Another paedophile convicted

| 13 July 2002 23:28 IST

Sixty three-year old Eoghan Colm McBride from New Zealand, yet another paedophile, has been convicted in Goa for his involvement in a child abuse racket that was busted in the tourist state in 1991.

Freddy Peats, the main operator in the international paedophilic racket, was already sentenced in life imprisonment in 1996. Their five other associates are still absconding.

These are Werner Wulf Ingo (Australia), Neels Oscar Johnson (Sweden), Raymond Varley (Bangkok), Zell Jurgen Adreas alias Yogi (German) and Dominique Sabire (France). The last accused was earlier arrested in Delhi in 1998, but managed to jump the bail from Goa and flee the country by February 2000.

Charges against all these accused however established once again when the sessions court in Margao convicted McBride. His point of sentence will be heard on 17 July.

The CBI as per the high court orders was investigating the case. Sheela Barse, Mumbai-based child rights activist, had approached the high court after finding that local police authorities are not seriously investigating the case.

In fact the whole country was shocked when the police in 1991 had found a child abuse racket by Peats in a village near Colva beach in South Goa, by running an orphanage called 'Gurukul'. Peats was found to have been sexually exploiting the destitute children and also selling them to the paedophiles who have been visiting the orphanage regularly for almost a decade.

The prosecution, while producing several witnesses including the victims, established a fact that the children were kidnapped, subjected to sexual abuse and causing injury to them, sold and made these children available to foreign nationals to satisfy their sexual lust.

"There are hundreds of such paedophiles still visiting the tourist state, but the authorities are not doing enough to nab them", accuses Dr Nishtha Desai, director of the Children's Rights in Goa.

The demand to have a special legislation to deal with the child abuse cases is also not being fulfilled by the state government till date.

The NGOs along the coastal belt here brought quite a few such paedophilic cases to light, following Peats case. But the police have not managed to chargesheet any, except one where the accused - German national Brinkman Helmut - managed to flee the country.

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