ABUSE TRACKER

IRELAND
Laois Nationalist

The Taoiseach has issued an apology to abuse victim Louise O’Keeffe.

The Cork woman won a case earlier this week in the European Court of Human Rights over abuse she suffered at a school in the 1970s.

The European court overturned a ruling from the Supreme Court which found the State could not be liable as the teacher responsible, Leo Hickey, was not in its direct employment.

Enda Kenny said the judgement was exceptionally complex and would be studied by the Government.

However the Taoiseach said he apologised for the horrendous experience Ms O’Keeffe had to go through.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

IRELAND
National Catholic Reporter

Jennifer Collins Religion News Service | Jan. 29, 2014

DUBLIN — For years, many Irish parents sought to school their children outside the Roman Catholic Church, which dominates the country’s education system. Now a ruling could force the Irish government to do just that.

On Tuesday (Jan. 28), the European Court of Human Rights found the government was liable in a case in which a principal sexually abused a student, then 9 years old, when she attended a state-funded Catholic school in the 1970s. An Irish court had rejected her claims on the grounds that the school wasn’t public, but the European court decided the government had failed in its duty to protect children.

The ruling touched on an issue that has taken on greater urgency in recent years as sexual abuse scandals have rocked the church and more nonreligious people have immigrated to the staunchly Catholic country: Who should run Ireland’s schools?

The Catholic Church runs 90 percent of primary schools in Ireland. The rest are mainly Protestant, and about 4 percent are managed by the nonprofit Educate Together, which is nonsectarian.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

By Deanese Williams-Harris
Tribune reporter
1:30 p.m. CST, January 30, 2014

A $3.15 million settlement has been reached in a sexual abuse claim of a victim who said he was abused by the then-Rev. Daniel McCormack, who pleaded guilty in 2007 to multiple counts of criminal sexual assault.

The victim filed the lawsuit in 2010 against the Archdiocese of Chicago and Cardinal Francis George alleging that both failed to remove McCormack and allowed him access to children despite complaints that he had sexually abused minors, according to a news release from the victim’s attorneys.

McCormack, who has since been defrocked, was arrested and charged with multiple counts of criminal sexual abuse in 2006 and later pleaded guilty to the crimes. McCormick was sentenced to five years in prison, and remains confined while a petition to keep him committed to state custody under the Sexually Violent Persons Commitment Act is considered by a Cook County judge.

The victim in the suit said McCormack abused him while he was in eighth grade in 2002 at Our Lady of the West Side Catholic School. The abuse continued while he was in a junior and senior playing in a basketball league for McCormack, who pastor at St. Agatha’s Parish and also a basketball coach, according to the complaint, according to the lawsuit.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CHICAGO (IL)
CBS Chicago

CHICAGO (CBS) — A nearly $3.2 million settlement has been reached with the Archdiocese of Chicago in a lawsuit alleging sexual abuse with a minor by former priest Daniel McCormack, attorneys in the case said Thursday.

The identity of the plaintiff was not released, but the abuse was alleged to have occurred while the victim was between eighth and 11th grades, according to the plaintiff’s attorneys.

The victim sued the archdiocese and Cardinal Francis George in 2010 alleging they failed to remove McCormack from access to children although they had knowledge that he had sexually abused minors.

“We are pleased to have reached this settlement because it marks one more step toward bringing justice to the victim and his family,” plaintiff attorney Willliam F. Martin said in a statement.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Madeleine Baran St. Paul, Minn. Jan 30, 2014

Attorney Jeff Anderson has filed a lawsuit against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis today on behalf of a victim of the Rev. Curtis Wehmeyer. He claims in the suit that the archdiocese was negligent in allowing Wehmeyer access to children.

The victim he’s representing is one of the boys that Wehmeyer pleaded guilty to abusing, he said. Wehmeyer is serving a five-year prison sentence for sexually abusing two boys, ages 12 and 14, and possessing child pornography. Some of the abuse took place in a camper that the priest parked outside his church.

The lawsuit comes one day after Ramsey County Attorney John Choi declined to file charges against anyone at the archdiocese for failure to promptly report child sexual abuse. The law requires a priest to report suspected child abuse within 24 hours unless he learned the information as part of confession.

Soon after Choi announced his decision not to file charges, MPR News reported that Archbishop John Nienstedt signed a church document in June 2012 that said the archdiocese knew of the sexual abuse claims for two days before contacting police.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: JEAN HOPFENSPERGER , Star Tribune Updated: January 30, 2014

Hours after clearing Archdiocese, Ramsey County officials received a document that is prompting the review.

The Ramsey County Attorney’s office said Thursday it is reviewing documents that appear to indicate that the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis failed to report an allegation of child sex abuse within the time frame required by law.

County Attorney John Choi Wednesday announced his office would not file charges against the archdiocese, because it could not prove beyond reasonable doubt that it hadn’t responded in a timely way to abuse allegations against the Rev. Curtis Wehmeyer, a former St. Paul priest now in prison.

Within hours of that announcement, however, authorities received an archdiocese document that called into question whether the archdiocese acted “immediately.” The document made public by Minnesota Public Radio is a statement by Archbishop John Nienstedt describing a complaint against Wehmeyer days before church officials reported it to police.

“We’re reviewing the documents we received from police,” said Dennis Gerhardstein, spokesman for the county attorney’s office. “It’s new information.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NEBRASKA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Jan. 30 2014

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 566 9790, SNAPclohessy@aol.com )

An accused predator priest who worked in Nebraska has been suspended from ministry in New Mexico because of credible allegations of child sex crimes.

[ABQ Journal]

He is Fr. Timothy Conlon.

We hope every single person who may have seen, suspected or suffered crimes by Conlon – or cover ups by his church colleagues or supervisors – will call police, expose wrongdoing, and protect kids.

We hope every single current or former Catholic employee – in Nebraska, New Mexico or North Dakota – will do everything they can to seek out and help anyone who was hurt by Fr. Conlon. We hope every single Catholic parishioner does likewise.

Of course, Fr. Conlon was given access to Nebraska kids because one or more Nebraska bishops let him work in his diocese. So these bishops have a clear choice. They can split hairs, make excuses and do nothing (acting like cold-hearted CEOs). Or they can step up, show compassion and aggressively seek out others Fr. Conlon may have hurt. We hope they choose the responsible course.

Specifically, we hope they use their diocesan websites and parish bulletins and pulpit announcements to beg anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered Fr. Conlon’s crimes to call police and prosecutors.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATICAN CITY
Boston.com

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Dozens and perhaps hundreds of widows and Vatican pensioners recently came in for a rude surprise: The Vatican bank told them they had to close their accounts or risk losing access to their money — all in the name of Pope Francis’ reform efforts, The Associated Press has learned.

The bank now says it was all a ‘‘technical error’’ and that the widows and pensioners are being kept on as clients, amid the bank’s highly-publicized plan to close so-called ‘‘lay accounts’’ as it tries to mend relations with Italian authorities who have suspected that Italians were using the bank as a tax haven.

It’s all come as a big embarrassment for an institution that is trying to fend off accusations of mismanagement and corruption.

‘‘In some cases old ladies got nasty letters,’’ Max Hohenberg, spokesman for the Institute for Religious Works — or IOR — told The AP. ‘‘The fact that a few dozen people were categorized in the wrong way and hence got a letter which was incorrect is a mistake which we have apologized for.’’

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

SPECIAL NOTE: The Australian Broadcasting Corporation television (ABC 2 / Ch. 24 digital) will be re-screening the “Four Corners” program from 2003, detailing abuses by the Salvation Army at its Children’s Homes – titled “The Homies”.

The program will run at 8 p.m. (daylight Saving time – 7.p.m. Queensland time) on this coming Saturday night – 1st February, 2014. The author and one of the men who gave evidence this week, Wally McLeod, were interviewed in the program by top ABC investigative journalist, Quentin McDermott, along with a few other men and women.

The program was ground-breaking at a time when there was little public awareness of the issues. Now that the royal commission is revisiting four Salvation Army Boys’ Homes, Alkira, Bexley, Gill, and Riverview, it again becomes particularly relevant. People will soon realize just how far ahead of its time this program was.

Special thanks are also due to prominent ABC radio journalist, Emily Bourke, for her efforts in getting the ABC to agree to re-run the program. Emily does the AM, PM, Radio National and World Today programs, and has helped the author cope with the disappointment of not being given permission by chief commissioner, Peter McClellan, to appear before the commission.

Readers are strongly urged to watch the program, and to tell as many other people as possible about it.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MINNESOTA
Bring Me The News

January 30, 2014 By Liz O’Connell

A day after the Ramsey County attorney announced there was insufficient evidence to file criminal charges against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis in the sex abuse case involving Rev. Curtis Wehmeyer, the archdiocese is now facing a civil lawsuit related to the former St. Paul priest.

The Pioneer Press reports the suit naming both the archdiocese and Wehmeyer was filed on behalf of an unidentified youth, “Doe 31.” The lawsuit claims the archdiocese knew the priest posed a risk to children yet failed to protect Doe.

Wehmeyer is currently serving a five-year prison sentence for molesting two boys in a St. Paul church parking lot in 2010 and also possessing child pornography.

St. Paul police and the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office had been investigating whether the archdiocese failed to report the abuse to authorities within 24 hours of learning about it. Ramsey County Attorney John Choi announced Wednesday that there is not enough evidence to show that the archdiocese violated the state’s mandatory reporting law.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CHICAGO (IL)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Jan. 30 2014

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 862 7688 home, 314 503 0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )

Another clergy sex abuse and cover up lawsuit against the Chicago archdiocese has settled.

We applaud the brave victim of Fr. Daniel McCormack who sought justice through our court system. He was smart to get independent help – from an attorney – instead of begging for crumbs from Catholic officials. We are grateful that he persisted through legal delays and that he chose to announce this resolution. Every time Fr. McCormack’s name appears in the public limelight, kids are safer because parents are reminded of how reckless, callous and deceitful Catholic officials can be.

We hope, however, that at least one of the McCormack lawsuits goes to trial. If that happens, we predict many will be shocked to learn that top archdiocesan officials acted even worse than is commonly believed in this horrific case.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Jan. 30 2014

Statement by David Clohessy of St Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 566 9790, SNAPclohessy@aol.com )

We in SNAP are grateful for Rev. Brenda Jones’ strength and courage. She has wisely realized that our courts are the best place to expose sexual predators and protect vulnerable congregations. We applaud her for her bravery.

[SNAP]

But this is about more than a sexual predator. It’s also about a very unhealthy, self-serving church hierarchy that rallies around the accused, attacks the accuser, and deters victims, witnesses and whistleblowers from speaking up. Bishop Kirkland and other AME officials should be deeply ashamed of how they misused their power and position to scare others with information about clergy sex crimes and cover up into staying silent.

The AME church has an inspiring history. AME church officials and members played key roles in the civil rights movement. The Selma to Montgomery voting rights march started an AME church. Rosa Parks’ memorial service was held at an AME church. In fact, the AME church grew out of an anti-segregation protest in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1787.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 30 January 2014 (VIS) – The Holy Father:

– accepted the resignation presented by Bishop Michele Russo, M.C.C.I. from the pastoral government of the diocese of Doba, Chad, in conformity with canon 401 paragraph 2 of the CIC, and has named Bishop Miguel Angel Sebastian Martinez, M.C.C.I., as apostolic administrator “sede vacante et ad nutum Sanctae Sedis” of that same diocese.

– accepted the request presented by Cardinal Attilio Nicora to step down as president of the Financial Intelligence Authority of the Holy See and Vatican City State (AIF), and has named Bishop Giorgio Corbellini as interim president of that office. Bishop Corbellini will maintain his positions at the Labour Office of the Apostolic See and the Disciplinary Commission of the Roman Curia.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATICAN CITY
Reuters

* Break with past financial establishment almost complete
* Pope replaced cardinals on bank supervisory commission mid-Jan
* Vatican reforms expected to intensify in coming months

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY, Jan 30 (Reuters) – Pope Francis on Thursday replaced a cardinal who played a senior role in Vatican finances for more than a decade, in his latest move to clear out the old financial guard associated with his predecessor.

The Vatican said the pope had accepted the resignation of Cardinal Atillio Nicora as president of the Vatican’s Financial Information Authority (AIF), its internal regulatory watchdog.

Nicora, 76, held high-level roles in Vatican finances since 2002. He was replaced by Bishop Giorgio Corbellini, 66, who has a track record of reform within the Vatican bureaucracy.

The move, which follows the replacement of four cardinals connected to the Vatican bank on Jan. 15, came as Francis is approaching the first anniversary of a pontificate marked by austerity and sobriety.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CHICAGO (IL)
WLS

A nearly $3.2 million settlement has been reached with the Archdiocese of Chicago in a lawsuit alleging sexual abuse with a minor by former priest Daniel McCormack, attorneys in the case said Thursday.

The identify of the plaintiff was not released, but the abuse was alleged to have occurred while the victim was between eighth and 11th grades, according to the plaintiff’s attorneys.

The victim sued the archdiocese and Cardinal Francis George in 2010 alleging they failed to remove McCormack from access to children although they had knowledge that he had sexually abused minors.

“We are pleased to have reached this settlement because it marks one more step toward bringing justice to the victim and his family,” plaintiff attorney Willliam F. Martin said in a statement.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CHICAGO (IL)
WLS

January 30, 2014 (CHICAGO) (WLS) — The Chicago Archdiocese settled a claim of sexual abuse against a boy by former priest Daniel McCormack for $3.15 million.

The sex abuse victim, who has not been identified, filed the lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Chicago and Cardinal Francis George in 2010. He alleged the archdiocese failed to remove McCormack from access to children although they knew they had knowledge of past abuse.

McCormack was arrested in 2006 on multiple counts of criminal sexual abuse to which he pleaded guilty in 2007.

The victim in this case was sexually abused between eighth and 11th grades.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

A day after Ramsey County announced it wouldn’t charge anyone in the Twin Cities archdiocese for failing to report to police the case of a convicted child molesting priest, one of the priest’s victims has filed a civil lawsuit.

The suit, filed on behalf of a youth identified as Doe 31, names the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the priest, the Rev. Curtis Wehmeyer, who served at the Church of the Blessed Sacrament in St. Paul.

The lawsuit alleges the archdiocese knew Wehmeyer posed a risk to children and failed to protect Doe 31, said sexual abuse attorney Jeff Anderson.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

ISRAEL
The Jewish Press

By: Yori Yanover Published: January 29th, 2014

The Apostolic Nunciature in Israel announced Monday that Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Archbishop Elias Chacour, Archbishop of the Greek Melkite Archeparchy of Akko, Haifa, Nazareth and the Galilee, ICN reported.

The Catholic news service added that archbishop, a “native Palestinian, whose family and entire village were evicted when the State of Israel was formed,” was the first Israeli citizen to be appointed a Catholic bishop. In this role, “he has devoted his life to advocating non-violence and reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians and has twice been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.”

But, according to CNS, last October, the well-known archbishop was called in for police questioning for suspected sexual harassment of a woman who works in the community. The allegations concerned an incident that allegedly took place five years ago. Following several hours of questioning, the archbishop was released on bail under restricting conditions.

The woman’s complaint was filed two years ago, but the investigation needed special permission to proceed because of the archbishop’s high standing (what with the Nobel nominations and whatnot).

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

ISRAEL
Catholic Free Press

By Judith Sudilovsky
Catholic News Service

JERUSALEM (CNS) — Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Melkite Archbishop Elias Chacour of Haifa.

Canon 210 of the Eastern Code of Canon Law allows for resignation for health reasons or at the age of 75. Archbishop Chacour is 74.

Last October, the well-known archbishop was called in for questioning for suspected sexual harassment of a woman who works in the community; the allegations concerned an incident that allegedly took place five years ago. Following several hours of questioning, the archbishop was released on bail under restricting conditions.

The complaint was filed two years ago, but the investigation needed special permission to proceed because of the archbishop’s standing. Archbishop Chacour was reported to have been cooperative but denied the allegations against him.

A source familiar with the church in Galilee noted that the archbishop tendered his resignation after speaking with church officials, who suggested it would be best if he resigned.

Ill health and the sexual harassment charges against him appear to be among the several reasons he resigned, said the source.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATICAN CITY
Catholic Culture

The director of the Holy See Press Office criticized the negative portrayal of Pope Benedict in a recent Rolling Stone cover story on Pope Francis.

“Unfortunately, the article disqualifies itself, falling in the usual mistake of a superficial journalism, which in order to highlight the positive aspects of Pope Francis, thinks it should describe in a negative way the pontificate of Pope Benedict, and does so with a surprising crudeness,” said Father Federico Lombardi, according to a Zenit report.

“What a shame,” Father Lombardi added. “This is not the way to do a good service even to Pope Francis, who knows very well what the Church owes to his predecessor.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Jan. 30 2014

Statement by Megan Peterson, Twin Cities SNAP leader, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 218-689-9049 cell, survivor19@live.com )

We are deeply disappointed in Twin Cities law enforcement officials.

[Minnesota Public Radio]

Given what’s happening in the Twin Cities – now and over the past five months – it is very tough for us to understand why subpoenas and search warrants haven’t been used yet.

Police and prosecutors beg victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to step forward, as they should. But police and prosecutors need to respect our pain by doing some real homework on the long-standing, widely-documented and on-going pattern of persistent deceit by Catholic officials – in Minnesota and across the world – in clergy sex abuse and cover up cases.

It speaks volumes that

–- the veteran archdiocesan abuse “handler,” Fr. Kevin McDonough, refuses to be questioned by police, and
–- the archbishop refuses to order McDonough to sit for questioning.

Those two simple and alarming facts scream “cover up” to anyone who’s listening.

We could cite many examples, even recent ones (like Bishop Robert Finn in Kansas City), in which high ranking Catholic officials have hidden evidence from law enforcement officials. But look at the case of Fr. Gerald Robinson in Toledo, who is now in prison for brutally murdering a nun.

Police investigators arrested him and asked diocesan staff for Fr. Robinson’s personnel file. They were given three pages.

Police then executed two “no knock” search warrants on the diocese. They recovered hundreds and hundreds of pages of more records, records that had never been turned over to the police. Those records led to Fr. Robinson’s conviction.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

POLAND
Sunday Catholic Weekly

Włodzimierz Rędzioch talks with Fr. Fortunato Di Noto – a Sicilian priest dealing with a fight with pedophilia

Numbers are terrifying! All over the world 140 million girls and 75 million boys fell victims to sexual abuses; 600 thousand children are abused in the business of children’s pornography, which reaches 14 milliard euro. The average age of pedophiles’ victims is 11-14 years, although there are also cases of abusing babies! Most sexually abused children are in the countries like: Kenia, Indie, Philippines, the Republic of Southern Africa, Thailand, Cambodia, but, certainly, it is difficult to find Polish journalists there who are worried by the fate of the underage- they prefer to write mendacious texts from Modlnica, from the family house of Fr. Wojciech Gil. Most media are engaged with searching for single cases of alleged sexual abuses among priests towards children. The example of this type of extremely biased actions is just the witch-hunt against the Polish priest. It is also possible to notice the inconceivable phenomenon – many powerful groups are undertaking an attempt of normalization of pedophilia, acknowledge it as one of many sexual orientations. What is interesting, in domineering media nobody alarms because nobody is outraged by it.

I talk with a Sicilian priest Fortunato Di Noto about these worrying matters, who founded an organization named ‘Meter Onlus’. I have been engaged in this fight with pedophilia, mainly on Internet.

(W.R.)

WŁODZIMIERZ RĘDZIOCH: – Priest has been engaged with the fight with pedophilia for years. How did Priest react to the decision of pope Francis about establishing a special commission in order to protect the underage?

FR. FORTUNATO DI NOTO: – The commission established by pope Francis in order to protect the underage is a cry of innocent children, a particular engagement for the sake of those suffering and restoring hope among those in despair. The association ‘Meter Onlus’ suggested organizing the central commission long time ago, which could help episcopates in their work for the sake of children. We also suggested establishing a new pastoral function – a bishop’s vicar for children, who could guard the work of various communities of pastoral dioceses. The Church must always defend the little, weak, poor and abused. And it cannot be silent or hide the evil. The papal commission will be able to coordinate preventive and informative actions well, as well as protection and help to victims.
As it concerns ‘Meter Onlus’, I would like to say that it is 18 years when we have celebrated the Day of Children – Victims of Violence; we meet with bishops, priests and laymen in order to make them sensitive to pastoral ministry and formation of children against abuse; we have participated in 2600 congresses about abuse towards the underage; we have given help to 1200 victims of violence, we have reported about a million of pedophilic websites to suitable authorities (internet police); in 1997, thanks to our efforts the Italian parliament was the first one to submit an application against pedophilia. I think that our biggest merit is protecting many children from abuses and creating a new social consciousness about this phenomenon, also in such far-away countries as China, Japan or Brazil.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MINNESOTA
KSTP

By: Jennie Olson

A church document suggests the St. Paul-Minneapolis archdiocese waited two days to tell police of sexual abuse allegations against a priest.

The document obtained by Minnesota Public Radio is a decree signed by Archbishop John Nienstedt in 2012. MPR says it shows the Archdiocese knew about allegations against the Rev. Curtis Wehmeyer on June 18. But police reports show the archdiocese didn’t report the claims to police until two days later. The law generally requires a priest to report suspected child abuse within 24 hours.

The revelation came after Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said he would not file any charges for failure to report Wehmeyer’s abuse to police. Choi now says he’s taking another look.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

A witness has told the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry that he was sexually abused by older boys at a children’s home in Londonderry.

He also told the inquiry that the home, Termonbacca, was “run on starvation”.

The children’s home and another in Derry, Nazareth House, were run by the Sisters of Nazareth.

The Historical Abuse Inquiry is investigating abuse claims against children’s residential institutions from 1922 to 1995.

The witness lived in Termonbacca in the 1950s and 1960s after being given to a priest by his mother.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Times

Dan Keenan

A boy looked after by Sisters of Nazareth nuns at a home in Derry used to faint regularly during morning Mass because of hunger.

The Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry heard the boy, who has been giving testimony in person, was woken some time after 6am daily to serve at morning Mass. But he often passed out because he said he was always hungry.

The inquiry, which is investigating treatment of children at care homes across Northern Ireland before 1995, heard the witness confirm that while some nuns were pleasant, another was “a hateful bitch”.
She had “a built-in anger and hatred,” the witness told inquiry chairman Sir Anthony Hart.

“You could have no relationship whatsoever with her. You could say she was under pressure, but she really didn’t have to be because the boys were doing a good job in running the place and she should have had the life of Riley.”

He confirmed his statement, given earlier to the inquiry team, in which he referred to this nun as “a bully and very contolling”.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MINNESOTA
Greenwich Time

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A church document suggests the St. Paul-Minneapolis archdiocese waited two days to tell police of sexual abuse allegations against a priest.

The document obtained by Minnesota Public Radio (http://bit.ly/1fzIb0Q ) is a decree signed by Archbishop John Nienstedt in 2012. MPR says it shows the Archdiocese knew about allegations against the Rev. Curtis Wehmeyer on June 18. But police reports show the archdiocese didn’t report the claims to police until two days later. The law generally requires a priest to report suspected child abuse within 24 hours.

The revelation came after Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said he would not file any charges for failure to report Wehmeyer’s abuse to police. Choi now says he’s taking another look.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CALIFORNIA
Orange County Weekly

By Matt Coker Thu., Jan. 30 2014

A history teacher at the all-boys Catholic Servite High School who’d also taught or coached baseball at Irvine’s Beckman and Mission Viejo’s Capistrano Valley high schools pleaded guilty Wednesday to setting up a fake woman’s Facebook profile to trick dozens of teen boys into sending him sexually explicit photos and videos of themselves.

Zachary Joshua Reeder, a married father, was immediately sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Between June 1, 2010, and Jan. 14, 2013, Reeder created and used a Facebook account to pose as a female high school student by using the image of a blond-haired girl. He established inappropriate online relationships with at least 106 underage boys between the ages of 13 and 17 from Servite, Beckman, Northwood, and Canyon High Schools–boys he knew through teaching or coaching, prosecutors said when the Orange resident was arrested last February. Many boys came forward due to the publicity from the arrest.

Without the guilty plea, Reeder was facing up to 44 years in prison if convicted.

Besides the prison time, the 31-year-old must register as a sex offender for life after pleading guilty to four felony counts of distributing pornography to a minor, two felony counts of lewd acts upon a child under 14, two felony counts of contacting a child with the intent to commit a lewd act, one felony count each of using a minor for sex acts, lewd act upon a child, possession and control of child pornography, and distribution of child pornography.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CALIFORNIA
Patch

Posted by Penny Arévalo (Editor) , January 29, 2014

A former Orange County high school teacher and baseball coach, who used a fake woman’s Facebook profile to trick 106 underage teenage boys into sending him sexually explicit photos and videos, admitted guilt today and was immediately sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Zachary Joshua Reeder, 31, of Orange, pleaded guilty to four counts of distributing pornography to a minor, two counts each of lewd acts on a child younger than 14 and contacting a child with the intent to commit a lewd act, and one count each of using a minor for sex acts, committing a lewd act on a child, possession and control of child pornography and distribution of child pornography — all felonies.

Reeder was a history teacher at Servite High School, an all-boys campus in Anaheim, and also taught history and was a volunteer assistant baseball coach for four seasons at Arnold O. Beckman High School in Irvine. He briefly served as a history teacher and baseball coach at Capistrano Valley Christian School in San Juan Capistrano.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CHICAGO (IL)
Voice from the Desert

Robert Mayer

Thomas Doyle
January 20, 2014

The leadership of the Archdiocese of Chicago has a mediocre to poor track record in responding to reports of clergy sexual abuse and their honesty with the public. Cardinal George’s recent statement to the archdiocese (January 12, 2014 in The Catholic New World) does nothing to change this pattern. This statement was issued to prepare the archdiocese for the release of the files of thirty priests confirmed as sexual abusers. His statement is defensive, misleading and insulting in addition to the fact that it does not reflect the reality of the key issues. A significant part of the statement is devoted to the defense of his mishandling of the Dan McCormack case. The McCormack files are not among those released!

In 1982 the parents of a minor boy reported that former Fr. Bob Mayer had sexually abused their teenaged son. This was under Cardinal Cody’s watch. They reported the abuse to the archdiocese and in return were intimidated and even threatened with excommunication by the chancellor at the time, Fr. J. Richard Keating, who later became the bishop of Arlington VA. In 1988 they finally settled for a measly $10,000.00 that didn’t even cover their legal costs. The boy’s mother was not about to succumb to the scare tactics nor was she buying any of the dishonest mumbo-jumbo served up as excuses for their deliberate neglect. She went on to found the Linkup which quickly became one of the two most influential victim support organizations in the world.

Knowing about Mayer’s track record Cardinal Bernardin who had by then succeeded Cardinal Cody, gave him two more assignments as a parish associate and in 1990 made him pastor of a parish in Berwyn IL. During this period the archdiocese received other allegations and ordered Mayer not to be alone with anyone under 21. The infinite wisdom of the archdiocese in imposing this restriction was apparently not infinite enough.

In 1991 Mayer was charged with sexual abuse of a minor girl. When confronted by the angry parishioners, the auxiliary bishop dispatched to deal with the incident lied to them about Mayer’s background. In 1992 Mayer was sentenced to three years in prison. He has since been laicized.

Cardinal Bernardin died in 1996 and Cardinal George replaced him in April 1997. He was ordained bishop in 1990 and served first as bishop of Yakima WA and then as archbishop of Portland OR. Both Portland and Yakima had their share of sexual abuse problems during George’s time. Equally important, he was a member of the U.S. bishops Conference during the years they started to at least talk about clerical sexual abuse. During those years George and his fellow bishops received numerous documents from the conference headquarters that provided detailed information about clergy sexual abuse and the serious risks it posed the Church. He was also present, at least presumably, when a variety of outside experts addressed the assembled bishops on the very serious nature of sexual abuse of children. These included Fr. Canice Connors, at the time President of St. Luke Institute; Dr. Fred Berlin, Johns Hopkins University, on diagnostic concepts, treatment and ethical considerations; Dr. Frank Valcour, psychiatrist at St. Luke Institute on expectations of treatment; Bishop Harry Flynn on care of victims; Jesuit psychiatrist James Gill on priests, sex and power and Fr. Steve Rossetti on the parish as victim. During this period Pope John Paul II addressed his first public communication of clergy sex abuse to the U.S. bishops and that same year, 1993, the bishops established their first committee to deal with the problem. The claim voiced by the Cardinal and his auxiliary, Francis Kane, that “had they known then what they know now they would have handled the allegations differently,”has become a mantra for bishops when they are confronted with their disastrous actions. It’s also so worn out that one would think the conference spin-doctors would come up with a fresh excuse.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

ST. LOUIS (MO)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Minister abused & harassed woman, new suit says
Clergyman has now started a new church in Hazelwood
From pulpit, AME official said victim is “the devil” and “going to hell”
Church process “was degrading and humiliating,” lawsuit charges
Suit: “Officials want to harass and deter victims of sexual assault from reporting”
SNAP deplores church figures for not calling police & retaliating against woman

WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims and their supporters will
– disclose a new civil lawsuit charging that an African American minister sexually harassed and assaulted a female staffer and church member,
– urge officials with the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church to aggressively reach out to others who “saw, suspected or suffered” the ministers crimes, and
– prod anyone with information or suspicions of crimes or misdeeds by the minister to “come forward, get help, expose wrongdoers, protect others and start healing.

WHEN
Thursday, Jan. 30 at 1:15 p.m.

WHERE
Outside Wayman AME Church (314-361-4123), 5010 Cabanne Ave. at Kingshighway in north St. Louis

WHY
A new civil lawsuit charges that Rev. Brenda Jones was sexually harassed and assaulted by Rev. Frederick McCullough and that AME officials treated her horribly when she reported the crimes.

According to the suit: “In 2011, Jones became a preacher and a member of Wayman Church, the same year that Rev. Frederick McCullough was assigned there. The next year, McCullough made escalating sexually inappropriate comments to her and forcing her to see a photo of McCullough’s penis. A month later, in his office, he grabbed her, tried to kiss her, forced her to bend over his desk, pulled up her skirt, tried to pull her undergarments down but she escaped. In December of 2012, McCullough again assaulted her in the church.”

Church officials knew, the suit says, that McCullough had sexually harassed other women he supervised or pastored to in AME churches (including in Georgia and Nebraska) before assaulting Jones but did not tell her or others “of McCullough’s propensity to sexually harass and assault women.” In 2004, for instance, AME officials “were aware that McCullough had engaged in “inappropriate sexual behavior” with a girl” and in 2010, they knew that McCullough “made inappropriate sexual comments to a female pastor.”

Church officials refused to report the allegations against McCullough “to law enforcement authorities, prospective parishioners, current parishioners, their families, victims, or the public,” the suit says. AME officials refused to investigate “until Jones filed a formal written complaint, and then subjected her to a three-month internal quasi-judicial process while letting McCullough stay in his position and disparage Jones from the pulpit.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

John L. Allen Jr. | Jan. 30, 2014 NCR Today

ROME
In his latest move to clean up the financial scandals that have plagued the Vatican in recent years, Pope Francis has replaced a cardinal who headed the financial watchdog agency launched under Pope Benedict XVI with a bishop associated with an earlier effort to foster reform.

The Vatican announced Thursday that 76-year-old Italian Cardinal Attilio Nicora has stepped down as president of the Vatican’s Financial Information Authority, the anti-money-laundering agency launched under Benedict XVI in 2011.

In his place, Francis has named 66-year-old Italian Bishop Giorgio Corbellini, who will also keep his job as head of the Vatican’s labor office and head of the disciplinary commission of the Roman Curia. The appointment to the Financial Information Authority was made ad interim, meaning Corbellini has no fixed term.

From 1993 to 2011, Corbellini was a senior official of the Government of the Vatican City State, where he worked under Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the current papal ambassador in the United States and the former No. 2 official at the City State.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CANADA
MIssissauga.com

By Catherine Thompson

A retired Anglican priest from Cambridge faces at least four years in federal prison for sex offences dating back almost 30 years.

On Tuesday, Rev. George Ferris, 66, was sentenced to four years in prison for two counts of sexual assault and one count of sexual exploitation in connection with offences that took place in Brant County between 1983 and 1989, when he served at St. James’ Anglican Church in Paris, Ont.

A sentencing hearing was held Wednesday for Ferris on two other charges of sexual assault against two separate complainants. He was convicted in November of those offences.

At Ferris’ trial in October on those charges, Chris Morrison, 42, of Paris, Ont., testified he was molested by Ferris, who was his priest, as a teenager over several years, in a situation that escalated from embraces to oral sex and two instances of actual and attempted anal sex. The court was also told the witness asked Ferris for “hush” money in 2006 and received $5,000 deposited in his bank account.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

FLORIDA
Orlando Sentinel

By Amy Pavuk, Orlando Sentinel
5:18 p.m. EST, January 28, 2014

A former missionary for the Sanford-based New Tribes Mission was sentenced to 58 years in federal prison Tuesday for sexually abusing girls who were part of an indigenous tribe in the Amazon and filming the acts.

Authorities said Warren Scott Kennell befriended and abused girls over a several-year period, while he was establishing a church with the Katookeena tribe.

Homeland Security Investigations agents began investigating the 45-year-old after receiving a tip that he posted pictures on a website used by people who trade child pornography.

When Kennell traveled from Brazil to Orlando in May, agents stopped and searched him at the airport.

Agents found several thumb drives and an external hard drive, and investigators located child pornography on the devices.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

FLORIDA
WFTV

[with video]

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — A former missionary was sentenced to 58 years in prison on child pornography charges Tuesday.

Warren Scott Kennell was arrested in June after Homeland Security investigators found he uploaded child pornography online.

Kennell then admitted to producing child pornography with young girls from the Brazilian tribes he worked with.

About 17 people filed up several rows in the courtroom to support Kennel Tuesday.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

FLORIDA
Daily Mail (UK)

Ex-Christian missionary is jailed for 58 years after he sexually abused indigenous girls for child porn while setting up a church in the Amazon

By HELEN POW

A Florida-based former Christian missionary was today sentenced to 58 years in federal prison for sexually abusing girls who were part of an indigenous tribe in the Amazon and filming the acts.

While he was establishing a church with the Katukina tribe, Warren Scott Kennell, 45, a missionary with the Sanford-based New Tribes Mission, befriended the girls and abused them over several years, prosecutors said.

He was arrested in Orlando in May and investigators found more than 940 images of child pornography on his hard drive.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

FLORIDA
The Raw Story

By Travis Gettys
Wednesday, January 29, 2014

A judge sentenced a former Florida missionary to 58 years in prison Tuesday for recording himself as he sexually abused girls from an indigenous tribe in the Amazon.

Warren Kennell admitted to befriending and abusing the girls over several years while he was establishing a church for the Sanford-based New Tribes mission, reported the Orlando Sentinel.

“We are heartsick,” said a spokeswoman for the ministry. “Children are to be protected, not hurt. We are grateful to the authorities for the prosecution of this individual despite international legal obstacles.”

Homeland Security agents began investigating the 45-year-old after they were tipped off that Kennell was posting photos on a child pornography website.

Agents searched Kennell in May after stopping him upon arrival in Orlando from Brazil, and investigators said they found several digital storage devices containing sexually explicit images involving children.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

Media Advisory

January 30, 2014

Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Father Curtis Wehmeyer Named in Civil Lawsuit
Claims include deception, concealment, false representations, nuisance and destruction of evidence

What: At a news conference today sexual abuse attorney Jeff Anderson will:

· Announce the filing of a civil lawsuit on behalf a youth, Doe 31, who was abused by Father Curtis Wehmeyer at the Church of the Blessed Sacrament in St. Paul. The lawsuit names the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and Wehmeyer. The lawsuit alleges the Archdiocese had knowledge that Wehmeyer posed a risk to children and failed to protect Doe 31.

· Examine the failure to report Wehmeyer’s repeated, inappropriate sexual behavior which the top Archdiocesan officials, including Fr. Kevin McDonough, learned about as early as 2004 when Wehmeyer reportedly solicited sex from two young men at a Barnes & Noble. Wehmeyer was sent to Saint Luke Institute in Maryland, a treatment facility for known offenders, for evaluation. Upon return to Minnesota, church officials placed him back into ministry and required Wehmeyer to attend sexaholic’s anonymous meetings. In 2006, Wehmeyer was assigned to Blessed Sacrament where he later abused Doe 31.

· Discuss the Ramsey County Attorney’s decision not to file charges against top church officials for their role in Wehmeyer’s criminal case.

· Encourage other survivors of sexual abuse to come forward, including those abused by Fr. Wehmeyer, and report their abuse to law enforcement.

· Call upon law enforcement agencies and prosecuting authorities to examine the record that demonstrates concealment of crimes and obstruction of justice by top officials of the Archdiocese.

WHEN: Thursday January 30, 2014 at 1:00 PM CST

WHERE: Law Office of Jeff Anderson & Associates
366 Jackson Street Suite 100
St. Paul, MN 55101

WHO: Attorneys Jeff Anderson and Sarah Odegaard.

Notes: The complaint and other documents will be posted to our website at www.andersonadvocates.com.

Contact: Jeff Anderson: Cell: 612.817.8665 Office: 651.227.9990
Sarah Odegaard: Cell: 612.616.4218 Office: 651.227.9990

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
The Guardian (UK)

Australian Associated Press
theguardian.com, Wednesday 29 January 2014

A boy who told a Salvation Army officer he had been sexually abused by another boy was later raped by the officer, an inquiry has been told.

A man, identified as ES, said he ran away several times from a Salvation Army Training Farm at Riverview in Queensland when he was a teenager but was always brought back, either by the farm manager, Captain Victor Bennett, or police.

Bennett who has since died, is one of five officers against whom the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse has heard numerous allegations.

The commission is holding a public hearing in Sydney into what happened at four homes run by the Salvos in NSW and Queensland in the 1960s and 1970s.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN JANUARY 30, 2014

BOYS living at a Salvation Army children’s home in Sydney were sent to stay with adults and forced to have sex, or were sexually abused by unknown men who broke into their dormitories at night, an inquiry has been told.

In a written statement read to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse today, one such victim described how this abuse took place at the Bexley boys’ home run by Salvation Army officer Captain Lawrence Wilson.

“He physically raped me in his office within a few months of being there and it happened several more times,” the man, who cannot be named, alleged in his statement.

“You would be sent out to stay with other people and they would do it to you or there were the prowlers, men who allegedly broke into the place at night and tampered with the boys.

“Even now I still can’t sleep. There you would get visited in the night, so you were scared, you couldn’t fall asleep.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

January 30, 2014

Paul Bibby
Court Reporter

Dozens of alleged rapes and indecent assaults against boys at a Salvation Army home in southern Sydney that were reported to police years later never came to court because of the victims’ fading memories and investigators’ reluctance to “fish for victims”, the royal commission into child abuse has heard.

The revelations came as the commission’s investigation into Salvation Army boys’ homes in NSW and Queensland focuses on the Bexley Boys’ Home, operated from 1915 to 1979.

The commission has heard a series of alarming allegations of abuse at the home, much of it involving Captain Lawrence Wilson, who was accused not only of raping and assaulting the boys, but of sending them to the homes of other Salvation Army officers to be raped and assaulted.

One boy, referred to as FV, was allegedly sent by Captain Wilson to the home of a Salvation Army couple. The woman forced him to have sex with her and then the man indecently assaulted him.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Australian Associated Press
theguardian.com, Thursday 30 January 2014

A New South Wales police strike force investigated whether a Salvation Army officer was running a paedophile ring and renting out boys, a royal commission has heard.

However, it did not find enough evidence to pursue the case.

Strike Force Cori, which was set up after the Wood royal commission to investigate allegations of paedophilia against a district court judge, also looked at whether Captain Lawrence Wilson, who managed the Salvation Army’s home for boys at Bexley in south Sydney, organised a paedophile ring.

Wilson had been acquitted on multiple charges of buggery and indecent assault in 1997.

The Salvation Army has since paid out more than $1.2m in compensation – some of it to victims of Wilson.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Thomas Oriti

Children at a Salvation Army boys’ home in Sydney were “rented out” to strangers who sexually abused them, the royal commission into child sexual abuse has heard.

The Bexley Boys Home in Sydney’s south is one of four homes being examined by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Until now, former residents of two homes in Queensland have given evidence about being beaten and sexually abused.

Today the inquiry turned its focus to the Bexley home, and a police investigation launched in the 1990s after several men came forward.

Detective Inspector Rick Cunningham investigated the allegations of abuse at the home.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
Telegraph

JANET FIFE-YEOMANS NEWS LIMITED JANUARY 30, 2014

* Victim, 52, breaks down as he tells story of time at Bexley
* Wilson, who died in 2008, went on to have numerous jobs related to children
* He also ‘sent boys out from the home to have sex with couples and women’

The worst sex fiend in the Salvation Army was dismissed not for raping young boys – but because he had slept with his fiance.

The hypocrisy of the Salvos has been exposed at the royal commission into child sex abuse when, despite leaving a trail of abused young boys in the 50s, 60s and 70s at four Salvation Army homes, Captain Lawrence Wilson was recommended for promotion to major in 1982.

One of Wilson’s victims at Bexley Boys’ Home in Sydney, now aged 52, broke down in the witness box yesterday, unable to read his statement.

“My life was not too bad until I met Captain Wilson,” the man, a miner, had written.

“The sexual attacks on myself are still the hardest thing to deal with. One day you are a boy, then the next you are a shell walking around.

“I have been back to Bexley Boys’ Home looking for what I lost, but where do you start?”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
SBS

AAP

A royal commission has heard how one man turned a Salvation Army boys’ home in Sydney into a hell that has left an indelible mark on a generation of men.

A man, now a miner, was so distraught by memories of what had happened to him at a Salvation Army boys home in Sydney that he could not read his evidence at a royal commission inquiry.

When he took the stand at a public hearing into child sexual abuse on Thursday, the man identified as FV, faltered as he told about hearing his younger brother was raped.

They had been sent to the Bexley Boys Home in Sydney south in 1974 when Captain Lawrence Wilson was in charge and placed in different dormitories.

In evidence read on his behalf by Simeon Beckett counsel assisting the commission, FV said he was raped by Cpt Wilson and a few weeks later was collected by a man and woman and taken to a house in Punchbowl, Sydney.

The couple were in Salvation Army uniforms and the big woman “had short blond hair and looked to be in her 30s”.

At Punchbowl the couple tried to force him to have sex. He ran away and got a train back to Bexley where Captain Wilson was waiting and gave him 18 stripes with a cane and told him “they were good people I sent you to”.

Twice more during his time at Bexley he was sent to people’s homes, once to a property in Blacktown, and another time to the house of two women.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

[with audio]

The Royal Commission into child sexual abuse has been told that boys at the Salvation Army’s Bexley home in Sydney’s south were ‘rented out’ to strangers who sexually abused them and that a ‘network of pedophiles’ had access boys in their dormitory. The inquiry has also heard that police efforts to bring the matter to court in the 1990s came to nothing.

Transcript

MARK COLVIN: As if the harrowing accounts of routine sexual and extreme physical abuse at the Salvation Army boys homes weren’t bad enough, the Royal Commission into child sexual abuse today heard that boys at the Bexley home in Sydney’s south were ‘rented out’ to strangers who sexually abused them.

Today, the public hearing heard serious allegations that a ‘network of paedophiles’, including women, were able to get to boys in their dormitory and take boys to their private homes in the 1970s.

The inquiry has also heard that police investigations in the 1990s came to nothing – and that one alleged offender, who was a Salvation Army captain, is still alive.

Emily Bourke has the story – and a warning that some of the material in this report is distressing.

EMILY BOURKE: The Salvation Army’s home for boys at Bexley in Sydney’s south operated from 1915 to 1979. It took in boys who were abandoned or relinquished by their families, but care and comfort were rare.

Today, the Royal Commission was told that the perpetrators of child sexual abuse were inside and outside the home at Bexley.

The manager of the Bexley home in the early 70s was captain Lawrence Wilson. He’s been described as the Salvation Army’s ‘most serious offender’.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
Telegraph (UK)

Salvation Army ‘rented out’ boys at Sydney children’s home in Sydney to paedophiles

By Jonathan Pearlman, Sydney 30 Jan 2014

Boys at a Salvation Army children’s home in Australia were “rented out” to paedophiles who entered their dormitories at night, a royal commission into child sexual abuse has heard.

One boy was sent by a superintendent, Captain Lawrence Wilson, to the home of a husband and wife, who sexually abused him. The couple were in Salvation Army uniforms and the woman “had short blond hair and looked to be in her 30s,” the alleged victim told the commission. He said he returned to the home and revealed what had happened to Captain Wilson, who said the couple were “good people” and caned the boy 18 times.

“The sexual attacks on myself are the hardest things to deal with, one day you are a boy the next you are a shell walking around,” he said.

Another man told the commission that the boys, who lived at a Salvation Army home in Sydney, would sometimes be sexually abused by men who broke into their rooms at night.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
NEWS.com.au

A MAN, now a miner, was so distraught by memories of what had happened to him at a Salvation Army boys home in Sydney that he could not read his evidence at a royal commission inquiry.

When he took the stand at a public hearing into child sexual abuse on Thursday, the man identified as FV, faltered as he told about hearing his younger brother was raped.

They had been sent to the Bexley Boys Home in Sydney south in 1974 when Captain Lawrence Wilson was in charge and placed in different dormitories.

In evidence read on his behalf by Simeon Beckett counsel assisting the commission, FV said he was raped by Cpt Wilson and a few weeks later was collected by a man and woman and taken to a house in Punchbowl, Sydney.

The couple were in Salvation Army uniforms and the big woman “had short blond hair and looked to be in her 30s”.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Thomas Oriti

The Salvation Army has suspended an officer being investigated by the royal commission into child sexual abuse.

John McIver is one of five men who are the focus of the inquiry’s hearings into the sexual and physical abuse of children at four boys’ homes run by the Christian church.

But when the hearing began this week it emerged that he was the only alleged perpetrator who was still a current Salvation Army member.

His suspension comes on the same day as the inquiry heard boys at a Salvation Army home in Sydney were “rented out” to strangers who sexually abused them.

This afternoon the Salvation Army issued a statement.

“In light of evidence tendered to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, the Salvation Army has suspended retired Salvation Army officer John McIver pending further investigations in regards to the matters raised,” the statement said.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

January 31, 2014

Paul Bibby
Court Reporter

NSW Police had evidence an alleged paedophile network may have been operated by a Salvation Army officer from a southern Sydney boys home in the 1960s but never questioned the alleged ring leader or other officers, the Royal Commission has heard.

As the ongoing investigation into Salvation Amy boys homes in NSW and Queensland focused on the Home for Boys at North Bexley, the commission heard that in the late 1990s a former resident told police he had been sent to three properties 30 years earlier where he was raped and abused.

The man who organised the trips, the commission heard, was Captain Lawrence Wilson.

”I had been called to Wilson’s office [and] when I arrived there was a man and a woman in the office with Wilson,” the former resident said in a statement, which was read to the commission as its author sat fighting back tears.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
Yahoo! News

Australia’s Royal Commission investigates into institutional child sexual abuse and hears allegations that a paedophile ring operated within the Salvation Army in Sydney.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

[with audio]

Madeleine Baran · St. Paul, Minn. · Jan 29, 2014

Archbishop John Nienstedt did not immediately report to police allegations that the Rev. Curtis Wehmeyer sexually abused a child, according to a document obtained Wednesday by MPR News that the archbishop signed in 2012.

The document — a formal decree signed by Nienstedt to comply with church law — says the archdiocese knew of the allegations on June 18. Yet police reports show the archdiocese didn’t report the claims to police until two days later.

The revelation came hours after Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said in a news conference that he was declining to file any charges for failure to report Wehmeyer’s abuse to police, and after St. Paul Police Chief Thomas Smith said that officers lacked probable cause for a subpoena or search warrant that would force the archdiocese to turn over all of its files. The law requires a priest to report suspected child abuse within 24 hours unless he learned the information as part of confession.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

[with video]

Eric Ringham, Tom Scheck · St. Paul, Minn. · Jan 29, 2014

Ramsey County Attorney John Choi announced Wednesday that authorities would file no further charges in the case of the Rev. Curtis Wehmeyer, now serving a prison sentence on charges of child sex abuse.

Choi said authorities had investigated whether officials of the Twin Cities archdiocese had failed to report suspicions of abuse in a timely way. He said that while he continued to be troubled by the church’s communication practices, he had found no evidence that might persuade a jury.

“We expect all mandated reporters to report instances of child sex abuse as required by law, but more importantly to err on the side of victims,” Choi said. “The law is the lowest common denominator of acceptable behavior. Mandated reporters should never, ever make conclusions [about the law] … or make determinations about the credibility of victims. That is the job of law enforcement, prosecution, and our courts, not private parties.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MINNESOTA
MinnPost

By Brian Lambert

Not so fast on that “all clear” from the Ramsey County attorney Wednesday. MPR, which is obviously well-sourced on the procedures and paperwork of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, has Madeleine Baran saying: “Archbishop John Nienstedt did not immediately report to police allegations that the Rev. Curtis Wehmeyer sexually abused a child, according to a document the archbishop signed in 2012 and MPR News obtained on Wednesday. … The revelation came hours after Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said in a news conference that he declined to file any charges for failure to report abuse by Wehmeyer to police.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CANADA
The Tyee

[with copy of the lawsuit]

By Bob Mackin, 28 Jan 2014, TheTyee.ca

Journalist Laura Robinson is countersuing John Furlong and the marketing agency that represents the former CEO of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics for defamation.

Robinson’s Jan. 27-filed statement of claim (which is included at the end of this story) seeks an unspecified dollar amount for damages from Furlong and TwentyTen Group and an injunction to stop them from maligning her. Robinson immediately set March 30, 2015 to begin a British Columbia Supreme Court trial against Furlong and the company.

Robinson declined to do an interview, but in a news release, she said she filed the lawsuit after suffering from “the unrelenting attack by Mr. Furlong and his media advisors over the last 14 months.” She accused the defendants of “mistruths and malice.” Furlong and TwentyTen Group have 21 days to file a statement of defence.

Robinson wrote the Sept. 27, 2012 Georgia Straight-published expose, titled “John Furlong biography omits secret past in Burns Lake.” In the story, she quoted former Immaculata Catholic elementary school students who swore affidavits that accused Furlong of physically abusing them in 1969 and 1970. Robinson’s story also pointed out inconsistencies in Furlong’s Patriot Hearts memoir.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CANADA
CTV

James Keller, The Canadian Press
Published Tuesday, January 28, 2014

VANCOUVER — The freelance journalist who wrote an article containing allegations that John Furlong abused students while teaching in northern British Columbia is now suing the former Vancouver Olympic CEO for defamation.

Laura Robinson has filed a notice of claim, alleging Furlong defamed her in a series of comments to the media in the past year and a half, in which he cast himself as the target of a vindictive activist.

Furlong responded with a written statement that said he looked forward to confronting Robinson in court.

Robinson’s article, which was published in the Georgia Straight newspaper in September 2012, quoted several people who claimed they were physically and verbally abused while Furlong was a teacher in northern British Columbia in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CANADA
Huffington Post

UPDATE: 1:20 p.m. — John Furlong responded to Laura Robinson’s lawsuit with the following statement on Tuesday: “I will continue to defend my reputation and hold Laura Robinson to account for her irresponsible reporting that has deeply hurt me and my family. I welcome the opportunity to meet Laura Robinson in the courtroom to address her irresponsible reporting, which instigated this entire matter.” Andrea J. Shaw, founder and managing partner of co-defendant the TwentyTen Group, declined comment under advice of lawyers.

Former Vancouver Olympic CEO John Furlong is being countersued by a journalist who alleges that he carried out a smear campaign against her.

Laura Robinson filed a defamation lawsuit against Furlong in B.C. Supreme Court on Monday alleging that he and marketing company, the TwentyTen Group, have repeatedly maligned her reputation over the course of 14 months.

Robinson alleges that the first defamation occurred on Sept. 27, 2012, when Furlong held a press conference to respond to an article that the journalist wrote for the Georgia Straight newspaper.

The story detailed an alleged pattern of physical and verbal abuse against students at a school in Burns Lake, where Furlong was employed as a physical education teacher in the ’70s.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CANADA
Straight

by CHARLIE SMITH on JAN 29, 2014

REELANCE WRITER LAURA Robinson has filed a defamation suit against former Vanoc CEO John Furlong, alleging that he libelled her in six public statements.

Central to her claim is that Furlong wasn’t truthful when he repeatedly alleged she had filed a complaint with the RCMP that he had sexually assaulted a former student—a claim that Robinson has adamantly denied.

In a 25-page notice of civil claim filed in B.C. Supreme Court on January 27, Robinson also named TwentyTen Group Strategic Marketing Communications Inc. and TwentyTen Group Holdings Inc. as defendants. Robinson alleged that these firms, doing business as the TwentyTen Group, have been “the exclusive media communications representative for Furlong”.

Robinson alleged that Furlong’s public response to an article she wrote about him in the Georgia Straight in September 2012 has “caused and continues to cause injury, loss and damage to the plaintiff, and was deliberately calculated by the defendants to expose the plaintiff to contempt, ridicule and hatred, and to cause other persons to shun or avoid the plaintiff, and to lower the plaintiff’s reputation in the eyes of right-thinking members of the community, all of which has in fact occurred”.

She is seeking an interim and permanent injunction to stop the defendants from continuing to libel her, as well as general damages, special damages, aggravated damages, punitive damages, and special costs.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CANADA
Global News

By Justin McElroy Global News

Laura Robinson, the journalist who alleged former VANOC boss John Furlong verbally and physically abused students while he was a teacher over 40 years ago, is countersuing John Furlong for defamation.

Robinson is seeking general, aggravated and punitive damages against the former 2010 Olympic boss, and is suing both him and TwentyTen Group, the marketing group that represents him.

“Mr. Furlong and TwentyTen Group have turned a very serious issue – allegations of physical and racial abuse of children made by courageous and vulnerable First Nations people – into a disturbingly vitriolic and untrue campaign against a journalist,” said Robinson in a press release. Robinson set March 30, 2015 as the date to begin a B.C. Supreme Court trial.

Robinson’s article, published in September 2012, quoted several people who claimed to have been verbally and physically abused while Furlong taught physical education at schools in Burns Lake, B.C., and Prince George, B.C., in the late 1960s and early ’70s.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CANADA
Courthouse News Service

By DARRYL GREER

VANCOUVER, B.C. (CN) – Journalist Laura Robinson has launched a legal counter-attack against John Furlong, former head of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Winter Olympics, in a defamation lawsuit against Furlong and his media handlers.

Robinson faces a defamation lawsuit for a scathing article that claimed Furlong was abusive to students when he was a teacher at a residential Catholic school 1960s and 1970s.

In her new lawsuit in British Columbia Supreme Court, Robinson claims that Furlong went on a media blitz with the help of Twentyten Group Strategic Marketing Communications to discredit her after the article was published in the alt-weekly Georgia Straight newspaper in September 2012.

Robinson claims the defendants published news releases and made statements in media interviews that defamed her by calling her an unethical activist with an ax to grind against male authority figures in sports.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CHICAGO (IL)
TheMediaReport

JANUARY 29, 2014 BY THEMEDIAREPORT.COM

If there were still any doubt that the Church-suing sex abuse industry is on a steep decline, one need look no further than the latest tactic of contingency lawyers.

Contingency lawyers have recently been demanding as a condition to settle claims that dioceses first empty out their file cabinets of every unrelated accusation of abuse by any priest stretching back 50 or 60 years. The lawyers then hold a dramatic press conference in front of blow-up photos of the accused priests to announce the document release in front of a compliant media.

No other organization other than the Catholic Church has ever, of course, agreed to release decades of unrelated and embarrassing internal documents in order to encourage more people to file lawsuits against it. But for all the trouble, the Church naturally gets no credit. The media narrative is invariably that the heroic contingency lawyers had to bravely fight the documents out of the secretive Catholic Church for years – never mentioning that the delay is caused by the protracted legal proceedings necessary before releasing thousands of pages of legally protected personnel files into the public domain.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MEXICO
La Jornada

[Summary: Llamas Carlos Gomez still remembers with fear and indignation when coming up to the altar where he served as an altar boy at a church in Saltillo, Coahuila. He was 14. The priest approached with an erect penis and he knew that after Mass he would be touched and fondled. The trauma has haunted him all this time.]

Sanjuana Martínez
Especial para La Jornada
Periódico La Jornada
Domingo 26 de enero de 2014, p. 13

Carlos Llamas Gómez aún recuerda con miedo e indignación el momento en que subía al altar cuando servía como monaguillo en una iglesia de Saltillo, Coahuila, a la edad de 14 años: Lo ayudaba a ponerse la sotana. Se me acercaba, y veía su pene erecto. Eso significaba que después de la misa iba a tocarme, a manosearme. Es un trauma que me ha atormentado todo este tiempo.

Ha esperado 15 años para romper el silencio. El domingo pasado escuchó al obispo Raúl Vera decir que en los 14 años que lleva al frente de su diócesis, solamente ha habido dos casos de sacerdotes que cometieron abusos sexuales contra menores: Es mentira. No son dos, yo conozco a cinco, otros hablan de nueve sacerdotes aún en funciones. Son más de 100 casos en los que se abusó de menores, dice en entrevista, luego de prestar declaración ante la Procuraduría General de Justicia de Coahuila.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NORTHERN IRELAND/IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

30 JANUARY 2014

The High Court in Dublin has reserved judgment after a Catholic bishop applied to have three cases against him by victims of paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth dismissed.

The Bishop of Kilmore, Dr Leo O’Reilly, has asked the court to stop Mario Cafolla suing him, in his role as Bishop of Kilmore, over alleged failures by the diocese and Catholic Church. Mr Cafolla insists he is entitled to sue Bishop O’Reilly, as well as Archbishop of Armagh Cardinal Sean Brady.

He has alleged that that a previous Bishop of Kilmore, Dr Francis McKiernan, was made aware in 1975 that Brendan Smyth was abusing children but failed to report that to the Garda or Mr Cafolla’s parents.

It is alleged that a young boy had told the then Fr Sean Brady that Smyth was abusing children in 1975. That boy was asked to sign a document stating he would not tell anyone else about the abuse, Liam Reidy SC, for Mr Cafolla, said.

While that boy had reported that Mario Cafolla was among the children being abused by Smyth, no steps were taken to either inform the Garda or his parents, counsel added.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
Queensland Times

Jessica Grewal 30th Jan 2014

THE royal commission is expected find that Anglican Diocese of Grafton failed in its handling of child abuse claims at Lismore’s North Coast Children’s Home and withheld information from the police.

In a damning report released on Thursday night, Counsel Assisting the Commissioner Simeon Beckett recommends that two Northern NSW priests – Reverend Morgan and Reverend Brown – be referred to the Anglican Church’s Professional Standards Committee to determine whether disciplinary proceedings should be initiated against them.

Final submissions arising from the November inquiry into abuse at the home closed on January 24.

Mr Beckett submitted there were 59 findings available to the commission – including that the Grafton Diocese put the interests of the Anglican Church ahead of providing financial support to victims.

He found former Grafton Diocese registrar Pat Comben was aware former Lismore Priest Allan Kitchingman had been convicted of sexual offences against a child but failed to commence disciplinary proceedings against him.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

BY MICHAEL MCHUGH – 30 JANUARY 2014

Witnesses at the inquiry into institutional abuse have described how the sadistic and brutal treatment they suffered at the hand of the nuns supposed to care for them had destroyed their later relationships with women.

One former St Joseph’s resident testified that he ran away from Termonbacca but was recovered time after time.

One of the Sisters of Nazareth smirked and said: “Welcome back, your majesty”, the witness said.

“Then the beatings would start.”

He never married, and attributed this “life sentence” of loneliness to women in his childhood who brutalised him.

Another victim said his Christmas presents “disappeared”.

“You had no real personal possessions, none.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Ruben Rosario
rrosario@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 01/29/2014

But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. Matthew 18:6.

I made a New Year’s resolution not to write too often this year about the church — my church — that has forgotten Jesus and his admonition when it comes to protecting and doing right by child sex-abuse victims over the years.

It almost at times feels like piling on, so much has been and continues to be documented about clergy sex abuse and impropriety scandals. I’m sick already of this stuff, for it continues to stain the great majority of the good people of faith.

But like my supposed diet, I’m breaking it right here and now.

It has a little something to do with Wednesday’s announcement that local law enforcement officials declined to file criminal charges against church higher-ups in one priest child-abuse case and another one involving alleged possession of child pornography.

It has more to do with garage parking lights.

Now the little bit of news that has prompted my rant comes from an excellent story by Minnesota Public Radio last week about secret accounts the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis set up to pay off problem priests and child sex-abuse victims and their families.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: TONY KENNEDY and JEAN HOPFENSPERGER , Star Tribune staff writers
Updated: January 29, 2014

Ramsey, Washington county attorneys declined to prosecute archdiocese leaders accused of failing to report sex abuse, porn.

Two Twin Cities prosecutors on Wednesday declined to file criminal charges against local Catholic officials in the two most prominent investigations in the clergy sexual misconduct cases that have rocked the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

In St. Paul, Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said his office can’t prove beyond a reasonable doubt that church officials violated the law requiring them to immediately report allegations against the Rev. Curtis Wehmeyer, a former St. Paul priest now in prison for sexually abusing two boys.

And in Washington County, prosecutor Pete Orput said his office is closing its investigation into sexually explicit images found on a discarded computer that had belonged to the Rev. Jonathan Shelley, who served in Mahtomedi. A parishioner who discovered the downloaded images gave the hard drive to the archdiocese in 2004. Church officials didn’t report the situation to police, but Orput said he’s closing the case because none of the images appears to fit the statutory definition of “pornographic work involving a minor.”

Disappointed advocates for the victims of clergy sexual abuse said the archdiocese was “let off the hook,” and St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson blasted the authorities for “defective analysis.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MINNESOTA
National Survivor Advocates Coalition

Kristine Ward

First, the news out of Minneapolis hurts survivors. We want them to know their pain is known and acknowledged.

The Archbishop of Minneapolis-St. Paul and Archdiocesan officials have been let off the hook and will not be charged with any responsibility for not stopping a priest now convicted and serving a prison sentence on sexual abuse charges.

The Archdiocese is “grateful” to be “cleared.”

The Archdiocese’s records show that the Archdiocese had knowledge going back to 2008 regarding the sexual addiction and solicitation activities of this priest — and the Archdiocese gave him 28 hours of potential running and destruction of evidence time in a coming arrest alert regarding the charges for which he is now serving time.

Still, the police said they do not have the evidence to charge anyone in the Archdiocese of obstruction of justice or any complicity in the crimes.

Here are news stories with the details that there will not be charges along with the official statement of the Archdiocese:

[Star Tribune]

[CBS Minnesota]

[KSTP]

The police are “troubled” about the Archdiocesan officials and their actions or inaction.

So are we, but we don’t have subpoena power, calling grand jury power or issuing search warrant power like the police and county attorney and courts do.

Is there no law in Minnesota under which people who know that a person has and likely will continue to abuse children and minors can be held responsible for aiding this person — by the advance notice on an arrest? By promoting the person to pastor in 2009 and giving him a position of authority and respect
when the records show that trouble existed and was known in 2008?

Really?

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CANADA
The Chronicle-Herald

BY FRANK CAMPBELL
Published January 11, 2013

Sister Nuala Kenny is the heal deal.

Involved in the healing business for more than 40 years, Kenny’s biggest therapeutic challenge has come in her quest over the past two decades to help diagnose and treat the clergy sexual abuse crisis in her beloved Catholic Church.

“I’ve dealt with dying children my whole life,” says the pediatrician and ethicist.

“I’ve dealt with cancer-care children my whole life. Nothing takes the stuffing out of me like doing this stuff, because it’s the church.”

Kenny has had to replenish much of that stuffing during an extensive quarter-century of clerical abuse work that has taken her from an archdiocesan inquiry in St. John’s, N.L., in the late 1980s to numerous public lectures, including a conference at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax last month, and a recently published book, Healing the Church.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

ALASKA
Alaska Native News

On Sunday, Anchorage Police arrested and charged a Mountain View man for Sexual Abuse of a Minor at a Mountain View church.

When police responded to the scene, members of the church had the man, identified as 29-year-old David Chiklak, detained in the church parking lot.

According to the Anchorage police report, it was during church that an 18-year-old woman and a six-year-old girl had gone into the church’s restroom. While in the restroom, the woman heard Chiklak call out to the little girl, who then left the resthroom in response to him calling her.

After the woman exited the resthroom herself, according to the report, she heard the little girl crying in the men’s restroom. When she entered the men’s restroom to investigate the young girl’s cries, she found Chiklak standing over the young girl with his belt unbuckled.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

CALIFORNIA
The Pasadena Star-News

[with video]

By Rebecca Kimitch, The Pasadena Star-News
POSTED: 01/29/14

TEMPLE CITY >> A young man has filed a lawsuit against the Catholic Church alleging he was a victim of sexual abuse for more than seven years at the hands of a St. Luke the Evangelist Catholic Church volunteer, who now works in the Baldwin Park Unified School District.

Robert Reynolds, 23, alleges Timothy Kovacs began molesting him in 2003, when he was 13 years old, and continued abusing him three to eight times a month until he was 20.

“The abuse was horrendous. It included multiple acts of sodomy,” Reynolds’ attorney Michael Kinslow said. “And the perpetrator attempted to convince the child it was a love relationship.”

Kovacs did not respond to phone calls requesting comment.

Kovacs was a volunteer confirmation coordinator at St. Luke’s from 2002 until 2005. He was removed from the post after a complaint was made to the parish alleging “inappropriate conduct with two young adults over the age of 18,” according to a statement from the Archdiocese, which said it was not informed of the 2005 complaint.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

ALASKA
Reporter

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First Posted: January 29, 2014

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A 29-year-old man has charged with sexually abusing a girl at an Anchorage church.

David Chiklak was arrested Sunday outside a church in the Mountain View neighborhood on the city’s northeast side.

A woman told Anchorage police she was in a bathroom with a girl at the church and heard someone call the child out of the room. The woman a short time later heard the girl crying in the men’s bathroom.

Police say she entered the men’s bathroom and saw a man with his belt unbuckled standing over the girl.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

ALASKA
Your Alaska Link News

[with video]

By Your Alaska Link News Team
Story Created: Jan 29, 2014

ANCHORAGE- Anchorage police are looking for victims of a man charged with sex abuse.

Police say 29-year-old David Chiklak assaulted a minor at a church in Mountain View.

They say an adult female heard a young girl crying from the men’s bathroom, went in, and found a man standing over the young girl.

As a result, Chiklak was charged.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

ILLINOIS
State Journal-Register

By Dave Bakke
Staff Writer
Posted Jan. 23, 2014

Both of Chicago’s major daily newspapers and some of its TV stations led their coverage of Tuesday’s press conference on sexual abuse of minors in the archdiocese with Joe Iacono.

Joe, who lives in Springfield, was front and center for one grueling, emotional day as the Chicago archdiocese released records that showed decades spent mishandling and covering up for priests who had abused kids, including Joe. Joe was sexually victimized by the late Rev. Thomas Kelly when Joe was a teen in Northlake, attending St. John Vianney, the family parish.

Joe said it was gut-wrenching to put himself out there on Tuesday, basically becoming the face of the victims. He is just a regular guy; known before now only for his job as a financial adviser and his years with Springfield’s Roman Cultural Society, the presidency of which he will relinquish in a few weeks.
Before returning to what I am sure will be welcome anonymity, Joe agreed to tell me how he came to be facing the media at the podium on Tuesday.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

ILLINOIS
State Journal-Register

Posted Jan. 30, 2014

Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki

It is horrible to read about the tragic experience of Joe Iacono of Springfield, who was a victim of sexual abuse by a Catholic priest when Iacono was a child living in the Chicago area more than 40 years ago.

However, in his Jan. 24 article, “Face of abuse victims shows great courage,” David Bakke does not accurately or fully represent my views. I do not claim, as he asserts, that “the church has handled the sexual abuse scandal as responsibly as any organization in the world.”

In my interview with the Washington Times last fall, I was speaking in the present tense when I said “that of any institution in the country — perhaps in the world — I don’t think anyone is dealing with it as responsibly as the Catholic Church.” But I also acknowledged that “we have had our unfortunate share of scandals and sin and the church is dealing with that.”

I do not deny that the church has made some terrible mistakes in handling sexual abuse cases. In addition to apologizing and providing assistance to victims, the church has learned from these past mistakes and has implemented far-reaching reforms.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MARYLAND
Your 4 State

FREDERICK COUNTY, Md. – A former youth pastor will spend 18 months in jail after pleading guilty to having sex with a minor.

Officials say Shaun Michael Ross worked as a youth pastor at Calvary Assembly Church in Walkersville. He was facing two charges of sexual abuse of a minor following an indictment in July.

The inappropriate relationship between the 33-year-old and the female minor went on for years between April 2008 and April 2010.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MARYLAND
News-Post

By Danielle E. Gaines News-Post Staff

A former youth pastor pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 18 months in jail Wednesday for sexual assault of a minor.

Shaun Michael Ross, 33, of Grantsville, was facing two charges of sexual abuse of a minor following an indictment in July.

Ross worked as youth minister at Calvary Assembly church in Walkersville until he was confronted by the church about the long-term inappropriate relationship with a teenage girl.

According to the indictment, Ross had a relationship with the girl between April 2008 and April 2010, when he was trusted in a position of authority.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Times

Dan Keenan

A priest told a former resident of a Derry residential home run by nuns that he must never repeat allegations of sex and other abuse.

A witness told the Historical Institutional Abuse inquiry, which is investigating allegations of ill treatment of children at 13 care homes in Northern Ireland before 1995, the priest told him to stay silent about his claims concerning the home at Termonbacca in Derry, run by the Poor Sisters of Nazareth.

The witness, who cannot be identified, said he approached a priest later in life and told him of physical and sexual abuse he suffered.

He said the priest replied: “You must never speak about this. You and the other orphans are bastards, you are the product of an evil and satanic relationship.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MINNESOTA
KVRR

Officials in the St. Paul and Minneapolis Archdiocese will not be charged over their handling of a St. Paul priest who sexually abused two boys.

Prosecutors say they can’t prove church leaders failed to properly report abuse by the Rev. Curtis Wehmeyer.

Church leaders removed him in 2012 after learning of the allegations involving two brothers.

Internal church documents showed archdiocese leaders knew well before then that Wehmeyer had issues with sexual misconduct.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MINNESOTA
Tribune-Chronicle

January 29, 2014
The Associated Press , Tribune Chronicle | TribToday.com

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Minnesota prosecutors said today they would not charge members of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis over the way they handled allegations of sexual abuse by a priest, saying there was not enough evidence to prove anyone – including another priest who learned during a confession of the molestation – violated the law.

Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said his office can’t prove beyond a reasonable doubt that anyone failed to immediately report allegations of abuse by the Rev. Curtis Wehmeyer, who is serving a five-year prison sentence for molesting two brothers.

But, Choi said, the overall investigation into allegations of clergy sexual misconduct, and the archdiocese’s response, is far from over.

“We will only allow facts to lead the way, and we will pursue justice without fear or favor while doing our best to leave no stone unturned,” Choi said, later adding: “I continue to be troubled by some of the church’s reporting practices.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NEW MEXICO/NORTH DAKOTA
In-Forum

By: Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola, Gallup (N.M.) Independent, INFORUM

GALLUP, N.M. – A Catholic priest in rural Arizona has been removed from ministry because of two recently reported and credible accusations of sexual abuse of minors that allegedly took place in North Dakota decades ago.

The alleged abuse by the Rev. Timothy Conlon, a member of the Crosier Fathers and Brothers religious order, was reported by the Diocese of Fargo. The Diocese of Gallup removed Conlon from his two Arizona parishes over the weekend.

“The alleged abuse took place approximately 40 years ago in North Dakota before Fr. Conlon was ordained a priest, but has just been reported to Church authorities and the Crosiers,” media official Lisa Cassidy stated in a news release issued by the Crosier Province of Phoenix Monday. “The Crosiers have not been aware of any other claims of sexual misconduct against a minor by Fr. Conlon previous to this report.”

According to a letter Gallup Bishop James S. Wall sent to his priests Monday, reports of the two credible accusations of sexual abuse came from the Diocese of Fargo.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NEW MEXICO
ABQ Journal

By Olivier Uyttebrouck / Journal Staff Writer

The Diocese of Gallup removed the Rev. Timothy Conlon from ministry at two Arizona parishes this week after his religious order learned that the priest had been “credibly accused” decades ago of sexual abuse with two children.

Bishop James Wall notified law enforcement in Arizona and removed Conlon as parish administrator at St. John the Baptist Parish in St. Johns, and San Raphael Parish in Concho, the diocese said Wednesday in a written statement.

Suzanne Hammons, spokeswoman for the diocese, said church officials are not aware of any allegations of sexual abuse against Conlon in the diocese.

Conlon, 64, could not be reached for comment Wednesday. Messages left with the diocese and a parish office in St. Johns were not returned.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

ST. LOUIS (MO)
Law 360

By Juan Carlos Rodriguez

Law360, New York (January 29, 2014, 6:46 PM ET) — The Eighth Circuit on Wednesday said Chicago Insurance Co. had no duty to cover a settlement that the Archdiocese of St. Louis reached with a man claiming his son had committed suicide because he was sexually abused by a priest.

After paying the settlement, the archdiocese submitted a claim to Chicago Insurance, which denied the claim and sued for a declaratory judgment that it didn’t owe coverage. The district court found that because the wrongful death claim in the underlying complaint alleged a form of negligence…

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
lewisblayse.net

The hearings of the Australian royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse has entered its second day, covering the Salvation Army Boys’ Homes of Bexley, Gill, Riverview, and Alkira. Some “Not Directions Not to Publish” orders have been announced so that this report will be incomplete.

This blog had previously called for Wally McLeod to be heard. Wally had appeared in the 2003 Australian Broadcasting Commission’s investigative television program, ‘Four Corners’, entitled ‘The Homies’. Today, he was heard by the commission, under his own name. He was Boy 36 at Riverview and Boy 13 at Alkira.

He told the commission that he had been sent to the notorious Salvation Army Riverview Training Farm in Queensland in the 1960s after his mother died in a car accident and his father was murdered.

“I was told I was going to the home for psychiatric care … I don’t remember needing any and I certainly didn’t receive any. I went there with a small bag of clothes and a money box … Both were taken from me and I never saw them again. I was told I wasn’t allowed any personal possessions.”

Though he did not witness the sexual abuse that the commission has heard was rife at Riverview, Wally said he both saw and experienced multiple physical assaults in which Salvation Army officers used stock whips, saddle straps, split canes and belts on their victims.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
CNN

By Jethro Mullen and Jessica King, CNN
updated 9:59 AM EST, Wed January 29, 2014

(CNN) — An Australian commission is hearing allegations of the physical and sexual abuse of boys in the care of the Salvation Army over several decades.

The shocking treatment at some of the organization’s boys homes included rape, beatings, locking boys in cages and, in one case, forcing a boy to eat his own vomit, the commission was told Tuesday.

The public hearings, taking place in Sydney, are part of a wide-ranging investigation into how Australian institutions responded to cases of child sexual abuse.

The current phase is focusing on the Salvation Army’s response to abuse that took place in four of its boys homes in the states of Queensland and New South Wales in the 1960s and ’70s.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
Telegraph

NATHAN KLEIN THE DAILY TELEGRAPH JANUARY 30, 2014

* Boys ‘were assaulted in showers and were too afraid to complain’
* Victim recalls how elder boys would rape younger residents
* One ‘violent officer’ would punch boys as young as four years old

SALVATION Army officers fondled boys’ penises while they were in the shower, frequently assaulted them and did nothing when told one of the boys in their care was raped, the royal commission into child sex abuse heard yesterday.

Speaking at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, one man – identified only as Mr F P – said he was regularly subjected to sexual abuse and sadistic punishment by officers who were supposed to be caring for him.

He told the inquest one of the ­officers, Lieutenant Spratt, ­approached him and other boys staying at the charity’s homes while they were naked in the showers.

“He touched my backside and I moved away because of what other boys told me about him,” he said.

“I saw him touch other boys too. I saw him touch a boy’s penis in the shower for about a minute or two. It wasn’t a brush, he was fondling him.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX THE AUSTRALIAN JANUARY 30, 2014

A QUEENSLAND man raped and locked in a cage for weeks at a time by a Salvation Army officer was subsequently told to sign documents waiving his right to sue, despite the organisation knowing he could not read.

The man, who cannot be named, yesterday told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that he was about 14 years old when he was abused at the Salvation Army-run Riverview boys home, near Brisbane.

Decades later, in 2011, the organisation offered him $70,000, saying “It’s a gift from us to you”, the commission heard.

He later received a deed of release by post and was told to sign and return the papers, despite having previously told the Salvation Army he could not read.

This document, produced during yesterday’s hearing, now includes the signature of a witness, Narelle Matthews, despite the abuse victim saying, “I was alone when I signed that document . . . I do not know anyone called that.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MINNESOTA
KSTP

By: Leslie Dyste

Prosecutors in Minnesota declined Wednesday to charge leaders of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis over their handling of an abusive priest, but said the archdiocese needs to do better in its reporting of abuse claims.

Ramsey County prosecutor John Choi said there was insufficient evidence to show church leaders failed to properly report suspicions of abuse by the Rev. Curtis Wehmeyer, a St. Paul priest accused in 2012 of molesting two brothers.

In a separate case, Washington County prosecutors said they would not charge another archdiocese priest, the Rev. Jon Shelley, who had been accused of possessing child pornography. Read the full story here.

The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis released the following statement:

“The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis is grateful to the Saint Paul Police Department and the Ramsey and Washington County Attorneys’ offices for their thorough investigation and clearing of the archdiocese in cases involving Curtis Wehmeyer and Fr. Jonathan Shelley.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MINNESOTA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

Date:Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Source: Jim Accurso

The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis is grateful to the Saint Paul Police Department and the Ramsey and Washington County Attorneys’ offices for their thorough investigation and clearing of the archdiocese in cases involving Curtis Wehmeyer and Fr. Jonathan Shelley.

We have a shared interest with all civil authorities and our communities for the protection of children, and we remain in complete solidarity with both Ramsey County Attorney John Choi and Saint Paul Police Department Chief Tom Smith in calling for all victims of any form of abuse to immediately come forward to civil authorities.

In addition, we join Mr. Choi in reminding all mandatory reporters to immediately bring every accusation of child sexual abuse forward to civil authorities. The archdiocese makes every possible effort to adhere to this law strictly and directs everyone in local Church ministry to do the same. The tens of thousands of clergy, parish and school staff, and volunteers who have attended archdiocesan safe environment training sessions since 2005, or anyone who has visited our web site, have received a consistent message: if you suspect child sexual abuse, immediately contact the county social service agency or police; it is not your role to investigate. Our web site also has made contacting authorities easy by providing phone numbers for these civil authorities. We agree that reporting must always err on the side of protecting the victim and preventing harm.

The archdiocese continues to cooperate with all civil authorities related to any investigation of allegations of sexual abuse. We reiterate what we have stated for many years: we urge anyone who suspects abuse of a minor within Church ministry to first call civil authorities. If you or someone you know has been the victim of sexual misconduct in Church ministry, you are also encouraged to call the archdiocesan Director of Advocacy and Victim Assistance at 651-291-4497.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Mara H. Gottfried and Emily Gurnon
Pioneer Press

St. Paul police have seven investigations into allegations of sexual abuse or inappropriate sexual behavior involving priests, the city’s police chief said Wednesday.

In two other cases, prosecutors said Wednesday they will not be filing charges. Police Chief Thomas Smith said his department has not yet forwarded additional cases for prosecutors to review for charges. Two investigators currently are working on the cases full time, Smith said.

In October, St. Paul police urged victims of sexual abuse by priests to come forward. The seven reports currently under investigation were made after that date. They include allegations that date from 1960, 1972, 1977, 1981 and 1984, according to police reports.

Another case under investigation is an allegation made against Archbishop John Nienstedt; he was recently accused of “inappropriate touching” of a boy on the buttocks in 2009. Nienstedt has strongly denied the allegation and has stepped aside from his public ministry during the police investigation.

In a short interview with the Pioneer Press on Wednesday, Smith discussed his department’s work, but not specifics because of the active investigations. The questions and Smith’s answers are edited for space and clarity.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MARYLAND
Frederick News-Post

Danielle E. Gaines Staff writer

A 33-year-old former youth pastor pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 18 months in jail today for sex assault of a minor.

Shaun Michael Ross, of Grantsville, Md., was facing two charges of sexual abuse of a minor following an indictment in July.

Ross worked as youth minister at Calvary Assembly church in Walkersville until he was confronted by the church about an inappropriate relationship with a teenage girl.

According to the indictment, Ross had an inappropriate relationship with the teenage girl between April 2008 and April 2010, when he was trusted in a position of authority.

“This was a manipulation that went on and occurred at a time when he was her counselor,” Assistant State’s Attorney Lindell K. Angel said. “This is a very serious offense.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

For immediate release Wednesday, January 29 2014

Statement by Barbara Dorris, SNAP Outreach Director, 314-862-7688 SNAPdorris@gmail.com

We are saddened by the fact that at this time the Washington County Attorney has decided not to pursue charges against Fr. Jonathan Shelley. We hope someday he will and that in the meantime other police and prosecutors will continue investigating Fr. Shelley.

[Pioneer Press]

We suspect that evidence was withheld or destroyed.

Now more than ever it is important for anyone with knowledge of Fr. Shelley’s crimes or misdeeds to contact law enforcement. Violent child sexual images – or as it is commonly called, child porn – cause great harm to the kids involved.

We hope that Archbishop John Nienstedt will do now what he should have done long ago – visit all the parishes where Fr. Shelley worked and beg anyone who was harmed by him to come forward, call police, and begin to heal.

We stand by what we said last October:

“There is no record of anyone contacting police. (Archbishop Harry) Flynn allowed (Fr. Jonathan) Shelley to return to ministry.” Those two damning sentences are from the latest disturbing Minnesota Public Radio report outlining the secretive, irresponsible and likely illegal way Twin Cities Catholic officials hid thousands of pornographic pictures on Fr. Jonathan Shelley’s computer.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NEW YORK
News 12

[with video]

NEW SQUARE – The case of a rabbi accused of molesting a young man in New Square over five years has been adjourned for two months.

Activists showed up at the first public court appearance last night of Rabbi Moshe Taubenfeld. A young New Square man claims the highly regarded rabbi and mentor sexually abused him for five years after he went to him for solace after Sept. 11. The allegations reignited claims that other sexual abuse cases have been covered up.

“It’s clear that many victims of child molestation in New Square are getting angry at the corruption that allows child molestation to continue,” says Rabbi Noson-Leiter, of Monsey. Noson-Leiter attended the hearing with other activists who say they want to make sure justice gets served for the alleged victim.

Also at the hearing was Yossi, who shared his story with News 12 last year. Yossi became the first sex abuse victim from New Square to ever seek justice through the courts. Taubenfeld’s younger brother, Hershel, was convicted of molesting Yossi, but managed to avoid prison time.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MINNESOTA
CBS Minnesota

ST. PAUL, Minn. (WCCO/AP) — Ramsey County authorities will not be charging the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis for its handling of the case of a priest who was later convicted of sexually abusing two children.

Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said they do not have sufficient evidence to file charges, based off new information.

Choi made clear Wednesday at a press conference that they would only be discussing the case of the Rev. Curtis Wehmeyer and how and when it came to their attention.

That said, Choi said he continues to be troubled by some of the church’s reporting practices in this case and others but wouldn’t say more than that.

The Wehmeyer case is among several that have come to light in recent months that have raised questions about the archdiocese’s handling of problem priests over the years. Choi said in more recent cases, there’s been more cooperation from the Archdiocese regarding police investigation.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

A priest told a former resident of a children’s home in Northern Ireland he was the product of an evil and satanic relationship, an inquiry has heard.

The witness lived at St Joseph’s in Termonbacca, Londonderry, in the 1950s.

He said he became a zombie, introverted and fearing the next beating.

The Historical Abuse Inquiry is investigating abuse claims against children’s residential institutions from 1922 to 1995.

Termonbacca and another Derry home, Nazareth House, were run by the Sisters of Nazareth.

The former Termonbacca resident said he lay soaked in urine at night in an attempt to dissuade any sexual abusers.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Independent

MICHAEL MCHUGH – 29 JANUARY 2014

A priest told a former resident of a church-run children’s home in Northern Ireland that he was the product of an evil and satanic relationship, an inquiry has heard.

The son of an unmarried mother became a zombie, introverted and fearing the next beating, lying soaked in urine at night in an attempt to dissuade sexual abusers from “dropping the hand”, he told the hearing.

He lived at St Joseph’s in Termonbacca, Londonderry, run by the Sisters of Nazareth order of Catholic nuns, in the 1950s after being born in abject poverty and abandoned by his parents.

The child was later placed in a dormitory full of youngsters crying for their mothers.

“It would break your heart, you would have to have a heart of steel and cement, I used to join in crying. I had not a clue what mammy meant,” he recalled.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NORTHERN IRELAND
The Guardian

Henry McDonald, Ireland correspondent
theguardian.com, Wednesday 29 January 2014

A former resident of a children’s care home in Derry, Northern Ireland, was told he was evil and had been born of a satanic relationship, the largest UK inquiry into institutional child abuse has heard.

The witness said a priest labelled him the product of such a union because his mother was unmarried.

He told the historical institutional abuse inquiry on Wednesday that he became “zombie like” during and after he left the Termonbacca home run by the Sisters of Nazareth.

The man, now 65, confronted the priest in the 1950s about maltreatment after leaving the home and was told “you and the other orphans are bastards. You are the product of an evil and satanic relationship. You never had a chance.”

On hearing this, the witness said: “That was the day I left the Catholic church.”

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

UNITED KINGDOM
Our Windsor

Waterloo Region Record

By Catherine Thompson

A retired Anglican priest from Cambridge faces at least four years in federal prison for sex offences dating back almost 30 years.

Rev. George Ferris, 66, is to be sentenced today for two charges of sexual assault against two separate complainants. He was convicted in November of those offences.

On Tuesday, Ferris was sentenced to four years in prison for two counts of sexual assault and one count of sexual exploitation in connection with offences that took place in Brant County between 1983 and 1989, when he served at St. James’ Anglican Church in Paris, Ont.

At Ferris’ trial in October on those charges, Chris Morrison, 42, of Paris, Ont., testified he was molested by Ferris, who was his priest, as a teenager over several years, in a situation that escalated from embraces to oral sex and two instances of actual and attempted anal sex, the Brantford Expositor reports. The court was also told the witness asked Ferris for “hush” money in 2006 and received $5,000 deposited in his bank account.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Times

Dan Keenan

A priest allegedly told a former resident of a Derry orphanage run by nuns that he must never repeat allegations of sexual and other abuse.

A witness told the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry, which is investigating allegations of ill-treatment of children at a list of care home across Northern Ireland before 1995, he should remain silent. This was because his parents were not married and that was why he was placed in the home at Termonbacca in Derry, run by the Poor Sisters of Nazareth.

The witness, who cannot be identified, said he approached a priest later in life and told him of physical and sexual abuse he suffered and witnessed at the home.

He said the priest replied: “You must never speak about this.”

He said the priest explained: “You and the other orphans are bastards, you are the product of an evil and satanic relationship.”

The witness said: “When a priest tells you that, that sums up the perception – how orphan was perceived. What chance did I have?”

The third day of oral hearings from those former residents of the Termonbacca home who wished to testify.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

NORTHERN IRELAND
Irish Times

Mary Carolan

A Stg £25,000 payment made to a man who sued in the Northern Ireland courts over being sexually abused as a child over years by paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth was a “full and final settlement” and the man cannot bring a fresh case here against a Catholic Bishop, the High Court has been told.

The Bishop of Kilmore, Dr Leo O’Reilly, has asked the court to stop the man suing him, in his representative capacity as Bishop of Kilmore, over alleged failures by the diocese and Catholic Church to stop Smyth’s abusive behaviour.

The man insists he is entitled to sue on grounds including that a previous Bishop of Kilmore, Dr Francis McKiernan, was allegedly made aware in 1975 that Brendan Smyth was abusing children but failed to report that to the gardaí or the man’s parents.

It is alleged that a young boy had, at meetings in 1975 with priests of the Catholic Church, told the then Fr Sean Brady – now Cardinal Sean Brady — that Smyth was abusing children.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.

MINNESOTA
KARE

ST. PAUL, Minn. – No criminal charges will be filed against members of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis involving an alleged coverup in the case of a priest convicted of sexual abuse of a child.

Ramsey County Attorney John Choi made the announcement Wednesday morning after what he described as an extensive investigation into how the Archdiocese handled the case of former Priest Curtis Wehmeyer, who is now serving a 5-year sentence for his crimes.

Choi told reporters that prosecutors can’t prove church leaders failed to properly report abuse by Wehmeyer during the time he served at the Blessed Sacrament Parish in St. Paul.

Church leaders removed Wehmeyer from his post in June 2012 after learning of the allegations involving two brothers.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.