Rotherham child sex abuse: Six men convicted
Creepy London, Ont., teacher jailed 6 months
Abid Saddiq, Sharaz Hussain, Aftab Hussain and Masaued Malik were all convicted
Six men have been found guilty of a string of sex offences relating to the sexual exploitation of teenage girls in Rotherham, England, more than a decade ago.
Sheffield Crown Court heard the men abused their victims between 1998 and 2002.
Abid Saddiq, 38, was convicted of two counts of rape, five of indecent assault, and two of child abduction.
Sharaz Hussain, 35, Masaued Malik, 35, and Aftab Hussain, 40, were convicted of indecent assault.
Two other defendants who cannot be named for legal reasons were convicted of rape and indecent assault.
During the five-week trial, the jury heard how the girls were targeted due to their vulnerability and were given alcohol and drugs before some were raped by multiple men.
Violence was sometimes used to ensure they complied, the court heard.
Jurors also heard Saddiq raped a girl in an alleyway when she was aged 14 or 15, then taunted her mother.
The father-of-four admitted having sex with some of the complainants, but claimed they were over age at the time and consented.
The convictions are the latest to arise from a major National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation, Operation Stovewood. It looked into sexual abuse and exploitation in Rotherham covering the years 1997 to 2013.
The agency has said it believes 1,510 teenagers were exploited in the town during the period.
Senior Investigating Officer, Philip Marshall, said the men had exploited vulnerable girls for their own sexual gratification.
Kate Hurst, from the Crown Prosecution Service, added: "Each of these men knew the girls were either vulnerable and underage. They were reckless and did not care if they were children or not."
The six men were all remanded and are due to be sentenced on Friday.
I suspect the two unnamed criminals were possibly underage at the time. The only thing we can assume for sure is that they were Pakistani men. It's curious that they didn't even mention the charges against them or the convictions. The girls were raped 'by multiple men' and yet there is only one man charged with rape, unless the two unnamed criminals were also charged with rape. No-one appears to have been charged with gang-rape. Nevertheless, good work Operation Stovepipe.
Australian Navy commander sentenced to jail for two years for historic sex abuse of boys
By Melissa Mackay, ABC
David Graham, pictured here in 2013 with former Governor-General Quentin Bryce,
has been jailed for child sex offences. (Supplied: Australian Defence Force)
A disgraced former Navy commander will spend the next two years in jail and 15 years listed on a child sex offender register after he was found guilty of seven child sex offences.
David Graham, 50, was found guilty of inappropriately touching two young boys in Darwin between 2006 and 2008, as well as attempting to rape one of them while camping near Alice Springs.
Justice Graham Hiley sentenced him on Tuesday in the Supreme Court in Darwin to five years behind bars, to be suspended after two years.
Abuse had extreme effects on victims
The sexual abuse had extreme impacts on the two victims, who are now young adults, with both suffering mental health issues and one even attempting suicide, the court heard.
"I became withdrawn, anxious, and scared about what people would think about me," one victim said in a statement. "I felt like I couldn't do anything about it."
The man, who cannot be identified, also wrote directly to his abuser in his statement to the court.
"You and I, and now the world, know that you are guilty. I hope you see through your lies and realise that until you admit your guilt, you can't be helped," he wrote.
The younger victim, who saw Graham as a "father figure", told the court the reality of the abuse didn't sink in until he reached puberty.
"My belief is that Graham is solely to blame for not only the turmoil I faced as a child or the delinquent I became throughout puberty but also the mental instability I face," he said.
"I believe that he should pay for every drink that I've had past moderation, every suicidal thought that has ever entered my head, every sleepless night I had as a child, and for every day of my life that I have to bear the knowledge that I was a victim of sexual assault.
"The predatory and sexually abusive actions of David Graham have undoubtedly been the cause of the immense emotional and psychological damage that continues to wreak issues within my psyche today."
The court heard Graham's abuse of the boys was "opportunistic" and despite only being charged with seven offences, he had abused them "at least" 10 times.
Boys idolised and trusted senior naval officer
Graham did not display emotion as he sat in the dock as Justice Hiley read out his sentencing remarks. "Your conduct is particularly serious. Firstly, both of your victims were vulnerable," he said.
"[The younger victim] idolised you, he permitted you to do these things to him, even though he knew what you were doing was wrong.
"You knew the parents had complete trust in you … it was also based on trust in you in your capacity as a senior naval officer. You breached that trust and abused your power over those boys."
Offender expressed no remorse, responsibility
Graham's barrister, Tom Berkley, told the court he'd been "embarrassed" by the media attention his trial received, and that Graham was otherwise a man of good character.
Justice Hiley found the offending was in the "middle" range of seriousness for child sex offending.
"You do not express any remorse, you have not expressed any concern for your victims, and you do not accept any responsibility for your conduct," Justice Hiley said.
"Because of your denials, your victims had to be strongly challenged on their evidence."
Graham will be released from prison in August 2021.
Older, but will he be any wiser?
English woman who called herself Devil Bitch 666
sexually abused children for money on Cyprus
Sentenced to more than 12 years in prison in London court
By Press Association
A woman who called herself Devil Bitch 666 has been jailed for the “abhorrent” sexual abuse of children for money.
Jodie Little, 30, sexually abused a boy under the age of 13 and published an advert offering videos of child sex abuse, the British National Crime Agency (NCA) said.
She committed the offences for paying customers on a website providing adult escort and webcam services from where she lived in northern Cyprus.
The NCA said Little, who is originally from Huddersfield in England, used the names Queen of Tabbo and devil bitch 666 while online.
She was sentenced to 12 years and four months at Isleworth Crown Court in London yesterday after pleading guilty to nine offences.
Little admitted sexual activity with a boy under 13, publishing an obscene article describing child rape and publishing an advert offering videos of child sex abuse.
She also pleaded guilty to three counts of distributing an indecent photograph/pseudo-photograph of a child, conspiracy to sexually assault a boy under 13 by touching, causing a child to engage in sexual activity, and sexually assaulting a girl under 13 by touching.
Out of the nine offences she admitted, eight came under Section 72 of the UK's Sexual Offences Act 2003, legislation which allows British nationals to be prosecuted in the UK for offences committed overseas.
Financially motivated
The NCA said it passed intelligence to police in northern Cyprus in June last year, leading to Little’s deportation to the UK. Along with being made aware of her offending, authorities in Cyprus also found Little’s visa had expired.
Jason Booth, NCA operations manager, said: “Little was financially motivated. Her crimes are utterly abhorrent and are one of many examples the NCA is seeing of worsening cyber-enabled child sexual offending.
“The NCA knows that the scale and severity of offending against children are worsening.”
Mr Booth said the NCA and UK police arrest around 450 child sex offenders a month and safeguard a further 680 children during the same period.
He said: “We did everything we could in this case using our investigators, international staff and child protection experts to stop Little’s offending.”
in voyeurism case
Ryan Jarvis used a secret pen camera to film students' breasts
CBC News 
Ryan Jarvis in the 2011 H.B. Beal Secondary School yearbook (Submitted)
A former teacher at H.B. Beal Secondary School in London, Ont., was sentenced Tuesday to six months in jail and 12 months probation for secretly recording female students' breasts and cleavage, using a pen camera.
Between 2010 and 2011, Ryan Jarvis made recordings of at least 27 students, most of whom were as young as 14. The videos, which ranged from six seconds in length to more than two and a half minutes, were captured during conversations he had with students in common areas such as the cafeteria and hallways.
Some of of Jarvis's victims were in court Tuesday to hear the sentence.
In 2015 the trial judge determined that Jarvis had violated the students' privacy by using a spy pen. But Justice Andrew Goodman wasn't satisfied the videos were filmed for a sexual purpose and acquitted Jarvis.
Astonishing! What other possible reason could a man have for surreptitiously videoing girls cleavages? Justice Goodman, that's disgraceful!
Ryan Jarvis was a teacher at H.B. Beal Secondary School when he was found recording students' breasts with a pen camera. (Thames Valley District School Board/tvdsb.ca)
The Ontario Court of Appeal went another way. Most of the judges on that bench ruled that Jarvis did act with sexual intent, but still upheld his acquittal, arguing the students had no reasonable expectation of privacy at school.
Ah! OMG! So up-skirting is OK too?
But the Supreme Court of Canada found unanimously in February that Jarvis was guilty of voyeurism and, in a landmark ruling, determined people can have a reasonable expectation of privacy in public spaces.
The Supreme Court said students doing everyday activities at school don't give up their privacy rights — even if the school maintains security cameras.
During sentencing, Superior Court Justice Andrew Goodman said that he wanted to send a message about the use of mobile phones and taking photos.
This is the same Justice Goodman who sent a very different message in 2015! Good grief!
Victims in court
Nearly a decade after Jarvis was charged, some of the victims were in court to hear the sentence.
"I don't have the words. I've waited so long for him to finally get not only found guilty but to get sentenced for what he did to all of us. I don't even want to say it's a win, it's almost just like a breath of fresh air," said one victim, who cannot be identified because of a publication ban.
Some of the victims have followed this process through the court system for more than four years and said a sentence brings relief.
"It's finally done, and I've been fighting for it to be done," said one woman. "I'm OK with six months. It is a lot more than I was expecting him to get."
But it shouldn't have taken 4 years and necessitated going all the way to the Supreme Court. That's shameful.
Indonesian Doctors Refuse to Castrate
Child-Sex Convict
Putra Andespu
Jakarta
Five men, part of a gang of 14 men and boys convicted for the rape and murder of a 14-year-old schoolgirl, sit before judges during sentencing in Curup, in Indonesia’s Bengkulu province, Sept. 29, 2016. Reuters
The association representing medical doctors in Indonesia said Tuesday it would refuse to take part in chemically castrating the first convict sentenced to such punishment under the country’s toughened up child-protection laws against pedophiles.
In May, a court in East Java province’s Mojokerta regency found Muh Aris bin Syukur guilty of sexually abusing nine children, including girls as young as 7, between 2015 and 2018, and sentenced him to 12 years in prison. The judges, in a landmark ruling, ordered that he be chemically castrated to prevent him from committing similar offenses.
The Indonesian Medical Association (IDI) said it would have no role in the castration, even though such corporal punishment was sanctioned under amendments to child-protection laws in 2016.
“We believe that child sex offenders should be punished to the fullest extent of the law, but we cannot administer castrations because doing so will violate our oath to uphold the medical profession’s code of ethics,” Pudjo Hartono, who heads IDI’s professional development council, told BenarNews.
Aris is the first child-sex offender to be sentenced to chemical castration since parliament passed revisions to a related law three years ago. An appeals court in Surabaya last month upheld his conviction.
Chemical castration has not be proven to be effective in the long run and could endanger the health of the person subjected to the punishment, Pudjo said.
Adverse effects of chemical castration include obesity, a swollen face, kidney damage and bone loss, H.N. Nazar, who directs IDI’s legal bureau, said on national television. The procedure involves injecting hormonal drugs.
In response to the announcement by the medical association, the attorney general’s office will meet with Health Minister Nila Moeloek to discuss a solution, according to Mukri, a spokesman for the office.
“We will take it up with the minister, in light of IDI’s refusal to execute castration,” he told BenarNews.
Aris, who was arrested in October last year, said he would rather die than be castrated.
“I can accept 20 years in prison, but I don’t want to be castrated,” local news website JawaPos quoted the 21-year-old, who had worked as a welder, as saying.
“Just shoot me,” he said.
That should be an option, perhaps. Or, maybe the state should hire a plumber to do the dirty work!
Seriously, I'm not convinced castration does work. One would think it should work in principal, but does it? I couldn't care less about the rapists health, so, if castration actually did work, it would save a lot of suffering by children and transfer it to the creeps who enjoy destroying them. How can that be a bad thing?
Spaniard arrested for online sexual abuse of child
By Dilip Kuner
Euro Weekly
A MAN aged 22 has been remanded in custody for the online grooming and sexual harrasment of a child he met on a gaming platform.
The investigation began in June 2018 when a boy under the age of 13 denounced him to the authorities. The accused had allegedly managed to get his victim’s social media passwords and used these as leverage to demand sexual images of the child.
A joint operation by the Catalan Mossos d’Esquadra and the National Police led to the arrest of the man in Madrid. Police say he had gained almost ‘total control’ of the child until the situation became unsustainable and the boy told his parents.
The agents confiscated six hard drives, three mobile phones and a memory card containing a large number of files containing sexual content involving children.
Northwest Territories judge quashes child sex assault
mandatory minimum
JAMES O'CONNOR
Cabin Radio
NWT, Canada - The mandatory minimum sentence for offenders who have sex with a person under the age of 16 has been quashed by the territory’s most senior judge.
A file photo of Chief Justice Louise Charbonneau.
The ruling, by Supreme Court Chief Justice Louise Charbonneau, came last week. The federally mandated minimum faced a constitutional challenge during the sexual assault trial of a man who had relations with two underage girls in Fort Resolution.
Her ruling did not affect the sentencing of Dalton Lee Lafferty, 25, who received a three-and-a-half-year term for two counts of sexual assault on girls under the age of 16. However, the decision does set a precedent for future cases in the territory.
“I have concluded that the mandatory minimum for this offence does contravene the charter,” said Charbonneau, siding with an earlier argument made by defence lawyer Charles Davison.
“I understand that this may have an impact on other proceedings,” said the judge.
Charbonneau is preparing a full written decision explaining the ruling.
“However … my decision on the charter will have no real impact on Mr Lafferty’s case, as both Crown and defence acknowledge the sentence that should be imposed in this case is beyond the mandatory minimum,” she noted.
Lafferty’s charges stemmed from events starting in the summer of 2017 in Fort Resolution.
The first victim was 14 years old when she met Lafferty while walking around the community. He offered her alcohol. “They drank two mickeys of vodka together. Later that evening, they had sexual intercourse together,” said Charbonneau in court on August 20.
The second victim, also 14, was in a relationship with Lafferty for three months – including the time he had intercourse with the other girl.
Sometimes he wore a condom, sometimes he did not, the court heard. On one occasion he threw her to the ground, got on top of her and choked her, said Charbonneau.
'Use that potential for good'
Two preliminary hearings were held, at which the victims had to testify. Jury trials were scheduled for last fall.
However, Lafferty subsequently changed his plea to guilty and has been in custody since breaching his bail conditions for drinking alcohol and contacting one of the victims.
Lafferty, who is Métis, did not have a prior criminal record.
He faced “very difficult circumstances growing up,” including violence and alcohol abuse in the home, the court heard. Lafferty was sexually abused “by various people” and was eventually apprehended by social services. He was then physically abused by his foster father.
The joy of growing up indigenous in Canada's north!
Lafferty started drinking alcohol at the age of 12. When his mother eventually stopped drinking completely, he moved back in with her. They moved to Fort Smith when he was 18, where he met an older man who became a father figure to him, the court heard. He moved in with that man and his wife, where his life was more positive. He started coaching soccer, for example.
“The best outcome for Mr Lafferty and his community will be for him to find a way to develop and use that potential for good things and for constructive things,” said Charbonneau. “He could help others through their struggles because he understands what it means to struggle.”
However, statements Lafferty made according to a pre-sentence report concerned the judge. For example, she said, Lafferty does not understand the concept of the age of consent, and maintains his interaction with the victims was consensual.
“When asked how the victims may be feeling, he responded that they are probably feeling bad because they got him incarcerated,” said Charbonneau, adding Lafferty stated he feels wrongly imprisoned for his crimes.
I believe child sex abuse is so pervasive in remote 1st Nations villages as to cause people to grow up thinking everyone is fair game, no matter how young. We have Residential Schools to blame for at least part of that inter-generational abuse.
At his sentencing hearing, he told Charbonneau he now understood what he did was wrong.
Lafferty has amassed a total of two years of pre-trial credit, so he will have 1.5 years left to serve of his 3.5-year overall sentence.
During that time, he can have no contact or communication with either of the victims. He may not be near children for two years, except for his own or those of anyone he might be in a relationship with. He can also apply to have the order varied if he decides to coach youth.
He will be banned from owning firearms for 10 years. A DNA sample will be taken. The length of time he will spend on the national sex offenders' registry was still being argued regarding its constitutionality, and is to be decided at a later date.
Former Northern Ireland theatre director jailed
for child sex offences
A FORMER theatre director has been jailed after pleading guilty to several child sex offences.
Jonathon Conaghan (41), of no fixed abode, was convicted of two charges of sexual assault of a child under 13 and one charge of causing or inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity.
He was sentenced at Belfast Crown Court today to two years and eight months imprisonment, half to be served in custody.
He will also be required to sign the sex offenders’ register for life, is disqualified from working with children and will be subject to a Sexual Offences Prevention Order for eight years.
Detective Constable Lizzie Ballentine from PSNI’s Public Protection Branch said: "This conviction relates to offences which took place last year when Conaghan was involved with a theatre group. It was during this time that he abused his position of trust, grooming and sexually abusing a young boy.
"Through working with colleagues in Hampshire Constabulary, Conaghan was arrested in England and our police investigation led to this offender being placed before the courts.
"Detectives in PSNI’s Public Protection Branch are committed to investigating all reports of sexual offences against children and young people. We will seek to place offenders before the courts so they can be made amenable for their crimes and we have specially trained officers who will treat victims with sensitivity and respect."
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