Football: Spain's Hermoso files complaint over Rubiales' kiss

MADRID -- Spain player Jenni Hermoso has filed a criminal complaint over suspended football chief Luis Rubiales's kiss on her lips at the Women's World Cup final, a source at Spain's public prosecutors office said Wednesday.

The complaint, which was filed on Tuesday, is key for a preliminary investigation, which prosecutors at Spain's top criminal court have opened for the alleged crime of "sexual assault", to move forward.

The prosecutor's office of the National Court will formally present its complaint against Rubiales "as soon as possible", the source said.

Spanish football federation (RFEF) president Rubiales sparked a worldwide backlash after forcibly kissing Hermoso during the medal ceremony following Spain's triumph in Sydney on August 20.

Hermoso, 33, later said the unwanted kiss had left her feeling "vulnerable and like the victim of an assault", with a statement on social media describing it as "an impulsive, macho act, out of place and with no type of consent on my part".

Rubiales insists the kiss was consensual.

The National Court said last week it was opening the preliminary probe in light of the "unequivocal nature" of Hermoso's statements, stating it was necessary "to determine their legal significance".

World football governing body FIFA provisionally suspended Rubiales for 90 days after he refused to resign from his post.

Some 81 players went on strike from the women's side in protest after the 46-year-old's fierce defensive speech following the incident, in which he railed against "false feminism". They said they would not return until the RFEF's leadership was changed.

The federation sacked controversial Spain women's coach Jorge Vilda on Tuesday in the wake of the scandal.

Spain's top sports court (TAD) also agreed to investigate Rubiales after the government lodged a complaint.

Rubiales also came under fire for grabbing his crotch with both hands as he celebrated Spain's win while standing next to Spain's Queen Letizia and her 16-year-old daughter, Princess Sofia. He later apologized.

However the suspended chief said he would continue to defend himself "to prove the truth" over his kiss with Hermoso.

In a statement last week Rubiales reiterated that the kiss was "a mutual and consensual act" with "overflowing jubilation on both sides".

- Apology -

The RFEF apologized for the "totally unacceptable behavior" of Rubiales on Tuesday and fired Vilda as part of an overhaul. The apology came more than two weeks after the incident.

In a letter signed by its interim president Pedro Rocha, the RFEF offered its "most sincere apologies... for the totally unacceptable behavior of its highest institutional representative during the final of the FIFA Women's World Cup 2023 and in the moments that followed".

Vilda's former assistant Montserrat Tome is the new coach -- it is the first time a woman has led the team. The next matches are in Nations League qualifying against Sweden and Switzerland on September 22 and 26 respectively.

Meanwhile men's team defender Dani Carvajal came under fire for comments he made Tuesday night on Spanish radio, in which he said he did not want to position himself on the issue "without knowing what really happened".

Carvajal had said "there are people who must decide if there is a culprit or a victim" and noted Hermoso had not filed a complaint at the time. He clarified his words in a news conference Wednesday.

"In no moment did I say that Jenni was not the victim, I just said that the presumption of innocence (until proven otherwise) has to be maintained," said Real Madrid right-back Carvajal.

"If she's having a tough time we have to show solidarity with her, that's clear, like any person -- I don't think the president is having a good time either.

"I am not here to judge or label anyone."

Agence France-Presse

Mastercard, Visa halt processing payments on Pornhub

Mastercard Inc and Visa Inc on Thursday stopped processing payments on Pornhub after a New York Times article said many videos posted on the adult website depicted sexual assault of children.

Mastercard said it was permanently ending the use of its cards on the sex videos site after its investigation confirmed the presence of illegal content on the platform. Visa said it was suspending payments till an investigation was completed.

"We are instructing the financial institutions who serve MindGeek (Pornhub parent) to suspend processing of payments through the Visa network," Visa said in a statement.

Pornhub did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The New York Times article had also described some videos on the site as recordings of assaults on unconscious women and girls.

Pornhub has denied the allegations but said it had banned video downloads and was allowing only certain partner accounts to upload content.

-reuters-

Weinstein lawyers seek five years in jail for sex crime conviction

(Reuters) - Lawyers for former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, who was convicted last month of rape and sexual assault, have asked a New York court to take into consideration his health and age and sentence him to prison for five years.

Weinstein, 67, faces up to 29 years in prison after being found guilty of sexually assaulting former production assistant Mimi Haleyi in 2006 and raping former aspiring actress Jessica Mann in 2013.

“Please accept this letter as our request that the court sentence Mr Weinstein to a period of incarceration of five years,” three of Weinstein’s lawyers said in a letter addressed to Justice James Burke of state Supreme Court in Manhattan.

Reuters saw a copy of the letter, which was signed by lawyers Damon Cheronis, Donna Rotunno and Arthur Aidala and dated Monday. Sentencing is due on Wednesday.

Weinstein’s conviction was a milestone for the #MeToo movement, which was fueled by his case starting in late 2017. The movement inspired women to accuse hundreds of powerful men - in entertainment, business, the media, politics and other fields - of sexual misconduct.

Last week, Weinstein was transferred to New York’s Rikers Island jail complex from Bellevue Hospital after undergoing a procedure to clear a heart blockage.

In their letter, Weinstein’s lawyers mentioned his poor health and age, as well as his “accomplishments” and “charitable endeavors”.

“His life story, his accomplishments, and struggles are simply remarkable and should not be disregarded in total because of the jury’s verdict,” they said.

Jurors acquitted Weinstein on the two most serious charges against him, predatory sexual assault, which carried a maximum life sentence.

New York prosecutors said last week Weinstein should get a prison sentence that reflects not only his conviction for sexually assaulting two women, but a “lifetime of abuse towards others”.

Throughout his adult life, Weinstein has shown a “staggering lack of empathy, treating others with disdain and inhumanity,” Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance’s office said in a letter to Burke.

Weinstein, who reshaped the independent film industry with critically acclaimed pictures such as “The English Patient” and “Shakespeare in Love,” fell from grace after more than 70 women, most of them young actresses and others in the movie business, accused him of rape and sexual misconduct dating back decades.

He denied the accusations and said any sexual encounters were consensual.

In addition to his convictions in New York, Weinstein faces several felony charges in Los Angeles in connection with alleged sexual assaults against two women in 2013.

Reporting by Rama Venkat in Bengaluru; Editing by Robert Birsel

Weinstein found guilty of sexual assault, rape

Disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein was convicted Monday of sexual assault and rape but cleared of the most serious predatory sexual assault charges.

The jury of seven men and five women found the producer guilty of criminal sexual acts in the first degree and rape in the third degree, a partial victory for the #MeToo movement that considered the case a watershed moment.

The 67-year-old was found not guilty however of first-degree rape and predatory sexual assault charges that could have seen him jailed for life.

The verdict marks the most high-profile sex assault conviction in the United States since Bill Cosby was found guilty in 2018 of drugging and sexually assaulting a woman 15 years ago.

The decision was announced in a packed New York courtroom where some 100 people had gathered. The defendant, who attended the trial hunched over a walker, was shielded from view by police officers.

More than 80 women have accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct since allegations against him ignited the #MeToo global reckoning against men abusing positions of power in October 2017.

But the jury was considering charges related to just two: ex-actress Jessica Mann and former production assistant Mimi Haleyi, with many claims too old to prosecute.

One of the predatory sexual assault charges also included testimony from the Sopranos actress Annabella Sciorra, who said Weinstein raped her in her New York apartment in the winter of 1993-94.

Six women took the stand from the opening of testimony on January 22, to say they had been sexually assaulted by Weinstein.

Weinstein's team subjected the women to ferocious cross-examination, as they argued that his relationships were consensual and transactional.

The prosecution presented no forensic evidence or third-party witness accounts. The state's case rested on asking the jury to believe the women.

Agence France-Presse

Harvey Weinstein will not testify at his New York rape trial, defense rests case

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former movie producer Harvey Weinstein will not testify in his own 
defense at his rape trial, his lawyers said on Tuesday as they rested their case.

Outside the presence of the jury, one of Weinstein’s lawyers told Justice James Burke that Weinstein would not be taking the stand in the trial that began in New York on Jan. 6 and is a milestone in the #MeToo movement.

“That’s correct,” Weinstein confirmed when asked by the judge.

The defense rested its case shortly after this exchange, setting the stage for closing arguments to begin on Thursday.

Asked outside the courtroom whether he had been thinking of testifying, Weinstein responded, “I wanted to.”

“He didn’t have to,” said one of his lawyers, Damon Cheronis.

Arthur Aidala, another one of his lawyers, said outside the courthouse that Weinstein had been “anxious to testify to clear his name,” but that his lawyers had advised him that “he did not need to do that because the evidence presented in this case was anemic at best.”

Earlier on Tuesday, a former agent of accuser Jessica Mann took the stand, testifying that Mann showed no signs of distress on the morning she says she was sexually assaulted by Weinstein.

Weinstein, 67, has pleaded not guilty to raping Mann, a onetime aspiring actress, and to sexually assaulting former production assistant Mimi Haleyi.

Mann accused Weinstein of raping her in a Manhattan hotel one morning in March 2013. She previously testified that the rape occurred in the course of an “extremely degrading” relationship with Weinstein that lasted for years.

Thomas Richards, a former friend and agent of Mann testified that he had breakfast with Mann and Weinstein the same day. Richards told jurors that the dynamic between Mann and Weinstein appeared “friendly.”

Richards testified under a subpoena from the defense. Asked by Weinstein’s lawyer Damon Cheronis whether he was testifying to help Weinstein, Richards answered, “Not at all.”

Under cross-examination by Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzzi, Richards said he had been drinking the night before the breakfast and his memory of the next day was not clear.

On Monday, Mann’s former friend Talita Maia, a Brazilian-born actress, testified that Mann did not show any distress after the alleged attack. Mann has said Richards was also with her in New York at the time.

The trial is a key moment in the #MeToo movement in which women have accused powerful men in business, entertainment, media and politics of sexual misconduct.

Since 2017, more than 80 women have accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct.

The former producer, who was behind films including “The English Patient” and “Shakespeare in Love,” has denied any nonconsensual sex.

Weinstein faces life in prison if convicted of predatory sexual assault, the most serious charge against him.

Prosecutors rested their case last Thursday after jurors heard testimony from six women accusing Weinstein of sexual assault, including Mann, Haleyi and actress Annabella Sciorra, who said Weinstein raped her in her home in the early 1990s.

Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York; writing by Noeleen Walder; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Grant McCool

Woman testifies masturbating Weinstein trapped her in hotel bathroom

NEW YORK - A woman testified at Harvey Weinstein's rape trial on Wednesday that the film producer trapped her in a hotel bathroom in 2013 and masturbated in front of her while groping her breasts, and told her: "This is what all the actresses do to make it."

Lauren Young, a 30-year-old model and actress, is the last of six accusers scheduled to testify in a Manhattan courtroom against Weinstein, a once-powerful Hollywood figure.

Young's claims are not part of the criminal charges against Weinstein. She is among three women whom prosecutors are calling to bolster their case against the former movie producer.

Young is also one of two accusers in a sexual assault case brought against Weinstein in Los Angeles.

In the New York case, Weinstein, 67, has pleaded not guilty to raping aspiring actress Jessica Mann and to sexually assaulting another woman, former production assistant Mimi Haleyi. Since 2017, more than 80 women have accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct.

Weinstein, who produced films including “The English Patient” and “Shakespeare in Love,” has denied the allegations and said any sexual encounters were consensual. The trial is widely seen as a milestone in the #MeToo movement in which women have accused powerful men in business, entertainment, media and politics of sexual misconduct.

Young told jurors that she met Weinstein in 2012 at an Oscars dinner, where she also became friendly with actress Claudia Salinas.

Young said Salinas invited her to a meeting with Weinstein in the lobby of a Beverly Hills hotel in February 2013, where she hoped to pitch a script she was working on.

Then, Young testified, Weinstein said he had to go up to his hotel suite to prepare to receive an award and asked the two women to accompany him.

Weinstein led Young through a bedroom in the suite to a bathroom, at which point Salinas closed the door behind her. Young testified. She said Weinstein turned on the shower and began to undress.

"I felt so trapped and I was in shock,” Young said. “I just couldn’t believe what was happening.”

Young said Weinstein stood between her and the door and told her, “We’re just going to have a talk here.” He unzipped her dress, pulled it down and began touching her breast with one hand while masturbating, as Young repeatedly told him no, she testified.

She said Weinstein told her, “This is what all the actresses do to make it.”

She said he did not let go of her until he ejaculated, at which point he left the bathroom while Young stayed behind “in shock.”

During cross-examination, one of Weinstein's lawyers, Damon Cheronis, grilled Young about inconsistencies between her testimony and what she had earlier told investigators.

Young conceded that she had previously told investigators that that she was "pushed" into the bathroom and that the attack had taken place shortly after her first meeting with Weinstein, rather than the following year.

During her direct testimony, prosecutors also asked about Weinstein's genitals.

"It looked like it had been cut and sewn back on," Young said of his penis. "Not a normal-looking scar from circumcision. Something didn’t look normal."

On Tuesday, jurors were shown naked photos of Weinstein. Prosecutors did not say why the photographs were introduced or how many were presented. Weinstein's attorney, Donna Rotunno, said in an email on Tuesday evening that the photos were shown to shame Weinstein.

Mann testified last week that he did not appear to have testicles and said he appeared “deformed” or “intersex.” The term "intersex" refers to individuals with sex characteristics “that do not fit typical binary notions of male or female bodies,” according to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. 

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Dozens excused from Weinstein jury as lawyers seek judge's removal

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Dozens of potential jurors were excused on Wednesday from serving in the rape trial of Harvey Weinstein, as the former movie producer’s lawyers accused the judge presiding over the trial of bias.

In all, 90 of the 120 potential jurors summoned to state court in Manhattan on the second day of jury selection were dismissed, most after saying they could not be impartial in the case.

Weinstein, 67, has pleaded not guilty to charges of assaulting two women in New York, and faces life in prison if convicted on the most serious charge, predatory sexual assault. His trial began on Monday and could last as long as two months.

“I read every article and it’s gonna be very hard for someone who’s been assaulted multiple times,” one female potential juror said, explaining why she could not be impartial.

“I was assaulted in my past, so I don’t think I can be a fair juror,” another woman said.

A third woman said she had “a very close friend who had an encounter with the defendant.”

Many other jurors simply said they could not be fair, without giving a reason.

The 30 potential jurors who were not dismissed Wednesday are expected to return Jan. 16 for the next phase of jury selection.

Also on Wednesday, one of Weinstein’s lawyers, Arthur Aidala, filed a motion asking Burke to recuse himself, saying the judge had made “prejudicial and inflammatory comments” that showed “animus” toward Weinstein.

Burke on Tuesday threatened to revoke Weinstein’s bail after catching him using his cellphone in court, asking him, “Is this really the way you want to end up in jail for the rest of your life, by texting and violating a court order?”

Aidala said the question suggested Burke had already decided Weinstein was guilty and should be sentenced to life. Burke has not ruled on the motion.

Since 2017, more than 80 women, including many famous actresses, have accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct dating back decades.

The Weinstein allegations helped fuel the #MeToo movement which encouraged women to go public with misconduct allegations against powerful men.

Weinstein has denied the allegations, saying any sexual encounters he had were consensual.

The former film producer made his mark with critically acclaimed films such as “The English Patient” and “Shakespeare in Love.”

Prosecutors need 12 jurors to back a conviction, while Weinstein needs just one holdout for a hung jury.

On Monday, Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey announced new sexual assault charges against Weinstein.

Reporting by Brendan Pierson in New York and Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; Editing by Noeleen Walder, Grant McCool and Jonathan Oatis

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Weinstein agrees $25 million settlement with accusers: lawyer

NEW YORK — Disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein has reached a $25 million settlement with dozens of his alleged sexual misconduct victims, one of the women's lawyers told AFP on Wednesday.

The cash will be shared among more than 30 actresses and former employees who have sued the 67-year-old producer for offenses ranging from sexual harassment to rape.

Aaron Filler, an attorney for "Boardwalk Empire" actress Paz de la Huerta, told AFP he expected his client, who accused Weinstein of raping her in 2010, to be part of the settlement.

Weinstein will not have to admit wrongdoing or pay from his own pocket, celebrity news portal TMZ said, with the bill instead being met by insurers for his bankrupt former movie studio, The Weinstein Company.

The deal will have to be signed by all parties and get court approval to resolve almost every misconduct lawsuit brought against him since 2017 and insulate company directors from future liability.

Weinstein's accusers include some of the world's most famous actresses -- including Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow and Salma Hayek -- although none is part of the proceedings. 

The once-powerful "Pulp Fiction" and "Sin City" producer, whose case sparked the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment, faces a criminal trial in January on charges of rape and forcibly performing oral sex on a woman.

Looking frail as he shuffled into a pretrial hearing in Manhattan using a walking frame, he had his $1 million cash bail raised to $2 million in assets after prosecutors accused him of mishandling his ankle monitor.

Weinstein's legal team told the court he was scheduled to undergo surgery on Thursday to relieve back pain from an injury in an August car accident.

"He is in pain. He's going to have surgery and he will be back in court on Jan. 6," said attorney Donna Rotunno. 

The criminal claims against him involve just 2 accusers, meaning the civil settlement represents the only chance of justice for the many women who have accused Weinstein of abuse.

One of his accusers, 50-year-old Katherine Kendall, told The New York Times she was disappointed by the deal but had agreed to sign on because she didn't want other women to miss out on the payout.

"I don't love it, but I don't know how to go after him. I don't know what I can really do," said Kendall, who alleged that she was chased around his New York apartment by a naked Weinstein.

Agence France-Presse 

16 sentenced to death for burning alive Bangladesh teen

FENI, Bangladesh – Sixteen people were sentenced to death Thursday for burning alive a Bangladeshi teenager who refused to withdraw sexual assault charges against her head teacher.

The case highlights what activists say is a culture of impunity over sexual violence in the South Asian country of 168 million people, as well as abuse rife in around 20,000 seminaries that educate mostly poor and rural students.

Nusrat Jahan Rafi was doused in kerosene and set on fire on April 6 after she made a sexual harassment complaint against the principal of her rural Islamic seminary.

The head teacher, who a court in the southern coastal town of Feni found had ordered the brutal killing from jail after being arrested over the harassment claim, was among those sentenced to death.

Others included activists from the ruling Awami League party and some students -- including two females -- who either participated in the killing or guarded the gates of the seminary while it took place.

"The verdict proves that nobody will get away with murder in Bangladesh. We have the rule of law," prosecutor Hafez Ahmed told reporters after the verdict in a crowded courtroom.

Rafi was lured to the rooftop of the seminary in Sonagazi where her attackers pressed her to withdraw the complaint she had filed with police.

When she refused, she was tied up, doused in kerosene and set on fire.

She suffered burns to 80 percent of her body and died in hospital four days later.

Her death triggered widespread horror across the nation, with protesters in the capital Dhaka staging days of demonstrations seeking "exemplary punishment" for the killers.

The murder put pressure on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to do more to protect women, with her government ordering some 27,000 schools to set up committees to prevent sexual violence.

'NOT A BIG DEAL'

Rafi had gone to police in late March to report the sexual harassment, and a leaked video shows the local station chief registering her complaint but dismissing it as "not a big deal".

Police said the attackers' plan had been to pass off her death as suicide, but this failed after Rafi managed to stagger down the stairs while still engulfed in flames.

Activists say many of the women and children who report sexual violence in Bangladesh often suffer a backlash, and that successful prosecutions are rare.

Rafi's case was fast-tracked, with the hearing taking only 62 days at a special tribunal hearing cases of violence against women and children.

Maleka Banu, head of a woman's rights group, told AFP: "It is an exemplary punishment. We hope it will send a serious message to the perpetrators and collaborators of sexual violence."

She said she hoped the verdict would work as a deterrent and would bring down "alarming rise" in sexual violence in the country.

Since the arrest of the principal, at least five more madrasa teachers have been held on charges of rape and sexual assault of their students.

The head of the Mahila Parishad, another women's rights group, gave a "guarded welcome" at the quick conclusion of the case, but said more needed to be done to ensure increased convictions for sexual harassment and rape cases.

According to that group, there were 731 incidents of sexual violence reported in the first six months of the year, including 592 rapes, 113 gang rapes and 26 women who were killed after being sexually assaulted.

Researcher Rezaur Rahman Lenin said on average more than 200 people are sentenced to death each year in Bangladesh, and as of May around 1,500 people were on death row

The number of executions carried out is less than 10 a year.

Defense lawyers said they would appeal against Thursday's verdict in the high court.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Six men tell their stories of sexual assault in the US military

Sexual assault in the military is a problem widely recognized but poorly understood. Elected officials and Pentagon leaders have tended to focus on the thousands of women who have been preyed upon while in uniform. But over the years, more of the victims have been men.

On average, about 10,000 men are sexually assaulted in the American military each year, according to Pentagon statistics.

Overwhelmingly, the victims are young and low-ranking. Many struggle afterward, are kicked out of the military and have trouble finding their footing in civilian life.

For decades, the fallout from the vast majority of male sexual assaults in uniform was silence: Silence of victims too humiliated to report the crime, silence of authorities unequipped to pursue it, silence of commands that believed no problem existed, and silence of families too ashamed to protest.

Women face a much higher rate of sexual assault in the military — about seven times that of men. But there are so many more men than women in the ranks that the total numbers of male and female victims in recent years have been roughly similar, according to Pentagon statistics — about 10,000 a year. And before women were fully integrated into the armed services, the bulk of the victims were men.

For generations, the military wasn’t looking for male sexual assault victims, so it failed to see them, according to Nathan W. Galbreath, deputy director of the Defense Department’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office. Only in 2006, after the office began surveying service members, he said, did the military learn that at least as many men as women were being assaulted.

“That was surprising to senior leadership,” Galbreath said.

“Everyone was so sure the problem was a women’s issue.”

A report published in May indicates that while the share of male victims who come forward has been rising recently, an estimated 4 out of 5 still do not report the attack.

For tens of thousands of veterans who were assaulted in the past, the progress made in recent years offers little comfort. The damage has already been done. Many have seen their lives buckle under the weight of loathing and bitterness, and have seen decades pass before what happened to them was acknowledged by anyone — including themselves.

Here are the stories of six of those men. The Department of Veterans Affairs has reviewed each man’s case and formally recognized him as a victim of service-connected sexual assault. The military branches in which each man served were asked to comment for this article, but declined to discuss specific cases.

PAUL LLOYD, 30
Enlisted in the Army National Guard, assaulted in 2007

Paul Lloyd was pushing a cart through the supermarket near his home in Salt Lake City, looking for light bulbs, when he stopped to sniff a variety of scented candles on a nearby shelf. Suddenly his hands were over his face, and he sank to the floor, sobbing.

One candle smelled just like the shampoo he had been using in the shower at Army basic training in 2007, when he was beaten and raped by another recruit.

“Some little thing can happen, and you’re back in that little 3-by-3 square shower,” he said later. “It’s hell, and there’s no escape from it.”

Lloyd joined the Army National Guard at 17. When he was assaulted in the shower one night after everyone else had gone to bed, he said, he told no one. Even when he ended up in the hospital the next day with internal bleeding and a torn rectum, and doctors asked him what had happened, Lloyd, who was raised in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said he simply shrugged.

“I felt like I couldn’t say anything,” he said. “I would look like a total failure — to my family, to my platoon, to myself.”

During the years when Lloyd was in the Army, only 3% of male victims reported sexual assaults, according to Defense Department estimates. The percentage has increased nearly sixfold since then, but the vast majority of men who are sexually assaulted still never report it.

Lloyd earned top scores in marksmanship and physical fitness, and wanted a career in the military, but he said a sense of betrayal and disgust at being raped started to gnaw at him. When he was given leave for Christmas, he decided not to return. He hid out at his sister’s house for a month before the National Guard found him. He was taken back to boot camp and eventually discharged for misconduct.

At home, he told no one about the attack. He stopped going to church, he said, fell into drinking and struggled to hold a job. He questioned his own sexuality. His family wondered why he couldn’t keep his act together.

It took five years for him to decide to tell them what had happened.

"They saw me as broken for a long time,” he said. “When I told them I’d been raped, they said, ‘Finally, it all makes sense.’ ”



BILL MINNIX, 64
Enlisted in the Air Force, assaulted in 1973

Bill Minnix was too ashamed to tell his family why he was kicked out of the Air Force in 1973, and they were too ashamed to ask.

What would people at church say? What would the neighbors think?
He didn’t speak a word to anyone about having been raped, he said — not for the next 40 years.

He had enlisted at 17, and was a few weeks into radar technician school when a group of older enlisted men and officers took some new recruits to an off-base resort. In a private bungalow, after a round of drinking, Minnix said, the older men told the recruits it was time for their initiation.

“At first there was laughing and nervous joking, and then there was silence,” Minnix said. “I was scared to death. And we got forced into sex acts none of us wanted.” He said the teenagers were made to perform oral sex or were sodomized. “What an awful thing, when you go back to the base the next day and you are facing these people,” he said.

Minnix struggled to make sense of what had happened in the bungalow. Real men don’t get raped, he told himself, they fight back. He found he was unable to concentrate on his work, and started to do poorly in radar school. He was desperate to get out of the Air Force.

“I couldn’t stand being there,” said Minnix, who lives in Bend, Oregon. “I didn’t feel I could report it to anyone. The best thing to do was run.”

He sighed and added, “I’ve essentially been running for most of my life since then.”

Minnix deserted, was caught a week later, and then deserted again. The Air Force put him in jail and threatened to prosecute him if he didn’t agree to leave the service voluntarily with a less-than-honorable discharge. He took the discharge.

Once he was out, he spent most of his adult life in what he calls “a black box,” shut off from the world by anger and shame. He burned through jobs and two marriages, drinking to numb his own loathing.

His parents never spoke to him again. They died not knowing the truth.

In recent years, through counseling provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs, Minnix has been able to come to terms with what happened. He has remarried and has joined a local veterans’ group called the Oregon Band of Brothers. He drove his Jeep in the local Veterans Day parade in 2018.

"That filled a big void for me,” he said. “I had military service taken away from me. For years, when I heard the anthem or saw the parades, I would cry. I can feel like a veteran now.”

HEATH PHILLIPS, 48
Enlisted in the Navy, assaulted in 1988

Heath Phillips stepped in front of a crowd of hundreds of soldiers at Fort Hood in central Texas. He took a breath, and then shared a secret that had gnawed at him for 25 years.

“My name is Heath Phillips,” he said, “and I was sexually assaulted when I was in the United States Navy.”

In 1988, when Phillips was 17, he arrived at his first ship, and a group of sailors offered to take him out for a night on the town.

They traveled to Manhattan, he said, and he woke up on the floor of a hotel room to see one of the men ejaculating on his face while others were trying to pull off his pants. Phillips writhed out of their grip and locked himself in a bathroom.

He reported the attack to the ship’s master at arms the next day, he said, but the master at arms just looked at him skeptically.

“Were you drinking?” Phillips recalls him saying. “Do you know that you can get in trouble for underage drinking?”

Phillips said he was sent back to his bunk in the bowels of the ship, where he slept just a few feet from the attackers. For months, he said, they beat and raped him repeatedly.

Phillips said he went to the master at arms again and again, often with black eyes and split lips, to complain about the abuse.

“He always accused me of lying,” Phillips recalled. “He would say I had no proof. I think he just didn’t want to deal with it.”

Phillips deserted, was arrested and sent back to the ship, and deserted again, and again. Eventually he was forced out of the Navy with an other-than-honorable discharge for running away so many times.

For decades, he said, he told no one else what had happened to him. But in 2009, he received counseling at a veterans’ hospital, and came to realize that silence might only allow assaults in the military to go on unchecked.

He became a vocal member of advocacy groups and met with lawmakers. A congressional investigation supported his account. And he started telling his story at military bases — something that petrified him at first, but that he now sees as a vital part of healing.

“I got my military career cut short, and that’s not right,” he said after addressing the soldiers at Fort Hood. “But I still love the military. By speaking out, I am serving in a different way.”

BILLY JOE CAPSHAW, 56
Enlisted in the Air Force, assaulted in 1980

The few years Billy Joe Capshaw spent in the Army were the worst years of his life, he said, but to this day he wears an Army veteran baseball cap. He said it deflects unwanted questions from strangers about the marks on his face.

“It explains the scars,” he said. “They don’t ask.”

In 1991, Jeffrey Dahmer was arrested and confessed to raping and killing 17 young men and boys, some of whom he then dismembered and ate. The news media soon learned that Capshaw had been Dahmer’s roommate in the Army, and descended on Hot Springs, Arkansas, where Capshaw lives.

At a news conference before a bank of reporters, Capshaw described the heavy-metal posters Dahmer decorated their room with, and the W.C. Fields jokes Dahmer liked to tell.

But he did not mention the vials of lorazepam and ketamine that he said Dahmer often used to sedate him. Or the metal bar he said Dahmer used to beat him, or the motor-pool rope to tie him down, or the scars, still visible on Capshaw’s cheeks after nearly 40 years, from Dahmer trying to muffle his screams with a clenched hand.

“I couldn’t,” Capshaw recalled, shaking his head, in an interview this spring. “You say you’ve been raped by another man, people blame you, they shame you. They just don’t get how something like this can happen.”

Capshaw joined the Army at 17 and was stationed at Baumholder Army Garrison in Germany in 1980 when he was assigned to share a room with Dahmer, who was then an Army medic.

Within days, he said, Dahmer was beating him, drugging him and keeping him locked in their room. At one point, Capshaw jumped from the second-story window to escape, and ended up in the hospital with a cracked pelvis. But he never said a word about what was going on, even to the doctor who examined him.

“It developed into a Stockholm syndrome-type situation,” Capshaw said. “He totally controlled me. He didn’t let me leave the room. He would beat me and rape me. But we would also play chess, he would buy me books and suture up my wounds. I don’t know how to explain it.”

Dahmer was discharged from the military in 1981 for alcohol abuse. Capshaw was discharged a few months later, his military record shows.

For five years after his discharge, Capshaw said, he didn’t leave his mother’s house. He stayed awake for days at a time trying to stave off nightmares, so tense that he could barely swallow solid food. He didn’t tell his family what had happened. In a small town, he worried, he’d never be able to get out from under the whisperings if word got out.

“For a long time, the only person I ever told was my best friend, and his response was, ‘I’ll never tell anybody,’” Capshaw said. “He didn’t, neither. That’s a pretty good friend — he knew it would hurt me, it would get around.”

After years of therapy, Capshaw decided in 2010 that hiding what happened would not help him. With the assistance of his psychiatrist, he created a website to tell the story of what he had gone through and how he had begun to heal.

JACK WILLIAMS, 71
Enlisted in the Air Force, assaulted in 1966

“If you report this, no one will believe you,” an Air Force drill sergeant told Jack Williams in boot camp.

It was 2 a.m. in the sergeant’s office, Williams recalled. The sergeant had just choked Williams, who was 18, until he passed out, he said, and then had raped him over a desk while dozens of other recruits slept in the next room.

It was 1966. The military had no response and prevention program, as it does today, and there were no protections for troops who reported assaults. Homosexuality was not just forbidden in the ranks, it was seen as a national security threat.

“If you came forward and said you were raped, people would have thought you were a queer or a child molester — you were treated like it was your fault,” said Williams, who now lives in Everett, Washington.

After the attack, Williams said, he did all that he felt he could do. He took a shower and went back to bed.

The sergeant raped him twice more during basic training, he said. Each time, Williams stayed quiet, determined to make it through boot camp.

But as soon as Williams graduated, he reported what had happened to Air Force authorities, expecting them to jail his attacker and start an investigation.

The anger still trembles in his voice decades later when he describes the Air Force’s response.

“No investigator ever called me,” he said. “Nothing was ever done.”

Instead, his chain of command began to complain about his performance, he said, because the rapes had left him with damaged kidneys and a torn rectum, and because he was missing too much training in order to get treatment. He was soon forced out of the Air Force for being medically unfit, his service record shows.

Today, veterans like Williams are coming forward in growing numbers to demand that the Department of Veterans Affairs provide treatment and compensation for the harm done to them.

Some 61,000 veterans, including Williams, are now formally recognized by the department as having been sexually traumatized during their service, and the number of claims filed each year has surged by 70% since 2010.

A monthly check is poor compensation, though, for decades spent in limbo.

“I had a future, I wanted to serve my country, and I was good at what I did,” Williams said. “That was all taken away from me.”

ETHAN HANSON, 29
Enlisted in the Marine Corps, assaulted in 2014

Ethan Hanson has avoided taking showers since he left the Marine Corps in 2014. Instead, he runs an inch and a half of warm water in a bathtub, then rinses quickly with a plastic cup, with each splash evoking a painful moan.

“When I do come into contact with steam, hot water, anything that makes my skin slippery,” he said as he looked around the bathroom in his house in Austin, Minnesota, “honestly, it makes me want to vomit.”

Hanson was one of a group of Marine recruits who were sexually assaulted in the showers during boot camp at Camp Pendleton, California. Like many of the sexual assaults on servicemen, it was a hazing exercise, meant to humiliate and intimidate young troops.

According to a Rand Corp. study, 1 in 3 men who are sexually assaulted in the military describe the offense as hazing or bullying — twice the rate reported by women who are sexually assaulted.

It happened to Hanson after an exhausting morning running the obstacle course. The platoon was showering when a drill instructor marched into the steamy room, angry that he had heard talking.

He ordered the 60 naked recruits to pack themselves into a tight line against the wall, genitals pressed up against backsides. After holding them in that position for several minutes, he ordered them to run to the other side of the room and line up again, then back to the first side.

“It was back and forth for more than an hour,” Hanson said.

In the following days, several of the recruits reported the episode to their chain of command, and the drill instructor was prosecuted.

Hanson has a copy of the Marine Corps investigative report confirming that the episode took place.

Hanson graduated from basic training and tried to move on, but soon afterward he saw a Marine dressed like the drill instructor, and had a panic attack.

He told his superiors that he was suicidal, and was sent to a Navy hospital. But when his mental health did not improve after four weeks, the Marine Corps forced him out of the service, noting on his discharge papers that it was for “failure to adapt to military life.”

“It’s their way of saying, it’s my fault, not theirs,” Hanson said of the discharge. “If I was injured in training, they would have to treat me and compensate me. But they said this was a preexisting condition.”

The Department of Veterans Affairs has since formally recognized his case as one of service-connected sexual trauma.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Bangladeshis reveal 'rampant' rapes in Islamic schools

DHAKA - Former Bangladeshi students are turning to social media to detail allegations of "rampant" sex abuse at the hands of teachers and older pupils in Islamic schools, breaking their silence on a taboo topic in the conservative country.

Child abuse in madrasas has long gone unreported in Bangladesh, a Muslim-majority nation where hardline Islamist groups draw their support from the tens of thousands of schools across the nation of 169 million people.

But in the wake of a brutal murder of a teenage girl who was burnt to death in April after accusing her headteacher of sexual assault, such incidents have been subject to national scrutiny and debate for the first time.

In July alone, at least five madrasa teachers have been arrested on rape charges against boys and girls under their care.

Several senior students were also held by police over the rape and beheading of an 11-year-old orphan, while a Dhaka cleric and seminary teacher was charged with sexually assaulting a dozen boys aged between 12 and 19.

The accusations reveal how students from poorer and rural backgrounds, whose parents send them to madrasas as they are more affordable than secular schools, are disproportionately affected by the abuse.

Rights activists said the assaults -- which range from violent rapes to forcible kissing -- are so pervasive that the cases reported in the media are just the tip of the iceberg.

"For years these crimes eluded spotlight due to sensitivity of the subject," Abdus Shahid, the head of child rights' group Bangladesh Shishu Odhikar Forum, told AFP.

"Devout Muslims send children to madrasas, but they don't speak up about these crimes as they feel it would harm these key religious institutions."

'WIDESPREAD AND RAMPANT'

Hojaifa al Mamduh, who studied in three madrasas in the capital Dhaka, published a series of posts on Facebook in July detailing the abuses endured by students including himself.

The assaults were "so widespread in the madrasas, every student who has studied there knows about it", Al Mamduh, now a journalism student at a Dhaka University, told AFP.

"Many madrasa teachers I know consider sex with children a lesser crime than consensual extramarital sex with women. Since they live in the same dormitories, the perpetrators can easily hide their crimes and put pressure on their poor students to keep mum."

The 23-year-old's posts generated heated debate in the country, and he was personally threatened.

He was accused of being "an agent of Jews and Christians" and smearing the "sacred image" of a madrasa by one social media user.

Another reminded him of the fate of Avijit Roy, a top Bangladeshi atheist blogger and writer who was hacked to death by Islamist extremists in 2015.

But his posts encouraged others to share their own experiences of alleged sex crimes.

Mostakimbillah Masum, who published his story on a feminist website, said he was "first raped by an elder student in my madrasa when I was just seven".

The 25-year-old told AFP that another one of his rapists was "a teacher who made me unconscious and raped me. It traumatised me permanently".

"Dozens of madrasa students I know were either raped or witnessed rapes and sexual assaults of their fellow students," he added. "It is so rampant almost every madrasa has a fair share of such stories."

CULTURE OF IMPUNITY 

Madrasa teachers have strongly denied the allegations, calling them "negative propaganda".

Mahfuzul Haq, a principal of a madrasa in Mohammadpur where Al Mamduh studied, told AFP "one or two isolated incidents can happen" as there were 20,000 madrasas in the South Asian nation.

"Those who don't like to study in madrasas are spreading these stories," he added.

A spokesman for hardline Islamist group Hefazat-e-Islami, which represents a coalition of thousands of madrasas, said his organisation told a recent conference of 1,200 principals to take "tough stand against any sex crimes".

However, there has been growing acknowledgment of the alleged offences.

Pro-Islamic website Fateh24.com, viewed as a voice for the madrasas, pointed out in a report that children were at risk in smaller seminaries run by just one or two teachers and that had no oversight from governing bodies.

Editor Iftekhar Jamil, a former madrasa student and teacher, added that the cases were "not isolated" incidents and called for closed-circuit cameras to be installed in students' sleeping quarters.

"Instead of looking for conspiracies, these madrasas must take up responsibility and adopt an action plan to tackle these crimes," he told AFP.

sa/grk/aph/rbu

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Sexual assault case against Kevin Spacey on shaky ground

NANTUCKET - Kevin Spacey may avoid trial for sexual assault, as the case against him suffered a serious blow Monday when his accuser declined to testify due to fear of self-incrimination.

William Little accused the actor of groping him in a Massachusetts bar in July 2016. The actor, 59, was charged in January with indecent assault and battery.

The Massachusetts District Court judge for Nantucket, the posh island community where the alleged aggression took place, called on Little Monday to testify. Spacey was not present in the court.

But Little chose to plead the Fifth Amendment, which allows citizens not to testify so as not to incriminate themselves, after it was revealed his cell phone -- a key piece of evidence in the case -- may have been compromised.

Little has said he took a smartphone video of the incident, which he says took place when he was an 18-year-old busboy in a Nantucket bar and restaurant.

The smartphone images, which Little said he shared with a then-girlfriend and a group of friends, allegedly show Spacey shoving his hand into the teen's pants and fondling him.

But the phone -- which the defense wanted to examine -- has disappeared, as confirmed by Little and his parents, who were also called upon to testify Monday.

A police officer said he returned the phone to the family after extracting all the information but admitted he neglected to ask for a receipt upon return. The family said they never received the phone.

Interrogated at length about what he did with the phone and the messages on it, Little insisted that he had not deleted anything.

But when warned that manipulating the information on the phone could result in charges being brought against him, Little pled the fifth.

Little's mother Heather Unruh, a television news anchor known in the Boston area, admitted she had deleted some potentially embarrassing photos before giving the phone to the police but said she had not erased anything related to the alleged assault.

Spacey's lawyer Alan Jackson insinuated that text messages from Little -- who was a fan of the actor -- that implied his consent in the situation had been deleted.

"This entire case is completely compromised," said Jackson.

"This case needs to be dismissed and it needs to be dismissed today."

Although the judge did not make a decision, Spacey's defense team added it would promptly request that the case be dropped.

The prosecution did not rule dropping the case, but asked the judge for a week to decide.

Spacey has insisted on his innocence in the matter. The charges carry a penalty of up to five years in prison.

The allegation of sexual misconduct against the two-time Oscar winner was one of more than a dozen to emerge since 2017 in the wake of the #MeToo movement -- in both the United States and Britain -- with devastating effect on his acting career.

He was dropped from the cast of the popular "House of Cards" series and from a leading role in director Ridley Scott's "All the Money in the World," Christopher Plummer was brought in as a last-second replacement.

cat/to/mdl

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Pinoy facing sexual assault charges in Pennsylvania

A 21-year old Filipino was accused of sexually assaulting a woman at Elizabethtown College campus in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

According to authorities, Alexis John Dolotina, who was on campus through an international work travel program, is being accused of sexually assaulting a woman in one of the school buildings.

No students were reportedly involved in the incident.

Dolotina has been taken into custody with bail set at $500,000.

He is charged with rape, sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault and similar charges.

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Trump administration declares emergency in violence-plagued rural Alaska

ANCHORAGE - U.S. Attorney General William Barr on Friday declared a public-safety emergency in rural Alaska and pledged $10.5 million in federal funds to combat some of the nation's worst rates of sexual assault, child abuse and other violent crimes.

Barr's announcement followed a visit to Alaska last month, where the country's top law enforcement official was told about extraordinary high rates of rape and domestic violence and a lack of police officers.

About a third of Alaska Native villages lack local law-enforcement services, according to a statement by the U.S. Department of Justice announcing the federal money.

"I witnessed firsthand the complex, unique, and dire law enforcement challenges the State of Alaska and its remote Alaska Native communities are facing,” Barr said in the statement.

Rural Alaska communities, with largely Native populations and mostly without outside road access, have long been plagued by violent crime. For various legal and financial reasons, local and state responses to rural crime have been limited.

Village public safety officers, residents of the small Native communities scattered over remote parts of Alaska, are managed by the Alaska State Troopers.

Alaska tribes do not have the legal authority to establish police forces, a product of the sweeping 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act that restricted tribal powers, Native leaders told Barr in May. Establishing tribal police would require another act of Congress, the Native leaders said.

State-funded rural law enforcement has been hindered by Alaska's long-running fiscal problems. The state is dependent on oil revenues that are dwindling and has cut back services over the years.

On Friday, just after Barr declared the public-safety emergency, Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced deep cuts he was making by veto to the fiscal 2020 budget passed by the state legislature. Among them was a $3 million cut Dunleavy made to the village public safety officer program.

Of the emergency funding announced by Barr, $6 million is to support the state's village public safety officer program and to help pay for mobile detention facilities.

Another $4.5 million will be paid by the end of July for 20 officer positions, equipment and training for Native grantees, the Justice Department said.

Barr also announced plans for some longer-term responses, including some funding for child protection.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Gynecologist charged with sex abuse at US university

LOS ANGELES - A former gynecologist at a top California university was arrested and charged Wednesday with sexually assaulting 16 young women during medical examinations, officials said.

George Tyndall has been accused of abuse by hundreds of female patients during his 30-year career, in a major scandal that has engulfed the University of Southern California.

The doctor was arrested outside his apartment by Los Angeles police Wednesday and charged with multiple counts of sexual penetration and sexual battery by fraud.

He could face a sentence of up to 53 years in prison if convicted, the district attorney's office said. 

Accusations against Tyndall, ranging from inappropriate touching to rape, date as far back as 1990, although the charges relate to incidents since 2009. The youngest alleged victim was aged 17.

The doctor, now 72, has been accused of taking photos of patients' genitals, groping their breasts and making lewd remarks about their physiques, as well as racist and homophobic comments.

He allegedly often targeted minority students -- including many from the university's large Asian student population -- who were not fluent in English or unfamiliar with gynecological exams.

He was not investigated by USC officials until 2016, and was allowed to retire under an amicable agreement with the university, the financial details of which have not been disclosed. 

The university's president resigned last year amid pressure from two hundred professors to step down over the scandal.

Los Angeles police opened their own investigation and have since been gathering evidence to present to prosecutors for criminal charges.

USC interim president Wanda Austin said Wednesday the university was cooperating with the police investigation.

"We hope this arrest will be a healing step for former patients and our entire university," she said.

Hundreds of former patients have also sued the university for failing to adequately respond to the allegations against Tyndall.

Last year, USC said it had reached an "agreement in principle" to pay $215 million in compensation.

Tyndall has denied any wrongdoing, and said in a statement through his lawyer Wednesday that he "remains adamant" he will be "totally exonerated."

"After a year of being tried in the press, Dr Tyndall looks forward to having his case adjudicated in a court of law where the truth will finally prevail," said attorney Andrew Flier.

USC has also been rocked in recent months by a wide-ranging college admissions bribery scandal.

amz/jh

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R. Kelly charged with new felony sex assault, abuse counts: Chicago Sun Times report

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Grammy-winning singer R. Kelly was charged on Thursday with 11 new felony counts of sexual assault and abuse that could, if he is convicted, send the R & B singer to prison for 30 years, the Chicago Sun Times reported.

Kelly was indicted by a Cook County Grand Jury on four counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault, two counts of criminal sexual assault by force and two counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, documents posted on the newspaper’s website showed.

He was also indicted on three counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse against a victim between the ages of 13 to 16, according to the documents. The allegations center on someone identified only as J.P. in January 2010, with no other details provided.

R. Kelly “was NOT charged with a new case. He was recharged in an existing case, same alleged victim and time (a decade ago) It changes nothing,” the performer’s attorney, Steve Greenberg, wrote on Twitter.

“These are the same conduct, just charged differently, same alleged victim, same time frame, same facts. We expect the same results,” he wrote.

Kelly has denied abuse allegations for decades. In 2008, the singer was tried on child pornography charges and found not guilty.

Kelly, 52, pleaded not guilty in February to charges that he sexually assaulted three teenage girls and a fourth woman. The charges were brought after seven women including his ex-wife, appeared on a Lifetime television documentary and accused him of emotional and sexual abuse.

He spent a weekend in jail on the sex charges before being released on $100,000 bail on Feb. 25.

The new charges carry a sentence of 30 years for Kelly if he is convicted, the Sun Times reported.

Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Chicago; Editing by Howard Goller and Grant McCool

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