A Plymouth couple has been charged with rape of a child after police say they sexually abused a 13-year-old boy, a child who never learned how to use eating utensils or how to brush his teeth as the couple kept him secluded from the outside world. Charges filed against Carol Ann Hann, 43, and Robert Caravella, 52, both of 210 Gould St., describe the life of a child who was never enrolled in school, never made friends and lived in a filthy home with garbage, rotten food and urine-soaked towels strewn about the floor.

KANSAS CITY, MO — A 5-year-old girl is facing possible murder charges for allegedly drowning a toddler who was crying too much. Police are waiting for a medical examiner’s report on how Jermane Johnson Jr., died, but are investigating the death as a homicide, spokesman Darin Snapp said Thursday. “I’ve been in law enforcement for 20 years and it’s the youngest suspect I can remember,” Snapp said.

COSTA MESA — A 77-year-old former Costa Mesa priest is scheduled to appear in court Monday on charges of molesting a youth parishioner in the early 1990s. Denis Lyons is charged with four felony counts of lewd acts on a child younger than 14 years ago, court records show. Lyons is accused of molesting the boy, who was between 7 and 9 years old at the time, when he was at St. John the Baptist School, according to prosecutors.

A new research study suggests exposure to trauma can increase a child’s risk of developing learning and behavioral problems, and raise a child’s risk of obesity. Stanford University School of Medicine researchers said the findings could encourage physicians to consider diagnosing post-traumatic stress disorder rather than attentiondeficit/hyperactivity disorder, which has similar symptoms to PTSD but very different treatment. Investigators examined children living in a violent, low-income neighborhood and discovered an unexpectedly strong link between abuse, trauma and neglect and the children’s mental and physical health.

275,000 non-profit organizations tax-exempt statuses have been revoked!! Dreamcatchers would like to assure the public that we are in excellent standing with the IRS. The IRS has published the first Automatic Revocation of Exemption List. It lists approximately 275,000 nonprofits whose tax-exempt status has been revoked because they failed to file a Form 990, 990-N, 990-EZ, or 990-PF for three consecutive years.

A victim of child rape – whose attacks were filmed and put on the Internet by her dad – lashed out Thursday at a retired NYPD cop as he was sentenced to up to 10 years in prison for downloading the sadistic videos. Former officer Matthew Fanning, his hands cuffed behind his back, listened while a prosecutor read the now 19-year-old girl’s statement in Queens Supreme Court.

TAMPA – Eric James Tate was found guilty of first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse following the death of 2 1/2 year-old Heather Marie Romance, his girlfriend’s daughter, in September 2006. The girl died under Tate’s watch. He told his girlfriend, Amy Romance, the child fell off a couch and hit her head.

Geriatric researchers have discovered that events that took place long ago can disrupt sleep quality among older adults. Suffering from parental abuse as a child increases a person’s chances of having poor sleep quality in old age, according to a research article in the current issue of the Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological and Social Sciences. Scientists analyzed information from a sample of 877 adults aged 60 years and above and found that early parental emotional abuse was associated with a higher number of sleep complaints in old age.

A Hopatcong woman failed to stop her husband from beating and, ultimately, killing her 2-month-old daughter in Maryland, authorities allege.

Jessica Denise Peavy, 20, has been charged with second-degree child abuse and is being held on $25,000 bail.

“She obviously, as a parent, has responsibility for the child and she can’t stand by and see the child being abused and fail to act,” prosecutor Lindell K. Angel said Thursday morning.

Authored by Kenneth V. Lanning and produced in cooperation with the FBI, the fifth edition of this book is an investigative tool for law-enforcement officers and child-protection professionals handling cases of children who are sexually exploited. It provides investigative strategies, the characteristics of a pedophile, and the difficulties often encountered in cases of sexual exploitation. It introduces a typology that places sex offenders on a continuum, from preferential to situational, and combines the information from the previous editions of this title with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children’s former publication titled Child Sex Rings: A Behavioral Analysis. 212 pp.

Mark Allen Hyzer Jr., 25, a teacher at Beechfield Elementary/Middle School in Irvington, Maryland has reportedly been arrested on allegations of committing sex acts with a 15-year-old boy. Reportedly, Hyzer has been charged with third-degree and fourth-degree sex offenses, sexual abuse of a minor and second-degree assault.

WALKER, MI – A 34-year-old woman who left a 7-month-old she was babysitting strapped in a car seat on a hot beach while she swam is being sought by the Kent County Sheriff’s Department. Tuesday afternoon, someone on the beach at Millennium Park became concerned about the baby and alerted a deputy on beach patrol. When the deputy tried to find out to whom the child belonged, a woman, who was originally about 70 feet away in the water, came forward.

SANTA FE, N.M. — Santa Fe police said they arrested a Las Vegas couple and charged them with child abuse after Red Lobster restaurant staff members reported witnessing the parents abusing their 5-month-old baby girl Monday night.The Red Lobster’s local manager and waitress said the couple was passing out at the table, hardly able to speak, according to police.Restaurant staff said they saw the mother was shaking and dangling the baby by the arms, trying to make her dance. Police said the waitress reported the couple was “clearly wasted.”

Forty-nine children in the United States died of heatstroke after they were left in hot cars last year, a grim record. But as child-welfare groups try to prevent more deaths with information campaigns and as inventors work on technical fixes, both efforts founder on a hard reality: Good parents don’t think it can happen to them. It can, experts and statistics say, and new recommendations on rear-facing car seats could make the problem even worse.