UNHOLY PASSIONS
Louisiana priest in 'demonic' altar threesome
THREE ON AN ALTAR
A Louisiana priest has been arrested after reportedly filming himself having sex with two dominatrices on a church altar. Reverend Travis Clark, 37, and the two women involved – Mindy Dixon, 41, an adult film performer, and Melissa Cheng, 23 – have all been charged with obscenity. The trio were allegedly discovered in flagrante delicto on the night of 30 September after a passer-by noticed that the lights were on later than usual at Saints Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Church in Pearl River near New Orleans. Peeping inside, the witness claims to have seen the semi-nude pastor having sex on the altar with two women dressed in corsets and high-heeled boots. Sex toys were also visible, and the proceedings were being filmed by a mobile phone mounted on a tripod, the altar illuminated by stage lights. Police officers called to the church were told by Ms Dixon and Ms Cheng that the trio had been filming a “roleplay” with the pastor, but it has been reported that Ms Dixon wrote in a social media post prior to the incident that she was going to the New Orleans area to “defile a house of God”.
Rev Clark, appointed in July 2019 as the church’s 13th pastor, was released on a $25,000 bond while Ms Cheng and Dixon posted bonds of $7,500. He is currently in hiding at his parents’ house. If found guilty of obscenity, each could face a maximum of three years in jail.
Two weeks after the alleged incident, Archbishop Gregory Aymond celebrated Mass on 10 October and reconsecrated the church and its new altar, the previous one having been removed and burned the day before. Before beginning Mass, the visibly upset archbishop told the congregation: “The desecration of this church and altar is demonic, demonic. Let me be clear, there is no excuse for what took place here. It is sinful, and it is totally unacceptable. Travis has been unfaithful to his vocation; he’s violated his commitment to celibacy; and also, he was using that which was holy to do demonic things.”
The archbishop blessed the people and the church with holy water. He used chrism oil and incense to bless the new altar and placed a relic of Saints Peter and Paul inside the altar. “The church is a very holy place and when a church has been used for unholy things and has been desecrated, we must drive away the evil spirit,” he said. Independent,
9 Oct; clarionherald.org, 10 Oct; D.Mail, 15 Oct 2020.
ACCIDENTAL LOCKDOWN
The Cellmate Chastity Cage, a hitech male chastity belt, has been sold via several big-name online retailers as well as specialist sex shops. It is produced by Qiui, a self-described “innovative sex toy” manufacturer based in Guangdong, China. Their website bears the slogan ‘Qiui chastity: love hurts’ and the following mission statement: “Qiui believes that a true chastity experience is one that keeps the wearer away from control over their own devices.”
Qiui currently offer four products: the Cellmate Chastity Cage (Long and Short versions), both retailing at $189, while for a more modest outlay, a Secure Ring may be purchased for $20, available in both large and small sizes. Qiui claim the new Cellmate Chastity Cage is an improvement on their original Bluetooth chastity cage, as proximity is no longer necessary for the key holder, and that “no physical keys [are] needed to enjoy chastity”. Instead, the new model allows the user to “authorise a keyholder from any part of the world to gain control over your cage”.
Unfortunately, a security flaw in the device has been discovered that meant it would have been possible for a hacker to remotely lock all the Cellmates currently in use simultaneously. The Internet-linked sheath has no manual override, so owners might have had to resort to the use of a grinder or bolt cutter to free themselves from its metal grip. Any other attempts to cut through the contraption’s plastic body could pose a risk of bodily injury.
Fortunately, after a team of UK security professionals exposed the bug, the sex toy’s app has been fixed by its Chinese developer. They have also published a workaround for people still using the old version of the app who could potentially find themselves locked in as a result of a malicious hacker’s interference: it involves prising open the circuit board and pressing batteries against two of the wires to trigger a motor.
Pen Test Partners (PTP), the Buckingham-based cybersecurity firm who discovered the app’s glitch, have a reputation for solving quirky IT problems, and have previously highlighted difficulties with other sex toys. PTP say their latest discovery shows that manufacturers and developers of ‘smart’ adultthemed products still have lessons to learn. “The problem is that manufacturers of these other toys sometimes rush their products to market,” remarked Alex Lomas, a PTP researcher. “Most times the problem is a disclosure of sensitive personal data, but in this case, you can get physically locked in.”
The chastity cage works by wirelessly connecting to a smartphone via Bluetooth, used to trigger the device’s lock-and-clamp mechanism; but the software required sends commands to and from the manufacturer’s server, which, PTP discovered, can be tricked into disclosing each device owner’s registered name and other personal details, as well a unique code assigned to each device and the co-ordinates of every location from where the app had been used. This hacked information could be misused so that the server ignored requests to unlock any of the chastity cages.
To date, there is no evidence that malicious hackers have exploited the security risk. But one online reviewer, who appeared to have become locked in his cage due to an unrelated bug, said he had been left with “a bad scar that took nearly a month of recovery”. Based on the data they discovered pertaining to each device’s unique code and their locations, PTP believe around 40,000 devices have been sold worldwide. BBC News, 6 Oct 2020.