Social services receptionist handed personal file of child rape victim to her alleged abusers as part of campaign to de-rail trial of 'paedophile ring'

A social services worker accessed the records of a child raped in a drugs den as part of a wider conspiracy to collapse the trial of an alleged paedophile ring.

Mahdiya Khan, 21, a secretary for Lancashire County Council, printed off 'extremely sensitive' data on the girl and handed it to her boyfriend, who was a defendant in the case. 

A gang had been accused of systematically abusing the 14-year-old, and family and friends of the ringleader then offered her cash and showered her with gifts to persuade her to change her statement and say the sex was consensual.

The girl and her loved-ones were also threatened in a case that police said today was 'horrendous'.

The trial of the six men came to court last year but it collapsed after one day when the girl, now 16, refused to give evidence.

A retrial was then called in March, but this also ended abruptly when the alleged victim said that the sex had been consensual.

Only one one man, Mohammed Imran Amjad, 26, was convicted as he had admitted three counts of child abduction and one of sexual activity with a child.

Amjad bore the 'greatest responsibility for the corruption and abuse of the victim in this case'.

Prosecutor Alaric Bassano told Burnley Crown Court last year: 'It was him who took her on many occasions to the house and him who assisted, encouraged and incited others to rape and sexually assault this girl.

 

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'On one occasion, he raped the girl himself. Over a period of time he subdued her will and coerced her into submission.

'The girl was groomed over a period of time and on many occasions she was taken to a house in Brierfield (near Burnley).

'That house was used as a den at which young men attended and brought or invited girls and young women in order to drink alcohol, take drugs and engage in sex'.

After he admitted the sex crimes, Amjad was jailed for four years and three months. 

But his case has since sparked four more convictions of people, including his partner, cousin and brother, who had tried to impede justice.

Collapse: Three of the defendants are seen leaving Burnley Crown Court last year after the first trial was ended abruptly when the alleged victim refused to give evidence - five out of six were acquitted

As well as the crimes of Mahdiya Khan, Amjad's cousin Waqas Khalid, 19, followed the child sex victim, and told her that she and her mother would be raped and their house 'blown up', according to The Times.

It came from an investigation by the paper's Chief Investigative Reporter Andrew Norfolk.

Amjad's friend Qasim Hussain, 20, dictated a note for the girl which said: 'I didn't have sex with any of the boys who's in court next month. I didn't get raped' as part of a campaign to get her to change her evidence.

Amjad's brother Furqan Amjad, 23,  bombarded the girl with hundreds phone calls and text messages in a fortnight, and even paid for her mobile phone credit as part of a 'charm offensive' before the case went to court.

In one message he urged her 'have some courage' and she then refused to give evidence.

Controversial: A second trial at Manchester Crown Court later collapsed when the girl changed her statement, but Mohammed Imran AmJad had pleaded guilty

All have now been convicted of their part in the conspiracy, the Crown Prosecution Service told MailOnline.

Miss Khan was jailed for eight months last year after pleading guilty to five counts of unauthorised access to computer material. She was also sacked by Lancashire County Council.

Waqas Khalid admitted one count of witness intimidation and was fined £300, ordered to pay costs of £250, and £200 compensation to the victim.

Furqan Amjad got 15 months in prison for perverting the course of justice and Qasim Hussain was found guilty of perverting the course of Justice and has been told he should expect a 'lengthy' jail term when he is sentenced this week. 

Lancashire Detective Chief Inspector Sion Hall, from Lancashire Constabulary, told MailOnline: 'This was a horrendous case where a vulnerable girl was threatened and manipulated after being put through significant sexual abuse.

'It is difficult to bring cases to court especially when individuals work to undermine the process. The witness was got at by a group who tried everything to persuade her not to give evidence 

'Sadly attempts to collapse a trial in this way are not unique'.

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School of Social Work Launches Human Services Clearinghouse in China

The USC School of Social Work and the Chinese Cochrane Center have launched the first online clearinghouse for human services professionals and policy makers in China, seeking easy access to culturally relevant social work practices.

Release Date: 02/15/2010

By Cortney Fielding
Originally published by the USC School of Social Work, For original article, click here.

The Chinese Clearinghouse for Evidence-Based Practice and Policy (CCE) will introduce the latest evidence-based interventions in social work from around the world into a rapidly globalizing society beginning to look outward for solutions to modern mental-health problems.

"Our mission is to provide human services professionals, community organizations and policy makers the latest empirical evidence on social work practices that are most likely to succeed within Chinese society, " said Haluk Soydan, director of the school's Hamovitch Center for Science in the Human Services, who will also serve as the CCE's scientific director. "While there have been some successful efforts in China, human services and social science in dealing with vulnerable populations and underserved areas is still strongly lacking. We believe this easily accessible website is a step toward widespread use of these mental-health interventions in the world's largest nation."

Gaining popularity within the United States, clearinghouses are web-based portals where quality-controlled scientific evidence of what works—or is possibly harmful— in professional practice and policy interventions is made available to professionals, decision makers and the general public in accessible and transparent language and format.

Scientific committees assess the best available scientific evidence of the latest research on programs and other innovations in health care, social services and other human services, providing in-depth coverage of a number of high-priority policy topics in social work practice and other human services.

Teaming up with the Cochrane Center, the School of Social Work sought to bring the clearinghouse model to China—a country that has traditionally resisted the idea that its citizens suffered from mental-health disorders similar to those in the West.

But that resistance is fading as China is forced to find modern solutions to its increasingly modern problems—especially where children are concerned.

But once available, it can reach more quickly and accurately train social workers, psychologists, doctors and counselors to work with this vulnerable population more than any other method, said Marilyn Flynn, dean of the School of Social Work.

According to the CCE, unbalanced economic development, a restrictive family planning policy, urbanization, the financial crisis and the impact of globalization have all conspired to increasingly expose Chinese children to complex health, education and safety risks, as well as psychological, cultural, economic and social deprivation.

And while the Chinese government recognizes the situation and has implemented some helpful programs to combat the problem, there is still a longstanding deficit that must be overcome.

When the CCE launched this September, its website included nine carefully selected evidence-based interventions concerning children with behavior issues. The interventions were largely taken from the California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare, supported by the California Department of Social Services.

In addition to the typical scientific review, Soydan and the CCE enlisted a culturally competent scientific committee to examine all interventions for feasibility, based on their own experiences and expertise in psychosocial interventions adapted for Chinese-American populations and their knowledge of Chinese culture.

"Just because it works in the United States, doesn't mean it's going to work in China," Soydan said.

One behavior-modification home-based program instructed parents to praise their children for appropriate behavior and refrain from giving attention to misbehavior. The committee noted that Chinese parents may hold cultural beliefs about motivation that contraindicate praise and favor criticism. Many believe children will stop trying hard if you praise them and are often uncomfortable with the strategy of ignoring misbehavior.

Duration of therapy was another common concern Soydan's team considered. One successful intervention used in the United States lasted 34 weeks for the children and 16 for the parents. Reviewers worried Chinese parents would feel reluctant to have their children spend such a big chunk of time participating in a program that is not directly related to improving their academic performance, given that academic performance is a focal concern for parents of school-age children.

The panel ultimately gave the program approval.

The CCE said it will grow to include adult and senior citizen mental-health interventions within the next year. In addition to posting research, the clearinghouse plans to build collaborative alliances with community organizations and other networks in social work practice and other human services in China; assist international networks in the production and dissemination of Chinese-generated scientific evidence in social work research for use in other parts of the world; and train faculty, students and agency staff in evidence-based practice and decision-making in the field of child welfare and social work practice.

"We are committed to working closely with professionals, decision-makers and community organization representatives in China, as well as with leading international organizations and networks in the pursuit of our mission," Soydan said.

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Types of Non-Governmental Organizations

NGO types can be understood by their orientation and level of cooperation.

NGO type by level of orientation:

• Charitable Orientation often involves a top-down paternalistic effort with little participation by the "beneficiaries". It includes NGOs with activities directed toward meeting the needs of the poor.
• Service Orientation includes NGOs with activities such as the provision of health, family planning or education services in which the programme is designed by the NGO and people are expected to participate in its implementation and in receiving the service.
• Participatory Orientation is characterized by self-help projects where local people are involved particularly in the implementation of a project by contributing cash, tools, land, materials, labour etc. In the classical community development project, participation begins with the need definition and continues into the planning and implementation stages.
• Empowering Orientation aims to help poor people develop a clearer understanding of the social, political and economic factors affecting their lives, and to strengthen their awareness of their own potential power to control their lives. There is maximum involvement of the beneficiaries with NGOs acting as facilitators.

NGO type by level of cooperation:

• Community-based Organizations (CBOs) arise out of people's own initiatives. They can be responsible for raising the consciousness of the urban poor, helping them to understand their rights in accessing needed services, and providing such services.
• Citywide Organizations include organizations such as chambers of commerce and industry, coalitions of business, ethnic or educational groups, and associations of community organizations.
• National NGOs include national organizations such as the Red Cross, YMCAs/YWCAs, professional associations, etc. Some have state and city branches and assist local NGOs.
• International NGOs range from secular agencies such as Redda Barna and Save the Children organizations, OXFAM, CARE, Ford Foundation, and Rockefeller Foundation to religiously motivated groups. They can be responsible for funding local NGOs, institutions and projects and implementing projects.

Apart from "NGO", there are many alternative or overlapping terms in use, including: third sector organization (TSO), non-profit organization (NPO), voluntary organization (VO), civil society organization (CSO), grassroots organization (GO), social movement organization (SMO), private voluntary organization (PVO), self-help organization (SHO) and non-state actors (NSAs).

Non-governmental organizations are a heterogeneous group. As a result, a long list of additional acronyms has developed, including:

• BINGO: 'Business-friendly International NGO' or 'Big International NGO'
• TANGO: 'Technical Assistance NGO'
• TSO: 'Third Sector Organization'
• GONGO: 'Government-Operated NGOs' (set up by governments to look like NGOs in order to qualify for outside aid or promote the interests of government)
• DONGO: 'Donor Organized NGO'
• INGO: 'International NGO'
• QUANGO: 'Quasi-Autonomous NGO,' such as the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). (The ISO is actually not purely an NGO, since its membership is by nation, and each nation is represented by what the ISO Council determines to be the 'most broadly representative' standardization body of a nation. That body might itself be a nongovernmental organization; for example, the United States is represented in ISO by the American National Standards Institute, which is independent of the federal government. However, other countries can be represented by national governmental agencies; this is the trend in Europe.)
• National NGO: A non-governmental organization that exists only in one country. This term is rare due to the globalization of non-governmental organizations, which causes an NGO to exist in more than one country.
• CSO: 'Civil Society Organization'
• ENGO: 'Environmental NGO,' such as Greenpeace and WWF
• NNGO: 'Northern NGO'
• PANGO: 'Party NGO,' set up by parties and disguised as NGOs to serve their political matters.
• SNGO: 'Southern NGO'
• SCO: 'Social Change Organization'
• TNGO: 'Transnational NGO.' The term emerged during the 1970s due to the increase of environmental and economic issues in the global community. TNGO includes non-governmental organizations that are not confined to only one country, but exist in two or more countries.
• GSO: Grassroots Support Organization
• MANGO: 'Market Advocacy NGO'
• NGDO: 'Non-governmental Development Organization'

USAID refers to NGOs as private voluntary organizations. However, many scholars have argued that this definition is highly problematic as many NGOs are in fact state and corporate funded and managed projects with professional staff

NGOs exist for a variety of reasons, usually to further the political or social goals of their members or founders. Examples include improving the state of the natural environment, encouraging the observance of human rights, improving the welfare of the disadvantaged, or representing a corporate agenda. However, there are a huge number of such organizations and their goals cover a broad range of political and philosophical positions. This can also easily be applied to private schools and athletic organizations.

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Non-governmental organizations (NGOs)

NGOs are difficult to define and classify, and the term 'NGO' is not used consistently. As a result, there are many different classifications in use. The most common NGOs use a framework that includes orientation and level of operation. An NGO's orientation refers to the type of activities it takes on. These activities might include human rights, environmental, or development work. An NGO's level of operation indicates the scale at which an organization works, such as local, regional, international or national.

One of the earliest mentions of the term "NGO" was in 1945, when the United Nations (UN) was created. The UN, which is an inter-governmental organization, made it possible for certain approved specialized international non-state agencies - or non-governmental organizations - to be awarded observer status at its assemblies and some of its meetings. Later the term became used more widely. Today, according to the UN, any kind of private organization that is independent from government control can be termed an "NGO", provided it is not-profit, non-criminal and not simply an opposition political party.

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