Parliament pedophile ring accuser charged with possessing child porn
Nick nicked for child porn
© Suzanne Plunkett / Reuters
The man who accused former UK PM Sir Edward Heath of hosting child abuse parties where boys were raped and tortured has been caught with child porn. ‘Nick’ has been charged for making and possessing indecent images of children.
The man, aged in his 40s, is known only as ‘Nick’ and cannot be named for legal reasons. He came forward in 2014 accusing Heath, ex-Home Secretary Leon Brittan, former conservative MP Harvey Proctor, and D-Day veteran Lord Bramall.
The allegations sparked a £3 million ($4.18 million) investigation by police. Nick claimed the child abuse parties were held at the former prime minister’s home in London, and in Dolphin Square, Pimlico, as well as the Carlton Club.
No arrests were ever made as part of the investigation, and many of the men and their family members died before their names were cleared in the bungled ‘Operation Midland.’
Nick’s charges relate to ‘Category A’ images – the most serious level of child exploitation material. He has denied the charges and the Crown Prosecution Service has confirmed that he will face trial.
Lord Bramall, 94, a former chief of defence staff, and Harvey Proctor, a former Conservative MP, were interviewed under caution during the 18-month inquiry before they were exonerated in 2016.
In November 2016, retired high court judge Sir Richard Henriques found in an inquiry that the Met made numerous errors in their investigation following Nick’s allegations.
In the report, Henriques revealed that senior detectives had fallen for Nick’s false accusations.
“In short, these men are all victims of false allegations and yet they remain treated as men against whom there was insufficient evidence to prosecute them,” the report said. “The presumption of innocence appears to have been set aside.”
Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Bernard Hogan-Howe personally apologized to Lord Bramall.
Hogan-Howe said that “although police knew from very early on they had no case to answer they couldn’t stop investigating because they didn’t want to be accused of not investigating it properly” and that the situation surrounding the inquiry arouse out of “apparent mistakes back in 2012 relating to revelations of very serious and serial child abuse, a mixture of public outrage and propaganda” which “put immense pressure through the home secretary, on the police.” Bramall believed that a “witch-hunt culture [arose] in which child abuse, particularly historic child abuse, came to be dealt with entirely differently to other criminal offences.”
Proctor and Lady Brittan also received apologies from the Met commissioner.
“They have all suffered as a result of the investigation and our description of the allegations as ‘credible and true.’ We should not have said this,” Hogan-Howe said.
In 2017, the Metropolitan Police had paid compensation of around £100,000 to Lord Bramall and Lady Brittan, the widow of Leon Brittan, on the basis that their arrests and house raids had been unjustified.
When Operation Midland fell apart, the Sun reported that Nick’s stepbrother and his ex-wife described Nick as a fantasist and an attention seeker.
The Crown Prosecution Service may also investigate Nick for allegedly perverting the course of justice.
Glamor model kidnapping case:
Court hears plan to sell Chloe Ayling for £250,000
Glamor model Chloe Ayling was kidnapped in a plot to get £250,000 ($347,000) in ransom cash, a court in Italy has been told.
The UK mum was tied up, shoved into the back of a car, and held captive after flying to Milan for what she believed would be a luxury photoshoot, it is claimed.
The trial of Lukasz Herba began in Italy on Wednesday, with the Polish man accused of planning to sell the model as a sex slave. Chloe, 20, was drugged and held captive in an isolated farmhouse for six days before being released, a court was told.
The mother-of-one states that her capture was botched when the men realised she had a child. They proceeded to leave her in a suitcase outside the British consulate in Milan last July.
The prosecutors at Milan's main criminal court say the model from Coulsdon, South London, would have been sold for a quarter of a million pounds.
Herba arrived at the Corte d’Assise today for a trial expected to last several weeks, during which prosecutor Paolo Storari is reported to be calling more than 50 witnesses.
The accused, who faces up to 25 years in prison, claims the abduction was a publicity stunt and Ayling had agreed to take part in the plot with him and his brother Michal
The other Herba brother is in prison in Britain, awaiting extradition to stand trial in Italy.
Lukasz Herba is accused of being part of the so-called ‘Black Death’ group on the “dark web.” It is reported that users of the dark web pay huge fees to buy women who have been kidnapped from across Europe. Herba reportedly handed Ayling a business card for Black Death when he let her go.
The trial continues.
Three Manchester City players taking legal action in wake of Barry Bennell child sex abuse case
By Neal Keeling
Three Manchester City players are suing the club after becoming victims of convicted paedophile, Barry Bennell, who preyed on young boys, a court was told.
Civil cases were lodged against the club in March 2016, according to Bennell’s barrister, who told Liverpool Crown Court that the former, Crewe Alexandra youth coach, who also had links to City and Stoke City, had become a ‘sitting target’ for compensation claims.
One claim was made by one of the 11 alleged victims who Bennell is standing trial accused of sexually abusing when they were aged eight to 14.
The other claims were from two victims that Bennell had previously pleaded guilty to abusing.
In her closing speech yesterday, defence barrister Eleanor Laws, QC told jurors in the trial they had to put aside their ‘revulsion’ for the convicted paedophile as they consider their verdicts.
In her closing speech on Tuesday she said the 64-year-old had become a ‘sitting target’ after admitting to child sexual offences in the 1990s.
She said: “It may be tempting, in light of what I have said to you, it may tempting - in particular if you have loved ones at home - to think, ‘well, who cares about getting it right, he’s a convicted paedophile’.”
But she told the jurors to put their ‘understandable potential revulsion about him’ to one side. She added: “The defendant is a known target and he coached these boys.
“They know when making allegations, whether truthful or not, that they are making allegations against a convicted paedophile.”
She detailed compensation claims made by some of the complainants and contact they had had with solicitors. The court heard one of the complainants, as well as two victims Bennell had previously pleaded guilty to abusing, had launched a civil action against Manchester City in March 2016.
Ms Laws told the court Andy Woodward, who waived his anonymity to speak out about abuse by Bennell, had previously lied in a compensation claim which was turned down by Crewe Alexandra.
She said: “People who have been victims are all different and all behave in different ways. Some, as you know with Andrew Woodward, some lie in order to obtain money.”
She urged the jury to look ‘very carefully’ at each of the 11 complainants in the case. “We would say you can be sure there is no detail that any of the witnesses give that could only have come about or come to light as a result of being abused by Barry Bennell," she said.
She said there was publicity surrounding his guilty pleas to offences in the 1990s and a documentary was aired about him in 1997. She said: “There has been a great deal of publicity and indeed a great deal of contact between complainants”, she went on.
Ms Laws also told the jury Bennell’s time in prison for offences he admitted in the past had had a ‘profound effect’ on him. She said: “It’s an inescapable fact that the man we see on that screen is a different man to the man who was abusing those boys.”
Bennell denies 48 offences of child sexual abuse, alleged to have happened between 1979 and 1990, but the jury has been directed to return not guilty verdicts in respect of three counts.
Beginning his summing up on Tuesday afternoon, Recorder of Liverpool Judge Clement Goldstone QC told the jury of five men and seven women: “It is your task to consider and evaluate those arguments and the evidence coolly and dispassionately and, as both counsel have emphasised, without emotion, be it sympathy on the one hand or hostility on the other.”
The judge is due to continue his summing up today.
NSPCC hits out at Castle Cary paedophile
who fuelled child sexual abuse
By Laura Linham - Taunton, Court, Crime And Special Investigations
The NSPCC has blasted a pensioner from Castle Cary who spent 13 years downloading hundreds of images of children being abused, saying that his actions helped to fuel the vile online trade of child sex abuse.
Anthony Frank Lucas looked at indecent photographs and movie clips of children over a 13 year period spanning the full range of categories of seriousness.
The 71-year-old defendant, of The Triangle, appeared in front of Taunton Crown Court on Friday for sentencing.
The court heard that Lucas began trying to delete material from a laptop when the police arrived at his home, but later admitted downloading images showing girls aged between 5 and 12 years old being abused, with the children shown to be 'suffering obvious pain and distress.'
Judge David Ticehurst branded Lucas a 'sick pervert' and sentenced him to 12 months in prison, suspended for two years, and ordered him to carry out 60 days of rehabilitation activities. He was also ordered to pay £500 costs and a £140 victim surcharge.
He was made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order for 10 years, and made to sign the Sex Offenders Register for the same amount of time.
An NSPCC spokesman for South West England said: "Possessing child abuse images and videos is an extremely serious offence and we must never forget that the children featured in this appalling material are being raped and sexually assaulted to produce it.
"Far more needs to be done by internet providers, governments and law enforcement to cut this material off at the source."
"But Lucas’s crimes over the course of 13 years have only helped to fuel this disgusting trade in images, which results in the destruction of children's lives."
Any adult worried about a child’s welfare can call the NSPCC Helpline at any time for free on 0808 800 5000.
James Bulger killer had pedo manual on ‘how to have sex with little girls’, and 1000 child abuse images
ONE of the men who killed James Bulger 24 years ago has had his depraved ways aired in a London court where he was jailed for stomach-turning child sex offences.
The Sun
News Corp Australia
What happened to James Bulger?
JAMES Bulger’s killer Jon Venables was today jailed after admitting having a sick paedophile manual which told him how to “have sex with young kids”.
The Old Bailey, England’s Central Criminal Court in London, heard he told police after his arrest: “This is my own fault. I have let people down again. I have had urges.”
The 35-year-old admitted “it won’t be a slap on the wrist for me”, as he said he preferred looking at images of child abuse to having sex with an adult partner.
As the full horror of his crimes were laid bare in court, it can now be revealed he had:
A sick paedo manual called “The Jazz Guide” instructing “how to have sex with kids”
Sick stash of 1,170 child sex abuse images featuring kids as young as six
A strong interest in watching footage of women having sex with tots
Depraved images of babies being raped and little boys being abused
Jon Venables in 1993, pictured here at the age of 10, who along with Robert Thompson, also 10, kidnapped then killed two-year-old toddler James Bulger from a shopping centre in Liverpool. Picture: APSource:News Corp Australia
Jailing him for over three years, the judge called Venables a “manipulative and dishonest man”.
Referring to the “vile” paedophile manual while sentencing him, Justice Edis said: “This causes children all over the world to be seriously harmed. That dreadful fact does not appear to trouble your conscience at all.”
He said possession of the sick guide — which instructs how to “have sex safely with kids” — shows Venables was “at least contemplating the possibility of moving on to contact offences”.
After the hearing Denise Fergus, Bulger’s mother, said that Venables will think “he’s got away with it”. She slammed his apology as “rubbing salt in the wound”, adding if he is released he “must be kept on a very tight leash”.
Venables also admitted having more than 1000 indecent images of children for a second time — these pictures included kids aged 6-13. Some of the shocking images showed children even younger being raped.
He was banned from any internet access after his last release in 2013, but the judge was told he started searching for child abuse images last July. Cops found the vile collection on a laptop hidden behind the headboard of his bed — the documents were found in a sub-folder called “Stop” in a “My Documents” folder.
1993 security video image of James Bulger, two, being led to his death. Picture: Splash AustraliaSource:News Corp Australia
He said Venables made frank admissions to the police that he was aroused by the images.
Mr Mably said: “It is fair to say that the manual is a disgusting and sickening document which falls far below any recognised standards of morality.” He added a “common theme” of the images was adult women having sex with young boys.
The court heard that one image purported to show a girl aged between three and six wearing a princess dress.
Venables was released from jail in 2013 after he was deemed to be no longer be a risk to children.
Well that was an astonishingly bad decision.
But he told police last year he “needed help to understand why he did this and ensure he didn’t do it again”.
The judge was told today it is likely a “high risk” Venables will reoffend as an expert said he has a “profound sexual interest in children”.
He sentenced him to three years and four months in prison, made Venables the subject of an indefinite sexual harm prevention order and ordered that his laptop be taken away.
Sending him down, the judge added: “This case is unique because when you were 10 years old you took part in the brutal murder and torture of James Bulger. That was a crime which revolted the nation and which continues to do so even after the 25 years that has passed since it happened. The facts of what you did are notorious and there is no need for me to repeat them here.”
He told the court the images he downloaded were “heartbreaking for any ordinary person to see this kind of material”.
Venables admitted having 392 category A images, 148 category B and 630 category C pictures. He also pleaded guilty to having a paedophile manual on or before November 17 last year.
Venables, who has lifelong anonymity, pleaded guilty via video link from custody.
He and Robert Thompson, also 10 at the time, tortured and killed two-year-old James in Liverpool in 1993.
After eight-year sentences, they were granted lifelong anonymity under new identities.
In 2010, Venables pleaded guilty at the same court to charges of downloading and distributing child abuse images and was jailed for two years. That was not the only time he had breached the terms of his licence.
In September 2008, he was arrested on suspicion of affray after a drunken brawl and was given a formal warning by the probation service. Later the same year he was cautioned for possession of cocaine after he was found with a small amount of the class A drug.
Child abuse in arts school from Hell
7 perverts charged for CSA of 4 & 7 y/o boys
By Kathleen Calderwood and Riley Stuart, ABC
Court documents have revealed further details of the alleged sexual and physical abuse of three young boys by people linked to a performing arts school in regional New South Wales, including on Anzac Day in 2016.
In charge sheets obtained from the court, police allege the boys were repeatedly abused between 2014 and 2016.
Police will allege that on April 25, 2016, two women aged 58 and 29 forced two of the boys, who were aged four and seven at the time, to have sex with them.
Police also accuse the 29-year-old woman of making the two boys have sex with each other that same day.
Both women are accused of physically abusing those two boys on April 25, 2016.
Seven people to plead not guilty
Seven people — four women aged 58, 29, 26 and 20, two men aged 52 and 18, and a 17-year-old girl — have been charged and are all connected to the regional arts school. They intend to plead not guilty.
Bryan Wrench, the lawyer representing them, on Tuesday told a court there was "another side" to this story. The group remain behind bars, ahead of a bail application next week.
The school's headquarters was yesterday deserted, with rubbish strewn around its exterior and half-finished pottery projects visible inside.
There are a total of 127 allegations against the group, including one in which police claim blood was taken from the young boys, who were then forced to drink it.
The exterior of the performing arts school in regional NSW. (ABC News: Kathleen Calderwood)
The documents detailed several other occasions where the accused would allegedly have sex with the boys in the company of one or more of the others.
The charges against the 58-year-old also include deprivation of liberty, detaining for gratification and intimidation.
The 29-year-old woman is facing eight charges, while the 23-year-old is facing 13 charges.
The 52-year-old man is not accused of sexually abusing the boys, but is alleged to have witnessed three sexual assaults and has two charges in relation to filming them.
Jeetendra accused of sexual assault after 47 years
Bollywood's true horror stories begin
DailyBite
At 75, Bollywood actor and producer Jeetendra finds himself facing allegations of sexual abuse. According to an India Today report, the veteran actor’s cousin (who has not been named at her request) claimed that she was abused years ago under the pretext of being taken to a film shoot.
At the time of the incident, she was 18 and he was around 28. In her complaint, the woman writes: “[Jeetendra] arrived at my family home in a car with a driver and two male industry colleagues. I joined my cousin in the car and the group drove from New Delhi to the movie set in Shimla together. During the long drive, no one spoke to me. When we arrived in Shimla, it was night time. The group went directly to the hotel. [Jeetendra] brought me to his hotel room, which contained two separate beds. He mentioned that he was going out and would return later. Tired from the journey, I went to sleep on the far bed, which was pushed against the wall on two sides.”
“Later that night while I was sleeping, [Jeetendra] returned to the room. He joined the two beds together while I was still asleep. As I rested on my side, facing the wall, he entered the bed and mounted me from behind. [Jeetendra] smelled strongly of alcohol and was naked from the waist down. I tried to push him away, but he continued to stimulate himself, rubbing himself against my clothed buttocks. When I continued to push him away, he insisted that was how he sleeps. Trapped between the wall on one side, and my erect cousin on the other, no escape was possible. After rubbing himself against me for several minutes, [he] eventually lost his erection and left me alone. He separated the beds and slept silently in the room that night.”
The following morning, Jeetendra did not speak to her and soon got the driver to buy her some new clothes and sent her back to Delhi.
According to the report, the woman said that the incident affected her mental health, and the reason she has come out with it now is because she wanted closure for the trauma she suffered for years after the alleged abuse. She also claimed that another reason why she waited such a long time (more than four decades) to file a complaint against Jeetendra is because her parents — now deceased — would have been heartbroken had they found out that she was sexually abused by their nephew.
This allegation mirrors the series of revelations in the wake of the #MeToo movement. Survivors of sexual abuse and rape, who have held their silence for years fearing persecution and social stigma, have made a departure from this “tradition” and taken to opening up about their suffering.
The woman's claims also open up two other issues that need to be brought into the discourse more often. The first being sexual abuse and the other the stigma it comes with, especially when the abuser is someone in the family. According to a 2014 National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report, 86 per cent of rapes are committed by close family members such as fathers, brothers and uncles, as well as neighbours, employers, co-workers and friends. Survivors, as in this case, often embrace silence, fearing an ugly fallout — not just in the society, but also within their families.
Mozambique takes vital step to remove
online child sexual abuse from the internet
International children’s charity, the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), will process Mozambique’s reports of child sexual abuse images
Mozambique’s government announced its new system for reporting child sexual abuse content with international children’s charity, the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF).
The IWF, which is the world’s leading charity in identifying and removing online child sexual abuse material from the internet, is launching IWF reporting websites, known as Reporting Portals, in 30 of the world’s least developed countries.
The government of Mozambique made the announcement on Safer Internet Day, which is celebrated by hundreds of organisations worldwide in February each year to promote the safe and positive use of digital technology for children and young people. The campaign is coordinated by the UK Safer Internet Centre, which is made up of children’s charities Childnet, South West Grid for Learning and the IWF.
Top organisations in Mozambique have backed the move and committed their full support to cracking down on illegal images of children.
Mozambique has become the second country to benefit from a prestigious international grant, the Fund to End Violence Against Children, which will fund the implementation of the portals across the world.
The Reporting Portal will keep internet users safe online and ensure the victims of child sexual abuse do not have to suffer the torment of having images of their abuse shared again and again.
Susie Hargreaves OBE, IWF CEO, said: “A recent UNICEF Report named Mozambique as one of the worst countries in the world for girls and boys under 18 experiencing forced sex. The multiple stakeholders who have come together in Mozambique to launch the Portal – including the Police of the Republic of Mozambique (PRM), Linha Fala Criança, Instituto Nacional das Comunicações de Moçambique (INCM) and Procuradoria Geral – are determined to tackle the horrific crime of child sexual abuse imagery online and to prevent images of abuse from getting onto the internet.”
If someone in Mozambique stumbles upon child sexual abuse pictures or videos, they can report it through the Mozambique Reporting Portal at https://report.iwf.org.uk/mz. The process can be completely anonymous and takes seconds. Any reports will feed back through to the IWF’s Hotline in the UK, where analysts will assess whether the content meets the threshold for child sexual abuse imagery.
They can then take action on these images and videos using a network of global partners including law enforcement agencies and internet service providers to get the content removed.
Jenny Thornton, IWF International Development Manager, said: “Mozambique is the second most populous country in Southern Africa, and over half of its population consists of children. This historic move, to install a reporting mechanism for child sexual abuse imagery online, demonstrates a clear understanding that online child sexual abuse crimes are dynamic and can easily cross national borders, thereby posing a threat to ever country in the world. Launching a Portal is a proactive move by Mozambique, which the IWF applauds”.
Prof. Americo Muchanga, Director of INCM, said: “The Portal fulfills a much-needed function in Mozambique, where child sexual abuse is a known problem and where cyber security can be vulnerable. The launch of today’s Portal sends a strong message to anyone looking to exploit both children and the web – that Mozambique is a hostile place for child sexual abuse imagery online.”
Portals have already been successfully established in 18 countries and territories across the world, including Uganda, Mauritius and Namibia. The United Republic of Tanzania became the first country to benefit from the Fund to End Violence Against Children grant when it launched its reporting portal back in October 2017, and Mozambique will become the second Portal funded under this grant.
To read more about the IWF Reporting Portals, visit www.iwf.org.uk/our-international-reporting-portal
To find out how you can join in with Safer Internet Day go to www.saferinternet.org.uk/safer-internet-day/2018
Child sex abuse survivor says there are ‘dozens, if not hundreds’ in Dundee living in silence
by Lindsey Hamilton
A leading campaigner and survivor of child abuse in Scotland will visit Dundee next month in a bid to encourage local people to speak out about their experiences of sexual abuse.
Dave Sharp was trafficked to Ireland and drugged and raped by multiple men while in the care of a former residential home in Fife.
The 59-year-old, from Glasgow, was taken (as a boy) around many homes, where he was placed in a coffin with the lid shut for long periods of time.
The survivor is now bringing his campaign SAFE — Seek And Find Everyone Abused in Childhood — to the city.
Its motto is “come forward, be brave, don’t take your abuse to the grave”.
SAFE consists of survivors who have reported their abuse and given evidence at the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry. His pending visit to Dundee comes after The Women’s Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre (WRASAC) revealed it helped 447 survivors of sexual abuse in 2016/17.
It also provided 2,455 one-to-one support sessions for victims.
The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry — investigating the abuse of children in care in Scotland — is currently under way.
The SAFE team
In an interview with the Tele, Dave said he believes there are many people from the Tayside region sexually abused as children who have never spoken out about their experiences.
Dave said he hoped by working with local groups — including homeless organisations and city churches — people could be persuaded to talk about their experiences.
He said: “I have been told already that there have been dozens — if not hundreds — of people in the Dundee area who were abused in childhood and who took their abuse to the grave. Many men who were in the Fife care home did come from the Dundee area.
“That is why we are hopeful that many people will come forward when we are in Dundee who have not spoken about their abuse for years.”
The survivor said he believed the campaign’s success hinges on getting local groups to work with SAFE.
He added: “This is something I am working very hard on right now — to leave something behind which will have a lasting effect on the whole of the Dundee area.
“We are not coming up and saying that nothing is being done but what we do know — and we have done our research — is that Dundee is a very dark area when it comes to historical child abuse.
“There are a few homes — which are currently being investigated by the abuse inquiry — where a large amount of the children sent to these homes were from the Dundee area.
“This is the case in the home where I was abused in Fife.”
He said the group will be in Dundee on March 1 and 2 and it’s hoped it can encourage as many people as possible to come forward.
Dave added: “We plan to have lots of information about local and national services that are available. Myself and other survivors will also be giving our testimonies about what happened to us. We believe that the more survivors who come forward to give evidence the better. SAFE is a group of historical child abuse survivors who have come together with their own money and their own experiences to take to the streets of Scotland to find other survivors who do not know where to turn.”
The location for the Dundee visit is still to be finalised.
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