Swiss Paedophile Sentenced to Jail
May 12, 2011 ·
Published in The ECPAT Switzerland
(May 1999)
The Criminal Court of Basle sentenced a 36 year old Swiss citizen to six years in jail on 9th June 1999. PM was convicted of having sexually abused at least 13 children in the Philippines between 1989 and 1996.
This was the first extraterritorial trial in Basle, and the first in Switzerland in which the victims were Filipinos. The sentence took into consideration not only the sexual abuse of the children, but also the production of pornography, and the psychological intimidation that had been used to make the children comply with the wishes of the accused.
The victims were aged between 9 and 16 and were boys. The offender made the boys dependent on him by giving them gifts of money, as well as shoes, bicycles and base balls. He organised games and holidays and invited them to his house on the island of Panay. Every night one of the boys had to stay in his house. The offender was a gun collector and used to show his guns to the children.
For the investigation of this case, prosecutors from Basle went to the Philippines to gather evidence. This was the first time that an extraterritorial case was successfully prosecuted following close collaboration between governmental and non-governmental agencies. ECPAT Switzerland and ECPAT Philippines had been involved from the beginning of the investigation.
(ECPAT Switzerland)
