21 arrested across Columbus in online child predator sting

COLUMBUS, Ga. — An undercover sting to root out child predators ended early Monday morning with a total 21 men behind bars.

Operation Hidden Guardian is an initiative by state and local investigators to use fake social media and phone app profiles operated by officers to root out predators.

Columbus Police Department Chief Ricky Boren says all 21 suspects agreed to travel to or around Columbus to meet who they thought were underage kids for sex.

Boren’s release says the operation first initiated when the GBI’s Child Exploitation and Computer Crimes Unit (CEACC) and the Georgia Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICAC) first contacted local law enforcement back in August to organize a sting.

Hidden Guardian started on November 9 and over the course of the investigation, more than 600 messages were exchanged between undercover officers and online profiles.  The release says around 400 of the exchanges were initiated by predators seeking a child and steering conversations towards sexual topics. The release says at times the adults exposed the “minor” to obscene, pornographic images or asked the “child” to take nude photos.

Over the past five days, the 21 suspects who either lived in Columbus or traveled to the area for sex with a minor were arrested.

Boren says the suspects range from 22 to 55 with all kinds of professions — from a local car wash attendant to a school custodian all the way from North Carolina.

“There is no profile, there is no standard child predator,” says Debbie Garner, the commander of the Georgia ICAC.

Garner says it’s not uncommon for such predators to have inappropriate encounters with children in their past, even if they have no prior convictions.

“Most often they admit to prior sexual contact with children in the past. As the commander of the task force, that’s very important to me. It tells me we are actually arresting the people who are preying on children and so that these operations really do work,” she says.

“You know there was one person who basically admitted that they had been thinking about touching children and that they felt as though that would have happened in the future. They were almost happy that they were caught.”

Garner suggests parents utilize resources like NetSmartz.Org, an site operated by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The site features tips to keep children’s information safe and signs to watch out for to avoid predators. NetSmartz.Org even has videos from survivors who tell their terrifying encounters with online predators.

Some of the tips include not talking to anyone you don’t know in real life, even if their profile age seems similar to your own.

“It may look like they are a 16-year-old boy or a 16-year-old girl and that’s not actually who they are. you know a lot of times kids will say well they’re a kid too and they’ll accept their friend request,” Garner says. “All they have to do, all a child predator has to do is get one kid to accept their friend request and then the other kids see that they’re friends with them, and then they accept their friend request, so it’s things like that we try to teach kids.”

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DELHI - LITTLE TO CELEBRATE AS CITY YET TO ENSURE SAFETY OF KIDS

New Delhi

As the nation celebrates its 53rd Children's Day on Tuesday, child safety in national capital paints a worrisome picture. While 17 children are reported to be missing every day, three children are sexually violated in Delhi daily, as per the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data of 2015.

In the past five years (2012 to 2017 till October 31), 478 cases under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act have been registered and 40,404 children have gone missing.

Entire country was shocked when a Class II student of the Ryan International School in Gurugram was murdered on September 8, raising questions on the safety of children in their second home-school.

While the nation came to term with the horrid crime, within 24 hours, a five year-old girl was raped by her school peon in East Delhi's Gandhi Nagar.

Delhi Police officers claimed that ample measures have been taken to curb crimes against children in the city. There are trained officers who work round the clock to ensure safety and security of children.

Special Commissioner of Police Traffic and Chief spokesperson of the Delhi Police and Special CP (Traffic) Depender Pathak said, “Safety and security of children is of utmost importance for the Delhi Police. Steps have been taken to put a stop to the cases. Officers, who handle cases pertaining to minor children, have been instructed to be polite to the victims. Over the few years, cases have reduced.”

As per the 2015 data of the NCRB, 9,489 cases of crime against children were reported. This contributes as 10.1 to the cases across pan India. 56 lakh was the estimated population of children in the Union Territory. 169. 4 per cent of the cases were taken as cognizable offences.

There were 56 murder cases of children which included 54 victims. The rate of murder cases accounted to 60 per cent. Similarly, 927 rape cases of children were reported in the national Capital where in 928 children became victims. The rape cases accounted to 16.6, as per the NCRB data.

On the other hand, as per the data available with the Delhi Police, 73 cases pertaining to child sexual abuse were registered under the POCSO Act while 5,464 cases of missing children while four children were rescued under the Bonded Labour Act in Delhi.

Meanwhile, the Delhi Police on Monday said that that to ensure that children become aware of cyber bullying and other cyber-related crimes, the computer teachers in schools have been made partners in spreading cyber safety awareness among schoolchildren by organising workshops on cyber safety awareness for the teachers.

“The Delhi Police aims to harness the school computer teachers and computer centres in communicating the importance of cyber safety and how the young, school going kids can protect themselves from cyber crimes. The teachers will also act as eyes and ears for police in recognising the new challenges that the young children are likely to face,” said Suvashish Choudhary, Additional CP (Economic Offences Wing).

The Delhi Police has concluded its fifth Workshop on Cyber safety Awareness for school computer teachers. These Workshops have been attended by more than 723 computer teachers from over 577 schools spread across Delhi.

Parents reunite with missing opioid-addict children after seeing them on CNN

A news report on the opioid crisis has reunited the parents of two different addicts with their previously missing children.

Billy Donovan, 31, was living on the streets of Boston in the grip of an addiction to heroin. “I know I’m going to die from it,” Donovan told CNN’s Gary Tuchman. Donovan says he started with prescription drugs as a teen and eventually got hooked on heroin, a cheaper alternative to opioids like oxycontin.

Friends of Donovan found him after seeing the report and told his mother, Kristina Barboza, where he was. “If my son were to die, I just don’t know how I would go on,” she said in a follow-up story.

Donovan, who’d gone to rehab several times and relapsed, agreed to try again and checked himself into a detox facility.

Meanwhile, 30-year-old Meghan DiGiacomo, also homeless in Boston, was reunited with her parents, who saw the report. Her father, Paul DiGiacomo, has sworn to live beside her on the street until she agrees to enter a drug treatment program.

“I’m never giving up on Meghan,” says her mother, Julie Chandler. “She won’t die. She can’t.”

The story of these two families ravaged by drug addiction is one only too common in America today. The so-called opioid epidemic, according to the National Institute of Drug Abuse, claims the lives of 90 Americans a day, by some estimates.

DiGiacomo dreamed of getting sober and starting a family one day with her boyfriend, who was also a heroin addict. They both overdosed, but only she survived.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 15,000 Americans died in 2015 as a result of opioid overdoses. And the costs are not just in human lives.

The CDC says opioid addiction takes a $78.5 billion toll on the U.S. economy each year because of the cost of “healthcare, lost productivity, addiction treatment, and criminal justice involvement.”

The problem is getting more severe, with synthetic opioids like fentanyl, which is 100 times more potent than heroin, hitting the market. Police in Arkansas recently warned the public that they could overdose just by touching the handle of a shopping cart if it had fentanyl residue on it.

Aly Raisman on alleged abuser Larry Nassar

In an interview with 60 Minutes, three-time Olympic gold medalist Aly Raisman said a longtime USA Gymnastics doctor accused of sexually abusing her and other women gained her trust by bringing her desserts or gifts.

Raisman, the captain of the 2012 and 2016 Olympic teams, told 60 Minutes that she first realized Larry Nassar had abused her after being interviewed by a USA Gymnastics investigator in 2015.

“I was just really innocent. I didn’t really know. You don’t think that of someone, so I trusted him,” Raisman said in the interview with 60 Minutes, which aired Sunday night.

“He would buy me little things, so I really thought he was a nice person,” Raisman said. “I really thought he was looking out for me. That’s why I want to do this interview. I want to talk about it. I want people to know that just because someone is nice to you, and just because everyone is saying they are the best person, it does not make it OK for them to ever make you uncomfortable, ever.”

Filling the Empty Nest (With Money)
Raisman declined to detail the abuse during the interview but said it started when she was 15. She also describes the alleged abuse in her book, Fierce, being released this week.

“You don’t want to let yourself believe, I am a victim of sexual abuse,” Raisman said in the interview. “It’s really not an easy thing to let yourself believe that.”

Raisman is the second member of the Fierce Five squad that won gold at the London Olympics who has said Nassar abused her.

Last month, fellow Fierce Fiver McKayla Maroney came forward to say Nassar abused her for several years, beginning when she was 13.

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Facebook identifies alleged child rapist; Bothell man arrested

Thomas Mahoney, 24, appeared by video in a Snohomish County courtroom Wednesday afternoon, hours after being booked into the Snohomish County Jail in Everett --- on suspicion of child rape and communicating with a minor for immoral purposes.

According to Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office documents, Mahoney met a then-13 year old girl on Facebook last year.

In September 2016, “when she was 14 years of age, she met with him in Bothell, and they had sex” at his home, according to investigators.

The documents reveal the girl’s family moved out of state, so “Mahoney travelled to California” in May and August of 2017, when he allegedly raped her again.

According to investigators, “Mahoney videotaped” the encounters.

Those videos - and explicit Facebook messages between Mahoney and the girl - are now evidence.

In court, Judge Tam Bui ordered Mahoney’s bail be set at $150,000 and issued a protection order to keep him away from the girl should he bail out.

“I’m not going to specifically delineate the kinds of contact, whether it be electronic, person, phone, whatever method,” Judge Bui told Mahoney.

“It is no contact.”

Mahoney has no criminal history.

He claimed in documents the girl told him she was 19 years old. 

However, the girl's mother told KIRO 7 Mahoney always knew the girl's real age and pursued her anyway.

Facebook has turned over to investigators messages where Mahoney allegedly refers to the girl as “this hot little 14 year old” while describing their sexual contact.

The mom says her daughter has been traumatized by the rapes. 

Mahoney has not yet been charged.

Roswell Missing 15-Year-Old Girl

The Roswell Police Department are searching for a 15-year-old girl who has been missing for two days.

Salma Bounajra is a tenth grader at Centennial High School who was last seen walking to the school bus Friday morning around 8 a.m.
Her parents say the girl did not board the bus and did not appear in school.

She was last seen wearing a black jacket, blue jeans, and red Nike sport sandals while walking on the 1200 block of Terramont Drive in Roswell.
The family released the following statement:

"We still do not know what happened to our daughter, why it happened, or where she is now. The only thing we do know is that we want Salma home as quickly and safely as possible. If anyone know anything about daughter's whereabouts, please come forward. We beg you."

Individuals with information regarding this case can contact the Roswell Police Department. The family representative Mohammed Elhammani can be reached at (404) 992-1557, or call Edward Ahmed Mitchell at (404) 285-9530.

Times Of India - Child rights week to be observed from Nov 14 to 20

Thiruvananthapuram: The social justice department, child rights commission and district child rights protection unit will jointly observe Child Rights Week from November 14 to 20. The week will be observed upholding the motto 'Society shapes children and child's protection is society's responsibility'.

The declaratory procession as part of the district level programmes in Vizhinjam will begin from PTM VHSS Maruthoorkonam, Kottukal on Monday at 11am. Kottukal was recently declared as a child friendly panchayat. The students of PTM VHSS will stage a drama focussing on liquor consumption, gender discrimination and drugs. Skits and study classes will be presented in various schools at Venganoor, Kottukal, Mukkola and Kottapuram.

Competitions will also be held in high school and higher secondary categories in essay, drawing, elocution and debate. The procession will be given reception on November 16 at St Mary's Higher Secondary School ground from 8.30am to 10.30am.

As part of the reception, the students of the social works department, National College will conduct a poster exhibition. Public convention, distribution of prizes and street quiz will also be held as part of the reception. Students of MSW department, Loyola College will present various cultural programmes. M Vincent MLA will inaugurate the public convention being organized in connection with art procession reception. ADGP B Sandhya will be present on the occasion.