A CONTROVERSIAL new hotline for warped paedophiles has been swamped with calls and messages since opening a year ago.
Almost 200 phone calls and messages have been received where the twisted people openly discuss their disturbing thoughts.
GettyA new helpline in Australia has been swamped with calls since starting up last year[/caption]
Almost 200 phone calls and messages and over 12,000 website visits have been recordedAlamy
12,000 visits to a website with information and support networks were also worryingly recorded.
Stop It Now! Australia started the confidential, free helpline in September 2022, for people who have sexual thoughts about children.
The phone number can also be used for those worried about their own or someone else’s child.
The clinical manager of Stop It Now! Georgia Naldrett said: “It surpassed our expectations.
“There was a chance we could’ve sat there for months waiting for the phone to ring, acknowledging how difficult it is to talk about this.
“We received a few calls within our first month.”
According to the brains behind the helpline, only men have called so far to admit to their sick temptations.
They can often hear from partners and parents worried about a threat to themselves and their kids as well.
Dee Nicholas answers the phone when potential paedos ring and says the conversations aren’t pretty.
She said: “No two calls are the same.
“The majority of calls are from men who have already accessed child sexual abuse material online.
“A lot of them have complex childhood adversities, maybe some sort of addiction problems– substances but also sexual.”
Jesuit Social Services run the helpline that is funded by donations.
It’s only open 14 hours a week but the team are looking to increase the hours it’s available.
Naldrett went on to tell news.com.au: “One of the things we’ve heard is (that) only being open 14 hours a week is a real barrier.
“There are more individuals who’ve tried to get through to us but have been unable to.”
70 per cent of those using the service are unknown to police showing how important the helpline could be.
However, the idea of helping paedos with a service like this has worried some people.
Naldrett understood the concerns: “Absolutely, this is a very confronting topic.
“It’s confronting work.
“None-the-less, it’s imperative.
“Bringing the conversation about child sexual abuse to the community is essential in preventing it.”
Data shows that one-in-three girls and one-in-five boys will be sexually abused in their childhood.
But that doesn’t include the thousands who keep their abuse a secret.
Stop it Now! is a British based service originally, but opened up in Australia to help combat the worrying number of child sex offences down under.
She said: “The effects of child sexual abuse are staggering and can be lifelong but to date, most of the responses focus on after the harm has been caused.
“While it plays a really important role, more needs to be done to prevent it in the first instance.
“It has demonstrated an effective intervention.
“A staggering number of individuals have called these services across multiple countries.”
Parts of Australia have recently passed a new law “modernising” the medias reporting on paedophiles and rapists.
The old, scrapped law didn’t allow alleged rapists to be named until they were about to stand trial.
Several accused sex offenders are now being named for the first time since the changes came into effect.
Such as potentially Australia’s worst ever paedo, Ashley Griffith, who is facing 1,623 alleged charges on 91 young victims.
The alleged sex offender is accused of horrid abuse on an industrial scale and if convicted of every charge he will officially be the worst in history.
A man dubbed the world’s worst paedo, who raped babies and made kids dig their own graves was finally sentenced last year to 129 years behind bars.
Sicko Peter Gerard Scully, 59, was sent down with his despicable partner Liezyl “lovely” Margallo who got 126 years, by a court in southern Philippines.
Authorities in the Philippines even considered bringing back the death penalty because of the severity of the former Melbourne property developer’s heinous crimes.
GettyAll of the twisted confessions have been with men and some with family members who are scared for their children[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
