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Lawrence Hecker is charged with raping teenager after strangling him in 1975 in a New Orleans churchA mental competency hearing has been delayed again for a 92-year-old retired Catholic priest faced with charges of raping a teenager after strangling him unconscious in 1975 in a New Orleans church.Lawrence Hecker’s trial on state charges of aggravated rape, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated crime against nature and theft...

Since 2021, eight employees of Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California, charged with assaulting female prisonersThe US Bureau of Prisons (BoP) is closing a federal women’s prison in California that has been plagued by rampant staff sexual abuse of incarcerated residents.Colette Peters, the BoP director, said in a statement to the Associated Press on Monday that Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Dublin was “not meeting...

Concerns that rare sleep disorder is being used as an ‘escape route’ in sexual offence trials prompt calls for safeguards to protect victims and the publicExperts and lawyers involved in sexual offence cases in Britain have warned that suspected rapists are evading justice by claiming to have a rare sleepwalking disorder that causes them to engage in sexual activity while asleep.They said there had...

Court rules 4-3 to overturn law that had allowed victims to file civil suits over sexual abuse that took place decades agoIn a split ruling that has major implications for hundreds of child sexual abuse victims, the Louisiana state supreme court has struck down a law that had allowed victims to file civil lawsuits over molestation that happened decades ago.Child molestation victims and their...

Crime crackdown plan also gives victims of rape and sexual assault the right to specialist support throughout justice processSix police forces will be given powers to charge domestic abuser suspects without the involvement of the Crown Prosecution Service as part of a series of Labour proposals to solve more crimes announced on Thursday.A future Keir Starmer government would also give victims in domestic abuse,...

Exclusive: Independent examination of rape prosecutions hears lawyers are ‘obsessed’ with credibility of victims and use victim-blaming languageAnalysis: CPS report makes for grim reading – and it’s only the start Lawyers in the Crown Prosecution Service in England and Wales have trivialised teen sexual abuse, are “obsessed” about the credibility of rape victims and used victim-blaming language, according to a critical official examination into...

Christian evangelical institution punished victims ‘for violating the student code of conduct’ as ‘assailants were left unpunished’Liberty University has been hit with a $14m Department of Education federal fine for creating “a culture of silence” around sexual assault, failing to support victims of violence and then failing to properly report them correctly under the law.Announcing the fine on Tuesday, the department said in a...

Allegations, which rapper and mogul denies, is the latest in a series of lawsuits accusing him of sexual assaultSean Combs, the rapper and mogul known as Diddy, was sued Monday by a music producer who accused the hip-hop mogul of sexually assaulting him and forcing him to have sex with prostitutes.The suit, filed in federal court in New York, accuses Combs of repeated instances...

More than half a million people made treacherous, weeklong trek in 2023, facing horrors including mass rapes by armed banditsA sevenfold increase in sexual attacks against people crossing the Darién Gap is compounding the misery for people trekking one of the world’s most dangerous and underreported border crossings, said Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).Complete impunity for armed gangs in the lawless stretch of jungle that...

Current definition was factor in Carroll’s sexual abuse case, which was highlighted by Governor Kathy Hochul at bill ceremonyNew York will expand its legal definition of rape to include various forms of nonconsensual sexual contact, under a bill signed into law by Governor Kathy Hochul on Tuesday.The state’s current limited definition was a factor in writer E Jean Carroll’s sexual abuse and defamation case...

African Parks examines alleged atrocities against Indigenous people by its Congo Republic guards after ‘decade of alerts’ from Survival InternationalA wildlife charity that has the Duke of Sussex as a board member is investigating allegations of rape and torture by its guards in the Republic of the Congo.African Parks, which manages 22 national parks and protected areas across 12 countries, said the investigation was...

Exclusive: Despite the immediate horrors, women have largely led recovery efforts where government has failed, researchers sayFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastWomen were subjected to violence and sexual assaults resulting in pregnancies in the immediate aftermath of the northern rivers floods due to a lack of triaging and separation...