Political backing is big step forward in Tele campaign to jail Scottish child sex offenders
by Tele editor Dave Lord
Dundee Evening Telegraph
The fight will be a long one but, make no mistake, this political support represents a significant step forward.
At the Tele we have been overwhelmed by the level of support for our campaign demanding mandatory jail terms for anyone convicted of a sexual offence involving a child.
As of yesterday, more than 7,000 loyal readers had signed a petition aimed at heaping pressure on those in the corridors of power.
And now, politicians and charities have welcomed the decision to develop multiple sentences for people convicted of rape, sexual assault and possessing indecent images of children.
News of fresh sentencing guidelines for sexual crimes is a welcome move towards at last ensuring those guilty of the most heinous crimes get the sentence they so richly deserve.
The Scottish Government has worked hard to manage the prison population, with a presumption against shorter sentences. Sheriffs have been under considerable pressure to consider alternatives to custody.
That is all well and good, doubtless there are crimes when alternatives such as community payback orders or restriction of liberty orders are appropriate.
However, it is the Tele’s view that paedophilia is not one such crime.
When an individual preys on a vulnerable, innocent child in some twisted effort to gain sexual gratification there is only one appropriate sentence – and that is imprisonment.
Canadian Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer promises mandatory sentence of five years for child sex abuse
'A Conservative government will always put the rights of victims ahead of the rights of criminals'
It's election year in Canada (October) and the campaigning has already begun. Justin Trudeau is having some credibility problems which should make this election interesting. While I was thinking seriously of voting for the People's Party because I think Maxime Bernier is far superior to any of the other party leaders, the introduction of child sexual abuse as an issue in the election, for the first time ever, is so important that I am reconsidering voting for Sheer.
The Canadian Press
Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer said that if he becomes prime minister his government will
introduce mandatory minimum sentences of five years for anyone convicted of abusing children.
(Ryan Remiorz/Canadian Press)
Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer pledged Thursday to get tough on crime with mandatory minimum sentences of five years for anyone convicted of abusing children.
Scheer, who made the announcement in the Montreal suburb of Delson, Que., said he will ensure sentences for sexual crimes against children take into account the length and severity of abuse.
Wounds from sexual abuse last a lifetime, Scheer said, adding the penalty should "fit the crime" and that survivors need to be assured the federal government will ensure offenders are appropriately punished.
"Under my leadership, a Conservative government will always put the rights of victims ahead of the rights of criminals," Scheer said in a statement. "We will ensure that anyone who harms or sexually exploits a child will be behind bars, where they belong, for a very long time."
The Conservatives say that additional federal action is required because sentences for horrific crimes involving children are "woefully inadequate."
Which I have been saying for many years.
David Taylor, director of communications for federal Justice Minister David Lametti, hit back today at Scheer's claim that current sentencing guidelines for crimes against children fall short.
"The Criminal Code mandates serious jail time for those convicted of offences against children," Taylor said in an email. "For example, there is a 14-year maximum for sexual offences as well as for aggravated assault. If a restricted weapon is used in the crime, life imprisonment — the harshest penalty available under Canadian law — is a possibility.
"Life sentences are also available in cases involving the kidnapping, forcible confinement and human trafficking of children."
What is available, or possible, is not what happens in practice. Canadian courts almost invariably apply minimal sentencing except for the most heinous crimes.
'Life' a possibility if restricted weapons are used in a child sexual assault just reveals how little the minister knows about child sex abuse. Adults are always more powerful than children and have myriad ways of forcing a child to do their perverted will. 'Life' should be available for all child sex abuse charges where a child is involved in sexual penetration of any kind.
Taylor also argued that Scheer's sentencing changes would slow the justice system down as defence lawyers challenged the constitutionality of mandatory minimum sentences.
"Andrew Scheer's sentencing proposal won't protect children. It will simply cause delays ... That doesn't protect anyone," he said.
I'll take temporary delays in court over temporary sentences any day!
The Criminal Code has provisions on sexual interference, invitation to sexual touching and sexual exploitation that carry maximum and minimum penalties, depending on whether a charge is pursued as an indictable offence or a summary conviction. Those can range from 90 days to 14 years behind bars.
Scheer has been rolling out a series of policy announcements ahead of the October election as he works to define himself and his party with Canadians.
On Wednesday, he pledged funding for police, survivor services and public awareness to fight human trafficking, adding he will make changes to the Criminal Code to make it easier to convict people accused of it.
Excellent!
He's also in the middle of a five-speech series to lay out his views on issues such as foreign policy, the economy and the environment.
Centre helps abused children find their voice against their abusers
Every country and every city needs a safe place like this
where children can be interviewed without fear
Five-member team at Winnipeg's Snowflake Place
works with children who have suffered trauma
Erin Brohman · CBC News 
Stuffed animals provide distraction and help children relax at Winnipeg's Snowflake Place.
A little-known Winnipeg centre that helps abused children find their voice has seen demand for its services soar.
Experts at Snowflake Place are interviewing youth as part of a lengthy criminal RCMP investigation into physical and sexual abuse in connection with a foster home in Garden Hill First Nation between 2011 and 2017.
Crucially, the centre's five-member team is collecting statements to use in court.
Last year, Snowflake Place's interviewers took a total of 376 statements from children who suffered sexual or physical abuse or witnessed violence in Manitoba. That's double the amount they saw when they first began the service four years ago.
Mike Chiborak, child forensic interviewer, executive director Christy Dzikowicz, and community coordinator Chantal Lacoste of Snowflake Place. (Erin Brohman )
"They are extremely valuable and words can't describe [it]," said Insp. Jamie Blunden, the commanding officer overseeing Winnipeg's Child Abuse Unit. "If you have an opportunity to watch interviews that are done by Snowflake Place you would understand completely."
'Pull on the yarn'
The centre's located inside a two-storey, brick building in a commercial block just west of Portage Avenue and Main Street.
When a child walks in the doors of Snowflake Place, they're greeted with a hallway adorned with shelves of stuffed animals and lined with colourful paintings.
The interview room features colourful checkered rugs, crayons, more stuffed animals and a couple of plush leather chairs — a sharp contrast to the stereotypical stark, cold lines of an interrogation room.
"It's not a police station. It's not a [Child and Family Services] office. It's more like someone's apartment really," said child forensic interviewer Mike Chiborak, who spent 27 years in the Winnipeg Police Service, including a decade in the child abuse unit, before Snowflake Place.
"It's just a little bit more comfortable, a little bit more at ease for them. It's kid-friendly here. It's all about them when they walk in the door."
A ball of yarn in the interview room helps young children feel connected to family who are waiting nearby. (Erin Brohman)
Chiborak gives the child his undivided attention — something he says most kids don't often get. "It's not a lot of us firing questions, it's just us nodding our head and repeating the last couple of words they've said to keep them talking," he said.
The other child forensic interviewer, Theresa Pickering, has a social work background. "You work with them. I don't care if a little kid's running around here and jumping around. As long as they're not going to hurt themselves I let them do what they gotta do," said Chiborak.
When young children are uncomfortable with separation from family members, the interviewers improvise. They give the child a ball of yarn to hold onto then unwind it all the way to a nearby room where the family member is sitting.
"If the child feels uncomfortable because they think parents are going to leave, pull on the yarn, mom pulls back, they know mom's still here," he said.
Recently a girl didn't want to be on camera, so she did her interview from under a blanket. "Theresa said, 'Hey, as long as I can hear you. We saw you come in. We're good!'" said Chiborak.
The interview room in Snowflake Place is designed to be non-threatening. (Erin Brohman)
A 'load off their shoulders'
Typically, the interviewers talk one-on-one with the child for up to an hour. The interview room is equipped with video and audio recording. The police watch the monitor on the other side of the wall, while the child's family waits for them down the hall in a family room.
Afterward, the police officers leave Snowflake Place with a record of the child's statement, while the child leaves with a toy they choose from the toy vault.
"When you see the marked change in the child from when they first come here to when they leave and they are completely different, a lot of cases they're smiling laughing, it's a load off their shoulders," said Chiborak. "That's what makes it rewarding."
It cannot be exaggerated how important it is for an abused child to tell someone what happened to them. It's just as important for an adult who was abused as a child to tell someone. It's a psychological gateway through which you must pass before real healing can begin.
According to Christy Dzikowicz, executive director of the non-profit organization, 70 per cent of their referrals come from RCMP. They see an overrepresentation of Indigenous children, she said, but that's due in part to the areas they serve.
No doubt, the overrepresentation is at least partly due to Canada's Residential Schools madness and the generational nature of sexual abuse.
TRC Search for Answers and Graves of Children Who Died in Residential Schools
The Anglican Church of Canada and Their Response to Residential Schools Horror
Catholic Church in Alberta, N.W.T. Apologizes for Role in Nightmarish Residential Schools
The family room at Snowflake Place is where everyone gathers for a snack and to talk before a child gives their statement at their own pace, when they're ready. (Erin Brohman )
As word spread about the centre, Winnipeg Police began making more referrals, but Snowflake Place can't accommodate everyone without more space and resources.
The centre's operating budget is about $500,000, with $380,000 from provincial funds and the remainder from federal government and grants.
More interviewers needed
According Blunden of the Winnipeg Police, his officers interview more children than Snowflake Place does, but they'd prefer it the other way around.
"The forensic interviewers, they are experts in their field and that is the first place we would consider using," he said in an emailed statement to CBC.
"I can't even think of the right word to describe the importance. Their members are experts in forensic interviewing and any chance to use them we do," he wrote.
The child is first at Snowflake Place, where children give their statement of abuse and leave with a toy from the toy vault. (Erin Brohman)
Goal of Growth
Dzikowicz says Snowflake Place wants to expand its capacity to match similar centres like Zebra Centre in Edmonton (2nd story on link), and the Boost Child and Youth Advocacy Centre in Toronto. Those facilities offer "case navigators" who link families with resources to help heal from trauma.
"It's a huge problem. It's something we need to be talking about a lot more. Because child abuse is happening in every community. It's really naive to think it's not happening in all of our communities. Across cultures and across socioeconomic status," said Dzikowicz.
‘I’m no longer sexually attracted to children,’ claims offender after therapy
Elisa Menendez, METRO
An NHS scheme is treating men who are sexually attracted to children before they create victims
(Picture: Getty)
Jack – not his real name – has been receiving treatment since his release from prison and said he wished he had it earlier as he may not have offended.
His comments come as campaigning group, Justice, suggested those who view indecent images of children shouldn’t be prosecuted but instead undergo ‘life skills’ programmes.
Their proposal, published this week, suggested ‘education and rehabilitation’ for first-time sex offenders, while a pre-charge scheme could identify ways to prevent them from committing a crime.
Jack, in his 20s, had therapy with NHS trust Mersey Care’s programme which deals with offenders.
He told Metro.co.uk: ‘Therapy changed my perception and understanding of my own abuse and the feelings that had stuck with me.
‘I no longer feel sexually attracted to children. The distress and shame has gone.’
But others who have concerns about their sexual behaviour now have the opportunity to get treatment before they act, after Mersey Care last year launched a pilot ‘Prevention Service’ with Merseyside Police.
The initiative – the only NHS scheme of its kind in the UK – works to avoid ‘creating victims’ by catching problematic thoughts early on.
Germany has been running a program like this on a much larger scale for several years now. It's called Project Dunkenfeld. People sexually attracted to children can reach the project by a simple phone call.
Clinical psychologist leading the scheme, Dr Lisa Wright, said therapy focusses on understanding where the feelings come from, adding it has shown positive results.
She told Metro.co.uk: ‘If we are going to be serious about dealing with sexual abuse, we need to stop it before it has happened.
‘By just locking someone up we are stopping them from harming others in the short term but we are not dealing with the underlying causes of sexual abuse.’
Jack said he was only able to understand his attraction to young boys after he came to terms with being abused by a family friend, between the ages of seven to 10.
Mersey Care launched a pilot prevention scheme for those with problematic sexual feelings
(Picture: Mersey Care)
Jack, who chose to remain anonymous, said: ‘The abuser had been the only person that showed me any attention and he told me that he loved me.’ But he said he didn’t realise what he’d experienced was abuse until he started receiving specialised therapy with Mersey Care.
‘I kept hold of this positive view of him and blocked out any upsetting parts – it helped me to cope,’ he added.
‘But I had flashbacks. I felt anxious and ashamed. Then, as I reached puberty, I noticed that I had sexual feelings towards boys that reminded me of myself at the age that I was abused.
‘It was really distressing but I couldn’t stop it.’ Jack said the issues spiralled and he began looking at child sex images. Jack admitted he felt ‘disgusted’ at himself and tried to ‘block out’ his urges with drugs and alcohol but the drink only exacerbated the issue and he began looking at sexual images of children online.
He said: ‘I used them as pornography, usually when I was drunk.
I knew that it was illegal and I hated myself for doing it.’ Jack said he felt relieved when he eventually got caught for his actions and was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
‘I was terrified I’d end up abusing a child,’ he added.
Dr Wright has treated many who said their sexual feelings towards children have weakened or don’t experience them anymore.
The psychologist, who has dealt with offending behaviour for 11 years, said the vast majority of those attracted to children have suffered childhood trauma, abuse or neglect and the therapy works to make sense of such ordeals.
She said: ‘Childhood experiences shape the development of the brain and influence the way we think and feel as adults.
This also relates to our sexual development. There’s a reason why people have these problematic feelings, no one is born feeling like they want to harm someone.'
‘We can usually pin point where it started and sexual arousal patterns change when they understand their past traumas.’ Dr Wright stressed that the vast majority of people who experience childhood sexual abuse do not go on to offend but there is a higher rate of people who have been subjected to it, that do.
She said many have claimed there was a time when they had these sorts of problematic feelings but didn’t know where to go.
Those who need help can be referred to the service through a GP, counsellor or social worker, added Dr Wright.
Or, you could just set up a phone line and/or a website/email address. Not that I'm complaining; I just want this program to go national and international. Look to Germany's lead on this.
Jack, who said there must be many others with similar urges, added: If they have the chance to come forward and take part in the prevention programme, it could stop them from harming a child.’
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