Children as young as seven are being coerced by abusers into filming themselves carrying out the most severe forms of child sexual abuse material, a charity has warned.
Analysts at child protection charity the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) found nearly 900 instances of Category A child sexual abuse material in just five days.
It is urging the government to return the repeatedly delayed Online Safety Bill to parliament.
The IWF’s chief executive Susie Hargreaves said the charity shared details of the material to “drive home the stark reality of the situation” and said the government must reintroduce the Online Safety Bill to protect children.
The bill will require online platforms to find and take down illegal content to protect users, in particular children.
Findings from the report:
Material included sexual penetration with household objects in some instances
All of the content found had been shared online by an abuser who had coerced a child via an internet-connected device with a camera when they were remote to the child
Children aged 11 to 13 accounted for 75% of the images recorded, while 20% were of seven to 10-year-olds and 5% were children aged 14 to 15
The IWF identifies and removes online images and videos of child abuse and offers the public a place to report abuse anonymously.
On the IWF’s latest findings, Ms Hargreaves said: “This shocking data serves to blast away any illusion that this imagery is simply children naturally exploring their sexuality.
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“The ordinariness of the items being used for the sexual pleasure of those watching, combined with the evidence of everyday childhood life in these images, drives home the stark reality of the situation.”
‘Predators gaining unprecedented access’
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She said it is “vital” the bill is returned to parliament and that further delays “threaten” the bill’s future and opportunities to protect children online.
“Predators are gaining unprecedented access to our children in places where we think they should be safe and protected,” she added.
The IWF identifies and removes online images and videos of child abuse and offers the public a place to report abuse anonymously.
The abuse is ‘inherently preventable’
Sir Peter Wanless, chief executive of the NSPCC, said despite the disturbing findings, “we cannot shy away from the fact that this is the reality of online child sexual abuse and is happening on a daily basis in family homes across the country”.
He added that the abuse is “inherently preventable” and “should serve as a wake-up call to the prime minister.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “Child sexual abuse is a horrific crime against the most vulnerable in our society. We are leaving no stone unturned to pursue offenders and keep children safe online and in our communities.
“The Online Safety Bill is a key measure in this regard, as it will ensure companies take proactive action to keep children safe from child sexual abuse and exploitation on their platforms.”
What you need to know is this. The budget has not gone down well in financial markets. Indeed, it’s gone down about as badly as any budget in recent years, save for Liz Truss’s mini-budget.
The pound is weaker. Government bond yields (essentially, the interest rate the exchequer pays on its debt) have gone up.
That’s precisely the opposite market reaction to the one chancellors like to see after they commend their fiscal statements to the house.
In hindsight, perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised.
After all, the new government just committed itself to considerably more borrowing than its predecessors – about £140bn more borrowing in the coming years. And that money has to be borrowed from someone – namely, financial markets.
But those financial markets are now reassessing how keen they are to lend to the UK.
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The upshot is that the pound has fallen quite sharply (the biggest two-day fall in trade-weighted sterling in 18 months) and gilt yields – the interest rate paid by the government – have risen quite sharply.
This was all beginning to crystallise shortly after the budget speech, with yields beginning to rise and the pound beginning to weaken, the moment investors and economists got their hands on the budget documentation.
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Chancellor challenged over gilt yield spike
But the falls in the pound and the rises in the bond yields accelerated today.
This is not, to be absolutely clear, the kind of response any chancellor wants to see after a budget – let alone their first budget in office.
Indeed, I can’t remember another budget which saw as hostile a market response as this one in many years – save for one.
That exception is, of course, the Liz Truss/Kwasi Kwarteng mini-budget of 2022. And here is where you’ll find the silver lining for Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves.
The rises in gilt yields and falls in sterling in recent hours and days are still far shy of what took place in the run up and aftermath of the mini-budget. This does not yet feel like a crisis moment for UK markets.
But nor is it anything like good news for the government. In fact, it’s pretty awful. Because higher borrowing rates for UK debt mean it (well, us) will end up paying considerably more to service our debt in the coming years.
And that debt is about to balloon dramatically because of the plans laid down by the chancellor this week.
And this is where things get particularly sticky for Ms Reeves.
In that budget documentation, the Office for Budget Responsibility said the chancellor could afford to see those gilt yields rise by about 1.3 percentage points, but then when they exceeded this level, the so-called “headroom” she had against her fiscal rules would evaporate.
In other words, she’d break those rules – which, recall, are considerably less strict than the ones she inherited from Jeremy Hunt.
Which raises the question: where are those gilt yields right now? How close are they to the danger zone where the chancellor ends up breaking her rules?
Short answer: worryingly close. Because, right now, the yield on five-year government debt (which is the maturity the OBR focuses on most) is more than halfway towards that danger zone – only 56 basis points away from hitting the point where debt interest costs eat up any leeway the chancellor has to avoid breaking her rules.
Now, we are not in crisis territory yet. Nor can every move in currencies and bonds be attributed to this budget.
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Markets are volatile right now. There’s lots going on: a US election next week and a Bank of England decision on interest rates next week.
The chancellor could get lucky. Gilt yields could settle in the coming days. But, right now, the UK, with its high level of public and private debt, with its new government which has just pledged to borrow many billions more in the coming years, is being closely scrutinised by the “bond vigilantes”.
Sara Sharif’s stepmother sent her sister some pictures of the 10-year-old looking bruised and miserable – and told her to “delete” them, a court has heard.
“Look what he’s doing,” Beinash Batool told Qandeela Saboohi, referring to the beatings Sara was allegedly getting from her father, Urfan Sharif.
“Delete the pictures.”
A series of WhatsApp messages exchanged between 2020 and 2023, in which Batool told her sister about the physical attacks Sharif was allegedly inflicting on his daughter, were read out to a jury at the Old Bailey.
Batool repeatedly told her sister that Sharif was hitting Sara for being “naughty”, “rude and rebellious”, and because she had cut up his clothes, hidden keys and torn up documents.
Batool, 30, Urfan Sharif, 42, and Sara’s uncle, 29-year-old Faisal Malik, are accused of carrying out a campaign of abuse culminating in Sara’s murder on 8 August last year.
As early as February 2020, Batool described Sharif as going on a “rampage” after spilling hot tea, saying he was “possessed”.
Writing about 10 photographs of Sara, she wrote: “This is how bad he is beating her… I feel really sorry for her. He beat the crap out of her.”
On another occasion, Batool said Sharif “went ballistic” and “beat Sara up like crazy”. She expressed fears he could break an arm or leg.
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In May 2021, Batool told Ms Saboohi: “Not great in our house, it’s all a bit manic. Urfan beat the crap out of Sara and my mind is all in bits. I really want to report him.
“Why the hell doesn’t Urfan learn – she’s covered in bruises, literally beaten black.”
Afterwards, Sharif sat “on his fat bum” and played the board game Ludo, she said.
She went on: “Why the hell I’m even letting him in the house. I’m sorry for Sara, poor girl cannot walk. She literally fainted in the kitchen in the morning. He made her do sit-ups all night.”
Asked what Sara had done, Batool said: “Because she hid the keys.”
By 2022, Batool said she was planning to get some “legal advice” but was advised by her sister to give it time and not to rush.
In an update later that year, Batool said she was thinking about taking Sara out of school, saying: “I don’t want to but kinda don’t have a choice.
“I’m just fed up of her behaviour and Urfan’s. Sara’s body is literally bruised because Urfan beat her up. I cannot even cover it up.
“He beat Sara up yesterday and I can’t send her to school on Monday looking like that.
“She ripped Urfan’s documents in front of him and was being rude and rebellious.”
Referring to an image of Sara in a hijab, Batool wrote: “You haven’t even seen her body, it’s a whole lot worse.”
Days later, she said Sara’s school was worried about her and Sharif was “stressed” about it.
In an apparent reference to Sara’s injuries, she wrote: “Urfan told me to cover it up with makeup and she’s going to wear sunglasses.”
Two months before Sara died, Batool referred to “Sara’s antics”, telling her sister: “Urfan beat the crap out of Sara… Yeah, he beat her up like crazy.
“Her oxygen level dropped really low, she’s finding it hard to stay awake.”
Asked if Sharif had hit her on the head, Batool said: “Nah, but she’s breathing really rapidly.”
The day before Sara died, Ms Saboohi tried to make contact but Batool told her she was “not in the mood to speak”.
Two days later, the defendants were captured on CCTV as they prepared to board a flight to Pakistan from Heathrow Airport.
That CCTV has now been shown to the jury.
On 10 August last year, police found Sara’s body in a bunkbed after Sharif called from Pakistan to say he had beaten her up “too much” for “being naughty”.
William Emlyn Jones KC, the prosecutor, has previously told jurors it was disputed whether messages Batool sent to two of her sisters were accurate or gave a full picture.
All three defendants, formerly of Hammond Road in Woking in Berkshire, have denied murder and causing or allowing the death of a child between 16 December 2022 and 9 August 2023.
Company bosses said the firm had lost clothbound Cheddar worth more than £300,000 after it was conned by a fraudulent buyer posing as a legitimate wholesale distributor for a major French retailer.
Neal’s Yard Dairy added it only discovered the person’s identity was fake after a total of 950 cheeses were delivered.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said on Thursday that investigating officers arrested a man on suspicion of fraud by false representation and handling stolen goods.
It said the 63-year-old was then “taken to a south London police station where he was questioned”.
The force added the man “has since been bailed pending further inquiries”.
Neal’s Yard Dairy said the three types of artisan cheeses stolen were Hafod Welsh Organic Cheddar, Westcombe Cheddar, and Pitchfork Cheddar.
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It added the cheeses “have won numerous awards and are amongst the most sought-after artisan cheeses in the UK”, and suggested their “high monetary value” made them “a particular target for the thieves”.
Despite what it described as a “significant financial blow”, Neal’s Yard Dairy said it had honoured its commitment to its small-scale suppliers and had already paid the three artisan cheesemakers in full.
Two days after the theft became public, the firm thanked supporters for their messages and visits to its stores, and said: “We are truly touched that so many people in the artisan cheese community and beyond are standing with us.”
He noted on Instagram that the amount of Cheddar stolen equaled the entire annual production of Hafod cheese, “potentially creating a significant gap in the artisanal cheese market”.
Westcombe Dairy’s Tom Calver also shared a video showing the inside of the dairy, pointing to the empty shelves behind him to show how much cheese had been stolen.
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“I feel a bit strange about it, actually,” Mr Calver said on Instagram. “Out of all the stuff to steal. Cheddar.
“It almost feels like an honour that it has got such value.”
He said Westcombe Cheddar was aged for 12 to 18 months, and that the stolen cheese was produced 15 months ago.
“What worries me is the trust element in things,” he said. “At the end of the day, what we need to have is more trust in the food supply system, rather than less of it.
“I hope more people will want to know where their food comes from.”