Finding Ruby | The Trespass | 3

"Who exactly is on the other side of the webcam? We come face to face with the kind of men exploiting Ruby. "

Just who are these perpetrators who commit this heinous crime, and why? This episode opens a little differently: from the point of view of an overseas perpetrator. If we want to combat this crime, we need to understand something about those who commit it.

We rejoin Ruby as she attempts for the first time to escape the online sex trafficking den.

Ruby reaches an all time low and turns to her last resource: prayer. 

Hope is on the horizon. Although Ruby has no way of knowing it, a team of rescuers is busy preparing the last steps to come for her and the other girls

You won’t want to miss what happens next. 

Issues this episode explores:

• Who are these overseas consumers of OSEC? Is there one ‘type’ of perpetrator? Hint: the answer may shock you.
• Is there any hope of change or rehabilitation for those who commit the crime?

Show website: fightofmy.life

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CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains descriptions of sexual violence. Listener discretion is advised.

Please seek help if you need to.

To speak to a trained crisis supporter at Lifeline (24-hours): 131 114
To report a crime to the Australian Federal Police: 1800 333 000
For emergency assistance: 000

FOR THE PHILIPPINES:
If you have suspicions about the occurrence of online sexual exploitation of children in your community, immediately report to: www.1343actionline.ph

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Finding Ruby is a production of Cadence Productions.

Show written and edited by Nikki Florence Thompson and Rich Thompson. 
Additional production by Lydia Bowden, Anthea Godsmark, and Brendan Ridley. 
Sound design and mix by Rich Thompson and Brendan Ridley. 
Graphic design and social media by Sayaka Miyashita, Carla Moran, and Alyssa Sheridan. 
Director of photography is Brad Conomy. 
Matt Tooker is the executive producer.

Show Music
- "Homeland" by Searching for Light, featuring Jenna Carlie. 

Transcript

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(bright music)- Cadence Productions.- Before we begin, a warning, this podcast contains descriptions of sexual violence. Listener discretion is advised.(dramatic music)- June, 2013, United Kingdom.(gentle music)

- It's around 10: 0:23

00 PM when 67 year old, Mark kisses his wife goodnight. She's fallen asleep again with a book splayed open on her chest. He gently removes it and pauses for a moment to listen to the steady rise and fall of her breath.(gentle music) They've been married for over 30 years, had children and now grandchildren together. Sometimes he thinks he knows her face better than he knows his own.(gentle music) He dims the lights as he leaves their room, but leaves the lamp on in the hallway in case she wakes suddenly. Nightmares, even in old age, are powerful things.(gentle music) The lamp casts a small pool of light. The rest of the hallway is dark, but another light in the living room beckons, not the light of a lamp, but the brighter, more compelling beam of a screen.(footsteps thumping) He is aware of a familiar feeling inside him. Is it power, excitement, freedom? For the next few hours, the whole house is his. He is in charge. The thought pulls him on.♪ Never say ♪(gentle music)- He could sit in the lounge and watch TV of course like he and his wife do so many nights together, but tonight he is restless. He needs a break. He deserves one. That's what he tells himself as he sits down at his desk and clasps the mouse. He lets his fingers make the clicks that take him outside of the house, outside of his ordinary life and somewhere entirely different.♪ All the memories ♪♪ All the words ♪♪ Is all the stuff I'll never say ♪♪ All the memories ♪♪ All the words ♪♪ The stuff I'll never say ♪♪ All the memories ♪♪ All the words ♪♪ All the stuff I'll never say ♪- He didn't intend to come back again. He swore to himself that he wouldn't do anything like that again. The images had been a shock, But for some reason he can't explain or perhaps he doesn't want to, this is where he finds himself now, somewhere even further than he went before, even more exhilarating, even more unstoppable.(keyboard clicking) He cannot, he will not stop. He chooses not to.(keyboard clicking) Tonight, he will use Skype. For in this place, this place of directing live shows, he thinks he cannot be found.(keyboard clicking) He taps the keys that open the door. A few more keys later, and he is going down a corridor he tries not to think about in the daylight.(keyboard clicking) Who will he find tonight? With one last glance over his shoulder, he types in the words that begin it all. He strikes the match."Hello, I like your photo." He waits. Electricity running down his arms now. Mark lean's forward. All tiredness and frustration is suddenly forgotten. He is buzzing with ideas and directions. He runs this show. In no time at all, the match he chose to light has become a burning raging fire.(fire crackling)♪ Far in the distance ♪♪ There's a promise. ♪- From Caden's productions, this is "Finding Ruby."♪ I put it on the alter ♪♪ Though it was mine ♪- A true story of loss and trauma at the hands of one of the world's fastest growing crimes, but also a story of triumph, of rescue and resilience.♪ We're all seeking a homeland ♪♪ We're all seeking a homeland ♪- This is the story of 16-year-old Ruby thrown into the fight of her life and of those who have chosen to come alongside her and make it the fight of their lives too.(gentle music) Episode three, The Trespass.- Okay, I'm gonna ask you a question that this may be impossible to answer. But is the prevalence of the crime growing, that is, is it just that the people who are consuming it are consuming more of it or that there are actually more people consuming it?- Yeah, that's a really good question.- Remember John Tanagho from episode one? He's the executive director of IJM Center to End Online Sexual Exploitation of Children.- The short answer is, no one really knows the scale of online sexual exploitation of children, but we're working with partners to find out.- John and his team have started what they call a Scale of Harm Project. They are working with 24 external partners across child protection, tech, financial research, government, gathering as much information as they can to start being able to measure the prevalence of OSEC. This crime is moving so fast in the shadows that the world is playing catch-up on measuring it. Here's what we do know. There is a stat put out by the FBI that says they believe that at any given moment, there are around 750,000 predators online. 750,000. But here's the thing, that stat is 10 years old. In 2021, the UK National Crime Agency put out a stat that said that there are now about that amount of people in the UK alone that pose a sexual risk to children.- And they said that the scale of this threat continues to grow exacerbated by rising online activity. So there's there's data that indicates the demand for this crime is growing not only in individuals seeking more of it, but in more individuals demanding child sexual abuse materials.(gentle music)- Supply and demand, you'd normally hear these terms in the context of say the housing market or a new product launch. We're talking about children, the supply and demand for children.(gentle music) We looked at the supply side in the last episode, people who are willing to sell their children to earn what is comparatively quite a lot of money. The Philippines is a hotspot for this because there is English fluency, easy access to international money transfers, and of course a really favorable exchange rate. But this crime wouldn't even be a thing if there was no demand for it. If men around the world weren't asking for it. So what is driving this demand? This ferocious rate of growth? We have to at least be asking that question.(gentle music) I don't know how John does his job. He's a dad himself, and he is going up against what seems to be an ever increasing hoard of men, including dads, seeking to harm children. It makes you wonder, how does John do it?- Yeah, I think one thing that I often know for myself and my colleagues in this work is we're close to tears. That's the way I kind of put it. It doesn't take a lot to cry, but they're tears both of pain and sadness, but also tears of joy. So we are actually like... We've come so close to this ugly abuse, this reality in our world, but it's both the highs and the lows, the highs of children being rescued and protected and restored and becoming leaders and getting justice. The lows of knowing there are still children out there being abused and who we don't know where they are yet and who haven't been rescued. But I actually feel like the closer you are to tears, the closer you are to love, because the closer you are to tears, that means the closer you are to meaning and to helping people and you actually get to a place of caring. And so, yeah, I care for myself, but I'm not trying to get to a place of total carefree, peace and joy and no concern in life. Because I feel like if you get to that place, you're actually getting far away from meaning and being able to help people. So I've sort of accepted that I'm gonna be close to tears as I do this work and that's just okay.- This crime makes me despair at the state of so many people, particularly men in our world today. But talking to John, I am reminded that there are of course good men too.- And so that's why the issue of online sexual exploitation of children is really one that, you know, I've committed my life to addressing, to just try to make the world a safer place for children just to be children, just like they deserve.- Until now we've talked in fairly general terms, but just what sort of situations are victims of OSEC exposed to? Well, Colonel Sheila shares an example here of just how far the abuse can extend. And this, in a child's very own home.- We've encountered a case wherein the customer, the foreign customer paid for a mom, the child was ordered to pee and then drink it back. And then after that-- We're going to cut that there because it gets really disturbing. The kind of thing you can't unhear. The kind of thing that makes you wonder at the darkness of some imaginations. And it makes you wonder just who are these consumers, these shadowy men on the other side of the screen.(gentle music) Now that opening we wrote about 67-year-old, Mark committing this crime while his wife slept peacefully in the other room is sadly based on a true story. We've changed his name, but kept everything else in line with what we could find out about him. We're going to hear the rest of his story later in this episode.(gentle music) Now, we don't know if Mark and Ruby's paths crossed online, it all happened at about the same time, but if it wasn't him, it was certainly men just like him. And of course we don't know exactly what he was thinking, what was going through his mind while he committed the crimes. And honestly, it's really disturbing to try and guess.(gentle music) But if we had to have any chance of fighting back and protecting vulnerable children, we need to know who it is that's causing the harm because of course they are humans too all with their own story. So as hard as it is to do, I think we need to spend a little bit of time trying to understand them. Who are these men? Where are they coming from? What brings them here and why?(gentle music)- The Saskatchewan Internet Child Exploitation Unit says the 27-year-old arranged access to video and facilitated live streaming of child pornography in Romania and the Philippines. Police say he did it with help from a number of female suspects in those countries. An investigation in the Philippines is ongoing while the women in Romania have been arrested.- That clip is from Global News, a Canadian news outlet. To date, Canadian Philips Chicoine is one of the worst offenders to be caught. He spent more than $20,000 over five years to pay for the live streamed, often violent sexual exploitation of children in the Philippines and Romania. He was arrested in 2017 when he was just 27 years old and he had more than 10,000 pictures and videos of child sexual abuse in his possession. It was said in court that it's impossible to know how many children were victimized by his actions. Those victims range from children, 14 years old, all the way down to infants. I suppose Philip is close to the kind of person we'd normally imagine when it comes to the consumers of this crime. In the news, he is described as a loner, ostracized at school, and then at work. He lived in his parents' basement. Police raided Philip's home When he was preparing to travel to the Philippines to engage in direct physical abuse. The sheer depth of depravity explored by Philip left the lead investigator, a Corporal Jared Clark, deeply disturbed.- The material in his collection was some of the worst stuff I've ever seen. And like I said, it caused nightmares. It caused me to have trouble even dealing with my own kids at home.- It's really, really dark. Like I said, Philip feels like the quintessential predator. He fits the stereotypes well.(gentle music) But I am slowly beginning to see that one of the key ways we are gonna put an end to OSEC is by first realizing that these predators are not all Philip Chicoines. The hard truth is that offenders come in all shapes and sizes.(gentle music) Back to Mark from the UK, from all that we can read about him, it seems that he had a very successful life. He was retired after spending his years climbing the ladder of his career. He reached financial director level. That's a big deal. He was loved by his church community and spent many days volunteering there. He is a husband, a dad, and a grandfather. It was 2012 when Mark turned himself into the police. He had found himself looking at underaged girls in a corner of the internet he didn't really want to be in. The judge passed a three year community order with a condition that he attended a sex offender group program. The judge said this,"I have taken account of your good character, your guilty plea, and that it was you who notified the police. Go away and don't come back." Mark had to register as a sex offender for five years. And police installed software on his computer to monitor his use. His wife was mortified as was his whole family. Mark himself said he was "totally ashamed and embarrassed." And yet less than a year later, he was back. This time, he was using Skype as he had heard that the installed software couldn't monitor the activity on it. Now I want to stop here because we've all heard stories like this, and perhaps we're numb to them, but it's odd, right? Mark seemed to have it all together. He lived most of his life as far as we can tell as an upstanding member of our society. So what would lead him to start exploiting children? How did he end up down that path and so late in his life?- As I say, we work with thousands of men on the helpline each year. And we work with about 250, 300 guys in face-to-face works following their arrest. And that is a typical story, that they can think of a time in their life when they could never have imagined getting sexually involved in images of children. But their pornography usage has degraded to such an extent that that's where they went.- That's Donald Findlater, Donald is the director of Stop it Now! UK and Ireland. It's a project within the broader children's charity called the Lucy Faithful Foundation based in the UK. Stop it Now! exists to prevent these sexual abuse of children from happening in the first place. One of the services they offer is a confidential help line, both over the phone and via chat functionality. They've set this up in part for men worried about their own sexual thoughts, feelings, and behaviors towards children. This service was set up in the UK after Donald ran a treatment program all the way back in 1995. Donald is a veteran in this area and it's worth listening to what he has to say even if it goes against the grain of our culture. I'm gonna let a part of our chat play out here. At times, the audio can be a little dodgy, so apologies for that. But stick with it, I think you'll find it quite revealing.(gentle music)- We've worked with tens of thousands of people on that basis since we set up Stop it Now! And I think one of the very more recent sort of realizations and recognition which I think the world of research is waking up to is the number of people that are getting involved in viewing sexual images of children from having a previous heavy adult pornography use. Now there is absolutely zero excuse for anyone viewing sexual images of children, no. But we need to understand how do people start that. Some people start it because their primary sex interest is children. So conventionally we might call those people pedophiles. So some people are pedophiles, their sexual interest in children, that's their primary interest or their sole interest and what their online activity will match. But for many people who get involved in viewing sexual images of children, what we see when they're arrested is their online life had a previous saturation of adult pornography. And one of the challenges we have with adult pornography online is that there's a temptation to just keep looking for something different, something else, something more shocking, something kind of like that I wouldn't normally expect to see. And because they're online, you can do that. And unfortunately in people's journeying in that pornography space, some of them will journey into viewing underage images. So they're viewing indecent images of children or child sexual abuse materials from wherever they can find it. And then they can potentially get enmeshed in that world, and that can shift their sexual interest quite materially. So it is that journey, it's not progression, in a way it's deteriorating sexual behaviors into more egregious materials involving violence, involving extreme content, including children that some individuals will get into. And that's a pathway that too many people are on and maybe lots of people viewing adult pornography today don't think that's a journey they'll ever go on. But frankly, rather, a lot of them are over months and years. Some of them will definitely be doing that.(gentle music) What you need to recognize when people are viewing adult pornography, they're in a sexually aroused, sexually excited state. That's a moment for making bad decisions. That's a moment for really making poor judgments and too many people are in that horrendous state, making poor judgments, making bad decisions. And tomorrow morning they will wake up and realize what they've done. And maybe bitterly regret that. And some people will not return, will resolve never to do that again. But unfortunately offending changes offenders. Once you've been in that space, for many there'll be a temptation to go back.(gentle music)- Back to Mark, we don't actually know what led him down the path that he traveled, but it is important to note that even family men who are part of loving environments at home seem to be susceptible to traveling down this path.- It's a tragic story for those guys, but it's additionally tragic for all the children that are adversely impacted by this behavior, but also for the families of those men. Because many of the men we're talking about are regular guys with families, often with children and often their nighttime world is a sinister and a tragic place.(gentle music)- John Tanagho puts it like this.- The best way I can describe it is it's like a fire. The more fuel you add to the fire, the more it grows. Offenders aren't just, you know, satisfying themselves because they've seen new material. They see new material and then it's like going down the rabbit hole, they wanna see more and more and more of it and so the demand continues to grow.- June, 2013, United Kingdom.(suspenseful music)(sirens wailing)(door thudding)- It's nighttime again, but this time Mark's wife isn't asleep.(door thudding) She's woken to a loud noise to find her husband isn't beside her. The bed covers on his side haven't even been touched.(door thudding) She feels a rising panic in her chest. The sound becomes louder, banging. They have a doorbell, why is her husband not answering?(door thudding) She pulls her sleepy legs over the side of the bed, steps unsteadily down onto the rug. She makes her way on heavy feet to the living room where her husband is bent over the computer, his face red and flushed, his movements erratic, desperate."What's going on?" She asks, pleads.(door thudding)(sirens wailing) The noise is louder and the police through the door before he can answer. She doesn't need to ask any more questions. She can see all the answers on her husband's face. So much less and so much more than she needs to know. It is like a movie, like someone else's life as she watches them take him by the arms and say the words that change their lives again.- You are under arrest.- Her husband of 35 years, her children's father, her grandchildren's grandfather is now a stranger. A stranger on his way to jail for acts he cannot even begin to imagine.(gentle music) Months later, as she sits in the courtroom, the bench beneath her back hard and cold. Mark's wife can hardly believe the man on trial is someone she once knew, someone she lived with, someone she had loved or thought she did. Someone who would willfully hurt children, not just hurt them, no it is worse than that, destroy them. She listens to the charges as they are read and wonders if she will ever be able to stop the echo of them in her mind. The judge's words are like bullets, but they are true. She knows that now. Her husband, he says, was a serious risk to children and arranging the abuse for his own gratification was unspeakably vile. The judge sums it up like this. The cold-hearted cruelty of it is beyond comprehension.(gentle music) Yes, this is true, it is incomprehensible. How did they ever arrive here? What will everyone think? Members of their church, their children, grandchildren. How will she ever face anyone again?(gavel thudding) Mark is sentenced to 14 years in prison. She won't have to see him anymore, this is something. But in a way, it is like she is now in prison too. Again, this retelling of Mark's story is based on a true story. We've included as many of the facts as we could find through our research. In this case, Mark's arrest came on the back of what was known as Operation Endeavor. This global coordinated strike led to 29 arrests across 12 countries. There is a collective sigh of relief when someone like Mark is put behind bars. A wrong has been made right. It is a satisfying result, but of course a much better result would've been stopping him earlier before any of the damage or harm or abuse had been done in the first place.- (pants) You knew you were dying from the start. (sighs)- We're all dying from the start, I just got moved to the head of the line.- But you lied to me.- I would've lied to myself if I thought I'd believe it.- (pants) So this whole thing, this whole summer having me here was for your sake, having me here trying to get me to like you.- No, Sam, I wasn't trying to get you to like me. I was trying to get you to love me.- Well, congratulations, because you pulled it off.- We talked about crying before. Well, it's about here in the movie, "Life is a House" that the ugly crying starts for me. Kevin Kline finally wins his rebellious son, Hayden Christensen over, and the relationship is given a chance. The term ugly crying is about right, hey, where your face kinda gives up on you. You seem to no longer have control over your facial muscles or the awkward sounds escaping from your mouth. It's not an enjoyable moment, is it? I mean, you don't want to look or sound like that, but every now and then the movie writers will manage to tug at the heartstrings in just the ride sequence and in an instant, you're gone. Heartstrings, whatever we mean by that, are a very powerful force. I bring this up because during the chat, Donald said something very interesting. Something that has really stayed with me since. He said one of the best weapons they have in rescuing men from going down this path of destruction is their heartstrings.(gentle music)- But they also need to understand the harm to children that all these things do, and we need to tug on their heartstrings. And most of them have heartstrings, they've just turned off something, which we need to turn back on again to making sure they realize illegality and the harm. But also after all of that, we need to show them help is available to stop.(gentle music) I work for a child protection charity. I want children to be safe. And if that involves the guys that have caused the harm going to prison, then I don't bat an eyelid about that having to be the case. But I also want people to take responsibility to prevent sexual crimes. So we need there to be a place where they can contact. And change is utterly feasible. I mean, that's been my business for 30 years, helping those who commit sexual offending to change and to realize a different way of living. Just as if people gorge on adult pornography then start into child abuse materials online that can shift their sexual interests materially, we can shift it back again. So we have to have an appetite for doing that and have to offer services that will achieve that. I'm not pretending these are easy steps, but they're achievable steps if we invest in them seriously. And frankly, children are important enough that we have no choice but to invest in them. We have to do that.(gentle music)- As I listen to Donald, I found myself again so thankful for men like him. He has given his life to being on the coal face and not just dismissing the perpetrators of this crime, but instead coming alongside them in order to protect children.(gentle music) It seems a story like Ruby's is full of good guys and bad guys, but where that line is, where one side starts and the other finishes and what sits in between and the possibility that there can be movement between the two poles, is definitely worth considering. Because to be dealt with, evil must first be exposed. Nothing good can grow when hidden in darkness.- July 11th, 2013.- For two months now Ruby has performed live in front of the cameras for the customers. Eight hours a day, six days a week, she has been subjected to the whims of these men. Nadine's right hand woman is there to ensure she complies with whatever is asked of her. She does her best not to look at them. She does not. She cannot remember their faces. What she does remember is how they make her feel.- I was really disgusted, like literally disgusted. You know, when I say disgusted, it's beyond that feeling that I felt towards those customers. Like, you know, they would do anyways, you know, like just to, you know, satisfy themselves.- When she hears those sirens, the sirens going past the house that suggests the first real possibility of escape, it is like an alarm that awakens her. She is sure they will hear her if only she can make enough noise. She charges to the front door and bangs on it with all her might and screams for help at the top of her lungs.(sirens wailing)(door thudding) A few things happen next in quick succession. Firstly, the boss's right hand sprints to the kitchen and grabs a small carving knife. Then she runs to the front door, turns Ruby and forces her against the door. She puts the knife against Ruby's throat and she has fury in her eyes.- She actually told me, you know, "If you won't stop, I will kill you." She actually looked like she would kill me any time. She doesn't care at all. I'm not her relatives. And no one would know if I get killed there. No one would really know.(suspenseful music)- The second thing that happens is that all the other girls come out to see what the noise is. They stand silently watching on.- And I was actually hoping that the other girls would take my side because they would also want to escape, but nobody did. When I looked around, they were also scared and I didn't see any sympathy.- And the third thing that happens is that the sound of the sirens, the sound of hope recedes into the distance, taking Ruby's sole chance of escape with them.- And at the moment actually I felt very weak. I dunno if you've experienced already that, you know, your knees are shaking your nerves. And I dunno where my strength suddenly left my body.- Somehow Ruby manages to make her way to the bathroom where she lets her whole body collapse. She feels all her energy leave her, seeping out of her onto the tiles and down the drain. All she can see again, and again is the glint of the knife so close to her skin, the woman could've killed her and no one would've known, no one, because the fact is no one knows she is even here. She wonders if this is indeed the end.(suspenseful music) It is at this point, the end of her rope, that Ruby finds herself doing something she has never done before.- I cried out loud. I couldn't even see clearly because my tears were really filling my eyes and I could not stop myself from crying. So I just cried out with the Lord. Maybe, you know, at that moment, I was thinking maybe He could hear me. So I cried out. I said, "Lord, God, if you are real, please take me out of here." So those were the last lines that I was able to say before I actually fell asleep from crying. I was feeling very pity. I was feeling very bit pitiful, so hopeless and so dark.- The cold tiles become her bed. Desperate loneliness is her blanket. If only she knew then what the morning would bring, perhaps she would've stayed awake. For in that very moment, as Ruby lay there on the bathroom floor, in her moment of greatest desperation, there was a small group of people meeting together on the other side of town. There were police officers, investigators, lawyers, and aftercare workers, and they were putting together the final plans for the rescue that would take place the very next morning.(gentle music) On the next episode of "Finding Ruby."- The technical guy shouted that there's a police like the house is getting raid.♪ Far in the distance, there's a promise ♪- Finding Ruby is a project of Cadence, a creative agency for good in Sydney, Australia.♪ We're all waiting in the in between ♪♪ We're all seeking a homeland ♪- This podcast is written and edited by Nikki Florence Thompson and me, Rich Thompson. Sound design and mix by me and Brendan Ridley. Our theme song is "Homeland" by Searching for Light. A special thanks to Lydia Bowden, Evelyn Pingul, Meryl Saco, Lani Alana and all the team at IJM Philippines for opening the doors to us. And of course a big thanks to Ruby for telling her story. And finally, a big thanks to you for choosing to come on this journey with us. We'll see you on the next episode.(gentle music)