Convicted pedophile Peter Scully of Melbourne, Australia, is escorted by a jailer to court shortly before the guilty verdict was handed down. (photo by nitz arancon)
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Inset, the verdict is read to Scully inside a courtroom. (photo by joey nacalaban)

By NITZ ARANCON
and JOEY NACALABAN
Correspondents .

ROT in jail he would.

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A regional court yesterday found pedophile Peter Gerard Scully and his estranged Filipino girlfriend Carme Ann “Honey Sweet” Alvarez guilty of qualified trafficking in person.

The man from Melbourne, now about 54 years old, was also found guilty of “rape by sexual assault.”

The two were slapped with life sentences for qualified trafficking in person. For rape, Scully was slapped with an additional nine years of imprisonment at the maximum for each of the five counts of rape or a maximum of 45 years.

Aside from the imprisonment sentence, Judge Jose Escobido of the 37th branch of the Regional Trial Court here also ordered Scully and Alvarez to pay a total of P5 million in damages.

Escobido’s decision was in a 70-page ruling read in the courtroom past 3 pm.

Alvarez broke into tears while Scully was poker-faced as the guilty verdict was handed down.

The case is about the sexual and physical abuse of eight girls, ages one to 13 years in Cagayan de Oro, from April 2011 up to September 2014. The alleged abuses were recorded with the use of a digital camera and uploaded on a porn website.

At least two of the victims were brought to a rented house at Apovel Subdivision in Bulua, this city, in 2014. The girls were allegedly picked up by Alvarez near Gaisano Mall, and then brought to the house where they were held, chained at times, sexually abused, and made to dig what would have been their grave. The girls subsequently escaped, resulting in a National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) operation that resulted in Scully’s arrest in Malaybalay City in Bukidnon in February 2015.

Regional State Prosecutor Merlyn Uy said prosecutors here were happy and satisfied with Judge Escobido’s decision.

But Uy said Scully and Alvarez were likely to file a motion for reconsideration, pointing out that the two were expected to exhaust all their legal options.

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