After twenty-one hours of deliberation the jury in the Jerry Sandusky trial found Sandusky guilty on forty-five of the remaining forty-eight counts against him. His sentencing could be over four hundred years. These guilty verdicts prove that the jury rejected the defense’s claim that the victims were lying to win money in a civil suit.

The biggest fear for the victims and their families was that Sandusky would be found innocent, according to ABC News.

Victim 1′s mother stated, “it was very hard on [my son]. Even after therapy, he doesn’t feel comfortable saying what happened to him to me.” Victim 1 was the first to come forward in this recent investigation of Sandusky. Another investigation began in 1998 but was later dropped.

The mother of Victim 1 said that her son has been seeking out counseling at the foundation “Let Go…Let Peace Come In.” According to the director of the foundation, Peter Pelullo, “what people don’t really understand is when we’re touched like that as a child… part of our brain just shuts down and we need mental help and care to connect those brain stems, which were completely burned out.”

Sandusky was found guilty of forty-five of forty-eight child molestation related charges. Originally he was charged with fifty-two but one was withdrawn by the prosecution and three were dismissed by the judge. The charges range over ten victims and fifteen years.

The jury seems to have been unconvinced by the testimony of Dottie Sandusky. She appeared as a loving and loyal wife but refused to admit that the abuse was going on.

Sandusky’s lawyers claim that they will try to appeal the verdict citing several different reasons as grounds. The defense lawyers tried to have themselves removed from the Sandusky case at one point and also claimed that they did not have enough time to prepare their case. Perhaps the only grounds that would be considered by the courts is a tape that was misleadingly edited by NBC; however, ABC News claims the video will most likely be called a harmless error.

Juror Joshua Harper stated after the trial, “I looked at him during the reading of the verdict, and the look on his face, no real emotion, just kind of accepting, you know, because he knew it was true.” After the trial the jurors heard that Matt Sandusky had come forward during their deliberations to say that he was also a victim of his adoptive father. Harper stated, “we were all basically told at the same time, we heard about it at the same time, and we were just looking at each other like we had suspected that but we had no evidence of it. It just solidified our decision.”

Now that Sandusky has been found guilty it is likely that Penn State, The Second Mile, and Sandusky will be sued by the victims and their families. During the case it was revealed that Head Coach Joe Paterno as well as Vice President Schultz at Penn State knew about Sandusky’s crimes. The only action Penn State took was to take away Sandusky’s keys to the locker room and to tell his foundation The Second Mile; no one called law enforcement.

Image Courtesy of   marsmet551

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After staying silent for more than six months Dottie Sandusky broke her silence on June 19 in defense of her husband, assistant coach for the Penn State football team Jerry Sandusky. Jerry Sandusky has been charged with forty-eight counts (four counts were dismissed) of sexual abuse with ten different victims and will serve five hundred years in prison if found guilty.

Dottie Sandusky, born Dorothy Gross, met Sandusky in Washington, Pennsylvania and the couple got married shortly thereafter in 1966. They were unable to have children of their own so they adopted six children together. She maintains her husband’s innocence and claims that she never heard or saw anything suspicious.

Paul DerOhannesian, a defense attorney from Albany, New York, claimed that Dottie Sandusky would provide, “a more favorable image of Sandusky as someone attracted to his wife, as someone who had a genuine care and interest in children, and to portray more elements of Sandusky’s life than the jury has heard.”

However, after the witness testimony from the defense many agree with experts that she may have been unaware or in denial of the abuse. Dr. Martin Finkel, a pediatrician who has worked for more than thirty years with sexually abused children, says that Dottie Sandusky could be denying her suspicions because she is afraid of the humiliation and the loss of financial security. Finkel added, “none of this stuff that happens to kids ever happens in the public arena. It always has to happen in the context of secrecy. It has to happen out of sight. The intent on the part of the perpetrator obviously is not to get caught.”

Several victims have mentioned Dottie Sandusky in their testimonies. Victim 9 claimed that he screamed for help during at least one of the abuses from Sandusky while he was in the basement of the Sandusky home. Victim 9 claims that he stayed in the Sandusky home basement around one hundred times during which time Sandusky fondled him, forced him to have oral sex, and raped him. Dottie Sandusky said that not only did she never hear anything but that the basement is not soundproofed at all and that she has good hearing, implying that Victim 9, now eighteen, is lying.

Another victim claimed that Dottie Sandusky walked in on Jerry Sandusky trying to force the victim to perform oral sex in a hotel bathroom at Alamo Bowl in San Antonio. Dottie Sandusky claims that the victim is lying and that they both were fully clothed.

After nine days of trial the jury began deliberations on June 21. Since the jury has forty-eight counts of abuse to sift through they will probably be deliberating for quite a long time.

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The jury selection began 5 June 2012 for the trial of ex-assistant football coach at Pennsylvania State University, Jerry Sandusky. Sandusky, age 68, is charged with fifty-two counts of sexual abuse of ten boys over a fifteen year period. Sandusky has admitted to showering with some of the young boys but has denied allegations of sexual abuse.

Sandusky was arrested in November of 2010, which threw the Penn State community into chaos. Riots began after Sandusky, Head Coach Paterno, and president of the university, Graham Spanier, were fired. Paterno and Spanier were both fired due to their attempts to try cover up the allegations. Riots broke out in protest of the firing of the head coach, as Penn State has a history of dedicated and proud fans.

Mike McQueary, another Penn State assistant coach who is currently on leave from the team, claims that he saw Sandusky naked in a team shower with a young boy in 2002. McQueary reportedly told head coach Paterno and athletic direct Tim Curley but no one told the police. Paterno died of lung cancer in January 2012, but Curley has since been charged with perjury and failing to report a crime along with senior vice president of finance and business at Penn State Gary Schultz.

The judge has denied appeals by the defense to delay the trial but he also required that the trial remain in the Penn State area, making it difficult to find jurors who are not connected to the Penn State football team or to Sandusky’s charity, Second Mile. One middle-aged woman who has been selected as a juror was a season ticket holder to the Penn State football team; some wonder how this will color her perceptions of the case.

The judge has also declared that Twitter and email reporting from the courtroom will not be allowed. Additionally, the judge has rejected allowing the ten boys to use pseudonyms meaning that they must use their real names at trial. One lawyer for one of the victims claimed, “it’s almost as if [the victim is] being branded with a scarlet letter.” However the judge claimed, “secrecy is thought to be inconsistent with the openness required to assure the public that the law is being administered fairly and applied faithfully.”

Since Sandusky’s arrest in November even more victims have come forward. Many of these victims met Sandusky through his Second Mile Foundation – created in 1977 – a charity for at-risk children.

According to a recently released report, in 1998 a psychologist, Alycia Chambers, told police that Sandusky was likely a pedophile. Chambers was involved in the investigation of a case in 1998 when a mother alleged that Sandusky had showered with her son. No arrests were made at the time although the mother did confront Sandusky who reportedly stated, “I wish I could get forgiveness. I know I won’t get it from you. I wish I were dead.”

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April is National Sexual Assault Awareness Month and Jenny Lynn Anderson is encouraging women to speak out and acknowledge violence against women. Her advocacy is supported in her recently published book ‘Room 939: 15 Minutes of Horror, 20 Years of Healing’.

Her story is based on surviving a brutal robbery and sexual assault in a downtown Atlanta hotel 22 years ago. She offers steps leading to healing and restoration for women who have experienced sexual violence.

Every two minutes someone in the US is sexually assaulted, according to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network. Anderson’s two minutes came when she was sexually assaulted at the age of 28 while attending a convention.  In the two decades since that assault, she’s gone through all the emotional stages (shame, denial, anger, avoidance, post-traumatic stress, depression, and forgiveness).  It took 20 years for her to seek counseling to start the healing process and to find the courage to help others by sharing her story.

Today, Anderson is encouraging those who have been sexually assaulted not to consider themselves as victims – but rather as survivors.  “It’s a matter of choice in how you think about it,” she explains, “and I choose to call myself a survivor.  It’s a key to recovery.”

“Women are not empowered on this topic,” Anderson continues. “First of all, going through a sexual assault turns the woman who has been traumatized inward – they are not comfortable talking about it even with close friends.

Understanding what you’re going through is the first step to any kind of recovery.  More than anything, sexual assault and rape victims don’t want to be labeled as such – it makes you feel branded for life with something so hideous and nasty no one will talk about it,” she adds.

Opening up and going to a counselor or other professional for help is critical to the healing process.  “But there’s a hesitation,” Anderson explains.  “You don’t want to re-open wounds, yet if you don’t, you could possibly suffer other mental stresses such as depression.”

Victims of sexual assault are six times more likely to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.(1) “Post-traumatic stress can keep survivors of sexual assault from recovering,” Anderson says.  “It was 20 years before I sought counseling and that was much too long to wait,” Anderson adds.

Entering counseling began the healing process and speaking out publicly is helping to complete it. Since publishing Room 939, she has travelled the state speaking to womens’ groups, rape/sexual assault crisis centers, book clubs, recovery groups, civic organizations and others.

Anderson’s advice to those who are sexually assaulted – three steps to healing:

For more information about Jenny Lynn Anderson and her book, go to www.jennylynnanderson.com

(1) World Health Organization, 2002

Image Courtesy of  http://www.jennylynnanderson.com/

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Earlier this week a Duke university study concluded that one in four HIV patients were sexually abused as children. Over 600 patients, aged 20-71, were involved in the two-year long study.

The majority of the patients in the study, titled the Coping with HIV/AIDS in the Southeast (Chase), had at one point in their lifetimes been victims of sexual or physical abuse. In addition, fifty percent of the patients were found to have suffered three of more traumatic life experiences, such as sexual or physical abuse, and also domestic violence, the loss of a child, or a loved one’s suicide attempt or completion.

These traumatic experiences, particularly ones in childhood, were also linked to worse health overall among the patients.

By checking and following up on the patients intermittently for a two year period, researchers were able to find links between traumatic experiences, HIV-related behaviors and poorer health conditions.

More traumatic experiences were also linked to patients engaging in unprotected sex, missing proper, antiretroviral medications, trips to the emergency room and hospitalizations. Patients who had been victims of trauma were much more likely to have their health decline or to pass away during the two-year period.

“For whatever outcome we looked at, psychological trauma ended up being a predictor of worse medical outcomes and poorer health-related behaviors,” said lead author Brian Pence, a Duke associate professor of community and family medicine and global health.

Pence went on to say these findings stress the significance of judging a patient’s trauma history when being given HIV care. The results, Pence hopes, can help HIV programs be structured into an environment that advocates safer sex practices, stricter adherence to medicine and better health results for patients receiving aid.

The most surprising part of the study was that the effects of past trauma on recent behavior and health was unable to be explained by normal factors.

“We would expect people with a history of exposure to trauma to have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression or other mental health concerns, like drug abuse or poor coping skills, and that these things in turn would more fully explain why they had lower adherence to their medications and worse health,” Pence said.

“But, we found that trauma history was still associated with bad health outcomes independent of mental health status, drug use or coping styles. So we have more to learn about exactly how past traumatic experiences exert influence on behaviors and health outcomes years down the road.”

The study is set to appear in the April 1 edition of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes (which can be found online here), with a supplementary editorial. The National Institute of Mental Health helped support the study.

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Seven district attorneys representing all five New York City’s five boroughs — Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island — and the counties of Munroe and Onondaga took a stand against child abuse and neglect through the pages of the New York Daily News.

Expressing their concerns about the 77,000 New York children who were victims of abuse and neglect in 2010, including at least 114 who died, the district attorneys pointed to personal experiences prosecuting child abuse and neglect cases. They emphasized the deadly effects of child abuse.

“Nationally, nearly 80 percent of children who died as a result of abuse or neglect in 2010 were three years old or younger and almost half were infants less than one year old,” they District Attorneys wrote.

They urged greater support for the Nurse-Family Partnership — a maternal health and early childhood development service — that pairs first-time pregnant mothers and young families with a registered nurse on a voluntary basis. Research shows that this approach can cut cases of abuse and neglect by as much as half, improve child safety and reduce later juvenile crime.

The op-ed stated support for Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s recent budget request before the state Senate for $5 million in funding for the Nurse-Family Partnership.

“We have a moral obligation to protect children from child abuse. It’s also in the best interests of public safety and fiscal prudence, and we urge the Legislature to make resources for the prevention effort a top priority.

The seven prosecutors are all members of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, the national anti-crime organization of 5,000 police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors and violence survivors, which is launching a nationwide campaign in April to support the prevention of child abuse through voluntary home-visiting.

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A survey carried out by web security company Westcoastcloud for UK Safer Internet Day (Feb 7) reveals that although half of parents in Scotland have installed software to protect their children from accessing unsuitable content when they use desktop PCs and laptops in the home, only 1 in 4 has installed similar protection on the mobile phones, games consoles and television services their kids also use in the house.

Bill Strain, Director of Westcoastcloud, says: “Whilst it’s encouraging that fifty per cent of parents in Scotland are being more vigilant about the risks their children face when going online on a computer or laptop, many of them are still failing to recognise that in our increasingly mobile world, the same level of protection needs to be provided when their children are accessing the internet via their mobile phones, the television and while they’re gaming.”

David Wright from the UK Safer Internet Centre said: “While the internet is such an amazing resource, just like life it carries risk, not least for children, with cyber bullying and adult content. Surveys like this demonstrate that online safety is a real issue for parents and that parenting in the 21st century is very different to that compared to the 20th century.”

The survey questioned 500 parents with children between 5 and 16 years of age.

While 49% said they had installed parental controls (filtering and blocking software) on computers and laptops their children used in the house, only 24% had done the same on mobile phones used at home. When asked whether they’d activated parental controls on games consoles like the Xbox or PlayStation, only 27% said they had, while only 24% had activated parental controls on their Sky TV or Freeview boxes. Almost 1 in 10 had not installed any internet protection software at all.

When asked how they rated their knowledge of how to keep their children safe online 68% admitted they weren’t completely confident, with 25% confessing that their knowledge was poor.

Westcoastcloud’s Netintelligence is the only web security software to have the BSI Kitemark for Child Online Safety.

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The total lifetime estimated financial costs associated with just one year of confirmed cases of child maltreatment (physical abuse, sexual abuse, psychological abuse and neglect) is approximately $124 billion, according to a report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, published in Child Abuse and Neglect, The International Journal.

This study looked at confirmed child maltreatment cases, 1,740 fatal and 579,000 non-fatal, for a 12-month period. The lifetime cost for each victim of child maltreatment who lived was $210,012, which is comparable to other costly health conditions, such as stroke with a lifetime cost per person estimated at$159,846 or type 2 diabetes, which is estimated between $181,000 and $253,000.  The costs of each death due to child maltreatment are even higher.

“No child should ever be the victim of abuse or neglect – nor do they have to be.  The human and financial costs can be prevented through prevention of child maltreatment,” said Linda C. Degutis, Dr.P.H., M.S.N., director of CDC′s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.

Child maltreatment has been shown to have many negative effects on survivors, including poorer health, social and emotional difficulties, and decreased economic productivity.  This CDC study found these negative effects over a survivor’s lifetime generate many costs that impact the nation’s health care, education, criminal justice and welfare systems.

Key findings:

• The estimated average lifetime cost per victim of nonfatal child maltreatment includes:
• $32,648 in childhood health care costs
• $10,530 in adult medical costs
• $144,360 in productivity losses
• $7,728 in child welfare costs
• $6,747 in criminal justice costs
• $7,999 in special education costs
• The estimated average lifetime cost per death includes:
• $14,100 in medical costs
• $1,258,800 in productivity losses

Child maltreatment can also be linked to many emotional, behavioral, and physical health problems. Associated emotional and behavioral problems include aggression, conduct disorder, delinquency, antisocial behavior, substance abuse, intimate partner violence, teenage pregnancy, anxiety, depression, and suicide.

Past research suggests that child maltreatment is a complicated problem, and so its solutions cannot be simple. An individual parent or caregiver’s behavior is influenced by a range inter-related factors such as how they were raised, their parenting skills, the level of stress in their life, and the living conditions in their community.  Because of this complexity, it is critical to invest in effective strategies that touch on all sectors of society.

“Federal, state, and local public health agencies as well as policymakers must advance the awareness of the lifetime economic impact of child maltreatment and take immediate action with the same momentum and intensity dedicated to other high profile public health problems –in order to save lives, protect the public’s health, and save money,” said Dr. Degutis.

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A leading ‘abuse case’ lawyer is challenging the Catholic Church to open its secret archives of documents for independent examination in order to discover the truth about child abuse by its priests.

Richard Scorer, a Partner and specialist in child abuse cases at Manchester law firm Pannone, says, “Every Catholic diocese has a secret archive which is kept locked and has in it secret documents. In the words of the Code of Canon Law, these documents are to be ‘protected most securely’ and contain, ‘matters of morals’ and ‘criminal cases’.

Only the bishop is allowed to possess the key and the archive is only to be opened in a case of ‘true necessity’. It is my feeling and that of many of my legal peers that this moment of necessity is here.” Says Mr Scorer, “It is like something from a Dan Brown novel, but this is not the Da Vinci Code, it is the Code of Canon Law and it has a bearing on the lives of hundreds probably even thousands of people.

In every one of those archives there will be evidence of past scandals, if the Catholic Church really wants to help those children its priest’s may have abused in the past, it should open up its secret archives to independent investigation now and cleanse itself of its culture of denial and cover-up. ”

Canon489 of the current code of Canon law provides:

‘There is also to be a secret archive, or at least in the ordinary archive there is to be a safe or cabinet, which is securely closed and bolted and which cannot be removed. In this archive documents which are to be kept under secrecy are to be most carefully guarded.’

Canon law forbids any documents to be removed from the secret archive under any circumstances and only the bishop is permitted to have the key thereto. Accordingly, as only the bishop will know what is in the secret archive, it is obviously unsatisfactory for anyone else to make the disclosure statement.

Among the documents which must be kept in the secret archive for varying periods of time are:

- Documents from historic criminal cases (i.e. within Canon law) concerning matters of a moral nature

- Documentary proof of canonical warnings or corrections when someone has been about to commit an offence, or is suspected of having         committed one, or has been guilty of scandalous behaviour

- Documents relating to preliminary investigations for a penal process that was closed without a formal trial

- Documents relating to any other matters the bishop considers secret.

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As the national news media continues to focus on the Sandusky and Syracuse child abuse allegations, a coalition of national experts applauded a bill introduced this week by U.S. Senators.

John Kerry (D-MA) and Susan Collins (R-ME) and U.S. Representatives Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) and Joseph Crowley (D-NY), who were joined by ten members of the House Ways and Means Committee, proposed a bill that could make a significant impact towards reducing fatalities resulting from child abuse and neglect, and make improvements throughout the child welfare system.

More than seven children die from abuse and neglect every day in America – some 2,500 a year – reflecting the estimated 50 percent undercounting in the officially estimated figure of 1,560. A child is abused or neglected every 36 seconds in the United States, yet only 40 percent of abused children with substantiated cases receive services, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Representatives of the National Coalition to End Child Abuse Deaths (NCECAD) expressed concern that the current national media attention being paid to the Sandusky and Syracuse child abuse allegations would not create the needed additional pressure on Congress to deal with wider child death and abuse problems.

Such focused attention on specific abuse cases often obscures the need for wider attention to the problem, according to the NCECAD experts. Pointing to the need for multi-faced solutions, NCECAD members applauded the recently introduced Protect Our Kids Act, which would establish a commission to study and evaluate federal, state, and local public and private child welfare systems.

Protect Our Kids would also develop a national strategy and recommendations for preventing child abuse and reducing fatalities resulting from child abuse and neglect.  The full text of the legislation is available online at www.endchildabusedeaths.org.

Kimberly Day, spokesperson for the National Coalition to End Child Abuse Deaths, said:  ”It is important that the media is covering the most recent high profile and horrific child sexual abuse cases, but it is also important that the public understand that what they are hearing is only part of a larger problem of child abuse and neglect in the United States.

The proposed bill will provide a national strategy for improving our child protection system by recommending practices that protect children and prevent abuse and neglect”. ”This legislation in an important step that Congress and our nation need to take in order to better protect our children from abuse and neglect,” said Senator Collins.

“This is not a Democratic or Republican issue – this is an American issue – one that we can’t wish away, but that we must face head on and work to eradicate. Our legislation would establish a commission to develop a comprehensive national strategy for reducing child abuse fatalities.  An increased understanding and awareness of child abuse and neglect can lead to improvement in agency systems and practices and help prevent future child abuse fatalities.”

Rep. Doggett, ranking member of the Human Resources Subcommittee, which has jurisdiction over this issue stated, ”Addressing this ongoing tragedy requires a better understanding of the causes of abuse and neglect and a determination of the most effective steps to prevent maltreatment. This bipartisan commission offers a way to develop a more coordinated, national response.”

“As a father to three young kids, it breaks my heart to hear the thousands of stories of children suffering from abuse or neglect every day. What’s worse is the alarming number of children who die each year from mistreatment. The simple fact is, even one child’s death from abuse, neglect or maltreatment is one too many,” said Rep. Crowley.

“This is an issue of grave concern and one that deserves a national focus. That’s why I’m proud to fight alongside tireless advocates like the National Coalition to End Child Abuse Deaths, and I am glad to have worked with them and my colleagues in creating legislation that will help determine how we as a nation can better protect our children.”

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The United States Embassy cable released by WikiLeaks reveals United Nations peacekeepers engaging in sexual misconduct with underage girls in Ivory Coast. Written in January 2010, the cable highlights the inappropriate actions of Beninese peacekeepers located in the poverty ridden western town of Toulepleu.

According to the cable, parents encouraged their daughters to sleep with the peacekeepers so they would provide for them. In 2009, Save The Children U.K., an aid organization, conducted a poll of 10 girls in Toulepleu.

“Eight of the 10 said they had ongoing sexual relationships with Beninese soldiers in exchange for food or lodging,” the diplomat wrote in the cable, citing information shared with the embassy by a protection officer. Hamadoun Toure, U.N. mission spokesman, said the UN is concerned about the allegations and are taking the matter seriously.

“We have a zero-tolerance policy. We are here to protect the population, not engage in such things,” Toure said. The mission released an official statement on Thursday night concerning the misconduct. It stated said that authorities have formed a campaign with the soldiers to deal with what appears to be an ongoing problem. He said UN officials have traveled to the west on a “fact-finding mission.”

After receiving the reports two weeks ago, the Ivory Coast mission informed UN Headquarters, the Ivorian government and the home countries of the accused soldiers, according to the statement. The UN declined to mention the soldiers’ countries, citing confidentiality. Toure said any guilty soldiers would face repatriation and punishment from the judicial system in their own countries.

Earlier last week, UN spokesman Michel Bonnardeaux confirmed that 16 Beninese peacekeepers, 10 of which were commanders, engaged in sexual misconduct. According to the Associated Press, Bonnardeaux said that authorities “failed to maintain an environment that prevents sexual exploitation and abuse.” 

Bonnardeaux added that 42 allegations of sexual abuse by UN staff in Ivory Coast have been reported since 2007. Sixteen of these cases involved minors. According to UN records, no new incidents have been reported this year. “If these allegations are founded, it would be the responsibility of the countries from which these peacekeepers come to take appropriate action against those involved,” the UN said in a statement.

Sexual misconduct by UN troops has been reported in a number of countries including Congo, Cambodia and Haiti. New abuse allegations against UN peacemakers in Haiti came to light on Friday. 

According to an Al Jazeera article written Saturday, peacekeepers in Haiti face allegations of sexual abuse. The UN is investigating accusations that Uruguayan soldiers serving with the world body’s peacekeeping force in Haiti sexually assaulted an 18-year old man. Footage of the incident was captured by a mobile phone and was circulated throughout the country.

“We’re aware of this alleged incident. As soon as it was brought to our attention we immediately launched an internal investigation,” said Eliana Nabaa, spokeswoman for the UN’s Haiti peacekeeping mission, said on Friday. Nabaa echoed a message very similar to Toure’s remarks on the abuse in the Ivory Coast. 

“We have a zero-tolerance policy towards sexual exploitation and abuse and we take it extremely seriously. If the allegations are proved, the soldiers must be brought to justice,” Nabaa said. A Haitian magistrate told the Agence France-Presse on Friday that he had turned the case over to prosecutors after viewing the evidence.

The alleged victim and his parents gave depositions in a courthouse in Port Salut, the southern seaside town where the attack is said to have occurred. The Haitian magistrate added that he was also investigating allegations of sexual relations between Uruguayan peacekeepers and young Haitian females who had become pregnant.

Bonnardeaux said the troops involved in the alleged incident in Haiti have been confined to their barracks while the investigation is conducted.

homeros / Shutterstock.com

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Former Delaware pediatrician, Dr. Earl Bradley was sentenced on August 26 to 14 life sentences without the possibility of parole. He was convicted of 14 counts of rape and received an additional 160 years for sexually abusing 103 of his patients from 1998 to 2009.

He was originally indicted for 470 counts of rape, sexual assault and sexual exploitation of a child; that number was later consolidated to just 24 through negotiations with lawyers. During his career from 1994 to his arrest in 2009, he received a number of complaints from patients, parents and colleagues, and was the focus of two police investigations.

The Medical Board of Directors in Delaware was supposedly contacted a number of times in regards to his unprofessional conduct with his patients, but the Medical Board insists it never received any allegations concerning Bradley until after his arrest.

The two initial police investigations were never granted permission for a search warrant, and so without any physical evidence, the Delaware police were unable to continue their investigations. Despite the complaints lodged against Bradley while he was a licensed pediatrician, the truth of the harm he was doing to his patients was beyond what anyone suspected.

When the police finally were able to get a search warrant after a two-year old girl complained to her mother about Bradley hurting her genitals, they were able to seize 83 tapes and DVDs showing Bradley molesting young children.

In the trial, one of the police officers involved in the case testified that the average age of his victims was only three years old, because they were not as verbal as older children. He would often force the children to perform oral sex on him, and then give them colored ice to cover up any blood or swelling.

Additionally, in the videos he is seen sometimes grabbing a child by the head and throwing the child on a couch after forcing the child to perform sex acts. As the horrific details of this case begin to come out, people are questioning how this pediatrician was allowed to practice medicine for so long without his more sinister actions being found out.

Following Bradley’s arrest, Governor Jack Markell asked Linda L. Ammons, the dean of the Widener University School of Law, to compile a report reviewing the current laws and policies in place. Her 62-page report outlined 68 recommended changes, while avoiding placing blame on any single organization or practice.

Following the report, Gov. Markell passed nine laws that would help to prevent misconduct like this to continue undetected by tightening regulations and encouraging both the medical and police communities to work together with suspected physician misconduct and child abuse.

Billed by Ammons’ report as the “pedophilia case of the century,” the atrocities uncovered during this case have encouraged other states to review their reporting policies regarding physicians as well.

As Earl Bradley begins his permanent internment in prison, the families and victims of those he hurt have found some measure of justice for the actions incurred upon them and now have the task of healing from the damage caused by Bradley’s insidious actions.

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