10th August 2011. See article from sbs.com.au

Victims of one of Australia's worst pedophiles hurled abuse at the Christian Brother who devastated their lives after a judge sentenced him to almost 15 years' jail on Monday.

Robert Charles Best, 70, was sentenced for 27 offences including the rape of a nine-year-old boy.

As Victorian County Court Judge Roy Punshon ordered Best be taken to the cells, the courtroom erupted as victims and their families vented their rage.

Cries of maggot from the mother of one victim and f***ing arsehole and you dirty f***ing dog from two of his victims echoed around the room as Best was led away.

9th July 2010. See article from catholicculture.org

The Melbourne archbishop has issued an apology saying 60 priests abused children.

Offering a sincere and unreserved apology to all those victims who have suffered the pain and humiliation of sexual abuse and to their families, Archbishop Denis Hart of Melbourne has issued a pastoral letter on sexual abuse.

In the past 14 years, about 300 people have been compensated as victims of sexual abuse within the archdiocese, he wrote in his July 1 letter. Most of the complaints relate to incidents from 30 and up to 80 years ago. We receive few complaints of abuse that has taken place since the 1970s.

86 offenders have been identified over an 80 year period, of whom 60 were priests of the archdiocese. 35 of those priests are now deceased.

5th July 2010. See article from nz.news.yahoo.com

An Australian Catholic priest has been sentenced to almost 20 years in jail for child sex attacks which the judge said were sadistic and went unpunished for many years.

John Sidney Denham, 67, was sentenced to 19 years and 10 months after pleading guilty to a range of charges, including multiple counts of indecent assault against boys aged five to 16.

Judge Helen Syme told a Sydney court that many of Denham's 25 victims were left terrified by the attacks they endured at schools in Sydney and elsewhere in New South Wales between 1968 and 1986.

The indecent assaults involved multiple children, often significant planning, were frequently sadistic and overall persistent, objectively serious, criminal courses of conduct, Syme said, according to Australian news agency

23rd May 2010. Based on article from newser.com, Thanks to Alan

The Australian branch of the Church of Scientology helped a stepfather cover up his sexual assault of his pre-teen daughter and blamed the girl for the attacks, the victim has revealed. The daughter, now an adult, says her stepdad molested her from the ages of 7 to 11, and that Scientology official Jan Eastgate told her and her mother to lie to police about the abuse and that it was her own fault, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

Just say no, she kept repeating that. Don't say yes because otherwise you will be taken away from your parents and you'll never see your family again, Carmen Rainer recalled being told: They told me it was my fault because I'd been bad in a past life. I believed them. I was 11, that's what I knew. I grew up believing what they believed.

Eastgate said Rainer's claims are false and that the church insisted that Rainer's stepfather go to the police in 1999. Rainer made a statement to police in 2001, which led to her stepfather's arrest and conviction for indecent assault.

30th August 2009.  See article from news.com.au thanks to Alan

Former Anglican priest has admitted to a court that he allowed a 12-year-old boy to masturbate in his shower but has denied he acted in any way "improper".

Wilfred Dennis has pleaded not guilty to three counts of indecent assault and one count each of gross indecency and carnal knowledge relating to two altar boys in the 1970s.

He also denied telling Traditional Anglican Archbishop, John Hepworth, he had molested more then 40 boys during a telephone call in June 2002.

17th August 2009. See article from freethinker.co.uk

Father Robert Fuller, a Sydney-based Catholic priest, thought he was chatting on the internet to a 13-year-old girl when he sent her sexually-explicit messages – and even masturbated on a webcam for her.

But the “girl” turned out to be a member of the Sex Crime Squad’s Child Exploitation Internet Unit – and Fuller, parish priest of All Saints at Liverpool for six years, has now been charged with attempting to groom an under-aged “girl” for sex.

Police – according to this report – allege that he sent chat-room messages between July and August, and even tried to arrange a meeting to engage in sexual activity.

Fuller was arrested and later charged with grooming a person under the age of 16.

20th July 2009. See article from coffscoastadvocate.com.au, Thanks to Alan

The leader of a New South Wales secretive religious group based on the Coffs Coast has appeared in court on 14 charges of aggravated indecent assault, sexual assault and sexual intercourse without consent.

Senior Christian Assemblies International pastor Anthony Scott Williams appeared in Coffs Harbour Local Court with police alleging the offences were aggravated by his use of his position as the Overseer (highest authority) of the organisation of which the victims were members.

The charges included indecent assault of a victim under the authority of the offender; assault with an act of indecency; aggravated sexual assault of a victim under the authority of the offender and sexual intercourse without the consent of the victim.

Williams, 65, of Christian Assemblies International Pacific Headquarters at Wayper Creek Road, Upper Orara, was on bail after being arrested on June 5 following allegations that he had had sexual intercourse without consent with a member of his church.

The charges involved two different male victims, both allegedly members of CAI at the time and related to alleged offences on a variety of occasions between 2002 and 2005 in Coffs Harbour, Upper Orara and Byron Bay.

2nd December 2010. Based on article from speroforum.com, thanks to Alan

A ten-year-old girl was brutally raped on in Chittagong by Mohammad Moinuddin, the imam of the Chittagong Government Muslim High School.

Kotwali Police Chief Abul Kalam Azad told AsiaNews that around 6 pm, the imam called the girl as she walked home from school. He then took her to a quiet place where he raped her. The girl ran home bleeding and told everything to her parents.

Her father ran to the place of the crime to apprehend the rapist, who was arrested right after police was informed of the incident: My daughter is just ten-years-old, the father said. Every time I pray, I cannot but think about what happened. I cannot believe that an imam, a man who learnt from the holy religion of Islam, a man who teaches others, is the same man who raped by daughter. I want justice.

24th July 2009. See article from speroforum.com

Raped by an imam in Bangladesh, a girl is now pregnant and faces Islamic scourging. She will be forced to marry her rapist.

The victim of repeated rapes who has become pregnant is being forced by local leaders to marry the man who abused her and sentenced to a beating for the "crime" committed. This is the story of a teenager in the village of Char Padma in Faridpur district of central Bangladesh.

Omar Faruk is a teacher from the "Maktab", the village Islamic school. The imam has long abused the minor, taking advantage of the position of prestige within the local community. The girl is in the seventh month of pregnancy, her physical and mental health are not good, and she risks a premature birth.

For several months she hid the violence and pregnancy, for fear and shame. When her belly started to grow, the news spread throughout the village. On July 18 last the Arbitration Council met, consisting of a group of experts led by Fazlur Rahman Fazal, to discuss the matter and issue a verdict. The meeting ended with a conviction of 101 lashings a head for the young girl and the imam, author of the violence.

21st April 2011. See article from bbc.co.uk

Former Belgian bishop Roger Vangheluwe has gone live on TV to talk about how he sexually abused two boys but does not see himself as a paedophile.

Emerging from hiding, he revealed he had molested two of his nephews, and not one, as he confessed last year before resigning as bishop of Bruges.

He does not face prosecution because the abuse occurred decades ago.

It had nothing to do with sexuality, he said, in comments that caused indignation among politicians.

Justice Minister Stefaan De Clercq said in a statement the Church authorities had to take measures to stop the irresponsible behaviour of the former bishop. It is a slap in the face of his victims and all victims.

14th January 2011. Based on article from news.brisbanetimes.com.au , thanks to Alan

As fresh revelations of child sex abuse continue to emerge in Belgium's Catholic church, an official church report shows most priests implicated were not prosecuted. The report, handed by the church to a parliamentary inquiry late December and released by the daily Le Soir on Wednesday, details 134 cases of alleged abuse by priests over several decades.

The document highlights very distinct policies of prosecution and sanctions from one diocese to the next, the paper said. Of the 134 cases of alleged child sex abuse listed in the document since the 1960s by the secretary of Belgium's episcopal conference, Etienne Quintiens, 90 of the priests remain alive.

A further 50-odd complaints not yet on the list have been lodged since a church-backed commission last September revealed nearly 500 cases of abuse by priests and church workers since the 1950s, including 13 victims who committed suicide.

16th May 2010. Based on article from heraldsun.com.au, thanks to Alan

A Belgian committee probing allegations of pedophilia by priests has been flooded with complaints since the resignation of a bishop who admitted sexually abusing a boy.

Some 270 new complaints have been filed with the commission since Roger Vangheluwe, bishop of the Flemish city of Bruges, quit his post on April 23, said Peter Adriaenssens, according to Belga news agency.

Vangheluwe was the country's first high-level resignation related to the pedophilia scandal sweeping the Roman Catholic church in Europe and the Americas.

The Belgian church recently called on all offenders to admit their crimes and for their victims to file complaints

25th April 2010. See article from guardian.co.uk

A Belgian bishop has confessed to molesting a boy, becoming the first high-ranking prelate to be directly implicated in child sex abuse since the outbreak of the global scandal enveloping the Roman Catholic church.

Shortly after the Vatican announced that the pope had accepted his resignation , Roger Vangheluwe, the bishop of the Flemish city of Bruges, said that before he took over his diocese and for a short time afterwards, I sexually abused a young boy close to me.

In a letter read to a press conference, the 73-year-old prelate, who was not present, said what he had done more than 25 years ago marked the victim forever: The wound does not heal. Neither for me, nor for the victim.

Vangheluwe, who was consecrated a bishop in 1985, said he had several times begged for the forgiveness of the victim and his family – apparently to no avail.

2nd May 2011. Based on article from ottawa.ctv.ca. Thanks to Alan

A now elderly Ottawa priest who taught at St. Pius X High School in the 1970s has been convicted of indecent assault against two brothers.

Father William Allen, also known as Father Bill, was sentenced for indecent assault related to sexual offences that occurred between 1970 and 1976.

One victim was assaulted weekly after choir practice at St. Monica's Church in Nepean; the other was assaulted at the high school.

Allen originally pleaded not guilty to the charges. However, when the Crown presented its facts in court, he did not contest them.

Allen was handed a nine-month conditional sentence, including four and a half months of house arrest.

27th November 2010. See article from bbc.co.uk

The head of the Canadian Orthodox Church has been charged with two counts of sexual assault.

Police in Winnipeg, Manitoba, said Archbishop Kenneth William Storheim had been released on bail.

Reports said the allegations concerned young boys and dated from the 1980s when he was the rector of a Winnipeg parish.

His official title in the church is His Eminence, Archbishop Seraphim.

1st November 2010. Based on article from sbsun.com, thanks to Alan

Prosecutors have charged an Ontario Catholic priest with molesting a 12-year-old boy, and police say he had at least four other victims.

The Rev. Jose Alejandro Castillo, also known as Father Alex, was arrested at the home of a parishioner.

Police said that 57-year-old Castillo committed eight sex acts with the boy. Castillo worked as a priest the past seven years at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Ontario.

Police say he could face as much as 22 years in prison.

12th November 2009. See article from theglobeandmail.com, thanks to Alan

Father Bernard Cloutier will stand alone in a Sudbury courtroom today to be sentenced for his sexual abuse three decades ago of a group of altar boys who had idolized him.

Missing from the prisoner's dock, but present in spirit, will be Bishop Gerard Dionne - named as a culprit in a rare judicial finding that the Roman Catholic Church intervened to forestall criminal charges being laid against Father Cloutier in 1983.

Lawyer Susan Vella - an authority on cases involving sexual abuse within religious institutions - said that the Cloutier case is a rare instance where evidence indicates a high-level attempt by the church to subvert a police investigation.

In 2007, the five complainants came forward one by one to allege that Father Cloutier had groomed them during weekend drinking parties and out-of-town trips three decades earlier, and then sexually assaulted them.

In testimony earlier this year at Father Cloutier's trial, court heard that the priest had an excellent stereo system and often supplied cigarettes and liquor to boys who visited the rectory. One man said that Father Cloutier had been like a big brother: I trusted him. I thought he was God. He was a best friend.

2nd October 2009. See article from google.com, thanks to Alan

The bishop of a Roman Catholic diocese in Nova Scotia has resigned less than two months after the diocese reached a $13-million settlement with alleged victims of sexual abuse.

Bishop Raymond Lahey, named to the position in 2003 by Pope John Paul II, is a Newfoundland native.

Ronald Martin, whose brother wrote a suicide note in 2002 that led to charges of sex crimes against a priest from the diocese, filed a class-action lawsuit last year against the organization. In the suit, Martin claimed that the diocese failed to protect children in its care when it became aware of the alleged abuse.

The settlement is aimed at compensating anyone who was allegedly and known to have been sexually assaulted by a priest of the Catholic Episcopal Corp. of Antigonish since Jan. 1, 1950. Last month, Lahey said the agreement was the first step in recognizing the alleged abuse of children as young as eight years old.

See article from timesonline.co.uk

In his formal resignation letter, Lahey said he was resigning for personal reasons.

But it emerged later that when he was returning from a trip to the US last month, customs officials at Ottawa airport had conducted random search of his laptop and found child pornography images.

20th February 2011. See article from nytimes.com

A 5-year-old

After an internal investigation, the Vatican found the Rev. Fernando Karadima guilty of sexually abusing minors in Chile and ordered him to retire to a life of prayer and penitence, the archbishop of Santiago said.

The ruling, announced by the archbishop, Ricardo Ezzati, said that Father Karadima, 80, would be relocated to a place where he would have no contact with his former parishioners or persons that have been spiritually guided by him.

The accusations by former parishioners against Father Karadima last year stunned Chile, a conservative and predominantly Roman Catholic nation unaccustomed to questioning its priests, especially one as revered as Father Karadima. He had trained five bishops and dozens of priests, acting as a spiritual leader and father figure for young men who later accused him of molesting them.

Father Karadima has not been prosecuted criminally. A judge investigating the accusations against him closed the case late last year, ruling that there was not enough evidence to charge him.

An appeals court in Santiago is still deciding whether to reopen the criminal investigation. It remains unclear whether the Vatican's decision will prod the Chilean authorities to do so.

2nd April 2010. Based on article from jamaicaobserver.com, thanks to Alan

A German Roman Catholic dioceese said Monday that 20 of its current and former priests had been accused in recent weeks of sexual abuse as a scandal embroiling the Church widened.

The Trier bishopric in the west of the country said the shocking allegations involved crimes committed from the 1950s to 1990.

For my part, I would like to encourage those victims who have not yet found the courage to come forward to do so, Bishop Stephan Ackermann told reporters, saying he was stunned by the cases that had come to light.

Ackermann said two people had already reported their cases to authorities while the Church had passed on information on an additional three to prosecutors.

Ten of the accused priests have since died, another two have retired.

Ackermann said the diocese was still conferring on how to handle three cases that fell under the criminal statute of limitations.

 German Victims of Catholic Priests

5th February 2010. See article from news.bbc.co.uk

The head of a Catholic order in Germany has apologised for the systematic sex abuse apparently committed by two priests at a prestigious Berlin school.

Fr Stefan Dartmann said students at the Jesuit-run Canisius College had complained in 1981, much earlier than the order had previously admitted.

The Jesuit said he was ashamed that the college and the order had left the complaint unanswered.

The number of victims was greater than originally believed, he added.

I apologise that those responsible at the time did not investigate and react as they should have done, said Fr Dartmann.

He said he was aware of 25 cases not just in Berlin, but at two other Catholic schools in Hamburg and in the Black Forest, where the priests had been transferred.

Most of the victims had been boys aged around 13 or 14, but young girls were also targeted for abuse.

12th September 2011. See article from vibeghana.com

A court in Ghana has sentenced Paul Nkansah, head pastor of the Jesus Faith Tabernacle Prayer Centre, Akim Achiase, to 20 years imprisonment for defiling a 15-year-old student.

Nkansah pleaded guilty to defilement and was convicted on his own plea.

Police Chief Inspector Appiakorang said sometime in July this year, the victim's mother and sister became ill and were sent to the pastor at Akim Achiase for spiritual healing.

Nkansah claimed that he had a vision that the girl was being tormented by the spirit of prostitution and could expel it through deliverance.

18th October 2011. See article from icelandreview.com

The Office of the Bishop of Iceland issued a statement following the interview with Gudrún Ebba Ólafsdóttir, the daughter of late Bishop Ólafur Skúlason, by whom she was abused, saying they regret that her reporting of the abuse was not responded to immediately.

Current Bishop of Iceland Karl Sigurbjörnsson, to whom Ólafsdóttir had turned, has not been willing to answer the questions of journalists, neither before nor after the statement was issued, Fréttabladid reports.

14th April 2010. Based on article from zopag.com, thanks to Alan

A 5-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a cleric at Minranpur town and was later arrested, police said.

65-year-old Abdul Karim was arrested for raping the minor following an FIR lodged by the victim's father Noshad in this regard, they said, adding the girl had been sent for medical examination.

19th July 2009. See article from adnkronos.com, thanks to Alan

Indonesian police have again arrested Muslim cleric, Pujiono Cahyono Widianto, in a continuing controversy over his marriage to a 12-year-old girl. Pujiono was rearrested for failing to cooperate following his marriage to Lutfiana Ulfa.

The police detained 44 year-old Syech Puji who is also the head of an Islamic boarding school.

In March, the police questioned the wealthy Muslim cleric who had married Ulfa seven months earlier. The police then arrested him but later granted him probation at his lawyers request. Syech Puji, however, did not report to the police once a week as required by the officers.

2nd March 2011. See article from sfgate.com

A federal magistrate in San Francisco has ordered a former Roman Catholic priest extradited to his native Ireland to face charges that he sexually assaulted six boys from 1973 to 1981.

Patrick McCabe, 75, worked in churches throughout the Santa Rosa Diocese from 1983 until his forced resignation in 1987.

At least three former parishioners in Northern California have sued the Santa Rosa Diocese, claiming McCabe molested them.

18th November 2010. Based on article from belfasttelegraph.co.uk

An Archbishop has apologised to a victim of abuse after a priest pleaded guilty to gross indecency while hearing confession.

Brendan Wrixon was given an 18-month suspended sentence after he admitted undressing the boy in the sacristy of a church in the early 1980s.

The 74-year-old is a retired priest of the Diocese of Cloyne, where two scathing investigations revealed its scandal-hit former bishop John Magee took minimal action on accusations against two of his priests.

Archbishop Dermot Clifford said he was deeply sorry that the trust of a young person was betrayed by one of the diocese's priests. I wish to apologise and express to him and his family my sincere regret, said Archbishop Clifford.

The Circuit Criminal Court in Cork heard the victim alleged about 20 incidents of a sexual nature against the priest in North Cork. But Wrixon was only sentenced on one charge after admitting he committed an offence of gross indecency between October 1982 and February 1983.

The victim revealed it had taken him 20 years to break his silence because of the shame he felt. He also criticised the Church over claims he had to fight for the truth to be heard over the last five years as it preferred to protect his abuser.

26th March 2010. See article from timesonline.co.uk

Pressure mounted on Cardinal Sean Brady, the Primate of All Ireland, to step down after the Pope accepted the resignation of Bishop John Magee of Cloyne over his handling of clerical sex abuse allegations.

Magee a former private secretary to three popes and the most prominent casualty so far of the Roman Catholic Church's abuse scandals, offered to step down last March after an independent report found that his diocese had put children at risk. His resignation has only now been accepted.

In a statement, Bishop Magee said: As I depart, I want to offer once again my sincere apologies to any person who has been abused by any priest of the diocese of Cloyne during my time as bishop or at any time.

He added: To those whom I have failed in any way, or through any omission of mine have made suffer, I beg forgiveness and pardon.

Bishop Magee, from Newry, Co Down, faced criticism after the Church's watchdog found that he took minimal action over accusations against two priests. It branded his child protection as dangerous, focusing on the needs of the accused rather than the victims.

23rd March 2010. See article from belfasttelegraph.co.uk, thanks to Alan

A senior member of the Catholic Church has provoked outrage after he said he would not stop a child being abused if it breached the confidentiality of a paedophile.

Monsignor Maurice Dooley was speaking amid calls for Cardinal Brady's resignation over a failure to tell police about one of Ireland's most notorious paedophile priests, Father Brendan Smyth.

The head of the Catholic Church in Ireland has been under pressure since it emerged he asked two of the priest's victims, aged 10 and 14, to sign secrecy agreements 35 years ago.

Fr Smyth was eventually convicted of dozens of offences against children — but it was almost 20 years before he was brought to justice.

Defending the cardinal's silence in 1975, Monsignor Dooley said he would not refer sex crimes against children to police today if passed information confidentially.

The monsignor, who has spent over 50 years in the priesthood, also said he would protect a paedophile priest who confided his crimes to him today because the law was on his side: I would not tell anyone. That is his responsibility. I am considering only my responsibility. My responsibility is to maintain the confidentiality of information which I had been given under the contract of confidentiality.

11th August 2010. See article from haaretz.com

After concluding their investigation, police recommended have that Mordechai (Moti) Elon, a prominent religious Zionist rabbi, be tried for allegedly committing sex-related crimes.

According to police, enough evidence was found during their investigation to try Elon for alleged sexual assault by force as well as sexual assault of minors. Mordechai Elon

The incident began with Takana, a forum dedicated to preventing sexual harassment by prominent religious figures, on the basis of complaints of alleged sexual relations between Rabbi Elon and minors that they had accumulated.

5th march 2011. See article from news.iafrica.com

A court in Rome on has sentenced a former Catholic priest to 15 years and four months in prison for abusing seven children between 1998 and 2008, ANSA news agency reported.

The ex-priest, Ruggero Conti, had claimed innocence and his lawyers had asked for Conti to be released due to a lack of evidence.

He was on trial to answer charges of sex acts against minors, sexual violence and incitement to prostitution of a minor.

22nd June 2010. See article from news.bbc.co.uk

A high-profile former Roman Catholic priest in Italy has been charged with sexual abuse.

Pierino Gelmini, 85, is alleged to have abused 12 young people at a drug rehabilitation centre he had founded.

He denies the charges. Gelmini left the priesthood two years ago to defend himself.

The Comunita Incontro, which runs drug rehabilitation centres worldwide, has enjoyed the support of powerful figures in Italian politics. In 2005, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi gave $6m (£4m) to his organisation. Gelmini set up the Communita Incontro in 1963 in the Umbrian town of Amelia. It has more than 200 centres in Italy - and others in France, Spain, the US, Brazil and Thailand.

The allegations against him surfaced in 2008 when nine young men said he had sexually abused them. Another three went to police later.

The first hearing of his trial is due on 29 March 2011.

30th May 2010. Based on article from google.com , thanks to Alan

Italy's bishops' conference provided the first ever statistics of clerical sex abuse in the country, saying there had been about 100 cases over the past 10 years that warranted church trials or other canonical procedures.

Monsignor Mariano Crociata, the No. 2 official in the Italian bishops' conference, gave the estimate during a press conference on the sidelines of the bishops' general assembly, the ANSA and Apcom news agencies reported.

He declined to say how many of the cases resulted in condemnation or defrocking of the priest, or how many were reported to police. While saying the church officials cooperated with police, he insisted that Italian law doesn't require bishops to report suspected abuse. Some lawyers for victims say bishops are required to report abuse since they are public officials. Vatican norms say bishops should follow civil laws in reporting abuse.

17th September 2009. See article from washingtonpost.com, thanks to Alan

When he was a young boy at a Catholic-run institute for the deaf, Alessandro Vantini said, priests sodomized him so relentlessly he came to feel as if I were dead. This year, he and dozens of other former students did something highly unusual for Italy: They went public with claims they were forced to perform sex acts with priests.

For decades, a culture of silence has surrounded priest abuse in Italy, where surveys show the church is considered one of the country's most respected institutions. Now, in the Vatican's backyard, a movement to air and root out abusive priests is slowly and fitfully taking hold.

A yearlong Associated Press tally has documented 73 cases with allegations of sexual abuse by priests against minors over the past decade in Italy, with more than 235 victims. The tally was compiled from local media reports, linked to by Web sites of victims groups and blogs.

The Italian cases follow much the same pattern as the U.S. and Irish scandals: Italian prelates often preyed on poor, physically or mentally disabled, or drug-addicted youths entrusted to their care. The deaf students' speech impairments, for example, made the priests' admonition never to tell all the more easy to enforce.

25th June 2011. Based on article from allafrica.com, thanks to Alan

Police in Mombasa are still looking for a man who allegedly sexually assaulted his 3 year old daughter. The man who is an Imam is said to have fled after committing the offense.

Doctors at the hospital have confirmed that the girl who is receiving treatment at the Coast general hospital has been sexually assaulted. Meanwhile muslim leaders are now demanding thorough vetting of all religious leaders.

Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims chairman Mudhar Kithamy says they are concerned about the alarming cases of sodomy and rapes taking place in Mosques and Madrasa.

6th August 2011. See article from maltatoday.com.mt

Maltese priests Carmelo Pulis and Godwin Scerri have been jailed for six years and five years respectively following conviction of sexually abusing boys at St Joseph Home in Sta Venera, Hamrun. The accused originally stood charged together with a third, who passed away last January, aged 63.

The case was made public when one of the victims, claimed he had been sexually abused whilst residing at St Joseph's Home in Santa Venera in the late 1980s. Police investigations into allegations of paedophilia by three members of the Missionary Society of St Paul took the country by storm in 2003.

The priests have already stated that they will appeal the case.

18th February 2011.  See article from bbc.co.uk

A senior figure in the Dutch Catholic Church protected a priest who sexually abused children, Dutch media reports say.

Cardinal Ad Simonis is accused of knowing of the allegations made against the priest when he transferred him to another parish, where he abused again.

According to AFP, Simonis said that at the time he believed that the priest - who has not been named - had changed.

He said the priest's renewed abuse in Amersfoort was lamentable.

 Not a Shred of Evidence Left Unshredded

21st December 2010. Based on article from rnw.nl, thanks to Alan

Dutch bishops destroyed incriminating evidence of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. Secret archives of the diocese of Den Bosch, which showed that priests had committed abuse, were shredded.

This is the main allegation made in a statement sent by historian Eric Theloosen to the Deetman Commission in September.

Theloosen's statement shows that Bishop Jan Bluyssen of Den Bosch destroyed documents about abuse cases during the 1970s. The documents had been gathered in an archive by his predecessor, Monsignor Wilhelmus Marinus Bekkers. During the 1990s, the diocese of Den Bosch again maintained a secret archive on strayed priests. Built up under Bishop Jan ter Schure, this archive, too, has vanished.

Monsignor Bluyssen and the diocese's archivist at the time, Jan Peijnenburg, have confirmed to NRC Handelsblad that secret archives were destroyed.

3rd November 2010. See article from freethinker.co.uk

A Christian church official whose name cannot be revealed has begun a jail sentence in New Zealand for abusing his daughter over a six year period.

According to this report, the father made his young daughter pray for forgiveness with him after he had sexually abused her.

Christchurch District Court Judge Stephen Erber highlighted the hypocrisy of the 45-year-old offender's conduct: working with Christian youth while abusing his daughter from the age of five to 11 years.

20th October 2009. See article from stuff.co.nz, thanks to Alan

The Exclusive Brethren Church is being rocked by accusations that it has covered up a plague of sexual abuse in its ranks. Last week a former member of the church, 74-year-old Clive Allen Petrie, was found guilty in Nelson of nine counts of indecently assaulting girls under 12 and one of inducing a girl under 12 to do an indecent act on him. The case involved four girls, three in the 1950s and 60s, and the fourth in the 1980s.

Former church member Neville McCallum, who last week sent a letter to all 1900 Brethren households in New Zealand about alleged crimes and cover-ups within the church, says the Nelson case is only the tip of the iceberg.

9th April 2010. Based on article from usatoday.com, thanks to Alan

It has been revealed that a bishop who resigned last year did so after admitting he had molested a child years earlier, when he was a priest.

Georg Mueller stepped down as bishop in the western city of Trondheim in June 2009. The church said it had not previously disclosed the reason for his resignation at the request of the victim.

Mueller's successor, Bishop Bernt Eidsvig, said in a statement that the German had been removed from all pastoral duties and undergone therapy after he admitted the abuse. Mueller admitted to only one case — before he became a bishop in 1997 and no other allegations have come to light, church officials said.

23rd April 2009. See article from standardtimespress.net, Thanks to Alan

A pastor of the Jehovah Witness Church in Kailahun Town is a worried man. The man of God is currently detained at the Kailahun Police Station for the offence of an alleged rape of an 11 year old Pupil of the SLMB Mission in Kailahun.

Police report states that the incident took place at the residence of the suspected pastor in Kailahun town. He was arrested by the father of the victim with the help of some youths, and whisked to the Police Station where he is helping with the investigation.

4th May 2011. Based on article from legalbrief.co.za, Thanks to Alan

A Muslim religious leader has been found guilty of indecent assault, says a report in The Herald, 13 years after the charges were first levelled against him.

Imam Sheik Ebrahim Essop was found guilty in the Port Elizabeth Magistrate's Court of four counts of indecently assaulting a 12-year-old girl in Port Elizabeth in 1999. The court rejected the evidence of three other alleged victims because they had contradicted themselves when testifying. Essop initially faced 14 charges, but his lawyers succeeded in getting seven of the counts discharged. According to the report, the court also found Essop not guilty on three similar charges due to insufficient evidence.

15th November 2010. Based on article from bbc.co.uk

A Catholic priest in Spain has been arrested over the alleged possession of thousands of images of child sex abuse.

Police said they found 21,000 images on computers inside the 52-year-old's church in Vilafames, in the east of the country.

The priest, who has not been named, has been bailed and will appear before a judge in a fortnight, media say.

The Segorbe-Castellon diocese said it had suspended the priest and was ready to clarify the facts in court.

17th February 2010. See article from ansamed.info, Thanks to Alan

An imam from a small mosque in El Algar (Muria) is wanted by police throughout all of Spain.

The man has been accused of sexually abusing minors, according to sources in the judicial system. A report was filed against the 47-year-old man of Moroccan origin by the parents of five children of a group of 12 who were in a Koran and religion class in the town's mosque.

10th May 2010. Based on article from thelocal.se, thanks to Alan

A Qur'an teacher has been charged with sexually molesting an 11-Year-Old.

The incidents are alleged to have occurred in August and September 2009 in the girl's family home south of Stockholm. The 48-year-old was a regular visitor to the apartment and taught the girl and her 14-year-old elder brother about the Koran and the Arabic language.

When the girl finally revealed what she had been subjected to her parents immediately called the police.

The mother was scared that more children could be exposed, district prosecutor Eva Kokkonen told news agency TT. The sexual molestation involved the man groping the girl, including her breasts: It is always serious when a child is exposed to sexual acts. Especially when it takes place in her home and with a person she should be able to have confidence in. I consider that the man abused his authority and the punishment should be prison.

The prosecutor argues that the evidence against the imam is strong.

30th June 2009. Based on article from icenews.is

After another wave of sex scandals has hit the institution this year, the Church of Sweden is trying to limit damage and maintain the faith of its flock. The Church has been dealing with a steady flow of publicised sexual incidents for a number of years, and things have yet to cool down.

Archbishop Anders Wejryd told the TT news agency he regrets the incidents, but to his credit insists that transparency is the best way to deal with the ongoing problem: It is tragic, but I think that we have been successful in our ambition to get people to file reports.

In April, branches of the Church in Stockholm, Lund and Vaxjo had to deal with several incidents related to sex such as a priest who has having an inappropriate relationship with a 15 year-old, a priest who slept with a grieving widow, and a third who was caught abusing women with language on an Internet dating site.

14th April 2010. See article from iol.co.za , Thanks to Alan

A Swiss cleric has been accused of sexually abusing a minor for a number of years.

The Zurich public prosecutor was in charge of the investigation of the 72-year-old head of the Menorah Church, according to the Swiss ATS news agency. An indictment is expected in the coming months.

He is accused of abusing a young girl from 2006 - when she was seven years old - until his arrest.

The free church, founded in 1986, was described as having attributes similar to a cult, with strict doctrine, strong reliance on the leadership and an impending end-of-the-world belief system.

17th March 2010. See article from independent.co.uk

The church sex abuse scandal unravelling at Roman Catholic-run schools and institutions across Europe has reached Switzerland, where senior clergy admitted yesterday that 60 cases were under investigation.

Abbot Martin Werlen, of the Benedictine Abbey of Einsiedeln, said reports of abuse had been submitted to the Swiss church authorities in the wake of the disclosures in Ireland, Germany, Austria, Poland and Holland. Related articles

2nd January 2011. Based on article from emirates247.com, Thanks to Alan

A Dubai court has sentenced a Pakistani religious teacher to five years in jail for repeatedly raping a 11-boy he was teaching.

He was found guilty for rape over a period of seven months during which he was assigned to give him Quran lessons, The National reported.

The boy had earlier told prosecutors that the man would come home to teach him Quran five days a week since February 2009.

Intimidated by the man, the boy was unable to speak out to anyone about his ordeal, prosecutors were told.

21st January 2012.  See article from news.stv.tv

A preacher who stood as a Conservative candidate abused three young children he met through a Christian mission.

John Smart abused the youngsters, one from the age of three, over a 15-year period.

The 48-year-old met his victims at the Edinburgh City Mission where their parents believed he was a devout Christian and let him take the youngsters to play parks and swimming pools. Smart sexually abused the children between 1987 and 2002.

At the High Court in Glasgow, Lady Dorrian jailed Smart, who stood as a Tory candidate in 2003, for eight years and placed him on the sex offenders register.

7th January 2012.  See article from huffingtonpost.co.uk

A paedophile monk who abused two boys at a Roman Catholic public school evaded justice for more than two decades after monastic authorities and the parents of one of his victims hushed the matter up, a court heard today.

Richard White, 66, was warned about his behaviour at Downside School after molesting one 12-year-old boy but instead of being reported to police, the Benedictine abbot of the monastery attached to the school simply prevented him from teaching younger students.

He went on to indecently assault a second boy over the course of several months in 1988 and 1989.

White was jailed today for five years after Taunton Crown Court heard that he lured the boy, who was interested in old books, to the monastery library, which was usually off-limits to students. There he sexually touched the boy and forced him to take part in sex acts, paying him 50p per time.

20th October 2011.  See article from swindonadvertiser.co.uk

A paedophile who abused three girls when he was an Imam at a town centre mosque has been convicted by a jury.

Ebrahim Yusuf Kazi, 67, was found guilty of five counts of indecent assault on three girls aged under the age of 13.

The offences took place between 1979 and 1986 at Broad Street Mosque, where Kazi was an Imam before moving to Gloucester.

Update: Jailed

8th November 2011. See article from dailymail.co.uk

The imam who abused young girls while teaching at a mosque has been jailed for two years.

Ebrahim Yusuf Kazi was told by a judge he would have been jailed for longer - but the law prevented it as the offences took place 27 years ago.

18th September 2011.  See article from yourlocalguardian.co.uk

A Buddhist monk has been charged with rape and sexual assaults on an underage girl committed in the 1970's.

Phalagama Somartana is charged with one count of rape with a girl under 16 between the start of 1977 and the end of 1978, and three indecent assaults with a girl under 16 during the same period. All the incidents are alleged to have taken place in Chiswick.

18th September 2011.  See article from thisiswiltshire.co.uk

A former Anglican chaplain has been warned that he faces a likely jail sentence after pleading guilty to a series of indecent assaults on young boys.

Father Leslie Carter, 84, of Bathwick Street, Bath, admitted nine indecent assaults against three boys over a 20-year period between 1957 and 1977.

A further 12 charges denied by Fr Carter, including two charges of buggery of one of the victims, were left to lie on the file.

27th March 2011.  See article from thisisstaffordshire.co.uk

A catholic priest at the centre of abuse allegations has been re-arrested on suspicion of similar offences.

Father Alexander Bede Walsh already faces 17 counts of indecent assault and two of serious sexual offences against four boys. He was arrested regarding further allegations of sexual assault and has been bailed pending inquiries.

Staffordshire Police charged Walsh on January 11 following a long investigation and he is due to enter pleas at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court next month.

Walsh served the parish of Cheadle for 14 years before moving to a church in Oxfordshire in 1999. He was a governor and chaplain at Painsley Catholic High School, Cheadle, and a governor at its feeder schools. The alleged offences, said to have been committed in Cheadle, Cotton and Chapelfields, Coventry, involve indecent assaults on boys aged between 8 and 16 between 1982 and 1994.

12th March 2011.  See article from religionnewsblog.com , thanks to Alan

Members of a black magic sex cult which preyed on children and young adults in Carmarthenshire, Wales, have been jailed at Swansea Crown Court, Wales Online reports:

Colin Batley was given an indeterminate sentence for public protection with a minimum of 11 years before he can apply for parole, but Judge Paul Thomas QC warned be may never be released.

Colin Batley was convicted of offences including 11 counts of rape and other sexual offences involving children.

Jackie Marling described as Batley's second-in-command, was sentenced to 12 years, Batley's wife Elaine got eight years and Shelly Millar got five years.

The women, who all wore Egyptian Eye of Horus tattoos to signify membership of the cult based at their homes in Clos yr Onnen, Kidwelly, were convicted of sexual offences including abuse of children.

23rd February 2011.  See article from bbc.co.uk, thanks to Alan

A Sikh priest has been convicted of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl in his room at a temple in Glasgow's west end.

Surinder Singh tried to touch and kiss the youngster at the Guru Nanak Sikh Temple in Otago Street.

The 53-year-old, who was visiting Scotland from India at the time, was found guilty after a trial at Glasgow Sheriff Court. he will be sentenced next month.

6th February 2011. Based on article from yorkpress.co.uk, thanks to Martin

A Muslim teacher is facing jail for sexually abusing a girl while giving her religious instruction.

Jabir Ahmed Jolkipa tried to have his crimes dealt with inside the Muslim community in York, Peter Cleasby, prosecuting, told a jury. But the girl's father, concerned nothing was apparently being done, went to police and members of the community gave evidence against Jolkipar.

Recorder Guy Kearl QC adjourned sentence for a probation report and ordered Jolkipar, a Bangladeshi national, to surrender his passport. The likelihood is it will be a term of imprisonment, he told the teacher, whom the judge said had lost his former standing in the community.

Jolkipar had denied three charges of sexual abuse, but was convicted by the jury after 70 minutes in retirement.

3rd February 2011. Based on article from maltonmercury.co.uk, thanks to Alan

A Muslim cleric from Sheffield has been convicted of raping a young boy as he attended Islamic education lessons at his mosque.

Mohammed Hanif Khan, 42, was also found guilty by a jury at Nottingham Crown Court of sexual activity with a child, as well as the two counts of rape. The charges relate to two boys who attended the mosque in Capper Street, Stoke on Trent, where Khan was imam, in 2009.

Prosecutor Tariq Bin Shakoor told the jury part of Khan's job was to lead prayers and give Islamic education lessons to boys at evening classes. He told the court one of the boys claimed in police interviews that he was singled out by Khan after evening prayer on several occasions. He was sexually assaulted in various areas of the mosque which were not covered by CCTV, Shakoor told the court. The other boy was assaulted when he was an overnight guest at Khan's house, the jury of six men and six women were told.

Update: 16 Years

Mohammed Hanif Khan was jailed for 16 years for raping a schoolboy at his mosque was sacked from his job as Islamic director of a prison for sexually harassing women.

But it also emerged that he was accused of sexually harassing three women when he worked as the UK's first full-time Islamic minister at Dovegate Prison, near Uttoxeter.

Justice Linda Dobbs, who sentenced Khan referred to the fact 42-year-old Khan was made to leave his job after the allegations emerged.

This was not raised in front of the jury during the three-week trial, but was significant at sentencing because it showed Khan posed a serious risk to the public.

  Koran teacher jailed

12th January 2011. See article from eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk

Ashraf Miah was sentenced at Snaresbrook Crown Court following his conviction by a jury on 13 charges of sexual assault between 2005 and 2009.

The offences happened when Miah was entrusted to teach young girls to read from the Koran either at his home or theirs.

The crimes came to notice when Miah was arrested in November 2009 for offences against two of the girls. During the investigation, other children that had been taught by Miah were contacted and more offences came to notice, leading to his further arrest in January 2010.

Miah was at the time the East End leader of the notorious extremist group Hizb ut Tahrir, which believes that voting and democracy is forbidden in Islam and wants to turn Britain into a sharia state

He was sentenced to three years and three months imprisonment, put on the sex offenders register for life and is not allowed to work with children.

9th December 2010. Based on article from northamptonchron.co.uk, thanks to Alan

A rapist evaded justice for 25 years because Jehovah's Witnesses did nothing when told about his child sex abuse, a court heard.

Anthony Burns was confronted with his crimes against a young child in the 1980s but no action was taken by the religious organisation.

Burns repeatedly abused a girl as young as nine years old, from 1977 until 1984 when she revealed what had been happening.

Judge Charles Wide QC said: It is very unfortunate the Jehovah's Witnesses community dealt with a complaint in 1984 in a wholly inappropriate way, seemingly more concerned with their own reputation than doing justice, but I acknowledge they were very different times.

23rd November 2010. Based on article from portsmouth.co.uk, thanks to Alan

A muslim religious leader has been jailed after he was found guilty of sexually assaulting a young girl. Members of Portsmouth's Muslim community have spoken of their shock after Hafiz Rahman, a former Imam of the Southsea mosque, was convicted at Portsmouth Crown Court.

Rahman molested the teenager in Portsmouth while he was supposed to be teaching her about the Qur'an.

A jury of eight men and six women took less than two hours to find him guilty sexual activity with a child.

24th October 2010. Based on article from telegraph.co.uk, thanks to Alan

The chaplain of a leading independent Roman Catholic girls' school has stepped down while a historic allegation made against him is investigated.

Father Dermot Power, 58, has been chaplain of St Mary's School, Ascot, for 17 years. Head teacher Mary Breen said the allegation, dating back many years, was entirely unconnected with the school and was being dealt with by the Diocese of Westminster.

23rd August 2010. See article from dailymail.co.uk

A leading Baptist minister has been charged with molesting young boys during trips to America.

Robert Dando, 46, was arrested this week during a visit to Fairfax County, Virginia.

He is said to have sexually abused two boys, starting when they were aged seven and eight, over a period of up to five years during visits to a family friend in the U.S..

Dando has resigned from Worcester Park Baptist Church near Kingston in South-West London.

11th May 2010. Based on article from timesonline.co.uk, thanks to Alan

Father David Pearce had his eight-year sentence reduced to five years after the Court of Appeal ruled that the judge had been too harsh when sentencing him last year.

The Benedictine monk and former headmaster at the prestigious St Benedict's School in Ealing, West London, admitted abusing five boys between 1972 and 2007.

Pearce, 68, started to abuse the final boy after being forbidden by the church authorities from having contact with children at Ealing Abbey when he was ordered to pay £43,000 compensation to a previous victim. Related Links

Sir Christopher Holland, sitting with Mr Justice David Clarke, said that the indecent and sexual assaults were moderate, consisting of genital groping whenever the opportunity presented itself combined with stolen kisses.

2nd April 2010. See article from thisishullandeastriding.co.uk, thanks to Alan

A paedophile raped and sexually assaulted women and girls over a period of 40 years by using their religion to keep the abuse secret. Despite one revealing it to the Jehovah's Witness elders, no help was given, a court heard.

Now George Cockerill, 78, has been jailed indefinitely after he admitted 19 rapes, four counts of sexual activity with a child, six counts of indecency with a child, one sex assault and two counts of indecency with a child. Judge Roger Thorn QC, sitting at Hull Crown Court, said: You have pleaded guilty to 32 serious counts that reflect your sexual depravity. The reality is that, from beginning to end, it is extended over 40 years. You have wasted your life and caused untold misery

one victim said, you have stolen her childhood. You have been the most terrible hypocrite, passing yourself off as a law-abiding member of the community and using religion as a tool of subjection to control your victims. That is why I'm satisfied this remained a secret for so long.

Cockerill was sentenced to imprisonment for public protection for a minimum of six years. He will not be released until the Parole Board believe he is no longer a danger. Cockerill, of Hull, was also ordered to sign the Sex Offenders Register for life. He allegedly had five victims, three of whom were subject to the convictions he pleaded guilty to and two more have made allegations against him.
Police believe there could be more.

8th March 2010. See article from manchestereveningnews.co.uk, thanks to Alan

A man has been jailed for abusing a boy while giving him lessons in the Koran.

Atta Ur-Rehman was found guilty of a number of sex offences against the young victim. Appearing at Bolton Crown Court, he was sentenced to 6 years in jail.

He attacked the boy at an address in Rochdale in May last year where he was supposed to be giving lessons in reading the Muslim holy book. The boy, who was upset and embarrassed, told his mother about what happened.

Ur-Rehman at first feigned ignorance when confronted by the parents, but then asked the boy's parents for forgiveness. The boy's parents then called the police.

18th December 2009. See article from yorkshirepost.co.uk, thanks to Alan

A Jehovah's Witness who served as an elder betrayed the trust placed in him by abusing young girls. James Michael O'Brien followed one schoolgirl into a kitchen when she was alone away from adults making tea at meetings he was hosting. He pulled her towards him, sexually assaulted her and began to kiss her.

On another occasion he conducted a further sexual assault, Richard Wright prosecuting told Leeds Crown Court.

She felt very angry about what was happening because adult worshippers in the Kingdom Hall had a significant amount of trust placed in them, he said.

A second girl said when she was aged between 10 and 11, O'Brien touched her many times over her clothing when they were together for religious activities. She said he sexually assaulted her in a lift, while travelling in a car and while looking at a computer together.

The court heard he also admitted offences against three other girls when they visited him or when he was helping to look after them unconnected to his role as an elder.

O'Brien who the court was told is no longer associated with Kingdom Hall, was jailed for six years with an extended four years further on licence.

21st November 2009. See article from dailymail.co.uk, thanks to Alan

A wealthy rabbi financed a drug dealing operation in which girls were given cocaine in exchange for sexual services, a court heard yesterday.

Baruch Chalomish turned a Manchester city centre flat into a base for a commercial cocaine supply operation after abusing the drug himself, it was claimed.

He was arrested along with a friend, Nasir Abbas with over £15,000 in cash and 100g of cocaine after police searched the flat in January this year.

Police also searched the rabbi's home address in Salford, Greater Manchester, and discovered cash and a further 50g of cocaine scattered around the house in different containers.

When questioned by police, Abbas claimed that Chalomish didn't sell the drugs but would allow any young woman who visited the apartment in Shude Hill, Manchester, to take the cocaine in exchange for sexual services.

But at Manchester Crown Court, prosecuting counsel Michael Goldwater said: Our case is that Nasir Abbas and Rabbi Chalomish were dealing in controlled drugs. Rabbi Chalomish denies two counts of possession of cocaine with intent to supply, but has pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of cocaine.

19th October 2009. See article from dailymail.co.uk, thanks to Alan

A Yorkshire vicar who raped two young boys and committed a catalogue of sex abuse crimes against youngsters has been jailed for 14 years, prompting a review of all clergy in his diocese.

Peter Hedge carried out the calculated and systematic abuse while he was a curate at St Margaret's Church in Thornbury, Bradford, and later vicar of Holy Trinity Church in Queensbury.

During a trial at Bradford Crown Court the jury heard evidence that Hedge gave youngsters cash to buy cannabis and later gave them money to secure their silence.

The Diocese of Bradford last night confirmed it had begun an external review of the records of all clergy and licensed lay workers following the case, to monitor whether there are causes for concern.

31st August 2009. See article from thisisplymouth.co.uk, thanks to Alan

The Reverend Canon James Wilson, the Rector and Rural Dean of Calstock, was charged with six offences on girls under the age of 13.

The alleged offences date back to the late 1970s when he was a teacher at Pennycross Primary School.

Officers from the Sex Offences Investigations Team have interviewed six alleged victims who are all now adults, which resulted in the charges.

Police are now appealing for anyone who may have information about the matter .

30th June 2009. See article from highbeam.com, thanks to Alan

A religious leader who denies beating six youngsters at a Scunthorpe mosque will now face a re-trial, after a judge at Grimsby Crown Court dismissed the jury.

Helal Khan was standing trial after he denied six offences of child cruelty. But, following an application by both defence and prosecution barristers in the case, Judge Kate Buckingham told the panel they were being dismissed as further information had come to light.

Khan, who was formerly employed as the Imam at a mosque on Sheffield Street, was told the re-trial would take place on November 30

8th august 2011. See article from thescotsman.scotsman.com

As a prophet of his polygamist sect, Warren Jeffs documented everything he did, keeping track of every marriage he performed, every young so-called bride. It was those meticulous records - including an audiotape of what prosecutors said was a sexual assault on a 12-year-old girl that he had married - that saw the 55-year-old head of a cult-like offshoot of the Mormon religion convicted on two sex assault charges.

Prosecutors hope the same records will help bring a life prison sentence to a man regarded by his followers in his Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints as God's spokesman on Earth.

A Texas jury took just 40 minutes to hand him the toughest sentence open to them -- life in prison for aggravated sexual assault and 20 years in prison for sexual assault of a child. The sentences followed Jeffs's conviction last week on two counts relating to polygamist marriages with girls aged 12 and 15.

Update: Accomplice

16th November 2011. Based on article from gosanangelo.com

The former bishop of a polygamy-sanctioning sect received the maximum sentence of 10 years and a $10,000 fine for conducting a marriage ceremony between a 12-year-old girl and the then-50-year-old sect leader, Warren Jeffs.

What do we do with a man who has put out in harm's way so many people, who worked as some twisted Pez dispenser popping off daughters for the prophet? lead Prosecutor Angela Goodwin said in her closing arguments.

The jury heard testimony and saw documents that alleged Jessop had 22 wives, married off 11 daughters and two granddaughters to Jeffs, a man now in prison for sexual assault, and participated in 16 underage marriages.

1st April 2011. See article from nypost.com, Thanks to Alan

A defrocked priest filed a defamation suit yesterday against the former seminarian whose abuse allegations led to his ouster from the clergy.

Former Monsignor Charles Kavanagh -- the highest-ranking New York cleric caught up in the Catholic Church sex scandal -- says Daniel Donohue repeatedly lied to reporters to extract a monetary settlement from the New York Archdiocese.

Kavanagh's Manhattan federal-court suit demands unspecified damages from Donohue.

Court papers cite more than a half-dozen damning newspaper headlines, noting that Kavanagh was held up to ridicule and scorn . . . when he was labeled a 'Pervert Priest' in The Post.

  21 priests suspended in Philadelphia

10th March 2011.   See article from guardian.co.uk

The Philadelphia archdiocese has suspended 21 Roman Catholic priests who were named as suspected child abusers in a scathing grand jury report last month.

Cardinal Justin Rigali, the archbishop of Philadelphia, said the priests had been removed from ministry while their cases were reviewed. The names of the priests were not being released, a spokesman for the archdiocese said.

These have been difficult weeks since the release of the grand jury report, difficult most of all for victims of sexual abuse but also for all Catholics and for everyone in our community, Rigali said.

The two-year grand jury investigation into abuse in the archdiocese of Philadelphia resulted in charges against two priests, a former priest and a Catholic schoolteacher who are accused of raping boys. A former high-ranking church official was accused of transferring problem priests to new parishes without revealing they had been the subject of sex abuse complaints.

10th March 2011.  Based on article from blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com & article from kswt.com , Thanks to Alan

Strip poker can be a fun party game when played by visually -- and age -- appropriate gamblers. It's a problem, however, when one of those playing is a preacher -- it's an even bigger problem when the only other player is a 14-year-old boy.

The former preacher at a Jehovah's Witness church in Phoenix was arrested last night for allegedly playing strip poker -- and doing a lot of other sick stuff -- with a 14-year-old boy more than 30 years ago.

David Nelson, the former leader of the Madison Park Congregation Church near 16th Street and Earll Drive in Phoenix, was arrested for molesting a boy he met through the church in 1980.

Nelson was charged with two counts of sexual conduct with a minor, two counts of molestation of a child, and two counts of public sexual indecency.

He pleaded guilty at his court case in March 2011 and will be sentenced on 7th April 2011.

 God's Nasty Will

27th February 2011. Based on article from rawstory.com. Thanks to Alan

A lawsuit targeting the Pentagon contains an astonishing anecdote about a retired Sergeant's experience after being sexually assaulted by a colleague during a deployment to Afghanistan.

The lawsuit was filed by 17 military women against Secretaries of Defense Robert Gates and Donald Rumsfeld in Virginia. It assails the military's repeated failures to take action in rape cases created a culture where violence against women was tolerated, violating the plaintiffs' Constitutional rights.

Sergeant Rebekah Havrilla alleges in the complaint that in 2006, after her military supervisor repeatedly sexually harassed her, she was raped by a colleague she was working with at the time.

She immediately sought the assistance of the military chaplain, the lawsuit reads. When SGT Havrilla met with the military chaplain, he told her that 'it must have been God's will for her to be raped' and recommended that she attend church more frequently.

17th February 2011. Thanks to Alan

A Renton minister and music teacher accused of having sex with a teenage student has been charged with rape and child molestation.

Previously convicted of rape after having sex with a 12-year-old girl, Royce C. Shorter stands accused of forcing himself on a 15-year-old piano student.

According to charging documents, Shorter operates his own music studio -- N Time Music Productions -- and his own Christian ministry, Royce Clinton Shorter Ministries.

Speaking with detectives, the girl Shorter is alleged to have raped said Shorter started hitting on her during their lessons, then began kissing and groping her. The girl said Shorter coerced her into having sex at least five times, beginning when she was 15, Seattle Police Detective Leslie Smith told the court.

  Imam convicted

27th June 2010. Based on article from yidwithlid.blogspot.com , Thanks to Alan

Yasser Mohamed Shahade was sentenced to ten years probation and designation as a sex offender after pleading guilty to molesting a boy in his mosque.

He entered the United States on a visitor's visa to serve as a full-time imam, or Muslim prayer leader, at a local mosque, Masjid Omar Al Mokhtar, just north of Kennedy Boulevard near downtown Tampa. About two months later, police arrested him after a teen boy who stayed overnight at the mosque with his younger brother said the imam had sexually assaulted him.

19th May 2010. Based on article from news.topwirenews.com, Thanks to Alan

A nearly $18 million settlement was reached after 26 former altar boys of Vermont's Catholic church sued the church, claiming sexual abuse by priests over 30 years ago, as reported by MSNBC. Both parties in the settlement stated they were pleased with the outcome.

The lawsuits accused the Diocese of Burlington of negligent hiring, using the defrocked Rev. Edward Paquette as the prime example. Paquette was the target of abuse allegations before he transferred to Vermont in the 1970s. He worked in parishes in Montpelier and Rutland and in Christ the King Church in Burlington. He was accused of molesting dozens of altar boys.

19th April 2010.  See article from myfoxphoenix.com, Thanks to Alan

He was once the second-highest ranking Catholic priest within the Phoenix Diocese. Former Monsignor Dale Fushek has pleaded guilty to one count of misdemeanor assault. The 57-year-old admitted to inappropriately touching a boy while running a youth program during the mid 1980's. Fushek admitted to touching the genitals of his victim through the victim's clothing.

When the allegations were brought forth in 2005, Fushek was arrested on several child sex abuse charges. He was accused of fondling 7 young boys while working at St. Timothy's in Mesa. As a result of his plea agreement, Fushek would admit guilt to one of the charges, misdemeanor assault, and the others would be dismissed.

11th April 2010. Based on article from commercialappeal.com, Thanks to Alan

When Father Juan Carlos Duran arrived in Memphis in the summer of 1999, the Spanish-speaking Dominican priest provided a much-needed addition to the Catholic Diocese of Memphis.

His duties under the one-year contract were to minister to the growing number of Hispanic parishioners at the Church of the Ascension in Raleigh.

It appeared to be a match made in heaven.

We desperately needed someone to work with our Hispanic community, Bishop J. Terry Steib said in a later deposition recounting talks with the Dominican Order. And the candidate they had was Juan Carlos Duran.

The Memphis Diocese did little to examine the background of its prized candidate, however, and learned too late that Duran was a priest with a past.

I just remember him asking me in the car or asking when we are alone, 'Please, please, let me give you (oral sex),' stuff like that, said a 14-year-old boy identified as John Doe in a sex abuse lawsuit filed against the diocese and the Dominicans. I can't remember the exact number of occasions, but it was multiple.

30th March 2010. See article from getreligion.org, Thanks to Alan

A Utah man known for co-founding the Village of Hope to aid Ethiopian orphans and adopting Ethiopian children has been charged with multiple counts of child sex abuse and child pornography.

Charges filed allege Lon Harvey Kennard Sr. sexually abused two of his adoptive daughters who are now adults.

Kennard faces 24 first-degree felony counts of aggravated sex abuse of a child, 21 second-degree felony counts of sexual exploitation of a child and one count of witness tampering.

The sexual abuse outlined in court records allegedly began in 1995, around the time Kennard was serving as bishop of his LDS Church ward and one year after he and his wife founded Village of Hope.

8th January 2010. See article from blog.cleveland.com, Thanks to Alan

A former priest of the Cleveland Catholic Diocese has reported to Lorain County Jail where he began a 90-day sentence for having sexual contact with a 15-year-old boy in 1997.

The Rev. Patrick O'Connor, 52, who had ministered at Our Lady of Lourdes Shrine in Euclid, St. Jude in Elyria and St. Joseph in Cuyahoga Falls, pleaded guilty in September to corruption of a minor.

He was originally charged with sexual battery, which carries a five-year prison sentence, but a plea bargain reduced the crime.

Besides jail time, O'Connor was sentenced to three years' probation and declared a sex offender, which, under Ohio law, requires him to register all his contact information -- address, telephone, e-mail etc. -- with his local sheriff's office every six months for 25 years.

He also is forbidden to live within 1,000 feet of a school.

2nd January 2010. See article from blogs.laweekly.com, Thanks to Alan

Speaking in the voice of America's Most Wanted's John Walsh): We've seen a lot of scumbags in our day, but this guy takes the cake. Frederick McLean is an alleged sexual predator of the lowest kind.

Authorities allege McLean met many of the child victims through his work as a local Jehovah's Witnesses leader in San Diego. At one point Riverside County authorities were also called to take care of this alleged monster. The 58-year-old is facing multiple counts of sexual assault on a child, with one victim claiming that McLean assaulted her more than 100 times starting when she was 5-years-old.

Federal authorities want McLean so bad they've put him the U.S. Marshals' national, 15 Most Wanted list.

 Trenton Diocese compensates child abuse victim

28th November 2009. See article from nj.com, Thanks to Alan

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Trenton has paid $325,000 to a 32-year-old woman who says she was sexually assaulted by a former diocesan priest, the late Rev. Ron Becker, who died in January.

Jenni Franz, who was Becker's niece, says Becker molested her more than 100 times from when she was 5 until she was 11. She said she first came forward to the diocese in 2004.

Becker had been the subject of other, similar allegations, and the diocese has settled with at least two other accusers, according to one of Franz's attorneys, Greg Gianforcaro.

Trenton Bishop John Smith barred Becker from ministry in 2002, after receiving what the diocese termed credible complaints. A previous bishop had removed him from parish assignments in 1989, and in the interim he worked in the diocese headquarters, away from minors, evaluating requests for annulments, diocese officials said.

27th November 2009. See article from fredericknewspost.com, Thanks to Alan

A Roman Catholic priest has been sentenced to 10 years probation for sexually abusing an altar boy at a Germantown church more than seven years ago.

In July, the Rev. Aaron A.J. Cote pleaded not guilty and was convicted of third-degree sex offense after Judge Louise G. Scrivener heard an agreed upon statement of facts.

Employed at the Church of St. Vincent Ferrer in New York City, Cote must register as a sex offender and undergo court-ordered evaluation and treatment. The 10-year suspended sentence and probation was part of a plea deal reached by prosecutors.

7th November 2009.  See article from google.com, Thanks to Alan

Four Amish leaders in southwest Missouri who chose to shun an accused child molester in their community rather than report him to authorities were charged Tuesday with failing to report the sexual abuse.

Webster County prosecutor Danette Padgett said all four are bishops and face one misdemeanor count each of failure to report child abuse as a mandatory reporter.

Under Missouri law, people with responsibility for the care of children are required to report suspected child abuse. Examples of mandatory reporters under the statute are doctors, nurses, social workers and teachers and ministers who are not engaged in a privileged communication.

6th November 2009.  See article from spokesman.com, Thanks to Alan

Twenty-one new claims of clergy sex abuse have been filed against the Catholic Diocese of Spokane, a number that has surprised the diocese and could reopen its contentious bankruptcy case.

None of the new allegations – called future claims – was made by children alleging recent abuse, said diocese attorney Greg Arpin. Instead, they are accusations by adults who contend they were sexually abused by priests and other diocese clergy years ago and are just now able to link that abuse to financial damage and other problems in their lives.

31st October 2009.  See article from savannahnow.com, Thanks to Alan

The Catholic Diocese of Savannah has agreed to pay more than $4 million to the alleged victim of an abusive former priest in order to avoid going to trial.

The Diocese released a statement announcing the $4.24 million agreement reached with former St. James Catholic School student Allan Ranta Jr.

Ranta had filed a complaint in a Jasper County, S.C., civil court stating he was molested from 1978 to 1983, starting when he was 10 years old, by former priest Wayland Y. Brown.

Ranta claimed former Savannah Bishop Raymond Lessard and other diocesan officials knew Brown posed a danger to children but failed to take action.

Brown, 66, was convicted in 2003 of sexually abusing two Maryland boys, ages 12 and 13, in 1974. He was released from prison in April 2008 after serving half of his sentence.

31st October 2009.  Based on article from chicagotribune.com, Thanks to Alan

The 15-year saga of a Chicago priest expelled from public ministry, reinstated, then removed again ended this week with his permanent ouster from the priesthood.

John Calicott, the former pastor of Holy Angels Roman Catholic Church in Chicago's Bronzeville neighborhood, received word earlier this month that he is no longer a member of the clergy, the Archdiocese of Chicago said, citing a decree from the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The Vatican decree caps an arduous and circuitous journey since allegations first surfaced in 1994 that Calicott abused two teenagers during his first assignment at St. Ailbe Catholic Church on the city's South Side.

A year later, after parishioners pleaded for Calicott's return, Cardinal Joseph Bernardin made an exception to his policy barring priests removed for sexual misconduct with minors from returning to parish ministry. He cited two psychological evaluations that said Calicott posed no significant risk to children if he continued therapy.

22nd October 2009.  Based on article from news.bbc.co.uk, Thanks to Alan

The Catholic diocese based in the state of Delaware has filed for US bankruptcy protection on the eve of a civil trial involving high-profile sex abuse.

The move automatically delays the case, the seventh of its kind in the US since a scandal in Boston seven years ago.

The bishop of the diocese claimed the move offered the best chance for victims of sexual abuse to be treated fairly. But an attorney for the victims said the action was a desperate attempt to hide the truth from the public.

The case, due to be heard on Monday, would have been the first to go to trial under a state law creating a two-year window allowing claims to be brought even if the statute of limitations had expired. 'Cover-up' About 230,000 Catholics live in the Wilmington diocese, which covers Delaware and eastern Maryland.

This is a painful decision, one that I had hoped and prayed I would never have to make, Bishop W Francis Malooly said in a statement on the diocese's website. He said that talks with the eight victims bringing the case had broken down, and there were fears that too large a settlement would leave the diocese without sufficient resources to compensate another 133 people with outstanding claims.

28th September 2009.  See article from kfvs12.com, Thanks to Alan

A group of clergy abuse survivors are asking the Louisville Archdiocese to speak out against a local church that recently ordained a convicted child molester as a minister.

Several members of the Louisville chapter of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests hand-delivered a letter to the Archdiocese office on Thursday. The letter urges Archbishop Joseph Kurtz to publicly condemn the City of Refuge Worship Center for ordaining Mark Hourigan as a minister.

13th September 2009.  Based on article from washingtonpost.com, Thanks to Alan

One in every 33 women who attend worship services regularly has been the target of sexual advances by a religious leader, a survey released Wednesday says.
The study, by Baylor University researchers, found that the problem is so pervasive that it almost certainly involves a wide range of denominations, religious traditions and leaders.

"It certainly is prevalent, and clearly the problem is more than simply a few charismatic leaders preying on vulnerable followers," said Diana Garland, dean of Baylor's School of Social Work, who co-authored the study.

It found that more than two-thirds of the offenders were married to someone else at the time of the advance.

24th August 2009.  See article from abpnews.com, Thanks to Alan

A jury in Tucson, Arizona, convicted a former youth minister at a Southern Baptist church of molesting a 13-year-old girl over the course of a year.

Jurors found Christopher Decaire guilty of six charges of molestation and sexual misconduct.

The girl, now 15, testified that Decaire molested her between January 2007 and January 2008 while he served as youth minister of East Tucson Baptist Church. She told jurors that something happened pretty much every Wednesday, the night the youth group met.

Decaire will be sentenced Sept. 18. He faces more than 50 years in prison.

 Credible case against Wisconsin Priest

24th August 2009.  See article from wkowtv.com, Thanks to Alan

The Madison Catholic Diocese admitted allegations of sexual abuse of a child made against a Madison-area priest are credible.

The bishop referred the case against Joseph Gibbs Clauder to the Vatican for judgment, but one group says that's not enough.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) wants open information and prosecution.

Clauder was ordained in 1973. He's currently on administrative leave, after allegations of sexual miscount with a woman in 1999. Now, he's accused of sexually abusing a child. The diocese confirmed this information, calling both allegations "credible," and referred the case to the Vatican in Rome for judgment.

27th July 2009.  See article from suntimes.com, Thanks to Alan

The former No. 2 official of the Catholic church in Chicago admitted that he knew 25 priests broke the law by sexually abusing children but did not report them, according to depositions made public.

Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus Raymond E. Goedert's statements show the lengths they went to to protect their reputation and the priest at the peril of the child, said attorney Jeff Anderson, who represents men who have sued the archdiocese over alleged childhood molestation.

I knew the civil law considered it a crime, Goedert said in the deposition: But I'm not a civil lawyer. I think we just relied on -- a lot on our -- we knew it was wrong, what was done. And we used our common sense and prudence with the help of people -- expert in the field to assist us in resolving these cases.

I simply would not talk about it to anyone except those who had a right to know because of their position in the diocese, Goedert said.

The archdiocese issued a statement confirming that settlements had been reached with six survivors of abuse by priests totaling $3.9 million and that all of the abuse happened between 1970 and 1986. The priests involved were all removed from ministry by 1991 or earlier, the church noted.

15th July 2009. See article from kspr.com. Thanks to Alan

Famed leader of Tony Alamo Christian Ministries Tony Alamo himself will make an appearance in federal court for the start of his trial on charges he took young girls across state lines for sex.

The Joplin native's religious sect headquartered in Arkansas has been under scrutiny for years because of such accusations.

Alamo pleaded not guilty while at the same time saying the bible describes the age of consent as when girls reach puberty.

A guilty verdict on one charge from the ten-count indictment could place the preacher behind bars for the rest of his life.

He served six years in prison the 90s, making him a candidate for the harshest sentence this time around.

Update: Guilty on all 10 charges

29th July 2009. See article from kansascity.com

Alamo stood silently Friday as he was convicted of all 10 charges against him, a contrast to his occasional mutterings during testimony. He is set to be sentenced in six to eight weeks.

He could face a total of 175 years in prison for violating the Mann Act, a law originally aimed at stopping women from being sold into prostitution. Each count also carries possible fines of $250,000.

“I’m just another one of the prophets that went to jail for the Gospel,” Alamo called to reporters as U.S. marshals escorted him back to jail.

Update: Guilty on all 10 charges

17th November 2009. See article from freethinker.co.uk

Evangelist Tony Alamo was sentenced yesterday to 175 years in prison for taking underage girls across state lines for sex, effectively punishing him for the rest of his life for molesting children he took as brides in his ministry.

Alamo, 75, had been convicted in July on a 10-count federal indictment. US District Judge Harry F Barnes said Alamo used his status as father figure and pastor and threatened the girls with the loss of their salvation.

The judge then rather foolishly declared: Mr Alamo, one day you will face a higher a greater judge than me, may he have mercy on your soul.

Just before Barnes sentenced Alamo, the evangelist offered a brief statement to the court praising God then later adding: I'm glad I'm me and not the deceived people in the world.

12th May 2009. See article from ynetnews.com, Thanks to Alan

A New York rabbi convicted of molesting his daughter has been sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Monsey rabbi Israel Weingarten was found guilty in March of abusing his daughter through much of her childhood. The trial was traumatic for his victim, who is now 27.