A charity founded by former Australian soldier Adam Whittington that claims to save vulnerable children from human trafficking was deregistered just days before a BBC investigation revealed claims it had fabricated stories to raise funds.
A BBC podcast released on Tuesday accused Whittington’s charity, Project Rescue Children (PRC), of making false claims about its rescue centres in Africa and using unsuspecting children as props to attract donations.
Former soldier Adam Whittington was the founder of Project Rescue Children.
Whittington, a British-Australian citizen, allegedly misled donors by claiming on social media his charity had rescued a baby from people traffickers in The Gambia, when the child was in its mother’s care all along, according to the BBC. The mother said she had never received any money from PRC.
Some rescue centres in The Gambia, Uganda and Kenya set up by PRC to accommodate abused children were found to be empty or underfunded when a BBC reporter visited last year.
On one visit, a PRC centre in the Kenyan city of Kisumu was actually a private residence, and the resident told the BBC she had no knowledge that photographs of her house had been used to promote the charity.
A statement released by PRC denied many of the allegations and said the “BBC report in question amounts to a targeted campaign characterised by baseless allegations”.
On July 10, PRC was deregistered by the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission.
A commission spokesman said the deregistration was “due to compliance action”, but would not provide further details because of privacy provisions.
Madeleine Allgood, a former ambassador for PRC who fell out with Whittington last year after she requested details about how proceeds from a fundraiser were spent, welcomed the deregistration but called for further investigation.
“This is not over. As long as he has access to social media and his website, he’ll continue to defend his shonky charity until the end,” she said.
Allgood said the BBC investigation had uncovered extensive misconduct by PRC and the misuse of donations.
Whittington, who lives in Russia but also spends time in Sweden, did not respond to requests for comment from this masthead.
But on Tuesday, he posted on X saying the BBC report was “a load of horse crap, fabricated, [and] a corrupt witch hunt”.
This is not the first time Whittington has attracted controversy. He spent almost four months in a Lebanese prison in 2016, when he and a 60 Minutes crew were arrested in Beirut over a bungled operation to reunite two children with their Australian mother.
The four-person 60 Minutes team was released after spending two weeks in prison following negotiations by Nine that allowed the crew to return to Australia without facing charges. Nine is the owner of this masthead.
Part of the 2020 post on Project Rescue Children’s Facebook page. The post was edited in 2021.Credit: Facebook
In 2021, this masthead revealed PRC was under investigation by Kenyan authorities over a series of false claims about the charity’s rescue centre in Kisumu. At the time, Kenyan police found the centre was “not registered, or operational”.
In September 2020, the Queensland-based charity took credit on social media for rescuing 96 children trafficked into Kenya from Uganda, but was found to have had no involvement in the operation, according to an investigation by Kenya’s Directorate of Criminal Investigations.
In October 2021, that social media post was edited.
“To confirm PRC did not rescue these 96 girls,” the revised Facebook post stated. It said the rescue was carried out by Counter Human Trafficking Trust East Africa.
The Kenyan investigation into PRC was launched by the country’s most senior law enforcement official, Inspector-General Hillary Mutyambai, following a complaint in March 2021. Documents obtained by this masthead revealed that Kenyan authorities had asked the Australian embassy in Nairobi and the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission to assist its inquiries.
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