Young, sick and dangerous: the new face of paedophilia
Grant Davies
Child sex abuse charges filed against
Former journalist Ben McCormack played dedicated volunteer lifesaver but he was secretly lusting after young boys. Picture: David Moir.
by Candace Sutton
YOUNG, charismatic, sometimes famous and so sincere: the new breed of sick paedophiles preying on children are not the grubby old men of the stereotype.
They hang around on the internet rather than public toilets and playgrounds.
Jonathon Lord
They are not obvious creeps with greasy ponytails who a parent could more easily suspect and keep other children away.
The new type of paedophile is often a professional in well paid job with a public profile.
They are TV reporter Ben McCormack, good looking YMCA worker Jonathan Lord, suave father Benjamin Lawson and goofy nanny supervisor Shannon McCoole.
Benjamin Lawson
They are jokester and showman, dance teacher Grant Davies, and IVF scientist and rugby union player Michael Quinn.
What they do have in common with the old sleazy image of the paedophile is an absolute and sick obsession with children.
The new face of paedophiles is a sobering reality for their potential victims and their families because they are hiding in plain sight.
Shannon McCoole
As the Sunday Telegraph reported, many paedophiles are under 40 and male, but they come from all backgrounds and occupations and in many cases seem "like really nice guys".
The running average inmate population in NSW for child sex offenders is around 1500.
Grant Davies
These include older men who are serving prison time for crimes they committed against children when they themselves were young men under the age of 40.
Like the late Dennis Raymond Ferguson, who raped children in a hotel room with his partner Alexandra Brooks, or deviant Catholic priest Gerard Ridsdale, they were sinister old men.
Michael Quinn
But how do parents or even police recognise monsters like Sydney hotel worker Bryan Walter Beattie, who paid as little as $12 to watch live, sexual abuse of Filipino children on Skype.
Beattie - who can be heard on videotapes instructing a Filipino man while children as young as eight years old are raped - did so from the comfort of his Surry Hills, Syndey, lounge room.
Dennis Ferguson
The self-confessed gaming nerd was also a member of a private Facebook group for paedophiles who would share child abuse material with each other.
Beattie is of an increasing number of child sex offenders to use online platforms to exploit their twisted desires.
But how do police track them down and bring them to justice?
According to a senior NSW police officer formerly with the Sex Crimes Squad, a key trait police keep seeing in the new breed of paedophile is charisma.
Detective Chief Superintendent John Kerlatec, director of the NSW State Crime Command's Serious Crime Directorate said offenders very likability is what helps them net their victims.
"A common denominator is actually charisma," Superintendent Kertalec told the Sunday Telegraph.
"When we've charged a teacher, we will often be bombarded with emails saying, "no it couldn't possibly be that person". "If they weren't likeable, they would have no chance of building a rapport."
These are the new breed of paedophiles.
Child sex abuse charges filed against
Aussie swim coach
"The man was arrested by State Crime Command's Child Abuse and Sexual Crime Group. He will appear in the Maroochydore Magistrates Court on Nov 13, 2017."
Local media said he would fight the charges. "It's been 15 years I've been subject to this," News Ltd media quoted him as saying.
Volkers coached two-time Olympic champion Susie O'Neill and two-time world breaststroke champion Sam Riley.
He was arrested in Australia in 2002 on charges of indecent behaviour. The charges were dropped for lack of evidence, but he was banned from working with children under the age of 16.
He has consistently denied the allegations against him.
He moved to Brazil in 2011 and became the swimming coach at the Minas Tennis Club in Belo Horizonte, which has produced some of Brazil's best swimmers.
He coached Brazil's Olympic gold medallist Cesar Cielo, but was excluded from the Brazilian team at the Rio Olympics last year at the request of the Australian Olympic Committee.
REUTERS/StraitsTimes
Man arrested on Blackpool's North Pier after
'anti-paedophile' sting
KARL HOLBROOK
A man has been arrested on suspicion of sexual grooming after police in Blackpool were tipped off by an internet vigilante group.
Police in Blackpool said they were contacted by an online anti-paedophile group this morning claiming a man was on the North Pier, who thought he was meeting a child for sexual activity. Officers attended the scene at around 10.45am today and arrested a 49-year-old local man. He is currently in custody.
DI Alisa Wilson, from Blackpool Child Abuse team, said: "We rely on the assistance of the public in preventing and detecting crime. Working closely with our community is a vital way in which we gain information, and their active engagement in fighting crime helps us to do our job."
"Cases involving child sex abuse are extremely serious and have a huge emotional impact not only on the victims, but on whole families, and the communities in which they take place. We understand the desire to protect children but any member of the public who has information about child sexual abuse, online or otherwise, should get in contact with the police so we can investigate and bring people to justice."
"Revealing the identity of suspected paedophiles gives the suspect the opportunity to destroy evidence before the police can investigate them. It also leads to people who have been identified going missing or raising concerns for their safety. This can divert significant resources into protecting suspects, which would be better invested in investigating and, where there is evidence, prosecuting them."
Canadian man makes child porn with infant daughter
By Ron GrechWARNING: Graphic content
A Timmins, Ontario court heard harrowing details Wednesday of a man who created child pornography with his one-year-old daughter.
Assistant Crown Attorney Rob Parsons told the court, computer forensic analysis revealed the accused communicated online with individuals who shared an interest in collecting child pornography. The court heard he sent digital photographs and videos of him and his daughter, both naked and depicting sexual acts.
One of the individuals he communicated with resided in Moore County, North Carolina, where police uncovered a video showing a man ejaculating on the face of an infant. Parsons said at the end of the video, the child is seen rubbing its eyes and crying.
Police in North Carolina notified the Royal Canadian Mounted Police of the video which they said had been obtained from a Canadian.
The accused and his daughter are the ones featured in that video, Parsons confirmed.
The Daily Press is not publishing the name of the perpetrator in this case as it would indirectly identify the victim, and there is a publication ban protecting the child’s name.
The court heard Timmins Police launched an investigation on Jan. 13, 2016, resulting in the accused being arrested.
Police executed a search warrant at the Timmins residence and seized numerous electronic devices including a cellular phone, which, Parsons said, a quick look-through revealed a photo of the man’s daughter, with her head next to her father’s penis.
Computer forensic officers ultimately obtained from those electronic devices 3,675 photographic images and 102 videos which police deemed to be of “investigative” interest.
The accused has been in custody since the arrest. Defence lawyer Ben Dawkins offered the court on Wednesday a tally of 641 days in pre-plea custody.
Despite the sexual abuse, the young victim still asks for her father, the girl’s mother revealed to the court. “She misses him so greatly but luckily does not yet understand what has occurred,” the mom wrote in a victim-impact statement which Parsons read to the court.
“Anytime she cries, she calls for him and all I can say is, ‘sorry honey, your daddy is out of town.’”
The mom said has learned that pedophilia is a psychological “disease” and she expressed hope that the accused “will be able to get the help he needs to overcome it.”
It's more of a spiritual disease than a psychological one. Paedophiles motives, I believe, are more about the destruction of innocence, or the violation of the sacred than about sexual desire.
I hope the judge has the decency to put this man away until the child is an adult before she has to face him.
She added, “I feel sorry for him as nothing is ever going to be truly stable for the rest of his life. Nor will he be able to have a proper relationship with his daughter. At least he will never have to hear her calling and crying out for him, to have him sooth away her pain or to see her push my hand away because all she wants is him. It breaks my heart that this has happened and these memories will never go away.”
Sentencing was adjourned to Nov. 6, as a tentative date.
Newfoundland school principal charged with historic Alberta sex offences against young person
By Natasha Riebe, CBC News A former teacher in Alberta who is now the principal of a school in Newfoundland has been charged with sexual offences against a young person dating back to the mid-1990s, when he was working in the Fort Vermilion School Division.
The charges stem from a complaint made of offences alleged to have occurred between 1994 and 1996, RCMP said in a news release.
Sheppard is principal of Fortune Bay Academy in St. Bernard's, about 270 kilometres west of St. John's.
A spokesperson for the Newfoundland and Labrador English School District said officials became aware Friday that an employee has been charged with offences in Alberta. "The employee has been placed on leave and will not be involved in any school activities," district spokesperson Ken Morrissey said in an emailed statement.
Fortune Bay Academy in the town of St. Bernard's, NL, some 270 kilometres west of St. John's. (Newfoundland & Labrador English School District website)
Mike McMann, superintendent of the Fort Vermilion School Division, told CBC News on Friday that Sheppard had been a teacher at one of the division's schools in the 1990s.
McMann said the division will not disclose the name of the school, nor any further details, out of "respect for the alleged victim and their family."
McMann said the school division is co-operating with the RCMP.
Sheppard is due in Fort Vermilion provincial court on Dec. 5.
Sherwood Park, Alberta teacher charged with
sex offences against student
CBC News (dated July 2017)
A male teacher from the Elk Island Public School Division has been charged with sexual offences against a female student.
It is alleged the offences took place between May 1, 2015 and Sept. 1, 2015, police said
The victim and her family are being offered support from the Strathcona County victim services unit.
Forsyth was a teacher at Bev Facey Community High School in Sherwood Park, and was head coach of its wrestling team in March.
"As a result of this investigation, and in the interests of ensuring the safety and well-being of our students, steps were taken to ensure that the teacher was no longer in a position to interact with EIPS students," the school division said.
Forsyth has been released with several conditions. His next court appearance is set for Aug. 30 in Sherwood Park provincial court.
There has been no apparent follow-up by news sources on this file.
Haunting cases remind us anyone can become
victim of abuse
Eamonn SweeneyI love to see my daughters getting involved in sport. Kids need to have interests outside school, things which challenge and bring out the best of them. It gives me a great feeling to see how much enjoyment they get out of athletics and tae-kwon-do and music.
When we talk about these activities, I hear the names of the guys who coach them: Declan in athletics, Dan at martial arts, Keith at band practice. People like this play a special part in your life. You remember them for a long time. I've forgotten most of the stuff I studied in the Leaving but there are matches, races and even training sessions which come back to me clear as day.
My overwhelming feeling towards the people who coached and helped me out then is one of gratitude. I'll always have fond memories of Paddy Nangle and Christy Gallagher at Gaelic football, of John Hogge at soccer and Christine Hannon at badminton. Hardly a week goes by without me thinking fondly of training for athletics with Padraig Callaghan.
Ronan McCormack who trained me for Community Games and, briefly, for Gaelic football. Ronan McCormack who three years ago was jailed for seven years and 10 months, two years suspended, for sexually assaulting five underage footballers from my club between 1981 and 1986.
They were a few years younger than me, those lads. But I knew them, one of them particularly well because he lived just down the road and was a good friend of my brother's. You could not, and I don't exaggerate, have met a nicer man.
I wrote about the McCormack case not just to condemn the perpetrator but to salute the courage of those men who brought him to justice by testifying in court and reliving memories which they admitted had been enormously painful. The case still haunts me. My brothers or I could have been targeted by Ronan McCormack. It was just pure luck that we weren't.
Anyone can become a victim of abuse. The victim contributes nothing to the offence.
Back in the 1980s, sexual abuse was a taboo subject. Things are different these days. We're all aware of how children have been betrayed by people in positions of authority. I don't live in fear but I'm aware that putting your kids in the hands of someone else does require a certain amount of trust. You let them out into the world and you pray they never meet a Ronan McCormack.
By doing so they change what should have been precious memories into nightmares. Fr Brian D'Arcy's comment that Tom Humphries's victim "has got a life sentence" rings true. At the McCormack trial, one of his victims said, "That man has ruined a lot of my life." Another spoke of how heartbreaking it was for him to tell his teenage daughters what had happened to him. Sexual abuse is in a way like an ongoing murder, an assault which continues long after the dates named in court. That is its essential horror.
We overuse the language of morality in sports journalism. We go on about players 'lacking moral courage' when they won't pass the ball short, about 'unforgivable cynicism' when one man pulls another's jersey, or a player making a few bob out of the game 'destroying the spirit of the GAA'. But the Humphries case shows up how meaningless this kind of rhetoric is.
Here was a real moral issue to be addressed. Yet the way in which certain well-known journalists, sportsmen and pundits actually dealt with it betrayed a kind of moral blindness.
In this respect, one of the most jaw-dropping aspects of the whole affair was how, in 2012, David Walsh took umbrage at Matt Cooper's suggestion that Tom Humphries was in the same league as Lance Armstrong. Not at all, said Walsh, before embarking upon one more defence of Humphries.
Walsh was right but not in the way he thought. There is no comparison between Armstrong and Humphries. Doping might be an offence against the spirit of sport but child sexual abuse is an offence against the spirit of humanity and in particular against the spirit of the abused child. The happiness of one child is worth every Tour de France ever raced.
I salute everyone who finds the courage to stand up against their abusers. I don't think I would be so brave. And I hope that in the end Tom Humphries's victim can find some kind of peace. That is the most important thing of all about this case.
Citibank paedophile caught on Facebook live trying to meet ’14-year-old girl for sex’ after sending sick WhatsApp messages is jailed
Balachandran Kavungalparambath travelled more than 100 miles to meet the girl but was confronted by paedo hunters when he arrived in Birmingham
By Holly ChristodoulouA HIGH-flying banker has been caged after he was caught on Facebook Live by paedophile hunters trying to meet a 14-year-old girl for sex.
Citibank business manager Balachandran Kavungalparambath, 38, travelled more than 100 miles to meet the teen, who was really vigilantes posing as an underage girl.
Over 130,000 people watched a Facebook live stream of the sting as extracts of his warped Whatsapp conversations were read back to him.
He tried to worm his way out by claiming he just wanted to have lunch withe the made-up youngster. But when he is asked to empty his rucksack, perfume and condoms are placed on the table in front of him.
He claimed he wasn't meeting the girl for sex but had condoms.
Kavungalparambath was jailed for 15 months at Birmingham Crown Court on Monday after admitting to attempting to arrange or facilitate the commission of child sex abuse.
He was also placed on the sex offender register for ten years and given a ten-year sexual harm prevention order.
After initially claiming "she told me that she was 18", he admitted that the 'girl' told him that she was 14. He said: "She told me...whoever the person was that spoke to me that she had a desire and she wanted to have sex, but that was not my intention and I had chatted with her."
After constantly repeating "Jesus Christ", and "please", he said: "It's not right. I accept my mistake."
When asked what would happen to him as punishment, he added: "I will have to leave the country. I am from India."
He worked for Citibank as a business manager. "I lose my job, I have to leave the country." He then weeps as he claims he had no intention of having sex with her.
A spokesperson for Citibank said: "This individual is not a Citi employee any longer. The offences are abhorrent."
Leeds child sex abuse victim 'absolutely disgusted' as her paedophile father is released early from prison
GEORGINA MORRIS
A Leeds man who sexually abused his daughter throughout her childhood was released from prison early this weekend, despite her heartfelt plea to officials to keep him behind bars.
Joseph Joyce, then 67, was sentenced to 12 years in 2011 for raping and indecently assaulting Paula Bairstow as well as offences of indecency against two other female victims.
Paula, who waived her right to anonymity, last week spoke of the grave concerns she held about Joyce’s potential release and how she had written to the Parole Board to urge them to refuse his application. She had believed it would be weeks before a decision was reached, so it came as an even greater shock when she received a call on Friday to say her father was being freed.
“I’m absolutely disgusted,” Paula said yesterday. “Out of a 12 year sentence, he’s done six years. Six years when he’s snatched an entire childhood.”
Paula, 53, was sitting in the car outside her home in Leeds when she received the call from the Probation Service. “I nearly had a panic attack,” she said. “I had to run back into the house to my husband. I really didn’t think he would be let out. He was convicted of rape and indecent assault. I thought the charges were severed enough to keep him in there, regardless of whether he is poorly.”
Joyce will be subject to strict conditions now that he has been released on licence and will be recalled to prison if he breaks them, but Paula remains anxious about the possibility of him harming other children. She said: “He’s a very dangerous man. There’s no doubt about it. I know what he is capable of first hand.” The Parole Board does not comment on individual cases.
Paedophile brother given taxpayer funds to appeal sentence on grounds of ‘good character’
ANNABEL HENNESSY, EXCLUSIVE, The Daily Telegraph
A PAEDOPHILE brother who admitted to raping and abusing schoolboys as young as nine has bizarrely been given taxpayer funding to appeal his sentence on the grounds of “good character” — even though his only evidence was a two-page letter he wrote himself.
Victim’s advocates are horrified after Michael Stanton, who last year pleaded guilty to 19 charges of historic child sex abuse, was given legal aid money to appeal his 23-year sentence on the grounds the original judge had failed to take into account his “good character”.
The appeal was knocked back by the Supreme Court last week after the only references Stanton could provide of his “good character” was “a two-page document prepared by the Applicant himself which was not otherwise supported or corroborated by any other person”.
NSW Attorney-General Mark Speakman
The case comes one year after former NSW Attorney-General Gabrielle Upton launched a review into legal aid after an investigation by The Daily Telegraph revealed millions of dollars were being spent each year to bankroll appeals from rapists and serial killers who had pleaded guilty in the first place.
One legal source told The Daily Telegraph Stanton’s appeal could of cost “about $12,000”.
Lawyer and victim’s advocate Howard Brown said there was ongoing problem with legal aid wasting taxpayer’s money on frivolous appeals. He called for more rigorous merit tests before convicted criminals were granted leave to lodge an appeal or granted taxpayer funding.
“They should not be given leave to appeal on the grounds of good character for sex abuse cases ... we all know sexual offences are offences of secrecy” he said. “These appeals have a huge impact not just on the victim, but witnesses and people associated with the victim.”
Child sex abuse survivor Kellie-Anne Roche agreed taxpayer’s money shouldn’t be given to help paedophiles reduce their sentences.
“To argue good character is ridiculous. How can you possibly have good character when you are a paedophile,” she said.
Exactly!
Arrested in 2014, Stanton was one of four individuals charged over child sex crimes committed in the 1980s at St Patricks Brothers College at Blacktown and Lalor Park Catholic Primary School.
In one instance Stanton, raped an 11-year-old boy at the stairwell at St Patricks College after the child was told off by him at the sport’s carnival. In another case he raped a 9-year-old boy on the school’s tennis courts.
Stanton’s lawyer senior counsel Stephen Odgers submitted that a sentence of 23 years with a non-parole period of 14 years was “a crushing sentence” that would “induce a feeling of hopelessness”.
Awwww, shucks!
Attorney-General Mark Speakman said the review into Legal Aid’s funding of criminal appeals is complete and the report is being considered. “The right to appeal verdicts and sentences is an important component of the criminal justice process — for both the prosecution and defence,” he said.
A Legal Aid NSW spokeswoman said: “The Legal Aid Commission Act generally prohibits us from commenting on individual matters,” she said. “Legal Aid NSW has strict policies in relation to higher court criminal appeals and does not fund any such appeal without advice from an experienced barrister that a case has merit.”
An experienced barrister representing the person appealing? An experience barrister who is likely to make money from the appeal?
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