Award-winning teen writer Noa Pothoven chooses to die due to ‘unbearable suffering’

DutchNews, June 5, 2019 - By Senay Boztas 

A 17-year-old girl from Arnhem who suffered from years of PTSD, depression and anorexia after being sexually assaulted as a child has died. 

Noa Pothoven, the author of the award-winning book Winnen of Leren (‘winning or learning’) wrote in a post on Instagram – which has now been deleted – that she was ‘being let go because my suffering is unbearable.’ 

According to the AD, her last days were spent in a hospital bed in her family’s living room, saying goodbye to her near and dear, and her sister announced her death on Sunday. 

Although it has been widely reported around the world that she died through euthanasia – following an unconfirmed report from the Central European News wire service – the circumstances of her death are unclear. A journalist from Politico Europe has claimed that the reports were incorrect and due to a failure of checking. 

In her Instagram post, the young woman had said that she would stop eating, and expected to die within 10 days. 

She had, however, investigated the possibilities of euthanasia through the Levenseindekliniek in Den Haag last year, according to The Gelderlander local newspaper, and then been rejected. 

The young woman had written critically about her traumatising experiences of isolation cells in psychiatric care institutions, and praised GroenLinks MP Lisa Westerveld when she took up the subject of inadequate youth care in the Netherlands. 

After suicide attempts, last year she had said that she would try trauma therapy a final time and her mother, Lisette, told The Gelderlander that she was choosing ‘the road towards death’ while her family wanted her to choose life. 

A spokeswoman for Westerveld, who was one of the people invited to say goodbye to Ms Pothoven before her death, said: ‘as far as we know, she died because she didn’t eat any more,’ adding that the girl has not yet been buried. 

The euthanasia clinic that the young woman reportedly consulted last year would not confirm or deny if she was a patient. Elke Swart, spokeswoman for the Levenseindkliniek in The Hague, said: ‘We cannot say anything about it. There are very few young adults in euthanasia clinics, and it’s even rarer to see them for psychiatric reasons. Euthanasia of someone who is 60 is very different to that of someone who is 16. But we follow the law, which says someone must be in unbearable suffering with no other alternative.’ 

Although euthanasia has been legal in the Netherlands since 2002, the number of cases dropped for the first time in a decade last year. Three cases have been referred to the public prosecution service for not following strict rules, and some commentators have said doctors are more wary after more controversial circumstances involving dementia (2.4% of the 6,126 euthanasia cases last year) and psychiatric forms of suffering (1%). The vast majority of euthanasia procedures, however, involve someone with a terminal sickness, and 66% last year related to untreatable cancer.

A 17-year-old rape victim was NOT euthanised in the Netherlands.@euronews @Independent @DailyMailUK @dailybeast are all wrong
It took me about 10 mins to check with the reporter who wrote the original Dutch story.
Noa Pothoven asked for euthanasia and was refused (cont.) pic.twitter.com/e7PYQSCxG1

— Naomi O'Leary (@NaomiOhReally) 5 juni 2019

Related Articles:

Why international newspapers reported the death of Noa Pothoven as ‘euthanasia’…when it wasn’t - New

Media misreport Dutch teen Noa Pothoven's death as euthanasia

Abused children carry the trauma in their cells: study

Yahoo – AFP, Patrick GALEY, October 2, 2018

Researchers found the trauma of child abuse was indelibly printed in the DNA
of victims (AFP Photo/HECTOR RETAMAL)

Paris (AFP) - Children subjected to abuse may carry the physical hallmark of that trauma in their cells, scientists said Tuesday, in research that could help criminal investigations probing historic mistreatment.

The imprints may also shed light on whether or not trauma can be passed on between generations as has long been hypothesised.

A team of researchers at the University of British Columbia examined the sperm cells of 34 adult men, some of whom had been victims of child abuse years earlier.

They found that the effects of the trauma were indelibly printed in 12 regions of the DNA of those men who had experienced varying levels of emotional, physical or sexual abuse.

Scientists believe these alterations, known as methylation, could one day be used by investigators or courts to weigh allegations of child abuse.

"If you think of genes as being like lightbulbs, DNA methylation is like a dimmer switch that controls how strong each light is -- which in turn can influence how cells function," Nicole Gladish, a PhD candidate in the university's Department of Medical Genetics, told AFP.

"This information can potentially provide additional information about how childhood abuse affects long-term physical and mental health."

The experiment is one of a growing number of trials looking into what turns genes "on and off" at different periods of human development, a field of study known as epigenetics.

Once thought as entirely pre-programmed from conception, some genes are now known to be activated or deactivated by environmental factors or an individual's life experience.

'Small piece of the puzzle'

Scientists involved in the study, published in the journal Translational Psychiatry, said they still did not know how methylation affects a person's long-term health.

In addition, due to the difficulty in extracting egg cells, the team don't plan to replicate the experiment on women -- statistically far likelier to have been victims of child abuse than men.

Scientists said the degree of "dimming" in the DNA regions were surprising -- one part of the genome of the men who were abused as children was 29 percent different to those who were not.

And, because the degree of methylation changes over time, they were able to tell by looking at the men's cells roughly when the abuse occurred.

"This might help the development of tests that could be used by healthcare workers or potentially even as forensic evidence," Gladish said.

Although researchers still have little idea whether or not the imprints of abuse contained within sperm cells would survive fertilisation intact, lead author Andrea Roberts said the study "brings us at least one step closer" towards working out if trauma can be transmitted across generations.

"We can look at our study as one small piece in the huge overall puzzle of how intergenerational trauma works," said Gladish.

She pointed out there are several other teams working on the conundrum, including experiments on mice and other animals.

"It is certainly possible that epigenetic changes in sperm cells play a role in the physical and mental health of the next generation, but we don't know for sure."

Vatican rolls back on pope's remarks on psychiatric help for gay children

Yahoo – AFP, August 27, 2018

Pope Francis said parents should not ignore signs of homosexuality in their
children (AFP Photo/Gregorio BORGIA)

Vatican City (AFP) - The Vatican on Monday rolled back on Pope Francis' recommendation that parents seek psychiatric help for children who show homosexual tendencies.

The pope made the comments to journalists as he was flying back to Rome from Ireland, but the Vatican later removed his phrase from its official account, saying he had not meant to suggest that homosexuality was a mental illness.

Francis was asked by a journalist what he would say to parents who observe homosexual traits in their children.

"When it shows itself from childhood, there is a lot that can be done through psychiatry, to see how things are. It is something else if it shows itself after 20 years," he said.

The pope added that ignoring a child who showed homosexual tendencies was an "error of fatherhood or motherhood".

However when the Vatican later published the pope's answer, the reference to psychiatry had been removed.

When asked why, a Vatican spokeswoman told AFP it had been done in order to not "change the thoughts of the Holy Father".

"When the pope referred to 'psychiatry', it is clear that he was doing it to highlight an example of 'things that can be done'. But with that word he didn't mean to say that it (homosexuality) was a 'mental illness'," she said.

Francis' trip to Ireland was fraught with controversy amid accusations that he ignored sexual abuse allegations against prominent US cardinal Theodore McCarrick.

A new weapon against sexual assault: Dutch police dogs trained to sniff out sperm

DutchNews, May 15, 2018

Police dogs have many roles. Photo: Graham Dockery

Dutch police have a new weapon at their disposal in the hunt for rapists – a dog which has been trained to sniff out sperm outdoors, RTL Nieuws said on Tuesday afternoon. 

The two dogs have been involved in 80 cases and the trial was so successful that four more dogs will be trained to work in places where sexual assaults have taken place, RTL said. 

In two cases, the dog’s evidence was instrumental in solving two sex crimes – one of which involved a young girl who was knocked off her bike and raped. 

The dogs are able to identify specific sperm up to a week after the incident. This, says RTL, saves on laboratory time because technicians can identify the sperm sample’s dna straight away, rather than test all sorts of different items for potential evidence. 

The sperm dogs are part of a team of 120 sniffer dogs, all trained to focus on specific smells, such as drugs or money. 

Last year, the police abandoned plans to train up sniffer rats. They were going to be used to detect illegal fireworks, fake cigarettes and human bones but the plan was dropped because they could not be made ‘operational’.

Denied abortion, 11-year-old Paraguay rape victim gives birth

Yahoo – AFP,  Hugo Olazar, 13 Aug 2015

The entrance of the Red Cross Hospital where a young girl who was raped and 

became pregnant stayed, in Asuncion on May 8, 2015 (AFP Photo/Norberto Duarte)

Asuncion (AFP) - An 11-year-old Paraguayan girl who was raped by her mother's boyfriend gave birth Thursday, rekindling the uproar over authorities' refusal to let her have an abortion.

The child, who was 10 when she was raped, gave birth by C-section to a girl that weighed 3.5 kilos (eight pounds), said Dolores Castellanos, the doctor that monitored the pregnancy.

The girl has named the baby Milagros, which is Spanish for miracles.

The pregnancy came to light when the girl went to the doctor with stomach pains in April. Doctors initially believed she had parasites, but discovered on examining her that she was five months pregnant.

The authorities' handling of the case sparked outrage in this predominantly Catholic country, where abortion is illegal except when the mother's life is deemed to be at risk.

Officials ruled the pregnancy could proceed.

The girl, who turned 11 in May, was 37 weeks pregnant when she gave birth.

She stands just 1.39 meters (four feet six inches) tall and weighed just 34 kilos before her pregnancy.

She will remain under observation for 72 hours, said Castellanos, head of child and adolescent medicine at the Asuncion hospital where the baby was born.

Mario Villalba, director of the Red Cross hospital, said the delivery "was like any other Cesarean, without complications, the difference being the age."

Asked if the child will be able to nurse the baby, Villalba said, "we'll see how she does as a mother."

The baby's father, Gilberto Martinez Zarate, age 42, was taken into custody in May and is awaiting trial on rape charges. He could get between 12 and 15 years if convicted.

The girl's mother was also arrested for neglect but allowed to visit her daughter during the pregnancy.

The lead prosecutor on the case, Monalisa Munoz, said the girl was systematically abused by her mother's boyfriend.

"She was always at his mercy because the mother worked. The rapist even went to the girl's parent-teacher conferences," she told AFP.

'Extremely risky'

The case reverberated far outside Paraguay, with UN experts criticizing the Paraguayan government for refusing to consider an abortion.

Amnesty International called on Paraguay's government to repeal its strict anti-abortion law, saying the girl was lucky to be alive.

Erika Guevara, the rights group's director for the Americas, said the fact that the child survived "does not excuse the human rights violations she suffered at the hands of the Paraguayan authorities."

Officials in the South American country "decided to gamble with her health, life and integrity despite overwhelming evidence that this pregnancy was extremely risky and despite the fact that she was a rape victim and a child," she said.

Castellanos, the attending physician, insisted the girl's life was never at risk.

UNICEF has accused Paraguay of failing to protect girls from sexual predators.

Every day, two girls aged between 10 and 14 give birth here, it says.

At the hospital where the 11-year-old girl gave birth Thursday, three other girls, all aged 12, are due to give birth in the coming weeks.

Germany plans trauma center for 'Islamic State' rape victims

German Development Minister Gerd Müller has told a newspaper of the government's plans to create a care facility for the victims of "Islamic State" violence. Germany has the highest number of aslyum seekers in Europe.

Deutsche Welle, 22 Dec 2014

German Development Minister Gerd Müller told the mass-circulation newspaper Bild on Monday that Berlin has plans to create a trauma center in Germany for the victims of mass rape carried out by "Islamic State" militants (IS) in Syria and Iraq.

Müller said while on a visit to Iraq he spoke to five young girls who had been captured by IS and raped. Three of them were pregnant as a result.

"We have to take care of such girls," Müller told the paper, saying that a care facility in Germany could serve at least 100 women and girls.

He did not provide a timetable for the project nor did he say where in Germany such a facility would be established.

Müller's statements came after a United Nations report revealed last month the extent of the crimes perpetrated by IS on the people living in the cities and towns they capture. The UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria released a document full of harrowing descriptions of massacres, torture, sexual enslavement and forced pregnancy.

Influx of asylum seekers bring right-leaning protests

Germany is Europe's top destination for asylum seekers. Around 230,000 asylum applications are expected in 2015, up from an initial estimate of 200,000.

The increase in the flow of asylum seekers has spawned populist a movement, often called PEGIDA ("Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West"), which has held demonstrations against what they see as the Islamization of Germany in cities like Bonn, Düsseldorf, and Kassel.

In Dresden, the group has held protests some thousands strong every Monday for weeks. The movement is often accompanied by counter demonstrators under the banner of No-PEGIDA.

es/pfd (AFP, epd)

Congolese doctor receives EU prize for helping rape victims

Yahoo – AFP, 26 Nov 2014

Denis Mukwege, a Congolese gynaecologist, has been awarded the European
Parliament's prestigious Sakharov human rights prize (AFP File)

Doctor Denis Mukwege received the European Parliament's prestigious Sakharov human rights prize on Wednesday for his work in helping thousands of gang rape victims in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

European Parliament president Martin Schulz, who presented the 59-year-old with the award at a ceremony in Strasbourg, said Mukwege "fought for the dignity of women, justice and peace in his country".

"You have eased the pain of countless women and girls and offered them a helping hand so that their injured bodies and broken bodies may be healed," said Schulz.

A Congolese delegation sang for joy and waved flags from the parliamentary gallery as Schulz handed Mukwege a plaque to mark the award, named after Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov.

Mukwege -- who was named as recipient of the award in October for his work in treating the appalling injuries inflicted on the victims -- said he hoped the prize would help to bring the plight of women in his country to an end.

"By this prize you have decided to raise the visibility of the struggle of Congolese women," he said to repeated standing ovations from European MPs in the huge parliament chamber.

"In every raped woman I see my wife, in every raped grandmother I see my mother, in every raped child I see my children," added Mukwege, whose spouse attended the ceremony with him.

He has previously been tipped as a possible Nobel Peace Prize winner.

Members of the pro-Western Ukraine democracy and rights group EuroMaidan, which led the popular revolt against deposed president Viktor Yanukovych, were invited to the ceremony as runners up for the prize.

The third candidate was prominent Azerbaijani rights activist Leyla Yunus.

Rival forces fighting for control of the vast mineral riches in eastern DR Congo have used mass rape for decades to terrorise the local population into submission.

Mukwege trained as a gynaecologist, going on to found the General Referral Hospital of Panzi near Bukavu in South Kivu province which has seen some of the worst violence.

He survived an assassination attempt two years ago after speaking out about the continued use of rape in the conflict and accused the world of failing to act.

Last year, however, he defied threats and returned home to a warm welcome from thousands of people.

The Sakharov prize in 2013 was won by Pakistani education campaigner Malala Yousafzai, while previous winners since the award was founded in 1988 include late South African rights icon Nelson Mandela and Myanmar activist Aung San Suu Kyi.

Gammy: Australian parents wanted a refund and would have aborted him

In Channel Nine interview, couple claim Thai surrogate mother threatened to take their healthy baby

The Guardian, Amanda Meade in Sydney, Sunday 10 August 2014

David Farnell, right, and his wife Wendy, left, with baby Pipah. The couple deny
 abandoning their son Gammy, who was born with Down's syndrome. Photograph: AP

The Australian parents of baby Gammy wanted a refund from the Thai surrogacy agency when they were told one of their twins would be born with Down's syndrome.

"We were very confused and we said that this is your fault, you must now take some responsibility for this," Gammy's father, David Farnell, said in an interview aired on Channel Nine's 60 Minutes on Sunday night.

In their first media interview since it was revealed they had left their seriously ill and disabled son in Thailand and taken his healthy sister, Pipah, home alone, the Farnells also admitted they would have aborted Gammy because no "parent wants a son with a disability".

"It was late into the pregnancy that we learned the boy had Down's," Farnell said. "They sent us the reports but they didn't do the checks early enough. If it would have been safe for that embryo to be terminated, we probably would have terminated it, because he has a handicap and this is a sad thing. And it would be difficult – not impossible, but difficult."

Farnell and his less talkative wife, Wendy, tried to explain to interviewer Tara Brown why they had not brought Gammy back home to Western Australia. They denied abandoning him.

But there were many contradictions in the interview. David Farnell admitted the couple did not want a child with a disability but then also claimed they had wanted to take Gammy out of Thailand but were being threatened by the Thai surrogate, Pattaramon Chanbua.

"We didn't leave him behind," Farnell said. "We wanted to bring him with us but things were happening that we couldn't.

"The surrogate mother wanted to take our girl and we were getting scared that we were going to lose her. We had to try and get out as fast as we could."

Chanbua has contradicted the couple in earlier media reports, saying they ignored Gammy when they came to the hospital and were happy for her to keep him.

Farnell admitted he had not done enough research before starting the surrogacy process but said he had chosen Thailand because the people were kind and the hospitals looked "clean".

During the intense and at times bizarre interview, Farnell fought back tears and repeatedly said he had tried his best and had been very stressed.

"It's been very stressing," he said. "We miss our little boy. I come home from work some days and Wendy has dressed our little girl all in blue because she wants to remember the little boy."

Farnell then admitted he had not tried to make contact with Pattaramon or find out about his son's health and had not at any point contacted the Australian embassy to request assistance with taking Gammy home.

"We haven't asked directly," he said. "We've been trying to make sure first that Pipah is safe. No one can take her away from us. We've been trying to do that for six months. When we know she's 100% safe with us then we can go and get our boy back."

Farnell showed the most emotion when confronted with his history of child sexual offences, for which he was imprisoned.

"I have been convicted of child sex offences and I hang my head in shame," he said. "And I am deeply regretful for that. I am so, so sorry to those people. I was convicted and I went to jail."

Brown asked him if his daughter was safe in his care as he had a history of abusing children as young as five. Farnell said he no longer had an attraction to children.

"I don't have any thoughts about this at all. That is 100% the truth. I cannot do this again. I can't do this. I know that I do not have any urges at all of this nature. For 30 years I've known this. I don't have any urges."

Wendy said she trusted her husband. "He had three children before, they all love him and respect him so much. They said he's a wonderful father."

The Australian father of Gammy, born to a surrogate in Thailand, has denied

 abandoning the child while taking home his healthy twin sister. Photograph:

Rungroj Yongrit/EPA

Related Articles:

Australians with surrogate babies banned from leaving Thailand – reports - New
Thailand to ban commercial surrogacy in wake of Gammy scandal

Baby Gammy may be given Australian citizenship, government suggests
Gammy's mother demands his sister's return over child abuse allegations
International surrogacy laws in the spotlight amid row over baby Gammy
Australian couple 'leave disabled baby with Thai surrogate'

Virginity tests: pointless and harmful

RNW, 15 June 2011, by Tim Fisher

(image: Birth of Venus by Botticelli)

Female virginity and the ability to prove an unmarried woman is a virgin are still vital to a family’s ‘honour’ in many countries, but the members of the Myth Dispelled campaign group in the Netherlands say it’s actually impossible to prove by medical means whether a woman is still a virgin. They also say that virginity testing - highlighted by recent controversial cases in Egypt and India - is a powerful tool when it comes to oppressing women and actually violates their human rights.

An RNW website about love, sex,
relationships and everything in between.

Here you'll find loads of blush-free
information to help you improve your
sex life and stay healthy and happy.

The whole issue of virginity made headlines recently with the humiliating testing of a number of alleged rape victims in India and 17 Egyptian women who took part in the Tahrir Square protests in Cairo. In the latter case, the aim of the tests appears to have been to ‘protect’ members of the Egyptian army against possible rape accusations.

Still not known

Writing in Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad, Ineke van Seumeren – a gynaecologist at the UMC teaching hospital in Utrecht - and fellow Myth Dispelled (Mythe Ontkracht) member and chairperson Ines Balkema argue that virginity testing is pointless: “In many countries it’s still not known that female virginity cannot be medically proven. Even in the modern Netherlands many people are convinced that you can see or feel whether or not a woman is a virgin. The medical facts are different.”

The way such tests are carried out is often extremely primitive – one of the most common being the method of inserting two fingers into the vagina. Two fingers are said to be equal to the width of a penis. If the fingers enter ‘easily’, then the woman in question is assumed to have had sex before.

The Myth Dispelled foundation explains that the flexibility or tightness of a vagina and the condition of the hymen – the membrane that ‘closes’ the entrance to the cervix – say and prove nothing about the sexual activity, or lack thereof, of a woman.

An illusion

In the opinion piece, the two women write: “The hymen is not a sealed membrane. In most cases it is a small, flexible lip; sometimes it’s hard and inflexible […]. It varies from woman to woman […]. A vagina is made to allow a baby to pass through; it’s an illusion to think that a vagina will expand because of something small like a penis.”

They argue that virginity testing is, in fact, a powerful tool when it comes to the continued oppression of women and they cite what happened in Cairo: “When the female protestors in Egypt underwent the virginity test, completely undressed, military personnel were there taking photographs. The result of practices like this is that women will think twice about demonstrating or filing a rape charge. This is a serious violation of women’s human rights…”

On a more positive note, the authors write that the recent cases have sparked debate about abolishing these mediaeval tests in both India and Egypt, adding that it’s now important to keep an eye on whether this actually happens and to keep on stressing that virginity isn’t something that can be proven or disproven by medical means.

Related Article:

Afghanistan worst place in the world for women, but India in top five

Indonesian Police Say Alleged Gang Rape of Teen 'Unforgivable'

Jakarta Globe, March 03, 2011

Related articles

• Four Police Officers Involved in Pack Rape, Torture of Underage Girl
• Police Chief Resigns in Wake of Oral Sex Scandal
• The Revolution Will Be Downloaded
• Police Set to Top Human Rights Abuse List: Komnas
• Papua Torture Trial Shows Military Progress: Experts

Indonesian police said on Thursday that four officers would be charged over the “unforgivable” gang rape of a 15-year-old girl in Papua province.

The officers, along with three civilians, allegedly took turns raping the girl in a house in Biak city in February, Papua provincial spokesman Wachyono told AFP.

“We have completed our investigations. Some of the suspects confessed to the rape, some didn’t,” he said.

“But we have spoken to witnesses and collected enough evidence to show they were guilty of rape and we’ll be taking the case to court.”

Local media reported that the men locked the teenager in a room and raped her repeatedly over a period of days. She was beaten if she resisted and lost consciousness as a result of the abuse.

“The officers committed a grave wrongdoing, a violation that is unforgivable and uncondonable and deserving of severe punishment. They have sullied the good name of the national police,” Wachyono said.

Police are also investigating the alleged rape of a Papuan women who was forced to give oral sex to officers while she was being held in custody in the Papuan provincial capital of Jayapura.

Three police officers are suspected of raping the married woman on multiple occasions between November and January, while she was being held for alleged gambling.

Local media reported that she had tried to kill herself during the ordeal.

“The victim’s family have lodged a police report so we’re starting criminal charges against the officers,” Wachyono said, adding that the suspects were being “made to stand in the sun” as punishment.

“At the moment, the officers are receiving disciplinary sanction. They are being detained for 21 days, made to stand in the sun and have had their promotions delayed,” he said.

Jayapura city police chief Imam Setiawan resigned on Tuesday over the case, a rare move by a senior officer in a police force that is notorious for corruption and torture of detainees.

Indonesian security forces are frequently accused of rights violations in Papua, which has seen a low-level insurgency by poorly-armed rebels since its incorporation into Indonesia in the 1960s.

Human rights activists and the United Nations say Indonesian police regularly torture and beat suspects in custody, while extortion is rife throughout the country’s prisons.

Agence France-Presse

Lombok Hotel Staff Struggle to Have Aussie Boss Charged With Sexual Abuse

Jakarta Globe, Fitri R. | November 16, 2010

Mataram. Four residents of a village in West Nusa Tenggara have reported an Australian to the police for alleged pedophilia and sexual assault but their complaints have been rejected.

The locals, from Pandanan village in West Lombok, claimed Paul Robson, 55, the owner of an unnamed hotel in the Senggigi resort area, sodomized and otherwise sexually abused them five years earlier.

It is not known if Robson is still in the country.

Police said they rejected the case because of incomplete paperwork, which they said needed to be in order before they could investigate.

West Nusa Tenggara Police spokesman Adj. Comr. Lalu Wirajaya said that while he could not go into detail, it was a matter of paperwork.

“That’s the common reason for a complaint being rejected,” he said. “But if they complete their paperwork, we’ll accept their report.”

Three of the accusers, two of whom were minors at the time of the alleged assault, claim they were hired by Robson to work as security guards at his hotel.

They said they were called into Robson’s office and asked to strip naked for a “ritual,” during which they were sodomized by the Australian and later paid to keep silent about it.

One of the victims, Sah, said he was 15 at the time and married, and that the repeated sex acts with Robson had caused him to become homosexual.

“I went off women completely and divorced my wife after being with Paul,” he said. “What he did to me ruined my life.”

The fourth accuser, who was 12 at the time of the alleged crime, said Robson had offered to pay his school fees if he allowed the Australian to touch him in “inappropriate places.”

“I felt I had to allow him to do it and I didn’t dare report it to anyone because he threatened me,” he said.

“He also made me sleep with him naked. He said it was a ritual.”

Fauzi Yoyok, a lawyer for the alleged victims, said Robson might have sexually assaulted up to eight men and boys over the past five years.

“This kind of crime has for far too long been tolerated in our community for the sake of tourism, but it’s ruining our younger generation,” he said.

Related Article:

Lombok Sex Abuse Claims Dismissed as ‘Unsubstantiated Slurs and Rumors’

Nine Drunken Indonesian Men Gang Rape Girl for 10 Hours

Jakarta Globe | September 23, 2010 

.

Jakarta. East Java Police have arrested nine men for the alleged gang rape of a 14-year-old girl from Broto village in Balong subdistrict in a drunken attack that lasted for 10 hours.

Balong Police Chief Adjutant Comr. Suwito said the girl’s ordeal began when she accompanied a friend, a boy identified as Anton, 17, to visit his friend, Eko, 17, in another village.

Upon arrival at Eko’s home she was confronted by the group of drunken men who took her into a bedroom and began raping her, Suwito was quoted by news portal beritajatim.com as saying.

To add insult to brutality, the alleged rapists gave the victim Rp 70,000 ($8) afterwards and left, leaving the bruised and battered girl to find her own way home.

“Her father was suspicious and asked her what happened. She told him about the rape and he lodged a police report. We arrested all the suspects right away,” Suwito said.

The nine men, all from Tatung village, are aged between 16 and 24 years.

The youngest suspect, Amad, said the rape was not premeditated, claiming they were drinking when the girl arrived and lust took over.

“We took turns ‘using’ her from 7 p.m. We finished with her after dawn,” he said.

Eko lives alone, with both his parents working in Malaysia.

Indonesian Police Accused of Ignoring Victims

Jakarta Globe, Ulma Haryanto & Zaky Pawas | September 01, 2010

Jakarta. A police division that deals with crimes against women and children is being criticized for its handling of a rape involving a minor.

Frisca Hutagalung, who coordinates volunteers at Sahabat Anak, a nongovernmental organization for street children, said on Tuesday that the West Jakarta Police’s Women and Child Crimes Center (PPA) had discouraged the mother of a possible rape victim from filing a complaint against the still unknown suspect.

Frisca said she had accompanied the mother, Euis Hartati, and her 8-year old daughter on Monday to file a police report at the center, which is located in West Jakarta Police headquarters. She said, however, that they were turned away by officers.

“They said the child didn’t have a birth certificate and that there was no witness to the crime,” Frisca said. “They also said that they didn’t want the family to expect too much.”

Although a physical examination revealed that the hymen of the girl was still intact, doctors found the child’s genital area was chafed and that her neck was bruised.

Frisca said the officers told them to report to the Grogol Police instead and to demand that community police officers be assigned to patrol their neighborhood. Euis and her family live in Grogol, West Jakarta.

Instead, Frisca went to the office of the Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) in Menteng, Central Jakarta.

“They [KPAI] told us what to tell the police — that a case is a case when you have a victim and proof from a medical examiner,” she said.

“So we went back to the police and told them that. They finally agreed to file the case and asked for testimony from the child and her father.”

Euis Hartati told the Jakarta Globe that she was relieved that the police had finally agreed to take their complaint.

“We finally filed it. Police treated us differently [after the meeting with KPAI],” she said.

Euis and her family have temporarily moved out of their home following the incident and are staying in a house provided by Sahabat Anak, also in West Jakarta.

The Globe contacted the West Jakarta Police’s Women and Child Crimes Center, but the head of the unit declined to comment on the matter.

“That is not my concern. That is the concern of my subordinates, and the complaint center,” Adj. Comr. Slamet R said. When asked why he was not aware of the case, the officer hung up.

This is not the first time a Women and Child Crimes Center has been criticized for its handling of a criminal complaint.

Two months ago, officers at the center in South Jakarta told a victim of sexual assault not to press charges against the suspect, who had already signed a statement admitting his guilt.

Foni, 31, said she had been groped by a man on a TransJakarta bus. Officers at the PPA encouraged her not to file a complaint due to lack of evidence.

Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Boy Rafli Amar said police would need documentation, witnesses and expert testimony to pursue the case. He added that the suspect could retract his admission of guilt in court.

Officers also warned Foni that the alleged groper could sue her for defamation if she filed a police complaint.

The police’s handling of that case triggered a public outcry and led the TransJakarta management to introduce a system to separate men and women at busway shelters across the city.

In June and July, however, media reported three more cases of women being sexually assaulted on TransJakarta buses.

It was only in mid-July that police finally named a suspect, though he was only implicated in the third case.

Arist Merdeka Sirait, chairman of the National Commission for Child Protection (Komnas Anak), said on Tuesday that all aggrieved citizens had a right to file police complaints, and that police could not refuse them or stop them, especially when the case involved children.

“It doesn’t matter whether the case has been proven or not, it should first be filed with the police, and then the police can investigate the case,” he said.

“That a child has no birth certificate is a completely invalid reason not to accept a complaint,” he added.

Arist said the PPA was formed by the National Police specifically to handle often sensitive cases involving women and children, and that the officers at the centers should receive the necessary training for handling the victims.

“They [victims] should receive specialized treatment, and should be provided with privacy. Not sent off from one place to another,” he said.

The role of the centers has become more crucial with Komnas Anak reporting a rise in the number of cases of violence, sexual assault and incest involving children.

The commission recorded 1,826 such cases in the first five months of 2010, compared to 1,891 for all of last year. Besides street children, youngsters who are particularly prone to violence came from middle- and low-income families.