This page documents Catholic Church sexual abuse cases by country.
Joshua James Duggar is an American convicted sex offender and former reality television personality. The eldest of Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar's nineteen children, Duggar and his family gained fame as the focus of the TLC series 19 Kids and Counting, spun off from a series of television specials. Duggar served as the executive director of FRC Action, a lobbying political action committee sponsored by the Family Research Council, from June 2013 to May 2015. He resigned from the position after he was reported to have molested multiple underage girls, including four of his siblings, when he was aged between 12 and 16.
Brigadier Imtiaz Ahmed, SBt, TI(m), also known as Imtiaz Billa, is a retired engineering officer in the Pakistan Army Corps of Engineers, and former spy, who served as the Director-General of the Intelligence Bureau from 1990 to 1993.
In the infamous 2003 Kiliroor sex scandal, a teenaged girl named Sari S. Nair, hailing from Kiliroor, Kottayam, Kerala, India was sexually abused by reportedly being promised roles in TV serials. She was taken to many places in and around Kerala and was allegedly exploited sexually by "influential persons". Shari S Nair later died after she gave birth to a daughter who is now being raised by her parents.
The Catholic sexual abuse scandal in Europe has affected several dioceses in European nations. Italy is an exceptional case as the 1929 Lateran Treaty gave the Vatican legal autonomy from Italy, giving the clergy recourse to Vatican rather than Italian law.
The Mount Cashel Orphanage, known locally as the Mount Cashel Boys' Home, was a boys' orphanage located in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The orphanage was operated by the Congregation of Christian Brothers, and became infamous for a sexual abuse scandal and cover-up by the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary and NL justice officials.
Rana Sanaullah Khan is a Pakistani lawyer and politician who served as the 39th Interior Minister of Pakistan. He had been a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan from August 2018 till August 2023. He is a senior member of PML-N and the President of PML-N in Punjab province since 4 May 2019. Before getting elected to the National Assembly of Pakistan, Sanaullah had been elected to the Provincial Assembly of Punjab five times and had served in high-ranking ministries of the province.
Pornography in Pakistan is subject to several legal provisions. The Government of Pakistan has placed ban on internet websites containing such material since November 2011. Major pornography website are already barred in Pakistan. In 2016, it was reported that government of Pakistan ordered Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in Pakistan to block more than 400,000 websites which contained pornographic content. Later in 2019, around 800,000 additional website containing pornographic content were banned by the Pakistan Telecom Authority on the order of government of Pakistan.
The Rochdale child sex abuse ring involved underage teenage girls in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, England. Nine men were convicted of sex trafficking and other offences including rape, trafficking girls for sex and conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child in May 2012. This resulted in Greater Manchester Police launching Operation Doublet and other operations to investigate further claims of abuse. As of January 2024 a total of 42 men had been convicted resulting in jail sentences totalling 432 years. Forty-seven girls were identified as victims of child sexual exploitation during the initial police investigation. The men were British Pakistanis, which led to discussion on whether the failure to investigate them was linked to the authorities' fear of being accused of racial prejudice. The girls were mainly White British.
Punishment for rape in Pakistan under the Pakistani laws is either death penalty or imprisonment of between ten and twenty-five years. For cases related to gang rape, the punishment is either death penalty or life imprisonment. DNA test and other scientific evidence are used in prosecuting rape cases in Pakistan.
The Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal consists of the organised child sexual abuse that occurred in the town of Rotherham, South Yorkshire, Northern England from the late 1980s until 2013 and the failure of local authorities to act on reports of the abuse throughout most of that period. Researcher Angie Heal, who was hired by local officials and warned them about child exploitation occurring between 2002 and 2007, has since described it as the "biggest child protection scandal in UK history", with one report estimating that 1,400 girls were abused by "grooming gangs". Evidence of the abuse was first noted in the early 1990s, when care home managers investigated reports that children in their care were being picked up by taxi drivers. From at least 2001, multiple reports passed names of alleged perpetrators, several from one family, to the police and Rotherham Council. The first group conviction took place in 2010, when five British-Pakistani men were convicted of sexual offences against girls aged 12–16. From January 2011 Andrew Norfolk of The Times pressed the issue, reporting in 2012 that the abuse in the town was widespread and that the police and council had known about it for over ten years.
The Telford child sexual exploitation scandal is an ongoing scandal spanning over several decades in the United Kingdom involving a group of Pakistani men who were convicted of engaging in sexual contact with local female minors between 2007 and 2009 in Telford in the English county of Shropshire. While media reports had suggested there were 100 or more victims and around 200 suspects, the Sunday Mirror reported in March 2018 that up to 1,000 may have been affected, with some even murdered, in incidents dating back to the 1970s. Social workers and police cast doubt on this report, denying that Telford had a "discernible problem compared to other towns".
Child sexual abuse in the United Kingdom has been reported in the country throughout its history. In about 90% of cases the abuser is a person known to the child. However, cases during the second half of the twentieth century, involving religious institutions, schools, popular entertainers, politicians, military personnel, and other officials, have been revealed and widely publicised since the beginning of the twenty-first century. Child sexual abuse rings in numerous towns and cities across the UK have also drawn considerable attention.
Operation Doublet is an investigation set up in 2012 by Greater Manchester Police into child sexual exploitation in Rochdale and other areas of Greater Manchester, England. It has resulted in 19 men being jailed for child sexual offences, rape and trafficking.
Tahira Abdullah is a Pakistani human rights activist, women's rights activist, social scientist and supporter of gender equality. She is based in Islamabad.
Zainab Amin Ansari was a seven-year-old Pakistani girl who was abducted in her hometown of Kasur, Punjab while she was on her way to Quran recitation classes on 4 January 2018. Her body was found discarded five days later within a garbage disposal site near the city of Lahore on 9 January 2018; an autopsy report disclosed that she had been extensively raped and tortured before being strangled to death. Her rapist and murderer, 24-year-old Imran Ali, was arrested and identified as a serial killer responsible for at least seven previous rapes and murders of prepubescent girls in the region.
Malik Ahmad Saeed Khan is a Pakistani politician who was a Member of the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab, from 2002 to 2007 and again from May 2013 to May 2018 and from August 2018 to January 2023.
The #MeToo movementin Pakistan is modeled after the international #MeToo movement and began in late 2018 in Pakistani society. It has been used as a springboard to stimulate a more inclusive, organic movement, adapted to local settings, and has aimed to reach all sectors, including the lowest rungs of society.
The May 9 riots were a series of violent clashes that took place on 9 May 2023, in Pakistan. Following the arrest of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party's leader, Imran Khan, from the grounds of the Islamabad High Court, demonstrations held by PTI's supporters descended into violent riots. There was extensive damage done to government and military facilities as a result of the protests fast becoming violent and engaging law enforcement. The government responded with a mobile internet blockade and a crackdown against PTI leaders, workers, and supporters, as well as those perceived to be allied to the party's cause within the media and legal fraternity. Trials of civilians within military courts were also initiated and are being challenged in the country's Supreme Court. The PTI alleges that the incidents of 9 May were a false flag operation designed by the military establishment to disintegrate the party and frame Imran Khan.
Pakistan ranks third in online child abuse. Child sexual abuse is often neglected in Pakistan. The estimated child abuse in Pakistan is more than 12 per day, in which out of total reported cases of child abuse in Pakistan 2,325 victims were girls (55%) and 1,928 (45%) boys.
