2 Shocking Cases of Sexploitation in Hockey

Kamloops hockey coach Heidi Ferber

Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada, hockey player Chanelle Petrie was only 15 when her coach, 39-year-old Heidi Ferber, began a sexual relationship with her.

Ferber, who has plead guilty to charges of sexual exploitation for the relationship, can now be publicly named because a B.C. Supreme court judge lifted the case's publication ban at Petrie's request.

The law provides for an automatic ban on the publication of names in sex cases in order to protect the identify of the victim.

Chanelle Petrie

Petrie says she applied to have the publication ban on identifying Ferber lifted because she wants other young people to know that it's OK to speak out.

God bless you, Chanelle. You're a brave and strong young lady.

"It was absolutely wrong and now I see like, I'm not ashamed of it," Petrie said.

"I wasn't the person who did anything wrong. I was young, I didn't know any better, but it's hard."

Petrie says she considered Ferber a role model. The two became close, and in the fall of 2010 they began a sexual relationship.

"I trusted her [when] she said it was OK and that it wasn't wrong and so I believed her."

Petrie eventually told a counsellor and her parents, after which point Ferber was charged.

Petrie says she wants other victims to not be ashamed, and feel that they can speak out.

"You can make it through it and you have people around you and you've gotta use them, you've gotta lean on them."

You go, girl. So proud of you!

This, of course, is not the first case of a hockey coach sexploiting his players, and unfortunately, it probably wont be the last. The most famous case involved NHL superstar Theo Fleury. Here is his shocking story from Macleans Magazine.

Retired hockey star Theoren Fleury has at long last confirmed that he was sexually abused by his junior coach, Graham James, a trauma he says drove him to alcohol, drugs and promiscuity throughout his otherwise impressive 16-year NHL career. “The direct result of my being abused was that I became a (exp deleted) raging, alcoholic lunatic,” he writes in Playing with Fire, an autobiography to be released this week, and provided in advance to Maclean’s. “[James] destroyed my belief system. The most influential adult in my life at the time was telling me that what I thought was wrong was right. Exactly what Heidi Ferber did to Chanelle Petrie! This is why such relationships are so wrong and why the age of consent should never be lowered. 

“I no longer had faith in myself or my own judgment. And when you come down to it, that’s all a person has. Once it’s gone, how do you get it back?”

Theo Fleury

It is an account the hockey world has long waited to hear, as Fleury’s career had been one of the most spectacularly troubled in NHL history. For years, the spark-plug forward has stone-walled questions about his time with James, even as his violent outbursts on the ice and binges off it pointed to something terrible in his past.

Until the book, former Boston Bruin Sheldon Kennedy had been the only player to go public about being abused by James. He was hailed as a hero for coming forward, and said at the time one other NHL player had been abused. He did not name the player, and while speculation quickly enveloped Fleury, it died off when it became clear the player had no intention of addressing the issue.

In his book, however, Fleury lifts the lid on the entire harrowing tale, beginning when the Manitoba coach recruited him at 13 from his minor hockey team in Russell, Man., to play junior in Winnipeg. “Graham was on me once or twice a week for the next two years,” Fleury writes of the assaults, whose memories remain vivid to him. “An absolute nightmare, every day of my life.”

James required him to sleep two nights a week at the coach’s house, rather than with the woman with whom he’d been billetted. He tried to fight off the coach at first, wrapping himself in blankets each night and pretending to sleep as James attempted to (sexually assault) him. But the fear of James’s advances left him sleepless, and exhaustion broke him down, he writes; so too did James’s frequent warnings that, without his coach’s support, he stood little chance of playing professional hockey.

Fleury, now 41, says he was particularly vulnerable to James’s psychological manipulation because had little in the way of a family support system: his father was an alcoholic and his mother was addled by prescription sedatives. James easily convinced them he was the best thing to ever happen to their son, Fleury adds, just as he had done with Kennedy’s single mother. “I had rarely seen them like this—happy,” he says. “Their boy had made it. My dad was no longer a worthless drunk and my mom drugged out and helpless.” 

Sheldon Kennedy

When James’s Western Hockey League team, the Winnipeg Warriors, moved to Moose Jaw, both Fleury and Kennedy went with him. A year later, James was let go amid rumours of inappropriate behaviour and returned to Winnipeg with Kennedy in tow. He tried to convince Fleury to go with him, blandishing him and Kennedy that summer with a car trip to Disneyland.

Earlier reports that Fleury had been asleep in the backseat of the car when James sexually abused Kennedy in the front during that trip were true, Fleury writes. But that wasn’t the half of it. The three stayed in motels throughout the trip, he says, and the boys would have to take turns sleeping with James. “Think about how sick that is,” Fleury writes. “When he dropped me off at my parents’ place after that trip, that was it. It was over. I was out, home free.”

Fleury says he kept the abuse a secret at the time because he was sure it would end his hockey career. “I could see how it would play. I would have been stigmatized forever as the kid who was molested by his coach. The Victim.

“Would minor hockey have said, ‘Wow, we better watch out for Theoren and protect him because he told the truth’? No. It would have been James was a pervert and Fleury ‘let him’ molest him. Or I would be the equally pervy kid who had a ‘relationship’ with his coach. Would I have been invited to the Hockey Canada camp that led to Piestany, which led to the NHL? Get real.”

His refusal to come clean after James was arrested in 1997 is harder to explain. It effectively made Kennedy—his friend and teammate at the time in Calgary—the public face of the scandal (a third player who was abused while James was coach of the WHL Swift Current Broncos in the late 1980s has also remained anonymous).

Graham James

In an exclusive interview with Maclean’s this week, Fleury says the two addressed the issue in summer of 1997, in Arizona. “I respected his decision and Sheldon respected mine,” he says. “Secretly, I think we’ve both known that we’ve always had each others’ support. Now we go to a [12-step] meeting together every week, and that’s been a gift. I think we started repairing the relationship that night in Arizona.”

As it turned out, Fleury lived in fear throughout his pro career that the truth about he and James would come out. He quickly learned that liquor and drugs dulled his anxiety, and Playing with Fire recalls that descent in painstaking detail. He discovered alcohol at 16 and, after being drafted by the Calgary Flames in 1987, he began using marijuana and cocaine, quickly becoming, in his own words, a full-blown addict. Through all this, he was engaged in three long-term relationships, marrying twice and having four children. But as his career progressed, stripper bars became his home away from home, he says.


In New York, where he signed as a free agent with the Rangers in 1999, his addictions reached epic proportions, and he sunk to cringe-inducing depths. To flummox testers from the NHL’s substance abuse program, he would pour Gatorade into his urine samples. He even used urine from his then-infant son Beaux to fool the system. Meanwhile, his taste in company became increasingly grimy. “I didn’t hang out on the surface with your average Joe,” Fleury writes. “I would go five, six, seven, eight levels below the streets of New York and party with freaks, transvestites, strippers and all kinds of shady people.”

He also got deeply into gambling during that period. Between casinos and strip clubs—where he would drop thousands in a night on drinks and lap dances—he figures he burned through almost all of the US$50 million he was paid during his time in the NHL.

The details of this period reflect well on neither Fleury nor the NHL. By his own admission, he gave 13 dirty urine samples in a row to the NHL testers, yet was allowed to keep playing. The league finally forced him into treatment in the summer of 2001, which allowed him to compete in the 2002 Winter Games, where the Canadian men’s hockey team won a gold medal. But he soon relapsed, leaving the league for good the following year.

His rock-bottom moment came in September 2005, while he played in the Allan Cup senior hockey tournament in Lloydminster, Alta. His parents had come to watch him, and after his team got knocked out of the playoff round, he got drunk and poured out his anger to his parents for leaving him with James. It was the first time, he tells Maclean’s, the family had confronted the issue directly, and his mother and father wept, telling him they were sorry. “It was important to hear that word from them,” he says in an interview. “From that day forward, I’ve been able to move on with that part of my life—the stuff with my parents.” Since then, he says, he has been clean and sober, supported by his wife Jennifer, who he was dating when he played in the Allan Cup.

Fleury today

It is a calmer, stabler Fleury who looks back on that period now, and after a walk-on tryout last month with his old team, the Calgary Flames, he’s made his peace with leaving the game. He has written the book, he says, in hopes of convincing any young person suffering sexual abuse to seek help. “One thing I’ve come to realize is that, without Graham James I still would have had the same career,” he tells Maclean’s. “I look back on the way I played the game, and to be honest, there were not a lot of guys as naturally talented as I was. Add in my fierce, competitive edge and all those little intangibles—that’s what made me great. It was all part of me before I met Graham James.”

In 1996, James pled guilty to the sexual abuse of Sheldon Kennedy and was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison. After serving his time he moved offshore to Spain and Mexico before returning to Canada. In April, 2010, James, inexplicably, received a pardon from the Canadian National Parole Board. That only came to light when he was charged with 11 more sexual offences in Winnipeg, in 2011.

After the release of Fleury's book, James again pled guilty and was sentenced to two years in March 2012. In Feb, 2013, the Manitoba court of Appeal amended James' sentence from 2 years to 5.

Cheer-leading Coach in Texas Gets 30 Years for Child Sex Abuse

A former cheer-leading coach in Texas was sentenced to 30 years in prison for multiple cases of sex abuse.

Kyle Austin Ware, 31, plead guilty Thursday to three counts of continuous sex abuse of a child and one count of indecency with a child, according to NBC DFW. Three of Ware's four victims were under the age of 14 when the abuse started.

Kyle Austin Ware

The former tumbling coach at Express Cheer & Dance in Frisco was arrested at the Dallas Fort-Worth Airport in April, 2013. Police say that Ware had booked a flight to Paris and his attorney confirmed that he was aware of his impending arrest.

“The defendant rightfully accepted responsibility for his actions, and we are pleased to have gotten justice for the victims of these cases,” prosecutor Crystal Levonius said after the hearing, according to the Dallas Morning News.

Ware was sentenced to 30 years in prison for each of the three counts of continuous sex abuse of a child and 20 years in prison for the fourth case involving indecency with a child by contact. All four sentences will be served at the same time. He will not be eligible for parole. Concurrent sentencing is soooo stupid. It's being eliminated in sex abuse cases in Canada.

Frisco police Officer Greg Barnett said the gym took all of the necessary precautions, but it was not enough to stop Ware.

"The gym did the background checks," Officer Barnett said. "They did everything they needed to do to ensure to themselves and to the parents and the children that it was a safe environment to be. Unfortunately, Mr. Ware was a predator -- he took advantage of his position of trust with the children."

Patricia Hewitt Backed NCCL Policy of Lowering Age of Consent to Ten

Exclusive: (The Guardian) Former UK Labour cabinet minister defended cutting age to 14 and 10 in some circumstances in letter to teacher in 1976.

Background info can be found here and here.

Former Labour cabinet minister Patricia Hewitt defended a proposal to lower the age of consent in the face of a school teacher's accusation that she was seeking to "shatter prospective individual happiness at an early age".

The then general secretary of the National Council for Civil Liberties was writing in April 1976 in response to a letter from a teacher at St Paul's boys' school in London. He had accused the organisation of having "some very twisted minds" behind it.

Hewitt wrote in her letter: "Our proposal that the age of consent be reduced is based on the belief that neither the police nor the criminal courts should have the power to intervene in a consenting sexual activity between two young people. It is clearly the case that a number of young people are capable of consenting to sexual activity and already do so."

She was responding to Philip McGuinness, a house master at St Paul's, a leading public school, who wrote to the NCCL on 14 March that year expressing his disgust.

Patricia Hewitt

A month earlier Hewitt's name had appeared on an NCCL press release that proposed cutting the age of consent to 14 and in some circumstances 10.

In the correspondence discovered by the Guardian in the NCCL's archives in Hull, McGuinness wrote: "I cannot help but think that you do not support civil liberties at all. Your aim is questionable in the extreme. Are you aiming for the destruction of society, for the enslavement of the individual, for the destruction of family life? Is your object to shatter prospective individual happiness at an early age?"

He signed off by saying: "Your title is a shame and a masquerade. There must be some very twisted minds and pernicious malcontents behind your organisation if this is the sort of thing you advocate."

The March 1976 NCCL press release said: "NCCL proposes that the age of consent should be lowered to 14, with special provision for situations where the partners are close in age, or where consent of a child over ten can be proved."

The release relates to an NCCL report on sexual law reforms. In it Hewitt also said: "The report argues that the crime of incest should be abolished. It says, 'In our view, no benefit accrues to anyone by making incest a crime when committed between mutually consenting persons over the age of consent'."

In a statement released to media on Thursday night, Hewitt insisted: "The proposal to reduce the age of consent was not mine – it was the policy of the organisation and its executive committee at that time. I do not support reducing the age of consent or legalising incest." Then why did you write the above? She did not respond to requests for comment on Friday.

Hewitt, who now sits on boards at BT and Bupa, is one of three Labour figures who were leading lights in the NCCL in the 1970s at a time when the Paedophile Information Exchange was affiliated to the organisation and some of its members attempted to influence NCCL policy.

Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman was the organisation's legal officer during a later period between 1978 and 1982, while her husband Jack Dromey was on the executive from 1970 to 1979.According to archives held at Hull University, in December 1975 Keith Hose, chairman of PIE, wrote to Patricia Hewitt, then general secretary of NCCL and later a Labour health secretary, asking her to consider PIE's views in its policy on ages of consent. The letter was on PIE notepaper which features a logo of two bare-legged children sitting on a rock. Hewitt wrote back saying: "We have found your evidence ... most helpful".

Earlier on Friday, Dromey, insisted he did not give his approval to the NCCL's call for the age of consent to be reduced to as low as 10, after the Sun reported that he had attended an executive committee in January 1976 where the change was discussed.

Dromey said he did not give his agreement to the proposal at the committee meeting a month earlier, and was "a resolute opponent" of the PIE when he became chairman a few weeks later.

"I did not agree with the proposal in February 1976 to lower the age of consent," he said. "When elected chairman of NCCL weeks later, I made it clear that my first priority would be to take on the child sex abusers of PIE. I then defeated them by a massive majority at the annual conference in April."

Aides to Harman meanwhile said that she stood behind her decision not to apologise for the NCCL's relationship to PIE after Patricia Hewitt's apology. The aide said Harman fully backs Hewitt's apology for being "naive and wrong" about PIE and was in touch with her before the statement was made. Harman is also still furious with the Daily Mail for labelling her an apologist for paedophiles and continues to believe herself to be the subject of a political smear. A Labour source said they believed Hewitt was right to apologise but Harman has no reason to do so.

Girls 'Drugged and Raped' at NSW State-run Homes

Girls as young as 10 were raped and drugged at a state-run home in New South Wales, Australia, the child sexual abuse royal commission has been told. See second post below for more info.

The allegation was detailed on the first day of a public hearing into abuse at two girls' homes.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is looking into abuse allegations from between 1950 and 1974 at the Parramatta Girls Training School in Sydney and the Hay Institution for Girls in the Riverina region.

Hay Institution

 In her opening address, counsel assisting the commission Caroline Spruce said the evidence would show some girls were drugged before being sexually abused by officers at the homes, while groups of girls raped other residents.

"Some girls were sexually abused in the shower room and others in the offices of the superintendant or deputy superintendant of the institutions," she said.

"The evidence will also disclose that some girls were forced to take a drug, Largactil.

"I understand [the drug] is ordinarily used to treat severe depression and behavioural disturbances.

"There will also be evidence that on occasions this drug was used to subdue girls prior to sexually abusing them.

"There will also ... be evidence that girls were sexually abused by older girls."

Paramatta Girls Training School

In 1958, when aged 16, Fay Hillery was sent to the Parramatta school.

She told the commission an officer there, Superintendant Donald Crawford, began beating and raping her about a week after she arrived.

"At no time was I ever submissive," Ms Hillery said.

"I fought, I screamed, I bit, I kicked, I punched. I went to the toilet - anything to stop him from abusing me.

"This would make Crawford so much angrier. He wanted to dominate. I think he wanted to beat me into submission."

Ms Hillery says she spent eight of her 10 months at Parramatta in isolation.

She says she was too ashamed to tell anyone about the abuse and never sought compensation.

A second witness, known as OA, was sent to the Parramatta school in the 1950s because she was deemed to be in moral danger, but she told the commission it was at the school that she was exposed to moral danger.

She says she lived in fear of the officers in charge, at least two of whom raped her while she was living at the home.

"You are in constant terror there. (They are) supposed to teach you and to protect you," she said.

OA says she had a miscarriage after being raped.

Another former resident says girls were gang raped and abused by other girls living at the facility.

Wendy Kitson, who was sent to the home in 1962 aged 15, has told the commission she was also abused twice by older girls at the home.

"I saw them attack another girl on another occasion. I made it my business not to be alone with them," she said.

"I didn't want to be in a vulnerable position. I tried to sit around officers or other girls I trusted so they couldn't get at me."

Wendy Patton, who was sent to the home in 1958 aged 13, is calling for time limits on compensation claims to be lifted for abuse survivors.

Survivors and victims' groups say it often takes many years for a person to be able to speak out about their experiences, by which time the statute of limitations has passed.

Ms Patton was awarded $37,500 in compensation for the abuse she received at Parramatta. She was one of the few women who was sent to the home who made and was awarded such a claim.

"I believe the statute of limitations should be removed for people wanting to report child sexual abuse," Ms Patton said.

"That's my main motivation for telling my story to the royal commission. I want children to have a voice and to be heard and believed."

Former residents have not been compensated for the abuse as many did not make formal complaints at the time.

Both homes were closed in 1974 after widespread protests against the horrific conditions endured by the residents.

Man Indicted for Child Sex Abuse of 6 Year Old in Mt. View Church

ANCHORAGE - ALASKA
A man charged with sexually abusing a 6-year-old girl in a Mountain View church bathroom last month has been indicted on one count of sexual abuse of a minor.

David Chiklak

David Chiklak, 29, was detained in the church parking lot by members of the congregation after police say he brought the girl into the men’s bathroom. Police say a woman in the women’s bathroom heard the girl crying and discovered Chiklak standing over the victim with his belt unbuckled.

Chiklak has arrested at the church and has remained in custody since his arrest, a statement from the District Attorney’s office declared.

The girl was interviewed by investigators and confirmed the sexual abuse, according to charging documents.

If convicted, Chiklak faces a sentence of 25 to 35 years in prison and a fine of up to $500,000.

Chilkak's criminal history includes convictions for assault and criminal trespass, as well as a 2006 conviction in Bethel for sexual abuse of a minor that was amended to misdemeanor harassment after he pleaded no contest.

I don't understand this. The charge was amended from sexual abuse of a minor to misdemeanor harassment after he plead no contest. Why? It makes little sense to me. Please be in prayer for this little girl who was victimized.

Anchorage Police urge anyone with information on this or other child sex assault cases to contact Detective Christopher Thomas at 907-786-2628.

Superintendent and Deputy of Girls Home Raped Girls Weekly

Mary Hooker is furious the system that enabled child molesters to prey on her and her fellow wards of the state is still broken, leaving children at great risk of sexual abuse.

She became a Department of Community Safety worker in her later life, hoping to save youngsters from the horrors she endured as a 13-year-old at a Parramatta girl's home in Sydney, AU, in 1972.

But she had to quit, frustrated by a lack of change in a system meant to help vulnerable children. "It was too real for me," she said, visibly angry and upset. "I could not stop the abuse. That's too raw for me."

On Thursday the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse heard Ms Hooker and other girls at the Parramatta home were rounded-up during Saturday night's weekly film screening and taken to `the dungeon'.

There, Superintendent Gordon Henry Gilford and Deputy Superintendent Denis Jerome Monaghan "started raping us," the 56-year-old told the commission.

"If we did not let them rape us, they would bash us."

Another Superintendent, Noel Greenaway also abused girls, Ms Hooker said. Only Greenaway is still alive.

After being raped, the girls were marched to the showers by a female officer, forced to give themselves abortions and then secreted away in isolation for 72 hours.

Obviously, some female officers were aiding the male rapists to continue their dreadful abuse.

A longer stay would require the home to notify the department.

They would be returned to the home when "we had no bruises or the bruise had started to fade," Ms Hooker said.

Parramatta Girls Training School, NSW

Ms Hooker came to be at the Parramatta Girls Training School after a rough childhood in a small NSW town with negligent parents who spent all their money on booze.

She and her 12 siblings were taken from their parents in 1970 when her father was charged for raping two of his daughters.

The children, eight girls and four boys, were told they were going on a two-week holiday and taken from their Taree home.

But they ended up in Sydney and after a month and a half were dispersed throughout various foster and state-run homes, where Ms Hooker said the physical and sexual abuse started.

Ms Hooker was also told she should pass herself off as Indian and hide her Aboriginal identity.

After years of running from rapes and beatings at various homes Ms Hooker in November 1972 was allowed to live at the Parramatta girl's home, where two of her sisters were staying.

The commission also took evidence from Janet Mulquiney on Thursday.

When she was beaten and sexually abused by her guardians at the same Parramatta girls home she kept quiet, dreading she would be sent to an even harsher institution at Hay.

"All you got to do all day was scrub the asphalt quadrangle with bricks until there was nothing left of the brick. Then you got another brick and did it all over again," she said.

"Girls came back from there very bruised and beaten and swollen. It took them a long time to be able to adjust and actually look at us when they were speaking."

Both Ms Mulquiney and Ms Hooker spoke of the troubles they've had throughout their lives, including several suicide attempts.

They were applauded loudly after sharing their harrowing stories.

Please pray for Ms Mulquiney and Ms Hooker, and that more women would come forward. And please pray my 3:15 PM prayer every day.

"Lost Girls" Groomed and Prostituted by 22 Year Old Madam

Sheffield, UK: Girls as young as twelve were plied with drugs and alcohol before being sold as prostitutes by a woman who pretended they were her sisters, a court heard.

Amanda Spencer, 22, allegedly befriended nine vulnerable victims - many of whom were in care or reported missing - on the streets of Sheffield.

She then gave the girls drugs and alcohol before introducing them to men who 'in various ways exploited them sexually', Sheffield Crown Court was told.

She would allegedly tell the men the girls were much older than they were and that they were her sisters, jurors heard.

Spencer of Rotherham, South Yorkshire, denies 38 offences relating to the prostitution of eight children.

Ahmed

She is jointly charged with Kareem Ahmed, 30, from Manor, Sheffield, of trafficking a ninth victim within the UK for sexual exploitation.

John MacLachlan, 66, of Sheffield and Lee Unwin, 27, of  Nethergreen, Sheffield deny paying for the sexual services of a child.

Bashdar Hamadamin, 27, of Burngreave, Sheffield denies rape.

A fifth man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, denies three offences of sexual assault.

The court heard how Spencer would hang around Sheffield city centre in an attempt to befriend vulnerable girls.

Prosecutor Michelle Colborn QC, said: 'All were lacking in self-esteem and the wherewithal and sense to protect themselves from being exploited.

Amanda Spencer

'She made them feel loved and gave them a shoulder to cry on,'

Miss Colborn alleged Spencer, who moved to the city in 2006 when she was 15, lured the girls into a 'degrading and abusive' life.

 She continued: 'She was a friend who purported to understand whatever situations they were experiencing in their lives and helped lure them into a life of abuse.

'She called them her sisters or cousins when she was asked by people in authority.

'All the children knew they were being sold for cash and their drug and alcohol addictions became so entrenched they were unable to extricate themselves.

'Amanda Spencer told them to dress provocatively and lie about their age and close their minds to sexual exploitation and concentrate on the drugs.'

If any of the girls stood up to Spencer, they were greeted with violence, Miss Colborn said.

One 16-year-old girl told police she had first met Spencer at Castle Market when she was ten in late 2005. They chatted - and Spencer took her to a project for homeless youngsters.

'The girl thought Amanda Spencer was her friend and she thought she would protect her,' said Miss Colborn. 'She gave her alcohol and weed and was treated very well for a couple of months.

'However, Spencer changed character from supportive to threatening which is a feature of her personality.'

When the girl was older, she was plied with Mad Dog - a slang term for MDMA - and vodka at the house of an older man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, and he groped her. The man gave Spencer £30 when they left.

Spencer introduced three other girls to the older man. He allegedly sexually assaulted them at his home while she was there.

The girl was also taken by Spencer to Sheffield's red light area and told to stand by the side of the road and wait to be picked up by men.

She later started getting into men's cars and the victim said of one occasion: 'This was the day that Amanda Spencer got me to do anything with anybody.' Spencer would threaten to 'bang her' if she refused, she claimed.

Miss Colborn went on: 'In due course Amanda Spencer became more aggressive and controlling, she would shout at her and dictate her life, what to do and what to wear.

'She would apply make-up to make her look older and alcohol and cannabis were her daily diet.'

Spencer allegedly took the girl to men's houses for sex and told her to say she was 18 or 19. 'All the time this was happening she wanted to get home to her mother,' said Miss Colborn.

One girl who met Spencer when she was 15 was forced to have sex with half a dozen men one after the other, it was alleged.

Spencer told the girl they would get between £200 and £300 for this. 'She told her they would be able to buy more drugs if they had the money,' said Miss Colborn.

They went to a shared house for Kurdish asylum seekers none of whom could speak English and Spencer told her to sleep with the men.

Amanda Spencer

'She was forced to have sex with them one after another,' said Miss Colborn.

'When it came to the last man she said it was hurting her and she was punched across the face and relented.'

The girl later said: 'That were it. I did them all in one go. I were telling her "no" then she would punch me.'

 Miss Colborn said about Spencer: 'She never seemed to have sex herself, telling the girl the men preferred her.'

Another victim who was 13 at the time voluntarily became involved in prostitution when Spencer told her she was making a lot of money having sex with men.

The girl was taken to a house with five Asian men. She was a virgin and agreed to have sex for £80 with a man in his 30s. 'She told them she was 13 and this seemed to make them happy,' said Miss Colborn.

Spencer then found partners for her on a regular basis. 'The men knew she was under age and accordingly paid large amounts of money to have sex with her.'

One girl was told by Spencer to have sex with Lee Unwin, 26, at his home after they met in Sheffield city centre.

Another of the girls allegedly twice had sex with John McLachlan, 55, in Sheffield's Castle Market. It is claimed he paid Spencer on each occasion.

All the offences are alleged to have happened in the Sheffield area between 2006 and 2011. Spencer was quizzed over child abduction in October 2010 and finally arrested in May 2012.

The case continues.

Martial Arts Instructor in Maryland Charged with Child Sex Abuse

ANNAPOLIS, Md. —A 26-year-old martial arts instructor is facing sex charges after an alleged sexual relationship with a 14-year-old female student.

Edgewater is a town of about 10,000 souls southwest of Annapolis, on the south shore of South River.

Jason Alexander Webb

Police and the Department of Social Services said they received a report of sexual child abuse in October 2013 in which it was alleged that Jason Webb, a martial arts instructor at East Coast Martial Arts in Edgewater, was having sexual relations with a girl he met during martial arts classes.

During the course of the investigation, police said they learned Webb began the relationship with the victim in July 2013 and it continued over a period of several months.

Police said after an interview with Webb, they learned he had inappropriate sexual contact with the girl on several occasions at his home in Annapolis.

The case was presented to the Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney's Office, which asked the Anne Arundel County Police Department to charge Webb.

An arrest warrant was issued charging Webb with child abuse, sex abuse of a minor, third- and fourth-degree sex offenses and second-degree assault.

Webb turned himself in on Feb. 20.

Anyone with any additional information on Webb or who may have been a victim is asked to contact the Criminal Investigation Division at 410-222-3566.

Child Porn Investigation Leaked, Minister Fired, German Government in Disarray

It was a difficult start to Chancellor Angela Merkel's third term. Coalition negotiations with the Social Democrats (SPD) following last fall's election proved challenging, with several weeks going by before Merkel's conservatives were finally able to come to terms with their center-left partners. And then the chancellor cracked her pelvis on a ski trip over New Year's.

Still, as 2014 began, the chancellor -- and the country at large -- was optimistic that the business of actually running the country could finally take center stage. Reimagining German foreign policy, introducing dual citizenship, fixing the problems with the country's turn toward renewable energies: There is plenty to do.
Now, though, the back burner is suddenly full. Over the weekend, Merkel was forced into an unwanted cabinet shuffle and her government is quickly sinking into a morass of mistrust, suspicion and backbiting. An investigation into recently resigned SPD parliamentarian Sebastian Edathy on suspicions that he possesses child pornography has reached the highest levels in Berlin -- and it is driving a wedge between Merkel's coalition partners.

Chancellor Angela Merkel

On Tuesday evening, leaders from Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, the Christian Social Union (the Bavarian sister party to the CDU) and the SPD are to gather in Berlin in an effort to pick up the pieces. It won't be easy. Prosecutors in Berlin announced on Tuesday that they were opening a preliminary investigation into the minister who resigned, Hans-Peter Friedrich of the CSU, for revealing confidential information regarding the Edathy investigation while he was interior minister last year. The man who made his indiscretion public, Thomas Oppermann, is the SPD's floor leader in parliament. Accusations of duplicity are flying.

The trigger for the meltdown, Edathy, 44, was seen as one of the SPD's rising stars. The son of an Indian father and a German mother, Edathy was a renowned workhorse, often turning down social engagements so that he could put in a few more hours in the office. He made a name for himself recently with his competent chairmanship of the parliamentary inquiry into the NSU neo-Nazi terror cell. Indeed, this fall he was expecting to land a state secretary position or even a cabinet posting.

The call never came. Several years ago, in the course of a child-pornography investigation, Romanian police came across the name of Azov Films, a company based in Toronto that had apparently been purchasing videos from a supplier in Romania. In 2011, Canadian authorities raided the company and the ensuing investigation, known as Operation Spade, ultimately turned up 45 terabytes of data including information on Azov Films customer base. Among the names of those who had ordered from the company was one Sebastian Edathy from Germany.

Sebastian Edathy

German authorities at the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) were informed late last summer, including detailed information regarding what Edathy had apparently ordered from the company. The SPD politician is alleged to have bought a total of 31 photo sets and videos. The products allegedly show mostly naked boys aged nine to 14, but no sexual activities. The BKA initially determined that the material was not prosecutable.

Still, investigators know from experience that consumers of the kind of films purchased by Edathy often have more explicit material in their possession. As such, his file was forwarded on to the public prosecutors' office in his home city of Hannover.

The timing, from Merkel's perspective, could not have been worse. Just as Edathy's file was making its way to Hannover, she was in the early stages of coalition negotiations with the SPD. It was a concern for Friedrich as well. In Merkel's last government, he was the interior minister and had been informed by the BKA after last September's general election of the Edathy investigation. He realized that if word of the investigation were to get out, the SPD would suspect Merkel's conservatives of planting the story to gain a leg up in the talks. To preclude such questions, he took aside SPD head Sigmar Gabriel during an early round of talks on Oct. 4 and told him that his party's rising star could be in trouble.

The move was not good for Edathy's career. It was the reason that the SPD leadership never turned to him with a senior position in the new government. As it turns out, though, the step proved just as damaging to Friedrich's own career. Passing along details of an ongoing investigation is a no-no. And on Friday, he was forced out of Merkel's new cabinet as a result, paving the way for Christian Schmidt, also of the CSU, to take over the agricultural portfolio.

Friedrich's slip-up came to light last week in a statement released by Oppermann, in which the SPD floor leader wrote that Gabriel informed him and Frank-Walter Steinmeier, foreign minister in Merkel's new government, of the problems facing Edathy. Though Oppermann has since claimed that he cleared the statement with Friedrich before releasing it, Friedrich has denied elements of the statement. He has, however, confirmed that he informed Gabriel. On Tuesday morning, he told German public broadcaster ZDF that "it was my duty to do so. I can't understand how anyone could see it differently."

It is difficult to overstate the degree to which the incident has weakened Merkel's coalition. Many conservatives believe that Oppermann knew that his statement could cost Friedrich his job. The SPD floor leader also called the BKA to confirm the investigation into Edathy, thus giving the impression that he was meddling with the judiciary and opening him up to accusations that he sacrificed Friedrich so as to deflect attention from himself. Trust between the two coalition partners, in short, has evaporated completely.

Meanwhile, the SPD has a problem all of its own. The party has distanced itself from Edathy, even taking initial steps to throw him out of the party. "Irrespective," Gabriel emphasized in a statement on Tuesday, of whether the material in Edathy's possession was illegal under Germany's child pornography laws, the party is "horrified and stunned by these actions and by the behavior of Sebastian Edathy."

And yet, many suspect that Edathy knew that investigators were on his heels well before they finally raided his home and office on Feb. 10. SPIEGEL this week reported that Edathy's lawyer had been calling around in the weeks prior to the raid in an effort to determine the status of the investigation. On Monday, Lower Saxony's former interior minister, Heiner Bartling, said in an interview that Edathy himself had told him that an informant had tipped him off. Who the informant was remains a central question in the ongoing affair. Nobody has yet explicitly blamed anyone within the SPD for being the leak, but the fact that it can't be ruled out is not helping matters.

Edathy himself denied having knowledge of the investigation in an interview with SPIEGEL. But when investigators arrived in his apartment, they found plastic splinters that experts believe to be the remains of a destroyed hard drive. Edathy says the remains come from a hard drive he destroyed containing confidential documents relating to the NSU investigation. Yet authorities also found confidential papers in his possession, leading them to doubt his claim. They also believe that Edathy destroyed the hard drive shortly before their arrival. In addition, Edathy last week registered his work computer, issued to him by German parliament, as having been stolen. How remarkably convenient. 

Still, despite the standstill to which the Edathy affair has brought Merkel's government, there are at least some politicians this week who are focused on legislation. Several have demanded that the sale of images of naked children -- of the type Edathy is thought to have purchased -- be banned. "The Edathy case clearly shows that there is a legal loophole," Johannes-Wilhelm Rörig, the German government's commissioner for child abuse issues, told the daily Die Welt this week. It is, he added, a loophole that needed to be closed. "When images of children are created to satisfy the sexual interests of adults, this must be made punishable by law." Amen!

Tiny Labrador Town Terrorized by Child Sex Abuser for Decades

For years — even decades — girls and women in Mary's Harbour say they've hidden from a man who threatened them to keep quiet. Now they are breaking their silence.

Ralph Rumbolt, 52, is a registered sex offender in Mary’s Harbour, Labrador, Canada. In 2009, he was convicted of two sexual assault charges against a local teenager. He was sentenced to a year’s probation, community service, and was placed on the sex offenders registry for 10 years.

Today, Rumbolt faces another 28 charges against five more girls. Most of the charges are sex-related. Others are for uttering threats. The alleged victims were all under the age of 16.

Rumbolt continues to live in Mary’s Harbour — a town of fewer than 400 people, the location of those alleged crimes, and where some of those pressing charges continue to live.

"It's terrifying,” one of his alleged victims, Casey, told CBC News. “I still have nightmares sometimes about it."

There is a publication ban in place on her case, and the others. CBC News has changed the names of all alleged victims and potential witnesses.

Casey says Rumbolt assaulted her multiple times, about a decade ago, when she was between five and seven years old.

She told her parents several years ago, but they didn’t go to police, because she told them she was afraid to have it revealed publicly.

“I was just like, scared that he might hurt me, or even my mom or dad,” she said. “I just didn't want anything to happen to anybody.”

Now, she’s pressing seven charges against Rumbolt. After hearing about another little girl, Sabrina, Casey says she had to report the abuse.

Sabrina is younger than 10. In January, she told her parents that Rumbolt had been sexually assaulting and threatening her over the past few years.

Unlike some parents, hers didn’t ignore the allegations: they called police.

After that, Casey and three other victims decided to come forward.

“I had no choice, like, I didn’t want to see anybody else get hurt,” Casey says about going to police now. “I didn’t want to see him get away with it.”

The alleged crimes date back to 1981. In more than 30 years, only one girl ever raised allegations against Rumbolt before now.

Some in the community believe what happened after that teenage girl came forward may help explain why others have stayed quiet too.

​Rumbolt attacked another girl, Jessica, in her bedroom in 2007.

Mary's Harbour Labrador sign

Mary's Harbour is a town of fewer than 400 residents on the southeast coast of Labrador.

That was “my last straw,” she says. For years, he leered at her, made crude comments, and grabbed at her body, she says. Then he began getting more brazen and assaulting her. She says she would hide when she heard him approaching on a snowmobile.

One night, however, he entered her bedroom while she was sleeping and sexually assaulted her.

Rumbolt pleaded guilty to that crime and another sexual assault against her. He was convicted of both.

Despite the convictions, many in the community turned against Jessica for speaking out.

"My whole family, they stopped talking to me. They wanted nothing to do with me — they blamed me,” Jessica told CBC News.
You might expect this in some Islamic countries, but in Canada?

“And I always said to mom, I said, ‘I don't understand why they're blaming me. He pleaded guilty.’ … Everybody knew, but everybody still kept it a secret. Hush, hush kind of thing."

“That was shameful,” said Audrey, a Mary’s Harbour resident, of the way people treated Jessica.

“It wasn’t her fault and yet she got the blame for everything. And he went off … and that was it, laughing, joking, carrying on, as if nothing ever happened.”

Audrey is among those who now believe that shaming victims like Jessica, and remaining silent, has hurt girls in the town.

Ralph Rumbolt 

"In a way, we're all guilty, because we kept our mouths shut,” Audrey says.

She is personally connected to a number of alleged victims. She had heard allegations against Rumbolt for many years, but did nothing.

“It's cruel, isn't it? In a sense, it's cruel."

Where are the men in Mary's Harbour? Why aren't they standing up for the little girls. It just about makes me sick that they allowed this to continue for so long and did nothing about it. How pathetic!

Audrey says it’s time to take the community back.

“Now is the time. Enough is enough. We’re not sacrificing our little girls for anybody else.”

Rumbolt declined comment when contacted last week by CBC News. He is scheduled to appear in provincial court in late April.

Until then, Rumbolt has signed an undertaking to keep the peace, not be alone in the presence of anyone under the age of 16, and live at his Mary’s Harbour residence. Good grief - no thought of his victims whatsoever. Whoever made that decision needs to be slapped upside the head.

Please pray for courage and for the safety of the victims. Pray that Rumbolt is removed from that town as soon as possible. And pray for the women and children to get help from man and God to recover and heal from the abuse and from the attitude that allowed it to continue for decades.

Piano Teacher Facing Charges of Child Sexual Abuse

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Police say a 65-year-old piano teacher is facing charges of sexual interference and sexual assault.

Yung Ping David Chen taught private piano lessons in his basement for over 30 years.

Police say allegations of sexual assault were brought to their attention and they are concerned other students may have been victimized.

“We’ve done an extensive search of his records in trying to identify who his students were,” says Cst. Brian Montague. “We’ve tried talking to all of them, we don’t think we’ve been able to do that yet.”

Chen was arrested on December 18, 2013 and later released from custody with conditions, including no contact with anyone under 18.

It appears Chen has violated the conditions of his release, twice. Yet the Police will not arrest him but rather charged him with additional charges.

“We’ve identified several girls and young women that we believe are additional victims,” says Montague. “All of the victims have a various age range. They’re from the ages of 12 to 22… potentially there could be victims out there that are now in their 40s.”

Anyone with information is asked to call the Vancouver Police tip line at (604) 717-0602 or Crime Stoppers.

Australia's Royal Commission on Sex Abuse Investigates State-Run Homes for Girls

Australia's Royal Commission moves to Adelaide to investigate two girls homes operated by the government of New South Wales, Australia. It appears they will hear some pretty awful stories.

The child sex abuse royal commission will today hear the stories of women who were abused at two state-run institutions for girls in New South Wales.

The commission will hear evidence of abuse from 16 women who were sent as children to live at Parramatta Girls Training School in Sydney and Hay Institution for Girls, in the Riverina region, between 1950 and 1974.

Former residents have not been compensated for the abuse they endured as many did not make formal complaints at the time.

For its seventh public hearing, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will also look into the statute of limitations for such claims.

Commission chief executive Janette Dines describes the women's stories of rape and physical abuse at the homes as shocking.

"What we know and the commission will likely hear evidence about is that there was severe physical abuse that accompanied sexual abuse, that the conditions in the homes themselves were very poor, that there was emotional abuse, and often there was the use of pharmaceuticals to control the girls' behaviour," she said.

Former residents of Parramatta Girls training School have not been
compensated for sexual abuse because they didn't report it in time

The home at Parramatta opened in 1887, while the Hay facility opened in 1961 as a place to send Parramatta residents for extra discipline or punishment. Both closed in 1974.

Former residents say it will be a relief to give evidence and speak out about physical abuse and rape that allegedly occurred at the homes.

Sharyn Kennedy, who spent time at both institutions, says the lives of many former residents were ruined as they turned to drug addiction, prostitution or suicide, but for others it is now time to speak out.

"The reason why these stories haven't been heard before is because we were girls that went through a situation of shame - absolute shame," she said.

"I became an entertainer, a singer, and there was no way ever that I was ever going to come out of the woodwork and tell people my story. Never."

Up to half of the girls sent to the Parramatta and Hay homes were Indigenous, and Ms Dines says this case is the first chance for a significant number of Aboriginal women to tell their stories.

"Around rape, around gang rape for example, and extreme physical abuse accompanying the sexual abuse," she said.

Ms Kennedy was not sexually abused during her time at either facility but says she was physically abused.

She heard stories of sexual abuse allegedly carried out by male officers at Parramatta, including of girls who were taken to other sections of the institution and "shared around" the officers and their friends.

"Considering it was all run by the department of child welfare, I don't know where the best interests of the child were in those circumstances," Ms Kennedy said.

"I really just don't know how people got away with that sort of thing - and they did."

Since it began in September last year, the commission has held public hearings into the responses to shocking allegations of sexual abuse by a range of respected institutions across Australia, from the Catholic Church to the Salvation Army, Scouts Australia and the YMCA.

Sex Education Comes to Pakistan???!!!

Johi: In neat rows, the Pakistani girls in white headscarves listened carefully as the teacher described the changes in their bodies. When the teacher asked what they should do if a stranger touched them, the class erupted.

“Scream!” one called out.
“Bite!” another suggested.
“Scratch really hard with your nails!” a third said.

Teachers display a card with an illustration depicting a girl going
through a medical checkup by a doctor, as they describe
preventive measures to avoid when sexual harassment occurs,
during a class in Shadabad Girls Elementary School in Pir Mashaikh
village in Johi, some 325 km from Karachi February 12, 2014.

Sex education is common in Western schools but these ground-breaking lessons are taking place in deeply conservative rural Pakistan, a Muslim nation of 180 million people.

Publicly talking about sex in Pakistan is taboo and can even be a death sentence. Parents have slit their daughters’ throats or doused them in acid for crimes as innocuous as dancing at a wedding or looking out the window.

Almost nowhere in Pakistan offers any kind of organised sex education. In some places it has been banned.

But teachers operating in the village of Johi in poverty-stricken Sindh province say most families there support their sex education project.

Around 700 girls are enrolled in eight local schools run by the Village Shadabad Organisation. Their sex education lessons - starting at age eight - cover changes in their bodies, what their rights are and how to protect themselves.

“We cannot close our eyes,” said Akbar Lashari, head of the organisation. “It’s a topic people don’t want to talk about but it’s fact of our life.” Lashari said most of the girls in the villages used to hit puberty without realising they will begin to menstruate or they got married without understanding the mechanics of sex.

The lessons even teach the girls about marital rape - a revolutionary idea in Pakistan, where forcing a spouse to have sex is not a crime.

“We tell them their husband can’t have sex with them if they are not willing,” Lashari said.

I think these are fighting words in Pakistan. I'm surprised that the Taliban has allowed this to happen when even moderates (read men) are upset about it. Please pray for the safety of these teachers, their students, and others who would try to bring basic sex education to Pakistan.

The lessons are an addition to regular classes and parents are told before they enrol their daughters. None has objected and the school has faced no opposition, Lashari said.

The eight schools received sponsorship from BHP Billiton, an Australian company that operates a nearby gas plant, but Lashari says sex education was the villagers’ own idea.

Teacher Sarah Baloch said she hoped to help girls understand what growing up meant.

Baloch teaches at a tiny school of three brick classrooms. A fourth class is held outside because there are so many girls.

Three girls cram into each seat made for two, listening attentively to Baloch. One flashcard shows a girl stopping an old man from touching her leg. Other cards encourage girls to tell their parents or friends if someone is stalking them.

The girls are shy but the lessons have sunk in.

The lessons also cover marriage.

“Our teacher has told us everything that we’ll have to do when we get married. Now we’ve learned what we should do and what not,” said Sajida Baloch, 16, staring at the ground.

Some of Pakistan’s most prominent schools, including the prestigious Beaconhouse School System, have been considering the type of sex education practised in Johi.

“Girls feel shy to talk to their parents about sex,” said Roohi Haq, director of studies at Beaconhouse.
There is definitely demand. Lahore-based Arshad Javed has written three books on sex education and said he sells about 7,000 per year. None are sold to schools.

But not everyone agrees with the lessons, partly because young people were not supposed to have sex before adulthood.

Recently the government forced the elite Lahore Grammar School to remove all sex education from its curriculum.

“It is against our constitution and religion,” said Mirza Kashif Ali, president of the All Pakistan Private Schools Federation, which says it represents more than 152,000 institutions across the country.

“What’s the point of knowing about a thing you’re not supposed to do? It should not be allowed at school level.”

Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, the education minister for Sindh province, was shocked to hear of the lessons.
“Sex education for girls? How can they do that? That is not part of our curriculum, whether public or private,” he said.

But Tahir Ashrafi, who heads an alliance of moderate clerics called the Pakistan Ulema Council, said such lessons were permissible under Islamic law as long as they were segregated and confined to theory.
“If the teachers are female, they can give such information to girls in the limits of Sharia,” he said.

Catholic Church in Alberta, N.W.T. Apologizes for Role in Nightmarish Residential Schools

“It was the worst years of my life; I guess you could say it destroyed me.”

That’s how Jerry Wood, a man who spent eleven years as one of 150,000 aboriginal children pulled from his home, and placed in residential schools, looks at his time in the residential school system.

“I was trying to drown my experience (I assume, in alcohol) in residential schools from the sexual abuse, the physical abuse, mental abuse, spiritual abuse that I went through,” Wood said.

Residential School

On Monday, Wood, now an elder, was in the room to hear words he had been waiting decades for – when Archbishop Richard Smith of the Archdiocese of Edmonton issued a formal apology for the church’s role in the schools.

“We the Catholic bishops of Alberta and Northwest Territories apologize to those who experienced sexual and physical abuse in residential schools under Catholic Administration,” Smith said.

“That’s what I wanted to hear, to say I’m sorry,” Wood said. “I’m sorry, you know, I thought I’d never hear that word coming from them.”

Residential School students learning to sew

The apology Monday is just the latest of a few issued in recent years – in 2008, Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued an apology, then the next year the Pope acknowledged wrongdoing.

In addition, the apology comes weeks ahead of the final event by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission – a conference to promote healing – set to run from March 27 to 30.

“I think anyone, bishops included, want to do whatever we can to reach out and foster that healing and reconciliation and to learn from what has happened in the past,” Smith said.

Smith also said another apology will be issued at the conference.

Let us pray that there will be much healing and forgiveness at the culmination of the T&R Commission.

Iowa Extends Statute of Limitations on Child Sex Abuse

Sioux City Journal:

DES MOINES, Iowa,  victims of child sexual abuse would have more time as an adult to bring criminal or civil action against adults who preyed upon them when they were minors under a bill passed by the Iowa Senate on Monday.

Senate File 2109, which was approved by a 49-0 margin, would extend the statute of limitation to bring action to 25 years after an abused child has turned 18 years of age. The current limit is 10 years after an abused child turns 18. Some provisions have longer time frame and they too are extended to 25 years under the legislation.

Iowa Senate building
I don't know what's with the pattern above it

“This gives child sex abuse survivors a fair chance at justice,” said Sen. Steve Sodders, D-State Center. He was floor manager of a bill that was amended to extend statute of limitations for criminal offenses of lascivious acts with a child, assault with intent to commit sexual abuse, indecent contact with a child, lascivious conduct with a minor and sexual misconduct with a juvenile from the current three years to 10 years after the victim’s 18th birthday.

Why were these not included in the extension to 25 years? And, 25 years means you have only until you are 43 years old to bring accusations forward. I would have preferred to see at least another 10 years. But, it's better than it was.

“For years persons who suffered sexual abuse, often at the hands of trusted family members and friends, have been denied access to justice,” he said.

Sodders said the bill “cures” an injustice caused by “unfairly” short time lines for victims of sexual abuse while they were a minor to bring criminal or civil action once they reach adulthood.

During subcommittee and committee work, Sodders said, senators heard from experts who indicated it often takes victims until they reach their 40s to understand what happened to them and to come forward. He said historically about 90 percent of child victims never go to authorities and a “vast majority” of claims expire before a victim is capable of speaking about the incident.

Sen. Roby Smith, R-Davenport, said the legislation “will protect children for years to come” in urging his colleagues to vote for the measure.

50 Charges Against Prominent Sports Journalist Involving Child Sex Abuse

A PROMINENT Irish sports journalist is expected to face more than 50 charges early this week arising out of a lengthy garda investigation into claims that he sexually abused a child.

The man is due to appear in Dublin District Court on a range of offences arising from an alleged inappropriate relationship with a young girl.

The charges include alleged sexual assault on a young girl and defilement and exploitation through sending text messages to her.

Dublin District Criminal Courts

The move follows a garda investigation that was launched in March 2011 after the man's daughter found text messages to the girl on a phone she had been given by her father.

The girl was given the phone as she was collecting old mobiles for a charity. It is alleged his daughter found the texts as well as photographs of the young girl, who was a camogie player, while putting a new SIM card into the phone.

Camogie is similar to the men's game of Hurling. In North America it would be closest to Field Hockey.

His daughter showed the texts to other members of her family and they alerted the gardai (police), who took possession of the phone.

Gardai carried out a detailed interview with the girl with whom he was alleged to have been in the inappropriate relationship.

She gave them her account of her relationship with him in the months leading up to the discovery of the texts.

Investigating officers had to delay their interview with the journalist as he was admitted to hospital and placed under psychiatric care.

He was eventually arrested by gardai in September 2012 and taken to Ballymun garda station, on the northside of Dublin, where he was questioned by officers about the allegations and then released without charge.

The arrest was carried out after detectives had been given the go-ahead by medical experts.

Gardai then prepared a detailed file for the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Following a review of the file, the DPP recommended that the large number of charges be brought against the journalist.

In April 2011, shortly after the alleged relationship with the under-age camogie player, St Vincent's GAA football and camogie club, based in Marino on the northside of the capital, issued a statement in which it distanced itself from the sports journalist.

The journalist had been a member of the club and a mentor to an underage team until September 2011 but had not mentored another team since then.

While the garda investigation was under way, a fresh complaint was made against the journalist by a girl from another GAA club.

Neither of the girls involved in the allegations against him was a member of St Vincent's club.

Please pray for the man's family, they must be devastated; and for any other victims of this man to come forward. Please pray that all would get the help they need to fully recover from the shock and abuse.

Deputy Labour Leader Harriet Harman Fights Back

Deputy Labour leader Harriet Harman has accused the Daily Mail of running a "politically-motivated smear campaign" against her.

The newspaper has reported that a group she used to work for had links to paedophile rights campaigners.

The National Council for Civil Liberties forged "close links" in the 1970s and 1980s to the Paedophile Information Exchange, it claimed.

But Ms Harman dismissed the "horrific" and "untrue" claims.

Harriet Harman

"They have accused me of being an apologist for child sex abuse, of supporting a vile paedophile organisation, of having a relaxed attitude to paedophilia and of watering down child pornography laws," she said.

"These are horrific allegations and I strongly deny them all of them.

"The editor and proprietor of the Daily Mail are entitled to their political views and they are of course entitled to oppose what I stand for but they are not entitled to use their newspaper to smear me with innuendo because they disagree with me politically and hate my values.

"I sincerely hope people won't believe these smears... but given the seriousness and the aggression with which the Daily Mail are pursuing me, I feel that I need to put the facts in the public domain."

Labour leader Ed Miliband had earlier said his deputy was "somebody of huge decency and integrity - I don't set any store by these allegations".

From 1978 to 1982 Ms Harman was legal officer at the civil liberties group, which was the predecessor to campaign group Liberty.

The Daily Mail has questioned the politician, her MP husband Jack Dromey, and former health secretary Patricia Hewitt over their actions while officials at the National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL) in the 1970s and 1980s.

Although the body granted "affiliate" status to the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE), Ms Harman said the NCCL was "an organisation which anyone could apply to join and indeed any organisation could apply to be 'an affiliate' on payment of a fee".

Jack Dromey

There is no evidence to suggest that Ms Harman, Mr Dromey or Ms Hewitt personally supported the views of PIE.

A statement released by Mr Dromey said: "Sexual abuse of children is evil and I have always viewed paedophiles and any group associated with them as evil.

"During my time on the NCCL Executive, I was at the forefront of repeated public condemnations of PIE and their despicable views. Then, when I was elected chairman, I took them on.

"I personally chaired the NCCL conference that, on my recommendation, refused to back by a massive majority a loathsome motion from a leading light in PIE calling on NCCL to support the so-called 'rights' of paedophiles. Indeed, my stand was denounced in a leaflet distributed by PIE to the delegates to the Conference.

"Like many organisations in the 1970s, NCCL had been infiltrated but that was the moment the tide was turned. I closed the conference saying that we had to stand up for the rights of children not to be sexually abused and that adults guilty of abuse were the lowest of the low.

"I was then the first to argue that paedophiles could have no place in NCCL.

"As a lifelong opponent of evil men who abuse children, the accusations of the Daily Mail are untrue and beneath contempt."

Ms Hewitt, who stood down as an MP in 2010, has yet to comment on the story.