MIAMI, Fla. — The naked cannibal was not the Rudy Eugene his classmates knew. The image of a growling, face-eating so-called “zombie” didn’t sit well Tuesday with those who remembered Eugene as a teenager. “No, that’s not him,” said Victoria Forte, a former classmate from North Miami Beach High School. “Drugs did this to him. Drugs took over a person we knew as a beautiful person.”

Bullying led to brain-damage for a teen boy. Zachery Gray, 17, has been left brain-damaged after he tried to commit suicide because he was suffering from nonstop abuse for being gay, at Zephyrhills High School in Pasco County, Florida, even though he had a steady girlfriend.

A mother was too protective of her daughter in a St. Petersburg mall. Debbie Piscitella, 46, choked a 14-year-old boy in public over comments the boy made about her daughter on Facebook.

A mother and daughter are forced to cope with the acts of a maniac. A 37-year-old Australian man killed himself Friday with a .9mm hand gun, but only after dragging his eight-year-old son out of primary school and shooting him in the head he forced his seven-year-old daughter to watch.

FONTANA— Her eyes were the introductory sparks to a sassy personality. But, on her 16th birthday, Ashley Caldera was taken from her family by gun violence. Lorraine Valdez had to spend her Memorial Day making funeral plans for her daughter. “I can’t believe she’s gone. I want her to walk through that door but I know it’s not going to happen,” her mother said.

Gazing straight at the camera, a poised young woman with long brown hair delivered a public service announcement that local officials hope will alert kids to the perils of online pedophiles. “At the age of 13, I was lured and abducted from my home by a vicious Internet predator, ” Alicia Kozakiewicz said, in a video previewed at the San Marcos City Council meeting Tuesday. “On New Years Day, I walked out of my house, on the coldest, iciest night of the year, to meet a monster, whom I thought was my friend.”

SPRINGFIELD GARDENS, Queens –A child is fighting for her life after being repeatedly stabbed in Queens Tuesday morning. According to authorities, the child who is believed to be 8-years-old, was stabbed inside a home on 176th Street, near 145th Avenue in the Springfield Gardens section at about 10:40 a.m.

Rome– A US marine sergeant has been arrested by Italian police after he allegedly made a video of his repeated rape of a seven-year-old girl and posted it online. The 28-year-old soldier from Florida was arrested Tuesday by the Italian carabinieri military police and is being held at a prison in Pisa. The US has the right to request his extradition. The US marines took part in the investigation.

A woman who injected ‘waste matter’ into a child’s intravenous drip as she lay ill in hospital has been spared jail, after a judge said she needed help. Nicola Clark was caught on CCTV injecting the bacteria, which contained E.coli, into the child’s drip as she lay ill at Medway Hospital in Gillingham, Kent, in April last year.

A woman who injected ‘waste matter’ into a child’s intravenous drip as she lay ill in hospital has been spared jail, after a judge said she needed help. Nicola Clark was caught on CCTV injecting the bacteria, which contained E.coli, into the child’s drip as she lay ill at Medway Hospital in Gillingham, Kent, in April last year.

LOS ANGELES — One of two brothers who plead guilty to taking their sons out of the country without the consent of the children’s mothers was sentenced today to 27 months behind bars. George Silah, 49, was extradited from the Netherlands last October and pleaded guilty in February to two counts of international parental kidnapping.

CARTHAGE — A former western Illinois school board member has been sentenced to 60 days in jail and two years of probation for sexually abusing a boy. The Quincy Herald-Whig reports 44-year-old August Dion Gregory apologized during the Hancock County sentencing hearing Friday for what he called “a terrible mistake.” He was found guilty in March of felony criminal sexual abuse of a minor.

LOS ANGELES, CA — Convicted child killer James Lee Crummel, 68, was found hanging in his cell on death row at San Quentin State Prison. Crummel was found dead shortly after 4:00 p.m. on Sunday by staff members bringing him his meal. They had last spotted him alive 15 minutes earlier when passing by his cell.

AFRICA–Today marks the beginning of the annual Child Protection Week. The concept, under the leadership of the Department of Social Development, stems from the African proverb “it takes a village to raise a child”, which emphasizes the role of the wider community in keeping children safe. This year’s Child Protection Week is unfortunately marred by recent and increasing media reports of growing incidents of sexual offenses committed against children, specifically what is being called “child rape”.

(Plum, Pa.) Three daycare employees from Pittsburgh East Community Church’s Genesis Childcare are facing charges after reportedly assaulting toddlers at the daycare. Police have brought criminal charges against childcare workers Eileen Andrews, Angela Russo and Terry Bachner.