Children not immune to deadly depression
Doctors now know even the very young can be suicidal

The Ottawa Citizen, Sharon Kirkey, Tuesday June 13, 2000

Children don't get depressed. That used to be the thinking. Years ago, child psychiatrists never thought to even ask about suicidal thoughts or behaviour in children, because "depression" was an adult word.

Today, doctors are seeing depressed children as young as three.

"They show it in strange ways," says Dr. Philip Cheifetz, a child psychiatrist and assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Ottawa. "They show it in their anger, in their feistiness and sulkiness," he says, in irritability and a lack of interest in the world around them.

On Friday, Marc Allaire found his son dead in a small wooden cabin near the family's Buckingham home. Philip, who would have been 12 years old today, had hanged himself.

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Pilloried, broke, alone

National Post ( National Post is Canada's 2nd largest national newspaper ), by Donna Laframboise, Saturday, March 25, 2000

Divorced fathers get a bad rap for not supporting their children. The truth is, many can't. And, tragically, some are driven to desperate measures, including suicide.

In his suicide note, Jim, the father of four children, protests that "not all fathers are deadbeats." Jim hanged himself because he couldn't see any alternative. Even now, his children are unaware of the circumstances of their father's death. Meeno Meijer, National Post George Roulier is fighting to regain money wrongfully taken from his wages by the Ontario child-support collection agency. Chris Bolin, National Post Alan Heinz, a Toronto firefighter, has gone bankrupt fighting for the return of his daughter, 3, from Germany. No one will help him, but German authorities are trying to collect child support from him. Read More ..

Study traces trauma of Beduin victims of female circumcision

The Jerusalem Post, February 28, 2000, By Patricia Golan

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The American Psychological Association

Divorce found to be an effect of delinquency, not a cause

Monitor on Psychology, the magazine of the American Psychological Association, Volume 31, No. 2, February 2000

A mother's delinquency prior to marriage not only predicts her future divorce, but also accounts for many of the behavior problems found among her children after divorce, suggests new research.

Robert E. Emery, PhD, and colleagues Mary C. Waldron, PhD, and Jeffrey Aaron, PhD, of the University of Virginia, and Katherine M. Kitzmann, PhD, of the University of Memphis, reported their findings in "Delinquent behavior, future divorce or nonmarital childbearing, and externalizing behavior among offspring: A 14-year prospective study," published in the Journal of Family Psychology (Vol. 13, No. 4, Dec. 1999). Read More ..

Judge's tough action gives new hope

The Ottawa Citizen, Dave Brown, Wednesday 19 April 2000

In a rare court move last week, a defiant Ottawa mother was sent to jail for 21 days for breaching custody and access court orders, and ordered to pay $9,000 in penalties. Of that amount, $4,000 is to offset father's legal bill, and $5,000 is straight penalty to be paid to the father.

The tough action by Justice Maria Linhares de Sousa is giving new hope family court orders are growing muscles.

Lawyer Allan Hirsch represented the father. In his presentation to the court, he referred to a 1998 Brampton case in which a mother was jailed for 60 days for repeated accusations of abuse, and repeated refusal to obey a court's access orders. The Brampton case was also a rare exception. Family court orders in the past, except for support issues, have not been enforced.

The Ottawa case was based on the mother's continued attempts to convince her nine-year-old son to leave his father and live with her. There was a court order in place that she stop doing that. Father claimed her continued interference was the cause of behavioural problems in the boy. Previous custody and access orders were issued in December by Justice Monique Metivier. Mother felt those orders were wrong. Read More..

Pervert Woman Carer who Preyed on Boys is Jailed

The Manchester Evening News ( UK ) Page 4, Friday January 28th. 2000, BY ANDREW NOTT

A WOMAN preyed on little boys for sex for 15 years while working as a house mother in a care home for troubled youngsters.

Today Carolyn Bromiley was starting a five-year jail term for what the judge said was "the worst case of a woman abusing children in her care any court in the land has had to face."

The serial paedophiles groomed boys between the ages of 12 and 14 before involving them in intercourse and other sexual activity. Read More ..

ABUSING THEIR TRUST.
What Drives Women Like Convicted Paedophile Carolyn Bromily to Hurt the Children They are Supposed to be Caring For?

The Manchester Evening News ( UK ) Page 10. Friday, January 28, 2000

The discovery over the last decade that child abuse was endemic in care homes across England and Wales was a body blow to society. The idea that vulnerable  youngsters were taken from perceived danger only to be placed in the hands of evil paedophiles was deeply shocking.

Several men are currently serving significant jail sentences and long- term police inquiries are continuing in Greater Manchester and across the country into hundreds of allegations.

The latest appalling case to come to light was that of a care worker who abused boys as young as 12 for 15 sordid years at a residential school in Cheshire. But this was Read More ..artling than any of its predecessors, for in this case the predatory paedophiles was a woman.

Carolyn Bromiley, 36, from Warrington, had sexual intercourse with boys from 1984 until her arrest last year. Read More ..