Preventive detention for abuse of fourth child
I'm not familiar with this sentence, but it seems to be better than another short term in prison then release. My fear is that he will fool people into thinking he is better when, it should be obvious by now, he will never be better. Prison for the rest of his life is the appropriate sentence.
By David Clarkson
A 52-year-old Christchurch man has been jailed indefinitely for sex offences against a fourth child which followed years of intensive rehabilitation.
Rene De Kwant was given preventive detention by Justice Cameron Mander in the High Court at Christchurch, after admitting a representative charge about a series of indecent acts on an eight-year-old boy.
De Kwant has already served a nine-year jail term for sexual offending against three children.
Justice Mander told him: “You have been offending against children since 1990. You remain a high risk of reoffending and the level of harm you present is significant. I am satisfied that preventive detention is the appropriate response.”
Under the order, De Kwant cannot be considered for parole for five years, and then he will not be released until the Parole Board accepts his risk to the community has lowered.
Justice Mander also gave him a first-strike warning, under the system which imposes harsher sentences on people who reoffend with serious crimes.
In his latest offending, De Kwant befriended the boy’s mother and told her he “felt he had a personal connection with the child”. That led to him masturbating the boy several times when he was alone with him. The boy eventually disclosed the offending to his mother.
Justice Mander said the boy had been left “physically and emotionally exhausted” by the offending. His parents feel the child has regressed, suffers social problems at school, and has a fear of adult males.
Defence counsel Elizabeth Bulger urged that a finite prison term be imposed rather than an open-ended preventive detention term. She said De Kwant was willing to take any treatment or intervention arranged for him. He continued to have good support in the community.
The pre-sentence report writer referred to De Kwant being “angry and disgusted with himself”, and his expressions of remorse and shame were assessed as being genuine. But Justice Mander said it was “coupled with a high degree of self-pity for your situation”.
Justice Mander said he could only impose preventive detention if he was satisfied that De Kwant was likely to commit another qualifying offence after his release from custody.
“The protection of the community must be considered,” he said, referring to the long term difficulties De Kwant had caused to the child and his family.
“He is the fourth child on whom you have inflicted this insidious damage,” said the judge.
He noted that De Kwant had already undergone treatment including the Kia Marama programme for sex offenders, the Stop programme, and 47 one-on-one sessions with a clinical psychologist.
The treatment had not prevented him from reverting to a pattern of behaviour which included the sexual abuse of a child. He had abandoned the various teachings and skills he had been given, and the “refresher” course he had done. “You say you were shocked by the extent to which had strayed,” said the judge.
De Kwant was capable of separating his offending from the rest of his life, and remaining apparently normal to others. Although he had lived successfully in the community for a period, he had “failed to sustain the gains you achieved from previous intensive treatment”.
Council boss claims she was forced out after raising concerns about suspected child sexual exploitation
Camilla Turner, education editor
A COUNCIL boss has claimed she was forced out after raising concerns about suspected grooming and sexual exploitation of underage girls.
Maggie Siviter, a former child safeguarding lead at North Somerset Council, claimed that authorities failed to act after she warned that licensed premises were suspected of being used to groom vulnerable young girls.
Speaking at her employment tribunal, she said she was “mindful” of the situation that emerged in Rotherham, where child sex abuse by predominantly British-Pakistani men continued for years, unchallenged by authorities.
Ms Siviter told Pontypridd County Court that she had concerns about the influence of Cllr Peter Bryant on the council’s willingness to investigate her claims. She claimed Cllr Bryant was an acquaintance of some of the local businessmen accused of owning premises where child sexual exploitation was suspected to have taken place.
Ms Siviter said her dismissal from North Somerset Council in November 2015 – after just six months in the post – was “retaliation” for making disclosures to Ofsted, the watchdog for children and young people in care.
She convened a series of council strategy meetings about the suspected grooming of vulnerable girls, but escalated her concerns to Ofsted after she realised that no risk assessments had been carried out, despite her warnings.
The girls – one of whom was in care, and one who was previously in care – were suspected of being sexually exploited at Butterfly’s massage parlour, and an Indian restaurant in Weston-super-Mare.
Suspicions were first raised by Julian Feltwell, a council official who was investigating premises owned by local restaurateur Alkas Hussain for supplying counterfeit tobacco, the tribunal heard.
“There was the suspicion [that] tobacco was being used to groom and reward children for possible child sexual exploitation,” said Mr Feltwell, an assistant manager of community and consumer services at North Somerset Council.
“I became aware employees of one businessman in question resided in a house of multiple occupancy owned by Cllr Bryant.”
Mr Feltwell said that Cllr Bryant was connected to another businessman who he said was “previously suspected of allowing young girls on to his licensed premises where the suspicion was that they were being groomed”.
Mr Feltwell told the tribunal that Cllr Bryant had provided a character reference for the businessman when he stood trial for pulling a shotgun on a council bailiff who was collecting unpaid council tax. The businessman later served a prison sentence for the offence.
Ms Siviter told the tribunal that she found it “concerning” that Cllr Bryant “had connections with those who we’d discussed as being potentially harmful to children”, adding: “There were concerns the behaviour of an elected member was affecting the safeguarding of children at risk of sexual exploitation.”
Ms Siviter called three multi-agency strategy meetings between August and October 2015 to discuss intelligence about the suspected child sexual exploitation. She convened the second meeting after it came to light that children had been working at the massage parlour in Weston-super-Mare.
“One girl said she had worked there for 18 months and made allegations that she had been forced to have sex with men,” she told the tribunal.
Ms Siviter said she contacted Ofsted after the third meeting, when she felt her pleas to the council to investigate the matter were falling on deaf ears.
“The quality of the service provided to children was severely compromised. I later disclosed to a colleague I’d made a whistleblowing statement,” she said.
Tony Oliver, chair of North Somerset Safeguarding Children Board, described one of the meetings as “based on rumours and speculation”.
The tribunal continues this week.
North Somerset, UK
Canoeist Emma Kelty was 'raped and tortured' before bungling attackers set off SOS alarm
British canoeist Emma Kelty was tortured and raped as she died after being shot, villagers have claimed.
The full details of the adventurer's last moments were revealed in a confession by one of the suspects hours after the attack.
Ringleader Evanilson Gomes da Costa, 24, died Wednesday after being shot by rival gangsters.
Residents of the small riverside community of Lauro Sodre, near to where the crime took place, said all seven men accused of her murder are well-known drugs users in the village.
And one local who knows da Costa - known by his nicknamed Baia - said the gangster spoke to him in the early hours of the morning following Ms Kelty's death last Wednesday night, revealing what they had done.
The man, who didn't want to be named, said: "He said he was one of four men. The woman had put up her tent on the beach in exactly the area where the Colombia drug traffickers go through, and which is crawling with pirates who wait for them to arrive to attack.
"These men aren't pirates though, they are just drug users. We are all shocked that these men from our community did such a terrible thing to this woman.
"When the men saw her tent they thought it belonged to a Colombian with drugs, so they started firing from about 50 metres away. The woman was hit in the arm. She started waving frantically and screaming for help."
He said that when the four men saw that she was a woman they attacked her and, still believing she was carrying drugs, cut off her hair with a knife while demanding to know where the drugs were.
According to the man, one of the group then slit her through with the knife, before all four men "sexually abused her".
He said they then dragged her body to the river and dumped it in the fast-moving water.
He said: "The men fled into the forest after we all found out what they had done. We provided the police with the details and their identities. We're all disgusted by what they have done."
Yesterday the chief police officer in Coari, Jose Afonso Barradas Junior, also revealed that one of the suspects, Artur Gomes da Silva, had confessed to slitting the former headteacher's throat.
He was arrested yesterday after an anonymous tip-off.
And Mr Barradas Junior also revealed how the "stupid" gangsters unwittingly alerted authorities to their crime after accidentally triggering a distress signal on her GPS device, police said today.
Investigators had first thought the emergency alert which pinpointed Emma Kelty's exact location and triggered a search operation by Brazil's Navy had been sent by the victim herself.
But in fact the 'SOS' button was pressed by one of her killers who was trying to work out how to use the device they had stolen, an hour and a half after her death.
Police have now recovered the GPS device, as well as a mobile phone and a memory card, which the gang of seven 'pirates' sold to local villagers after killing her.
The GPS signal sent at 10pm last Wednesday night led investigators to the riverside village of Lauro Sodre, 150 miles west of Manaus, and a manhunt which has brought about the arrest of three men accused of her murder.
A fourth man was killed yesterday in an unrelated gangfight, and three brothers are still on the run.
Yesterday Coari police chief Jose Afonso Barradas Junior said he doubted anyone would have discovered what happened to Ms Kelty if the "stupid" gangsters hadn't set off her emergency locator by mistake.
He said: "They didn't know how it worked, so were messing around with it and pushing buttons.
"One of them must have pushed the button which transmitted an alert that she was in trouble. In turn the company that received it alerted the Navy, along with the exact location of where the button was pushed.
"Without that, it would have been very difficult to know where in this vast area of jungle she had gone missing.
"It would have probably remained an unsolved mystery and her killers never brought to justice.
"The place where she disappeared is a very complicated area, it's difficult to access and there are no telephones or mobile signal. The criminals thought they could kill her in impunity, but then they stupidly pressed the only button which could have turned them in to the police."
Mr Barradas Junior added that some of the locals who bought Ms Kelty's stolen items from the pirates later hid them in the forest after finding out who they belonged to.
He said: "They were afraid that they could be arrested for being in possession of stolen property.
"But they later took police to the places where they had hid them so the items could be recovered."
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