Mother facing prospect of life behind bars
after filming her abuse of her children
Sam Rigney
A NSW mother is facing the prospect of life behind bars after she filmed herself sexually and indecently assaulting her three young children and uploaded the videos to a child pornography website.
The woman, who cannot be named because it would identify her children, was represented by solicitor Donna Smith when she appeared in Newcastle Local Court via audio visual link from jail last week.
Newcastle NSW
The woman pleaded guilty to 26 offences, including seven counts of sexual intercourse with a person under the age of 10 years, a charge which carries a maximum penalty of life in jail.
The other charges include five counts of using a child under the age of 14 to make child abuse material, which carries a maximum of 14 years in jail, five counts of inciting an indecent act on a person under the of age of 16 and knowing it was being filmed and five counts of producing or disseminating child abuse material.
The matter was adjourned to Newcastle District Court this week where the woman will get a sentence date.
The mother was charged last year after an international hunt to identify an abused child captured on a paedophile website ended in the Hunter.
The case highlighted the reach of child abuse across the internet, and the stretch of law enforcement agencies in chasing down perpetrators. The investigation began after US-based Interpol officers discovered the videos on a paedophile website that was being monitored. They were able to identify her nationality because of an accent and contacted the Australian Federal Police.
The nationwide search was narrowed down before the girl was identified and the Newcastle office of the Child Abuse Squad arrested her mother. Police say they regularly conduct online operations targeting child abuse material.
"A large number of those people arrested and charged with child exploitation offences in NSW have been targeted after information was provided to the NSW Police Force by other agencies," a NSW police statement said.
"Likewise, offenders have been arrested and charged in other jurisdictions, including overseas, after being detected and identified by online covert operations run by the NSW Police Force.
"While the internet creates many opportunities for child predators to target children and connect with other offenders, it also presents opportunities for police to detect and target them."
Newcastle Herald
Nigerian televangelist accused of child sex abuse
in South Africa denied bail
By Wale Odunsi
Nigerian pastor, Tim Omotoso, accused of child sex abuse and human trafficking, has been denied bail by the Magistrate’s Court at Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
Omotoso, the televangelist pastor of the Jesus Dominion International church, Durban, has been held in jail since April 20.
The court said there is a likelihood he would flee South Africa if granted bail.
Magistrate Thandeka Mashiyi made the judgement, and said that the pastor, a Nigerian whose family are all UK nationals, faced a sentence of at least life imprisonment.
“His family, wife and children are all United Kingdom citizens, his church has international branches, which he visits from time to time, he is regarded as an illegal immigrant [and] there is nothing tying the applicant to South Africa,” Independent Online quoted him Mashiyi.
“Based on the strength of the State’s case, the gravity of the offences, as well as if convicted, the applicant faces very lengthy sentences. I find that there is a likelihood that if he is released on bail he might attempt to flee and evade his trial.”
Umhlanga, South Africa, probably Durban in the background
The case’s investigating officer, Warrant Officer Peter Plaatjies, gave testimony against the pastor.
Plaatjies said senior members of the minister’s church would draw “vulnerable” girls aged 13 to 15 into the church and have them perform sexual acts with him.
The pastor is charged with having trafficked more than 30 girls and women who were part of his nationwide church network.
He allegedly sexually abused the trafficked girls at a house in Umhlanga, near Durban.
Evidence was given suggesting Omotoso had the means to intimidate victims and witnesses and provoke them not to testify against him.
His child victims were reportedly told not to tell anyone what had happened or they would be “cursed and die”.
Mashiyi said: “I am taking into account that there is a public outcry about the explosion of these crimes of human trafficking, rape and sexual assault on young girls and women.”
The case has now been adjourned until July 21.
Umhlanga, South Africa
Shopping centre Santa pleads guilty to child pornography charges but avoids prison sentence after judge takes pity on his 'ruined life and bleak future'
William John Webster, 80, pleaded guilty to child pornography
By Riley Morgan For Daily Mail Australia
A man who worked as a shopping centre Santa Claus has pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography, but the judge took pity on him for his 'bleak future'.
William John Webster, 80, pleaded guilty to one count of possessing child pornography and one count of possessing child pornography depicting a child aged under 14-years-old, but received a suspended sentence in the Adelaide District Court.
Judge Michael Boylan sent Mr Webster to prison, but suspended the sentence with a good behaviour bond of 18 months, after he took into consideration the amount of illicit content, age, plea and poor health, according to The Advertiser.
'Your life is in ruins after being estranged from your partner of 50 years ... and adult son. Your future is sadly bleak,' Justice Boylan said.
Mr Webster worked as a Santa Clause at Southgate Plaza in Morphett Vale, south Adelaide.
Police originally seized the 80-year-old's computer and found three videos showing child exploitation in 2012.
Mr Webster's suspended jail term was for one year and if he finds himself in any trouble with the law he will spend the remainder of his suspended sentence in prison.
The maximum sentence for each offence carries five and seven years in jail respectively.
Convicted child sex offender loses appeal
to stay in WA
Heather McNeill
A convicted child sex offender who has lived in WA most of his life will likely be deported back to New Zealand after losing an appeal to have his visa cancellation overturned in the Federal Court of Australia on Monday.
Paul Rex Hooton has been detained in an immigration centre since mid-2015 after serving a 20 month jail sentence for possessing child pornography.
The 36-year-old former Swan View man, who moved to Australia when he was 17 years old, is one of 336 people in WA who have had their Australian visas revoked based on character grounds since 2015.
Perth Harbour, AU
He had been fighting to remain in Perth with his family.
Hooton argued during his appeal he had no family and "nothing to return home to" in New Zealand, having spent his adult years living in Perth.
"In my sentencing report, in the psychologist report it says I'm very likely not [to] reoffend or progress to offences against children," he stated.
"I have most of my family here.
"My mother has been diagnosed with Parkinsons and will need all her family here and a lot of care later on."
Hooton is one of seven people to appeal his visa cancellation to the High or Federal courts in Australia. Most are still ongoing and none have yet been upheld.
Since 2015, 184 New Zealand citizens living in Western Australia have had their visa revoked on character grounds.
Hooton was convicted of accessing child pornography material using a carriage service and possessing child exploitation material in mid-June 2014.
During his sentencing remarks, Judge Henry Wisbey said Hooton "deliberately, skilfully and energetically" accessed and downloaded hundreds of child pornography videos and photographs during 28 occasions over a three-month period to January 2013.
He described the material as "abhorrent, much of it being towards the highest level of seriousness".
At the time, Hooton, who lived a reclusive life, said the offending was a "kind of addiction" but said he would never progress to contact offences with children.
Under the Migration Act, the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection must cancel a person's visa if they are satisfied the person does not pass the character test due to having either a substantial criminal record or sexually based offences involving children, and if they have served jail time.
Hooton argued the minister did not take into account that if he stayed in Australia, he would be placed on the child sex offenders register and as a consequence would be monitored for 15 years to ensure he did not reoffend.
However the minister said Hooton's rehabilitation was untested in the community and that he could not rule out further offending.
The dismissal of Hooton's appeal was stood over for two weeks on Monday, awaiting the outcome of a separate case before the High Court of Australia where the constitutional validity of revoking people's visas based on character grounds is being argued.
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