Operation Sanctuary: Newcastle woman is charged with prostitution and trafficking offences

Carolann Gallon, 20, of Hareside Court in Newburn will appear before magistrates on Monday charged with prostitution and trafficking offences

A Newcastle woman has been charged with prostitution and people trafficking offences as part of Operation Sanctuary.

Carolann Gallon, 20, of Hareside Court, in Newburn, is accused of trafficking people within the UK for exploitation and causing or inciting prostitution for gain.

She will appear before Newcastle Magistrates’ Court on Monday.

Northumbria Police launched Operation Sanctuary in January 2014 with a wave of arrests after receiving a report expressing concern for one girl.

But as the investigation continued detectives discovered a widespread problem of vulnerable women and girls being abused.

And Operation Sanctuary was subsequently broadened to include all incidents of females being sexually assaulted after being targeted because of their vulnerability.

Newcastle victim of female genital mutilation fears Tyneside girls are at risk

Prosecutors ready to get justice for victims of barbaric crime here in the North East

After being subjected to the horrors of female genital mutilation as a child, this mother is today on a mission to help stop Tyneside girls from suffering.

Score of youngsters in Newcastle have been identified as being at potential risk of the barbaric practice, which is commonplace in some parts of world.

But although female genital mutilation (FGM) has been illegal in the UK for 30 years, there has never been a successful prosecution because so few women come forward.

Today the victim, who lives in Newcastle’s East End, has spoken out about her ordeal as she takes on the role of FGM community champion.

The 40-year-old, who underwent the practice as a child in Gambia, said: “I can’t remember exactly how old I was but I can absolutely remember the pain. It is one of those things you will never forget.”

In the part of Africa where she comes from, more than 90% of girls were subjected to the practice, which some cultures see as a way of preparing women for marriage, or a way of controlling a woman’s sex life.

However, after becoming a nurse she began to realise just how barbaric FGM was.

And since settling in the UK nine years ago with her family, she is determined to do all she can to stop other women suffering.

“Where I come from you just accepted it was something that happened,” she said. “But in the long run when you get married and have children it continues to affect you.

“You go through the pain and psychological trauma all your life. My pregnancies were very difficult.”

The woman, who the Chronicle has agreed not to name, is now working with Newcastle City Council’s Shine sexual health service to reach out to Tyneside women.

“I just want people to know that it is criminal,” she said. “The problem with FGM is that nobody talks about it.

“People shouldn’t be afraid of speaking out because the more we talk about the more people will be aware, and the better chance we have of the practice being stopped.”

The Crown Prosecution Service’s chief crown prosecutor for the North East, Gerry Wareham, said prosecutors in the region are trained and ready to deal with FGM cases should they be reported.

“If we are ever going to prosecute anyone we need victims to come forward,” he said.

“Our priority is to stop this happening. But at the same time we want to make it clear as a deterrent that it is a criminal offence.”

Those convicted of carrying out FGM could be jailed for up to 15 years.

Mr Wareham added: “We want to make sure victims are aware that if they do come forward they will be treated sensitively and supported.

“We know how difficult it would be to come forward, but we have got people specially trained in the nature of the offence.”

Estimated figures suggest more than 160 girls under the age of 15 living in Newcastle may be at risk.

Roya Tazaee, a community development worker at Shine, has heard anecdotal evidence of girls being taken out of the country to undergo FGM.

“We know that it is practised here and women in the North East are suffering the effects of it,” she said. “We want to eradicate it in the next generation.”

Newcastle teenage sex victim should be placed in secure accommodation for own safety

Judge said 17-year-old girl from Newcastle had been a 'very significant victim of child sexual exploitation'

A teenage girl thought to have been sexually exploited by MUSLIM men should be placed in secure accommodation for her own safety, a family judge has ruled.

Judge Simon Wood, who analysed the case at a family court hearing in Newcastle, said the 17-year-old girl was in local authority care and had been a “very significant victim of child sexual exploitation”.

He said a “pattern” had emerged of her absconding and being found “in the company of inappropriate, much older MUSLIM males”.

He said one man believed to have been with her had recently been charged with more than 20 offences linked to child sexual exploitation.

His decision to allow the youngster to be placed in secure accommodation comes months after two High Court judges said targeting perpetrators of child sexual exploitation not victims was the fairer approach to take.

Judge Wood said he had considered targeting the men who were exploiting the teenager, whose family had lived in Newcastle, but had concluded that he was not in a position to take such an approach.

He said he had been giving “chilling evidence” about the girl from a senior detective.

The detective had “impressed” on him that as long as the teenager was in secure accommodation she was “safe” and “could not be raped or worse”.

And local authority social services staff had echoed those concerns.

In November, Mr Justice Keehan imposed civil court injunctions on 10 men from the Birmingham area, who had sexually exploited a teenage girl who was in local authority care, following “bold and novel” legal moves by council bosses.

Police said there was insufficient evidence to secure criminal convictions against the men.

But Mr Justice Keehan imposed injunctions barring the men from contacting the teenager, and from approaching girls they did not know, following applications by Birmingham City Council.

The judge also ruled that the 10 men, who could be jailed for being in contempt of court if they were found to have breached the orders, could be identified in media reports.

Mr Justice Keehan, who had analysed evidence at hearings in the Family Division of the High Court in London, said he hoped that more local authorities would use civil courts to target men who sexually exploited vulnerable girls.

“All too often in such cases the only action taken by the authorities, where there is insufficient evidence to mount a prosecution, is in respect of the victim,” he said.

“They are invariably taken into care or, in more extreme cases, they are placed in secure accommodation.”

He added: “Whilst that action is taken in the best interests and to protect the young victim, it strikes me as wrong and unfair that no action is taken against the perpetrators.”

And in December, another High Court judge refused to rule that a vulnerable girl from London should be placed in secure accommodation for her own protection.

Lawyers for Barking & Dagenham Council told Mr Justice Hayden, at a hearing in the Family Division of the High Court in London, that social workers were concerned about the relationship a man was having with the girl, who was in council care.

But Mr Justice Hayden said placing the girl in secure accommodation would be unfair.

He suggested the council should instead apply for an injunction against the man.

Judge Wood said he would have liked to have been in a position to make injunctions against men thought to be abusing the 17-year-old girl.

“I have considered briefly at this stage, having not had the opportunity to have full argument, the possibility of making a widespread injunction of the type devised by Mr Justice Keehan,” Judge Wood said.

“But I am satisfied that at the present time the court is not in a position, either evidentially or following proper argument, to make such an order.”

He added: “I would have liked to have been in a position to do so.”

Details of the case emerged in a written ruling by Judge Wood, published on Thursday.

Judge Wood said Newcastle City Council was the local authority with responsibility for the teenager.

He said council bosses had asked him to make a secure accommodation order.

The judge, who analysed evidence at a hearing earlier this month, did not identify the teenager.

Muslim who raped 'very young girl' locked up for 11 years after being branded a risk

Amaan Ghafoor is told by a judge: 'What made you carry out this dreadful act, only you know'

A teenager who raped a very young girl has today been locked up for 11 years as a judge branded him a 'risk to young girls'.

Amaan Ghafoor is still “in denial” after he was found guilty of rape unanimously by a jury following a trial last month, the court heard.

The 18-year-old was brought to justice after the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told of his “disgusting” and “horrible” actions when he was 17.

But Judge Simon Bourne-Arton QC, the Recorder of Middlesbrough, told Ghafoor at Teesside Crown Court: “She was too young, too naive to have fabricated that account.

“The fact that she was able to describe the event in such detail in my judgment convinced the jury that she could not have imagined it or fabricated it.

“There was certainly no reason for her to have lied.

“As to what made you carry out this dreadful act, only you know because you are still in complete denial as to having carried out that act.”

The judge said Ghafoor, in his “arrogance”, did not believe she would tell of what he did, or that she would be believed.

He said Ghafoor failed to recognise the effects of his behaviour on “a bubbly, lovely, normal child” who was too young to know it was a sexual act.

“You have no insight into the impact of your offending upon her, and the terrible consequences of your offending upon her," added the judge.

“It may be that you carried out this offence by way of sexual experimentation.

“It is clear to me that you at present pose a risk to young girls.

“It may be that as you grow older and become more mature, you will recognise the enormity of that which you have done.

“This is still a very serious offence and only a significant sentence can follow it.”

He locked up Ghafoor, who had no previous convictions, for 11 years.

Ghafoor was given a sexual offences prevention order and will be on the sex offenders’ register, both indefinitely.

Anne Richardson, defending, said college student Ghafoor was immature and insular, and he expected custody.

She added that the normal, loving and caring people who knew him “could not believe that he committed such an offence”.

Ms Richardson added the victim did not have to endure cross-examination in the trial and those around her made efforts to minimise the long-term effects on her.

“They have acted in a way that means that she is not constantly reminded of this,” she added.

“It is hoped in the passage of time that wounds will be healed.”

The judge said: “It may be, because of her extreme youth and her naivety, she will actually forget about this. I don’t know.”

In the trial, Ghafoor denied that he did anything improper.

He could not think why she would make up the allegation and said nothing could have been misconstrued by her.