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Huddersfield grooming gang member given more jail time for child sex abuse
By Phoebe Fuller, Yorkshire Live
18:33, 3 DEC 2020
A member of a Huddersfield grooming gang was handed more jail time today for the sexual abuse of a child.
He will now serve a further four years for two offences of sexual touching of a child under 16, and two offences of inciting sexual activity with a child under 16.
Bashir abused his young victim between 2005 and 2007 in the Huddersfield area.
He was caught as part of West Yorkshire Police's Operation Tendersea, which a long-running investigation into non-recent child sexual abuse in Kirklees.
Bashir is the 35th suspect to be sentenced as part of the operation, which has focused on investigating and jailing men responsible for sexually abusing young girls in Huddersfield between 1995 and 2011.
Suspects have so far been sentenced to a combined total of 393 years in prison as part of Operation Tendersea.
Huddersfield gang
Bashir was sentenced today at Leeds Crown Court and will serve the additional four years consecutive to his original 11-year sentence.
Detective Chief Inspector Tanya Wilkins said: "This latest sentencing represents another step forwards in securing justice for victims of non-recent child sexual offending in Kirklees.
"Both the police and CPS always maintained Bashir was fully aware of the defendant’s young age when he committed these offences against her, and the jury clearly felt this to be the case in returning guilty verdicts for the four offences he was tried for."
Surgeon jailed in France's massive paedophilia case
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Possibly 312 very young victims of rape
PUBLISHED DEC 4, 2020, 12:23 PM SGT
SAINTES, FRANCE (AFP) - A retired French surgeon has been sentenced to 15 years in jail at the end of his closed-door trial for the rape and sexual abuse of four children in the first part of France's biggest ever paedophilia case.
Joel Le Scouarnec, 70, remained impassive as the verdict was read out on Thursday (Dec 3) at the court in Saintes, western France, keeping his arms crossed without a glance at his victims, who embraced one another, overcome with emotion.
Le Scouarnec, who could have faced 20 years behind bars after being found guilty on all charges, will also be subject to a three-year supervision order at the end of his sentence. He has 10 days to appeal.
Judge Isabelle Fachaux said that despite a 2005 conviction for viewing child pornography, Le Scouarnec had continued to offend, making a lengthy jail term necessary.
"We are really satisfied... it's a fair sentence," said Ms Francesca Satta, the lawyer for one of the victims, who reported Le Scouarnec in 2017.
In his final words to the court, Le Scouarnec said he did not expect leniency, according to lawyers present at the trial, which was held behind closed doors at the victims' request.
"I do not ask for forgiveness or compassion... only the right to become a better man again," he was quoted as saying.
"He explained that he had a lot of regrets... without necessarily asking for an apology. He knows that what he did is unforgivable," his lawyer Thibaut Kurzawa said.
The once-respected doctor and father of three sons now faces a possible second trial involving hundreds of cases of sexual assault or rape.
Le Scouarnec was charged in 2017 after testimony from one of his victims, his neighbour's six-year-old daughter.
The investigation quickly uncovered three others - two of his nieces, raped between 1989 and 1999, and a hospital patient who was only four in 1993.
Prosecutors say searches of Le Scouarnec's home uncovered archives detailing sexual assaults or rapes of as many as 312 victims, both adults and children, starting in 1986 while he worked at hospitals in central and western France.
Police found more than 300,000 indecent images of minors, including pictures of his two nieces.
Le Scouarnec admitted assaulting the four children but initially denied the rape charges.
During the trial, which started on Monday, Le Scouarnec admitted having raped his nieces, now aged 35 and 30. His admission "did them a lot of good", according to their lawyer Delphine Driguez.
Oranga Tamariki caregiver jailed in NZ for child sexual offending
Jane Matthews
18:15, Dec 04, 2020
New Plymouth Court, ANDY JACKSON/STUFF
‘I got let down’: A 22-year-old has told the New Plymouth District Court how her childhood sexual abuse will be with her forever.
A young girl who was sexually abused by her Oranga Tamariki caregiver detailed how traumatising it was to be placed back in the man’s care after reporting his initial offending to police.
Oranga Tamariki, also known as the Ministry for Children and previously the Ministry for Vulnerable Children, is a government department in New Zealand responsible for the well-being of children, specifically children at risk of harm, youth offenders and children of the State. It has a billion dollar budget.
The now-22-year-old woman’s victim impact statement was read out to the New Plymouth District Court on Friday by Crown prosecutor Justin Marinovich.
“It is really hard to put into words how much of an effect this can have on a person, particularly when they are young and are expecting adults to look after them,” her statement said. “It’s not something that is just going to go from me and I’m going to live happily ever after – it will be in my life forever.”
The woman was one of two victims the Taranaki man, who has permanent name suppression, sexually assaulted during a three-year period. He previously pleaded guilty to 13 sexual offences and appeared for sentencing before Judge Gregory Hikaka.
Her victim impact statement and police summary of facts detailed how it had been an “incredibly long process” since the offending began in 2008, when she was placed in the offender’s care through Oranga Tamariki.
“I was a young girl and this shouldn't have been allowed to happen. That was the one thing that was really hard for me.”
In May 2011 she reported the offending to police who launched an investigation. At the time, the man denied any involvement and the victim was then persuaded, by an undisclosed person, to withdraw her statement.
“One of the things that impacted me the most was when I was essentially convinced I should retract my statement,” she said. “The pressure that came on me was so unfair, I was only 11 or 12 then.”
She felt like no-one believed her and just thought she was a “silly child making up stories”. "I wasn’t and I got let down.”
She was returned to the man's care a month later. “It was like they were giving him the OK to continue offending against me,” she said. “No one would believe me after all this, and that’s when I started having real issues in my life.”
Her statement detailed how she has flashbacks, has developed a number of trust issues in relationships and sometimes struggles to be in public.
The second victim, who was known to the man, was sexually assaulted twice between 2009-2010. While comforting her after the loss of her father the man instead took advantaged and sexually assaulted her.
Judge Hikaka outlined how the offender was trusted and, as an Oranga Tamariki caregiver, was supposed to look after the vulnerable and offer “nurturing and loving care”. “That was abused.”
Hikaka said the offending involved a “multilayered abuse of trust”.
He gave the man credit for his early guilty pleas and high level of remorse.
Hikaka sentenced the man to six-and-a-half years' imprisonment.
His name is also on the child sex offender register.
Prominent Psychologist, Scout Leader sentenced to four years in prison
for historic child sex offences in Sydney
By James Carmody
Posted 1hhour ago
Robert Bruce Montgomery, 76, who was once a prominent psychologist, has been sentenced to four years in prison over child sex offences committed in the 1960s.
Montgomery was a Scout Leader in Edgecliff in Sydney's eastern suburbs when he abused three boys over a number of years.
In 1965 he was made to resign from the organisation after it was made aware of his offending but no formal legal action was taken.
In 1966 as a teacher at a Marrickville High School he sexually assaulted a fourth boy.
He later had a prominent career as a psychologist and was president of the Australian Psychological Society from 2009 to 2011.
This is the kind of person promoted to powerful, prominent positions in the field of psychology.
In 2018 Montgomery was extradited from Queensland and charged after his victims reported the abuse. He will be eligible for parole in 12 months.
Will they make him president of APS again?
His victims, who are now adults, cried and hugged one another in court after the sentencing. Montgomery was supported in court by his wife. He handed her his wedding ring prior to the sentencing in anticipation of his incarceration.
The court heard Montgomery had a distinguished career which included working with reality television show Big Brother and preparing reports for Family Court matters. His role for the Family Court included assessing the credibility of child sex abuse allegations in custody disputes.
Good grief! Family Court report writer and former Big Brother psychologist pleads guilty to child sex abuse in NSW (3rd story on link).
In sentencing, Judge Paul Conlon said through Montgomery's study of psychology he would have developed a strong understanding of the suffering of his victims.
Judge Conlon said in regard to length of the sentence consideration had been given to the fact Montgomery had several health issues including moderate to severe dementia. An expert medical opinion given to the court estimated he would live another 3.75 years.
Seems the judge had mercy, on the prison system!
'Justice has found its mark'
Outside court one of Montgomery's victims said he agreed with the reasons given by the judge. The man said it had been a harrowing several years since the Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse had given him the confidence to come forward.
"Justice has found its mark and accountability, its rightful place," he said.
The victim impact statement that man read to the court detailed decades of instability in his life which he attributed to Montgomery sexually assaulting him at age 12.
"I have developed an acute awareness of how the abuse has had such a devastating impact and effect on my entire life thus far," he said.
"It became clear to me just how the abuse actually has been responsible for so many failings and shortfalls, trials and tribulations, bad choices, paranoia, heartache and mental anguish for myself.
"And just what those people close to me have had to endure because of it."
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