This page will be updated irregularly. It contains comments, which are not intended necessarily to represent the views of ACAL, but rather a springboard for debate amongst interested parties. Please feel free to
contact us if you have any commentsIndex to News Archives
5th February 2000 - 5th December 2000
25th August 1999 - 22nd January 2000
15th April 1999 - 17th August 1999
27th March 2001
Swoop on suspected Paedophiles
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Suspected paedophiles from across the UK and the Irish Republic have been targeted in a series of early morning police raids.
A man working for a national youth organisation, along with a 13-year-old boy who is also being treated as a potential victim, were among those arrested in the operation led by Greater Manchester Police.
16th March 2001
Scotland Yard had threatened to seize the photographs after three complaints that the pictures, taken by two photographers, were indecent and would encourage paedophiles.
15th March 2001
The Canadian Government is introducing what it calls some of the world's toughest legislation to combat child pornography on the internet.
A new bill will make it a crime not only to produce or transmit indecent images of children, but also to access them.
The bill will also allow prosecutions in Canada for offences committed abroad.
13th March 2001
Housemaster on Trial for Sex Assault Charges
A former housemaster at an approved school in Monmouthshire has gone on trial accused of abusing boys in his care.
Michael Doggett, 57, worked at the council-run Ty Mawr school in Gilwern, near Abergavenny.
The 112-pupil boarding school - which was Home Office-approved - was closed in 1991 following a joint investigation by police and social services.
7th March 2001
Pop legend Michael Jackson has addressed the Oxford Union in a rare public appearance.
Launching his children's charity Heal the Kids, he claimed that childhood has become "the great casualty of modern-day living".
And he broke down in tears as he talked of his own childhood and his treatment by his manager father.
6th March 2001
Law & Justice for People with Learning Disabilities
A major one day conference to promote access for people with learning disabilities to good quality legal services. A joint project by the Law Society and the Department of Health. One of our executive committee members
Nicola Harney is speaking at the conference. A copy of the brochure can be viewed using Adobe Acobat reader - click here. If you do not have Acrobat Reader you can download it from the site
Evil Father Shook Baby to Death
A man who shook his two-year-old daughter to death has been jailed for life for murder.
Nottingham Crown Court heard that Chelsea Brown was shaken so violently by her father Robert that her injuries were similar to those of a victim of a high speed road crash.
The case calls into question once again the failings of Social Services - this time in Derbyshire. Derbyshire's director of social services, Bruce Buckley, acknowledged that his staff made errors in the case.
This seems to be a sad repetition of the Anna Climbie case (
see below)25th February 2001
The Republic of Ireland has been shocked by a torrent of child abuse allegations in recent years and soon an independent commission will investigate what really went on the country's children's homes.
17th February 2001
16th February 2001
Seven British men who peddled child pornography on the internet have been jailed for between 12 and 30 months each. The paedophile ring - called The Wonderland Club - was smashed by Operation Cathedral, the largest international operation to be co-ordinated by the National Crime Squad in London.
Charities were appalled at the lenient sentences imposed - see the
BBC storyACAL was consulted for a story by
Butterworths the Legal Publishers -The law is far behind the technical realities of Internet-aided abuse against child victims such as those abused by men in the 'Wonderland Club'. The sentences also appear to reflect this. Could ISPs be held criminally accountable for paedophile activity on the web? Peter Garsden of ACAL, John Harding, criminal law partner at Kingsley Napley and Mark Haslam, criminal law partner at Burton Copeland, talk to Helen Brown about the complicated issues involved ...
12th February 2001
An obsessed fan of occult writer Aleister Crowley has been sentenced to life imprisonment after murdering a 12-year-old boy in central London. Edward Crowley, 53, was sentenced at the Old Bailey on Monday for stabbing Diego Piniera-Villar in Covent Garden last year.
Download the video of this story from the BBC site. The occult implications are interesting, but worrying.5th February 2001
Church expels Paedophile Priest
A Catholic priest who was sentenced to seven years in prison for sexually abusing young boys in his care has been removed from the priesthood.
Eric Taylor, 80, was convicted at Warwick Crown Court in 1998 of 18 sexual offences against boys.
30th January 2001
The Sad Orphan by Roger Dean Kiser
http://www.geocities.com/trampolineone is the link to read about and purchase if you wish a new book by Roger Dean Kiser author of Orphan" & "Chicken Soup for the Soul". The email we received describes the book as follows -
By the age of four, Roger had been abandoned, first by his parents and then his grandparents and placed in a Florida orphanage. Unable to adapt to the difficult, often cruel and abusive environment of the orphanage, and stigmatised by his repeated attempts to run away, he was transferred to a Florida reform school at age twelve.
Roger's poignant recollections of his painful childhood experiences will take you into the heart of a child abandoned by his family-and abused by the system responsible for his care.
Anonymous comments received from the author are :-
"This has to be one of the saddest books ever written."
"How can Roger make a reader laugh and cry at the same time."
"I laughed, I cried and then I got mad. Then I cried again. Oh God how I cried."
"If this book is ever made into a movie, half the audience will surely drown in tears."
"Kleenex Corporation stock should go through the roof when this book hits the shelves."
"A must read for all who truly love children."
26th January 2001
After 14 years of systematic sexual and physical abuse, and a further six years fighting for compensation, Zak Savio thought his ordeal was finally over. One of the most traumatised victims of Britain's worst child sex abuse scandal, he hoped to use compensation money to rebuild his life and go to college. There is a quote from
Peter Garsden in this article19th January 2001
There are many stories about the Internet twins of which this is just one - on the BBC site the related stories are down the side columns
A happy homecoming for the Internet Twins
"They need more than the wisdom of Solomon to work this one out." So said the editor of the Arkansas Times in Little Rock, observing the internet twins custody battle.
Lawyers are working in uncharted territory, and there is little agreement about what would happen to the twins if the High Court allows them to be sent back to the United States.
13th January 2001
What a terrible tragedy and upsetting case of child abuse that apparently involved the evangelical church and exorcism. Was there any evidence of satanic abuse. There now follows several stories about the case as reported in the various media sources.
Anna Social Worker overworked The social worker dealing with the case of Anna Climbie was overworked and insufficiently supervised, her colleagues have told the BBC.
Lisa Arthurworrey is facing disciplinary action following the eight-year-old's death from abuse and neglect, but staff allege she was told by management to close the file on Anna to reduce her workload.
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Anna had 128 injuries on her body when she died |
Anna's Life of Horror - The little girl who smiles out from the photograph has bright, laughing eyes. Her hair is pulled neatly into bunches and she wears a smart red cardigan and dress.
Anna Climbie was sent to this country from the Ivory Coast in the hope of a better life, but within a year and a half of the picture being taken she was dead, the victim of horrendous physical abuse.
THE TIMES
Abused Girl would have lived if helped - A CONFIDENTIAL Scotland Yard report into the death of Anna Climbie, the eight-year-old girl murdered in one of Britain’s worst child abuse cases, concluded that she would still be alive if police and social workers had made the slightest effort to help her.
THE INDEPENDENT
Social Worker is Scapegoat after Murder - The social worker in charge of Anna Climbie, who died after months of brutal assaults and starvation, was being made a scapegoat for the failure of a system in chaos, her colleagues claimed yesterday.
10th January 2001
Porn Ring was "real child abuse"
It was an exclusive international club, men with a similar interest exchanging material via the internet.
The sordid entrance fee - 10,000 indecent pictures of children.
Police forces from 12 countries finally managed to break the so-called Wonderland Club, making 107 arrests and seizing 750,000 computer images of children.
Pope Ambassador to calm Paedophile Row
The Pope's special representative in Britain has arrived in Cardiff following controversy of the handling of the cases of two paedophile priests.
Papal Nuncio Archbishop Pablo Puente is due to hold a meeting at All Hallow's Church in Miskin near Cardiff, to which around 70 clergy are expected to attend.
The arrival is in the wake of the replacement of the Archbishop of Cardiff, John Aloysius Ward, who has been criticised over of his handling of the cases of two paedophile priests from the diocese, who have since been jailed.
5th January 2001
Priest Search Police Examine Body
A body has washed up near the spot where a priest under police investigation for child abuse is believed to have disappeared.
Police had been waiting for the swollen levels of the river Severn at Over to recede before searching the area close to where Father William Welsford abandoned his caravanette.
The 69-year-old priest - originally from Milford Haven - had been interviewed over an on-going Operation Cleopatra investigation into abuse at children's homes in the Manchester area
30th December 2000
Inquiry into Care Home abuse claims
Hundreds of people with learning disabilities may have been at risk of sexual abuse at a care home in south London, the BBC has learned.
A joint investigation by the NSPCC and the police is examining allegations of sexual abuse at the Betts Way home in Bromley over the last 12 years.
Councils failing abused children (a story linked to the above story from October 2000)
Thousands of children are at risk of being abused because of a failure by councils to assess their cases, a government report shows.
Figures published by the Department of Health reveal that just one in five councils in England managed to review the cases of all children on their "at risk" register.
25th December 2000
Well Happy Christmas to you all. Once again it is the season of good will to all men, whoever they are. For a change your webmaster has found a story which does not involve abuse, but shows the pictures of Christmas from around the world. Happiness is present in all lands if you look hard enough. Please forget your troubles if you are a victim for just one day.
The BBC story says " Christians across the world are holding celebrations to mark the birth of Jesus Christ. From Calcutta to Minsk, from London to Winnipeg, people have been finding their own special way to enjoy the festive season. "
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