18 Albertans charged with child porn
over last 2 months: ALERT
Dave Dormer
CTVNews Calgary Digital Producer
CALGARY -- The ALERT Internet Child Exploitation Unit is again warning parents to be vigilant of their children's online activities after charging 18 suspects with 65 offences over the last two months.
The arrests were made between May 20 and June 23 across Alberta, with most of the investigations coming from referrals from the RCMP's National Child Exploitation Coordination Centre.
Those charged range in age from 18 to 74 years old.
In March, ICE officials announced the number of complaints of online child exploitation had more than doubled. They received an average of 110 complaints that month over the last two years, which rose to 243 this year.
Being at home more during the pandemic means children are online more and so are people looking to exploit them, officials say. That means parents have to be more aware of what the younger members of their family are doing.
“This is a level of activity that has been unparalleled in the existence of the ICE unit,” said ALERT CEO Supt. Dwayne Lakusta.
“ICE is working incredibly hard to put predators behind bars, but we need parents to do their part and be vigilant of their childrens’ online activities."
Another key, said ALERT spokesperson Glenn Cook, is making sure children don't feel like they will get in trouble if they go to a parent with a concern.
Police say there is no definitive link between the suspects charged, other than the nature of alleged offences.
Each suspect is charged with at least one child pornography offence, including:
An 18-year-old man from Edmonton, who was a young offender at the time of his arrest
Bryan Alas Hernandez, an 18-year-old man from Lethbridge
Dean Bertsch, a 62-year-old man from Sherwood Park
Brandon Bran Eguizabal, a 26-year-old man from Lethbridge
Tyson Campbell, a 27-year-old man from Edmonton
Evan Cardinal, a 31-year-old man from Frog Lake
Yonatan Castro Linares, a 25-year-old man from Lethbridge
Keone Friesen, a 21-year-old man from Calgary
Hans-Ulrich Gerber, a 74-year-old man from Red Deer
Travis Harder, a 31-year-old man from Sherwood Park
Kristofer Hastings, a 28-year-old man from Edmonton
Darcy Hazard, a 57-year-old man from Airdrie
Anas Khatib, a 24-year-old man from Grande Prairie
Wayne Kupsch, a 52-year-old man from Edmonton
Richard McCleary, a 61-year-old man from Calgary
George Power, a 45-year-old man from Calgary
James Venance, a 63-year-old man from Edmonton
Jesse Young, a 20-year-old man from Grande Prairie
The term child pornography is being replaced by terms like 'child sex abuse materials, or images'. The term child pornography may imply in the minds of some that children choose to be a part of the sexual abuse depicted. Children cannot choose to be sexually abused. They can be coerced, or bribed into participating, but it is entirely illegal and immoral and causes devastation in that child's life at some point or another.
Children in council’s care who reported sex abuse faced punishment, inquiry told
LONDON, UK LAMBETH COUNCILFor information about the Shirley Oaks Survivors Association click here
Children in the care of Lambeth Council faced death threats, punishment and disbelief when they attempted to report sexual abuse, an inquiry has heard.
Paedophiles targeted young people in children’s homes run by the south London local authority for decades, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse heard on Monday.
But inquiry barrister Rachel Langdale QC said responses to allegations of sexual assault ranged from “explicit disbelief and punishment to limited efforts to remove the alleged perpetrator from their role”.
The inquiry hearing, which is due to last four weeks, will investigate whether there were failures in child protection by various public authorities, including the Metropolitan Police Service and Lambeth Council.
Former residents of the council-run children’s homes in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s claimed they were physically and sexually abused by those responsible for their care.
“This investigation raises fundamental questions as to whether life was any better or indeed whether it was far worse after they (children) came into Lambeth’s care,” Ms Langdale said.
While some staff witnessed abuse against children at the homes, they did not always report it or investigate it properly, the inquiry heard.
One girl at the Shirley Oaks home in Croydon – which could accommodate up to 350 children – was told by her abuser that if she reported what he had done “he’d kill her”, Ms Langdale said.
“She (the girl) was terrified and believed him,” said Ms Langdale.
“When she did find the courage to tell people, she was not believed.”
The inquiry also heard how a housemother found an “alleged perpetrator” in the bedroom of a girl he had sexually assaulted.
Ms Langdale said: “He sexually assaulted her, then hid under the bed before assaulting her again, and then hid behind the door when she went to get help.
“The housemother caught him behind the door and told him to leave.”
Ms Langdale said the girl had been “too afraid” to tell the housemother what had happened, and was instead made to “feel responsible”.
The inquiry also heard how Lambeth Council’s Angell Road home – which opened in 1981 – was run by the “convicted child sex abuser” Michael Carroll, who was also known as John Carroll.
Ms Langdale said: “You will hear that Lambeth came to know of his conviction from Croydon Council when Carroll and his wife applied to become foster parents (there).”
She added: “Lambeth officials decided that Carroll should not be dismissed on account of his previous conviction, nor on account of his concealment of it.”
Carroll was instead dismissed in 1991 because of “financial irregularities”, the inquiry heard.
He was jailed for 10 years at Liverpool Crown Court in 1999 after admitting a string of sexual assaults against children while working in residential care between 1966 and 1986.
The inquiry hearings are due to take place over 20 days, spread out between June 29 and July 10, and from July 20 to July 31.
Some 33,445 documents have been received as part of the investigation, including 24,244 pages of disclosures, Ms Langdale said.
Further opening statements from core participants will be heard on Tuesday.
The inquiry continues.
Redbridge man had stash of over 200 child abuse images and hid USB from police
..
Martin Sparks is a repeat offender and will now spend time behind bars
A man has appeared in court after he was found to have downloaded more than 200 indecent images of children – despite being subject to a suspended sentence for the same offence.
Martin Sparks, 47, of Maldon Walk, Redbridge, pleaded guilty at Snaresbrook Crown Court on Friday, June 26 to five counts of breaching a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO), making indecent images of children (category A) and making indecent images of children (category B).
He will be sentenced at the same court on Wednesday, August 26.
Redbridge, London
Germany investigating 30,000 suspects in pedophile probe
By Agence France-Presse
Germany is investigating 30,000 suspects as part of a probe into an online pedophile network, the latest in a series of child sex abuse scandals that prompted authorities to promise a crackdown.
The probe began last October with the arrest of a suspected perpetrator in Bergisch Gladbach, near Cologne.
“I did not expect, not even remotely,
the extent of child abuse on the internet,”
But investigators digging into the case have turned up a far bigger pedophile network than expected.
“I did not expect, not even remotely, the extent of child abuse on the internet,” North Rhine-Westphalia’s justice minister Peter Beisenbach told reporters on Monday, June 29.
What the investigation team had uncovered was “deeply disturbing,” he said. “We must recognize that child abuse on the internet is more widespread than we had previously thought.”
“We must recognize that child abuse on the internet
is more widespread than we had previously thought.”
“We want to drag perpetrators and supporters of child abuse out of the anonymity of the internet,” he added.
Those being investigated are suspected of sharing “child and youth pornographic content” including “fictitious and/or real acts of abuse” in anonymous online discussion forums and chat groups, the cyber crime office ZAC NRW said in a statement.
To date, just over 70 suspects have been identified throughout Germany.
In May, the first offender – a 27-year-old soldier – was sentenced to 10 years in prison and placed in a psychiatric hospital for an indefinite period.
‘Emotional murder’
Germany has been shocked at the discovery of several serious cases of child sex abuse over the past 18 months.
In early June, 11 people were arrested (9th story on link) on suspicion of sexually abusing children and filming their actions after videos and photos were seized from the cellar of a 27-year-old man from the city of Muenster, also in North Rhine-Westphalia state.
Investigators said they had identified at least 3 victims, aged 5, 10, and 12 years old.
Officials said then that investigative capacities on child abuse had been increased, which would likely lead to the discovery of more cases.
The case triggered calls from politicians to crack down on those using and sharing child sexual abuse materials, with calls for it to be classed as a crime rather than just an offense.
“Child abuse cannot be punished like shoplifting. It is murder. Not physically but emotionally. Anyone who molests children must be punished as a criminal, fullstop,” said North Rhine Westphalia interior minister Herbert Reul.
Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht in mid-June conceded offenders would in future receive a sentence of at least one year. “Anyone who commits such disgusting crimes must feel the full force of the law,” she said.
Campside abuse
In an earlier scandal in Luegde (2nd story on link), 125 kilometers from Muenster, several men abused children several hundred times at a campsite over a period of several years.
Some 33 witnesses, including 16 victims and 12 relatives, testified before the court in the trial, many of them behind closed doors.
Child sex abuse was also placed in the spotlight when police announced in May they suspected a German man of having murdered missing British girl Madeleine McCann.
The 43-year-old suspect, named as Christian Brueckner by German media, has a long criminal past and a history of child sex abuse.
Maldives Police arrest man for repeated sexual abuse of daughter
Ahmed Aiham, The EditionMaldives Police Service (MPS) on Sunday, revealed that an individual was arrested over allegedly sexually abusing his daughter.
According to police, a 35-year-old man was arrested over reports of abusing his daughter on multiple accounts. The case is being investigated by the South Central Police Division.
The island's Magistrate Court has remanded the individual for a period of eight days.
A significant number of child sexual abuse cases were reported to the authorities throughout January, following the surfacing of a shocking case involving the sexual abuse of a two-year-old. Based on reports, police have to date, made numerous arrests and have stated that the investigations were underway.
However, in recent weeks, public outrage has risen over the government's meagre record of arresting and convicting perpetrators of sexual offences, despite several electoral pledges and recent statements renewing the promises that were made in favour of supporting the rights of children and women.
Most recently, a collective of gender equality advocates originating from Family Legal Clinic (FLC), Nufoshey and Uthema Maldives launched the #FundOurSafety initiative, voicing demands to declare rape and sexual offences as serious criminal offences and reallocate state funds for the protection of victims.
Meanwhile, police have warned over increasing incidents of child grooming and exploitation over the internet, urging parents and guardians to be aware and report knowledge of any such information to the police's Family and Child Protection Wing at +960 3000600 or the Ministry of Gender, Family and Social Services at 1412.
Former Melton teacher's aide to be sentenced for sexually abusing 15-y/o student in Melbourne
By court reporter Karen PercyNicole Woods claimed to have a "special bond" with a troubled teenage boy at Melton's Staughton College in Melbourne's west in 2016, and was helping to keep him in school.
But the County Court in Melbourne has heard that over a six-month period the former teacher's aide performed sexual acts on the then 15-year-old boy at the back of the classroom.
Woods appeared in court via videolink today, wearing a blue tracksuit and a set of white rosary beads around her neck. She played with the cross hanging from the beads as the hearing began.
County Court Judge George Georgiou is hearing submissions on what kind of sentence Woods will face.
The boy, now 19, says he has been left "numb" and "broken" and is seeking pain relief by abusing drugs and alcohol. "I'm not innocent anymore," the teenager said via a victim impact statement read in the County Court during a plea hearing in March.
On at least 15 occasions between April and September 2016, Woods committed sexual acts on the boy — including oral sex and intercourse — the court was told at that hearing.
Woods had sent the boy photos of herself topless, which he then shared with his friends.
The court heard Woods had worked at the school for three years, helping in the classroom and in the canteen. Prosecutor Craig McConaghy told the court her actions were a "gross betrayal of trust".
The court heard the teen had wanted to end his own life, and had been cutting himself with a knife. He still has thoughts of self-harm, the court was told. "I'm broken and I don't know how to fix me," the teen said in his statement.
When she was arrested and interviewed by police in December 2017, Woods denied there was any sexual contact with the boy. She said she had been helping him with his behavioural issues and that he would climb in cupboards unless she was present in class.
"From the offender's perspective there was a close bond … a special bond between her and the victim," Mr McConaghy said.
But he said there was a "degree of grooming" by Woods when she provided the boy and his friends with free food and drinks on days when she was working in the school canteen. She also gave the boy $80 to repair a mobile phone and bought other items, the court heard.
Victim's mother feels she 'failed' to protect her son
The boy's mother has spoken of the "very dark episode" for her son ever since he was first abused almost four years ago. "I feel I failed to protect my son," she said.
The mother told Judge Georgiou she was "devastated, sick, fearful" as a result of Woods's crimes.
"I hope to see my (son) again one day … pain-free and that he will start to see that he can have a life where he doesn't feel like he's in a black hole," she said.
The mother said she had post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and was unable to work because she needed to care for her son who did not like to leave the house.
The court heard the offences took place in Woods's office pod at the back of the classroom, during lunchtime or after school. One offence took place during a school athletics day, the court heard.
"I do not feel safe most of the time," the teen said in his statement. "My safe place is at home. Mum has had to put shutters on [the windows] and put in a security system."
Woods's lawyer, Jonathan Barrera, said his client understood the "significant impact" she had had on the teen. "At the time of the offending, it was quite a dark time in her life," he said.
Woods's offending a 'snap of the brain', court hears
She had left an abusive relationship and had no permanent place to live and was "couch surfing" at the time, the court was told. She was using drugs and alcohol to cope, the court was told, becoming addicted to methamphetamine.
Today Mr Barrera told the court his client thought the boy had consented to sexual relations.
The court heard Woods told a psychiatrist that she had a "snap of the brain". But her lawyer admitted her offending "was not spontaneous, it was not isolated".
The court was told Woods had a difficult childhood, having been sent to school in Indonesia and Singapore at the age of eight and nine. The court heard she had been sexually abused by a domestic helper in Indonesia.
She had also been in an abusive marriage for 27 years, Mr Barrera said.
Woods faces a maximum term of 15 years for each offence.
Today Judge Georgiou questioned Woods's credibility and remorse, because she did not plead guilty until just before the trial.
"He [the victim] lived under the belief that your client is denying the allegations right up until the day he was to give evidence," Judge Georgiou said to Mr Barrera.
Judge Georgiou will sentence Woods on July 28.
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