Auckland group claims to have exposed paedophiles
Author NZ Herald,
A series of videos were posted on Facebook exposing paedophile. (Photo / iStock)
Police are discouraging an Auckland group that has posted videos on Facebook of men the posters allege have responded to advertisements on Tinder for sex with underaged children.
The three respective videos - posted by people associated with a controversial European Students Association at Auckland University last year - show men talking to a member of the group who met them at locations arranged on Tinder.
In the first video, posted on Christmas Day, a young man is shown in a park at night.
"We had posed as an underaged child on Tinder, when this nonce, paedophile, predator, whatever you want to call him had solicited our decoy for sex," one of the group said on Facebook.
"He arranged to meet what he thought was an underaged child in a park at night. Little did he know we were waiting for him, to expose him for what he is: a child sex predator."
A second video, posted yesterday, shows a man alleged to have been "messaging what he thought was a 15-year-old boy for the past week".
"He invited our decoy to his apartment in Auckland's waterfront for the purposes of underaged sex, so we showed up with a camera," the post boasted.
The third video, posted in the early hours of this morning, shows a man in a car speeding off after he is approached by the group's decoy.
"He was here to meet what he thought was a 15-year-old girl for sex," the post says.
"Unfortunately he attempted to back out at the last minute and attempt to drive off, but not before I managed to approach him, and luckily we got his face on camera.
"Before you feel sorry for him, just remember that this creature had taken his dad's car out and drove halfway across Auckland to have sex with a minor, and unfortunately for him, we were there to catch him. Busted!!!
"This paedophile is only one of thousands that we have lined up to catch. Stay tuned for more videos in the coming days and weeks."
But a police spokesperson discouraged the group from taking the law into their own hands.
"Police encourage anyone who has concerns about potential offending to contact us immediately. All complaints will be taken seriously and followed up as appropriate," the spokesperson said. "We strongly discourage members of the public from taking matters into their own hands as they could place themselves and members of the public at risk."
The spokesperson said police "are not able to respond to requests which seek to establish whether a specific individual is, or has been, under police investigation".
Two members of the vigilante group were also associated with a controversial European Students Association at Auckland University last year.
The association withdrew its application to affiliate to the Auckland University Students' Association after drawing fire for using Celtic symbols favoured by white supremacist groups.
A Herald investigation found that the association was part of an underground "alt-right" movement that sympathised with President Donald Trump and like-minded right-wing movements in the United States.
A member of the group told the Herald that he and a friend decided to expose paedophiles after reading a report by Greg Hallett alleging that top figures in the Government and the judiciary have been linked to child sex abuse. Hallett has also claimed that Hitler was a British agent and that the British monarchy is bent on world domination.
"He is a whistleblower," the group member said.
He is an idiot!
"We just thought there are so many sex offenders in New Zealand who are apparently getting name suppression.
"We've all heard stories about there being paedophiles in New Zealand who are not getting hard sentences. The police are not doing a particularly good job, so it's time for us to take matters into our own hands."
He said he and his friend had created a single fake account on Tinder and had received "hundreds" of replies from people trying to meet for what they believed would be sex with an underaged child. "We have only had time to meet up with four," he said.
Three videos are still online, but he said a fourth, posted today, had been removed from Facebook, apparently because of its description of attempted underaged sex.
"They have banned me for 30 days and taken the post down," he said.
Being too graphic in describing paedos desires and communications just feeds them.
He said he was 22 and worked as a freelance share trader. His friend "works off a happy inheritance". Both of them therefore had time to keep pursuing the people who responded to their Tinder postings.
He said he hoped the postings would encourage the police to stage the same kind of stings.
"We hope the police, not necessarily with the cases that we have done, will take a stronger approach to catching paedophiles," he said.
Meanwhile in Australia, a man has been charged with grooming a 14-year-old child online after a vigilante set up his second filmed sting in a week.
The vigilante, who has dubbed himself the "Adelaide Pedo Hunter", executed the citizen's arrest of a 28-year-old man, who was later charged with procuring a child to commit an indecent act.
But the sting has prompted a second warning by SA Police against people taking the law into their own hands.
The set-up was filmed by the vigilante, who posted the video online on Sunday.
Point is, if the police are not seen as addressing the problem, people are going to take it into their own hands. We know there are police units working behind the scenes, but there is so much more can be done. Sting operations should be happening at least once a month in every jurisdiction until paedos are so terrified of answering ads that traffickers stop producing them.
Joshua Boyle, former Canadian hostage,
appears in court on 15 criminal charges
By Kristy Nease, CBC News
Joshua Boyle, the Canadian who was held captive in Afghanistan for five years with his wife, made a brief court appearance via video link Wednesday morning in Ottawa on more than a dozen criminal charges.
The 34-year-old could be seen in court wearing an orange shirt at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre, where he is being held after he was arrested in Ottawa on New Year's Day.
Defence lawyer Ninetta Caparelli represented Boyle during his brief appearance Wednesday, and told court that going forward, Boyle will be represented by lawyers Lawrence Greenspon and Eric Granger.
Boyle confirmed his name, and then his next court appearance was scheduled for Monday to allow his lawyers to continue working on a bail plan.
Boyle is charged with:
Eight counts of assault.
Two counts of sexual assault.
Two counts of unlawful confinement.
One count of uttering threats.
One count of public mischief (misleading a police officer into believing that someone was suicidal and missing, causing the officer to start an investigation, and thereby diverting suspicion away from Boyle).
One count of administering a noxious substance (the antidepressant Trazodone).
Police allege the offences happened in Ottawa between Oct. 14 and Dec. 30. None of the charges has been proven in court.
Court records show there are two alleged victims, but their identities are protected by a publication ban.
Joshua Boyle and his family met with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Dec. 19. (@boylesvsworld/Twitter)
'Never been in trouble'
Granger and Greenspon wrote in an emailed statement to CBC News Wednesday that Boyle is presumed innocent and has no criminal history.
"He has no criminal record and has never been in trouble with the police. As Mr. Boyle has only just been charged, we are waiting to receive more information (disclosure) about these allegations so that we can respond to them appropriately in court," the statement reads.
"As the matter is currently before the courts, we have no further comments at this time, and Mr. Boyle will not be making any statements."
A hand-written note posted outside Joshua Boyle's home in Ottawa Tuesday evening asked for privacy. (CBC News)
A man who answered the phone Tuesday at Boyle's parents' home in Smiths Falls, Ont., said, "We don't have any comment," before hanging up the phone.
Freed in October
Boyle, his American wife, Caitlan Coleman, and their three children were freed in October, five years after the couple was abducted while on a backpacking trip in Afghanistan. The children were born in captivity.
They were backpacking in a Taliban controlled area of Afghanistan!!!??
Boyle previously told CBC News upon his return to Canada that members of the Taliban-linked Haqqani network killed their infant daughter and raped his wife during the years they were held captive.
Over their five years in captivity, the family was moved between 23 different locations within 50 kilometres of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and spent time in both countries.
During that time, Boyle said his family was shuffled among at least three prisons. One was remarkably barbaric, he said, while another one was particularly violent. He and his wife were frequently separated and beaten.
Boyle settled into his parents' home in Smiths Falls, Ontario when he returned to Canada in October, but court records show his most recent address was in Ottawa.
Canadian theatre star Albert Schultz sued by 4 women who call him 'serial sexual predator'
The Stars are Falling
Complainants allege 30 incidents involving Street Legal actor and co-founder of Soulpepper Theatre Company
Four women filed civil lawsuits Wednesday against Albert Schultz, accusing the Canadian actor and artistic director of the Soulpepper Theatre Company of sexual battery and harassment of a sexual nature over a 13-year period.
"Albert is a serial sexual predator who…had well-developed methods for targeting actresses and luring them into situations that he considered optimal for sexually harassing and assaulting them," the lawsuits allege, adding that the methods were "facilitated by Soulpepper."
Sexual battery is a term used in civil lawsuits to describe unwanted touching of a sexual nature.
In all, the women in the four statements of claim allege 30 separate incidents, many of them with specific locations and dates.
Soulpepper director Albert Schultz, centre, speaks to cast members during rehearsals for the production of Spoon River in Toronto in March 2017. (Chris Young/Canadian Press)
CBC News has also spoken with some of Schultz's colleagues at Soulpepper, who said they had never witnessed the director behave inappropriately. They said he is passionate and a maverick who "experiments" with actors to get the best performances out of them.
However, two of the theatre company's founding members, Ted Dykstra and Stuart Hughes, along with actor Michelle Monteith, released a statement saying they believe the plaintiffs and hope their support will send "a message to organizations everywhere: sexual harassment in the workplace cannot be tolerated. By anyone."
Northern Ireland man accused of a dozen counts
of sexual abuse against young girls
Michael Joseph Scullion, 45, faces 12 charges of sexual abuse between 2010 and 2016.
The charges include a single count of attempting to rape a child, five counts of sexually assaulting a child, and three each of engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child and inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.
Scullion appeared before Armagh Magistrates’ Court this week where the public prosecution confirmed the case will go before Crown Court in the coming weeks.
The three alleged victims were all under the age of 13 at the time of the reported incidents.
The 45-year-old was remanded on £750 bail and issued with strict conditions, including a ban on contact with any of the alleged victims or witnesses.
£750 bail? Seriously? Good grief! He's not charged with loitering!
He is to reside at his address and is not to have any unsupervised contact with anyone aged under 18.
And we know he will do that because he is such a fine, up-standing, law-abiding citizen; right?
Scullion is back in court on January 23 before his case is transferred to Newry Crown Court for trial at a later date.
Let's hope the Crown Court Judge takes this case more seriously and thinks about the children for a change.
Renowned Suffolk harpist and former Claydon High School teacher deny child sex offences in court
The teenager had travelled to London with former Claydon High School teacher Richard Barton-Wood to watch Danielle Perrett play the harp for guests at a hotel, Ipswich Crown Court heard.Following the performance the teenager and Barton-Wood, who was engaged to Perrett in the 1980s, went to her flat and the boy was given her bed to sleep in, said William Carter, prosecuting.
“As he lay in that large bed Danielle Perrett came into the bedroom and he watched as she got undressed and got into the bed and cuddled up to him and got on top of him,” alleged Mr Carter.
He claimed that Perrett had sex with the teenager who later described her as “smelling of roses”.
“He found her attractive and he thought she was nice and the sex was nice. They stayed in bed afterwards and fell asleep,” said Mr Carter.
He claimed that Barton-Wood had come into the room and got into bed with them and had started touching the alleged victim but the teenager had turned away.
The next morning the boy was having a shower when Perrett allegedly joined him and performed a sex act on him. Perrett allegedly had sex with the boy on three further occasions, said Mr Carter.
Perrett, 59, of Bridge Street, Alpheton, has denied eight offences of indecent assault.
Barton-Wood, 68, of Church Street, Wymondham, Norfolk, has denied six offences of indecent assault, one of attempted buggery and one of attempted indecent assault.
The allegations date back to the 1980s.
Mr Carter claimed the alleged victim of the offences had been sexually assaulted by Barton-Wood on his boat which he kept at Pin Mill and at a house in Debenham.
Following his arrest Barton-Wood denied having any sexual contact with the alleged victim and Perrett claimed the teenager had pushed her against a wall and rubbed himself against her in her bathroom.
They said that when the alleged victim contacted them following the alleged offences they thought he was going to blackmail them.
The trial continues.
Bristol man jailed for attempting to groom child tried again when released from prison
A paedophile jailed for trying to groom a child for sex abuse online tried again after he was released from prison.
Now the 44-year-old, of Hercules Close in Little Stoke, has admitted breaching a Sexual Risk Order by trying to groom another child online. Again, his intended victim was actually a member of the same vigilante group.
Watson has also pleaded guilty to attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child. He now faces a maximum five years’ jail for the breach of the order and a maximum two years’ jail for the new offence.
Watson was due to be sentenced at Bristol Crown Court on Wednesday, January 3, but sentencing was adjourned until the end of this month for the preparation of a pre-sentence report.
The new offence involves Watson chatting online to what he thought were girls aged nine and 13.
After suggesting a cuddle with the nine-year-old, and a massage and protected sex with the 13-year-old, there was talk of a meeting in Weston-super-Mare.
But he then had a knock at his door from the founder of the same paedophile hunter group who had turned up previously.
On that previous occasion Watson admitted sending messages to someone he thought was an 11-year-old girl. But she was in fact a member of the group, who filmed their meeting, published it online and informed police.
Back then, Watson pleaded guilty to one charge of attempting to sexually communicate with a child for the purpose of obtaining sexual gratification.
At the time Detective Constable Tony Davey, from Avon and Somerset Police, said officers believed Watson "posed a serious risk" to children.
A police spokesman said revealing the identity of suspected paedophiles can give the suspect a chance to destroy evidence and there is a risk of wrongly accusing someone "in a hugely public way".
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