Category Archives: child abuse

Cardinal Pell Will Plead Not Guilty To Child Sex Abuse Charges

26 Wednesday Jul 2017

Posted by in child abuse, Researching Reform

≈ 18 Comments

Cardinal George Pell, who is the third highest ranking official in the Catholic Church, is to plead not guilty to a string of non recent child sexual offences. 

Pell is also the most senior Catholic church official to be charged with sex offences to date.

The first hearing took place in Melbourne, and although not required to enter a plea prior to the case being committed to trial, chose to make the not guilty plea at the hearing due to media and public interest.

As we reported last month, Pell has already been heavily criticised for perceived failures in investigating non recent child sexual abuse allegations when he was found to have let victims down by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

His conduct during a trial for a survivor of child sexual abuse also casts a shadow over his fitness to practice as a member of the clergy. The Commission found that Pell did not act ‘in a Christian manner’ during a court battle against a survivor who said he had been abused as a teenager by a priest from 1974 and 1979. Pell had bullied and intimidated the survivor, and used the threat of court costs repeatedly to try and force the survivor to withdraw his case.

Speaking about his own trial in June, Pell said he is “looking forward to his day in court and will defend the charges vigorously.”

george-pell

BBC One, Tonight: The Betrayed Girls

03 Monday Jul 2017

Posted by in child abuse, child abuse inquiry, Researching Reform

≈ 5 Comments

Following on from Three Girls, Another documentary has been made about Rochdale and other towns where child sexual abuse seems to have been particularly high.

This time, the focus shifts away from child protection professionals, and instead looks at other people involved who knew about the abuse but did nothing to stop it.

Interviewees for the programme include social worker Sara Rowbotham, detective Maggie Oliver, Ann Cryer, Andrew Norfolk, Mohammed Shafiq and Nazir Afzal.

BBC One’s The Betrayed Girls airs tonight at 8.30pm. The programme is described as:
“[A] Documentary about the child abuse revelations in Rochdale and other towns. Featuring the harrowing testimony of the victims and the shocking truth from those who spoke out, this film reveals how it wasn’t just the professionals whose job it was to protect the girls who ignored their plight, but others did as well.”

You can watch a short trailer about the film here. 

TBG

“We’d seen so many girls who had experienced this situation, we got to the point where we thought somebody’s going to have to die before anything is done.”

 

BREAKING: One Of The World’s Most Powerful Catholic Figures Charged With Child Sex Abuse

29 Thursday Jun 2017

Posted by in child abuse, child abuse inquiry, Researching Reform

≈ 6 Comments

The third highest ranking official in the Catholic Church, Cardinal George Pell, has just been charged with child sex offences. Pell is Australia’s most senior Catholic figure, and caused an uproar two years ago when he was found to have failed child sex abuse victims by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

The Commission also found that Pell did not act ‘in a Christian manner’ during a court battle against a survivor who said he had been abused as a teenager by a priest from 1974 and 1979. The Commission observed that, through Church procedure, Pell had bullied and intimidated the survivor, and had used the threat of court costs repeatedly to try and force the survivor to withdraw his case.

Pell’s latest statement, in which he says he is “looking forward to his day in court and will defend the charges vigorously” suggests he still isn’t clear on Christian values.

Pell faces multiple charges, due to several complaints of non recent child sexual abuse against him. The first hearing will be on 18th July, at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court.

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Damning Report Confirms Church Colluded With Convicted Paedophile Bishop Peter Ball

22 Thursday Jun 2017

Posted by in child abuse, child abuse inquiry, Researching Reform

≈ 6 Comments

A new report written by Dame Moira Gibb accuses the Church of England of concealing evidence of child sexual abuse at the hands of its clergy and colluding with convicted paedophile, Bishop Peter Ball.

Ball, who was the former bishop of Gloucester and Lewes, was jailed in October 2015 for the grooming, sexual exploitation and abuse of 18 vulnerable young men aged 17-25 who came to him for guidance and support. He was released from prison in February after serving just 16 months.

Gibb also criticises ex-Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey in her report, whom she cites as being largely responsible for the inexcusable way in which allegations were swept under the carpet. When complaints were first made about Bishop Ball, Ball went straight to the Church and other senior figures within the clergy and the Royal Family to seek out support and protection, including the then Archbishop, Lord Carey who obliged by writing a letter of support which was sent to the police and the CPS. (You can read the letters from Carey and others here).

Carey has now been asked to step down from his position as an honorary assistant bishop by the current archbishop, Justin Welby.

In her report, “Abuse Of Faith”, Dame Moira Gibb says the Church “displayed little care” for Bishop Ball’s victims,”  and that its “failure to safeguard so many boys and young men still casts a long shadow”.

Crucially, the report also confirms that Bishop Ball had suggested “on many occasions, to Lord Carey and others, that he enjoys the status of confidant of the Prince of Wales” and “sought to exploit his contact with members of the royal family in order to bolster his position”.

Those of you following this blog will be familiar with Bishop Peter Ball and brothers, Phil and Gary Johnson who have campaigned tirelessly to bring Ball, and the Church, to justice. An exchange between Phil and Baroness Butler-Sloss, disgraced former Chair of the Child Abuse Inquiry, which we wrote about two years ago, highlights the extent of the collusion, with high profile believers desperate to preserve the Church’s standing. In the recording we shared, you can hear Butler-Sloss’s attempts at defending the Church and minimising allegations of abuse at the same time.

Phil Johnson spoke to the BBC in 2016 about Lord Carey’s involvement in the cover up of allegations against Bishop Ball, highlighting that the Church had deliberately hidden police evidence on the matter.

Things came to a head in August of last year, when it was confirmed that Bishop Ball had been granted Core Participant Status at the Child Abuse Inquiry, leaving his victims and survivors feeling re-traumatised at the possibility of being cross examined by him.

Phil also wrote a statement in September 2016 criticising the CPS’s decision to reduce Ball’s sentence.

Dame Moira Gibb’s report will be a welcome development for survivors and victims and we hope that it will bring about a change in the culture at the Church of England and lead to better safeguarding measures being put into place.

For a full list of articles on Bishop Peter Ball, please take a look at our site.

Peter Ball

 

 

 

Trace An Object To Stop Child Abuse

13 Tuesday Jun 2017

Posted by in child abuse, Researching Reform

≈ 5 Comments

We came across an incredible project online, and so we had to share it.

Europol, the EU’s law enforcement agency, which works with member states to tackle serious international crime and terrorism, has launched a new initiative to help stop child sexual abuse online.

“Trace An Object” asks members of the public to help Europol identify the origins of specific items found in sexually explicit material involving minors. The idea is that these objects are potentially specific to one location or country and so Europol are appealing for eyes to look at these images and see if they can help to work out where these objects come from.

The project was launched just a week ago and it has already received over 10,000 contributions from the general public.

If you’d like to see whether you can identify any of the objects you can take a look at them on Europol’s dedicated page, which has been updated recently, so do check back from time to time. Submissions can also be made anonymously.

We think this is a wonderful project. More and more of us are online and using the internet for good, so getting people from around the world involved in making the internet a safer place is a natural progression for web users, and an excellent use of our time.

We wish Europol lots of success.

trace an object

 

 

 

BBC’s ‘Three Girls’ Re-Ignites Debate Over Mandatory Reporting Of Child Abuse

25 Thursday May 2017

Posted by in child abuse, child welfare, Researching Reform

≈ 7 Comments

The BBC’s recent programme portraying the lives of three girls who were sexually abused in Rochdale has highlighted the bravery of child welfare whistleblower Sara Rowbotham and others, but it has also reignited the debate over a legal duty to report child abuse.

An excellent Community Care article about the film, entitled “The Three Girls Drama Is A Reminder That Staying Silent Is Not An Option” urges social workers to ‘do the right thing’ and ensure that children who are abused are protected, but this call to arms also invites the profession to consider how they should go about doing this.

In May 2016 the government published a consultation asking for feedback on the creation of a legal duty to report child abuse. It aimed to gather as much information as possible on the pros and cons of mandatory reporting, which professional bodies and individuals should be included in any duty report and what kind of sanctions a failure to report might carry. The government is currently analysing the submissions it received and should be publishing its findings shortly.

When it was first launched, the consultation was met with resistance by The Law Society, claiming that a duty to report child abuse would lead to a sharp rise in false allegations and a complete melt down of the justice system. And whilst some social work professionals raised concerns over a duty to report too, others welcomed the idea.

Many of the misgivings about a duty to report are unfounded. Emerging research across the world shows that a duty to report does not weigh down child welfare systems or encourage people to make false allegations. And though some evidence from the US suggests that criminal sanctions for failure to report suspected abuse can lead to professionals turning a blind eye over fears that this could cause the child in question more harm, much of the research highlights positive outcomes, including a larger number of abused children being identified.

Sara Rowbotham’s actions were extraordinary, but she paid a heavy price for speaking out. Sadly, agencies today working in the child welfare sector don’t make it easy to highlight wrongdoing, especially if it highlights poor professional practice at the same time. Mandatory reporting represents a solution to the unacceptable silence.

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New Definition For Child Sexual Exploitation Published

12 Friday May 2017

Posted by in child abuse, child welfare, CSE, Researching Reform

≈ 2 Comments

The government has released a working document for child welfare professionals and all those who work with children and families which outlines a revised definition for child sexual exploitation (CSE). It replaces the 2009 guidance ‘Safeguarding children and young people from sexual exploitation’.

The document, which was published in February of this year, defines CSE as:

“A form of child sexual abuse. It occurs where an individual or group takes advantage of an imbalance of power to coerce, manipulate or deceive a child or young person under the age of 18 into sexual activity (a) in exchange for something the victim needs or wants, and/or (b) for the financial advantage or increased status of the perpetrator or facilitator. The victim may have been sexually exploited even if the sexual activity appears consensual. Child sexual exploitation does not always involve physical contact; it can also occur through the use of technology.”

This definition is not statutory, meaning that it’s not a legal definition, however it has been published to help professionals detect CSE and take the necessary next steps to address it.

The guidance goes on to say:

Like all forms of child sexual abuse, child sexual exploitation:
• Can affect any child or young person (male or female) under the age of 18 years,
including 16 and 17 year olds who can legally consent to have sex;
• Can still be abuse even if the sexual activity appears consensual;
• Can include both contact (penetrative and non-penetrative acts) and non-contact
sexual activity;
• Can take place in person or via technology, or a combination of both;
• Can involve force and/or enticement-based methods of compliance and may, or
may not, be accompanied by violence or threats of violence;
• May occur without the child or young person’s immediate knowledge (through
others copying videos or images they have created and posting on social media,
for example);
• Can be perpetrated by individuals or groups, males or females, and children or
adults. The abuse can be a one-off occurrence or a series of incidents over time,
and range from opportunistic to complex organised abuse; and
• Is typified by some form of power imbalance in favour of those perpetrating the
abuse. Whilst age may be the most obvious, this power imbalance can also be
due to a range of other factors including gender, sexual identity, cognitive ability,
physical strength, status, and access to economic or other resources

The guidance also explains that “Child sexual exploitation is never the victim’s fault, even if there is some form of exchange: all children and young people under the age of 18 have a right to be safe and should be protected from harm. One of the key factors found in most cases of child sexual exploitation is the presence of some form of exchange (sexual activity in return for something); for the victim and/or perpetrator or facilitator.”

The document offers rough guidelines on which demographics are most affected by CSE, indicators for the phenomenon and the effects of CSE on children. It also offers suggestions on how to respond to incidences of child sexual exploitation.

If you have any questions you can contact the Department Of Education here. 

 

CSE Know signs

 

A New Law To Tackle Child Groomers Is Now In Force – Here’s How It Works

03 Monday Apr 2017

Posted by in child abuse, Researching Reform

≈ 7 Comments

As of today, sexual communication with a child under the age of 16 is now a criminal offence. 

Anyone aged 18 or over who intentionally communicates with a child under 16, acting for a sexual purpose and where the communication is sexual or intended to elicit a sexual response can be sent to jail for a maximum of two years, and will automatically be placed on the Sex Offenders Register.

The offence applies to online and offline communication, including social media, e-mail, texts, letters, and other forms of communication.

The law was created after the NSPCC campaigned for better protections for children online. During the Lords Report stage of the Serious Crime Bill Lord Harris of Haringey then tabled an amendment proposing a new criminal offence in this area.

The provisions can be found in S.67 of The Serious Crime Act 2015:

Sexual communication with a child

After section 15 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 insert—

“15A Sexual communication with a child

(1)A person aged 18 or over (A) commits an offence if—

(a)for the purpose of obtaining sexual gratification, A intentionally communicates with another person (B),

(b)the communication is sexual or is intended to encourage B to make (whether to A or to another) a communication that is sexual, and

(c)B is under 16 and A does not reasonably believe that B is 16 or over.

(2)For the purposes of this section, a communication is sexual if—

(a)any part of it relates to sexual activity, or

(b)a reasonable person would, in all the circumstances but regardless of any person’s purpose, consider any part of the communication to be sexual;

and in paragraph (a) “sexual activity” means an activity that a reasonable person would, in all the circumstances but regardless of any person’s purpose, consider to be sexual.

(3)A person guilty of an offence under this section is liable—

(a)on summary conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or a fine or both;

(b)on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years.”

Researching Reform has received guidance notes on this new law, and we can tell you the following:

  • Laws previously in place do already address this kind of behaviour, however they are unlikely to apply if the communication does not ask the child to engage in sexual activity, and many do not require automatic sex offender registration.
  • This is NOT an internet specific offence. It will apply equally to offline and online communications, including oral communication and written notes.
  • The new law will only apply where the defendant can be shown to have acted for the purposes of obtaining sexual gratification. This distinction has been created to ensure that ordinary discussions such as family chats on safe sex guidance or discussions in an educational context, will not be caught by the offence.

How this behaviour will be detected, remains. With many online messaging platforms using encryption and the existing difficulties surrounding children reporting this kind of communication and adults identifying it, prosecution in this area will be difficult, but the new law will at least send out the message that grooming is not acceptable and perpetrators are being targeted in a much more focused way.

s300_ministry-of-justice

“More And More Paedophilically Inclined Men Start With Child Abuse Images.”

21 Tuesday Mar 2017

Posted by in child abuse, Researching Reform

≈ 5 Comments

A leading expert in Germany on paedophilia running a rehabilitation programme has warned that an increasing number of men are accessing child abuse images online to act out their fantasies.

This, only days after Britain’s senior child protection officer proposed that all paedophiles who access these images should be spared jail.

Dr Beier’s key points in the interview, make for important reading:

  • Paedophilia is not a choice;
  • Not every paedophile commits sex offences against children and not every sex offender is a pedophile;
  • There are two types of offenders – those paedophylically inclined and those who use children as substitutes due to the lack of relationships with those their own age
  • Paedophiles know that sexually abusing a child is wrong, so there is no diminished mental capacity involved;
  • More and more paedophiles are exploring their sexual orientation by accessing child abuse image online and;
  • Reoffending rates among sex offenders remain very high.

Crucially, Dr Beier believes that the answer to reducing offending lies in offering support to juvenile offenders with ‘sexually conspicuous behaviour’, getting their families involved so that they feel supported as many paedophiles feel isolated and alone, and for countries across the world to join forces to create effective programmes which reduce the accessing of images online and sexual offences against children.

Another significant point Dr Beier makes is that reaching out to paedophiles who are not yet known to the justice system is perhaps the most important aspect of tackling child sexual abuse. He says allowing paedophiles the opportunity to come forward to seek support voluntarily is the way to prevent sexual offences in the first place.

This expert’s views should serve as a warning to our government – before we remove jail time with a view to offering offenders counselling, we need to have effective programmes in place first.

Dr Klaus Beier.png

 

 

 

Question It!

20 Monday Mar 2017

Posted by in child abuse, Question It, Researching Reform

≈ 7 Comments

Welcome to another week.

A medical researcher in the Netherlands has concluded that the surveys Dutch doctors use to detect child abuse very often leads to false accusations.  As of 2011, all emergency rooms and GPs in the country have to fill out a child abuse detection questionnaire whenever they treat a child. It is currently the only country in the world which has this kind of mandatory screening for child abuse.

The article tells us:

“Schouten investigated over 5 thousand such questionnaires from five Utrecht doctors. For her study, she kept track of how many negative and positive scores there were, and then how many of those children were in touch with child welfare or were reported to the child abuse hotline in the following 10 months. She found that in 92 out of 100 cases the suspicions were unfounded. And in 1 out of 100 cases, signs of child abuse were missed. “

The researcher proposes that instead of accusing parents straight off, developing good communication with families and approaching any injuries with a view to working out what caused them first, are far better ways to safeguard children.

Whilst the UK does not employ exactly the same methods when it comes to detecting child abuse, the GMC have issued ethical guidelines for doctors which are at face value positive and pro communication and support. This is an extract from the guidance:

“Child protection is a difficult area of practice that can involve making decisions that are emotionally challenging, complicated by uncertainty and sometimes go against the wishes of parents.3 Doctors should work with parents and families, where possible, to make sure that children and young people receive the care and support they need. But in cases where the interests and wishes of parents may put the safety of the child or young person at risk, doctors must put the interests of the child or young person first.4 Failure to act when a child or young person is at risk can have serious consequences for both the child and their family.”

However, there are similar problems with incorrect diagnoses of abuse here. Whilst child abuse referrals have soared, the level of child abuse actually detected has not increased.  In the past false accusations have been made through diagnoses based on photographs . Other methods such as secretly filming parents and diagnosing mothers with controversial mental health disorders have also been used to detect abuse, but continue to cause debate.

Our question then, is just this: what could the UK child protection system do to ensure better detection of child abuse and a reduction in rates of false diagnoses? 

We have very strong views about this, but we’ll hand over the floor to you.

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