The Pedophile File

[Laodicean]

Inside the ‘perversion files’

These articles are based on a review of hundreds of confidential files kept by the Boy Scouts of America on volunteers, employees and others accused of sexual abuse in the last several decades. The Los Angeles Times analyzed the files and interviewed scores of victims, parents, people accused of molestation, current and former Boy Scouts officials, attorneys and child abuse experts. Reporters also tracked down court records and media accounts from across the country. The Times has built a database based on nearly 5,000 existing records of cases opened by the Scouts into molestation allegations since 1947 — an unknown number of cases were purged by the Scouts prior to the early 1990s.
- http://www.latimes.com/news/local/boyscouts/

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2 ... files.html

[M F Abernathy]

The Record (Bergen County, NJ)
October 18, 2012 Thursday - AE Edition
N.J. SCOUT LEADERS IN SEX FILES
BYLINE: Colleen Diskin And Mary Jo Layton, Staff Writers; Staff Writers Dave Sheingold and Jeff Pillets contributed to this article, which article also contains material from the Los Angeles Times.
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A01
LENGTH: 1411 words


A Boy Scout volunteer from Bergen County paid several troop members to engage in sex acts with him back in 1976. Twelve years later, despite being on a list of adults banned from the Boy Scouts of America, he went on a Scout camping trip.

In the early '80s, a Scout leader from a nearby troop was expelled for being a member of the North American Man-Boy Love Association, a group that advocates legalizing sex between men and boys.

And a pair of troop leaders from Essex County emerged in 1983 at the center of what authorities described as a Satanic sex cult, in which underage children were lured with drugs and alcohol.

All told, scores of former Scout leaders in New Jersey are identified in the Boy Scouts of America's so-called perversion files, a secret list of Scout leaders accused of sexual misconduct and banned from the organization. Some of the cases led to arrests and prosecutions, though many others are unsubstantiated allegations.

On Wednesday, the Los Angeles Times published an analysis of details drawn from a nationwide database comprising some 5,000 confidential files created by the Boy Scouts from 1947 to 2005, including 106 from New Jersey. The thousands of men expelled from the organization on suspicion of molesting children -- and in some cases convicted of sex crimes against minors -- ranged in age from teens to senior citizens and came from troops in every state, the newspaper reported.

As disturbing as the cases are, it's unlikely the details can be used to prosecute decades-old cases, or even allow victims to sue their alleged abusers, New Jersey experts say.

"My understanding is that most of the cases are too old to take action on," Chief Assistant Passaic County Prosecutor Joseph Del Russo said. "Cases in the 1970s and 80s are probably not prosecutable.''

New Jersey eliminated its statute of limitations on the most serious of child sex crimes in 1996.

"We're going to look at it and do the math," said Del Russo, who heads Passaic's sex crimes unit and has been following the news of the lawsuits that triggered the release of the files.

This afternoon, under order of the Oregon Supreme Court, 20,000 pages of internal Boy Scout documents will be posted online by a law firm in Portland. Those pages bear the names and details of allegations against 1,200 scoutmasters and other volunteers from 1965 to 1985.

Case summaries

Last week, glimpses of what those files contain were released in case summaries of 1,931 volunteers expelled from 1971 to 1991. Those summaries can be found on the website of the Seattle lawyer Timothy Kosnoff, who has sued the Boy Scouts more than 100 times. No victims' names are included in those summaries, which only include a few sentences or paragraphs about the inappropriate behavior that led to the expulsions.

But they mention a volunteer in northern Bergen County who reportedly molested two Scouts on a 1980 camping trip. And a merit badge counselor who was banned in 1982 for what the Scouts said were sexually inappropriate comments to members of a troop in the central part of the county.

Two Atlantic County leaders were suspended in 1984 after being accused of taking part in an initiation ceremony in which boys were told to strip naked, roll in the sand and have their genitals sprayed with shaving cream.

In a case that made headlines in Essex County in the early 1980s, two troop leaders were accused of leading a cult involving 35 boys and girls, ages 15 through 17, who were subjected to satanic rituals, sexual abuse and various forms of humiliation, including being forced to wear dog collars and lap milk from a bowl. Police said they found guns, handcuffs and chains, as well as a crimson colored robe and horns in the home of one of the Scout leaders. Both men were indicted by an Essex County grand jury on charges of aggravated sexual assault and endangering the welfare of children.

In some cases, it's not clear from Kosnoff's summaries whether the allegations were reported to authorities, despite the fact that since 1972 New Jersey has had a law requiring that anyone with knowledge of child abuse contact child-protection authorities.

There's a one-year statute of limitations, so Scout officials who didn't report abuse decades ago can't be prosecuted.

Officials with the Boy Scouts of America's Northern New Jersey Council, which serves over 35,000 Scouts and their families in Bergen, Essex, Hudson and Passaic counties, could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.

National Scouting officials declined to be interviewed for the Los Angeles Times article. The organization released a prepared statement by Mike Johnson, its national youth protection director, who underscored the difficulty of identifying predators before they strike, the Times reported on Wednesday.

The statement read: "My nearly 30 years of experience as a detective who investigated child sexual abuse confirms what leading youth protection professionals know: There is no profile of a potential abuser.

"This is precisely why, in addition to using these files as a background screening tool, Scouting requires a multi-tiered approach to youth protection, including criminal background checks, two adult leaders at all activities and the training of all youth in personal safety awareness, including teaching them to recognize, resist and report abuse."

Many of those reforms were adopted in the late 1980s and early 1990s, as the Scouts were named in a growing number of lawsuits and cited in reports on sexual abuse. The Times analysis found a sharp increase in the number of files opened at that time -- something experts say probably reflected an increasing awareness of the problem.

Urged to act

Beginning in the early 1990s, some experts on the Scouts youth safety advisory panel urged the organization to study the files for patterns, but they were ignored, according to experts interviewed by the Times.

"I told them I thought it would be good for someone to do a review of them for scientific purposes," said David Finkelhor, a child-abuse expert from the University of New Hampshire who served for a decade on the advisory board. "A lot of us were scientists and thought this could be very helpful. We raised it pretty regularly."

Dr. Richard Krugman, dean of the University of Colorado Medical School and a member of the advisory board for much of the 1990s, recalled asking Scouting officials to study whether the incidence of sexual abuse changed after an abuse prevention program was adopted. The answer, he said, was no.

The result, these and other experts said, was that the Boy Scouts missed a chance to glean important insights from what is believed to be one of the largest sets of records on the alleged sexual abuse of children ever collected.

The cases coming to light now could serve a public good, said Christopher Anderson, head of MaleSurvivor, a national non-profit victims' assistance organization.

"The traditional way for organizations like the Boy Scouts to deal with this has been in secret," Anderson said. "The release of this information is a step in the right direction in terms of transparency."

The release of the information could also help victims through the healing process, Anderson said. "For some survivors it can be a validation of some of their claims, and I don't mean legally," he said. "There's a lot of people out there who struggled to be believed by the people in their lives."

Victims' advocates hope the release of the files will help push legislation in New Jersey that seeks to remove the civil statute of limitations that prevents many victims from suing their abusers, and more important, the institutions that passively allowed the abuse or covered it up.

"Absent changing the civil statute of limitations, the only way that New Jersey is going to be able to out its pedophiles who exist today is to be able to sue the institutions to hold them accountable for protecting children," said Greg Gianforcaro, a Phillipsburg lawyer who has represented victims in several high-profile child sex-abuse civil cases.

Staff Writers Dave Sheingold and Jeff Pillets contributed to this article, which article also contains material from the Los Angeles Times.

[seemslikeadream]

Boy Scouts child abuse files contain chilling, graphic accounts
October 19, 2012 | 3:33 am

The more than 1,200 files released on suspected molesters in the Boy Scouts of America include chilling accounts.

Many files include graphic descriptions of abuse by young victims, including a 10-year-old scout from Georgia who described being raped by his 27-year-year leader on a 1972 camping trip.

"I kept saying I wanted to go back swimming but he said, 'Just a minute,' " the boy wrote.

"I was crying. … I didn't go on any more camping trips."

The scoutmaster was not tried in that case, but later was convicted of child sexual abuse and sentenced to 14 years in prison, public records show.

Times investigative reporter Jason Felch and producer Ken Schwencke discussed the article and The Times database produced from the files in a Google+ Hangout. (See video above.)

The court-ordered release of the files offers a detailed view of how the Scouts handled suspected molestations from the early 1960s through 1985.

FULL COVERAGE: Inside the 'perversion files'

Suspected abusers from all over the country are named in the files — many of them never reported to police or charged with a crime. Doctors, lawyers, politicians and policemen are among the accused and many are about to face public exposure for the first time.

“The secrets are out,” said Kelly Clark, one of the plaintiff’s lawyers in an Oregon lawsuit that resulted in a nearly $20-million judgment against the Scouts in 2010. “Child abuse thrives in secrecy, and secret systems are where it breeds.”
Clark’s office made the confidential files public — minus the names of victims and others who reported suspected abuse — after the Oregon Supreme Court ordered their release in June at the request of news organizations including the Oregonian, Oregon Public Broadcasting, the New York Times and the Associated Press. Kept by the Boy Scouts for nearly 100 years, the files were intended for internal use to bar suspected molesters from rejoining the organization.

The Los Angeles Times over the last several months analyzed a larger and slightly more recent batch of files — 1,900 cases opened on suspected child abusers from 1970 to 1991. In hundreds of cases, the newspaper found, the Scouts failed to report abuse to authorities and many times covered up allegations to protect the organization’s reputation. The Times also found that dozens of men who were expelled on suspicion of sexual abuse managed to reenter the organization only to face new allegations.

The Times is incorporating the files released Thursday into its own online database, which contains information on nearly 5,000 such cases spanning 1947 to January 2005. The database offers a complete record of files opened during that period except for an unknown number of files that have been purged by the Scouts over the years. More than 300 cases involve someone with ties to a troop or unit in California.

ON THE MAP: Names, locations of alleged sex abuse

Months ago, The Times obtained the information for its analysis and database from a Seattle attorney, Timothy Kosnoff, who has sued the Scouts more than 100 times on behalf of alleged victims of child abuse.

In a statement Thursday, Boy Scouts’ National President Wayne Perry acknowledged that some allegations of abuse have been mishandled by the Scouts.

“There have been instances where people misused their positions in Scouting to abuse children, and in certain cases, our response to these incidents and our efforts to protect youth were plainly insufficient, inappropriate or wrong,” Perry said. “Where those involved in Scouting failed to protect, or worse, inflicted harm on children, we extend our deepest and sincere apologies to victims and their families."

Perry underscored the organization's enhanced child-protection efforts in recent years, including increased background checks, training and mandatory reporting of all suspected abuse.

Scouting officials have long maintained that analyzing the files would not enhance their efforts to protect scouts — even after some of their own expert advisors urged them to do such a review. After a judge's decision to release the files in the Oregon case, however, the organization commissioned a study of hundreds of cases between 1965 and 1985. Janet Warren, a psychiatry professor at the University of Virginia, found no common profile among predators.

Others said the files are of considerable value to researchers and youth groups. "This is the biggest and maybe the only set we have on child abuse in American youth organizations," said Patrick Boyle, who reviewed hundreds of files for his 1994 book "Scouts Honor: Sexual Abuse in America's Most Trusted Institution." "It gives us incredible insights."

[seemslikeadream]

Boy Scout files detail local sex abuse



Former Wood Dale police Sgt. Robert C. Sample, convicted of molesting a child (Chicago Tribune / October 18, 2012)
By Joe Mahr, Christy Gutowski and Joseph Ryan Tribune reporters

7:53 a.m. CDT, October 19, 2012
Five decades ago, seven boys from the near-west suburbs wrote letters alleging in graphic detail how their Boy Scout leader fondled them or others in cars and on camping trips.

Previously secret Boy Scouts of America records show the organization in 1964 kicked out the 21-year-old leader, Robert A. Schindler, but there's no record police were ever notified. And in the 1980s the Scouts decided to give Schindler another chance, this time in McHenry County. Then, records show, he molested another boy.

Schindler's case was one of 39 in metro Chicago — and about 1,200 across the nation — released Thursday by order of an Oregon court as part of a landmark 2010 case against the Boy Scouts. They show how at times, in state after state, decade after decade, Scout leaders quietly shielded adult volunteers from prosecution, in an era when awareness of sexual abuse was rapidly evolving.

"The secrets are out," said Oregon attorney Kelly Clark, who helped win a nearly $20 million judgment against the Scouts in 2010. "Child abuse thrives in secrecy."

The 14,500 pages are a window on a much larger collection of documents the Boy Scouts of America began gathering soon after their founding in 1910. Known internally as the "perversion files," they were kept at Boy Scout headquarters in Texas.

Local Boy Scouts officials declined to directly address the files but noted that the group in recent years has beefed up its policies to protect children.

"We're sorry for anything that's ever happened to a kid that has been harmful," said H. Charles Dobbins, CEO of the Chicago Area Council. "But we are dead serious about doing everything we can to keep our kids safe. It is our No. 1 priority."

The files contain details about proven molesters, but also unsubstantiated allegations. A fraction of the cases merely alleged volunteers were homosexual and did not accuse them of attempting to abuse any Scouts as part of a still-controversial policy to prohibit homosexuals from participating.

A Tribune review shows some metro Chicago files were created merely to document the arrest and conviction of Scouts volunteers, such as former Wood Dale police Sgt. Robert C. Sample. The victim's parents went directly to police in a 1977 case that led to the late Sample's conviction for molesting a child, records show.

"It was a huge scandal at the time, and we took the allegations very seriously," recalled then-Chief Frank Williams.

But other just-released files show how, when Scouts were the first to be notified, they chose to let accused volunteers quietly leave.

Records show how one Cicero scoutmaster admitted to having "relations" with boys in 1965. One of the boys told a Catholic priest that he'd been molested for 11/2 years, and the priest brought the information to the Scouts.

Scout leaders forced out the scoutmaster but let him say he resigned. In a letter to a sponsoring parent-teacher organization, he said he chose to leave for "urgent personal reasons."

And the Boy Scouts of America told the priest it was up to him to contact police, if he wanted.

The Tribune could find no record that the scoutmaster was prosecuted. The newspaper's policy is not to name suspects not arrested or charged. The scoutmaster is in a nursing home, according to his brother, and always denied abusing any children.

It wasn't unusual in that era for Boy Scouts leaders to shun police. An extensive investigation by the Los Angeles Times this year found that the group failed to report hundreds of alleged child molesters to police and often hid the allegations from parents and the public.

But other Chicago cases show how, even if police were notified, little may have been done to investigate allegations. Such was the case of Gary W. Hall.

In 1975, Scouts leaders received two letters from parents whose boys alleged that Hall, then 29, made sexual advances toward the end of a camping trip in Michigan. The letters said Hall punched and sprayed Mace on one of the boys, and both fled to the woods.

A parent said the family filed a police report. It wasn't immediately clear Thursday what happened to that report, but Hall told the Tribune on Thursday that police never contacted him.

Hall, 66 of Roselle, maintained he did nothing wrong except discipline the boys for stealing. He claimed the boys alleged the abuse to retaliate.
He did end up on Illinois sex offenders list, however. That's because, court records show, the FBI caught him in 2004 with child pornography on his computer. Hall told the Tribune he thought it was all adult pornography, but records show he pleaded guilty to distribution-related charges and served four years in prison.

Hall said his blacklisting by the Scouts wasn't fair.

"The main thing is the fact that a good number of the incidents were never really investigated," Hall said. "They're just allegations."

But in other Chicago-area cases, even if cases were investigated, the files show that the Scouts repeatedly let suspected pedophiles volunteer again.

In 1975, just a year after Charles F. Fugate was convicted of a sex crime involving a child, the Scouts allowed him to volunteer. Within two years he had molested an 11-year-old Scout and was imprisoned, records show. He could not be located for comment.

In Schindler's case, the Boy Scouts made an active decision to let him back in after he was accused by the seven boys in 1964 of fondling them or others.

Back in 1964, a Catholic priest had the boys write separate letters of what happened.

But the priest suggested that the boys may have provoked Schindler's actions, so the priest urged that Schindler, then 21, be allowed to remain a volunteer.

A Scouts official wrote back that "it is possible considerable blame should be placed upon the boys themselves" — but said Schindler would be banned — for now.

Officials, citing an unexplained recommendation, let him back in 1981 in the Spring Grove area on a two-year probation. By the fall of 1984, Scouts officials were notified by McHenry County police of an investigation into accusations that Schindler had sexual contact with a boy.

Scouts officials quickly moved to suspend Schindler, who was convicted of aggregated criminal sexual abuse of a boy following his arrest in 1985. Schindler has since died.

[smoking since 1879]

http://nextbigfuture.com/2012/10/young-blood-reverses-age-related.html

I'm not quite sure where this nugget belongs, so I'll post it here and maybe someone can suggest a more appropriate thread (ritual abuse?)

It's pretty much accepted that the laboratory mouse is a valuable model for studying human disease, and so this study is rather revealing/shocking

TLDR: giving old mice young blood improves cognitive abilities.
qf. ritual abuse and child abduction.

Aging is associated with structural and functional changes in the adult brain that steadily drive cognitive impairments and susceptibility to degenerative disorders in healthy individuals. As human lifespan increases a greater fraction of the population suffers from age-related cognitive impairments, making it crucial to elucidate means by which to combat the effects of aging. To date, studies in old animals using heterochronic parabiosis - in which the circulatory systems of young and old animals are connected - have demonstrated that young blood can improve stem cell function in aging tissues including the brain. However, whether the enhancements of young blood extend beyond regeneration in either peripheral tissues or the central nervous system remains unknown. We hypothesized that the beneficial effects of young blood could counteract the pre-existing effects of aging in the old brain, and moreover improve higher order cognitive processes. Using heterochronic parabiosis we show that exposure of an old animal to young blood results in an increase in the dendritic spine density of mature granule cell neurons, as well as improvements in synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus of old mice. Furthermore, intravenous administration of young blood plasma to old mice improved age-related cognitive impairments in both contextual fear conditioning and spatial learning and memory. Together, our data indicate that young blood is capable of reversing some of the structural and functional changes occurring in the adult brain during aging.

[coffin_dodger]

@ smokin' - my grandfather-in-law was approaching his departure date a few years ago and things were looking grim. He'd had a stroke and consequently got terrible bedsores, which in turn went septic. He was admiitted to hospital on deaths door and given hours to live.

He received a blood transfusion.

Two days later, he was back at home, sitting up in his chair, laughing and entertaining my kids. His eyes were alive and his mental faculties had fully returned. My wife and I found the change so shocking that we both agreed it that while it was wonderful, it was also a little bit creepy.

10 days later he was dead. Massive stroke. I wonder?....if only he had an unlimited supply of blood transfusions....

[seemslikeadream]

Ex-Penn State president to be charged in Sandusky scandal: NBC

Thu Nov 1, 2012 10:53am EDT
(Reuters) - Former Penn State University President Graham Spanier will be charged with perjury and obstruction offenses for his alleged role in covering up the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal, NBC News reported on Thursday.

Prosecutors have also prepared new charges against two other former officials, Athletic Director Tim Curley and Vice President Gary Schultz, who have already been indicted in the Sandusky case, NBC reporter Michael Isikoff said on its "Today" program.

Curley and Schultz have been previously charged with perjury and for failing to report an allegation of child abuse to the proper authorities. Both have pleaded not guilty.

Isikoff said the charges are based in part on emails uncovered during the investigation that the university commissioned by former FBI director Louis Freeh, whose report on the matter was issued over the summer.

Spanier, the only major figure in the scandal not yet facing criminal prosecution, resigned as head of Penn State in the wake of the charges against Sandusky, who was convicted in June of sexually abusing 10 boys over a 15-year period. Sandusky is serving a sentence of 30 to 60 years.

Calls for comment to Penn State and to attorneys for Spanier, Schultz and Curley were not immediately returned.

The Pennsylvania attorney general's office, which has been prosecuting the Sandusky cases, declined to comment on the report.

[hava007]

quite depressing, late justice ...

in the last year I have stopped sharing my revelations of ugly things in the world, although I witnessed many, more actually than before. Appears to me that pedo crimes are much much more prevalent than conventional wisdom goes. However, public outrage has certainly solidified, which is kind of hopeful.

[Col. Quisp]

What the hell is wrong with people who do these things? Maybe that's why we turn our heads. It's too big and too horrible to grasp what's going on in their sick minds.

[Wombaticus Rex]

The "Essex County" case is remarkable. It's from Nutley, New Jersey in 1983. Perps were John Sileo and Michael Abidiwan. Dug some more -- here's the PDF: two hosts per google

Recent article: http://www.northjersey.com/news/essex/1 ... l?mobile=1

The files, hundreds of pages of them, held a multitude of dark secrets.

Officially, they were known as the Boy Scouts of America's Ineligible Volunteer Files - paperwork on Scout leaders and adult volunteers who were suspected of sexually abusing children. Privately, though, the documents were referred to as "perversion files."

All of the details in the files were kept confidential until this week.

Among the 120 New Jersey cases, the files detailed a 1980s case where Nutley children were sexually abused, as part of activities carried out by what was described as a satanic cult.

John Sileo and Michael Abidiwan were arrested in the fall of 1983 on suspicion of sexually abusing four local children. Sileo, then 22, had been an assistant cubmaster for Pack 145, which was based at Radcliffe Elementary School from 1981 to 1982. Abidiwan, then 19, had been an Eagle Scout with Troop 147, which was affiliated with Franklin Reformed Church, according to the files.

The investigation, according to documents in the files, alleged that Sileo and Abidiwan had been the leaders of a cult involving as many as 35 boys and girls. "The youths were lured into the group through Sileo's position as a Boy Scout and community leader, police said," states a 1984 article from The Herald-News, a copy of which was in of the BSA files.

A search of Sileo's apartment turned up materials including handcuffs, whips, chains, a mask with horns, and a book called "The Mark of Lucifer," the article stated. News reports at the time indicated that children were tortured, and forced to wear dog collars and lap milk from bowls.

Abidiwan pleaded guilty to second-degree sexual assault and was sentenced to five years probation, on condition that he enter a psychiatric program, documents in the BSA files state. Sileo pleaded guilty to three counts of endangering the welfare of a child. He was sentenced to 10 years at a state-run treatment facility for sex offenders.

News outlets, including The Record, have been unable to reach Abidiwan or Sileo for comment.

An examination of the files by the media found 120 ineligible volunteer files from New Jersey, predominantly between 1965 and 1985. The files were posted on various news sites, including NorthJersey.com.

Nutley Public Affairs Commissioner Steven Rogers, then employed with the Nutley Police Department, remembers several details of the 1980s case.

The department investigated the case with the Essex County Prosecutor's Office. The investigators had also been looking into whether the Nutley case was linked to a New York case involving the North American Man-Boy Love Association, Rogers told the Sun on Friday.

"Of course, in those days, everything was confidential," Rogers said. Not even parents could be told, he added.

Rogers said he favors having convicted sex offenders' names released to the public. "That is the best way to protect children," he said.

Al Welenofsky has been involved in Nutley scouting for many years. He said Abidiwan was one of his Eagle Scouts. But on Friday, Welenofsky disputed claims that Abidiwan had been registered with Pack 147 at the time of the arrests.

"I guess it's long overdue," Welenofsky said of the files being released.

He said that the Scouts have been around for 102 years. In any youth organization, there's always a risk of a predator trying to join, he said.

"You have to...watch out for something like that," Welenofsky said. It's now standard practice for would-be Scout leaders, and other adult leaders in youth groups, to undergo background checks and fingerprinting. Scout handbooks also include information for Scouts on how to be aware of potential sexual abuse, he said.

New Jersey passed Megan's Law in 1994, which requires municipalities to notify residents if a sex offender is living in their area. But even with Megan's Law, Rogers said there are limits on how much information can be released in certain cases.

Remembering the public's reaction to the Nutley BSA case, "[I] can tell you, there was shock, there was disbelief that this could happen anywhere," Rogers said.

"We had a job to do," Rogers said of the police's response, "and we did it."

"The Mark of Lucifer," near as I can tell, is a pulp paperback horror novel by Edith Green. It was cheap so I ordered it.

[wintler2]

A senior serving police officer, Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox, claims the Catholic church covered up crimes of paedophile priests, silenced investigations and destroyed crucial evidence to avoid prosecutions in the Newcastle-Hunter area of New South Wales.
DCI FOx on ABC LAteline

^ thats the blurb on the ABC website, but in the interview Mr Fox goes further, implying that he was taken off the case by v.senior police to protect the church and that the NSW Premiers new taskforce (focussed on v/limited region) is itself a coverup and a full Royal Commission (into the Church) is required. NSW Police response to DCI Fox is at link, at bottom (waffle waffle..).

Fox doesn't actually name names, but does say that the clergy involved in coverup include a bishop and an archbishop. No surprise, but implications: archbishop of NSW for last 11 years is Cardinal Pell, close friend and mentor of .. Tony Abbott, leader of the federal (tory) opposition. In June 2002, Pell was accused of having sexually abused a 12-year-old boy at a Roman Catholic youth camp in 1961 whilst a seminarian; the Churches internal inquiry cleared him.

-

Context: the adjacent state of Victoria has an ongoing parliamentary inquiry (limited, shoulda been a full royal commission) into paedophile priests. Same story: systemic hiding of perpetrators, silencing of survivors, destruction of evidence.

Broken Rites & Care Leavers Australia Network seem to be the main mobs fighting for survivors rights here, AKAIK.

[seemslikeadream]

Catholic order had 'pedophile ring' in Vic
Date
November 9, 2012 - 7:45PM

A pedophile ring within a Catholic religious order in Victoria subjected boys as young as seven to pack rapes and severe beatings and covered up two killings, a victims' advocate claims.

Wayne Chamley, a researcher with victims' group Broken Rites, alleges The Hospitaller Order of St John of God, which operated two institutions in Victoria from 1952 to 1986, harboured up to 15 pedophiles who subjected orphans, state wards and intellectually disabled boys to sexual and physical abuse.

Two boys may have died as a result of severe beatings, and one of them had been thrown down a staircase, according to witness statements by former inmates received by Broken Rites.

Dr Chamley told a Victorian parliamentary inquiry into clergy sex abuse on Friday that two boys who had been subjected to continual sexual and physical abuse were incarcerated in a mental asylum after they managed to escape the home.

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He said orphans and boys who did not receive visitors were separated from boys who were visited by family.

"They speak about being given a red medicine that made them drowsy. Pack rapes took place and boys who resisted or attempted to fight off their attackers were beaten mercilessly," Dr Chamley told the inquiry in his submission.

"These were boys of seven to 15 years, up against adult males.

"This is a story about widespread sexual abuse, severe and unwarranted physical abuse, exploitation and unpaid child labour, starvation of boys, drugging of boys, provision of alcohol to juveniles and situations where intoxicated brothers were in charge of boys."

He said St John of God operated a not-for-profit company which was currently providing accommodation and respite services for the Victorian government, from which it received public funding.

"How can the Victorian government, through the Department of Human Services, be putting up services contracts to an organisation like St John of God, given their record? I suspect there's something going on," Dr Chamley told the inquiry.

He slammed the Salvation Army and Catholic Church, labelling their submissions to the inquiry "safe and convenient" and insulting.

He said it was unbelievable that compensation schemes such as the Melbourne Response, a process adopted by the Catholic Church in which victims of clergy abuse can seek compensation from the church rather than go to police, were allowed.

"I can't believe that it's even allowed to operate," said Dr Chamley.

"Under what legal authority can clergymen set up a quasi-legal star chamber of their own?"

Dr Chamley said he had been in mediation sessions where the church's lawyer, Peter O'Callaghan QC, told victims he had the power of a royal commissioner.

"That is his mindset, that he has the powers of a royal commissioner, and these victims believe that."

He said the plan of attack by church lawyers during mediation sessions was to "king-hit the victim and soften him up".

The Family and Community Development Committee are inquiring into child sex abuse within religious and non-government organisations.

On Friday, NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell announced a special commission of inquiry to probe allegations by a senior police investigator into child sex abuse at the hands of Catholic clergy in the NSW Hunter region.

[Luther Blissett]

My "favorite" priest (and the favorite of every kid in the diocese) was named as having aided in a coverup of abuse way back in 2004. I had no idea.

Allentown Diocese Covered up Abuse Systematically, Suits Say
Actions Approach Sex Scandal in Novel Way. Lawyer to File Similar Lawsuits across State

By Kathleen Parrish kathleen.parrish@mcall.com and Romy Varghese
The Morning Call [Allentown PA]
Downloaded January 14, 2004

The Catholic Diocese of Allentown systematically covered up decades of sexual abuse by priests through secret files, code words and transfers while assuring victims no other children would be harmed, according to lawsuits by five alleged victims.

In the suits "four of which were filed in Lehigh County and one in Schuylkill County "alleged victims describe how they were abused by priests as children and how the diocese rebuffed their attempts as adults to acknowledge their suffering.

"I've been dealing with this for 32 years," said Patricia Beaumont, 46, of Lancaster County during a news conference Tuesday in Wyomissing, Berks County.

"I'm here because I want it to stop and so no one else has to spend that amount of time dealing with this," said Beaumont, who said she was sexually abused by two teachers, the Revs. Richard Guiliani and Leo Houseknecht, while a student at Notre Dame High School in Bethlehem Township during the 1970s.

Besides Guiliani and Houseknecht, the priests identified in the suits against the diocese and Bishop Edward P. Cullen and former Bishop Thomas J. Welsh are the Rev. Francis J. Fromholzer, who taught at Allentown Central Catholic High School; the Rev. Michael S. Lawrence, who taught at Central Catholic and Notre Dame; Monsignor William E. Jones, former vicar of the Southern Schuylkill Deanery who taught at Notre Dame, and Monsignor Dennis A. Rigney, who attended seminary with Cullen and for years was director of Catholic Charities and head of the Catholic Social Agency.

Guiliani left the priesthood 27 years ago, Houseknecht died in 1990 and the others are not in active ministry.

The suits say the diocese knew that many of its priests had a sexual interest in children, "and more specifically had knowledge of the sexual abuse of minors by its priests," including the Rev. Edward R. Graff, Monsignor Stephen Forish, the Rev. Thomas Bender, the Rev. James J. Mihalik, the Rev. Joseph Rock, the Rev. John Paul Sabas, and the Rev. David Soderlund.

Forish was acquitted in 1998 of soliciting a boy for sex in Bethlehem.

Surrounded by family, four of the five alleged victims attended the news conference Tuesday to put a face to their stories in hopes of protecting children from abusive priests, they said. Three of the five have gone public with their names and two are remaining anonymous.

The lawsuits, filed Monday, name the diocese and bishops as defendants but not the individual priests because the two-year statute of limitations for a civil action against them has expired. Attorney Richard Serbin of Altoona, who is representing the alleged victims with Jay N. Abramowitch, is interpreting the statute of limitations in a novel way. He is arguing that the clock on filing a lawsuit doesn't start ticking at the time the abuse occurred, but when the alleged victims learn of a diocese's attempts to conceal abuse.

It's a strategy he is employing in lawsuits across the state, including 13 he filed against the Altoona-Johnstown Catholic Diocese. He will announce similar claims today on behalf of four alleged victims in the Diocese of Pittsburgh, and more could be coming in Allentown as well.

"We have only scratched the surface," he said.

The suits contend the diocese conspired to conceal the sexual abuse by employing a closed and secret system of internal reporting and using "code words" to limit the names of "predator priests" to within the diocese and affiliated psychiatric facilities. The diocese also promoted accused priests, continued to support them and transferred them without revealing past allegations.

This was done to protect the reputation of the diocese and its priests, the suits say.

At the same time, the diocese assured victims and their families that the offending priest had been dealt with and if abuse did occur, it was an isolated incident.

Diocesan spokesman Matt Kerr said priests in the five cases had been investigated by two district attorneys who concluded there were no prosecutable cases and that church officials didn't violate any laws or hinder prosecution of sexual abuse cases.

"It is noteworthy that attorney Serbin is known in a number of Pennsylvania dioceses for bringing such lawsuits even though the statute of limitations has expired," he said. "While the Diocese of Allentown regrets that any person may have been the victim of sexual abuse at the hands of any cleric, the diocese does reserve its right to defend itself against the charges in the lawsuit."

Although the suits seek more than $50,000 on each count of abuse, money is not behind them, said Scott Greis, a 39-year-old Schuylkill County man who said Jones began sexually abusing him when he was a 14-year-old altar boy at St. Vincent de Paul in Minersville.

"I just want an apology," he said.

Greis said he decided to go public after having a talk with his 17-year-old daughter about sexual predators. "It hit me in the face," he said.

The alleged abuses detailed in the suits took place between 1965 and 1982 and involved three girls and two boys who were ages 9 to 16 at the time. In Beaumont's case, the suit says the sexual abuse began while she was in high school and culminated when Guiliani visited her at college and proposed sexual intercourse and marriage.

The other plaintiffs include a 35-year-old Great Meadows, N.J., woman who said she was fondled by Rigney when she was 9 during a trip to Schuylkill County, a 34-year-old man who said Lawrence molested him in the St. Catharine of Siena rectory in Mount Penn, Berks County, when he was 12, and Juliann Bortz, a 54-year-old Lower Macungie Township woman who said she was molested by Fromholzer while a student at Allentown Central Catholic.

Bortz and Lawrence's alleged victim, identified as John Doe in his suit, previously told their stories in The Morning Call.

The suits against the Allentown Diocese claim that Bishops Cullen and Welsh knew of the accused priests' predilection toward children and transferred them to other assignments where they would have access to minors without alerting the new parishes of the priests' alleged abusive history.

The lawsuits come a week after the Allentown Diocese was deemed in compliance of a national mandate requiring dioceses to have child abuse prevention policies.

The Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People was adopted by U.S. bishops in November 2002, and every diocese was audited to ensure it met the policy's requirements.

The Allentown Diocese also received a commendation for expanding a program that helps parishioners and clergy work through the church's sexual abuse scandal.

Last month the diocese said 34 people have accused 27 priests of sexual abuse over the diocese's history. None of those priests who are living is in active ministry, it said, and two-thirds of the incidents were reported to the diocese 10 or more years after the incidents happened.

David Cerulli, head of the New York chapter of SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests), spoke at the news conference in Wyomissing, where Abramowitch has his law office, and dismissed the statistics from the diocese, calling them "little more than self-reports."

Cerulli, who settled a sexual abuse claim with the Allentown Diocese for $40,000, wore a photo of himself as a freckle-faced 14-year-old around his neck. He lauded the alleged victims for having the courage to come forward to protect other children from pedophile priests.

"Only in this way can we be assured history will not repeat itself," said Cerulli, whose alleged abuser, the Rev. John Paul Sabas, died in 1996.

In June 2002, the alleged victims made attempts to contact the diocese in search of advice and spiritual counsel and were "totally rebuffed," said Abramowitch, who wouldn't go into specifics. Diocesan officials failed to acknowledge they were abused, didn't enter a dialogue with the alleged victims, or said they would look into the allegations but never followed up on them, he said.

"All they've asked is for the church to acknowledge their suffering," said Abramowitch. "They never did that."

[Project Willow]

https://theconversation.edu.au/rogue-priests-or-a-culture-of-abuse-investigating-paedophilia-in-the-catholic-church-10700

Rogue priests or a culture of abuse? Investigating paedophilia in the Catholic Church
13 November 2012, 12.15pm AEST
Michael Salter
Lecturer in criminology at University of Western Sydney

For victims and their advocates, the Prime Minister’s announcement of a Royal Commission into the role of institutions in the abuse of children represents a long-awaited shift in the way Australia approaches child sexual abuse.

Politicians, church leaders and other public figures are all vocal in their condemnation of child abuse. This has become a fig leaf for the trenchant neglect of the needs and rights of child abuse survivors. Survivors are routinely unable to access effective mental health care. They find their complaints trivialised by police, the justice system and the churches.

The announcement was sparked by explosive evidence that sexually abusive Catholic priests have been concentrated in particular diocese such as Ballarat and the Hunter Valley. Investigations appear to have been stymied by both the church and the police.

The term “paedophile priests” has become common in media commentary. This suggests that the origins of clergy abuse lies with mentally disordered offenders who use their authority as clergy to molest children and avoid detection or prosecution. Sexual abusers can be highly motivated to abuse children and select their occupation accordingly. But it is too simple to blame institutional sexual abuse on a small number of prolific offenders.

Research shows that sexual abuse is more likely to occur in (and be ignored by) particular kinds of institutional cultures. In particular, male-dominated organisations that lack oversight and accountability can harbour a “barrack-yard” culture that promotes physical and sexual abuse. As Marie Keenan indicates in her 2012 book Child Sexual Abuse and the Catholic Church, organisational culture is a key reason the Catholic Church has a problem with the sexual abuse of children. The general mindset and power structure of the Church is feudal in origin and nature. Figures of authority are entitled to expect absolute deference from subordinates. Men have divinely sanctioned authority over women and children. There is little, if any, real interest in democratic decision-making.

By any measure, this creates a situation ripe for the development of cultures of abuse. In this environment, one or two charismatic perpetrators can draw adults and children within institutions into overlooking, colluding or perpetrating in the abuse. This can result in the development of clandestine networks of abusers within and across institutions and organisations that uphold the culture of sexual abuse. Hence sexual abusers can be incubated within institutions. A Royal Commission focused solely on identifying and hounding out “paedophiles” cannot fulfil the brief of protecting children and providing justice to victims. It must also address the institutional factors that promote sexual abuse.

It has been common for institutional authorities to silence children who complain of abuse, while protecting abusers. This becomes more complex in the case of clergy abuse. The religious affiliations of police, politicians and authority figures may draw them into the efforts of a church to suppress allegations. Some critics have described this pattern of institutional cover-up as evidence of “organised paedophilia”. The line between complicity and conspiracy is uncertain. Institutional sexual abuse may occur due disorganised rather than organised abuse: a lack of basic safeguards, protections or care that leave children vulnerable to repetitive sexual abuse.

But we cannot dismiss allegations of organised abuse and cover-ups out of hand. It is clear that institutions can harbour sexually abusive cultures and groups without detection. The report of the South Australian Mullighan Inquiry into children in state care was published in 2008. In the report, former state wards provided detailed accounts of groups of staff sexually abusing children in institutions and taking them to what Commissioner Mullighan described as “paedophile parties”. Priests, nuns and care staff were implicated. Like so many other inquiries of this nature, the report hinted at a degree of sexual abuse that has not received full public recognition.

It is rare that I agree with Fred Nile. However, he had a point when he suggested that the narrow terms of reference of the proposed NSW inquiry into alleged police protection of clergy abusers is the result of political “nervousness”. Allegations of institutional sexual abuse often implicate, in various ways, three of the most powerful organisations in society – political parties, the churches and police – while aggravating many others.

To put it bluntly, institutional sexual abuse is a political hornets’ nest. Julia Gillard should be congratulated for moving beyond the entrenched resistance to addressing the issue openly and transparently.

But the issues facing the proposed Royal Commission go beyond the challenge of screening for paedophilia and encouraging institutional responsiveness to sexual abuse. There are cultural problems within the church and other institutions, and indeed within the community more generally, that are linked to the abuse of children and need real, practical policy solutions.

[Allegro]

FWIW, First Baptist Church, Dallas, Texas, is ranked 100th largest megachurch in the Southern Baptist convention, and Prestonwood Baptist Church, Dallas, Texas, is ranked as 4th largest, both in terms of population. First Baptist is oldest, endeared by old money, and Prestonwood is relatively young, propped up by the new.

Highlights most assuredly mine.

_________________
Prestonwood Baptist: A Heroic Stand Amidst Parental and Church Betrayal
25OCT12

< snip from top >

Approximately 1 year ago, TWW [The Wartburg Watch] post a story on a noteworthy pedophile, John Langworthy called Does the SBC Fear Women Pastors More Than Their Kids Getting Molested? Link

I heartily suggest that you read that post first for some background. In it, you will be introduced to Amy Smith, the heroine of this story. In this post, we congratulated her for her dogged determination to uncover the truth.

John Langworthy, now awaiting trial for pedophilia, was serving on staff at Prestonwood Baptist Church, Dallas, in 1989 when he was abruptly, and quietly dismissed, due to an allegation of impropriety. Langworthy would go on to allegedly molest other children in subsequent ministries in Mississippi.

< snip >

This is my story [by Amy Smith]

This is my story of how I came to be an advocate for survivors of child sexual abuse and the personal price I would pay as a result. But I would do it again.

I loved my church, Prestonwood Baptist Church in Dallas. I spent my years in high school as a dedicated member of the youth ministry, and while attending Baylor University, I spent my summers as an intern on the youth staff at Prestonwood. It was there I met my then youth music minister, John Langworthy. John soon became a close friend of our family, even living in our home for a while in the mid 1980s while on staff at Prestonwood and attending seminary. I was in his wedding in Mississippi. He was a friend and mentor.

The person that I knew though was not reality. The reality was a wolf masquerading in sheep’s clothing, albeit a very talented, charming, magnetic, charismatic one. The entire time I knew him, he was sexually molesting boys at Prestonwood, some of them my friends. Some of the abuse took place in the church building, the former Prestonwood location on Hillcrest at Arapaho in Dallas. This came as a shock to all of us when he was suddenly fired in June of 1989 and packed up quickly and moved back to his home state of Mississippi.

I heard the rumors like many in the youth group then. I was 20 and on staff as an intern. I did not know exactly who the victims were at the time. The Prestonwood executive staff, headed by Dr. Jack Graham, heard Langworthy confess to these child sex crimes, along with Neal Jeffrey, then youth pastor, but no one reported these crimes to the police as required by Texas state law. They even had a few of the victims that they knew sit down with church attorneys to give statements, but none of this information was reported to the police.

The church congregation was not informed of the reason for Langworthy’s departure. Parents were not notified so that other victims could be found. From my understanding, having talked to victims since then, a call came in to Prestonwood in 1989 warning them of John’s past in Mississippi, of alleged child sexual abuse there.

In August of 2010, after hearing about the conviction of Pete Newman, former Kanakuk Christian camp director, I decided speak out and not leave it up to someone else to warn about Langworthy. I was someone else. I had to get someone to listen, anyone who could shine the light of truth on this admitted child molester. I began to search online for Langworthy and found him working at a church and public high school in Clinton, MS. Here is the timeline of my efforts to warn about Langworthy.

After my interview on WFAA in Dallas, the story began airing in Jackson, MS. One brave survivor of abuse as a child by John Langworthy came forward to the police in Clinton, MS, and then several more after that. John was arrested and indicted in September 2011 on 8 counts of felony gratification of lust for 5 victims, boys between the ages of 8-12. This abuse took place between 1980-84 while Langworthy was serving at First Baptist Church of Jackson and Daniel Memorial Baptist Church in Mississippi. He is awaiting a criminal trial on these charges set for Nov. 26, 2012 in Hinds County in Jackson, Mississippi.

When I first began to question and seek out information to warn about Langworthy, I informed my parents about what I was doing, and that I was concerned that more kids were at risk. They expressed disapproval. I knew I was doing the right thing though. I called the Dallas police myself to report what I knew. I was told that the victims I knew, now adults, would have to report the abuse, or the Prestonwood staff who fired Langworthy.

I communicated this information with Dr. Jack Graham, via Mike Buster, executive pastor. To my knowledge, they have yet to report the child sex crimes that took place at Prestonwood by Langworthy from 1984-1989 that constituted the reason for his dismissal. I have also heard from and about victims of two other former Prestonwood youth ministers and one adult youth ministry volunteer that the staff knew about but have not reported to the police. Looking back, it seems that a culture of abuse reigned there unchecked.

Recently, my parents stated in writing that they are going on with their lives without me and want no more contact with me. In their own words, they insist that I went on a “witch hunt.” They still stand by and defend John Langworthy saying “he didn’t molest anybody,” though he has confessed publicly from the pulpit at Morrison Heights Baptist Church in August 2011. They have also demanded that I apologize to Jack Graham and Neal Jeffrey at Prestonwood.

I will not apologize for the truth. It is the light of truth and knowledge that is our greatest tool to protect kids.

We need more people like Alex Green, a student editor at Bryan College in Tennessee, who defied the school administration to report and publish a story on a professor’s alleged child sex crimes:

Had one individual in the Penn State program stepped up and revealed the truth about the actions of Jerry Sandusky, there would have been no fallout 14 years later. Joe Paterno would have died a hero. Instead, he died a goat. Penn State could have been praised. Instead, they are broken.

Bryan College is not Penn State because there are people here that will not attempt to save face by dusting over the arrest of Dr. David Morgan.

Printing this story will not cause a Penn State situation for Bryan. I believe it will prevent one. That’s why I’m dispensing it.
Well done, Alex Green.

Child sexual abuse ravages war on every aspect of the life of a child. Where are the warriors to fight for these children? It’s past time to stop protecting and enabling the predators who prey on kids.

If you have been a victim of sexual abuse at Prestonwood Baptist Church by John Langworthy or others, or have information about these crimes, please call and make a report to the Dallas Police Child Exploitation Unit at 214-671-4211. Your call will be answered by a trained counselor with 20 years experience. If you need to leave a message, your call will be returned.

If you have suffered Langworthy’s child sex crimes in Mississippi or have information about these crimes, please contact Hinds County Assistant District Attorney Jamie McBride at 601-968-6568.

Silence only benefits the predators. Coming forward shatters the silence of sexual abuse, helps survivors heal and protects others.