‘House of horror’: CCTV exposes Indian businessman’s alleged sexual abuse of underage girls
Vimal Chand and another person have been arrested in connection with the case.
© Senior Superintendent of Police Meerut
An upmarket house in northern India is at the center of a child abuse probe as CCTV footage has allegedly revealed that a retired insurance executive sexually exploited several underage girls over a two-year period.
Vimal Chand allegedly abused children as young as 10 years old in his home in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, with police saying that he likely recorded the encounters on the property’s 13 CCTV cameras for voyeuristic reasons, the Times of India reports.
The footage looks set to prove the 63-year-old’s downfall as it was discovered by a technician who was repairing the camera system. The technician allegedly tried to extort Chand before turning the footage over to the authorities.
So the technician was happy to allow the child sex abuse to continue if Chand paid him enough!
Chand’s sprawling bright yellow “house of horror” was known throughout the area as a place where poor children could get treats for free. The police say most of the victims were from poor backgrounds and Chand would lure them to his property with the promise of work.
“He would call these girls in the name of hiring domestic help. He would later provide them food, clothes and financial help,” police spokesperson Nitin Tiwari said.
A neighbor said Chand began feeding poor girls at a local temple after his wife passed away in 2016. “He often used to give money and clothes to them. Happy over freebies, these children started lining outside his house where he would serve them food and give them money and clothes,” Soma Pal told the newspaper.
The police have already traced at least six of the alleged pedophile’s victims. The businessman and one other person have been arrested in connection with the case that has sent shockwaves through the region.
British music teacher jailed for 5 years for live-streaming child sex abuse of 4 y/o girl
By HARRY HOWARD FOR MAILONLINE
A British music teacher who plotted to sexually abuse girls as young as four in the Philippines has been jailed.
James Alexander, 42, was caught by the National Crime Agency after he sent money to known facilitators who had live-streamed child sexual abuse from Iligan City, in Northern Mindanao.
He was arrested on June 30, 2018, at Manchester Airport as he flew into the UK from Thailand where he had lived since 2017.
Forensic analysis of his electronic devices showed Alexander, of Beeston, Leeds, sent at least 15 money transfers to abuse facilitators between August 2017 and June 2018.
It also showed that Alexander tried to arrange with abuse facilitators over Skype and WhatsApp to travel to the Philippines to abuse little girls himself.
Alexander admitted one count of arranging/facilitating the commission of a child sex offence; three counts of attempting to cause/incite a girl under 13 to engage in sexual activity, and one count of making an indecent image of a child.
He was prosecuted under section 72 of the Sex Offences Act 2003, which allows British nationals to be prosecuted in the UK for offences committed abroad.
Alexander, who served as a reservist in the Parachute Regiment from 1999 to 2003, was jailed for five years at Leeds Crown Court yesterday.
The court heard Alexander had a discussion with one female facilitator about a 13-year-old girl, in which he said: 'If I meet anyone else I would like younger'. He then asked the facilitator for pictures of her 12-year-old daughter.
It is believed indecent images of the 12-year-old were sent to him, as his recovered chat history shows he said: 'nice baby * now take the other pictures I asked.'
On 1 February 2018 Alexander and the woman discussed plans for him to meet the girls in a hotel and he asked: 'Are you going to bring them both with you and stay also'.
He added: 'You'll show them what to do.'
The woman told Alexander she had other daughters aged nine, six and four.
Alexander, who taught in Leeds and Malaysia before moving to Thailand, asked for sick images of the girls aged nine and six posing in a certain way, and asked what the six-year-old would do with him.
He also explained how he would like to sexually abuse the four-year-old.
Alexander told another Filipino mother - who says she will make her daughters do anything for money - that he wants to have sex with her seven and 11-year-old girls. He directed them to pose for photographs.
NCA officers also discovered other WhatsApp messages where Alexander asked a 10-year-old to send him images of her posing, and asked if he could meet her.
There were no records of Alexander ever travelling to the Philippines.
In-country investigations into the facilitators continue, but as a result of NCA intelligence, one suspect was arrested and several children safeguarded.
Alexander taught at Bromsgrove International School in Bangkok, Thailand, which dismissed him upon notification of the investigation. Safeguarding checks were made at the school and there was no evidence of Alexander offending there.
Alexander's phone contained child abuse images.
He was jailed for five years at Leeds Crown Court. He was also given a five-year sexual harm prevention order which bans foreign travel and made to sign the sex offenders register for life.
Speaking after the hearing, Hazel Stewart, NCA senior investigating officer, said: 'Alexander clearly tried to manipulate and exploit the poverty of the vulnerable in order to gratify his sick sexual desires.
'He believed he could abuse Filipino children safely from his home and wanted to visit the Philippines to carry out the sexual abuse himself.
'The NCA has strong partnerships with law enforcement in the Philippines. We work together to combat this kind of offending.
'We and UK policing will never give up our pursuit of offenders who commit these horrendous crimes.'
Abberly Hall School headmaster 'appalled'
by historic child sex abuse
By James Connell
A HEADMASTER is ‘appalled’ by the ‘abhorrent’ behaviour of a former teacher who sexually abused boys as young as 12 years old at a boarding school.
Will Lockett, current head of Abberley Hall School near Worcester, says many changes have taken place since the abuse by ex-teacher Paul Stevens in the 1980s and 1990s and has spoken of the school’s ‘high’ and ‘rigorous’ safeguarding standards.
Stevens, a 60-year-old former housemaster, football coach and head of maths, admitted five counts of indecency with a child and 10 indecent assaults against three boys at the school, one of whom has since died from an alcohol-related condition after his family said his life had been been ‘utterly ruined’ by the abuse he experienced.
A total of 14 further counts from the 29 count indictment will lie on file and police have already reported that five further potential victims have come forward with allegations against Stevens, of Dyffryn Ardudwy, Gwynedd, North Wales.
The abuse happened at the school between January 1, 1983 and March 22, 1991. Stevens left the school at the end of 1999 and had received written warnings about his ‘over-familiarity’ with some pupils earlier that year.
Stevens changed some of his pleas early on in his trial at Worcester Crown Court on Wednesday as the first victim was poised to give evidence.
The jury was directed by the judge to return unanimous guilty verdicts.
Stevens was remanded in custody by judge Andrew Lockhart QC and may be sentenced on July 5.
Headmaster Mr Lockett, speaking after the guilty verdicts, said: “There is absolutely no defence for such abhorrent behaviour and the total betrayal of trust afforded by parents, the school and pupils.”
The headmaster said his first thoughts at the conclusion of the trial were with the victims of Stevens’ ‘inexcusable conduct’. He added: “Although the incidents predate my appointment as head by some 20 to 30 years, as a parent and head teacher I am truly appalled with the details of this historic case.
“Naturally, we have provided every assistance to the police investigation and thankfully the perpetrator is now facing justice and a lengthy custodial sentence.
“I should also stress that there have been many changes at the school over the past 30 years. Certainly, I am confident the rigorous and robust safeguarding measures we have in place today will help to ensure the welfare and protection of all our pupils at all times.
“Indeed, our successful ISI Inspection in 2017 has also provided independent verification of the high standards we have established and apply.”
After the trial concluded Judge Lockhart spoke of the ‘extremely distressing evidence’ of the case.
He asked jurors to leave with the thought that ‘men like Mr Stevens are vanishingly rare.’
Judge Lockhart told them: “Please don’t go out into the community and suspect everyone of being such a person. You must trust your fellow human beings as you would always want to be trusted yourself.”
But Judge, they are not as rare as one would like. Unfortunately, they are increasing, not vanishing. Read a few of my blog posts.
Unusual Alliance for Cuba Tackling Child Sexual Abuse
By Ivett Gonzalez (IPS)
The psychologists Valia Solís (l) and Rocío Fernández provide specialized support to Algeldris Pérez and her adolescent son, a victim of sexual assault three years ago, but who only told her now. Both they and her partner, with whom the teenager confided, receive support at the Christian Center for Reflection and Dialogue in the city of Cárdenas, in Cuba. Photo: Jorge Luis Baños/ IPS
HAVANA TIMES – The normal hubbub of kids playing in Cuban neighborhoods has been extinguished in one part of Cardenas city, where Mayelin Cuellar’s and Miguel Angel Gonzalez’s family live, ever since they reported a neighbor for raping their son.
Distressed by the tough situation they are going through, Cuellar is afraid that “it will be a very long time before his son overcomes this and returns to his old self,” he told IPS at the non-governmental Cuban Christian Center of Reflection and Dialogue (CCRD) in this city, 150 kms east of Havana.
This family, who says that they don’t follow any religion, has been receiving specialist support from the CCRD, which has had an unusual partnership with the police’s Minors’ Unit in the province of Matanzas, which Cardenas belongs to, working on sexual abuse cases that involve children and teenagers.
This alliance between a civil society organization and the local authorities might be the only one to exist in the entire country, as the Socialist government only allowed some NGOs (like the CCRD) to exist in the late ‘80s. However, activists still criticize the government’s lack of understanding and the very limited channels that civic organizations have to grow in a legal sense, especially when it comes to human rights.
This project reveals the social space that religious communities have gained in a country where ties between churches and the State are still being rebuilt, after the Cuban State stopped being atheist and became “secular” in 1992, which is upheld in the new Constitution that came into effect on April 10th.
The psychologist Maidenys Aguerrebere assists Miguel Angel Gonzalez and Mayelin Royal, a couple who await the trial against the alleged rapist of their son, aged 14, at the Christian Center for Reflection and Dialogue, in the city of Cardenas, Matanzas.
Photo: Jorge Luis Banos / IPS
“As the child was only going to school, I didn’t think that something like this might happen with our closest neighbor and in our own home,” the mother continued, amidst tears. Her son was a victim of sexual abuse three years ago, when he was only 11 years old.
Gonzalez isn’t the boy’s biological father, but he’s been looking after him ever since he was really little. “He told me that the neighbor had abused him. He is a child with special abilities and watching a foreign TV show, he realized what had happened,” Gonzalez says, who goes to the CCRD meetings with his wife.
The now teenager told him exactly what had happened to him and then his mother put an end to the abuse on April 3rd and went to the police to file a complaint and the boy underwent medical checks. The couple have two children each from their former relationships, but the others are older and only the victim lives with them.
“If only they exposed these kinds of cases on Cuban TV, which would allow people to open their eyes,” the private driver in this city weighed in, where child sexual abuse is a taboo subject and many families hide this reality because of preconceptions and shame.
There is more on this story here.
Don't Tell Rape Victims To Hand Over Their Phones
UK Police Bosses Say
By EMILY DIXON, BustlePolice bosses in the UK are calling for the Crown Prosecution Service to scrap new consent forms telling rape victims to hand over their phones. Earlier this week, the BBC reported that rape victims will be asked for access to digital information including messages, emails, and photos; if they refuse, they could see their cases dropped. Now, the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC) has said the new forms should be withdrawn, lest they harm rape victims and threaten confidence in the justice system.
Dame Vera Baird, the APCC's victims lead, said in a statement, "In our communities, rape and sex offence complainants are telling us that unless they grant unfettered access to their mobile devices, they are told that their case will not be proceeded with. There are also a large number of examples where material unconnected to the facts of the case and sometimes months or years before on entirely different topics has been handed by CPS to the defence and used at court to try to discredit the complainant. These examples are all from sexual assault and rape cases."
"Whilst we recognise that police must pursue all reasonable lines of inquiry and disclose anything that may undermine the prosecution or assist the defence, this form has been called a digital strip search by campaigners," Baird said.
David Lloyd, the APCC's criminal justice lead, said, "We have no doubt that this form, as it currently stands, should be withdrawn, or it is likely to result in a loss of confidence in the police, the CPS and the criminal justice system more broadly."
Julia Mulligan, deputy victims lead, said, "As someone with lived experience I can tell you that it is hard enough having to live through a sexual attack or rape, without having to expose oneself to this 'in return' for an investigation. And to be told you have no chance of justice without doing so is truly awful."
According to the BBC, the consent forms are most likely to be used in, but aren't limited to, cases of rape and sexual assault, since the victim is likely to know the suspect. Victims who refuse to consent to police viewing their personal information will have the opportunity to explain why, the forms say. However, the forms also say that if victims don't give their consent, "then it may not be possible for the investigation or prosecution to continue."
The new forms provoked condemnation, while the Centre for Women's Justice is planning a legal challenge against the practice. Director Harriet Wistrich told the BBC, "We seem to be going back to the bad old days when victims of rape are being treated as suspects."Katie Russell, a spokesperson for Rape Crisis England and Wales, said in a statement, "When criminal justice outcomes for victims and survivors of child sexual abuse, rape and all forms of sexual violence are so woefully low, we have to question whether the routine gathering and storage of such huge volumes of their personal data, much of which will inevitably be completely irrelevant to the allegations in question, is justifiable or in the interests of justice, particularly when it has the potential to feel punitive and put people off reporting."
Philippines cybersex crackdown sparks concern over care for child victims
by Matt Blomberg | Thomson Reuters Foundation
A new global taskforce has this year been tracking down and rescuing children abused online as it works through a backlog of hundreds of cases
MANILA, - Chang has no desire to go home to her parents, at least not yet.
The 18-year-old Filipina has lived in a shelter since being rescued four years ago from a neighbour who forced her to perform sexual acts in front of a webcam for overseas predators.
"When I am ready to face them - to tell them that I am new and that I can handle myself - then I will go home," said Chang, who is too ashamed to return home. Her abuser has been jailed.
"Only when I am successful," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation, explaining how she was lured into a den of abuse with the promise of a few dollars to buy a new pair of jeans.
Chang is one of hundreds of girls and young women in the care of charities after being saved from cybersex trafficking - a form of modern-day slavery that saw 60,000 reports logged in the Philippines in 2018, a five-fold increase over four years.
Campaigners put the country at the global epicentre of the growing trade, which is creating a crisis of care for rising numbers of children, many very young, who often have to be removed from families that profit from their exploitation.
Led by police in the Philippines, a new global taskforce has this year been tracking down and rescuing children abused online as it works through a backlog of hundreds of cases.
With investigators from Britain and Australia backing local cops working solely on cybersex trafficking, the Philippines is clamping down on an illicit industry that has been fuelled by cheap internet, the high level of English and rampant poverty.
Is it time for Duterte to shut down the internet entirely in the Philippines? Or is he afraid people will start starving to death if he does? Or children will be prostituting themselves on the streets even more than they already do? Something needs to be done, and soon.
Yet the crackdown is set to see the number of children in need of protection soar, leaving shelters scrambling to keep up.
"With the anticipated influx of cases, additional human and material resources are required to cater to the needs of the victims," said Zafrin Chowdhury, a spokeswoman for the United Nations children's agency (UNICEF).
The Philippines is training officials to care for children who have been abused sexually online, said Chowdhury of UNICEF, which works with the government to develop aftercare programs.
Officials from the nation's department of social welfare and development - the lead government agency tasked with responding to the issue - were not immediately available for comment.
STAYING SAFE
Since 2011, the International Justice Mission (IJM), an anti-trafficking charity backing the taskforce, has rescued more than 400 children from dens of online sex abuse, and placed them in 25 shelters certified to care specifically for survivors.
Once rehabilitated, carers then search for a family member deemed appropriate and reliable to continue raising the child. Failing that, some go on to live alone, helped by charities, some stay in the shelters, and a small few go into foster care.
While stigma stops Chang from going home, many victims want to be reunited with their parents - even though they took money from abusers who forced the children to perform sex acts online.
Abusers can earn up to $100 per show in a country where about a fifth of its 105 million people live in poverty - earning less than $2,000 a year - according to government data.
As relatives or family friends are the exploiters in most cases, cybersex trafficking has become normalised to the point where many victims - whose average age is 12 - reject aftercare.
"It's so challenging for us to explain to these children that they must stay in the shelter to remain safe," said Delores Rubia, IJM's director of aftercare for children - a fifth of whom are six years old or younger.
"They are very young and they have not experienced other ways of life so they would say this is normal," she said, adding that initially harmless interactions often evolve into violent abuse such as siblings made to perform sex acts upon each other.
No data exists on the number of child victims of cybersex trafficking, but about 784,000 people in the Philippines - or one in 130 - are estimated to be living as modern slaves, found the Global Slavery Index by the charity Walk Free Foundation.
"SHORTAGE OF SHELTERS"
Family bonds also prove a hurdle to securing convictions.
One such case collapsed last year after a girl - who had allegedly been abused for years from the age of eight - refused to testify against her mother, who was ultimately acquitted.
"The daughter is still with us, waiting for a court order saying that she can be reunited with her mother," said Sherryl Loseno, operations manager at Voice of the Free, an anti-slavery charity that runs shelters for survivors of online sex abuse.
Like most shelters, Voice of the Free generally caters to girls only, but in 2016 took in a five-year-old boy who was removed from abusive parents along with his two-year-old sister. They were rehabilitated relatively quickly, but stayed in the shelter for an additional two years until carers found a suitable foster home.
"It was a very difficult case to handle," said Loseno. "Not everyone wants to adopt two children, but it was important that they were not separated and put through another serious trauma."
But foster care for victims of cybersex trafficking is rare. Only 3 of the 400 children rescued by IJM have found such homes, and charities are concerned about the shelters' ability to cope.
"We can only cater to the maximum (capacity) of the shelter," said Loseno. Voice of the Free's main shelter in Manila, the capital, hosts 48 survivors but has only 50 beds.
"There is a shortage of shelters catering to ... survivors."
For Chang, who is free to go home but chooses not to, the shelter has given her a new lease on life. She is topping her classes, leading a dance troupe and telling her story to bring light to the plight of thousands of girls who are still trapped.
The most important part of the rehabilitation, she said, was learning to become a leader again - and looking ahead in life.
"I can see my future now," she said, having recalled the moment that police entered her abuser's home and arrested him.
Child pornography sentencing - Ireland:
How do we treat those who view child abuse?
Wrong language, weak sentences, poor resources: victims and those who support them are frustrated with the criminal justice system’s response to child sexual abuse material.
Caroline O’Doherty, Irish Examiner
 |
| Colin Power, left, and Jason Clancy - CSA victims of Bill Kenneally |
For close to 30 years Colin Power lived not only with the trauma of child sex abuse but the added horror of knowing his abuser had recorded his ordeal.
Bill Kenneally took graphic polaroids of the boys he sexually assaulted, forcing them to pose with smiles and telling them that if they spoke about what he did, he would show the pictures as ‘proof’ that they were willing partners in his vile attacks.
His trial in 2016 heard claims that he had destroyed the photographs years earlier but Colin and the other boys did not know that, nor can they be entirely sure he really did.
“It was a form of power over us. We were all aware that he had taken photos of us and we had the fear then of what he might do with those photos or who he’d show them to,” he says.
“That would always have been in the back of your mind, maybe not consciously all the time but certainly subconsciously.
I think that the child sex abuse images that people access now is for a slightly different reason than what Kenneally took our pictures for. I think it was more to have a hold over us, power over us for us to be fearful of what he’d do. But I could be wrong.
Either way, Colin feels somewhat fortunate that Kenneally, currently serving 14 years for sexual assaults on 10 boys, did not have access to the internet in the way that others like him do now.
The constraints of 1980s technology meant Kenneally was limited in what he could do but today, an image taken for perverted personal pleasure, for commercial gain or, as Kenneally used them, for ‘insurance’, can be all over the world in minutes.
Physical sexual abuse can stop, an offender can be convicted and, with time and support, a victim can become a survivor but when images are unleashed to the unrestricted world of the internet, a form of torture is inflicted over and over again without end.
And every time Colin reads about a court case involving child pornography, it bothers him deeply.
April 2019: 3 years suspended, 2 years probation
Mark McNally’s laptop was actively downloading child sex abuse images when gardaí arrived to search his Dublin home.
Then 23 years old, he admitted possession of 32 videos and a similar number of images and told gardaí he had been downloading and viewing child pornography since the age of 13, when he felt down.
The case took five years to come to hearing. In mitigation, the court heard McNally was an “enterprising man” with a good work record who was never in trouble before or since.
That phrase, child pornography, is only the start of Colin’s concerns. “I really think something needs to be done about the term ‘child pornography’. To me there’s no such thing as child pornography. That term dilutes the crime. It is child sex abuse images.”
Colin is not alone in believing the term ‘child pornography’ is problematic in that its association with legal and widely accepted adult pornography can have the effect of normalising it or at least diminishing its harm in the public mind.
One in Four, CARI (Children at Risk in Ireland) and the Rape Crisis Network of Ireland (RCNI) are just some of the many organisations that also object to the term.
“I really hate the term child pornography,” says Maeve Lewis, executive director of One in Four. “It almost legitimises it because it takes the emphasis off the sexual abuse which is what it is.”
February 2019: 1 year suspended, 1 year probation
Twice in four years, retired teacher Aidan Harman was found with child abuse images when gardaí raided his Cork city home.
In total, there were 860 images and two videos. Despite the first raid, the 75-year-old had amassed 223 fresh images by the time gardaí revisited him.
The judge described Harman’s behaviour as “troubling” and something that had been treated as a “very serious matter”. However, the court also heard the Probation Service had assessed him as being of low risk for reoffending.
February 2019: 3 years but half suspended, 3 years post-release supervision
More than 80,000 images were found at the home of a 55-year-old man who tried to claim he had them only because of his interest in naturism.
Cynan Rees, an IT expert who carried out work for Cork City Council, had the images on three separate hard drives. Almost 2,300 of the images and 483 videos were classified as the most serious kind.
The judge described the material as “reprehensible” and the case as “exceptionally serious” but said he wanted to incentivise Rees to engage in rehabilitation on his release.
There is more to this story here.
Sullivan drugged and raped man but NI police
told victim’s family to ‘drop’ case
By Rodney Edwards The Impartial Reporter
Sitting in a darkened room peering out of the window in a rural village outside Enniskillen, Michael (not his real name) cuts a lonely figure. In his early 20s he was a successful businessman who rented videos to the public and was an active member of the community with an ever-growing social circle and a zest for life and a love of sport.
Over 20 years later and Michael, now 48, hasn’t been the same since. He suffers from serious mental health issues, needs around the clock care and has recently been diagnosed with schizophrenia.
His sister Jackie (not her real name) has waited two decades to tell her family’s story and in a moving interview with The Impartial Reporter this week she has revealed how evil Sullivan:
• Drugged and sexually abused her brother in his Enniskillen flat
• Allowed Michael’s van to be used to - according to police at the time - ‘ferry drugs’ across the Border
• Got away with raping Michael after police advised his family not to pursue their complaint
• Ended up murdered and buried in a bog not long after attacking the young businessman
Michael is the second of Sullivan’s victims to speak out to this newspaper via his sister Jackie following a surge in historical sex abuse cases emerging in Fermanagh. More victims’ stories will be published in this newspaper in the coming weeks.
“I never thought that I would ever get to tell Michael’s story publicly; what happened to him and the impact that it has had on him and my family for many years,” explained Jackie.
“Michael had his own business renting out videos in the community, a business that he had worked in for many years as an employee before he bought the business over. He travelled many different routes but would end up going to the same homes at least twice a week.”
Shortly before Sullivan’s brutal murder Michael had visited the self-contained flat he lived in at least twice a week with video rentals, a routine that the former Ulster Bus driver was aware of. He first met Michael at the youth club he managed at the Duke of Westminster High School in Ballinamallard some years previously.
“The night that Michael called at Sullivan’s house he was aware that he would be calling and was probably waiting. He had everything planned in terms of what was going to happen.
“Michael called at his door asking him if he would like any video tapes,” she said. It is believed there were other men in the house when Michael arrived [names supplied].
According to her brother, Sullivan asked him if he would like a drink of alcohol. Michael informed him that he didn’t drink. Sullivan then offered him a glass of milk. He thought nothing of it and accepted the glass of milk,” she explained.
“When Michael drank the milk, he felt very funny after it and blanked out.”
As Michael lay asleep in Sullivan’s flat he was sexually abused.
Meanwhile his distraught mother was fearing the worst after he hadn’t returned home. “Mum would have been worried as Michael would have had money in the van, and often was afraid for his safety as he could have been a target for a robbery.
“When Michael was almost an hour late, my mother rang the police. She explained the route that he would have taken.
“A police officer [name supplied]phoned my dad sometime later and informed him that Michael’s van was spotted going across an army check point on the Border with two individuals inside.
“He warned my family that the outcome of this may not be good. The police did not wish to push the case telling my dad to drop it and not to pursue.”
“They said they were aware of who was involved and that they should not pursue this any further.
“As my family were in business they said we would have been an easy target. My family were furious, it was bad enough what happened to Michael but nobody was going to be prosecuted.”
Police informed the family of their belief that Michael’s dark blue van was used to transport drugs across the Border. “We were told later that the van may have been used to transport drugs. The van was brought back to Sullivan’s house,” said Jackie.
Michael returned home the next day. When we spoke to him he was “not in a good state of mind” having been drugged the night before. “Whatever Sullivan used to knock him out had a huge impact on him. He was white in colour and looked lost.”
At the time Jackie knew something awful had happened in Sullivan’s flat. “We know Michael was sexually abused by Sullivan given what we soon learned,” she said, declining to detail precisely the level of trauma that he suffered that night.
“The mental effects of what happened has destroyed his life then and will for the rest of his life,” she said. “If police had acted on this at the time they would have had to bring David Sullivan in as he was still alive at this stage and they could have found out what he was involved in or stopped him from abusing again.”
A short time later Sullivan went missing having been murdered and buried in a bog near Belcoo, a grim discovery that would not be made for another 15 months.
“None of us have seen any justice for what happened to Michael.
“My family have had to watch Michael’s outbursts as a result of his mental health and watch him sleep most of the day whilst on medication. He literally has no life beyond the four walls of his home,” she said.
Jackie believes there have been “so many failings” by police in relation to the litany of abuse Sullivan got away with for several years. She only has to look at her own brother.
“It is heart breaking to watch Michael who was once so outgoing; a great sports person, who played cricket, football, went swimming and running, who now sits in a chair most of the day.
“He has been suffering physically and mentally for over 20 years and will suffer for the rest of his life, that is the sentence that he has received for what he has endured.”
The family has told this newspaper that they will meet with senior police to discuss Michael’s cases and what they believe were significant failures at the time.
“I am speaking out to tell Michael’s story to help other victims seek help in their fight for justice,” said Jackie.
Irish and Northern Irish Police and prosecutors are light-years behind civilized societies in their attitudes toward sexual abuse and child sexual abuse. They all need serious makeovers.
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