Tag: boys

Dominican Republic – Girls Become Boys After Reaching Puberty

For some adolescents living in the village of Salinas in the Dominican Republic, one pubescent change is the development of a penis and testes.

One in 90 boys residing in the area suffer from a rare condition that causes them to be born without male reproductive organs.

Known as Guevedoces — which means ‘penis at 12’ — these children spend the first decade or so of their lives as girls before turning into boys upon reaching puberty.

According to The Telegraph, Cornell endocrinologist Dr Julianne Imperato found an explanation to the phenomenon after making a trip to Salinas in the 1970s.

Dr Imperato’s study found that human embryos only have protrusions called tubercles and remain sexless for the first few weeks of life.

If the embryo is genetically male, the Y chromosome will instruct the gonads, or reproductive glands, to become testicles.

Hormone

Testosterone is then sent to the tubercle to be converted into a hormone known as dihydro-testosterone, which is responsible for transforming the tubercle into a penis.

In female embryos, dihydro-testosterone is absent and the tubercle transforms into a clitoris instead.

In its TV series Countdown To Life, BBC Two told the story of one of the Guevedoces — a 20-something man named Johnny who was once known as Felicita.

Johnny told BBC Two that he wasn’t comfortable spending the initial years of his life as a girl.

He said: “I never liked to dress as a girl and when they bought me toys for girls I never bothered playing with them – when I saw a group of boys I would stop to play ball with them.”

When Johnny made the transition from girl to boy, he struggled to fit in with the rest of the children.

He said: “They used to say I was a devil, nasty things, bad words and I had no choice but to fight them because they were crossing the line.”

After becoming a man, the next thing on Johnny’s mind is settling down with the right woman.

He said: “I’d like to get married and have children, a partner who will stand by me through good and bad.”

Source: www.tnp.sg

September 22, 2015
31 Year Old Engineer Preyed On Pre-Pubescent Boys, Jailed 30 Years and Given 24 Strokes Of Cane

In what prosecutors described as the “worst case of sexual offences against pubescent males”, a 31-year-old engineer was today (March 20) sentenced to 30 years’ jail and 24 strokes of the cane, the maximum number of strokes allowed under the law.

Yap Weng Wah sexually groomed at least 31 boys, aged 11 to 15, after meeting them on Facebook. He is diagnosed with hebephilia, a term used to describe sexual interest in pubescent individuals.

Between November 2009 and June 2012, Yap, in all but one case, either sodomised or had oral sex with the boys at his rented flat, in hotels or at swimming complexes.

His actions came to light when one of the victims’ sister checked her brother’s mobile phone.

Yap was arrested in September 2012, and more than 2,000 videos of his sexual acts, including those with the 31 victims, were found on his laptop and phone.

On Jan 16 this year, he pleaded guilty and was convicted of 12 charges of sexual penetration of a minor, with 64 other charges taken into consideration.

Describing Yap’s offences as “particularly heinous”, High Court judge Woo Bih Li said apart from a deterrent sentence, the punishment should also reflect the sentencing principle of “retribution” and the degree of harm he had caused.

“It is not just the physical harm caused to the victims which is relevant. The actual and long-term emotional and psychological harm must also be taken into account,” said Justice Woo.

His sentence corresponded with the minimum 30-year jail term and 24 strokes of the cane — the maximum permitted under the Criminal Procedure Code — sought by the prosecution. Justice Woo also said he was unconvinced Yap was genuinely remorseful.

When first interviewed by the police, Yap had tried to downplay the extent of his offences by indicating that he only engaged in oral and anal sex with three boys.

“(His plea) did not spring from genuine remorse, but from a realisation that his goose was as good as cooked,” Justice Woo said.

He also gave little weight to the defence’s argument that Yap has been diagnosed as a suicide risk. Judicial mercy, said Justice Woo, will only be exercised in “most exceptional circumstances” of ill health, such as where the offender is suffering from a terminal illness, or is so ill that a prison term will risk endangering his life.

Yap’s suicidal tendencies are “phrased in tentative terms”, Justice Woo said, and will have to be properly managed by the prison authorities.

Justice Woo also noted that Yap’s offences were premeditated. To satisfy his urges, Yap first befriended his young victims online, earned their trust and breached it.

Justice Woo added that Yap’s use of the Internet was an aggravating factor, in that there is a strong public interest to deter potential sexual offenders from using the medium to lure their victims.

By recording his acts, Yap also exposed his victims to the risk of the videos falling into the hands of third parties and being circulated, Justice Woo said.

Source: www.straitstimes.com

March 21, 2015
10 Catholic Priests In Spain Charged Over Sexual Abuse Of Teenage Altar Boy

A Spanish judge charged 10 Catholic priests over the alleged sexual abuse of a teenage altar boy, court papers showed Wednesday, in a case in which Pope Francis intervened.

Their accuser, now aged 25, says he was raped and made to perform sex acts with priests at a villa with a swimming pool, according to a written ruling by the judge in the southern city of Granada.

It is the latest in a series of paedophilia scandals involving members of the Catholic Church, and the biggest such legal case known so far in Spain.

Judge Antonio Moreno formally accused 10 priests and two lay people of sexually abusing the boy or being complicit in such acts from 2004 to 2007.

The victim alleges “continuous sexual abuse by a group of priests of the diocese of Granada, from 2004 when he was 14 to 2007 when he was 17.”

The young man said he became an altar boy at the age of seven at the church presided by the leader of the group and was later invited to houses run by the priests.

The lead priest made the boy give him massages, which led to a series of acts of sexual abuse, the ruling said.

The victim said the group’s leader told him he had a promising career as a priest ahead of him and chided him for resisting, according to the ruling. It said the priest described himself as being like a father to the boy.

The young man, identified in the ruling as a member of the Catholic institution Opus Dei, now suffers anxiety and is undergoing psychological treatment, it said.

It is the most serious such case ever in Spain “in terms of the numbers of abusers and the system of abuse,” said Jose Manuel Vidal, head of religious news website Religion Digital, which first reported the affair.

“They set up a kind of sect within the church itself.”

– Pope steps in –

The case was opened in early November and the judge had ordered investigations to be kept secret until he issued the ruling indicting the suspects. He has yet to rule whether some of the alleged deeds happened too long ago to be tried.

Pope Francis revealed after the case was launched that he had ordered a Church investigation when the unidentified man wrote a letter telling him of the abuse.

“I called the person and I told him, ‘Go to the bishop tomorrow,’ and then I wrote to the bishop and told him to start an investigation,” Francis told reporters on November 25.

The Argentine pontiff said the case cause him “very great pain, but the truth is the truth and we should not hide it.”

At least one other person now aged 44 has also accused one of the priests of abuse in the early 1990s.

The Archdiocese of Granada said in mid-November that it had suspended a number of priests pending the court probe.

The Archbishop of Granada Francisco Javier Martinez and several other priests prostrated themselves on the floor of the city’s cathedral during a mass in November in a gesture of apology to victims of abuse.

Pope Francis has taken a tough stance on clerical child abuse since taking over in 2013 from Benedict XVI.

But a victims’ support group, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said the pope should be tougher.

“The judge in the case has made it clear that covering up child rape is a despicable crime,” it said in a statement on Wednesday reacting to the Granada ruling.

“Pope Francis should send the message that this behaviour is not going to be tolerated in his Church by immediately firing Granada’s Archbishop.”

Source: https://sg.news.yahoo.com

January 30, 2015