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Child, 6, Found Dead in Texas.

July 8, 2013, 5:44 am
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Pictured: The little angel, 6, found murdered naked under a tarp with her hands bound in middle of the street as FBI offers $10,000 reward for monster who abducted her



  • Teens playing in the street found the body of the girl
  • Her hands and feet were bound and she was naked except for a pair of purple underwear
  • FBI has joined the investigation and deemed the case a murder
  • Police looking for red pickup truck with green splotch that was seen in the area when the girl's body was found

Theses are the first heartbreaking photos to emerge of Alanna Gallagher, the little six-year-old girl found horrifically stripped, bound and and murdered in a quiet suburban Fort Worth neighborhood.
The photos reveal an adorable child with no shortage of smiles for the camera. Neighbors said she was an inquisitive 'spitfire' who always seemed to have questions that betrayed an intellect beyond her young age.  
Alanna's body was found wrapped in a tarp a mile and a half from her home in Saginaw, Texas, on Monday night. She her hands and feet were bound, she had a plastic bag over her head and she was naked except for a pair of purple underwear. 
Police on Wednesday announced that the FBI has offered a $10,000 reward for anyone who helps them find the monster who abducted Alanna from her parents' house.

Little angel: This is Alanna Gallagher, the six-year-old who was taken from her suburban Texas home and murdered on Monday night
Little angel: This is Alanna Gallagher, the six-year-old who was taken from her suburban Texas home and murdered on Monday night

Neighbors said the often saw the little girl riding her scooter up and down her street in the quiet neighborhood in Saginaw
Neighbors said the often saw the little girl riding her scooter up and down her street in the quiet neighborhood in Saginaw

Alanna is seen here with her father Karl, a defense contractor, and her mother Laura - along with her two older siblings
Alanna is seen here with her father Karl, a defense contractor, and her mother Laura - along with her two older siblings

Horror in Texas: A little girl's body was found bound and naked under this plastic tarp in Saginaw, Texas, outside Fort Worth on Monday night
Horror in Texas: A little girl's body was found bound and naked under this plastic tarp in Saginaw, Texas, outside Fort Worth on Monday night

At a news conference, police spokesman Damon Ing said investigators are tracking down several leads and have already received numerous tips about the disappearance of little Alanna - but they need to public's help to find her killer. 
Alanna's parents have been ruled out as suspects in the case, Ing said. Her mother and father have been meeting with police chaplains and grief counselors since their daughter disappeared Monday night.
Investigators say they are trying to figure out exactly when Alanna was taken from her home. Her body was found about 7.30pm about a mile and a half from her parents' house.
    They are also still searching for a red pickup truck with a green splotch that could be involved in the her murder.
    Saginaw police have set up to 24-hour tip lines for the public to leave potential information about the case. The phone numbers are 682-888-3682 and 682-888-3684.
    More than 100 people showed up for a candle-light vigil at a nearby Methodist church Tuesday night to pray for little Alanna. Residents also started a make-shift memorial on a curb near where her body was found. By Tuesday night, the line of stuffed animals, flowers and cards stretched half the block.
    Neighbors say the inquisitive girl with 'curly brown hair and a constant smile' loved to play alone outside in her front yard - but was cautious to always tell strangers they had to keep away. 

    Neighbors said Alanna always seemed far smarter than other children her age and always seemed to ask mature questions
    Neighbors said Alanna always seemed far smarter than other children her age and always seemed to ask mature questions

    Perfect pumpkin: Alanna's father Karl Gallagher posted dozens of adoring photos of his daughter, and all his children, on his Facebook page
    Perfect pumpkin: Alanna's father Karl Gallagher posted dozens of adoring photos of his daughter, and all his children, on his Facebook page

    Alanna is seen here dressed a Little Bo Peep for Halloween. Neighbors said her father loved to take her trick-or-treating
    Alanna is seen here dressed a Little Bo Peep for Halloween. Neighbors said her father loved to take her trick-or-treating

    Mourning: About 100 people turned out for a candle-light vigil to mourn the little girl ground brutally murdered
    Mourning: About 100 people turned out for a candle-light vigil to mourn the little girl ground brutally murdered

    Searching: Police executed a search warrant on the girl's parents' home on Tuesday morning. The house is located about a mile and a half from where the body was found
    Searching: Police executed a search warrant on the girl's parents' home on Tuesday morning. The house is located about a mile and a half from where the body was found

    'She seemed smarter than the average (child her age), just because of the questions she’d always ask,' neighbor John Janus told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. 
    'And her parents are nice and very, very smart people. They like books. The last time I was in their home, the front room looked like a library.'
    Mr Janus said he took his children with Alanna and her father on Halloween for the last few years.
    According to his Facebook page, Alanna's father Karl Gallagher graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and works as an engineer for a defense contractor. He posted dozens of pictures of his three children on his Facebook page. 
    'She was a precious little girl. I usually just saw her on her scooter,' neighbor Kay Stief told the Dallas Morning News. 
    Many neighbors say they often saw her playing alone - either in her yard or on the neighborhood streets near her house. However, in the quiet suburban neighborhood, they said they usually didn't think too much of it. 
    Police and the FBI searched the girl's home for several hours on Tuesday, carrying out boxes of documents and computers. 

    This aerial image shows the tarp where the girl's body was found, lower right corner, in the middle of a quiet intersection

    This aerial image shows the tarp where the girl's body was found, lower right corner, in the middle of a quiet intersection

    Murder: The FBI has joined the investigation after the horrifying discovery. No children from the area have been reported missing, so the case starts with few leads
    Murder: The FBI has joined the investigation after the horrifying discovery. No children from the area have been reported missing, so the case starts with few leads

    FBI agents combed the area searching for evidence. The body was dumped in a conspicuous spot in a suburban neighborhood in Saginaw
    FBI agents combed the area searching for evidence. The body was dumped in a conspicuous spot in a suburban neighborhood in Saginaw

    A police spokesman said they were interviewing the parents - though at they moment they were only trying to confirm the timeline of when the girl was abducted from her home. 
    The girl's body was found about 7.30pm on Monday by 14-year-old Owen Whiddon, who was riding his scooter through his neighborhood in Saginaw - about a mile and a half from where the girl lived. 
    He said he saw a tarp in the middle of an intersection, tightly rapped with a belt. 
    'I said, "Well, let’s pick it up, let’s put it in the trash can," you know, because we’re a clean community,' he told the Morning News. 
    What he found shocked him to his core. He ran back home and told his mother: 'Mom, it’s a little girl.'
    Whiddon's friend Josh Smith, 18, told KXAS-TV that he is will never be the same after seeing the girl dead. 
    'At first, I just thought it was some rubber stuff at first, and then I got a closer look and all I saw was a bag and I saw some hair sticking out and so, I was like, "Oh my God! It’s a girl!"' he said.
    'And that’s when I dropped to my knees and just started crying.'

    The girl's body was found in Saginaw, Texas, a city of 20,000 outside Forth Worth
    The girl's body was found in Saginaw, Texas, a city of 20,000 outside Forth Worth

    Coping: Neighbors quickly set up a makeshift memorial on the curb for the little girl, whose identity remains a mystery
    Coping: Neighbors quickly set up a makeshift memorial on the curb for the little girl, whose identity remains a mystery

    Katie Whiddon, Owen's mother, told KTVT-TV that she didn't believe her son at first. When he convinced her he was telling the truth, she called 911.
    'I was panicking. I was freaked out. How can somebody hurt a little girl?' she said.
    Ms Whiddon told KDFW-TV that the girl was naked except for a bear of purple underwear and her hands and feet were bound. She had a plastic grocery bag over her head.
    Police say they are still not sure when the girl's body was dumped. Some neighbors said they noticed the tarp in the road about noon. Others say they didn't see it until about 7pm.
    Neighbors said her father started looking for her about 9pm Tuesday - an hour and a half after he body was found. They recalled him going door-to-door asking if anyone had seen his daughter. 
    'You could tell on his face, he didn’t know what to do,' Mr Janus, the neighbor, told the Star-Telegram.
    'It was like he was in shock and that he didn’t know where else to look.'
    Another neighbor, Derinda, told the Morning News that she saw Alanna's mother around that time, too. The neighbor said she didn't seem very worried about her daughter. 
    Derinda recalls the mother saying: 'I bet she’s over at a neighbor’s home. She always does this.'
    About 9.15pm, Mr Janus said he saw Alanna's father walk over to two police cruisers that had parked on his street. He believes that is when the parents reported their young daughter missing.
    Alanna's two other siblings are staying with family friends while their parents are being questioned by police. 
    Neighbors say they noticed a red pickup truck with a green splotch on the rear passenger-side panel in the neighborhood shortly before the body was found. 
    Investigators believe the driver may have something to do with the body and have asked anyone with information about the truck to come forward.


    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2354825/Alanna-Gallagher-6-dead-tarp-Saginaw-Texas.html#ixzz2YSPSZjV7
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    Cotsbrook Hall

    July 8, 2013, 7:19 am
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    The Times (London) 13th December 1997
    by Stewart Tendler, Crime Correspondent
    POLICE faked a road accident as part of a massive investigation that uncovered a paedophile who had eluded justice since the 1970s. David Stanley, 49, was jailed for 18 years yesterday after being convicted of abusing boys who were in his charge as a scoutmaster and a care assistant at a private children’s home.
    Sixteen men, including a Church of England vicar, were praised for their courage last night for giving public evidence that they were abused by Stanley as boys. Stanley, now married with two teenage children, said the accusations were lies.
    West Mercia police launched an investigation in November 1996 after becoming suspicious of him following an incident of indecent assault at a swimming baths in Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire. One man was jailed for 12 months and officers began looking closely into Stanley’s background.
    Police arranged an elaborate plan to seize his home computer before he was able to delete pornographic pictures stored on it. They staged a collision in the road outside his house. Stanley came out, and the police then held him and rushed in to carry out a legal search.
    When police extended their operations, they discovered that Stanley had faced allegations of abuse in 1979 at the Cotsbrook Hall care home in Shifnal, Shropshire. He had resigned and the case was abandoned for lack of corroboration. Working with social workers and a charity which helps victims of abuse, officers traced people who were children and staff in the 1970s, interviewing 300 witnesses around the country.
    At Worcester Crown Court, Stanley, a computer consultant in Telford, was convicted of 16 sex offences and one charge of possessing pornographic photographs with a view to distributing them on the Internet. He was given 16 years for the abuse and two years for the pornography.
    The abuse, committed against boys aged ten to 15, began while he was a scoutmaster between 1970 and 1976, and then continued for another three years when he worked at the children’s home. Judge Michael Mott said the photographs showed his proclivity for boys had not diminished.
    Cotsbrook Hall was owned by the same company responsible for the Bryn Alyn home in Wrexham, whose owner John Allen was jailed for six years for paedophile offences.
    After the case, Detective Chief Inspector John Cashion said of the witnesses: “It has taken immense courage for these men. They will never forget these attacks by a man they should have been able to trust.”

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    The Outreau Trial

    July 8, 2013, 7:41 am
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    The Outreau trial was a 2004 criminal trial in Northern France on various counts of sexual abuse against children. The trial and the appeal trial revealed that the main witness for the prosecution, convicted for the abuse, had lied about the involvement of other suspects, who were in fact innocent. Several innocent suspects had nevertheless spent years jailed on remand and one had committed suicide.
    The trials resulted in a national outrage in France, with journalists, politicians and the public opinion questioning how such a miscarriage of justice could happen, with innocent men and women being held for years in jail on unfounded suspicions. In January 2006, a parliamentary inquiry was created, with President Jacques Chirac calling the affair a "judicial disaster".
    The "Outreau Affair", which concerned an alleged criminal network in Outreau, a poor suburb of Boulogne-sur-Mer in the Pas-de-Calais region, began in November 2001. The first trial took place in Saint-Omer in 2004, and the appeal took place in Paris in 2005.
    Eighteen people were accused. Mostly parents, they were charged with child sexual abuse and incest and their children were separated from them for much of this time. The affair began when some school teachers and social workers noticed “strange sexual behavior” from four children in a local school. Psychologists believed the children to be credible witnesses, but doctors found no evidence of sexual abuse.[1] The parents were accused on the testimony of some of the children, which was then backed-up by the confessions of some of the accused.
    The defendants were held in custody for from one to three years. In the first trial (in 2004), four of the eighteen admitted guilt and were convicted,[1] seven denied involvement and were acquitted. Six further defendants denied the charges but were convicted and given light sentences - they appealed their convictions, and were heard by the Paris Cour d'assises in autumn 2005. On the first day of the hearing, the prosecution's claims were destroyed, and all six were acquitted.[2] Another defendant had committed suicide in prison while awaiting trial.

    Judicial Process

    The first trial

    The appeal took place before Saint-Omer's Cour d'assises, composed of three professional judges and nine jurors.

    The case involved an alleged ring of 17 persons, with the charges based on one woman's evidence and some corroborating statements from alleged victims. The alleged offenders were condemned on the grounds of certain adults' and, most of all, the children's testimony, together with psychiatric evidence. The children's testimony took place in "huis clos" (behind closed doors); such a procedure is normal in France for victims of sexual abuse, especially minors.
    The six convicted persons who denied any responsibility appealed their convictions.
    The woman who had given much of the evidence later confessed in court she had lied, and the children's revelations were found to be unreliable. Only four of the accused ever confessed, all the others insisted on their innocence: one committed suicide in jail during the investigation, 7 others were acquitted during the first trial in May 2004, the last 6 during the second trial on the evening of December 1, 2005.

    The second trial

    The appeal took place before Paris' Cour d'assises, composed of three professional judges and twelve jurors, used as an appellate court for review of both facts and law.
    On its first day, the accusation's claims were dismissed, owing to the statement of the main prosecution witness, Myriam Badaoui, who had declared on November 18 that the six convicted persons "had not done anything" and that she had herself lied. Thierry Delay, her former husband, backed up her statement. During the trial, the psychological evidence was also called into question, as it appeared biased and lacking in weight. The denials of two children, who admitted that they had formerly lied, also contributed to the destruction of the prosecution's claims. One of the psychologists said on TV: "I am paid the same as a cleaning lady, so I provide a cleaning lady's expertise," which caused further public indignation.
    At the end of the trial, the prosecutor (avocat général) asked for the acquittal of all of the accused persons. The defence renounced its right to plead, preferring to observe a minute of silence in favor of François Mourmand, who had died in prison during remand. Yves Bot, general prosecutor of Paris, came to the trial on its last day, without previously notifying the president of the Cour d'assises, Mrs. Mondineu-Hederer; while there, Bot presented his apologies to the defendants on behalf of the legal system—he did this before the verdict was delivered, taking for granted a "not guilty" ruling, for which some magistrates reproached him afterwards.
    All six defendants were finally acquitted on December 1, 2005, putting an end to five years of trials, which have been described by the French media as a "judicial foundering" or even as a "judicial Chernobyl".
    Remaining Sentences
    Four people remained convicted after the appeal trial: Myriam Badaoui (who had not appealed her conviction), her husband, and a couple of neighbours. Myriam Badaoui, her husband, and one of the neighbours confessed that they had wrongfully accused other people to have been involved in the abuse cases, whereas only the four of them had been involved.[3]
    Myriam Badaoui was convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison, her husband to 20 years.

    Aftermath

    Questioning on French justice and media involvement

    The affair caused public indignation and questions about the general workings of justice in France. The role of an inexperienced magistrate, Fabrice Burgaud,[4] fresh out of the Ecole Nationale de la Magistrature was underscored, as well as the undue weight given to children's words and to psychiatric expertise, both of which were revealed to have been wrong.

    The media's relation of the events was also questioned; although they were quick to point out the judicial error, they also had previously endorsed the "Outreau affair".

    Parliamentary inquiry

    After the second trial, the Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, the minister of justice Pascal Clément and President Chirac himself officially apologised to the victims in the name of the government and of the judicial institutions.

    In January 2006, there was a special parliamentary enquiry (for the first time broadcast live on television) about this catastrophe judiciaire (judicial disaster), which had been called by President Chirac in order to help prevent a recurrence of this situation through alterations in France's legal system. The role of experts (who had drawn hasty conclusions from children's testimony) and child protection advocates, lack of legal representation, the responsibility of the judges (the prosecution's case depended in this instance on a single investigative magistrate) and the role of the mass media was examined.
    The acquitted persons' hearing by the parliamentary enquiry caused a surge of emotion through the whole country. The affair was designated a "judiciary shipwreck".

    Fabrice Burgaud

    On April 24, 2009, the Conseil supérieur de la magistrature sentenced Burgaud to a reprimand (réprimande avec inscription au dossier), the lowest penalty in the French judiciary system. Since then the case was "dropped". Today Burgaud is appealing his reprimand.

    Film
    In 2011 a film, Presume coupable (English title: Guilty) was released, a drama documentary about the case from the viewpoint of Alain Marecaux, one of the innocent defendants, based on his memoirs.

    References
    1. ^ a b Fouché, Alexandra (2004-06-02). "Outreau puts French justice in question" . BBC News Online. Retrieved 2008-05-29. "One of France's highest-profile sex abuse case in years has ended with guilty verdicts against 10 people, but with accusations of an even wider paedophile ring not proved."
    2. ^ "Six cleared over French child sex" . BBC News. December 1, 2005. Retrieved May 20, 2010.
    3. ^ Procès en appel d'Outreau, l'audience du vendredi 18 novembre 
    4. ^ "Paedophile case that could bring down the Napoleonic system ", By Adam Sage, The Times, 2006-04-04

    Further Reading:
    http://dondevamos.canalblog.com/  has some excellent references although his own grasp of translation tools and their results leaves a lot to be desired.
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    Attempted Setup Of Campaigner.

    July 8, 2013, 8:03 am
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    Posted by Sweetcheeks



    Luke from We Are Change explains how he had an attempted setup when attachments sent to him, purporting to be from a whistleblower on Bilderberg, turned out to be child pornography. Fortunately he used a secondary laptop and was able to view them without downloading. Luke is a truthseeker and I believe a potential contributer to the new 'The People's Voice'. Somebody was trying to stop him speaking, so we must all be aware that there are dark forces out there trying to stop us shining the light. Please take care when opening attachments that you are not expecting.

    http://www.davidicke.com/headlines/8...luke-rudkowski

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    Barbara Hewson Ridicules Sex Abuse Victims

    July 9, 2013, 1:59 am
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    Barbara Hewson

    Barbara Hewson

    Senior Barrister, Hardwicke
    London, United Kingdom 
    Legal Services

    Barbara Hewson's Overview

    Current
    Past
    Education
    • University of Cambridge
    • University of Westminster
    Connections
    117 connections

    Barbara Hewson's Summary

    Called to the Bar of England & Wales in 1985; trained in Chancery and commercial chambers. Also called to the Bar of Ireland (1991) and Northern Ireland (2000). She has appeared in numerous reported cases covering Court of Protection, human rights, judicial review, medical law, and professional regulation, as well as a range of civil, EC and commercial litigation (see Westlaw and other databases). She is accustomed to appellate advocacy. She has won cases abroad in the ECJ, ECtHR, and the High Court and Supreme Court in the Republic of Ireland. She is an accredited mediator and also acts as mediation advocate.

    She regularly speaks at conferences and seminars. She writes for New Law Journal, Solicitors Journal and www.spiked-online.com. She has also published in Counsel, The Lawyer, Legal Week, Times Law Page, The Barrister, Medical Law Review, Public Law, Feminist Legal Studies, BMJ, Journal of Medical Ethics, Abortion Review, Conscience, AIMS Journal, Huffington Post and LM. She contributes to radio and TV programmes on legal issues, recently appearing on BBC 2's "The Big Questions" and Voice of Russia. She is a trustee of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (bpas). She is also a participant in the Irish Feminist Judgments Project.

    She is described as "that contradiction in terms: a sensible lawyer." Her specialties are: Abortion, Administrative & Public law, Childbirth, Civil Liberties, Court of Protection and mental capacity, Due process, Freedom of speech, Healthcare law and regulation, Human rights, Injunctions, Inquests, Judicial review, Local government law, Mental Health, Privacy, Professional liability, Professional regulation, Reproductive rights, Women's rights. She also has experience of employment law, including discrimination claims, unfair dismissal, breach of confidence and advising on internal disciplinaries.

    Barbara has been a keen horse-rider since her childhood in Co. Galway. She undertakes cases involving equine issues.

    Barbara Hewson's Experience

    Public

    Hardwicke

    Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Legal Services industry
    July 2003 – Present (10 years 1 month)
    Barbara is ranked a Leading Junior by the Legal 500 in Administrative & Public Law, Human Rights & Civil Liberties, and Professional Discipline & Regulatory Law. In November 2012, the University of Westminster awarded her an honorary fellowship for services to law.

    She advises local authorities facing judicial reviews and large monetary claims, and represents businesses in actions against regulators. She also undertakes professional negligence claims against solicitors, veterinarians, and others.

    She defends healthcare professionals before their regulators, including the GMC and NMC. She is particularly known for her work defending home birth midwives in England and Ireland. She is a leading reproductive rights barrister, who pioneered landmark legal challenges to court-ordered Caesareans: St George's Healthcare NHS Trust v S; R v Collins and others, ex parte S [1999] Fam 26; Rochdale v Choudhury. She has advised on aspects of abortion and midwifery regulation in England and Ireland. She has acted in many high-profile cases, about conjoined twins, abortion for fetal anomaly, and non-consensual surgery. She was a panellist at the "Human Rights In Childbirth" Conference, The Hague in 2012.

    Recent cases: Gray v Germany & UK (no. 49278/09), 18 Dec. 2012; Duthie v NMC [2012] All ER (D) 332 (Oct); Hussain v GMC [2012] EWHC 2991 (Admin); C v Blackburn with Darwen BC (2012) 15 CCL Rep 251; P & Q v Surrey CC [2012] 2 WLR 1056, C.A.; A v Independent News & Media [2010] 1 WLR 2262; R (Humberstone) v LSC [2010] EWHC 760 (Admin), Hossack v LSC [2010] A.C.D. 97; Muscat v HPC [2008] EWHC 2798 (QB), Moody v General Osteopathic Council [2008] EWCA Civ 513; Ealing BC v KS, LU, SK & Ors [2008] EWHC 636 (Fam).

    Other ECtHR cases: P, C & S v UK (2002) 35 EHRR 31; Glass v UK (2004) 39 EHRR 341; D v Ireland (2006) 43 EHRR SE16.

    Barrister

    Littman Chambers

    1995 – 2003 (8 years)

    Barrister

    Monckton Chambers

    Partnership; 51-200 employees; Legal Services industry
    1991 – 1995 (4 years)

    Barrister

    Radcliffe Chambers (Self-employed)

    Self-Employed; 51-200 employees; Legal Services industry
    1987 – 1991 (4 years)

    Barbara Hewson's Publications

    • No Roe v Wade

      • New Law Journal (2011) Vol.161 No.7450 Pages 119-120
      • January 28, 2011
      Authors: Barbara Hewson
      I analyse the recent European Court of Human Rights' ruling on Ireland's restrictive abortion law: A, B & C v Ireland

    • Rescue or Detention?

      • New Law Journal (2011) Vol.161 No.7457 pp. 383-384
      • March 18, 2011
      Authors: Barbara Hewson
      I discuss the Court of Appeal's judgment in P & Q v Surrey County Council, which Surrey CC won. I act for Surrey in the forthcoming appeal to the Supreme Court later in 2013.

    • No Place Like Home

      • Solicitors Journal S.J. (2011) Vol.155 No.13 Page 17
      • April 5, 2011
      Authors: Barbara Hewson
      I discuss the impact of Directive 2011/24 and the ECtHR decision in Ternovszky v Hungary on homebirths in the U.K.

    • Who Guards the Guardians

      • New Law Journal
      • February 17, 2012
      Authors: Barbara Hewson
      I discuss the interface between guardianship of mental patients and the Mental Capacity Act 2005, after C v Blackburn w Darwen BC.

    • The public is being misled about pre-signed abortion certificates

      • Abortion Review
      • April 25, 2012
      Authors: Barbara Hewson
      I consider Andrew Lansley's claim that some abortion clinics are breaking the law, following the CQC's inspection of 250 clinics. I say that pre-signing abortion certificates is not illegal per se.

    • Autistic teenager 'failed by agencies'

      • The Justice Gap - Blog & Comment
      • May 15, 2012
      Authors: Barbara Hewson
      I report the recent findings of Professor Paul Marks, Acting Coroner for West Yorkshire, at an inquest on 19 April 2012, finding that neglect by state agencies contributed to the death by suicide of an 18y.o. man with high-functioning ASD.

    • Treating adults like children

      • spiked
      • June 20, 2012
      Authors: Barbara Hewson
      This is my critique of the recent Court of Protection ruling that a 32 year old anorexic should be force-fed.

    • A more discerning approach to safeguarding decisions

      • Solicitors Journal
      • September 25, 2012
      Authors: Barbara Hewson
      My comment on Davis & Davis v West Sussex County Council [2012] EWHC 2152 (QB). I say that Fairness should be the guiding principle in safeguarding.

    • A Consistent Approach: recent trends in reproductive rights

      • New Law Journal
      • October 5, 2012
      Authors: Barbara Hewson
      I discuss the recent ECtHR ruling in Costa & Pavan v Italy on 28th August, and abortion law in Northern Ireland.

    • Abortion should be taken out of the criminal law

      • Solicitors Journal
      • October 16, 2012
      Authors: Barbara Hewson
      I discuss the UN Special Rapporteur on Health's call on states to decriminalise abortion and argue that Sarah Catt was wrongly convicted

    • Let's rip up the Human Rights Act

      • www.spiked-online.com
      • March 11, 2013
      Authors: Barbara Hewson
      I comment on the Conservatives' plan to repeal the HRA. I argue that the Act is a tool of social control which does nothing for civil liberties.

    • Yewtree is destroying the rule of law

      • spiked
      • May 8, 2013
      Authors: Barbara Hewson
      YOU CAN'T SAY THAT! A test case of censorship in the UK: the NSPCC tried to get me to remove it. I refused citing Art.10.

    Barbara Hewson's Education

    University of Cambridge

    B.A. (Hons.), M.A., English

    Trinity Hall

    University of Westminster

    Dip Law

    Barbara Hewson's Additional Information

    Interests:
    Horse riding; the law and ethics of human reproduction; personal autonomy; the rights of the defence; freedom of artistic expression; personal privacy and protection from media intrusion.
    Groups and Associations:
    Association of Regulatory & Disciplinary Lawyers, Chancery Bar Association, Employment Law Association, Professional Negligence Bar Association, Society of Authors
    Honors and Awards:
    1st recipient of "The Lawyer" Barrister of the Year Award for her pioneering legal work safeguarding women's choices in pregnancy and childbirth. You can read her article on Reproductive Autonomy here:
    http://jme.bmj.com/content/27/suppl_2/ii10.full

    Honorary Fellow of the University of Westminster.
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    Azoz Film; Prosecutions So Far.

    July 9, 2013, 8:29 am
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    Background

    Azov Films was based in Toronto, Canada, and specialized in selling barely-legal visual material mostly featuring boys participating in nudist gym and camp sports. The films were apparently produced in Eastern Europe. The legality of the material differed from country to country, but was widely believed to be well established in the major market, the U.S.A., which has historically tolerated depictions of underage nudity provided there is no sexual content.
    However, the company's website closed on or about May 1, 2011, apparently as a result of a police raid according to some US authorities, although there is no corroboration of this from Canadian authorities or the Canadian press. These same US authorities have obtained business records from Azov Films including customer e-mail and postal mail addresses and transaction receipts with customer credit card information.
    Starting in 2012, some US customers of Azov Films have been arrested and charged with receipt and possession of child pornography: some of the nude visual material has been construed as illegal by US Law Enforcement Officers ("LEO's"), including agents of the United States Postal Inspection Service. So far, all of the prosecutions are based on receipt by postal mail of Azov DVDs. US Postal Inspector Jeff Adkins, in an Affidavit dated 10/25/2012, states that 160 movies out of the approximately 600 available on the Company website have been "categorized as containing child pornography." [1] However, no list of those 160 titles has been made available to the public. In addition, the Company name AZOV has been redacted from every public filing made by LEO's.
    A list of all the English titles of the Azov Films known to date appears on the French B**w***. [2]
    UPDATE: We learned of the first likely Azov-related arrest of a CANADIAN customer (Nova Scotia). However, still no news from Toronto on what happened to the personnel of Azov. Were they charged for producing and distributing child pornography as alleged by some US authorities? Or did they cooperate with LEO's and escape prosecution? Many questions remain unanswered.
    By letter dated January 16, 2013, the Toronto Police Service ("TPS") declined to release any information at all about the Azov matter, and for the first time claimed that TPS is investigating a "murder" in conjunction with this case. [3]
    UPDATE from SPAIN: 28 Azov customers in Spain were arrested on or about December 7, 2012.
    NOTE: LEO's sometimes dub their AZOV campaign Project Spade or Operation Spade.

    Defendants

    (This may be an incomplete list. Azov Films is not yet explicitly cited in the official documentation of some of these cases, but there is strong circumstantial evidence that the alleged pornographic material was their product.)

    Canada

    • Edward Rutherford (long-time sponsor of junior sports) of North Bay, Ontario
      • PLEADED GUILTY on June 5, 2012 [4]
    • Bruce Edward Karlenzig (employed by an "educational organization") of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
      • PLEADED GUILTY on January 23, 2013 [5]
    • Brian David Jobb (Retired Teacher and Principal) of Lilydale, Nova Scotia [6] [7] [8]
      • Pleads NOT GUILTY - Trial set for December 2013 [9]
      • Defense Attorney Shawn P. D'Arcy of Conrad & Feindel [10]
    • Presently Unidentified 42-year-old man of Clarke's Beach, Newfoundland [11]
      • Case Postponed until June 4, 2013 [12]

    Spain

    • 28 arrested in Spain [13]
    • Presently Unidentified 72-year-old British resident of Cartagena, Spain arrested April 2, 2013 [14]

    U.S.A.

    • Jonathan D. Kendall (Police Officer) of Harrington, Delaware - News item mentions AZOV Films [15]
      • SENTENCED to Community Supervision until May 2014 (from online State of Delaware resources)
    • Joseph Monroe Wilson (Teacher) of Dallas, Georgia, now of Spartanburg, South Carolina --- Press Release [16] Teacher of the Year 2011 [17]
      • USA v. Wilson
        U.S. District Court --- Northern District of Georgia (Rome)
        CRIMINAL DOCKET CASE #: 4:12-cr-00023-RLV-WEJ-1
        Lead Defense Attorney: Howard Jay Manchel [18]--- Motion to Suppress [19]--- Motion To Order Gov't...[20]
        Transcript 1/29/2013 HEARING [21]
    • Richard Keller, M.D. of Andover, Massachusetts ---Court Complaint [22]
      • PLEADS NOT GUILTY [23]
      • USA v. Keller
        U.S. District Court --- District of Massachusetts (Boston)
        CRIMINAL DOCKET CASE #: 1:12-cr-10377-FDS-1
        Lead Defense Attorney: Max D. Stern [24]
    • William S. Thomas (Nurse) of Andover, Massachusetts --- News Article [25]
      • Indicted January 9, 2013 [26]
      • USA v. Thomas
        U.S. District Court --- District of Massachusetts (Boston)
        CRIMINAL DOCKET CASE #: 1:13-cr-10002-PBS-1
        Defense Attorney: Philip G. Cormier [27]
    • Edward F. Cousens of Holbrook, Massachusetts --- News [28]
      • Defendant DIED of Natural Causes on January 27, 2013 - [29](Death Verified on PACER) [30]
      • USA v. Cousens
        U.S. District Court --- District of Massachusetts (Boston)
        CRIMINAL DOCKET CASE #: 1:12-mj-07215-JCB-1
    • Gerald Deneault of Mansfield, Massachusetts ---News [31]
      • USA v. Deneault
        United States District Court --- District of Massachusetts (Boston)
        CRIMINAL DOCKET CASE #: 1:13-cr-10032-PBS-1
        Defense Attorney Stylianus Sinnis -- Federal Public Defender Office - District of Massachusetts
        51 Sleeper Street 5th FL Boston, MA 02210 617-223-8061 Fax: 617-223-8080 Email: stellio_sinnis@fd.org
    • Gerald Silva (State Probation Officer) of Coventry, Rhode Island ---News Article [32] --- Press Release + Complaint [33]
      • USA v. Silva
        U.S. District Court --- District of Rhode Island (Providence)
        CRIMINAL DOCKET CASE #: 1:12-mj-00284-LDA-1
        Defense Attorney Robert B. Mann [34]
    • Sgt. Philip Woolery (Grapevine Police Department) of Crowley, Texas --- News Article + link to Complaint [35]---
      • PLEADS GUILTY to tangential NON-AZOV charges [36]
      • USA v. Woolery
        U.S. District Court --- Northern District of Texas (Fort Worth)
        CRIMINAL DOCKET CASE #: 4:12-mj-00430-BJ-1
        Defense Attorney: William Reagan Wynn [37] (replaced William Hermesmeyer)
    • Harry Hopper of Tecumseh, Oklahoma --- News [38] --- Defense Attorney David Slane [39]
    • Gary Jefferson Byrd of Opelousas, Louisiana --- News Article [40] --- Arrested 9/24/2012 by US Postal Inspector Allyson Leigh Hoffine
      • PLEADS NOT GUILTY 1/11/2013 [41] --- Motion To Dismiss [42] - JURY TRIAL set for October 7, 2013
      • USA v. Byrd
        U.S. District Court --- Western District of Louisiana (Lafayette)
        CRIMINAL DOCKET CASE #: 6:12-cr-00274-EEF-CMH-1
        Court-Appointed (CJA) Defense Attorney Randal P McCann --- Law Office of Randal P McCann (no website)
        1005 Lafayette St --- Lafayette, LA 70501
        Tel: 337-232-1255 --- Fax: 337-232-1268 --- Email: rpm@rpmlawfirm.com
    • Joseph Finocchiaro of Bath, Maine --- Court Complaint Part 1 [43]--- Court Complaint Part 2 [44] --- News Article [45]
      • PLEADS GUILTY to tangential NON-AZOV charges on February 6, 2013 [46]
        SENTENCED to 21 months in Prison [47]
      • USA v. Finocchiaro
        U.S. District Court --- District of Maine (Portland)
        CRIMINAL DOCKET CASE #: 2:12-mj-00190-GZS-1
    • Loyd Jeffrey Hitt of Center Point, Alabama --- News [48] [49]
      • PLEADS GUILTY February 2013 [50]
      • Sentenced to 97 months in Prison [51]
      • USA v. Hitt
        U.S. District Court --- Northern District of Alabama (Southern)
        CRIMINAL DOCKET CASE #: 2:12-mj-00346-RRA-1
    • Nicholas G. Sysock (High School Vice Principal) of Carteret, New Jersey --- News [52] --- News [53] --- Criminal Complaint [54]
      • PLEADS GUILTY May 8, 2013 - Sentencing August 15, 2013 [55] [56]
      • USA v. Sysock
        U.S. District Court --- District of New Jersey (Newark)
        CRIMINAL DOCKET CASE #: 2:12-mj-03197-PS-1
        Defense Attorney: Carol Gillen --- Federal Public Defenders Office
        1002 Broad St --- Newark, NJ 07103
        973-645-6347 --- Fax: 973-645-3101 --- Email: carol_gillen@fd.org
    • John Charles Mason (Youth Services Counselor) of Conroe, Texas --- News [57] --- News Article [58]
    • Josh Ensley (School Janitor) of Tucker, Georgia --- News Article + link to Complaint [59]
      • Pleads GUILTY - Sentencing set for July 25, 2013 [60]
      • USA v. Ensley
        U.S. District Court --- Northern District of Georgia (Atlanta)
        CRIMINAL DOCKET CASE #: 1:12-cr-00385-CAP-JFK-1
        Lead Defense Attorney: Kendal Demetrius Silas Federal Defender Program Inc.-Atl
        Tel.404-688-7530 Email: kendal_silas@fd.org
        Retained Attorney: Paul Stephen Kish [61]
    • William Villemez (Teacher) of Smyrna, Georgia --- News [62]
      • PLEADS GUILTY to Count 2 on April 19, 2013 [63]
      • USA v. Villemez
        U.S. District Court --- Northern District of Georgia (Atlanta)
        CRIMINAL DOCKET CASE #: 1:12-cr-00392-CAP-GGB-1
        Defense Attorney --- Judy A. Fleming --- Federal Defender Program Inc.-Atl
        Suite 1500, Centennial Tower -- 101 Marietta Street, NW -- Atlanta, GA 30303
        404-688-7530 --- Fax: 404-688-0768 -- Email: Judy_Fleming@FD.Org
    • Andrew W. Nielsen (Police Officer) of S. Windsor, Connecticut --- News [64][65]
      • USA v. Nielsen
        U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut (New Haven)
        CRIMINAL DOCKET CASE #: 3:12-mj-00273-TPS-1
        Defense Attorney --- Ryan McGuigan --- Rome McGuigan, P.C. --- One State Street 13th Floor ---
        Hartford, CT 06103 --- Tel. 860-549-1000 Fax: 860-724-3921 --- Email: rmcguigan@rms-law.com
        PROBABLE CAUSE HEARING set for July 17, 2013 (from PACER Docket)
    • Michael Winston Baynes (School employee) of Henrico, Virginia --- News [66]
      • PLEADS GUILTY on January 4, 2013 [67]
      • SENTENCED to PRISON for 5 years 10 months [68]
      • USA v. Baynes
        U.S. District Court -- Eastern District of Virginia - (Richmond)
        CRIMINAL DOCKET CASE #: 3:12-cr-00184-HEH
        Defense Attorney --- Frederick Michael Schick [69]
    • David S. Engle (Attorney involved in youth baseball) of Maple Valley, Washington --- News [70] --- Press Release [71]
      • Amended Criminal Complaint [72]
      • PLEADS NOT GUILTY --- JURY TRIAL set for August 19, 2013
      • USA v. Engle --- US District Court for the Western District of Washington (Seattle)
        CRIMINAL DOCKET CASE #: 2:12-cr-00366-JLR-1
        Defense Attorney --- Peter J Avenia Federal Public Defender's Office (SEA)
        1601 5TH AVE STE 700 Westlake Center Office Towers Seattle, WA 98101
        (206) 553-1100 Fax: (206) 553-0120 Email: peter_avenia@fd.org
    • Lawrence Higgins of Seneca Falls, NY --- News [73] --- Press Release [74]
      • USA v. Higgins --- U.S. District Court, Western District of New York (Rochester)
        CRIMINAL DOCKET CASE #: 6:12-mj-00666-JWF-1
        Defense Attorney Jeffrey L. Ciccone - Federal Public Defender
        28 East Main Street Suite 400 Rochester, NY 14614
        Tel: 585-263-6201 Fax: 585-263-5871 Email: jeffrey_ciccone@fd.org
        CASE CONTINUED until July 2, 2013 (from PACER Docket)
    • Scott Studer (High School Coach) of Massillon, Ohio --- News [75] --- News [76]
      • PLEADS GUILTY, but on tangential State charges (NOT AZOV-related) for Studer's secret videotaping of boys in the showers [77]
    • Larry McClendon of Tupelo, Mississippi --- News [78] --- News [79]
    • Ryan C. Bieler (former Boy Scouts executive) of Ireland, Indiana [80] --- Court Complaint [81]
      • PLEADS GUILTY MARCH 12, 2013 [82] SENTENCED to SIX YEARS [83]
      • U.S. District Court Southern District of Indiana (Evansville)
        CRIMINAL DOCKET CASE #: 3:12-mj-00087-WGH-1
        Court-Appointed (CJA) Defense Attorney Ivan Arnaez --- 123 Northwest 4th Street Evansville, IN 47708‎
        Tel. (812) 424-6671 (812) 434-4818 (Fax) --- Email: jdcmjs@aol.com
    • Ryan Kasler (part-year Christian missionary in Romania) [84]
      • PLEADS GUILTY, Sentenced to 15 years [85]
      • U.S. District Court Southern District of Ohio (Columbus)
        CRIMINAL DOCKET CASE #: 2:13-cr-00004-JLG-1
        Court-Appointed Federal Public Defender Steven Scott Nolder --- One Columbus 10 W Broad Street
        Suite 1020 Columbus, OH 43215-3419 Tel. 614-469-2999 Email: Steve_Nolder@fd.org
    • Kris Katzenmeyer of Broomfield, Colorado --- Press Release [86] --- News [87]
      • U.S. District Court District of Colorado (Denver)
        CRIMINAL DOCKET CASE #: 1:12-cr-00509-REB-1
        Defense Attorney Robert William Pepin --- Office of the Federal Public Defender
        633 Seventeenth Street #1000 --- Denver, CO 80202
        Tel: 303-294-7002 Fax: 303-294-1192 --- Email: Robert_Pepin@fd.org
    • Dr. Mark B. Shaffer Jr. (79-year-old physician) of Aurora, Ohio [88]
    • Stanley Keith Johnson (Schools employee) of Mableton, Georgia [89][90][91]
      • INDICTED January 8, 2013 [92]
      • PLEADS GUILTY - Sentencing set for July 8, 2013 (from PACER)
      • USA v. Johnson --- US District Court Northern District of Georgia (Atlanta)
        CRIMINAL DOCKET CASE # - 1:13-cr-00013-SCJ-ECS-1
    • Jerry Michael Lanier (Music teacher) of Smyrna, Georgia [93]
      • INDICTED January 8, 2013 [94]
      • PLEADS NOT GUILTY [95]
      • USA v. Lanier --- US District Court Northern District of Georgia (Atlanta)
        CRIMINAL DOCKET CASE # - 1:13-cr-00012-ODE-AJB-1
        Defense Attorney Jeffrey Lyn Ertel Federal Defender Program Inc.-Atl
        Suite 1500, Centennial Tower 101 Marietta Street, NW Atlanta, GA 30303
        Tel. 404-688-7530 Email: jeff_ertel@fd.org
    • Robert L. Nouwen (Church deacon) of Mobile, Alabama
      • PLEADS GUILTY, Sentenced May 20, 2013 [96]
      • news report that mentions azovfilms.com [97] (Archived by WebCite® at [98])
    • Willard I. Jones of Bell County, Texas --- Criminal Complaint [99]
      • PLEADS GUILTY [100] - Sentenced to 78 months (from PACER docket)
      • USA v. Jones U.S. District Court - Western District of Texas (Waco)
        CRIMINAL DOCKET CASE #: 6:12-cr-00262-WSS-1
        Defense Attorney Steven N. Walden [101]
    • James Donald Mobley (Teacher & Boy Scout volunteer) of Tenino, Washington [102]
      • Court Extended Time to File Indictment to July 16, 2013
      • USA v. Mobley --- US District Court for the Western District of Washington (Tacoma)
        CRIMINAL DOCKET CASE #: 3:13-mj-05010-JRC-1
        Defense Attorney -- Linda R Sullivan -- Federal Public Defenders Office (TAC)
        1331 Broadway Ste 400 Tacoma, WA 98402 253-593-6710 Fax: 253-593-6714 Email: linda_sullivan@fd.org
    • James Douglas Manring (Teacher) of Fredericksburg, Virginia
      • PLEADS GUILTY to tangential NON-AZOV charges on January 28, 2013 [103][104]
        SENTENCED to 14 Years in Prison [105]
    • Daryl Robertson (Teacher) of Eliot, Maine [106][107][108]
      • Defense Attorney Alan J. Cronheim of Sisti Law Offices[109]
    • Louis Rosenfeld of Nashua, New Hampshire [110]
    • Brad McMullin (Nurse) of Fayetteville, Arkansas [111]
    • Stephen Hickey (Teacher) of Warwick, Rhode Island [112] --- Criminal Complaint [113]
      • USA v. Hickey - United States District Court - District of Rhode Island
        CRIMINAL DOCKET CASE #: 1:13-mj-00069-LDA-1
        Defense Attorneys: John E. MacDonald [114] - Scott A. Lutes [115]
        Indictment to be filed by July 26, 2013
    • Troy Czukoski (Middle School Principal) of Media, Pennsylvania
      • PLEADS GUILTY - Sentencing set for AUGUST 12, 2013 [116]
      • USA v. Czukoski - United States District Court - Eastern District of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia)
        CRIMINAL DOCKET CASE #: 2:13-cr-00113-LDD-1
        Defense Attorney: Joseph P. Green, Jr. [117]
    • Charles Compton of Pikeville, Kentucky [118]
    • Stuart Forrest (Former San Mateo County Probation Chief) of San Mateo, California [119]
      • Defense Attorney Jaime Leanos [120]
      • TRIAL DATE: JULY 15, 2013 [121]
    • Douglas Randolph Collins (Teacher) of Van Nuys, California [122]
      • PLEADS NOT GUILTY May 15, 2013 [123]
    • Mark Beres (Optometrist) of Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania [124]
    • Thomas Hamel (Teacher & Athletic Trainer) of St. Ignace, Michigan [125]
    • Jorge A. Roman (Teacher & Soccer Coach) of Princeton, New Jersey [126] [127]
      • News article which mentions AZOV Films [128]
      • Background [129] [130] [131]
        USA v. Roman - US District Court - District of New Jersey (Trenton)
        CRIMINAL DOCKET CASE #: 3:13-mj-05043-TJB-1
        Defense Attorney: LISA J. VAN HOECK - Federal Public Defender's Office
        22 S. Clinton Ave. 4TH FL - Trenton, NJ 08609 - Tel.(609) 989-2160 Email: lisa_van_hoeck@fd.org
        Case Continued Until July 20, 2013
    • Clifford Eric Perian of Denver, Colorado [132]Court Complaint [133]
      • USA v. Perian - U.S. District Court District of Colorado (Denver)
        CRIMINAL DOCKET CASE #: 1:13-mj-01086-BNB-1
        Defense Attorney Brian Rowland Leedy - Office of the Federal Public Defender
        633 Seventeenth Street #1000 Denver, CO 80202
        Tel. 303-294-7002 Fax: 303-294-1192 Email: Brian_Leedy@fd.org
    • Evan Guros of Seattle, Washington [134]
    • William Shaffer of Birmingham, Michigan [135]

    Updates

    • Azov Films Arrests Round Up - with details --- B**C*** post dated March 10, 2013 [136]
    • Azov Films Legal Advice --- B**C*** posts [137] [138] [139] --- An anonymous B**C*** poster discusses the advice he received from three attorneys. This is for informational purposes only and should NOT replace a personal consultation with your own attorney!

    • Exploring Truths Behind Recent Azov Films Arrests --- B**C*** post dated December 7, 2012 [140]
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    Operation Fairbank Investigate P.I.E Connections

    July 11, 2013, 9:52 am
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    Many thanks to Murun for this one.

    Rod Ryall and Peter Righton

    Rod Ryall was Calderdale council’s Director of Social Services, and was also a paedophile who was linked to Peter Righton.
    Righton’s paedophile network infiltrated children’s homes and schools across the UK, and it’s now being investigated by Operation Fairbank after the original investigation was shut down ‘from on high’ in 1993/94.
    CC10889aCC10889bCC10889cCommunity Care, 10th August 1989
    Now that Fairbank are going to look at it, I may start to get somewhere with it all.

    I advise them to read through the links above to give them a jump start on Halifax and some of the wider contacts/networks the paedo ring had available to them.
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    Beechwood Children's Home Appeal, Nottinghamshire

    July 17, 2013, 2:11 am
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    A man who claims he was sexually abused at a former council-run children's home has said he hopes more victims will come forward.
    James Cleverley, 52, said he suffered six years of abuse at the Beechwood Children's Home in Mapperley, Nottinghamshire, that began when he was aged 10.
    He has waived his right to anonymity, saying he hopes speaking out will help bring the perpetrators to justice .
    His claims follow more than 50 allegations of historical physical or sexual abuse at the former home, which closed in 2006.
    Mr Cleverley, of Netherfield in Nottinghamshire, said: "This might make people stop and think hey, whoa, I was in there. It happened to me."
    He added: "Some of them that had it done to them and haven't come forward, now they know they can."
    He claims he was forced to carry out sex acts on staff and told police about the abuse but no action was ever taken.
    "I told the police because I used to run away," he said.
    "Every time they brought me back I used to always say to the policeman: 'Don't take me back there'."
    Mr Cleverley, a former fairground worker, said he has struggled throughout his adult life to deal with the emotional effects of the abuse and would like those responsible brought to justice - charged, put on trial, and punished.
    He added: "You're put in there for them to look after you, not abuse you."
    Beechwood Children's Home in Mapperley, Nottingham
    Under investigation: Beechwood Children's Home is facing more than 50 allegations

    Nottinghamshire Police said they are investigating claims that people were abused at the home, and some of the allegations date back nearly 30 years.
    It is not the first time the establishment has hit the headlines.
    In 2011 six alleged victims came forward saying they had suffered abuse at Beechwood.
    A spokesman for Nottinghamshire Police said allegations relating to three other homes in the county were also being investigated.
    They are Bracken House in Bulwell, Ranskill Gardens in Bestwood, and Wood Nook in Beechdale.
    Officers are also looking at claims relating to Risley Hall in Derbyshire.
    Detective inspector Yvonne Dales said: "This is a thorough but complicated and sensitive investigation and the allegations are historic which in some cases relate to events which are said to have taken place nearly 30 years ago.
    "We have experienced officers on the investigation team who are working hard on this case which presents many challenges, such as the difficulties around obtaining forensic and corroborative evidence, along with the fact that some of the alleged perpetrators have since died."
    Source:  http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/beechwood-childrens-home-abuse-investigation-2054196#ixzz2ZIAOmS8w

    Any former residents who can help with this should call 
    Nottinghamshire Police on 0115 967 0999 
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    Search

    Zandvoort and N.A.M.b.L.A Networks

    July 17, 2013, 2:27 am
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    Zandvoort/Nambla : Boylove & Alice days

    In the Seventies, the paedophile community tried to use the fight against the persecution of homosexual in the USA to claim the right to rape children. The Nambla group joined to the "Gay Prides", but rejected by those who refuse confusion between crime and an expression of nature: the "boylove day" was dedicated at the honour of the rapists of boys and to the "Alice day" at the honour of the rapists of girls.

    Stonewall Inn
    In 1969 in New York, the law prohibited to provide alcohol to homosexuals, who risked prosecutions for indecent assault in the event of kissing, and even for wearing clothes traditionally reserved for the opposite sex. In Greenwich Village, eight police officers made assault of the Stonewall Inn, one of the rare pubs where homosexuals were not driven out. A violent riot followed, during which a heterosexual was beated-up by the police force, which was followed of a movement to claim the right to the equality of the people.
    As from fight against the harassing of the police officers against homosexuals, the movement was divided, forming a branch for the legalization of the paedophilia. December 2, 1978, following a conference on the topic "Love man/boy and the sexual majority", to which 150 people had assisted, about thirty of them, of which David Thorsdat, decided to found NAMBLA, acronym of North American Man/Boy Love Association. The became member of the European paedophile networks C.R.I.E.S., Spartacus, Apollo, all members of that of Zandvoort.
    David Thorstad, Nambla co-foundor on waterbed with children
    At the beginning of the Eighties, NAMBLA had over three hundred members. In 1995, it had eleven hundred names in its address book. In 1999, one year after the Zandvoort file was brought to justice, Nambla made the promotion of the IPCE forum, acronym for "International Pedophile and Child Emancipation". Both organisations have their websites on the Internet, recruiting activists for the liberation of paedophilia.
    In 2007, Nambla which will celebrate its 28 years anniversary claims to be a political organisation of civil laws and education. It inspired "Boylove Day", international day of the rapists of boys, celebrated first Saturday after the summer solstice, at the time which they light blue candles in public. As for a fair measure, the rapists of girls decided on the "Alice Day", celebrated on April 25 in memory of the meeting into 1856 of Alice Liddell, with Reverend Charles Dodgson, who under the pseudonym of Lewis Carroll had written "the adventures of Alice in wonderland".
    Joseph Power, President de Nambla en Carlifornie.
    The historical truth reveals a rupture between the families which had fed a rumour of paedophilia, but it proved that puritan England of those days had disapproved that the pastor had approached the children to approach their pretty governess!
    The paedophile network Orchid and rumours launched on the so-called perverse inclinations of Lewis Carroll for Alice gave birth to the "Wonderland" network, object of the operation Cathedral, which counted 1236 victims. They had shared child pornography with the Zandvoort network, which counts 93.000 victims.
    Nambla is authorised in the USA, in the name of the freedom of thought. The "boylove day" is celebrated the 23 June. Some countries, like Italy, prepare for national counter demonstrations against the paedophilia. The other countries don't care.

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    Operation Cathedral

    July 17, 2013, 2:39 am
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    Orchid Wonderland & Zandvoort

    By Jacqueline de Croy - 24-01-2005 - updated 07-11-2010
    In 1996, San Jose, California, a 10 year old girl is abused by the father of one of her friends, with whom she had spent the night. The man has one of the first cam, which at the time was considered "as a sophisticated computer equipment for filming and live broadcast of films via the Internet." The investigation leads to "Orchid," the first known transmission line and real-time images of real children on crime network. They twenty-three approved members, descriptions of sexual abuse perpetrated on children personally, in a chat room with secure password. They exchange photos, some of which are made with the first digital cameras connected to computers.
    The abuse of the girl were broadcast live over nine states and four countries: Finland, Canada, Australia and England. The youngest victim, aged five, was filmed while undergoing specific abuse requested by at least eleven men.
    Three British Club Orchid lead Scotland Yard "Wonderland" (Wonderland), a network of 180 members, which spans 46 countries. Every candidate for the club shall be appointed, approved and bring 10,000 photos different from those of other members real crimes. Each member pays a minimum fee of $ 100 per month to have access to encrypted network developed by the former KGB code file. The system is identical to the network Zandvoort: Photos are available by lot, the price depends on the severity of the crime photographed and published in pornographic magazines.
    In London, a new unit called "British National Crime Squad" goes, with the help of Interpol, U.S. Customs, "British National Criminal Intelligence Service" the first international police operation, she named codenamed " Cathedral, "with only twelve of the forty-six countries involved: Belgium, France, Portugal, Germany, Austria, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Italy, Great Britain, Australia and the United States. Holland apologized, since the NGO Morkhoven dismantled the Zandvoort network a few months earlier.
    On 2 September 1998, the British National Crime Squad coordinates 1,500 police officers who stop simultaneously 107 members of the Wonderland network 4am. They seized 750,000 pictures and 1,800 videos paedocriminal representing 1,263, of which only 17 will be identified. The report of the Australian National Crime Authority specifies that the Wonderland network is linked to local and international pedophile organizations, including the network Spartacus himself partner network Zandvoort. The survey showed that the Wonderland networks and Zandvoort sold all two production Jean-Manuel Vuillaume, photographer and video producer paedocriminal for Toro Bravo network, active in France and Colombia.
    It pays tribute to Marcel Vervloesem, who dismantled the Zandvoort network on behalf of the NGO Morkhoven unarmed, without violence or other means that his strength of conviction. He, by his work alone, exposed more than 93,000 photos and videos criminal, while 1500 police Operation Cathedral contributed only seize 500 pieces each.
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    Jimmy Savile, The Early Years

    July 18, 2013, 2:26 am
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    Troyhand put together a collection of info about Jimmy Savile and his connection to Broadmoor in the 1950's....

    Although he may not have been on our screens much over the past few years - the notable exception being a recent cameo on Celebrity Big Brother and the controversial documentary that he filmed with Louis Theroux in 1999 - Jimmy Savile remains an instantly recognisable character.
    His fame is, in large part, thanks to his time at the helm of Jim'll Fix It, the popular BBC show that he presented from 1975 to 1994 and in which he made children's dreams come true; the gift of a Jim'll Fix It badge was almost as iconic as a Blue Peter badge.
    His earlier career was as a DJ, first on the pirate station Radio Luxembourg and then Radio One, and he presented both the first and the last edition of the long-running television series Top of the Pops.
    A tireless campaigner for charity, Savile regularly ran in the London Marathon to raise funds for Stoke Mandeville Hospital. In 1971 he was awarded an OBE and in 1990 he received two knighthoods - one came in the Queen's Birthday Honours List and the other, Knight Commander of St Gregory the Great, came from the Vatican.
    For such a public figure, little was known about his private life before Theroux's documentary, so here is a brief insight into the Savile family background.
    Who is he related to?
    James Wilson Savile was born on Hallowe'en, 1926, the youngest of seven children born to Vincent Joseph Marie Savile and his wife, Agnes Monica Kelly, who were married in 1911 at St Cuthbert's Chapel, Lanchester, County Durham. Agnes was to play an important part her son's life; he called her "The Duchess" and continued to live with her up to and, somewhat bizarrely, five days after her death. Even today, her bedroom and wardrobe remain just as they were when she died, and her clothes are dry-cleaned each year.

    Savile left school early and, aged 14, went to work at Waterloo Colliery, in Leeds, where his family were living; he was one of the Bevin Boys. Savile enjoyed the experience of working at the coalface, and spent the next seven years there, before finding work as a farmhand, scrap-metal dealer and porter at Broadmoor Hospital, in Berkshire, before running dance halls in the 1950s. It was this that led to his music career.
    Savile always makes much of his humble origins and hard-working parents, but his father was, at various stages, a bookmaker's clerk and insurance agent.
    Vincent followed in the footsteps of his own father, John Henry Savile, who was a superintendent in an assurance agent's office. Previously, John Henry worked as an estate agent in Leeds, where he married Jane Walker Wilson.
    Jane was born in Aberdeen, the daughter of an American-born district superintendent of a railway clearing house, Alexander Wilson; it is her surname that Jimmy bears as one of his middle names.
    John and Jane had five children including Jimmy's father, Vincent, who, at the time of the 1901 census, was 15 and worked as a butcher's assistant, while Austin, his brother, was a hairdresser.
    Clearly, family matters to the Saviles. John and Jane lived with her parents shortly after their marriage, while John was brought up in a very mixed household. When John was only a few years old, his father, Henry, died, leaving his mother, Ellen, to bring up the family while running a boarding house. Ellen's sister, Sarah Hardwick, moved in to provide support, working as a dressmaker, while her half-brother, George Butler, also contributed to the rent by using the house as a base for his butcher's business.
    What's in a name
    The Savile name is of Norman-French origin, one of a number of derivatives of Sainville in Eure-et-Loire. It is likely that the first bearers of the surname appeared in England in the 12th century, or earlier, following the Norman Conquest.
    Most of the high-ranking Saviles held land in Yorkshire. One of the earliest appears in religious grants in the reign of Henry III.
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    Broadmoor 1950's

    July 18, 2013, 3:29 am
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    Compiled by Troyhand 

    Savile left school early and, aged 14, went to work at Waterloo Colliery, in Leeds, where his family were living; he was one of the Bevin Boys. Savile enjoyed the experience of working at the coalface, and spent the next seven years there, before finding work as a farmhand, scrap-metal dealer and porter at Broadmoor Hospital, in Berkshire, before running dance halls in the 1950s. It was this that led to his music career.

    In the early 1950s, there were an increase of escapes from Broadmoor and child deaths. Here we look at Broadmoor Security, as reported by the Australian and Tasmanian press.
    Sunday 27 March 1949Sunday Mail (Brisbane)

    Saturday 12 May 1951The Mercury ; Hobart, Tas.

    Monday 30 June 1952
    Worker ; Brisbane, Qld

    Saturday 24 January 1953
    Examiner; Launceston, Tas



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    Operation Pallial Arrest 72yr Old

    July 18, 2013, 6:47 am
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    Police investigating historical abuse of children at care homes across north Wales have arrested a 72-year-old man in Wrexham.
    Detectives from the Operation Pallial team said the individual was arrested on suspicion of eight physical assaults.
    The alleged offences are said to have taken place between 1974 and 1986, and involved five boys and three girls.
    The man arrested has been taken to an un-named police station in north Wales.
    North Wales Police said the children involved in the latest arrest were aged between 10 and 15-years-old when the suspected incidents happened.
    No further information about the arrest, or the specific nature of the offences being put to him, has been provided. Police say an update will be issued when the man is either charged, bailed or released from police custody following interview.

    Operation Pallial is an investigation led by Keith Bristow, Director General of the National Crime Agency, into recent allegations of historical abuse in the ‘care’ system in North Wales.

    http://www.wrexham.com/news/72-year-man-historic-abuse-arrest-34176.html

    This is the third arrest this year on behalf of the victims of systematic institutional abuse in North Wales and I'm sure the other victims would join me in thanking Operation Pallial for their hard work on our behalf.
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    Monster Without A Face

    July 18, 2013, 7:36 am
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    Posted byDiscovery77

    MONSTER WITHOUT A FACE; The most dangerous paedophile in Scotland is free... and he WILL reoffend, say experts But we can't show you a picture of twisted Gordon Emslie because he's protected by law sets the agenda.

    Byline: RUSSELL FINDLAY EXCLUSIVE 

    PRISON chiefs who freed Scotland's most dangerous paedophile have sent out a secret memo warning: "This man will re-offend." 

    Gordon Emslie, 55, served 10 years for raping three boys. But the memo says he refused treatment in jail and showed no remorse. 

    (edit - isnt it a condition of release the paedophiles show/atleast feign remorse? Or is that just silly?)

    Emslie, a member of a nationwide paedophile ring, is now free to roam the country unchecked despite the gravity of his crime. 

    Police and social workers have no idea where he is because sex offenders convicted before 1993 are exempt from parole or supervision. 

    And Emslie will remain faceless. The Crown Office say they cannot release a picture of Gordon Emslie because he is protected by the Data Protection Act. 

    In the damning memo obtained by The Sunday Mail, a senior social worker warns: "His offending history goes back to 1970. He has refused to address his offending and does not view what he did as wrong. 

    "It is suspected this individual is active within national paedophile networks. There is real concern he will re-offend. 

    "Details appertaining to Gordon Emslie have been circulated to those concerned throughout England and Wales. 

    "Mr Emslie will not be subject to parole or non-parole licence." 

    Yesterday, former High Court judge Lord Kincraig, 82 - who wrote the 1993 report recommending the supervision of offenders - called for the legislation to be back-dated to prevent similar cases.

    He said: "I would have thought in cases of sexual offences Parliament should provide legislation so that those convicted before the legislation came into effect should be subject to the same rules. 

    "When the Sex Offenders' Register was introduced in 1997 it should have provided for those who committed offences before the law came into operation." 

    He added: "They could have made my recommendations retrospective but they didn't. It's not something they normally do. It's a good point of view but it may not be sustainable by law." 

    Yesterday, concern was growing over Emslie's release. One social worker said: "This man is the worst type of paedophile in that he doesn't show any regret or even consider what he did as wrong. 

    "He is a serial offender against young boys and it is only a matter of time before he re-offends. 

    "Because of this loophole in the law we've all got to stand around and wait for him to rape another child. 

    "If it protects just one child then this loophole should be closed." 

    Last night, Emslie's family were shocked to learn that he had been freed from prison. 

    His brother, who asked not to be identified, said: "We can't believe he is out of prison - we'd hoped he would be in for life. He's scum - what he did was disgusting. 

    "We stopped having anything to do with him a long time ago and we want nothing to do with him now. 

    "We don't expect him to come anywhere near us again. 

    "He was always a bit of a loner. His father found him out a long time ago, but his mother was softer and would go and visit him while he was in prison." 

    He was jailed for 15 years in 1991 after luring three boys, aged 10, 12 and 14 to his caravan to play computer games before raping them over a period of seven months. 

    (edit - little sidenote caravan reminds me of Cooke too)

    Emslie was automatically paroled after serving 10 years two-thirds of his sentence. 

    At the time of the offence, he was living at Provost Mains Caravan Site in Abernethy, Perthshire. 

    His history of sex offences goes back to 1970 and he has nine convictions - eight resulting in a jail sentence. 

    An attempt to give Emslie a chance to reform by putting him on probation in England in 1986 failed. 

    And just two years later he was jailed again for four years by the High Court in Edinburgh. 

    One Lothian and Borders police source said: "He is one of the worst in Scotland in terms of persistent offending. He will never change. 

    "As long as he is free, there is a very real danger to any children in his environment. 

    "It's easy to blame the police when a man like this re-offends, but this loophole demonstrates the lack of information we have at our disposal." 

    Another gap in the law is the fact that paedophiles convicted before September 1, 1997 are not on the Sex Offenders' Register. 

    Campaigners argue that the names of sex offenders convicted before then should be added to the register retrospectively. 

    A Scottish People Against Child Abuse spokeswoman said: "This is an issue that we have raised in the past and will continue to do so. 

    "There should be cases where the Kincraig report and the Sex Offender's Register should be applied retrospectively. 

    "This case highlights the flaws in the system - the legislation is obviously not there to protect the victims. 

    "There are children out there who are not being protected because of these loopholes." 

    The leaked memo was written by John Newton, team leader of Clackmannanshire Council social work department's criminal justice service.

    Despite his warnings, the Crown Office and the Scottish Prison Service both refused to release a photograph of Emslie to warn the public.     

    A Crown Office spokeswoman said: "We have no locus to direct the police to release a photograph of this person. 

    "He has been convicted of a crime and served his sentence. 

    "We can only give approval for the release of a photograph if someone is the suspect of or fugitive from a crime that has been committed." 

    And a Scottish Prison Service spokeswoman said: "The SPS has a responsibility to comply with the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998. 

    "We do not consider it appropriate under our current notification to the Data Commissioner to disclose to the media a picture of an offender or suspected offender. 

    "Either way, the fact he has left our custody means it would not be appropriate." 

    Lord Kincraig's 1993 report led to widespread changes in Scotland's parole system. 

    A Parole Board for Scotland source, said: "Someone sentenced to 15 years prior to the Kincraig Report in October 1993 would be automatically released after serving two-thirds of their sentence. 

    "There would be no kind of supervision or licence. If the person was sentenced to 15 years post-Kincraig, then they would still be released but would spend the rest of the sentence out on licence. 

    "The standard requirements include having to report to a social worker in the district where they live and having to notify them about their employment. They would also need permission to travel outwith the UK. 

    "If it was a sex offender who has committed offences against children, the board can stipulate they don't frequent places like playgrounds and are not allowed to work with children. 

    "Because this person did not participate in Peterhead prison's STOP programme, these conditions would almost certainly have been imposed by the board. 

    "The terms of the licence are fairly strict and if the person fails to meet the requirements then the board can issue an instant recall." 

    On learning of the warning from social work, a Scottish Executive spokesman said he could not comment on specific cases. 

    He said: "The law was tightened in 1993 to make all long term prisoners subject to release on license and liable to recall if they breach those conditions. 

    "However, prisoners sentenced before then cannot have this new sentence imposed on them. This means they have to be released after serving two-thirds of their sentence. 

    "The Executive is committed to improving public protection from high risk offenders. 

    "That is why we are tightening the law still further by creating a new sentence of lifelong restrictions for serious, violent and sexual offenders. 

    "SUNDAY EMAIL 

    r.findlay@sundaymail.co.uk
    COPYRIGHT 2001 Scottish Daily R
    http://www.thefreelibrary.com/MONSTE......-a076980152
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    Charles Hornby & Co 1975

    July 18, 2013, 8:00 am
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    http://news.google.com/newspapers?id...g=4638,2085303
    The Montreal Gazette - Sep 23, 1975

    Wealthy Briton gets prison term over vice racket

    LONDON (CP) - The odd man out in a Piccadilly prostitution ring operating from Piccadilly Circus's Playland amusement arcade was Charles Hornby, 36, a man who "had everything" but was sentenced yesterday to 2½ years in prison.

    The other four in the vice racket to lure young runaway boys into prostitution - for wealthy customers such as Hornby - were listed on Old Bailey records as having "no occupation."

    Their sentences ranged from 2½ years to 6½ years on charges of indecent assault, importuning and living off the earnings of prostitution.

    But Hornby, Eton-educated, married to a former debutante, owner of a vast Gloucestershire estate where the family sometimes entertained Prince Charles, seemed to be a pillar of British society.

    The only thing Hornby and others in the dock had in common, as the judge noted, was that "all of you are completely obsessed with boys."

    The suggestion that accused were trying to help the boys was "the most nauseating part" of the nine-week rent-a-boy trial: saidJudge Alan King-Hamilton. Hornby sat with his head bowed as his lawyer spoke of his "secret shame" - the attraction to young men he had felt all through his army days and as a racehorse trainer, but never confessed to his wife of friends.

    A former lancer and superior amateur jockey - because of his six-foot-four height bookies referred to him as The Lanky Lancer, Hornby later became a Lloyd's under-writer. His father was chairman of the giant publishing and book store company of H. W. Smith and his sister once was married to the Marquis of Blandford, later the 11th Duke of Marlborough.
    ...

    http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/110659678
    The Canberra Times - Wednesday 24 September 1975

    WORLD news
    LONDON
    5 jailed on vice charges

    LONDON, Tuesday (AAP). - Five men, including an Old Etonian former Lancers officer, were jailed today for their part in a "rent-a-boy" vice racket at an amusement arcade in London's Piccadilly area.

    The five were sentenced to terms ranging from 12 months to six years on a number of charges which arose from police investigations into activities at the Playland Amusement Arcade.

    The court was told that young penniless runaway boys were attracted to Playland then became prey for men who offered them meals and shelter.

    The five men were: Mr Charles Hornby, 36, Old Etonian, former Lancers officer, horse trainer and gentleman jockey - jailed for 12 months on conspiracy and gross indecency charges, and 18 months for attempting to pervert the course of justice.

    Mr Andrew Novac, 29 - five years on conspiracy, importuning and indecent assault charges.

    Mr Basil Andrew Cohen, 39 - five years for conspiracy, gross indecency and
    indecent assault.

    Mr Malcolm Raywood, 43 - six years for conspiracy, living on immoral earnings, importuning and a sexual offence.

    Mr David Archer, 28 - four years on five sexual offences and 18 months on three charges of gross indecency. All pleaded guilty.

    The judge described the nine-week hearing as "nauseating". He said what was sickening, was the way the men had tried to suggest they had helped the young boys.

    "But these boys soon be came young prostitutes selling the only thing they had for sale - their young bodies", the judge said.
    ...

    by Discovery77

    "A man was jailed for life at the Old Bailey yesterday for the murder of a homosexual who tried to pick him up for sex. Edward Hillhouse smashed his victim’s skull with a hammer and stabbed him 12 times. The decomposed body of Malcolm Raywood, 59, who had just been released from prison for sexually assaulting young boys, was found a week later in a King’s Cross, London,hostel."
    http://spotlightonabuse.wordpress.com/2013/02/page/11/


    "Roger Gleaves, the notorious self-styled Bishop
    of Medway and his hostel for boys he picked up at London's Kings Cross station that lingers"
    (from the ex copper on thread posted earlier)

    Considering he had so many hostels and connections in the environs it makes you wonder if the place Raywood was murdered was owned by Gleaves and ring - the murderer actually just another victim fending off/getting revenge on his attacker?
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    Search

    Vulnerable Children, Care To Be Privatised

    July 19, 2013, 1:22 am
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    Lisa Nandy
    Shadow minister Lisa Nandy says ‘outsourcing a sensitive service such as foster care is madness’. Photograph: Martin Argles for the Guardian
    The government is planning to allow outsourcing firms to bid for contracts to manage social services for vulnerable children in England – while dropping laws allowing the removal of companies that fail to do the job properly.
    A number of firms have expressed an interest in proposals that would allow them to bid for contracts managing foster care and providing other services for children in care.
    But Labour says the plans would take away legal provisions that allow councils to remove a firm that has failed to meet national minimum standards. They would also relax the rules governing independent inspections of services that place and monitor children who are looked after by the state.
    Concerns have emerged after two of the biggest outsourcing companies in Britain, Serco and G4S, were found to have overbilled the taxpayer by charging to tag offenders who were dead or in prison.
    Lisa Nandy, the shadow children's minister, said the latest plans would leave some of Britain's most vulnerable children at the mercy of an unregulated private sector. She has written to the regulatory reform committee, which is considering a draft legislative reform order, urging it to reject the government's plans.
    "For the government to consider outsourcing a sensitive service such as foster care to the private sector, when we have just seen with G4S and Serco how a profit motive can have disastrous consequences for the public purse, is madness. The proposals remove many of the checks and balances required to ensure the safety of children whilst introducing the unchecked unpredictability of the market. They should withdraw these proposals now and think again," she said.
    Nandy's letter said the reform order would remove the requirement for direct registration and inspection by Ofsted of providers of social work services in England, by amending the provision which imposes it. "It appears to remove the obligation for a national minimum standard relating to the fitness of providers and any mechanisms for removing providers who fail to meet these standards. The implications are potentially very serious and could have a profound impact on the lives of some of the most vulnerable children in the country."
    A Department for Education spokesperson said that even though some legal requirements would be removed under government plans, inspections and a national minimum standard for providers would be covered by councils' existing obligations. The DfE said it was "nonsense to suggest that private-sector and voluntary organisations cannot provide good-quality services for children" and that the suggested change in policy was first explored under the last government.
    The coalition has enthusiastically embraced such moves. Pilots in six areas where the private sector was involved, inspected by Ofsted, were set up as a response to concerns that social workers were overburdened and unable to dedicate enough time to supporting children in care. The evaluation, published last year, showed mixed results but no better outcomes for children in care.
    An evaluation of the pilots by academics from King's College London, the University of Central Lancashire and the Institute of Education found there was limited evidence for relocating public services for children in out-of-home care to the private sector.
    The study, published last year in the Children and Youth Services Review, concluded: "While the independent sector is often the setting for innovation, the public sector continues to function as a repository for a wide range of expertise and resources. It is also more likely to offer continuity of knowledge, skills and care and, in this respect, it may be better placed to respond to the uncertainly that characterises the needs of children in out-of-home care."
    Officials laid a draft statutory instrument before parliament on 13 May which will be considered by the regulatory reform committee before coming back before parliament to be decided.
    Virgin Care, the social work provider that recently took over social carefor disabled children in Devon, responded to the government's consultation. It said it had not so far expressed an interest in bidding for future contracts but supported integrating health and social care. Serco is one of the outsourcing firms that may bid for any future contracts, education sources said. The firm is already involved in foster services inHertfordshire.
    Successful bidders would take over assessing children when they come into care, deciding on the right care placement for them and monitoring the placement.
    Critics say the changes could also remove accountability through independent inspection and allow potential conflict of interest between private companies' primary duties to their shareholders and their responsibility to children.
    Labour claims that the government's proposals leave a potential conflict of interest because the same company would be able to award placements, monitor them and run them.
    A spokesman for Virgin Care said: "What we're about is improving services for the people who use them and integrating health and social care. We will have a look at anything that will help us achieve that aim and help us provide services good enough for our own families."
    The DfE said: "It is nonsense to suggest that private-sector and voluntary organisations cannot provide good-quality services for children. Arrangements to allow some councils to delegate social work functions relating to children in care were in fact first introduced by the previous government in 2008.
    "We want those councils who ran successful pilots to be able to continue to do so and to make the same opportunities available to any council that wishes to use them. Devolved children in care services will be inspected by Ofsted as part of their council inspection."
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/jul/18/social-services-children-privatised-labour
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    75% Children's Homes Privately Run

    July 19, 2013, 1:58 am
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    This week the government delivered scathing criticism of residential children's homes in England. Radio 4's The Report reveals that some of the private companies running these homes have reaped big profits in recent years, and asks are they putting profit before child protection?
    Children's homes - like the care industry as a whole - have undergone radical reform over the past couple of decades, where the provision of care has shifted from local authorities to private companies.
    Private companies now run 75% of children's homes in England and in recent years, some of the bigger players expanded significantly, with one running over 100 homes across the country.

    “Start Quote

    Tim Loughton MP, Minister for Children
    I want the whole market of children's homes to be looked at rather more closely”
    Tim LoughtonMinister for Children
    At present, the total cost of caring for around 5,000 young people living in residential care homes currently runs at around £1bn per year - caring for society's most vulnerable children is not cheap, and for good reason. But is this money being well spent?
    "There are some very fine private sector organisations, who try very hard," says Charles Sharpe, who has spent 40 years working in the care sector.
    "But where I struggle with the private sector is that in the good years, they can be good, but when the bad years come they have to scrimp and use less experienced staff and cut all sorts of corners," he tells Radio 4's The Report.
    "Child care for me is something that should never be done with a profit motive."
    However, it would appear that child care in England can prove very lucrative indeed.
    There has been little analysis of this sector's growth, but research conducted in 2006 reported that the top five children's home providers in England made a pre-tax loss of £3.5m.
    Figures compiled by Radio 4's The Report show that in 2011, the top five providers had turned a profit of £30m. I asked to speak to the management of three of these companies, but they all declined my request.
    Private equity ownership
    Many of the larger companies providing care are owned by private equity firms, which have links to long-term investment schemes, such as pension funds. This has not gone unnoticed by the government.
    A child on a swing reflected in puddlePrivate equity firms are among the biggest owners of children's homes in England
    "It would be crazy not to notice that there's been an increasing move into this market by private equity funds over recent years," says minister for children Tim Loughton.
    "We need to make sure they are there for the right reasons, that they are providing a consistently good quality of care and expertise for the children who need it," he told the BBC.

    “Start Quote

    Ann Coffey MP
    Homes are advertising very aggressively for children who are very damaged, who have histories of drug abuse, sexual abuse, alcohol abuse”
    Ann Coffey MPHead of parliamentary committee for missing children
    Children's homes providing such care can charge up to £250,000 per year, per child - depending on the degree of support a child needs.
    Sitting at the computer of MP Ann Coffey, head of the parliamentary group on missing children, she shows me an advert placed online by a children's home - one she knows has had problems with children running away:
    "Homes are advertising very aggressively for children who are very damaged, who have histories of drug abuse, sexual abuse, alcohol abuse," she says.
    She has been campaigning for many years about the poor quality of some children's homes, and is concerned about the way some actively "recruit" the most troubled children - possibly because they earn the highest fees.
    "These homes are not offering to provide the resources to support that child," she says, "they're simply stating that they will accept these children. They expect the local authority in their area to provide the resources."
    This means despite an already significant outlay by local authorities who pay fees to the homes, there could be additional costs to the NHS, schools and the police who have to respond to, say, anti-social behaviour incidents involving children who should be in the care of a home.
    Cutting corners?
    The Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police Peter Fahy knows this too well - the north west of England has the highest concentration of children's homes in the country:

    Find out more

    The Report logo
    Hear more on this story on BBC Radio 4's The Report on Thursday, 5 June at 20:00 BST
    "We have had instances where young people go missing - sometimes hundreds of times," he says.
    "If that person has been found, the children's home has minimal staffing and they can't release a member of staff to collect the child, and then they ask us to do the collection. It's not really our job... but we are the 24 hour service of last resort."

    “Start Quote

    The majority are small and solo providers [and] analysis of the current accounts of providers would tend to suggest that the levels of profits remain very low - in fact the return on investment is becoming a concern”
    Jonathan StanleyIndependent Children's Home Association
    Dealing with missing children from residential homes is estimated to cost police in England £40m a year.
    However, homes are not reaping big profits by cutting corners and passing the costs on to other parties, says Jonathan Stanley, chief executive of the Independent Children's Homes Association.
    "The majority are small and solo providers [and] analysis of the current accounts of providers would tend to suggest that the levels of profits remain very low - in fact the return on investment is becoming a concern," he says.
    Balancing the books is a daily struggle for the manager of one London home, I spoke to, which is currently caring for six teenagers. He tells me local authority cuts is why he has had to cut corners - not the search for higher profits.
    Lowering staff wages has been one way he has managed to reduce overheads - and this, inevitably, has had an impact on the quality of care:
    "Obviously, if you're paying low wages, you'll attract low quality people and we should really be looking at better qualified people to do a complex, difficult task," he says.
    "You need proper qualified, motivated people... and if you're talking about how difficult these children are, how traumatised they are, why are we not getting the best people to work with them?"
    The Independent Children's Homes Association says standards of care throughout the sector are high. It points to the fact that Ofsted, which is responsible for inspecting children's homes, found only 2% of homes were inadequate - although Ofsted's inspection criteria has recently been reviewed, and this figure is expected to jump significantly when new figures are published later this year.
    And as the government announced this week, there will be a more far-reaching review of the whole children's home sector - including the involvement of private equity firms:
    "I want the whole market of children's homes to be looked at rather more closely," says children's minister Tim Loughton, "because at the end of the day the most important thing is to make sure we have the best care for vulnerable children."
    Hear more on this story on The Report on BBC Radio 4 Thursday 5, June at 20:00 BST.
    You can listen again via the Radio 4 website or by downloading The Report podcast.
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    Stockport Review Practise Of Private Children's Homes

    July 19, 2013, 2:32 am
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    Stockport undertook a review of Privately run Children's Homes within its borders earlier this year.
    The full report can be found Here

    1. Introduction 

    1.1 At its 25 July 2012 meeting, the Children and Young People’s Scrutiny
    Committee, following a discussion with Senior Officers and after
    considering a number of options, agreed that the Council’s relationship
    with Privately Run Children’s Homes be chosen as a topic for in-depth
    Review.

    1.2 It was agreed that the scope of the Review should be determined by
    the Review Panel following the submission of further background
    information by supporting Officers.

    1.3 An overview of the background information presented to the Review
    Panel is outlined below. In addition, the ‘Terms of Reference’ as
    agreed by the Review Panel is also detailed below following this
    introduction.

    Background Information 

    1.4 The issues concerning the Council’s relationship with Privately Run
    Children’s Homes is relevant for Stockport to consider as there are,
    due to a number of factors, a larger number of Private Homes in the
    borough per capita than in most other local authorities areas.

    1.5 To support a wider understanding of the initial issues facing the Council
    background information was provided for the Review Panel on;
    • The Council’s relationship with local authority managed Children’s
    Homes
    • The number and make up of Children’s Homes in the borough
    • The Council’s relationship with Privately Run Children’s Homes
    • How Privately Run Children’s Homes are regulated and monitored

    The Council’s relationship with the local authority managed Children’s Homes 

    1.6 The Council wholly operates two Children’s Homes, namely Dial Park
    and Broadfield. The Homes are properties which are owned by the
    Council, the staff are permanent contracted employees of the Council,
    managed solely by Council staff and assisted by corporate services
    such as Human Resources etc.

    1.7 Dial Park is a property in Offerton which can be home for up to 5
    children of Secondary school age. The children living there are all
    Looked After by Stockport and are from families that reside in the
    borough. They attend all the universal services in the borough that any
    other young person may have access to and each has an individual
    care plan.

    1.8 Dial Park admissions are all planned, there is no emergency provision.
    As such, the responsible social worker forwards a range of information
    about the child’s needs and the desired outcomes of the placement
    which is then scrutinised by the senior team in the Home. They
    determine whether or not they can meet the child’s needs and whether
    the child would be able to live constructively with the residents already
    in placement.

    1.9 Dial Park benefits from a range of Council provisions such as;
    • Psychology consultant time via the Education Psychology team
    • Drug and alcohol misuse training via MOSAIC
    • Young people’s mental health services via KITE
    • Support from the Virtual School for Looked After Children
    • Support from the Specialist Nurse for Looked After Children and
    the Sex and relationship officers within the Council
    • Support from the Children’s Rights Service
    • Direct links to the child in care council

    1.10 External inspection of Dial Park is conducted by Ofsted and over the
    last 12 months they have been graded Good and Outstanding. The
    latter grade made them one of a very small number of Local Authority
    Homes to achieve such an accolade. Internal inspection of Dial Park is
    carried out by Council Officers, namely the Independent Reviewing
    Officers and by Elected Members. A group of 13 Elected Members are
    on a rota of visits, 2 Members visiting each month, which take place
    under Regulation 33 of the National minimum standards and address a
    variety of issues from the fabric of the building through to the welfare of
    staff and young people. Reports are sent to the Head of Social Care
    who is under an obligation to respond immediately, addressing any
    concerns that may arise.

    1.11 Dial Park offers excellent value for money to the Council as the costs
    per person per week are circa £1100, whereas in the private sector the
    cost is on average £1900 per week.

    1.12 Broadfield is currently a registered Children’s Home providing a home
    for up to 5 young people over the age of 16 and enabling them to
    develop independence skills so that they can live successfully in the
    community. Often, children will move into Broadfield from Dial Park so
    that an element of security, continuity and care is maintained.

    1.13 Broadfield is located in Davenport and is currently subject to the same
    inspection and checks as Dial Park, enjoys the same benefits as Dial
    Park in terms of council services, which are added to by close working
    relations with Stockport Homes and Pure Innovations to ensure that
    any issues connected to the world of housing and education
    /employment are addressed. In addition, the Council has good working
    relationships within the voluntary sector and groups such as “Starters”
    who offer direct support to young people.

    1.14 During 2013 it is likely that Broadfield will be de-registered as a
    Children’s Home. The statement of purpose will remain as now and the
    services offered will continue. However it is agreed across the Council
    and Ofsted that in true terms, the client group and the ways of working
    are no longer “Children’s Home” relevant. As such, the formal title will
    be “Semi Independence accommodation”. This brings the service into
    line with providers from the private sector.

    The number and make up of Children’s Homes in the borough 

    1.15 There are currently 39 Private Homes operating in Stockport, providing
    a total of 241 beds. Of these 39 Homes a further breakdown reveals
    the following:
    • 6 are Semi Independent Units with 27 beds in total. These Units do not
    need to be registered with Ofsted but do look after young people 16
    years and over
    • 2 are Residential Schools with education on site offering 48 beds
    • 31 are Private Homes with a total of 166 beds. 26 of these beds are
    taken by young people from Stockport; the remaining 215 come from
    elsewhere in the country.

    1.16 Once again, at the time of writing there are 26 Stockport children
    placed in Private Children’s Homes. Of these, 22 are over the age of 15
    years. This represents a typical scenario where there is a shortage of
    foster carers for the older age groups, a more acute need for
    accommodation and complexity of multiple problems. Costs for these
    placements range from £850 to £3900 per week, dependent on
    assessed need and input required. All placements are only sanctioned
    at Head of Service level and must be considered by a multi-agency
    panel regularly to ensure they are best for the child.

    The Council’s relationship with Privately Run Children’s Homes

    1.17 Various parts of the Council have a responsibility towards some of the
    young people placed in Private Children’s Homes within Stockport. The
    issue is complex – a range of the services involved are highlighted
    below:

    1.18 The Virtual Schools Team has a responsibility towards those children
    placed here and also educated here (but not if they continue to be
    educated elsewhere.) Schools also have a responsibility to educate
    young people placed here as well.

    1.19 The Youth Offending Service has a responsibility to supervise young
    people who are placed here and subject to one or more of the many
    Court orders.

    1.20 The Safeguarding Children Unit has a responsibility to coordinate
    matters when an allegation of abuse is made against a member of staff
    in a Private Home.

    1.21 The Mosaic substance misuse service provides some services to
    young people from Private Homes.

    1.22 The Stockport Safeguarding Children Board (SSCB) has a
    responsibility to provide overarching procedures which Private Homes
    need to be aware of (including procedures in relation missing children
    and children who are a risk of sexual exploitation.) In addition the
    SSCB provides a multi-agency training programme which Private
    Homes can access.

    1.23 Finally, the Planning Service has a responsibility to manage planning
    applications in respect of Private Children’s Homes in Stockport.
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    Secure Units, G4S, Susan's Story

    July 19, 2013, 2:52 am
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    Full details can be foundHere

    SP Inquiry

    The SP inquiry is an independent public inquiry commissioned by the Ministry of Justice to look into the treatment of a young woman in custody who nearly died through self-harm.
    The young woman known as Susan (not her real name) spent two years and three months in custody from the age of 16. Unable to cope, she repeatedly lacerated her arms and wrists, needing frequent hospitalisation. The Prison Service responded by placing her in solitary confinement in the punishment cells. Her self-harm escalated until she was losing dangerous quantities of blood and required blood transfusions. Eventually, following another emergency hospitalisation, Susan obtained an injunction preventing her return to prison. As a result, she was transferred to a secure psychiatric hospital where she is now recovering.
    The SP inquiry comprises two stages. The first stage, chaired by Barbara Stow, will carry out a thorough survey of documentation and witness evidence. The draft report is currently being finalised but it is not proposed to publish the report until after the conclusion of the second stage. The second stage will involve witnesses giving evidence at public hearings. It is expected that Susan will participate fully throughout.

     

    Susan's story

    Early childhood
    Despite being known to social services from the age of one, Susan endured a childhood of violence and neglect from her mentally ill mother, who suffered from schizophrenia. She witnessed her mother attempting to kill herself and attacking her father and others. She physically abused Susan and her siblings, pulling their hair out and smacking them in the mouth. She damaged the house and garden during episodes of disturbed behaviour. Social services staff noted that the children were in mouldy and torn clothing. The children spent months in the care of a family friend as well as periods in the care of the local authority while their mother was sectioned. They were repeatedly returned to her care.

    Teenage years
    As teenagers, Susan and her siblings were kept away from school for years by their mother who imprisoned them in the house, despite frequent visits from education welfare officers and social services staff. The children witnessed their mother self-harming, assaulting her boyfriend and having violent hallucinations. Susan started to self-harm from the age of 11 or 12. She was kept isolated and did not attain a basic level of educational achievement. She was exposed for years to her mother’s paranoid and violent behaviour.
    Local authority care
    When Susan was 15, social services obtained an interim supervision order but left her with her mother. After a couple of months, the interim supervision order lapsed. A few days later, Susan’s mother threw her out. Susan went to social services and demanded that they take her into care, saying that she was tired of being the butt of her mother’s anger.
    At a time when Susan urgently needed stability and structure, social services were unable to provide her with a stable placement. She had at least twenty different placements over the next two months, despite having mostly good relationships with her foster carers and often expressing a desire to stay.
    Intensive therapeutic placement
    Eventually Susan was placed in accommodation exclusively for her, where she was looked after by two members of staff at all times. Over the next seven months, Susan had the longest experience she would ever have of intensive support and stability. Seven years later, the carers from this home still remain in contact with Susan and visit her in hospital.
    Susan was not easy to manage and would frequently abscond, self-harm, overdose and engage in low-level offending behaviour. But her carers noticed that she started to respond to the boundaries that they put in place. Susan was soon made aware that because she had turned 16, the placement would not be funded for much longer and she would have to move on again, even though social services could have kept her there until she was 18. As the prospect of leaving the home got closer, Susan became increasingly distressed and disturbed and her self-harm escalated. When she eventually had to leave, no alternative placement had been found for her and she was placed in an emergency bed.
    Unstable placements
    Susan then had a further period of instability, including attempts to return to her mother, insecure bed and breakfast accommodation and a short stay with a friend’s father.
    After several weeks of instability, Susan was given an independent flat in a ‘sink estate’ housing many young and vulnerable care leavers and known for high levels of crime and drug dealing. Isolated, fearful and without any emotional resources, Susan was unable to cope alone and without structure in a volatile environment. She misused drugs on a daily basis. Several weeks after moving into the flat, she committed an offence of aggravated burglary and false imprisonment and was remanded to custody at the age of 16.
    Non-prison service custody
    Despite all of this, two further opportunities presented themselves to avoid the suffering and wasted potential that has characterised Susan’s life for the last six years. She was remanded to a secure children’s home, where she felt relatively settled. Susan was difficult but not impossible to manage and was generally co-operative. She continued to have a tendency to self-harm, particularly after upsetting telephone conversations with her mother. Unfortunately, on returning to the children’s home after a court appearance, Susan was informed that she could not come back because she was too difficult. She was then driven up and down the motorway for several hours while attempts were made to find another placement for her.
    After a week in a secure training centre, where she witnessed horrifying levels of violence against very young children, Susan was moved again to another secure children’s home, where the last of several opportunities was missed to give her a chance to recover from her childhood and rebuild her life. Susan felt safe in this small home, where she was able to choose activities she enjoyed. She started to enjoy art and design. Her records describe how relaxed she was during art classes. The principal of the children’s home felt that Susan could be managed there and praised her behaviour.
    Prison
    This last missed opportunity ended nearly two months later when Susan turned 17 and was moved to a prison. This was the beginning of a spiral of isolation, boredom, pain and anger which nearly led to Susan’s death through self-harm two years later. Prison could not provide her with the level of support, stimulation and structured activity she needed in order to recover from her traumatic childhood and which had been recommended a year before by a psychiatrist who had assessed Susan during the care proceedings. Furthermore, the prison’s response to Susan’s distressed behaviour was to punish and isolate her and to label her manipulative. Prison staff were ill-equipped and unmotivated to engage with Susan as a human being. Many of the comments in her prison records are both tragic and ridiculous, for instance: “20 min am and pm to be offered to allow the individual an opportunity to ventilate her thoughts and feelings;” “Susan hangs around staff all the time, talking and swearing. She needs to find her own friends.” Over 500 staff had dealings with Susan during her time in custody.
    Susan spent frequent periods in segregation or ‘safe cells’ stripped of all her possessions and with nothing to distract her from her emotional distress. Her self-harm spiralled out of control until she was losing pints of blood. She sought transfer to a secure psychiatric hospital under the Mental Health Act, but medical opinion was divided. She was hospitalised over 20 times. The prison was simply unable to respond appropriately and resorted to transferring her to another prison “to give the staff a break”. On one occasion the prison put Susan in a body belt to stop her self-harming, but she was so thin that she slipped out. Amid the futile attempts to deprive Susan of the means to self-harm, no-one seems to have thought about how to stop her wanting to self-harm.
    Psychiatric care
    Finally, as doctors began to fear for Susan’s life, she managed to obtain an injunction during one hospital visit preventing her return to prison. All of a sudden, medical opinion miraculously concurred that she was suitable for a transfer to a secure psychiatric hospital. In hospital, Susan started to recover. Her hair grew back, she put on weight and her levels of self-harming dropped to the point where she can now go for months without self-harming. She is taking A-level Art and has won a Koestler prize for one of her paintings. She designs and sells greetings cards through the Howard League website. She is a tough, witty and loveable young woman who struggles on a daily basis to overcome her problems and to do what is required of her. Despite the huge improvements in her condition in hospital, it is questionable whether a secure psychiatric hospital can provide her with what she really needs. Seven years ago, a top psychiatrist concluded that Susan required a programme of social, educational and psychological interventions organised around her needs. She is still waiting for this, and if she gets it, it may not be too late, even now, to realise her potential to live a more or less normal life.

    Secure training centres

    There are four secure training centres holding boys and girls aged 12-17. The staff ratio in secure training centres ranges between two staff to five children and three staff to eight children. There is a mother and baby unit at Rainsbrook secure training centre with space for three girls and their babies.
    Secure training centres are run by private companies Serco and Rebound (owned by G4S) for profit. They are very different to secure children’s homes and have a reputation for the overuse of force on children, leading to the deaths of two 14 year old boys in 2004: Gareth Myatt, who died during a restraint, and Adam Rickwood, who died following a restraint, which the inquest found was one of the factors that led to his suicide.
    In 2008 the Court of Appeal found that the use of restraint in secure training centres was in breach of the secure training centre rules and amounted to inhuman and degrading treatment. It criticised the Ministry of Justice’s attempt to change the secure training centre rules retrospectively to justify the use of force against children in circumstances that were not strictly necessary, such as forcing children to do what they were told. 

    Young offender institutions

    There are 12 prisons or parts of prisons in England and Wales holding children, nine for boys aged 15-17 and three for girls aged 17. Prisons holding children or young adults aged 18-20 are called young offender institutions.
    10 children’s young offender institutions are run by the Prison Service and two are privately run (Parc by G4S and Ashfield by Serco).
    Six prisons (Ashfield, Cookham Wood, Hindley, Warren Hill, Werrington and Wetherby) are dedicated children’s young offender institutions and only hold boys. At the remaining prisons children share a site with adult prisoners (Eastwood Park, Foston Hall and New Hall for girls and Feltham, Parc and Stoke Heath for boys). In these prisons children are supposed to be accommodated separately from adult prisoners but are held together in particular locations such as segregation and healthcare. The mixing of child and adult prisoners raises child protection issues and amounts to inhuman and degrading treatment.
    Young offender institutions have the lowest staff to child ratio in the children's secure estate, from three to six staff to between 40 and 60 children on the wings. They are the biggest establishments and can hold hundreds of children each. HMYOI Hindley is the largest child prison in Europe. Young offender institutions are considered unsuitable for the most vulnerable children and are the cheapest and most basic form of child custody.
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    Operation Fairbank

    July 20, 2013, 9:49 am
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    Well after Murun posted http://spotlightonabuse.wordpress.com/2013/07/10/rod-ryall-and-peter-righton/ ten days ago, my spirits were somewhat lifted in the hope that Opertion Screen would be reconsidered and maybe SOCA would look at why it was flagged as sealed. Why Malcolm Phillips is NFA for all further allegations, including the trade of chilkdren.

    I have spent the last week or so trying to contact Operation Fairbank in regard to this matter and have thusfar failed miserably.
    I have left several messages for the team but as yet they have not returned my calls.

    Because I cannot get past an army of Officers that tell me they have never heard of Operation Fairbank or Fernbridge - the Met advised me to ring West Yorkshire, who in turn advised me to ring North Wales who then advised I ring the Met....... I have been unable to inform Fairbank of my research/proof/beliefs in regard to Calderdale and Rod Ryall and his connections to P.I.E.

    These are connections I believe resulted in the trade of children from Skircoat Lodge to Bryn Alyn. He targeted children from the poorer areas of Halifax, with several victims coming from the same village, Mixenden, in Halifax. 

    I also believe this trade was overseen and undertaken by Malcolm Osric Phillips under the guidance and instruction of Rod Ryall.


    I can be contacted via email kaztgray@gmail.com

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