Canadian Press, The Toronto Star and various other newspapers across Canada, Jan. 16, 2006
Karla Homolka is portrayed as a desperate and pathetic woman knowingly involved in an escalating series of
murderous acts in the controversial new film Karla, arriving in Canadian theatres this week.
Still, Hollywood has avoided branding Canadas most notorious female offender as evil.
Instead Homolka is presented as an enigma for her role in the deaths of three Ontario schoolgirls,
including her younger sister Tammy, during her ill-fated relationship with Paul Bernardo.
On Monday, the people behind that decision screened their film for the media in Toronto and argued its
merits keenly aware of the firestorm ignited here by committing Homolkas sordid tale to celluloid.
Karla is an enigma, and thats partially what the film is about, said Joel Bender, the films director.
Why she did these things? Will we ever know? I dont know.
Allowing the Homolka character, played by Laura Prepon of That 70s Show, to narrate the story isnt
intended to leave the viewer feeling sympathy for her, said producer Michael Sellers.
As seen through Homolkas eyes, an increasingly violent and sexually sadistic Bernardo forced her into being
his accomplice, through both physical and psychological abuse.
That was the real-life Homolkas defence as well, while Bernardo argued his wife committed the murders.
Karla may be an unreliable narrator, said Sellers, who hopes the films audience will be sophisticated
enough to realize the character is trying to spin the story to her advantage.
Karlas telling her story, shes going to spin it. ... We dont think shes a victim.
The film has provoked vocal opposition in the province where Homolka and Bernardo committed their grisly
crimes.
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, among others, has asked people to boycott the film.
We immediately understood it was a very sensitive topic in Canada, said Sellers, who added he became
intrigued by the story after reading media reports saying Canada lost its innocence as a result of the
crimes.
On Friday, the film will debut on some 90 screens across the country 60 in Quebec and 30 in the rest of
Canada. It will not be shown in St. Catharines, Ont., where the rape and torture deaths of Kristen French
and Leslie Mahaffy (their names in the film have been changed) took place.
While the psychology driving the Homolka character is left open to interpretation, the character of Bernardo
is far less ambiguous.
A horrible man. ... I think thats a fair characterization, actor Misha Collins said of his onscreen alter
ego.
The scenes in which Bernardo rapes, tortures and murders the French and Mahaffy characters carefully
edited to ensure the victims families wouldnt block the release were especially difficult for the
31-year-old American actor.
Collins, who can also be seen on three upcoming episodes of ER, said he didnt take the role lightly.
Thats a lot of responsibility, to play the most hated person in a country, said Collins, who defended his
choice to play Bernardo. I dont feel that I have done anything to be ashamed of.
Prepon was unavailable Monday to field media questions concerning her role as Homolka.
Read the double standard by the author of this article because the sex offender was female
The biased words highlighted below should be "sexual assault", "raped" or similar type words NOT "sexual relationship" or "had sex"
A trusted, even respected or beloved teacher is accused of having a
sexual relationship with a student.
What used to shock us, but is now much too commonplace, is that the
teacher is a woman.
Their names become tabloid headlines: Mary K. Letourneau, Debra
Lafave, Pamela Diehl-Moore and others.
And now two more cases, both local.
Jennifer Leigh Rice, a 31-year-old former Tacoma teacher, was charged
with having sex with a 10-year-old boy who had been in her fourth-grade
class. The boy's father says she lavished the boy with attention until
she was told not to come to their house anymore.
So she abducted the boy, police say, drove him to a highway rest stop
outside Ellensburg and had sex with him. After her arrest in early
August, Rice said she'd had sex with the boy four or five times,
including once when she sneaked into his house as his parents slept.
Earlier this year, former Tenino math teacher Dawn Welter, 38, was
charged with second-degree sexual misconduct after spending the night at
a motel with a 16-year-old female student. Her lawyer explained her
relationship with the student as "horseplay that became sexual."
Hundreds of them.... female teachers who sexually
assaulted 12 year old boys. Read about a lesbian tennis coach who sexually
assaulted her 13 year old female student.
Read how a 40 year old female sexual predator blamed a 7 year old boy whom she claimed was "coming on to me" and whom she "hoped to marry someday."
Read More ..
VANCOUVER - Canada's largest study into the sexual exploitation of street
kids and runaways has shattered some myths about who the abusers might be
- with the most surprising finding being that many are women seeking sex
with young males.
"Some youth in each gender were exploited by women with more than three
out of four (79 per cent) sexually exploited males reporting exchanging
sex for money or goods with a female," said Elizabeth Saewyc, associate
professor of nursing at the University of British Columbia and principal
investigator for the study conducted by Vancouver's McCreary Centre Society.
"I must admit it wasn't something we were expecting."
PITTSBURGH (AP) - A western Pennsylvania mother has been charged with
giving her 13-year-old daughter drugs and alcohol so the woman's
boyfriend could impregnate the girl without her knowing, police said
Thursday.
Shana Brown, 32, is no longer able to have children but wanted to
have a baby with her current boyfriend, Duane Calloway, said Uniontown
Police Detective Donald Gmitter. The pair decided to drug the girl so
Calloway, 40, could have sex with her, he added.
"There's some sick people on this case," Gmitter said.
Brown has been charged with endangering the welfare of a child,
turned herself in Thursday and was being held in the Fayette County
jail, police said. Brown's attorney did not return a call for comment.
Calloway faces several counts of attempted rape. He was arrested
Wednesday and remains in jail. It was not immediately clear whether he
had an attorney.
The three attacks occurred in Brown's home in Uniontown, about 50
miles south of Pittsburgh, according to the criminal complaint.
Because we assume women never commit child sexual abuse, we treat one who is accused with disproportionate disgust
The Guardian, UK
June 11, 2009
About 20 years ago, I gave a talk about sexual abuse to the RAF.
At the end, a young airman came up to me and said, "It's not just
men, you know," before hurriedly walking away. That pulled me up
sharp. Up till then, like most people working in the area of sexual
abuse, I'd always assumed the abusers were men.
This just isn't so. We can't be sure of the precise prevalence of
sexual abuse by women, as there hasn't been enough research into the
subject. Academics have just assumed it doesn't happened. But
conservative estimates suggest that 5% of girls and 20% of boys who
have reported being abused have been abused by women.
From my own research - I have had 800 cases reported to me - I
believe the more likely figure is that it is 20% of all sexual abuse
that is done by women.
It is women themselves who have done most to propagate this
conspiracy of silence. It has almost become a feminist axiom that it
is men who are to blame for abuse and that if women are in some way
implicated, it is only because they have somehow been forced or
controlled into doing so against their will. Again, this turns out
to be completely incorrect: 75% of the cases reported to me involved
women acting on their own.
Read More ..
Mainichi Daily News, Sakai, Osaka, Japan, November 26, 2006
SAKAI, Osaka -- A woman accused of cutting off her newborn son's private
parts in 2004 was ordered Monday to spend five years behind bars.
The Sakai branch of the Osaka District Court convicted Shizue Tamura,
27, a resident of Izumi, Osaka Prefecture, of inflicting bodily injury.
"The way she committed the crime was unprecedented, inhumane and
cruel," Presiding Judge Masahiro Hosoi said as he handed down the ruling.
Prosecutors had demanded an eight-year prison term.
Read More ..
After Plymouth case shocked the nation, police say number of women abusing children
The Guardian UK and The Observer
4 October 2009
Researchers from the Lucy Faithfull Foundation (LFF), a
child protection charity that deals with British female sex
offenders, said its studies confirmed that a "fair proportion" of
child abusers were women. Donald Findlater, director of research and
development, said results indicated that up to 20% of a conservative
estimate of 320,000 suspected UK paedophiles were women.
MORRISTOWN, N.J. — A 35-year-old seventh-grade teacher was charged with having sex with one of her students at least 20 times at the teacher's home.
Jodi Thorp, 35, surrendered to authorities Monday on charges of aggravated sexual assault, aggravated sexual contact and endangering the welfare of a child. Prosecutors claim she had sex with the boy at her Mendham home between June 2001 and September 2002. The boy is now 15.
A married primary schoolteacher was jailed for 15 months yesterday after admitting having sex with an underage
teenage boy.
Hannah Grice, 32, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to two counts of indecent assault on the boy, who was aged
14 and 15 at the time of the offences.
Sentencing her at Stafford crown court, Judge John Shand told Grice, from Cannock, Staffordshire, she had abused
her position of trust.
"Cases such as this are, of course, made worse by the fact that you were a member of the teaching profession," he
told her. "You should have been very sensitive indeed to child welfare issues." Grice was also ordered to register
as a sex offender for 10 years. Read More ..
Females Convicted of Sexual Assault automatically get
lighter sentences
The mother of one victim said after Bromiley was jailed: "If I could
get hold of her I'd kill her. She stole my son's childhood and he's now
in a terrible state and has threatened suicide. She got away lightly and
should have got at least 10 years."
Judge David Hale explained that he was constrained
by the law which only allows for specific charges to be brought when the
offender is a woman. Had she been male, he said, the sentence would have
been in double figures.
He said: "As a house mother you were in charge of children who were
mentally and educationally disadvantaged and you took your own advantage
of them for your own needs and sexual pleasure. This is the worst case of
a woman abusing children in her care any court in the land has had to face."
Read More ..
The Men's Project "Men
of Courage"
1st Ontario Provincial Conference on Male Sexual Victimizations.
It was held March 17-18, 2008
Sheraton Centre Hotel
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
The Men's Project, an Ottawa / Cornwall registered charitable service
provider with the assistance of a grant from the Ministry of the Attorney General, hosted
this conference.
About The Men's Project
From what was initially a volunteer run initiative, The Men's Project has
grown to become one of Canada's leading counselling and educational agencies
for men and their families, and in particular for all male survivors of
sexual abuse committed by males and females.
The Men's Project has witnessed incredible expansion of their funded services,
their
fee-for-service programs, and their training and consultation services.
Their mandate is "helping men
and their families build better lives".
Read More ..
Vanessa George remanded in custody after crowds jeer from public
gallery and throw missiles outside court
The Guardian, UK
June 11, 2009
A nursery school worker was jeered and spat at when she appeared in
court today, charged with sexual assault and making and distributing
child abuse images.
Vanessa George, 39, who worked at the Little Ted's nursery in
Plymouth, was remanded in custody amid angry scenes in and outside the
city's magistrates court.
George, of Plymouth, faces three counts of sexual assault on girls
and one on a boy. She is also accused of making, possessing and
distributing indecent images of children.
Read More ..
A surprising 86% of survivors of sexual
abuse were not believed when they said the abuser was a woman.
Many myths were exposed, such as the one that women only sexually abused
when coerced by men - they in fact played the lead part. Also the myth that
women are incapable of cruelty - what was shown was beyond belief.
Women commit 25% of all child sexual abuse
250,000 children in UK have been sexually abused by women
Women in our society have been portrayed as victims, but somewhere within
their victimisation they have learned that to abuse children gave them a
sense of power, control, agency, and therefore they use the abuse of children
to gain those things.
Jacqui Saradjiam: (clinical psychologist)
I think people find it so difficult to see that women sexually abuse children
because the whole view of women is of nurturers, carers, protectors - people
who do anything to look after children - and they see the women as victims
rather than enemies or perpetrators of any abuse.
Michelle Elliott: (Director - children's charity Kidscape)
I think the issue strikes at the core of what we perceive ourselves as women
to be. I think that it's easier to think that it's men - men the enemy,
somehow - but it can't be women - it's one thing women can't do. Women can
be equal, we can be free, we can be in charge of companies, but we can't
sexually abuse children - That's a load of rubbish.
