TC10:00:00Fairground
Latvia: playground of the Baltic. The end of the Soviet Union brought liberation – in every walk of life. Eight years on these girls can relish their freedom. But poverty has driven other children into the arms of a powerful criminal underworld and a rapacious sex industry.
TC 10:00:22Caka Street Riga’s Caka Street is lined with clubs and bars; each offers sex for sale There are 15,000 prostitutes in the capital, probably 2,000 underage. Prostitution is legal and highly visible. Hidden the gangs who pimp and traffic boys and girls – with the involvement, it’s alleged, of top politicians. Now the government has collapsed these allegations remain unanswered. .
TC 10:00:46TV show This TV show broke the scandal linking politicians to an alleged paedophile ring.It screened anonymous interviews with six boys who claimed they’d had sex with unnamed senior politicians. Their statements suggested the existence of a paedophile network reaching up into the highest levels of business and politics.
TC 10:01:08Parliament, Adamssons accusationUPSOT Janis Adamssons (Latvian):TC 10:01:21SUBTITLES“the head of the state revenue Andris Sonciks, the Justice Minster, Valdis Birkavs, and the Prime Minister Andris Skele…” A Parliamentary inquiry was set up to investigate. The committee chairman, Janis Adamssons, then upped the stakes by naming - in Parliament – political leaders he said were involved.
TC 10:01:29Interview with Former PM, Andris SkeleReporter’s question: “The accusation against you is a serious one: are you guilty?”Andris Skele (translation from Latvian)TC 10:01:36ASTON: Andris SkeleSUBTITLES.“Absolutely not. Of that there is no doubt. Not for me, not for – I believe – the largest part of Latvian society. And in the same way as I have said before I am ready to give evidence to the investigators and society.” Before he resigned we put the allegations to the Prime Minister.
TC 10:01:52Top-shot Riga, frescoes Although these astonishing paedophile allegations are as yet unproven, it is clear that there’s something rotten in the state of Latvia. And some MPs like Janis Leiskalns say the Parliamentary Inquiry is missing the point.
TC 10:02:08Janis LeiskalnsTranslation from LatvianTC 10:02:08SUBTITLES“Their aim isn’t to help the girls who are working on Caka Street. Go and take a look for yourselves.”
TC 10:02:15Bar, Secret Camera(Latvian MP Voice Underlay)TC 10:02:17SUBTITLES“Even twelve year-olds hang out there. No politicians have been to help them.”TC 10:02:21ASTON: SECRET CAMERA We went to see for ourselves. In a Caka Street bar, this man offered girls aged fifteen, fourteen – even a thirteen year-old – no problem, he said.
TC 10:02:30‘Tanya’ set-up We tracked down his fourteen year-old girl.‘Tanya’ identified the man in the bar as her pimp. She said he’d repeatedly beaten and raped her. Last month she slashed her wrists and cut at her throat in a serious suicide bid. She’d often been forced into group sex with as many as eight ‘clients’ at one time.
TC 10:02:52Sync. ‘Tanya’, translation from Russian TC 10:02:56ASTON: ‘Tanya’SUBTITLES“I have died, I’m not alive, there’s no sense in life, no sense at all. There’s nothing to aim for, nothing to live for, nothing.”
TC 10:03:13The Fire, then back to Riga
Tanya’s hoping for a place at a rehabilitation centre in the Latvian countryside – the only place a child like her can get help. But right now she is under sedation in a Riga hospital after slitting her wrists again.
TC 10:03:30Bust We watched as undercover police moved in on the bar where Tanya had worked. Such raids are all too rare. The vice-squad has four members.
TC 10:03:43Upstairs Above the bar, three pimps, fifteen prostitutes and two clients have been rounded up. Three of the girls were underage. A fifteen year-old girl lies drugged on the floor. The man on the right is the man we’d met at the bar, the man who Tanya says beat and raped her. He could now face 20 years in prison.
TC 10:04:09Adamsons setupNight top-shot . The chairman of the Parliamentary inquiry now wants to see politicians behind bars too.
TC 10:04:17Sync. Janis AdamssonsTC 10:04:18ASTON: Janis AdamssonsChairman, Parliamentary InquirySUBTITLES:“I must express deep regret that suspected criminals are running our country, because in a democracy where even suspicion is aroused, the government would have stepped down long ago.”
TC 10:Boy set-up
In this highly charged atmosphere, independently we find a boy who claimed he’d had sex with a cabinet minister – we can’t say which one for legal reasons.
TC 10:Boy (translation from Russian)SUBTITLES:“When I was 16 I had sexual contact for money with the Minister. Our meeting lasted around 3 hours. We had sado-masochistic sex. (sniggers) He was in the role of the slave, I was in the role of master."
TC 10:04:56Set-up President Latvia’s President, herself a psychologist, recognises the crisis – but with Latvia anxious to join the European Union she fears it’s become a political witch-hunt.
TC 10:05:08Sync. President (English)TC 10:05:12ASTON: Vaira Vike-Freiberga President of Latvia“I really hope, that we will not include now a new term of paedophile, as a way of discrediting our opponents and simply by attaching that label to anybody’s name, ruining them for ever.
TC 10Cellist(President underlay - English)“That’s really not acceptable in a democratic society.” In this world of smoke and mirrors, politicians’ guilt is hard to assess. But while their perverted abuse of power remains in question, the widespread abuse of children is not.Jonathan Miller, Channel 4 News, Latvia
TC 10:05:40ENDS
Latvia: playground of the Baltic. The end of the Soviet Union brought liberation – in every walk of life. Eight years on these girls can relish their freedom. But poverty has driven other children into the arms of a powerful criminal underworld and a rapacious sex industry.
TC 10:00:22Caka Street Riga’s Caka Street is lined with clubs and bars; each offers sex for sale There are 15,000 prostitutes in the capital, probably 2,000 underage. Prostitution is legal and highly visible. Hidden the gangs who pimp and traffic boys and girls – with the involvement, it’s alleged, of top politicians. Now the government has collapsed these allegations remain unanswered. .
TC 10:00:46TV show This TV show broke the scandal linking politicians to an alleged paedophile ring.It screened anonymous interviews with six boys who claimed they’d had sex with unnamed senior politicians. Their statements suggested the existence of a paedophile network reaching up into the highest levels of business and politics.
TC 10:01:08Parliament, Adamssons accusationUPSOT Janis Adamssons (Latvian):TC 10:01:21SUBTITLES“the head of the state revenue Andris Sonciks, the Justice Minster, Valdis Birkavs, and the Prime Minister Andris Skele…” A Parliamentary inquiry was set up to investigate. The committee chairman, Janis Adamssons, then upped the stakes by naming - in Parliament – political leaders he said were involved.
TC 10:01:29Interview with Former PM, Andris SkeleReporter’s question: “The accusation against you is a serious one: are you guilty?”Andris Skele (translation from Latvian)TC 10:01:36ASTON: Andris SkeleSUBTITLES.“Absolutely not. Of that there is no doubt. Not for me, not for – I believe – the largest part of Latvian society. And in the same way as I have said before I am ready to give evidence to the investigators and society.” Before he resigned we put the allegations to the Prime Minister.
TC 10:01:52Top-shot Riga, frescoes Although these astonishing paedophile allegations are as yet unproven, it is clear that there’s something rotten in the state of Latvia. And some MPs like Janis Leiskalns say the Parliamentary Inquiry is missing the point.
TC 10:02:08Janis LeiskalnsTranslation from LatvianTC 10:02:08SUBTITLES“Their aim isn’t to help the girls who are working on Caka Street. Go and take a look for yourselves.”
TC 10:02:15Bar, Secret Camera(Latvian MP Voice Underlay)TC 10:02:17SUBTITLES“Even twelve year-olds hang out there. No politicians have been to help them.”TC 10:02:21ASTON: SECRET CAMERA We went to see for ourselves. In a Caka Street bar, this man offered girls aged fifteen, fourteen – even a thirteen year-old – no problem, he said.
TC 10:02:30‘Tanya’ set-up We tracked down his fourteen year-old girl.‘Tanya’ identified the man in the bar as her pimp. She said he’d repeatedly beaten and raped her. Last month she slashed her wrists and cut at her throat in a serious suicide bid. She’d often been forced into group sex with as many as eight ‘clients’ at one time.
TC 10:02:52Sync. ‘Tanya’, translation from Russian TC 10:02:56ASTON: ‘Tanya’SUBTITLES“I have died, I’m not alive, there’s no sense in life, no sense at all. There’s nothing to aim for, nothing to live for, nothing.”
TC 10:03:13The Fire, then back to Riga
Tanya’s hoping for a place at a rehabilitation centre in the Latvian countryside – the only place a child like her can get help. But right now she is under sedation in a Riga hospital after slitting her wrists again.
TC 10:03:30Bust We watched as undercover police moved in on the bar where Tanya had worked. Such raids are all too rare. The vice-squad has four members.
TC 10:03:43Upstairs Above the bar, three pimps, fifteen prostitutes and two clients have been rounded up. Three of the girls were underage. A fifteen year-old girl lies drugged on the floor. The man on the right is the man we’d met at the bar, the man who Tanya says beat and raped her. He could now face 20 years in prison.
TC 10:04:09Adamsons setupNight top-shot . The chairman of the Parliamentary inquiry now wants to see politicians behind bars too.
TC 10:04:17Sync. Janis AdamssonsTC 10:04:18ASTON: Janis AdamssonsChairman, Parliamentary InquirySUBTITLES:“I must express deep regret that suspected criminals are running our country, because in a democracy where even suspicion is aroused, the government would have stepped down long ago.”
TC 10:Boy set-up
In this highly charged atmosphere, independently we find a boy who claimed he’d had sex with a cabinet minister – we can’t say which one for legal reasons.
TC 10:Boy (translation from Russian)SUBTITLES:“When I was 16 I had sexual contact for money with the Minister. Our meeting lasted around 3 hours. We had sado-masochistic sex. (sniggers) He was in the role of the slave, I was in the role of master."
TC 10:04:56Set-up President Latvia’s President, herself a psychologist, recognises the crisis – but with Latvia anxious to join the European Union she fears it’s become a political witch-hunt.
TC 10:05:08Sync. President (English)TC 10:05:12ASTON: Vaira Vike-Freiberga President of Latvia“I really hope, that we will not include now a new term of paedophile, as a way of discrediting our opponents and simply by attaching that label to anybody’s name, ruining them for ever.
TC 10Cellist(President underlay - English)“That’s really not acceptable in a democratic society.” In this world of smoke and mirrors, politicians’ guilt is hard to assess. But while their perverted abuse of power remains in question, the widespread abuse of children is not.Jonathan Miller, Channel 4 News, Latvia
TC 10:05:40ENDS