French law tailor-made for paedophiles
'Told me she would soon be 15':
French jurors acquit man of rape of 11yo
Following a years-long investigation, a criminal court in the Seine-et-Marne district near the French capital has ruled a now 30-year-old man cannot be charged with the rape of an 11-year-old girl, as no evidence of "threat or violence" has been established.
The man, a Cape Verdean native, was 22 years old when he met the girl in the city of Nevers in central France, where she was on vacation visiting family. The girl, who is of Congolese origin, was playing with her cousin in the street when the man approached her and invited her to a walk in the park, le Parisien reported. There, the then 11-year-old was undressed and subjected to sexual intercourse, she claims, saying she asked the man to stop and told the stranger her age.
The man maintains the act was consensual, and that the girl told him she was almost 15-years-old – the age of consent in France. However, to obtain a rape conviction, prosecutors needed to prove that sex was non-consensual. The girl’s counselor, who met her after the incident, said she was of "girlish physique, [and] could not be confused with a teenager or a woman," according to le Parisien.
The girl never mentioned the incident to her family, but several months later, they noticed she was pregnant. She gave birth to a boy who was placed in a foster home. The decision was made to quash rumors among neighbors, the girl's mother told the newspaper, adding: "The man has destroyed the life of my daughter."
However, an investigation was launched only years after. Eventually, this week, after two days of hearings, an acquittal verdict was delivered. Prosecutors, who were seeking an eight-year jail term for the man, reportedly appealed the decision.
The ruling comes shortly after another controversial case in France, in which prosecutors deemed an underage girl's sexual relationship with a 28-year-old man consensual. The girl, also 11 years old, is said to have accepted the man's invitation to his house in a Paris suburb, where they had sex. Judging that the girl was not physically forced into the act, prosecutors decided to charge the man with sexual abuse of a minor, but not rape. In the wake of the case, human rights groups called for changes to French laws, saying a legal age under which sexual consent is never presumed should be introduced.
Elderly man faces historic sex charges in Australia
AAP
An elderly man accused of dozens of historical sex offences during the 1970s is expected to face a Melbourne court for a committal hearing.
Lawrence Fitzpatrick allegedly abused the victims, some of whom were under 14, at Sale, Briagolong, Stratford and Rosedale between 1971 and 1976.
He was charged by the Sano Taskforce, which was set up to investigate historical and new allegations of child sex abuse involving religious and non-government organisations.
The pre-trial committal in Melbourne Magistrates Court is expected to begin on Monday morning.
Anglican priest charged over historical child sex abuse allegations
Rebekah Cavanagh, Herald Sun
A FORMER Anglican priest has been charged with multiple counts of indecent assault and gross indecency against two young girls.
Timothy Cohen, 63 has been charged with multiple counts of indecent assault and gross indecency in regional Victorian towns in the 1980s.
He is also accused of sexual penetration with one of the victims.
The Melbourne Magistrates Court heard on Friday that Cohen planned to contest the charges at a three-day hearing in April.
The complainants will give evidence via a remote facility.
Cohen remains on bail and the court heard he had recently moved from his Ocean Grove home to Clifton Hill.
Court documents reveal police charged Cohen with 25 offences in August.
Four charges relate to incidents alleged to have happened in Trafalgar, in the West Gippsland region, some time between January 1, 1982 and December 21, 1984.
Another seven charges — including sexual penetration of a child — were in relation to allegations in Anglesea on the Surf Coast during the same period.
Further offending allegedly happened in Alexandra and Eildon in the state’s central district between December 1, 1985 and December 30, 1987.
Elderly man jailed for intergenerational
child sex abuse over two decades
BY VICTORIA RITTER
AN ELDERLY man jailed for more than seven years for molesting his daughter, granddaughter and step-granddaughter carried out the intergenerational abuse over two decades, telling police he didn’t stop because he believed his victims enjoyed it.
The man, now 76, pleaded guilty to 25 child sex abuse charges in the Perth District Court this week — 15 relating to his daughter between 1977 and 1984 when she was aged between three and 10, nine involving his granddaughter and one against his step-granddaughter in the mid-1990s.
His reign of abuse was exposed when his step-granddaughter was in her 20s, and she confessed to her mother and reported the matter to police in 2013.
The offender, who cannot be named to protect his victims’ identities, told his step-granddaughter during a phone call: “It was more like a curiosity thing I suppose from my point of view.”
The court was told that when interviewed by police the man confessed to his crimes and told detectives he didn’t realise the gravity of his action and didn’t stop because he thought the girls were enjoying it.
In his daughter’s case, he told police he didn’t stop because the girl didn’t make it harder for him by stopping wearing dresses or sitting on his lap.
The man molested his daughter in the family home, in pools, rivers and while she sat on his lap at home and in a car — often with his wife and other children in the vicinity. Some of the abuse against his granddaughters happened when the girls climbed into bed with him and his wife.
District Court Judge Julie Wager said the man, who had to be extradited from interstate to face charges, committed a gross abuse of trust.
“They were very young children. You were a middle aged or elder man. You took advantage of their compliance and innocence for your own pleasure,” she said. “A child is not a sexually developed person. A child is an innocent who has a right to be protected from sexual abuse.”
His victims told the court of the trauma they have endured over the years, including difficulty in trusting people and feeling safe.
“(Your daughter) speaks of not brushing her teeth hoping that you would then not be attracted to her and leave her alone, of changing the way that she dressed, of being very confused, very frightened,” the judge said.
Judge Wager said the man had co-operated with police, appeared to be of otherwise good character, had no prior criminal record and provided the court with positive references from people praising his community work. But she said he showed “little insight” into his offending and the impact it had on his victims.
He was jailed for seven years and two months and made eligible for parole.
Preacher arrested for sexually abusing minor boy
The preacher was caught by a group of youths and handed over to the police, when he followed the survivor again on Saturday.
TNM Staff
A 52-year-old preacher was arrested for allegedly molesting a 12-year-old boy in Thiruvananthapuram.
According to the Aryanad police, the 12-year-old survivor would take a bus home from the Aryanad bus depot after school. On October 26, the accused, identified as Raju aka Johnson, allegedly waylaid the survivor in the bathroom of the bus depot and abused him.
The accused is reportedly a preacher who led various prayer meetings, though he is not formally attached with any church.
A day later, the survivor informed his mother, a teacher and some friends about the incident. As the accused continued to follow the survivor after the first incident, the survivor’s mother asked a group of neighbourhood youth to escort her son on his return from school.
“Johnson continued to follow the child every day after the incident, had been trying to catch his attention through gestures. This made the child scared,” Aryanad Sub Inspector S Badusha told TNM.
On Saturday, when the accused attempted to make contact with the survivor again, the group of people escorting him caught Johnson and handed him over to the police.
“It was they who informed us and handed over him to us. The accused has been arrested under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO),” the SI added.
What families should do in cases of sexual assault
While the recent rise in the number of reported child sexual abuse cases in Kerala indicates that there is growing awareness about the crime, police officials and activists warn that the actual numbers could be still higher than what is reported.
In many cases, children do not tell their families about these incidents. In many others, parents do not heed their children’s complaints, or hush up the matter as they fear a loss of reputation. But this only paves the way for the possibility of sustained abuse.
It is important for parents to maintain a healthy channel of communication so that their children are willing to speak up about any such incidents without fear or shame. And parents should take such complaints seriously.
It is also important to involve the police, so that abusers can be arrested and punished by the law. Besides the jurisdictional police, parents can also approach Childline, who can bring in the police, besides providing support to the family.
Aryanad, India
Elderly man, 70, jailed for three decades of sexual abuse against young girls
Yahoo UK
A 70-year-old serial sex offender will almost certainly die in prison after being jailed for 23 years for sexually abusing four young girls over a period spanning some three decades.
Pensioner Michael Grimes pleaded guilty to 17 counts of child abuse against four young girls.
The judge described his actions as ‘beyond normal human comprehension’ and said they were ‘vile, despicable, and perverted’.
Grimes, of Croft Green, Dunstable, was sentenced at Luton Crown Court on Friday.
As well as the sentence, he was also placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register for life.
He was caught after police received information that an IP address linked to his home was being used to download indecent images of young children.
Police then raided his home and they found devices containing more than 4,600 indecent images of children and babies, including almost 1,000 of the most severe category. During their investigations, four women came forward to claim they had been sexually abused by Grimes. The abuse spanned over a period of some 30 years.
One of the victims told the court in a statement: ‘What happened to me has not eased with time it never will. I am a real victim and it affects me every day in one way or another. I have come to live with the fact that I will never be free of this ordeal."
The police said they were delighted with the verdict.
"Grimes is clearly a very dangerous individual and I’m pleased that he has been locked away for such a significant amount of time," said Investigation Officer Paul Baddeley from the Bedfordshire Police.
"This punishment can never make up for the years of abuse that Grimes inflicted, not to mention the lasting mental anguish caused to his victims, but I hope that those involved can feel comforted by the fact he is now no longer a risk to others in society."
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