West Memphis 3, Casa Pia pedophile ring convictions, Facebook - child porn, DID conference
articles: West Memphis 3 Follow-Up – Larry King Live - Statement from Diana Moore Six men jailed for Portugal child sex abuse and related articles Pentagon declined to investigate hundreds of purchases of child pornography Move over Wikipedophilia, Facebook is in the house 'Forgotten' kids forced into prostitution An Infinite Mind - DID Conference West Memphis 3 Follow-Up – Larry King Live – September 2, 2010 During last nights show on the “West Memphis 3,” we shared statements from Diana Moore, mother of murder victim Michael Moore, and the Arkansas Attorney General, whose office will defend the conviction of Damien Echols before the Arkansas Supreme Court later this month. Statement from Diana Moore, mother of murder victim Michael Moore: In 1993, all I wanted was justice for Michael, Christopher, and Stevie, and closure for myself, and my family. 17 years later, still no justice, or closure. Since the convictions, the media has made it a point to make this case all about the convicted. I would like to take this opportunity to remind people that three innocent 8 year old children were brutally murdered, and these three men were convicted on the evidence presented to 24 , (in total), juror members that voted unanimously to convict. Not one of the celebrities interviewed in this program has ever bothered to personally read the case file at West Memphis PD, or speak to anyone involved in prosecuting this case. My little boy died that day. I’m his mother, and wish to say that the public remains ignorant about what happened in court primarily as a result of the Paradise Lost films, and the writing of Mara Leveritt. My voice is small compared to theirs, but I believe more relevant. They weren’t there during the trials, and they didn’t lose anybody. I lost almost everything, and not a day goes by that I don’t mourn for Michael. The public should think about that before casting their lot in with Eddie Vedder and Natalie Maines…. (Eddie Vedder and Natalie Maines replied to this statement.) Statement from Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel: Our office knows that there are concerns about this case, but be assured that we take the utmost care in handling the appeals of death sentences handed down by Arkansas jurors. Though some celebrities have brought more attention to this case than to the dozens of other pending death-row appeals in this state, every one is an extremely serious matter. We are committed to fairness and justice not just for the three inmates, but also for the three little boys who didn’t live to see middle school. (http://larrykinglive.blogs.cnn.com/2010/09/02/west-memphis-3-follow-up/) h_ttp://larrykinglive.blogs.cnn.com/2010/09/02/west-memphis-3-follow-up/_ (http://larrykinglive.blogs.cnn.com/2010/09/02/west-memphis-3-follow-up/) Six men jailed for Portugal child sex abuse 9/3/10 Six Portuguese men have been jailed after they were found guilty of sexual abuse at a state-run children's home. Carlos Silvino was given an 18-year sentence after confessing to 639 charges relating to the abuse of children or procuring them for others. His co-defendants, including the former TV presenter Carlos Cruz, were jailed for between five and seven years. The boys, now aged between 16 and 22, were all residents at the Casa Pia children's home in the capital, Lisbon. The panel of three judges in the case spent most of the day reading the full verdict in each of the hundreds of sexual abuse accusations. After ruling that the vast majority of the charges had been proven, they handed down guilty verdicts to six of the seven people on trial. Silvino, a 54-year-old former driver for Casa Pia who abused boys on hundreds of occasions and later offered them to other men for cash, was convicted on all charges. Cruz and Joao Ferreira Diniz, a doctor, were each given seven-year sentences, while retired ambassador Jorge Ritto got six years and eight months. Hugo Marcal, a lawyer, was sentenced to six years and two months, while former Casa Pia governor Manuel Abrantes was sentenced to five years and nine months. But Gertrudes Nunes, a woman who was alleged to have allowed her house in Elvas to be used by the abusers, was acquitted on all charges....The case is one of the longest-running in Portuguese history, lasting more than five years, with testimony from more than 800 witnesses and experts. During the trial, the 32 victims gave gruesome testimony about being raped by adults in dark cellars, cars and secluded houses....The abuse at Casa Pia is said to have started in the mid-1970s, but was not discovered until 2002, when the mother of a boy placed at a state-run home in Lisbon said he had been abused by staff there. Casa Pia, or Pious House, is a 230-year-old institution which cares for about 4,500 orphans and underprivileged children through a network of homes and schools. This case is not the only one spawned by the investigation that began in 2002. Seven other trials have already run their course, with some of those found guilty themselves former Casa Pia pupils. In March 2006, a court ordered the Portuguese government to pay 2m euros (£1.66m) in compensation to 44 former Casa Pia residents, saying it had failed in its duty to protect them. _http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11179026_ (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11179026) 7 defendants convicted in Portugal sex abuse trial By BARRY HATTON AP September 3, 2010 LISBON, Portugal -- Seven people were convicted of child sex abuse in Portugal on Friday in a major trial that lasted nearly six years and shocked the country. The six men and one woman were found guilty of crimes including sexually abusing minors and adolescents, raping children and running a pedophile ring at a state-run children's home in Lisbon during the 1990s. The six men were handed jail sentences of between six and 18 years for sexual abuse. The woman, whose house was used by the ring, was not given a custodial sentence because of a 2007 change in the law, the judge said in the televised ruling without elaborating. The longest sentence was given to a 53-year-old former driver at the home, Carlos Silvino, who confessed to more than 600 crimes and gave evidence against the other defendants. Others sent to prison were Carlos Cruz, a popular television presenter with a three-decade career in show business, who will serve seven years; and Jorge Ritto, a decorated career diplomat and former UNESCO ambassador, who was given six years, eight months in jail....The trial, believed to be Portugal's longest, included testimony from more than 800 witnesses and experts, including 32 alleged victims. _http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/03/AR201009030 1259.html_ (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/03/AR2010090301259.html) Carlos Cruz jailed for seven years for paedophile offences Portuguese TV presenter among six convicted over child prostitution at Casa Pia state-run orphanages The Guardian 4 September 2010 One of Portugal's most famous television presenters and a former ambassador were among six men found guilty yesterday of involvement with a paedophile prostitution ring that exploited children from state-run orphanages. The guilty verdicts handed down to TV presenter Carlos Cruz and the five others exposed the truth of more than three decades of rumours about systematic abuse of young boys at the 230-year-old Casa Pia network of orphanages. It was only when Joel, a former orphanage boy, came forward in 2002 and accused some of the country's best-known names of being involved that Portugal woke up to full horror of the scandal. Members of Portugal's media, civil service and professional elite were alleged to be regular abusers of the boys, some younger than 14. Even well-known politicians were involved, it was initially rumoured. A flood of accusations from boys who had passed through the Casa Pia system followed. Some 32 boys alleged at least 800 crimes. The case pitted the orphanage boys against a group of well-educated, influential people – including a former ambassador to Unesco, a lawyer, a doctor and Cruz. Yesterday, eight years after they dared to speak out, the boys finally won their case. The four men and two former orphanage employees received sentences of between just under six years and 18 years. Carlos Silvino, a 53-year-old Casa Pia worker who confessed to 600 crimes and gave evidence against other defendants was sentenced to 18 years....Cruz, 68, who was once voted Portugal's most popular man, had paid for sex with a 14-year-old, the judges declared. He also abused at least one other boy. The father of two was known as "Mr Television" after several decades as a national star. He was sentenced to seven years in jail. A doctor, Ferreira Diniz, was also sentenced to seven years and a former ambassador, Jorge Ritto, 74, to six years, and the former Casa Pia ombudsman, Manuel Abrantes, to five. They were found guilty of abusing several young boys. The court found that boys had been regularly taken to a house in the eastern town of Elvas during the 1990s to meet the paedophile clients. Abuse had also taken place in Lisbon. _http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/03/portugal-paedophile-ring_ (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/03/portugal-paedophile-ring) Move over Wikipedophilia, Facebook is in the house By James R. Marsh on September 3, 2010 It should come as no surprise that Facebook is now in the world-wide spotlight for harboring and tolerating child pornography and online child exploitation. Of a recent rash of articles about the popular site (none of them by the U.S. media), the following is the most serious: Facebook fails to alert police on child porn from The Age (Australia) The management of Facebook repeatedly failed to reveal the activity of an international child pornography syndicate operating on the social networking site and ignored continuing admissions by one of the ring's Australian members. The failure was uncovered during an Australian Federal Police-led international investigation of the syndicate, which had operated via fake identities on the site. ''We are aware that Facebook knew of the existence of these pages and even went so far as to remove the profiles,'' said the director of the AFP High Tech Crime Centre, Neil Gaughan. But despite closing down the men's pages after finding illegal material, Facebook did not contact police, Mr Gaughan said. _http://www.childlaw.us/2010/09/move-over-wikipedophilia-faceb.html_ (http://www.childlaw.us/2010/09/move-over-wikipedophilia-faceb.html) Pentagon declined to investigate hundreds of purchases of child pornography by John Cook 9/3/10 A 2006 Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigation into the purchase of child pornography online turned up more than 250 civilian and military employees of the Defense Department -- including some with the highest available security clearance -- who used credit cards or PayPal to purchase images of children in sexual situations. But the Pentagon investigated only a handful of the cases, Defense Department records show. The cases turned up during a 2006 ICE inquiry, called Project Flicker, which targeted overseas processing of child-porn payments. As part of the probe, ICE investigators gained access to the names and credit card information of more than 5,000 Americans who had subscribed to websites offering images of child pornography. Many of those individuals provided military email addresses or physical addresses with Army or fleet ZIP codes when they purchased the subscriptions....But the vast majority of those investigated, including an active-duty lieutenant colonel in the Army and an official in the office of the secretary of defense, were never charged. On top of that, 212 people on ICE's list were never investigated at all. _http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20100903/us_yblog_upshot/pentagon-decl ined-to-investigate-hundreds-of-purchases-of-child-pornography_ (http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20100903/us_yblog_upshot/pentagon-declined-to-inve stigate-hundreds-of-purchases-of-child-pornography) 'Forgotten' kids forced into prostitution By TAMARA CHERRY, QMI Agency TORONTO - Countless "forgotten" children are being trafficked within and across provincial borders and Canada has no clear plan to help them, says a new RCMP report obtained by QMI Agency....While Dalley's report mostly refers to trafficked teens, it mentions children as young as six are forced into prostitution in Canada. Some mothers force or coerce their daughters into sex work so they can buy drugs or pay off drug debts, the report notes. "As well, some family members consciously force children as young as six years old into the sex trade. These children are given drugs to ease the pain and awkwardness of the situation - a practice that exposes them to drugs at an early age, and consequently may create an addiction situation," Dalley writes. Sparse as information was in 2008, Dalley found more than 400 children, some as young as 11, were reported as working for pimps in Calgary. _http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Crime/2010/07/01/14580696.html_ (http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Crime/2010/07/01/14580696.html) An Infinite Mind is proud to announce our first annual Healing Together Conference; an educational and support conference on DID. Healing Together will be held in beautiful Lake Buena Vista, FL on February 5-6, 2011. Registration opens Sept 15, 2010. Who should attend? Survivors with all types of dissociative disorders, especially those with DID. Supporters and loved ones of people with dissociative disorders and DID. Mental Health Professionals who currently treat dissociative clients or would like to learn more about treating dissociation and DID. For more information, visit: _www.aninfinitemind.com_ (aoldb://mail/write/www.aninfinitemind.com)
