Penjaja Seks di Pasar Gamblok Menyaru Jadi Penjual Pakaian Bekas

Petugas medis dari RSUD Ambarawa sedang melakukan VCT terhadap salah seorang PSK yang terjaring dikawasan pasar Gamblok, Ambarawa, Rabu (5/11/2014) siang.

Ambarawa (News Today) - Kusmini (51), warga Dusun Sumber, Desa Ngampin, Kecamatan Ambarawa bersikeras dirinya bukan pekerja seks komersial (PSK). Saat terjadi razia, Rabu (5/11/2014) sekira pukul 09.00, dia mengaku sedang membeli bubur di kawasan Pasar Gamblok, Jalan Brigjend Sudiarto, Ambarawa.

Namun toh, wanita setengah baya ini yang mempunyai kuku bercat merah tua ini dipaksa masuk ke dalam mobil patroli bak terbuka milik polisi. Bersama belasan PSK yang terjaring Operasi Pekat yang digelar aparat Polsek Ambarawa bekerjasama dengan Perkumpulan Keluarga Berencana Indonesia (PKBI). 

"Saya itu lapar, terus beli bubur. Saya lihat ada rame-rame di situ, terus seorang polisi ambil tangan saya sembari berujar 'ayo buk, katut kowe' (kamu ikut)," kata Kusmini di Mapolsek Ambarawa. 

Sebelumnya, aksi kejar-kejaran dalam operasi ini pun tak terhindarkan. Petugas membawa 12 PSK yang kemudian digiring ke Mapolsek Ambarawa. Di sana satu per satu  wanita itu kemudian diwajibkan menjalani Voluntary Counseling Test. "Saya malu, deg-degan. Tadi sepanjang jalan terus saya tutupi muka ini. Aduh gimana ini mas? Saya malah kepikiran sekarang," keluh Kusmini. 

Pasar Gamblok Ambarawa selama ini memang dikenal sebagai salah satu kawasan esek-esek kelas bawah. Di sini para PSK rata-rata sudah berumur. Berbeda dengan lokalisasi atau kawasan esek-esek lainnya, para PSK di Pasar Gamblok ini tidak menjajakan diri secara vulgar. 

Mereka biasanya berkamuflase sebagai pedagang rombengan (pakaian bekas) dan membaur dengan pedagang lainnya. Salah satu keunikan lainnya dari para PSK di Pasar Gamblok ini adalah jam operasional mereka yang mengikuti ritme pedagang, yakni pagi hingga sore hari.

"Jam edarnya pagi sampai sore. Kalau pas ada pelanggan, barang dagangannya dititipkan ke yang lain. Panennya kalau pas pasaran pon, berbarengan dengan keramaian pasar hewan Ambarawa," kata salah satu PSK yang enggan disebutkan namanya. 

Kusmini sendiri mengaku, sesekali ikut berjualan pakaian bekas di Pasar Gamblok. Namun saat terjadi razia tersebut, wanita yang mengaku sudah memiliki 11 cucu dan 2 buyut ini sedang libur berjualan karena suami pemilik dagangan meninggal dunia.

"Rencananya saya mau rewang di tempat ibu angkat saya yang saya ikuti jualan ini. Saya itu malah sering menasehati mbak-mbaknya itu, cari uang mbok jangan begitu. Cari yang halal. Ee saya malah kena razia juga. Saya ini bukan PSK lho mas," ujarnya. 

Koordinator Wilayah PKBI Kabupaten Semarang, M Pujiyanto menyakini tak mungkin mereka salah "menangkap" PSK di Pasar Gamblok. Sebab sebelum dilakukan penangkapan, timnya sudah melakukan pemetaan dengan lengkap dan teliti.

"Biasanya nanti pas ada konseling pribadi, mereka mulai ngaku. Seperti kemarin waktu kita jaring tiga PSK, sampai di Polsek tetap enggak ngaku," kata dia.

PKBI mencatat, di kawasan Gamblok ini terdapat 20 PSK yang beroperasi. Namun dalam razia tersebut, tiga PSK berhasil kabur dari kejaran petugas. "Kami terpaksa menakuti mereka. Kalau tidak mau akomodatif, njenengan (anda) kena denda maksimal lima puluh juta lho," kata Pujiyanto mengungkapkan trik agar para PSK bersedia mengikuti VCT. 

Sementara itu, Kepala Polsek Ambarawa, AKP Fadli mengatakan, kegiatan razia PSK ini menindaklanjuti keluhan masyarakat mengenai praktik prostitusi di kawasan Pasar Gamblok. Sebelumnya juga dilakukan kegiatan serupa, di mana terjaring tiga PSK dan satu di antaranya dinyatakan positif HIV AIDS.

"PSK di kawasan Gamblok yang berhasil kita amankan ada 12 orang. Kita bekerjasama dengan PKBI, kita lakukan cek darah, sebab saat operasi pertama, tiga orang terjaring, satu di antaranya positif," ujar Kepala Polsek. 

Selanjutnya, terhadap ke 12 PSK tersebut, akan dilakukan proses hukum berupa tindak pidana ringan (tipiring), dan jika ada PSK yang dinyatakan positif HIV AIDS akan mendapatkan penanganan dari tim PKBI. 

"Proses hukum tetap kita berlakukan, untuk mengantisipasi HIV AIDS yang bisa merugikan masyarakat," kata dia.

Source : kompas

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Gadis Inggris Ketahuan Berhubungan Seks di Toilet Pesawat Virgin Atlantic

Ilustrasi toilet di dalam pesawat terbang.

London (News Today) - Seorang perempuan Inggris yang tengah mabuk terpaksa berurusan dengan kepolisian AS setelah dikabarkan ketahuan berhubungan seks di kamar kecil sebuah pesawat milik maskapai Virgin Atlantic.

Cerita ini terjadi dalam penerbangan Virgin Atlantic dari bandara Gatwick, London, Inggris, menuju Las Vegas, AS, pekan lalu.

Di tengah perjalanan, seorang perempuan muda berusia 20-an yang pergi bersama orangtuanya "menghilang" ke toilet bersama seorang pria yang duduk di sebelahnya.

"Gadis itu tampaknya menaruh hati pada pria yang duduk di sebelahnya," kata seorang penumpang.

"Mereka lalu masuk ke toilet, dan semua penumpang bisa mendengar suara mereka dari dalam toilet," kata penumpang itu.

Merasa terusik dengan perbuatan kedua sejoli itu, para penumpang melapor kepada kru pesawat yang kemudian meminta gadis dan pria itu segera keluar dari toilet.

Karena permintaan tak diindahkan, kru pesawat terpaksa mendobrak pintu toilet dan memaksa keduanya segera mengakhiri kegiatan mereka.

Setelah terlibat pertengkaran dengan para pramugari, gadis itu kemudian dilaporkan ke polisi, setibanya di bandara Las Vegas.

Setelah ditanyai, polisi kemudian membebaskan gadis itu dengan peringatan keras sebelum dia melanjutkan liburannya di Las Vegas.

Source : kompas

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'70s musician faces new sex charges

(News Terupdate) - A musician who played in the 1970s pop music group KC & the Sunshine Band will be in court Friday to face an indictment on 16 sex charges involving "multiple male juveniles," an Ohio prosecutor said.

Richard Finch was arrested last month in Licking County, Ohio, after a 17-year-old boy said he had sexual contact with him. Investigators said they were looking into other possible victims.

A grand jury indictment this month charges Finch with 10 counts of sexual imposition. Assistant prosecutor Tracy Van Winkle said the charges involve having sex with someone when it is harmful to them.

Finch also faces three counts of compelling prostitution involving offering money to minors for sex, Van Winkle said. Two counts involve asking a minor to engage in sex, and one count is a charge of sexual contact with a minor, she said.

A teenager said he had sexual contact with Finch at Finch's house in Newark, Ohio, the Licking County Sheriff's Office said in a statement after the arrest.

During an interview with detectives, Finch "disclosed that he did in fact have sexual contact with the juvenile, along with multiple other male teenage juveniles as well ranging from ages 13 to 17," the office said.

A pretrial hearing will be held Friday. Finch is in the Licking County jail; no trial date has been set, she said.

A statement from Finch and his lawyer was posted on his website soon after his arrest: "They would like to remind everyone that these are just allegations and that Mr. Finch is presumed innocent."

A more recent posting asking fans to donate to his legal defense fund said Finch had to cancel his plans for "an impending tour" and "a catastrophic economic hardship has taken their place."

"Those revenue generating possibilities are now gone, and as of this time, Mr. Finch's attorneys are in the early stages of their investigation," it said.

Finch played bass and drums with KC & the Sunshine Band. The group is known for hits such as "That's the Way (I Like It)," "Get Down Tonight" and "I'm Your Boogie Man." He co-wrote many of the band's biggest hits with Harry Wayne "KC" Casey. He left the band in 1980.

Casey disputed that Finch co-founded the band, saying that he started it in 1973 and Finch joined a year later. However, singles from the band's first album, "Do It Good," were released in 1973 and feature Finch.

Source : CNN

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Priest at his child abuse trial in Rome: 'I am not a monster'

Rome, Italy (News Terupdate) - A priest accused of child abuse denied the charges Tuesday in a high-profile trial taking place in the shadow of the Vatican.

"I am not a monster. I am innocent," the Rev. Ruggero Conti said in court.

Conti is accused of molesting seven young boys at the Nativita di Santa Maria Santissima parish in Rome. He faces charges of committing sexual violence and prostitution.

Two alleged victims told police that Conti masturbated them and forced them to perform oral sex on him in his home, where he often invited them to dinner and to watch movies, according to court documents.

Anti-abuse activists say Conti's superiors knew of allegations against him as early as 2006 but did not do enough to stop him.

Prosecutors say they will call Conti's bishop, Monsignor Gino Reali, to testify. Reali was interrogated by police as part of their investigation into Conti, the activists say.

Putting a bishop on the stand in Rome, the capital of deeply Catholic Italy, would be potentially explosive, particularly against the background of a European-wide scandal.

The Catholic Church has been rocked this year by allegations of child abuse by Catholic clergy in Ireland, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands, following similar accusations in the United States in the past decade. A damning Irish government-backed report last year said the Dublin Archdiocese had systematically covered up the allegations.

Pope Benedict XVI met this month with a group of men in Malta who say they were abused. He prayed and cried with them.

He has repeatedly insisted the church will do everything in its power to prevent child abuse.

But the trial taking place on his doorstep may undercut such assurances, not least since the alleged abuse of boys took place well after the scandal came to light in the United States.

Conti, a former adviser to the mayor of Rome, was arrested in June 2008, more than a year after an anti-pedophilia organization says it brought accusations against him to Catholic Church officials.

Roberto Mirabile, the president of the organization, said his group was warned about Conti by another priest in the spring of 2007. The group, La Caramella Buona, met with the alleged victims and their families, Mirabile told reporters on Friday.

Mirabile himself went to top Vatican officials, including the man responsible for prosecuting alleged child abusers within the Catholic Church, Monsignor Charles Scicluna, he said.

Scicluna told the child-protection activist there was no Vatican record of complaints about Conti and advised him to go to the police with his concerns, Mirabile said.

Mirabile accused Scicluna of washing his hands of the matter.

Scicluna did not respond to CNN attempts to contact him about the case.

Caramella Buona officials did go to the police, who launched an investigation in November 2007.

Conti was arrested as he prepared to go to World Youth Day in Australia in June 2008. Police believe he continued abusing children until March 2008, Mirabile said.

Conti's superior, Bishop Reali, told police in December 2008 he knew of vague accusations against the priest two years before he was arrested but did not take action, according to court documents.

Nino Marazzita, a lawyer for La Caramella Buona, provided CNN with what he said were transcripts of the prosecutor's interrogation of the bishop.

"You know that there are so many 'rumors,' " Reali told investigators, according to the lawyer. "And I can't run after each one of them."

Conti accused La Caramella Buona of being ideologically opposed to him in his testimony Tuesday. The group denies it.

Reali did not respond to CNN attempts to contact him by phone and e-mail.

Source : CNN

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Documents: Teens' killer stalked others

(News Terupdate) - Authorities believe that a registered sex offender who this month admitted killing two California teenagers attempted to follow an 11-year-old girl walking home from school the day before one of the teens disappeared, according to documents filed in the case.

John Albert Gardner, 31, pleaded guilty April 16 to killing Chelsea King, 17, and Amber Dubois, 14. He also pleaded guilty to a charge of assault with intent to commit rape in a December incident involving a third woman.

King was last seen leaving Poway High School in suburban San Diego, California, on February 25. Her car, with her cell phone inside, was found at Rancho Bernardo Community Park. King was known to run on the park's trails. Her disappearance triggered a massive search that ended a few days later, when King's remains were found in the park.

Dubois disappeared in February 2009 while walking to school in Escondido, California. She was considered a missing person for more than a year until her remains were found in March. Prosecutors said Gardner led police to Dubois' body after being assured that it would not be used against him in court.

Gardner avoided the death penalty with his guilty plea but will be sentenced June 1 to two consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole, under terms of the plea deal with prosecutors.

On February 24, a day before King went missing, an 11-year-old girl reported that she was walking home from school when she heard a vehicle slowly approaching her from behind, according to an affidavit requesting a police search of Gardner's home, posted on the website of CNN affiliate KTLA-TV. The documents were unsealed Monday, KTLA reported.

The girl told police the vehicle drove past her and then parked about 30 feet in front of her, the documents said. The driver stayed in the vehicle, the girl said, and did not attempt to speak to her. But a woman pulled up next to the girl and told her the person in the vehicle "seemed very suspicious" and offered to follow her home, according to the affidavit.

The man, who was in a black car, then made a U-turn and left, and the woman followed the girl the remaining two blocks to her house, the documents said. The girl's mother called police after her daughter told her what happened.

The girl's mother told authorities that after seeing a photo of Gardner following his arrest in the King case, her daughter said Gardner was "the guy in the car," the affidavit said. Gardner's girlfriend drives a black 2002 Nissan Sentra, according to the documents.

The documents also detail the December assault on the third woman near where King's car was found at the park. She told authorities she was on a hiking trail and a man walked past her, the affidavit said. She told him, "Good morning," and he returned the greeting, but then tackled her from the side as he passed her, knocking her to the ground on her back.

The man pinned her to the ground, and she screamed while struggling with him, the affidavit said. He told her to "shut up," and she said, "You're going to have to kill me."

"That can be arranged," he responded. The man then demanded money from her, the affidavit said.

She was able to sit up and used her elbow to strike him in the nose, telling police she felt "the crunch of cartilage." The man let go of her and grabbed his nose, she said, and she ran.

A woman also told police that she saw Gardner on the jogging trails near the park on the day King disappeared, the affidavit said. She said he was sitting and drinking a beer and had several empty beer cans around him. He warned her about a rattlesnake that was nearby, and they spoke briefly.

The woman said she ran past the man and then talked to him some more on her return trip. The man was wearing blue jeans and a Hard Rock Cafe T-shirt, she said, according to the affidavit.

A second woman also recalled seeing a man in the Hard Rock Cafe shirt on a trail that day about 3 p.m., about an hour and a half after the first woman said she saw him, the affidavit said. The same woman believes she saw King on the trail as well. Both women told police they were 100 percent sure the man they saw was Gardner, the affidavit said.

The area where the second woman recalled seeing Gardner was "300 yards from where the panties of Chelsea King were found and about a mile from where the body of Chelsea King was found," the affidavit said.

At the time of his arrest, Gardner was a registered sex offender. In 2000 he was convicted of two counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14 and a count of false imprisonment, according to a probation officer's report. The victim in that case was a 13-year-old girl, who was molested and beaten when she tried to resist, the report said.

"The defendant ... manifests marked predatory traits and is not seen as a suitable candidate for sex offender treatment insofar as he refuses to accept any responsibility for what he has done," according to the 2000 report.

Gardner knew the girl and was a former neighbor of hers, the report said. "The fact that he would try to force himself on her sexually is indefensible but then to beat her as he did out of frustration ... represents a qualitative leap to extremely serious criminal behavior."

The report recommended that Gardner be sentenced to six years in prison. KTLA reported that he served five years before being paroled.

Source : CNN

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Remains ID'd as woman who left club with sex offender

New York (News Terupdate) - Remains found in Pennsylvania have been identified as those of a woman who disappeared in New York in 2008 after leaving a Manhattan nightclub in the company of a convicted sex offender, authorities said Monday.

Forensic testing determined the remains recovered April 11 from Mount Cobb, near Scranton, Pennsylvania, are those of Laura Garza, said police and prosecutors from New York and Pennsylvania.

"We have not determined a cause of death but, to be perfectly honest, that is something we would not have this quickly," said Capt. Wayne Olson of the Bureau of Criminal Investigation for the New York State Police.

A family spokeswoman said Garza's relatives were gathering in Texas. "They weren't completely shocked because they had an idea that is what happened," said Awilda Cordero.

A watch found with the skeletal remains first led investigators to suspect they were Garza's, police said. DNA samples were collected and tests confirmed that the bones were hers.

Garza was 25 when she vanished in the early hours of December 3, 2008.

"She had a dream to become a professional dancer here in New York City, but she was also a hard-working lady," said Cordero. "She had just become an assistant manager in a shoe store."

She was last seen leaving the Marquee Club, a popular nightspot in the Chelsea section of Manhattan, with Michael Mele, police said.

Mele, a registered Level 1 sex offender, has been questioned several times about Garza, police said. He has never been charged in connection with her disappearance.

He is now serving time in prison for violating terms of his probation, according to court records.

"We still consider him a suspect in her death and disappearance," Olson said. "We are looking to see if he has any connection to the area where the remains were found."

Authorities said the remains were found "in a remote location" and had been there for "a protracted period of time."

"We are certainly not overjoyed in finding her remains, but we have some renewed hope and direction to try and bring the person responsible to justice," Olson said.

Source : CNN

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Cold case: 'Precious' girl vanished in '77

New York (News Terupdate) - Eva Debruhl, 15, was last seen nearly 33 years ago, cutting the front lawn of her family's home in Rock Hill, South Carolina, with a push mower.

"Eva loved to cut grass, as we both did,'' said her older sister, Tami Settlemyer, 49. "There was just something about cutting grass that we both enjoyed.''

But Debruhl wasn't at the door to greet her sister when she came home from her summer job at the local textile mill late in the afternoon of June 29, 1977. She had missed lunch with her grandmother, who lived in another house on the family's 9-acre spread. And Debruhl's best friend's family had not seen her, either.

Fear and panic quickly set in as the family realized that Debruhl was nowhere to be found.

Her sister describes Debruhl as "precious." She loved children and singing in the church choir, and she could recite from the Bible. "She was so sweet and innocent,'' her sister said.

Police searched the property, and Debruhl's family, friends and neighbors joined forces to look for her.

"Soon, days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months, and months turned into years, but we never stopped looking,'' Settlemyer said.

Debruhl's father quit his job, devoting himself to the search. Her parents sold their house that fall to pay for a private investigator.

"Eva was the baby of our family, and we treated her like that," Settlemyer said. "My parents were just heartbroken.''

It was the family's second tragedy. Four years earlier, a drunken driver killed Debruhl's 11-year-old brother in front of the house as he and a friend walked to a church playground to play basketball.

To this day, police have had few clues to follow in Debruhl's disappearance.

There were no signs of forced entry, and police told the family that whoever may have taken Debruhl knew their home and their schedule.

Debruhl's grandmother said she recalled seeing a blue or green truck with a white top drive up to the property on the day the teen vanished.

A man got out and knocked on the door to Debruhl's house. She said she didn't get a good look at him because he had his back to her, according to the police report.

The vehicle drove off and returned about 10 minutes later, and the grandmother could not see who was in it. She didn't pay a lot of attention because Debruhl's father repaired autos, and strangers would often visit to have work done.

The truck and the man were never located.

Another potential clue was a Coke bottle Debruhl's father found in the yard, where the truck had pulled over.

The bottle was made in Georgia, indicating that whoever dropped it may have been from out of state. A Coca-Cola bottling plant in Rock Hill served South and North Carolina, Settlemyer said.

Yet the bottle was not dusted for fingerprints.

Over the years, Debruhl's family was approached by people who demanded money for information on the teen's whereabouts. In a sting operation, Debruhl's mother met one man who wanted $15,000. Police arrested him. He was convicted of extortion, Settlemyer said.

More than once, Debruhl's parents were called to the medical examiner's office in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, to view unidentified remains, but they weren't Debruhl's.

At one point in the investigation, it was believed that Henry Lee Lucas, a drifter who claimed to have killed hundreds of people in dozens of states, may have been in the area about the time Debruhl disappeared.

A sheriff's representative and Debruhl's father went to Texas in the 1980s when Lucas was arrested there. Lucas said he could not recall whether he killed anyone in the area or even whether he had been there, Settlemyer said.

Years ago, one sheriff's investigator was so involved in the case that he worked it on his days off, searching, digging and looking for hard-to-find clues.

The current lead investigator, Capt. Jerry Hoffman of the York County Sheriff's Office, has an Eva Debruhl case file the size of a banker's box.

Following up on a tip, police recently dug up a well and the property once owned by Debruhl's family. In other searches, cadaver dogs found nothing. A forensic psychologist was brought in to use hypnotism on one person who was interviewed.

"This one is a little more frustrating,'' Hoffman said.

Settlemyer says she knows that someone out there knows exactly what happened to Debruhl, who was 5'1'' and 105 pounds when she vanished. She was blonde, had blue eyes and wore glasses. She was last seen in blue shorts and yellow blouse.

Settlemyer believes that her sister is dead but still speaks of hope when asked about the case.

"All we want and all we have ever wanted is closure. We have already forgiven that person,'' she said. "We know that person will have another judge that will give them the punishment they need.''

Anyone with more information is asked to call the York County Sheriff's Office at 1-803-628-3059 or the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST.

Source : CNN

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UK sorry for pope-brand condom proposal memo

(News Terupdate) - The British government has apologized to Pope Benedict XVI for a Foreign Office memo suggesting that he could launch Benedict-brand condoms or bless a gay marriage when he visits the United Kingdom later this year.

Many of the ideas in the document are "clearly ill-judged, naive and disrespectful," the Foreign Office said in a statement Sunday.

The writer of the memo "has been transferred to other duties. He has been told orally and in writing that this was a serious error of judgment," the Foreign Office said.

The Vatican is steadfastly opposed to the use of condoms for any reason and to gay marriage.

The memo also includes suggestions that the pope ordain a female priest or launch an abortion clinic -- both of which are forbidden by Roman Catholic doctrine.

The document was leaked to the Sunday Telegraph newspaper. The Foreign Office confirmed to CNN that it is genuine.

It contains a number of references to the child abuse scandal sweeping the Catholic Church, such as proposals for the pope to launch a child-abuse hotline and to announce he's "sacking dodgy bishops."

Vatican says sex abuse lawsuit lacks merit

The Vatican had little reaction.

"The UK government has already clarified the matter and I have nothing to add," spokesman Federico Lombardi said.

But Jack Valero, a spokesman for the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, called the memo a "joke that's gone out of control."

"It was somebody trying to be funny in an offensive sort of way," he said, adding it was "not important" and that "Catholics are used to forgiveness."

Benedict is making a four-day state visit to England and Scotland in September.

There was a small protest against the planned visit at Westminster Cathedral in London last month. About 50 demonstrators called for the pope to resign over allegations he "protected" child abusers.

Richard Dawkins, the British scientist and noted atheist, has threatened to try to have the pope arrested when he visits the UK.

Benedict said Sunday he wanted to "thank above all thank and encourage all of those who are dedicated to the prevention" of violence against and exploitation of children.

Source : CNN

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Vatican says sex abuse suit lacks merit

Rome, Italy (News Terupdate) - The Vatican said a lawsuit accusing it and Pope Benedict XVI of covering up sexual abuse by a priest at a Catholic school in the United States has no merit.

"While legitimate lawsuits have been filed by abuse victims, this is not one of them," Vatican lawyer Jeffrey Lena said Friday. "Instead, the lawsuit represents an attempt to use tragic events as a platform for a broader attack."

The lawsuit by an unnamed Illinois man demands the Vatican release the names of thousands of Catholic priests that the suit says have "credible allegations of sexual misconduct" against them.

The alleged victim, who is now an adult, says he was molested by the Rev. Lawrence Murphy while a student at St. John's School for the Deaf, according to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

"The defendant, [the] Holy See, has known about the widespread problem of childhood sexual abuse committed by its clergy for centuries, but has covered up that abuse and thereby perpetuated the abuse," the suit says.

"The case against the Holy See and its officials is completely without merit," Lena said. "Most of the complaint rehashes old theories already rejected by U.S. courts."

Lena added, "With regard to Murphy himself, the Holy See and its officials knew nothing of his crimes until decades after the abuse occurred, and had no role whatsoever in causing plaintiff's injuries."

Benedict was named as a defendant because he has the ultimate authority to remove priests and because of his involvement in reviewing sex abuse cases when he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the suit says.

Peter Isely, Midwest director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, estimated the Vatican is investigating 4,000 cases of sex abuse by church employees.

The lawsuit aims to change church policies and practices that conceal sex offenders, Isely said.

"It's going to protect children, we hope, around the world," he said, "This is a historic day and hopefully this is going to result in historic changes."

Arthur Budzinski, a deaf man who said he was sexually assaulted and raped by Murphy, stood with Isely at a news conference Thursday.

He said the priest "may have stolen our bodies," but higher clerics such as cardinals, archbishops and the pope "stole our voices."

Budzinski, who is not a party to the lawsuit, made his comments in sign language and his daughter, Gigi, interpreted his words.

Murphy, who died in 1998, is believed to have molested up to 200 boys, Isely said.

The lawsuit said the church "knew that there was a high probability that these clerics would sexually molest more children, but sought to protect itself from scandal, sought to keep its income stream going, at the peril of children."

Murphy, it says, was a "top fundraiser and recruiter" for the church and the "Holy See wanted to retain Murphy's services."

The same Minnesota law firm representing the Illinois plaintiff also filed suit Wednesday on behalf of a Mexican resident who says he was sexually abused by a priest.

The suit alleges Catholic officials in Los Angeles, California, aided and abetted the abuse by moving the priest to different dioceses as allegations piled up against him.

Source : CNN

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