Courts in the Philippines call it Reclusión perpetua.
Essentially it means life in prison. There is no end. No faint clauses. No parole eligibility. It means your life is over.
And that’s what happened to a woman named Liezyl “Lovely” Margallo who was convicted of producing child pornography and then streaming it to sickos around the world. Tiny bodies raped, abused, battered and defiled.
For pedophiles from Canada, the U.S., Europe and Australia, the Philippines is Bethlehem for the twisted.
According to cops, the Southeast Asian island nation was allegedly on Christopher Jackson’s bucket list. Durham Regional Police arrested Jackson, 30, of Clarington, in connection with an international child pornography probe.
So far, detectives have identified alleged victims in Durham and the far-off Philippines. Jackson was busted last July when cops executed a search warrant on his home.
Investigators believed Jackson was making and sharing child pornography using the Telegram app. They discovered a treasure trove of “child pornographic content, including plans to travel and commit sexual acts on underage persons.”
And then in August, Jackson was busted again and charged with more offences. On Monday, cops said two alleged young victims have been identified in the Philippines.
Hundreds of men from the wealthy west venture to the Philippines, Cambodia, India and Thailand in pursuit of the forbidden. And because of poverty, they largely get away with it.
But sometimes, Reclusión perpetua is wielded against the depraved.
Australian Peter Gerard Scully, 62, has been described as the world’s vilest pedophile. Scully fled to the Philippines after being busted in his home country for child sex offences.
Investigators said Scully ran an empire of debauchery, sleaze and heartache. His cybersex business filmed underage teen girls from poor families as he and his girlfriend had sex with them or made them use sex toys.
The filthy business was then transmitted to fellow travelers in filth around the world, many anxious to travel to the Global South to satisfy their fiendish desires.
In his new lair, he raped and assaulted children as young as 18 months. One child was discovered murdered underneath his home.
Lovely Margallo, Scully’s girlfriend, was sentenced to 126 years in jail. Reclusión perpetua.
An old cop friend who spent decades investigating sex crimes against children could never understand why the justice system and parole boards were so thick when it came to pedophiles.
“There is no cure,” he told me. “And when it comes to child pornography, where there’s smoke there’s fire.”
That fire attracted Joseph Moss, a moth in human form although that would be disrespectful to moths.
Moss, 41, of London, Ont., pleaded guilty last September to child porn and luring charges. The object of his desires? A 12-year-old Filipino girl.
As my friend Jane Sims of the London Free Press reported, Moss didn’t understand that maybe what he did was wrong.
Moss told his Ontario Court of Justice hearing: “Indian and Filipino culture is different. I was respected in Filipino culture and in all my interactions with (the victim) and (the victim’s family).”
His lawyer said Moss believed that it was the law, not his sinister desires, that were wrong.
He pleaded guilty to five charges, including possessing and distributing horrific images of child pornography and carrying on an online sexual relationship with the 12-year-old girl while sending money and gifts to her family. He was sentenced to seven years.
In his pre-sentence report, Moss said he wanted to leave Canada for the Philippines. The young girl’s family “has accepted him as a son and future husband for one of their daughters.”
Of course, he had the girl strip for him and asked her to mail him her dirty underwear. The report also said Moss “is very likely to re-offend, he does not show any insight and in fact, wishes to flee to another country that purportedly permits that type of behaviour. (A place where) it’s easier to live with charges relating to pedophilia.“
The judge said seven years.
Me? I’m sticking with Reclusión perpetua.