Businessman in my home town charged with child porn - British Columbia
Queens music teacher arrested on child sex abuse charges - New York
TV weatherman, Fred Talbot, denies molesting 9 boys - Scotland
Latest lawsuit against teacher not pedophile priests - Guam
8 football clubs fail to respond to child sex abuse inquiry - UK
Jurors told to stay off Facebook as CSA trial begins - Ireland
Decision to charge, or not, Cardinal Pell with CSA up to police - Victoria, AU
6 y/o endures grueling CSA testimony on witness stand - Wyoming, USA
Real estate appraiser faces three child porn charges
I hate it when my home town is in the news
Abbotsford News
An Abbotsford, British Columbia real estate appraiser has been charged with three child pornography offences following an investigation that began in March.
Joshua James Kitsul, 33, has been charged with two counts of making child porn available and one count of possession of child porn.
Const. Ian MacDonald said the Abbotsford Police Department’s major crime unit received information in March and April that an internet subscriber in Abbotsford was uploading images of child sexual abuse.
A suspect was identified in connection to the internet account, and investigators executed a search warrant at that person’s residence on April 28.
Investigators seized numerous computers, data storage devices and cellphones. An examination of the material on those items revealed images of child pornography, MacDonald said.
Kistul, who operates Kitsul Realty Advisors Ltd., was arrested on April 29 and has now been charged.
He has been released from custody under court-ordered conditions, including that he not access the internet except for work and that he not be within 200 metres of a school ground, public park, daycare centre, swimming pool, playground or recreation centre where people under the age of 18 are expected to be.
Other conditions include that he:
– not be engaged in any activity that involves contact or communication with people under the age of 18 using a computer system; and
– not be in contact or communicate directly or indirectly with, or be alone in the presence of, any person who reasonably appears to be under 18 unless in the direct presence of an adult aware of the charges.
Anyone with information concerning this investigation is asked to call the Abbotsford Police Department at 604-859-5225 or text 222973(abbypd).
Queens Music Teacher Arrested on
Child Sex Abuse Charges
BY VICTORIA BEKIEMPISNEW YORK DAILY NEWS
A renowned Queens music teacher has been busted on sex-trafficking charges of minors as young as 8-years-old — and even haggled with a pimp who was going to drop off the victims at a Chuck E Cheese, authorities said Tuesday.
Oliver Sohngen, 52, the founder of the Long Island City Academy of Music, faces eight sex trafficking-related counts in Manhattan Federal Court.
The feds allege that Sohngen's victims ranged in age from 8 to 17-years-old. He is accused of having sexual contact with a 15 and 17-year-old girl, and trying to buy sex from 8, 11 and 13-year-old girls, the feds said.
From March to Nov. 2013, Sohngen, who went by the aliases “Helmuth Moss” and "Stephen Weierbach," allegedly swapped texts with a pimp in order to buy sex from minors, authorities said.
"Moreover, on at least two occasions, Sohngen engaged in various forms of sexual contact with fifteen and seventeen-year-old girls," according to the criminal complaint.
The pimp trafficked from his Davidson Avenue apartment in the Bronx, taking "sexually suggestive" photos of several girls, which he then posted on Backpage.com and “offering to sell them for sex acts.”
The criminal complaint contains numerous, disturbing texts alleged to be between Sohngen and the pimp — including price negotiations for sex acts.
On Nov. 7 2013, the pimp offered Sohngen an 11-year-old for $3,000.
"So. That's pretty steep," he allegedly complained. "Haven't won the lottery to my information.”
On Oct. 18 2013, Sohngen allegedly offered $800 for sex acts with an 8-year-old put forward by the pimp. When the pimp said he could give Sohngen the 8-year-old and a 13-year-old for $1,600, the creepy teacher allegedly agreed.
The pimp told Sohngen that they would need to meet at a hotel rather than the apartment. Sohngen agreed, saying "I know a hotel but she needs to dress," the feds claim.
When the pimp said "Dress how," Sohngen replied "Old," the criminal complaint states.
"When your (sic) done. Can you drop them off at chuck e cheese. That (sic) where the family thinks they are going."
The pimp wasn't able to procure these two girls, but offered a 16-year-old instead. Sohngen declined, hoping for younger girls, the feds maintain.
Sonhgen was up to his sick antics again from November 2015 to January 2016 - but communicated with an undercover NYPD cop rather than the 15-year-old he thought he was chatting with, the feds charge.
Sonhgen tried to meet up with her "in order to engage in oral sex and other sexual contact,” officials say.
Contact information for Sohngen's lawyer was not immediately available.
A call to Long Island City Academy of Music, a private music school, as well as calls to phone numbers listed to Sohngen, were not immediately returned.
Queens, NY
TV weatherman Fred Talbot denies child sex abuse charges at Lanark Sheriff Court
The former teacher, 66, is accused of molesting nine schoolboys on camping trips to Dumfriesshire and Inverness
By Graham Mann
Scotland - A CHILD sex abuse case against TV weatherman Fred Talbot is due to get under way at Lanark Sheriff Court today.
The former school teacher – best known for presenting the weather on This Morning from a floating map – is accused of committing indecent offences against nine schoolboys on camping trips to Dumfriesshire and Inverness.
The 66-year-old, born in Edinburgh, denies all the charges against him, including an allegation that he smeared margarine on a 12-year-old boy’s private parts while other lads looked on.
Talbot, who grew up in Altrincham, Greater Manchester, is also accused of sex offences against three 15-year-olds, two lads aged 17, and two aged 16.
It is claimed six of the alleged offences took place on school camping trips in Moffat between January 1 1978 and November 22 1981.
The other charges are said to have happened beside the Caledonian Canal, near Inverness, on dates between February 10 1978 and October 31 1979.
Talbot continues to deny the charges after pleading not guilty at an earlier court appearance before Sheriff Nikola Stewart in January.
Latest Guam sex abuse lawsuit
against teacher, not priest
Haidee V. Eugenio, Pacific Daily News (Guam)
HAGÅTÑA, Guam — The island's Catholic church has been sued again in connection with child sex abuse, this time by a former student of Saint Anthony Catholic School, who alleges he was abused by a teacher in the early 1990s.
Dozens of lawsuits have been filed since late last year, when Guam lifted the statute of limitations on civil cases related to child sexual abuse. The case filed over the weekend in federal court by former student "B.W.J." is the first that does not accuse a priest.
B.W.J., represented by attorney David Lujan, alleged that Saint Anthony Catholic School teacher Ray Caluag sexually abused him in or about December 1993 when he was about 11 years old and a 7th grade student.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court of Guam, demands a minimum of $5 million in damages.
B.W.J.’s lawsuit names the Archdiocese of Agana as among the defendants. That's because, according to the complaint, Saint Anthony Catholic School in Tamuning is under the supervision of the Sisters of Mercy and is operated by the Archdiocese of Agana.
On Monday afternoon, the Archdiocese of Agana issued a statement extending prayers to 32 childhood sexual abuse accusers, including B.W.J. and his family.
“Our prayers for victims of child sexual abuse continues as more persons continue to come forward each week with accounts of being abused by priests and individuals in our Catholic Church,” the archdiocese said in a statement.
The statement also says the archdiocese takes the crime of child abuse very seriously and has taken steps to strengthen the safeguarding of all children entrusted in its care, including implementing mandatory safe environment training of all adults and aligning its sexual abuse prevention policy with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Charter on the Protection of Children and Young People.
“Archbishop Michael Byrnes asks all of our faithful to continue to pray for victims of child abuse and to commit themselves to being vigilant in protecting all children in our Catholic Church on Guam,” the statement adds.
Across the nation, states have been considering expanding or eliminating statutes of limitations on rape and child sex abuse because of high-profile sex-abuse allegations. Guam's new law covers all private institutions, not just the Catholic Church.
Child sex abuse: Eight football clubs fail
to respond to inquiry
From BBC Football
Police have identified more than 250 potential suspects
and 560 victims, with 311 clubs involved
Eight professional clubs have failed to respond to an independent inquiry's request for information they may have relating to historical child sex abuse in football.
The inquiry, led by barrister Clive Sheldon QC, was started by the Football Association in December, after allegations from former players.
Sheldon wrote to every club in England and Wales in January.
The clubs which have missed the deadline could now face sanctions.
The review is asking anyone involved with football who wishes to provide information about the way in which clubs or the FA dealt with concerns over child sex abuse between 1970 and 2005 to come forward.
Sheldon - an expert in safeguarding and child protection - has also written to all 65,000 affiliated clubs seeking assistance, and has begun meeting individuals who can contribute.
As well as clubs, officials who fail to co-operate could face disciplinary action.
BBC Sport has learned that investigators have started searching 5,000 boxes of FA archives - each containing up to 1,000 pages.
A final report is not expected to be published until 2018. - I would be amazed if it comes out before 2020.
Jurors in child sex abuse told not to research on Facebook
Judge in Tralee tells jury they should have blank minds
when coming to hear the case
Anne Lucey
A judge at the Circuit Criminal Court in Tralee has issued a strong warning to a jury that they are not to read about the case on Facebook or elsewhere online.
Judge John Hannan said the ban on internet and other research included himself and other court personnel.
“Don’t go looking up any of us either – when the whole thing is done and dusted, you can do what research you like,” Judge Hannan told the jury of six men and six women before a child sexual abuse case began on Tuesday at Tralee Circuit Criminal Court.
A man in his 40s is facing five charges in total, three of sexual exploitation involving inducing or coercing a child under the age of 18 and two of sexual assault. The complainant, a woman, was 16 at the time of the offences, which were alleged to have take place between November 2013 and March 2014.
The man has pleaded not guilty to each count.
Opening remarks
Judge Hannan said in his opening remarks to the jury, after they had been sworn in, that they were not to carry out their own research into the case and they were to “avoid Facebook” and the internet in connection with the matter.
He wanted them to have blank minds when it came to the case, the judge said.
He had told them they were free to take notes, if they wished, although he would at the end be summing up the case for them. He also told them they were not to discuss the case with anyone.
While the media “are very responsible in this country in relation to reporting” the jury was to ignore any previous media coverage, if there was such coverage, and to avoid listening or reading about the case.
The trial is set to begin on Wednesday.
Call to charge Cardinal Pell rests with police
The Australian, TESSA AKERMAN, JOHN FERGUSON
The decision on whether to charge George Pell with historical sexual-abuse allegations now rests with Victoria Police after the Office of Public Prosecutions yesterday returned the brief of evidence.
A police spokesman confirmed advice from Victoria’s Director of Public Prosecutions John Champion SC concerning the investigation of Cardinal Pell had been received.
The OPP advised police that, based on its assessment of the evidence, they could charge the cardinal, Melbourne’s Herald Sun reported last night. Despite the green light, the advice made it clear that ultimately it was up to the police whether to act. “Detectives from Taskforce Sano will now take time to consider that advice,” police spokesman Charlie Morton said last night. “As with any investigation, it will be a decision for Victoria Police as to whether charges are laid.”
Cardinal Pell has strenuously denied all allegations.
It is understood the latest development took lawyers for the cardinal by surprise.
This was the second time a brief of allegations concerning Cardinal Pell, Australia’s highest-ranking Catholic, had been sent to the OPP.
A brief was referred last year but the OPP sent it back without recommendations.
The Australian understands senior figures in the Catholic Church were unaware the brief had been returned or that any decision about charges would now rest with police.
A spokesman said the cardinal had no comment.
Cardinal Pell met three Victoria Police officers at the Vatican in October for a voluntary interview. The brief compiled by police was sent to the OPP in February for advice.
Allegations relate largely to his tenure as a young priest in the Diocese of Ballarat, where hundreds of children were abused by the clergy.
It has been publicly alleged that Cardinal Pell abused young boys in Ballarat’s Eureka swimming pool in the late 1970s.
Former St Alipius students Lyndon Monument and Damian Dignan claimed Cardinal Pell touched their genitals while playing in the pool.
ABC journalist Louise Milligan published further allegations in her book Cardinal: The Rise and Fall of George Pell published by Melbourne University Press.
Lawyers representing Cardinal Pell this week demanded an apology and retraction from Fairfax Media and The Guardian over articles repeating child sexual-abuse allegations made in the book, described by the cardinal as a “character assassination”.
In a statement on Monday night, a spokesman for the cardinal said: “Each and every allegation of abuse and cover-up against him is false. The book is an exercise in character assassination. The decision by MUP to bring forward the publication of the book ... is a blatant attempt to interfere in the course of justice.
“Unlike MUP, the cardinal will not interfere with the course of justice. He will await the outcome of due process before launching defamation action.”
Neither Fairfax nor The Guardian responded to The Australian before publication.
Ballarat, Victoria, AU
6 y/o takes witness stand against alleged sex abuser
Casper, Wyoming - A young boy took the witness stand for some 40 minutes Tuesday morning to tell his version of events on the night a man allegedly kidnapped and sexually abused him last year.
The boy, who was five years old on the night of July 18, explained to jurors that a man took him across the river and sexually abused him before leaving him by himself near Wyoming Boulevard.
The accused, 34-year-old Joshua Ashby Winters, could face 45 years to life plus 70 years imprisonment if convicted of the three felonies charged against him.
The alleged victim said he and his brother went to the arcade at El Mark-O Lanes that day and played video games.
“He gave us money,” the victim said as he explained how he met Winters. The victim added that while Winters gave the boys money to play games, he did not play with them. The boy said he did not think Winters was friendly.
Winters was bowling, the victim said, but after some time Winters approached the victim’s brother and said his money was missing.
“He said I need help finding my money,” the boy told jurors.
The boys then went home, which was just a few blocks away, to check in with their mother. But the victim’s brother “told me to go to the bowling alley and help him find his money,” the boy said.
The victim went back to the bowling alley and met Winters inside. They then went to the river.
“He said ‘do you want to go swimming?’” the boy said Tuesday. “I said ‘no.’”
Winters had one bag with him, the victim said, and “hid it so nobody could find it” before they went to the river.
“He took me,” the victim told the jury. “He was holding my hand,” the boy said, explaining that Winters took him into the river.
Using one arm, Winters held the boy by his hips as they crossed the river. The victim said he felt scared.
“Because it was so deep and he didn’t even know how to swim,” the boy said. He told the jury he thought he would “drown,” as his mouth became submerged.
When they got to the other side, the boy said he remembered a woman asking whether they were alright. He said Winters told the woman they were fine, and she left.
Afterwards, the boy said Winters went to the bathroom. Then, the boy said, Winters sexually abused him.
The boy said his clothes stayed on, but Winters removed some of his clothing. He said Winters touched him “everywhere.”
“How were your bodies when he [allegedly abused] you?” Assistant District Attorney Brett Johnson asked the boy.
“Scared,” the boy replied. He went on to explain that he laid on his stomach and back.
Then, the boy said, he and Winters walked some distance before Winters dropped the boy off “in the middle of nowhere,” and told the boy to stay put. Then, Winters went looking for his bag.
“Next I got picked up by a lady,” the boy told the jury. He got into her car, and she took him to the Mills Police Department.
“He said don’t talk about this or else I’ll kill your family,” the boy said.
On cross-examination, public defender Robert Oldham asked whether anyone had ‘refreshed his memory,’ inquiring in a roundabout way as to whether the boy’s testimony had been coached.
“Did anybody try to help you remember things?” Oldham asked.
“Yes,” the boy replied, saying people had gone over his testimony with him on Monday.
Oldham asked further whether what the boy told the jury on Tuesday was from his memory of July 18, or from what he had been helped to remember Tuesday.
The boy said he told jurors what he remembered from July 18.
Oldham also asked why the boy returned to the bowling alley by himself to help Winters look for his money.
“Because my brother told me,” the boy replied, adding that he told Winters his brother had taken Winters’ money.
“Why did you tell him that?” Oldham asked.
“I don’t know,” the boy said.
Oldham also asked whether the boy had told anyone he took his clothes off at the river. The boy denied ever telling anyone he had removed his clothes.
“So you never took your clothes off?” Oldham inquired.
“Yes,” the boy answered.
The boy later said Winters only took his shirt off. But when Oldham explained the meaning of the word ‘naked’ to the boy, the boy said Winters had been naked.
Oldham also asked whether any other adults had been in the bowling alley before the boy and Winters left.
“Only the man that kidnapped me,” the boy said. He later explained that there were other adults in the bowling alley.
While the pair were still at the bowling alley, the boy told Oldham, Winters said, “Whoever took my money, I’m going to kill them.”
Oldham asked the boy how he got into the river after leaving the bowling alley with Winters.
“Did the man throw you?” Oldham asked. “I walked down there,” the boy replied, saying he slipped into the river.
“Did the man jump in after you?” Oldham continued, working to supplement Winters’ claim that the boy jumped or fell into the river and Winters dove in after him, holding the boy above water until he could get the boy back up onto the bank.
“He walked down there,” the boy told Oldham, adding that Winters grabbed him and pulled him.
“So he was helping you so you wouldn’t drown?” Oldham asked.
“Yeah,” the boy said.
During a second questioning of the boy, Johnson tried to clarify the manner in which the boy came to be in the river.
“When you’re standing down by the river, what is the man doing?” Johnson asked.
“He was putting his bag somewhere where nobody could find it,” the boy answered. The boy went on to explain, in answering further questions from Johnson, that he slipped and fell into the river, and Winters pulled him out.
Then, the boy said, the pair got into the water again.
“He was holding me,” before they got back into the water, the boy told Johnson.
“The second time you got into the river, did you want to get in the river?” Johnson asked.
“No,” the boy replied. “I didn’t.”
Also called as a state’s witness Tuesday morning was Rosemary Bartle, a licensed professional counselor and forensic interviewer at the Children’s Advocacy Project in Casper. She conducted the roughly 30-minute forensic interview with the victim at 10:45 p.m., after the responding police officer took him to the hospital.
Bartle, who testified to having conducted 300 official interviews with children as of May 1, described the interviews as “flexibly structured, non-leading, age-appropriate, child-led conversation[s].”
After a 15-minute break, Johnson played video of Bartle’s interview with the victim. He told Bartle, “Someone stole me.”
“He said he was going to kill me,” the boy said in the video. “I told him that he was a bully.”
The boy also said Winters, using his hands, had touched him on “his private stuff.”
“Actually he did it with his mouth,” the boy then told Bartle during the interview. “He told me to not tell anybody about it.”
“I told him he was an idiot,” the boy later added.
Bartle, in trying to understand the boy’s description of the alleged abuse, asked, “How was your body?”
“Not good,” the boy replied.
When asked by Johnson, Bartle explained it was typical for a boy that age to be unable to recall concrete detail.
In his cross-examination, Oldham asked whether Bartle had an “agenda” in conducting such interviews.
“No, my job is to conduct a non-leading interview,” Bartle replied. Oldham asked whether Bartle would have been able to tell if someone ‘put ideas in the victim’s head’ before the interview, based on the boy’s responses.
“I don’t challenge, I just ask,” Bartle replied.
“So a five-year-old makes accusations against someone and no one ever challenges it?” Oldham inquired. Bartle explained that her job is, “to create an opportunity for the child to share his experience.”
“So in other words if facts are remotely believable, they aren’t questioned?” Oldham asked again. Bartle replied that her job is to collect information only; she has no knowledge of the process for handling that information after she completes an interview.
Before breaking for lunch, Johnson recalled Casper Police Officer Levi Hallock to the witness stand. Hallock testified Monday, and Oldham raised questions about the fact that Hallock had not recorded his initial contact with the boy.
Johnson submitted as evidence several photographs Hallock took upon encountering the boy at the Mills Police Department on July 18. One of those photos reportedly shows partial swelling on the left side of the boy’s face.
Johnson also asked Hallock about what the boy said during their conversation.
“The male subject had touched him all over and put his mouth on his privates,” Hallock told Johnson. “[The alleged victim] informed me the man told him if he screamed or told anybody what had happened, he would kill him.”
Then, Hallock said he stopped speaking with the boy so a forensic interview could be completed. He said he had been taught to end such conversations after any disclosure of sexual abuse.
The trial continues Monday afternoon, and is set to run through Thursday. Oldham said Monday that Winters will take the witness stand at some point to tell his side of the story.
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