SPCS

SOCIETY FOR PROMOTION OF COMMUNITY STANDARDS INC.

Concerns over suppression in child sex tour case

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ECPAT, a charity registered with the Charities Commission, says public needs to be aware of jailed man’s identity, even though a Court Judge has granted him name suppression.

Challege Weekly reports …

ECPAT Child ALERT’s national director is concerned over the issues of name suppression for a child sex tour organiser, who was sentenced to three years imprisonment by the High Court last week.

Alan Bell also raised concerns over the fact that the 47-year old offender was charged in August 2010, over 18 months ago. “It is disturbing that this case took 18 months to bring to conclusion,” Mr Bell told Challenge Weekly. “During this time the accused was free and could hide behind name suppression. Criminal charges where the safety of children is concerned should be dealt with swifly and unless there is a child protection issue, the name should be released so that the public are aware,” he says.

Justice Edwin Wylie passed the sentence at Auckland’s High Court on February 14, stating that he hoped it would send a strong message. The man is the first person in New Zealand to be charged with organising and promoting child sex tours.

Mr Bell said the sentence was reasonable given that it was a difficult one for the judge to arrive at because there was no precedent. “He didn’t have any other cases of this nature to gauge whether this was more serious and less serious. He came out and gave a three-year sentence of a seven-year maximum. We feel thast’s reasonable in this case. There has to be provision for more serious cases that may occur in the future.” [Read more…]

Community standards breached – Is the moral and spiritual welfare of our children at risk?

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Unfit to Teach – the roll of Shame – Dominion Post 13 February. Story by Lane Nichols

Hundreds of teachers have criminal convictions and many are not fit to teach, newly released figures show.

Teachers have been investigated for sexual misconduct, violence, drug and alcohol abuse, incompetence, dishonesty and viewing pornography in the past two years.

The number of complaints has jumped by about half since the Teachers Council was set up in 2002 to vet teachers and independently investigate allegations of serious misconduct.

Of the 664 teachers whose behaviour triggered complaints since November 2009, nearly 300 were convicted of criminal offences.

Fourteen were struck off the Teachers Council register for serious code-of-conduct breaches or criminal offending. In total, nearly 50 teachers were stripped of their teaching licences in the past two years alone.

High-profile cases of misbehaving teachers include:

– A female teacher became pregnant with a 17-year-old high school pupil’s child after they put the school yearbook together.

–  A male teacher was caught with more than 200 pornographic images, including a videotape of his daughter and two foreign exchange students taking showers.

– Other cases include teachers viewing bestiality, committing theft, driving drunk and abusing illicit drugs.

For more see or continue below

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/6406164/Hundreds-of-unfit-teachers-in-class [Read more…]

Child-sex offenders in spotlight under National Party’s policies

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Child-sex offenders in spotlight as National focuses on law and order

A SECOND-TERM National government will keep high-risk sex offenders behind bars indefinitely and may double the penalty for child-porn offences.

Prime Minister John Key and Police and Corrections Minister Judith Collins announced the tough law-and-order policies in New Plymouth yesterday.

Offenders who served their sentences but wwere still considered a danger would be held at a secure facility until the Parole Board deemed them safe for release.

For more go to: Article by Andrea Vance. The Dominion Post, Tuesday 8 November 2011

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/policies/5923627/National-focuses-on-law-and-order

Moral welfare of young girls at risk from high risk porn offender

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Paedophile may remain a risk

The Crown is having second thoughts about its decision not to seek an open-ended preventive detention sentence for a 39-year old man [name removed] who disclosed more sex offences involving children, while he was undergoing treatment in prison.  He disclosed 16 sex charges against eight young girls while doing the Kia Marama sex offenders’ programme in Christchurch Men’s Prison.

After his guilty pleas, the Crown decided not to seek preventive detention but it has been rethinking that decision after access was barred to reports on his treatment at the programme.  Without those reports, the Crown faced a difficult assessment of any future risk to the community that the offender might pose.

In court today, the offender agreed to allow access by the Crown and his defence counsel to reports prepared on his treatment after the crown prosecutor sought a direction on the matter from Christchurch District Court Judge David Saunders.

The offender has a history of offending stretching back 20 years and the latest offences for which he now faces sentencing were committed from the 1990s to 2005 in Timaru.

He is seen as having a deeply entrenched sexual attraction to children, and is assessed as a high-risk pornography offender.

He is serving a two-year four-month term imposed in May last year for possession of objectionable material including images of bestiality and child pornography.

 For more see: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/5862862/Paedophile-may-remain-a-risk

Story by David Clarkson, Dominion Post, 27 October 2011.

 

Registered charity challenges Court of Appeal’s child porn ruling

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Stop Demand Foundation, a registered charity (CC 30599) with the Charities Commission, has attacked a Court of Appeal decision granting name suppression to a 50-year old Manawatu man found guilty of possessing images of child rape. The charity’s founder, Denise Ritchie, who was interviewed on TV One’s Breakfast programme about the matter this morning, says the Court’s decision is a blow to child rape victims in New Zealand and to lobby groups like hers around the world fighting sexual violence against children.

The Manawatu man, who admitted 21 charges of possessing objectionable material, was sentenced to six months home detention and fined $5250 at the end of last year.

In a decision only made public yesterday, the Court of Appeal ruled that his name should be kept completely secret to protect his family members.

Ms Ritchie, who has read and studied the decision, pointed out on TV One’s Breakfast programme that the convicted man has not lived with or had close association with any of the “family members” whose reputations and privacy the Court of Appeal Judges have sought to protect. She argues that granting name suppression to the offender merely to protect the reputation of these people sets a dangerous precedent. [Read more…]