Latest news with #ChildExploitation
Scoop
4 days ago
- Scoop
Napier Man Sentenced To Intensive Supervision For Distributing Child Sexual Exploitation Online
A Napier-based man in his 20's has been granted permanent name suppression and sentenced to two years intensive supervision and six months community detention. This follows his appearance at the Napier District Court on 17 June 2025, after an investigation by the Department of Internal Affairs' Digital Child Exploitation team. The offender had earlier pled guilty to four representative charges relating to the distribution and possession of online child sexual abuse material. He became a person of interest to the Department of Internal Affairs after they received three referrals from the US-based National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) with an email address that, through investigation, was attributed to the offender. A search warrant was then executed at his home address where investigators located and seized two devices for further examination. Forensic analysis of the devices found movie and image files depicting child sexual exploitation and abuse with children as young as 21 months of age. 'These images capture a real crime scene. Child sexual exploitation material depicts real children who have been sexually abused and exploited for these files to be created,' says Tim Houston, Manager of the Digital Child Exploitation Team. As part of his sentence, Judge Mackinstosh ordered the iPhone used during the offending to be forfeited and all objectionable material destroyed. About Department of Internal Affairs' Digital Child Exploitation Team: In 2024, the Digital Child Exploitation team conducted 69 investigations into child exploitation and helped to safeguard 14 New Zealand children from harm. Additionally, the Digital Child Exploitation Filtering System blocked over one million attempts to access websites hosting child sexual abuse material. Support and Resources Parents and caregivers are encouraged to engage with their tamariki about safe online practices. Advice and support for parents and caregivers on protecting their children online is available at If you have concerns about potential online harm or wish to report a crime, contact the Digital Child Exploitation Team at DIA. For situations where abuse is occurring or a child is in immediate danger, contact the Police at 111. Victims of child or sexual abuse crimes can access help and support services by contacting: Safe to Talk: 0800 044 334 Text 4334 If you are concerned about your own or someone else's sexual behaviour, please reach out for support: Safe Network: 09 377 9898 WellStop: 04 566 4745 STOP: 03 353 0257 Stand Strong, Walk Tall Notes: DIA uses the term child sexual abuse imagery. The term child pornography downplays the harm of child sexual abuse. For more information on the role of the Digital Child Exploitation Team, what is online child sexual exploitation and how to report it visithttps://
The Independent
6 days ago
- Politics
- The Independent
Report criticises ‘major failing' to gather ethnicity data on grooming gangs
The lack of data showing the ethnicity and nationality of sex offenders in grooming gangs is 'a major failing over the last decade or more', a new report has found. Officials have dodged the issue of ethnicity among the groups of sex offenders for fear of being called racist, even though available data showed suspects were disproportionately likely to be Asian men, the Home Secretary told the House of Commons. Speaking as a review of grooming gangs by Baroness Casey was published on Monday, Yvette Cooper told MPs: 'While much more robust national data is needed, we cannot and must not shy away from these findings, because, as Baroness Casey says, ignoring the issues, not examining and exposing them to the light, allows the criminality and depravity of a minority of men to be used to marginalise whole communities.' She said Baroness Casey found examples of organisations 'avoiding the topic altogether for fear of appearing racist or raising community tensions'. Ms Cooper said: 'These findings are deeply disturbing, but most disturbing of all, as Baroness Casey makes clear, is the fact that too many of these findings are not new.' Currently ethnicity is only recorded for around 37% of suspects. The report found that: 'The appalling lack of data on ethnicity in crime recording alone is a major failing over the last decade or more. Questions about ethnicity have been asked but dodged for years. 'Child sexual exploitation is horrendous whoever commits it, but there have been enough convictions across the country of groups of men from Asian ethnic backgrounds to have warranted closer examination. 'Instead of examination, we have seen obfuscation. In a vacuum, incomplete and unreliable data is used to suit the ends of those presenting it. The system claims there is an overwhelming problem with white perpetrators when that can't be proved. 'This does no-one any favours at all, and least of all those in the Asian, Pakistani or Muslim communities who needlessly suffer as those with malicious intent use this obfuscation to sow and spread hatred.' Yvette Cooper unveiled the findings from the rapid national audit to MPs, after the Prime Minister committed to launching a national inquiry into the abuse. She repeated previous apologies for abject failures to protect victims. Ms Cooper told MPs: 'On behalf of this, and past governments, and the many public authorities who let you down, I want to reiterate an unequivocal apology for the unimaginable pain and suffering that you have suffered, and the failure of our country's institutions through decades, to prevent that harm and keep you safe.' The rapid national audit looking at the scale of grooming gangs across the country was first announced in January as part of a series of measures to tackle the issue. The Home Office has also said the National Crime Agency (NCA) will carry out a nationwide operation targeting people who have sexually exploited children, and follow up on more than 800 cold cases. According to the Home Office, the NCA will work in partnership with police forces to investigate cases that 'were not progressed through the criminal justice system' in the past. On Monday, Ms Cooper said that the number of cold cases to be reviewed again over child sex abuse by grooming gangs is expected to rise to more than 1,000 in the coming weeks. The harrowing crimes targeted children, mainly girls, as young as 10, some of whom were in care, had physical or mental disabilities, or who had already suffered neglect or abuse. Baroness Casey's review looked at around a dozen live investigations into grooming gangs, and found 'a significant proportion of these cases appear to involve suspects who are non-UK nationals and/or who are claiming asylum in the UK.' The Home Secretary has pledged to exclude convicted sex offenders from the asylum system. In her report, Baroness Casey said it is time to draw a line in the sand and take action over the issue, which she called 'one of the most heinous crimes in our society'. Her report concluded: 'These actions need to be accompanied by commitments to honesty, transparency and to prioritising the safety of children above all else; by an apology to all the victims of child sexual exploitation who have been let down in the past and by a more rigorous and relentless pursuit of the minority of men who have preyed on vulnerable children and looked for gaps in our safeguarding systems to commit heinous crimes. 'Unless government and all the organisations involved are able to stand up and acknowledge the failures of the past, to apologise for them unreservedly, and to act now to put things right, including current cases, we will not move on as a society.' The Government has accepted her recommendation that any adult man who has penetrative sexual activity with a child under 16 will face a mandatory rape charge. Police forces will be made to gather data on the ethnicity and nationality of child abusers, and rules for the licensing of taxi drivers will also be tightened to stop drivers operating outside the area where they are licensed. The report also recommends that police forces should look at cold cases from the past 10 years to find missed chances for prosecutions and children who may have been abused.
Calgary Herald
06-06-2025
- Calgary Herald
RCMP arrest Olds resident for child pornography offences
Olds RCMP, alongside the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team's Internet Child Exploitation unit, have arrested an Olds resident for child pornography charges. Article content Following an investigation that started in late May, Olds RCMP and ICE executed a search warrant at a residence in Olds on June 3 around 9:30 a.m. Article content Article content As a result, 48-year-old Charles Landon was arrested and charged with four Criminal Code offences relating to child pornography, including its transmission and distribution, its possession, its access and its publishing. Article content Article content Landon was freed on a release order with a list of conditions after a bail hearing. He is scheduled to appear before the Alberta Court of Justice in Didsbury on July 7, 2025. Article content Article content Detachment commander of the Olds RCMP, Sgt. Jamie Day, said that Mounties remains fully committed to building safer communities by working alongside the community, and through investigative and enforcement efforts. Article content
