A former Northern Virginiapolitical leader was convicted Wednesday of molesting two girls during a sleepover party for his daughter’s birthday last summer. Michael Gardner, husband of former Falls Church mayor Robin Gardner, a current member of the City Council, was convicted of two counts of sexual battery and one count of object penetration. He reacted stoically to the verdict.

KINGMAN – A man who pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a young girl wept quietly from the defendant’s table Thursday as he listened to the girl and her mother describe what effect his actions have had on their family.

CANTON, MI–In the days following Dec. 7, 2011, family members of Hunter Sewejkis, then just four months old, began planning a funeral as they prepared to disconnect the infant from life support after Hunter was critically injured in a case of suspected child abuse. Hunter’s father, 25-year-old Anthony Sewejkis, faces trial in Wayne County Circuit Court beginning May 8 on charges of first-degree child abuse after being accused of twice slamming the infant’s head into the floor of the family’s Michigan Avenue home in Canton. He faces up to 15 years in prison.

There may be more accusers than originally thought in the Penn State University scandal involving former
assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, currently charged with sexually abusing 10 boys, according to court filings. Sandusky attorney Joseph Amendola in legal papers filed on Thursday in Common Pleas Court in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, made a reference to “accusers 11 through 17 as well as 18 through an unknown number.”

Hawaii significantly strengthened its protections against child sexual abuse last month when Gov. Neil Abercrombie signed a measure extending the statute of limitations for civil lawsuits filed by child victims. At least as important, it opens a one-time two-year window to allow victims to file suits against their abusers even if the time limit had expired under the old law.

One of the highest ranking members of the Catholic Church in Ireland has called for an independent investigation into past allegations of clerical sex abuse. As Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin spoke out against the past failings of the Church, another bishop defended Cardinal Sean Brady, whose involvement in a secret 1975 probe into allegations of abuse has come under fire.

CHICAGO–The state Department of Social and Health Services will pay $2.85 million to settle a lawsuit brought by a Grays Harbor County woman who was sexually abused by her father when she was 13 years old. Saying they failed to protect her, the now 21-year-old in 2009 sued DSHS and the social worker who handled her case. In the lawsuit she described in detail how for months her father forced her to perform sex acts — sometimes plying her with alcohol so she would not resist.

ALBUQUERQUE- A little boy, who spent several days struggling to survive after he was thrown against a dresser , has died. Police say his step-father Richard Gutierrez, 31, admitted to throwing the boy against a dresser because the child wet his pants. Isaiah Gutierrez, 5, was brain dead for days. Police have now confirmed that Isaiah had to be taken off life support.

Two students from Roswell, Ga., are facing charges of aggravated sodomy and aggravated molestation after a 10-year-old deaf boy reported that he was sexually assaulted on a school bus traveling from the Atlanta Area School for the Deaf, WSB-TV reports. Evidence also reveals that the bus driver had knowledge of the attacks but did not contact authorities, Attorney Tommy Maddox told the station.

The following video interviews are just a few examples depicting the way the mind of a pedophile works. It is VITAL that parents watch these videos so that they have a better understanding of how child molesters think, plan, and “groom” their victims.

Marko Hamlin was raised in Arlington, Virginia. The son of an alcoholic mother, he was placed into foster care around five years old. His mother had visitation and he remembers being returned to his mother in fourth grade. Marko graduated from Wakefield High School, in Arlington Virginia and joined the armed forces, serving one term before ending his military career.

(Arkansas) Another anonymous donor has come forward and, as a result, Damien Echols’s defense team has doubled the amount of the reward to $200,000 to find the real killers of the three young boys in the West Memphis 3 case. The donors have chosen to remain anonymous and have placed a time limit on the reward offer. If no direct evidence emerges, the funds will be allocated toward further DNA and investigative efforts.

A 31-year-old man faces capital murder and molestation charges after he allegedly stabbed his nine-year-old stepdaughter to death to cover up months of sexual abuse. Prosecutors claim Jacinto Zuniga Trujillo, from Long Beach, Los Angeles, stabbed the girl as he feared she would reveal he had been sexually abusing her since November. The body of the girl – identified in court papers as Xiomara Fernandez – was found in the parking lot of Los Altos United Methodist Church on Saturday at about 11 a.m., according to the LA Times.

A paedophile priest who plied altar servers with cocaine before sexually abusing them has been jailed for nine and a half years by an Italian court. Father Riccardo Seppia, 51, was arrested by police after they discovered his activities during an investigation into the supply of drugs to Milan’s gay nightclub scene. Stunned officers listened in as Father Seppia said: ‘Come on over I’ve got some snow’ – code for drugs. In another conversation he said: ‘Bring the usual gift, I am very lonely.’