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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...

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...

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...

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...