Counter Pedophilia Investigate Unit

THE AUTHOR of a major review of child protection in the UK has warned that plans to introduce mandatory reporting of suspected child abuse or neglect in Ireland could end up doing more harm than good.

Under the Children First Bill published last month, professionals or organisations that work with children will have a legal obligation to report suspicions or allegations of abuse to social services.

Failure to do so could result in a fine or jail term of up to five years. (more…)

Two men in their 70s were arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of sexual abuse of young men and children as police investigate claims of abuses by Church of England vicars decades ago.

Sussex police said that child protection detectives had been investigating the allegations for six months after a confidential review by former top judge Elizabeth Butler-Sloss of abuse claims in the Diocese of Chichester. (more…)

LONDON – (AP) — The Church of England has offered an apology for failures to act to prevent child sexual abuse within the church.

Bishop Paul Butler, who heads the church’s safeguarding effort, issued the apology Wednesday following the release of a report on failures of the church in the cases of two priests, Colin Pritchard and the late Roy Cotton, who were both convicted of abusing children. (more…)

Another council coughs £80k for HAND-DELIVERING kid’s info to neighbour

The UK’s data protection watchdog has fined two English council bodies a total of £180,000 after finding they had failed to keep “highly sensitive information” about children secure.

Croydon Council was fined £100,000 after a bag containing papers about a child sex abuse court case was stolen from a social worker in a pub in April last year, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said. (more…)

LONDON — Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has set up an inquiry in Chichester diocese in southern England, reportedly after allegations that paedophile priests were allowed to continue working despite being accused of sexual abuse.

The archbishop’s decision to investigate the diocese will throw the spotlight on abuse by clergy in the Church of England, raising an issue which has already rocked the Catholic Church in a number of countries.

A statement late on Thursday from the archbishop’s Lambeth Palace residence said the inquiry had been launched “in response to concerns within the diocese” but declined to expand on the background to the fears. (more…)

LONDON — The Vatican has ordered an investigation into allegations of sexual abuse at an abbey in London, the local diocese said Tuesday.

Certain monks and lay preachers at Ealing Abbey in west London have been linked to abuse dating from the 1960s to as recently as two years ago.

The apostolic visitation of high-level figures in the Catholic Church in England follows abuse scandals that have rocked the Church in Ireland, the United States, Germany and other countries in recent years. (more…)

SANTO DOMINGO. - An Englishman who had been on the lam in Dominican Republic was deported to London to face charges of pedophilia and other crimes against minors, among them pornographic activities using children.

Ralph Brian Baker was whisked out of the country aboard flight Monday from Punta Cana International Airport (east), escorted by Antinarcotics (DNCD) agents and handed over to the Interpol. (more…)

MANCHESTER, England (CNS). The visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Britain and Scotland in September prompted a wave of fresh allegations of historical clerical sexual abuse, church child protection officials said.

Allegations of sexual and physical abuse against priests, religious men and women, church employees, volunteers and parishioners more than doubled in 2010 compared with the previous year, according to figures released July 28 in the 2010-11 annual report of the National Catholic Safeguarding Commission. (more…)

Allegations of abuse of children and young people received by the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales rose last year, according to a new report.

There were 83 allegations of abuse relating to 103 victims and 92 alleged abusers in 2010, according to the annual report of the National Catholic Safeguarding Commission (NCSC).

Of the 103 victims, 18 were alleged to have been abused in the current year, compared to 18 of the 52 victims in 2009 who reported they were abused that year. (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…)