‘A photograph by a controversial American artist which is part of Sir Elton John’s private collection has been seized by police from a gallery on suspicion it may have breached child pornography laws.
The image, which featured two young girls one of whom was sitting down with her legs wideapart, was taken by the renowned photographer Nan Goldin.
The shot, from the artist’s Thanksgiving series, was to be exhibited at the Baltic Modern Art gallery, Tyneside, this week along with some of her other work. But the day before it was due to be viewed by the public, police came and removed the image over fears that it might be breaking the law.’
‘A guest at the Embassy Suites hotel in St. Paul could face jail time and a $5,000 fine for ripping the head off a tame duck.
The 26-year-old Denver businessman is in jail on suspicion of felony animal cruelty and is scheduled to appear in court Monday. The Star Tribune generally does not identify suspects until they are formally charged.
According to police, the hotel keeps an ornamental pond with about eight domestic ducks inside the lobby and atrium. About 2:30 a.m. Saturday, the man suddenly chased down and killed one of the ducks.’
‘A 20-year-old Bridgeport man has been charged with endangering the welfare of teenage males with whom he worked at New Hope Academy.
According to the criminal complaint, Steven Kidd II is alleged to have inhaled, or “huffed” a can of Axe Body Spray with the teenage clients in August.
Mr. Kidd also allegedly performed carotid massages known as “space monkeys,” during which the teenagers were choked until they passed out.
State police on Monday charged him with endangering the welfare of children and corruption of minors. Mr. Kidd, who no longer works at the school, is scheduled for a preliminary hearing Oct. 31 before Magisterial District Judge Russell Shurtleff.
The academy is a residential treatment center for troubled teens, in which Biblical teachings and therapy are used in treatment.
“We never had an issue like this,” said the Rev. James Lowans, who oversees 13 students and 10 staff at the academy.’
‘A man said he had a heart-to-heart conversation with an armed burglar over a cup of coffee after he found him stealing his belongings from his home on Sept. 11.
Steve Swanson said he found a man, who police suspect is Armando Hernandez, stealing items from his home in the 300 block of Terra Alta.
“I said, ‘What are you doing here?'” Swanson said. “He said, ‘I’m taking your stuff and it’s too bad you showed up.'”
Swanson said Hernandez was carrying a knife in one hand and a gun in the other, but he didn’t panic.
“I said, ‘You don’t want to do this. First of all, if you harm me or kill me, I’m just going to go to heaven. You’re going to go to prison forever,'” Swanson said.
Swanson said he gave the burglar all the money in his wallet and offered to listen to his problems over breakfast.’
‘A drunk samurai sword-wielding man seeking revenge on a former friend had the wrong apartment when he attacked a man and severed the victim’s pinky finger Sunday morning, police said.
Officers said the 24-year-old assailant was so drunk on his way to the apartment at 49th Street and Euclid Avenue that he hit several cars parked on a nearby street.
The man knocked on some wrong doors first, police said, attacking one door with the 20-inch samurai-like sword and causing a lot of damage.
The last door he came upon was kicked and struck with the weapon, police said, and when someone opened the door, the man went after him with the sword, bending it and severing a finger.’
‘The man is dead. He can’t fight back. Nor could the children he pinned down and molested. Bob Collins was not killed by bowel cancer, as has been widely reported. He had beaten it – though there were complications after he had surgery in Adelaide. Collins is being eulogised as a great fighter for the north. But he did untold damage along the way.
When he had his way with boys, he was consumed by a sickness. But there can be no excuses for Collins. On the times he spoke up for the rights of children, he was the worst kind of hypocrite. And it must be remembered he was smart as a whip, being a minister in both the Bob Hawke and Paul Keating federal cabinets.
Collins was the first former or serving federal minister to be charged with child-sex offences. Police believe his preferred prey was Aboriginal boys, although white boys were not excluded.’
‘Police caught a 15-year-old Greymouth youth driving an early-model Mitsubishi Lancer that had been lowered in a cheap and novel way. [..]
Constable Rachel Lord, of the Greymouth police, said it appeared the Lancer had been lowered by loading the boot full of rocks, rather than by the usual method of cutting the springs.
Police had responded to a complaint of dangerous driving after the car was seen swerving across State Highway 73 near Kumara, and forced it off the road, giving the driver a pink sticker, indicating it was unsafe and could not be driven. [..]
It has badly dented side-panels, no back seat and a bumper held in place by an old seatbelt.’
‘An Oklahoma man is facing charges for allegedly biting off and swallowing body parts from his ex-wife and her new husband, police said.
Kristy and Larry Nuckols got married on Monday. But two weekends ago, they were on the run from her ex-husband, Tom Ledgerwood, in the small town of Sasakwa.
Kristy Nuckols said the two of them were chased down a dirt road and their car got stuck.
That’s when Ledgerwood and some of his friends confronted them, she said.
“I had some mace and I hit him right in the eye and he dove in the car,” said Larry Nuckols.
Larry Nuckols said the two had started fighting and were rolling around inside the car when Ledgerwood began biting him.
“He told me, ‘You know what that was, that’s your ear,'” Nuckols said. “And he says, ‘I’m going to get the other one.'”‘
‘A special education teacher from Frost Junior High School in this northwestern Chicago suburb has been released on $500,000 bond on criminal charges stemming from alleged incidents involving three autistic boys who were his students.
Patrick E. McCarthy, 30, of Palatine, is charged with three counts of aggravated battery and one count of unlawful restraint and appeared Friday in Rolling Meadows bond court.
At the bond hearing before Cook County Circuit Court Judge Kay Hanlon, prosecutors said McCarthy appeared to lose control during the first month of school. They said he slammed one autistic boy into a brick wall and forced another to jump on a trampoline for more than half an hour while wearing a weighted vest. They also said he pushed one student into a metal filing cabinet and tied another one to a chair.’
‘A child’s joke about sleeping with another friend’s mother led to a child abuse investigation.
An investigator with the Department of Children and Family went to Destin Middle School on Sept. 19 to look into an allegation that a child had been having sex with an adult, according to an Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office report.
The investigation revealed that the story started during P.E. class while a few boys were joking around.
Upon questioning, one of the boys involved said he “made up the story about a friend having sex with (the) mother,” the report stated.
The case was ruled as unfounded.’
‘Thanks to the email-leakage from MediaDefender-Defenders we now have proof of the things we’ve been suspecting for a long time; the big record and movie labels are paying professional hackers, saboteurs and ddosers to destroy our trackers.
While browsing through the email we identified the companies that are also active in Sweden and we have tonight reported these incidents to the police. The charges are infrastructural sabotage, denial of service attacks, hacking and spamming, all of these on a commercial level.
The companies that are being reported are the following:
* Twentieth Century Fox, Sweden AB
* Emi Music Sweden AB
* Universal Music Group Sweden AB
* Universal Pictures Nordic AB
* Paramount Home Entertainment (Sweden) AB
* Atari Nordic AB
* Activision Nordic Filial Till Activision (Uk) Ltd
* Ubisoft Sweden AB
* Sony Bmg Music Entertainment (Sweden) AB
* Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Nordic AB
Stay tuned for updates.’
‘Ernie Vesie says he needs his weed. He and his wife Roni have a legal prescription to use the medicinal marijuana. Ernie suffered a painful stroke, and Roni is recovering from major stomach surgery. The two say it eases their pain.
The Vessies grow the marijuana in their south Sacramento backyard. During happier times, a bumper crop blossomed and it was something Ernie’s became proud of. But, after three armed suspects forced their way into their home, the plants are now gone.
“He told me if I opened my mouth, he’d put a bullet in my head,” said Ernie.
It is the second time they’ve been robbed and it is believed to be the same three suspects. [..]
There is not much left of Ernie and Roni’s stash, so they’re smoking what they can.
“Breaks my heart they took all the good stuff,” said Ernie.’
‘A 5-year-old girl abducted out of Arizona earlier this month has been found in Aurora. [..]
The Mohave County Sheriff’s Office said Jade Dunn was picked up by Patricia Sanford, who is a friend of the little girl’s former stepfather, on Sep. 6, in Kingman, Ariz.
The FBI from Arizona said Sanford, the woman who kidnapped Jade, was on the contact list to pick up the child but was not authorized or expected to pick her up on the date she was taken from her school.
Sanford contacted Jade’s grandmother Sunday, allegedly telling her Virgil Kosmicki was demanding two ounces of methamphetamine for the return of Jade, authorities said.’
‘A barber who shares a name and birthday with an imprisoned man is asking for $1 million in damages after he said he was wrongly arrested three times in 17 years due to mistaken identity.
“Every day of my life, it’s as though I could be locked up at any moment at any time,” Keith Lamont Johnson said. “I keep talking and keep talking and no one listens and I end up in jail.”
Johnson, 47, shares his name with a known felon who is now in a state prison for armed robbery, among other crimes.
The federal lawsuit filed names in the cities of Detroit, Woodhaven and Trenton and the counties of Wayne and Macomb as defendants, along with several named and unnamed law enforcement officials in each community.’
‘A Colorado judge has sentenced people busted for noise pollution to one hour of listening to unpopular or unusual music.
Mostly young adult offenders were kept in a room and made to listen to Dolly Parton’s I Will Always Love You, Karen Carpenter and Barry Manilow with the volume up loud, CBS4Denver.com reported.
Most offenders, who were not allowed to eat, drink, read or sleep, found the punishment funny at first. But then the boredom set in.
“At about 20 minutes into it, I was trying not to fall a sleep,” offender Luis Cano said.’
‘A Rromanian priest charged with crucifying a nun he believed was possessed by the devil has had his 14-year prison sentence cut by half by an appeal court.
The court in the central town of Alba-Iulia also reduced from eight years to six the jail term imposed on one of four nuns found guilty of being accomplices to the exorism-turned-murder, while maintaing a five-year sentence for the other three.
The murdered nun, 23-year-old Irina Cornici of the Saint Trinity of Tanacu monastery in northeastern Romania, died after being gagged, chained to a cross and left without food or water for days.’
Followup to Priest jailed for exorcism death.
‘A cop has quit after his web profile on Facebook exposed him as a gun-toting pervert.
Fellow officers were stunned when they logged on to the social networking site to see 29-year-old Simon Purcell proudly brandishing an MI6 semi-automatic rifle.
The police community support officer went on to list his hobbies as “making sex toys for all the ladies” and “spying on doggers”. Other interests included “women, masturbation, any order I don’t mind.” Among his favourite films he put simply: “Porn”.’
‘A driver of a sport utility vehicle who hit a telephone pole blamed the crash on two friends having sex in the back seat.
Joshua D. Frank, 22, pleaded guilty this week to a misdemeanor charge of failing to notify a police officer of a traffic accident. [..]
According to court documents, Frank told police that his SUV is top heavy and the backseat action made it become “tippy,” causing him to lose control.
According to the affidavit, Frank suffered a minor head injury in the crash and his friends were treated for unspecified injuries.’
‘A word to burglars: Don’t break into a building full of police officers undergoing training.
Two men learned the hard way in Antioch and ended up being arrested, police said today. [..]
They had no idea that the Antioch police K-9 unit was due for a training session at the building, which once housed a cardboard-processing plant.
And at first, the police had no idea that the burglary suspects were inside.
As part of the training, an officer hid inside the 40,000-square-foot building. A K-9 officer then called out that a dog was about to be released and that anyone inside should immediately give up or risk getting bitten.
That’s when Ayers surrendered, police said.’
‘A man who broke into his neighbour’s home west of Brisbane and used her vacuum cleaner and a detergent bottle as sex aids has avoided jail.
Jamie Thomas Lacey, 27, was high on LSD and amphetamines when he broke into the house at Millmerran in September 2004.
He pleaded guilty today in the Brisbane District Court to burglary and wilful damage.
The court was told his neighbour returned home on September 29 to find her bathroom in a total state of disarray.
Crown prosecutor Julie Aylward told the court pornographic magazines and clothes were strewn around the room, and that a makeshift sex aid constructed from a Toilet Duck bottle, a piece of wood and a latex glove had also been left behind.’
‘A Hartlepool man is facing jail after he urinated on a disabled woman who lay dying in the street.
The 27-year-old shouted “this is YouTube material” as he degraded Christine Lakinski, 50, who had fallen ill, magistrates heard. [..]
Anderson had smoked a cannabis joint and been drinking when he and two friends spotted her.
He tried to rouse her by throwing a bucket of water over her, before urinating on her and covering her with shaving foam. The incident was filmed on a mobile phone.
She was later declared dead at the scene, the cause of death being given as pancreatic failure.’
‘The Education Department has investigated claims a six-year-old student ran a “sex club” at an eastern suburban primary school, involving up to up to half a dozen grade 1 students.
One mother said her son, also six, was asked to perform a sex act, and that the alleged perpetrator also exposed his genitals to students.
Following an investigation, the department has admitted that the student exposed students to sexual conversations and proposed activities, but denied the existence of a “sex club”. The alleged perpetrator received counselling.
The mother has been unable to make a police report because the law states sexual assault by a child under 10 cannot be prosecuted.’
‘Uh, I don’t know, Um, I don’t know what to say. I don’t know. (pauses) I didn’t know anybody was there. Howdy.’
‘A man tired of burglars nearly blew off his hand when bomb-like devices he set around his house exploded in his presence instead, authorities said.
Victor Iacobescu, 50, ran to a neighbor’s house Thursday with a bloody towel wrapped around his right hand.
“Apparently, he was trying to set booby traps to get the next guy who tried to break in,” fire Lt. Maggie Murphy said.
Iacobescu had been the victim of several break-ins, she said.
The neighbor, Patrick Struble, said the explosives were “like a pipe bomb. He accidentally triggered it, and it almost blew his hand off.”‘
‘A Gold Coast teenager was struck in the face by a boat propellor when he fell out of a dinghy while baring his buttocks at people on the shore.
The 17-year-old boy from Kanimbla was one of three males travelling in a dinghy along a canal off Huon Street at Broadbeach Waters on the Gold Coast about 4pm (AEST) yesterday.
It is believed all three males stood up to bare their buttocks at a group of people at a waterfront residence, causing the vessel to become unstable, and all three fell overboard, police said. [..]
Another occupant of the boat, a 20-year-old man from Rochedale South, in Brisbane’s south, has been charged with drink driving.’
‘When tourists ask for the bathroom in the Minneapolis airport lately, it’s usually not because they have to go.
It’s because they want to see the stall made famous by U.S. Sen. Larry Craig’s arrest in a sex sting.
”It’s become a tourist attraction,” said Karen Evans of the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. ”People are taking pictures.”
Craig was arrested June 11. The Idaho Republican pleaded guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct. He has since said his plea was a mistake. His request to withdraw the guilty plea will be heard Sept. 26, four days before he has said he will step down.’
‘Two men fatally shot a 21-year-old man during a suspected home-invasion, then shot his 7-month-old son in the head as he was strapped in a car seat outside the home, police said. [..]
“We are angered as law enforcement officers and disturbed as human beings that anyone could commit such an unconscionable act against an innocent child,” Curran said. “We also find it morally reprehensible that people who may have information that could help our detectives solve this tragic case have seemingly been less than honest.” [..]
Investigators initially believed the infant was killed accidentally by a stray bullet, but later determined he was killed execution-style.’
‘Three men have been charged with kidnapping and assault in a case worthy of a cult movie plot.
A 48-year-old Lake Elsinore woman has accused the three of abducting, beating and dumping her in Mexico late last month.
The accused are the 45-year-old man the woman had been living with and two of his friends, said Detective Joe Greco of the Lake Elsinore Police Department. Greco said one of the men is nicknamed “No Nose” because his face is disfigured from a gunshot wound suffered years ago.’
‘A man awaiting trial on child sex charges in the southern US state of Arkansas tried to saw off his right leg in an apparent escape bid, police said today.
Days before he was due to appear in court on charges of rape and engaging children in sexually explicit conduct, Jerry Scholes sawed down to the bone of his right calf, just above the point where he had been fitted with an electronic tracking anklet, Detective Sergeant Doroteo Delacruz told AFP by phone.
“The speculation is he was trying to escape,” Delacruz, who handled the case for the police department in the town of Malvern, said.
“If he had succeeded in cutting off the leg, he would not have set off the alarm on the monitoring device and he would have had 48 hours before anyone knew he had done it,” Delacruz said.’
‘In Alabama they come down hard on girls destroying your porn. Gina Carano of Birmingham, Alabama spent a few minutes checking out her boyfriend’s iPod while he was in the shower. After a few minutes of of shuffling through it, she found a video of her boyfriend and another girl having a little bedroom romp. Carano, in a fit of rage, stomped the iPod on the floor and then flushed it down the toilet.
Carano went to her boy friend who was still in the shower, slapped his face and told him what she had done. She told him that she had had enough and would never see him again. At least she thought she would never see him again. Two hours later the police came to her house and arrested her for assault and destroying private property.’
