Arrests made after 26 Nigerian girls found dead while crossing Mediterranean Sea
By Ray Downs 
Migrants disembark from the Spanish ship Cantabria in the harbor of Salerno, Italy, on Sunday. During the rescue mission, 26 teenage girls were found dead. Italian authorities announced Tuesday that two arrests were made in connection with the deaths. Photo by Cesare Abbate/EPA-EFE
UPI -- Italian authorities arrested two men who allegedly trafficked 26 teenage girls from Nigeria who were found dead in the Mediterranean Sea, authorities said Tuesday.
The suspects were identified as Al Mabrouc Wisam Harar, from Libya, and Mohamed Ali Al Bouzid, from Egypt, reported the Guardian. The two men are accused of organizing the trafficking of at least 150 people whose boats sank while crossing the sea Sunday.
Rosa Maria Falasca, chief of staff at Salerno's prefecture, said police haven't made a direct connection between the two men and the deaths of the girls, who authorities believe were murdered.
The girls, whose ages were between 14 and 18, were found dead when Spanish military ships arrived to rescue the migrants Sunday.
The two men arrested for trafficking after migrants identified them as the skippers of the sunken boats, ANSA reported.
Falasca said police have doubts as to whether the teenage girls were being trafficked to Europe as part of a sex trafficking operation, explaining that sea crossings aren't the normal route sex traffickers take to Europe, according to Italian Insider.
90% of migrant women suffer sex abuse
But Marco Rotunno, an Italy spokesman for the UN refugee agency, told the Guardian that violence against women and children is so widespread in human trafficking routes to Europe, 90 percent of women are affected by it.
"It's very rare to find a woman who hasn't been abused, only in exceptional cases, maybe when they are travelling with their husband," he said. "But also women travelling alone with their children have been abused."
Tooth tests refute age claim of refugee on trial for raping & killing EU official’s daughter
Maria Ladenburger © Ropi / Global Look Press
A refugee who allegedly raped and murdered a 19-year-old girl in Germany and claimed he was “underage” turns out to be in his twenties, experts told a court on Tuesday. A tooth the accused kept from a dentist visit proved not-so lucky for him after lab analysis.
Hussein Khavari, originally from Afghanistan, is accused of attacking, strangling and raping Maria Ladenburger, a 19-year-old medical student who disappeared while on her way home from a party in the city of Freiburg, southwestern Germany, in October 2016. Her body was found by locals on the bank of the Dreisam River in the city, which is home to one of Germany’s elite universities.
A single strand of black hair, partially dyed blonde, and a scarf found on the riverbed, along with several DNA samples found on the victim’s body led investigators to Hussein, who was later spotted on CCTV footage and brought in for questioning. The suspect arrived in Germany as an unaccompanied asylum-seeker in 2015, with no identity papers, and had been living with a Germany foster family since. At the time of his arrest, Hussein told police he was 17 years old.
Not his first rape and murder
Hussein K. had previously been detained on charges of murdering a woman in Greece. According to police, he raped a Greek student and threw her off a cliff on the isle of Corfu in May 2013. He had been sentenced to ten years in prison but was released prematurely only two-and-a-half years into his sentence in October 2015, following a Greek law to ease prison overcrowding.
There is no reason for this evil person to ever see the light of day again. He must be locked up for the rest of his life. Two rapes and murders should remove any possibility of him ever being free again. Any judge who finds otherwise will have blood on his hands.
However, on Tuesday, two experts who made the analysis of his teeth told the court that the accused is far from being 17, Badische Zeitung reported. Research scientist Ursula Wittwer-Backofen said that she had analyzed one of the suspect’s canine teeth from the upper jaw.
The tooth was pulled by a dentist in February 2016, eight months before his alleged crime, and Khavari had kept the tooth ever since, the paper said. The analysis showed that the accused is about 26 years old, Wittwer-Backofen said, adding that his age may even be 30.
Another expert, Andreas Schmeling from the Institute of Legal Medicine, analyzed Hussein’s wisdom teeth. He concluded that Hussein’s absolute minimum age is 19 years, while he could be 22-23 years old.
If the court takes into account the experts’ testimony, Hussein could be convicted as an adult. This means that he would face life imprisonment.
The victim was the daughter of Clemens Ladenburger, an assistant to the director-general of the European Commission's Legal Service since 2008, German media reported back in 2016. Maria Ladenburger had worked as a volunteer in one of the local refugee shelters in her spare time.
Aussie teacher's sex attack on stepson
while wife gave birth
A convicted rapist told his stepson "see what you do to me”
while abusing the boy
by Sherele Moody
A TEACHER raped and sexually abused his stepson over eight years, with some of the attacks happening while his wife was in hospital having the offender's baby.
The "manipulative" child rapist this week failed to convince the Queensland Court of Appeal that he is innocent and the subject of a "miscarriage of justice".
Telling his victim "see what you do to me", the abuser preyed on the boy "four or five times a week" while the child's mum was running errands, when she was at work and during the period she was in hospital for the birth of one of the boy's siblings.
A Sunshine Coast jury found the man guilty of 11 charges in 2016 but the offender asked the Queensland Court of Appeal to overturn the convictions.
The rapist claimed his victim's testimony was unreliable and the verdicts were "unreasonable" because they were not supported by evidence.
The court disagreed, saying there was no issue with the evidence, the jury was properly directed and the man's appeal "lacked merit".
The abuser was initially charged with 16 offences, including maintaining a sexual relationship with a child under 18, indecent treatment, attempted sodomy and sodomy.
The boy was 10 when the man began hurting him and it continued after the victim turned 18 in 2006.
The abuse started shortly after the offender married the victim's mother and it took place in various locations around Southeast Queensland, including at Rosedale and on the Fraser Coast.
The boy said during the trial his abuser was "manipulative" and "favoured" him above his siblings.
"I was allowed to, you know, stay up a bit later, or, you know, have a few extra freedoms around the house, so to speak," he said.
The abuser attacked his victim when he found out the young man was dating a woman. "There was some physicality," the victim said.
"(He was) being right up in my face, telling me that I didn't need a girlfriend, that he was all I needed, that he loved me and that I should love him and appreciate all that he did for me. (He said) a girlfriend was only going to take that away."
"He was being quite forceful in what he was saying to me and I remember being physical and pushing him back."
The man, who cannot be named, is serving an eight-year jail term.
8 years for thousands of sexual assaults on a child. Good grief!
NZ abuse victims demand Royal Commission
By Tim Miller
News Dunedin
A Dunedin survivor of sexual abuse says he and others like him are ready for a long fight for justice.
U of Otago, Dunedin, NZ
A resolution was passed in Christchurch yesterday at the South-South Institute conference, which is organised by the Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse Trust, asking the Government to commit to a Royal Commission or similar level of inquiry into the institutional abuse of children in New Zealand.
The resolution asks that any New Zealand inquiry be modelled on the Australian Royal Commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse.
Dunedin man Darryl Smith was one of about 100 male survivors of sexual abuse who backed the call for an injury earlier this week.
Mr Smith spent more than a decade in state care, in New Zealand and Australia, beginning as a 7-year-old boy in the early 1970s.
Speaking yesterday, Mr Smith, who also gave evidence for the Australian Royal Commission, said survivors were aware it was just the start of a long journey for justice.
''We fought to get this far and we will keep fighting to keep this moving forward, not just for us but for future generations.''
Any inquiry needed to be full and comprehensive, or it would not be worth the time and effort, Mr Smith said.
Labour has promised to launch an inquiry into the historic abuse of children in state care.
National advocate for male survivors of sexual abuse Ken Clearwater will present the resolution to the Prime Minister.
Mr Clearwater said it was important the Government chose the right framework for its inquiry. ''We need to look at Australia and what went right and what went wrong and look at the one done in England and what went wrong there.''
Notice he didn't say 'what went right' referring to England's inquiry. As for 'what went wrong' there, you can start with Theresa May.
Victims also needed to be compensated for the crimes committed against them, he said.
''The people responsible for these crimes, if they are still alive, need to be held responsible and we can talk about compensation, which is more than just money.''
''There needs to be a whole package to help these men who have been left with almost no life skills except for how to survive.''
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern could not be contacted for comment yesterday.
73 y/o man from Canadian prairies pleads guilty to possessing horrific child pornography
By Jules Knox
Reporter/Anchor Global News
A man from Semans, Sask. who pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography addressed court on Wednesday.
Seventy-three-year-old David MacDonald was found with thousands of images of child pornography, including a video of a young child crying as she’s strapped down and raped.
Police also found that MacDonald appeared to Photoshop himself into some of the images.
According to court documents, two cell phones and two USB sticks were stolen from MacDonald’s home in June 2015. Two weeks later, the alleged thief showed his parents images from the devices that appeared to show MacDonald and pornographic images. Police were contacted and a search warrant was executed on MacDonald’s property.
MacDonald told court he is a victim of sexual abuse himself.
He said it all started by seeing images in magazines and progressed from there. At the time, he didn’t think of it as illegal because he wasn’t personally touching any minors, MacDonald said.
He lost his job, his friends and has seen a trustee in bankruptcy.
“He’s taken all the right steps in going to counseling for a year, he’s admitted he has a problem, so we’re arguing the position of rehabilitation more than deterrence,” defence lawyer Bill Klebeck said.
Klebeck also said MacDonald suffers from severe health problems and might not survive a lengthy jail sentence. MacDonald also had no prior criminal record, he said.
Crown prosecutor David Zeggelaar argued that MacDonald helped perpetuate the victimization of children. While the rape or physical abuse might end, the virtual abuse goes on forever, he said.
“The victimization occurs over and over again as the imagery is shared across the Internet, and people can access it, and it drives a market for that material,” Zeggelaar said.
The Crown also pointed to a report that found MacDonald at high risk for sexually re-offending.
The size of MacDonald’s collection, the young age range including toddlers, and the depravity and violence in the videos are a concern, Zeggelaar said.
The Crown asked for 18 months in custody plus a three year probation. The defence wants six months in custody and a two year probation.
MacDonald will learn his fate on Jan. 16.
Semans, Sask
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