File photo
MANDAUE CITY, Cebu – A mother from Leyte received two life sentences for sexually abusing minors, including her own daughter, in exchange for money from foreign clients.
On Feb. 22, 2023, Branch 10 of the Regional Trial Court in Abuyog, Leyte found the woman (name withheld) guilty of qualified trafficking, child abuse, and subjecting minors to online sexual exploitation, the International Justice Mission (IJM) shared in a press statement.
“The conviction achieved by Prosecutor Junery Bagunas in this case was a big win for child protection. No child had to be put on the witness stand and be re-traumatized. Instead, the prosecution maximized the available digital evidence and tapped international collaboration to prove its case. This outcome demonstrates the effectiveness of child-protective approaches in prosecuting online child sexual exploitation cases,” Regional Prosecutor Irwin Maraya was quoted in the IJM statement.
The IJM statement issued on Saturday, March 18, said that the trafficker was given a life sentence for qualified trafficking and another life sentence for child abuse. In addition, she was also sentenced to a maximum of 17 years in prison for sexually exploiting minors online.
At the same time, she was directed by the court to pay a total fine of P4.5 million for all of the three offenses that she committed.
Canadian offender arrested
Lawyer Lucille Dejito, the IJM Cebu Director, said that the conviction was a “huge win” for global collaboration, as it stemmed from the arrest of Philip Chicoine, a Canadian offender who paid the Filipino trafficker to live stream the abuse that she was doing on the minors.
Jay Schooley of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), who stood as a witness during the trial, said that he was the one who authenticated the referral letter that RCMP sent to the Philippine National Police (PNP), which led to the conduct of a formal investigation here and eventual arrest of the Filipino trafficker in 2017.
Another member of the RCMP, Corporal Jared Clarke, also testified that messages and explicit images were exchanged between Chicoine and the Filipino trafficker, the IJM added.
“This conviction is a significant milestone in the global fight against online sexual exploitation of children. It is a testament to the critical role of cross-border collaboration to timely rescue victims and bring perpetrators to justice. As a borderless crime, we must continue to seek borderless solutions,” Dejito said.
“Online child sexual exploitation is a borderless crime. It impacts all countries and targets our most vulnerable – our children,” said RCMP Chief Superintendent Gord Sage, Director General, Sensitive and Specialized Investigative Services.
IJM said that in 2017, Chicoine was convicted and sentenced to 12 years in prison, which was later on increased to 15 years for orchestrating and paying for the live streaming of child sexual abuse.
He pled guilty to 40 sexual offenses committed against children and was found to be in possession of more than 10,000 images and videos of child sexual abuse. He had spent over $20,000 for arranging the live streaming of the sexual abuses on the victims in the Philippines and Romania.
Mother arrested in Nov. 2017
Meanwhile, members of the PNP Women and Children Protection Center-Visayas Field Unit (WCPC-VFU) arrested the Filipino trafficker on Nov. 10, 2017 while the mother was in the act of offering to perform sex acts on her own 7-year-old daughter and livestream those sex acts from her home in MacArthur, Leyte.
Her daughter was rescued during the operation together with eight other children, IJM said.
The mother was then charged for the violations of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act, the Cybercrime Prevention Act, and the Special Protection of Children Against Child Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act.
IJM has already supported authorities here in the conviction of over 180 offenders who committed online sexual exploitation of children. IJM has also supported over 320 operations which led to the rescue of more than 1,080 victims.
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