http://kplr11.com/2014/06/11/protesters-march-in-st-louis-over-archbishop-carlsons-testimony/
Protesters march in St. Louis over Archbishop Carlson’s testimony
Sol Reform
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And Pilate asked him, Art thou the King of the Jews? And he answering said unto him, I cant remember. Mark 15:2 (St. Louis version 2014)
by Sol Reform inand pilate asked him, art thou the king of the jews?
and he answering said unto him, i cant remember.
mark 15:2 (st. louis version 2014).
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And Pilate asked him, Art thou the King of the Jews? And he answering said unto him, I cant remember. Mark 15:2 (St. Louis version 2014)
by Sol Reform inand pilate asked him, art thou the king of the jews?
and he answering said unto him, i cant remember.
mark 15:2 (st. louis version 2014).
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Sol Reform
http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/st-louis-archdiocese-taking-archbishop-s-quotes-out-context
Is St. Louis archdiocese taking the archbishop’s quotes out of context?
Attorney Jeff Anderson asked Carlson four times a variation of the question: "When did you first discern that it was a crime for an adult to engage in sex with a kid?" Four times, Carlson responds with a variation of: "I don't remember."
(Page 108 of transcript)
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And Pilate asked him, Art thou the King of the Jews? And he answering said unto him, I cant remember. Mark 15:2 (St. Louis version 2014)
by Sol Reform inand pilate asked him, art thou the king of the jews?
and he answering said unto him, i cant remember.
mark 15:2 (st. louis version 2014).
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Sol Reform
“And Pilate asked him, ‘Art thou the King of the Jews?’ And he answering said unto him, ‘I can’t remember.’ ” Mark 15:2 (St. Louis version 2014)
http://www.stltoday.com/news/opinion/columns/the-platform/editorial-archbishop-carlson-has-some-troubling-memory-lapses/article_2788ba94-5721-5973-855c-7a131b74228e.html
Editorial: Archbishop Carlson has some troubling memory lapses
“And Pilate asked him, ‘Art thou the King of the Jews?’ And he answering said unto him, ‘I can’t remember.’ ”
Of course that’s not what the second verse of the 15th chapter of Mark’s gospel actually says. Jesus, on trial for his life before Pontius Pilate, replies, “Thou sayest it.”
He didn’t deny it, he didn’t admit it, he certainly didn’t go all Watergate on him and say, “At this point in time, I have no present recollection of what may or may not have happened.”
Now contrast that with how St. Louis Archbishop Robert J. Carlson responded in a deposition on May 23.
He was answering — more precisely, not answering — questions posed by attorney Jeff Anderson of St. Paul, Minn., who represents a victim in a priest-abuse case that took place in 1984.
Archbishop Carlson then was an auxiliary bishop in the St. Paul archdiocese. He held the title of chancellor to then-Archbishop John R. Roach. Mr. Anderson asked the archbishop if at the time, he knew it was a crime for an adult to engage in sex with a child.
“I’m not sure whether I knew it was a crime or not,” Archbishop Carlson replied. “I understand today it is a crime.”.....
Slippery language like this normally is employed by lawyered-up mobsters, politicians or Wall Street fraudsters. It is not the sort of thing that you associate with a shepherd of the flock of Christ. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.stltoday.com/lifestyles/faith-and-values/archbishop-robert-j-carlson-claims-he-was-unaware-sexual-abuse/article_4215ecea-3409-53b3-813b-545c81a1b793.html
Archbishop Robert J. Carlson claims to be uncertain if he knew sexual abuse was a crime
1 hour ago • By Lilly Fowler [email protected] 314-340-8221 159 WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10, 2009- Rev. Robert J.
Carlson watches the procession leading into the Cathedral Basilica-St Louis Stephanie S. Cordle � [email protected] Enlarge Photo Related Documents
1984 Archbishop Robert J. Carlson memo St. Louis priest abuse case headed for trial Ambitious legal strategy will try to show that the archdiocese ignored a pattern of abuse.
It will point to the fact that even before the St. … Read more Archbishop Robert J. Carlson claimed to be uncertain that he knew sexual abuse of a child by a priest constituted a crime when he was auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, according to a deposition released Monday. During the deposition taken last month, attorney Jeff Anderson asked Carlson whether he knew it was a crime for an adult to engage in sex with a child.
“I'm not sure whether I knew it was a crime or not,” Carlson replied. “I understand today it's a crime.”
Anderson went on to ask Carlson whether he knew in 1984, when he was an auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, that it was crime for a priest to engage in sex with a child. “I'm not sure if I did or didn't,” Carlson said. Yet according to documents released Monday by the law firm Jeff Anderson & Associates in St. Paul, Carlson showed clear knowledge that it was a crime when discussing sexual abuse incidents with church officials during his time in Minnesota.
In a 1984 document, for example, Carlson wrote to the archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis at the time — John R. Roach — about one victim of sexual abuse and mentioned that the statute of limitations for filing a claim would not expire for more than two years. He also wrote that the parents of the victim were considering reporting the incident to the police.
Over and over again during the deposition, Carlson claimed to not remember answers to questions posed by attorney Anderson — for a total of 193 times.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.andersonadvocates.com/Posts/News-or-Event/1834/Archbishop-Carlson-Deposition-Release.aspx
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Another Jehovah's Witness Pervert In The News
by JW GoneBad injehovah's witness, 53, denies 12 counts of historic sexual offences end of widget id: 1333195, name: storycontent, view: article start of widget id: 1334897, name: pagetools, view: articlemetadata 4 feb 2014 11:46 end of widget id: 1334897, name: pagetools, view: articlemetadata start of widget id: 1333936, name: relatedcontents, view: sportsstats end of widget id: 1333936, name: relatedcontents, view: sportsstats start of widget id: 1333929, name: storycontent, view: article .
mark anthony sewell pleaded not guilty to charges that included some dating back almost 30 years.
end of widget id: 1333929, name: storycontent, view: article .
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Sol Reform
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/jehovahs-witness-elder-mark-sewell-7245171
Jehovah's Witness elder used 'position of power' to 'sexually abuse' women and children, court told
Mark Sewell, 53, denies 12 sexual offences, including allegations he sexually abused two young girls and raped a woman
Mark Sewell A senior Jehovah's Witness used his "position of power" to "exploit and abuse" women and children over a period of a decade, a court heard today.
Trusted church elder Mark Sewell, 53, sexually abused two young girls, raped a woman after he overpowered her and ripped off her knickers, and indecently assaulted another woman, it was alleged. The businessman, who denies 12 sexual offences, used his influence "to perpetrate such sexual abuse over a number of years for his own sexual gratification", said prosecutor Sarah Waters.
She told the jury of eight women and four men at Sewell's trial: "He is a sexual predator that took opportunities available to him to satisfy his sexual desires. "For example he would use his high position in the Jehovah's Witness congregation to act in a sexually inappropriate manner with women, being 'touchy-feely' and insisting that he kiss them on the lips." During the period of the allegations, between 1985 and 1995, Sewell was an elder within the church in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, "which meant that he had a highly-respected and influential position within that congregation".
Ms Waters said: "This was only achieved once you had attended many meetings, undertaken various roles and responsibilities in the day-to-day running of the congregation and also taking responsibility for the spiritual teaching of the congregation. "Elders, as you would expect, were supposed to be members who set an example as well as being responsible for disciplining members who had done something wrong. "The prosecution say that the defendant used his elder status to manipulate, intimidate and bully these women. "At times he could be charming and would do great things for people and would be as helpful as he could.
"At other times he would be forceful and imposing." Ms Waters told jurors Sewell abused one girl in the 120-strong congregation when she was aged between 10 and 15 years old. He would "insist" the little girl should kiss him on the lips and would also rub her on top of him, it was alleged. The girl reported the abuse to her parents who confronted Sewell but he denied it and said she had "misunderstood, lied or exaggerated things".
The abuse continued and only stopped when the teenager wept and said she didn't want him to touch her any more, the court heard. Ms Waters said Sewell then told the little girl: "No one believes you so even if you go and tell anybody else now they're not going to believe you."
When she subsequently reported the alleged abuse to the Jehovah's Witness congregation in Barry they convened a "quasi-hearing" which saw three elders sit on a "judicial committee", said Ms Waters.
She told the jury at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court: "The prosecution say that their handling of the complaint was perhaps not done appropriately."
Sewell is also accused of raping a female member of the congregation at his home in 1990 as she begged him not to. The following day, said Ms Waters, he asked her what had happened the day before and said he had drunk a bottle of whiskey. "She told him what he had done and he cried and got on his knees, begging for her forgiveness."
Several weeks later the woman realised she was pregnant who, she claims, said he hoped the child would be a girl. Ms Waters added: "A few weeks later she miscarried, which she described as a blessing in disguise." Three of the alleged indecent assaults involve Sewell allegedly "massaging" a topless girl when she was aged between 12 and 14, while he is also accused of indecently assaulting a woman by rubbing his groin on a woman's backside as she made a cup of tea. Of this alleged incident Ms Waters said: "The defendant's sexual deviancy was being played out on another vulnerable female."
She added: "The prosecution says that there is a clear theme emanating from their accounts that this defendant was a manipulative and powerful man who would regularly behave in a sexually over-familiar way with women." Sewell, wearing a grey suit over a white shirt and blue patterned tie and with his greying gelled hair cut short, looked stony-faced as he sat in the glass-fronted dock.
The defendant, of Porthkerry Road in Barry, denies seven counts of indecent assault against girls aged under 14 and three counts of indecent assault against a girl aged under 16. He has also pleaded not guilty to a single count of rape and a charge of indecent assault. The court later heard from the first of four alleged victims, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, as she described how Sewell left her "terrified" and "frozen". The woman, who is now in her 30s, was just 10 when she said the defendant began to make her feel "uncomfortable" by kissing her. She said he would first kiss her on the lips and then later engineer situations when they would be alone and kiss her "with tongues".
The woman also described how Sewell would get her to lay on top of him and would even strip down to his underpants and caress her back. In a recorded interview with a detective played to the court she said the alleged abuse by the church elder made her feel "sick". The woman said: "It was a strange feeling because it was like part of me knew it wasn't right but then because of how I felt about him - I looked up to him - I don't know why but I just let him do it.
"I was frightened of him as well. I was scared." She added: "In a weird way I didn't want to upset him or make him feel I had let him down if I said no." The woman said she and other young members of the congregation would discuss Sewell and refer to him as "creepy". But the woman said when she told her parents what had been going on and they met Sewell to discuss her claims he convinced them the schoolgirl had "misunderstood". She claims the abuse continued for a further year before she again approached her parents who this time took her with them to see Sewell and his wife, hairdresser Mary, at their home. The woman said Sewell branded her a liar who was exaggerating.
"I thought, 'Is there something wrong with me? Am I not getting this?' Again nothing was done about it," she said. Describing the alleged abuse she added: "I thought it was wrong, it felt wrong, it was just a weird feeling. "It didn't feel right, I just didn't feel comfortable. "I felt frightened, I felt frozen, I felt sick." She described Sewell's abuse as a "power-trip" and added: "I think it was the fact that when I look back now I was so innocent and vulnerable."
The case was later adjourned until tomorrow.
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Charity Commission investigates Jehovah's Witness congregation in relation to indecent assault case
by Mickey mouse inmanchester new moston congregation of jehovah's witnesses is at the centre of reports that a convicted offender was allowed to question his victims at a public meetingthe charity commission has opened an operational compliance case into a manchester-based jehovahs witness congregation following concerns about how it protects vulnerable beneficiaries.. the commission said it was in discussions with manchester new moston congregation of jehovahs witnesses after reports in the manchester evening news that a congregation member, jonathan rose, who was recently released from prison after serving nine months for the indecent of assault of two girls, was allowed to question his victims in front of congregation elders.
the victims were required to recount the abuse at the meeting in order to have rose barred from the church, the paper says.. a spokeswoman for the commission said: "the commission has ongoing serious concerns about the manchester new moston congregation of jehovahs witnesses in connection with its policies and procedures for the protection of vulnerable beneficiaries.
we are engaging with the charitys trustees about our concerns.
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Sol Reform
Charity Commission opens statutory inquiries into Jehovah's Witnesses governing body and congregation
By Andy Ricketts, Third Sector Online, 10 June 2014
Ibsa House, HQ of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Britain, in north London The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Britain and the Manchester New Moston Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses are investigated over safeguarding issues and trustees' compliance with the law
The Charity Commission has opened statutory inquiries into the governing body of Jehovah’s Witnesses and one of its congregations amid concerns about safeguarding and whether trustees have complied with charity law.
The regulator announced last month that it had opened an operational compliance case into the Manchester New Moston Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses after it emerged that a former trustee of the charity, who served nine months in prison for the indecent of assault of two girls, was allowed to question his victims in front of congregation elders after his release.
The commission said today that it had since then opened statutory inquiries into the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Britain and the Manchester congregation because of concerns about safeguarding issues and related matters.
A spokesman for the Watch Tower Society said it would challenge the commission’s decision to open statutory inquiries into both charities at the charity tribunal.
The commission said its inquiry into the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Britain would examine the charity’s handling of safeguarding matters, "including the creation, development, substance and implementation of its safeguarding policy"; the administration, governance and management of the charity; whether the charity’s trustees "have complied with and fulfilled their duties and responsibilities as trustees under charity law"; and the charity’s safeguarding advice provided to congregation charities.
The commission said it opened a case into the charity in July last year amid concerns about its approach to safeguarding matters.
It said its concerns had been "amplified by recent criminal cases concerning historic incidents of abuse involving individuals who appear to have been connected to Jehovah’s Witnesses congregations and/or the charity". The regulator said its inquiry into the Manchester congregation would also look at the charity’s safeguarding policy, procedures and practice; how the charity dealt with the risks to the charity and its beneficiaries; and whether the trustees of the charity had also complied with their duties under charity law.
"The commission has serious concerns about Manchester New Moston Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses, having most recently opened a case into it in December 2013," a statement from the regulator said. The statement said that the commission was not a safeguarding authority and, as such, would not investigate allegations or instances of abuse in either case.
A statement issued by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Britain on behalf of it and the Manchester New Moston congregation said the commission’s decision to open statutory inquiries into both charities had been "premature".
It said the trustees of both charities were "disappointed that the commission decided to open its investigation based on incorrect and incomplete information and without giving the trustees an opportunity to respond as the commission had agreed".
It said that Jehovah’s Witnesses "abhor the sexual abuse of children. Our charities’ child safeguarding policy and procedures are designed to protect children and comply with the law.
"For decades, Jehovah’s Witnesses have educated parents on how they can protect their children from sexual abuse. In these circumstances, the trustees are surprised that the Charity Commission has decided to launch an investigation into their safeguarding policy and procedures."
The commission said 1,354 individual Jehovah’s Witness congregations were registered as charities. The Watch Tower Society had an income of £30.6m and an expenditure of £31.5m in the year to the end of August 2013.
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Archbishop Robert J. Carlson claimed to be uncertain that he knew sexual abuse of a child by a priest constituted a crime when he was auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis,MN. USA
by Sol Reform inarchbishop robert j. carlson claimed to be uncertain that he knew sexual abuse of a child by a priest constituted a crime when he was auxiliary bishop in the archdiocese of st. paul and minneapolis, mn.
usa.
http://www.stltoday.com/lifestyles/faith-and-values/archbishop-robert-j-carlson-claims-he-was-unaware-sexual-abuse/article_4215ecea-3409-53b3-813b-545c81a1b793.html archbishop robert j. carlson claims to be uncertain if he knew sexual abuse was a crime print email 1 hour ago by lilly fowler [email protected] 314-340-8221159 wednesday, june 10, 2009- rev.
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Sol Reform
Archbishop Robert J. Carlson claimed to be uncertain that he knew sexual abuse of a child by a priest constituted a crime when he was auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, MN. USA
http://www.stltoday.com/lifestyles/faith-and-values/archbishop-robert-j-carlson-claims-he-was-unaware-sexual-abuse/article_4215ecea-3409-53b3-813b-545c81a1b793.html Archbishop Robert J. Carlson claims to be uncertain if he knew sexual abuse was a crime Print Email 1 hour ago • By Lilly Fowler [email protected] 314-340-8221 159 WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10, 2009- Rev. Robert J. Carlson watches the procession leading into the Cathedral Basilica-St Louis Stephanie S. Cordle � [email protected] Enlarge Photo Related Documents 1984 Archbishop Robert J. Carlson memo St. Louis priest abuse case headed for trial Ambitious legal strategy will try to show that the archdiocese ignored a pattern of abuse. It will point to the fact that even before the St. … Read more Archbishop Robert J. Carlson claimed to be uncertain that he knew sexual abuse of a child by a priest constituted a crime when he was auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, according to a deposition released Monday. During the deposition taken last month, attorney Jeff Anderson asked Carlson whether he knew it was a crime for an adult to engage in sex with a child. “I'm not sure whether I knew it was a crime or not,” Carlson replied. “I understand today it's a crime.” Anderson went on to ask Carlson whether he knew in 1984, when he was an auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, that it was crime for a priest to engage in sex with a child. “I'm not sure if I did or didn't,” Carlson said. Yet according to documents released Monday by the law firm Jeff Anderson & Associates in St. Paul, Carlson showed clear knowledge that it was a crime when discussing sexual abuse incidents with church officials during his time in Minnesota. In a 1984 document, for example, Carlson wrote to the archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis at the time — John R. Roach — about one victim of sexual abuse and mentioned that the statute of limitations for filing a claim would not expire for more than two years. He also wrote that the parents of the victim were considering reporting the incident to the police.
Over and over again during the deposition, Carlson claimed to not remember answers to questions posed by attorney Anderson — for a total of 193 times.
Anderson took Carlson's deposition last month as part of a sexual abuse case in Minnesota involving the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Diocese of Winona. The plaintiff in the case, only identified as “Doe 1,” claims to have been abused in the 1970s by the Rev. Thomas Adamson at St. Thomas Aquinas in St. Paul Park, Minn. Anderson also took Carlson's deposition for a priest sexual abuse case scheduled for trial July 7 in St. Louis. According to Anderson, Carlson was involved in handling sexual abuse cases in Minnesota for 15 years, yet never reported any incidents to the police. http://www.andersonadvocates.com/Posts/News-or-Event/1834/Archbishop-Carlson-Deposition-Release.aspx
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Five Jehovahs Witnesses traveling to convention feared to have drowned. Western Region, Ghana
by Sol Reform infive jehovahs witnesses traveling to convention feared to have drowned.
western region, ghana.
http://www.ghanaweb.com/ghanahomepage/newsarchive/artikel.php?id=312004&comment=0#com.
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Sol Reform
Five Jehovah’s Witnesses traveling to convention feared to have drowned. Western Region, Ghana
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=312004&comment=0#com
Five persons said to be from the same family are feared to have drowned, after a canoe in which they were travelling capsized.
The five- a woman, her three daughters and a baby- were crossing a river to Prestea and later travel to Takwa for the Jehovah’s Witness convention there.
But their canoe capsized at Sika Ne Asem in the Prestea-Huni Valley district in Western Region, drowning all five on board.
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Can you help Jehovah Witness child sex abuse victims in the State of Massachusetts ?
by Sol Reform incan you help jehovah witness child sex abuse victims and non jehovah witness child sex abuse victims in the state of massachusetts ?
provide justice to child sex abuse survivors.
hold accountable the public and private institutions that enable, hide or abet child sexual abuse.. support h4326!
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Sol Reform
http://wwlp.com/2014/06/04/house-advances-child-sex-abuse-lawsuit-bill/
House advances child sex abuse lawsuit bill By Matt Murphy Published: June 4, 2014, 11:03 pm | Updated: June 4, 2014, 11:57 pm BOSTON (STATE HOUSE) –
House leaders sprung a proposal on Wednesday to extend the statute of limitations for civil lawsuits brought by victims of alleged child sexual abuse, reengaging with a controversial topic that has been debated for years on Beacon Hill but has eluded compromise. The House gave initial approval to a bill (H 4126) recommended last week by the Committee on the Judiciary, co-chaired by Belmont Sen. William Brownsberger who has taken the lead on this issue in the Senate in recent years.
The committee does not currently have a House chair, but Rep. John Lawn, of Watertown, has taken the lead on the issue for House leadership. “We think we’ve crafted a bill that we can put forward that people feel comfortable with that gives people who’ve been abused a chance to face their accusers in a timeline that they’re able to.
It’s complicated,” Lawn told the News Service. Lawn said he became involved with the issue after he was approached by a constituent from Waltham who had been repeatedly raped, and impregnated, by her godfather over the span of a decade from the time she was 5 years old until she turned 15.
Unlike many other crime victims, Lawn said those who are sexually abused as children may need years to understand and come to terms with the abuse, but sometimes when that happens it’s too late to pursue legal action. That was the case with his constituent.
The bill would extend the statute of limitations for civil lawsuits to be brought against the perpetrator of abuse or any person or institution who failed to prevent the abuse from three years after the alleged victim turns 18 to 35 years, or until the victim turns 53. The new statute of limitations would be applied retroactively to cases against the alleged perpetrator of the abuse, but not for defendants who may have “negligently supervised” the abuser.
The bill would also extend from three years to seven years the limit for a civil lawsuit to be brought against either class of defendant from the time the victim “discovered or reasonably should have discovered that an emotional or psychological injury or condition was caused” by the sexual abuse.
Both the House and Senate advanced bills late in 2012 to a conference committee, but lawmakers were unable to reach a compromise before the legislative session ended. Until today, the bill had not moved in their branch during the 2013-2014 session. Much of the controversy in the 2012 debate centered around proposed changes to the legal standard of negligence and a House proposal to open up a one-year window for a victim of any age to file a civil claim of abuse, regardless of the person’s age. The new bill does not address either issue.
Several House lawmakers said Wednesday that their renewed hope in the prospects for the bill stems, in part, from a “change of attitude” from the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston toward the legislation. The Roman Catholic Church has fought similar legislative efforts in other states around the country, arguing that an extension or elimination of the statute of limitations could expose the church to enormous liabilities that force the institution to defend itself against claims that might be decades old instead of focusing on how to protect children.
Lawn said after the 2012 defeat he went “back to the drawing board,” and has worked with lawyers and stakeholders, including Massachusetts bishops, to refine the proposal that he is “hopeful” will pass this year. “With this crime and as more states around the country and around the world deal with this issue it’s major progress and I think it’s a good step. Because this is such a complicated crime, it needs to be looked at differently,” Lawn said.
House Majority Leader Ronald Mariano, a Quincy Democrat, has filed versions of the statute of limitations bill in the past before turning the reins over to Lawn, and feels the timing this year might be right. “I will say there has been a change of attitude from the Church and a sense of cooperation, which is good to see,” Mariano said. Pope Francis, elected in March 2013, recently declared a “zero tolerance” approach to dealing with sexual abuse within the church as he announced plans to meet at the Vatican as soon as this month with eight victims of clergy abuse.
Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley, who is the head of a commission set up by the Pope to study ways of dealing with sexual abuse cases in the Catholic church, is helping to organize the meeting. O’Malley last year met with dozens of Beacon Hill lawmakers at the Union Club in Boston during a gathering that church officials said was intended to reopen communications.
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Following instructions from Pope Francis, for the first time the Catholic Church in Mexico has turned a priest in to authorities.
by Sol Reform infollowing instructions from pope francis, for the first time the catholic church in mexico has turned a priest in to authorities.. the move follows instructions from pope francis for the catholic church to better protect children and take a hard line with priests accused of sexual offenses.. meanwhile in the usa pope francis has not prevented catholic church lawyers from using a magical loophole that absolves the church of legal responsibility for crimes committed by its priests: a holy punch clock.
"a priest is not on duty when he is molesting a child, for example.. http://ncronline.org/news/accountability/first-time-mexico-priest-accused-abuse-faces-criminal-charges.
first time in mexico: priest accused of abuse faces criminal chargesdavid agrencatholic news service | jun.
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Sol Reform
Following instructions from Pope Francis, for the first time the Catholic Church in Mexico has turned a priest in to authorities.
The move follows instructions from Pope Francis for the Catholic Church to better protect children and take a hard line with priests accused of sexual offenses.
Meanwhile in the USA Pope Francis has not prevented Catholic Church lawyers from using a magical loophole that absolves the church of legal responsibility for crimes committed by its priests: a holy punch clock. "A priest is not on duty when he is molesting a child, for example.”
First time in Mexico: priest accused of abuse faces criminal charges
David Agren Catholic News Service | Jun. 4, 2014 Share on facebook Share on twitter More Sharing Services 1 PrintemailPDF Mexico City
A priest in north central Mexico has been stripped of his position by the Vatican and faces criminal charges in connection with alleged sexual abuse of a teenage boy. The case marks the first time the Catholic Church in Mexico has turned a priest in to authorities.
The move follows instructions from Pope Francis for the Catholic Church to better protect children and take a hard line with priests accused of sexual offenses. Father Eduardo Cordova Bautista, a priest in the Archdiocese of San Luis Potosi, was ordered in late April by the Vatican to face charges for allegedly abusing a 16-year-old boy in 2012. The actions were implemented in late May. His whereabouts were unknown, however.
"This is simply acting on a petition of the pope and what he's asking: that we collaborate completely with the judicial system," said Armando Martinez Gomez, president of the College of Catholic Lawyers of Mexico. There's more to NCR than what you read online. Subscribe today! Martinez told Desde la Fe, the Mexico City archdiocesan newspaper, that the church officials in San Luis Potosi opened an investigation in 2012, turned information over to the Vatican in January 2014, and received a response this past April.
The case of Father Cordova created a scandal in Mexico after journalist Sanjuana Martinez reported earlier in May that dozens of youth were allegedly abused by the priest over the past 25 years as he worked in Catholic institutions serving young people. Alberto Athie, a former priest and an early accuser of the disgraced Father Maciel Marcial Degollado, founder of the Legionaries of Christ, said there may be as many as 100 victims, Diario de San Luis reported. The actions taken against Father Cordova mark a change in Mexico, where cases of clerical abuse have often languished while dioceses have been slow to act.
"What I know is this is the first time in which there was a canonic procedure and a public complaint. This is not something to be proud of," Armando Martinez Gomez told Desde la Fe. "These news stories are always sad, but they have to be an example that the church does not tolerate nor will it tolerate this type of conduct, much less when it is has now been proven, in this case, by an Ecclesiastical Tribunal," he said.
Catholic church can't claim priest was 'off-duty': Editorial
Chris Naples and the Rev. Terence McAlinden on a trip to the Virgin Islands. Naples says the priest sexually assaulted him there and on other trips. (Courtesy Chris Naples) Print By Star-Ledger Editorial Board
on June 03, 2014 at 7:00 PM, updated June 03, 2014 at 7:09 PM0 Reddit Email In a case of flawless logic, the Catholic Church’s lawyers have discovered a magical loophole that absolves the church of legal responsibility for crimes committed by its priests: a holy punch clock. Catholic priests, we now know — courtesy of a Delaware Supreme Court hearing in a New Jersey priest-abuse lawsuit — can be “off duty.”
When they’re not officially priests, lawyers for the Diocese of Trenton argued, the church shouldn’t be held responsible for their actions. “How do we determine when a priest is and is not on duty,” one justice asked. “Well,” the diocese’s lawyer explained, “you can determine a priest is not on duty when he is molesting a child, for example.”
See? Bulletproof. Abused by predatory priests?
Sorry, kids, they were off the clock. If their legal Hail Mary works, it would effectively cloak the Catholic Church in a legal state of grace. Bishops could argue that any time a priest breaks the law — in this case, he’s accused of molesting a boy during youth outings to Delaware — he’s on personal time, absolving the church of liability. Abused by predatory priests? Sorry, kids, they were off the clock.
The Delaware court released the church from the lawsuit because the now-grown victim couldn’t prove the trips — where he claims his priest molested him — were church-sanctioned. The suit has since been refiled in New Jersey, so church attorneys can try their “off-duty” claims again.
It’s a tough sell. Catholic rules are ironclad. Even off-duty priests are expected to stay celibate and single. If this “off-duty” sleight-of-hand succeeds, what else could priests do? Steal from the poor box? The church is obligated to answer for its priests’ attacks. While the church should have an opportunity to argue its legal responsibilities, this attempt to escape blame with a magical punch clock is as disgusting as it is silly.
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After a Jehovah's Witness secretly confronted a foster child, Eunice Spry was jailed for torturing three children; she is now set to be released from prison and re-homed near her victims. UK
by Sol Reform inafter a jehovah's witness secretly confronted a foster child, eunice spry was jailed for torturing three children; she is now set to be released from prison and re-homed near her victims.
uk.
(warning - graphic pictures and story).
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Sol Reform
Initially it was not clear if Eunice Spry was a Jehovah's Witness, this should clear it up.
http://ukpaedos-exposed.com/2012/03/21/eunice-spry-gloucestershire/
Database of UK and Eire paedophiles/child abusers Search: Eunice Spry
– Gloucestershire/Eckington 21 Wednesday Mar 2012
Posted by Author in Female Abuser, Foster Carers, Gloucestershire, Worcestershire May 2014
Britain’s most sadistic mother will be let out of jail next month (July) – and re-homed just miles from the adopted daughter she brutally tortured for nearly 20 years Eunice Spry, now 70, was originally jailed for 14 years but In September 2008 her sentence was reduced to 12 years after she was convicted of 26 charges of disgusting child abuse against her two foster children and an adopted daughter.
Evil Spry routinely beat, abused and starved the terrified youngsters – identified in court as Child A, B and C. She forced them to drink bleach and urine, eat their own vomit, stand naked and cold for hours on end and even sandpapered the skin from the face of one terrified child. Adopted daughter Victoria Evans, now 28, Child A, is speaking for the first time about the daily horrors she endured for 19 years before she bravely escaped and told police. Spry would regularly take her to a remote farm house and whip the soles of her feet with sticks which were then forced down her throat when she screamed. Tragic Victoria was once tied up naked and left blindfolded – for THREE months.
Victoria was given a wheelchair after she miraculously survived a car crash that claimed the lives of two of her step-sisters to help her in the months after she left hospital. But despite a rapid recovery, evil Spry banned her from walking until her leg muscles wasted away so she could continue her reign of terror, sandpapering the skin from her FACE. In spite of the horrors she suffered, brave Victoria has miraculously flourished, teaching herself to read and write, going to college and is now engaged to the love of her life.
She has agreed to reveal her identity for the first time in a bid to show her mother she has not been broken – and beg authorities to reconsider housing the monster just 25 miles away.
Unrepentant Spry has shown no remorse for her crimes and refuses to admit she carried out the heinous acts. She is thought to have paid released prisoners to track down addresses on the outside – and while Victoria is no longer scared of her evil ‘mother’ she fears she will track her down. Victoria was handed over to Eunice when she was just 18 months old after her birth parents could no longer look after her. In one horrifying early assault Spry left defenceless Victoria bleeding from the mouth, her lips and gums cut to ribbons, after she prised the youngster’s jaws open with a spoon to feed her.
She said: “I don’t remember it, but the abuse started pretty much straight away – I know that from her children who were there. “She was obsessed with being perfect. She had to look like the Von Trapp family. “The other children had to look perfect – they went to private school, ballet lessons, horse riding, and had to be seen to have the best. “But when I came to her I wasn’t perfect. I was a traumatised little girl. I hadn’t been socialised like children should be. I was wetting the bed, I wasn’t eating. I had been taken away from my real parents. “I don’t remember this, but the first abuse I know of was when I was around age two. “Mum’s natural daughter said the first memory she had was she saw me being held down. “I didn’t want to come off milk, but my mum said ‘she should be on solids’. “She held me down and prised my teeth open with a metal spoon.
There was blood pouring down my face. “I would wet the bed and she would rub the sheets in my face, then she would tie my to the potty. I wasn’t fitting into her ideal.” Little Victoria got respite from her mother’s torment during a very brief stint at school – before Spry pulled her out of classes under the guise of ‘home schooling’. But even at school four-year-old Victoria was not free from her abuser’s tricks. “She would drive every lunchtime to watch me,” recalled Victoria. “I wasn’t allowed to talk to other children or play with them, and I would get an absolute bollocking from her. “She would say ‘I saw you talking to someone else’. I had no idea how she knew, and she told me ‘I have a magic eye, I can see what’s going on’. “There were grave concerns that I wasn’t being fed lunch like the rest of the children so she told me to come home for my lunch. “I went home once and she wasn’t there so I came back to school and said I hadn’t had lunch. “I got beaten to a pulp because I told them, the teachers. “She pushed my lips to cut into my teeth, she would throw me down the stairs.”
Evil Spry split the family’s time between a home near Gloucester and a farm house in Eckington, Worcestershire, left to her in a will by a man she apparently cared for. The ramshackle farm house – surrounded by trees and away from prying eyes – became what Victoria called the “torture house”. “She would drive us to the farm house and lie us down, have Judith, her eldest natural daughter, stand on our windpipes to stop us screaming, and whip the soles of our feet with sticks. “That happened too many times to count. “She would force the sticks down our throats. I will never forget the taste of wood, and blood and saliva as she pulled them out.” One of the most harrowing stretches of abuse inflicted on Victoria came when she was aged eight or nine. A single chicken nugget went missing from the fridge, and when nobody owned up, Victoria was tied up naked in an upstairs bedroom – surviving on crusts and water – for three months.
The horrendous episode came to an abrupt end when one of Spry’s daughters found her and threatened to go to social services. Recalling the horror, Victoria said: “Nobody owned up. Me and my brother were tied up naked up in the bedroom. I’m not sure how long he was there, but I was left there for three months. “I was tied up with rope and blindfolded, and fed on crusts and water. It was a horrendous time. I was completely naked. It was so cold. “I would wet the floor and she would make me drink it up, lap it up from the floor. “When I would retch, she would say to me ‘you are weak minded’ and would say ‘it’s mind over matter’.” A favourite punishment of Spry’s would involve the children leaning with their backs against the wall in an excruciating half-seated position.
Watching television – a treat Victoria was never allowed – she would swing a ruler with a leather fringe round her finger. As their feet slipped forward with sweat she would whip them on the toes until they bled. In September 2000, when Victoria was just 14, she was given a rare treat when the family went on a family holiday to Pontins in Weston-super-Mare. While her and the other foster kids were kept indoors, it was a break from the beatings and Victoria was allowed to keep a doll – one of the only toys she ever had – given to her by her grandmother while on the holiday. But on the drive back home the car being driven by Judith was involved in a horrific accident on the M5. A lorry driver – who was later convicted in court – smashed into the back to the car while fiddling with his radio, forcing the vehicle under another lorry ahead. The crash instantly claimed the lives of Judith, 37, and Victoria’s beloved step-sister Charlotte, 16, who was adopted one year before her.
Victoria broke her neck in the crash and was left hanging and pinned, watching her step-brother, seven, – who also survived the smash – scream in agony. She was put in an induced coma for months, but as soon as she woke up, Spry blamed her for the crash, cruelly claiming she only survived because “the devil looks after his own”. “They were just dying in front of me,” recalled Victoria. “My adopted sister was decapitated and mum’s natural daughter was absolutely mangled. “I had a broken neck, leg fractures, a broken pelvis, hips, small of my back, both arms, legs, elbows, wrists, and had internal injuries too.” Drifting in and out of sleep, suffering horrific nightmares while she recovered, Spry would tell her to “shut the fuck up” as soon as the nurse’s backs were turned.
She added: “As soon as I was able she held me by the throat telling me to tell me what happened. “I told her about how we had stopped to go to the seaside on the way home and her daughter has asked if we needed the toilet and I had said I didn’t need to go. “She said I had killed them because I didn’t go to the toilet. “She said ‘why is it that my two precious daughters have died and scum like you still grace this earth’. “She said, ‘the devil looks after his own his own, that’s why you are still here’. I believed her. “It got to the point that I wished I had gone, I wished that somebody would put me out of my misery.” After the accident, doctors told Spry that Victoria would need to be in a wheelchair for a few months, while she built up her strength. But the sadistic monster forced her to stay in a wheelchair for FOUR years in a cynical bid to maximise the disability living payments she received.
Initially Victoria would use her feet to shuffle along the hallways, but after being punished she stopped, eventually suffering such terrible muscle wastage she was unable to walk. But the punishment continued, with Spry forcing her to crawl from her chair onto the filthy hallway floor to sleep at every night. “She would pull me out of the chair by my hair, I remember being kicked around the kitchen. I was kicked and kicked and kicked,” she said. She would drag her around the house by her neck, slamming her into walls, digging her nails into her skin and even sandpapered the skin from her face. When Victoria was 17, her younger brother – a step child favoured by Spry – asked if he could go to Jehovah’s Witness meetings in Tewkesbury. The apparently devout worshipper allowed the 12-year-old lad to go – but only if Victoria went with him to watch over him.
For the first time in her life, the teenager met people who not only cared for her, but noticed the horrific bruises and strangulation marks she was unable to hide under thick clothes. Spry came under question from the group, but blamed the injuries on an older step child, telling Victoria to do the same. But eventually the lies became too much, and the teenager broke down, telling everything to a young couple in the group who smuggled her out the house just before Christmas 2004. It took three weeks to build up the courage to tell the police, but brave Victoria eventually outlined the darkest details of the years of abuse. “I was there the longest, I was there from when I was a little baby,” she said.
“She was all I knew, and like the others, despite it all, I still felt loyal to her.” Spry – who to his day still denies any abuse – was arrested. Investigating officers scoured her two properties and recovered the bloody and splintered sticks she had shoved down her children’s throats, as well as teeth knocked out in the process. Amongst the squaller in the homes they found unposted letters Victoria had written – but forgotten about – begging neighbours to ‘please be my new mummy’. She was found guilty of 26 charges, including unlawful wounding, cruelty to a person under 16, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, perverting the course of justice and witness intimidation. Judge Simon Darwall-Smith, at Bristol Crown Court, told Spry that this was the worst case he had come across in 40 years in law. But despite the horrors, and free from the clutches of Spry, Victoria set about starting her life again. Victoria went to college to learn to read and write, and enrolled on maths and english classes, before taking up a course in hairdressing.
She completed a course in childcare and dedicated four years to working in schools, before ongoing health problems – stemming from her abuse – forced her to give up work. But the keen photographer, who is devoted to the care of her two dogs, is engaged to her boyfriend of five years, living happily in Gloucestershire. She said: “The dogs have really helped me through it all. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without them. The fact they’ve always accepted me, has helped me through. Victoria said it was also her friends who have stuck by her throughout her ordeal that have helped her through the toughest moments. She said: “They helped me at through the hardest times and they still support me today. “I’m so grateful to those people. They have supported me when I have not been at my best and I wouldn’t be here without them.”
She hopes one day to set up a charity to help other abused adults – and is currently looking for help to achieve her dream – and wants to write a book about her life. She said: “My younger siblings were helped because they were children, and older ones helped through the fact they had children, but I always seemed to fall between two places. Nobody was there. Nobody picked me up. “There is nothing out there, and I want to change that, and I am appealing to anyone who can help me to please get in touch. “I feel I have so much to give, but need help to do it.” A few weeks ago she was contacted by the probation service warning her that Spry was due to be released in July. After promising her year after year that Spry would be housed in the north of England, they revealed she had applied to be housed in Worcestershire – the very next county to Victoria. “The probation officer told me that she has not been interested in anything in prison – she hasn’t taken part in any rehabilitation,” said Victoria.
“She is coming out with the very same mindset she went in with. “The officer told me she wasn’t supposed to tell me, but my mother has been paying people to do jobs for her, like tracking people down. They won’t say who, but I think it is me. “She has got hold of phones in there, and got on social networking sites. She’s going to come out and play every game in the book. “And now they want to house her just down the road from me. It’s dreadful, it’s heartbreaking. “I’m not asking for anything, but I deserve to just feel secure, to just carry on trying to keep going the best I can.
“Why do they have to just slap her in the next county to me? I asked why, and they said she requested it, and it has been granted. “If she comes anywhere near me I have friends now who will protect me – I’m not scared of her physically anymore. “But I have got on with my life, and knowing she is so close will be awful. “Even now, I see the swish of a ponytail out the corner of my eye when I’m out shopping and it gets my heart racing, thinking it is her. “I thought prison would break her, but I feel gravely concerned that it seems she is still playing the system, still controlling people, still getting her way. “One day I want to settle down and have children. As long as they are honest kids who wake up in the morning happy, I’ll be happy. “I’d try to be the best mum in the world. You can’t mould kids, you just have to let them be who they are.
“I wish her no harm, but I don’t want here anywhere near us and I never want to see her again. “She is a psychopath and my concern is that being so close, she’ll manage to find out where we are.” Victoria looks forward to writing a book based on her life experience, and the charity she hopes to set up for child abuse victims who want to gain education. And she added: “Despite it all I’m a happy giggly girl. I love to laugh, I love to sit in the fields and watch my dogs play, whilst I take pictures of the sunset. Everyday I wake up, I continue to love my friends, see the best in people. I defend those who are seen as different. I’m normally a happy happy girl!” Victoria now 28 with her dogs Her hand was rubbed raw with sandpaper Face injuries The bedrooms in which Eunice Spry’s foster children slept were strewn with rubbish
Escape from a living hell: The horrifying moment my Jehovah’s Witness foster mother handed me over to a sex predator – Alloma’s story
The beatings and other bizarre punishments inflicted on Alloma and other children are described in detail but in a matter-of-fact style that makes them even more chilling. She reveals how she and the others had their “mouths washed out” as Spry squirted washing-up liquid or shampoo down their throats. On occasion, this led to vomiting, which the unfortunate child was then forced to eat. Beatings were usually to the soles of the feet where any bruising was likely to be hidden from view. My foster mother was incandescent with rage. “What’s this?” she barked, holding up a bag of porridge oats. I knew better than to say “a bag of porridge oats” – that would certainly have earned me a beating, or worse. There was obviously something seriously wrong. “You left it out,” continued Eunice accusingly, tipping the bag’s contents on to the kitchen table.
I could see that mixed in with the oats were little brown lumps – mouse or even rat droppings. There had, I knew, been some rats recently around the dilapidated old farm where we lived, and I dare say she was right that I had forgotten to put the bag away the day before. Eunice said nothing more, but scraped up the oats and put them into a saucepan, droppings and all. She then poured in some water, and stirred. “I’ll make your breakfast for you,” she said. When the concoction was cooked, she spooned a large, steaming helping into a bowl. It was a far bigger portion than she would usually allow me for breakfast – Eunice was unbelievably mean with food. She handed me a spoon. “Eat it,” she commanded. When I didn’t move, Eunice pushed the spoon into the bowl and brought it up against my closed lips.
“Open wide.”It was pointless to resist. Obediently, I opened my mouth and swallowed the vile mixture. It tasted like the soles of my Wellingtons after I’d cleaned out the chicken shed. My gorge rose and I could see a glint in Eunice’s eyes – her satisfaction would be complete if I threw up there and then. But I didn’t. Instead, I fought to turn myself off at the emotional mains and ate the whole lot. I could tell Eunice was waiting for me to give up so that she could give me a beating, but I was determined to show her what I was made of. She was obviously disappointed. “Well, you do that again and you’ll get it again,” she said. By now my stomach was churning. I have to hold it down now, I told myself. Just blank yourself out. Eunice started tidying up and I feigned as much nonchalance as I could muster. I could feel my gorge rising again, but I swallowed hard as saliva filled my mouth and kept my face as blank as I could.
Slowly, I moved towards the kitchen door. The second I was out of Eunice’s sight, I ran like the clappers down the field, where I threw up the entire contents of my poisoned stomach. But I hadn’t given her the satisfaction of seeing it. And most important of all, I had chalked one up to me in our battle of wills. If my childhood with my foster mother Eunice Spry had been traumatic, then my young womanhood, before I finally escaped from her evil clutches at 17, was quite appalling in its physical and psychological brutality. At least when I was young I had been to school for part of the time, having contact with other adults and children. I had even very occasionally seen my natural parents. Now I was being taught at home and living as a virtual prisoner, half-starved, on a rundown farm in the middle of nowhere. I also hadn’t had any contact with my family for years. I still wonder whether Eunice used to lie in bed at night thinking of the next horrible thing she would do to us all. Certainly, some of her punishments involved a good deal of ingenuity on her part. One of her favourites was a torture she’d devised, known as the “invisible chair”.
We had to crouch down on our haunches in a sitting position, with our backs or shoulders leaning against the wall, sort of squatting, and we’d have to stay there for ten minutes to an hour, maybe even two. I found it incredibly difficult to stay upright, and my legs ached terribly, so I’d often fall over. But Eunice would watch and hit me with a stick, or shout that I had to get back into the upright, crouching position in the invisible chair and stay there until she was satisfied. Later, when I got a bit older, the punishments changed slightly to cause me the maximum psychological and physical discomfort. Eunice would sometimes, for example, make me stand naked at the end of her bed – something I found hideously embarrassing, as I was extremely self-conscious about my developing body. If she fell asleep I’d quickly cover myself up, or lie down on the floor.
But then she’d wake up again and shake me or shout at me, and I had to spring back to my standing position. Naked again, all night long. Eunice’s attitude to nakedness and sex was somewhat ambivalent, and made life very confusing for us as growing teenagers. On the one hand she would say it was natural and fine for us children to be naked, but at the same time she was also very prudish about anything to do with sex or sexuality, perhaps because of her strict interpretation of her Jehovah’s Witness faith. During those years of puberty she certainly gave us no sex education or guidance to prepare us for the adult world, and because we never mixed with other young people, we were completely ignorant of the most basic facts of life.
As a result, I was completely unprepared for a catalogue of sexual abuse I suffered over a period of many years at the hands of one of Eunice’s old friends, a man I shall call Kevin. I don’t know where Eunice knew him from but he was quite a rough type who seemed very interested in my developing body. Whenever he came to visit, he would make me sit on his lap while he put his arms round me. Then he would put his hands on my legs and move them up my thighs. One day, he put his hands on my crotch. “You know, you’re a very attractive girl,” he said in a leering voice, which completely freaked me out. I had no idea what was going on. Another time, Kevin sat me on his lap and told me to touch his trousers in the crotch area.
“Go on,” he said. “I’ll give you a quid if you touch it.” By “it” I sort of guessed he meant his penis, as I knew men were different. I was utterly confused and didn’t feel right about what was going on between us but I suppose, on some strange level, Kevin provided me with human contact, some kind of touch and warped affection – so starved was I of love and attention after years and years with Eunice. Later, when I was around 16, Eunice even seemed to want to encourage Kevin’s behaviour towards me, telling me how much he liked me, as if she were matchmaking. On one occasion, when we went on a holiday with him, she even made us share a room together, albeit with one of the other children. I protested, but even then Kevin continued to molest me and indulge in gross indecency in my presence.
I spent literally years trying to convince him that I wasn’t interested. When I finally succeeded, he became extremely aggressive and unpleasant. Compared with all this, something else that Eunice made us do was probably quite benign, although it still makes my stomach churn when I think about it. She used to make us give her a massage, as though we were her young slaves. She would lie on the floor or on a sofa and read a women’s magazine and we would have to massage her feet and her back. It was revolting to have to touch and give pleasure to this woman who hurt us so much.
Also, I found her physically disgusting, and as I was being told to pick the dead skin off her flat feet, or massage her bony shoulders, I would look with fascination at her saggy boobs hanging around her armpits, or her dry wrinkly skin. Afterwards, we would laugh about it together and mimic her, although very quietly. It was one of the few times we were united against her. I’ve never really been sure why Eunice took on children after her own two daughters had grown up, but I’m convinced that part of the reason was that she saw us as a financial meal ticket. The allowances she was paid for looking after us gave her a good source of income – although she was always after more.
For example, she worked out that if she had us registered as disabled for some reason, she would get more money. So at different times during our childhoods Eunice campaigned to get me diagnosed as being on the autistic spectrum. She would be eligible for disability carer’s allowance for each child, if she succeeded. So it was only a matter of time before Eunice decided, when I was about 12, that I was a suitable candidate for some “treatment” and I was taken to see a psychologist. Before I went into the room to meet the doctor, Eunice primed me on how I was to behave, on pain of punishment if I didn’t. I had to pose as if I had Asperger syndrome. She had done her research carefully and explained I had to be very inarticulate and shut down.
I had to say absolutely nothing if I was spoken to, and not reply if I was asked a question directly. I had to keep my head down, look at the floor and she would do all the talking. On this occasion, however, the psychologist smelled a rat. For some reason, and I don’t know why, the psychologist did not buy into the Asperger’s stunt and sent us home without a prescription. As I left her office, she said: “I think you’re playing games with me.” I wanted to burst out laughing. Eunice was, of course, utterly furious and told me I would be dealt with the minute we got back to the farm. Once home, and after a thorough beating, Eunice decided to see for herself if I had Asperger or not, and gave me some of the other children’s prescriptions of Ritalin for a week.
From an adult perspective, and as a mother myself now, I believe it was not only incredibly dangerous to give me drugs prescribed for somebody else but also evil and utterly irresponsible because, in doing so, Eunice set me off in a direction which, until then, I didn’t know existed. I got hooked on the drugs – they brought me complete psychological relief from all the isolation, fear and pain that I was experiencing. Every day I helped myself to her supply, taking around ten or 12 tablets. Later, I’d be taking 14 or 16. Eunice had hoarded so many pills – I guess she kept getting repeat prescriptions – that she didn’t notice her stash was going down. So I continued to take Ritalin for a long time, probably three years or more. I have mentioned that we were badly and erratically fed, and as a result were all extremely thin.
Eunice noticed, however, that by the time I was in my teens I enjoyed the fact that I had a slim figure – it made me feel as though I might be attractive. Since happiness was not allowed, now that I wanted to be thin, she decided maliciously that she had to do something about it. Eunice had a new eating plan: I was to eat lard. A whole pound before every meal. “You need fattening up,” she’d say. I had really never eaten anything so revolting in all my life. Even the rat-poo porridge was not as bad as having to fill my mouth and my system with this stinking, oily, piggy-smelling gunge. To this day, the smell of sausages cooking still turns my stomach.
By the time I was nearly 17, I had been enduring Eunice’s hideous regime for a decade and, very gradually, it was beginning to dawn on me that I might be able to make my own way in the world. I used to take our dog for long walks, which gave me a real taste of freedom. These stolen moments without being watched helped a new idea crystallise in my mind – scary, but also exciting. I had reached an emotional and psychological crossroads. I started to drop enormous hints to Eunice, and she must have got sick of my nagging, because one day she suddenly said: “You’ll be leaving tomorrow, so you’d better get yourself sorted. Be ready by nine in the morning – I’ll drive you.” Without even saying goodbye to the others the next morning, I clambered into the car, wondering where my destiny lay. “I’m taking you to Bristol,”
Eunice piped up suddenly. Bristol? I knew nothing about Bristol. Why there? “You’ll be in a youth hostel. I’ll pay your rent for a month.” Perhaps she hoped that by taking me to a huge city she could ensure I didn’t meet anybody I knew and spill the beans, or maybe she thought I’d be unable to survive and come crawling home again. Either way, what she did that day when she walked away from the youth hostel was effectively to abandon me. I had no knowledge of how to survive on my own, no funds, no phone, no list of people to turn to if I needed help. I had nothing.
The months that followed my release from Eunice could be described as the very steepest of learning curves. With the help of a charity for homeless people, I found accommodation in various hostels around the city and learned how to apply for both benefits and employment. Off the leash at last, I caught up on my lost youth in what I now call my “wild time”. I tried drink and drugs of various kinds and discovered for the first time in my life my ability to attract men of my own sort of age. This was not a positive experience. I was, I believe, the victim of an attempted date rape, and I had several other fleeting and unsatisfactory sexual encounters. By the time I was 18, I was pregnant by a man I’d met while working in McDonald’s.
The relationship was never going to last more than a few months, and so I became a single mother, living alone with my baby girl in council accommodation at the age of just 19. It was very difficult at first. I had no idea what to do, and although I was still with my baby’s father, he was unsupportive. Perhaps because I was having such a tough time, one day in August 2004, when my daughter, Ivy, was three months old, I finally decided it was time to track down my parents, which I did by writing to every address in the road where they used to live to see if anybody knew where they’d gone. Our first meeting was very emotional and a bit awkward at the same time.
There was so much to catch up on, and I didn’t quite know how much to tell them about what had happened. They seemed genuinely delighted with their granddaughter, though – my mum kept crying and hugging her and my dad looked pleased as punch. He told me on later visits that my mother couldn’t sleep at night for feeling so bad about what had happened to me during all the years we were estranged. Soon after I re-established contact with my parents I received a huge package from them. In it were masses of cards: they had gone out and bought a card for every birthday and Christmas that they had missed with me (to replace all those that they knew Eunice was binning), as a way of saying sorry. Both of my parents had written little notes in the birthday cards, saying things like, ‘Happy Birthday, Bright Eyes’, marking special events like my eighteenth birthday. They still feel sad that they have missed so much of my life.
After my disastrous relationships, I was in no hurry to start another one. But I had begun chatting to somebody on the internet who had become a virtual “friend”. He was very helpful and supportive through difficulties, and eventually we decided to meet. The attraction was mutual, and we have now been an item for a year. His name is Sy and he works as a drugs counsellor in Bristol. He is so thoughtful and kind that I finally told him a bit about life with Eunice – as much as I could bear to talk about – and he was horrified. And when the ghosts of my past came back to haunt me, Sy was there to support me.
The fact that Eunice was brought to trial is down to the bravery of Sarah, who after years of torment eventually confided in members of Eunice’s Jehovah’s Witness congregation, who encouraged her to go to the police.
Quite rightly, they didn’t want people to think that their religion would ever condone such behaviour. When the police contacted me to ask if I was happy to make a statement to support Sarah’s case, I said I was. Of course I was. However, I don’t think the police, or anyone else for that matter, knew what a can of worms they were opening. Or more like an ocean full of poisonous snakes. Eunice was arrested in February 2005, although it took two years before she came to trial. On March 20, 2007, as I was sitting watching Ivy playing with her toys, the phone rang. “We’ve got a conviction.” The detective constable sounded ecstatic in my ear.
“She’s been found guilty of 26 counts including child cruelty, unlawful wounding and assault.” A month later, Eunice was sentenced to 14 years in prison. She’ll be 72 by the time she gets out and Ivy will be 17 – the same age I was when Eunice abandoned me in Bristol. Now, when I have nightmares about life at the farm, Sy is by my side. He is a wise, kind man who protects me and makes me feel like I am a good person and worth something. He is wonderful with Ivy, and we are slowly growing into a family. A loving, caring, normal family, which is all I ever wanted. I don’t know what the future will bring but I am hopeful that we will spend it together. Timeline of abuse 1986 Victim A is born and moves into the Spry household. She was officially adopted at the age of five. Early 90s In 1992, Victim B moves into the Spry household in May while Victim C arrives in June.
They are both living there under a private fostering arrangement. Eunice Spry is seen on a number of occasions squeezing four-year-old Victim A and pinning a notice to her back saying: “This child is evil, she wets the bed, do not speak to her, she is an attention seeker.” Mid 1990s Spry decides to teach all the children at home in 1994. The prosecution said this was so that no-one would see the childrens’ injuries. The family move into a farmhouse left to Spry by a man who she had been caring for since the late 1980s. The family start renovating it in 1995. Victim B first tries to run away when she is eight years old. She tries to escape a total of three times, the last time being when she was 13, but is found by police and returned home.
Victim A writes letters saying: “I’m aged nine – can I live with you?” Victim B throws letters and diaries over the neighbours’ wall saying how bad things are. She also tells her teachers she is having problems at home. Social Services visits the home. September 2000 Victim A is badly hurt in a car accident and spends three months in Frenchay Hospital in Bristol. She has to use a wheelchair but is expected to walk again in six months. Four years later she is still in the wheelchair. Spry prevented her from walking so that she could claim more money in compensation. 2003 Victim B leaves home. Spry drives her to Bristol Youth Hostel and gives her some money. 2004 Victim C goes to live with his grandparents while Victim A leaves home when she can walk again. 2005 In January, Victim A goes to the police detailing all the attacks she had suffered at the hands of Spry.
In the summer, Spry visits Victim C at work and threatens him. She also calls, texts and writes him letters – some are threatening while others say how much she loves him. Throughout September and October, the three victims are examined by doctors who find internal scarring which prove she did force sticks down their throats as a form of punishment. 2007 The jury at Bristol Crown Court find Spry guilty of 26 charges of child abuse. Jailed for 14 years Books written by victims of Spry – Sold in all good books shops and online In April 2007, 62-year-old Eunice Spry was sentenced to 14 years in prison for the systematic wounding, cruelty and assault of the vulnerable children whose welfare had been entrusted to her. Her Gloucestershire home should have been a refuge. Instead it became a prison where, over the course of 20 years, her charges were routinely abused and tortured.
To the outside world, Jehovah’s Witness Spry presented herself as a pillar of the community.
Behind closed doors she was a sadistic tyrant who beat the children with metal bars, forced wooden sticks down their throats and made them eat lard, bleach, vomit and faeces. The details of the trial horrified the nation, and attracted considerable press attention. Now, for the first time, one of the victims – known in the case as ‘Child C’ and now 19 years old – tells the full, shocking story of what went on in Eunice Spry’s house of evil. Child C is a gripping, heartbreaking story of enforced isolation, psychological and physical abuse and a childhood denied. Despite all he has been through, Christopher Spry is a survivor with a zest for life.With his former foster mother in prison, he can finally tell the story of his suffering and what it is like to grow up brutalised and abandoned with no one to hear your plight. Book 2 ‘When I was a little girl I believed what I was told over and over again: that I was evil, that I deserved to be tortured because I was the Devil’s child . . .’ Alloma Gilbert was one of Spry’s young victims, sent to live with her at the age of six and left at her mercy for eleven brutal years.
Eunice used her own twisted religious beliefs as an excuse for punishing her foster children. When she took them to live on an isolated farmhouse, the abuse escalated to terrifying levels – a stick was thrust down Alloma’s throat so often it was stained red with blood, she was starved for over a year and survived only by secretly eating pigswill, and the vicious beatings were relentless. At the age of seventeen she finally escaped but, alone in the outside world, she fell prey to abusive men. It was the birth of her baby daughter that saved her, that finally taught her what love really is. Written with powerful honesty, Deliver Me From Evil is a moving and inspiring story of survival. September 2008: Eunice Spry Has Sentence Reduced from 14 years to 12 years April 2007 Foster mother jailed for ‘horrifying’ cruelty and sadism A foster mother who subjected three children in her care to a “horrifying catalogue of cruel and sadistic treatment” has been jailed for 14 years.
Eunice Spry, 62, routinely beat, abused and starved the vulnerable youngsters over a 19-year period. The devout Jehovah’s Witness forced sticks down their throats and made them eat their own vomit and rat excrement.
As punishment for misbehaving, she would beat them on the soles of their feet and force them to drink washing-up liquid and bleach. She even confined one girl to a wheelchair for three years after a car crash in a cynical bid to maximise compensation for the accident. Spry staunchly denied all the claims made against her and insisted the only physical punishment she ever used was “a smack on the bottom”. But a jury at Bristol Crown Court convicted her of 26 charges, ranging from unlawful wounding, cruelty to a person under 16, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, perverting the course of justice and witness intimidation. Judge Simon Darwall-Smith told Spry that this was the worst case he had come across in 40 years in law. He told her: “Frankly, it’s difficult for anyone to understand how any human being could have even contemplated what you did, let alone with the regularity and premeditation you employed.”
During the four-week trial the jury heard harrowing evidence of how Spry subjected the children to a regime of abuse. The three victims, known as Victim A, B and C, all gave evidence describing how their daily routines were punctuated by random acts of bizarre and sadistic violence at the hands of their foster mother. Victim A told the court how she was confined to a wheelchair by Spry for over three years, after being injured in a car crash in 2000. Spry had tried to stop her from trying to walk again, in a cynical bid to maximise the compensation payout she could get from insurers. The woman, now aged 21, eventually fled from her foster mother and walked on the very same day. Victim B, also 21, told how her foster mother would pull her hair and shove her face in her pet dog’s faeces as punishment. Victim C, now 18, described how his foster mother held his hand down on a hot electric hob until it was left looking like a “gooey mess”.
He said he had been force-fed so much washing up liquid by Spry that he could now differentiate between the brands on taste alone. They were made to eat lard and if they were sick, would be forced to eat what they had thrown up. Spry would regularly beat the children on the soles of the feet with a “variety of sticks”. They would be “punched kicked and strangled”, and if they cried the sticks would be forced down their throats. The offences took place in two of Spry’s homes in Gloucestershire between 1986 and 2005.
The abuse was finally discovered after another Jehovah’s Witness secretly confronted Victim A about marks to her head caused when Spry rubbed sandpaper over her face.
Victim A plucked up the courage to report her foster mother to the police who quickly interviewed Victim B and C. Spry was able to conceal her alleged reign of abuse as the children were home-taught and not sent to school. She also covered her tracks by forbidding them to be examined on their own by doctors or dentists. Spry maintained her innocence throughout police interviews and during the subsequent trial. Labour MP Dan Norris, a former child protection worker, welcomed today’s sentencing.
The MP for Wansdyke said: “I am very glad that the judge has seen the seriousness of this crime in his sentencing. “I believe she has been able to fool everyone in our society for more than 20 years so I am glad she has not fooled the jury or the judge in this tragic case of horrendous cruelty.” Nigel Mitchell, defending, said that despite the brutality and pain Spry had inflicted on the three children, there had been genuine moments of happiness and love shown towards them. “In amongst the periods of unpleasantness and violence, there were also periods of happiness. Your Honour will recall long canal trips on the barge, trips to Florida, the Florida Keys, Disney, matters of that sort interspersed with these other matters that we are all too familiar with.”
Mr Mitchell also revealed that Spry had needed protection in prison following her convictions and it was a “particularly unpleasant” place for her.
Spry remained impassive as the judge sentenced her to 14 years. He also ordered her to pay costs of £80,000, which he said would inevitably mean she would have to sell at least one of her two properties in Gloucestershire