I'm pleased to see Brian Reyes writing today in the Gibraltar Chronicle, has highlighted the concerns hundreds of local people have expressed in a group on Facebook recently, about Child Pornography Laws in Gibraltar.
The Facebook group, was set up following a recent court case that highlighted a glaring hole in Gibraltar’s legislation.
A man who admitted distributing nearly 5,000 pornographic images of children, including some extreme photos, was jailed for 18 months for publishing obscene material. But he could not be prosecuted for having the images in the first place because possession of child pornography is not a crime in Gibraltar.
Nick Gonzalez, the group’s creator, echoing the sentiments of many of us, said "I set up this group out of anger".
"I wanted to create awareness and put pressure on the government and the judicial system to change this situation as soon as possible."
In just over a week over 650 people have now joined the group. In the Chronicle, Brian Reyes says that many of the comments on the group's pages are "often emotive and angry, but mainly express underlying bewilderment as to why Gibraltar has such an inexplicable shortfall in its laws", and adds:
"Change, however, is on its way, though the timetable is not certain."
The Gibraltar Government has drafted a new law covering computer misuse and including penalties of up to 10 years in jail for possession of child pornography.
But as Brian Reyes points out, although the Bill has been ready since last year, it has not yet been tabled in Parliament and passed into law.
A separate legislative proposal covering sexual offences has also been drafted. It includes provisions for a sexual offenders’ register, which Gibraltar does not currently have, and for which Gibraltar's equality group GGR, lead by Felix Alvarez have been campaigning for since 2005.
But this too has yet to be tabled in Parliament and passed into law.
These and many other laws, such as those surrounding issues of human rights, are long overdue for reform. Some of these are being focused on now through the introduction of proposals by Minister for Justice Daniel Feetham recently. Let's hope these will all be reformed... sooner rather than later!
Brian Reyes, is a Gibraltarian journalist. Whilst he regularly writes in the Gibraltar Chronicle, Brian also offers his personal views and comments on many other interesting issues in his own blog over at Letters From Gibraltar.
The boyfriend of Baby P's mother has been convicted today of raping a two-year-old girl in north London.
The allegation came to light after the 32-year-old man was arrested over the death of Baby P, who has now been named as Peter.
The girl's mother was found not guilty of cruelty to the girl, by a jury at the Old Bailey.
The girl, like 17-month-old Baby P, was on the Haringey Council child protection register.
False names
The couple and the girl cannot be identified for legal reasons.
They were tried under false names amid fears that an internet hate campaign could influence jurors.
The pair were remanded in custody, to be sentenced on 21 and 22 May.
The boyfriend will be sentenced for rape and for causing or allowing Peter's death in August 2007, along with the woman and lodger Jason Owen.
The judge will be able to pass a life sentence on the boyfriend "if he considers him to be a danger to the public"!
Oooh.. that's a difficult one... let me see now????
Sheeeesh... YES of course he IS a danger to the public for christ sakes! Bang him away... throw away the damn key!!
I'm not a supporter of capital punishment... but at times like these... my conviction is very shaky... and I do wonder if animals like this... in these instances should be 'wasted'!!
I say 'animals' losely... as animals do not do this sort of thing to their young. They (unlike some of us humans) are far too noble!
Throughout my life the blight of drug abuse has plagued our world and the societies we live in.... and I would bet your experience has been the same.
So... is it time for a radical re-think? I think so!
I suppose the abuse of drugs has been going on... forever. In the distant past though, we didn't control or prohibit the use of drugs. This is pretty much a 20th century innovation... an innovation which, to my mind, is long overdue for review.
I've often heard some argue about the legalisation of drugs many times in the past and through my adult life... but these pleas always used to come pretty much from liberal fundamentalists, 'glassy-eyed hippies' and the more 'airy fairy' fringes. But... in recent years, I have been hearing it more and more, from other more 'maverick' thinkers and ideologues... even from what one might describe as more 'conservative' or 'establishment' sources.... and I have to say... I'm finding the ideas on the legalisation of drugs are no longer so outlandish after all!
One of these, perhaps more radical thinkers, very much in the forefront of the international debate going on right now (and very welcome it is)... is Dr Jeffrey Miron, who I listened to on BBC Radio Five Live's Up All Night last night, with great interest. His arguments for the legalisation of recreational drugs are very compelling!
Dr Jeffrey Miron is an American economist. He served as the chairman of the Department of Economics at Boston University from 1992 to 1998 and is currently a Professor of Economics and teaching at Harvard University. He is also the author of several books including Drug War Crimes: The Consequences of Prohibition.
Dr Miron basically contends that there is a strong economic argument to be made in favour of the legalisation of drugs. In 2005, he authored a paper, relating to the US drug problem, in which he argued that marijuana legalisation would effectively generate more than $10 billion per year. He has since reviewed this and now estimates the legalisation of drugs could save the US economy around $74 Billion! (see video below)
Miron's report and claims have since been endorsed by scores of other prominent economists and commentators across the world.
More recently, in an article on CNN this month, entitled 'Legalize drugs to stop violence', he says the "prohibition of drugs creates violence because it drives the drug market underground".
"This means buyers and sellers cannot resolve their disputes with lawsuits, arbitration or advertising, so they resort to violence instead.
Violence was common in the alcohol industry when it was banned during Prohibition, but not before or after.
Violence is the norm in illicit gambling markets but not in legal ones. Violence is routine when prostitution is banned but not when it's permitted. Violence results from policies that create black markets, not from the characteristics of the good or activity in question.
The only way to reduce violence, therefore, is to legalize drugs. Fortuitously, legalization is the right policy for a slew of other reasons.
His 'slew of other reasons' include....
Thousands killed in ongoing drug wars across the world
Governments' prohibition of drugs policies lead to corruption of politicians and law enforcement
Legalising drugs is the best way to reduce drug violence
Drugs should be controlled through regulation and taxation
Five years ago, in the UK, a Cabinet Office report estimated the cost to the UK was around £24bn a year - £16bn of that from the costs of acquisitive crime by users funding their habit.
So... what if those drugs were legal and regulated? What if heroin and cocaine were available on prescription or at affordable prices?
In 2002, the man who hopes to be our next Prime Minister, David Cameron, argued that the British government should initiate discussion with the UN about the possible legalisation of drugs. As a member of the Home Affairs Select Committee he accepted that "many sensible and thoughtful people" have proposed legalising all or most presently illegal drugs. "There may come a day when the balance may tip in favour of legalising" the committee said but concluded they were being invited to take a step into the unknown. "To tread where no other society has yet trod" and declined, in their words, "to recommend this drastic step".
Drastic, but worth talking about. Why? Because it was becoming increasingly clear that what Richard Nixon first called "The War on Drugs" was not... and IS not being won.
Earlier this month a report by the campaigning Transform Drugs Policy Foundation argued that government must look at the current drugs policy with the cold eye of a cost-benefit analyst. If they did, it is suggested, ministers might save the taxpayer close to £11bn a year!
At the centre of their analysis is the claim that prohibition itself is the root cause of almost all drug-related acquisitive crime. If government took control from the pushers, dealers and gangsters, they suggest, levels of such crime would be "negligible". Even in the "highly unlikely" event that drug use doubled, suggests Transform, a regulated market for cocaine and heroin would see almost £7bn of savings in the cost of crime.
Well, I don't know about you, but I find these arguments very convincing... and let's face it... the so called 'anti drugs war' has patently obviously not worked... is not working. We see more and more drug related crime, especially violent crime with shootings and killings, increasing daily on our country's streets... so it is time to take a much more radical look at the whole issue of drugs. Seems to me legalising the damn lot is a very sensible and radical alternative that could have a huge and beneficial effect, worldwide.
In his CNN article, Miron concludes:
"The U.S. repealed Prohibition of alcohol at the height of the Great Depression, in part because of increasing violence and in part because of diminishing tax revenues. Similar concerns apply today, and Attorney General Eric Holder's recent announcement that the Drug Enforcement Administration will not raid medical marijuana distributors in California suggests an openness in the Obama administration to rethinking current practice.
Perhaps history will repeat itself, and the U.S. will abandon one of its most disastrous policy experiments."
I certainly do not advocate the legalisation of drugs as a cure for our economic ills right now... far from it... but I can't see it doing much harm and I do see a lot of benefit to be had by the legalising of drugs across the board!
Here's Dr Miron offering us further food for thought, discussing Marijuana Legalisation on CNN recently:
Dow Jones Newswires reported this evening on a US Treasury announcement Tuesday that they have signed an agreement with the Government of Gibraltar that will allow the two countries to exchange tax information.
US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Gibraltar's Chief Minister Peter Caruana signed the agreement in London in advance of the G20 meetings this week.
The agreement allows for the exchange of criminal tax information relating to any taxable year and civil tax information relating to taxable years beginning after 2008.
Additionally, it calls for Gibraltar to provide the US with information on bank accounts in Gibraltar.
Good to see the 'Chief' has moved very quickly and rather adeptly foiled any problems that were likely in the wake of the US Government and other countries looking at the so called 'fiscal paradises'!
There'll be some worried looks exchanged around Spain's 'elite' when they read about this! What are they going to bang on about now?? Maybe they should focus on where they put their own money!
The Royal Gibraltar Police (RGP) reported this afternoon that they are investigating a burglary in which a three month old pet bull dog puppy was killed.
Police were called to investigate a burglary reported to them at 21:15hrs on Tuesday evening, 24th March 2009.
It appears that a residence at Castle Road was broken into sometime during the hours of 9am and 9pm on Tuesday 24th March. The only items that seems to have been stolen was a games console. However, the burglar or burglars, incomprehensibly, also saw fit to kill a three month old pet bull dog puppy that was in the residence!!
Why the burglar(s) saw fit to kill this puppy is beyond me. This image on the right, is of a bulldog puppy of a similar age as the one the burglars killed, in this case 14 weeks old. Surely, the little dog the burglars saw fit to kill, would not have been any threat to the burglar(s). It certainly would not have been able to give any evidence against them... so I find it incomprehensible that anyone could do such a thing... for ANY reason!
I really feel for the owners as they must be distraught over their loss of a loved pet!
The RGP report that crime scene investigators were called in to search for clues and that inquiries are being conducted. I very much hope they catch whoever is responsible for this appalling crime... and that they get the punishment they deserve!
I would ask anyone who may have any information about this dreadful incident... to contact the Royal Gibraltar Police on any of the following telephone numbers:
20072500 (non-emergencies only) 199 or 112 (emergencies only) 155 (Community Crime Line to anonymously report a crime) 20077677 (Drugs Hotline for a drugs related call)
Update - 10:12 am 26th March 2009:
According to a report on this in the Gibraltar Chronicle, apparently the puppy was dropped from a third floor balcony... the 'scumbags'!
According to the New York Post, a lawyer for the trustee seeking to locate assets belonging to self-confessed Wall Street scammer Bernie Madoff said today that more than $1 billion has been located - far less than the staggering $64 billion the feds said he stole from investors.
Lawyer David Sheehan said $75 million has been located in an account in Gibraltar, raising to $1 billion the amount a trustee has recovered for investors.
David Sheehan, a lawyer acting for Irving Picard, who was appointed by the Securities Investor Protection Corp. to unwind Madoff’s businesses, also said at a court hearing today that French authorities may soon seek to seize Madoff’s chateau in that country, which is worth about $1.6 million.
Sheehan’s disclosure came at a court hearing where he urged a judge to award SIPC, which is conducting a broad investigation of the assets of Madoff Securities, a power of attorney over Madoff’s UK unit.
SIPC is a government-backed corporation to cover losses when brokerages fail. US prosecutors probing Madoff urged US District Judge Louis Stanton in New York to hold the power in escrow and not to grant it to Picard. Stanton didn’t rule on the matter.
Madoff, 70, was jailed two weeks ago after he pleaded guilty to orchestrating a Ponzi scheme where he ripped off thousands of investors.
Madoff faces 150 years behind bars when he is sentenced in June.
A consultation document to tackle violence against women in England and Wales has been announced today by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith.
The 'consultation' will consider applying more powers against those convicted of domestic violence, and better ways to pass information between police forces.
Ministers are also considering giving police the right to ban offenders from the family home for a fortnight.
In 2007, 142 people died in UK attacks, including 38 men, and there are thought to be thousands of abuse cases a year.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith told the BBC News, "any violence against women, inside the home, or outside the home, is unacceptable".
"In my book, it doesn't matter the situation, it doesn't matter the context, women and girls shouldn't be the subject of violence."
Jacqui Smith's initiative today, for once, is one I wholeheartedly agree with!
National debate
Ms Smith's call for a national debate on the issue, asking police to report back on the powers they need to get a grip on the problem, is sorely needed. Any violence directed at women should be stamped out and I for one, very much welcome this 'consultation' launch today.
Whilst the vast majority of us, I'm sure, abhor violence on women, and will also welcome a national debate on this issue... we should also remember the abuse that apparently 1 in 6 men also suffer at the hands of women.
Further information and help with this issue is available here:
In a Daily Beast exclusive, Lucinda Franks reports that at least $50 million in Madoff funds has been discovered in a Gibraltar bank.
Now, the fight begins over who actually gets it.
More than $50 million in missing Bernard Madoff funds has been found in the Gibraltar branch of the International Safra Bank and is likely to become the subject of litigation there. The bank, seeing Madoff’s name on transfer documents, froze the money and notified police.
According to a Franks' source close to the investigation, the Gibraltar case is just one of many instances in which banks in Europe and the Caribbean have identified and stopped any monies with a link to Madoff’s investment funds since December, when he confessed to running a massive Ponzi scheme.
Millions of dollars linked to Madoff have been tagged and frozen in offshore banking havens in Europe and the Caribbean.
The Gibraltar funds were deposited at Safra just a few weeks before Madoff was exposed, according to a source close to the Gibraltar police. This money may have been placed with Madoff through a feeder fund operated by Safra, which asked Madoff to redeem a portion, but not all, of its investment—somewhere between $50 million and $75 million. The returned funds were still being held in the Safra branch when the scandal broke.
After the bank put a stop on the funds, local police informed authorities in the US and are now cooperating with the New York investigation.
Gibraltar, like some other offshore havens, has been making great efforts in recent years to police illegal activity. On Friday, there was a proceeding in chambers at the Gibraltar court. The outcome of this hearing is not yet known.
In general the behavior of the international banking community in the Madoff case demonstrates an unprecedented level of cooperation with American prosecutors—far more, certainly, than investigators received in earlier cases such as the BCCI scandal.
There was a possibility, of course, that any overseas transfers in this time frame could be part of a scheme by Madoff to hide assets. But the Gibraltar transfers could also reflect legitimate withdrawals from his investment funds, made without any connection to the Ponzi scheme. Those investors will probably sue to have the funds released, while the New York-based trustees are equally determined to claim the money for victims’ compensation.
Even investors who cashed out of Madoff’s scheme before it collapsed may not be entirely protected from losses. In a legal procedure known as a “clawback,” trustees overseeing fraud cases can force investors to return funds they withdrew earlier from the phony operation in order to distribute it evenly among those affected. Unlike in, say, a stock crash, clawbacks mean that there is no such thing as "getting out at the right time."
It's hardly a surprise that England and Wales Cricket Board chairman Giles Clarke is now coming under severe pressure to resign, following the revelations over the Sir Allen Stanford affair!
Billionaire Stanford has been charged with a $8bn (£5.6bn) investment fraud.
As ECB chairman, Clarke struck a deal with Stanford to play five $20m matches, with plans in place for new 20-20 tournaments in England as well.
Clarke's dubious leadership of the ECB in all this has now led to at least two county cricket clubs publicly asking him to resign.
Today, both Leicestershire and Hampshire cricket clubs are reported as saying that Clarke should go but he has been backed by Glamorgan, Durham and Middlesex.
Clarke was elected chairman of the ECB for a second term just a matter of days ago, having ran unopposed after Lord Marland withdrew in January.
But the chairmen of Leicestershire and Hampshire, who have been vocal critics of the ECB in the past, have firmly pointed the finger of blame at Clarke.
I find it amazing, that the rest of the county cricket clubs, that comprise the ECB, are not also joining in, in calling for his resignation!
I don't know about you, but right from the very start, when I first heard of Sir Allen Stanford, at the time when he first made his proposals to the ECB, I thought to myself... this guy sounds very dubious. Later on, following his antics during the Twenty 20 internationals between England and a West Indies all-star XI, which he funded with a total prize fund of £12.270m (US $20 million), my doubts about this character were heightened even further. I watched with fascination at all the bullshit and razzmatazz that surrounded Stanford, which he was largely responsible for creating.
The word 'charlatan' kept screaming out loud and clear... at least to me! Naturally, being a somewhat naive and trusting soul, I assumed that the ECB had conducted all 'due diligence' in checking this guy out... and thought, well they must know what they are doing. How naive can we be!
It's ok for me to be perhaps naive... but when the Chairman of an organisaton such as the ECB, is shown to have been so badly taken in, even if all decisions were made jointly by the board, then surely it is time for the Chairman to go... maybe the whole board too! What were they thinking about?
Dubious, strange and embarassing bedfellows
Speaking of keeping dubious, strange and embarrassing bedfellows... I just watched a press conference of Gordon Brown... our esteemed Prime Minister, being welcomed to Rome by the very dubious Signor Berlusconi... the Italian Prime Minister.
Am I being an idiot for feeling a touch of discomfort watching these two effusing about each other... and the good they are going to do when discussing the need to help poor countries during the global economic crisis? I mean... come on, this is a guy, the prime minister of a major European country, who has been indicted for paying bribes!
Perhaps this does not embarrass the Italians, but those scenes with Brown and Berlusconi... give me great discomfort!
On Tuesday, David Mills, the estranged husband of the UK's Olympics minister Tessa Jowell, was sentenced to four and a half years' jail by an Italian court after being found guilty of taking a $600,000 (£400,000) bribe as a reward for withholding court testimony to help Berlusconi!
It appears, that Berlusconi, who was indicted alongside Mills, his former legal adviser on offshore dealings, is no longer a defendant. His government passed a law last year giving the prime minister and some other top Italian officials immunity from prosecution. If that's not scandalous in itself, I really don't know what is!
While newspapers report that this is the first time in Italy that someone has been found guilty of taking a bribe without the giver of the money being identified, we all KNOW who it was!!
The fact that Berlusconi himself is still prime minister and not resigned in shame is bare faced cheek to an extreme. For our own prime minister, to be seen effusing jovially with this crook... gives me great discomfort and makes me wonder... what sort of dishonourable world are we living in... but hey, that's just me!
As we say in Llanito... valiente carra dura... the bare faced cheek of it all!
I'm pleased to see Brian Reyes writing today in the Gibraltar Chronicle, has highlighted the concerns hundreds of local people have expressed in a group on Facebook recently, about Child Pornography Laws in Gibraltar.
