The pursuit against the “savage sexual predators” international syndicate has not ended with the recent arrest of “savage girl”.

 The disclosure of the savage sexual torture of an infant and some girls in the hands of an Australian abuser and his Filipina partner sometime in 2011 and 2012 drew national outrage.

The crime was discovered upon the escape of two of the victims who managed to disclose the location of the crime scene and the exact place where one of the victims who had died- -a 12-year-old girl- -was buried after a brutal torture.

The 53-year-old Australian mastermind, Peter Gerard Scully, and his 23-year-old Filipina co-hort, Liezyl Margallo, were arrested in 2015.

Margallo was, however, released then in the absence of an arrest warrant against her; while Scully has since been detained in Cagayan de Oro City.

Margallo had confessed then that she was part of Scully’s savage child pornography business.

SAVAGE GIRL

VISITED BOHOL

Bohol authorities are alarmed upon learning that Margallo had been in Bohol for a vacation in February last year.

She was with two female friends at Cliffside Resort in Panglao.

Activities of some women peddling children for sex in Panglao are also being monitored now.

It was sometime in 2011 when some women in Bohol had disclosed that an Australian national had found them in online dating websites.

The foreigner allegedly offered to send a cache of gadgets- -including expensive Apple macbooks- -but the receiving Filipina should first send a considerable amount for the processing of documents.

This was allegedly the test on the vulnerability of the target victim eyed to be groomed as cohorts in a child pornography underground business since another dirty deal would follow.

Allegedly, the alternate offer is for the foreigner to be the Filipina’s online boyfriend and that the Filipina will scout for him, some girls to pose for pornography.

Luckily, the women targeted by the foreigner turned down the deal, according to a classified information.

NBI authorities who arrested Margallo last week warned the public that a worldwide syndicate is behind Scully.

These “godfathers” allegedly “come from Brazil, Germany, and the United Kingdom”.

Margallo is now facing charges of qualified trafficking, considering that the victims were minors.

The other charges are violations of the Anti-Photo and Video Voyeurism Act of 2009; violations of the Special Protection of Children Against Child Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act; aside from the violations of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003.  

ARRESTED IN

CEBU LAST WED

Margallo, 23, was arrested on Wednesday by agents of the National Bureau of Investigation while strolling on the beach of Malapascua Island, a famed tourist spot off the Cebu town of Daanbantayan.

Both are accused of child trafficking and of running a lucrative international cyberpornography trade, a global syndicate with members coming from from Brazil, Germany and Britain, authorities said.

Margallo has 16 pending arrest warrants in Cagayan de Oro City for luring female street children and young scavengers and then forcing them to perform sexual acts. She also tortured them while videotaping the sexual acts. One victim was later killed, her remains found buried near a bathroom.

WORST VIDEO

A video provided by the Dutch police showed a naked 1-year-old girl who was hung upside down with her hands tied and legs drawn apart.

The girl, known in the video as “Daisy,” was crying while being tortured and sexually assaulted by a masked older girl, later identified as Margallo.

She repeatedly whipped the toddler with a belt, taped her lips to silence her and dripped candle wax on her private parts. Agents had described it as the “worst video” they had seen in their years of fighting child pornography.

The couple allegedly victimized at least nine children, including a 12-year-old girl, whose remains were exhumed in Scully’s apartment in Surigao City. The eight others, aged one to 12 years old, were rescued in 2015 and are currently in government custody. Two others were later rescued by the police in a separate operation.

“It was too much. There are really just some people who are not afraid of God. Children were treated like dolls. They were tortured and exposed to too much pain,” said Janet Francisco, head of the NBI’s Anti-Human Trafficking Division. “Anyone who (does) that is not normal. I could not help but cry when I saw the video.”

Margallo was to be flown to Cagayan de Oro city where she would be charged with violating Republic Act No. 9995 or the Anti-Photo and Video Voyeurism Act of 2009; Republic Act No. 9610 or the Special Protection of Children Against Child Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act; and Republic Act No. 9208 or the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003.

Since the victims are minors, the offense falls under qualified trafficking—a non-bailable crime. If convicted, the couple could spend life in prison and be fined anywhere from P2 million to P5 million.

The videos Scully uploaded to the internet sparked a global manhunt.

A Filipino member of the Interpol first noticed that one of the girls on the video spoke Visayan, and from there focused the investigation in the Philippines, said NBI-7 Assistant Director Dominador Cimafranca.

SAVAGE

The NBI tracked down Margallo with the help of the Australian Federal Police, and this week, pounced on her on Malapascua Island, where she was with two British nationals. They were briefly questioned, but later freed after presenting valid travel documents.

“If I were to describe her (Margallo), I would call her a ‘savage girl’ for what she has done to the kids. I think that description fits her,” Cimafranca said.

He said Margallo had first identified herself as Shannon Carpio when confronted, but later admitted her identity when shown a copy of the arrest warrants and her picture. Recovered from her were a laptop and a cell phone, which would be submitted for forensic examination.

Francisco said Margallo was arrested along with Scully in 2015, and admitted her participation in the Australian’s sex video racket. She later led the NBI to Scully’s rented home in Surigao City, where the body of the 12-year-old girl was buried.

The NBI, however, did not have an arrest warrant against Margallo at the time so they let her go. Arrest warrants against her were issued only the following year, by which time she had gone on the lam.

Francisco said the deceased young girl was molested and tortured by Scully sometime in August 2012. She was a scavenger from Cagayan de Oro City entrusted to Margallo, who promised her guardians she would be well looked after.

“But the girl eventually became a slave, treated like a dog, and videotaped while being tortured. In fact, a bolo was inserted into the child’s butt,” Francisco said.  The girl, identified only as “Cindy,” died due to strangulation and internal bleeding.

Her remains were found covered with concrete near the bathroom of  Scully’s rented home.

Scully, a father of two, was under investigation by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission for defrauding more than $2.68 million from 20 investors in an investment scheme.

He slipped out of Melbourne and fled to Manila in 2011 where he allegedly established a lucrative business by videotaping lewd actions of minors.

Francisco said Scully would cater to child predators from across the globe, who paid as much as $10,000 each for live-stream videos of children being tortured and sexually abused. (with reports from Cebu Daily News)