Bountiful, B.C., pair in child-bride case
sentenced to jail time
Brandon and Gail Blackmore were found guilty in February
of taking 13-year-old to U.S. to marry
CBC News
A man and woman from the polygamist enclave of Bountiful, B.C., have been sentenced to several months of jail time for taking a 13-year-old girl to the U.S. to be married.
Brandon and Gail Blackmore, formerly husband and wife, were found guilty in B.C. Supreme Court in February of taking an underage girl across the border for a sexual purpose.
On Friday, Brandon Blackmore was sentenced to one year in jail, to be followed by 18 months' probation. Gail Blackmore received seven months behind bars.
The victim — who cannot be identified due to a publication ban — said she wanted to address the court after the sentencing. She was denied and the Blackmores were led away in handcuffs.
The charges stemmed from the girl's 2004 marriage to Warren Jeffs, the prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, who is now serving a life sentence in Texas.
Jeffs testified that "God told him the [13-year-old] girl belonged to him," ordering the Blackmores to bring her to Utah to be married. At the time, Jeffs already had more than 80 wives.
At a sentencing hearing in June, Crown prosecutors asked for jail time of 12 to 18 months for Brandon Blackmore and six to 12 months for his ex-wife.
The judge said the sentences should act as a deterrent to "secretive" weddings within the polygamist community.
Failing health
Special prosecutor Peter Wilson acknowledged there is no case law setting a precedent for sentencing, but asked the judge to consider the vulnerability of the young victim.
"The sentence should not only denounce but deter them and other members of their community from engaging in similar practice," Wilson said in June.
Brandon Blackmore's defence lawyer had asked for a conditional sentence instead, arguing his 71-year-old client has health problems.
At the time of the crime, the Blackmores were both members of the fundamentalist Mormon church in the southeastern community of Bountiful, where it's common for men to marry multiple women.
A third defendant in the Blackmores' trial, James Oler, was found not guilty of transporting a 15-year-old girl to the U.S. to marry. The B.C. government is appealing that decision.
Child Advocacy Centre Launches Forensic
Interviewing Facility in Nigeria
Representatives of the child protection community in Lagos State gathered recently to attend the launch of the Cece Yara Child Advocacy Centre’s state-of-the-art forensic Ssuite for children who have experienced sexual abuse.
A forensic interview is a structured conversation between a forensic interviewer and a child with the objective of obtaining detailed information or accounts of events that the child may have experienced or witnessed. The interview is usually carried out in a child friendly setting, at the beginning of a police or child protection investigation. It is especially valuable especially where there are no witnesses or physical evidence, and the outcome of the case depends on the victim’s verbal account of what happened. The child’s account is also digitally recorded.
In recent times, Nigeria has recorded an alarming rate of child sexual abuse more than ever in history. It is regrettable to know that only a minimal number of perpetrators are convicted or punished for this crime. Under-reporting, improper interviewing, the inability of our community and law enforcement agents to react appropriately to disclosures of child sexual abuse, as well as the limited ways to assess the credibility of testimonies of victims, may have also contributed to the increasing number of unprosecuted cases.
At the launch, Mrs. Bola Tinubu, the Founder Trustee of the Cece Yara Foundation, stated that the Forensic Interview Suite was in the forefront of technology and research-based investigation of child sexual abuse cases, and would be transformational in assisting the police to carry out more thorough investigations and the discovery of high quality evidence.
“It is a professional discipline that can make a fundamental difference to the way in which we approach the investigation of these crimes against young children. Now our children have a child friendly environment to disclose all the details of their abuse to a professional that understands them and who understands the challenges they have articulating the details of the abuse due to their age, the range of their vocabulary, and the effect of trauma” Mrs. Tinubu.
The Cece Yara Foundation arranged for the successful training of 10 Forensic Interviewers, including staff of the Nigerian Police, and the Ministry of Youth and Social Development on providing skillful child-friendly forensic interviews.
The team was trained by Dr. Princess Olufemi-Kayode, who has worked for nearly 20 years with sexual and gender based violence victims. She started the first Rape Crisis Centre in Nigeria in 2005, and is the founder of Media Concern Initiative for Women and Children (MediaCon), a non-governmental Organisation committed to responding to issues of sexual violence against women and children.
Forensic Interview is designed to eliminate obstacles during investigation and in the event that the perpetrator denies the abuse. Though the practice is relatively unknown in Nigeria, The Cece Yara Foundation intends to collaborate with the Ministry of Youth and Social Development, Ministry of Justice and the Nigerian Police in driving the process of ensuring that child Forensic interview becomes best practice in Nigeria, similar to what obtains in other developed countries. The Cece Yara Foundation is confident that forensic interviewing will aid in successful prosecution, conviction of perpetrators and reduction in child trauma.
The Cece Yara Foundation is a child-centred non-profit organisation established in 2016 to prevent child sexual abuse and provide access to care, information, protection and emergency intervention to children who are sexually abused or at risk, and to their family. The Foundation provides the ideal response to children through a 24-hour free child telephone helpline (0800 800 8001) and its child-friendly Child Advocacy Centre based in Lagos, which provides professional counselling, medical, legal and psycho-social support, as well as referral services. The Foundation also conducts prevention programmes for children and adults to raise the awareness of sexual abuse, and to educate adults on how to protect children from sexual abuse.
The Cece Yara Foundation is located at 2A Akin – Ogunmade Davies Close, Gbagada Phase 2, Lagos. For more information kindly visit our website www.ceceyara.org.
Congratulations! Great work! God bless you!
A British tourist has been arrested after trying to lure a 13 year old Sydney girl for sex
AAP
A BRITISH tourist who arranged to meet a 13-year-old Sydney girl after sexually explicit conversations online has been charged with child exploitation offences.
Last week, officers attached to Strike Force Trawler began engaging online with a man visiting Australia from the United Kingdom.
The man believed he was communicating with a 13-year-old girl and following several sexually explicit conversations, he told “her” he was driving down the coast from Cairns and made arrangements to meet her when he arrived in Sydney.
A 34-year-old man was arrested by strike force officers at Westmead, in Sydney’s west, shortly after 11am on Friday.
They also searched a campervan and seized a number of items for forensic examination.
The man has been charged with the use of a carriage service to procure persons under 16.
He was refused bail to appear at Parramatta Bail Court on Saturday.
The strike force is run by the Sex Crimes Squad’s Child Exploitation internet Unit, which conducts ongoing investigations into the sexual abuse and exploitation of children online.
Squad Commander Detective Superintendent Linda Howlett says the arrest is a timely reminder for parents and carers to speak with young people about the dangers of talking to strangers online.
“While the online environment allows us to be better connected with people we know, it also provides opportunity for people we don’t know to connect with us — and this includes strangers talking to our children,” Det Supt Howlett said. “We know that sexual predators use social media and other online platforms to target children and it is imperative that children know what to do if they are exposed to explicit or inappropriate conversations.
“It is common for young people to feel uncomfortable reporting these types of conversations, so I urge parents to make sure they let their children know they don’t need to be embarrassed or upset — no one will judge you.
“Our priority is tracking down people who use the internet to groom and procure children for sex. We want to make sure we protect children from any type of harm.”
Strike Force Trawler is an ongoing investigation by the unit into the sexual abuse and exploitation of children through the internet and related telecommunications devices.
Nottingham Martial Arts instructor jailed for historical sexual abuse against boys
By WBWire -
A 46-year-old man, who raped and sexually abused two boys in the late 90s, has been jailed for 22 years.
Lee Martin, of Denewood Crescent in Bilborough, was sentenced today (Friday 11 August 2017) following a three week trial.
The court heard how in 1996, Martin groomed one boy and over a four year period, he sexually abused him.
In 1999, he then groomed another boy and over a four year period he sexually assaulted him and raped him on two occasions.
Martin was first arrested in July 2015 when the first victim came forward and was subsequently charged with a number of child sexual offences, including rape and indecent assault against three victims.
He pleaded not guilty to 21 counts of child sex offences at Nottingham Crown Court on Monday 24 July 2017 and a trial commenced. The jury convicted him of 14 counts of sexually touching a child without consent and two counts of rape relating to two of the victims. They were also hung on a third count of rape.
There were four counts of sexual touching relating to a third victim. The jury was unable to reach a decision on three of those counts and found Martin not guilty of the fourth.
Martin worked as a martial arts instructor in Bilborough at the time of the incidents.
As well as the prison sentence, he will have to sign the sex offenders register for life, received an automatic ban from working with children and was issued with an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order.
Detective Constable Laura Clarke said: “The victims have been carrying this burden for around 20 years and have shown great strength in coming forward and seeing the case through trial. It’s been a lengthy investigation of gathering evidence and piecing together information. We are pleased with the sentence and hope it encourages victims to continue to report these incidents to us no matter how long ago they happened. We will do everything we can to bring such offenders to justice and hope the victims can find some closure from the outcomes.”
Amber Rudd Says Political Correctness Must Not Stop UK Tackling Child Sex Abuse
And yet, she says it in a very politically correct way
Jasmin Gray
Students Reporter, HuffPost UK
Political correctness must not get in the way of tackling child sex abuse, Amber Rudd has said amid calls to review racially-motivated crimes.
The Home Secretary was speaking after the convictions of 17 men and one woman over the sexual abuse of under-age girls in Newcastle.
Rudd labelled the case “an abhorrent case of sexual predators preying on young women and girls”.
Much like the Rotherham and Oxford grooming scandals, victims were conned into thinking they were in a relationship with their abuser. They would then be passed round a group of abusers to be used for sex, sometimes with the encouragement of the class B drug M-Kat or cannabis.
Rudd described the exploitation of young girls as a “sickening crime”.
“Those responsible are not restricted to any single ethnic group, religion or community,” she said.
C'mon Amber! You condemn political correctness and then you practice it! You know damn well that 90% of the abusers are Pakistanis and 99% are Muslims. If you are not willing to admit that, then there is no hope of you actually addressing the problem. You can't fix it in general terms; you need to be specific. You need to go right into the Pakistani communities and let them know that this is wrong - they apparently don't know that!
“It is an affront to everyone in our society and I want to be absolutely clear that political and cultural sensitivities must never be allowed to get in the way of preventing and uncovering it.”
Northumbria Police launched a major investigation into the abuse of women in Newcastle after receiving information from social workers and initially spoke to 108 potential victims.
Over the course of four trials, 20 young women gave evidence covering a period from 2011 to 2014.
Those prosecuted were from the Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Indian, Iraqi, Iranian and Turkish communities and mainly British-born, with most living in the West End of Newcastle.
Concerns have been raised the ethnicity of the perpetrators may have meant the actions of the gangs were not uncovered sooner.
Former justice and defence minister Mike Penning, a Conservative MP, said he had written to the Attorney General to find out whether the incident should be treated as a “race-hate crime”.
Mohammaed Shafiq, who is head of the UK’s Ramadhan Foundation, told Sky News that many of the men involved in these kinds of cases view white girls as “worthless”.
“There is a minority of criminals involved in sexual abuse of children in on-street gang grooming who view white girls as worthless,” he said.
Why? Because that's what Mohammed said!
“They think they can be used in this abhorrent sort of way where they can be seen as trash.”
Why? Because Mohammed said they could!
While acknowledging that grooming goes on in every community, Shafiq said there is a “process of education” that must begin.
Sarah Champion, whose Rotherham constituency was rocked by similar crimes, said people were not raising potential cases of child abuse as they feared being labelled racist.
Meanwhile, Maggie Oliver, lead detective in the Rochdale case, said there was an “epidemic” of this kind of abuse because authorities had chosen to turn a blind eye to it due to the ethnicity of perpetrators and victims.
Labour MP for Newcastle Central Chi Onwurah said she was “ashamed” that her home city had harboured abusers.
She said: “I want to make it absolutely clear that there is no excuse, neither ignorance, culture, prejudice nor lack of education which can possibly justify or excuse the abuse of young women.”
The MP said authorities worked together to deal with the problem and did not ignore the offending when it came to light. Onwurah said those who sought to use the abusers’ Asian or Muslim backgrounds to create division were putting other girls at risk.
She said: “Assuming that grooming and child abuse is prevalent in one group helps potential abusers hide in plain sight if they are not part of that group.
“Crimes of sexual exploitation can be and are committed by members of all communities and indeed it remains regrettably true that sexual abuse is most likely to come from within the family circle.”
Good grief! Are you really going to ignore the issue of Pakistanis and Muslims and their attitude toward British girls? Do you not know where it comes from? Let me give you a hint:
Mohammed said it!
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