36 convicted in largest international sex trafficking ring brought down by federal government
By: Bisi Onile-Ere, FOX 9
ST. PAUL, Minn. - Dozens of people have been convicted for their role in a massive international sex trafficking organization based out of Thailand, which sold women in a variety of U.S. cities, including Minneapolis.
A federal jury handed down the convictions for five defendants Wednesday in U.S. District Court in St. Paul. Thirty-one other defendants had previously pleaded guilty in the case.
At a press conference, officials stated that this was the largest sex trafficking ring ever dismantled by the federal government.
“Sex trafficking is an industry that is built on supply and demand and this organization fed that industry,” said U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota Erica MacDonald. “It exploited, it abused, enslaved, and sold women in response to the high demand of commercial sex that exists not only in the United States, but here in Minnesota.”
After receiving a tip about the operation in 2014, authorities in Minnesota managed to take down the international sex trafficking ring in 2016.
The victims, all women in their 30's, were smuggled from Bangkok, Thailand and sold in cities all over the country, including Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago and D.C.
The U.S. Attorney said that the women were sold like cattle until they could pay off a bondage debt. The operation went on for more than a decade and generated tens of millions of dollars. There were hundreds of victims and thousands of men who purchased these women.
Officials say that many of the women were misled to believe that participating in the scheme would lead to a better life.
“It was an organization that brought poor and vulnerable women from Thailand to the United States where they were forced to engage in sexual acts, every day all day and they couldn’t walk away,” said MacDonald.
Many of the victims are working to rebuild their lives. The defendants in the case will face sentencing next year.
Former Celtic Boys Club manager Frank Cairney
guilty of child sex abuse
guilty of child sex abuse
Frank Cairney is the third former Celtic Boys Club coach to be convicted
Of course; it was set up to be a candy-store for perverts.
A former manager of Celtic Boys Club has been found guilty of nine charges of sexually abusing young footballers.
Frank Cairney, 83, was placed on the sex offenders register and was granted bail until he is sentenced next month.
Sheriff Daniel Kelly QC praised the "courage" of Cairney's victims, who he said had brought forward these matters to public scrutiny.
The jury of eight women and seven men took two hours to reach their verdicts at Hamilton Sheriff Court.
Following the verdict, a man who has accused Cairney of abusing him in the early 1970s, said justice had finally caught up with the "evil paedophile".
Both Jim Torbett (left) and Frank Cairney (right) have been convicted of abusing children at Celtic Boys' Club
He said Cairney had used his standing at Celtic FC to gain access to innocent young boys and abuse them in the most horrible way.
"Some of this abuse was carried out within the Celtic Park dressing room as well as in his car," he said.
'Basic decency'
The man, who wishes to remain anonymous, added: "What me and the other victims of abuse at Celtic now want to see is the senior club take responsibility for the action of these abusers who operated with complete freedom within Celtic Park.
"The stance Celtic have taken, saying they do not have any legal responsibility, is revolting and insulting. Celtic FC called the shots with the boys club. It's time the club acted with some basic decency over our legal claims."
Analysis by BBC investigations correspondent Mark Daly
Frank Cairney is the third former Celtic Boys Club coach to be convicted of child sex abuse in the past six weeks.
Last month, Boys Club founder Jim Torbett was jailed for six years (10th story on link), while another coach, teacher Gerald King, was convicted earlier this month of abusing boys at a school.
The reputation of the Boys Club, which produced so many great Celtic players, lies in ruins.
Once more, the Boys Club's close links to Celtic FC was a feature in Cairney's trial.
One player told the court he was abused inside Celtic Park by Cairney. Another of his victims told how his team even trained in the stadium on occasion in the early 1970s.
After the conviction of Torbett, Celtic expressed deep regret for the victims, but stressed the Boys Club was a separate entity. This rings hollow to the victims.
After the verdict, one of Cairney's victims, now 59, told me: "We were part of Celtic, to say the Boys Club wasn't is disingenuous. We even swept the terraces at Parkhead. Celtic need to hold their hands up and admit that now."
Celtic have yet to comment.
Cairney was acquitted in 1998 on similar charges. Twenty years later, a different result. Sentence was deferred till the new year, and Cairney will spend the festive period contemplating a lengthy prison sentence.
South Korean Olympic gold medalist
claims assault by coach
By Wooyoung Leeclaims assault by coach
Two-time Olympic short track speed skating champion Shim Suk-hee attends an appeals trial at the Suwon District Court on Monday to give her testimony on former South Korean national short track coach Cho Jae-beom's habitual assaults of multiple short track skaters, including her. Cho was sentenced to 10 months in prison at the first trial. Photo by Yonhap
SEOUL, (UPI) -- A short track Olympic gold medalist Shim Suk-hee said she has been assaulted by her coach for many years, in a court testimony on Monday, South Korean media reported.
Shim, who emerged as a star in speed skating after winning three medals at the 2014 Winter Games, also claimed that she sustained a concussion after her coach Cho Jae-beom hit her head just 20 days before Pyeongchang Winter Games earlier this year.
Shim appeared at Suwon District Court on Monday to speak as a witness in an appeal. Cho was indicted for assaulting four short track speed skating athletes, including Shim, since 2011. He was sentenced to 10 months in prison in the first trial in September but appealed against the sentence.
Shim testified against him to reveal his assaults and called for a heavier punishment.
Shim, who started short track speed skating at the age of 6, said Cho started assaulting her since she was 8 and the abuse continued until right before Pyeongchang Winter Games in February, Sports Kyunghyang reported.
Ahead of the Winter Olympics, Cho hit her with fists and feet until she felt "she would die," Shim said. Another assault on her head caused her to suffer a concussion, a major reason Shim said she didn't perform well at the recent Winter Olympic Games.
According to Shim's testimony, Shim broke her finger when she was 11 after Cho hit her with an ice hockey stick and his violence grew worse as she became older.
"Cho took me to a closed place and assaulted me brutally. His assaults also caused an eardrum rupture of another athlete," she said at the court, Seoul Shinmun reported.
Brazil 'faith healer' John of God surrenders to police
He was featured on Oprah and claims to have met Bill Clinton
Brazilian "spiritual healer" Joao Teixeira de Faria, pictured with supporters, has turned himself in to police
Joao Teixeira de Faria, known as "John of God", was declared a fugitive on Saturday after missing a deadline to surrender to the authorities.
The cascade of claims against him began earlier in December, when a dozen women said the self-styled spiritual healer had abused them at his clinic.
Mr Faria denies the allegations.
The medium is based in the central town of Abadiania, west of the capital Brasilia, but has followers worldwide.
How did the surrender play out?
Brazil's O Globo newspaper reports that the medium withdrew 35 million reais ($8.9m; £7m) from several bank accounts on Wednesday - convincing authorities that he could be planning to flee Brazil, or hide the money in case of future compensation claims.
Authorities responded with an arrest warrant on Friday.
On Sunday, mobile phone footage broadcast on Brazil's Globo TV showed Mr Faria, looking weary, getting out of a car and surrendering to police on a dirt road in Abadiania.
He was transported to police headquarters in Goiania, the capital of Goias state.
Some media reports claim supernatural events occurred during the police interrogation. But the events sound more like an electrical issue than an 'evil spirit' issue.
Brazil country profile
His lawyer, Alberto Toron, said he would file an appeal on Monday. He said he hoped Mr Faria might be held under house arrest, instead of in prison.
How did the allegations start?
Last week a Dutch photographer, Zahira Leeneke Maus, told Globo TV that Mr Faria had manipulated her into performing sex acts and then raped her.
Nine Brazilian women, who remained anonymous, also told the channel that the medium abused them on the premise of transferring his "cleansing" energy.
Brazilian TV channels broadcast the medium's arrival at a police station, a day after he was officially ruled a fugitive
O Globo newspaper later said it had spoken to two more women with similar allegations.
The 76-year-old's representatives said he "vehemently rejects [allegations of] any improper practice during his treatments".
Mr Faria, who is not a medical doctor, has previously been fined and jailed for operating without a licence.
Oprah & Bill Clinton
US TV host Oprah Winfrey travelled to Brazil in 2013 to meet him, and witnessed him performing so-called "psychic surgery" at his clinic.
He also claims to have met Bill Clinton.
According to ABC News, Mr Faria claims that the spirits of more than 30 doctors and other entities can enter his body, and that they perform the healings.
Irish man raped child while on bail
for sexual abuse offences
for sexual abuse offences
He was given a 10-year sentence with the final six years suspended
Image: William Murphy/Flickr/CC
A LONGFORD MAN serving 13 years for sexually abusing four young females was on bail for these offences when he raped another child, the Central Criminal Court has heard.
The man pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to two counts each of rape and anal rape of the child on dates between May 2013 to January 2017, when she was aged from nine to 12 years old.
Today, Mr Justice Michael White said he must impose a custodial element to run consecutively to the 13 years the man is already serving, but with a substantial portion suspended.
He imposed a 10-year sentence with the final six years suspended on this case.
Why? This is madness! What possible reason could there be for letting him out of prison ever?
A local sergeant told Garrett Baker BL, prosecuting, that two of the man’s family members had noticed him around the child in this case, at an outdoor location in Co Longford. This was after the last time he raped the girl.
The family members saw him running away from the child and the court heard he was on bail at the time for abuse. One of his bail conditions was that he stay away from children.
He was sentenced to 13 years in 2017 for this aforementioned sexual abuse.
The local sergeant told Baker that in the most recent offences, the man had met up with the child as she walked her dog and took her behind a wall at an external location. He kissed and groped her here, before bringing her to another location nearby and raping her.
She told a relative about this and then made a statement to gardaí, in which she revealed that the man had raped her on three other occasions.
The sergeant told Baker that the man accepted his behaviour was “all wrong”. The court heard he was due to go on trial for sexual abuse a week and a half after his arrest for the recent crimes.
He described himself as “a bit of a loner” and said his offences didn’t “feel normal”. He accepted everything the child had said in her statement and acknowledged that she had “roared” in pain on one occasion of anal rape.
Previous convictions
The sergeant said the man has 16 previous convictions, including the 13 years for previous sexual offending, an assault from a family row and burglaries going back to the 1980s and 1990s.
The sergeant agreed with Mary Rose Gearty SC, defending, that her client made early admissions and was at the bottom one percent of intellectual functioning.
He agreed with Ms Gearty that the man had told him he had no friends and found it easier to talk to children. He further agreed the man had limited employment history and had suicidal ideation.
Mr Justice White imposed strict conditions on the suspended portion of the ten-year sentence.
He said the man must not reside where there is a child under the age of 18 or have any unsupervised contact with a child under 18 without prior approval by his probation officer and the local child protection agency.
Unbelievable! He completely ignored all previous conditions, so why do you think he will abide by these? He's a predator and the community needs to be protected from him. Your sentence fails to do that and more children are likely to pay the price for your senseless sentence. Children are voiceless! If the courts don't speak up for them, who will?
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