The Child Protection eNewsletter

Serial killers of young virgins on trial in France…

A French man accused of the serial murders of seven women and girls refused to speak at the opening of his trial unless the judge emptied the courtroom. Read More His wife is being tried at the same time, accused of complicity in five of the killings.

Michel Fourniret, 65, is charged with kidnapping, rape and murder in the crimes committed in France and Belgium between 1987 and 2003. The victims, aged 12 to 21, were strangled, shot or stabbed with a screwdriver.

As Michel Fourniret and Monique Olivier sat in a glass-fronted dock on the opening day of their trial, jurors were told chilling details of the grey-haired couple alleged to be among the most horrific criminals in the history of France. Read More Using an image of happily-married respectability, Olivier would gain the confidence of the girls and women they had identified as prey.

After they had been bound, gagged and sometimes drugged by her husband, she would examine them to check they were the virgins he desired. She would then hand them over to Fourniret “in the sole aim of allowing him to fulfill his fantasies”, according to a report read out in the court in Charleville-Mézières, in the Franco-Belgian border region where they once lived.

He would assault his victims--“beautiful little subjects” was how he referred to them--before shooting or strangling them, the report by investigating magistrates said. He has confessed to the crimes.

Olivier, 59, who is charged with one count of murder and complicity in four other killings, has admitted helping her husband but has sought to minimize her role with a claim that she was in his psychological grip.

The couple is suspected of a series of other crimes likely to be the subject of a subsequent hearing.

The court was also told how the couple was caught in 2003 when a 13-year-old Belgian girl bit through the rope with which they had tied her wrists and jumped out of their van.

Middle school pimp…

She's just 13 years old, a middle-schooler who is now facing charges involving a serious crime. Read More Police arrested the girl at a local nightclub where she was allegedly bringing other young girls to dance and to serve as prostitutes.

Investigators said the 13-year-old lured other girls to Club Metropolis, enticing them with the promise of money and even forcing some of them to dance and sell their bodies for sex.

"It's a really horrendous affair," said Dallas police Lieutenant Chess Williams.

Police estimate there are hundreds of teenage prostitutes on the streets of Dallas because there is a big demand. Recently, they found a 12-year-old girl dancing naked at a nightclub.

Police said the young girls aren't acting alone. They say some of the same people who are pimping out the adult prostitutes are the same ones exploiting young girls.

The 13-year-old was arrested on March 22, and charged with compelling prostitution. She and others like her may be runaways whose childhoods were stolen for profit.

Meanwhile, the city of Dallas cannot shut down a strip club just because a 12-year-old danced nude there. Read More The city ordinance that regulates sexually oriented businesses does not allow authorities to revoke the license of such a business for employing someone under 18. "There's a laundry list of things we can use to deny or revoke a license, but having a 12-year-old dancing in their establishment is not one of the things that automatically enables us to revoke their license," said Lieutenant Christina Smith, a Dallas police vice unit commander who oversees licensing of such establishments.

Escorts ride Chicago school busses to combat gun violence…

The morning trip to school for dozens of teenagers here had all the normal signs: bleary eyes, oversized jackets zipped up against the chill, the seemingly endless wait for the bus. Read More

But there was tension underlying the routine: The trip was under the watchful eyes of parents, an alderman, a principal and police.

The escort to and from Crane Tech High School this week, dubbed "Operation Safe Passage" is just one of the ways Chicago is dealing with a wave of violence that has stunned the city.

Since September, 20 Chicago Public Schools students have been killed, 18 by gunfire. Last school year, 24 of the more than 30 students killed were shot to death, compared with between 10 and 15 fatal shootings in the years before.

"The loss of life that we've seen among our young people is ... devastating," said school district spokesman Michael Vaughn. "This gun nonsense has reached a crisis level."

The number of violent deaths involving students in the nation's third-largest school district has increased so dramatically in the last two years that police are increasing school patrols and soon will be the first department in the country with live access to thousands of security cameras mounted outside--and inside--schools.

Chicago Public Schools is one of the only urban districts to track how many students are killed by guns--though none of the slayings have occurred on school property.

Nationally, homicide was the second-leading cause of death for young people ages 10 to 24 in 2004, and of those killed, 81 percent were killed with a firearm, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In other news…

A new study has found that rare and previously undetectable genetic variations may significantly increase the risk that a person will develop schizophrenia. Read More Experts said the study, while not identifying the cause of the disorder, provided a striking demonstration of how new gene-scanning technology can open a new frontier in the quest to understand the biology of mental disorders. Until now, researchers had focused on finding common and known genetic variations that, when acting in some combination, might increase the risk for schizophrenia. They have had little success. The new analysis, being published in the journal Science, detected extremely rare and unknown mutations that turned up three to four times as often in people with schizophrenia as in those without it. The findings point scientists to previously unappreciated developmental problems that may help them develop more effective treatments, experts said.

With candy sales banned on school campuses, sugar pushers are the latest trend at local schools. Backpacks are filled with Snickers and Twinkees for all sweet tooths willing to pay the price. Read More “It’s created a little underground economy, with businessmen selling everything from a pack of skittles to an energy drink,” said Jim Nason, principal at Hook Junior High School in Victorville, California. This has become a lucrative business, Nason said, and those kids are walking around campus with upwards of $40 in their pockets and disrupting class to make a sale.

A vice principal in Prince George's County, Maryland is indicted on child abuse charges. Read More Police removed 29-year-old Shadrick Woods from Gaywood Elemetary School on March 10, so the investigation into the allegations could proceed. A Prince George's County grand jury returned a four count indictment against Woods alleging child sexual abuse. Woods is accused of abusing a 6-year-old boy in a school restroom. According to sources, the inappropriate behavior began when Woods was helping the boy tuck in his shirt. It is also alleged that Woods bribed the boy to keep quiet with a hand held gaming device.

New research from the University of New Hampshire Crimes Against Children Research Center finds that child sexual abuse cases in the criminal justice system take an unusually long time to be prosecuted and resolved. Read More This is concerning because a prolonged court process has been shown to be detrimental to a child victim’s recovery and ongoing mental health. According to the study, over half of all cases took more than a year from indictment to conclusion with a third of cases taking more than two years or were still pending unresolved after two years. The American Bar Association says the standard time for felony prosecutions should be about six months, a deadline that was met by just 20 percent of the cases.

A California man who kidnapped and raped a 15-year-old girl was sentenced this week to 320 years to life in prison. Read More Henry Chavez was on parole for a previous sexual assault when he attacked the girl on August 14, 2005. Prosecutors said Chavez kidnapped the girl, brutally raped her and then dropped her off near Woodlake Park. "This defendant has demonstrated that he is absolutely incapable of being a productive member of our society. The defendant's compulsion to commit sexual crimes against woman and children is frightening. Now the defendant will serve the rest of his life in prison," Deputy District Attorney Allison Dunham said in a statement.

A Winter Park, Florida minister accused of wanting to "play doctor" and have sex with what he thought was a 15-year-old girl has been fired. Read More Investigators said music minister Jack Aldrich from First United Methodist Church in Winter Park made contact with an undercover officer posing as an underage girl. Information from the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office showed Aldrich allegedly had cybersex with the officer posing as the girl. Aldrich oversaw at least eight different vocal groups, including a youth choir and children's choir at the church, Local 6 reported.

A former Tarleton State University psychology professor who did research in child sexual abuse has been indicted on charges of possessing child pornography. Read More Thomas M. Dougherty, 42, of Stephenville, Texas, turned himself in to the Erath County Sheriff's Department and was released on $30,000 bail. If convicted, Dougherty faces up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Dougherty was a tenured professor specializing in learning disabilities, child and infant cognitive development and child sexual abuse.

A mother has pleaded not guilty to murdering her two children in Louisville, Kentucky. Read More Gail Lynn Coontz was arrested Thursday after police said she went to the University of Louisville and briefly held a counselor hostage. She was charged with killing her 14-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter at their south Louisville home. Authorities found the children's bodies after going to check on the home after the incident at the university.

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