Boy, 15, ‘drugged and abused’ - no-one held accountable
THE POST, NADIA KHAN
Durban, South Africa - A 15 -year-old Merebank boy who went drinking with his older friend “for fun”, has spoken of his traumatic ordeal of allegedly being drugged by a group of men and sexually abused.
The Grade 8 pupil drank some vodka, neat, while sitting in an alleyway with his 17-year-old friend shortly before his nightmare began.
Now he and his family are struggling to bring the alleged perpetrators to book, despite his devastated mother saying there was evidence of her son’s horrific ordeal.
“We took him to the hospital where it was confirmed he had sustained internal injuries. He has been through such an ordeal, but there has been no progress in his case. To date there have been no arrests or feedback,” she told POST this week.
Names are being withheld to protect the child’s identity.
The boy said his recollection of what exactly had transpired was a bit hazy, because of the drugs he claimed were “stuffed” into his mouth.
He woke up the next morning, and after attempting to use the toilet, felt excruciating pain and saw his underwear was stained with blood, he said.
Still traumatised by the incident, he said he had been out with a female friend, consuming alcohol, when she was approached by a group of four men she appeared to know.
One of the men invited them to “chill” at a house, he said. “I didn’t suspect anything as my friend seemed to know them. “When we arrived at the house, it was empty and dirty, with tools scattered about."
“We told the men we could not go home immediately as we did not want our parents to know we drank alcohol. One of the men offered us each a tablet, saying it would make us sober. He told us to place it under the tongue.”
The youngster claims he started to feel drowsy after a few minutes.
“I felt very sleepy, but managed to stay awake. My friend decided to leave to see her boyfriend and told me to wait for her, as she would come back for me. A few minutes after she left, the men began closing the windows and locked the door. One of them grabbed me, holding me tightly; another shoved a handful of tablets into my mouth.”
The teenager said he did not recall what happened after that, or how he went home.
“I just remember calling for my grandmother to open the gate and then waking up the next morning. When I went to the toilet, all I could feel was pain.”
Suspecting something was wrong, he told his family, who rushed him to hospital.
“They inspected my body and took samples as well as my underwear for DNA testing. The doctor said I had many cuts and bruises internally.”
His 33-year-old mother confirmed this, telling POST they had gone to the police immediately to open a case. However, she was shocked when told a few days later that a court prosecutor had declined to proceed with the matter.
Police spokesperson Colonel Thembeka Mbhele confirmed a case had been opened at Wentworth SAPS and transferred to the Brighton Beach Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit.
“The docket was sent to the senior public prosecutor for a decision and the prosecutor declined to prosecute,” she said.
The family is baffled and outraged.
The boy said while he had learnt his lesson about drinking, going out at night and associating with people he did not know, the men who had harmed him needed to be held accountable.
Rees Mann, founder of the non-profit organisation South African Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse, said that as the country commemorates the 16 Days of Activism relating to the abuse of women and children, the boy child was often forgotten.
“Most of the young boys never report it due to self-blame, embarrassment and fear.”
One in five adult males are victims in sexual offences, said Mann.
“This figure could be much higher, as a male is 10 times less likely to report a sexual violation than a woman. This could mean that South Africa could have the highest number of adult male victims in the world.”
Of the total rapes reported to SAPS, 10% of complainants are adult males, he said. “These figures for the first time depict a picture of males being victims of rape, recognising that they too are victims.”
The National Prosecuting Authority had not commented at the time of publication.
German medic jailed for sedating, raping
dozens of women in fake cancer research
FILE PHOTO © Reuters
The Nuremberg Regional Court convicted the 41-year old man Monday of a litany of sexual offenses, including rape, of 23 women between 2009 and 2016. Seven of the cases involved aggravated rape while a further ten were considered sexual abuse of a person incapable of resisting, according to a spokesman for the judiciary as cited by The Local.
The unidentified man claimed to be an employee of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg who was carrying out cancer screenings. He would lure the women to a secluded meetings where he administered sedatives before raping them.
"I am deeply ashamed that I have abused the trust of women. It was about trust, it was about control, it was ultimately about revaluation," the defendant said as he pleaded guilty at the outset of the trial, as cited by Bild.
The presiding judge said he was "speechless and stunned" by the perpetrator's crimes and that he had "degraded the women to the level of sex dolls."
Two of the survivors searched for the university's drug trial online and contacted the university's medical department before turning to the police to report the crimes after they discovered that the man was a fraud.
UK child abuser given 10 years in jail
for ‘sickening’ sex crimes
A North Yorkshire man has been jailed for 10 years for “sickening” child sex abuse offences spanning a 35-year period.
Glen Reece Miller, 55, from Hunmanby, near Scarborough, was sentenced at Leeds Crown Court following a week-long trial.
His three victims were aged under 13 at the time of the offences. Two boys from the Wakefield area of West Yorkshire were subjected to abuse between 1981 and 1985. A boy from the Scarborough area became another victim in September 2014.
Miller denied all 13 offences, which included two counts of indecency with a child, four counts of indecent assault and four counts of making multiple indecent images of a child.
In sentencing him, the judge took into account similar convicted offences against another five boys aged under 13 which occurred at Maidstone, Kent, in 1990 and at Walworth, south east London, in 1993.
He will now be subject to a lifelong sexual harm prevention order. Det Con Sarah Walkey, of the Scarborough Serious Crime Team, said: “Miller’s abuse spans 35 years and the long prison sentence reflects his history of offending and the sheer gravity of his sickening crimes.
“I am satisfied that justice has been served for the victims in this case, and I have nothing but praise for their bravery in coming forward and providing the evidence needed to secure his conviction.”
DC Walkey added: “I hope the outcome of this case will give other victims of such abhorrent crimes the confidence to report it to the police and seek the professional support that is readily available. “It is never too late to report this type of crime.”
Man jailed for 13 years for the sexual abuse of three girls
By Rebecca Sherdley
A judge has jailed a sex offender for 13 years after he committed a large number of offences against three little girls.
Stephen Foyster, of Worksop Road, Perlethorpe-cum-Budby, near Newark, was sentenced for multiple offences at Nottingham Crown Court.
Judge Rosalind Coe QC described what he did as "a campaign over a sustained period of time" as she delivered her sentencing remarks on Monday (Dec 4).
Foyster entered guilty pleas to seven indecent assaults and five offences of indecency with a child. He is now required to sign the sex offenders' register for life and be the subject of a sexual harm prevention order for ten years.
Now aged 53, the offences on the victims - who cannot be identified - spanned the course of eight years. One of them remembered being five years old when something sexual happened with the defendant.
The last occasion had been when she was 11 years old and he performed a sexual act in front of her near a pond.
Extracts from her victim impact statement were read out in the courtroom.
Mark Knowles, prosecuting, said: "She feels it was an awful experience and it should never have happened".
Of the 12 offences, four indecent assaults involved her as well as one of indecency with a child allegations.
The second girl provided a short statement to police confirming the defendant sexually abused her. She was indecently assaulted twice and the subject of two of the indecency with a child charges.
The defendant admitted he had exposed himself in front of the third girl. The charges involving her were two of indecency with a child and one indecent assault.
Foyster had a previous conviction for indecent exposure in May 2000, when he exposed himself to a ten-year-old and 11-year-old boy and performed a sexual act.
Lisa Hardy, mitigating, said the most significant mitigation in this case were his guilty pleas.
Foyster had been a farmer since leaving school at 16. "He has lived with this shameful secret for many years," Mrs Hardy explained. "He accepts that he is going to face a significant sentence from you today".
The NSPCC’s helpline is available 24/7 on 0808 800 5000 for free and confidential advice.
Toddler Poppi Worthington died after suffering
'penetrative' sexual abuse
Poppi Worthington died as a result of horrific sexual and physical abuse, a doctor has revealed.
Pathologist Dr Alison Armour, who examined the toddler's body after she died, told the inquest into hear death today that she found no possible cause of natural death.
Among the traumatic injuries suffered by the toddler was damage to her internal and reproductive organs, as well as tears and bruising to her bottom.
Dr Armour, told the hearing in Kendall, Cumbria: 'In entirety, the likely cause in my view is the injuries were from a penis or a penis shaped object.'
'There was no evidence of impacted faeces or constipation and no evidence of anything internal in Poppi to explain these findings.
'My findings are that there was penetration of Poppi before her death.'
Dr Armour also told the inquest that Poppi suffered severe bruising, cuts and a leg fractured in two places.
Today the first pictures ever published of Poppi's home emerged, showing the double bed where she was found unresponsive and bleeding after her father 'probably' sexually abused her.
The bed is shown strewn with towels, pillows and kitchen paper with a half-drunk baby bottle on the bedside table, in Barrow-in-Furness in 2012.
Last week Poppi's father Paul avoided 252 questions about her death – including why her DNA was found on his genitals - but chose to answer one to describe the 13-month-old as a 'bully'.
Mr Justice Peter Jackson said last year the toddler suffered 'a penetrative sexual assault' before her sudden death and 'the only person who could realistically have done this to her was her father'.
Poppi died from the injuries sustained shortly after her father, who had been watching pornography, took her into his bed at the family home in Barrow-in-Furness, in December 2012.
Dr Armour said today Poppi's post-mortem examination showed the 13-month-old had reddened inner thighs and bruising and small tears to her rectum, Kendal Coroner's Court heard.
Mr Justice Peter Jackson (pictured) ruled Paul Worthington had brutally abused his daughter who died in hospital hours later
Details of what happened to Poppi Worthington were only revealed for first time in January 2016 with the publication of findings by High Court family judge Mr Justice Peter Jackson.
Poppi died from injuries sustained shortly after her father, who had earlier been watching pornography on his computer, took her into his bed at the family home in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria.
The family court judge ruled Paul Worthington had brutally abused his daughter who died in hospital hours later.
But a catalogue of blunders by police, social workers and medical staff mean that despite the legal ruling Worthington, 49, is unlikely to face any criminal action without new evidence.
The supermarket worker, denies any wrongdoing.
In his ruling Mr Justice Jackson said: 'P [Poppi] suffered injuries causing substantial bleeding from the anus and that she collapsed for no plausible reason. The only explanation for those stubborn facts is that she suffered anal penetration and the only person who could realistically have done this to her was her father.
He added: 'I find that the father perpetrated a penetrative anal assault on P [Poppi], either using his penis or some other unidentified object'.
A statement released by Mr Worthington's lawyers said afterwards': 'Mr Worthington does not accept the findings of the court'.
The ruling was released months after a fresh inquest was ordered into the death of 13-month-old Poppi.
The decision meant more than two years of official silence over the case would be broken.
Poppi died in December 2012 but the public were told nothing about what happened to her or how social workers and police handled the affair.
There was an initial seven-minute inquest in October 2015 during which Cumbria coroner Ian Smith gave no information about the circumstances leading to the girl's death. It simply found that her death was 'unascertained'.
Dr Armour said she was given a verbal briefing by police before the post-mortem examination began and was aware that Poppi had leg injuries before her death from earlier X-rays.
Alison Hewitt, counsel to the inquest, asked the witness: 'Do you recall whether you expressed any view as to whether this is a case of child abuse?' Dr Armour said there was no record of any accident to explain the leg injuries, which were only picked up after Poppi's death.
She added: 'I was very concerned about the healing fractures to the right tibia and fibula and my remarks were made to that effect - 'This is strongly suspicious of child abuse'.'
Her post-mortem examination also found bruising to the back of Poppi's throat and external and internal injuries to her anus and rectum area.
Mr Worthington was accused of sexually abusing 13-month-old Poppi shortly before her tragic death in 2012 - but he escaped prosecution amid claims of a bungled police investigation.
Key evidence, including Poppi's last nappies, the pyjama bottoms she was wearing and a computer Mr Worthington used to watch pornography, were lost.
Former police officer Lindsey Bolton told the hearing that the laptop Mr Worthington used to watch 'adult X-rated' porn in bed on the night Poppi died was never recovered by police and there were no 'proactive' attempts by officers to trace it.
Mr Worthington told her he had sold the laptop to a man in nearby Millom and he would try to get it back. Asked if he had made any efforts to retrieve it, Miss Bolton replied: 'Not to my knowledge.'
Last week he avoided 252 questions about her death – but chose to answer one to describe the 13-month-old as a 'bully'.
Paul Worthington, who is accused of sexually assaulting the toddler before she died, sobbed as he refused to say why the toddler's DNA was found on his genitals.
He dodged 183 questions at the inquest into Poppi's death – in addition to the 69 he refused to answer on Wednesday.
But he did respond when asked to describe his daughter, saying: 'Lively. Bubbly. The happy one out of the siblings. Bully, in her own little way.'
The inquest, which started last week, heard that, in the early hours of December 12 2012. Poppi's mother was asleep downstairs when she heard a scream which was followed by Mr Worthington coming down to fetch a clean nappy.
Shortly afterwards Mr Worthington rushed back downstairs holding his lifeless daughter and shouting to his ex-partner to call for an ambulance.
This second inquest into Poppi's death was ordered after the controversial first hearing - held by a different coroner - was shrouded in secrecy and lasted just seven minutes.
Later, in a fact-finding judgment as part of care proceedings involving Poppi's siblings, family court judge Mr Justice Peter Jackson, now Lord Justice Peter Jackson, said Poppi's 'significant bleeding' within 15 minutes of the 999 call made from the family home could only be explained sensibly as the result of penetrative trauma.
Mr Worthington, who gave evidence screened from the public and flanked by police officers armed with Tasers, became agitated last week as he was asked about events in the hours before Poppi died.
Alison Hewitt, counsel to the inquest, asked why the toddler's DNA was found on his genitals on the day of her death, but he refused to answer.
The father previously told a family court hearing that his fingers were in Poppi's mouth and that he then went to the toilet.
He was asked whether he 'penetrated' his daughter himself or with an object. He again dodged the question.
Poppi's mother, who cannot be named for legal reasons, sat in the hearing in Kendal, Cumbria, with her head in her hands for much of her former partner's testimony before leaving.
Coroner David Roberts made a final appeal for answers before Mr Worthington finished his evidence.
He said: 'You were an adult in this house, as well as Poppi's father, so you are well placed to give me information if you want to. This is an opportunity for you to tell me anything that may... help me find how your daughter came by her death.
'I don't want you to go without having that opportunity. Is there anything else you would like to tell me?' Mr Worthington replied: 'No, sir.'
Poppi's father answered 40 questions put to him, but dodged the rest by citing 'Rule 22', which allows witnesses at inquests to avoid incriminating themselves.
Poppi's mother told the inquest earlier this week that she was asleep downstairs when she heard a scream. Minutes later Mr Worthington rushed in holding his lifeless daughter and shouting to his ex-partner to call for an ambulance. Poppi died just over an hour later at Furness General Hospital.
In a fact-finding judgment as part of care proceedings involving Poppi's siblings, family court judge Mr Justice Peter Jackson, now Lord Justice Peter Jackson, said Poppi's 'significant bleeding' could only be sensibly explained as being the result of penetrative trauma.
Mr Worthington has never been charged and denies responsibility for his daughter's death. The inquest continues.
Police charge man with grooming teenage girl
after Bath sting by 'paedophile hunter'
The man was charged with attempting to cause/incite a girl aged 13-15 to engage in sexual activity
By Andrew Baber
Police have charged a man with a grooming offence after he was arrested in Bath following a sting carried out by a self-styled ‘paedophile hunter’.
The 20-year-old, from the South Gloucestershire area, was arrested by officers outside Sainsbury’s in Monmouth Street on July 17.
Avon and Somerset police has now confirmed that the man will face a charge of attempting to cause/incite a girl aged 13-15 to engage in sexual activity.
He is due to attend Bath Magistrates’ Court on January 3.
A spokesperson said: “A 20-year-old man has been sent a postal requisition which requires him to attend Bath Magistrates’ Court on January 3 to face a charge of attempting to cause/incite a girl aged 13-15 to engage in sexual activity.”
The suspect is alleged to have arranged to meet what he thought to be a 14-year-old girl, but instead he was confronted by Danny Catcher – a man dedicated to catching online sexual predators.
Police arrested several men earlier this year following stings carried out by the man who goes under the pseudonym Danny Catcher.
However, he then claimed he was asked to stop operating as a ‘paedophile hunter’ by Avon and Somerset police in August after receiving a call from a detective inspector.
It said: “The police service is committed to tackling child sexual exploitation and abuse in all its forms. “We have invested in more undercover resources and other covert resources to catch those seeking to groom children online and we are already starting to see more of these offenders being brought to justice.
“We understand the desire to protect children but any member of the public who has information about child sexual abuse, online or otherwise, should get in contact with the police so we can investigate and bring people to justice.
“So called paedophile hunters are taking risks they don’t understand and can undermine police investigations. Revealing the identity of suspected paedophiles gives the suspect the opportunity to destroy evidence before the police can investigate them.
A policeman chats with the self-styled 'paedophile hunter' at another sting
(Image: Paul Gillis)
“It can jeopardise ongoing police investigations and these people have no way of safeguarding child victims. It also leads to people who have been identified going missing or raising concerns for their safety.
“This can divert significant resources into protecting suspects, which would be better invested in investigating and, where there is evidence, prosecuting them.
“There is also the risk of wrongly accusing someone; if someone is wrongly accused of being a paedophile in a hugely public way that makes people who live with them, live near them, work with them assume they have committed the offence.
“The temptation to kill themselves may be just as great even if they are innocent; that is an appalling consequence to contemplate."
Anyone with concerns about online grooming, should report them to their local police, to CEOP at www.ceop.police.uk, or to Crimestoppers. Alternatively, if you think a child is at immediate risk of harm call 999.
Ecuador Needs to Act to Halt Child Sexual Violence
Tamara Taraciuk Broner
Senior Americas Researcher
On a June day in 2016, Ruth Montenegro said goodbye to her daughter, 11-year-old Valentina, as she headed to school. Valentina was planning to go to her orchestra practice that afternoon—she played the flute at the Symphonic Orchestra of Ecuador’s conservatorium— and return home to help her younger sister decide what she would wear for her birthday party. But she never made it to orchestra practice.
Montenegro and her husband went to the police, but instead of searching for her, the officers asked if Valentina may have wanted to leave voluntarily, and sent her parents away. They spent all night searching for Valentina.
The following morning, Montenegro got a phone call from the school. When she arrived, she saw her daughter’s body on the floor, covered by a blanket. School authorities first suggested Valentina’s death was an accident, and then that Valentina had committed suicide because her parents were getting a divorce, Montenegro said.
A forensic expert who participated in the first autopsy initially told Montenegro that Valentina had been raped and strangled, but then abruptly reversed course after receiving a phone call and told Montenegro that “she was very sorry” but there had been a “mistake” and Valentina’s death was an “accident.” The prosecutor subsequently rushed the family to take the body from the morgue and bury it, Montenegro said.
The body was exhumed weeks later. The investigation eventually yielded evidence that Valentina had been sexually abused and killed, and that her body was later placed near the school playground, where it was found, Montenegro told me. Valentina’s death is still under investigation.
Valentina’s case is not an isolated one. A series of recent scandals have shaken Ecuadorean society, revealing that sexual violence of children is much more widespread than many people had been willing to acknowledge.
After years in which the Ecuadorean government failed to acknowledge the scope of the problem, the new government of Lenin Moreno responded to the publicity the recent cases received by doing precisely that. The new education minister, Fander FalconÃ, said that the ministry had registered 882 alleged cases of sexual violence against children between 2014 and 2017, including 561 incidents linked to the public education system.
In November, the president of the Judiciary Council, Gustavo Jalkh, said that during the same period, prosecutors had received 4,864 complaints of sexual violence against children—of these, 2,264 had moved on to trial, and 1,653 had led to a ruling, without specifying whether they were convictions. Also in November, the Attorney General’s Office said it would reopen 82 investigations of allegations of sexual violence against children that had been archived since 2015, in response to a request from the Education Ministry.
And these are just the cases that have been reported. According to UNICEF, based on official statistics, victims only file complaints in about 15 percent of sexual violence cases in Ecuador.
UNICEF has reported that world-wide around 15 million adolescent girls aged 15 to 19 have experienced forced sex in their lifetime, including nine million who have been victimized over the past year. In 28 surveyed countries, nine out of 10 adolescent girls who have experienced forced sex say this happened for the first time during adolescence. Based on data from 30 countries, only one percent of victims reached out for professional help.
To make matters worse, abortion in Ecuador is legal for women and girls only when their health or life is at risk, or when the pregnancy results from the rape of a woman with a mental disability. This means many adolescent girls who become pregnant as a result of rape cannot access safe and legal abortion, and must turn to illegal abortion or continue those pregnancies.
The Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified by Ecuador in 1990, obliges state parties to take all appropriate measures to protect children “from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse.”
In September 2017, the UN expert body that assesses government compliance with the Convention declared that it was “extremely concerned about the prevalence of gender-based violence, in particular sexual violence,” about “the high level of impunity in cases of sexual violence” affecting children in Ecuador, and “the high rate of teenage pregnancy, frequently as a consequence of sexual violence.”
A progressive dismantling of specialized institutions to protect children in recent years has contributed to this situation, said local activists who submitted a shadow report to the committee.
The experts urged the government to adopt a “nationwide strategy to eliminate sexual violence against girls,” and ensure they have “access to sexual and reproductive health services, including therapeutic abortion” and “access to effective complaint mechanisms.” They also called on the government to “introduce compulsory screening processes and background checks” of staff working in public and private schools and “expedite judicial proceedings against alleged perpetrators of sexual violence.”
Ecuadorean authorities appear to be taking the issue more seriously. The education minister has acknowledged the scope of the problem and the need to address it. The National Assembly has created a special commission to investigate these cases. President Moreno has said that he wants to include a question in his proposed referendum to ask Ecuadoreans if they support eliminating statutes of limitations for investigating and prosecuting sexual violence against children.
With tears in her eyes, Montenegro told me she wanted justice and that she wants to ensure that “this doesn’t happen again to any other person or family.” It is critically important for Ecuadorean authorities to turn words into actions, and create a comprehensive and adequate system to protect children from sexual violence.
No comments:
Post a Comment