Woman's Rape Claims Against Father & Brother were 'Shelved' by Gardaí for 11 Years

Alleged victim claims she was told gardai ‘forgot’ to send file to DPP

DPP then refused to prosecute

IT TOOK GARDAÍ 11 years to pass claims to the DPP from a woman that she suffered sexual abuse at the hands of male relatives from the age of 7.

The woman said her father first raped her as a child and encouraged one of her brothers to do the same. Her claims were verified by social workers and in documents seen by TheJournal.ie, a social worker said “the father accepts he abused her”.

However, even though the woman brought her claims to gardaí in 1997, when she was in her 20s, the case was only passed on to the Director of Public Prosecutions ELEVEN years later, in 2008.

Store Street Garda station. It is not clear which Garda station the woman reported to.

The woman said she received a call from a blocked number shortly after the file eventually went to the DPP telling her that no charges were to be brought against her father and that she received no official correspondence from gardaí to that effect.

As per DPP rules, there are just 28 days in which to lodge an appeal against the decision not to take a prosecution. The woman in this case claims she was not told this and had assumed that she had no more avenues available to her.

However, in some cases the DPP might extend this time limit. The DPP will do this only if there is a good reason and if it is in the interests of justice. The victim has since written to the DPP in recent weeks asking to be told the reasons why her father was not prosecuted.

The woman also claims that she was told by gardaí that the 11-year delay was because investigating gardaí at the Dublin station where she lodged her complaint “forgot to send the file to the DPP”.

Complaint made

In September 1997, the victim made her official complaint to the gardaí and a statement was taken. Her father was brought in for questioning and she was told that a file was being prepared for the DPP.

In the meantime, one of her brothers – who was also due to be questioned – took his own life.

The woman heard no more about her case and had suffered a number of nervous breakdowns in the following years and began receiving therapy from around 2000.

She was told by her therapist that it would be in the interest of her mental health to get closure on the abuse and finding out why she had not heard back from gardai or the DPP could help with this. This led her to investigate what happened to her initial complaint.

Garda meeting

In early 2008, the woman made representations to both the DPP and gardaí, asking for an update on her case some 11 years after she first made her complaint.

A matter of weeks later, the woman, by then a mother herself, received a phone call asking if she could come in and meet the then Chief Superintendent and Superintendent of the same Garda station in which she had made the official complaint.

She claims that she was told her file was not sent to the DPP when it should have been and that an internal investigation was ongoing to try to figure out why that happened. She was told she could contact the Garda Ombudsman and that she was entitled to make a complaint. However, she was assured that her case was now a priority. Therefore, she told TheJournal.ie, she decided against contacting the Garda Ombudsman hoping her case would be dealt with in a more timely fashion.

A number of months later, the victim then received a phone call stating that the DPP had decided not to pursue the case. She said she was “devastated” as she had provided a lot of documentation to gardai in 1997 in which social workers confirmed that she had been abused, and that it was always her greatest fear that she wouldn’t be believed.

Documents proving abuse/removal from home

Documentation by the Eastern Health Board (EHB) and social workers seen by TheJournal.ie confirm the following:

The woman was sexually assaulted as a child

Her father and brother performed “full intercourse” with the child

Child sex abuse was confirmed by the social workers and EHB

Her father cut a hole in her wall and would routinely watch his daughters undress

She and her three sisters were placed in care for a time. She was 7 at the time.

Two older sisters were then sent to a home in the southeast of the country

The victim and her younger sister went to a children’s home in north Dublin

All the girls were returned to the family home after six months

No male child was ever removed from their family home

Court documents show that the parents were not fit to take care of her

Source: TheJournal.ie

The woman’s parents are still alive.

The partially-redacted document (above) from the Eastern Health Board details the removal of the four girls from their home in 1980:

It was therefore decided to seek a Fit Persons Order in court and, if granted, would remove the four girls from their home. The Justice granted the Fit Persons Orders on the four girls to the Eastern Health Board for a six month period. It is the intention of the Health Board to request an extension of this period when the case comes up for review in February 1981. It is the belief of the clinic team here that the future happiness of these girls depends on offering them an alternative to the situation in which they were living at home.

After six months in care, all four of the young girls were returned to their home. The woman said that the abuse continued.

When asked for comment on why the children were returned to their parents in 1981 and no legal action taken against the father, Tusla said it cannot comment on incidents which predated its existence. The HSE, when asked for comment on the actions of the Eastern Health Board in this case, referred us to Tusla.

Continued abused

More documentation seen by TheJournal.ie states that the victim’s father had a drinking problem and would interfere with the woman, when she was a child, on a regular basis. The documents also show that one of her brothers would get involved in the abuse.

When she became older, she would routinely ask her mother for money to attend a local disco and was told the family had not enough money. She claimed that her father would bring her out the back garden, force her to perform a sex act on him and then hand her money to go out with her friends.

On one night when she was 15 and attending the local disco, the girl suffered a fit and was brought by ambulance to Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown. It was there she told doctors that she would not return home.

Statements and documents created by the Eastern Health Board and social workers at this time show how the family was already known to the health services.

A letter from a social worker at the hospital reads: “[Victim] aged 15 was brought to casualty at about 1.30am on 2.3.89 by Dublin Fire Brigade ambulance. She had been at a disco/dance, had sustained an epileptic fit and had been found outside Wynn’s hotel. She told me she left home four days ago and had gone to live with a cousin….. She had begun to have epileptic seizures four years ago and had not had a seizure for a year until last night.”

It continued:

She refused to go home.The gardaí had gone to the family home but her parents refused to have anything to do with her. She wanted to go back to her cousin’s house, so I brought her to X. No-one was in, neighbours did not know where [her cousin] was so I brought her to Focus Point [now Focus Ireland].

The letter finishes with the fact that “the family is already known to the Eastern Health Board”.

Another document from this time relates to her being placed in the emergency accommodation provided by Focus Point.

I contacted parents and brought her to see X. (Risk Identification Checklist signed by mother). Records in [a child and family agency at the time] shows history of sexual abuse (father/daughter [7]).

“[Social worker] passed on the following information he received from X (victim). Mr [name redacted] has an alcohol problem. He harms X in a sexual way when he has drink taken, the family known to [the] Child and Family Centre some years ago. Allegations of sexual abuse leading to X and sisters in care home some 10 years previously.

I read through some of the large file… and confirmed that Mr Y had an incestuous relationship with his daughter. Also X’s brother was also abusing her.

A letter from a social worker detailing some of the alleged abuse.

Also references large file on the family held at child and family centre.

Source: TheJournal.ie

The girl, then 15, spent a short time in the emergency hostel but eventually went home again because she was told her father was getting treatment to stop him from abusing her. He also was receiving treatment for alcoholism at a rehabilitation clinic.

A social worker wrote about this, reconfirming that she had been in an abusive situation and that her father had admitted the abuse:

Previous history of abuse by father and brother (24) which included intercourse by offenders. This was eight years ago. X (victim) says her father touched her in a way she didn’t like and she ran away. It appears that he fondled her breasts. She stayed in emergency hostel care but has since gone home. Father accepts that he abused her. X says she feels safe at home now and she has been referred to the Rape Crisis Centre.

Below that statement, it is confirmed that the health board was dealing with a case of child sex abuse (CSA). The box indicating ‘confirmed child sex abuse’ is selected.

The woman said the abuse stopped at home when she returned and she finally left for good at 18. She did not find out until she was an adult that her father had previously spent time in a psychiatric unit after he interfered with young children outside the family before she was born.

TheJournal.ie contacted the Department of the Taoiseach, the Department of Justice and the DPP for comment on the case. Both departments said that this case did not fall under their remit. The DPP said it could not comment on an individual case and on questions around the woman’s appeal, and directed us to their website for regulations and deadlines relating to applications.

An Garda Síochána declined to formally comment on the accusations or on whether an internal investigation was conducted into the woman’s claim that she was told her file was “forgotten” for 11 years.

However, they said they were satisfied that a file was sent to the DPP in 2009 and that no prosecution was recommended.

Tusla has said that it can’t comment on the case as it occurred before the child and family agency was set up.

The HSE was contacted for comment about protocols which were in place regarding child sex abuse reports and what standard procedure at the time was for bringing these issues to the attention of gardaí.

They referred us to Tusla.

The Worst Case of Victim Abuse I Have Ever Heard Of

'I'm the victim and I'm in shackles': Edmonton woman jailed while testifying against her attacker

Alberta justice minister apologizes for 'appalling' treatment

of sexual assault victim

By Janice Johnston, CBC News

This photograph shows some of the injuries Angela Cardinal suffered when she was attacked by Lance Blanchard. The 28-year-old spent five nights in jail in June 2015 while testifying in a preliminary hearing. (Edmonton Police Service)

On a Monday afternoon in June 2015, Angela Cardinal was led into an Edmonton courtroom handcuffed and in leg shackles. Metallic rattling echoed as a sheriff escorted the 28-year-old to the witness stand.

She was not the accused, but rather a victim — called to testify at a preliminary hearing after she was savagely attacked and sexually assaulted by a notorious sexual predator.

Cardinal was angry about being locked up.

'You're going back to remand tonight

so that we can get you back here tomorrow.'

- Provincial court Judge Raymond Bodnarek

"I'm the victim and look at me, I'm in shackles," she told provincial court Judge Raymond Bodnarek.

"You're going to go back to remand tonight," he replied, "so that we can get you back here tomorrow."

Cardinal's fury increased.

"Shackles," she spat. "Aren't you supposed to commit a crime to go to jail?"

Cardinal was forced to spend a total of five nights in the Edmonton Remand Centre during her testimony.

Angela Cardinal is not the woman's real name. A publication ban prohibits CBC from identifying her even though she died in an unrelated, accidental shooting months after testifying at the preliminary hearing.

'Didn't deserve to be locked up'

Alberta Justice Minister Kathleen Ganley was appalled when CBC News told her of Cardinal's treatment.

"I've never seen a case like this," she said. "I mean, how many people did she come into contact with and nobody stood up and said, 'Guys I think this is wrong. I think we've made a mistake.'

Alberta Justice Minister Kathleen Ganley said she was shocked and appalled by the justice system's treatment of Angela Cardinal. (Trevor Wilson/CBC)

"I was very surprised that our system would have allowed something like this to happen … I think that anyone would be shocked by it."

Ganley said she has already formed a special committee to look at the case to review policies, with an eye to making what she calls "aggressive changes." As well, criminal lawyer Roberta Campbell, outgoing president of the Law Society of Manitoba, will head an independent investigation into the treatment of Cardinal.

'She was the victim. We should have treated her as the victim.'

- Alberta Justice Minister Kathleen Ganley

"She was the victim. We should have treated her as the victim. And I think it definitely speaks to a series of wrong decisions and a series of systemic failures that would have allowed us to do something like this to this young woman."

Aggravated sexual assault

Cardinal, a Cree woman from Maskwacis, about 100 kilometres south of Edmonton, moved to the city when she was 14.

On a June afternoon in 2014, she was tired and hungry, with nowhere to call home. She convinced a tenant to let her inside a central Edmonton apartment building. She had no idea that Lance Blanchard, a career criminal, lived on the second floor.

Convicted sexual predator Lance Blanchard, shown hours after he attacked Angela Cardinal in June 2014. (Edmonton Police Service)

Curled up in the stairwell next to a baseboard heater, Cardinal sang herself to sleep with This Little Light of Mine. But she awoke to a knife at her throat. Holding it was  a six-foot-seven-inch, 260-pound convicted sexual predator. At just over five feet tall, weighing only 109 pounds, Cardinal was at a clear disadvantage.

"Blanchard came out of nowhere, bat out of hell, grabbing me," Cardinal testified.

She said he dragged her by the hair, up the stairs, to his dirty, cluttered apartment.

Once they were inside, she said, all hell broke loose.

'I was praying I would die'

"He started stabbing me," Cardinal said. "He said he was going to make me ugly and stick me in a closet and keep me. He started banging my head off the ground."

Angela Cardinal's shoes and socks were removed by Blanchard and left behind on a blood-stained couch in his apartment. (Edmonton Police Service)

Exhibit photos show Cardinal's jacket and shoes on a blood-soaked couch. Blanchard held her at knifepoint, removed her clothing and fondled her.

"I felt disgusting," Cardinal told court. "I wanted to get away as fast as possible, but I couldn't. I was praying I would die before anything else happened."

Blanchard grabbed electrical cords to tie up her legs. Court transcripts show he tried to stab her in the chest, but Cardinal put up her left hand to protect herself. Blood poured from a deep cut to her palm.

She made a run for the door, but couldn't turn the knob with her slippery, bloody hands.

Help finally arrived

Blanchard was on top of Cardinal's back when she pulled out a hidden phone, dialled 911, put it on speaker and threw it across the room.

The six-minute phone call to police was chaotic. On a recording, Cardinal can be heard screaming frantically in the background, "Help me. Somebody, help me. I've been stabbed."

It took 27 stitches to repair the wound to her hand. Her body was covered with cuts. One eye was black and blue. Her neck was bruised from where Blanchard tried to choke her.

It took 27 stitches to close the wound on Cardinal's hand after she was attacked by a knife-wielding Lance Blanchard. (Edmonton Police Service )

Ordered into custody

One year later, on June 5, 2015, Cardinal had to face her attacker again, at his preliminary hearing.

On the first day she was called to testify, she kept falling asleep. She had trouble focusing and answering questions.

At the request of Crown prosecutor Patricia Innes, Bodnarek ordered that Cardinal spend the weekend at the Edmonton Remand Centre. Both were concerned about her physical and mental state.

They were concerned about her physical and mental state in as much as it affected the trial. They, quite obviously, weren't very concerned about her welfare.

Innes suggested Cardinal had "presented in a condition unsuitable for testifying, and we don't know what the reason is."

'You sit in the back of those cells. It feels like an hour

went by but really it's only 20 minutes.'

- Angela Cardinal, in court testimony

Bodnarek determined he had authority to detain Cardinal under Section 545(1)(b) of the Criminal Code, which applies to witnesses who refuse to answer questions.

Edmonton Remand Centre

When Cardinal returned to court after a weekend in custody, she pleaded with the judge to be "unremanded."

"It's not a pleasant scene I'm living," she said. "Like, I'm the fricking victim here and I mean, like, come on. You sit in the back of those cells. It feels like an hour went by but really it's only 20 minutes."

Cardinal asked to be released to stay with her mother. She promised she would return to court to continue her testimony.

Bodnarek refused, but told her: "We're going to make sure that all efforts will be made to keep you separate from Mr. Blanchard."

On two occasions, Angela Cardinal was confined to the back of a prisoner transport van with Lance Blanchard, the man who sexually assaulted her. (Sam Martin/CBC)

But both Blanchard and Cardinal were detained at the same facility. It was later revealed that at least twice, Cardinal had to travel in the same cramped prisoner transport van as her attacker. The remand centre and Edmonton's courthouse are 15 kilometres apart.

During court breaks, Cardinal was usually placed in a cell close to Blanchard.

Ganley called that yet another failure of the justice system.

"None of us will ever really understand what it was like for her to sit there and stare at the man who did this to her," Ganley said. "While she's trapped, essentially."

'Taken advantage of'

Deb Tomlinson has spent decades working with sex assault survivors. She is currently the CEO of the Association of Alberta Sexual Assault Services.

Deb Tomlinson, CEO of Association of Alberta Sexual Assault Services, says sex assault victims require specialized support throughout the judicial process. (CBC)

"I just felt really, really sad. And certainly angry as well," Tomlinson said after learning about the case. "First of all, that this young woman was taken advantage of and sexually assaulted. And then was — in many ways — taken advantage of and retraumatized by the system that she sought to seek justice through."

Sex assault victims require specialized support throughout the entire process, including testifying, Tomlinson said.

"And this was the farthest thing from victim support that I've ever seen."

​Tragedy after preliminary hearing

Seven months after Cardinal testified at the preliminary hearing, she became a victim once again, gunned down in an accidental shooting. The man who shot her pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

While alive, Cardinal never told her mother about the assault or about her experience testifying.

"She didn't say anything to us," Cardinal's mother said tearfully, when CBC News shared the details with her in April. "She said she had to go to court. That's all she told me."

She is outraged by the way her daughter was treated. "It's not right. And after all what he did to her, it's not fair."

'Her treatment by the justice system was appalling.'

- Justice Eric Macklin

Blanchard was ultimately committed to stand trial. When the case was heard in Edmonton Court of Queen's Bench, Cardinal's testimony from the preliminary hearing was allowed in as evidence, as she was no longer alive to testify.

Last December, Justice Eric Macklin found Blanchard guilty of aggravated assault, kidnapping, unlawful confinement, aggravated sexual assault, possession of a weapon and threatening to cause death or bodily harm.

Blanchard remains behind bars. The Crown will be asking to have him designated as a dangerous offender.  

Seems a bit late for that. He should have been designated such after his previous crime. But, no, this is Canada where the least sentence possible is the general rule. It does not protect our women and children, obviously.

The judge was blunt in his criticism of the lower court.

"I was troubled by the treatment of the complainant," Macklin wrote in his 49-page decision.

"Her treatment by the justice system was appalling. She is owed an apology."

​Ganley apologizes to victim's mother

After CBC News alerted Ganley to the details of the case, she read Macklin's decision herself.

Last month, the justice minister took it upon herself to call Cardinal's mother to apologize. She described the conversation as "emotional" and "difficult."

Ganley said she regrets not being able to apologize directly to the victim.

"I know there's nothing that can ever be done to make it up," she said. "But I certainly hope we can find a way to never let this happen again."

I certainly hope so too! Would this have happened to a white woman? I seriously doubt it.

Budget Cuts Leave Irish Child Sex Abuse Victims at Risk

By Cormac O'Keeffe
Irish Examiner Reporter

Apologies by governments for historical child sexual abuse “ring hollow” when children continue to be abused by the system, a leading charity has said.

Children at Risk in Ireland (CARI), which provides therapeutic services to sexually abused children, said that the lack of services nationally was harming “a new generation of forgotten children” to whom an apology will need to be given one day.

CARI said if these children are left unsupported, many struggle to cope and that children as young as eight experience thoughts of suicide and self-harm.

CARI therapy supervisor Monica Murphy said the lack of services for such children was “a shocking scandal”. CARI runs a therapeutic service in Dublin and Limerick, while statutory services are only available in Dublin.

Speaking at the launch of CARI annual report for 2013 and 2014, she said: “There are huge gaps in the provision of services. Where you live in Ireland may decide whether a service is available or not. Therapeutic services are urgently needed at a regional and national level.”

She said CARI had been trying to bridge this gap, but has had to shut services in Cork, Naas, and Wicklow due to funding cuts. The reduction of funding has also resulted in the number of therapists it has being cut by a third. This has had the effect of a 29% cut in therapy hours available to children and their families.

“It feels like we are swimming against the tide for funding,” said Ms Murphy.

“National apologies for past practices ring hollow when children continue to be abused by an inadequate system. The sad irony is that the lack of services and practice is harming a new generation of forgotten children to whom a national apology will one day be owed.”

CARI chief executive Mary Flaherty said the charity has suffered “impossibly difficult budgetary pressures” since 2009. She said it was unacceptable that there were waiting lists at their Dublin and Limerick centres and that children can be waiting up to a year to be seen.

The report said that given an appropriate therapeutic space these children “can go on to lead a fulfilling life”.

Addressing the launch, Children’s Minister Dr James Reilly said he would “like to see more investment” in the area. He told the media afterwards that the lack of services nationally was “something this Government needs to look at — no doubt about that”.

The report, which said 3,000 children report sexual abuse every year, comes just days after the sixth anniversary of the damning Ryan report — the commission into child abuse at religious institutions. The CARI report said a new Child Advocates service in Galway — where a staff member supports children attending the sexual assault and treatment unit — was the first of its kind. Figures showed that 58% of children using the service were pre-schoolers. The most common age was four years old, with the youngest child being an infant of eight months.

Helpline: 1890 92 45 67; helpline@cari.ie; www.cari.ie 

The UK’s Rape Jihad: A Survivor’s Tale

The horrifying memories of a 'survivor' of the UK's 

Pakistani grooming and gang-rape culture

By Pamela Geller, Breitbart, May 22, 2015
For years now, Muslim rape gangs in Britain have operated with impunity, preying upon non-Muslim girls while terrified authorities stood by and did nothing, for fear of being accused of “racism.” One of them recently contacted me and told me her harrowing story:

I was the victim of Muslim grooming gangs for well over a decade.

I was very young when it started. I have a very fuzzy memory of the very beginning. My childhood friend remembers me being picked up from a primary school by an older man and being given ketamine, coming home completely out of it, with lots of new underwear, so it began earlier than I remember. My parents worked a lot, so they weren’t really around to notice anything. My friend did at some point tell my parents, but I’m not sure when she did that.

We ended up moving areas, but not too far, now my earliest clear memory starts at 14, we had moved house. I was waiting to be accepted into a school, from what I remember. This man, the very same man picking me up from primary school came to my parents’ home while they were out working, and while my brother was at his school. It was a morning. His name was Jason, I don’t know if he was a Muslim. He was 28 or in his early 30s.

I was quite naive. He had come to take photos of me for a modelling portfolio — at least that’s what he said. They ended up being pictures in my underwear. Eventually he said we needed a different environment and asked if there was a bedroom we could use. I took him to my parents’ bedroom. I thought nothing of it, I didn’t realise it would get worse.

He took more pictures. Then he told me to take everything off and gave me some stockings to out on. I remember the feeling of my stomach turning over, I was really scared. But I did as I was told.

As far as I am aware, I had never been naked in front of a man before then. It’s hard to know with what my friend has recently told me about the ketamine.

Anyway, more pictures were taken. After awhile, I heard my brother come through the door with his friends. It would have been school lunchtime. I panicked, jumped up and held the door shut, I shouted to him not to come up the stairs as I had just got out of the bath. By the time I turned around Jason had taken off his clothes. Again I was shocked. I’d never seen a naked man before. In fact, I’d never even kissed a boy.

I felt myself going red with embarrassment. I told him he would have to go as soon as my brother left. He told me I had better be quiet or my brother would hear me and my parents would find out what I had been up to. He forced himself into me and raped me. I remember him laughing and saying to me, you’re a virgin, aren’t you.

I’ll never forget the smug look on his face in that moment. When he was done with me, he threw money into the bed and told me to buy some nice underwear and that he would be in touch.

The minute he left, I ran a hot bath and just lay on the floor crying while I waited for it to fill.

I felt so ashamed and dirty.

Everything changed that day. I didn’t come out of my room unless I had to. I barely ate. I hated myself.

It wasn’t long until he was back in touch, demanding that I see his friends. The majority were Pakistani Muslim men. If I objected, he threatened to show my parents the photos of me.

I was terrified of them finding out, so I did as I was told.

When the pictures didn’t bother me anymore, and I objected, I would get beatings instead. My ribs were kicked in several times, leaving massive bruises. I was hit with a chain. I was gang raped. I became very compliant, because saying no always lead to much worse. The lives of my family were threatened by Jason and his friends: they said my house would be burned down while we slept, or people would come with baseball bats. I didn’t want my family hurt, so I just did everything I was told.

I have seen some horrendous things, heard some disgusting things when they talked amongst each other about the evil things they do to their wives. The men often spoke in groups about the horrific things they did to their wives and other women. I had to sit and listen.

I was made to talk to their wives on the phone while they raped me, on many occasions. They found it funny, the men.

I have also been through some unimaginable things. I have had a knife held to my throat while I was raped and told by my rapist that he could kill me then put me under the floorboards of his home and no one would know because he was going to Pakistan in a week. I was 16 or 17 years old.

I have had a drill held to my knee while I was sat in a lounge room with around 6 other men, who all laughed and talked in their own language. All of these men were Pakistani Muslims. This all happened while they were waiting for their turn to rape the girl in the other room. This is how they worked. It was a bit like a production line.

I remember it all very well. I would be taken to one of many places, the back of a shop, a takeaway, a taxi office, a barber shop, wooded areas or countrysides very late at night, which was terrifying (they threatened to leave me there once). Most of all I was taken to houses or flats, on the odd occasion a hotel. A lot of the time I was taken to flats they were renovating.

After some time I was no longer having to see just one man at a time as standard. I would be taken to a flat by 2 or 3 men, and when we got there, most often there would be more men waiting inside — on average around 8 men one after the other.

I’d be put in a room and told to take off all of my clothes. I would have to lay there and each man would take his turn one after the other, sometimes some of them would come back again. Sometimes more would show up.

I wasn’t allowed to move, clean myself up, until they were all finished with me. I was not allowed to leave that bed even to use the bathroom until they said so, and most of the time there was no running water or toilet paper, at very best there was cold running water. None of the men used protection, so I caught multiple STIs several times. I wasn’t allowed to use protection. I felt disgusting, so dirty.

Each time I was taken off with these men, sometimes this would happen two or three times a day. Whenever they wanted me, I had to go, whatever time of day it was. I missed a lot of school because of this.

It didn’t matter if I was crying while they raped me, they would laugh and do it anyway.

Just to list some of the things they did to me:

I have had a razor blade squeezed into the palm of my hand.

I have had a knife to my throat more than once. Also a knife held to my stomach.

I have been told how I could be murdered and put under the floorboards by a Muslim man while he raped me, holding the knife in one hand, my wrists pinned to the bed with the other.

I’ve been taken to the woods after midnight and threatened to be left there if I didn’t do as asked.

I’ve been peed on, spat on, slapped, kicked, punched, called a white whore.

They tried to get me to marry Muslim men into the country.

They wanted to take me to Pakistan a few times. Luckily for me, I didn’t have a passport.

I can’t even count the amount of times I’ve been passed to Muslim groups.

There were other girls. I wasn’t the only one. There was a lot they did to us. None of them were ever nice.

I was told if I ever told anyone what was happening to me, I’d have acid poured down my throat.

I remember one afternoon being taken into a room by two men, one being quite drunk. I tried to leave and he threw a vodka bottle at me and flew at me. His friend stopped him beating me and started to talk to him in their language and before I knew it I was pinned between them both and they both raped me. They were laughing as I cried.

They then made me sit with them while they finished their drinks. Eventually they allowed me to leave. I walked 2 miles to get home.

I self-harmed a lot, so I am now covered in scars. I did it at first to make myself less attractive to these men, hoping they wouldn’t want to touch me. That never worked, one of them wanted to cut me some more, for blood play.

I tried to commit suicide several times, as I saw no escape from this. I have no idea how I survived the last overdose, I took 630 mg of codeine, along with sleeping pills and a bottle of alcohol.

These men find it ok to rape non-Muslim girls. It’s in their culture. It’s a brutal cult and needs to be stopped. I still see these men today, they still recognise me, I have moved several times but it’s ineffective.

They are all still free. The English “justice” system is crap. When I was around 15, my mum called the police. The officer sent to deal with me was a well over 6 foot tall built up black man who I found intimidating. He seemed angry with me, asking me very intimate and upsetting questions. When I asked him to stop, he said I had to get used to it, as this is what I would have to deal with in court. He told me that if I were to testify, I would get no protection. For that reason, I never took it further.

The police told my mother that I was a known prostitute and to leave me to it, that I’d stop when I was ready.

In anger, my mum took my phone and rang Jason. He laughed and told her what he did to me in her bed, and that I loved it and couldn’t keep my hands off him.

After a while, I would have been just about 16, my mum had to kick me out because it was all getting too much. My mental state was bad, men were showing up at our home, hanging around in gangs outside the house in cars. It was too much for her and she had to protect my brother too, so I had to go.

I went to live in a youth hostel, where things went from bad to worse.

I was eventually controlled by a Muslim man in his forties or fifties. His name was Yusuf.

I have records dating back about 14 years of me trying to get help, telling medical professionals. And them not believing me. All but one.

Some still see me today and talk brazenly about the things they did, and still do. The police haven’t been helpful. I am utterly disgusted at the lack of interest from the police and the lack of protection they have given me despite the information I have given them. These people do know where I live, so I just hope the police do not use my name in their reports, like they said they may have to.

They ruined a big part of my life. Now, I am angry. I can’t let them win. I’m afraid, yes, but I am now doing what I can to get the message out there of what goes on with these gangs.

What kind of country, what kind of civilization, allows this to happen to its young girls? What deep sickness has overtaken Britain, that the authorities will not act to protect girls in this situation? Britain, and the West in general, is entering a dark and savage age.

Child Abuser has Sentence Halved as Judges Rule Six-year-old Victim 'was Gay'

Astonishingly Stupid Decision by 2 Argentine 

Appeals Court Judges

The ruling has caused outrage in Argentina Credit: Stock image

Victim blaming a 6 year old

Two Argentine judges are under fire after cutting the sentence of a paedophile in half on the grounds that his six-year-old victim was gay.

Describing the now 11-year-old as having a “homosexual orientation”, appeal court judges Horacio Piombo and Benjamín Sal Llargués decided to cut the prison sentence for Mario Tolosa from six years to three, as they felt his victim was “accustomed to sexual behaviour” following years of abuse by his father.

“It cannot be considered abuse when a boy is used to being abused in his home and is accustomed to sexual behaviour and has a homosexual orientation,” they said in their ruling.

Even when the boy is six years old? What were these judges thinking, or smoking? So, because you've been chronically abused as an infant, you are fair game for pedophiles and other perverts. I'm surprised the judges didn't give this guy a gold watch!

Calls to impeach the judges have spread across the country after the verdict came to light last week.

Justice Piombo defended the decision on Monday, saying that before Mr Tolosa molested the boy, the child had already suffered “the initiation by his father into the worst of worlds, leading him to depravation.”

Spectacular stupidity or what?

The judge said that as a result of that experience, the boy had showed “signs of a transvestite conduct, of conduct we had to take into account.”

Why? At the age of six, the boys conduct is completely irrelevant. A six year old cannot be held responsible for his own rape. That is twisted, bizarre thinking. I'm not sure these two judges should be allowed on the streets let alone on the bench.

I'm finding it hard to believe two Appeals Court judges could be so spectacularly stupid. I think an investigation needs to be held to see if something else was motivating the judges.

Adding that Mr Tolosa’s actions could not be considered “gravely outrageous” in legal terms because his victim was already “making a precocious choice” about his sexuality.

The ruling dates from last year but become public last week as prosecutors at Buenos Aires’ Supreme Court decided to appeal the verdict.

The Argentine Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Trans have demanded the judges be removed from the bench, saying the ruling placed the victim "in the position of a suspect".

Interior Minister Florencio Randazzo said the ruling was "an embarrassment".

"It's repugnant to say that the presumed sexual orientation of an abused six-year-old boy is a reason to reduce the sentence of the abuser," he added.

It's more than embarrassing and repugnant, it's borderline criminal. It's victim abuse at its worst. 

Police Lost Distressing Testimony About Child Sex Abuse

South Wales Police have been fined £160,000 Photo: Alamy

A police force has apologised to a victim of child sexual abuse after officers lost a DVD containing their interview.

South Wales Police have been fined £160,000 after it lost the video recording which formed part of the evidence in a sexual abuse case.

So, who gets the £160,000; the victim - not likely. And from where does it come; the police budget? Does that mean the police will be hindered by a £160,000 cut. That means the people of South Wales end up paying both the fine and the loss of policing. Seems fair!???

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said the video contained a "graphic and disturbing" interview with a victim who had been sexually abused as a child.

Despite the security breach going unreported for almost two years, the police force said on Monday it is considering an appeal against the fine.

A second interview had to be abandoned due to the victim’s distress. But South Wales Police said the loss of the DVD did not prevent a successful prosecution of the in the case after the defendants were eventually convicted in court.

“Despite the DVDs containing a graphic and disturbing account, the discs were unencrypted and left in a desk drawer,” said the ICO.

The interview was recorded in August 2011 but the loss was only discovered by staff after an office move in October 2011.

Assistant chief constable Richard Lewis said: "South Wales Police takes its responsibilities for the management and security of information extremely seriously and has apologised to the victim in this case.

"Once it was apparent what had happened South Wales Police voluntarily referred the details to the ICO and launched a full investigation into this incident.”

As a result of the loss, two officers have now been given management advice and training.

The ICO said “lack of training” was responsible for the security breach going unreported for nearly two years. The DVDs have still not been recovered.

Although the DVDs were stored in a secure part of the station, there was no specific force-wide policy in place to deal with storing interviews of this nature safely in its police stations, said the ICO.

South Wales Police said it has immediately sought to change its processes and a new policy has been put in place.

South Wales police still using DVDs? Seriously!

Mr Lewis said: “Where information of this nature was previously stored locally, South Wales Police is now moving to a central storage facility which, using a barcode system, will be far more robust in monitoring the movement of materials such as DVDs.

"All employees are made aware of the policies and procedures which govern the management of information and since this incident a mandatory training package for all staff handling personal data has also been introduced.

"This is the first incident of a serious nature regarding loss of sensitive data for South Wales Police and unlike similar incidents which have occurred nationally, where materials have been lost in a public place, the DVDs were stored in a secure area of a police station to which access is restricted.”

Anne Jones, assistant Commissioner for Wales said the force had failed to take all appropriate measures to prevent the accidental loss of personal data.

She said: “This breach is extremely serious and despite guidance from our office, the Ministry of Justice and Association of Chief Police Officers stating it is essential to have a policy on storing this sort of information they still haven’t fully addressed the issue.

“The monetary penalty given to South Wales Police should send a clear message that organisations have to take responsibility for personal data and the way in which it is stored.”

However Mr Lewis said that while the force accepted the ICO decision, the fine was “very significant” at a time of such austerity.

“It is money which does not go to the victim but passes back to the Government and are funds that could have been used locally by the force to help enhance policing and provide vital services to our communities,” he said.

He added that the force was currently considering whether to now appeal against the penalty.

In addition to the £160,000 fine, the Information Commissioner has asked the force sign an undertaking to ensure the changes are made to implement policies to stop any incidents happening again.

CPS to Review Decision to Not Prosecute Lord Janner for CSA

The Crown Prosecution Service has said it will review its decision not to charge the Labour peer Lord Janner over allegations of historic child sex abuse.

Lord Janner was accused of a string of historic child sex abuse allegations during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s but deemed unfit to stand trial because he is suffering from dementia.

Lord Janner

The decision by Director of Public Prosecutions Alison Saunders not to proceed with court action against the the 86-year-old will now be revisited by an independent external barrister under its Victims' Right to Review scheme, the CPS said.

A spokesman said: "The CPS Victims' Right to Review scheme was set up to give complainants the ability to ask the CPS to review its decisions - usually when there has been a decision not to prosecute.

"The CPS has been asked to invoke this process in the case of Lord Janner and that review is now taking place.

"Where the decision is made by the DPP this review would normally be done by the CPS Appeals Unit. However, due to the unique circumstances surrounding this case, the CPS has instructed external counsel instead."

There has been pressure from lawyers representing alleged victims of the lawyer and politician, who was an MP for 27 years.

Justice Lowell Goddard

Justice Lowell Goddard, the New Zealand judge leading an independent inquiry into child sex abuse, also said she would investigate claims made against Lord Janner, and could even call him to give evidence. Did I mention, I love this woman!

An NSPCC spokesman said: "We welcome this news. Victims of sexual abuse were angry at the decision not to prosecute when there was clearly a case to answer.

"This review needs to reassure those with allegations that every option was fully explored. We have questioned why a trial of facts was not suitable whatever the state of Lord Janner's health. Given the mistakes of the past, victim confidence is now key."

Simon Danczuk, the Labour MP for Rochdale who helped expose child sex abuse carried out by the late Liberal MP Cyril Smith, said he welcomed the review.

Simon Danczuk

He told the Guardian: "But I am worried that the CPS is commissioning a review after they have frankly got this whole episode wrong from the very beginning.

"I hope it is entirely independent of previous decisions by Saunders.

"She sat on the police file for nine months before announcing a muddleheaded decision when parliament was not sitting and is now announcing this just as MPs prepare to come back. I hope we are not seeing political manipulation with a small 'p'."

We can always 'hope' Mr Danczuk! It may be utter foolishness to do so, but we can always hope.

Trauma, Stigma, Face Girls, Women Rescued from Boko Haram

Cruelty is more natural to fallen man than love or kindness

You disagree? Read on...

Chibok girls - my heroes for 2014

In this file photo taken on Tuesday, July 22, 2014, school girls who escaped abduction from the Chibok government secondary school arrive for a meeting with Nigeria President Goodluck Jonathan, in Abuja, Nigeria. The taunts wouldn't stop. "Boko Haram wives," the schoolgirls were called because they had been briefly held by Nigeria's Islamic extremists before escaping. The teasing was so relentless that some of the Chibok girls left their town and families. (AP Photo, File)

By MICHELLE FAUL

YOLA, Nigeria (AP) — The taunts wouldn't stop. "Boko Haram wives," the schoolgirls were called because they had been briefly held by Nigeria's Islamic extremists before escaping. The teasing was so relentless that some of the Chibok girls left their town and families.

Their plight does not bode well for hundreds of girls and women recently rescued from months of captivity by Boko Haram, including dozens who are pregnant. After enduring captivity by the militants, the females may now face stigma from their communities.

"The most important thing is to restore their dignity," the executive director of the United Nations Population Fund, Babatunde Osotimehin, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from his office in New York.

"When you have been in captivity against your will, and God knows whatever they have done to them, some of them will have been violated, some raped, food insecure ... We need to take them, work with them and bring them back to the reality of their lives," said Osotimehin, who is Nigerian.

His agency is providing the women and girls with intense psychosocial counseling and medical care for reproductive and maternal health. It is also encouraging communities to allow the girls to return in peace.

That will be a challenge, going by comments made last week by Gov. Kashim Shettima of Borno, the home state of Boko Haram and the one most affected by the nearly 6-year-old Islamic uprising that has killed more than 12,000 people and forced more than 1.5 million from their homes.

The governor said he feared that girls and women raped and made pregnant by the extremists could be breeding a new generation of terrorists.

Shettima called for a special monitoring program of the mothers to identify paternity because he said the militants had deliberately impregnated them so they would give birth to future insurgents.

"I am seriously worried with the fact that most women tend to hate and abandon children they deliver from rape. Now, the problem is that these children could go to the streets unattended to, they then lack access to food, health care and education. The result is that they could indeed inherit their fathers' (ideology) somehow," Shettima told government officials, according to the Nigerian press.

Such statements from a man of Shettima's standing are "very unfortunate" and would reinforce the very stigma he says he wants to avoid, said Human Rights Watch researcher Mausi Segun.

Segun has interviewed many females who escaped from Boko Haram and described their experiences as "very traumatizing and horrifying."

The mass kidnapping of nearly 300 students who were writing science exams at a boarding school in the town of Chibok a year ago brought Boko Haram to the attention of the world and elicited international outrage. The extremists abducted a hundreds more in their campaign across northeastern Nigeria.

Chibok school after raid

The stigma of Boko Haram has tainted girls who escaped their captors.

Segun described the experience of some of "the Chibok girls," as they have come to be known, who escaped in the first couple of days of their abductions. Some got away as they were being transported in open trucks by grabbing the branches of low hanging trees, and jumping off moving trucks.

Instead of being admired for their bravery, some of those "who had escaped were being called Boko Haram wives," said Segun. After speaking to one of the girls, Segun "got the sense from her that it deeply, deeply shamed her and her companions ... they were being discriminated against because of close contact with Boko Haram and stigmatized," Segun said.

She said some of those girls have left Chibok and are living with relatives or supportive family friends elsewhere. "These girls weren't even touched (raped)," said Segun, "but Boko Haram is so despised that anyone identified with the group shares some of that label, the slur."

Associated Press writers Haruna Umar in Maiduguri, Nigeria and Ibrahim Abdulaziz in Yola contributed to this story.

These girls are heroes. Not just the ones that got away, all of them. They are my heroes for 2014. They deserve respect and admiration for merely surviving. It's not as though they had any choice in their destiny. Victim shaming, victim abuse is probably one of the lowest forms of man's nature. There is no mercy, no pity, no love, and no grace in torturing victims - and there will be no grace for those who abuse victims.

Where are the #BringBackOurGirls protesters now? They need to stand up for the girls!

Rape Victim (14) Arrested and Raped Repeatedly by Police

And other horror stories

Not even being mostly invisible can save you from being raped in Somalia

Mogadishu, Somalia (AFP) - After 14-year-old Fatima was raped by a tuk-tuk driver, she was arrested, detained for a month and raped repeatedly by a police officer, according to the child and her aunt.

Sexual violence is widespread in Somalia and rarely prosecuted. If anyone is punished at all it is often the victim, not the perpetrator.

"We are fighting to change that attitude of blaming the victims," said Fartuun Adan, who runs the Elman Peace and Human Rights Centre in the Somali capital Mogadishu, where survivors of sexual violence can find refuge, medical care and support.

"There must be consequences for men who rape," she said, but instead those who report rape are frequently arrested themselves.

When it comes to rape cases in the socially conservative Horn of Africa nation, blaming the victim is the norm -- and there have been no consequences for Fatima's uniformed attackers.

A slight girl no more than five feet (150 centimetres) tall, she lives in one of the squalid camps for the uprooted that dot the city. The UN children's agency UNICEF says young women and girls in the camps are "systematically preyed upon", frequently by armed personnel.

Last year the advocacy group Human Rights Watch accused some members of the 22,000 African Union force in Somalia of rape and sexual exploitation.

When not attending the Islamic madrassa that substitutes for school, Fatima (not her real name) and her aunt would make and sell sweets.

One slow day she got in a motorised rickshaw or tuk-tuk with a plan to try selling her sweets in another part of town, but the driver took her to a quiet spot and raped her instead.

Hearing the commotion, police arrested both the girl and her attacker. Soon afterwards the man was released and Fatima was accused of being a prostitute. "The police arrested me, they blamed me," she said, her voice a whisper.

Fatima's aunt spent a month seeking her release. The officers would joke when she visited, telling her they were training Fatima to work for them as a cleaner. Fatima had become uncharacteristically taciturn, telling her aunt to abandon her, to "consider her already dead".

Fatima's aunt said she reported what was happening to the authorities.

"They said I shouldn't talk like that and must leave," she said. Fatima was released after the Elman Centre intervened but she was traumatised by the experience and still faces the threat of a court appearance for prostitution.

"She used to be full of life and joy," said Fatima's aunt. "She's not the same person anymore."

Fatima, 14, who was arrested after reporting a rape,
pictured at the Elman Centre in Mogadishu (AFP)

"If you can't go to the police without fear, where can you go?" asks Adan.

An answer to that question is found in the Elman Centre in Mogadishu, which Adan runs with her daughter Ilwad Elman.

It includes a 15-bed safe house for victims of rape and a host of other forms of sexual violence and abuse, including the near-universal female genital mutilation -- the cutting off of the clitoris -- and widespread forced and early marriage.

Among the current residents of the safe house is 18-year old Marian (not her real name), who was forced to marry an old man.

"The decision came from my father. I had no choice," she said.

Nor did she have any choice when it came to sex with her new husband, which was never consensual. Mariam said her husband used to beat her and she ran away repeatedly. But each time she fled home her father would send her back to her husband.

In the end she "became hopeless" and attempted suicide by setting herself on fire while at her father's house. Neighbours extinguished the flames, leaving her with a web of weeping sores on her arm and across her chest.

Despite the prevalence of sexual violence, as well as the stigma and shame that frequently follows, Adan said she has seen some modest improvement in recent years.

"Rape is not getting less, but people are talking about it," she said.

"The government, the family, the clan, none of them want to talk about it," said Adan. "But women are coming out to speak."

"When we started talking about rape in 2010 no one was saying anything. Now it's accepted there is a problem so we're in the second phase: how do you fix it?"

Somalia's draft constitution includes provisions for new laws on rape, sexual violence and female genital mutilation, and sets the minimum age for marriage at 18. But political progress is slow, and the legislation is yet to be passed.

Like much else that is broken in Somalia, the causes of the pervasive rape can be found in the decades of anarchic conflict that began in 1991 and continues in some parts of the country today.

"Sexual violence is another legacy of the war in Somalia," Adan said.

God help the girls in this story recover. See that their abusers are punished, and this absurd, evil concept of blaming girls for being raped comes to a quick end. Amen?

Retired Bishop Apologizes for 'Failing Victims' of Child Sex Abuse

Child sex abuse inquiry: Retired Bishop sorry for sexual abuse of children at Queensland orphanage

By Marlina Whop and William Rollo
ABC News, Australia

Bishop Heenan apologising outside the Royal Commission,
which is sitting in Rockhampton, Queensland (ABC News)

Retired Rockhampton Bishop Brian Heenan has apologised for the sexual abuse of children at St Joseph's Orphanage at Neerkol in central Queensland and for failing victims when they came forward.

"I apologise again for the harm and suffering of former [residents] at Joseph orphanage residents at the hands of the Catholic Church, priests and sisters and staff," he said outside the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

"I also apologise for the way in which I responded to these victims. I failed them and for that I'll be forever sorry."

Bishop Heenan was cross examined for the second day at the Rockhampton hearings over the church's responses to the abuse allegations at the Neerkol orphanage from the 1940s to the 1970s.

Father Reg Durham, who was the administrator for the parish of Neerkol and had resided in the presbytery, was charged in 1997 with 40 sexual offences against five former residents and pleaded guilty to six counts of indecently dealing with a child.

Bishop Heenan told the inquiry he never took steps to de-frock Father Durham - even after the priest pleaded guilty - before his death in 2002.

In his apology, Bishop Heenan said, "I hope my evidence has provided a deeper understanding of the devastation of sexual abuse, what it does to the victims and their families. I also hope it will help the royal commission to develop recommendations that will make all institutions safer for children."

Children at St Joseph's Orphanage at Neerkol, west of Rockhampton, were raped,
molested and beaten, the inquiry has heard. (ABC Local: Alice Roberts)

Bishop Heenan was ordained in 1962 and was in charge of the Rockhampton diocese from 1991 until he retired in 2013.

The commission heard on Friday that it took Bishop Heenan three years to restrict Father Durham's contact with children and in 1999 he gave him a character a reference.

He also admitted that at one point he tried to protect the reputation of the Catholic Church rather than consider the victims of sexual abuse.

At one point? How about at every point?

Abuse victim Mary Adams, who gave evidence last week, said she felt satisfied hearing Bishop Heenan's testimony.

"Bishop Heenan has endeavoured to right the wrongs of the past, I feel he's certainly moved further down the track than he had in the earlier days," she said.

"I'm certainly impressed with his honesty, but it certainly hasn't helped me tremendously because I will say that a lot of my dealings with the church, I had to initiate."

The Commission, which began hearings last Tuesday in Rockhampton, was told that for more than three decades, children at the orphanage were raped, molested and beaten.

The Sisters of Mercy ran the Neerkol orphanage for half a century before it closed in the late 1970s.

One witness says she was raped when she was 14 by a worker at the orphanage in 1965, another was sexually abused by a priest and forced to drink her own urine to stay hydrated.

Nun did not reach out to victim

A senior member of the Sisters of Mercy gave evidence after Bishop Heenan and said she too did not offer to help a victim.

Sister Berniece Locke said she first became aware of abuse allegations when she saw an article in a Rockhampton newspaper in the early 1990s.

The article quoted a former resident who suffered a miscarriage after she was raped when she was 11 years old.

Sister Locke has testified that she knew the victim but did not contact her.

"I wasn't sure if the story was correct or not, wasn't convinced it was true," she told the inquiry.

So, just in case, you did nothing!

Sister Locke denied trying to protect the reputation of the Catholic Church, and said there were no proper protocols for responding to abuse at the time.

Good grief! You need proper protocols before you can respond to something as devastating as child rape? Sisters of Mercy - what a disgraceful misuse of the name!