Six weeks ago Kate had just got dressed and was coming downstairs for breakfast when there was a knock at the door. Five police officers came in and arrested her husband Alex on suspicion of downloading sexual images of children. They took Alex into custody and took all the computers from the home. ibid.
5,400 men are arrested in the UK every year for downloading sexual images of children. Police believe the actual number viewing illegal material is over 100,000. ibid.
Deep in the foothills of this mountain range set in this beautiful landscape of low forested hills and fast flowing rivers is a small community of Germans who have lived here for the last fifty years. But this is not Germany or even Europe and these mountains are not the Alps but the Andes in central Chile … Colonia Dignidad, the Dignity Colony. But behind this idyllic facade hides a place where unspeakable things have happened. The Colony: Chile’s Dark Past Uncovered, Faris Kermani, Al Jazeera 2013
‘A paedophiles’ paradise.’ ibid.
Its residents have revealed horrifying stories of child abuse and forced labour, torture and killings. ibid.
By 1962 [Paul] Schafer and his group had established themselves as a charity in central Chile. They set up a farm, a bakery and even a state-subsidised hospital that offered free treatment to the local population, all with the blessing of the Chilean authorities. Schafer had his own very particular vision of how his community should be organised. ibid.
Schafer was creating a community that obeyed and followed his every command and where everyone looked up to the Permanent Uncle as a god. All this control allowed Schafer a free run to do as he wished, not only with the adults but also with the children … ibid.
Schafer reinforced this power through an elaborate system of mutual betrayal. ibid.
Frightened that he would have to face criminal charges, Paul Schafer fled just as he had done nearly forty years earlier. Schafer’s inner circle continued to assert its hold over the colony, but with investigators on their heels, they had to make changes to cover their tracks. ibid.
The [Kevin] Cavendish-Coulson case: ‘A private school in Cheshire was a boarding school and some complainants came forward to say many years ago they had been indecently assaulted by him when they were boys at the school.’ The Prosecutors s1e3: The Trial, CPS brief, Netflix 2020
Keith Cavendish-Coulson is facing 42 counts of indecent assault on boys he taught during the 1970s and 1980s. Today he is expected to appear at Chester Crown Court for a plea and case management hearing … ‘He is going to plead guilty’ … ‘6 years and 9 months.’ ibid.
How common is this in the United States? How frequently are we marrying off little girls to men? I Was a Child Bride, Elizabeth Vargas reporting, CI 2019
Between 2000-2010 an estimated 248,000 child marriages in the United States. ibid. caption
‘I was forced to marry my rapist at 11.’ ibid. victim
Mary Kay Letourneau did the unthinkable when she had sex and a baby with a 13-year-old sixth grade student. He was her student in the sixth grade. Mary Kay Letourneau: Autobiography, CI 2019
1997: Mary Kay Letourneau, a gifted 35-year-old Seattle teacher, married mother of four, plead guilty to two counts of child rape. ibid.
‘20+ years and little has changed: she still loves Billy and feels that this is the guy she wants to be with.’ ibid. commentator