P.E.I. man jailed for having sex with underage girl
Ryan Ross (ryan.ross@theguardian.pe.ca)
CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — A Stratford man who had sex with a girl who was younger than the age of consent was sentenced Friday to 90 days in jail.
Chase Colton Cormier, 21, appeared before Chief Judge Nancy Orr in provincial court in Charlottetown for sentencing after previously pleading guilty to sexual interference.
In sentencing Cormier, Orr accepted a joint recommendation but said she did so with a “great deal of reluctance".
As she reviewed the facts in the case, Orr said the police were investigating another matter when they learned Cormier, who was 21 at the time, had sex with a girl who was younger than 16. Cormier knew the girl’s age at the time.
A pre-sentence report was prepared for the case, and Orr noted Cormier made comments in it that he wasn’t guilty of the offence. On Friday, Cormier told the court he was not withdrawing his guilty plea.
Before sentencing Cormier, Orr referred to a victim impact statement she said showed the difficulties the victim has been dealing with, although not all were attributable to the accused.
Orr said the law is clear that anyone engaging in sexual activity has to make sure the other person is consenting and is old enough to consent.
She also said the pre-sentence report indicates Cormier has a number of issues he needs to address, including some related to his mental health.
Although judges have the final say on sentencing, they can only deviate from joint recommendations in rare circumstances. In following the joint recommendation, Orr said it was at the absolute low end of what would be an acceptable sentence.
No kidding! A few days in jail? The girl gets to suffer for years.
Cormier will serve the sentence on weekends and will be on probation for two years.
In Canada, serving your sentence on weekends often means you show up at the jail on Friday night, the guards tell you they are full, and you go home.
The probation included conditions that Cormier not have any contact with the victim and he must undergo any sexual deviancy assessment or counselling as directed. He must also provide a DNA sample for the national databank and will be on the sex offender registry for 10 years.
A publication ban prevents the release of any details that could identify the victim.
UAE torture video girl is handed over to father
Court decision will determine who she stays with long-term
Screen grab of video circulating online of child, Abu Dhabi Police have arrested a woman
Image Credit: Twitter
Dubai: The little girl at the centre of a viral abuse video, which circulated online on Wednesday showing her mother beating her, has been handed over to her father, according to sources close to her family.
The girl’s mother, originally from Philippines, was separated from the girl’s father, an Emirati, and allegedly sent the videos of her torturing her child to get revenge on her ex husband.
The woman was arrested in Abu Dhabi shortly after the videos went viral, Abu Dhabi Police announced via their Instagram page.
Authorities say the little girl is in good health, with psychological support having been given to her by the Children and Juveniles Section in the Social Support Centre of Abu Dhabi Police.
A court decision will determine who the child lives with long-term, in the meantime the mother’s case has been forwarded to prosecution.
Earlier The Abu Dhabi Early Childhood Authority had condemned the crime, saying it contravened the morals of the country.
While the The Emirates Child Protection Association said, “There should be compulsory psychiatric examination for child custodians, in light of the high rate of divorce, to ensure that they are psychologically and mentally competent to take care and raise the children.”
Grooming gang review kept secret as Home Office claims releasing findings ‘not in public interest’
Exclusive: Freedom of Information request refused
so ministers have ‘safe space’ to discuss policy
Lizzie Dearden Home Affairs Correspondent The Independent
Members of a grooming gang convicted of abusing girls in Huddersfield
Notice anything in common?
Survivors accused ministers of making “empty promises”, while a man who prosecuted abusers in Rochdale called for the Home Office to “show some courage and publish” its findings.
It comes after The Independent revealed that almost 19,000 suspected child sexual exploitation victims were identified by local authorities in just one year, sparking renewed calls for prevention efforts.
Sajid Javid promised the review as home secretary in July 2018, pledging that there would be “no no-go areas of inquiry. I will not let cultural or political sensitivities get in the way of understanding the problem and doing something about it,” he said at the time.
“We know that in these recent high profile cases, where people convicted have been disproportionately from a Pakistani background. I’ve instructed my officials to explore the particular contexts and characteristics of these types of gangs.”
But the government has made no further announcements on the review following Mr Javid’s move to the Treasury last year. It has, however, said it will soon publish a national strategy that will set out a “whole system response to all forms of child sexual abuse”.
In other words, a generic response which will have nothing to do with Pakistani men or Muslims. It's the Quran that gives these men the 'moral authority' to rape and torture little British girls. Until that is acknowledged, everything else is largely a waste of time.
In December, The Independent was told that the work had been completed but would only be used for internal policy-making and would not be publicly released.
In response to a freedom of information (FOI) request asking for the research carried out and any reports drawn up as a result, the Home Office confirmed it held the information but would not release it.
In a letter to The Independent, officials said they had applied a “public interest test” but the information was exempt from the act because it concerned the development of government policy.
“One of the main purposes of the exemption is to protect the ‘safe space’ necessary for ministers and officials to consider policy options in private without risk of premature disclosure,” it added.
“Disclosure would risk pre-empting decisions still to be made by ministers. In addition, the information could be misleading if made public and used out of context.”
In fact, it is more likely to mis-lead politicians who most certainly will use it out of context.
The Home Office’s FOI unit said the documents also included “operationally sensitive” information from police and could prejudice ongoing investigations.
The letter added: “We recognise that this topic in general and any insight and learning are matters of strong public interest, although it does not necessarily follow that it is in the public interest to disclose any specific information relating to it.”
So, it is better to leave little British girls in the dark about the dangers of getting involved with Pakistan, Muslim men? That makes no sense! It's far from the government's mandate to protect the people. You are no better than the Rotherham council and police.
Sammy Woodhouse, a Rotherham victim who helped expose the scandal, told The Independent she believed the research was going to be made public.
“I always got the impression they were going to do a full report and get something official,” she said. "A lot of people were backing it, it’s ridiculous they’re not releasing it.
“We keep hearing ‘we’re going to do this and that’, and when it actually comes to it there’s nothing. It’s empty promises all the time.”
Another woman, who was also sexually abused by a grooming gang in Rotherham and wanted to remain anonymous, said she was “disappointed and frustrated” by the decision not to release the report.
“The government’s repeated failure to acknowledge the role of racism and religious bigotry in grooming gang crime has led to inadequate investigation, protection and prosecution,” she said.
“Prevention of future grooming gang crime can only come through counter-narrative sex and relationships education.”
The woman is campaigning for changes to hate crime guidance and the creation of a parliamentary committee to examine gender-based violence linked to faith and belief.
Excellent! I don't think for a minute you will get anywhere with this, but I sure hope and pray for your success.
A former chief prosecutor who initiated charges against a grooming gang in Rochdale warned that far-right groups were using a “vacuum” of reliable information to spread their beliefs and gain support.
Nazir Afzal said he had been calling for formal research on potential links between ethnicity and street-based abuse since 2012.
“The misinformation and anecdote are exploited by white supremacists and others with an agenda,” he added. “The sooner we have evidence, the sooner we can truly confront it. The Home Office should show some courage and publish.”
Mr Javid’s original pledge was in response to a letter from a cross-party group of politicians who called for the Home Office to undertake research into common patterns of behaviour and drivers of grooming gangs.
Sarah Champion, the Labour MP for Rotherham, was among the signatories and voiced hope at the time that the review would prevent abuse and protect children.
The Home Office has said it will soon publish a national strategy that will set out a “whole system response to all forms of child sexual abuse”. A spokesperson for the government department said: “Child sexual abuse is a sickening crime and predators who abuse children will face the full force of the law.
“We’re pursuing work on a number of fronts to understand the characteristics of group-based offending and the contexts in which it occurs. This includes ongoing work commissioned by the previous home secretary and will inform future government policies on child sexual abuse.
“New sentencing laws will also ensure the most serious violent and sexual offenders spend time in prison that matches the severity of their crimes, protecting victims and giving the public confidence in the criminal justice system.”
But nothing specific about the very specific group that is so wildly disproportionate in their grooming and raping of young British girls. Like the Rotherham police who enabled 1500 girls to be sexually abuse in 16 years in that small city, you are going to ignore the racial/religious component that drives most of this evil. You will be judged as cowards by future generations, and will have to answer to God for the blood on your hands.
Maldives National Defence Force officer
charged over sexual offence against child
Fathmath ShaahunazThe Edition
Prosecutor General's Office revealed Sunday that they were pressing charges against a man over committing a sexual offence against a child.
According to the PG Office, the suspect is a man named Mohamed Ali from Nolhivaranfaru, Haa Dhaalu Atoll.
He is indicted under Subject 3 (a) and (c) of the 'Special Provisions to Deal with Child Sex Abuse Offenders', which states that it is "an offence to intentionally touch a child’s body with a sexual intent".
As per this law, touching the genitals or other sexual parts of a child, including a part of the body that could provide sexual stimulation, all constitute an offence.
Perpetrators found guilty of the crime face 10-14 years of imprisonment.
PG Office stated that the case against Mohamed Ali has been forwarded to the Criminal Court.
According to local media, Mohamed Ali is a Sergeant at Maldives National Defence Force (MNDf), who is reportedly under suspension. A football referee in the First Division, Ali was previously arrested in this case.
Last month, a case involving two MNDF officers allegedly raping a minor also came to light. However, at the time, MNDF stated that they did not receive reports of such a crime.
Later, an MNDF officer was arrested over sexually assaulting and raping a 14-year-old girl. Some local media claim Mohamed Ali is the same man who is charged, but authorities have yet to confirm or deny.
134 cases of violence against children lodged in Dec 2019: Maldives Gender Ministry (3rd story on link)
Four shocking stories from the Maldives (8th story on link)
Vietnam, US Cooperate on Arrest in Child Sex Case
By VOA NewsVietnam and the U.S. have announced that cooperation on cross-border crime has led to a U.S. grand jury indictment of an American teacher accused of traveling to the Southeast Asian nation to have sex with minors.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of California alleged that the teacher, Paul Marshall Bodner, of San Francisco, California, “met Vietnamese boys as young as 11 or 12 years old and engaged in sex acts with them at a hotel located in Ho Chi Minh City when he traveled to Vietnam” in the period from July 2015 to August 2016. If convicted he faces up to 30 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
U.S. ambassador to Vietnam, Daniel J. Kritenbrink, said the investigation was aided by close cooperation between the two nations, which normalized relations in 1995, 20 years after the Vietnam War, and have since become partners on security, trade, and cultural issues.
“In this instance, strong collaboration between the Homeland Security Investigations office in Ho Chi Minh City and Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security have brought multiple child victims one step nearer to finding closure,” said Kritenbrink on Thursday. “This arrest also underscores how the United States and Vietnam can work together effectively to combat child exploitation.”
Human trafficking has become a higher priority for Vietnam since October of last year, when 39 of its citizens were found dead in a container truck in the United Kingdom, believed to have suffocated to death after being trafficked from Vietnam. Trafficking victims from the Southeast Asian nation range from workers tricked into bondage abroad, to young women sold as brides, such as to Chinese or Korean husbands.
The Blue Dragon Children's Foundation, based in Hanoi, works to help sex trafficking victims, including both those who are sold abroad as well as those forced into sex work domestically. However the new coronavirus has complicated the foundation’s efforts in recent weeks. Vietnam and China have effectively shut down their 1,200 kilometer land border. That makes it harder for traffickers to send Vietnamese to China, but it also makes it harder to rescue victims and return them home.
“Blue Dragon has temporarily suspended rescue operations of human trafficking survivors from China, as the current restrictions to travel within and from China prevent our rescue team from conducting operations as usual,” the organization said in a statement. “On the legal front, Blue Dragon will use this pause to work on child sexual abuse cases and prosecutions of traffickers.”
The foundation usually assists with prosecutions of traffickers and sex offenders in Vietnam.
In contrast, the charges against Bodner, brought by a U.S. federal grand jury, mark a rare instance of joint investigations between Vietnam and the U.S. that lead to an indictment.
The 64-year-old was charged with three counts of travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct, as well as one count of engaging in illicit sexual conduct in a foreign place.
The grand jury indictment was unsealed the day of a pre-trial hearing for Bodner on Feb. 14 but a trial date was not announced.
Despite trauma, Stephanie Hickey
not running away from her past
One Survivor's Story
By Rita de BrúnIrish Examiner
Stephanie Hickey endured years of childhood sexual abuse and rape at the hands of her brother-in-law. She tells Rita de Brún about waving her anonymity in court to have her persecutor named, and why despite the toll it took on herself and her family, she has no regrets.
Stephanie Hickey grew up in Waterford. She was just 12 years of age when her brother-in-law, Bartholomew Prendergast, began to sexually abuse her. The abuse continued until she was in her mid-teens.
Her older sister, Deirdre, was also abused by Prendergast. Together, the two went to the gardaí to report his crimes. Stephanie was in her forties by then.
Reporting sexual abuse is never easy. When the perpetrator is a family member and the victim was a child, asking for justice can be harrowing.
In her book, Running from the Shadows, which she co-wrote with Shane Dunphy, Stephanie describes the journey that led to Prendergast being jailed, and of how taking up running in her 40s made her feel ‘reborn’ and helped exorcise her trauma.
The strength of mind she showed in reporting the crimes to get justice is obvious. What’s not is the private agony she endured for decades to follow.
She has anxiety and night terrors. She’s had panic attacks so bad she ended up in A&E. The panic attacks haven’t gone away. She had one last week, and another the week before.
But this brave lady radiates strength and serenity.
When she describes her love for the moon, the stars and sunset, it’s clear that she lives in the moment. She describes herself as “very spiritual,” so we talk about that and the comfort it brings.
In her book, she describes how she’d go quiet as a coping mechanism when her marriage ended and she had three young children under six to care for.
Her going quiet when under strain was an act of kindness towards those around her. Besides that, what other coping mechanism did she have? “At the time, nothing. When they’d go to bed, I’d sit on my own and cry and smoke,” Stephanie says.
She was also dealing with the toll of years of sexual abuse, for which she had received no therapy. There were times when she questioned the value of her own life and thought about wandering out into the ocean that she watched from her window at night. She didn’t do it.
I knew I wanted to stay on this Earth,
to be there for my children, to protect them
Of Prendergast, she wrote: “He did not fancy me or care for me. I’m just a vessel for his twisted desires.” How long did it take her to realise that? “15 or 16, coming towards the end of the abuse. Some of the acts he made me do over the years were for his pleasure and his alone. I just felt dirty and disgusted,” she says.
What does she think was behind his actions? “I think it was a sickness, a fetish for young bodies. He took pleasure in that,” Stephanie says. Does she fear his coming out of prison? “Not really. I’m safe. I’m not afraid of him anymore.” She agrees her happy childhood was a foundation on which she drew strength down the years.
I’d think on my nice childhood, my safe place with parents who loved and supported me. I was saved by that
She learned she deserved to be happy. That’s a gift that some never learn.
“Even though there are negative things coming at me, I’m still a happy person,” she says.
In the book, she writes of why she waived her anonymity: “The important thing is that Batty Prendergast is named. This is my gift to him. That he will never be able to hide who and what he is anymore.”
But wasn’t there more to it than that?
My sister, Deirdre, and I waived our anonymity, so when he came out of jail, there’d be a public awareness, as to his identity and crimes, that might protect others.
“As it is, sexual offenders’ names go on a list. But who ever reads those? The laws have to change. Sexual abuse survivors have been through enough.
"They shouldn’t have to waive their anonymity so this will be done. Families, like mine, wouldn’t have to be put through what I had to put my family through to have a sexual abuser named.”
She felt the fear and did it anyway. Was that as harrowing as she feared? “Oh, yes. I feared what was coming down the tracks, the process, and what it would do to my family. But I don’t ever regret reporting the crime and telling my story,” Stephanie says.
Prestigious NSW school declined public appeal
on sex abuse claims to protect image
By Angus ThompsonSydney Morning Herald
A former teacher at a prestigious NSW school has been charged with child sexual abuse offences almost six years after the administration declined to launch a public "fishing expedition" for abuse survivors following a meeting with one of his alleged victims.
A board member at The Armidale School said in an email relaying the headmaster's position that it would appear "lame" if the high-fee GPS institution were to publicise the allegations of abuse in its newsletter following the meeting in January 2014.
A former teacher at The Armidale School has been charged with raping two students in the 1960s.
One of the attendees and former student Peter Lawless said the school's preference had been to protect its reputation in the ex-pupils' battle to be heard over the course of several years.
"Given the choice between a corporate and moral response
the school chose the former,"
Mr Lawless said.
The South Australian man, 83, faced Armidale Local Court earlier this month over allegations he raped two young boarders at the school between 1964 and 1967.
The revelations come days after the school erased web pages dedicated to a celebrated former teacher who died in 2016 after facing questions over claims he physically and sexually abused boys in his care.
The Sun-Herald has withheld the charged former staff member's name as it could identify the alleged victims, whose names were mentioned by late headmaster Murray Guest to a group of the former pupils' contemporaries last year.
In late 2019 another former student came forward with allegations of abuse against the former teacher, prompting Mr Guest to name both alleged victims to alumni who went to the school in the 1960s and '70s to encourage others with information about past abuse to come forward.
His response last year differed to the one the school originally provided to three former pupils who met with Mr Guest and the school board's deputy chair, Rob Busby, in 2014. At that meeting the former pupils claimed one of them had been raped by the man and asked for an open letter to be sent to the school community appealing for abuse survivors to come forward.
Alternatively, they asked for something to be placed in the school newsletter, Binghi, about the meeting.
Late headmaster Murray Guest. CREDIT:THE ARMIDALE SCHOOL
In an email circulated to the attendees the following month, Mr Busby said Mr Guest was not "keen on this idea" because the majority of "innocent" people who read Binghi were not aware of the problems the men raised and could question whether the school was "under pressure in this area".
Which means he was afraid of losing contributors who might be scared off by the threat of law-suits.
He said there was also a risk the school "could find itself in the media" during the Royal Commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse, which ran from 2013-17.
"A statement such as we discussed would look very 'lame' in these circumstances," he wrote.
The meeting took place months before the boarding school became involved in a separate high-profile sex scandal involving a house mistress and several of its male students. The woman, in her 20s, received a suspended jail sentence in 2018.
In a June 2015 email Mr Guest wrote that he knew of three schools - Geelong Grammar, Newington College and St Ignatius ' College Riverview - who had written open letters asking for victims to come forward, but all were related to "specific high level legal matters".
"I am not aware of any school that has written such a letter as a fishing expedition and I cannot see good sense in that," he said.
In a November 2018 letter to one of the men at the meeting, Mr Guest and school board chairman Sebastian Hempel said those schools calling for past victims to come forward "possessed clear evidence of wide scale abuse".
But a month later Mr Guest urged past students to come forward after sexual assault charges were laid against Jacob Charles Woods, in his 30s, a former TAS housemaster accused of raping an 11-year-old boy at the school in 2001.
Mr Lawless said Armidale Anglican Bishop Rick Lewers supported the ex-pupils' efforts to be heard by the school board. "We were grateful for his support and indeed were more so when Murray Guest did come on board with his," he said.
Last year the school committed to joining the National Redress Scheme, which provides compensation and access to counselling for survivors of institutional sexual abuse, and created a garden "reflection space" to acknowledge past incidents of sexual abuse.
Following his death in October last year Mr Guest was praised for leading the school's response to addressing past sexual abuse. "We trust the new headmaster and school board will maintain the open and supportive approach he established," Mr Lawless said.
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