sex offenders news stories on Newser

3 Dating Sites Will Screen for Predators

Rob Quinn — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 05:24:30 CDT

Three of the biggest online dating services are moving to make the billion-dollar industry a safer one for users. Match.com, eHarmony, and Spark Networks have signed an agreement to screen prospective clients for histories of sexual assault, violence, and identity theft, the Los Angeles Times reports. The companies have...

Program to Lock Up Worst Sex Offenders a Mess

Evann Gastaldo — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 09:47:44 CDT

The Justice Department has sought to indefinitely detain 136 "sexually dangerous" sex offenders under a controversial law enacted six years ago that allows them to be locked up for good if three things are proven: the crime was child molestation or an act of sexual violence, the offender has a...

Germany Advised to Stop Castrating Sex Offenders

Evann Gastaldo — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 13:58:05 CST

Germany doesn't mess around when it comes to sex offenders—serious offenders can volunteer to be surgically castrated—but now an anti-torture committee says the country should put an end to that practice, Reuters reports. The panel at the Strasbourg Council, Europe's top human rights watchdog, called the practice "degrading"...

Bound Children Removed From Sex Offender Home

Mary Papenfuss — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 01:00:00 CST

Texas authorities have removed 11 children, some bound and injured, from a group home where at least one known sex offender was living. Eight children were kept in a single bedroom with plywood covering the only window; authorities found two 2-year-old children and a 5-year-old girl tied to filthy mattresses,...

Slain Girl's Grandfather Had Been Sex Offender

John Johnson — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 19:12:23 CST

One of the nagging questions about the horrific murder of 9-year-old Aliahna Lemmon in Indiana: Why would a mother move into a trailer park full of convicted sex offenders with her three young daughters? The answer from AP is a wrenching one: Tarah Souders made the move to care for...

Sex Assault on Chihuahua Gets Ex-Convict 10 Years

Mary Papenfuss — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 01:35:00 CST

A wheelchair-bound California parolee has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for sexually assaulting an eight-month-old Chihuahua. He must also register as a sex offender in what could be the first such requirement in an animal abuse case. Robert Edward De Shields was renting space in a Sacramento house...

Molester Helped Cast Hollywood Child Actors

Rob Quinn — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 05:02:05 CST

A conviction for kidnapping and molesting an 8-year-old boy in 1996 didn't prevent Jason James Murphy from forging a successful career in Hollywood casting—recruiting child actors for movies including Super 8 and Bad News Bears . Murphy, 35, moved to California after completing a 5-year prison sentence in Washington state....

DNA Nails NYC Subway Perv

Rob Quinn — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 03:42:47 CDT

A man who got his kicks exposing himself and rubbing up against female subway riders left enough of himself behind for police to catch him. Darnell Hardware, who had to submit his DNA to the state databank after being convicted of felony drug possession, has been charged with three subway...

Match.com, Don't Bother Screening Sex Offenders

Evann Gastaldo — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 13:45:05 CDT

In response to a lawsuit , Match.com announced it will start checking its members against a national sex offender registry —but that's not news worth getting excited about, writes Benjamin Radford on LiveScience . "There are several obvious flaws with the plan," including the fact that members can register for the...