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Toronto couple enter guilty pleas in ‘prolific and disturbing'
child sex abuse case
Martin Wettlaufer, 39, and Kathleen Wardlaw, 43, have pleaded not guilty
to dozens of related charges
By Betsy Powell, Courts Reporter
Thu., Oct. 6, 2022, The Toronto Star
A Toronto man and woman pleaded guilty to a combined 18 criminal charges Thursday linked to the sexual and physical abuse of several victims, including children.
Martin Wettlaufer, 39, and Kathleen Wardlaw, 43 — a one-time couple — meanwhile entered not-guilty pleas to dozens of other related charges, including other alleged victims.
Another sick couple where the woman is older than the man. It seems to happen quite often.
After their initial arrest in 2020, police alleged the pair committed multiple sexual and physical assaults against men, women and children in the Danforth Avenue and Dawes Road area as well as near Danforth Road and Eglinton Avenue East.
Police in February described the case as “the most prolific and disturbing case of child sexual abuse and exploitation in our service’s history.”
On Thursday, Wettlaufer pleaded guilty to 16 offences, including for making child pornography, voyeurism, assault and sexual assault related to nine victims while Wardlaw, 43, pleaded guilty to assault and forcible confinement linked to a tenth victim.
The court clerk took almost 45 minutes to arraign the pair on 80 offences at Old City Hall, where their trial on the remaining counts is now underway.
Police in February said the case involved at least 41 alleged victims.
The two defendants were escorted separately into court handcuffed and wearing ankle shackles. Earlier Thursday, Wettlaufer had refused to leave jail and come to court and was warned by Justice Malcolm McLeod not to let that happen again. Neither defendant appeared to acknowledge the other in court; Wardlaw shook her head when Wettlaufer admitted to surreptitiously filming himself having sex with various women and teenage girls.
Mihael Cole and Nathan Kruger, of the downtown crown attorney’s child abuse and exploitation team, read two agreed statements of fact detailing the couple’s history and what they admit transpired after moving in together in 2015.
The identities of the victims are protected by a publication ban.
Police began their investigation in January 2020 after one of the victims, then 15, told police Wettlaufer had assaulted him beginning when he was 11 years old. The boy also told police the incidents may have been digitally recorded by surveillance equipment installed by Wettlaufer.
On Thursday, Wettlaufer pleaded not guilty to that alleged assault.
During their investigation, police recovered hidden camera footage from the bathroom at two residences, capturing numerous individuals, including children, in various states of undress using the shower and toilet, according to the statement of facts agreed to by Wettlaufer.
After Wettlaufer’s initial arrest, he was released on bail in February 2021 under conditions that prohibited him from possessing or operating any device capable of making a photograph, video or audio recording. After his release, women began reporting to police seeing footage of themselves posted online without their knowledge or consent.
Police broadened their investigation and discovered 62 devices in Wettlaufer’s home including cameras, memory cards, thumb drives and numerous cell phones.
The trial continues.
Why was he released on bail? Sex abusers and child sex abusers should never qualify for bail unless there is very serious doubt about their case. But then, that's Canada's criminal-friendly, victim-abusive, court system.
20 Children Rescued from Sexploitation in Manila last month
Asia Pacific
Praise God that 20 children were rescued in the month of September from online sexual exploitation by IJM Manila in partnership with local law enforcement.
Please pray for these children as they enter into a season of healing and restoration, but also change and difficulty. Pray that they will have the opportunity to process their trauma, find community, and thrive in their life of freedom.
We should also be praying against the evil spirits that will attempt to use the children's memories to create attitudes of fear, shame, and anger.
Woman, 34, dies after being raped by three men and set on fire in South Africa amid plague of brutal sexual violence
Imogen Braddick
Updated: 17:41, 10 Oct 2022
A WOMAN has died after being brutally raped by three men and set on fire in South Africa.
The 34-year-old was dragged to a park in Roodepan, Kimberley and attacked shortly after 8pm on Friday.
The woman was attacked in Roodepan, Kimberley shortly after 8pm on FridayCredit: Google
She was raped in Lethabo Park before being doused with paraffin and set alight, SABC News reports.
The woman was found by horrified neighbours in front of a shack and rushed to hospital with severe burns. She died in hospital on Sunday, police said.
Cops are still reportedly hunting for the three suspects.
Thabo Mothibi, spokesperson for the African National Congress in the Northern Cape, said: "As investigations by the police continue, information received points to a possible hate crime motive."
Women living in the area of the Northern Cape said they are living in fear after the attack amid a plague of brutal sexual violence.
One local told SABC News: "We don’t have much here but that something could happen to a woman like that, it’s very sad. It’s heartbreaking to think it could happen to my daughter."
Another said: "It’s heartbreaking to come out and see what happened but it was terrifying. It was emotionally and mentally disturbing to me."
8 models raped by 17 men
The horror attack comes just weeks after eight models were gang raped in South Africa while filming a music video after 17 men in balaclavas suddenly appeared on set firing shots in the air.
The group had been recording a gospel music video when they were set upon at an abandoned mine in Gauteng Province.
The victims tried running away but were stopped by a volley of shots fired into the air.
They were then forced to lay down as a group of men who were wearing balaclavas approached.
The gang took their mobile phones, jewellery, bags, cash and filming equipment before taking one model at a time to an undergrowth and raping them 10 times each.
The victims were raped 32 times in total before South African police arrived.
Cops entered into a gunfight which killed two miners and injured another, according to the Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit.
Following the shoot-out, 65 "illegal" miners were arrested.
Both gang-rape sites are withing 300 kms of Lesotho - the small country completely within South Africa. Lesotho has the worst incidence of rape in the world - the only country worse than Sweden.
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