Dozens arrested as France busts major child porn network,
including men suspected of sexually assaulting kids on camera
8 Oct 2020 15:53
FILE PHOTO. © Global Look Press / imagebroker / Michaela Begsteiger
French police have arrested 61 people allegedly involved in a vast child pornography network. Some of the suspects are believed to have filmed their sexual assault of minors, investigators said.
The major sting was announced by Eric Berot, head of one of the divisions within France’s sub-directorate for battling organized crime, on Thursday. The arrests were made this week during a large operation that spanned 30 of France’s regions.
So far, 61 suspects have been detained. Several suspects had been working in positions that facilitated access to children – they include teachers, religious leaders and even city hall officials.
“These arrests include everyone – all trades, all social classes, from merchants to managers, from white collar to blue collar, of all ages, from 28 to 75 years old, from all family situations, single people, those in a couple, with or without children,” Berot stated.
At least 13 of those arrested have a previous criminal record and were on the national sex offender register. The suspects are predominantly male, with only one woman, suspected of watching the illicit videos alongside her partner, among those taken into custody. The demand for child pornography in France has grown amid the anti-coronavirus lockdown, Berot noted.
The arrests came after a months-long investigation into a large group that produced and distributed child porn online through peer-to-peer networks. The police have seized a large quantity of computers, and hard and USB drives, as well as other electronic devices. Investigators are still digging through the data, Berot said.
At least three of the suspects are believed to have been personally involved in raping minors on camera. One of the suspects, said to be a computer scientist, has admitted to having regularly assaulted his own 14-year-old daughter since she was nine, Berot revealed. Officers discovered an enormous cache of more than 110,000 illicit images and some 2,000 child pornography videos on his computer.
Algeria: Girl, 19, kidnapped, raped, burned to death in revenge attack
Victim’s mother demands murderer be sentenced to death,
a penalty not imposed since 1993
Published: October 07, 2020
Samir Salama, Associate Editor, Gulf News
Abu Dhabi: A 19-year-old Algerian girl was kidnapped, raped and burned to death by a man who had previously been jailed for raping her, local media reported.
The charred remains of Chaima Sadou were found on October 2 in an abandoned petrol station in Thenia town, about 60 kilometres east of capital Algiers.
Her mother had demanded her daughter’s killer, identified as Rayan, be sentenced to death.
In 2016, Rayan was jailed for three years after he was convicted of raping Sadou. The mother believes the murder was a revenge attack after the jail term.
In a press conference, the public prosecutor revealed more details about the murder. It was learned that the killer told local authorities that “his friend was burned at an abandoned gas station.”
According to the statement of the alleged culprit, the facts date back to October 1 at 3pm. The prosecutor reported the criminal said he was with the victim for seven minutes before she asked him to bring her food because she was hungry. He said that once he was five metres away from where he left her, he saw smoke rising from the station.
“An investigation was immediately launched, and the victim’s body examined. Several bruises, as well as large wounds on the back of her skull and on the top of her left thigh were found,” the prosecutors said.
Following his appearance before the attorney general, the murderer confessed that he lured the victim to the abandoned place, where he raped, beat and burned her after he doused her with petrol.
The perpetrator was subsequently charged with rape and premeditated murder with the use of torture and barbaric methods. The investigating judge ordered the suspect be remanded in prison.
Indignation and the death penalty
The gruesome murder sparked a widespread outrage throughout Algeria. It caused a stir even in France and on social media where the hashtag #JeSuisChaima was one of the most shared on Twitter on Monday.
Ania El Afandi said on her Twitter account: “He raped her and when she filed a complaint against him ... he killed her and burned her body.”
El Afandi asked how the man that raped Sadou in 2016 has been left free all these years and for how long rape and violence against women will continue.
Othmane Daas responded: “The solution to end the series of these crimes is the application of the death penalty.”
The family of the victim has called for the death sentence. Twitter users widely circulated a video clip showing Chaima’s mother demanding retribution, and she received broad support from Algerians.
“My daughter was murdered and burnt. I call for the application of the death penalty. That’s all I ask,” the victim’s mother said.
Upon his release he returned to harass the teen and forced her to meet with him only to kidnap her, rape her and kill her, her mother added.
Chaima’s mother appealed to Algerian President Abdel Majid Tebboune to implement the death penalty.
Tebboune recently ordered the application of maximum penalties, after pressure from large sections of society calling for the re-imposition of capital punishment, without possible relief or pardon against those convicted of kidnapping.
Algeria continues to impose the death penalty to dozens of cases each year, especially for terrorism offences, but it has not been carried out since 1993.
This should result in much longer sentences for child rapists, but will it?
Brazil: School bus driver, 53, ‘raped and choked girl, 15, to death
then claimed he was forced to kill her by gun-toting biker’
Claudia Aoraha, The Sun
8 Oct 2020, 18:41
A SCHOOL bus driver allegedly raped and choked a 15-year-old girl to death before claiming he was forced to kill her.
The teen's lifeless body was found in bushes last March in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
She was declared missing after being picked up by bus driver Zimmermann in his car on the morning of her death. Maria's family told local media he had picked her up by car before so they weren't suspicious.
Instead, Zimmermann's brother, who also works as a school bus driver, picked up the other students in the bus on the day of the crime.
Later, Zimmermann was taken to intensive care in the city of Ijui with neck and chest injuries - although it wasn't clear how he got them.
He was transferred to a hospital in Porto Alegre, where he was interrogated by police who reported that he couldn't speak, due to vocal cord damage.
SAVAGE DEATH
An investigation found mobile phone evidence and DNA evidence linking Zimmermann to the crime.
Maria's grandmother told local media that her granddaughter was afraid of Zimmermann and that he had tried to run his hand through her hair.
She also revealed that she was scared he would kill her. However, her grandmother told her not to worry, as she did not believe that the bus driver was dangerous.
Thanks, Granny! Is that why she got in his car?
Zimmermann denied the charges against him, and gave police two different versions of events.
In one, he said a biker armed with a gun forced him to strangle the girl before cutting his throat with a knife.
In the other, he said the schoolgirl died of a drug overdose, and that she had forced him to go with her into the bushes to have sex saying that she would make up facts about him if he did not obey.
Police believe the crime was premeditated.
The school bus driver's trial has been set for November 18.
UK student, 19, finds out man who raised her since she was four
has been secretly filming her in bath for five years
Claudia Aoraha, The Sun
12 Oct 2020, 16:02
A STUDENT found out that the man who raised her since she was just a child had been secretly filming her in the bath for five years.
The teen had found a phone - which her stepdad Craig had used to film her while she was in the bath for the last five years.
The then 17-year-old messaged her mum to come in, and she explained what she had found.
Lauren then confronted her stepdad, who reeled off a number of excuses, claiming that he was checking on her as he thought she was crying.
Craig, 35, also tried to say that the object in the bathroom wasn't a phone, but instead was a hoover.
Lauren and her mum Michelle, who had been married to Craig since Lauren was four years old, told family and reported it to the police. It was then that Craig admitted to secretly filming his stepdaughter a number of times since she was 13 years old.
Last month the stepdad, whose full name is Thomas Craig Lewis, pleaded guilty to two counts of voyeurism after incidents between 2014 and 2018.
Lewis, from Llanelli in Wales, admitted the offences at Northampton Magistrates’ Court in September and will be sentenced at Northampton Crown Court on Friday, October 16.
DC Andrea Taylor, from Northamptonshire Police, said: “This case has taken a long time to conclude and I would like to commend the victim for her resolve and courage during this time in seeing it through to the end.
"I hope the fact that Lewis has pleaded guilty to the offences offers her some comfort and allows her to move forward with her life.
"Lewis’s behaviour was very predatory – he completely violated this girl’s privacy and I am pleased that he has been convicted.
"What he did was absolutely shameful and I hope he reflects on these awful incidents for a long time to come."
Sarah Payne killer Roy Whiting nearly died after being
stabbed in prison by fellow lags
Richard Moriarty, The Sun
13 Oct 2020, 21:04
EVIL child killer Roy Whiting feared he would be killed after being brutally attacked in prison with makeshift blades.
Whiting was punched and kicked in the face and repeatedly stabbed on the upper body with blades smuggled onto the wing at Wakefield prison, West Yorks.
A nurse who rushed to his aid in cell three on Delta wing found him with multiple stab wounds and not breathing on 8 November 2018.
He was in respiratory arrest so they inserted a plastic tube to give him an airway.
She stated: “I do believe that my actions on this day did save Roy Whiting’s life, due to the severity of the injuries he had received and the quick response having qualified medics on the scene.”
A prison officer who dragged Whiting’s attackers off him added: “I 100 per cent believe that if we had not entered that cell and drew our batons Whiting would be dead. The perpetrators did not stop stabbing Whiting until we managed to force open the door.”
Sarah Payne
They attacked the 61-year-old after sneaking into his cell at the Category A prison - dubbed Monster Mansion - and punching him with a makeshift weapon. Whiting was then rushed to Leeds General Infirmary where he received emergency treatment.
Photographs of his injuries were later taken by bosses which show a burst lip, cuts to his face and two black eyes.
Whiting said two inmates burst into his cell shouting “you f***ing nonce” and then stabbed and punched him to the head and body.
He crawled under his bed in an attempt to protect himself during the attack, adding: “I looked down at the floor and I was laid in a pool of my own blood.”
He said he has never had any trouble with either of the defendants and is used to being called “nonce, paedophile and baby killer” by inmates.
There is much more on this story on The Sun.
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