Peter Scully

Peter Gerard Scully (born 13 January 1963) is an Australian man imprisoned for life in the Philippines after being convicted of one count of human trafficking and five counts of rape by sexual assault of underage girls.[2] He is pending trial for other crimes against children, including the production and dissemination of child pornography, torture, and the alleged murder of an 11-year-old girl.

Peter Scully
Mugshot of Peter Scully in 2015 with middle name misspelled as "Gerald"
Born
Peter Gerard Scully[1]

(1963-01-13) 13 January 1963
Melbourne, Australia
Known forChild pornography, hurtcore
Height1.84 m (6 ft 0 in)
Criminal statusConvicted
Children2
Criminal chargeHuman trafficking, rape, murder
PenaltyLife sentence
Details
Victims75
CountryPhilippines
Date apprehended
20 February 2015
Imprisoned atCagayan de Oro City jail

Alleged criminal activities

Peter Scully lived in the Narre Warren suburb of Melbourne with his wife and two children prior to fleeing to the City of Manila, Philippines, in 2011[1][3] before he could be charged with his involvement in a property scheme that cost investors over $2.68 million.[1] According to his own statement, he was sexually abused by a priest in Victoria when he grew up.[3] Prior to leaving Melbourne, he operated an unlicensed online escort service which offered his Malaysian girlfriend as a sex worker. The Australian Securities and Investment Commission also found Scully involved in 117 fraud and deception offenses relating to real estate scams from an investigation started in 2009.[1]

Sexual abuse of children

From the island of Mindanao, Scully is alleged to have built up a lucrative international child sexual abuse ring that offered pay-per-view video streams of children being tortured and sexually abused on the dark web. Among the victims who had their ordeals recorded and sold over the Internet was an 18-month-old infant who was hung upside down while Scully and two accomplices raped and tortured her.[4]

Victims were procured by Scully with promises to impoverished parents of work, education, or were solicited by his two Filipino girlfriends, Carme Ann Alvarez and Liezyl Margallo,[3] and other female acquaintances such as Maria Dorothea Chi y Chia.[5] Both Alvarez and Margallo also abused children in Scully's videos.

In 2016, prosecutors in Cagayan de Oro, Philippines alleged that Scully and a girlfriend coaxed two teenage girls to come to Scully's house with the promise of food.[3] Scully was alleged to have given the girls alcohol and forced them to perform sex acts on each other which he photographed and filmed.[3] The prosecutor alleged that when the girls tried to escape, Scully forced them to dig graves in the basement of the house and threatened that he would bury them there.[3] After five days, the girls were released by the girlfriend who began feeling remorse after coming home to see the two in pet collars and reported what had happened.[3]

Dark web child pornography

Scully operated a secret dark web child pornography website known as "No limits fun" ("NLF").[3] The most notorious video Scully produced was Daisy's Destruction, which he sold on his site to clients for up to $10,000.[3] Made in 2012, the multi-part video is so extreme that it was for some time regarded as an urban legend.[6] It features the torture and brutal rape of a number of girls by Scully and some Filipina accomplices; the three main victims were Liza (aged 12), Cindy (11) and Daisy (18 months).[7] Urged on by Scully, some of the most severe physical abuse was carried out on the children by one of his girlfriends, then 19-year-old Liezyl Margallo, who was formerly prostituted as a child.[8] In the video, Margallo victimizes Daisy.[9]

Prior to the video gaining attention by the general public, Scully broadcast Daisy's Destruction privately on a pay-per-view basis. Matthew Graham, with access to the video, eventually publicized it some time after its production.[10] Due to the content, it quickly garnered attention by law enforcement and media alike. The Dutch National Child Exploitation Team was the first to open an investigation with the goal of locating the victims. Subsequently, an international manhunt for those responsible for the video's production was launched. Scully was eventually tracked to Malaybalay City in the Philippines and arrested on 20 February 2015. Investigators had six warrants for his arrest,[9] all relating to the abduction and sexual abuse of the two cousins.[3] While they searched for Scully in the Philippines, investigators managed to uncover the fates of the three primary victims in Daisy's Destruction. Liza was found to be alive as was Daisy, though her treatment had been so vicious that she has lasting physical injuries. Eleven-year-old Cindy had been murdered, allegedly by Scully.[9] Before being strangled to death with a rope, the girl was subjected to bouts of rape and torture and was made to dig her own grave. According to Margallo, Scully videotaped himself killing Cindy.[9]

Among those who acquired the video was one of the biggest-ever purveyors of child pornography, Scully's fellow Australian Matthew David Graham, better known by his online pseudonym Lux. Apprehended at age 22, he ran a series of "hurtcore" child pornography sites.[11][12] Graham said he got the video so he could use it to attract more viewers to his network of websites.

Criminal charges

Scully faced a total of 75 charges[3] and, according to German television news channel n-tv, was alleged to have sexually abused 75 children.[13] He was on trial with others who assisted in the production of his pornography, including four men: German Christian Rouche, Filipinos Alexander Lao and Althea Chia, and Brazilian Haniel Caetano de Oliveira.[4][14][15] Margaret Akullo, then-Project Coordinator for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and an expert on child abuse investigations,[16] described the case as "horrific" and the worst she had ever heard of.

In a March 2015 interview with Tara Brown on 60 Minutes, Scully said that he is currently writing a tell-all journal in prison where he will reflect on his motivations for raping young children.[17]

In October 2015, a fire severely damaged the evidence room containing Scully's computer logs and videos, destroying key evidence.[18] Some believe Scully may have bribed a local police officer,[19][20] as corruption in the Philippines was rife as of the 2010s.[21] On 13 June 2018, Scully and his girlfriend Alvarez were sentenced to life in prison.[22] Both Scully and his sister complained about the conditions in the jail Scully is held.[3]

See also

References
  1. Mills, Tammy; Vedelago, Chris; Murdoch, Lindsay (6 March 2015). "Alleged pedophile Peter Gerard Scully fled a sordid past in Melbourne". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 19 July 2017. Retrieved 11 July 2017.
  2. "Australian Peter Scully given life sentence for human trafficking, rape in Philippines, reports say". ABC News (Australia). 14 June 2018. Archived from the original on 18 June 2018. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
  3. Murdoch, Lindsay (20 September 2016). "Death penalty call for accused Australian child sex predator Peter Scully in Philippines". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 3 July 2017. Retrieved 11 July 2017.
  4. Sutton, Candace (23 September 2016). "Australian child molester Peter Scully faces death penalty in Philippines". news.com.au. Archived from the original on 6 July 2017. Retrieved 11 July 2017.
  5. Mendoza, Greanne (17 February 2017). "Another suspect linked to Australian sex fiend arrested". ABS-CBN News. Archived from the original on 29 June 2017. Retrieved 11 July 2017.
  6. Waugh, Rob (26 September 2016). "What is Daisy's Destruction? 'Snuff film' urban legend actually exists". Metro. Archived from the original on 10 July 2017. Retrieved 11 July 2017.
  7. Brown, Tara (16 March 2015). "Catching a monster: The global manhunt for alleged paedophile Peter Gerard Scully". 9news.com.au. Archived from the original on 9 July 2017. Retrieved 11 July 2017.
  8. Alipon, Joworski; Andrade, Angelo (27 January 2017). "Filipina behind brutal 'Daisy' sex videos arrested". ABS-CBN News. Archived from the original on 25 June 2017. Retrieved 11 July 2017.
  9. Brown, Tara (2015). "Catching a Monster". 60 Minutes. Nine News. Part 1 Archived 14 April 2019 at the Wayback Machine - Part 2 Archived 7 November 2019 at the Wayback Machine
  10. Daly, Max (19 February 2018). "Inside the Repulsive World of 'Hurtcore', the Worst Crimes Imaginable". Vice. Archived from the original on 31 December 2019. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
  11. "Lux captured: The simple error that brought down the world's worst hurtcore paedophile". Archived from the original on 31 August 2017. Retrieved 31 August 2017.
  12. Dunn, Matthew (20 February 2016). "FBI describe dark net paedophile kingpin as one of the most prolific child sex offenders ever". news.com.au. Archived from the original on 15 July 2017. Retrieved 11 July 2017.
  13. NACHRICHTEN, n-tv. "Philippinen wollen Todesstrafe - vor allem für Einen". n-tv.de (in German). Retrieved 8 August 2020.
  14. Reformina, Ina (6 March 2015). "Australian behind 'Daisy' sex videos charged". ABS-CBN News. Archived from the original on 15 July 2017. Retrieved 11 July 2017.
  15. Rocha, Alex; Idaló, Eduardo (21 December 2015). "Médico de Uberaba admite pedofilia e se diz doente, segundo PF". g1.globo.com (in Portuguese). Archived from the original on 3 August 2017. Retrieved 11 July 2017.
  16. Regional Training Workshop on Responding to Violence against Children in Contact with the Justice System Archived 10 May 2017 at the Wayback Machine. 3–5 November 2014 conference at United Nations Conference Center, Bangkok, Thailand.
  17. Partland, Grace Cantal-Albasin, Lindsay Murdoch and Lily (15 March 2015). "Peter Gerard Scully interview reveals plans to tell all". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 13 December 2020.
  18. Murdoch, Lindsay (31 January 2017). "Alleged child abuser Peter Scully 'may still be masterminding porn network'". smh.com.au. Archived from the original on 26 June 2017. Retrieved 11 July 2017.
  19. Walker, Timothy (9 October 2015). "Australian child abuser Peter Scully could walk free in light of new evidence". Philippines Lifestyle News. CWCMedia. Archived from the original on 1 July 2017. Retrieved 22 May 2017.
  20. Cullen, Shay. "Hungry for justice: Harsh realities of child abuse". Rappler. Archived from the original on 5 January 2018. Retrieved 20 November 2019.
  21. Jurado, Emil (12 March 2010). "The fourth most corrupt nation". Manila Standard Today. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
  22. Sutton, Candance (14 June 2018). "Infamous pedophile smiles as he gets life in prison". New York Post. Archived from the original on 17 February 2020. Retrieved 25 November 2019.
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