South Korean human rights group launches probe
into sex assault in sports
By Kelly Kasulisinto sex assault in sports
Korea's Shim Suk Hee celebrates as she crosses the finish line to win gold at the 2014 Winter Olympics.
She has accused her former coach of raping her, starting when she was 17.
File Photo by Molly Riley/UPI | License Photo
SEOUL, (UPI) -- Months after rape allegations surfaced against a South Korean Olympic coach, the state-run human rights watchdog announced it has launched an investigation into physical and sexual assault in sports.
The National Human Rights Commission of Korea revealed this week that it's more than a month into a yearlong crackdown on physical and sexual misconduct across the nation's many sports organizations.
The decision comes after a preliminary investigation, which started Feb. 25, found more than 30 cases of reported abuse and concluded that sports organizations are "unable to successfully protect athletes."
Now, the commission is casting a wider net, pledging to probe both professional organizations and school sports, ranging from elementary school to university level.
More than 32,800 crimes involving sexual violence were recorded in 2017 in South Korea, according to the Korean Statistical Information Service. That amounts to nearly four incidents an hour.
And those are just the ones we know about.
In December, South Korea's #MeToo movement came back into national focus when Olympic short-track speed skater and gold medalist Shim Suk-hee, 22, accused her former coach, Cho Jae-bom, of raping her several times, starting when she was 17. The case was frequently compared to the case of Larry Nassar, a former doctor for the U.S. women's national gymnastics team who was convicted of sexually assaulting as many as 260 athletes.
An official from South Korea's human rights commission confirmed that Shim's allegations provoked the preliminary investigation, along with "several other similar cases." Shortly after, commission Chairwoman Cho Young-ae vowed to "make things right."
"I stand here with a devastated feeling," Choi said in a Jan. 29 statement. "The severity of violence and sexual violence in sports should no longer be overlooked."
The probe will specifically review how various sports groups handle reports of abuse, including the Ministry of Education, the Korean Paralympic Committee and the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee.
Kim Hyun-mok, a member of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's Department of Sports Policy, told UPI that the ministry is cooperating with the investigation.
"We consider our active cooperation necessary, since human rights are something that must be protected," Kim said. "We think there is a systemic problem in sports culture, and [our] Sports Innovation Committee is discussing how to solve this problem."
On top of tracking down egregious abuse reporting procedures, the commission will offer counseling or legal advice to victims. The investigation -- which could be extended to a second year -- may also yield specific policy recommendations that the rest of government can weigh in on.
However, the watchdog group can only dole out warnings and give recommendations for how individual abuse cases are handled once the commission labels them as human rights violations.
It will be up to law enforcement to take care of the rest.
Getting them out in the open is the most important step. Good for you.
IJM - International Justice Mission reports:
Latin America -
Praise God for a 20-year sentence in the Dominican Republic our team helped secure against a German national guilty of trafficking, physical and psychological abuse and sexual exploitation of two Haitian sisters. Additionally, he was also found in possession of homemade pornographic material that included these two minors.
Give thanks to the Lord for the Dominican judge who sentenced him to prison and a fine to support the victims’ restoration process. The legal battle was long and challenging - it wasn’t until a year and a half after his arrest that the German national was sentenced.
South Asia -
Praise God for a successful rescue operation led by a grassroots NGO and a proactive team of government officials—both trained by IJM. In this case, five boys had been forced to graze hundreds of goats across a huge tract of rural land. They ate only one small meal a day and slept on grass mats outside.
On Monday, the IJM-trained rescue team successfully tracked the boys, interviewed them and brought them to safety, where they got food, medical care and rest. Police also arrested the alleged slave owner. Praise God for freedom in this case, and pray for these boys as they recover.
Southeast Asia -
This week, through two back-to-back operations, four boys were rescued from cybersex trafficking in Metro Manila. Praise God for bringing these boys out of exploitation and into safety!
As they begin to receive aftercare services, pray for their healing and restoration. Also pray for wisdom for the social workers determining the best options for their long-term care.
Frank Valentine's sorry history didn't stop his promotion to a senior NSW's Hunter child welfare position in the 1980s
Joanne McCarthy
Questions: Yawarra Training School at Kurri Kurri where Frank Valentine allegedly sexually abused a teenage boy in 1978 who committed suicide before a trial a decade later. Valentine was last week convicted of child sex offences against six children in NSW Government-run facilities.
Valentine, 78, would "go ballistic" about staff who asked why he was still working in such a senior position after facing child sex charges in 1987 and 1988, said Max Morrissey, who was a Hunter child protection consultant reporting to Valentine.
"Everybody knew about Frank," said Mr Morrissey, after Valentine was last week found guilty of sexually abusing six children in NSW Government-run facilities.
"He rang me one night and said how terrible it was that people were talking about him and saying he sexually abused children. He said he was going to get them all and have them put in jail. He would go around saying people were making false allegations against him and about not being guilty, so a lot of people knew about Valentine," said Mr Morrissey, a Charles Sturt University academic.
"There's been a lot of attention on churches and child sexual abuse but there are aspects of Valentine's history that make it perhaps more dreadful than many other serial predators," he said.
The only surprise about Valentine's conviction for serious child sex offences was that it took so long, Mr Morrissey said.
But it was almost inevitable after women told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse they had been sexually abused by Valentine and others at the notorious Parramatta Girls' Training School in the early 1970s.
Valentine denied the allegations and said the women must have confused him for other child sex offenders who worked at the school. He lost an attempt to have his identity suppressed.
The royal commission heard evidence from the Department of Family and Community Services showing alarm bells were ringing about Valentine from at least as early as 1973.
The then Public Service Board in 1973 "had serious concerns about whether Mr Valentine should continue to hold a senior position in the department", documents showed.
The concerns followed sexual and physical allegations made against him during his two-year stint as deputy superintendent at Parramatta Girls' Training School between 1971 and 1973.
While it could not substantiate the allegations, the board issued him with a warning after finding he failed to respond to serious sexual and physical allegations made by teenage girls against other staff at the Parramatta institution.
The board's concerns about Valentine weren't enough to stop him from being transferred to the notorious Daruk Boys Training School in 1973, and later to Kurri Kurri's Yawarra Training School for troubled teenage boys, where he allegedly sexually abused a 15-year-old in 1978.
Valentine was Hunter operations manager in 1986 when he was charged with raping a ward of the state, aged 11, who he'd taken under his wing while a community program officer in the Riverina region three years earlier. It was against all department rules, but a jury accepted the word of a very senior department employee over a troubled powerless child and Valentine was acquitted of the offences.
Valentine was charged with more offences in 1988, including sexually abusing a teenager at Yawarra in 1978. But the charges were dismissed after the alleged victim, 25, committed suicide two days before he was expected to give evidence at the trial. A second alleged victim chose not to go ahead after the man's death.
Valentine returned to his senior Hunter position after the charges, said three former department employees, including Mr Morrissey.
"I can't understand it," Mr Morrissey said.
"I'm guessing it would have gone to senior people in the department who would have taken a very legalistic view and said 'Not proved, not guilty, he can return to work'," he said.
Warnings: Max Morrissey spoke with police about his concerns about Frank Valentine but allegations went nowhere until the child abuse royal commission heard damning evidence about Valentine's time as deputy superintendent of the notorious Parramatta Girls' Training School between 1971 and 1973.
The department would not comment on the case but three former department employees said they believed Valentine had the support of the late Percival Mayhew, a former Parramatta Girls' Training School superintendent, who was also the subject of serious child sex allegations raised with the royal commission.
NSW District Court Judge Nicole Noman last week found Valentine guilty of 20 historical child sex offences against six victims, including rape, buggery and indecent assault. He was bailed before his sentence on May 24.
The Department of Family and Community Services on Friday declined to provide details of Valentine's history in the Hunter region, including when he worked at Yawarra or whether he worked at Worimi Shelter at Broadmeadow, which operated from 1966 to 2006 as a reception facility for children facing court.
Mr Morrissey said he was not surprised to read that police could lay more charges against Valentine, who lives with wife Maris in Queensland. Mrs Valentine also worked for the department in the Hunter.
Mr Morrissey and another former Yawarra employee who worked with Valentine said they were contacted by police about Valentine over the years, including in the 1990s, but little came of it.
It was not until the royal commission that a former Parramatta Girls School inmate said she was taken into the "dungeon" at the school and raped by Valentine.
The former ward of the state who was devastated after a jury believed Valentine rather than him in 1987 told the royal commission he wanted to know "how this man was allowed to continue his career with young people" after leaving a trail of child sex allegations behind him.
Mr Morrissey and other former department employees say it is the unanswered question as Valentine faces a jail sentence for his crimes.
Hunter Region, NSW
'I did as I was told': $1mn lawsuit against Sydney's
Knox Grammar School for child sex abuse
One Survivor's Story
By Peter FitzSimons and Rick FeneleyGreg Dubler was just 10 years old when he was sent to board at Knox, the prestigious private school on Sydney’s upper north shore.
His parents were having marriage troubles and wanted to travel to Europe together to try to work things out. Their three sons, Martin, Robert and Greg, who had been Knox day boys, were sent to board at the school for three months in 1975.
Ribbons on the front gates at Knox Grammar after the royal commission in 2015. CREDIT: BEN RUSHTON
Greg was the youngest boarder in the school by two years but was placed in separate accommodation to his older brothers, where he quickly became a target for bullies – and an alleged paedophile boarding master. Now 54, Dubler recalls this period was “very difficult, traumatic and deeply disturbing”.
“My life was about to be changed forever and I would never be the same,” Mr Dubler alleges in a statement of claim filed in the Supreme Court. He is suing Knox for more than $1 million compensation for damaging his life, his schooling, his career and his mental health and wellbeing.
It is one of “dozens” of abuse cases that have been brought against Knox, the majority of which have been settled. In the case of Dubler, his is one of five cases the law firm Koffels has pending against Knox, relating to claims for child sexual abuse occurring at the school from 1975 to 1986.
“Knox and the United Church do all they can to settle every case as quickly as possible by paying the claimant fair compensation,” a school spokesperson who has been involved in the legal process told The Sun-Herald.
“The challenge for both parties is to work out what that amounts to ... Knox and the Church cannot be an open bank book and pay damages which would never be awarded by the court.”
Another six such claims brought by Koffels have been settled, spanning the same time period, involving abuses committed by Knox masters Bruce Barratt, Barrie Stewart, Adrian Nisbett and Damien Vance.
The Australian reported last Wednesday on the case of another Koffel client, Phillip Ashworth, who “alleges that between 1980 and 1981, English teacher Adrian Nisbett sexually abused him on multiple occasions.” Ashworth also claims that “Knox, via the Uniting Church entity that controls its assets, ‘knowingly or recklessly,’ covered up the abuse.”
Nisbett and Barrett are just two of the teachers’ names that emerged during the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. All but Barratt, Greg Dubler’s alleged abuser, have been charged and convicted, though none have served time in prison. Barratt died in 1984.
At the time of his death, Knox put Barratt’s name on a plaque with the words “He touched us all”. It was taken down as soon as allegations arose from multiple sources.
How indecently appropriate!
Greg says that as the youngest boarder at Knox he was “an easy target” for severe physical and emotional bullying by the older boys. Once he was hung over a balcony by the ankle.
But he did have one source of comfort. His art teacher Bruce Barratt began to pay him special attention. He would accompany him from the class room to the dormitory, and buy him treats after school – milkshakes, lollies and potato scallops up at the local Wahroonga shops. As Dubler recalls, the extra attention made him feel special.
“I began to trust Barratt and increasingly felt comfortable in his presence. With all the bullying going on I finally felt like I had made a friend at the school.”
Then Barratt invited him back to his private quarters at Ewan House, where he was the master for year 11 and 12 boarders, to watch television with him. This, Dubler alleges, is when the abuse began.
Barratt would cuddle Greg, touch his hands and rub his legs. He said “my parents did not love me and that they left me at Knox for him to take care of me … I recall him saying things like, ‘I love you’, ‘I will take care of you’.”
The touching escalated, Dubler says, until they removed their clothes. The alleged details are explicit and distressing; suffice to say they involved masturbation, digital rape and Barratt performing oral sex on the boy. “I did as I was told,” Dubler says.
He alleges the abuse was very regular over these three months. “He made me fearful to speak out as he made it very clear that I would be the one in serious trouble because it was my fault this had occurred.”
“Barratt made me feel like I had been doing something wrong and I couldn’t tell anyone about it as it was my entire fault. I found this very confusing and did not know what to do.”
Dubler adds: “My father was very anti-homosexual and I feared telling him about what had occurred as I believe he would have beaten me if he knew that I had been involved in homosexual acts.”
He told no one for more than three decades, during which his life spiralled out of control. In his statement of claim he describes his guilt and shame, plunging school grades, disobedience, vandalism and petty crime, teenage drug and alcohol abuse, and his sexual confusion and experimentation with boys from school.
While both his brothers became lawyers, one rising to Senior Counsel, Dubler studied catering at TAFE, failed in business ventures and struggled to hold down jobs, mainly in real estate and property development.
Dubler says he gambled away large amounts of money, and took cocaine and ecstasy, and engaged in sexual deviancy. His first two marriages broke down.
He convinced his father to invest heavily in a development and lost that money – along with credibility in his family. “I went broke.”
In 2007, Dubler heard news of another Knox teacher abusing a student, and all his trauma came flooding back. He went to Hornsby police station and reported his own alleged abuse at Knox, only to be told that the police could do nothing. Barratt, after all, was dead.
Dubler’s parents, when he told them, went into denial, but later believed him – and then suffered terrible guilt. “I don’t blame them,” he says. His siblings believed him and he appreciated their support.
But Dubler found various psychologists and counsellors of little help. At a low ebb in 2010, he found himself cleaning toilets in a Manly half-way house for drug addicts.
He testified at the royal commission, a milestone in his attempt at recovery. Now he is in his third marriage, a happy one. The statement of claim refers to him having suffered chronic PTSD, major depressive disorder, substance abuse and dependence, and pathological gambling.
It is a similar story for Philip Ashworth, who was 14 years old when he alleges Nisbett directed him to perform oral sex, among other abuses. Ashworth says he has suffered persistent depressive disorder, anxiety disorder, drug abuse disorder and post-traumatic symptoms.
“I will never recover,” he says simply, over the phone from Wellington New Zealand. “I am a broken man, and last year tried to take my life.”
It is understood that Knox has been subjected to dozens of claims relating to abuse of students by its teachers. In support of their claims, the former students hone in on what the school, its principal and teachers knew or should have known about the now-established cases of sexually abusive teachers.
Rather than contest the allegations Knox is focused on determining what is adequate compensation from the school. Its spokesperson said it was guided by legal advice as to what a court would award if these cases went to trial.
“Where amounts are sought that are well and truly beyond the range recommended by our legal advisers ... Knox and the Church cannot be an open bank book and pay damages which would never be awarded by the court. Our one and only aim is to achieve a settlement whereby fair compensation is agreed to and as quickly as possible with as little stress to the claimant as possible.”
And as little publicity for the school and church.
New Zealand doctor charged for allegedly
inciting child sex abuse
Dr Murray Govan, a 49-year-old specialist doctor who grew up in Dunedin, is alleged to have sent child abuse material before making arrangements to meet the woman and girl for sex.
Detectives from the Child Abuse and Sex Crimes Squad's Child Exploitation Internet Unit (CEIU) began engaging online with a man in March.
The man allegedly talked about sexually explicit acts he wished to perform on the child and her 32-year-old mother, separately and together.
Police will argue the man, who is living in Coffs Harbour, believed he was speaking to the 11-year-old's mother.
"The man was taken to Parramatta Police Station and charged with inciting a person as an accessory before the fact to attempted aggravated sexual intercourse of a person between 10 and 14 years of age, and using a carriage service for child pornography," NSW Police said.
"Strike Force Trawler investigators executed a search warrant in a Parramatta hotel room, where they seized a laptop, mobile phones, electronic storage devices, and children's toys. These items will undergo forensic examination."
Dr Govan grew up in Dunedin and studied at the University of Otago, graduating in 1993. He moved to Australia more than 16 years ago and used to work in the Coffs Coast Skin Cancer Clinic - but has since left. It's understood he also works in the ICU department at the Base hospital.
He a Fellow of the Skin Cancer College and is a tutor for the Advanced Clinical Certificate of Skin Cancer Medicine & Surgery as well as a lecturer in the Certificate of Skin Cancer Medicine.
Lynette Hunt, CEO Skin Cancer College Australasia, said the college board met on Friday and suspended Govan's membership and directorship.
"Skin Cancer College Australasia is horrified by the abhorrent allegations levelled against Dr Govan. The charges levelled against Dr Govan are in no way related to his role at Skin Cancer College Australasia."
The doctor appeared at Parramatta Local Court on Friday. He did not apply for bail, and remains in custody. He will reappear at Parramatta Court on April 17.
Police investigations are ongoing into the incident and detectives also executed a search warrant at a property in Coffs Harbour yesterday.
PSNI must investigate alleged paedophile ring
Nuala O’Loan calls for action after victims come forward
with claims of historic abuse
Rodney Edwards
Former police ombudsman for Northern Ireland Nuala O’Loan: ‘If there is an allegation that a paedophile ring has been operating in Enniskillen then this needs to be investigated.’ File photograph: The Irish Times
Claims of widespread historical sex abuse in Co Fermanagh “require current investigation” by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), according to a former police ombudsman.
The intervention by Nuala O’Loan comes as several victims have come forward in recent weeks alleging they were sexually abused more than 30 years ago, some as a result of a suspected paedophile ring in Enniskillen.
But their cases were dropped by the Public Prosecution Service due to “insufficient evidence”.
Ms O’Loan has said the situation, which first came to light as a result of a campaign by newspaper the Impartial Reporter, is “serious” and needs to be investigated.
“It requires current investigation. I don’t think the assumption can be made that this is just historic, it could be going on currently. If there was insufficient evidence in the past it may be that coming forward now police are able to build a bigger picture which may change that earlier decision.”
With the unsolved murder of bus driver David Sullivan in Fermanagh and his link to a suspected paedophile ring in the county, there are many questions for the authorities about abuse in the 1980s.
“If there is an allegation that a paedophile ring has been operating in Enniskillen then this needs to be investigated,” said Ms O’Loan. “Perpetrators very often abuse on a serial basis. They don’t just abuse one child, there will be other children. It is very important that all victims are identified and their cases are investigated properly. If these perpetrators have done this once it is not impossible that it is happening again.”
Sullivan (51) was found buried in a bog in 2000, a killing that was possibly motivated by revenge. The former school bus driver was responsible for a litany of abuse on young boys.
One of his victims spoke out this week for the first time to reveal how the former Ulsterbus driver had sexually abused him at least 12 times while bringing him to school.
Other victims have talked openly about being subjected to a litany of sex attacks as children by businessmen and professional people in Enniskillen, many of whom are still alive.
The PSNI is coming under significant pressure to explore the incidents and are to be questioned by the Policing Board at its next meeting.
What happens next?
Chief Constable George Hamilton has taken a direct interest in the case and head of the Public Protection Unit Paula Hilman has pledged to meet with victims.
Sexual abuse survivor MáirÃa Cahill has said the police should re-examine these cases.
Ms Cahill said it was “deeply concerning” that several victims have come forward to the Impartial Reporter citing a specific time frame and in many cases referring to the same abusers.
“The police’s understanding of cases like this has evolved since the 1980s. Their investigatory knowledge in rape and abuse cases is now much stronger than ever before. But for a number of cases not to have proceeded to prosecution, that is extremely disappointing,” she said.
Former minister for justice David Ford said the allegations are “extremely serious” and “go beyond concerns about one individual”.
“It is always disappointing to victims if their concerns do not meet the test of sufficient evidence for a prosecution. That is why all victims should contact the PSNI, to help build a case against any perpetrators of such sickening abuse, and to protect others in the future,” he said.
Maurice Morrow, a unionist politician and life peer who lives in the constituency, said the allegations “demand a full and thorough investigation by the PSNI. Anyone with any information which may assist police with their inquires should bring it to the PSNI’s attention immediately. The victims must not be abandoned,” he said.
The victims must not be abandoned, again!
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