Empathising with hardened criminals, let alone forgiving rapists and murderers, is something most of us would dismiss out of hand. But here FRANCES CHILDS speaks to four women whose forgiveness is an inspiration.

A Johnson City man arrested Friday on multiple charges of raping an 8-year-old boy was arraigned on the charges Tuesday in Washington County Sessions Court. Kenneth John Wispell, 20, 907 Antioch Road, Apt. 49, is charged with five counts of rape of a child.

A Fayette County public schools employee pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges that he sexually abused a child.Richard Davis, 34, is charged with two counts of incest and one count of first-degree sexual abuse. Davis, who has been a teacher’s aide at Arlington Elementary School for more than a year, has been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation.

TUCSON – A Tucson man has been arrested on felony child abuse charges after an investigation that determined extensive injuries to his 7-week-old son were not caused by him being dropped in the shower, as the man claimed. David Hollenbeck, 26, was arrested for one count of Child Abuse, after Tucson Police and Dependent Child Unit detectives investigated the explanation for his child’s injuries, according to a TPD news release.

NEW YORK–The murder of Leiby Kletzky horrified New York, now word of Levi Aron’s defense is sending shock waves into the community as well — and outrage is pouring forth. His attorney claimed Wednesday that Aron is the genetic victim of Orthodox Jewish Community inbreeding. Greenburg doesn’t shrink from controversy, first taking on one of the more polarizing murder cases by defending 35-year-old Levi Aron, accused of murdering and dismembering 8-year-old Leiby Kletzky while walking home alone from day camp last July. Now his choice of defense strategies have some in the community sounding off.

APPLE VALLEY, CA — Sheriff’s deputies are searching for an Apple Valley martial arts instructor facing child molestation charges. Umar Love, 30, was arrested Dec. 14 on suspicion of committing lewd acts on a child, after a 14-year-old girl reported that he had touched her inappropriately on a number of occasions. Sheriff’s investigators eventually uncovered a total of six females between ages 14 and 16 who reported that they had been molested by Love.

GRAND TERRACE, CA — Sheriff’s deputies are searching for a man who allegedly locked his 2-year-old daughter in the garage while he got food and watched TV. The toddler’s grandmother went to the home of her father, Terrence Ford, 46, just before 11 a.m. Tuesday in the 22400 block of Terrace Pines Drive in Grand Terrace.

SOMERVILLE, NJ–A high-ranking Somerville educator is under arrest after allegedly videotaping boys as they showered in the locker rooms at Immaculata High School in New Jersey. Patrick J. Lott, 54, is accused of surreptitiously filming boys in the showers for nearly three years, according to court filings obtained by Courier News. He is set to be arraigned Wednesday.

A mother-of-three was shot to death in the parking lot of a McDonalds by her former husband as her children waited inside. Donna Marie Royer, 40, from Denver, was shot three times in the chest last night just after 5pm after her estranged husband Mark Royer drove up to her in the parking lot. About 90 minutes after the shooting, police found Royer’s body near his truck at a trailhead near Ponderosa HighSchool, said Parker Police Sgt Doreen Jokerst.

BOAZ, AL- -An Albertville was arrested and charged with having sexual relations with a 12-year-old girl. The girl’s concerned parents were alerted to the relationship through social media and were able to nab the suspect at their home. 19-year-old James Juan Diego Gomez was booked into the Etowah County Jail on charges of rape, sodomy, and traveling to have sex with a child.

LEHI, UT – A Lehi man who faces multiple counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child posted bail on Friday after paying a 50 thousand dollar cash bond. Now, parents with kids in his day care are worried about what may have happened and how the center handled the situation. The only peace of mind parents have today is the owners took down the business name from their home. “It just worries me there are other parents that haven’t discovered what’s going on, at least the alleged charges and it’s still in business,” said one father who asked to conceal his identity.

A 70-year-old Bremerton man convicted of child molestation in California in 1964 was arrested recently for allegedly molesting an 11-year-old Port Orchard girl, the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office reports. According to the sheriff’s office, the suspect did not have to register as a sex offender in Kitsap County, even though he had a prior conviction.

A WOMAN and child held captive in a Utah home were rescued after the mother was able to sneak on to Facebook and plead for help. Their alleged captor, Troy Critchfield, 33, was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping, sodomy, child abuse and animal cruelty, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. Police said Critchfield had held the woman and her 17-month-old son captive for about four or five days, taking her mobile phone and keeping her locked in a home in Sandy, Utah, south of Salt Lake City.

Legislation that would remove time limits on filing civil claims in child sexual abuse cases is stalled in both houses of the state Legislature, which has advocates for abused children demanding action. Advocates held a press conference on Thursday, according to NJ.com, demanding votes on the bill and they hand-delivered copies of a letter to the governor and legislative leaders asking “for their support in passage of the bill, which was introduced late last year.”