Australian Royal Commission ON Child Sex Abuse closes; report tomorrow
Justice Peter McClellan
The Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse held its final sitting marking the end of a five-year inquiry.
Justice Peter McClellan, Chair of the Royal Commission, said that more than 8,000 people came to speak with a commissioner in a private session and more than 4,000 individual institutions were reported as places where abuse occurred.
The Royal Commission will on Friday hand down its final report and recommendations to the Governor-General of Australia in Canberra.
This Royal Commission should be the gold standard for inquiries needed for every country in the world. The spectacular amount of child sex abuse that they uncovered is happening everywhere, but because children have no voice, it is not being investigated anywhere close to the way it should be.
Congratulations to Peter McClellan and the rest of the team for showing us that such an inquiry can be run in an efficient and effective manner without a lot of drama not related to the issues.
Thank you for giving abused children a voice, usually for the first time in their lives. God bless you all.
Second alleged victim describes being raped in her bed by New Zealand man
MYTCHALL BRANSGROVE/STUFF
Timaru, NZ: An alleged victim has described how she was told to keep quiet about allegedly being raped by an Ashburton man.
The man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of his alleged victims, is on trial in the Timaru District Court on six representative charges of sexual violation by rape of two girls.
On Tuesday morning a DVD interview with the first alleged victim was played to the court, in which she alleged the defendant had sex with her, then paid her $15 and told her not to tell anybody about it.
On Tuesday afternoon the court was played an interview with the second alleged victim from May 11, 2016. During the interview the girl repeatedly broke down in tears as she recounted being raped by the defendant.
"He was doing sex, he was doing it in our bed ... he said he would stop it but he won't stop it and I don't want to say the rest," she said in her interview.
"He goes away and he makes me go in the shower, then we go to school. He said he was sorry, he said he didn't want to get told off, he said not to tell anyone."
The alleged victim said afterwards the defendant made her put her nightie in the washing machine.
The defendant never did things to her at night, only when her mother was at work in the morning, she the told the interviewer.
She said the first victim had talked to her about being raped by the defendant. "Sometimes she got $15 for it ... for doing sex, that was the last time."
In cross examination on Wednesday morning, defence counsel Craig Ruane asked the second victim about her police interview. Ruane asked her if she had offered the same evidence as the first victim, to which she replied yes.
She was then asked by Ruane if she knew she had to back up the first girl's story, or else she would be letting the first girl down.
The girl replied "sort of".
"How did you know what [the first alleged victim] had said?" Ruane asked.
"Because it was the same thing that happened to me," she replied.
"You didn't want to have to back up [the first alleged victim's] story with something you knew didn't happen ... you didn't want to have to tell lies?" Ruane asked the girl.
"It did happen ... it was the truth that was said," she replied.
In her evidence to the court, child sexual abuse expert Dr Wendy Miller said a medical examination one of the alleged victims was carried out on May 31, 2017.
Genital warts were found on the girl's genital area, while the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) was also found, Dr Miller said.
Sexual transmission was the "most likely explanation" for both diagnoses in a child of the age of the alleged victim, Dr Miller told the court.
In cross examination, Ruane asked Miller if the infection could be transmitted through poor hygiene or dirty clothing, and its presence was not just an indicator of sexual abuse.
Dr Miller replied it could be caused by sexual abuse, and many other things.
The trial will continue on Thursday.
Convicted pedophile stopped at Sydney Airport
under new child sex tourism laws
under new child sex tourism laws
FILE PHOTO © Jason Reed / Reuters
A convicted child molester has been detained at Sydney Airport while attempting to leave the country. The man was stopped under new laws aimed at preventing pedophiles convicted in Australia from traveling overseas, namely to Southeast Asia, for sex tourism.
Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop told reporters at Sydney Airport that the man was being questioned by the Federal Police. It is not clear where the registered child offender was attempting to fly to.
Up to 800 Australian child sex offenders traveled overseas last year. About 40 percent of them did so without informing the authorities of their travel plans, Bishop told reporters on Wednesday. “This will now stop,” she promised.
Australia’s new laws, which took effect on Wednesday, will make it impossible for “up to 20,000 registered child sex offenders” listed on the Australian child sex offender register to leave the country, unless for specific purposes officially approved by local law enforcement agencies. Among other things, the new measures give Bishop carte blanche to deny a passport to a child sex offender, cancel existing passports and order the surrender of a foreign passport.
“Registered child sex offenders have reporting obligations in Australia because of the ongoing risk that they present to children in Australia, but we are aware that they have a high propensity to reoffend if they are in the country where they not monitored and where child sex exploitation is rampant,” the minister said, as cited by The Australian.
It is now a federal crime, punishable by up to five years behind bars, for registered child molesters to leave Australia without approval from law enforcement agencies. Justice Minister Michael Keenan praised the new laws as the most comprehensive crackdown on child sex tourism anywhere in the world. “This is world first legislation, and the rest of the world is looking to Australia to see how this is going to progress,” he said.
“We know that in our region, there is different levels of law enforcement capability, there is different approaches to the abuse of children, there’s different community attitudes, and we are making sure that Australians will not be able to leave this country to abuse vulnerable children, particularly in Southeast Asia.”
Australian pedophiles have a reputation for taking cheap vacations to nearby Southeast Asian and Pacific Island countries.
Sobbing prostitute apologizes to sex abuse victim, 7:
'I am not a monster'
Brad Hunter'I am not a monster'
A Kitchener prostitute sobbed in court as she apologized for sexually abusing a seven-year-old Hamilton girl.
Sonya Lucas, 49, was one of three adults convicted in the sickening sex assault of the child. She pleaded guilty in June to sexual interference, making child pornography and possessing child pornography.
Shaking and sobbing, she addressed the Hamilton court Monday at her sentencing hearing.
“I would like to tell her [the girl] how truly sorry I am for the part I played in sexually abusing her,” Lucas read from a prepared statement. “I deserve to be punished.”
She added: “I know I am not a monster and I believe I am worth saving.”
At the time of the incident in the summer of 2016, Lucas was working as an escort and was paid $100 to travel from Kitchener to Hamilton with a man called Rui DaSilva to the child’s Hamilton home.
Cops say DaSilva had responded to a twisted Craigslist ad offering sex with a child. The boyfriend of the girl’s mother posted the ad.
During the visit, Lucas touched the child in an inappropriate manner and filmed DaSilva and the mother’s boyfriend sexually abusing the girl, on her cellphone.
The family lashed out at the crying blond hooker in a victim impact statement. The girl’s aunt said her emotions were on a roller coaster, ranging from anger to guilt.
“My niece has been robbed of her innocence,” her aunt said. “I am haunted by the echoes of my little niece whimpering in her sleep … saying ‘please don’t hurt me’.”
The Crown wants Lucas to spend 10 years in the slammer — two years longer than DaSilva — because she has a prior conviction for sexually assaulting two teenagers.
Her lawyer told CTV that authorities aren’t dealing with “a Karla Homolka.”
Tragically, for the little girl, depraved sexual abuse was part of her daily routine — usually at the hands of her mother’s boyfriend, who can’t be named.
Why not?
Lucas was only a participant on one evening, her lawyer said, adding she didn’t know a child was involved when she got in DaSilva’s car. But once in harm’s way with a cabal of pedophiles, Lucas did nothing, the Crown said.
Her lawyer, Harald Mattson, said Lucas struggled with booze to cope with her own abusive childhood. Mattson wants Lucas to do five or six years in the clink.
Judge Tony Leitch will impose his sentence on Lucas on Dec. 21.
Bodybuilder jailed over sexual abuse of girl, 4
A former championship body builder has been jailed for sexually abusing a four-year-old girl.
Jenev Varghese, 33, of Dallow Road, Luton, was found guilty at Luton Crown Court of two counts of sexually assaulting a child under the age of 13.
During the trial the jury heard how he threatened to kill her family if she spoke out, police said.
He was jailed for 12 years with a one year extension and placed on the sex offenders register indefinitely.
'Severe sentence'
Det Con Samantha Shane, of the Bedfordshire Police Public Protection Unit, said: "Varghese took advantage and abused his incredibly young victim in the worst way possible.
"It is impossible to comprehend the abuse that this child suffered, but I hope that her and her family are now able to move on from this awful experience.
"I'm really pleased with the severe sentence today and I hope it sends a stark warning to others who think they can abuse children and get away with it."
Varghese was also handed a Sexual Harm Prevention Order until further notice, and a restraining order was put in place banning contact with the victim also until further notice.
So, he was sentences to prison but he needs a Prevention Order? Which means he is not in prison, or does the Order not come into effect until he leaves prison?
It is not such a severe sentence. He will be out of prison while the child is still a child. It is not severe enough.
Last abuse survivor resigns from Vatican
child protection commission
by David V Barrett
Peter Saunders said he was 'disappointed that the commission didn’t do what I thought it was set up to achieve'
Sexual abuse survivor Peter Saunders has resigned from the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, set up by Pope Francis to make recommendations on the Church’s role in child protection.
“I’m disappointed that the commission didn’t do what I thought it was set up to achieve,” Mr Saunders told The Tablet. “And there is still a huge amount of work that needs to be done.”
The commission only has an advisory role and does not comment on current cases of abuse.
“There was a bit of a misunderstanding about the commission’s role,” said Mr Saunders, who wanted it to have a more active role. “But I thought the Pope was serious about kicking backsides and holding people to account. I believe the Church deserves better on this.”
Mr Saunders was given “leave of absence” from the commission in February 2016 following friction with other members.
Fellow abuse survivor Marie Collins, who left the commission in March citing frustration with some officials in the Curia, tweeted about Mr Saunders’s resignation on Wednesday: “Strange timing as the term of office of all current members of the Commission ends in four days time 17th December anyway. Good luck for the future Pete.”
This leaves the commission without any representation from sexual abuse survivors. It has been suggested that they should instead comprise a separate advisory panel.
Bernard McGrath, St John of God brother
named after lengthy child sex abuse case
Joanne McCarthy
FORMER St John of God Brother Bernard McGrath did not deny that boys were sexually assaulted at the Kendall Grange home at Morisset in the 1970s and 1980s, after he was charged in 2012 with offences against multiple boys.
He just denied being the Brother who committed the offences.
On Thursday a Sydney District Court lifted non-publication orders over McGrath’s name, the name of his order, the boys’ home and its location after a jury found him guilty of 60 offences in November, including multiple counts of buggery, homosexual intercourse with a child, detaining a child for advantage, assault, indecent assault and gross indecency.
McGrath, 70, will appear in court again on Friday for a sentencing hearing before he is sentenced in February, after a trial that started in May and included harrowing evidence from boys who said they were repeatedly brutally raped by him. The trial heard some boys told their parents but when McGrath was confronted he replied that “Kids make up stories”.
Charges against McGrath were laid by Lake Macquarie detectives in 2012, nearly two years after Strike Force Lozano was established to investigate child sex allegations involving Kendall Grange and McGrath. He did not face court until March, 2015 after he fought extradition from New Zealand but lost a final appeal to that country’s highest court.
The court rejected his challenge that New Zealand Justice Minister Judith Collins made an error of law and ‘‘abdicated her responsibilities’’ in ruling his age and health did not preclude him being returned to Australia.
McGrath was born in New Zealand and joined the St John of God order at the age of 18. During a New Zealand trial a court heard McGrath say he had been bullied into joining the order by his father.
McGrath was jailed in New Zealand for three years after he was convicted of child sex offences against four boys. He was jailed in NSW in 1997 after offences against another boy, and again in New Zealand in 2006 for further offences.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse found 40 per cent of St John of God Brothers were alleged child sex offenders.
Please note: these figures only include recognized cases. The Brothers of St John of God dealt strictly with children with disabilities many of whom cannot or will not ever speak of what has been done to them. At least one expert suggests the real number of perverts in the order may exceed 50%. And if that is the case, then why would anyone stay in the order if he weren't a pervert?
The Brothers of St John of God almost exclusively looked after special needs children. Why this order still exists is beyond me and beyond all sense of decency.
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