An Australian man has been sentenced to 129 years in jail in the Philippines for a child abuse case involving victims as young as 18 months.
“I hope this sends a very strong message to all abusers, all human traffickers, that crime really does not pay,” Merlynn Barola-Uy, a regional prosecutor in the southern city of Cagayan de Oro told AFP. Peter Gerard Scully is already serving a sentence for rape and trafficking the girls.
Experts say the Philippines has become a global hotspot for child sex exploitation.
The 59-year-old paedophile from Melbourne was convicted with his Filipina girlfriend Lovely Margallo, who was sentenced to 126 years. Scully has been charged with attempted human trafficking, syndicated child pornography, child abuse, rape, and photo and video voyeurism.
Scully and his Filipino accomplices enticed several children from poor families to his house, where he repeatedly abused and exploited them on several occasions from 2011 to 2014. At least eight children from ages 1 to 13 have been exploited by Scully.
Videos of the incidents were made and uploaded on porn websites. Two victims who escaped were held. They were chained and sexually abused. Two of Scully's Filipino accomplices have been given nine-year sentences each.
"This is a big victory, not only for us prosecutors in the Department of Justice, but more importantly this is a big victory for the victim-survivors," Barola-Uy said.
