Stories from Australia, New Zealand, North Marianas Islands, Wales, Nigeria, England, ans one shocking story from both Germany and Chile regarding ex-Nazi pedophiles
Awful Details of Ridsdale's Child Sex Abuse in George Pell's Ballarat
BY SOFIA LOTTO PERSIO Awful Details of Ridsdale's Child Sex Abuse in George Pell's Ballarat
An Australian court heard harrowing details of historic child abuse perpetrated by former priest Gerald Ridsdale, one of Australia’s most notorious pedophiles.
Ridsdale, 83, pleaded guilty to 23 charges Tuesday, including two counts of rape and one of buggery, for abusing 12 children, aged 6 to 13, between 1962 and 1988 in the Victoria state city of Ballarat and the surrounding area.
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| Young George Pell |
Ballarat is considered one of Australia’s worst-affected areas for incidents of sexual abuse by Catholic priests. It is named in Vatican Cardinal George Pell’s charges of historic sexual abuse, as he served in the diocese first as an assistant parish priest in 1972 and later, between 1973 and 1984, as an episcopal vicar. Pell pleaded not guilty in a first hearing at a Melbourne magistrate’s court in July and will return to court in October.
One of Ridsdale’s victims was a girl whose father woke her up on two occasions to see the priest, who then sexually assaulted her, the court heard on Tuesday.
“[Her] father carried her to the confessional booth and took her clothes off her, then carried her to the altar and lay her down,” Crown Prosecutor Jeremy McWilliams said of the second occasion, in 1974, as quoted by the Australian Associated Press.
According to the prosecutor, Ridsdale indecently assaulted her, then told her, “Jesus died for our sins so we could be forgiven, and if I confess to this sin I might be forgiven,” before kissing her on the cheek.
You 'might' be, but I wouldn't count on it.
Colorful ribbons were tied to the fence outside St. Patrick's Cathedral to remember victims of child abuse by priests, in the town of Ballarat, Australia, on July 23. The Victoria County Court recently heard harrowing accounts of child abuse that occurred in Ballarat and the surrounding area. BYRON KAYE/REUTERS
The survivor is still suffering from the abuse, experiencing “crippling” flashbacks. “I feel like a piece of meat handed around for anyone to take a bite of,” she said in a statement read to the court by the prosecutor, as quoted in local media.
McWilliams also recounted the story of a 9-year-old altar boy who was told “God will forgive all of your sins” as Ridsdale raped him.
The former priest has been in jail since 1994 after being convicted for sexually abusing 53 children over three decades, although he admitted the true number of victims could be in the hundreds.
His lawyer, Victoria Legal Aid Chief Counsel Tim Marsh, urged Victoria County Court Judge Irene Lawson to give Ridsdale a chance for parole, which would shorten his 28-year-long sentence and award him early release on April 8, 2019, according to local media.
Tuesday’s hearing saw a total of nine survivors facing Ridsdale. It came just a day after the publication of a report by the Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that controversially recommended priests should face criminal charges should they fail to report child abuse disclosed during confession.
The commission was set up in 2013 to investigate claims of child sex abuse in multiple Australian institutions, including the Boy Scouts, the Salvation Army and various churches and religious groups. Its findings have sparked outrage among the Australian clergy, who say they will oppose a recently proposed measure that would have priests face criminal charges if they fail to report allegations of child sex abuse disclosed during confession. The clergy insist that this goes against the Catholic Church’s rules on the confidentiality of confessions.
I wonder how many times Gerald Ridsdale confessed his sins to a priest or Bishop and was sent away with a few Hail Mary's to rape and destroy hundreds more children. You cannot forgive the sins of a serial child rapist, so why would you demand confidentiality. If he comes to you and confesses that he is a child rapist and you do nothing to stop him, you are no better than he is.
I guess I know where I stand on that issue now.
Ridsdale himself gave evidence to the commission in 2015. He agreed the church should have notified the authorities about the abuse. “What I’ve done and the damage that I’ve done…I’d say definitely,” he said, according to Australian media reports at the time.
Dame Susan Devoy asks UN to push for
child abuse inquiry in N.Z.
NZ Herald
The Race Relations Commissioner has asked the United Nations to pressure New Zealand's Government to hold an inquiry into child abuse in state-run institutions.
Speaking to a United Nations human rights committee in Geneva, Dame Susan Devoy said it was "immoral" that successive governments had refused to hold an inquiry into the physical and sexual abuse of children and disabled people held in state institutions.
She said it was "heartbreaking" standing alongside abuse survivors at the steps of Parliament last month to present a petition calling for the inquiry.
"As children they suffered years of abuse at the hands of their own government and there they were asking for justice."
Between the 1950s and 1990s more than 100,000 children and vulnerable adults were taken from their families and placed in state-run institutions.
It is estimated up to 3.5 per cent of them suffered horrific physical, sexual and mental abuse while in care.
The vast majority of children taken were Maori, Dame Susan told the UN committee.
"These state homes were the beginning of the mass incarceration of Maori New Zealanders in our state institutions. And it is still going on.
"The refusal by successive governments to investigate is not only wrong, it is immoral. This is not my New Zealand and I urged the UN to tell our Government to do the right thing."
Prime Minister Bill English has effectively ruled out setting up an independent inquiry into the claims. He considers it more important to make changes to child welfare services to prevent a repeat of the abuse.
However after the petition was delivered in July he softened his stance, saying he was willing to listen to what the victims had to say - but suggesting he was yet to be convinced of the merits of a large-scale inquiry.
Dame Susan is representing the Human Rights Commission before the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), which monitors whether countries are complying with anti-discrimination laws.
"We live in one of the most peaceful and ethnically diverse nations on earth and yet racism happens in New Zealand," she told the committee.
I think every country needs to examine the issue of institutionalized child sex abuse, and child sex abuse in general. It is easily the worst atrocity in the world today, far worse than climate change or anything else.
Judge grants motion to dismiss sexual-abuse-of-a-child case without prejudice; may sanction prosecutor
By Bryan Manabat - Variety News Staff
Northern Marianas Islands (Saipan)
SUPERIOR Court Associate Judge Teresa Kim-Tenorio on Tuesday granted the government’s motion to dismiss without prejudice the case against a retired Army reservist who was charged with two sexual assault offenses involving minors.
On Aug. 25, 2016, Michael Barry Murphy was charged with sexual abuse of a minor in the first degree, and sexual abuse of a minor in the second degree. The alleged victim in the second charge is now an adult, and the abuse happened between 1994 and 2006, the prosecution said.
Following the denial of the government’s reconsideration motion to extend the discovery deadline last week, Assistant Attorney-General Betsy Weintraub on Aug. 10 filed a notice of voluntary dismissal without prejudice.
Teresa Kim-Tenorio
But Murphy, through his lawyer Janet King, opposed the government motion and accused the prosecution of bad faith and harassment.
In her ruling, the judge said to accommodate the prosecution and defense, the court entertained multiple requests for extensions and continuances.
She said the court denied the government’s motion to extend the discovery deadline on Aug. 2, after finding that the prosecutor had had adequate opportunity to prepare and meet the discovery deadline.
The judge said she also found that Weintraub failed to show excusable neglect for moving to change the deadline within the time stated in the court’s second amended pre-trial order.
Judge Kim-Tenorio also disagreed that late discovery of probative information will not affect the trial date as the defendant will need additional time to inspect the evidence and defend against it.
According to the judge, Weintraub’s “complete disregard of the trial court’s docket compromises the fair administration of justice, which is a matter of great public significance.”
The court likewise noted the prosecutor’s pattern in dismissing prosecutions only to re-file charges at a time more favorable to the prosecution.
The judge directed Weintraub to appear in court on Aug. 29 at 9 a.m. to show cause why she should not be sanctioned for lack of diligence and dilatory tactics.
But the court also found “that public interest requires a trial to vindicate the victim and/or defendant…. [D]ismissal of the charges would result in wasted taxpayer dollars and resources of already burdened agencies.”
The judge said the jury trial scheduled for Sept. 11, 2017 and the pretrial conference set for Aug. 15, 2017 are vacated.
Welsh woman who was sexually abused as a child didn't tell anyone about it until she was 27
May Baxter-Thornton has bravely relinquished her legal right to anonymity to talk about her experiences as she takes on a new role to help others
A woman who was sexually abused as a child has spoken about her experiences as she takes on a role to ensure victims and survivors’ voices are heard during The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.
The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse today announces that two Welsh victims and survivors of child sex abuse will join the Victim and Survivors’ Consultative Panel.
May Baxter-Thornton, who was raised in Aberdare , and Emma Lewis, from Swansea , will join the panel. Both have relinquished their legal rights to anonymity to talk about their experiences ahead of working to ensure other victims are heard during the inquiry, which was set up in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal, to uncover the truth about child abuse in the UK.
May Baxter-Thornton was abused as a child. She can’t remember the exact age, but believes it could have been when she was around five years old.
She moved to Sunderland in 1997 to attend university and gained a degree in photography and video.
While a student she contacted a charity to make a video documentary about women living in a women’s refuge. From there, she was offered work, and she ended up working with them for around 16 years, supporting women and children fleeing domestic violence.
May was 27 before she told anyone about the abuse.
“There are people who just never tell anyone and they take it to their graves,” the 42-year-old said.
Now living in Newport , she moved back to Wales in 2015 and was interviewed for a role on the panel in June before being appointed.
Speaking about her decision to apply for a place on the panel, May said: “I think it’s a way of my having a voice but also to make people realise that you can actually go on and have careers, you can make a life for yourself even though it might feel like, right now, that you can’t for whatever reason.
“Childhood abuse impacts every aspect of your life, whether that’s your education, your communication with people, relationships, confidence. It can knock every part of your life.
“I can use my own experiences, and the experience of my working with people as well, to benefit victims and survivors so that when the inquiry does make any recommendations or come to any conclusions I know I’ve played a part in ensuring that victims and survivors are heard.”
Through their new role on the Victims and Survivors Consultative Panel, May and Emma will advise the inquiry on how best to reach and listen to victims and survivors in Wales.
Emma, from Swansea, grew up in care and has dedicated the last 20 years to helping young people make a smooth transition out of care. She was sexually abused aged six, and didn’t tell anyone until she was 12.
Emma, 37, said: “It is a privilege to be asked to champion the interests of Welsh victims and survivors to the inquiry.
“I want my role on the Victims and Survivors Consultative Panel to really count and to ensure that children in Wales are better protected in the future.”
The inquiry is using a novel way of gathering accounts from those who may have suffered at the hands of child sexual abuse.
The Truth Project gives individuals who experienced sexual abuse as a child the chance to privately describe what happened to them and how institutions failed to protect them. They are also welcome to make suggestions about what can be done to prevent the same abuse occurring in the future.
Anonymised information gathered in Truth Project sessions will be used to shape the inquiry’s recommendations to the government about how institutions can better protect children.
May added: “With regards to the Truth Project, that is a really strong and important piece of work around getting people’s experiences, real-life experiences, of people who have experienced childhood sexual abuse to input into the inquiry.
May Baxter-Thornton (left) from Newport, and Emma Lewis (right) from Swansea (Image: PA)
“They can tell their story in a safe environment. It’s a way for them to get their voices heard. Their experiences will be anonymised.
“What we’re trying to get across with this project is ‘this project will believe you’.”
The inquiry first opened in Wales in November 2016 and since then has met with victims, survivors, and experts in Swansea, Newport, Cardiff and Caernarfon.
Inquiry chair Professor Alexis Jay said: “May and Emma have demonstrated a proven commitment to reaching and supporting victims and survivors of child sexual abuse in Wales.
“The Welsh perspective May and Emma offer will provide a vital contribution to the work of the Victims and Survivors Consultative Panel.”
Katsina, Nigeria, CSOs endorse death penalty for
child sexual abuse
ByYunusa Ringim
The Katsina State Government, in collaboration with a coalition of civil society groups campaigning for the domestication of the Child Rights Act, has proposed death sentence for any person confirmed by a competent court of law to have raped or sexually abused a child.
Apparently worried by increasing incidences of defilement of baby-girls and sodomy in parts of the state, the coalition, in the final draft of the document renamed “Katsina State Child Protection Bill,” defined a child as any male or female who is nine years or below, for the purpose of the proposed law.
Some of the agencies of government involved in the project included the ministries of Women Affairs, Justice and Information, along with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Save the Children International, the National Human Rights Commission, Child Protection Network, Da’wa Family Support, JIBWIS and Women’s Rights Advancement and Protection Alternative (WRAPA), among others.
Presenting a draft copy of the Bill to the Commissioner of Women Affairs, Dr. Badiyya Hassan Mashi, for onward transmission to Governor Aminu Bello Masari, the coalition’s Secretary, Hajiya Fatima Jibo, described the death sentence as applicable where the child abused is under the age of nine years and was “lured by a person or persons to commit unlawful, illicit sexual intercourse.”
According to the proposed Bill, “whoever sexually abuses a child commits an offence and shall be liable on conviction to be sentenced to death.”
The document also outlaws the use of children for soliciting for alms, hawking and slavery and recommended prison sentences and fines depending on the extent of violation of the law.
“Whoever procures a child for the purposes of begging for alms or guiding beggars thereby depriving the child the opportunity to to attend or remain in school, commits an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine of not less than N10,000 (that's €27.50) and community service,” according to the document.
Also speaking at the programme, Save the Children Area Manager, Nura Muhammad, noted that apart from Katsina, 10 other states in the north are yet to adopt the Child Rights Act.
The states, according to him, are Kaduna, Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Kano, Kebbi, Sokoto, Yobe and Zamfara.
Black Country pervert admits child sex abuse
By John Scott | Dudley, UK | Crime |
A 51-year-old man is facing a long prison sentence after admitting a series of sex offences against children.
Ian Jones from Central Drive, Lower Gornal, Dudley pleaded guilty to six offences of penetrative sex with an under age boy when he appeared at Wolverhampton Crown Court yesterday.
He further admitted causing or inciting two teenagers under 18 years old to become involved in pornography on various dates.
Jones also pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a youth and attempting to engage in sexual activity by trying to kiss a 15-year-old.
The defendant was placed on the Sex Offenders Register and remanded on bail for pre-sentence reports until September 15 when details of the case are expected to be outlined.
Judge Peter Barrie warned him: "The fact I am granting you bail does not have any bearing on the sentence you will face. It will almost certainly involve a significant custodial sentence."
Then why grant him bail at all?
Right-hand man of shockingly evil, cult leader to serve Chilean sentence in German prison
The right-hand man of a one-eyed German Nazi who oversaw daily torture and abuse of child slaves over three decades in Chile has been given a five-year prison sentence in Germany.
A court in Krefeld upheld a Chilean prison sentence of five years and one day for Hartmut Hopp - a German in his 70s - over abuses committed at the notorious Colonia Dignidad commune.
Pictured right: Hartmut Hopp with his wife. He has been jailed for five years and one day after being the right-hand man of notorious Nazi paedophile Paul Schaefer
Hopp, a doctor, was a close associate of convicted paedophile Paul Schaefer, a former Wehrmacht soldier who in 1961 founded the commune where residents were indoctrinated and kept as virtual slaves over three decades.
A court in Chile convicted Hopp in 2011 of crimes including complicity in the sexual abuse of 16 minors but he fled to Germany before the final court ruling was imposed.
Pictured: Paul Schaefer, a one-eyed former Nazi soldier who founded the commune in 1961
But the latest German ruling is not yet final as his lawyer has announced plans to appeal.
As head of the Nazi paedophile sect, Schaefer collaborated with the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. His secret police used the colony, about 215 miles south of the capital Santiago, as a place to torture and 'disappear' his opponents.
Germany last year said it was declassifying its files on the sect, and the foreign minister at the time, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, admitted that the diplomatic service had failed to stop the abuses.
Pictured: The Colonia Dignidad commune in Chile, which was the scene of child sex abuse for over thirty years
The scale of the atrocities came to light only after the end of Pinochet's regime.
For decades, the residents of Villa Baviera, initially called Colonia Dignidad, submitted to the authoritarian whims of Schaefer, who banned almost all contact with the outside world at the commune 210 miles south of Santiago.
Under his rules, men and women lived separately, intimate contact was controlled and children were split from their parents.
In 2006, former members of the cult issued a public apology and asked for forgiveness for 40 years of sex and human rights abuses in their community, saying they were brainwashed by Schaefer, who many viewed as God.
Pictured: A woman hangs up posters of missing people on the fence surrounding the sect's compound
Schaefer was born in Troisdorf, Weimar Germany, and joined the Hitler Youth movement at a young age.
He served as a medic in the German Army during World War II, where he reached the rank of corporal.
Last year prosecutors in Krefeld requested that his right-hand man Hopp serve out the prison term in his country of origin, in line with a Chilean request, and the court has now agreed.
The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights greeted the ruling, calling it a long-overdue first step 'in the resolution of the crimes of Colonia Dignidad, in particular rape and sexual abuse of minors'.
It warned that Hopp had already fled Chilean justice once and said that authorities 'must prevent a possible escape of Hartmut Hopp'.
Schaefer disappeared on May 20, 1997, fleeing child sex abuse charges, filed by Chilean authorities after 26 children who went to the commune's free clinic and school reported abuse.
He was tried in Chile in his absence, and found guilty in late 2004.
He was discovered on March 10, 2005, nearly eight years after his disappearance, hiding in a suburb known as Las Acacias, 30 miles from Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Following two days of negotiations between Chilean and Argentine authorities, Schaefer was sent back to Chile to face a court hearing. There, he was charged with being involved in the 1976 disappearance of the political activist Juan Maino, and he remained in custody until his death.
On May 24, 2006, he was sentenced to 20 years in jail for sexually abusing 25 children and was ordered to pay £1million to 11 minors whose representatives established suits.
He died aged 89 in a Chilean jail in 2010 while serving his sentence.
Villa Baviera (Colonia Dignidad), Chile
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