http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/...d-for-porn-abuse/story-fnihsmjt-1226672307250An Australian man accused of making child pornography with a boy he "purchased" and "sharing" him among other men has been sentenced to 40 years in a US prison.
The 42-year-old man, who investigators say used falsified documents to adopt the boy after taking him to the US where he allowed other men to sexually abuse the child, was sentenced after pleading guilty to conspiracy charges involving child exploitation.
The judge of a US federal court in Indiana said she accepted the plea agreement only because the videos were too horrific to show a jury.
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In a quaking voice, the shackled man stood before Barker and apologised, saying "being a father was an honour and a privilege that amounted to the best six years of my life."
"I'm deeply sorry," he added. "And I regret any harm I caused to my son or anyone else."
"Words don't help," Jude Barker responded. "What can be said? What can be done to erase some of the horror of this?"
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A sentencing document obtained by the AP said the man and his partner originally tried to hire a surrogate mother in an unidentified foreign country to bear a child, but ended up paying another woman $8,000 for the boy and then portrayed him as a biological son of one of the men.
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The men had been living with the boy in California, where they were able to use falsified records to legalise an adoption, according to court records obtained by The Associated Press.
Federal prosecutor Steve DeBrota said the crimes occurred in Australia, the US, France and Germany. Two other boys were also abused, prosecutors said, though no details were released.
http://www.theage.com.au/national/couple-offered-son-to-paedophiles-20130630-2p5eg.htmlStanding before an American court convicted of the most heinous of child sex crimes, Australian citizen Mark Newton and his long-term boyfriend Peter Truong had their double lives laid bare.
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Police believe the pair adopted the boy ''for the sole purpose of exploitation''.
The abuse began just days after his birth.
Over six years the couple travelled the world, offering him up for sex with at least eight men, recording the abuse and uploading the footage to an international syndicate known as the Boy Lovers Network.
''Personally … I think this is probably the worst [paedophile] ring … if not the worst ring I've ever heard of,'' investigator Brian Bone of the US Postal Inspection Service told reporters outside a court in Indiana.
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Newton and Truong gave an interview to an ABC reporter in far north Queensland in 2010 about their battle to have a child as a gay couple.
Their search started in 2002 in the US, where they both were working, and when they did not have any success Truong travelled to Russia and found a woman who they ''clicked with personality-wise''.
She was paid $8000 and, as per their agreement, granted the couple sole custody of the boy, handing him over five days after his birth in 2005.
The family planned to return to Queensland and live in Cairns but that was delayed because Australian authorities initially refused to grant the child a visa.
That took another 2½ years and upon their eventual arrival in Australia they said customs quizzed them for hours. Police were also sent to the family's house in Cairns to check up on the pair.
In the radio interview, 20 months before their arrest, Newton was asked if he felt the extra attention was because authorities suspected there was ''something dodgy … something paedophilic going on here''.
''Absolutely, absolutely, I'm sure that was completely the concern,'' Newton replied.
Evidence before the US District Court revealed the abuse began before the couple arrived back in Australia. One video is said to show Newton performing a sex act on the boy when he was less than two weeks old.
And while they gave off the perfect image of a modern family to outsiders, Judge Barker said the pair brainwashed the child to believe the sexual abuse was normal behaviour. Newton was also said to have trained the boy to deny any inappropriate behaviour if he was ever questioned by authorities.
''These men submitted this young child to some of the most heinous acts of exploitation that this office has ever seen,'' said Indiana US attorney Joe Hogsett.
Newton and Truong came to the attention of police in August 2011 after their connections to three men arrested over the possession of child exploitation material came to light.
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While the couple were visiting extended family in the US, Queensland police searched their Cairns home and found enough evidence to alert their American counterparts, who raided their Los Angeles base and took the boy into custody. Newton and Truong claimed they were being targeted because they were homosexual.
However, after arrest in February 2011, Truong gave investigators the password to the computer hard drives police had seized. They detailed the years of abuse, including instances where they had flown the boy between Australia, the US, France and Germany to record at least eight other paedophiles sexually abusing him.
Newton has been given the maximum sentence available in the US for conspiracy to sexually exploit a minor and possessing child pornography. Truong, who also pleaded guilty, will be sentenced shortly.
Investigator's hunch breaks open the case: (the boy has the pseudonym "Adam" in this article)
http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/newshome/17800543/qld-boys-horror-raised-by-global-pedophile-ring/Newton and Truong’s secret life began to unravel at a New Zealand home in August 2011 when a fan of their work and fellow sex offender was arrested with computer drives containing “happy snaps†of Adam and his parents among images of child exploitation.
To the untrained eye, the pictures depicted a family outing, but to a network of veteran detectives the snaps triggered grave concern.
“On examination of the drives, they located some of the images – whilst they were not of a nature that would constitute a criminal offence, to the trained eye, and there is a network of investigators across the world who do this on a daily basis, the images were not what you would see as a traditional family snap,’’ said Detective Inspector Jon Rouse, head of Queensland police Taskforce Argos which targets pedophilia.
“The pictures were kind of modeling shots, it looked wrong to us,†said Inspector Rouse in an exclusive interview with Seven News.
However a detectives’ hunch was not sufficient for a search warrant but it was enough for both Argos and New Zealand’s Department of Internal Affairs to launch an investigation.
Argos conducted background checks and used their specialist victim identification staff to identify who the people were in the photos and locate the boy. At the same time New Zealand authorities examined chat logs and information contained on their offender’s hard drives.
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Argos conducted several raids in Queensland including the men’s Cairns home where they found a sophisticated set-up of surveillance cameras.
Concerned for Adam’s welfare, Queensland police alerted their US counterparts who raided the men’s Los Angeles home and took them into custody and placed Adam into care in October 2011.
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“These two individuals were meticulous about cataloging nearly everything they did, all of their travel. The young boy featured very heavily in most of this material. Everything from airports to theme parks….they documented everything which was to their detriment,’’ he said.
The information also helped police identify some of their associates.
“So the backend of all this work being done, we had encrypted material we had a strong suspicion contained child exploitation images. We had a boy in care and the two offenders at large in Los Angeles protesting their innocence and the matter progressing through the (US) Family Law Court,’’ Insp Rouse said.
At the time Newton and Truong claimed authorities were targeting them because of their homosexuality.
Insp Rouse rejected the men’s claims saying Argos targets anyone who harms children.
"If you're harming a child - I don't care what your gender is - we will take action. Our interest is the child, not your sexual preference."
Through their strong ties with their overseas counterparts, Argos learned the US Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) was investigating the Boy Lover network.
USPIS investigator Brian Bone was alerted to the photos of Adam found on the New Zealand offender and recognised he was the same boy who featured pornographic footage and images uncovered in several of their investigations.
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When the drives were unlocked, it was “blatantly apparent†to investigators Newton and Truong had bought Adam into their lives for exclusive purpose of sexually exploiting him among the Boy Lovers network.
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Two other men, American residents John R Powell, 41, a Florida-based lawyer, and Jason Bettuo, a 36-year-old Michigan tennis coach, have also been charged.
US Attorney Joseph H Hogsett said between 2010 and 2011, Newtown and Truong travelled to San Francisco to meet with Powell and Bettuo who filmed themselves having sex with Adam.
Powell also travelled to the men’s Cairns home in this time to do the same with Adam.
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Adam’s future is unknown and he is currently in the care of an American family.
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Investigation into the men’s activities is continuing.
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Examination of the pair’s finances has also raised questions with investigators of how the men supported their global lifestyle with no obvious means of income.
“There was no real money trail that indicates they are in a form of employment that would sustain the lifestyle they’ve had and you can draw your own conclusion with respect to the amount of travel they’ve done and where they’ve been and the purpose of that travel,†Insp Rouse said.