MOTHER PUSHES GIRL TO CYBERSEX, NABBED
15-year-old victim rescued as policemen, foreign groups helped in tracking down suspect, who happens to be her own mother
A 15-year-old girl had been praying that the sexual abuse that her own mother made her go through for five years will stop.
Police raided their house and rescued her last Saturday in Barangay Opao, Mandaue City where they arrested her mother for online sexual exploitation of children (OSEC).
“Because of coordinated police intervention by Anti-Cybercrime Group, Queensland Police and the Australian Federal Police, this young girl is now safe from her nightmare of abuse. With significantly more personnel and funding, the PNP can really scale the fight to end OSEC in the Philippines so that children are protected from this alarming epidemic,” said lawyer John Tanagho, International Justice Mission Cebu Field Office director.
Acting on a referral from the Australian Federal Police and by virtue of a search warrant issued by Regional Trial Court Branch 24 Cebu City Judge Jose Nathaniel Andal, the PNP Anti-Cybercrime Group-Central Visayas (PCG 7) conducted an entrapment and arrested the girl’s mother.
The mother was caught in the act of offering a livestream online sex show of her daughter to a foreigner in exchange for money.
The mother’s name is being withheld to protect the victim, her daughter.
The PCG received information that the mother has been sending sexually explicit images of her youngest child when she was yet only 10 years old.
The Australian perpetrator identified as Stephen James Sheriff was convicted for solicit- ing and accessing child exploitative images.
He was sentenced to three years in prison, a low punishment in light of the gravity of the offense and the harm caused to the victim, the International Justice Mission said in a press release.
“Foreigners who purchase child exploitative images create the demand for the sexual abuse of poor Filipino children. It’s high time that Australia toughen its laws against those who solicit and access child exploitative material so that–secured behind bars—they can no longer traumatize Filipino children,” Tanagho said.
The PCG confiscated several smartphones and cellphones for digital forensic examination, including the phone used during the entrapment.
The suspect is currently detained at the Police Station 1 of the Mandaue City Police Office (MCPO).
Complaints under RA 9208 the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act, RA 9975 the Anti-Child Pornography Act in relation to RA 10175 the Cybercrime Prevention Act, and RA 7610 (Child Abuse) are being prepared against the suspect.
The operation was a collaborative effort of the Anti-Cybercrime Group Region 7 (“ACG”) under team Leader SPO1 Angeles “Boyet” Yaun, Department of Social Welfare and Development Region 7 (“DSWD”), Interagency Council Against Trafficking Region 7 (“IACAT”) and International Justice Mission (“IJM”).
The IJM is a global organization that protects the poor from violence.
IJM partners with local authorities to rescue victims of violence, bring criminals to justice, restore survivors, and strengthen justice systems. /