Ministers banned from sex with staffers as
deputy PM gets adviser pregnant
Wanted: Deputy PM of Australia - no moral requirements
Australian Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce as he sits in the House of Representatives at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, October 25, 201© Mick Tsikas / Reuters
Australia’s prime minister is imposing a ban on all sexual relationships between ministers and their staff after the deputy PM’s affair with his adviser was exposed when she became pregnant.
Malcolm Turnbull announced the ban following the scandal which erupted after the Sydney Daily Telegraph published a front-page photograph, essentially exposing Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce’s relationship with his former media adviser Vikki Campion. Barnaby, who was also leader of the National Party and married for 24 years, made a “shocking error of judgment”, created a “world of woe” for the women in his life and “appalled all of us,” said Turnbull.
Apparently, shocking errors in judgement don't disqualify you for Deputy PM in Australia, either.
Joyce is now taking a week-long personal leave from his duties to “make a new home for his partner and their baby,” which is due in April, as well as seek forgiveness from his now-estranged wife and four daughters, Turnbull added. During a speech addressing the governmental scandal on Thursday, Turnbull said the affair raised “some serious issues about the culture of this place, of this parliament,” and announced his intent to make changes to the ministerial code of conduct “as of today.”
"I have today added to the standards the very clear and unequivocal provision that ministers, regardless of whether they are married or single, must not engage in sexual relations with a staff member," said Turnbull at a press conference in Canberra.
"Doing so will constitute a breach of the standards,” he said, before adding that Joyce will “have to consider his own position” as leader of the National Party. Turnbull stopped short of asking for Joyce’s resignation as deputy PM.
Hedley's Juno performance cancelled, radio play suspended in wake of child sexual misconduct claims
#MeToo hits close to home
The Canadian Press
JUNOs are Canada's top musical awards. Hedley started in Abbotsford, British Columbia, my home town.
Corus Radio has temporarily suspended all airplay of Hedley songs across its 39 music stations as the Canadian rockers face allegations of sexual misconduct.
The Junos have dropped Hedley from the televised awards bash as the rockers face allegations of sexual misconduct that they call "unsubstantiated."
Organizers of the annual music show say it was a joint decision with Hedley "after careful consideration of the situation."
The move by the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences came as band members issued a statement addressing claims of impropriety involving young fans.
"We realize the life of a touring band is an unconventional one," reads the statement, which was issued mid-afternoon Wednesday, minutes before the Junos announcement.
"While we are all now either married or have entered into committed, long-term relationships, there was a time, in the past, when we engaged in a lifestyle that incorporated certain rock 'n' roll cliches. However, there was always a line that we would never cross."
The statement followed a flurry of claims on Twitter from anonymous users who alleged inappropriate encounters with the band. Some social media users called on the Juno Awards to drop Hedley as a performer at the upcoming show.
The pop-rockers — fronted by Jacob Hoggard and including Dave Rosin, Tommy Mac and Jay Benison — are up for three Junos this year including fan choice, group of the year and pop album of the year.
The band said they "respect and applaud the #MeToo movement" and say it is especially important within the music industry, "which does not exactly have an enviable history of treating women with the respect they deserve."
"We appreciate the bravery of those who have come forward with their own stories, and we realize that all of us, as individuals and as a society, can and must do better when it comes to this issue," says the statement.
"However, if we are to have a meaningful, open and honest discussion, we all have to accept and respect that there are at least two sides to every story. The recent allegations against us posted on social media are simply unsubstantiated and have not been validated. We would hope that people will bear in mind the context in which these unsupported accusations have been made before passing judgment on us as individuals or as a band."
Suspended radio play
Corus Radio has suspended all airplay of Hedley songs across its 39 music stations as the Canadian rockers face allegations of sexual misconduct.
A spokeswoman said the move is temporary and the company will "continue to closely monitor the situation."
Several other organizations are also distancing themselves from Hedley in the wake of a flurry of claims from anonymous Twitter users who alleged inappropriate encounters with the band.
The group is currently on tour and was scheduled to perform in Medicine Hat, Alta., on Wednesday evening, and later in the week in Moose Jaw, Sask., and Brandon, Man.
Hedley formed in 2003 in Abbotsford, B.C.
Blue Mountains circus school child sex claims
may be fabricated
Candace Sutton
news.com.au
A LAWYER for four of the seven people charged over the Blue Mountains circus training school child abuse case has told a Sydney court that allegations against them may have been fabricated.
Solicitor Bryan Wrench told Penrith Local Court today there was no DNA or video evidence of the child sexual assaults allegedly committed by his clients.
He also said there was in fact video which showed that nothing had occurred.
Paul Christopher Cook, is charged with six offences.
Source: LinkedInSource:Supplied
The four accused, who are all related, are members of a group who are charged with repeatedly raping and abusing three boys aged as young as three and seven years old.
Three others who cannot be identified have also been charged.
Yyani Cook-Williams, circus staffer in Katoomba has been charged over alleged child sex ring.Source:Supplied
Offences allegedly committed against the young boys include sex acts and “rituals”. Charges also relate to allegations the boys were deprived of their liberty or threatened so that they feared physical or mental harm.
In one of the most depraved allegations, the matriarch of the circus, Therese Cook, allegedly choked one of the boys before an alleged sex act occurred.
The alleged offences occurred in the Blue Mountains and at Parramatta in western Sydney between 2014 and 2016.
Therese Cook has been charged with 43 offences, including aggravated sexual assault of a child, sexual intercourse with a child and aggravated kidnapping.Source:Supplied
Therese Ann Cook, Paul Cook, Yyani Cook-Williams and Clarissa Meredith and three others who cannot be identified have been charged.
They collectively face 127 charges including kidnapping, aggravated sexual assault of a child and making child abuse material by filming child sexual assaults on a phone.
Clarissa Meredith, was among the group who were arrested and charged been charged by the Child Abuse and Sex Crimes Squad. SuppliedSource:Supplied
Court documents allege Therese Cook allegedly abused two of the boys when they were aged three and seven, and was then joined at a later date by her co-accused in further alleged offences against the boys.
Ms Cook is charged with 43 offences, Paul Cook with six offences, Yyani Cook-Williams with five offences and Clarissa Meredith with 13 offences.
Three people, now aged 20, 18 and 17 years old were all under the age of 18 years at the time of the alleged offences and have faced the NSW Children’s Court.
An 18-year-old man is charged with 42 of the 127 total offences.
The four named accused have been in custody in prison since their dramatic arrest last week.
Therese Cook, Paul Cook and Clarissa Meredith were living in the same Katoomba house, while Yyani Cook-Williams was arrested at Canterbury in southwestern Sydney.
Abuser jailed for 4¾ years for child sex abuse in Caymans
Apparently he infected the child with an STD with his finger!!!!??
Cayman News
Devon Stewart (57), who was convicted last September for gross indecency on a 7-year-old child, received a prison sentence of four years and nine months Thursday from an acting Grand Court judge, who noted that social workers believed the child had been severely traumatized.
In a disturbing case, Stewart had been in a position of trust as a friend of the victim’s family when he abused the little girl, threatened to kill her mother if she told anyone what he had done, and was later found to have infected the little girl with an STD.
Stewart, who is from George Town, committed the offence when he was on bail over a similar sex-crime allegation involving a young child. However, he was acquitted in that case as a result of major inconsistencies in evidence.
In this particular case he was charged with one count of gross indecency regarding an incident in September 2016. He was convicted of inserting his finger in the girl’s vagina while they were sitting in a car outside her home after he had collected her from school.
As a very close friend and neighbour, the girl’s mother had on occasion trusted Stewart to care for the child in her absence. But the mother learned about the abuse when she took the girl to the hospital after she complained of pain in her genitals. When the sexually transmitted disease was discovered, the little girl told the nurse what had happened.
Hold on! You can transmit an STD through your finger? Are you serious?
Soon afterwards, Stewart, who was on bail in the other case, was arrested and tested for the STD, which was confirmed. He was then charged and remanded in custody. Despite the damning evidence, he denied the allegations and forced the child to go through the added trauma of having to give evidence about what had happened to her.
During the course of the trial Stewart accused the mother of fabricating the entire story and claimed the child must have become infected touching something in his bathroom, which he said she had used when visiting his home.
Even after conviction, Stewart continued to deny the allegations and during an interview with social workers after the trail he continued to deny he had abused the child. As a result, the judge said he could not consider the potential mitigating factors that Stewart had himself been the victim of sexual abuse by a woman when he was a child and that he had been abandoned by both his parents, as he refused to accept responsibility for his crime, claiming to be the victim of a corrupt system.
Justice Tim Owen based his sentencing ruling on UK cases, as there are no guidelines or specific precedent in Cayman for a case such as this. He considered what he described as a gross abuse of the trust the family placed in him along with the transmission of the sexual infection and the fact he was on bail at the time as aggravating factors, as he handed down the nearly five-year sentence.
The judge said it was impossible to predict how much of a lasting psychological effect the crime was going to have on the young victim, which was clearly compounded by the unpleasant infection. He said that during the trial it was clear the little girl was still psychologically traumatized by the event and he said it was likely to have a lifelong impact on her.
The court is also set to consider if Stewart should be the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention order when he is released from jail. So far, the new tool provided for in legislation to protect the community from sexual predators has only been used in one case.
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