Seven men found guilty of child sex abuse in Rotherham
One young victim raped by 100 men
By skynews
Seven men have been found guilty of child sex abuse in the largest trial so far following the Rotherham abuse inquiry.
One underage victim was passed around and raped by 100 men by the time she was 16 years old, Sheffield Crown Court heard.
Another young victim became pregnant and had to have an abortion.
The case is the first major prosecution arising out of Operation Stovewood – the National Crime Agency’s massive inquiry into historical child sexual exploitation in the South Yorkshire town.
The defendants were found guilty following a trial lasting eight weeks. The charges against them included rape, indecent assault and false imprisonment.
Those convicted of rape were Mohammed Imran Akhtar, 37, Tanweer Ali 37, Salah Ahmed El-Hakam, Nabeel Kurshid, 34, and Iqlak Yousaf, 34.
Another man found guilty of rape cannot be named for legal reasons. Another defendant who was charged with offences of indecent assault and false imprisonment was acquitted.
So far, more than 1,500 victims of the Rotherham abuse scandal have been identified.
In a town of about 110,000 people. That's astonishing!
The girls, who are now women in their 30s, were lured by the excitement of friendship with older Asian youths but then sexually assaulted and passed between men, the jury in the trial was told.
One of the victims told police she felt as though her childhood had been snatched away.
Another said she had been plied with drugs and alcohol, taken to a location miles away from home and threatened with being abandoned alone if she did not have sex.
The court heard that after becoming pregnant the girl had an abortion because her parents were unsupportive. Prosecuting barrister Michelle Colborne said: She suffered a great deal of psychological trauma as a result.
As a result of the abuse or the abortion? I suspect both would be extremely traumatic, each compounding the effect of the other.
Ms Colborne also said that the five complainants in the trial were easy to target because they needed to be loved. She said: When they were in their teens, they were targeted, sexualised and, in some instances, subjected to acts of a degrading and violent nature at the hands of these men who sit in the dock.
None of them had the maturity to understand that they were being groomed and exploited.
Ms Colborne added that the girls believed sex of some kind or other was a necessary price for friendship.
This investigation was set up in the wake of the 2014 Jay Report which revealed the shocking scale of exploitation in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013 and failure of police and social services to intervene.
Researcher Angie Heal previously described it as the biggest child protection scandal in UK history.
Evidence of the abuse was first noted in the early 1990s and the first group conviction took place in 2010, when five British-Pakistani men were convicted of sexual offences against girls aged 12-16.
And, I would bet money that all seven found guilty today are also Pakistani, and Muslim. It is from the Quran that they get the moral authority to abuse young British girls.
Sentencing of the seven men who were convicted on Monday will take place on 16 November.
Britain's youngest female paedophile, a nursery worker, admits abusing toddlers as young as two
A judge remanded Sophie Elms, 18, from Swindon, into custody ahead of her sentencing over 'fears for her own safety'
By Sarah Lumley
A nursery worker has become Britain's youngest female convicted paedophile after admitting sexually assaulting and taking indecent images of toddlers.
Sophie Elms, 18, pleaded guilty to 16 charges against two young children, aged three and two.
The charges - which include penetration, sexual assault and taking and distributing indecent photographs of children - make her the country's youngest named female paedophile.
The teen, of Swindon, Wiltshire, was 17 when she committed the offences. She worked at a local nursery but police have previously confirmed that none of the alleged offences are said to have happened at the childcare facility.
Elms pleaded guilty to penetrating the two-year-old orally, and the three-year-old with her fingers, between December 1, 2016, and March 11, 2018.
Sophie Elms, right, arrives at court (Image: Tom Wren SWNS.com)
During the same dates, Elms also pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault – one against each of the youngsters – in which she intentionally indecently touched them.
Also between December 1, 2016 and March 11, 2018, it was heard that Elms committed four offences of taking indecent photographs of children.
These included two category A photographs, four category B photographs, and one category C photograph.
And between January 1, 2016, and March 11, 2018, Elms committed six offences of distributing indecent photographs of children.
These included three category A photographs, four category B photographs, and three category C photographs.
Elms also pleaded guilty to two counts of possessing extreme pornographic images showing a person performing active intercourse or oral sex with an animal, between January 1, 2016, and March 11, 2018.
Defending Elms, Mr Chris Smyth described the case as “highly unusual”, saying: “Miss Elms was only 17 herself at the time when the offences occurred."
Miss Elms was remanded in custody until her sentencing hearing. Judge Robert Pawson said: “You have pleaded guilty to what I suspect you fully understand are extremely serious charges.
“I remand you into custody on the basis of fears for your own safety. Your sentencing will take place on January 4. Until that time, my strongest advice to you is that you avoid using social media for some time to come.
“You are very unlikely to make things better for your victims and their families by posting on social media, and you are very unlikely to make things better for yourself.”
Why would someone in her position even have the right to use social media? That's bizarre!
'Why I had to see the man who abused me
when I was just three, face justice'
when I was just three, face justice'
One Survivor's Story
A woman sexually abused as a young child by a family friend has waived her legal right to anonymity in a bid to encourage other victims to come forward.
Jackie Evans, 30, was just three-years-old when she was first assaulted in her own home by sex offender Jason Hughes, who was around 18 at the time.
The 44-year-old from Caeathro, Gwynedd, who regularly visited her parents' house to fix their computer, went on to abuse Jackie again before he was finally convicted of his offences decades later.
On June 5, Hughes was sentenced to three and a half years in prison after he was convicted of indecent assault and indecency with a child. He was ordered to register with the police as a sex offender for life.
Now, following his sentence, the mother of two has told her story in a bid to encourage other victims of sexual abuse to speak out.
Daughters accuse Hughes of Incest
It comes just three months after Hughes' two daughters, Elliw, 19 and Awel, 17 waived their legal right to anonymity to claim they too were victims of their sex offender dad after reading of his conviction for abusing Jackie.
Jackie and Elliw - whose accounts concern periods 10 years apart - both independently recalled how at three years old he had terrified them into staying quiet by telling them a fairy lived on their shoulder.
Were they to tell anyone of what had happened, they would be in serious trouble.
State fails victims horrifically
Despite Hughes being arrested and charged with sex assaults against both daughters in 2001, the CPS has never gone ahead with their case, saying that the evidential test set out in the code for prosecutors had not been met.
No, No, No! That is just not acceptable. The courage it took for those girls to accuse their father of incest, and the state is just not that interested. Someone deserves to be fired!!!
Now, speaking publicly of her ordeal, Jackie said: "There's only parts I can remember, but I remember he used to visit regularly. Up until I was about 7, he would visit probably about once a week.
Jackie Evans, aged three (Image: Jackie Evans)
"He was a family friend - he used to come and fix our computer for my parents. My mum and dad quite liked him, so he started coming round more and more.
"I was about three-years-old at the time and we had this static caravan outside our house which was my playhouse if you like.
"He was coming round regularly so he would take me there to play. There were no queries about it because we knew him.
"And that's where the first incident happened."
Despite being able to vividly recall what happened on that day, Jackie felt unable to talk about the incident.
27 years later and it is still hard to talk about. That is not uncommon among survivors.
"He told me there was a fairy on my shoulder and I had to keep what had happened a secret," she added. He said I would get into a lot of trouble if anybody found out. He used to bring sweets and toys to bribe me.
"It didn't happen every time he came round, it only happened on a couple of occasions. I thought he was my friend. I was innocent and I didn't understand what had happened."
The second assault, which took place in her parents' living room, happened about four years later, when Jackie was seven-years-old.
"He was doing work on the computer - I was in the living room and my mum and dad were in the kitchen," she recalled.
"I remember clearly he was on a spinning computer chair. He swung round to me and exposed himself and asked me to do things with him.
"The first incident was a lot worse, but I feel more comfortable talking about this one. After that, he still used to come round all the time. As soon as I heard his car turning up, I would hide away in my room. I remember he would still try and talk to me as if nothing had happened, even when I was older."
Growing up, Jackie said she was "scared" of boys and would get regular flashbacks of what had happened.
Fearing she would not be believed if she spoke out, she bottled her emotions throughout her childhood and teenage years.
It was not until after she had children of her own that it all got too much and two years ago, she finally found the courage to go to the police.
"As I got older, it got harder because I reached a point where I realised it was wrong," she added.
"I was a teenager when I broke down about it for the first time. I remember pulling a friend of mine into a toilet and telling her all about it. She was the first person I ever opened up to.
"I tried to put it to the back of my mind after that. But it started to come back to me a lot about two years ago. It was causing a massive problem for me.
"It was going from thinking about it about once in a while to thinking about it once a day. It was completely taking over my life, I was breaking down in tears all the time."
'I used to question whether I had done anything wrong, I used to ask, 'why me'?'
Despite suffering vivid flashbacks regularly, Jackie who has been diagnosed with PTSD and depression as a result of the abuse is now receiving the help she needs at a sexual assault referral centre.
She added: "It was very hard to speak about it, I had tried to put a mental block on it for a long time, but I'm so glad I opened up.
"The biggest and scariest thing was that I thought nobody would believe me and I think that's why it took me so long to talk about it. It's a hard subject to discuss anyway, but bringing it up after so long was even harder.
"But it's never too late to talk about it, despite how long ago it happened.
"Going to court is a horrible experience, it was awful. But you have got to go through it to get justice.
"I hope by speaking out that more people come forward so he gets an even longer sentence. Three-and-a-half years is nowhere near long enough.
"I just want to move forward with my life now. I'm a completely different person now to what I was this time last year."
Child sex abuser fails in legal challenge against convictions
He was jailed for 22 years last April
A member of Salford’s Charedi community, who was jailed for the rape and abuse of children, has failed in a legal challenge to his convictions.
Glausiusz, of Leicester Road, Broughton Park, was convicted of three rapes and six sexual assaults at Manchester Crown Court after a seven-week trial last year.
Glausiusz was jailed for 16 years, with another six years to be served consecutively for other crimes against children.
On Tuesday, Glausiusz launched appeals against his sex offence convictions, claiming a series of mistakes during his trial meant the jury's guilty verdicts were "unsafe".
The trial judge had not properly warned the jury about how to consider some of the evidence, his lawyers claimed.
Potentially critical evidence had also been included in the trial in order to "bolster an inherently weak" case against him, they said.
It consisted of images of naked teenage women which were found on his laptop and which his lawyers claimed had prejudiced the jury against him.
There was also "fresh evidence" from a new witness which suggested that one of Glausiusz's victims had admitted he was lying, it was claimed.
After a 90-minute hearing at the Court of Appeal in London on Tuesday, appeal judge Mr Justice Holgate rejected Glausiusz's case.
"Overall, there is no arguable basis for contending that any of the convictions were unsafe," he said. "Therefore, the renewed application for leave to appeal is refused."
British sex abuse imam Mohammed Ghani's
jail term increased
I love Britain's Unduly Lenient Sentence policy. In this case it reduced the effect of political correctness on the Imam's sentence.
BBC
An imam who sexually assaulted a girl over a period of seven years at her home has had his jail term increased.
Mohammed Ghani, who had been a respected figure in West Yorkshire, had been jailed in August for two years, by a judge at Leeds Crown Court.
But the term was increased to five years earlier after the case was referred to the Court of Appeal.
Ghani, 65 and from Wakefield, abused the girl during "professional visits" to her home between 1997 and 2006.
This resulted in lasting emotional repercussions for the victim, who was aged under 14 at the time, the court was told.
Ghani's case was referred to the appeal court by Solicitor General Robert Buckland QC MP, under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme.
Speaking after the hearing, Mr Buckland said: "Ghani abused his position of authority and subjected a vulnerable child to a campaign of sexual assaults.
"I hope the decision brings the victim and their family some comfort."
Canadian man gets 7 years for making child porn,
sexually abusing 7-year-old in Craigslist case
'Too horrible for words:' Case marks sentencing
for last of five adults charged
Adam Carter · CBC News
A Hamilton man has been sentenced to seven years for sexual interference and making child pornography, linked to a case the Crown called "too horrible for words" (7th story on link) where a seven-year-old girl was advertised for abuse on Craigslist.
Justice Joe Fiorucci said the 38-year-old man, who cannot be named because of a publication ban put in place to protect the victim, helped make the young girl a "prop" in a "perverted show."
"It is at this point when the unimaginable intersects with reality," Fiorucci said in his decision.
With credit for time served, the man will serve an additional three years and four months in a penitentiary. The Crown was seeking an eight-year sentence, while the defence was seeking five-and-a-half years.
Unfortunately, the child will still be a child when the pervert gets out. That is just not fair to the child. But Canadian justice is not known for being fair to victims, only to criminals.
The man is the last of five adults who have been tried in a sweeping sexual abuse case that shocked Hamilton.
Court has heard the young girl was offered up for abuse online by her mother's then-boyfriend back in 2016.
Along with abusing the girl, the boyfriend also took thousands of illicit photos and videos of her over an 18-month period, court has heard. That man, who Fiorucci called "deviant and antisocial," is currently serving 13 years in prison.
Court has heard the man who was sentenced Tuesday was high and drunk when he went to the other man's house in April of 2016. He watched homemade child porn with him, looked on as the then-boyfriend sexually assaulted her, and finally abused the girl himself while his friend recorded it.
The man previously pleaded guilty to sexual interference, but denied knowing his friend was recording the assault. He was found guilty of making child pornography back in August.
Crown prosecutor Janet Booy called it a "horrible, despicable case. It's probably the worst I've ever seen," she said. "No sentence can ever bring back the innocence of the young victim."
Nor can it relieve her nightmares knowing that he will be on the streets again while she is barely into her teens.
The girl's aunt, who has attended court to stand witness for the family, said the girl is now getting professional help and trying to work through the trauma. "I can only hope my niece is able to have a normal life," she said. "It's crazy that grown adults could do this. Now that it's over, it's time to start healing."
As the man was led into court wearing a striped green and black shirt and glasses, the girl's aunt became visibly redder. She deeply exhaled as the horrific details of what happened to her niece were read aloud, before holding her head in her hands.
Court heard that the man who was sentenced Tuesday had a problem with drinking, and has also abused pot, cocaine and methamphetamine.
Psychological testing showed the man, who has three children himself, has "low intellectual functioning," the judge said. Fiorucci said that despite the man's limitations, testing showed his judgment and decision making abilities to be in the average range.
The man was also sexually abused when he was a child, court heard, as well as physically and emotionally abused by his stepfather.
Court also heard the man has "expressed remorse that appears to be sincere" and shows "positive prospects for rehabilitation," but the judge said that deterrence and separation from society takes precedence over rehabilitation in a case like this.
"The well-being of our children must take precedence," Fiorucci said.
Wouldn't that be nice! Now how about someone going after Craigslist for facilitating this girl's horror story?
Aussie woman sentenced to 9 years in prison
for killing rapist
The rapist demanded she submit to him again and threatened her daughter. Does she deserve 9 years in prison, or a gold medal?
By Felix Allen, The Sun
A mom who stabbed her rapist to death, then tied a rope around his neck and dragged him behind her car for a mile has been jailed for nine years.
Roxanne Eka Peters, 35, slashed Grant Cassar, 51, with a kitchen knife after he threatened to harm her daughter unless she submitted to more sex, a court heard.
She knifed the rapist in the heart at her home in Brisbane, Australia, then towed his corpse past a police station to a ditch, where she hid it in December 2015.
A judge said she was “enraged” at Cassar’s previous rape and sick threats, but that did not excuse her lack of respect for his “human dignity.”
Seriously, judge! He raped her and threatened her daughter if she didn't submit to more rapes! What kind of dignity do you see in that man?
Peters was sentenced to nine years for manslaughter plus another 18 months after she pleaded guilty to interfering with a corpse.
With time already served, she will be eligible for parole in June 2020.
She's been locked up since 2015? OMG! Was that to protect any other men who might have raped her? What the Hell?
Justice David Boddice said the humiliating rape followed by Cassar’s threats to harm her child had been a “significant provocation.”
He told the Brisbane supreme court: “I accept the stabbing occurred in circumstances when you were enraged by what the deceased had done to you and was threatening to do to you again.”
And what he was threatening to do to her daughter!
But she should have immediately sought help after the stabbing, he said.
The judge told her: “Instead you set about the process of callously disposing of the deceased body.”
“No doubt your rage continued to affect your attitude to him.”
Boddice said Peters’ upbringing around drug users, where she was subjected to sexual abuse, had exacerbated the rage she felt when Cassar came to her home on the day he died.
However, Cassar’s killing had been devastating for his family, the judge said, adding: “They will never recover from his death.”
He was a rapist! Will you recover from that? Because Peters won't.
Cassar’s body was found with 61 injuries including stab wounds to the chest and penis.
It seems pretty obvious that Peters completely lost it. Isn't that grounds for a temporary insanity plea?
I can't help but wonder that if the police and courts had done their job of protecting innocent people from predators like Cassar, this horror story would never have happened. That was, perhaps, the statement she was making when she dragged Cassar's body past the police station.
I think you need a better lawyer, Roxanne. And a better judge. Neither you nor your daughter have been well-served by either, in my humble, if not angry, opinion.
School principal in Pakistan handed 105 years in prison
for child abuse, rape
Dawn.com
A sessions court in Peshawar on Tuesday handed a total of 105 years in prison to a private school's principal on charges of child abuse, pornography, rape, blackmail and maintaining illicit relations.
The convict, Attaullah Marwat, was also fined Rs1.4 million (about 17,000 Euros) in addition to the jail terms. The sentences were handed down by Sessions Judge Younis Khan.
The accused, who is the private school’s owner, was arrested after the Hayatabad police station registered a case against him on July 14, 2017, on the complaint of a boy student, who had accused him of sexually exploiting schoolchildren, including girls, and filming them with secret cameras installed on campus.
Marwat was convicted and sentenced to rigorous life imprisonment under Sections 354-A (stripping a woman of her clothes), 365-B (kidnapping or inducing a woman to compel her into marriage) and 377 (unnatural offence/sodomy) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).
He was also awarded two years and 20 years rigorous imprisonment under Sections 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and 376 (punishment for rape), respectively, of the PPC.
As many as 25 direct and indirect victims of Marwat had their statements recorded before police against the convict; however, it is believed that a majority of his victims had not come forward.
One of the charges against the convict was that he had forced, persuaded, coerced and enticed female students under the age of 18 to engage in sexual activities and exposed their bodies, and was involved in explicit sexual conduct and abuse of minor schoolgirls.
Marwat was also charged with forcing, coercing and persuading female students of his school to engage in sexual activities and capturing those acts on his mobile phones and secret cameras installed in different parts of the school and storing them in USBs.
The convict had allegedly "on multiple occasions and habitually" enticed and compelled multiple women of different ages to have illicit relations with him inside the school.
He was also charged with sexually assaulting multiple women after coercing them with death threats.
Following his arrest last year, the accused had recorded his confessional statement before a judicial magistrate on July 19, 2017, wherein he had admitted only that he used to bring women from outside to the school for the purpose of adultery.
He had said it was his "hobby" to make videos of his sexual activities. He had also admitted that 26 such videos, which he had recorded, were stored in his personal computer.
The issue had surfaced after a student of the said school (name withheld) had told the police that the accused was involved in sexual exploitation of students and teachers. He had alleged that Marwat had sexually exploited students, teachers and some women from outside the school but nobody had the courage to disclose or report the matter.
The complainant had alleged that the principal had also showed him several objectionable videos, which he had recorded secretly through cameras, and also invited him to get involved in such acts.
In the first information report of the case, the police had said that when they raided the school, the accused tried to conceal his two cell phones, which allegedly had several objectionable videos involving schoolboys.
It added that the accused used three rooms of his school for the illegal activities.
The police had recovered memory cards and USBs and saw several videos showing the principal sexually exploiting students, including girls, in different parts of his school.
UK man jailed for child sex offences
Norfolk Constabulary
A 36-year-old man has today (Tuesday 30 October 2018) been jailed after being found guilty of child sex offences.
Jonathan Franks, of Bridewell Alley in Norwich, was found guilty at Norwich Crown Court at an earlier hearing, after a jury convicted him of causing a girl under 13 to engage in sexual activity and possession of extreme indecent images.
The sexual activity charge relates to abuse, which took place in April 2017 against one female victim.
Detective Sergeant Mark Joyce of the Child Abuse Investigation Unit (CAIU), said: "Hearing a victim's account of the abuse they were subjected to is always distressing and this sentence highlights that we are committed to carrying out a full and thorough investigation to ensure those responsible are brought to justice.
"We have dedicated officers who are specially trained to undertake difficult and emotive investigations on a daily basis. We would urge anyone who has been abused or sexually assaulted to come forward, safe in the knowledge that Norfolk Constabulary, together with our partners within child protection, will provide help and support, and do all we can to identify, charge and bring those responsible before the courts."
Franks was sentenced to a total of nine years imprisonment, to serve a minimum of six before being considered for parole, with an extended licence period of five years. He was also placed on the Sex Offender's Register indefinitely and handed a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO).
Ex-Celtic Boys' Club coach Jim Torbett tells jury he is asexual at child sex abuse trial
When asked what he meant by 'asexual'
Torbett replied 'I don't participate in it'.
By Ashlie McAnally
The founder of Celtic Boys' club Jim Torbett denied having an 'ulterior motive' by taking players for group activities.
He began giving evidence at his trial at the High Court in Glasgow today where he denies abusing three boys between August 1986 and August 1994.
The 71-year-old told the court he founded the club in 1966 when he was around 18-years-old. Torbett said they used Celtic's name and played in Celtic strips, but are not connected to the football club.
He told the court that he took football kits home to wash them and he would have three or four volunteers from the team at his flat to help sort them out again.
Defence QC Tony Graham asked: “The three or four boys involving themselves in kit preparation, would you do anything together after the kit work had been done?”
Torbett said that they would maybe go ten pin bowling beforehand. Asked why he would do that he said he was “a great believer in community” and said it was “good fun”.
Graham said the court heard from a psychologist who talked about grooming. He asked Torbett: “Was there any ulterior motive on your part to do these things as a group?”
Torbett replied: “Absolutely not.”
The jury heard Torbett does and has always lived alone and described himself asexual.
Graham asked: “What do you mean by that?” He replied: “I don't participate in it.” He said that in the 80s he “performed in some sex” with women.
Torbett denies the charges and the trial before Judge Lord Beckett continues.
UK woman charged with sexual assault of a young girl
Two men from Norfolk have also been charged and will appear
in Cambridge Magistrates' Court
A woman and two men were arrested yesterday (October 29) and charged with a number of offences including sexual abuse of a child under 13.
The trio were arrested after police raided four properties in Cambridgeshire and Norfolk early yesterday morning.
The woman, Lee Calder, 30, of Whittlesey near Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, has been charged with sexually assaulting a girl under 13.
Calder has also been charged with two counts of causing or inciting the sexual exploitation of a child.
Two men, both from Norfolk have also been charged. The first, Guy Delph, 26, of Downham Market, Norfolk, has been charged with the rape of a girl under 13, two counts of sexually assaulting a girl under 13, three counts of causing or inciting the sexual exploitation of a child under 13 and six counts of making indecent images of a child.
The second, Kieran Burton, 27, of Kings Lynn, Norfolk, was charged with eight counts of making indecent images of a child, distributing indecent images of a child, possessing prohibited images of a child and causing or inciting the sexual exploitation of a child under 13.
All three have been remanded to appear at Cambridge Magistrates’ Court today (October 30).
Carer charged over alleged ‘persistent’ sexual abuse of foster child in Sydney
by Shanee Dobeson
A MAN who allegedly sexually abused a young boy in his care persistently over a four year period has been arrested and charged.
The 31-year-old was taken into custody at Burwood Police Station just before 10.30am yesterday, following an ongoing investigation.
Detectives from the Child Abuse and Sex Crimes Squad began making inquiries into the man earlier this year after receiving reports a 15-year-old boy had been sexually assaulted by his carer.
The man was charged with persistent sexual abuse of a child, three counts of aggravated sexual intercourse person aged 10-14, aggravated sexual intercourse person aged 14-16, and indecent assault person under 16 years of age.
Police will allege in court that the man sexually assaulted the boy on numerous occasions while he was in his care in Sydney’s west between 2014 and 2018.
The man was refused bail to appear at Burwood Local Court today.
