A NATIONWIDE hunt was under way last night after a partially clothed toddler was seen being bundled into the boot of a car by two men.

Police have "grave concerns" for the girl, who is believed to be aged three or four, after she was seen looking "limp" and naked from the waist up when she was driven off.

Detective Chief Superintendent Paul Kemp, who is leading the operation, said: "I have grave concerns for the welfare of this young girl.

"The little girl was carried from the back of the car and into the boot. It was an estate car but there was a parcel shelf which means the little girl was enclosed and out of sight. I am also concerned that it was quite late at night and there were two men involved."

The heightened alert follows the jailing of paedophile Craig Sweeney last week who was sentenced to just a five-year minimum tariff for kidnapping and sexually assaulting a three-year-old girl.

Sweeney snatched the youngster from her home in Cardiff before taking her on a terrifying 80-mile drive and hurling her out of a window.

In the latest incident, on Wednesday, two witnesses called 999 after seeing the girl being put in the back of a green or blue Hyundai Lantra outside the Sainsbury's store in Swansea, South Wales. The car was later spotted crossing the M48 Severn Bridge back into England at 10.45pm. Police forces across the country have been put on alert to look out for the Hyundai - registration number N729FOO.


Suspicions were raised further when it was discovered that the vehicle had not been re-registered after the ownership was transferred.

Det Supt Kemp added: "Since the initial appeal, we have received a number of phone calls from members of the public who have provided us with information.

"As a result we are now pursuing a number of lines of inquiry. However, we have yet to hear from anyone who can positively tell us the whereabouts of this car and its owners.

"Therefore, I would ask anyone who has seen the car or knows of its whereabouts to come to speak to us as soon as possible."

A police spokesman added officers had not had any reports of a missing girl and do not know who her parents are.

Let's be honest. How many sparkly lotions does a girl really need? Recent disasters in our country and around the world remind us that thousands need help. So, this year, instead of piling on the presents, why not get your girls together and make this holiday season magical for someone less fortunate? It's the best gift any of your crew could ever give--or get.

There's nothing worse than being cold in the winter. Why not gather the girls to organize a clothing drive at school? A mitten tree (a fake tree decorated with donated mittens) is a cute way to gather toasty goods. Pick one girl to get the go a head from your school principal, another to get the tree, and the rest to put up flyers and encourage donations. Finally, log on to salvationarmy.com to find a local drop-off location.

VISIONS OF SUGAR PLUMS

Donating goods is great but, for a more personal experience, donate your time instead. Soup kitchens need helping hands around the holidays, so you and your girls could make a day of chopping, cooking and serving meals for the needy. Secondharvest.org is a great resource for finding soup kitchens in your area. You might even want to bring along homemade holiday cards and small bags of candy to brighten people's day.

Every child deserves a gift for the holidays. You and your BFFs can make that happen by contacting a shelter and offering to play Santa for some needy kids. You and the gals can bond over a trip to the toy store to purchase whatever is on the wish list. You're never too old to test the latest on toy shelves, right? Want to go bigger? Host a toy drive at your church or school. Many organizations can help distribute the toys to kids who are hospitalized or in foster homes. Toysfortots.org will even come pick up your festive loot.

JINGLE SELLS

Put a jingle in your pockets by selling handmade holiday cards. The catch? All profits go to redcross.com as a cash donation. Whip out the glue, sparkles and markers, or design something on your desktop. Your parents can sell the cards at work, or surprise neighbors by showing up on their doorsteps. Extra marshmallows in her cocoa for the girl who spreads the most holiday cheer!

PROVO -- A judge ruled last week that an Orem photographer and his then-girlfriend, who are accused of taking nude pictures of a girl, should stand trial despite arguments by defense attorneys that the girl urged them to take the photos.

Matthew Stone, 35, and Bobette Wimmer, 36, were arrested in October 2006 after allegedly performing a nude photo shoot in Stone's Orem studio.

A 17-year-old girl and her friend had gone to the studio to talk with Stone about possibly taking some glamour shots and the session turned into a nude shoot.

The girl testified last week during a preliminary hearing that Stone and Wimmer encouraged her to take off her shirt, then her bra and to pose for topless shots.

"They were both encouraging me to take off more clothes, pose this way, that way, this looks good, along those lines," the girl said. She then testified that Wimmer became involved and the pictures became more sexual, involving genitals.

Fourth District Judge Samuel McVey ruled that both Stone and Wimmer should stand trial on 23 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor. They each also face an additional charge of forcible sex abuse.

However, McVey postponed his final ruling about whether Wimmer should stand trial for the forcible sexual abuse until after he hears arguments on Dec. 10 regarding a motion filed by her attorney.

During the first day of the preliminary hearing, defense attorney Gunda Jarvis asked the girl if she tried to get up and run away.

"I did not fight," the girl said, "but it was very uncomfortable."

"And nobody threatened you?" the girl was asked.

"Nobody threatened me," the girl said.

Defense attorneys also questioned the girl's statement to police. In the statement, she wrote that it had been her idea to take topless pictures, not Stone's.

"Did you say that it was your idea in this statement?" Jarvis asked.

"Yes, I did," the girl said.

"And then you started taking pictures ... kind of like a glamour shot ... kind of like the models would do? And it was fun because you felt like you were being a model?" Jarvis asked.

"At first," the girl responded.

Defense attorneys then asked the girl about her expression in the photos. They said she looked like she was enjoying herself.

"I know at that time they did not depict my true feelings," the girl responded.

Jarvis and Stone's defense attorney, Mike Esplin, expressed concern about the issue of consent. Prosecutors maintain that as a minor she was legally unable to fully consent to any sexual activity.

However, the girl did not run away or fight or even express concern, according to her testimony. Because of that, the crimes would be of a different nature, Jarvis argued. Jarvis' motion asks McVey toss out the charge of forcible sexual abuse against Wimmer.

The girl testified she wanted to take scandalous photos, but she didn't want to get in legal trouble for taking them because she's 17. "But by scandalous, I mean lifting my shirt up a little bit," she said. "(Pictures) with all my clothes still on."

A former television personality said he was "blinded by the money" he was making from operating several Web sites that a court has ruled dealt in child pornography.

Federal prosecutors say Matthew Duhamel was pulling in as much as $20,000 a month from operating his Web sites. But in the end Duhamel received five years in federal prison.

According to court documents, Duhamel and his business partner Charles Granere, operated several Web sites dedicated to "modeling" pictures of 9- and 10-year-old girls dressed in very adult clothing. Some pictures show girls dressed in lingerie, others in miniskirts or two-piece bikinis. In one photo a girl's genitalia can be seen, documents state.

Granere and Duhamel had argued the photos were not considered pornographic because the girls were fully clothed. However, upon review, U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell said the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that photos of clothed subjects can be considered pornographic.

"This was exploitation of children," Campbell said Thursday. "This didn't just cross the line in my view, this went way across the line."

Shedding tears, Matthew Duhamel, said he was sorry for taking advantage of several girls who were photographed in skimpy outfits and in sexually-suggestive poses. Prosecutors say Duhamel even sold clothing the girls wore on his Web sites.


Court records also show Duhamel had contracted with at least two people who offered photos of young girls. Bill Capps Jr. of North Carolina had taken photographs of a 9-year-old girl which were offered and posted on Duhamel's sites. An Indiana mother was discovered taking and selling sexually-suggestive photos of her own daughter, which also wound up on Duhamel's sites.

The mother also offered "custom" shoots where customers could request photos of her daughter wearing certain clothing for $400. At one point, Duhamel paid the woman and her 9-year-old daughter to fly out to Salt Lake City, where Duhamel took some photos himself.

Both Capps and the woman were indicted on child pornography charges and were both sentenced to serve five years in federal prison. Granere was also sentenced to five years last May.

Campbell said although Duhamel faced more time, she couldn't justify giving him more than five years compared to two people who actually took and sold the photos.

Duhamel said he was "blinded by the money" and they he planned to fund his dream of being a local television celebrity. For a short while, Duhamel worked as a weather forecaster for KUTV Channel 2 and hosted a late-night talk show on KPNZ Channel 24.

"I could have stopped the Web sites and I didn't," Duhamel said.

Duhamel's attorney, Richard Mauro, insisted in court that his client is not a pedophile. Outside of court, Mauro said his client plans to challenge Campbell's finding that the some 600 photos were pornographic and appeal it to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver.

Girls are mean. Don't believe that? Just ask Lara. On her first day at Challenger Middle School, the sixth-grader wore sweat pants and a T-shirt. An older girl gave her a disapproving look.

"Don't ever wear (sweat pants) again," Lara remembered the girl telling her. "They're not in. Wear jeans or something."

Soon the most popular girls were giving Lara rules on nearly every aspect of her life - her clothes, food, friends.

When Lara balked, they called her a "loser." They harassed her. They pushed her. They ignored her. They were mean.

"Welcome to middle school," Lara, 12, says sardonically as she retells her first year of adolescence.

What Lara sees as the normal school routine, experts see as bullying. The tendency for schoolgirls to control each other and others through gossip, cliques and exclusion isn't just part of growing up, some experts say. It's got a name: relational aggression.

It's when girls use their intimacy - friendships, relationships - to manipulate and intimidate others.

Researchers and experts have turned their attention to female bullies and have written books, magazine articles and studies on the subject.

They point to what some experts call a glaring omission in anti- bullying programs used in schools nationwide.

Most anti-bullying programs, including ones used in Colorado schools, focus primarily on physical aggression - the kind when big boys stuff little boys into lockers.

But it's a mistake to ignore girls' style of bullying, says Stephen Leff, a psychologist at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and principal investigator in a study that looked at bully- prevention programs in schools nationwide. That's because relational aggression can be more harmful, vicious and have deeper and more lasting effects than any schoolyard fistfight.

"Intimacy in girls' friendships is extremely important, so a manipulation of that can really have a profound effect," said Leff.

Some experts say relational aggression can lead to suicide, drugs and eating disorders in girls.

"Girls need to be held responsible for the things they do that bring them all down," said Rosalind Wiseman, author of "Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends, and Other Realities of Adolescence."

Examples of bullying

A few students at Challenger Middle School, on the city's northeast side in Academy School District 20, agreed to talk about girl bullying only if their last names weren't used. They didn't want anyone in school to know they were talking about it to outsiders.

"They're vicious," said a 12-year-old sixth-grader at Challenger. "They can come up to you all nice, but then they will take something you tell them and (use it against you)."

And girls don't just bully other girls. They bully boys as well.

Take what happened to Jonathan, another Challenger sixth-grader. About a week ago, a girl in Jonathan's class, a friend, called him. The girl urged him to talk about another girl he liked. While Jonathan professed his love, he heard giggling.

"Someone else was there on the telephone," said Jonathan, 12. "It was horrible. I just hung up."

Girl bullying comes in many forms: Using three-way calling to catch someone spilling their deepest, darkest secrets, creating Internet "slam books" to label a girl a slut, whore or tramp, shunning a girl because she wears sweat pants instead of capris. Girls use intimate knowledge to needle someone else.

"Girls bully in more sophisticated and complex ways, (than boys do)," said Wiseman, who also runs The Empower Program. Based in Washington, D.C., Wiseman's program teaches girls how to cut out their aggression and avoid bullying.

Experts believe girls bully like this because, in general, they're less physical than boys. Yet girls still need to express aggression.

Leff says schools mistake this behavior by girls as just part of childhood.

"It's much more subtle when someone bullies through social or relational aggression," he said. "One person at the school may not see it, and when they do, they may feel it's not as serious as physical aggression."

These type of mind games have been going on among schoolgirls for decades. What's the harm? Plenty, says Wiseman.

It can be deadly. In Canada, a 16-year-old girl was found guilty of threatening and harassing a classmate who later committed suicide. In Colorado Springs, a 13-year-old girl committed suicide in 1999 after she was bullied by middle schoolers, many of them girls, her parents said.

But the harm can be felt in small ways, too. Lara has few "popular" friends at her new school.

"You just feel so isolated," she said.

There's also harm for girls who perpetuate this behavior, said Wiseman.

Through her program, Wiseman has talked to hundreds of so-called popular girls. She noticed many of them felt powerless.

"(Bullying) is about girls wanting social status," Wiseman said. "The more important social status is to their sense of self, the more important it is for them to achieve and maintain it."

Where there is one victim, there may be more.

The Topeka Police Department's Juvenile and Special Victim Unit is using that theory in its investigation of a sexual assault that occurred at what it is calling a "flip party."

According to slang used in hip-hop music, the term "flip" means several people taking turns having sex with one person.

Police said young teenage girls typically are invited to a "flip party." When they arrive, the girls are alone with several males.

According to police, the girls are enticed to remove their clothes and have sexual contact with one or more of the males.

If the girls refuse, they are assaulted and raped.

Detectives said there may be more victims who are reluctant to report this crime.

"We only have one case that we know about," said Maj. John Sidwell, Topeka Police Department spokesman. "But detectives suspect there are more."

Police said descriptions of males involved in the flip parties have varied, so no additional information was being released.

However, detectives are asking other victims to call to provide better descriptions or names of males who have been involved in the parties.

In the meantime, Sidwell said, parents need to be aware of where their teenagers are going. If the teens are going to a party, he said, parents should receive assurances that supervision will be provided.

If there is any doubt about the supervision or participants at a party, Sidwell said, the teens shouldn't attend.

Sidwell added that precautions need to be taken for both boys and girls in their teen years to ensure their safety and well-being.

"Teenagers as a whole have a tendency to get into situations that are way above their heads without the supervision of parents," Sidwell said. "It's the parents' responsibility to watch our for them and try to keep them in safe situations."