Australian Archbishop sentenced to a year's detention for child sex abuse coverup
CBC News
Archbishop Philip Wilson arrives at Newcastle Local Court, in Newcastle, Tuesday, June 19, 2018. Wilson was given a 12-month sentence for covering up child sex abuse. (Darren Pateman/Associated Press)
The most senior Roman Catholic cleric in the world to be convicted of covering up child sex abuse has been sentenced in an Australian court to 12 months in detention.
Newcastle Magistrate Robert Stone on Tuesday ordered Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson to serve at least six months before he is eligible for parole.
But Wilson will not immediately go into custody. Stone will consider on Aug. 14 whether Wilson is suitable for home detention.
Why would you even need parole if you are serving the sentence at home? Serving detention at home doesn't seem like much of a deterrent; it's almost a reward.
Stone in May found the 67-year-old cleric guilty in the Newcastle Local Court of failing to report to police the repeated abuse of two altar boys by pedophile priest James Fletcher in the Hunter Valley region north of Sydney during the 1970s.
Wilson faced a potential maximum sentence of two years in prison.
Consultant psychiatrist denies downloading images and videos of child sex abuse
A Hengrove-based consultant psychiatrist denies downloading images of children being sex abused.
Ovais Badat worked at an adult ADHD service of Wiltshire Partnership Mental Health Service NHS Trust.
It is claimed he accessed a sordid stash of prohibited material.
The 42-year-old, of Hopewell Street in Tetbury, denies four allegations spanning from January 2012 to March 2015.
He has pleaded not guilty to downloading an indecent image of a child, namely five videos and two still photos of the worst Category A abuse. He has also pleaded not guilty to downloading a video depicting Category B abuse and an image depicting Category C.
Kerry Barker, prosecuting, said police searched Badat's home and removed an iMac computer and hard-drive. When they were forensically examined evidence of indecent images and videos of children were discovered, the court heard.
Mr Barker said the computer contained back-up for Badat's partner's iPad, as well as his and her iPhones. Badat's partner told police she had never accessed child abuse material.
Police established that Badat bought an iMac and iPad from eBay - from sellers who had supplied them with a factory re-set which wiped them of previous content.
It was found the psychiatrist had purchased a brand new hard-drive. Badat was interviewed and denied wrongdoing. He told police he bought computers second hand and kept them in a spare room which other people had access to. He also said his devices were not password protected.
Mr Barker told the jury that due to evidence including search terms it is the prosecution's case that it was Badat who downloaded the material.
The case continues.
'Nick', who said he was the victim of VIP child sex abuse and murder ring charged
© Stefan Wermuth / Reuters
The man who claimed he was the victim of a VIP child sex abuse and murder ring, which led to the investigation of British politicians, has been charged with 12 counts of perverting the course of justice and one of fraud.
The 50-year-old man, who cannot not be officially named for legal reasons, known only as ‘Nick’, has been charged over false claims of child sexual abuse and child killings, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said on Tuesday.
Now, since it has been determined that all his allegations were false, why should his name be protected still.
The accusations made by Nick led to Scotland Yard’s calamitous Operation Midland investigation into the claims from the 1970s and 80s. The claims prompted the Met Police to investigate high ranking public servants such as Leon Brittan, the former Tory home secretary under Margaret Thatcher; Conservative MP Harvey Proctor; and ex-military chief Lord Bramall.
One charge against Nick relates to Proctor and accuses him of “doing acts tending and intended to pervert the course of public justice, in that he made a false allegation of witnessing the child homicide of an unnamed boy committed by Mr Harvey Proctor,” say the CPS.
The CPS said on Tuesday that it had looked at evidence from an investigation by Northumbria Police before making its decision.
Frank Ferguson, the CPS head of special crime, said: “The CPS has considered a file of evidence from Northumbria police relating to allegations of perverting the course of justice and fraud by a 50-year-old man.
“The police investigation provided evidence that the man had made a number of false allegations alleging multiple homicides and sexual abuse said to have been carried out in the 1970s and 1980s.
“Following careful consideration we have concluded there is sufficient evidence to bring a number of criminal charges. He has today been charged with 12 counts of perverting the course of justice and one count of fraud and will appear before Westminster magistrates court in due course.”
The recriminations from Operation Midland, which was wound up following major criticism of the police, led to an inquiry by a retired senior judge, Sir Richard Henriques. Henriques’ findings were published in 2016 and identified 43 failings by Met detectives who spent 16 months and over £2 million (US$2.6 million) pursuing the allegations.
So if there ever was anything to Nick's accusations, these charges should bring any other possible victims out of the woodwork. That's unlikely to happen though as it seems Nick is a nut case. I can call him that because, well, Nick is not his real name.
UK Imam jailed after bullying & beating pupils in over 100 physical assaults during Islamic studies
© Greater Manchester Police
Father-of-five Abdul Rauf, 51, admitted on Monday to two charges of causing actual bodily harm against two children aged 10 and 12, as well as 19 assaults on unidentified children.
Some 40 hours of footage analyzed by Greater Manchester Police officers show “consistent assaults” at the hands of the imam in a mosque on Crawford Street.
Inspector Phil Key, of Greater Manchester Police, said: “Abdul Rauf is a nasty, bully of a man who beat the children in his classes until it became normalized. The children were left cowering and holding onto their ears, their arms and their legs after he repeatedly used violence as a punishment.
“The parents of the children had no idea that they were leaving their children in the care of a man who would leave them writhing in pain and covered in marks and bruises. Rauf left the children intimidated and afraid to tell their parents about his bullying tactics.
“I dread to think how many children’s lives he has affected over the years, we are doing all we can to support those children and their families that we know about.”
The abuse came about when a pupil told his school teacher that he and another boy had been assaulted at the local mosque.
Rauf, of Sussex Street in Rochdale, has been jailed for one year and 5 months. He must serve at least half his sentence before being considered for release.
Judge Michael Duck, sentencing at Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court, said: “You subjected these children to petulance and violence, smacking or hitting a child if they did not comply with your will.
“That – if it ever belonged to an era – belonged to a very different one.”
The 51-year-old’s defence lawyer, Ahmed Nadim, said his defendant had been shunned by the local community as soon as the extent of his offenses came to surface.
He said: “The defendant displayed Dickensian attitudes towards teaching and feels a level of corporal punishment is appropriate. It is to do with his understanding of how appropriate teaching may be engaged in.
“It is not to do with the victims’ young age or vulnerability, but a failure on his part about what appropriate teaching methods may be employed,” Nadim said, Manchester Evening News reported.
As the Judge said, - this belongs to a different era. However, Islam belongs to a different era so it is not surprising that the Imam employs Dickensian era methods in 'teaching' children. It does not take long in a search of YouTube to find examples of Imams smacking and beating women and children. This is not a one-off case but an example of Islamic teaching methods that almost certainly occurs in many places.
It is time now for Social Services to investigate Rauf's family for abuse, because, of course, he would teach his own children with 'appropriate teaching methods'.
Wife number 3 is 11yo: Malaysian govt probes 41yo man’s marriage to child bride
© Global Look Press
Wedding photos showing the marriage of a 41-year-old man and an 11-year-old girl have sparked outrage in Malaysia prompting calls for marriage laws to be changed.
Images of last month’s ceremony circulated online in recent days. They show the adult groom and the 11-year-old Thai girl apparently entering into wedlock. The ceremony in a border region between Malaysia and Thailand is illegal without explicit court permission and has caused the Malaysian government to take action.
Malaysia’s Deputy Prime Minister Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail ordered authorities on Monday to investigate the man’s relationship to the girl. She said police are exploring whether there was “any elements of sexual grooming” prior to the undocumented marriage.
The legal age for marriage in Malaysia is 18, however girls can be married as early as 16 provided they have the permission of the State Chief Minister. Islamic sharia courts can approve Muslim marriages for those under the age of 16.
Local media reports state that the Thai bride is the man’s third wife. The groom, Che Abdul Karim Che Abdul Hamid, has defended the relationship and promised to apply for a marriage certificate in five years when the girl turns 16, according to Malaysia’s Bernama news agency.
Che Abdul Hamid said he is disappointed by criticisms and allegations made against him on social media following his latest marriage.
“I am looking into this matter to pursue a legal action to clear my name from the inaccurate and malicious allegations,” he said. Malaysia’s deputy prime minister told reporters on Monday that investigators found no evidence that the marriage was legally conducted.
“My officers are working with other local enforcement agencies to look further into the case. This includes whether there are any elements of sexual grooming in the relationship between the two of them before the suppose marriage. This is an offence under the Sexual Offences Against Children Act,” Dr Wan Ismail said.
“I want to reiterate that we are committed to ending child marriage in the future,” she added. Using 2010 census data from Malaysia, the UN reported that more than 82,000 married women were between 15 and 19. Activists from the Joint Action Group for Gender Equality have hit out at the Malaysian man’s marriage.
“Immediate action must be taken by the government to condemn this action and pledge legislative action to put an end to child marriage in Malaysia once and for all,” the group said in a statement.
Former Royal Winnipeg Ballet students allege intimate photos sold by photographer
Steve Lambert, The Canadian Press 
TORONTO -- A judge has ruled that a class-action lawsuit can proceed against the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and a photographer who is alleged to have taken intimate photos of students.
Lawyer Margaret Waddell says about 60 people have been identified so far as potential class-action members in the lawsuit against the ballet company and Bruce Monk, who worked as a photographer between 1984 and 2015.
The lead plaintiff, Sarah Doucet, alleges Monk pressured her into letting him take semi-nude photos of her as a teenager and then distributed them.
I'm sure it didn't help the students that the creep has Hollywood good looks.
The allegations have not been proven in court, and both Monk and the ballet company have filed statements of defence denying the accusations.
The recent decision by an Ontario Superior Court justice certifies Doucet's case as a class-action lawsuit, although the defendants have 30 days to appeal the ruling.
"To date, 53 former students have contacted (Doucet's lawyer) self-identifying as potential class members, or they have been identified by the witnesses on this motion as students whose photographs are on the internet and who may have been photographed by Mr. Monk in a private setting," the ruling states.
Lawyers for Monk and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet were not immediately available for comment Wednesday. Waddell said there are still a few steps before the lawsuit can be heard.
"We have to get notice out to the class members, to let everybody know that the action has been certified ,and they have an opportunity to decide if they want to exclude themselves," Waddell said.
The statement of claim alleges Doucet and other former students felt they had no choice but to follow Monk's orders, and later found images of some students being sold online.
"Over the many years he was employed by the ballet, Monk amassed a substantial cache of thousands of intimate images," the lawsuit says.
"Among other means, Monk offered copies of these intimate images for sale over the internet through various e-commerce (sites) to purchasers across the country, including in Ontario."
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