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Cops respond to claims ‘homophobia’ hampered
‘Grindr serial killer’ probe
10 Dec, 2021 14:58
London’s Metropolitan Police deny that “institutional homophobia” hindered their investigation into a serial killer targeting young gay men. They say their inexperience with the gay scene allowed the killer to go free for so long.
Stephen Port was sentenced in 2016 to life in prison for the murder of four men he met via the dating app Grindr. Port called an ambulance for his first victim, and left the next three in the same churchyard near his flat in the London borough of Barking between July 2014 and September 2015. Despite the similarities between the killings, police initially failed to link them, and rebuffed claims from the force’s own LGBT advisory group that a serial killer was on the loose. By the time he was caught, Port had drugged and raped eight other victims, who survived.
At an inquest on Friday, Metropolitan Police Commander Jon Savell rejected claims “that the men’s sexuality played a part in our response,” the Independent reported. However, Savell did say that his officers had a “lack of awareness” about the dangers of the date rape drug GHB and its use by gay men.
Lawyers representing the families of Port’s victims earlier accused the police of failing to properly investigate the murders due to “institutional homophobia” within the force, something Assistant Commissioner Helen Ball denied.
“We don’t see institutional homophobia, we don’t see homophobia on the part of officers, we do see all sorts of errors in the investigation which came together in a truly dreadful way,” she told the inquest.
Some of these errors, the inquest heard, included the police neglecting to search Port’s laptop for 10 months, during which time he killed his second and third victims. When an officer finally did search the computer, he failed to register Port’s interest in rape pornography as suspicious. The inquest also heard how the Metropolitan Police’s major investigations team declined to take over the case from local officers in Barking and Dagenham, who themselves had failed to notice a previous rape claim against Port.
Detective Inspector Tony Kirk, who led local policing in Barking at the time of the murders, said that his officers dealt with “hundreds of crimes every day,” meaning complex investigations had to “take a back seat.”
Speaking through his lawyer after the inquest, Ricky Waumsley, a partner of one of Port’s victims Daniel Whitworth, called on Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick to resign. “Ricky is shocked to hear the extent of the police incompetence,” the lawyer told reporters. “Ricky continues to believe that there was police prejudice during the investigation.”
Whitworth’s father called the police’s investigation “abominable,” and told Sky News how "time after time after time, from top to bottom in the Barking borough, the performance of the police has been inexplicable.”
Never assume malice when stupidity is just as likely! However, there are many similarities with a case in Toronto. Delays and denials in the police force resulted in many murders in the city's gay community.
Hunt for abusers continues after member of horrific paedophile ring
jailed in Edinburgh
Constance Kampfner
Saturday December 11 2021, 12.01am GMT,
The Times
Russell Findlay, a Conservative MSP, praised the work of police in bringing two of the paedophiles to justice
FRASER BREMNER/SCOTTISH DAILY MAIL/PA
Police are hunting down the remaining members of a “mind-blowingly horrific” paedophile ring that operated in Edinburgh’s Old Town.
In 2018, David Scott was sentenced to 12 years in prison for sexual abuse spanning 45 years. One of his victims, who was eight at the time, told of being taken to a flat in 2010 where up to five other men raped her in exchange for money.
Until recently, the identities of these collaborators were unknown. But last week Gary Thomson, 52, the former tenant of the flat in the city’s cobbled Blackfriars Street, was jailed for 11 years for the rape of two young children, including the eight-year-old girl.
Police are now working to trace the remaining culprits.
Russell Findlay, a Conservative MSP and former journalist who reported on Scott’s case, said: “In my past life as a journalist I’m sure I have reported on evidence of paedophiles colluding. Some of these offenders make connections in prison and it’s a very worrying phenomenon.
“But this situation is striking; to hear of a flat where up to five men appear to be paying to sexually assault a young girl in an organised way is truly horrific and, I believe, extremely rare. I also believe it merits a full investigation.”
The first time the female victim was brought to Thomson’s flat, the Edinburgh High Court heard last week, he rubbed her leg and asked her age and whether she wanted biscuits.
On the second occasion, she was put in a bedroom where she was abused by another man who the girl then saw hand an envelope of cash over to Scott. John Keenan, for the prosecution, said Thomson then entered the bedroom, pinned the child on the bed and raped her. The girl had previously said in a statement that after these attacks, Scott would take her for a McDonald’s or shopping at the city’s St James Centre. A relative said the girl “would see him taking money out of the envelopes to buy her something such as a handbag or a hat”.
Findlay made a speech at Holyrood about the abuse which took place “only half a mile from this spot”, during a debate on gender-based violence on Tuesday.
“Only now is the link between Thomson and Scott being made public,” he said. “Evidence of paedophiles colluding in organised abuse is shocking and obscene. But what of the other men in this flat?”
Speaking to The Times, Findlay added: “The police have done a fantastic job in putting Scott and putting Thomson behind bars where they can’t harm anyone else.
“But it’s extremely important that we do what we can to find these other men because not only is the likelihood that they’ve abused other children, but if they remain free, they clearly continue to pose a risk to children.”
Scott began abusing children in 1970. One of his earlier victims revealed she had reported Scott to the police in 1997, after suffering three years of abuse from when she was seven. The police claimed there was a lack of corroborating evidence at the time to prosecute, though the woman believed her case had not been properly investigated.
She was contacted by police 20 years later after two other victims came forward. In 2017, she told the BBC: “I can’t believe he got away with it for as long as he did and I do believe that the only reason he did was because the police didn’t do their job. If they’d done their job properly, at least two of the six victims would never have been abused.”
Asked about the hunt for the remaining men, a spokeswoman for Police Scotland said: “Enquiries are ongoing, therefore there is no further information we can provide at this point.”
Lanzarote paedophile Michael Ronald Williams imprisoned
ELLE DRAPER
Lanzarote news
Convicted Lanzarote paedophile Michael Ronald Williams is today headed to prison. Williams was found guilty by the court for sexually abusing an eight/nine-year-old girl while he lived on the island.
Michael Ronald Williams denied the charges brought against him but at the end of July 2018, after much deliberation and after the court heard statements by third parties and psychologists, he was found guilty. The girl stated that the defendant committed several “sexual acts” with her.
“I tried to say what I could remember and tell the truth,” said the young girl.
Williams denied the charges
Williams appealed against the ruling (he has insisted upon his innocence from the beginning of the investigation) but this appeal was dismissed, based on evidence and testimonies gained during the entire process.
Williams has denied touching the child, or asking the child to touch him sexually – as the young victim maintained. The court heard evidence from the child, and from professionals who interviewed her to assess her reliability – because the defendant maintained that it was fiction.
The conviction was confirmed on January 23 2020, although Williams had already left Lanzarote for the UK… and the process began for the issuance of the European Arrest Warrant.
Today Michael Ronald Williams handed himself into prison in the UK at 2pm. Confirmation was received from the family at 17:45 (Spain time).
The future for the affected family
We have been in contact with the child’s mother throughout the whole legal battle and we spoke to her again this week, to see how she and the young girl are doing.
“She has ‘Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder,” said the mother, “and she is still in therapy after all these years. But she is doing great. I am very proud of the young woman she is growing into. She wants to help others who have suffered and her studies will enable that. She’s already been offered a place by one University.”
God bless her and help her with her studies.
Note from Editor: This is a huge day for the family, and they are hoping for a brighter future. Life has certainly been difficult for them, with vicious rumours and lies being spread throughout the entire process. We hope that no other children are ever tainted by Michael Ronald Williams again. We wish the young lady and her family all the best for the future and hope that together they can continue to heal, and that their community and loved ones rally round to support them after what has been a horrific period of their lives.
Prolific 'sugar daddy' paedophile posed as a stockbroker
and blackmailed 2,000 victims into degrading sex acts
By LAURENCE DOLLIMORE FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED 13:28 EST, 10 December 2021
A prolific paedophile who posed as a 'sugar daddy' stockbroker and forced women and children to send him sexually explicit videos of themselves has been described as 'one of the worst online sexual predators' ever seen.
Abdul Elahi, 26, was branded 'in a league of his own' at the start of his sentencing at Birmingham Crown Court on Wednesday, after he admitted 158 charges committed against 72 complainants. He is believed to have tried to exploit victims globally in 34 different countries.
The former McDonald's worker, from Sparkhill, Birmingham, used fake names to target up to 2,000 women and children online, offering them cash to send him back pictures and videos of themselves.
While living under the roof of his parents, he then persuaded his victims to send him more depraved material including humiliating videos of them taking part in abuse with other children and siblings.
He also forced some of his victims to self-mutilate and blackmailed women to send him footage of themselves abusing young children - some as young as eight-months old - before selling depraved 'box sets' of the videos to other paedophiles around the world.
One boy's father told the court today that his son has written multiple suicide notes and took a knife from the kitchen after being abused on the orders of Elahi.
Another victim, who was 17 at the time, developed severe body dysmorphia, dropping to just 5st 7lbs (80 pounds) in weight, and also became suicidal after footage of herself she was forced to send to Elahi ended up on a porn website.
Meanwhile Kirsty Nicholls, 35, from Middlesex, was also in the dock today after she willingly sexually abused a boy on Elahi's instructions - and even suggested new forms of abuse for herself to film.
From the sales of his material, Elahi would launder the money through Amazon gift cards and buy electrical goods and sell them on for cash, the court heard.
In one single sale, he traded a terabyte of sick images and footage - amounting to 1,000 hours of video and 310,000 photos.
The court heard today how he was 'juggling' many tens of potential victims at any one time.
Elahi was arrested by the National Crime Agency in December 2018 but was released, after which he was able to continue his offending until August 2020, despite being on bail.
Prosecutor Adrian Langdale QC told the court on Wednesday: 'The whole persona, the whole arrangement, was a sham from the very beginning. 'He simply, it would appear, saw his victims as a way of making money. Victims were targeted day after day, with no let-up from Mr Elahi.'
The court heard that some women and young girls were blackmailed into abusing a baby or a sibling by Elahi, who had offered to pay off debts with Bitcoin.
Mr Langdale said the offending spanned a three-year period from 2017 to 2019, with many of the offences committed while Elahi was on bail and subject to a sexual risk order.
Elahi also 'acted as a mentor' to other online abusers, the court heard, with 'copy-cat' offenders targeting some of his victims, the Crown alleges.
Kirsty Nicholls, 35, from Middlesex, was also in the dock today after she willingly abused a boy on Elahi's instructions - and even suggested new forms of torture to film herself
Mr Langdale told the court: 'We maintain that Mr Elahi is an exceptionally dangerous predator.'
The so-called 'box sets' of abusive images and videos compiled by Elahi were distributed in vast quantities, the court heard, after girls and young adults were blackmailed into providing humiliating and degrading sexual material.
Around 550 females in Britain are believed to have been targeted by Elahi, with almost 2,000 identified altogether in the UK and US.
Mr Langdale said Elahi had switched online conversations to WhatsApp to cover his tracks, adding: 'Sixty-seven thousand indecent images of children have been recovered from numerous devices and cloud storage for Elahi. 'There is evidence that he carefully structured and logged all of his material.
'He sold that material on with a clear financial motive irrespective of the damage that he was causing by spreading this material.'
Among those targeted on so-called 'sugar daddy' websites were financially desperate victims, including mothers at risk of losing their homes or struggling to feed their children.
First asking for photos of women in high heels, he would then ask them for more sexually explicit images and began asking about their personal life and children.
He would then ask the young women if they had children and how old they were, as he had 'an interest in incest videos' and wanted to sell them online around the world.
He would then screenshot fake images of him transferring large amounts of money - such as sums of £158,000 - to persuade women to abuse their children on film.
After some of his victims refused to abuse their own children, he threatened to expose previous photos sent to Elahi to family and work colleagues.
Elahi boasted about his jet-set lifestyle and how he used private jets to fly to Los Angeles - in fact, he was living with his parents and working in McDonalds.
Mr Langdale added: 'He systematically targeted woman online, defrauding them and selling their imagery as boxsets. Many of the adult victims, were just over 18 and were blackmailed and Elahi would become sadistic in his demands. He distributed them in vast quantitates and they have been left scarred and damaged.
'Elahi was intent on targeting children, he could then film and distribute to other paedophiles.
'There are some 550 women in the UK, which have been traced by the NCA.
Of the women making the claims, 14 were underage when the nonconsensual videos were uploaded. Another 14 were victims of convicted sex criminals. Four of the women are British. They are not named in the document, and are instead called Jane Doe followed by a number.
One of the women, Jane Doe No.2, was a victim of prolific paedophile Adbul Elahi.
Her claims is as follows:
Jane Doe No. 2
Jane Doe No. 2 was blackmailed by now-convicted child sex offender Abdul Hasib Elahi, 26, into sending him sexually explicit photographs and videos when she was just 15 years old. The videos were then shared on sites including Pornhub.
Elahi is being sentenced this week after he admitted 157 offences at Birmingham Crown Court earlier this year.
One of the videos Elahi forced Jane Doe No. 2 to film was shared to Snapchat by a classmate. The video was screen recorded and put on Pornhub, with other videos and photos of her appearing on the site that same month.
This prompted Jane Doe No. 2 to contact the police. Pornhub removed the content - but it was swiftly re-uploaded, along with the then-17-year-old girl's home address and family's social media accounts.
Two years later, in December 2020, at least five separate links to videos of Jane Doe No. 2 were still active, the lawsuit stated.
It read: 'Individuals who viewed her videos reached out to her through social media, denigrating her, and accusing her of posting the content intentionally and requesting additional content.
'Two years later, she continues to receive regular messages and requests through social media.
'The illegal dissemination of CSAM and ongoing harassment has caused Jane Doe No. 2 to suffer severe anxiety, panic attacks, and body dysmorphia that led to significant weight loss, to a low of just 80 pounds.
'Jane Doe No. 2 suffered from suicidal thoughts and has attempted suicide on more than one occasion. Jane Doe No. 2's anxiety is so severe that she rarely leaves her home because she fears that someone will recognize her from one of the Pornhub videos or photographs. This anxiety caused her to quit her job and resort to online work that does not necessitate going out in public.'
'Around the world there are victims in Canada, Australia and a total 34 different countries. In total 67,000 indecent images of children have been recovered.
'He structured all of his material, before trading it in boxsets of abuse. He supplied that material on for financial motive. His level of supply was on a different level. The images were potentially left online indefinitely.
'He went on to undertake a careful laundering from the proceeds of the crime. He used fake online personas to encourage woman performing sex acts.
'Elahi started using sugar daddy websites, presenting himself with a fake name and would include fake photographs of watches and planes. He would describe himself as a stockbroker.
'At the time of his offending, he was 23-24, and lived in his family home and worked in McDonalds, he attended college and was a loner. He stayed at his family home in front of the internet. He went phishing for young and vulnerable victims. He boasted to his victims that he had Page 3 models working for him. He targeted single mothers so could access any children they had.
'But Elahi managed to become sloppy and he left a clear pattern of offending.' Some of Elahi's victims attempted suicide after he uploaded videos of them to porn websites, the court heard.
Prosecutor Andrew Langdale QC read out details to the court of the depraved acts Elahi made women carry out for him on camera. The court heard how his demands became more depraved, from licking their own faeces and drinking their own urine.
As well as this, he would make his victims lick toilet bowls and say they should 'flush their heads down the toilet.' When they refused, or got upset, he threatened to stop payment and to tell their parents or work colleagues about the videos.
His threats would also lead to him uploading videos to porn websites, leaving the heartbroken women having to explain the videos to their parents.
Some of the girls he coerced, threatened, blackmailed and exposed even tried to attempt suicide after Elahi 'ruined their lives.' One woman was contacted on Tinder in July 2018 and his requests began to include videos of her 'being tortured and in pain'.
When she refused, he released earlier explicit images she sent him on his own website and Tumblr. Another woman was offered £300 for several videos and photos.
Mr Langdale added: 'The demands rapidly increased to video of her spitting on herself.
'Elahi would request 'proper' videos and asked for social media accounts and passport.
'Applying pressure to licking the toilet seat. It dawned on her that she was not going to be paid. She cried.
'Elahi said her crying was a turn on. He was getting aggressive. Elahi told her he was going to put her images on websites. Images later appeared on Pornhub, this was reported.'
In a victim statement, she said: 'I have issues. I have constant anxiety. I always wonder if people have seen my images. I have trust issues. I have to tell them what happened to me.
'Elahi clearly put my images out there, since 2018 I have been contacted by strangers about my images. I have been prescribed anti-depressants and even contacted about a stranger on my birthday. I have told me dad what has happened to me - it has been distressing.'
Appearing alongside Elahi in the dock was Kirsty Nicholls, 35, who previously pleaded guilty to two charges of sexual assault of a child and one of making an indecent photo.
After Elahi's arrest in July 2018, officers from the NCA, the FBI, and Australian and New Zealand police found phone messages between the pair.
Elahi requested that Nicholls, of Northolt, Middlesex, abused a young boy, to which she was 'entirely compliant' and even made suggestions on how to carry out the abuse.
Mr Langdale said: 'He requests the usual method, high heeled boots, then more and more such as showing genitalia. Nicholls agrees to a further BDSM session.
One boy's father read a victim impact statement in court, and said: 'The pain and anguish is immeasurable, I have had to seek medical help. My son had thought he had done something wrong.
'He barricades the door, and didn't want anyone to take his photograph. My son has even written three suicide notes since the abuse and took a knife from the kitchen.'
Elahi admitted a host of charges at previous hearings after a lengthy investigation by the National Crime Agency.
Elahi is expected to be sentenced later this week.
He needs to be jailed for the rest of his life. Being completely devoid of conscience, he is not likely to improve in prison.
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