13 for an unresponsive baby, and upon arrival located 8-month-old Haddix Mulkey. He was transported to Children’s Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The child’s babysitter, Lori Conley, was arrested on Friday, June 3 and has been charged with murder and child endangering, a second-degree felony.

HOUSTON — A Houston-area teacher accused of having a sexual relationship with a 13-year-old boy who impregnated her has surrendered at a suburban jail. Harris County authorities had issued an arrest warrant for 24-year-old Alexandria Vera, an English teacher in the Aldine School District. The boy was an eighth-grader she met last summer. She appeared Wednesday at the jail in adjacent Montgomery County. Sheriff’s spokesman Brady Fitzgerald says Vera posted a $100,000 bond and was released.

A British pedophile on Wednesday faced a life sentence after admitting a string of sex attacks on children as young as six months, some from poor Christian families in Malaysia. Richard Huckle, 30, took pictures and video footage of himself abusing the children which he uploaded to the dark web — a hard to access part of the Internet often used for illegal activity. Investigators found over 20,000 indecent images on his computer, while Huckle also kept a ledger of his attacks and wrote a manual called “Paedophiles And Poverty: Child Lover Guide”.

RIO DE JANEIRO – Police in Rio de Janeiro said on Monday they are certain a 16-year-old girl was gang raped earlier this month, but added that it will be hard to prove her allegation that she was assaulted by more than 30 men. Two suspects in the case were placed in custody on Monday, authorities said. Arrest warrants are pending for four others.

TEXAS – Houston police are calling on the public to help find the man who fatally stabbed an 11-year-old boy as he walked home from school this week, and the reward for information in the case has risen to $15,000. “The murderer is still on the loose at this point,” Houston homicide Lt. Robert Blain told reporters Friday after the surprise announcement that charges had been dropped against the initial suspect, Che Lajuan Calhoun. “It is very important we get this suspect off our streets before he commits another senseless crime ,” Herman said in a release. Police are seeking a black man with a tall thin, build. He was seen wearing black pants and a black shirt, with a green jacked over his shoulders. He would have been covered in blood from the brutal attack, Blain said.

Washington – A Kelso mother is sharing her story about the search for her missing husband all while he was under investigation for allegedly raping their three daughters. Cowlitz County Sheriff’s deputies arrested Robert Maurice Scott, Jr. late Wednesday night at a home 20 miles northeast of his home in Toutle. A probable cause affidavit shows Scott admitted to inappropriately touching his oldest daughter, but denies touching his younger two daughters.