Posted by: anonymummies on: December 20, 2009
2nd December 2009
One of the worst aspects of prison life is the time it affords its inhabitants to think. Since being locked up last week, Madeleine Martin has had more time than she would like to reflect on the events that led her to such a place.
In the cold light of day, does she feel shame and humiliation, or is she still trying to excuse her outrageous behaviour?
Mrs Martin, a 39-year-old religious education teacher with a previously exemplary record, has just begun a 32-month jail sentence for having sex with a 15-year-old boy who was a pupil in her class.
http://to-catch-a-female-predator.blogspot.com/2009/09/uk-religious-education-teacher.html
She had been assigned as ‘mentor’ to the boy to encourage him with his studies, but unfortunately chose to interpret the word in an entirely inappropriate fashion.
Mrs Martin, who had separated from her husband before she became involved with the boy, is the mother of two teenage daughters.
Their devastation and humiliation at their mother’s actions is all too easy to imagine.
This is the latest in a disturbing number of cases where women teachers have been jailed after entering into relationships with pupils – and raises serious questions about collapsing moral boundaries in our schools.
In his first interview today, the boy and his father tell their story. For legal reasons they cannot be named, so we shall call the pupil Robert and his father Chris.
It’s a fairly graphic story of a series of sexual encounters conducted largely inside Madeleine Martin’s Alfa Romeo 147.
Robert presents a rather tragic picture of a wildly infatuated woman who had convinced herself of the possibility of a serious relationship with a pupil a year younger than her eldest daughter; a woman who risked sex in public places with her young pupil; a woman who had clearly taken leave of her senses.
Robert is an ordinary teenager. His parents are divorced, he lives with his property developer father in the Greater Manchester area and sees his mother most evenings.
At school, he admits he has not applied himself as much as he could have and has got into trouble from time to time for playing up in class. He has had girlfriends, but looks and acts exactly as you would expect a 15-year-old boy might.
During our interview he thinks carefully about each question before he answers, and is open and honest.
‘She made all the running and I just went along with it… It’s not the sort of thing you do with your teacher, is it?’
He does not speak in a boastful manner. It will pain Mrs Martin and her family to read his assessment of their relationship, delivered with the brutal honesty that is the preserve of the young.
‘I liked her as a teacher, but I wasn’t really that attracted to her,’ he says. ‘She made all the running and I just went along with it.
‘It was one of those situations you find yourself in without really knowing how it’s happened, and as soon as we were in it, I was thinking to myself: “How do I get out of this?”
‘It was weird. It’s not the sort of thing you do with your teacher, is it?’
No, it isn’t.
The pair met when she joined the comprehensive in Greater Manchester in September last year. Then, that December, she took on the role of Robert’s mentor.
This involved regular hour-long one-to-one teaching sessions in her classroom after school.
‘At first, during lessons I had no sense of her being attracted to me,’ recalls Robert. ‘But when the mentoring started she offered to give me a lift home afterwards, and by January she was taking me home practically every day.
‘Sometimes she would say to me: “Feel my hands – how cold they are,” which I found odd, and I would quickly touch them and pull my hand away.’
Around this time, Robert and his father, Chris, saw Mrs Martin together at a parents’ meeting at the school. Chris recalls there was something ‘not quite right’ about the meeting.
‘She was perfectly nice but she was very on edge,’ he says. ‘I couldn’t put my finger on what was wrong, but, of course, I would never have guessed why.’
Clearly, by this juncture, she had resolved upon seducing Chris’s 15- year-old son.
Robert says: ‘One Friday when she took me home, she stopped the car near the house and asked me for a hug,’ says Robert. ‘It felt a bit weird, but I just hugged her quickly to get it over and done with so I could get out of the car.
‘On the Monday, when I saw her again, she asked me if I’d felt uncomfortable hugging her and I said I didn’t because I didn’t want her to feel bad.
‘She told me she had family problems, that her sister was ill with cancer.’
Four days later, Mrs Martin asked for Robert’s phone number. She did not call but sent him a message on Facebook, the social networking site, to which he replied that he didn’t have time to respond properly.
‘When I went to bed that night she started texting me at 11.30pm saying she really wished I hadn’t had to go [off Facebook], and I replied I was sorry, too, as I didn’t know what else to say.
‘She said she’d been drinking quite a few glasses of wine, and said there was someone she liked, but that it was wrong. I could see by now where this was leading, but I asked her several times who it was and she eventually said it was me.
‘I remember thinking: “This is all a bit mad.” I was a bit attracted to her, but not much, really.’
The mentoring meeting the following Monday was rather awkward but Martin offered to drop Robert home.
On the way she stopped the car and hugged him again, then began kissing his neck.
‘I liked her but it wasn’t as though she was dead good-looking. I was thinking: “Oh my God! This is really weird, how is it going to end?”‘
‘We started kissing, and after a while I asked if she was going to take me home and she said she really didn’t want to go.’
Given the highly illicit nature of what was happening, one might have at least expected Martin to conduct herself with some discretion. Not so. She drove her young charge to a cinema and restaurant complex with a busy car park: in short, about as public a place as you are going to find.
‘We climbed in the back of the car and had sex,’ says Robert.
The encounter was cut short after they heard a voice on a loudspeaker – presumably someone working at the cinema or one of the restaurants who was stunned at what they were seeing – reading out their number plate and ordering the car to leave immediately.
‘When we heard the loudspeaker telling us to move, Madeleine panicked. She said she thought it was the police and quickly drove off.’
But she did not come to her senses. Later that night, Robert received a text from her saying she had ‘really liked’ the sex.
Over a nine-day period, there were to be ten sexual encounters in total.
‘The first time we had sex we had no protection and she said she was on the Pill,’ says Robert. ‘This time she said she’d forgotten to take it, though I found out later she wasn’t on the Pill at all.
‘As far as I’m aware, she did not become pregnant.’
Already Robert had misgivings about the sexual adventure he had embarked on with his teacher.
‘I liked her of course, but it wasn’t as though she was dead good-looking. I was thinking: “Oh my God! This is really weird, how is it going to end?”
‘But Madeleine was very happy and even phoned Robert’s father while she was with him at a ‘mentoring’ class to say how well Robert was doing. Which you might call brazen cheek.
Around this time, Madeleine had asked her RE class to produce an essay on the ethics of abortion.
‘I hadn’t got round to doing it, so she said she’d do it for me,’ says Robert.
She was obviously pleased with it, for he received top marks.
After several more sexual encounters in her car, Martin attempted to elevate this sordid arrangement into something resembling a normal relationship.
She invited Robert over to dinner at the house she shared with her children. ‘She said one of her daughters was on a school trip and she’d told the other she had a man coming round and to stay with a friend,’ says Robert.
‘I told Dad I was staying at Mum’s house. She was away at the time, but I told my brother who was staying there that I was staying with a mate.
‘If other boys were there, she would send them off on various errands so she could be alone with me’
‘Madeleine cooked some Chinese food and I helped her. She offered me some wine but I refused. We watched The Deer Hunter then went to bed.’
The next day, however, Robert had an overwhelming sense of wishing to avoid his teacher.
Over the next week, Mrs Martin sent a number of text messages which Robert either ignored or replied to telling her he couldn’t talk as he was tired and was going to bed.
After a week, an increasingly desperate Martin texted to say she had to see him.
‘I had to get it over with so she picked me up in the car and we went to the dirt path we had been to before,’ says Robert.
‘She said she couldn’t carry on like this because she didn’t want to get hurt. I was very relieved.’
But Madeleine Martin was obsessed. According to Robert, she would find a pretext to give him detention.
‘I wasn’t behaving any differently than before, but she would put me in detention. If other boys were there, she would send them off on various errands so she could be alone with me. Then she would ask me why I was behaving the way I was, and I would say it was no different to the way I usually was with her.
‘Then, one time, she asked me to give her a hug and I started laughing and refused. When she asked why not, I said: “Because you’re the teacher.”‘
How crushed Martin must have been when Robert laughed at her, and how ironic that it was he who had to point out to her the blindingly obvious fact that what had happened was wrong.
‘It was starting to do my head in,’ he says. ‘I was thinking about it constantly.’
Robert confided in his elder brother in April, and together they told their mother and then their father.
‘I do feel upset and angry about how all this has affected my schooling. I can’t see what future I have now’
‘I hadn’t told anyone up till then but I had to confide in someone, offload it,’ adds Robert
His mother immediately called the police and Robert gave them a statement. Martin was arrested the next day at the school, and was later bailed on condition she lived at an address in Nottingham.
Robert’s involvement with Martin has had serious ramifications for him. He says he still feels angry, and his father says that at times Robert is more quiet than he used to be.
It’s a lot for a 15-year-old to have to cope with. After the scandal broke, Robert felt too embarrassed to return to school. He has been attending a local college two days a week, studying for GCSEs in English and maths.
‘I applied to go to another local school where I spent my first couple of years in senior school, but they said they had no places available. I didn’t want to start afresh somewhere new where I wouldn’t know anyone, so at the moment I’m at this college.
‘It’s full of people who have been expelled from other schools and some of them can barely write their names.
‘I do feel upset and angry about how all this has affected my schooling. I can’t see what future I have now, and I don’t know if I’ll even be able to get a job because of all this.’
At her trial at Manchester Crown Court, Martin’s defence team said she had been upset by the news that her sister was gravely ill with cancer. Does Robert’s father believe this is any sort of excuse?
‘I’m afraid not. I’m very sorry to hear about her sister, but using it as a defence sounds like clutching at straws to me.
‘This was a clear abuse of the position of trust in which she had been placed. She took advantage of the situation. She crossed the line.
‘It’s extremely shocking and has been devastating for our family. And it isn’t just us. I feel for her daughters, I really do. What they must be going through right now must be terrible.’
His son adds: ‘I wasn’t glad she was sent to jail but I think it is right. She has done wrong. I just wanted it to be over and I am relieved that it is. I don’t feel anything about her but I regret what happened. But I shouldn’t have gone along with it. It’s my own fault.’
Robert is being rather harsh on himself. Yes, he did go along with it, but he is a 15-year-old boy who had no idea how to handle his teacher’s advances.
And in her heart Madeleine Martin must know that she, and she alone, must be blamed both for Robert’s plight and for her own.
Posted by: anonymummies on: December 20, 2009
December 3rd 2009
Memphis, Tennessee – Last winter, a former (British) nanny and wife of a prominent Memphis businessman was charged with the statutory rape of her 15-year-old neighbor.
Emily Zinkus (pictured left) of Cordova, Tennessee is accused of carrying on a sexual relationship with her friend’s adolescent son who lived two doors down from her.
Becky Stone said her son, now 17, confessed he’d been sleeping with the 31-year-old Zinkus for two years.
“Your best friend doesn’t do this with your son, at 15,” Stone said.
On Wednesday, after serving three days in jail, Zinkus was granted one year probation. She must pay the courts $30 a month plus a $100 fine, and she’s ordered to stay away from Stone’s son.
The ruling came two days earlier than scheduled. Stone and her son were not given a chance to testify.
“What I was looking for the most is to keep her away from any other children,” Stone said.
Stone said she’d hoped Zinkus would be required to register as a sex offender.
Instead, if Zinkus doesn’t violate her probation, the charge will be erased from her record in one year.
Stone said she wonders whether the sentence would’ve been tougher if the sexes of those involved were reversed.
A representative from the District Attorney’s office says anyone with a clean record, regardless of sex, can request diversion on an aggravated statutory rape charge.
http://www.wlbt.com/Global/story.asp?S=11611372
http://www.wreg.com/news/wreg-no-sex-offender-story,0,2925189.story
Posted by: anonymummies on: December 20, 2009
December 2nd 2009
A Wentzville, Missouri woman was charged today with sex crimes against a 12-year-old boy.
Priscilla M. Pongspikul, 23, (pictured left) of the first block of Juno Drive, Wentzville was charged today with statutory rape and statutory sodomy.
Police said she had sex with the boy at her home in Wentzville the evening of Nov. 26.
On Tuesday, a doctor diagnosed Pongspikul with a sexually transmitted disease, police said. She told one of her friends to warn the boy’s mother he could have an STD.
The boy’s mother then called a hospital and police.
Police did not know what disease Pongspikul had. The boy tested negative for any disease.
Pongspikul admitted to investigators to having sex with the boy; she told detectives her judgment was impaired because she was drunk on vodka mixed with orange juice. She also told detectives she is learning disabled and has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.
She was jailed Wednesday in lieu of $20,000 bail.
Posted by: anonymummies on: December 20, 2009
December 2nd 2009
A Covington, Indiana woman will likely spend the rest of her life behind bars for molesting three young children.
A Fountain County judge sentenced 26-year-old Samantha Light to 125 years in prison.
In October, Light plead guilty to performing sexual acts on three children and videotaping them with boyfriend Stephen E. Quick. The incidents took place from September 2008 until February 2009.
The victims were Light’s own two-month-old girl, a one-year-old boy, and a six-year-old boy.
Stephen Quick still faces trial.
Parents of the other two victims were so outraged by the crime that they agreed to talk to News Channel 18 about their children.
Larrisa Smith is a mother of one of the victims. She says she didn’t buy the emotional statement Light read in the Fountain County Courtroom, trying to get the judge to show leniancy before sentencing.
After that statement, Smith stood and delivered one of her own, calling her former friend “a monster.”
“I want her to think about my kid, and her kid, and her kid. I want her to think about her daughter and all the things she’s missing because she chose to miss those things. She chose it, she brought it on herself,” said Smith.
Angela Hayman and Samantha Light are family, but that didn’t stop Light from molesting her cousin’s son.
“It’s hard to hear it over and over and over again. It’s not something you want to think about every day and I’m just ready for this to be over with because I just want to move on. I just want to take care of my son and I don’t want to have to wake up every morning thinking about what happened to him,” said Hayman.
Smith said this group will pull together and be there for all three kids to try and limit any long-term negative effects.
“It’s a horrible thing. It evokes anger, betrayal,” said Smith.
Samantha Light received 40 years apiece for the first two felony counts, and 45 years for the third count. Circuit Judge Susan Orr Henderson increased the sentence on the third count due to the very young age of Light’s own daughter.
The maximum sentence was 150 years, but because of Light’s remorse and lack of prior record, Henderson trimmed off 25 years.
Light’s 125-year sentence is not enough, according to Larrisa Smith. When asked what punishment would fit the crime, Smith said she favored the death penalty.
http://www.wlfi.com/dpp/news/crime/samantha-light-sentenced-for-child-molestation
Posted by: anonymummies on: December 20, 2009
December 2nd 2009
A 21-year-old Florida woman allegedly showed an 8-year-old boy pornographic movies and then had sex with him, according to arrest warrants.
Pilar Salguero Rocha (pictured left) allegedly watched multiple movies with the boy. When he went into the bathroom, she allegedly followed him and then they engaged in intercourse, according to a warrant affidavit signed by Gastonia Police Officer E.S. Wiggins.
The incident allegedly took place between Nov. 1, 2007, and Dec. 31, 2007, according to the arrest warrant, making Rocha 19 at the time, and the boy 8. A warrant was taken out against Rocha in March 2009, and served Tuesday.
Rocha was alone, baby-sitting the boy at the time, said Gastonia Police Sgt. Gene Weaver. Police have been looking for Rocha for a long time, Weaver said, but were unable to locate her.
Law enforcement in the Miami area charged Rocha with engaging in prostitution in 2008, and she was given deferred prosecution. She was picked up again Nov. 20 in Dade County, Florida, on the fugitive warrant from Gaston County.
Rocha, who has an address listed in Homestead, Florida, which is south of Miami, was jailed under a $200,000 bond.
She faces charges of first-degree rape of a child and disseminating obscene material to a minor less than 13.
http://www.gastongazette.com/news/allegedly-41065-rocha-boy.html
http://www.wmbfnews.com/Global/story.asp?S=11606370
http://www.wcnc.com/news/local/Woman-charged-with-raping-8-year-old-boy-78342732.html
Posted by: anonymummies on: December 20, 2009
December 2nd 2009
A woman held over her alleged part in a Facebook paedophile network has given birth to her ninth child.
Tracy Lyons (pictured left) was taken from Bronzefield jail in Ashford to St Peter’s Hospital in Chertsey for the delivery.
The 39-year-old’s newborn baby boy was taken away from her an hour after his birth, the Sun reported.
The nursery worker was charged in November with sexually assaulting a child and making and distributing indecent images of a child.
Lyons is alleged to have been part of a paedophile ring which swapped photos on Facebook.
A source said: ‘She was deeply upset but understood the charges meant it was impossible for her to be with her baby.’
Lyons was arrested in connection with the inquiry into nursery paedophile Vanessa George and has been remanded in custody until January.
She is understood to have been traced by a video she allegedly sent to Colin Blanchard, an online accomplice of George, who abused children at Little Ted’s nursery in Plymouth where she worked.
Blanchard, 38, from Rochdale, made contact with women on Facebook and demanded horrific images from them in one of Britain’s most depraved child abuse networks.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1232511/Facebook-paedophile-suspect-gives-birth-ninth-child.html
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2754217/Facebook-paedophile-suspect-has-had-her-ninth-child.html
Posted by: anonymummies on: December 20, 2009
December 1st 2009
Nacogdoches, Texas – Tuesday evening, a jury handed a two-year prison sentence to a woman who pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault of a minor.
After 3 hours of deliberation, a jury decided Tammy Jean Butler (pictured left) will serve two years in prison for the first count of sexual assault of a minor. For the second count, Butler will serve 10 years in prison, probated. The sentence stipulates that the 2-year prison term must be completed before starting the probated sentence. Butler’s 8 months already served will be applied to her prison sentence.
Butler was instructed by Judge Ed Klein to have absolutely no contact with the minor during the prison sentence.
Nacogdoches County District Attorney Nicole LoStracco was satisfied with the decision. “I’m pleased that the jury obviously felt a 15 or 16 year old in Nacogdoches County is not mature enough to consent to sexual contact with an adult, and I think that’s what the two year sentence implied,” she said. “I’m disappointed that they gave her probation for count two.”
Butler’s attorney, John Boundy, also gave his reaction to the sentence. “I would like to say what I think probably happened, they wanted to protect the victim until she got to be the age of majority,” Boundy said. “So they sentenced my client, Tammy, two years in the penitentiary to give the victim time enough to become 18 or 17. Then 10 years to insure no other children would ever be at risk in the future.”
Tammy’s husband Marlin Butler is also charged with sexual assault of a minor with the same victim. He is awaiting trial.
http://www.ktre.com/Global/story.asp?S=11603238
Posted by: anonymummies on: December 20, 2009
australia, dec-09 cases, teacher/student cases, victim(s) – male, To Catch A Female Predator
December 2nd 2009
Press Release From The New South Wales Police Force
A 24-year-old woman is due to appear in court in Dubbo next month charged with a child sex offence.
Police from Orana Local Area Command were alerted to an allegation of an inappropriate relationship between a teacher and pupil at a district high school.
On 18 November detectives charged the woman with sexual intercourse with person under care (over the age of 16 and under the age of 17).
The woman was granted conditional bail and is due to appear in Dubbo Local Court on 12 January 2010.
Posted by: anonymummies on: December 19, 2009
December 1st 2009
A woman was charged with lewd and lascivious battery against a child after she told authorities she had sex with her roommate’s son “on approximately 25 occasions,” deputies said.
Hopemarie Johnson Clark, 25, (pictured left) moved in with her friend at her Brooksville, Florida home Aug. 24, according to an arrest report.
“A sexual relationship subsequently developed between the defendant and (victim) and continued for several months,” the detective wrote in the report.
The victim gave a sworn statement to the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office and said he and Clark had sexual intercourse “on numerous occasions” beginning in September.
The victim’s younger sister was in bed one day in October and witnessed her brother and Clark having sex on an air mattress on the floor, according to the report.
Clark told the girl not to tell anyone, deputies said.
Sgt. Donna Black, a sheriff’s spokeswoman, would not give the age of the sister, but confirmed she was younger than the 15-year-old victim.
On Monday, Clark gave a video-recorded statement admitting to an ongoing sexual relationship with the boy, according to the sheriff’s office.
She told authorities she was involved in a “love relationship” with the victim, the report showed.
Clark also guessed she had sex with the teenager approximately 25 times, including eight times in Citrus County, deputies said.
She said the sex began Sept. 9 and last occurred Nov. 18, according to the report.
The victim told authorities they had sex about eight times total and once in Citrus, deputies said.
Gail Tierney, a spokeswoman with the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office, said detectives in her department opened an investigation into the case Tuesday afternoon. Additional charges are possible.
The state attorney’s office had not been notified about the arrest as of Tuesday morning.
Clark was found guilty in October of permitting an unlicensed minor to drive a motor vehicle, according to court records.
A warrant was issued Oct. 28 after she failed to appear in court three weeks earlier. She was assessed fees of more than $600 as a result of the conviction and missed court appearance, records showed.
http://www2.hernandotoday.com/content/2009/dec/01/woman-25-accused-having-sex-boy-15/
Posted by: anonymummies on: December 19, 2009
charged, nov-09 cases, usa, victim(s) – male, To Catch A Female Predator
Horry County Police arrested a 25-year-old woman for having sexual intercourse with a 12-year-old boy, an arrest warrant shows.
Police charged Jessica Ann Cave (pictured left) of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina with 2nd degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor.
According to the warrant, the 12-year-old boy told a counselor that he had sex with Cave who’s a family friend and neighbor.
The warrant describes how the two touched each other inappropriately on several occassions between January and August 2009.
The warrant alleges the criminal sexual conduct occurred at Cave’s residence on Appleton Way in Myrtle Beach.
On Wednesday, a magistrate set Cave’s bail at $10,000.
http://www.carolinalive.com/news/story.aspx?id=382205
http://www.thesunnews.com/news/breaking_news/story/1184959.html
Posted by: anonymummies on: December 19, 2009
November 30th 2009
A woman convicted
of taking indecent liberties with a minor in 2006 faces more trouble after police say she moved from an address without telling the Sheriff’s Office of her whereabouts.
Kelly Lynn Perrigo (pictured left) had apparently been living on the 300 block of Highland Street in Gastonia, North Carolina. However, she had registered as living on Bethlehem Road, Kings Mountain, according to an arrest warrant.
A Cleveland County court convicted Perrigo of the indecent liberties offense. As part of her probationary sentence, Perrigo was ordered to remain on the sex offender registry for 10 years, which includes telling the Sheriff’s Office where she was living at all times.
She was booked into Gaston County Jail under a $10,000 bond over the weekend on a charge of failing to register as sex offender.
http://www.shelbystar.com/news/woman-43345-lynn-highland.html
North Carolina Sex Offenders Registry – PERRIGO, KELLY LYNN
http://sexoffender.ncdoj.gov/details.aspx?SRN=013894S4
Posted by: anonymummies on: December 19, 2009
November 29th 2009
Cops believe nursery paedophile Vanessa George is so dangerous they want the courts to issue a LIFE BAN on her contacting children . . . including her two daughters.
They are to ask her trial judge to impose a far-reaching Sex Offences Supervision Order at her sentencing next month.
Vanessa George, 39 (pictured left) – who filmed herself abusing nursery tots in her care – is expected to be given a hefty jail term.
But her own family have asked police to apply for the order blocking her access to kids, including vulnerable adolescents like daughters Pearl, 15, and Grace, 13 – even while she is BEHIND BARS.
Toughest
A police spokesman told us: “It would have immediate effect if granted. Whether it is a life ban will be down to the judge but we have asked for the order to be made.”
SOPOs (Sexual Offences Prevention Orders) – first issued in a paedophile case in 2004 – usually come into force when a sex offender is released and ban contact with children for a maximum of five years. The offender can also be banned from using computers and mobile phones with internet access. Breaches of the order can carry prison terms up to five years. This one-if granted – would be the toughest yet handed down to a pervert. It means Pearl and Grace could have no contact with George at all until they were 18 – even if they wanted to see her.
Last night their dad Andrew revealed why he had asked cops to go for the ban after receiving a letters from George – awaiting sentence with fellow fiends Colin Blanchard, 38, and Angela Allen, 39 – begging for her daughter’s forgiveness.
“Vanessa is a very manipulative, scheming woman and I’m worried about the mind games she will try to play with the girls in a few years time,” he said, adding that they had already disowned their mum.
“A ban would be very good even though the sad reality is it’s impossible to constantly keep tabs on people.
“But I hope that by the time Vanessa comes out of jail, the order will have teeth and that she is properly shackled.” Det Supt Michelle Slevin has also written to parents of George’s victims at Little Ted’s Nursery, Plymouth, revealing their intention to apply for the ban.
She also explained they need to talk to George again to discover the identities of the children involved.
Posted by: anonymummies on: December 19, 2009
November 28th 2009
VEEDERSBURG, Indiana – Single dad Robert Jones felt comfortable with his decision to hire Samantha Light (pictured below) as his toddler son’s baby sitter. She was from a respected, churchgoing family in this close-knit community, he knew her family and she was soon to be a young mother herself.
http://to-catch-a-female-predator.blogspot.com/2009/10/indiana-woman-samantha-light-pleads.html
Jones was thunderstruck when he learned that Light and her boyfriend had been arrested on charges of molesting and videotaping sex acts with at least four children in their care, including two under age 2.
“I didn’t know how to react,” he said. “I basically said, ’Where are they at and do you have pictures of my kid?’”
He was relieved to find that his child was not one of the ones involved in the case, but the question of whether his son was abused still haunts him.
Light’s image had remained wholesome until March, when a 3-year-old girl and her mother walked into the sheriff’s department with allegations that would rock this quiet western Indiana town of 2,100: Light had touched the girl’s genitals, and there was video.
Investigators armed with a search warrant descended on the little white bungalow that Light shared with her mother and boyfriend, Stephen E. Quick II. They found a videotape whose graphic images, taken over five months beginning in September 2008, sickened even longtime deputies:
A sexual device being used on an infant girl. A young boy engaging in intercourse. A toddler being sodomized.
“I’ve been a police officer for almost 30 years and it was probably the most sick, disgusting thing I’ve ever seen,” said Chief Deputy Dana Jeffries.
Even though Jones’ son, who was about 16 months old while in Light’s care, was not among the children on video, physicians examined the boy. The doctors told Jones they found no signs of abuse. He said he found other child care when Light had her baby and that his son wasn’t in her care at the time of the arrests.
But he still isn’t sure his son wasn’t harmed. Now when his son doesn’t like to get his diaper changed he wonders whether he was abused or if he’s just being a stubborn toddler.
“I don’t have no closure,” he said. “I just want to know if they did anything to my kid.”
Prosecutors charged Light, 26, with four counts of child molestation and one of child exploitation related to the video’s production. Quick, 32, faced three counts of child molestation and one of child exploitation. Light pleaded guilty to three counts of molestation Oct. 9 and is to be sentenced Wednesday. Quick is discussing a plea agreement and faces a Dec. 15 hearing at which he could plead guilty or have a trial date set, Franklin County prosecutor Terry Martin said.
Attorneys for Light and Quick have declined to comment.
Jones has had thoughts of revenge since he learned of the allegations. “Whatever they get, they deserve — and that’s not enough,” he said.
He said Light sent him a letter from jail July 31 claiming Quick used threats to get her to participate in the assaults.
“Steve made me do the things I would have never done if he hadn’t threatened my family,” Light wrote, according to Jones. But he isn’t buying it.
You don’t do stuff like that to kids,” Jones said.
The scars the case has left could be permanent, both for the victims and the one-stoplight community about 65 miles northwest of Indianapolis.
“There was a trust level — and that’s been broken, big time,” said Jim Keeling, a 41-year-old mill worker who lives next door to the house where Light and Quick lived.
And the people here are angry about losing the town’s unique sense of innocence.
Life in Veedersburg moves along at a laid-back pace and many residents are related. The quiet town has grown quieter as the recession forced many foreclosures and jobs at two local brickyards disappeared.
Until Light and Quick were arrested, crime was almost an afterthought. Doors stay unlocked, keys are left in cars, and with only one pub in town, there aren’t even many arrests for public intoxication or disorderly conduct. Town Marshal Neil Beck, a retired Indiana state trooper, says only one working meth lab has been found during his 8 1/2 years on the job.
“People don’t worry about everyday dangers,” Beck said.
Light, whose family has lived in town for years, had a reputation as a good baby sitter after returning to Veedersburg from Indianapolis, where she spent three years working as a clerk for the Indiana State Teachers Association’s insurance trust. She quit her clerk job in February 2008. She and Quick had been together about a year at the time of their arrests.
Jones, a 40-year-old factory worker, said he felt comfortable leaving his son in her care.
Folks around town knew little about Quick’s background, however, and ugly rumors began to surface as time passed.
Police records show Quick had a theft and burglary arrest in Clinton County in the 1990s. He was the focus of a 2000 child molestation investigation in Frankfort after a 3-year-old girl said Quick had shown her pornographic magazines. Frankfort Detective Bill Hackerd said the case was dropped for lack of evidence. Quick’s attorney didn’t return calls about those allegations.
Investigators say the assaults occurred between September 2008 and February 2009 and that they do not believe there are any victims other than those shown on the tape. Those on the tape are believed to be the 3-year-old girl whose complaint started the investigation, a boy between the ages of 6 and 10, an infant girl under a year old and a boy about 18 months old.
Families in town have become careful about checking their baby sitters’ backgrounds since the arrests, said Keeling, Light’s neighbor.
The Rev. Matt Swisher, pastor at Veedersburg United Methodist Church, said the wounds are still fresh.
“There’s a lot of hurt that happened and just a lot of prayer that needs to be going on,” he said.
Posted by: anonymummies on: December 19, 2009
November 27th 2009
WAUPACA, Wisconsin — A 46-year-old woman is charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl who was visiting her residence.
Jennifer A. Powell of 453 Factory Street, Waupaca, Wisconsin was charged Tuesday in Waupaca County Court with second-degree sexual assault of a child and second-degree sexual assault by use of force.
The girl was at Powell’s home in the early morning hours of Nov. 7. The girl told police Powell threw her down on a bed and sexually assaulted her.
After the assault, the girl fled to a friend’s house and reported what happened.
Powell was released on a signature bond with a preliminary hearing set for Dec. 10.
http://www.postcrescent.com/article/20091127/APC0101/911270507/1003/APC01
Posted by: anonymummies on: December 19, 2009
Kahama, Tanzania — A woman has been sentenced to four years imprisonment after she was convicted of kidnapping a five-year-old child and locking the child in her house for six months.
Kahama senior district magistrate Juma Hassan, said convict, resident of Mhongolo ward in the district, Asha Daudi alias Esther Mashauri, 29, followed her own plea of guilty to kidnapping charge.
The woman admitted in court that she kidnapped the young girl at Nyahanga village, also in the same district, on April 18, this year. On the kidnapped child (name withheld), lived with her parents at the village.
The prosecution side led by Mr Hatari Kisumo and Mr Felix Mbise, had earlier charged the woman with two counts of kidnapping and torturing the child, but the woman denied torturing the young girl.
The prosecution side had earlier prayed for stern punishment to the convict to avert shame on parents are experiencing from rampant children kidnapping incidents in the district.
The woman will, however, appear again at the same court early next month to answer the second count of torturing the child, which she denied.
The child hands and legs were tied up by ropes in a tiny room, the two prosecutors in the case jointly alleged before the district court. The child manifested scars on her body,
They said the child was playing with other children when the woman kidnapped and disappeared with her.
The woman took the child straight to a room in which she had been caning her until a fortnight ago when Good Samaritans reported the woman’s brutality to the police.
The young girl was rescued on the same day by the law enforcers. The child, who was found with scars and fresh bruises all over her body, said the woman had forbidden her from going out of the house.
The young girl already has been re-united with her parents.
http://thecitizen.co.tz/newe.php?id=15796
http://allafrica.com/stories/200911250452.html