AI deepfakes drive surge in online child sex abuse

 

Millions of children face sexual violence as AI deepfakes drive surge in new cases—latest global data

by Deborah Fry, The Conversation

edited by Gaby Clark, reviewed by Andrew Zinin

Around 5 million children across western Europe report having been raped or sexually assaulted by the age of 18, according to the latest data gathered by Childlight, the Global Child Safety Institute. That's about 7% of the child population.

In south Asia, data for India, Nepal and Sri Lanka suggests the figure rises to 12% of children—more than 50 million young people in those three countries alone.

These are gross underestimates of reality, especially in South Asia. They do not include child brides, nor child female genital mutilation, and I doubt that they include child prostitution. Altogether, with online sexual abuse and exploitation, global numbers of child sexual abuse will exceed 30%, and in some areas more than double that for girls.

The online picture is equally alarming. In western Europe alone, one in five children (19.6%) say they have faced unwanted or pressured sexual interactions online before adulthood.

The data also reveals that over 60% of all child sexual abuse material in western Europe (and 30% globally) is hosted in the Netherlands.

These shocking figures come from Childlight's latest Into the Light index. As Childlight's director of data, and as a professor of international child protection research, I have spent nearly 20 years studying the patterns of child sexual exploitation and abuse worldwide. What our data shows is both deeply troubling and a call to urgent action.

How we measure the scale

In 2024, we launched the inaugural Into the Light index—the first comprehensive global report of child sexual exploitation and abuse. It introduced a new framework, the first regional prevalence estimates and indicators of child sexual abuse material.

The 2025 edition goes further. It covers both online and offline abuse and country-level data for 41 countries in western Europe and south Asia, incorporating the analysis of:

• 89 studies which used survey methods to identify victims of rape and sexual assault
• crime statistics and child helpline data
• global child sexual abuse material trends, including AI-generated imagery and hosting patterns.

For western Europe, we reviewed 48 studies from 19 countries, finding that between 3.7% and 9.6% of children reported being raped or sexually assaulted by the age of 18. For south Asia, representative data from India, Nepal and Sri Lanka shows around 12% of children were raped or sexually assaulted by 18—14.5% of girls and 11.5% of boys.

What the data reveals

Our research points to widespread abuse and some key issues emerged.

AI-generated child sexual abuse material is rising: reports rose 1,325% between 2023 and 2024, amid growing concerns about deepfake images placing children's faces onto sexual material. This rise was seen in reports to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which rose to over 67,000 in 2024, from 4,700 reports logged in 2023.

Meanwhile, familial abuse is leading to the creation of new child sexual abuse material, with a large proportion of identified material depicting immediate family members.

Behind these numbers are real children, millions who stay silent out of fear, guilt or loyalty to family members. Yet the consequences are lifelong, affecting mental health, physical health and even life expectancy.

Using data to fight child abuse

Childlight, hosted by the University of Edinburgh and the University of New South Wales, is the world's first independent global data institute dedicated to protecting children from sexual exploitation and abuse.

As I have written before, the fight to keep young people safe from harm has been hampered by how data differs in quality and consistency around the world. Our aim is to work in partnership with many other organizations to help join up the system and close the data gaps.

What can be done

The good news is that solutions exist and momentum is building, with 30 governments globally pledging action to improve online safety for children since an intergovernmental summit in Colombia last November.

The legislation is showing promising signs. The EU Digital Services Act and the UK Online Safety Act now require platforms to assess child risk, report incidents and publish transparency data. Australia's eSafety Commissioner has also compelled firms to publish reports revealing how they are failing to track the problem.

Enforcement is having an impact. In April 2025, Kidflix, one of the largest pedophile platforms in the world, was shut down through an international Europol-backed operation, with servers seized and perpetrators arrested.

Prevention is working too. The Barnahus model in Europe, for example, brings together police, health and social services to support children in a child-friendly environment. It has been linked to more perpetrators being charged and convicted.

In addition, "blocklist" technology which acts as a virtual shield is thwarting 3 million attempts to view illegal sexual images of children online every week. Lists of known online addresses which host child sexual abuse material are compiled and shared by organizations including Internet Watch Foundation, so they can be blocked by major internet service providers, shutting down access to harmful images.

Urgency matters

The law must require proactive detection and removal of child sexual abuse material. Education and open conversations that empower children and families must be supported and encouraged. And finally we must invest in prevention models that work.

In the UK, that could mean extending the law on criminalizing pedophile manuals to include material generated by AI. It could mean a Barnahus expansion, and it certainly should mean reforming the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme so all victims of child sexual abuse (including those harmed "virtually" through technology) are recognized and supported.

Child sexual exploitation and abuse is not inevitable. Like other public health crises, it is preventable and can prevent a lifetime of trauma with benefits for children, families, communities and economies.

But prevention depends on first understanding the true scale and nature of the problem. Our data is a spotlight, exposing what too often remains hidden in the shadows.

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Today's Global Pervs and Paedos List > Chunnel Jogger; PA Nurse Gets Justice for Kenya Kids; Amanda Todd's Bully in Canada; Cricket Coach; Scouting Ireland; UK Gov't Trashes Javid's Report; Gangs Also Rape Pakistani Girls

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British paedophile caught sneaking out of the country by RUNNING through the Channel Tunnel is jailed for six months in France

By PETER ALLEN IN PARIS FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED:  06:27 EST, 2 February 2021

Ryan Murryland, 31, was arrested in the French section of the tunnel that links Kent and the Pas de Calais on December 21

A convicted paedophile from Britain began a six-month prison sentence in France today after being caught running through the Channel Tunnel.

Ryan Murryland, 31, was caught in the undersea link on December 21, causing all trains to be stopped at a cost of some £45,000.

Appearing in court in Boulogne-sur-Mer, northern France, on Monday afternoon, he said he had no memory of what happened, and said he was not guilty.

Funny! How can you declare yourself not-guilty if you have no memory of what happened?

But CCTV images clearly showed Murryland, who is from Manchester, in the Channel Tunnel and being stopped by French police.

'It's not me in the pictures,' Murryland told the court. 'I was arrested by the police in the street after arriving in a car'.

But magistrates refused to believe his claims after hearing that registered sex offenders were not allowed to leave the UK without permission from the police.

The paedophile was formally arrested by French Border Police at the border post in France after he scaled four security fences and dodged 400 surveillance cameras before running in darkness through the tunnel

Murrayland was jailed in 2015 for sexual activity with a child and was on the run last year for breaching the conditions of his bail following his release from prison.

After his arrest in France by border police at Coquelles, Murrayland was held on remand, but his claims were 'full of inconsistencies,' according to a prosecuting report.

He had scaled four security fences and dodged 400 surveillance cameras before running in darkness through the tunnel.

Murrayland was found guilty of two offences – entering a railway without authorisation and refusing to comply with railway regulations - and received the maximum six month sentence.

Maxime Cottigny, his defence barrister, pleaded for his release, saying Murryland had 'not understood why he was placed in police custody.'

Eurotunnel, the Channel Tunnel operator, has warned that anyone trying to walk along the lines could be killed, with risk from both high-speed trains and potentially fatal electrical currents.

It is estimated that the disruption to traffic caused by the Myrrayland incident cost Eurotunnel some £45,000 in lost revenue.

The incident has raised serious questions about border policing following Britain's departure from the EU on January 1.

Tony Smith, former head of UK Border Force, said: 'The Channel Tunnel is a critical part of our national infrastructure. As such the security of the tunnel and of those using it is of paramount importance to both the UK and French governments.

'It is important that both sides conduct an urgent review to determine how this incident was allowed to happen, so as to ensure that criminals and terrorists are denied any opportunity to gain access in future.'

Before Murrayland's sentencing, MP Damian Collins said: 'I'm glad that the trespasser was caught before a nasty accident could happen, although I understand not before causing considerable disruption and loss in revenue to Eurotunnel.

'This is a very rare incident, and I'd like to thank the British and French authorities for dealing with it so swiftly.'

The Channel Tunnel is composed of three tunnels each 31 miles long bored at an average 40m below the sea bed, linking Folkestone to Coquelles in Calais.

Shuttles, Eurostar and freight trains travel at up to 100mph along the Channel Tunnel line and pose an immense danger to anyone walking in the Tunnel.

A Sudanese migrant who walked the length of the Channel Tunnel from France in 2015 was eventually granted asylum in the UK a year later. Abdul Haroun was initially charged with obstructing a railway under 19th-century legislation before also being held in custody.

But the 40-year-old was instead granted asylum, leading to Eurotunnel saying in a statement: 'He not only caused significant disruption to Eurotunnel and to the many freight and passenger customers travelling at the time, he also put his own life and that of others at risk.'

An American child sex abuser evaded justice in Kenya. Then an ‘ordinary woman’ took matters into her own hands.

Feb. 4, 2021 at 2:45 pm

By MAX BEARAK and Rael Ombuor

The Washington Post

Maggie Ruto, 36, near her home in Lancaster, Penn., on Friday, Nov. 20, 2020. Ruto investigated an America registered sex-offender who was allowed to open an orphanage in rural Kenya. (Photo for The Washington Post by Hannah Yoon)

NAIROBI — Some coincidences are impossible to ignore.

Margaret Ruto, a Pennsylvania nurse in her mid-30s, thought she was returning to the rolling green hills of Kenya’s tea-growing region to care for her dying mother-in-law.

Instead, a fluke of fate awaited her: A man who lived just 10 minutes from her home in the United States had opened an orphanage not 10 minutes from her ancestral village in Kenya — and children were saying they had been sexually abused there.

It was the summer of 2018, and she found the village in uproar. Two girls, 12 and 14, had recently escaped and shared horror stories of sexual abuse at the hands of the orphanage director, Gregory Dow.

Sharon, 16, outside the home where she lives with her mother and siblings. She was taken to the Dow Family Children’s Home when she was 7, but ran away at 12. She said she spoke to the FBI during its investigation and describes her time at the orphanage as “horrible and disgusting.” Sharon and her mother agreed for her to be photographed on the condition that only her first name be used to identify her. (Photo for The Washington Post by Sarah Waiswa)

Ruto was led to a rumpled patch of earth behind the orphanage. Former employees said a 9-month-old boy buried there had died a few years earlier after choking on something while he’d been left unsupervised.

The main building of the former Dow Family Children’s Home, where Gregory Dow carried out acts of sexual abuse. Om the U.S., he pleaded guilty to four charges of illicit sexual conduct and was sentenced Thursday. (Photo for The Washington Post by Sarah Waiswa)

Standing over the grave, she felt dizzy. It was a moment that would divide her life into a before and an after: a transformation from an “ordinary woman” into a detective.

Dow, whom she would spend the next year chasing, had already fled back to Pennsylvania after members of the community confronted him and alerted authorities. Kenyan police say they missed catching him at the airport by just a few hours.

Daisy Chelagat, 25, stands outside her home with her child. Her son James Kipkirui died in the custody of the Dow Family Children’s Home when he was 9 months old. (Photo for The Washington Post by Sarah Waiswa)

Locals told Ruto they feared that this entitled, white foreigner claiming to be a devout Christian was going to evade justice.

“I was meant to know about this,” she remembered thinking. “And I was meant to do something about it.”

Turmoil lay ahead that Ruto, a dual U.S.-Kenyan citizen, could scarcely have imagined: sleuthing on two continents, constantly looking over her shoulder, working through the trauma of child sex abuse survivors, and sobbing uncontrollably in her car, all while compiling a shocking investigation that would eventually make it into the hands of FBI agents (3rd story on link), splash across the front pages of every Kenyan newspaper and dramatically alter Kenya’s child services policies.

The only hint of her involvement until now has been an official acknowledgment that the FBI was “acting on a tip.”

After agreeing to a plea deal, Gregory Dow, now 61, was sentenced Thursday in a U.S. federal court to 188 months in prison on four counts of “engaging in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places.” Dow will be nearly 80 years old if he makes it to the end of his sentence.

Dow’s plea deal acknowledges guilt on all charges brought against him. His attorneys did not make Dow available to respond to the allegations of deaths at the orphanage, saying only that he had never publicly addressed those claims. A special clause in the U.S. penal code allows for prosecution of child abuse cases committed by Americans overseas.

During the sentencing hearing Thursday, Dow apologized “for the pain that I’ve caused.” Judge Edward G. Smith called him “a missionary from hell.”

Ruto is coming forward with her story because she — and the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office that prosecuted Dow — hope it will inspire similar sleuthing instincts in others.

“Ultimately, Ms. Ruto’s information found its way to a team of dedicated FBI agents, who … gathered the evidence required to charge Dow and hold him accountable for the monstrous abuse he perpetrated on his victims,” William M. McSwain, the U.S. attorney at the time in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, said in a statement to The Washington Post. “This case is a textbook example of the ways in which the public can assist law enforcement in bringing sexual predators like Dow, and other criminals, to justice.”

Separately, Kenyan police exhumed and autopsied the body of the 9-month-old, James Kipkirui, as part of an ongoing investigation into the circumstances of his death, according to Johansen Oduor, the government’s chief forensic pathologist.

Three summers ago, Ruto made a silent, solemn promise that nothing would stop her — not corrupt authorities in Kenya and not sticky-slow bureaucracy in the United States — from pursuing justice for the children at the orphanage.

“I’m just an ordinary woman, a nurse, a mother,” she recalled recently. “I had no idea what I was getting into.”

I’m just an ordinary woman, a nurse, a mother. I had no idea what I was getting into.”

— Margaret Ruto, of Pennsylvania, who brought allegation to U.S. law-enforcement attention

Kenya has a vast array of missionary-run institutions, including nursing homes, schools and orphanages. Often, impoverished families avoid extra financial burden by sending their children and elderly to live at these charitable institutions.

When the Dow Family Children’s Home opened in 2008, foreigners were not required to submit to background checks. It is possible that no one in Kenya was aware Dow had been a registered sex offender in the United States until 2006.

Boito, Kenya

Dutch man charged in Amanda Todd cyberbullying case was extradited to Canada in early December

Yvette Brend · CBC News

Posted: Feb 05, 2021 11:40 AM PT 

An artist's sketch of Aydin Coban from a Dutch court in 2017. (Eurovision)

The Dutch man accused of tormenting and extorting B.C. teenager Amanda Todd online before she killed herself in 2012 was extradited to Canada in December, CBC has learned.

Court officials confirmed Aydin Coban made his first appearance in a B.C. court on Dec. 8, 2020. His lawyer Robert Malewicz confirmed that his client, who he said is eager to clear his name, was flown to Canada in early December. 

Coban was charged in Canada with extortion, criminal harassment, child luring and child pornography in connection with the 15-year-old from Port Coquitlam, B.C.

Dutch will not Charge Pervert Who's Sextortion Led Amanda Todd to Suicide 

He was serving a sentence for unrelated cyberbullying convictions in The Netherlands at the time of his extradition.

Amanda Todd’s Accused Cyberbully Facing 11 Years in Dutch Prison *UPDATED*

A spokesperson for the federal Department of Justice said that once Coban's Canadian trial has concluded, he will return home to complete his sentence. If he is convicted of the Canadian charges, that sentence will also be served in the Netherlands.

Amanda Todd killed herself in October 2012, after posting a YouTube video saying she had been blackmailed by an online predator. (CBC/The Fifth Estate)

Todd's death drew international attention after she left behind a poignant YouTube video using flash cards to tell how she sank into depression after she was exploited online.

Coban is accused of sexually blackmailing the teen. He was charged in Canada in 2014, but first had to face criminal proceedings unrelated to Todd's case in his home country.

Coban was convicted and sentenced in 2017 for fraud and blackmail in a series of cyberbullying cases involving young girls and gay men. 

In a statement online last November, Coban said: "The Canadian authorities finally agreed to execute the extradition. I hope to be in Canada in a few days, if not weeks. I'm looking forward to clear my name. I am innocent."

Last year, Coban's lawyer said his client was eager to fight the charges in Canada, but had been stymied by travel document issues.

In a statement on his website in November, Malewicz said, "further delay of the extradition is for him unacceptable, as he also takes into consideration that the family of Amanda Todd and Canadian society have been waiting for a trial."

Malewicz said his client had been fighting to come to Canada since 2018.

"He is looking forward to clear his name and to fight the charges. He's not willing whatsoever to enter a plea agreement or plead guilty," said Malewicz.

Coban's next appearance in court, for a pre-trial conference, is scheduled for Feb. 12 in New Westminster, B.C. He'll remain in custody throughout his time in Canada.

Cricket coach sentenced in Wollongong for grooming young boys

ABC Illawarra / By Ainslie Drewitt Smith

Christopher Cranny pleaded guilty to grooming three boys.(Supplied: Facebook)

A former New South Wales cricket coach has been sentenced to three years in prison for grooming several teenage boys.

Christopher Cranny thanked Magistrate Claire Girotto and nodded to his father in the public gallery before police escorted him out of Wollongong Local Court today.

The 31-year-old pleaded guilty to 12 charges, including grooming a child for unlawful sexual activity and intentionally performing a sexual act with a child.

Magistrate Girotto said the pattern of offending was the same against each of the boys and occurred between 2015 and 2017 and again in 2019.

"A message must be sent to those who might sexually abuse children," Magistrate Girotto said.

"Their actions won't be tolerated."

To "denounce the conduct" and "protect the community" she handed Cranny a three-year prison sentence with a non-parole period of 14 months.

'Pay the price'

Cranny's crimes involved communicating with his victims through social media, talking to them about sex and, at times, masturbating in front of them.

One of the boys' fathers reported the conduct to police after reading a text message on his son's phone.

In delivering her sentence Magistrate Girotto said she had taken into consideration that Cranny had "deep remorse" for what he had done and that he had offered to explore the option of chemical castration to reduce his "urges" towards young boys.

She explained that Cranny was from a "stable and loving environment", but as a child had been "subjected to some bullying" and was "reclusive". He then developed an attraction to young boys, she said.

Outside the courthouse Cranny's father said his son was relieved to have the matter finalised.

"He realised what he's done and he's going to pay the price," he said. "What my son has done, he's done. To the families, all the best — I hope they can get over it and get on with it."

As if that was an easy thing to do. 

Six men sue Scouting Ireland over alleged abuse by its former leader

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David O’Brien (69) previously said he had abused between 30 and 40 boys

Six men are currently taking legal cases against Scouting Ireland over alleged historical child abuse  

 

Six men are currently taking legal cases against Scouting Ireland over alleged historical child abuse by convicted abuser David O’Brien, who previously told gardaí he had abused up to 40 children as a scout leader.

O’Brien (69) of Benburb Street, Dublin, has been convicted of sexually abusing 10 boys in the 1970s and 1980s. He is currently serving two prison sentences totalling 14 years, with three years suspended.

During an interview with gardaí in 2016, O’Brien estimated he had abused between 30 and 40 children as a scout leader, a court heard.

He was first jailed for 4½ years in October 2015 for sexually abusing six young boys on camping trips in the late 1970s and 1980s. He was jailed for a further 6½ years in 2019 for the abuse of another four boys.

During a sentencing hearing, it emerged one of the victims had made a criminal complaint to gardaí in 1996. O’Brien was interviewed by gardaí in 1997 and said while he did not remember the specific abuse allegation, he did not deny it.

Confronted

He told gardaí at the time of the abuse he was molesting several young boys in the scouts, and had been doing so for 10 years.

He said he had left one scout group after being confronted by a parent, but later joined another group where he continued to abuse children.

Following a Garda investigation a file was submitted to the State solicitor in 1997, but a decision was made not to pursue a prosecution.

I have encountered this statement so many times on this blog and it almost always comes from Ireland. What is wrong is Irish prosecutors? Do they identify more with the paedophiles than the victims?

At a Court of Appeal hearing last week a lawyer for O’Brien said he wanted gardaí to find the rest of his “many victims” so that he could “put an end to all of this”, as he could not remember their names.

Does he think an apology will fix things? He probably has no idea what he has done to those men.

Cases

Two of the civil cases were filed in 2016, one in 2019, two in 2020, and one to date this year. Coleman Legal Partners, who specialise in abuse cases, are representing the plaintiffs in three of the cases.

Scouting Ireland has in recent years been at the centre of a major child sex abuse scandal involving its predecessor bodies, the Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland and the Scout Association of Ireland.

A report by child protection expert Ian Elliott, published in May 2020, concluded past child abuse had been “tolerated” at the highest levels of the scouting bodies. It found the crimes of known abusers had been covered up to protect the reputation of the movement. Scouting Ireland has identified more than 350 alleged survivors of historic child sex abuse, and 275 alleged perpetrators.

Scouting Ireland previously said about 40 alleged abuse survivors were seeking to take legal cases against the youth organisation over the historic abuse.

Britain continues to throw young British girls under the bus of Political Correctness, or, more accurately, #PCMadness. 

Thousands of girls were horribly abused by Pakistani, Muslim gangs and local police and councils did nothing for fear of looking like racists. Now, the UK government has taken the same stand out of cowardice and callousness to the suffering of thousands of young, white British girls. This is unforgivable.

Home Office report on ‘characteristics’ of grooming gangs

fails to give any real answers

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After two-and-a-half-year wait, officials conclude it is ‘not possible to say’ whether Asian offenders are over-represented, Lizzie Dearden writes 

Tuesday 15 December 2020 23:20

 

Sajid Javid announced the research in 2018 but the Home Office initially resisted releasing it

Two and a half years after being announced by Sajid Javid, research into the “characteristics” of grooming gangs has been published.

The former home secretary spoke about the work several times in 2018, sparking controversy by saying there was a “high proportion of men of Pakistani heritage” in high-profile cases and that there could be “cultural reasons” behind the abuse.

Of course, Mohammed gave clear commands that any girl 'in your right hand', that means under your power, is fair game for anything you want to do with her. This statement was made in response to a question about slaves, or prisoners of war, but has been interpreted as any kafir, ie non-Muslim. Muslims have been doing this for 1400 years, so they are quite astonished when they arrive in western countries and find that their tradition is illegal.

But after his move to the Treasury, the Home Office fell silent and later said the work was “internal”, refusing to release it following a freedom of information request by The Independent in December 2019.

Which, no doubt, was why he was moved to Treasury out of Home Office.

The resulting article sparked a petition signed by more than 130,000 people demanding the release of the research, prompting a government U-turn in May.

But the Home Office paper on “group-based child sexual exploitation” does not contain the answers that many were eagerly awaiting. Instead of providing a much-needed official resource to aid prevention efforts, the report is a catalogue of unknowns.

As a result, different groups are likely to use it to confirm pre-existing beliefs. Far-right groups will continue to blame Muslim men, either by selectively quoting the report or dismissing its findings.

Hours after its release, Britain First declared it a “blatant cover-up”, while Tommy Robinson was posting claims about “predominantly Pakistani Muslim child rape gangs”.

The report concluded that the “existing data would not answer the question of the relationship between ethnicity and child sexual exploitation” (CSE), and that it “was not possible” to say whether certain groups are over-represented among abusers.

I am inclined to believe that the existing data was carefully selected for the sake of obfuscating the whole picture.

The report said that a “number of high-profile cases have mainly involved men of Pakistani ethnicity” and that some research found high numbers of Asian and black grooming gang members.

But it warned of problems with data quality and sample selection, as well as “the potential for bias and inaccuracies”.

The Home Office concluded that it was “most likely” that most grooming gang members are white, but offered little evidence other than data gaps and wider sexual offending trends.

The report said high-profile cases including Rotherham had involved men of Pakistani origin but there was insufficient data to say whether that was a trend

It said the prevalence of grooming gangs was also “difficult to determine” because of under-reporting by victims, and under-recording by police.

Grooming gang members may be convicted of a range of offences, from rape to trafficking and drug supply, and although police introduced a “CSE flag” to draw together related crimes in 2016, it is not consistently used.

The flag is for all CSE, rather than abuse by groups, and – as the report says – “‘grooming gang’ is an ambiguous term that has no official definition”.

“We have found that a lack of clarity around definitions of groups, gangs, and sexual exploitation contribute to inconsistencies in recording,” it added. “There remains confusion amongst practitioners around what constitutes group-based CSE.”

Good grief! What a horrible joke!

Only 32 out of 44 police forces across England, Wales and Scotland responded to a call for a data snapshot in June, and it was “not possible” to exclude different types of CSE such as online grooming from the figures they provided.

The inquiry had Home Office backing, why were there not responses from 44 police forces?

What the report does show is the continuing failure to properly record, analyse and ultimately prevent sexual abuse by grooming gangs in Britain.

While an improved response by police has resulted in dozens of abusers being convicted, the report suggests a case-by-case approach where no agency has taken responsibility for joining the dots.

The Home Office’s paper is the first step towards filling that gap, and the government has promised to further its understanding with a new Tackling Child Sexual Abuse Strategy.

As Rotherham survivor Sammy Woodhouse says, “this is something that is still happening today and will continue to happen in the future”. Victims cannot afford to wait another two-and-a-half years for action.

Young Pakistani gangs don't always pick on young British girls, anyone is fair game, even your cousin.

'I dreaded the whistle' - Gang allegedly abused girl at Walsall Arboretum and in backstreets

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West Midlands Police under fire after victim gave them 18 names of alleged abusers - but no-one been charged in seven years

BirminghamLive - Black Country

It was being caught smoking at the age of ten that Hannah says led to seven years of terrifying abuse by a grooming gang - including four relatives.

She says a male cousin told her he caught her on video with a cigarette and warned he would show her Pakistani parents, unless she performed a sex act.

Terrified, the schoolgirl says she did what he asked only to later discover that the attack had also been recorded. She was again threatened with him telling her strict Muslim family about the video if did not comply with more sick demands.

She told how she soon went on to be abused by three other cousins, before their friends and acquaintances also began making sexual demands when they saw her in her home town of Walsall.

Hannah, whose name we have changed to protect her identity, said: "One of them once punched me whilst he was sexually abusing me.

"Sometimes they would whistle to me which was a sign to come over or follow them somewhere private. I used to dread the whistle."

The repeated abuse took place in the backstreets of Walsall, in the famous Arboretum grounds and even the town library.

But the traumatised youngster says she never considered going to police for one reason - her strict Muslim family.

Hannah said: "Any form of sexual intercourse is going to bring shame on your family. Even rape. That's basically your fault in a Muslim person's eye, you've brought that shame upon yourself. But it's not just shame for me, it's shame then for my family."

In total, Hannah claims 18 boys and men raped and sexually abused her over seven years. All, she says, lived in the Walsall area and were known to each other.

Yet she did not even fully realise the horror she had been living through until she fled to the East Midlands at the age of 18 after her father had allegedly tried to force her into marriage.

It took counselling from refuge workers and police to extract the horrifying details of the child sexual exploitation.

Walsall Arboretum. (Image: Birmingham Live)

Hannah said: "We had been in a session when my support worker just looked at me and said, 'I feel like there's so much to you that you're just not letting out'.

"Everyone was always telling me, 'It's like you're in your own little world, you've got so much in your head that you want to let out'.

"I was sitting there and I couldn't think of anything. Then I thought, 'Oh my God, the blackmail'.

"I ended up talking to her and said that from a young age my cousins were blackmailing me'.. but she listened to what had happened and, 'It wasn't blackmail, it was sexual abuse."

Police were called in and more details of what had happened during her early years emerged - including the alleged abuse of other young girls by the same grooming gang members.

Early morning view across the main lake, at Walsall Arboretum

(Image: Graham Young / BirminghamLive)

Hannah said: "The abuse happened in the Arboretum Park in Walsall, also in school grounds.

"I didn't drink but I know there's a lot of girls who got plied with vodka and stuff and got raped behind the church by these guys. I saw girls being plied with vodka by these perpetrators.

"I've also had girls messaging me about their abuse by the same group and I passed this onto West Midlands Police in 2015. Girls messaged me back and told me they had been abused.

"There was a place on Birmingham Road and I know that me and another Asian girl were taken there. I gave her name to the police.

"She's now married. I saw her about a year ago at Walsall train station and she looked at me and I looked at her and she smiled, and we basically both just smiled at each other.

"And we just hugged for ages and asked each other if the other was OK. I said, 'I know what was happening to you' and she said, 'I know what was happening to you'.

"She said to me, 'I'm married, I've got kids now'. She's Pakistani as well. She said, 'I can't do anything'.

"We ended up talking on Facebook to one another but she then said she couldn't carry on. And she blocked me. I get it...."

There is much more to this story on Birmingham Live.

Lawyer: Phillips Report on Sex Abuse 'Window-Dressing'

Garabedian claims report is 'tip of the iceberg' of abuse cases

By Bill Kirk bkirk@eagletribune.com  1 hr ago 

   

ANDOVER -- A lawyer who represents victims of child sex abuse — including a woman who claims she was abused at Phillips Academy in the 1980s — said a report released Monday on behalf of the elite boarding school is just "window-dressing" meant to show that it is doing something to deal with the problem.

What they are doing, said Mitchell Garabedian, isn't nearly enough.

"The report only gives us the tip of the iceberg," he said, referring to the low number of victims discussed in the document, which names a handful of teachers as perpetrators and a dozen or so victims, whose names are not used. 

"In my experience, many sexual abuse victims don't want to report the abuse for personal reasons," he said. "But where has the school been all these years? Why are they not protecting innocent victims for decades? Why haven't teachers and administrators been supervising these children?"

"Their mission is to educate, protect and keep these innocent children safe," he added. "They simply have not done their job. There is no excuse for numerous perpetrators to have been sexually abusing numerous children over numerous years. There are probably many others out there."

On Monday, Phillips released a report prepared by the Brookline-based Sanghavi Law Office stating that 60 potential victims had been identified in incidents that occurred between the 1940s and 2015, while 55 alleged perpetrators had been identified.

After reviewing all cases -- which included 115 interviews -- investigators working for the firm found credible evidence to undertake 16 full investigations of 13 possible perpetrators. In a report released earlier this week, the school said it concluded eight faculty members had engaged in sexual misconduct.

Confidentiality agreements

Garabedian, however, claims the public may never know the true magnitude of the problem because of confidentiality agreements signed by other victims as part of legal and monetary settlements with the school.

"Many private schools are having sex abuse victims sign confidentiality agreements as part of their settlements," he said. "How many claims has Phillips Andover settled with confidentiality agreements? For transparency, which there isn't, Phillips has to answer that question."

He said the Catholic Church did the same thing in the 1990s, until the practice was ended by the archdiocese, itself.

"The investigative report is woefully inadequate because it doesn't talk about confidentiality agreements," he said. "These agreements say you can't talk about this to anyone but your psychiatrist or the police. They bar a person from telling anyone anything. They (confidentiality agreements) are evil and help perpetuate sexual abuse. And this report avoided the issue of confidentiality agreements."

The Phillips report, along with a letter from Head of School John Palfrey, does not mention anything about confidentiality agreements.

The school has alluded to settlement agreements with victims, however.

Palfrey said in an Aug. 30, 2016, letter that "there have been a small number of cases, each dating from the 1980s, in which Andover previously learned of sexual misconduct or boundary violations by faculty members. As appropriate and on a confidential basis, Andover has taken personnel actions in response to these earlier findings and, in some cases, compensated survivors."

Palfrey, who is on vacation in Maine, referred further questions to the school's communications director, Tracy Sweet.

In an emailed statement, Sweet did not say how many confidentiality agreements there were, although she did mention Palfrey's 2016 statement.

"John Palfrey referred to a small number of cases handled confidentially," she said. "That number remains small."

She added, "These are highly sensitive matters for survivors. All along we have respected their privacy and will continue to do so. We do not discuss details relating to individual survivors.

Palfrey also acknowledged, in a more recent letter, that the school has failed in the past to protect students.

In an April 24, 2017, letter posted on the school's website, he wrote: "Today, we know that many schools, including Andover, have not always lived up to our commitment to protect students in our care."

In the letter that accompanied the law firm's report, Palfrey also seemed to acknowledge that the problem could be larger than it appears.

"More people have come forward with concerns of possible misconduct than the number of cases that resulted in a full investigation," he wrote in the July 31 letter. "Even as we seek to be thorough and transparent, we acknowledge that no report could possibly include a comprehensive account of all such matters that have taken place at the school."

'Same as the church'

Meanwhile, Garabedian isn't the only one with doubts about how the school is handling reports of sexual abuse.

Bob Hoatson, who runs Road to Recovery, an advocacy group for victims of child sex abuse, said the response by Phillips "reminds me of the Catholic Church."

"They are going to uncover all this stuff and look like they've been on top of things but in actuality they've known about this stuff for years and covered it up for years," he said. "It's money, it's power, it's prestige. The aura of the Catholic Church and the aura of Phillips are similar. People kowtow to them because they are so powerful. Their image and their assets were more important than the safety of children. It's the same as the church."

That issue came up recently during a press conference with an alleged victim of sex abuse at the school. Represented by Garabedian, Marie Sapienza of Hampstead, New Hampshire, attended Phillips in the 1980s. She claims in her lawsuit filed in federal court in Boston that she was inappropriately touched by Alexander Theroux, an English and poetry teacher at the school in the 1980s.

Theroux, who is also named in this week's report by the law firm as well as earlier reports, is accused of fondling Sapienza when she was just 15 years old at his on-campus apartment. Two years later, after Theroux had left the school, Sapienza tried to report the alleged assault but was rebuffed.

Her attempt to publish a letter in the school's newspaper, The Phillipian, was rejected. Then-headmaster Donald McNemar did nothing to help her either, she said.

According to Sapienza, McNemar "flat out said he didn't believe it."

Garabedian said that to make matters worse, his client was never contacted by Palfrey, who sent a letter to alumni seeking information about past sex abuse at the school.

Theroux, who lives on Cape Cod, denies the allegations made by Sapienza.

Garabedian further faults the law firm working for Phillips, saying investigators there "never spoke to my client."

"That's indicative of how inadequate and shallow the investigation was," he said. "There is no reason not to ask or request to speak my client. ... If the whole purpose of the investigation is to reveal the truth so victims can heal and feel safe, then a thorough investigation must take place. If they haven't spoken to my client, who else haven't they spoken to? This investigation was done in an extremely selective way, which renders it unreliable."

Garabedian called on the school to launch a completely independent investigation, saying that the Sanghavi law firm, because it is being paid by Phillips, cannot be unbiased.

"It should be truly independent by an investigative committee," he said. "Who paid the law firm? If they were paid by Phillips Andover, they aren't truly independent."

More cases?

Choate-Rosemary Hall, another boarding school ensnared in allegations of child sex abuse by teachers, released an extensive report recently that details numerous incidents.

One of the teachers mentioned in the Choate report, in fact, previously worked at Phillips. He is also mentioned in the most recent report put out by Sanghavi. 

The law firm's report about Phillips says Frederic "Rick" Lyman "engaged in 'an attempt at intimacy'" with a student in the 1970s. The investigative team, after checking the education records of the student and the personnel file of Lyman, and following an interview with the victim, determined that "on one occasion during a school-sponsored activity Lyman engaged in unwanted intimate touching." 

The 48-page Choate report contrasts sharply with the 19-page report issued by Phillips' law firm, as it goes into great detail about the allegations against Lyman, chronicling the relationships he had with two girls there, as well as allegations against other faculty and staff at the school over many years. Lyman, who is no longer a teacher, refused to comment for the report,

That April 2017 report said it had found credible evidence of sexual abuse involving 12 former faculty members and more than two dozen students at the elite Connecticut school.

Garabedian said some reports are more detailed but don't necessarily reflect the full scope of the problem if they don't address confidentiality agreements.

Garabedian said he would advise his client, who is suing Theroux for $20 million, not to sign a confidentiality agreement with Phillips, even though he said the school is considering offering her a settlement.

Garabedian said he fully expects more victims to come out, noting that the report issued by Sanghavi is "self-serving."

"It's a weak attempt at appeasement. It's window dressing," he said. "This is the tip of the sexual abuse iceberg at Phillips Andover." 

A Congressional Inquiry into child sex abuse is long overdue for USA. All institutions where children are gathered need to be investigated.

Andover, Mass

Hundreds of Thousands of Child Sex Abuse Cases Missed

From BBC UK 

Yehudis Goldsobel was abused by a family friend from the age of 13

The majority of child sex abuse is carried out by family or friends and up to 85% goes unreported, a study says.

Around 50,000 cases were recorded from April 2012 to March 2014, but a report by the children's commissioner suggests the actual number was up to 450,000.

Much attention has been focused on child abuse in institutions but most happens within families or their trusted circles, the report said.

The government said it was looking at how authorities dealt with abuse.

The report found:

Two-thirds of child sexual abuse took place within the family environment or the close circle around it

75% of victims were girls

Abuse was most likely to have occurred at about the age of nine

Victims often did not speak out until adolescence or later, when they recognised what had happened

Even if a child did tell someone, often the abuse did not stop

Children's commissioner Anne Longfield said recent attention and investigations had focused on the abuse children suffered in institutions or by groups of perpetrators.

"We must now wake up to and urgently address the most common form of child sexual abuse - that which takes place behind the front door within families or their trusted circles," she said.

'Terrible guilty secret'

Sue was abused by a male family member from the age of four to 13.

"He was extremely caring and affectionate. My earliest memory is of him coming in and abusing me and after he would sing me to sleep. At that stage it all felt complicit because I'd go along with it and he was so nice to me.

"It's maybe shocking to believe but I loved him. I didn't know any different."

"At school I realised that what was happening was shameful and awful. But at the same time I went along with it, because I got gifts, rewards and love and affection.

"There was shame around me, but it never registered that it was him, not me, who should feel shame.

"The abuse led to physical problems but nobody ever picked up on the signs. I didn't think about telling anyone because I knew he would get in trouble and so would I. It was my terrible guilty secret."

The children's commissioner has called for urgent action from government and more training to help teachers, social services, police and other professionals identify abuse early on.

"There are always signs. Children can become withdrawn or show overly sexualised behaviour. If you know the child it will be obvious to see changes in their behaviour," she said.

The report - the most detailed analysis of child sex abuse in England to date - examined information from a range of sources, including police and local councils, and surveys from more than 750 survivors of abuse.

It also drew on a recent study of child maltreatment - which found 11.3% of young adults aged 18-24 had experienced sexual abuse during childhood - and calculated results based on the 11.5m children and young people living in England.

As the report points out later, many sexually abused children do not recognize that they have been sexually abused until well into adulthood. So, 11.3% will be an inadequate number. I cannot hazard a guess as to how inadequate but certainly the percentage will be higher than 11.3.

Norfolk Chief Constable Simon Bailey, who is in charge of police child protection and abuse investigations nationally, said: "The numbers are staggering [but] I'm not that surprised.

"I've regularly talked about the level of child abuse reported to police as being the tip of the iceberg."

Police had made significant improvements in dealing with child abuse reports, but there was still work to do, he admitted.

"Jimmy Savile in 2012 was a watershed moment, for the police service in particular. This now has to be a watershed moment for all agencies involved in child protection.

"We have to fundamentally rethink how we go about stopping abuse of this nature happening on the horrific scale the commission has identified."

The report calls for a major strategy by government to prevent child abuse, including:

To increase the responsibilities of those working with children

To teach school children as young as five, in compulsory lessons, about healthy and safe relationships

To teach them to talk to an appropriate adult if they are worried about abuse

Training teachers to recognise the signs and symptoms of abuse and act accordingly

To support children from the moment they disclose abuse. And to have a child psychologist or appropriate intermediary in evidence interviews with the child

To make sure all police forces record child sexual abuse-related crimes

The Department for Education said it would "carefully consider" the recommendations in the report.

"[This government] set up the first ever cross-government child protection taskforce to overhaul the way police, schools, social services and others work together in tackling this abhorrent crime," it said.

Anne Longfield's report makes a number of recommendations

"We have also invested an extra £100m to support vulnerable children and we are providing £7m for services supporting child abuse survivors."

This is great, however, £7m will be woefully inadequate to enable survivors to get the the help they need. Woefully inadequate!

Roy Perry, of the Local Government Association, said the burden of disclosing abuse needed to be taken away from children wherever possible, but "councils cannot do this alone. We need support from a million eyes and ears amongst the public".

Children's Commissioners in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland said they had no equivalent figures on abuse.

The Truth About Child Sex Abuse is on BBC Two at 22:00 GMT on Tuesday. If you miss it, click here to catch up online.