Counter Pedophilia Investigate Unit

A Lexington couple was arrested Thursday in an alleged child abuse case that dates back to January 2010.

Police say Cheryl Christopher, 51, locked her nine-year-old child in a dog cage at the family’s former home on Deauville Drive, and that she also allegedly tried to suffocate her two children while trying to strangle them. The arrest report also says the Christopher forced the children to jump off the roof of the home.

Cheryl Christopher is charged with first-degree wanton endangerment, first-degree criminal abuse and first-degree unlawful imprisonment. (more…)

Over 200 local residents in the city of Blagoveshchensk kept a house of a suspected pedophile under siege for six hours early on Friday after a report that he had sexually assaulted a seven-year-old girl, police said.

The mother of the girl had reported the incident on Thursday and investigators were conducting a search in the suspect’s house when a lynch mob surrounded the building shouting demands to carry out a “fair justice.”

“Investigators attempted to move the suspect out of the house, but the crowd wouldn’t let them do it. They had to call in riot police,” said Alexei Lubinsky, a senior regional police official. (more…)

Until we fix the fundamentals of reporting and prosecution, parents will still get away with killing their children

In a perfect world we wouldn’t need a Caylee’s Law, but we do. Or at least we did. The law, inspired by an online petition, has been introduced in one form or another in almost 30 states including Pennsylvania and New Jersey. It makes it a felony for a parent or guardian to fail to notify police within 24 hours after discovering a child is missing.

Casey Anthony was shown in court documents partying during the 31 days her 2-year-old daughter was missing. When Caylee’s remains were found in a forest wrapped in a plastic bag, too much time had gone by to collect DNA evidence. Casey Anthony was found not guilty of all felony counts including abuse. (more…)

NEW YORK (AP) — America uses flawed methods to tally and analyze the deaths of children who have been maltreated, and the latest annual estimate of 1,770 such fatalities is likely too low, the Government Accountability Office says in a new report to Congress.

Better data, says the GAO, would aid in developing strategies that could save many children’s lives in the future.

The GAO report, the subject of a House Human Resources subcommittee hearing Tuesday, says state agencies and the Department of Health and Human Services should broaden the scope of data collection, improve coordination, and seek uniform definitions of abuse and maltreatment. (more…)

A woman accused of confining her daughter in a crib has been caught with a memory card in her underwear at the City Jail.

Deputies searched Shannon Gore and found a 1-gigabyte memory card hidden in her bra, according to a search warrant filed last week. Police believe the card, typically used in cellphones, may contain criminal evidence, including pictures, videos or text files, according to the warrant.

Gore has been held in the Norfolk jail since May. Sheriff deputies in Gloucester discovered her daughter in April trapped in a crib. The girl, described by police as about 6 years old, was found covered in feces inside a crib with a board over it, according to court records. She was also severely malnourished, records state. Deputies later found the remains of another child buried outside near the Gores’ home. (more…)

The NSPCC has conducted a survey into children and young people’s experiences of maltreatment and victimisation. Here, the authors report on its main findings:

In 2000 the NSPCC published groundbreaking research on the prevalence of child maltreatment in the UK. The research was based on a household survey of 2,869 young adults’ memories of childhood abuse (Cawson et al, 2000). In the past 11 years a lot has changed in children’s lives and in methods of research.

The current study aimed to provide up-to-date information on the prevalence and impact of child maltreatment and victimisation in a nationally representative sample of children and young people living in the UK and to compare rates of childhood experiences reported by young adults interviewed in 2009 with rates reported in the UK research conducted in 1998-89. (more…)

Obese kids are a (pardon the pun) growing problem in our nation — one too many parents turn a blind eye toward. “My kid’s not fat, just young and still developing.”

Let’s push the pause button.

Recently ABC News reported that childhood obesity expert Dr. David Ludwig put childhood obesity in the same category as abuse and requires government intervention. (more…)

The criminal case involving a Polk County corrections deputy charged with paddling naked children and sending the videos to a man in Australia, became an international affair over the weekend when the man was arrested, authorities said.

“This conduct is just frightening,” said Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd in a news conference Monday afternoon, “really frightening.”

The arrest of Christopher Lobban, 53, is connected to the case of Robin Leigh Pagoria, a 45-year-old jailer arrested in May on charges of aggravated child abuse; production, promotion and possession of child pornography. Deputies said she videotaped the beatings of two nude girls. Deputies would only say the girls are between 12 and 16 years old. (more…)

A Griffith Health Institute trial involving 150 Queensland mothers and their children shows that a specially-adapted early intervention program significantly reduces risk factors associated with child abuse.

The coercive, stressful family environment which leads to incidents of child abuse in the home is being overcome through Parent Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), a hi-tech interactive therapy program.

A unique part of the therapy involves mother and child in practice sessions where mum is offered guidance by a PCIT therapist using a bug-in-the-ear device.

The therapist observes real-time interaction between the mother and child from behind a two-way mirror. (more…)

A special counsel for the Board of Supervisors finds that social workers don’t have access to electronic files of clients during home inspections, and little progress has been made assigning experienced social workers to the most difficult jobs.

Persistent management lapses and a poor use of technology continue to hobble Los Angeles County’s child welfare system, and two high-profile child fatalities from last year have been newly tied to the breakdowns, according to records and interviews. (more…)