Eight Indians arrested in sexual abuse case
involving at least 14 girls
Patna: Police in Muzaffarpur on Sunday arrested eight persons, including proprietor of an NGO Brajesh Thakur and superintendent of a short-stay home Indu Devi, in connection with a sexual exploitation case lodged by the assistant director of the child protection unit with the women's police station in Muzaffarpur.
The arrested have been booked under different sections of Protection of Children from Sexual Offence (Pocso) Act 2012 and the Indian Penal Code. They were later produced in court, which remanded them to Khudiram Bose Memorial Central Jail for 14 days. They were detained for interrogation on Saturday.
The arrested were identified as Brajesh, Kiran Kumari, Minu Kumari, Chanda Devi, Hema Masih, Manju Kumari and Indu. Thakur, however, denied the allegations and rubbished the report submitted by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai.
Muzaffarpur SSP Harpreet Kaur said those detained for questioning yesterday were formally arrested after the girl inmates of the stay home being run by NGO Seva Sankalp Evam Vikas Samiti corroborated the allegations on Sunday. Altogether 14 girl inmates, who were shifted to Patna earlier, were produced in a local court to get their statement recorded under Section 164 of the CrPC.
The SSP said separate police teams would be sent to Mokama (Patna) and Madhubani to record the statements of other inmates. The child protection unit had rescued 46 girls from the Muzaffarpur-based short-stay home and shifted them to Patna and Madhubani after the TISS raised serious objections over the manner the centre was being run by the NGO.
Sources said of the total number of girls rescued, 13 were facing mental health issues apparently because of their repeated sexual exploitation. The girls aged between six and 18 years were lodged in the shelter home. While majority of the girls were living in the stay home on Sahu Road, some were shifted to its another centre located at Shukla Road, close to the red light area at Chaturbhusthan.
A three-member team of the Bihar State Women's Commission led by its chairperson Dilmani Devi visited Muzaffarpur on Sunday to inquire about the incident. She felt embarrassed when local journalists asked that she had not found anything wrong during her last inspection of the stay home at Muzaffarpur about two months ago. "I had come to Muzaffarpur on a personal invitation of Brajesh Thakur ji. I had inspected the shelter home run by the NGO and funded by the state government then. But I didn't receive any complaint from the girl inmates," she clarified.
Sexual abuse against children rising in Guam
Jamie Ward | The Guam Daily Post
HAVEN: The Healing Hearts Crisis Center is Guam's only rape crisis center, where hundreds of women and children are sheltered each year. Post file photo
Maria Teresa "Maresa" Aguon runs the Healing Hearts Crisis Center, Guam's only rape crisis center, where counselors, medical professionals and support staff can provide services to all victims of sexual abuse who come in for help voluntarily.
Besides running it, she counsels patients, and it's been quite busy around Healing Hearts lately.
"This year alone has been really, really high reporting," Aguon said. "Just for Healing Hearts alone we've had three times as many referrals in the first quarter of this year as compared to last year. ... At our last meeting, we were just talking about how crazy this last year has been."
Part of the craziness stems from not having enough providers.
"Guam has a pretty good system and network of sexual assault responders," Aguon said. "But my nurse examiner is the only certified sexual assault nurse examiner on this island. She's the only one who's been specially trained to conduct the medical examinations and the collections of evidence and interpretation of results. ...That is our greatest need."
Aguon said Healing Hearts sees up to 150 clients a year, and unfortunately can never truly answer the question why sexual assaults occur in the first place. But she did say there were trends the center was seeing more of and one of those involved victims being younger children, ages 3 to 4, in addition to more cases of Grandma's boyfriend or new husband, as opposed to Mom's, being the perpetrator against a child. She also said there have been more adult acute rapes lately.
Asked how Guam measured up against the U.S. in terms of the number of sexual assaults, she said, "Reported cases are actually higher. There have been stories out there that we have the second highest rate of sexual assaults per capita in the United States, which is great because to us (as a victim services organization) that means more people are talking about it," she said. "We have a higher reporting rate on this island primarily because of children than most jurisdictions in the United States."
"We've got sexual abuse victims who are now 11 years old and pedophiles,"
Healing Hearts saw 105 clients in 2017 and 75 of them were minors. Of the 87 clients in 2016, 69 were minors. Of the 137 in 2015, 105 were minors. Of 111 in 2014, 81 were minors. In 2013, 92 of 111 were minors. In 2012, 124 of 153 were minors. All told, over a five-year period, 77.5 percent of sexual abuse victims seen were minors. It should come as no surprise based on that number that Healing Hearts No.1 referral source is the Guam Police Department and its juvenile investigative services.
Based on a Freedom of Information Act request made of GPD, police filed charges against persons 227 times in 2017 for child abuse and assault-related offenses of a violent nature against children, sexual assaults and misconduct against kids included in that number. GPD filed charges of criminal sexual conduct that was essentially rape with penetration against nine people in the same year. Nonviolent child abuse and child cruelty and neglect charges were filed six times, offenses against the family and children were filed 17 times.
Whether sexual in nature or not, it's obvious a lot of child abuse that takes place on Guam is of a violent nature and can be considered something that causes bodily harm. For added context and to see how serious the problem is, the same FOIA request revealed the 227 charges filed for child abuse was just slightly lower than the 258 charges filed for DUI, but was higher than 187 charges filed for drug abuse violations, the 213 charges filed for larceny and theft, the 105 charges of burglary and the 186 charges filed for aggravated assault.
Cycles of abuse
Rose Reyes, a social worker for Child Protective Services, said she's seen cycles of abuse. It's no different with sexual abuse, and that's why Guam's numbers could be more troubling than they initially appear.
"We've got sexual abuse victims who are now 11 years old and pedophiles," Reyes said.
"By the time a sexual predator and pedophile is caught, there is usually at least seven to 12 other victims prior to the one causing them to be arrested for the first time," Aguon said. "Research shows that."
It happens because children don't often disclose what's happening at first or sometimes don't even realize it's abuse in the first place.
Aguon recounted a story of her work with an 8-year-old girl who kept the abuse silent for years. Her mom only discovered what had been happening because the suspect got arrested for something else, which prompted the mother to confront her daughter, who reluctantly told her the truth. When the mother asked why her daughter held it in for so long, the girl said because after she let it pass the first time and it kept happening and happening, she thought it was OK. She also said that since she didn't report anything initially, she thought she might get in trouble for reporting it after the fact.
"These children hold on to that responsibility of these actions even though it's not their fault because they already know they are supposed to tell and if they don't tell they will get into trouble," she said.
Aguon said research also indicates the No. 1 reason sexual assaults happen against children is because of easy access. The perpetrator is usually someone they love or trust or who is in an authority position.
That's why Reyes said removing kids who have been sexually abused can sometimes be extremely difficult and why they often don't want to cooperate or testify against their loved one.
"The fact is they still don't want their dad to go to jail," Reyes said.
South Australia Aboriginal Lands just as dysfunctional as the Territory
The Australian
MICHAEL OWEN
Drugs and alcohol, domestic violence and child sexual abuse is as widespread in South Australia’s indigenous lands as it is in other remote parts of the country, Premier Steven Marshall says.
The Liberal Premier — who has taken on the Aboriginal affairs portfolio and will return the agency to the Premier’s Department — said the Northern Territory was not alone in grappling with social issues affecting indigenous communities.
Courageous man. God bless him!
The Territory and its trouble-plagued town of Tennant Creek have been under the national spotlight this year following sexual assaults against children, one as young as two.
“There is widespread drug and alcohol abuse, domestic violence and child sexual abuse in many remote indigenous communities across Australia, and it would be foolish to think the same circumstances do not exist on South Australia’s Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands,” Mr Marshall said.
“The issue is, how do we address this in a joined-up government way rather than a piecemeal approach.
“The previous (state) government and the federal government puts plenty of money into the APY Lands but the outcomes are not really improving across the board. There are some movements forward in some areas but overall it’s a shifting of the deckchairs, it’s not wholesale reform.
“That’s why we want to work with the communities to develop a statewide strategic plan and implement it with the full support of the entire cabinet.”
Mr Marshall has been inspired after last week meeting Aboriginal leader Noel Pearson for the first time, and plans to use the Cape York lawyer’s philosophy for Aboriginal people to take greater charge of their destinies, to guide his management of Aboriginal affairs.
Mr Marshall also confirmed he would abandon the previous government’s treaty policy. “We don’t believe treaties can or should exist at the state level,” he said.
“We’ll honour what has already been signed. But I will be far more focused on practical outcomes to improve lives.”
The Premier said many of his advisers and mentors had urged him not to take on the Aboriginal affairs portfolio when he won the state election in March, because it was so fraught with problems.
It has been a decade since former Supreme Court judge Ted Mullighan revealed widespread sexual abuse of children and substantial under-reporting of incidents in his “Children on the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands” report. A raft of recommendations were adopted but there was no evidence children in the APY lands were any safer.
Australian man charged over arts school
child sex abuse to be released on bail
A man associated with a NSW performing arts school accused of the ongoing abuse of three young boys is set to be released on bail this weekend, and will be able to live in his community under strict conditions.
Paul Cook, 52, is one of seven people including Therese Ann Cook, 58, Yyani Cook-Williams, 30, and Clarissa Meredith, 23, and three others who cannot be named for legal reasons, charged with a total of 127 offences (3rd story on link) relating to the abuse of the boys between 2014 and 2016.
Mr Cook has been charged with five offences. It is alleged that he was present while his co-accused sexually assaulted the boys, deprived the liberty of one of the boys, and filmed the assaults on two occasions.
The Magistrate granted bail to Mr Cook with strict conditions including a curfew, daily reporting to police, a $100,000 cash bond and that he cannot contact any of his co-accused or the alleged victims.
Mr Cook’s lawyer, Bryan Wrench, argued the crown case was weak, some of the allegations were improbable, or even impossible, and that there was a lack of any physical evidence.
“[This] could be one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in New South Wales,” Mr Wrench said. “There is no medical evidence whatsoever, the child has not been examined in any way whatsoever.
“This is a case of assault where there would be necessarily physical signs left over … we’re saying the absence of evidence is evidence.”
Mr Wrench played two videos from the days of some of the alleged assaults of Yyani Cook-Williams and Therese Cook playing with two of the boys in a park.
“This is said to be at a time… where [they] tied [a boy to] a pole in the playground,” he said, referring to one of the videos Therese Cook is allegedly in. “In the video there is clearly somebody [else] there.
“There has been significant publicity in this matter and not one witness has come forward.”
Mr Wrench said Mr Cook had complied with police during a search of his property, alerting them to hard drives they had not seen. He said they were yet to be presented with any evidence of the videos Mr Cook is alleged to have filmed.
Police prosecutor Ciro Triscari said the videos strengthened the case against the accused as they proved they were with the boys on those days. He said the lack of physical evidence of injuries was not damning like Mr Wrench suggested.
“[The cuts] are not described as anything coming near very serious injury, they’re described as minor lacerations,” Mr Triscari said.
In granting bail, the Magistrate said it was understandable that some of the accusations would not have any forensic evidence, referring to offences which allegedly involved blood, urine and faeces.
“There are a large number of allegations some of which would not involve any forensic evidence at all, because they are complaints that would long ago have seen any trace of forensics disappear,” Magistrate Clisdell said. “Some of the blood allegations may not lend themselves to significant forensic evidence.
“This is either one of the worst cases of child abuse that would be seen or it’s one of the great fantasies that have been expressed by children. “It’s difficult to believe that young children could conceive of something like that.”
The children were known to the accused but were not students of the performing arts school.
Three other accused, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were released on bail earlier this month, while Therese Ann Cook, Yyani Cook-Williams and Clarissa Meredith have been refused bail.
Sexual assault ‘all part of growing up’: Australian university hazing shame
SIMULATED sex, claims of sexual assault, “butt naked” males, women pressured to undress. Uni students have had enough of hazing.
news.com.au
MORE sordid stories, pictures and videos of hazing rituals at Australian universities — and denials the culture exists — have prompted one student representative council (SRC) to say “enough is enough’.
Members of the University of Adelaide’s SRC, angry after former student Aria Kirwan was vilified and called a liar for lifting the lid on disgusting initiation rituals that forced her to quit, have told 60 Minutes ‘people want to see actual change’.
Such courageous people in Australia!
“It’s a toxic culture, it’s rotten to the core,” SRC president Matthew Boughey tells Channel 9’s Alison Langdon in an interview to air tonight.
“People are angry, people are pissed off.
“Rotten to the core,” says Adelaide University SRC president Matthew Boughey, right.
Picture: Channel 9Source: Channel 9
The SRC members are just some of many fed-up college residents around Australia who want a change to a hazing culture they claim is fostered by a hierarchy of people who should know better, 60 Minutes says.
The current affairs program will tonight air excerpts of more than 200 explicit pictures and videos documenting allegations of sexual assault, bullying and abuse, sent to the program after its first story on hazing rituals forced upon first year university students earlier this year.
Langdon also speaks to two more students and former residents of the university college, who until now were too scared to break their silence.
Wild parties, men walking around naked, and women pressured to undress, are some of the claims which have flooded in. Picture: Channel 9.Source:Channel 9
One warns parents: “Do not send your children to college, because you have no control over what happens, and the atmosphere of secrecy stops you having any knowledge of what your child is going through.”
Another tells Langdon that when she raised an allegation of sexual assault with the management of her residential college she was told it was “all part of growing up”.
In March, graphic stories of disgusting initiation rituals, out-of-control drunken behaviour and allegations of sexual assaults at colleges around the country emerged after Ms Kirwan shared her story, saying she was pressured to take part in a “sex-tour” as part of a bizarre initiation.
She said as pornography played on a television and “guys that were butt naked” walked around, people also simulated sex on tables and danced in their underwear.
60 Minutes airs at 9.30pm Sunday on Channel 9
Heartbreaking story of family child sexual abuse
One Survivor's Story - Both Heartbreaking and Encouraging
My story… you would think this would be easy for me to share, as I have shared it many times. I guess now it is different to an extent, as I have grown more as a woman, and I have also achieved a lot of other things in my life along the way. I have had new memories, smells and reflections.
I have heard from old family friends from when I was a child and that makes it difficult to hear what they saw and what they felt.
Being adults, you would have thought they might have stood up and said something.
When I was seven years old, my parents were separated. It was my first memory of being sexually assaulted by my father.
My sister and I used to stay at his house every second Friday and Saturday night. We would return to our mum’s house after dinner on a Sunday.
I remember waking from a nightmare. I was wearing a yellow nightie with a little girl on the front, and a pair of knickers.
I remember it so well. I went to his room as I was upset and scared. He had a single bed.
I faced the wall that was on the same side as the door I had walked through. He was pressed up against me. I fell asleep. I woke after 1am. I could see the clock in his room. It was all lit up. One of those digital clocks.
That was the first night it happened. I was told to not tell anyone. If I did he would kill me. I didn’t tell.
I made excuses as I got older. I didn’t like going to his home. He even had a couple of girlfriends as the years went on. I liked it when he did as it meant he didn’t want me as much.
I often escaped in the evenings, not wanting to come home. There was a tree that was outside the balcony, and I used to climb down that a lot.
He came out with a torch and found me with a friend. I was actually on my way home. He was so angry. I could see it. I also felt it when he used the torch to slap me across the face. I didn’t do it again.
Coming into high school I started running a lot. I was feeling ugly, unattractive, and also developed an eating disorder.
By this stage, I had learnt how to wear a mask of happiness. I was known as 'smiley' in high school. Inside I was crying for help.
Why did I say nothing?
I told my best friend in high school. I remember she took me to my science teacher who I trusted.
Nothing was done. NOTHING. It was pushed away like I didn’t say anything. I was in my early twenties when she apologised to me for not doing anything.
I was 15 when the sexual assault stopped. He had a very serious girlfriend and they moved in with each other. I was safe. Although I still didn’t want to go.
He had a girlfriend, and clearly didn’t need me anymore. We were in his new home, a townhouse where they lived together. He was yelling at me, slapped me in the face. He then picked up the yellow pages, and threw them at me. I kneed him in the balls.
In year 11, I was over hiding. It was like this burst of the pain was coming out of me. I used my artwork to express how I was feeling. In between that I would run at lunch times, in the mornings, and in the afternoon. My eating disorder was really bad by then.
I was free to an extent. But still so afraid of the dark.
Mum couldn’t work out why I couldn’t sleep and why when I did, I would wake screaming most nights. I would walk down the street, look policemen in the eye and want them to ask me about my father. They never stopped and asked.
When I painted and drew in art, we had subjects we had to use with our pieces. I always used my pain inside as my subject. It didn’t matter what the subject was, I turned it into the sexual assault. I turned it into the little girl that was being hurt. My art teacher saw her. She saw the girl bursting out from the fire, her father’s angry eyes over the top of her, and his hands coming for her. She saw the sadness in her eyes.
My teacher kept me behind to discuss my piece. I burst into tears. The biggest weight came off me, I felt like I was heard for the first time.
From there it was fast, and slow at the same time. My mum was contacted. She came to the school, and I spoke with a couple of other teachers. They wanted to involve the police, but I was too scared, and I remember mum saying we would deal with it. When we got home, mum turned to me, and said, ‘are you sure you didn’t dream it?’
I was heartbroken in that one moment, and it still hurts to remember those as mum's first words to me about the secret I held so close. Mum was quick to apologise within minutes. It was left then. For me it wasn’t over.
I took him to court. I did it all on my own. I had spoken, and I had stood up and shared my voice.
However it didn’t help those around me to share in theirs and support me in the way they should have.
I took myself to counselling, I went to the sexual assault on my own and spoke to the constable in there to write my statement. I had made that decision myself to go to court. From the moment I was given a court date, my mum never left my side.
She told me that she felt like she had failed me. That it hurt her so much to know that she had packed my bag every fortnight to be abused. She felt an enormous amount of guilt.
The case went to the Supreme Court. He was found not guilty.
From that moment, I made the decision to live a life without fear. I changed my name, and I moved to Sydney. I started a new life. One where I would hopefully feel safe.
It has taken a long time to not have to sleep with the light on, or to look in every cupboard, and behind doors. I now have the biggest voice, and still run today to continue my feeling of freedom.
A freedom that I like to pass on to those that don’t have it.
A voice that is loud to help those that don’t have one.
Such courage, to speak out. The voiceless have a voice and even when they use it they are often not heard. That's society's great failure, just like this girl's mum. But it is changing, voices are being heard and even amplified. Speak out your pain. Don't keep it in; it only serves your abuser to hide it.
Join The Ripple Effect Long Lunch on Friday 8 June in Sydney (and various locations around the country). The panel discussion will be facilitated by Jean Kittson and include Tracy Adams from Kid's Helpline and Dr Michelle Blanchard from SANE Australia.
If you or someone you know has been or is affected by family sexual abuse contact Kid's Helpline on 1800 55 1800 or Lifeline on 13 11 14.
Limpopo cops condemn sexual abuse of minors,
seek incestuous child abuser
SOUTH AFRICA
POLOKWANE - Police in Polokwane are searching for a man who allegedly raped and abused his three young daughters over several years, Limpopo police said on Saturday.
According to preliminary investigations, the biological father of three girls, aged seven, 10, and 13, raped and performed sexual acts on them in Bendo Park, Polokwane between 2009 and 2018, Colonel Moatshe Ngoepe said.
The girls' mother laid charges of sexual assault and rape against her estranged husband when she found out about the incidents. "The suspect is still on the run, but the manhunt is continuing," Ngoepe said.
Anyone who may be able to assist police with information which could lead to the arrest of the suspect should contact Captain Malatjie at 082-451-7186, or the crime stop number 08600-10111 or the crime line sms 32211, or the nearest police station.
NZ child rapist Robin Abraham declined parole
In the Palmerston North District Court in 2010, Robin Abraham was jailed for 10 years (file photo).
A child rapist remains behind bars after the Parole Board ruled he continues to pose a risk to the public, despite his pleas that he's a changed man.
Robin Peter Abraham was jailed for 10 years in 2010 for raping a girl aged 10 to 12 at the time.
His offending indirectly led to a top cop having to apologise to the girl's family after saying she was a "willing party" to the abuse.
He was up for release in May, but a psychologist's report for the board revealed he was becoming frustrated and somewhat hostile with the psychologist during interviews. But, Abraham says, he won't offend again.
Abraham, who is in his mid 50s, admitted deflecting questions about his risk to the public, and had earlier disclosed unidentified offending to the psychologist.
The offending was against a young man when Abraham was in his 20s. No further details were available in a previous board report released to Stuff.
Abraham, a former bakery dispatch operator, began sexually grooming the child he was convicted of raping when she was 10. The offending took place between early 2008 and early 2010.
Even after he was jailed, Abraham's offending caused ripples when a senior cop had to apologise to the girl. Then Central District Police area commander Superintendent Russell Gibson was subject to an employment investigation in 2013 after he described the girl as a "willing party" to the sexual abuse.
Gibson made the comments in a 2012 letter to Abraham's wife Michelle, saying: "There is evidence contained within the file which clearly establishes that the young girl was a willing party to these instances, but as I explained to you, this is irrelevant in terms of the charge."
At the time, Gibson said he was "deeply embarrassed by the letter" and apologised to the girl's family.
Abraham's latest parole report says he has completed a short intervention child-sex offender treatment programme, but the psychologist recommends Abraham take part in a higher intensity programme for reasons including his limited insight into his offending.
In the programme he attended, Abraham was compliant and completed all tasks set for him.
But the psychologist said he appeared to find it difficult to receive critical or constructive feedback and presented himself in a socially naive manner, or as confused or victimised. At other times, he became defensive and argumentative.
Overall, they found his understanding of what led to his offending was simplistic and he hadn't changed his ways.
Abraham, though, was adamant he did not want to harm anyone and would not sexually offend again.
The board ruled that although his sentiment appeared genuine, he had made limited progress in treatment and lacked insight into his sexual motivation and deviance, which gave cause for concern.
Abraham did not have accommodation available until 2019 and had no robust safety or release plan. Abraham will see the board again in November.
