Evangelist Tony Alamo Alleged To Have a 9-year-old Bride

Alamo charged with transporting minors across state lines to engage in sex

A federal magistrate called Tony Alamo a flight risk Wednesday as he ordered the evangelist held without bail until his trial on charges that he took a minor across state lines for sex.

The ruling came after Alamo's former followers testified at a hearing that they were often beaten at his instructions and one said Alamo practiced polygamy with several females, including a 9-year-old girl.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry Bryant noted that Alamo is charged with a violent crime. He said he also considered that Alamo fled a California child-abuse charge in 1989 and was arrested two years later in Tampa, Florida, living under an assumed name.

Alamo has access to various vehicles, he added.

Witnesses said Alamo controls businesses and ministry locations in several states. They said none of the properties are Alamo's name, which Bryant also considered as a point against letting Alamo free.

"There is serious risk (Alamo) will flee or fail to appear," Bryant said.

Alamo, 74, said nothing after the ruling. His trial is scheduled for November 19.

He was arrested in Flagstaff, Arizona, five days after a September 20 police raid on the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries compound in the southwest Arkansas town of Fouke. Six girls were taken into state custody for their protection.

During Wednesday's hearing, Arkansas state troopers searched the compound anew, State Police spokesman Bill Sadler confirmed, not elaborating. Fouke Mayor Terry Purvis said residents told him the investigators did not stay long.

One witness called to the stand by prosecutors Wednesday, Jael Sprinkle, 32, testified that she was taken as Alamo's wife at age 17 and was considered his wife for two years. She said that Alamo had five other wives at the time and that she knew of him taking a 9-year-old girl as one.

Alamo is an advocate of allowing girls to marry when they reach puberty but has denied such unions took place within his organization.

Sprinkle said she, her parents and others were beaten. She said a 12-year-old boy was paddled to the point of bleeding through his clothes and could walk only with assistance.

Sprinkle also described Alamo's control over people in his organization, saying he even had to approve inconsequential expenses such as toilet paper and toothpaste.

Spencer Ondirsek, 18, testified that he left the compound last year after spending seven years there.

Ondirsek said he was beaten by a man working under Alamo's direction. He said he was hit about 15 times on the face and smacked about 30 times with a three-foot paddle in three separate instances while being disciplined for minor misbehavior, such as playing with a spray bottle.

The first beating happened when he was 12 or 13, Ondirsek testified.

Defense lawyers called Ronald and Joan Decker, a couple that has belonged to Alamo's church. They said they would move from Fort Smith to Texarkana to watch over Alamo if he was granted release.

Ronald Decker said he drives a truck for Advantage Food, which he described as a partnership, but he couldn't come up with a figure when federal prosecutor Kyra Jenner asked him how much he earned. He later said Alamo paid for all the couple's living expenses.

"Pastor Alamo controls the church," Ronald Decker said.

Ronald Decker initially denied seeing any beatings. But when asked by Jenner whether he was aware Alamo orders paddlings, Decker paused before saying yes.

The federal charging document accuses Alamo of taking a 13-year-old girl across state lines for sex in 2004 and of aiding and abetting her transport across state lines for sex in 2005.

Alamo, who is listed in court documents by his real name of Bernie Lazar Hoffman, has pleaded not guilty to the two charges, each of which carries a sentence of 10 years to life in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

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Japanese Authorities Okays The Sexual Abuse Of 18-20 Year Olds

Ryann Connell
Not long after she had finished elementary school, the father of a now 18-year-old woman identifies only as Miss A began "visiting" her bedroom and sexually abusing her.

His unwanted ministrations continued for years. She graduated high school in the spring of last year but failed to gain entrance into a university, so stayed at home to study.

"He stopped coming in for a while, but then started all over again," Miss A tells Yomiuri Weekly journalist and confidante Miho Nagata.

When the teen's mother was due to go away for a weekend, she was terrified that her father would be able to do as he liked with her, so Nagata stepped in to try and help. But after the journalist dragged the girl away from her incestuous father's clutches, she was horrified to discover Japan's support system places the young woman in limbo -- simply because she's aged 18.

Japanese are legally minors until turning 20, until which time their parents have the legal right and obligation to supervise and educate them. However, laws aimed at protecting children from abusive parents only apply to those under 18. Despite the years of her father's abuse, the Tokyo Child Consultation Center refused to help her.

"If she's 18, her case can't be picked up by one of our centers," the Yomiuri Weekly quotes a spokesman saying.

Other public authorities were equally unhelpful.

"If she really was being abused, why did she wait until she was 18 until telling someone?" the weekly quotes the ever-helpful police from the country area where Miss A grew up as saying.

Public health authorities in the same city expressed similar doubts about her situation. Women's shelter officials in Tokyo were equally unresponsive, saying they generally dealt only with female victims of physical rather than sexual violence.

"It would be the first time we've ever had to deal with a case where a woman was being sexually abused by a member of her family," the weekly quotes a shelter employee saying.

Miss A's age even worked against her when it came to seeking mental health care for the anguish she had suffered.

"If she's under 20, we can't admit her to the hospital without her parents' permission," a spokesman for a mental health hospital says.

Parental permission was highly unlikely to be forthcoming considering the circumstances surrounding Miss A's case, and the fact that her mother and father were constantly ringing or mailing her and demanding she return home. The police also came after her when her parents filed a missing person's report and demanded she be returned to their side.

Eventually, Miss A sought refuge in a place the Japanese call a Woman's Dormitory. These places were initially set up in the 1950s to house and rehabilitate prostitutes after Japan outlawed prostitution. Many of the current residents are also the original inhabitants, and teenage Miss A struggled to live in the communal dorms with the old women.

After most authorities told her they were unable to deal with her case, one welfare worker helpfully suggested to Miss A that she could always go and live in an Internet caf?, the current favorite refuge of many financially strapped Japanese. Police, however, advised the teen to return to the home of the parents who had prompted her to seek sanctuary in the first place.

In the end, Miss A -- shocking those who had tried to help her -- did, in fact, go back to her home. Experts on abuse say it's a common pattern among victims. They also say it's common for many sexually abused children to stay silent about their ordeal until turning 18 and sliding into limbo in Japan.

"We often hear of cases where the victim has actually waited until turning 18 before they tell anyone what has been happening to them," Yuko Taniga, head of Kirara -- an NPO that helps sex abuse victims -- tells Yomiuri Weekly. "Unlike neglect or physical violence, it's very hard for incest victims to tell others about the abuse they've been subjected to. For many victims, incest starts before they know what sex is about, and they can think the same thing happens in every family. There are some incest victims who so enjoy the pleasure of sex that they can't turn it down, even if a relative is forcing it on them. The shame of gaining sexual pleasure makes it all the harder to talk about. There are more than a few minors over 18 who suffer in this way because the Child Welfare Law can't protect them."

Changes to the law in 2004 do allow abused children over 18 but under 20 to apply to a family court to have their parents' guardianship over them declared void. However, it's a step few youngsters are willing to take.

"Even if they are abusive, for children parents are still parents," Kirara's Taniga says. "There are hardly any children who would sue to have their parent's guardianship over them removed."

That leaves few options for youngsters like Miss A who are being abused but are too old to seek refuge through child protection services and too young to be legally treated as adults."Abuse victims with nowhere to go are often forced into sex businesses if they're female, or homelessness if they're male, Tetsuro Tsuzaki, a professor at Hanazono University in Kyoto tells Yomiuri Weekly. "Laws should at least be changed so that children's homes can help people until they turn 20."

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Arkansas Infants Can Legally Get Married Now

An Arkansas law passed this year allows residents of any age - even infants - to marry if their parents agree, and the governor may have to call a special session to fix the mistake.
The legislation was intended to establish 18 as the minimum age to marry but also allow pregnant teenagers to marry with parental consent, bill sponsor Representative Will Bond said.
An extraneous "not" in the bill, however, allows anyone who is not pregnant to marry at any age if the parents allow it.
"It's clearly not the intent to allow 10-year-olds or 11-year-olds to get married," Bond said.
The bill reads: "In order for a person who is younger than eighteen (18) years of age and who is not pregnant to obtain a marriage licence, the person must provide the county clerk with evidence of parental consent to the marriage."
A code revision commission - which fixes typographical and technical errors in laws - had tried to correct the mistake, but a group of legislators said the commission went beyond its powers.
"You're either pregnant or you're not pregnant," state Senator Dave Bisbee said. "Rarely will that be a typographical error."
Several lawmakers said a special session may be necessary.
"We need a special session to fix this," state Senator Sue Madison said.
"I am concerned about paedophiles coming to Arkansas to find parents who are willing to sign a very young child's consent."
Before the new law took effect July 31, girls could get married with parental consent at 16 and boys at 17

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Sexual Abuse Of Children Amidst Afghan Civil War

Abdul Kabir, not his real name, left his home in Afghanistan's southern Urozgan province to work for a relative and attend school in neighbouring Kandahar province. Six months later, the 12-year-old found himself in a juvenile prison after being sexually abused.
"After my relative declined to give me a job at his shop, I went to a labour market where two men hired me for construction work for 50 Afghani (US $1) a day. They took me into an empty house where they both forcefully had sex with me," Abdul said, recalling in vivid detail his confinement for three months before managing to get away.
But Abdul's nightmare didn't end there. A driver who promised to take him back to Urozgan for free also abused him, he said. Eventually, Abdul Kabir was able to find his way back to the poppy field he once worked in as a day labourer.
There, Abdul Kabir said another young man, also working in the poppy field, tried to rape him. "But I stabbed him in the stomach," Abdul Kabir said - a move that prompted locals to turn him over to the police.

Unknown victims
According to Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), there are currently 14 child sex abuse cases in Kandahar province alone, five of which have been referred to the police for investigation.
However, specialists say this is just the tip of the iceberg, with the vast majority of cases going unreported.
"No doubt there are numerous other cases which, due to a variety of social restrictions, go unreported," Shamsuddin Tanwir, AIHRC's director in Kandahar, said.
Only 29 percent of child sexual abuse cases are actually registered, a joint AIHRC and Save the Children-Sweden report on child sexual abuse revealed.
One 14-year-old boy in western Herat province said he had been raped but did not come forward out of fear the police would put him in jail instead.
A health worker in Kandahar's main hospital said that three to five sexually abused children receive medical treatment every month.
"Although victims can receive treatment for their physical injuries, the psychological scars will be with them for a long period of time," Dr Ghulam Mohammad Sahar said.
And while more than 100 medical staff at two hospitals in Kandahar city, the provincial capital, have been trained to receive and treat children suffering from sexual abuse, clearly more needs to be done.

Lack of penal codes
During the time that the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, illegal sex, including sex with children, brought harsh penalties to the perpetrators, even death.
In the aftermath of the collapse of the Taliban regime in late 2001, Afghanistan reintroduced its old civil and penal laws - both of which lack, however, a specific article on the sexual exploitation of minors.
Article 427 of Afghanistan's penal code determines "long term" imprisonment for adultery. Those who sexually abuse children are currently jailed and sentenced according to this article, which can bring a jail sentence of six to 10 years.
But according to AIHRC's Tanwir, only 24.3 percent of abusers, according to victims' accounts, are actually incarcerated, prompting the rights group to call upon the government to enact a law on child sexual abuse and exploitation and to vigorously implement it.
That will remain difficult, however, given the stigma and disgrace associated with child sex abuse - preventing many people from even speaking openly about it.
"I wouldn't dare tell my parents what happened to me out of fear that they would kill me," one 15-year-old rape victim in the capital, Kabul, said.
Many Afghan parents consider any discussion about sex with their children as indecent and rude even though many cases of children being sexually abused happen within households, the United Nations children's agency (UNICEF) found.
"Forty percent of child abuse victims experience sexual abuse at home, where they should be safe," Noriko Izumi, a children's protection offer for UNICEF in Kabul, said.

Ignorance, insecurity and poverty
UNICEF and some NGOs have been pioneering ways to broaden public awareness of child sexual abuse by training school teachers, disseminating educational audio and video programmes, and establishing and strengthening child protection networks.
"If parents teach their children how to behave with elders outside home and avoid proximity to strangers, to some extent, that would help reduce unwanted incidents," Babrak Zadran, an AIHRC staff member in Kabul, recommended.
Child sexual abuse has multifaceted causes, one being pervasive poverty, experts say.
According to AIHRC, over 46 percent of sexually abused children live in abject poverty, making them particularly vulnerable to various forms of exploitation.
Children who work in hotels, shops and other public places not only face the risk of sexual abuse, they also face physical and mental violence, the country's rights watchdog found.
According to Shukria Barakzai, an Afghan human rights activist and MP, for the past 25 years the majority of the country has suffered perpetual war and violence that has culminated not only in the physical destruction of the country, but has also brought about an obscurantist culture of war with very little respect for human rights.
"Given the political and security situation in the country, particularly in the south, I think the general protection issue concerning children is getting more difficult," UNICEF's Izumi concluded.

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