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Japan’s problems with sexual abuse of minors also rampant
at after-school facilities
The Yomiuri Shimbun
4:48 pm, August 22, 2021
At least 44 staff members at after-school facilities were confirmed to have sexually abused 69 minors in the five years through the 2020 academic year, a nationwide survey by The Yomiuri Shimbun has found.
By type of facility, 25 workers have been confirmed to have sexually abused 39 charges at after-school day services used by people between 6 and 18 with developmental or intellectual disabilities who also go to school.
At after-school children’s clubs for elementary school students, 19 staff members have been confirmed to have committed indecent behavior, including obscene acts and sexual abuse, against 30 children.
These issues at after-school facilities come on the heels of the sex abuse problem in schools.
The survey was conducted from mid-July to early August, covering 156 local governments, including all prefectures, prefectural capitals, ordinance-designated cities, core cities and the 23 wards of Tokyo.
The survey also asked about sex abuse cases that were known to the local governments that occurred at facilities operated by nonprofit organizations and private entities.
Some local governments have not disclosed the number of victims or the number of people who were disciplined for sexually indecent acts, citing the protection of victims and of privacy.
There have been cases of people who hid their criminal record of child molestation being hired, then committing similar crimes again.
Nationwide, after-school day services employ roughly around 70,000 staff, including certified childcare workers and guidance teachers who have practical experience. The number of after-school day services is on the rise, more than quadrupling from 2,887 in the 2012 academic year to 14,046 in the 2019 school year, when 226,610 minors used the facilities.
After-school children’s clubs across the nation employ about 160,000 staff members, including certified childcare workers and those with teaching licenses. In 2019, there were 25,881 after-school children’s clubs used by 1,299,307 children, both record highs.
Amid the increasing demand, securing human resources has become an issue for these facilities. Many of the facilities hire staff with no relevant certification on a part-time basis. In the survey, of the 44 confirmed sexual abusers, 15 were hired part-time or on a non-regular basis.
At present, when hiring staff, there is no mechanism in place to allow employers to verify the facts if false statements are made regarding disciplinary action in a prospective employee’s history.
A man who was convicted of molesting a boy at an after-school children’s club in Chiba Prefecture in November 2020 had committed a similar crime eight months earlier at another club in Okayama Prefecture.
In response to these problems, the by-laws of the law for the prevention of sexual violence by teachers against children enacted at the end of May state that consideration should be given to a mechanism to inquire about the sexual offense history of those who work in occupations that involve contact with children.
Chinese primary school head teacher detained after
former pupils accuse him of sex abuse
Sarah Zheng
Published: 3:00pm, 22 Aug, 2021
South China Morning Post
A primary school head teacher in central China has been detained on suspicion of child molestation, after multiple women reported him to the police.
Police in Gongan county, Hubei province, said late on Saturday that a 67-year-old man, identified only by his surname Liang, had been detained and that the case would be investigated further.
Those found guilty of child molestation can face up to 15 years in prison.
The case was brought to light when a former pupil at the school shared her account of being molested by the teacher more than a decade ago.
In her initial post last Sunday, she accused Liang of multiple instances of molestation over a period of three to four years, including when she and other students had been staying at his house.
“This incident has been with me for more than 10 years now, and every time I see news of this nature or think about what happened, my heart will tighten and I will feel extremely uncomfortable,” she wrote. “Every time I talk about this, there is not a single time that I will not cry. I am crying even as I am writing this.”
The woman, who said she had suicidal thoughts in her childhood in part as a result of the incidents, said police had told her to try finding other accusers. At least four others and one witness later came forward.
“Every time I find a new victim, it really cuts my heart like a knife and hurts to death,” she wrote. “I hope to find more victims but at the same time also hope I cannot find them, and that there will not be any more victims.”
She added that she hoped the education bureau would more strictly manage its teachers, and that children be taught sex education at an earlier date.
The hashtag for her post attracted more than 340 million views on Weibo.
On Tuesday, the Gongan county education bureau released a statement saying it had set up a working group to investigate the case, and that it had a zero-tolerance policy towards illegal conduct.
Researchers in China have said that around 8 to 12 per cent of the country’s 270 million minors have faced some form of sexual assault, but that few cases end up in court.
Chinese courts heard 11,519 cases involving child molestation allegations between 2015 and 2018, according to Sun Xuemei, co-founder of girls welfare group the Beijing All In One Foundation.
There was an outpouring of online support for the former pupil, with commenters on Weibo calling for justice.
“Little girls are not forever little girls – they will grow up to become strong women who will come back to crush those sinners in this world,” one said.
Gong'an Co., Hubei Prov., CH
Canadian women face sexual abuse & violence from ‘trans’
biological males in prison - former inmate
23 Aug, 2021 13:14
Female inmates in Canadian prisons are at risk of violence from biologically male convicts who identify as women, but no one is willing to discuss the issue out of fear of being labeled transphobic, an activist has told RT.
Heather Mason, who served time in Canada’s prison system, said that she experienced firsthand the dangers that come with placing biological men in female jails.
Canada allows men to choose to serve their sentence in a female prison if they say they identify as women – regardless of whether or not they have undergone surgery or hormone therapy.
This, of course, is madness. It is based entirely on what a person says without any sign of commitment like hormone therapy or surgery. It is added risk and punishment to everyone else in women's prisons for the sake of being nice to fake women.
Mason recounted an incident in which a sex offender had attempted to “peek” into her cell while officers were strip-searching her. Mason claimed that the biological male was “fully intact” and hadn’t had any procedures done. She said that the sexual harassment from trans inmates continued after she was transferred to a federal facility.
Other women have reported being groped and sexually assaulted by trans inmates, according to Mason. There have also been instances of serious physical altercations, prompting female inmates to “carry weapons around” to defend themselves.
They’re putting soup cans in socks because they know that they’re fighting males
and not women… There’s a really big power difference between them.
It’s not normal for women in Canadian prisons to have to worry about their physical safety, Mason noted.
The women’s rights activist told RT that biological males are able to take advantage of a “grievance system” whenever their presence in female prisons is questioned. In some cases, complaints issued by trans prisoners go before the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal. At the same time, the abuse faced by female inmates – many of whom are already suffering from past trauma – is ignored, Mason claimed.
“They have been abused their entire lives… They just accept it,” she said. While some have started to come forward, “not enough women are speaking out, because they’re scared.”
And while the policy that has led to the abuse and violence has been billed as a way to uphold human rights for all, few are willing to advocate for female inmates without a voice.
Nobody wants to speak about it. They don’t want to report on it. We’re being told that we’re lying, that it’s not happening, that we have bigoted views, that we’re transphobic.
Mason said that the obvious solution to the problem would be to create special wings in male prisons for LGBTQ inmates that are “tailored to fit their unique needs.” She argued that the fact trans men do not serve in male prisons due to safety concerns reveals Canada’s clear double-standard on the issue.
Canada isn’t alone in allowing biological males to serve their sentences in female prisons. California adopted a similar policy in January, leading to reports of abuse and even rape committed by trans prisoners in the state’s female penitentiaries.
Alix Aharon, founder of the Gender Mapping Project, which seeks to counter gender identity ideology, told RT that by allowing biological males in the state’s female prisons, California was “sentencing women, who have committed whatever crime, to the punishment of sexual violence.”
It is also a problem in UK prisons and, I'm sure, many more.
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N Irish grandfather who abused children aged from five to 10
will to serve less than two years behind bars
A Co Antrim paedophile who has shown “no remorse whatsoever” for sexually abusing two of his grandchildren was handed a three year and nine month sentence today.
By Paul Higgins, News Letter
Monday, 23rd August 2021, 2:46 pm
Antrim Crown Court heard that he admitted his guilt just as the first victim was about to give evidence at the trial.
The 58-year-old was ordered to serve half his sentence in jail and half under supervised licence conditions.
He claimed to have confessed to save the girls the ordeal of being cross-examined.
He didn't save them the terror of thinking about it for several months.
That cross examination, said Judge Patricia Smyth, was to be conducted based on his “outrageous” and “scandalous” claims the primary school girl had tried to initiate sexual contact.
According to his claims, she “repeatedly tried to get him to touch her in an inappropriate and sexual manner; that she repeatedly touched herself in an inappropriate and sexual manner and that her behaviour was so inappropriate that he threw her out of the house”.
Judge Smyth said despite his admission of guilt now, there was still “no remorse whatever for your terrible deeds”.
Last June, when the trial had started, the jury had watched a video of detectives interviewing his 10-year-old granddaughter.
She was about to be cross examined by a defence barrister when the defendant asked to be re-arraigned and entered guilty pleas to five counts of sexual assault and two of inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity in relation to his granddaughter, plus one further count of sexual assault of her half sister, with all of the offences occurring on dates between December 31, 2017, and April 18, last year.
The court heard how the defendant’s granddaughter was abused between the ages of eight and 10.
She had been going to his house to be minded two afternoons a week, but he had touched her inappropriately both under and over clothing and forced her to touch his private parts, telling the little girl it was “their secret”.
At one stage, he told the girl’s mother that her half-sister was “welcome to come too – she would not be treated any differently from the other grandchildren”.
Judge Smyth said while the mum saw that as a “kind gesture” and the little girl, who was between five and seven-years-old at the time, began to call him “granda”, she also became a victim, and was touched inappropriately.
At one stage, it emerged that the older girl was Googling at what age children could be arrested by police, and asked her mum “if she could be arrested” but she told her that “only bad people get arrested”.
Judge Smyth said it was clear the “secret was weighing heavily upon her”. It's unfortunate that mum didn't pick up on that and question her further.
The offences came to light in April last year when the older girl revealed that her grandfather had been touching her, and a few days later her younger half sister made similar disclosures.
The 58-year-old was arrested and questioned by police but denied any wrongdoing doing during police interviews.
Jailing him today, Judge Smyth said the “primary aggravating factor…is the very significant breach of trust” along with the pre-meditation of the offending, the multiple victims, their vulnerability and the length of time of the offending.
She told the defendant that while in sex case guilty pleas are of “enormous value,” his confessions were devalued because they came “at the very latest stage” so the credit he would receive “will be significantly reduced”.
Quoting from legal guidelines, Judge Smyth warned that “the threat of sexual abuse of children in modern society has become so grave, the duty resting on the courts to deter those who maybe tempted to harm little children sexually has become so important that severe sentences must be passed”.
In addition to the 45 month sentence, the defendant was ordered to sign the police sex offenders register for the rest of his life, barred from working with children, and was also made the subject of a five year Sexual Offences Prevention Order.
Two years behind bars is hardly a 'severe sentence'. All the superlatives the judge mentioned seem to have been forgotten. A pathetic sentence!
Worcester dad's 'despicable' child abuse images and 'Twitter' sex chats
- No jail time!
By James Connell
Chief Reporter/Crime/court reporting
Worcester News
A SEX offender from Worcester had the most 'despicable' images of child abuse which came to light after alleged 'Twitter sex chats' with girls.
However, the father-of-two has since had to move out of his family home in the city because of the offences which involved videos of girls as young as four being abused.
The 27-year-old, who has also resigned as a bus driver, appeared at Worcester Crown Court on Friday after admitting making (downloading) hundreds of indecent images of children and possessing extreme pornography involving women and animals.
Michael Aspinall, prosecuting, said although no charges arose out of the defendant's activities on Twitter, which took place in September and November last year, officers visited his home on December 22 last year as part of their investigations.
When arrested, Hancocks handed over his Samsung mobile phone which contained indecent images of children uploaded to MEGA, an encrypted Cloud storage application.
In total they found 246 images of category A, the most serious category within the sentencing guidelines, all movies which showed children between the ages four and nine years old.
They also found 59 moving and 25 still category B images and 85 moving and two still category C images. Hancocks also had a Dropbox account which contained 13 'extreme pornographic images' involving women, horses and dogs.
He was interviewed on December 22 last year, telling officers he was 'not sexually aroused' by the images but was responsible for them being stored.
Hancocks entered guilty pleas when he appeared before magistrates in Worcester on July 15 this year.
There he admitted three counts of making indecent images (one count for each category of images) between May 27, 2014 and December 23 last year.
Robert Tolhurst, defending, said his client made admissions in interview, co-operated with police in providing the digital devices and pleaded guilty at the first opportunity.
Also advanced as mitigation was Hancock's relative youth, previous good character and the personal steps he had taken to address his behaviour, including engaging with the Lucy Faithfull Foundation.
The defendant had lost his relationship with his partner of six years as a result of his conviction and previous 'media coverage', he said.
Explaining the background to the offences, Mr Tolhurst said: "He wasn't seeing as much of his partner as he had been. He had begun to feel alone and socially isolated.
"His naive response to that was to look for adult pornography and that led him and caused him to stray into viewing images of children out of curiosity and naivety."
Sin is progressive! A perfect example!
He said Hancocks, who has resigned from his job of three years as a bus driver, found a 'sense of community' in chatrooms where he was able to talk to people about 'a shared fantasy'.
However, the barrister said Hancocks now had a 'better understanding of the impact of his offending' and, as a consequence, 'is profoundly embarrassed and deeply ashamed of his actions'.
Judge James Burbidge QC, sentencing, told Hancocks: "All of these images are of the utmost despicable kind and it is beyond the comprehension of right-thinking members of society why you would do it."
He added: "The children in all of the images are victims. Anyone who seeks to view such images connives in the harm it creates."
The judge told Hancocks, now of Ryefields Road, Stoke Prior, he had 'resigned' as a bus driver 'before you were sacked'. Judge Burbidge said a sex offender treatment programme was 'a proper alternative to custody' and that there was a realistic prospect of rehabilitation. The probation service had assessed Hancocks as being at 'low risk of reoffending'.
A 36 month community order was imposed to include 40 rehabilitation activity requirement days, the Maps for Change workbook and 200 hours of unpaid work.
The judge did not impose a curfew, telling Hancocks: "It might just put you back in front of a computer for longer."
A five year sexual harm prevention order will restrict his use of the internet and his contact with children.
He must sign the sex offender register for five years and notify police of any change of address or other personal circumstances.
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