Yorkshire police arrest 55 men in child sexual abuse investigation
Doctor's wife went to watch Game of Thrones on his laptop and discovered horrific child abuse footage and photos
Sexual assault victim shocked to discover limo driver faces new allegations
Press Association
The town hall in Dewsbury, where some of the men were arrested.
Detectives in West Yorkshire have arrested 55 men as part of an investigation into historical allegations of child sexual abuse.
Police said the men were arrested after seven women made allegations that they were sexually abused as children in the Dewsbury and Batley areas between 2002 and 2009.
The men were arrested in Dewsbury, Bradford and Batley over the last few months and were interviewed and released pending further inquiries.
DI Ian Thornes, leading the investigation, described child sexual abuse and exploitation as “an abhorrent and heinous crime” and urged victims to come forward.
He said: “Please be assured that you will be listened to, taken seriously and supported by professionals with experience of dealing with these kind of offences.”
He said safeguarding and protecting children remained the “top priority” for West Yorkshire police and said the force was working with local authorities, other organisations and charities to support victims and bring perpetrators to justice.
He said: “This investigation demonstrates the force’s ongoing commitment to the investigation of both current and non-recent sexual offences against children. Child sexual abuse and exploitation is an abhorrent and heinous crime and one which affects some of the most vulnerable people in our society.
“We have teams of specialist safeguarding units across each district in West Yorkshire, which include police officers dedicated to dealing with both current and non-recent child abuse and child sexual exploitation.”
No indication of whether those arrested were connected to each other, or whether they were of Pakistani origin like most others involved in mass arrests for mass child sex abuse and trafficking. Hopefully there will be more reports on this soon.
By Paul Beard, Manchester Evening News
A judge praised a woman's courage after she reported her husband to the police when she found sick images of children on his laptop.
She had borrowed her partner's computer to watch Game of Thrones but instead made a horrific discovery, a court heard.
Now Dr Christopher Ball-Nossa, 35, from Chorlton, has admitted having had ‘inappropriate thoughts’ about children after first seeing such images when he himself was just a teenager.
The disgraced doctor, who was working at University Hospital in Coventry at the time, pleaded guilty to six charges of making (downloading) indecent images of children.
And at Warwick Crown Court on Friday, Ball-Nossa was given a two-year community order with a rehabilitation activity and a condition of taking part in a sex offender programme.
Judge Peter Cooke also ordered him to register as a sex offender for ten years and made him subject to a sexual harm prevention order for the same period.
Prosecutor Anthony Cartin said that in June last year Ball-Nossa’s wife went to Coventry Central police station with his laptop, and raised a concern about the material he was accessing.
She said they had met in 2007, and the following year she had been working on her laptop while he was out when the battery died, so she decided to borrow his laptop to finish the work.
She discovered two images of an eight-year-old boy and a young girl on the computer, so confronted him about them – but accepted his explanation that they had been unwanted pop-ups.
They subsequently married, and by June last year he was working as a doctor at University Hospital in Walsgrave, Coventry.
On June 6 his wife wanted to use his laptop to watch Game of Thrones, and out of curiosity she decided to check whether he had deleted any of her photographs.
She explained that she backed up her pictures on his computer, but he had complained about the space they were taking up, so she wanted to make sure he had not got rid of any of them.
But when she went to the recycle bin she saw file names such as ‘child porn 3-16’ – and when she tried to open the image she had to select the option to restore the file.
When she clicked on that, she got a message saying that in opening it she may be committing a criminal offence, and she got the same message when she tried to open other images, the court was told.
Having been handed his laptop, police officers arrested Ball-Nossa at work and seized a second laptop from his home, said Mr Cartin.
On the two laptops they found a total of 1,528 indecent images, both stills and movies, of children aged from one to 13.
There were 22 movies and 196 stills in category A - the most severe and explicit grade of image.
When Ball-Nossa was interviewed, he answered ‘no comment’ to questions from the officers.
Richard Gibbs, defending, said: “This defendant was a doctor. He qualified two years ago, and was hoping to begin work as a GP. As a result of these offences, that career has gone.
“He has been suspended by the GMC (the General Medical Council) and will almost certainly be struck off. His marriage is also at an end, and the home he had shared with his wife is also something which will be lost to him in short order.
“He is a troubled man, and has been for some time. From something like the age of 17 he has had inappropriate thoughts about children. He makes clear he could and should have sought help for that many years ago.”
Mr Gibbs said a pre-sentence report suggested that Ball-Nossa, who is now living back in Manchester, had sought to minimise the offences, but that ‘he does understand that the viewing of these images creates the marketplace for their production'.
Sentencing Ball-Nossa, Judge Cooke told him: “The first thing I want to acknowledge is the conduct of your wife. It must have put her in the most appalling predicament, but she did the most courageous thing and went to the police. She found the courage to do the right thing.
“You also found the courage to do the right thing by admitting the offences. You have made admissions in the pre-sentence report that you have been having inappropriate thoughts about children since you happened on a first image of abuse, you say, when you were 17.
“I have to sentence you for your possession of 1,500 and more indecent images of children. Some of those are no more than posed nudity, but about a seventh of them are appalling images of the abuse of young children.
“The effects of your commission of these offences have been dramatic, to say the least. Your medical career is over, and your marriage is also over. You have ruined your life by what you did.”
Limo driver Sukhwinder Singh Bassarpuri denies sexual assault allegations from 3 women
Maryse Zeidler · CBC News
Limo driver Sukhwinder Bassarpuri, owner of Armani Limousines, faces allegations of sexual assault. The limo has been seized. (Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock)
Warning: This story contains descriptions of sexual assault allegations that may trigger some survivors.
A Vancouver woman who accused a limo driver of sexual assault six years ago says she was shocked to discover that her alleged attacker is facing similar new allegations.
The victim said she learned of the new allegations last October, when the Times Colonist newspaper reported on the province's civil forfeiture application to seize the limo of Sukhwinder Singh Bassarpuri and his company, Armani Limousines.
Vancouver police seized Bassarpuri's limousine on the grounds it had been used for "unlawful activity," according court documents.
"I just broke down crying," said the woman, whose name CBC News is withholding, in an interview Friday. "It's almost like bringing you back to that moment. It was very, very tough. Even today, it's tough."
Decision to seize limo
Late last week B.C. Supreme Court posted its decision to approve that civil forfeiture application. Court documents filed with the case included the woman's affidavit expressing her dismay, as well as new details of the two most recent allegations.
The documents show that Bassarpuri now faces sexual assault allegations from a total of three women over the last six years, including one who says he assaulted her while she was having a seizure.
The police affidavit says Bassarpuri is currently the suspect in an active investigation involving an alleged sexual assault, and police have recommended charges against him.
In his response to the seizure application, Bassarpuri denies all the allegations. A police affidavit included in the court documents shows they released him after his arrest on Sept. 8 on a promise to appear in B.C. Provincial Court on Jan. 24.
CBC News tried to contact Bassarpuri through his lawyer. Neither responded.
Arrested in September
According to the forfeiture decision, the most recent allegations were in Sept. 8, 2018.
Vancouver police arrested Bassarpuri in a parking lot on Denman Street. Police say they found a "heavily impaired" woman in the back of his limo. She had called her boyfriend to say the driver wouldn't let her leave.
Her boyfriend, who called police and then tracked the woman by GPS on her phone, allegedly found Bassarpuri in the back of the limo with his pants down.
The woman, who was impaired, told police Bassarpuri had been in the back with her. Police determined she was too intoxicated to consent to any sexual activity.
Alleged assault during seizure
The second most recent allegations stem from June 2017, according to court documents.
The same police report included in the forfeiture decision says a woman told police Bassarpuri drove her home, where some friends had gathered. The woman said Bassarpuri came in with alcohol from his limo.
When she asked guests to leave because she felt an epileptic seizure coming on, Bassarpuri offered to stay and look after her. Instead, she alleges to police, he sexually assaulted her while she was immobilized during the seizure.
The report says the woman, embarrassed and ashamed, didn't report the incident until April 2018.
'I was so happy that evening'
Those two new allegations came as a shock to the woman CBC News spoke with who accused Bassarpuri of sexual assault six years ago.
In her affidavit, the woman says in July 2013, Bassarpuri — described at the time as 42 years old, approximately 6 feet, 4 inches, about 260-280 pounds, and who went by "Sam" — drove her home to Richmond after she celebrated her birthday with friends.
"I was celebrating my 44th birthday and I was so happy that evening," she told CBC News in an interview. "That's just not how the evening ended."
The ride was a gift offered as part of the evening's festivities, which included dinner at a restaurant in downtown Vancouver and dancing at a club on Granville Street until early in the morning.
A police report included in the forfeiture documents says the woman told officers that she and "Sam" chatted during the drive home, and he offered her a drink.
The woman told police that Bassarpuri got into the back of the vehicle with her, and then removed her clothes and assaulted her, telling her she was a "good girl."
The woman told police she cried while this was happening and told him repeatedly to stop.
The woman reported the incident to police a week later. The forfeiture decision says police recommended charges, but the Crown did not approve them.
No chauffeur's permit
The police affidavit also says Bassarpuri has faced past accusations of grabbing a female passenger by the throat after a dispute over a fare, and of threatening to kill another limo driver who reported him to the Passenger Transportation Board — the provincial authority that regulates taxi and limo licences.
According to the decision, Bassarpuri was operating without a chauffeur's permit or a limo licence at the time of his arrest in September.
Norwegian jailed for ordering >4 dozen online
child sex abuses in Philippines
AFP
OSLO: A 71-year-old Norwegian man was sentenced to 12.5 years in prison on Monday for ordering sexual assaults to be carried out online against dozens of young Filipinos.
“With his actions, the accused contributed to a sex industry that brutally exploits vulnerable children in the worst possible way,” the Sore Sunnmore district court in western Norway wrote in its verdict.
Between 2012 and 2013, the man used an online video calling service to contact people in the Philippines. He paid them to, under his instructions, sexually assault minors under the age of 14, the youngest one “probably between three and five years old,” while he watched, the court found.
The court said there were “at least” 48 victims but the actual number could be much higher because of difficulties identifying them.
“The court finds that the victims are living in an almost inhumane situation that the accused helped perpetuate with his actions,” the verdict said.
Norwegian police were alerted by the United States FBI as part of a larger case the latter was probing.
Investigators found more than 36,000 photographs and videos containing child pornography in his possession.
“I went into a bubble and I was going through a very difficult time in my personal life,” the accused told the court during his trial, according to broadcaster NRK.
So you decided to destroy dozens of children! Did that make you feel better?
The sentence handed down was slightly higher than the 12 years the prosecution had called for.
The victims’ young age was considered an aggravating factor for the sentencing.
Norway, like Canada, has a minimalist view of sentencing. The sentence amounts to about 3 months per sexually abused child. I suspect the pervert thinks that's a good deal. And if he is paroled halfway through his sentence, that's just six weeks for each child destroyed. It's a wonder the judge didn't give him a gold watch!
Online directed child sex abuse is no better than in person rape, and it should be sentenced similarly.
Former Welsh councillor jailed for child sex offences
A former Swansea councillor has been jailed for 45 months for online child sex abuse offences committed between 2008 and 2017.
The 43-year-old is the former leader of the Conservative group on Swansea Council, and was a parliamentary candidate for Swansea West in 2010.
Charges included distributing, making and possessing child pornography.
The last charge on the indictment related to encouraging people to stream child abuse on an online chat room in September 2017.
Judge Neil Sanders said he could only hand out a custodial sentence due to the seriousness of the crimes.
"The defendant was involved in a process which facilitated sharing indecent images," he said.
"These are children who have had these things done to them."
He also ordered an "indefinite" sexual harm order, and Kenzitt is now prohibited from using an internet-enabled device unless its history can be observed and not deleted.
He was also banned from contacting anyone online under the age of 18.
‘You killed me inside,’ daughter tells father in Irish court
Man (50) sentenced to 12 years for 22 offences including sexual abuse of teenager
One Survivor's Story
Sonya McLean, Irish TimesA woman who was abused by her father for three years while she was a young teenager has told a court she feels like her father killed her inside.
“I see his face and smile every time I look in the mirror. I look at myself and my body like I’m ashamed,” she said.
The 50-year-old man has been sentenced to 12-years with the final six months suspended. He had denied all the offences but was convicted by a Central Criminal Court jury last November. He has been registered as a sex offender.
He was found guilty of 22 offences including sexual abuse, oral rape, child sexual exploitation and attempted rape on dates between October 2009 and July 2011 in the family’s Dublin home. The girl was aged between 13 and 15 years old at the time.
The court heard the man physically abused the girl’s mother for a number of years.
When the girl ultimately disclosed the abuse to her mother they were not in a position to leave the family home for two weeks until the woman’s wages came through. After a number of months abroad, they had to return to Ireland when they ran out of money.
The victim and her mother relied on the charity of friends before they had to return to the family home as they had nowhere else to go. The man never abused his daughter again.
The teenager confided in a school counsellor in 2013 and the HSE became involved, leading to the Garda investigation.
The man was arrested and interviewed in July 2014 but denied all the allegations. He claimed the girl had fabricated the story because of his physical abuse of her mother. He does not accept the jury’s verdict and has not expressed any remorse.
He has previous convictions for handling stolen property and fraud and has been on remand in custody since 2017.
Never apologise for assaults
The man’s legal team said the man has stated in a letter to the court that he will never apologise for the sexual assaults, as if he did it would mean admitting all the allegations laid against him.
Giollaíosa Ó Lideadha SC, defending, read the letter in which the man stated he was sorry for the time his daughter “spent with me in tears” and for “not being a good father”.
He apologised for hurting her mother physically and mentally but added “I will never apologise for the sexual assault”.
The now 22-year-old woman read her victim impact statement. She said she feels like her father killed her inside.
“I see my father’s face and feel his breath when I get intimate with a man,” she continued.
The woman said she was not scared of her father anymore. She said she felt “exhausted during the trial, reliving memories I had tried to bury away. I had waited for the moment for so long it felt unreal”.
She turned to face her father in court and told him he made her feel worthless.
“You made me feel I was worthless and you made me feel like it was my fault, you killed me inside and I will never forgive you for that.
“You didn’t feel guilty and you didn’t feel any remorse to me or the woman you abused for 20 years. I am no longer the powerless girl I once was, I got the justice I finally deserved.”
The woman concluded her victim impact statement by thanking the gardaí on behalf of herself and her mother.
Fright and terror
Ms Justice Tara Burns described the victim as a “very impressive young woman” and said her victim impact statement was “impressive” and “insightful” and outlined how “the abuse has affected her in a profound and continuing manner”.
She noted when the teenager ultimately disclosed the abuse to her mother they could not afford to run away and had to return to live with him for two weeks. She said they had to return to live with him months later, having been abroad, as “they had nowhere else to go”.
Ms Justice Burns said the teenager “lived in complete fright and terror” and that the man had “manipulated and controlled his family”.
She said the man had abused his daughter “for his own sexual gratification in the atmosphere of fear and power he exercised in the house”.
“He had complete domination,” Ms Justice Burns said before she added that it was “a frightening fact” that the situation was so helpless that her mother and herself could do nothing until the money came through.
“He breached every duty a father has to his daughter. He required her to be naked in a family bed, which was a most shocking and serious breach of his trust. Her mother lived a very sad and difficult life with this man,” the judge noted.
Ms Justice Burns suspended the final six months of the 12 year term having taken into account the man’s good work history. She ordered that he engage with the Probation Service for six months upon his release and comply with all their directions.
Victim impact statement
The woman stated in her victim impact statement that her father returned to the family home when she was 11 years old, having been away for some time.
He told her not to tell her mother he was home and hid. He jumped out on her mother while she was making the dinner.
“It is one of my biggest regrets that I didn’t tell my mother,” the woman said. She said as a 22-year-old now she still has to check the bathroom and cupboards to make sure her father is not there.
“I am scared I will be like that for the rest of my life, even though I know he is not there.”
“He was just like a stranger to me. I felt obliged to say I loved him. He never parented like other parents. He was just in the house. He made me feel like I wasn’t important. He made me feel sad.
“Maybe in his head being aggressive is good parenting. It wasn’t the nicest childhood,” she continued.
She said that her father seemed jealous of her relationship with her mother. “When I got bad grades my mother got beaten. I lied to him once and he took it out on my mother.
“I used to run into the bathroom, that was my safe place. I tried to be good in school and not create chances for him to get angry.
“I find it hard to make friends and keep friends because he isolated us from everyone. I’m scared to get close to people. He was supposed to protect his daughter and family. He manipulated the privacy and intimacy of our family,” the woman said.
A local garda told Dominic McGinn SC, prosecuting, that the man first abused his daughter after she walked into his bedroom and found him watching pornography. He told her to go into the bathroom and get undressed before he threatened her with a belt and forced her to masturbate him.
He said he would kill her mother and herself if she told her mother what had happened.
The second incident happened the following Christmas night when he twice forced the girl to perform oral sex on him after coming into her bedroom. He was having an ongoing argument with his wife that night and assaulted the woman, injuring her eye.
The garda said the man forced his daughter to perform oral sex on him on a regular basis, at least once a week and sometimes more often that that, for about 18 months.
On two occasion he rubbed his penis against her after he instructed her to get undressed and get into bed with him. He also tried to rape her but she screamed and managed to push him away.
Finnish police release three sex crime suspects
Law enforcement officials are probing suspected sex crimes in Oulu and Helsinki.
Image: Tiina Jutila / Yle
Police in Helsinki suspect a man committed aggravated sexual offences against a child. Two other men, who were detained along with him in a flat in eastern Helsinki on Saturday, have been released.
The suspect, described only as having been born in the 1990s, is suspected of various offences including aggravated rape and aggravated sexual abuse of a child. Police will seek to place him formally under arrest this week.
"The more serious the suspected crime, the lower the police’s threshold to detain individuals for questioning. Two of them have been freed because according the police’s current information there are no grounds to suspect them of crimes,” says Detective Inspector Saara Asmundela.
Police have interviewed the suspect and the sole victim.
"Police will not comment on the victim's age or gender because we want to ensure that the victim's identity remains secret,” Asmundela says.
Police suspect that several acts took place in the eastern Helsinki apartment between early October and 9 January. They believe that no-one else was present at the time.
Oulu Harbour
One Oulu suspect released
Meanwhile police in Oulu have freed one sex crime suspect.
On Friday police in the northern city said they had launched a preliminary investigation into four more suspected sexual crimes against girls under the age of 15. As part of the probe they detained three male suspects “of foreign background”.
See the story immediately below for more on the 'foreign background' aspect. This poor article fails to mention that these arrests bring the total arrests to 16 in case of grooming teen and pre-teen Finnish girls.
Mainstream media is still hiding prolific child sexual abuses by migrant, Muslim men.
One of them has been released. Police will ask Oulu District Court to remand the other two on Tuesday.
The head of the investigation, Detective Superintendent Markus Kiiskinen, says that the suspect who was released is under the age of 18.
"The preliminary investigation and interviews were completed [on Sunday] in regard to this individual to the extent that there is no need to keep him in detention,” said Kiiskinen, adding that the suspect remains under investigation.
Was he released because he is under 18, or because he is no danger to rape young girls?
So far authorities have not cited any links between the Helsinki and Oulu cases.
It is unacceptable that people granted asylum here have brought evil': Finnish President
Daily MailThe President of Finland has expressed his 'shock and disgust' after police identified more suspects in connection with a foreign grooming gang targeting children in a town in the north of the country.
Police suspect 16 foreign-born men of rape or other sexual abuses of girls aged between ten and 15 in Oulu, northern Finland, adding another four men to the investigation today.
In addition, police in the capital Helsinki said on Sunday they had arrested three foreign-born men on similar charges.
Finland's President Sauli Niinistö, pictured inspecting an honor guard during his state visit to China today, expressed his 'shock and disgust' after police identified more suspects in connection with a foreign grooming gang who have targeted underaged girls in Oulu
In a statement released on Monday, President Sauli Niinistö said the crimes in Oulu 'shocked us with their inhumanity'.
He added: 'The right to integrity is one of the values on which our society is based, and one which must be respected by everyone here.
'It is unacceptable that some asylum seekers, and even those who have been granted asylum, have brought evil here and created insecurity.'
Antti Kaikkonen, parliamentary head of the coalition-leading Centre Party, called for a meeting of all the parliamentary party heads, tweeting: 'Everyone who comes to Finland has to follow the local laws.'
Antti Lindtman, parliamentary head of the main opposition party, the Social Democrats, said: 'The question is, are there measures we could take now - even during this term - to prevent cowardly crimes like these? Yes, there are.'
Never forget: Candles burn outside a shopping centre, in memory of sex crimes committed against minors, in Oulu, Finland, today
Petition to revoke asylum
A citizens petition to withdraw asylum from people convicted of sex crimes received 62,000 signatures over the weekend, breaking the 50,000 barrier needed to force parliament to consider the issue.
'I created the initiative because of the hate speech... I thought someone has to do something,' Saila Al-Jewari, who launched it in December after the first abuse cases in Oulu made headlines, told Reuters.
'I am not racist, I am married to an Iraqi man. However, at the moment this media-fed hate incitement has led to even me, a native Finn, becoming a target of racist shouting and insulting.'
Media-fed? Did you see the story just above? Media is covering it up, as they have always done.
Al-Jewari acknowledged her proposal could well be stopped by human rights issues but said it was worth trying if even one new sex crime could be prevented.
'It really angers me that the politicians are riding this topic ahead of the elections. Does anyone of them think of victims? No. They only think of themselves. Why didn't they do something about the topic years ago?,' Al-Jewari said.
Why didn't the current government, and the previous government do something years ago? Because it was not politically correct. Finland needs a government that will do something, and they have to make that known. Should they not say anything about this horror? That's political correctness and that kind of insanity has to end.
Statistics Finland says around 1,200 cases of sexual abuse of minors are reported to the police each year, and that foreigners were involved in 18 percent of the cases that came to trial last year.
Of Finland's population of just over 5.5 million, some 321,500 people are born in a foreign country, nearly six per cent.
That means migrants are 3 times more likely to sexually abuse minors.
Compared to neighbouring Sweden, Finland had a low intake of migrants and refugees during the recent European migrant crisis.
Last year, 31,797 persons moved to Finland, down from 34,905 in 2016 and 28 746 in 2015.
Girlfriend of shamed Cliftonville striker Jay Donnelly says 'I'll stand by my man'
By Christopher Woodhouse, for Sunday Life, Belfast Telegraph
Rachael Campbell, the partner of the 23-year-old striker, has said she is "proud" of Donnelly, who was given a four-month prison sentence last week.
And the 22-year-old lashed out at his critics, many of whom have called on Cliftonville to sack the self-confessed sex offender.
In a public Facebook post of her and Donnelly together, she wrote: "Me and my absolute world who I'm proud off and love so much #F***THEHATERZ."
She published the remarks two days after Donnelly pleaded guilty to the charge on November 28 and received more than a dozen messages of support, mostly from female friends.
Jay's sister Cathy added: "Love you two so much! Jay Donnelly you make me so proud to be your big sister! F*** the haters."
Rachel, child porn is child abuse! Every picture, every video is a child being sexually abused. Who are the haters here?
Loyal Rachael was by Jay's side as he attended Belfast Magistrates Court last week to be sentenced for the sex crime.
Also backing Donnelly are Cliftonville chairman Gerard Lawlor and team manager Barry Gray who both provided references to the court ahead of his sentencing.
Donnelly - who is now on the Sex Offenders' Register - is set to appeal against his four-month jail sentence at Belfast County Court this Friday.
Friends believe the player is hoping to move to the Irish Republic where he has relatives.
Meanwhile, a campaigner for survivors of sexual abuse has called for the north Belfast club to sack Donnelly.
"Behaviour like this cannot be tolerated, it is incumbent upon Cliftonville to sack Jay Donnelly. Sexual abuse is sexual abuse, there are no mitigating factors," said Margaret McGuckin, of Survivors and Victims of Institutional Abuse (Savia).
"As an adult he took a sexual photograph of a 16-year-old girl and then callously shared it with 11 friends even after she asked him to delete it. My heart goes out to the victim, she deserves all our sympathy and support."
During his sentencing hearing on Thursday, Belfast Magistrates Court was told Donnelly shared the images of him engaging in a sex act with the 16-year-old girl in a WhatsApp group containing 10 other Cliftonville players.
Last night a PSNI spokeswoman confirmed the 10 Cliftonville players who Donnelly sent the child sex image to will not face prosecution. "The PSNI is not investigating any other individuals in relation to this case at this time. However, should further information be brought to the PSNI this will be examined," she said.
Police sources revealed the players were not questioned because it was accepted they did not ask for Donnelly to send them the graphic image of him having sex with his teen victim.
So, it seems the police don't care who forwarded the image. Those who did should be held accountable. They may not have asked for the image, but they certainly, apparently, didn't delete it either.
Last week's court hearing was told the victim asked Donnelly to delete the extremely graphic photographs of her immediately after he took them but he did not.
The sharing of the image eventually lead to the victim suffering abuse in the street after the image leaked onto social media where she was identified.
During his sentencing hearing, Donnelly's barrister said he fully co-operated with the police investigation and that he was very remorseful for his actions.
He told District Judge Amanda Henderson that Donnelly told officers: "F****, I feel for her", "I know it was wrong and stupid" and "I feel embarrassed and stupid as f***".
The lawyer said Donnelly was "mortified when it got out". Judge Henderson questioned why he didn't realise it might go viral were it to leak onto social media.
Donnelly's barrister said that a psychological evaluation showed he had a "very, very low" IQ of between 72 and 81, pointing out that 70 would put him in the range of learning difficulties.
He also said Donnelly's family are "very respectable" and have made clear to him that his conduct was inappropriate. The barrister further said that Donnelly's teenage sister had spoken with him at length about his behaviour.
He added that Donnelly was "acutely" aware he had put his career at risk. "He was respected and to some extent is still respected in the club," he said.
After he was charged with the offence in November 2017, Cliftonville continued to play Donnelly, even the day after he pleaded guilty to the charge last November. Donnelly was later dropped from playing after it emerged Belfast Feminist Network were planning protests outside its home ground of Solitude.
His barrister told the court last week he had suffered "significant verbal abuse" both on and off the pitch. The lawyer handed Judge Henderson a photograph of a banner bearing the words "Jay Donnelly Paedophile" which was displayed by opposition fans during a match. He said Donnelly was "crushed" by the case and his family have been left "devastated" but have always felt "significant sympathy" for the victim.
"This happened in a heartbeat... it was an ill-thought out act of bravado," he said. Sentencing Donnelly, Judge Henderson said it was an image of a "highly intimate nature" and of "penetrative sexual activity".
She said she found it "inconceivable" that a 21-year-old would not recognise the images may go viral.
However, Judge Henderson pointed out Donnelly had no criminal record and it was clear he had shown remorse for his actions, suffered from a lack of maturity but was of good character.
Passing a sentence of four months in prison, his family broke down in tears in the public gallery.
Donnelly was later released on his own bail of £500 pending appeal against the sentence.
The Indian village where child sex exploitation is the norm
Poverty and caste discrimination mean that children in Sagar Gram are being groomed by their own families for abuse
Michael Safi in Sagar Gram
Indian advocacy group Jan Sahas believes there are an estimated 100,000 women and girls in caste and gender slavery. Photograph: Rebecca Conway
Many families in India still mourn the birth of a girl. But when Leena was born, people celebrated.
Sagar Gram, her village in central India, is unique that way. Girls outnumber boys. When a woman marries, it is the groom’s family that pays the dowry. Women are Sagar Gram’s breadwinners. When they are deemed old enough, perhaps at the age of 11, most are expected to start doing sex work.
India officially abolished caste discrimination almost 70 years ago. But millennia of tradition is not easily erased. For most Indians, caste still has a defining influence on who they marry and what they eat. It also traps millions in abusive work. The exploited and trafficked children of Sagar Gram, and dozens of other villages across India’s hinterland, are one of its most disturbing manifestations.
“It is caste and gender slavery,” says Ashif Shaikh of Jan Sahas, an advocacy group that works with members of India’s lowest castes, communities that used to be called “untouchables”.
“We estimate there are 100,000 women and girls in this situation. But there are likely more we haven’t identified. It’s an invisible issue.”
Girls in Sagar Gram grow up hearing a story. Sometime in the misty past of Hindu myth, a king fell in love with a dancer. His enraged queen issued the woman with a challenge: if she could walk a tightrope across a river, she could join the royal family, and permanently raise the status of her caste.
As the woman neared the opposite bank of the river, a step from success, the queen suddenly cut the rope. “Up until now, we lured your men through dancing,” the woman told the queen. “From now on, we will take your men from you with our bodies.”
Workers outside the office of advocacy group Jan Sahas in Dewas. Photograph: Rebecca Conway
“Your parents are going through such a hard time,” they told her. “How can you go to school? You need to be working.” That was when she started. “The rest of the girls in my village were doing it, so I felt like I had to do it as well,” she says. “It was my responsibility.”
Girls in Sagar Gram, which lies next to a highway, are groomed for this life virtually from birth. Parents decide which of their daughters will fetch the best price. Older girls teach them how to attract customers from passing trucks and cars. The younger ones sometimes stow under beds, observing the others at work.
Sex was nonetheless a mystery to Leena. “When I was young, the most important thing was seeing the money the customer was offering,” she says. “I didn’t understand what they were doing to me. I only saw that money was coming in.”
Her virginity was prized. She made 5,000 rupees (£55) on the first night. Her price declined after that. Another Bacchara woman, aged 29, says the most she can make for an encounter is 200 rupees. She might see five or six men in a day.
India’s preference for male children has created a deep gender imbalance. Among the Baccharas of Sagar Gram village, however, the problem cuts the other way: there are 3,595 women in the district compared with 2,770 men, according to the most recent census.
Yet, visiting the village at dusk, few women or girls can be seen. “They’ve all gone to hotels or to stop cars,” an older man says, gesturing at the nearby highway. Every few hundred metres along the road, girls are reclined on rope beds, waving at any vehicle that slows.
The legal age of consent in India is 18. Madhya Pradesh, the state in which Sagar Gram is situated, recently passed the death penalty for anyone who rapes a child under 12, also increasing jail terms for adults who have sex with someone under 18. Police say seven people were arrested for child sexual exploitation offences in Sagar Gram in the past year, five of them women who sold their underage daughters. The law is clear, but does little to sway social custom and economic distress.
“It’s a traditional business,” says deputy superintendent Nagendra Singh Sikarwar, at the nearby Jeeran police station. “Even girls we try to rehabilitate come back to it. The main issue is we don’t have alternative jobs for them. And so their families are keen that they continue the work.”
Most Bacchara men do not work. Only the lowest paid or most degrading jobs are available to them anyway. So they rely on their children. They wait on their porches with the rest of the family while their daughters are inside with customers.
One villager, Balram Chauhan, should be a rich man. He has five daughters. But he is struggling: Chauhan, 52, is the only father in the village who refuses to force his children into sex work.
Balram Chauhan, a member of the Bacchara community, right, has protected his five daughters from sex work. Photograph: Rebecca Conway
His mother was a prostitute. Despite his efforts, so were four of his sisters. “From the moment I understood what they were doing I tried to stop them,” he says. “But my parents were against me. They said it was a culture that had been going on for years. Who was I to stop it?”
Trying to break this cycle has been a lifelong struggle. His parents sabotaged his efforts to train as a health worker, Chauhan says. When he married off his two daughters to spare them from a life of prostitution, his family cut him off.
He cannot move his family outside of a Bacchara village: nobody would rent property to someone from his caste. The “higher” caste communities nearby consider his very presence polluting. So he has opened a small shop in Sagar Gram selling biscuits and confectionery, trying to eke out enough to pay for his daughters’ education.
“A lot of people here bad-mouth my daughters,” he says. “If they see them speaking on a cellphone, 10 people come to my shop and tell me: ‘Your daughter is chatting to so-and-so.’ They try to say they have loose characters.
“If I had one daughter, I could handle it. But when there are five …” he trails off. “It’s a difficult thing.”
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