The Roman Catholic Church in Ireland, after years of denials and painful negotiations, agreed to pay $110 million to Irish children who were sexually abused by priests, nuns and other church officials in decades past. The landmark deal was designed to conclude a 10-year struggle by the church in this predominantly Catholic nation to overcome sex scandals involving its clergy going back to the 1940s.
(Dublin, Ireland)
Times Herald-Record/Paul Brooks
Donald E. Wilhelm, a 45 year old umpire and coach in the Ellenville Little League for 20 years,has been charged with receiving child pornography over the Internet. He downloaded computer imagesof minors in sexually explicit conduct onto his home computer and computer disks. The images werecollected from various Internet sites between August 1999 and January 4, 2002. He was arraigned andreleased on $10,000 bond.
Newsday/Robin Topping
Thomas Bliss, 18, pleaded guilty last November to two counts of endangering the welfare of achild in the midst of a bench trial before County Court Judge Louis Ohlig in which the victims,ages 13 and 16, testified. The defendant was originally indicted on 18 counts, including severalfelonies such as rape and sodomy, for his conduct while baby-sitting the two girls last year. Hedid not admit to sexual conduct. The mother of the two girls who said they were raped by Blissaccused the Suffolk judge of letting a predator go
A federal appeals court in Richmond, Virginia, reversed a groundbreaking opinion and ruled that a man convicted of rape in 1990 does not have a constitutional right to DNA testing on evidence. According to the three-judge panel of the fourth US Circuit Court of Appeals, they unanimously that James Harvey failed to prove the Fairfax County prosecutor violated his civil rights by refusing to allow tests on evidence from Harvey’s rape and sodomy trial.
(Richmond, Virginia)
New York Post/Philip Messing
An 11 year old boy, whose name was not released because of his age, was arrested yesterday andcharged with sexual abuse for allegedly fondling five girls at a public school in Dyker Heights,Brooklyn. He allegedly fondled the girls, his classmates, in separate incidents that occurred inthe hallways and a classroom of PS 201, at 8010 12th Avenue, during the past two months. Accordingto a source, in each incident, the victims claimed that the suspect grabbed their breasts, behinds,or private parts.
(Brooklyn, New York)
The Supreme Court made it harder yesterday for states to keep sexual offenders locked up after their prison terms, requiring proof that and offender has a mental illness that causes serious difficulty with self-control. Under the court’s 7-2 decision, rapists, child molesters and other sex criminals must be treated the same as other people singled out for involuntary commitment. For states that use commitments to extend violent sex criminals’ time locked away from the public because of concerns about repeat offenders, the ruling was a defeat. The court did not