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.

Facebook and New Zealand Police Team Up to find Missing Children

Facebook and New Zealand Police are teaming up to launch a system for finding missing children.

The Amber Alerts system will be activated if a child is missing, and considered at serious risk of harm.

Once it's activated, people in the targeted search area will receive a notification at the top of their Facebook news feed, which they can also choose to share with their friends.

The alert will include a photo of the child, and any important information about the circumstances in which they went missing.

Facebook director of trust and safety Emily Vacher said all it took for police to activate the alert was sending an email to a dedicated Facebook email address that was monitored 24/7.

"As soon as we get the alert from the police, we prepare the notice.

"People care so deeply about the children in their communities, that really, this was just something that Facebook could assist with by building a tool."

Vacher was an FBI agent on the child abduction team, before leaving to work for Facebook.

She said Facebook was the perfect way to deliver messages that could be life-saving.

"We wanted to create a tool where the maximum number of people who would be able to help could access the information.

"So rather than sharing by individual people, it's a more formal system."

Police commissioner Mike Bush said that child abductions were rare in New Zealand, but child regularly went missing from home and were considered at serious risk of harm.

"Having the Amber Alerts system means we now have another useful tool to quickly contact the public in emergency situations.

"If we can use it to help save even just one child, then it is a system worth having."

It's a tool Robyn Jensen wishes had been available when her 14-year-old daughter went missing in 1983.

Kirsa Jensen rode her horse to the beach at Awatoto, Napier, on September 1, 1983.

She never returned home and, despite extensive police inquiries, has never been found.

Robyn said the story might have been different if a tool like the Amber Alert had existed then.

"Ensuring people quickly learn about a missing child is of utmost importance.

"[This] is a wonderful way to spread the word and widen the circle of people watching out for a missing child.

"To lose a child is devastating but what makes it extraordinarily hard is just not knowing what has happened.

"I remain locked into that moment in time when Kirsa went missing."

The new tool was launched at 10am today at Police National Headquarters in Wellington.

New bill sponsored by Sen. Ritchie gives law enforcement access to abuse and neglect records in cases of missing children:

Legislation cosponsored by North Country Senator Patty Ritchie, R-Heuvelton, was signed into law giving law enforcement officials immediate access to abuse and neglect records when children are reported missing.

“As a mother and grandmother, I know there’s nothing more important than making sure children are protected from those who wish to harm them,” Ritchie said.

Ritchie’s 48th Senate District covers northern and western St. Lawrence County, including Ogdensburg, Canton and Gouverneur.

“When a child goes missing, every second counts. However, as we’ve seen, law enforcement officials are sometimes unnecessarily delayed as they try to obtain the details needed to investigate these cases. Through this new law, those investigating will more easily be able to access the vital information they need to bring missing children home, and to safety,” she said.

Through the new law, the determination for when child protective services should turn over records to local law enforcement agencies during an investigation is clarified.

According to the most recent available statistics available from a study by the U.S. Department of Justice, 797,500 children younger than 18 were reported missing in a one-year period of time, resulting in an average of 2,185 children being reported missing each day.

The measure (S.3520-A) was sparked by a case that happened last December in the Albany region, where 5 year-old Kenneth White was reported missing and later found dead.

While investigating the case, authorities were stopped from accessing Kenneth’s child protective records, which could have provided them with information on additional persons of interest. Instead, their search time was delayed before Kenneth was discovered and his cousin later confessed to attacking him.

Trinity Mount Ministries Website

DOJ - CELEBRATING ACCESS TODAY: ENFORCING ACCESSIBILITY IN YOUTH SPORTS

Twenty-five years ago, with the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), our nation committed itself to the elimination of discrimination against people with disabilities.  In honor of the 25th anniversary of the ADA, each month, the Department of Justice is highlighting efforts that are opening gateways to full participation and opportunity for people with disabilities.  This month, we spotlight the story of a child named Brahm and how the Department of Justice’s work enforcing the ADA is improving full and equal access to youth athletics in Colorado.  Participating in athletic competition is a formative experience for children across this country, and children with disabilities are entitled to participate equally in youth sports.

Nine-year-old Brahm has bone dysplasia, also known as dwarfism, which makes him smaller and lighter than other children his age.  In the fall of 2013, when he was seven years old and weighed approximately 34 pounds, Brahm joined a wrestling club in his hometown of Colorado Springs, Colorado.  His doctor had cleared him to wrestle children of a similar weight.  Wrestling tournaments were run by Pikes Peak Wrestling League (PPWL), a youth wrestling league that serves approximately 4,000 children across the state of Colorado.  Initially, for the regular season tournaments, PPWL allowed Brahm to wrestle in the six and under age division, even though he was seven years old, so that he could wrestle with children of a similar weight.  Brahm’s parents explained that Brahm has a disability, dwarfism, and it would be unsafe for him to wrestle children in the eight and under division weighing up to 45 pounds.  When it came to the State Wrestling Championship, however, PPWL refused to allow Brahm to compete in the six and under division.  Consequently, Brahm left the tournament and did not compete.

The United States recently reached a settlement agreement with PPWL that will ensure that, in the future, children with disabilities like Brahm will not be excluded from PPWL’s events.  Under the agreement, which must be approved by the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, PPWL will adopt and publicize a disability nondiscrimination policy, including procedures for handling requests to modify policies for wrestlers with disabilities.  PPWL will also train employees on ADA requirements and invite coaches affiliated with PPWL and USA Wrestling Directors to attend this training, free of charge.  In addition, PPWL will pay compensatory damages to Brahm and report to the department on its compliance with the agreement.

Title III of the ADA requires public accommodations, including youth sports leagues like PPWL, to reasonably modify their policies, practices or procedures, when such modifications are necessary to afford their goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages or accommodations to individuals with disabilities and when such modifications would not fundamentally alter the nature of their goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages or accommodations.  For more information about the ADA, call the department’s toll-free ADA Information Line at 800-514-0301 (TDD 800-514-0383) or access the ADA website at www.ada.gov.  ADA complaints may be filed by email to ada.complaints@usdoj.gov

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Trinity Mount Ministries Website

Operation Valsalya to track missing children:

The Kerala government has launched a programme named Operation Valsalya to trace, rescue and reunite the missed children with their family. The state government’s ambitious programme is envisaged to be implemented on the lines of the much acclaimed ‘Operation Smile’ project in Ghaziabad. According to police statistics, as many as 69 children have been kidnapped or abducted across the state till June this year. While 116 children had been kidnapped in the state in 2014, the number was 136 in 2013 and 147 in 2012.

The state Social Justice Department, which initiated the programme on a small scale recently, is planning to execute it with the support of various government departments. Cooperation and support of police, childline volunteers and non-governmental organizations have been sought in this regard.

Under the programme, officials, who received expert training in Juvenile Justice Act, Protection of Child Rights Act and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, would carry out searches in locations like bus stands, railway stations, pilgrim centers and so on. Searches would also be carried out in children homes and orphanages by vigilant squads. Identity of wandering children and inmates of orphanages would also be recorded.

The picture and other whereabouts of children, rescued from various parts of the state under the mission, would be uploaded in the website www.trackthemissingchild.nic.in.