Man charged with raping sisters
Source: Agencies |
July 1, 2010, Thursday
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A 90-YEAR-OLD Australian was arrested and charged with raping four young sisters whom he allegedly lured to his home in Thailand with imported chocolates and English lessons, police said yesterday.
One girl was five years old when the alleged abuse began. The sisters are now seven to 15.
Karl Joseph Kraus was arrested on Tuesday at his home near Chiang Mai, where police confiscated about 100 photographs of naked children, said Doi Saket police chief Kritapol Yeesakorn.
Some photos showed the elderly man posing naked with other children, and police are trying to identify them and contact their families, Kritapol said. He said police were investigating if Kraus was part of a pedophilia network, noting many of the pictures were e-mailed overseas.
Kraus, who has lived in Thailand for more than a decade, approached the girls' family in 2008 with an offer to teach the sisters English, Kritapol said.
"He would lure them into his house with sweets, usually chocolate from abroad or luxury sweets, and he would ask them to perform sexual acts with him," Kritapol said. "For the eldest of the four sisters, he recently gave her 4,000 baht (US$120) instead of sweets."
The parents noticed the girls had lost interest in playing outside and asked them what was wrong, and then took them to police who immediately sought an arrest warrant, the police chief said.
He was charged with rape and sexual abuse.
Kraus' Australian passport says he was born in Berlin. The Australian Embassy in Bangkok could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Kritapol said Kraus does not have a lawyer yet and has refused to talk to police until he has one.
One girl was five years old when the alleged abuse began. The sisters are now seven to 15.
Karl Joseph Kraus was arrested on Tuesday at his home near Chiang Mai, where police confiscated about 100 photographs of naked children, said Doi Saket police chief Kritapol Yeesakorn.
Some photos showed the elderly man posing naked with other children, and police are trying to identify them and contact their families, Kritapol said. He said police were investigating if Kraus was part of a pedophilia network, noting many of the pictures were e-mailed overseas.
Kraus, who has lived in Thailand for more than a decade, approached the girls' family in 2008 with an offer to teach the sisters English, Kritapol said.
"He would lure them into his house with sweets, usually chocolate from abroad or luxury sweets, and he would ask them to perform sexual acts with him," Kritapol said. "For the eldest of the four sisters, he recently gave her 4,000 baht (US$120) instead of sweets."
The parents noticed the girls had lost interest in playing outside and asked them what was wrong, and then took them to police who immediately sought an arrest warrant, the police chief said.
He was charged with rape and sexual abuse.
Kraus' Australian passport says he was born in Berlin. The Australian Embassy in Bangkok could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Kritapol said Kraus does not have a lawyer yet and has refused to talk to police until he has one.
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