Thailand Charges 90 Year-Old Australian With Sexually Assaulting Four Sisters

[TehBen]

Funny how on here people like to give the offender the 'benefit of the doubt' in such a despicable case of assault. But in their own countries, everybody jumps on the hatred bandwagon.

Don't always be quick to blame the children or father. None of you know the facts. That works both ways too.

As many people have said already, it is common for charges for these types of crimes to come a long time after the crime was committed, in all countries of the world. With children of such a young age, they may have decided not to tell anyone of the incidents. On the other hand, it could have been fabricated by the father. I certainly do not trust any police here to do anything without some corruption involved down the line, so the chances of normal Thais of behaving in a way that they are aware of their own morals is small. Saying that, I know of many Thais who stick to their morals strongly, and always protest the mis-justice (if that is a word) of the system.

My point is, nobody here knows all the facts to the story, so making educated judgements is impossible.

[chrissylcp]

90 ? And still...? Could be a setup or maybe it happened ? Did he pay the parents ? Did they know ? Did they allow ?

It's up to the judge now. In jail ? Not likely. Take his money to compensate the children ? Than send him back to Down Under ?

Why does this only happen in Thailand; or does this happen more than we know...?

I have worked in the UK for many years with, (among other people) adult victims of child sexual abuse. Yes it happens much more than most people realise.....certainly not just in Thailand. There are very many incidents, reported to the police and otherwise, in both the UK and USA......and elsewhere. Parents of children are often 'groomed' by the abuser....in otherwards, he or she will ingratiate themselves to the parents......who often don't find out what has been going on till much later, if at all. As with many victims of physical and sexual abuse, children will often feel at fault in this situation...and will often be told by the abuser that they or their parents will be punished if they reveal what is going on.

There are many other reasons why parents don't find out and why children don't tell.....no need to go into lots more detail here. I just felt strongly enough to write because it's important not to pre-judge or dismiss such accusations. Also vital not to close our eyes to the fact that this crime is a very common one.

[yesdavy]

<BR>Who lets their children go to an older mans house without their supervision??  

<BR><BR>I don't justify any horrible crime like this, but I feel like sometimes people need to be more responsible when it comes to their children with where they are and what they're doing..<BR>

Answer to your first question - Perhaps, an opportunistic guardian hoping to cash-in somewhere along the line, especially when the kids are girls.

Answer to your 2nd comment: - 'Ya think? Absolutely correct of course, in the real world, but your comment suggests that you have never been here.

Edited June 30, 2010 by yesdavy

[Parvis]

<BR>this is absurd. i think this is fabricated story. <BR>is it even possible to assault somebody physically at his age? does he even has the desire?<BR>

<BR>

"sexually abused them on several occasions between July 2008 and June this year". What made them come back? - As you said - seems absurd.

Edited June 30, 2010 by Parvis

[Portlandstone]

A 90-year-old "abuses" four lively Thai kids/teenagers, and the father of the daughter files a complaint after 2 years(!) Hmm.., I reckon there is more to the story.

Did the father ask for a handsome pay-out?

Right, in these SE Asia cases of pedophilia, the parents are often considered victims too. There was that Gary Glitter case in '05/'06, parents bankrolled on that. I bet they knew pretty well all along what he was doing with their[/] daughters. I think they should have been in the cellblock right next to him.

[Portlandstone]

...

I also suspect the father is getting back at the old guy for something.

Lost face, lost money, did a bad repair job and got lectured, wants his land, (insert 'greedy need' here)...

Great point.

Edited June 30, 2010 by Portlandstone

[loong]

Several occasions over a 2 year period?

Sketchy details, so we have no idea if the parents were aware or not.

If they were not aware that the children were visiting an old man's house, then they have failed as parents. Remember the oldest girl would only have been 12 when this started.

I'm surprised that all 4 young girls would be able to keep this secret for 2 years, despite it happening several times.

I assume that the old man was a fluent Thai speaker to be able to intimidate the girls.

It's a sad fact, that living in Thailand and reading a story like this, I immediately smell a rat.

[martyboy]

I think this emphasises a problem which is always overlooked - the sexual drive of elderly men. You only have to visit the hotels in the red light district of Bangkok to see the swarms of elderly men who are there to accommodate that drive. I say this is a problem because most men retain the sexual drive and find women desirable but women don't feel the same way about them. It's a case of desiring but not being desired. That's a harsh reality of life and seriously affects a lot of men. Imagine an undesired elderly man with the sexual drive of a twenty year old and wherever he looks there are semi-pornographic advertising posters, suggestive movies and TV shows, beautiful scantily dressed girls everywhere he goes. He is only human and it's hardly surprising he might try to accommodate that incessant nagging drive. Unfortunately that drive sometimes leads him to persue children which is an aberration and certainly not shared by most normal men. It's a very unfortunate biological fact that plagues the lives of many men.

Edited June 30, 2010 by martyboy

[WarpSpeed]

Who lets their children go to an older mans house without their supervision??

I don't justify any horrible crime like this, but I feel like sometimes people need to be more responsible when it comes to their children with where they are and what they're doing..

Possibly people with an agenda... one should always be vigilant especially if they are unattached and male...

And suddenly after "many years" here he is now an accused peado with no previous suspicious activity reported? Is he in a very small village and these the only girls around?? Makes one very suspicious of motives, sorry my cynicism is showing, I'm a father and this is very upsetting initially but while it is possible he has just never been accused before something still smells rotten...

Edited June 30, 2010 by WarpSpeed

[kuffki]

So father waited for 2 years to make a complaint? or the old man stopped supporting the family ?

Edited June 30, 2010 by kuffki

[peteryeah]

<br>Wait until his father finds out.<br>

<br><br>So many stupid ignorant comments. "Why don't the girls defend against an old man uuuuhh". Really? Have you met any children lately? They have respect for adults and are scared obviously.<br>"uuhhh can he even get it up at this age??" Can you see any ways possible where a person sexually abuse children even without taking his pants off? Don't be so naive....<br>

[asiawatcher]

At 90, every sexual experience would most likely be a memory. If the old guy could harbour the member in question to be upstanding I doubt his heart or any other physical part of him could have survived the experience let alone forced physical abuse. It smacks of the Thai father wanting a payout, pinch his land or whatever. I would not be so quick to condemn him here or at all. But this is Thailand. If the gain warrants the complaint they will push it.

[simro]

90 ? And still...? Could be a setup or maybe it happened ? Did he pay the parents ? Did they know ? Did they allow ?

It's up to the judge now. In jail ? Not likely. Take his money to compensate the children ? Than send him back to Down Under ?

Why does this only happen in Thailand; or does this happen more than we know...?

He is not Australian; he must have dual citizenship, when you have Thai citizenship they do not say you are Thai if you have a dual citizenship!

As for the Girls, they cannot be blamed I just hope they will be O.K. and will quickly forget if possible.

[neverdie]

Every time I think I've heard it all I get shocked again by even more disturbing news. DISGUSTING!

[TheBarbarian]

It makes good sense to be very careful convicting this man on the forums. 90 years? 4 sisters, if one runs away he is out of breath. A father who files a complaint , it could be just as easy money that is behind it. Let the courts decide. I assume there must be plenty of medical evidence if rape has taken place. 

[TheMac]

Benefit of the doubts must be given to all until found guilty or cleared of the charges by court. Whatever our trust in any judicial system, we must abide by it or go somewhere else which is sometime the reason for political refugees.

Some comments about what I read so far:

We are talking about rape with the mention of penetration ... any acts of sexual nature with or without penetrations between an adult and a minor is a crime with the court to decide the severity of the punishment. Police said they found pornographic photos & videos: anything related to pedophilia or even with the those children?

In addition to investigate the guy, parents must also be investigated to find out if they had participated in it, lack of supervision of their children, or if they had no way to be aware of it. I see some comments saying that you can't know what teenager are doing 24/7 but:

- It is about teenager: in this case there is a 7 years old girl who will definitely do something that will give the alert as long as we pay attention to it knowing that it took place repeatedly over 2 years.

- Why let such young children going to a 90 years old home who is not related to the family? If children get any problem, would he be able to help? Then what about if something happens to him?

Do not forget the case of the grand mother selling her 2 grand-daughters for few pennies ... or even alcohol.

Now we could also imagine a case where the 14yo sister would be the mastermind of it ... children becoming sexually active more and more at younger age, we can't also blew away this possibility. In this case, maybe the younger ones took time before alerting the father.

Too many possibilities when we do not know the whole story so we can't draw any conclusions so let's wait the court verdict.

[Thai at Heart]

Moral of this story is to never, ever have someone else's Thai children alone with you in the private.

The way that the system handles this situation by parading people all over the news means that irrespective of the fact that at a later date, you may be found not guilty, your life is absolutely ruined by the accusation.

The problem with living here for long enough, is that cynicism sets in and I can't help thinking that the possibility that he has been stitched up is, as, if not more, likely than he was able to commit the said crimes over a 2 year period without anyone knowing. The problem is that in the weird and wonderful world of Thai justice, even if the parents knew what was going on they would appear not to have committed a crime.

So if they knew about it, they would be complicit in the crime and one then would have to wonder why after 2 years they came forward to report the crime.

Ummmm, extortion comes to mind, and if it is that situation, the Thai law needs to stamp down on the concept of knowingly pushing children into situations to extract blackmail money out of someone, and push parents under the full weight of the fear of punishment to act as protectors of their children not pimps.

Edited June 30, 2010 by Thai at Heart

[chuang]

Whether with the father's or the girls' consent, having sex with minors in thailand is an offense....securing minors for sexual activites by farang is rampant in thailand...

[jc14all]

Definitely a curious case of Benjamin Buttons here. If this is really, really a case of rape was there even viagra found as evidence and how can one determined penetration without DNA (hearsay). Truly a curious case here .

"Despite his age he still seems to have the desire, although we don't know whether he could act on it," Prawit said. "But under Thai law any form of penetration is considered rape."

[HerbalEd]

<br>A 90-year-old "abuses" four lively Thai kids/teenagers, and the father of the daughter files a complaint after 2 years(!) Hmm.., I reckon there is more to the story. <br><br>Did the father ask for a handsome pay-out?<br>

<div><br></div><div>Why do you speak of something of which you know so little? You have no way of knowing when the father became aware of the molestations. <br><br><br>

</div>

[cup-O-coffee]

I was bracing myself to be skeptical of this story, and I GOOGLE'd this headline and came up with an amazing amount of AP stories covering this, from all over the world. This story below is the one that makes me wonder why it wasn't published on TV instead. The sentence about him being in the photos is the clincher, if in fact this is a positive ID.

Good detective work, however, will not be satisfied if we simply stop here. The magnitude of what these photos (with him allegedly in them) suggests - in light of the "pedophelia network" implication, should at all costs include a complete investigation into any involvement by the parents, legal guardians, and any others who knew of these "visits".

Due to the degree of believability towards the parents side of the story, it is entirely possible that they are trying to cover up any involvement on their part and trying to hang the guy out to dry. The question is, why?

Two years? 4 able bodied Thai girls? Thai girls, whom everyone knows cannot keep anything to themselves regarding any reasonable interaction with a foreigner? I find this all impossible to believe, and therefore believe that the parents, in fact, did know about this all along, and I feel the girls deserve the right to have someone step in to defend whatever innocence they have remaining in their lives.

Australian, 90, accused of raping 4 Thai sisters

By KINAN SUCHAOVANICH | Published: 2:54 AM 06/30/2010 BANGKOK (AP) — 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 Wednesday.

One girl was 5 when the alleged abuse began. The sisters are now 7 to 15.

Karl Joseph Kraus was arrested Tuesday at his home near the northern city of 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 emailed overseas.

Kraus, who has lived in Thailand more than a decade, approached the girls' family in 2008 with an offer to teach the sisters' English, said Kritapol.

"He would lure them into his house with sweets, usually chocolate from aboard 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 instead of sweets." The sum is about US$120.

The parents recently 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 immediately be reached for comment Wednesday. Kritapol said Kraus does not have a lawyer yet and has refused to talk to police until he has one.

Neighbors described Kraus as an active 90-year-old who still drove his own car, police said. But when police arrested him he acted weak, walked with a cane and complained of diabetes and high blood pressure. Police took him to a Chiang Mai hospital where he remains under surveillance.

The date of his next court appearance is not yet known.

Several Southeast Asian countries — including Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam — are magnets for pedophiles because of lax law enforcement, corruption in the justice system and poverty that forces children into prostitution.

A number of high-profile suspects have been caught in Thailand, including a Canadian arrested in 2007 after an Interpol manhunt sparked by some 200 Internet photos showing him allegedly abusing Vietnamese and Cambodian boys. He was sentenced to eight years and three months in jail.

To Admin; I hope I posted this AP story ok.

[agudbuk]

So, If he is found guilty and gets sentenced to the full term he will be 110 years old before he gets out.

[teddy_bare]

These cases always make (good?) press cos they reinforce the Boogie man stories. Yet all the time, most abuse goes on in the family home byfathers, step-fathers, uncles, grandfathers, cousins, and brothers.

Demonizing strangers sells papers thou.

[cdnvic]

I deleted one post that hinted that maybe one of the victims was at fault. Not about to let that start a fight here.

[cardinalblue]

Funny how on here people like to give the offender the 'benefit of the doubt' in such a despicable case of assault. But in their own countries, everybody jumps on the hatred bandwagon.

Don't always be quick to blame the children or father. None of you know the facts. That works both ways too.

As many people have said already, it is common for charges for these types of crimes to come a long time after the crime was committed, in all countries of the world. With children of such a young age, they may have decided not to tell anyone of the incidents. On the other hand, it could have been fabricated by the father. I certainly do not trust any police here to do anything without some corruption involved down the line, so the chances of normal Thais of behaving in a way that they are aware of their own morals is small. Saying that, I know of many Thais who stick to their morals strongly, and always protest the mis-justice (if that is a word) of the system.

My point is, nobody here knows all the facts to the story, so making educated judgements is impossible.

Do you mean like your generalizations regarding police and corruption?

CB

[robint]

sometimes i think TV will publish anything to get punters clicking on their site - have you noticed

anyway, many years ago i knew of a 75 yr retired plumber, we called him little Roddy. he was one of those who would come in the bar and boast about what wimin he had last night

we all got really bored with this, but he wouldnt take the hint - they never do.

one day he came in and told us hed got this cambo woman with her 4 daughters to come and stay with him in his bungalow and hed just finished rogering her

the following day he said he started on the 18 yr old with her mother help

and the following day - yes the 16 yr old

and the following day - the 14 yr old with everyone joining in

by this time the bar flies were really pissed off and through him out of the bar

we never saw him again, but the cambo family was seen walking down the road carrying a large TV

im just amazed that the old fella thought he could get away with it up country

my experience is that village life is full of gossip, you cant fart or ferk without someone knows about it

[Tanaka]

Its only a matter of time before they seriously start clamping down on expats.

Seriously, with all this bad press and so many bad apples amongst us we should start policing ourselves and doing something positive so Thais can see we aren't all arsonists and pedophiles.... I am amazed they are so tolerant actually.

I seriously doubt that - just imagine how much money we bring in / spend in this country - houses, condos, rent, food, transport, drink, etc, etc, etc,

They'll never cut off the cash flow - especially not because a couple of "poor / country folk" were allegedly abused...

I simply can't see that happening somehow...

The average man does not give a hoot about your money spent. Mostly he does not even recognize that you spend money here.

[ableguy]

<BR>this is absurd. i think this is fabricated story. <BR>is it even possible to assault somebody physically at his age? does he even has the desire?<BR>

<BR><BR><BR><BR>Stated in todays bangkok post he videod himself assaulting the girls and was mailing the videos to other pervs, police claim they confiscated such videos, in which case may suffer the full penalty.

[Livinginexile]

This reported in the Australian press today.

"Police are reported to be charging Kraus with filing a false statement with the Australian Embassy accusing Thai police of attempting to extort money from him."

Hmmm...

[rolschu]

I think there's a lot more to this story than is being initially reported. While it may be true, I agree with the sentiments of those who wonder why this went for two years before being reported, and possible "motives" of the father of these girls. Another question I have is, being a foreigner, and the girls all being young, minor Thai, will he REALLY get a fair trial here, or will the judge be thinking "guilty" before the case is even presented? Everyone here knows the Golden Rule of Thailand - "A Thai is never wrong, and never to blame, and it's always the fault of the farang".

But we can always hope for the best. If it is true, then he deserves whatever the court slaps him with. If not, then charges need to be filed against the father for filing a false report. Just have to wait and see.

This is complete crap. I know endless court cases where the farang got his right! This is just the standard beer table opinion you can hear all the time.