Is Westminster sex scandal turning into a ‘witch hunt’? ‘Dirty dossier’ divides parliament
Porn warning to parents after teen who grew up watching explicit videos repeatedly rapes child
Who next? Senior Tory party ministers could be subjected to 'witch hunt' according to MPs and reporters © Hannah Mckay / Reuters
Cabinet ministers and MPs across British politics are facing allegations of sexual harassment against female colleagues in parliament. Some MPs, however, have cautioned against ‘overreaction’ or even a ‘witch hunt.’
Overnight, further allegations emerged of women reporting sexual advances which were never acted upon, backbenchers harassing women to date them, and predatory MPs who behave so badly that young MPs are warned to stay away from them. The scandal threatens to dwarf the expenses bombshell of 2009.
In one reported case, a woman accused an MP of sex assault four times, but says her pleas for help were ignored. Two female staff members of one minister are said to have quit their jobs over inappropriate behavior, while Betty Williams, a former Labour MP for Conwy, said her breasts were grabbed.
“I was given a heads up as a new MP of older, male MPs I shouldn’t find myself inebriated and alone with,” one Tory MP said.
Separately, Minister Mark Garnier admitted asking his secretary to buy sex toys and calling her “sugar t*ts.”
The revelations are not confined to the UK’s two biggest parties. Elsewhere, the Scottish National Party (SNP) is investigating two separate complaints of sexual misconduct at Holyrood.
Prime Minister Theresa May has called for an investigation into a “dirty dossier” of dozens of Tory men who are alleged to have acted inappropriately. Seven cabinet ministers and 15 members of government are reported to feature in the dossier, as well as a number of former politicians.
A senior backbench MP said moves to add protections for workers in the Commons were blocked by political parties in recent years. Andrea Leadsom, leader of the House of Commons, said ministers could lose their cabinet roles and MPs could have the whip withdrawn if accusations are proven.
Defence Secretary Michael Fallon was also implicated on Monday after it emerged that he “repeatedly” put his hand on a journalist’s knee.
However, LBC presenter Julia Hartley-Brewer disputed claims that she was the victim. The former Express writer blasted the “Westminster witch hunt” and called on women to support genuine victims by not making trivial claims.
“I have worked in and around Westminster for 20 years,” she wrote.
“As far as I am aware, incident of genuine harassment involve only a small number of MPs from all parties. I believe it is absurd and wrong to treat workplace banter and flirting – and even misjudged sexual overtures – between consenting adults as being morally equivalent to serious sexual assault and harassment.”
A number of politicians shared Hartley-Brewer’s concerns regarding a ‘witch hunt.’ “I fear we are about to witness a full frontal witch hunt based on rumour and media hypocrisy,” one MP said.
However, unverified accounts of assault are circling the Commons. In the chamber on Monday, a female MP revealed a harrowing tale of a woman’s calls for help being ignored.
“A worker employed as staff of a Member in this House told me today that she reported being sexually assaulted to the proper authorities earlier this year, who did nothing,” Liz Saville Roberts MP told colleagues.
“She is deeply disappointed and distrustful and she tells me that distrust is endemic. How can I assure her that her complaint will now be treated differently?” Her case was not taken further by police, added the MP.
Other politicians have reported hearing about incidents in the Sports and Social bar in the Palace of Westminster, where young staff and MPs drink together.
“When I complained recently to an officer of parliament who had some responsibility in this area, that I knew a number of researchers, male and female, who had been made to feel deeply uncomfortable in the Sports and Social club here, by Members of Parliament, I was told that that happens in pubs all over the country,” said Labour Newcastle MP Chi Onwurah.
Ayesha Hazarika, a former Labour adviser, said young women are afraid to speak out. She claimed she had been “lunged at on a regular basis.”
Labour activist says senior party official urged her
to forget rape allegation
© Bex Bailey / Facebook
A Labour Party activist claims she was discouraged by a senior party official from reporting an alleged rape, which she says took place at a party event. The unnamed official reportedly told her that doing so could “damage” her.
Bex Bailey, a former member of Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC), waived her right to anonymity to reveal she was given no advice on how to deal with the incident – other than being dissuaded from reporting it.
“I told a senior member of staff, who told me... or it was suggested to me that I not report it, I was told that if I did it might damage me – and that might be their genuine view, it might be that that was the case, in which case that shows that we have a serious problem in politics with this issue anyway.”
Bailey, now 25, told BBC Radio 4 she was 19 when she was raped by someone senior to her in the Labour Party, who was not an MP. She did not report the incident to the police, but instead tried to “pretend it didn’t happen.”
“It took me a while to summon up the courage to tell anyone in the party,” she said.
Two years later, Bailey said she finally confided in a party official. “It was quite a horrible experience and this is why I’ve been fighting so hard for changes to the way that we do this.”
Bailey went public with the allegations in an attempt to highlight the way cases like her’s are mishandled. She is calling for an independent agency “free from political bias” to deal with such allegations.
Labour has launched an independent investigation into the incident and has called on police to investigate the assault. Party leader Jeremy Corbyn recently wrote to members, urging them to step forward and use “confidential party procedures” to report complaints.
Never mind “confidential party procedures”, report sexual assaults to the police and don't worry about the political fall-out.
The allegations come following several days of scandal about sexual harassment and assaults at Westminster. A so-called “dodgy dossier” has named dozens of Tory MPs, including Cabinet ministers, alongside unsubstantiated accusations of serious sexual abuse and harassment and improper behavior.
The leader of the House of Commons, Andrea Leadsom, announced on Monday plans to set up a specialized support team to help victims report their cases to police.
The New Normal
The easy availability of porn to the adolescent male is creating a culture of rape. This is just another piece of evidence in that case. Porn has to be stopped, not just child porn, but all porn, and there is no way on this earth that that is going to happen short of a miracle.
© Global Look Press
Parents have been warned to monitor their children’s internet use after a boy who started watching pornography at the age of 12 went on to repeatedly rape a child. William Nicholson, now 19, is said to have used his victim to “act out” sexual desires.
Nicholson started showing the girl - a primary school pupil - pornographic videos and began abusing her when he was 14, Teesside Crown Court heard. The girl kept the ordeal secret until 2015, when she told a family friend about what had happened and the police were called.
Judge Peter Armstrong said Nicholson’s pornography viewing had influenced his behavior, according to the Daily Mail. He may have been acting out scenes from pornography he had viewed on his X-box, the judge added.
“One of the remarkable pieces of evidence in the case was that he had started looking at pornography at the age of 12. It almost beggars belief. It is behavior where it is experimenting or curious, and perhaps acting out what he had seen using [the girl] as an object to do that.
In other words, pornography objectifies girls.
“It is a warning to parents, generally, to monitor their children’s activities rather than them being left to their own devices in their bedrooms. I can’t believe it didn’t have an effect on him,” the judge said.
Of course it did! The adolescent brain is rewiring and porn causes that rewiring to go haywire!
Before the trial began, the victim said she finds it hard to trust people. “I trust my mum, but I find it hard to tell people personal things. All of this has made me have nightmares. I cry in my sleep, and when I wake up, I feel scared.”
After the trial she said: “When this is happening, I felt really confused. I knew it was wrong, but I didn’t know how to put it into words. Now, I really understand it was rape, and he had no right to do that to me. I’m happy that people have believed me, and the jury believed me.”
Nicholson was sentenced to six years at a young offenders institute. He was found guilty of two charges of rape, attempted rape, two indecent assaults and causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.
He was also put on the sex offenders register for life, and forbidden to work with children. An indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order was also imposed, prohibiting Nicholson from having unsupervised contact with under 16s and restricting his computer and internet use.
Man raped his mum because he was ‘stressed’ at being accused of raping his girlfriend
A man who raped his own mother claims he assaulted her in the middle of the night because he was “stressed” over allegations that he had raped his girlfriend. The 29-year-old admitted to the cocaine-fuelled attack in which he also threatened his mother with a screwdriver.
At the time of the assault, he was on bail for raping his partner and eventually convicted at Liverpool Crown Court. During one violent episode, sparked by a jealous rage, he hit his girlfriend three times and then began to kick her while she lay on the floor.
The court heard how the suspect forced his girlfriend to perform a sex act on him and then raped her after alleging she was cheating on him. “It was a nasty, sustained and unpleasant assault,” Neville Biddle, prosecuting, said, according to the Liverpool Echo.
While on bail, he binged on drink and drugs before setting upon his own mother. He raped her at around 4am before stealing her car and fleeing to the Jodrell Bank Observatory. Biddle said: “He was shouting ‘mum, mum.’ He put his hand over her mouth and he held a screwdriver.”
He admitted to two counts of rape and one of sexual assault against his mother. The man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the women, showed his true self in court when he was pronounced guilty of assault causing actual bodily harm, rape and sexual assault.
After the guilty verdict, the man jumped to his feet and began shouting abuse at his victim who sat in the public gallery. He smashed the glass panel he was sitting behind in the dock and had to be restrained by prison officers as he screamed “You f*****g b****!” at the girlfriend.
Defending lawyer Brian McKenna reportedly insisted his client did not pose a threat to the wider public. Although the defendant’s ex-girlfriend was traumatized, McKenna said the woman suffered “a degree of psychological harm which was not severe.”
Judge Elizabeth Nicholls said she “sought to limit his responsibility” for raping his mother and said she had “no doubt” that he was a danger to women.
She said: “You suggested you only behaved in this fashion because you were facing false allegations. It is such a lack of insight that causes the most concern to this court. A psychiatric report describes you as having a potential dissocial personality disorder,” Judge Nicholls said, the Liverpool Echo reported."
“In particular it expresses concern with regard to your callous unconcern for others, low tolerance for frustration and incapacity to experience guilt,” the judge said. “Whilst on bail you committed these horrific offences upon your mother."
"You still seek to explain these away and excuse your conduct away by referring to the stress of the situation that you found yourself in. Most people having been arrested for a serious offence of rape may try to address their issues. It doesn’t appear that you have done so.”
The man was jailed for 15 years, plus six months added for contempt of court, with an extended six years on license.
Unfortunately, there is no mention of the sentence from the rape and assault of his girlfriend unless they are all rolled into this sentence, in which case it is pitifully inadequate.
Canadian teacher in Indonesia
child sex abuse nightmare
Brad HunterToronto SUN News World
Canadian teacher Neil Bantleman is living a twisted Kafkaesque nightmare involving sex abuse charges, billion-dollar real estate deals and a faceless bureaucracy, his brother says.
The 48-year-old — a former teacher and vice principal at a prestigious private school in Jakarta, Indonesia — was jailed in 2014 for allegedly abusing kindergarten children.
But diplomats from Canada, the U.S., Australia and the United Kingdom believe Bantleman is being railroaded.
His most recent bid for freedom has gone off the rails and he will continue to serve an 11-year jail sentence.
“You can use the word bull—-,” his brother Guy Bantleman told the Toronto Sun of his brother’s horrific ordeal.
Neil Bantleman was a devoted teacher at the Jakarta International School when he found himself a convenient scapegoat.
“We’re working through diplomatic channels now,” Guy Bantleman said.
In 2015, a mother of a student at the school claimed her son was molested by six janitors and wanted a $25 million payout. But the cleaners were contractors and not connected to the school.
That’s when the mother named Neil Bantleman, the Canadian principal and an Indonesian teacher as the culprits.
“What you need to know about the school is that it is 40 acres of prime land and sits between the business district and a really wealthy section of Jakarta,” Guy Bantleman said. “It would be like the property between Bay St. and Rosedale. It’s worth billions.”
Guy Bantleman believes the people behind stitching up his brother want to shut the school down and then buy the property.
The allegations have shifted and changed since the beginning. The mother first wanted $25 million, then $100 million and finally said she’d make the whole thing go away for $5 million, Guy Bantleman said,.
“Are you a parent? All the money in the world wouldn’t stop me from seeking justice if this happened to my child,” Bantleman added.
The crux of the prosecution’s argument was that Neil Bantleman had a magic blue stone he would pull out of thin air to drug students, then he would seduce them.
“Of course, that’s absolutely ridiculous,” his brother said.
The family, who have been fighting for the dedicated teacher for more than three years, said the government (Canadian) has been helpful and they have met Prime Minister Justin Trudeau three times.
As for Neil Bantleman, caged in one of the worst prisons on the planet, life is one of peaks and valleys. Friends make sure he gets good food and he sees his wife, Tracy, several times a week.
“The other problem is that once someone says pedophile, you think Gordon Stuckless … that’s what a pedophile looks like,” Guy Bantleman said. “That’s not my brother.”
South Africa: Western Cape Social Development
On Diep River Child Abuse
The Western Cape Department of Social Development (DSD) has referred allegations of sexual abuse of a 5-year old Diep River girl, to the South African Police Services (SAPS).
Social workers have requested the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Investigations unit within SAPS to investigate allegations of child sexual abuse and exploitation.
Guided by the Children's Act of 2005, the child has been placed in safe care, after our specialist Child Protection social workers applied to the Children's Court for a court order.
Our social workers will continue with their investigation into the circumstances of this case. This includes looking into the long term placement of the child.
Child protection is everybody's responsibility. If you see something, say something. Residents must report any abandoned, abused, neglected or missing children to the police or to the DSD Hotline on 0800 220 250.
Diep River, Cape Town, SA
South Africa: Pensioner Gets 20 Years in Jail
for Rape of 10-Year-Old Girl
A pensioner, who was convicted of raping a 10-year-old girl who stopped at his tuckshop on her way to school, has been jailed for 20 years.
Tuckshop owner Lindinkosi Malomeni Nxumalo, 64, was convicted and sentenced in the Inkanyezi Regional Court, police said on Tuesday.
The incident took place on September 30, last year. Not bad! Through the courts in 13 months.
"The victim was on her way to school when she passed the tuckshop at Esiphezi area, Eshowe. While in the tuckshop, she was approached by [Nxumalo] who raped her. The accused was disturbed by a noise from outside, and the victim managed to escape," police spokesperson Captain Nqobile Gwala said.
The matter was reported to the Eshowe police station and Nxumalo was arrested.
KwaZulu-Natal acting provincial commissioner, Major General Bheki Langa, welcomed the sentence.
"This will serve as a warning to would-be perpetrators who target vulnerable women and children, thinking that they will get away with their wrongdoing. I also want to praise the victim, who stood up and reported the matter to the police," he said.
Aussie Magistrate faces child sex charges
The Australian, SAM BUCKINGHAM-JONESA NSW magistrate with 15 years’ experience — including several months on the Children’s Court — has been suspended after being charged with nine counts of indecent assault by police investigating claims of historic child sex abuse.
Police will allege the boy was known to Mr Curran, who has been issued a court attendance notice to appear in Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court on November 22.
Mr Curran, who joined the bench in 2002, spent four months in 2004 on the Children’s Court and has presided over a number of high-profile cases.
In 2013, he granted bail to Oliver Curtis, the banker husband of PR queen Roxy Jacenko after he had been charged with conspiring to trade on the market with insider information.
A week ago, he presided over controversial former deputy mayor Salim Mehajer in a case involving two alleged assaults.
Earlier this year, he sentenced Australian singer Renee Geyer to a good behaviour bond for verbally abusing a receptionist on two separate occasions in September 2015.
The investigation was spearheaded by detectives from Strike Force Stantke — part of the State Crime Command’s Sex Crimes Squad — that was established in 2014 to investigate reports a boy had been sexually assaulted in the early 1980s.
A spokeswoman for the NSW Chief Magistrate, Graeme Henson, said: “As the matter is before the court it would be inappropriate to comment. The Chief Magistrate has suspended the judicial officer in question under s40(1)(b) of the Judicial Officers Act.”
Investigations under Strike Force Stantke are continuing.
Retired dentist found guilty of molesting boys in 1980s
Breanna Chillingworth
A RETIRED dentist has been taken into custody after he was found guilty of a string of child sex abuse charges stemming back more than 30 years.
Schwarz’s identity can now be revealed after Judge Helen Syme lifted a non-publication order on his name following the lengthy trial and deliberations by the jury in Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court.
The jury found Schwarz guilty of 16 charges of indecent assault on a male as well as one charge of sexual assault category three of a person under 16.
During the trial, Schwarz was accused of molesting four boys in total aged between eight and 17 during the 1980s.
Schwarz was found not guilty of six charges including sexual assault of a child under 16 and indecent assault of a male.
The jury also failed to reach a verdict on two counts of indecent assault on a male and sexual assault knowing no consent was given, and the 12-member panel was discharged.
Schwarz was refused bail and will remain in custody until he is sentenced in a Sydney court in December.
Evil 8 trial: Alfred John Impicciatore denies having sex with 13-year-old girl pimped out by father
Tim Clarke, PerthNowTHE last of the men involved in the Evil 8 paedophile network which shocked WA has gone on trial, denying that he had sex with the 13-year-old girl who was pimped out by her own father via online advertisements.
Prosecutor Justin Whalley told the court that Mr Impicciatore had struck up an online relationship with the girl’s father.
That began, the WA District Court was told, after the girl’s father claimed he was being blackmailed about a “threesome” the father had had with his daughter and another man.
The father then sent a naked photo of his then 13-year-old daughter to Mr Impicciatore, which was followed by an invite to their northern suburbs house.
After several hours, the girl’s father then asked Mr Impicciatore if he wanted to have sex with his daughter, or watch as he did.
Mr Impicciatore then allegedly had sex with the girl on a bed, after she had placed a sleeping mask on her face, while her father was in the room and directed some of the sex acts.
Her father also kissed her body as Mr Impicciatore had sex with her, Mr Whalley said.
After Mr Impicciatore was arrested, a used condom wrapper with his DNA on it was found in a bedside drawer at the house, the court was told.
John Hawkins, Mr Impicciatore’s lawyer, said he denied he had had sex with the girl.
At the judge alone trial, before Judge Mark Herron, a police interview with the girl was played where she outlined a portion of the abuse she had suffered at the hands of other man – while identifying Mr Impicciatore as a “chubby man with a black Chihuahua” who had had sex with her on one occasion.
She also detailed abuse by other men – including pastor Dawid Volmer – who was convicted of abusing the girl in 2015, and was jailed for ten and a half years.
Volmer was the first of the paedophile network to be jailed over the abuse of the girl.
Shocking details of Volmer’s role and the alleged involvement of the victim’s own father in exploiting her emerged when the disgraced evangelical Christian preacher was sentenced in the Perth District Court.
Volmer, 43, pleaded guilty to 12 charges — indecently dealing with a child, sexual penetration of a child and stupefying in order to commit an indictable offence — over the course of three sexual encounters with the girl.
In the interview played in court today, the girl spoke about how “David”, who she also referred to as the “massage guy”, and how he would make her sniff a substance which made her feel “woozy” before having sex with her.
And she said that he father had told her that because of a blackmail attempt being made by Volmer, he had contacted Mr Impicciatore for help.
Mr Impicciatore repeated those claims in his video record of interview with police, which was also being shown in court today.
Earlier this year, the girl’s father had an appeal against his 22 ½ year jail term for his crimes dismissed.
That term was imposed after the father pleaded guilty to using online advertisements to place the young girl at the centre of the Perth paedophile network, who then abused, filmed and drugged her while her father watched.
Prosecutors said it was one of the worst cases of child sex abuse ever to appear before a WA court, and experts said during the appeal that the man may use his time in prison to strengthen bonds with like-minded perverts.
The trial continues.
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