CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – Fifty-one-year-old Australian national Peter Gerard Scully, who is now under the custody of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Northern Mindanao office, had reportedly made money by broadcasting his acts – against girls as young as one-year-old – over the Internet to clients in as far as Europe.
“Scully performed sexual acts according to his client’s instructions and fantasy,” Angelito Magno, NBI director in the region, told the Inquirer late Friday.
Scully was arrested inside his rented house in Barangay in Barangay Violeta in Malaybalay City after a three-week stakeout by combined elements of the police’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), local NBI operatives and from the NBI’s anti-trafficking division in Manila, representatives from the Australian and the Dutch police and operatives of the International Police (Interpol).
The operation was said to be covered by the Mutual Assistance Legal Treaty (MLAT) the Philippines had signed with several countries.
Senior Supt. Alexander Tagum, the CIDG head for Northern Mindanao, said Scully had been the subject of an international investigation on human trafficking after police investigators in the Netherlands uncovered his activities on the Internet, where he broadcast his sexual intercourse with young girls.
“He lured young girls into his house and gained their trusts, including false promises of sending them to school and feeding them. He performs sexual abuses on the girls and then he broadcast his activities on the Internet,” Czar Eric Nuqui, chief of the NBI’s anti-human trafficking division, said.
Tagum said many of the girls that Scully used in his operation came from this city and in Bukidnon.
Two of his victims decided to sue and the case was docketed at the Regional Trial Court Branch 37 here under Judge Jose Escobido in November 2014.
The warrant issued against Scully was the one authorities had used when they arrested him on Friday, Nuqui said, although the Australian was already being long-sought due to the string of complaints against him.
“We took notice of the standing warrant of arrest for Scully issued by Judge Jose Escobido of the Regional Trial court Branch 37 in November 2014,” Nuqui said.
Based on the information, Magno said that Scully entered the country in 2011 and initially took base in this city.
“Although he moved places, he was very dynamic in his movements,” Magno said.
Later, police authorities in the Netherlands took notice of Scully’s activities and established coordination with their Philippine and Australian counterparts and the Interpol, a Dutch policeman involved in the Australian’s arrest, said.
“We were monitoring his activities from our country,” the Dutch policeman, who requested anonymity, said.
When all details had been confirmed, the actual operation to arrest the Australian was conducted Friday.
Nuqui said based on the evidence they gathered from the Internet, some of the sexual assaults were so severe that his victims were physically harmed.
“Scully found out that what he was doing was a lucrative business and that he had clients all over Europe,” Nuqui said.
He said the arresting team also recovered solid pieces of evidence against Scully, including electronic gadgets that he used in his activities.
The NBI anti-cybercrime group also obtained digital copies of Scully’s alleged activities, Nuqui said.
He said they were also looking into the possible culpability of the parents of the young Filipino girls, whom Scully had used in his activities.
“We are still widening our investigation on the extent of the Scully’s crime and operation, if he has gained any assistance here in the perpetration of his crimes,” Magno said.
Tagum said they were also looking at the possibility that Scully did not work alone.
“There are numerous clients of Scully that just as guilty as he is, for they are the one who directed Scully for their fantasies, they will be tracked by the authorities,” Nuqui said.
The Dutch police source said the crime that Scully committed has no boundary and he was equally liable to each country his horrific act ends.
Magno said that Scully will be detained at the NBI Northern Mindanao office here and will also be arraigned here for his numerous cases, which also involved violence against women and children, rape, illegal detention (if proven that liberty has been taken away from his victims,) and the anti-cybercrime law, among others.
When asked if Scully could be extradited to Australia, Magno said there was a standing extradition treaty entered between the Philippines and the Australian governments.
“We need to look at the treaty (MLAT) but we want Scully to serve his time here,” Magno said.
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