N.S. mother facing child porn charges in cross-border case involving her own children
CTV Atlantic
An employee of the U.S. State Department has pleaded guilty to child porn charges in Virginia and a Halifax-area woman is now in jail in connection with the case.
Halifax Regional Police have laid more than a dozen charges against her in what is being described by sources as a “rare” and “disturbing” case.
The woman’s name can’t be reported because it would identify the victims, who are her own children.
Const. Carol McIsaac discusses the charges laid against a Halifax-area mother in a cross-border child pornography case.
She is 39 years old and faces 15 charges for committing sex crimes, including multiple counts of:
sexual assault
sexual interference
sexual exploitation
voyeurism
making, distribution, possession of child pornography
charges that relate to uploading and sending images and videos
Halifax Regional Police spokeswoman Const. Carol McIsaac said they were alerted by American authorities in March.
“Information was received from the Federal Bureau of Investigation as well as Homeland Security at that time on March 13,” McIsaac said. “An investigation was immediately initiated and, within two days on March 15, our investigators were able to execute a search warrant and make an arrest.”
Excellent! 2 days is great work.
The woman is not seeking bail and will remain in custody. Her next court appearance is July 26.
As for the American who pleaded guilty, he'll be sentenced in the fall and faces up to 60 years in prison.
McIsaac says the children are safe and healthy.
Negligence charges for former Ontario child welfare official after kids abused in foster care
One Survivor's Story
Ron Charles · CBC News
MK, whose identity is protected under a publication ban, spoke to CBC News about her abuse while in foster care in Prince Edward County, Ont. The former head of the county Children's Aid Society has been criminally charged for overseeing an agency that placed children with foster parents who were later convicted of sexual abuse. (Richard Agecoutay/CBC)
Ontario Provincial Police have taken the unusual step of charging the head of a Children's Aid Society for overseeing an agency that placed 10 children with foster parents who ended up being convicted of sexual abuse.
Bill Sweet, 67, former executive director of the Prince Edward County CAS, was charged in May with 10 counts of negligence causing bodily harm and 10 counts of failing to provide the necessities of life — a charge usually reserved for guardians who neglect children.
Sweet, who left the CAS in 2012, declined to discuss the case with CBC News. He's scheduled to make a court appearance later this month.
His case is being closely watched by advocates for children in care.
Former Prince Edward County CAS executive director William Sweet faces 10 charges each of negligence causing bodily harm and failing to provide the necessaries of life. (Richard Agecoutay/CBC)
Lawyer Mary Birdsell, executive director of Justice for Children and Youth, says it could have wide-ranging implications for people whose job it is to protect children in need.
"It's not unheard of for [children's aid] societies and administrators to be sued when things go wrong," said Birdsell, who has been offering legal aid services to children in care for 20 years.
"But as far as I know, having an administrator brought up on criminal charges is a rare thing."
'I still struggle daily'
The 10 abused former foster children, now adults, will also be watching the case closely.
MK, whose identity is protected under a court-ordered publication ban, is one of them.
She was 15 years old in 2007 when the Prince Edward County CAS placed her, along with two other teenage girls, in foster care with Joe and Janet Holm.
But that foster home, meant to be a place of refuge, ended up being where MK faced even more harm.
"I still struggle daily with having to use the coping mechanisms that I learned in therapy to get through life," said MK, now 26.
She remembers Joe Holm being extremely sexually inappropriate from the start, something she says Janet Holm continually tried to cover up.
"We were told by my foster mother that my foster father was not to be present when [CAS] would do the annual visits," she said. "He was very very inappropriate with almost every single person he met."
MK says her former foster father faced no consequences when his sexually inappropriate comments and touching were exposed.
"I recall something had happened with my foster father and one of the young girls in the home, and [CAS workers] had asked us if that had actually happened and we said, 'Yes, we witnessed this happening,' and he was told not to do it again and it was left at that," MK said.
"So when the behaviour started to progress with me, I almost kind of felt that this was normal, that I deserved this."
Joe Holm went on to sexually abuse MK over the next three and a half years.
In April 2011, the Holms pleaded guilty to charges including sexual assault, invitation to sexual touching and possessing child pornography related to the sexual abuse of MK and four other children in their care. The judge sentenced Joe Holm to four years in prison and Janet Holm to three years.
Theirs wasn't an isolated case.
Province issues damning report
Three other Prince Edward County foster parents were convicted of sexual offences against children in their care — all placed with them by the county's CAS.
The large number of sexual abuse charges and convictions in what was the smallest children's aid society in Ontario prompted the province's Ministry of Children and Youth Services to launch a wide-ranging review.
A report issued in 2012 found a poorly run, dysfunctional organization where workers routinely failed to complete proper screening of foster parents. Monthly checks-ins on the foster homes were also not done.
And infighting among staff meant crucial information about foster parents was often not shared.
MK believes her social worker was not aware of the abuse until she told him.
After the damning government review, the Prince Edward County CAS was merged into the regional Highland Shores CAS.
After a scathing government review, the Prince Edward County CAS merged into the larger Highland Shores CAS in 2012.
(Richard Agecoutay/CBC)
It's unclear what led police to charge Sweet, but the report, seen by CBC News, found the CAS under his direction had issues involving, among other things:
- Child protection investigation practices with respect to foster homes, particularly with respect to record keeping and documentation, verification of abuse and compliance with requirements for child protection investigations.
- Compliance with child protection standards.
Mark Kartusch, executive director of Highland Shores, says a lot has changed in the way foster care is run in Prince Edward County.
"We have a lot of checks and balances in place. When we open a foster home there's a very extensive assessment process, some even call it intrusive," he said. "This was an extremely rare event. For something like this to happen and to this scale, it was just completely out of the norm."
MK says she hopes the charges against Sweet are a warning to all CAS administrators.
"I hope this is an eyeopener for them," she said. "I hope the agencies can be present and mindful of who they allow to be foster parents."
There are so many horror stories like this out there. There really must be a better way.
As ugly as those two stories are, these next two have me nearly sick to my stomach with anger at the insanity of Canada's justice system which goes to extraordinary lengths to give monsters second chances to destroy more innocent children.
Children have no voice, especially in Canadian courts, so protecting them should require twice as much concern and effort by our judges. But it doesn't happen! They are continually putting children at risk for the sake of pathetic pieces of trash that are not worth any effort.
Saskatchewan man apologizes to his victims before receiving long-term sex offender sentence
BRE MCADAM, SASKATOON STARPHOENIX
Russell Dennis Wolfe has been designated a long-term offender and was sentenced to 15 years followed by 10 years of supervision for making child pornography with 14 girls between the ages of nine and 17.
Before he was sentenced to 15 years for making child pornography with vulnerable girls from his neighbourhood in Saskatoon’s core, Russell Dennis Wolfe acknowledged — for what appears to be the first time — the harm he caused his victims.
He spoke in court, apologizing to the girls “from the deepest place in my heart,” his lawyer Brian Pfefferle said. Wolfe told them he’s the one to blame for their abuse, and that they should not blame themselves.
Two of Wolfe’s 14 victims said they felt guilty and partly responsible for engaging in sex acts with Wolfe when they were between 11 and 13 years old. Their victim impact statements, along with two others, were heard in court during Wolfe’s long-term offender hearing last week.
Wolfe, 59, pleaded guilty last year to 20 child sex assault, child prostitution and child pornography offences stemming from between 1997 and 2008.
He was designated a long-term offender on Thursday in Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench and received a 15-year prison term. With credit for time spent on remand, Wolfe has 10 years remaining on his sentence and will be under supervision for 10 years following his release from prison.
Justice Daniel Konkin accepted the joint-submission proposed by the Crown and defence, citing a forensic psychiatrist’s finding that he could not conclude that Wolfe is incapable of ultimate rehabilitation, Pfefferle said.
That's a nice double negative. But even if he is capable of being rehabilitated, it doesn't mean he will be, and the risk to children, in my opinion, is not worth the effort. 11 years of abusing children - does he know anything else?
Dr. Shabehram Lohrasbe determined that while Wolfe poses a significant risk to reoffend, his future risk of hands-on offending can likely be managed in the community. The two components are required for a long-term offender designation and are the reasons why the Crown and defence chose to pursue it over a dangerous offender designation, which carries the possibility of an indeterminate prison sentence.
Can likely - Doesn't sound very positive to me and, again, you are risking young children for a pervert who is just not worth the risk. A sick, perverted predator is not worth destroying one child's innocence, happiness and future. I'm so fed up with the judicial system's concern over treating pedophiles fairly when they are sacrificing beautiful, mentally and emotionally healthy children to be at risk of being destroyed. There should be no risk to children! Perverts have lawyers, the next victims are voiceless!
Wolfe was arrested in 2014 after police found photos and videos of his child victims — between nine and 17 years old — during a separate investigation into child pornography file sharing.
'Incurable, life-long pedophile' sentenced in Yukon to 16 years jail for abusing children
B.C. man pleaded guilty to sexual offences against 13 prepubescent girls, between 2008 and 2015
Philippe Morin · CBC News
The Yukon courthouse in Whitehorse. 'It is difficult to find words adequate to describe the acts and their consequences. [The man] has caused untold damage to the children he abused and their families,' reads a Yukon Supreme Court decision. (Claudiane Samson/Radio-Canada)
A Yukon court has sentenced a B.C. man to 16 years in prison for dozens of sexual offences against several girls under the age of 14.
The man cannot be named by court order.
Yukon Supreme Court justice Ron Veale's sentencing decision, issued June 21, describes the man as an "incurable, life-long pedophile with an intense sexual deviance confirmed by ... 25 convictions for sexual offences on prepubescent girls."
The man had pleaded guilty to 11 counts of sexual interference, nine counts of making child pornography, three counts of voyeurism and two counts of possessing child pornography.
Most of the crimes occurred in Yukon between 2008 and 2015. The man's sentence also includes one offence in Ontario and five in B.C.
Court documents describe the man's 13 victims as prepubescent girls who were friends of his daughter, or relatives. The abuse happened while the victims were visiting the man's house for sleepovers or during travel.
The Supreme Court decision says the man recorded videos and photos of sexual abuse on his computer and that his assaults were "meticulously and elaborately planned."
The court notes that some victims appeared to be sleeping while the assaults were recorded. In some cases, the man preyed upon girls after giving them pills he called "vitamins."
'Unbelievable trauma'
The decision notes the man "lied to everyone in his family and community for 20 years," before his child pornography was discovered by his son and reported to police.
The court decision includes statements from victims and their families. One statement says the man was "hiding behind a façade of family and religious values."
Other statements speak of "unbelievable trauma" inflicted on victims and their families.
Veale's decision describes the offences as "horrifying and deplorable."
"It is difficult to find words adequate to describe the acts and their consequences. [The man] has caused untold damage to the children he abused and their families," the decision reads.
Designated long-term offender
A 16-year prison sentence will be followed by a 10-year long-term supervision order.
The court decision notes the man has a "deeply entrenched sexual deviancy which has endured for 20 years of accessing child pornography," and notes a high risk of recidivism without treatment and supervision.
I'm here to say there is a high risk of recidivism with treatment and supervision. Even if it was a small risk, it is too much!
However, the court did not agree to declare the man a dangerous offender, as prosecutors had wanted.
The sentence instead designates him as a "long-term offender," which denotes a belief in "a reasonable possibility of eventual control of the risk in the community."
God, I hate that! A reasonable possibility is not good enough to put more children at risk. What is wrong with your heads?!!!
A psychiatric assessment by Dr. Shabehram Lohrasbe found a persistence of "intense urges" in the man, but noted what it called "earnest remorse."
Of course there is earnest remorse; he's going to jail! There's always remorse when you're facing a jail term.
The court decision reads that it heard from Lohrasbe that "those in his profession generally agree that long incarcerations are not necessarily helpful but supervision for longer than 10 years would be helpful in protecting the public and assisting the offender."
Good grief! Not necessarily helpful for what? It is certainly helpful to the children who will not be destroyed by the monster while he is incarcerated! Who cares if it is helpful for him? He's not worth saving! Can you please get that through your heads - children are worth saving - perverted monsters are not!
The man had been in custody for 866 days prior to the sentencing. The court has not announced where he will serve his prison time.
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