“FROM THE MOUTHS OF SEX OFFENDERS” — Words From Sexual Offenders: Written by offenders in treatment at the Center for Behavioral Intervention in Beaverton, Oregon

The father sat hunched on the court bench a few feet from his son. He wept as the verdict was read. His hands hung loosely in his lap, his face slack with grief. “Yes. Thank God,” whispered the mother on the other side of the room. The girl who said she was raped and sexually abused by Benjamin Scott Marlow from October 2010 to December 2011 trembled as the jury returned guilty verdicts on all charges. She smiled as tears ran down her face.

A well-known pastor of a Fairfield church was arrested last night on suspicion of molesting at least five children in incidents dating back as far as 1994, police said. The Rev. Robert “Silas” Ruark, 65, of St. Timothy Orthodox Church in Fairfield was taken into custody at his Suisun City home after a daylong investigation into the allegations made by the victims, who are all adults now, police said.

If the Washington County Health Department were to find that one in three people under the age of 18 had the flu, they’d say they had an epidemic on their hands. But there’s one epidemic raging across the state and nation that has no vaccination to take care of it. Statistics show that one in three girls and one in four boys are sexually abused by the time they turn 18. That figure far exceeds the standard used by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control to determine medical epidemics. It’s an issue gaining national attention recently, with the conviction a week ago of former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky, who was found guilty of 45 counts of sexually abusing 10 boys over 15 years. Sandusky gained access to children through his charity, grooming them before the abuse began. His adopted son has said he was also abused, although he was not part of the trial.

A karate expert who sexually abused pupils, including during a lesson on fighting off sex attackers, has been jailed for 10 years. Henry Cook, known as Harry, also had more than 55,000 child porn images and 600 videos on his computer. He abused five girls in his class, one as young as 11, in what the judge at Newcastle Crown Court described as “the most appalling catalogue of sexual depravity” which spanned 26 years. Cook, 62, of Haltwhistle, Northumberland, who has written a critically-acclaimed book on the martial art, even abused one of his young victims during a lesson on how to tackle sex attackers.

The adopted son of Jerry Sandusky has detailed the agonising seven years of sexual abuse he allegedly suffered at the hands of his father in an audio recording released today. Matt Sandusky, now 33, came forward during his father’s child sex abuse trial, which ended last week with the disgraced former Penn State football coach convicted of 45 of 48 charges. In a recorded statement to Pennsylvania State Police, he detailed sporadic instances of abuse that he claimed took place between the ages of eight and 15 at the Sandusky home.

Internet porn, sexting and explicit webcam sessions are increasingly putting young people in danger, not just from strangers but their own peers, a report suggests. Parents and schools are struggling to cope with the ever-changing advances in technology and social networking and the effect they have on young people’s behaviour, it warns. Recent research suggests as many as one in three children aged ten has seen pornography on the web and 80 per cent of children in their mid teens admit regularly viewing explicit images and videos.

Lakeland, FL – Destiny Witte, a 32-year-old Florida woman was jailed Wednesday after she allegedly had sex with a 14-year-old boy two weeks before her wedding day. According to police, Witte and the 14-year-old victim met in person several times and exchanged text messages before deciding to meet at Lake Bonny Park in Lakeland.

Alice, TX – A Texas church’s pledge to help pregnant women in their community took on new meaning when a congregation member discovered a newborn infant abandoned inside a shoebox near the church’s front doors. A sign outside the St. Joseph Catholic Church in Alice, Texas promises “Financial or medical aid, along with emotional support or pastoral care for any expectant mother facing a crisis pregnancy.” The church’s only condition, as stated on the sign, is that the child “be allowed to live.”

WVIT – A West Haven, Connecticut mother is accused of tormenting and abusing her 10-month baby and video-taping the incidents. It’s disturbing abuse police say that unfolded inside a second floor apartment. Kellie Park is charged with cruelty to persons and other offenses for harming her 10-month old daughter. “That’s good that’s someone’s intervening. I mean she could have killed her,” said West Haven Resident Gordon McGhee.

WATTS, CA — Arraignment is expected Friday for a 15-year-old suspected gang member accused in the shooting death of a 1-year-old boy in Watts. Donald Dokins was arrested on Wednesday. He is charged with one count of murder, with the allegation that it was a gang crime, and one count of attempted first-degree murder. He will be charged as an adult since he is over the age of 14, the District Attorney’s Office said. Dokins faces multiple life sentences if convicted.

WEST JORDAN, Utah – A 6-year-old girl found dead in a canal near her home was sexually assaulted and authorities are now searching for a suspect, police said Wednesday. Police in the Salt Lake City suburb of West Jordan said the girl was reported missing by her mother early Tuesday morning. On Wednesday, police ruled Sierra Newbold’s death a homicide and said an autopsy determined she had been sexually assaulted.

MOTHER’S BF BEING HELD AS “PERSON OF INTEREST”

MOUNT PLEASANT, MI (Indian Reservation)

UPDATE: TV5 can confirm that the body of missing 4-year-old Carnel Chamberlain was found on Thursday afternoon underneath a patio at the boy’s home. Police in Mount Pleasant were seen putting up crime scene tape around Carnel’s mother’s house. A crime lab vehicle and two Michigan State Police cars pulled up to the house and brought in a cadaver dog late Thursday afternoon. The animal was seen moving around the home’s front and back porches.

A Lumberton man has been indicted by a Hardin County Grand Jury on a felony charge of injury to a child with intent to cause bodily injury after he allegedly held a 5-year-old girl upside down by her feet and hit her repeatedly with a board. Robert Michael Musgrove, 29, was arrested on April 5 and charged with the third degree felony. He was indicted on the charge June 12.