Boston Sexual Abuse Lawyer Blog

The Boston Globe reports that the Archdiocese is coming under fire in connection with the list of priest abusers it released this week. The list apparently only names those priests who have already been publicly accused, and omits the names of dozens of accused priests from religious orders and other dioceses, as well as those who left the priesthood before accusations were leveled against them, including some deceased priests who do not have the opportunity to defend themselves.

Sad that this saga continues, and that those who have been victimized can never get the peace and closure they deserve.

The Boston Globe reports that a woman who claims she was sexually abused by a janitor at Camp Good News has filed a lawsuit in Barnstable Superior Court. This is the same camp at which Senator Scott Brown has disclosed that he was sexually abused as a child camper.

The Enough Abuse Campaign, a 9-year-old coalition of public and private agencies, including the Massachusetts Medical Society, Jane Doe Inc. and the Massachusetts Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children, is looking for partners around the state to implement local efforts to prevent abuse.

The statewide campaign has developed an extensive curriculum for teaching adults to look for danger signs and changes in behavior in children that might indicate sexual victimization.

The coalition, led by the Massachusetts Citizens for Children, can offer guidance and assistance in finding grants to support local initiatives, said Eva Montibello, a spokeswoman for Enough Abuse.

Enough Abuse, which received a $1.2 million grant from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2002, has already helped create similar initiatives in Gloucester, Lowell, Newton-Waltham and Western Massachusetts. The organization has also been supported by the Ms. Foundation for Women.

Montibello told the Sun Chronicle newspaper that while parents and other adults are highly motivated to keep children from harm by sexual predators, many lack sufficient knowledge to deal with the issue effectively. For instance, she said, many are unaware that in 90 percent of cases the abuser is known to the child.

Adults also are generally unaware of the potential threat of sexual abuse from other youngsters, according to recent polls. But in an estimated 40 percent of cases, according to latest figures, perpetrators are other young people.

Child behavior experts say the incidence of abuse by perpetrators 15 or younger is increasing. Parents and school officials were shocked this spring when a 15-year-old boy was charged with raping a 14-year-old classmate at Attleboro's Coelho Middle School.

Two Massachusetts men have been arrested and charged in connection with a global online child pornography ring that encouraged users to upload graphic sexual assaults of victims aged 12 and under, officials told the Boston Globe.

Rush Frank Blankenship of Westfield is scheduled to plead guilty to federal child pornography charges in September in Louisiana, and David Michael Whitten of Lynn pleaded guilty to a related charge in that state in June, court records show.

According to the Department of Justice, the men are two of the 72 defendants charged in the United States and abroad who were members of the website Dreamboard, which authorities began investigating in 2009.

Members uploaded images of young children being abused to gain access to the site, authorities said, and they had to continue posting new content to maintain membership. Users were grouped into tiers based in part on how often they provided content and whether they personally produced the images, according to the Justice Department, and posting violent assaults of children was encouraged.

Users in higher tiers could access more content, authorities said.

Whitten will be sentenced in October and faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment and a $250,000 fine, records show. He posted three visual files to Dreamboard over two days in November 2009, including one involving an 8-year-old girl.

Details of Blankenship's indictment and plea agreement were not available yesterday.

Of the 72 defendants, 13 have pleaded guilty and 20 remain at large, according to the Department of Justice.

Suspects have been arrested in 13 other countries including Canada, Kenya, Serbia, and Switzerland, authorities said, and more than 500 users have been targeted.

The Justice Department said the investigation, dubbed Operation Delego, has resulted in the largest prosecution in the United States of users accessing an online bulletin board created for the sole purpose of promoting child sexual abuse.