Sex assault accusers describe Bay Area coach’s ‘cult-like’ hold on them

Chioke Robinson faces 19 felony charges in sex assault case:

LOS GATOS – JULY 26: People space out and listen to speakers during a Stand for Survivor Solidarity event held on the football field of Los Gatos High School in Los Gatos, Calif., on Sunday, July 26, 2020. (Randy Vazquez/ Bay Area News Group)

By CURTIS PASHELKA 

SAN JOSE – A graphic and sometimes emotional preliminary hearing for a former South Bay track and field coach charged with multiple counts of sexual assault against underage girls is expected to conclude Monday in Santa Clara County Superior Court.

Chioke “Chee” Robinson, 46, has been charged with 19 felonies, including eight counts of oral copulation with a minor under 18 and five counts of sexual penetration with a minor under 18.

Deputy District Attorney Anne Seery plans to have San Jose Police Detective Michael O’Grady testify Monday morning. After that, Judge Julia Alloggiamento will decide whether there is sufficient evidence to proceed to trial.

Through the first four days of the hearing last week, four women who were coached by Robinson while in high school testified that they had sexual interactions with him before their 18th birthdays, with one witness saying her first encounter took place when she was 14 or 15. A fifth woman testified Friday that she was 14 when Robinson grabbed her breasts and touched her genital area.

The alleged incidents described in court took place between 1998 and 2011.

Three of the women said they were 17 when Robinson first had sexual intercourse with them. The former coach is also charged with four counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a minor age 14 or 15, one count of lewd and lascivious acts with a minor under 14, and oral copulation with a minor under 16.

Throughout the week, prosecutors sought to portray Robinson as a predatory figure who would gain the trust of his underage victims through ordinary coach-athlete interactions. The relationships then would grow more flirtatious, ultimately turning physical.

Multiple witnesses testified that they sought to please and protect Robinson, who they said was a controlling figure in their lives. One woman who attended Presentation High School, said she began a years-long sexual relationship with Robinson in 2006, when she was 17 and a member of his club team, ISC International.

“My life all revolved around him,” she said, later adding that the track club had a “cult-like mentality. We all just followed.”

Another woman, who broke down crying at one point under cross-examination, said she lied to Los Gatos police about their relationship. She testified Thursday that she was 14 at the time of her first sexual encounter with Robinson in 1998. As a once-promising runner, she said she was “recruited” to attend Los Gatos High School and compete in both track and field and cross-country.

That witness testified she had just started her freshman year and got to know Robinson after seeing him every day at cross-country practice. She said Robinson told her that she was a good athlete and then began to give her “extra attention” by giving her rides home and regularly calling her own home phone.

She testified that their relationship began with kissing but said the two had their first sexual encounter on a stairwell after a South Bay cross-country meet at another high school. The incident involved oral sex and other acts. After that encounter, the relationship became more sexual as the two saw each other alone on a more frequent basis.

“I was sort of numb,” she testified on direct examination when asked how that made her feel. “I didn’t know what to make of the attention.”

She testified that the first time Robinson had sexual intercourse with her was in the spring of her freshman year after she had turned 15 in January.

By the time she was a sophomore, she testified that she felt she was in a full, “secret relationship” with Robinson, one that continued for approximately six more years. She said the two moved in together around the time of her 18th birthday, but that she broke off the relationship in 2005 when she was 21.

Woman charged with selling 2-year-old for sex leads police to child molestation suspect

By John Donnelly, FOX 26 News

(Originally Posted on Mar 05 2019 01:11PM CST)

Houston - His name is Michael Lowry and when we rang, he answered the door to his Southeast Houston home. He confirmed who he was. “Are you Michael Lowry?” I asked. “Yeah,” was his reluctant reply.

According to court documents this started last year with an investigation by the Montgomery county DA's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. They intercepted a woman named Sarah Peters who was heading to Conroe "who agreed to allow an adult male to engage in sexual intercourse with her two year old daughter in exchange for $1,200."

When Peters and her daughter arrived to meet Lowry, she was taken into custody, and Child Protective Services took custody of her daughter.

That then led investigators to Lowry. She told them she allowed Lowry to gratify himself while touching her daughter. She showed them messages sent via the social media site "Kik." They discussed getting more naked pictures of the girl. He allegedly wrote to her, "The only reason I need to stop seeing you is I want you both," and "I remember you talking about Benadryl, and I imagine the things we could do with her sleeping."

Peters admitted to exchanging child pornography with Lowry on several occasions. Numerous images were located on his phone containing items of "child pornography" and "child erotica".

Detectives went to Lowry's home. His wife showed them his cell phone, laptop, and thumb drive  allegedly containing child pornography. She stated that she and her husband have an open marriage, and that she was aware of the sexual relationship between Lowry and Peters. Upon finding out that the two had spent the night at a hotel with Peters' daughter present, Lowry's wife requested that the relationship end.

Lowry allegedly denied having any sexual contact with the girl, but the "defendant further admitted to talking to Peters about having children together and raising the children in an incestuous family."

He had not yet been arrested, but was already choosing to be silent.

"We'd like to talk to you about the charges against you. Did you really try to have sex with a two year old girl?" I asked. He smirked and shut the door. Hours later he was in custody. He had been living just three blocks from a school.

Diocese Pays Out $3.5 Million Sex Abuse Settlement

The Bridgeport Roman Catholic Diocese has paid out settlements to five men who accused priests of sexual abuse as minors.

By Rich Scinto, Patch Staff

The Bridgeport Roman Catholic Diocese has paid out settlements to five men who accused priests of sexual abuse as minors (Shutterstock)

BRIDGEPORT, CT — The Bridgeport Roman Catholic Diocese has agreed to a $3.55 million settlement with five men who were reportedly sexually abused by priests as children.

Rev. Walter Coleman, Rev. Robert Morrissey and Rev. Larry Jensen are alleged to have committed abuse between the 1980's and early 2000's, according to the Stamford Advocate. The victims were represented by Temont, Sheldon, Robinson and Mahoney law firm of Bridgeport.

The Diocese of Bridgeport, Hartford Archdiocese and Diocese of Norwich have released the names of clergy who allegedly abused minors along with information on monetary settlements. Combined the three have paid out more than $110 million in settlements and have named more than 100 priests who are alleged to have sexually abused minors.

Bishop Frank Caggiano has stepped up the diocese's transparency over settlements that have spanned decades. The diocese had paid out $52.5 million in settlements related to allegations of sexual abuse dating back to 1953 as of October 2018. There were 156 settled claims with an average payment of $337,000. More than 95 percent of settlements were paid after 2000 and the majority of settlements were related to alleged abuse that occurred before 1990.

Similarly, The Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford gave an accounting of its settlements. There were 142 settled claims involving 29 clergy members and three priests from other dioceses. The total amount of settlements is $50.6 millionT

The Hartford Archdiocese hired retired state Superior Court Judge Antonio Robaina to conduct an investigation in a similar vein.

The Diocese of Norwich released the names of 43 priests accused of sexual abuse of a minor. That diocese paid out $7.7 million in settlements with victims across nine cases. There are 23 more cases pending.

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7 ways parents can protect kids from child sexual abuse

Source: TODAY

By Kavita Varma-White

It’s the elephant in the room of parenting topics: child sexual abuse.

And it’s no surprise parents have difficulty addressing it — especially with their children — because the statistics are so horrifying and sobering, you don’t want to believe them.

CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE STATISTICS:

1. Approximately 1 in 6 boys and 1 in 4 girls are sexually abused before the age of 18, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
2. 90 percent of children who are victims of abuse know their abuser, according to government reports.
3. 60 percent of child victims are sexually abused by the people a family trusts.
4. Nearly 40 percent of child victims are abused by older or more powerful children.

So what exactly can parents do? TODAY Parents asked experts for guidance on how to confront a threat that is still something many people feel “could never happen” to their child.

“What the statistics really should be telling us is that… all of us who care about kids and mental health and communities ought to be doing something about it,” says Janet Rosenzweig, author of ‘The Sex-Wise Parent’ and executive director of The American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children.

Rosenzweig and Katelyn Brewer, CEO of the child sexual abuse prevention organization, Darkness to Light, offer this advice:

1. TALK TO YOUR KIDS ABOUT SEX, EARLY AND OFTEN.

Rosenzweig says she’s always surprised at how parents find it difficult to talk about sex with their kids. “They can talk about poop and vomit… but for some reason, sex is more embarrassing than other bodily functions,” she says.

Start when kids are young enough to name their body parts and teach them proper anatomical terms. (Yes, call a penis a penis, a vagina a vagina, an elbow an elbow.)

Rosenzweig suggests making a “Family Values About Sex” checklist of questions and go through it with the family once a year. When kids are younger, start with questions like, “What terms are we going to use?” and “Who gets to see who in what stage of undress?” As kids age, the questions change accordingly.

Use as many teachable moments as you can find. If your child wants to be in a bedroom by themselves, explain it as a matter of privacy versus secrecy, saying: “Privacy means you get to do it by yourself but mommy and daddy know about it. Secrecy means that we don’t know about it, and our family doesn’t do secrecy."

2. TEACH KIDS ABOUT AROUSAL (AS UNCOMFORTABLE AS THAT MAY BE).

Arousal might be one of the most important physiological responses related to sexual abuse that your kids need to know about. Explain why touching certain parts of their body makes them feel the way it does and who is allowed to do it to them. (The answer: No one but themselves can touch their mouth, their chest and their private parts.)

“Arousal is autonomic, a reflex that your body does in response to a stimuli,” explains Rosenzweig. “But one of the things that makes kids so vulnerable to being exploited is when you have a really skilled molester, they go out of their way to make sure their victims experience arousal, which feels good. And when kids equate arousal with love, they are sitting ducks for bad guys.”

Ultimately, kids need to know from an early age that they have agency over their own bodies.That means parents should never insist that kids kiss or hug people, whether it’s the grabby uncle at Thanksgiving or the cool babysitter.

3. YOUR KIDS ARE NEVER TOO OLD TO TALK ABOUT SEX AND SEXUAL ABUSE.

If you feel like you “missed the boat” continuing to talk to teens about sex, it's not too late.

Nearly 40 percent of kids are abused by older children, and child on child sexual abuse has grown from 40 to 50 percent in the last 10 years, according to research by Darkness to Light.(The younger child in this scenario is in the 10-year-old age range.)

Much of these incidents are related to pornographic content online. Brewer says kids are “going to get access to [online] content anyway. And they don’t know what to do with their hormones once they see that content. So they test it with a younger, accessible child. They don’t mean to traumatize this child — they aren’t pedophiles — but the child is traumatized because something is taken from them that they didn’t consent to.”

“As much as we’d like to put our kids in a bubble, it’s not possible,” she says. “Actually sitting down and having that uncomfortable conversation with your kid is going to help prevent things in the long run because… they are going to understand that you are a safe person to talk to and you aren’t going to freak out that they’ve said the word sex to you because you brought it to them first.”

Also, if you have teens that won’t entertain a conversation, Brewer suggests different ways to communicate.

“Send them a link via text to an article," she says. "That’s a great way to continue to have the conversation without even having it.”

4. PAY ATTENTION TO WHO YOUR KID IS SPENDING TIME WITH.

Kids are going to be in situations where they may have one-on-one time with individuals, whether it's friends, teachers, coaches or sitters.

So how do you not get paranoid with every person your child is with?

For starters, check in with your kid in detail after they’ve been alone with someone, says Rosenzweig. “Keep the line of communication open. It doesn’t have to be in a paranoid way. Just ask, ‘What did you do?’ ‘Did you have fun?’ ‘Who was there?’”

Having such routine conversations will make a child feel OK to tell you if there is ever an incident where they do feel uncomfortable.

Brewer adds that while it’s important to minimize opportunity of incidents of child sex abuse by avoiding isolated situations with adults or other youths, it’s best to take a rational approach and trust your gut.

“If someone is spending considerable one-on-one time with your child, redirect their energy. Make them get together in public places. A lot of sexual abuse happens in the car. Don’t let them be in the car together,” she says.

5. KNOW THAT 'STRANGER DANGER' IS A MYTH.

“We have grown up with ‘stranger danger’ being forced down our throats,” says Brewer, referring to the idea that kids should avoid strangers to be safe from predatory activity.

The reality: 90 percent of people who are abused are abused by people who they know and trust.

“If that doesn’t make you pay attention to what is happening in your own back yard, I don’t know what will,” says Brewer.

People who abuse children look and act just like everyone else. They go out of their way to appear trustworthy, and seek out settings where they can gain easy access to children.

6. EDUCATE YOURSELF ON THE SIGNS OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE.

This is always the hardest with parents, says Brewer, because there aren’t always specific physical signs. “Trauma manifests itself differently" in everyone, Brewer says.

Focus on the extremes, she says. “If there is an extreme reaction to something, trust your gut and know something may be wrong.”

One example is the student who all of a sudden is growing their hair out, gaining weight, wearing baggy clothes, dabbling in substances. They are doing things that are going to hide the pain, hide themselves from what’s actually happening.

“They do that to try and look unattractive, so their abuser won’t want them anymore,” says Brewer.

7. KNOW THE THREE WORDS TO SAY IF A CHILD TELLS YOU OF ABUSE.

If your child, or any child you know, comes to you with a potential disclosure of being a sex abuse victim, there is only one thing to say: “I believe you.”

“Those three words alone start a conversation off the right way," says Brewer. "Don’t interrogate them. There are professionals who know how to do that. Making your child relive that trauma is not helpful to you, to the child, or to the professional. They are the ones that are going to ask the right question to get the information they need.”

Names of 11 predator priests will be kept secret, Pennsylvania Supreme Court rules

By Miranda Levingston 

The names of 11 priests cited in the bombshell Pennsylvania grand jury report on child sex abuse will be kept secret to protect their reputations, the state’s Supreme Court ruled Monday.

The grand jury report, released in mid-August after a two-year investigation, identified credible records of more than 1,000 children being abused by 301 priests in six of the eight Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania. The 11 priests were kept anonymous because they contested the allegations against them as false. The Supreme Court decision said identifying these priests would raise due process issues.

“In our prior opinion authored by Chief Justice Saylor, we stressed that an individual’s right to his or her personal reputation was regarded by the framers of our organic charter as a fundamental individual human right — one of the ‘inherent rights of mankind,’” the court decision reads.
The majority of the disclosed crimes took place years ago and were covered up, making it difficult to hold the perpetrators accountable since victims of child sex abuse in Pennsylvania only have until their 50th birthday to file criminal charges and until their 30th birthday to file civil lawsuits.

After the grand jury report was filed a few months ago, Pennsylvania lawmakers proposed a bill to extend the statute of limitations on sexual abuse cases to allow victims more time to sue or bring criminal charges. It passed the House in late September and is awaiting a vote from a state Senate committee.

“As a consequence of the cover-up, almost every instance of abuse we found is too old to be prosecuted,” the original report reads. “But that is not to say there are no more predators.” The grand jury found two recent reports of child sex abuse in two different dioceses within the last decade.

The 1358-page grand jury report, citing names, where they served and the accusations, uncovered an epidemic scale of clerical sexual abuse in Pennsylvania. The state’s attorney general is pushingto have the report released with all the priests' names, unredacted.

Priest charged with sexually abusing Filipino boys

HSI urges potential victims to come forward.

CINCINNATI – An American priest from Cincinnati has been charged by a federal criminal complaint for allegedly sexually abusing minor boys.  The charges follow an international investigation that spanned two continents by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and authorities in the Philippines.

Kenneth B. Hendricks, 77, of Cincinnati, was arrested by Manila-based HSI special agents alongside Filipino  authorities Tuesday evening in the Philippines, where he currently serves as a missionary priest.

Benjamin C. Glassman, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, and Steve Francis, Special Agent in Charge, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), announced the charges. 

The government unsealed the criminal complaint today. According to that document and its supporting affidavit, on November 13, HSI received information regarding alleged sexual exploitation of multiple minor Filipino boys. 

Information indicated that a Catholic priest – later identified as Father Hendricks – had been sexually assaulting the boys. Subsequently, several victims have been identified and provided statements to law enforcement.

For example, one victim said he had been sexually abused by the local parish priest since 2009, when the boy was approximately 12 years old. Another victim stated he was sexually abused by Hendricks beginning when the victim was seven years old.

One victim said he and Hendricks engaged in anal sex at least a dozen times and oral sex more than 30 times. Further, Hendricks allegedly inserted a hose and his fingers into the boy’s anus. 

Another victim said he masturbated Hendricks’s penis approximately 40 times and that Hendricks did the same to the boy at least 60 times.

Victims said Hendricks began by kissing them and the contact escalated to touching their penises, oral and anal sex.

Hendricks allegedly had a number of minor boys residing with him. It is alleged he insisted they take baths together, and would molest the victims alone or with other boys. The priest allegedly warned the victims that if they told anyone they would all go to prison.

In a recorded conversation with one of the victims, Hendrick stated: “This will probably be the scenario is, there will be a meeting and then it will be decided, you know, what your parents want to do about anything. Do they want to try…want to press charges, uh, whatever see, but that’s between them and the Bishop, I have nothing to do with that. I just get the fallout afterwards.”

In the same conversation, Hendricks said: “they will decide, ask you what your decision is, what you’re going to do, whether there will be a case or not or whether, you know, a settlement, I don’t know. But as far as after that, I don’t know what’s going to happen. I really will have to probably really resign, retire now.”

Hendricks is charged as a United States citizen with engaging in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places, which is a federal crime punishable by up to 30 years in prison. 

U.S. Attorney Glassman commended the investigation of this case by HSI and the Assistance of the Philippines National Police, as well as Assistant United States Attorneys Christy L. Muncy and Timothy D. Oakley, who are prosecuting the case.

A criminal complaint merely contains allegations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law.

If you have information related to this alleged conduct, or believe you are also a victim, please contact HSI at 513-246-1461.

13 men, including Disney resort worker, arrested in Florida child predator sting

13 men, including a former military police officer and a cook at a Disney resort, were arrested in an undercover online child predator operation in Florida, according to WFTS.

The Polk County Sheriff’s Office said undercover detectives posed as girls and boys on social media platforms and dating websites from October 2 through October 7.

During the six-day “Operation Cyber Guardian Fall Haul,” 13 men communicated with undercover detectives thinking they were children between the ages 13 and 14 and showed up to a Polk County location to solicit sexual acts from the “children.”

The sheriff’s office said many of the suspects took condoms and lubricant but were greeted by detectives and arrested.

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Those arrested included men in their 20’s, 30’s and 50’s, and were from Kissimmee, Montverde, Lake Mary, Davenport, Winter Haven, Orlando, and Holiday.

Among them were:

• A man who said he knew he was HIV positive and solicited a boy who he thought was 14 to engage in unprotected sex.
• A former military police officer who had been previously arrested, convicted and is on federal probation for lewd/Lascivious Molestation of a child.
• A Lake Mary man who was arrested in Seminole County in November 2017 for obscene communication with a minor.
• A man who brought a new I-Phone 8+ as a gift along with sex toys, condoms, lubricant, and male enhancement pills.
• A cook at a Disney resort.
• A food runner at a restaurant in Disney Springs.

“These predators are out there, trying to sexually seduce and violate children. They lurk in chat rooms and online, ready to groom children for sex,” Sheriff Grady Judd said in a statement. “Fortunately, because of the great work of our detectives, at least 13 of them won’t be doing that any time soon.”

“The things that these predators say to children they believe are 13 and 14 are vile and disgusting. Even seasoned, trained detectives are repulsed,” Judd said. “The bottom line is that these predators need to be locked up and kept away from children.”

The 13 men arrested face a total of 58 charges (57 felonies, 1 misdemeanor) which include: attempted lewd lascivious molestation, using a communication device to commit a felony, attempted uninformed HIV infected sexual intercourse, traveling to meet a minor for the purposes of sex, attempted lewd battery, and transmitting material harmful to a minor.

A full lists of those arrested and charges can be found here.

Florida ranks 3rd in US for human trafficking cases

Data: 57 active criminal cases in Florida last year, compared to 12 nationwide

By Erik Avanier - Reporter

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - The state of Florida ranked third in the United States for the number of active criminal human trafficking cases in the federal court system last year, according to data released Friday by the Human Trafficking Institute.

The data shows Florida had 57 cases in 2017, well above the national average of 12.64.T

The findings in the 2017 Federal Human Trafficking Report show 84.7 percent of human trafficking cases last year in Florida were sex trafficking. That's when women and children are forced into sex slavery by working the streets as prostitutes or appearing in child pornography for profit by the people who have enslaved them. 

The cases are divided into three districts in Florida: northern, middle and southern. 

Northeast Florida, including the Jacksonville area, was part of the middle district, which had the highest number of active criminal cases with 26 -- compared to the southern district, which had the second-highest number of cases with 20, and the northern district with 11 cases.

According to researchers, the 59 active criminal and civil human trafficking cases in Florida last year generated 433 federal charges against 87 people.

One was of the silver linings in the data was that Florida ranked second in the U.S. for the highest number of criminal convictions last year. There were 31 convictions in Florida compared to the national average of 6.23 convictions. 

Anyone who is a victim of human trafficking can get help by calling the National Human Traffickinhg Hotline -- 24 hours a day, seven days a week -- at 1-888-373-7888. 

Catholic Church Paid $213 Million To 4,445 Children Sexually Abused By Pedophile Priests In Australia

These days, the Roman Catholic Church is synonymous with child sexual abuse. We owe nobody an apology for saying this. It's the truth. Cases of child sexual abuse and subsequent cover-ups committed during the 20th and 21st centuries by Catholic priests, nuns, and members of the Roman Catholic Order have led to numerous allegations, investigations, trials and convictions. The abused include boys and girls, some as young as 3 years old, with the majority between the ages of 11 and 14. It is beyond imagination that these so-called men and women of God have molested innocent children in this widespread way. The abuse is a worldwide problem in the church. There aren’t accurate statistics to determine the number of children these pedophiles in the church have abused worldwide because of the extent. From 2001 to 2010, the Holy See, which serves as the central governing body of the Catholic Church, considered sex abuse allegations involving approximately 3,000 priests dating back up to fifty years. Cases worldwide reflect patterns of long-term abuse and of the church hierarchy regularly covering up reports of alleged abuse.

Diocesan officials and academics knowledgeable about the Roman Catholic Church have revealed that sexual abuse by the pedophiles in the church is generally not discussed, and thus is difficult to measure. In 2014, the Vatican said 3,420 credible accusations of sexual abuse committed by priests had been referred to its institution over the past 10 years, and that 824 clerics were defrocked as a result. However, a new investigation carried out in Australia has shed light on the damning practice of Catholic priests and nuns in the country. According to the report, the Catholic Church paid US$213 million to victims of sex abuse committed by priests in Australia over decades. In 2002, a critical investigation by The Boston Globe in the United States led to worldwide media coverage of child sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church. By 2010, much of the reporting focused on abuse in Europe. In 2012, Australia also announced it was to investigate the abuses by the church. By 2013, the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse commenced hearings on alleged Catholic Church sex abuse of children – mostly boys. In mid-February 2017, the commission issued a report revealing: “Catholic Church authorities made total payments of [AU]$276.1 million [US$213million] in response to claims of child sexual abuse received between 1 January 1980 and 28 February 2015, including monetary compensation, treatment, legal and other costs.” Of the 4,445 cases the church received between January 1980 and February 2015 in the country, the report said the church managed to identify 1,880 alleged perpetrators, who included 597 (32% ‘religious brothers,’ 572 (30%) priests, 543 (29%) lay people, and 96 (5%) religious sisters or nuns. According to the report, 90% of abusers were male while the abused were also mostly boys. 

According to the commission, sex abuse victims received AU$91,000 in compensation. The report by the commission also stated that the Christian Brothers group admitted during the hearing that both the highest total payment and the largest number of total payments is $48.5 million. It was paid in relation to 763 payments at an average of approximately $64,000 per payment. The Christian Brothers is a worldwide religious community within the Catholic Church. Furthermore, the commission said the Jesuits had the highest average total payment at an average of approximately $257,000 per payment (of those Catholic Church authorities who made at least 10 payments). The Jesuit is an order of religious men in the Roman Catholic Church. Critics, including those in the Catholic Church who want justice for the victims, say the system of payments is unfair and not all victims receive the same opportunities or compensation. The Church's Truth Justice and Healing Council chief executive, Francis Sullivan candidly admitted to local media that not all victims have equal opportunities or compensation. “Even though the church has paid $270 million and it took a long time to get its act together to do that, there's no doubt the system of paying people and compensating them is best done independently of the church through a national redress scheme. Some congregations pay far more than others. Some dioceses pay far more than others. It's still not a fair system,” he added. “It's a picture of great unfairness and inequity between survivors across Australia depending on where they placed their claim,” Helen Last, Chief Executive Officer of In Good Faith Foundation, which represents 460 abuse victims also told the Reuters news agency in an interview. 

NY Bishop Rape Shames Abuse Victims: Boys Are ‘Culpable’ For Their Actions At 7 Years Old

Bishop Robert By Charles Topher | 16 September 2015

Addicting Info

Syracuse Bishop Robert Cunningham testified in an abuse case that, in the eyes of the Church, the boys who were molested are also at fault. 

Bishop Robert Cunningham of the diocese of Syracuse, NY doesn’t think priests should take all of the blame for decades, if not centuries, of sexual abuse against young boys. According to Cunningham, the “age of reason” in the Catholic church is seven, so those boys are culpable for their actions.

The shocking statement came during testimony that was recently released from a deposition for a federal lawsuit. Charles Bailey, a survivor of a priest’s abuse, asked then-Bishop James Moynihan whether the church held children victims partly responsible for sexual abuse from priests . “(Bishop) Moynihan said that right to my face – ‘The age of reason is 7, so if you’re at least 7 you’re culpable for your actions.’ That kind of floored me,” said Bailey.

Obviously, the sentiment isn’t something one Bishop believes, but a broader excuse used to cover for the guilt of sexual predators.

The “age of reason” may be seven years old, but that in no way makes it the “age it’s the kid’s fault he was raped.” According to church doctrine, seven is the age a child should understand the difference between right and wrong. It’s also the age a child is eligible for communion.

A spokesman for the diocese has been trying to defend the bishop, saying that his statements in a deposition don’t mean he believes children are responsible for being raped and that it was “unfair to use the deposition to characterize his position otherwise.”

“Unfair may not quite cut it where this man is concerned. When pressed on the issue, he said it wasn’t his place to know how much guilt was on the victim’s hands. The simple answer, “none,” became another distorted version of reality that somehow makes it at least partially a child’s fault when a priest abuses him.

“Well, I mean, without knowing the circumstances completely, did the boy encourage, go along with (it) in any way?” Cunningham asked. The lawyer asked Cunningham if he could imagine any circumstance in which a 14- or 15-year-old boy could be held responsible in the eyes of the church when a priest asks him to engage in sex.

“Obviously, what the priest did was wrong,” Cunningham said. “You’re asking me if the young man had any culpability, and I can’t judge that.”

Actually, you can judge that. Anyone can judge that. What happened is priests used their influence and position as “messengers of God” to force children to comply with their perverted sexual desires. In the very least they were forced to make adult decisions they didn’t have the capacity to make. This bishop and all the priests he defended with this mindless argument betrayed the trust of the parishioners and especially the children of the Diocese of Syracuse.

Charles Bailey has circulated a petition he intends to present to Pope Francis in Philadelphia during his visit to remove Bishop Cunningham as the head of the church there.

Archbishop of St. Louis Robert Carlson on criminal child sexual abuse