Former Catholic Deacon Sentenced to Six Years for Child Pornography

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Convictions of clergymen who have been convicted of child sexual abuse and child molestation have become so commonplace over the past decade, which they don't even make the main headlines anymore.  In the most recent such conviction, a former Catholic Deacon in Alabama was sentenced to six years in prison on charges of child pornography, but not before also confessing to sexual abuse of children in the past.

82-year-old Robert L. Nouwen has a solid reputation in the community.  However, in spite of his reputation and advanced years, the judge was not willing to be lenient with him.  According to the judge, it is important to take into account the defendant's conduct, no matter what his age.

Nouwen was charged with ordering several dollars worth of movies from a Canadian company.  The US Postal Inspection Service was able to track down his location.  However, by the time he was arrested, he had managed to destroy the movies.  Officers searched his home as well as computer, but did not find any evidence of child pornography. 

The investigation was really not going anywhere, and officers were ready to give up, when Nouwen admitted to buying the movies.  He also admitted to numerous incidents of sexual abuse against young boys that he had committed in the past.

According to the law enforcement officers, they had no idea about these sexual abuse cases against young boys, and had not intended any investigation for these.  If he had not admitted to these crimes, they would never have had a clue.

His attorneys say that the sexual crimes are the result of an unnatural and undesirable family environment.  He lost his mother when he was five years old, and his alcoholic father then abandoned him.  He was then put in an orphanage when he was 12 years old, and was sexually abused at the orphanage.

College Women at High Risk of DUI

Most young college students, who end up meeting with a San José DUI lawyer after being arrested for DUI, tend to be young males.  However, young women in college are now much more likely to engage in the kind of dangerous drinking practices that increase their risk of being arrested for DUI.  According to new research, female college students are now much more likely to indulge in binge drinking.

The research was published recently in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experiment Research.  The study involved a total of 922 college students including 575 females and 417 minutes.  The students who were recruited for the study were required to provide reports of their daily alcohol-related habits every two weeks, through a questionnaire. 

When the researchers analyzed the results of the questionnaires, they found that two- thirds of the men as well as women exceeded the National Institute on AlcoholAbuse and Alcoholism guidelines at least once during the year.  However, when it came to gender differences, more than 51% of the women exceeded their weekly limits at least once during the year, compared to 45% of the men.

Typically, women require at least seven alcoholic beverages to end up with a toxic blood alcohol level, compared to men who might require approximately 14 drinks on an average.  However women do not absorb alcohol the same way as men do, and therefore, the chances that they will drink more unknowingly, is much higher. 

Overall, drinking among female college students is lower than among male college students, but many female college students do not seem to have a grasp of safe weekly drinking habits.  This lack of knowledge can be dangerous, and can lead to an unexpected DUI arrest.