Horrifying cases of child abuse come to light

By Catholic Online
9/14/2010
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

Tales of cruelty and neglect shock authorities

Shocking tales of parental abuse - one in Cleveland, Ohio, and another in the United Kingdom has left the world in shock and law enforcement authorities dumbfounded. In each case, officials are at a loss as to why the children were left unaccounted for over a lengthy period of time. Both cases involve the misuse of personal computers.

The Smallworld video game proved to be so addictive for one British mom that she neglected her three children and let her two dogs starve to death. The bodies of the dogs were found in the woman's home two months after they had died.

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LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - In Cleveland, Ohio, 37-year-old Talthina Jackson is accused in the horrific torture of her two teenaged sons. The abuse began when she found her 15-year-old son using her computer in her bedroom. Accusing the boy of stealing from her, Jackson repeatedly beat and choked the boy.

After the son ran to neighbors, police entered the hellish household where they uncovered even worse abuse perpetrated by Jackson on her 14-year-old son. According to investigators, Jackson locked her younger son in his room and forced him to eat feces and vomit - his own and the family's cat.

Jackson is free on a $35,000 bond and is due back in court this week.

In Swanley, Kent in Great Britain, a 33-year-old mother became so obsessed with a computer game that it led her to neglect her three children and the family's two pet dogs.

The mother "played the Small Worlds game almost non-stop on the Internet for months while her children were reduced to eating cold baked beans straight from the tin with their fingers," according to a newspaper report. "Her home became filthy, with rubbish strewn over the floor and the bodies of her two dogs, a German shepherd and a lurcher, left for two months in the dining room it was revealed."

The woman had been recently widowed and became obsessed with the video game, to the point where her obsession led to her "only getting two hours sleep a night."

The three children, ages 9, 10 and 13, who were reportedly "badly neglected for six months." In addition to being barred from using computers, she has received a suspended jail sentence.

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Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.

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1 - 3 of 3 Comments

Days of Wonder
2 years ago
As a co-founder of the game company who publishes the BOARD GAME, Small World, I am compelled to point out that your article linking our game to the tragic story of the mother who neglected her children in the UK is not only incorrect, but irresponsible.

The Small World game, whose artwork you have used to illustrate your article above, is in no way connected to this story. Days of Wonder's Small World is a family board game that is meant to be played with friends and family together. It cannot be played online. The Swanley woman referenced in the story was apparently playing a completely different online computer game that shares a name similar to ours.

The original source for this "borrowed" story - the British tabloid, the Daily Mail - has already retracted and removed the story from its website and published an apology to us for connecting us to this story. I ask that you do the same and remove the illustration of our game in the article above.

Mark Kaufmann
Co-Founder - Days of Wonder
Nino Baldino
2 years ago
When the pro-choicers pushed abortion on demand they assured us that abortion will reduce child abuse.the slogan..'every child a wanted child''was paramount..yeh sure. And so some 65 million abortions later,we have not less but more,much more,child abuse then ever. ..and why not,if you can convince the host that the developing baby inside of her is nothing but an appendix ie slave and she can feed it,ignore it,,or just plain kill it..hey,whats the real difference later on,,say in 3 months when that same kid is crying in the middle of the nite ,,just a nuisance I guess.Yes our betters brainwashed so many and continue to do so!
Graeme
2 years ago
These stories are truly horrific, and I note that presumably they concern the natural biological mothers in each case - the very people who we would normally imagine to be the greatest lovers of their children. This raises a few questions - how on earth could these women become so disconnected that their near insanity was not noticed by a local community? And now, who SHOULD protect children? Heaven forbid that a string of highly publicised (exceptional (I hope)) will lead to the demonisation of the traditional family and calls for more state monitoring and intervention. It is clear that the nuclear family is not strong enough today - it was never meant to be - in fact a traditional family is more akin to a tribe with all the safeguards and support (and yes, interference) that that entails. Catholic communities need to get closer, moving on from just worshipping together on Sundays to being a real unit of solidarity and subsidiarity to withstand any assaults from within and without.

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