Detainees Held Without Charges Decry Emiratis’ Sexual Abuses in Yemen

CAUTION: Graphic, disturbing descriptions follow

No ages are given in this piece but we can probably assume that some men in their late teens and early 20s are included.

CAIRO (AP) — The 15 officers who arrived at the prison in southern Yemen hid their faces behind headdresses, but their accents were clearly foreign — from the United Arab Emirates. They lined up the detainees and ordered them to undress and lie down. The officers then searched the anal cavity of each prisoner, claiming that they were looking for contraband cellphones.

The men screamed and wept. Those who resisted were threatened by barking dogs and beaten until they bled.

Hundreds of detainees suffered similar sexual abuse during the event on March 10 at Beir Ahmed prison in the southern city of Aden, according to seven witnesses interviewed by The Associated Press. Descriptions of the mass abuse offer a window into a world of rampant sexual torture and impunity in UAE-controlled prisons in Yemen.

A drawing of prisoners being transported in a pickup truck to an Emirati-run prison in Yemen. The Arabic reads: “This is how they transport the prisoners from and to the coalition. Blindfolded and handcuffed in the back of a Land Cruiser pickup in large numbers as if they are animals and under gunpoint.”

The UAE is a key U.S. ally whose secret prisons and widespread torture were exposed by an AP investigation last June. The AP has since identified at least five prisons where security forces use sexual torture to brutalize and break inmates.

Yemen’s war began in 2015, after Iranian-backed Houthi rebels took over much of the country’s north. Saudi Arabia and the UAE are leading a coalition to fight the rebels, but UAE forces have overtaken wide swaths of territory, towns and cities in the south. The U.S. is backing the coalition with billions of dollars in arms, and partners with the Emiratis in anti-terrorism campaigns.

Emiratis have swept up hundreds of Yemeni men into a network of at least 18 hidden prisons on suspicion of being al-Qaida or Islamic State militants. The prisoners are held without charges or trials.

The AP first asked the Pentagon about grave rights abuses committed by the UAE one year ago. But despite well-documented reports of torture reported by the AP, human rights groups and even the United Nations, Marine Maj. Adrian Rankine-Galloway, a Pentagon spokesman, said that the U.S. has seen no evidence of detainee abuse in Yemen.

“We have received no credible allegations that would substantiate the allegations put forth in your line of question/story.”

U.S. officials have acknowledged that American forces receive intelligence from UAE partners and have participated in interrogations in Yemen. But Rankine-Galloway said he could not comment on intelligence sharing with partners.

A drawing of a prisoner being abused at a prison in Yemen run by the United Arab Emirates. Arabic from right to left reads: “Anti-terrorism,” “Innocent citizen,” and “Real terrorism behind their back, they don’t look at.”

UAE officials did not respond to requests for comment.

A drawing of a prisoner being tortured at an Emirati-run prison in Yemen. The Arabic reads: “with water after beating.”

Witnesses said Yemeni guards working under the direction of Emirati officers have used various methods of sexual torture and humiliation. They raped detainees while other guards filmed the assaults. They electrocuted prisoners’ genitals or hung rocks from their testicles. They sexually violated others with wooden and steel poles.

“They strip you naked, then tie your hands to a steel pole from the right and the left so you are spread open in front of them. Then the sodomizing starts,” said one father of four.

From inside the prison in Aden, detainees smuggled letters and drawings to the AP about the sexual abuse. The drawings were made on plastic plates with blue ink pen.

The artist told the AP that he was detained last year and has been in three different prisons. “They tortured me without even accusing me of anything. Sometimes I wish they would give me a charge so I can confess and end this pain,” he said. “The worst thing about it is that I wish for death every day and I can’t find it.”

He spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of further abuse.

The drawings show a man hanging naked from chains while he is being electrocuted, another inmate on the floor surrounded by snarling dogs as several people kick him, and graphic depictions of anal rape.

“Naked after beating,” one Arabic caption says. Another drawing shows a man’s rectum being forced open.

“This is how they search the prisoners,” the caption reads.

Of the five prisons where the AP found sexual torture, four are in Aden, according to three Yemeni security and military officials who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

One is at the Buriqa base — the headquarters for the Emirati forces. A second is at the house of Shallal Shaye, the Aden security chief closely allied with the UAE, and a third is at a nightclub-turned-prison called Wadah. The fourth is at Beir Ahmed, where the March atrocities occurred.

U.S. personnel have been seen at the Buriqa base, along with Colombian mercenaries, according to two prisoners and two security officials. The detainees could not say whether the Americans, some of whom wear military uniforms, are members of the U.S. government or mercenaries.

But it is the UAE that has taken the lead in southern Yemen.

The humiliation of the entire prison population in March may have been triggered by a series of hunger strikes among prisoners, who are held for months or years. At least 70 detainees were ordered released earlier this year by state prosecutors but most remain in detention. The Yemeni government has said that it has no control over the UAE-run prisons and Hadi has ordered an investigation into reports of torture.

The incident in March began when soldiers opened cells at 8 a.m., ordered all detainees out to the prison yard, then lined them up and forced them to stand under the sun until noon. When the Emirati force arrived, the detainees were blind-folded, handcuffed and led in groups or individually into a room. The Emiratis told the victims to undress and lie down — and then spread their legs open, touched their genitals and probed their rectums.

“You are killing my dignity,” one prisoner was heard crying. A second screamed to the Emiratis, “Did you come to liberate us or strip our clothes off?”

The Emiratis shouted back: “This is our job!”

One prisoner said that when the Emiratis forced them to stand naked, “All I could think of was Abu Ghraib” — referring to the prison outside Baghdad where U.S. soldiers committed abuses against detainees during the Iraq war.

“They were searching for mobile phones inside our bodies,” another witness told the AP. “Do you believe this! How could anyone hide a phone in there?”

In the same city, at the UAE-run prison inside the Buriqa military base, two prisoners told the AP they think American personnel in uniform must be aware of the torture - either because they have heard screams or seen marks of torture. Prisoners said that they have no knowledge of Americans being directly involved in the abuse.

“Americans use Emiratis as gloves to do their dirty work,” said one senior security official at the Riyan Prison in the city of Mukalla. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of security concerns.

Two other security officials, who were once close to the Emiratis, said that mercenaries including Americans are present at all the Emirati military camps and sites, including the prisons. Their mission is mainly to guard.

The father of four said that sometimes the screaming from the beatings is so intense that he can feel his cell shake.

“It’s beyond imagination,” he said.

A former security chief who himself was involved in torturing detainees to extract confessions told the AP that rape is used as a way to force detainees to cooperate with the Emiratis in spying.

“In some cases, they rape the detainee, film him while raping, use it as a way to force him to work for them,” he said. He spoke on condition of anonymity, because of security concerns.

Based on the AP investigation last year, the House of Representatives voted on May 24 to require Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to determine whether U.S. military or intelligence personnel violated the law in interrogations of detainees in Yemen.

The House adopted the measure as part of the 2019 defense authorization bill, which is still under consideration by the Senate. The amendment was sponsored by Rep. Ro Khanna, a Democrat from California. The Defense Department would have to submit a report within 120 days to Congress.

Khanna called the AP’s report Wednesday “a shocking revelation of the ongoing human rights abuses happening in Yemen.”

“Now, with greater urgency than ever before, we need the Pentagon to launch an investigation and determine whether our nation has been involved in torturing prisoners in Yemen,” he said.

The war has left over 10,000 people dead, displaced millions, and pushed the already poor country to the edge of famine.

After Houthi rebels forced out the government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, he fled to Riyadh, where the Saudi government kept him for more than a year. He was only allowed to return to Yemen Thursday at the beginning of an offensive led by the UAE to take control of the major port city of Hodeida, the key entry point for humanitarian aid.

The UAE’s control over southern Yemen, and the prisons, has left many Yemenis worried that innocent civilians are being pushed into the arms of the very extremists that Emirati forces claim they are fighting.

“In the prisons, they are committing the most brutal crimes,” said a Yemeni commander currently in Riyadh. “Joining ISIS and al-Qaida became a way to take revenge for all the sexual abuses and sodomization. From here, the prisons, they are manufacturing ISIS.”

He spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid retaliation from the Emiratis.

One middle-aged man said he has been in prison since 2016, and has been moved across the network of secret prisons multiple times. He said he was interrogated 21 times, during which he was tortured with electricity, beatings, and attack dogs while he was blindfolded and chained.

“They beat me up with electric wires, with steel, an electric shock, or they take off the clothes except for the underwear and stomp on my body and face with their boots. The soldiers would carry you up in the air and dump you on the ground.”

The AP previously confirmed 18 detention sites, but he named 21, including 13 prisons and 8 military camps.

Another prisoner gave the AP what he said were the real names of five Emirati torturers. UAE officials did not respond to requests for comment about the men.

One of the most brutal torturers is Yemeni, a former prisoner called Awad al-Wahsh, who was detained and tortured before agreeing to work with the Emiratis, four witnesses told the AP. His supervisor, Yosran al-Maqtari, could not be reached for comment. Al-Maqtari is Aden’s chief of anti-terrorism.

Other torturers named by detainees are Emirati officers known to prisoners by their noms de guerre: Abu Udai, Abu Ismail, and Hitler.

The prisoners who were sexually abused in March had tried to fight back. They had organized three hunger strikes to protest their treatment. They had launched a campaign with their families to get human rights groups to secure their release.

That’s when the 15 Emirati officers showed up with their dogs.

___

The Associated Press reported this story with help from a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

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Associated Press reporters Lolita C. Baldor and Desmond Butler in Washington contributed to this report.

Pedophile Imprisoned Girl in ‘Hidey-Hole’ Behind Fridge Guarded by Alsatians

© Fred Prouser / Reuters

A sex offender described as “paranoid and short-tempered,” who used a hidey-hole guarded by dogs in his kitchen to conceal a girl he was abusing, has been found guilty of sex crimes spanning decades.

Michael Dunn, 57, reportedly created a cavity in a wall behind his fridge and camouflaged it with a false wall, giving himself a hidden space to carry out violent abuse against four “powerless” victims.

One imprisoned runaway girl, who was concealed from police on eight or nine occasions, later killed herself after reporting Dunn’s crimes to the authorities.

The abuser used Alsatian dogs to guard the secret sex dungeon and wired his home with CCTV cameras, alarms, and sensors in case the police came looking for his captives.

Dunn was described in Teesside Crown Court as a “paranoid and short-tempered tormentor who used violence when his sexual demands were not met,” according to the Daily Mail.

On Wednesday, he was convicted of 10 rapes, three charges of false imprisonment, and three charges of indecent assault, while being cleared of one charge of rape, one of making a threat to kill, and one of grievous bodily harm.

Prosecutor Richard Bennett said Dunn was a “violent, controlling and sexually abusive man.”

One of his victims was reportedly an underage girl who had already been raped and beaten by another man.

Bennett told the court that Dunn appeared protective and caring at first, but then started making sexual advances.

Although the girl allegedly resisted, he persisted and sexually assaulted her. The prosecutor said Dunn groomed, molested, and raped her when she was a vulnerable child.

The girl, who was imprisoned at his home in Redcar, north Yorkshire, was reportedly punched in the face, chest and stomach and had her throat grabbed by Dunn.

Jurors were told that she was left a ‘bloodied mess’ after he punished her for trying to escape and how the abuse drove her to kill herself.

Dunn’s violent crimes came to the attention of the police when his victim went to the authorities as an adult and made a complaint in 2014.

A second female victim was also beaten and left with black eyes, the prosecution said. She fearfully submitted to sex with him after he threatened to attack her.

Dunn reportedly groomed a third underage girl by giving her alcohol and cigarettes before sexually assaulting her decades ago.

She made a complaint against him, which he denied, and he was not prosecuted at the time, as the allegation went no further.

His fourth victim was reportedly another pre-teen girl, who he raped and told afterwards, “it’s what boyfriends and girlfriends do.”

She challenged Dunn when she encountered him years later. He is said to have replied, “I’ll have you done for slander."

Judge Tony Briggs remanded Dunn to custody until sentencing at a later date.

Detective Sergeant Dave Pettrick, Cleveland Police, said: “This was an extremely complex and difficult inquiry which spanned many years and several locations in the UK. I would first of all like to pay tribute to the victims for their bravery and for supporting our which enabled us to bring Dunn before the courts.

“Essentially Dunn groomed several women and young girls, in some cases making them completely dependent on him, and carrying out sexual offences against all of them.

“Some of the victims were kept in line through Dunn’s extreme violence or even through the fear of violence and he had complete and absolute control over their lives. He ensured he and his victims evaded the authorities while he continued to abuse and control the women.”

“Needless to say, all four women are deeply affected by their terrible ordeal. I hope today’s verdict will bring some comfort to them as they attempt to move on with their lives,” he added.

It's unfortunate that it took decades for the women to come forward and hold Dunn accountable; one wonders if there were many more victims in the meantime. But child sex abuse when combined with other physical violence and threats dramatically increases the trauma level and consequently the length of time before the victims can emotionally cope with the horror of it all. 

I pray God would bring healing to these women.

Redcar, UK

Sheriff: 1-Year-Old Girl Severely Injured in Sexual Assault

By Jacob Beltran, San Antonio Express
 

Sheriff Javier Salazar speaks to the press at the Bexar County Sheriff Office on January 3, 2017 in San Antonio, Texas about a case involving the sexual abuse and stabbing of a child. Photo: Carolyn Van Houten / Carolyn Van Houten / 2017 San Antonio Express-News

As soon as investigators and medical personnel examined the severe injures of a 1-year-old girl who was reportedly attacked by dogs, they immediately knew her injures didn’t match the story provided by her relative to authorities, said Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar.

The toddler, he said, suffered life-threatening injuries consistent with a brutal sexual assault. Police arrested two people in connection with the alleged incident, including the child’s relative, Crystal Herrera, and her boyfriend Isaac Andrew Cardenas. Cardenas, 23, was being held on a charge of super aggravated sexual assault. Bail was set at $300,000.

Herrera, 22, was determined to have been providing false information to keep detectives from finding out what occurred. She was booked in the Bexar County Jail on a charge of injury to a child by omission.

Sheriff Javier Salazar holds images of suspects Isaac Cardenas and Crystal Herrera during a press conference about a case involving the sexual abuse and stabbing of a child at the Bexar County Sheriff's Office on January 3, 2017 in San Antonio, Texas.

“I can’t even begin to describe to you the level of depravity that went into this crime,” Salazar said. “It’s a horrendous case.”

Police said Herrera called 911 at 9 a.m. on Dec. 31 saying that the girl had wandered out of their home in the middle of the night and was attacked by dogs at their South Bexar County home.

But as detectives spoke to her and her boyfriend, they noticed their stories didn’t add up, Salazar said. Later, Animal Care Services officers told police that the dogs they were sent to pick up showed no aggression.

Medical personnel examining the child’s injuries quickly determined that she had suffered life-threatening stab wounds. Authorities said the girl’s stab wounds, located on her upper body and private parts, were “non-accidental.”

“I’ve got seasoned detectives and emergency room personnel that have all agreed that this is one of the worst cases they’ve seen,” Salazar said during his first news conference since being sworn in as sheriff.

“This is one of those cases, I’ll be honest with you, it’s something that I haven’t even seen the pictures, I don’t want to see the pictures,” Salazar said. “It’s been described to me and just imagining it is enough to chill any of us.”

The child was transported to University Hospital where she was in stable condition Tuesday.

“You can't even imagine what would possess somebody to do something like this to anyone, much less an innocent child that’s totally defenseless,” Salazar said.

Salazar said detectives are looking into any history of abuse of the girl, who was to be taken into CPS custody.

“A child this small to suffer these types of injuries …she’s going to carry this with her for the rest of her life, physically, emotionally, and also as a family” he said. “It’s a heartbreaking case.”

With a loving family and support from child-care experts, she has a chance to lead a fairly normal life. But while I have no empirical proof, I believe that sexual abuse combined with physical and/or emotional abuse is exponentially worse than sexual abuse alone, and sexual abuse is devastating enough. The victim will still have some serious emotional trauma ahead when she learns what she has just endured. Please pray for this child, she has a long and difficult road ahead.

Military Dogs Used in Making Child Pornography

Lori Handrahan

This is a really difficult issue in an already horrific field. The evil of child sex abuse knows no bounds. Only true evil could possibly conceive some of the sickening, perverted methods of destroying the innocence of a child.

This is a small excerpt of an article posted by Lori Handrahan, a comrade in arms from Maine, USA. Lori knows much about child sex abuse and child pornography all to intimately. 

You can link to the full article by Lori, which contains a number of links supporting the text. 


Military Dogs & Child Rape?

Q: Are military dogs, trained to rape prisoners in Afghanistan and Iraq, now returning home and being used to rape children in child porn production in America?

Flint Waters, ICAC Taskforce Wyoming

In October of 2007, Flint Waters, an investigator with the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Taskforce in Wyoming, testified before Congress.

He described dogs raping children in his testimony.

Flint Waters. ICAC Taskforce Wyoming October 2007 Congressional Testimony
Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan

In December 2014, Emran Feroz published an article, “Were NATO Dogs Used to Rape Afghan Prisoners at Bagram Air Base?”

Feral Children - A Gut-wrenching Pictorial Essay

While these incredible stories don't deal directly with child sex abuse, they do deal with child abuse and the incredible lack of concern some parents and other people have for the welfare of children. These are true stories! The photos were carefully reconstructed from information Ms Fullerton-Batten was able to extract from the individuals involved or others who knew their stories.

Oxana Malaya, Ukraine, 1991

Beautiful and disturbing at the same time, the images in Julia Fullerton-Batten’s latest project have a dreamlike, fairy-tale quality. Yet the lives they portray are real. “There are two different scenarios – one where the child ended up in the forest, and another where the child was actually at home, so neglected and abused that they found more comfort from animals than humans,” the photographer tells BBC Culture. This image recreates the case of Ukrainian girl Oxana Malaya. According to Fullerton-Batten, “Oxana was found living with dogs in a kennel in 1991. She was eight years old and had lived with the dogs for six years. Her parents were alcoholics and one night, they had left her outside. Looking for warmth, the three-year-old crawled into the farm kennel and curled up with the mongrel dogs, an act that probably saved her life. She ran on all fours, panted with her tongue out, bared her teeth and barked. Because of her lack of human interaction, she only knew the words ‘yes’ and ‘no’.” Oxana now lives in a clinic in Odessa, working with the hospital’s farm animals. 

(All photos credit: Julia Fullerton-Batten)

John Ssebunya, Uganda, 1991

The photographer was advised by Mary-Ann Ochota, a British anthropologist and presenter of the TV series Feral Children. “She had been to Ukraine, Uganda and Fiji and met three of the surviving children,” says Fullerton-Batten. “It was helpful in directing me in how they position their hands, how they walk, how they survived – I wanted to make this look as real and as believable as possible.” This image deals with the case of John Ssebunya. “John ran away from home in 1988 when he was three years old after seeing his father murder his mother,” says Fullerton-Batten. “He fled into the jungle where he lived with monkeys. He was captured in 1991, now about six years old, and placed in an orphanage… He had calluses on his knees from walking like a monkey.” John has learned to speak, and was a member of the Pearl of Africa children’s choir. While many of the stories of feral children are as much myth as reality, Ochota believes Ssebunya’s account. “This wasn’t part of the standard feral-child hoax yarn,” she wrote in The Independent in 2012. “We were investigating a real case.”

Ivan Mishukov, Russia, 1998

Despite the harrowing accounts in her series, Fullerton-Batten’s images tell a story of survival. “All human beings need human contact, but for these children their whole life becomes focused on a survival instinct,” she says, asking “if those living in the companionship of wild animals were perhaps better off than those whose young lives were spent with no companionship at all.” Ivan ran away from his family at the age of four, feeding scraps of food to a pack of wild dogs and eventually becoming a kind of pack leader. He lived on the streets for two years, before he was taken to a children’s home. In his book Savage Girls And Wild Boys: A History Of Feral Children, Michael Newton wrote that “The relationship worked perfectly, far better than anything Ivan had known among his fellow humans. He begged for food, and shared it with his pack. In return, he slept with them in the long winter nights of deep darkness, when the temperatures plummeted.” Fullerton-Batten believes the ‘feral child’ can reveal much that is hidden within seemingly civilised societies – a city can be as inhospitable as a forest. “Ivan ran away so it was a choice he made, not to be at home – but his home must have been so bad that he would rather be on the streets with a pack of dogs,” she says. “I was trying not to be exploitative. Three of the cases inspired charities – I wanted to raise awareness about what is still going on.”

 Marina Chapman, Colombia, 1959

The photographer was inspired to start her project after reading The Girl With No Name, a book about the Colombian woman Marina Chapman. “Marina was kidnapped in 1954 at five years of age from a remote South American village and left by her kidnappers in the jungle,” says Fullerton-Batten. “She lived with a family of capuchin monkeys for five years before she was discovered by hunters. She ate berries, roots and bananas dropped by the monkeys; slept in holes in trees and walked on all fours, like the monkeys. It was not as though the monkeys were giving her food – she had to learn to survive, she had the ability and common sense – she copied their behaviour and they became used to her, pulling lice out of her hair and treating her like a monkey.” Chapman now lives in Yorkshire, with a husband and two daughters. “Because it was such an unusual story, a lot of people didn’t believe her – they X-rayed her body and looked at her bones to see if she was really malnourished, and concluded that it could have happened.” Fullerton-Batten contacted her: “She was very happy for me to use her name and do this shoot.”
See the rest of Marina's story here

 Madina, Russia, 2013

“These strange, feral children are often a source of shame and secrecy within a family or community,” writes Mary-Ann Ochota on her website. “These aren't Jungle Book stories, they're often harrowing cases of neglect and abuse. And it's all too likely because of a tragic combination of addiction, domestic violence and poverty. These are kids who fell through the cracks, who were forgotten, or ignored, or hidden.” According to Fullerton-Batten, “Madina lived with dogs from birth until she was three years old, sharing their food, playing with them, and sleeping with them when it was cold in winter. When social workers found her in 2013, she was naked, walking on all fours and growling like a dog. Madina’s father had left soon after her birth. Her mother, 23 years old, took to alcohol. She was frequently too drunk to look after for her child and… would sit at the table to eat while her daughter gnawed bones on the floor with the dogs.” Madina was taken into care and doctors found her to be mentally and physically healthy despite what she had been through. 

Shamdeo, India, 1972

“This is not like Tarzan,” says Fullerton-Batten. “The children had to fight the animals for their own food – they had to learn to survive. When I read their stories, I was shocked and horrified.” There are 15 cases in her Feral Children project, staged photographs telling the stories of people isolated from human contact, often from a very young age. This one shows Shamdeo, a boy who was found in a forest in India in 1972 – he was estimated to be four years old. “He was playing with wolf cubs. His skin was very dark, and he had sharpened teeth, long hooked fingernails, matted hair and calluses on his palms, elbows and knees. He was fond of chicken-hunting, would eat earth and had a craving for blood. He bonded with dogs.” He never spoke, but learnt some sign language, and died in 1985. 

Sujit Kumar, Fiji, 1978

“Sujit was eight years old when he was found in the middle of a road clucking and flapping his arms and behaving like a chicken,” says Fullerton-Batten. “He pecked at his food, crouched on a chair as if roosting, and would make rapid clicking noises with his tongue. His parents locked him in a chicken coop. His mother committed suicide and his father was murdered. His grandfather took responsibility for him but still kept him confined in the chicken coop.” For the children, the transition after being found could be as difficult as the years spent in isolation. “When they were discovered, it was such a shock – they had learnt animal behaviour, their fingers were claw-like and they couldn’t even hold a spoon. Suddenly all these humans were trying to get them to sit properly and talk.” Kumar is now cared for by Elizabeth Clayton, who rescued him from an old people’s home and set up a charity housing children in need.

Pennsylvania Man Pleads Guilty to Bestiality and Repeated Rape of 9 Month Old Girl

This is just sick...
A western Pennsylvania man has been jailed on charges he repeatedly had sex with a 9-month-old girl.

Thirty-eight-year-old Rodney Lee Thomas, of Elk Lick Township, remains in the Somerset County Jail unable to post $100,000 bond on charges including rape and aggravated indecent assault against the child.

Police say Thomas also had sexual encounters with a dog that led to the animal's death. He faces three counts of sexual intercourse with an animal.

He pleaded guilty to two counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, a first-degree felony, during jury selection in Somerset County court.

State police began investigating Tuesday after county child welfare workers contacted them. Thomas was arrested and arraigned Wednesday.

Police say Thomas told them he had been involved in similar sexual activity since he was a teenager.

Online court records don't list an attorney for Thomas

“Man Brutally Tortures and Murders 10-year-old Daughter”

Man admits to torturing and killing daughter for allegedly having sex,

or, allegedly for having sex

Doing a few of these stories everyday, I work very hard to not let them get to me, otherwise I would not be able to continue. I must have let my guard down today because this one hit me very hard.

By: Saeed Al Batati, Correspondent, December 30, 2014, Gulf News

One would have to be completely insane to think that doing this to
their daughter would restore honor. Completely insane!

Sana’a: A Yemeni father callously tortured and killed his daughter, 10, for allegedly committing adultery in the northern Dhamar province, a local official who questioned the man told Gulf News on Tuesday.

On the weekend, Yemenis on social media widely circulated a photo of a tortured girl who was found dead by shepherds in a rugged area in the northern province of Ibb.

Within hours, police found out that the girl was killed by her father.

Colonel Mohammad Qassem Al Hadi, the director of Dhamar’s Criminal Investigation Department, said that the man admitted that he brutally tortured and shot her four times with his rifle.

“We found a video clip in his mobile phone asking his daughter to confess to her mistake. The girl was bleeding and crying,” he said.

The official told Gulf News that the father used different methods of torture to force her into admitting having sex with another man, including putting an iron to her skin.

The phrase "having sex with another man" is curious. If it's the father's phraseology, then it sounds like he was sexually abusing the girl. Being divorced, it's not all that unusual, unfortunately. 

That would make it less of an 'honor killing' and more of a murder of jealousy. The insanity of jealousy would fit the brutality of the crime better than 'forcing her to confess'. Yemenis should be demanding the police investigate whether or not the man was molesting the daughter.

During the investigation, the man admitted that he threw his daughter off a cliff in the Samara Mountains in Ibb province after severely beating her.

“The father divorced his wife six years ago. He has two daughters and usually spends time moving from one country to another,” Al Hadi said.

The graphic photo of the dead girl sparked outrage on social media and local media outlets with some people demanding the execution of the father.

“If I were a judge, I would have sentenced him to death in the first session.” said Ali Al Bukhiti, an Al Houthi spokesman wrote on Tuesday on his Facebook page.

“This man must be cut into pieces and thrown to dogs,” said Mohammad Said, a Yemeni man on social media.

Trauma Dog Helps Calgary Girl Testify at Sex Assault Trial Against Father

A trauma dog helped an alleged sexual assault victim as the young girl testified in a criminal trial in a Calgary, Alberta, Canada courtroom Tuesday.

The seven-year-old’s father is charged with sexual assault with a weapon and forcible confinement involving the child and his wife.

"I do have a secret," said the girl who cannot be identified. "It's the whole reason I'm in foster care. It's about what my dad did."

Hawk was requested in the courtroom by the Crown prosecutor
of a sexual assault trial involving testimony by a young girl

Visible on a screen in the courtroom, the girl sat in a remote witness room beside Hawk — the three-year-old Labrador retriever specially trained to work with the victim assistance unit of the Calgary Police Service.

Hawk helps support witnesses and victims of crime, especially children. 

In what's believed to be a Canadian first, legislation that allows for a "support person" to accompany the girl was expanded by a Calgary judge to include Hawk after Crown prosecutor Rosalind Greenwood made the request.​

She said the girl has had some play dates with the dog to get to know him.

Amazing intuition, says handler

"It is amazing the intuition that they have, truly," said Hawk's handler Sgt. Brent Hutt. "I've seen him walk into a room, bypass people that he knows … and go to the victim and curl up with [them]. It blows people away."

He says Hawk brings a non-judgmental aspect to a conversation.

"Often we'll ask a question, or a police officer will ask a question, and the person will answer to Hawk," said Hutt.

During Tuesday morning’s proceedings, the girl and the courtroom were shown a video of a police detective interviewing her about the alleged crime.

As the girl watched the video she patted the dog at times, and at other times showed the typical restlessness of a little girl.

The girl’s father watched the video from the prisoner’s box and showed little reaction. The trial is set to wrap up at the end of the week.

"I think involving a court dog there's an immediate trust that children have with these animals, something that they wouldn't necessarily have with a court support person, even if they've met the person before," said Greenwood. "With an animal there's an immediate trust there." 

Court trauma dogs becoming more common

Already popular in the U.S., it's becoming more common to see dogs used to comfort vulnerable witnesses as they testify. Lucy, a victim services dog located in Camrose, Alta., was the first in the province and the second in Canada.

She has been taught to lay on her "special mat" for hours during a police interview or court session.

"I do believe this is going to become more prominent," said Ellen O'Neill-Stephens, the founder of Courthouse Dogs.

O'Neill-Stephens is a former prosecutor who came up with the idea of pairing victims of crime and dogs about a decade ago.

"When a dog like Hawk is lying there quiet and comfortable, people get the unconscious message that there is nothing wrong; that there is nothing to be afraid of," she said.

Hawk, with handlers

There are only four trauma dogs in Canada. Hawk is the only one in Calgary, but police plan to add another dog in the next year.

Police Chief Rick Hanson says while the stress of the situation can sometimes take a toll on Hawk, he says it's amazing how victims respond.

"I don't think people can ever understand, unless they've been victimized themselves, the trauma that's associated to certain types of crimes," he said. 

Hawk, Police Trauma Dog, to Help Child Witnesses in Sex Abuse Case

The Calgary, Alberta, Canada's Police Service's victim assistance dog, Hawk, will be allowed to sit with two child witnesses when they testify at an upcoming sexual assault trial.

The request was made by Crown prosecutor Rose Greenwood in a pre-trial application Wednesday and the defence lawyer did not oppose the idea, which will see the four-year-old black Labrador comfort the children in December.

Hawk the dog receives his police badge

Justice Bruce Millar granted the application and addressed Hawk directly, highlighting the potentially precedent-setting nature of the decision.

"You might be the first dog in Canada, Hawk, to be a court-ordered comfort dog," said Millar.

Hawk is used by police to calm people in times of stress and trauma and first joined the force about a year ago.

Greenwood says comfort — or support — dogs have been used in court in the United States, but he believes this is the first time such a thing will happen in Canada.

"In the last few years, there's been a significant amount of cases from the U.S. where they've been using support dogs in court not only for child witnesses but vulnerable witnesses as well," said Greenwood.

One of the child witnesses is a seven-year-old girl whose father is accused of sexually assaulting her.

Her nine-year-old brother will also testify.

The children have visited Hawk twice for "play dates" to get acquainted with him.

One of Hawk's handlers says the decision to allow the dog in the courtroom is important for improving the justice system.

"Anything we can do to make the justice system more open and we can create, as best we can, a comfortable, a confident witness — that aids in the success of our justice system. It's very exciting," said Sgt. Brett Hutt. "I love it."

Greenwood said she hopes comfort dogs like Hawk will be used more in the future, adding that she'll likely make the request again.

Hawk has been used in schools where traumatic events have taken place.

He even accompanied several witnesses in the Brentwood stabbing case back to the home where the five students were killed in April.

Hawk the trauma dog with his handlers 

Sgt. Brett Hutt, Hawk the trauma dog and Kathlynn Funfer are all with the Calgary Police Service's victim's assistance unit.