Female teacher had sex session with student, 16, in seedy motel room while her fiancé was on his STAG NIGHT

AFFAIR IN THE CLASSROOM

Sara Domres, 29, hung her head as she was sentenced to two years in jail

A TEACHER who had sex with her 16-year-old student while her fiancé was on his stag night has been jailed.

Sobbing Sara Domres, 29, hung her head as she was led from court in handcuffs to start her two year sentence.

>

Sara Domres being led from court after receiving a two year prison sentence

She admitted sex charges after the boy said she slept with him in a £40 motel room on her fiancé’s stag night â€" and asked him if she should go ahead with the wedding, which was in August 2015.

He added Domres took his virginity when he was 16 and had sex with him about 15 times  â€" even sending him selfies on her honeymoon.

According to court documents, the affair started in March, 2015, when Domres texted the teen â€" who was her pupil at New Berlin West High School in Wisconsin, USA.

Passionate messages led to meeting up and eventually sex.

>

Waukesha County Sheriff's Office

Domres took the boy’s virginity when he was 16 and had sex with him about 15 times

But their 10-month affair ended when her high school sweetheart husband caught them having sex in a restaurant car park, leading to a “verbal confrontation” â€" before he vowed to stand by his new wife.

Police also recovered almost 1,200 texts exchanged by Domres and the pupil.

SEX SCANDAL LAD JAILED

Teen who romped with teacher sobs in dock as he’s jailed for armed robbery on house of woman who took him in after school fling

'FIRST TIME HE WAS A COWBOY FOR ME'

Vile teacher, 37, had sex with pupil, 14, and kept sick journal with details of trysts

X RATED

Teacher faces charges after 'seducing two of her students and even RATING their sexual performance’

paedo Behind bars

Teacher who groomed three school girls and had porn-fuelled sex fest on wife's wedding dress is jailed for 12 years

SEX WITH HER PUPIL

Teacher who romped with her 13-year-old schoolboy on "daily basis" before getting pregnant by him is facing 30 years

In one message, the English tutor wrote: “Hopefully you’ve been thinking of me Baby Boo. I should go because he will be home soon. I love you. Be good, think of me and no one else! Ha ha.”

Meanwhile, another text sent just before the motel tryst said: “You’re extremely attractive to me!!! I can’t wait for our night we are doing it no matter what!!!”

>

Google Earth

New Berlin West High School, where the pair met in Domres’ English class

The pair also swapped handwritten love notes, including one saying: “Please be mine forever & ever. Always, your baby girl. P.S. Good luck on your quiz.”

Domres, who married her school sweetheart in August 2015, was sacked last January after one of the boy’s pals reported their relationship to police.

Waukesha County Circuit Judge Lee Dreyfus said her crimes went “well beyond a mistake in judgement” or a single moment of weakness.

>

Google Earth

The Motel 6 in Brookfield, Wisconsin, where Domres had sex with the boy while her fiance was on his stag do

He said: “It was to meet your needs, and not those of a child.”

Domres pleaded guilty in August to two counts of sexually assaulting a student and will be on three years probation and a supervision order when she leaves prison.

She is also banned from having contact with the pupil and his family, and must register as a sex offender.

---

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---

"

| Female | teacher | session | with | student, | seedy | motel | room | while | fiancé | STAG | NIGHT | AFFAIR | CLASSROOM< | span> Sara Domres | hung | head | sentenced | years | jail< | p> < | div> < | div> A | TEACHER | year | student | stag | night has | been | jailed | p> Sobbing | Sara Domres< | span> | from | court | handcuffs | start | sentence | a> < | div> Sara | Domres | being | after | receiving | prison | sentence She | admitted | charges | said | slept | £40 | fiancé’s | night | asked | should | ahead | wedding | which | August | 2015 | p> He | added Domres< | span> took | virginity | when | about | times |  â€" | even | sending | selfies on | honeymoon | p> According | documents | affair | started | March | when Domres < | span>texted | teen | pupil | at New | Berlin | West | High | School | Wisconsin | p> Passionate | messages | meeting | eventually | a> Waukesha | County | Sheriffs | Office< | p> < | div> Domres | took | boy’s | times But | their | month | ended | high | school | sweetheart | husband | caught | them | having | restaurant | park | leading | “verbal | confrontation” | before | vowed | stand | wife | p> Police | also | recovered | almost | texts | exchanged | by Domres< | span> and | p> < | p>SEX | SCANDAL | JAILED< | h3> Teen | romped | sobs | dock | he’s | armed | robbery | house | woman | fling< | span> < | div> < | p>FIRST | TIME | COWBOY | h3> Vile | kept | sick | journal | details | trysts< | RATED< | h3> Teacher | faces | seducing | students | RATING | sexual | performance’< | p>paedo | Behind | bars< | groomed | three | girls | porn | fuelled | fest | wifes | dress | years< | WITH | PUPIL< | schoolboy | daily | basis | getting | pregnant | facing | div> < | div> In | message | English | tutor wrote: | “Hopefully | you’ve | thinking | Baby | because | will | home | soon | love | good | think | else! | ”< | p> Meanwhile | another | text | sent | just | tryst | said: | “You’re | extremely | attractive | me!!! | can’t | wait | doing | matter | what!!!”< | a> Google | Earth< | div> New | where | pair | Domres’ | class The | swapped | handwritten | notes | including | saying: | “Please | mine | forever | & | ever | Always | your | baby | girl | Good | luck | quiz | p> Domres< | married | sacked | last | January | pals | reported | relationship | police | p> Waukesha | Circuit | Judge | Dreyfus | crimes | went | “well | beyond | mistake | judgement” | single | moment | weakness | div> The | Motel | Brookfield | fiance | do He | “It | meet | needs | those | child | p> Domres | pleaded | guilty | counts | sexually | assaulting | probation | supervision | order | leaves | p> She | also< | span> banned | contact | family | must | register | offender | p> We< | span>< | span> pay< | span> for your< | span> stories< | span>! | have | a story< | span> for | Online | news | team | Email | at tips@the | a> or | call | 0207 | 4368< | strong>< | div> < | div> |

Thank So Much for Visiting this News

Female teacher had sex session with student, 16, in seedy motel room while her fiancé was on his STAG NIGHT

‘WE’LL DO IT NO MATTER WHAT!’

Sara Domres, 29, hung her head as she was sentenced to two years

A TEACHER who had sex with her 16-year-old student while her fiancé was on his stag night has been jailed.

Sobbing Sara Domres, 29, hung her head as she was led from court in handcuffs to start her two year sentence.

>

Not known

Sara Domres being led from court after receiving a two year prison sentence

She admitted sex charges after the boy said she slept with him in a £40 motel room on her fiancé’s stag night â€" and asked him if she should go ahead with the wedding, which was in August 2015.

He added Domres took his virginity when he was 16 and had sex with him about 15 times  â€" even sending him selfies on her honeymoon.

According to court documents, the affair started in March, 2015, when Domres texted the teen â€" who was her pupil at New Berlin West High School in Wisconsin, USA.

Passionate messages led to meeting up and eventually sex.

>

Waukesha County Sheriff's Office

Domres took the boy’s virginity when he was 16 and had sex with him about 15 times

But their 10-month affair ended when her high school sweetheart husband caught them having sex in a restaurant car park, leading to a “verbal confrontation” â€" before he vowed to stand by his new wife.

Police also recovered almost 1,200 texts exchanged by Domres and the pupil.

SEX SCANDAL LAD JAILED

Teen who romped with teacher sobs in dock as he’s jailed for armed robbery on house of woman who took him in after school fling

'FIRST TIME HE WAS A COWBOY FOR ME'

Vile teacher, 37, had sex with pupil, 14, and kept sick journal with details of trysts

X RATED

Teacher faces charges after 'seducing two of her students and even RATING their sexual performance’

paedo Behind bars

Teacher who groomed three school girls and had porn-fuelled sex fest on wife's wedding dress is jailed for 12 years

SEX WITH HER PUPIL

Teacher who romped with her 13-year-old schoolboy on "daily basis" before getting pregnant by him is facing 30 years

In one message, the English tutor wrote: “Hopefully you’ve been thinking of me Baby Boo. I should go because he will be home soon. I love you. Be good, think of me and no one else! Ha ha.”

Meanwhile, another text sent just before the motel tryst said: “You’re extremely attractive to me!!! I can’t wait for our night we are doing it no matter what!!!”

>

Google Earth

New Berlin West High School, where the pair met in Domres’ English class

The pair also swapped handwritten love notes, including one saying: “Please be mine forever & ever. Always, your baby girl. P.S. Good luck on your quiz.”

Domres, who married her school sweetheart in August 2015, was sacked last January after one of the boy’s pals reported their relationship to police.

Waukesha County Circuit Judge Lee Dreyfus said her crimes went “well beyond a mistake in judgement” or a single moment of weakness.

>

Google Earth

The Motel 6 in Brookfield, Wisconsin, where Domres had sex with the boy while her fiance was on his stag do

He said: “It was to meet your needs, and not those of a child.”

Domres pleaded guilty in August to two counts of sexually assaulting a student and will be on three years probation and a supervision order when she leaves prison.

She is also banned from having contact with the pupil and his family, and must register as a sex offender.

---

We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at tips@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368

---

"

| Female | teacher | session | with | student, | seedy | motel | room | while | fiancé | STAG | NIGHT | ‘WE’LL | MATTER | WHAT!’< | span> Sara Domres | hung | head | sentenced | years< | p> < | div> < | div> A | TEACHER | year | student | stag | night has | been | jailed | p> Sobbing | Sara Domres< | span> | from | court | handcuffs | start | sentence | a> Not | known< | p> < | div> Sara | Domres | being | after | receiving | prison | sentence She | admitted | charges | said | slept | £40 | fiancé’s | night | asked | should | ahead | wedding | which | August | 2015 | p> He | added Domres< | span> took | virginity | when | about | times |  â€" | even | sending | selfies on | honeymoon | p> According | documents | affair | started | March | when Domres < | span>texted | teen | pupil | at New | Berlin | West | High | School | Wisconsin | p> Passionate | messages | meeting | eventually | a> Waukesha | County | Sheriffs | Office< | div> Domres | took | boy’s | times But | their | month | ended | high | school | sweetheart | husband | caught | them | having | restaurant | park | leading | “verbal | confrontation” | before | vowed | stand | wife | p> Police | also | recovered | almost | texts | exchanged | by Domres< | span> and | p> < | p>SEX | SCANDAL | JAILED< | h3> Teen | romped | sobs | dock | he’s | armed | robbery | house | woman | fling< | span> < | div> < | p>FIRST | TIME | COWBOY | h3> Vile | kept | sick | journal | details | trysts< | RATED< | h3> Teacher | faces | seducing | students | RATING | sexual | performance’< | p>paedo | Behind | bars< | groomed | three | girls | porn | fuelled | fest | wifes | dress | WITH | PUPIL< | schoolboy | daily | basis | getting | pregnant | facing | div> < | div> In | message | English | tutor wrote: | “Hopefully | you’ve | thinking | Baby | because | will | home | soon | love | good | think | else! | ”< | p> Meanwhile | another | text | sent | just | tryst | said: | “You’re | extremely | attractive | me!!! | can’t | wait | doing | matter | what!!!”< | a> Google | Earth< | div> New | where | pair | Domres’ | class The | swapped | handwritten | notes | including | saying: | “Please | mine | forever | & | ever | Always | your | baby | girl | Good | luck | quiz | p> Domres< | married | sacked | last | January | pals | reported | relationship | police | p> Waukesha | Circuit | Judge | Dreyfus | crimes | went | “well | beyond | mistake | judgement” | single | moment | weakness | div> The | Motel | Brookfield | fiance | do He | “It | meet | needs | those | child | p> Domres | pleaded | guilty | counts | sexually | assaulting | years | probation | supervision | order | leaves | p> She | also< | span> banned | contact | family | must | register | offender | p> We< | span>< | span> pay< | span> for your< | span> stories< | span>! | have | a story< | span> for | Online | news | team | Email | at tips@the | a> or | call | 0207 | 4368< | strong>< | div> < | div> |

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X Factor's Matt Terry uses same sex couples for dance routine - is he up to something?

X Factor's Matt Terry made a lot of fans happy by using same sex dance couples this evening.

As he took to the stage to perform his take on Jess Glynne's Take Me Home, men were dancing with one another and so were women.

Those tuning in at home were delighted and quick to take to Twitter afterwards.

One wrote: "Love how they used same sex dancers on X factor."

X Factor's Matt Terry made a lot of fans happy by using same sex dance couples this evening (Photo: Splash)

Another then posted: "Same sex dancing couples. How delightful. #xfactor #mattterry.'

Moments later, a different viewer tweeted: "Big up to the same sex dance couples though #XFactor."

Shortly afterwards, another posted: "Living for these same sex dancers. #XFactor."

However, some viewers were suspicious as to why Matt decided to use same sex couples in his final perfomance.

Matt Terry's dancers on the X Factor (Photo: ITV)

One fan claimed: "NOPE! As if Matt just tried, so blatantly, to get the gay vote with same sex dancers! As if the gays won't all be voting for Saara #XFactor."

This year's X Factor king or queen will be crowned in tomorrow's live final.

Matt Terry's dancers on the X Factor (Photo: ITV)

Matt faces tough competition from Saara Alto and 5AM and one of the three remaining acts will be leaving the competition tonight.

*X factor returns to ITV tomorrow at 8pm

"

| Factors | Matt | Terry | uses | same | couples | dance | routine | something? | Terry< | made | fans | happy | using | this | evening | p> As | took | stage | perform | take | Jess | Glynnes | Take | Home | were | dancing | with | another | women | p> Those | tuning | home | delighted | quick | Twitter | afterwards | p> One | wrote: | Love | they | used | dancers | factor | p> < | div> < | div> X | evening< | span> | (Photo: | Splash)< | span> Another | then | posted: | Same | delightful | xfactor | mattterry | p> Moments | later | different | viewer | tweeted: | though | XFactor | p> Shortly | Living | these | p> However | some | viewers | suspicious | decided | final | perfomance | div> Matt | Terrys | Factor< | ITV)< | span> One | claimed: | NOPE! | just | tried | blatantly | vote | dancers! | gays | wont | voting | Saara | p> This | years | Factor | king | queen | will | crowned | tomorrows | live | span> Matt | faces | tough | competition | from | Alto | three | remaining | acts | leaving | tonight | p> *X | returns | tomorrow | 8pm< | strong>< | em>< | p> |

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‘Pizzagate’ Recalls the Debunked Child Sex Rings of the ’80s and ’90s

Front entrance of Comet Ping Pong pizzeria, a restaurant in Washington, D.C., that’s been at the center of a media conspiracy theory involving child sex abuse rings. Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images

Pizzagate, a nutty conspiracy theory about a child sex ring run from a Washington, D.C., pizzeria, has become the focal point for the “fake news” alarmâ€"particularly after a rifle-toting man recently >showed up at the restaurant to “self-investigate” and rescue nonexistent victims. While no one was injured, the incident lent an eerie prescience to an earlier Washington Post >editorial titled, “ ‘Pizzagate’ shows how fake news hurts real people.” The politics of Pizzagateâ€"mostly pushed by Donald Trump supporters (including >Michael J. Flynn, son of Trump’s national security adviser-to-be Michael T. Flynn) and purported to implicate Hillary Clinton and her campaign chief John Podestaâ€"make it even more emblematic of the “fake news” issue. To >many pundits, this is terrifying evidence of the dark irrationality unleashed by the Trump campaign.

The Pizzagate saga is indeed disturbing. An obscure reference in one of >Podesta’s hacked emailsâ€"a handkerchief with “a map that seems pizza-related”â€"was somehow deemed a code for child sex. From there spun a web of wild allegations with >everything thrown in: an >Instagram joke about restraining unruly children with tape; heart- and butterfly-shaped images supposedly resembling pedophilic symbols; >the name of pizzeria owner, James Alefantis, is said to be rearranged from the French J’aime les enfants (“I love children”). The restaurant, Comet Ping Pong, >received a barrage of threatening phone calls and online messages even before the visit from the gunman; the harassment also spread to neighboring businesses.

Is it scary that people’s lives can be severely disrupted, even endangered by baseless, zealotry-driven accusations of evil acts? Of course. Is this a danger uniquely linked to “fake news” and online vigilantes with a right-wing bent? Fairly recent history suggests otherwise.

In the 1980s and 1990s, a wave of notorious cases involving allegations of ritual child sex abuse rings in day care centers swept the country. In California, the infamous >McMartin Preschool case dragged on for six years before its ignominious end in 1990. (The trial ended with one defendant acquitted and the otherâ€"Ray Buckey, the sole male defendantâ€"acquitted on most counts with the jury deadlocked on a few more. All charges against five other accused employees had been dismissed earlier.)

The McMartin case began with accusations made by a mother suffering from paranoid schizophrenia whose allegations quickly escalated to madhouse material: A few months after her initial police report, she was claiming that her son had his ears and tongue stapled, that children were forced to drink the blood of a slaughtered infant and that Buckey “flew through the air.” Before long, small children were coaxed into telling fantastical tales of grotesque sexual acts, Satanic rites and animal sacrifice, often taking place in secret tunnels underneath the preschool, at other times in car washes and churches.

And where were the professional news media? Falling for it hook, line and sinker. Later, in 1990, Los Angeles Times reporter David Shaw won a Pulitzer Prize for a >multipart series that offered a devastating analysis of the McMartin media coverage, including that of his own paper. Among the faults of the press, he listed “pack journalism,” “laziness,” excessive coziness with the prosecution (Wayne Satz, the reporter covering the case for the local NBC News station was quite literally in bed with Kee MacFarlane, the social worker in charge of the children’s interviews) and “a competitive zeal that sends reporters off in a frantic search to be first with the latest shocking allegation.” As a result, Shaw wrote, “Reporters and editors often abandoned two of their most cherished and widely trumpeted traditionsâ€"fairness and skepticism,” instead embracing “hysteria, sensationalism and what one editor calls ‘a lynch-mob syndrome.’ ”  

Alas, this was typical of how the media treated the bogus day care sex abuse cases. In New Jersey in 1987, 25-year-old kindergarten teacher >Margaret Kelly Michaels was convicted on charges that included forcing 3- and 4-year-olds into naked orgies, raping them with utensils, urinating on them and making them eat her feces. (The children’s “disclosures” were elicited under highly coercive questioning, in an investigation triggered by one little boy’s misconstrued comment.) These horrors were utterly improbable given the lack of physical evidence and lack of privacy in the room where Michaels supposedly committed her crimes. Yet once again, media skepticism was absent. It took two journalists outside the political mainstreamâ€"Dorothy Rabinowitz of the Wall Street Journal on the right, Debbie Nathan on the leftâ€"to raise obvious questions about the case. Michaels spent five years behind bars, out of a 47-year sentence, before her conviction was overturned on appeal.

The 1980s sex abuse panic was a mainstream hysteria while Pizzagate is a fringe one; but the two have uncanny similarities. In both cases, things ranging from innocuous to eccentric to mildly inappropriate got recast as suggesting pedophile proclivitiesâ€"particularly if they could be seen as sexually “creepy.” Today, Pizzagate “sleuths” find it >incriminating that Comet Ping Pong, an >offbeat arty venue, has had weird murals with abstract nudes and that some of its employees’ Instagram accounts have featured bawdy (nonâ€"child-related) cartoons. Thirty years ago, Buckey and Michaels were portrayed as perverts because he sometimes wore loose shorts with no underwear and she had scribbled a vaguely erotic poem in her notebook.

The child sex abuse panic of the 1980s is also a reminder that paranoia about pedophiles is hardly the sole province of right-wing nuts. While some of the fears about devil worship were driven by religious fundamentalism, feminists who saw hidden child rape as an intrinsic part of patriarchal violence played a >major role in ritual abuse scare. (They were even more involved in the closely related >bogus moral panic about recovered memories of incest, also treated with excessive credulity by the mainstream media until the early 1990s.) Indeed, MacFarlane, one of principal malfeasants in the McMartin fiasco, had >started out as a feminist activist before turning child abuse crusader.

During the McMartin case, in 1989, the Los Angeles County Commission on Women >launched a Ritual Abuse Task Force headed by feminist psychotherapist >Myra Riddell. Women’s liberation doyenne Gloria Steinem not only >endorsed a 1990 recovered-memory manual that encouraged women to see everything from arthritis to trust issues as symptoms of forgotten abuse but >helped fund a futile quest for evidence of guilt in the McMartin case. And as late as 1993, Ms. magazine ran a lurid cover story purporting to be a survivor’s account, headlined, “Ritual Abuse Existsâ€"Believe It!”

So let us by all means decry the conspiracy theories and the “fake news” of today. But we would do well to remember that even real journalists and cultural progressives are not immune to absurd claims of pedophile conspiracies when the right buttons get pushed. And as much as one can sympathize with innocent people harassed and threatened because of Pizzagate, the plight of innocents imprisoned on horrific made-up charges was far worse.

"

| ‘Pizzagate’ | Recalls | Debunked | Child | Rings | ’80s | ’90s | p> Front | entrance | Comet | Ping | Pong | pizzeria | restaurant | Washington | that’s | been | center | media | conspiracy | theory | involving | child | abuse | rings | Photo | Alex | Wong | Getty | Images< | span>< | p> < | div> Pizzagate | em>a | nutty | about | ring | from | become | focal | point | “fake | news” | alarmâ€"particularly | after | rifle | toting | recently < | span>showed | restaurant< | a> to | “self | investigate” | rescue | nonexistent | victims | While | injured | incident | lent | eerie | prescience | earlier< | span> | Post< | editorial< | titled | shows | how< | fake | news | hurts | real | people | politics | Pizzagateâ€"mostly | pushed | Donald | Trump | supporters | (including< | Michael | Flynn< | Trump’s | national | security | adviser | Flynn) | purported | implicate | Hillary | Clinton | campaign | chief | John | Podestaâ€"make | even | more | emblematic | issue | many | pundits< | this | terrifying | evidence | dark | irrationality | unleashed | p> The | Pizzagate | saga | indeed | disturbing | obscure | reference | Podesta’s | hacked | emails< | a>â€"a | handkerchief | with | “a | that | seems | pizza | related”â€"was | somehow | deemed | code | From | there | spun | wild | allegations | with< | everything | thrown | Instagram | joke< | restraining | unruly | children | tape; 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| have | uncanny | similarities | both | things | ranging | innocuous | eccentric | mildly | inappropriate | recast | suggesting | pedophile | proclivitiesâ€"particularly | they | could | seen | sexually | “creepy | Today | “sleuths” | find | incriminating< | offbeat | arty | venue< | weird | murals | abstract | nudes | some | employees’ | accounts | featured | bawdy | (nonâ€"child | related) | cartoons | Thirty | portrayed | perverts | because | sometimes | wore | loose | shorts | underwear | scribbled | vaguely | erotic | poem | notebook | reminder | paranoia | pedophiles | hardly | province | nuts | fears | devil | worship | religious | fundamentalism | feminists | hidden | rape | intrinsic | part | patriarchal | violence | played | major | role< | scare | (They | involved | closely | related< | moral | panic< | recovered | memories | incest | credulity | until | early | Indeed | principal | malfeasants | fiasco | had< | started | out< | feminist | activist | turning | crusader | p> During | 1989 | County | Commission | Women< | launched | Ritual | Abuse | Task | Force< | headed | psychotherapist< | Myra | Riddell< | Women’s | liberation | doyenne | Gloria | Steinem | only< | endorsed< | memory | manual | encouraged | women | arthritis | trust | issues | symptoms | forgotten | but< | helped | fund< | futile | quest | guilt | late | 1993 | magazine | lurid | cover | story | purporting | survivor’s | account | headlined | “Ritual | Existsâ€"Believe | It!”< | p> So | means | decry | theories | today | would | well | remember | cultural | progressives | immune | absurd | claims | conspiracies | when | buttons | much | sympathize | innocent | harassed | threatened | plight | innocents | imprisoned | horrific | worse | p> |

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‘Pizzagate’ Recalls the Debunked Child Sex Rings of the ’80s and ’90s

Front entrance of Comet Ping Pong pizzeria, a restaurant in Washington, D.C., that’s been at the center of a media conspiracy theory involving child sex abuse rings. Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images

Pizzagate, a nutty conspiracy theory about a child sex ring run from a Washington, D.C., pizzeria, has become the focal point for the “fake news” alarmâ€"particularly after a rifle-toting man recently >showed up at the restaurant to “self-investigate” and rescue nonexistent victims. While no one was injured, the incident lent an eerie prescience to an earlier Washington Post >editorial titled, “ ‘Pizzagate’ shows how fake news hurts real people.” The politics of Pizzagateâ€"mostly pushed by Donald Trump supporters (including >Michael J. Flynn, son of Trump’s national security adviser-to-be Michael T. Flynn) and purported to implicate Hillary Clinton and her campaign chief John Podestaâ€"make it even more emblematic of the “fake news” issue. To >many pundits, this is terrifying evidence of the dark irrationality unleashed by the Trump campaign.

The Pizzagate saga is indeed disturbing. An obscure reference in one of >Podesta’s hacked emailsâ€"a handkerchief with “a map that seems pizza-related”â€"was somehow deemed a code for child sex. From there spun a web of wild allegations with >everything thrown in: an >Instagram joke about restraining unruly children with tape; heart- and butterfly-shaped images supposedly resembling pedophilic symbols; >the name of pizzeria owner, James Alefantis, is said to be rearranged from the French J’aime les enfants (“I love children”). The restaurant, Comet Ping Pong, >received a barrage of threatening phone calls and online messages even before the visit from the gunman; the harassment also spread to neighboring businesses.

Is it scary that people’s lives can be severely disrupted, even endangered by baseless, zealotry-driven accusations of evil acts? Of course. Is this a danger uniquely linked to “fake news” and online vigilantes with a right-wing bent? Fairly recent history suggests otherwise.

In the 1980s and 1990s, a wave of notorious cases involving allegations of ritual child sex abuse rings in day care centers swept the country. In California, the infamous >McMartin Preschool case dragged on for six years before its ignominious end in 1990. (The trial ended with one defendant acquitted and the otherâ€"Ray Buckey, the sole male defendantâ€"acquitted on most counts with the jury deadlocked on a few more. All charges against five other accused employees had been dismissed earlier.)

The McMartin case began with accusations made by a mother suffering from paranoid schizophrenia whose allegations quickly escalated to madhouse material: A few months after her initial police report, she was claiming that her son had his ears and tongue stapled, that children were forced to drink the blood of a slaughtered infant and that Buckey “flew through the air.” Before long, small children were coaxed into telling fantastical tales of grotesque sexual acts, Satanic rites and animal sacrifice, often taking place in secret tunnels underneath the preschool, at other times in car washes and churches.

And where were the professional news media? Falling for it hook, line and sinker. Later, in 1990, Los Angeles Times reporter David Shaw won a Pulitzer Prize for a >multipart series that offered a devastating analysis of the McMartin media coverage, including that of his own paper. Among the faults of the press, he listed “pack journalism,” “laziness,” excessive coziness with the prosecution (Wayne Satz, the reporter covering the case for the local NBC News station was quite literally in bed with Kee MacFarlane, the social worker in charge of the children’s interviews) and “a competitive zeal that sends reporters off in a frantic search to be first with the latest shocking allegation.” As a result, Shaw wrote, “Reporters and editors often abandoned two of their most cherished and widely trumpeted traditionsâ€"fairness and skepticism,” instead embracing “hysteria, sensationalism and what one editor calls ‘a lynch-mob syndrome.’ ”  

Alas, this was typical of how the media treated the bogus day care sex abuse cases. In New Jersey in 1987, 25-year-old kindergarten teacher >Margaret Kelly Michaels was convicted on charges that included forcing 3- and 4-year-olds into naked orgies, raping them with utensils, urinating on them and making them eat her feces. (The children’s “disclosures” were elicited under highly coercive questioning, in an investigation triggered by one little boy’s misconstrued comment.) These horrors were utterly improbable given the lack of physical evidence and lack of privacy in the room where Michaels supposedly committed her crimes. Yet once again, media skepticism was absent. It took two journalists outside the political mainstreamâ€"Dorothy Rabinowitz of the Wall Street Journal on the right, Debbie Nathan on the leftâ€"to raise obvious questions about the case. Michaels spent five years behind bars, out of a 47-year sentence, before her conviction was overturned on appeal.

The 1980s sex abuse panic was a mainstream hysteria while Pizzagate is a fringe one; but the two have uncanny similarities. In both cases, things ranging from innocuous to eccentric to mildly inappropriate got recast as suggesting pedophile proclivitiesâ€"particularly if they could be seen as sexually “creepy.” Today, Pizzagate “sleuths” find it >incriminating that Comet Ping Pong, an >offbeat arty venue, has had weird murals with abstract nudes and that some of its employees’ Instagram accounts have featured bawdy (nonâ€"child-related) cartoons. Thirty years ago, Buckey and Michaels were portrayed as perverts because he sometimes wore loose shorts with no underwear and she had scribbled a vaguely erotic poem in her notebook.

The child sex abuse panic of the 1980s is also a reminder that paranoia about pedophiles is hardly the sole province of right-wing nuts. While some of the fears about devil worship were driven by religious fundamentalism, feminists who saw hidden child rape as an intrinsic part of patriarchal violence played a >major role in ritual abuse scare. (They were even more involved in the closely related >bogus moral panic about recovered memories of incest, also treated with excessive credulity by the mainstream media until the early 1990s.) Indeed, MacFarlane, one of principal malfeasants in the McMartin fiasco, had >started out as a feminist activist before turning child abuse crusader.

During the McMartin case, in 1989, the Los Angeles County Commission on Women >launched a Ritual Abuse Task Force headed by feminist psychotherapist >Myra Riddell. Women’s liberation doyenne Gloria Steinem not only >endorsed a 1990 recovered-memory manual that encouraged women to see everything from arthritis to trust issues as symptoms of forgotten abuse but >helped fund a futile quest for evidence of guilt in the McMartin case. And as late as 1993, Ms. magazine ran a lurid cover story purporting to be a survivor’s account, headlined, “Ritual Abuse Existsâ€"Believe It!”

So let us by all means decry the conspiracy theories and the “fake news” of today. But we would do well to remember that even real journalists and cultural progressives are not immune to absurd claims of pedophile conspiracies when the right buttons get pushed. And as much as one can sympathize with innocent people harassed and threatened because of Pizzagate, the plight of innocents imprisoned on horrific made-up charges was far worse.

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