16 get death penalty for fatal burning of Bangladesh teen Sexually assaulted by her professor
By Clyde Hughes
Communist Party of Bangladesh activists hold posters demanding justice for Nusrat Rafi in April. A tribunal on Thursday sentenced 16 to death for the teenager's death. File Photo by Monirul Alam/EPA-EFE
(UPI) -- A special Bangladeshi tribunal Thursday sentenced 16 people to die for the killing of 19-year-old Nusrat Rafi, who was burned alive earlier this year after claiming a teacher at her Islamic school sexually harassed her.
Siraj Ud Doula, the head teacher at the Sonagazi Islamia Senior Fazil Madrasa, was one of the 16 people sentenced. Doula has denied involvement in Rafi's death and said through his attorney he will appeal the ruling.
Twelve of those connected with the case confessed to the scheme in which Rafi was drenched in kerosene and set on fire after she refused to withdraw the sexual harassment complaint against Doula.
Rafi sustained burns on 80 percent of her body on April 6 and died four days later at Dhaka Medical College Hospital. Her death sparked protests around the country.
Nusrat's funeral
Human rights groups said Rafi's death spotlighted a culture of impunity around sexual crimes against women and children and the peril they face in reporting harassment. Despite new laws, violence against women in Bangladesh remained high.
Rafi's brother Mahmudul Hasan Noman had asked for the death penalty in the case. "I hope that the convicts receive maximum punishment in the case as they have already given a confessional statement," Noman said.
The Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribune in Feni sentenced Doula and the others in the case. The tribunal will now send the cases to the Bangladesh High court for approval.
I fully expect the High Court will reduce the number sentenced to death. It seems a pity though as hanging 16 people would send a pretty loud message that is so badly needed to be heard in this hopelessly misogynistic country.
"What we found out during the investigation we could prove it in paper," Police Bureau of Investigation Deputy Inspector General Banaj Kumar Majumder said. "We feel that all the accused are equally guilty over the murder. We are happy that our expectations were reflected in the court verdict."
Regina pastor expelled over 'abuse of power,'
sexually explicit texts
sexually explicit texts
Warning: This story contains graphic language and disturbing content
Bonnie Allen and Fiona Odlum · CBC News
A Regina pastor has resigned and been stripped of his licence to minister more than a year and a half after church leaders learned he had abused his power to prey on a woman in his congregation.
Rev. Jerven Weekes had been the lead pastor for more than a decade at Rosewood Park Alliance Church, one of 440 evangelical Protestant churches in the Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA) in Canada.
On Oct. 20, during Sunday service, the church's local chairman sobbed openly as he announced the pastor's resignation and called it a matter of "employee-employer confidentiality." A few days later, the national organization expelled him from all C&MA churches.
CBC News has confirmed that three women complained to the church about sexual harassment or inappropriate behaviour by Weekes in the past two years.
In April 2018, an external investigator informed church leaders — both local and national — that there was sufficient evidence in text messages to show Weekes had been "grooming" one victim for "inappropriate sexual conversation" and that "inappropriate sexualized behaviour" was "an abuse of power" and his position of trust.
Grooming is a process in which a perpetrator gains a person's trust, breaks down their defences and then begins to manipulate them for sexual purposes, according to sexual violence experts.
We are just so, so sorry at the way that we did not listen to the women
- Barry Doyle, spokesperson for C&MA Canada
The resignation and expulsion come in the wake of two women sharing their allegations publicly in a Regina podcast that examines faith and justice issues.
Christa Hunt and Liz Herod said they wanted to expose how church leaders mishandled their complaints and kept the pastor's actions a secret from the congregation.
CBC News spoke with Hunt and Herod to verify details and confirm that their stories had been accurately reflected in the Shipwreck Over Safety podcast. They requested that CBC News use those accounts, with permission from the podcast producers, to spare them having to relive their experience.
'Grooming'
In January 2014, Hunt felt she had hit "rock bottom."
She was searching for help for herself, her kids and her marriage. A friend invited her to attend Rosewood Park church.
Hunt sought counselling from Rev. Weekes. Soon after, he started texting her. Hunt said it made her feel "so special." She said she found a sense of belonging she'd been looking for.
She valued Weekes's guidance and "put him on a pedestal."
Screengrabs of text exchanges, shared with CBC News, reveal that Weekes began to compliment Hunt and to introduce more sexualized content.
By 2016, Hunt said she started to feel "weird," but was plagued by self-doubt. She said she didn't trust her gut. She convinced herself to ignore "red flags" because he was a pastor.
She felt torn. On one hand, she relied on him. He helped her find a new place to live after her marriage broke down. On the other hand, she had started to stay off social media at night when she knew he might be online, in order to avoid contact.
The sexual nature of Weekes's text messages to Hunt began to escalate.
She tried to defuse the situation, texting him, "innocent flirting is harmless, and if it wasn't harmless, I would be crushed."
In August 2017, he texted her that he liked her lips. Then, soon after, Weekes asked her whether she was good at oral sex, deep throats, gags and screams in bed. He asked her if she likes men that are "big, medium or small."
Hunt answered the questions. Weekes encouraged her to delete the text conversation.
Hunt said that she felt guilty about the text exchange because Weekes was married. She said that Weekes had advised her on her sex life previously during pastoral counselling sessions, but this seemed to cross a line.
In October 2017, she complained to the Rosewood Park church board. She said some members of the local board and C&MA district's discipline committee — comprised of licensed ministers — blamed her or betrayed her confidence to others.
That same month, the discipline committee concluded that Weekes had abused his position of trust. He was asked to apologize to the congregation. He stood up in church and said that he'd been involved in an inappropriate electronic conversation with a woman, but that she had initiated it.
The pastor was put on a year's probation that included counselling and training, but the disciplinary measures and reasons for them were not communicated clearly to the congregation.
"It was a slap in the face," Hunt said in the podcast. "I lost [my church], and the pastor can go back to preaching next Sunday."
Not the only one
When Hunt confided in Herod, a friend who also attended the church, she learned that the pastor had been texting Herod in a similar fashion.
For more on this story please go to CBC News.
17 paedophiles and sex offenders jailed in Devon in 2019
Some of these men will spend a long time in jail
The courts in Devon see a depressing number of paedophiles and child sex abusers.
From online perverts viewing sick photos to elderly abusers guilty of historic crimes.
The courts in Exeter often send internet paedophiles on courses designed to change or control their behaviour.
Repeat offenders stand more chance of going down. This list shows what happens to offenders who commit the most serious crimes.
Here DevonLive looks back at 2019 and the child sex offenders and paedophiles who have been sent to prison so far in 2019.
Please click on the link above for access to the story.
Aussie 'computer guy' to be sentenced after convicted
of child sex abuse in Hunter Region
Nick BielbyA Hunter mother has spoken out following a drawn-out legal battle after a man indecently assaulted and had sex with her under-aged daughter.
Daniel Warren Carleton is due to be sentenced next week after he was found guilty of six counts of having sexual intercourse with a person aged between 10 and 14 and three charges of indecently assaulting a person aged under 16 - almost three years after he was arrested.
The conviction marks the end of a long road for the family of the young girl, who cannot be identified.
Her mother told the Newcastle Herald ahead of the sentencing that the teenager was "relieved that no-one else will have to feel like she does".
Carleton, a rugby league player who has run IT businesses in the Hunter Region, was arrested in November, 2016.
The matter went to trial before the 24-year-old was ultimately convicted on October 1 of a raft of child sex offences. He remains on bail ahead of his sentencing on October 31.
The victim's mother said Carleton was "the local computer guy".
She said the family was going through "deep grief", with her brothers having recently died, when the abuse began. "He basically swooped in just after the second one passed away and made his presence sort of known, I guess," the woman said.
"Yeah, there were some red flags, but at the time, I guess any reasonable person wouldn't have noticed them straight away. I was just sort of getting through life having lost both my brothers. It wasn't a good time for me. I have a lot of mum guilt."
To compound matters, the woman was pregnant when she learned of the abuse committed against her child. "The pregnancy was horrible," she said. "I almost lost the baby and ended up in John Hunter Hospital. As a family, the family unit broke down primarily due to this situation."
The ordeal has been drawn-out for her daughter, with the conviction coming almost three years after Carleton was arrested. "The problem was he played it right to the end, carrying on that he's innocent," the mother said.
"It's just been a really tough time for my daughter. She's been through mental health stuff - she still does school, she still does part-time work but she's just hanging in there because it dragged out so long.
"I do have her under a lot of watchful eyes at the moment. She just wants to get through life. It's been really tough. She's more relieved that no-one will have to feel like she does. And that's her hope."
I hope so too, and I pray he is put away for a long time, but I fear Aussie justice will give him a minimal sentence.
Hunter Region, NSW
Online child sex abuser from Saskatchewan has sentence increased - a good sign for Canadian justice
IJMA Canadian online sex offender who preyed on Filipino children is getting a longer sentence. The Saskatchewan Court of Appeal has increased the sentence to 15 years for Philip Chicoine, who was originally ordered to spend 12 years in prison for directing and paying for the live-streamed sexual abuse of children ages 2 to 9 living in the Philippines.
In a ground-breaking ruling, the Court said that Chicoine’s “offending equated to actual ‘hands-on’ sexual offending” because—through the internet—he “was actively engaged in the online sexual assault of children” and “was present in real-time and directed and orchestrated the assaults.”
Yes! I have been calling for this for some time. There is little difference between sexually assaulting a child in person and paying someone else to do it while you watch online. They are both very sick practices and the children are equally traumatized.
THREE MEN CHARGED: 15-year-old girl
forcibly confined, sexually assaulted
Ottawa Sun News Ottawa
A 15-year-old girl was allegedly trapped and sexually assaulted by three men on Wednesday night, Ottawa police say.
The girl had met one of the men at an east-end shopping centre and returned to his residence, where the alleged assaults occurred, at around 10:30 p.m.
The girl was prevented from leaving the apartment, but she managed to text a family member to say she was in danger.
She later fled the apartment and was quickly met by patrol officers, who had been alerted by the family and were searching for the girl.
The three men, aged 27, 30 and 21, were to attend a show cause hearing Friday on charges including sexual assault with a weapon, sexual assault causing bodily harm, sexual interference and forcible confinement.
One of the men was also charged with breach of probation, theft, administering a noxious substance, and uttering threats.
Anyone with information in the case is asked to call the sexual assault and child abuse unit at 613-236-1222, ext. 5760. Anonymous tips can be made to Crime Stoppers toll-free at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS), or crimestoppers.ca
These 9 paedophiles have been locked up - but parents in Huddersfield need to know about them
The details of their depraved crimes are shocking, but knowing about them could help protect a child
Caution: graphic details in this story
By Andrew RobinsonExaminer Live
These court cases involved the sickening abuse of children by paedophiles.
Over the last few months judges at courts in Leeds, Manchester and Bradford have handed down jail sentences to men who committed serious offences involving children.
Among the abusers are a former teacher and an ex-priest.
Details of the crimes are shocking but knowing about them could help protect a child from another predator.
Here ExaminerLive investigates some of the most shocking cases covered by our reporters in 2019.
1. Former primary school teacher groomed choir boys
He groomed the victims, who were aged 13 and 14 at the time, by taking them for days out and buying them gifts before going on to sexually abuse them.
Crowther was aged in his forties when he committed the offences in the 1980s.
Leeds Crown Court heard he befriended the victims and gained their trust by picking them up and taking them to choir practice.
The offences came to light in 2016 when the victims contacted police to report the incidents.
The 78-year-old pleaded guilty to eleven indecent assaults against the two victims and was jailed for three years and seven months.
Crowther has been involved in a range of young people’s activities including youth sports coaching.
He had previously been convicted of five indecent assaults on children between 1973 to 1975 when he was a primary school teacher in Leeds.
2. Man who repeatedly abused a child jailed for 16 years
Sentencing, Mr Justice Lavender said the offences took place more than 10 years ago, but have a 'continuing and profound affect' on the victim and her mother, adding: "[The victim] said at times she just wanted to pretend she did not exist.
"Her mother has sleepless nights and nightmares of what you have done to her daughter and what that has done to her.
"Her mother blames herself for not preventing it."
After a three-day trial, a jury of nine women and three men took 11 hours and 46 minutes to find him guilty of seven child sex offences by a majority of 10-2.
3. Depraved paedophile abused four girls
Port, from Liversedge, abused the four victims when the offences occurred in the Batley and Liversedge areas between 1990 and 1999.
On October 11, Port was sentenced at Leeds Crown Court to six years and five months, with a recommendation that he serves five years in custody.
4. Paedophile, 78, who may die in prison
The 78-year-old had initially pleaded not guilty to 11 charges, including one of possession of extreme porn, specifically a film of a person having sex with a horse .
He was due to go on trial but he changed his plea to five of the charges.
Williams, of Church Lane, Moldgreen , Huddersfield , admitted three counts of indecency with a child, one count of indecent assault and one count of sexual assault.
Those charges all relate to the same victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons .
Judge James Spencer QC sentenced him to nine years' imprisonment, of which he would serve half before being eligible for release on licence.
5. Paedophile priest jailed for abusing Huddersfield boys
Former priest David Crowley abused at least 11 boys in Huddersfield, Bradford and Devon between 1981 and 1996.
The 64-year-old has previously served time in prison for 15 charges of sexual offences against nine of those boys and was released in 2004.
He is likely to spend the rest of his life in prison after two more of his victims from Huddersfield came forward with allegations that he had abused them while they were below the age of 13.
He worked in a Catholic primary school in Huddersfield and was an assistant priest at a Catholic church in the town and after he was moved to Bradford and later to Devon, he continued abusing boys.
Crowley would groom the boys with alcohol and cigarettes.
He was given an extended prison sentence totalling 20 years.
6. Sick paedophile who raped teenage daughter he treated as 'wife'
After a seven-day trial at Leeds Crown Court, a jury found the 71-year-old guilty of 15 charges.
The father-of-three was convicted of five counts of rape and 10 counts of indecent assault.
Miss Higgins, who bravely waived her right to anonymity and sat in the public gallery with her partner, brother and other family members, smiled and cried after the verdict was delivered.
She had first reported the abuse to police in 1985, but was told she would be accused of being a liar and it would 'blacken her name' if she pursued a prosecution.
Miss Higgins went to police again in 2015.
Appleyard was jailed for 20 years
7. Predatory paedophile who called himself sugar daddy
He had admitted a total of 27 charges, including causing a child to engage in sexual activity and making and possessing indecent images of a child.
He also failed to comply with notification requirements imposed under a sexual harm prevention order.
Labelled a dangerous offender, Delaney was ordered to serve an extra five years on licence following his release.
He was arrested in April 2016 after police pulled him over with a 15-year-old boy in his car, Mrs Justice Andrews told London's Appeal Court.
Delaney referred to himself as a “sugar daddy”, said the judge, and had arranged to meet up with the youngster with a view to sex.
8. Man jailed for sexually abusing teenage girl
Miah, of Grosvenor Road in Manningham, was remanded in custody in June after he appeared at Bradford Crown Court, where he pleaded guilty to eight counts of sexual activity with a child and a further count of making an indecent image of a child.
He was charged with the offences following an investigation by officers from Bradford’s CSE Investigations Team.
9. Family man used Grindr to groom teenage boys for sex acts
Family man Warren Wild hid his secret life as a child sex abuser to groom two teen boys using the Grindr app.
Dad-of-two Wild, 51, was jailed in January for six years after a hearing at Manchester's Minshull Street Crown Court.
The court heard the sales representative lost his wife, his job and his family home when his sick secret life was uncovered.
Prosecutor Lisa Boocock told the court that Wild, of Huddersfield Road, met his first victim, aged 13, on Grindr back in August 2016.
Wild earlier pleaded guilty to one count of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, three counts of paying for the sexual services of a child, three counts of making indecent photographs of a child and three counts of distributing indecent photos of a child.
He was jailed for six years and was ordered to sign the sex offenders register for life.
At least one senior Australian Christian Churches member will give evidence at a two-day Supreme Court hearing
Joanne McCarthy
Newcastle Herald
AUSTRALIAN Christian Churches will try to strike out compensation claims by two child sex victims during a two-day NSW Supreme Court hearing in November, only a year after rejecting Swansea child sex victim Brett Sengstock's claim against the church group on legal technicalities.
At least one senior ACC executive will be questioned by lawyers for two victims of former youth pastor and convicted child sex offender Chris Bridge who was jailed in 2017 for crimes against them, during a two-day hearing in Sydney from November 14.
Bridge, 71, entered guilty pleas and confessed to crimes against four teenage boys in Dubbo and Newcastle between 1973 and 1983 during a taped phone call with an Australian victim while Bridge was in the Philippines in August, 2015.
Bridge also confirmed admitting his abuse to a victim's mother at Dubbo in 1974. The mother raised it with her Assemblies of God pastor, Jack Allsopp, who was the church group's NSW superintendent at the time. Assemblies of God changed its name to Australian Christian Churches in 2007.
An ACC executive will be questioned about church knowledge of Bridge's offending and how Bridge moved to the Newcastle area in 1975 to start "youth leadership" work at Hamilton Assemblies of God, only months after Mr Allsopp was told Bridge committed crimes against two boys he gained access to while working as youth pastor at Dubbo Assemblies of God.
Bridge went on to commit further crimes against the son of "regular attendees" at Hamilton Assemblies of God and a teenage boy he met through Charlestown Assemblies of God.
Australian Christian Churches is trying to strike out the Dubbo victims' claims after telling the Newcastle Herald in December, 2017 that the "first time the ACC movement was made aware of Christopher Bridge's paedophile activities in the 1970s and 1980s was when a victim spoke of his experiences to an ACC pastor in October, 2014".
The ACC is expected to argue Bridge used the title youth pastor in the Dubbo church but was not employed when he sexually abused two boys only a year after graduating from the Assemblies of God Bible College in Brisbane in 1971.
The ACC is expected to argue offences against the Dubbo victims occurred on camping trips and occasions arranged between Bridge and the victims' parents he met because of his church work.
In 2018 Australian Christian Churches rejected a claim by Swansea man Brett Sengstock, who was sexually abused from the age of seven by the late Assemblies of God leader Frank Houston. In 1999 Houston's son Brian Houston accepted Mr Sengstock's allegations were true. Brian Houston was the then Assemblies of God national president who went on to establish the Hillsong Church.
Australian Christian Churches rejected Mr Sengstock's claim because offences against him occurred while Frank Houston was visiting Australia from New Zealand at the invitation of another Pentecostal Christian group, and was not a credentialed Australian Assemblies of God pastor until several years after the abuse occurred.
For more on this story, please visit the Newcastle Herald
Child abuse victim says PM’s friendship with his rapist’s son is ‘absolutely monstrous’
Questions linger over Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s friendship
with Hillsong founder Brian Houston
Rebecca Franks news.com.auAs a boy, Brett Sengstock was subjected to horrific and degrading abuse at the hands of Hillsong pastor Frank Houston who repeatedly raped him over five years from the age of seven.
It wasn’t until he was 16 that Mr Sengstock finally broke his silence about the abuse to his mother who then carried her son’s secret for another two decades until finally breaking the shocking news to church elders.
In an emotional interview with The Sunday Project, Mr Sengstock spoke about the abuse and how it was handled by Hillsong Church founder — and Frank Houston’s son — Brian Houston, a close pal of Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
Brett Sengstock who was raped by Hillsong pastor Franks Houston Source:Channel 10
Media scrutiny has focused on the Hillsong Church over the way Mr Houston dealt with the sins of his father, which he did not report to police, comes under the spotlight.
Mr Houston is being investigated by the NSW Police for failing to report his father’s child sexual abuse.
“We were big in the church and had strong ties in the church and Frank Houston came over to a Christian camp,” Mr Sengstock told The Sunday Project host Lisa Wilkinson. “Then he came back to my family’s house.
“One night Frank Houston came in and climbed on top of me and started choking me and turned me over and I passed out. And he raped me. This went on repeatedly for days during that week.
“And me and Brian Houston would play on the sand together and Frank would rape me again. Late in the night, back on top of me.”
Child rape victim Brett Sengstock who was raped by Hillsong pastor Franks Houston as a boy Source:Channel 10
The abuse continued for five years at Mr Sengstock’s home in Coogee in Sydney’s eastern suburbs and wherever he encountered Frank Houston.
In a move seemingly out of a paedophile’s handbook, Frank told Mr Sengstock he was his “golden boy” but warned him not to tell anyone about the abuse — described as “our secret” — as, “No-one will believe me anyway.”
Shockingly, Mr Sengstock said after the abuse became known in the 1990s — when Brian Houston was president of the Assemblies of God Australia — Frank Houston started calling Mr Sengstock and offered him $10,000.
“Brian Houston facilitated the money but said something to me that rocked me to this day,” Mr Sengstock told The Sunday Project. “He said, ‘You know, this is all your fault. You tempted my father.’”
Mr Houston has denied he ever said this and added the day he confronted his father — who admitted the abuse — was “the worst day of my life”.
”My father, you know, he did some very evil things but there is no way he tried to blame the boy. He took it upon himself,” Mr Houston previously told the Today show.
Mr Houston said he “did not have time” to speak to The Sunday Project. In a statement, the Hillsong Church said, “The victim was a 36 year old adult when this abuse became known … (and) did not want Pastor Brian or others to go to the police.
Hillsong founder Brian Houston, Frank Houston’s son Source:Channel 10
“At no time did Pastor Brian attempt to dissuade anyone including the victim from going to the police.”
While it’s clear Mr Morrison has a great friendship with Mr Houston, the PM has so far flatly refused to answer whether he wanted his religious mentor to attend a state dinner hosted by President Donald Trump at the White House as reported by The Wall Street Journal.
Australian PM Scott Morrison and his wife Jenny on stage at Hillsong with founder Brian Houston.Source:News Corp Australia
He dismissed the story as being based on “gossip” but did not outright deny the claims.
Recently, Mr Morrison and his wife Jenny were warmly welcomed to the Hillsong Conference by Mr Houston to the horror of Mr Sengstock.
“It was shocking,” he said. “I couldn’t believe the audacity. Here’s the PM of this country on stage with Brian Houston, who is currently under investigation by the NSW Police, for concealing crimes of his father and they’re up there with their arms around each other. I am absolutely lost for words.
“The national apology (to child abuse victims), what was the points in doing it?
“It was a scam. I think publicly he did it to appease all the abuse survivors in this country. As for backing it up with anything, it’s absolutely monstrous. An absolute disgrace.”
Mr Morrison did not reply to questions from The Sunday Project.
Netflix documentary Tell Me Who I Am details
twin brothers' traumatic childhood
news.com.au By: Hannah Paine
When Alex Lewis opened his eyes after getting into a motorbike accident the only person he recognised was his identical twin Marcus.
The traumatic head injury Alex sustained had wiped all of the then-18-year-old's memories, as well as reducing his knowledge of the world around him to that of a small child.
In the months that followed, Alex leant heavily on Marcus, relying on his twin for everything from what a kitchen was for to where they had gone on holidays as children.
But there was just one problem; Marcus wasn't telling the whole truth.
Instead, as new Netflix documentary Tell Me Who I Am reveals, Marcus had concocted a huge lie to hide the truth about their abusive childhood — and the shocking sexual abuse they suffered at the hands of a family member.
After Alex lost his memory at age 18 he relied on Marcus to tell him about their childhood. Photo / Netflix
FILLING IN THE GAPS
Born into a wealthy aristocratic family, Alex returned home to the family mansion in Sussex, England, after his 1982 accident.
Back home, Alex accepted without question the odd behaviours and rules his of his parents — mother Jill and stepfather Jack — as just like any other normal family. Jill's first husband and twin's father John Lewis had tragically died when they were just three days old in a car accident.
Jack was strict and prone to angry outbursts while their mother was cold and distant, with Alex and Marcus both made to sleep out in a shed outside since they were 14 and forbidden a key to the house.
As Alex had no memory of his friends or family he relied heavily on Marcus to fill him in on the gaps in his life.
Marcus and Alex were made by their parents to sleep in a shed outside and forbidden a key to the house.
Photo / Netflix
Alex jokes in the documentary that he "lost my virginity to the same woman twice", his girlfriend at the time.
Marcus told Alex about the details of their childhood, telling him of happy times and beach trips in France when his twin asked if he went on family holidays. But the truth was the family had never gone on holidays and their parents had been cold and unloving towards them their whole life.
"I painted a picture of a normal family," Marcus said. "But none of that was true. It was a fantasy that I was creating for him."
THE TRUTH COMES OUT
The happy family facade Marcus had painted for Alex began to fade in 1990 when their father died of pancreatic cancer. In the days before his death, Jack summoned both his sons to his bed and begged them to forgive him for his behaviour.
The deathbed request puzzled Alex: What was there to forgive? Even stranger, Marcus flatly refused to accept his father's apology, and he died just days later.
Five years later Jill died of a brain tumour, with Marcus' emotionless reaction setting off alarm bells for Alex, who didn't underside why his twin wasn't upset.
Finally able to access the house they had been denied a key to, the red flags continued, with Marcus and Alex, now 32, discovering fifty pound notes stuffed into jars and sewn into the back of curtains.
When they got to the attic, Marcus and Alex found decades' worth of Christmas presents from relatives and friends meant for them, but had been cruelly hidden away by their parents.
Even more disturbing, a cupboard in a bathroom was stuffed full of sex toys. But the worst find was in their mother's bedroom.
Going through her things, Alex and Marcus discovered a locked cupboard hidden in the back of Jill's wardrobe. Inside was a naked photo of the twins aged 10, with their heads ripped off — the horrible discovery was too much for either of them to ignore.
Alex demanded to know if their mother had sexually abused them. "He put his arm around me, and he said 'Yeah it's true' and then we cried. Both of us," Alex recalled.
It was only after their mother died that Alex discovered she had sexually abused him and Marcus as children. Photo / Netflix
COMING TO TERMS WITH IT
Despite coming clean, for decades Marcus refused to tell Alex more about what had happened to them as children, ignoring his brother's pleas to find out more.
Even though there was a Pandora's box existing between them the twins stayed close and each went on to marry and have two children each, as well as running a successful hotel company together.
It was only in emotional scenes shown in Tell me Who I Am, Marcus, now 54, finally revealed the chilling extent of what their mother had done to them; as well as his heartbreaking reasoning for keeping it a secret.
Marcus said his brother's memory loss had been "a gift" — not just for Alex, but also for him as well.
"Alex lost his memory by accident, and I lost my memory voluntarily," Marcus explained. "I was free, I could be rid of all the things she had done to me."
Marcus revealed that not only had they been sexually abused by their mother from the age of 10, but that Jill had also given them to her paedophile friends to be raped and molested.
"She would touch us, she would masturbate us — she would do things that no mother should ever do to our child," he said.
Jill would drive each twin on separate occasions to different friends' houses, stay for dinner and a drink before leaving them overnight to be molested.
"Then in the morning, my mother would come and pick me up and drive me home, never speaking never talking," Marcus said.
The abuse only ended when a 14-year-old Marcus escaped from one man who had tried to rape him and returned home in the middle of the night. Jill never acknowledged what had happened but the twins were never abused again by their mother or her friends.
Alex and Marcus Lewis want people to know they've gone on to live 'very fulfilled lives'. Photo / Getty Images
Alex and Marcus first went public with their story in a 2013 interview with UK newspaper The Times and a biography that same year, also called Tell Me Who I Am.
However, despite their story attracting significant attention at the time, Marcus refused to tell Alex the details of what had happened to them until they filmed the Netflix documentary.
In an interview with Decider, Alex and Marcus said they had decided to tell their story with Netflix in order to reduce the stigma around childhood abuse.
"We want it to be a conversation that's not taboo," Marcus said. "Maybe you discuss this movie at a dinner party, and a friend tells you, 'You know, I was abused as a kid.' I think that would be an amazing thing. People shouldn't be ashamed of what happened in their past, it's not their fault."
Despite the trauma they suffered as children both say they have gone on to live "very fulfilled lives" and continue to be extremely close.
"We've achieved closure beyond anything I could have imagined with each other by making this movie," Alex said. "That's an incredible gift the film has given us."
Sussex, UK
Australia asking Israel to return educator
in child sex abuse case
But Israeli courts just can't seem to get it together
BY ROD MCGUIRKASSOCIATED PRESS |
| CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA
Dassi Erlich and Nicole Meyer (Mick Tsikas / AP)
Prime Minister Scott Morrison issued a statement after meeting at Parliament House with sisters Dassi Erlich and Nicole Meyer, who were allegedly abused by Malka Leifer when she was principal of Melbourne's ultra-Orthodox Adass Israel school.
The 52-year-old fled to Israel in 2008 after the allegations emerged.
"My government is strongly committed to ensuring that justice is served in the case of Malka Leifer," Morrison said. "We call for the matter to be resolved transparently and quickly."
"We also reaffirm our commitment to have Malka Leifer extradited to Australia to face 74 charges of child sexual abuse," Morrison added.
Erlich told reporters outside Parliament House that she and her sister wanted the government "to do more." "Enough is enough. We don't want platitudes, we want action," Erlich said.
"This has taken a tremendous toll on both of our lives. Traveling back and forth, not seeing any results, the frustrations, knowing at some point she might get bail, it's had an emotional toll on our lives," Erlich said.
Meyer, her sister, said: "We're not just doing it for ourselves. We're trying to give a message to all survivors that even if you have been abused, life can go on; justice should be served."
Government lawmaker Dave Sharma, who was Australian ambassador to Israel in 2014 when the extradition request was made, and opposition lawmaker Josh Burns joined the sisters at a news conference to demonstrate that Australia's major political parties were united in a bid to bring Leifer to justice.
Sharma said that after more than 60 Israeli court hearings, "we seem to be no closer to having Malka Leifer extradited."
This would be funny if it wasn't so tragic and unfair. But it certainly gives one cause to doubt the fairness of Israel's court system, or its determination to see justice done.
"We are here today to send a very clear message to Israel that this case is a high priority for Australia and it's one we will be ceaseless in pursuing and it's one that unless resolved soon will have an impact on the broader relationship," Sharma said.
Israel's Supreme Court last week upheld an appeal against a decision to release Leifer from jail to house arrest. Prosecutors argue she is feigning mental illness to dodge extradition.
The appeals court overturned a Jerusalem court's decision a week earlier to grant Leifer release to house arrest "in order to give adequate response to concerns that the accused will flee or obstruct justice."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced this week that he has failed to form a majority government in parliament, marking a major setback for the embattled leader that plunges the country into a new period of political uncertainty.
No comments:
Post a Comment