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Young leader of massive, ‘unprecedented in history’ sex blackmail ring online is sentenced to 40 years in South Korean prison
26 Nov, 2020 13:36
The 25-year-old leader of an online sexual blackmail ring was sentenced to 40 years in prison in South Korea after being found guilty of coercing at least 74 women, including 16 minors, into providing sexual imagery of themselves.
Cho Ju-bin, convicted on Thursday, was the head of one of the largest online blackmail operations in the world. Prosecutors initially sought a life sentence for Cho, calling his crimes “unprecedented in history.”
“The defendant lured and threatened multiple victims in various ways to produce pornography, and distributed it for a long time to many people,” the judge said of Cho’s modus operandi, according to the Yonhap news agency, adding, “He in particular inflicted irrecoverable damage to many victims by publishing their identities.”
In what authorities described as “virtual enslavement,” Cho was forcing his dozens of victims to share increasingly explicit, degrading and sometimes violent sexual pictures and videos of themselves. The criminal, going by the online nickname ‘baksa’ (Korean for ‘doctor’), was then distributing the material to the members of his chatroom, ‘Baksabang,’ on the messaging app Telegram.
Cho’s ‘Baksabang’ associates were sentenced to jail time from seven to fifteen years.
The ‘doctor’ had been practicing since May 2019 until February this year, and was sentenced by the Seoul Central District Court for violating criminal and child protection laws, Yonhap reported.
“Thank you for putting a brake on the life of a devil that could not be stopped,” the young criminal mastermind said of his own 40-year-sentence, adding, “I apologize to those who were hurt by me.”
Besides getting decades of prison time, Cho was also fined 10.64 million Korean won ($9,600), and will be wearing a monitoring ankle bracelet for 30 years after being released.
Cho’s high-profile case sparked nationwide outrage, (5th story on link), with citizens urging authorities to prosecute not only the ‘Baksabang’ organizers, but also the network’s customers, who collectively paid 1.5 million won ($1.360) for the illegal sexual content. The final verdict has received mixed reaction from the public, with some praising its harshness, and others arguing the punishment was not hard enough.
South Korean law enforcement arrested 124 suspects and 18 operators of chat rooms, including Cho, on the heels of similar sex crimes which took place last year.
'He wanted us as his slaves,' Mark Aspin child sex trial hears
Aspin and his partner Debbie Pickersgill face 27 charges
Debbie Pickersgill told Grimsby Crown Court that Mark Aspin wanted 'his personal sex slaves'
A Hull woman feared she "would be killed" when she told her partner she did not want to participate in threesomes with an underage girl.
Debbie Pickersgill, 46, of Buckingham Street is charged with four counts of sexual activity with a child.
Her partner Mark Aspin is charged with 23 sickening sex offences against children including rape, sexual activity with a child and inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.
The pair, who are standing trial at Grimsby Crown Court, deny all of the charges against them.
On Thursday, Ms Pickersgill took to the witness box to tell the jury that she participated in group sex with two underage girls because she was scared she would be "beaten up or killed" by Mr Aspin.
It is alleged Mr Aspin targeted three girls under the age of 16 and sexually abused them.
He claims he was "in love" with one of them and admits he had sex with them, but says he was not sexually attracted to any of them until they turned 16 years old, and did not touch them until then.
Ms Pickersgill claims Mr Aspin was regularly violent with her and all three alleged victims.
She told the jury she often heard "shouting, screaming and swearing", and says Mr Aspin told her he was having sexual relations with one of them, and was "in love" with another, before either of them turned 16.
Ms Pickersgill said her partner started to turn violent just six months into their relationship and would often kick, punch and slap her.
She said when the pair first got together, she "didn't feel very attractive or loved" and within six months, Mr Aspin had "changed" and had turned violent and controlling.
She told the jury the first time it had happened, Mr Aspin "pushed me off the bed, screamed at me and slapped me". "After that he said sorry and started crying and saying he wouldn't do it again and I believed him," she added.
Ms Pickersgill said she recalled two incidents when Mr Aspin "strangled" her - once to the point where she passed out.
Along with his alleged threats, she came to believe he would kill her if she ever told anyone about the alleged sexual abuse of the three underage girls.
She also told of another time when she was dragged across a room and kicked in the ribs.
Ms Pickersgill said the first incident where she had sexual interaction with Mr Aspin and a girl under the age of 16 happened after Mr Aspin had told her he was in love with the girl.
She said: "He just said it. I was a bit shocked and he kept reiterating 'you can't help who you fall in love with', and I thought 'no you can't', but I wasn't best pleased.
"I didn't say anything because if I did say anything out of turn I thought I would be beaten up. He used to ask if I had ever thought about having a threesome with her and when I said 'no' he said I was a prude."
Ms Pickersgill said Mr Aspin told her to kiss and touch one of the girls.
Although Ms Pickersgill said she did not want to, and did not hear the girl consent, she said she was too scared to say "no" as she feared she would be beaten or killed.
She added: "Sometimes the covers would go over her and he [Mr Aspin] would ask 'are you doing it?' and I would say yes but I wasn't."
She said neither of them spoke about it again but the pair would regularly engage in group sex with the same girl and another.
"When I said 'no', he would beat me up," she said, "I would say it was wrong and he would kick and punch me. I just wanted to get away but I was scared he would find me."
Ms Pickersgill told the jury that Mr Aspin later told her he was having sexual intercourse with a third underage girl.
When asked why she did not tell anyone about the abuse, Ms Pickersgill said she had no one she could trust.
The pair are on trial at Grimsby Crown Court (Image: Grimsby Live)
She added that Mr Aspin would threaten her and she was "too scared to speak to anyone in case he found out. He just wanted us as his personal sex slaves," he said.
After an incident in 2014 where Mr Aspin allegedly slapped Ms Pickersgill, she says she left the home in Endeavour Crescent and "walked the streets of Hull" until she ended up at Preston Road Women's Centre, where she told a member of staff about the physical abuse.
The next day, she says she provided a statement to the police, detailing only the physical abuse against herself by Mr Aspin, but withdrew it a day later under his instructions.
Ms Pickersgill told the court: "I saw him at home and he said it was my fault and that he was sorry. He got on his knees and said he loved me and I said to him 'I don't love you, I haven't loved you in a long time'.
"He said 'don't say that', but I said 'I'm saying it'. I didn't care what he did."
Kendal, UK man jailed for five years at Preston Crown Court
for child sex offences
By George Lythgoe NWEM
A MAN who attempted to groom a person he believed to be a child into sexual activity has been jailed for five years.
Bennett’s offences came to light when officers were passed information by an online child abuse activist group. The group had used an adult decoy who posed as a 13-year-old girl.
Bennett contacted the decoy in March 2018 attempting to engage them in sexual communication. Bennett sent numerous indecent messages over the subsequent days. Once the information was passed to officers, Bennett was quickly arrested.
A Cumbria Constabulary spokesperson said: “Bennett was persistent in his communications with the person who he believed to be 13 years old, frequently sending them messages of an inappropriate nature, asking for responses and discussing at length sexual acts he wanted to commit.
“Fortunately, the person he chose to communicate with was a decoy, but Bennett’s intent was clearly evident.
“Once the information was known to police, we swiftly arrested Bennett and began our own enquiries which found further offending.”
Supervisor at pool where Kyle Daniels is accused of sexually abusing girls is asked whether she smiled at him in court – as he’s interrogated over a chat with alleged victim's father
By AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS
PUBLISHED: 04:11 EST, 26 November 2020
A Sydney pool supervisor who says a father's shocking claim about swim coach Kyle Daniels was 'burnt into my mind' has been challenged over her evidence.
The crown witness, who can't be named, has told the District Court jury the father reported his daughter as having said Daniels 'may' have touched near her front area.
But prosecutor Karl Prince on Thursday referred to her email written soon after the call saying the father said the girl stated her teacher 'put' his hand near her private area.
Daniels, 22, has pleaded not guilty to 26 charges, including multiple counts of having sexual intercourse with a child under 10 and indecently assaulting a person under 16.
He is accused of touching nine of his students aged between five and 10 on or near their genitals while instructing them between February 2018 and February 2019 at a pool on Sydney's north shore.
Mr Prince asked the supervisor on Thursday if she had smiled at Daniels when she went into the witness box on Wednesday.
'I don't think I intentionally did,' she replied. 'It's my first time in court and I was just trying to smile and be normal.'
Smiling in court is not really very normal!
She told Mr Prince the email was not 'quote for quote' about the father's February 2019 phone call, which ultimately led to the police investigation.
By saying 'may have touched' to the jury she said she meant the father said he had not seen the incident himself.
'It was a lot of information. I was quite shocked,' she said. 'I would never have thought anyone would say that about Kyle.'
She had worked with Daniels all the time he was employed at the pool, but 'we never hung out outside work because he was very young, I was a lot older'. She was 'friendly' with him just as she was friendly with all her staff members.
Mr Prince also noted her email said the father reported another daughter coming out of class the following week and saying the same thing about Daniels, but he wasn't sure if she had heard her sibling say this.
But the supervisor told the jury the father said the younger girl's complaint emerged after he directly questioned her.
She again said her email was not 'quote for quote', but agreed this part of the conversation she revealed to the jury was not in the email.
The trial continues before Judge Kara Shead.
Child Rapists - go to Finland, it's almost legal there. Multiple child rapes from 5-15 years old; one child drugged and raped for 10 hours. Penalty - 20 months in prison!!!!!!
Two men convicted of child rapes, get 20 months in prison
Western Uusimaa district court has handed down prison sentences to two men convicted of multiple rapes of children aged between five and 15.
The worst case involved a child drugged and raped for ten hours, according to a statement from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) investigation lead Sanna Springare last year.
Court proceedings were held behind closed doors and the court records were sealed, although the verdict is public.
A former parish councillor and travel industry entrepreneur aged 59 was convicted of two counts of child sexual abuse. The court ruled that the man's actions were sexual in nature and damaging to the victims' development.
The second defendant, aged 51, was convicted of two counts of aggravated sexual abuse, keeping indecent images of children and narcotics crimes.
Both men received prison sentences of one year and eight months, and were told to pay compensation of between 1,750 and 6,000 euros plus court costs.
The same two men are also accused of a series of similar crimes in South Ostrobothnia. Yle is not naming them at this stage.
The verdict in that case is due to be handed down on 17 December.
The NBI announced in 2019 that it suspected several Finnish men of involvement in violent sexual abuse of children, and producing images and videos of their crimes.
Police confiscated some 400 hours of illegal video material, some of which was played during the trial. Police say that some of the material depicted especially cruel acts.
The victims were all boys aged between five and 15 when the crimes took place. The crimes themselves were committed between 2004 and 2014.
Unbelievable! How could these monsters get anything less than 40 years in prison? 20 months is pathetic and infuriating! Has the judge absolutely no concern for the welfare of Finish children?
Uusimaa, Finland
Kyabram, AU man to stand trial over child sex crimes
Nov 26 2020
by IVY JENSEN
Bendigo County Court.
A KYABRAM man charged over historical child sex offences has been committed to stand trial.
Geoffrey Anderson, 69, faced a committal hearing at Bendigo Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday and Thursday, November 25 and 26, where magistrate Megan Aumair determined there was enough evidence for the case to go to trial.
Anderson is charged with 19 sex-related offences, including sexual penetration of a child under 16 and indecent act with a child under 16.
The offences are alleged to have occurred between 1999 and 2004 when the male victim was aged between 11 and 17.
Anderson's bail conditions included surrendering his passports, not to attend points of international departure and not to contact witnesses for the prosecution other than the informant.
A directions hearing has been listed for February 9, 2021, at Bendigo County Court, with a trial date to be fixed.
Anderson was arrested by Bendigo’s Sexual Offences and Child Abuse Investigation Team on May 20, 2020.
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