Approaching Sodom > Quebec will send men to men's prisons regardless of gender identity

 

Quebec to jail inmates according to anatomical sex, not gender identity

Quebec’s public security minister says transgender inmates will be incarcerated according to their anatomical sex, not their gender identity.

François Bonnardel says in a statement the measure is to ensure the safety of all inmates.

He says inmates’ bodies will be scanned to determine which detention centre they will be directed to, adding that some accommodations will be possible.

Inside jails, transgender inmates will be allowed to identify with the gender of their choice.

Bonnardel says the province is providing corrections officers with a guide to educate them on sexual diversity, gender plurality, and the rights of LGBTQ+ people.

The Public Security Department says that as of last week, six out of 5,400 incarcerated people in Quebec jails identified as transgender.

Approaching Sodom > Trans Prisoners Shower With Women; Far-Right Group Attacks Pride Parade in Ukraine Again; 6 Death Sentences for Anti-LGBTQ; Feminist Charged With Hating Trans

..

Showering with biological men: Female inmates in US & UK

recount sexual abuse from ‘trans’ prisoners

30 Aug, 2021 14:59

© Unsplash / Beck Vdlarok

Women in the US and UK who were forced to live alongside biological men in prison have told RT that policies designed to protect transgender rights have led to violence and sexual assault against female inmates.

Tomieka Johnson was sentenced to 50 years behind bars by a California court in 2012 after she killed her abusive husband during a physical altercation. Johnson, a former highway patrol officer, told RT that she shared a cell with a transgender prisoner who was “very violent and very vulgar.” The inmate would reportedly force women in the prison to clean the bathroom and wash the floors, leading to interactions that reminded Johnson of the domestic abuse she once suffered. 

And although the inmate in question identified as a woman, the biological male allegedly had a girlfriend whom he would “beat” and “choke” regularly. According to Johnson, the prisoner in question sometimes became violent if his ‘girlfriend’ rejected his sexual advances. 

“It would be, she didn’t want to be romantic and he would get angry and attack her… She never reported it,” Johnson told RT. 

She believes that she was chosen to bunk with the transgender inmate because the guards in the prison thought it would be a good “joke” to make a former police officer share a cell with a biological male. 

“I felt hopeless. I felt trapped,” she said of the experience. 

At the start of this year, California passed legislation allowing trans inmates to request transfer to facilities that align with their gender identity. Since then, around 300 such requests have been submitted, with not a single request having been rejected as of June. 

The policy was likely the result of politicians paying lip service to the LGBT community, which has been able to “pool resources” to exert political power in the state, Johnson said. She stressed that while some officials undoubtedly wanted to adopt policies that would keep everyone “safe,” authorities were clearly being left in the dark about what the policy meant for female inmates.

RT learned of a similar story in the United Kingdom. A former female prisoner in the UK said that she had been sexually assaulted by a transgender cellmate who had previously been put behind bars as a man for sex offenses against women. 

“You always feel on edge. You know they are not women. They are physically threatening and aggressive,” she told RT. 

I was sexually assaulted and I am not the only woman who has been. They haven’t had surgery and they expose themselves.

One of the biological males in prison with her was told that he couldn’t shower at the same time as the other inmates. The policy was overturned after he filed a formal complaint, alleging that his human rights had been violated. 

“Now he is allowed to shower with us. And because he now has that right, the other males have that right too,” the said. 

What stunning madness!

Female prisons in England and Wales can hold transgender women with gender recognition certificates who may still retain male genitalia. 

The policy was recently upheld by an England and Wales high court. The judge ruled that while female inmates may feel threatened by biological males, the rights of transgender prisoners need to also be taken into consideration. 

While the rights of the women are completely ignored!

Kate Coleman, a British activist campaigning to keep prisons ‘single-sex’, told RT that the law needs to change if it’s seen as acceptable to place women and biological males in the same prison facilities. 

Approaching Sodom > 'Transgenders' Flip From Male to Female To Get Sent to Women's Prisons

=====================================================================================

More than 50 people arrested in Odessa after right-wing extremists

attack police & participants at annual LGBT pride march

30 Aug, 2021 14:07

Some 51 members of the Ukrainian far-right group Tradition and Order have been arrested in the city of Odessa after clashes with police officers at the ‘Equality March’, an annual celebration in support of the LGBT community.

The same group attacked the march last year, when members of the Ukrainian neo-Nazi group fired pepper spray at participants, leading to 21 arrests.

This time, according to Odessa’s police, even more have been detained. Video from Saturday’s event shows several people firing pepper spray in the direction of the police, injuring 29 officers.

“Approximately 20 minutes after the end of the rally, a group of provocateurs showed inappropriate behavior towards the police and ran up to them for a fight on Deribasovskaya Street and used tear gas,” the report says.

“Such actions of provocateurs were obviously aimed at trying to undermine the situation in Odessa and to test the strength of law enforcement officials,” the head of the regional police Nikolay Seminishyn said. “Odessa has always been and remains safe for residents and guests.”

Speaking to Ukrainian news outlet Dumskaya, the Odessa Pride organizing committee head Anna Leonova revealed that many people didn’t come to the event because of last year’s attack, scared the scenes would repeat themselves – fears that were clearly not unfounded.

As well as opposing LGBT rights, Tradition and Order is actively opposed to pro-Russia, left-wing, and populist politicians.

Is there anyone they are for?

Bangladesh court sentences 6 to death for murder of LGBTQ+ activists

31 Aug, 2021 16:12

Police escort one of the accused towards the court in Dhaka, Bangladesh on August 31, 2021

© AP Photo / Mahmud Hossain Opu

A court in Bangladesh has sentenced six members of an outlawed Islamist group to death for the murder of two LGBTQ+ activists five years ago. The judge acquitted two others in connection with the killings.

In a packed courtroom in Dhaka on Tuesday, Judge Majibur Rahman of the special anti-terrorism tribunal ruled that six of the eight accused would die for their crimes.

Only four of the eight accused were present in court for the sentencing. A further two, including a former army officer, were convicted in absentia, while the remaining suspects were acquitted.

The six men were found guilty of the brutal murder of two LGBTQ+ activists in the capital Dhaka in 2016. Xulhaz Mannan, the editor of the country’s first and only magazine for the gay community, was hacked to death along with his friend Rabbi Tonoy. 

The six murderers also belonged to Ansar al-Islam, a group which officials claim is an offshoot of Al-Qaeda and was banned by the Bangladesh government the year before the killings.

Five of those convicted on Tuesday had already been sentenced to death for the murders of a blogger and a publisher in 2015. The two were hacked to death in separate incidents.

The judge said Tuesday’s sentencing should serve as an example that Bangladesh will not tolerate “militancy or terrorism in any form.”

Crowds support Scottish feminist on trial for ‘hate crime’

over tweets deemed anti-transgender 

31 Aug, 2021 13:34

(FILE PHOTO) © REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Crowds have gathered outside a Glasgow court and have been sharing their views online, demanding that a judge drop charges against a feminist activist who is accused of a hate crime against the transgender community.

On Tuesday, Marion Millar, a Scottish feminist campaigner accused of hate crime, arrived at Glasgow Sheriff Court for her previously delayed trial. Her arrival saw a large crowd of supporters wave flags and chant “Women won't wheesht!” (‘women won’t be silent’). 

Millar, a 50-year-old accountant from Airdrie and member of the For Women Scotland group, has been charged by Scottish authorities over two separate complaints. It is believed the complaints relate to tweets posted in 2019 and 2020 which were deemed to be transphobic and homophobic.

The activist has frequently shared her views on social media. In one tweet showing images of male-appearing trans women, she referred to them as “filthy predators” and said the “cult” should be kept away from schools, according to screenshots online.

Her supporters contend that she is standing up for hard-won women’s rights amid increasing pressure from LGBTQ+ campaigners who label her a ‘terf’ – a “trans-exclusionary radical feminist.”

Millar’s case has drawn widespread attention since she was charged with a hate crime in June, with many contending that the decision of the Scottish prosecutor to press charges against the feminist campaigner is the death knell for free speech. Millar faces two years in jail if convicted.

Those who showed their support in Glasgow on Tuesday were largely supported by online commenters, as Millar’s name trended on Twitter, along with the hashtag “WomenWontWheesht,” a call popularized by the activist.

“I stand with Marion Millar” many wrote, with one calling on other women to “rise up” against her treatment. “We are the granddaughters of the witches you could not burn,” she added, a reference to a ‘witch hunt’ which Millar believes she is the focus of. 

Some claimed the prosecution of Millar was an attempt to “silence women” and was trying to make people afraid to “point out that biology trumps gender beliefs.” One said that they will never give up until “we, and our children, are safe.” 

Others expressed their concern about the future of free speech in Scotland. “If this ludicrous case isn’t immediately dismissed by the judiciary, then women’s protected, sex-based rights in my country will no longer exist,” one Twitter user argued, adding that they will never vote for the Scottish National Party again. 

Another claimed the country was now on a “knife edge,” over the trial, saying that, either an innocent woman will be jailed for standing up for women’s rights, or, “if sense prevails, we at least have hope of fixing this mess.” 

However, support for Millar wasn’t universal. The Empowered Woman Project told people in Glasgow to watch out for the “#WomenWontWheesht mob,” claiming there is lot of anti-transgender signage around. “These women are dangerous and 100% speak for a minority,” they added.

One woman, who identified as cisgender, claimed the “terfs” aren’t actually feminists at all. “None of you bigots speak for me or any other [cisgender] woman I know!” she added. 

The court case comes amid increasing conflict between women’s rights campaigns and factions of the LGBTQ+ community who have been campaigning for greater transgender privileges.

Debate has raged particularly fiery in Scotland, where the government has decided that children as young as four can change their gender and name at school without parental consent. 

Absolute madness! Child abuse and child sexual abuse! No basis in science - contravenes biology!

Last week, legendary actor and gay rights activist Simon Callow, expressed his concerns about the direction of the well-known LGBTQ+ Stonewall group, claiming an “extraordinarily unproductive militancy” now surrounded its position and suggested the organisation’s aims now impinged on women’s rights. 

When it threatens hard-fought women’s rights and “the right to have exclusive spaces for women, away from any threat at all – I think that’s a very serious issue,” Callow argued.

Step Inside the Circle

This brief video reveals the level of evil that many prisoners endured in their childhood, from physical, sexual, emotional abuse. They grew up thinking there was something wrong with them and that just the way it was.

Despite many years in prison, few have received the psychological help they need to overcome the childhood trauma. Compassion Prison Project means to address that. Please watch!

video 6:30

compassionprisonproject.org/donate

#PCMadness in At Least 6 British Police Forces Again Put Women in Danger

Actual PC police: British law enforcement allow

convicted male rapists to identify as female

FILE PHOTO © REUTERS/Chris Radburn

At least six police forces across Britain allow convicted male rapists to be documented as female if they don’t identify as what they really are – male rapists. Because heaven forbid a rapist is mis-gendered?

Six departments, including the South Yorkshire and Thames Valley constabularies, were revealed to have adopted the mind-numbing practice, which allows violent sex offenders to be listed as female in a database used by the Home Office. Durham, Kent, Norfolk and Suffolk police forces, as well as the British Transport Police, are also believed to allow dangerous criminals to define their own gender – biology or facts be damned.

A women’s rights group, Fair Play for Women (FPW), discovered the bizarre policy after filing a Freedom of Information request.

“You can’t get much more of a male crime than rape,” Nicola Williams, director of FPW, told the Sunday Times. “It would be highly offensive to a woman who was raped to have it written down that her attacker was a female when clearly that was a male with a penis.” But she’s probably just transphobic.

In Britain, the legal definition of rape states that the criminal act involves penetrating another person with a penis without their consent – not exactly something that a female could do. Women accused of sexual violence are charged with different crimes. In layman’s terms: Violent criminals who committed acts that only men can legally carry out can now identify as female, without issue, in several parts of Britain. Who knew that the PC police were a real thing?

Fearful of being labeled transphobic or not adequately “woke,” companies and governments have been pressured into acquiescing to the demands of fringe activists. 

It was fear of being labelled racist that allowed so many police forces and counsels in Britain to ignore the grooming of thousands of young British girls by Pakistani, Muslim men. It appears they haven't learned a thing from that dismal failure.

Sanitary pad manufacturer ‘Always’ recently announced that it would no longer use the female Venus symbol on its packaging, following complaints that the image was somehow discriminatory.

What an insane world we've become! What happens next, do these rapists, these self-proclaimed women with penises get sent to a female prison? What could possibly go wrong? 

Perhaps they could be sent to a female prison once their penises were chopped off and they were put on a course of estrogen.

I don't know. What do you think?

Understanding Child Sex Abuse and Its Effects - 50% of Prisoners Abused as Kids

Half of Canada's prisoners were abused as children, McMaster study suggests

Samantha Craggs · CBC News 

A new McMaster University study suggests half of Canada's 41,000 inmates were abused as children, including sexual abuse and neglect. (Frank Gunn/Canadian Press)

About half of Canada's inmates were abused as children, suggests a new study out of McMaster University.

Medical student Claire Bodkin led a team that studied data from 30 years of research into Canadian inmates. Their work was published in the March issue of the American Journal of Public Health (AJPH).  

The researchers found 65 per cent of female inmates experienced abuse in general, and half of them were sexually abused.

Bodkin said only one study in the data evaluated reported the prevalence of abuse among men. The researchers found abuse rates involving male inmates were at 35.5 per cent, with 21.9 per cent of them having experienced sexual abuse.

If we had more resources at the preventative level, before people

got in conflict with the law, that would be really amazing.

- Ruth Greenspan, John Howard Society

The team did a statistical analysis of the results to reach the conclusion that half of inmates had been abused, Bodkin said.

"That's an alarmingly high number."

These are the other researchers involved in the work, which included going over 34 studies from territorial, federal and provincial prisons and jails:

Fiona Kouyoumdjian and Lucie Pivnick, both McMaster.

Susan Bondy of the University of Toronto.

Carolyn Ziegler of Toronto's St. Michael's Hospital.

Ruth Elwood Martin of the University of British Columbia.

Claire Bodkin, lead author of the article in the March issue of the American Journal of Public Health, says one purpose of the research is to help determine: 'How do we prevent childhood abuse from happening in the first place?' (Sara Alavian)

Bodkin said understanding people who have been incarcerated — including reoffenders — will go a long way in helping prevent crime. 

Prisons need to take trauma into account in how they deal with inmates, Bodkin said.

"Regardless of where you stand politically, I think everyone can agree that prison is not a healthy place for people, and that it's a symptom of multiple other things that have gone wrong."

So "how do we need to think about the impact of childhood trauma? How do we prevent childhood abuse from happening in the first place?"

It would seem intuitive that understanding common backgrounds of prisoners would lead to an understanding of methods to reduce the number of prisoners by addressing those common experiences and their psychological consequences that contribute to their criminal behaviour. If this study is a beginning in that direction, great! But it's a crying shame that we are nearly 2 decades into the 21st century, and we are not really even started on this.

The findings aren't surprising to Ruth Greenspan, executive director of the John Howard Society of Hamilton, Burlington and area in Ontario.

"Many resort to their own abuse of themselves," she said. "There's a lot of addiction, self-mutilation, self-harm, and suicide, which again, are all indications of having suffered a lot of trauma. PTSD is something you see when you work with this population."

There have been some great programs over the years to address trauma among people who commit crimes, she said. But the funding comes and goes.

On the whole, there aren't enough free resources for individuals — before, during or after prison, said Greenspan.

Prevention 'would just save so much money'

"If we had more resources at the preventative level, before people got in conflict with the law, that would be really amazing," she said.

"If we prevented it, we would just save so much money in the criminal justice system. And I don't think we're there yet."

For her part, Bodkin has done some clinical training with men during and after prison. Some have "really expansive trauma histories," including severe abuse as children, she said.

"We suspected it was high, but there wasn't good research out there that led to a national perspective in Canada."

As for what constitutes abuse, Bodkin and her team used a World Health Organization definition, which means attendance at a residential school wasn't considered, although that research would be useful too, Bodkin said.

At any given time, 41,000 people are incarcerated in Canada, and a disproportionate number are Indigenous.

And, I believe there is a disproportionate amount of child abuse and child sex abuse among Indigenous peoples; much of the fault lies at the doorsteps of residential schools. Most remote communities are a couple generations removed from residential school attendance, but the effects are inter-generational, and after decades of awareness of the abuse suffered at residential schools, there is no program running in indigenous communities to address the psychological effects that still plague them. This is criminally irresponsible, IMHO.

Majority of Sex Offenders Do Not Take Part in Prison Treatment

New figures reveal most leave prison without

having attended preventative programme

Conor Gallagher, Irish Times

According to figures from 2010, 14 per cent of sexual offenders who serve a prison sentence will reoffend within three years of release. Photograph: iStock

The majority of sex offenders leave prison without attending Irish Prison Service’s sexual offending prevention programme, new figures show.

There are 400-450 sex offenders in Irish prisons at any one time, just one out of every 14 of whom is taking part in preventative treatment at any one time.

According to figures released to The Irish Times by the prison service, 29 offenders took part in its Building Better Lives (BBL) treatment programme in 2014. In 2015, 22 took part and in 2016 and the first half of 2017, 45 prisoners took part.

During this period, more than 400 sex offenders were released from prison. Of the 104 sex offenders released last year, about half had taken part in the programme during their sentence.

There are several reasons the take up of treatment is so low. The programme is voluntary and prisoners do not lose out on remission entitlements if they do not take part.

Offenders have to admit their guilt before taking part. A prison service spokesman said those who continue to deny their offence cannot take part but are still subject to risk assessments on their release.

It is also understood to be a demanding programme, with the main module involving 60-70 sessions of in-depth therapeutic work.

The programme is usually offered to prisoners as they approach the end of their sentence.

Incentives for participants

Studies show that forcing sex offenders to undergo treatment tends not to be effective, said Maeve Lewis, the executive director of One in Four, which provides treatment to sex offenders outside prison.

However, Ms Lewis believes more prisoners would take part if there was some incentive on offer.

“We have called for incentives to be put in place for prisoners who participate in that programme. That might be an offer of earlier release if they complete the programme which just might incentivise more guys to do it.”

The Department of Justice has previously pointed out that offenders who do not take part in the BBL programme may be enrolled in other addiction or psychiatric treatment programmes.

“In addition, I should emphasise that sexual offenders released from prison who are subject to notification requirements under the Sex Offenders Act 2001 are required to notify the Gardaí of any change in their home address,” then minster for justice Frances Fitzgerald told the Daíl earlier this year.

Risk of reoffending

The BBL programme was established in 2009. It has three stages and can involve group or individual work.

“The programme includes a high degree of challenge and support for participants, includes family meetings, and there is regular review and monitoring of the participants progress,” a prison service spokesman said.

It also involves planning for where the offender will live after their release from prison.

According to figures from 2010, the most recent available, 14 per cent of sexual offenders who serve a prison sentence will reoffend within three years of release.

Just 14%? I find that a little hard to believe. But we are talking about sex abuse, not child sex abuse. Pedophilia is a lot harder to cure.

Child Sex Abuse Probe to Hunt for Victims in UK Prisons

Troubled inquiry asks criminals if they were molested when they were young 

The so-called ‘Truth Project’ is part of £100 million inquiry

into child sex abuse

By Martin Beckford Home Affairs Editor For The Mail On Sunday

The troubled child abuse inquiry is risking further controversy by going into prisons to ask criminals if they were molested when they were young.

Critics warn the plan could encourage inmates to make false allegations and lodge unwarranted claims for compensation.

The so-called ‘Truth Project’ is part of the £100 million inquiry which allows survivors of child sex abuse to tell their stories, without their accounts being tested, challenged or contradicted.

Officials will go into jails later this year to ask criminals if they were molested when they were young. Pictured is HMP Pentonville

Officials will go into jails later this year to ask prisoners to share their experiences, in the belief that many turned to crime after their lives went off the rails when they were abused as children.

Inmates’ stories may be published anonymously in official reports on the scale of past abuse and cover-ups in Britain’s schools, children’s homes and churches.

But barrister Barbara Hewson said: ‘I think it is trawling.

‘It’s all very well to say they want to look into institutional abuse but the more they do this and encourage people, some people will start to think maybe they can go for compensation.

‘They may well be people who have a long history of dishonesty and who see this as an opportunity to portray themselves as being wronged.’

Former Tory MP Harvey Proctor was questioned by Scotland Yard following lurid false allegations made by a fantasist

Former Tory MP Harvey Proctor, who was questioned by Scotland Yard following lurid false allegations made by a fantasist, added: ‘There is no veracity in the Truth Project because statements are made to it without any checks.

‘Anyone can say anything about anyone and it is not checked, but it goes down in history as truth. Many of the prisoners will have lied to the courts, but the inquiry has the default position that they believe what is said.’

The inquiry has not held a single public evidence session under its latest chairwoman, Professor Alexis Jay

Although claims will not be challenged by inquiry staff, cases will be handed to police to investigate, and prison and probation staff have been briefed about the plan to take the project into jails.

The huge public inquiry into historic child abuse has been beset by problems since it was set up by Theresa May in July 2014. 

Its first three chairwomen quit, and it has still not held a single public evidence session under its latest chairwoman, Professor Alexis Jay. In addition, five of its top lawyers have quit.

A spokesman for the inquiry said: ‘The Truth Project is open to all victims and survivors of child sexual abuse, wherever they are.

‘There is evidence to suggest that victims and survivors are over-represented in the prison population. Therefore, we are planning a phased roll-out of the Truth Project in prisons in 2017.

‘The Truth Project does not have legal consequences, but lets victims and survivors of child sexual abuse bear witness.’

The project’s first report is due to be published in September.

Personally, I like the project. It could result in a lot of people beginning to deal with historical abuse where they otherwise would never get the opportunity to. It might even reduce recidivism somewhat. Certainly, it should lead to some perverts being brought to justice. I don't even mind the idea that there is an element of 'trawling' involved. Go Alexis!

3 Young Women Rescued From Kolkata Red-Light District

KOLKATA, INDIA

This week, police in Kolkata, India enlisted IJM’s help in rescuing three young women trafficked from Bangladesh and forced into prostitution in one of the city’s most congested red-light districts.


Held prisoners in a brothel

The women had been trapped in a two-story brothel on the corner of two narrow alleys. Thousands of people visit this red-light district every night, and, just across the street, a popular dance club bustles with local pimps. A Kolkata police unit specialized in combatting trafficking had learned of several women forced to sell themselves for sex in this brothel, and they called IJM Kolkata for assistance. 

On Tuesday evening, the team entered the brothel. Trained social workers and police officers immediately brought the young women behind closed curtains to interview them in private.


Forced sex with dozens every day

One victim shared in detail how she was trafficked from her home in Bangladesh. When her younger sister fell sick, a man she knew offered to pay for medical treatment if the young woman took a good job in India. When they reached Kolkata, he instead coerced her into prostitution to pay back the money. The young woman said she was forced to have sex with dozens of customers every day and was never allowed to leave the building. 

"She had a strong desire to come out because she’d experienced so much pain,” said IJM’s Dolphy Biswas, who coordinated the operation with police. "She pointed out the trafficker immediately, gave a statement, and was willing to act as the complainant in the case. This shows how much violence she went through and how much she wanted to get out.”



The second victim shared how a friend convinced her to visit Kolkata and instead sold her to the brothel; the third victim stated her ex-husband had left her there. In total, the team rescued three victims and arrested two suspects—one madam running the brothel and one trafficker. The three victims are estimated to be between 18 and 20 years old. Under Indian law, it’s a crime to bring girls under age 21 from foreign countries for the purpose of sex work.

The next day, IJM social workers accompanied the survivors to the court, where a judge ordered that they be placed in a trusted shelter home for necessary care. Police filed a report against the suspected abusers and will continue to investigate the case.


10,000 Bangladeshi women trafficked to India every year

Cross-border trafficking is a pervasive crime. While it’s difficult to confirm how many victims are brought across the Bangladeshi border into India every year, the Bangladesh government and various NGOs estimate the number to be at least 10,000. 

IJM has been working with authorities to safely rescue and restore victims of sex trafficking in Kolkata since 2006.

IJM - International Justice Mission

Philippines Candidate Duterte Condemned Over Rape Comments **Updated**

Has the world become such a crude and vulgar place that vile creatures like Duterte can rise to the highest office in their country? Unfortunately, it seems the answer is yes.

Update: While I have an intense dislike for vulgarity, I do admire someone who is wildly successful in reducing crime. As Mayor of Davao, Duterte's vigilante support has taken Davao from being the murder capitol of the Philippines the what one organization calls, the 4th safest place in the world. If he can dramatically reduce crime across the whole country, especially child sex exploitation, child sex tourism, and child pornography production, he will be my hero regardless of how uncouth he is.

From BBC Asia, 

Philippines presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte (12 April 2016) Reuters

Mr Duterte has a reputation for making inflammatory comments

A video of leading Philippines presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte joking about a murdered Australian rape victim has provoked a storm of protest.

The footage shows Mr Duterte and his supporters making light of the assault by prison inmates in 1989 when he was town mayor.

He said the female missionary was so beautiful that "the mayor should have been first".

I believe that the woman playing the flute in the photo below is Robin Haines Merrill. The blonde to her left is probably her sister Jacqueline Hamill, who was one of 5 missionaries raped and murdered by the very prisoners they were attempting to help

ON BEHALF OF MY SISTER IN CHRIST, MISSIONARY JACQUELINE HAMILL, I PUBLICALLY DENOUNCE THE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDACY OF DUERTE, IN THE PHILIPPINES. Jacqueline was raped and had her throat slit while ministering in the jails in southern Philippines in a 1989 hostage taking. Duerte was recorded this week saying in his political rally that while he ordered the killing of the hostage takers while he was mayor, he wished he could have raped her first, since she was so beautiful. Looking back on this photo, I realize ministering in jails as a woman is very risky and looks outright naive, like the "you got what was coming to you" mentality that is prevalent today. But all ministry and everyday LIFE is a big risk, and we must be obedient to the voice of the spirit of God, even if it leads us to death. Jacqueline's death affected me deeply personally, as I had been visiting just about every jail in Manila with the ACTION/CGM teams from 1986-89. I couldn't yet speak the language but I could play the flute and just show love to people in horrible situations. LOVE TRUMPS HATE. DON'T STOP LOVING. DON'T VOTE FOR PEOPLE who speak vile things against WOMEN!! We are ALL made in the Image of God!!


Critics say this shows Mr Duterte is "unfit" for the office of president.

Mr Duterte's supporters however have dismissed the comments as a joke.

The candidate is known for his irreverent speeches and boasts of sexual conquests.

One recent poll had him leading over other contenders ahead of the 9 May election.


'Disgusting endorsement'

The rape comments in a YouTube video are the latest in a string of inflammatory statements - including the proposed mass executions of suspected criminals - made by Mr Duterte.


Supporters of Rodrigo Duterte at an election rally east of Manila (12 April 2016) EPA

Mr Duterte has been mobbed by supporters throughout much of the election campaign which culminates next month


Rodrigo Duterte (top right), Philippines presidential candidate and a local mayor, raises his fist during a motorcade campaign at Cainta Rizal, east of Manila (12 April 2016).  Mr Duterte has a popular following ahead of the 9 May poll Reuters

In the video he refers to the missionary who was murdered while ministering in a prison in the city of Davao in the southern Philippines and goes on to make his remark to laughter at a campaign rally.

President Benigno Aquino's spokesman Herminio Coloma said the comments reflected Mr Duterte's "lack of fitness for the presidency" and his "utter lack of respect for women".

A rival presidential candidate, Vice-President Jejomar Binay, called the comments revolting.

"You are a crazy maniac who doesn't respect women and doesn't deserve to be president," Mr Binay told Mr Duterte in a statement.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) Deputy Asia Director Phil Robertson said the comments "were a disgusting endorsement of sexual violence" for which Mr Duterte should be utterly condemned.

In 2015, HRW described Mr Duterte as the death squad mayor for his tactics in dealing with violent crime in Davao, with more than 1,000 people being killed.

Prison Guard Facing Charges for Raping Inmates

Ex-guard at Georgia women's prison accused of harassing 13 inmates over four years and forcing some prisoners to have sex with him
Edgar Daniel Johnson is accused of groping 13 women and forcing some to have sex with him at Emanuel Women's Facility in Swainsboro, Georgia
One woman claimed Johnson made her have sex with him five or six times in April 2013 and threatened to stop her transfer if she didn't
Johnson, 48, was fired from his role as corrections officer in April and arrested in May - he denies any wrongdoing

By ASSOCIATED PRESS

Accused: According to investigators, Edgar Daniel Johnson,
a high-ranking corrections officer, used his position of power
to prey on inmates, targeting their vulnerabilities and
forcing them to have sex with him

A former high-ranking corrections officer at a southeast Georgia women's prison used his position of power to prey on inmates, targeting their vulnerabilities and forcing them to have sex with him, according to investigators.

Over at least four years, Edgar Daniel Johnson groped and fondled women and forced some to have sex with him, according to sworn statements filed in warrant applications by an investigator for the Georgia Department of Corrections.

He faces criminal charges, and his lawyer said Johnson, 48, looks forward to defending himself.

'Mr Johnson vehemently denies the allegations, and we look forward to having the opportunity to confront these charges in court,' attorney Kendall Gross said.

The Associated Press spoke to four of 13 women who say Johnson victimized them while they were inmates at Emanuel Women's Facility in Swainsboro. The AP generally does not name alleged victims of sexual crimes.

They said Johnson initially seemed like someone who cared, a comfort in a scary place, said one woman who was 25 and had never been in prison when she landed at Emanuel.

She was jailed on charges related to an injury her son suffered while with her ex when the boy was supposed to be in her custody. Johnson said he was a pastor and recited passages from the Bible to her.

Then, she said, he started telling her how pretty she was, how a girl like her didn't belong in prison. He asked about her family. He was a captain, so he could help her get to a transitional center closer to her children, he told her.

'He got a feel for your story to see what angle he could come at you with,' she said.

Her assigned work detail included cleaning his office, but she said he'd summon her more often than needed - up to five or six times a day - sometimes having an officer wake her from a nap to go and see him.

He'd give her tasks to keep her in the office or sometimes he'd just have her sit there, she said.

He quickly started making sexual comments and brushing up against her in a way that was too familiar, she claims.

'You kind of just blocked it out, thinking: If I can just get out of his office without anything happening, I'll be fine,' she said. 'I guess after a while you just learn to deal with it.'

The comments and unwelcome touching continued for about 18 months. Then in April 2013, as she was about to be transferred to a transitional center closer to her family near Atlanta, he forced her to have sex with him five or six times, threatening to stop her transfer if she didn't, she alleged.

Johnson continued to contact her for the first six months she was in the transitional center, saying he missed her and that he looked up her photo in her file every day, she said.

She never told anyone what was happening, but it was an open secret at the prison, she said. She was afraid of retaliation if she complained because he'd said repeatedly that he basically ran the place.

Georgia Department of Corrections spokeswoman Lisa Rodriguez-Presley said the warden at the prison initiated an investigation immediately after she became aware of the allegations.

'We take very seriously allegations of this nature, which cause unjust risk and harm to the individuals we supervise as well as the safe operation of our facilities,' she wrote in an email.

The women in this case said Johnson forced them to have sex. But even consensual sex between an inmate and a prison employee is illegal.

Because inmates are vulnerable to sexual assault both by prison staff and other inmates, Congress in 2003 passed the Prison Rape Elimination Act, which calls for corrections systems to have a zero-tolerance policy on prison rape.

The Georgia Department of Corrections is actively implementing that law and expects to be fully compliant by August 2016, Rodriguez-Presley said.

When an investigator from the Department of Corrections came to see the woman at the transitional center in April, she initially told him nothing had happened. She didn't trust him because he worked for the department.

Back in her room, she broke down in tears, finally deciding it was time to say something. She caught the investigator before he left and told him everything, she said.

The other women who spoke to the AP told similar stories, detailing how Johnson first told them he was a pastor and offered to use his influence to help them. Then came the comments, the touching and the forced sex, they said.

He identified their vulnerabilities to manipulate them, they said. One had a brother serving a life sentence at another Georgia prison and Johnson threatened to make his life miserable, she said.

Another had a baby while in the county lockup before being moved to prison, and she said he told her he'd keep her away from her baby and five other kids.

After being transferred to a higher-security prison in July 2012, a woman who said she had begun challenging Johnson wrote a complaint against him and gave it to the warden at her new prison. In it, she named several other women as victims.

Clay Nix, an inspector with the Department of Corrections' office of professional standards, said one of his investigators has identified 13 women who say Johnson victimized them, and the investigation is ongoing.

Once it's done, the case will be turned over to the district attorney for presentation to a grand jury.

Scene: Johnson has been accused of victimizing women while they were inmates at Emanuel Women's Facility in Swainsboro, Georgia

Johnson was fired from his job in April amid the allegations and was arrested in May on multiple charges related to the investigation. He's free on bond.

Nix declined to get into specifics of the investigation because it's still active, but he said it was prompted by complaints from inmates who told very specific stories with many similarities and details no one else would know.

'It became quickly apparent the allegations were most likely true,' he said.

Once they began looking into Johnson, they discovered the 2012 complaint against him and evidence that it was thoroughly investigated but never presented to the district attorney, said Nix, who came to the department in August 2013.

Bringing criminal charges can be very difficult when there's no physical evidence and a case is based on inmate outcry alone, he said.

The women who say they were victimized by Johnson recall that he compared himself - going by his middle name - to the biblical Daniel in the lion's den, saying he always comes out on top, no matter what he's up against.

They use words like 'ruined' and 'broken' to describe how they feel as a result of his alleged actions.

The four who spoke to the AP are all out of jail and said they have trouble trusting people, especially men, which makes finding a job or forming personal relationships difficult.

Walter Madison, a lawyer who represents six of the women, has helped them start an online fundraising campaign to pay for counseling and other expenses.

He said they're also considering civil litigation. They need to get back on their feet and feel confidence in themselves again, he said.

'We did a crime and we were sentenced, but nowhere did it say that we had to be his sex slaves,' said the first woman described above. 'He took something from us that we can never get back.'

South Sudan Military Worse Than ISIS or Boko Haram for Girls

Women held as sex slaves in South Sudan ‘rape camps’

Plight of thousands of South Sudanese women and girls abducted and subjected
to repeated brutal rape and slave-like working conditions has remained hidden
until now Image Credit: AFP

Women and men walk through the United Nations base outside Bentiu, which hosts around 118,000 people uprooted during the country 21-month old civil war.

Gulf News
AFP
BENTIU, South Sudan: One woman was abducted by soldiers and taken to a military camp, tied up and raped repeatedly for two months.

Another was kidnapped with her 15-year-old sister and raped every night for five nights. A third was taken to a forest with her 12-year old daughter where both were raped.

The abduction of women and girls for use as sex slaves - some of them held indefinitely, tied up with hundreds of others in secret rape camps - is a disturbing new aspect of South Sudan’s 21-month conflict, already characterised by well-documented war crimes and human rights abuses.

Nigeria’s ‘Chibok girls’, abducted by Boko Haram in April 2014, and Iraq’s Yazidi women taken as sex slaves by Daesh (the self-proclaimed Islamic State) militants are well-known. But the plight of perhaps thousands of South Sudanese women and girls from just a single state, abducted and subjected to repeated, brutal rape and slave-like working conditions has remained hidden until now.

Dozens of interviews conducted by AFP in the northern Unity State reveal a systematic pattern of abduction and rape perpetrated by government soldiers and their allied militia during a recent offensive.

The investigation focused on attacks by government forces but both sides have perpetrated ethnic massacres, recruited and killed children and carried out widespread rape, torture and forced displacement of populations to “cleanse” areas of their opponents.

Systematic abduction and rape
Nyabena’s experience is typical. The 30-year old mother was seized when soldiers attacked her village in Rubkona County in April. Men and boys were shot. Homes were looted and burned to the ground. Women and girls were rounded up. She was among 40 taken from two neighbouring settlements and wells up with tears when she talks about being torn away from her five children.

They were marched to Mayom County. Nyabena was held in Kotong, a stronghold of Major-General Matthew Puljang, commander of a tribal Bul Nuer militia aligned with South Sudan’s army, the SPLA, which has been battling rebels since December 2013.

From April to July this year the SPLA and Puljang’s militia carried out an offensive that United Nations investigators described as a “scorched earth policy” in an August report.

Fighting and flooding limits access to large parts of South Sudan, leading aid workers to refer to southern Unity State as “an information black-hole”.

A human rights investigator said: “Nobody knows what’s happening in Mayom County,” where many of the women were taken. One military expert estimated that “thousands of women” were abducted during the offensive.

“In all the southern Unity counties it’s been the same: those women who escape are lucky. Those who don’t are raped and abducted or killed,” said the rights investigator. “The abduction of women seems to be systematic. It might be for a day, or longer, or forever.”

Those who escaped recount their stories with numb, quiet voices. Nightmares plague some who wake up terrorised, thinking they are still captive.

After her abduction Nyabena was put to work during the day, carrying looted goods and food, collecting water and hoeing farms. She was guarded constantly during the day and tied up at night with other women.

“When one of the soldiers wanted to have sex he would come, untie us and take us away. When they were finished they would bring you back and tie you to the post again,” she said, stretching her elbows behind her back to show how she was bound. She said being raped by four men a night was common.

Women who refused to work or fought against their rape would disappear. “In the morning we discover they are missing,” she said. Of the 40 she arrived with in April, 10 disappeared this way.

Victims as young as 12
Nyamai, a 38-year old mother of five, was taken from her village in Koch County. She was guarded constantly and tied up frequently. As many as 10 soldiers would queue up at night for their turn raping her.

“Please, let one guy deal with me, don’t come all of you,” she pleaded, and was beaten with a stick in response.

In another case, three of Nyatuach’s unmarried, teenaged daughters were abducted in May during an attack on their village in Rubkona County. Two are still missing, but her 17-year old daughter escaped with three of her nieces.

They returned “very sick, very thin”.

“Their bodies were weak and they were leaking fluids from so many men having intercourse with them,” Nyatuach said, a common symptom of fistula, an incontinence-causing tear in the wall between the vagina and bladder or rectum, that can be caused by particularly violent rape.

Others were raped repeatedly until, bleeding and unable to take any more, they were set free, or killed.

“When the girls were broken they would dispose of them,” said Nyatuach.

Rebecca found her 12-year old daughter again the day after their village in Koch County was attacked.

“When they took me, those people used me,” the girl told her mother. Rebecca boiled some water and washed her daughter with hot cloths.

“We can do nothing,” she told her. “It’s like that.”