From correspondents in Goa
March 04, 2007 02:18am
AN Indian court today convicted an Australian man of pedophilia and said the offender was part of a massive sex racket involving children in the Arabian Sea resort of Goa.
Warner Wulf Ingo was convicted on various charges including sodomy, unnatural sex with minors, abduction and criminal conspiracy.
Goa sessions judge AD Salkar said the Australian would be sentenced on Wednesday.
The 44-year-old Ingo will be sentenced under a tough 2003 anti-pedophilia law that provides for imprisonment of up to 12 years and a fine of 200,000 rupees ($5700), court officials said.
Police said Ingo was an associate of a German, Freddy Peats, who operated a well-established sex racket in Goa until his arrest in 1991, which subsequently led to his conviction five years later.
Peats, convicted for supplying destitute children to wealthy European males in Goa, died in 2005 while serving a life sentence in an Indian prison.
“Ingo was one of the clients of Peats',” a senior police official said as the Australian was escorted to a local prisonhouse.
Goa police said they were also hunting for Eoghan Colm McBride, a New Zealander who in 2002 was given seven-year prison term for seeking services from Peats. He jumped bail while on parole.
“Both McBride and Ingo were regular clients of Peats, who ran the child prostitution racket from an ashram (hermitage) in Fatorda town in southern Goa,” the officer said.
Dominique Sabir, a Frenchman involved in the same child sex racket, was also arrested in 1996 but he, too, jumped bail and is listed as absconding.
Goa police chief BS Brar said he was relieved with Ingo's conviction.
“This is a good moment as in recent years we have become very stringent and we do not tolerate such activities in Goa anymore,” Chief Brar said.
About 20 per cent of 4.2 million tourists who travelled to Goa during the October 2005 to January 2006 peak season were foreigners, many of them Europeans.
There are no estimates on the number of paedophiles among them. But NGOs say foreigners are openly seen luring children with expensive gifts and money.
“We now have beach patrols, posters and warnings that Goa has no place for pedophiles,” Chief Brar said