Teacher’s adopted child taken away over classroom sex abuse claims – while he wasn’t even working
Teachers accused of sex assaults despite no evidence © Reuters/ Luke MacGregor
A teacher accused of groping female pupils had his newly adopted child taken away, although it later emerged all the claims were untrue.
The unnamed man was suspended for almost a year and his child was taken away. He was also banned from being alone with his teenage son.
Police and social workers investigated stories he had indecently touched children, although the accusation was made when he was on adoption leave. He and his wife had adopted a baby, which was taken away after the claims were made. The baby will never be returned to them.
And, no doubt, it will be very unlikely they will ever be able to adopt again.
Neil Butler, honorary treasurer of the NASUWT, told the teaching union’s annual conference that such incidents take place, despite claims by the government that they are extremely rare. Figures revealed there are a worrying number of false accusations of wrongdoing by teachers.
NASUWT figures show that out of the 119 teachers asked to attend a police interview last year because of a criminal allegation relating to their job, in 83 cases there was no case to answer or no further action was required.
“[There is] the utter devastation to members,” Butler said. “Total shock. Utter horror. There’s despair. I’ve sat with experienced teachers while they sob uncontrollably at the appalling situation they are in.”
Senior teachers criticized the “vicious process” in which police, social workers and school managers colluded in a “culture of cowardice” to protect themselves during such incidents.
Last year, deputy head teacher Kato Harris was accused of raping a child in his classroom. Harris, 38, endured two years of hell after a troubled youngster said he attacked her.
He went from being a geography teacher to living in a bedsit with no job – despite the claims later being found to be untrue. He said at the time that men in schools are facing a "lottery" of false allegations.
"My case delivers a very strong message to men who are thinking about being teachers,” Harris said. "There is a narrative now in safeguarding in schools as much as anywhere else that every male employee is viewed through the lens of being a potential pervert. Every male teacher is a potential child abuser."
“We know that 22 percent of male teachers have false allegations made about them at some point in their career.”
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Football: Argentinian giants River Plate rocked by reports of child sex abuse
BUENOS AIRES (AFP) - Several youth players have reported suffering sexual abuse at Argentinian football giants River Plate, a judicial source and non-governmental organisation revealed on Monday (April 2), in a growing scandal that comes after accusations of an illicit sex network at Independiente.
"A medical surgeon knew there had been abuse of children who lived at the boarding facility at River," Andres Bonicalzi, a lawyer for a rape victims charity, said at a press conference.
The complaint was filed with the police in Buenos Aires, and concerns the alleged sexual abuse of players in youth teams between 2004 and 2011, according to judicial sources cited by local media.
"We still don't know the terms of the complaint, but we are making ourselves available to the judiciary and complainants so a full investigation can be carried out," River's secretary general Ignacio Villarroel told La Nacion.
The investigation had up until this point revolved around rival side Independiente, where the testimony of a 17-year-old prompted the team's psychologist to press club directors to contact the authorities.
The teenager said he had been encouraged, alongside another 19-year-old player, to prostitute himself to adult men in a trendy Buenos Aires neighbourhood, local press said.
"The structure of this underage prostitution network didn't only operate at Independiente. There are other clubs (involved)," public prosecutor Maria Soledad Garibaldi said last week.
The authorities are also concerned about possible cases of abuse at a third club, Temperley.
At River, one of the three cases brought to attention "concerns a girl from the volleyball teams and the two others from football", Bonicalzi said.
"We are investigating the testimony of provincial families whose children are victims of a paedophile network," she added.
Six people have already been arrested, including referee Martin Bustos, a public relations official and an organiser of youth tournaments.
The victims were coaxed into having sexual relations with adults in exchange for money, promotions to other teams within the club and sporting goods, according to the investigation.
River Plate are the most successful team in Argentinian history with 36 national titles, ahead of fellow Buenos Aires outfit Boca Juniors (32), as well as Avellaneda-based duo Racing (17) and Independiente (16).
Independiente have also won the continental Copa Libertadores - South America's equivalent of the Uefa Champions League - a record seven times, having never lost a final.
Part of a multi-discipline sports organisation, both River and Independiente have a host of different teams throughout the youth ranks, as well as a football academy and an education centre for children throughout their compulsory schooling period.
Four million: The shocking number of child abuse files shared in Victoria each month
Twenty men charged with sharing horrific child abuse material
By Tammy Mills, The Age
The Joint Anti-Child Exploitation Team has arrested a group of men ranging from 19 to 62 from across 19 suburbs and one country town in Victoria
Twenty Victorian men have been charged with sharing child abuse material, including “hurtcore” torture videos, after police raids across Melbourne.
The charges come as the joint anti-child exploitation team revealed that on average paedophiles in Victoria share 4 million files containing child abuse material every month.
Detectives from the team, which comprises both federal and state police, are now trying to identify the children in the thousands of videos and photos. The material was found in the hard drives seized from homes in 19 suburbs and one country town, including Fitzroy, Ascot Vale, Ormond and Richmond, over four days in March. The final warrant was executed on Thursday.
“The files depicted the sexual abuse and torture of children from newborn age up to 18 years of age,” Deputy Commissioner Shane Patton said. “They could be from anywhere.”
The police action signified a shift in strategy in investigating child abuse in Victoria, with collective raids normally reserved for drugs and gun crime, Mr Patton said. “This is the new frontline,” he said.
“These are not simply online choices made for sexual gratification – they are abhorrent crimes against children, the most vulnerable people in our community.”
The enormous amount of abuse material being shared every month is partly driving this change. The true figure was probably significantly higher than 4 million, given one file could contain hundreds of others, police said.
The anti-child exploitation team had already conducted a 90-day snapshot of child abuse files in 2015 that showed as many as 4000 Victorians were sharing such images online at any moment.
Police found thousands of disturbing images on hard drives seized during the raids.
Photo: Victoria Police
The 20 men arrested have little in common apart from using the same peer-to-peer networking sites, police allege. The youngest was 19, the oldest 62, but most were in their 30s. Some work in hospitality, another in education, while others were unemployed.
“Some of these people have been offending since they were 16 years old and continue to offend by looking at this material over a number of years,” Mr Patton said.
“Part of this operation was focused on establishing whether any of those arrested had moved from online offences to contacting offending, and if there were any children currently at risk or who could be identified as victims of a sexual assault.”
Material from the hard drives will be run through international law enforcement databases, as well as the Australian Federal Police’s victim identification library, which compares images with those held in the library to determine if they are new victims or ones known to police.
Child sex dolls were also seized in the raids, police said.
Peer-to-peer file sharing is when digital media is distributed over a network – like the systems used to illegally download music or movies – allowing computers to exchange files without going through a central server.
It saves time and space on hard drives, but for police investigating paedophiles who are widely using this method to share material, it’s harder to trace. The files are downloaded from different computers within the network and once the download is complete, one computer becomes the source for the file, which hides its lineage.
Mr Patton would not discuss the methodology officers used to locate the men, but said detectives would continue to target those sharing or accessing child abuse material on peer-to-peer networks as well as through other known methods.
He said more resources – both in terms of the number of officers as well as technology – was being poured into tracking those downloading, viewing and sharing child abuse material.
“People who are sitting in their suburban homes and thinking they’re not going to get caught, well, this is putting them on notice,” Mr Patton said.
One of the most notorious cases in Victoria’s recent history was that of Matthew David Graham. From his bedroom in his parents’ South Morang home, 23-year-old Graham built his empire under his online name Lux and became the biggest online distributor of child abuse material in the world.
One of the worst videos Graham procured was one made by a fellow Melburnian Peter Scully, who is facing trial for rape, murder and human trafficking in the Philippines.
'I can't imagine viewing those images again': Sex offender says rehabilitation therapy works
UK: A convicted sex offender who viewed and downloaded thousands of images of child abuse claims that he has been rehabilitated with therapy.
'Ed' was given a community service sentence after he was caught with 27,000 images of child abuse on his computer. He voluntarily signed up to specialist therapy designed to rehabilitate sex offenders and said he now is confident he will not reoffend.
"I can't in my deepest heart imagine ever getting close to viewing these images again," he said.
He spoke out as Britain's top child protection police officer controversially said sex offenders who view indecent images of children online should be rehabilitated rather than jailed.
Ed said: "I can understand some people might think he's avoided the more serious punishment and the impact of going to prison and that's not fair. "I feel I'm being probably better equipped to avoid re-offending through this community order with the additional support of the rehabilitation programmes."
Chief Constable Simon Bailey said the justice system is struggling to cope with the number of offenders viewing child abuse images online.
Chief Constable Simon Bailey, child protection lead at the National Police Chiefs’ Council, says the justice system is struggling to cope with the number of sex offenders and said police cannot "arrest their way out of the problem".
He added 74% of online sex offenders do not receive custodial sentences and should undergo rehabilitation programmes to reduce re-offending.
There are half a million offenders in the UK viewing and downloading images of child abuse, the NSPCC says.
And police are arresting 420 offenders a month, according to Chief Constable Bailey.
"Those numbers are not slowing down," he said. "Those numbers are just growing and growing."
He added: "Three out of four offenders are currently not receiving a custodial sentence. I would argue that having to confront and deal with your offending behaviour is probably far more impactive than a conditional discharge or a suspended sentence."
"Every day officers across the country are arresting more and more offenders, the courts are struggling to cope with the demand, the prisons are struggling to cope with the demand, we simply cannot lock up the tens of thousands of offenders that we are seeking to deal with."
The Lucy Faithfull Foundation, through it's 'Stop it Now' helpline and therapy programmes, say that rehabilitation works in most cases.
Tom Squire of the Lucy Faithfull Foundation. Credit: ITV News
Senior practitioner, Tom Squire said the re-offending rate of people looking at child abuse images on the internet is between five per cent and ten per cent.
But he said there are no comparative figures between those who have received a jail term and those that received a non-custodial sentence.
"I think as a society we're all learning really about the different interventions and what impact they'll have."
But Jim Gamble, former head of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, said there is only one place that sex offenders belong and that is jail.
"If we were talking about terrorism, we wouldn't be saying 'Well, there's not enough space in the prisons to put all the people who are killing our citizens. We'd make space," he said.
"So if we want child sex abusers to think twice before they go online and download an indecent image, we've got to make sure they understand there'll be a consequence."
The NSPCC say the scale of offenders viewing online child sex abuse images amounts to a social emergency and that more needs to be done to tackle the threat.
But as yet, there is no silver bullet to deal with the problem.
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Ampleforth in Charity Commission takeover amid concerns of its management of sex abuse allegations
Olivia Rudgard, religious affairs correspondent
Ampleforth Abbey has been stripped of responsibility for pupil welfare by the Charity Commission amid concerns about its management of sex abuse allegations.
The Commission has removed responsibility for safeguarding matters from trustees at the prestigious boarding school as it said it had not improved its policies enough since an inquiry into the charity following allegations of sexual abuse was launched in 2016.
It said it had taken action "as a result of continued concerns about the extent to which current safeguarding risks to pupils at the schools run by the charities are being adequately managed".
The Commission opened inquiries into Ampleforth Abbey and the St Laurence Education Trust in November 2016 following revelations that alleged sexual abuse at the school had been covered up.
Ampleforth Abbey runs a 200-year-old religious community on the same site as Ampleforth College in Yorkshire, which is run by the St Laurence Education Trust. St Laurence also runs prep school St Martin's Ampleforth, which announced its closure earlier this year.
Last year the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse heard that allegations of sexual abuse had been made against 40 monks and teachers who had previously lived or worked at the Catholic boarding school and religious community.
Emma Moody, a specialist charity lawyer at Womble Bond Dickinson, has now been appointed as interim manager of both charities.
Harvey Grenville, head of investigations and enforcement at the Charity Commission said: "It is of paramount importance that beneficiaries, and others who come into contact with charities, are protected from harm.
"We are not satisfied that the trustees of these charities have made enough progress in improving the safeguarding environment for pupils in the schools connected to the charities.
Ampleforth Abbey and College, Yorkshire, England, Britain
It said it had taken action "as a result of continued concerns about the extent to which current safeguarding risks to pupils at the schools run by the charities are being adequately managed". CREDIT: KIPPA MATTHEWS /REX
"For this reason, we have appointed an interim manager to expedite changes in the safeguarding arrangements at the schools."
A spokesman for Ampleforth said: "The safeguarding of children and adults is paramount in all the works of the Ampleforth Abbey Trust and the St Laurence Education Trust.
"We welcome the insight which Emma Moody and her team will bring to Ampleforth, and are committed to working with them to implement their recommendations regarding governance in relation to safeguarding.
"Ampleforth commissioned an independent report by Professor Sue Proctor last year to look at areas including its future safeguarding reporting structure. Its senior teams have been working towards these recommendations which have also been shared with Ms Moody and her team."
Self-confessed paedophile who filmed himself molesting boys is sentenced for catalogue of child sex crimes
James Sergeant's secret world unravelled when police found thousands of child abuse images on his computer - including of boys he had molested
By Gareth Lightfoot
A self-confessed paedophile who filmed himself molesting boys is starting a 12-year prison sentence for a catalogue of child sex crimes.
James Sergeant’s sickening secret world of grooming and depravity unravelled when police raided his home and seized his computer.
Officers found more than 2,300 child abuse images, with over 60 videos he had recorded himself.
The videos showed him abusing two underage boys several years ago, Teesside Crown Court heard.
Asking one boy what he would do for a dare, he touched the boys, got them to touch him and encouraged them to watch pornography and take part in “degrading behaviour”.
Prosecutor Robin Turton told the court: “He has an interest in prepubescent boys.”
The collection of disturbing pictures discovered on the tower computer, most downloaded from the internet, included more than 600 at the most serious level in law.
When arrested on suspicion of rape, Sergeant said: “No that hasn’t happened. It’s not me.”
Sergeant, of Cargo Fleet Lane, Middlesbrough, later admitted a total of 20 charges.
They were four charges of raping a child under 13, one of sexually assaulting a child, five of sexual activity with a child and six of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, taking and making indecent images of children and possessing 82 prohibited images of children and 21 images of extreme pornography.
He lacked empathy and attributed adult qualities to the child victims, said a probation report.
Paul Newcombe, defending, said: “There’s no getting around it. These are troubling crimes committed again and again.”
He said Sergeant, 45, accepted he was a paedophile with warped thinking who was startlingly candid in confessing to his “depravity” and continuing unhealthy fantasies.
He said Sergeant showed deep remorse and shame, was facing his “demons” and, unlike many sex offenders, did not deny or excuse his behaviour, blame it on others or his upbringing, twist the truth or see himself as a victim.
He added Sergeant, who had no previous convictions, knew he could not undo the harm and suffering he had caused, and expressed concern about the boys’ wellbeing.
He argued Sergeant deserved a long jail term but urged the judge not to pass a sentence which took all hope away from him.
The judge, Recorder Bryan Cox QC, said Sergeant was guilty of “sustained and intensive” sexual abuse of two vulnerable children, causing severe psychological harm.
He told the pervert, appearing in court via video link to prison: “You groomed those boys.” He said he found it difficult to see what option Sergeant had but to plead guilty to his crimes with the evidence stacked against him.
“These videos proved... what you were engaged in with these children. They made any defence by you utterly untenable. You initially denied matters but to your credit soon recanted and faced reality."
“There were acts of depravity and degradation. A good deal of your activity with the boys was recorded.”
Sergeant was jailed for 12 years, his first prison sentence.
He was given a sexual harm prevention order banning him from work or unsupervised contact with under-16s and governing his internet and devices use, and will be on the sex offenders’ register, both indefinitely.
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