3/18/14: Today’s Round-up of Child Sex Abuse in the News
NATIONAL
Durham, NC – Army general to plead guilty to lesser charges in sexual abuse case
Brig. Gen. Jeffrey A. Sinclair will plead guilty to lesser charges in a deal with Army prosecutors, who have agreed to drop charges that he twice sexually assaulted an Army captain by forcing her to perform oral sex, threatened to kill her and her parents and engaged in “open and notorious” sex in a parked car and on a hotel balcony. The plea deal would end a flawed prosecution in a high-profile military sexual abuse case that came to an abrupt halt last week, when a military judge ruled that improper political considerations may have tainted the Army’s decision to reject an earlier plea offer. The Army’s handling of the case has been under intense political and public scrutiny as the military struggles to cope with a surge of sexual assault claims.
University Place, WA – Former Curtis High teacher accused of violating no-contact order
A former Curtis High School teacher accused of having a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old student will face additional charges alleging he violated a court order following his release from custody, the Pierce County prosecutor’s office said Monday. Prosecutors allege that Mike E. Allen met with the girl and had a 45-minute call with her on a pre-paid phone while he’s been out on $25,000 bail. Read more here:
St. Charles, MO – Lindenwood: Student who ‘made up’ assault no longer enrolled
School officials say the Lindenwood University student who is charged with falsely reporting a sexual assault-on campus is no longer enrolled at the university. “We have zero tolerance for such action,” university President Jim Evans said in a news release. Read more here:
Fairfield, CT – Ex-Fairfield fencing coach gets jail term for sexually assaulting Ludlowe student
A former fencing coach at Fairfield’s high schools has been sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting a female student at Fairfield Ludlowe High School last year.
The parents of the victim broke into tears last Friday as they described to Judge Robert Devlin at Bridgeport Superior Court how their now-18-year-old daughter has changed as a result of actions by John Tejada. Read more here:
Alice, TX – Alice Bus Driver Arrested, Charged with Sexual Assault of a Student
A school bus driver was arrested Monday for allegedly having an inappropriate relationship with an Alice High School student. Police said 25-year old Justin Lee Franco was sending sexually explicit messages to the 16-year old victim, and when officers spoke with the victim, she told them that the two had sex. Read more here:
Raleigh, NC – UNC faculty often untrained on student mental health
Though conversation surrounding sexual assault and mental illness at UNC has increased during the last year, there is still no required training on the subjects for faculty and staff members. But University faculty and administrators have begun discussing ways of implementing sexual assault training into their schedules through an online program. Read more here:
Darby Township, PA – Teacher, Marple resident, is arrested for allegedly touching students inappropriately
Darby Township Elementary School teacher and resident of Marple, has been charged with sexually assaulting three female students. Paul Hochschwender, 54, was arraigned March 12 on charges of institutional sexual assault, indecent assault on a person less than 13 years of age and corruption of minors. A second grade teacher who once coached soccer and baseball for youth teams, Hochschwender was accompanied by his attorney Arthur Donato when he surrendered to authorities. Read more here:
New Gloucester, ME – Former chief of state police charged with sex abuse
Authorities said Monday they have charged a former chief of the Maine State Police after investigating reports that he sexually abused a child younger than 12 years old. Andrew E. Demers, 73, of Bald Hill Road, New Gloucester, was charged with unlawful sexual contact, a Class B crime, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Read more here:
Charles City, IA – Charles City man charged with sexual abuse
A Charles City man has been charged with two counts of sexual abuse against a 16-year-old girl. Kenford Simon, 49, was arrested on two outstanding warrants for sexual abuse in the third degree, a Class C felony, on March 11 in the 700 block of South Grand Avenue, according to the the Charles City Police Department’s log. Read more here:
Watertown, NY – Former Watertown man charged in child sex abuse case going back 18 years
A former Watertown resident is facing child sex abuse charges after a lengthy investigation by State Police. Troopers arrested 49-year-old Richard P. Gibson, of Newport News, Virginia, after the investigation showed that he allegedly sexually abused a young boy and girl in the city of Watertown between October 1996 and December 2000. Read more here:
INTERNATIONAL
Saint-Anne-de-Beaupré, Québec, Canada – Redemptorist sex abuse trial in Quebec City draws to an end
A judge in Quebec City heard closing arguments today in a class-action lawsuit that alleges sexual abuse by members of the clergy. It marks the final stage in the province’s first ever class-action lawsuit over sexual abuse by priests to go to trial. Until now, all other cases had been settled out of court. Lawyers representing more than a dozen men who attended Séminaire Saint-Alphonse, a private boarding school in Saint-Anne-de-Beaupré near Quebec City, alleged there was systemic abuse and a cover-up at the school. Read more here:
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada – Retired Port Coquitlam teacher charged again in sex abuse of students
Another round of criminal charges have been laid against a retired B.C. teacher who previously pled guilty to sexually exploiting two young people more than a decade ago. Russell Lance Read, whose last teaching assignment was at Citadel middle school in Port Coquitlam, was charged last month in connection to five more alleged sex crimes and police believe there may be more victims who have not yet come forward. Read more here:
Adelaide, Australia – SA sex abuse boy took knife to molester
An intellectually disabled boy became so angry at being repeatedly sexually abused by his school’s bus driver that he put a knife to the man’s face, an inquiry has been told. “I wanted to kill him, I wanted him to die,” the now 38-year-old man told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse on Monday, at its first Adelaide sitting. The commission’s ninth case study is focused on events from 1986 to 1991 at St Ann’s Special School for children with intellectual disabilities. It will investigate responses made by the South Australian police, the school and the Catholic Archdiocese of Adelaide to claims of child sexual abuse by Brian Perkins. Read more here:
Hervey Bay, Australia – Man accused of molesting stepdaughter almost nightly
A FORMER Hervey Bay man has denied he molested his stepdaughter, from age nine, almost nightly for years in various family homes in Queensland and New South Wales. The man, aged 41, also denies he continued sexually assaulting the girl during visits around the Caboolture area after he separated from the girl’s mother. Yesterday he pleaded not guilty in Brisbane District Court to maintaining a sexual relationship with a child; twice indecently treating the girl while she was aged under 12 and five times while she was under 16; and attempted rape and rape. Read more here: