Fr. Shay Cullen » The Monster Within

By Fr. Shay Cullen

Neuchatel, Switzerland — In a beautiful setting the winter sunshine turns Lake Neuchatel into a vast glittering sliver pond. The snow covered Alps dominate the distant horizon in this tranquil place. The University of Neuchatel is hosting a Conference on Pedocrimes, Care, Prevention and Justice. Expert after expert presents aspects on child sexual abuse - the worst of all of human behaviour. Pedophilia is being dissected, examined, studied, pondered over and pronounced upon. Yet no one can say with any certainty why men of all ages sexually abuse children and few know what can be done to successfully stop, change and cure them.

One eminent doctor declared there is no cure for pedophilia. At best it can only be controlled. The abuse of children to gratify an adult’s sexual impulse is widespread. In every community, every parish, every nation, thousands of children are abused daily. In Germany, 550 known cases of child sexual abuse occur daily. Hundreds more are unknown and it is similar in other countries. On millions of computer hard disks and screens around the planet, victims are abused continually, some internet cyber sex shops show live child rape for a price to paying customers. In some small Philippine beer houses, children as young as 13 are served up for live sex with the beer.

One night last December 2007, in a small rural town of the Philippines, 200 kilometres north of Manila, the local beer garden was serving customers - all were men. The very young looking girls were mere children sitting on their laps or at their table and seem to have not even completed elementary school.

A group of men strangers entered the dim lighted single room beer house and ordered everyone to stay put - it was a police raid. The Criminal Investigation Detection Group (CIDG) had been called in after a social worker had found the minors working in the bar and being offered as prostitutes.

Petal, a 13 year-old from Cavite, south of Manila, was one of them and she was rescued by the accompanying social workers and brought to the children’s home operated by the People’s Recovery Empowerment Development Assistance Foundation in Olongapo City known as P.R.E.D.A. where she gets care and protection. Her story is typical. The recruiter gave the money to Petal’s parents promising a job in a restaurant. It was a front for a sex bar. She earned the peso equivalent of four dollars for a 7 hour day and sent ten dollars home to her family. She earned more if she was sold to a customer for an hour of sex in a back room. She refused until the boss ordered her to go in with the man. The boss made a lot of money. Petal was given a few more pesos. She was traumatised, and suffered abdominal pain for days but was afraid to leave.

Petal is just one of hundreds of thousands of children sold for sex everyday around the world - in Thailand estimated 800,000 and in the Philippines 60,000 if not 100,000. No one can ever know the exact figure since it is a secret criminal activity that is mostly ignored by the politicians and police and operated by criminal gangs. Drugs or alcohol are given at time to these sex slaves to keep them docile and submissive.

During one presentation at the conference given by Ferdinand Imposimato, a senior Italian prosecutor investigating the Mafia, told us that as many as million people are trafficked in the world at any given time. Most are minors sold to brothels, sex bars or pimps. Thousands are lured or abducted by false pretences from eastern European countries and by organised criminal syndicates in a business worth US$24 billion annually.

He advocated a universal international law making it a crime against humanity, an international crime to be prosecuted at the international criminal court. He recommended an ombudsman to prosecute the traffickers. This column has advocated the same for years.

The involvement of corrupt politicians, prosecutors and police themselves in these heinous crimes has allowed the trafficking and the prostitution of minors to proliferate. Others work behind the scenes to block such laws. The trafficking and abuse continue unabated and it is getting worse. The church, civil society and government are challenged to be what they say they are - guardians of the children. END

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Contact Fr. Shay Cullen at the Preda Center, Upper Kalaklan, Olongapo City, Philippines.
e-mail: preda@info.com.ph
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PREDA Information Office
PREDA Foundation, Inc.
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www.preda.org