Feature
Couple ‘gifted’ six daughter as ‘sex slaves’ are sentenced
Harrisburg: It was a disturbing story, told in a Pennsylvania courtroom a girl and her five sisters, living as sex slaves for years, starting when one of the girls was just 7. The defendants were their parents, who had fallen under the influence of a child rapist who cast himself as a prophet and took care of their finances.
“Just incomprehensible,” the Pennsylvania judge said Wednesday as he sentenced the parents to the maximum allowed by law.
The authorities said the man, Lee D. Kaplan, 52, was a cult-like figure who brainwashed the family and created a world in which “child rape was the norm.” He fathered two children with the oldest girl, the first when she was 14.
Mr. Kaplan was convicted last month on 17 counts of rape of a child, statutory sexual assault and other offenses. He faces sentencing in September.
On Wednesday, the parents, Daniel and Savilla Stoltzfus, faced a judge in Doylestown, for sentencing.
The judge, Jeffrey L. Finley of Bucks County Court, sentenced Mr. Stoltzfus, 44, to 3½ to seven years in jail and Ms. Stoltzfus, 43, to three to seven years. The judge said he would have given them longer prison sentences if he were legally allowed.
The case came to light in June 2016 after the authorities learned that Mr. Kaplan had impregnated the oldest daughter twice, The Neighbors had repeatedly called the police and child welfare authorities over several months with concerns about the girls, but officials said the calls were not specifically about child abuse and did not justify search warrants.
Neighbors said the girls seldom came out to play in the backyard, which was overgrown with weeds. Mr. Kaplan would occasionally walk outside with the girls, holding the hand of the oldest.
Judge Finley said the parents sent their daughters to live what some “might call a life of sex slaves” and exposed them to “unimaginable” trauma.
According to media reports six of the couple’s daughters, now ages 9 to 19, testified in court that their sexual contact with Mr. Kaplan began between the ages of 7 and 11 for each of them.
Ms. Stoltzfus has said she knew about the sexual relationships but believed “it could be a good thing,” The Associated Press reported.
Ms. Stoltzfus testified that she viewed Mr. Kaplan as a trusted adviser who would help the family seek a “blessed life.”
She said she viewed sex and submission as wifely duties for her daughters, who were taken as his wives. Ms. Stoltzfus testified that she had only an eighth-grade education and believed she could not teach her children as well as Mr. Kaplan could.
The authorities said the couple “gifted” their oldest daughter to Mr. Kaplan because he helped them out of financial trouble five years ago when they broke with their Amish faith. He told the couple the girls were his wives, the police said.
The girls slept on air mattresses in a house in Feasterville, about 20 miles northeast of Philadelphia. The house had a model train track and a tank of catfish but lacked toiletries like toothbrushes.
The judge told Ms. Stoltzfus that she had watched for months as her daughters accompanied Mr. Kaplan into his bedroom.
“You allowed your daughters to continue to crawl into the bed of that man, knowing what was going on,” the judge told her, according to the statement from the Bucks County District Attorney’s office.
During the hearings on Wednesday, one of the girls read a statement asking the judge to be lenient, saying the family was suffering “needless” misery. Judge Finley acknowledged the pain that would come with the parents in prison but said their crimes were inexcusable.
“I understand their heartbreak at seeing their mother and their father in shackles, in cuffs, in prison garb,” he told Ms. Stoltzfus before sentencing her, media reported. “you made that decision you knew what you were risking.”
The State Scores Extra High on Gaming-Friendly Industry Index
Meghalaya scored 92.85 out of 100 possible points in a Gaming Industry Index and proved to be India’s most gaming-friendly state following its recent profound legislation changes over the field allowing land-based and online gaming, including games of chance, under a licensing regime.
The index by the UK India Business Council (UKIBC) uses a scale of 0 to 100 to measure the level of legalisation on gambling and betting achieved by a state based on the scores over a set of seven different games – lottery, horse racing, betting on sports, poker, rummy, casino and fantasy sports
Starting from February last year, Meghalaya became the third state in India’s northeast to legalise gambling and betting after Sikkim and Nagaland. After consultations with the UKIBC, the state proceeded with the adoption of the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Act, 2021 and the nullification of the Meghalaya Prevention of Gambling Act, 1970. Subsequently in December, the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021 were notified and came into force.
All for the Tourists
The move to legalise and license various forms of offline and online betting and gambling in Meghalaya is aimed at boosting tourism and creating jobs, and altogether raising taxation revenues for the northeastern state. At the same time, the opportunities to bet and gamble legally will be reserved only for tourists and visitors.
“We came out with a Gaming Act and subsequently framed the Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021. The government will accordingly issue licenses to operate games of skill and chance, both online and offline,” said James P. K. Sangma, Meghalaya State Law and Taxation Minister speaking in the capital city of Shillong. “But the legalized gambling and gaming will only be for tourists and not residents of Meghalaya,” he continued.
To be allowed to play, tourists and people visiting the state for work or business purposes will have to prove their non-resident status by presenting appropriate documents, in a process similar to a bank KYC (Know Your Customer) procedure.
Meghalaya Reaches Out to a Vast Market
With 140 millions of people in India estimated to bet regularly on sports, and a total of 370 million desi bettors around prominent sporting events, as per data from one of the latest reports by Esse N Videri, Meghalaya is set to reach out and take a piece of a vast market.
Estimates on the financial value of India’s sports betting market, combined across all types of offline channels and online sports and cricket predictions and betting platforms, speak about amounts between $130 and $150 billion (roughly between ₹9.7 and ₹11.5 lakh crore).
Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Delhi are shown to deliver the highest number of bettors and Meghalaya can count on substantial tourists flow from their betting circles. The sports betting communities of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana are also not to be underestimated.
Among the sports, cricket is most popular, registering 68 percent of the total bet count analyzed by Esse N Videri. Football takes second position with 11 percent of the bets, followed by betting on FIFA at 7 percent and on eCricket at 5 percent. The last position in the Top 5 of popular sports for betting in India is taken by tennis with 3 percent of the bet count.
Local Citizens will Still have Their Teer Betting
Meghalaya residents will still be permitted to participate in teer betting over arrow-shooting results. Teer is a traditional method of gambling, somewhat similar to a lottery draw, and held under the rules of the Meghalaya Regulation of the Game of Arrow Shooting and the Sale of Teer Tickets Act, 2018.
Teer includes bettors wagering on the number of arrows that reach the target which is placed about 50 meters away from a team of 20 archers positioned in a semicircle.
The archers shoot volleys of arrows at the target for ten minutes, and players place their bets choosing a number between 0 and 99 trying to guess the last two digits of the number of arrows that successfully pierce the target.
If, for example, the number of hits is 256, anyone who has bet on 56 wins an amount eight times bigger than their wager.
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