Scanner : rape

The Erin Brockovich of Private Eyes: Ordinary Citizen Almost Singlehandedly Solves Forgotten Murder

Brian Fairbanks — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 13:26:00 GMT

Susan Galbreath has a story to tell that would make one helluva good Meryl Streep-Angelina Jolie-type Oscar-bait vehicle. You can bet they'll figure out how to screw this one up, by bringing in romance, character flaws that insult her gender, and annoying plot holes.

In an extraordinary six-page Times (UK) story, which we'll summarize below, an English reporter discusses how this extraordinarily resilient person took on ineffective law enforcement, stalkers, killers, and-- worst of all-- failing marriages over a seven-year period to finally bring a psychotic killer and his conspirators to justice...

Back in 2000, Galbreath came across the body of a nineteen-year-old girl. The woman had been raped, strangled, and raped again repeatedly after her death, then burned beyond recognition. (Her parents identified her by her jewelry and other small indicators.) The initial police investigation failed to bring about a credible suspect and the story disappeared. Galbreath didn't care about her marriage, which was failing, and her general lack of interest in work and socializing. She befriended a reporter and lured him to Kentucky to help her investigate. The two interviewed suspects and fed their information to the police, who were either working closely with the gumshoes or ignoring them as a couple of crackpots, depending on who was in charge of the basically-forgotten case at the time.

Eventually, Galbreath was on her own. She set up a MySpace page as a tribute to the deceased and noticed that one MySpace user in the area was a person of interest-- a woman who had fled the area amid rumors she was involved in the murder. Galbreath played dumb and contacted her as if at random to ask her to contribute to the page as an area resident. It was the straw that whipped that camel's ass, and the person of the interest soon started spilling her guts out of nowhere. The MySpace user turned out to be an accomplice with a guilty conscience and later told the police how it all went down: the psycho had picked up his victim in a car full of drunk and drugged-out partiers, hit her over the head with a baseball bat, and had his conspiring female friends, of which the MySpace user was one, cover up the crime by dumping and burning the body.

18-year-old Jessica Currin had been walking home after a dullish Saturday evening at her friend’s house when she was stopped and given a lift in a car driven by Quincy Omar Cross, a 31-year-old layabout, serial hard-drug user and sexual offender. Also in the car, in a heavily drug-induced party mood, were four others – one man and three girls in their late teens.
Once she was inside the large, white, old Cadillac, Cross immediately began to sexually assault Jessica, aided by one of the girls. All four had been using cocaine, Ecstasy and alcohol. When Jessica resisted, Cross smashed a small baseball bat into the back of her head.

After several years on the (unpaid) job, Galbreath's work ultimately came down to the one chance MySpace message, but she wasn't fazed by all that lost time. Now the budding detective wants to get her PI license and has since found the love of her life and peace. At last.

Read the much more coherent (and epic) full tale here.

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While You Were Sleeping: Lara Flynn Boyle Still Getting Naked

Brian Fairbanks — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 13:14:00 GMT

Phil Spector was finally convicted of second-degree murder. Bye bye, psycho.

Al Franken has been declared the winner of the Minnesota Senate race... again. And it's not over yet... although it's been over for months, of course.

A study shows that Facebook users have lower GPA's than non-Facebookers.

We're a bit out of this morning: did we tell you about the eight-year-old who couldn't get her marriage to a middle-aged man annulled in the great nation of Saudi Arabia? If not, you really need to read this.

Lara Flynn Boyle's still getting naked, but this time it's for a TV show.

The Neverland sale is going ahead as planned-- we hope they burn that whole sickening place to the ground on the way out.

After the Tweenbots thing yesterday, we were thinking New Yorkers were getting better at being aware and helpful. Not so much.

Want to get an iPhone but don't want to deal with AT&T's shitty plans?

Our Weekend Gift to You: Blood Alcohol Calculator

While You Were Sleeping: Foxy Brown Joins The Nipple Slip Parade

Twitter Goes to the Next Level: Flutter (Video)

Spanking Judge Is Going To Have A Rough Ride in Prison...

Brian Fairbanks — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 16:25:00 GMT

An Alabama gent named Herman Thomas, known in the national news as "The Spanking Judge," was finally charged on Friday with a whopping 57 counts, including extortion, sodomy, kidnapping, and a host of ethics violations. Several hours later, Thomas was out on bond and told to have no contact with young people.

So... how did ex-Judge Herman Thomas get his nickname?

According to various source, Thomas is accused of bringing prisoners from jail to a storage closet next to his office for "paddling sessions." (What, they weren't good enough to be paddled in judge's chambers?) How he got away with that once, let alone multiple times, is beyond us. After all, inmates will sue if their soup is so much as lukewarm one afternoon-- you'd think they would've all filed multimillion dollar civil suits by now.

On top of that, Thomas is accused of trading sex for lighter sentences to violent felons...

We began digging through court documents, one of Thomas's alleged victims was tried and convicted of robbery. Records show instead of locking him up, Thomas gave him probation. Then, that same man was arrested for burglary. Thomas tossed that case out just weeks before it went to trial. That man is now back in jail, accused of murder. Thomas joined him behind bars this afternoon. [MSNBC]
Thomas resigned from the bench in October 2007 amid allegations that he manipulated a jail sentence for his cousin, swapped cases on other judges dockets, and paddled prisoners from Mobile Metro Jail. [WKRG]
[N]umerous individuals... claim Thomas used his position as judge to coerce them for sexual activity, or would punish them for denying such activity. Kulakowski’s investigation also uncovered individuals who claim Thomas engaged them in illegal drug trade and actively used his office to protect drug dealers working with him. [Lagniappe Mobile]

Now we understand why Thomas's bail terms bar him from having any contact with men under the age of 21... and it also sort of explains the paddling.

Here's the full, 57-count indictment.

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English High School The World's Most Sexually Dangerous

Brian Fairbanks — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 18:51:00 GMT

Headlands School in Bridlington, Yorkshire has the highest rate of teacher-student sexual encounters in, we're guessing, the first world.

On Friday, British police charged a staff member, which sounds wrong, with having sex with a teenage girl, bringing the grand total of arrests to...

FIVE.

Five teachers or staff members at Headlands High have been charged in less than three years. Here's a breakdown of how the endless scandals have all played out:

Three years ago, an art instructor by the name of Ian Blott (man, these stories can't be real, can they?) received a blot on his record and four years in prison for forcing himself on a teenage girl. The girl claimed that she was traumatized from the encounter and left with bulimia and other medical problems.

In 2007, Steven Edwards, until then a science teacher, was convicted of having sex with three students (their genders not identified here) and is now serving a five-year sentence. The abuse/relationships occurred over the course of four years, but only came to light after Blott's trial.

Even after two such cases in as many years, school officials did nothing to or were unable to stop the tidal wave: two more teachers were arrested last year. Terry Mann, a teacher, had sex with a student from another school and somehow managed to escape with a suspended sentence, possibly because he plead guilty and admitted everything immediately. One of his colleagues, a teacher's assistant, also received a slap on the wrist for carrying on a long-term relationship with a boy at school.

Again, the school did nothing to successfully control its staff.

The fifth case came to light last week, when Chris Reen, who works as a substitute or fill-in at the school (what, the janitors are getting in on this, too?), was arrested for seven sexual encounters with a girl throughout the end of 2008. Parents were understandably outraged, since the school is apparently on probation for failing to properly protect and educate its charges. This is about as solid a case for homeschooling as any...

By the way, according to this story, Reen is "a newlywed." Wow, way to bring shame to your family, dude.

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Turtles are Rapists

Colleen Kane — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 20:20:00 GMT

Just when you think you've seen it all, the Internet comes along with another wacked-out thing you've never seen. What you're about to witness is a turtle hilariously raping a shoe. And apparently, this is the m.o. for turtles, because a search for turtle rape on YouTube yields numerous results. (I thought they were cleaning up that sort of thing on YouTube?)

The little guy is really going for it.

Related:

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We Need to Come Up with a New Word for "Rape Fantasy"

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Here's A Kind of Teacher Sex Story We've Never Seen Before...

Brian Fairbanks — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 13:45:00 GMT

It's not even ten a.m. on the first day of this workweek, and there are already two bizarre teacher sex scandals to report. The first featured a kid, having engaged in a sexual relationship with his teacher since October, caught by the principal... (literally) with his pants down.

Now comes the story of yet another lecherous teacher and her teenage male victim. However, this case features a twist that we could never have predicted, even after reading of dozens of these cases over the years.

When 46-year-old junior high school teacher Linda Nef walked into a police station near Bountiful, Utah, cops had no idea a major media firestorm was about to descend on them. When Nef confessed to having sex with a thirteen-year-old male student, she fingered Valynn Bowers, 39, as a fellow rapist... of the same boy.

Bowers, in case you haven't figured this out, is a teacher at the same school.

According to local media reports, ~~Hef~~ Nef started sleeping with the boy first, but was dumped for an unknown other party, with whom the boy has been carrying on a sexual relationship for the past three months. One day, Bowers entered Nef's classroom and confronted her in what may have been a jealous rage, telling the older teacher, "I'm the new girlfriend." Or she could have simply said, "Hey, we really screwed the pooch on this one." However, we doubt that last part, as Nef is the one that freaked out and went to the police after the revelations.

The local news, predictably, has a unintentionally hilarious time trying to figure out how to work with these details:

With the suspects being so much older than their victim some wonder what would prompt them to commit the crime.
University of Utah psychology professor Don Strassberg says that would be an easier question to answer if the teachers were men. With men, he says, it's probably about the sex.
But it's more complicated when you're talking about women. For them, Strassberg says getting into a relationship like this is likely more about them: their needs, having control, getting attention.

Thank you, Professor Obvious. (Read more of his brilliant insight at ksl.com.)

We've been warning the public for months that the daily onslaught of these cases is going to eventually reach a breaking point and outdo itself-- in other words, we predicted that these kinds of "teacher sleeps with student stories" were going to involve in something even weirder, like janitor sex or parents getting used to it, but we never say a menage a trois coming....

Related:

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Today in Teacher Sex: One Does It On The Floor, The Other Runs Off to Mexico with Her Boy

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This Week In Gayness: Sean Penn vs. Arnold Schwarzenegger

Brian Fairbanks — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 17:31:00 GMT

Is former New York City Mayor Ed Koch gay? Does anyone even care at this point?

Scariest hate crime suspect of all-time? This guy: "So I killed somebody - that makes me a bad guy?" We're against the death penalty, so let's hope he gets brutally beaten in prison every day for the next fifty years.

Lesbians in Massachusetts are suing the US government because they aren't allowed to check "Married, filing jointly" to save money on their taxes. (See similar post from yesterday.)

The Family Resources Council thinks prosecuting hate crimes is the same as prosecuting people for thought crimes. Yes, because when you drag a lesbian out of her car, rape her repeatedly for being a lesbian, beat her up and leave her for dead, you're only thinking it.

James Dobson is retiring from Focus on the Family. But we won't forget about him.

Our idea of a good time might occasionally involve a gay bar, but never when we're in Galveston, Texas.

All Sean Penn wants is to make Harvey Milk's birthday Harvey Milk Day. It's the least Gov. Ahnuld could do, right?

Meanwhile, California is doing what it can to stop Prop 8. First, the legislature did this. Tomorrow, the state will be in court to do this and hopefully help these people.

The next Mormons versus the gays battle? This time it'll be over civil unions in Illinois.

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While You Were Sleeping: Lily Allen Hates The New York Times

Brian Fairbanks — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 14:08:00 GMT

This weekend's election in Spain went well for European conservatives, who routed the socialists in this strangely-headlined story.

A rape crisis center raised a few eyebrows by featuring a nearly-naked dancer as its headliner for a fundraiser.

The Jonas Brothers didn't have the world's greatest weekend...

U2 played one of their famous rooftop gigs.

The pointless CPAC straw poll went in favor of Mitt Romney, with Jindal in second and Palin in fourth. (Remember, John McCain finished fourth last time...)

Glen Hansard wants you to hear this classic Van Morrison record.

Lily Allen hates the New York Times because the "cheap skanks" did something she didn't appreciate.

Siegfried and Roy performed a farewell show... with their tiger. Yeah, that tiger.

A woman about to marry a Royal is featured topless in an upcoming movie.

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While You Were Sleeping: Britain's Next Topless Model

Brian Fairbanks — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 14:08:00 GMT

Don't cancel your Mexican vacation, says the country's President... the shocking drug violence there will be all cleared up, you know, in 2012.

Brittany Snow will appear in a new spinoff of Gossip Girl, a popular educational program.

Another supermodel bites the dust... Gisele Bundchen and Tom Brady were married in Santa Monica yesterday, after having denied the wedding rumors for months, even years.

Jake and Reese are rumored to be the next celebrity couple that will walk down the aisle.

Kate Nash is already one step ahead of them, although her fiancee is an unknown.

Just the latest in a long line of 45-year-old hotties to grace the nudie mag, Lisa Rinna will be the next one to pose for Playboy.

This unanimous Supreme Court ruling on religious monuments in public parks is extremely troublesome.

The woman in the car during Morgan Freeman's car accident claims he was drunk. Oh, and she's absolutely not his mistress. And one more: she's suing him for not denying the mistress thing.

Hero of the day? A mother ran into her daughter's rapist while he was out of jail on a weekend pass. He asked after her daughter, apparently in a gleeful manner, and so she followed him into a bar, poured a bottle of petrol all over him and... struck a match...

And Britain's Next Top Model is already topless...

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Obama Crashes Carnival Party, Thanks to Naked Carnival Queen

Rape Simulation Game: Wheee!

Colleen Kane — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 17:30:00 GMT

This is the most disturbing game I've ever seen. RapeLay is a Japanese rape simulation game which was for sale until recently on Amazon (view the cache image here).

Amazon's description: "Rapelay is an offshoot of the Illusion series, Interact Play. You, like in previous installments, play as a public nuisance that gets away from captivity and starts scouting for new targets. This time around you find a family of a single mother and her two daughters. You quickly begin your hunt and capture each woman one by one. The gameplay involves an amusing training/disposition system with which to break each respective target to your liking. Watch where you blow your load, or you might get them pregnant!"

But a user review quoted in the Belfast Telegraph describes it further, and it gets even sicker. "If she does become pregnant you're supposed to force her to get an abortion, otherwise she gets more and more visibly pregnant each time you have sex. If you allow the child to be born then the woman will throw you in front of a train!"

Amazon removed the game after the Telegraph brought it to their attention. But a search on Amazon currently for the game brings up a passage in the book Japanamerica: How Japanese Culture Has Invaded the U.S., arguing that anyone taking offense to this game just doesn't understand Japanese culture: "of course, it does not make fantasy a reality, any more than tenticle porn subjects real Japanese women to rapists who look like octopi or attack with tree limbs."

Tentacle porn?!

Here's a screen shot from the game, where you'll see the graphic artists had as good of a grasp of female anatomy as that evidenced when my friend and I found her younger brother's drawings of naked ladies back in high school. In the video beneath that photo, you'll see these super-extendo breasts are apparently made of Jello, because they don't stop moving.

UPDATE: This video has since been removed from YouTube. The following video shows characters from RapeLay in a different game.

Related:

We Need to Come Up with a New Word for "Rape Fantasy"

Do Rape, Don't Tell: Women in U.S. Army More Likely To Get Raped Than Killed

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Via I Am Bored

Sloppy Seconds: Evan Rachel Wood Isn't the Only One Tapping That

Emily Farris — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 00:11:00 GMT

Holy hot lesbian, Batwoman. No, really! Batman's replacement is a batchick who loves chicks. Awesome. [Broadsheet/Salon]

Not cool: dudes who rape dogs. [Plog]

Cool: the anti-theft lunch bag. [ThinkOfThe]

Today in stuff I absolutely hate to admit is true: the butterfly effect, in which your ex boyfriend gets his shit together and starts dating a girl hotter than you after you break up. [New York Observer]

Okay, I don't know if girl on boy tapping can happen, but that's not the point. This is: Are Mickey Rourke and Courtney Love the best couple ever or the worst copule ever? [Vulture]

Oh, and I totally emailed Judah Friedlander for a date when I'm back in New York at the end of the month. Stay tuned to see if he bites. [TONY]

When Re-Touchers Get a Little Magic Wand Happy We All Suffer, Especially Scanner Emily

[Image]

Enterprising Teenager Amasses Collection of Solicited Nude Photos

Brian Fairbanks — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 14:44:00 GMT

If you were to read only that headline, you would be forgiven for mistaking this tale for one of those "heartwarming" Good Morning America segments about the teens that turn their jewelery hobbies into multimillion-dollar online businesses.

Unfortunately, that's decidedly not the case with this creepy story...

According to a local AP report out of the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area, an eighteen-year-old boy named Anthony Stanci is in cuffs today, charged with "five counts of child enticement, two counts of second-degree sexual assault of a child, two counts of third-degree sexual assault, possession of child pornography, repeated sexual assault of the same child, and making a bomb threat."

And what did he do, except for that last charge, to warrant such a rap? He started a Facebook account and pretended to be a hot teenage girl, then got more than 30 (that is, 30 known) male victims to send him nude photos of themselves. When they did so, he stayed in character and threatened to take the pics to the proper adults-- and/or forward them widely over the internet-- if they did not comply with "her" demands to see the boys have sex with another boy-- Anthony Stanci, as it turns out.

Several of the boys actually went through with it. This went on for several months, until Stanci took things too far-- he concluded this sick sexual game wasn't enough to get back at his high school, so he called in a bomb threat that shut down classes. That's when the cops decided to snoop into sicko boy's background.

The maximum penalty if convicted on all charges is nearly 300 years in prison. [AP]

Stanci is facing a very rough life in prison, regardless of the length of his sentence-- an eighteen-year-old homosexual convicted of raping boys is about the worst imaginable setup for an inmate...

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Today in "The Sun Made This Up": Raccoon Bites Man's Manhood

Colleen Kane — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 18:40:00 GMT

Scanner is turning into the Castration Station today, what with this story and Emily's post. But what do you expect from monstrous feminists?

So, the British rag The Sun claims that a drunk man was trying to have a go at a racoon. You know, the old raping-the-racoon trick? According to the story, the fiesty raccoon fought back, biting the man's penis.

“He’s been told they can get things working again but they can’t sew back on what the raccoon bit off," according to a pal of the man.

OK, here's a few reasons why this story seems dubious.

--Sex with a raccoon? Wouldn't this drunk man have to catch the raccoon first?

--The man in question, Alexander Kirilov, is conveniently Russian, making it difficult for English-only speakers to confirm the story. A Google News search leads to a handful of stories about this in Italian, Czechoslovakian, and Norwegian, but none in Russian.

--Anyone can alert The Sun to a story tip via text message. Anyone can text message from anywhere, including from a pub whilst pinted up.

On the other hand, here's a reason it could be true: people are dumb.

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George W. Bush Attacks Our Vaginas

Brian Fairbanks — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 18:11:00 GMT

Gore Vidal predicted more than five years ago that George W. Bush would leave office the most hated President in history, and he was unfortunately right. (We would've been satisfied if Bush had simply been voted out in 2004 by any margin.) And it seems George is more than happy to accommodate this prophecy, regarding his legacy as little more than a few good days and some more money for his ultra-rich friends.

With his latest move, W. has now made it easier for you to be denied contraception...

Bush has now imposed a 127-page rule preventing any health care provider from being fired for refusing a patient medical care on religious grounds. Well, that's just great-- a rule that's supposed to let doctors and nurses avoid participating in abortions (hey, dumbass-- there's already a law for that, so that's not what this is about!) is actually a rule that will allow providers to avoid giving women access to contraceptives, ostensibly to keep them from having gay premarital ass sex... or something.

We all know what this is really about:

1) Preventing people from obtaining the pill from pharmacies

2) Preventing lesbians from conceiving

3) Preventing rape victims and others from receiving the morning after pill

4) Preventing women in danger of dying in childbirth from having abortions... and on and on and on.

If doctors are allowed to refuse to do anything "morally objectionable," does this mean a doctor could refuse to treat a gay man who has been the victim of an attack?

Barack Obama, are you reading this? What are you going to do, on your first day in office, after signing the bailout? We hope it's shooting down this order before it has time to do any real damage...

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While You Were Sleeping: 93% Prefer Real Boobs

Brian Fairbanks — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 14:01:00 GMT

A woman who selflessly built homes for Katrina victims is CNN's Hero of the Year, an award which is obviously way cooler than Time's Person of the Year.

However, you look at it, this company is in deep shit: a radio station is being sued after a Win A Date With A Great Guy contest ended in the unlucky winner being raped. One commenter: "Is the radio station [really] responsible for doing a through criminal background check? What's a 24 year old woman dating a 46 year old man anyway?" Answers: possibly and we have no clue whatsoever.

Here it is, the annual annoying survey of the Top 10 stars you'd like to invite over for Thanksgiving...

1. Jennifer Aniston
2. Tina Fey
3. Ellen DeGeneres + Portia De Rossi
4. Patrick Dempsey
5. Suri Cruise
6. Tyra Banks
7. Jonas Brothers
8. Keira Knightley
9. Beyonce Knowles
10. Robert Pattinson

Barack Obama joked he's going to throw his "weight around" regarding college football playoff rules. Isn't it great to have a President(-elect) whose kidding doesn't make you scream in horror?

Remember that big Hollywood wiretap scandal involving Tom Cruise and some other celebrities? The culprit was sentenced to three years in prison.

Biden does appear to be setting up his Senate seat for his son to take over in 2010.

93% of respondents to a Fark survey said they prefer real boobs to fake ones. Duh. It would've been more of a story if the question was, "Which do you prefer: small natural boobs or big enhanced boobs?"

And you could win a $500 gift card to Ikea and a date with one of the guys from Pavement.

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Sex Crimes Prosecutor Charged With Twelve, Count 'Em, Twelve Sex Crimes

Brian Fairbanks — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 17:37:00 GMT

From the Hypocrite Files: Martinez, California prosecutor Michael Gressett with twelve sex offenses, ranging from forced oral copulation to rape, stemming from an incident that took place back in May.

But Gressett says the woman is making up the story in a vengeful attempt to ruin his career.

The counts are as follows:

(3) forced sexual penetration

(4) sodomy by force

(2) forcible rape

(1) false imprisonment

(1) forced oral copulation

(1) some undetermined threatening charge

The victim is basically accusing him of the male version of the Sharon Stone character from Basic Instinct, claiming he used an icepick (and handgun, just for the hell of it) to keep her from struggling. But she was already tied up, so why did he need both a handgun and an icepick?

Something stinks about this whole case, and it's not just the fact that she waited five months before going to the police, which often happens in cases of acquaintance rape. It's just too simple-- a sex crimes prosecutor commits as many sex crimes as are humanly possible in one afternoon and not only ties the woman up, but uses a gun and a sharp object to keep her from fighting back. Then he just lets her leave his house and no one hears about it for five months.

In other words, we wouldn't be surprised if the charges are true, but in this case, we wouldn't be surprised if this woman's story starts to come up apart immediately...

Via Mercury News.

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Sloppy Seconds: Prostitution Is Now Rape in the U.K.?

Brian Fairbanks — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 22:23:00 GMT

The Frisky points us to a study that determined that Playboy Playmates get "older, heavier, and taller" in these, um, lean times.

Tom Jones spent the day busking for charity. Unfortunately, he would have raised more money by auctioning off a pair of tighty-whities.

Our hero of the day: a woman was robbed of the purse containing her green card. At the risk of great personal safety, she did what again?

A feisty Harlem woman turned the tables on three subway muggers, chasing down two of the thugs while snatching back her purse - because it had her green card in it, cops said yesterday.
As she continued to grab at the muggers, they decided they had enough. One of them begged Conde to let go of his accomplice.

"Leave him alone!" the thug cried out. "He's my friend!"

The gang gave up and ran away, leaving the purse on the ground. [NY Post]

Speaking of dumb robbers, this guy may be the dumbest ever: he robbed a convenience store, his stolen getaway vehicle broke down, and the taxi took him right back to where he started, where he was promptly arrested.

If you have sex with a prostitute who was human trafficked to the U.K., you could be charged with rape under a new law. Quite rightly: if a guy knows a hooker is being held against her will, he should do serious hard time. Didn't you guys ever see Lilya-4-Ever?

And as the world readies for the imminent release of Chinese Democracy, MTV looks back at Axl's finest hours.

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Woman Kills Rapist With Shotgun Blast Through Her Front Door

Brian Fairbanks — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 15:53:00 GMT

Now, you must be asking yourselves, how did she know he was a rapist if she blasted him as he's merely coming through the front door? Couldn't he have been a burglar or Robert Downey, Jr., searching for her daughter's bed?

Turns out the woman, a 57-year-old resident of St. Louis, Missouri, knew it was the same man who had raped her just a few short days earlier. The man, who was killed with a single shotgun blast, was 47-year-old Ronnie W. Preyer, a convicted sex offender, and identified at the scene by his victim has having, indeed, been the right man. Turns out, it was a simple repetition of tactics that gave him away: Preyer had broken her window to get her to come out of the house the night he raped her; when, after 2:00am on the night he was killed, he broke the very same window, the woman knew it had to be the same guy coming back for more.

She grabbed her shotgun and waited in the doorway. And it was Preyer's own fault he was killed-- if he hadn't turned off the electricity, the prey would have been able to call 9-1-1 and perhaps scare him off by loudly informing him the police were on the way. Instead, Preyer crashed through the locked front door and the victim had no choice but to blow him away.

Of course, the victim will not be charged, while the dead man's grave is being spit on (figuratively, of course) in the St. Louis Post-Dispatches' comment section following the story.

Good for her. He got what he deserved.
Why would he even go back for her again? What an idiot. Oh well, that's besides the point.GOOD FOR HER! Preyer deserved to be shot and should be thankful she didn't shoot him right in his(you know what). His last name even being,"Preyer" is a coincidence to me considering he preyed on this poor lady.
I'm glad it took several hours for him to die. He needed to suffer after what he did to that women. And who says we need gun control?

It's hard to argue with that. To think she may have been raped a second time is too much to even think about...

Via the Dispatch.

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Video of the Day: Women For McCain

Emily Farris — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 15:07:00 GMT

Scanner Alum and, uh, McCain supporter Katie Halper put together a little video for Women for McCain. You know, women like to know why other women are voting for the old man and his young lady.

We especially love the last part.

[KatieHalper.com]

Today in WTF? Flirting Women Blamed for Rape

Emily Farris — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 13:20:00 GMT

Looks like we can cross Northern Ireland off of the list for that six-week tour de Europe we plan to take when we have both time and money—unless of course we're wearing turtlenecks and sullen looks while we visit. According to a new study, nearly half of students in the country believe that women who flirt are to blame for their own rapes.

The research, conducted by Amnesty International, found that 46 percent of young people interviewed believe that women who flirted with their attacker were partially or fully to blame for the rape, while 30 percent said that women who wear revealing clothes are "inviting" rapists to target them.

In effect, doesn't this just mean that all these kids* think rape is okay? According to Amnesty, it's evidence of a "blame culture," which, uh, seems to be a roundabout way of saying rape is okay, no?

To make matters worse, one in 10 local students believes that violence is acceptable against a girlfriend who "nags, flirts with other men or refuses to have sex."

Very rightfully so, Amnesty International Northern Ireland programme director Patrick Corrigan is worried. “This survey shows that there are some extremely disturbing attitudes swirling around our campuses," he said. "It’s shocking that so many students lay the blame for being raped or assaulted at the feet of women themselves. If we are going to break a cycle of violence against women in Northern Ireland, we need to start by challenging attitudes amongst students and the population at large."

*The article didn't state whether male and female students were surveyed, but we're led to believe both were.

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[Irish Times: Flirting women blamed for rape in North survey]

[Image]

Hero of the Day: Dad Who Killed A Sex Offender Turned Home Invader

Brian Fairbanks — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 20:59:00 GMT

The Brew Board website wants to buy this guy's killer a beer. We couldn't agree more that, if ever there is a case where someone needs to be put down for someone else's self defense, this is arguably the one...

Apparently, in the wee hours of this morning, wanted sex offender David T. Meyers was found dead in a relative's hallway in Indianapolis, his killer still clutching him by the neck. Police soon learned that Meyers, who was found wearing rubber gloves and carrying rope, condoms, had climbed into the bedroom of a 17-year-old girl whose family is renting the house. The girl immediately screamed-- Meyers ran for it and was tackled in the hallway by the girl's father, Robert McNally. At some point, McNally wrapped his arm around Meyers' neck, eventually draining the life out of him.

The police have not ruled out a heart attack as the cause of death, although we hope that whatever way Meyers died, he suffered all the way.

"If a person breaks into your home, you are justified in using deadly force in defending your family," said Mount. "In this situation, I don't think he was trying to kill him, he was trying to hold him down."
Meyers had served 10 years in prison for criminal confinement and sexual deviate conduct and was wanted in Boone County for failure to register as a sex offender. He was registered as a sex offender in Marion County. [Fox IN]

The story adds that one observer noted that Meyers had family of his own, and therefore it was a lose-lose situation. Our response: fuck him. He gets no sympathy from us... although we are sincerely sorry for his family's loss. Seriously. They shouldn't have had to go through any of this.

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Woman Gets Life For... Sex With A Five-Year-Old Boy?!

Brian Fairbanks — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 18:09:00 GMT

Do we think it's fair that a 33-year-old woman, who was then only 21, got such a harsh punishment for having sex with a five-year-old under her then-husband's direction?

Here are the facts:

Kelly Lumadue, seen above, was barely legal herself when she had sex with a five-year-old boy. Lumadue claims her husband, now since passed away, all but forced her to get it on with the kid for her husband's leering camera.

In 2003, a garbageman found the tape, watched it, and reported Lumadue and her husband to the authorities. Bud, the hubby, died soon thereafter, of cancer. The boy, now a teenager, has no recollection of the events... at least not yet... and no one seems to know how he ended up in Lumadue's house.

Under Florida state law for capital sexual battery offenses, life in prison without the possibility of parole is the only permitted sentence, which is exactly what Lumadue received.

The question is not whether the crime was heinous. The question is whether we believe the crime was cruel enough to permit what's basically a death sentence. What do you think?

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Sloppy Seconds: It's Hailin' Palin

Emily Farris — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 21:34:00 GMT

Are you tired of Sarah Palin coverage yet? Is it better if we just lump it all into Sloppy Seconds?

Above, reader Pat Kearney's very-scary pitbull in lipstick. Pat, are you ready for your spanking from Scanner Brian?

Even though Heart explicitly asked the McCain-Palin camp to stop using their song "Barracuda," on the campaign trail, they haven't. Nancy, don't you know they can do whatever they want? They don't have to listen to you. Duh! [MTV]

Why would Wasilla, AK be the worst place in the country to get raped? Because Palin would make you pay for your own rape kit. [HuffPo]

Oh shit, does she think this election is the big pageant? That would make so much more sense. [MollyGood]

"Don’t get me wrong. I love Bristol. She’s fine. But I sure as shit didn’t think this is where I’d end up when we snuck off into the woods all those nights and she finally let me do what I felt in my bones God had intended for us to do. Maybe God did want us to have this baby. That’s what Mrs. P keeps saying, and hell if I’m gonna disagree with that nasty kootch. She’s the kinda lady who’ll saw your nuts off with a rusty hunting blade while she’s baking cupcakes for Sunday chapel." [The Morning News]

[NY Press: Beyond the Palin]

Men's Magazines All About Getting You Laid (File Under: Date Rape)

Emily Farris — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 17:48:00 GMT

We're on to you, men's healthy lifestyle magazines. Whether you bury your information in your editorial content, or allow it in the advertising section, you're really just a cover for getting dudes laid, right?

This month, the back pages of Men's Fitness bring us a disturbing ad for Sexactivator, a "magical wonder liquid" that "can be taken orally, or put in any drink." And, "some women say that they love when their man puts a few drops in their favorite drink without them knowing. They say that it turns them on even more."

We have two questions. 1) What the fuck? 2) Does it work on dudes?

Full ad after the jump.

We have to ask one more time: what the fuck?

[Jezebel: Baby, I Spiked Your Drink With Sexactivator: Scary Ads From The New Men's Fitness]

Previously:

"Men's Health" is All About Getting Dudes Laid, Safely

Today in WTF: Female Stripper Charged With Raping Customer

Brian Fairbanks — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 17:24:00 GMT

We're going to have to tread lightly with this one...

A woman in Australia named Linda Maree Naggs was performing a striptease and or a lapdance at a bachelor party amid a parade of entertainers. The next thing she knew, she was charged with raping a man who was at that party. Here's what we think could have happened:

1) She actually did rape the guy. Duh, obviously it's possibly the charge is true. She could have taken off his pants and sat on his dick or roughed him up or maybe blown him when he was drunk. Anything could've happened, really.

2) The guy in the story is actually the groom and his fiancee found out, so he told her the stripper had raped him. Unlikely, but we're exploring all options out of a sense of fairness.

3) Maybe the newspaper reports of Naggs having "sexually penetrated the man" are poorly worded. Maybe Australia's sex laws are phrased in such a way to include inappropriate dancing/touching/blowing as rape, instead of something closer to a misdemeanor.

What do you think? Obviously, no one knows the exact details of the case-- for one thing, both parties have placed gag orders on themselves, despite the magistrate's decision to allow the facts be made public-- so we can only speculate... but are we missing some possibilities here? (Obviously, we'll provide more details if they ever become available...)

Image via MTV.

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Today In WTF: 1970s Kidnapper, Still On The Lam, Turns Up With Cloned Dogs?

Brian Fairbanks — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 21:03:00 GMT

There's a Lifetime movie in here somewhere... if the female leads in Lifetime movies were kidnapping rapist beauty pageant winners who fall in love with Mormon missionaries, stalk them for decades, change their names, go on the lam, and turn up in the news in 2008 as the owner of cloned dogs...

Time Magazine broke a story that shows Bernann McKinney, owner of five pitbulls she claims to have have had cloned in Seoul from the ear of her beloved (now deceased) former dog, to be, with a great degree of certainty, none other than wanted bail jumper Joyce McKinney, the former Miss Wyoming.

There is so much goodness here, you're just going to have to settle for the original, full-length piece, although here's a taste in the meantime:

The 27-year-old McKinney was accused in court [in 1977]... of abducting 21-year-old Mormon missionary Kirk Anderson from a church in a London suburb... [where] he was chained to a [cottage] bed and forced to have sex with McKinney for three days. McKinney, once a Mormon herself, was said to have formed a crush on him after they'd first had sex in '75. Anderson tried to break off the relationship but McKinney... stalked him to England where [he'd become a] missionary to escape her attentions.
McKinney claimed that she was trying to rekindle her affair with Anderson using techniques of seduction recommended by... The Joy of Sex.
McKinney told the court that the chains, fur-lined manacles, rope, chloroform and wedding trousseau complete with "pink feathers and see-through nighties" were all props for the bondage sessions she planned for [him.] "We had such a fun time — just like old times," McKinney told the court in her native North Carolina drawl. "I love him so much that I would ski naked down Mount Everest with a carnation up my nose if he asked me to," she added. Such sexual frankness rather stuck out in a magistrates court in sedate, suburban Surrey, England, in those days.

For his part, Anderson claimed that he'd been kidnapped at gunpoint, forced to have sex while chained to the bed (and twice more unchained), and that, despite being six foot four and 240 lbs., had never resisted. "I had made a plan for my release," Anderson testified, "but it wasn't through running away. I was going to cooperate." Even after his ordeal, when McKinney and May drove him back to London and a long lunch in Trafalgar Square, he still cooperated.

We call bullshit on that last paragraph-- the entire paragraph. Anyway, there is some plausibility to this story; McKinney then went on the run with a friend who was also involved in the kidnapping, ending up in police custody in Atlanta, although she was released because her case was felt to be unworthy of an extradition order. In 1984, McKinney was busted again, this time in Utah, outside Anderson's office, with rope and handcuffs in her car. "Consensual," my ass. Soon after, all traces of her disappear... until...

In Seoul... [she] denied... that she is one and the same Joyce McKinney who is still technically a fugitive from British justice... Both [McKinney and Bernann] are former beauty queens, both often use a wheelchair, both owned a pitbull. And on the voter's register of Avery County, the North Carolina birthplace of the onetime Miss Wyoming, there is listed one Joyce Bernann McKinney. A clone perhaps?

Via Time.

Teenage Girl Gets 2 Month Sentence For False Rape Allegation

Brian Fairbanks — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 14:57:00 GMT

A middle-aged taxi driver in England is suffering from a devastating rape allegation made against him by a 17-year-old girl.

Aftab Ahmed of Allerton, Bradford was publicly humiliated, lost thousands of pounds defending himself, and is still reeling from the stress caused by the charge... which was false. Now, the girl who was found to have blatantly lied about the incident has been slapped (on the wrist) with a two-month sentence. But Ahmed wants only one thing from her...

Ahmed said the girl had "destroyed" his life.
The teenager was told she would serve two months in custody, but the married father of 11-year-old twin daughters said: "Today is the worst day of my life, I can't imagine that the person who destroyed a whole family got only two months.
"I'm completely shattered by the news. She has destroyed my family life, my social life, and she has destroyed me economically. She destroyed my credibility. There is also the effect on my children. I believe they didn't consider these things completely.
"She should be named and shamed."

Shield laws protect the girl's name from being publicly outed, but Ahmed does have a point: in cases where a teenager is found guilty of a lie that caused irreparable harm to another person, especially when it comes to false accusations, shouldn't the teenager's name receive the same treatment?

She absolutely should. And I believe those who can be proven to have falsely accused someone else of rape should be made to serve the time the falsely accused would've, and pay restitution as well.
That said, how, really, do you ever give this guy back what he lost and repay him for the pain he and wife and his kids must have gone through? And, all because he picked up the wrong drunk brat and tried to get her home safely... [Advice Goddess]

Yes, Ahmed's first mistake was taking the girl home instead of calling her parents or the police. Miss Anonymous was drinking illegally with friends when her friendly taxi driver came to the rescue, promising her friends he'd get the girl home, and even giving them his registration number. The girl vomited half a dozen times on the way home, then, upon arrival, began to feel a pain in her vagina.

When she returned home she made the allegation of rape and took police to Baildon Moor where she said it had happened.
In a statement read to the court she said: "I was upset, I was drunk and experienced a pain with my vagina. I was extremely disorientated in the taxi. I arrived home. At that stage I seriously believed I had experienced a genuine sexual assault. I returned to normality and realised it had not taken place. By that time the police were on their way. The incident had spiraled out of control and I was concerned about what would happen if I said it had not happened at all."

What do you think? Was two months a fair punishment?

Via Yorkshire Evening Post.

Principal Fired For Convincing Student To Run Away With Him (Oh, And He's Charged With Rape, Too)

Brian Fairbanks — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 19:15:00 GMT

A principal in Snohomish County, Washington (that can't be a real name) has allegedly been fired for convincing a 14-year-old girl to run away from home. With him? Probably, since he's also charged with rape...

But there's a kicker...

The announcement was made Thursday night inside the Highland Christian School auditorium, the school where Mark Brown had been principal until the 37-year-old was charged with rape last week.
Snohomish County prosecutors said Brown sexually assaulted a 14-year-old female student inside a hidden room at the school after authorities said he encouraged her to run away from home.School board attorney Brett Nagle made the announcement that Brown was no longer employed at the high school at a meeting held so that parents, students and faculty could voice their concerns.

...it's a Christian school... but hey, they still have great sports teams!

My God, people, is there nothing sacred anymore?

Via KIRO-TV.

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Why Is The Military Covering Up Murder In Iraq?

Brian Fairbanks — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 20:23:00 GMT

Pfc. Lavena Johnson, 19, was the first woman from Missouri to be killed in the Iraq War. She was found in KBR tent with a broken nose, busted teeth, cut-up lip, burn marks on her genitals, and a gunshot wound to her head.

The US Military told this soldier's family that their daughter died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound...

An Army representative initially told LaVena's father, Dr. John Johnson, that his daughter died of "died of self-inflicted, noncombat injuries," but initially added that it was not a suicide. The subsequent Army investigation reversed this finding and declared LaVena's death a suicide... Dr. Johnson pointed to indications that his daughter had endured a physical struggle... suggesting that "someone might have punched her in the mouth."

A promise by the office of Representative William Lacy Clay to look into the matter produced nothing. The military said that the matter was closed.

Liberal media outlets such as Democracy Now! and some lesser-known blogs have trumpeted the case, to no avail. Now the Katrina-focused group Color of Change is pushing hard for a Congressional petition, and have added a new charge to the fray: rape by her a military serviceperson.

[S]he was raped, murdered, and her body was burned--by someone from her own military base.

From Common Dreams:

“Lavena was clearly happy and seemed in very good health both physically and emotionally.”
Johnson was concerned about the bruising on her face. He was puzzled by the discrepancy in the autopsy report on the location of the gunshot wound. As a US Army veteran and a 25-year US Army civilian employee who had counseled veterans, he was mystified how the exit wound of an M-16 shot could be so small. The hole in Lavena’s head appeared to be more the size of a pistol shot rather than an M-16 round. He questioned why the exit hole was on the left side of her head, when she was right handed. But the gluing of military uniform white gloves onto Lavena’s hands hiding burns on one of her hands is what deepened Dr. Johnson’s concerns that the Army’s investigation into the death of his daughter was flawed.

But this is only the beginning of the coverup: among other things, investigators claimed that Lavena was found fully clothed, although hidden crime scene photos showed this to be a falsification, and that Lavena was, in fact, found in the nude. There was also an unexplained blood trail leaving her KBR tent.

We're not even going to pretend to be objective here: this is the military we're talking about. This might not even make the footnotes on a multi-volume history of their illegal coverups, lies, and defrauding of the treasury. We're just going to say: this is fucking sick, and you should sign this petition for the Democrats to open an investigation here.

More on this story from Common Dreams, Lavena Johnson The Website, and Democracy Now.

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Somebody Wants To Invade Our Vaginas

Brian Fairbanks — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 12:52:00 GMT

Woah! At the end of the day yesterday, we received this message from the John McCain satellite office at Cakebread (the man is rumored to have shadow offices everywhere, including at Katie Couric's house and the W.C. at the DNC.) Our minds were too blown to do anything about it at the time. What if it was true? The government killed people for publicizing less Top Secret information.

But here is, no doubt, irrefutable proof that Senator John McCain is going to invade our fucking vaginas. It's even in quotes, for God's sake, so it must be true.

Okay, that's about as far as we can stretch the joke. But y'all know McCain can keep it going, maybe make it part of his Iran warmongering speeches: "Iran, if you don't stop building those nukes, I'm going to personally invade all your vaginas." And so forth.

In unrelated news, McCain continued his sore loser tradition of trying to make everything look like it was his idea all along! Classic McCain moment from yesterday: Senator, are you upset that Europe and, in particular, Berlin are welcoming Barack Obama is a hero, the generation's greatest leader? Naw, I think I'll wait to speak in Germany until after I'm elected. Fair enough, but we can't help but think McCain is the kid who didn't get invited to your ninth birthday party and then acted like he wouldn't have gone even if he that invitation hadn't gotten "lost in the mail."