Two more paedophiles caught

| 20 March 2001 22:20 IST

Two paedophiles, one a 71-year old British national and a 63-year old Goan, were arrested by Goa police yesterday in two different cases for sexually abusing three children.

Midleton Colin John, the Briton who has been visiting India for the last five years, was arrested at a guest house in Benaulim, the coastal village in South Goa.

He has been charged with sodomy for sexually assaulting and having forceful anal intercourse with two minor boys from Nepal, aged between 13 and 14 years. He had come down to Goa with these boys from Nepal eight days ago.

In a totally separate incident, Lawrence Fernandes, 63-year old local retired government servant, was arrested by the police just across the river Mandovi in Panaji for having forceful anal sex with a 16-year old contract labourer in his residential house.

As the police acted after the boy personally complained at the police station, Fernandes also later admitted of having involved in the unnatural act by initially luring him with chocolates and money.

The boy from Orissa was part of a group of labourers working at Fernandes' house for over a week. The police have also filed a case of wrongful restraint and outraging modesty against him, besides sodomy.

Both Colin and Fernandes have been remanded to police custody, after they were produced before the judicial magistrates today morning.

This is a third incident in Goa where the paedophilic activities have come to light, after a major disclosure in 1991 of a well-organised paedophilic racket run by Freddy Peats. He running an orphanage and supplying children to several paedophiles coming down to Goa from different parts of the world.

While 77-year old Peats has already been punished with life imprisonment in 1996, three of his colleagues were also arrested subsequently. While Eoghan McBride from New Zealand is presently undergoing trial, Dominique Sabire from France jumped the bail last year and fled the country.

Raymond Varley from UK, yet another accomplice of Peats, was reported to have been arrested by the Interpol last year in his home town. But he has still not been brought to India. All of them are over 60-year old.

The second incident reported here was of Helmet Brinkmann, a German national, who was arrested for child abuse in Calangute in North Goa. He also managed to escape in October 1999, after he was released by the district court, due to negligent attitude of the police as well as immigration authorities at the New Delhi air port.

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