Kids most at risk going, returning from school

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children found that children are most likely to be the victim of abduction when they are walking to and from school or school-related events.

Among the reported trends:
* 38 percent of attempted abductions occurred while a child was walking to or from school, riding a school bus or riding a bicycle.
* 37 percent occurred between 2 and 7 p.m. on a weekday.
* 43 percent involved children ages 10 through 14.
* 72 percent of attempted abduction victims were female.

NCM&EC President Ernie Allen said the findings are supported by a national incidence study conducted by the federal Justice Department several years ago that focused on successful abductions.


“As we tracked these and began to capture basic information about them, there were some clear patterns that were emerging,” he said. “And so frankly, we thought this was the kind of information that moms and dads needed to know about.”

More on this and one mothers story go here:
http://www.uticaod.com/latestnews/x1616323059/Child-abduction-Kids-most-at-risk-going-returning-from-school

Where is little Nevaeh?

Where is this child?

What kind of mother 'hangs' with registered sex offenders?

Who was watching her?

Too many questions, and no answers.

If you are in the area and would like to help, a search party will gather at 4:30 p.m. at the Monroe K-Mart parking lot Friday. They will search fields behind Victory Honda and the mall in Monroe.

People are wearing yellow ribbons and yellow shirts Friday to show their support for finding 5-year-old Nevaeh Buchanan.

Sex-offender arrested for unapproved move to home with kids

A convicted sex offender was arrested Wednesday for moving to a new address where children were living and failing to report the move to authorities.

Springer had to register as a sex offender after a misdemeanor conviction of second-degree sexual abuse, which involves a female between ages of 12 and 16.

Jasper deputies arrest sex offender trolling for victims

For the past week or more, residents of Jasper County had noticed advertisements posted at various places throughout the county offering babysitting services for $12 per weekend — but the ads solicited the babysitting services for “Females only” and requested their ages be “11 months thru 9 years".

The ads also caught the attention of investigators with the Jasper County Sheriff’s Department, who discovered the man posting the bulletins across the county was Thomas Louis Van-Hook, a convicted sex offender, who has victimized, at least, three female children in the past. But because Van-Hoot was off parole, had completed his sentencing requirements and had no stipulations to stay away from children, law enforcement officials were having a difficult time trying to find a way to charge him with a crime.

“We know where he is and we are waiting on a judge to sign the warrant,” Scott Duncan, a Jasper County Sheriff’s Department investigator told The Examiner on Friday.

The Examiner was told by a law enforcement source on Friday that a 2-year-old child may be Van-Hook’s latest victim.

“From what I was told they began investigating this after a little girl was left with him,” said The Examiner’s source. “Because she is so young she can’t make an outcry and unless he injured her the exam isn’t going to reveal anything.

“He is out there actively trolling for fresh victims. And because he has served his time, I am not sure what we can do about it until he victimizes another child. This guy is a sick bastard.”

The Examiner also obtained a copy of a letter that Van-Hook wrote in 2004 to the Procter & Gamble Company, the makers of Pampers Diapers, where he requested that the company do more to show the genital areas of children. The head of corporate security for Procter & Gamble sent the letter to the Jasper County Sheriff’s Department.

Texas Attorney General Urges Parents To Protect Children From Savvy Predators

A recent increase in young cell phone users has the Texas Attorney General urging parents to protect their children from savvy predators.

Cell phones can be very convenient for parents to keep in touch with their kids during after school activities. But because of this increase in use, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott believes more needs to be done to protect children who use cell phones.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott Tuesday encouraged parents to utilize tools that can help protect young mobile telephone users from harmful content and child predators. Abbott says by implementing parental controls and learning more about the potential dangers facing cell phone users, well-informed parents can help keep their children safe.

Because of these kinds of predators, Abbott recently urged the Legislature to update Texas' sex offender registration laws. If enacted, the Attorney General's proposal would require sex offenders to register their email addresses, mobile telephone numbers, social networking aliases and other electronic identification information.

Safety strategies from Megan's Law champion Maureen Kanka

Kanka said raising her other two children, Jeremy and Jessica, became a hard lesson in how little control parents can have over children's actions.

"Those rose-colored glasses come off and you see things differently," she said.

Teaching her son about who in the neighborhood was safe made Kanka aware of the mixed signals children receive every day. Getting candy from grandpa can make an elderly man's offer in the grocery store less threatening to a child.

Melissa Buonocore, another township parent who came to the presentation, said the idea had never struck her before.

"I never really thought about all the mixed signals," she said. "It has to stop."

Kanka emphasized the importance of teaching children about private body parts without shame and to educate them about inappropriate touching.

"As silly as it sounds, you're setting a basis for them on what is good touching and what is bad touching," she said.

Keeping information as specific as possible can only help, according to Kanka.

Lopatcong PTA Vice President Karen Kosar said she was motivated to invite Kanka to speak because of what seems like a constant surge of sexual crimes in the news.

New Law Monitors Sex Offenders On-Line

The New Year brings tougher restrictions for Georgia’s sex offenders. All 16,000 of them will have to hand over their internet passwords, screen names and e-mail addresses starting tomorrow. The new law is a big hit with some.

Michelle Rogers: “I think its great to protect young people. I work with high school and middle school students all the time and I know the internet is kind of their world a lot of times and anything that we can do to further their safety online I think is a good thing.”

Georgia joins a small band of states complying with guidelines in a 2006 federal law requiring authorities to track internet addresses of sex offenders. But the state is among the first to take the extra step of forcing its 16-thousand offenders to turn in their passwords as well.

Ex-NFL Player Arrested on Rape Charges

Former New England Patriots player and high school football coach Danny Villa surrendered to police in his native Arizona on Saturday, one day after a court in Massachusetts issued a warrant for his arrest on charges that he raped a child.

He faces three counts of rape of a child over 14 and three counts of enticing a minor.

The 44-year-old Villa had been working as a football coach at Walpole High School. He resigned Tuesday, hours after the school superintendent confronted him over allegations of criminal misconduct filed by a parent a day earlier.

Woman let child molester live in home

Mother of the year? Nope, another swea....

Authorities accused a Fuquay-Varina woman of allowing an alleged child molester to live in her home.

Cassandra Fessler, 39, faces two charges of child abuse and one charge of assault on an officer.

Investigators believe that Fessler allowed the the man to stay in her house against orders from Child Protective Services, according to her arrest warrant.

Missouri sheriff raises funds for program to teach youngsters how to escape sex offenders

Each time legislators pass more restrictions on sex offenders, critics insist that laws alone can’t keep children safe.
Education is key, they said. Teach children how to avoid being a victim, and educate parents on the dangers.
A sheriff in central Missouri agreed with that philosophy and said he wanted to bring that training to his county. Problem was, he couldn’t afford it.
So Morgan County Sheriff Jim Petty, a career lawman, became a money pitchman of sorts, asking people to spare a dollar. Pretty soon word spread, and the juvenile division of the 26th Judicial Circuit had the funds he needed to pay for radKIDS — Resist Aggression Defensibly, a national education program that teaches kids to fight back against people trying to hurt them.
The juvenile division and the sheriff’s department will start training next year.
“Honestly, I don’t like asking people for money, but I’m passionate for this program,” Petty said.
Others in law enforcement understand the need for teaching kids how to protect themselves and convincing them that it’s OK to tell people if someone hurts them.
“They are the first line of defense for themselves,” said Sgt. Gary Kilgore, who supervises the Jackson County sex offender registry. “We need to make sure they know what they can and cannot do. That’s crucial in their safety. … Education is about the only way to get that to them.”
RadKIDS has been taught in all but a few states, officials with the program said. Trained instructors aren’t in Kansas City and in Kansas, though organizers hope to change that.
The idea is to teach elementary school children how to respond if they’re abducted or sexually attacked, or if they are bullied.
“We don’t teach children how to fight,” said Stephen Daley, founder and executive director of the nonprofit radKIDS. “We teach them to escape when someone is fighting them.”
After seeing a presentation about the program at a national conference, Petty and one of his deputies were instant believers. They remember a 9-year-old girl who fought her would-be abductor and got away.
Morgan County Deputy Mike Nienhuis, who will receive the training, said he liked how the program made kids stronger.
“The molester is never going to quit,” Nienhuis said. “You can make 50 million laws against this and it’s still going to happen. You have to educate potential victims so they know how to get out of it.”
Departments or organizations that purchase the program pay for people to be trained. In Morgan County’s case, program officials will train 20 people who then will take the message to kids.
Though the cases of strangers abducting and abusing youngsters are relatively few, many children are hurt by people they know. Petty and Nienhuis said radKIDS would give kids the strength and knowledge to handle those situations.
“You’re going to show them straight out of the chute to say no when they want to say no,” Nienhuis said. “We’ll tell them they have the power to say no.”
Petty just won re-election and now can focus on spreading the word about radKIDS.
“If I don’t do anything else as sheriff in the next four years, if I can help kids and get this program running, that’ll be a success,” Petty said.

80 percent of Internet child porn victims under 10 years old

The true horror of Internet child pornography has been revealed by the Internet Watch Foundation, a UK organisation that works with law enforcement agencies to help prevent such abuse.

That new survey, published to coincide with IWF Awareness day, also reveals the truly shocking statistic that 80 percent of the children featured in these sickening images accessed by the IWF are under 10.

33 percent are under 3, and 10 percent are under 2.

Such figures make you appreciate why the Internet Watch Foundation itself does not refer to these collectively as being child pornography or kiddie porn, as it insists that these terms just serve to legitimise images which are not pornography.

Instead, it says that they are actually permanent records of children being sexually abused and as such should be referred to as 'child sexual abuse images.' To be honest, semantics and language aside, it does not matter what you call them: this is a sickening and evil trade that needs to be policed and prevented.

Bumper Stickers Helpful To Pedophiles

They are stickers that are becoming more and more popular on the back end of vehicles owned by families, and police say those stickers could be putting families at risk.

You've probably seen those little stick-figures on the back of cars representing a dad, mom and however many kids may be in that family. Police say this could be very helpful to a pedophile.

"Now you add in there the bumper sticker, where your child goes to school. They now have a geographical area of where you live, based on that single bumper sticker," says Sgt. Mark Marino of the Gilbert, AZ Police Department.

Police say many more of those stick-figure families are including the names of children and that makes matters worse. A criminal could have the first name of a young child, making it possible for that criminal to approach the child.

Sexual predator faces life sentence thanks to "brave girl"

A 50-year-old Bristol man who was convicted earlier this month on three counts of using his computer to sexually exploit children, is facing a sentence of life in prison.

John E, Hargrove, under the screen names "sun warrior48" and "master_4younger_f_slave," used instant messaging from his computer to lure four different minor females into chats in late 2006 and early 2007, according to documents revealed in U.S. District Court.

Evidence revealed in the three-day trial that ended Oct. 3 showed that Hargrove approached the victims after viewing their profile pages on MySpace. Of the four girls, two were actual teenage females and two were undercover law enforcement officers.

Evidence was presented at trial that Hargrove used the Internet to transfer images of child pornography. The photos were of a teen with whom he had an online relationship. The 15-year-old testified at the trial.

"In this case, a very brave girl took the stand to testify against the defendant and proved that victims will stand up for themselves and their rights," said Sharon L. Potter, U.S. attorney for the district, who oversaw the prosecution.

Halloween to be Dark Day for Sex Offenders

Perverts won't be handing out candy to your kids on Halloween, because they won't be at home.

District Attorney Susan Reed says the Adult Probation Department has called all convicted sex offenders who are on probation to a special meeting on Halloween night.

"They are going to have them all report at one place at one time and require that they attend a class during the time that kids are out on Halloween," Reed said.

Brilliant!

Accused child rapist found guilty, sentenced to life

ALife without parole was the sentence issued by Circuit Judge David Reynolds Friday at the end of a two-day trial of a man now found guilty of raping his 7-year-old daughter.

The defendant accused of bringing the girl into the bedroom of his Greenbrier home to watch he and his wife have sex before compelling the girl to perform sexual acts showed little emotion as the verdict was read.

The Court Appointed Special Advocates for Children (CASA) advocate assigned to the young victim wept openly at the end of a tense trial that included graphic and disturbing testimonies from three of the defendant's alleged victims and the mother of his daughter.

More of this tragic story: http://www.thecabin.net/stories/101108/loc_1011080003.shtml

Ohio Supreme Court denies pedophile & wife custody

PERMANENTLY denying custody of children to their parents is an extreme move that is never made lightly or without good reason. So it was recently when the Ohio Supreme Court decided to deny a convicted pedophile and his wife permanent custody of their children.

The overriding concern of any court dealing with difficult custody cases must be the best interest of the children involved, and the state's high court did not disappoint in its ruling on a Lucas County dispute. In a 6-1 decision, the court upheld the action of Lucas County Children Services to remove two children from their home because of worries about their father.

The father and mother, whose full names were not used in the case to protect the anonymity of their children, were considered safety risks to the youngsters. A report alleging that one of the children suffered from shaken baby syndrome initially led child service agency officials to investigate the family in 2005.

While their investigation did not reveal whether either parent was responsible and did not produce evidence that the father had abused either his son, born in 2004, or a daughter, born two years earlier, it did expose troubling aspects of the father's criminal history. He had been convicted of molesting two young boys in 1991.

The man served prison time for three felonies related to the sexual abuse and completed the terms of his probation, but evidently not to the satisfaction of those who dealt with him in therapy sessions. Therapist testimony suggested the convicted pedophile just went through the motions to terminate his probation.

After the agency had removed the children from his home, it also expressed reservations about the lack of progress the father and mother had made in subsequent counseling. A majority of the justices agreed that the threat of a relapse of pedophilia with the father, and the mother's apparent inability to prevent it, was real enough to keep the children away - permanently.

Justice Paul Pfeifer, the sole dissenter, while acknowledging concern about the father offending again, objected to the couple losing custody of their children for something that only might happen.

But when serious risk to a child's safety goes beyond possible to probable, society is better to err on the side of protecting its most vulnerable members than to take a chance.

12-year-old girl helps catch sex offender

The 12-year-old was walking in Sterne Park when a man in a green Subaru drove up and tried to lure her into his car, Lt. Charles Broadhead said.
"He made sexually suggestive gestures to her," Broadhead said.
The girl ran off, but not before she memorized the man's license plate.
Before she could get home and call police, a woman who was in Gallup Park told a police officer who was passing by that she had seen a man making similarly suggestive gestures to her - and he was driving a green Subaru.
The officer flagged down the man and talked to him, but the woman left the area before she could give a good description of the man.
Luckily, by then, the 12-year-old had called police and described the man.

Supreme Court Could Revist Death Penalty for Child Rape Decision

The Supreme Court is taking another look at one of last term's most controversial decisions, that it is unconstitutional to impose the death penalty on those who rape but do not kill children.

The highly unusual order from the court Monday stems from a glaring omission in the case: Lawyers on both sides failed to realize, and therefore failed to inform the court, that Congress had passed a federal law authorizing the death penalty for child rape by military personnel.

The court is asking the parties on both sides, as well as lawyers for the Bush administration, to file court papers on whether a rehearing is required and whether the existence of that federal law should change its analysis of the case. The briefs are due Sept. 24. A decision to rehear the case will take the votes of five justices under Supreme Court rules.

Kids Lived With Sex Offender In Filthy Home

Five children lived with a sex offender inside a filthy Price Hill home, police said.

Officers said they found human feces, trash and numerous bugs inside the Gilsey Avenue home.

James Miller, 34, a tier-two sex offender, lived with the children and their mother, police said.

Miller was previously convicted of sexually assaulting a girl. (2907.04- Unlawful sexual conduct with a minor.)

Parents warned of possible pedophile at youth sports events

Johnson City police are warning parents, especially parents with children attending sporting events, to be alert for a possible male pedophile.

The man, described as white and between the ages of 25 and 35, was reported on two or three occasions to have exposed himself to youngsters at athletic events at North Side Park, police said.

The man was reported by some as having earrings in both ears. The earrings appeared to be horseshoe-shaped, with balls at the end. The man had dark hair and a medium build. He was wearing sunglasses, black shorts and a red T-shirt, police said.

The man left the park in a vehicle described as a newer model, bright metallic blue, sporty, two-door car, possibly a Chevrolet, with a factory rear spoiler, according to Smith.

Anyone with information may call the Johnson City Police Department at 729-9321.