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The Child Protection eNewsletter

Mom indicted for Caylee Anthony's murder...

The mother of a missing 3-year-old Florida girl went before a judge Wednesday to hear charges she killed her daughter, a day after she was indicted after four months of searches yielded no sign of the child. MSNBC News story here

Casey Anthony, 22, appeared before Judge John Jordan, who read the charges against her and denied bond. Dressed in a blue jail jumpsuit, Anthony made no comment during the 90-second hearing. Her attorney, Jose Baez, declined comment afterward. She will be arraigned in about 30 days.

Anthony was arrested Tuesday after a grand jury indicted her on charges of first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse, aggravated manslaughter and four counts of lying to investigators about the disappearance of her daughter, Caylee.

Orange County Sheriff Kevin Beary said investigators' satisfaction that the indictment had been issued was tempered by what it concludes: That Caylee was apparently killed.

If convicted of first-degree murder, Anthony could face the death penalty or life in prison. Prosecutors said no decision has been made on whether to seek the death penalty.

Despite public denials of Casey Anthony's guilt by her attorney and her mother, a spokesman for Casey Anthony's defense team suggested in a cable news interview that her little girl Caylee is dead–but later her lead attorney said the comments were taken out of context. Fox News story here

Todd Black, speaking on behalf of 22-year-old Casey Anthony's lawyer Jose Baez, discussed the first-degree murder charges against Anthony in her daughter's disappearance.

Black said during the live phone interview that the case is not just about the loss of the girl's life but about her mother's fate.

"It's very difficult," Black said in the TV interview. "This is a serious case involving not just the loss of the life of this little girl, but the loss of whatever is going to happen with Casey Anthony."

Prosecutors have not been specific about how the evidence led to charges against Anthony, but experts say it is possible to get a conviction without a body, with several cases, including some in Florida, as examples. MSNBC News story here

Prosecutors have DNA tests and hair samples. They have testimony about "the smell of death" in the trunk of the suspect's car. What they do not have is a body. Prosecutors building a case against a single 22-year-old Florida mother accused of killing her young daughter will have to rely on forensic evidence and persuade a jury that Casey Anthony lacks credibility and had a motive, legal experts say.

To help build the case, the prosecutor will be using what he described as cutting-edge forensic tests, including air testing for compounds released when a body decomposes.

"Sometimes circumstantial evidence is as powerful, or more powerful than the body itself," said Donald Jones, a professor of criminal law at the University of Miami law school.

UK police raids reveal child porn and terrorism plot links...

A link between terrorism plots and hardcore child pornography is becoming clear after a string of police raids in Britain and across the Continent, an investigation by The Times has discovered. Timesonline News story here

Images of child abuse have been found during Scotland Yard antiterrorism swoops and in big inquiries in Italy and Spain. Secret coded messages are being embedded into child pornographic images, and pedophile websites are being exploited as a secure way of passing information between terrorists.

British security services are also aware of the trend and believe that it requires further investigation to improve understanding of terrorists' methods and mindsets. Concerns within the Metropolitan Police led to a plan to run a pilot research project exploring the nature of the link. One source familiar with the proposal said that this could eventually lead to the training of child welfare experts to identify signs of terrorist involvement as they monitor pornographic sites.

Officers have noted that child sex abuse images have been found during investigations into some of the most advanced suspected plots.

It is not clear whether the terrorists were more interested in the material for personal gratification or were drawn to child porn networks as a secure means of sending messages. In one case fewer than a dozen images were found; in another, 40,000.

British security sources confirmed that such a link had been discovered in several cases. They noted the contradiction between people supposedly devoted to theocracy and Islamic fundamentalism and their use of child pornography.

In other news...

A Fort Carson soldier admitted that he had violent sex with a 19-year-old woman before cutting her throat and leaving her to die in the wooded foothills west of Colorado Springs, according to an arrest affidavit released Tuesday. Colorado Springs Gazette story here Robert Hull Marko, 21, confessed to the slaying Monday before leading a detective nearly three miles up Old Stage Road and onto a chained-off dirt road to the area where authorities found the naked body of Judilianna "Judi" Lawrence, the affavit said. Marko is being held without bond at the county jail on suspicion of murder and sexual assault with a deadly weapon. He appeared for video advisement Tuesday, and is due to return to court for an appearance October 20. The grisly admissions ended a four-day search for Lawrence, who her mother said suffered from ADHD severe enough that she was unable to drive and was taking classes preparing her to live independently. She went missing Friday morning after arriving for a meeting with Marko the pair arranged on MySpace.com, the affidavit said. Her family knew nothing of the meeting, the mother said. See also vol6_iss64.

The Scarlet Letter for Maryland sex offenders this Halloween will be a bright orange pumpkin. Washington Times story here That is the symbol on a sign they are required to post on their doors with a warning, in capital letters, to trick-or-treaters: "No candy at this residence." The paper signs began arriving last week in the mailboxes of the roughly 1,200 violent and child-sex offenders across the state with a letter explaining how they are to comport themselves on October 31. "Halloween provides a rare opportunity for you to demonstrate to your neighbors that you are making a sincere effort to change the direction of your life," the letter states. In addition to posting the sign, the offenders must stay at home, turn off outside lights and not answer the door, according to the letter obtained by The Washington Times. "Because Halloween is a holiday in which large numbers of children interact with strangers, the concern among parents and other community members about sexual offenders in their neighborhoods is naturally intensified during this time of year," Patrick McGee, interim director of the state's Division of Parole and Probation, wrote in the October 1 letter.

Two men posing as police officers kidnapped a 6-year-old boy in a drug dispute after entering his family's home and tying up his mother and her boyfriend, police said. Fox News story here An Amber Alert was expanded nationwide as police searched for Cole Puffinburger, who was taken Wednesday, police said. There is a definite "drug nexus," Las Vegas Police Captain Vincent Cannito said at a news conference Thursday. "Significant money and drugs" were involved, he said, but he would not provide more details. Two men identified themselves as police officers to gain entry to the home several miles northeast of downtown Las Vegas, Cannito said. They demanded money, and the home was ransacked and the couple tied up, he said. "This child witnessed that," he said. "This child was ripped from the home."

New technologies and changes in U.S. law are adding to pressures to turn Internet service providers into cops examining all Internet traffic for child pornography. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27198621/ One new tool, being marketed in the U.S. by an Australian company, offers to check every file passing through an Internet provider's network–every image, every movie, every document attached to an e-mail or found in a Web search–to see if it matches a list of illegal images. The company caught the attention of New York's attorney general, who has been pressing Internet companies to block child porn. He forwarded the proposal to one of those companies, AOL, for discussion by an industry task force that is looking for ways to fight child porn. A copy of the company's proposal was also obtained by msnbc.com. See also vol6_iss3 for more on policing the net.

A one-time top lieutenant to Martin Luther King Jr. was sentenced to 15 years in prison in Virginia for having sex more than a decade ago with his then-teenage daughter. AP News story here The Reverend James L. Bevel, 71, a key architect of the 1963 Children's Crusade in Birmingham, Alabama, and other pivotal moments of the civil rights movement, was convicted earlier this year of a single count of incest. The assault occurred in the early 1990s in Loudoun County, when Bevel was working closely with the Virginia-based organization led by political extremist Lyndon LaRouche. The 15-year sentence imposed by Circuit Judge Burke McCahill was the most severe allowed. Sentencing guidelines called for probation only. Bevel testified during that he was recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer that has spread to his liver. Doctors estimate he has only six weeks to six months to live. Bevel had hoped for probation so he could enter hospice care. But prosecutors said his illness should not temper his sentence. "We know that the defendant is dying," said Prosecutor Gigi Lawless. "Everyone dies. This defendant should die in jail."

An eastern Idaho woman whose boyfriend impregnated her 9-year-old daughter has been sentenced to 10 years in prison. Fox News story here Isabel Chasarez, 27, must serve at least one year in prison before she is eligible for parole, 7th District Judge Brent Moss ordered at the sentencing hearing. Chasarez pleaded guilty in August to failing to provide proper prenatal care for her daughter. Her 38-year-old boyfriend, Guadalupe Gutierrez-Juarez, pleaded guilty to rape in September. He is scheduled to be sentenced October 28 and faces life in prison. The girl became pregnant at age 9, sometime between August 1 and September 30 2007, authorities say, and gave birth in April.

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