Embattled music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs is facing yet another lawsuit, this time from a photographer who alleges he was sexually assaulted by the rapper.
The plaintiff, identified as John Doe, claims the incident occurred during a high-profile commercial shoot in 2022 or 2023. According to his lawsuit, filed in New York State Supreme Court on March 26, Combs invited him into his trailer under the pretense of discussing career opportunities.
Once inside, the lawsuit alleges, Combs unzipped his pants and told the photographer that if he performed satisfactory oral sex, it would make his “career take off.” The plaintiff claims he complied out of fear that his career would suffer if he refused.
When Combs allegedly deemed the act unsatisfactory, he threatened him with violence before sending him back to work, leaving him to process the trauma.
“No matter how many lawsuits are filed—especially by individuals who refuse to put their own names behind their claims—it won’t change the fact that Mr. Combs has never sexually assaulted or sex trafficked anyone—man or woman, adult or minor,” the statement reads. “We live in a world where anyone can file a lawsuit for any reason. Fortunately, a fair and impartial judicial process exists to find the truth, and Mr. Combs is confident he will prevail in court.”
Sean “Diddy” Combs, founder of Bad Boy Records, has been hit with several lawsuits over the years, with men, women, and minors accusing him of sexual misconduct. These allegations date back decades, but he has always denied them.
The latest lawsuit comes while Combs is still in custody in Brooklyn. He was recently indicted on federal charges, including sex trafficking, racketeering, and forced labor.
Despite the charges, Combs has pleaded not guilty, and his trial is expected to begin soon.
A Spanish appeals court has overturned the four-and-a-half-year prison sentence of former Barcelona and Brazil defender Dani Alves, acquitting him of sexual assault.
The 41-year-old had been convicted in February 2024 for an alleged incident at a Barcelona nightclub in December 2022. However, he was granted bail in March 2024 as legal proceedings continued.
The High Court of Justice of Catalonia ruled in favor of Alves’ appeal, with a panel of four judges citing “inaccuracies” in the original conviction.
The appeals panel consisted of judges Maria Angels Vivas, Roser Bach, Maria Jesus Manzano and Manuel Alvarez, who reasoned the initial ruling contained “a series of gaps, inaccuracies, inconsistencies and contradictions regarding the facts, the legal assessment and its consequences”.
The court rejected two separate appeals from the prosecution, one from the public prosecutor’s office, which sought to partially annul the verdict and extend Alves’ sentence to nine years, and another from a private prosecution pushing for a 12-year sentence.
Alves was granted bail in March after his legal team posted a €1 million ($1.08 million) bond. His release was conditional, requiring him to remain in Spain and surrender both his Spanish and Brazilian passports to authorities while awaiting the appeal’s resolution.
Prior to securing bail, the former Barcelona defender had spent 14 months in Brians 2 prison in Catalonia. He was initially arrested by local police in January 2023 in connection with an alleged sexual assault at Barcelona’s Sutton nightclub.
The Spanish public prosecutor’s office accused Alves of assaulting a 23-year-old woman at the venue, though he consistently denied the allegations.
University of Ghana has suspended Dr. Sampson Obed Appiah,a senior lecturer in the Sociology Department, for two semesters due to sexual harassment.
In a notice signed by the University’s Registrar, Mrs. Emelia Agyei-Mensah, and dated March 12, 2025, Dr. Appiah was named among 16 students who faced disciplinary action for different forms of misconduct.
The university stated that Dr. Appiah violated Section 1.1(A) of the Sexual Harassment and Misconduct Policy and Section 10.0 of the Code of Conduct for Academic Staff. As part of his punishment, he must write a formal apology to the complainant and is prohibited from applying for promotion for one year after his suspension ends.
Additionally, he is required to undergo training on sexual harassment and misconduct, which will be organized by the Anti-Sexual Harassment Committee.
The university has urged all students and staff to familiarize themselves with the institution’s rules and uphold ethical behavior within the academic community.
This is not the first For instance, Dr. Sampson Obed Appiah, a senior lecturer in the Sociology Department, was recently suspended for two semesters due to allegations of sexual harassment. This case highlights the university’s ongoing commitment to addressing such issues and enforcing its policies on misconduct.
The University of Ghana has a comprehensive Sexual Harassment and Misconduct Policy aimed at fostering a safe and respectful environment for all members of its community. The policy defines sexual harassment broadly, including unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature.
Also, in 2019 two lecturers, Prof. Ransford Gyampo and Dr. Paul Kwame Butakor, were implicated following the “Sex for Grades” exposé.
This was a 2019 BBC documentary that revealed instances of sexual harassment in West African universities, including the University of Ghana. The university responded by interdicting the lecturers and initiating investigations through its Anti-Sexual Harassment Committee. While the committee found no evidence of sexual misconduct as defined by university regulations, the lecturers were found guilty of conduct that brought disrepute to the institution
Two new sexual assault lawsuits have been lodged against Sean “Diddy” Combs, alleging misconduct when the plaintiffs were minors. Both suits, filed in New York, involve claims from males who were underage during the alleged incidents.
One plaintiff states he was just 10 years old at the time, while the other claims he was assaulted while auditioning for the MTV reality series “Making the Band,” which Mr. Combs produced.
In response to the allegations, representatives for Mr. Combs issued a statement to the BBC, firmly denying any wrongdoing. They asserted that he has “never sexually assaulted or trafficked anyone—man or woman, adult or minor”.
Warning: This story contains details some readers may find disturbing
In recent months, Mr. Combs has been confronted with over two dozen lawsuits alleging serious offences such as rape, drugging individuals, assaults on minors, intimidation, and sexual extortion.
Additionally, the rapper is facing federal criminal charges related to an alleged conspiracy involving sex trafficking and racketeering, to which he has pleaded not guilty.
On Monday, two lawsuits were filed by attorney Tony Buzbee, who claims to represent more than 100 alleged victims and intends to submit numerous lawsuits against Mr. Combs in the weeks ahead.
In the first lawsuit, which was filed anonymously, the plaintiff alleges that Mr Combs assaulted him in 2005 when he was 10 years old and an aspiring actor and rapper.
To support their son’s ambitions in entertainment, the boy’s parents enlisted the help of an industry consultant who suggested they travel to New York for meetings with music professionals.
During the trip, the consultant set up an “audition” with Mr Combs, who requested a private meeting with the boy, the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit claims the consultant escorted the boy to Mr Combs’ hotel room, where he was left alone. The boy performed several rap songs for Mr Combs, who told him he had the potential to become a star.
Read more on the allegations against Diddy:
According to the complaint, Mr Combs asked the boy how committed he was to pursuing his dream, and the boy replied that he would “do anything.”
During the meeting, a third person gave the boy a soda that made him feel “funny,” but at the time, the plaintiff thought the feelings were from happiness over the meeting, the lawsuit states.
The rapper is then accused of disrobing and ordering the boy to perform a sex act.
When the boy resisted, Mr Combs allegedly assaulted him. The plaintiff says in the complaint that he lost consciousness and woke up in pain with his pants undone.
Mr Combs told him if he told anyone he would hurt his parents, according to the lawsuit.
In the second lawsuit, an unnamed male alleges he was sexually assaulted by Mr Combs in 2008.
The plaintiff was 17 when he was auditioning for the MTV reality competition Mr Combs produced.
During various rounds of the audition process, Mr Combs allegedly asked the plaintiff how he would handle situations involving sexual pressure.
He and his bodyguard went on to force the teen into sexual acts, the lawsuit states.
Mr Combs is currently being held at the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Brooklyn, New York following his September arrest on federal charges.
He was denied bail and will remain in custody until his trial in May.
He has denied all the allegations against him.
“Mr Combs and his legal team have full confidence in the facts and the integrity of the judicial process,” his representatives said.
If convicted of racketeering, he could face life in prison.
Sean “Diddy” Combs is facing fresh allegations of sexual misconduct, including rape and sexual abuse, following the filing of multiple lawsuits on Monday.
The lawsuits, brought forward by two women and four men, allege a range of assaults that span from 1995 to 2021.
These accusations, some of which reportedly occurred during parties hosted by Combs and attended by high-profile celebrities and musicians, add to a growing number of claims against the music mogul.
One accuser, who was 16 years old at the time, claimed that during a party in the Hamptons in 1998, he had an encounter with Mr. Combs. After being thrilled to receive an invitation to the star-studded event, the accuser said he met Combs while walking to the bathroom.
During their conversation about entering the music industry, the accuser alleged that Combs abruptly told him to undress. The lawsuit includes a photograph from the event, with the accuser’s face blurred.
Combs’ legal team has strongly denied all allegations, stating that he “has never sexually assaulted anyone” and reaffirming his innocence against the claims.
The legal battle follows previous accusations against Combs, raising significant concerns regarding his conduct at various industry-related events.
According to the lawsuit, Mr Combs said it was “a rite of passage” and “the route to becoming a star”. The rapper told the teen he could make anyone a star and the teen had the right “look”, the lawsuit states.
One of the newly filed lawsuits alleges that a woman was raped by Sean “Diddy” Combs in a hotel room in 2004 when she was a 19-year-old college student.
The lawsuit states that the woman met Combs during a photoshoot, where he subsequently invited her and a friend to a private party at his hotel. Upon arrival, she claims that despite her repeated requests for him to stop, Mr. Combs “fondled, molested, and ultimately raped her.”
The attorney representing the accusers, Tony Buzbee, has announced that he is advocating for over 100 individuals who intend to file lawsuits against Combs for sexual assault, rape, and sexual exploitation.
Buzbee indicated that among these alleged victims are children. The lawsuits are being filed under the Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Act, which permits victims to pursue legal action on older claims.
“We will let the allegations in the filed complaints speak for themselves, and will work to see that justice is done,” Mr Buzbee said in a statement after filing the lawsuits Monday.
“We expect to be filing many more cases over the next several weeks naming Mr Combs and others as defendants as we continue to gather evidence and prepare the filings.”
The lawsuits are the latest of more than a dozen that have been filed against Mr Combs recently, accusing the music mogul of assaults, rape and sexual extortion.
He has denied all civil and criminal claims against him.
Mr Combs is facing federal criminal charges of racketeering and sex trafficking. A judge last week tentatively scheduled his trial to begin on 5 May 2025.
Mr Combs has been held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York since his 16 September arrest. His lawyers have argued for his release until the trial, citing the jail’s “horrific” conditions.
A New York federal judge denied their request for bail, arguing that Mr Combs was a “serious flight risk”.
Johannes Rivoire, who is in his 90s and lives in Lyon, France, has been accused of sexually abusing Inuit children while he was in Nunavut.
Rev said he was very let down. Ken Thorson works at OMI in Lacombe, Canada.
The OMI Lacombe Canada and the Oblates of the Province of France asked the leaders in Rome to start the process of firing Rivoire in 2022. This was because the priest didn’t want to go back to Canada to deal with the charges against him.
Rivoire was wanted by the police because he was accused of touching a girl in a bad way in Arviat and Whale Cove, Nvt. , between 1974 and 1979. French authorities said no to sending a person back to Canada when Canadian authorities asked them to.
The priest didn’t go to trial because he didn’t come back to Canada when the police wanted to arrest him in 1998. He was accused of sexually abusing people in three Nunavut communities – Arviat, Rankin Inlet, and Naujaat. More than twenty years later, the charges were dropped.
The Canadian government said that France didn’t want to send the person back.
Rivoire said that he didn’t do the things people are accusing him of, and no one has shown in court that he did.
Inuit leaders and politicians want the priest to go to trial. Natan Obed, who leads a group called Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, said he wanted the Pope to talk to Rivoire when Indigenous people visited the Vatican in 2022.
A group of 10 people from Nunavut Tunngavik Inc, which represents Nunavut Inuit, went to France and talked to Rivoire, asking him to come back to Canada. The group said that as many as 60 children might have been hurt.
Last year, almost 12 members of BeBrave France, a group in France that wants to stop children from being hurt, protested outside the retirement home where Rivoire was living. He has been moved to a different building in Lyon because he was getting too much attention at the old place, according to Thorson.
Thorson said that there were two warnings and a formal recommendation in the disciplinary process. Rivoire’s lawyer said that his health is getting worse and the doctors advised him not to travel for more than one hour. That’s why he can’t come back, Thorson said.
Because Rivoire was not healthy, the Oblate administration in Rome did not go through with kicking him out of the congregation, according to Thorson.
Canada was going to tell Rivoire to leave, but Thorson said it would show that the church wants to take responsibility and make things right.
“I know we didn’t do everything we could to help in this situation,” Thorson said.
“I feel really sorry about that. ”
Thorson said he wants a fair investigation into the accusations against Rivoire and how the Oblates dealt with the situation to bring justice.
The Oblates of Mary Immaculate in Canada and the Oblates of the Province of France have chosen former Superior Court justice Andre Denis to be in charge of the Oblate Safeguarding Commission.
The commission’s job is to find out how the accusations against Rivoire were dealt with in the Catholic group and to make rules and ways to make sure kids are safe and people are responsible.
It will also look at why Rivoire left Canada.
A report must be shared with the public by April 1st.
The writer for the Sydney Morning Herald was staying at the Southern Sun hotel to talk about a game between Australia and South Africa.
The investigation on Friday found out that Mr. Roebuck is accused of sexually assaulting a 26-year-old man in his room on 7 November. They had planned to discuss whether he could help the student with money for university.
Someone told the police about a problem on November 12, and the police went to Mr. Roebuck’s hotel to arrest him that same evening.
Jim Maxwell, a friend of Mr. Roebuck, got a call late at night asking him to go to his room. He works for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Mr Maxwell, who was staying on the same floor of the hotel, said he went into the room after a police officer greeted him and saw his friend sitting on the bed.
“He was really sad,” he said.
He said that Mr Roebuck told him to call people at his house and to find a lawyer, then the police asked him to leave.
Mr McDonald went out the hotel room to make a phone call and heard his work friend Lt Cecil Jacobs yelling at Mr Roebuck.
An incident happened and Mr. Roebuck died, according to the investigation.
Mr McDonald said: “When the incident happened, the person who died seemed very relaxed and in charge of himself. ”
The court was told that examinations done in South Africa and the UK both found that Mr Roebuck died from multiple injuries.
The inquest in South Africa found that the person died the same way. The family did not go to the inquest.
Dr Matthew Lyall, the doctor who examined the body after death, said in his report that there is no evidence to definitely show that someone else caused the injuries. But it’s also possible that someone else was involved, based on the examination.
At the end of the investigation, Jacqueline Devonish, the senior coroner for Cheshire, thanked the family members who came to court.
She apologized for the long time it took to make progress on the case, and mentioned that they were waiting for a renewed hearing in South Africa, but it hasn’t happened yet.
A Spanish court has rejected Dani Alves’ request for more time to prepare for his trial over allegations of sexually assaulting a woman in Barcelona in 2022.
The former footballer, arrested in January last year, faces a nine-year prison term and damages of 150,000 euros.
Alves initially denied any encounter with the woman, later stating it was consensual.
The trial commenced at the Provincial Court of Barcelona, where Alves argued he faced trial by media. The public prosecutor accuses him of forcing sex without a condom.
🔴 Las frases más destacadas de la defensa de Alves y de la abogada de la víctima
🗨️ "Alves tiene un saldo negativo de 20.000 euros" 🗨️ "Mi representado no ha tenido un proceso con todas las garantías" 🗨️ "Parece que la defensa quiere que existan privilegios para el denunciado" pic.twitter.com/Pb2xMMKEgq
His mother, accompanied by one of his brothers, blew kisses and made a heart-shaped sign with her hands as Alves, handcuffed and escorted by police officers, entered the room.
The three-judge panel denied a request by Alves’ lawyer, Ines Guardiola for the trial to be suspended on the basis that he was not given enough time to prepare for his first police interview after his arrest and had suffered a parallel trial by the media.
Sexual assault is a dominant political theme in Spain, even more so after the alleged non-consensual kiss that then Spanish Football Federation chief Luis Rubiales planted on the lips of Jenni Hermoso after the team’s World Cup triumph last August.
Alves’ trial is one of Spain’s highest-profile since a 2022 law from the socialist-led government made consent a key factor in sexual assault cases and increased the minimum jail time for such assaults involving violence.
The law was prompted by the 2016 gang-rape of a teenager during the San Fermin bull-running festival after the five men were originally convicted by a lower court of sexual abuse, sparking mass protests. The country’s top court subsequently ruled they were guilty of rape.
The case triggered national soul-searching on the topic, which continues to this day as gender violence rates remain high.
In Spain, a claim of rape is now investigated under the general accusation of sexual assault, with rape as an aggravating factor.
The Alves trial is expected to last three days.
The alleged victim testified on Monday in a closed-doors session. She talked from behind a screen, with her voice distorted to protect her identity.
Alves has won more than 40 trophies for Brazil and clubs including Barcelona, Sevilla, Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain. Following his arrest, he was fired by Mexico’s Pumas UNAM.
A 43-year-old driver is being tried for sexually assaulting a female minor at Twifo Eduabeng in the Twifo Atti-Morkwa District of the Central Region.
George Antwi, the suspect, is said to have accessed the 12-year-old’s private part and fondled it.
The suspect, also known to be a herbal medicine practitioner was arraigned at the Twifo Praso District Court.
The prosecution, Chief Inspector Joseph Kusah informed the court that the suspect took advantage of the healthcare service he provides to the minor and lured her into his bedroom, where he asked her to undress.
He is said to have turned off the lights and began touching the minor in an unpleasant way. Per the prosecution, George was caught by the victim’s sisters, but he threatened to take their lives should they disclose what they had seen to anyone.
The sisters nonetheless informed their parents, and a formal complaint was later lodged at the police station.
Antwi was arrested and charged with two counts, indecent assault and threats of harm. The court, presided over by Maxwell Foli Kpodo has granted him bail in the sum of Gh¢5,000.00 with two sureties after the accused pleaded not guilty.
The court further ordered the suspect not to travel out of the jurisdiction until the conclusion of the case.
Former Brazil international Dani Alves said for the first time that he was drunk on the night he is accused of committing sexual assault, judicial sources have confirmed to news agency EFE.
If acknowledged as a mitigating factor during the upcoming court proceedings in February, it could potentially lead to a reduced sentence in the event of a conviction.
Alves’ attorney, Inés Guardiola, contends that the extent of Alves’ intoxication impaired his cognitive abilities, rendering him unaware of his actions.
This revelation marks the fifth alteration in Alves’ account since his arrest in January of the previous year on charges of sexually assaulting a woman in a Barcelona nightclub on December 30, 2022.
Initially, he claimed not to know the victim. Subsequently, he stated that he had encountered the woman in the club’s bathroom but maintained that nothing untoward had occurred.
The former Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain defender then changed his version of events upon being presented with biological evidence, asserting that the encounter involved consensual oral sex.
Last April, following additional biological tests, Alves, aged 40, admitted for the first time to having consensual intercourse with the woman. He explained that he had initially lied to conceal his infidelity to his wife.
Alves has been in preventive prison without bail since his arrest, leading to the termination of his contract with Liga MX club Pumas UNAM, which he joined after leaving Barcelona in June 2022.
The trial is set to take place from February 5 to 7 at a court in Barcelona, with state prosecutors seeking a nine-year prison sentence. Meanwhile, the woman’s legal representation is advocating for a 12-year prison term, along with restraining orders against Alves post-incarceration and a compensation payment of €150,000 ($163,605) to the woman.
Spain’s sexual consent law, enacted last year, encompasses a broad spectrum of offences, from online abuse and groping to rape, each carrying different potential penalties. The charge of sexual assault, under this law, can result in a maximum sentence of 15 years for cases of rape.
A report jointly conducted by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Girls Excellent Movement (GEM) has revealed that 51.9% of female students in Ghanaian Senior High Schools were victims of sexual assaults from 2019 to 2021.
Titled “Sheltered yet Exposed,” the report disclosed that 54.3% of the assaulted girls were aged between 17 and 22, while 45.7% fell within the 11 to 16 age brackets.
The assaults were reportedly carried out by friends, family friends, schoolmates, teachers, and strangers. Friends constituted the majority of perpetrators at 24%, followed by family friends at 12%, schoolmates at 12%, teachers at 10%, and strangers at 9%.
Juliana Ama Kplorfia, Founder and Executive Director of GEM, highlighted uncles, cousins, neighbors, fathers, and fathers-in-law as additional groups responsible for sexual assaults on SHS girls.
She attributed these incidents to academic, financial, and mental challenges, resulting in depression, trauma, bipolar disorder, anxiety, panic attacks, and sometimes leading victims to drop out of school.
Kplorfia urged the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service to enhance the counseling units in schools and emphasized the importance of making rape and sexual harassment reporting free of charge.
Additionally, she called for the removal of taxes on sanitary pads and their provision to female students at no cost. Kplorfia urged parents to be vigilant and keep a close eye on their children to protect them from sexual predators.
The important decision was made after Rina Gonoi, who is 24 years old, shared her story on YouTube in 2022. This story caused a lot of people to be upset and caught the attention of the world.
The Fukushima prosecutors charged the three men in March after changing their minds.
Speaking up against sexual violence in very traditional Japan is uncommon and still considered a forbidden topic.
Many similar events are not reported, and people have only started paying attention to this issue in recent years after hearing about well-known cases like Ms. Gonoi, Shiori Ito’s trial, and the Johnny Kitagawa scandal.
The decision today shows that what they did was wrong, so I want them to admit it and think about what they did. “I hope this decision will help victims to be brave and speak up,” Ms. Ganoi said to the reporters after leaving the courtroom.
This is the first important decision on sexual assault in Japan since June when the country changed its laws on sex crimes. The changes included redefining rape and raising the age when people can give consent for sexual activity.
It happened because people worked for a long time to change things after some court decisions let attackers go free. Activists say the old laws often stopped survivors from speaking up.
Kanae Doi, who works for Human Rights Watch in Japan, said that the ruling today is good news. It shows that survivors of sexual violence in Japan will be listened to, and that people who hurt their rights can be held accountable. While there are still things to fix in society, this ruling is a positive step.
A survey by the government in 2021 found that 6% of people who were attacked went to the police. Nearly half of the women said they didn’t go because they felt too embarrassed.
In August 2021, three men held Ms. Gonoi down on a bed, opened her legs forcefully, and pressed their private areas against her repeatedly.
She told the BBC that about 12 other coworkers were there, but nobody stopped the three people. Many were laughing.
Ms Gonoi told her bosses about what happened, but they didn’t believe her because she couldn’t find anyone who saw it.
Later, the three men were accused of touching someone in a bad way by the Ground Self-Defence Force (GSDF) police, but the case was not pursued because there wasn’t enough proof. Ms Gonoi finally quit the army.
Last year, a lot of people watched her YouTube video and she got over 100,000 people to sign a petition asking the defense ministry to look into what happened to her. The ministry said sorry to her and started a special investigation. They found over 100 other complaints of harassment in the ministry.
However, along with the attention also came a lot of mean comments and even people threatening to harm or kill them online.
“Some people online said I was ugly. others asked if I was really a man,” she told the BBC. “When I was asking people to sign a petition, I received a scary email saying, ‘I will hurt you if you continue’”
She said that she was experiencing sexual harassment every day even before the incident happened. Her coworkers would say things about her body and touch her inappropriately while others looked on.
Ms Gonoi is suing the five people who hurt her and the government of Japan. She is asking for 5. 5 million yen (about $40,000 or £32,000) from the men for making her feel very upset, and 2 million yen from the government for not stopping the abuse.
In June, the government changed the sex crime laws in a big way. They expanded the definition of rape to include any non-consensual sexual intercourse, not just when force is used. This puts Japan in line with other countries’ laws. The legal age when someone can agree to have sex was changed from 13 to 16.
Also, the new laws clearly explain eight situations where a victim may find it hard to “say no” to sex.
These situations can happen when a person is drunk or on drugs, or when they are being hurt or threatened, or when they are really scared or surprised. Another situation shows someone using their power to harm others, and the person being hurt is afraid of what will happen if they say no.
Ms Gonoi was named as one of the inspiring and influential women on the BBC 100 Women list for 2023, and she was also included on the TIME100 Next 2023 List.
Sean “Diddy” Combs faces another lawsuit within a two-week span, wherein he is accused of drugging and sexually assaulting a woman who also alleges being a victim of “revenge porn” by the music artist.
The civil suit, filed under the New York Adult Survivors Act, includes Combs and his companies, including Bad Boy Entertainment.
This legal action is part of a surge in cases filed against high-profile individuals as the deadline for filing under the state’s look-back law approaches this week.
The purported victim, Joi Dickerson-Neal, was a student at Syracuse University during the 1991 incident and had previously appeared in a few video clips of a music video with Combs.
According to the lawsuit, she reluctantly agreed to dinner with Combs during a school break for the holidays in January. The suit alleges that he pushed her to keep him company while he attended to “a few things in the city.”
Joi Dickerson-Neal with Sean “Diddy” Combs featured in the music video “Straight From The Soul.”
During their dinner, the suit claims that Combs intentionally drugged her, resulting in a physical state where she could not independently stand or walk. It is alleged in the suit that, while at dinner, she left her drink unattended after going to the restroom.
In the car, the suit contends that she took a puff of “blunt” under pressure from Combs, and from that point on, her memory is described as incomplete.
“Driving first to a music studio where she could not get out of the car, Combs proceeded to a place he was staying to sexually assault her,” the suit alleges.
The suit alleges Combs video recorded the sexual assault, and days later a male friend revealed to Dickerson that he had viewed it.
“Horrified, Ms. Dickerson asked how many others saw it, to which he responded, ‘everyone.’”
Thereafter, Dickerson alleges her life “went into a tailspin.” She was admitted to the hospital for severe depression and suicide ideation, the suit claims.
According to the suit, Dickerson filed police reports at unspecified agencies in New York and New Jersey, spoke to “several prosecutors” hoping to press charges and was told her “allegations would need to be corroborated.”
The suit goes on to say Combs had experienced “great success” with the launch of late Notorious B.I.G.’s career, whose hit single Juicy charted on Billboard, and claims witnesses were “terrified that Combs would retaliate against them and that they would lose future business and music opportunities if they made a statement in support” of her.
The individual making the accusations was endeavouring to establish herself in the music industry while serving as a location scout for an industry cameraman. Despite her claims of “emotional pain,” she persisted in working within the music industry at a DJ management company following the incident, as outlined in the lawsuit.
Eventually, she departed from the company as Combs’ prominence continued to soar and his ubiquitous presence became unavoidable, according to the suit.
“It was the filing of the lawsuit about his abuse of Cassie Venture [sic] on November 16, 2023, that forced her to face his assault again,” the suit says.
Ventura, a formergirlfriend of Combs, accused the rapper and producer of years of sexual abuse, rape and trafficking in a suit Combs said was resolved “amicably” one day after the filing.
Combs’ representative at the time said it was “in no way an admission of wrongdoing” and “does not in any way undermine his flat-out denial of the claims.”
South Africa’s parliamentary ethics committee has initiated an investigation into Deputy Health Minister Sibongiseni Dhlomo following a sexual assault complaint filed against him.
The allegations were made by a male parliamentary staffer, detailed in a report by The Sunday Times.
The complainant stated that Dr. Dhlomo had sexually assaulted him after inviting him to his Cape Town residence. Dr. Dhlomo has vehemently denied the accusations, asserting that the staffer was asked to leave his home for taking a banana from a fruit basket without permission, suggesting the staffer’s motives may be revenge.
A subcommittee will convene in November to address the allegations, with Western Cape police also commencing their investigations.
Recent findings have brought to light a troubling statistic: between 2019 and 2021, a staggering 51.9% of female students in Ghanaian Senior High Schools endured instances of sexual assault.
This revelation stems from a report jointly produced by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Girls Excellent Movement (GEM), titled “Sheltered yet Exposed.”
According to the report, a majority of the assaulted girls, specifically 54.3%, were between the ages of 17 and 22, while the remaining 45.7% fell within the 11 to 16 age range.
The perpetrators of these assaults included friends, family friends, schoolmates, teachers, and strangers.
The breakdown of the perpetrators revealed that friends accounted for 24%, family friends 12%, schoolmates 12%, teachers 10%, and strangers 9%.
Juliana Ama Kplorfia, the Founder and Executive Director of GEM, expressed her concern during an event organized by the Center for Social Justice (CSJ) with support from the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Ghana.
She cited uncles, cousins, neighbors, fathers, and fathers-in-law as additional groups responsible for sexually assaulting SHS girls.
Kplorfia attributed these distressing incidents to a range of challenges, including academic, financial, and mental stressors, which left some victims grappling with depression, trauma, bipolar disorder, anxiety, and panic attacks. Tragically, some of these girls ended up dropping out of school.
Kplorfia called upon the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service to allocate resources to counseling units within schools, emphasizing the importance of effective support systems to protect vulnerable girls from predators.
She also stressed the need to make reporting rape and sexual harassment incidents free of charge and eliminate taxes on sanitary pads, making them freely available to female students.
Furthermore, she urged parents to maintain vigilant oversight of their children to prevent them from becoming targets of sexual predators.
A report by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Girls Excellent Movement (GEM) has revealed 45.7% of female students in Senior High School (SHS) between the ages of 11 and 16 were sexually assaulted.
The report, titled: “Sheltered yet Exposed,“ said 54.3% of those girls were between the ages of 17 and 22.
The act of sexual harassment in SHS is often perpetrated by various individuals, including friends, family friends, schoolmates, teachers, and strangers, according to a report. The breakdown of those involved is as follows: friends (24%), family friends (12%), schoolmates (12%), teachers (10%), and strangers (9%).
Madam Juliana Ama Kplorfia, Founder and Executive Director of GEM, disclosed these findings at a stakeholder engagement event held in Accra. The event, organized by the Center for Social Justice (CSJ) with support from the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Ghana, aimed to address sexual harassment in SHS and the roles of various stakeholders.
Madam Kplorfia further revealed that other groups contributing to sexual assault against female students in SHS included uncles, cousins, neighbors, fathers, and father-in-laws.
The report also highlighted that besides sexual assaults, female students also experienced other forms of gender-based violence, such as physical assault, bullying, verbal assault, and harassment.
Madam Kplorfia emphasized that the main reasons females fell victim to these various forms of assault were academic, financial, and mental challenges. She noted that many victims suffered from depression, trauma, bipolar disorder, anxiety, and panic attacks, which sometimes led to them dropping out of school.
She called on the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service to adequately resource the counseling units in schools to effectively address these issues. Madam Kplorfia also urged parents and guardians to closely monitor female students in schools and ensure they had positive role models, as some became targets of sexual assaults due to negative influences.
Furthermore, she appealed to the government to make medical reports for rape and sexual harassment free of charge and advocated for the removal of taxes on sanitary pads, suggesting that they should be supplied to schools at no cost.
The police in London have received reports of sexual crimes after an investigation was done by Channel 4’s Dispatches and The Sunday Times. This was stated by the police force on Monday.
We have also been told about several claims of sexual crimes that happened in other parts of the country. We will look into these claims and investigate them. The crimes happened a long time ago, according to the statement.
The brand said that the allegations are not true and also accused the UK government of trying to silence him.
Detectives from the Metropolitan Police’s Central Specialist Crime Command, led by Detective Superintendent Andy Furphy, will conduct the investigation, as stated by the Metropolitan Police.
“We want anyone who thinks they may have been a victim of a sexual crime, no matter how long ago it happened, to get in touch with us,” the statement stated.
We know that it might seem hard to do, but we have a group of expert officers who can help and guide you.
The person was known for being a funny actor, but lately, they have been using their YouTube channel to spread ideas that are not true, like saying Covid isn’t real.
After the accusations came out, YouTube stopped allowing money to be made from Brand’s channel, and his live tour has been delayed.
The Sunday Times, The Times, and Channel 4’s Dispatches did research and found that four women accused Brand of sexually attacking them at different times from 2006 to 2013. One of the girls said she was 16 years old and Brand was 31 years old when the supposed assault took place in London.
The women decided not to reveal their names in the report, as stated by The Times. CNN cannot confirm their statements on their own.
At least two of the reported attacks happened in Los Angeles. According to the report, a woman went to a rape treatment center on the same day she was reportedly assaulted.
The police were informed by the center, but the woman decided not to officially report the incident because she believed that her words wouldn’t hold any value compared to the attacker’s, as noted by the rape center notes shared with The Times.
Downing Street said that the claims made in the documentary are very serious and worrying.
The Metropolitan Police has requested that if anyone thinks they have been a victim of sexual assault, they should come forward and talk to the police. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s spokesperson said this in an official statement after the documentary was shown.
Last week, The Met said they are looking into a claim about a sexual attack from 2003.
A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said that they know about news reports from The Sunday Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches about accusations of sexual crimes.
On Sunday, 17 September, the police were told about a sexual assault that was said to have happened in Soho, a neighborhood in the center of London, in 2003. The police are talking to the woman and will help her.
According to Ukrainian prosecutors and investigators from the United Nations and other international organizations, there is growing evidence that Russian troops are using rape and sexual violence as a method of terror in Ukraine. This is similar to how the Bosnian Serb army used rape during the Bosnian war in the 1990s. Russia says it didn’t do it.
The New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy, which is a think tank in the US, has written a report. This report will be shared and talked about in a debate in the UK Parliament on Thursday.
This means that in order to prevent a similar tragedy from happening again in Ukraine, the world should prioritize helping the victims. In Bosnia, a lot of people have waited a long time before speaking up, and most of the sexual crimes that happened there have not been punished.
Emily Prey, one of the main people who wrote the report, said that during the war in Bosnia, rape was a big part of what happened. However, when we look at the Dayton Peace Accords, which ended the war in 1995, women who survived sexual violence during the conflict were not included in the discussions.
She told CNN that the people were not involved in the peace talks, and as a result, the Dayton Accords only temporarily stopped the fighting instead of achieving a long-lasting and stable peace.
Prey said that it is very important to forget about prejudices and negative judgments and ensure that all individuals affected by sexual violence in conflicts are included.
Many times, we believe that sexual violence only happens to women, but it actually happens to everyone. Prey said that this includes both women and girls, as well as men, boys, and people with different gender identities.
Men who experienced sexual violence in the Bosnian war are just now starting to speak up about it. These men have suffered for many years without getting the help they require. And we can see this happening in Ukraine too.
Prey also mentioned that children who are born as a result of rape during war are often overlooked and ignored. Between 2,000 and 4,000 kids were born from the recorded instances of war rapes in Bosnia, but there are probably even more than that.
When we don’t pay much attention to sexual violence during conflicts, we tend to overlook the children who are born as a result of rape during wars. In Bosnia, there were children who were not noticed or given attention. They have been struggling for a long time to be seen and acknowledged because they have faced many obstacles and problems in their lives,” she said.
The report also states that it is very important for Ukraine’s friends to be prepared to punish those responsible for their actions on behalf of Ukraine. This can occur either through the UN’s Genocide Convention or in national courts using the principle of universal jurisdiction. Universal jurisdiction allows courts to prosecute individuals for crimes against international law that were committed in other countries.
Prey mentioned a recent incident where a Bosnian Serb soldier was accused of murder and rape. The accused person was moved from Bosnia to Montenegro, where they were currently residing. This incident is seen as a successful example of this system at work.
The International Criminal Court has accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of crimes and is looking into whether Russia committed war crimes in Ukraine. Multiple countries such as Lithuania, Germany, Sweden, and Spain are looking into the accused Russian crimes.
However, Prey mentioned that these situations can be expensive and take a long time. This means that it is important to prioritize giving immediate assistance to the victims. This can include help with their mental and social well-being, as well as providing them with free healthcare and legal aid.
“They may have to wait 10 or 20 years to reach a decision in the court case,” she said. Survivors of sexual violence in conflicts deserve better treatment than what they are currently receiving. They should be treated fairly and held responsible, but they also have to support themselves, take care of their families, and pay their bills. They need help to do all of this.
After committing a “brazen and persistent” sexual assault on a woman on a train, a man was sentenced to prison.
When 50-year-old Edgar Junior boarded the Elizabeth Line at Paddington, he started harassing other passengers with sexual comments and assaulting a single female passenger.
This carried on until he disembarked the train in Reading, a trip that takes about 50 minutes.
However, on March 28 of last year, British Transport Police were made aware of his acts, and Junior was taken into custody shortly after getting off the train.
The moment he was arrested and spat in a police officer’s face was caught on bodyworn camera footage.
Junior assaulted the woman after getting off the train and then continued to make sexual statements and gestures, despite a fellow male passenger begging him to leave the woman alone.
When the victim got off the train, another woman sat with her, but Junior kept approaching other ladies and harassing them.
At Reading Crown Court, Junior, of Barnsdale Road in Reading, entered a guilty plea to sexual assault and was given a 20-month prison term and a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order.
The order forbids him from drinking in public and from giving unwelcome attention to ladies and girls.
“Junior is a disturbing person who subjected a woman to a brazen and persistent sexual assault while she was travelling on a train alone,” said Detective Inspector Marvin Bruno. “The custodial sentence he’s been handed shows just how seriously these offences are taken.”
“I am grateful to the onlookers who saw his disgusting actions, intervened to aid, and quickly reported it to police, allowing our officers to then board the train and apprehend him.
I can’t stress enough how crucial it is to store our text number, 61016, in your phone.
“If you ever see or encounter behaviour like this, you can text us in confidence. The message will reach our control room in real time, and they can send officers to a location if necessary.
American actor Kevin Spacey experienced an emotional moment on his 64th birthday when a U.K. jury found him not guilty of nine charges, including sexual assault, indecent assault, and causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity. The trial took place over four and a half weeks at Southwark Crown Court in London.
The jury heard from four men who had made complaints against Spacey. One of them, who had frequent interactions with the actor during his time as creative director of the Old Vic theatre in the early 2000s, claimed that Spacey repeatedly grabbed him by the crotch, even causing a near-crash incident on a motorway. Spacey defended himself, stating that the relationships were consensual, but denied the near-crash incident, providing evidence to support his claim.
The second complaint was related to a charity event in 2005, where a man accused Spacey of making sexually aggressive comments before pinning him against a wall and grabbing his crotch. Spacey denied ever meeting the man at the event.
The most serious charge involved an allegation from 2008, in which a complainant claimed to have woken up in Spacey’s London apartment to find him performing oral sex. Spacey asserted that the encounter was consensual and presented telephone records contradicting the man’s account.
The fourth complaint was related to a party at Spacey’s rented house in Gloucestershire, where he allegedly made sexual advances towards another man. Spacey described the encounter as a drunken “clumsy pass” and attempted to apologize.
The jury ultimately dismissed each of the charges brought against Spacey. Originally facing 12 counts, the number was reduced to nine due to a legal technicality.
This verdict marks another legal victory for Spacey, who previously won a $40 million civil lawsuit brought against him by actor Anthony Rapp in October. Rapp had accused Spacey of sexual battery, but a New York jury dismissed the claim.
The trial, which began at the end of June, saw Spacey denying all accusations and emotionally testifying in the witness box at Southwark Crown Court.
The 64-year-old Oscar winner was visibly emotional as he heard the verdict, shedding tears of relief.
During the trial, the prosecution referred to Spacey as a “sexual bully,” but the jury ultimately found him not guilty of the alleged offences that took place between 2001 and 2013.
As the jurors left the court, Spacey nodded at them while wiping tears from his face with a tissue. On his birthday, he expressed gratitude and let out a sigh of relief, having endured the intense legal proceedings.
During his testimony, Spacey described how his life was shattered when other allegations surfaced against him in the US back in 2017.
“There was a rush to judgment and before the first question was asked or answered I lost my job, I lost my reputation, I lost everything in a matter of days,” he told jurors.
Spacey, who was artistic director at The Old Vic theatre in London between 2004 and 2015, was accused of drugging and performing a sex act on a former aspiring actor while he slept, and of several assaults on another man – a driver who claimed the actor grabbed his crotch so hard on one occasion that he “almost come off the road”.
Another man claimed the Hollywood actor subjected him to a “barrage” of “vile” sexual abuse before grabbing his crotch “like a cobra” at a West End event, while the fourth said the Hollywood star kissed his neck and told him to “be cool”, again before grabbing his crotch.
Spacey, best known for films including American Beauty and The Usual Suspects and for political drama series House Of Cards, vehemently denied all the allegations.
A jury at Southwark Crown Court in London has now cleared him of all the charges.
Denying the separate allegations by each of the men, Spacey told the court:
He had a “somewhat intimate” relationship with another complainant, but denied assaulting him in a “violent, aggressive, painful way” – and said it felt like he had been stabbed in the back when he learned of the claims;
That allegations by a man he met in a West End theatre in the mid-2000s were “madness” and the incident described “never happened”; That he may have “made a pass” at another complainant but was “happy that he testified that the moment he told me he was not interested, I stopped”.
His defence team had labelled the prosecution’s case against him as “weak” – accusing some of the complainants of being after money.
The actor told the court he was a “flirt” and had been “open” about times he had been “promiscuous”, adding: “It doesn’t make me a bad person.”
He later told jurors he found it “harder to trust people because of who I was”, due to his fame and status.
More than 100 current and former UK employees of the fast-food business McDonald’s have made allegations about a poisonous culture of sexual assault, harassment, racism, and bullying.
The BBC was informed that groping and harassment of employees, some of whom are as young as 17, occurs frequently.
The UK equality watchdog announced the opening of a new email hotline after expressing “concerned” over the BBC’s results.
McDonald’s said it had “fallen short” and it “deeply apologised”.
The importance of a safe, respectful, and inclusive workplace for all employees was emphasized.
In February, the BBC initiated an investigation into the working conditions at McDonald’s following the company’s commitment to protect its staff from sexual harassment through a legally binding agreement with the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).
Despite McDonald’s previous claims of having a strong track record in this area, our investigation has uncovered a starkly contrasting reality.
Over a period of five months, we reached out to McDonald’s employees to gather information about their experiences working there. Among the more than 100 allegations brought forth by the employees we spoke to, 31 were related to sexual assault, and 78 were related to sexual harassment.
Furthermore, we received reports of 18 allegations of racism and six instances of homophobia.
Claims the BBC has heard include:
A 17-year-old current employee in Cheshire who says a colleague 20 years older than her called her a racial slur word and asked to show her his penis, and said he wanted to make a “black and white” baby with her
A former worker who was 17 when a senior manager at a Plymouth restaurant choked her and grabbed her bottom. A shift manager also sent her sexually explicit images
A manager in Hampshire who suggested a 16-year-old male worker perform sexual acts in exchange for vapes A manager who preyed on 16-year-old new female starters in a Cheshire restaurant, trying to pressurise them into having sex
A woman who said she was called a slur word and subject to racist jokes at an Aberdeen branch
A current worker in Essex who says she faced antisemitic abuse
A current worker in Oxfordshire, originally from India, who says crew members spoke in “gibberish” to imitate her and called a Pakistani colleague a terrorist
Male managers and crew members at a branch in Wales making jokes about putting cash bets on which of them could sleep with a new recruit first
An outbreak of gonorrhoea at a branch in Northern Ireland where sexual relationships between staff members were commonplace
Multiple workers told us that McDonald’s managers at the outlets across the UK were responsible for the harassment and assaults.
All too often, senior managers are said to have failed to act on complaints.
Staff have also told the BBC of sexual relationships between managers and more junior members of staff, which is against company policy.
Young women have described feeling constantly judged about how they looked.
One current worker said she was seen by her male colleagues as “fresh meat” when she started at her branch in Nottingham. Other female workers told us they were forced by managers to wear uniforms that were too tight for them.
“There is a saying at McDonald’s, “tits on tills” – boys in the kitchen, girls on the counter. The idea is to put attractive people at the front,” said Lucy, who’s 22 and worked in Norwich.
“It’s the expectation that if you work at McDonald’s, you will be harassed,” added Emily, who’s 20. She left her branch in Brighton last year, after a male colleague in his 60s kept stroking her hair in a sexually suggestive way and making her feel uncomfortable.
McDonald’s is one of the UK’s largest private sector employers. The fast food giant has more than 170,000 people working in 1,450 restaurants.
Its staff are also one of the country’s youngest workforces. Three quarters of its employees are aged between 16 and 25. For many, it is their first job.
Most workers are not directly employed by the company as McDonald’s uses a franchise system, which means individual operators are licensed to run the outlets and employ the staff.
‘I went to work in fear’ Shelby was just 16 when she started working at a McDonald’s restaurant in Berkshire last year.
She said older male colleagues would use the cramped layout in the kitchen as an excuse to touch junior female staff inappropriately.
“They’d grope stomach, waists, bums,” she said. “Every shift I worked, there would be at least a comment being made, or I’d be brushed, a hand brushed across me, or it would be a more severe thing, like having my bum grabbed, hips grabbed.”
There was one man in his 50s, in particular, that managers “warned” young staff members to stay away from, Shelby said.
Would you report or try to stop sexual harassment? One day last summer, she said she was standing at the front counter when he came up behind her and grabbed her onto him, pulling her onto his groin.
“I just froze,” she said. “I felt disgusted.”
Shelby says she told senior management about what was going on in the store, but nothing was done. In her resignation email, she said it was a “toxic work environment”.
McDonald’s said it was “deeply sorry” to hear about what Shelby went through. It added that it was investigating why any issues that she raised were not formally escalated at the time.
Managers turning a blind eye
We do not know how many of the workers we spoke to made formal complaints. But a number of them told us they did – only for them to be ignored.
Chinyere says she was harassed by a much older male colleague.
In the case of 17-year-old Chinyere in Cheshire, who was sexually and racially harassed by a much older man, she initially raised it with a female colleague who was responsible for staff wellbeing. She told her to ignore the man’s behaviour and go back to work. After months of harassment, Chinyere confided in her stepfather who wrote to the franchise, to corporate headquarters and the police.
The man was then fired. Chinyere believes if her stepfather hadn’t intervened, nothing would have happened. McDonald’s described her experiences as “abhorrent and unacceptable” and apologised unreservedly. It said it took swift action as soon as the issue came to its attention and that the man was dismissed within three days. They added: “It takes a great deal of courage to speak up and as soon as we were made aware of the situation the individual in question was offered both internal and independent external support.”
Another worker in Birmingham, who says she was smacked on the bottom by a male colleague when she was 19, reported it immediately to her manager. But despite it being caught on camera and her having a visible bruise, she was forced to continue working with him, which made her so uncomfortable that she eventually quit.
Several workers also said that when complaints were made about managers, they were then moved from one McDonald’s restaurant within the franchise to another, rather than being fired.
Other employees said they didn’t complain as they couldn’t risk losing work. Young staff at McDonald’s are often on zero hours contracts – it means their hours are flexible, but also that they are at the mercy of shift managers who decide their rotas.
In Italy, controversy has been generated by a court decision that exonerated a school caretaker of molesting a student since the incident lasted less than 10 seconds.
The 66-year-old man who was accused of sexual assault was declared not guilty by the judges of the Court of Rome’s Fifth Criminal Section because they determined that the entire incident lasted “about five to ten seconds.”
According to RAI, the girl, who was 17 at the time, testified that the crime occurred in April 2022 when she and a friend were ascending the stairs at school.
She testified that she pulled up her trousers and felt a hand tucked inside them, under her briefs, touching her buttocks, according to the judgment, issued July 6.
During the trial, the janitor admitted that he had touched the student but that he had done it “as a joke.”
The judges accepted the defense’s argument that the act was meant to be a “clumsy joke” without “libidinous intent” towards the girl.
The decision caused outrage among students and sparked a viral trend on social media.
A local union representing high school students, ‘Rete degli Studenti Medi del Lazio,’ said on Facebook that “this is not a joke, there is nothing funny about it.”
“It is unacceptable that we cannot feel protected at school. Once again, the patriarchal system has won, with the tacit support of institutions and politics. This model does not represent us, we will always be on the other side of the fence, for a safe society based on respect,” they said Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Italians have taken to Instagram and TikTok to post videos of themselves touching a sensitive part of their body for 10 seconds, marked by a timer, in an attempt to show that it actually is a fairly long period which can make people uncomfortable and change a person’s life. Accompanying the media are the hashtags #10secondi and #palpatabreve (brief groping).
Among those to take to social media were “The White Lotus” actor Paolo Camilli, who posted a video with the caption “shouldn’t the state protect us?” on his Instagram account.
An unnamed police officer is facing accusations of forcefully removing the waist beads worn by a married woman during an operation that resulted in the arrest of her husband, identified as Sixtus Arthur.
The alleged incident has raised concerns about potential police misconduct and violation of personal belongings during law enforcement activities.
According to the woman, Veronica Arthur, she was with her husband in their room in the afternoon of Tuesday, July 11, 2023, when more than 15 men claiming to be policemen, budged in on them.
She said that the men then forcefully arrested her husband, and in the heat of the moment, one of the officers grabbed her by the waist and tore her waist beads, a report by 3news.com has said.
“We were sleeping around 1:00am when we heard a knock at the door. We opened the door and saw about 15 men claiming to be police officers.
“They forcefully entered our room and started searching for my husband. I was trying to talk to them but they kept pushing me away. I wanted to go out and pass urine but one of the officers held my waist, pulled me back, and tore my beads. I came back to the room and saw them manhandling my husband without any reason,” the distressed Veronica Arthur said in a radio interview.
The incident happened at Nkroful in the Western Region.
She also said that of all the men who came to their home, only one of them was in a police uniform.
“One of them was in uniform with a pump action gun. With the rest, some of them were holding spanners,” she added, the report said.
Also speaking on the matter, Naana Yaaba, the mother of Sixtus Arthur, added that they have so far been unable to trace the whereabouts of her son although they have combed a number of police stations.
“We have been to Central, Harbor, and Sekondi police stations to find out if he was sent there but all to no avail. We currently do not know where he has been taken to,” she also said.
The report added that while it is unclear what prompted the arrest, there are suspicions that the matter could be related to an ongoing chieftaincy issue, since Sixtus is said to be the secretary to the substantive chief, Nana Kobina Gyan II.
The Africa Institute has reportedly severed its ties with renowned architect Sir David Adjaye, who was previously involved in the design of the National Cathedral of Ghana.
The decision comes in the wake of allegations of sexual assault and harassment against Adjaye, recent reports from graphiconline.com indicate.
The President of The Africa Institute, Hoor Al Qasimi, issued a statement to Dezeen, a London-based magazine, confirming the termination of their engagement with Sir Adjaye.
Al Qasimi expressed concerns about the allegations and emphasized that the separation would not impact the institute’s ongoing research and educational initiatives at their current facilities.
The report further revealed that The Africa Institute had previously enlisted Sir David Adjaye to design a large-scale monolithic campus in downtown Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (UAE). This upcoming facility, known as Africa Hall, is set to comprise of five high-rise blocks constructed from red-hued concrete, spanning an expansive area of 31,882 square meters. Despite cutting ties with Adjaye, the institute remains committed to continuing its projects and endeavors in research and education at its current location.
Background
Renowned architect, Sir David Adjaye, has been accused of sexual misconduct and harassment by three women who were formerly employed by him.
Per reports, two of the women, Maya and Gene, moved to Ghana in 2018 to assist Sir Adjaye in establishing an architectural office in Accra.
The Accra office reportedly delayed salary payments to the two women and took time to secure work visas, leaving them financially vulnerable.
Maya and Gene are said to have dined with Sir David Adjaye to address their grievances. However, he led them to his corporate apartment where he allegedly engaged in sexual assault and harassment.
Sir Adjaye has denied these allegations, maintaining that the encounter was consensual and limited to a social interaction.
Another allegation of sexual assault at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg by Maya has been raised against Sir Adjaye.
Owing to the allegations, Maya was dismissed without notice and accused of extortion after demanding compensation. Gene, on the other hand, was offered a financial settlement after being dismissed.
Sir David Adjaye has worked on numerous high-profile projects that have garnered international acclaim. Some of his most famous creations are the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. and the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo, Norway.
Renowned architect known for designing the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., Sir David Adjaye, has decided to step back from several positions following allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct made by three former employees, as reported by The Financial Times.
In response to the accusations, Mr. Adjaye resigned from his role as an architectural adviser to the mayor of London. Additionally, his involvement in a project related to a British Holocaust memorial has been suspended. The Financial Times reported that three women had accused him of various offenses, including sexual assault.
In 2012, Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, appointed Mr. Adjaye to a panel of 42 design advocates who advise the mayor on how to ensure “new buildings and public spaces will benefit all Londoners,” according to a news release. He has stepped down from the panel.
“Sir David Adjaye has stepped away from his role as a Design Advocate,” a spokesman for the mayor said in an email.
A spokesman for the British ministry that is overseeing the U.K. Holocaust Memorial and Learning Center, in London, said in an email that the government was “aware of the allegations” and had spoken with Mr. Adjaye’s architecture firm. “They have confirmed that Sir David will not be involved in the U.K. Holocaust Memorial Foundation project until the issues raised have been addressed,” the spokesman said.
These allegations have had significant implications on Mr. Adjaye’s professional engagements, with actions being taken to address the situation and ensure a thorough investigation into the claims.
In a statement on Tuesday, Mr. Adjaye denied the accusations. “I absolutely reject any claims of sexual misconduct, abuse or criminal wrongdoing,” he said in the statement, which was released by Kendal Advisory, a communications and crisis management firm. “These allegations are untrue, distressing for me and my family and run counter to everything I stand for.”
Mr. Adjaye added that he was “ashamed to say that I entered into relationships which though entirely consensual, blurred the boundaries between my professional and personal lives.” He was “deeply sorry” for that, he said, and “will be immediately seeking professional help in order to learn from these mistakes to ensure that they never happen again.”
A spokesperson for Kendal Advisory, representing David Adjaye, declined to provide specific details regarding the professional help he would be seeking, citing it as a personal matter.
David Adjaye, renowned for his design of the esteemed National Museum of African American History and Culture located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., has been widely sought after as an architect. His notable commissions include projects such as Ghana’s national cathedral, a museum in Nigeria dedicated to showcasing African art, and a multi-faith center in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
In a statement, Mr. Adjaye acknowledged the allegations made against him and announced his decision to step down from ceremonial roles and trusteeships, aiming to prevent the allegations from becoming a distraction.
Tanzanians are furious after learning that a middle-aged lady sexually assaulted an eight-year-old kid and exposed him to STDs.
Desderia Mbwelwa, 57, has been sentenced to 29 years in prison at a court on Friday but details of the verdict have not been widely reported until now.
On the day of the attack, the woman found the victim herding cattle at a village in southern district of Iringa and asked where his friends were.
She is then said to have sexually assaulted him under a tree after he said that his friends were not around.
The case had five witnesses including a doctor who examined the boy and confirmed he had injuries and had contracted sexual infections due to contamination in the genital area.
Mbwelwa is said to have defended herself by saying she is an adult with children and grandchildren who depend on her.
Her lawyer, Frank Mwela, said that he plans to appeal against the verdict because his client was not tested to confirm if she indeed had sexually transmitted diseases.
“My client was not tested positive for those diseases, which both my client and her witness have confirmed they do not have because one of the witnesses is her husband,” he said.
Former Playboy model Victoria Valentino has filed a new lawsuit against Bill Cosby, accusing him of drugging and sexually assaulting her.
The lawsuit, filed under a temporary lifting of the statute of limitations in California for sexual assault cases, alleges that the incident occurred in 1969 after Valentino had dinner with Cosby.
Valentino claims that after ingesting pills provided by Cosby, she and her friend were taken to a nearby office. She alleges that she became unconscious and was sexually assaulted upon waking up.
It’s worth noting that Cosby’s sexual assault conviction was overturned in 2021, leading to his release from prison. However, this new lawsuit brings forth fresh allegations against him.
She told Mr Cosby “I want to go home now”, according to the filing, which adds she was “incapable of consent” and physically helpless”.
Ms Valentino is seeking unspecified damages, court and attorney fees.
In a statement, Ms Valentino said the trauma the 85-year-old inflicted on her has affected “not only me, but my children and grandchildren”.
“By breaking my silence and speaking my truth, I hope this serves as my legacy to my family, and shows those survivors who have yet to find their voices, that hope and healing are possible,” she said in the statement shared with US media.
A representative for Mr Cosby, Andrew Wyatt, told US media outlets Ms Valentino’s claims were “without any proof or facts” and said she had “inconsistencies in her many statements”.
Once known to millions as “America’s Dad”, Mr Cosby starred in the 1980s hit sitcom The Cosby Show.
Bill Cosby’s reputation was severely damaged when numerous women came forward with allegations of rape, sexual harassment, and sexual misconduct spanning several decades, starting from the 1960s. Despite the accusations, Cosby has consistently denied any wrongdoing and asserted that all of his sexual encounters were consensual.
In 2018, he was convicted of aggravated indecent assault against Andrea Constand in Pennsylvania. However, his conviction was later overturned by the state’s highest court, which determined that he should not have been brought to trial due to a previous agreement made with a prosecutor in 2005, in which he was assured that he would not face charges.
In a separate civil case last year, a California jury found Cosby liable for sexually assaulting a 16-year-old at the Playboy Mansion in 1975. As a result, he was ordered to pay $500,000 in damages.
A court in Busan, South Korea, on Wednesday sentenced two employees of the Liberia Maritime Authority (LiMA) to nine years in prison each for sexual assault, local media report.
Moses Owen Brown and Daniel Tarr had been detained in South Korea since last year for allegedly raping two Korean teenagers, according to Korean police.
The Liberian government said it has requested its legal representation in South Korea to furnish it with the various appeal options available.
“The government shall continue to remain engaged with the Republic of Korea through official diplomatic channels to explore many options which may be available to Browne and Tarr,” a government statement said.
It said the families of the two Liberians have been notified of the court decision and will be facilitated to visit the men.
A Gender-Based Violence (GBV) and Family Physician has revealed that unlike in the past when victims of sexual assault, particularly rape were mostly females, statistics show that more males are also being raped now.
Dr Sodipo Oluwajimi said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ilorin on Friday on the sideline of a training programme organised for healthcare providers by Stand Up Against Rape Initiative.
Dr Oluwajimi who works at Nigeria’s Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, stressed that young boys also face rape, incest, sexual abuse and homosexuality in the country.
“It is not only girls or women alone who face GBV.
“Both women and men experience violence but the majority of victims are women and girls. The perpetrators of GBV are predominantly men and the victims are most frequently women.
“Historical perspective shows that more concentration is placed on women when it comes to GBV,” NAN quotes him as having said.
He went on further to add: “However, statistics show that boys also get exposed to violence, especially rape.”
Dr Oluwajimi described GBV as any act done to someone against their will as a result of gender norms and unequal power relationships.
He revealed that emerging data show that many men and boys are also survivors of GBV, but they choose to suffer in silence for fear of being stigmatized when they speak out.
He called for concerted efforts against the canker, adding sensitization campaigns should no more be limited to sexual violence against females but should include both genders.
Joseph Amoako, a former forward for Asante Kotoko, has been given a two-year prison term in Sweden. According to reports, the 20-year-old attacker, who was on Helsingborgs IF’s books until his conviction, was found guilty of sexual assault.
Expressen.se claims that the young person was charged with the crime following a meeting with a 16-year-old female. Amoako allegedly introduced himself to the teen via social media and gave her match tickets for a Helsingborgs match. Later, he invited her to a party at his house.
The Ghanaian will serve a two-year sentence in Sweden before being sent back home as soon as it is finished. Amoah won’t be permitted to go back to the Scandinavian nation for ten years.
GhanaSoccernet reported that the player’s contract was cancelled following his sentence. Amoako initially joined Helsingborgs IF on loan from Asante Kotoko before his move was made permanent after impressing the technical handlers of the club.
Joseph Amoako joins Helsingborg Sports Brief previously reported on Kumasi Asante Kotoko winger, Amoako joining Swedish Allvenskan side, Helsingborg IF on loan for the rest of the season.
The 19-year-old attacker moved to the top flight side after just six months since joining the Porcupine Warriors from lower-tier Ghana side, Red Bull FC.
Helsingborg formally announced the signing of the teen sensation and have the option of making the deal a permanent one at the end of his loan spell. Kotoko sign Brazilian striker Ghana Premier League champions, Kumasi Asante Kotoko have announced the signing of Brazilian forward, Matheus Medeiros De Souza.
The forward joins thePorcupine Warriors on a six-month deal with the option of extending for a further year. De Souza is expected to boost the attack of the Reds, as they seek to defend the title they won last season.
For an additional 30 days, self-described sexist influencer Andrew Tate will be detained in Romania.
Authorities in the nation of eastern Europe are still looking into accusations of rape, human trafficking, and joining an organised crime ring made against Tate and his brother Tristan.
The two men have maintained their innocence on all the charges.
Tate, a former kickboxer, was taken into custody on December 29 last year alongside his brother.
This is the third time their detention has been extended: they were initially detained for 24 hours, which became 30 days. Another 30 days were added last month.
Earlier this month, Tate, 36, said as he left court: ‘Ask them for evidence and they will give you none, because it doesn’t exist.’
Prosecutors say the pair recruited their alleged victims by seducing them, and then forced them to produce pornographic content under duress.
Andrew Tate, wearing the navy blue hoodie, was escorted to the Court of Appeal while handcuffed to his brother Tristan on February 1
The two women are alleged to have been their accomplices by helping to ‘coerce’ and ‘control’ at least six women.
According to Romanian news site Gandul, the men’s lawyer Eugen Vidineac said they would ‘challenge’ a decision for them to remain in detention.
Tate’s arrest came just 24 hours after he got into a high-profile spat with environmental campaigner Greta Thunberg on Twitter.
Speaking about the matter for the first time yesterday, Greta told ABC News: ‘There are many, many problems in the world that we need people dealing with.
‘But it seems like they feel so threatened or they feel like their worldview is so threatened by people like me – climate activists and environmental activists – speaking up that they feel like they need to silence us and mock us.’
SSGKobe is denies that he sexually assaulted a woman during a studio session last month.
Two weeks ago, an artist named Ka$hkenni accused the Louisiana rapper of forcing her to have sex with him in a soundproof studio room on November 23.
According to Ka$hkenni, SSGKobe invited her to the studio under the impression he wanted to collaborate with her. Upon arriving at the studio, which was filled with a group of people affiliated with SSGKobe, the 19-year-old allegedly texted Ka$hkenni to enter the recording booth with him.
“He gets up to go back into the recording room,” she wrote on Instagram. “I feel someone staring at me. I look over and he’s standing in the doorway of the room we are in giving me this very demanding and intimidating look. I’m still under the impression that he just wants to talk so I go into the recording room with him.”
“He proceeds to start trying to [take] advantage of me,” she wrote. “He asked me to give him head. I told him ‘no I don’t do that, I don’t wanna do that.’ And I try and move around him in order to leave the room and he steps in front of me to block the door.
“And proceeds to coerce me into doing things with him that I don’t want to do. He never asked for consent. And I was verbally telling him ‘No,’ ‘stop’ and ‘you’re hurting me.’ I was trying to push him off of me. But he ignore[d] all of that.”
Over the weekend, SSGKobe denied the allegations in a statement on social media.
“My parents raised me to respect women,” he wrote. “I practice this each and every day and will continue to live my life abiding by that. Unfortunately, a private matter of consensual sexual relations between two consenting adults has turned into a defamatory public matter against me.”
“The picture being painted is not based on facts. I apologize that my desire to not have a long term relationship with someone was not properly communicated by me, resulting in a false rehashing of events. I will leave this matter to be further addressed by my legal team.”
Three former players of the Drummondville Voltigeurs junior hockeyteam have been accused of sexually assaulting a minor in the fall of 2016, according to Radio-Canada.
The Ligue de hockey junior majeur du Quebec (LHJMQ) issued a release Tuesday morning addressing the allegations, according to the Montreal Gazette.
“Both the league and the Drummondville Voltigeurs have just been made aware of the incident that allegedly occurred in 2016. The LHJMQ and its teams will co-operate with the police investigation and the legal process if they are called upon to do so,” the release reads.
Two of the three players were also minors at the time of the alleged assault but the third, Noah Corson, was an adult. Corson is the son of former Montreal Canadiens player Shayne Corson.
Corson waived his right to a preliminary hearing and is slated to appear in court in Drummondville in June 2023.
Étienne Lafleur, Corson’s agent, declined to comment further than denying Corson’s implication in the alleged assault.
The other two alleged assailants cannot have their identities disclosed due to the Youth Criminal Justice Act. However, they pleaded guilty in court last year after being charged with sexual assault.
The accuser, whose name is protected under a publication ban, said she tried to erase the incident from her memory and that she suffered trauma after the attack.
She recognized the alleged assailants several weeks after the incident at a Voltigeurs game when she saw the photos of the team members on one of the walls.
“I identified just like that, otherwise I would have never known they were hockey players,” she explained in French in the Radio-Canada article. “I started crying right away. After I realized that they were there and that I had cheered them on, it’s like everything came up all at once.”
Éric Verrier, the president of the Voltigeurs denounced the players’ behaviour and denied knowing anything about it before the allegations became public.
“Never, and I mean never, has anyone in the organization been made aware of the incident. I was shocked, I still can’t believe it,” he said. “This goes against the organization’s values. We denounce situations like these and we will collaborate with the investigation if necessary.”
The allegations come at the same time as Hockey Canada tries to manage its own series of sexual misconduct scandals following the revelation of a May 2022 settlement regarding sexual assault allegations that took place in 2018.
Kehlani opened up about being sexuallyassaulted following a recent performance in the UK.
Fresh off finishing the European leg of their Blue Water Road Trip Tour, Kehlani took to social media on Monday night to speak out after they were assaulted. In a since-deleted post on IG Stories, the singer—who uses she/they pronouns—revealed they were inappropriately touched while being escorted through the crowd following their concert at O2 Victoria Warehouse.
“I’ve made video after video after video and deleted it because I don’t want any video of me as angry, triggered, crying upset as I am anywhere,” Kehlani wrote in the now-deleted post. “I don’t care how sexual you deem my music, my performances, my fun with my friends dancing at clubs, or ME.”
They continued, “That does not give any of you the right to cross a boundary like sticking your hands up my skirt & pulling my underwear to TOUCH MY GENITALS as I am being escorted through a crowd after performing. This shit made me sick to my stomach. As a victim of sexual assault, I am endlessly triggered and mindblown.”
Kehlani previously discussed their experience as a victim of sexual assault on a 2019 episode of their Sunday Gems podcast.
“I don’t want to add more hurt, I don’t want to add more pain,” the artist said at the time. “All I want to say is, ‘Sending love to everybody who’s on a healing path right now, and sending love to everybody who needs it. And if you’re apologizing for abuse, you’re disgusting. Suck my dick.’”
Five women who have long accused comedian Bill Cosby of sexually assaulting them earlier in their careers have brought new claims against him.
TMZ reports the womenjointly filed a lawsuit on Monday in New York state court, accusing Cosby of assault, battery, infliction of emotional distress and false imprisonment, while also naming NBCUniversal as complicit to the 85-year-old’s actions.
The charges were filed under New York’s new Adult Survivors Act, which gives survivors of sexual abuse a one-year window to file complaints that would otherwise be prevented by the statute of limitations.
The five plaintiffs include actresses Lili Bernard and Eden Tirl, who each appeared on The Cosby Show, as well as Jewel Gittens, Jennifer Thompson, and Cindra Ladd, the last of whom is a former Hollywood executive who previously accused Cosby of raping her in 1969.
“Each plaintiff was sexually assaulted and battered by defendant Bill Cosby in the same or similar manner when he used his power, fame, and prestige, including the power, fame and prestige given to him by [the] defendants … to misuse his enormous power in such a nefarious, horrific way,” the suit states.
Lawyer Jordan Rutsky, who represents all five women, said, “It was well-known that Bill Cosby would regularly take young women into his dressing room, and when you read the complaint, you’ll see there were instances where staff saw this happening and even encouraged the plaintiff to submit.”
The news comes a year and a half after Cosby was freed from prison. He served more than two years of a 3-to-10-year sentence following dozens of women accusing him of rape and sexual assault.
Cosby’s spokesman Andrew Wyatt has rejected the accusers’ claims, calling the lawsuit “frivolous.”
“As we have always stated, and now America can see, this isn’t about justice for victims of alleged sexual assault, it’s ALL ABOUT MONEY,” Wyatt stated.
“We believe that the courts, as well as the court of public opinion, will follow the rules of law and relieve Mr. Cosby of these alleged accusations. Mr. Cosby continues to vehemently deny all allegations waged against him and looks forward to defending himself in court.”
A judge tells the former Tory MP he has “no doubt” his original trial was fair and his conviction was safe.
The former MP Imran Ahmad Khan has lost an appeal against his conviction for sexual assault.
Khan, who was Conservative MP for Wakefield from 2019 until his resignation in April, was jailed for 18 months in May after he was found guilty of assaulting a 15-year-old boy at a house in 2008.
He had denied the allegation.
The 49-year-old challenged his conviction at the Court of Appeal last month.
The appeal was rejected on Monday, with judge Michael Sweeney saying he had “no doubt” that Khan’s trial was fair and his conviction was safe.
Khan’s lawyers had argued that the guilty verdict was “unsafe” because the case against him was “weak” and was bolstered by “bad character evidence” from a man who alleged he had been sexually assaulted as an adult by Khan in Pakistan in 2010.
They also argued his jail term was too long for the offence and should have been suspended.
Both appeals were dismissed by three senior judges.
During the original trial, the jury heard Khan forced the teenager to drink gin and tonic at a party before he dragged him upstairs, pushed him on to a bed and asked him to watch pornography before the attack.
The victim, now 29, told Southwark Crown Court that Khan touched his feet and legs and the former MP came within “a hair’s breadth” of his privates as he tried to sleep in a top bunk bed.
He told the court “it all came flooding back” when Khan stood as a Conservative in the December 2019 general election.
He said he was not “taken very seriously” when he made the allegation to the Conservative Party press office days before Khan was elected as MP for Wakefield.
He made a complaint to the police days after Khan helped the party hold on to power by taking the seat from Labour with a majority of more than 3,000.
Passing sentence in May, Mr Justice Jeremy Baker said: “The only regret you feel is towards yourself for having found yourself in the predicament you face as a result of your actions some 14 years ago.”
Khan, the judge said, had displayed a “significant degree of brutality” in the lead-up to the assault, as he dragged his victim upstairs and threw him on to a bed at a house in Staffordshire in January 2008.
JP Morgan Chase and Deutsche Bank have been sued by two women who have accused Jeffrey Epstein of sexual abuse.
They accuse the banks of ignoring “red flags” about their client and profiting from his alleged sex-trafficking activities.
While awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges, the disgraced financier committed suicide in a prison cell.
Both lawsuits were filed as class action suits in New York on Thursday.
They were brought by lawyers who have represented dozens of the deceased billionaire’s accusers.
The women, who are also seeking financial damages, are not named in the filings, which were first reported by the Wall Street Journal newspaper and have been seen by the BBC.
According to claims in the lawsuit filed against JP Morgan Chase, one woman, described as a former ballet dancer, was abused by Epstein and his associates between 2006 and 2013.
It alleges that JP Morgan knew that its accounts were being used for trafficking because of the identity of the individuals withdrawing large sums of cash, as well as “Epstein’s well-documented criminal history”.
JP Morgan Chase declined to comment when contacted by BBC News.
In a separate lawsuit against Deutsche Bank, another woman claims she was trafficked for sex by Epstein for 15 years, starting in 2003 when she first moved to New York.
It claims that in some instances Epstein would pay the woman directly in cash for sex acts.
The lawsuit suggests that the wealthy Epstein turned to Deutsche Bank when ties were severed with JP Morgan around 2013.
It also refers to previous findings by New York banking regulators about Deutsche Bank’s business with Epstein.
They concluded that “although the bank properly classified Epstein as high-risk, [it] failed to scrutinise the activity in the accounts for the kinds of activity that were obviously implicated by Epstein’s past”.
Deutsche Bank previously admitted that it made a “critical mistake” when taking on Epstein as a client.
But a spokesman for the investment bank said on Thursday: “We believe this claim lacks merit and will present our arguments in court.”
One of the lawyers, Bradley Edwards, said in a written statement: “Epstein and his co-conspirators could not have victimised without assistance from wealthy individuals and financial institutions. We will not stop fighting for the survivors until everyone is held responsible. This is a big step but not the end.
He added: “The time has come for the real enablers to be held responsible, especially his wealthy friends and the financial institutions that played an integral role.”
In Korea, award-winning “Squid Game” star O Yeong-su has been charged with sexual misconduct.
According to AFP, the 78-year-old was released without charge after being accused of inappropriately touching a woman’s body in 2017.
In December 2021, the woman filed a complaint against Yeong-su. The case was closed by police in April, but it was reopened after the alleged victim requested that it be investigated further.
According to the local Yonhap news agency, Yeong-su denied the allegations when questioned by authorities.
The actor — who won a Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe for his breakout role as Oh Il-nam in the Netflix hit — has released a statement about the allegations.
“I just held her hand to guide the way around the lake,” O told Korean news broadcaster JTBC. “I apologized because [the person] said she wouldn’t make a fuss about it but it doesn’t mean that I admit the charges.”
O Yeong-su won a Golden Globe for his role on the Netflix smash megahit. Los Angeles Times via Getty Image
“Squid Game” stars Lee Jung-jae, Park Hae-soo and Oh Yeong-soo in a scene from the Korean Netflix series. AP
An official from the Suwon District Prosecutor’s Office told AFP that everything reported by local media about the veteran actor of more than 50 years “is not factually incorrect.”
The Korean ministry of culture also recently pulled a government TV commercial featuring Yeong-su off air after the indictment.
Meanwhile, the streamer’s highly popular survival drama is coming back for season two in the future.
A high-profile basketball trainer who has worked with NBA superstars such as LeBronJames, Kevin Durant, and Steph Curry, was arrested last week and charged with rape.
As reported by ESPN, Rob McClanaghan is accused of raping and drugging a woman at a hotel in downtown Boston. The 43-year-old was arrested in Rhode Island on Friday and arraigned in court Monday, after the Boston Police Sexual Assault Unit and the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office issued a warrant for his arrest.
“The suspect was transported by the BPD Fugitive Unit in coordination with members of the Warwick RI Police Department for booking at their department facility,” authorities said in a press release. “McClanaghan will be arraigned on Monday at the Third District Court in Kent County, Rhode Island where he will be charged as a Fugitive from Justice.”
It’s unclear when and where the alleged incident occurred.
When reached for comment on the charges, McClanaghan’s lawyer Dan Griffin told ESPN: “No comment. Zero.”
ABC’s Boston affiliate WCVB-TV reached out to the Celtics for a statement, as C’s center Al Horford is a client of McClanaghan’s.
A spokesperson for the team confirmed that McClanaghan, who previously worked with Boston’s interim head coach Joe Mazzullais at local high school Bishop Hendricken, is not employed by the Celtics.
Brendan Fraser won’t be attending next year’s Golden Globes after accusing Philip Berk, the former president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, of groping him at a lunch in Beverly Hills in 2013.
In an interview with GQ, the Canadian-American actor responded to a question asking him if he would go to the awards if he were to be invited.
“I have more history with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association than I have respect for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association,” Fraser said. “No, I will not participate. It’s because of the history that I have with them. And my mother didn’t raise a hypocrite. You can call me a lot of things, but not that.”
After confirming the accusation against Berk in a previous GQ interview, Fraser explained how that moment was one of the reasons why he disappeared from Hollywood. Before he secluded himself, Fraser was one of the most popular actors, appearing in box-office hits like The Mummy series and George of the Jungle.
Fraser recalled receiving an apology letter from Berk in 2018 that admitted “no wrongdoing.”
“If the HFPA did attempt to make amends, according to rules of engagement, it would be my responsibility to take a look at it and make a determination at that time, if that became the situation,” Frasier said. “And it would have to be, I don’t know, what’s the word I’m looking for… sincere ? I would want some gesture of making medicine out of poison somehow.”
Fraser is currently promoting his upcoming A24 movie The Whale, where he plays a 270 kg man who tries to rebuild his relationship with his teenage daughter. The movie is slated to release on Dec. 9, 2022.
A US manwho had been imprisoned for nearly four decades for murder was released after new DNA evidence pointed to a different person.
Maurice Hastings was sentenced to more than 38 years in state prison for the 1983 murder of Roberta Wydermyer and two attempted murders in California.
However, new DNA evidence pointed to another man who died in prison in 2020.
Now 69, Mr Hastings has been released from prison after his 1988 conviction was vacated on 20 October.
LA County District Attorney George Gascón described his conviction as a “terrible injustice”.
“The justice system is not perfect, and when we learn of new evidence which causes us to lose confidence in a conviction, it is our obligation to act swiftly,” he added in a statement.
Roberta Wydermyer was found in the boot of her car with a single gunshot wound to the head in 1983. She had earlier been sexually assaulted.
Mr Hastings was subsequently charged with murder and prosecutors sought the death penalty.
After a hung jury, a second jury convicted him and he was sentenced in 1988 to life in state prison without the possibility of parole.
At the time of the victim’s autopsy, semen was detected in an oral swab. Mr Hastings had maintained his innocence from the moment he was arrested, but a request for DNA testing of the swab in 2000 was denied by the district attorney.
Eventually he was able to put in a claim of innocence to the DA’s Conviction Integrity Unit in 2021 and DNA testing in June found that the semen was not his.
The DNA profile instead matched a man who had been convicted of an armed kidnapping where he placed his female victim in a trunk of a vehicle.
Following a court hearing on 20 October to vacate his conviction, Mr Hastings told reporters he wasn’t bitter and wanted to enjoy the rest of his life.
“I prayed for many years that this day would come,” the Associated Press quoted Mr Hastings as saying. “I am not pointing fingers; I am not standing up here a bitter man, but I just want to enjoy my life now while I have it.”
A Santa Claus impersonator in the Quebec City area has been arrested on multiple sexual assault and drug related charges.
According to a news release by the Sûreté du Québec provincial police, 71-year-old Réjean Bacon is believed to have sexually assaulted five women. Bacon also faces charges of voyeurism, drug possession and trafficking, and obtaining sexual services.
Local media reports say Bacon has been identified as a popular Santa Claus impersonator in the area. According to CTV News Montreal: “images of a man dressed in a Santa suit on a Facebook profile under the name Réjean Bacon match the photo of the accused.”
The provincial police say Bacon was arrested last May. Police received a search warrant for his home, which led to the seizure of computer equipment.
He was later released with conditions. The analysis of the computer material then made it possible to lay these latest charges.
Eric Weinberg, who was an executive producer and writer on hit US comedy series Scrubs, has pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of sexual assault.
The 62-year-old was denied bail by a judge after appearing in court in Los Angeles on Tuesday.
He has been charged with 18 counts of sexual assault, all of which he denies.
Mr Weinberg is said to have “relied on his Hollywood credentials” to lure young women to photo shoots where he allegedly assaulted them.
The charges against him include six counts of sexual penetration by use of force and three counts of forcible rape.
They stem from alleged incidents involving five women between 2014 and 2019.
Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Scrubs was a popular US hospital-based sitcom
Set in a US hospital and starring Zach Braff, Donald Faison and Sarah Chalke, Scrubs ran from 2001 to 2010, winning two primetime Emmy Awards.
Mr Weinberg’s other TV work includes the US series Californication and Anger Management.
According to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office, he approached two separate women at public locations in 2014 and told them he was a photographer. He is accused of sexually assaulting them back at his house later.
The defendant is alleged to have brought another woman back to his home in 2017 where he is accused of sexually assaulting her.
Mr Weinberg is also accused of sexually assaulting two women in separate incidents in 2018 and 2019.
He is due to appear in court again on 15 November.
After the jurywas selected on Friday, Hollywood is prepared for the commencement of a fresh trial for Harvey Weinstein, which is slated to begin on Monday in Los Angeles.
Weinstein, who is reportedly in poor condition, has returned to Los Angeles and is being held in a prison cell while on trial for rape and sexual assault.
This court case comes after Weinstein was convicted in New York for other sex crimes, though that verdict is being appealed.
He denies ever having non-consensual sex with anyone.
The LA trial is expected to be much less of a spectacle, but it’s causing many in Hollywood to look back at the #MeToo movement and assess its success.
A recent study by the advocacy group showed that while 83% of respondents felt that progress has been made since 2017, a staggering 69% said they had personally experienced abuse or misconduct at work since the movement began.
“It’s lost momentum,” Women in Film executive director, Kirsten Schaffer, said of the movement for equal rights and representation for women.
Seasoned film producers often ask their stars to shoot sex sceneson the first day of filming. That way, an actor can’t change their mind about nudity halfway through a film when recasting would prove expensive.
That still happens in Hollywood, five years after stories of systemic sexual assault and harassment rocked Hollywood and ignited the #MeToo.
But now, it’s likely an intimacy coordinator will be on set making sure actors feel comfortable and safe as they simulate sex.
Schaffer continues: “I think there is forward motion. And that’s why it’s not super depressing,” she says, adding that five years ago the response to #MeToo was intense, with “so many people caring about it, putting new policies in place, launching programmes”.
And many people in Hollywood say those policies are working.
Actresses say they’re offered more interesting roles, and there are more opportunities for female crew members, writers and directors.
Rosanna Arquette, one of Weinstein’s first public accusers, was part of the Screen Actors Guild committee which helped introduce intimacy coordinators on set, to make sure everyone is comfortable in any scene requiring nudity.
“A lot of people were against the intimacy coordinators, but you know, a lot of abuse did happen that way,” Ms Arquette told the BBC.
IMAGE SOURCE, GETTY IMAGES Image caption, Rose McGowan and Rosanna Arquette came forward with accounts of abuse by Weinstein in 2017
Many aspiringactors say the industry has changed for the better. When we visited an acting class five years ago, many told us horror stories of the fear they face going into auditions – the very real fear that they might be sexually assaulted or propositioned in exchange for a role.
At the Michelle Danner Acting Studio this week, aspiring stars spoke to the BBC about their experiences auditioning and performing in low-budget films hoping to get their big break. Aside from a few sleazy propositions, most said they’d been treated with respect.
Ms Danner, who runs the acting studio and directs movies, says the casting couch will never fully disappear but that people are much more careful now.
Auditions have become much more safe and more formal experiences, with monitors and rules about the number of people in a room. And due to the pandemic, many are now taking them via video phone.
“The fears are real,” says Ms Danner, adding that people feel empowered to speak up now more than ever if there is misconduct at work.
“The #MeToo movement created that, and there’s no going back. I don’t think you can ever close the door to what has started.”
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES Image caption, Weinstein was known for producing films such as Shakespeare in Love and Pulp Fiction
The Academy of Motion Pictures has responded to criticism of Hollywood by significantly diversifying its membership, inviting more women and people of colour to be part of the group which hosts the Oscars.
According to the Center for the Study of Women in Film in Television, female characters accounted for just 35% of major characters in the top 100 grossing films in 2021, down three percentage points from the previous year.
And after reaching historic highs in 2020, the percentage of women directing top-grossing films declined in 2021. The number of women working as directors on the top 100 films retreated from 16% in 2020 to 12% in 2021.
But more women are producing film and TV – 32% of producers (up from 30% in 2020).
Many powerful female players like Reese Witherspoon have started their own production companies, to make the kind of films and TV shows they want to see. That urge has spread throughout the industry.
At the Danner acting school, actresses Josephine Hies and Meitar Paz have started producing as well as acting so they can have more control over the stories they tell.
As a producer you have “a different power in how you tell stories” and power over which stories are told, Hies said.
IMAGE SOURCE, UNIVERSAL PICTURES Image caption, Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan star in She Said, a new film about journalists investigating Weinstein
Harvey Weinstein’s downfall is now immortalized in a film. She Said stars Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan as the New York Times reporters who investigated the sexual harassment and abuse claims against Weinstein. It’s due to hit cinemas in the US in November, and Weinstein’s lawyers failed in their attempt to delay its release, claiming it would prejudice the jury that’s just been selected against him.
At the film’s New York premiere, the stars rubbed shoulders with many of Weinstein’s accusers, some of whom have roles in the film.
Rowena Chiu, Weinstein’s former assistant who says he sexually assaulted her and then coerced her into signing a Non-Disclosure Agreement, or NDA, says she hopes the film will inspire healthier workplaces.
She came forward 20 years after the alleged assault to tell her story because she thought it was important to say that it wasn’t just Hollywood actors who were targeted.
“It’s important that we uphold the legal system. There were dozens of women he assaulted and only a handful can testify,” she said.
“I’m not involved in Hollywood. I don’t work in Hollywood,” she said.
A sexual assault complaint filed against actor Kevin Spacey has been dismissed by a New York judge.
Anthony Rapp filed the lawsuit, alleging that the actor illegally assaulted him when he was 14 years old at a party in 1986.
Mr Rapp, now 50 and also an actor, filed the lawsuit in September 2020, asking for approximately $40 million (£36 million) in damages.
Mr Spacey, an Oscar winner, has denied the accusations against him.
He is separately facing five charges in the UK of sexual assault, to which he has pleaded not guilty. That trial is due to begin in June 2023.
On Thursday, following a three-week civil trial in a Manhattan federal court, a jury found that Mr Rapp had not proved his claim that Mr Spacey had made an unwanted sexual advance.
Deliberations lasted for more than an hour and, after the verdict was read out by the judge, Mr Spacey reportedly hugged his lawyers before leaving the courtroom.
Mr Rapp says that Mr Spacey was around 26 or 27 years old when he met him at a party at his Manhattan apartment.
In a Buzzfeed article from October 2017, Mr Rapp said that Mr Spacey had picked him up, placed him on a bed, and lain down partially on top of him. “I was aware that he was trying to get with me sexually,” he wrote.
Taking the stand in his own defence in the third week of his trial, Mr Spacey said he had been shocked when Mr Rapp went public with his allegations five years ago.
“I didn’t know how this could possibly be true,” the 63-year-old said, adding he would not have been sexually interested in Mr Rapp as he was underage.
IMAGE SOURCE,REUTERS Image caption, A sketch in court shows Mr Spacey (R) and Mr Rapp’s lawyer Richard Steigman (C)
Mr Rapp’s lawyer Richard Steigman argued there were gaps in Mr Spacey’s memory and changes in his recollection.
Mr Spacey’s lawyer Jennifer Keller countered that Mr Rapp’s story was a fabrication, and she said he was “getting more attention in this trial than he has in his entire acting life”.
Career derailed
Multiple allegations of sexual misconduct derailed the Hollywood star’s stage career. Netflix dropped him from its political drama series House of Cards and Christopher Plummer replaced him in the role of J. Paul Getty in All the Money in the World.
In August, a judge ruled that Mr Spacey must pay $31m to the producers of House of Cards for the costs they incurred after firing him from the show.
Mr Spacey won Oscars for his performances in American Beauty and The Usual Suspects.
In July, he entered a not-guilty plea in London to criminal charges of sexually assaulting three men over a decade ago.
During the New York trial, he was asked about a suggestion by Mr Rapp that he was a “fraud” for not coming out as gay sooner. Mr Spacey said he had always been private about his personal life, including his childhood because his father had held racist and homophobic views.
A video showing Iranian anti-riot forces sexually assaulting a female demonstrator while attempting to arrest her has sparked outrage on social media.
Users expressed their fury, with many demanding “justice” and the resignation of the police chief. Some pro-government users condemned the perpetrators as well.
Despite blockson some social media tools, Iranians are still managing to share powerful images of the protests.
The country has been rocked by the most intense unrest in decades.
The protests erupted last month when anger over the death in police custody of 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian Mahsa Amini boiled over. Officials say she died from an underlying health condition, but her family says she died after being beaten by the morality police.
Numerous videos of the protest have gone viral both inside and outside of Iran. This latest video, which happened in Tehran’s Argentina Square on Wednesday, shows a group of officers in protective gear and helmets surrounding a woman on the main road.
One of them grabs her by the neck and leads her into a crowd of about two dozen police, many of whom are on motorcycles.
While the woman is being forced towards one of the bikes, another officer approaches her from behind and puts his left hand on her bottom.
The woman then crouches on the ground as more officers surround her. A female voice behind the camera is heard saying: “They are pulling her hair.”
Drivers in vehicles next to where it is happening start sounding their horns, a form of protest in similar situations seen in the past few days across the country.
The woman, who appears to have no hijab or headscarf, is then seen standing up and running away from the scene.
At this point, the same voice on the clip is heard saying: “Look at him [the security force officer], he is laughing”.
دیروز بیبیسی فارسی، ویدیوهایی از تعرض نیروهای امنیتی به دختران معترض منتشر کرد که واکنشهای گستردهای با هشتگ #تعرض برانگیخته است؛ از بغض و استیصال و نفرت و خشم تا یادآوری داعش و خرمشهر و «وعده حضور مصممتر در خیابان و انتقام خشونت علیه معترضان.»
بیشتر:https://t.co/5XCSTSYJ0Xpic.twitter.com/4Pay8TySCu
The footage has been verified by the BBC’s Persian service.
Tehran’s Police Public Relations office has said the incident is being investigated, state news agency Irna reported.
The police statement does not give details of what happened, but says that “enemies using psychological warfare tried to cause public anxiety and incite violence”.
The fact that the incident happened in public has led human rights activists to question what security forces might also be doing behind closed doors.
“Have you brought out the harassment of the girls of this land from [your] prisons into the open streets with the aim to shout out [at us] in public your obscenity, lechery and filth?” posted a social media user by the name of Atefeh.
Mistreatment, including sexual and psychological abuse, has been reported by many inmates, especially political prisoners, for years.
Many Iranians commented on social media that the video from Tehran had made them more determined to go out on the streets to protest, with one person saying they intended “to put their anger and fury into action”.
A man who sexually abused his pet dog for years and attempted to arrange the abuse of children has been jailed after being convicted for a string of offences.
Officers were first made aware of Douglas Moore’s actions when they came across “sickening footage” of a dog being subjected to physical and sexual abuse. The content of the video was so alarming that senior officers in the Metropolitan Police were contacted and a warrant was sought to rescue the animal and arrest Moore.
Despite the 34-year-old going to great lengths to delete all evidence of his egregious misconduct, officers where able to arrest the Manchester paedophile in November 2021, rescuing the pet dog in the process.
Appearing at Minshull Street Crown Court, Moore was found guilty on 24 charges of various sex offences, including having sex with an animal, possessing extreme pornographic images that showed an act of intercourse, and oral sex with both a dead and alive animal. Further evidence on Moore’s seized devices revealed that he had attempted to organise meetings for the abuse of children and dogs and navigated the “dark web” to exchange inappropriate material.
While there is no proof that the attempted encounters were successful, Moore was also found guilty of posting offensive articles online and possessing marijuana.
“Upon discovery of the original video, we took immediate and decisive action to identify Moore and save the dog,” Pc Pete Howes, from the Online Child Sexual Abuse & Exploitation Command, told the court. “I am happy to say the dog is now safe and well and being cared for. The scale of evidence compiled meant Moore was left with no option but to plead guilty. I’m pleased he is now in jail where he belongs. It is no exaggeration to say that this investigation may well have spared more animals, and humans, from coming to incredibly serious harm.”
Moore is now banned from owning animals and will be on the sex offenders register for life.
Anthony Rapp, who is 14 years old, accuses Mr. Spacey of touching him indecently at a party in 1986. Anthony is suing Mr. Spacey in New York.
Mr Spacey, 63, is separately facing five charges of sexual assault in the UK.
The House of Cards actor has denied the allegations against him.
Both Mr Rapp, now 51 and also an actor, and Mr Spacey are expected to be in the Manhattan federal courthouse when the trial opens with jury selection on Thursday.
Mr Rapp says that Mr Spacey was around 26 or 27 years old when he met him at a party at his Manhattan apartment.
In a Buzzfeed article from October 2017, Mr Rapp said that Mr Spacey had picked him up, placed him on a bed, and lay down partially on top of him.
“I was aware that he was trying to get with me sexually,” Mr Rapp said.
His lawsuit says the alleged encounter lasted no more than two minutes and “there was no kissing, no undressing, no reaching under clothes, and no sexualized statements or innuendo”.
Mr Rapp is reportedly seeking $40m (£35m) in damages.
IMAGE SOURCE, GETTY IMAGES Image caption, Anthony Rapp currently stars in Star Trek: Discovery
The judge assigned to the case, Lewis A Kaplan, previously dismissed a charge of sexual assault, ruling the statute of limitations had expired.
One day after the Buzzfeed article was posted five years ago, Mr Spacey took to social media to say he had no memory of what Mr Rapp described.
“If I did behave then as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior,” he wrote.
“And I am sorry for the feelings he describes having carried with him all these years.”
In a video deposition, he filmed with lawyers in January, Mr Spacey denied that the incident ever took place, according to the news website Law & Crime.
Mr Rapp’s account “couldn’t have been true”, he said, because “I am not interested in boys and I do not touch people inappropriately”.
Mr Rapp stars in Star Trek: Discovery on Paramount+ and was previously in the Broadway musical Rent.
Separate sex assault charges – alleging that Mr Spacey groped an 18-year-old at a restaurant in Nantucket, Massachusetts, in 2016 – collapsed in 2019 after the actor’s lawyers argued the accuser had manipulated text messages on his phone.
In August, a judge ruled that Spacey must pay $31m to the producers of House of Cards for the costs they incurred after firing him from the show.
In July, he entered a not guilty plea in London to criminal charges of sexually assaulting three men over a decade ago. That trial is due to begin in June 2023.
According to recently made public court documents, women at Goldman Sachs alleged 75 instances of sexual assault and harassmentinvolving top bankers between 2000 and 2011, including rape.
The allegations are contained in a New York class-action complaint accusing the banking behemoth of discriminating against women’s compensation and promotion.
The suit, which now represents roughly 1,400 women, is set for trial in June.
Goldman has been fighting the case since 2010 and denies claims of bias.
It said many of the complaints were two decades old and had been “presented selectively, inaccurately and are incomplete”.
“The plaintiffs’ presentation of the complaints does not reflect reality at Goldman Sachs,” a spokesperson said. “Discrimination, harassment and mistreatment in any form are unacceptable at Goldman Sachs, and when identified, swift action, including termination, is taken. Out of respect for the persons involved, we are not going to comment on the individual complaints.”
Cristina Chen-Oster, a former vice president who worked for the bank from 1997 to 2005 and was one of the three women who filed the initial complaint, said she was looking forward to sharing her experience at trial.
IMAGE SOURCE,CRISTINA CHEN-OSTER Image caption, Cristina Chen-Oster was one of three women who filed the original complaint
“I hope this case will help to finally break the glass ceiling for women on Wall Street and set a precedent for other industries where gender discrimination is pervasive,” she said. “We need to bring transparency to practices that previously seemed untouchable.”
The lawsuit says women at Goldman were paid and promoted less, as a result of a pattern of discriminatory practices, including a “boys’ club” work culture that permitted the sexualisation of female staff.
Goldman is accused of tolerating managers who engage in sexual harassment, such as one who rang a bell every time a woman entered the floor. He was later promoted to managing director, according to the complaint.
The incidents of alleged sexual assault reported to the firm included a female employee who claimed she was drugged and raped after a company baseball game.
Another female employee alleged that a male manager took her to an abandoned floor and propositioned her for sex; he later called to say he was “masturbating to the sound of her voice”, the complaint says.
The complaint says Goldman retaliated against women who complained about the issue, as well as those who went on maternity leave.
In Ms Chen-Oster’s experience, outlined in the initial complaint, she describes having a married male colleague pin her “against a wall, kissing and groping her” after a company dinner.
She alleges that she was consistently paid less and denied opportunities, noting that Goldman removed responsibilities after she went on maternity leave and assigned her a seat among female support staff.
“The record overwhelmingly demonstrates that year after year Goldman continues to treat womenas second-class employees, permitting a culture of fear and retaliation to flourish rather than fixing known, systemic gender bias,” the lawsuit alleges.
Lawyers are asking the court to order reinstatement or damages for the women, who according to the suit were paid 20% less than their male counterparts if they were vice presidents, while female associates earned 8% less.
