‘Australia’s worst pedophile’ sentenced to 129 years in prison for child sex abuse in Philippines
Peter Gerard Scully, known as “Australia’s worst pedophile,” was sentenced to 129 years in prison in the Philippines for child abuse cases, including the rape of an 18-month-old girl.
Scully, 59, along with his girlfriend Lovely Margallo and their two accomplices Alexander Lao and Maria Durotiya Chia, entered into a plea-bargaining agreement on Nov. 3 after being charged with 60 offenses, including trafficking, child pornography, child abuse and rape.
Judge Ali Joseph Ryan Lloren of the Regional Trial Court Branch 37 of Misamis Oriental found Scully guilty of child abuse, rape, attempted human trafficking, syndicated child pornography and photo and video voyeurism. He was sentenced to 129 years in prison.
Margallo was sentenced to 126 years, while Lao and Chia were handed sentences of more than nine years.
Scully and his accomplices held and abused at least eight children in the city of Cagayan de Oro from 2011 to 2014. The victims included an 18-month-old girl and an 11-year-old girl whose dead body was found buried under the floor of a rented house, according to prosecutors.
“They all want to put closure to this dark phase of their lives and move on,” victims and their families wrote in a statement.
“This is a big victory, not only for us prosecutors in the Department of Justice, but more importantly this is a big victory for the victim-survivors,” regional prosecutor Merlynn Barola-Uy said.
Scully, who fled from Australia in 2011 to escape fraud charges, set up a cybersex business where he filmed teenage girls from impoverished families as he as sexually abused them. He would upload the videos on a dark web porn website called “No Limits Fun” and sell them for up to $10,000 per view.
Scully was arrested in 2015 in Malaybalay, Mindanao. In 2018, he was sentenced to life in prison for human trafficking and five counts of rape, including the rape of a 1-year-old girl and the torture of multiple toddlers. His former partner and accomplice Carme Ann Alvarez also received a life imprisonment sentence for her involvement.
According to Uy, his recent sentence was the last batch of cases against Scully and his accomplices.
In 2021, the United Nations Children’s Fund said that the Philippines is one of the top global sources of child sex abuse materials. The nation is a global hotspot for child sex exploitation, with poverty driving a surge in abuse.
Featured Image via 60 Minutes Australia
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