DALLAS – A trial began Tuesday in the case of Franzwa Miller, who allegedly beat his baby to death and kept her in a closet for most of her short life.

Mesquite police arrested the 24-year-old in June 2009 after paramedics responded to a call at his Mesquite home. They took 4-month-old Leah Miller to a hospital, where doctors determined she suffered blunt force trauma to her head and ribs.

(CNN) — In about the same time that it takes to light a match, tie a shoelace or hail a taxi, 6-year-old Morgan Nick vanished from her mother’s sight.

Morgan was catching fireflies with other children in a baseball field parking lot in Alma, Arkansas, as a Little League game was winding down on the evening of June 9, 1995.

How Rare Are Female Child Killers?
The recent confession of a 29-year-old mother to suffocating her two toddlers is not as rare as many might think.
Murder charges are being brought against a woman who admitted she suffocated two of her children. The two boys, ages one and two, were found in a car submerged in a river in South Carolina on Monday, Orangeburg County Sheriff Larry Williams said in a news conference Tuesday.

Shaquan Duley, 29, told police she smothered her toddler sons at a motel by placing her hands over their mouths. Williams said the children were dead before Duley put them in their car seats and drove them to the river.

Minutes before her violent death, seven-year-old Nadine Jantjies was playing on a field with the man who has now been convicted of her murder.

Manfred Swartz, 34, told the Western Cape High Court yesterday that he and Nadine had eaten chips, talked and laughed together before he killed her.

He said she ran off to play, and he called her back – then put his hands around her neck and strangled her.

A pastor from Welkom has been arrested for allegedly raping a13-year-old girl that he was supposed to help, police say.

Warrant Officer Malebo Khosana said Thabong police received a complaint that a 13-year-old girl had been raped in the suburb of Thubelitsha. Khosana said that according to the investigation the girl had been bunking school and was being “naughty”.

NEW YORK—A sexual predator convicted of molesting four little boys is going free because a judge decided his defense lawyer was incompetent.

The judge overturned Joseph Iadipaoli’s 2007 conviction Tuesday on the grounds his public defender failed to introduce evidence that raised questions about the victims’ credibility.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A trio of juveniles have been charged with raping a 23-month-old child in Tennessee. Memphis police spokeswoman Karen Rudolph says the trio was arrested at about 10:30 p.m. Monday after calling police to report a robbery.

Wellington, Aug 18 NZPA – A specialist police team set up to fight the online exploitation of children has rescued six children from sex abuse since it was set up last year.

The team had also safeguarded 25 children from potential sex abuse and identified another two victims from seized images, Police Minister Judith Collins said in response to questions in Parliament today.

HARRISBURG, Pa., Aug. 17 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The nonprofit Pennsylvania Family Support Alliance (PFSA), the top organization in Pennsylvania for training “mandated reporters” to recognize and report child abuse and neglect, provided training to 7,540 individuals during its recently ended 2009-2010 program year.

“We train more mandated reporters by far than any other agency in the Commonwealth, and we’re constantly striving to expand the audience for our training because the mission is so vital,” said PFSA Executive Director Angela M. Liddle.

Last week, I noted that a recent US Army report on suicide includes an interesting fact: Since 2004, the number of soldiers going AWOL, deserting, and “missing movement” — that is failing to deploy when they’re supposed to — has gone up a shocking 234 percent.

BALTIMORE — A former school police officer was sentenced Monday to five years behind bars for sexually abusing a child.

Reginald Watson, 36, was convicted in June of sexual assault of a 16-year-old student at the Masonville Cove Community Academy last year.

PUNTA GORDA: A Port Charlotte man was arrested by Punta Gorda Police and charged with child abuse for allegedly hitting his girlfriend’s 3-year-old daughter.

Punta Gorda Police officers were called to Charlotte Regional Medical Center after a 3-year-old girl was brought to the emergency room with deep bruises to her forehead and cheek.

GARDEN CITY, N.Y. — A man who has been trying for decades to take back his guilty plea in a notorious child molestation case won a huge moral victory Monday when a federal appeals court encouraged prosecutors to reopen their investigation.

Although the judges on the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals denied Jesse Friedman’s request to withdraw his plea, saying there was no legal basis to allow that, the panel criticized interrogation techniques by investigators in the 1988 case and actions by prosecutors and the trial judge.

LONDON — Police said Wednesday they were investigating allegations of child abuse made by two former pupils at one of Britain’s most prestigious Roman Catholic schools.

London’s Metropolitan Police said two men in their forties had made allegations against teachers and staff at St Benedict’s School in Ealing, west London, which is attached to a Benedictine monastery.