OU-A1[1] attended a school in Germany for children of British armed forces personnel. She described regular incidents of sexual abuse perpetrated by a male teacher (OU-F3) in the early 1980s, when she was of primary school age, that continued for several years. She said he touched her and that she was made to touch him. She felt frightened and knew that it was wrong.
OU-A1 later disclosed the abuse to a boyfriend and her mother, as well as to a counsellor in 1992, who drafted a statement which she understood had been passed to the Royal Military Police (RMP). She later discovered that OU-F3 had become a head teacher in Wales and she contacted the police herself. She described a hearing in November 2005 where she gave evidence for three hours but was later told that the RMP investigation would not be proceeding further. She settled a civil claim against the Ministry of Defence in 2017, without any admission of liability.
The Inquiry received several accounts of abuse of children perpetrated in Uganda by OU-F2. He was a member of a UK-based religious charity which engaged in various activities, including missionary, educational and pastoral work with disadvantaged youths in Africa. It is understood that he travelled between the UK and Uganda from the 1980s to 2007.[2]
OU-A2[3] described encountering OU-F2 at a youth group which he ran. He also provided financial support for her education when she was aged 15. On one occasion, after accusing her and other students of stealing his sweets, he drove them to his “workshop” and took them to his bedroom, one by one. When it was her turn, he made her remove her top and lean over a sink, and he hit her on her buttocks. Her father told her she had to forgive OU-F2, because he was paying her school fees. For this reason, she felt “completely at [his] mercy”. She described being sexually harassed by another student around four years later. The charity Kiddies Support Scheme (KISS) was helpful and put her in touch with British lawyers, but she has not spoken about her abuse to Ugandan or British police.
OU-A3[4] described abuse by OU-F2. OU-A3 was blamed for misbehaviour and taken to OU-F2’s bedroom, where OU-F2 removed OU-A3’s trousers and underwear, made him bend over and hit his bottom with a ruler, causing serious pain. OU-A3 also felt unable to complain because OU-F2 was paying his school fees. He was beaten for a second time, this time with OU-F2 using his bare hands. OU-F2 was known to have done the same to other children. OU-A3 did not go to the police.
OU-A5[5] also described abuse by OU-F2, after he agreed to pay for OU-A5’s schooling. OU-A5 had met him at a youth group which he attended from the early 1990s. OU-A5 described three incidents of abuse, two of which involved OU-F2 beating his bottom with his bare hands and a metal brush. OU-A5’s grandmother knew about the abuse but said that nothing could be done because OU-F2 was paying OU-A5’s school fees. OU-A5 disclosed the abuse to friends and family and to a KISS representative after OU-F2 had returned to England in around 2008. OU-A5 never spoke to the Ugandan or British police, believing that to do so would lead OU-F2 to withdraw financial support.
Lorna[6] is eight years old and from the Philippines. She is a recent victim of online sexual exploitation. Lorna started doing online “shows” when she was seven years old. She was recruited by a neighbour to perform online sexual acts on a webcam for foreigners. Lorna did “shows” three times a day and was paid US$6. She explained that a man told her to take off her clothes, spread her legs and rub her thighs. She described that he was “white and hairy”. Lorna used the money to buy food. Her mother never knew anything about the abuse. Lorna said she felt angry and wanted to forget it.
Lorna was taken by the police from her family home to a UNICEF-sponsored shelter. She is required by law to be separated from her family until the dispute with her neighbour is resolved. Her family have only visited her once. Lorna hopes they will visit her again and that she can be reunited with her family.
Girl A lived with her mother and eight siblings in Goa, in very impoverished conditions after the death of her father. Her brother sold peanuts on a beach, where he met a man from Hertfordshire who befriended their family. The man offered to sponsor the education of Girl A’s brother, paying for him to attend a boarding school. He would ask Girl A’s brother to bring her to his apartment, which he did. There, the man would sedate her by putting temazepam in her mango juice. He raped and sexually assaulted her on several occasions and filmed himself in doing so.
Girl A felt unable to report the abuse because the man was sponsoring her brother’s education. The abuse was discovered when UK police seized the perpetrator’s computer on the suspicion that he was downloading child sexual abuse images, and eventually he was prosecuted and imprisoned.[7]
Boy B lived in an orphanage in Albania founded by a British man. When Boy B was four years old, he and other children were sexually abused by a former salesman and a former social therapy nurse, who had come from Britain to work at the orphanage as caretakers.
At the men’s trial, three years later, Boy B wept when he gave evidence via video-link. One of the men claimed that the allegations were a “fantasy” and that he had quit his job in England to “help the needy in Eastern Europe”. In January 2010, both men were convicted and received lengthy custodial sentences with an order for deportation at the end of the custodial term. The founder of the orphanage had been convicted in November 2008 for sexually abusing children and was also imprisoned.[8]
Boy C was living in Pattaya, Thailand. In an account given to the Royal Thai Police, he described a British man tricking him into going to a hotel room and asking him to perform oral sex for 1,000 Baht (around £25). The man was charged with having sex with a minor.[9]
Boys D and E, aged 12 and 14, lived in Thailand. They did not go to school because their parents could not afford it. A British man made financial arrangements with their parents for them to live with him and acted as their guardian. The man would hire tutors to teach them at home. He also bought them games, gave them money and sent presents to their parents. However, the man would sexually abuse them. He made the boys sleep naked with him in the same bed, and would take photographs of them. The man threatened the boys that if they told the police, he would not give them any more money and that their lives would be in danger. When Pattaya tourist police entered the house where the man was staying, they found a notebook computer containing indecent images of sex acts involving young boys. The man admitted the allegations during police questioning.[10]