Sex Scandal, Child Sex Abuse | featured news

Flowers and mementos left by supporters adorned Joe Paterno's gravesite Tuesday, a year after the longtime Penn State coach's death, while at the spot where a bronze statue of him used to stand, a makeshift sign of cardboard flapped in a cold wind....

Another man on Monday sued the former Elmo puppeteer who resigned amid sex abuse allegations, claiming the voice actor befriended him in Miami and promised to be a father figure before flying the teen to New York to have sex with him.

Amid reports of widespread sexual abuse of children in the late 1980s, several leading youth organizations began conducting criminal background checks of volunteers and staff members. Big Brothers Big Sisters ordered the checks for all volunteers starting in 1986. Boys and Girls Clubs of America recommended their use the same year. One of the nation's oldest and largest youth groups, however, was opposed — the Boy Scouts of America.

Jerry Sandusky will ask that his child sex abuse case be dismissed after a judge said his request for specific information was "moot.''

A football coach who says Jerry Sandusky molested a boy in a Penn State locker room in 2002 speaks about the incident for the first time in public. Mike McQueary said "it was very clear that it looked like there was intercourse" and that Mr Sandusky held his hands around the boy's waist.

Bishop Eddie Long, head of one of the nation's largest mega churches, announced Sunday he will take "time off" from the pulpit to work on his family. The announcement came three days after his wife Vanessa filed for divorce.

After his Syracuse Orange had run away to another victory, men's basketball coach Jim Boeheim turned his focus to a far more important matter. Boeheim said Tuesday that "what happened on my watch" will be revealed once police complete their inquiry into child molestation accusations against his former longtime assistant.

Former Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky admitted he took showers and "horsed around" with young boys, but insisted he is not a pedophile.

The recent scandal over handling of child abuse in the Catholic church has again focused attention on celibacy.

Pope Benedict XVI was "deeply affected" by a meeting with victims of abuse by Catholic clergy, he said Wednesday, in his first public comments on the scandal in more than a month.