Catholic nuns reveal sexual abuse by slovenian priest close to Vatican

Pervert priest Marko Rupnik forced Gloria Branciani and Mirjam Kovac to watch porn, have threesome in the name of Holy Trinity

By Edward Era Barbacena 

On Wednesday (21st February), two former nuns revealed how a Slovenia-based Catholic priest named Marko Rupnik sexually abused them three decades ago in the garb of ‘spiritual growth.’

The victims, identified as Gloria Branciani and Mirjam Kovac, were members of the Ignatius of Loyola community. The duo held a press conference in Rome on Wednesday and informed the media that Rupnik forced them to watch pornography and have a threesome in the early 1990s.

“He took me to pornographic theatres to help me ‘grow spiritually’…He said that I would not grow spiritually if I did not meet his sexual needs. We had another nun have sex with us because he said it was like the Trinity”, narrated Gloria Branciani.

“(Rupnik) was always protected by everyone, and everything that you could accuse him of was either minimized or denied…” she added.

“We hope that our testimony – and for this reason we’re exposing ourselves like this, because we feel protected and supported – will stimulate a greater transparency and a consciousness by everyone, and also maybe the pope who wasn’t really aware of the facts that occurred,” Gloria Branciani further emphasised.

It must be mentioned that the victim left the Slovene community in 1993 and had even informed senior Vatican officials at that time. She said that no action was taken against Rupnik and that her accusations were dismissed.

During the press conference, former nun Mirjam Kovac said, “We were all young girls, full of ideals. But these very ideals, together with our training in obedience, were exploited for abuses of various kinds: of conscience, of power, spiritual, psychic, physical and often sexual.”

Who is Marko Rupnik

Marko Rupnik is a famous mosaic artist and a priest at a religious community in Slovenia. He has been accused of sexually abusing at least 20 women in the past 30 years.

He was temporarily excommunicated by the Church after he absolved a woman of having a sexual relationship with him. Rupnik was reinstated two weeks later after he ‘repented’ for his actions. It was only in June 2023 that he was expelled from the Jesuit order, the same one as that of Pope Francis.

Anne Barrett Doyle of ‘Bishop Accountability’, who documents church crimes, described Marko Rupnik as a “powerful cleric who was protected at the highest levels of the Church and the Vatican.” She added, “The Rupnik case shows that little has changed.”

Rupnik, however, continues to serve as a ‘priest’ in a diocese in Koper city of Slovenia. His mosaic art can be found in the Catholic shrine in Lourdes (France), the cathedral in Aparecida (Brazil), and the Redemptoris Mater chapel of the Apostolic Palace (Vatican).

 

American parents of Wyoming charged with torture, child abuse allegedly forcing kids to eat dog food.

Kris and Allan Jones of Wyoming charged Friday Feb. 23, for child abuse, torture of their three adopted children

By Edward Era Barbacena 

Two Wyoming parents were charged with child abuse Friday in what the Kent County Prosecutor’s Office alleges was torture that went on for over a decade.

Kris and Alan Jones were both arraigned on three counts of torture and three counts of child abuse. The judge denied bond.

The couple's three adopted children endured the alleged torture and abuse beginning in 2013, according to court documents.

The children were forced to sleep in the garage in all weather elements, the documents reveal. Kris would remove the carpet from the stairs so the children had to sleep on concrete.

When the children were fed, documents said they were placed in a dog collar, forced to eat dog food with milk and oatmeal with hot sauce.

One of the children caught eating food from the trash at school because she wasn’t being fed at home, court documents read.

The kids were pushed down the stairs, held down, punched and even choked, according to court records.

“Very often in any type of child abuse, child sexual abuse its usually someone close to them, it is a parent, it’s a caregiver, its a relative," Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker said.

When they acted out, the parents allegedly made them run miles as punishment.

A neighbor close to the Hickory Ridge home, who wanted to remain anonymous, said she saw the kids taking laps around the house frequently and thought it was strange.

There's oftentimes a delayed response when kids report abuse, Becker said.

“It’s that relationship of trust that has been violated and then it puts that child in a situation where what do they do and it is very difficult for them to come forward," Becker said.

A primary care provider came forward with the abuse in 2017, reporting neglect and saying Kris and Alan Jones were not responding appropriately to the proper care plan.

Torture is an rare charge, Becker said, not seeing more than five cases a year.

“It requires a specific intent to cause an extreme physical abuse or mental harm so that specific intent factor is a very high level so it is difficult to prove," Becker said. “It's much more than trying to do something bad, its next level.”

Several Child Protective Services complaints allege there were signs of physical and mental abuse.

Kris allegedly did not cooperate with CPS or allowed workers to speak with the kids.

A CPS referral was never made, according to court records.

The children's weight and heights were reported under the 4th percentile of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention growth guide.

 

Dirty old American pastor of Delaware arrested on charges of possession of child sex abuse material

Paedophile James R. Dryden  was arrested on February 15th who accessed and downloaded child sexual abuse material

By Edward Era Barbacena 

A former Seaford children's pastor has been arrested on 10 felony charges after admitting to possessing and viewing child sexual abuse material, the Delaware Department of Justice said Friday.

James Dryden, 74, was charged last week following an investigation by the state's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, which includes Delaware State Police and the state Justice Department. The investigation began in July 2022 after the task force received cyber tips that Dryden's IP address had accessed the material, court documents say.

After receiving the tips, law enforcement contacted Dryden at his home and seized his devices. A forensic examination of the items showed he had additional material, the Justice Department said.

According to the Justice Department, Dryden had been a children’s pastor at Stein Highway Church of God in Seaford for more than 20 years. In a Friday morning statement, Pastor Dan Southern defined Dryden as a "volunteer children’s worker."

Southern added that the 74-year-old hasn't been working with children at the church for about three years.

Still, "following proper policy, he is immediately suspended from any and all activities at the Stein Highway Church of God, pending investigation and disposition of these charges," Southern said.

The Department of Justice said though Dryden is not charged with contacting a child − nor are investigators aware of any victims affiliated with the church − investigators are requesting anyone with information to come forward.

His work "brought him into regular contact with children," a DOJ news release said.

Southern did not say when the church learned of the charges against Dryden. He is being held at Sussex Correctional Institution on $500,000 cash bail.

 

Self-entitled rich American woman of California found guilty of killing two innocent boys 

LA deluded socialite  Rebecca Grossman found guilty of murder, manslaughter in 2020 hit-and-run deaths of two young brothers

By Edward Era Barbacena 

A Southern California deluded socialite white woman was found guilty Friday of murder and other charges in the hit-and-run deaths of two young brothers in a crosswalk more than three years ago.

Authorities said Rebecca Grossman, wife of a prominent Los Angeles burn doctor, fatally struck Mark Iskander, 11, and brother Jacob, 8, while speeding behind a car driven by then-lover Scott Erickson, a former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher.

The jury found Grossman guilty on all counts: Two felony counts each of second-degree murder and gross vehicular manslaughter, and one felony count of hit-and-run driving resulting in death.

She faces 34 years to life in prison.

The deadly crash occurred on the evening of Sept. 29, 2020, in Westlake Village, a city on the western edge of Los Angeles County.

Attending the court proceedings “felt like I am attending the funeral of the boys again, day after day,” their mother, Nancy Iskander, told reporters after the verdict.

“Someone is now held accountable. Mark and Jacob did not die, Mark and Jacob were murdered.”

Grossman was not charged with being under the influence, but former baseball player Royce Clayton testified he had joined her and Erickson at a nearby restaurant where Erickson had two margaritas and Grossman had one, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Prosecutors presented evidence that the data recorder in Grossman’s white Mercedes showed she was speeding at up to 81 mph (130 kph) and tapped her brakes, slowing her to 73 mph (117 kph), less than two seconds before a collision that set off her airbags.

The district attorney’s office commended the jury for its ruling in a statement.

“This decision underscores our commitment to holding accountable those who drive with total disregard for human life,” the statement said.

“We know that this guilty verdict can never replace their lives but we hope it may provide some peace for the Iskander family as they continue a life-long journey of healing from this tragedy.”

Grossman’s lead defense attorney, Tony Buzbee, repeatedly blamed Erickson for the deaths, suggesting the retired baseball player’s car hit Jacob, hurling him to a curb, and then hit Mark, throwing him into the path of Grossman’s Mercedes, the Times reported

Buzbee did not immediately return a request for comment after the verdict was read.

An attorney for Erickson has said the former ballplayer denies contributing in any way to the tragedy.

Erickson was initially charged with a misdemeanor count of reckless driving but it was dismissed after he made a public service announcement, the Times said.

Nancy Iskander testified that the black SUV did not hit her sons but could have hit her and her 5-year-old son, Zachary.

She said she dove out of the way and pulled Zachary to safety.

The mother said she did not see Mark and Jacob being struck but three eyewitnesses testified they saw a white or light-colored vehicle hit the boys.

Grossman’s husband, Dr. Peter Grossman, medical director of the Grossman Burn Centers, was called to testify by his wife’s defense.

The Grossmans are founders of the Grossman Burn Foundation, which promotes care and support of burn survivors.

Peter Grossman said he and his wife were separated at the time, living separate lives under the same roof while dating other people

His wife was involved with Erickson in 2020, he testified.

Under prosecution questioning, Peter Grossman said that out of the hundreds of times he rode with Rebecca Grossman he had no recollection of her ever speeding.

 

Racist South African man found guilty in Alaska Native woman’s killing that was recorded on video

Brian Steven Smith was found guilty of all 14 criminal counts, including 1st and 2nd degree murder, tampering with evidence and sexual assault in the deaths of both women

By Edward Era Barbacena 

A white racist South African man who tortured an Alaska Native woman and narrated as he recorded a video of her dying was found guilty of first-degree murder on Thursday for killing her and another Native woman.

The Anchorage jury returned a unanimous verdict against Brian Steven Smith after deliberating for less than two hours.

Smith, a 52-year-old from South Africa, showed no reaction in court and stared ahead as the judge read the jury’s verdict. He was arrested after a woman stole his cellphone from his truck and discovered the gruesome footage from 2019. The woman, a sex worker who became a key witness during the trial in Anchorage, then copied the footage to a memory card and ultimately turned it over to police, prosecutors said.

Smith later confessed to killing another Alaska Native woman whose body had been found earlier but had been misidentified.

Smith was found guilty of all 14 charges, including two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Kathleen Henry in 2019 and Veronica Abouchuk, either in 2018 or 2019. He was also convicted of multiple counts of sexual assault.

Sentencing was set for July 12 and July 19. Alaska does not have the death penalty.

Freda Dan, who is part of the Abouchuk family by marriage, sat through the trial nearly every day and gave high marks to law enforcement and the judicial system for their thorough work.

“We weren’t invisible, and we are people,” said Dan, who is from the village of Stebbing, adding they were treated with respect. Other family members declined to comment.

Also attending the trial was Smith’s wife, Stephanie Bissland of Anchorage.

“He was very good for me, but he had another life, I guess,” she said, adding his problems were likely exacerbated by heavy drinking.

Bissland said when he was first jailed, he was in a very dark place. “He got better,” she said.

She plans to write him and visit him when he is transferred to a prison. Divorce is not in the cards. “I said my vows,” she said.

Jurors stayed in the courtroom Thursday after delivering the verdict to hear more evidence about whether the first-degree murder conviction involved aggravating factors. They later found the murder involved “substantial physical torture” after hearing additional arguments from attorneys. That will subject Smith to a mandatory 99-year sentence.

For Abouchuk’s murder, he faces 30 to 99 years.

The graphic videos were only shown to the jury during the three-week trial, but audio could be heard in the gallery, where some heard Henry gasping for breath before dying. Prosecutors said he drove around with Henry’s body in the back of his pickup for two days before dumping her corpse on a rural road south of Anchorage.

The video never shows the man’s face but his distinctive accent is heard on the tape. He narrates as if to an audience and urges Henry to die as she’s repeatedly beaten and strangled in an Anchorage hotel room.

“In my movies, everybody always dies,” the voice says on one video. “What are my followers going to think of me? People need to know when they are being serial-killed.”

Henry and Abouchuk were from small villages in western Alaska, Henry from Eek and Abouchuk from Stebbins. Both women had experienced homelessness.

Sentencing was set for July 12 and July 19. Alaska does not have the death penalty.

Authorities say Henry was the victim whose death was recorded at the TownePlace Suites by Marriott, a hotel in midtown Anchorage. Smith was registered to stay from Sept. 2 to Sept. 4, 2019; the first images showing her body were time-stamped at about 1 a.m. on Sept. 4, police said.

The last images on the card were taken early on Sept. 6 and showed Henry’s body in the back of a black pickup, according to charging documents. Location data showed that at the time the photo was taken, Smith’s phone was near Rainbow Valley Road, along the Seward Highway south of Anchorage, the same area where Henry’s body was found several weeks later, police said.

Valerie Casler, the woman who provided the images to police, has changed her story over the years about how she came into possession of the SD memory card.

She first claimed she found the card, labeled “Murder at the Midtown Marriott” on the ground.

Later, she claimed she stole the card from the center console of Smith’s pickup when they were on what she described as a “date,” but then changed it to say she stole Smith’s phone from the truck.

When she charged the phone, she said she found 46 images and one video on it, and later transferred those to an SD card she stole from a department store. She then labeled the card. Authorities later said the SD card contained 39 images and 12 videos.

During an eight-hour police interrogation at the Anchorage airport, Smith confessed to police that he also killed Abouchuk. Smith had picked her up in Anchorage while his wife was out of town. He said she smelled, but Abouchuk refused to take a shower when he asked.

He became upset, retrieved a pistol from the garage and shot her in the head before dumping her body north of Anchorage. He told police where the body was left, and authorities later found a skull with a bullet wound there.

 

American father of New Hampshire found guilty of murder of 5-year-old daughter whose remain is  still missing 

Adam Montgomery has been found guilty of all charges in connection with the death of Harmony Montgomery

By Edward Era Barbacena 

A New Hampshire man was convicted of second-degree murder by a jury Thursday in the death of his 5-year-old daughter, who police believe was killed nearly two years before she was reported missing in 2021 and whose body was never found.

Adam Montgomery, 34, did not attend the trial and wasn’t present when jurors returned their verdict. He had proclaimed his innocence, saying in court last year in an unrelated case that he loved Harmony Montgomery “unconditionally.”

“I am grateful to the judge, jury, and Department of Justice for delivering justice for Harmony," New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu said in a statement. "Adam Montgomery is a monster and deserves to spend the rest of his life in prison.”

His attorneys earlier acknowledged his guilt on two lesser charges, that he “purposely and unlawfully removed, concealed or destroyed” her corpse and falsified physical evidence, but said he didn’t kill his daughter. The jury also convicted him of assaulting Harmony Montgomery in 2019 and of tampering with the key prosecution witness, his estranged wife and stepmother of his daughter, Kayla Montgomery.

Investigators believe Harmony Montgomery was slain in December 2019, though she wasn’t reported missing for almost two years. Kayla Montgomery testified that the body was hidden in the trunk of a car, a cooler, a ceiling vent, and a workplace freezer before Adam Montgomery disposed of it.

Defense attorneys did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment Thursday.

Adam Montgomery had custody of the girl. Her mother, Crystal Sorey, who was no longer in a relationship with him, said the last time she saw Harmony Montgomery was during a video call in April 2019. She eventually went to police, who announced they were looking for the missing child on New Year’s Eve 2021.

Photos of the girl were widely circulated on social media. Police eventually determined she had been killed.

“I’m relieved that there’s some justice being served,” Sorey told WMUR-TV on Thursday. “Obviously, it’s not over. I have a little bit of peace knowing that he’s being held accountable because he thought he was so untouchable and that she didn’t matter, that nobody would miss her. He was so wrong, he was so wrong.”

She said she still want to find the remains of her daughter so she can finally bring her home.

“We’ve still got to find her,” police Chief Allen Aldenberg said Thursday. “This girl deserves better than the life she had.”

Alendberg said he imagines the city of Manchester and state “probably feel pretty good right now that we, collectively as a state did our part on behalf of Harmony, and wherever she is right now, maybe she feels it.”

Harmony Montgomery's case has exposed weaknesses in child protection systems and provoked calls to prioritize the well-being of children over parents in custody matters. Harmony was moved between the homes of her mother and her foster parents multiple times before Adam Montgomery received custody in 2019 and moved to New Hampshire.

“I still firmly believe that some people in some other agencies need to be held accountable. And I’m asking for that,” Aldenberg said, referring to child welfare officials in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. "This little 5-year-old girl, she deserves somebody to be held accountable that failed along the way because we wouldn’t be standing here today if other people had done their job.”

Kayla Montgomery is serving an 18-month prison sentence after pleading guilty to perjury charges related to the investigation into the child’s disappearance and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. She testified that that her husband killed Harmony Montgomery on Dec. 7, 2019, while the family lived in their car after being evicted from their home.

Kayla Montgomery testified that her husband repeatedly punched Harmony Montgomery in the face and head because he was angry that she was having bathroom accidents in the car.

The couple noticed the girl was dead hours later when the car broke down, at which time Adam Montgomery put her body in a duffel bag, Kayla Montgomery had testified.

For the next three months, she testified, Adam Montgomery moved the body from container to container and place to place. According to his wife, the locations included the trunk of a friend’s car, a cooler in the hallway of his mother-in-law’s apartment building, the ceiling vent of a homeless shelter and a workplace freezer.

Prosecutor Benjamin Agati said at a news conference Thursday that the jury had to pay attention to 50 witnesses in eight days of testimony.

Agati said the trial does not end the search for Harmony. He said that after analyzing the mileage Adam Montgomery took with the rental truck into Massachusetts, there are about 26 miles (42 kilometers) that he could have covered where her remains might be.

“She is somewhere along that route,” he said, pointing out previous searches in the Revere, Massachusetts, area. “Those are still our big areas of search.”

Agati said that when Montgomery is sentenced in the coming months, he should face a minimum sentence on the murder charge of 35 years to life, a tougher sentence because of his daughter’s young age. He said that would be consecutive with armed criminal charges for which he is already serving a minimum sentence of more than 33 years.

Asked if that meant Montgomery was never getting out of prison, the prosecutor said: “It’s a lot of time, and I hope I’m not practicing at the time that that minimum date ever comes around.”

 

American homosexual and paedophile pastor of California charged with sexual molestation of four boys

Ruven Meulenberg worked at the church for years and his leadership role provided access to children 

By Edward Era Barbacena 

A former Orange County youth pastor who worked at a popular megachurch was charged with allegedly molesting four teenage boys.

Ruven Meulenberg, 39, mentored junior-high-aged children at Saddleback Church, a popular evangelical Christian megachurch in Lake Forest. Meulenberg and his twin brother were also featured on a YouTube channel dedicated to gaming and music production.

In May 2017, Meulenberg was arrested for allegedly engaging in lewd conduct and an inappropriate relationship with two 14-year-old twin boys. The incidents took place between May 2016 and May 2017 while at a movie theater and inside the pastor’s car, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.

At the time of the alleged abuse, one of the victims regularly attended the church and was part of its Junior High Ministry program, which is “designed specifically to help 7th-8th graders connect with Jesus, each other and a caring adult,” according to Saddleback Church.

In a 2018 trial, prosecutors described some of the sexual abuse saying the boys were sitting with Meulenberg in a darkened movie theater when he prompted one of them to sit on his lap, the Orange County Register reported.

Meulenberg allegedly kissed the boy twice — once on his head, another time on the cheek — before kissing him on the lips, prosecutors said.

Meulenberg tried to get the teen to kiss him, asking him to do so, but the victim told him he didn’t feel comfortable doing that. Afterward, Meulenberg told the boy to switch seats with his brother. He then repeated the same illicit behavior with the other boy, officials said.

When the boys returned home, they reported the sexual abuse to their mother.

Meulenberg was convicted of molestation in 2018 before the conviction was overturned when a judge ruled one of the jurors had engaged in misconduct by sharing information with other jurors about the psychiatric testing of subjects in criminal trials.

A new trial where Meulenberg will face the same charges for his alleged abuse of the twins will be held, but has yet to be scheduled.

While awaiting that trial, a third victim, a 13-year-old boy, came forward saying he met the suspect at church and was invited to the movies and dinner with him between August 2016 and September 2017. On one or more occasions, Meulenberg allegedly molested the boy while hanging out with him privately, court documents said. 

Meulenberg was charged with four felony counts of a lewd act on a child under the age of 14 in that case. 

After those charges were filed, a fourth victim told authorities that he had been touched inappropriately by Meulenberg between June 2017 and June 2018 while the pastor drove him home from a church event. He was 14 at the time.

A charge of one felony count of a lewd act upon a child 14 or 15 years old who is at least 10 years younger than the suspect was filed in that case.

Saddleback Church is one of the largest churches in the U.S., with a weekly attendance of around 28,000, according to the O.C. Register.

Because Meulenberg worked at the church for years and his leadership role provided access to children, investigators believe there could be additional victims.

“Strong mentors are meant to help our children navigate the difficulties of growing up and realize their full potential,” said O.C. District Attorney Todd Spitzer. “Instead of providing the spiritual guidance he pretended to provide, this youth pastor seized on the vulnerabilities of these children for his own sick sexual gratification. He has not only forever shaken their belief in anyone in a position of trust and authority; he has irreparably damaged their faith and the faith of countless other parishioners who believed their children were safe with him and youth pastors everywhere.”

If convicted on all charges, Meulenberg could face up to life in prison, prosecutors said. He was released and remains on GPS monitoring while awaiting trial on both criminal cases.