Is live-streaming kiddie porn child sex abuse - Canada
Pope defrocks pedophile priest again - Italy
Salvation Army officer jailed for historic CSA - Australia
Rochdale MP was called 'racist' for bringing up CSA - UK
Some Telcos not cooperating with police on child porn - Philippines
59 y/o child rapist may get NZ's toughest sentence ever - New Zealand
Cardinal Pell 'strenuously' denies child sex abuse - Vatican
Is live-streaming child sex abuse or child porn?
No 'hands-on offending' warrants seven-year sentence for man who helped live-stream child sex abuse, says defence
The Saskatoon man who paid and directed impoverished women in Romania and the Philippines to live-stream the sexual abuse of their children is just as culpable as the abusers, a Crown prosecutor argued.
“Without the accused, the abuse would not have been perpetrated,” prosecutor Lana Morelli said during the sentencing hearing of Philip Michael Chicoine, which resumed on Thursday in Saskatoon provincial court.
“Without the accused,
the abuse would not have been perpetrated,”
And that's the crux of it! Live-streaming pedophiles must be charged as child sex abusers, not just child pornographers. If they weren't directing the abuse - it would not happen, therefore they are responsible for the abuse as though they committed it themselves.
Morelli said the fact that the women were already selling online child sex abuse shows doesn’t matter — the only relevant factor is that Chicoine participated.
The 27-year-old pleaded guilty to 40 charges including possessing, distributing and making child porn and arranging to commit sexual offences against children between 2011 and 2017.
The Crown argued for a 17-year sentence, which would be the longest child porn-related sentence in Saskatchewan history. Morelli said Chicoine was a party to a “breach of trust” when he paid vulnerable mothers to abuse their kids for his own sexual gratification.
Court heard there were between 19 and 22 child victims. Most were between four and 12 years old; some were as young as 10 months. Chicoine instructed women to perform sex acts on children and then created videos and pictures that he shared with others. He spent $23,000 for the live-stream sex abuse.
Morelli listed aggravating factors such as the nature of Chicoine’s child porn collection — which included “hurt core” material depicting the torture and sexual abuse of babies — the large amount of material, the duration of offending and his attempts at hands-on offending.
There is a difference between hands-on offending and the type of offending Chicoine was involved with, defence lawyer Val Harvey said in arguing for a seven-year sentence. She said her client’s desire to get help and willingness to plead guilty should be considered mitigating factors.
Chicoine likely lands somewhere on the Asperger’s spectrum and has been ostracized and bullied starting in high school and continuing into the work world, Harvey said, adding her client’s first sexual encounter was with a sex worker a year and a half ago.
“He’s been alone most of his life,” Harvey said.
However, court heard Chicoine has very supportive family members who cannot understand how their loved one “went down this road.” Chicoine’s parents were in court for both days of his sentencing hearing.
Harvey said her client can’t articulate the reasons for his behaviour but recognizes the harm he caused the victims. She said he cried when she read him one of the victim impact statements.
When asked if he had anything to say to the court, Chicoine looked down and shook his head.
Although his pre-sentence report indicates he wanted to stop victimizing children but didn’t know how, Morelli noted he was still trying to meet up with kids in Saskatoon the day before he was arrested in March.
A sentencing decision is expected on Sept. 21.
Pope Francis defrocks Italian priest convicted
of child sex abuse
By Josephine McKenna
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Francis has defrocked an Italian priest who was found guilty of child sex abuse, three years after overturning predecessor Benedict XVI’s decision to do the same after allegations against the priest first came to light.
Mauro Inzoli, 67, was initially defrocked in 2012 after he was first accused of abusing minors, but Francis reversed that decision in 2014, ordering the priest to stay away from children and retire to “a life of prayer and humble discretion.”
On Wednesday (June 28), the priest’s diocese of Crema in northern Italy released a statement saying the pope had made a “definitive ruling” that Inzoli, also known as Don Mauro, should be dismissed from clerical duties.
Bishop Daniele Gianotti of Crema said the Vatican body responsible for church doctrine informed him of the pope’s decision, which Gianotti described as “the worst punishment” to be imposed on a priest.
“We cannot assume that the pope made such a serious decision without carefully examining all the elements in front of God, before making a choice for the good of the church and Don Mauro,” said Gianotti on the diocese website.
Inzoli, who was also dubbed Don Mercedes because of his love of luxury cars, was found guilty last year by an Italian court of eight counts of sexual abuse of children aged 12 to 16. He reportedly paid $28,000 in compensation to five victims he molested between 2004 and 2008.
Gianotti said it had been “very painful” for him to communicate the pope’s decision to Inzoli and urged the faithful to pray for the priest’s victims.
Since Francis’ election in 2013, he has adopted a hard line on pedophilia in the Catholic Church and urged bishops around the world to adopt a zero-tolerance approach to clerical sex abuse. But victims’ groups have often argued he has not done enough to hold perpetrators to account or the bishops who tolerated their behavior.
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI first moved to defrock Inzoli but Francis decided to give him another chance before making his latest definitive ruling for something the pope has described as “a sin that shames us.”
Ex-senior Salvo jailed for child sex abuse
AAP
An elderly man who sexually abused boys when he was a Salvation Army sergeant major in Perth has been jailed for three years and six months.
William Edwin Steele, 73, indecently assaulted boys aged between 11 and 18 from 1963 to 1990, but has demonstrated no remorse and continues to deny the offending, maintaining he was "set up".
The father-of-four, who exploited his position of power in the church and also as manager of a CBD fruit and vegetable market, was sentenced in the District Court of Western Australia on Friday and will be eligible for parole when he has served half of his term.
The Betrayed Girls: MP says she was called 'racist' over Rochdale child sex abuse concerns
By HELEN DALY
The Betrayed Girls is a one-off documentary that will explain more about the true life story which saw nine men guilty of grooming, raping and sex trafficking teenage girls.
In a revealing interview with former Labour MP Ann Cryer, she reveals that she was aware of the grooming issue and tried to take action.
The former MP for Keighley says on the documentary: "I had hoped I would get on board comrades in the Labour party and many were genuinely sympathetic to what I was talking about and sympathetic and supported me in every way.
"But there was a small number who were very openly or perhaps [whispering] things that perhaps I was something of a racist and that was very upsetting.
"I'm convinced it was political correctitude gone mad
and there was no reason for it.
"I was rocking the multicultural boat, but how would you get changes without talking about it?" Cryer added.
Should have sunk that boat Ann. It had no reason to be afloat.
Later on in the documentary, Nazir Afzal discusses his decision to overturn the CPS's decision not take the case to trial while he was Chief Prosecutor in the North West.
He explained: "The thing that struck me most is that they were just children. I have children on my own and when you're 14/15, you can't make informed choices.
"The perpetrators were in their 40s and 50s, my age, who clearly knew better.
"When I read the prosecutor's advice to the officers in the early investigations, things like, 'She has made a choice about her life' and 'She has agreed to be in effect a prostitute for these men', everything about it shocked me to be blunt.
"I was absolutely certain in my mind that the decision was wrong - not just unreasonable, but wrong. If it wrong to maintain public confidence, I had to reverse that decision and so I did," Afzal continued.
The Betrayed Girls will air on Monday July 3 at 8.30pm on BBC One.
Telcos not releasing data in nearly 1 in 5 AFP
child sex abuse investigations
7.30 By Alex McDonald and Samantha Hawley
In a slum on the Philippines island of Cebu, local police have come to rescue two girls.
They've been tipped off by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) that the girls' mother has sent 164 sexually explicit images of her daughters to an Australian man using the Viber messaging app.
The mother was allegedly paid about $800 in return.
When Philippines police arrive at the home, a 15-year-old girl is undressing in front of a webcam.
Three days later in the troubled Mindanao region in the south of the country, another raid begins.
This time explicit footage of four children aged between two and 13 is being streamed live over the internet.
The Philippines National Police is referred more than 6,000 cases of cyber sex abuse each month from around the world.
Do you know more about this story? Email 7.30syd@your.abc.net.au
'It's difficult to get the evidence'
The AFP says it is grappling with a "tsunami" of reports of all kinds of sexual abuse and violence against children.
So far this year the AFP has received 4,937 reports of child exploitation.
Chief Judge of the Federal Circuit Court, John Pascoe, has argued for greater cooperation from telcos such as Telstra to help track down the perpetrators.
'Most dark and evil crime'
The AFP warns of an alarming trend where Australians are directing the sexual abuse of children living overseas, through live streaming services like Skype.
"We're talking about the most extreme forms of abuse, where there are some examples where people have been wanting to see, for example, the violent rape of children, five, six, seven years old," he told 7.30.
"It's difficult to get the evidence that someone has been watching this sort of material. "It needs a lot of co-operation between law enforcement authorities, internet service providers and telcos."
The AFP said it has a good working relationship with the telecommunication companies, but there are worrying limitations. 7.30 can reveal that in 18 per cent of cases, Australian telcos are not providing the online information that police request.
According to AFP commander Lesa Gale, when a telco fails to provide sufficient information, the investigation "stops, it ceases, it means we can't do anything more".
Police often request subscriber records or mobile data from the telcos to track down offenders.
"The abuse is getting more and more violent,
the children are getting younger and younger,"
Commander Gale told 7.30.
"The requests are becoming more and more extreme, as if it was almost a competition between offenders and producers to try and make more and more extreme material depicting horrendous acts occurring on babies and young children."
Laws not keeping pace with technology
Chief Judge Pascoe is worried the law is not keeping up with the pace of technological change.
"I think if you look at large corporations, they're made up of many people, employees, shareholders and I think the public does have a right to expect that they will be part of the social contract," he said.
"They will be aware of Australia's obligations and they will do their part to protect children."
He argues that companies have an obligation to protect children at home and abroad under the United Nations convention on the Rights of the Child.
"The law actually needs to recognise the true nature of the crime and give the police the powers they need to appropriately prosecute offenders," he said.
"And I think one of the problems in this area, there somehow seems to be a disconnect between sitting at the computer typing what you want to happen next to the child and actually doing it.
"To me there is no distinction."
Mark Leach, a board member with International Justice Mission Australia, said telecommunications companies have a moral obligation to assist.
"It's our view that the directors and management of any telco in the country would be appalled that their company assets and their business were being used to commission and perpetrate the rape of children in the developing world," he told 7.30.
The AFP said requests might not be fulfilled for a number of reasons, including "the fact that investigators, at times, need to put requests to all major telecommunication companies, knowing that only one of the telecommunication companies would be able to complete the request".
Both Optus and Vodafone told 7.30 they comply with their legal obligations to assist police.
An Optus spokeswoman said: "We have responded to every request we've received from law enforcement agencies this year. There are no requests where we haven't provided some form of response.
"There are circumstances where we have advised law enforcement agencies that we are unable to provide information because we don't capture the specific piece of information requested. There are also some instances where we've asked the AFP to resend a request under the correct part of the legislation."
Telstra said it responds to tens of thousands of requests for customer information. It said it supports law enforcement while protecting the privacy of its customers. "We take very seriously our legal and regulatory obligations to assist law enforcement agencies who are seeking information," a Telstra spokesman said.
NZ's toughest prison sentence considered for multiple child rapist
ANDY JACKSON/Fairfax NZ
A 59-year-old man has pleaded guilty to the sexual abuse of a young girl and will be sentenced in the High Court at New Plymouth on August 23.
New Zealand's toughest prison sentence is being considered for a man who raped a young girl multiple times.
On Friday, Keith Charles Pateman pleaded guilty to eight charges, which include rape and sexual conduct with a child under 12. Three of the charges are representative and involve one victim - an 11-year-old girl.
The majority of the offending took place over a four month period between July and November 2016 at an address in Taranaki.
It involved Pateman kissing the child, slapping her bottom and raping her.
At the 59-year-old's hearing in the High Court at New Plymouth on Friday, Justice Susan Thomas convicted Pateman and ordered for reports to be completed to consider whether preventive detention was necessary.
Preventive detention involves an indeterminate prison term and is often reserved for the country's most violent and dangerous criminals. Offenders who are given preventive detention can be released on parole but are managed by the Department of Corrections for the rest of their life and can be recalled to prison at any time.
A first strike warning was issued by Justice Thomas, who also requested a probation report be prepared ahead of Pateman's sentencing on August 23.
Lawyer Nathan Bourke asked for Pateman to be released on bail prior to his sentencing but this was opposed by the Crown.
Justice Thomas granted the defendant bail for one week in order to give him time to sort out his affairs.
Pateman will be required to present himself to the High Court in Wellington on July 7, when he will be remanded into custody.
Taranaki, NZ
Pope aide Pell 'strenuously' denies child sex abuse
AFP
Vatican finance chief George Pell "strenuously" denies all allegations of historic child sex offences and will return home to clear his name, Catholic officials said Thursday.
Police charged Australia's most senior Catholic with the offences, citing multiple complainants, and summoned the cleric to appear at Melbourne Magistrates Court on July 18.
"Although it is still in the early hours of the morning in Rome, Cardinal George Pell has been informed of the decision and action of Victoria Police," the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney said in a statement.
"He has again strenuously denied all allegations."
The Archdiocese said the 76-year-old would return to Australia "as soon as possible to clear his name", after receiving advice and approval from his doctors.
"He said he is looking forward to his day in court and will defend the charges vigorously," the statement added.
Victoria Police did not provide further details of the charges, citing the need to preserve the integrity of the judicial process.
Pell was interviewed in Rome by Australian police last October over the allegations, and has previously strongly denied them.
He had been accused of historic sex abuse claims when he was the Archbishop of Sydney in 2002, but was later cleared of any wrongdoing.
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