Islamic Sexual Abuse of UK's Sikh Children
'Pushed to One Side' for Years
Pakistani Muslim grooming gangs in Britain target
Sikh girls as well as little, white, British girls
© AP Photo / Tsering Topgyal
Kit Klarenberg, Sputnik Int'l
A bombshell expose released November 26 revealed how gangs of predominantly Pakistani men have sexually preyed on Sikh girls in the UK for decades - and authorities "recklessly ignored" the abuse due to concerns over "political correctness".
The study, published by the Sikh Mediation and Rehabilitation Team charity, documented in shocking detail how young members of the Sikh community have been systematically groomed by Muslim men since the 1960s. Girls would be lured by "fashionably-dressed adult Pakistani men travelling in flamboyant vehicles to predominantly Sikh dominated areas and schools" — after initial contact, they'd be groomed by one man, who would then pass her on to other family members.
Gosh, where have I heard this before. Oh yeah, everywhere there are Pakistani Muslim men!
I was previously unaware, mostly, that Sikh girls were victims as well as young, white, British girls. But it certainly makes sense and confirms, perhaps, my theory that Pakistanis believe they have the right to rape girls 'in their right hand' as long as they are not Muslim. That's what Mohammad said in the Quran, and that's what many Muslims believe. And yet, after all the rape and carnage, few are willing to admit that the Quran is the cause of the rape, gang-rape, and abuse of thousands of girls in Britain. That's the insanity of political correctness.
Labour MP Sarah Champion, who strongly endorsed the report, is calling for an independent investigation into the scandal.
"I was shocked when I first heard about the organised abuse of Sikh girls by Pakistani men. When I started speaking to Sikh women, I couldn't believe how widespread the grooming and abuse was — and this has been going on for decades. All forms of sexual exploitation must be prevented. We need to speak of the abuse of Sikh girls to take it out of the shadows and make sure the authorities take it seriously," she said.
While the report has provoked mainstream outcry, few British Sikhs were shocked by its contents — after all, Deepa Singh, senior member of Sikh Meditation and Rehabilitation Team, told Sputnik British Sikhs have been "battling" Muslim grooming gangs "for some time".
"This is a historical problem for us. The sexual abuse of young, vulnerable girls is evidently socially acceptable for certain members of the Muslim community — it's a minority, yes, but the characteristics of the perpetrators must be acknowledged and exposed. Sikhs have openly condemned this issue from day one, and alerted authorities back in the 1970s — and the 1980s and 1990s — but it was repeatedly brushed under the carpet," he said.
Lord Indarjit Singh, director of the Network of Sikh Organisations charity, is a prominent, respected and highly influential member of the British Sikh community — and he has witnessed official refusal to acknowledge the issue first-hand. Roughly a decade ago, he raised his concerns about Islamic grooming with the Inter Faith Network, a government-connected group dedicated to "promoting good relations between persons of different faiths". The Muslim representative on the body's board of governors said he was "well aware" of the problem, but "they just tended to ignore such people".
"I've been raising it in various fora for years — the response has always been to push it to one side. It's a recurring theme with political correctness — pretend a problem doesn't exist and doesn't need to be investigated. The Quran's teachings in respect of women are very negative and Islamic culture isn't respectful of them. The ethnic backgrounds of perpetrators cannot and should not be ignored — neither should the fact victims of sexual grooming gangs are almost always non-Muslim," Lord Singh told Sputnik.
Indeed, such was official stonewalling, Deepa notes many Sikhs took it upon themselves to defend their families and communities from Islamic grooming gangs — they would be prosecuted and severely punished for their vigilantism. Peter McLoughlin, author of the 2014 work Easy Meat which delved into the issue of grooming gangs in forensic detail, believes these incidents as the earliest public manifestation of the phenomenon — and he can find no records indicating any member of a Muslim grooming gangs was the target of arrests and prosecutions at the time.
"In 1988 in Wolverhampton there were violent confrontations after Sikhs formed into gangs to protect young Sikh girls from being groomed by gangs of Muslim men. The main Sikh gang was called Shere Punjab. Some of the gang members received criminal convictions because of their attacks on Muslim gangs. It all started when the Sikh gang handed leaflets out saying "Muslim youths are coming round our schools… they are abducting our girls… and they are raping them and putting them into prostitution", a description entirely consistent with what's since finally been officially acknowledged about grooming gangs since. Shere Punjab claim to have given police the names and car registration details of those Muslims involved in grooming non-Muslim girls, and been told by officers they'd sort out the problem if the gang "stepped out the way" — but they did nothing to stop the sexual abuse gangs operating. Again, this is entirely consistent with the behaviour of authorities in other parts of the country since," Peter told Sputnik.
As a result, he suggests, there is "every reason" to believe the grooming gangs continued operating, and were even "emboldened" by the "success of their operations". Social services, police and the media had sent a "clear message" to abusers he feels — "carry on with what you are doing, we are not going to stop you, we are not going to expose your crimes."
This may account for why the Sikh Awareness Society, set up in 1998 to provide support for Sikhs affected by grooming gangs, among other issues, is inundated with requests for help each and every day — founder Mohan Singh says the organization's 24-hour helpline "never stops ringing".
Hear No Evil
A palpable demonstration of this official conspiracy of silence in practice is provided by the example of Rotherham, which was home to the "biggest child protection scandal" in UK history.
There, organized child sexual abuse continued almost unchallenged by legal authorities from the late 1980s to the early 2010s, with up to 1,400 children affected (Police have raised that number to more than 1500, in a city of 110,000). The abuse included gang rape, forcing children to watch rape, dousing victims with petrol and threatening to set them on fire, threatening to rape victims' mothers and younger sisters, and trafficking them to other towns. Several victims also became pregnant —one aged 12.
Prior to the case making national headlines, the town had never been publicly associated with organized child abuse — although local government agencies there knew about local Islamic child abuse gangs as early as 1996, when Rotherham council conducted an investigation into organized grooming.
The next year, Rotherham council created a youth project, Risky Business, aimed at helping girls aged 11 — 25 at risk of sexual exploitation. Its chief, Jayne Senior, soon concluded a grooming network was operating in the town — and collected so much information police suggested she start forwarding it to an electronic dropbox on the South Yorkshire Police computer network. Senior, who earned an MBE in 2016 for her role in uncovering the scandal, later learned that police did not read anything she submitted to the dropbox, and its contents could not be accessed by other forces.
Moreover, a 2010 internal Rotherham Safeguarding Children Board memo stated "great care will be taken in drafting this report to ensure its findings embrace Rotherham's qualities of diversity. It is imperative suggestions of a wider cultural phenomenon are avoided."
A 2013 independent inquiry headed by Professor Alexis Jay attributed official failure to address abuse in Rotherham to a number of factors relating to race, class and gender. These included contemptuous and sexist attitudes toward mostly working-class victims, fear perpetrators' ethnicity would trigger allegations of racism and damage community relations, the Labour council's reluctance to challenge a Labour-voting ethnic minority, and a desire to protect the town's reputation.
"As every month passes, the argument in Easy Meat proves more and more prescient. My book came out nearly five years ago. It was an attempt to wake the public up, get them to demand civilized solutions to the problem. However, I fear by 2024 it'll still be years ahead of mainstream debate on grooming gangs. Any hope I had of the country changing course has faded now," Peter grimly concludes.
It will take a change in attitude toward political correctness before there is any hope of resolving this madness. Hiding the truth to protect certain demographics at the astonishing expense of other demographics is sheer madness. Devout Islam is 100% to blame for the attitude that Pakistani men have toward non-Muslim girls. Their attitude toward Muslim girls is dreadful enough, but it is far worse against non-Muslim girls - they are good for one thing only - sexually satisfying a man!
Devout Islam is nothing short of insanity - not my words, scroll down the right-hand column on this blog to Great Quotes and read what Dr. Wafa Sultan wrote. Yet, Britain and much of the EU welcomes such lunatics in with open arms. And, within a few generations, they will be the majority.
as teens laughed, egged each other on
Meghan Grant · CBC News
Adham El-Sakaan, left, and Timothy Fanning are accused of gang raping a teenager two years ago.
There are two cellphone videos of what happened. (Facebook)
Three teen boys laughed as they took turns having sex with Sara, encouraging each other to hit her, even as she cried out in pain and said "no."
"Punch that pu***, bro," one boy said to another.
And the 17-year-old girl was punched. She was hit in the face. She was called a "slut" and a "bitch" and told to "shut the f--- up."
Lawyers for one of the boys have, at this point in the trial, suggested the encounter was consensual.
Two cellphone videos show what happened. Footage was played in the Court of Queen's Bench on Thursday, although members of the gallery could only hear the audio.
Adham El-Sakaan and Timothy Fanning, both 21, are on trial for sexual assault and sexual assault with a weapon. Another young man — who can't be named because he was 17 years old when he raped the victim — pleaded guilty to sexual assault last year.
The victim, who also can't be named, testified on Thursday. CBC News will refer to her as Sara.
Sara sat in a remote witness room at the Calgary Courts Centre as her videotaped interview with Det. Adena Warren from the child abuse unit of the Calgary police was played for the court. Warren interviewed Sara in the hours after she was attacked.
'They were laughing'
On audio from the night of Dec. 28, 2016, Sara can be heard whimpering and crying as the boys "took turns" with her.
"They were laughing," she told Warren.
They shoved an electric toothbrush inside her vagina and she cried.
When she didn't perform oral sex to their liking, they hit her until she apologized.
"I'm going to wreck her," says El-Sakaan at one point on video.
She is heard crying out "No, no, ow" — but her protests didn't make them stop. They kept going, calling her names, hitting her and slapping her.
Before, Sara had agreed to meet up with Fanning, then 19, who she admittedly had a crush on. They, El-Sakaan and the teen who pleaded guilty drove to the latter's home. They went into the basement and had some drinks.
But, Sara said, the boys held her head and forced her mouth open while putting a bottle of Jagermeister liqueur to her lips, pouring it down her throat.
Fanning began touching her and then the other two joined in. Sara said she told them she had a boyfriend and tried to kick them away as they tore her pants off, but it was three on one and things "escalated quickly."
"Every time I would say please stop, [they] would get mad at me … [they] started smacking me and hitting me in the face and head," she told Warren.
'You better not tell anyone'
She said she was "screaming and yelling 'please stop' but they kept going."
At one point, one said "you better not tell anyone about this. I don't want to go to jail."
"They tried to tell me I wanted it," she told Warren.
As she started to cry harder, the boys took a break and she texted a friend. It was still on her phone and Warren read it aloud: "They raped me, they slapped me and hurt me bad. I think they took a video. This is the worst thing that's ever happened to me."
But, Sara told Warren, one of her attackers saw the message and ordered her to tell her friend she had overreacted and was OK.
Sara said she begged them to take her home but in exchange for the drive she said El-Sakaan demanded oral sex again in the car.
She testified that he held her head down, but when they stopped at a red light, he put the window down and pulled her head up so that a car full of people stopped next to them could have a laugh.
At home, Sara told her parents what happened and they called police.
'They were my friends'
El-Sakaan's lawyer Joan Blumer has not yet had the chance to question Sara, but she was cross-examined by Fanning's lawyer, Balfour Der.
Der suggested Sara consented to the sex. She disagreed.
He asked Sara why she didn't yell for help if she was scared, prompting an objection from prosecutor Pam McCluskey and a caution from Justice Scott Brooker.
Brooker warned Der to stay away from rape myth-based questions.
Excellent!
Der suggested Sara had consented to a "gang bang" — a term she had used in a text message with a friend — but again, she denied consenting to the sexual activity.
Asked why she described feeling uneasy in the basement yet didn't try to leave, she said: "I tried to convince myself that there was no reason to be scared because they were my friends."
The trial continues Friday.
Almost 600 forced marriages planned in Berlin last year,
or is it 6000?
© Reuters / Jim Bourg
The German capital is a hub for arranging forced marriages, according to a new survey. It found that 570 such arrangements were planned or successfully completed in Berlin last year.
The survey, conducted by the social organization Berlin Working Group against Forced Marriage and reported by German media outlet BZ, polled some 420 facilities. They included youth welfare offices, migration and women's projects, schools, and refugee housing.
It ultimately found that a total of 570 cases of attempted or successful forced marriages took place in the German capital in 2017. In many of the cases (283), the marriage had not yet occurred, but there were concrete plans to carry it out.
Ninety-three percent of those affected by forced marriage were female, while seven percent were male. The majority of those affected (83 percent) had a Muslim background, while the others were of the Christian, Jewish, or Yezidi faith. However, religious information was only available in 444 of the cases.
While the marriages are indeed being planned in Berlin, the vast majority (87 percent) took place outside of Germany.
The figures represent a 19-percent increase from 2013, when the number of successful or planned forced marriages in Berlin reached 460.
Tip of the iceberg
But while the 2017 numbers are staggering, the deputy district mayor of the Berlin neighborhood of Neukölln, Falko Lieche, said "we have to assume that these numbers are only the tip of the iceberg." For instance, many people affected would not have sought help or wouldn't have known how to do so.
The head of Papatya, an anonymous crisis organization for girls and young women in Berlin, also agrees that the number is much higher than the survey states.
"The figure is at least ten times the number," Eva Kaiser told Tagesspiegel, in a statement which would mean that some 6,000 such arrangements were organized in Berlin 2017.
And that's just Berlin! How about the rest of Germany, and the rest of Europe. How many hundreds of girls and women are forced into marriages they don't want? How many are under age? How many are migrants? How many thousands of girls are forced into marriage every day in Islamic countries? One report says 40,000 girls including 7,600 under the age of 15 are forcibly married every single day. Not all are Muslims, but the majority are.
The Berlin Working Group against Forced Marriage has stressed that the survey is not qualitatively representative. The group, which was founded in 2001, is coordinated by the Women's and Gender Equality Officer of the Berlin district of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg.
Police in Chile storm a demonstration to protest femicide
Women protesting femicide, misogyny and racism in Santiago, Chile were met with tear gas and water cannons as police attempted to control the crowds gathered in the capital.
About 15,000 women marched through Santiago on Thursday as part of a demonstration to protest male violence before the upcoming International Day against Violence against Women.
Video footage shows protesters running from police and tearing down barriers, and police are seen lining the streets in riot gear.
The protest was organized by the Chilean Network against Violence towards Women.
Violence against women is prevalent across all classes of Chilean society. As of the early 1990s, it was reported that domestic violence affects about fifty percent of the women in Chile. All socioeconomic classes are affected by domestic violence, with some groups having higher rates of domestic violence than others. Consistent with these findings, a 2003 Chilean national survey indicated that 25–30% of female homicides occur at home.
A 2004 Chilean National Women's Service (SERNAM) study reported that 50 percent of married women had suffered spousal abuse, 34 percent reported having suffered physical violence, and 16 percent reported psychological abuse (2007). Between January and November 2005, 76,000 cases of family violence were reported to the police; 67,913 were reported by women, 6,404 by men, and approximately 1,000 by children. Women are clearly the most likely to become victims of domestic violence, but other members of the household are also at risk for victimization. - Wikipedia
Allegations of rape and child molestation made against British youth charity volunteers
Samuel Lovett The Independent
The Independent revealed in September that Restless Development had been accused of putting volunteers’ lives in danger
( Restless Development/YouTube )
A British charity under fire for misconduct overseas is facing fresh allegations that a volunteer was raped by a team leader who had already been flagged as a risk to women.
The Independent revealed in September that Restless Development, which receives millions in government funding to run youth-led aid projects abroad, had been accused of putting volunteers’ lives in danger, as well as a catalogue of other issues.
Now it is alleged the charity failed to act on complaints made against a team leader who went on to allegedly rape a young female volunteer.
Restless Development was told the man assaulted another female volunteer after drinking heavily while on placement in South Africa during summer 2017.
His victim was left with severe bruising to her chest but claims she was warned by the charity not to take her allegation further. Restless Development, which received £6m in government funding in the past three years, told The Independent there was “insufficient evidence” to take action.
The team leader allegedly went on to later rape a volunteer to whom he owed a duty of care. After being reported to the charity in early September, he was subsequently investigated.
However, Restless Development did not suspend him during this period. Instead, he was relocated within the charity and allowed to continue working alongside young women before being dismissed on 27 September.
During the same placement, in which volunteers taught schoolchildren about sexual health and domestic violence, a different male volunteer was reportedly witnessed sexually assaulting a nine-year-old girl. By the time the allegation surfaced, the individual had also been reported for groping a volunteer’s breast. He was eventually dismissed by the charity.
The alleged child molestation was not reported to the Department for International Development (DfID), despite it overseeing the International Citizen Service (ICS) placement from which these allegations emanate. The ICS is a government-funded programme which, in partnership with a number of international charities, including Restless Development, provides overseas development work for young people.
Volunteers taught schoolchildren about sexual health and domestic violence during the 2017 summer placement in South Africa (YouTube/Restless Development)
One team leader from the 2017 South Africa placement told The Independent: “It felt that the country director downwards were only interested in looking after themselves. They conducted their own investigation into allegations of child molestation.
“To this day I still question the legitimacy of this investigation, the outcome and more importantly if the victim received the correct support. It seems to me they were covering their own backs.”
In a separate incident, The Independent understands a Restless Development volunteer drowned during a training placement in South Africa earlier this year.
MPs on the Commons’ International Development Select Committee said they were “concerned about The Independent’s findings” and stressed they would be asking DfID for “updates on the progress of their investigations” into sexual exploitation and abuse by charity aid workers.
DfID said all ICS projects in South Africa, including those run by Restless Development and other partnered charities, were cut earlier this year as part of a wider reshaping of the programme, and allegations of child sexual assault on all ICS placements would now be immediately reported.
The allegations of rape and child abuse come despite assurances made by Restless Development to The Independent that safeguarding protocols had been reviewed with a plan in place to combat misconduct and mismanagement.
Following The Independent’s investigation, the Charity Commission said it will be “arranging a visit to the charity to discuss” the reporting of overseas incidents and “to ensure that safeguarding is being prioritised appropriately by the trustees”.
Restless Development has since told The Independent it has “reopened investigations into these incidents and met volunteers from our South Africa cycles to offer further support and to try to address the issues they have raised”.
The charity added: “The safety of our volunteers and people we work with is our first priority and we have a zero-tolerance approach to sexual assault and issues related to safeguarding.
“In response to the incidents that occurred on our ICS programme in South Africa in 2017, we carried out thorough investigations which were guided by our rigorous safeguarding policies, a survivor-centred approach, our safety and security protocols, and consultation with the police.
“We are determined to continue learning and will not stop until we have taken all the necessary steps we can to prevent problems and address them as and when they arise.”
In response to allegations about the child molestation claim, a spokesperson for the charity said: "We took this allegation extremely seriously and as soon as the alleged incident was reported to us we launched a formal investigation, which included informing the South African police and interviewing the child’s family.
"The child’s family were provided with independent legal advice to support them, however they did not wish to bring any claim and the police therefore were unable to proceed with any investigation."
A DfID spokesperson said: “DfID has zero tolerance for sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment. We require all our partners to have robust systems in place to prevent such unacceptable behaviour from taking place and to respond appropriately if it does occur.”
UK dad forced son, 11, to have sex with stepmum
to 'cure' him of being gay
One Survivor's Story - Caution: graphic details below
Hint: It didn't work
Hint: It didn't work
And when he refused to perform a sex act on his stepmum his dad tried to punch him.
Daniel was robbed of a normal childhood – replaced by a sordid existence which right-minded people will find hard to fathom. He has been haunted by his ordeal – even by the smell of his stepmum’s perfume – for more than 20 years.
But now he has now seen his tormentors jailed after turning detective to prove the guilt of his father, an ex-Ministry of Defence worker.
Richard Dowling was jailed for five years and his ex-partner Annette Breakspear got eight. They are 62 now but were 38 when the abuse began.
Legal reasons prevented them being identified before today. But they can finally be exposed after Daniel, 36, bravely waived his anonymity.
The sickening abuse began when Daniel was just 11 (Image: Adam Gerrard / Sunday Mirror)
Daniel will never forget the day the abuse began. It was a Sunday afternoon. Dowling and Breakspear were playing board game Frustration with Daniel at home in Bracknell, Berks.
Fashion retail manager Daniel, who now lives in Surrey, recalls: “Dad told me we were going to try something different – to take our clothes off whenever someone lost. By the end of the game Annette was completely naked.
“They instructed me to touch and kiss her breasts. Dad was encouraging me to do it so I thought it was okay. I think that night was a tester of how I’d react because intercourse started after that.”
Daniel’s father had met former carer Breakspear through a lonely hearts ad after splitting from the lad’s mother. During three years together Breakspear stole Daniel’s virginity and abused him more than 10 times.
Richard Dowling was jailed for five years (Image: Sunday Mirror)
Once, he was picked up by his dad from Scouts, taken home and told to “give Breakspear a goodnight kiss”.
Daniel said: “I went into their room and she was handcuffed to the bed naked.
“I gave her a kiss and went to leave but she asked me to touch her and to untie one of her hands. We had intercourse and Dad came and joined in.”
Another time, he was made to view porn before his dad had oral sex with Annette and said: “That’s how you do it.”
In another sickening incident Daniel was called in to find them naked and engaged in a sex act. Breakspear then had sex with Daniel.
He said: “We’d watch porn in bed together and then we’d have threesomes. She’d instruct me on what to do. Sometimes when Dad wasn’t there she’d ask me into her room for fondling and intercourse.
“I was an only child and I spent a lot of time playing Lego but she’d come in and ask me to do things to her.”
Annette Breakspear received an eight-year sentence (Image: Sunday Mirror)
Daniel, who is gay but currently single, said: “I was sexualised at such a young age that sex means nothing to me now.
“The few positive memories of my childhood are tarnished by memories of the abuse. When I smell someone wearing her perfume, or see that board game in a shop or on TV, it brings the memories back.”
In a sickening attempt to explain his depravity in his trial at Reading Crown Court, Daniel’s father claimed he abused his son “to try and steer him in the right direction and not to go to the way of being gay, because there was like, sort of, tendencies for him to be gay”.
He added: “All I ever wanted was for him to turn out the right way.”
Daniel said: “Dad said that he did it to stop me being gay because I showed feminine traits as a child.
“One day we were at a car boot sale and my neighbour saw me wrestling an old lady for a handbag.
“She told my dad, ‘Your Dan’s going to bat for the other side’. And Dad said ‘No son of mine will be gay.’ I think the abuse started after that.”
Brave Daniel was forced to wait 20 years for justice (Image: Adam Gerrard / Sunday Mirror)
It only stopped when Dowling and Breakspear split up around 1996. He claimed he broke up with her because she told him she’d had sex with Daniel and his grandad on the same day.
The teenager and his father moved to Weymouth, Dorset. But Daniel, then 16, was targeted by another paedophile. Police raided the pervert’s home and found naked pictures of Daniel.
It was then, as he was being interviewed by a child psychologist, that Daniel revealed the years of abuse from his dad and stepmum.
Dowling was quizzed but claimed his son was an “attention seeking” liar. Daniel believes Breakspear was not questioned and there were no arrests.
The despairing youngster later tried to kill himself. When the case finally came to trial in May this year it was claimed police treated him “shoddily” at his 1998 video interview – and that one constable even mocked him.
Daniel says it was left to him, some 17 years later, to finally get justice. On September 6, 2015, he secretly recorded a phone conversation in which his father admitted the abuse.
Two days later Daniel walked into Staines police station, Surrey, with the recording – and he said that this time the police took him seriously.
He said: “I don’t know if training has improved or if I was just unlucky the first time, but I would definitely encourage other victims of historic abuse to come forward and report it now.”
Daniel’s dad admitted to police that he and Breakspear carried out “sordid and deplorable” abuse and that he felt ashamed and disgusted.
In court he claimed the abuse was to prevent Daniel “turning gay”, to “protect him from paedophiles so he would know what was right and wrong” – and to educate him about how he should treat women.
He blamed his actions on “undiagnosed depression” and said he fell under the influence of Breakspear – who he labelled “a Jekyll and Hyde character”.
Breakspear was found guilty of three counts of indecent assault.
Dowling admitted one count of cruelty to a child and two counts relating to sexual offences involving a child. He was found not guilty of one count of indecent assault.
Judge Maria Lamb told Dowling: “Your warped sense of right and wrong allowed him to be exploited by your then partner not just once but again and again. You’ve failed to protect him from the sexually predatory behaviour of your co-defendant.
“The damage is incalculable. The abuse of trust is monstrous and the reality is that one of you was involved in active sexual abuse and the other connived at it.”
The judge told Breakspear: “For your own perverted sexual gratification you initiated this boy into a world far beyond anything to which he should ever have had to be introduced at those tender years.”
Daniel, who has not spoken to his father for over two years, said: “Dad threw me under the bus instead of admit his guilt. He is dead to me now.”
336 CSA cases reported in Oman in Q3 of 2018;
maximum from Muscat
Muscat Daily staff writer
MUSCAT -
The Ministry of Social Development (MoSD) has announced that it received 336 child abuse cases in the third quarter (July to September) of 2018.
The cases received by ministry’s child protection committee included 174 males and 162 females. The maximum number of abuse cases were reported in Muscat (146), followed by South Batinah (41), Buraimi (33), Dakhliyah (30), North Batinah (28), Dhahirah (19), South Sharqiyah (18) and North Sharqiyah (17). Dhofar and Musandam saw the least number of cases with two cases each.
Ibtisam Mohammed al Lamki, head of department of Follow-up Protection Mechanisms in the Department of Family Protection, said the hotline number that is operational 24x7 aims to combat any abuse. “We ensure full confidentiality regarding the complaint and the caller. It’s a toll-free helpline. The complaint is forwarded to the relevant department depending on its nature.” MoSD also confirmed that 11 children (8 males and 3 females) who suffered abuses were sent to Dar al Wifaq child welfare centre.
Safia Hamoud al Aisri, head of department at Dar al Wifaq explained how the ministry is taking all efforts to ensure safety in the society.
“The Department of Family Protection was established by MoSD through Ministerial Decision No 330/2012. It is responsible for developing family protection plans and strengthening efforts to serve the family better. The department ensures the provision of stability and family cohesion, and provides a safe environment away from negative behaviour, and receives complaints via hotline to protect children,” Safia said.
Islamic tutor jailed for sexually abusing young students as UK police urge victims to come forward
In a statement issued after Ahmed was jailed at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Friday, West Midlands Police said the abuse came to light when one of the victims made disclosures to a nurse in 2016.
The complainant disclosed that Ahmed, an Imam living in Stoke, had abused her and struck her with a bamboo cane if she resisted.
Ahmed was arrested in February last year, and in police interview admitted tutoring the girls between 2009 and 2011 but denied assaulting them.
Officers charged the cleric with sexually touching a child and sexual assault of a child by penetration, leading to him being found guilty on 10 of the 13 counts against him.
Ahmed, formerly of Cobridge, Stoke-on-Trent, was also given a sexual harm prevention order banning him from working with children for life, and was ordered to register as a sex offender for life.
Detective Constable Sarah West, from West Midlands Police’s Child Abuse Unit, said: "Both victims want to raise awareness within their community and to urge anyone who’s suffered abuse to speak out.
"They know first-hand how victims can feel pressured to remain silent – that by reporting offences it somehow brings shame on the family – but they recognise now that by doing so it allows offenders to continue offending and puts other children at risk.
“The girls have now got justice for the horrible abuse inflicted on them by Ahmed and are getting the support they need to move on with their lives. And they want other survivors of abuse to do the same.
"I wish the girls all the very best for their futures and thank them for their courage in speaking out. Their brave actions may save other children from being abused and for that they can be rightly proud."
Warley, West Midlands
Upskirt ban blocking Tory MP strikes again, objecting to female genital mutilation bill
© Getty Images/Marcos del Mazo
Sir Christopher Chope shouted “object” to the bill which would’ve added a one-line amendment to the Children's Act 1989. The line, proposed by Labour peer Lord Michael Berkeley, read: “considerably extend protection to young girls at risk of genital mutilation.”
It is unclear as to why Chope blocked the bill.
The MP for Christchurch, Dorset, sparked outrage from activists and fellow MPs alike. Calls for him to be deselected as an MP were abundant with many referencing his previous controversies.
Explaining his actions over upskirting, Chope argued that his objection was about “who controls the House of Commons on Fridays,” telling the Bournemouth Echo that “The government has been hijacking time that is rightfully that of backbenchers...this is something I have fought for in most of my time as an MP and it goes to the very heart of the power balance between the government and parliament.”
It seems to me that his interference in these bills is, at the very least, an indication of how insignificant the suffering of young girls and women are to Chope.
The bill is expected to be passed in the coming months.
Chope’s colleague Penny Mourdant, the International Development Secretary, garnered cross-party support after she secured a £50m aid package to help stop FGM.
Congratulating Mourdant, Berkeley posted: “Amazing that Chope can halt an important improvement to the protection of young girls & how ironic that he has done so (for no discernible reason) on the day you launch this initiative.”
High number of child sexual abuse cases in
Trinidad & Tobago
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) – The Children Authority of Trinidad and Tobago (CATT) says it has had to deal with more than 5,000 cases of sexual abuse and sexual offences against children during the three-and-a-half years of its establishment.
CATT director, Safiya Noel said that more than 16,000 cases regarding children have come to its attention and that represents nearly 25 per cent of the actual cases received by the authority.
CATT, which came into operation in May 2015, following the proclamation of several pieces of legislation including the Children's Authority Act, said to date, it has received 69,319 calls and now has before it 16,661 cases.
“The number of reports of child sexual abuse and sexual offences against children over the period amounts to 5,737 of total cases,” Noel said.
Figures released by CATT show that the majority of the cases are from the east-west corridor of the island.
“The main forms of abuse are firstly, neglect; physical abuse and some sexual abuse,” she said, adding “working with the family is a critical thing and we have found that in a lot of single parents there is where a lot of the neglect lies”.
She said that parents themselves are either victims or victims of abuse and urged them to seek help and therapy.
“Nothing is wrong with going for therapy. You don't have to be crazy…sometimes if you think about it think, about your own lives, you would recognise that there are situations that you struggle to deal with and sometimes you need somebody there to help you through the process,” Noel said.
CATT chairman, Hanif Benjamin, said that a national protocol will be submitted to Cabinet for review and approval by mid-2019. He said the document will be rolled out as a national system where it will outline responsibilities for all stakeholders.
Perth volleyball coach faces multiple
child sexual abuse charges
PerthNowA 38-year-old Perth volleyball coach will face court today on a several child sexual abuse charges, allegedly involving a 16-year-old girl.
Sex Assault Squad detectives allege the child sex crimes took place this month against a 16-year-old girl, who at the time was under the man’s authority.
Police say the victim met the man during volleyball coaching sessions, where at the time the man was the chief coach of the volleyball club.
The man, from a southern suburb of Perth, has been charged with eight counts of sexual penetration of a child over 16 under their authority, as well as three counts of attempted sexual penetration of a child over 16 under their authority.
The investigation is ongoing and detectives are urging anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or make a report online at crimestoppers.com.au.
Yet Another Child Sex Abuse Case In Malta,
This Time With Underage Asylum Seekers
This Time With Underage Asylum Seekers
Support worker charged with sexually abusing
four underage asylum seekers in latest sordid case
four underage asylum seekers in latest sordid case
Malta has another child sexual abuse case to come to terms with, this one involving a support worker who allegedly sexually abused four underage asylum seekers at an open centre.
Norman Bugeja, 57, was prosecuted after the girls, aged between 16 and 17, opened up to social workers at the open centre and filed a police report. According to prosecuting inspectors John Spiteri and Joseph Busuttil, Bugeja had entered into an intimate relationship with one of the girls, raping others and occasionally offering money.
The list of sordid charges against him include performing non-consensual sexual acts on minors, offending public morals in a public place and committing a crime that, as a public officer, he was duty bound to prevent.
Bugeja’s lawyers, Arthur Azzopardi and Alfred Abela, requested bail, but this was shot down by the court after Inspector Spiteri argued that there was a strong risk of him tampering with evidence.
This is the latest case of child sex abuse in Malta in recent months. Other cases include a man who was found guilty of raping his nieces for over a decade since they were three and five, an artist who was found guilty of paying a young boy for oral sex and a prison guard charged with raping a juvenile inmate.
While some victims managed to at least obtain a taste of justice, others were not even that fortunate as they had only come forward after the crime was time-barred. Recent court cases include a young girl who was sexually abused for several years by a family friend and a 12-year-old who was sexually abused during a family outing on a boat.
The latter case prompted Judge Giovanni Grixti to call for an end to time-barring for sexual offences against children, which would bring Malta up to speed with foreign legislations.
Yes, please!
WA woman's compensation claim lays bare
crippling impact of child sex abuse
One Survivor's Story
Heather McNeill, WA TodayOne Survivor's Story
Tarryn* was just 12 years old when she was raped by a man offering girls in his community cannabis and cigarettes in exchange for sex.
In the weeks and years that followed the assault, she was overcome by feelings of shame and emptiness and forced to leave the town she grew up in, where her abuser still lived.
As she moved into adulthood she dropped out of high school, turned to cannabis use to numb her feelings and has never been employed.
She is one of the estimated one in every three to four girls, and one in every six boys who suffer sexual abuse as a child in Australia, according to the Blue Knot Foundation.
More than a decade on, and like many in her situation, Tarryn has never received counselling for what she went through and becomes upset when asked to talk about her ordeal.
As a 22-year-old, she is only now beginning to realise the profound impact the assault has had on her life.
Earlier this month, she was awarded more than $63,760 in criminal injuries compensation by the District Court of Western Australia in damages and to seek ongoing treatment for her recently diagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder.
The court found Tarryn had suffered mental and nervous shock injuries as a result of her assault.
“She appeared to have little hope for the future, an inability to plan and follow through with plans, tiredness, lack of motivation, was withdrawn and habitually sad,” the court judgement read.
“She felt empty and frightened.”
Kimberley Community Legal Services principal solicitor Hannah Levy, who represented Tarryn, said the firm’s east Kimberley office represented around 10 women a year seeking support to overcome the impacts of childhood sexual abuse.
“We have had women in their 50s talking about what happened when they were seven years old – it sometimes takes a lifetime to really understand the abuse and the confusion of what happened and how to deal with it,” she said.
“A lot of adults come to us years after the abuse because after the incident there’s a lot of chaos in their lives and they don’t have a strong guardian who can make their claim.
“In this case, the young woman was struggling to engage in school and had to move away from her community – we very often see those factors in these claims.”
Blue Knot Foundation president, Dr Cathy Kezelman, specialises in dealing with complex trauma.
She said the steps for an adult to overcome childhood sexual abuse were often complex, but were possible if a victim found the right support.
“People can live very worthwhile lives,” she said. “They come to make meaning of what happened to them and their abuse becomes part of them rather than dominating their existence.
“So the possibility of recovery is absolutely there, not just anecdotally but also neuroplasticity tells us that the brain can heal and repair, but it is a matter of finding that right support.”
Dr Kezelman said that support often started with family and friends being open to listening to a victim’s experience.
“Everyone in our society has a role to play by just showing that you’re there with someone, that you believe them, that you are not going to try and sweep it away and tell them to get over it because it was such a long time ago,” she said.
“Find out what someone needs, how can you help, because often people will start talking, not to a therapist but someone they trust like a friend or family member.
“They’ll put their toe in the water to see if they’re going to be believed.”
A recent change to state legislation means survivors of child sexual abuse are able to seek redress in the civil courts, no matter how long ago they suffered at the hands of their abusers.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse found the average time for a survivor to disclose childhood abuse was 22 years.
NZ Youth worker who sexually abused 12yo,
gloats about avoiding jail
NZ HeraldAn Auckland youth worker who preyed on a 12-year-old girl, coercing her into performing sexual acts on him, gloated on social media by predicting he would escape a jail sentence.
Devonte Vincent Walter Mulitalo, 23, had pleaded guilty to one charge of sexual connection with a young person under 16, and a second charge of indecent communication with a young person.
The former youth worker, who was 22 at the time he abused a 12-year-old girl, was yesterday sentenced to home detention.
Wow! That will really teach him! What will it teach him? That NZ justice system is a joke! That little girls are free to abuse! And that he can pretty much do whatever the Hell he wants.
But just weeks before sentencing, the 23-year-old posted a sickening image to social media mocking his victim - and gloating that he wouldn't be going to jail.
Despite his disturbing post on social media, Mulitalo wrote an apology letter to his victim which was presented to the court.
"He is genuinely remorseful," said defence lawyer Panama Le'au'anae.
Yeah, right! It looks like it.
It was revealed between January and July 2017 the Glen Innes man sent "numerous" sexually explicit images to a 12-year-old girl.
He also admitted coercing the girl into a shed to perform sexual acts on him.
At the time Mulitalo was employed at Youth Town - a nationally operated, not-for-profit organisation focusing on developing 5-18 year-olds.
He was a supervisor and co-ordinator for after school care and the young victim was in under his watch.
After meeting the 12-year-old, Mulitalo began telling the girl how much he liked her. Initially he hugged her, but that moved on to kissing and further into other sexual acts.
Mulitalo would tell the girl to lie and say she needed to go to the toilet and meet him in a shed. He would give the other children lollies and let them play video games to keep them away from the shed.
Mulitalo tried to get the girl to have full intercourse with him but she refused. He also started meeting her outside of Youth Town and would drive her to places where he would continue to abuse her.
He sent her photographs of his penis and videos of him masturbating.
Mulitalo was charged after his colleagues found the lewd images on the girl's phone and alerted police.
Judge Mary-Beth Sharp said the charges Mulitalo faced were representative, meaning Mulitalo committed multiple offences of the same type in similar circumstances.
She said Mulitalo had groomed the victim and there was a "significant level" of premeditation.
"She was just a little girl … this was a gross breach of trust," said Judge Sharp.
"I have my worries that you are a paedophile … but I am satisfied if you graduate from the SAFE programme that the risk you pose to the community and in particular young girls will be sincerely and severely mitigated if not abolished."
Good grief! Are you for real, Judge?
Mulitalo is banned from associating with or having any contact with any person under 16 except his brother - unless supervised by an approved adult.
He was sentenced to 11 months home detention and was ordered to undertake the SAFE programme.
He was also added the child sex offender's register and has been banned from owning, possessing or using any electronic device capable of accessing the internet while on home detention.
Wow! That will really teach him, unless, of course, he uses his brothers phone, or the family computer, or his friends' phones, or....
British Columbia man sentenced to over three years for child sexual abuse
Sean Mott, info newsVERNON - An Okanagan man is facing almost four years in prison after pleading guilty to sexually abusing a minor.
The accused — whose name is being withheld to protect the identity of the victim — appeared in Vernon Provincial Court today, Nov. 26, for sentencing. He had pleaded guilty to invitation to sexual touching of a person under the age of 16. He was sentenced to 42 months in prison.
The accused, who kept his head down for the majority of the proceedings, admitted to sexually abusing a young girl over a period of seven years from mid-2009 to early-2017. The abuse occurred, on average, two or three times a month.
A Gladue report was filed on the accused, where he revealed he'd been sexually abused as a child.
Crown asked for a sentence between two and five years, while the defense asked for a term between 18 months and two years less a day. The judge settled on the three-and-a-half years.
The accused will submit his DNA for processing and he'll be on the National Sex Offender Registry for 20 years. He's prohibited from being near playgrounds, school grounds, and similar areas for seven years.
His prison sentence begins immediately.
Ex-girlfriend tells UK court she saw girl’s father watching daughter in child sex abuse video
In the courtroom
Adam Lusher, IndependentA convicted paedophile’s ex-girlfriend has told a court how she saw the father of a murdered nine-year-old girl watching her in a child sex abuse video two months before she was killed.
Ms Stevenson told the court when she was 16 she had stumbled upon Barrie Fellows in his front room watching a video of his daughter Nicola having sex with the family lodger Dougie Judd.
Ms Stevenson, now 48, said she had been smoking pot with Mr Judd and her then boyfriend Bishop, when she went to get a glass of water from the kitchen.
Stifling tears as she gave evidence from behind a screen, Ms Stevenson told the Old Bailey: “Barrie Fellows was sitting on the sofa, and another man was to his left. I heard sexual noises and turned towards where the noise was coming from, the television.
“Nicky was on Dougie’s bed with him. Dougie touched her and got on top of her having sex. They were both undressed.”
Ms Stevenson said she remained unobserved for two minutes as she watched Mr Fellows and the other man viewing the video.
The witness told jurors she then went home because she felt sick.
Ms Stevenson told the court she had given statements to police about the video allegation in 1988, two years after the murders, and again in 2007.
Barrie Fellows arriving to give his evidence at the Old Bailey (PA)
She was giving her evidence a week after Mr Fellows and Mr Judd issued categorical denials from the witness box, saying emphatically that there had been no video and they had never sexually abused Nicola.
Joel Bennathan QC, defending, however, has invited the jury to consider the possibility that Mr Fellows might have killed Nicola and Karen to cover up his “guilty secret”.
Ms Stevenson was called as a defence witness, but she has long since stopped having anything to do with Bishop, who in 1990 was convicted of abducting, sexually assaulting and attempting to murder a seven-year-old girl.
She told the Old Bailey of how she had witnessed Bishop kick, punch and slap his adult partner Jenny Johnson while she was pregnant with the couple’s second child.
Prosecutor Brian Altman QC invited Ms Stevenson to confirm she had given a statement on 31 October, 1986, in which, recalling a conversation with Bishop on 11 October, 1986, she had told police: “I said how awful it was and how could anyone do it?
“He said, ‘They deserved it, and I blame the parents for allowing them out at night.’”
In the same statement, the court heard, the 16-year-old Marion Stevenson had told police: “He asked me to make love, but I wasn’t interested because I was upset about the murders.
“Russell was unhappy and said I wouldn’t see him for much longer because he was going to be put down for the murder. He said, ‘You think I have done it, don’t you?’ I told him not to be silly.”
Ms Stevenson confirmed for the court that this had been the content of her statement in 1986.
She broke down in tears as she also confirmed that Bishop had claimed to her that he had seen Nicola and Karen’s dead bodies and added: “They looked so lovely lying there.”
Bishop appeared to be listening intently in the dock to what his former teenage girlfriend was saying from behind the screen. He denies murder.
The trial continues.
UK pensioner jailed for 15 years for child abuse
By Keith Huntmultimediadesk@thekmgroup.co.uk
A pervert who continued to sexually abuse a young girl after she made a complaint against him has been jailed for 15 years.
Pepler then continued with his devastating campaign of abuse, involving an attempt to rape her and using blackmail tactics to maintain her silence.
Several years later she had the courage to go to the police again and Pepler, of Cremer Place, Faversham, was arrested.
The 72-year-old pensioner maintained his innocence but a jury took just two hours on Monday to convict him of six offences of indecent assault, attempted rape and indecency with a child.
A judge told him: “You cynically exploited her for your own sexual desires over a substantial period of time. “It seems to me there was a good deal of thought and planning and cunning in the way you treated her in this particularly unpleasant series of offences.”
Maidstone Crown Court heard the victim retracted her earlier complaints to undo damage she was alleged to have caused, and the matter was dropped.
But Pepler still continued to abuse the girl and tried to have intercourse with her, but was unable to do so. He also made her watch pornographic videos.
“None of this she wanted him to do,” said prosecutor Patricia May. “She was scared. He told her he no longer had sex with his wife.”
The victim decided to go for counselling in 2016 to cope with what happened to her. She then went to the police again.
After his arrest, Pepler gave a prepared statement in which he denied the allegations, saying he had not touched his victim “for a sexual reason”. He claimed he touched her because she asked him to.
Following conviction, Dominic Webber, defending, told Judge Martin Huseyin: “Whatever sentence you pass may mean he doesn’t leave prison.”
The judge told Pepler he took advantage of his victim's vulnerability. “It had a very serious effect on her,” he said. “Fortunately, she is in a much better place now. For many years she was deeply affected by what you did to her.
"It took an astonishing amount of courage and fortitude to complain...
it is courage she didn't have until she was older"
- Judge Martin Huseyin
Pepler’s name will be on the sex offenders’ register for life.
Senior investigating officer DI Shaun Creed said: "Pepler subjected his victim to years of abuse and then continued to deny the charges put against him forcing her to endure a trial.
"He inflicted traumatic emotional and physical abuse which will stay with the victim throughout her life. He lied throughout this case adding to her distress and I would like to commend her bravery throughout and I hope that this sentence helps to give her some closure."
An NSPCC spokesman said: “Pepler’s campaign of abuse against his victim was long and sustained. She must be commended for her incredible bravery in speaking out against him and we hope she has received support to get her life back on track.
"The effects of sexual abuse can last a lifetime and it is vital that all victims know they will be listened to if they come forward."
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