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August 24, 2000 Italian paper names paedophiles.

"Those who say no to stiffer penalties, no to the lists, no to emotive responses make themselves look good," wrote Libero's editor Vittorio Feltri. "But what alternatives do they propose?"

An Italian newspaper has published the names of 16 people it says are convicted paedophiles after the abuse and murder of two young girls In Italy last week.

The list, the first to be published in Italy's media, prompted a fierce backlash against the right-leaning Libero newspaper, which was launched last month.

The paper said the 12 men and four women were guilty of crimes ranging from aiding and abetting sex abusers to child rape.

"Those who say no to stiffer penalties, no to the lists, no to emotive responses make themselves look good," wrote Libero's editor Vittorio Feltri. "But what alternatives do they propose?"

Earlier this month the News of the World abandoned a campaign to name and shame paedophiles following pressure from the government, police and social workers who said child abusers might be driven underground.

Italy's Social Affairs Minister Livia Turco was quick to condemn Milan-based Libero's action, describing the printing of the list as "quite serious and very mistaken".

"It feeds a psychosis that does not help and it's a mistaken idea of justice - do-it-yourself justice," she said.

Italy was shocked by last week's murders, committed within 48 hours of one another at opposite ends of a country generally renowned for its love of children.

On Friday night a four-year-old girl, Hagere Kilani, was snatched as she rode her bike through the northwestern town of Imperia.

She was sexually abused, killed and her body dumped in a house.

On Saturday night an eight-year-old girl, Graziella Mansi, disappeared in the village of Andria near the southern Adriatic city of Bari.

Her body was found in a field on Sunday morning. An autopsy revealed she had been sexually abused then burned alive.

August 24, 2000 Cops nab Mom of abandoned Brooklyn tot.

By Larry Celona, Maria Alvarez and Eric Lenkowitz, NY Post

Officer Alice Chou holds Crystal, whose mother is charged with leaving the 3-year-old near Coney Island. - N.Y. Post: G.N. Miller

A Brooklyn mom who cops say ditched her 3-year-old near Coney Island was arrested yesterday - after allegedly admitting she didn't bother to look for the shy little girl after she wandered away.

Wanda Arroyo, 39, of 953 DeKalb Ave. in Bedford-Stuyvesant, was charged with abandonment and endangering the welfare of a child.

She was picked up at her home around noon after a tipster gave cops her name and address.

At first, sources said, Arroyo denied knowing anything about 3-year-old Crystal - who was found by a stranger who noticed the pig-tailed preschooler walking alone near the Luna Park Houses.

The little girl couldn't tell cops who or where her mother was.

But at Arroyo's apartment yesterday, cops found Crystal's birth certificate and toys scattered around, and took the mother to the 60th Precinct station house, sources said.

There, Arroyo told cops Crystal "has a habit of walking off and getting lost," a source said. On Monday, Arroyo said she'd taken the child to Coney Island, and Crystal again walked off. This time, she told cops, she just "went home" without looking for her child, the source said.

Arroyo moved into her apartment a few weeks ago. She has three other kids, ages 12, 15 and 20, who live with their dad.

Neighbors on DeKalb Avenue said they had felt sorry for Crystal.

"Her hair was always nappy," said Savona Lodge, 20. "She was always crying all the time."

Lodge said Arroyo also didn't seem interested in letting the little girl play with other kids.

"We lived on the same floor, so I thought it would be nice [to have Crystal and my children play]" Lodge said. "But she just shook her head no. She wasn't friendly at all."

Resident Vona Smith, 20, said she led cops up to Arroyo's apartment yesterday.

"She looked like she had psychological problems, like she was in a daze," Smith said.

Crystal remained in the custody of the Administration for Children's Services - which said it had investigated an unfounded complaint of neglect against Arroyo in March 1999.

August 24, 2000 The Mainstreaming of Kiddie Porn.

By Lynn Burke, Wired News

When Wayne Camolli emerged in handcuffs from his dilapidated, roach-infested home in a Florida suburb last week, he looked every bit the kid porn peddler -- investigators said he had a "kind of Unabomber appearance."

It was a relief to many in one noticeable aspect: He did not look like the man next door.

But while Camolli and his living conditions made for sensational television coverage, he isn't the poster boy for child pornography that some might have hoped. And he isn't nearly as underground.

In fact, this man was so out in the open with his trade that he operated a very public email group on egroups.com, a site that caters to a mainstream Internet audience. And his group, called "picman's_list," announced rather openly that it was "dedicated to nude male teen and twink (slang for young boys) pix."

Perhaps more disturbing is the fact that this one list had over 3,000 members.

Disturbing, yes, experts say. But not surprising.

"The Internet has made it much easier for child pornography traders and collectors to ply their trade," said Layne Lathram, spokesperson for the U.S. Customs Service, the government agency responsible for handling the vast majority of child pornography cases.

Gone are the days when one had to travel to the seedy corner store and ask for the contraband material under the counter, or face the mailman delivering a brown paper package, she said. "They can sit there in their basement and feel relatively anonymous in front of their computers. It is now a faceless exchange."

And as the numbers of arrests continue to grow, the evidence of exactly who is sitting behind those computers shows that everyone from business executives to suburban housewives are in on it the kind of people who do live next door.

"In the old days, before the Internet, before the ease of communication, pedophilia and child pornography were disgraceful things," said Lathram.

She said the fear of getting caught prevented most people from acting out on their predilections then. Now, people go onto newsgroups and find forums like "dadsanddaughters" and "babyrape," she said, and suddenly don't feel so alone.

"They're finding validation out there," said Lathram. "They say, 'Wow! Look! I'm not so bad, I'm pretty mainstream.'"

Egroups is far from alone in having this problem. AOL is often cited by law enforcement officials as an ISP that has grappled with illegal distribution of pornography since the mid-1990s.

Experts say there are several reasons for the mainstreaming of this illegal fetish, and technology is always at the top of the list.

"If I'm going to blame anything, I'm going to blame the technology," said Fred Lane, Internet pornography expert and author of Obscene Profits: The Entrepreneurs of Pornography in the Cyber Age.

Distribution is almost a no-brainer these days, he said, and manufacturing has become a whole lot easier with the introduction of the digital camera.

"All it takes is a fairly forceful adult with a digital camera," he said.

Indeed, the world of child pornography has undergone a sea change in the last few years. Experts say the relatively static pool of illegal images produced in the 1970s has given way to a new crop of photographs.

"We're starting to see a significant growth in the production of new child pornography," Lane said.

U.S. Customs special agent Greg Stine, who works on child pornography cases full-time in Palm Beach County, Florida, agrees.

"I think that's a fair assessment," he said. "Child pornography -- it's like kicking over a rock and ants scurrying everywhere."

Child pornography fighters like Parry Aftab, an Internet lawyer who operates online safety site Cyberangels, sees this growth firsthand. "It used to be nonexistent 10 years ago, but now it's growing by leaps and bounds," she said. "We're finding 70 sites a day I have 7,000 volunteers in 70 countries. That's scary."

Aftab, who wrote The Parent's Guide to Protecting Your Children in Cyberspace, said child porn traders are so numerous they have an easy time staying one step ahead of the feds. Knowing that newsgroups are often populated by undercover agents, she said, many kid porn users have moved over to mainstream email clubs, like the egroups club where Camolli was ultimately caught.

Egroups.com, which was acquired by Yahoo in late June, appears as ripe a place for any to find like-minded individuals for child pornography. A search for "child porn" on egroups calls up such groups as "childpornonly" and "High-QualityYoungLadyPics" a group that warns its members not to post "any obvious child porn."

There's also "under21females," a group that warns "no child porn" but says in the same e-breath that "under 18 is ok."

Officials at egroup.com did not return telephone calls for this article.

"It's gotten so big that child porn users are thumbing their nose at regular people," she said. "The more mainstream they become, the more likely they're going to run into regular people who will be outraged ...they've made a big mistake. They've gotten greedy."

And they're getting caught. According to U.S. Customs Service records, 204 individuals were arrested on child pornography charges in 1999. That's a significant increase from five years ago, when 48 arrests were made. And customs has a pretty good track record on obtaining convictions in these cases. Records show that nearly all of the individuals arrested were later convicted.

The FBI, which also investigates child pornography cases, has made a total of 580 arrests and 525 convictions since the 1995 introduction of its "Innocent Images" program, an initiative that coordinates investigations at each FBI field office to avoid duplicate efforts.

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service is also charged with investigating child pornography cases. And though the cases it investigates concern kid porn sent through the physical mail, officers say numbers are up due to the Internet.

"Eighty percent of last year's cases had a nexus to computers and the Internet," said postal inspector Tony Esposito.

He said people meet each other online, and trade and sell images offline. "It's a lot easier for them to send a disk through the mail," he said. "A CD can contain hundreds of images."

Postal Inspection Service statistics show that in 1999, 160 individuals were served with search warrants, and 147 of the suspects were convicted on child pornography charges. Esposito said 48 of those convicted were child molesters, and as a result of the investigations, 84 children were identified and rescued.
Who is behind these crimes? Officials say there is no typical child porn peddler.

"People think of the pudgy pink pedophile in the raincoat, drooling at the edge of the playground," she said. "That's just not it."

Experts like Lane say the mainstreaming of child pornography shouldn't come as much of a shock, given the prevalence of the suggestive images of teen celebrities such as Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera.

"As a culture, we're spending more time promoting the sexuality of young people. It shouldn't be a surprise to take that one step further," said Lane.

A quick scan through hundreds of headlines over the last few years obliterates the myth of the raincoat man. A suburban couple in Fort Worth, Texas, a real estate investor in San Diego, a retired Air Force pilot in Kennebunk, Maine, an investigator for the Nevada Gaming Control Commission, and a Presbyterian priest in New Jersey are all among the hundreds of individuals charged with possession and distribution of child pornography over the last couple of years.

Wayne Camolli might have grabbed attention last week as he was led away from his trash-filled home by federal agents decked out in haz-mat gear and oxygen tanks.

But the profile of a child pornography offender is often much more mundane.

"It runs the gamut," said Lathram. "It is the person next door."

August 24, 2000 Intruder Kills Two Children With Pitchfork. Attacker Shot to Death by Sheriff's Deputies.

APBnews.com

MERCED, Calif. -- A man broke into a home and fatally stabbed a 9-year-old girl and her 8-year-old brother with a pitchfork before sheriff's deputies shot him to death.

Three other siblings, including one who was bleeding from puncture wounds, escaped by climbing through windows and fleeing to a neighbor's house where they called authorities.

When sheriff's deputies arrived at the house in this rural community about 60 miles north of Fresno, the assailant charged at them with the pitchfork, authorities said.

"He was pointing it at them and going right after them, he wouldn't stop," Assistant Sheriff Henry Strength said. "They were hollering at him to stop, but he wouldn't stop. Finally they had to shoot him."

The man's identity was not immediately known.

Didn't know the victims

"He came from nowhere," Strength said. "Right now we have no motive, we have no reason why this thing even happened. There's no connection between the suspect and the family."

The two younger siblings, Ashley and John Carpenter, were killed in their beds. Anna Marie, 13, was hospitalized and in satisfactory condition early today.

The children's parents were not at home at the time, the Merced Sun-Star reported.

Phone line was dead

Jessica Carpenter, 14, told authorities she that she was walking out of her bedroom when she noticed the man in the house. He had closed all the windows and pushed the furniture up against the walls.

The girl told relatives she ran back to her room, locked the door and tried to call for help from her phone but the line was dead. She escaped out of her window and ran barefoot through the fields until she found a neighbor who was at home.

"It's worse than any horror you could imagine," said Priscilla Hilton, 20, the victims' cousin.

August 24, 2000 Mother Abandons 3 Children, Blames Stress. Tells TV Audience 'I Can Only Take So Much'.

APBnews.com

WVEC-TV One of the three abandoned children. VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) -- A woman accused of abandoning her three children in a library said she left them there only because she was stressed out and hoped to be reunited with the children and their father.

In a television interview from jail, Roszina Mack said she tried to place her children in foster care but didn't get any help, despite numerous calls to several agencies.

"I didn't know what to do," she told WVEC-TV on Wednesday. "I was confused. I was stressed out. ...I can only take so much."

Mack, 20, left the children at the Virginia Beach Central Library on Monday, police said. She was arrested Tuesday night in nearby Hampton and faces three counts of felony child neglect. She was to appear in court today for a bond hearing.

August 23, 2000 FLA: Lee County moving school bus stop away from sexual predator's home.

The Associated Press

FORT MYERS -- A frantic mother's call to the sheriff's office has left school officials scrambling to move a bus stop located in front of the home of a registered sexual offender.

Lee County School District officials, previously unaware of the stop's proximity to a convicted child molester, said they would move it by Thursday.

Directly behind the stop where young children wait to be picked up for elementary school is the home of Jose Bruno, 31, who is serving 15 years' probation for a 1998 Putnam County conviction of two counts of sexual battery against a 14-year-old girl. He registered as a sexual predator in Lee County in December.

"It's like hanging a piece of meat in front of a dog," said Tammy Bess, whose two girls, ages 6 and 8, walk two blocks from her mother's house to the bus stop every school day.

Bess said she heard from neighbors about Bruno's background last week. She confirmed the rumors after seeing his name on a list of registered sexual offenders on the Florida Department of Law Web site.

Bess filed a complaint with her daughters' school, Edgewood Elementary, on Monday. She said officials there told her to call the transportation department, but its phone lines were busy.

On Tuesday, the mother called the Lee County Sheriffs Office and Deputy Tim Hetz contacted the school district, which immediately said it would move the stop.

School district spokesman John Dattola said that while bus stops must pass road safety standards, they are not checked for their proximity to convicted criminals.

August 23, 2000 Toe-Sucking Trucker Accused of Molesting Boy. Mo. Police Seek Possible Victims in Other States.

By Richard Zitrin, APBnews.com

McDonald County Sherrif John Hooker PINEVILLE, Mo. -- A Massachusetts truck driver with a fetish for sucking children's toes is being held here for allegedly molesting a boy after he paid him and a friend to go skinny dipping, police said.

Police are trying to determine if John Hooker of Freetown, Mass., who told investigators he has been convicted of abusing children back East, has committed similar crimes while traveling throughout the United States as an over-the-road truck driver, authorities said.

"In the past two months alone, we can place him in 20 states up and down the East Coast to New Mexico and Colorado," McDonald County Sheriff's Deputy Jeff Sutherland told APBnews.com. "We're sure there are other victims out there. We know that from 1991 to now, this guy's got more victims. He just doesn't go for nine years without doing something."

Sutherland said Hooker told local authorities that he was convicted in Massachusetts in 1991 for assaulting two boys and that he was fired as a bus driver in New York state in 1987 for sucking a 9-year-old girl's toes.

Swam naked in creek

Hooker, 46, was arrested Aug. 13 after parents of two boys learned the truck driver allegedly abused their children, whom he also might have intended to kidnap, Sutherland said.

Hooker stopped at a local park in this small southwest Missouri community that afternoon and offered the 11- and 12-year-old boys $40 to go skinny dipping with him at a creek in the park, the deputy said.

The boys accepted the money and went around a bend to swim naked with the stranger, Sutherland said.

While they were in the water, Hooker allegedly began playing a game he called Alligator in which he swam up underneath the boys and bit them on their toes, he said.

"One thing led to another and he began to perform oral sex on the 12-year-old boy," Sutherland said. "He held him down. The other boy saw this, but was too scared to do anything."

Bought boys knives

The skinny-dipping session ended when the father of one of the boys, who was elsewhere in the park, yelled for his son, Sutherland said. The boys and Hooker got dressed and the father told the boys that they would be going home in an hour, he said.

Hooker then allegedly took the boys to a nearby convenience store and bought them hunting and pocket knives in an attempt to bribe them to not tell their parents what had happened in the creek, Sutherland said.

When the parents later asked the boys where they got the knives, the children told all, he said.

The parents then went back to the park looking for Hooker. They found him there and held him until deputies arrived, Sutherland said.

Duct tape found in truck

One of the boys said Hooker tried to get them to get into the truck and that he wanted to take them to Fort Smith, Ark., with him, the deputy said.

"When we searched the truck, back in the sleeping portion we found three boxes of condoms and a roll of duct tape," Sutherland said. "So God knows what could've happened if he had gotten the boys in there."

Hooker, who is charged with forcible sodomy and indecent exposure, is being held in the McDonald County Jail in lieu of $75,000 bail, he said.

'Open-and-shut case'

Sutherland, one of eight full-time officers in the county sheriff's department, said the FBI has sent him a 12-page questionnaire with 80 questions to ask Hooker.

"They want to try to get some background on this guy as well," he said.

Hooker has been cooperative thus far, Sutherland said.

"He's been really forthcoming," he said. "This is an open-and-shut case. We've got a written confession, a taped confession, we've got witnesses."

August 22, 2000 BANGKOK: Child sex tourism in Asia rising sharply.

By Joshua Kurlantzick, APBnews.com

BANGKOK, Aug 22 (AFP) - The number of foreigners coming to Asia for child sex is rising sharply, due to the economic crisis and poor law enforcement, child sex tourism experts said Tuesday.

"We thought the economic crisis would decrease child sex tourism to Asia. But really it made things worse," said Amihan Abueva, director of non-governmental organisation End Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism (ECPAT)'s office in the Philippines.

As a result of the economic crisis, prices for children have gone down, more children are living on the margins of society, and more foreign paedophiles are streaming into the region, she said at a UN-sponsored regional conference here on child sex tourism.

Despite anti-sex tourism efforts, "thousands of children are exploited and abused in tourism destinations every year," said Christine Beddoe, program director at ECPAT's Australia office.

A report due to be released in mid-September by the UN will reveal that sexual exploitation of children is in fact increasing significantly throughout Asia, UN sources said.

Not just economic desperation, but also a lack of cooperation from law enforcement agencies have hindered anti-sex tourism efforts.

"Our key challenge has been to make sure governments implement the wonderful (law enforcement) promises they have made," said Beddoe.

In many cases, child molesters go free even after they have been tracked down and arrested, said ECPAT international spokeswoman Muireenn O'Briain.

More than 20 countries have laws which enable nationals who abuse children overseas to be tried at home, but these statutes are difficult to implement.

In order to be prosecuted in America, for example, authorities must prove that US citizens travelled abroad with the specific objective of purchasing children.

And law enforcement officials sometimes obstruct investigations into child sex tourism to prevent embarassing their own nationals, O'Briain told AFP earlier.

Corruption also hinders anti-sex tourism efforts.

Thai and Cambodian police have frequently been accused of accepting bribes to release suspected paedophiles.

In the past five years, 20 British citizens have been arrested for abusing Thai children but not one has been jailed.

Last November, a Japanese man who was arrested naked with a 12-year-old boy in Pattaya, a notoriously sleazy Thai beach resort, returned home free and boasted to a Tokyo newspaper that he had paid Thai police 600,000 baht to escape.

The regional conference taking place here on August 22 and 23 groups tourism industry experts from 10 Asian countries, who are trying to devise new strategies to combat child sex tourism.

Conference participants will be taught how to deal with potential situations as paedophiles arrive in their cities and resort towns.

The participants also will brainstorm ways to enlist police, tour guides and powerful businesspeople in the fight against paedophile tourism.

There is still a "huge amount" of work to be done on the issue, O'Briain has said.

August 22, 2000 Female Teacher Accused of Sex With Students. She Also Gave Alcohol to Boys, Ages 14-16, Police Say.

By Richard Zitrin, APBnews.com

MONTROSE, N.Y. - A 28-year-old teacher faces up to four years in prison for allegedly carrying on sexual relationships with three teenage students last school year, prosecutors said.

Marci Stein, who taught special education at Hendrick Hudson High School in this Westchester County community until earlier this year, pleaded not guilty at her arraignment in County Court Monday.

Stein is charged with multiple counts of third-degree sodomy, third-degree rape, third-degree sexual abuse, first-degree unlawfully dealing with a child and endangering the welfare of a child.

She is free on her own recognizance, according to the Westchester County District Attorney's Office.

Allegedly brought boys home

Stein, who taught at Hendrick Hudson High School for two years, allegedly sexually abused three boys between the ages of 14 and 16 from April 1999 until this past January.

She also is accused of giving alcohol to the boys, whom she met at school, and of carrying on the relationship in her home in Buchanan, authorities said.

Her attorney, George Fufidio, could not be reached for comment.

Contesting her firing

School district officials said that after learning of the teacher's alleged sexual misconduct, they conducted an investigation of the charges, which led to removing her from her job.

Stein is suing the district for allegedly wrongfully terminating her, school officials said.

"The district is confident that Ms. Stein's attempts to blame the district and her students for her current dilemma will not withstand the scrutiny of the litigation process and the grand jury's indictment is another step in that process," district officials said in a prepared statement.

August 21, 2000 Neighbor Accused of Killing Girl, Raping Another. Suspect Found Standing Over Kidnapped Children, Police Say.

By Richard Zitrin, APBnews.com

OILTON, Okla. -- Residents of this small community have set up a memorial outside the abandoned house where a 7-year-old girl was slain and her 12-year-old playmate raped over the weekend.

Flowers, wreaths, teddy bears and other stuffed animals have been placed outside of the house where a 19-year-old local man allegedly attacked the two girls after abducting them. The children had been playing outside of their homes Saturday night, police said.

Robert Wayne Rotramel, whose parents own the bait and gun shop next to the abandoned house, is accused of abducting the girls and is expected to be arraigned today or Tuesday on a murder charge in the death of 7-year-old Christi Blevins, authorities said.

He also allegedly raped Christi's 12-year-old neighbor.

Door-to-door search

Police began searching for the girls shortly after 9 p.m. Saturday when Christi's mother called police to say she saw the girls playing in front of the house around 8:30 but was unable to find them about 15 minutes later, police Chief Ralph Jones said.

Officers from the eight-person police force drove around this community of 1,200 for about an hour before calling in nine volunteer firefighters to help in the search, Jones said.

Two-person teams went door-to-door looking for the missing girls when, shortly before midnight, two police officers walked into the abandoned house and saw Rotramel standing over the 7-year-old girl, who was on the floor, and the 12-year-old girl, who was on a couch, Jones said.

Cops saved girl, chief says

The police chief said the officers likely saved the older girl from being killed.

"There's no doubt in my mind that the quick action of my officers prevented another homicide," Jones told APBnews.com. "We don't face this every day. It's been devastating to them. We had a meeting last night with our Baptist preacher. We poured our guts out to one other. It helped."

An autopsy determined the girl died by asphyxiation, State Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman Kym Koch said. Her 12-year-old friend was treated at a local hospital and released, Jones said.

The younger girl apparently was not sexually attacked, Koch said.

'Pouring their hearts out'

Jones said this is the first homicide in Oilton in his 19 years on the force. People in this small city, about 40 miles west of Tulsa, are reacting with compassion for the two girls' families.

In addition to leaving flowers and stuffed animals outside the home where the attacks took place, residents are filling carts at a local grocery store with food for the families and are donating money, he said.

The community is pouring their hearts out for these kids," Jones said.

August 21, 2000 Man Shot Saving Daughter from Intruder. 11-Year-Old's Screams Awakened Family; Gunman on Loose.

By Frances Ann Burns, APBnews.com

CHICAGO -- Police in Chicago were searching today for a man who broke into a young girl's bedroom and then shot her father twice in the chest when he responded to her screams.

Lisyen Gonzalez, who celebrated her 11th birthday Saturday with a family party, told police she woke up at about 2 a.m. Sunday and saw the intruder coming through the window. She told police the man grabbed her as she tried to escape.

Antonio Gonzalez, 49, heard the commotion and ran into his daughter's room, a spokeswoman for the Chicago Police Department said. He went for the man, allowing his daughter to get away, and was shot during the struggle.

Gonzalez's wife, Rosa, urged her daughter out of the room as her husband struggled with the intruder, police said.

Critical condition

Gonzalez remained in critical condition today after undergoing surgery at Christ Hospital and Medical Center in Oak Lawn. Cindy Jaranowski, a hospital public relations officer, said that he appeared to be doing better.

Rosa and Lisyen Gonzalez were scheduled to appear at a news conference with the surgeon this afternoon.

The police spokeswoman said that the investigation is continuing. Investigators are trying to determine a motive for the break-in.

August 20, 2000 N.C. woman suspected of more Internet links to boys.

HOUSTON -- An N.C. woman accused of traveling to Texas to have sex with a 15-year-old boy she met on the Internet also made computer contact with other youths across the country, court documents state.

Tara Hulin's defense attorney told the Houston Chronicle on Thursday that the Thomasville woman had conversations with the other boys via Internet chat rooms, but denied she had sex with them.

Hulin, 31, remained jailed Friday in lieu of bond on counts of sexual assault of a child and criminal solicitation of a minor.

Prosecutors on Thursday submitted affidavits about other teen-age contacts to a state district judge from an investigator and the mother of the 15-year-old. Hulin is accused of seducing him via an Internet chat room, then meeting for sexual encounters at a Houston area hotel.

Judge Jan Krocker reduced Hulin's bail from $200,000 to $150,000 and set several strict conditions on her.

Defense lawyer Anthony Osso, who had requested a $30,000 bail, said Hulin still could not raise the new amount.

Harris County Assistant District Attorney Julian Ramirez would not say whether Hulin is suspected of leaving her N.C. home to have sex with other young boys.

"Parts of the investigation are continuing," he said.

After meeting the teen-ager in an Internet chat room, Hulin repeatedly talked of how much she wanted to have sex with him, court documents show.

The documents and authorities said Hulin showered the boy with gifts and professed her love for him as a relationship developed during several months of telephone and computer communications.

Law officers have said Hulin flew to Houston on the weekend of May 19 and checked into the Marriott Hotel near Bush Intercontinental Airport, where she had sex with the boy numerous times over a three-day period.

Osso argued for bail reduction with affidavits from Hulin and her husband, Tony, stating the defendant would have no contact with the 15-year-old while on bail.

But Ramirez, in an effort to keep the bail at $200,000, countered with his own affidavits, including one from Harris County Precinct 4 Deputy Constable Gary Spurger. He said he learned of claims that Hulin had contact with other boys and told the 15-year-old's mother about them.

Hulin's husband told the newspaper last week that his wife said she was going to Texas for a concert.

August 19, 2000 Egg Harbor Twsp man accused of seeking sex with teen through Internet.

From Press staff reports

TOMS RIVER -- An Egg Harbor Township man was arrested for trying to develop a sexual relationship over the computer with a 14-year-old girl.

Steven T. Marks, 42, of Egg Harbor Township, was arrested Wednesday, after the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office said he tried to meet a fictitious girl whom he first contacted over the Internet.

Detective David Anderson arrested Marks on Wednesday after he met him at a predetermined location. The Prosecutor's Office is withholding the location because it is part of the office's computer/Internet investigation.

Marks, a builder who works for a Tuckerton firm, remains in the Ocean County Jail with $25,000 bail. He faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in jail and a $100,000 fine.

Anyone with information about Marks is asked to call Investigator Joseph Vitiello, of the Prosecutor's Family Protection Unit at (732) 929-2027.

August 19, 2000 Candlelight vigil for anti-paedophile protesters.

Anti-paedophile campaigners behind a series of demonstrations are holding a candlelight vigil on a troubled estate.

Organisers on the Paulsgrove estate in Portsmouth, Hampshire, claimed they wanted a peaceful evening on Saturday à in remembrance of child victims of sex offenders.

Yet the area's MP was concerned the event could spark more violence.

Syd Rapson has already written to Home Secretary Jack Straw calling for a ban on night-time protests.

'Spectre of fear'

Mr Rapson, MP for Portsmouth North, said: "I'm concerned that it's not going to achieve anything and if it's late at night then it will raise the spectre of fear again".

"It will only prolong the bad images that resulted from last time."

Residents have been intimidated by banner-waving parades through the estate and five innocent families were forced from their homes.

Katrina Kessel, protest spokesman, said: "We've not forgotten about our cause and it is to bring it home to people who were on the marches what it was about."

Saturday's action is the first since protests were halted on August 10 following a decision by council officials to offer alternative housing to alleged paedophiles on the estate.

August 18, 2000 California: Man pleads innocent to kidnap, rape charges.

By M.S. Enkoji, Scripps-McClatchy Western Service

VALLEJO, Calif. - Curtis Dean Anderson pleaded innocent Friday to charges that he kidnapped and sexually assaulted an 8-year-old Vallejo girl.

Anderson, 39, a career criminal, faces 11 counts in the two-day-long kidnapping of Midsi Sanchez, who was abducted Aug. 10 as she walked home from school.

She managed to free herself from her abductor's car and flag a passing truck driver for help. Anderson was arrested at a San Jose residence within hours.

The girl's moxie in escaping her captor and aiding in the arrest of a suspect buoyed this Bay Area suburb for days after her return.

The charges against Anderson could bring 250 years to life in prison if he is convicted, Solano County deputy district attorneys have said.

Anderson, in a blue jail jumpsuit, attended his brief court appearance in a wheelchair Friday. His public defender, Mark Roelke, said Anderson needs a cane to walk, but canes are prohibited in jail for security reasons. He will be back in court Sept. 7, when a date will be set for a preliminary hearing.

Roelke said after the hearing that Anderson is shocked because media reports about his prior record are distorted or wrong.

"There's this effort to link him to every missing child in the U.S.," he said.

Anderson, who police said had lived at various addresses in the Bay Area, was in and out of prison between 1986 and 1999 for various crimes and parole violations, such as drug possession and weapons possession and exposing himself to the children of his girlfriend. He was convicted of kidnapping a female acquaintance in 1991 at gunpoint in his mother's Vallejo home and driving her to Oregon. She managed to escape when he fell asleep at a rest stop.

Because evidence taken from Anderson's car indicates he may have traveled widely since his release from prison in May 1999, authorities are looking at missing children cases in other locations for possible links.

Authorities in Las Vegas, where a 7-year-old girl who looks like Midsi has been missing since November, said Anderson notified them in March that he intended to live there, a requirement for all ex-felons in Clark County. They have not found evidence that Anderson was there when the girl disappeared, however.

In Vallejo, Midsi's disappearance had touched off speculation that a serial kidnapper was in town because the girl resembled Xiana Fairchild, a 7-year-old girl who has been missing for eight months.

Authorities have not found any evidence that links Anderson to Xiana's disappearance.

Roelke said he is thinking about asking to have the trial moved out of town because of the publicity.

The Sanchez family did not attend the court hearing Friday. At their home, a few blocks from the courtroom where Anderson appeared, letters a foot high on the garage door and front picture window spelled out the family's thank-you card to well-wishers in English and Spanish.

Relatives of Xiana, who lent moral support and practical help to the Sanchez family during their two-day ordeal, went to the courthouse so the Sanchez family could do other things.

"They need to focus on their daughter," said Stephanie Kahalekulu, Xiana's great-aunt. "The court system will take care of Anderson."

August 18, 2000 Florida Volunteer Coach Convicted of Molesting Student.

VIERA, Fla. (AP) - A volunteer high school baseball coach was convicted of sexually molesting one of his male students.

Dana Peacock, 45, was convicted Thursday of five counts of lewd and lascivious acts on a child and two counts of committing a sex act on a minor. He could face up to 20 years in prison when he is sentenced Oct. 2.

Peacock was a volunteer assistant baseball coach at Merritt Island High School in Brevard County when he sought out the friendship of his 15-year-old victim, prosecutors said.

He originally was charged in 1997 with 35 counts of sexual abuse on five boys whom he knew through the coaching job and as owner of a local skating rink. Two cases have been dismissed and he pleaded no contest to misdemeanor assault and misdemeanor interfering with a witness in two other cases.

After the verdict was read, one of the other boys, sitting beyond the victim, began to sob. The victim turned around and reached out his hand to him.

"I feel like justice was served here today," said Assistant State Attorney Julia Lynch. "The jury made the right decision."

August 18, 2000 Paedophiles seek refuge in Ireland.

The "naming and shaming" of paedophiles in the UK has prompted some sex offenders to seek refuge in Ireland. Irish police say they are "very concerned" about an increase in paedophiles who are entering the country to avoid vigilantes.

Ireland currently has no sex offenders register and convicted paedophiles are not obliged to notify police when they arrive.

No passport controls means some are entering the country undetected. "We are trying to monitor those who do come over but it is inevitable some people will slip through the net and that is a big concern to us," said a spokesman at police headquarters in Dublin.

Police say the numbers of sex offenders entering the country are not large, but they have increased in recent weeks. They believe this increase has been prompted by protests following the murder of eight-year-old Sarah Payne and the News of The World's campign to name convicted paedophiles. The paper has since dropped its campaign.

Warnings
One offender, a 36-year-old man convicted of offences against boys, was arrested at Dublin airport last week as he tried to enter the country. He was ordered to return to the UK. Irish police say they are relying mainly on colleagues in the UK to tip them off when paedophiles are making attempts to enter the country.

"We have our own system of monitoring them when they are here, but we are in close contact with British police about paedophile who are trying to come over," said the spokesman. He added that there was no evidence to suggest that any of the sex offenders who had recently entered the country had committed any recent offences.

Child protection experts are warning that signals from the UK Government that stricter sentencing could be introduced for paedophiles will also drive more offenders overseas.

The Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC) is concerned that Ireland will be seen as a refuge for paedophiles. "The ISPCC believes that, with impending tightening of monitoring procedures in the UK, there is a very real danger that Ireland will become a safe haven," said a spokesman.

"Not only for Irish paedophiles, but also for convicted child abusers from the UK and other European Countries." A sex offenders register is due to be introduced in Ireland at the end of the year. It will require those with convictions for sex crimes to register with the police when they arrive in the country. But it will only include those who are convicted of offences after it comes into force.

August 18, 2000 (orig. reported 8/14/00) - Huge Kid Porn Ring Busted.

By Lynn Burke, Wired Digital, Inc.

Underneath a monstrous heap of electronic kiddie porn, federal prosecutors have uncovered a suburban Texas couple, three foreign webmasters, and thousands of customers worldwide who left behind a trail of credit card charges totaling $1 million.

Federal prosecutors, who watched with glee as a grand jury handed down an 87-count indictment against the peddlers Thursday, say they've never had such a big case.

U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Paul Coggins said the case is a major step forward in a high-stakes fight against the people who sexually abuse children and sell images of the abuse on the Web. Catching the webmaster, he said, makes finding their victims a real possibility.

"Where these webmasters are establishing sites could well be where these scenes of sexual abuse take place," Coggins said.

Prosecutors say the children in this case are 4-12 years old. "These kids are being scarred for life somewhere, (and) someone needs to be prosecuting."

The indictment charges Fort Worth's Thomas and Janice Reedy with operating a commercial kid porn ring from their home. According to the Texas Secretary of State, the Reedys incorporated their company, called Landslide, Inc., on Feb. 13, 1997.

Prosecutors say Landslide acted as the "gatekeeper" between one Russian and two Indonesian webmasters who supplied customers with pornographic images of children in exchange for US$29.95 per site. Landslide supplied the password-protected access to the sites –- including childrenforcedtoporn.com, childrape.com, and childrenofgod.com –- and handled the credit card transactions.

Those charges left behind a handy trail of evidence for prosecutors, who say the Reedys made $1,111,266 in less than a year. They kept a third of the profits and sent the rest to the foreign webmasters.

People close to the case said the size of the Reedys' business was enormous.

"The extent of the kiddie porn business, the scope of the customers, (and the fact that) they are spread across the states and across the globe, shocked me," Coggins said.

Lead prosecutor Terri Moore agreed, calling the scope of the operation "absolutely frightening".

"I'm a seasoned prosecutor and I was appalled, I was floored," she said.

Parry Aftab, director of anti-child pornography group Cyberangels, called Landslide a major commercial scheme, setting it apart from most child pornography on the Internet, which is not commercial.

"This is a very, very important case," she said. "For child pornography, this is as important as the World Trade Center bombing."

Without commenting specifically on Landslide, Aftab said commercial rings are extremely dangerous and even deadly for the children who are targeted. "They are particularly heinous," she said. "Many of them kill the children after they abuse them. They use foreign children, from Eastern Europe and South America. It is the kind of world you can't imagine."

The Reedys, who are being held in federal prison until a detention hearing next week, have been forced to take down their alleged kid porn, and most of the sites they once operated are now out of service. But they're still using the landslide.com site to assert their innocence.

"We have committed no illegal act, and are confident to be found innocent of any such charges," the site reads.

August 18, 2000 - Violent sex offender's freedom is up to jury.

By David Fisher, Seattle Post-Intelligencer Reporter

EVERETT -- Jackie Brown's life has been tainted by fear ever since Mitch Gaff jumped her in her garage 21 years ago, slammed her head into the floor and tried to rape her.

Her stereo is never turned up loud. That way, she can hear intruders approach. The doors are locked tightly at all times. For years, she slept with a gun.

Yesterday, Brown sat in court for six hours and watched as a deputy Snohomish County prosecutor tried to keep the state from releasing Gaff.

Gaff, 42, was legally labeled a sexual predator in 1995 by a Snohomish County jury.

He was sent to the state's Special Commitment Center at McNeil Island under a 1990 law that allows the state to indefinitely confine and treat violent sex offenders -- even after their prison terms have ended.

This summer, for the first time, the center's doctors and therapists have recommended that one of their 120 patients -- Gaff -- be released.

This morning, after a three-day trial, a second Snohomish County jury is trying to decide whether eight years of therapy have given Gaff enough control over his urges to make his release safe for society.

In effect, the trial is the first real courtroom test of the state's clinical criteria for declaring when, if ever, therapy has worked sufficiently to let violent sex offenders out of prison.

The lack of any clear clinical standards for success is one point that is still outstanding under a 1994 federal injunction placed on the state's indefinite confinement system.

If he's released, Gaff will live in a house wired with electronic security devices at a location that hasn't been determined, public defender Mark Adair told the jury.

Gaff will be required to find a job, but a guard will watch him 24 hours a day. He will also be required to go through more alcohol and drug counseling, and more sex-offender therapy.

But Deputy Prosecutor Paul Stern argued that Gaff's deep-seated personality disorders are lifelong traits, and the possibility is high that he will reoffend.

Special Commitment Center director Vincent Gollogly, a clinical psychologist, and several other therapists testified that Gaff is a sexual sadist who has, at one time or another, indulged in rape, exhibitionism and voyeurism. He is also highly intelligent and potentially manipulative.

Actuarial tables, based on case histories of people with similar disorders, indicate that there is a 55 percent chance that Gaff will reoffend within seven years, and a 64 percent chance he will reoffend within 10 years, if left alone, Gollogly testified.

But Gollogly and the rest of the state's doctors said treatment has given him tools to moderate his urges as long as he's supervised.

Stern, in his closing arguments yesterday, noted that Gaff managed to find and smoke marijuana seven to 10 times in the commitment center in 1997, and was also caught with pornography. Adair said he performed well on polygraph exams and on a machine that measured a low sexual response to violent pornography.

Gaff jumped Brown in the garage of her Everett home the day before Thanksgiving 1979, after she finished mowing her lawn. He hit her head against the the wall and floor, then slashed at her with a knife when she fought back. She managed to get away, and a police dog tracked Gaff down.

He was still on probation for attacking Brown when he raped his seventh and eighth victims, in 1984 -- a 14-year-old and 16-year-old he raped and tortured for 2 1/2 hours.

Brown, a retired police officer, said she still lives in the same house, but she's serving a sentence of her own:

She is left with a recurring fear that Gaff will get out of prison and stalk her and his other victims again and grappled with misplaced guilt that she couldn't have done something to save the teenage girls that suffered behind her.

"I've often thought," she said in a courtroom hallway yesterday, "that if I'd just been able to kill him, that wouldn't have happened."

August 18, 2000 - Evidence of child abuse not reported. Social worker didn't report injury of girl's brother to protective services, papers show.

By Ruth Teichroeb, Seattle Post-Intelligencer Reporter

The state social worker assigned to Zy-Nyia Nobles found evidence that her brother had been abused about a year before Zy-Nyia was beaten to death while in the care of her mother, but did not report her suspicions to Child Protective Services.

After 3-year-old Zy-Nyia died May 27, the Department of Social and Health Services issued a memo warning staff that all serious allegations of abuse must be reported to CPS.

"This was not only a problem on the Nobles case, but was a problem on another case I recently reviewed, also," wrote Chris Robinson, Region 5 administrator for DSHS' Division of Children and Family Services.

The memo not only reminded social workers to report all serious allegations, but also tightened procedures to make sure CPS investigates each case instead of referring them back to social workers.

The failure of Zy-Nyia's social worker to make a CPS report is just one of many new details contained in the 400 pages of documents released after a public disclosure request by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

The latest documents confirm that potential warning signs were overlooked by not only the social worker, but also by others working to reunite the family.

The records also reveal that two of the three service providers contracted to provide support for the family had only minimal contact after the children were returned home in early February.

Zy-Nyia's mother, Aretha Sconiers, 26, has pleaded not guilty to a charge of homicide by abuse and is in the Pierce County Jail awaiting trial.

Sconiers has a chronic history of drug abuse and violence. She lost custody of Zy-Nyia at birth after the newborn tested positive for drugs. Soon after that, Sconiers was sent to prison on drug-related offenses.

But the state repeatedly delayed plans to terminate her parental rights in order to give Sconiers the chance to clean up her life.

When Garner took over the case in April 1999, Zy-Nyia had been without a social worker for several months.

Garner pressed on with plans to reunite the family despite Sconiers' sporadic history of compliance with drug treatment and parenting programs.

DSHS records don't indicate whether Garner took any action after Zy-Nyia's 6-year-old brother disclosed the physical abuse to her less than two weeks after she took over the case. The abuse came to light after a relative told Garner that the boy had a scar on his forehead and urged him to tell what had happened.

He told Garner that his mother had shoved him, causing the head injury, the records indicate.

But Garner's boss said yesterday that although the social worker did not report the allegation to CPS, she did ensure that the boy was receiving counseling.

"I don't think it was ignored," Robinson said.

Previous documents have revealed that Sconiers did attend some parenting classes, participate in supervised visits with her children, and find an apartment.

But she also failed two drug tests and expressed anxiety about her ability to parent her children.

In January 2000, a community protection team, which included social service professionals, educators and a doctor, reviewed Zy-Nyia's case and decided there was a "low risk" of danger if the family were reunited.

A range of services were supposed to be put in place to help Sconiers cope with becoming a full-time parent for the first time in three years.

Those services included weekly visits from a DSHS family support worker, weekly visits from a family preservation worker with Advantages Plus and counseling with Greater Lakes Mental Health.

But the documents show that the DSHS family support worker did not visit Sconiers after helping her move into her apartment in February.

And because of miscommunication, Greater Lakes Mental Health counselors closed the family's case before the children were returned and did not see them until Garner requested a meeting in April 2000.

At the introductory meeting, Sconiers told the mental health counselor she did not need counseling. Efforts to set up a meeting after that were unsuccessful.

Advantages Plus, a social agency contracting with the state to provide services, did make weekly visits to Sconiers until April 25, and Garner also visited her once in February, March and April.

During a home visit on April 17, the Advantages Plus worker noted that Zy-Nyia and her brother appeared to be afraid of Sconiers, who was described as "intimidating" with them.

During a visit that same month, Sconiers told Garner that she had taken Zy-Nyia to the doctor after her foot was scalded in bath water. Sconiers said her son had run the water. Garner accepted Sconiers' explanation and did not check to find out if the child had seen a doctor. It turns out she had not.

In late April, Sconiers' life began unraveling. She quit her job at a local restaurant and had trouble paying her bills. She canceled three appointments with the Advantages Plus worker.

And on May 27, Zy-Nyia was beaten with a belt and kicked in the stomach as her brother watched.

Wearing pink pants, a white shirt and one white sock, the little girl was rushed to Mary Bridge Hospital, where she was declared dead on arrival.

After Zy-Nyia's death, an in-home day care provider, paid by DSHS, reported that she had seen many bruises on Zy-Nyia but had not reported them because Sconiers denied hitting the girl.

And a family friend reported that her daughter had seen Sconiers hit Zy-Nyia leaving a black eye a week or two before the girl died.

The state has begun a mandatory child fatality review of Zy-Nyia's death and the state Ombudsman for Family and Children has done its own investigation.

August 18, 2000 - Man sentenced to die for killing 2-year-old daughter.

The Associated Press

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. -- A man who admitted dousing his minivan in gasoline and setting it on fire with his 2-year-old daughter strapped inside has been sentenced to death.

Michael Passaro, 38, pleaded guilty to murder and arson on Monday in the November 1998 killing. He was sentenced Thursday. "There's no joy in sending someone to death row," said Prosecutor Greg Hembree. "There's satisfaction that it was the appropriate sentence. Michael Joseph Passaro deserves the death penalty. The burning death of a 2-year-old is inexcusable."

Passaro set the minivan on fire outside his estranged wife's condominium in November 1998. The couple's daughter, Margaret Ann was strapped in a child safety seat. Passaro and his wife, Karen, had split in June of that year. Karen Passaro had primary custody of their daughter, and he had visitation rights.

Karen Passaro sobbed when the sentence was read. "I will live like this forever, for the rest of my life," she said. "I can't concentrate or even focus some days. Maggie will never get to grow up ... And in the process he took away my future."

August 17, 2000 New Kid Porn Bust in Florida.

By Lynn Burke

Federal authorities have made their second child pornography bust this week in Florida's West Palm County.

Myer Nevitt, 49, of Royal Palm Beach was arrested Thursday in connection with a large-scale child pornography investigation. Nevitt is suspected of possession and transmission of a "large quantity" of child pornography, U.S. Customs officials said. His computers and approximately 300 computer disks were seized in the raid of his home prior to his arrest.

"It's pretty gross," said U.S. Customs spokeswoman Layne Lathram.

Lathram said Nevitt owned and operated at least three residential facilities for children aged 11 to 18 years old.

Officials said some of the minors depicted in images on Nevitt's computer were under 12. It is not known at this point whether the children who live in Nevitt's facilities are the ones depicted in the illegal photographs.

"They're going to be doing forensic work on the pictures," said Lathram, adding that investigators always try to identify the children involved in these cases.

Senior special agent Zach Mann, who was present at the arrest, said agents did not have a chance to speak to the children in Nevitt's home, but understood that the Department of Child Services had plans to remove the children from his care.

Mann said Nevitt appeared on the radar screen after someone called in with information that he was in possession of child pornography. That fact was confirmed when Nevitt brought his computer into a repair shop for a problem, and was given a new computer in its place. Computer specialists examined the old computer and found over 40 images of children "in very explicit, compromising situations," said Mann.

The photographs were allegedly downloaded from various locations on the Internet to the suspect's AOL account.

Nevitt, who was released on a $50,000 personal surety bond after his court appearance early Thursday, faces up to 15 years in federal prison if convicted of the charges against him.

Nevitt was unable to be reached for comment.

Authorities said there was no official connection between Nevitt's arrest and the Tuesday arrest of Wayne Camolli, 54, also of West Palm County. Camolli is suspected of operating a child pornography ring based out of his home and run through a private email club on egroups.com.

"The only connection is that it's a disgusting fetish that they both share," Mann said.

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