From the [UK] Telegraph, [UK] Daily Mail, Yorkshire Evening Post:

The Leeds Crown Court in England has sentenced four children, ranging in age from 12 to 15,  in the savage beating of a 15-year-old boy with intellectual disabilities last year.

The children lured the victim into the woods last August where they punched and kicked him, stomped on his head, whipped him with tree branches, hit him with planks, urinated and spat on him, stuffed lit cigarettes up his nose, and then stripped him before dumping him in a shallow grave.

The victim was able to crawl free and received treatment for multiple bruises and lacerations all over his body. His mother said she believes he was targeted because he was easy prey.

Sentencing the four, Judge Kerry Macgill said: “This is one of the most difficult cases I have ever had to deal with. It is almost like a scene out of ‘Lord of The Flies’ where children are left to their own devices can do simply appalling things to other children.”

… The girl, now 15, was given 15 months of detention and the 13-year-old locked up for 12 months. The two younger children, now aged 12, were handed two-year supervision orders with a three-month curfew.

App encourages gamers to simulate shaken baby syndrome

From the CNET News, New York Post, Los Angeles Times, MSNBC:

Responding to complaints from child welfare groups, Apple pulled an application from its online store Wednesday that allowed gamers to simulate shaking a baby to death.

The 99-cent “Baby Shaker” iPhone app, unveiled Monday, presents the image and sound of a crying baby. With vigorous shaking by a user, red x-marks  cover the infant’s eyes to mark its death and the crying stops. The program reportedly is still available through its developer, Sikalosoft.

Shaken baby syndrome, a type of inflicted brain trauma that occurs when a baby is violently shaken, causes neurological damage and intellectual disability or death.

“See how long you can endure his or her adorable cries before you just have to find a way to quiet the baby down!” reads the sales pitch for Baby Shaker.

… “Not only are they making fun of Shaken Baby Syndrome but they are actually encouraging it. This is absolutely terrible,” said Marilyn Barr, founder of the National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome and a board member of the Sarah Jane Brain Foundation.

From the Dallas Morning News, AP/Houston Chronicle:

The family of Hasib Chishty is seeking permission to sue the state of Texas for a 2002 attack at the Denton State School that left the 34-year-old paralyzed.

Chishty, who has an intellectual impairment but was otherwise physically healthy until the attack, is now unable to walk or feed himself. Chishty’s attacker went to prison and his family has been seeking to sue the state for years, but has been blocked by the Texas sovereign immunity statute.

They are hoping that recent allegations about abuse and neglect in Texas institutions will prompt lawmakers to grant them their day in court.

Kevin Miller, the staffer who attacked Chishty and is now in prison, has described a culture of drug use by himself and staffers and violent abuse of residents in the Denton State School.

In a videotaped statement, Miller called it “the systematic torture of residents … to get them to change behavior, or for sport, or to sadistically try to change their behavior.”

From National Public Radio:

The arrests over the alleged “fight club” at the Corpus Christi State School are only the latest in a long history of abuse in Texas institutions for people with intellectual disabilities. The U.S. Department of Justice is negotiating now with the state to increase staff and make other changes.

Experts say the impersonal nature of large institutions breeds abuse, and that isolation and lack of staff training add to the problem.

Researcher Dick Sobsey of the University of Alberta in Canada says peer pressure can encourage caregivers to engage in abuse.

“Where some employees are abusive and others are not, the ones who are not abusive, there’s always a danger that they’re going to report the ones who are. If everybody’s abusive, then everybody’s hands are dirty, and so they’re safe with each other,” Sobsey says.

Earlier posts here.

From the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, Houston Chronicle:

A half dozen Texas legislators who toured the Corpus Christi State School this weekend say they want to reform, not close, the state’s institutions.

Arrest warrants have been issued for six current or former employees of the Corpus Christi facility, who are accused of staging fights between residents with intellectual disabilities. Cellphone videos of the fights emerged last week.

“There has been a lot of debate about closing or consolidating state schools,” said state Rep. Solomon Ortiz Jr. (D-Corpus Christi). “There is a need for state schools. We don’t want people to think we are trying to close them.”

Rep. Drew Darby (D-San Angelo) said he was touring the facility in support of the 12,000 employees of the ‘state schools,’ who he said are loving, caring people who have residents’ best interests at heart. Darby’s district includes the San Angelo State School.

Also along on the tour were Rep. Solomon Ortiz Jr. (D-Corpus Christi), Sen. Juan “Chuy Hinojosa (D-McAllen), Rep. Abel Herrero (D-Robstown), Rep. Todd Hunter (R-Corpus Christi), and  Rep.Patrick Rose (D-Dripping Springs).

Some 4,950 Texans live in state-operated institutions, or about one in every 4,650 state residents. Texas has among the highest institutionalization rates in the country. (Source: “The State of the States in Developmental Disablities 2008,” by David Braddock, Richard Hemp, Mary C. Rizzolo, University of Colorado.)

(Photo from Corpus Christi Caller-Times)

From the Dallas Morning News:

Experts in law, psychology and genetics say the cellphone videos of forced fights at the Corpus Christi State School offer a disturbing window on human nature. They’re not surprised by what they’re seeing.

Some researchers believe that genetics hard-wires some people for sadistic behavior. Others say the combination of pressure, long hours, inexperience, inadequate training, and lack of supervision can push people toward violent behavior. Adding to the mix could be “empathy burnout,” in which overworked caregivers begin to resent those they serve.

“Left alone, human beings will engage in the most surprising kinds of misconduct and adjust their mentality to fit,” said David Crump, a University of Houston Law Center professor who specializes in the psychology of evil behavior. “We should expect this unless we take concrete and meaningful steps to prevent it.”

See earlier posts.

From the [Toronto] Globe and Mail:

Hamilton [Ontario] police are broadening their investigation after a couple accused of kidnapping and torturing a mentally handicapped man were yesterday charged with beating and robbing another handicapped victim two months earlier.

Superintendent Bill Stewart said officers were able to quickly link the two crimes because of their similarity, and are now looking into the possibility that there was a wider pattern of preying on the vulnerable.

“There were similarities in the type of victim, being disabled, and similarities in some of the circumstances surrounding the incident,” Supt. Stewart said.

Earlier post here.