A 63-year-old convicted sex offender, a 37-year-old mother, and her 21-year-old son face gang-rape charges after a coordinated raid Thursday by Peabody and Marion police and sheriff’s deputies.

Each of the three is accused of two counts of rape and single counts of aggravated criminal sodomy, aggravated kidnapping, and battery.

MUNCIE — Patricia Ann Tackett showed little reaction Wednesday upon learning that she had been convicted of sex crimes that could send her to prison for more than 40 years.

A Delaware Circuit Court 1 jury deliberated for three hours Wednesday afternoon before finding the 49-year-old Muncie woman guilty of rape and sexual misconduct with a minor, both Class B felonies carrying standard 10-year prison terms, and child solicitation, a Class D felony with a standard 18-month sentence.

FLORENCE ? A Lauderdale County man will likely spend the rest of his life in prison for raping a 6-year-old girl in 2008.

Lauderdale Circuit Court Judge Gil Self sentenced Ronald Gardner Szezorak Jr. today to two life sentences, plus 20 years in prison – all to be served consecutively. While Szezorak is eligible for parole, court officials said the consecutive sentences make it unlikely that he will ever be released from prison.

Jurors found Garcia Morales guilty of committing a lewd act upon a child with the special allegation that a kidnapping was committed during the commission of the crime. Also jurors found him guilty of having sexual intercourse with a child under 10 years old.

Child abuse cases handled by consultation offices hit a record 44,210 in fiscal 2009, rising for 19 straight years since statistics were first compiled in fiscal 1990, a government survey showed Wednesday.

The figure reflects an increase of 1,546 cases from fiscal 2008, when the previous record was set, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said in a preliminary report.

About 60 percent of the 67 infants and children who died from abuse in fiscal 2008 were aged less than 1 year old, and 26 of them were less than 1 month old, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said Wednesday.

A ministry expert panel said the figures show the nation’s child-rearing support systems urgently need to be expanded and reinforced.

NEW YORK – NEW YORK — A Long Island mother was arrested and charged with driving drunk after one of her own children called 911.

According to authorities, Jamie Hicks, 48, was swerving into other lanes of traffic on Interstate 84 in the Town of Southeast Sunday while her two children, aged 10 and 12, sat in the backseat.

PARIS — A French couple was in custody Wednesday after police found the corpses of eight newborn babies on their property in a village in northern France, a judicial official said.

The official said the detained couple, in their mid-40s, were the parents of the dead babies, and that the corpses were found on two different parts of the property in Villers-au-Tertre, not far from the city of Lille.

A 41-year-old man has been arrested after child abuse images were spotted on a work laptop. The Winnipeg police child exploitation unit started an investigation after receiving a tip through the website Cybertip.ca. Information indicated that child abuse images had been spotted on a business laptop.

DeFUNIAK SPRINGS — A Walton County Sheriff’s Deputy was arrested Wednesday morning on charges of aggravated battery on a child and child neglect.

Deputy Jerid Lee Day is accused of grabbing his three-month-old daughter by her foot Sunday and throwing her in her crib. As he threw her, she hit her head on the crib, according to the Walton County Sheriff’s arrest report.

LAS CRUCES – A 13-month-old baby died after his father allegedly drove drunk and flipped the family’s car while driving north on Holman Road at about 10 p.m. Monday.

The baby boy died from massive head injuries after he was partially ejected from the Geo Prizm because he was not buckled into his car seat, which was facing the wrong way and improperly buckled to the car’s seat belt, according to Doña Ana sheriff’s Lt. Mike Kinney. The baby’s 3-year-old sister, who appears to have been properly secured in a booster seat, was uninjured.

Father who wiped out his family faced a cash crisis after struggling to avoid bankruptcy

The father who killed his wife and two young daughters may have been tipped over the edge by money worries after struggling to avoid bankruptcy. Andy Case, 33, convinced himself that he was about to lose everything as he struggled to cope with the ‘pressures of modern society’.

Andalusia, AL – On July 14th, Tiffany Riley’s 1-year-old daughter fell down and busted her face on the tracks of a sliding glass door. While being examined at the emergency room, doctors discovered the child was also suffering from a severe ear infection in both ears. A toddler with a bruised face and achin’ ears is bound to be cranky, right? And because she can’t communicate at that age, she’s gonna cry, right? Apparently Tiffany and her live-in boyfriend, Jermaine Pate, can’t handle a cranky, screaming, miserable toddler.

Talk about a grim discovery. Westminster police reportedly found the mummified remains of a newborn infant, with a portion of its umbilical cord still attached, in a suitcase at the home of Melinda Hudson, 25. Hudson is said to have previously denied that she was pregnant. But this was no cheesy reality show.