Ted Heath report 'could be buried' after police pass file to Independent Inquiry into Child Abuse
Sir Edward Heath, the former Prime Minister, has been subject to an ongoing inquiry into allegations of a sex abuse scandal
Martin Evans, crime correspondent
The police force investigating claims of paedophilia against Sir Edward Heath has been accused of trying to bury the findings after announcing it would be passing its report to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA).
Wiltshire Police has been criticised for spending two years and almost £2 million probing allegations against the former Tory Prime Minister, who died more than a decade ago.
Last week the force announced that the investigation - Operation Conifer - was drawing to a close, with a report expected to be published in the Autumn.
But in a fresh twist the force has now said the findings are to be passed to the wide-ranging inquiry being chaired by Professor Alexis Jay.
A spokesman said: "We have briefed IICSA and we will make available to them our report such that they can consider it relative to the terms of reference of the public inquiry."
But supporters of Sir Edward, who have described Operation Conifer as a "witch-hunt", have warned that Wiltshire Police could use the role of the inquiry to bury the findings.
Lincoln Seligman, Sir Edward's godson, accused the Wiltshire Chief Constable of trying to “kick Operation Conifer into the long grass”, but said the Jay inquiry had already rejected the idea of dealing with the report.
He said: “Lord Macdonald ex DPP has already said publicly that Conifer report is 'wildly beyond the remit of the Jay inquiry.
“Alexis Jay doesn't want it and can't take it so Mr Veale suggesting otherwise does not stack up. Sadly for him IICSA cannot be the long grass into which he's hoping to kick Conifer.”
Operation Conifer was launched in August 2015 when Wiltshire police appealed for "victims" of Sir Edward to come forward.
In April, police said two people arrested in connection with child protection issues had been released without charge.
Sir Edward, who led the Conservative government from 1970 to 1974, died at home in Salisbury in July 2005, aged 89.
Catholic Church claimed child sex abuse victims ‘consented’
The Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority has refused payment to 700 victims and child sexual abuse survivors
Fiona Keating
The Catholic Church and British local authorities have been accused of using a legal loophole to avoid paying compensation to victims of child sex abuse.
The Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme, a government agency, has denied some children financial settlements because it said the victims had “consented” to the abuse, a group of charities has warned.
Lawyers representing victims have warned that this line of defence is becoming increasingly common.
One case that the charity Victim Support brought attention to involved a 12-year-old girl who was given alcohol, brought into woodland and then sexually assaulted by a 21-year-old male. The girl was denied compensation because she had “voluntarily” gone into the woods with the man.
“No child ever gives their ‘consent’ to being abused, and the increased use of this line of defence, although still quite rare, is worrying,” said Anne Longfield, the Children’s Commissioner for England. "I have contacted the Ministry of Justice previously and again recently about this issue and the Government should look urgently at what can be done to tackle it.”
The Sunday Telegraph reported that it had seen documents regarding two cases where the defence was used. A claimant who was raped at the age of 15 was told by lawyers representing the Catholic Archdiocese of Southwark that his abuse "actually occurred in the context of a consensual relationship (albeit one the claimant in retrospect now appears to regret)".
The victim said "I was below the legal age of consent anyway and there's a grooming element to that kind of situation. It was totally disregarded and it made me feel really small." The case was finally settled, with the Catholic Church paying out £80,000.
Dino Nocivelli, a specialist child abuse solicitor at Bolt Burdon told Kent Live: “It is time for the church to practise what they preach and to admit their failings, to take account of the damage this has caused to the lives of far too many children and lastly to apologise for the abuse.”
Ha! It's long past that time!
A spokesman for the Archdiocese of Southwark said that the church does not comment on individual cases out of respect for the claimant’s privacy. He added that the Archdiocese “supports the right of anyone who has suffered harm to seek compensation.”
Since the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) was launched in 2012, approximately 700 victims and survivors of child sexual abuse have had their claims rejected.
Southwark, London
Child protection officer had stash of girls’ knickers in his home
Ashitha Nagesh for Metro
A child protection officer has been fired after police found a stash of girls’ knickers in his home.
Jonathan Ward, 46, worked at a specialist child protection unit for Surrey County Council until a tipster got in touch with the police.
When they raided his home in Hove, East Sussex, last December the Sunday Mirror reports that they found the knickers and a trove of more than 100 child sexual abuse images on his computer.
Ward was spared jail after pleading guilty to six counts of making indecent images of children.
He was handed a seven month jail term, suspended for two years, and 120 hours of community service. He has also been handed a five-year restriction on contact with children and internet use.
The council also confirmed that Ward was immediately suspended following the raid, and has now lost his job.
Judge Paul Tain told Ward at Hove Trial Centre: ‘People who support the degradation of children through downloading images participate in the crime and participate in the abuse.’
There is no suggestion that Ward, who had previously worked for Brighton and Hove City Council for 15 years, committed any offences in connection with girl he came into contact with through work.
Surrey County Council said: ‘Mr Ward was suspended as soon as these allegations came to light and has since been dismissed. The offences are unrelated to his work.’
Brighton and Hove Council said: ‘We are shocked and saddened but would like to emphasise that the offences are not connected to his employment with us.’
Sussex Police said: ‘None of the images, taken from the internet, are believed to be of children known to Ward and there is no evidence of physical contact offending.’
Surrey, UK
Two men arrested in Philippines for sex assault
and child rape
Police arrest 2 men for sexual assault Monday, August 21, 2017 TWO men were arrested in separate incidents for alleged sexual assaults in Consolacion and the City of Naga, Cebu.
At 4:30 a.m. yesterday, Warlito Lapiz, 32, was arrested for allegedly molesting a 37-year-old woman in Barangay Jaguimit, Naga City.
Lapiz, a resident of Barangay Patag in Naga, allegedly barged inside the victim’s house and touched her private parts. The victim shouted for help.
Her neighbors then reported the incident to the village watchmen, who later caught the suspect.
Lapiz will face complaints for acts of lasciviousness before the city prosecutor’s office.
In Barangay Cansaga, Consolacion, 20-year-old Claudio Quinto was caught after he allegedly molested a ten-year-old girl last Friday dawn.
The suspect reportedly abused the girl near the town’s terminal located at the back of a mall.
Quinto will face a rape complaint in relation to Republic Act 7610, or the Special Protection of Children Against Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act.
RA 7610 defines child abuse as maltreatment of a minor, which includes “psychological and physical abuse, neglect, cruelty, sexual abuse and emotional maltreatment.” (KAL)
WA man faces court on historic
child sexual abuse charges
by Josh Zimmerman Melville Times NEWSA BICTON man will front Bunbury Magistrates Court today charged with the historical sexual abuse of two young children.
It will be alleged that between 1979 and 1983 the 64-year-old man, who was a teacher at the Bunbury Seventh Day Adventist Primary School at the time, sexually abused a student at his home.
The child was aged between five and 10 years old at the time.
It is further alleged that between 1987 and 1988 the man sexually abused a second student from the school at his home in Willetton.
The second victim was 13 years old at the time.
The charges are a result of ongoing investigations stemming from the Royal Commission into institutional responses to child sexual offences.
The man has been charged with three counts of carnal knowledge, six counts of attempted carnal knowledge and nine counts of indecent dealing of a child under 14 years.
Disturbing pix of child sex abuse highlight
major problem in China
BY BEH YUEN HUIAT a busy railway station in China, travellers were walking up and down the aisles and many others were sitting on benches while waiting for their trains.
On one of the benches at the waiting hall was a group of four – a young girl, a young man and a middle-aged couple.
The girl was sitting on the lap of the young man, whose hands were inside her dress, fondling her breasts.
The middle-aged couple behaved normally, as though there was nothing wrong with the man’s act.
What would you do if this happened right in front of you? Many people did nothing, or perhaps they were busy with their phones and did not notice at all.
But this disturbing scene that lasted some five minutes was seen by one concerned traveller, who took pictures and complained to Chinese author Chen Lan, who is also an activist in child protection.
After verifying the facts, Chen lodged a police report and posted the incident on her Weibo (Chinese microblogging site similar to Twitter) on Aug 12, which has since been forwarded more than 140,000 times.
“If he could do this in public, it would be even worse at home,” she later told cnr.cn, the online news portal of China National Radio in an interview.
The young man’s conduct has also enraged the public.
Police stepped in to investigate.
It was later revealed that the incident took place at Nanjing South Railway Station in Nanjing city of eastern China.
Police said the 10-year-old girl was adopted by the couple from Henan province, most probably illegally. Police are probing whether there was an element of human trafficking.
The alleged paedophile, who turned out to be the child’s 18-year-old foster brother, was arrested last Tuesday. He is facing a maximum jail term of just five years if convicted – an extremely light sentence for someone who molested a young girl.
Soon after the arrest, another child sexual abuse case was exposed.
This time, it took place at a hospital in Chongqing city.
Police arrested the 49-year-old man who was later identified as the girl’s uncle, last Wednesday.
According to the police, the girl has been living with her grandmother since her parents divorced, as her chronically ill father was unable to take care of her.
At the time the photograph was taken, she was brought by her uncle to the hospital for treatment of a skin disease.
Chinese courts dealt with 10,782 cases of child sexual abuse from 2013 to 2016, the Supreme People’s Court told China Daily, which also reported that some 88% of child victims were abused by people close to them, including their teachers, neighbours or relatives.
Sun Xuemei from the Girls Protection Special Fund of the China Foundation of Culture and Arts for Children pointed out that a huge majority of children had never received sexual assault prevention education.
“The country must educate children about how to avoid sexual assault,” she told the daily.
Cases of paedophilia are not rare or new in this society, but what gives me the creeps is the people’s perception of paedophiles.
Some people, including the 10-year-old girl’s foster parents, took the paedophilia problem lightly and many netizens even thought it was okay if both the girl and her foster brother were “in love”.
Over the past one week, Chen received more than 2,000 death threats and uncountable messages attacking and cursing her for being a “busybody”.
Chen, who also founded Xiao Xi Wang Zhi Jia (literally translated as The Little Home of Hope), said the child protection organisation had helped thousands of abused children over the past seven years.
“Cases of child sexual abuse are far more serious than we could imagine, especially those involving boys,” she wrote on Weibo. “Although we have seen improvement and a growing awareness among the community, there is still a lot more that needs to be done for the sake of our children.”
Instead of sensationalising the case, she hoped her exposure of the dilemma of these victims could lead to the setting up of a more efficient and effective system in child protection, be it from the enforcement or legal perspective.
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