Sexual Assault

The gymnastics coach John Geddert died by suicide Thursday after human trafficking and sexual assault charges were announced against him. Geddert, who led the 2012 U.S. Olympic women's gymnastics team to win gold, was charged with 24 felonies Thursday in Eaton County, Michigan.

"My office has been notified that the body of John Geddert was found late this afternoon after taking his own life," Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel later said in a statement.

The Bombay High Court ruled that groping without "skin to skin" contact does not qualify as sexual assault under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act. The court stated that touching a minor's breast without removing the child's clothes is not considered sexual assault.

The Twitter campaign "#MeTooInceste" was started by NousToutes activist known as Marie Chenevance after French political commentator, Olivier Duhamel was accused of abusing his teenage stepson. Thousands of French survivors of incest spoke out about their own abuse experiences on Twitter.

Tweets:

• "I was 11 the first time, I thought it was by accident that he touched my private area, and later realized that it can’t be, because he was clearly sober. #metooinceste."
• "I was 13, him 26. He was my uncle."
• "I was six years old when the touching started, 15 when I had to live maritally with my father, be prostituted and raped on his order, 16 when I had to abort his work, 17 when I denounced him and was rejected by the family."
• "I was between 11 and 14 years old. It was my brother. I'm 57 years old and I am still a victim of this past."

Fox News's Ed Henry, Sean Hannity & Tucker Carlson have been sued for sexual misconduct by two women on Monday. The suit alleges that Henry, who was fired earlier this month, sexually assaulted, raped and restrained in a hotel room and threatened former Fox News employee Jennifer Eckhart. Former Fox News employee Cathy Are says she was sexually harassed by members of Fox News, including Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson and Howard Kurtz.

Ghislaine Maxwell, a close friend and confidante of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, has been denied bail and has to remain in custody while awaiting her trial as she's considered an "extreme flight". Maxwell, who has pleaded not guilty, is expected to go to trial in July 2021.

After female employees accused multiple employees of sexual assault at Ubisoft, the company has placed the alleged perpetrators including two executives on leave and now announced a "structural shift" to change the work environment, make it safer and improve the accountability.

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has stated that he is "putting in place a series of initiatives that will serve as a roadmap as we listen, learn, and act". Part of the initiatives will be the appointment of Lidwine Sauer as Head of Workplace Culture, a global survey for all employees, listening sessions, the continuation of the investigation into the allegations of sexual assault and other measures.

The German parliament Bundestag has criminalized taking nonconsensual pictures under skirts or dresses. Under current legislation, it hadn't been illegal in most cases while under new legislations the perpetrators can be sentenced to up to two years of prison time. The same penalties will be applied to taking pictures and photographs of deceased accident victims as the current legislation only protected survivors.

On Friday, a Twitter user by the name "Danielle" claimed she was "sexually assaulted by Justin Bieber" in Houston, Texas on March 9, 2014. She describes meeting Bieber during an event at a bar in Houston where she and her friends "took some pictures and chatted for about 20 minutes" with the singer who later invited them to the Four Seasons Hotel. In the hotel, she was separated from her friends, who were taken into another room by one of Bieber's friends. Bieber then allegedly kissed her and later "forced himself inside" her after she told him "to get off".

Bieber responded to the allegations on Twitter, stating that "this story is factually impossible" and that he "will be working with twitter and authorities to take legal action". He added that, even though he was at the mentioned event location, he didn't stay at the Four Seasons Hotel on March 9, posting receipts from his stay at an AirBnB and the Westin Hotel on the nights of March 9 and 10, 2014, where he said he had stayed with his then-girlfriend Selena Gomez and their friends.

The Twitter user "Danielle" (handle @danielleglvn) has since deleted both the tweet and her account.

According to a write-up of Rod Breslau (alias "Slasher"), an independent eSports and gaming journalist, multiple women of the streaming and gaming industry have come forward with allegations of sexual misconduct, harassment and assault against multiple YouTube and Twitch streamers and other personalities of the gaming and eSports industry.

Omeed Dariani, one of the accused, has stepped down as CEO of the OP Group following the allegations. Over 50 different people have been accused of varying forms of sexual harassment and misconduct, prompting Twitch to a public response. In a tweet, the platform stated that they are "actively looking into the accounts" and that they "will work with law enforcement where applicable".

On Friday, a Twitter user by the name "Gabby" claimed she was "sexually assaulted a couple days after" turning 17 by actor Ansel Elgort (The Fault in Our Stars, The Goldfinch). She described getting in touch with Elgort online and eventually meeting up with him. "Instead of asking me if I wanted to stop having sex knowing it was my first time and I was sobbing in pain and I didn’t want to do it," she stated in her account of the events, and adding that "the only words that came out of his mouth were, 'We need to break you in.'"

Ansel Elgort has posted a response on his Instagram account on Sunday, stating he was distressed by the allegations and that he "cannot claim to understand Gabby’s feelings but her description of events is simply not what happened." He went on to say that he had a "brief, legal and entirely consensual relationship" with Gabby in 2014 and apologised for breaking up with her by stopping to respond to her.

The rapper 6ix9ine had announced through an Instagram post, that he intends on donating $200,000 to the campaign No Kid Hungry which combats hunger and poverty issues in the United States. But the non-profit organization Share Our Strength, which runs the campaign, has publically declined the donation because of their policy to not accept "funding from donors whose activities do not align with our mission and values". He was previously convicted for multiple crimes, some of which involved minors.

The last contender for the presidential nomination of the democratic party for the US elections 2020, Joe Biden, has denied the allegations that he sexually assaulted a former staff assistant of his in 1993. In a TV interview on Friday, he publically stated that "I'm saying unequivocally: it never, never happened" and has asked for a search of the Senate archives to check if there is any written complaint record.

Former Vice President Joe Biden faces new allegations of sexual assault. In an interview with podcast host Katie Halper, which aired on Wednesday, Tara Reade says Biden sexually assaulted her, pushing her against a wall and penetrating her with his fingers when she was working in his staff in 1993. When she pulled away, she says, he said he thought she "liked" him.

Reade's allegation line up with allegations by several women who came forward in 2019 to say Biden had kissed or touched them in ways that made them uncomfortable. Biden’s campaign on Friday denied Reade’s allegation. “Women have a right to tell their story, and reporters have an obligation to rigorously vet those claims,” deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield said in a statement. “We encourage them to do so, because these accusations are false.”