Cambodia charges British English teacher
with child sexual abuse
CAMBODIA
PHNOM PENH: A Cambodian court has charged a 37-year-old British English teacher with indecent assault after he sexually abused two teenage girls, an anti-pedophile organization said in a press statement on Friday (May 22).
NGO Action Pour Les Enfants (APLE), which assisted the police in a probe leading to the arrest of the man, said if found guilty, the suspect will be punished with one to three years of imprisonment.
APLE said in the press statement that the Siem Reap Provincial Anti-Human Trafficking and Juvenile Protection police, led by Police Colonel Chea Heng, arrested Watkin on Wednesday following the complaint from the mother of the two teenage girls aged 13 and 17.
It said the police conducted a forensic interview with the 13-year-old girl, who disclosed the abuse and implied that the accused had also molested her older sister.
"This case pertains to the third foreign national arrested in 2020 within APLE cases, marking the 14th foreigner, including six US citizens, five British, one Swedish, one German and one Australian national arrested since 2018 in relation to APLE Cambodia's Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation cases," the statement said.
In addition, 27 Cambodians were also arrested for Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation during the same period, it added.
APLE said it is working with the victims in order to ensure their emotional and physical recovery, while its lawyers are currently offering legal aid services to the family.
Cambodia launched an anti-pedophile operation in 2003 in a bid to end its reputation as a haven for child sex offenders. Since then, dozens of foreigners have been imprisoned for child sex crimes.
- Xinhua/Asian News Network
Breaking- Judge Rules Malka Leifer Is Mentally Fit for Extradition Hearing on Sexual Abuse Allegations
FRUM FOLLIES by Yerachmiel Lopin
Israel’s anti-abuse advocate, Shana Aaronson together with colleagues, hired a private investigator who documented a well functioning Leifer going about all sorts of tasks in spite of claims she could not do any of those. The other party to the fraud was the then Health Minister, Yaakov Litzman who acting on the behest of the Ger/Gur Hasidic group, exerted pressure on psychologists to go along with a false diagnosis of incapacity. Litzman is now being investigated for corruption in connection with this fraud. (He is still in the government but now heads the housing ministry).
Today on the 67th hearing, years after Australia requested her extradition, the court finally ruled that Leifer is mentally competent enough to participate in an extradition hearing which has been scheduled for July 20th. We can only hope that this exhausting travesty of delays ends soon and Leifer is finally in the docket in Australia.
Kudos to the 3 brave sisters who have endured much, first at the hands of Leifer and the board who protected her and then at the hands of corruption by the Israel Health Minister and the Israeli Judicial system. Thanks to them, who have borne the heaviest burden of all, we may well finally see justice.
This circus is an extraordinary condemnation of the Adaas school, the Ger/Gur Hasidic group, Israel's Justice System, Government, and psychologists. Dozens of people should be prosecuted for the evil committed against sexually abused children and desperate attempt to keep this lying, creepy, horrid predator from justice. I'm not convinced she will be in Melbourne is year or next.
Wendouree, AU, paedophile given top job at
UK LGBTQI+ charity
By Nathanael Parker UK LGBTQI+ charity
The Independent, AU
(Image of Swindon and Wiltshire Pride 2017 parade by Brian Robert Marshall via geograph.org)
A convicted Wendouree paedophile was given the top job at a UK gay charity less than two years after being released from prison. Nathanael Parker reports.
THE BODY that regulates charities in England and Wales has questioned an LGBTQI+ charity after serious concerns were raised over safeguarding.
In January this year, the Charity Commission was forced to step in to assess the safeguarding policies in place at Swindon and Wiltshire Pride, a charity based in Swindon, England.
The investigation, which concluded this (UK) Spring, was initiated after it came to light that a convicted paedophile was placed at the head of Swindon and Wiltshire Pride less than two years after being released from prison.
In 2014, Lee Clarke, from Wendouree, Victoria, was convicted by a court in Ballarat of possessing almost 15,000 images of child pornography.
Judge Frank Gucciardo described the images as "abhorrent" and said Clarke’s offending was "depraved". Clarke pleaded guilty to the charges and was handed a 15-month prison sentence.
After his release, he moved to the United Kingdom and settled in Swindon.
In January 2018, Clarke was made acting chair of Swindon and Wiltshire Pride, a position he held for four months and which made him one of the chief organisers of a popular, family-orientated annual event.
Family-oriented? Seriously?
The Charity Commission has this week confirmed that the trustees of Swindon and Wiltshire Pride had to be issued with advice and guidance on safeguarding matters, and the Commission promised to assess any further concerns that may come to light.
A spokesman from the Charity Commission stated in an email:
Our case looked into concerns about an individual who was acting chair of the charity from January 2018 to May 2018.
As part of our engagement, we questioned the trustees and received assurances that the charity has strengthened its policies and procedures around safeguarding. We issued the charity with regulatory advice under section 15(2) of the Charities Act to ensure these are fully adhered to going forward.
Since discovering Clarke’s criminal history, members and friends of the LGBTQI+ community in Swindon have called for answers as to how such a man was able to obtain a position of influence.
A petition, which calls for an investigation into why the proper safeguarding checks were not carried out before Clarke’s appointment, has been signed by more than 260 people.
One member of the LGBTQI+ community, who wished to remain anonymous, said:
I think it’s disgusting that Lee Clarke was allowed to run the charity. Swindon and Wiltshire Pride is a family event and works with organizations providing crucial support to young and vulnerable LGBT people. The necessary background checks were not carried out and, as a result, Mr Clarke, who was convicted for child sex offences, was given access to children and families that he should never have been given.
According to its website, Swindon and Wiltshire Pride is involved with a youth group called Out of the Can, which members of Swindon’s LGBTQI+ community have described as “particularly worrying”.
The charity is sponsored by Nationwide Business Society, Thames Water and Wiltshire Police.
In response, Swindon and Wiltshire Pride confirmed that Lee Clarke was indeed acting chair for four months in early 2018.
In a statement, a spokesman from Pride said:
'When they [Lee Clarke] proposed themselves for this role, they failed to make known any spent/unspent convictions.'
The spokesman added that the charity does not condone Mr Clarke’s previous actions and that they have since put in place 'rigorous safeguarding policies', including 'mandatory DBS [Disclosure and Barring Service] checks for all committee members'.
Wiltshire, UK
Man charged over historical abuse allegations
at NSW boys' home
By AAP
The Daruk Training School was established as a government training school teaching young offenders new skills. (60 Minutes)
A former employee at a notorious Sydney boys home is facing eight assault charges over offences dating back more than 40 years.
Detectives investigating allegations of historical child abuse at the Daruk Training School near Windsor arrested a 64-year-old man at Baulkham Hills, in greater western Sydney, on Tuesday.
The man has been issued a court attendance notice over six counts of indecent assault on a male and two counts of sexual assault knowing no consent was given.
The offences are alleged to have occurred between 1978 and 1981, a police statement says.
The man has been ordered to face Penrith Local Court on July 9.
The 64-year-old is the sixth man to be charged.
The arrest was carried out by Strikeforce Eckersley, which was established in late 2016 following a series of complaints made to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
Two of those astonishing complaints is immediately below.
Boys had penises cut off, Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse hears
At 13, Gordon was subjected to the most horrific abuse imaginable
at the hands of those who were meant to care for him
WARNING: Disturbing.
Megan Palinnews.com.au
DECEMBER 14, 2015
A MAN who alleged his penis was cut off by a male staff member at a Sydney boys’ home was one of many children who were mutilated and severely abused at the facility, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard.
Daruk Training School in Windsor was home to hundreds of state wards and juvenile offenders from 1960-1991.
Gordon Myers, 50, told news.com.au he was 13 when he was sent to the institution for the first time in 1978.
In his submission to the commission, Mr Myers said he was raped and bashed by various staff at the home on a regular basis over the five years he lived there.
He said a male staff member who “didn’t like little boys with foreskins” used to perform illegal and botched circumcisions on the children at Daruk.
“He cut my penis off,” Mr Myers told news.com.au.
“I had just turned 13. He took me into the clinic and said ‘we have permission to circumcise you’. I said ‘no you don’t’.
“He knocked me out with a needle and I woke up in the middle of it and there was (a second staff member there as well), I screamed in pain.
“Because I was so tiny, he probably thought, stupidly, ‘don’t give him as much anaesthetic to put him under’.”
Mr Myers said there was “blood everywhere” and that he was sent to Windsor Hospital where a surgeon “sewed (his) penis back on”.
He claims the hospital “covered up” the incident.
Gordon Myers said a staff member used to perform illegal and botched circumcisions on the children at Daruk. Picture: State Library of NSW
“Having checked with our hospital’s Medical Records Department, the records for the old hospital would have been destroyed if the patient had not presented again within a certain period of time,” the spokeswoman said.
“The Medical Records manager confirmed that she has previously discussed the subject with the patient identified, and advised that unfortunately no records can be located.”
Daruk Training School was home to hundreds of state wards and juvenile offenders from 1960-1991.
Picture: State Library of NSW
Mr Myers said his penis “never grew” as a result of the trauma. “All the nerve endings aren’t there,” he said. “It was a complete reattachment of the top of it.”
He said the deformity had a profound effect on his life. “I can’t have children and I can’t have sex,” he said.
Mr Myers provided news.com.au with copies of medical documents which reveal Dr Philip Sutherland examined him in March this year for his submission to the Royal Commission.
“I can confirm that the size of Gordon’s penis and scrotum are childlike,” the report read.
Mr Sutherland referred Mr Myers to urologist Stephen Ruthven for further assessment. Dr Ruthven concluded in a report sighted by news.com.au that Mr Myers had “testicular microlithiasis”, a condition where small clusters of calcium form in the testicles. Dr Ruthven could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Mr Myers said he was not the only child whose penis was severed by the staff member at Daruk Training School. “Every now and then he’d grab a kid to rape or circumcise and I was one of them,” he said.
Mr Myers said he was returned to the boys’ home following surgery.
“(The staff member) wanted to have another go and rape me a second time,” he said. “He raped me heaps of time before that but I wasn’t going to let that happen again. I just lost the plot and flogged him. I turned very violent.”
VIP paed ring
Mr Myers said dozens of boys were brutally, sexually and physically abused by staff at the home and that the perpetrators hadn’t been brought to justice.
He said an extensive cover-up linked to a VIP paedophile ring had protected the offenders and prevented them from being investigated. (See story immediately below).
Senator Bill Heffernan recently campaigned for the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse to expand its investigation to include the judicial system.
In October this year (2015) he told Senate estimates that he had given the commission “very disturbing” police documents that named at least 28 alleged paedophiles, some of whom were prominent Australians.
But he said the commission had told him it could not investigate the cases because they were outside its terms of reference.
Carl Orme, 50, told news.com.au he was also a resident of Daruk Training school in 1978.
Mr Orme said he was routinely physically and sexually abused by several staff members at the home and that one at the school often taunted the boys and severed some of their penises.
“There was a male (staff member) there, and I will never forget his name,” Mr Orme said. “He was a very sick man.
“He’d start fondling with you and things and he would always threaten to circumcise everyone. “He used to scare you and everything, he’d get scissors out and grab hold of the old fella’ saying, ‘I’m going to cut it off if you don’t sit still, I’m going to cut your willy off’.
“His excuse was ‘it’s clean to be circumcised’.”
Carl Orme, pictured as a child, was routinely physically and sexually abused by several staff members at the home. Picture: Supplied
Mr Orme said the new arrivals were often the staff member’s main targets.
“Sometimes he would tell one of the boys that he liked, especially the new arrivals, and then take them back to the hospital,” he said.
“Then a couple of days later, that same little boy would come back so traumatised, everyone felt for him, as most boys had already been in the same position.
“I was taken to the hospital and told that they were going to circumcise me. I went off my brain and started to fight the officers in the room.
“I threw everything that I could at them, as I’d heard that two months before, one of the little boys had his penis cut off and I was so scared, and wasn’t going to allow anything like that happen to me.
“All my life I have wondered about that little boy, I still to this day try and think of his name. I also wonder whether he made it through life.”
The Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse is the largest Royal Commission in Australia’s history. It is focusing on the sexual abuse of children in institutions that were supposed to care for them.
After being granted an extension last year, the commission will now conclude at the end of 2017.
Former MP refused suppression order over charges of child sex abuse at Daruk Training School
By Jamie McKinnellA former federal MP accused of historical child sexual abuse offences has unsuccessfully asked a court to keep details of his case secret, arguing public condemnation exacerbates his heart problems.
Alasdair Webster is facing 14 charges including buggery and indecent assault from his time as a superintendent at the notorious Daruk Training School near Windsor, NSW in 1977 and 1978.
Media coverage of the 86-year-old's case triggered "broad public condemnation" and online hatred, including calls for him to be hanged and castrated, his lawyer Manny Conditsis said while arguing for a suppression order.
"The expressed hatred of the applicant is causing both the applicant and his wife very significant stress, anxiety and fear and may well have a serious detrimental effect on his wellbeing due to his serious heart condition," Mr Conditsis told Penrith Local Court today.
He said Mr Webster's wife had become hypervigilant about unexpected visitors after two threatening phone calls to their home in January.
The court heard as recently as this week mail in the Webster's letterbox was torn up and there had been calls for local parents to take their children out of school to instead watch the case unfold.
Following his 10-year stint at Daruk which ended in 1984, Mr Webster went on to hold the seat of Macquarie for the Liberal Party for nine years and was awarded an Order of Australia medal.
His charges were laid after evidence about the school was heard at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
No risk to safety, court hears
Mr Conditsis argued media coverage of his client's charges had been "sensationalist", "hysterical", "irresponsible" and provoked social media uproar.
He cited a 2018 60 Minutes program which "inappropriately" linked Mr Webster to allegations a former resident of the school was the victim of a botched circumcision — allegations over which Mr Webster has not been charged.
Mr Conditsis unsuccessfully attempted to have part of the application for a suppression order heard in closed court, which would have even blocked a lawyer representing media organisations, including the ABC, from proceedings.
Dauid Sibtain, for the media organisations, said "impassioned responses" to responsible mainstream media coverage were a "typical facet of the operation of the fourth estate".
"The evidence doesn't go beyond fear ... there is simply no evidence that there is a risk to the applicant's safety," Mr Sibtain said.
Magistrate Brian Van Zuylen refused the application and said while the court viewed Mr Webster's situation "with sympathy", he was not persuaded the circumstances were so exceptional as to justify suppression orders.
Good decision!
Mr Webster's case returns to court on July 10.
Sylvan Lake, Alta, man charged with child luring after girl received inappropriate texts
CTV News EdmontonEDMONTON -- A 38-year-old Sylvan Lake man was charged with child luring after he allegedly texted an underage girl and tried to meet her, RCMP said.
Mounties began to investigate on May 19 when "other citizens had a concern about inappropriate contact" from the man.
Despite the suspect's efforts he and the girl did not meet, according to police.
David Brown was arrested Tuesday and released on strict conditions.
He's scheduled to appear in court July 31.
Philippine court convicts American of
online child sex abuse
By JIM GOMEZMANILA, Philippines (AP) — A Philippine court has sentenced an American to life in prison on charges of sexually exploiting Filipino children using webcams to sell videos, photos and livestreams to buyers abroad, an official said Wednesday.
National Bureau of Investigation official Janet Francisco said the conviction of David Timothy Deakin is a strong warning to offenders that “they could not hide even if they commit sexual exploitation crimes in cyberspace because law enforcers are collaborating worldwide to catch them.”
Judge Irineo Pangilinan Jr. of the regional trial court in northern Pampanga province declared Deakin guilty of qualified human trafficking and sentenced him to life imprisonment and ordered him to pay a fine and indemnify his victims. The ruling was handed down online Tuesday because of coronavirus quarantine restrictions.
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation provided the information that led to Deakin’s arrest in April 2017 in Pampanga’s Mabalacat city, Francisco said. Associated Press journalists were allowed to witness the raid on Deakin’s apartment near a red-light district and his arrest.
Francisco, who heads an anti-human trafficking force, said the raid led to the seizure of the largest amount of digital evidence related to online sexual exploitation of children in the country so far. Her agents also found children’s underwear, toddler shoes, cameras, bondage cuffs, fetish ropes, meth pipes and stacks of hard drives and photo albums in Deakin’s two-bedroom apartment.
Deakin was originally from Peoria, Illinois, and has been in the Philippines since 2000. He told the AP in an interview shortly after his arrest that he didn’t make videos of children.
The Washington, D.C.-based private group International Justice Mission said its social workers have helped bring eight of Deakin’s victims to recovery and cited one as welcoming his conviction “because he won’t be able to victimize anyone anymore.”
Samson Inocencio Jr., who heads the IJM in the Philippines, said the justice system should continue protecting vulnerable children who are unsafe during the coronavirus lockdown.
A study released by the group last week said the Philippines has emerged as a global hot spot for online child sexual exploitation, with cases increasing sharply in recent years. Parents have agreed to have their own children victimized for the money.
Or, they victimize the children themselves.
The webcam scheme involves pedophiles in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Australia who pay facilitators to sexually abuse children, even babies, in the privacy of Philippine homes. They watch and help direct the abuses through online livestreaming services.
The wide use of English, availability of internet connections and international cash transfer systems have combined with long-entrenched poverty and wide access to vulnerable children to allow many abuses to happen in the Philippines.
They don't just allow them to happen; they enable them to explode exponentially.
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