Perverted Lives of the Rich and Famous > Washington FT Cheerleaders; Paris Hilton Changing Laws; Allen v. Farrow; Jimmy Savile

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NFL's Washington Football Team reach a settlement with former cheerleaders in 'lewd video' scandal

11 Feb, 2021 13:14

© Getty Images via AFP

The Washington Football Team have reached a financial settlement with several of their former cheerleaders who were recorded in 'lewd videos' without their knowledge during swimsuit calendar photoshoots in more than ten years ago.

The settlement - which reports indicate came in 2020 - comes after videos were allegedly produced in 2008 and 2010 from outtakes of a calendar shoot showing the team's cheerleaders in various states of undress, with the Washington Post reporting last year that the videos were produced at the request of team owner Dan Snyder and former vice president and commentator Larry Michael. Both strenuously deny the allegations. 

News of the settlement comes amid relentless investigations into the culture of the team formerly known as the Washington Redskins which also includes probes into allegations of sexual harassment made by 15 women against former employees of the NFL team. Per NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, that particular investigation, which is headed by lawyer Beth Wilkinson, is said to be "nearing completion". 

"To me, the important thing in the context of this is that the Washington football club has made a lot of changes already," said Goodell.

"Dan and Tanya [Snyder] are going to be done making those changes for the football club. It's good to see that. But I expect that Beth's recommendations will be something that will be added to that."

The franchise has since "paused" its cheerleader program as they continue with their rebranding after ditching their "Redskins" moniker due to perceived racial insensitivity. However, ESPN reports that the temporary closure of the team's cheerleading ranks is unrelated to the lewd video investigation and that it is expected to resume in the future.

The team has yet to make any substantive announcement as to what the team's name may be in future. The "Football Team" nickname was initially implemented as a placeholder to allow time for branding analysts to put forth a suggestion for a further identity change, but reports indicate that team officials are considering it as a candidate to be implemented permanently.

"The time is right to reimagine our entire game day experience, to reinvent it in a way that reflects our modern identity and aligns with what today's fan seeks," team president Jason Wright said.

However, critics of the move say that the term "Redskins" has long bypassed any accusations of racism and that the large-scale opposition to it is just another example of the "woke" PC brigade shouting into a self-created abyss. 

Paris Hilton Says She Was Abused as Teen at Utah School

Testimony helps get new law passed

The Associated Press

Feb 8, 2021

SALT LAKE CITY—Paris Hilton testified about abuse she says she suffered years ago at a boarding school in Utah, as she lobbied Monday for a bill seeking to regulate the state’s troubled teen industry.

Hilton was sent to Provo Canyon School for 11 months at age 17 where she says she was abused mentally and physically, recalling that staff members would beat her, force her to take unknown pills, watch her shower and send her to solitary confinement without clothes as punishment. The socialite and reality TV star also spoke about the abuse in a documentary titled “This is Paris” that was released this fall.

Hilton testified at a state Senate committee hearing at the Utah Capitol in favor of the bill that would require more government oversight of youth residential treatment centers and require them to document when they use restraints. The measure passed unanimously following emotional testimony from Hilton and several other survivors.

Paris Hilton speaks to the Senate Judiciary, Law Enforcement, and Criminal Justice Standing Committee at the Utah State Capitol in Salt Lake City on Feb. 8, 2021. (Rick Bowmer/AP Photo)

“Talking about something so personal was and is still terrifying,” Hilton told the committee. “But I can not go to sleep at night knowing that there are children that are experiencing the same abuse that I and so many others went through, and neither should you.”

The 39-year-old Hilton said the treatment was so “traumatizing” that she has suffered nightmares and insomnia for years.

The Provo institution is now under new ownership and the administration has said it can’t comment on anything that came before the change, including Hilton’s time there. A statement on the school website says the previous owners sold the school in 2000.

Since the documentary was released, other celebrities have spoken out about their experiences at the school or others like it, including Michael Jackson’s daughter Paris Jackson and tattoo artist Kat Von D.

During her testimony, Hilton called on President Joe Biden and leaders in Congress to take action and said she intends to pursue federal legislation.

“This is just the first step,” Hilton told reporters. “This bill is going to definitely help a lot of children but there’s obviously more work to do, and I’m not going to stop until change happens.”

In ‘Allen v. Farrow,’ looking for the last word

on a notoriously unresolved story

A new documentary series on HBO dives deep into decades-old allegations of sexual assault against director Woody Allen, shown in New York in March 1993, by daughter Dylan Farrow. (Arnaldo Magnani/Liaison/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

By Ann Hornaday

Feb. 16, 2021 at 8:30 a.m. PST

The subject was “Manhattan.”

The documentary filmmakers Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering, whose four-part series “Allen v. Farrow” begins airing Feb. 21 on HBO, were discussing the films of Woody Allen. Their new production revisits the events of 1992, when Allen was discovered to be in a relationship with Soon-Yi Previn, the college-age daughter of his romantic partner Mia Farrow; in the midst of that revelation and a bitter custody battle, Allen was accused of sexually assaulting the couple’s 7-year-old daughter, Dylan Farrow.

“Allen v. Farrow” is the result of co-creator and producer Amy Herdy’s 3½ -year deep dive into the case, including an exhaustive reexamination of documents, tapes and interviews with corroborating witnesses. In addition to taking viewers inside the family’s story, the filmmakers pull back the lens to critique how incest and trauma are treated within a patriarchal criminal justice and family court system, and how power plays out in private and public spheres.

They also revisit parts of Allen’s oeuvre, using the director’s work as proof of the frequent charge that he has long harbored a disturbing fetish for portraying sexual relationships between teenage girls and older men.

Viewers can decide whether that’s entirely fair play. But Dick and Ziering clearly see disturbing links between Allen’s alleged behavior and his views of women, whether it’s the lovably ditsy title character of the rom-com “Annie Hall” or Allen’s portrayal of a 42-year-old man in love with a 17-year-old high school student in “Manhattan.”

“Obviously he’s a very skilled filmmaker, there’s no question about that,” Dick said regarding Allen. “But one of the things that struck me, especially to some degree about ‘Annie Hall,’ which made me slightly uncomfortable the way the characters are presented, but especially [about] ‘Manhattan’ [was] that celebration of an older man’s relationship with a teenager, without any kind of analysis of the power structure. I was very suspicious of that.” So suspicious, he added, that when it was first released, “I didn’t watch the film.”

Actress Mia Farrow and daughter Dylan Farrow, shown in April 2016, have alleged since the 1990s that Woody Allen sexually assaulted Dylan when she was 7. (Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Time). Although Dick and Ziering have made films about well-known people before, “Allen v. Farrow” is on an entirely different order of fame, public notoriety and complexity. Now 85, Woody Allen and his wife, Soon-Yi Previn, did not respond to the filmmakers. Allen’s son, Moses Farrow, declined to participate in the film, and both he and Previn have defended Allen and accused Mia Farrow of verbally and physically abusing them, a charge Farrow’s other children vehemently deny. Allen’s voice is nevertheless present in “Allen v. Farrow,” in the form of clips from his 2020 audiobook “Apropos of Nothing,” as well as in taped phone calls with Mia Farrow. The series’ compelling and self-possessed gravitational center is Dylan, 35, who after decades of silence is now eager to share her story and push back against Allen’s contention that she either confabulated his behavior toward her or was coached by her mother. (Allen was never criminally charged and has maintained his innocence.)

Over the years, those who had an interest in the story in the 1990s have dug into their respective worldviews: Allen is a pervert and a narcissist, who at worst assaulted his young daughter and at the very least committed breathtakingly callous boundary violations within the Farrow family. Or, Allen is the victim of a scurrilous false accusation that was originally hurled within the context of a bitter breakup and is now being resurfaced by vindictive adult children. (Allen’s son Ronan Farrow, a journalist who helped break the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse allegations story that launched the #MeToo movement in 2017, has been particularly avid in his support of Dylan and vitriol toward Allen.) Those who avoided the story have been content to relegate it either to unsavory tabloid fodder, the bizarre psychodrama of a dysfunctional family or the realm of “We’ll never know for sure.”

Regardless of where they fall along that continuum, “Allen v. Farrow” invites audiences to reexamine their most closely held assumptions. Like Dick and Ziering’s previous films — “The Invisible War,” “The Hunting Ground” and “On the Record” — “Allen v. Farrow” addresses the issue of alleged sexual assault, in this case incest, a subject they had long wanted to tackle. Like those previous films, it is both methodically reported and deeply emotional, presenting an absorbing and often discomfiting alternate history to the one many people reflexively accepted in the 1990s — a version of reality that Dick and Ziering maintain was the result of a shrewdly effective campaign on the part of Allen’s lawyers and PR team.

Herdy has done a particularly granular job of illuminating the institutional lapses that prevented Dylan from getting her day in court: “Allen v. Farrow” finds serious flaws in the Yale-New Haven Hospital report used by Allen as proof of his exoneration, and it makes a persuasive case that another report, from New York child-welfare investigators, was covered up. The series also reminds viewers that the Connecticut state prosecutor in the case has always maintained that he had probable cause to charge Allen, although he declined to do so.

Beyond the specifics of the case, “Allen v. Farrow” offers a pointed challenge to film critics and entertainment reporters as it casts a skeptical eye on auteur worship, celebrity culture, separating the art from the artist, and the complicity of compartmentalization. And it serves as yet one more skirmish in a conflict that has been waged primarily through the media for almost 30 years.

An interview with Zeiring and Dick follows on The Washington Post.

Search this blog for 'Woody Allen' for a number of articles on this story.

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Jimmy Savile: Police launch investigation after Midlothian woman alleges TV presenter subjected her to vile sex attack as a child

By Gary Flockhart, Edinburgh News

Tuesday, 16th February 2021, 9:10 am

The woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, said the TV personality and predatory paedophile subjected her to a sickening sex attack while she visited family in England as a child in the 1980s.

She told the Daily Record how she was taken to Leeds to visit family members, and while there her mother introduced her to Savile via a third party.

The woman has been interviewed by Police Scotland and West Yorkshire Police over the allegations.

She told the Daily Record: “My family had relatives in Leeds, so I would be down there a fair amount in my childhood. On one trip, my mum took me to a posh hotel in Leeds and I was amazed at how fancy it was. “I would have been about eight at the time. We sat in the main reception area and a man came down, who I learned later was Savile’s associate. He took me up to a room, a suite, and there was Jimmy Savile in shorts and T-shirt.

“I had always loved Jim’ll Fix It and wanted to be on it. My mum was away by this time. I was in awe. I was just sitting with him and he gave me a drink of lemonade but after a while I felt funny.

“He took me off to one of the many rooms at the side of the main living room. We sat down and then he sexually abused me.

Disgraced TV presenter Jimmy Savile, who died in 2011. Picture: PA

“I always felt ashamed about it.

“I tried to shut it out for years and thought I was being stupid dwelling on things that happened so long ago. It happened more than once with Savile. In total, I would say he abused me half a dozen times.”

A Police Scotland spokesman said: “We are investigating reports of historical sexual abuse. Inquiries are ongoing.”

Savile, who died in 2011 aged 84 having never been brought to justice for his crimes, is believed to have abused up to 1,000 children, with some being as young as two years old.

A 2016 report into his child sex crimes found staff at the BBC, who employed Savile for many years, missed numerous opportunities to stop him.

Lots of Big Names and Craziness on Today's Global PnP List

Israel’s Check Point Finds Porn Malware

In Google Play Store Games

NoCamels Team 

Israeli software and data security giant Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. alerted Google over the weekend to porn-related malware in at least 63 game apps on Google’s Play Store, prompting the US tech company to remove the games, many of which were for children.

Check Point published a report on Friday announcing its discovery of the malicious code, dubbed “AdultSwine” which the Israeli company says wreaks havoc in three main ways: “displaying ads from the web that are often highly inappropriate and pornographic”; “attempting to trick users into installing fake ‘security apps'”; and convincing “users to register [for] premium services at the user’s expense.”

The malware can also “use its infrastructure to broaden its goals to other purposes, such as credential theft,” Check Point says, adding that once the malicious code “is installed on the device, it waits for a boot to occur or for a user to unlock his screen, upon which it initiates its malicious activity.”

“Adult Swine” also displays “scareware,” frightening users into installing unnecessary and potentially harmful “security” apps, and tricks them into entering phone numbers by announcing they’ve won a prize. Once entered, the code then makes use of the number to register for the victims for fraudulent premium services, charging their accounts.

Check Point says the code operates by contacting its Command and Control server (C&C) to report a successful installation and send data about the infected device. It then “receives the configurations, which determine its course of operation,” and make decisions like “whether to hide its icon (to encumber removal), which ads to display, over which apps and on what terms.”

“It is interesting to note that the server, however, forbids ads to be displayed over certain apps such as browsers and social networks, in order to avoid suspicion,” the Israeli company adds.

In a statement to the Financial Times, Google said it had “removed the apps from Play, disabled the developers’ accounts and will continue to show strong warnings to anyone that has installed them.”

“We appreciate Check Point’s work to help keep users safe,” Google added.

Among the games hit with the malware, Check Point named three with estimates of over 500,000 minimum downloads, and eight with a minimum of 100,000 downloads. 

Game titles include 

“Exploration Pro WorldCraft,” 

“Drawing Lessons Lego Star Wars,” 

“Jurassic Survival Craft Game,” and 

“Temple Runner Castle Rush.”

Toronto's Soulpepper theatre kept previous

sex harassment scandal quiet for 19 months

Theatre company had said director Laszlo Marton left

because of ‘work visa’ problems

By Saman Malik, CBC News 

Theatre director Laszlo Marton was abruptly dismissed by Soulpepper Theatre Company in March 2016 after allegations of sexual harassment were made against him.

(Vigszinhaz theatre company Facebook page)

In the wake of a sex harassment scandal that sent shockwaves through the theatre community and forced the departure of artistic director Albert Schultz, Soulpepper Theatre Company said its "core mission" has always been "to provide a safe community for its exceptionally talented group of professionals."

But an investigation by CBC's The Fifth Estate raises questions about how the company has handled similar sexual harassment allegations in the past.

Interviews with actors, internal Soulpepper emails and audio recordings of meetings obtained by The Fifth Estate indicate that management — and Schultz — misled staff about the 2016 departure of theatre director Laszlo Marton.

The company kept secret the real reasons for his departure for 19 months until a scandal broke overseas, forcing it to go public about sexual harassment allegations that had been made against Marton while he worked for the Toronto-based company.

In a letter to The Fifth Estate, Soulpepper said: "Given the small size of the Soulpepper community and the import of confidentiality to those involved, management identified a risk that if the reasons for Mr. Marton's termination were shared with the broader community, it would jeopardize the anonymity and Soulpepper's agreement of confidentiality.

"As a result, the reasons for the end of Mr. Marton's relationship with Soulpepper were not broadly disclosed at that time."

Two weeks ago, four former Soulpepper performers filed civil lawsuits seeking $4.25 million in damages from Soulpepper and $3.6 million from Schultz.

Albert Schultz has vowed to 'vehemently defend' himself against accusations of sexual misconduct. (Frank Gunn/Canadian Press)

The allegations accused Soulpepper of "negligence" and failing to provide "a workplace free of harassment" and accused Schultz of unwanted groping, harassment and sexual remarks in the workplace over a 13-year period.

Within days of the lawsuit, Schultz was forced to resign and Soulpepper announced it had "severed all ties" with Leslie Lester, the company's executive director and Schultz's wife.  

None of the allegations has been tested in court and Schultz has vowed to "vigorously defend" himself.

In the wake of the allegations, the executive committee of Soulpepper's board of directors issued a statement vowing to "listen, act and make meaningful change."

The company singled out its handling of Marton's case as evidence that it had "the right policies and procedures in place to maintain a safe and healthy workplace." But that's not how longtime actors and staff at the company see it.

'Laszlo was his mentor'

Marton, an Internationally acclaimed director, began working at Soulpepper in 2000. "Albert talked all the time about how Laszlo was his mentor," said Richard Lam, an actor at the theatre company for four years.

Suddenly in the middle of production for the play A Doll's House in March 2016, Marton was abruptly replaced with another director.

In an email obtained by CBC, the cast and crew of the play were informed of "a necessary change to the creative team." The email, written by Schultz, said: "Due to complications with his work visa, Laszlo Marton will not be able to direct."

What members of the community were not told was that Soulpepper had dismissed Marton because two women had come forward with allegations of sexual harassment, one in Toronto and one on a Soulpepper trip to Budapest, in his native Hungary.

'I wanted her to escalate her complaint'

In a letter to The Fifth Estate, Lester confirmed that in 2015 one of the women, a company member, told her about incidents involving Marton. "The first complainant and I were out at a bar having a drink," said Lester. "I told her I wanted her to escalate her complaint, and adamantly persuaded her to make a formal complaint, which she finally did."

Shortly after, a second company member came forward to Soulpepper management, also alleging sexual harassment by the guest artistic director. Soulpepper launched an investigation, which led to Marton's dismissal.

But in exchange for a copy of its investigation report, Soulpepper asked the first complainant to sign a non-disclosure agreement, forbidding her from speaking about the incident with others at the company. Still, word quietly spread and whispers of the allegations circulated throughout Soulpepper, company members said. 

"I was disgusted. I was very disappointed. I was very angry," Lam told CBC..

'A very fatty dinner to celebrate an extraordinary man'

More than a year after Marton's departure from the company, Schultz organized a dinner in his honour. In an email obtained by CBC, Schultz invited present and former members of the company "for a very fatty dinner to celebrate an extraordinary man."

When Trish Fagan, an actress who worked at Soulpepper for 12 seasons and would become the driving force behind the lawsuit against Schultz, received the invitation, she wasn't surprised.

"I knew how much Albert loved Lazlo," Fagan said.

Actors Patricia Fagan, left, and Kristin Booth filed lawsuits alleging they were sexually harassed by Schultz. (Jonathan Castell/CBC)

"It seemed to me that he was probably devastated at having to fire Lazlo and this was his way of saying I still love you and he wanted to round us all up to do that with him."

But Fagan refused to attend the dinner "because I was asked to go and honour a man who was fired for sexual harassment at the home of the man who sexually harassed me."

For actress Kirstin Booth, who would also file a lawsuit against Schultz and Soulpepper, the company's continued silence on the matter spoke to a deeper problems at the company. "There is a culture there that still celebrated Laszlo," she told CBC.

Scandal in Hungary

It would be another six months before Soulpepper would be forced to break its silence over the Marton affair by a scandal that started making headlines thousands of kilometres away.

Hungary's #MeToo movement exploded in October 2017 when a high-profile Hungarian theatre actress, Lilla Sarosdi, came forward with allegations of sexual harassment by Marton.

The allegations by Hungarian actress Lilla Sarosdi against Marton caused an uproar when she went public in October 2017. (CBC)

In an interview with CBC, Sarosdi said it started with a Facebook post she wrote about a "famous director" asking her to perform oral sex on him when she was 17 years old.

Marton denied Sarosdi's allegations. But as Sarosdi's story became a national news sensation in Hungary, several other women come forward with similar allegations against him.

In an open letter published in Hungarian media outlets, Marton apologized for any harm he might have inflicted.

'There was no reckoning'

Back in Toronto, the news quickly circulated on social media among Soulpepper artists.

Within days of the Hungarian media storm — after nearly two years of remaining silent about Marton — Soulpepper held an emergency company meeting where it announced the real reasons behind his dismissal.

According to an audio recording of the meeting obtained by The Fifth Estate, Schultz told the members of the company that it "kept the investigation and its results confidential in order to protect the complainants." 

For the first time, Soulpepper told the public about the allegations against Marton in a statement that reaffirmed the company's dedication to "creating a safe place of belonging for artists, audiences, and aspirants."

Lam, who at that meeting, felt he was listening to a scripted message that rang hollow. "There was no reckoning, there was no reflection," he said. "It just seemed so fake."  

Turning point

The meeting was a real turning point for Fagan, who said it ignited her desire to speak out against what she saw as the company's hypocrisy. To her, it felt like the company was trying to hide issues of sexual harassment rather than actually dealing with them.

"I just didn't know if I believed that things were being handled the way they should," Fagan told CBC.

"Here was Albert, you know, saying we don't condone this behaviour, we don't, we got rid of [Marton] because we support these women," said Booth. "Reading the statement that Soulpepper released to the press ... made me sick to my stomach. And I said, this is hypocrisy at its finest. And I said, I can't be silent."

Lawyers Alexi Wood, left, and Tatha Swann, second from left, and plaintiffs Hannah Miller, Patricia Fagan, Diana Bentley and Kristin Booth attend a news conference in Toronto on Jan. 4, 2018, after filing lawsuits alleging sexual harassment by Schultz. (Christopher Katsarov/Canadian Press)

It also proved to be the last straw for several other women at the company who decided to finally come forward.

"Silence is what breeds more predatory behaviour," said Booth. "The more we stay quiet, the more it will happen."

Pope shocks Chile - accuses sex abuse victims of slander

'It's all calumny. Is that clear?'

Sex-abuse scandal dominated Pope Francis's visit

The Associated Press 

Pope Francis celebrates an open-air mass at Lobitos Beach, near the Chilean northern city of Iquique, on Thursday. Francis said that until he sees proof that Bishop Juan Barros was complicit in covering up the sex crimes of the Rev. Fernando Karadima, accusations of complicity against Barros are "all calumny." (Vincenzo Pinto/AFP/Getty Images)

Pope Francis accused victims of Chile's most notorious pedophile of slander Thursday, an astonishing end to a visit meant to help heal the wounds of a sex abuse scandal that has cost the Catholic Church its credibility in the country.

Francis said that until he sees proof that Bishop Juan Barros was complicit in covering up the sex crimes of the Rev. Fernando Karadima, such accusations against Barros are "all calumny."

Calumny - slanderous lies

The Pope's remarks drew shock from Chileans and immediate rebuke from victims and their advocates. They noted the accusers were deemed credible enough by the Vatican that it sentenced Karadima to a lifetime of "penance and prayer" for his crimes in 2011. A Chilean judge also found the victims to be credible, saying that while she had to drop criminal charges against Karadima because too much time had passed, proof of his crimes wasn't lacking.

"As if I could have taken a selfie or a photo while Karadima abused me and others and Juan Barros stood by watching it all," tweeted Barros's most vocal accuser, Juan Carlos Cruz. "These people are truly crazy, and the pontiff talks about atonement to the victims. Nothing has changed, and his plea for forgiveness is empty."

Juan Carlos Cruz says he and another teen boy were sexually molested by Rev. Fernando Karadima. (Matt Rourke/Associated Press)

The Karadima scandal dominated Francis's visit to Chile and the overall issue of sex abuse and church cover-up was likely to factor into his three-day trip to Peru that began late Thursday.

Karadima's victims reported to church authorities as early as 2002 that he would kiss and fondle them in the swank Santiago parish he ran, but officials refused to believe them. Only when the victims went public with their accusations in 2010 did the Vatican launch an investigation that led to Karadima being removed from ministry.

The emeritus archbishop of Santiago subsequently apologized for having refused to believe the victims from the start.

Francis reopened the wounds of the scandal in 2015 when he named Barros, a protege of Karadima, as bishop of the southern diocese of Osorno. Karadima's victims say Barros knew of the abuse, having seen it, but did nothing. Barros has denied the allegations.

'It's all calumny. Is that clear?'
His appointment outraged Chileans, badly divided the Osorno diocese and further undermined the church's already shaky credibility in the country.

Francis had sought to heal the wounds by meeting this week with abuse victims and begging forgiveness for the crimes of church pastors. But on Thursday, he struck a defiant tone when asked by a Chilean journalist about Barros.

The bishop of Osorno, Juan Barros, takes part in an open-air mass celebrated by Pope Francis. Francis on Thursday strongly defended Barros. (Vincezo Pinto/AFP/Getty Images)

"The day they bring me proof against Bishop Barros, I'll speak," Francis said. "There is not one shred of proof against him. It's all calumny. Is that clear?"

Francis had defended the appointment before, calling the Osorno controversy "stupid" and the result of a campaign mounted by leftists. But The Associated Press reported last week that the Vatican was so worried about the fallout from the Karadima affair that it was prepared in 2014 to ask Barros and two other Karadima-trained bishops to resign and go on a yearlong sabbatical.

Bishop not recognized by many priests
According to a Jan. 31, 2015, letter obtained by AP from Francis to the executive committee of the Chilean bishops' conference, the plan fell apart and Barros was sent to Osorno.

Juan Carlos Claret, spokesperson for a group of Osorno lay Catholics who have mounted a three-year campaign against Barros, questioned why Francis was now accusing the victims of slandering Barros when the Vatican was so convinced of their claims that it planned to remove him in 2014.

Police detain a protester dressed as a priest as Pope Francis arrives in Santiago, Chile.

(Carlos Vera/Reuters)

"Isn't the pastoral problem that we're living [in Osorno] enough to get rid of him?" Claret asked.

The reference was to the fact that — guilty or not — Barros has been unable to do his job because so many Osorno Catholics and priests don't recognize him as their bishop. They staged an unprecedented protest during his 2015 installation ceremony and have protested his presence ever since.

'He has just turned back the clock'
Anne Barrett Doyle, of the online database BishopAccountability.org, said it was "sad and wrong" for the Pope to discredit the victims since "the burden of proof here rests with the church, not the victims — and especially not with victims whose veracity has already been affirmed."

"He has just turned back the clock to the darkest days of this crisis," she said in a statement. "Who knows how many victims now will decide to stay hidden, for fear they will not be believed?"

Pope Francis smiles as he walks to the altar at Lobitos Beach in Chile. He is now in Peru on the last leg of his South American trip.

(AFP/Getty Images)

Indeed, Catholic officials for years accused victims of slandering and attacking the church with their claims. But up until Francis's words Thursday, many in the church and Vatican had come to reluctantly acknowledge that victims usually told the truth and that the church for decades had wrongly sought to protect its own.

German Silva, a political scientist at Santiago's Universidad Mayor, said the Pope's comments were a "tremendous error" that will reverberate in Chile and beyond.

Scandal strongly affected Chileans
Patricio Navia, political science professor at Diego Portales University in Santiago, said Francis had gone much further than Chilean bishops in acknowledging the sexual abuse scandal, which many Chileans appreciated.

"Then right before leaving, Francis turns around and says: `By the way, I don't think Barros is guilty. Show me some proof,"' Navia said, adding that the comment will probably erase any good will the Pope had won over the issue.

Navia said the Karadima scandal had radically changed how Chileans view the church.

"In the typical Chilean family, parents [now] think twice before sending their kids to Catholic school because you never know what is going to happen," Navia said.

List of actors refusing to work with Woody Allen grows

By Lisa Respers France, CNN

In the wake of the #MeToo movement and Time's Up campaign, which have focused attention on the treatment of women, the list of actors who have denounced the famed director is growing.

The most recent actor to do so is Colin Firth, who appeared in Allen's 2013 film "Magic in the Moonlight."

"I wouldn't work with him again," Firth told The Guardian on Thursday.

The actor's comment came the same day "CBS This Morning" aired Dylan Farrow's first televised interview in which she again asserted that her father had molested her when she was seven years old.

Farrow, 32, has talked about the sexual assault before, in an interview with Vanity Fair in 2013 and in an open letter published in the New York Times in 2014, but her comments on Thursday mark the first time she detailed the assault in a televised interview.

10 Undeniable Facts About the Woody Allen Sexual-Abuse Allegation by Maureen Orth - Vanity Fair

Allen has consistently, and vehemently denied the allegation and was not charged.

Investigators concluded at the time that Farrow had not been abused, according to The New York Times, which covered the custody proceedings after Allen filed for custody of his three children with Mia Farrow in 1992.

"When this claim was first made more than 25 years ago, it was thoroughly investigated by both the Child Sexual Abuse Clinic of the Yale-New Haven Hospital and New York State Child Welfare," Allen said in a statement released Thursday. "They both did so for many months and independently concluded that no molestation had ever taken place. Instead, they found it likely a vulnerable child had been coached to tell the story by her angry mother during a contentious breakup."

In fact, the District Attorney said he had enough evidence to go forward with the charge but because of Dylan's fragility, chose not to. See link above.

But as Hollywood has seen several powerful men fall after allegations of sexual misconduct and harassment, some actors have come forward to say they will no longer work with Allen.

In separate interviews Greta Gerwig and Mira Sorvino, who both have appeared in Allen projects, said they won't work with him again.

In an open letter recently published by the Huffington Post, Sorvino apologized to Farrow. "As a mother and a woman, this breaks my heart for you," Sorvino wrote. We are in a day and age when everything must be re-examined," Sorvino added. "This kind of abuse cannot be allowed to continue. If this means tearing down all the old gods, so be it."

In a podcast with The Hollywood Reporter, "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" star Rachel Brosnahan said she regretted working with Allen on the Amazon series "Crisis in Six Scenes."

"Honestly, it's the decision that I have made in my life that is the most inconsistent with everything I stand for and believe in, both publicly and privately," she said. "And while I can't take it back, it's important to me, moving forward, to make decisions that better reflect the things that I value and my worldview."

Rebecca Hall, who appears in Allen's new film "A Rainy Day in New York" announced via social media that she would be donating the salary she earned to the Time's Up movement, which has been raising money for a legal defense fund for victims of sexual harassment and abuse across industries.

"I regret this decision and wouldn't make the same one today," Hall wrote of working with Allen. "It's a small gesture and not one intended as close to compensation but I've donated my wage to @timesup."

Her co-star, Timothee Chalamet, did the same. Chalamet said in an Instagram that because of "contractual obligations" he has been unable to speak about Allen. He said he would donate his salary to three charities, including Time's Up.

"I want to be worthy of standing shoulder to shoulder with the brave artists who are fighting for all people to be treated with the respect and dignity they deserve," he said.

And they are just the latest stars.

Ealier this month, "The Deuce" actor David Krumholtz tweeted he had made a mistake working with Allen on the 2017 drama "Wonder Wheel."

In October, "The Tick" star Griffin Newman tweeted that he regretted working on "A Rainy Day in New York" and said he was donating his salary.

Former Geelong Grammar doctor David Brian Mackey charged with 21 sex and assault offences

Olivia Shying, Geelong Advertiser

GEELONG Grammar’s resident doctor of more than 30 years allegedly assaulted girls and males over two decades during his tenure at the Corio campus.

Former prefect and long-term school general practitioner Dr David Brian Mackey appeared at Geelong Magistrates’ Courts on Friday facing 21 charges of assault, including 15 charges of indecent and unlawful assault of a girl, four charges of indecent assault of a male and two charges of indecent assault of a person. All alleged cases of abuse occurred in Corio between 1968 to 1989.

The victims names and ages have been suppressed but a letter from Geelong Grammar to former pupils states the complainants are past students of the school.

Dr Mackey was charged by detectives on October 25 last year following investigations into alleged abuse at Geelong Grammar School by detectives from the state’s historic sex abuse task force Sano.

Nine alleged victims are expected to form a group of up to 16 witnesses, including four former nurses and a paediatric doctor, who will give evidence at a four-day committal hearing scheduled for August.

One alleged victim will give evidence via video link from New South Wales while Magistrate John Lesser ordered a separate witness room be made available for other victims to give evidence from if they wish. Mr Lesser said it was important for all witnesses that the committal hearing was heard “in one go”.

Court documents viewed by the Geelong Advertiser allege Dr Mackie first committed the alleged abuse on January 1, 1958 — with many of the charges relating to alleged abuse over extended periods. Two charges allege Dr Mackey unlawfully assaulted a girl between January 1, 1977 and August 25, 1978.

A Geelong Grammar student from 1945, Dr Mackey was made head boy in 1952 and captained the school’s football team. He returned as the school’s resident doctor in 1964 after completing a medical degree at Melbourne University and working at The Alfred hospital and interstate. Dr Mackey held the senior position until 1993 and was fundamental in establishing the school’s Kennedy Medical Centre in 1969, replacing the closed Sanatorium.

Dr Mackey lived at the school’s Corio campus with his wife and four children during his tenure. After leaving Geelong Grammar School he worked as a general practitioner specialising in adolescent health. Dr Mackey is understood to have volunteered at Queenscliff’s Cottage by the Sea and was listed as a financial donor in the organisation’s 2014 annual report.

In the letter, current Geelong Grammar Principal Stephen Meek said: “Dr Mackey was charged with 21 offences from a number of complainants who are past students at the school. The school cannot comment further as this matter is now before the court”.

Five former staff members at Geelong Grammar — Graham Leslie Dennis, John Hamilton Buckley, Stefan Van Vuuren, Philippe Trutmann and John Fitzroy Clive Harvey (known as Jonathon Harvey) — have been convicted of child sex offences.

Mr Meek said the community should have “full confidence in the school’s current medical practices and procedures. Students have been able to choose male or female consulting doctors from local medical practices for many years, overseen by a senior medical officer and supported by a professional and dedicated team of nurses at our Kennedy and Timbertop medical centre,” Mr Meek said.

Mr Meek said the school, which was largely condemned for its failure to protect students by The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse commissioners, had a zero tolerance of child abuse.

“As I said during the The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse, the school deeply regrets the wrongful conduct by some of its former staff and I assure you that the current school leadership will continue to address these matters and support those affected,” Mr Meek said.

Mr Meek has urged anyone who needs support to contact its independent survivor liaison co-ordinator. Dr Mackey, whose legal team has been granted permission to cross examine all witnesses, will appear at Geelong Magistrates’ Court on August 6.

Woman accused of being a fantasist for claiming child rape by an MP, given special status at inquiry

By Stephen Wright for the Daily Mail

A woman accused of lying about a Westminster paedophile plot has been awarded special status at a public inquiry into child sex abuse.

Esther Baker, who made unsubstantiated rape allegations against a former Liberal Democrat MP, has been made a ‘core participant’ at the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA).

Core participants are entitled to apply for taxpayer-funded legal representation. They can also make opening and closing statements at hearings, suggest lines of questioning, and receive electronic disclosure of evidence.

The decision to give her special status comes months after police dropped an investigation into her claims against ex-MP John Hemming. Prosecutors ruled there was insufficient evidence to press charges. 

He and others had been accused by Miss Baker of repeatedly raping her in a forest at Cannock Chase, Staffordshire, in the 1980s and 1990s when she was between the ages of six and 11 – while police kept guard.

She waived her legal right to anonymity in 2015 to give a TV interview about her alleged ordeal.

Mr Hemming was voluntarily interviewed under caution by Staffordshire Police, but not arrested, and made a formal allegation to police that Miss Baker had perverted the course of justice.

She emphatically denies being a fantasist and making up her rape story.

Last night Mr Hemming said: ‘Appointing a complainant who has a public track record of continually changing her public allegations as a core participant brings the inquiry into disrepute. She should not be trusted with the information available to core participants and under no circumstances should she get any public funding.’

Details of Mr Hemming’s claims, which he says support his complaint that Miss Baker perverted the course of justice, appear in legal papers seen by the Daily Mail.

In a High Court witness statement this month, the ex-MP claimed that two weeks before she accused him of rape, Miss Baker had emailed him and sought his help.

He said: ‘She did not accuse me of being a rapist … she said she had been abused as a child in a faith-related paedophile ring. Her own MP and the Prime Minister did not assist her so she forwarded the email to me asking for my help.'

‘I believe this was because of my high-profile involvement with Justice for Families. I suggest she contact the police. There is no mention of myself or a Labour cabinet minister (whom she also accused of sex offences).’

In his statement, part of legal action he is taking against a supporter of Miss Baker, Mr Hemming alleged that prior to accusing him she tweeted that she had ‘never’ met an MP. ‘Yet only a few weeks later Baker claimed to have met two politicians – one myself … whom she claimed to have identified as the man who both raped and sexually assaulted her,’ he said.

In September, Mr Hemming told of his ordeal after Miss Baker, whom he said he had never met, accused him of being in a Westminster paedophile ring.

He said: ‘Although it was obvious from the start that the allegations were nonsense, it has taken two-and-a-half years for this to be resolved. The system is too tolerant of false allegations.’

In January 2015 Miss Baker, 35, claimed she was abused in a church setting but did not mention politicians. 

She accused Mr Hemming in May that year. In September she said she had asked the Crown Prosecution Service to review its decision not to press charges.

Former Tory MP Harvey Proctor, falsely accused of child sex and murder by an alleged fantasist called ‘Nick’, said: ‘Esther Baker is discredited. It beggars belief … I always thought the IICSA would become a circus.’

Hollywood - 2, Rochdale, Dublin, Derby, Nigeria on Today's Global PnP List

Oscar-winning filmmaker Paul Haggis faces more allegations of sexual misconduct

The Associated Press 

A lawsuit charging London, Ont. native Paul Haggis with raping a publicist has prompted three additional women to come forward with their own sexual misconduct accusations against the Oscar-winning filmmaker, including another publicist who says he forced her to perform oral sex, then raped her.

Paul Edward Haggis (born March 10, 1953) is a Canadian screenwriter, film producer, and director of film and television. He is best known as screenwriter and producer for consecutive Best Picture Oscar winners: Million Dollar Baby (2004) and Crash (2005), the latter of which he also directed. He is the creator of the television series Due South and the co-creator of Walker, Texas Ranger. He is a two-time Academy Award winner, two-time Emmy Award winner, and seven-time Gemini Award winner. - Wikipedia

The lawsuit was amended late Friday to include allegations of sexual misconduct toward those three additional women, who have chosen to remain anonymous. In the lawsuit, obtained by CBC News, the women are referred to as Jane Doe #1, Jane Doe #2 and Jane Doe #3.

When asked about the new accusations, Christine Lepera, the lawyer for the 64-year-old screenwriter of Million Dollar Baby and Crash, said, "He didn't rape anybody."

Haleigh Breest

A statement from Lepera provided to CBC News says that, "Mr. Haggis denies these anonymous claims in whole." In the statement, Lepera goes on to say that the new accusers have not made their concerns known directly to Haggis.

"Notably, no one has reached out to anyone on Mr. Haggis's team other than the press to report this. He views the fact that these reports appear to be spearheaded from the law firm representing Ms. Breest as a further tactic to try to harm him and continue their effort to obtain money."

Breest is the original complainant.

Dylan Farrow unloads on Cate Blanchett for hypocrisy over sex abuse and Woody Allen

DYLAN Farrow has launched a new attack on Cate Blanchett for working with her father and alleged abuser Woody Allen amid the Hollywood sex abuse scandal.

News Corp Australia Network

CATE Blanchett has taken a stand against sexual harassment by launching a new campaign, but she’s been accused of hypocrisy over her relationship with alleged abuser Woody Allen.

Blanchett is one of 300 prominent women in the entertainment industry who founded Time’s Up, an initiative to fight sexual harassment across the US and a legal defence fund to help less fortunate women.

But Dylan Farrow, the daughter of Woody Allen who for more than two decades has accused him of sexually abusing her as a child, says the Oscar winner’s involvement is “oxymoronic” given her working relationship with Allen.

Farrow replied overnight to a tweet by the New York Times describing Blanchett as a “vocal campaigner against sexual harassment”.

“Can one be a ‘vocal campaigner against sexual harassment’ and a vocal supporter of Woody Allen? Seems a tad oxymoronic.”

The Australian icon won the 2014 Oscar for Best Actress for her role in Allen’s Blue Jasmine.

Cate Blanchett accepts the Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role award for Blue Jasmine onstage during the Oscars in 2014. Picture: Getty Images

Farrow, 32, has long maintained her father sexually assaulted her on countless occasions when she was a child.

In a 2014 New York Times article describing one incident, she wrote that Allen, who was in a de-facto relationship with Dylan’s mum Mia Farrow, led her to a “dim, closet-like attic” in their home and asked her to lay on her stomach and play with a toy train before assaulting her.

“He talked to me while he did it, whispering that I was a good girl, that this was our secret, promising that we’d go to Paris and I’d be a star in his movies,” she wrote.

“For as long as I could remember, my father had been doing things to me that I didn’t like,” she alleged.

“I didn’t like how often he would take me away from my mum, siblings and friends to be alone with him. I didn’t like it when he would stick his thumb in my mouth. I didn’t like it when I had to get in bed with him under the sheets when he was in his underwear. I didn’t like it when he would place his head in my naked lap and breathe in and breathe out.”

Mia Farrow holding son Satchel, now known as Ronan, with father, Woody Allen holding daughter Dylan. Picture: Getty Images

The Midnight In Paris director was investigated but never charged, and has consistently denied the allegations. He countered that Mia brainwashed daughter Dylan to get back at him during their messy breakup.

Farrow specifically called out Blanchett in the 2014 letter, writing “What if it had been your child, Cate Blanchett?"

When asked about the letter, which was published a month before she won the Oscar for starring in Blue Jasmine, Blanchett responded:

“It’s obviously been a long and painful situation for the family, and I hope they find some resolution and peace.”

Farrow also slammed Blake Lively in a tweet overnight.

When Lively, who is also one of the founding members of Time’s Up, tweeted she was “honoured” to be part of the movement, Farrow replied:

“You worked with my abuser, @blakelively. Am I a woman who matters too?”

Child sex offenders Vanessa George, Mohammed Liaqat and Wayne Fox could be freed

By Charlie Bayliss and Amie Gordon For Mailonline

There are fears a string of high-profile paedophiles could walk free from prison after the 'black cab rapist' John Worboys was released after just nine years.

Worboys, Britain’s worst serial sex offender, was jailed in 2009 for drugging and sexually assaulting 12 passengers.

Now, among those who may be eligible for release from an 'indefinite sentence for public protection' (IPP) is Vanessa George, part of one of the 'most sickening paedophile rings this country has ever seen' who abused children in her care at a nursery in Plymouth.

Other notorious inmates who are eligible include Wayne Fox, who left his girlfriend in a coma after savagely beating her beyond recognition, and Mohammed Liaqat, the mastermind behind a child grooming gang in Derby.

The taxi driven by Warboys in which he would assault his victims after telling them, 'Don't worry, I'll get you home safe'

Nick Hardwick, the chairman of the Parole Board, claims there are 'a number of high-profile cases bubbling away' involving criminals similar to John Worboys who are no longer deemed a threat to the public, despite serving less than 10 years.

The controversial sentencing policy brought was in by Tony Blair's government.

Worboys, 60, has been linked to more than 100 rapes or sexual assaults in the back of his black cab during his reign of terror from July 2007 and February 2008. 

Police found a rape kit in the back of Worboys' taxi which including sleeping tablets, condoms and an ashtray he used to crush the drugs (top right) 

Liaqat will be eligible for parole next year was handed an IPP with a minimum sentence of eight year sentence back in 2011.  

Fox could be free as early as 2019 after he was given a eight years minimum back in 2011, while George was refused parole last year but could apply after serving seven years of her IPP. 

The decision to release Worboys has been heavily criticised, and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has also come under fire for using just 14 complainants in is trial despite more than 100 women coming forward. 

It has been said many of the statements did not pass the 'evidential threshold', but the Sunday Times claims at least 26 of the women picked Worboys out as their attacker.  

Worboys was also given an IPP, which was banned six years ago by European courts on the basis of human rights. It was designed to keep prisoners indefinitely unless they proved they were fit for release.

More than 1,800 have been released over the past 18 months, but Worboys was among the first serious offenders to be considered for release. 


HIGH-PROFILE PAEDOPHILES WHO COULD BE RELEASED FROM JAIL

VANESSA GEORGE

Britain's worst female paedophile Vanessa George, 45, who worked at Little Teds nursery in Plymouth, Devon until her arrest in 2009, described herself to a lover as a 'paedo whore mum' and the scale and depravity of her crimes shocked the nation. 

She was arrested and jailed for sexually assaulting babies and children aged around two, photographing the abuse, and sending the images to Colin Blanchard, the 'Facebook friend' to whom she sent thousands of messages and photographs. 

She admitted taking up to eight pictures a day while on duty in an attempt to get him to propose to her.  

There were fears she would walk free after serving her minimum sentence of seven years in December 2016, but she was turned down for parole. The panel decided the mother-of-two was still a danger and will not be considered for release again until 2019. 


MOHAMMED LIAQAT

In January 2011, Mohammed Liaqat and his co-defendant Abid Saddique were told they would serve a minimum of 11 years and eight years respectively before they could be considered for release.

Liaqat and Saddique were the ringleaders of a gang who brought a ‘reign of terror’ to Derby's streets, targeting and grooming young girls for horrific sexual abuse.  

They ran a nine-strong gang which cruised around Derby in a BMW or a Range Rover – which Saddique referred to as the ‘Rape Rover’ – looking for vulnerable young girls.

They were then offered rides in the car to ‘link and chill’ with the men, plied with vodka stored under the seats and taken to parks, hotel rooms or houses, where they were sometimes offered cocaine before being pressured into sex. 

When girls refused their advances they were threatened with hammers or thrown out of cars. 

Unemployed Liaqat, of Sinfin, Derby, was convicted of rape, aiding and abetting rape, being involved with child pornography, two sexual assaults, four counts of sexual activity with a child, and affray. 

Liaqat was handed an IPP sentence with a minimum of eight years in 2011 for a string of offences including rape and sexual assault. He will be eligible for parole next year. 


WAYNE FOX

Bareknuckle fighter Wayne Fox battered his beauty student girlfriend so badly that medics couldn't tell what sex she was.

Fox was handed an IPP of a minimum eight years in 2011.

His ex partner Tirion Lewis was left in a coma for a month and spent 18 months trying to recover from the brutal attack by 6ft 2in Fox.

Tirion was kidnapped by paranoid schizophrenic Fox as she sat in a car listening to music with her best friend Miriam Lewis.

The boxer smashed his bare fist through the window before driving terrified Tirion and her friend Miriam to forestry for the brutal attack. 

He punched her 'time after time' until she sunk into a coma in the motiveless attack in woodland in west Wales. 

None of these people should ever get out of jail. Letting them out to meet some arbitrary target is just insanity. Women and children will pay a high price for this stupidity.

A man has been jailed for 16 years for
raping a young girl

Yasir Mohammed, 41, claimed the girl was lying, but was found guilty by a jury of two counts of rape after a trial at Hull Crown Court.

He has now been jailed as Hull's most senior judge told him: "Your conduct can only be categorised as both depraved and cruel."

It took nearly 70 minutes of an interview with specially trained officers for the victim to disclose what had happened to her.

She could only tell police what happened by placing stickers on a diagram of the female body.

Judge Jeremy Richardson QC, Recorder of Hull and East Riding, told Mohammed: "It was very difficult for that very young child to explain precisely what happened. But with the assistance of experienced police officers it was possible for her, with the use of diagrams and other techniques, to explain your grotesque behaviour."

Medical examinations by a consultant paediatrician also revealed an injury consistent with sexual abuse.

The abuse came to light after the girl's mother noticed she was behaving "oddly", the court heard.

Mohammed had made threats in a bid to stop her reporting his crimes.

Judge Richardson said: "She also said that you told her not to say anything or 'We'd both be dead'."

Mohammed, who listened to proceedings through an interpreter in Kurdish Sorani, is still maintaining his innocence. He has convictions for violence but no sex crimes on his record.

His barrister, Paul Genney, said: "I say nothing as far as the offences are concerned. They are obviously very grave. The defendant would like to me to say, and I therefore will, he maintains the stance he took in the trial."

Mr Genney said: "By reasons of this man's background; the difficulties with the language, and he's blind in one eye, custody for him is going to be particularly hard."

Fear not. You will find lots of Pakistani child rapists to socialize with.

The judge said Mohammed had made "a variety of outrageous assertions" in a bid to discredit witnesses in the case.

The second count represented rapes on occasions other than the first offence, and Mohammed was sentenced on the basis he had raped the victim "five or six times".

A child witness in the case said the offences took place "loads of times".

Judge Richardson said: "It is impossible for me to determine precisely how many times the rapes occurred. For the purposes of passing sentence upon you I can't be sure it was many occasions, but I am able to be sure it was in excess of four occasions. For the purposes of passing sentence, I am prepared to accept it was either five or six times."

The judge said the case was "exceptionally serious".

Mohammed, of Newington Avenue, west Hull, must serve at least two-thirds of his sentence before he can be considered for release, and had an additional year placed on any period on licence.

He was placed on the sex offenders register for life, and was made subject to a sexual harm prevention order for life.

One kidnapped Chibok schoolgirl and

2 other girls rescued in Nigeria

By Susan McFarland  

Wife of the Vice President of Nigeria, Oludolapo Osinbajo (C) consoling one of the 21 released Chibok girls in Abuja, Nigeria, in October 2016. On Thursday, Nigeria military announced another schoolgirl who was abducted by the Islamist group Boko Haram was rescued. Photo by STR/EPA

UPI -- One of the schoolgirls abducted in 2014 by the Islamist group Boko Haram has been rescued, according to a Nigeria military official.

The Nigerian Army on Thursday announced on Twitter the girl is with troops and is safe and receiving medical attention.

The girl is one of more than 270 kidnapped by the group from a school in the town of Chibok. She was rescued more than 100 miles from Chibok in Pulka, in northern Borno state.

The military identified the girl as Salomi Pagu and said she was found with a girl named Jamila Adams who is about 14, and another child for whom the military did not list a name or age. Adams and the other child were not identified as being part of the Chibok group.

More than 100 of the kidnapped girls are still being held by Boko Haram and their whereabouts unknown. On the day they were captured, about 50 escaped. A group of 21 were freed in October 2016 after negotiations with Boko Haram.

In August, a top commander of Boko Haram confessed to leading the abduction of schoolgirls and surrendered to the Nigerian army. In September, more than 100 were reunited with their families in the capital Abuja.

The girls were freed in October, 2016 and were no allowed to go home until September 2017. 

'Freed' Chibok Girls Not Allowed Home for Christmas Because of Photo-Op

Chibok Girls Rescued From Boko Haram But Far From Free

Dublin man charged over child sex abuse images

Tom Tuite, The Times

A 28-year-old man from Dublin has been released on bail after he was charged with possessing and distributing images of child sex abuse.

Peter McDonagh, of St Lawrence Road, Clontarf, faces two charges of knowingly distributing child pornography and possessing pornographic images of children.

Judge Alan Mitchell was told that the the director of public prosecutions (DPP) had directed that the man was to face trial on indictment and will be passed to the circuit court once a book of evidence had been completed.

Garda Desmond McNally said that the DPP had consented to the accused being sent to the higher court on a signed plea of guilty should that arise.

Judge Mitchell ordered him to appear again on a date next month when it is expected that he will be served with the book of evidence and returned for trial.

The judge agreed to a request by Siobhán Conlon, the defence solicitor, to grant legal aid after hearing that Mr McDonagh was not working and was on social welfare.

Dublin district court was told that when he was charged Mr McDonagh made no reply. There was no objection to bail and the judge said that reporting restrictions did not apply.

Child trafficking by Pakistani gang in Rochdale
- a second look

THE widespread sexual assault and grooming of girls in the town of Rochdale was a case which shocked the country and prompted major criticism of the authorities.

The Sun Online looks at the scandal and how it was ignored by authorities for years.

Shabir Ahmed, the ringleader of a Rochdale child sex grooming gang, cited human rights laws as he launched

an appeal against deportation from Britain 

PA:PRESS ASSOCIATION

What was the Rochdale child sex abuse ring?

The exposure of the grooming, sexual assault and trafficking of young girls in Rochdale was made public in 2012.

It resulted in the conviction of nine men for offences including rape and human trafficking  on girls as young as 13 between 2005 and 2008.

Sexual health worker Sara Rowbotham spent years trying to get police, the council and social workers to take the grooming seriously.

After the gang was eventually jailed police, Crown prosecutors and Rochdale Council were forced to apologise for their failings.

The men - aged between 24 and 59 - preyed on teen girls plying with them booze and drugs in the Heywood area of Rochdale.

The Rochdale Safeguarding Children Board highlighted failures by 17 agencies who were meant to protect the children.

Who were the grooming gang?

Nine men were jailed for their part in the child sexual exploitation ring, the BBC reported in 2012.

Judge Gerald Clifton said at the time that the men - eight of Pakistani origin and one from Afghanistan - treated the girls "as though they were worthless and beyond respect".

Shabir Ahmed, the ringleader of a group of men who preyed on girls, was jailed for 22 years after being convicted of a string of offences including rape in 2012.

Four members of the grooming gang – including ringleader Ahmed – now face deportation to Pakistan.

The other three are Adil Khan, Qari Abdul Rauf and Abdul Aziz.

Khan, Rauf and Aziz were convicted of conspiracy and trafficking for sexual exploitation charges.

In June 2017 it was revealed that the members of the Rochdale gang facing deportation will receive legal aid  to fight attempts to send them back to Pakistan, prompting widespread public anger.

In December 2013 a further five men were jailed after an investigation into the sexual abuse of a girl was reopened following the exposure of police failings.

The victim told police in 2008 Freddie Kendakumana raped her but he was not charged until October 2012.

In 2015 three men were sentenced for a string of child sexual offences that took place in Rochdale.

Two girls aged 13 and 15 and a 13-year-old boy were groomed by the three men between September and October 2014 after repeatedly going missing from care.

How many victims were there?

Police identified and interviewed 47 young girls who were potential victims of the gang in 2012.

It led police forces across the country to change the way that they deal with missing people.

The Times first revealed the issue of Asian sex gangs targeting  girls after an investigation in Rotherham.

It led to an inquiry which found that at least 1,400 children had been exploited in that town.

A report by the Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Children Board painted a picture of girls as young as 10 being targeted for sexual abuse.

Twelve council workers came under investigation for failures in relation to the case, and both the police and Crown Prosecution Service were forced to apologise for missing a chance to stop the gang in 2008.