Kansas Man Pleads Guilty to Charges Related to the Sexual Exploitation of Children in Southeast Asia

Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Friday, April 6, 2018

Kansas Man Pleads Guilty to Charges Related to the Sexual Exploitation of Children in Southeast Asia

A 71-year-old Kansas native who was residing in Panama pleaded guilty today to use of sexually explicit depictions of a minor for importation into the United States, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General John P. Cronan of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Patrick of the Southern District of Texas.

Jebediah Dishman, of Fredonia, Kansas, pleaded guilty to an information charging him with use of sexually explicit depictions of a minor for importation into the United States before U.S. District Judge Ewing Werlein Jr. of the Southern District of Texas.  Sentencing is set for July 6.

Dishman was arrested in Houston on Nov. 8, 2016, on a criminal complaint.  On Feb. 1, 2017, a grand jury in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas indicted him on one count each of engaging in illicit sexual conduct with a minor in a foreign country, production of child pornography, sex trafficking of children, and obtaining custody and control of a minor for the purpose of producing sexually explicit visual depictions of the minor.

According to admissions made in conjunction with a plea agreement, in September 2014, Dishman began an approximately six-month trip to several countries in Southeast Asia.  During his trip to Indonesia, another tourist observed Dishman engaging in suspicious interactions with minors, masturbating while watching minors, and using a tablet to take photographs of a three-year-old German child.  The tourist confronted Dishman, seized his tablet, and turned it over to local authorities.  U.S. authorities later reviewed the tablet pursuant to a search warrant and discovered sexually explicit images of minors, including of the German child, as well as Internet searches indicating an interest in the sex trafficking of minors in Southeast Asia.

The FBI is investigating this case with the cooperation of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations.  Trial Attorneys James E. Burke IV and William M. Grady of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) and Assistant U.S. Attorney Sherri Zack of the Southern District of Texas are prosecuting the case.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Elly Peirson of the Central District of Illinois, previously on detail at CEOS, also served as a vital member of the prosecution team at earlier stages of the litigation.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice.  Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and CEOS, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. 

For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

Trinity Mount Ministries

Deputy Principal Among Men Charged After Child Porn Raid

Catholic secondary school has been charged with child porn offences following raids across Melbourne that allegedly uncovered abuse material featuring victims as young as newborns.

The man appeared at the Melbourne Magistrates Court last week charged with a string of offences including accessing child abuse ­material and knowingly possessing material.

Police confirmed on Wednesday that a 48-year-old man from Richmond who had been charged after recent raids had appeared in court last week and was due to appear again on July 6.

It is understood that he has been handed an interim suspension from teaching by the Victorian Institute of Teaching.

Another one of the men charged was a primary school teacher working in a non-classroom role as an administrator in a school office.

In a major operation, Victoria Police and the Australian Federal Police raided homes across 19 suburbs and one country town over several days in March.

They discovered horrific child abuse material, child sex dolls, weapons and drugs.

“The material that we're talking about here that's been seized relates to images of children as young as newborn children to the age of 17 years," Deputy Commissioner Shane Patton told reporters on Wednesday.

"It involves them in sexually provocative poses, it involves them being subject to violence, it involves them being in degraded acts and it also involves torture."

The joint task force is now trying to identify the children in the thousands of videos and photos. No Australian children were in need of rescue at this stage.

Mr Patton warned people accessing "millions" of child abuse videos and photos monthly in Australia that they were "onto them."

original article

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Man Sentenced to 480 Months in Federal Prison for Sexually Abusing Boys and/or Producing Child Pornography

Department of Justice
U.S. Attorney’s Office
Northern District of Texas

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wednesday, April 4, 2018

Forney Man Sentenced to 480 Months in Federal Prison for Sexually Abusing Boys and/or Producing Child Pornography of at Least Ten Boys

DALLAS — Kevin Scott Morris, 45, of Forney, Texas, was sentenced this morning by U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade to 480 months in federal prison and a lifetime of supervised release, following his guilty plea in December 2017 to one count of enticement of a minor, announced U.S. Attorney Erin Nealy Cox of the Northern District of Texas.   

According to the factual resume and criminal complaint filed in the case, from at least 2009 through the time of Morris’ arrest in this case in 2016, Morris held himself out to parents and children as a member of law enforcement, a photographer, and a film director.  In so doing, he convinced at least ten children and their parents to allow him to photograph the children, film the children, and even travel with Morris for the purpose of film and photography sessions that his victims thought would lead to modeling or acting careers.  During these “sessions,” Morris built up the trust of, and groomed, several boys who he then sexually abused and/or used to create child pornography.

Law enforcement learned of Morris’ abuse when one of his victims made an outcry that Morris had sexually abused him when he was thirteen years old.  When Morris was arrested, law enforcement uncovered numerous videos and images of Morris sexually abusing several other children.  In addition, Morris possessed child pornography that he did not produce, including videos of toddlers being sexually abused and a video of a prepubescent boy being raped with his hands tied behind his back.

Morris and the government entered into a plea agreement, in which both parties agreed to the term of imprisonment. 

The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.  Led by U.S. Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood leverages federal, state and local resources to better investigate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children.  Project Safe Childhood also prioritizes identifying and rescuing victims.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/.  For more information about internet safety education, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/ and click on the tab “resources.”

The FBI, the Kaufman County Sheriff’s Office, and the Cypress Police Department in California investigated the case.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Jamie L. Hoxie prosecuted.

Department of Justice

Project Safe Childhood

Trinity Mount Ministries

Paedophiles, Rapists, Sex Offenders, Win Appeals To Work With Children

Dozens of paedophiles, rapists and violent sex offenders will be allowed to work with children after winning appeals

By Sam Duncan - Australia

Successful appeals at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) have resulted in over 12 working with children bans being overturned in just five years.

Those who have won their appeals include a man who was caught by police with a half-naked boy in his car.

A 31-year-old man fondled his partner's teenage daughter after taking her camping, and a another man, 22, raped a 13-year-old girl, ABC News reported.

A different offender raped a woman after a buck's party, while another was caught masturbating in public toilets and train stations in front of women and children.

Serial child rapist, 26, jailed after being found with hundreds of pornographic images and videos of girls as young as four.

'Paedophile hunter', 42, charged with 'menacing people over the internet' after the vigilante lured alleged child groomers online and performed citizen's arrests.

A man who was groomed and abused by one of the paedophiles told the ABC allowing the man to work with children was a huge risk.

'He shouldn't be allowed to have a working with children permit, simply because he's been convicted of paedophilia,' he said.

'It's like putting the kid in the candy store and walking out and all the jars are open.'

Child protection organisation Bravehearts' founder Hetty Johnson slammed the VCAT decisions, and said paedophiles should never be able to work with children.

'I just wouldn't want to risk a child's whole future on … a hope and a prayer that maybe this person would never do it again,' she said.

Working with children checks are automatically denied in Victoria for people convicted of crimes such as murder, rape and paedophilia offences.

Those with denied applications can then appeal to VCAT, which has overturned 38 cases in five years, including more than a dozen involving sexual offences.
In a statement to the ABC, VCAT said its role was to apply the law made by the Victorian Government. 

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has been critical of children checks in the past, describing the system as a failure in 2015.

Martin Pakula, Victoria's Attorney General, said recommendations from the Royal Commission have led to a strengthening of the application process.

Mr Pakula said the State Government understands the concern in the community, and wants to do everything possible to ensure the safety of children.

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Trinity Mount Ministries International Missing Children

by Brett Fletcher  @TrinityMount

The reasons why Trinity Mount Ministries posts international missing children cases:

1. A significant number of people connected to Trinity Mount Ministries, by design, are located in other countries, outside of the United States. This includes law enforcement agencies and personnel, child advocates, organizations and individuals.

2. Because of human trafficking and child sex trafficking, as well as parental abductions, the missing children could be anywhere on the planet, as well as down the street, blocks away, in the city or town they live in, in the state and country where they live or other countries.

3. Parental Abductions

Some have said, "At least they're with their parent(s)."

Response: Just because they (the abducted children) are in the company of their parents doesn't mean they (the children) are automatically safe and that the parents are 'good' and sane individuals. Then, I ask them, how many times have they heard of parental abduction cases where the children are abused and/or murdered? It would be hard to justify parental abductions, based on what we know happens in many cases.

Perhaps, the only time parental removal of children, by the parent(s) who don't have legal custody rights, would be - if they (the children) are in immediate danger and the parent(s ) have ample evidence supporting thier claims, as well as being able to prove they had full intentions of contacting law enforcement once the parent(s) and children are in a safe place. Even in this scenario it must be understood - it is highly illegal, and the parent(s) are at risk of legal prosecution and/or conviction.

In short, abducted children can be moved to any place on this planet by their abductors. Whether stranger, acquaintance, family or parental abductions, it should be assumed that the children are in immediate danger.

So, this is why Trinity Mount Ministries posts international missing children cases as well as local, regional and national cases.

Brett Fletcher, MHRS, MS.Psy, Th.G, founder of Trinity Mount Ministries

Inside the world of child sex trafficking and the high-tech approach to saving victims

Produced by Chris Young Ritzen  

According to the FBI, sex trafficking of children in this country has become a nationwide problem. And traffickers target troubled girls with low self-esteem -- girls like Alyssa Beck.

Beck was just a naïve 15 year old living in Jacksonville, Florida, when she found herself trapped in a sex trafficker's web.  She would be in and out of their trap for almost five years.

CBS News correspondent Michelle Miller has been following Beck's story and the horrific world of sex trafficking of kids. It could happen to anyone – that's why actor and activist Ashton Kutcher has taken on this cause to save other young victims.

ALYSSA'S STORY

Alyssa Beck: I was searching for something. …But I didn't know what I was searching for. …I just wanted to be free. …I don't remember being popular when I was growing up. But I always got good grades. …I was really nice and sweet as a child. …But we had problems at home. … There has to be something else. Something better than living like this. …I'm just gonna run away.

Heather Beck | Alyssa's mom: The first couple of times Alyssa ran away, you know, we would get in the car, we would drive around. …I have no idea where she was. I was terrified. Is she in the dumpster or is she in that trash bag on the side of the road and will I ever see her again?

Alyssa Beck: I was a naïve 15-year-old.

Alyssa Beck: I didn't know the streets, so I didn't know the bad things that came with it.

Alyssa Beck: I just thought that it would be fun, you know, maybe party, maybe drink. …But I never would of been prepared for what really happened.

Lawanda Ravoira | President, Delores Barr Weaver Policy Center: I would describe Alyssa when I first met her as afraid. As cautious. …Her experiences were some of the most violent, the most traumatic, that I've seen.

Alyssa Beck: My every day life was laying there, naked, beaten and allowing guys to come and pay 10, 20 dollars to do whatever they wanted to me.

Alyssa Beck: I didn't know the streets, so I didn't know the bad things that came with it.

Alyssa Beck: I just thought that it would be fun, you know, maybe party, maybe drink. …But I never would of been prepared for what really happened.

Lawanda Ravoira | President, Delores Barr Weaver Policy Center: I would describe Alyssa when I first met her as afraid. As cautious. …Her experiences were some of the most violent, the most traumatic, that I've seen.

Alyssa Beck: My every day life was laying there, naked, beaten and allowing guys to come and pay 10, 20 dollars to do whatever they wanted to me.

Mac Heavener| Prosecutor: She was being forced to do it.

Mac Heavener: We are talking about buying and selling children for sex acts.

Michelle Miller: How many men?

Shannon Schott | Juvenile justice expert and lawyer:  Fifty. …Over the course of two weeks.

Heather Beck: It never crossed my mind in my wildest dreams that my child was involved in human trafficking.

Ashton Kutcher testifies at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on modern slavery, Feb. 15, 2017.  "I've seen things that no person should ever see," he said.

Sen. Bob Corker | R-Tenn: Our first witness today is Mr. Ashton Kutcher.

Ashton Kutcher [ to Congress]:  As part of my anti-trafficking work, I've met victims in Russia, in India, victims in New York and New Jersey and all across our country. …I've been on FBI raids where I've seen things that no person should ever see.

Kutcher gives emotional testimony at hearing on ending modern day slavery

Ashton Kutcher: I have a hard time talking about this issue without being emotional.

Michelle Miller: Why this cause?

Ashton Kutcher: I was just so appalled … If you don't do something about it, then who are you?

Ashton Kutcher: It can happen to anyone … Traffickers prey on people and they know exactly what's gonna turn their trigger.

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Jehovah's Witnesses accused of silencing victims of child abuse:

Scores of alleged victims come forward and describe culture of cover-up in religious group in UK.

by Sarah Marsh

More than a hundred people have made allegations of mistreatment.

More than 100 people have contacted the Guardian with allegations of child sexual abuse and other mistreatment in Jehovah’s Witness communities across the UK.

Former and current members, including 41 alleged victims of child sexual abuse, described a culture of cover-ups and lies, with senior members of the organisation, known as elders, discouraging victims from coming forward for fear of bringing “reproach on Jehovah” and being exiled from the congregation and their families.

A Guardian investigation also heard from 48 people who experienced other forms of abuse, including physical violence when they were children, and 35 who witnessed or heard about others who were victims of child grooming and abuse.

The stories told to the Guardian ranged from events decades ago to more recent, and many of those who came forward have now contacted the police.

They told the Guardian about:

An organisation that polices itself and teaches members to avoid interaction with outside authorities.

A rule set by the main governing body of the religion that means for child sexual abuse to be taken seriously there must be two witnesses.

“I was sexually abused many times a week from the age of three until I was 12. Congregation elders knew that when I told them, at 12, what had been happening. No steps were taken to tell the police. I had to tell three male senior figures what had happened. Imagine that? A young girl telling a bunch of men what this man did to me. I wasn’t even allowed to have my mother there with me.”

After she went to the police about what had happened, the person who abused her pleaded guilty and was eventually convicted. “The Jehovah’s Witnesses should lose their charity status as they are not protecting children,” she added. She said she had mental health issues as a result of what happened and how it was dealt with.

Jason Munro says he was abused for 10 years.

Jason Munro, another alleged victim of sexual abuse who waived his right to anonymity, could not give details of his case due to a current investigation but said: “I am completely horrified by the Jehovah’s Witnesses ... I didn’t get support and I experienced 10 years of abuse. Elders knew in my teens about the abuse but it was never a case of ‘let’s get this person the professional help he needs’.”

When a Jehovah’s Witness experiences sexual abuse they are supposed to report it to elders, who are always men, who will take further action if there is a second witness to the offence. The perpetrator will then be called before a judicial committee if they admit abuse or if there is a second witness.

“This causes further trauma to the victim and coupled with the two-witness rule, is undoubtedly the reason that so many victims have never reported it,” said Kathleen Hallisey, senior solicitor in the abuse team at Bolt Burdon Kemp, who is currently acting on behalf of 15 alleged victims.

She also noted that the problem with the two-witness rule in the context of sexual abuse was that there were rarely witnesses to it, “meaning that [these] reports ... are usually dismissed”.

It has been reported that the headquarters of the Jehovah’s Witnesses in the UK, the Watch Tower, holds a database of abuse allegations made within the organisation but has yet to hand it over to authorities.

The Charity Commission launched an investigation in 2013 looking into the Manchester New Moston congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses, concluding that it did not deal adequately with allegations of child abuse made against one of the trustees.

READ MORE

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