FLORIDA – A kindergarten teacher from Miami has been charged with aggravated child abuse after police say he dug his nails into a girl’s hand and leg just to see her cry. Frederick Mena, 25, was arrested earlier this month in connection to the sickening incident that allegedly took place March 5 at Silver Bluff Elementary School in Coconut Grove. According to an arrest report, Mena was teaching math to a kindergarten class when the victim, a young girl, became stymied by the material.

CA – Silicon Valley Crime Stoppers and the Deputy Sheriff’s Association of Santa Clara County are offering a combined $6,000 for information leading to the arrest of Johnell Carter, an accused sex offender who escaped after fighting with a deputy and injuring him. The 40-year-old Carter was in jail custody, but escaped from the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, where he was taken for treatment on Friday and was being supervised by a deputy.

CALIFORNIA – An assistant nurse at UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles, who tortured her adoptive children with a hammer in a spate of sickening attacks, has been sentenced to seven years to life in prison. The court heard that Ingrid Brewer, 53, of Palmdale, California, became increasingly sadistic, binding the children’s hands with zip-ties and viciously beating them with electrical cords and a hammer. The seven-year-old girl and an eight-year-old boy, who were found in the street in freezing temperatures after running away, testified that they were locked into separate bedrooms when Brewer went to work each day, were deprived of food and forced to use wastebaskets for a lavatory.

Two North Carolina parents have been arrested after five children -ages 9 months to 13 years – were found living in the couple’s filthy home along with the decomposing body of their dead grandfather. Jeremy Daniel Dishner, 39, and Melissa Kay Lynn Poole, 25, were each charged with five counts of misdemeanor child abuse after police found trash, dirty clothes and raw sewage in the home. The Department of Social Services is now looking into the case. One of the five children found at the couple’s home did not belong to either Dishner or Poole.

The Australian businessman accused of masterminding an international pedophile ring has spoken from behind bars to 60 Minutes’ Tara Brown, claiming that he has remorse for crimes that have been labelled by authorities as the most horrific they’ve ever seen. Peter Gerard Scully, 51, was arrested in the Philippines in February on charges of sexually abusing 11 children, the youngest of whom was only 18 months old, and killing another young girl, leading to calls for the reintroduction of the death penalty. ‘He is in every sense of the word a predator. His crimes are like none that the Philippine authorities had ever seen before, acts so depraved and ever escalating,’ Tara Brown told Daily Mail Australia.

Las Vegas, NV — Dozens of child predators are off the streets thanks to a major, six-month bust. Operation Protect the Powerless led to the conviction of 219 people, the recovery of 500,000 images of child rape or pornography and more than 2,700 videos, said Daniel Bogden, U.S. Attorney for Nevada. The sting spanned from June to December of last year and involved multiple law enforcement agencies across Southern Nevada.

Cape Town – A man convicted of raping his girlfriend’s daughter was sentenced in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court to four life terms, Western Cape police said on Thursday. Lt-Col Andre Traut said the man was sentenced on Wednesday. He was found guilty on seven counts of raping and sexually assaulting his girlfriend’s daughter, who was only 10 years old when the first offence was committed. He committed the crimes in Fish Hoek during 2006 and 2007. He was further sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment for indecent assault and two years for sexual assault.

PORTSMOUTH, Ohio – She swore everyone else was lying, but it turns out she was the one who no one believed. It took a jury a little less than six hours to convict Edwina Louis today of several of the most serious charges against her: four counts of rape, three counts of child endangerment, a count of kidnapping and a count of tampering with evidence. Scioto County Common Pleas Judge William T. Marshall immediately sentenced her to four consecutive life terms on the rape charges, added 37 years for good measure on the other counts, and said she would never be eligible for parole.

PITTSBURGH, PA – An Aliquippa man has been charged with more than 200 counts of child rape, sexual assault and possessing child pornography. Michael Bickel, 24, faces 218 charges ranging from child porn to photographs of children engaging in sex acts on the computer to rape of a child.

It’s been a half year since 3-year-old Tatiana Emerson died of blunt-force trauma to the head and her 5-year-old brother, TrayVon Emerson, told police he was continually beaten by his mother’s boyfriend, Rhasean Lowry, 35. Lowry had been the only person charged in connection with the case — until Wednesday — when the children’s mother, Melanie Emerson, 22, was also charged.

A Los Angeles elementary school teacher who allegedly placed a bag over a student’s head was set to appear in court Friday, two days after he was arrested, authorities said. Thelmo Garcia, who taught fourth grade at Rosewood Elementary School, is accused of child abuse for the alleged bag incident, which occured in class, according a statement from the LA County District Attorney’s Office.

ST. LOUIS, MO – Police have been able to thwart a terrifying plot by a deranged St. Louis teenager to kidnap his friend’s 10-year-old sister in the middle of the night, then allegedly smother her to death and rape her dead body, authorities say. John Thomas Classen, 17, is now in custody after breaking into his classmate’s home in O’Fallon around 12.40am Thursday, using a window he deliberately left unlocked two days earlier, and hiding in the basement for over four hours. He then went up to the main level of the house, where the young girl – who he was reportedly in love with – was asleep on the couch, put his hand over her mouth and threatened to kill her if she screamed.

ILLINOIS – A convicted sex offender who had been on the run for two months was found in a hidden room that he apparently built at his wife’s Illinois home. Shawn Lipsey, a 40-year-old father, was convicted in November of six counts of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child and two counts of indecent solicitation of a child. He was released on bail but failed to appear at a January sentencing hearing.

A local substitute teacher is charged with five counts of possession of sexually abusive material of children after police say child pornography was found in his home. David William Huntley, 52, was arraigned Friday afternoon in Monroe. His bond was set at $1 million cash. A probable cause hearing is scheduled for March 26. The prosecutor said he is seeking more serious charges.