Porn detector to combat ‘lesbianism &
defilement’ in Uganda
Minister Simon Lokodo claimed pornography was responsible for drug abuse and lesbianism. © Simon Lokodo / Facebook
An $88,000 porn-detection machine is coming to Uganda to halt the spread of “one of the deadliest moral diseases,” according to Ethics Minister Reverend Simon Lokodo.
He made the announcement at the inauguration of members to the Pornography Control Committee (PCC) in Kampala on Monday. Lokodo blamed pornography on “escalating cases of drug abuse among youths, incest, teenage pregnancy and abortion, homosexuality and lesbianism and defilement,” reported The Daily Monitor.
The minister did not state what information backed up his claim. RT has been unable to find any legitimate studies to corroborate his words.
Speaking at the event, in which five of the nine members of the PCC were inaugurated, Lokodo said the machine would operate in computers, mobile phones and televisions.
It is unknown how the machine will work, with speculation it may filter content access through Ugandan ISPs. Others believe it may be a method to allow the government to spy on its citizens, reported iAfrikan.
In May, when the plan was first announced, Lokodo said: "We will attack and attack again. I have new tactics. We are going to get (a) machine that will detect gays and pornographers, especially those who use applications such as WhatsApp for bad purposes."
Uganda is reported to have purchased the machine from South Korea in May.
Boko Haram Leader Confesses to Chibok
Abductions, Surrenders
By Allen Cone 
Some of the 82 released Chibok girls meet Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, Nigeria, on May 7. Photo by EPA
UPI -- A top commander of Boko Haram has confessed to leading the abduction of schoolgirls from the town of Chibok and has surrendered to the Nigerian army in Borno State.
Auwal Ismaeela confessed to the kidnappings and other crimes, and was being interrogated at a military facility, the army said. He has offered to help security agencies locate other commanders of the sect.
Ismaeela said he "led other squads" with another commander in the abduction of 276 schoolgirls from Chibok in 2014, according to an interview with PR Nigeria published Sunday.
In May, the Nigerian government said 82 of the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram were released, though more than 100 are still missing. The group released 21 of the girls last October and another 50 or so have escaped on their own,
Ismaeela said he led an operation in 2014 in which students and youths at the Central Secondary School in Sabon Garin Madagali were killed.
"It is unfortunate that I was brainwashed and misled not only on some abductions but in the killings of my own people that were innocent," he said. "I wholeheartedly regret my actions."
He said in one of the operations he abducted "my wife named Maryam who had two kids for me in Sambisa Forest."
And when Ismaeela led a battle in Konduga, he said he lost his right leg.
"Even at that, I did not stop fighting for the course," Ismaeela said. "Sheikh [Abubakar] Shekau ordered that I should be given a tricycle which I continued to use for various operations before I eventually surrendered."
He voluntarily surrendered to the Nigerian troops "after realizing the misleading sermons, barbaric indoctrination of the sect leaders and atrocities being committed in some of the Boko Haram camps."
The former commanded added: "I willingly surrendered to the military because I was tired of the senseless killing and fight. I realized that our people have resorted to stealing and all sort of atrocity contrary to the teaching and practice of Islam."
He noted the tough conditions in the nation.
"Women were being raped, sometimes publicly," Ismaeela said. "Children died from malnutrition and disease as the living condition became harsher. As there was no food in the camp, people died every day because of hunger."
Nigerian troops in the past few weeks have intensified operations against Boko Haram terrorists through coordinated air and artillery bombardments enclaves.
"So far, a total of 68 insurgents have denounced terrorists activities within the last three weeks," said Col. Onyema Nwachukwu, deputy director of Army Public Relations of the command, in a report Saturday by the Nigerian Bulletin.
"These surrendered terrorists also reported that many of the enclaves have become untenable and life has become unbearable for the Boko Haram terrorists owing to the blockade placed by troops and the sustained bombardments."
Cambodian Bar Owner Gets 10 Years for
Child Sex Crimes
BY JANELLE RETKA A Siem Reap bar owner and real estate developer who previously was investigated in one of Australia’s most infamous cold cases was sentenced on Tuesday in Australia to more than 10 years in prison for a series of child sex crimes dating back to the 1960s.
One of his victims also said on Tuesday that he had been questioned on Sunday by South Australian Police working on the cold case, which involves allegations that Anthony Munro was complicit in the unsolved 1966 disappearance of three siblings.
Mr. Munro, 72, was arrested for the child sex crimes in June last year upon his return to Australia from Cambodia, where he is also under investigation on child sex crime allegations. In Australia, he faced 10 counts of abuse of two boys, including sexually violating one child “over 400 times” beginning when he was 11. Mr. Munro pleaded guilty and in December was convicted.
On Tuesday, he was sentenced to 18 years, but the term was reduced by 40 percent in light of an early plea, according to South Australian district court documents. Mr. Munro will be eligible to apply for parole after serving just over 10 years of the sentence, records show.
“Given his level of cooperation and early plea, I thought that it was a reasonable sentence,” his lawyer, Stephen Ey, said by phone. But Andrew McIntyre, one of the victims, who waived his anonymity in order to speak out about the crimes, said the sentence wasn’t enough.
However, he said what appeared to be renewed police interest in the disappearance of the three Beaumont children from a beach in his childhood hometown more than 50 years ago left him confident that Mr. Munro would remain imprisoned long past the end of Tuesday’s sentence.
Mr. McIntyre and his sister, Ruth Collins, had long appealed to police to investigate their accusations against Mr. Munro in the disappearance of the children.
“Finally, after 10 years, I was interviewed by major crimes on Tuesday,” Mr. McIntyre said. “He’ll never get out of prison and he’ll die there because I’ll keep him in the prison with the Beaumont children.”
Ms. Collins claims that her late, estranged father, Max McIntyre, showed her the mangled bodies of the Beaumont siblings in the trunk of his car after he and Mr. Munro, his friend, returned from a trip to the beach in 1966.
Andrew McIntyre claims that later that day, he saw a “big patch of blood” on the seat of Mr. Munro’s car. The siblings say they believe their father buried the children in a well on family property and that its excavation would reveal the children’s fate. “There’s a 100 percent chance those children are buried in that well,” Mr. McIntyre said on Tuesday. Detective Senior Sergeant David Sheridan, the lead investigator in the Beaumont case, could not be reached for comment, but has previously said the siblings’ allegations held no water.
“Major crimes is satisfied that my client has no involvement in it,” said Mr. Ey, Mr. Munro’s lawyer. “The assertions are completely without merit.”
A couple hours with a back-hoe ought to settle it. Wonder why the police have been so reluctant to investigate Munroe?
Perth’s new Anglican archbishop Kay Goldsworthy supports same-sex marriage
Nick Butterly
Australia’s first female Anglican archbishop has suggested she supports same-sex marriage, saying she favours the more “inclusive” side of the marriage debate.
That would be as opposed to the Biblical, Godly side of the marriage debate.
The diocese of Perth yesterday named Kay Goldsworthy to lead the church in WA, making her the most senior female Anglican in the nation. She will replace Roger Herft, who stood aside last year after admitting he let down survivors of child sexual abuse in the wake of royal commission hearings.
Archbishop-elect Goldsworthy is now serving as Bishop of Gippsland in Victoria, and was previously an Assistant Bishop of Perth. She was among the first women in Australia to be ordained a priest and the first woman to be consecrated as a bishop in 2008.
Speaking to The West Australian, Archbishop-elect Goldsworthy signalled she was a supporter of gay marriage, but said her views were not those of the church as an institution.
“I think the diocese of Perth has been understood to be fairly inclusive on this particular topic and matter but that would not be the same for everybody in the diocese of Perth,” she said. “Personally, I am on the more inclusive end of this discussion and this issue in our lives.”
Raised in Melbourne, Archbishop-elect Goldsworthy is married and has twin adult sons.
The ordination of female priests remains controversial in some wings of the Anglican Church. Even when holding the top rank in Perth, Archbishop-elect Goldsworthy will be restricted in performing certain religious duties in the conservative Sydney and northern WA dioceses.
Archbishop-elect Goldsworthy said her nomination for the top job was a significant moment in the life of the Church. When she was ordained in the early 1990s, female priests faced a Supreme Court challenge.
This month, Perth’s top Catholic, Archbishop Timothy Costelloe, urged followers to vote against same-sex marriage, saying having doubts about same-sex marriage did not make someone homophobic.
The Anglican Church in Perth has been without a leader since December when Archbishop Herft went into early retirement amid pressure over his handling of historic abuse cases in the Newcastle diocese, where he was bishop between 1993 and 2005. Archbishop Herft was then the highest ranking casualty of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
Archbishop-elect Goldsworthy said the Church faced challenges in repairing its image and ensuring those who had been abused were properly cared for. “I guess that we can reconsider our place as a place of welcome and safety for vulnerable people. That’s the picture of the gospel,” she said.
Roebourne's 'horrific' damage: Community let down, former minister Terry Redman admits
By Eliza Laschon
A youth walks down a street in Roebourne alongside a metal fence.
Successive West Australian governments have failed the remote community of Roebourne but a fresh approach is working, former regional development minister Terry Redman says.
Mr Redman was in government as incidents of child abuse continued to grow in the Pilbara town.
An ongoing police investigation into child sexual abuse in the west Pilbara has led to 36 men being charged with 300 offences. (6th story on link)
Mr Redman said the extent of damage the children were exposed to was "horrific" and the 184 known victims had been let down.
How Roebourne is fighting back
A group of locals is determined to heal one of the most socially dysfunctional towns in Australia.
"I don't think we can sit back and say our hands haven't been dirtied by some of this," Mr Redman said. "It's challenging. I think successive governments have failed in this space."
His comments come after the ABC spoke to Roebourne community members who are refusing to give up and are striving to heal the wounds and move forward.
Police say unlike other affected towns, disclosures by children, young people and community members in Roebourne have allowed police to identify a very large number of victims.
Mr Redman, a former WA Nationals leader, is confident an approach adopted by the previous Barnett Government is leading to change.
"Our government actually exposed those issues and was working towards a strategy for fixing them up, so to me we were certainly on the front edge of doing a better job," he said.
Building community trust
Former child protection minister Andrea Mitchell said the approach involved fostering relationships between government, agencies and community to build trust and engagement.
The process, kept out of the public eye, allowed community members to push through the fear and shame often felt around their claims. "We knew it was serious, but we didn't know how many people we were going to be able to get charged," Ms Mitchell said.
"That build-up of trust within the community, within in the people, making sure we didn't just keep changing (government) people each time we went in was critical to building the confidence amongst people to talk, so that we could actually do something about it."
The model Ms Mitchell described was corroborated by Roebourne community members, who said it gave many the confidence to speak out and disclose their claims with officials. Ms Mitchell said it allowed Roebourne locals to take a key role in addressing the problems.
"(It was about) strengthening the families, strengthening the community, they then say 'this is what's acceptable in our community, this is how we are going to live'," Ms Mitchell said. "If we actually haven't done anything about changing behaviours and changing the community, then you come back into where you left and we haven't made any change," Ms Mitchell said.
Meanwhile, homicide officers are investigating the death of a 33-year-old Roebourne man who was knocked unconscious after being punched in the head in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Police said he had been involved in an altercation in the street with an 18-year-old man, and was punched as officers approached. He was flown to Perth by the Royal Flying Doctor Service but died on Tuesday.
Roebourne, AU
Court told of caregiver's alleged sexual abuse
Hawkes Bay Today
A jury heard lengthy silences yesterday as a young complainant was called to testify in the trial of a caregiver alleged to have sexually abused disabled children in his care.
The male defendant, who cannot be named, is standing trial in the Napier District Court this week after allegedly abusing four children and youth with significant impairments and disabilities over the course of several years.
Yesterday a youth in his care struggled as she told the court the man sexually touched her for the first time when she was 10-years-old and that this touching soon progressed to full intercourse.
The man is charged with five counts of sexually exploiting a person with a significant impairment, six of rape, two of indecent assault and three each of attempted sexual violation and sexual conduct with a child under 12-years-old.
On Monday Crown prosecutor Jo Rielly opened the Crown's case by telling the jury the four complainants were each placed in the man's care by a variety of agencies including Child, Youth and Family and Idea Services.
At times they were left in the sole care of the defendant and it was during these periods that he sexually abused them, she said.
The youth, who lived with the man during the alleged offending, told the jury she came to expect he would want to have sex with her when she was left in the sole care of him.
When asked by Ms Rielly to detail the sexual abuse the girl hung her head as the court sat in silence. "Is it hard to talk about?" Ms Rielly asked. The girl replied yes.
She went on to describe feeling confused when the man touched her privates and that he had attempted to have sex with her numerous times before full intercourse was reached.
One time when he was touching her a light flicked on outside the house, she said. "He quickly shut the blind, put his pants back on and ran into the lounge."
She told the court she had also seen the man having sexual relations with two others at the house; one with physical and intellectual disabilities so severe she can't speak.
Under cross-examination defence lawyer Scott Jefferson put to the girl that her allegations were not correct and that she had not initially told police the extent of the alleged offending.
She cried as she insisted, "No they did happen. I was too scared [to tell]."
The trial before Judge Bridget Mackintosh is continuing and expected to last the week.
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