abuse

Hayden Panettiere was candid in her memoir and book tour interviews about the extensive abuse by on-again, off-again boyfriend Brian Hickerson. Now he’s under the microscope as new details surrounding her death and their relationship emerge.

On Thursday, Panettiere’s mother, Lesley Vogel, whom the “Nashville” actor had a strained relationship with, pointed blame for the actor’s death toward an unnamed individual, but earlier this week she outright named Hickerson.

“Although my daughter and I were estranged, it was not for lack of care or love,” she said in a statement to “Entertainment Tonight.” “It was due to the involvement of a toxic individual who I believe led to her death.”⁠

⁠”It leads me to believe there are still questions surrounding what happened,” she said. “And I think we are all looking for answers.”⁠

And earlier this week, she told NBC, “This person in her life that we have been trying to get rid of for quite some time was with her at her death, and that was Brian Hickerson.”

Hickerson broke his silence for the first time since Panettiere died Sunday of an apparent overdose as his attorney Sloan Ellis made a statement on his behalf. “Hayden’s death remains under investigation and it is important to allow that investigation to proceed,” Ellis told TMZ. “As has been publicly reported, police confirmed there were no signs of foul play.”

“Out of respect for Hayden’s loved ones and the ongoing investigation, there will be no further comment at this time.”

Hickerson and his brother Zach Hickerson were present when emergency responders found Panettiere in cardiac arrest on Sunday. According to a report from Greenville, S.C., police, Zach was “very emotional” as paramedics attempted to revive Panettiere, and Brian “did not become emotional until EMS declared her officially deceased.”

According to TMZ, Narcan — a drug used to reverse an opioid overdose — was found at the scene, but it’s unclear whether it was used on Panettiere.

Brian and Zach Hickerson did not respond to The Times’ request for comment.

In the actor’s memoir, “This Is Me: A Reckoning,” which she published in May, she wrote that she and Hickerson met in 2018 at a West Hollywood bar. They fell fast into a whirlwind romance that soured after alcohol-fueled fights turned violent. “It was easy. The easiest happiness that I had come by in a long time,” she wrote in the memoir. “Then, one day, when we were on our second bottle of wine — the bottle that suffocates all the magic and obliterates your defenses — everything changed.”

Hickerson was arrested multiple times on suspicion of domestic violence against Panettiere, beginning in May 2019 in Los Angeles (the charges were later dismissed when prosecutors couldn’t secure a material witness) and again on Valentine’s Day in 2020 in Wyoming (misdemeanor battery charges were eventually dropped). Following an eight-count criminal indictment in July 2020 that covered multiple violent incidents between May 2019 and January 2020, Hickerson pleaded no contest in April 2021 to two felony counts of injuring a spouse or girlfriend. He was sentenced to 45 days in county jail (but served 13 days due to credit for time served) along with four years of formal probation, mandatory domestic violence classes, and a five-year protective order.

After his 2019 arrest was covered in the press, Panettiere wrote that she and Brian “shut ourselves inside” to avoid paparazzi and that she screened calls from friends and family who phoned and texted “constantly,” worried that she was in a “dangerous situation with Brian.”

“What I never told them was that the abuse I’d endured didn’t feel as bad as the thought of being alone,” she wrote.

In “This Is Me,” she graphically detailed the abuse. She claimed that, during one attack, he punched her in the face repeatedly and secretly recorded himself saying, “Why did you hit yourself?” and “You’re all bruised, why did you do that to yourself?” When he was subsequently booked on charges of felony domestic assault, he pleaded not guilty and claimed that Panettiere had done it to herself.

“I didn’t know the person Brian turned into when he started raging,” she wrote. “This other Brian seemed to be dissociating, like the rational Dr. Jekyll part of his brain shut off while the violent Mr. Hyde took over. I was sure he must have a serious mental illness, like bipolar or borderline personality disorder, that could make him change so quickly.”

She continued: “On July 16, 2020, authorities in LA arrested Brian again, charging him with four domestic assault felonies, one misdemeanor count of battery; two felony counts of assault with a deadly weapon (in particular, our garage floor and the stairs, both of which he’d once smashed my body into); and one felony count of dissuading a witness from prosecuting a crime.

“That witness was me. After we’d come back from Wyoming, Brian had called and tried to talk me out of pressing charges against him. As my heart broke into a million pieces, I told him it was too late, and then I told the police.”

Three days before Panettiere’s death, Hickerson attempted to expunge and reduce his past felony charges but was denied by a Los Angeles judge. He made the same request last July, which was denied.

During the press tour for “This Is Me,” Panettiere told podcaster Jay Shetty that she had cut ties with Hickerson but that, historically, he’d always found a way to reconnect just as she thought she was finally free of him. Reportedly, the two reconnected just weeks before her death.

“I thought I had gotten out of it and gotten away from it. … Abusers weave themselves like weeds into your life, and there’s always something that they left behind,” she told Shetty. “There’s always something that they have to come back for. There was always something that they find to keep that connection, keep you on the hook, keep that connection with you, no matter where you you go.”

In May, after Panettiere’s interview with Shetty went live, Hickerson spoke with TMZ and appeared intoxicated and slurred as he spoke about the actor. “Hayden Panettiere is the sweetest thing in the world,” he said. “It’s not about who you spend Saturday night with, it’s who you spend all day Sunday with, and Hayden Panettiere is a Sunday girl.”

“I would be an idiot not to walk away from her and let her flourish in her career,” he continued. “So we probably wouldn’t be good together. I’d like to see what she’s gonna do with the next like 30 years of her career, she’ll always hold a special place in my heart … we’re good buddies.”

She added Dott allegedly touched her over her clothes and lasted “maybe a couple of minutes”.

Prosecutor Lindsey Dalziel then asked if she remembered Dott saying anything.

The witness said she remembered that “it was odd to me”.

“I think he said ‘does that feel nice’ or something. I cannot recall,” she added.

She went on to speak of another alleged incident after Dott was said to have asked if she wanted to play a “guessing game” at the house.

The witness claimed Dott, who lives in the Dennistoun area of Glasgow, went on to suggest that she take her trousers down. He also lifted her top and started kissing her “belly”.

She also accused him of inappropriately touching her.

The witness claimed the abuse had happened several times.

Asked if she ever told anyone at that time about what was happening, she stated: “No. Graeme told me not to.”

The woman told the court it was few years later that she first confided in a friend, but did not go into any details with her.

She said she also spoke to a teacher before meeting with police in January 2001.

Officers then came to her door in 2024, the court heard.

Dalziel asked: “Had you done anything to instigate the police coming?”

The witness said: “No, I was in complete shock.”

The trial, before Judge Lord Harrower, continues.

Phil Collins faced death two years ago, and has lived to tell the tale.

The Grammy-winning singer recalled to the Times of London how his “kidneys were packing up, my organs were just seizing” when he was was hospitalized in Switzerland in April 2024 because of alcohol abuse. At the time, Collins’ five children — including “Emily in Paris” star Lily Collins — were called to his bedside for what they thought could be his final moments.

“There were some decisions to be made about ‘Do we keep Phil on life support?’” he recalled for the profile, published Monday. He added: “People were coming to say goodbye. But I don’t remember them coming, I didn’t have no idea this was going on. They were all worried that they wouldn’t see me again. It could all have gone so terribly wrong.”

Collins reflected on his brush with death to the news outlet months before he is set to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in November. His fellow inductees include Billy Idol, Iron Maiden, Joy Division/New Order, Oasis, Sade, Luther Vandross and Wu-Tang Clan.

The profile about the “In the Air Tonight” and “You’ll Be in My Heart” singer recalled the extent of his struggles with alcohol, including after his divorce from Orianne Cevey. Collins, 75, said when he was drinking, “the calendar [went] out the window” and that he opted for wine for breakfast. The Times of London reported that Collins was hospitalized in November 2023 and swiftly discharged, only to return to the intensive care unit and stay hospitalized for seven months.

“I was very lucky to have come out of that. Needless to say, I haven’t had a drink since,” he said. According to the outlet, Collins has permanent scarring on his pancreas, and his kidneys “barely” function.

Collins spoke about his alcohol abuse earlier this year in a five-episode podcast series with Zoe Ball. He revealed in April that he has a live-in nurse and that it’s an “ongoing” effort to manage his health. He said “everything that could go wrong with me did go wrong.”

“I got COVID in hospital, my kidneys started to back up, you know, everything that could, all seemed to sort of converge at the same time,” he said, adding that he had undergone five operations on his knee.

Collins also admitted in April he’d “probably been drinking too much” and that he recently celebrated two years of sobriety.

Collins spoke in his most recent interview about his desire “to be in love again,” revisited his controversial love life and spoke about mending his relationships with Piers Morgan, Paul McCartney and daughter Lily Collins after various rifts that played out in the media.

“I don’t like people going around thinking I hate them,” he said.

The actress opened up about the horrific abuse she suffers on a daily basis from cruel trolls.

Coronation Street star Cherylee Houston has opened up about the horrific abuse she receives daily.

The actress has played Izzy Armstrong in the ITV soap since 2010, and elsewhere plays Maz in BBC Radio 4 series Tinsel Girl.

During an appearance on Good Morning Britain on Monday, August 3, Cherylee opened up about her life away from the spotlight and the abuse she receives daily.

Cherylee was diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome when she was 23, and now uses a wheelchair.

According to the NHS, the condition can affect people in different ways, and for some, it can be disabling.

Opening up about her experience, Cherylee told GMB hosts Kate Garraway and Richard Madeley: “A couple of times I’ve been on television and my chair hasn’t been on view, I’ve been bullied for that. People are very easily ready to call out…”

She went on to say that trolls tell her she is “making it up”, and faces the abuse “on a daily basis”.

Cherylee added: “My friend and I were wheeling down the street, and a man was shouting out about how much benefits we got and stuff, and how we make it up. It happens all the time.”

Richard shared: “I have to say, anyone that sees your chair on screen and then puts their fingers on a keyboard to say you’re pretending or you’re seeking sympathy or something, I think they’re a bit thick.”

Cherylee replied: “Yes and no, because I think some of it is about our representation and an understanding.”

She continued: “There’s so much lack of understanding because we’re 1 in 5, but we’re not on screen, our stories aren’t told.”

Cherylee received an MBE for services in the disabled community in 2022, after raising awareness, working to remove barriers for disabled people, and speaking about welfare cuts in Parliament.

She was also involved in a Coronation Street storyline that shone a light on the difficulties disabled people experienced during the pandemic, and the pressures of working remotely while shielding, in scenes filmed in her home.

She said at the time: “I have been unbelievably fortunate that my employers enabled me to continue shielding after the official shielding guidance ended in March. I’ve been so supported by ITV, but I’m aware that many of my disabled peers who were previously shielding haven’t had that safety and have been forced to make the decision to earn money to survive whilst facing the real fear of death or serious illness through Covid.”

Coronation Street Producer Iain MacLeod added: “We had to think outside the box in order to tell this story, devising new protocols and ways of scripting scenes that would allow Cherylee to film the scenes herself in her home. It certainly helped that her partner, Toby, is a fabulous actor!

“Despite all the technical challenges we had to overcome, this was a story that needed telling, and I hope it will resonate with millions of people who have found themselves in a similar position to Izzy, and perhaps open the eyes of millions of others who had little awareness of the issues facing disabled people during COVID.”

Good Morning Britain airs weekdays from 6am on ITV1 and ITVX.

“Top Chef” alum and popular Food Network host Eric Adjepong has been ordered to stay away from his 7-year-old daughter following an investigation into abuse claims.

According to the Washington Post, a Maryland judge found that “there is a preponderance” of evidence to believe Adjepong physically abused his daughter, leading to a protective order that bars the celebrity chef from contacting or being alone with his daughter until he completes parenting courses and reunification therapy with the child.

Adjepong’s former wife, Janell Davis-Mack, posted a screenshot of the case information on Instagram last week, writing that she and her daughter had been quiet long enough.

“My daughter has watched me rebuild our life focused on our safety after I divorced her father four years ago,” she wrote. “I’ve also taught her about body autonomy, consent, boundaries, and to tell the trusted adults around her when she feels unsafe.

“My daughter was just granted a protective order against her father because she was brave enough to speak up against who should have been one of the most trusted adults in her life.

“Unfortunately for him — I’ll never stop believing her, protecting her, or reminding her that her voice matters.”

Judge Maurice C. Frazier issued the protective order against Adjepong on July 10; it will remain in place until July 10, 2027. The James Beard-nominated chef is mandated not to contact, harass, abuse or threaten to abuse his daughter or former wife. While the order is in place, Adjepong can have supervised visits with his daughter.

In May, Davis-Mack filed a petition in Howard County, Maryland, seeking protection for her daughter from Adjepong, citing alleged child abuse. Per the Washington Post, Davis-Mack claimed that a nurse who examined their daughter filed a report with the D.C. Child and Family Services Agency, which launched an investigation by D.C. police.

A spokesman for D.C. police told the Washington Post that its Youth Investigations Branch was prompted to investigate claims of “sexual abuse” but that detectives found no probable cause that sexual abuse had taken place and referred the case back to Child and Family Services. On Wednesday, Adjepong posted what appeared to be a screenshot of email correspondence from the D.C. Child and Family Services Agency stating that, on April 29, they received a report of potential neglect or abuse, investigated the claims and found sexual abuse claims “unfounded.”

“I am aware of recent media inquiries concerning a protective order entered on July 10, 2026,” the chef wrote alongside the screenshot. “Because this matter involves my young daughter, whom I love deeply, I intend to protect her privacy and will not discuss the underlying allegations or other sensitive family matters publicly other than to say that these allegations arose in the context of a long running divorce and custody proceeding, which finally concluded on June 2, 2026.

“The Court’s protective order followed careful reviews by law enforcement and the District of Columbia Child and Family Services Agency (‘CFSA’). The District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department closed its investigation without filing charges. CFSA concluded its investigation with an ‘unfounded’ disposition, which its report defines as not true.

“I have the utmost respect for the Circuit Court that issued the protective order and am strictly complying with every facet of the order, which is designed to ensure that my daughter is safe and treated respectfully, and to ensure her reunification with her father. The Judge eloquently described the nature of my relationship with her at the hearing. My foremost concern is my daughter’s well-being. It is my fervent hope that in the future my ex-wife and I can resolve these matters privately and through the proper legal channels, rather than in the press, if only for the well-being of our daughter.”

Fatima ‘Teema’ Mahmud uploaded a short clip on her Telegram Status that morning; it showed a leaked intimate video involving individuals in northern Nigeria. The time was 8:13 a.m.; minutes later, she uploaded another one and another. By midday, she had uploaded dozens of similar pieces of content. By evening, there were hundreds.

Some of the updates advertised leaked, non-consensual intimate videos that had circulated across social media timelines in the region days earlier. Others promoted sex work services, paid erotic video calls, and private VIP groups featuring explicit videos of women, particularly northern actresses. Among them, and pinned prominently at the top of Fatima’s Telegram profile, were screen records of what she claimed were sexual and nude videos of children, advertised under paid access tiers.

The next morning, the cycle began again.

This reporting was never supposed to become an investigation into child sexual abuse material. It began with a simpler question: where do the leaked intimate videos that circulate on northern Nigerian social media end up?

Every few weeks, another such video appears. The names change, but the outrage follows a familiar script: WhatsApp groups begin asking for links, X users post screenshots before directing followers to Telegram, and Facebook pages recycle the same clips. For a day or two, timelines become courtrooms. Then attention shifts elsewhere, and the people at the centre of those scandals disappear from public conversation, but the links do not.

One such link appeared in May. An X account, now suspended, promoting what it described as a leaked intimate video involving a woman, instructed followers to continue on Telegram. Instead of downloading the material, HumAngle followed the trail, using a pseudonymous account to trace the same path thousands of other users take whenever another intimate video erupts across northern Nigerian social media.

For three months, HumAngle watched what that trail led to: an ecosystem that had evolved to survive platform bans, rebuild audiences almost overnight, and transform some of women’s most private moments into commercial products. Within that ecosystem, children appeared to have become one of its most valuable commodities.

Following the trail

It started with “Teematv” on X. HumAngle stumbled on the account promoting a teaser video following a scandal involving a Kaduna-based woman, whom HumAngle will not name to avoid re-victimising her. The X account claimed to have the “full video” and encouraged followers to access it on Telegram.

We created a pseudonymous account and followed the trail.

The first Telegram channel, “Teematv” (@teematv9), which is the main feeder channel and had over 40,000 subscribers before it got suspended in June, looked much as expected: pornography, leaked videos, and VIP subscriptions. But the longer the investigation continued, the less it resembled another anonymous pornography page. The channel did not exist in isolation. Every video and image posted linked to something else, and subscribers were encouraged to save the phone numbers provided by the administrators. “Add my contact,” she often tells subscribers. 

Once saved, these numbers unlocked Telegram Status updates, which promoted private VIP groups, which led to new administrators, who promoted replacement channels. When one account disappeared, another had already taken its place.

It felt less like browsing social media and more like walking through a marketplace where every stall owner knew the next. The journey was remarkably consistent, and the pattern held across every operator HumAngle traced; the public channels attracted attention, Telegram Status sustained it, and private conversations completed the sale. Each platform served a different purpose within the same business. X functioned as a storefront, where explicit clips and provocative teasers attracted attention and encouraged users to click through. Telegram became the marketplace itself, while WhatsApp and private Telegram conversations handled the transactions.

Looking closer, the structure reflected an operation built specifically to survive the content moderation it was navigating.

The pattern started with what appeared, and what did not appear, on X. Operators such as Teema used their X accounts to post pornographic clips into X’s video feed, content that the platform’s moderation has grown relatively permissive toward, and whose recommendation algorithm readily surfaces more of it once a user engages with it repeatedly. At no point during our three months of monitoring did HumAngle observe child sexual abuse material posted directly on X. 

Whether by experience or deliberate caution, the operators appeared to understand the distinction: ordinary pornography might slip through a platform that has relaxed many of its guardrails around adult content, but material involving children almost certainly would not survive there. The Telegram link attached to those X posts was, in turn, rarely the final destination. It served as an additional layer of security, requiring users to either save a phone number or send a private inquiry before anything further was revealed.

Only after that number was saved did the next stage begin, through Telegram Status. There, too, the same caution applied. Rather than posting material involving children directly, operators uploaded blurred collages or screenshots, with titles and scenes presented as proof that a fuller collection existed, along with a caption advertising group access and a price, directing interested buyers into a private conversation. Nothing that could be mistaken for the material itself appeared in a space Telegram or outside observers could easily flag; the proof of possession and the point of sale were kept one careful step apart. HumAngle observed screenshots of children naked and being abused.

The advertisements rarely remained online for long. Telegram Status updates disappear automatically after 24 hours, and the administrators appeared to exploit that feature deliberately, because the posts remain accessible on the profile itself to anyone who has saved their contact. On some days, one operator uploaded close to 200 Status updates, rotating through advertisements, teaser clips, and promotional graphics before repeating the process the following morning.

The result was a constantly changing catalogue. One day, the focus might be leaked intimate videos. The next, sex work services. Then paid video calls. Then another newly emerging leaked-video scandal that had just begun trending elsewhere on social media. The operators appeared to respond quickly to public attention: whenever an intimate video began circulating widely online, it often appeared inside the network within hours, repackaged as a commercial product, a short preview posted publicly with the full video available, administrators claimed, after payment. The scandals that dominated social media for a day or two became inventory.

Identifying the operators

There was one problem with Telegram usernames: they rarely lasted. By the time HumAngle finished documenting one account, another had often appeared. The usernames, invitations, and even profile photographs changed. But the people behind them did not.

To understand who was operating the network, our investigation moved beyond monitoring channels and focused instead on the digital traces the administrators had left behind, rather than the material they were advertising. The approach was deliberate: HumAngle had already decided it would not purchase access to private VIP groups or attempt to obtain any material advertised as involving children. 

Beyond the obvious ethical concerns, doing so could expose journalists to illegal content and compromise the investigation itself. Instead, we focused on the operators’ own mistakes, and the first was surprisingly ordinary: money.

Like any online business, the administrators eventually needed customers to pay. Across multiple Telegram channels and Status updates, Teema repeatedly instructed interested buyers to save a phone number before making enquiries or completing payments. Unlike her usernames, the number rarely changed. It became the first real-world lead.

A search through Truecaller, a popular caller identification service, returned the name “Fatima Mahmud”. One result was not enough, so the same number was cross-checked against Nigerian online banking applications, including OPay and PalmPay, both of which use registered phone numbers as account identifiers and display the associated account name before a transfer is completed. Both returned the same name. For the first time, the investigation had connected one of the network’s most active operators to a real-world name, confirmed through two independent verification methods.

Finding the person behind that name proved harder. Searching “Fatima Mahmud” and “Teema” on social media produced dozens of unrelated results, and many of the accounts connected to the investigation had already been suspended or had disappeared before they could be examined. So HumAngle changed direction, following relationships rather than names: Telegram usernames led to older accounts, older accounts led to replacement accounts, and replacement accounts led to suspended X profiles, each revealing another fragment of the same digital footprint.

The same process and the same dual verification through Truecaller and banking app records identified a second recurring figure in the network who used several online identities: Deejah, Nanadady, and Deharjah. Once again, the payment trail pointed to one name: Khadija Adamu.

Despite the frequent account suspensions and identity changes, traces of her activity remained visible. As recently as July 17, Khadija remained active. In a Telegram Status update, she told followers her phone had been damaged and appealed for financial support to replace it, posting her Union Bank account details. The account name she provided, Khadija Adamu Abubakar, was confirmed through a mobile banking application search, adding a third independent verification to the identity already established through Truecaller and her OPay and PalmPay records. Fatima’s administrator account was also active at the time of publication.

Khadija’s operation mirrored Teema’s in structure, but she operated across a considerably wider segment of the online sex trade, advertising leaked intimate videos, homosexual pornography, sex work, paid sexual video chats, sex toys, sexual stimulants, and VIP groups promoted as containing child sexual abuse material. Of that range, child sexual abuse material appeared to be one of her primary products, and her pricing across the board was consistently higher than Teema’s, with VIP access advertised at between ₦50,000 and ₦100,000. From what HumAngle observed, she made no attempt to obscure or apologise for any of it.

A further question remained: were the photographs attached to their profiles genuine? At first glance, they appeared convincing: young Hausa women in casual portraits and self-portraits, but reverse-image searches using Google Lens and facial-recognition software found that several did not belong to the account holders at all. Instead, they matched publicly available photographs of Hausa actresses and other individuals whose images had been lifted from elsewhere online. The people running the accounts had carefully concealed their own identities behind someone else’s faces.

Fatima addressed this directly in the description of her main feeder channel, Teematv (@teematv9), which had more than 40,000 subscribers before it was suspended on June 12. “I post pretty Hausa girls on my page. If you see your picture here, then know [that] you are pretty,” she wrote. “Some of you are complaining. I just leave compliments as the caption. I mean no harm. [It] is just for fun.”

A final search, this time relying on Facebook’s “People You May Know” recommendation feature after the administrators’ phone numbers were saved as contacts, surfaced a profile that strongly matched the identity already established for Khadija. Fatima’s case proved less conclusive; several profiles appeared, but none could be verified with sufficient confidence. The search stopped there. We do not possess the legal powers available to law enforcement agencies, but what the reporting established was enough: two operators had been identified through the payment infrastructure they themselves had created, and neither appeared to be working alone.

The product

The advertisements followed a consistent commercial logic, and the same pricing structure recurred across all operators and channels documented in this investigation.

Individual leaked Hausa intimate videos, after a short teaser had been posted publicly, typically sold for between ₦2,000 and ₦5,000. Buyers seeking larger collections were encouraged to pay for VIP memberships instead, which administrators claimed offered hundreds of additional videos. The advertisements suggested a tiered business: casual customers bought individual videos, regular customers subscribed, and those willing to spend more were offered access to increasingly exclusive groups.

At the top of the pricing structure were advertisements for group access explicitly involving children. Unlike the adult-content advertisements, which typically promoted individual clips, these posts promised something larger: a collection, membership, exclusivity. They were usually brief: a blurred collage or screen record, a short caption, sometimes only a few words, followed by a price. Most commonly, that price was ₦50,000, though some operators, like Khadija, advertised memberships as high as ₦100,000. The wording varied slightly from one administrator to another, but the sales strategy did not, and the same pattern appeared consistently across multiple Status updates, different administrators, and different channels over the three months of monitoring.

At first, HumAngle questioned whether the advertisements were genuine; exaggerated claims to lure paying customers are common online. But the consistency, repeated across unrelated administrators using nearly identical language, made coincidence difficult to sustain as an explanation.

Teema’s advertisements illustrated how the claims were built up over time. In a sequence of Status updates viewed chronologically, she claimed her VIP collection had grown from around 600 videos to more than 800, and eventually to over 1,200. HumAngle could not independently verify those figures, but documented them as part of the marketing strategy: growth itself had become a product, with a larger claimed catalogue used to strengthen the sales pitch.

The operators appeared to understand a basic principle of online commerce: that people rarely arrive intending to make their largest purchase but are guided towards it. Every stage encouraged the next. The channels resembled a subscription business more than an ordinary social media page. Only the product was different, and its advertisements did not appear hidden in obscure corners of the internet. They appeared alongside the same promotional posts advertising leaked intimate videos, prostitution, and paid video calls. Children were not presented as something separate. They were presented as another product category, another premium tier.

HumAngle also decided not to attempt to identify the children referenced in the advertisements. INTERPOL’s International Child Sexual Exploitation database, the tool specialist law enforcement units use to identify victims and offenders worldwide, treats abusive images and videos as evidence tied to real children, real locations, and real offenders, material to be handled by trained victim-identification specialists rather than pursued independently. Attempting to trace the children through the material risked compounding the harm the investigation was seeking to expose.

The network

For much of the investigation, Teema and Khadija appeared to be running separate operations: different Telegram channels, different X usernames, different pricing. It was easy to assume they were competitors. Then one Status update changed that.

While reviewing Teema’s Telegram Status one afternoon, HumAngle noticed she was no longer advertising her own channel, but Khadija’s. Only days earlier, one of Khadija’s Telegram accounts had disappeared or been removed before we could complete the documentation of its activity. The replacement account appeared almost immediately, and Teema introduced it to thousands of followers. Over the following days, the same promotion resurfaced repeatedly across dozens of Status updates before disappearing after 24 hours, only to return.

Tracing the followers who interacted with those promotions on X uncovered dozens of accounts exhibiting remarkably similar behaviour. When one profile disappeared, another announced its replacement. When Telegram removed a channel, fresh invitation links circulated through WhatsApp Status updates and newer Telegram accounts. The audience rarely needed to search; the network guided them. Investigators documented several accounts operating under different versions of Teema’s identity, including @teematv2 and @teematv3, with Khadija running parallel replacements under her own aliases.

Around them was a wider ecosystem. Channels such as AREWA GIDAN DADI, Arewagidanharkazallah, and Sadearharka surfaced repeatedly throughout the investigation.

HumAngle found no evidence that these accounts were all controlled by the same individual, nor could we establish that every operator knew every other one personally. What our investigation does establish is narrower but significant: the accounts consistently promoted one another, shared audiences, and directed followers towards replacement channels, forming a distribution network that platform bans repeatedly failed to disrupt.

The blind spot

The most surprising thing about the network was not that it existed, but that it appeared to operate in plain sight. The operators behaved less like people trying to disappear than people confident they would not be noticed. That raises a broader question: why did a network operating so openly prove so resilient?

Part of the answer may lie in language. Almost every account documented in this investigation communicated primarily in Hausa, and the cities referenced in conversations, such as Kano, Kaduna, Maiduguri, Katsina, Sokoto, and Abuja, pointed overwhelmingly to audiences in northern Nigeria. This was not simply a Nigerian online marketplace; it was a Hausa-speaking one. 

Researchers have increasingly warned that many widely spoken African languages remain “low-resource” from the perspective of artificial intelligence and automated content moderation. While Hausa is spoken by tens of millions of people across West Africa, there are comparatively fewer linguistic datasets and moderation tools to help technology companies automatically identify harmful content in the language, meaning abusive or exploitative content can be harder to detect at scale than equivalent content in English. 

Nothing in HumAngle’s investigation suggests the operators tried to hide the language they used; on the contrary, their marketing relied on local expressions and reflected the culture of Arewa social media. The same characteristics that made the network accessible to its intended audience may also have made it less visible to moderation systems built primarily around better-resourced languages.

This is not a uniquely Nigerian, or even uniquely Hausa-language, problem. Investigations in other parts of the world have documented strikingly similar patterns, in which mainstream platforms funnel users toward Telegram-based child sexual abuse material (CSAM) marketplaces that survive enforcement through rapid replacement. 

A BBC Eye investigation published in July found that Instagram’s advertising system in India was itself directing a test account toward paid child sexual abuse material sold through Telegram channels, with material advertised for as little as the naira equivalent of one US dollar; Meta’s own moderation team initially cleared one flagged advertisement as compliant with its policies, and only acted once BBC journalists sought formal comment. 

A separate investigation by Sudan’s Ayin Network documented Telegram channels operating an almost identical structure to the one described here: administrators charging roughly $30 for VIP access to material described as exclusive, channels going dark after reports only to be quickly recreated with subscribers migrated across, and content sourced from economically vulnerable communities with little legal recourse. 

Malaysiakini’s Kini News Lab has separately described Telegram as functioning as a “dark mall” for this kind of material, in which promotional content on more visible platforms consistently routes interested users toward Telegram, where moderation is comparatively lighter. 

Another investigation, conducted by the Brazilian outlet Núcleo with the Pulitzer Centre’s AI Accountability Network, found dozens of Telegram bots capable of generating AI-manipulated child sexual abuse imagery, most operating despite Telegram’s own public commitments on child safety.

These investigations point to a recurring global pattern. Broader research suggests the problem extends far beyond the networks examined in any single investigation. Research conducted by UNICEF Innocenti, ECPAT International, and INTERPOL across 13 countries in Africa and Southeast Asia found that, depending on the country, up to one in five internet-using children aged 12 to 17 had experienced online sexual abuse within a single year. Social media platforms were among the environments where children most frequently encountered the abuse. 

Nigeria was not included among the countries studied, leaving no comparable national estimate of how many Nigerian children may be affected. UNICEF and the WeProtect Global Alliance have warned that online child sexual exploitation is becoming increasingly complex as offenders adapt quickly to new technologies, encrypted platforms, and gaps in national responses, arguing that effective responses require cooperation between technology companies, law enforcement, child-protection organisations, and governments, rather than isolated moderation decisions by individual platforms. UNICEF Nigeria has separately noted that violence against children increasingly occurs in both physical and digital spaces, while support for victims remains limited.

As we identified the operators of these accounts, an obvious question emerged: if journalists could trace those digital footprints using publicly available tools, what prevented authorities from doing the same?

Nigeria does not lack the relevant laws. The Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Act criminalises the production, distribution, and possession of child sexual abuse material, alongside offences relating to the use of digital platforms to facilitate unlawful activities, including the non-consensual distribution of intimate images.

The Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act recognises image-based sexual abuse, and children receive further protection under the Child Rights Act and the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Enforcement and Administration Act. 

The activity documented in this investigation appears to fall squarely within conduct already prohibited under Nigerian law. Over three months of monitoring, HumAngle found no public record of investigations or prosecutions specifically targeting the Hausa-language Telegram ecosystem documented in this reporting, even as channels disappeared, replacement channels emerged, subscribers migrated, and the marketplace continued operating.

The threat was not entirely new to Nigerian authorities. In 2023, the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) said it had observed increasing cases involving child sexual abuse material, sextortion, and revenge pornography, and had established a Cybersecurity Response Team, in partnership with organisations including Meta and the United States National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). That year, the agency said it was investigating six cyber-tip reports involving online child exploitation and sextortion, drawing on NCMEC’s CyberTipline, the centralised reporting system through which tech companies and the public flag suspected child exploitation to law enforcement worldwide. What remains unclear is whether the Hausa-language network HumAngle documented had ever entered that reporting system.

The network appeared to exploit precisely the jurisdictional and institutional gaps that researchers have long warned about: Telegram channels directed users toward WhatsApp, WhatsApp conversations led back to Telegram, and X attracted new audiences, with each platform seeing only one part of the picture while the operators appeared to see the whole. Platform enforcement removed accounts. Law enforcement, at least publicly, appeared largely absent, aside from the small number of cases NAPTIP said it was already investigating. 

What follows

Before publication, HumAngle shared its findings with Telegram and NAPTIP, seeking answers about the network, its operators, and the apparent gaps that allowed it to persist. The advertisements, the Telegram links, the payment instructions, and the phone numbers had all been public. The operators had made no effort to hide them.

The Crown Prosecution Service sees first-hand the impact that domestic abuse has on victims.

It says that of every five cases the police refers to it, four result in charges being brought.

Olivia Rose, the CPS’s National Stalking Lead, says it does not just see physical abuse. There is coercive and controlling abuse too.

“It’s crucial for victims to spot the signs early,” Rose said. “What our prosecutors see can include monitoring of victims’ phones and social media, often inundating them with dozens of messages.

“There’s also emotional blackmail, such as threatening to kill themselves if their partner leaves.

“It’s incredibly important that we get the message out to say that behaviour like this is not just unacceptable: it’s illegal.”

The CPS, the government department responsible for prosecuting criminal cases, say it works closely with the police and women’s charities to ensure that action is taken to stop such behaviour and to help victims to get away.

It says it needs help from communities too. And it is urging people to look out for friends, family and neighbours who could be vulnerable during the World Cup.

“If you can step in to help, you could be making a life-changing difference,” Rose said.

She also wants to get the message to victims that they will be supported if they speak out.

“We understand how difficult it can be to report domestic abuse,” she added. “But if you come forward, you will be taken seriously, and we will bring offenders to justice.

“The World Cup should bring communities together, and it should never be an excuse to fuel abusive behaviour.”

Anyone experiencing domestic abuse who is in immediate danger should always call 999. Victims can also report abuse to the police on 101.

Confidential support services are available. Anyone affected can contact the National Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0808 2000 247 in England, or the Live Fear Free helpline on 0808 80 10 800 in Wales.

Solace’s Advice line is: 0808 802 5565.

WASHINGTON — Dozens of people held at a sprawling Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Texas say they were either beaten by guards or witnessed others being beaten, according to a new report issued by legal and human rights advocates.

The 84-page report issued jointly Wednesday by Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union also says men and women held at Camp East Montana, located at the U.S. Army’s Fort Bliss in El Paso, recounted being denied necessary medical care, forced to live in filthy conditions and fed inedible meals. Detainees also said they were prevented from contacting their lawyers or family members.

Of the 71 detainees contacted over a five month period, 64 — about 90% of those interviewed — said they had either personally been assaulted by the staff or had seen others physically abused, according to the report.

“ICE’s Camp East Montana is a human rights disaster,” said Angélica César, a fellow at Human Rights Watch and the ACLU who was a lead researcher for the report. “The U.S. government should shut it down, conduct independent investigations into all abuses and deaths in custody, and put an end to mass deportations and mandatory immigration detention.”

The Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The new accounts of violence and substandard living conditions inside Camp East Montana are consistent with earlier reports by The Associated Press and others. At least three detainees held at the facility since it opened in August have died, including a 55-year-old Cuban migrant who was handcuffed and stopped breathing earlier this year after being held down by guards.

A local medical examiner later ruled that death a homicide and a federal report issued last month said evidence in the case was “missing or destroyed.” That report by the Government Accountability Office found mismanagement by the Department of Homeland Security had created unsafe conditions that contributed to detainee deaths and suffering even as millions of wasted tax dollars enriched contractors.

In March, ICE replaced Acquisition Logistics, LLC, the prime contractor that had been awarded a deal last year worth up to $1.3 billion to build and manage the camp. The Virginia company had no prior experience running an ICE detention facility, had never won a federal contract worth more than $16 million and lacked a functioning website.

The change came as an internal ICE review documented 49 deficiencies, which it defines as violations of detention standards or policies, in areas including the use of force and restraints, security and medical care.

Despite the change in contractors, interviews conducted by Human Rights Watch and the ACLU as recently as last month found serious problems at the camp have persisted.

Detainees recounted degrading and inhumane living conditions that included bathrooms covered in feces, flooded housing units and no access to soap or other basic hygiene supplies, according to the report. They also reported being held indoors for weeks without meaningful access to recreation, sunlight or fresh air.

People also described receiving spoiled food and inconsistent meal schedules, with delays of up to 12 hours between meals.

The report recounts detainees saying that guards beat detainees in response to hunger strikes, requests for medical attention and complaints regarding detention conditions. Several people said that guards imposed collective punishment, striking or assaulting multiple people after accusing one detainee of violating rules, according to the report.

Researchers found that staff pressured and coerced those held there into abandoning immigration claims and accepting removal to third countries if they could not be sent back to their own country. The detainees said they were threatened with violence, criminal prosecution, and indefinite detention if they refused deportation.

In some cases, the report concluded, the circumstances of ICE detention could amount to enforced disappearances, a potential violation of international human rights law.

Human Rights Watch and the ACLU called on the Trump administration to close Camp East Montana and to allow independent investigations into deaths in custody, excessive force, medical neglect and enforced disappearances.

“The abuses documented at Fort Bliss are the predictable outcome of the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda, its brutal expansion of immigration detention, and the erosion of federal oversight mechanisms,” said César, the lead researcher. “People at Camp East Montana are human beings who deserve to be treated with dignity and protected from harm.”

Biesecker writes for the Associated Press.

Reality TV star Tom Sandoval’s former girlfriend Victoria Lee Robinson has filed a dueling restraining order after she was arrested in June following an altercation that involved her father being pushed into a lit fire pit.

In the petition, filed Thursday in a Los Angeles court, Robinson claims that over the course of the former couple’s 2.5-year relationship, the former “Vanderpump Rules” star “routinely physically and verbally abused” her.

According to court documents reviewed by The Times, the model alleges that Sandoval shoved her down a flight of stairs in his home, pushed her to the ground at a hotel in Nashville, and attacked her and her father on June 3.

On Monday, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge denied Victoria Robinson’s request for the temporary domestic violence restraining order because Sandoval’s existing temporary restraining order requires a hearing (which was set for July 16) before Robinson’s could be granted.

Representatives for Sandoval told The Times in a statement, “It’s no surprise that Victoria’s request for a restraining order was immediately denied.”

Sandoval, known for the Scandoval cheating scandal that erupted on the hit Bravo series “Vanderpump Rules” in 2023, filed a temporary restraining order against Robinson and her father J. Will Robinson on June 25. In Sandoval’s petition, he claimed that since the two became a couple in February 2024, Victoria Robinson has been violent and attacked him physically.

Sandoval was granted a temporary restraining order which required Robinson and her father to vacate the Los Angeles rental the three had shared. According to Sandoval, he’d left the house and stayed in hotels and with friends following the June 3 incident.

“This is my home. We are both on the lease, but I paid the first month’s rent and deposit, surprised him with the keys and virtually every item in it is mine,” Victoria Robinson said in a statement shared with The Times. “I have filed my own legal action because I have my own account of what happened and it’s very different from what has been said publicly.”

Robinson said that while her father has been under media scrutiny, he was trying to protect her.

“My relationship with Tom has already controlled the past two years of my life,” she said. “I cannot allow a false narrative to control my future.”

The altercation involving Sandoval, Robinson and her father happened in the early morning hours after the couple returned home from a night out at a bar, according to both accounts.

In a video of the June 3 incident, obtained by TMZ, Robinson and her father are seen sitting next to a lit fire pit on the patio when Sandoval and the elder Robinson begin arguing. Sandoval is heard yelling at Will Robinson before he asks his girlfriend if she is recording and approaches her. Will Robinson stands up and wraps his arms around Sandoval, seemingly to get him to back away from Victoria Robinson. Sandoval turns and pushes Will Robinson, who falls backward into the lit fire pit.

After Will Robinson gets back up, he rushes after Sandoval into the home while Victoria Robinson screams for the men to stop.

According to Victoria Robinson’s petition, when Sandoval noticed she was recording his exchange with her father, he twisted her arm while trying to gain control of her phone.

Will Robinson allegedly suffered a thumb fracture and elbow and back injuries.

Victoria Robinson was arrested after police responded on June 3 and released on bond the same day. On June 4, Sandoval returned to their L.A. house to collect his things and Victoria Robinson called police, who escorted Sandoval from the home, according to the filing.

The Los Angeles Police Department declined to comment on the reason for Robinson’s arrest.

Will Robinson told TMZ last month, “The DA did not file the case for a reason. I lifted Tom off of my daughter because he was overpowering and twisting her arm and trying to take her phone aggressively after yelling at us in a very aggressive and threatening manner.”

“This is my daughter’s home and we just want Tom as far away from us as possible and to keep his lies and drunken abuse away,” Robinson said.

This isn’t the first time their fights have turned physical, according to both accounts. Victoria Robinson‘s petition claims that in August 2025, Sandoval shoved her down their hardwood stairs and she suffered knee injuries. She said she reported the incident to police but ultimately recanted her statements to protect Sandoval from being arrested. “In hindsight, I deeply regret this decision,” reads the suit.

Weeks before the fire pit incident, Robinson alleges that during a trip to Nashville to visit her grandfather who was in hospice care and has since died, Sandoval pushed her to the floor of their hotel and locked her out of their shared room.

“During their 2½-year relationship, Tom has made it clear he never physically harmed Victoria,” representatives for Sandoval said. “Instead, he lived in fear of her repeated physical attacks and unpredictable behavior. He will show he was the victim of ongoing physical and emotional abuse, and has substantial evidence documenting what he endured, which will be presented through the legal process.”

June 29 (UPI) — The Archdiocese of San Francisco has reached a $395 million settlement with hundreds of survivors of childhood sexual abuse allegedly committed by members of the clergy, lawyers for the victims and the archbishop announced Monday.

The agreement in principle, which follows three years of bankruptcy proceedings and extensive negotiations between the archdiocese and lawyers representing the victims, affects some 530 survivors, according to lawyer Jeff Anderson, who is among the claimants’ litigation team.

During a press conference streamed live online Monday afternoon, Anderson described the agreement as “a real settlement that provides for a significant measure of accountability, required transparency and an authentic reckoning by those that allowed these indelible horrors to be inflicted upon so many for so long.”

The archdiocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August 2023, after hundreds of clergy sexual abuse civil cases were filed against it, which put a stop to all litigation and forced the survivors to reorganize into a committee that was represented by nine claimants.

Those nine claimants then negotiated the settlement on behalf of all of the survivors, according to Anderson, who said the agreement reached also includes a 14-point plan to protect future children from similar abuses and empower survivors.

“This is unprecedented, and this gives me hope and it is the courage of these survivors that has caused it to happen,” he said.

In a letter addressed to members of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone said that they believe “this proposal offers a path toward fair compensation for survivors who have carried the burden of this abuse for a lifetime.”

“We accept the responsibility for the failures that allowed this harm to occur,” he said.

“I sincerely apologize to all those who have suffered because of those failures.”

The lawsuits that prompted the archdiocese to file for bankruptcy were filed after California enacted legislation that opened a three-year window from Jan. 1, 2020, to Dec. 31, 2022, lifting the statute of limitations on allegations of childhood sexual assault so victims of crimes even decades old could seek a civil, monetary resolution from their perpetrators.

Margie O’Driscoll, a survivor of clergy sexual assault and one of the nine committee members, said during the press conference that she was abused as a teenager by a priest at Marin Catholic High School nearly five decades ago.

She spoke directly to those who were similarly abused.

“I, like every survivor, have carried this pain and shame along like a ball and chain for a very, very long time — I see you and I know what you carry,” she said.

“So, while I want to say that today is a significant victory for everyone in the case … it’s really come at a significant cost to the 500 people sexually abused by priests and religious leaders.”

O’Driscoll said some of the victims had been abused more than 70 years ago, during which they carried the shame associated with the crime, while being scorned by the archdiocese and sometimes their accusations not believed by family and friends.

“And I think, today, shame is going to change sides,” she said.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of claims were filed after the passage of Assembly Bill 218, resulting in billions of dollars in settlements for survivors of childhood sexual abuse.

In October 2024, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles reached an $880 million settlement with 1,353 survivors. In April 2025, Los Angeles County reached a $4 billion settlement resolving more than 6,800 claims of sexual abuse allegedly committed at probation department facilities and MacLaren Children’s Center.

WASHINGTON  — The Supreme Court on Monday turned down without comment President Trump’s appeal of a $5-million jury verdict for sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll in the dressing room of a Bergdorf Goodman store in Manhattan nearly 30 years ago.

None of the justices registered a dissent.

When Carroll reported the incident in a book, Trump called it “a hoax and a lie,” prompting her to file a second claim for defamation.

Trump and his lawyers argued he was unfairly held liable because the jurors heard from two other women who said Trump groped them. And they listened to Trump’s own words on his willingness to abuse women.

“When you’re a star … you can do anything,” Trump said on the “Access Hollywood” tape from 2005 that the jurors heard.

Trump defended those comments in a 2022 deposition that was used during the trial.

“Historically, that’s true with stars,” he said. “If you look over the last million years, I guess that’s been largely true. Unfortunately, or fortunately.”

Usually, a defendant’s prior bad acts are excluded from a jury trial.

But in 1994, Congress amended the federal rules of evidence to make an exception for civil suits involving alleged sexual abuse. Rule 415 says the judge “may admit evidence that the party committed any other sexual assault.”

In Trump’s case, the U.S. appeals court in New York said the rule “permits a jury to consider evidence of a different sexual assault precisely to show that a defendant has a pattern or propensity for committing sexual assault.”

Two women testified that Carroll had told them about the dressing room assault shortly after it happened. And two other women testified Trump had assaulted and groped them.

Carroll testified over three days at the trial. Trump did not attend and chose not to testify.

Trump posted on social media that he was surprised by the court’s refusal to act on his appeal.

“I will continue the fight against this Weaponization and Lawfare Case against me, including the ridiculous claim of Defamation, with all of my power and strength. This Case is really against the United States of America, and all it stands for, and should never be allowed to happen to another President, or Candidate to be!”

The federal rules say judges may exclude “propensity evidence” if they decide its value is “substantially outweighed by a danger of … unfair prejudice, confusing the issues or misleading the jury.”

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who presided over the trial, permitted the use of the propensity evidence, and the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals upheld his decision in December 2024, shortly after Trump won election to a second term.

Lawyers for a Missouri law firm founded by Solicitor Gen. D. John Sauer filed an appeal petition in November urging the court to review the case of Trump vs. Carroll and order a new trial.

They said Carroll’s claims were “facially implausible and politically motivated” and her trial “rested fundamentally on improper propensity evidence that courts ordinarily disavow.”

They devoted most of their appeal to arguing that the court should take up the case because judges are divided on when propensity evidence should be excluded.

But they also urged the court to intervene because they said Trump was being mistreated by the judges in New York.

“It is deeply damaging to the fabric of our Republic for President Trump, in the midst of a historic presidency, to have to take his focus away from his singular and unique duties as Chief Executive to continue fighting against decades-old, false allegations and the myriad wrongs throughout this baseless case,” they wrote.

Trump is also appealing a separate but related defamation verdict that ordered him to pay Carroll $83 million.

The US Supreme Court will not hear an appeal requested by President Donald Trump to review the civil case that found he defamed and sexually abused writer E Jean Carroll.

A New York jury awarded Carroll $5m (£3.6m) in damages in 2023 over her civil claim that Trump sexually assaulted her in the 1990s, and then branded the incident a hoax on social media.

Trump denied the allegations and repeatedly claimed that the judge who oversaw the civil trial improperly allowed evidence to be presented that affected how the jury viewed him.

A federal appeals court agreed with the jury’s verdict last year and said a new trial was not warranted. Trump then asked the highest court to intervene.

The Supreme Court gave no details about their decision not to take up the case, as is customary.

It was Trump’s final hope of overturning the jury’s unanimous verdict and means he will have to pay Carroll the damages she had been awarded.

“The American People stand with President Trump as they demand an immediate end to all of the Witch Hunts, including the Democrat-funded travesty of the Carroll Hoaxes,” a spokesman for Trumps legal team told CBS News, the BBC’s US news partner.

“President Trump will keep winning against Liberal Lawfare, as he continues to focus on his mission to Make America Great Again.”

Caroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, said in a statement that the Supreme Court’s decision “affirms once and for all the jury’s unanimous verdict that President Donald J Trump sexually assaulted and defamed E Jean Carroll”.

“His multiple efforts to appeal that verdict have all failed and today’s ruling ends his quest to avoid accountability for his actions,” she added.

Carroll’s counsel had not previously commented on the president’s decision to bring a challenge to the Supreme Court.

In the petition, Trump’s lawyers argued Carroll’s lawyer should not have let jurors see the 2005 Access Hollywood tape that showed the president saying he groped and kissed women.

Trump’s comments about the jury’s findings in the case led a separate jury to order him to pay Carroll $83m for defaming her. A panel of federal judges denied his appeal of that decision in September.

While Trump was found to have defamed and sexually abused Ms Carroll, the jury rejected her claim of rape as defined in New York’s penal code.

Carroll, a former magazine columnist who is now 81, sued Trump for attacking her in the mid-1990s in a department store dressing room in Manhattan. The defamation stemmed from Trump’s post on his Truth Social platform in 2022 denying her claim.

Trump has said Carroll was “not my type” and that she had lied.

EMILY Atack has shared a loved-up snap with her fiance Alistair Garner after bravely opening up about being the victim of sexual abuse.

The actress, 36, recently bravely came forward to share her experiences which she faced at different stages of her life.

But now it appears she’s moving forward as she took to Instagram to share a sweet picture of the pair.

In the photo, Emily is seen resting her head on Alistair’s shoulder as she smiles while holding a beverage.

She’s wearing a denim jacket while her husband-to-be is sporting a blue jumper, with a pair of sunglasses tucked into the top.

Her followers flocked to the comments section as one gushed: “Gorgeous angels xxxx.”

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Another social media user enthused: “Love seeing you happy,” while a third added: “Goddamn beauties!”

The Rivals star revealed she was sexually abused at the age of ten and got pregnant at 16.

In her most personal interview to date, Emily shared harrowing details of her tough childhood as a “troubled” teenager, which left her “scarred” and “traumatised”.

The TV beauty, who became a household name as Charlotte Hinchcliffe in Channel 4 comedy The Inbetweeners at 17, was in an abusive relationship when she found out she was pregnant.

“I’ve never actually told anybody this, but I was pregnant,” she said. “I was very young and I was in this awful, abusive, horrible relationship and I fell pregnant.

“And it was just in the middle of all this kind of stuff going on with my mum and dad.

“I’ve never spoken openly about how or what happened.

“And I don’t know if I’m ready to yet. But obviously, that pregnancy didn’t continue.”

In another heartbreaking revelation, Emily also told that she was sexually abused at the age of ten, which sparked an “unhealthy relationship with sex and boys”.

And she explained how being the subject of unwanted attention by creepy older men had a knock-on effect with her relationships.

“I was keeping so much from my parents when I was young,” Emily said. “It’s going a little bit dark, but I was sexually assaulted first of all when I was ten.

“That was when I was first ever sexually assaulted. And from that moment, I was treated badly, appallingly, by older men from that age throughout my life. I think the loneliness came a lot from that.

“Lots of things happened that my parents to this day still don’t know the detail of, how men have treated me and touched me and whispered things to me in my ear when people aren’t in earshot.

“From that, I then developed a really unhealthy relationship with sex and with boys, because I leaned into that behaviour a little bit.”

Despite her horrendous experiences, Emily has found her happily ever after in fiance Alistair.

The couple got engaged in July last year, a year after welcoming their son Barney.

The pair will be officially tying the knot in September as they count down the days until their man and wife.

The Cameroonian government has urgently called for strong legal action against perpetrators of gender-based violence and child abuse, citing a significant increase in femicide and sexual assault nationwide.

According to official data released by the government on June 1, the sharp rise in domestic and gender-based killings is disturbing. In 2023, 50 women were documented murdered in Cameroon. That figure rose to 67 cases in 2024, and surged to 77 in 2025. Officials noted that data collected in the first half of 2026 suggests the tragic upward trend is continuing unabated.

During a recent joint press conference in Yaoundé, the capital of Cameroon, the Minister of Communication, alongside the Ministers of Women’s Empowerment, Social Affairs, and Public Health, called for immediate collective action to halt the escalating crisis. The officials emphasised that a vast majority of these femicides are not random acts of violence and are perpetrated by individuals close to the victims, including spouses, family members, neighbours, and acquaintances.

The major increase in femicide cases is further aggravated by an alarming increase in violent crimes against minors, including rape, murder, and severe physical abuse. High-profile cases currently under investigation include the tragic incidents involving three-year-old Bissong Omgba Joyce, who suffered sexual abuse; 11-year-old Divine Mbarga, who was raped and murdered; and the Nkolbisson tragedy in which a mother killed her three children before taking her own life. Also, in March 2026, an 11-month-old infant was murdered by a family member in Douala, and another 11-year-old boy, Karl Ethan, was killed in Minkan.

In response to the ongoing issue of gender-based violence, several women’s rights organisations have come together to deliver a strong message. They stressed that no woman should lose her life because of her gender, and no child should be raised in an environment filled with fear, violence, or abuse. The women also expressed grave concerns about the situation in Cameroon, describing it as critical and calling for nationwide mobilisation and warned against the trivialisation of gender-based crimes.

“Behind these statistics are broken lives, bereaved families and profoundly shocked communities. Women, mothers, girls and housewives have lost their lives under circumstances linked to gender-based violence,” said Lizzy Claude, a women’s rights activist.

“This is a reality which is more and more disquieting to the civil society and defenders of human rights, especially within a context marked by a spike in sexual violence and abuses inflicted on children,” Lizzy added.

May 28 (UPI) — A 52-year-old California woman convicted of hosting drunken house parties for young teenagers has drawn a 35-year prison sentence, prosecutors said Thursday.

Shannon O’Connor of Los Gatos, Calif., dubbed the “Party Mom,” was handed the maximum sentence on child abuse convictions during a hearing at Santa Clara County Court in San Jose.

Prosecutors said O’Connor procured vodka, whiskey and condoms for the 14- and 15-year-olds who attended parties at her home over a two-year period and encouraged them to drink to the point of passing out.

They alleged she warned the victims not to tell their parents about the parties or she could go to jail, and at one handed an teenager a condom and pushed him into a room with an intoxicated minor.

A jury convicted O’Connor in March and this week the court heard victims’ impact statements, including from one young woman who testified that she became suicidal from the experience.

In another instance during a party attended by five 14-year-olds, prosecutors say O’Connor watched and laughed as a drunk teen sexually accosted a young girl in bed.

In yet another case, she encouraged a sexual act after which the young female victim said to O’Connor, “Why did you leave me in there with him? Like, you knew like what he was going to do to me.”

“Many people call this defendant the ‘Los Gatos Party Mom.’ This isn’t some fun parent giving sips of wine spritzers to kids,” Santa Clara District Attorney Jeff Rosen said.

“She facilitated dangerous and drunken sex acts with these children. She risked their lives and damaged their psyches. She is not a party mom. Shannon O’Connor is a convicted felon. Shannon O’Connor is a registered sex offender.”

Rosen said O’Connor would summon teens to party at her home in the middle of the night and in one instance let a minor drive her SUV while another teen was knocked unconscious after falling off the back.