Sexual offenses spike to record high in England & Wales
Newly-released Office for National Statistics data shows England and Wales
reported nearly 171,000 sexual offenses in the past 12 months
Police across England and Wales reported a record high number of rapes and sexual offenses in the year to September, according to official data released on Thursday.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) saw a total of 170,973 sexual offenses reported, an increase of 12% from the last 12 month period, with officials seeing “noticeable increases [in crimes] since April 2021.”
Among the sexual offenses reported, 37%, or 63,136, were rapes, a spike of 13%, with the ONS warning the “overall trend” is “difficult to disentangle from the impact of lockdowns.”
“The winter 2020 to 2021 lockdowns saw a smaller reduction in the number of sexual offences recorded by the police but a greater level of increase in these offences in the subsequent quarters,” the ONS stated.
The figures released by the UK data agency reflect a “number of factors,” including the “impact of high-profile incidents, media coverage and campaigns on people’s willingness to report incidents,” the ONS said, as it urged people to cautiously interpret the data.
Remember, these are only those cases that are reported to police, hence the numbers should be considerably higher.
The ONS data was released on the same day it was reported that British police have released as many as 12,000 suspected sex offenders into the community without imposing bail conditions to protect their victims or the public.
The Home Office data to March 2021 shows an additional 55,207 people arrested for violent offenses in England and Wales were released under investigation.
The names and pictures of North East, UK paedophiles and perverts
jailed for their sick crimes
These men have all been convicted of sex offences involving children
in North East courts recently
nechronicle
These are the faces of paedophiles and perverts from the North East who have been jailed recently for their sick crimes.
The predators were exposed to the world recently after being convicted for their heinous crimes involving children.
These include Mark Duffield who had more than 5,500 indecent images in his possession and "deviant" paedophile Mark Paul Copeland who carried out sickening sexual assaults on two children.
And today, we reveal the faces of the men convicted recently for their despicable sex offences involving children.
Please go to Chronicle Live for the rest of this story.
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‘How can anyone admit these crimes and receive a sentence like that’ – Aimee Foley tells of sexual abuse by her father
The DPP is now appealing the five-year term handed down to Michael O’Donoghue
Eavan Murray, Independent
January 30 2022 05:01 PM
AIMEE FOLEY walked out of court 12 in the Criminal Courts of Justice and collapsed into her mother's arms. "Why did I bother," she cried out.
Her mother, Camille, held Aimee for as long as she could before they both fell on the cold marble floor.
Moments earlier, her father, Michael O'Donoghue (44) from Ennistymon, Co Clare was sentenced to five years for brutally raping and abusing his only daughter.
O'Donoghue, with an address of Colmanstown, Ballinasloe, Co Galway, pleaded guilty to 31 counts of sexually assaulting Aimee, one count of raping her and one count of producing child pornography.
Today Aimee (20) breaks her silence. She can't make peace with the fact that any man that brutalises a child could be jailed for five years.
The Director of Public Prosecutions recently informed Aimee they would appeal the leniency of the sentence handed down by Mr Justice David Keane on December 13.
The Central Criminal Court heard O'Donoghue plied his daughter with alcohol and drugs before assaulting her when she was on access visits to his home.
When Aimee was 12, he began having "highly sexualised" conversations with her. He told her he liked to watch "daddy/daughter porn".
Why were there no charges for plying the child with drugs and alcohol, and exposing her to child pornography?
The abuse grew increasingly brazen and depraved.
On one occasion at a family wedding, when Aimee was aged 13, she was told by other family members to escort her intoxicated father to his hotel bedroom.
O'Donoghue grabbed her in the hotel corridor and said if he wanted, he could "bend her over and rape her", the court heard.
He then pinned her to a wall and sexually assaulted her. This attack was witnessed by a member of his extended family who came to Aimee's aid.
Such was Aimee's terror following the assault; she climbed out of a window in the hotel room to escape him.
When confronted by members of his family, O'Donoghue said he mistook Aimee for his wife.
In December 2016, when Aimee was aged 15, she was alone with her father overnight.
He gave her alcohol with cannabis and showed her how to snort cocaine. He then brutally raped her. The court heard O'Donoghue recorded the abuse on his phone.
The burden placed on her young life by Michael O'Donoghue is almost more than anyone person could bear.
But there is something about Aimee. She's beautiful, warm, highly intelligent and funny. She carries the whole room with her when she speaks. Aimee deserves so much more than the hand she was dealt in life and by the justice system.
In his sentencing, Judge Keane said O'Donoghue, a painter and decorator, was guilty of a grotesque "betrayal of parental responsibilities".
Setting a headline sentence of 12 years, he reduced it to seven years, taking mitigating factors into account. He then suspended the final two years; given time served, O'Donoghue will be a free man in less than three years.
It was a good day in court for Michael O'Donoghue.
"I walked out of that courtroom and I burst into tears," says Aimee.
"We were on the fourth floor, court 12. I was looking down and it came into my mind to jump.
"I thought I might as well be dead because he is going to be out before you can blink. "I was gasping for breath. I just kept thinking, was that it? What do I do now? Everyone in the courthouse could hear me crying."
Her mother recalls desperately trying to hold Aimee upright. Tears slowly falling down her face, Camille says: "I held her until I couldn't hold her up anymore.
"She was almost screaming, saying, 'let them see what they are after doing to me’. It was one of the worst moments of my life.”
Throughout the whole criminal process, Aimee's family and the investigating gardaí had never seen her cry. "I am numb and I approach it in a matter-of-fact way. It's the only way I think I can survive it all," says Aimee.
"I feel like everyone I know views me differently now. It's almost like I'm not the same person they grew up with anymore. I want people to treat me the way they always did. I'm still me. But I have to speak out now because I have almost been given no choice.
"How can anyone admit these crimes and receive a sentence like that?"
The mitigating factors Justice Keane took into account when he spared O'Donoghue lengthier jail time included his "unusual" admissions to gardaí.
There is much more on this horrible story including Aimee's nightmarish experiences, at the Independent.
Cyprus court exonerates British woman from lying about gang rape
The Cyprus Supreme Court on Monday overturned the conviction of a British woman accused of lying about being gang-raped in the country.
The unnamed woman from Derbyshire, Britain, was given a suspended four-month jail sentence in 2020 after a Famagusta District Court judge found her guilty of public mischief.
She told police she was attacked by 12 Israeli tourists in a hotel room on July 17, 2019. The woman, who was 19 at the time, was charged after signing a retraction statement 10 days later.
The university student maintained that she was pressured by officials in Cyprus to withdraw her original statement.
"It is a great relief we hear that the authorities in Cyprus have recognized the flaws in their legal process," her family said in a statement, according to Sky News. "Whilst this decision doesn't excuse the way she was treated by the police or the judge or those in authority, it does bring with it the hope that my daughter's suffering will at least bring positive changes in the way that victims of crime are treated."
The woman was held on Cyprus for more than six months while awaiting her trial. She continued to insist that the rape allegation was genuine.
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