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Thursday, December 8, 2016

Hundreds of police in England and Wales accused of sexual abuse | UK news

7:01 AM Bilal Muazin No comments

Hundreds of police officers are being accused of sexually abusing victims and suspects in what a senior police watchdog has called â€œthe most serious corruption issue facing the serviceâ€.

Forces across England and Wales received 436 allegations of abuse of power for sexual gain against 306 police officers, 20 police community support officers and eight staff in the two years to March but inspectors believe the problem is even more prevalent than the numbers suggest.

Despite the large numbers, there is evidence that only 40 officers or staff have been dismissed for abusing authority for sexual gain in a similar period.

Vulnerable individuals, including domestic abuse victims, alcohol and drug addicts, sex workers and arrested suspects were among those targeted by officers and staff, Her Majestyâ€™s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) said.

Victim groups have said the findings are â€œdeeply concerningâ€ and involved some of the most vulnerable people in society.

Mike Cunningham, inspector of constabulary and former chief constable of Staffordshire police, said: â€œThis is the most serious corruption issue facing the service. What can be worse than a guardian abusing the trust and confidence of an abused person? There can be no greater violation of public trust.â€

â€œIt is probably more likely the problem is more serious than the numbers reported back to us,â€ he added.

â€œIn many cases the victims are vulnerable people. They are victims of domestic abuse, theyâ€™re victims who might have been arrested and they have drug or alcohol dependency. It is an exploitation of power where the guardian becomes the abuser.â€

One of the most high-profile cases of police officers abusing their power in recent history was that of Stephen Mitchell, who was jailed for life in 2011 for raping and sexually assaulting vulnerable women he had arrested.

Mitchell, who was a constable with Northumbria police, abused heroin addicts, shoplifters and a disabled teenager by offering them help while in custody, then demanding sexual favours afterwards.

Earlier this year, DS Robert Dawson, a Metropolitan police officer who had sex with a vulnerable alleged rape victim, was formally dismissed from the force. A tribunal heard that in 2010, while investigating an allegation of serious sexual assault, Dawson engaged in an inappropriate sexual relationship with the victim.

PC Simon Salway, who had sex with vulnerable witnesses and victims of crime, and fathered a child with one of the women he exploited, was found guilty of six charges of misconduct in a public office at Luton crown court last year.

HMIC found that more than a third (39%) of the allegations of abuse of authority for sexual gain involved victims of domestic abuse. As part of its research the inspectorate carried out an online survey of domestic abuse practitioners between July and August. Sixty-eight practitioners (16%) of the 414 who took part said victims of domestic abuse had disclosed that an officer or member of police staff had abused their authority to exploit them or develop an inappropriate relationship with them.

The chief executive of the domestic violence charity Refuge, Sandra Horley, said: â€œWidespread reports of police officers exploiting women for sexual gain â€¦ are horrific â€" but unsurprising.

â€œRefuge is glad HMICâ€™s report has shone a light on this issue, following a consultation with domestic violence practitioners including our frontline staff. The police are meant to protect the public from harm; how can women be expected to report their abuse, if they fear the police will abuse them all over again? Women have the right to safety and protection.

â€œRefuge commends the work HMIC has already done in improving the police response to domestic violence; we hope this report will mean an end to what is an appalling abuse of power.â€

Mark Castle, chief executive of the independent charity Victim Support, said: â€œThese allegations are deeply concerning. The victims involved are some of the most vulnerable people in our society, who have been exploited by the people they should be able to trust the most, the police.

â€œIn order to maintain public confidence in the police itâ€™s critical that forces recognise this behaviour as the serious corruption that it is and report all cases to the IPCC to ensure that they are thoroughly and robustly investigated.â€

The HMIC findings formed part of a broader inspection of police legitimacy, which concluded victimsâ€™ satisfaction with the way they were treated by police remained high. The investigation was ordered by the then home secretary, Theresa May.

But the inspectorate said forces still needed to become more proactive in rooting out officers and staff abusing power for sexual gain. This could involve profiling officers to single out those who might be likely to commit such abuse.

Cunningham said one of the reasons the inspectorate believed the figures belied a greater problem was that forces in England and Wales did not have a consistent and coherent approach to tackling the problem.

Not all forces class the abuse of authority for sexual gain as a serious corruption issue, which HMIC says they should. This would mean any allegation would be automatically referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) for investigation.

HMIC was only able to find 40 cases on the national disapproved register in which officers or staff were dismissed for abusing power for sexual gain during the period in which more than 400 allegations were received.

â€œWhatâ€™s less clear is whatâ€™s happening with those allegations, how those allegations are being pursued, how they translate into gross misconduct hearings and sackings,â€ Cunningham said.

HMIC said the problem remained despite recommendations in a 2012 IPCC report on the issue, which appear to have not been acted on.

In her speech to the Police Federation conference earlier this year, May said: â€œWe know of officers who develop inappropriate relationships with victims of domestic abuse. They have ignored their professional duty and their moral responsibility, and instead abused their position of power to exploit victims. We do not know the true scale of this, but everyone in this room will know it goes on far more than we might care to admit.â€

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Hundreds of police in England and Wales accused of sexual abuse | UK news

1:57 AM Bilal Muazin No comments

Hundreds of police officers are being accused of sexually abusing victims and suspects in what a senior police watchdog has called â€œthe most serious corruption issue facing the serviceâ€.

Despite the large numbers, there is evidence that only 40 officers or staff have been dismissed for abusing authority for sexual gain in a similar period.

Victim groups have said the findings are â€œdeeply concerningâ€ and involved some of the most vulnerable people in society.

â€œIt is probably more likely the problem is more serious than the numbers reported back to us,â€ he added.

Mitchell, who was a constable with Northumbria police, abused heroin addicts, shoplifters and a disabled teenager by offering them help while in custody, then demanding sexual favours afterwards.

â€œRefuge commends the work HMIC has already done in improving the police response to domestic violence; we hope this report will mean an end to what is an appalling abuse of power.â€

HMIC said the problem remained despite recommendations in a 2012 IPCC report on the issue, which appear to have not been acted on.

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The child sex trade is booming in this Kenyan port city

10:30 AM Bilal Muazin No comments

Inside a tiny houseÂ outside the city of Mombasa on the Indian Ocean coast of Kenya, 11-year-old Sabina sits on a bed, one of her breasts exposed, a 2-year-old on her back.

With an effortless click, the girl shoots a jet of saliva through the gap between her two front teeth. It lands on the floor. Then she begins to talk as she shifts the toddler from her back to her bosom.

â€œThe father of this child is a German tourist,â€ she said. â€œHe impregnated me and left the country after his vacation. I was forced to drop out of school and take care of the child.â€

Sabina is one among many children in this coastal region who have become mothers at too young an age. She and other girls, as well as underage boys, have left school to cater to men and women who pay them for sex.

And the market is booming: Child sex tourism has remained rampant in Mombasa, a port city, despite a spate of terror attacks in the past three years that have scared away package vacationers, crippling a vital tourism sector that contributes about 10 percent to Kenyaâ€™s gross domestic product.

European travelers especially have continued to fuel the trade. Many come to the city in search of girls aged between 12 and 18. The industry has made Kenya one of the world's hubs for child sex tourism, researchers say.

â€œWe always believe that white men have money, so when they come here we hope that they will get us out of poverty,â€ said Sabina. â€œThey give us a lot of money and sleep with us. We use the money to pay rent for our parents and buy food.â€

Trace Kenya, a local nonprofitÂ group that works with the United Nations to battle child trafficking, estimates there could be as many as 100,000 child sex workers in Mombasa. The trade extends up and down the coast to the seaside resort towns of Malindi and Diani, according to the NGO.

In a 2010 report â€" the most recent available â€" UNICEF released numbers on child trafficking in Kenya that revealed that almost a third of girls age 12 and younger in the Mombasa region were involved in prostitution. European men comprise half of the clients, the report said.

Sex tourism has been blamed in Kenya for increasing rates of school dropouts, poverty and illiteracy as school-age children skip class in pursuit of easy money. At the same time, poverty is the main driver behind child sex tourism, say experts. Some parents even urge their children to become involved.

Emily, a 16-year-old orphan, said she was forced into the business due to poverty and peer pressure. Her aunt encouraged her to engage in sex with white men to help pay family expenses. Emily is now infected with HIV.

â€œI have slept with different men, especially whites from Germany, Italy and the USA,â€ she said. â€œI regret it but I had no option [at] that time. I started the business at age 10, when a friend connected me to an Italian tourist who had visited the country for three months. I had nothing to eat and nowhere to sleep.â€

Teenage boys and 20-something Kenyan men known as "beach boys" also hook up with older white women, usually Western tourists who have flown here specifically for sexual encounters.

Against a backdrop of dazzlingly white sand and the aquamarine sea at Jomo Kenyatta Public Beach, foreign women sip cocktails under bamboo shades. Young men approach them with compliments designed to break the ice.

â€œThis is our work,â€ said Alex Mwalumba, a beach boy who said heâ€™s 29 but looks much younger. â€œItâ€™s very simple to lure a white woman. First, know the language she speaks. Secondly, tell her she is the most beautiful woman you have ever seen. For the first time in years, she truly believes she is desirable.â€

Mwalumba had few regrets.

â€œThe money will begin to flow,â€ he said, referring to payments once a temporary relationship has begun. â€œSome [beach boys] have used the opportunity to build good houses and start businesses.â€

But he warned that business sometimes can be risky.

â€œSome tourists end up either being robbed or murdered by beach boys in pursuit for money,â€ he noted. â€œBeach boys are not after love. They are after money. They sometime trick tourists to go to the room and rob them.â€

Paul Adhoch, who heads child rights organization Trace Kenya, said prostitution has led to an increase in unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases among teenagers in Mombasa. It has also broken up families in the city, he said.

Trace Kenya is working to rescue girls from the sex trade and to end the practice in the Mombasa region. The NGO has rescued more than 10,000 children in the last seven years, putting them in shelters and making other arrangements for them to earn a living.

â€œWe have rescued many children involved in sex tourism or those who were potentially likely to fall into it, more girls â€" for young men the number has been lower,â€ he said. â€œThe police have done little to fight the vice. They have given tourists impunity despite having evidence against them.â€

But Regional Police Chief Nelson Marwa says the government has done a lot to battle the practice, including warning tourists and parents against being involved in the business.

â€œWe have put in place laws that will deal with such acts,â€ Marwa said. â€œAlready we have arrested and charged parents, children and some tourists. We will also close all hotels that allow young girls and old tourists to check in together, and their licenses will be canceled.â€

The real problem, Adhoch believes, is culture.

â€œThere is a culture among parents and children that when you get yourself a white man, then you have gotten yourself out of poverty,â€ said Adhoch. â€œTourists always take this advantage and will come here deliberately for that.â€

But Sabina, who is still struggling to come to terms with her HIV-positive status, wants the government to do more to help girls in the local sex industry.

â€œThe government should curb the practice by arresting tourists whose aim is to engage in sex with children and dump them afterward,â€ she said. â€œThey are creating more poverty for young people here like me.â€

Editor's note: The last names of children interviewed for this story have been withheld to protect their identities. Tonny Onyulo reported from Mombasa, Kenya.

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Friday, December 9, 2016

Ex-Wisconsin teacher sent to prison for having sex with student

8:00 AM Bilal Muazin No comments

A former Wisconsin English teacher cried in court after she was sentenced to two years behind bars for having sex with a student.

Sara Domres, 29, who has no prior criminal record, must also register as a sex offender and is banned from having contact with the pupil and his family, the Journal Sentinel reported. When she leaves prison, she will be on three years probation and a supervision order.

The former West Berlin High School teacher in August admitted to having sex with a 16-year-old sophomore in her English class after sheâ€™d developed a relationship with him over the course of the 2014-15 school year.

Domres often referred to the student as â€œbaby booâ€ in the 1,100 text messages the pair exchanged over the course of their relationship.

Wisconsin teacher had sex with her student at Motel 6

Sara Domres was sentenced to two years in prison.

(Police Photo)

â€œBaby Boo, I love you now & forever! Please be mine forever & ever. Always your baby girl. P.S. Good luck on your quiz [smiley face],â€ she once wrote to him, according to court documents.

The student said their first sexual encounter occurred at a park-and-ride lot in July 2015, when he was only 16.

And while Domres only admitted to having sex with him on two occasions, he said they had intercourse between 10 and 15 times, including at a Motel six the night of Domresâ€™ husbandâ€™s bachelor party in October 2015, the teenager told police.

Investigators found evidence that shows the boy's phone had been connected to the motelâ€™s WiFi the same date motel records showed Domres reserved a room.

Wisconsin teacher admits to having sex with 16-year-old student

The student also admitted to police that his teacher sent him selfies while she was on her honeymoon.

A few of the studentâ€™s friends reported Domres back in January and the School District of New Berlin, located just outside Milwaukee, fired her the same month.

Former West Berlin English teacher Sara Domres is no longer allowed to work at a school.

(Fox6 NOW)

In her statement to the court, Domres said she was passionate for her teaching profession and detailed the hours she spent outside of work assisting her students and acting as their confidante, the Journal Sentinel reported.

She said the loss her job and the on-going media coverage surrounding her case made her feel as though â€œthe consequences of my actions have been enforced tenfold.â€

The prosecutor noted however, that had she not been a teacher, her dozen-plus sexual encounters with her student would have only been misdemeanors â€" because of the power and influence teachers hold over their students, her trysts are considered a felony.

â€œI donâ€™t know how much brighter the line could be,â€ Assistant District Attorney Ted Szczupakiewicz said. â€œThereâ€™s no gray area. Itâ€™s absolute.â€

Tags:: teachers busted; wisconsin; sex crimes; crimes against children

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Thursday, December 8, 2016

Ex-New Berlin teacher sent to prison for sex with student

1:57 AM Bilal Muazin No comments

Sara M. Domres(Photo: Waukesha County Sheriff's Office)

Waukesha â€"Â A former New Berlin West High School teacher who had sex with one of her students was sentenced Wednesday to two years in prison.

Sara M. Domres, 29, pleaded guilty in August to two counts of sexual assault of a student by school staff, charges filed in April over incidents in 2015. She cried and hung her head as she was led from court in handcuffs.

The prosecutor noted that had Domres not been a teacher, her more than a dozen sexual encounters with the boy, who was 16 and 17 during the time, would have been misdemeanors. But because of the great trust placed in teachers, and their potential influence on students, the crime is a felony.

"I don't know how much brighter the line could be," Assistant District Attorney Ted Szczupakiewicz said. "There's no gray area. It's an absolute."

In her statement to Waukesha County Circuit Judge Lee S. Dreyfus Jr., Domres spoke ofÂ her love of the teaching profession and the extra hours she spent acting as a listener and counselor to students. Because of losing that profession, and extensive media coverage, she said she felt "the consequences of my actions have been enforced ten-fold."

But neither she nor her sister, father and mother-in-law who all spoke on her behalfÂ hinted at what spurred her relationship with the victim, whose family did not appear or submit any impact statement.

Dreyfus told Domres her crime went "well beyond a mistake in judgment" or a single moment of weakness. "It was to meet your needs, and not those of a child," he said.

He imposed the two years plus three years of extended supervision on one count. On the second count he imposed two years in prison plus two years of supervisionÂ but suspended the sentence in favor of three years of probation.

The more intrusive sex offender probation wouldn't start for five years, and if Domres violated conditions, she could be returned to prison on the second count.

The conditions include having no contact with the victim or his family, or with any schoolÂ besides those she may attend.

Domres, who has no prior criminal record or police contacts, also must register as a sex offender.

The student said he had been in Domres' English class as a sophomore in the 2014-'15 school year, became friends with Domres and began texting her frequently. Between April 2015 and January 2016 the two exchanged more than 1,100 messages.

That led to an incident of sexual intercourse in Domres' car at a park-and-ride lot on Moorland Road in New Berlin in July 2015, when the boy was 16. Then in October, after he had turned 17, he had sex with Domres at a Motel 6 in Brookfield, the boy told investigators. They found evidence that the boy's phone had been connected to the motel's WiFi on the same date the motel records showed Domres had reserved a room with a single bed and paid in cash.

Domres married her high school sweetheart inÂ August 2015.

Last week, a Milwaukee County judge sentenced another former teacher to two years in prisonÂ for her sexual relationship with a teenageÂ boy. Elizabeth Dillett, 31, taught kindergarten and coached at St. Peter Immanuel School, 7801 W. Acacia St. in Milwaukee. The victim was a former St. Peter student, whom she knew through friendship with his mother. He was in high school when they began the sexual relationship.

In December 2015,Â April M. Novak, 30, of Sussex, a former Menomonee Falls School District teacher, was charged with 12 counts of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old student. Her case is pending.

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