- PANDEMIC - Pedos & Child Porn in the News - Equal Parenting-BC

C. Eckersen, investigator with Volusia County Sheriff's Office sex-crimes unit.
The three-man unit reviews about 20 cases a month of child sexual abuse, he said. The unit last year reviewed 1,600
child-abuse reports overall, including physical, sexual and neglect complaints. That's up from 1,300 the previous
year.
Local counselors say victims face issues at various stages throughout their life, from being unable to trust again to
having feelings of powerlessness.
Hammons, who said he's had relationship problems from pushing people away, recently completed a 12-week
Wounded Heart program through the Children's Advocacy Center in Daytona Beach for adults who were sexually
abused as children.
The law school graduate plans to start a local support group and represent abused children after passing his bar
exam.
"I felt almost like I had two different personalities -- a scared little child inside and the facade I put on to the world
that everything was OK," Hammons said. "I'll never be completely repaired, but it doesn't have to be a wound all the
time."
Pat Hale, 62, a licensed mental health counselor for the center who counsels adults and children referred by the DCF
and authorities, plans to start a counseling program for adults in the Bunnell office June 1.
"I do this because I know the path is hard, but I also know it's possible," said Hale, who added she was also abused
as a child. "I want to give them hope that they can get through this."
The center's Child Protection Team, which helps investigate child-abuse cases under a state contract, received 762
referrals from the DCF and authorities of alleged child abuse and neglect last fiscal year, including 523 sexual abuse
cases. That's down from last year's numbers of 1,023 total cases, including 730 sexual abuse.
About 80 percent of those cases have confirmed indicators of abuse, officials there said. Numbers are down partly
because investigators believe they are not receiving as many referrals as they should be from the DCF, but that
problem has recently been corrected.
DeLand pediatrician Dr. Michael Bell, medical director of the Child Protection Team, said nurses and counselors
see a range of children, including toddlers to early school-age children. Most know the abuser, he said, whether it's
an uncle, grandfather or a mother's boyfriend.
Bell said, in many cases, the sexual abuse, which usually starts with touching and later escalates, can last over a
period of years. The perpetrators coerce the child through fear not to tell. When a child does tell, Bell said many
times there is negativity from family and the child later recants the story.
Bell said education is the key in teaching children to identify someone to tell. He said parents also need to be
vigilant and listen to their children.
"If your child says something, even though it may seem farfetched, don't just blow it off," he said. "Query them
about it and see if it is real. It's better to deal with it now early on than to find out 25 years after the fact that it was
real."
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Teenager in the clutches of American cult
South Africa & USA - IOL, SA - April 1, 2005
By Kashiefa Ajam
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20050402105418615C141160
A desperate South African couple have lost their 18-year-old daughter to a cult group in the United States that lured
her via the Internet.
CONFIDENTIAL ---- Pandemic Pedo & CP Report – April 17, 2005 - page 106 of 216