Taki Theodoracopulos given 12-month suspended sentence for attempted rape

Spectator journalist, 87, is found guilty of attacking woman on ski weekend at his Swiss chalet in 2009

The journalist Taki Theodoracopulos has been handed a 12-month suspended prison sentence by a judge in Switzerland for an attempted rape in 2009.

The 87-year-old, who writes a column for the Spectator, was found guilty of attacking a woman on a ski weekend at his chalet in Gstaad in the Swiss Alps.

During a nine-hour hearing at the Oberland regional court in Thun on Thursday, Theodoracopulos dismissed the woman’s accusations as “monstrous” and a plot to destroy his career. He said he was “absolutely not guilty”.

The victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, broke down in tears as she told the court about the violent assault. She said: “I felt like a piece of meat. I didn’t feel that he saw me as a person at all. I tried very hard to put the incident behind me but it really shook my confidence professionally and it has had ongoing emotional consequences.”

The woman said another journalist had invited her to Theodoracopulos’s chalet, called Palataki or Little Palace, in early 2009.

She explained why she had waited a decade to report the attack, having first made a complaint to the Metropolitan police in 2019. “I didn’t think anyone would believe me. The accused was, is, a wealthy and powerful man. I thought everyone would think I was lying and I was trying to make my way in [my career].

“But, also, I felt ashamed. I thought I shouldn’t have accepted the invitation, I shouldn’t have gone, and that if I tried to say something everyone would say it was my own fault.”

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Nine rapes at Harrogate military college reported to civilian police in 13 months

Figures raise questions about safeguarding at college given ‘outstanding’ for welfare by Ofsted

Nine rapes at the Harrogate military college, which trains 16- and 17-year-olds for careers in the British army, were reported to civilian police over a 13-month period to the middle of August, figures show.

Disclosed under freedom of information legislation, the figures raise questions about safeguarding at Harrogate, and why its welfare arrangements are rated as “outstanding” by Ofsted.

In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support for rape and sexual abuse on 0808 802 9999 in England and Wales, 0808 801 0302 in Scotland, or 0800 0246 991 in Northern Ireland. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html

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Japan’s top companies cut ties with Johnny Kitagawa’s J-pop agency over sexual abuse scandal

Moves by broadcaster NHK, McDonald’s, Nissan and Suntory follow allegations against late Johnny & Associates founder

Some of Japan’s best-known companies have cut ties with a powerful talent agency whose founder was accused of sexually assaulting hundreds of teenage boys, in a scandal that has rocked the country’s entertainment industry.

The public broadcaster NHK said this week it would not sign new contracts with stars from Johnny & Associates until it was convinced the firm had properly addressed the scandal.

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Russell Brand accused of rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse

Claims related to seven-year period are detailed in Times and Channel 4 investigation after actor had already denied allegations

Russell Brand has been accused of rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse over a seven-year period at the height of his fame.

The allegations between 2006 and 2013 were the result of a joint investigation by the Sunday Times, the Times and Channel 4 Dispatches. Brand denies the allegations.

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Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis resign from anti-child sexual abuse charity

Actors were on the board of Thorn when their letters defending convicted rapist Danny Masterson came to light

Ashton Kutcher and his wife Mila Kunis have resigned from the board of the anti-child sexual abuse charity he founded amid swirling criticism of their defense of fellow actor and convicted rapist Danny Masterson.

Kutcher told the board of Thorn he was standing down immediately as its chair in a letter written on Thursday and posted to the organization’s website. Kunis’s role as an observer on the board ended at the same time.

Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse is available from the following organisations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html

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Retired priest pleads not guilty to raping child in New Orleans in the late 70s

Lawrence Hecker, 92, earlier admitted to having sex with three underage boys in 1960s and 70s, but denied using violence

The retired Catholic priest Lawrence Hecker pleaded not guilty in a New Orleans courtroom on Wednesday, five days after he turned himself in to jail on aggravated rape, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated crime against nature and theft charges.

He’s accused in a grand jury indictment of raping a teenage boy in 1975 or 1976 after the unnamed victim “resisted to the utmost but … was overcome by force”.

In the US, call or text the Childhelp abuse hotline on 800-422-4453 or visit their website for more resources and to report child abuse or DM for help. For adult survivors of child abuse, help is available at ascasupport.org. In the UK, the NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331. In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800, or Bravehearts on 1800 272 831, and adult survivors can contact Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helplines International

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Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis sorry for ‘pain’ caused by letters on behalf of Danny Masterson

Actors say letters were not meant to undermine victims of Masterson, who was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison for rape

Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis apologized on Saturday for character letters the celebrity couple wrote on behalf of fellow That ’70s Show actor Danny Masterson before he was sentenced for rape this week.

A judge in Los Angeles on Thursday sentenced Masterson to 30 years to life in prison for raping two women in 2003.

Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html

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Head of Johnny Kitagawa’s J-pop agency resigns over sexual abuse scandal

Julie Fujishima, niece of late pop mogul, apologises and acknowledges agency founder’s abuse for first time

The president of Japan’s biggest boyband talent agency has resigned after acknowledging for the first time that its late founder sexually abused aspiring young stars.

The country’s most powerful pop mogul, Johnny Kitagawa, who died in 2019 aged 87, was accused of sexually assaulting multiple teenagers over decades, but evaded justice because his victims feared he would destroy their careers if they spoke out.

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‘Avoid getting drunk’: row erupts over rape comments by Italy PM’s partner

Giorgia Meloni called on to condemn partner who appeared to suggest women could avoid rape by not getting too drunk

A row has erupted in Italy after a journalist and the partner of Giorgia Meloni appeared to suggest that women could avoid rape by not getting too drunk, with opposition parties calling on the prime minister to distance herself from his comments.

“If you go dancing you are fully entitled to get drunk ... but if you avoid getting drunk and losing consciousness, perhaps you’d also avoid getting into trouble, because then you’ll find the wolf,” Andrea Giambruno said on his show on the right-leaning channel Rete 4 after recent high-profile gang rape cases near Naples and in Palermo.

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Sexual harassment allegations cost local authorities at least £2.5m

Exclusive: Data from past five years in England and Wales includes wage costs and victim payments for claims such as upskirting, indecent exposure and inappropriate videos

Local authorities in England and Wales have spent at least £2.5m in the past five years on costs relating to allegations of sexual harassment, an investigation by the Observer can reveal today.

Data obtained through freedom of information (FoI) laws shows that since 2018, 62 councils spent more than £1,728,900 to cover wage costs of staff who were suspended after allegations of sexual harassment, with accusations ranging from indecent exposure, upskirting, inappropriate comments and sexual assault to stalking and abuse of power.

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Ex-Alabama deputy sheriff sentenced to prison for sexual assault on woman in his custody

Joshua Davidson given sentence of 12 and a half years for attack while on duty as a Dallas county deputy sheriff

A former Alabama deputy sheriff has been sentenced to 12 and a half years in prison for sexually assaulting a woman in his custody.

On 30 January 2020, while on duty as a Dallas county deputy sheriff, 33-year-old Joshua Davidson placed a woman in custody following a traffic stop. He drove her down a dark road to a desolate location where he forced her to perform oral sex on him against her will, the justice department said in a statement.

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Rape still a weapon of war in Tigray months after peace deal

Medical records from across the region show sexual violence continues to be used ‘to intimidate and terrorise communities’

Eritrean and Ethiopian soldiers continue a widespread and systematic campaign of rape in Tigray despite the peace agreement signed in November last year, a new report reveals.

In the first report to document sexual violence – using hundreds of medical records from the start of the conflict in November 2020 through to June 2023 – healthcare professionals recount cases of gang-rape, sexual slavery and murder, including the killing of children.

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Former Met police officer jailed for rape of female colleague and 16-year-old girl

Judge says force protected Adam Provan by ignoring officer’s complaints, allowing him to attack teenager

The Metropolitan police protected a predatory rapist within their ranks, dismissing the complaints of one of his victims and leaving him free to attack a teenager, a judge has said.

Adam Provan, 44, was on Tuesday jailed for 16 years, followed by eight years on licence, for eight counts of raping two victims between 2003 and 2010.

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Miscarriages of justice body has ‘attitude problem’, says Andrew Malkinson

Exclusive: Man imprisoned for rape he did not commit says Criminal Cases Review Commission has yet to contact him

Andrew Malkinson, who spent 17 years in prison for a rape he did not commit, has accused the body that investigates miscarriages of justice of having an “attitude problem” and said it had still not contacted him since he was cleared by the court of appeal last month.

Malkinson and his legal team first heard that the Criminal Cases Review Commission was launching a review into its handling of his case after the Guardian contacted them about it on Thursday.

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Catholic church uses death of paedophile priest in bid to stop survivor suing NSW diocese, court hears

Church claims it cannot get fair trial over alleged abuse by the notorious David Joseph Perrett in legal tactic that has drawn widespread criticism

The Catholic church is seeking to use using the death of a “prolific paedophile” priest to permanently prevent a dying Indigenous man from seeking justice for alleged abuse suffered on camping trips in rural New South Wales.

Two survivors are suing the church’s Armidale diocese for the alleged abuse by notorious priest David Joseph Perrett during camping trips from an Aboriginal mission in the mid-1970s.

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Rape, DNA and injustice: a timeline of the Andrew Malkinson case

After spending 17 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, the 57-year-old’s conviction was finally overturned last month

A 33-year-old woman is raped and left for dead on a motorway embankment in Salford as she walks home. She recalls causing a “deep scratch” to her attacker’s face. Andrew Malkinson is visited by police officers the next day who see he has no scratch. He is arrested two weeks later and then picked out of a video lineup.

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Judge says E Jean Carroll allegation Trump raped her is ‘substantially true’ in court dismissal

Ex-president claimed that writer defamed him when saying he raped her, but judge said term is commonly ‘used and understood’ in context

Donald Trump suffered another legal reversal on Monday, losing his counterclaim for defamation against E Jean Carroll, the writer against whom he was found liable for sexual abuse and defamation and fined $5m, and who continues to pursue a separate defamation case against him.

Dismissing the counterclaim, a judge in New York, Lewis A Kaplan, said that when Carroll repeated her allegation that Trump raped her, her words were “substantially true”. Kaplan also set out in detail why it may be said that Trump raped Carroll.

Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html

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Two-thirds of sexual assault support centres in England branded inadequate

Inspectors find failures to protect victims and risks of contaminating forensic evidence

More than two-thirds of England’s specialist support centres for victims of sexual assault or abuse have been found to have flaws in the care they offer in their most recent full inspections, the Observer can reveal.

Almost half were found to be breaching their minimum legal obligations to victims in their last full inspection, with problems ranging from a failure to deal with suicide and self-harm risks, cleaning so bad it risked contaminating forensic evidence collected for criminal cases, and failures to do adequate background checks on the staff working with victims.

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Video of women attacked in Manipur breaks silence on systematic gang rapes in India

Indians were shocked when social media exposed a mob abusing minority Kuki women. But similar incidents have been happening with impunity for months

As footage emerged last week of two women in the state of Manipur being forcibly stripped, paraded naked, publicly molested and allegedly gang raped, everyone from prime minister Narendra Modi to the chief justice of India publicly expressed their shock and disgust.

Breaking his long silence on the conflict that has been raging in Manipur for months, Modi declared that “what happened to the daughters of Manipur can never be forgiven” and that “the entire country has been shamed” by the attack.

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Key judge orders leak inquiry over New Orleans archdiocese cover-up report

Inquiry ordered following Guardian investigation into retired priest who confessed decades ago to child molestation

A high-ranking federal official has ordered an investigation after the Guardian exposed how New Orleans’s Roman Catholic archdiocese went to extreme lengths to conceal a retired priest who confessed decades ago to child molestation, is still living and has never been prosecuted.

Yet the investigation recently ordered by federal judge Jane Triche Milazzo is not designed to aid efforts to criminally charge the cleric or hold the church administrators who hid his past accountable. Instead, the inquiry is aimed at determining whether anyone violated broad confidentiality rules governing the New Orleans archdiocese’s pending bankruptcy protection filing and related litigation before the Guardian’s report on 91-year-old Lawrence Hecker was published on 20 June.

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