Protests in Syria were reinvigorated this week, after a wrenching video documenting the alleged torture and killing of a 13-year-old boy went viral online. The boy was separated from his parents at a protest against the Assad government, which allegedly mutilated, castrated and killed him, then returned the corpse to his family, who risked their lives to produce the video. The boy’s father is now reportedly missing as well. By Tuesday, however, the video that shot from the web to Al Jazeera to the streets of Syria—where people marched carrying signs emblazoned with the deceased child’s portrait—had been blocked on YouTube, the very site where it first launched.

A NURSERY owner carried out her own form of “waterboarding” as she tried to force-feed terrified children. Clare Cartwright held one petrified little girl’s face under a cold-running tap because she would not finish her meal, a court heard. The 32-year-old stuffed piles of food into children’s mouths, clamping them shut with both hands to stop them spitting it out, and also gripped their heads against a wall. Staff watched in horror as she used foul swear words while forcing children aged between one and three to eat until they were sick. Yesterday the married mother of three was jailed for 10 months after admitting four counts of child cruelty at the Little Nippers nursery in Halifax, West Yorks.

Fourteen agencies missed opportunities to save a three-year-old boy who was killed by a couple who were meant to be caring for him, a report has found. Ryan Lovell-Hancox died on 24 December 2008 from a brain injury he received at Christopher Taylor and Kayley Boleyn’s home in Bilston, near Wolverhampton. They were jailed for murder and child cruelty in July 2010. A serious case review by Wolverhampton Safeguarding Children Board said staff may have been “overburdened”. Ryan received more than 70 injuries from the defendants who blamed each other for his death.

A 23-year-old New Scotland, New York man who was arrested and charged with rape and attempted murder charges in New York, received national attention in the 90s when he was abducted from his grandmother. Adam Croote is charged with brutally attacking and raping and attempting to kill a 10-year-old girl he was babysitting in her Berne, New York home. Croote was a longtime family friend of the victim and the family trusted Croote.

His arrest in December 2009 on charges of child sexual assault horrified thousands of families on Delmarva, but that was only the beginning of the horror that was to grip families of patients and former patients of Lewes pediatrician Earl Bradley. Bradley was initially charged with 471 offenses, but when he went to court in Georgetown on June 7th an amended superseding indictment was announced, which consolidated the charges to 24 counts – with Bradley admitting to raping or assaulting at least 86 children he treated and videotaping the attacks. Today, Superior Court Judge William Carpenter has found Bradley guilty on all counts. Sentencing is set for August 26.

OKLAHOMA CITY – Oklahoma City police have arrested a mother in connection with a child abuse case in a southwest Oklahoma City hotel. Officers arrested 31-year-old Leana Lauck on Wednesday. Police say her 3-year-old son was severely abused at the LaQuinta Inn near South Meridian and Interstate 40. Lauck told police one of her friends is responsible for abusing the toddler. She is not being accused of actually abusing her son, but police say she waited nearly 18 hours before bringing the abused child to the hospital.

Muncie, Ind.—Muncie police arrested a third person in the death of 5-year old Lauren McConniel Wednesday. Robert Lee is the stepfather of Brittany McConniel, Lauren’s step mother. He is charged with neglect, three counts of battery and failing to report child abuse. Five-year-old Lauren McConniel died at Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis six days after being taken to the hospital in March 2010. She died as the result of brain damage and an unexplained ingestion of a lethal dose of salt.

A Hartford man received a life prison sentence Wednesday for severely burning a 7-month-old boy in hot water. Circuit Court Judge Kevin Moulton issued the sentence for 32-year-old Jamie Abrams. A jury convicted Abrams last month of a felony aggravated child abuse charge. “This has not been easy case for anyone involved, and although you have shown remorse you do have two priors,” Moulton said. “The facts of the case are bad facts. The things that happened to this child can never be corrected by enough sorries.”

The baby who “pooped his pants for the 14th time today.” Failed toilet training efforts on toddlers. A teen report card with too many D’s. “Anybody who’s had kids knows the frustration,” said Dr. Annamaria Church, chief of Erlanger’s general pediatrics division. “What isn’t normal is to lash out toward a child.” And yet such behavior has become alarmingly routine at Children’s Hospital at Erlanger, where Church has seen nine physical child abuse cases in the past six weeks.

46-year-old Virginia Sims remains behind bars without bond for the drowning death of her 6-year-old granddaughter Alexis Walker. A frantic call rang through 911 dispatch around seven o’clock Monday night. A call residents describe as gruesome. “I can’t imagine anyone doing that to a child,” says Colquitt County resident Jenny Sauls. But co-workers of Virginia Sims say this isn’t the first time she put Alexis in harm’s way. “I heard she burnt the house down and she ran the car into a tree with her and the little girl in the car,” says Sims’ co-worker Tatiana Hill. A three page police report indicates Sims was charged with first degree arson and another two page report says she was involved in a single car crash with Alexis inside.

CURRITUCK CO., N.C. – A 16-year-old from Knotts Island is charged with stabbing her newborn daughter to death. Currituck County Sheriff Susan Johnson says Rebecca (“Becca”) Blackmore went to the emergency department of Chesapeake General Hospital on Friday, June 17.

SACRAMENTO—The Sacramento Police Department arrested 29-year-old Ka Yang for the alleged murder of her 6-week-old daughter, Mirabelle Thao-Loa. Back on March 17, police responded to a house in the 800 block of Rood Avenue, where there were reports of a dead baby. Fire investigators told them the baby had facial injuries, and people at the scene said an adult was holding the girl, had a seizure, and dropped her.

LOCKPORT — A former assistant Boy Scout leader in Amherst and Clarence was sentenced to five years in state prison today for molesting two Town of Lockport brothers in incidents a year apart. The prosecutor, Assistant District Attorney Robert A. Zucco, called Michael P. Walleshauser, 51, of Parkwood Drive, Lockport, “a pedophile,” saying that was proven by the finding of names of pornographic files, although not the actual pictures, in his home computer.

The hot-button issue of spanking recently returned to spotlight as a Texas mother, Rosalina Gonzales, was sentenced to five years of probation for spanking her two-year-old daughter. When the paternal grandmother noticed the child’s butt was red, she had the child taken to a hospital. They found Gonzales’ daughter healthy, with no lasting injury. Still, they notified the Department of Family and Protective Services who remanded custody of Gonzales’ three children to the grandmother.