Barry Bennell is facing a fourth jail sentence after a jury convicted him of 36 counts of child sex abuse
Bennell, 64, was found guilty of serious sexual offences and indecent assault against 10 complainants between 1979 and 1990.
Jurors at Liverpool Crown Court have yet to reach verdicts on seven counts on the indictment against Bennell, including four counts involving an 11th complainant.
Complainants – former youth footballers coached by the defendant – and their family members were in tears in the public gallery as the jury foreman began to return the verdicts in a hushed courtroom.
Bennell, a former Crewe Alexandra coach and Manchester City scout who also coached in Derbyshire, appeared via video link and could be seen speaking as the verdicts began to be read out.
Former Derbyshire football coach Barry Bennell appearing in court via video link (Image: Elizabeth Cook/PA Wire)
The Recorder of Liverpool, Judge Clement Goldstone QC, told the jury he would accept verdicts which 10 or more of them were agreed on in relation to the remaining seven counts. He said: “We will, of course, invite you to endeavour to reach unanimous verdicts in relation to the remaining counts but, if you are unable to do so, [we will accept] verdicts in which respect of 10 of you agree.”
The jury, which has been deliberating for more than 19 hours since last Thursday, was expected to resume its deliberations at 10.15am today on Wednesday.
During the trial, the court has heard Bennell was compared to the Child Catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as he invited boys to his house where he had arcade games, a pool table, videos and exotic pets including a puma and a monkey.
In his closing speech, Nicholas Johnson QC, prosecuting, said: “We suggest Mr Bennell is a child molester on an industrial scale and that’s why he went to these lengths to get so many lads round to his house.”
In transcripts of police interviews which were read in court, Bennell, who has changed his name to Richard Jones, told the police about his grooming process and abuse of boys, but claimed the complainants in the case were “jumping on the bandwagon” following publicity.
He chose not to appear in the witness box and no evidence was called by the defence.
Barry Bennell has been found guilty of 36 offences (Image: PA Wire)
Eleanor Laws QC, defending, described Bennell as a “sitting target” and asked jurors to put their “understandable potential revulsion” aside when considering verdicts.
One of Bennell’s victims, whom he had pleaded guilty to abusing in 1998, previously told the jury he knew of four men who had been coached by Bennell, including former Wales manager Gary Speed, who had gone on to take their own lives. But the jury was later told there was no evidence to link their deaths to Bennell.
Bennell has served three previous jail terms, totalling 15 years, for child sex offences against 17 young boys.
Yesterday, Bennell was convicted of 27 counts of indecent assault, seven counts of serious sexual assault and two counts of attempted serious sexual assault.
Before the trial started last month, Bennell pleaded guilty to seven counts of indecent assault involving three boys, two of whom were part of the trial.
Okara man charged with sexually abusing, filming schoolchildren in Pakistan
OKARA: Police on Tuesday charged a man in Okara with sexually abusing schoolchildren and filming the heinous acts, officials said.
Yousuf, a lineman working for the Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO), confessed to abusing students enrolled in a school he had established in Mehrok Kalan, which was run by his sister.
The accused used to blackmail schoolchildren after filming them, police said.
"The accused man has been charged under the Anti-Terrorism Act, including sexual abuse clauses," ASP Dipalpur Nosherwan Ali Chandeo told Geo News.
Police also seized the videos that were made in 2009 from the accused.
He is being further interrogated.
Five of 10 aid agencies open about sex abuse
cases amid Oxfam scandal
Lin Taylor
LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Only five out of 10 global aid agencies were willing to disclose the extent of sex abuse by their staff in an exclusive survey, as a major sex scandal involving British charity Oxfam ricochets through the sector.
The Thomson Reuters Foundation in November asked 10 leading aid agencies for figures on sex abuse cases, as well as how many staff members were sacked as a result, as sexual harassment scandals hit Hollywood and beyond.
Only two groups - Save the Children and Oxfam - provided numbers, with 16 and 22 staff respectively sacked over the past year. Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) and Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) replied several weeks later.
But with Oxfam under fire in recent days over sexual misconduct accusations in Haiti and Chad that threaten the group’s UK government and EU funding, one other humanitarian group on Tuesday produced numbers when asked again.
Four did not give answers and one response was pending.
Several industry experts have warned that the backlash against Oxfam could drive charities to cover up cases of sex abuse for fear of losing support and funding from the public, donors and governments.
Aid agency World Vision said on Tuesday there were 10 incidents in 2016 involving either sexual exploitation or abuse of a child involved in one of the charity’s activities.
Out of 50,000 staff and volunteers, the Christian development agency said it recorded four cases of workplace sexual harassment. It was yet to say how many people were fired.
“We have a zero-tolerance policy of incidents of violence against children committed by our staff or volunteers,” said spokesman Henry Makiwa, adding it publicly discloses sex abuse figures each year.
“WATERSHED MOMENT”
In updated numbers on Tuesday, MSF, which employs 42,000 people, said 20 people were sacked in 2017 for sexual abuse or harassment, and 10 people the year before.
“We remain very concerned that many incidents are not reported and know that our mechanisms need to be improved,” a MSF spokesman told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an email.
NRC said 13 sexual harassment cases were reported in 2017 but it did not say how many were sacked as a result.
“We know that under-reporting of these kind of issues is common in the industry as a whole and that it is likely occur here as well, but we are working to increase the awareness about the issue,” Cathrine Ulleberg, special adviser on staff care at NRC, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an email.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it “cannot provide reliable historical data about staff misconduct” but it is building a database to collect this information.
“The recent revelations of sexual exploitation in the aid industry represent a watershed moment for our sector,” said ICRC spokesman Sam Smith.
“We believe this is not about a single organization failings, this is a sector-wide problem and we must work collectively to address and overcome it.”
CARE International said it does not publish figures regarding sexual harassment or abuse.
Similarly, children’s charity Plan International did not release its figures on sex abuse cases, saying it was “currently processing the information we have to enable us to report thoroughly in the near future”.
The International Rescue Committee did not respond to multiple requests to reveal cases of sexual harassment or abuse.
The Thomson Reuters Foundation was yet to receive a response from U.S.-based Mercy Corps but the organization said it would produce the numbers later on Tuesday.
Oxfam is under threat of losing its UK government funding after the Times newspaper reported its staff paid for sex while in Haiti to help after a 2010 earthquake.
The scandal follows a pivotal year for women’s rights after allegations of sexual misconduct against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein sparked the #MeToo campaign, with women taking to social media to share their experiences of abuse.
Several United Nations agencies also vowed to boost efforts to tackle harassment and protect victims.
Uproar as French man who had sex with an
11-year-old girl isn't charged with rape
France does not have a legal age under which a minor cannot agree to a sexual relationship (file photo).
A 29-year-old French man went on trial Tuesday in a Paris suburb for having sex with an 11-year-old girl, a case that has rekindled strong debate on the age of sexual consent in France.
Unlike many countries, France does not have a legal age under which a minor cannot agree to a sexual relationship - although the country's top court has ruled that children aged five and under cannot consent.
Lawyers for the suspect argued that the girl was consenting and aware of what she was doing, while lawyers for the girl have said she was simply too young and confused to resist.
In a decision that shocked many, the prosecutor's office in the town of Pontoise decided to put the man on trial not for rape but for charges of "sexual abuse of a minor under 15".
Defence lawyers say the man and the girl met in a park and the girl voluntarily followed him to an apartment and consented to have sex.
They also claim their client, then 28, thought she was over 15.
The girl's family filed a complaint for rape in the town of Montmagny but prosecutors apparently felt the suspect did not use violence or coercion.
French law defines rape as sexual penetration committed "by violence, coercion, threat or surprise".
"She was 11 years and 10 months old, so nearly 12 years old. It changes the story,'' defence lawyer Marc Goudarzian said on Tuesday.
"So she is not a child.''
His colleague Sandrine Parise-Heideiger went further, claiming "we are not dealing with a sexual predator on a poor little faultless goose".
She said as soon as children have "sexual expressiveness and you have an attitude of putting yourself in danger'' then "it doesn't necessarily mean the person on the other side is a sexual predator".
Children's rights groups and a psychiatrist testifying in the case argued otherwise. Carine Diebolt, the lawyer for the family, asked the court on Tuesday to re-characterise the charge from sexual abuse to rape.
The suspect "knew very well she was a young child", said Armelle Le Bigot Macaux, president of the Cofrade, an umbrella group for children's rights.
"This young child isn't protected today by our French society."
If convicted of sexual abuse, the suspect, a father of two, faces up to five years in prison. The rape of a minor under 15, however, is punishable with up to 20 years in prison.
The presiding judge said the prosecutor chose a wrong charge and ordered the case to be sent back to investigators for a thorough investigation. As a result, the trial was postponed.
"It's a victory,'' Diebolt told reporters after the trial. "The main thing is that (the girl) can at last be heard as a victim of rape ... we can say it's a victory for the victims.''
Goudarzian, the defence lawyer, claimed the court decision was a result of the wide publicity given to the case.
The Montmagny case is one of several that have prompted an uproar over France's rules on child sex abusers, which are considered too lax by child rights groups and feminists.
French President Emmanuel Macron's government has proposed a bill to introduce a minimum legal age for sexual consent for the first time - and includes a provision saying that sex with children under a certain age is by definition coercive.
The proposed minimum age hasn't yet been decided on, but the cutoff could be between 13 and 15.
The bill, a broad-based measure aimed at fighting "sexual and sexist violence", is expected to be presented to the French Cabinet next month.
A similar recent case caused disbelief and outrage.
A French criminal court in November acquitted a 30-year-old man accused of raping an 11-year-old girl in 2009. The jury in the Paris suburban region of Seine-et-Marne found that he didn't use violence or coercion.
Montmagny, Paris
Israel arrests woman wanted on child sex abuse charges at Melbourne Jewish school
The charges relate to incidents at the Melbourne school in the 1980s (Photo: Google Streetview)
A woman wanted in Australia on child sex abuse charges has been arrested in Israel after she fled her home country.
Malka Leifer, the former principal of Adass Yisroel, a Charedi girls’ school in Melbourne, is wanted to face 74 charges of abuse in Australia. She was arrested following a police undercover operation.
Media reports said she had been living in the West Bank settlement of Immanuel and had avoided court proceedings seeking her extradition to Australia by claiming she was mentally unfit to appear in court.
“It is with a mixture of elation and relief coupled with anticipation towards the future, that we welcome the news of Malka Leifer’s arrest,” said Dassi Erlich, a former student at the school.
“We see this as a very important breakthrough in our long journey to achieve justice.”
Victims of the abuse scandal claimed Ms Leifer had feigned mental illness to avoid extradition.
“It has been a very long ten years since Malka Leifer fled Australia. We are hopeful that this is a turning point in the extradition process,” said Ms Erlich, who has spent many years campaigning for the extradition.
She met Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull before his visit to Israel last year with a request for him to discuss the case with Benjamin Netanyahu, and also visited Israel herself to meet members of the Knesset and media. (3rd story on link).
Manny Waks, chief executive of the anti-abuse group Kol v'Oz, who founded a child sexual abuse support group in Melbourne, said he was delighted to hear of the arrested. He said he hoped “it is the re-commencement of a process that leads to her extradition to Australia to face her accusers.
“Her arrest is a credit to the many people who have worked tirelessly to ensure that she will be held to account and can no longer be a potential threat to children in Israel,” he added. “I’m especially happy for her courageous alleged victims.”
Waks was a founder if Melbourne-based Tzedek a child sexual abuse advocacy group.
Online NZ child sex abuse offender jailed
JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON/STUFF
Victor James Puru, 61, has been jailed for possessing and distributing child sex abuse pornography.
A Christchurch man spent hours at a time watching and sharing child sex abuse pornography, failing to appreciate real children were being harmed, a judge says.
Judge Paul Kellar told 61-year-old Victor James Puru about the scale the problem at his sentencing on Wednesday, before jailing him for two years and five months.
The judge said it was estimated that more than 200 new child sexual abuse images were circulated on the internet every day, and he told Puru that 750,000 sexual predators were connected to the internet at any time.
The United Nations estimated 10,000 to 20,000 minors were victims of child sexual abuse networks. The number of child sexual abuse images had quadrupled between 2003 and 2007.
In New Zealand, over a million clicks on illegal child sex abuse websites were identified by the Department of Internal Affairs during a two-year trial period ending in 2009.
The court was told Puru thought of the material as images rather than children, and spent hours at a time watching pornography.
Judge Kellar said Puru had showed little remorse and even less insight into his behaviour. He had a high level of sexual preoccupation during the offending, but had to appreciate there were real children shown in the images and videos.
Sin is progressive!
Defence counsel Josh Lucas said the case showed the insidious nature of internet pornography. It was a "vicious and captivating whirlpool". Puru had started by watching "regular pornography", but moved into other illegal areas. He needed to do courses to understand the harm being done.
Both the prosecutor and Judge Kellar said viewing the images created a market for them. Judge Kellar said if there was no viewing of the images, the victimisation of children would not happen at anything like its present scale.
Puru pleaded guilty in December to charges of possessing and distributing objectionable publications, which included adults in sexual activity with boys and girls, dogs, horses, sheep, donkeys, and a snake.
Police investigated Puru's computer when he accessed the internet and downloaded the objectionable material, then distributed child exploitation material from it. He has been held in custody during the remand for sentence. The judge ordered his computer hard drive be forfeited.
French National accused of sexually abusing
12 y/o Indian girl
Manasa Rao
When Vidyaa Ramkumar, Chairperson of the Child Welfare Committee in Puducherry, received an anonymous tip-off on February 7, she swung into action. A 12-year-old girl was being sexually abused by a 66-year-old French national, she was told. When she reached the residence of Thierry Gagner, a man who has marketed himself as an activist and saviour, she realised she had made it just in time.
Thierry had his bags packed, and was ready to flee India, Vidyaa tells TNM. An alert Vidyaa immediately called the police, who arrested him and booked him under POCSO. But even as Thierry was sent into judicial, there seems to be a network working to ensure that the alleged predator gets away without following the due process of law.
A network, that seemingly doesn’t care that a 12-year-old girl has been abused, and deserves justice.
On February 9, Thierry was admitted to a government hospital in Puducherry after he reportedly complained of chest pain. The police are guarding him at the hospital.
This reporter travelled to Puducherry to visit the residence of the accused and speak to the family of the survivor, and officials investigating the case. And this is the shocking story we have pieced together.
A secret adoption?
Thierry Gagner is a French man who runs an NGO – Hopigo and Missions Humanitarians – that predominantly worked with young people, according to cached pages available of the now-deactivated website.
In the nondescript residence where he lived, Thierry had reportedly employed Surbhi*, a single mother of four from Odisha, whose husband had left her for another woman. The elderly man had promised to help the family financially – and this is where it gets murky.
The man had apparently adopted one of Surbhi’s daughters, Asha* – the child he has been accused of sexually abusing.
“Thierry Gagner claimed that he was the father of the child, and schools records that we checked, too, confirmed the same,” says Vidyaa.
“But when we asked the girl’s mother about this, she told us (the CWC team) that she had not given her daughter up for adoption. Apparently, the girl has some issue with her leg, and Thierry had promised to sponsor medical bills for a period of three years, the mother told us. Further, she told us that she had given her thumb impression on papers presented by Thierry for the surgery,” Vidyaa adds.
A statement that Surbhi would go back on, just 48 hours later.
The victim’s statement
According to Asha’s statement recorded by the CWC, Thierry would touch her inappropriately, make her watch pornography, and groomed her to believe that what was happening to her was “normal.”
When the child was asked about her relationship with Thierry, she reportedly first brushed off questions, stating they were behaving just as they would in France – as part of “French culture.”
Unfortunately, she may be right!
Upon further enquiry, Asha stated that she had been touched inappropriately. Allegedly, Thierry and his sister, who visited the house often, had made it look as though walking around naked in the house and watching pornographic content together were normal under French culture.
All allegations that Thierry Gagner has reportedly denied.
The other father
When TNM reached the gates of the Gagner residence in one of the quiet bylanes of Puducherry, a man was hurriedly entering the house. As this reporter called out to him, the others in the neighbourhood quickly shut their doors and windows. And just as I caught up with the man, he asks the children inside the house to shut the door.
This is Das*, the husband Surbhi left back in Odisha, who has suddenly made an appearance in Puducherry.
“Nothing is wrong with us. We are all fine,” Das quickly says. “The newspapers are writing something and we don’t know why. We don’t know who is behind this,” he adds.
When asked about Thierry, Das immediately jumps to give a character certificate to the 66-year-old. “He is like a god to us,” Das exclaims.
“We are very poor. He helped with my daughter’s leg operation… He treated her like his own daughter! If something had been wrong with him, we would have said so ourselves…” Das says, denying that Thierry ever behaved inappropriately with his daughter.
Mother changes statement
Even as we’re speaking, an auto-rickshaw pulls up and Surbhi enters the verandah where Das and I are seated. When I request to speak to her alone, Das leaves, gesturing a quick ‘no’ to his wife as he leaves.
Before I even begin my question, Surbhi quickly says, “I have not given any complaint. He didn’t do anything. He took care of us well.”
When asked whether she had given her daughter up for adoption – a claim she had reportedly refuted outrightly just two days before – Surbhi chooses to pick her words very carefully. “We are all one family,” she says. “We all sleep together in the same room. There is no difference between him and us.”
The child is now admitted to the government hospital for a thorough medical examination. When asked about her daughter, Surbhi says, “I don’t know why they have forced her to go to a hospital and take medicines.”
So what prompted the mother to change her statement so drastically in a matter of days?
Pressure on investigators?
Even as TNM reached out to those close to the investigation, authorities remained tight-lipped. Rachna Singh, an investigating officer said, “The case is under investigation. Anything else I might say can hurt or affect the investigation.”
TNM has reached out to the French embassy in India for a response, but have not received a response so far.
But digging deeper into the case only raises more questions for the investigators to answer:
How is it that a French national acquired adoption papers for an Indian minor, seemingly without her parents’ knowledge or permission? Are the papers forged, or have they been acquired with deception?
Why has Asha’s mother changed her statement? At whose behest?
Who is exerting pressure to ensure that the case against Thierry Gagner is killed – and will the investigators be able to withstand this pressure?
As the questions mount, the jury is out on whether this 12-year-old will get justice.
Seems pretty unlikely to me!
