News

A Waikato sex offender who circulated "vile" images of young boys on the internet has been sentenced to preventive detention.

The Australian Federal Police has arrested 21 people allegedly involved in an online child abuse network. The investigation, code named Operation Conqueror, began in January and focused on a number of Australian citizens allegedly using a peer-to-peer file sharing network to access and distribute child pornography.

Vikram Abraham Joseph, 25, admitted six charges of possessing objectionable material after police found files on his computer's hard drive of children under the age of 14 engaging in sex acts.

Source: NZ Newswire, 22 Feb, 2013

A former Catholic brother and convicted pedophile will go to court in April to fight an attempt to extradite him from New Zealand to Australia to face 252 child sex charges.

Source: AAP News

A tip-off from New Zealand investigators has led to the arrest of a man in the United States on child pornography charges.

Source: NZ Radio, 13 Dec 2012

Boards of Trustees, staff and parents should be taking action to prevent this by implementing measures such as recruitment checks, child protection policies and education regarding this type of abuse.

A primary school teacher has been arrested and charged with indecently assaulting pupils at the Auckland school where he worked.

Source: NZ Herald, 19 Decmeber, 2012

Dennis John Batchelor, a 73-year-old Christchurch man, engaged in sexualised web-camera sessions with a local girl over more than three years, was jailed for three years in the Christchurch District Court yesterday.

Department of Internal Affaird Media Release, 01 Nov, 2012

Prosecutors concluded this week their case against Karl Joseph Kraus, a 93-year-old Australian who is battling pedophilia charges in northern Thailand.

Source: http://au.ibtimes.com, by Vittorio Hernandez

Stuff.co.nz is reporting that trauma lives on long after child abuse has taken place. Four victims of Alfred Thomas Vincent still feel the pain inflicted by this man 44 years after this took place. They share their thoughts on their experience and also on whether or not he should ever be freed from prison.

Source: www.stuff.co.nz, 28.05.2012

Sydney - Australian police warned on Thursday that paedophiles were using internet live-streaming sites to order "bespoke" child sex crimes for real-time viewing from countries, including the Philippines.

Source: SAPA on news24.com, 17 May 2012

A man accused of sexually abusing children told police that if he committed the alleged offences, it would have been while he was sleepwalking.

Source: NZ Herald, 11 May 2012

A 24-year-old Dallas man was sentenced on Wednesday to 50 years in jail after being found guilty of sexually assaulting three children under the age of 12 years old. 
Source:  http://www.oregonlive.com, 9 May 2012

Auckland/Amsterdam - Half of mothers in New Zealand are keeping tabs on their teen by accessing their Facebook account without their consent, a global study has revealed.

Source: Voxy.co.nz, 18/04/2012

Notorious rapist Stewart Murray Wilson is set to be released from jail on September 1, despite Parole Board fears he will reoffend immediately.

Wilson, known as the Beast of Blenheim, was jailed for 21 years in 1996 for gross sexual offending over a 25-year period.

Source: NZ Herald News, 17/04/2012

Building on almost two decades of best-in-class performance in sustainable development, Accor is taking its commitment to sustainability to a higher level with the launch of PLANET 21, a comprehensive sustainable development program involving environmental, social and community support programs.

Source: Voxy.co.nz, 17/04/2012

Online "trolls" have infiltrated a Dunedin trading site, copied photos of members' children from personal Facebook pages and threatened to post them on child porn sites.

The trolls - people who deliberately make inflammatory posts to upset people or are looking for opportunities to scam people for money - began posting pictures of full litter trays among other disturbing images and rude comments on the Dunedin Buy Sell and Trade group's page last week.

Source: NZ Herald, April 2012

Terito Henry Miki used fake names and qualifications to get work as a teacher - because he was a convicted child sex offender who was not allowed to be alone with children.

Miki appeared at the Auckland District Court today where he pleaded guilty to seven charges of using a document to obtain a pecuniary advantage and four charges of breaching a supervision order.

Source: NZ Herald, April 2012

Spy software could be installed on all New Zealand cell phones for $200,000, a coroner has heard during the inquest into the death of a Rotorua teenager who killed herself after getting threatening text messages.

Source: NZ Herald, 10 April 2012

A judge who allowed a comedian to walk free from an indecent assault charge against his 4-year-old daughter made an error of law, the High Court at Auckland has been told.

The comedian - whose name is suppressed to protect the identity of his daughter - was discharged without conviction at the Auckland District Court last September for performing an indecent act on his daughter.

But the Crown has sought a judicial review in the High Court.

Source: NZ Herald, 04/04/2012

Fiji police believe they have uncovered a network of sex workers made up of i-taukei and Indo-Fijian girls under 18 years old, who are being pimped, some against their will, by local agents to local men willing to pay cash for sex.

Details offered to FIJI BUSINESS by the police on the ongoing investigation are sketchy. But what has been established is that this could possibly lead to the prosecution of the country’s very first case of domestic human trafficking, suggesting an alarming infiltration of this form of organised crime in Fiji’s society.

Source: Island Business, 14.03.2012

ROME (AFP) - Ten people have been arrested in France, Italy, Portugal and the United States in an Italian-led inquiry into an online child porn network operating in 28 countries, investigators said Thursday (8 March, 2012).

Source: AFP, 9 Mar, 2012

An Auckland man found with thousands of images and movies depicting bestiality and abuse of children has had an appeal for home detention rejected and will serve 22 months jail.

Travis Jay Hulme, of Massey, West Auckland, pleaded guilty in November to one representative charge of importing objectionable material.

To read ECPAT Child ALERT's comment, please click here.

Source: Fairfax NZ News, 21 Feb, 2012

A Westport man accused of 15 child pornography charges has succeeded in keeping his identity secret for the time being.

The 51-year-old is alleged to have been found in the possession of pornographic images of boys between the ages of four and 12 performing sex acts on adults, or having sexual acts committed on them.

Source: NZ Herald, 20 Feb, 2012

A bankrupt motel operator has become the first person in New Zealand to be sent to jail for organising a child sex tour to Thailand.
The 48-year-old has been given a three year sentence.

To Watch the video, please click here.

Source: TV3 News, 14 Feb 2012.

An incident involving an elderly man and a knife-wielding prostitute has forced a long-standing South Auckland shop owner to shut up shop.

Source: Fairfax NZ News, 10 Jan 2012

CHILD pornography use has reached epidemic proportions in Australia, as paedophiles increasingly record themselves molesting children before swapping the images with other abusers, federal police have warned.
With the rise of file-swapping, the images and videos are used as ''currency'' by abusers to buy their way into transnational groups that trade the material. In some cases, police have found terabytes of material, too much to store on most personal computers.

Source: Herald Australia, 08 Feb 2012

A 20-year-old Cambridge man is facing 19 child pornography charges after being found with X-rated movies involving boys as young as five years old.

Source: Fairfax NZ News, 2 Feb, 2012

An Auckland man is behind bars after he was found guilty of possessing more than 350 images of boys as young as six engaged in sexual acts or poses.

Source: NZ Newswire, 27 Jan, 2012

Special T-shirts – buy one now and another for a friend! Visit your nearest The Body Shop while stocks last! Get a great shirt and help the work of ECPAT at the same time!
 

A federal judge in Riverside has handed down a 25-year prison sentence to a man accused of distributing a video and photos of his sexual abuse of a boy to an international child-exploitation group.

Source: Los Angles Times, 24 Jan, 2012

A television reporter confronted middle-aged men in a park after they hooked up with a fictitious 14-year-old girl planted in an internet chatroom.

Source: NZ Herald, 22 Jan, 2012

Name suppression will continue for a Blenheim man who faces multiple charges of possessing child pornography.

Police experts found 622 images were of children under eight and more than 300 of the images showed infants under the age of 2.

Source: The Marlborough Express, 17 Jan, 2012

New Zealand's worst child pornographer has been caught reoffending while on parole in a sting by American police.

Stephen John Laing, 28, pleaded guilty in the Waitakere District Court yesterday to supplying 24 objectionable images of children, toddlers and babies being raped and sexually abused.

It was his fifth conviction for supplying child pornography.
Source: Fairfax NZ News

A New Zealand man faces a prison sentence after taking sexual pictures of a young girl in Russia.

He is one of the first New Zealanders to be convicted of a crime committed against children overseas.

Glenn Roderick Holland, 67, was found guilty last month of being a party to sexual conduct with a child outside New Zealand after Customs officers in 2007 found hundreds of pornographic photos on his computer, including those of a 7-year-old girl with another man.

Source: NZ Herald, 15 January 2012

NEW VIDEO LAUNCHES ABOUT THE LACK OF ADEQUATE CHILD SEX TRAFFICKING LAWS IN THE U.S.

New York-- Arresting children involved in prostitution does not rescue them. That is the clear message of "What I've Been Through Is Not Who I Am," a new documentary released by ECPAT-USA and WITNESS that tells the story of Katrina, a formerly sexually exploited teen who was arrested many times. It was only after she accepted an offer of help from a safe haven that she was able to escape.

ONE of Australia's worst cyber criminals will be sentenced tomorrow for raping, stalking and grooming vulnerable underage girls. 

John Zimmerman, who used MySpace and Facebook to contact more than a thousand teens, has pleaded to three charges of rape, 23 charges of sexual penetration and five charges of an indecent act with a child under 16, involving girls aged between 12 and 17.

The Don't Sweep It Under the Rug Uni Tour is a new project, with the overall purpose of educating youth and young adults on the issue of commercial sexual exploitation of children, which is a growing concern.

In a landmark case, a man has been convicted in Auckland of facilitating child sex tours to Thailand.

Like many mums, Melissa Abraham wants to show off her kids by posting photos on Facebook - but little did she know they could be accessed by creeps trawling the internet.

There are pictures of Conner, 3, playing in his pyjamas and Lachlan, 5, at Rainbow's End during a family holiday. To family and friends the photos are adorable but the website Take This Lollipop shows how they would be perfect for groomers.

CLOSE to 500 staff from a hotel group in Fiji have been trained on making their resorts child friendly.

The Accor Group of Hotels in Fiji engaged the services of ECPAT Child Alert (end child prostitution, child pornography and trafficking) national director Alan Bell held a week-long training at Novotel Nadi, Novotel Suva and Mercure Nadi on the issue of child sex tourism.

Thursday September 29, 2011 10:23:09 PM, IANS

New Delhi: A petition containing over 7 million signatures from all over the world urging governments across the globe to take urgent action to stop the sex trafficking of children and young people was presented to the UN Thursday, making it perhaps the largest the world body has ever received.

International cosmetic brand The Body Shop and ECPAT, a global network of organisations and individuals working together for the elimination of child prostitution, child pornography and the trafficking of children presented the petition to Human Rights Council president Dupuy Lassere in Geneva.

More than 16,000 files containing sexual images of underage children were found on the computer of an American man caught in an online police investigation, the Napier District Court has been told.

Douglas Curtis, 30, was appearing for sentence on Tuesday after earlier pleading guilty to seven charges of supplying objectionable material and 21 charges of possessing such material.

New Zealand has ratified two treaties at the United Nations - one criminalises serious violation of children's rights, the other criminalises attacks on UN peace-builders.

Justice Minister Simon Power deposited New Zealand's instruments of ratification yesterday.

Ambassador - At- Large Luis CdeBaca meets with ECPAT Child ALERT. The Ambassador along with the Consul General Randy Berry and Aides Heather Farrar, Mark Taylor and Tim Mulvey met with the ECPAT Board and Staff in July to discuss various aspects of people trafficking.
 

On Tuesday 28th June 2011, The Body Shop and ECPAT presented a petition of 2.3 million signatures from across Europe to European Commissioner Cecilia Malmström in Brussels, Belgium.

A shocking haul of child sexual abuse material has been seized on ships arriving in Tauranga during a month-long Customs operation.
Customs officers seized 14 hard drives and five laptops from several vessels.
Some of the items contained "extreme" images of child sexual abuse, and were inspected by investigators and forensic officers who travelled from Auckland.

By Kiri Gillespie-Bay of Plenty Times, 21 June, 2011

The Commissioner Dr John Angus has recently made a presentation to the CYF Community Information Day entitled ”Preventing child Abuse and neglect”.

Queensland's worst sex offenders will be tracked with GPS technology by next year.

Get creative, show us your skills and you could walk away with $500 cash and your t-shirt sold at Mr Vintage!

A Chinese woman, convicted late month in Tonga's Supreme Court on human trafficking charges, has been jailed for ten years.

Australian actress Nicole Kidman is among the celebrities who have signed a petition calling for protection for victims of child trafficking.

LOS ANGELES (AFP)  – USA authorities have helped break up an international online child pornography ring using a bulletin board called "Lost Boy" and charged some 20 people in five countries.

The Internet forum was used by some three dozen members trading thousands of "images and videos of child pornography depicting young boys in sexually explicit situations," some of which the members made themselves.

On 21st November, 2010 the founder and Chairperson of Maiti Nepal, an ECPAT affiliate group based in Nepal, Ms. Anuradha Koirala was awarded the CNN Heroes 2010 of the Year. This is the first time that a Nepali has won the prestigious international award. CNN’s Anderson Cooper announced the result at the conclusion of the fourth-annual CNN Heroes: An All – Star Tribune, from the Shrine Auditorium amid a gala event in Los Angeles, California, before an audience of nearly 5,000.

12 December, at the International Forum Against Human Trafficking in Luxor, the first lady of Egypt, the honourable H.E. Suzanne Mubarak, presented Mr. Christopher Davis, International Campaigns Director of The Body Shop International, with the prestigious United Nation’s Business Leader’s Award to Fight Human Trafficking.

An HIV-positive man who sexually abused two children under 12 after serving time in jail for a similar offence has avoided an indefinite jail term. The abuse included rape of the girl child.

These two stars are tapped to be the ambassadors to stop the act of sex crime, appearing in radio spots and fliers for hotline call centre. Sarah Jessica Parker and Gabourey Sidibe are joining forces in the fight against sex trafficking - the actresses have signed up to lead aSarah Jessica Parker and Gabourey Sidibe are joining forces in the fight against sex trafficking - the actresses have signed up to lead a campaign to stamp out the illegal practice. campaign to stamp out the illegal practice.

As a result of viewing a TV item on the work of ECPAT Child Alert a university student was moved to contact the ECPAT office with an amazing offer.  

The NZ Police has made a significant arrest of a person in Auckland charged with encouraging child sex tourism. This is the first time this charge has been laid in New Zealand and will hopefully serve as a deterrent to operators and clients alike.

ECPAT Child Alert representative and researcher, author of the book “Speaking for Ourselves”, Serafin Dillon, talked on TVOne on 18th August, 2010 about young people she interviewed for the book who have experienced underage prostitution in Auckland.
To view the interview, click here.

Susan Sarandon is throwing her support behind a new campaign to help wipe out child trafficking.

Online Safety For Children.

Young Survivors of Sex Trafficking Inspire Beyonce, Halle Berry and More to Join ‘Girls Are Not for Sale’Campaign...

The Body Shop campaign 2010 begins

The president and co-founder of Love146, Rob Morris, has been selected as a keynote speaker this month at The School of WOM. The WOM series features “experiential thought leaders, and engagement passionistas, that ensure your brand becomes talkable across all consumer touch points.”

Thank God high profile celebs are getting on board the issue of the sexual exploitation of children. Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher formed the Demi and Ashton Foundation in January this year to help eliminate child sex slavery worldwide.

To raise money for ECPAT UK and the child victims of trafficking, Debbie Beadle is completing 30 challenges before she turns 30 in October 2010.

Daniel Moore controlled access to a highly secret network of people trading and distributing child pornography on the internet.

Critics pick holes in child porn filter, NZ Herald
Over the next few months some New Zealanders are likely to get a nasty shock while browsing the internet - a web page that pops up on their computer saying "STOP!".

ECPAT UK and ABTA launch 'Every Child, Everywhere'- Child Protection Training for the Travel Industry

Battler Nominated, Western Leader
Ron O'Grady is among top senior nominees in the 2010 Senior New Zealander of the Year awards.
 
 

ECPAT UK is delighted that before Parliament was dissolved for the General Election the Anti-Slavery Day Bill became law.

Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize
David Matas, legal council and board member of Beyond Borders (the ECPAT group in Canada) is nomination for a Nobel Peace Prize.