Netherlands special needs swimming teacher arrested on suspicion of large scale sexual abuse

Amsterdam, The Netherlands (June 17, 2009) - According to Earth Times, 59-year-old Benno Larue, a Dutch special-needs swimming teacher, has been arrested on suspicion of sexually abusing at least 98 girls with intellectual disabilities and other special needs. He was arrested on June 8 after police confiscated tens of thousands of pornographic photographs and video footage of "hundreds of girls" aged 6 to 16. From the article:

"We have confiscated tens of thousands of pornographic pictures and video footage of hundreds of girls," a spokesman of the police in Den Bosch in the southern Netherlands told the German Press Agency dpa.

"The pictures show the swimming teacher performing sexual acts on at least 98 girls, aged 6 to 16," he added.

Given the obvious difficulties in interviewing the special-needs children, due to their disabilities, estimates of the number of potential victims have ranged to possibly over 1,000.

Two girls have so far been identified. Police said that so far it appears all girls had been the victims of assault, not rape.

Larue taught in several swimming pools in Den Bosch and three nearby towns and villages.

According to the report, Larue had been under police investigation five years ago on suspicion of sexual abuse but a police investigation did not lead anywhere. More than 100 police detectives are now working on what "appears to be the largest sexual abuse case in the Netherlands in decades." Larue remains in police custody pending the investigation.

The full article is here.

A "caregiver" has been charged with raping and impregnating a woman with developmental disabilities

The Seattle Post Intelligencer reports that the 44-year-old woman, who is blind, has a seizure disorder and developmental disabilities, lived in a Kent (Auburn, WA) assisted-living facility. She had a miscarriage in March.

The 31-year-old man, who had been the woman's "caregiver," had worked at the facility since September 2006. He has been charged with second-degree rape.

The full story is here.

A woman has been sentenced to five years in prison for not attempting to stop her husband from sexually abusing a developmentally disabled girl for 11 years

From Northwest Arkansas News

Bentonville - A Siloam Springs woman was sentenced to five years in prison after admitting she knew her husband had sexually abused a girl for 11 years, but the woman didn't take any action to stop the abuse.

Carol Sue Lykins, 49, pleaded guilty Thursday to permitting the abuse of a minor, a class B felony. Her plea came under an agreement that attorney Herb Southern reached with Deputy Prosecutor Mike Armstrong.

Lykins' husband - Jefferey Ray Lykins - was sentenced in October 2007 to 30 years in prison after admitting to raping a mentally disabled girl.

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A man pleads guilty to sexually abusing a young girl with intellectual disabilities

Gerard Schlaiss, 51, of Wheaton, Illinois, has been sentenced to thirty six years in prison for sexually abusing a 13-year-old girl with intellectual disabilities.

According to this report in the Naperville Sun, Schlaiss sexually abused the girl, who lived in his apartment complex, over a three-year period. Schlaiss was 33 years old at the time of the abuse.