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childhood sexual abuse

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Kansas City Man Charged With Sex Trafficking and Child Porn

July 17
By MARK MORRIS
The Kansas City Star

A Kansas City man sexually abused two minor girls, using both to produce child pornography and prostituting one of them, a federal grand jury alleged this week.

Michael Dye, 46, purportedly made more than $200,000 on the scheme, which included fees to watch the girls sexually perform in online webcasts and gifts of cash, vehicles, appliances and remodeling projects at Dye’s home, prosecutors alleged.And once,  Dye threatened one of his victims that he would have her and her family killed if she ever told anyone about the abuse, prosecutors alleged.The charges alleged that Dye used two children to produce child porn between June 2005 and August 2008. Dye also allegedly prostituted one of the children between June 2005 and August 2007, prosecutors said.

The grand jury returned the sealed indictment on Tuesday, and it was opened Wednesday after his initial court appearance. Prosecutors have asked that Dye be jailed without bond pending his trial because they said he is likely to flee and is a threat to his victims.

Prosecutors alleged that after an interview with authorities in late 2012, Dye began to drive past  one of his victim’s homes.

“The minor victim advised that there is no reason why Dye would be driving by their home with that frequency unless it was to keep an eye on them and see whether they were meeting any more with law enforcement,” the detention motion stated.

Officials also alleged that Dye was a danger to himself, noting that Dye attempted suicide after being extensively questioned  four years ago.

“Dye has made numerous statements to the minor victims that rather than spend a lengthy time in jail he would instead commit suicide,” the detention motion stated.

Dye is charged with two counts of producing child pornography, two counts of selling child pornography and one count each of child sex trafficking and grooming a child to participate in child pornography.

If convicted on all counts, he faces a minimum of 15 years in prison and could be sentenced up to life.

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Federal Agents Arrest 255 Suspected Online Predators of Children

5:25 AM, Jul 16, 2013

ATLANTA — Federal agents announced Monday they arrested 255 people — three of them in the Atlanta area, and three of them elsewhere in Georgia — suspected of victimizing at least 61 children online.

The suspects were arrested in June during a nationwide crackdown against the exploitation of children on the Internet.

“There’s a tremendous amount of it out there,” said Brock Nicholson in Atlanta, one of the top investigators in charge of the operation, who said agents were “finding the worst of the worst.”

Nicholson is Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Georgia and the Carolinas. His agents joined other agents across the country in the operation, called “Operation iGuardian.”

“We rescued 61 victims of abuse, which is our main focus,” Nicholson said.

Agents who conducted the sweep said one of the ways predators lured children is through “sextortion.”

“Sextortion is one of the tools,” Nicholson said, “where basically an individual will, through the Internet, meet children at various websites, whether it be through a video game website,” or social media sites. “They’re going to where the kids are,” he said, and they befriend the kids.  “And they get the child comfortable with them… convince the child to do something they know that’s going to seem wrong, then threaten the child… then this sextortion thing comes in, ‘Hey look,’ you know, ‘I’ll tell your parents you’re looking at this unless you do A, B, C,'” and the predators ultimately make their demands, such as demanding that the children take sexually-explicit photos of themselves, or demanding that the children meet them. The children comply because they are too frightened to say no.

“You have to remember, they’re going after a very young mind,” Nicholson said, and the predators “are very skilled at getting children to do things that are absolutely heinous.”

Nicholson said Homeland Security Investigators are launching “an aggressive outreach program, with schools and parents’ groups, and anyone that will listen,” an education campaign that will begin in about a month; they will take every opportunity to meet parents to underscore the urgency of keeping their children out of harm’s way online.

One way of protecting them:  monitoring their children’s Internet use constantly. A tall order, but possible, he said.

“It’s so important that parents not worry about their child feeling like [the parents are] overdoing it with checking on them. You can’t overdo it enough, you need to not only see what your child is doing on the Internet, you need to teach them what to look for, and warn them that there are very bad individuals. I have two daughters, and trust me, I have had that conversation with them ad infinitum — ‘It’s not that I don’t trust you, I don’t trust the other folks that are out on the Internet.'”

The charges against the suspects are felonies, and “some sentences even go up to life,” if convicted, Nicholson said. Investigators continue to work the cases they developed in June. “we’ll follow up with the folks that we’ve arrested and see if we can determine if there are any more victims. We’ll certainly use every bit of energy we have to see if there are other folks that the guys were working with, or exchanging with. But we do this every day,” not just during special sweeps like the one in June.

“We get a great feeling of accomplishment when we can get one of these people off the street.”

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Finding Help

For those men who have been sexually abused as a child, I encourage you to attend our Barrayo meeting on Tuesday nights in Sugar Land.  Please contact Barrayo@merimnao.org for more details.

abused-boy

Survivors of childhood sexual abuse may experience a range of emotions and effects that impact many aspects of their adult lives:

Anger ,Shame, Guilt, Depression, Anxiety, Denial and minimizing, Difficulty in trusting others, Sexual difficulties, Difficulties with relationships, Flashbacks, Memory disorders, Self-blame and self-doubt, Physical health problems, Eating disorders, [and] Substance abuse. Any or all of these aftereffects can combine to produce feelings of depression, isolation and hopelessness. All of these feelings and reactions are normal responses to traumatic experiences. Acknowledging the pain can be the first step in working through the abuse. You deserve support in healing from childhood sexual abuse. You have the right to be believed and listened to, and to express your feelings about the abuse.

Remember:

• You are not alone, and you can get help finding support for all of the ways that childhood abuse impacts your life.

• Local rape crisis centers have information on how to begin healing from your trauma. You can talk to someone over the phone or the center may offer individual counseling and support groups to assist you on the path to recovery. They can offer you referrals for social services or for legal help, too.

• There are many ways to heal from childhood abuse. A counselor can help you create a healing plan that meets your individual needs.

• Help is also available for the important people in your life. Your spouse or partner, friends, family members, children or others may want to seek information so that they can understand your needs and challenges.

• There are people who will listen to you, who understand, and who will help you on your recovery path. You are not alone.
http://www.miamidade.gov/police/victim-adult-victims.asp

“The most important thing in defining child sexual abuse is the experience of the child. It takes very little for a child’s world to be devastated.” – Laura Hough

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Adult Victims of Child Sexual Abuse

For those men who have been sexually abused as a child, I encourage you to attend our Barrayo meeting on Tuesday nights in Sugar Land.  Please contact Barrayo@merimnao.org for more details.

gty_boy_rear_view_jt_111120_wgThe sexual abuse of children spans all races, ages, ethnic groups and economic backgrounds. Sexual abuse means any kind of unwanted or inappropriate sexual behavior with a child, whether or not there is actual physical contact. Tragically, this kind of abuse is not rare; studies estimate that one in four girls and one in seven boys are sexually abused as children. Abusers can be family members, friends of the family, authority figures or strangers. It is impossible to tell if someone is an abuser by simply looking – they may be someone who is highly respected in society and who has a good reputation. Most child victims knew and trusted the people who abused them. Children are absolutely dependent on adults for their physical and emotional survival, and abusers have many ways of wielding this power over children. Abusers may use threats to coerce children, such as the threat of harm to them or their loved ones and withholding of love and affection. They may tell a child that he or she is special, that the abuse is a way to show love for the child, or that the child is responsible for the abuse. If you are a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, it is important to remember that no matter what you may have been told, the abuse was not your fault and you are not alone.

http://www.miamidade.gov/police/victim-adult-victims.asp

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Trafficking & The Sex Trade

0001EL1 1. Estes, Richard J. and Neil A. Weiner. The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. The University of Pennsylvania School of Social Work: 2001 2. Estes, Richard J. and Neil A. Weiner. The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. The University of Pennsylvania School of Social Work: 2001. 3. Brown, Jane D., and Kelly L. L’Engle. “X-rated sexual attitudes and behaviors associated with US early adolescents’ exposure to sexually explicit media.” Communication Research 36.1 (2009): 129-151. 4. Debra Boyer, U. Washington, Susan Breault of the Paul & Lisa Program, “Danger for prostitutes increasing, most starting younger,” Beacon Journal, 21 September 1997 5. National Runaway Switchboard, August 2006 6. Shared Hope International 7. FBI, 2011