Father Accepts Plea Deal in Child Cruelty Case (Shasta County, CA)
"His lawyer maintains that no one believes Shasteen intentionally hurt his daughter." Really???
Father Accepts Plea Deal in Child Cruelty Case
Contributor: Kelli Saam
Email: ksaam@khsltv.com
Last Update: 5/21 9:47 pm
A Shasta County man accused of abusing his infant daughter will not spend any time in prison. 23-year-old Jimmy Shasteen was originally booked on child cruelty charges in April 2008. Investigators say in late March 2008, Shasteen’s 4-week-old daughter started vomiting and having seizures. Doctors discovered her brain was bleeding and transferred her to U.C. Davis Medical Center. They found both her legs also had fractures.
Shasteen decided to accept a plea deal after the jury in his first trial deadlocked. If convicted he could have faced 12 years in prison.
Thursday morning, Shasteen was handed down a 6 month suspended sentence with six years of probation. If he violates his sentence, he will automatically head to prison for six years. His lawyer maintains that no one believes Shasteen intentionally hurt his daughter.
Father, two children dead in apparent Oregon murder-suicide
When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall – think of it, always.” – Gandhi
www.KansansForJudicialAccountability.com
Sadly, our predictions were correct. It was a father who was "unemployed" with "emotional issues related to his divorce."
http://www.kswt.com/Global/story.asp?S=10451296&nav=menu613_2_5
Father, two children dead in apparent Oregon murder-suicide
Associated Press – May 31, 2009 7:53 AM ET
HILLSBORO, Ore. (AP) – Police in Oregon say a 45-year-old father found dead with his two children along a hiking trail is believed to have shot them before killing himself.
The bodies were found at a nature preserve Friday. A medical examiner confirms that all three were shot with a 9mm. handgun and authorities recovered such a gun from the site.
A police spokesman tells KGW news that detectives have interviewed family members and believe the father had emotional issues linked to his divorce. He had no criminal record but was unemployed .
It is the second time in a week that a parent in the Portland area has been suspected of killing a child.
Amanda Stott-Smith is charged with aggravated murder for allegedly throwing her two children off of a bridge into the Willamette River a week earlier. Her 4-year-old son died, but his 7-year-old sister survived.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Brutal child abuse on the rise (Orlando, FL)
Check out the stellar custodial dad in paragraph one.
Brutal child abuse on the rise
By Kate Santich | Sentinel Staff Writer
May 31, 2009
The girl was 7 years old. Her father, raising her by himself, was just 23. Her great offense, Orange County detectives would later learn, was losing the cell phone her dad had given her. Terrified of what might happen, she lied and said it was stolen.
She had reason to be wary.
When the Orlando man learned the truth, he beat his daughter so badly he broke her spine, bruised her spleen and made her face "unrecognizable" to her own grandmother. Then he called relatives in Washington state, persuaded them to fly out and take the girl, and he put her on a plane in a veiled costume.
If anyone asks, he told the girl’s aunt, "Just say [she] was in a car accident." Instead, after reaching Washington, relatives took the child to an emergency room. A nurse practitioner said the force of the father’s blow might easily have been fatal."It was horrendous," said Carrie Hoeppner, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Children and Families’ central region, which includes Orlando. "He beat her like he was fighting a grown man."
Though the father — who is not being named to protect his daughter’s identity — was arrested in January on attempted murder charges and the girl is recovering, the case continues to trouble child-abuse investigators for other reasons. It is, they say, only one example of a growing trend in which Florida children are being killed or severely injured by the people who are supposed to be taking care of them.
In 2008, the number of fatal child-abuse cases in Central Florida more than doubled over 2007, from 14 to 30. Already this year, the deaths of 59 children are under investigation, though some will likely turn out to be accidental or the result of neglect.
Among the recent cases is the early May shooting spree of 34-year-old Troy Ryan Bellar of Lakeland, who used a high-powered assault rifle to kill his wife, Wendy, and two of their sons, 8-year-old Ryan and 5-month-old Zack. Their 13-year-old son managed to escape to a neighbor’s house as his father fired after him. Ultimately, Troy Bellar shot and killed himself in the family’s front yard.
"This is one of the most tragic, senseless and horrific crimes we have investigated," said Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd.
That case came a month after 6-month-old Jeremiah Shaneyfelt was found dying at his mother’s Osceola County home. Investigators said he had been shaken, head-butted and dropped. His mother’s boyfriend, Michael Reid Jr., 27, is now charged with first degree murder in the infant’s death. As it turns out, he was awaiting trial on similar child-abuse charges in a case where a 6-month-old was severely injured.
The crimes join a litany of baffling, bizarre abuses in which Florida infants and toddlers have been starved, shot and thrown out of a moving car onto a highway.
"When you think about what you’re hearing now in the news, I think unfortunately we will see another increase [in child-abuse deaths] next year," said Major Connie Shingledecker, chairwoman of the state’s Child Abuse Death Review Team, which examines cases reported through the Florida child-abuse hot line and verified by investigators. Though the team is only now looking at deaths for last year, Shingledecker notes there already has been a documented increase in familial murder-suicides, which used to be virtually unheard of.
She and other officials say the recession may be a contributing factor.
"We know of whole families being wiped out, not only in Florida but across the country," she said. "And in a lot of the cases, there is a link to economic troubles. People feel such hopelessness. They may be dealing with a dramatic change in their lifestyle, and they see no way out."
Economic problems can lead to depression and a loss of identity when the family’s breadwinner, often the father, loses his job, experts say.
"If you’re already stressed out — maybe you got laid off from your job or you’re worried about the bank foreclosing on your home — you’re also more likely to abuse [drugs and alcohol]," said Alan Abramowitz, director of DCF’s family safety program. "Add a crying baby, and that can be a recipe for disaster."
Men are more commonly the perpetrators in abuse cases, while women lead in cases of neglect. Statistics show the most typical abuser profile is the boyfriend of a single mom, 18 to 30 years old and unemployed. If the mother is facing financial difficulties herself, she may have the boyfriend move in to share living expenses — or to have free child care while she works.
The fact that these men have no biological bond with the children, and often no prior parenting experience, makes them ill-prepared to deal with crying jags, potty-training accidents and the battle of wills that can come with feeding very young children.
"If you look at the age curve for victims of shaken-baby syndrome, it often correlates with the crying curve of babies — the amount of time each day that babies spend crying," said Dr. Mark Kesler, medical director of the state’s child protection team for Orange and Osceola counties. "People don’t understand that babies can cry a certain number of hours each day, and that’s normal."
It doesn’t take much, Kesler notes, to seriously injure an infant by shaking. The difference in size and strength between adult and child coupled with a baby’s weak neck muscles and disproportionately large head can quickly lead to permanent brain damage or death.
"All you have to do is lose it for 10 seconds," Kesler said.
Kate Santich can be reached at 407-420-5503 or ksantich@orlandosentinel.com.Need help?
If you are a parent or guardian worried about losing control and hurting your child, call 1-800-FLA-LOVE for free, confidential support.
If you suspect a child is being abused, call the state’s hot line at 1-800-96-ABUSE (1-800-962-2873) or file online at dcf.state.fl.us/abuse/report/.
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Father, two children dead in apparent Oregon murder-suicide
When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall – think of it, always.” – Gandhi
www.KansansForJudicialAccountability.com
Sadly, our predictions were correct. It was a father who was "unemployed" with "emotional issues related to his divorce."
http://www.kswt.com/Global/story.asp?S=10451296&nav=menu613_2_5
Father, two children dead in apparent Oregon murder-suicide
Associated Press – May 31, 2009 7:53 AM ET
HILLSBORO, Ore. (AP) – Police in Oregon say a 45-year-old father found dead with his two children along a hiking trail is believed to have shot them before killing himself.
The bodies were found at a nature preserve Friday. A medical examiner confirms that all three were shot with a 9mm. handgun and authorities recovered such a gun from the site.
A police spokesman tells KGW news that detectives have interviewed family members and believe the father had emotional issues linked to his divorce. He had no criminal record but was unemployed .
It is the second time in a week that a parent in the Portland area has been suspected of killing a child.
Amanda Stott-Smith is charged with aggravated murder for allegedly throwing her two children off of a bridge into the Willamette River a week earlier. Her 4-year-old son died, but his 7-year-old sister survived.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Willamette,River,rights,tyrants,murderers,predictions,members,suicide,week
Baby OK, dad arrested in suspected killing (Lewisville, TX)
Baby OK, dad arrested in suspected kidnapping
12:00 AM CDT on Thursday, May 28, 2009
By TANYA EISERER / The Dallas Morning News
teiserer@dallasnews.comA Lewisville man suspected of violently kidnapping his 10-month-old son from the boy’s mother’s car Wednesday morning was arrested in Old East Dallas after spending eight hours on the run with the child, Dallas police said.
An Amber Alert that had been issued for the baby was canceled Wednesday evening, authorities said.
The father, identified as Manuel Patricio Bolanos, 27, surrendered to police in the 5400 block of Gaston Avenue, police said. The boy had suffered cuts to his face and arms that did not appear to be serious, police said. He was taken to Children’s Medical Center Dallas for treatment.
Police planned to charge Bolanos with injury to a child. He also faces charges associated with two warrants out of Waco, police said. Details on those warrants were not available Wednesday evening.
Bolanos rammed the mother’s car and smashed out her windows before taking the baby from the car about 11:15 a.m. Wednesday at Regal Row and Stemmons Freeway, authorities said.
According to police, he called the mother and said he was going to kill himself and the child, also named Manuel. The 18-year-old mother, April Thompson, told police that she had recently broken up with the child’s father.
Sherry Crawford, the child’s grandmother, said that her daughter had been with Bolanos for over two years and had been scared to leave him but that she had finally made the decision to go.
"She’s been in an abusive relationship," Crawford said. "He found out that she was leaving."
Thompson, the boy, Crawford and another relative were in a Pontiac on their way to Waco, where the family lives, when Bolanos caught up with them along Interstate 35E, Crawford said.
Bolanos was driving a 1999 Chrysler Concord when he abruptly cut ahead of the Pontiac and caused a rear-end collision, police said.
The driver of the Pontiac fled southbound on Interstate 35E and exited at Regal Row. But Bolanos was able to box in the car at a stoplight, then jumped from his car and smashed the driver’s side window, police said. He then ran to the passenger side and broke out the rear window, police said.
The Pontiac’s driver was able to get the car clear of Bolanos’ vehicle and pulled into a Whataburger parking lot to ask for help, Crawford said. But Bolanos remained in pursuit.
"He pinned us in and pulled the baby over the broken glass and left," Crawford said.
Police said he dragged the child out through the broken rear passenger window, possibly cutting the baby’s head on the jagged glass. He then tossed the baby into the front seat of his vehicle before fleeing.
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Officer: Erie [PA] dad admits killing infant daughter
Another dad being the stay-at-home parent while mom had to work.
http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090530/NEWS02/305299886/-1/NEWS
Officer: Erie dad admits killing infant daughter
Davis faces trial in baby’s deathBY LISA THOMPSON
lisa.thompson@timesnews.com [more details]
Published: May 30. 2009 1:15AM
Vincent M. Davis.Vincent Davis told police he cared for his infant daughter Savonnia most days while her mother worked.
He called the 5-month-old girl the "love of his life."
But on Feb. 24, when Savonnia began crying, Davis shook her to make her stop, according to an account he gave Erie police.
The child not only stopped crying, she nearly stopped breathing.
Davis called his mother, Savonnia’s mother and a hot line called Ask-A-Nurse for help. But by the time the family got Savonnia to a hospital by taxi cab several hours later, it was too late.
"I killed my baby," Davis told Detective Sgt. Ed Spagel, according to Spagel’s testimony Friday.
Davis, 24, who had no prior criminal record, was ordered held for trial Friday on homicide and related charges after a preliminary hearing before Erie 5th Ward District Judge Joseph Lefaiver.
Davis also faces a misdemeanor count of cruelty to animals. Testimony indicated Davis said that on the same morning he shook Savonnia, he also kicked the family’s Jack Russell terrier, Marley. Police found the dog dead in a garbage bag on the front porch.
Spagel was the only witness Friday.
He said police were notified Feb. 24 that a suspected child-abuse victim had been taken to Saint Vincent Health Center. Doctors said Savonnia Davis was bruised, suffering from brain swelling and had difficulty breathing. She was taken to Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh, where she died Feb. 26.
Savonnia and her mother lived at 211 E. 30th St. Davis stayed there frequently, but also had his own address in the 2400 block of Parade Street.
Spagel said he interviewed Davis three times.
Davis first said he had cared for Savonnia the morning of Feb. 24 while her mother, Jessica Fox, was at work, but that he did not know what happened to the girl.
On Feb. 26, Davis told the detective that he had dropped Savonnia while placing her in a playpen.
In a third interview on Feb. 27, Spagel said, he confronted Davis with the autopsy results that showed Savonnia had a head injury, retinal bleeding and other signs of trauma, including healing and freshly broken rib bones.
Davis’ head, Spagel said, "dropped."
Davis told Spagel he had shaken Savonnia the morning of Feb. 24 when she began crying and then dropped her to the floor.
Davis is being held without bond in Erie County Prison. He faces felony charges of homicide, aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of children, and misdemeanor counts of recklessly endangering another person and cruelty to animals.
LISA THOMPSON can be reached at 870-1802 or by e-mail.
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Final Moments of Murder-Suicide on Audio Recording (Meriden, CT)
Murder-suicide…in Connecticut.
http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-meriden-murder-suicide-0529.artmay29,0,4685506.story
MERIDEN
Final Moments Of Meriden Murder-Suicide On Audio Recording
Courant Staff Report
- May 29, 2009
MERIDEN — – The final moments of Wednesday’s murder-suicide here were captured in an audio recording of a 911 call made by James Canty, who is heard sobbing uncontrollably and apologizing.
Technorati Tags: Final,Murder,Suicide,Audio,Meriden,Connecticut,news,Courant,Staff,Report,James,Moments
CHILD CUSTODY EVALUATORS TO JUSTIFY THE REASON FOR THEIR PROFESSIONAL EXISTENCE: Child Custody Evaluation Articles- (Court Whores)
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122407918/abstract
RESPONDING TO THE CALL FOR CHILD CUSTODY EVALUATORS TO JUSTIFY THE REASON FOR THEIR PROFESSIONAL EXISTENCE: SOME THOUGHTS ON KELLY AND RAMSEY (2009)
William G. Austin
ABSTRACT
Kelly and Ramsey (2009) propose that it is time to examine the costs and benefits courts and participants derive from child custody evaluations. A structure for a research program was suggested. This article endorses this call for such an examination on the system that provides for forensic mental health evaluations for custody disputes. There is a need to examine the costs and benefits of various types of approaches that are emerging, including the comprehensive evaluation and brief, focused evaluations. This article suggests that there is a need for forensic quality control of the work product that is produced by evaluators. Courts are cognizant of the need to encourage settlement between parties, but they also need to be accurate in making judicial determinations that will be in the best interests of children. Quality evaluations are a cornerstone in working toward this goal. Kelly and Ramsey are mindful of the need for evaluations to facilitate settlement, but also to get it right for the court on accurate predictions about children’s developmental outcomes.
Technorati Tags: Child,Custody,Evaluation,Court,Whores,journal,CALL,EVALUATORS,JUSTIFY,REASON,PROFESSIONAL,EXISTENCE,SOME,THOUGHTS,RAMSEY,William,Austin,ABSTRACT,benefits,courts,article,examination,system,health,product,settlement,interests,children,goal,Articles,participants,evaluations,predictions,outcomes,forensic
Father charged with cruelty for tattooing toddler
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2009/05/26/father_tattoo_toddler.html
Man charged with cruelty for tattooing toddler
By KATIE LESLIE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
A Floyd County man has been charged with child cruelty after authorities say he tattooed his 3-year-old son.
Floyd County Police Sgt. Teri Davis said Eugene Ashley, 24, tattooed the back of his son’s right shoulder with “DB,” which stands for “Daddy’s Boy,” sometime this spring. The man told police he was intoxicated at the time, Davis said.
Special
Eugene Ashley
The child’s mother, Amy Ashley, was not present during the incident.
The tattoo was discovered after an unidentified person complained to the Department of Family and Children Services about the conditions at the Ashley home. The Ashleys have three or four children, Davis said.
“You keep thinking you’ve seen it all, and then voila,” Davis said.
The children remain with their mother; Eugene Ashley was arrested May 21 and faces charges of child cruelty and tattooing a person younger than 18 years old, the latter being a misdemeanor, Davis said.
Ashley has been released from jail; information on his bond amount was not immediately available.
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Ireland: Public Trial: The Rape of Justice – Who's Guilty?
http://www.womenagainstrape.net/Trial/Morning%20Star%20Report.htm
Report of Public Trial:
The rape of justice – who’s guilty?
By Bridget Symonds and Lisa Longstaff, Women Against Rape. Published in Women’s News, Ireland’s feminist magazine, May/June 2009
Photos by Crossroads Women’s Photo Collective
Three judges at the Trial
On Saturday 16th February, rape survivors and their supporters packed a London church to charge those who are supposed to protect us — the police, Crown Prosecution Service, judges, ministers and immigration authorities — with the “rape of justice”.
0A
Nearly 30 rape survivors, several young survivors’ mothers, one husband, and a representative of Iraqi women took the “witness” stand in front of a “prosecutor” and three “judges” from Women Against Rape, Black Women’s Rape Action Project and Legal Action for Women, to give their devastating testimonies. The audience acted as jury.
Each witness named who they were putting on trial and then gave their reasons why these individuals and the institutions they represent were responsible for lack of justice and for the despicable conviction rate which stands at less than 6%.
Formal “court summonses” had been sent to the accused, and their faces gazed back at the audience from a projection on the stage: Met Commissioner Ian Blair, Solicitor General Vera Baird, Women and Equality Minister Harriet Harman, notorious immigration judge Warren L. Grant, and a number of local crown prosecutors and police officers. Woman after woman called them to account for being, in the words of former New York prosecutor Alice Vachss, “collaborators” with rapists, leaving them to rape again.
Survivors described how the police had failed to collect evidence, or lost it, and the CPS refused to prosec ute. They described blatant sexism, racism and disability prejudice, and the deep rooted stereotypes women are constantly battling against such as the idea that if a woman is drunk, has a “reputation”, or works in the sex industry then she is “asking for it”. Many detailed how women and girls are put on “on trial”: discouraged from reporting, humiliated in court, and even accused of lying and ending up in prison. Yet by reporting violent men women are performing a public service and preventing further violence. Surely we should be encouraged to come forward and be treated with respect.
One witness who works for the police testified how a male officer had raped her, and the local force had investigated their own colleague. “My MP said he did not want to get involved for fear of ‘upsetting’ the force and the judge eventually threw my case out, calling me a ‘whore’ and saying that my injuries were ‘self-inflicted’.”
A Jamaican mother accused the police of raping her son in a cell. This led to her arrest after she filed charges and eventually she ended up in a removal centre, threatened with deportation.
A mother whose partner had for years raped her daughter was advised to “get counselling, this will never come to court”. Another mother said her daughter’s rapist is still working — as a teacher.
The Iraqi woman indicted the US and British governments for genocide and rape. The sexual assault and other torture exposed at Abu Ghraib was not an exception – under the occupation the rape of women and children in prisons and elsewhere was widespread though largely hidden.
A sex worker who brought the first successful private prosecution for rape with support from WAR, LAW and the English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP) spoke powerfully about the precedent this had set. Another member of the ECP clarified that consent is always the issue and that feminists who want to criminalise clients are diverting attention and resources from rape and endangering sex workers.
An Iraqi woman indicted the US and British governments for genocide and rape. She alleged that the sexual assault and other torture exposed at Abu Ghraib was not an exception – that under the occupation the rape of women and children in prisons and elsewhere was widespread though largely hidden.
While all the defendants declined to attend, they did get their time on the stand as the organisers performed monologues taken from actual cases. These hard hitting commentaries excellently performed added some comic relief at the expense of the authorities, reinforcing what so many women had been brave enough to t ell.
“His Honour Lord Justice Judge Marquis de Sade” personified the deeply ingrained sexism in court: “You have to remember the likeliest thing is 1) she asked for it; 2) she was too drunk to know what she was doing; or 3) he had a lingering right, since they used to be married.” Solicitor General “Viola Blurred” noted: “People say there’s a double standard in investigations of rape compared to other crimes. Actually I said that myself in Parliament in 2006.”
Painful as it was, many said afterwards how empowering it had been to put their experiences together with others, to name names, and to speak out about exhausting months or years of struggling for justice.
The trial marked the 30th anniversary of Women Against Rape, and referred to what had been won in so many years of campaigning, including the 1991 law recognising rape in marriage as a crime, and a growing acknowledgement that no one deserves to be raped regardless of background, race, job, age, disability, what they are wearing or how much they have drunk.
As addiction specialists say, the first crucial step to change is admitting that you have a problem. Assistant Police Commissioner John Yates is finally beginning to admit that if they investigated promptly
and thoroughly, convictions would go up. But Solicitor General Vera Baird still claims that the outrages perpetrated by the CPS are all in the past.The Trial made such denial unsustainable. The jury found all the accused guilty as charged, and voted that they should be disciplined and if necessary lose their jobs. Until then, nothing will change.
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To address the issue of holding to account the people who are supposed to implement the law, a new petition was launched, End the Rape of Justice. SIGN ONLINE www.petitiononline.com/WAR08/petition.html And women were invited to a series of legal workshops, to be held by WAR.
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See Anna Sussman’s excellent article about WAR’s Rape Trial and women raped in the military, ‘Avoiding the ‘inevitable’, posted 15 Feb 2008 on The Guardian website http:// commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/anna_sussman/2008/02/avoiding_the_inevitable.html.
Please go online and add your own comments."Rape victims go on War path in search of justice", Hampstead & Highgate Express, 7 Feb 2008 (download pdf)
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Morning Star, 19 Feb 2008
Taking a stand for late justice
BRITISH REPORT: LOUISE NOUSRATPOUR witnesses rape survivors’ demands for justice.
RAPE survivors charged politicians, police, judges and immigration adjudicators with the "rape of justice" at a mock trial this weekend which exposed the "crummy" conviction rate of sex offenders.
Saturday’s theatrical trial in Lon don, complete with three bewigged "judges" and a witness stand, heard distressing stories from survivors as they sobbed through their testimonies.
Taking the "witness" stand, woman after woman began her speech with: "I put on trial" the British Police, the Crown Prosecution Service, Solicitor General Vera Baird, Women and Equality Minister Harriet Harman, Met Commissioner Ian Blair, to name a few, for failing to deliver justice and demanded action.
The "jury" declared them all guilty of perverting the course of justice, criminal negligence and failing in their duty of care.
Women Against Rape (WAR), which organised the event, sent "court summons" to every authority and individual on trial. Unsurprisingly, they all declined to attend.
Less than 6 per cent of reported rapes result in conviction, despite statistics showing that one in six women in Britain have been raped.
The authorities were accused of falling back on "sexist, racist and other deep-rooted prejudice" when dealing with cases.
Women and children are still put on trial or blamed for being raped, discouraged from reporting, disbelieved and even accused of lying and imprisoned.
One witness, a police officer known only as Ms A, told the "court" how a male colleague had raped her and got away with it.
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Crisis In The Family Courts 
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