..
Predatory paedophile 'revelled' in exploiting children online
during Skype live streams
A predatory paedophile 'revelled' in exploiting young girls online during live streams on Skype.
John Heaney, 41, had more than 100 sexualised chats with children for his own perverted pleasure.
Police traced two of his victims, who were aged 13 and 14, while Heaney also had vile conversations with two other users who told him they were girls aged 14 and 15.
Heaney's years' of sick behaviour was uncovered after he was snared by an undercover police officer posing as a child online.
During one chat, Heaney, from Hulme, asked his victim to tell him how old she was. "Say it... say I'm only 15 years old," he said.
"He clearly revelled in their ages," a judge said before jailing Heaney for eight years.
Heaney committed his crimes while he was in a 'toxic relationship' where he was the victim of 'controlling behaviour', his barrister said.
"He was in a very dark place, and he sought intimacy online in ways that plainly he shouldn't," Simon Gurney said. "He saw it as fantasy and was able to justify it in that way."
But Judge Darren Preston, describing Heaney as a 'persistent, predatory paedophile', said: "These crimes are not, as you seemed to think at the time, victimless. They are not equals, they are children.
"They ought to be protected from the likes of adults like you who will exploit them. It is highly likely some if not all of these girls will have great difficulty in forming normal future relationships."
Manchester Crown Court heard the crimes occurred over a five year period, from 2014 to 2019.
Mr Gurney said crimes were not committed continuously, but that Heaney offended after his partner moved out and he became 'depressed', before stopping when they reconciled and starting again when further problems developed.
Heaney would have live video calls and conversations on Skype, where he made perverted sexual requests for his own gratification.
He continued to exploit a vulnerable 13-year-old girl, even after she'd told her she was 'lonely' and had become distanced from her friends.
Heaney's perverted online world came crashing down after he unwittingly began speaking online with who he believed to be a 12-year-old girl. It was actually an undercover officer targeting paedophiles online.
Heaney asked for a 'couple of photos', and after being told 'she' was in a lesson, he said: "Sneak one in before lesson! I’d love that."
After the officer sent Heaney a picture of what appeared to be a girl in a school uniform, he replied saying 'you do not look 12' and 'dangerous'.
Heaney asked for more pictures of the 'girl', and the officer replied challenging him about a 'lack of his own pictures'.
"I really shouldn’t be sending photos to a 12 year old!", he replied.
He was arrested in February last year and denied having any sexual interest in children, a claim which the judge described as being 'preposterous'.
It wouldn't surprise me that much if he was right. There's a good chance his interest was moral rather than sexual. Talking an innocent child into doing that which is not innocent might be the main attraction for him. Nevertheless, he deserves more than 8 years in prison.
Fake gynecologist tricked women into online vaginal examinations
18 Dec, 2021 13:55
Italian investigators are dealing with a case of sexual abuse in which a man posed as a gynecologist to get a close look at the genitals of dozens of women. The suspect arranged examinations online.
The man contacted the women, telling them he was aware of the results of their intimate medical tests. Having obtained the victims’ personal data from websites, the 40-year-old suspect told the women they had been diagnosed with severe vaginal infections, requiring further check-ups, Italian prosecutors believe.
With the knowledge of such personal data as his victims’ names, dates of birth, phone numbers, and medical histories, the fake gynecologist tricked patients into online consultations. He requested video calls through platforms including Zoom, asking victims to show him their private parts to confirm the diagnosis, local media reported this week.
Over 400 women across Italy have been targeted.
While some deceived women underwent online examinations by the fake doctor, others got suspicious and filed complaints with local police. One of the women, apparently targeted by the man in question, shared her experience in a post on social media, which resulted in commenters describing similar experiences, according to media reports.
This week, the prosecutor’s office instructed police to search the suspect’s house. Smartphones and memory cards were seized, Italian media reported, adding that the investigation into the case classified as sexual violence is ongoing. Reports added that the story “has similarities” to a case of the “Bari gynecologist,” who has been under house arrest since late November, accused of sexual violence against at least two patients.
Revenge porn up over 300% in London
The number of revenge porn incidents in London reported to the Metropolitan Police
has increased sharply since December 2020, figures released by law enforcement show.
The total number of revenge porn complaints in London “had risen by 698 between October 1, 2020 and October 31, 2021,” the Daily Mail reported, citing information obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request. The surge constitutes a “329% increase over a 13-month period,” the tabloid said.
Women remain disproportionately more targeted in alleged revenge porn cases, with “a total of 572 cases when compared to the 177 reports last year.” The number of cases in which the alleged victim is between 10 and 17 has quadrupled compared to last year, The Mail said.
Experts helping victims of revenge porn told the newspaper that the pressures of the Covid-19 pandemic may have been a major factor driving this kind of crime up. There is no sign of it going down anytime soon, they said.
Revenge porn – publication of intimate pictures of a victim without their consent with intent to cause distress – was outlawed in England and Wales as a specific crime in 2015 and is punishable by up to two years in prison. This year, threats to share revenge porn were criminalized too under the Domestic Abuse Act.
14 perverts caught with child abuse images as 1,938 crimes
recorded in five years in Staffordshire
Cases include a vigilante paedophile hunter who downloaded 1,700 child abuse images
and a Royal Stoke doctor who viewed images of children being sexually abused
stokesentinel
Nearly 2,000 child abuse image crimes have been recorded in Staffordshire over the last five years, according to figures released by the NSPCC.
On average, there were 388 recorded offences in the county each year, meaning there was more than one every day.
Those, of course, are only the ones that were caught.
The population of Staffordshire is under 900,000.
We take another look at some of the individuals who were brought before the court on charges relating to child abuse images.
Here are fourteen people who faced charges relating to the disgusting crime over that period.
Please go to Stoke on Trent Live for the rest of this story.
Budget further delays Tusla and Gardaí electronically sharing
child sex abuse disclosures
The establishment of a joint computerised notification system between Tusla and An Garda Síochána (AGS) was a key recommendation of the Garda Inspectorate’s ‘Responding to Child Sexual Abuse’ Review, published in December 2017.
MON, 27 DEC, 2021 - 17:48
CORMAC O’KEEFFE, SECURITY CORRESPONDENT
The electronic sharing of child sexual abuse disclosures between social services and gardaí has been delayed again – five years after it was initially recommended by the Garda Inspectorate.
The current system between Tusla and An Garda Síochána is still paper-based with concerns over delays, legibility of forms, lack of detail, communication problems and cases falling through the cracks.
The latest assessment said that it will “take some time and resources” to implement the technical solution because of the limited budget provided to the Gardaí and other technological priorities in the organisation. The continuing delay has sparked the concern of both the Policing Authority and the ISPCC.
One wonders what technical priorities are more important than saving children from child sexual abuse? It seems like Tusla is determined to stay in the 20th century when dealing with child sexual abuse.
The establishment of a joint computerised notification system between Tusla and An Garda Síochána (AGS) was a key recommendation of the Garda Inspectorate’s ‘Responding to Child Sexual Abuse’ Review, published in December 2017.
The Inspectorate expressed serious concern at the continuing reliance on posted letters, and problems with follow-on phone calls, between social workers and gardaí.
The 2017 review was an update on the Inspectorate’s initial inspection report of 2012. A Government implementation group set up in February 2018 published its first report in January 2019.
But no progress reports have been published since, although draft second and third reports have been discussed with the Authority. The Inspectorate has examined implementation of its 2012 report, but, in 2018, the then justice minister asked the Authority to monitor implementation of the 2017 review.
The 2017 review recommended that gardaí in conjunction with Tusla develop a new “joint approach for assessing and managing child protection/welfare notifications”. To achieve this, it urged the development of a “joint single electronic notification and tracking system”.
In a statement to the Irish Examiner, the Authority said the matter was discussed at an internal committee meeting: “While a notification system is currently in place, it is manual. The Committee were informed that the necessary IT system that will support electronic notifications between Tusla and the Garda Siochana will take some time and resources to implement, but that at present there was no clear timeline for implementation given the resource constraints and wider project prioritisation in respect of Garda ICT.”
ISPCC Senior Policy and Public Affairs Manager Fiona Jennings said: “This recommended new system was to bring better structure that would ultimately allow for timely and speedy action where joint decisions have to be made for the protection of a child.
“At a time where the use of electronic technology is commonplace in so many facets of life, it is concerning to hear that this recommendation which has been accepted is not as progressed as it could possibly be and there doesn’t seem to be any plans to address it in 2022 either.”
Ms Jennings said children “need both arms of the state working together effectively and efficiently”. Garda HQ said the objective of the agreed IT system was to have a “robust system which ensured all notifications were immediately visible to both agencies”.
It said the Authority has been informed it “will not be implemented for some time”. One major reason, it said, was Covid-19, with the bulk of the Garda IT system geared towards responding to that. This has meant there was “no capacity” to take on another sizeable IT project.
In addition, there was the impact of the HSE cyberattack on Tusla IT systems. Thirdly, Tusla was now concentrating on rolling out a new IT structure (NCCIS).
A statement from Tusla said it has met the Authority and was happy to contribute “to the overall reform of policing” as it applies to it.
It added: “Tusla and AGS continue to share all notifications in respect of suspected child abuse as per Children First legislation and both agencies continue to work in line with the existing Joint Working Protocol.”
No comments:
Post a Comment