Looks can really be deceiving
At first glance, Liezyl Margallo doesn’t fit the usual idea of a child trafficker, let alone someone who tortures kids for money. However, Liezyl Margallo, or Shannon Carpio, which was the name she went by while she hid from authorities for over 2 years.
Margallo, and her partner, Peter Scully, an Australian who was arrested back in 2015, lured poor children from Mindanao by promising them with the promise that they will be taken care of and sent to school.
However, the children were instead forced to perform the most horrifying sexual acts while being streamed to predators and pedophiles who are willing to pay up to 10,000 USD just to watch the depraved acts.
She was “so sweet and innocent”
Margallo reportedly rented a condominium in uptown Cebu City, availed of a gym membership in a hotel, and also traveled to a lot of local destinations. The NBI added that on the side, she was also a tour guide who provides sex for a fee to her clients.
One of Margallo’s friends, who knew her as Shannon Carpio, said: “She lived with us for a while and we met every day. She was so sweet and innocent. We became good friends. I just didn’t realize she’s a criminal.”
According to her friend, Margallo said that her father was a policeman and that her mother was a social worker. She added that she talked about her boyfriend, Peter Scully, and that she was also married to a French national. She adds, “She got married with the French guy in Cagayan De Oro but (he) left the country to work.”
“Savage girl”
Because of the extreme sex acts that she and her partner did to the children, she was called a “savage girl” by NBI-7 Assistant Director Dominador Cimafranca, who was in charge of the group that conducted the arrest.
She was arrested by agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) while she was strolling along the shoreline of Malapascua island.
Margallo confessed that she was violent towards children because she was maltreated by her own mother when she was younger, and she retaliated by hurting other children.
Margallo and Scully will be facing sexual abuse and child trafficking charges.
What you need to know about child trafficking
Up to this day, child trafficking is a very big problem, not only in the Philippines, but throughout the world, even in developed countries.
Here are some things that you need to know:
- Traffickers often use the promise of money, food, or education in order to lure and gain the trust of children, or their families.
- Traffickers usually work in groups, and they have different roles and tasks that they do in the process of trafficking. Some forge documents, while others are involved in money laundering.
- Sadly, it’s hard to convict human traffickers since in some cases, some of the victims are scared or reluctant when it comes to giving evidence. In other cases, a large network of traffickers makes it hard to break up the child trafficking organization.
- Trafficking is modern slavery. Child trafficking is also a form of child abuse, and it’s our responsibility to help organizations who are actively trying to put an end to child trafficking, and human trafficking in general.
If you wish to help put an end to child trafficking, you can visit pact.org.ph for more information about what you can do.
Sources: nextshark.com, cebudailynews.inquirer.net, nspcc.org.uk
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