Rotherham child sexual abuse:
Six men jailed for abusing teenage girls
Halifax-based, Female, Canadian, naval officer charged with 3 counts of sexual assault
Six men jailed for abusing teenage girls
NICK CHARITY
The Evening Standard
A National Crime Agency composite shows (L-R, top to bottom) Iqlak Yousaf, Nabeel Kurshid and Asif Ali, Mohammed Imran Ali Akhtar, Salah Ahmed El-Hakam and Tanweer Hussain Ali ( PA/NCA )
A gang of six men have been jailed for up to 23 years after sexually exploiting vulnerable teenage girls in Rotherham.
As MainStream Media are loathe to point out, but is integral to the Rotherham Teen Girl Sexual Holocaust - all the men are of Pakistani origin and all are most certainly Muslim. Both of these are integral to the mind-set of those who felt they had the right to astonishing abuse of young British girls.
A judge told the defendants they "perpetrated, facilitated and encouraged" the abuse on five victims who were "vulnerable in the extreme".
The complainants explained in statements how the men had "destroyed" them and that their childhood had been taken from them.
One of the complainants told a trial how she had sex with "at least 100 Asian men" by the time she was 16 and another described how she was gang-raped in a forest and threatened with being abandoned there.
Passing sentence, Judge Sarah Wright said they "groomed, coerced and intimidated" the girls after plying them with alcohol and drugs.
The jury in the trial which finished on October 29 heard how girls, who are now in their 30s, were "lured by the excitement of friendship with older Asian youths" but then sexually assaulted and passed between men.
The case is the first major prosecution arising out of Operation Stovewood, the National Crime Agency's (NCA) inquiry into historical child sexual exploitation in the South Yorkshire town which has identified more than 1,500 victims.
This investigation was set up in the wake of the 2014 Jay Report which laid bare the shocking scale of exploitation in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013 and failure of police and social services to intervene.
A victim impact statement to the court on behalf of one of the complainants said: "The men in this trial have had a massive effect on the person I am. "I hope the court realises these defendants destroyed me. I hope they do go to jail to send a message to abusers."
Another victim said in a statement: "What happened to me as a child has made me overprotective towards my own children who do not regularly enjoy the same freedoms as many of their friends of the same age.
"I genuinely believe I lost part of my childhood or at least had it taken from me by adults."
Two of the victims did not make victim impact statements because "it would make me feel worse than I already do".
Mohammed Imran Ali Akhtar, 37, of Godstone Road, Rotherham, was found guilty of one rape, one charge of aiding and abetting rape, three indecent assaults, one charge of procuring a girl under 21 to have unlawful sexual intercourse with another and one sexual assault.
Akhtar, who was labelled by the judge as the ring leader, was jailed for 23 years.
The "bully" of the gang, Nabeel Kurshid, 35, of Weetwood Road, Rotherham, was found guilty of two rapes and one indecent assault and was sentenced to 19 years in prison.
Iqlak Yousaf, 34, of Tooker Road, Rotherham, was found guilty of two rapes and two indecent assaults and was jailed for 20 years.
Tanweer Ali, 37, of Godstone Road, Rotherham, was found guilty of two rapes, two indecent assaults and one charge of false imprisonment and was handed a 14-year sentence.
Salah Ahmed El-Hakam, 39, of Tudor Close, Sheffield, was found guilty of one rape and was jailed for 15 years.
Asif Ali, 33, of Clough Road, Rotherham, was found guilty of two indecent assaults and was jailed for 10 years to run concurrently with his existing 12-year sentence.
Huddersfield: 30 people to be tried over
alleged child sexual exploitation
Alleged offences include rape, sexual assault and trafficking
Adam Forrest @adamtomforrest
Thirty people will go on trial charged with offences relating to the alleged sexual exploitation of children in Huddersfield, a judge has ruled.
Twenty five of the defendants appeared at Leeds Crown Court on Friday. The men have been charged with a total of 78 offences, including rape, sexual assault and trafficking.
The alleged offences date back to a period between 2005 and 2012, and relate to five female complainants then aged between 12 and 18.
Judge Simon Phillips QC said all the cases will be dealt with across three separate trials beginning in September 2019. The final trial will not begin until April 2020.
Eighteen of those who appeared in court on Friday were out on bail, with seven others in custody. A further five defendants who are custody did not appear, but were represented in court.
Only 20 of the 30 defendants can be named because of reporting restrictions:
Iftikar Ali, 37, of Huddersfield, is charged with three rapes and one attempted rape.
Umar Zaman, 30, of Huddersfield, is charged with two rapes.
Basharat Hussain, 31, of Huddersfield, is charged with two rapes.
Banaras Hussain, 37, of Shipley, is charged with one rape.
Mubasher Hussain, 35, of Huddersfield, is charged with one rape and one sexual assault.
Abdul Majid, 34, of Huddersfield, is charged with two rapes.
Gul Riaz, 42, of Huddersfield, is charged with one rape.
Fehreen Rafiq, 38, of Huddersfield, is charged with two counts of facilitating the commission of a child sex offence.
Mohammed Sajjad, 31, of Huddersfield, is charged with five counts of rape and one count of facilitating the commission of a child sex offence.
Usman Ali, 32, of Huddersfield, is charged with two counts of rape.
Mohammed Suhail Arif, 30, of Huddersfield, is charged with one rape.
Amin Ali Choli, 36, of Huddersfield, is charged with two rapes.
Mohammed Dogar, 35, of Huddersfield, is charged with two counts of trafficking.
Banaris Hussain, 35, of Huddersfield, is charged with one rape.
Shaqeel Hussain, 35, of Dewsbury, is charged with one rape and two counts of trafficking.
Mohammed Waqas Anwar, 28, of Huddersfield, is charged with five rapes.
Saqib Raheel, 32, of Cradley Health, is charged with two rapes.
Manzoor Akhtar, 29, of Huddersfield, is accused of three rapes and trafficking.
Samuel Fikru, 30, of Camden, is charged with two rapes.
Mohammed Akram, 41, of Huddersfield, is charged with a rape and two counts of trafficking.
The 10 men who cannot be named are charged with a range of offences, including rape and trafficking, as part of the same West Yorkshire Police investigation into child sexual exploitation.
Do you see any names on that list who would not likely be Pakistani and Muslim? Do you see a problem here?
Halifax-based, Female, Canadian, naval officer charged with 3 counts of sexual assault
Incidents allegedly happened in or off the coasts of
Croatia and Greece in fall 2017
CBC News 
The alleged offences happened while the Canadian Patrol Frigate HMCS Charlottetown was deployed near Greece and Croatia last year. A female member of the Canadian navy faces charges of sexual assault and assault. (Corporal J.W.S. Houck/Formation Imaging Services)
A female member of the Canadian navy faces charges of sexual assault and assault against two people, allegations linked to their time serving on the Canadian Patrol Frigate HMCS Charlottetown in the Mediterranean.
The Canadian Forces National Investigation Service said in a news release Wednesday that it received a complaint from a third party aboard the ship who reported receiving complaints about the behaviour of a woman with the rank of sub-lieutenant. In its news release, the military said the allegations involved inappropriate touching.
The accused faces three counts under the Criminal Code of sexual assault and one of assault, and three counts of behaving in a disgraceful manner contrary to the National Defence Act. The charges relate to two other crew aboard HMCS Charlottetown.
The investigation service won't release the gender of the two alleged victims.
The alleged incidents happened in or off the coasts of Croatia and Greece between October and December in 2017.
A decision has not yet been made on when or where this case might proceed to court martial, but HMCS Charlottetown and its crew are based in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Karate-loving 10 year-old Siberian girl
fends off outdoor pedophile attack
The preteen used her skills to hold off the attacker until help arrived on the scene. The 43-year-old suspect has been taken into custody.
Police say the attack took place on Wednesday evening in the small Siberian town of Lesosibirsk, when the would-be victim, aged ten, was walking alone to her after-school karate lesson.
The man “bundled over the girl, hit her on the face repeatedly, and demanded that she take off her clothes.”
The incident was captured on grainy amateur footage, posted on YouTube by the authorities. Despite an obvious difference in stature, the girl is anything but a passive, frozen target, and the video shows her attempting to land several kicks.
The struggle was violent enough to attract a bystander, a grown woman, who confronted the man. As the man was distracted, the girl made a run for it, with the assailant in hot pursuit.
Nonetheless, the karate student was able to escape without major injuries, and inform the authorities, who quickly captured the attacker.
According to Russian law, if convicted of sexual assault of a minor, the perpetrator faces between 12 and 20 years in jail.
2 Vancouver-area police officers acquitted
of sex assault charges on 17 y/o in Cuba
CBC News
Vancouver Police Department Const. Mark Simms, 29, on the left and Port Moody Police Department Const. Jordan Long, 31, were the subjects of a Cuban investigation into an alleged sex assault (Supplied)
Two Vancouver-area police officers who have been held in Cuba since mid-March over an alleged sexual assault have been acquitted.
Const. Mark Simms, 29, of the Vancouver Police Department and Const. Jordan Long, 31, of the Port Moody Police Department were barred from leaving Cuba after their arrest last spring while on vacation in Varadero.
The arrests came after a fellow tourist, a 17-year-old from Ontario, reported she had been sexually assaulted. Few details of the case have been released, but in April, Port Moody Mayor Mike Clay said Simms was accused of the sexual assault, while Long was being held as a material witness.
Both men and their families maintained they were innocent.
A family member of one of the officers told CBC News the men were acquitted Thursday in court.
The families of Simms and Long are now trying to get them home as quickly as possible.
US extradites FETÖ member to Turkey
over sexual abuse of children
DAILY SABAHISTANBUL
The U.S. extradited on Friday a member of Gülenist terror group (FETÖ), Mehmet Gözegir to Turkey over charges of sexual abuse of children.
Gözegir previously served in the board of FETÖ-linked umbrella organization Raindrop Turkish House as a manager.
The Gülenist was expelled from the United States the previous day, as he embarked on a flight from Houston to Istanbul with the presence of security forces.
He was detained on May 14, 2015 in Fort Bend, Texas while he was a PhD student in the Baylor College of Medicine.
During the operation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Homeland Security, Gözegir and 22 other men were detained mainly over grounds of "online solicitation of a minor" and "attempted sexual assault of a child."
Gözegir was previously released pending trial on a bail of $50,000.
He was expelled from board membership in the foundation and his deportation was decided in June 2018.
The Raindrop Foundation has been operating as the umbrella institution uniting many schools and foundations belonging to FETÖ.
FETÖ and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gülen orchestrated the defeated coup on July 15, 2016, which left 251 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured.
Ankara also accuses FETÖ of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary.
This may well be true, but has not been proven to anyone outside of Turkey. Turkey has been after the extradition of Fetullah Gülen for many years, but the USA has not cooperated. Gözegir is but a token of American cooperation. One thing is for sure, he will never sexually abuse another child.
Fort Bend, TX
UK man jailed for 17 years after child sexual abuse
over three decades
By Matt Jarramover three decades
A man has been jailed for 17 years after being found guilty of indecently assaulting two girls and a boy.
Frederick Roy Salmon, 69, formerly of Foxhill Road East, Carlton, was found guilty of 13 offences of sexual assaults and witness intimidation following an eight-day trial at Nottingham Crown Court.
The incidents happened in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. The victims came forward over two years and reported the offences to the police.
Salmon was jailed on Thursday, November 15, when he appeared for sentencing at Nottingham Crown Court.
A Nottinghamshire Police spokesperson said: "The victims have shown tremendous courage in coming forward to report these offences as well as throughout the eight days of a very traumatising trial.
"They had to relive some very difficult memories. The offences have had a very significant impact on their lives. But because of their bravery their attacker is now having to answer for the despicable crimes he committed so long ago and may have thought he had got away with.
"We hope this sentencing gives the victims some comfort and enables them to move forward with their lives.
"We also hope it encourages anyone else who has been affected by sexual abuse, no matter when it happened, to come forward so that Nottinghamshire Police can investigate thoroughly and seek justice for them."
Child-sex victims ‘at school with culprits’ in Pilbara, WA
VICTORIA LAURIE
Ten children have been charged with sexually preying on other children in the Pilbara towns of Roebourne and Karratha.
Of those, six who attend school are likely to share classrooms with their alleged victims.
In West Australian Legislative Council hearings this week, the head of the state’s child protection agency in the Department of Communities confirmed that it was his “expectation” that victims and perpetrators could be attending the same schools.
But Graeme Searle said safety plans were in place to ensure playgrounds were closely supervised and toilets locked at certain hours.
Nevertheless, it is virtually impossible for sexually abused children to learn in an environment where they are likely to encounter their abusers. Either the victims or the perpetrators have to be removed from the schools.
Child Protection Minister Simone McGurk had previously said that there was “no evidence” of victims living with, or having contact with, charged or convicted offenders.
It’s an insight into the difficulties authorities face in protecting children in the Pilbara after the police-initiated Operation Fledermaus cracked down on child-sex abuse in the largely Aboriginal town of Roebourne and surrounding mining towns.
It resulted in charges that by last December had reached 346 sex offences by 43 perpetrators — some of them boys under 18 — against 224 children.
Astonishing numbers for a town with fewer than one thousand people!
Those figures, revealed for the first time in Communities Department briefing papers for this week’s hearings, exceed the figure of 184 child victims publicly released last year by then-police commissioner Karl O’Callaghan.
Asked to explain the disparity this week, Ms McGurk said the figure had in fact dropped to 50 child victims but a higher number of 58 perpetrators. She said police investigations had eliminated those children who had initially been considered vulnerable but who did not become the subject of charges laid against others.
The confusion has left an uncomfortable feeling that the scale of the Pilbara’s child sex-abuse problems is so great that no one can guarantee vulnerable children the safety they deserve.
“The responses from the government at the annual report hearings this week should be of grave concern to every person in our state,” opposition child protection spokesman Nick Goiran said.
The hearings also revealed that police and child protection staff would soon launch an operational onslaught in another Pilbara town, Port Hedland, where footage of Aboriginal women and girls being bashed and abused was captured by the town’s CCTV system.
Child protection authorities are already struggling with a disproportionately high rate of Aboriginal children coming into state care.
Roebourne, WA
Child victim tells UK court:
'Jail dad for same time he abused me'
One Survivor's Story - caution, somewhat graphic content below
By Joanne Rowe
A YOUNG girl who was abused by her father told a judge he should sentence him to three years in prison — “the same amount of time he has been doing things to me for”.
In a victim statement read out at Bolton Crown Court the girl explained to Judge Graeme Smith: “I am really glad my dad has pleaded guilty. It means he has told the truth.
“Once he said that he would murder my friends and bash my head in with a big stone from the garden if I said anything.
“I am not scared any more because he is in prison.”
The court heard that the girl had suffered sexual abuse from her father from the age of seven when he began asking her to perform sex acts on him. But the 54-year-old’s behaviour came to an end when the brave child managed to show her mother what was happening.
The father, who cannot be named in order to protect his daughter’s identity, pleaded guilty to five specimen counts of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity. He also admitted one of sexual assault of a child from when he touched her genitals over her clothing.
Richard Vardon, prosecuting, said the girl told police the abuse occurred when her father was drunk.
On the final occasion, she was asleep at 11pm when her father came home and rang the doorbell to be let in. The girl opened the door and heated up his dinner.
After he had eaten he took her into the living room, removed his tracksuit pants and underpants and asked her to “help” him. The child had learnt that, when he asked that, he wanted her to touch his private parts.
“She edged back from the defendant and made an excuse to go upstairs,” said Mr Vardon.
The quick thinking schoolgirl asked her mother to come downstairs. “[The mother] stood behind the sofa so the defendant did not see her,” said Mr Vardon, who added that she was then appalled to hear her partner tell their daughter, “go on, go on, touch it.”
“It was then the victim’s mother made herself known. Understandably upset, she screamed at the defendant,” he said.
The father later told police that he had drunk 20 cans of Fosters lager, smoked cannabis and had no recollection of what he had done that night or on previous occasions when he had been drunk.
Martin Pizzey, defending the father, who appeared in court via a video link from Manchester Prison, said: “He cannot come up with an an explanation for his behaviour. He says he thought the world of his daughter, One of the most significant things he said was that she would not lie — if she said these offences took place then he would accept that they did take place. He is ashamed and very sorry.
“He had a circle of friends and family and his life is now devastated and in ruins. He wishes that this had come out earlier and not gone on for so long.”
“He knows, on his release [from prison] there are very few people who are likely to support him.”
The child’s court statement said: “If I was a judge I would send my dad to prison for three years — the same amount of time he has been doing things to me for.”
Jailing her father for six years, Judge Smith praised the girl. “She has shown great courage and maturity in the way she has dealt with this,” he said.
The father was also placed on the sex offenders’ register and made subject to a sexual harm prevention order for life.
Alcohol and drugs! Somewhere in each episode he knew what he was doing. But, as much as he loved his daughter, he loved the alcohol, drugs, and himself, more.
Huddersfield child sex hell victims
'ignored because they are middle class'
By PAUL JEEVES
Parliament is urged to "take the issue more seriously" (Image: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
Authorities thought children were just "rebelling" and some were deemed not to need help as they lived in homes with conservatories, loft extensions and "nice kitchens". Warnings about systematic abuse of young girls by Asian men in Huddersfield were first raised by Parents Against Child Exploitation (Pace) in 2009. They prompted Labour MP Barry Sheerman to urge Parliament to "take the issue more seriously".
Kirklees Council children's services were described by Ofsted last year as "not improving quick enough", and Pace chief executive Gill Gibbons says the child protection system remains "unfit for purpose".
In 2009, Mr Sheerman told Parliament: "Two or three of my constituents have faced the traumatic experience of having a daughter as young as 12 taken into a way of life that leads to sexual manipulation and in some cases, prostitution."
He said men would befriend girls before having a sexual relationship and "passing the girl on to an older generation or a wider circle of men".
Almost a decade later, 20 men have been convicted of the "vile and wicked" abuse, receiving a total of 257 years behind bars. Ringleader Amere Singh Dhaliwal, 35, was jailed for life with a minimum of 18 years for 54 offences, including child rape.
Rapist...Amere Singh Dhaliwal (Image: West Yorkshire Police)
Ms Gibbons said: "The system isn't fit for purpose. That was the case with the historic Huddersfield victims and that is still the case now.
"A social worker visited a family and commented on what a 'nice kitchen' they had and on their loft conversion. The family were seen to have a nice home and living comfortably, so didn't need the support of social services."
Mr Sheerman said "people thought it was girls from tough backgrounds and in care", when a lot of families were "middle class".
West Yorkshire Police accepted opportunities were "missed", but blamed a "lack of understanding" of grooming.
The force said: "Improved understanding of the subject also now means these signs can be spotted and acted upon at a very early stage."
Kirklees children's services director Steven Walker said protecting vulnerable children "must be our priority".
But Kath Pinnock, council leader from 2000 to 2006, said: "I can, hand on heart, say nobody raised the issue. I'm confident that if they had, we would have reacted in a way to bring these people to justice."
Nobody raised the issue? Nobody? Ever?
Brainwashing, abuse and forced child labour – Inside America’s most terrifying cults which are still active today
Escapees from seven notorious groups including the Moonies, Nxivm, United Nations of Islam and the Children of God are set to share their harrowing stories in the new TV series 'Cults and Extreme Belief'
ESCAPEES from some of America’s most notorious cults and extreme groups have revealed their harrowing tales of brainwashing, abuse and forced child labour.
The brave survivors also warned how the organisations, which include the United Nations of Islam, Nxivm and the gun-obsessed Sanctuary Church - are still active around the world.
Elijah says he was placed in a compound aged 12 where he was forced to work as a dishwasher
One former cult member Elijah Muhammed revealed how he was handed over to the United Nations of Islam (UNOI) group aged 12, where he was physically abused and forced to work from dawn until the early hours of the morning for no pay.
The controversial group, run by a man called Royall Jenkins under the guise of being a black empowerment group, is one of seven controversial organisations featured in a new series called “Cults and Extreme Belief”, which airs on Sunday.
Actress Catherine Oxenberg reveals how crazed sex cult NXIVM starved and branded her daughter - and how she risked her life in journey of hell to rescue her
Elijah told how the UNOI - now known as The Value Creators - preyed on poor African American communities and encouraged parents to give up their children and allow them to be taken to a compound called “Heaven” in Kansas City, Kansas.
Telling them their kids would be safer away from the crime and drugs of their poor communities, the children were taken from their parents in lorries and put to work for free in the cult’s restaurant and supermarket businesses, which made huge profits for Jenkins.
Elijah, pictured with his family as a child, said his parents wanted the best for him but were brainwashed into giving him up
“My parents, they wanted the best for their children - but they were naive," Elijah said.
“They really put their trust in something that they thought was a religion - that turned out to be a monster."
Elijah recalls how his parents, who were heavily involved with the UNOI, received a phone call when he was 12, ordering them to send him and his brother to the "Heaven" compound, where they would become "men".
"If you’ve got a bunch of negative things happening in a community drugs, gangs, violence and then you’ve got a place that claims to be the opposite of that - of course you’d want your children to participate," he said.
“So bags were packed that night and we were told transportation will be here tomorrow to get you. When tomorrow came it was very scary, we didn’t know who we were staying with, we didn’t know who it was who was transporting us.
“It was a semi truck and it read on the side 'United Nations of Islam' and we rode in the back to be transported to 'Heaven'. When the truck pulled up me and my brother got off and the first thing they told us was 'This is the F block barracks'.
“Leaving your parents house and transitioning to barracks - it’s a place where soldiers reside. We were no longer children, we were soldiers now, we were men and that meant anything that came along with that we had to endure it.”
Elijah said he and his brother lived with 14 other children and began a gruelling work schedule.
“We didn’t have a chance to breathe. It was constant. School, then after school, work - I was a dishwasher - then after work, worship then back to work," he said.
"After work I’d go home at about 3am then wake up again the next day at 5am and do it all over again. That was my daily routine at 12 years old.”
The show's host Elizabeth Vargas told Sun Online the survivors' stories were "harrowing"
Any child who disobeyed the cult’s strict rules was punished by being publicly punched in the chest in front of a packed auditorium of people or by being starved.
Elijah was moved to different states were he worked for free until he finally managed to escape in 2011, age 21, after 15 years in the UNOI.
He has now reported the group to the FBI and hopes to expose them for “human trafficking” in a bid to stop any other children suffering like he did. A warrant for Jenkin's arrest was issued earlier this month.
Elijah is one of the brave survivors featured in the new Crime and Investigation show, which looks at cults or extreme groups through the eyes of an ex-member.
Another former extreme group member Teddy Hose, who was born into the Unification or "Moonie" church, told how his brother shot and paralysed his mother in an accident he blamed on the group and the Moon family they followed.
Teddy Hose now protests against the gun-toting Sanctuary Church - and offshoot of the Unification church
Teddy told how he grew up with Sean Moon, who runs a gun-obsessed splinter group of the church called the Sanctuary Church, which encourages members to arm themselves with AR-15 rifles and devote themselves to the Moon family ahead of their own.
“The Moons were always into guns,” he said. “Sean’s older brother, Steve Moon, he loved guns and would often go hunting in the woods around our house, so I think my brother saw that.
“I remember I was just doing my homework at my desk and my brother came in and said I got to tell you something: ‘Mom was shot’.
“My mom was pruning some trees in the woods and my brother must have thought it was deer or something and he just took two shots in the dark.
Teddy said his brother began playing with guns to copy the Moon family
“I didn’t believe him and then I saw my younger brother behind him and he had tears in his eyes. I was like ‘Oh my God'. She had two bullets in the stomach that reached her spine. She’s paralysed from the waist down.
"Just one shot changed everything, all because the local church boys thought guns were cool.”
Teddy left the church with his family aged 22, after they realised how wealthy the Moon family were and how poor its members were.
He now protests against the Newfoundland, Pensylvania-based group and their fanatical gun ideologies - including a controversial AR-15 blessing ceremony which took place earlier this year just days after the Parkland school shooting in Florida.
“The Sanctuary Church - it speaks the language of Christian values - but people need to know that this is not a Christian organisation," Teddy explained.
"They have someone who has guns who believes the world is trying to attack them. You’re putting guns into kids’ hands and giving them a religious reason to use them.
“How is this any different to a terrorist organisation? It’s like for holy reasons we have to defend with guns our ideals when no one is attacking them. It’s really delusional.”
It's putting your faith in guns rather than Jesus Christ.
He added: “You can’t look at an organisation that says ‘The world is Satanic, come to us and we will cleanse your blood that is sinful’, and not call it a cult.”
"Many will come in My name saying, 'I am the Christ', and mislead many." Matt 24:5.
The series also features people who have managed to escape from the Children of God, a group accused of sexually abusing children and Nxivm, an alleged sex slave cult which branded women on the pubic area.
The show’s presenter Elizabeth Vargas told Sun Online: “These stories are harrowing. All of these groups are extreme or dangerous in some way.
“People have this image that anyone who joins a cult must be naive or not very bright because they’ve been brainwashed and taken in by these groups but that’s totally not the case - many of these people are very smart.
“If there’s a commonality, it’s probably that they all want to do better in the world and make the world a better place."
Teddy, pictured here aged eight, was born into the religion
“Their very positive attributes have been co-opted by these cynical leaders.
“Each one of these survivors describes abuse of some kind - either physical, sexual abuse, emotional or physical.
“Many more people than you would believe could be sucked in by these groups.
Most worrying of all, Elizabeth warns how all the cults are still active - including some in the UK.
“All of the cults are still active. There are some signs that Nxivm may be dying off but all of the others still exist and are operating all around the world.
“Some have gone underground in the US but are active elsewhere.
“Several are active in the UK including Children of God - now known as Family International.
“All of these - except the FLDS, which is limited to a part of Utah, have an international reach.
“It’s hard to know the exact numbers of members because these groups are by nature secretive and often isolated either physically or psychologically.
“They could be living next door to you but you don’t even know.”
Cults & Extreme Belief premieres at 9pm on Sunday November 18 in the UK on Crime and Investigation (Sky 156, Virgin 275, BT 328 and TalkTalk 328).
Sick story that just goes on and on...
N.Z. sex worker grandmother's appeal for plotting granddaughter's abuse fails
Jono Galuszka
High Court judge Justice David Collins rejected a grandmother's appeal against her jail term for offering her 10-year-old granddaughter for sexual exploitation. MONIQUE FORD/STUFF
A sex worker who offered to let a man abuse her 10-year-old granddaughter in exchange for a cheap car has failed to have her jail term reduced.
The woman, who has name suppression to protect her granddaughter, tried to get time knocked off her three-year, three-month sentence, arguing the plot was a distant reality.
But in a recently released decision, Justice David Collins said the plan was nowhere near "the nature of a fantasy".
The woman, 56, was jailed in August for dealing her 10-year-old granddaughter for sexual exploitation and having objectionable images and intimate visual recordings.
The plot was undertaken with Levin man Andrew Michael Paul Davie, known as Michael, who was jailed for three years and five months.
Davie was a client of the woman's, but kept in touch when he moved away from the Wellington area, where the woman lived.
The pair exchanged text messages, during which he asked her if she knew of any young people available for sex.
She sent him four nude photos of her granddaughter in exchange for a $40 mobile phone top-up, and he asked if she would be interested in making money from the child.
They discussed prices – Davie offered $1000, but the grandmother said she wanted a cheap car – what kind of contact would occur, and dates.
OMG - I just keeps getting worse
Davie also said he knew someone who could train the child in sexual behaviour – Morgana Platt.
Platt, a transgender who was known as Malcolm John Platt, but now identifies as a woman, was jailed in 2009 for raping a 16-year-old girl in Christchurch, who later took her own life.
According to Parole Board documents, the 16-year-old indicated she killed herself because of Platt's offending.
Platt and Davie had come up with a plan to find a vulnerable girl for Platt to train as a sex worker.
Davie forwarded to Platt one of the photos of the 10-year-old. Platt described the girl as "yummy" and "delicious".
All the while, Davie had managed to meet with another girl a few times, offering her money to model lingerie.
All the offending was discovered when police arrested Davie when he went to meet the second girl at an arranged meeting.
The grandmother's appeal was based on the severity of her offending, both on its own and in relation to Davie and Platt.
It was argued her sentence should be lower, especially since she knew nothing about Davie and Platt's plans to train a child prostitute, and because the plan for the child to meet Davie was not set in stone.
But the judge put those arguments to the side.
Davie and the grandmother organised a time and place to meet, what kind of contact would take place, and how much it would cost.
The grandmother even rearranged a second time to meet after the first meeting fell through.
"Mr Davie and [the grandmother's] plan was not merely in the nature of fantasy."
Although Davie was arguably the worst offender, as he would carry out the actual sexual abuse, the grandmother's offending involved a significant breach of trust, the judge said.
"Her involvement was critical to any act of sexual exploitation actually occurring."
How did a sex-worker get custody of her granddaughter anyway?
Dying man wants justice after high-profile,
Aussie, pedophile pastor allowed to live out
days in peaceful retirement
By Sammi Taylor • 60 Minutes Digital Producer
Brett Sengstock has waited a lifetime to tell his story to the world.
As a seven-year-old boy, he was repeatedly sexually abused by the high-profile pastor who was supposed to protect him.
Frank Houston was a leader of the Assemblies of God, a fiery Pentecostal preacher who condemned sin and preached forgiveness.
“When you do that to a child, you murder them. There’s nothing left," victim Brett Sengstock said. (60 Minutes)
He was also a serial pedophile who was never brought to justice for his crimes.
‘Crossing the Line’ airs tonight on Channel 9 at the special time of 7.00PM after Channel Nine News. For more on 60 Minutes head to the official website.
Tonight, on 60 Minutes, Mr Sengstock speaks out in an explosive interview that exposes how the church protected the predator in its ranks.
Frank Houston was the father of Brian Houston, the leader of the Hillsong Church empire.
As the-then National President of Assemblies of God in Australia, Brian Houston headed up the investigation into the crimes of his own father, an investigation would fail to properly hold Frank Houston to account.
The abuse began in 1970 when Mr Sengstock was just seven years old.
Frank Houston was the father of Brian Houston, the leader of the Hillsong Church empire.
(60 Minutes)
Frank Houston would visit from New Zealand and stay over with the Sengstock family.
As Mr Sengstock tells reporter Liz Hayes, he and his parents regarded Frank Houston as royalty.
“It was like having the Pope come. Exciting, you know, we were thrilled to have them there,” he said.
It was during these stays that Frank Houston would slip in to seven-year-old Brett’s bedroom, night after night, to sexually abuse him, abuse that would continue until the age of 12.
“He would come into my room and lay on top of me,” Mr Sengstock tells Liz Hayes.
“When you do that to a child, you murder them. You take everything away from them. There’s nothing left.”
As the-then National President of Assemblies of God in Australia, Brian Houston headed up the investigation into the crimes of his own father, an investigation would fail to properly hold Frank Houston to account. (60 Minutes)
But led by Brian Houston, none of the AOG’s hierarchy took his criminal behaviour to the police and Frank Houston was able to live out his days in retirement.
In 2014, 10 years after Frank Houston’s death, Brett Sengstock would give evidence of his ordeal as witness AHA at the Royal Commission into child sex abuse.
It was the first time the true horror of the pastor’s double life was publicly revealed.
Now at 56 years of age, and battling stage four cancer, Brett is giving up his anonymity to speak out before it’s too late.
Any Hillsong readers out there ought to seriously pray for this man, and so much else.
Brett Sengstock has waited a lifetime to tell his story to the world. (60 Minutes)
“Now I stand before you with who I really am.”
All Brett wants is justice and acknowledgement of his ordeal and his abuser’s role in it.
“It's just like it's been brushed under the carpet,” he says.
Brett Sengstock’s revelations raise serious questions about the case and shine new light on how Brian Houston handled the sins of his father.
Obviously, Brian should have recused himself from anything to do with the inquiry, and should have called the police. Hard to do when it's your own father, but when your father is a fraud and a paedophile, it shouldn't be that hard.
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