The Scourge of Child Sexual Abuse in Bangladesh

Dhaka Tribune 

A nation cannot call itself civilised with so many

child rapes on its conscience

Children are the most vulnerable group of people, and we are failing them badly.

The latest account is horrifying: Another 12-year-old girl was rescued after having suffered unspeakable sexual abuse at the hands of her employer.

It is hard to imagine a more despicable crime — the child was locked up for 17 days and raped repeatedly.

What’s worse is that sexual crimes against children are happening with alarming frequency.

The incident of Rajon, a young boy who was tied to a tree and tortured, though not sexual in nature, shook the nation and created awareness of child abuse, but not enough.

It is time to take a long hard look at endemic child sexual abuse.

Incidences of child rape have steadily increased in the country in the past few months.

And the official numbers don’t even tell a fraction of the whole story.

A nation cannot call itself civilised with so many child rapes on its conscience.

Dhaka, Bangladesh

The fight begins with making sure not a single perpetrator of child sexual abuse walks free — the law should dish out the harshest possible punishment for these individuals.

Secondly, children should be taken out of dangerous situations that make them vulnerable to victimisation, like manual labour or domestic work.

Indeed, this would require extensive changes in our country’s institutions, customs, and economic structure, but it is high time we made those changes.

It is the only way to break the cycle of abuse.

Those are all good ideas but they will only make a small dent in the increasing numbers of children being abused and sexually abused. Pedophiles and opportunistic perverts need to be processed quickly through court systems, but, if Bangladesh is like most countries, most of them will escape prison sentences or even being found guilty.

Successful prosecutions start with the police. Handling a sexually abused child should never be left to an ordinary policeman. Specially trained police women should handle these cases right from the start. 

Courts need to be far more sensitive to the fears and traumas of sexually abused children, and both police and judges need to understand that small children do not make up stuff like sexual abuse.

Children need to be educated about what is safe touch and unsafe touch. They need to be educated on who to tell and how to tell. And, the person they tell has to believe them or they might never speak of it again.

Staffordshire Child Sex Abuse Reports Second Highest in UK

The number of child sex offences reported to police in Staffordshire last year - including rape, grooming and sexual assault - was the second highest in the UK, according to dramatic new figures.

Stafford town centre

But only one in six reports results in charges. In West Midlands, the ratio was one in eight, compared to a UK average of one in five.

An MP has described the figures as 'incredibly concerning' and called for a plan of action to be drawn up.

The number of sex complaints soared by a third across England and Wales, to 41,457 in 2014-15 compared with 31,238 in the previous year.

The number of sex abuse allegations made in Staffordshire between April 2014 and December 2015 was 1,055, second only to the Greater Manchester region. Of these, 173 led to charges.

Complaints made in the West Midlands were far fewer - just over half the number in Staffordshire and one of just a handful of forces throughout the UK which recorded a drop - but just 68 resulted in charges.

The Crown Prosecution Service provided separate figures for prosecutions for child abuse - including sex crimes, child prostitution, child cruelty, trafficked children and historical abuse where the victim was now an adult. In the past three years, there were 825 in the West Midlands and 269 in Staffordshire.

Gavin Williamson , MP for South Staffordshire, said: "It's incredibly concerning. Child protection is one of the most important areas dealt with by any police force.

Wootton, Staffordshire

"We need a clear explanation as to why there is such a high number of cases in Staffordshire and a clear plan of action to address the situation so that instead of being one of the worst forces in relation to his type of distressing offence it is one of the best."

Rob Marris, MP for Wolverhampton South West, called for the intervention of the Police and Crime Commissioner. He said: "The reasons for the apparently worrying performance of West Midlands Police needs to be investigated as a matter of urgency."

Supt Tim Martin, head of Staffordshire Police’s public protection investigation team said protecting vulnerable children from abuse was a priority for the force.

He said: "In addition to adult and child protection teams the force has dedicated teams set up to specifically target child sexual exploitation on street, online (Operation Safenet) and also a multi-agency Prevent team. All this activity means we uncover a greater number of offences as we are actively focusing on them.

“But offenders are often charged with more than one offence which may mean that the proportion of people arrested per offence differs.

"Child sexual exploitation wrecks young lives and we take our duty to protect children and young people extremely seriously."

Why hasn't someone written a program to teach children in elementary school the beginnings of the grooming cycle? And, as they get older, teach them the endings of the grooming cycle.

He said Staffordshire Police was supporting a campaign which launches ahead of a National Child Sexual Exploitation Awareness Day next Friday (18th).

Staffordshire, UK

India Losing Battle in Massive Child-rape Problem

COIMBATORE, India:  Following reports of abuse of a first-standard boy by the cleaner of his school van and a 10-year-old boy by his 20-year-old relative in the district, concerns have been voiced that children are becoming increasingly vulnerable to sexual predators, most of whom are known to them.

Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India

According to statistics from the National Crime Records Bureau for 2014, there were 1,084 cases of child sexual abuse in Tamil Nadu booked under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. Only in Uttar Pradesh (3,637) were more children subjected to sexual violence.

Children have been victims of various forms of violence, including hurt cases and attempted murders, with 2,455 victims falling prey to abuse in Tamil Nadu. Incidence of child sex abuse is alarming and parents must be watchful about their children at all times, Special Public Prosecutor (Coimbatore Mahila Court) R Sarojini said. As most perpetrators of child abuse are known to the victims, patents should not leave their children with relatives or strangers. The role of the police, in investigating, charging and arresting those responsible for such offences is also very important.

In 2014, 13,766 cases of rape of children were reported across India, while 3,349 cases were pending from the previous year.

Meanwhile, 8,904 cases were registered under the POCSO Act, while 820 were pending investigation from last year. A more startling statistic shows that 25,223 cases of rape were “pending trial from the previous year.”

Of the 37,519 cases sent for trial across India, trials were completed in only 5,527 cases.

Only 31 percent of the cases, or 1,717 trials, resulted in a conviction, while 68 percent of people were acquitted.

So, if my math is anywhere close to being right, the conviction rate for all reported rapes sent to trial is about 5%.

Similarly, the conviction rate for those charged under the POCSO Act stands at a meager 24.6 percent.

The authorities’ inability to use scientific methods in the investigation, including gathering of evidence, is one of the main reasons for the low rates of conviction, said K Santhakumari, president, Tamil Nadu Federation of Women Lawyers.

Investigations should be carried out in a “time-bound manner” as witness recollection of an incident, especially if they are minors, diminishes with time, she added.

Obviously police need much training in how to secure and treat a crime-scene. India also probably need more labs available to process evidence. They also need more judges to work under the POCSO Act, otherwise it is incapable of doing what it's supposed to do - speed up the conviction of rapists.

Mairia Cahill Finally Gets First Real Victory

The Director of Public Prosecutions in Northern Ireland 

formally apologized to Mairia Cahill.

Cahill is the first person to be named 

My Hero of the Week, twice.

Mairia Cahill - Raped by IRA as a teen

“The PPS let you down, and for that on behalf of the service I want to say sorry,” said Mr McGrory.

He apologised directly to Ms Cahill, whom he met on Friday, and said he also planned to apologise directly to the two other alleged victims. Mr McGrory accepted all of Sir Keir’s findings.

Sir Keir, the former attorney general for England and Wales, was called in by Mr McGrory in December to investigate how the PPS dealt with the allegations that Ms Cahill and two other women were sexually abused by IRA member Martin Morris when they were in their teens in the late 1990s.

Mairia was sexually abused, including raped, over a 1 year period by Morris when she was about 16.

“Communications with victims and witnesses was variable and at times inadequate. Failures to communicate contributed to a loss of faith (by the three alleged victims) in the PPS conduct and handling of the cases,” said Sir Keir.

The two women, who have anonymity, pulled out of the case against Mr Morris when it was being processed to trial.

Ms Cahill, in addition to the rape charge against Mr Morris, alleged four other IRA members had “interrogated” her about her claims, and that on one occasion she was compelled to face her alleged abuser so that the IRA could test who was telling the truth.

Ms Cahill said she was interrogated by the IRA several times a week for months on end.

Cahill has never received an apology from Sinn Fein. Gerry Adams made a general apology in 2014 to victims of sex abuse by the IRA. However, he made it in the Irish Parliament, not in Northern Ireland. And in March, 2015, he attacked the victims of child sex abuse by the IRA, basically calling them liars.

Mairia Cahill is an amazingly courageous and tenacious woman. I hope and pray she gets a full, unconditional apology from Gerry Adams, and I pray Mr Morris winds up in prison where he belongs. Mairia Cahill is more than deserving My Hero of the Week award. God bless you, Mairia.

It's disappointing that Prince Charles did not insist on Gerry Adams making a
formal apology and compensation to Mairia Cahill and the other victims
before meeting with him

The cases against Morris and against the four alleged IRA members who allegedly questioned her – Padraic Wilson, Seamus Finucane, Agnes McCrory and Briege Wright – effectively collapsed when Ms Cahill withdrew her evidence. All five were acquitted.

Ms Cahill gave a number of reasons for withdrawing from the case, including the length of time – four years – it took to get to trial, “continual adjournments” over the four years, and an alleged prosecution failure to produce intelligence which she believed would have proved her allegations.

Sir Keir said that “given the failings in the case it was almost inevitable” that Ms Cahill and the two other women “would pull out of the process”.

“Each of them was prepared to support their allegations at the outset, but as their cases became increasingly weakened and delayed their willingness to continue understandably diminished,” he said.

“Each case became weaker over time,” added Sir Keir in his 45-page report. “Key witnesses pulled out, evidential leads were not pursued and the strength of having three complainants in the sexual abuse case was lost. There was a failure to reassess the merits of proceeding with each case at a critical point.”

Barra McGrory - Director of Public Prosecutions, Northern Ireland

‘Insufficient planning’

Sir Keir, who was elected as a Labour MP in the recent Westminster elections, said that there was “insufficient planning” in the cases. “This was partly due to an organisational shortcoming in relation to policy and guidance and partly due to a lack of strategic thinking and management by the prosecution team,” he said. and, apparently, by a lack of enthusiasm.

Sir Keir also found that there was “no evidence in the material reviewed to suggest that decisions or actions of members of the prosecution team were improperly motivated”. Could be they were simply unmotivated through the whole process. Someone should have to pay.

Mr McGrory said he took “very seriously the failings identified particularly in the quality and timeliness of the decision-making at key points by senior members of this prosecution team”.

He added, “I want to take this opportunity to express as Director of Prosecutions a sincere apology to the three victims in these cases. It is clear that our service to them fell far short of the standard that they – and indeed the PPS – would expect.

“And also I want to say, to them and all other victims of sex abuse offences, that I am committed to ensuring that what happened in these cases will not be allowed to happen again.”

Ms Cahill said she felt “relieved” and “vindicated” by the report. She said she was “let down from the get-go”.

“The most disturbing thing for me in all of this is that the person who caused great hurt and trauma not just to me but to his other victims essentially was not prosecuted successfully,” she added.

“And also the other people who caused great hurt by forcing an IRA investigation into it. Had that IRA investigation not happened, we most likely would have been with the police making a criminal complaint long before we did.”

Ms Cahill said had it not been for that IRA investigation, it would have been a “clear cut sexual abuse case”.

She said Sinn Féin should accept the report’s findings and also apologise to her.

Meanwhile, Mr McGrory rejected any suggestions that he should resign over the case.

“I have given my commitment to the victims in these cases and to the staff in the PPS that I will be seeing through the changes that have already begun, along with those that will be implemented shortly,” he said.

“My record is one of dealing decisively and effectively with issues as they are identified to me.

“This includes the commissioning of this independent review, acceptance of its findings and the taking forward of its recommendations,” he added.