A former FBI special agent, who worked on some of the bureau’s most high profile cases including the 9/11 attacks and the Oklahoma bombing, faces twenty years in prison after being arrested on child pornography charges.
Donald Sachtleben, 54, who served the FBI as a bomb technician for 25 years, was charged with possessing and distributing child pornography.
The Indiana resident was arrested after the FBI and an Internet Crimes Against Children task force began investigating another individual who was allegedly trading child pornography online.
That individual, identified as Jason Nicoson from Illinois, was arrested in January.
After searching Nicoson’s computer, investigators were able to trace illegal activity to Sachtleben’s home in Carmel.
After obtaining a search warrant on May 3, police allegedly discovered approximately 30 images and video files containing child pornography on the hard drive of his laptop computer.
Charged: Sachtleben, 54, faces thirty years behind bars if convicted of the child pornography possession and distribution charges
Police interviewed Sachtleben’s wife, who denied knowing anything about the images on her husband’s computer, according to an affidavit released today by the U.S Attorney’s office in Indiana.
The indecent images found on Sachtleben’s computer allegedly match those which were discovered on Nicoson’s.
If convicted, Sachtleben faces up to 20 years behind bars for the distribution charge and up to 10 years for the possession charge.
Successful career: After retiring from an illustrious career in the FBI, Sachtleben began working in the Forensic Science department at Oklahoma State University, where he has been employed since last October
Both charges carry a fine of up to $250,000 and a lifetime supervised release.
‘Today’s announcement […]should make clear that no matter who you are, you will be brought to justice if you are found guilty of such criminal behavior,’ said US Attorney Joseph Hogsett.
Thousands of children have lost the chance of a decent life because of the ban on mixed-race adoption, the state equality chief has admitted.
Trevor Phillips said it was his greatest regret that he failed to challenge the race rules which denied children the chance of a loving family and instead left them at the mercy of a failing care system.
Changes could have been made 10 years ago if the race relations watchdog had called for an inquiry, Mr Phillips said.
The acknowledgement by Mr Phillips of the damage done by the ban follows the Coalition’s decision to legislate to sweep away race rules.
The new law will reinforce guidelines already handed to social workers that tell them the need to find a family for a child is more important than their longstanding doctrine which says, for example, it is bad for a black child to be brought up by a white family.
For more than two decades adoptive parents have been strictly screened on race grounds, with many rejected because they have been judged the wrong match.
Social workers have been trained to believe that black children lose self-esteem and pride in themselves if they are not brought up by parents of the same colour.
Critics have said there is no evidence to support this theory and that race has been used as an excuse to depress the number of adoptions.
Mr Phillips, who is to step down as chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission this summer, said he should have challenged the race ban when he was appointed chief of its race relations predecessor, the Commission for Racial Equality, in 2003.
He told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show: ‘If I had to pinpoint one single thing I would say that I wish when I took over at the CRE I had been more aggressive on the issue of transracial adoption.
‘If I had ordered an inquiry, an investigation, it would have shown pretty clearly that the life chances of children would have been much much better in a family of any race compared to staying in care.
‘I would have then be able to essentially change the policy in local authorities 10 years ago.’
Mr Phillips added: ‘My personal regret is that hundreds of children, maybe thousands of children, would now be in families who got stuck in the care system. If I had to go back and do something different, I would do something about that.
‘Being in care is the surest indicator that you will end up in crime, in drugs, that you will end up unemployed, and your children will repeat your experience.’
He added: ‘I think if we had been more aggressive on this issue we could have transformed the lives of very many children. But these are things we know in hindsight.’
It was the first time Mr Phillips is thought publicly to have criticised the ban on mixed-race adoptions, although critics of the system have long held that adoption was the last area of public life in Britain in which authorities were prepared to support open racial discrimination.
History: In 2000 Tony Blair suggested that the bar to transracial adoption should go
In 2000 Tony Blair suggested that the bar to transracial adoption should go, and his Government began to publish figures illustrating how long black children had to wait for new families because of the race rules. But his 2002 Adoption Act had nothing to say about race.
Mr Phillips was the leading Labour figure on the London Assembly at the time. He went on to head the CRE and then the EHRC when it took over from all the state equality bodies in 2007.
Social workers have long been criticised for failing to back adoption for children in care, preferring to see them brought up in the care system which often means life in a children’s home or shifted repeatedly between different foster parents.
Middle class couples hoping to adopt have long been rejected on a series of flimsy grounds, including their age, their smoking habits, or their beliefs.
There are currently around 65,000 children in the care system, with numbers rising because more children are being taken into state care following the Baby P scandal in 2008.
Last year just 3,050 children were adopted from state care, among them only 60 babies under a year old, the lowest total since 2001.
The cover shows Jamie Lynne Grumet, a slim blonde 26-year-old California mom, breastfeeding her 3-year-old son. TIME photographer Martin Schoelleralso shot three other families on the same day.
On left: Jessica Cary and her 3-year-old daughter. Right: Dionna Ford with her 4-year-old son and 5-month-old daughter. For more from the TIME cover shoot, visit TIME LightBox.
“When you think of breast-feeding, you think of mothers holding their children, which was impossible with some of these older kids,” Schoeller said in an interview on TIME.com. “I liked the idea of having the kids standing up to underline the point that this was an uncommon situation.”
One notable mom who follows Dr. Sears’s advice does not make an appearance in Pickert’s piece. Actress Mayim Bialik, who recently published her memoir “Beyond The Sling”, is a vocal advocate for attachment parenting and recently came under fire for writing about breastfeeding her own 3-year-old. While Bialik ignited big discussions about how much is too much when it comes to motherhood, TIME‘s story is elevating the conversation to a national debate.
There is no doubt that the TIME cover strikes the public as shocking. But, as Pickert points out, the women featured are at one extreme end of this always-controversial discussion. On the other end, she says, are mothers who “endorse the idea of maternal closeness (who doesn’t?) but think Sears is out of his mind.” And the writer goes on:
“A third category includes mothers caught in the middle. These parents try to achieve Sears’ ideal of nursing, baby wearing and co-sleeping but fall short for some reason and find themselves immobilized by their seeming parental inadequacy. They suffer from what two New York City parenting consultants call “posttraumatic Sears disorder.”
Her point, in writing the in-depth profile of Sears, seems to be that there are many parents out there left wondering what’s right, what’s wrong — and most important — what makes sense for their families.
“The purposeful viewing of child pornography on the internet is now legal in New York,” Senior JudgeCarmen Beauchamp Ciparick wrote in a majority decision for the court.
The decision came after Marist College professor James D. Kent was sentenced to prison in August 2009 after more than 100 images of child pornography were found on his computer’s cache.
Whenever someone views an image online, a copy of the image’s data is saved in the computer’s memory cache.
The ruling attempts to distinguish between individuals who see an image of child pornography online versus those who actively download and store such images, MSNBC reports. And in this case, it was ruled that a computer’s image cache is not the same as actively choosing to download and save an image.
“Merely viewing Web images of child pornography does not, absent other proof, constitute either possession or procurement within the meaning of our Penal Law,” Ciparick wrote in the decision.
The court said it must be up to the legislature, not the courts, to determine what the appropriate response should be to those viewing images of child pornography without actually storing them. Currently, New York’s legislature has no laws deeming such action criminal.
As The Atlantic Wire notes, under current New York law, “it is illegal to create, possess, distribute, promote or facilitate child pornography.” But that leaves out one critical distinction, as Judge Ciparick stated in the court’s decision.
“[S]ome affirmative act is required (printing, saving, downloading, etc.) to show that defendant in fact exercised dominion and control over the images that were on his screen,” Ciparick wrote. “To hold otherwise, would extend the reach of (state law) to conduct—viewing—that our Legislature has not deemed criminal.”
The case originated when Kent brought his computer in to be checked for viruses, complaining that it was running slowly. He has subsequently denied downloading the images himself.
Investigation: The Internet Crimes Against Children Unit (ICAC) searched the home of NBA player Chris ‘Birdman’ Andersen in connection with child pornography
The Douglas County Internet Crimes Against Children Unit (ICAC) investigated the Larkspur, Colorado home of NBA player Chris ‘Birdman’ Andersen in connection with child pornography on Thursday.
The ICAC said they began investigating Andersen, 33, in February of this year, after they were given a tip from a law enforcement agency in California.
Pending the completion of the investigation, Andersen has been suspended from all team-related activities by the Denver Nuggets.
Searched: The ICAC said they began investigating Andersen, 33, in February of this year, after they were given a tip from a law enforcement agency in California
Sergeant Ron Hanavan told the Mail Online that the ICAC confiscated property from Andersen’s Red Hill Road estate that they believe is connected to a case.
The ICAC investigates crimes ranging from the exchange of pornographic images to child prostitution.
Sergeant Hanavan said that no arrests have been made at this time.
’We need to complete a thorough investigation to determine what, if any appropriate charges would be forwarded to the District Attorney for prosecution,’ Sergeant Hanavan said to the Mail Online.
The Denver Nuggets have cut ties with Andersen pending the results.
‘The Denver Nuggets are aware of today’s media reports involving forward/center Chris Andersen. It involves a legal investigation and we are awaiting further details,’ team officials wrote in an unsigned statement to the Denver Post.
benched: Pending the completion of the investigation, Andersen has been suspended from all team-related activities by the Denver Nuggets
Seized: Sergeant Ron Hanavan said the ICAC confiscated property from Andersen’s Red Hill Road estate that they believe is connected to a case
‘Per team policy, the Nuggets will not comment on any ongoing legal circumstance involving any player or employee.’
This year marks Andersen’s 10th in the NBA and his seventh season in Denver.
The forward has a history of getting involved in children’s charities, according to the Daily News.
Andersen has raised money for Mount Saint Vincent, a sanctuary for abused children, and the Alliance for Choice in Education (ACE), which provides funding for low-income families to send their children to private schools.
His Middle Name is Claus: Andersen has a history of getting involved in children’s charities. In 2009, he dressed up as Santa to raise money for the Alliance for Choice in Education
In 2009, he dressed up as Santa to assist in ACE’s holiday fundraising drive, since his middle name is Claus.
Sergeant Hanavan told the Mail Online that Andersen has been cooperating.
His attorney, Mark Bryant, released a statement on his behalf.
‘We need to complete a thorough investigation to determine what, if any appropriate charges would be forwarded to the District Attorney for prosecution.’
Sergeant Hanavan
‘I believe in Chris. I would ask the citizens of Colorado to give Chris his due,’ Mr Bryant wrote to the Denver Post.
‘Like every one of us, he is presumed innocent. At the end of the day, I am confident it will be shown that he did nothing wrong.’
Andersen was previously banned from the NBA in 2006 for violating the league’s drug policy.
Former Osceola County, Fla. teacher Kacy Wilson has been arrested for allegedly having sex with a 16-year-old student and sending pornographic photos to the teen, police said on Thursday.
CBS affiliate WKMG reports that the 28-year-old was arrested in Salida, Colo. She was charged with one count of unlawful sexual activity with certain minors and one count of unlawful transmission of pornography by electronic device.
According to Kissimmee police, officials were made aware in October of a possible relationship between Wilson and a male student at Osceola High School.
Detectives tried to talk to Wilson, but she resigned from her job and moved to Colorado, police said. The teen initially denied the allegations.
In April, however, the teen told school officials about the relationship, saying it occurred the year before. According to police, he also told detectives about inappropriate photos that she recently sent him.
An arrest warrant was obtained for Wilson, who was arrested and will be extradited to Osceola County. She’s being held on $85,000 bond.
School officials said as soon as the district learned of the allegations, they immediately notified the Department of Children and Families, law enforcement and the State Department of Education.
Editor’s note: This is the first of a four-part series examining the dark side of Facebook. Part two comes tomorrow. Media wishing to interview WND’s Chelsea Schilling about this series, please contact us here.
(EXPLICIT CONTENT: This report contains graphic details of sexual abuse of children as it has appeared in numerous locations on Facebook. WND immediately reported images of child pornography and child sexual abuse to the FBI. Censored screenshots published are among the mildest of those found.)
She’s a tiny brunette with brown eyes, barely 10, and she’s naked – posing for the man who raped her and traded her photo like currency with thousands of insatiable predators on Facebook.
The girl doesn’t smile, because she knows what comes next. Her abuser will share photos and earn bragging rights from thousands of others just like him who will exchange their own titillating snapshots – often images uploaded from cell phones – of boys and girls they molest.
She’s beautiful. In fact, she could be your own daughter, or little sister. Her little curls dangle over her youthful skin. Her bare body is clearly underdeveloped. But she has become a tool for sex, an X-rated trading card, a means to arouse the world’s sexual deviants.
There are many more young girls and boys like her – not in some sleazy magazine from the back of an adult bookshop, not from some homemade videos in the red light district, not in the back alleys of Bangladesh, but on the pages of one of the most successful new Internet companies in the world.
Meet the dark underbelly of Facebook, an ubiquitous U.S.-based company making an initial public offering expected to value the company as high as $100 billion.
Graphic images of sexualized children under age 12 and adults raping young kids are traded among circles of pedophiles on Facebook. Censored screenshots published are among the mildest of those found.)
Another profile reveals a small boy, about 8, who looks much like a neighborhood Little League champion or Cub Scout. He’s been forced to undress on a bed and hold his ankles behind his head as his captor photographs his exposed genitals and anus.
One more boy, about 12, is lying face down on a bed as an adult male penetrates him. The photo is a mobile upload – likely taken by a third person in the room who observed the child’s rape and posted the image to Facebook with a cell phone.
On other pages, child-porn deviants share a photo of two naked girls who are kissing and fondling one another outdoors. Yet another boy, who appears to be about 4, is receiving oral sex from a child roughly two years his senior.
Other children just like them are shown sodomizing one another – or being raped by adult men or women – in photos and video links of the abuse posted on Facebook. Entire albums of exploited boys and girls are visible to the public and shared with the click of a mouse.
On the Facebook user page called “Kidsex Young,” one man asks others, “Care to trade vids?” Another posts a video of a naked man fondling a baby on a bed.
One Facebook user identified as “Kidsex Young” quickly “friends” those with similar interests to trade photos and videos of abuse.
A paedophile priest who plied altar servers with cocaine before sexually abusing them has been jailed for nine and a half years by an Italian court.
Father Riccardo Seppia, 51, was arrested by police after they discovered his activities during an investigation into the supply of drugs to Milan’s gay nightclub scene.
Stunned officers listened in as Father Seppia said: ‘Come on over I’ve got some snow’ – code for drugs. In another conversation he said: ‘Bring the usual gift, I am very lonely.’
Jailed: Father Ricardo Seppia sent ‘obscene’ texts to young boys arranging to meet them
When details of Father Seppia’s case emerged last year in his parish at Sestri Ponente near Genoa he was immediately suspended by his local bishop – although there were claims that church chiefs had been warned about him almost 20 years ago.
Fellow priest Father Piercarlo Casassa said at the time: ‘I told the Church authorities about him in 1994 but I was ignored. People had told me he had a untoward approach with the scouts (altar boys) and I told the authorities he was not the right person to have around youngsters but no-one listened to me.’
His claims were backed up by local parishioners who told Italian media that Father Seppia had been nicknamed ‘The Night Priest’ because of his habit of going out late and sleeping in.
The case is the latest sex abuse scandal to rock the Roman Catholic Church and comes after Pope Benedict XVI said the Vatican would be introducing tougher guidelines on dealing with clergy who take advantage of children.
Two years ago the Vatican was at the centre of a worldwide storm after it emerged there had been thousands of cases of paedophile priests in Ireland, Germany, America and Belgium which were covered up and not acted upon.
Police said the investigation on Father Seppia focused on gyms and saunas in the Milan area which he visited and that two other men – including a former trainee priest – were also questioned as part of the investigation.
He was charged with sexually abusing a 15-year-old altar boy, attempted child prostitution and supplying cocaine. A charge of possessing child pornography was dropped.
Father Seppia appeared in court in Genoa shaven-headed and dressed in a blue shirt and jeans, and hung his head as the prosecutor Stefano Puppo told the judge he had targeted ‘problem children’ and had sent them ‘obscene texts as he tried to arrange sex with them.’
Before the sentence was read out Father Seppia told judge Roberta Bossi: ‘I would just like to apologise for all those erotic SMS texts full or erotic fantasies and blasphemies that I sent to altar boys and other children. I am sorry for my behaviour because it was wrong.’
Scandal: This is the latest in a number of sex abuse cases to rock the Vatican
Judge Bossi dismissed his apologies and sentenced him to four years, two months and twenty days for the sex abuse and attempted child prostitution charges and five years and four months for the drug offences, making a total of nine and a half years. He was also fined €28,000 (£22,700).
He will serve his sentence, a year of which has already been served on remand, in a sex offenders section at nearby San Remo jail.
Archbishop Angelo Bagnasco, leader of the Catholic Bishops Conference based in Genoa, refused to comment on the case, leaving it to his spokesman Father Silvio Grilli.
Father Grilli said: ‘We take note of the court’s decision and express once again our pain for what happened to the victim and parishioners. It is appreciated that Father Seppia did apologise when in court.’
It underlines the Church’s zero tolerance policy on abuse and highlights how to ‘prevent, collaborate and deal’ with civilian authorities investigating abuse claims.
The document tells church officials that they should collaborate with police and report to them any suspected allegations of child abuse – this was not obligatory before the new guidelines.
Two years ago Pope Benedict described his horror at the dozens of sex allegations which hit the Church.
At one stage even he was drawn into the scandal when he was accused of dragging his heels when dealing with a case involving a priest in his native Germany when he was Archbishop of Munich in 1980.
Affair: Karen Carstens told her sick friend she would look after her son but instead had a years-long sexual relationship with him
A 41-year-old woman is facing arrest for allegedly having a sexual relationship with boy that began when he was just 13-years-old.
Karen Lee Carstens volunteered to help babysit the teen while her friend, the boy’s mother, was hospitalized.
Police said she began sexual assaulting the teen when he was 13 years old and eventually ended up having a sex with him on numerous occasion at her home in Houston, Texas.
Court documents revealed the teen was more concerned than Carstens that he would get her pregnant when having unprotected sex.
According to court documents the boy ‘cried believing he had impregnated [Carstens] but [Carstens] assured him not to worry because her menstrual cycle was due soon.’
Police say the victim said Carstens told him not to tell anyone about their sexual relationship because she could get into trouble.
The affair began when Carstens volunteered to look after the 13-year-old boy while his mother was being treated in a Houston hospital.
Trysts: Karen Lee Carstens had a two-year relationship with her friend’s son, 13, having sex with him at her home pictured
The boy told investigators that when the relationship began it involved just touching her breasts and genitals, but progressed to oral sex.
The court documents revealed the concerns of the teen that he would get Carstens pregnant.
He described one encounter where he suggested anal sex as a way for them to avoid pregnancy. She at first refused but then allowed the teen to do it.
The affair ended in 2009 when Carstens moved away from the Houston area.
Carstens, now 41 and living in Riva, Maryland has been charged with sexual assault of a child by authorities in Houston.
She is not in custody but a warrant has been issued for her arrest.
Kacy Wilson
