Former Colombian rebel group FARC admits abducting tens of thousands of people, raping women and children
30 Apr, 2021 18:56
FILE PHOTO: Former FARC abductee Daniel Guggenheim of Switzerland after being rescued from kidnappers, Bogota, Colombia on June 18, 2020 © Colombian Army Aviation / Handout via REUTERS
The leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a disbanded rebel group, have admitted responsibility for tens of thousands of kidnappings during the long-running conflict with the government and security forces.
Carlos Antonio Lozada, a former member of the guerrilla group, said on Friday that FARC “clearly assumes responsibility for kidnappings which took place.”
He told a news conference that the group “explicitly recognizes the suffering inflicted unjustifiably on victims … their families, friends and of course all of Colombian society.”
FARC disarmed and rebranded as the ‘Comunes’ political party after striking a ceasefire agreement with the government in 2016. Under the deal, ex-rebels have to hand over information about crimes committed during the conflict to the Special Jurisdiction for Peace tribunal, which can secure them lesser sentences.
According to tribunal counts, 21,396 people were kidnapped or taken hostage by FARC between 1990 and 2015.
The Marxist-Leninist group was set up in 1964 to demand more equitable land ownership during the government’s long-running conflict with armed insurgents.
At its peak, the largely rural organization counted as many as 20,000 people among its ranks, but its numbers had dwindled to a few thousand by the time of its peace deal with the government.
FARC’s tactics included blowing up oil pipelines and other infrastructure, as well as kidnappings, and members of the group also used sexual violence, including against women and minors forced to join the insurgency.
Paedophile destroyed 14-year-old girl's life and left her with an STI
By ROSS MCCARTHY AND BRADLEY JOLLY
PUBLISHED: 15:26, Thu, Apr 29, 2021
Mohammed Jama was jailed for seven years and two months (Image: West Midlands Police )
Mohammed Jama, 47, lied to the victim claiming he was 25 and also left her with an STI. The girl's mother said his vile acts have "destroyed the whole family".
You have shown no understanding of the seriousness of your actions
and you have shown no regard or compassion for her
Judge Sarah Buckingham
Now Sarah, surely you realize that Jama is a Muslim and our little girl is a kafir. He has authority from Mohammed himself to do with her as he wishes. Kafirs are intrinsically sluts and whores in Islam.
The victim and a friend met Jama on a bus and made their age clear to him, Birmingham Live reports.
But Jama lied about his age, persuaded the girl to call him and arranged to meet her at an Asda store on October 4, 2019.
Two sexual acts took place at Kingfisher Country Park in Shard End, Birmingham, said Andrew Wallace, prosecuting, at Birmingham Crown Court.
Jama was jailed for seven years and two months after he admitted two charges of sexual activity with a child.
Mr Wallace said there had been an element of grooming.
The teenager later sent to a text to her aunt, who would have known she had not gone to school that day, saying something "bad" had happened.
Mr Wallace said Jama, from Ladywood, Birmingham, later made several attempts to contact the girl.
After the matter was reported to the police, the 14-year-old was examined and found to have contracted an STI.
Jama was traced to a nearby hostel and he was linked to the incident through DNA.
In a statement, the victim's mother said "Not only has it destroyed my daughter's life, it has destroyed the whole family.
"My beautiful daughter was left feeling withdrawn and not wanting to leave the house. She has isolated herself in her room."
Passing sentence, Judge Sarah Buckingham told Jama: "On meeting her on the bus, you set your sights on her almost immediately.
"She was a naive young girl and despite her better instincts she agreed to meet up.
"There was significant planning. You are a predatory man happy to have sexual relations with a girl who was just 14.
"You have shown no understanding of the seriousness of your actions and you have shown no regard or compassion for her. You set about seducing her for your own sexual gratification.
"You stored her name in your contacts with only one thing in mind."
"The impact on her has been profound and has also rippled through the entire family."
Stefan Kolodynski, defending, said "This was a chance meeting between a vulnerable young girl and the defendant that led to him pestering her by text message for a meeting."
He said the sexual activity had been short-lived.
Perhaps, but the STI will live a lot longer!
LL Camps paedophile ‘abused 36 children in Madrid school
after changing name’
Ben Lewis, who co-ran LL Camps in Bushey, was convicted in the UK in 2016
and is now accused of further offences in Spain.
By JEWISH NEWS REPORTER
April 29, 2021, 11:42 am
Police in Spain have alleged that a paedophile convicted in the UK abused 36 children in Madrid after changing his identity to work as a teacher.
He is now alleged to have faked documentation to work in a school in Madrid, where it is claimed he abused children aged between four and eight. Although a Spanish police statement did not name Lewis, officials said the suspect was previously “sentenced in his country of origin to a two-year prison sentence for possession of images of child sexual exploitation”.
Spain’s National Police said the suspect had falsified documents which would have revealed a history of child abuse and changed his name to gain employment.
This allowed the suspect to take advantage of his status as a teacher in order to “generate an enormous amount of material that he disseminated in hidden paedophile-themed forums” on the dark web, said officials.
An inquiry was opened last year into the alleged offences when Australian detectives notified Spanish officials that a network of paedophile material could be based in Spain.
An operation was launched to trace the suspect. Police say the material led them to believe that the offender was working in a Madrid school, and that the images were taken on a phone that used an English operating system.
After identifying the school, officials ran background checks on all those who worked there and discovered that one of them appeared to have falsified documents to allow him to work with children.
Lewis is also alleged to have worked as a caregiver for children at home. His home was raided, where officials say they found abuse material on 10 different devices.
According to reports in the Spanish press, Lewis is now in El Soto prison, outside Madrid, awaiting trial.
The news comes after it was revealed last month that Lewis was facing an investigation in the country, having allegedly changed his name to Ben David.
‘Most severe sexual abuse’: German police bust darknet child-porn platform boasting 400,000 users worldwide
3 May, 2021 14:39
FILE PHOTO. © AFP / DPA / Arne Immanuel Bänsch
German police have raided one of the world’s largest child-porn platforms, a darknet site called ‘Boystown’, arresting several suspects believed to be its administrators. The site had some 400,000 users at the time of its closure.
The shutdown of the platform was announced in a statement by Frankfurt prosecutors together with the Federal Criminal Police Office on Monday.
Law enforcement officials said they had caught three suspects believed to be the administrators of the now-defunct platform, which reportedly had over 400,000 users at the time the police operation took it offline.
Police described it as “one of the world’s biggest child pornography darknet platforms” and said it has been active since at least June 2019. Several other chat platforms dedicated to sharing child pornography were also taken offline during the raids.
Two suspects, a 40-year-old man from Paderborn and a 49-year-old man from Munich, were arrested during police raids in mid-April. Another suspect, a 58-year-old man from northern Germany, was arrested in Paraguay where he has resided for years. Germany has requested his extradition.
The police have also detained a fourth suspect, a 64-year-old man from Hamburg, believed to be one of the platform’s most active users. They said the man has allegedly uploaded over 3,500 posts containing highly illegal content to the platform.
A large cache of pornographic materials, including imagery of “most severe sexual abuse of toddlers”, has been seized during the raids.
The takedown of the child pornography network was hailed by top German officials who said the successful police action shows the authorities able to effectively protect the most vulnerable and punish the sexual predators who prey on them.
“This investigative success has a clear message: Those who assault the weakest aren’t safe anywhere,” German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer stated. ”That’s what investigators work for day and night, online and offline, globally.”
We’ll do everything within our power to protect the kids from these disgusting crimes.
The bust followed a months-long probe that was coordinated by Europol. Law enforcement officials in the Netherlands, Sweden, the US and Canada have also contributed to the investigation, German police said.
Saskatchewan Junior hockey coach in custody,
charged with sexual assault
Jonathon Gatehouse, Madeline McNair, Ivan Angelovski · CBC News ·
Posted: May 03, 2021 7:55 PM CT
A veteran junior hockey coach has been charged with sexual assault and assault in Saskatchewan, CBC News has learned, following a complaint from a former player.
Bernie Lynch, who has coached across Canada, the U.S. and Europe for more than four decades, turned himself in to police in Devon, Alta., over the weekend after the Regina Police Service issued a warrant for his arrest on April 30. He faces one count each of sexual assault and assault, dating back to August 1988. The complainant was 17 at the time.
The Regina Police Service confirmed that the 66-year-old remains in custody and will be transferred to Regina as part of its ongoing investigation.
Lynch is also the subject of another police investigation in Edson, Alta., where he coached the Junior A Aeros in the Western States Hockey League (WSHL) during the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons. A recent CBC News investigation detailed allegations of abusive behaviour made by parents and players, and concerns over a close and possibly inappropriate relationship with a player.
In previous communications with CBC News, Lynch has said he is "shocked" by all of the allegations "that have surfaced over the past months," describing them as a "smear campaign."
In March, CBC News reported that Lynch had been suspended from his job in Ontario coaching the Junior A Fort Frances Lakers of the cross-border Superior International Junior Hockey League (SIJHL), shortly after New Year's for sending what the team called "inappropriate" texts and emails to one of his players.
'Kind of weird'
The player told CBC News that Lynch sought to monitor and control his behaviour, sending up to 50 unsolicited and unwanted messages in a single day.
"He would get mad if I didn't text him back right away," said the 20-year-old player. "He would get mad even after games — like, we'd end at nine or 10 and I'd want to go hang out with my teammates."
CBC News granted his request for confidentiality because of concerns that he would face repercussions in the hockey world.
"He'd always be like, 'Why don't you just come hang out with me?' Like, 'We'll have fun and watch a movie,'" he said. "Kind of weird."
Some of the messages sent from Lynch's phone were supportive. Others sounded romantic.
"The last thing I think of when I go to sleep at night and the first thing I think of when I wake up is you … Always your friend and passionately missing you. Thank you and I love you," one read.
The Lakers fired Lynch on March 9, just days after that report.
The Regina charges follow the recent reopening of a long-dormant investigation.
According to a civil court action that Lynch launched in 2000, Saskatchewan RCMP began investigating him in 1997, after receiving an anonymous tip Lynch had had "inappropriate and sexual involvement" with a player almost a decade earlier.
Suspended from coaching
A parallel investigation was launched by the Regina Police Service that fall, and later expanded to examine allegations about Lynch's conduct while he was coach of the Regina Pat Canadians, a AAA Midget under-18 team, during the 1997-98 season.
No charges were laid at the time, but Hockey Regina, the local governing body, suspended Lynch from coaching for more than three years. He was reinstated after his 2000 civil suit, under the proviso that he wasn't allowed to be alone with the players.
Lynch, who previously held high-profile jobs with the Humboldt Broncos and Regina Pats, returned to professional coaching in 2005, taking a job with the Minot State University Beavers in North Dakota.
Starting in 2007, Lynch spent the better part of a decade coaching youth teams in Norway, Sweden, the Czech Republic and Denmark.
The Swedish newspaper Expressen recently published an article about the veteran coach's time behind the bench for a team in Huddinge, a Stockholm suburb, a tenure that ended with controversy and complaints in 2014.
Lynch was dismissed after receiving a lengthy suspension for threatening a referee. But one parent told the paper that there were other factors at play, including bullying behaviour and unwanted and inappropriate text messages to a 15-year-old player.
"I discovered that Bernie had started texting my son in the evenings," the mother, whose identity is being shielded by Expressen, told the newspaper. "I reacted immediately and asked why the coach was writing to him. Finally, I took his phone and checked the history. I couldn't believe my eyes."
One message, in particular, raised concerns.
"Answer your phone ... Pump runking," Lynch wrote, misspelling a Swedish word for masturbation. "I can hear you all the way over here ... Give it a rest."
The paper said it reached out to Lynch about the allegations but that he did not respond.
Boris Johnson urged to tackle underage access to porn, activist groups cite violence against women & Sarah Everard murder – report
7 May, 2021 14:23
Citing a link between pornography and violence against women, a coalition of UK schoolteachers and children’s rights groups has urged Boris Johnson to take immediate action to curb the ease of access to online porn for minors.
In a letter to the prime minister on Thursday, the activists reportedly called on Johnson to move up the planned rollout of age verification safeguards for web-based porn sites during the Queen’s Speech – an annual royal address to Parliament – scheduled for next Tuesday.
The government had promised to clamp down on web porn in its Online Harms Bill, which is expected to be announced during the Queen’s Speech. But the bill’s provisions are not set to kick in till 2024 – by which time it “will be too late for some women and children,” the letter noted.
It will also be too late for many adolescent boys whose view of women will be twisted and perverted for life.
They also demanded that Downing Street introduce stringent restrictions on violent and extreme pornography – invoking the high-profile murder of Sarah Everard in March to caution against leaving access to such genres unchecked, according to the Daily Mail.
“While it is too early to talk in depth about what happened to Sarah Everard, it is clear from the outpouring of stories from women across the country following her death that a very large proportion of attacks on women are sexually motivated,” the letter noted.
Among the signatories are Baroness Floella Benjamin, former Digital Minister Margot James, and Javed Khan, CEO of children’s charity group Barnardo’s.
As an alternative to the bill’s proposed timeline, the campaigners called for the enforcement of Part 3 of the Digital Economy Act (2017) – an article that compels “commercial providers of online pornography to have robust age verification controls in place to prevent children and young people under 18 from accessing pornographic material.”
“Given the growing body of research (including research commissioned by the Government) demonstrating a clear association between pornography consumption and a higher incidence of violence against women and girls, the failure to implement Part 3, in the absence of alternative protections, has become unsustainable,” the letter said.
Whitehall has said the new bill will go further than previous legislation, by giving regulatory powers to communications watchdog Ofcom to block access to online services – including social media platforms and search engines – that do not do enough to protect children.
A recent City University of London survey found that four in five British 16- and 17-year-olds have seen online porn on adult sites as well as on social media. One reason for not implementing age verification as enacted in the 2017 Act has been its inability to cover social media sites.
The letter comes at a time when the government is facing judicial review proceedings on the grounds that it “sought to frustrate the clear will of Parliament to protect children from online harm.”
“Five years is a very long time in the life of a teenager for whom the prevalence of online pornography is having an effect on a daily basis,” said solicitor Paul Conrathe, who has brought the legal action.
“In the meantime, the ease with which those under 18 can access extreme pornographic material online is having significant negative impacts on thousands of children every day. This includes teenage girls suffering sexual harassment at school,” Conrathe told the Guardian earlier this week.
The ease with which adolescents can view pornography is, IMHO, a major factor in the rise of The Culture of Rape, in western Universities and High Schools.
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