SAVANNAH, Georgia – The parents of a Georgia teenager found dead inside a rolled-up gym mat two years ago have filed a lawsuit accusing classmates of killing him at school in a case that was covered up by school officials and investigators. The wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of 17-year-old Kendrick Johnson of Valdosta names 38 defendants, including three Lowndes High School classmates it says attacked Johnson on Jan. 10, 2013. Sheriff’s investigators concluded the teenager died in a freak accident after becoming stuck upside down in the mat. No criminal charges have been filed.

WILSON, N.C. — A 26-year-old Wilson man was arrested and charged Tuesday in the death of an one-year-old, police said Wednesday night. Melvin Eugene McNeil Jr., 26, of “104 Spruce Street SW at 1705 Tarboro Street SW,” is charged with first-degree murder and felony child abuse. He was held in the Wilson County jail Thursday under no bond. His first court appearance is scheduled for Friday.

A mother has been charged with rape and sodomy after she allegedly engaged in intercourse and oral sex with her son’s 12-year-old friend. Nicole Marie Smith, 30, of St Charles County, Missouri, has been jailed after she targeted the 12-year-old boy at her home, police said. The boy reportedly told investigators that he and his friend’s mother had sex and oral sex at her suburban home while her own son was in the basement.

FORT BERTHOLD, North Dakota — A 24-year-old woman is charged with child abuse on the Fort Berthold Reservation. An affidavit from an FBI special agent says Michelle Wounded Face left two of her children alone in a car that wasn’t running near Lake Sakakawea. The two kids are under the age of five. One wasn’t wearing a shirt and the other had a tank top on. Neither had shoes or socks. When police found the children they were scared and shivering. An AR-15 style rifle was in the vehicle.

AUBURN — A Lewiston man charged with killing his 14-week-old son appeared in court Friday and will remain in jail. Danny Adams, 24, made his first appearance in Androscoggin County Superior Court on Friday. The judge ruled that Adams be held without bail at the Androscoggin County Jail pending a bail hearing sought by the state to establish probable cause in a formerly capital offense. That hearing hadn’t been scheduled as of noon Friday.

KANSAS CITY, Missouri – A two-year-old child passed away Sunday morning after being hospitalized following a suspected case of child abuse. On Saturday, Mirsad Hamidovic, 23, was initially facing two counts of child abuse for allegedly injuring the little boy, named Lorenzo, so severely that he was placed on life support at an area hospital.

JACKSONVILLE, Florida — A 60-year-old man has been arrested and is accused of getting a 12-year-old Jacksonville girl pregnant. Action News is speaking to that young girl’s family. To protect that girl, we’re concealing the faces of family members, who tell us they have a hard time believing what happened in their home. Behind bars is 60-year-old Walter Johnson, accused of getting a 12-year-old girl pregnant. Johnson is charged with three counts of sexual battery. We spoke with a woman who says that young girl is her relative.

The Ludhiana police have arrested a woman tutor and her two brothers on the charge of sexually exploiting a minor boy and filming the rapes. The trio were trying to flee to New Delhi and were at the Ludhiana bus terminus when the police arrested them on Sunday. They were produced in the court, which remanded them in police custody for two days. Accused Radha, 33, Raghav, 28, and Madhav, 24, have been absconding since October 2014.

Child victims of trafficking are recruited, transported, transferred, harbored or received for the purpose of exploitation. They may be forced to work in sweatshops, on construction sites or in houses as domestic servants; on the streets as child beggars, in wars as child soldiers, on farms, in traveling sales crews or in restaurants and hotels. Some are forced to work in brothels and strip clubs or for escort and massage services.

ST. CHARLES COUNTY, Missouri – On Friday, a St. Charles County woman pleaded guilty to second degree murder and child abuse charges in the death of her 4-month-old daughter. Twenty-six-year-old Jessica Lynn Howell’s daughter, Ashlynn Lilith Peters, died on Dec. 3, 2012 after she was allegedly sexually assaulted and strangled to death by Jordan Lafayette Prince, Howell’s boyfriend. Prosecutors say the night before the girl was assaulted and killed, Howell had taken Ashlynn with her to spend the night at Prince’s home.

CHICAGO — A convicted sex offender has been charged with sexual assault for groping a four-year-old child on a CTA bus while he was on his way home from registering as a sex offender. Judex Colon, 32, boarded a bus on Polk Street Tuesday afternoon and sat down next to a four-year-old girl, according to a statement from the Cook County state’s attorney’s office. At the time, he was on his way home from registering as a sex offender at the Chicago Police Headquarters at 35th and Michigan.

Sunderland, U.K. – A woman whose father raped her because he ‘couldn’t afford a prostitute’ has finally spoken out about her ordeal to encourage other victims to prosecute their abusers. Sylvia Prescott, from Sunderland, was tormented by her parent Oliver Garside while she was a teenager but kept the abuse secret for nearly 30 years. The 47-year-old couldn’t bring herself to go to the police while her grandmother was still alive for fear that the details of the case would upset her.

A lesbian couple is facing 21 counts of child abuse after being accused of abusing their three children. Eraca Dwan Craig, 31, and Christian Jessica DeAnda, 44, of Salinas, California, reportedly starved and beat all three children, and chained the oldest girl, 8, to a wall so she could not get food. The 13 charges include child abuse, child endangerment, false imprisonment and torture.

St. Petersburg, Florida — A 5-year-old girl died after being thrown from a bridge into Tampa Bay early Thursday and her father is facing first-degree murder charges, St. Petersburg police say. The incident occurred just after midnight. The girl was pulled from the water and Tampa Police spokeswoman Yolanda Fernandez told The Associated Press rescuers who found the girl tried to resuscitate her, but she was pronounced dead at a local hospital 2:44 a.m. Thursday.