K.Ram's posts 38, 39, 40 are more important to India, but just found the following:
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=227773 (also at http://www.thewest.com.au/aapstory.aspx?...me=356655)
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Friday Feb 16 (2007)
<b>US couple jailed for caging children</b>
An American couple who forced some of their 11 adopted, special-needs children to sleep in cages have been sentenced to two years in prison each for child endangering.
Michael and Sharen Gravelle could have received up to five years in prison for each of the <b>four felonies they were convicted of in December. They also were convicted of seven misdemeanours.</b>
[...]
Sharen Gravelle cried during a 26 minute statement to the court, in which she blamed social services officials for not helping them control the destructive behaviour of some of the youngsters.
She said the children were never confined as punishment but rather to protect them, including a child who wanted to jump out a second-floor window.
"Would you prefer that we let them jump? Either way, we'd be here. The difference is they're still alive," she said.
"That was not punishment, no matter what's said," she said.
The couple has said they needed to keep some of the children in enclosed beds with alarms to protect them from their own dangerous behaviour and stop them from wandering at night.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
It gets more interesting, why have they been adopting and are these adoptive 'parents' really put-upon innocents who can't manage the children:
http://todaysnews.wordpress.com/2006/12/21...t-an-orphanage/
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->21 Dec 2006
<b>Caged Children's Adopter Wanted to Start an Orphanage</b>
The Ohio man who had adopted 11 foster children has said that he made enough money adopting children, that he could quit his job, according to his neighbor. The couple are Michael and Sharen Gravelle, and are currently at trial being prosecuted for their crimes.
Apparently, he thought he could make a living holding children hostage in cages, beating them, and torturing them.
These adoptive parents have been on trial in abusing the children that they had adopted. In addition to caging the children they adopted, <b>ABC News</b> stated that they have done additional abuses such as:
(Tom) Hall, testifying at the trial of Michael and Sharen Gravelle, also told the jury that he saw the father hose down one of the children outside in 20-degree weather. Hall said he believes it was because the child had a bathroom accident, but he could not recall which of the 11 children it was or when it occurredâ¦.
â¦.Laura Oney, another neighbor, testified that she reported the couple to the Huron County Department of Job and Family Services, which oversees adoption, in 2001 after Michael Gravelle told her one of the children was sleeping in a bathtub with only a blanket and a pillow. She said she reported the Gravelles again in 2002 after seeing Sharen Gravelle hit a child across the back of the legs with a sawed-off broomstick.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->Referred to above:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/LegalCenter/wir...id=2702225
<b>ABC - Neighbor Testifies in 'Caged Kids' Trial</b>
Now, of course, this is the predictable bit, and the bit that the regular news doesn't generally tell you - unless it happens to come out at a trial, of course. In this case, a 'character' witness for the defense states:
http://www.sanduskyregister.com/articles/2...news/148285.txt
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->January 26 2007
A Comfort Keepers employee had been in the home for six months and had said the Gravelles were good, Christian people, Leffler said.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->Yeah. It's just a continuation of the history of Christian abuse against children with special needs.
Today (Feb 07), they've finally been put in prison, in spite of (because of) being such 'good christians'.
<b>Onto the second bit of depressing news. Christianity in Africa:</b>
- South London Press: Holy man in child trafficking arrest
(Very holy, in the christian sense of course)
http://icsouthlondon.icnetwork.co.uk/south...-name_page.html
- 'Miracle babies' pastor held - child trafficking
http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0...2044364,00.html
- BBC - 'Miracle baby' couples fail test
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->A number of couples have claimed their children were abducted at birth<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->But as a good christo convert, this 'holy' man denies that he made his moolah by child trafficking
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3981423.stm
- Pastor Gilbert Deya Arrested For Child Trafficking
http://www.bloggernews.net/13055
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=227773 (also at http://www.thewest.com.au/aapstory.aspx?...me=356655)
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Friday Feb 16 (2007)
<b>US couple jailed for caging children</b>
An American couple who forced some of their 11 adopted, special-needs children to sleep in cages have been sentenced to two years in prison each for child endangering.
Michael and Sharen Gravelle could have received up to five years in prison for each of the <b>four felonies they were convicted of in December. They also were convicted of seven misdemeanours.</b>
[...]
Sharen Gravelle cried during a 26 minute statement to the court, in which she blamed social services officials for not helping them control the destructive behaviour of some of the youngsters.
She said the children were never confined as punishment but rather to protect them, including a child who wanted to jump out a second-floor window.
"Would you prefer that we let them jump? Either way, we'd be here. The difference is they're still alive," she said.
"That was not punishment, no matter what's said," she said.
The couple has said they needed to keep some of the children in enclosed beds with alarms to protect them from their own dangerous behaviour and stop them from wandering at night.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
It gets more interesting, why have they been adopting and are these adoptive 'parents' really put-upon innocents who can't manage the children:
http://todaysnews.wordpress.com/2006/12/21...t-an-orphanage/
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->21 Dec 2006
<b>Caged Children's Adopter Wanted to Start an Orphanage</b>
The Ohio man who had adopted 11 foster children has said that he made enough money adopting children, that he could quit his job, according to his neighbor. The couple are Michael and Sharen Gravelle, and are currently at trial being prosecuted for their crimes.
Apparently, he thought he could make a living holding children hostage in cages, beating them, and torturing them.
These adoptive parents have been on trial in abusing the children that they had adopted. In addition to caging the children they adopted, <b>ABC News</b> stated that they have done additional abuses such as:
(Tom) Hall, testifying at the trial of Michael and Sharen Gravelle, also told the jury that he saw the father hose down one of the children outside in 20-degree weather. Hall said he believes it was because the child had a bathroom accident, but he could not recall which of the 11 children it was or when it occurredâ¦.
â¦.Laura Oney, another neighbor, testified that she reported the couple to the Huron County Department of Job and Family Services, which oversees adoption, in 2001 after Michael Gravelle told her one of the children was sleeping in a bathtub with only a blanket and a pillow. She said she reported the Gravelles again in 2002 after seeing Sharen Gravelle hit a child across the back of the legs with a sawed-off broomstick.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->Referred to above:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/LegalCenter/wir...id=2702225
<b>ABC - Neighbor Testifies in 'Caged Kids' Trial</b>
Now, of course, this is the predictable bit, and the bit that the regular news doesn't generally tell you - unless it happens to come out at a trial, of course. In this case, a 'character' witness for the defense states:
http://www.sanduskyregister.com/articles/2...news/148285.txt
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->January 26 2007
A Comfort Keepers employee had been in the home for six months and had said the Gravelles were good, Christian people, Leffler said.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->Yeah. It's just a continuation of the history of Christian abuse against children with special needs.
Today (Feb 07), they've finally been put in prison, in spite of (because of) being such 'good christians'.
<b>Onto the second bit of depressing news. Christianity in Africa:</b>
- South London Press: Holy man in child trafficking arrest
(Very holy, in the christian sense of course)
http://icsouthlondon.icnetwork.co.uk/south...-name_page.html
- 'Miracle babies' pastor held - child trafficking
http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0...2044364,00.html
- BBC - 'Miracle baby' couples fail test
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->A number of couples have claimed their children were abducted at birth<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->But as a good christo convert, this 'holy' man denies that he made his moolah by child trafficking
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3981423.stm
- Pastor Gilbert Deya Arrested For Child Trafficking
http://www.bloggernews.net/13055