Woman gets 40 years for online abuse of kin

by Emmanuel Tupas (The Philippine Star), 25 Oct 2020

MANILA, Philippines — A court in Taguig City has sentenced a woman to serve up to 40 years in prison for the online sexual exploitation of her relatives.

In a ruling promulgated on Oct. 15, Taguig Regional Trial Court Branch 163 Judge Elisa Sarmiento-Flores also ordered the woman to pay a fine of P2 million and pay each of her three victims P600,000 in moral and exemplary damages.

The woman was convicted for forcing her three relatives ­– a boy aged 12 and two girls aged 11 and eight – to perform sexual acts that are then livestreamed on the internet for foreign pedophiles.

The International Justice Mission (IJM) said 15 persons were convicted for sexual exploitation during the community quarantine.

“We commend our justice system partners for yet another conviction, this one being the 15th during the community quarantine, which sends the clear message that perpetrators of online sexual exploitation of children will not go unpunished,” IJM Manila field office director Reynaldo Bicol said in a statement.

The case stemmed from a referral from the Australian Federal Police about the woman’s activities following the arrest of one of her clients in 2015.

She was arrested by police officers of the Anti-Cybercrime Group in an entrapment in 2016.

At least 100 persons were convicted in the Philippines for online sexual exploitation, the IJM said.