There is something about me that is happier when accompanied by a small boy…. Perhaps besides the sexual element, the child in me wants a playmate.— Father Robert Van Handel::Damian Eckert turned on the computer in his in-laws’ home office, a tiny, dim, book-strewn space. He left the door open so he could hear his 5-year-old daughter playing in the next room.He pulled up a website and scanned it for Father Robert Van Handel, the priest who led the community boys choir he and his younger brother sang in when they were growing up in Santa Barbara. There he was — receding hairline, bulbou…
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PHILADELPHIA — A policeman’s son testified Tuesday that he withdrew from friends, sports and school clubs, and began a long descent into heroin addiction, after he was molested by two priests and a Catholic school teacher by age 11.The gaunt, troubled 24-year-old has become a key figure in the decade-long prosecution of priest sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Tuesday marked the second time he’s testified in open court, but he’ll likely face his first cross-examination on Wednesday.His stunning complaint, filed in 2009, led to last year’s landmark child-endangerme…
A former Margate priest accused of molesting dozens of boys for decades faces up to 15 years in prison after he pleaded no contest to charges brought by a man who grew up in the 1990s across the street from the church. A bearded Neil Doherty, 69, appeared haggard and frail in a beige jail jumpsuit in a Broward County courtroom Monday morning. He pleaded no contest to six counts of lewd and lascivious actions on a child. Although Doherty faces no other criminal charges, he has been accused of molesting at least 27 children in Broward and Miami-Dade counties since as early as 1972 and has been…
The head of the New Mexico Young America Football League said board members were “totally shocked” that an official with the organization had been arrested on child pornography charges.“There was really nothing to indicate that something like this was going to happen; we were all totally shocked,” YAFL President Jim Summer said on Saturday, reacting to the Friday arrests of newly elected league president Frederick Gonzales, 42, and his wife, Carey Gonzales, 36, of Albuquerque.The couple made their initial court appearance Saturday in Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court, as they were formally …
Taking funds the Archdiocese of Milwaukee set aside for cemetery operations to help settle its bankruptcy debts would not hinder its free exercise of religion under the First Amendment and a 1993 federal law aimed at protecting religious freedom, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Susan V. Kelley said in a hearing Friday.Kelley’s opinion, which is expected to be filed early next week, is a victory for sex-abuse victims and other creditors working to expand the archdiocese’s bankruptcy estate – the pool of money used to fund settlements and the church’s reorganization.But it could be short-lived.Lawyers for…
LONDON — The British police and the country’s leading child welfare group drew a horrific picture of more than 200 cases of sexual abuse of children as young as 8 by the television host Jimmy Savile in a report released on Friday, and prosecutors admitted for the first time that they could have brought Mr. Savile to trial before his death in 2011 but failed to do so. The depiction of what Peter Spindler, a police commander, called a “vast, predatory and opportunistic” record of misconduct offered the latest gruesome indictment in a scandal that has plunged the British Broadcasting Corpor…
After years of delay, orchestrated by some of the most able lawyers in the country, the Catholic Church may soon reveal more truth about how it dealt with priests who sexually abused hundreds of children in the sprawling Archdiocese of Los Angeles. A court order issued Monday, in a case joined by the Los Angeles Times and the Associated Press, requires the release of more than 30,000 pages of documents, with the names of abusers and their superiors un-redacted. Considering previous actions by higher courts, Judge Emilie Elias’s decision is likely to survive appeals and the deluge of new facts …
PARIS (Reuters) — Germany’s Roman Catholic bishops on Wednesday canceled a study into the sexual abuse of minors by priests, prompting the investigator to accuse them of trying to censor what was to be a major report on the scandals. The independent study, examining church files that sometimes date to 1945, was meant to shed light on undiscovered cases after about 600 people filed claims against priests in 2010 following a wave of revelations of sexual abuse. The German scandals were part of a series of abuse scandals that also shook the Catholic Church in Ireland, Belgium, the Netherland…
Yeshiva University has declined to say if it will make public the results of an investigation into sexual abuse allegations at its Manhattan high school despite former students’ fears about the scope, openness and motivation behind the probe.In a statement to the Forward, released January 8, a Y.U. representative promised “a full and completely independent investigation,” but declined to say what will happen to the work now being conducted by an international law firm hired by the university. In a follow-up statement issued the next morning, the representative said that after the investigation…
Vermont’s Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington agreed Wednesday to settle 11 priest sexual abuse lawsuits moments before the trial in one of those cases was set to get under way in federal court in Burlington.The other cases were preparing to go to trial in Chittenden Count Superior Court. The first of those had been scheduled for March.”We settled it,” Burlington lawyer Jerome O’Neill, the lead attorney for the alleged victims in the cases, said Wednesday. “It was a negotiation that had been going on for a long time and the diocese this morning accepted our demand and agreed to pay it…
LOS ANGELES — The Boy Scouts of America must release two decades of files detailing sexual abuse allegations after the California Supreme Court refused the organization’s bid to keep the records confidential.The decision came after a Santa Barbara County court ruled last year that the files must be turned over to attorneys representing a former Scout who claims a leader molested him in 2007, when he was 13. That leader later was convicted of felony child endangerment.The former Scout’s lawsuit claims the files, which date to 1991 and involve allegations from across the nation, will expose a “c…
A judge’s ruling Monday requiring the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles to release thousands of pages of confidential records, including the names of church higher-ups, is an important victory for the public and victims of sexual abuse. The battle over the clergy files has dragged on for far too long. In 2007, the church agreed to settle hundreds of claims against it for $660 million. That deal also required the release of clergy personnel files, which include internal memos, Vatican correspondence and medical records. But the release of the files has been on hold. Last year…
Another victim’s parent is coming forward to tell her daughter’s story. It’s been weeks since we first brought you the story of a popular Bemidji coach and teacher accused of allegedly sexually abusing multiple kindergartners. Now, the mother says, it’s time for something to be done to put the accused behind bars. It’s hard for these mothers to not get emotional; “my daughter is scared,” said one anonymous mother, “she is frightened.” They say their daughters were allegedly abused by their teacher, John Wangberg, abo…
A Superior Court judge has ruled the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles must release the names of high-ranking church officials in 30,000 pages of confidential records about priests accused of abusing children. In making the order Monday, Judge Emilie H. Elias reversed a key part of a 2011 ruling by a retired judge who said he feared including the names of the hierarchy could be used to embarrass the church further. Elias said the public’s right to know how the archdiocese, the largest in the nation, handled molestation allegations outweighed such concerns. She also reversed …
SPRINGFIELD – The Illinois Senate gave final legislative approval Thursday to legislation requiring local schools to conduct child abuse awareness education for both teachers and students.The measure, known as Erin’s Law, was cosponsored by state Sen. Kyle McCarter, R-Lebanon. “This should be a priority… It’s a measure we all should support; it’s an investment in our young people we need to make,” McCarter told colleagues.House Bill 6193 requires schools to provide continuing professional development at in-service training programs on sexual abuse and assault awareness and prevention. It …