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Alberta Court of Appeal convicts Calgary men in
'barbaric' gang rape 2 years after acquittal
WARNING: Details in this story may be extremely disturbing and triggering to some readers
Meghan Grant · CBC News ·
Posted: May 17, 2021 5:00 AM MT | Last Updated: 4 hours ago
Timothy Fanning, left, and Adham El-Sakaan were found not guilty of gang-raping a 17-year-old girl in 2016. The Alberta Court of Appeal last week disagreed with the trial judge's 2019 decision, overturning his acquittal and substituting convictions against the pair. (Facebook)
More than four years after she was violently gang-raped, Sara woke up to news she wasn't expecting.
On Wednesday last week, the Alberta Court of Appeal had not only overturned the acquittals of two young men who had attacked her, but after watching video of the assault which they described as "barbaric" the panel of three judges agreed to impose convictions.
"I just felt really happy and relieved," said the young woman in a phone interview after the decision. Because her name is protected by a publication ban, CBC News is calling her Sara.
"It was a huge shock to me so it just kind of took a weight off my shoulders."
For a long time, Sara said it tormented her that one teen pleaded guilty, with the judge in that case calling the rape "the most appalling acts of human depravity" he'd ever witnessed, while a second judge, Court of Queen's Bench Justice Scott Brooker, presiding over Timothy Fanning and Adham El-Sakaan's trial, ruled that Sara consented despite video showing her crying and saying "no."
Sara, who described herself as an emotionally fragile 17-year-old girl at the time of the attack in December 2016, says she is now a more confident young woman with a newborn baby and a plan — to go to university and become a social worker to help other victims of sexual violence.
Rape myths linger 'like a fungus,' judge says
In their decision last week to overturn the acquittal and convict the two men, each of the three judges on the panel penned decisions fiercely critical of not only the rapists, but of the trial judge's 2019 decision to acquit.
"The trial judge's reasoning teeters dangerously close to engaging in the myth- and stereotype-based thinking that continues to linger in the legal landscape like a fungus," wrote Alberta Court of Appeal Justice Dawn Pentelechuk.
"This tunnel vision approach is inconsistent with the current state of the law; the video evidence demonstrates that the 'rough' sexual activity had transcended to a violent assault."
Justice Peter Martin agreed. "Here we have three young men ridiculing and humiliating a young woman while beating and sexually abusing her," wrote Martin.
Justice Brian O'Ferrall called Fanning and El-Sakaan's actions "barbaric."
O'Ferrall said no matter what Sara did or did not consent to, the pair are criminally responsible for the "savage cruelty they inflicted upon [her]."
Brooker has since retired, so Fanning and El-Sakaan will go before a new judge to be sentenced. A date for that will be set at the end of this week.
To hear three of the province's top judges recognize the incident as sexual assault was "life-changing news," said Sara.
Video 'exceedingly difficult to watch,' judge says
In December 2016, the three teens — a 17-year-old who can only be identified as MM and two 19-year-olds, Timothy Fanning and Adham El-Sakaan — began what was at first a consensual sexual encounter.
Two cellphone videos, recorded without Sara's knowledge, show what happened. Footage was played during the trial, although members of the gallery could only hear the audio.
"Admittedly, the video evidence is exceedingly difficult to watch," wrote Justice Dawn Pentelechuk. "But I did watch it — multiple times."
The video shows the three teens laugh as they take turns raping Sara, encouraging each other to hit her.
She was hit in the face, called a "slut" and a "bitch" and told to "shut the f--k up."
"Punch that pussy, bro," one teen said to another.
Sara cried out in pain and said "no."
El-Sakaan said at one point, "I'm going to wreck her."
Still, Brooker acquitted.
'I almost started to believe it didn't happen to me'
Afterward, Sara was taken to hospital and police became involved. All three of the teen boys were charged. The youth, identified in court documents as MM, pleaded guilty to sexual assault.
El-Sakaan was convicted of sexual assault with a weapon for using an electric toothbrush on Sara without her knowledge.
At the time of the attack and subsequent trial, Sara struggled with anxiety, thoughts of suicide and was in and out of hospital.
After Brooker acquitted Fanning and El-Sakaan, Sara said she was fragile, and the judge's decision, paired with being cross-examined, ramped up her nagging self-doubt.
"I almost started to believe it didn't happen to me and I kind of shut down," she said in the phone interview with CBC. "Maybe they were right and I was overreacting."
Fast forward two years later, and Sara has a renewed confidence and says she's motivated by her four-month-old daughter.
"I didn't think they were going to be found guilty and now here they are — [prosecutors] fought for the case for me and it turned around completely," she said.
Sara recently applied to Mount Royal University, where she wants to study social work so she can help other victims. "To all the people that have been sexually assaulted, I see you and hear you," Sara said. "Together we will put an end to this and to break the silence and stigma around sexual assault."
'Vile' Harrogate paedophile jailed for 22 years
after being found guilty of multiple sexual offences
Tuesday 18 May 2021, 3:17pm
ITV
Credit: North Yorkshire Police
A paedophile from Harrogate has been jailed for 22 years after being found guilty of 17 different counts of sexual offences.
Jessica Brennan, who was Allan Brennan at the time of the offending, assaulted her victims between 1998 and 2016 when they were all school-aged children.
Brennan, 54, denied all knowledge of the offences but was found guilty at trial after victims came forward to speak to North Yorkshire Police and support the investigation.
Brennan has been ordered to sign the sex offenders register for life and handed an indefinite Sexual Harm Protection Order.
Detective Constable Rebecca Prentice of North Yorkshire Police’s Harrogate & Craven CID said: "The victims in this case, and their families, have had their lives shattered by this vile and dangerous paedophile.
"But they have shown incredible bravery coming forward, some after 20 years, and their courage has ensured that Brennan has been put behind bars where she belongs for a very long time. I hope that they can now begin to rebuild their lives with the knowledge that justice has been done."
So, since she committed all her heinous crimes as a man, she should be sent to serve her time as a man. Does that seem fair?
If you have been a victim of child sexual abuse
There are a number of routes you can take to report child sexual abuse to police, you can:
• Go to a police station,
• Call 101
Seeking further support, advice and ways of reporting child abuse:
NSPCC Helplines | anyone concerned about a child can contact the NSPCC Helpline for advice on 0808 800 5000. Adult victims of non-recent sexual abuse can also get in touch for support.
Childline | is available for young people on 0800 1111
Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) | Victims who would prefer not to go direct to the police and are not in immediate danger, can contact Bridge House, North Yorkshire’s Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC), on 0330 223 0362, email
Archbishop of Canterbury offers ‘full personal apology’ to victims of abuse at UK Christian holiday camps
20 May, 2021 13:51
FILE PHOTO. Canterbury Cathedral, southern England. © AFP / Ben STANSALL
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has released a “full, personal apology” to all victims of the “horrendous abuse” they were subjected to by a senior lawyer at Christian holiday camps during the 1970s and 80s.
The statement from the UK’s most senior bishop addressed reports of abuse perpetrated by QC John Smyth, who died in 2018, on teenage boys at Christian camps attended by individuals from British public schools and universities.
A secret report produced by the Iwerne Trust, which ran the camps when the abuse occurred, laid out “horrific” beatings experienced by victims and accused public schools of failing to report the allegations.
“I want to offer a full, personal apology. I am sorry that this was done in the name of Jesus Christ by a perverted version of spirituality and evangelicalism,” the Archbishop of Canterbury said on Thursday.
The Church has a duty to look after those who have been harmed.
We have not always done that well.
This is the second time that Welby has issued a public apology to the victims of members of the clergy, having previously pledged to tackle institutional abuse within the Church of England.
Alongside his apology to individuals who suffered abuse, Welby has stated that the “National Safeguarding Team will investigate every clergy person or others within their scope of whom they have been informed who knew and failed to disclose the abuse.”
Smyth never faced criminal charges for the allegations of abuse at UK camps, moving to Zimbabwe in 1984. He was later charged in that country, in connection with the death of a 16-year-old at a camp and over the alleged abuse of five boys. However, the case against him in Zimbabwe was dismissed. He eventually relocated to Cape Town, South Africa, where he died of a heart attack in August 2018.
Child suicide attempts increased by up to 200% during pandemic in Canada, warn charities & hospitals
20 May, 2021 10:57
© Getty Images / Vladimir Vladimirov
The number of young people in Canada who attempted suicide increased by 100 to 200% during the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent restrictions, according to charities and hospitals, which are warning of a youth crisis.
Children First Canada – a charity that advocates for the wellbeing of youth – warned via its Code Pink campaign that there had been “devastating effects on the mental and physical health of kids.”
The charity claimed that a combination of school closures, lack of sports and other physical entertainment, and isolation from friends and family had created a full-blown crisis among Canada’s youth, including a 200% increase in substance abuse, a 100% increase in child abuse cases, and a 100% increase in youth suicide attempts – which could actually be as high as 200%, according to McMaster Children’s Hospital.
Furthermore, 70% of young people between the ages of six and 18 said the pandemic had harmed their mental health.
Children First, along with a group of children’s hospitals, is now declaring a youth crisis and calling for the reopening of schools and other facilities, and the loosening of restrictions. At least eight hospitals and organizations from across the country have backed the campaign.
Commentators have long expressed concern over the impact of coronavirus lockdowns and restrictions on young people and adults alike all over the world.
In February, the British Journal of Psychiatry reported that almost one in four young people had said they had self-harmed in the past year, and there were a number of high-profile cases of youth suicides due to the social isolation of lockdown.
In Russia, the number of adults seeking psychological assistance increased by almost 30% during the pandemic, and polls found American mental health was at its lowest point for decades.
One of the contributors to attempted suicide by children or young adults is the teaching of gender fluidity in schools. UK studies show that more than 50% of girls who transition to boys will attempt suicide. Lockdowns would probably just aggravate that statistic.
Also, children who are being sexually or physically abused by someone in the home will have no obvious escape.
It seems quite obvious that locking down schools has been an obscene over-reaction to the pandemic.
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