585 Gay lobby targets Scout movement. Abuse cases in schools, orphanages, aboriginal communities, defence force

Gay lobby targets Scout movement. Abuse cases in schools, orphanages,
aboriginal communities, defence force

Newsletter published on 27-2-2013

(1) Abuse cases in schools, orphanages, aboriginal communities, defence
force
(2) Gay lobby targets Scout movement: they "hate Gays", but "are
Homosexual Predators"
(3) Boy Scouts “perversion files” on 1,000 expelled scout leaders will
be made public
(4) 1,200 files released on suspected molesters in Boy Scouts; doctors,
lawyers, politicians, policemen accused
(5) Under pressure, Boy Scouts may end exclusion of Gays as Scouts or
Leaders
(6) BBC out-of-court settlement to (ex) Politician it called a Pedophile
(7) Santa accused of indecent assault on 7-year-old
(8) 75-year-old Santa Claus charged with indecent assault at Adelaide
shopping centre
(9) Shopping-centre Santa charged with indecent assault, & producing &
possessing child pornography
(10) Australia's Royal Commission on child abuse may include abuse in
Aboriginal communities
(11) Men 'raped in Sydney office'
(12) School where sexual assault of students was kept secret by state
Government
(13) South Australian Labor government did not tell parents about sex
abuse at more than five public schools
(14) Headmaster won't expel boy charged with rape
(15) Female teacher jailed for sex with 8-year-old boys, but acquitted
after doubts raised
(16) Speaker of Australia's House of Reps resigns over sexual harassment
claims
(17) Abuse victims from orphanages and foster care
(18) Sex abuse in the Australian Defence Force
(19) Jerusalem Court convicts man for sodomy and indecent assault
against Haredi children
(20) Child abuse is underreported in Israel
(21) Brooklyn sex abuser was a member of Hasidic modesty patrol
(22) Brooklyn Orthodox sex abusers exempt from public disclosure

(1) Abuse cases in schools, orphanages, aboriginal communities, defence
force
- Peter Myers, February 27, 2013

It's not only the Churches that are being pilloried over abuse claims.
Now it's spreading to politicians, the media (BBC), schools, orphanages,
aboriginal communities, defence forces and more. I have been collecting
such cases for some months, and am bundling them together here.

Obviously some of this attention is justified. But surely it has gone
too far.

JFK would have been hounded from office for numerous sex scandals, had
the media in his day been as intrusive as it is today. Is that what we want?

Politicians and celebrities need to be allowed to have a private life,
without the details of their sex life being broadcast in the media.

We're losing sight of the difference between flirting - surely not a
crime - and rape.

Church leaders and Scout leaders are being attacked from two sides. On
the one hand, they're accused of not preventing sexual assault (commonly
homosexual), and sacked for covering it up. On the other, they're
pressured to drop the strictures against Gays in their organizations.

The same Liberals who pillory the Church for sex abuse oppose any
restriction on Pornography.

The Mums and Dads have been voting with their wallets. They have been
moving their children from government schools - which are seen as
hotbeds of homosexual propaganda - to Church schools. The parents know
that their children are safer there, whatever the media ballyhoo.

Michael Leunig, an Australian cartoonist long known for a Left stance,
made enemies among Feminists when his cartoon "Thoughts of a Baby Lying
in a Child Care Centre" was published in The Melbourne Age in 1995 and
republished in The Age of April 29, 2000.

The baby is shown thinking "I can't believe it! My own mother - who I
want to be with more than anything in the world; my mother - font of all
goodness and warmth, dumps me in this horrendous creche. I can't believe
it."
http://mailstar.net/leunig-baby.jpg

For this cartoon, Leunig was branded a misogynist.

Perhaps in decades to come, the widespread placement of babies just 6
months old in creches will be seen as a form of Child Abuse. A form not
noticed in our time, because our values are set by Feminism, and
Feminism teaches that it's ok.

The evidence on attachment (bonding) from John Bowlby and his research
colleagues is that infants need to bond with people who will be in their
lives long-term. Apart from parents and relatives, this can include a
nanny or carer, provided that that person is fairly constant in the
child's life.

Penelope Leach, an expert on child care, wrote a book called Children
First, to try to correct the Career First prescription of Feminism. Even
she had to cede ground, to win favour.

(2) Gay lobby targets Scout movement: they "hate Gays", but "are
Homosexual Predators"

From: Fred L. Partin <fpartin@centurylink.net> Date: 30 January 2013 01:48

Peter,

This is how the US media rolls out Nietzsche meme/zeitgeist on a daily
repetition like a broken record playing over and over. Good is bad and
crushes from the right and the left as well as up and down.

On the one hand Boy Scouts hates Gays
http://www.chron.com/news/texas/article/Under-pressure-Boy-Scouts-may-ease-no-gays-policy-4230852.php

On the other hand Boy Scouts are Homosexual Predators
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/10/boy-scouts-child-abuse-files-contain-chilling-graphic-accounts-.html

Why do they incessantly attack religion, boyscouts, Catholics, etc.
using this meme? Because they oppose their views and further
nationalism and individualism as well as belief in God other than theirs.

(3) Boy Scouts “perversion files” on expelled scout leaders will be made
public

http://www.salon.com/2012/10/18/boy_scouts_to_release_perversion_files/

Boy Scouts “perversion files” to be released

Allegations against over 1,000 expelled scout leaders between 1965 and
1985 will be made public

BY NATASHA LENNARD

The so-called “perversion files” from the Boy Scouts of America will be
released Thursday — 20,000 pages detailing sex abuse allegations against
over 1,000 expelled scout leaders and volunteers between the years 1965
and 1985.

Following lawsuits from young men (now adults) abused as boy scouts
during this period, and requests from media companies, the Oregon
Supreme Court ordered the documents be made public last month. All
victim names and personal details will be redacted from the files before
release.

Recent, damning investigations by the L.A. Times revealed that, although
much of the information in the “perversion files” was already public
(such as police and newspaper reports), in hundreds of cases,
allegations of child molestation were never reported to police, and more
than 125 men named in the files were able to volunteer for other Boy
Scout troops after allegations were documented by the institution. CNN
reported that attorneys representing victims are also seeking the
release of post-1985 files from the Boy Scouts. CNN noted:

The files will show that the expelled Scout leaders and volunteers — all
men — “are sociopathic geniuses,” said attorney Kelly Clark of Portland,
who has reviewed the 20,000 pages and is among the attorneys releasing
the papers Thursday.

“They fool everybody,” he said. “And then they are able to coerce,
convince or threaten these kids to stay silent. And you see that play
out over and over again in the files.”

The media companies seeking the release of the files were the Associated
Press, The Oregonian newspaper in Portland, Oregon Public Broadcasting,
KGW, The New York Times and Courthouse News Service. The release follows
the recent online publication of the names of nearly 2,000 scouting
volunteers accused of abuse between 1971 and 1991.

(4) 1,200 files released on suspected molesters in Boy Scouts; doctors,
lawyers, politicians, policemen accused

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/10/boy-scouts-child-abuse-files-contain-chilling-graphic-accounts-.html

Boy Scouts child abuse files contain chilling, graphic accounts

October 19, 2012 | 3:33 am

The more than 1,200 files released on suspected molesters in the Boy
Scouts of America include chilling accounts.

Many files include graphic descriptions of abuse by young victims,
including a 10-year-old scout from Georgia who described being raped by
his 27-year-year leader on a 1972 camping trip.

"I kept saying I wanted to go back swimming but he said, 'Just a
minute,' " the boy wrote.

"I was crying. … I didn't go on any more camping trips."

The scoutmaster was not tried in that case, but later was convicted of
child sexual abuse and sentenced to 14 years in prison, public records
show.

Times investigative reporter Jason Felch and producer Ken Schwencke
discussed the article and The Times database produced from the files in
a Google+ Hangout. (See video above.)

The court-ordered release of the files offers a detailed view of how the
Scouts handled suspected molestations from the early 1960s through 1985.

Suspected abusers from all over the country are named in the files —
many of them never reported to police or charged with a crime. Doctors,
lawyers, politicians and policemen are among the accused and many are
about to face public exposure for the first time.

The secrets are out,” said Kelly Clark, one of the plaintiff’s lawyers
in an Oregon lawsuit that resulted in a nearly $20-million judgment
against the Scouts in 2010. “Child abuse thrives in secrecy, and secret
systems are where it breeds.”

Clark’s office made the confidential files public — minus the names of
victims and others who reported suspected abuse — after the Oregon
Supreme Court ordered their release in June at the request of news
organizations including the Oregonian, Oregon Public Broadcasting, the
New York Times and the Associated Press. Kept by the Boy Scouts for
nearly 100 years, the files were intended for internal use to bar
suspected molesters from rejoining the organization.

The Los Angeles Times over the last several months analyzed a larger and
slightly more recent batch of files — 1,900 cases opened on suspected
child abusers from 1970 to 1991. In hundreds of cases, the newspaper
found, the Scouts failed to report abuse to authorities and many times
covered up allegations to protect the organization’s reputation. The
Times also found that dozens of men who were expelled on suspicion of
sexual abuse managed to reenter the organization only to face new
allegations.

The Times is incorporating the files released Thursday into its own
online database, which contains information on nearly 5,000 such cases
spanning 1947 to January 2005. The database offers a complete record of
files opened during that period except for an unknown number of files
that have been purged by the Scouts over the years. More than 300 cases
involve someone with ties to a troop or unit in California.

ON THE MAP: Names, locations of alleged sex abuse

Months ago, The Times obtained the information for its analysis and
database from a Seattle attorney, Timothy Kosnoff, who has sued the
Scouts more than 100 times on behalf of alleged victims of child abuse.

In a statement Thursday, Boy Scouts’ National President Wayne Perry
acknowledged that some allegations of abuse have been mishandled by the
Scouts.

“There have been instances where people misused their positions in
Scouting to abuse children, and in certain cases, our response to these
incidents and our efforts to protect youth were plainly insufficient,
inappropriate or wrong,” Perry said. “Where those involved in Scouting
failed to protect, or worse, inflicted harm on children, we extend our
deepest and sincere apologies to victims and their families."

Perry underscored the organization's enhanced child-protection efforts
in recent years, including increased background checks, training and
mandatory reporting of all suspected abuse.

Scouting officials have long maintained that analyzing the files would
not enhance their efforts to protect scouts — even after some of their
own expert advisors urged them to do such a review. After a judge's
decision to release the files in the Oregon case, however, the
organization commissioned a study of hundreds of cases between 1965 and
1985. Janet Warren, a psychiatry professor at the University of
Virginia, found no common profile among predators.

Others said the files are of considerable value to researchers and youth
groups. "This is the biggest and maybe the only set we have on child
abuse in American youth organizations," said Patrick Boyle, who reviewed
hundreds of files for his 1994 book "Scouts Honor: Sexual Abuse in
America's Most Trusted Institution." "It gives us incredible insights."

(5) Under pressure, Boy Scouts may end exclusion of Gays as Scouts or
Leaders

http://www.chron.com/news/texas/article/Under-pressure-Boy-Scouts-may-ease-no-gays-policy-4230852.php

Under pressure, Boy Scouts may ease no-gays policy

AP National Writer, By DAVID CRARY | January 29, 2013 | Updated: January
29, 2013 6:53am

NEW YORK (AP) — Facing diverse and ceaseless protests, the Boy Scouts of
America is signaling its readiness to end the nationwide exclusion of
gays as scouts or leaders and give the sponsors of local troops the
freedom to decide the matter for themselves.

If approved by the Scouts' national executive board, possibly as soon as
next week, the change would be another momentous milestone for America's
gay-rights movement, following a surge of support for same-sex marriage
and the ending of the ban on gays serving opening in military.

"The pulse of equality is strong in America, and today it beats a bit
faster with news that the Boy Scouts may finally put an end to its long
history of discrimination," said Chad Griffin of the Human Rights
Campaign, a major gay-rights group.

Under the proposed change, which was outlined Monday by the Scouts, the
different religious and civic groups that sponsor Scout units would be
able to decide for themselves how to address the issue — either
maintaining an exclusion of gays, as is now required of all units, or
opening up their membership.

Southern Baptist leaders — who consider homosexuality a sin — were
furious about the possible change and said its approval might encourage
Southern Baptist churches to support other boys' organizations instead
of the BSA. The Southern Baptists are among the largest sponsors of
Scout units, along with the Roman Catholic, Mormon and United Methodist
churches.

Under the proposed change, said BSA spokesman Deron Smith, "the Boy
Scouts would not, under any circumstances, dictate a position to units,
members, or parents."

The Irving, Texas-based BSA, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in
2010, has long excluded both gays and atheists. Smith said that a change
in the policy toward atheists was not being considered and that the BSA
continued to view "Duty to God" as one of its basic principles.

Protests over the no-gays policy gained momentum in 2000, when the U.S.
Supreme Court upheld the BSA's right to exclude gays. Scout units lost
sponsorships by public schools and other entities that adhered to
nondiscrimination policies, and several local Scout councils made public
their displeasure with the policy.

More recently, pressure surfaced on the Scouts' own national executive
board. Two high-powered members — Ernst & Young CEO James Turley and
AT&T Inc. CEO Randall Stephenson — indicated they would try to work from
within to change the membership policy, which stood in contrast to their
own companies' non-discrimination policies.

Amid petition campaigns by Change.org, shipping giant UPS Inc. and
drug-manufacturer Merck & Co. announced that they were halting donations
from their charitable foundations to the Boy Scouts as long as the
no-gays policy was in force.

Also, local Scout officials drew widespread criticism last year for
ousting Jennifer Tyrrell, a lesbian mom, as a den leader of her son's
Cub Scout pack in Ohio and for refusing to approve an Eagle Scout
application by Ryan Andresen, a California teen who came out as gay last
fall.

Tyrrell said she was thrilled for parents and their children who've been
excluded from scouting and "for those who are in Scouts and hiding who
they are."

"For me it's not just about the Boy Scouts of America, it's about
equality," she told The Associated Press. "This is a step toward
equality in all aspects."

Many of the protest campaigns, including one seeking Tyrrell's
reinstatement, had been waged with help from the Gay & Lesbian Alliance
Against Defamation.

"The Boy Scouts of America have heard from Scouts, corporations and
millions of Americans that discriminating against gay scouts and scout
leaders is wrong," said Herndon Graddick, GLAAD's president. "Scouting
is a valuable institution, and this change will only strengthen its core
principles of fairness and respect."

The Scouts had reaffirmed the no-gays policy as recently as last year
and appeared to have strong backing from the conservative religious
denominations that sponsor large numbers of Scout units. Under the
proposed change, they could continue excluding gays.

Before Monday's announcement, the BSA conferred with some leaders of
these religious groups, including the Rev. Frank Page, who leads the
Southern Baptist Executive Committee.

According to Roger S. Oldham, a spokesman for the executive committee,
Page then wrote to the Scouts "expressing his tremendous dismay at the
decision."

"They had been working for months on this proposal and just days before
they informed us," Oldham said in a telephone interview. "We would
anticipate that there would be a very significant backlash to this as
churches re-evaluate whether scouting comports with their values."

If the Scouts proceed with the change, Oldham said, SBC leaders were
likely to issue a statement "expressing disappointed and encouraging our
churches to support alternative boys organizations." ...

The announcement came shortly after new data showed that membership in
the Cub Scouts — the BSA's biggest division — dropped sharply last year
and was down nearly 30 percent over the past 14 years.

According to figures provided by the organization, Cub Scout ranks
dwindled by 3.4 percent, from 1,583,166 in 2011 to 1,528,673 in 2012.
That's down from 2.17 million in 1998.

The BSA's overall "traditional youth membership" — Cub Scouts, Boy
Scouts and Venturers — totaled 2,658,794 in 2012, compared to more than
4 million in peak years of the past.

The Boy Scouts attribute the decline largely to broad social changes,
including the allure of video games and the proliferation of youth
sports leagues and other options for after-school activities.

However, critics of the Scouts suggest that its recruitment efforts have
been hampered by high-profile controversies — notably the court-ordered
release of files dealing with sex abuse allegations and persistent
protests over the no-gays policy.

The Scouts have been buffeted in recent years by multiple court cases
related to past allegations of sexual abuse by Scout leaders, including
those chronicled in long-confidential records that are widely known as
the "perversion files."

Through various cases, the Scouts have been forced to reveal files
dating from the 1960s to 1991. They detailed numerous cases where abuse
claims were made and Boy Scout officials never alerted authorities and
sometimes actively sought to protect the accused.

The BSA has apologized for past lapses and cover-ups and has stressed
the steps taken to improve youth protection policy. Since 2010, for
example, it has mandated that any suspected abuse be reported to police.

_ Associated Press writers John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, and Rachel Zoll
in New York contributed to this report.

David Crary can be reached at http://twitter.com/CraryAP

(6) BBC out-of-court settlement to (ex) Politician it called a Pedophile

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/16/world/europe/ex-politician-in-bbc-scandal-calls-accusations-rubbish.html

Ex-Politician Reaches Settlement With BBC Over Libel Claim

By JOHN F. BURNS

Published: November 15, 2012

LONDON — A former British politician who was wrongly implicated in child
sexual abuse by the British Broadcasting Corporation has reached an
out-of-court settlement of £185,000, equivalent to about $295,000, to
settle his libel claim against the beleaguered broadcaster, the BBC said
in a statement on Thursday night.

The settlement was reached only 13 days after the BBC, already in crisis
over its coverage of a pedophile scandal involving one of its own
best-known television hosts, was pitched into still greater turmoil by
broadcasting an investigative report that pointed to the former
politician Alistair McAlpine. Although not named in the report, he was
identified in a way that quickly led to his being named on the Internet
as a pedophile who preyed on boys in a children’s home in north Wales 30
years ago.

Last week, the BBC said that the public affairs program “Newsnight” had
erred in identifying a “senior Thatcher-era politician” — Mr. McAlpine,
who was treasurer of the Conservative Party in the early 1980s under
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher — as the child abuser, and it
acknowledged the error as a case of mistaken identity. Mr. McAlpine
immediately announced his intention to sue the BBC and others who had
followed its lead in falsely implicating him.

That was followed within 48 hours by the resignation of the BBC’s
director general, George Entwistle, who had been in the job barely eight
weeks, and a shake-up of the BBC’s hierarchy that saw several top
executives and program-makers suspended pending the completion of
inquiries into the BBC coverage of the scandal.

BBC insiders have said that the crisis is one of the greatest in the
corporation’s 90-year history, and one that will lend new momentum to
demands for extensive reforms at the $6-billion-a-year public broadcaster.

The BBC statement on the settlement with Mr. McAlpine said that the
agreement would be ratified within a few days in court, and that both
sides would make fuller statements at that time.

But lawyers who were not involved in the case said the settlement would
set a standard for those that could be expected in a host of other suits
that Mr. McAlpine and his lawyers have said they intend to pursue.

Mr. McAlpine, 70, who had spoken only through his lawyers since the BBC
program ran, broke his silence on Thursday with an interview on the BBC,
an organization he described as admired by “people all over the world”
as “the only honest voice” available to them. In the interview he spoke
of the personal turmoil he had experienced as a result of the
“Newsnight” broadcast that implicated him in child abuse.

“To suddenly find yourself a figure of public hatred, unjustifiably, is
terrifying,” he said, adding that because many people believe there is
“no smoke without fire” he expected some of the stigma arising from the
episode to remain with him for the rest of his life.

“It really was a horrendous shock,” he said. “What really shattered me
was when all of a sudden this was spread all over the world,” in
broadcasts, newspaper headlines and in a torrent of messages on social
media sites, including Twitter.

Mr. McAlpine made his remarks on his return to Britain from Italy, where
he has lived out of the public eye for many years, running a guesthouse
with his Italian wife in a converted convent near the city of Bari. He
said he had no television, newspaper or Internet access there, and
became aware that he had been cast into the center of the scandal only
when it was already a worldwide story.

Calling the allegations on the “Newsnight” broadcast “complete rubbish,”
he said he had only been “once in my life” to Wrexham, the Welsh town
that is the site of the children’s home involved. He said the BBC had
never called him to give him an opportunity to deny the allegations
before the program appeared.

“They could have saved themselves a lot of agonizing, and money,
actually, if they’d just made that telephone call,” he said.

Mr. McAlpine, who is in poor health with a longstanding heart ailment,
spoke with a husky, at times barely audible voice in the 15-minute
interview with the BBC’s flagship noontime radio newscast, “World at
One,” which took place at the offices of his lawyer, Andrew Reid.

The disclosure that Mr. McAlpine had been wrongfully implicated
compounded a deepening crisis at the BBC with its roots in an earlier
decision by “Newsnight” to cancel a segment investigating Jimmy Savile,
a longtime BBC television host now said by the police to have sexually
abused 300 young people over decades.

The BBC has acknowledged that Mr. McAlpine was not contacted by
“Newsnight” to comment on the allegation. His accuser, Steve Messham, a
former resident of the children’s home, has since withdrawn his
accusation and apologized, calling it a case of mistaken identity and
blaming mistakes by the police in an abortive investigation into the
pedophile allegations in the 1990s. The BBC has also acknowledged that
Mr. Messham was not asked to identify Mr. McAlpine from a photograph.

In the interview, Mr. McAlpine was asked about a remark by Boris
Johnson, the mayor of London, that to call someone a pedophile was to
“consign them to the lowest circle of hell — and while they’re still
alive.” He replied: “Absolutely. I think it describes pretty much what
happened to me in the first few days of this event.” He added, “It gets
into your soul and you just think there’s something wrong with the world.”

Mr. Reid said that there was a “very long list” of others that could be
the target of lawsuits by Mr. McAlpine. Referring to the involvement of
those who used social media to defame Mr. McAlpine, he said they would
have to learn that such sites were not “a closed gossip coffee shop” and
that there were legal liabilities involved.

“Let it be a lesson to everyone that trial by Internet is a very nasty
way to hurt people, and it will end up costing people a lot of money,”
Mr. Reid said.

Alan Cowell contributed reporting.

A version of this article appeared in print on November 16, 2012, on
page A12 of the New York edition with the headline: Britain: BBC Settles
a Libel Claim.

(7) Santa accused of indecent assault on 7-year-old

http://www.smh.com.au/national/santa-accused-of-indecent-assault-on-7yearold-20121221-2br1f.html

December 21, 2012 - 4:15PM

A shopping-centre Santa Claus has been arrested south of Adelaide,
charged with the alleged indecent assault of a child.

Police arrested the 75-year-old man on Tuesday following an incident at
Southgate Plaza Shopping Centre at Morphett Vale, in Adelaide's south.

The assault allegedly occurred in front of the mother of the
seven-year-old child on Tuesday.

The man has been bailed to appear before the Christies Beach Magistrates
Court in January.

His bail conditions prevent him having contact with children.

Superintendent Graeme Adcock urged parents not to overreact.

"I think an important aspect of this is [that] it does touch on a very
long standing and innocent relationship between Father Christmas and a
child," he said.

"There are many people who perform a role as Father Christmas as a
community service and we don't want to taint that particular
relationship and their role."

He urged parents to continue taking their children to visit Santa.

However, police have provided details of the man's work history as Santa
Claus.

He worked at Southgate Plaza as Santa in the afternoon on December 3, 4,
6, 10, 11, 13, 17 and 18. He also worked at Wilfred Taylor Reserve,
Morphett Vale on December 1 and Kalara Reserve on December 15.

"He was employed by a contractor external to Southgate Plaza Shopping
Centre," a police spokesperson said.

Southgate Plaza Shopping Centre has been contacted for comment.

Victor Harbor Times

(8) 75-year-old Santa Claus charged with indecent assault at Adelaide
shopping centre

http://www.news.com.au/national/santa-charged-with-indecent-assault-at-suburban-shopping-centre/story-fndo4dzn-1226541826134

Santa charged with indecent assault at suburban shopping centre

adelaidenow

December 21, 201212:47PM

A SHOPPING centre Father Christmas has been arrested for an alleged
indecent assault in Adelaide's southern suburbs.

The 75-year-old was arrested by South Coast detectives on Tuesday and
charged with aggravated indecent assault on a child.

It is alleged the offence occurred in front of the child's mother at the
South Gate Plaza shopping centre on Sherriff's Rd, Morphett vale, that day.

The man was working as a contractor for a store in the centre and was
dressed as Father Christmas.

He also worked at South Gate on December 3, 4, 6, 10, 11, 13, 17 and 18
and the Wilfred Taylor Reserve, Morphett Vale, on December 1 and Kalara
Reserve on December 15.

Police would not speculate if providing the details of the man's
previous appearances as Father Christmas means there may be more victims.

"This is very early in the investigation so it it is not possible to say
that there is other victims," Superintendent Graeme Adcock said.

"We are just alerting the public to the circumstances."

Police said the attack should not hinder parents from taking their
children to visit a Father Christmas in the coming days.

"I think the important aspect of this is it does touch on a very long
standing and innocent relationship between Father Christmas and a
child," Supt Adcock said.

"There are many people who perform a role as Father Christmas as a very
good community service and we don't wish to taint that particular
relationship and there role."

"Continue to take your children to Santa as you would yesterday."

The man was released on bail to appear in the Christies Beach
Magistrates Court late next month.

His bail conditions prevent him from contacting children.

(9) Shopping-centre Santa charged with indecent assault, & producing &
possessing child pornography

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/shopping-centre-santa-charged-with-indecent-assault-of-children-in-court/story-e6frea83-1226565218618

Shopping-centre Santa charged with indecent assault of children in court

Court Reporter Andrew Dowdell

adelaidenow

January 30, 2013

A SHOPPING-CENTRE Santa Claus who allegedly indecently assaulted
children while acting in the role has appeared in court for the first time.

The man, 75, appeared in Christies Beach Magistrates Court today charged
with one count of aggravated indecent assault.

The man - who cannot yet be named - allegedly assaulted a seven-year-old
child at the South Gate Plaza at Morphett Vale on December 18 last year,
as he was fulfilling a role as Santa Claus.

Prosecutors asked Magistrate Brett Dixon to transfer the charge to
Adelaide Magistrates Court, where the man faces a number of other
charges relating to similar alleged offending.

Police charged the man with a total of seven counts of aggravated
indecent assault at Warradale, Reynella, Morphett Vale and Davoren Park
between June and December last year.

The man is also charged with producing and possessing child pornography
at his former Warradale home in December.

Mr Dixon transferred the man's bail to allow him to live at a city
homeless shelter and altered conditions to prevent him from coming into
contact with any child under 16.

The man was remanded on continuing bail to face court again in March.

(10) Australia's Royal Commission on child abuse may include abuse in
Aboriginal communities

http://article.wn.com/view/2012/11/18/Child_abuse_inquiry_may_include_issue_of_indigenous_mistreat/

Child abuse inquiry may include issue of indigenous mistreatment

The Australian

November 18, 2012

THE mistreatment of indigenous children in federal institutions may be
included for examination by the royal commission into child abuse, says
Acting Families Minister Brendan O'Connor. Mr O'Connor today said the
composition of the commission would be determined by the end of the year
and multiple commissioners could be appointed to run hearings
concurrently. Login to read the rest of this article

(11) Men 'raped in Sydney office'

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/men-raped-in-sydney-office/story-e6frg6nf-1226530206227

AAP December 05, 2012 8:42AM

A MAN alleged to have sexually assaulted other men at a city centre
office in Sydney has been charged by police.

The alleged offences date back to 1995 to 2004, involving four victims.

Strike Force Woodcliff was formed to investigate the alleged sexual
assaults by the man, who worked in the Pitt Street office.

The alleged offender, aged 60, was arrested yesterday and charged with
seven offences including sexual intercourse without consent and indecent
assault.

He was granted bail to appear in the Downing Centre Local Court on
January 22, 2013.

(12) School where sexual assault of students was kept secret by state
Government

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/second-adelaide-school-kept-sex-abuse-case-details-from-parents/story-e6frg6n6-1226536595986

Summer of worry in school sex cases

BY: POLITICAL REPORTER LAUREN NOVAK

The Advertiser December 14, 2012 11:00PM

THOUSANDS of parents face a worrying wait over the school holidays to
learn whether their children attended a school where sexual incidents
involving students have been kept secret by the State Government.

Education Minister Grace Portolesi revealed yesterday that information
about incidents at three schools had been deliberately withheld from
parents.

This included a suburban high school where a teacher was charged with
sex offences.

A letter was sent to parents at that school yesterday but Ms Portolesi
said parents of students at the other two schools would not be given
details until the new year. She would not give reasons for the delay.

Ms Portolesi would not say whether they were primary or high schools,
when the incidents occurred or when she became aware of them.

SA Association of School Parent Clubs president Jenice Zerna said the
wait would "seem an eternity" for parents and called on the Government
to "not leave the parents hanging, wondering `is it my children's
school?' ".

Of the high school incident, Ms Portolesi said a "conscious" decision
was made to delay telling parents because a "family member" of the
alleged perpetrator attended the school.

She would not elaborate on why parents could be told now.

Ms Portolesi would not say if police advice had been recieved in making
the decision not to tell parents about the high school incident.

A teacher, 53, appeared in Adelaide Magistrates Court yesterday charged
with aggravated indecent assault, two counts of a person in authority
having sex with a person under 18 and one count of gross indecency.

The charges relate to alleged offences committed against a female who
was a student between Years 8 and 11 sometime between July 2008 and
December 2009.

Court files show some of the sexual acts allegedly happened in the
teacher's office and the school's computer room.

The man, who was teaching at a public school when he allegedly committed
the offences, was remanded on continuing bail to face court again in
February.

The man cannot be named under state laws because he is yet to enter a
plea to the charges.

Ms Portolesi and Premier Jay Weatherill have been under intense pressure
over transparency in schools since it was revealed in October that
parents at a north-western suburbs school were not told for two years of
the rape of a student in 2010.

This prompted an independent inquiry by former Supreme Court Justice
Bruce Debelle, to which Ms Portolesi and Mr Weatherill have given evidence.

The Debelle Inquiry's terms of reference relate to allegations of sexual
assault committed by the OSHC director at the north-western suburbs school.

Ms Portolesi said it was "up to Mr Debelle" to decide if he would
include the latest cases in his investigations but lawyers said it was
outside his terms of reference.

However, Law Society of SA President John White said the terms of
reference were specific and would not allow him to investigate incidents
at other schools unless his brief was expanded.

Opposition education spokesman David Pisoni called for Ms Portolesi to
step aside from her portfolio until investigations into the incidents
were concluded.

- with Andrew Dowdell


(13) South Australian Labor government did not tell parents about sex
abuse at more than five public schools

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/parents-in-dark-on-five-sex-abuse-cases/story-e6frg6nf-1226537221996

Parents in dark on five sex abuse cases

BY: MICHAEL OWEN AND SARAH MARTIN

The Australian December 15, 2012 12:00AM

SOUTH Australia's Labor government has not told parents about sex abuse
allegations at more than five public schools.

Education Minister Grace Portolesi divulged the information yesterday
after The Australian reported parents were not told for seven months
about a case involving a teacher in one of Adelaide's best-regarded
government schools in the eastern suburbs.

Yesterday, the man appeared in court to face charges of aggravated
indecent assault, two charges of being a person in authority having sex
with a person under the age of 18 and one count of gross indecency.

Premier Jay Weatherill and Ms Portolesi are already under intense
scrutiny over the government's alleged involvement in the cover-up of
the rape of an eight-year-old girl at a primary school by a convicted
pedophile who ran an out-of-hours care program.

The government has commissioned former Supreme Court judge Bruce Debelle
to conduct an "independent" inquiry into why parents were kept in the
dark for two years, with cabinet giving him royal commission powers.

Ms Portolesi -- who yesterday gave evidence at a closed hearing of the
Debelle inquiry -- said the case raised publicly yesterday was one of
five identified by a review she had ordered last month after controversy
about the 2010 child-rape cover-up.

"The internal review process that occurred in the department following
the situation at the western suburbs school determined that there were
five other cases, and there were three where school communities should
be advised," Ms Portolesi said.

She said charges had not been laid against anyone at the other two
schools, so there was no need to inform those school communities.

Letters were mailed to parents at the eastern suburbs school yesterday
afternoon to inform them of the matter.

This comes after the Education Department last night said the school's
governing council was never told. A member of the school's governing
council yesterday told The Weekend Australian he was not aware of the
incident, and it had not been minuted in any meetings of the council
this year.

"It's scary," he said.

Parents at two other schools will wait until next year to be told about
assault allegations involving members of staff.

The minister has dodged questions in parliament about whether there was
a policy in place to disclose such matters.

The Queensland Education Department was yesterday unable to say whether
a school community was informed in instances of child sexual assault in
that state.

In Victoria, the Education Department said it followed police advice on
"appropriate communication with a school community", while in NSW a
school community would not normally be advised of a teacher arrest
because of privacy provisions.

Opposition education spokesman David Pisoni said Ms Portolesi should
stand down from her portfolio while the Debelle inquiry investigated
whether there were further incidents where a school community had not
been informed.

Additional reporting: Verity Edwards

(14) Headmaster won't expel boy charged with rape
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/headmaster-wont-expel-boy-charged-with-rape-20121209-2b3k5.html

December 10, 2012

THE headmaster of The King's School has defended his decision not to
expel a student charged with rape while in Scotland on an international
leadership exchange program.

Timothy Hawkes said he had suspended the teenager facing the "dreadful"
rape allegation and had also suspended others involved in incidents on
the exchange program but described those other incidents as "minor".

Dr Hawkes strongly denied there was an "endemic problem" at the school,
and of the rape charge said "there is a feeling that it may not go to
trial at all and the matter may well be dropped".

On Sunday Fairfax Media revealed that several students at the elite
private school were involved in incidents while on the 10-week
leadership program, including a 16-year-old boy who returned to
Australia a fortnight ago after he was arrested, charged and remanded in
custody over an alleged sexual assault at Scotland's oldest boarding
school, Loretto.

Dr Hawkes had claimed the boy charged with rape had "failed in his
ambassadorial duties" but would not be expelled.

His comments were not well-received on social media, with several
voicing their concerns on the school's Facebook page. "There are no
plans to expel a student who has been charged with rape while
representing your school? REALLY? When I was at school I got severely
reprimanded for having a piercing in my face," one comment read.

On Sunday Dr Hawkes said "I've got a lot of hate mail" but defended the
decision not to expel the boy, saying this would have "infringed on
procedural fairness". He said the boy was suspended and his eventual
fate would be determined by the legal process.

"I don't think The King's School deserved the denigration … this is not
a legal view but the general feeling is that it's almost certain the
charges will be dropped," Dr Hawkes said.

He refused to go into details about other reported incidents on the
exchange program but said relative to the rape allegation they were
"very minor and these are part of what schools are dealing with all the
time". Students involved in these incidents had also been suspended.

An anti-sexual violence campaigner, Nina Funnell, who has done work with
private schools, said principals may be reluctant to expel students
accused of sexual assault without a court outcome but "it is highly
inappropriate to dilute the seriousness of a sexual assault allegation
by using language that minimises or reframes the criminal nature of the
alleged act".

Governance of The King's School is in the hands of a council that meets
10 times a year. The majority of members are appointed by the Anglican
Church Diocese of Sydney.

The council's chairman, the Reverend Martin Robinson, would say only
that he had been "fully briefed over the course of this matter" but all
comment should come from Dr Hawkes.

The president of the school's council, the Archbishop of Sydney, Peter
Jensen, through a spokesman declined to comment on the matter. He would
not say whether he still had confidence in Dr Hawkes.

(15) Female teacher jailed for sex with 8-year-old boys, but acquitted
after doubts raised

http://www.smh.com.au/national/jailed-teacher-cleared-of-abuse-20121209-2b3k6.html?skin=text-only

Jailed teacher cleared of abuse

Date: December 10 2012

Steve Butcher

A WOMAN jailed in 2010 for sex offences committed 33 years ago against
two boys aged 8 has been freed after Victoria's highest court quashed
her convictions and acquitted her.

Three Court of Appeal judges acted after a barrister for the woman, who
was then a primary school teacher, submitted there was a "real
possibility an innocent person has been convicted".

Josephine Greensill served almost 21?2 years after a jury found her
guilty of offences allegedly committed in 1979. Her release followed
allegations that her accusers had colluded against her.

Ms Greensill, 61, said she wept after her acquittal and was "too scared"
to believe her "horrendous experience" was over.

"I can't accept in my mind that it's over and I'm really home and I
don't have to go back," the mother of five said. "It hasn't sunk in yet.

"It's very hard being in there [prison] when you're not guilty. Everyone
else [was] guilty and would brag about their crimes. But my three
sisters and children and the letters and visits from people all said to
hang on because justice will be done one day."

Her sister Annette Toohey also relived the "hell" after the verdict, the
tears and an anxiety that former students would think that Ms Greensill
was a paedophile.

Ms Greensill's solicitor, Rob Stary, said the court's decision had
reinforced his faith in the criminal justice system and "the rule of law".

Her appeal barrister, Lachlan Carter, said there was a "real stench"
about some aspects of the case.

Mr Carter told Justices Robert Redlich, Robert Osborn and Phillip Priest
they "ought to hold a doubt" about Ms Greensill's guilt and acquit her
of nine counts of indecent assault.

Ms Greensill, then 28 and a teacher of the boys "Jim" and "Dan", was
charged after they, now aged 41 and 42, made police statements in 2007.

Judge Gabriele Cannon in the County Court jailed Ms Greensill for five
years, with a minimum of two years and eight months to be served. Last
month, Mr Carter argued that the convictions were unsafe for reasons
that included a "high risk" of collusion between the men that had
"contaminated" the evidence.

He said a detective, against accepted practice, had facilitated contact
between Jim and Dan after Dan told him he first wanted to speak with Jim
- who had already made a statement - before making his statement.

Mr Carter said the "heart of the case" was whether boys of eight could
have full and complete vaginal intercourse, a scenario he submitted was
previously unheard of in Australian sentencing law.

Mr Carter said Jim also had a motive to implicate Ms Greensill for
money, because he knew she had received a payout for her husband's
death. Jim denied this at the trial.

But in what he deemed new evidence, Mr Carter revealed that a week after
Ms Greensill's sentence, a solicitor arranged an appointment that later
led to a $65,000 compensation payment to Jim. The court is yet to
publish its reasons for the acquittal.

(16) Speaker of Australia's House of Reps resigns over sexual harassment
claims

Slipper resigns as Speaker

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-10-09/peter-slipper-resigns-as-speaker/4303966

Updated October 10, 2012 06:19:50

Federal Parliament's lower house has voted to install Labor MP Anna
Burke as the new Speaker, following the resignation of Peter Slipper
last night.

Mr Slipper announced he was standing down just hours after a bill to
have him removed from the position was narrowly defeated in Question Time.

The Opposition had been demanding Mr Slipper step down over offensive
text messages, but their motion was voted down 70 votes to 69.

A short time later Mr Slipper took the Speaker's chair for the final
time to say he was honoured to have been chosen, but recent events meant
he was unable to continue in the role.

"It's a wonderful privilege to serve in a Parliament and of course the
interests of the Parliament are seriously more important than the
interests of any of us, and I respect this Parliament too much to not
put aside my personal interests," he said.

"The importance of the House is... far more important than my future."

Holding back tears, Mr Slipper reflected on the changes he tried to make
as Speaker and thanked MPs on both sides of Parliament who have
supported his reforms.

"I regret that recent proceedings have prevented me from continuing with
these reforms," he said.

I leave this position without rancour, with a great deal of sadness and,
more importantly, with a great deal of regret because I believe that,
given the controversy which has occurred in recent times, that it is in
the interests of the Parliament that I should take the course of action
that I have personally chosen to take.

Peter Slipper

"I'd also like to thank the staff of my office who've worked so hard,
particularly in recent months."

Later on Tuesday night Ms Burke - who has been acting in the role - was
elected as the new Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Mr Slipper is facing a sexual harassment claim from his former staffer
James Ashby.

On Monday court documents revealed text messages sent between Mr Slipper
and Mr Ashby, in which the Speaker used offensive language to describe
female genitalia.

On Tuesday afternoon he apologised for the messages, saying they were
meant to be private, and many of them occurred before he became Speaker.

But he says nothing excuses their content and he can understand why
people - particularly women - would be offended.

In his resignation speech, Mr Slipper praised both Opposition Leader
Tony Abbott and Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

"I look at the Leader of the Opposition who's been a friend of mine for
a very long time, he came to my wedding," he said.

"I don't hold anything against the Leader of the Opposition who I think
is a person of fine character and I think we're privileged to have a
lady of the amazing stamina that we have as Prime Minister.

"I leave this position without rancour, with a great deal of sadness and
more importantly with a great deal of regret because I believe given the
controversy that's occurred in recent times that's it's within the
interests of the Parliament that I take this course of action."

(17) Abuse victims from orphanages and foster care

http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2012/s3634088.htm

Abuse victims from orphanages and foster care to seek compensation
through Royal Commission

Timothy McDonald reported this story on Friday, November 16, 2012 07:26:00
TONY EASTLEY: The Federal Government's Royal Commission into Child
Sexual Abuse may have been sparked by incidents within the Catholic
Church but it's not the only organisation that will be subject to scrutiny.

Many people who were abused in foster care or at boys' and girls' homes
also hope the Royal Commission will bring some recognition of what they
went through.

The Care Leavers Australia Network hopes that compensation will be
considered.

A warning: Timothy McDonald's report contains material that some
listeners might find distressing.

TIMOTHY MCDONALD: Jeffrey Myers says he suffered horrific abuse as a
child at the Royalston Boys Home in Glebe in inner Sydney.

He's in his 70s now and the abuse happened decades ago, but he still has
a hard time talking about it.

JEFFREY MYERS: Well I will go as far as saying that there was
penetration by objects in my body. That's about as far as I'll go mate,
as far as the torture side of it was concerned. And I did black out.

TIMOTHY MCDONALD: He's hopeful the Royal Commission will bring some
recognition of the abuse that many people suffered while they were in
care as children.

Jeffrey Myers says compensation for the victims should be on the agenda.

JEFFREY MYERS: This Royal Commission has got to come up with justice and
redress. I do believe we all deserve redress too because the churches
and the charities, the state government, they all need to contribute to
this, to a redress scheme because they had a duty of care and they
failed bad mate. They failed real, real bad. When you got stories all
over the country of child rape and criminal assault mate, that's disgusting.

TIMOTHY MCDONALD: The Care Leavers Australia Network is an advocacy
group for those who suffered abuse in orphanages, children's homes,
foster homes and other institutions.

Some of those institutions were religious; others were secular or
government agencies.

The executive officer Leonie Sheedy says it's an issue that affects
thousands of Australians.

LEONIE SHEEDY: They feel like second class citizens of Australia. Many
of them have literacy problems. They're searching for their parents.
This is Australia's grubbiest little secret - what happened to the tens
of thousands of Australians, other than the Stolen Generation, who
suffered in the same institutions as the Stolen Gen.

TIMOTHY MCDONALD: Most of the cases involved are decades old, with some
dating back as far as the 1940s.

Leonie Sheedy says because many of the victims are so old the
institutions responsible for abusing them shouldn't wait until the Royal
Commission concludes to compensate them.

LEONIE SHEEDY: They need to set up a reparation fund in order to assist
people to heal from their shattered childhoods. The elderly, people in
their 80s, they are very concerned that they won't survive to see the
recommendations or a reparation fund.

TONY EASTLEY: Leonie Sheedy from the Care Leavers Australia Network
ending Timothy McDonald's report.

(18) Sex abuse in the Australian Defence Force

http://www.news.com.au/national/sexual-abuse-inquiry-expected-for-defence/story-fndo4eg9-1226523923993

Government apologises to Australian Defence abuse victims

Ian McPhedran

AAP, November 26, 20122:09PM

Defence Minister Stephen Smith making a public apology to all victims of
sexual abuse in the ADF. Picture: Gary Ramage Source: News Limited

DEFENCE Minister Stephen Smith has made a parliamentary apology to
victims of sexual and other abuse within the Australian Defence Force (ADF).

"To those men and women in the Australian Defence Force or the
Department of Defence who have suffered sexual or other forms of abuse,
on behalf of the government I say sorry," he told Parliament today.

"You should never have experienced this abuse."

Prime Minister Julia Gillard and her deputy Wayne Swan were present in
the lower house for the apology.

The ADF had demonstrated the highest standards of professionalism in
peace and in wartime, Mr Smith said.

"But, terribly and sadly, the experience of some members of the
Australian Defence Force over the years has not always reflected these
high standards," he said.

"Not all members of the Australian Defence Force have been treated with
the necessary respect required to meet both common decency and these
high standards."

Young men and women had suffered treatment which no member of the
defence force or the community should experience.

Len Roberts-Smith and Sex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth
Broderick listen to Minister for Defence Stephen Smith apologise to
hundreds of Australians victims of sexual abuse in the ADF. Picture:
Gary Ramage

"(They) have endured sexual, physical or mental abuse from their
colleagues which are not acceptable and do not reflect the values of a
modern, diverse (and) tolerant Australian society," Mr Smith said.

The minister also acknowledged the "shameful" Skype sex scandal at ADFA
where a video of a female cadet having consensual sex with a male cadet
was streamed on the internet without her knowledge.

Canberra Opposition defence spokesman Stuart Robert offered the
Coalition's "strongest and unqualified support" for the government's
apology and inquiry.

"Abuse destroys lives. It limits our operational capability and
undermines public confidence in our defence force," Mr Robert told
Parliament.

"This abuse should never have happened and every effort must and will be
made to ensure that it does not happen again."

"We deeply sympathise with and say sorry to those who have experienced
abuse at the hands of those who were to be trusted with their leadership
and their care.

"Theirs was a great betrayal."

Minister Stephen Smith making the apology. Picture: Gary Ramage

Defence force chief General David Hurley also said sorry to all who
experienced sexual, physical or mental abuse while serving in the ADF.

General Hurley said defence service was tough and demanding and defence
members must be able to pursue their aspirations in an environment free
from physical, mental and sexual abuse.

He said the nature and range of abuses outlined in the review conducted
by law firm DLA Piper showed defence hadn't always provided such an
environment.

"The number, nature, and range of allegations demonstrates that some
members of the ADF have failed to understand the responsibility that
rank imposes, that rank is a privilege and not a licence for
domineering, belittling or predatory behaviour," General Hurley said in
a statement.

"Some have failed to accept that diversity, diversity of age, gender,
race, culture and experience is a strength in the ADF that needs to be
built upon and not torn down."

General Hurley said the ADF had begun addressing the causes of this abuse.

"But I, as the head of the ADF, recognise the suffering that some have
experienced," he said.

"On behalf of the ADF, I say that I am sorry to those who have suffered
sexual, physical or mental abuse while serving in the ADF."

Taskforce to investigate defence abuse Defence

Defence will be forced to pay up to $50,000 to hundreds of victims of
abuse under a sweeping response to a major review of sexual and other
abuse following the so-called "ADFA-Skype" sex scandal.

And serving military personnel allegedly involved in past abuse will be
referred to police for possible prosecution.

Defence Minister Stephen Smith ruled out a Royal Commission as he
announced that a high level taskforce, led by former WA Supreme Court
judge and ex-Defence Judge Advocate General retired Major General Len
Roberts-Smith, would examine more than 770 cases of alleged abuse. ...

(19) Jerusalem Court convicts man for sodomy and indecent assault
against Haredi children

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4336309,00.html

Court convicts J'lem man for sexually assaulting haredi children

Published: 01.23.13, 16:56 / Israel News

The Jerusalem District Court convicted Binyamin Schatz, 46, for sodomy
and indecent assault against several haredi children, the youngest of
whom were seven-years-old at the time, between 2009 and 2010.

According to the conviction, Schatz used to invite children to his home
in a haredi neighborhood in central Jerusalem, where he assaulted them
and carried out his plan. Schatz also threatened some of them not to
inform on him. (Aviel Magnezi)

(20) Child abuse is underreported in Israel

http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=193931

Child abuse is underreported throughout country

Percentage of sexual abuse cases reported are higher in Jerusalem; the
33,751 child abuse cases reported in 2009 “only the tip of the iceberg.”

By RUTH EGLASH

LAST UPDATED: 11/04/2010 03:01

The percentage of reports of physical and sexual abuse against children
in 2009 were much higher in Jerusalem than in other parts of the
country, although overall, child abuse remains underreported in every
region, a new study published Wednesday by the Haruv Institute shows.

Based on the number of reports filed with the social welfare services in
each district nationwide, the Haruv Institute researchers found that
reports of sexual abuse in the Jerusalem area made up 25.5 percent of
all reports of child abuse in the region, while 47.4% of the reported
cases involved physical abuse.

These rates were significantly higher than in other parts of the
country, with reports of sexual abuse in the southern region, for
example, making up only 12.2% of that region’s abuse reports, and
physical abuse cases accounting for 42.4% of the reports in Tel Aviv.

However, reports of general neglect among the capital’s children were
relatively fewer than in other regions. In Jerusalem only 27.1% of the
reports involved neglect, while in the south it was 53.8%, 45.1% in the
North and 41.7% in Tel Aviv.

“Neglect” is defined in several ways, including children not attending
school, left unsupervised at home or wandering the streets unaccompanied.

Haruv director Prof. Hillel Schmid noted that the actual number of abuse
reports in Jerusalem was relatively low compared to other regions.

He told The Jerusalem Post that the high percentage of sexual or
physical abuse reports in the capital was likely because only the
severest or most extreme cases of abuse were reported to the
authorities, while lower levels of “neglect” are often not recognized as
abuse among the city’s large haredi and Arab populations.

“There seems to be a difference in the legitimization and definition of
neglect among haredim and the Arabs as compared to the mainstream
society,” said Schmid, a former dean of the Paul Baerwald School of
Social Work and Social Welfare at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

“There is a very different approach by these communities and not every
case of neglect is viewed as such.”

However, Schmid was quick to add that overall, cases of child abuse
remained underreported in all sectors and regions in the country,
despite a law that specifically requires the public to report cases of
suspected child abuse or neglect.

He said that few people come forward with information and pointed out
that the 33,751 cases of child abuse reported to the social welfare
services in 2009 were most likely “only the tip of the iceberg.”

The Haruv report also examined child abuse reporting in the US and
Canada, noting that neglect cases in the US from 2008 constituted 65% of
all reports, physical injury 18% and sexual abuse 10%, while in Canada
reports of neglect made up 35%, physical abuse 27% and sexual abuse 3%.

“The higher rates of reported neglect in the US and Canada lead us to
believe that North American society has a greater awareness of the need
to report such abuse cases than in Israel,” said Schmid.

“The general population here is not enthusiastic about reporting cases
of abuse or suspected abuse. People are not only put off by the
bureaucracy, where they have to fill out paperwork and give personal
information, but in addition, we are a much more violent society than in
the past and we either don’t notice the abuse or don’t feel it is
important to report.” ...

(21) Brooklyn sex abuser was a member of Hasidic modesty patrol

http://forward.com/articles/168172/inside-hasidic-modesty-patrols/

Inside Hasidic Modesty Patrols

Nechemya Weberman Was Leader in Feared Va'ad Hatznius

{photo}
Community Pressure: Posters in Brooklyn call on Jewish women to abide by
ultra-Orthodox standards of ‘modesty.’
{end}

By Rukhl Schaechter

Forward

December 26, 2012.

One of the most striking ironies of the Nechemya Weberman trial, which
ended with his conviction on 59 counts of sexual abuse, was the
revelation that the unlicensed therapist was a member of the Va’ad
Hatznius, or modesty patrol, the self-appointed arbiters of right and
wrong in the Satmar community.

Until recently, the Va’ad Hatznius was little known outside the Hasidic
community, but its actions have reverberated through the community for
years. Although they ostensibly monitor the moral behavior of both sexes
(men and women are both warned not to read English books, watch
television or surf the internet), most of their energies are directed
towards ensuring that women and girls dress and behave modestly.

Their reasoning is clear: When a female wears revealing clothing or
chats with the opposite sex, it could entice the men, and lead to dire
consequences. In other words, the goal of their injunctions is to
inhibit the sexual impulses of the male population. ...

(22) Brooklyn Orthodox sex abusers exempt from public disclosure

http://forward.com/articles/155197/orthodox-abuse-suspects-get-exemption/

Orthodox Abuse Suspects Get Exemption

Agudath Israel Opposes Brooklyn Prosecutors' Refusal to Identify

By Paul Berger

Published April 24, 2012, issue of May 04, 2012.

This is an updated version of a story that first appeared on forward.com
earlier this week.

Orthodox Jews convicted of or charged with child sex abuse in Brooklyn
should have their identities protected because of the community’s
“tight-knit and insular” nature, prosecutors claim in a response to The
Forward’s request for information about the cases.

Rejecting the request under the state’s Freedom of Information Law, the
Brooklyn district attorney’s office stated that Orthodox Jews deserve a
blanket exemption from the usual public disclosure rules.

Brooklyn prosecutors, working in the office of District Attorney Charles
Hynes, claimed that Orthodox Jews are “unique” in that releasing the
names of suspects would allow others in the community to identify their
victims.

“The circumstances here are unique,” Assistant District Attorney Morgan
Dennehy wrote in an April 16 letter to the Forward. “Because all of the
requested defendant names relate to Hasidic men who are alleged to have
committed sex crimes against Hasidic victims within a very tight-knit
and insular Brooklyn community, there is a significant danger that the
disclosure of the defendants’ names would lead members of that community
to discern the identities of the victims.”

The policy quickly came under fire from community groups, children’s
advocates and legal experts.

Agudath Israel of America, an Orthodox umbrella group that usually
supports Hynes’s approach to combating abuse in the community, came out
against the decision to claim a blanket exemption.

Rabbi David Zwiebel, who is Agudath’s executive vice president and a
legal expert, said that a policy of withholding names of perpetrators
should not be “across the board” in any community, according to Agudath
spokesman Rabbi Avi Shafran.

Instead, Zwiebel believes that the release of defendants’ names should
be evaluated on “a case-by-case basis,” Shafran said.

Although Brooklyn District Attorney Hynes has long resisted requests to
identify Orthodox sex suspects, the letter is believed to represent the
first time his office spelled out why it specifically singled them out
for preferential treatment.

Dennehy cited the state’s civil rights laws in denying the Forward’s
request for the names of 85 Orthodox Jews arrested on sex charges during
the past three years. The Forward made its request in December 2011
after prosecutors announced that scores of Orthodox Jews had been
charged under a special program designed to encourage the community to
come forward with information.

He did not explain whether prosecutors had concluded that there was
anything specific about each of the 85 suspects that might make it
possible for others to determine the identity of the victim from the
identity of the suspect.

He also did not explain whether such a blanket exemption might be
granted to other similarly “tight-knit” communities in the borough. And
there were no details about what criteria prosecutors would use to
determine whether a particular group should be granted such preferential
status.’