Leeds school IT technician duped colleague
to access vile child sex images
TONY GARDNER
A SENIOR IT technician at a Leeds high school abused his position in order to access and distribute horrific child sex abuse images.
John Warke stole the online identity of a college at Rodillian Academy in order to cover up his “perverted obsession” with incest and sexual violence towards children.
Warke also amassed almost 20,000 images of sexual abuse towards children and animals on computers at his home in the village of Carlton, Leeds, over a four and a half year period.
Leeds Crown Court heard Warke had access to IT equipment at the school in Lofthouse and took advantage of an opportunity when asked to repair a colleague’s computer. Warke was able to access sensitive information and a picture which he used to set up a Skype account using her identity.
The 40-year-old then used the account to chat to others online about incest and violence towards children. He also used his colleague’s profile to distribute child sex images online. Warke managed to access the dark web to obtain some of the most depraved images.
Computers at his home at the The Grange, Carlton, were seized after his offending came to light. Jonathan Sharp, prosecuting, said police recovered 1,110 illegal images and movies. A total of 414 were at category A - the most serious level of offending. Mr Sharp said a further 18,870 images and movies were recovered but not graded by officers.
The court heard NONE of the images were of children from the school.
Warke pleaded guilty to an offence of securing unauthorised computer material with intent, under the Computer Misuses Act, 1990. He also pleaded guilty to distributing sexual images of a child, three of making indecent images of a child and one of making an extreme pornographic image.
Mr Sharp read a victim statement to the court on behalf of the woman who had her identity stolen by Warke. She said: “I feel sickened and victimised by his behaviour. “I have only ever been a mate to John and have tried to support him. To find out he has done this to me has destroyed me. “How can I trust anyone else after this?”
David Gordon, mitigating, said: “This is a day of shame for Mr Warke. “He is 40 years of age and has no previous convictions or cautions recorded against him. He has lost his good name and will never get it back.”
Mr Gordon said Warke committed the offences at a time when he had suffered a bereavement and was under pressure at work. The barrister said Warke had lost his job as a result of his offending.
Jailing Warke, judge Tom Bayliss, QC, said: “It is a very worrying feature for any court when someone with such a responsible position in an environment which that person comes in to contact with young people, engages in activities such as you engaged in.”
Rebekah Vardy's daughter received online
abuse after picture in football kit
By Abby Rose and Ekin Karasin For Mailonline
Rebekah Vardy has admitted that vile trolls targeting her two-year-old daughter Sofia with 'disgusting' sexual abuse have brought back heartbreaking memories of the abuse she personally suffered in the past.
Speaking to the Sun on Sunday, the 38-year-old WAG revealed: 'I just don't understand how anyone could say such vile things about an innocent child.'
WAGs (or Wags) is an acronym used to refer to Wives And Girlfriends of high-profile professional athletes. The term may also be used in the singular form, WAG, to refer to a specific female partner or life partner.
The wife of Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy, one of the highest scorers in the Premier League, gave a candid account of how the shocking comments 'brought up bad memories from my childhood' - but has made her more determined to speak out on behalf of victims.
The beauty has said that the ordeal she suffered in the past has made her a stronger person, explaining: 'I'm so strong because of everything I've been through with my family and all the sexual abuse.'
And in order to help others, Rebekah is speaking out to raise awareness and help victims of online abuse.
She continued: 'There was a point in my life where being strong was the only thing I could be — the only thing that I had going for me was my strength.'
Rebekah's parents split when she was 13, and she previously revealed how she was preyed on by a family friend after going to live with her mother.
The abuse got so bad that she attempted suicide at the age of 15, before trying to take her own life for a second time a few years later. Her mother didn't believe her allegations and asked Rebekah to leave. At 16 Rebekah was on her own.
Rebekah called for the trolls who targeted her two-year-old daughter with 'disgusting' sexual abuse to be prosecuted.
The horrified WAG had alerted the police after a photo she posted online of daughter Sofia in her Leicester City kit led to abhorrent comments.
And speaking on ITV's This Morning on Wednesday, the emotional 35-year-old vented that the bullies should be 'tracked down' and not allowed to 'get away with it'.
'If someone is able to post abusive things online, they should be prosecuted. They should be tracked down and dealt with,' she told hosts Ruth and Eamonn.
'Just because you're hiding behind a keyboard doesn’t mean you can get away with it. I would have liked to confront the troll but his IP address was in India.'
Discussing the sexual comments made about Sofia, she said: 'You can say what you want about me, I'm really thick skinned I’ve been through so much.
'The only thing I know now is to be strong. But bring my kids into it and it's a whole other level. People think they have access to you 24/7 and that they can say what they want to you.'
Rebekah went on to say she was pleased with new government proposals to tackle internet trolls.
N China Strengthens Awareness on Preventing
Child Sexual Abuse
By China Women's News Editor: Penny Huang
Authorities in north China's Hebei Province recently released a document to strengthen anti-sexual abuse education for children.
The Hebei Provincial Regulations on the Protection of Women's Rights and Interests, which will be officially implemented on September 1, specifies that schools should conduct education on psychology, physicality and healthcare; provide necessary medical care facilities; and, safeguard female students' well-being.
The document instructs officials to promote the country's law-making improvements in the field of child sexual assault and pioneer laws and regulations on related prevention.
Focusing on the role of educational institutions and family, the paper stipulates that schools should cultivate children's sense of anti-sexual abuse and parents should strengthen their sense of responsibility to help children master basic self-protection knowledge.
In particular, schools and kindergartens should develop targeted education on sexual knowledge and the prevention of sexual abuse regarding girls' characteristics in various physical development phases, thereby enhancing their awareness and capability of protecting themselves from sexual abuse.
That'a great, but it isn't just girls who need awareness.
In addition, the whole society must strengthen efforts with better gender awareness, and lend a hand when sexual assault cases occur.
Wang Suman, a lawyer from the Hebei Women and Children Legal Assistance Center, noted that currently, the country still lacks separate laws targeting child sexual assault.
Existing laws and regulations only punish criminals instead of preventing the occurrence of abuse.
Meanwhile, parents' lack of consciousness, alertness and education on related issues has led to children's failure of self-protection.
Guo Liping, director of the Department for Women's Rights and Interests of Hebei Women's Federation, said cracking down on criminals can prevent people from committing child sexual abuse to some extent.
"However, enabling children to effectively identify surrounding risks and to refuse and report suspect individuals is regarded as the best measure for protection," said Guo.
It's a start, at least.
Pervert sentenced to 26-years after
raping and filming children
Clive Hammond
A “DEPRAVED” and “vile” paedophile has been jailed for 26 years after admitting raping two children in Southampton.
Steven Munday pleaded guilty to 20 counts of abusing children, which including raping youngsters under the age of 13 years and recording it.
Munday, 27, stood motionless at Southampton Crown Court as he was told he would spend at least 11 years behind bars before he is able to apply for parole.
11 years! Good grief! The victims will still be children or barely adults when he gets out.
Prosecutor Rob Griffiths told the court that Munday’s reign of abuse was only ended when police interviewed him after he “accidentally posted an indecent image on Twitter”. But after being interviewed by officers he began to admit the full extent of his sexual interest in children.
Mr Griffiths said that Munday told the police he videoed the rape of two children between December 2015 and July 2016, and on a number of occasions made them abuse each other.
He added: “He lived in terror of people finding out... for him it was a natural progression.”
Mitigating, Charles Gabb told the court the only mitigation he could offer was that he was “candid in interviews with the police” and had a “desire of changing his ways”.
In sentencing, Judge Christopher Parker QC said Munday posed a “significant risk of serious harm to young children”. He added: “You have displayed your depraved sexual interest in abusing young children. Your behaviour was the most horrible, disgusting and criminal,”
Following yesterday’s hearing, Detective Sergeant Phil Jones from the Internet Child Abuse Team (ICAT) said: “Hampshire Constabulary’s ICAT work closely with the National Crime Agency’s CEOP Command to identify the most prolific offenders and protect the most vulnerable in our society.
“This was a harrowing case of sexual abuse.” Det Sgt Jones added: “We’re pleased this man has been identified, jailed and no longer poses a risk to children in our communities.”
Munday, of Pennine Road, Millbrook, was also made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order and will be on the sex offenders’ register for life.
Lifelong trauma chases victims in abuse cases
By Bob Dunn
ADAMS — In the week since The Eagle published accounts of sexual assaults at the former Adams Memorial Junior High, approximately a dozen more men have said they too were victims.
All have faced life-long consequences, experts say, enduring trauma that followed them into adulthood, affecting their relationships, family ties, health and even brain development.
On Tuesday, the Adams-Cheshire Regional School District said it is open to hearing claims from those who say they were abused by former custodian Clement St. Hilaire, now 94. Any former student can bring those reports directly to interim Superintendent Robert Putnam.
St. Hilaire has admitted to assaulting two former students, both of them now 53, in 1976.
"It's sad, but not surprising that additional victims are coming forward," said attorney Matthew Fogelman, who represents the first two men who contacted the Eagle and received calls from several others in the last week.
"With these types of cases, there usually are (more victims)," Fogelman said. "A typical abuser doesn't just stop at one person. We're seeing that play out," he said. "These types of people oftentimes will victimize many, many people."
The Eagle has not been able to verify all of the men's' claims, but an attorney says it is unlikely the accounts are fabrications. "I've never seen anybody voluntarily come forward and say, `I was the victim of sex abuse as a child,' solely for some other motive other than it really happened and it's really true," said attorney John P. Connor.
"Is it possible someone could do that? Absolutely," Connor said. "Is it possible 10, 11, 12 people do that? I think in my view, it would just not be a fathomable thing, I could not see that happening. Nobody wants to be in that position, nobody wants to say, `I was sexually abused as a child," said Connor, who has represented victims of sexual abuse.
Patterns clear
According to victims, St. Hilaire hired boys at the former Adams Memorial Junior High to assist him after school and weekends to do custodial work, paying them a few dollars.
He'd ask the boys inappropriate sexually themed questions and show them pornography and, eventually, get them alone and assault them.
The practice is known as grooming.
"(A perpetrator) devises ways to become familiar with the child's personality and can assess whether a child might be vulnerable in some way, physically or emotionally," Connor said. "(The abuser) works and grooms that child to exploit whatever they see they can possibly exploit."
Often, predators will target children who have a psychological void in their lives, like the one created by the absence of a parental figure, and then exploit that for their "perverted needs," said David O'Regan, a facilitator for the Boston and Worcester chapters of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP). The group has expanded its outreach to include those who have been sexually assaulted as children by people other than members of the clergy.
"The perpetrator is ... finding a way in," Connor said. "This could happen to any child."
Abusers work, meantime, to deflect community suspicion.
"(Perpetrators) will groom themselves to operate in society above suspicion, presenting themselves to the outside world as someone who could never be capable of such a thing," O'Regan said. "People are often astonished when a perpetrator is discovered," Connor said. "It could be somebody everybody held in high esteem."
Effects long-lasting
The effects of childhood sexual abuse can be devastating and long-lasting.
"The victim takes on the guilt, shame and humiliation that's transferred from the predator," O'Regan said.
Victims can suffer from low self-esteem and depression and develop trust issues with authority figures, according to O'Regan. As they get older, victims often veer into self-harm including drug and alcohol abuse.
Steven Procopio, an independent consultant and expert on boys, men and trauma, said long-term effects can include PTSD, depression and anxiety disorders. Abuse victims can face challenges in decision-making as they struggle to become self-aware and mature.
Connor said many victims create psychological barriers to shield themselves from dealing with their assault. Eventually, those barriers can collapse.
"They ultimately have to face the reality of what happened to them and it's often very, very painful and difficult," Connor said. "It often takes years and years to get to that point."
O'Regan said the long-term effects on victims are typically no different whether the perpetrator is male or female.
"The psychological damage to the child is the same," he said.
No way out
Some of the men in the St. Hilaire cases said they were assaulted dozens of times. One young man who reported his assault to his parents and the school in 1976 said the abuse occurred once.
Procopio said predators develop a psychological hold on their victims which makes it difficult to extricate themselves.
"Perpetrators are astute at keeping a kid in a state of confusion," he said.
Children often begin to question themselves in the face of such abuse, he said. They wonder how they can disclose the abuse and to whom. They are fearful of its effect on their sexual identity and what disclosing it would do to their family.
Procopio compared a child's reluctance to come forward and report a predator's actions to someone who remains in an abusive relationship. They stay because they don't know how to get out, despite the discomfort.
Returning to an abusive situation should not be considered consent, said Connor. "This is never, ever the fault of the victim," he said.
Males who have been sexually assaulted as children typically delay reporting for at least 20 years, Procopio said.
As in the Adams case, it isn't unusual for victims to come forward 40 years or so after the fact — and do so then after other abuse claims are made public, Connor said. "Many victims of childhood sexual abuse have never spoken a word of it to anyone sometimes into their 40s 50s and even 60s."
Then, when someone comes forward, other victims may feel empowered enough to do the same.
"For many, it's the beginning of their true healing." said Connor.
Legal challenges
Prosecuting perpetrators of child sex abuse or pursuing civil cases against them can also prove difficult, Connor said. The passage of time, availability of witnesses, people's fading memories, a lack of physical evidence and statutes of limitations can all affect pursuing a case, said Connor.
In the meantime, there are warning signs for parents and caregivers, said Procopio.
Be wary of adults becoming overly interested in relationships with children, or sudden shifts in a child's behavior, including drops in school performance, losing interest in pastimes or an unexplained change in mood.
Connor notes that adolescent children can exhibit those types of changes for reasons that have nothing to do with sexual abuse. "It's hard to say what to look for," he said.
The sooner a victim can get into counseling, the better, O'Regan said, in order to begin to process what happened to them.
"We can heal," he said. "The worst of it is over, we live in the present."
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