Kasur sex abuse victims appeal to CJP for retrial, fulfilment of govt promises
In February, I wrote that Kashmir was the Worst Place in the World to be a Child Sex Abuse Victim. It is quite obvious that Pakistan is not much better, if better at all.
LAHORE: Victims of the 2015 Kasur child sex abuse scandal are appealing to Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar to grant them retrials as their ongoing cases draw closer, claiming that they have been misled by NGOs, pro bono lawyers and members of the media during the course of the past few years.
A letter penned by Danish Ali, one of the victims of the 2015 scandal, has asked the CJP to take suo motu notice of the government’s inability to fulfil their promises towards the victims.
The 19-year-old Danish Ali, who has emerged as a leader among the victimised boys, talking to Pakistan Today tells a tale of ostracisation, victim blaming and constant sidelining by the government and their own people.
Expressing lack of hope from the ongoing court proceedings, he said that he is pleading with the chief justice to intervene and give him and his friends justice.
“I have noticed that the chief justice has been taking up a lot of cases, so I would implore him to take up ours as well,” he said.
“Some of the perpetrators against whom there is video evidence had already been released last year (5th story on link) by the anti-terrorism court (ATC). We were made promises by the government that we would be provided lawyers and that our education would be taken care of, but none of this has come to fruition,” he added.
“How can the current cases be considered justice? Our cases have become so muddled that we do not even know what we are fighting for anymore. We are ostracised in our own city. We have been taunted and harrassed to the extent that fake First Information Reports (FIR) have been registered against us and many of us have had to leave Kasur,” he said.
Danish further said that when the story of the abuse scandal broke out back in 2015, a number of people and lawyers had promised to help and support them, but later disappeared after getting as much publicity as they could from the incident.
“Our case was picked up by some NGOs and lawyers such as Latif Sattar, however they would never appear in court and would weaken our case as they were only looking for fame through the case and not to our situation,” he revealed.
“The government had also promised to provide us legal aid but we are yet to see any of this. Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif himself promised to take care of our education but we are still lagging behind because of the time we missed,” complained Danish, who is still trying to clear the second part of his intermediate examinations while many of his friends have graduated already.
Meanwhile, Hassan Niazi, who is lawyer to Danish and many other victims told Pakistan Today that a retrial had become a necessity by all legal standings.
“An unfair trial has been dragging on since 2015 which has caused the victims financial and social challenges. They are the victims but they are being further victimised and pushed into the corner,” he said.
“Some of these kids have been forced to accept paltry sums as compensation money to ruin their cases. Others are being defamed with fake FIRs and their case dirtied. At this rate, any decision will be a clear miscarriage of justice,” the lawyer said.
The lawyer also asserted that this was one of the biggest cases in the country and it was shocking that such a blatant miscarriage of justice should happen in it.
Seriously, Niazi, it is not shocking! A just and fair trial would have been shocking!
Kasur, Pakistan
But then, India is not much better either. The entire sub-continent is a dreadful place to be a child sex abuse victim and is, unfortunately, one area of the world where children are most likely to become victims of child sex abuse. It is rampant there and has been for centuries.
Child sexual abuse victims face hurdles
at every step in India
Sonam Saigal
Report brought out by Majlis, an NGO, highlights the problems they face at police station, hospital, court, child welfare committee, and govt. dept.
Mumbai: Victims of child sexual abuse face hardships when they approach the police, hospital, child welfare committee (CWC), court, and even the department of women and child development. Majlis, a non-governmental organisation, which has been working with such cases for the last 25 years, released a report, highlighting the teething problems in the system, at Jan Sunvayi (public hearing) on Tuesday.
Hours at police station
The report says filing an FIR and recording the victim’s statement takes around seven hours. Even though the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) states the statement can be recorded at a venue of the victim’s choice, the child is still brought to the police station. The victim is taken for a medical examination in the middle of the night or early morning immediately after the registration of the FIR, even though there is no emergency or likelihood of loss of evidence. The police record the victim’s statement, take for a medical test, and then take the child to the place of offence, without a break, and this lasts about 15 hours. Besides, there is usually a delay of weeks in the submission of the FIR.
Trauma at hospitals
The medical examination, the report points out, takes about nearly eight hours to complete. There is no single window, and the child has to keep visiting different departments. In several hospitals, the process takes almost four days due to lack of doctors. If the victim goes directly to the hospital, there is an inordinate delay in informing the police. Many times, the victim is not given a copy of the medical examination. Many hospitals have one-stop-help centres to report CSA cases to the CWC, but they fail to do so.
No relief at court
Majlis says there is an inordinate delay in recording the evidence of the victim, which often results in the victim turning hostile or getting pressured by the defence. Special courts are designated to hear the POCSO cases, but some judges and prosecutors lack the specialised training to handle sensitive cases. Public prosecutors do not spend adequate time studying the facts due to which objections are not raised during cross-examination. A better coordination between the police and the public prosecutor is essential to ensure a strong charge sheet. Some judges and public prosecutors are not well-versed with the role of ‘support person’ (a person assigned by the CWC to assist the child through investigation and trial).
CWC has no time
A thorough home investigation report, care plan, and progress report for each case at a child care institution is the CWC’s priority. It is required to hold sittings at different children’s homes to ensure accessibility, which rarely occurs. Some CWCs do not have fixed days and timings for sittings, resulting in inconvenience to the victim and family. There is no standardised method of maintaining documents, records, and hearings before the committee, and lack of digitisation leads to a loss of dockets.
Delay in disbursement
Recent changes to the Manodhariya scheme have caused a delay in disbursement of compensation. The department of women and child development has failed to set up ‘district trauma teams’ in each district as per the government resolution. There are also issues like vacancies in the CWC, non-payment of honorarium to members, and lack of adequate infrastructure.
Adelaide archbishop's fate in the balance
A NSW magistrate is considering a submission from Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson to drop the case against the clergyman involving claims he covered up child sex abuse by a fellow priest.
After prosecutor Gareth Harrison formally closed the crown case against Wilson in the Newcastle Local Court on Tuesday, defence barrister Stephen Odgers SC handed up a detailed "no case to answer" submission to magistrate Robert Stone.
Mr Odgers noted the density of the material and suggested the magistrate would need some time to go over it before deciding if the case against Wilson should be dropped.
The defence lawyer said the submission dealt with evidence from two former altar boys who claim they told Wilson in 1976 how priest James Fletcher had sexually abused them.
One of Fletcher's victims, Peter Creigh, says Wilson had a "look of horror" when he told him about the abuse but never reported the matter to police.
The second victim, who can't be named, states Wilson told him the abuse claims were lies because Fletcher "was a good bloke".
Wilson, 67, is the most senior Catholic official in the world to be charged with concealing child sex assault.
That is not quite true: French cardinal to stand trial (7th story on link) in child sex abuse cover-up.
Fletcher was found guilty in December 2004 of nine counts of child sexual abuse and died in jail of a stroke in January 2006.
Mr Odgers told the court on Tuesday the "no case" submission questioned if the evidence from the two former altar boys proved Wilson had a tendency to conceal child sex abuse by the Catholic clergy.
The defence barrister had earlier told the court Wilson did not dispute meeting Mr Creigh in 1976 but believed he had a false memory when it came to discussing Fletcher's abuse.
Mr Stone adjourned the trial to Tuesday afternoon to give him time to consider the defence submission which is the fourth time Wilson's lawyers have attempted to have the case thrown out.
The magistrate in February 2016 initially refused to quash or permanently stay the proceedings and then a NSW Supreme Court judge dismissed the archbishop's appeal against that decision eight months later. The NSW Court of Appeal also ruled against Wilson in mid-2017.
The case finally began in December after Wilson was found fit to stand trial despite being diagnosed with the early stages of Alzheimer's disease.
And he's questioning the memory of the survivors?
Jury told to keep open mind in historical N.Z.
child sexual abuse trial
The jury in the trial of a man accused of historical sexual abuse against his daughter and niece have been told to keep an open mind while hearing the evidence.
The Hawke's Bay man, who cannot be named, is standing trial in the Napier District Court after pleading not guilty to 11 charges of molesting his daughter and niece more than four decades ago.
Yesterday, Monday, the jury of seven males and five females were told by the man's defence lawyer Bill Calver the charges were historical, the oldest dating back 46 years.
The defendant pleaded not guilty to rape, attempted rape, four charges of indecency with a girl aged between 12 and 16 and five charges of indecency with a girl under 12 years old. Most of the charges are representative.
In her opening address, Crown prosecutor Jo Rielly said the daughter's account of events was that the defendant began molesting her when she was a young child, often telling her to go to her bedroom while other adults weren't around.
"She said he would tell her to be quiet and never to tell anyone, especially not mum."
The prosecutor said he would perform sexual acts on her on a regular basis, normally around bedtime, and that these acts progressed to what she would later learn was sexual intercourse.
"She would pick a spot on the ceiling and look at it while this was happening until it finished," Ms Rielly said.
Calver told the jury to wait until they had heard all of the evidence before making up their minds.
"The defence in this case is quite simple; [the defendant] is not a child molester. He didn't interfere with his daughter, he did not interfere with his niece and by the way he did not attempt to interfere with his granddaughter."
The court was told the jury would hear from the defendant's granddaughter, one of the complainant's daughters, as a propensity witness in support of the Crown's case.
The alleged offending was said to have occurred in Auckland and Hawke's Bay between the early 1970s and 80s; a timeframe that came to the fore when the defendant's niece was called as a witness yesterday afternoon.
The court had heard the woman was molested by the defendant in the bed she slept in when visiting his home in the school holidays, often on occasions when other adults had left the property to play housie.
"She remembers waking to him pulling the covers off ... and putting his hand down the front [of] her pants and underwear ... she said she would lie still with her eyes closed because she was frightened," Rielly said.
In cross-examination, Calver put to the woman that what she alleged occurred at the man's home when she was 12 years old could not have happened as property records showed the house wasn't built until she was at least 14.
The woman said she couldn't remember, having earlier recalled being touched when she was 12.
The court heard the woman hadn't told anyone about what had happened despite seeing the defendant several times in the years that followed her childhood.
"I haven't really spoken a lot about it ... I haven't told her [the defendant's daughter] anything at all about what he'd done to me. I haven't told anybody. My children don't even know and some of them are adults."
The trial is set down for the remainder of the week with the Crown set to call five witnesses, including the defendant's ex-wife.
Woman takes stand to testify against father in historical N.Z. sex abuse trial
The jury in the trial of a Hawke's Bay man accused of historical sexual abuse has heard from his daughter. Photo/FileThe jury in the trial of a Hawke's Bay man accused of historical sexual abuse has heard from his daughter. Photo/File
Hawkes Bay Today
A woman has told a jury she kept quiet about being molested by her father until her brother took his own life.
A Hawke's Bay man, who cannot be named, is standing trial in the Napier District Court this week after pleading not guilty to 11 charges that allege he molested his daughter and niece decades ago.
Yesterday, Tuesday, the man's daughter took the stand and told the jury of seven males and five females her father molested her as a child so regularly "it was normal".
The court heard the woman had vague memories of being touched as a baby in nappies and would be ordered to her father's room to lie on his bed so he could touch her in later years.
"I remember he would spit on his hands and use that spit to rub on my private parts."
"When you're a little baby you don't understand what these things are...You just do what your mum and dad tell you to do and you don't know whether it's a good thing or a bad thing."
The defendant pleaded not guilty to rape, attempted rape, four charges of indecency with a girl aged between 12 and 16 and five charges of indecency with a girl under 12 years old.
The charges, most of which are representative, are historical, the oldest dating back 46 years.
Yesterday the man's daughter told the court she didn't tell anyone about the alleged offending until she was about 17 years old at a family get-together.
"I told them everything that had been going on. I didn't go into the little details."
The jury heard her father called her shortly after she spoke out to her family and gave what she thought was a sincere apology.
"He said 'sorry'. I really believe he was sincerely sorry at that time," the woman said.
In cross-examination the man's defence lawyer Bill Calver asked the woman if her brother's death was the "catalyst" for taking her father to court.
"That was a breaking point, a changing point," she said. "Where it was no longer [able] to be swept under the carpet, the things we endured, now that a life has gone."
Calver put to her that her allegations were false and had been made to "get back" at her father for things that had happened in both her and her brother's lives.
"I don't have to get back at him I just need to speak up and tell the truth," the woman said.
The trial continues.
Hawkes Bay, NZ (centre)
Paedophile David Lindner hid a heart of darkness
Tim Clarke | The West Australian
To those who knew David Lindner - or thought they knew him - in the south-west, he seemed like the kind of man you wished there were more of in your community.
In between caretaking and nurturing the gorgeous gardens of a beautiful beachtown property, Lindner was active in his local church and more active in his own grassroots organisation, Desert Heart Outreach.
Working with the Aboriginal communities living in central Australia, Lindner said it was now his life’s work to build community vegetable gardens so those there could improve nutrition and well-being through what they ate.
So worthy was the cause that Bunnings donated a trailer full of equipment, and other organisations boxes of clothes, for a Lindner-led trip to the Northern Territory.
“I am hoping to plant citrus trees, apparently citrus trees do really well out there and the children love oranges, we brought a couple of sack loads from Alice Springs and the children ate them like lollies,” Lindner told the local newspaper upon his return in June 2016.
What a great guy.
Except he wasn’t. Beneath Lindner’s silver beard and sweet smile lay a heart of darkness, grown from a childhood of abuse and tragedy which he then passed on, first to his own family, and then to others - an horrific legacy that will live with those families forever.
Even as Lindner was telling the public about his good works, in private he had been dishing out horrendous sexual abuse to a young boy trusted to him by a local family.
And that trust had been placed in a man who WA Police knew already had an horrific track record - having been deported from Canada part way through a prison term for raping his 12 year-old stepson.
What local police exactly knew about Lindner, and what they did to monitor him, is now the subject of serious questions at the highest level of police and state government.
Having been born in Adelaide, North American authorities sent him back to Australia, and he made his way to Perth and then south.
Once there he presented as a public pillar of the community.
But in private he battled his own demons, borne of sexual abuse in his own childhood by a pastor and then a Sunday school teacher, which he would eventually detail to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
“In a sense, this is a full cycle of that abuse,” Judge Laurie Levy said during his sentencing.
“The abuser abuses the victim. The victim then becomes the abuser.”
This unfortunate report fails to tell us what he was actually sentence to and what he was actually sentenced for. Guess we will have to wait for more reports to come out.
Sexual Abuse: Group Condemns Recurrence Among Nigerian Girls-Child
Girls and Youth Re-integration Network (GYRIN), an NGO, has decried the recurring sexual abuse among girl-children in the country.
It described such abuse as sad and a total deviation from the norms.
Ms Kehinde Awujoola, Founder of the NGO, said this while speaking with newsmen on Tuesday in Abuja.
She noted that the ugly trend of the girl-child abuse must be arrested forthwith, adding that a nation with such menace will degenerate and alter the future of the girl-child.
Awujoola canvassed for capital punishment for perpetrators of such dastard act, suggesting that anyone caught with such act should be sentenced to 10 years imprison with hard labour.
She condemned the recent abuse of a school-girl by her teacher in a school in Lagos State, stressing that such people posed threat to the country and their activities inimical to the teaching environment.
The founder of GYRIN called for vigilance in and around schools across the country, adding that many children have fallen victims of such acts without the boldness to expose them.
She recommended measures to curtail such abuse, including the imperative to teach and talk to children about body at their formative stage.
Awujoola said that the girls must be taught that some body parts are private and a no-go area for the opposite sex, which must not be touched.
She said that the girl-child should know that no one should take pictures of their private parts including their relatives.
She called on parents to be vigilant and quickly respond when they notice any changes in their girl-child, advising that parents to take up the responsibility of checking up their children and wards often.
UK Muslim man guilty of historic child abuse
Court news STEWART CARR
A man has been found guilty of two counts of child sexual abuse dating back ten years after a trial at Luton Crown Court.
Faisal Ahmed, 42, of Maple Road West, Luton, appeared at Luton Crown Court on Friday (6 April) where he pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual activity with a child.
In 2006 Ahmed began grooming his victim, then aged just 15, after he met her at a local leisure centre. He would buy her alcohol or cigarettes, as well as giving her a new phone, before getting her drunk and having sex with her.
Ahmed continued exploiting the girl, including taking her on a shopping trip before forcing her to engage in more sexual activity.
DS Sandra Wharton said: “This was a clear case of child sexual exploitation. Ahmed took advantage of the vulnerability of his victim, plying her with gifts and alcohol and manipulating her into having sex with him, despite knowing how young she was."
“We will not tolerate any form of child sexual abuse and we’re pleased that despite the length of time since the offences took place, we have managed to secure a conviction against Ahmed. “We hope this will give other people the confidence to come forward and report abuse, no matter how long ago it may have taken place.
“We work closely with all of our partner agencies to protect young people from sexual exploitation and are continuing to raise awareness of this very important issue.”
Ahmed has been remanded ahead of sentencing on 4 May.
To report child sexual abuse or exploitation contact police on 101, or Crimestoppers, anonymously, via 0800 555 111.
Two people arrested over allegations of
child sex abuse in Co Down
Picture by: Paul Faith/PA Archive/PA Images
The PSNI say two people have been arrested as part of an investigation into allegations of historical child sex abuse in Co Down.
Officers from PSNI's Public Protection Branch arrested a 58-year-old man from Belfast and 39-year-old woman from Downpatrick on Tuesday.
This is in relation to an investigation into allegations of serious historical child sexual abuse in the Co Down area.
They have been taken to Antrim police station to assist police with their enquiries.
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