Stories today from Malaysia, UK, Thailand,
Australia-2, Pakistan and Israel
Father accused of over 600 sex assaults against daughter
Court officials took two days to read out all 626 charges
against the 36-year-old divorcee
Gulf News, AFP
KUALA LUMPUR: A Malaysian man has been charged with more than 600 sex assaults against his daughter, and could face a jail term of over 12,000 years if found guilty, officials said Thursday.
Court officials took two days to read out all 626 charges against the 36-year-old divorcee, and finished Thursday afternoon.
They included 599 charges of sodomy against the 15-year-old girl, as well as counts of incest, rape and other sex crimes.
The bespectacled suspect, in a grey T-shirt and blue trousers was calm when the charges were read in court. He pleaded not guilty and the case will now proceed to trial.
“He faces a prison sentence of over 12,000 years,” Aimi Syazwani, a deputy public prosecutor, told AFP at a newly-established special court for sex crimes against children in the administrative capital Putrajaya.
For each charge of sodomy, the man can be punished with a maximum jail term of 20 years, as well as caning. He faces a rape charge that carries a maximum sentence of 20 years, and 30 other charges of sexual assault, each punishable by up to 20 years in jail.
Judge Yong Zarida Sazali denied the man bail after prosecutors warned there was a danger of him fleeing or intimidating witnesses.
The suspect cannot be named to protect the identity of the victim.
The man, who sold investment products, was arrested on July 26 after the girl’s mother lodged a police report. The offences were allegedly committed between January and July this year, when the daughter was living with her father.
Good grief! What a nightmare! Over 600 abuses in just 200 days. Poor girl! God have mercy on her.
'IT’S HAPPENING EVERYWHERE'
Rotherham sex abuse whistleblower warns grooming rings like Newcastle gang are all over the UK – and people are too scared of being called racist to report them
By Ellie Cambridge
A ROTHERHAM whistleblower believes vile grooming gangs are operating all over the UK and said people are too scared of being branded racist to speak up.
Jayne Senior, who fought for 15 years to bring the horrors of the Rotherham sex ring to light, spoke after ANOTHER grooming gang was revealed yesterday to be operating in Newcastle and abusing vulnerable children.
The 17 men and one woman who were found guilty following Northumbria Police’s investigation into child sexual exploitation in Newcastle
She told the Sun Online: “It’s happening everywhere – Rotherham’s not unique – we shone a light on it. “We always knew it wasn’t just Rotherham and it’s just devastating that it’s gone on.”
The gang lured vulnerable girls to “parties” in the city’s West End where they were plied with booze and drugs and passed from one man to another for sex.
The altar of political correctness
Jayne, who won an MBE for her work in bringing twisted paedophiles to justice in Rotherham, said the latest case left her “devastated” that more children were not being protected.
She said: “It just upsets me – how many more lives have been destroyed? That’s what we created as we didn’t do anything.”
The former child worker, who has since gone on to write a book about her experiences called Broken and Betrayed, also slammed political correctness, claiming it, in part, had helped create a climate where these sex beasts could operate.
She said of the Rotherham case “it was a race issue and obviously what we didn’t want to do was make it a race issue”, as she agreed people are too nervous about appearing racist when spotting indications of grooming.
Today a Labour frontbencher today echoed Jayne’s sentiments as shadow women and equalities secretary and Labour MP for Rotherham Sarah Champion said: “People are more afraid to be called a racist than they are afraid to be wrong about calling out child abuse”.
How insane is that? - Sacrificing children on the altar of political correctness!
Jayne told how she was appalled to see a chilling reminder of what she fought to expose for more than a decade, in the latest convictions.
She said: “What are we actually doing to tackle it? It's one of the only really serious crimes that we actually sit back and wait until we have the evidence to intervene.
"Why are we not acting when the risks are there?
"Do we have to wait for that abuse to happen for us to intervene?
"This can happen to any child."
Jayne first became aware of grooming gangs when she worked at a youth project set up by Rotherham Council in 1997 to work with girls and young women at risk of sexual exploitation
Young girls would come into the project telling horrific tales of abuse at the hands of a number of men – most of whom were Asian.
Jayne, who was named the 2015 Woman of the Year for her work, said figures like restaurant owners, taxi drivers and shop owners could play key parts in spotting signs of young people being abused on the streets.
She echoed the sentiment of the Northumbria police chief Steve Ashman who said "it is for individual communities to ask themselves whether they are doing all they can" to fight the rise of such gangs."
Of the Newcastle gang Jayne said: “The evidence has been there, it’s been building and you just think how many times are we actually going to do this and stay destroying children’s lives.
"There a chapter of people that we've continually missed out on [that could report signs] and that's our communities."
Her views were back up by Sammy Woodhouse, a survivor of the Rotherham abuse who waived her right to anonymity.
Speaking on Channel 4 last night she said: "It's not just happening in Rotherham, Rochdale, Newcastle, it's absolutely everywhere. It's in homes, streets, online.
"I think a lot needs to be done, It think it's being going on for generations and generations, it's just only now that we are starting to talk about it and bringing it in the forefront."
Child webcam sex demand
‘outstripping supply’: UN
BANGKOK: Demand for sex with children is an emerging cause of human trafficking in the Mekong region, the United Nations said today, as it pointed to a shift in child sex webcam centres from the Philippines to Thailand.
Jeremy Douglas, regional representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (Unodc), and Kittipong Kittayarak, Executive Director of the Thailand Institute of Justice, speak to the media during a news conference at the United Nations building in Bangkok, Thailand, August 10, 2017. — Reuters
The problem had grown so much that demand for child webcam sex tourism is "outstripping the supply", Deanna Davy, senior research consultant at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (Unodc), said at the launch of a new trafficking report in Bangkok.
Thailand is a regional hub for the smuggling and trafficking of men, women, and children from poorer neighbouring countries such as Cambodia and Myanmar.
Many are forced to work in Thailand's sex industry and in labour intensive sectors such as fishing, construction, and agriculture, where they are sometimes subject to abuse, according to probes by rights groups and the media.
Around four million migrants live in Thailand, according to 2015 government data. The Unodc estimates that between 4% and 23% of migrants in Thailand are trafficking victims.
Jeremy Douglas, regional representative of the Unodc, said recent intelligence showed a shift in child sex abuse webcam centres to Thailand from the Philippines, where authorities have tried to crack down on the illegal trade.
He said the victims were children from Thailand and neighbouring countries.
"When things operate in the shadows like that it's really hidden ... but this should be an issue of concern," he said.
"It used to be the Philippines but through some of our interviews we've found that it's moving here and we're seeing some intelligence indicate that a move of people setting up operations in Thailand is happening."
A spokesman for the Thai government was not able to comment immediately on the Unodc findings.
The UN children's agency said in a 2016 report poor families in the Philippines were pushing their children into performing live sex online for paedophiles around the globe, calling it a form of "child slavery".
The Unodc pointed on Thursday to child sex abuse, along with trafficked migrant labour for illegal logging purposes, as emerging trafficking issues of concern in the region.
A Bangkok court convicted dozens of people, including police and politicians, last month for trafficking migrants in Thailand's biggest human trafficking trial.
In June, the US State Department left Thailand on a Tier 2 Watchlist, just above the lowest ranking of Tier 3, in its annual Trafficking in Persons Report, because it said Thailand did not do enough to tackle human smuggling and trafficking. — Reuters
Australia's Ballarat diocese accused of breaking Church sex abuse guidelines by challenging compensation claim
by Mark Brolly
The Diocese of Ballarat, one of the Catholic bodies most scrutinised by Australia's Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, has been accused of breaking the Church’s guidelines in resisting a compensation claim by a victim of laicised priest Gerald Ridsdale.
The guidelines state a claimant cannot be required to prove the elements of an abuse case that the Church authority had already accepted to be true.
But lawyer Paula Shelton said the Diocese was challenging parts of her client's claim that were accepted by a court when Ridsdale was convicted of the abuse. Her client was seven years old when sexually abused by Ridsdale, who is now in jail, in 1980.
She told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on 6 August that the Diocese was now denying the circumstances of his abuse, despite the fact they were accepted by the Victorian County Court when Ridsdale was sentenced three years ago.
"What is very irritating and irking to our clients is that we have these bishops who show up ... at the Royal Commission and say they're going to treat these plaintiffs compassionately and this is what we get," Ms Shelton said.
Her client, called "John", said: "I'm tired dealing with an organisation that seems to have no moral compass."
Ballarat's Bishop Paul Bird, in a statement to the ABC, rejected suggestions his diocese was not following the church guidelines, which were drawn up by the Church's Truth, Justice and Healing Council.
"If we are not able to resolve the claim through alternative dispute resolution and the claimant begins litigation, we seek to cooperate fully as indicated in the TJHC guidelines," Bishop Bird said. "For example, we do not require a claimant to prove a matter which we know to be true or have accepted as true."
In his civil claim, "John" said two former bishops of Ballarat who oversaw Ridsdale, Sir James O'Collins (1941-71) and Ronald Mulkearns (1971-97), failed to take reasonable steps to ensure his safety, instead moving Ridsdale from parish to parish.
Meanwhile, legislation to establish a national redress scheme for survivors of institutional child sexual abuse is due to be debated by Federal Parliament in the next few weeks. The scheme will allow states, territories and non-government institutions - including the Catholic Church, which has committed to the scheme - to join on a "'responsible entity pays" basis and has been a key recommendation of the Royal Commission.
Subject to the passage of the legislation, the scheme is due to begin operations in 2018.
Ahsan Khan’s book will shed light on the problem of child sexual abuse in Pakistan
by Eeshah Omer
Ahsan Khan is amongst one of the most famous male actors in Pakistan, who has always proved his mettle in the industry with continuous efforts. Khan is currently working on a book that deals with the problem of child sexual abuse, according to a press release.
“I have always had great love for children,” says Khan. “Their welfare and happiness is very important to me. When I was preparing for my role as a sexual predator in ‘Udaari’, I studied the problem of child sexual abuse, in great detail, especially as it exists in Pakistan. The statistics were horrifying.” said Ahsan.
He further added, “I was deeply distressed to learn about the pervasiveness of the menace in our country and made a promise to myself to fight to help reduce and, hopefully, eliminate child sexual abuse from not only Pakistan but the entire globe. The book is a first step towards making good on the promise.”
The book is expected to be published in the Spring of 2018, titled Coming of Age – My Education in Child Sexual Abuse.
Victorian man jailed for sex abuse of
nine-year-old girl
A Victorian man who sexually abused a nine-year-old girl and told her father that she "wanted it" has been jailed for at least three years.
Keith Dudley, 58, was today sentenced to a maximum of four-and-a-half years in prison, with a minimum of three years, for indecently and sexually assaulting the girl.
A jury found Dudley guilty of five counts of indecent assault with a child under 16, and one charge of sexual penetration of a child under 10, following a trial in the Victorian County Court.
The young girl was abused between 1994 and 1995 in regional Victoria.
On one occasion, Dudley exposed himself while driving.
"You told her that what you had done was wrong and she shouldn't tell anyone about it," Judge Frank Gucciardo said.
Dudley also told the child he wanted to "help her to be an adult".
The girl's father confronted Dudley about the abuse. "When asked why you assaulted her, you said 'she wanted it'," Judge Gucciardo said.
The victim also confronted Dudley about the abuse as an adult, and decided to report him to police in 2015 after realising he had no remorse.
The woman said she did not hate Dudley or feel pity for him. "All I wanted from the start was for him to get help and feel regret and remorse," she said in a victim impact statement.
Judge Gucciardo said Dudley has displayed a "wanton indifference" to the effects of his repulsive acts.
"You betrayed her trust and her parents' trust," the judge said. "You exploited her vulnerability, naivety and above all, her innocence."
Dudley represented himself at trial after sacking two teams of lawyers. Today he complained about his trial and questioned Judge Gucciardo's directions to the jury.
"I reject the suggestion that I did nothing to recognise your disadvantage as being unrepresented," the judge said. "To a large extent, you failed to cooperate for a large part of the trial."
Dudley, who has already spent 84 days in pre-sentence custody, said he would commence legal action in the Supreme Court about his detention.
Orthodox Survivor Of Sex Abuse Exposes Child Sex Traumas In New Film
You wouldn’t believe she’s only 20.
With no film schooling or experience, Baltimore native Miryam Rabinowitz has thrown herself into a film project that tells the story of sexual abuse — or rather, its lonely, complex aftermath.
“Still Feeling” tells the story of Yuval Goldenberg, a young woman who was abused during her childhood in an Israeli national religious community. Goldenberg, no longer Orthodox, is a singer and composer now. With an earthy voice, standing rather awkwardly, eyes half-closed, she lets song tell her pain.
Rabinowitz is a survivor of sexual abuse herself — and a graduate of the ultra-Orthodox Bais Yaakov girls school system.
“Most people around me don’t acknowledge the fact that I was abused at all,” she told me in an interview. “I have close friends who don’t acknowledge it. My film trailer was the first time I said it publicly. I’m making this documentary for my friends and family to be able to say, ‘This is for you to know how to talk about it with me.’
“I know it’s hard for people to process. When someone says they were raped by a family member, you’ll never be able to understand what that feels like, but you do understand that basic feeling of shame and suffering. It’s by empathy — through art and music — that we can come to understand another’s pain, rather than through intellectual understanding.”
In her forthcoming film, shot mostly in Tel Aviv, Rabinowitz shows Goldenberg talking about her music and her dissociation, as she bounces between her Orthodox family and her artist friends, many of whom are also survivors of abuse.
“Don’t assume that people are normal and happy,” Rabinowitz said. “My friend and I went along the same path. We wore the same school uniform. I went home and I was abused. She went home and she wasn’t. We lived parallel lives, except mine was covered in soot. I looked the same, but I may not have acted the same. Understand that I was in an upside-down world.”
Her film, now in post-production, is a window into this world of childhood trauma.
“Where I come from, it’s really stuffed under the rug, though it’s starting to change,” she said matter-of-factly. Her wide, blue eyes stared straight ahead. She cited the case of another young woman in her community who accused her father of molesting her. “The whole community shut her up; they told her to leave in silence, so she left for Israel,” Rabinowitz said. “People say, ‘She’s crazy’; no one believed her. Yeah, she’s crazy. If your father is lying on top of you every night, suffocating you and raping you, of course you’re crazy. When you survive abuse, there’s always someone else in your head. You see it in Yuval.”
Rabinowitz didn’t go into too much detail about her own story, but years of abuse, and her subsequent turn to substance abuse, landed her in Retorno, an Israeli religious drug rehab center. When she returned to the States, “straightened out” and “frum again,” her past as a vulnerable young woman continued to haunt her. When she was 18, a community member drove her home from an event and said he had to stop at his house to “get something,” inviting her in.
“I was 18 years old, and he was 70 years old, a very prominent person in the community,” she said. “He brought me to his house, and he did something to me.” After pausing, she continued, “When he drove me home, he said, ‘Wow, the things you make me do…. ’ I told a domestic abuse organization about what happened, and they told me, ‘If you go to the police, you have nothing on him; no one will believe you, and he will bury you.’”
That was the moment that she realized something needs to change. “I would be speaking to religious kids from different communities, from around the world, and everyone had a story, everyone knows someone who is affected by this,” she said. “We need everyone to finally be open and connect all those stories to make a difference.”
She rattles off harrowing story after story, name after name, with unnerving poise.
“My focus is not on the perpetrators. So instead I’ve turned to film to tell my story. My goal is to use Yuval’s story to de-stigmatize the issue of child sexual abuse. I hope to motivate people who have not experienced this trauma to take action to help victims.”
