Cops are searching for a 23 year old man who abused a 5 year old girl in her family’s Elmhurst home. The man, who rents a room in the apartment, sexually attacked the little girl on Sunday. The girl was taken to Elmhurst General Hospital in stable condition.
(Queens, New York)
Matthew Filippi, a 33 year old former music director at St. Margaret of Scotland Roman Catholic Church in Selden, pleaded guilty in Suffolk County Court to having sex with an 11 year old girl who was his music student. He had been giving keyboard and voice lessons for two years to the girl and had sexual intercourse and oral sex between the two of them which took place in his van and at his home at 11 Turnberry Street in Setauket. Filippi had been the church’s music director from 1994
A 15 year old girl was arrested yesterday for falsely reporting to police that she was raped in Meiers Corner. On Monday, she told cops she was walking down Bradley Avenue to get picture developed at a photo lab when a man dragged her behind a building and sexually assaulted her. But authorities checked the boarding times on the girl’s MetroCard and discovered she was on a bus at the time of the alleged rape. She was arraigned on misdemeanor charges of filing a false report.
(Staten Island, New York)
Saying the Diocese of Rockville Centre must educate all who work for it to the ‘harms of child abuse and what we must do to prevent it, Bishop William Murphy is asking all Catholic Church employees and volunteers to attend special training seminars. The Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, adopted last year by American bishops in Dallas as a response to the sex abuse scandal, requires all dioceses to institute these safe environment types of programs.
Robert Stewart, a 33 year old upstate youth-football coach, is accused of sexually abusing a boy younger than 13. Stewart, of Latham, was arraigned on charges of sodomy, sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child. He coaches football in the North Colonie Pop Warner League in Albany County. Police believe the abuse began last November. The child was not a member of the league.
(Latham, New York)
Long Island’s Roman Catholic diocese revealed yesterday that it paid out $2.3 million from 1985 until last year to settle lawsuits arising from sexual abuse by priests, counsel victims and treat molesters. The Diocese of Rockville Centre has nearly $11 million left in a fund to cover costs related to sexually abusive clerics.