Anger as rock star Bertrand Cantat who murdered girlfriend is freed after four years
Charles Bremner in Paris (17 Oct 2007)

One of France’s biggest rock stars was released from prison yesterday after serving half of an eight-year sentence for killing his actress girlfriend in a jealous rage over a text message.

Bertrand Cantat, 43, lead singer of the left-wing group Noir Désir, was driven by his band’s drummer from a Toulouse jail to his country home at midnight. Feminist campaigners decried what they said was leniency towards men who battered women.

Cantat became the centre of a lurid drama in July 2003 when he punched and slapped Marie Trintignant, 41, in an hotel room in Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital. They had quarrelled over a text message that Ms Trintignant, a mother of four and the daughter of Jean-Louis Trintignant, a 1960s film idol, had received from her former husband. She struck her head on a radiator and died in a Paris hospital a week later.

Cantat pleaded that he never meant to kill but was convicted of murder in Vilnius and returned to France in 2004. A court last month approved his release on condition that he received regular psychological counselling and refrained from public reference to the murder in interviews or in music. Olivier Metzner, Cantat’s lawyer, said that the singer was thrilled to be free. “But it is not over for him. He will continue to bear the burden of guilt, which he has never sought to deny,” he said.

Nadine Trintignant, the victim’s mother, failed to persuade President Sarkozy and judges to block the early release. “This will be a worrying signal to all those who are struggling to ensure that violence against women is justly punished,” Ms Trintignant, a film director, wrote to Judge Philippe Laflaquière.

She criticised the release on Monday as she inaugurated a home for battered women in Paris with Bertrand Delanoë, the Mayor. “Under the law, a man who kills his companion should be sentenced to 20 or 25 years or life. But they never get more than eight and usually they only do four,” said Ms Trintignant, who, before her daughter’s death, was making a TV film starring her.

La Meute (The Pack), a feminist organisation, said that Cantat’s release sent the wrong signal to men in France, where one woman was killed every three days by a partner. “Four years — is that the price to pay for such a crime?” asked La Meute. “So-called crimes of passion are still too often considered with indulgence.”

Cantat’s lawyers and Mr Laflaquière noted that being released for good behaviour after serving half a sentence was standard in France. “Contrary to certain claims in the media, Bertrand Cantat has benefited in no way whatsoever from favourable treatment,” Mr Laflaquière said.

Cantat has been reunited with the wife from whom he was estranged in 2003. He has paid compensation to two of Ms Trintignant’s four children and to the production company behind the TV film, in which she played the author Colette. The money was raised partly by receipts from a live album released by Noir Désir while Cantat was in prison.

The house to which he returned yesterday has been repaired after being badly damaged by arsonists four years ago.

The Times Online

FTR, it wasn’t me who burnt down his house… but I’m not crying about it either.

Stab attack left woman crippled
Friday, 12 October 2007, 18:02 GMT 19:02 UKA man has been jailed for attacking his girlfriend so violently she is now paralysed and in a wheelchair.

Adela Svobodoki still needs specialist treatment more than five months after she was stabbed twice by Lee Bellusci.

Northampton Crown Court heard Bellusci, of Ardington Street, Northampton, was jealous and he attacked the 24-year-old in a row in Abingdon Park.

Bellusci, 22, was jailed for five years, after admitting causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

During the row she was stabbed twice in the back, one blow nearly severing her spinal cord.

Explosive relationship

Bellusci then kicked her in the back as she lay on the ground, said Rob Pettit, prosecuting.

One witness described seeing Bellusci “using all his force, bringing his arms down” on Miss Svobodoki.

“As a result she is paralysed and has spent the rest of the time at Stoke Mandeville hospital being rehabilitated,” Mr Pettit added.

Judge Peter Morrell said Bellusci, a fork-lift truck drive, was not a danger to the public and that a life sentence would be inappropriate.

He said he had been presented with a report from the hospital, but added: “It may never be a full recovery but at least she might not be permanently paralysed.”

Richard Holloway, defending, told the court the couple’s relationship was explosive.

“An argument arose which was effectively over jealousy,” he said.

“Of course he did not mean the result – he hopes and prays that she is restored to full health.”

BBC

Alleged rapist scales 36-floor apartment block to knife accuser

Nov 8, 2007, 2:26 GMT

Hong Kong – An alleged rapist scaled a high-rise block of flats in Hong Kong to climb into a 24th floor apartment and repeatedly stab his accuser, police said Thursday.

The attacker, on bail for the alleged rape, then used ropes to abseil down the block of flats and escape after the woman’s horrified mother called police early Wednesday morning.

The 22-year-old victim, who is believed to be the ex-girlfriend of the attacker, was in critical condition in hospital Thursday after being stabbed seven or eight times in the vicious assault.

It was unclear whether the attacker climbed up to the 24th floor apartment from the ground or abseiled down from the top of the 36-storey block before carrying out his attack, police said.

The attacker and the woman are believed to have split up earlier this year, apparently triggering the alleged rape for which the man was arrested and then bailed in October.

© 2007 dpa – Deutsche Presse-Agentur
M&C (08 Nov 2007)

Frankly, I would say he was guilty of the rape. Alleged my ass.

From The BBC (07 Dec 2006):

‘SEXUAL PREDATOR’ JAILED FOR LIFE

 

A convicted serial rapist who was out on licence after serving 10 years in prison, has been sentenced to life for raping a teenage girl.

Richard Ewing, aged 41, originally from Devon, pleaded guilty to five charges over the attack on the 17-year-old in fields in Weymouth, Dorset, on 22 July.

He was convicted of two counts of rape, attempted rape, kidnapping and sexual assault at Dorchester Crown Court.

Ewing was sentenced to life in prison, to serve a minimum of nine years.

Judge John Beashel said: “This is not a nine-year prison sentence. It is a life sentence. It potentially is a sentence that could lead to you remaining in prison for the rest of your life.”

“Your victim was a virgin aged 17 years. She is of slight build. You are a powerful and fit man.”

“You have demonstrated all too clearly that no matter the restrictions placed on you outside of prison you will find a way to obtain sexual gratification by attacking women.”

“You are a very dangerous sexual predator.”

‘Demon inside’

More than 100 police officers took part in a national search for Ewing after the attack in the summer.

He was found three days later by an off-duty chief superintendent near Bournemouth. Following his arrest, Ewing told police he had a “demon inside” him.

He said: “Even though I knew it was wrong, I’m wasting the rest of my life, but I still couldn’t do anything about it.”

He added: “Whoever it was has had his wicked way and left me to deal with it.”

Previous convictions

In 1995, Ewing was convicted at Exeter Crown Court of raping a mother-of-three in 1989, attacking a woman in 1993 and raping a woman as she walked her dog along the River Exe in Devon in the same year.

He received an 18-year sentence for rape but was released from prison on his mandatory non-parole date in December 2005.

Ewing had been staying in “approved” accommodation in Westway Road, Weymouth, at the time of the attack in July and was subject to a curfew and electronic tagging.

Martin Meeke QC, prosecuting, told Dorchester Crown Court the probation service could not have done any more in terms of supervising Ewing.

“There was no discretion in the Home Office or the Parole Board as to his release. He was entitled to be released,” he said.

Ewing has been ordered to reregister as a sex offender.

Thanks to abyss2hope for finding this article.

SurreyOnline (29 Nov 2006):

JAILED OVER CHILD PORN IMAGES

ONE of the world’s leading astronomers has been jailed for 15 months after downloading more than half a million indecent images of children from the internet.

Robin Phillips, 33, of Cansiron Lane, Ashurst Wood, was also banned from working with children or having a camera in a public place for 10 years after he was caught taking secret “up the skirt” photographs of schoolgirls in Trafalgar Square.

Sentencing him, Judge Paul Dodgson said: “You were found with half a million indecent level one images of children on your computer, but in my mind these were worrying images.

“Your friends and family speak of you being no danger to children, but the taking of photographs exposes young girls to long-term sexual abuse.

“I do not underestimate the effect these proceedings have had on you and your family but it was your conduct that brought you here.”

The astrophysicist was unmasked as a pervert when a suspicious member of the public called the police after seeing his actions in London.

Detectives found more than half a million child porn images on his computer following a “decade of dedicated downloading”.

Southwark Crown Court yesterday heard the seizure was among the largest ever in Britain.

Peter Zinner, prosecuting, told how Phillips took the train to the capital on August 27.

The father-of-two used his digital camera to take a picture of a young girl who was playing on a statue before taking a series of photographs of other underage females.

Mr Zinner said: “He was focusing on one child whose skirt had billowed up to expose her underwear.”

Following his arrest Phillips’ camera was confiscated and examined by police. They then searched his home and discovered his desk-top and laptop computers crammed with more than 750,000 pornographic pictures downloaded from the internet – 500,000 of which were indecent images of children.

The prosecutor said: “Mr Phillips has displayed a compulsive, obsessive, addictive and sexual obsession with children.”

Kenneth Carr defending said his client had started to face up to what he had done and was receiving counselling.

Phillips has admitted two charges of taking indecent photographs on August 27, one of attempting to take an indecent photograph and of possessing 500,000 indecent photographs of children.

Thanks to Breatheinspirit for finding this article.

A probationary policeman has been jailed for a year, and placed on the sex offenders’ register for ten years, after pleading guilty to sex with a girl under the age of 16. He also faces dismissal from the police force.

From The Manchester Evening News (14 Nov 2006):

POLICEMAN JAILED FOR SEX WITH 14 YEAR OLD

A probationary policeman was jailed for a year today after having sex with a 14-year-old schoolgirl he met over the internet.

Pc Christopher Billinge, 26, drove cross-country from Lancashire to Sunderland to have sexual intercourse with the under-age teenager when her parents were on holiday.

Billinge, a constable with Lancashire Police, met the girl in an internet chatroom and was soon sending her very explicit MSN text messages, emails, mobile phone text messages and ringing her up.

The girl, who cannot be named from legal reasons, told Billinge she was a year older and would be soon be turning 16.

However, the policeman – who claimed to be just 22 – did not wait until she was 16 and instead waited for her parents to be away and left in the care of her grandfather before travelling from his home in Chorley to Wearside in September last year.

Newcastle Crown Court heard how he charmed her grandfather and took the girl out for a pizza before returning to her home and having sex with her.

“It is quite clear that although she did mislead the defendant that she was 15 and not 14, it is quite clear that she was not 16 and it was significant criminal offence to have sexual intercourse with her,” said prosecutor Christopher Knox.

“There is compelling evidence from the MSN messaging that he fully understood that she was 15 – under 16.

“There are at least 11 references of her not being 16.”

Among the MSN text messages recovered from the teenager’s computer were conversations from Billinge.

“He asks if she is feeling randy and makes clear what he would do to her,” Mr Knox said.

Billinge also asks when her 16th birthday is and makes references to ticking clocks.

Suspicious

Mr Knox said that the girl’s mother became suspicious of Billinge’s relationship with the teenager because he was so much older than her.

“She wanted to know why a 22-year-old man would be friends with a 15-year-old,” the prosecutor said.

When Billinge realised that the girl’s mother would be contacting the police, he destroyed his computer to hide evidence of the explicit internet chats with the teenager.

He was then arrested and immediately suspended by Lancashire Police. He know faces the sack.

Ray Herman, defending, said the Cardiff University graduate, who was brought up in Liverpool, was of exceptionally good character.

He added: “He has lost his good name, both in the community and amongst his family and friends.

“It is a disgrace he is finding hard to bear.”

Billinge changed his plea on the eve of his trial and admitted one count of sexual activity with a girl he knew to be under 16. Another charge of sexual grooming was ordered to lie on file.

The Pc kept his head bowed throughout the proceedings.

Passing sentence, Judge Esmond Faulks told the defendant: “It is quite clear you understood that she was below the age of consent.

“Despite knowing that you visited her in September and stayed overnight, had sexual intercourse with her and left the next day.”

Billinge was jailed for 12 months and put on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years.

Although one arrest had been made two years ago in connection with the brutal murder of a mother of two, police have yet to identify and arrest the perpetrator.

From The BBC (10 Nov 2006):

ITALIAN LINK TO MOTHER’S MURDER

Italian investigators have confirmed they are following up new leads in a murder inquiry connected to the brutal killing of a mother-of-two in Dorset.

Police believe the disappearance of a 19-year-old Italian woman is linked to the death of Heather Barnett, 48, in her flat in Bournemouth in 2002.

The key to both cases appears to be the attacker’s fetish for women’s hair.

An appeal on Italian television to find Elisa Claps resulted in several calls from people with fresh information.

The body of Ms Barnett, who grew up in Sturminster Newton in Dorset, was found with strands of hair that did not belong to her.

She had been stabbed several times, hit over the head with a blunt object and her body was mutilated.

The discovery was made by her son Terry, who was then 14, and his 11-year-old sister, Caitlin, when they returned home from school.

Despite extensive inquiries police have failed to trace who the hair found in Ms Barnett’s hand belonged to.

As part of the police investigation it emerged that more than 10 women had some of their hair cut off while travelling on buses in Bournemouth.

Det Supt Phil James said: “The fact that the killer of Heather Barnett placed head hair in her hand, which the killer had brought with him to the murder scene, is extremely unusual and bizarre in its nature.

“It is difficult to comprehend why someone would bring with him to a murder scene someone else’s head hair.”

Police believe Ms Barnett’s murder is connected with the disappearance of Elisa Claps, who vanished in Potenza in 1993, and whose body has never been found.

An appeal on the Italian version of Crimewatch, Chi I’ha Visto, resulted in five women from the Naples area contacting police to say they had their hair cut while travelling on buses.

Detectives in Italy are now liaising with police in Dorset over the new information.

The chairman of a board of governors at a Devon school has resigned after being charged with the rape of a child under 13 and child pornography offences.

From The BBC (10 Nov 2006):

RAPE CHARGE FOR SCHOOL BOARD BOSS

The chairman of a board of governors at a Devon school has resigned after being charged with the rape of a child under 13 and child pornography offences.

Alex Wood, 59 – former governor at Tavistock College – appeared in court charged with rape, procuring a child for sex and arranging sex with a child.

He was also charged with distributing indecent images of children.

Charges came after an investigation by Kent Police. Devon County Council said they did not relate to anyone in Devon.

Parents informed

Mr Wood, from Kilworthy Hill, Tavistock, appeared in front of magistrates in Plymouth on 4 November and remanded in custody to appear at Plymouth Crown Court on 16 February 2007.

As well as the child sex offences, he was charged with five counts of possession and distribution of indecent images of children.

Devon County Council said Mr Wood had resigned with immediate effect, and had also resigned as a member of the governing body.

Mr Wood has also been removed by the council from the governing body of St Rumon’s Infants School in Tavistock.

The charges did not relate to any offences at Tavistock College or St Rumon’s, the county council said.

Tavistock College Principal Colin Eves said: “I have written to parents today informing them of Mr Wood’s resignation.

“The matter is subjudice and, because of these proceedings, I can make no further comment.”

Mr Eves said the day-to-day operation of the college would continue as normal.

The chairman of governors at St Rumon’s, James McQueen, said: “We have spoken to parents this afternoon about these allegations.

“Mr Wood has been removed as governor. I can say no more while a court case is pending.”

Crown Prosecutor Dorian Lovell-Pank when detailing the events of the first time Ian Gilbert allegedly raped his daughter, Jessie Gilbert, said ’she did not consent.  She was scared.  She pretended it wasn’t happening.’   Ian Gilbert is alleged to have raped and sexually abused Jessie Gilbert for five years.  Gilbert allegedly first raped Jessie when she was only 8 years old and it is also alleged Gilbert systematically raped and sexually abused Jessie until she was 13 years old.

Jessie Gilbert (19) committed suicide this year

The BBC (07 Nov 2006):

CHESS STAR TOLD POLICE OF ‘RAPE’

A chess champion told police how her father would put his hand over her mouth and rape her, a court has heard.

Two years after the recorded interview Jessie Gilbert, 19, from Croydon, south London, fell to her death from a hotel window in the Czech Republic.

Guildford Crown Court was played the interview and also heard that a failed suicide bid by Jessie in 2004 led to a police inquiry and her father’s arrest.

Ian Gilbert denies five counts of rape between 1995 and 2000.

Chess tournament

During the police interview Jessie described how her father would “get too close” and “would be a bit touchy”.

Jessie said that the first rape had taken place when she was eight, at her home in Woldingham, Surrey.

She recalled being raped on a holiday in Cornwall.

“I was asleep and he sat on my bed and I woke up. He did not say anything. “He put his hand over my mouth then he took off my pyjamas and raped me.” Jessie said her father raped her over the next five years until she was about 13.

Earlier jurors heard how Jessie was taking part in the Czech Open tournament when she died in July.

Dorian Lovell-Pank QC, prosecuting, told jurors how Jessie got “very drunk” with friends in May 2004 and told them her father had raped and sexually abused her.
The next day, she took an overdose, but survived.

Possessive bully

The prosecutor told the jury: “It rather looks as though it was a real suicide attempt because she had hidden the packet (of drugs) so no-one would find it, and would not tell the hospital staff what she had taken.” He said Gilbert was “possessive” and “a bully”.

Mr Lovell-Pank said: “She did not consent. She was scared. She pretended it wasn’t happening,” he said.

The court heard Mr Gilbert was arrested three times, the last occasion in May 2005 when he said in a police interview about Jessie: “Obviously someone who could play chess at that sort of level is able to create all sorts of scenarios in her mind.”

Mr Gilbert, 48, a director at the Royal Bank of Scotland, denies five counts of raping Jessie between 1995 and 2000.

Ian Gilbert is on trial for the alleged rapes and systematic sexual abuse of his daughter, Jessie, which first occurred when she was eight years ol and continued for the next five years, until Jessie was 13.   So why did Prosecutor Lovell-Pank state that Jessie ‘did not consent,’ when this is clearly not the issue. 

Under the Sexual Offences Act, 2000 children under the age of 13 are presumed incapable of giving informed consent.  This age was agreed in order to protect young children from allegations that they acted in a sexually provocative manner or were seductive towards an abuser.   

Consent or non-consent is NOT THE ISSUE, rather it is whether or not Ian Gilbert is guilty of systematically raping and sexually abusing his daughter over a period of five years from the time she was eight until she reached 13 years of age.   

Lovell-Pank in claiming that Jessie had the power and ability when she was only eight years old of resisting her adult and more powerful father once again feeds into the still embedded myth that many female children act in a sexually provocative and/or seductive manner towards adult males.  

Claims have been made in past child sexual abuse cases that a female child had acted in a sexually seductive manner towards the adult male abuser and therefore the child too is partially responsible for causing an older or adult male to rape and/or sexually abuse her.  This myth serves to excuse and deflect accountability away from the perpetrator and at the same time feeds into the myth that female sexuality is inherently dangerous since it can cause males to lose control over their sexual feelings.  Therefore, according to this myth, female sexuality alone is responsible for males committing rape and sexual abuse and as such must always be controlled and policed, irrespective of whether or not the female is a child or an adult.  How males are socialised into believing that male heterosexuality gives them the right and entitlement of sexual access to any female in certain circumstances is considered irrelevant.

I have been running a short series on the hundreds of women sexually tortured, mutilated and murdered in Guatemala. I have decided to post the story of Manuela Sac Haz on to ‘A speak out of male violence’ instead of my personal blog.

*Warning triggering content*

In Guatemala an average of 10 women are being brutally murdered every single week. Many are raped, mutilated and tortured before they die – sometimes for prolonged periods. Yet the authorities are failing to investigate these murders. As a result, the murders continue to kill with impunity.

 Manuela Sac Haz was 19 years old when she took the job of nanny to 10-month old Anthony Roldan. Anthony’s mother came home one day to find Manuela’s body on the floor in a pool of blood. The little boy was propped up in his high chair, his breakfast still on the table in front of him.

Both he and his nanny had been beheaded. Manuela had been raped and mutilated. Her breasts and lips had been cut off, and her legs slashed. Manuela’s bloodstained clothing was found in the house of a policeman who lived nearby. Nevertheless, the authorities have failed to act.

The family have seen the policeman in the neighbourhood several times since the killings. “He laughs in our faces,” they say. What they ask for is justice, but what can they do if they cannot rely on the support of the law.

The Guatemalan authorities are consistently failing to investigate crimes against women.

It is time for the Guatemalan authorities to face up to the evidence.

*source amnesty International*