Latest news with #sexualexploitation
Free Malaysia Today
2 days ago
- Free Malaysia Today
Student arrested for producing child porn, exploiting 2 cousins
Bukit Aman's Siti Kamsiah Hassan said the student sexually exploited and recorded his cousins with his mobile phone several times in Selangor, Kelantan and Pahang. PETALING JAYA : A university student was recently arrested under the police's Op Pedo for allegedly possessing 5,000 photos and videos of child and adult pornography. Siti Kamsiah Hassan, principal assistant director of Bukit Aman's sexual, women and child investigation division, said some of the material was home-made, involving his two young cousins, aged four and nine. She said a team arrested the 20-year-old in Pasir Gudang, Johor, on April 29 based on information obtained from Google. 'He was arrested and his phone and laptop seized under Section 10 of the Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017 (for child pornography) and Section 292 of the Penal Code (for sale of obscene material),' Harian Metro reported her as saying. Siti said the student sexually exploited and recorded his cousins with his mobile phone several times at three different locations in Selangor, Kelantan and Pahang. She said three separate investigation papers have been opened in the three states. 'The suspect was charged in Johor on May 22 for possession of child sexual abuse material and obscene material. He pleaded guilty and paid a fine of RM5,000. 'He was charged today in Klang with recording acts committed with the two children at his family home in Sungai Buloh between 2023 and 2025,' she said. Siti said another case in which the student recorded bathing the two children at a duck farm in Maran, Pahang, is being studied by the deputy public prosecutor. 'The incidents last year and this year in Kelantan were at his grandmother's home and are being studied by the Attorney-General's Chambers,' she said.
The Guardian
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
UK politicians propose ban on pimping websites
A ban on pimping websites has been proposed by MPs, as part of measures designed to rewrite legislation regulating the sexual exploitation of women. Campaigners say ordering a woman to be sexually exploited has become as straightforward as ordering a takeaway online, with the proliferation of websites that allow buyers to browse images and videos of women, and refine their search by postcode. A group of 59 cross-party MPs have signed an amendment to the crime and policing bill, to be debated on Wednesday, which would make it a criminal offence to 'enable or profit from the prostitution of another person, including by operating a website hosting adverts for prostitution'. The all-party parliamentary group on commercial sexual exploitation has published research saying that the ease and speed with which pimps and traffickers can now advertise their victims to potential customers has 'turbo-charged the sex trafficking trade'. The committee has warned that regulation of the sex trade has not kept pace with technological developments. It said browsing commercial websites has replaced picking women up on street corners or consulting phone box advertisements. A report from the Home Affairs Committee concluded in 2023 that 'websites advertising prostitution significantly facilitate trafficking for sexual exploitation'. The Home Office has acknowledged that these websites 'are the most significant enabler of sexual exploitation linked to trafficking'. Three amendments tabled by the Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi together set out a new approach to regulation of commercial sexual exploitation, and also propose making it an offence to pay for sex and the decriminalisation of victims of commercial exploitation. In a Commons speech last week, Labour's Tracy Gilbert read out reviews of women posted on pimping websites by men who pay for sex. 'No smile, her atrocious English made the interactions even more impossible,' one reviewer stated. 'This was a very sub-standard service from someone who is not interested in providing customer satisfaction,' another review stated. 'Men who buy sex review women as if they are reviewing an Xbox game,' Gilbert stated, adding that the quoted feedback represented just a handful of the approximately 28,000 reviews left on one sex buyers' website. Kat Banyard, senior programme manager at UK Feminista, said the amendments, each of which had been backed by more than 50 MPs, represented the biggest show of support for legal reform on this issue in a generation. 'The commercial sexual exploitation of women is taking place on an industrial scale in the UK, and successive governments have failed to confront it. Websites hosting prostitution adverts operate openly and freely, functioning as massive online brothels, and the men who order women from these sites and pay to exploit them enjoy impunity. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion 'Meanwhile, women exploited through the sex trade can themselves face criminal sanctions for soliciting. Our laws on sexual exploitation are unjust and, fundamentally, totally ineffective at preventing it.' She said the proposed reforms 'would finally shift the burden of criminality off victims of sexual exploitation and on to those who perpetrate and profit from it'. Banyard said: 'Jurisdictions that have already adopted this approach, including France, Ireland, Norway and Sweden, show demand can be reduced, traffickers can be deterred and attitudes towards sexual exploitation can be transformed.'
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
Court docs: School board member pretended to be woman named 'Emma' while texting minors
What started with three-way text messages with minors from a chatroom website landed a Shelbyville Central School Board member in jail. On June 16, David Finkel, 64, was arrested on a federal warrant, an FBI spokesperson confirmed. An affidavit for his arrest reveals he was taken into custody for sexual exploitation of a minor and possession of child porn. Court documents reveal he had text correspondence with two minors who were both under the age of 15 and didn't live in Indiana. That led to a raid of his Shelbyville home, where sexually explicit content of children was found on his devices. According to court documents, in April 2024, the Daviess County Sheriff's Department in Missouri received a complaint from a mother who found explicit text messages and images in her child's phone. A search of the device by FBI Missouri agents revealed the two minors were initially texting each other. One minor asked if they could invite a 27-year-old adult friend named "Emma" to the conversation. After a group chat was made, "Emma," who was Finkel, said hello and sent a picture of a woman in a bra whose nipples were partially visible. One minor sent a picture of an erect penis and Finkel texted, "I need that in my mouth." They went on to exchange multiple sexual communications in their group chat off and on for five days. On May 29, 2024, during an interview at the North Central Missouri Children's Advocacy Center in Trenton, Missouri, one of the minors said she met a 15-year-old boy online who lived in Pennsylvania. She described sending images of her private areas to him before being asked to join a three-way conversation with a woman who wanted nudes. On September 26, 2024, during an interview at the Children's Advocacy Center in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, the other minor said he met "Emma" on the chatroom website Y99. He said he believed the woman knew his and the other minor's ages. Agents were able to determine that the number texting the minors belonged to Finkel. David Finkel: Shelbyville Central School Board asks vice president to resign following federal raid In early May of 2025, agents started a surveillance in the 200 block of West Broadway Street in Shelbyville, Indiana, where Finkel lived. A search warrant was granted and executed at the home on June 3, 2025. Finkel was interviewed during the search and told agents he was chatting for fun, according to court documents. "What people do in fantasy is different than what people do in real life," Finkel said in an affidavit for his arrest. He admitted to pretending to be a different gender and age and sending sexually explicit images and videos to other adults. He denied communicating with minors online. Agents confiscated multiple devices from Finkel's residence, and a search of them revealed numerous sexually explicit images and videos of minor children, including infants and toddlers, located in a photo gallery listed in the "hidden folder" of a cell phone. The Shelbyville Central School Board asked Finkel, who was vice president of the board, to resign on June 10, 2025, following the federal raid, and Finkel, who also served as director of the Strand Theatre in Shelbyville, was scrubbed from their website, and the theater announced the reorganization effective immediately on June 8, 2025. Jade Jackson is a Public Safety Reporter for the Indianapolis Star. You can email her at and follow her on X, formerly Twitter @IAMJADEJACKSON. This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: School board member pretended to be woman while texting minors, docs reveal
BBC News
4 days ago
- Politics
- BBC News
Casey report pulls no punches - but will it lead to meaningful change?
Baroness Louise Casey's report into group-based sexual exploitation pulls no punches in its description of the failures at all levels to tackle what it calls one of the most horrendous crimes in our the question many will be asking is will her report bring about meaningful change?Certainly, for survivors of abuse, who have often had to fight hard to get their voices heard, practical, on-the-ground change will be government accepted all Baroness Casey's recommendations, but the grooming gangs report itself made the point that many of the problems highlighted have been known about for years – yet there was a failure to act over decades. The report said too often the children being abused were blamed, not helped."If we'd got this right years ago – seeing these girls as children raped rather than 'wayward teenagers' or collaborators in their abuse, collecting ethnicity data, and acknowledging as a system that we did not do a good enough job - then I doubt we'd be in this place now," Baroness Casey said in her foreword to the fact, if you were to read many past reports, including Baroness Casey's own 2015 investigation into the failure to tackle grooming gangs by Rotherham Council, you would find many of the same issues being instance, ten years ago she recommended tighter checks on Rotherham taxis because of their use by grooming gangs. In Monday's audit she called for legal loopholes to be closed nationally so cab drivers can't simply move to another area to get a she described the lack of action by the authorities over the years as "denial" or a collective "blindness", particularly when it comes to the ethnicity of government has accepted her call for better data collection on the ethnicity of grooming gang suspects and has promised research into what that tells us about the factors driving reliable information, Baroness Casey argues there is a vacuum which different sides can use to "suit the ends of those presenting it."The national inquiry will be watched closely to again see if its recommendations are put into one experienced lawyer put it, this can't be another exercise in simply gathering evidence and producing recommendations that are quietly shelved.
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Yahoo
Spokane man suspected of encouraging Colorado teen to kill herself after sexually exploiting her
Jun. 13—The Washington State Patrol's Eastern Washington Missing and Exploited Children Task Force has arrested a 34-year-old Spokane man accused of sexually exploiting a minor in Colorado and encouraging her to kill herself . The investigation began when the Colorado Springs Police Department contacted the task force in April about a subject located in Spokane believed to be in communication with a 16-year-old girl in Colorado Springs. The girl's family contacted the police department there concerning their daughter's communication with an unknown male via her personal phone and a second secret phone the man had provided. His identity was not disclosed until the girl was taken to the hospital in April for self-harm. She revealed that she's had to be "on call" for a 34-year-old software engineer named "Andre" 24/7, and he repeatedly encouraged the girl to harm and kill herself, according to court documents. Detectives traced multiple phone numbers and Instagram accounts communicating with the minor back to Andre Smolyar. Smolyar was arrested and booked in the Spokane County Jail on May 21. He faces four charges: promoting a suicide attempt; possession of depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct; viewing depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct; and communication with a minor for immoral purposes. His bond is set at $1 million. He will face a criminal trial at the Spokane County Superior Court on July 28. Detectives believe there may be additional victims in the areas of Spokane, Colorado Springs and Orange County, California. Anyone with information about Smolyar or potential victims is asked to contact the Washington State Patrol's Eastern Washington Missing and Exploited Children Task Force at (360) 704-2397 or email at mectf@
