Eight arrested across three Australian states over 4 generations of child sexual abuse and incest
PHOTO: Detectives arrested a man in NSW on child sexual abuse charges. (Supplied: NSW Police)
A six-year investigation into allegations of incest, child sexual assault and serious child neglect has culminated into eight arrests this morning across New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia.
The NSW Child Abuse and Sex Crimes Squad established the investigation, Strike Force Hermoyne, in 2012, in collaboration with interstate detectives.
EIGHT members of the “Colt” family have been arrested in three states over the alleged incest and sexual abuse of children. The arrested family members will face court in Griffith, Adelaide and Perth later today.
Strike Force Hermoyne was to investigate allegations of incest, child sexual assault, and serious neglect of children on the family’s farm in southern NSW in 2012.
The infamous family, who can only legally known as the Colts to protect the identity of the children, were found by police living in depraved circumstances in a filthy bush camp six years ago.
It was a discovery that shocked the world — four generations of incestuous activity in a secret bush camp in the hills behind the tiny town of Boorowa.
A family of 38 adults and children were found living among incestuous relationships in filthy conditions without electricity, toilets or town plumbing.
Some of the children had stunted speech and misshapen features, and all slept in caravans, tents and tin sheds.
DNA testing would prove that 11 of the children in the camp were the product of a sexual relationship by their mothers with either a brother, father or other close male relative.
The children of the Colts had never seen toilet paper and didn’t know how to clean their teeth.
From a young age, they allegedly engaged in sex with uncles, aunts or cousins.
In Griffith, NSW, a 45-year-old man was charged with six counts of sexual intercourse with a child under 10, four counts of indecent assault, sexual intercourse with a child aged between 10-14, aggravated act of indecency and common assault.
A 38-year-old woman was charged with perjury. Both were refused bail Griffith Local Court.
In South Australia's Riverland region, a 29-year-old man was charged with two counts of incest with a person under the age of 16 years.
Two women, aged 50 and 39, were charged with a NSW arrest warrant for perjury.
In Northam, in Western Australia, a 36-year-old man was charged with four counts of sexual intercourse with a child under 10, two counts of indecent assault and having sexual intercourse with a child aged between 10-14.
A 48-year-old man was charged with a NSW arrest warrant for counts of sexual intercourse with a child under 10.
The 51-year-old woman was charged with a NSW arrest warrant for perjury.
NSW detectives will apply for the extradition of those arrested in SA and WA later today.
Mauritius Commonwealth Games team leader quits over sexual assault allegations
Commonwealth Games - Opening Ceremony - Carrara Stadium - Gold Coast, Australia - April 4, 2018. © Phil Noble / Reuters
The Mauritius chef de mission resigned on the eve of the 2018 Commonwealth Games amid allegations of sexual assault.
Kaysee Teeroovengadum quit on Tuesday, one day before the Games opening ceremony, after accusations of inappropriate ‘touching’ were made against him by a female member of the Mauritian team.
Police confirmed Wednesday they had received a complaint of inappropriate sexual behavior with an investigation expected to follow, which includes interviewing Teeroovengadum at the Games’ athletes village.
Teeroovengadum stood down after a series of crisis meetings involving the Mauritian government and the nation’s sporting authorities.
“After meeting with the members of the Olympic Committee and listening to the versions of the two people concerned, Kaysee Teeroovengadum made the decision to withdraw for the benefit of everyone and so that things could calm down,” the country’s minister of youth and sports, Stephan Toussaint, said.
Commonwealth Games Federation CEO David Grevemberg said: “We take these matters incredibly seriously and there is a zero tolerance to these situations and our absolute focus is on safety and respect for individuals.”
The 2018 Commonwealth Games opened on Wednesday April 4 and will run through to April 15 in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.
Convicted Russian pedophiles face life sentences under Duma proposals
Entering the 21st Century - Russian CSA laws
Hailstones in Moscow © Sputnic
The Russian lower house Committee for Family, Women and Children has approved calls to hold a vote on introducing life sentences as possible punishment for sex crimes against children.
If passed, the bill would change the current situation in which the maximum punishment for sex crimes against persons under 14 years of age is 20 years in prison. It also requalifies as grave crimes the making, purchase, possession, distribution, public display and advertising of child porn.
The draft also proposes to abolish the statute of limitation in the investigation of sex crimes against minors. One of the main sponsors of the bill, MP Irina Yarovaya (United Russia), said that the changes are necessary because victims of sex crimes, especially those who suffer them regularly, often become depressed and withdrawn, and it may take significant time before law enforcement agencies receive the information they need to start a criminal probe.
The new bill also describes as an aggravating condition the situation when suspected pedophiles live together with their victims, act as their guardians or work as their teachers.
In earlier comments, Russian Ombudsman for Children’s Rights Anna Kuznetsova supported the proposed changes. “The law must meet the challenges of our time. Unfortunately, some of the crimes that emerge today have been committed many years ago and it is not possible to punish the criminals,” she said.
According to Russia’s Investigative Committee, the number of sex crimes against children is currently on the rise. The agency began 7,011 criminal cases into such crimes in 2017, compared with 5,835 in 2016.
Of course, these are the number of reported crimes and probably represent perhaps 1 or 2% of reality.
1 in 4 UK university students sexually harassed
or worse by academic staff – report
© Novastock / Getty Images
Four in 10 university students have experienced some sort of unwanted sexual advances by academic staff, ranging from sexual comments to rape, new research reveals.
According to a survey of 1,839 current and former students by the National Union of Students (NUS) and campaign organization 1752 Group, 41 percent reported being subjects of unwanted sexual advances from university staff.
The study, Power in the Academy: Staff Sexual Misconduct in UK Higher Education, warns that the sector is “not currently a safe environment,” especially as, the report notes, most of the perpetrators are academic staff with “power over students’ academic success, wellbeing and career” prospects.
Of the 1,535 respondents, 12 percent were found to have been touched in a sexual way that made them feel uncomfortable. Thirty-five current students and 30 ex-students said they had had non-consensual sexual contact, while a further 15 reported sexual assault and rape. Only a quarter of those who reported their abuse thought their institutions had done enough to prevent the harassment from reoccurring.
Hareem Ghani, NUS women’s officer, said: “For too long, these problems have been, at best, sidelined and, at worst, silenced by institutions. We need to talk about the open secrets that plague academia, to stop abuses of power wherever they happen.”
The damning research also found that women are not only twice more likely to be harassed than men, they are three times more likely to be negatively affected. One student from a top London art school told the Guardian she had attempted suicide after being bullied and groped by a female staff member.
Anna Bull, co-founder of the 1752 Group and senior lecturer at the University of Portsmouth, said: “This research draws attention to the extremely poor response of UK institutions to the sexual misconduct of their employees… institutions often do further harm to students who take the brave step of reporting such misconduct."
“There is no excuse for institutions not to act. It is particularly concerning that the majority of perpetrators of staff sexual misconduct appear to be academic staff, who, by the nature of their role, have power over students’ academic success, well-being and
Universities minister Sam Gyimah responded to the findings saying: “Violence and sexual harassment in any setting is completely unacceptable and victims should report cases to the police.
"The government expects universities to take a zero-tolerance approach to this abhorrent behaviour so that students feel confident and able to report what they have experienced,” Gyimah told the Guardian.
“Following the report from Universities UK’s sexual violence and harassment taskforce, we have asked the higher education sector to do more and implement their recommendations. We must now ensure that the work of the taskforce goes onto make a real difference to students across the country.”
American jailed in Cambodia over
sexual abuse of 12 boys
Khy Sovuthy / Khmer Times
Takeo Provincial Court has sentenced a Cambodian-American man to seven years in prison for purchasing child prostitution in Tram Kak district, where he molested at least 12 underage boys from 2013 to 2015 at a pagoda.
Anti-paedophile NGO Action Pour Les Enfants issued a statement about the verdict yesterday, saying that the court convicted Tan Saravuth, 48, and sentenced him to seven years in prison last week.
Lim Sokhorn, spokesman for the provincial court, confirmed the case yesterday.
“Takeo Provincial Court decided to sentence Cambodian-American Tan Saravuth to seven years in prison for purchasing child prostitution in Tram Kak district’s Sre Ronong commune from 2013 to 2015,” he said.
Aple said that police began investigating Mr Saravuth in 2016 for suspected child sexual abuse and exploitation.
During the investigation, Anti-Human Trafficking and Juvenile Protection police identified 17 potential victims, all aged between eight and 15.
In April 2017, anti-human trafficking police and provincial police led a raid to arrest the suspect, rescuing 11 victims in Tram Kak district, where Mr Saravuth had been living since 2012 after returning to Cambodia in 1997 from the US, where he was previously jailed on child molestation convictions.
After the arrest, police identified a further six potential victims, bringing the total to 17. The court recognized 12 of the boys as victims and ordered Mr Saravuth to pay them about $7,000 in compensation.
“Tan Saravuth was known to many villagers because of his false kindness,” Aple said in its statement. “He built trust within the community and started grooming various families there through lending them money and paying them to take holiday trips before ultimately taking the community boys to his residence in a pagoda in Takeo’s Tram Kak district.”
Mr Saravuth’s lawyer Peov Thanak said yesterday that his client did not deny the charges and that he confessed to the crimes, while also informing police of his previous convictions in the US.
“He did not ask me to appeal against the court’s decision, so it means that he agreed with the court’s decision,” said Mr Thanak.
Venerable Khim Sorn, chief of the secretariat of the Mohanikaya Monk Order, said yesterday that Mr Saravuth should have been banned from the pagoda as soon as police launched an investigation.
“According to the rule of Buddhism, people should not commit such heinous crimes,” he said.
According to any version of humanity, people should not commit such heinous crimes.
“By being at a pagoda and still committing the crime, it means he does not respect Buddhism.”
Excuse me, but Buddhism is not the primary victim here!
Tram Kak, Cambodia
Argentine child sex abuse scandal widens
by AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE
Children leaving the school run by River Plate in Buenos Aires © AFP / Eitan ABRAMOVICH
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina, Apr 4 – A child abuse scandal involving several of Argentina’s most famous football clubs continued to unfold with interviews and searches while rippling outwards to include the country’s gymnastics federation.
The lid was first lifted in March after a 17-year-old player with top Argentinian side Independiente told a club psychologist that he and another young player had been encouraged to sell themselves for sex. Club directors reported the allegations to the police.
On Monday a doctor and a psychologist at another Buenos Aires club, River Plate, told authorities that young footballers and volleyballers at the club had suffered sexual abuse.
Authorities are also investigating a potential case at a third football club, Temperley.
On Tuesday, the Argentine Olympic Committee (COA) said a 40-year-old former gymnast had complained of abuse as a minor.
Asked on Argentine TV how many gymnastics cases there might be, COA president Gerardo Werthein said “it is difficult to know” but added that “there are several.”
Buenos Aires-based River Plate and Independiente are two of the most famous clubs in the country.
River have won a record 36 league titles while Independiente have won the Copa Libertadores — South America’s equivalent of the UEFA Champions League — a record seven times.
Both are multi-sport clubs and operate hostels for young players recruited from across Argentina and abroad.
Recent graduates of the River youth system include Javier Mascherano (Barcelona), Gonzalo Higuain (Juventus), Erik Lamela (Tottenham) and Radamel Falcao (Monaco), who was bought from a Colombian club on his 15th birthday. Sergio Aguero (Manchester City) is a product of the Independiente youth system.
— Coaxed into prostitution —
Teenagers boarding with Independiente were reportedly coaxed into selling themselves in exchange for money, promotion to other teams within the club, football boots or even underwear.
The teenager at the centre of the allegations said he and a 19-year-old player had been encouraged to sell themselves in a trendy Buenos Aires neighbourhood, where sexual encounters were organised with adult men, according to the local press.
“The structure of this underage prostitution network didn’t only operate at Independiente. There are other clubs,” public prosecutor Maria Soledad Garibaldi said.
So far, six people have been arrested as result of the Independiente case, including referee Martin Bustos, a public relations official and an organiser of youth tournaments.
At River Plate, the complaint filed with police concerns the alleged sexual abuse of players in youth teams between 2004 and 2011, according to judicial sources cited by local media.
“A surgeon knew there had been abuse of children who lived at the boarding facility at River,” Andres Bonicalzi, a lawyer for a rape victims charity, said at a press conference on Monday.
Among the cases were two, involving young football players and one concerning a girl on a volleyball team.
“We are investigating the testimony of provincial families whose children are victims of a paedophile network,” Bonicalzi added.
Police searched River’s facilities on Tuesday. The doctor and psychologist are due to give their testimony to prosecutors on Wednesday.
“Children came from their provinces with a dream,” said Maria Elena Leuzzi, the founder of Association of Victims of Violation, the NGO that defends minors who suffer sexual abuse and which arranged the official complaint to police by the River Plate medical staff.
“They stole their childhoods and their bodies,” she said.
Oscar Mangione, a former psychologist at another famous Buenos Aires club, Boca Juniors, said one problem is that only a tiny handful of the youngsters the clubs take from their homes make it as footballers.
— Context of vulnerability —
“Football is seen as a way upwards, but that’s not true because from every hundred boys who enter the system only two or three will play in the first division,” Mangione said.
“These abuses occur in a context of vulnerability: many of these youngsters come from distant provinces and are separated from their families.
“These reports will show that parents need to take more precautions.”
Maria Elena Leuzzi is the president of the Association of Victims of Violation which organised the complaint against the River Plate club © AFP / EITAN ABRAMOVICH
But, he added, “this is not something limited to the clubs, these networks take advantage of the vulnerability of the boys, it is likely that they will also recruit young people in poor neighbourhoods."
Another Argentine sports psychologist, Miguel Garcia Lombardi, said the way the youth system functions encourages players to see themselves as merchandise.
“A footballer is playing to become a millionaire, we are in the process of marketing football, it starts with the player’s body. We buy the player, we invest in that body to make money,” Lombardi said.
“Sex is just another element.”
French cardinal to stand trial in child sex abuse cover-up
Philippe Sotto, Associated Press
PARIS (AP) — A French court has set a date in early 2019 for the criminal trial of a French cardinal and a high-ranking Vatican prelate suspected of covering up a child sex abuse scandal in the eastern diocese of Lyon.
Victims of a priest who has confessed to preying on them have summoned Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, archbishop of Lyon, Monsignor Luis Ladaria Ferrer, head of a powerful office in the Vatican, and five other Catholic Church officials to appear together in court for allegedly being informed of the priest's past abuses and not reporting them to authorities.
A Lyon court on Wednesday set the trial to January 7-9. The lawsuit is the most prominent church sex abuse case to date in France.
Barbarin and some of the other defendants will also be tried for leaving the priest in contact with children until he retired in 2015, while knowing he had a history of sexual assaults.
The 67-year-old cardinal, one of the highest-ranking figures in the French Catholic Church, has admitted some "mistakes" in the management and nominations of certain priests but denied any attempt to cover up the case. Pope Francis has lent his support to Barbarin, saying he was a "brave" man.
The seven defendants, including another archbishop and a bishop, would face up to three years in prison and a 45,000-euro ($53,000) fine if found guilty of failing to report the priest's crimes. The penalty would be increased to up to five years in prison and a 75,000-euro ($88,000) fine for those convicted of failing to assist a person in danger.
The victims, most of them now in their 30s and 40s, have claimed a local priest, Rev. Bernard Preynat, sexually abused them when they were boy scouts aged between 7 and 12 in the Lyon region between 1986 and 1991, well before Barbarin was appointed archbishop of Lyon in 2002.
Dozens of older abuses by the same priest were reported to local Church officials and judicial authorities but couldn't give rise to legal complaints because of the statute of limitations.
Preynat, now in his 70s, confessed his wrongdoings in letters to victims' parents and meetings with his superiors, including Barbarin. His last known abuses were in 1991.
A separate criminal investigation is still ongoing on Preynat who was given preliminary charges of sexual assaults on minors. Judges have yet to send him to trial.
After the prosecutor's office in Lyon dismissed the cover-up case in 2016, victims decided to summon Barbarin and others, their only way to force a trial.
Jean Boudot, a lawyer for a plaintiff, said the upcoming trial will hopefully help to put an end to the "culture of omerta" — an unwritten rule of silence — in the Church. "We do not want this to happen to others," he told The Associated Press.
Emmanuelle Haziza, another plaintiff's lawyer, insisted that "the Church has not yet fully realized the extent and seriousness of the phenomenon of pedophilia within it."
"With this trial, we want to show that no one is above the law, help other victims to report sex crimes and detail the chain of responsibilities within the Church," Haziza told the AP.
That's why the victims also want Monsignor Ladaria to appear in court in Lyon next year. They say Barbarin sought advice on the Preynat case with the Roman prelate when he was the secretary, or number 2, of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican office that processes and evaluates all cases of priests accused of raping or molesting minors.
In reply, Ladaria sent the cardinal a letter in 2015 to recommend keeping the priest away from children, "while avoiding any public scandal." The letter is part of court documents in the case. The Vatican spokesman declined to comment on Ladaria being summoned to stand trial in France.
Ladaria has since been promoted prefect, or head, of the Congregation, becoming one of the highest ranking Church officials in the Vatican.
The much-publicized Preynat-Barbarin case led the French Church to take a series of measures to fight pedophilia among priests.
Rape claims rock Middleton family as David Matthews denies attacks on teens
David Matthews as his son married Pippa Middleton - sister-in-law of Prince William © Reuters
Pippa Middleton’s father-in-law has been accused of raping a teenager, a week after a woman claimed he attacked her in Paris, it has been reported. Middleton is the sister-in-law of the second in line to the British throne.
David Matthews, 74,
has been accused of raping two women – one in the late 1990s and another in the 80’s – The Sun reported.
The multi-millionaire businessman has reportedly been charged by French authorities over an alleged rape of a 15-year-old girl while South Yorkshire Police are said to be investigating a new allegation of rape from another woman.
The tycoon, father of Pippa’s husband James, 42, and Made in Chelsea star Spencer, 29, denies both allegations. Initially,
Matthews was arrested at Paris Orly Airport last Tuesday and charged with raping a minor. Two days later he appeared at the Palais de Justice and given the ‘mis en examen’ status, which is similar to being charged.
He is accused of the
“rape of a minor by a person with authority over his victim.”
If convicted, the crime carries a 15-year sentence. However, his family says he has been “set up,” just months after his financier son James married Kate Middleton’s sister.
Kate Middleton’s husband Prince William is second in line to the throne. Matthews, a self-made millionaire, went from being the son of a coal miner in Rotherham to building a second-hand car empire, to earning millions and owning a £5,000-a-night hotel on St Barts.
The alleged rape took place on the island. However, friends have been quoted as suggesting this is part of a “revenge plot.”
Last year, the woman told the French Brigade for the Protection of Minors she was raped in 1998 in St Barts. She was 15 and Matthews was in his 50s at the time of the reported assault.
The same woman said she was then assaulted a year later in Paris. The woman, now 35 and living in Britain, told police she had initially blamed herself for the attacks, which left her feeling “shocked and disgusted.” Matthews denies both accusations.
A spokesman for Mr. Matthews, represented by the Queen’s solicitors Farrer & Co, said: “David Matthews categorically denies the allegation and unequivocally contests the untrue and scandalous accusation.”
Now, the former apprentice mechanic has been accused of rape by another woman in the UK. South Yorkshire Police refused to comment on the second accusation yesterday.
1,784% Increase in child sex abuse cases in Indian capitol
Kanika Mehta | New Delhi
Cases of Child Sexual Abuse in the national Capital have increased by almost 1,784 per cent, says the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) in its report of 2016.
This means that every day, four minor children have been reported to be sexually assaulted or harassed.
As per the latest data on Child Sexual Abuse cases which are registered under the Protection Of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act 2012,
in 2015, from January 1 till December 31, Delhi reported 86 cases of Child Sexual Abuse while in 2016, in the same time period, 1620 cases of child sexual abuse were reported in the city. Around 85 per cent of cases of sexual abuse take place inside homes or slums or at places known to the victims. In 38.89 per cent of the cases, the accused are relatives, the data indicates.
That just 39% of the accused are relatives, in all probability, means that the majority of cases of CSA are still not being reported. These numbers are liable to get much worse, before they get better, if that is possible.
A senior Delhi Police officer said that
the rise in the registration of POCSO cases is due to widespread awareness among the public, there is an increase in the reporting of cases.
Talking about the loopholes in the cases registered under the POCSO Act, a senior police officer told The Pioneer,
“Although the case is registered, it takes a long time to establish the role of the accused."
This loophole thus gives time to the accused to convince the family of the victim to withdraw their charges.” The officer said that
almost 90% of POCSO cases have both the victim and accused belonging to the same community or colony.
Accordingly, as per the study conducted by the Delhi Police in 2016,
84% of child rapes took place in houses or in slum clusters where the accused were known to the victim, and 39% of the crimes were found to involve the friends of the victims. The National Crime Records Bureau data of the same year showed that on average,
only 61% of sexual cases were reported by economically disadvantaged groups. The data also recorded that 71 rape victims were aged below six years, while 806 were in the age group of 18-30.
