Sex - Dark Side of the Moon

12 Year Old Boy Gang Raped By Teenagers

2007-04-07T22:48:00.000+10:00

THE RAPE of a 12-year-old boy by five teenagers was not "natural behaviour" for children, prompting fears the attackers may also have been abused, the head investigating police officer told a Darwin court today.

The victim says he was sexually assaulted more than 20 times at Maningrida, a remote Aboriginal community about 500km east of Darwin, by a group of five teenagers and four adults. The youngest alleged attacker was 13, the oldest was 39.

The juveniles face a total of 18 charges, including sexual intercourse without consent, deprivation of liberty, aggravated assault and administering a stupefying drug.

Their committal hearing in Darwin Magistrates Court today heard detectives seized a jar of vaseline, baby oil, a cannabis wood pipe and five pornographic DVDS from a house where one of the alleged attacks occurred.

Titles including Teenage Brother Lovers, Gang Banging Whores, Barely 18 and Ass Eaters were among the collection.

The officer in charge of the investigation, Sergeant Travis Wurst, today said the age of some of the accused made him concerned they could have also been victims.

“It isn't the natural behaviour of children that age and naturally we were concerned that they may have been subjected to something in the past,” he said.

“It could have been anything, we had no idea. However, our concern didn't stop with the fact that they had been charged with these offences.

“Our concern was that they might have been involved not as perpetrators but as victims.”

But, he said, no evidence had emerged to confirm his suspicions.

Investigations into the case started soon after the boy presented to Darwin Hospital in May last year with gonorrhoea. He was later found during a medical examination to have anal fissures.

During earlier court proceedings, the crown alleged the victim was bound with shoelaces, drugged and forced to watch porn during one of five attacks that began in April 2006.

He was also allegedly held under water, raped with a stick and made to perform oral sex while being sodomised.

The men have been charged with a total of 10 offences, including sexual intercourse with a minor without consent and aggravated assault.

The second half of their separate committal hearing resumes on April 16.

The hearing for the juveniles will continue before Magistrate Dick Wallace on May 11.

- AAP

Boyfriend Of 14 Year Old Girl Revealed As Woman 30

2007-04-06T10:45:00.000+10:00

The "boyfriend" of a 14-year-old US girl, who lived with her and her family for more than a year, was actually a 30-year-old woman, police said.

Lorelei Corpuz posed as a 17-year-old orphan to gain the family's trust, then beat and molested the teen, hitting her and twice biting her on the back, police in the Washington state city of Everett alleged.

Corpuz was charged with two counts of third-degree child rape and one count of third-degree child molestation and was being held in lieu of $US150,000 ($A183,590) bail.

Everett Police Sergeant Robert Goetz said he did not know whether Corpuz had a lawyer.

Police said Corpuz was arrested on Sunday after an officer checked her vehicle, parked at a petrol station, to see whether it was stolen.

The check pulled up an outstanding traffic warrant under an alias, Mark Villanueva.

The 14-year-old also was in the vehicle.

"She indicated it was her boyfriend," Goetz said.

"That obviously piqued the concern of the officer."

Although Corpuz had sexual contact with the girl, "the suspect never let victim see her/his private parts and victim always thought that suspect was male until officer informed her otherwise," Officer Don de Nevens wrote in a police statement.

The two met at a mall in 2005, police said, and Corpuz, acting as a boy, told the girl that his mother had died of cancer and that his father committed suicide.

They talked on the phone and went on a date, and soon her family let him move in.

"They were all surprised that this individual was not who she said she was, both in name and sex," Goetz said.

Female Orgasm And The Brain

2007-04-06T10:10:00.000+10:00

Female sexual response is a thrilling field for research, writes Deborah Smith.

Twenty-five years after she made the G-spot famous, Professor Beverly Whipple is still probing the mysteries of the female orgasm. She has shifted her focus higher up the body - to the brain - exploring the areas that light up when women climax. But the motivation for her research remains the same: "Orgasm is a remarkable phenomenon. It's one of life's most intriguing experiences."

Whipple, of the College of Nursing at Rutgers University in New Jersey, also remains inspired by the many women who have helped her over the decades to delve into this poorly studied aspect of life. Her latest brain research on orgasms has relied on the good will of a variety of women, including those with spinal injuries caused by gunshot wounds and those who can climax just by thinking about it.

Not only did the women have to stimulate themselves in the laboratory, they had to do it lying as still as possible inside a giant magnet, so their brain activity could be captured on an MRI scan. "It's just unbelievable the things they will do for science," says Whipple, in a phone interview from the US.

The pioneer sex researcher Alfred Kinsey claimed more than 50 years ago that orgasm involved the entire nervous system and all parts of the body.

It may have seemed like an exaggeration, says Whipple, who will be in Sydney this month to address the World Congress for Sexual Health. But her recent research with colleagues indicates that orgasm is a very complex neurological event, with a large number of brain areas activated during the experience. "This may be the reason why most drugs impair, rather than improve sexual response," she says.

The team has also identified three nerve pathways not previously linked to female sexuality. They carry sensations from the vagina, cervix and uterus to the brain.

"There is good evidence that activation of these nerves, by physical stimulation of these uniquely female organs, can generate orgasms," says Whipple, who summarises the research in a new book, The Science of Orgasm, with colleagues Professor Barry Komisaruk and Carlos Beyer-Flores.

Whipple helped discover the controversial G-spot, and named it after the German gynaecologist Ernst Grafenberg, during the 1970s when she was training women how to improve their pelvic muscle control.

An examination of more than 400 women revealed an erogenous zone located about a third of the way up the vagina, on the front side. Pressure on the underlying tissue, which is near the female prostate gland, causes it to swell, triggering orgasm in some women.

Many doctors have expressed scepticism about its existence, but that's not surprising, says Whipple. The region is blocked by the metal speculum used to examine women internally. And the G-spot has to be manipulated to be felt. "Doctors can't sexually stimulate their patients. That's why they didn't find it," she says.

Not all women are sensitive in this region, adds Whipple. And it is only likely to be aroused by pressure during intercourse in some positions, when the woman is on top, or the man enters from behind. This may partly explain why only about 30 per cent of women experience orgasm during intercourse.

For their research, Whipple and her colleagues use a specially designed small stimulating rod which is attached with velcro to a diaphragm that covers the cervix. The women control its movement.

"Women using this device tell us that when they pull outward with the stimulator, it produces a very pleasurable suction on the cervix that they have never experienced before," says Whipple. One woman described these cervical-based orgasms as like a "shower of stars".

The clitoris has been a focus of attention, because it is easy to stimulate, but clitoris-based orgasms tend to be restricted to around this region. Research also shows the vagina balloons out in this case and the uterus pulls up.

Vaginal orgasms, triggered by the G-spot, are felt deeper inside. The uterus pushes down. "It's like a bearing down sensation," says Whipple.

The different nature of the orgasms is probably due to the four different nerves systems carrying sensations from these different regions to the brain. The pudendal nerve, the same nerve that provides penile sensation, is linked to the clitoris. The vagina is supplied by the pelvic nerves, and the cervix and uterus by the hypogastric, pelvic and vagus nerves. Combined stimulation of all regions can produce more encompassing "blended" orgasms, says Whipple.

Publicity about the G-spot may have led to a feeling of inadequacy for men and women who couldn't find it. But Whipple says her intention was never to suggest this was a must-have experience. When it comes to sexual pleasure, no way is best. "Different people have different tastes. It's what feels good to you," she says.

Men and women differ in their sexual responses. Men move in order from desire to arousal to orgasm. Women are more complicated, says Whipple. "They can experience sexual arousal, orgasm and satisfaction without desire, and they can experience desire, arousal and satisfaction without orgasm."

Sexual problems can occur if people have a goal-oriented approach to sexual activity, if they think of it as a staircase, that starts with touching and ends at orgasm on the top step. "If the sexual experience does not lead to orgasm, one or both partners feel unsatisfied," says Whipple.

A better way to think about it is like a pleasure circle, where any activity has its place along the perimeter. "Each is an end in itself and satisfying."

Whipple also says people can experience orgasm - an intense pleasurable response - from stimulation of many parts of their bodies, not just the genitals.

Stuart Meloy, an American doctor treating people for chronic back pain, revealed last year that when he applied electrical stimulation through the spine, 10 out of 11 of his female patients reported experiencing orgasms.

People with spinal cord injuries also say that when hypersensitive skin near their injury is stimulated in the right way, by the right person, they have pleasurable orgasmic feelings that can seem to emanate from the genitals. Some of Whipple's earlier research demonstrated that these people also had increased heart rates and blood pressure, just as in genital orgasm.

One woman she studied had been told by her doctors she could not experience orgasm because she had no feeling below her breast. Yet she experienced six orgasms during her three 12-minute sessions of genital and non-genital stimulation in the laboratory.

"She was so thrilled and I was so happy for her. It was a moving experience," recalls Whipple.

For its recent studies of brain activity the team chose women with spinal injuries who'd had a gunshot wound, rather than compressive damage, to ensure they had no activity left in the spinal cord.

When these women used the laboratory device to stimulate the vagina and cervix, the part of their brains where sensations from the vagus nerve are recorded lit up. This shows sensations can go directly from these regions to the brain, bypassing the spinal cord, the team concluded.

Some of these women, as well as able-bodied ones and women who can climax through imagery alone, also experienced orgasm, and the researchers were able to compare their brain scans before, during and after the event.

Many of the same areas lit up in the three groups, including regions linked to the experience of pain and those triggered by pleasure-producing drugs like cocaine. A third area involved in the production of the hormone oxytocin, which is secreted in large amounts during orgasm in women and stimulates uterine contractions, was also active.

The research is still in its infancy, says Whipple. "Where in the brain orgasm is produced is an unanswered but, we hope, not unanswerable question."

Source:www.smh.com.au

Night Of Teen Sex Ment 10 Year Prison For 17 Year Old Boy

2007-04-05T22:22:00.000+10:00

Georgia, USA -- It was not exactly Richie and Potsie getting lucky up at Inspiration Point.

Not, in other words, what people of a certain age are inclined to think of when they think of teen sex. Rather, it was a squalid, loveless and depressing example of what teen sex too often devolves to these days: a New Year's Eve party in adjacent hotel rooms, a cache of liquor and marijuana, and at least two girls servicing at least six boys, orally and vaginally, while a video camera ran.

Three years later, Genarlow Wilson of Douglasville, Ga., is a convicted child molester serving 10 years without parole. Last week, the Georgia Senate allowed a legislative deadline to pass without acting on a bill that would have empowered a judge to reconsider -- and reduce -- his sentence.

But Emanuel D. Jones, a senator who co-sponsored the bill, told me that isn't the end: "We are looking for another vehicle we can attach it to, another bill we can amend. And I will find one. ... This bill isn't going to die until I'm dead."

If you wonder why all this sympathy for a child molester, there are a few things you need to know. First, the "molester" was 17 at the time. Second, the "child" was 15. Third, she willingly performed oral sex on him. In fact, she initiated it.

None of that is in dispute. But the next day, the girl told police she was gang raped. And three years later, Wilson sits in prison, waiting for justice to prevail, willing to settle for common sense.

Jones calls this "unconscionable," and the word is apt -- especially when you consider that as Wilson's trial was unfolding, a 27-year-old teacher was being found guilty just down the hall of sex with a 17-year-old student, the kind of crime for which child molestation statutes were written. She got three years' probation and 90 days in jail.

Makes you wonder what the hell is wrong with Georgia. Makes you think its Bible belt is too tight.

After all, we're talking about the same state that in 2003 gave 18-year-old Marcus Dixon 15 years for consensual sex with a 15-year-old girl. Race hung over that case like a bad smell: Dixon was black and the girl, white. The smell has been less pronounced here, where both accused and accuser are black.

For the record, Wilson -- like the other five young men who stood trial for what happened that night -- was offered a plea bargain. The others accepted. Wilson refused. Most of them had been in trouble before, but Wilson was a homecoming king with a 3.2 GPA and no criminal record, a budding football star.

He could not see himself admitting to something he did not do, becoming a registered sex offender, having that follow him the rest of his life, being forbidden to live in the same house with his younger sister. So he turned them down and waited for somebody to understand he wasn't a child molester, he was a kid who had sex with another kid.

Instead, he got 10 years from a judge bound by that monstrosity of the "tough on crime" era, mandatory sentencing guidelines.

Even the prosecutor says the sentence was "fairly harsh." The "victim" agrees. The jury forewoman told Atlanta magazine that when the panel realized its verdict meant 10 years in jail, "the room exploded."

None of which helps Genarlow Wilson, still waiting for justice, willing to settle for common sense. Yes, he did a stupid and ugly thing. But he did not abuse a child.

Georgia, however, did.

LEONARD PITTS JR. is a columnist for the Miami Herald

Single Women Reach Orgasm More Often

2007-04-05T06:29:00.000+10:00

A new sexuality survey has confirmed what women know and some men fear - single females have far more luck achieving orgasm than those partnered off.

Taking men out of the picture allows women to "better connect with themselves", according to sex therapists behind the Queensland study of 500 older women.

The research found that 56 per cent of sexually-active women with no current partner could reach orgasm every time with masturbation compared with only 24 per cent of women with partners.

"That's a significant difference and I'd imagine there are few men out there a little surprised and unimpressed that women have better luck without them," said medical sex therapist Dr Jane Howard.

The findings come from the study What Does Sexuality Mean To Older Women?, which assessed the sex lives of women in their 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s to find trends over the ages.

Dr Howard said she believed women on their own were better at achieving orgasm because they don't have the "distraction" of having to please a man or subscribe to male-type sexual fantasies.

"Arousal is a lot about what erotic thoughts go through the mind, and for women that's very different to men," Dr Howard said.

"It may be focusing on Colin Firth's smouldering eyes, some romantic novel or a waterfall or whatever."

The therapist said the most outstanding aspect of the study was the variety of ways people lived their lives.

"Some people are in relationships and having sex, some are in relationships with no sex, others are single and are having sex ... it was just so varied," Dr Howard said.

She said her results destroyed the cultural myth that people stay in life-long relationships and are sexually functional until they die.

"We like to think of people having wild sex for their whole lives but the reality isn't quite like that," Dr Howard said.

More than 80 per cent of women in their 40s were sexually active, but this figure declined to 27 per cent for those in their 70s.

The fact that 70 per cent of men in their 70s were not capable of having an erection could affect this figure.

But results showed that three quarters of women over 70 were indifferent to sex.

While their libido dropped off and arousal was less, their capacity to orgasm was seemingly unaffected by age.

"That was quite surprising, actually," Dr Howard said.

She said the results would help people understand the true impact that ageing had on sex.

The findings are part of the Longitudinal Assessment of Ageing in Women, conducted by the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital.

Source:www.stuff.co.nz

Mother Accused Of Offering Daughter For Sex

2007-04-05T06:13:00.000+10:00

BY JACK KRESNAK

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

The five children of a Taylor woman charged during the weekend with trying to sell one of her daughters to an undercover police officer for sex were interviewed Monday by investigators trying to determine whether other child abuse or exploitation had occurred.

Results of those interviews were not disclosed, as the Wayne County Sheriff's Office tries to determine whether any other adults may have been involved in the alleged scheme to profit from child sexual abuse, officials said.

The 33-year-old woman, whose name is being withheld by the Free Press to protect her children, is being held in lieu of a $1-million bond pending an April 19 preliminary examination in 34th District Court in Romulus on several sex-abuse charges.

She was arrested Friday when she allegedly brought her 7-year-old daughter to a Romulus hotel after arranging to allow someone she met on the Internet to sexually abuse the girl for pay.

The man police say the woman was trying to sell her daughter to turned out to be an undercover sheriff's deputy posing as a photographer interested in taking pornographic pictures of children. During several online chats with the deputy, police said, the woman said her daughter had been used in sex acts for money before.Sheriff's deputies confiscated the woman's computer and were assisted by Child Protective Services investigators, who placed the children -- four girls and a boy ages 6-12 -- in foster care.

On Saturday, the Wayne County Department of Human Services filed a petition in Wayne County Family Court seeking to terminate the rights of the mother and the children's father, whose involvement in any abuse was being investigated, officials said.

The petition said the woman was wanted for a probation violation after being convicted of credit card fraud in Oakland County in 2004. Both parents face a pretrial hearing Monday in juvenile court on the termination of rights petition.

Share Gang Rape Footage - Go To Jail

2007-04-04T18:56:00.000+10:00

Anyone caught forwarding video footage of the gang rape of a 17-year-old girl in Sydney's south-west faces up to three years in prison, police have warned.

Five 17-year-old boys have been arrested on Wednesday over the alleged rape of the girl at a private home in January this year.

They are alleged to have filmed the rape on a phone video camera. The footage was allegedly circulated for weeks among students at a Sydney high school before education authorities found out and informed police.

Police said the boys will be charged with a range of offences, including aggravated sexual assault.

The sexual assault is alleged to have occurred at a private home in January this year.

The 17-year-old victim reported the assault to police nine days ago after she was allegedly threatened by a person not involved in the assault.

Following the arrests, Liverpool Local Area Commander Detective Superintendent Mick Plotecki warned any further circulation of the video was a criminal offence attracting serious penalties.

"Anyone who has a copy of this video who publishes it in any way, including forwarding it to other individuals via mobile or internet, is committing a serious offence under the Commonwealth Criminal Code," Supt Plotecki said.

"Any person convicted of this offence could face up to three years' jail."

Supt Plotecki said the "harrowing" footage has left police "shocked and horrified".

He told ABC radio that police would be going over phone records to track down all copies of the video.

He said anybody who received the video footage should contact police immediately.

A police spokeswoman said the top priority for police was to stop the circulation of the video.

"There are ongoing investigations to trace who had that video and who forwarded it on," she said.

"Prosecution will follow if we can identify persons who have forwarded that video, either by the internet or mobile."

Pupils Arrested After Sex In Class Claims

2007-04-04T18:47:00.000+10:00

Louisiana, US -- Five secondary school pupils in Louisiana have been arrested after an investigation into claims that youngsters had sex in an unsupervised classroom, with other classmates present.

“After 44 years of doing this work, nothing shocks me anymore,” Union Parish Sheriff Bob Buckley said. “But this comes pretty close.”

The alleged incident took place on March 27, at the Spearsville school in rural north Louisiana. Two 11-year-old girls, a 12-year-old boy and a 13-year-old boy were arrested on charges of obscenity. Another 11-year-old boy who was the alleged lookout was charged with being an accessory after the fact.

Source:http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/

It's A Happy Hooker That Works Legally

2007-04-04T14:19:00.000+10:00

by Tamara McLean (The Courier Mail)

Legal prostitutes are just as happy as women with regular day jobs, according to a survey reporting high job satisfaction in parts of the sex industry. But illegal sex workers who sell sex on the streets had a much grimmer outlook, with half saying they had been raped or bashed in the past year.

The unique survey compared the mental and physical health of nearly 250 Queensland prostitutes, aged 18 to 57, who worked in registered brothels, at home or street side. Legal workers reported similar job satisfaction to women in the general community, but street workers were far less happy in the job.

"The general picture is that those women whose families know about their work reported greater job satisfaction than those who kept their work secret," said researcher Charrlotte Seib.
Asked why they entered the sex industry, 82% per cent said they did it for the money and 52% pointed to the flexible working hours. And 39% said they had a particular goal in mind such as new car, a house or a holiday," said Ms Seib, from Queensland University of Technology.

One in four of the women surveyed had a Bachelor degree or higher, which is contrary to the popular stereotype that sex workers come from socially disadvantaged backgrounds. More than 60% were employed before joining the industry.

84 Year Old Woman Admits Sex With Boy 11

2007-04-04T12:49:00.000+10:00

Portland, US -- An 84-year-old woman who confessed to having sex with an 11-year-old boy in her foster care has reached a deal with US prosecutors and pleaded guilty to attempted sex abuse.
Georgie Audean Buoy will serve 36 months in prison, said Leslie Wolf, chief deputy district attorney for Wasco County, Oregon.

Buoy was originally charged with six counts, including attempted rape, for which she faced 8 years in prison, Mr Wolf said. In taped confession, Buoy admitted to having sex with the boy while he was in her car in 2004, he said. Her age and lack of criminal convictions played a role in the plea deal. Buoy, of The Dalles, Oregon, was a longtime member of her church and volunteered at the county jail, Mr Wolf said.

She must register as sex offender after serving her sentence, and must pay $US 5000 to the victim, and up to US$ 7500 in restitution for counseling.

Source: AP

City Manager Sacked Because Of Sex Change

2007-03-03T16:53:00.000+10:00

LARGO, Fla. -- Steve Stanton professed his love for the city and asked the people of Largo to support his decision to undergo a sex change and allow him to keep his $140,000-a-year job as city manager. The answer came back no.

Almost 500 people packed City Hall on Tuesday night for a special meeting to decide whether they would accept someone named Susan instead of Steve as their top official. And while many spoke eloquently in his defense, more called for his ouster.

"If Jesus was here tonight, I can guarantee you he'd want him terminated," said Pastor Ron Saunders of Largo's Lighthouse Baptist Church. "Make no mistake about it."

At the end of the 31/2-hour meeting, the City Commission voted 5-2 to begin the legal process of firing Stanton, who went public about his sex-change plans after learning that a local newspaper was about to reveal his secret. The 48-year-old married man and father of a teenage boy can appeal his dismissal, and the commission must vote again to formally fire him from the job he has held for 14 years.

On Wednesday, transgender activists called Stanton's firing a "shameful display of ignorance and bias." But they suggested Largo's dismissal of the respected government official may be the example they need to persuade Congress to extend employment protections to gays and transsexuals.

"We think this is a really clear example of the type of employment discrimination that transgendered people face every day," said Simon Aronoff, deputy director of the National Center for Transgender Equality in Washington. "By all accounts, he was doing a good job. The only reason he was fired is because he made the brave decision to live openly." Mathew Staver, founder of the conservative Liberty Counsel legal group, said the city of 76,000 near St. Petersburg had a duty to reconsider the employment of a top official planning such a drastic change.

"The city hasn't changed the work environment. He has changed the work environment," Staver said. "I think it would be more difficult for the city to retain this person because of how it might undermine the representation of the city in the eyes of the community." The Human Rights Campaign Foundation estimates 10 states and more than 90 local governments have included gender identity in their nondiscrimination policies. Stanton supported a similar ordinance in Largo that failed to pass in 2003, and the fact that he kept his personal life to himself back then intensified the anger directed at him Tuesday night.

"I do not feel he has the integrity, nor the trust, nor the respect, nor the confidence to continue as the city manager of the city of Largo," said Commissioner Mary Gray Black, who introduced the resolution to fire Stanton. Stanton listened with hands clasped. "It's just real painful to know that seven days ago I was a good guy and now I have no integrity, I have no trust and, most painful, I have no followers," Stanton told the crowd before the vote. Stanton said he has struggled with his secret desire to be a woman since childhood and hoped to "outrun it." In 2003, he began counseling.

In a memo to city employees last week, Stanton said he intends to live as a woman for a year to learn whether he is ready for the operation. He said he has gone out in public as a woman only a few times in cities far from Largo.

"I'm going to be embarrassed if we throw this man out on the trash heap after he's worked so hard for the city," said Mayor Patricia Gerard, one of the few people with whom Stanton shared his secret before last week. "We have a choice to make: We can go back to intolerance, or we can be the city of progress."

Female Teacher Had Sex With 5 Teen Boys

2007-03-03T16:48:00.000+10:00

GREENVILLE, S.C. — A 23-year-old former teacher accused of having sex with five teenage boys was released from jail today after her father posted her bail.

Allena Williams Ward will be confined to her home, able to leave only for church and lawyer visits, and must wear an electronic monitor. She also must have no contact with the boys with whom she is accused of having sex.

According to arrest warrants, Ward, who is married, had sexual encounters in the past three months with the 14- and 15-year-old boys at Bell Street Middle School, at a motel, in a park and behind a restaurant. She is charged with sexual misconduct.

Her father paid $11,000 in cash today — the required 10 percent of her $110,000 bail.

She was arrested Wednesday and fired that night. Her defense attorney has declined to comment.

Her next court appearance is scheduled for April 2.

Man Charged In Sex Pact With Underage Girl And Her Mother

2007-02-09T15:12:00.000+10:00

MUSKEGON, Mich. – A man who police said entered into a sex pact with his girlfriend and her 15-year-old daughter pleaded no contest to felony sex charges.

Michael J. Fitzgibbon, 37, also pleaded no contest to more serious sex charges involving sex acts with a 12-year-old girl, a relative.

Authorities say Fitzgibbon's girlfriend was afraid of losing him while she recuperated from gastric bypass surgery, so she arranged for him to have sex with her daughter for two months.

All three of them allegedly signed a contract that allowed the girl privileges such as piercings and hair dye in exchange for the sex acts. She testified earlier that she and Fitzgibbon had sex two to three times each week for two months last summer.

Fitzgibbon faces sentencing for the six counts of criminal sexual conduct on March 23. A no-contest plea is not an admission of guilt but is treated as such at sentencing.

The girlfriend, whose name is not being made public to protect her daughter's identity, is scheduled to stand trial in February on three counts of criminal sexual conduct.

Authorities investigated after the 15-year-old told a relative in July. The 12-year-old came forward after charges were filed.

Women Chose Apparel Over Sex

2007-02-08T20:49:00.000+10:00

NEW YORK, US -- Last week we carried a UK survey that revealed how women prefer mobiles to sex. Now, a new US survey says that women also rate clothes over sex.

According to the survey, the choice between sex and a new closet full of clothes for women is simple - they go for the apparel.

Women on average say they would be willing to give up sex for 15 months for a closet full of new apparel, with 2% ready to abstain from sex for three years in exchange for new duds, according to a new survey of about 1,000 women in 10 US cities.

Sixty-one per cent of women polled said it would be worse to lose their favourite article of clothing than give up sex for a month.

"Some people say clothes make the man, but the right clothes can even replace him," fashion designer, stylist and TV personality Carson Kressley from the reality TV show 'Queer Eye for the Straight Guy' said in a statement accompanying the poll.

The study also suggested that clothes often wear better than relationships.

The average woman between 18 and 54 years of age has hung on to her favourite article of clothing for 12 and a half years, a year longer than she's held on to her longest relationship.

Almost three-quarters of respondents, or 70%, also said they believed in love at first sight when it came to finding the perfect article of clothing, while only 54% of women were as confident in spotting the right man.

Nearly half of the women, or 48%, taking part in the survey by consumer products giant Unilever said their favourite article of clothing was more reliable than their man in giving them confidence and making them feel sexy.

Because clothing and adornment have such frequent links with sexual display, humans may develop clothing fetishes. They may strongly prefer to have sexual relations with other humans wearing clothing and accessories they consider arousing or sexy.

In Western culture, such fetishes may include extremely high heels, lace, leather, or military clothing. The men of Heian Japan lusted after women with floor-sweeping hair and layers of silk robes.

Source:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Uys Breaks The Ice On Teenage Sex

2007-02-08T20:43:00.000+10:00

South Africa

By Roy Barford

Educating teenagers about sex and HIV and Aids has never been a pleasant job. That is, until legendary satirist Pieter-Dirk Uys decided to take on the challenge.

Schools around Durban were this week entertained and educated by the straight-talking entertainer.

"I grew up being told about the 'birds and the bees', and I'm sorry, but how does a bird fuck a bee?" asked Uys, causing fits of laughter from 1 000 schoolgirls at Durban Girls' High School.

Uys said many of the problems surrounding HIV were due to society being afraid to discuss the issue.

"Sex happens, and Aids comes, because we cum (ejaculate), so let's talk about it."

The 61-year-old, arguably better known as his alter-ego, Evita Bezuidenhoudt, believes that to educate young South Africans about HIV, one needs to "speak their language".

He has been perfecting this for the past five years, during which he has given HIV talks at more than 750 schools.

Applying an approach infinitely more entertaining than the conventional distribution of HIV pamphlets, Uys is travelling the country at his own expense, addressing schools free of charge.

In between the humour and performing skits parodying individuals such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela, Uys cuts to the core of the HIV problem, and several touches of seriousness make his point clear. He said that each time he addressed a school, he could feel the energy of the pupils, and found their responses hugely rewarding.

Speaking to the Tribune after receiving a standing ovation from the Girls' High audience, Uys said that if one pupil had learned something, he had made a difference.

"What I hope will happen is that each of the thousand girls here goes and tells three or four friends about what I said, and as a result, young people get talking about a topic they would normally avoid."

Uys said it was inevitable that he would become involved in HIV education.

"I have always performed satires about the problems faced by South Africans, and five years ago, when government denial about HIV started getting worse, I decided that it was time to get involved."

Uys has never been shy to have a go at politicians, and his talks about HIV are no different. "I find that it is so easy to make a political joke these days. You just mention an individual's name and people start laughing, because they immediately associate them with either a beetroot (Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang) or a shower cap (Jacob Zuma)."

Uys said that while many individuals and organisations in South Africa were trying their hardest to combat HIV and Aids, the messages being sent out rarely caught the attention of the youth. "I was giving a talk at a school in the Cape Flats a few years back, and mentioned something about 'oral sex'. Afterwards, two boys came up to me and asked, 'Is oral sex when you and the girl talk like you are having sex?'."

After Uys explained oral sex to the boys, they replied, "Ah, why didn't you just say blow-job?"

Uys encourages pupils to empower themselves with knowledge about sex and sexually transmitted diseases.

He said such information was far more easily obtainable now than it was when he was growing up.

"My first sexual experience happened when I was 14, and I was all by myself. I didn't know what had happened," he said, again causing hysterics.

Uys has been working on a play, Evita For President, which will be coming to Durban later this year. The play addresses the question of who will succeed Thabo Mbeki as president.

Uys said that while it was a serious issue, "we mustn't look away from it".

Source:http://www.int.iol.co.za

Chatroom Rape Plotters Jailed

2007-02-07T12:15:00.000+10:00

THREE British men who used an internet chatroom to hatch a "harrowing" plot to rape two young schoolgirls have been jailed.

The three were the first people convicted in Britain of such a serious offence from online exchanges alone.

David Beavan, 42, Alan Hedgcock, 41, and Robert Mayers, 42, were found guilty in a London court of conspiracy to rape. Beavan was sentenced to 11 years in jail, while Hedgcock and Mayers received eight-year sentences. They pleaded guilty to possessing pornographic images of children.

Prior to their arrests, they had never physically met. However, the court was told that this had not prevented them from "drooling" over the possibility of turning their fantasies into chilling reality.

Passing sentence, Judge Geoffrey Rivlin said the men posed a "serious risk of physical and psychological harm to children" and instructed that they be registered as sex offenders for life.

Referring to their chatroom logs, he said: "You were drooling over the prospect to take these children into the woods and rape them. These logs were further spiced, if that is the right word, by the swapping of pornographic images of young children.

"All three of you were found to be in possession of very many photographs of children, some of them … very shocking."

Police first heard of their plan when "rape-obsessed" Beavan, of Hampshire, got cold feet and walked into Bournemouth police station in January last year to tell officers what had been going on.

The greeting-cards salesman claimed he was just a "vigilante" gathering evidence against pedophiles, but he was convicted of two counts of conspiracy to rape.

Hedgcock, a film make-up artist from Twickenham, south-west London, and Mayers, of Cheshire, were found guilty of the same charge.

During their trial, the court was told that, after meeting in an incest chatroom, "child-porn addict" Hedgcock had told Beavan he wanted to abuse two sisters aged 13 and 14.

His plan was to pounce on the girls as they walked through woods to school. Beavan immediately made it clear he was interested in helping and sought to recruit Mayers. But Beavan lost his nerve when he thought the authorities might be closing in and contacted police. Police found more than 5000 child porn images on his computer.

All three admitted various charges, including 50 counts of distributing, making and possessing thousands of indecent images of children.

Outside the court, Detective Constable Dave Adams said: "These three men took a step beyond fantasy and have actually identified the children they would target, the location where they would approach them and what exactly they planned to do to them."

He said: "For the first time, internet chat logs have been used to prove a charge of conspiracy to rape a child.

"This case should act as a really stark warning that the internet is not a hiding place to plan and participate in criminal acts."

GUARDIAN, REUTERS

Teen Sex May Take Emotional Toll

2007-02-07T11:57:00.000+10:00

(WebMD) Teen sex — oral or vaginal — may have negative emotional consequences, especially for girls, according to a new study in Pediatrics.

Parents and health professionals should help teens prepare for and cope with the emotions attached to sex, say Sonya Brady, Ph.D., and Bonnie Halpern-Felsher, Ph.D. The two researchers work at the University of California, San Francisco.

They studied a diverse group of 273 sexually active students at two California public schools between 2002 and 2004. The students, 56 percent of whom were girls, all reported having had vaginal and/or oral sex by spring of 10th grade.

Of the students, 116 said they had had only oral sex, 43 said they had had only vaginal sex, and 114 said they had had both.

For the study, the students completed surveys every six months between 9th and 10th grade about the consequences they experienced from sex.

Overall, the teens reported positive consequences — such as pleasure, popularity, and stronger relationships. But a sizeable percentage noted negative consequences such as feeling used, getting pregnant, contracting a sexually transmitted infection, or feeling bad about themselves.

Those reporting at least one negative effect included 31 percent of those who had had only oral sex, 58 percent of those who had had only vaginal sex, and nearly 62 percent of those who had had both.

Girls were more than twice as likely as boys to say they felt bad about themselves. Girls were also more than three times as likely to say they felt used as a result of having sex.

Those findings may partly stem from society's double standard about sex.

"These findings are consistent with research showing that boys are encouraged to be sexually experienced, whereas girls are encouraged to restrict sexual behavior," the researchers write.

Boys were more likely to say their popularity rose when they became sexually active. But they were also more likely to report a pregnancy or sexually transmitted infection as a result of their sexual activity.

The reasons for those findings aren't clear. The boys may have been more sexually active, had more partners or risky sex, or been more willing to admit those consequences, say the researchers.

Teens may need help in coping with the emotions that surround sex, the researchers say. They encourage health professionals and other adults to talk with adolescents "about how decisions to engage in any type of sexual activity may have important consequences."

The study has limits. For instance, it's not clear if the results apply to all sexually active 9th- and 10th-grade students.

Also, the surveys didn't label the listed consequences as good or bad; the researchers classified consequences as positive or negative without teen input.

"We do not know whether consequences were viewed as positive or negative by adolescents," write Brady and Halpern-Felsher.

Source:www.cbsnews.com

Well, how about the emotional toll of not having a sex at all? How about all those fucked up people that go through life sexually frustrated because they haven't had sex with anybody until they were 25 and then were unable to establish a normal sexual relationship with another human being?

NASA Love Triangle

2007-02-07T11:54:00.000+10:00

ORLANDO, Fla. — A NASA astronaut accused of trying to kidnap a romantic rival for a space shuttle pilot's affections was charged with attempted first-degree murder Tuesday as her lawyer sparred with prosecutors to effort her release.

Lisa Marie Nowak was ordered released on $10,000 bail and told to wear an ankle tracking device. That is in addition to the $15,500 bail that was ordered for Nowak earlier in the day for the attemped kidnapping charges.

Meanwhile, WFTV in Orlando reported that after the alleged recent attack, Orlando police encouraged the alleged victim, Colleen Shipman, to file for a restraining order against Nowak and a no contact order from Nowak's Navy commander.

In the petition for the restraining order, when asked how long the conduct has been going on, Shipman said the attack was one day, but indicated she was being stalked for approximately two months, according to WFTV. Also in the petition, Shipman says Nowak researched her personal information, including the flight, using government contacts or computer.

Nowak, a 43-year-old Navy captain and married mother of three, had already been charged with attempted kidnapping, attempted vehicle burglary with battery, destruction of evidence and battery.

A judge earlier Tuesday said she could be freed on $15,500 bail provided she stay away from the other woman and wear a monitoring device. But as Nowak was about to be released, she was notified more charges were pending, Orange County jail spokesman Allen Moore said.

"The intent was there to do serious bodily injury or death," Orlando Police Sgt. Barb Jones, referring to a new steel mallet, knife, rubber tubing and large garbage bags that police found in Nowak's possession.

Chief astronaut Steve Lindsey, who flew with Nowak to the international space station last July aboard space shuttle Discovery, and fellow astronaut Chris Ferguson attended the earlier hearing.

"Our primary concern is her health and well-being and that she get through this," Lindsey told reporters afterward.

Ferguson said he was "perplexed" by Nowak's alleged actions.

For now, NASA has put Nowak on a 30-day leave and removed her from mission duties. NASA spokesman John Ira Petty at Johnson Space Center in Houston said he was concerned about the people involved and their families. But, he added, "We try not to concern ourselves with our employees' personal lives."

Police said Nowak drove 900 miles, donned a disguise and was armed with a BB gun and pepper spray when she confronted a woman she believed was a competitor for the affections of Navy Cmdr. William Oefelein, an unmarried fellow astronaut.

Oefelein, 41, piloted the space shuttle Discovery in December. He and Nowak trained together but never flew a mission together.

Nowak told police that her relationship with Oefelein was "more than a working relationship but less than a romantic relationship," according to an arrest affidavit. Inside Nowak's vehicle, which was parked at a nearby motel, authorities found a pepper spray package, an unused BB-gun cartridge, latex gloves and e-mails between Oefelein and Colleen Shipman.

They also found a letter "that indicated how much Mrs. Nowak loved Mr. Oefelein" and Shipman's home address, the arrest affidavit said.

Police said Nowak told them that she only wanted to scare Shipman into talking to her about her relationship and didn't want to harm her.

"If you were just going to talk to someone, I don't know that you would need a wig, a trench coat, an air cartridge BB gun and pepper spray," Jones said. "It's just really a very sad case."

Defense attorney Donald Lykkebak said Tuesday that he believes the attempted murder charge was filed because police were unhappy Nowak would be released on bail.

"I guess they didn't like the ruling in court this morning, did they? You think they would have done it if she was still in jail?" he said.

According to authorities, Nowak believed Shipman was romantically involved with Oefelein, and when she found out Shipman was flying to Orlando from Houston, she decided to confront her early Monday, according to the arrest affidavit.

Nowak raced from Houston to Orlando wearing diapers in the car so she wouldn't have to stop to go to the bathroom, authorities said. Astronauts wear diapers during launch and re-entry.

Dressed in a wig and a trench coat, she waited for Shipman's plane to land and then boarded the same airport shuttle bus Shipman took to get to her car, police said. Shipman told police she noticed someone following her, hurried inside the car and locked the doors, according to the arrest affidavit.

Nowak rapped on the window, tried to open the car door and asked for a ride. Shipman refused but rolled down the car window a few inches when Nowak started crying, the statement said. Nowak then sprayed a chemical into Shipman's car, the affidavit said. Shipman drove to the parking lot booth and police were called.

An officer reported following Nowak and watching her throw away a bag containing the wig and BB gun. Police also found a steel mallet, a 4-inch folding knife, rubber tubing, $600 and garbage bags inside a bag Nowak was carrying when she was arrested, authorities said.

Oefelein and Shipman, who worked at Patrick Air Force Base near the Kennedy Space Center, did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

According to NASA's official biography, Nowak is a Naval Academy graduate who has a master's degree in aeronautical engineering. She has a teenage son and younger twin girls.

Oefelein has two children and began his aviation career as a teenager flying floatplanes in Alaska, according to a NASA biography. He studied electrical engineering at Oregon State University and later earned a master's degree in aviation systems at the University of Tennessee Space Institute. He has been an astronaut since 1998.

Are Showers Made For Bathing or Sex?

2007-02-04T12:35:00.000+10:00

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Sex is not a taboo subject at Yale, home to Sex Week, a biennial celebration that’s one of the most provocative campus events in the nation.

But a randy couple’s frolic in a shower at one of Yale’s undergraduate residential colleges prompted a professor to issue an e-mail of protest, which in turn has sparked debate on the Internet.

With the subject line “Shower Stalls are for Showering,” the e-mail begins “OK, well THIS is the most awkward college-wide e-mail I’ve ever had to send.”

The e-mail was sent Jan. 30 by Professor Jonathan Holloway, master of Calhoun College, one of 12 residential colleges at the Ivy League university. About 330 students received the e-mail from Holloway. His e-mail warns against “intimate activity” in the showers, “especially that kind of activity that leaves the showers in a decidedly less hygienic state.

“Several times since the start of the spring term some Hounies have come across a couple having the time of their lives in a shower stall,” the e-mail stated, referring to the nickname for college residents. “Last night, the shower flooded and the bathroom could not be used for over 90 minutes. To the as yet unidentified couple, this may be pleasurable and exciting for you, but it is a violation of community standards. Please stop.”

Dan Gelernter, class of 2009, is co-editor of Critical Mass, aimed at “collegiate conservatives,” also weighed in, calling the episode “a new chapter in the story of Yale’s continuing descent into the depths of moral degradation.”

PS: Showers are for bathing, just as bed are for sleeping, elevators for going up and down , and cars for driving from a to b. Still all those places are more than appropriate for a good shagging. There is nothing better and relaxing than a good fuck so just get over it.

Former Prison Guard Guilty Of Female Inmate Rape

2007-02-04T12:34:00.000+10:00

CONCORD, N.H. - A former corrections officer was convicted Friday of raping a female inmate under his supervision at a prison halfway house.

A Merrimack County Superior Court jury found Douglas Tower, 62, guilty of all charges against him: two counts of rape and four counts of felonious sexual assault. The jury began deliberating on Wednesday.

The woman, now 23, testified the former corrections sergeant assaulted her in his office at the Shea Farm halfway house two years ago and in a Corrections Department van. She said she felt she had no choice but to submit.

“I had nobody to call, I didn’t have any friends. I didn’t have anybody like that to call,” she said. “There are levels of trust. I didn’t trust anybody to tell them anything like that.”

Tower testified that he kissed and fondled the woman in the van after she made advances to him, but did not rape her.

He denied that he ever forced the woman to perform oral sex on him or assaulted her in his office at the Shea Farm halfway house, as she testified.

His actions were stupid, Tower said, but it wasn’t rape.

“I had let so many people down,” he said. “Doing something that stupid, it devastated my entire life and everybody around me.”

But prosecutor Kirsten Wilson told the jury Tower lied to the police, then changed his story just before he was scheduled to take a polygraph test. He also approved a special visit for the woman the same day they were together in the van, a request he did not have the authority to grant. The state asserts that Tower coerced the woman because he had the power to grant favors and send her back to prison if she refused.

He faces separate trials on sexual assault charges involving a dozen other women.

State Corrections Commissioner William Wrenn said the department will go after employees who take advantage of their authority over inmates.

“We are entrusted with the custody and safekeeping of all offenders who are incarcerated in our facilities,” Wrenn said after the verdict. “We take that responsibility seriously. The employees of the Department of Corrections must uphold the laws of the state and we will continue to have a zero tolerance approach to those who violate that trust.”

Tower was the highest-ranking officer assigned full-time to Shea Farm halfway house, where he worked at night and once was voted officer of the year. He ruled on low-level disciplinary reports, bedroom assignments and inmate visit requests, and had authority over other officers.

Teen On The Rape Trial Was "Scared"

2007-02-04T12:31:00.000+10:00

Terrance Terrell said he was as scared as anyone the night he reluctantly found himself in the middle of the sadistic rape, robbery and beating of a young couple on their first date, the Bay Shore teenager tearfully testified in his trial yesterday.

Terrell, 19 - one of three former Bay Shore High School students charged in the Dec. 3, 2005, attack - said when he followed Reginald Dugue, 19, and Douglas Payton, 18, out of a car and approached the couple's parked Jeep, he thought they were only going to scare them.

But before long, things spun out of control, said Terrell, who said he was "shocked" when Dugue produced a gun, pistol-whipped the male victim and ordered him and his girlfriend to strip.

"I didn't want to be part of this anymore," said Terrell, as his voice cracked. Terrell said he quickly returned to Payton's car as his friends stayed with the couple. Moments later, he said Dugue came to the car with the gun and the female victim.

"I sat there, I was scared. I didn't know what he was going to do with this gun," said Terrell, as he recalled reluctantly going along as the girl performed oral sex on him when Dugue ordered it. "I was scared that he would have shot me if I pulled the girl off."

Contrary to the female victim's testimony earlier, Terrell said he was never aroused during the incident.

"I was too scared. I wouldn't be able to get aroused by something like that," Terrell testified, as his mother cried and shook her head from her seat in the courtroom.

Prosecutors say Dugue then raped the woman, as Payton restrained her boyfriend and forced him to watch. Dugue and Payton have both pleaded guilty to rape, sodomy and robbery.

Terrell recalled Dugue laughing about the attack as the three teens drove away, but Terrell said, "I didn't find it funny at all."

"I didn't feel right about the whole situation," Terrell said. "I felt low. How would a person do this?"

Terrell's attorney, James Saladino of Riverhead, asked him, "Why didn't you just say, 'Hey, stop. What's going on Reggie? I didn't sign up for this.' "

"I never had a gun pulled on me before," he replied. "I froze."

Terrell said detectives came to arrest him three days later in his high school locker room, minutes before he was to play for the school's basketball team. He said he maintained his innocence, but police coerced him to sign a confession that he never read by telling him that if he did, they would let him return to his game.

Suffolk Assistant District Attorney Kate Wagner pointed out that he did not tell anyone about the crime in the days after it happened.

"You were the victim?" Wagner asked Terrell.

"Yes," he answered, drawing moans and scoffs from many of the victims' supporters in court. "I was forced to do something I didn't want to do."

Sex Offender Who Posed As Boy Indicted

2007-01-27T11:26:00.000+10:00

A sex offender posing as a 12-year-old has been indicted on 15 counts of child pornography involving sexual exploitation of a minor, the Yavapai County Attorney's office reported today.

Neil Rodreick II had also been charged with fraudulent schemes, failure to register as a sex offender, five counts of forgery, taking the identity of another, possession of a forgery device and a misdemeanor assault charge.

Rodreick, a convicted sex offender from Oklahoma, was arrested last week after trying to enroll at Mingus Springs Charter School in Chino Valley. After searching the home, investigators confiscated computers and videotapes, at least one of which contained images of Rodreick with a juvenile, the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office reports.

Between August and November, Rodreick successfully posed as seventh-grader "Casey Price" and attended class at Imagine School at Rosefield in Surprise. So far, the Surprise Police Department has found no cases of inappropriate behavior.

Rodreick camouflaged his age by shaving his body hair, wearing makeup and dressing the part, investigators report.

Three men living with Rodreick have also been indicted on charges including sexual exploitation of a minor. Two of the men, Robert Snow and Lonnie Stiffler, believed Rodreick was 12. They had a sexual relationship with him, investigators say. Brian Nellis, a former cellmate of Rodreick's, was possibly in on the con, the Sheriff's office reported.

All four men will appear in court 10:30 a.m. Feb. 26 in Division 5 of the Yavapai County Superior Court. If found guilty, each man faces in excess of 100 years in prison.

Dakota Fanning Sex Scenes Raise Ire

2007-01-14T13:59:00.000+10:00

HOLLYWOOD -- Consider this your early-warning Sundance Film Festival controversy alert: Cute little Dakota Fanning plays a precocious child-sex-abuse and rape victim in Full Moon Films' upcoming "Hounddog."

The issue: Fanning, who turns 13 next month, is reportedly depicted in the film nude or scantily clad during compromising scenes, and her face is shown in close-up during a rape scene.

Early reports of the film's contents have stirred a minor Internet storm over whether Fanning's mother, Joy, and the girl's agent, Cindy Osbrink, are exploiting the girl in hopes of an Oscar nomination. A spokesman for Osbrink and the filmmakers did not return a message seeking comment.

Child actors being depicted in sexual roles is not new. Jena Malone portrayed a rape victim in "Bastard Out of Carolina" (1996), Brooke Shields' character's virginity was auctioned in Louis Malle's "Pretty Baby" (1978), and Jodie Foster famously played a prostitute in Martin Scorsese's "Taxi Driver" (1976). All were younger than 15 at the time.

Such roles can vault a young actress from the category of "adorable" into being taken seriously as an artist, and Osbrink was quoted this summer as holding out hopes for an Oscar nomination -- despite the subject matter, which, the New York Daily News reported, scared off some investors.

Fanning is an experienced actress with more than 30 roles, including in the slasher film "Hide and Seek" and the remake of "War of the Worlds" (both 2005), and as Fern in "Charlotte's Web" (2006).

Among the outraged is Ted Baehr of the Christian Film & Television Commission. Baehr, whose advocacy group runs the movie.org Web site, which ranks films based on Christian themes and family appeal, said that he hadn't seen the film but that he was calling on movie distributors to reject the film and report the filmmakers to legal authorities. The movie has its first Sundance screening Jan. 22.

"It's pedophilia," Baehr said earlier this week. "There should be a sense of outrage about it."

Source:http://www.indystar.com

Dirty Song Lyrics Can Cause Early Teen Sex

2007-01-14T13:52:00.000+10:00

Teens whose iPods are full of music with raunchy, sexual lyrics start having sex sooner than those who prefer other songs, a study found.

Whether it’s hip-hop, rap, pop or rock, much of popular music aimed at teens contains sexual overtones. Its influence on their behavior appears to depend on how the sex is portrayed, researchers found.

Songs depicting men as “sex-driven studs,” women as sex objects and with explicit references to sex acts are more likely to trigger early sexual behavior than those where sexual references are more veiled and relationships appear more committed, the study found.

Teens who said they listened to lots of music with degrading sexual messages were almost twice as likely to start having intercourse or other sexual activities within the following two years as were teens who listened to little or no sexually degrading music.

Among heavy listeners, 51 percent started having sex within two years, versus 29 percent of those who said they listened to little or no sexually degrading music.

'Cool thing to do'
Exposure to lots of sexually degrading music “gives them a specific message about sex,” said lead author Steven Martino, a researcher for Rand Corp. in Pittsburgh. Boys learn they should be relentless in pursuit of women and girls learn to view themselves as sex objects, he said.

“We think that really lowers kids’ inhibitions and makes them less thoughtful” about sexual decisions and may influence them to make decisions they regret, he said.

The study, based on telephone interviews with 1,461 participants aged 12 to 17, appears in the August issue of Pediatrics, being released Monday.

Most participants were virgins when they were first questioned in 2001. Follow-up interviews were done in 2002 and 2004 to see if music choice had influenced subsequent behavior.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14227775/

Second Teacher Accused Of Sex Offences

2007-01-14T13:18:00.000+10:00

For the second time in less than a week, a popular teacher at a Howard County high school has been arrested and charged with multiple counts of sex offenses against students. Police arrested Alan Meade Beier, a 52-year-old science teacher at the top-performing River Hill High School in Clarksville, yesterday at his home.

They say he undressed and photographed a 16-year-old male student Monday evening in his classroom. Police also say he fondled a 17-year-old female student on two occasions, most recently in the fall. Beier, who was chosen River Hill's 2001 Teacher of the Year by the senior class, has been placed on administrative leave by the school system.

Last week, Joseph Samuel Ellis, 25, a popular history teacher at Glenelg High School, was arrested and charged with several sex crimes. He is accused of exposing himself to one student, persuading a second to meet him at a park with the promise of alcohol, and sending a third suggestive computer messages.

"I can say positively that students are safe in our schools and in our classrooms," Howard County Superintendent Sydney L. Cousin said yesterday. "It is unfortunate that incidents of this type take place. We will investigate and take appropriate and deliberative action." Howard County does not have a specific session about student-teacher relationships during its teacher orientation held before the beginning of each school year.

All teachers are required to complete training in recognizing child abuse and then sign a document that gives an "explicit definition" of what child abuse is, according to Howard County's spokeswoman Patti Caplan. In the wake of the latest arrest, Howard County school officials are examining their procedures and policies.

Beier is charged with three counts of sexual child abuse, three counts of second-degree assault and three counts of fourth-degree sex offense. If convicted of all charges, he could be sentenced to a maximum of 108 years in prison and fined $10,500.

An employee at the Howard County Detention Center indicated last night that Beier had bond.
According to charging documents, the male student went with two other students Monday at school and asked Beier for community service hours. Beier allegedly gave the other students "normal assignments to complete" but asked the third youth to come back later in the evening to assist him with a "special job" in connection with the Mr. RHHS (River Hill High School) contest, a lively all-male pageant in which students compete for votes from their peers. Beier served as the teacher adviser to the contest, Caplan confirmed.

The student was asked to bring a bathing suit to the meeting. Later that evening, the student alleges that he met Beier - who brought a camera and lighting equipment - and the two went to his classroom, where they assembled the equipment.

The student said that Beier began to take photos of him with his clothes on. Beier took pictures of the student with his shirt off, then the student removed his clothing except for his bathing suit. Eventually, the charging documents said, Beier "pulled down both [the student's] swimming trunks and boxers" and photographed him.

A search warrant of Beier's home Tuesday yielded a camera with images that supported the student's claims, according to the Howard County Police Department. Sherry Llewellyn, a police spokeswoman, would not provide additional details involving the images on the camera.

While police were investigating the allegations of the male student, they learned about a 17-year-old female student who said that Beier, her teacher, grabbed her buttocks on two occasions.

The first time, during May or June, she said, Beier walked by her and grabbed her buttocks while she was in his room. She said Beier said: "Oh, excuse me." She told police she believed that Beier had intentionally grabbed her.

On the second occasion, in September or October, she alleges that Beier grabbed her buttock and "cupped" it. The Maryland Judicial Database indicates that Beier has no previous criminal history. Beier began teaching at River Hill in 1996, after teaching for 20 years in Prince George's County, according to Caplan.

John White, a spokesman for the Prince George's County Public Schools, could not disclose Beier's status when he left the school system.

Beier was in school Monday but did not return the rest of the week, leading to rumors about his disappearance. On Tuesday, police visited the school, Llewellyn confirmed. Also that day, several students said that Principal William Ryan made an announcement acknowledging Beier's absence and stating that it was "a personal matter."

By Wednesday, students started wearing homemade T-shirts that read "Free Beier." Some students had their T-shirts on yesterday when they learned of Beier's arrest during an announcement.

Students were shocked, according to one 17-year-old senior who has Beier as a physics teacher.
"He was a great teacher," the student said. "He made everyone feel welcome. He always brought fun activities to class for us to learn." Another of Beier's students, a 17-year-old senior, said the teacher was polarizing.

"You either loved him or you hated him," she said. "Most of the kids just loved him."

Margaret Bowers, the parent of a River Hill junior who played on an indoor soccer team and pingpong team that Beier coached, said Beier was "approachable, friendly and very caring."

"He was a respectable gentleman," the Clarksville mother said.

"I encouraged my son to have him as a mentor. He was able to reach students on a level that they appreciated." Neighbors in Beier's Columbia neighborhood were shocked to learn of his arrest.

"I was never around him socially, but he appeared to be a nice guy. ... When I saw him outside mowing the lawn, I would say 'hi' to him," said neighbor Thomas Roberts. "He was a nice guy, as any of my neighbors are."

Source: http://www.baltimoresun.com

US Buddha Porn Site Banned In Thailand

2007-01-10T23:34:00.000+10:00

BANGKOK, Thailand: The Thai government blocked access Monday to a U.S.-based pornography Web site that uses an image of Buddha as its logo and is calling on Buddhists around the world to condemn the site, an official said.

The Chicago-based Web site, buddha-porn.com, features sexually explicit material beneath an image of a golden statue of a seated Buddha and contains pornographic images divided up in different categories named, the Buddha Galleries, Nirvana Galleries, and Satori Galleries — the last two referring to Buddhist beliefs about reaching enlightenment.

About 90 percent of Thailand's 65 million people are Buddhist.

"It certainly crosses the line in a Buddhist society, " said Culture Ministry official Ladda Tangsuphachai, adding that the site was blocked by the Information Ministry after culture officials brought it to their attention. "We ask Buddhists around the world to send letters to condemn the Web site," he said.

The Foreign Ministry is asking the Web site's administrators, through the U.S. Embassy in Thailand, to remove all Buddhist references from the site, Ladda said.

"I don't know what their intention is, but I assume they did not know that this is unacceptable in our culture," Ladda said.

The Web site's home page offers this disclaimer: "This site is in no way associated with religion and any religious symbols on this site are just a joke."

XXX Domains Proposal - Again

2007-01-10T23:32:00.000+10:00

NEW YORK — The Internet's key oversight agency has revived a proposal it earlier rejected to create an online red-light district, after adding stronger provisions to prohibit child pornography and require labeling of Web sites with sexually explicit materials.

The use of the proposed ".xxx" domain name would remain voluntary, but any porn sites that choose to use it instead of the more popular ".com" would be subject to the new terms issued late Friday by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.

The idea of a separate ".xxx" domain has generated significant opposition from conservative groups and even some pornography Web sites.

But ICANN officials said they initially rejected the proposal in May not because of the opposition but because of concerns that the agency might be put in a difficult position of having to enforce all of the world's laws governing pornography. They noted that various nations' speech-related laws sometimes conflict with one another.

The new proposal does not directly address any potential conflicts in laws, but it calls for the company backing it, ICM Registry Inc. of Jupiter, Fla., to hire independent organizations to monitor porn sites' compliance with the new rules.

ICANN, the agency in Marina del Rey, Calif., designated by the U.S. government to oversee domain name policies, opened the proposal to public comment but did not indicate when it would rule.

If approved, ICM would be required to help develop mechanisms for promoting child safety and preventing child pornography, "including practices that appeal to pedophiles or suggest the presence of child pornography on the site."

Porn sites would have to participate in a self-descriptive labeling system, likely one from the Internet Content Rating Association. Under it, Web sites add tags based on such criteria as the presence of nudity and whether it is in an artistic or educational context, such as for sites on breast feeding. Relatively few sites now participate, although major Web browsers have mechanisms for reading the tags.

ICM also would have to develop automated tools to check for compliance and give users ways to report violations.

ICM believes the domain would help the $12 billion online porn industry clean up its act, as those using it must abide by rules designed to bar such trickery as spamming and malicious scripts.

Anti-porn advocates, however, countered that sites would be free to keep their current ".com" address, in effect making porn more easily accessible by creating yet another channel to house it.

Many porn sites also objected, fearing that an ".xxx' domain would pave the way for governments or even private industry to filter speech that is protected in the United States by the First Amendment.

Ex Prison Guard Remains In Jail On Sex Charges

2007-01-10T23:28:00.000+10:00

S.Dakota, US -- The man accused of using the Internet to lure a 14-year-old Escondido girl into running away with him to South Dakota pleaded not guilty yesterday to raping her.

Charles “Chuck” Leroy Crowell, 34, a former prison guard, could face up to 30 years in prison on two counts of rape, said officials in Sioux Falls, where he appeared in court yesterday.

Crowell could face more charges in California, according to the Escondido Police Department. Escondido detectives are still investigating, checking e-mails, chat-room messages and text messages that they say were exchanged between Crowell and the girl.

The girl's parents discovered that she was missing Sunday morning. Police found her safe Monday afternoon, as she and Crowell drove up to his apartment in Sioux Falls. The girl is in protective custody, while Crowell remains in jail with bail set at $500,000, according to the Minnehaha County Court Clerk's Office.

The 300-pound, 5-foot-7 Crowell was a correctional officer in the South Dakota State Penitentiary from May 2003 until Nov. 6, 2006, officials said.

In November, Crowell was arrested and charged with assault on a family member, said Sioux Falls police spokesman Loren McManus. He had no other criminal record, McManus said, and is not a registered sex offender.

Officials said Crowell has been married and has at least one child, but was living alone in the apartment where he attempted to take the Escondido girl.

The domestic violence case is scheduled for trial in late February, court officials said. Crowell's trial status could change because there could be a grand jury hearing on the rape charges. South Dakota officials said he also could face federal charges.

In the Escondido case, he faces two counts of fourth-degree rape, which according to South Dakota law applies if the victim is a juvenile 13 to 15 years old and the accused is at least three years older.

Crowell is being represented by the Minnehaha County Public Defender's Office. His public defender declined to comment yesterday.

Since the news broke that a girl may have been taken by a possible Internet predator, Escondido police Lt. David Mankin said his office has been flooded with calls from parents worried about how to protect their children. Mankin tells them to do the same thing the girl's parents did.

“These parents actually did a good job tracking their daughter,” Mankin said. “They checked up on where she visited on the Web and what she wrote, and when they caught her using what they considered inappropriate conversations, they took away her Internet privileges and cut off her text-messaging capabilities.”

He lauded the girl's parents for contacting her friends and asking them not to let her go online or text message on their equipment.

While it may have been technology that introduced the eighth-grader to the the former prison guard, it also helped authorities catch them.

The girl's parents found Crowell's cell phone number on their phone bill and left messages with him, as did Escondido police.

“If she's portraying herself as an 18-year-old online, and he believes she's 18, that's no defense in this case because he has messages from us and from her parents that, 'You're in possession of a runaway 14-year-old,' ” Mankin said.

Twice last weekend the girl's parents foiled her plans to meet Crowell at the Motel 6 near Old Town, the parents and police said. Crowell registered at the motel Thursday after flying to San Diego from Omaha, Neb., which is a three-hour drive from Sioux Falls, officials said.

The girl's parents discovered her plans when the cab company called to confirm that she needed a taxi and her father answered the phone. The girl's name was made public by the media when police were seeking help in finding her. However, The San Diego Union-Tribune no longer is identifying her because it is the policy of the newspaper to not name someone who authorities believe is a victim of sexual crimes.

Although the parents kept close watch on her, the girl slipped out of her home in a gated community sometime Saturday night or Sunday morning. It is unknown whether she knew the man from the Internet was more than twice her age and married.

Staff writer Kristina Davis contributed to this report.

New Year Sex Resolutions

2007-01-10T23:24:00.000+10:00

One of the most fun New Year's resolutions I ever heard was from a girlfriend some years back.

Asked what she had resolved to change for the new year, she replied firmly "Have more orgasms!"

I was full of admiration. She boldly stated it in front of friends and, to his chagrin, her husband. She did, after all, add "for me" at the end of her statement.

To his credit, he amiably agreed to help her fulfil and keep her resolution.

I didn't check up with her for a long time after that to see how it all was going but they're still married and they looked blissfully happy in the last photo I received, so perhaps it happened.

Whether or not couples agree (and I hope they do!) sex is a wonderful and joyful part of any relationship and an important glue for holding a marriage together.

But loving intimacy can get pushed far down the scale of priorities in frantically busy and demanding days and whereas some men can manage to get along with the occasional speedy physical release it's not what most women want -- or long for.

A lot of people, men and women, don't believe this, but women want sex as much as men. The difference is in the style and approach.

While there are plenty of great guys who feel the same way, women often feel they're missing loving, caring, skillful, relaxed time spent sexually connecting with a partner they love and desire. And, no, this doesn't necessarily mean taking a lover in order to get this.

FAKING IT

Above all, women want satisfaction.

In other words, orgasms are good and women shouldn't accept being denied them.

But if a woman isn't getting them, it's partly her fault. Takes two, after all. She should say so and then direct the action to make it happen. Honesty is also one of the very important factors in making a relationship work.

Faking it, (which according to numerous sex surveys happens all too frequently), only ensures the status quo is maintained and drives an unseen wedge of resentment between couples.

Men, in turn, have to make more effort to learn exactly what it is that excites and pleases their partner. I can assure you, a lot of women love being sexually explored.

But the key here is something that is so often overlooked and discarded. Something that when neglected becomes lost forever.

Communication.

So how about this for another New Year's resolution: Resolve to communicate more with your partner. Talk, talk, talk together, tell each other (kindly) what you like or dislike, what you expect and dream about, what you resent or appreciate. Make sure you have quality time together in order to do this and, above all, share your lives.

SPECIAL SOMEONE

Not just sexually but every day. A shared life with love in it is tough to divide.

But what about singles?

Not everyone is in a relationship. Single are all ages nowadays and many of them are on the hunt for that special someone. And, despite what married folk think, not all of them are having endless hot sex. Chance would be a fine thing.

But for most singles, the New Year's vow is often to make more effort to find a partner. Conversely, they may decide to give up the difficult and sometimes depressing search to focus on other life goals.

This is hard to do, especially for many women, who can feel a life without love and cherishing in a close partnership is empty and unfulfilling despite other successes.

But I'm a single and, yes, my resolution for 2007 is to try harder to find a relationship.

Note I said relationship -- not date or one-night stand despite their obvious instant pleasures. In the world of singles, that's an important point and, let me tell you, narrows the field considerably.

Yes, more orgasms are great but take it from one who knows, nothing beats a really good relationship in which they're included.

Source: http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/Business/BusinessMonday/2007/01/08/3234987.html

Saucy Sheriff's Sex Romp

2006-12-30T17:14:00.000+10:00

WINNIPEG -- A pair of courthouse sheriff's officers are on unpaid leave and face possible disciplinary action for their guest starring roles in a saucy Internet sex video.

The video, allegedly recorded during Grey Cup weekend in Winnipeg, shows the male and female officers canoodling with a porn performer identified as Oshean in what appears to be a hotel room.

Justice officials were alerted to the existence of the video yesterday, said Jeff Schnoor, assistant deputy minister of courts.

"We do take the matter seriously," Schnoor said. "An investigation began as soon as it came to our attention."

Schnoor said it has yet to be determined if the male and female officer violated any code of conduct provisions by participating in the video. He would not explain why they were placed on leave without pay.

"We have enough information to determine that it is the proper course of action," Schnoor said.

On her website, Oshean, who is based in Winnipeg, describes herself as an "XXX adult web star" who believes sex "is a really great way to make friends."

She describes her video offerings as "REAL reality porn."

Text accompanying the Grey Cup video reads: "Grey Cup weekend closes off with a bang when Oshean gets wild with the hottest (woman) she could find."

Oshean declined comment when a Sun reporter reached her by telephone.

"I suppose you should probably be talking to them," she said of the other two people in the video.

Oshean has two websites. One describes her as an "independent porn star escort" who believes "sex is a recreational activity" and is available for "incalls only" in downtown Winnipeg.

Rates for men and couples are listed on the same site.

Information about Oshean, including her measurements, can also be found on a website listing of Winnipeg escorts.

The online sex romp is the latest in a string of embarrassing incidents for the local sheriff's department. Earlier this month, supervisor and former Blue Bomber great Willard Reaves was placed on leave following allegations of unprofessional conduct.

Last March a sheriff's officer was charged with arson and fraud after he allegedly torched his own SUV and tried to pin the blame on outlaw bikers.

Source:www.edmontonsun.com

US Weekly Journalist Arrested On Sex Charges

2006-12-30T15:51:00.000+10:00

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA -- Former Us Weekly gossip columnist Timothy McDarrah, arrested in New York last year by undercover federal agents, has been found guilty of charges related to soliciting sex with a minor.

McDarrah, 44, a former reporter at the Las Vegas Sun, was arrested after being charged with trying to seduce an undercover federal agent posing on the Internet as a 13-year-old girl.

He was convicted Dec. 20 after an eight-day jury trial in New York and faces a mandatory minimum of five years in prison, according to court documents.

Woman Offers Her Eggs On Internet To Pay Off Credit Card

2006-12-28T17:57:00.000+10:00

A young woman has put her eggs for sale on the internet to pay off £15,000 of credit card debts.

Alexandra Saunders posted her details on an American website after reading about the huge amount that can be made in a woman's magazine.

The 26-year-old, who already has three jobs to try and pay off her debts, thought it would be an easy way to make money.

It is illegal for a woman to sell her eggs within the UK but egg donation is big business in the US where childless couples pay up to £20,000 in exchange the eggs of a young healthy woman.

Fine For Taping Women

2006-12-28T17:51:00.000+10:00

Victoria, AU -- A Victorian man who covertly videotaped the "Genital regions" of hundreds of women, including many during the Indy carnival, has apologized for his "dumb mistake".

A magistrate described the taping as "disgusting" when he fined recent IT graduate Paul Robert Smith, 29, $1800, however did not record a conviction because he did not believe there had been any "pre planning"

"It's something that is disgusting, particularly for the women and something that is just completely unacceptable behavior," Magistrate Ray Rinaudo said. Smith pleaded guilty in Southport Magistrate's Court. He apologized to the women and denied that he planned to put the videos on the internet.

S Korea To Pay Men Who Promise Not To Buy Sex

2006-12-28T17:50:00.000+10:00

SEOUL, South Korea -- South Korea has launched a campaign offering cash to men if they promise not to buy sex from prostitutes after year-end office parties, government officials said Tuesday.

The move is aimed at changing the party culture in this male-dominated society by winning commitments from male employees to abstain from hiring prostitutes after the parties, said an official at the Gender Equality and Family Ministry. A total of $5,000 will be paid to companies based on the largest number of volunteers who sign a pledge, the official said. AP

Man Whose Sex Drive Rose After Injury Claims $7 Million

2006-12-15T21:35:00.000+10:00

A Christian newly-wed has filed a £3.5 million compensation claim against his employers, saying that his marriage was ruined because his sex drive spiralled out of control after he injured his head at work.

Stephen Tame, 29, from East Bergholt, Suffolk, fell from a gantry while working in a bicycle warehouse in January 2002. Although he made a full physical recovery after two years of specialist treatment, he claims that the accident led to severe sexual disinhibition, which is destroying his marriage.

His wife, Sarah (photo on the right), 30, has had to spend nights away from him “to get some respite”, and he has resorted to using pornography and visiting a prostitute.

Mrs Tame, who got married to her husband eight months before the accident, was also shocked to find that he had been unfaithful to her, with a 57-year-old woman who attended the same church.

Mr Tame’s lawyers say that his behaviour has become rude and physically aggressive.

He is suing his former employers, Professional Cycling Marketing, for damages, through his wife. In September last year judgment was entered in favour of Mr Tame on the basis of 100 per cent liability. Judge Michael Harris must now decide how much compensation to award.

Mrs Tame, who is now living with her parents, wept as she told the court of her reaction to her husband’s infidelity. “I was in total shock. It was horrible. I was in turmoil. We love each other, but the love is slowly going.

“When I left we were not living apart as such; I was just having a respite. My head was in turmoil.

“We both try to pray every day and we try to pray together. The church has been supporting us and they are trying to keep us together. They tell us not to make any harsh decisions.”

She added that her husband’s carers had advised her to sleep in a separate bed to avoid encouraging his high sex drive.

Asked by the defence whether she had separated from Mr Tame to increase the value of the compensation claim, she said: “That was never my intention in leaving. I was becoming mentally ill because of the whole issue of the accident.”

She is seeing a counsellor and taking antidepressants.

Bill Braithwaite, QC, Mr Tame’s barrister, said: “Mr Tame has a presentation which can be described as ‘fatuous euphoria’ and has been significantly disinhibited sexually, and a significant question has arisen in relation to Mr and Mrs Tame’s marriage. The sexual side of their life is pretty troubled and unfortunately reveals a visit to a prostitute recently.

“Mrs Tame appears to have left her husband on several occasions, the most recent being last month.”

Mr Tame’s legal advisers have based their compensation claim on the belief that he will not be able to work again, and on the assumption that his marriage will collapse within a year under the strain of his inflated sex drive.

Counsel for the defence are arguing that Mr Tame will eventually be able to work for up to 16 hours a week, and that his marriage may survive, which would lower the cost of his care. The hearing continues at the High Court in London.

Man Says Woman Claiming Rape Paid Him For Sex

2006-12-15T21:30:00.000+10:00

OMAHA, Neb. -- A man charged with raping a woman he met through a singles chat line denied the charge on Monday, and claimed that she paid him for sex.Chad Franco, 33, is charged with first-degree sexual assault, robbery, use of a weapon to commit a felony and possession of methamphetamine.The alleged victim told KETV NewsWatch 7's Suzanne Deyo that she met Franco through the telephone dating service called Live Links. The woman said she was raped after responding to the ad and meeting a man through the service.

Police said Franco and the alleged victim spoke on the phone about six times before the woman invited Franco to her home."The next thing I know, he comes in, forces me to the bedroom, ties me up, rapes me and says if I could get myself loose he wouldn't rob me," the woman told KETV NewsWatch 7 in an interview last month.In court on Monday morning, Franco's attorney offered a different story.

He said that after Franco arrived at the woman's apartment, he told the woman he wasn't going to do anything with her based on how she looked. Franco's attorney said his client told her he would need to get paid if he had sex with her. Franco's attorney said that's when the woman gave Franco some gift cards and DVDs.

The alleged victim claims Franco used a gun and knife to force her to have sex with him. She also said he stole the gift cards and DVDs from her.On Monday, the judge decided there was enough evidence to bind Franco over to district court on charges of first-degree sexual assault, use of a weapon to commit a felony and robbery.Police said they haven't recovered a gun or knife, but they did recover a rope that Franco allegedly used to tie up the woman. Police said she had rope burns on her arms and wrists immediately after the incident.

Oldman Traded Crack For Sex

2006-12-15T21:28:00.000+10:00

PITTSBURGH -- An 80-year-old man from Bloomfield pleaded guilty on Wednesday to charges that he traded crack cocaine from his home, the Pittsburgh Tribune Review reported.Pittsburgh police first arrested Felix Cocco in November 2005 after he had been dealing drugs from his back porch for almost a year and then again in February 2006, police said.Police confiscated crack, a digital scale, packing materials and a pistol during that first arrest.

Cocco had wanted to remain sexually active after his wife died three years ago and turned to prostitutes, his defense attorney, Martha Bailor, said.Assistant District Attorney Matt Wholey said he would forgo seeking mandatory sentences that would put Cocco in prison for at least seven years if Cocco and Bailor agreed to a six-to-18 month jail term.Bailor said she was concerned about her client's vulnerability in jail, so Manning has ordered a presentence evaluation of Cocco's health.Manning also put Cocco on house arrest, where he will wear an electronic-monitoring bracelet until he is sentenced on October 2.

Some Woman Allergic To Sex With Men

2006-12-15T21:21:00.000+10:00

Women can be allergic to sex with men, but doctors are finding women can overcome this allergy through regular sex combined with treatments derived from semen.

"It's really a very rare condition, but it does happen," allergist and immunologist David Resnick at New York Presbyterian Hospital told LiveScience.

Semen allergy symptoms can include itching, burning and swelling in the genitals. In the most severe cases, hives or swelling might appear elsewhere on the body and the woman might experience difficulty breathing.

"Typically symptoms occur within 30 minutes of intercourse, but in rare cases it may be hours or even days later," Resnick explained.

One study from the University of Cincinnati of 1,073 women who sought information on semen allergy concerning their symptoms found 130 had the allergy. In some women, the reaction occurs only with one partner while others are allergic to all partners.

Women are not in all cases allergic to semen itself, but to chemicals in the semen from food, beverages or medications the man has had, ranging from penicillin to compounds in walnuts. However, "this is rare, even more rare than semen allergy itself," Resnick said.

Resnick said about half of all women with semen allergy have other allergies as well, such as skin allergy or hay fever. Most women with the allergy are between age 20 and 30, and 41 percent experience symptoms the first time they have sex.

"In most cases, symptoms gradually worsen and occur sooner with subsequent exposures," he said.

To desensitize a woman's immune system against semen, doctors can either apply diluted samples of semen to a woman's vagina every 20 minutes, gradually increasing the concentration over the course of several hours, or the women can receive allergy shots containing small amounts of semen over the course of several weeks. Both techniques require sex two or three times a week to train their immune system.

There are also cases where women have "outgrown" the allergy without treatment.

The compounds in the semen that appear to trigger this allergy seem to be proteins from the prostate gland. "People are now testing them for use in desensitization therapies," Resnick said.

Resnick discussed the condition today at the annual meeting of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology in Philadelphia.

Mariah Carey Vs Mary Carey

2006-12-10T18:07:00.000+10:00

Singer Mariah Carey has threatened legal action against porn star Mary Carey to stop her trademarking her similar-sounding stage name.

The singer believes fans could get the two performers confused if Mary Carey's trademark application is successful.

However, the adult film actress, whose real name is Mary Cook, has said she will not be intimidated by the singer.

"I'm ready to battle Mariah over this because I've been Mary Carey for a long time," she told Reuters.

"It's kind of funny because I'm a porn star and I've been being myself for a long time. I think she's being silly."

The actress started using the stage name Mary Carey in 2002 and ran for California governor against Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Grammy-winning Mariah Carey is particularly concerned by the possible confusion in the names because the actress wants to trademark the name for audio and video recordings.

But David Beitchman, a lawyer for Mary Carey, said he believed Mariah Carey stood little chance of winning a court battle over the names.

"My first thought was, does Mariah Carey realise what her lawyer is comparing her to and are they seriously concerned?" he said.

"Do they seriously think the fans are going to be confused?"

Condoms Too Big For Indian Men

2006-12-10T18:05:00.000+10:00

A survey of more than 1,000 men in India has concluded that condoms made according to international sizes are too large for a majority of Indian men.

The study found that more than half of the men measured had penises that were shorter than international standards for condoms.

It has led to a call for condoms of mixed sizes to be made more widely available in India.

The two-year study was carried out by the Indian Council of Medical Research.

Over 1,200 volunteers from the length and breadth of the country had their penises measured precisely, down to the last millimetre.

The scientists even checked their sample was representative of India as a whole in terms of class, religion and urban and rural dwellers.

The conclusion of all this scientific endeavour is that about 60% of Indian men have penises which are between three and five centimetres shorter than international standards used in condom manufacture.

Doctor Chander Puri, a specialist in reproductive health at the Indian Council of Medical Research, told the BBC there was an obvious need in India for custom-made condoms, as most of those currently on sale are too large.

The issue is serious because about one in every five times a condom is used in India it either falls off or tears, an extremely high failure rate.

And the country already has the highest number of HIV infections of any nation.

'Not a problem'

Mr Puri said that since Indians would be embarrassed about going to a chemist to ask for smaller condoms there should be vending machines dispensing different sizes all around the country.

"Smaller condoms are on sale in India. But there is a lack of awareness that different sizes are available. There is anxiety talking about the issue. And normally one feels shy to go to a chemist's shop and ask for a smaller size condom."

But Indian men need not be concerned about measuring up internationally according to Sunil Mehra, the former editor of the Indian version of the men's magazine Maxim.

"It's not size, it's what you do with it that matters," he said.

"From our population, the evidence is Indians are doing pretty well.

"With apologies to the poet Alexander Pope, you could say, for inches and centimetres, let fools contend."

Source:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6161691.stm

Muslim Woman Offers Sex Tips On TV

2006-12-07T20:22:00.000+10:00

Heba Kotb is a conservative Muslim, wears an Islamic head scarf, and goes on television once a week to talk frankly and in great detail about sex.

On her show, Big Talk, Kotb answers questions from Muslims all over the Middle East about the most intimate bedroom issues with an openness that is shocking and revolutionary in a society where discussing the subject is taboo.

“How do I talk about these issues? Very seriously,” the Egyptian sexologist says.

”I put on a mask-like face and make sure I speak in the right tone of voice,” she adds.

She also does it by talking about sex in an Islamic light, arguing that the faith is in favor of pleasure for both men and women, with one important caveat that it be only in the context of marriage.

Source:http://www.hindustantimes.com

“I'm very proud of my religion,” Kotb said in an interview at Cairo University, where she teaches forensic medicine.

“My studies revealed to me more and more how Islam was ahead in all sexual matters ... I discovered that Islam understood sex long before the rest of the world,” she adds.

For example, Islam “stresses the importance of foreplay,” Kotb said, and she often stresses to listeners that women should also enjoy sex.

Kotb's frankness is a hit in a region where sex education is minimal, male-female contact is often discouraged and talk on the subject is usually in hushed tones, allowing myths to circulate freely.

She lectured in Saudi Arabia and Yemen recently, where she said many men in the audience where shocked, while women some with veiled faces bombarded her with questions.

Kotb, 39 and married with three daughters, studied sexology at Maimonides University, a private school in Florida, and combined it with her own knowledge of her religion to produce a dissertation titled Sexuality in Islam.

She opened a sexology clinic in Cairo in 2002, wrote sex advice columns in newspapers, appeared on talk shows and answered questions on an Arabic website.

She started Big Talk on the independent Egyptian satellite channel El-Mehwar more than two months ago.

Much of her advice is straight biology laying out facts rarely aired elsewhere. Nothing is too sensitive.

She discusses sexual positions, female orgasm, oral sex (allowed, “since there is no religious text banning it”), even masturbation (frowned upon but at least preferable to unmarried or adulterous sex, which is haram, meaning forbidden by religion).

Ubelievable Sex Trial That Can Happen Only In USA

2006-12-07T20:18:00.000+10:00

Utah, US -- Utah Supreme Court justices acknowledged Tuesday that they were struggling to wrap their minds around the concept that a 13-year-old Ogden girl could be both an offender and a victim for the same act - in this case, having consensual sex with her 12-year-old boyfriend.

The girl was put in this odd position because she was found guilty of violating a state law that prohibits sex with someone under age 14. She also was the victim in the case against her boyfriend, who was found guilty of the same violation by engaging in sexual activity with her.

"The only thing that comes close to this is dueling," said Justice Michael Wilkins, noting that two people who take 20 paces and then shoot could each be considered both victim and offender.
And Chief Justice Christine Durham wondered if the state Legislature had intended the "peculiar consequence" that a child would have the simultaneous status of a protected person and an alleged perpetrator under the law.

The comments came in oral arguments on a motion asking the high court to overturn the finding of delinquency - the legal term in juvenile court for a conviction - against Z.C., who became pregnant after she and her boyfriend engaged in sex in October 2003. State authorities filed delinquency petitions in July 2004, alleging that each had committed sexual abuse of a child, a second-degree felony if committed by an adult.

The girl appealed the petition, saying her constitutional right to be treated equally under the law had been violated. Her motion noted that for juveniles who are 16 and 17, having sex with others in their own age group does not qualify as a crime. Juveniles who are 14 or 15 and have sex with peers can be charged with unlawful conduct with a minor, but the law provides for mitigation when the age difference is less than four years, making the offense a misdemeanor.

For adolescents under 14, though, there are no exceptions or mitigation and they are never considered capable of consenting to sex. A juvenile court judge denied the motion by Z.C., who then admitted to the offense while preserving her right to appeal to a higher court. The Utah Court of Appeals last December upheld the judge's refusal to dismiss the allegation.

At Tuesday's arguments, Matthew Bates, an assistant Utah attorney general, argued the prosecution of the girl was not unreasonable. He said the statute in question is designed to prevent sex with children who are 13 and younger, even if the other person is in the same age group. By passing that law, legislators were sending a message, Bates said: Sex with or among children is unacceptable.

Randall Richards, the girl's attorney, argued that prosecuting children under a law meant to protect them is illogical.

Bill To Change Sex On Paper In NYC Killed

2006-12-07T20:14:00.000+10:00

NEW YORK, US -- New York City's health department on Tuesday rejected a proposal that would have allowed transgender people to switch the gender on their birth certificates without a sex-change operation.

Advocates who had been praising the proposal as ground-breaking for the rights of transgender people called it a frustrating setback when officials rescinded the proposal just before it was due for a vote by the board of health.

Had it passed, people who live in the gender opposite their genitalia would have been able to acquire a new birth certificate if they had the backing of doctors and mental health professionals.

The health department cited "broader societal ramifications"for killing the proposal, noting that hospitals, schools and jails still must classify people by gender.

"For example, how can you send a person with a penis to a women's prison?"said one health department official who requested anonymity because he was not authorised to speak for the department.

New York City's health department had made the proposal in recognition that many transgender people cannot afford sex reassignment surgery or do not consider it necessary to live in their acquired gender.

Parents Indicted For Alleged Rape In Israel

2006-11-29T16:25:00.000+10:00

ISRAEL - The Nazareth District Court on Tuesday sentenced a northern man to 17 years in prison for turning his daughter into a sex slave, Israel Radio reported.

According to the report, the man had continuously raped the girl, now 14, since she was nine years old.

The daughter, who had attempted suicide, was being kept in a secure youth ward in the Tirat Hacarmel hospital for mental health.

Also in Nazareth, prosecutors presented an indictment earlier Tuesday to the District Court against a Beit She'an couple accused of raping their 15-year-old daughter as her toddler brother looked on.

According to the indictment, the mother held the teenager down as the drunken father disrobed and then assaulted the girl. The couple's three-year-old son witnessed the rape, the charge sheet reported.

Prosecutors requested that the suspects be held during the proceedings. The daughter and her brother were taken under the auspices of local social services following their parents' arrest.

Police initially learned of the case on November 18th when social services told them that the parents were refusing to let their daughter enter their apartment.

On Monday evening, a Jerusalem man was arrested on suspicion that he had raped his sister-in-law repeatedly since she was nine years old, Jerusalem police said Tuesday.

In interrogations, the 35-year-old man reportedly told investigators that the sexual relations were consensual.

The man was picked up after a complaint was filed with police Monday afternoon. Police intended to ask the Jerusalem District Court to extend the suspect's remand.

Source:www.jpost.com

Juror In Tears As Sex Tape Played In Court

2006-11-29T16:14:00.000+10:00

A jury member wept, while others shielded their eyes during several graphic scenes in a video depicting the alleged rape of a teenage girl.

The 90-minute tape was played in the New Plymouth District Court yesterday on day two of the trial of a 49-year-old man facing a raft of sex charges.

It was the first time a video of that nature had been shown at a criminal trial in Taranaki.

While the accused bowed his head during most of the tape, some members of the jury looked shocked and disturbed as the video showed the man ordering the girl to remove her school uniform and assume various sexual positions.

It also showed the man having oral sex with the girl, who was 14 when the tape was made.

The complainant, now 22, struggled during the video evidence. The judge adjourned proceedings when she burst into tears.

The accused, whose name is suppressed, is facing 32 charges – eight of rape, 10 of indecent assault and 14 of sexual violation – against the complainant when she was aged 12-15.

Defence counsel Lance Rowe repeatedly stopped and rewound parts of the video as he cross-examined the complainant.

She denied she had ever made sexual deals with the accused in return for cigarettes and money.

She said she was ordered into a bedroom and had been too scared to say no.

"I wanted it over and done with. I was scared, all I wanted to do was get out of it."

Although Mr Rowe told the court the acts on the video were child abuse, he asked the complainant if she had lied about when the abuse started.

"He pushed me into the bedroom – I was only 12," she replied. "I had no choice, he was too strong for me."

The trial continues today.

Source:stuff.co.nz

Sylvester Stallone Abstained From Sex

2006-11-29T16:10:00.000+10:00

Sylvester Stallone abstained from sex during the shooting of "Rocky Balboa," because he wanted to look convincing in the upcoming sequel's many boxing scenes.

The 60-year-old was determined to behave like a top athlete during shooting.

He says, "There is only so much energy in the body, and I know some athletes in the film didn't adhere to the ban, but I did because I knew it was the only way.

"I hear David Beckham says he doesn't but maybe he's the exception.

"The people I know who fight all stick to a sex ban because, if they don't, they lose. Of course it is hard to do, but that's why you fight so well.

"You are so aggravated you just want to get it all over with."

Singapore Swingers

2006-11-24T21:12:00.000+10:00

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Every two months, dozens of couples meet in a pub in Singapore, have drinks, mingle, and then decide whether they want to sleep with one another.

In Sydney or Seattle nobody would bat an eyelid, but the couples are part of a thriving underground swinging scene that is an anomaly for a country where oral sex is illegal and Playboy magazine is banned.

There are more than 10 swingers clubs in Singapore, most of them private, some of them online. With more than 6,000 members, the Web-based United SG Swingers is one of the biggest.

"There are a lot more people that are open to the idea. It's so widespread now," said a 42-year-old Singaporean company executive who only wanted to be identified as Jack.

"Swinging is all about sex. It's satisfying the urge to have casual sex and doing it with somebody you're comfortable with," said Jack, who has been swinging for 10 years.

For all their enthusiasm, few swingers tell family and friends about their lifestyle, although the practice is not illegal in Singapore.

"In Singapore, most people will perceive us as perverts," said a 39-year-old publisher who has been swinging for five years. "Look at our government policies, they say: 'Let's open up.' But our policies have always remained very conservative."

Wealthy Singapore, which has consistently ranked near the bottom in a global survey of sexually active nations, has been struggling to shake off its reputation for prudishness.

On Friday, it opened Sexpo 2006, the country's second sex exhibition, featuring an array of toys and seminars.

SINGAPORE SWING

At United SG Swingers, people share erotic photographs, exchange personal ads and correspond about the next gathering. It is a close-knit community in which couples recommend good sex partners and criticise those who aren't.

A police spokesman confirmed that swinging is not illegal as long as it is done behind closed doors, is consensual and no money changes hands.

This year, the organisers of United SG Swingers started holding "on premise" parties, where couples can engage in group sex in houses and hotel rooms across Singapore.

At these parties, the bedrooms have a strict clothes-off rule and the "hard swingers" can engage in partner swapping. The "soft swingers" are couples who stand around and watch, or have sex with their own partners in full view of others.

Couples who swing say that seeing their own partners in action keeps their passion burning.

"It's like looking at cake and wanting to eat it," said the main organiser of United SG Swingers, 37-year-old IT specialist Josh, as his 32-year-old wife nodded in agreement.

But some swingers disapprove of these parties, saying they can degenerate into orgies.

"You can't establish pure friendships when there's a large group," said Ishak. "Genuine swingers would want to establish trust -- you can't trust a person just by meeting them one time and then think they can do it with your wife."

A 34-year-old Australian who attends swinging parties told Reuters that Singapore's scene is just evolving.

"It's very innocuous here, it's not like other countries," he said. "Compared to Australia and Europe, it's more discreet and less lively. Singaporeans are pretty reserved in a lot of ways."

Teacher Faces 20 Years Jail Term For Sex With Students

2006-11-24T21:07:00.000+10:00

INDONESIAN prosecutors have graphically outlined child-sex abuse charges that could lead to the Australian teacher Peter Smith being jailed for 20 years.

South Jakarta District Court was told Smith had abused so many children - aged between 13 and 17 - he could not remember their names. The abuse occurred over the past six years and was usually videoed, the court was told yesterday.

Smith, 48, was employed by the Australian Government-supervised Indonesia Australia Language Foundation. He had been convicted of abusing Aboriginal pupils in the Northern Territory before changing his name and moving to Indonesia.

After Smith's arrest, another senior teacher at the foundation, Don Hancock, committed suicide. Smith's alleged victims said they were also abused by a second Australian called Don and they identified Hancock from photographs shown to them by the Herald.

The prosecutor, Bayu Pramesti, said Smith was charged with abuse under Indonesia's child protection law, which carries a maximum 15-year sentence. A clause for repeated offences was added to his charges, which could extend his penalty by up to a third.

Mr Pramesti said Smith understood the impact of his acts, which could morally damage the children and cause them to become "addicted to sex".

"The defendant always picked up children from poor family backgrounds so they can be easily used," he told the court.

Smith usually paid the boys between $3 and $10, the court was told.

The charges state Smith committed indecent acts through "violence or threats of violence, forcing, cheating, lying or persuading children to commit or to let indecent actions to happen".

"The defendant … has a hobby to record the children's sexual activities after purchasing a Handycam around year 2001," the court was told.

Videos of the abuse would be presented to the trial, prosecutors said. The testimony of up to eight of the children is likely to be held in a closed court.

Mr Pramesti provided details of the alleged offences, stating Smith would often masturbate the boys, perform oral sex and sometimes penetrate them. His indictment also describes Smith insisting that some of the boys sodomise each other.

Smith's lawyer, Sangap Sidauruk, said he had not decided how he would plead to the charges. "Anything can happen," Mr Sidauruk said.

He said his client had denied forcing, threatening or paying the boys to have sex.

Smith sat quietly before the panel of judges during the first day of the hearing, dressed in a white shirt and tan trousers. The case continues next week.

The welfare organisation that reported Smith to the police, the Jakarta Centre for Street Children, alleged Smith and Hancock had abused up to 100 children and were part of an international pedophile ring.

A statement from the centre, distributed outside the court, called for the maximum penalty to be given to Smith and compensation awarded to his victims. Australia should act to prevent pedophiles travelling to Indonesia, a spokesman said.

Last month, Smith told the Herald his crimes were "blown way out of proportion". Many street urchins survived by prostitution, he said. "It's the only way they can get money. It's a double-sided arrangement."

Source: http://www.smh.com.au

Heather Mills Hit With Sex Scandal

2006-11-21T23:01:00.000+10:00

London,UK -- A fresh torrent of sordid sex allegations has emerged about Sir Paul McCartney's estranged wife Heather Mills as the fall out from their break up continues. The claims, including that Mills was once a high class prostitute who specialized in lesbian and group sex, appeared in British newspapers yesterday.

The News of the World claimed to have compiled a detailed dossier of years of vice, including call girl sessions Mills had with and arms dealer and an Arab prince for fees as high as $12,500 per session.

The paper quoted a former prostitute who claimed to have had a threesome with Mills and a member of the Saudi royal family, and identified another woman who reportedly acted as Mills's madam. The paper didn't carry a response from Mills, but she h as in the past specifically denied being a high class prostitute.

There were further disturbing reports in the The Mail on Sunday and Sunday Mirror newspapers which tracked down the sex partner pictured with Mills in raunchy pictures that surfaced last week. Contrary to her protestations that the shots from German book Die Freuden Der Liebe (The Joys of Love) were educations, male co-star Peter Wilson described the 1988 images as "cheap, titillating and sleazy."

Wilson, now a property developer, who lives in Spain, didn't realize Mills had gone on to marry until his cousin rang him this week to say the graphic pictures were splashed all over the tabloids.

Source: F.Hudson London

Australian Women's Breast Larger Than Ever

2006-11-21T18:53:00.000+10:00

Australian women's breasts are reaching record sizes, according to new research. The average Aussie bra size has increased from a 12B in 2000 to 14C in 2006. The research, by bra manufacturer Fayreform, also reveals 41% of women now wear a D cup or above.

Dr. Heather McCosker-Howard, a Brisbane Consultant in women's health, said bulging busts were caused by a number of factors. "We know that the population as a whole is getting heavier and that the average dress size is now 14", she said. "For some women the contraceptive pill can increase breast size and HRT in older women may also have a similar effect."

Robyn Corrigan runs the Arianne boutique and has spent 20 years in the underwear business. "Breasts have become larger, absolutely, and the growth has all been natural too, not surgically enhanced," she said. "Our most common bras go from 10DD through the 16E, although we now have to stock bras up to 22G"

The Courier Mail

Release Bid By Melbourne Sadist

2006-11-21T18:49:00.000+10:00

Melbourne, AU -- A Sadist who turned teenage girls into sex slaves yesterday launched a legal bid to be allowed to live in the community.

Robert Fletcher, 49, who used hypnotism and mind-altering techniques to entice two 15-year-old girls into prostitution, sadomasochism and black magic - was jailed after pleading guilty. He completed his 10-year-sentence in June but is the subject of an extended supervision order under the Serious Sex Offenders Monitoring Act.

Brits Would Give Up Sex To Live Longer

2006-11-21T18:45:00.000+10:00

Four in 10 Britons would be prepared to give up sex if it meant they would live to be 100, a survey published yesterday showed.

The Mori research found that 40% would pass on passion for longevity, although far more women (48%) were willing to make the sacrifice than men (31%). Nearly all (94%) wouldn't give up friends or family in order to reach their century, while 50% thought scientists should keep trying to prolong people's lives.

Sex Won't Kill You - Crack Will

2006-11-21T18:43:00.000+10:00

Contrary to movie mythology, having sex doesn't increase your chances of a heart attack, but snorting cocaine lifts the risk of seizure more than 20-fold.

A new Australian study is the first to analyse all known triggers for heart attacks, including sexual activity, cocaine use, pollution, heavy meals, and stressful major events like terrorist attacks.

Researcher Dr Geoffrey Tofler said traditional long-term approaches to heart attack prevention, like diet and exercise regimes and medication, are important but they often ignore other brief triggers.

These external pressures - such as sudden severe stress or physical exertion - can be a factor in up to 40 per cent of heart attacks.

"We know, for example, that the incidence of heart attacks rises sharply in the days after people are exposed to major events such as an earthquake or a September 11," he said.

Having sex, however, causes very little increased risk of heart attack whereas cocaine use boosts the likelihood 20 times.

"If individuals know what the relative risks are they will be better able to manage their own health accordingly," he said.

Further research will address questions such as whether, during a highly stressful event such as the last minutes of a close football final, people at risk would benefit from added medicine to prevent blood clots, fast heart rate and raised blood pressure that could increase the risk of a heart attack.

AAP

Female Teacher Cleared Of Classroom Sex Act

2006-11-18T22:15:00.000+10:00

A WOMAN teacher who was filmed on a mobile telephone performing a sex act on a 15-year-old schoolboy was cleared yesterday of having sexual activity with a child.

Rebecca Poole, 26, insisted that the boy had held a screwdriver to her head, grabbed her hair and forced her to give him oral sex at a school drama studio. The jurors, who saw the pupil’s video of the incident, in which he grins at the camera, took just over an hour to deliver their unanimous verdicts.

Mrs Poole, a married mother of one, clasped her hand to her mouth and broke down in tears at Birmingham Crown Court as the verdicts were delivered. She was cleared of three charges of sexual activity with a child and one of abuse of trust.

While Mrs Poole’s father turned to the jurors to thank them, the boy’s family sat in the public gallery looking dismayed. Speaking outside the court, with her husband, Dacey, at her side, Mrs Poole said: “I’m ecstatic.”

The verdicts bring to an end a week-long trial that has set the schoolteacher’s word against her pupil’s claim that they were embroiled in a passionate three-month relationship last year. They were even said to have had sex in her husband’s Porsche.

The pupil, now 17, who cannot be named for legal reasons, claimed that he would meet Mrs Poole, the head of his school’s drama department, after her weekly Spanish lesson, the only time that they could conduct the affair without her husband finding out.

She was arrested in October last year when the boy’s parents found the explicit video on his mobile phone.

Mrs Poole, from Hollywood, Worcestershire, wept as she told the court that the youth — whom she had earlier lent £100 so that he could pay off a drug dealer from whom he had stolen a bag of cannabis — had held a screwdriver to the back of her head during the attack. Describing how she felt when she saw the footage, she said: “It is a video clip of me being sexually assaulted and I felt sick that he would want to video that and brag about it.”

She said that she feared she could have been raped.

Her testimony contrasted sharply with her pupil’s evidence, in which he said that he had “a pretty good time” during what he said was his first “proper” sexual experience, days before his 16th birthday.

Mrs Poole said that she had been indecently assaulted six times by pupils at Lordswood Boys’ School in Harbone, Birmingham. Although she had reported the other attacks, she had not reported this incident because she feared that it would ruin her career. She denied performing oral sex on the boy during the first five police interviews. She confirmed what had happened only when police said that they had a video film of the act.

Mrs Poole has said that she will never work as a teacher again.

Andrea Jones, Mrs Poole’s solicitor, said: “She is extremely grateful to the jury for their careful consideration of all the evidence in this case. It has been a very difficult 12 months since her arrest.

“She very much wants to thank her family and friends for their unwavering support. In particular she would like to thank her husband. She is now very tired and would now like to spend time with her husband and her ten-week-old baby.”

Mrs Warman said that Mrs Poole would not be pressing charges against the boy. She said: “My instructions are not to pursue this further. The incident is closed as far as Mrs Poole is concerned.

“It is not that it didn’t happen, but closure is a very good thing for all parties.”

It is understood that West Midlands Police do not intend to pursue Mrs Poole’s allegations of sexual assault.

Mrs Poole obtained her teaching qualification in drama and English at the University of Central England. Part of her coursework involved a placement at Lordswood Boys’ School, where she later began a full-time job.

Birmingham City Council, the local education authority, said that Mrs Poole remained suspended from her job while a full internal inquiry was being carried out.

www.timesonline.co.uk

Sex With Dead Deer Not Illegal - Lawyer Argues

2006-11-18T22:11:00.000+10:00

Wisconsin, US -- The defence lawyer of a Wisconsin man charged with having sex with a dead deer is claiming he's innocent of any wrongdoing - because a "crimes against sexual morality" statute prohibits sex with animals, but fails to mention carcasses, The Duluth News Tribune reports.

Bryan James Hathaway, 20, of Superior, was arrested on "a misdemeanour charge of sexual gratification with an animal" after indulging in intercourse with said deceased deer on 11 October.

His attorney, public defender Fredric Anderson, last week filed a motion with a Douglas County court which argued "because the deer was dead, it was not considered an animal and the charge should be dismissed". He wrote: "The statute does not prohibit one from having sex with a carcass."

He further argued that, according to Webster's dictionary, an animal is "any of a kingdom of living beings". If you include carcasses in that definition, Anderson reasoned, "you really go down a slippery slope with absurd results".

Anderson demanded that a judge clarify "what the Legislature intended 'animal' to mean in the statute", insisting: "And the only clear point to draw the line in that definition, I believe, is the point of death."

Assistant district attorney James Boughner countered by saying that the court could indeed use a dictionary to determine the meaning of a word, but isn't obliged to do so. He told Judge Michael Lucci that "when a person's pet dog dies, the person still refers to the dog as his or her dog, not a carcass".

"It stays a dog for some time," Boughner added, noting that Hathaway himself had referred to the dead deer as exactly that, and not a carcass, when confronted by police.

Brougher concluded by stating the "statute was on punishing the human behaviour, not protecting animals".

"It does not seem to draw a line between the living and the dead," he noted. Interpreting the statue to exclude carcasses would, moreover, "also exclude freshly killed animals", Boughner insisted. This, in turn, "could lead to people who commit such acts with animals to kill them".

Boughner's latter point seems to be backed up by Hathaway's previous form, which saw him in April 2005 plead "no contest to one felony charge of mistreatment of an animal for the shooting death of Bambrick, a 26-year-old horse, to have sex with the animal".

Judge Lucci summed the matter up concisely with: "I'm a little surprised this issue hasn't been tackled before in another case." He then promised to render a decision before Hathaway's next court appearance on 1 December.

Hathaway faces a possible nine months' jail and a fine of up to $10,000 on the deer sex rap, but if convicted, "could serve a prison term of up to two years because of a previous conviction".

Source:www.theregister.co.uk

Sex With A Hedgehog For Premature Ejaculation

2006-11-18T22:07:00.000+10:00

Belgrade, SR -- A Serbian man who went to a witchdoctor in search of a cure for premature ejaculation rather foolishly took the shaman's advice, viz: have sex with a hedgehog.

You know the rest: Zoran Nikolovic, 35, from Belgrade, ended up in the hospital with severe lacerations to his wedding tackle, according to Ananova. A hospital spokesman said: "The animal was apparently unhurt and the patient came off much worse from the encounter. We have managed to repair the damage to his penis."

We contacted a member of the International Association of Witchdoctors this morning for a comment. He told us: "This demonstrates the dangers in consulting unlicenced witchdoctors. We advise anyone with ejaculatory disfunction to consult our list of approved practitioners."

On the matter of premature ejaculation, he added: "Mix one teaspoon of powdered ocelot spleen with Red Bull under a full moon. Drink one hour before attempting penetration while sitting in a pentacle formed by toad skulls. Then, when you're on the job, think about the mother-in-law and filling in tax returns."

Dead Millionair Guilty Of Kidnap And Rape

2006-11-16T15:54:00.000+10:00

The High Court ruled yesterday that the estate of Chris Dawes, the founder of networking company Micromuse, should pay damages to a woman he attacked before his death in 1999.

The Court awarded Amanda Lawson £259,000 for the three day incident in 1998. Lawson sued Dawes's estate for pyschological damage she suffered and her inability to continue her business. The judge said there was overwhelming evidence she had been attacked.

A MODEL suing the estate of an Australian millionaire playboy has already been beaten to the courtroom by his family who successfully squeezed millions of dollars from his fortune.

Amanda Lawson claims computer tycoon Chris Dawes drugged her with crack cocaine and repeatedly raped her. She appeared in London's High Court last week in an attempt to get a substantial sum from Dawes's $59 million estate.

Dawes, 39, died when his $1.5 million McLaren F1 sports car smashed into a tree in Essex three months after the alleged attack on Lawson over Christmas 1998. His death sparked a protracted series of legal battles across three continents.

Dawes was a former Adelaide amusement arcade worker, who made his fortune from computer software company Micromuse, which he set up in an attic when he moved to London in 1989. His fortune was estimated at $59 million when he died and comprised 65 luxury cars, including five Ferraris worth $6 million, exclusive homes in London, Essex, San Francisco and Amsterdam, and a private jet, helicopter and yacht.

But he left just 10 per cent of his fortune to his daughters Prudence, 10, and Ruby, 7, with the rest going to crime-fighting groups in Britain. His parents disputed the will in the South Australian Supreme Court.

Lawyer Gary Palasis, representing Dawes's estate, said the matter was resolved by agreement last September. Dawes's mother, Audine, was paid $1.5 million, his sister Belinda Marsh $1.25 million and his father Ernest $1.1 million.

Lawson's case had been bogged down by procedural matters for years before the London hearing last week.

She claimed the multimillionaire had lured her to the isolated Channel Island Alderney with the offer of a job running a modelling agency to be fronted by Naomi Campbell.

She was picked up by private helicopter in London and flown to the Devereux House Hotel, one of several properties Dawes owned on the island. He greeted her wearing his trademark black leather trousers, black Gucci shirt and black-painted toenails.

Her solicitor said she was taken to a room of "utter squalor" that was littered with empty vodka bottles and ashtrays. She was given a pint glass of vodka and tonic and forced to smoke crack cocaine through a pipe. She was forced to have sex with Dawes after being told his former SAS minders could arrange an accident.

The three-day ordeal of "fear and degradation" ended when she finally managed to call her boyfriend who alerted Alderney police, her solicitor said. It left her unable to return to work and suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Sharone Stone Advocates Oral Sex For Teens

2006-11-16T15:49:00.000+10:00

Actress SHARON STONE is adamant teenagers should be prepared to engage in oral sex, if it saves from them the dangers of unprotected penetrative sex.

The BASIC INSTINCT star spends much of her time away from Hollywood working as an activist raising AIDS awareness, and she always carries condoms with her to hand out in a bid to increase safe sex levels. She explains, "I was in the store the other day and I watched a young girl trying on clothes, showing her abdomen. Her mother was trying to talk to her about not being inappropriately luring.

I said, 'Gee that would look much nicer with a camisole under.' "Her mother walked away, and I said to the girl, 'I'd like to give you a two-minute conversation about sex.Young people talk to me about what to do if they're being pressed for sex? I tell them (what I believe): oral sex is a hundred times safer than vaginal or anal sex. "If you're in a situation where you cannot get out of sex, offer a blow job. I'm not embarrassed to tell them."

Source:http://www3.contactmusic.com

Porn Peddler Offers 100Mil For Spears Sex Tape

2006-11-16T15:45:00.000+10:00

Celebrity porn merchant David Hans Schmidt has offered $100 million for an alleged sex tape featuring pop star Britney Spears and estranged husband Kevin Federline.

Schmidt is the porn broker behind videos starring Fred Durst and most recently former "Saved by the Bell" star Dustin Diamond.

A 19-second clip from a videotape was recently leaked online, which allegedly shows the pop princess performing a sex act on her estranged husband.

Fox News claims British newspaper News of the World has offered $50 million for the full tape. But Schmidt is ready to double that offer. He tells Radar Online, "I'd offer $100 million if this tape is any good. What the [bleep] is News of the World doing trying to get into the porn-selling business, anyway?

"They're just trying to sling arrows into the dark to get some headlines. No way they'd make their money back."

Man With 10 Year Erection Won $400 000

2006-11-10T23:14:00.000+10:00

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - A former handyman has won more than $400,000 in a lawsuit over a penile implant that gave him a 10-year erection (He's not the funny guy in the photo mind you - its just for illustration :)

Charles "Chick" Lennon, 68, received the steel and plastic implant in 1996, about two years before Viagra went on the market. The Dura-II is designed to allow impotent men to position the penis upward for sex, then lower it.

But Lennon could not position his penis downward. He said he could no longer hug people, ride a bike, swim or wear bathing trunks because of the pain and embarrassment. He has become a recluse and is uncomfortable being around his grandchildren, his lawyer said.

In 2004, a jury awarded him $750,000. A judge called that excessive and reduced it to $400,000. On Friday, the Rhode Island Supreme Court affirmed that award in a ruling that turned on a procedural matter.

"I don't know any man who for any amount of money would want to trade and take my client's life," said Jules D'Alessandro, Lennon's attorney. "He's not a whole person."

A lawyer representing both Dura-II manufacturer Dacomed Corp. and the company's insurer declined to comment. Dacomed maintained that nothing was wrong with the implant.

The implant consists of a series of plastic plates strung together with steel surgical wire, almost like a roll of wrapped coins. Springs press against the plates, creating enough surface tension to simulate an erection, D'Alessandro said.

Lennon cannot get the implant removed because of health problems, including open-heart surgery, his lawyer said. Impotence drugs could not help Lennon even if he were able to have the device taken out, because tissue had be to removed for it to be implanted.

Dacomed was later acquired by a California company whose sales dropped when Viagra was introduced on the market. The company filed for bankruptcy the following year.

NZ Presbyterian Church Bans Gays

2006-11-10T09:55:00.000+10:00

Wellington, NZ -- New Zealand Presbyterian General Assembly voted yesterday to ban homosexual and unmarried people living with lovers form becoming ministers or elders of the church. About 500 delegates meeting in Auckland supported the ban, with a 65% majority voting for it Radio New Zealand reported.

Tokyo Adult Club For Train Molesters

2006-11-10T09:05:00.000+10:00

Tokyo, JP -- In a seedy world first, a new adult club in Tokyo is catering for men who like to molest young girls on trains. The Train Cafe is offering club membership to customers who can molest young girls dressed in school uniforms on a train carriage set ups inside the premisses.

A spokeman for Train Cafe said exclusive membership to the club in the Ikeburkuro district cost customers and initial 5000 yen ($64) fee and 2000 yen for a tea each visit. But members who pay 3600 yen are allowed to get on the train carriage set up inside the cafe where for 20 min, they can touch women standing at strategic points.

Those who pay an extra 5000 yen can select a woman they can ride with for 15 minutes. While in the cafe carriage members are able to feel like they are riding on the top Yamanote Line, Tokyo's loop line operated by JR East Co.

Train Cafe, the first of its kind in Japan and the world, was established in May last year and claims to have 4000 members and 250 women registred. The number of groping incident on Tokyo trains stood at 2201 in 2004, up threefold from 1996, tokyo police report.

Hiroshi Osedo

Defence - Woman Wanted Sex The Night Of Alleged Rape

2006-11-10T09:04:00.000+10:00

A 63-year-old woman who claimed she was raped by a Northland policeman 19 years ago was out for sex, the accused man's lawyer told a jury today.

Gary Gotlieb said he would call evidence from a man who said the woman at the centre of the historic rape allegation wanted sex the night she claimed the policeman handcuffed and raped her in a Northland police station.

The woman said she was driving the policeman, 44, home after a Saturday night at a Northland hotel in Mach, 1988, when she was raped.

The accused man, who cannot be named, faces eight charges, including four of sexual violation by rape.

Mr Gotlieb told a jury in Auckland District Court today that five defence witnesses would be called. He said one witness, Les Gardener, was expected to tell the court the woman suggested sex with him earlier in the evening, before she was allegedly raped by the policeman.

Mr Gotlieb said Mr Gardener told the police about the woman's alleged behaviour when he learnt of the allegations brought against the officer four months later.

The five-day trial is due to end tomorrow.

Singapore May Allow Anal And Oral Sex

2006-11-10T08:39:00.000+10:00

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore is considering decriminalising oral and anal sex between consenting heterosexual adults, but not between homosexuals, official documents show.

The Ministry of Home Affairs on Thursday posted a public consultation paper about proposed amendments to the city-state's penal code, Singapore's primary criminal legislation.

"We intend to repeal s.377, rescoping it such that anal and oral sex, if done in private between a consenting adult heterosexual couple aged 16 years old and above, would no longer be criminalised," the paper said

Currently, section 377 of the Penal Code "criminalises all forms of carnal intercourse against the order of nature, other than vaginal intercourse".

The paper makes no mention of the decriminalisation of oral and anal sex between men.

"Homosexuality is not widely accepted or tolerated in Singapore," the pro-government Straits Times quoted a home affairs official as saying on Thursday.

Under Singapore law, a man who is found to have committed an act of "gross indecency" with another man could be jailed for up to two years. Despite the official ban on gay sex, Singapore has a thriving gay scene.

Examination Rape Claims

2006-11-04T12:32:00.000+10:00

Brisbane, AU -- A suburban Brisbane GP is on trial in the District Court accused of digitally raping and sexually assaulting a school girl during a pelvic examination. The court was told Dr. Jason Wu was working at a medial centre at Clayfield in Brisbane's inner north on January 24 last year when the 16-year-old private school student came to see him about a suspected urinary tract infection and complained about pain during sex.

The Crown alleges that during a consensual internal examination while the girl was in Wu's room he asked her questions about her sex life with her boyfriend before stimulating her clitoris on two separate occasions. He is also accused of digitally penetrating her twice during the examination. Wu has pleaded not guilty to two counts of rape and two counts of sexual assault.

Crown prosecutor David Kent said the girl claimed that before the examination, Wu talked to her about sex - asking if she and her boyfriend engaged in foreplay and describing orgasms to her before telling her "I am going to stimulate your clitoris". When the examination finished he gave her a specimen jar for a urine sample.

The girl later reported the incident to her boyfriend, her family and then police. Wu denied talking to the girl about orgasms and rejected all her claims. He told police he had asked the girl for consent to do the internal examination and had withdrawn his gloved hand during the inspection to change gloves when he noticed a tear in the first glove.

The trial before Judge Nick Samios continues.

The Courier Mail

Sexiest 007 Licensed To Thrill

2006-11-04T12:17:00.000+10:00

His selection as the new 007 initially raised a few eyebrows. But now Daniel Craig has been hailed as the sexiest 007 ever by his glamorous Bond girls. Such praise could easily go to a man's head but luckily for Craig he has girlfriend Satsuki Mitchell to bring him down to earth.

She last week took him shopping for organic groceries in West London, a rather mundane mission for an international spy. But while Satsuki, 30, may regard Craig's honed physique as perfect for carry bags, his Casino Royale co-stars appreciated it for different reasons.

In a Mail on Sunday interview, new Bond girl Caterina Murion said of her sex scene with Craig: "I's award him at least a nine-an-a-half out of 10 for technique. His kiss would suggest he is wonderful lover. Gentle, but not too gentle. Passionate, but not too forceful."

As Solange, the wife of Bond villain Dimitrios, the 32-year-old Sardinian has one love scene with Craig, 38, but admitted:"I would have liked more." Co-stars Eva Green and Ivana Milicevic are also singing the new Bond's praises.

Green, a 26-year-old French actress said: "Craig is capable of being trashy and sexy and scary. And that's and attractive combination. Is he a good snogger? He certainly passed the test."

Milicevic, a 32-year-old Serbian actress, said:" I didn't get to kiss Bond, and I am still pretty fed up about that"

Online Dater Charged With Multiple Rapes

2006-11-04T12:01:00.000+10:00

He was an online dater's dream. Tall, clean-cut with a fashionable address and a taste for upscale bars and restaurants.

But Jeffrey J. Marsalis _ who alternately claimed to be an astronaut, a doctor or a spy _ was really an on-and-off nursing student whose appealing profile on the online dating site Match.com allowed him to meet woman after woman, slip something in their drinks and then rape them, police said.

Now, Marsalis, 33, is facing trial on nine counts of rape involving eight women, while a 10th charge is pending in Idaho. He was acquitted of three similar assaults at a trial in Philadelphia in January, but before he could leave the courtroom, he was handcuffed by police and accused of the new charges. A judge later denied bail.

In court this week during his preliminary hearing, the women told strikingly similar stories of meeting the smooth-talking Marsalis and then feeling unusually intoxicated after returning from the bathroom or letting him buy a round from the bar.

They said they woke up hours later, back at his apartment _ groggy, sometimes undressed _ after an apparent sexual encounter or even in the middle of intercourse.

"It was like waking up from surgery," said one of the women who was not identified because it is AP policy to not name victims of sexual assaults. "My body was there, and I could see what was going on around me, but I couldn't move."

Marsalis' lawyer says the women are suffering from regret after being duped about his accomplishments and dumped after consensual sex.

"Some of this may be buyer's remorse," defense lawyer Kathleen E. Martin said Thursday.

None of the Philadelphia victims _ most of them well-educated professionals _ went to police or a hospital afterward, Martin pointed out. Instead, police sought the women out after they seized Marsalis' computer as part of an earlier case.

While it is difficult to prove the use of date-rape drugs, since they metabolize before victims are alert enough to get a drug screen, a jury could still find him guilty of rape if it decides the women were too impaired to consent to sex.

The outcome may hinge on whether prosecutors can build a circumstantial case by trying all the cases together or whether the defense will try to sever the cases, attorneys for both sides said. The lawyers declined to discuss their trial strategy.

Nine women testified during the two-day evidentiary hearing that concluded Thursday in a Philadelphia court.

One said Marsalis, posing as a doctor, later visited her in a hospital during an unrelated stay. He had a stethoscope around his neck, and checked her chart.

Another said she became pregnant from the encounter _ and Marsalis went with her when she had an abortion.

"This guy is not shy. He's confident. He's plotting," said Capt. John Darby, head of the city's sex crimes unit. "He showed IDs to a lot of these women supporting the various roles, positions that he seemingly held. He really put on a hell of a show."

In the pending Idaho case, the woman _ who worked with Marsalis for the company which operates the area's ski resort _ did go to a hospital the next day. The alleged assault occurred in October 2005, while Marsalis was awaiting trial in the first Philadelphia case.

Records show Marsalis has moved frequently, and lived in Utah, Washington state, Arizona, where he worked as a paramedic, and Florida, where he obtained a permit for a concealed weapon.

He met seven of the eight Philadelphia women through Match.com between 2003 and 2005. The company said Thursday that it cannot monitor what goes on once their clients move from online communication to the real world.

Darby considers Marsalis no less dangerous than the predator who attacks strangers in an alley.

"Certainly he presented himself as an appealing individual. And that's the danger," he said. "You really have to treat those kind of (online) contacts as if they were a stranger."

Israel President Facing Rape Allegations

2006-10-30T10:00:00.000+10:00

Israel's attorney-general Menachem Mazuz is expected to recommend President Moshe Katsav suspend himself from duties after police said they had evidence he committed rape, Israeli media reported.

The reports said Mazuz would issue the recommendation in response to a high court petition against 60-year-old Katsav, who has denied any wrongdoing.

The Justice Ministry and police said in a statement on October 15 they had gathered evidence Katsav "carried out sex crimes of rape, sexual molestation by force and without consent" against women employees.

It is up to Mazuz to decide whether to indict Katsav.

An Israeli lawyer has petitioned the high court to order the president suspend himself from duties.

The reports said Mazuz would tell the court Katsav should at least temporarily refrain from carrying out his duties so as to avoid obstructing the prosecution, as employees had hesitated to testify against him.

The case is unlikely to have any direct effect on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government because the presidency is a ceremonial post in Israel.

Office Employees And Porn

2006-10-28T15:12:00.000+10:00

Office workers are spending up to a fifth or their time online at work searching for porn. Porn obsessed staff in real estate, car dealerships and law firms are costing thousands of dollars a month in wasted hours and excess internet charges.

A survey by Brisbane internet security company Netbox Blue has revealed that porn routinely ranks among the top 10 most popular websites. Firms are losing productivity because staff are viewing pornography and other non-work-related websites instead of focusing on their proper tasks", chief executive Trent Davis said.

Recent examples of abuse include a boss's son who spent the day buying lingerie online and six lawyers who surfed the net for hardcore porn.

Source: The Courier Mail

I know this is a problem, altough I am not sure they would be working during that time anyway. If not porn, it would be MP3 downloading or eBay shopping. It really doesn't matter. People are not slaves, so sometimes they do need to relax a bit. Or you can try to fight workplace porn by giving free adult site subscriptions to your employees like Danes!

Army Cadets Escape Child Sex Conviction

2006-10-28T14:54:00.000+10:00

Brisbane,AU -- Two teenage army cadets who engaged in consensual sexual experimentation with a pair of girls at a cadet cam ended up in the dock of Brisbane District Court yesterday as graphic details of their exploits were recounted to a packed room.

Keiran David Francis Johnston and Benjamin David Simmons were sexually naive 17 and 18 year old schoolboys when they became involved with the girls - who were aged 14 and 13 at the time. The girls were described in yesterday's proceedings as enthusiastic participants in the sexual conduct.

The alleged sexual activity mostly involved the girls giving oral sex to Johnston and Simmons in private while the group was taking part in two cadet camps in April and August last year. The majority of the incidents occurred at the first camp. A further two counts involving Johnston happened at the August camp.

The court was told that the two girls did not initiate the police complaint and one girl made it clear she did not wish the prosecution to proceed. The events only came to light after schoolyard gossip about it reached authorities. Prosecutor Glen Cash told the court that while any child sex offence was serious, there was no evidence that the two girls were cajoled into the activity.

Barrister Craig Eberhardt, for Simmons, said his client was sexually inexperienced at the time and has since been humiliated publicly and shamed by his expulsion from cadets and the exposure of his conduct in the media. Mr. Eberhardt said that after the incident his client had asked out one of the complainants and been rejected, which had damaged his self-esteem. He was hospitalized earlier this year for depression.

Both accused were placed on 12-month $500 good behavior orders. Convictions were not recorded. Judge Dick said the case was most peculiar but that was not to say the prosecution should not have been brought because the conduct was till a criminal offence. She told them she hoped the case would provide a lesson.

Sex Slaves Sold On Streets Of London

2006-10-27T20:09:00.000+10:00

Source: agency France-Presse

London, UK -- Women are being bought and sold on the streets of London for as little as US$5000 and than forced to work in the sex industry, a Government minister said last week.

Solicitor General Mike O'Brien was speaking as he opened Europe's first dedicated center to tackle gangs who bring unwitting young women to Britain from abroad - notably from Asia and eastern Europe - to work as prostitutes.

"Some victims do not even realize they are being trafficked until they arrive and then find the job they were being promised as a waitress turns out to be enforced servitude as a prostitute, including being beaten and raped" he said.

Mr O'Brien joined junior Home Office Minister Vernon Coaker and Women's Minister Meg Munn to open The UK Human Trafficking Center in Sheffield in northern England. The facility will be run by South Yorkshire Police using specially trained officers, lawyers and immigration workers. Although it will focus on all types of human trafficking there is a particular focus on exploitation in the sex trade following a high-profile, countrywide police operation launched earlier this year.

Operation Penameter involves all 55 police forces in England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands, as well as immigration and intelligence officials, prosecutors and charities. Since its launch on February 21 this year, 188 women - most of them aged 18 -25 but some young as 14 - were rescued in raids on brothels, massage parlor's and private homes. Eighty four were confirmed as trafficking victims.

The women came from as far as Brazil, China, Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, India, Iran, Jamaica, Kenya, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Namibia, Poland, Rwanda, Romania, Russia, Slovakia and Thailand.

Bondage Killer Appeal Fails

2006-10-27T19:48:00.000+10:00

Brisbane, AU -- A killer who engaged in bondage sex with his victim and tortured a second woman for his own "amusement" has failed to convince the Court of Appeal that his 16-year jail sentence is excessive. Earlier this year, after a lengthy legal process, Sven Huebner, 36, was sentenced to 12 years jail for the manslaughter of Linda Jane Roberts and a cumulative four years jail for the torture of university student Melissa Gazsik.

As a serious violent offender, he must serve 80% of the 16 years before being eligible four release. Huebner went to the Court of Appeal to request that the sentence be halved, painting himself as a caring friend who let his love of bondage get out of hand. In a unanimous judgment, the Court of Appeal dismissed his request.

Huebner's then girlfriend Amy Louise Maher, 24, was sentenced to 18 months jail for being and accessory after the fact of Roberts' manslaughter and three year and six month's' jail for the attack on Gazsik. Her sentences were wholly suspended to reflect the two years and nine months she had served.

Roberts was killed on August 18, 2001, but it was not until November that year that her naked body was found, along with plastic and rope, in bushlands at Mackenzie in Brisbane. Gazsik was lured to bushland by the pair in 2000, where she was bound, tortured and choked for hours before being freed. Huebner maintained he was trying to get Gazsik to focus "on the important issues" in life.

Consent Form Signed Before Sex?

2006-10-26T08:41:00.000+10:00

When it comes to sex, we all know that “no” means “no.” But did you know that “yes” may also mean “no?”

New legislation currently being considered by lawmakers in the U.K. would make it illegal for men to have sex with women who have had a few too many drinks, even if the lady consents. That’s right. A woman who drinks a few martinis or has some wine with dinner and willingly engages in a night of passion can wake up the next morning and cry rape.

The proposed law is meant to safeguard drunk women. But the absurdity of this bill is enough to make a sober person vault off the wagon.

Rape is a horrible, brutal crime and anyone who commits rape ought to be locked up until Dick Clark is no longer with us.

But a man who has a one-night stand with an eager, tipsy woman is no rapist. Just because a woman wakes up the next morning with a slight hangover and a pang of regret doesn’t give her the right to accuse a man of rape. Rape is a serious offence and it diminishes the hurt and suffering of true rape victims when we dilute the definition of rape.

One group that strongly opposes the proposed legislation is the U.K. Men’s Movement. Chairman George McAuley says men will have to obtain written consent in the form of a sex contract before attempting a home run.

“Radical feminists within the Labour Party have made consensual heterosexual sex a dangerous minefield,” argues McAuley in a recent piece by London’s Daily Mail. “The changes in legislation will increase the number of innocent men convicted of rape. It means men will have to get a consent form signed, dated and countersigned in triplicate before they make love.”

Before Andrea Dworkin fans beat down my door, let me be clear. We are not talking about a woman who is so intoxicated that she passes out and cannot possibly consent to sex. If a man takes advantage of an unconscious woman, he is guilty of rape. The law is already clear about that.

And if a man slips some roofies (the so-called “date rape drug”) into a girl’s drink, then that man belongs in jail.

But a woman who has a bit too much alcohol — of her own volition — and invites a man back to her place for some non-existent coffee and proceeds to squeal “yes” in every way possible can not and must not cry rape afterwards.

We would never let a man off the hook for assaulting a woman just because he had a few too many beers. We would hold him accountable for his actions even if he was drunk at the time. Just like a drunk driver cannot plead intoxication as a defence.

Some people may disagree with me and wonder how a mom who has a daughter could possibly oppose this legislation. Well, as a mother who may one day have a son, I know that I don’t want to live in a world where men are labelled rapists and thrown in jail for having consensual sex.

By Lyida Lovric

winnipegsun.com

Controling The Sex Criminals In Irland

2006-10-26T08:34:00.000+10:00

William McAuley the man responsible for the assessment and management of paedophiles, rapists and sexual predators in Northern Ireland, talks to Deborah McAleese about Ulster's sex offending capital - and how he believes the situation can be managed and controlled
25 October 2006

"There is a cancer in society called sex offending. No part of society is free. It is everywhere - among solicitors, religious people, rich and poor.

"There is a huge portion that is benign and does not pose a risk, but there is some that is dangerous and risky, like malignant cancer."

William McAuley uses his sex offender/cancer analogy to drive home the reality that society will never be free from sex offenders.

But the Northern Ireland policy co-ordinator for the multi-agency MASRAM - which tracks and assesses sex offenders - also uses the comparison to offer reassurances that there are measures that can be taken to tackle the 'disease'.

"For those malignant offenders, just like malignant cancer, there are a whole range of treatments, including surgery, to remove a cancerous tumour.

"In some cases of sex offending you have to send the criminal justice system in and effectively use that surgery to remove the danger.

"But there are sex offenders that you cannot remove surgically and you have to deal with it on a basis of risk management."

Dangerous paedophile Paul Hunter Redpath was dealt with on the basis of risk management.

On his release from jail for having sex with a teenage girl, Redpath was moved into approved accommodation and placed under strict probation conditions.

Within hours of his release Redpath had disappeared. For three weeks he was on the loose, his movements and actions unknown.

He fled across the border and is currently living in Dublin where he is now subject to sex offender registration requirements in the Republic.

However, there has been outcry that the paedophile is not to be returned to the province to face punishment for breaking his probation conditions - an offence which can result in being sent back to jail.

In August Robert Simpson Wallace, a 77-year-old high risk sex offender, who "posed a serious risk to women and girls" also went on the run from his approved accommodation in Belfast and failed to sign the sex offenders' register. He was later arrested by police in Lurgan.

Redpath and Wallace are not the only sex offenders who have failed to comply with probation conditions, but in these cases police took the rare step of making completely public the offenders' details through the media.

To issue a public warning about a missing sex offender is a last resort and the decision is taken only after careful consideration by the assistant chief constable following an application for disclosure from MASRAM.

Full disclosure can only be made if it is in the public interest and it will not result in the offender being killed or seriously injured.

At lower levels, details about a sex offender can be disclosed on a need-to-know basis, when the ACC decides to make the disclosure to those people he/she would deem necessary, for example the victim, a partner or school principal.

"Around 97% of people required to notify police comply with requirements. Only a small percentage of people do not comply. That is when disclosure comes up. We have to protect everyone's human right not to be sexually assaulted or abducted," said Mr McAuley.

"The ACC has got to balance what is in the best public interest and what is going to impact on the individual's human rights."

The housing of sex offenders is one social issue that continues to spark heated public debates and at times can even trigger a level of public hysteria.

Mr McAuley is keen to dispel the myth that hostels are home to a large number of sex offenders who, if they haven't already, are just waiting to pounce on their next victim.

In fact, across the whole of Northern Ireland only 60 beds are available in hostel-type accommodation for people who have committed sexual offences.

The majority of sex offenders live in private accommodation.

Hostels - the proper term is supported accommodation - have restrictions on the number of sex offenders they house and the beds are allocated on a basis of need and assessment.

The decision of housing has nothing to do with police or MASRAM.

It is up to the sex offender to find appropriate accommodation which complies with any court restrictions or orders.

If no appropriate accommodation can be found the sex offender is sent straight back to prison.

"The offender is in breach of his licence if he does not live in approved accommodation. If their is no appropriate accommodation then he ends up back in prison.

"People have spent a long time in prison because they cannot find appropriate accommodation," said Mr McAuley.

While sex offenders come from all walks of life and can strike in any place, Belfast's 'Golden Mile', from Queen's University down towards the city centre, is the highest-risk sex offending area for adults in Northern Ireland according to Mr McAuley.

The majority of sex offences against adults in that area are not being carried out by convicted sex offenders but by offenders who have not yet been brought to the attention of the authorities.

Due to the number of bars, clubs, night spots and proximity to the university area, the 'Golden Mile' is a favoured area for teenagers, students and young adults and therefore it is a preferred haunt for sexual predators who are looking for vulnerable targets.

"Predatory sex offenders will target those areas where people are more vulnerable. The 'Golden Mile' does lend itself to a range of vulnerabilities through alcohol and late night venues," said Mr McAuley.

Different resident groups in south Belfast have often complained about sex offenders being housed in their area, saying that they do not feel safe letting their children walk along the streets.

"But when did they ever feel safe sending their kids down there?" asked Mr McAuley.

"By sending 10-year-old girls to walk down there by themselves is already increasing their vulnerability because everyone knows the majority of sex offences against adults occur down that golden mile," he added.

"Why send your children down the highest risk area of Northern Ireland? Sex predators are already there. The re-offending rate is very low. Most offences reported to police are new cases, they are new people."

When there are rumours of sex offenders being housed in an area it can lead to angry protests and even vigilante attacks. However, Mr McAuley said that people have to realise that sex offenders will always be there.

"I do not have the luxury of being able to choose whether you have sex offenders or you do not but a community can take steps to reduce their vulnerability and that's the message we need to get out.

"You do not go out and get drunk and separated from your friends and stagger down the road at 1.30am, because sex predators are out there and see that as an opportunity," he said.

And referring back to his favoured analogy, he added: "Just like with cancerous tumours you cannot remove them all. Over 9,000 people have convictions for sex offences.

"Where do you send them? There is no way you can surgically remove all of those.

"If you do you are only removing the tip of the iceberg, those that you know about.

"If the public thought we had removed all sex offenders then they are in an even more risky situation, because they would naively think the problem was solved."

Coach Indicted on Child Sex Trafficking Charges

2006-10-23T16:40:00.000+10:00

By Brigid Schulte

Washington Post Staff Writer

Aaron Burroughs, the former junior varsity football coach at Bowie High School who was arrested on charges of pimping a 14-year-old girl, was indicted by a federal grand jury late Thursday on six counts of sex trafficking of children and first-degree child sexual abuse.

Burroughs, 35, has been held in the D.C. jail on local charges since he was arrested July 31 in a New York Avenue NE motel room, where he allegedly was waiting for the girl to come back after a night of working as a prostitute.

Instead, according to charging documents, Takoma Park police had taken the girl into custody early in the morning when they found her in a deserted parking lot performing oral sex for pay on a man police did not name. They had her send a text message to Burroughs's cellphone arranging a meeting for that evening. Burroughs gave police a statement that he had had sex on numerous occasions with the girl and taken her from Maryland to the District to work "the strip" along New York Avenue as a prostitute.

The night before, Burroughs, a Metro bus driver, had taken the girl to the bus depot on Bladensburg Road where he worked and, according to charging documents, had sex with her in the parking lot in his gold Range Rover.

The girl has not been publicly identified, and The Washington Post generally does not identify victims of sexual abuse.

Burroughs has been jailed without bond since his arrest. He has been segregated from the general prison population for his protection, police officials said, as is customary with those charged in child sexual abuse cases. He is expected to be arraigned next week.

Prosecutors are seeking to confiscate Burroughs's cars, a 1995 Range Rover and a Chevrolet Monte Carlo, if he is convicted, the indictment shows, along with any other real or personal property "used or intended to be used to commit or to facilitate the commission" of child sex abuse and trafficking.

Burroughs's attorney, Spencer Hecht, declined to comment on the indictment Friday.

Burroughs's childhood friend, U.S. Capitol Police Sgt. Michael Malloy, 34, was also arrested on child sex abuse charges in connection with the case. According to charging documents, Burroughs drove the girl to Malloy's home, where both men had sex with her and videotaped it. Malloy, whose case is on a separate track in D.C. Superior Court, has been under house arrest in Southern Maryland since August.

The charges have left the Bowie community reeling.

Burroughs was an unpaid volunteer football coach for years, first for the Bowie Boys and Girls Club and later at Bowie High. Many could not believe the news. "He's a good man," said Pat Phipps, a coach at the Bowie Boys and Girls Club. "The man they were describing in the news is not the man I knew."

Prince George's County public schools, partly in response to the case, will begin requiring either commercial or complete background checks, with fingerprints, on all volunteers who interact with students while they are unsupervised by school officials. The policy will take effect Jan. 1.

"Bowie High has been suffering, along with this young lady and her family, and we're hoping that this indictment will be the beginning to our healing," said Mary Nusser, president of Bowie High's Parent Teacher Student Organization.

The group is compiling a list of experts on sex abuse and sex trafficking and hopes to make a presentation to students and the community. "It's going to be geared toward young men and young women about keeping themselves safe," Nusser said. "This is still something that is beyond belief."

Muslim Husband Attacks Male Gyneacologist

2006-10-23T15:42:00.000+10:00

Paris, FR - The agency in charge of Paris-region hospitals on Saturday confirmed that the husband of a Muslim woman examined by a male gynaecologist had physically attacked the doctor, but refused to confirm allegations that the assault was motivated by religious extremism.

The AP-HP hospital agency said it had taken legal proceedings against the husband for an incident that occurred on the night of September 8 in the emergency service of an unnamed Paris hospital.

However the agency refused to endorse a statement by the professional association of French gynaecologists and obstetricians, who described the assault as a manifestation of "Muslim fundamentalism."

The statement by the CNGOF professional association mentioned a similar incident that occurred in a Paris-region hospital in 2003.

In both attacks, gynecologists were "physically attacked and injured by the husbands of patients on the grounds that as male doctors they should not examine their wives," the statement said.

However the hospital authorities said they had "not at this stage confirmed any religious motivation" behind the latest incident.

French Health Minister Xavier Bertrand on Friday condemned the September incident, but also said he could not confirm that it was related to "religious or cultural motives."

"Hospitals must remain absolutely neutral from the religious and ideological point of view," he said.

The hospital agency said that a total of 185 violent incidents had been recorded in the 38 Paris-region public hospitals in 2005, up from 145 in the previous year.

However the hospital authorities did not record whether there was any religious motive to any of the attacks, because "such records would be discriminatory, and we have a neutral position," the statement said.

In their statement the gynecologists and obstetricians made a link between the case and a recent high-profile incident in which a French schoolteacher received death threats after publishing a virulent anti-Islamic article in a national paper.

"Are male gynecologists and obstetricians going to have to be protected by the police from now on when they do their job?" the statement asked. "Will they have to go into hiding like philosophy teachers?"

Source: Sapa-AFP

Why Children Rape Children?

2006-10-23T15:31:00.000+10:00

Pretoria, SA -- Eighty-two children are charged in courts across the country every day for raping or indecently assaulting other children. A Pretoria News investigation has found that processing by the state of child-committed sexual offences has nearly doubled in the past year.

Police, prosecutors, social workers and child rights activists estimate that between 25 percent and 43 percent of the perpetrators of sex and violent crimes against children are children themselves - some as young as six.

Approaching school holidays - which are peak periods for child-committed offences - now threaten to increase the 130 059 child sex offenders processed by the state between 1999 and March this year. Of these, 146 have been sentenced to prison terms and 161 are awaiting trial.

The problem has become so bad that several state-supported rehabilitation organisations have - in the absence of any concrete laws to deal with children accused of crime - recently launched diversion programmes aimed specifically at child sex offenders. And, if ground-breaking research by a Gauteng academic and child abuse counsellor is to be believed, a "huge" proportion of these children claim their sexual abuse of other children was inspired by acts they witnessed on television.

Meanwhile, we have seven reports from angry parents who were turned away from police stations in KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo and Gauteng when they tried to lay sexual abuse charges on behalf of their children against other children.

"I was told these are children; we can't do anything," a woman from KwaZulu-Natal said. She claims her seven-year-old daughter was forced to perform oral sex on three boys aged between nine and 11. She said she had decided to move to her mother's home in the Western Cape to shield her daughter from further abuse.

Senior Superintendent Anneke Pienaar, national co-ordinator of the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit, denied that police could not do anything to address sexual abuse claims made by children against other children. She said police were given specific instructions on how to process all reports of child-perpetrated crime and had to accept such charges.

But Pienaar admitted police had noticed a "definite increase" in the number of sexual abuse allegations made against children. And, she said, the alleged perpetrators of this abuse were "getting younger and younger".

Studies in KwaZulu-Natal last year showed that a staggering 90 percent of all male child sex offenders between the ages of 13 and 18 had been exposed to violent pornography and "believed that this had an impact on the development of their abusive behaviour".

Shaheda Omar, therapeutic manager at the Teddy Bear Clinic in Johannesburg, has interviewed 100 child sex offenders and their mothers "from across the social spectrum" for her doctoral research project.

"What surprised me was that most of these children had not been sexually abused themselves, although they may have witnessed sexual or physical abuse. What united them was the influence of media on their behaviour," she said.

While some children claimed they wanted to emulate love scenes in soap operas like The Bold And The Beautiful, others admitted they had been inspired by late-night pornography on e.tv. Soweto Protea Court prosecutors Nadine Nel and Louise Smit confirmed both Childline's research and Omar's preliminary findings.

"Usually, when you first ask a child why they did certain sexual things to another child, they shrug their soldiers and say they don't know. But later they will tell you they saw things on The Bold And The Beautiful and they wanted to try it," said Smit.

She said that, following the 2001 airing of the infamous Yizo Yizo prison rape scene, the Soweto Protea Court was hit with a spate of "little boys indecently assaulting other little boys".

The child victims of sexual abuse by other children were usually "much younger" than their abusers, Nel and Smit said, with some victims as young as two. This made it very difficult for prosecutors to discover exactly what had happened, because the child did not have the ability to describe his or her abuse and medical evidence was usually inconclusive.

Childline director Joan van Niekerk believes cases of sexual abuse by children are dramatically under-reported. "We know police seldom open such dockets, so it is difficult to quantify the extent of the problem," she said. "Police at station level prefer to tell the parents it is a 'domestic matter' which must be sorted out at home."

Source: Pretoria News

New Zealand Finds Black Cocks Hard To Swallow

2006-10-20T01:50:00.000+10:00

Priest To Dob In Child Sex Abusers

2006-10-20T01:47:00.000+10:00

Adelaide, AU -- ANGLICAN priests no longer will be able to use confidentiality as a reason for not reporting child sex abuse, under strict new rules to be introduced across Adelaide.

The unprecedented measures, to be endorsed by the Diocese of Adelaide Synod next weekend, will extend to confessions heard by priests, including those with other priests.

They follow the compulsory training of South Australian Anglican priests on their legal requirements to report child abuse to authorities, which have been opposed by some priests who believe confidentiality should be maintained for pastoral reasons.

The new rules surpass those implemented nationally by the Catholic Church, which still maintains confidentiality over confessions.

Adelaide Anglican Archbishop Jeffrey Driver yesterday told The Advertiser he would not tolerate any more "cover-ups" within the Anglican Church of child sex abuse, saying previous inaction by church leaders had caused enormous problems.

Archbishop Driver said priests would be given no option but to observe a new code of conduct under which they would be forced to report child abuse, including information received during confession.

"If I was giving confession to a priest who told me about child sex abuse, I would not give him absolution. I would immediately stop the confession and march him straight to the nearest police station," he said.

Detailing the most comprehensive strategy developed by the Adelaide Anglican Church to combat child sex abuse, Archbishop Driver said the church "needs to recover its own integrity and confidence in the community".

"This has been diminished by a relatively small group of people who have done a massive amount of damage," he said. "I am aware confidence in the church and morale within the church has been profoundly affected."

Also included in the child sex abuse strategy - triggered by revelations four years ago of widespread pedophilia within the Adelaide Anglican Church over five decades - are measures to force priests, church workers and volunteers to co-operate with church investigations into suspected child sex abuse.

Under the new laws, priests who are found guilty of professional misconduct such as child abuse can be stripped of their licences, counselled, suspended or sacked.

State Government laws requiring priests and church officials to report child abuse are still before Parliament.

Source:www.news.com.au

Sex Offender Found On My Space Website

2006-10-20T01:45:00.000+10:00

Los Angeles - Hundreds of convicted sex offenders have been discovered using the popular internet website MySpace following an investigation by a US technology magazine, it emerged on Wednesday.

Former computer hacker Kevin Poulsen, a senior editor for Wired, made the discovery after developing a programme that cross-referenced people using the phenomenally successful site with registers of sex offenders.

Inputting the names of nearly 386 000 sex offenders from 46 states across the United States, Poulsen found thousands of possible matches.

Poulsen, who achieved notoriety in the early 1990s for a string of audacious hacks that ultimately earned him jail time, sifted through 7 000 names before discovering 744 sex offenders with profiles on the site.

Wired's investigation led to the arrest of 39-year-old Andrew Lubrano, a New Yorker now facing his fourth arrest for a sex crime.

Poulsen said the investigation highlighted the flaws in existing security procedures at MySpace, which has an estimated 100 million users.

"MySpace have done a lot in terms of security to stop predation. But this clearly shows that they could be doing more," he said.

"Lubrano sent messages to one 14-year-old boy where he addressed him as 'Sextoy'. It seems like they should be able to come up with a technological solution where they could spot behaviour like that."

Lubrano was arrested by undercover police officers and eventually charged with the misdemeanour offence of attempting to endanger the welfare of a child.

A statement from MySpace chief security officer Hemanshu Nigam said the website was working to develop software that would identify sex offenders.

"We are committed to keeping sex offenders off MySpace and are evaluating all functional and scalable solutions," the statement said.

"In the meantime, we will delete profiles of any convicted sex offender we find on MySpace."

Little Justice In Pakistan Rape Cases

2006-10-16T00:15:00.000+10:00

By Salman Masood The New York Times

KABIRWALA, Pakistan Pursuing justice is not easy for a woman in Pakistan, not if the crime is rape. Ghazala Shaheen knows.

Two years ago, her relatives say, an uncle eloped with a woman from a higher social caste. The revenge was the rape of Shaheen, she and relatives charge, after a gang of men raided her father's home and abducted her and her mother in late August.

It is not uncommon in Pakistan for women to suffer callous vendettas for the wrongdoings of their male relatives, even a 24-year-old woman like Shaheen who, despite being from a relatively poor family, has earned a master's degree in education and wants to be a teacher.

Under what is known as the Hudood ordinance in Pakistan, to prove rape a woman must produce four witnesses. A failure to do so can result in her being charged for adultery, becoming a victim twice over. The stigma alone is enough to keep many women from trying to bring their attackers to justice.

Human rights activists have repeatedly called for the repeal of the Hudood laws, which were enacted in 1979 by General Zia ul-Haq, the country's last military dictator.

President Pervez Musharraf has vowed to introduce amendments to the laws, but critics say his efforts have been halfhearted. But in September, under pressure from hard-line clerics, Musharraf's government delayed passage of a proposed law that would have allowed rape to be tried in civil courts, where a rape victim needs only to provide a medical witness and other evidence.

In 2002, the case of Mukhtar Mai became a cause célèbre among human rights advocates after a village council ordered that she be gang-raped. Mukhtar has since become an international figure, winning worldwide praise for her courage in speaking out and for her efforts to bring the culprits to justice.

Despite the outcry, lesser-known cases, like Shaheen's, continue to emerge with disturbing regularity as the laws go unchanged.

Shaheen, whose father is a retired military police officer, recounted her ordeal at an uncle's home in Kabirwala, a dusty farming town in the southern part of Punjab Province, not far from where she says about a dozen men forced their way into her father's house on Aug. 25.

Some of the attackers were wearing police uniforms, Shaheen said. "Pick up the women, they shouted," Shaheen recalled. "They dragged me and my mother and put us on two motorbikes."

Both of them were told they were being taken to the police station in connection with Shaheen's uncle. "But we soon found out that we were kidnapped," Shaheen said.

The abductors held them for 11 days. Both said they were beaten.

"I was raped by two men," recalled Shaheen, with moist eyes ringed by dark circles. One of her rapists, she said, was Nazar Mirali, someone from the rival clan. She did not know the other one.

"I pleaded," she said. "I implored but they did not listen to me." Mirali could not be found for comment. He and another man, who was not identified, were named in the complaint filed by Shaheen on Sept. 26.

Word of Shaheen's late August abduction had spread throughout the area. On Sept. 2, human rights activists, along with Mai, the woman who has brought attention to such cases after her own ordeal, called a rally in Kabirwala to demand the arrest of the accused.

Two days later, both Shaheen and her mother were recovered by police from Jhang, a neighboring district, after a tip from someone in the area, said Abdul Rashid, a cousin of Shaheen.

Shaheen said that evening at the police station that she had been threatened and harassed by her attackers not to talk about the ordeal. A police official, too, told her not to mention rape, and the police logged the case only as a kidnapping.

"I was frightened - they threatened they would kill my father," Shaheen said, referring to the Miralis, who are a relatively well-connected family in the area.

Shaheen said she suffered in silence for more than a week but then gathered the courage to come forward. She went for a medical checkup.

"Yes, I confirmed in my medical report about rape," said Dr. Saima Iftikhar, the medical officer at the Kabirwala district hospital who examined her.

Since then, Shaheen's ambitions have been shattered, and it is she who suffers scorn for the rape, rather than her attackers. She says she feels helpless. The school where she had expected to teach refused to accept her.

"They said they can't accept me as it is a matter of their repute now," Shaheen said.

Human rights activists have been critical of the police. They say the police have been slow to move against the accused because of pressure from high- level politicians to hush up the case.

"Have they collected all the evidence? Have they raided the houses of all the accused?" said Rashid Rehman, an official with the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, an independent body that has taken up the case.

On Sept. 26, Shaheen, along with Rehman, submitted another application to the police and presented a copy of the medical report confirming rape.

Thirteen of the 14 men accused of taking part in the abduction are in hiding, police officials say. The police say they are doing their best.

"We have apprehended the main accused," said Shahid Hanif, the district police chief of nearby Khanewal, who seemed clearly exasperated by the case.

"No one is happy with police," he said. "What else does she expect us to do? We recovered her. We have arrested the man accused. Does she expect us to kill him? We can't do that."

UK Rape Laws To Change Over "Drunk Consent"

2006-10-15T22:43:00.000+10:00

London, UK -- The government is drawing up laws to make it easier to convict men of rape if they have sex with a woman who has drunk so much that she may not know what she is doing.

Ministers confirmed that they are planning to amend rape legislation to clarify the legal position on the issue of consent, a change first revealed in The Observer last December. At stake is the question of whether a jury should convict when large amounts of alcohol have been consumed by the victim of an alleged attack.

Mike O'Brien, the Solicitor-General, said last night that they wanted to see more men convicted of raping a woman in such circumstances but also wanted to avoid wrongful guilty verdicts. 'The issue [of consent] becomes particularly difficult where there is alcohol involved. What we have to do is find ways of ensuring that where a rape occurs, the rapist is convicted, but that we don't create miscarriages of justice,' he said.

Currently, women are judged as being able to consent to sex if they have been drinking, as long as they have not lost consciousness through excessive consumption. Cases in which the victim has drunk heavily before the assault occurs often do not make it to court because the police or the Crown Prosecution Service think she will stand little chance of having her account believed by a jury.

The changes would not affect the burden of proof, which means that jurors would still have to be convinced beyond reasonable doubt that a rape had taken place.

O'Brien said that while the most recent changes to rape laws, in 2003, were 'a big step forward in clarifying the law in relation to rape, some recent cases have suggested that we may need to ensure that juries get the opportunity to take a view where significant amounts of alcohol are involved'.

Government lawyers were uneasy when a judge at Swansea Crown Court told a jury last year to bring in a not guilty verdict on a man accused of raping a university student who admitted that she had drunk so much that she could not recall what had happened. 'Drunken consent is still consent,' said the judge.

Ministers are also considering letting juries see the initial interview a victim has given to the police describing the attack, often soon after it has happened, and allowing women to be helped through the ordeal of a trial by having a 'victims' advocate' to support her.

Susan Sharp And Sex With Teenage Boys

2006-10-15T22:14:00.000+10:00

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. - A former southeast Missouri middle school teacher faces sentencing Dec. 19 after pleading guilty to four felony counts for having sex with underage teenage boys.

Susan Sharp of New Madrid originally pleaded not guilty before reaching an agreement with prosecutors Wednesday to plead guilty to two counts each of second-degree statutory rape and second-degree statutory sodomy. The case was moved toButler County on a change of venue.

Sharp, 49, was removed from her teaching position in November 2004 after the allegations surfaced. None of the boys were students at New Madrid Central Middle School, where Sharp taught.

The Missouri Attorney General's office, which handled the case, recommended the maximum seven-year sentence on each count, to run concurrently.

"The conduct was egregious, which is why we asked the court for the maximum penalty," said John Fougere, a spokesman for Attorney General Jay Nixon.

Sharp was accused of having sex with the boys on Oct. 17, 2004, at her home, and giving them prescription medication.

Information in the case emerged after a 15-year-old boy tried to kill himself with an overdose of an anti-anxiety drug.

During a routine follow-up by the sheriff's department, the teen disclosed that he and Sharp had had sex the week before he attempted suicide. He said he'd struggled with suicidal thoughts and gone to Sharp's home, taking more of her pills and, he believed, having sex with her again.

The sheriff's department also took statements from three other boys, all 15, who described an evening of kissing, oral sex, intercourse and pill-popping at Sharp's home.

The case was moved out of New Madrid County, in part because Sharp is from a prominent family there. Her father, Van Sharp, was the county clerk for more than 40 years and her mother ran a popular catering business.

Sex Attack On 87 Year Old Woman

2006-10-15T22:08:00.000+10:00

Matt Withers, Wales on Sunday

AN ELDERLY woman was recovering in hospital last night after being subjected to a sickening sex attack in her home.

The 87-year-old pensioner called police to her home in Caernarfon at 3am yesterday to report the assault.

Police arrested a man, 34, within hours and he was being questioned last night. No-one else was being sought in connection with the attack, a spokeswoman said.

"North Wales Police received a call just after 3am on Saturday morning from an elderly woman reporting that she had been the victim of a sexual assault in her home in the Caernarfon area," she said.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was taken to Ysbyty Gwynedd, Bangor, but her exact condition was unknown last night.

Women Get Horny Just As Quickly As Men Do

2006-10-14T01:46:00.000+10:00

Research from McGill University shows that women become sexually aroused just as quickly as men do. The discovery, to be published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine next January, not only shatters an age-old myth, but will likely help diagnose and treat women with sexual dysfunction.

Unlike previous sexual arousal experiments, the researchers forewent distracting and invasive genital probes in favor of thermal imaging (heat-sensitive) cameras that use the same technology as military night-vision goggles (a la Silence Of The Lambs). "Compared to previous techniques involving invasive measures or electrodes, this is minimally invasive and the same measurements are used for men and women, which makes it very interesting that the data ended up being the same," says psychology professor Dr. Irv Binik, founder and director of the Sex and Couple Therapy Service of Royal Victoria Hospital, McGill University Health Centre.

As the subjects watched an array of movie clips - comprised of everything from The Best Of Mr. Bean to gender specific sexually explicit Kinsey Institute blue movies - Binik trained his thermal cameras on their genitals. Binik found that both men and women became aroused within 30 seconds of watching a clip (not Mr. Bean, one would presume), and reached maximum arousal after approximately 10 minutes. "Comparing sexual arousal between men and women, we see that there is no difference in the amount of time it takes healthy young men and women to reach peak arousal," said Dr. Binik.

Now that a crucial aspect of female sexuality has emerged from the dark, so to speak, Binik and his co-researcher, Tuuli Kukkonen, are predicting big things from the results. "This will help diagnose and treat sexual dysfunction in women, such as female sexual arousal disorder, which is poorly understood," Kukkonen said.

Source: McGill University

Woman Sentenced For Lying About Rape

2006-10-12T10:46:00.000+10:00

(AP) A woman who gained national notoriety for writing a book about being raped, then abandoning her newborn in a college trash been has been sentenced to prison for being the rapist in the case.

Twyana Davis, 30, claimed in 1995 that she had been raped, appeared on television shows to tell her story.

She also formed a nonprofit group aimed to prevent teen pregnancies and provide alternatives for young mothers who didn't want to keep their babies.

But she also was harboring a secret: She wasn't raped. She was the rapist, Franklin County prosecutors said.

Davis was sentenced Tuesday in Common Pleas Court to 10 to 25 years in prison on a charge of rape. She had confessed to having a sexual relationship with a 12-year-old cousin, leading to her unwanted pregnancy.

Judge Michael J. Holbrook labeled her a sexual predator and also fined her $10,000. Davis successfully manipulated the system to her advantage after the crime, Holbrook said.

She told the judge that she is trying to become a better person. "With all respect to you, there is a judge we all have to stand before sometime," she said.

Davis confessed to clear her conscience and claimed the sex was consensual, defense attorney Byron Potts said. He blamed her actions on a poor upbringing and abuse when she was a child.

In November 1995, Davis left her daughter in a trash bin at Ohio Dominican College, where she was a student. The baby survived. Davis was caught and convicted of child endangering.

She then wrote the book "Sacred Womb" and formed the group, Second Chance of Life, leading to appearances on Oprah and 20/20.

Scarlett Johansson Encourages Safe Sex

2006-10-12T10:41:00.000+10:00

Sexy Scarlett Johansson insists she is regularly tested for sexually transmitted diseases and slams people who refuse to get tested, calling their behaviour "disgusting and irresponsible".

The actress recently hit back at reports she was promiscuous before finding love with Josh Hartnett on the set of The Black Dahila last year.

Johansson encourages responsibility when having sex telling Allure magazine, "I get tested for HIV twice a year.

"One has to be socially aware. It's part of being a decent human, to be tested for STDs.

"It's just disgusting behaviour when people don't. It's so irresponsible."

Filmmaker Arrested On Teen Sex Charges

2006-10-09T20:01:00.000+10:00

Salt Lake City, USA -- A Salt Lake City actor and filmmaker has been accused of having sex with a teenage girl and flying her to Los Angeles at least twice for the encounters.

Gilbert L. Medina - who recently wrote, directed, produced and appeared in "Jack's Law," a revenge drama filmed in Utah that featured Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson as a defense attorney - was arrested Thursday at his downtown condominium, FBI Agent Scott Wall said.

After a brief appearance Friday before U.S. District Magistrate David Nuffer, the 37-year-old was ordered held pending a detention hearing. The charge of transportation with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity filed against him carries a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison and a maximum of 30 years. A statement filed by the FBI with the complaint alleges that a confidential source told a detective that Medina had engaged in sex with the minor between 2004 and this year.

The source said Medina and the girl traveled separately to California to avoid suspicion about why a minor and an obviously older man were together. In addition, Medina checked into hotels alone while the girl waited around the corner so no one would see them together, the statement alleges. It says that hotel and airline records corroborate the source's story. At least two of the encounters, one in Los Angeles and the other in Medina's condominium in the American Towers, were recorded by Medina with a handheld video camera, according to the source.

The statement says a second source reported opening up files while using Medina's home computer and saw a depiction of what appeared to be a minor female performing a sex act on the actor-director. A search of the condominium conducted Thursday turned up film cartridges and prescription drug containers, the statement says.

The document also alleges that after being placed in custody, Medina asked if his car keys were being seized and when told no, replied, "Good," because when he made bail, he was going to "jump."

Medina, who was born in Salt Lake City also appeared in the movie "The Crow: Wicked Prayer," and co-produced "Prosperity."

Source: Salt Lake Tribune

High School Coach Arrested After Sex Tape Descovered

2006-10-09T19:59:00.000+10:00

ORLANDO - (AP) -- A high school girls' basketball coach was arrested on child pornography charges after detectives found homemade tapes of him having sex with an eighth-grade student in the 1990s, authorities said.

William ''Buck'' Lanham, 47, who has been coaching at Orlando Christian Prep since 2002, was arrested at the school Thursday and charged with possession of child pornography and possession of marijuana, Orange County sheriff's Sgt. Rich Mankewich said.

A phone message left for a William Lanham in Orlando was not returned and efforts to reach Lanham on Sunday were unsuccessful. Lanham is free on $25,000 bond.

A former player, now 23, told detectives in June she began a sexual relationship with Lanham when she was a 14-year-old at St. John Vianney Catholic School in the late 1990s.

The former player said the coach twice videotaped them having sex, Mankewich said. Lanham could not be charged with having sex with a minor because the statute of limitations expired.

The tapes and marijuana were found during a Thursday search of Lanham's apartment, police said.

Lanham has led the Orlando Christian Prep girls basketball team to a 108-25 record and to the state high school Final Four three times.

''The kids, they like Buck,'' said Ken Mitchell, whose 15-year-old daughter plays on the team. ``It is sad.''

The arrest has brought scrutiny on the hiring practices at Orlando Christian Prep, which was founded in 1960 by the Orlando Baptist Church and has about 450 students.

Court records show Lanham -- using the alias Louie Rivera -- served time in state prison for possession of cocaine in Orlando in 1988.

''We've been advised not to comment because it is an ongoing investigation,'' said Orlando Christian Prep admissions director Shelly Brown.

MD Loses Licence Because Of Sex With Patient

2006-10-07T11:05:00.000+10:00

TORONTO,CA - A disciplinary panel for the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario stripped a family physician of his licence Thursday after he tried to cover up that he had sex with a patient.

Dr. Vaito Manohar, who owns and operates the Pine Valley Medical Centre in Woodbridge, Ont., and specializes in cosmetic treatments, cannot reapply for his certificate to practise for at least five years.

"You let your profession down. You let yourself down and you let your family down," Dr. Oscar Kofman, chair of the disciplinary panel.

Kofman said it was unfortunate that Manohar was a young physician with a "potential career that was cut short."

Manohar, who graduated from the University of Toronto in 1998, pleaded no contest to an agreed statement of facts read out at the hearing Thursday.

The panel heard that Manohar invited a female patient, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, to join him, his girlfriend and a male doctor out for an evening of dining, dancing and drinking.

After suggestions of group sex (which did not occur), Manohar and the patient had sex at his condo.

The patient said she did not consent to the sexual activity, adding that she was intoxicated, feeling numb and disoriented, the panel heard.

Manohar stated that she was a willing participant who did not appear inebriated.

When the college contacted Manohar about the allegations, he denied them and refused to give a DNA sample. Manohar also got his girlfriend to lie to college investigators in exchange for free cosmetic treatments, the panel heard.

Manohar's DNA matched forensic evidence found on the patient's underwear.

In the patient's victim impact statement, which was read to the panel, she said: "I no longer trust people. I find it difficult to sleep...I feel exhausted, scared, lonely, confused and lost."

Jenny Stephenson, Manohar's lawyer, told the panel that her client regretted his errors.

National Post

Detained Women In Mexico Raped

2006-10-07T10:58:00.000+10:00

MEXICO CITY – Mexican authorities have failed to adequately investigate the alleged rape or sexual abuse of 23 women by federal, state and local police officers while in custody, violating numerous domestic and international human rights laws, the human rights group Amnesty International said Thursday.

The allegations are contained in a 12-page report the London-based group turned over to a special Mexican federal prosecutor's office for crimes against women, which it asked to take over the case.

“The state of Mexico promised there would not be impunity, but what we've found up until now is that the necessary steps haven't been taken; in fact, it's completely the opposite,” organization investigator Rupert Knox told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from London on the eve of the report Wednesday night.

Knox said Amnesty fears the cases might be forgotten with Mexico's transition to a new government on Dec. 1, and that the organization will ask to discuss the situation with aides to President-elect Felipe Calderon.

Seven women claimed they were raped and another 16 said they were sexually abused after being taken into custody by police who retook control of the town of San Salvador Atenco, 25 kilometers (15 miles) northeast of Mexico City, to end violent protests in early May.

The protests began with demonstrators kidnapping and beating six policemen, one brutally, after authorities tried to prevent flower vendors from setting up stands in a nearby city.

Police responded with rage the next day: Television images showed angry officers repeatedly clubbing helpless detainees in the town. More than 200 people were taken into custody.

Mexico's National Human Rights Commission filed complaints with the prosecutor for Mexico State, where San Salvador Atenco is located, and President Vicente Fox's office said the case should be thoroughly investigated and that any officers found responsible for sexual abuse or any other crime should be punished.

In June, Mexico State prosecutor Abel Villicana Estrada said he would press charges against 23 police officers for using excessive force. It was not immediately clear what the status of those cases were.

In addition, four police officers were fired and five others suspended for 90 days for tolerating the use of excessive force – but apparently none has been tried or convicted for rape or sexual abuse.

Mexico State Police Chief Wilfrido Robledo repeatedly has denied the allegations, initially saying they were part of a strategy by detainees' lawyers to make police look bad. In an interview last month with a Mexican magazine, he insisted the women had made up the charges.

Sections of the Amnesty report deal with the alleged lack of attention authorities paid to women who made the complaints.

“When I arrive (at the authorities' offices), the doctor doesn't want to certify that I've been raped,” said one alleged victim whose testimony was included in the report. “It seems unfair that they don't believe me, that someone could think I made this up.”

The report claims that by not attending the complaints, authorities have violated a law in the state of Mexico against torture as well as several international accords Mexico signed guaranteeing human rights and the prevention of abuse against women.

“According to international law, the rape of a woman or child who is in the custody of an agent of the state always constitutes torture, for which the state is directly responsible,” the report said, concluding, “It's time to review the methods, training and tactics of the public security forces in situations of public disturbances or protests to ensure that they are in line with international human rights norms.”

Sex On False Promise Of Marriage In India Is Rape

2006-10-05T14:00:00.000+10:00

New Delhi : The Supreme Court has held that having sexual intercourse with a girl with her consent obtained through fraud, coercion or on promise of marriage amounts to rape.

A Bench, comprising Justice A.K. Mathur and Justice Altamas Kabir, said consent given under fear of injury or a misconception of fact could not be construed to be a valid consent and the sexual act would come within the definition of rape under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code.

It said: "What is voluntary consent and what is not a voluntary consent depends on the facts of each case. One has to see the factors like the age of the girl, her education and her status in the society and likewise the social status of the boy. If the attending circumstances lead to the conclusion that it was not only the accused but also the prosecutrix [girl] who was keen, then in that case, the offence is condoned. But in case a poor girl does not understand what the consequences may be for indulging in such acts and when the accused promised to marry but never intended to from the beginning then the consent of the girl is of no consequence."

Writing the judgment, Justice Mathur said that if sexual intercourse had been committed by the accused when there was no valid consent, the court could presume that the accused had committed a rape. The Bench said that such a presumption had been introduced by the Legislature in the Evidence Act in view of the atrocities being committed against women.

In the instant case the appellant Yedla Srinivasa Rao was convicted and sentenced to undergo seven years imprisonment on a charge of raping a 16-year-old girl. The prosecution case was that he promised to marry her but did not do so. After the girl became pregnant, a case of `rape' was registered against him. The trial court acquitted the accused holding that since the girl consented to the intercourse, it would not amount to rape. On appeal by the State, the Andhra Pradesh High Court reversed the order and awarded him seven-year imprisonment.

Upholding the judgment, the Supreme Court Bench said it was clear from the evidence that the accused had made a false promise to marry the girl. The intention of the accused right from the beginning was not bona fide and the poor girl was misled by the promise of marriage.

Shortbus Movie - Art Porn

2006-10-05T13:53:00.000+10:00

LOS ANGELES: Since its debut at the Cannes film festival in May, director John Cameron Mitchell's film "Shortbus" has been labelled many things for its full on depictions of sex including porn for everyday audiences.

But Mitchell, whose first film "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" in 2001 became a cause celebre among fans of movies made outside Hollywood, said the movie is far from pornography because it uses sex with artistic licence to comment on how people's lives are impacted by sexual thoughts and feelings. Moreover, he argues he did not make the movie with mainstream audiences in mind.

"The very explicitness of the sex limits the audience, which is fine," Mitchell said.

Mitchell, 43, has built a strong -- if still formative -- reputation by telling stories that shock some audiences with his point of view that comes from outside the mainstream. In fact, the title "Shortbus" refers to the small buses that took special education and other kids to school separately from the larger buses that delivered most teenagers to class.

"What I want the film to do is to remind people that it (sex) is integrated into our lives and shouldn't be hidden away because it can change lives. Monogamy might be right for some, and celibacy, and all these things might be right, but you can't ignore it," Mitchell said.

Many of the most explicit acts occur at the start of the film because Mitchell wanted to move quickly beyond prurient thoughts and get to more substantive themes on how some individuals, and society at large, allow sex to impact life.

Sofia (Sook-Yin Lee) is a sex therapist whose thoughts on the topic block her from achieving orgasm. James (Paul Dawson) and his boyfriend Jamie (PJ DeBoy) love each other but lack a healthy sex life. Dominatrix Severin (Lindsay Beamish) feels isolated in her career.

What they all have in common is gathering weekly in a downtown New York salon called Shortbus where people outside mainstream society openly share ideas on art, culture and sex.

The actors are not stars and several are not even actors because Mitchell wanted the cast to bring its own ideas on sex to the story and not be worried about ruining a career by performing oral sex, intercourse or masturbating on-screen.

Mitchell's unconventional style called for performance workshops where the actors grew comfortable with each other to heighten the movie's sense of reality.

Mitchell is no stranger to making movies outside the mainstream. "Hedwig" told of a boy who grew up with conflicted sexual feelings and became a transvestite rock singer before facing his future as a man. It premiered at 2001's Sundance Film Festival, won awards and garnered acclaim for Mitchell.

The movie played mostly in art houses and made a mere $3.6 million at U.S. box offices. Yet at the time, that figure was a success for a low-budget movie with homosexual themes.

Still, "Hedwig" grew into a cult-like hit on DVD because friends gave it to friends who gave it to other friends, and he is hopeful "Shortbus" will become similarly shared.

"This, too, will be a hard thing to see for some people," Mitchell said. "They might not see it for a few years but then get it on DVD and go, 'damn.'"

Source:www.stuff.co.nz

The Supreme Court Refused To Hear Texas Case On Sex Toys

2006-10-04T00:41:00.000+10:00

Associated Press

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court refused Monday to consider whether a Texas law making it a crime to promote sex toys shaped like sexual organs is unconstitutional. An adult bookstore employee in El Paso sued the state after his arrest for showing two undercover officers a device shaped like a penis.

The employee, Ignacio Sergio Acosta, says a Texas law outlawing the manufacture, marketing or dissemination of devices shaped like sex organs is unconstitutional because it prevents individuals from using such devices, violating their right to sexual privacy.

Colorado, Kansas and Louisiana have held such laws unconstitutional, while Georgia, Mississippi and Texas have upheld them, said Acosta's lawyer in urging the Supreme Court to take the case.

An El Paso County court granted Acosta's motion to dismiss a criminal complaint against him, but an appeals court reinstated it, saying the Texas law did not infringe on private sexual behavior.

Acosta also said the Texas law should be examined in light of a U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down a Texas criminal law banning gay sex as an unconstitutional invasion of privacy.

Washington No Stranger To Sex Scandals

2006-10-04T00:39:00.000+10:00

(Reuters) - Washington is no stranger to sex scandals, such as the uproar that forced Rep. Mark Foley, a Republican from Florida, to resign after sending steamy instant messages to teenage pages.

* President Bill Clinton had a sexual relationship with intern Monica Lewinsky, then 21, which led to his impeachment after accusations he lied about it under oath. He survived the impeachment process and was able to serve out his term but his presidency, which ended in 2001, was badly damaged.

* Sen. Gary Hart, a Colorado Democrat, saw his second presidential bid ended in 1987 when it was learnt he spent the night on a yacht, named the Monkey Business, with a woman who was not his wife.

* Rep. Wilbur Mills, a Democrat from Arkansas and then chair of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, was caught in 1974 with stripper Fanne Foxe, who performed as "the Argentine firecracker", who leapt from his limousine and jumped into the Tidal Basin. Mills went into treatment for alcohol and retired two years later.

* Sen. Bob Packwood, a Republican from Oregon, resigned in 1995 after 26 years in Congress. He had been accused of sexual misconduct with 17 women, among other charges.

* In 1983, both Rep. Dan Crane, a Republican from Illinois, and Rep. Gerry Studds, a Democrat from Massachusetts, were censured for illicit affairs with underaged pages. Crane, who had had sex with a teenage girl, was voted out of office but Studds, who had had an affair with a boy, was returned to office many times.

* Rep. Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat who is homosexual, was reprimanded in 1990 after it was learnt that a lover had run a prostitution ring out of his Washington apartment. Frank remains in Congress.

Daily Erotic Photograph

2006-10-03T08:07:00.000+10:00

Nymphomania And Satyriasis

2006-10-02T21:28:00.000+10:00

By Leah Lessard
Special to CNN.com

(CNN) -- Reading Carol Groneman's new book "Nymphomania" in a public place elicits reactions from people ranging from bewildered stares to lewd grins. These responses confirm everything she has written on the pages behind the simple and erotic line drawing on the cover. That is, we still don't know what to make of nymphomania. Anyone who has ever wondered how much sex is too much sex -- and who decides -- will be fascinated by this thoroughly researched and well-executed book.

Groneman guides the reader through the history of nymphomania as a medical illness, mental disorder, legal construct, cultural perception and off-color joke. In chronicling the transformation of the term, the author begins with the medical model of the 1800s, when strong sexual desire in a woman was considered a disease stemming from lack of morals and willpower. Groneman's analysis continues to the present day as she describes how new attitudes are colliding with persistent stereotypes surrounding female sexuality.

"Nymphomania is a metaphor which embodies the fantasies and fears, anxieties and dangers connected to female sexuality," she writes. "By tracing its many meanings over two hundred years, we see how clearly it is reflected in the eye of the beholder."

As the author points out, it is telling that a libidinous women has been a cause of anxiety as well as locker-room snickering, while few of us have even heard of "satyriasis," the male equivalent of nymphomania. In fact, notes Ms. Groneman, generations have passed where the standard measurement of sexual normalcy was in relation to the husband - a woman with less desire than her husband was frigid, while greater desire suggested the sickness of nymphomania.

Revealing attitudes

A history professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice/City University of New York, Groneman became intrigued by the idea of what nymphomania could reveal about attitudes toward female sexuality. It was far from a passing interest. The author spent 10 years researching and writing "Nymphomania."

Her book is engaging because of the stories it tells. Colorful examples and anecdotes serve Groneman's research so well that the factual data merely supports the stories. What emerges from the author's integration of all this information is a textured tapestry of women's history that lingers with the reader long after the book is finished.

For instance, Groneman recounts the first full study on nymphomania by an obscure French doctor in 1775. According to this Dr. Bienville, causes of nymphomania included "eating rich food, consuming too much chocolate, dwelling on impure thoughts, reading novels, or performing 'secret pollutions' (masturbation)," because these items or actions overstimulated a "woman's delicate nerve fibers." Any pleasure derived from engaging in the suspected causes was harshly negated by the awful medical treatment that followed. "Cures" for an active female libido (as diagnosed by a woman's lascivious glances, lewd language, or an enlarged uterus) included bleeding, cold-water douches and caustic applications to the genitals.

Yet "Nymphomania" does not sit in smug judgment of the past. The author debunks notions about modern-day cultural enlightenment with recent examples that seem as unbelievable as old-fashioned nymphomania cures.

One memorable example is the "Cable Car Nymphomaniac." In 1970, a San Francisco woman was awarded $50,000 by a jury after she claimed, in a personal injury lawsuit, that a cable car crash had left her with a "demonic sex urge." In a much more sobering example, the author details a disturbing gang rape trial in 1991 in which nymphomania was allowed as defense evidence. The defense in this case argued that the 20-year-old victim -- who was forced into a car on her way home from a family gathering and raped by as many as 15 men -- actually wanted sex.

Underpinned by curiosity

Although the book is relentless in chronicling gender inequality -- and, often, misogynist sentiments and actions -- "Nymphomania" is far from a feminist manifesto. Whether the author is writing about the "hypersexual girls" of the '20s or "professional nymphomaniac" Kathy Willet of the '90s, the book is underpinned by her own curiosity. Groneman's own analysis is even-handed and thought-provoking, making it a pleasurable journey through social history for a wide audience.

Still, Groneman, an authority on women's issues and co-editor of "To Toil the Livelong Day: America's Women at Work, 1780-1980" (1987, Cornell University Press), reminds us that the feminist mantra of "the personal is political" has some truth: The way women are perceived in the privacy of the bedroom tends to mirror their perception in public spheres.

Groneman describes a 1956 article titled "My Bride Was a Nymphomaniac" as an example. In it, a distraught husband tells how his lusty bride had "something wrong with the mind," and how she "took up sculpting and brought an all-male artist crowd, 'spouting left-wing philosophy,' to their suburban home at all hours of the day and night." The husband concludes that his bride's insatiable sexual desire "masked a desire to wear him and other lovers out, to castrate him symbolically."

The author really hits her stride in "Happy Nymphos and Sexual Addicts," a chapter about today's attitudes and mores. Citing current pop-psychology catchphrases such as "love addict" and "sex addict," Groneman illustrates how terms used to describe female sexuality reflect the tone of the times. Today's addiction model, asserts the author, still perpetuates the belief that strong sexual desire is a sickness.

So, in the end, those two tricky questions remain: How much sex is too much? Who decides?

Fortunately, Groneman doesn't give her readers a simple answer like Alfred Kinsey, who once quipped, "A nymphomaniac is someone who has more sex than you do." Instead, "Nymphomania" explores why, even today, those questions aren't adequately answered.

Promiscuous 10% Guilty For The UK Sex Health Crisis

2006-10-02T18:29:00.000+10:00

A "promiscuous 10%" of the population who have multiple partners are fuelling a UK sexual health crisis, say experts.

Attempts to cut sexually transmitted infections will fail unless this 10% is encouraged to change its behaviour, the John Moores University team said. They told the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health how poor sex education and sex on TV was to blame. But a growing minority of people are abstaining from sex, say researchers.

Multiple partners

According to research published in New Scientist, a small percentage of the population - 1% - have absolutely no interest in having sex with men or women. This group of 'asexuals' are coming together and forming virtual communities via the internet to insist on their right not to have sex, the report said.

The opposite is true of the "promiscuous 10%" who started their sex lives at an early stage and have multiple partners, according to Professor Mark Bellis and his colleagues in Liverpool. Figures show one in 10 young people has already had sex by the time they are 14.

About 10% of UK adults have had an STI and 13% have visited a genitourinary medicine (GUM) clinic. Overall, 708,083 people in England, Wales and Northern Ireland were diagnosed with an STI in 2003.

Ignorance

Professor Bellis and colleagues say society is ignoring the problem for fear of upsetting a vociferous minority.

"Perhaps a greater level of statutory, pertinent and timely sex education is now required despite the complaints of a few. At national level, the choice to guarantee the delivery of high quality sex education is evaded, often to avoid offence to a sensitive but vocal minority," they said.

A BBC poll, conducted by ICM, of 1,010 adults in England, Wales and Scotland found most people would like measures to change people's behaviour to cut rates of sexually transmitted infections. Professor Bellis and his team also criticised the portrayal of strong sexual images in films and television, where there was usually no attempt to promote safe sex.

"More realistic portrayals of sex, condom use, and safer sex practice in the media may, again, upset a few but may also help counter the sexual innuendo that currently promotes promiscuity but provides no hint of safe sex behaviour," they said.

Long waiting times at GUM clinics due to underresourcing is only adding to the problem, they said.

Action

A spokesman for the Terrence Higgins Trust said: "This research reflects some of the reasons for the rises in STIs that we have seen in the UK over the last few years, and we support its calls for consistent, well delivered sex education in schools.

"However, we would caution against using the term 'promiscuous' when describing anyone who has an active sex life. Labelling people in such a way isn't helpful - we need to listen to people and give them the information and support they need to ensure their sexual well-being."

A spokeswoman from the Family Planning Association said: "Anyone can be unlucky enough to get an STI.

"Current high levels cannot be blamed on one group alone. I do not think this 10% rule holds up."

Paul Burstow MP, Liberal Democrat Shadow Health Secretary, said stigmatising those who seek help could drive the problem underground instead of solving it.

The Department of Health said it was committed to tackling the rise of STIs and that millions of pounds had been allocated to the sexual health strategy.

A spokesman said: "This sets out the work we are doing with young people to help them resist pressure to have early sex, improving sex and relationship education to increase their awareness of risk and knowledge of how to protect themselves."

He said the government's investment in GUM clinics clearly reflected the importance of sexual health, which would be a key issue addressed in its imminent Public Health White Paper.

Source:http://news.bbc.co.uk

Waltham Teacher Indicted On Rape Charges

2006-10-02T18:26:00.000+10:00

A longtime Waltham public school drama teacher and assistant football coach has been indicted on charges of child rape in the alleged sexual assaults of three male students.

Robert Dacey, 49, is accused of luring two current students, now 15, to his home at various times in 2005. In addition, the indictment added a third alleged victim, who was found during the investigation. In the third case, Dacey is accused of raping and sexually assaulting a student, now 21, in the late 1990s, beginning when the alleged victim was in eighth grade, prosecutors said.

A Middlesex grand jury returned the 17-count indictment against Dacey on Thursday.

Dacey, who taught drama at the McDevitt Middle School, posted $25,000 bail last month and was placed under house arrest with an electronic monitoring device at the home of a sister in Belmont, said Melissa Sherman, a spokeswoman for the Middlesex district attorney's office. She said Dacey has since been placed in another relative's home under house arrest.

Police reports allege Dacey lured the two eighth-grade drama students to his home last year by saying that a friend of his owned a massage parlor and was trying out a new masseuse. When the boys arrived at Dacey's Waltham apartment, police say, he blindfolded them and left the room. The boys told police they then heard someone enter the room and were massaged by someone with long hair and long fingernails who they thought was a woman.

``The Commonwealth has determined and alleged that this person is Mr. Dacey," Sherman said.

Authorities allege Dacey assaulted the two eighth- graders at least nine times, sometimes together and sometimes separately, between June and November. The grand jury indicted Dacey on six counts of rape, indecent assault and battery, and enticement of a child.

The grand jury also indicted Dacey on two counts of rape of a child, one count of rape, and other charges in connection with alleged sexual encounters with a former student, who is now 21. Authorities say the sexual assaults began when the boy was a 14-year-old eighth-grader.

Waltham school officials said Dacey worked in the district for 26 years. He is currently on paid leave, according to district officials.

Man That Pay For Sex Put Wives In Danger

2006-10-01T04:17:00.000+10:00

Glaswgow, UK -- WOMEN are being put at risk by partners who cheat on them with prostitutes.

Figures showed 43 per cent of all men using hookers were married or in stable relationships. And 56 per cent of men who paid for unprotected sex had a steady partner. One in five of the men surveyed had a sexually-transmitted infection.

The statistics have been published by Dr Tamsin Groom and Dr Rak Nandwani of Glasgow's Sandyford sexual health clinic, who interviewed 2600 men for their study. Dr Groom said: "Very little is really known about these men, their behaviours and the risks they may pose to themselves or indeed their partners."

A survey of the men, average age 34, revealed one in 10 had paid for sex. Of those, about one in four said that they repeatedly used prostitutes. More than 50 per cent had done so abroad, four out of 10 in Glasgow and the rest elsewhere in the UK.

Men were twice as likely to have unprotected sex with hookers abroad than at home.

None of the men was HIV-positive but one in five had a sexually transmitted disease such as gonorrhoea or syphilis. A high proportion of the men had also paid for unprotected oral sex.

Dr Nandwani said: "There is a lack of awareness...that oral sex alone can facilitate STI transmission including herpes, syphilis and HIV."

Source:www.thedailyrecord.co.uk