Transcription of BBC Newsreport
Name: Anne Bellens Jill Dams
Class: 3 ILSO B
Date: Thursday,23 October 03
Professor: Ms Van Loock J.
BBC – newsflash 1 :
Men who use the internet to contact young girls for sex have been warned they face lengthy jail sentences.
Today the Court of Appeal increased a prison sentence by 18 months of a paedophile (pronunciation; ) who sexually abused two 13 year old girls.
The judge ruled that Michael Wheeler’s original 3 years sentence have been significantly too lenient (meegaand, soepel, toegevend).
James Wested is at the Court of Appeal. “So James, the judge is resignalling they’re going to take a hard line on this.”
“That’s right Sofie. There was a widespread public concernment when Michael Wheeler was sentenced to just 3 years in jail.
Here they exploited a legal loophole (een achterpoortje) by waiting till his victims were 13 years old he escaped a longer prison sentence. It’s a loophole the Court of Appeal now says must be closed.”
This is the face of one of Britain’s most notorious paedophiles: Michael Wheeler, preyed on young girls in internet chat rooms, manipulating their emotions and winning their trust, so he could abuse them sexually. In his home town of Cambridge he treated two of the young girls to trips and outings but waited till their 13th birthdays to begin abusing them, knowing he’d face a lower sentence.
When he was jailed for only three years it caused national outrage. Today the Appeal Court ruled the sentence was unduly lenient and increased it by 18 months.
Lord Justice Kay said that the use by older men of internet chat rooms used by young girls can have no acceptable justification… the courts need to deliver a clear message of disapproval.
But the parents of one of his victims known only as child C are disappointed. They say the damage to their daughter grows as each day passes.
“It’s getting worse day by day. She’s feeling now she was used more and more each day. I’m pleased that it has been increased at that amount, but it should have been doubled, it should have been a hundred percent. And also for other evil people that are out there like him to realise just what they can do to young girls’ lives.”
But today’s land mark ruling does mean that in future men who use the internet to prey (op rooftocht gaan, aantasten) on children will get longer sentences.
Sergeant Darryl Preston, Child Protection Officer; “I would like to see Mark away to go to prison for a very long time. I… My dealings with him … I found him cold, calculating and this type of offence obviously I would like to see him go to prison for a long time. So yes, there was some frustration.
New laws going through Parliament will give paedophiles like Wheeler up to fourteen years in future, while a new offence of grooming could catch them before they’ve laid hands on a child.
The new tougher laws will come into force next year. Meanwhile today’s judgement is expected to be the first in a series. Increasing sentences for sex offenders who have been treated too leniently by the Court.
BBC – newsflash 2 :
A man described by police as Britain’s most prolific internet groomer has been jailed for five years. Douglas Lindsell, from South West London, made contact with more than 70 young girls in chatrooms by pretending to be a boy. The judge described him as a continuing danger to children.
James Westhead has this report.
This 14-year old was one of a asthonishing 73 girls here and abroad tricked into believing the new friend they were chatting to on the internet, was a teenage boy.
“He had told me he was like my age and he was just being really nice to me. He was trying to make me feel sorry for him.”
In fact he was 64 year old, former postman Douglas Lindsell. He tried to capt the girls to meet him but if they refused his emails turned nasty.
“Then he just started sending me horrible e-mails – threatening me.”
“What kind of things was he writing to you?”
“He was just saying like that: ‘I’m going to come and find you, I’m going to rape you!’”
He did drive to meet 2 of the girls and admits trying to abduct one in his car. But luckily when they saw he was an older man, they ran away.
“Euhm, it really is quite frightening the amount of information that Mister Lindsell was actually able to gather from these girls.”
Disturbingly, say police, he was able to build up detailed profiles on the girls, including their phone numbers. He even had a guide on teenage texting to get the right slang.
But today a court jailed him for attempted abduction and five other offenses.
Mister Lindsell presented a danger to young children, to young girls and he his now, in my opinion, at the safest place that he can be: in prison for five years.
This girl and the others are lucky to escape with nothing more than a nasty scare. Now the police are asking teenagers and their parents to be more vigilant about the dangers the internet can bring into their homes.
James Westhead – BBC News
Background information:
Lindsell 'biggest' internet grooming case
Douglas Lindsell, jailed for a series of sex crimes on Thursday, has been described as the world's most prolific internet "groomer" of children for sexual abuse.
His case comes as Parliament debates a new Sexual Offences Bill, which will introduce new offences and tougher penalties against sexual predators.
Lindsell, 64, from Twickenham, west London, contacted girls through chat rooms, passing himself of as a teenage boy.
He built up a database of more than 70 children, including details of hair and eye colour, clothes, schools, families and intimate details such as bra sizes and sexual likes and dislikes.
‘Obsessive’
Lindsell corresponded with 54 girls in the UK and 19 abroad by obtaining e-mail addresses and mobile phone numbers.
Police said they were not aware of any other case where so many potential victims had been identified.
He even bought a book about teenage texting so he could sound more convincing. He arranged to meet two of the girls, aged 13 and 14, but when they discovered how old he was they ran away.
Police say they came "within inches" of being assaulted.
Detective Chief Inspector Chris Watts described him as very dangerous and very organised: "Lindsell had a system of hunting, grooming and attracting young girls with a clear intention and that was to commit acts of indecent assault.
"He was obsessive in his pursuit of under-age girls and continued to pursue them even after we confiscated his computer."
Earlier this year Lindsell pleaded guilty to the attempted abduction of a girl under 14 and perverting the course of justice.
Indecent images.
The latter charge related to Lindsell contacting victims and asking them to delete messages following his arrest.
Lindsell further pleaded guilty to gross indecency towards a female child under 16, making indecent images of children, and two counts of sexual and threatening harassment of a girl.
Eight indecent images were recovered from his computer.
The case echoes those of convicted paedophiles Michael Wheeler and Luke Sadowski.
Wheeler admitted 11 sex offences, including having sex with two 13-year-old girls after making contact with them through an internet chat room.
Detectives suspected he exploited current sentencing laws by waiting until the girls turned 13 before having sex with them, to avoid being jailed for life.
Sadowski was jailed for three years for trying to procure a nine-year-old girl over the internet.
The Sexual Offences Bill, which is expected to become law in the next few months, would give judges greater power when dealing with offenders like Lindsell, Wheeler and Sadwoski.
A new offence of “grooming” will make it an offence to meet or arrange to meet a child with the intention of committing a sex offence, after at least two communications with them.
Paul Goggins, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Home Office, said: “The bill will bring in a series of measures to protect children and the most vulnerable”.
“It will also introduce new offences with severe penalties against those who sexually exploit children, tightens up on the monitoring of sex offenders and, for the first time, terms sexual intercourse with children under 13 as rape”.
How can these newsflashes be used in the classroom?
- First of all, the pictures of the two men, or just one of them, can be shown to the class. The pupils have to start by describing them (Þ learning how to describe people). Then they have to ‘guess’ what these two men have done. This way the pupils will become more interested in the video. They will become motivated to find out whether their ‘expectations’ of the two men are correct or not.
- Then the pupils have to watch the video fragment. Afterwards they have to retell the content of the fragment and say whether their expectations were correct or not.
- This will certainly lead to a class discussion. Pupils can express their opinion. Communication has to be central.
- It would really be nice that the pupils could discuss in little groups how to avoid internet abuses; They could even create a pamphlet that can be hung up in the whole school. This way the whole school is warned about the possible dangers of internet.
- Learning new voc:
Another way to use the video, is to give the pupils some keywords, perhaps words that
they don’t know yet. Then they have to watch the video and pay attention to these
words. Afterwards they have to try to give a correct translation/explanation for the
words. They have to use the right strategies: transparent words, deriving from the
context, deriving from a word they recognize in the new word, using a dictionary.
- A text with missing words: pupils get a text with missing words. It is up to them to watch the fragment and fill in the missing words.
Transparency :
a paedophile =
someone who is sexually attracted to young
children
lenient = not strict in the way you punish someone or
control their behaviour
a loophole = a small mistake in law that makes it possible to
avoid doing something that the law is supposed to
make you do
to prey = to try to influence or deceive weaker people
Transparency :
Have a look at these words – watch the video fragment and try to find out the correct meaning of the following words:
- prolific:
- vigilant:
- to abduct:
- a profile:
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