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Archives > Volume 8 Issue 49 - August 4, 2010 Federal officials issue national strategy to fight child sex crimes...With child sex crimes in the United States sharply increasing, federal officials Monday issued a "national strategy" to combat child exploitation in homes, on streets and over the internet. CNN story here 
Top federal law enforcement officials led by Attorney General Eric Holder vowed to take new steps to stem rampant child pornography, online enticements, child prostitution and child sex tourism.
In a detailed report submitted to Congress on Monday, the Justice Department says that since 2006, when the government launched Project Safe Childhood, federal prosecutions have increased by 40 percent, and more than 8,600 defendants have been indicted. More than 2,400 alleged sex offenders were indicted in 2009 alone. "Tragically, the only place we've seen a decrease is in the age of the victims," Holder said. Officials said the average age of girls targeted for child pornography is 12 to 14, while the average age of boys targeted is 11 to 13. The attorney general spoke to a crowd gathered at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Alexandria, Virginia. He was joined by officials from the FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Postal Inspection Service. text of his remarks here Authorities say the national strategy will create a national database to allow agencies to better coordinate their cases, engage in undercover operations, share intelligence and conduct analysis on dangerous offenders and future threats. DOJ Press Release announcing strategy here French Woman Admits to Suffocating Newborns... A French woman who admitted suffocating eight of her newborns and concealing their corpses in the garden and garage of her home has been charged with manslaughter. ABC News story here 
Dominique Cottrez, a 46-year-old nurse's aide by profession, said that after a bad experience with her first pregnancy she never again wanted to see a doctor. She admitted delivering the babies herself and placing the corpses in plastic bags. She buried two of the newborns in the garden and hid the rest of them in the garage, prosecutor Eric Vaillant said.
"She explained that she didn't want any more children and that she didn't want to see a doctor to take contraceptives," Vaillant told a news conference. "She was perfectly conscious of the fact that she was pregnant each time." Cottrez and her husband, Pierre-Marie Cottrez, were detained after two corpses were discovered by the new owners in plastic bags in the garden of a house that had belonged to the woman's father in the town of Villers-au-Tertre in northern France. Under questioning, the woman admitted that there were six other corpses and told investigators that they were in plastic bags in the garage of her home where they were found. France has seen a string of cases in recent years of mothers killing their newborns and saving and hiding the corpses. In other news... 
The case of a missing 2-year-old boy who disappeared from an Arizona campground more than a week ago has turned into a criminal investigation, the Yavapai County sheriff announced Monday. CNN story here Syler Newton was last seen shortly after midnight July 24, sleeping in a tent with the family at the Beaver Creek Campgrounds. About 1:45 a.m. July 25, the family noticed that he was missing from his sleeping bag. "The sheriff's office believes Syler did not wander from the campground and he is presumably dead," Yavapai County Sheriff Steve Waugh told a news conference Monday. "The search effort is now in a recovery mode and the investigation has become criminal in nature." Waugh said investigators have spent the past three days searching more than 200 tons of garbage in a nearby landfill "to try to determine if in fact the boy's body was there." "Anything we could have done in that area has been searched," one investigator said Monday.
Phoenix police arrested a man for allegedly molesting his two daughters and two pastors were arrested for not reporting the abuse to authorities. AZfamily.com story here Teenagers who spend excessive amounts of time on the Internet are one and a half times more likely to develop depression than moderate web users, a study in China has found. MSNBC story here A registered sex offender who was already in jail has been accused of raping a 15-year-old California girl who he met on the Internet. ABC23 story here 
Investigators are trying to determine who sent e-mails containing images of child pornography to Wisconsin lawmakers as part of a blackmail plot. AP story here Ed Wall, the head of the state Justice Department's criminal investigations unit sent an e-mail Friday to the offices of all 132 state lawmakers warning them of e-mails that have been sent containing child porn. "The sender acknowledges that the intent of the note was to place child pornography on the recipient's computer as leverage to attain a desired legislative agenda," he wrote.
A former English teacher has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for traveling to Thailand to have sex with minors. ABC story here The sentence was ordered after prosecutors challenged a previous 10-year sentence, calling it too lenient. New research from the Mayo Clinic finds that a history of sexual abuse, regardless of the victim's gender or age when the abuse occurred, correlates strongly with a lifetime diagnosis of multiple psychiatric disorders. Science Daily story here *for access to member only sites like the New York Times, use the ID "JohnDoeID" and the password "whatever". On sites asking for an email address, feel free to use "info@childprotectionprogram.org" |
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