A global child safety group who helped bring a youth football coach who was abusing young boys to justice has welcomed his sentencing.
Patrick Mbauni Muriithi, who was also known as ‘Coach’ and ‘Daddy’, was given a life sentence by a court in Kilifi, Kenya.
The UK-based Childlight Global Child Safety Institute, who assisted with the case, said it was an example of how international collaboration can bring offenders to justice.
The sentencing comes as 100 governments from around the world gather in Bogotá, Colombia for the 1st Global Ministerial Conference on ending violence against children, with tackling the pandemic of online child sexual exploitation and abuse on the agenda.
Muriithi had singled out two vulnerable boys to target. He filmed and photographed the abuse on his mobile phone, storing the images. The abuse happened between August, 2022 and January, 2023.
The images were reported to Kenya’s Anti-Human Trafficking and Child Protection Unit (AHTCPU) through the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children. The unit were being assisted by experts from Childlight’s Technical Advisory Programme (C-TAP). The C-TAP team’s work helped identify Muriithi’s abuse.
Thanks to assistance from Interpol’s International Child Sexual Exploitation (ICSE) database the team were able to identify the eleven-year-old victims.
In an operation by Kenyan authorities Muriithi was arrested, and on the 6th of November given a life sentence by a Kilifi court for ten charges including sex offences, making child abuse images and human trafficking.
Kelvin Lay MBE, Director of C-TAP, who led the institute’s work in Kenya, said: “Our thoughts are with the young victims in this case, who Muriithi so callously abused. We hope they, and their families, can gain some solace from the fact their abuser has been brought to justice. This was a truly international effort and we would like to praise the work of AHTCPU and thank Interpol, and all the other organisations involved for their assistance. Childlight are delighted we could provide support.”
Sadly, this case highlights the pandemic of abuse which children are facing. Childlight compiled the first global estimates on the scale of the problem, revealing that more than 300 million children have been affected by abuse.
Childlight CEO Paul Stanfield, said: “The abuse of children is a hidden pandemic. As government’s gather in Colombia for the 1st Global Ministerial Conference on ending violence against children, they must recognise this is a global emergency. As this case shows, working together the international community can bring offenders to justice and safeguard children. However, police forces around the world cannot be expected to deal with this issue on their own, we need a public health approach to prevent these crimes from happening. Children can’t wait, the time for action is now.”
