CEBU, Philippines - A Swedish court has found a 76-year-old pedophile guilty for sexually abusing three minors in Cebu last year.
Swedish national Bobby Herranen was sentenced by the District Court of Eskilstuna,Tingsratt, Sweden to suffer a penalty of one year and six months imprisonment. Herranen was proven guilty on charges of sexual abuse involving two 12-year-old girls and a 13-year-old minor from Dalaguete, and child pornography.
The conviction was made possible through the active coordination of the Philippine Center on Transnational Crime (PCTC) with their counterparts in Sweden. PCTC is an agency under the Office of the President.
The Swedish court ordered Herranen to pay SK810,000 or P5,670,000 in damages to the three complainants.
The abuses reportedly happened in three separate occasions last year, two of which, happened inside an informal class room where Herranen offer free English lessons in Dalaguete.
Since Herranen started teaching free English lessons to her female neighbors on January 2011, the sexual abuses reportedly persisted and were kept secret by the victims.
The 12-year-old girl told Swedish Public Prosecutor Anne-Christine Mederud that she was sexually abused by Herranen in several occasions between February 2009 and April 2011.
“Herranen has on a number of occasions bathed the victim (12-year-old). He has removed all her clothes and then bathed her in a tub on which occasions he has, while stroking her, soaped her naked body,” the girl said.
On December 4, 2011, one of the 12-year-old victims and her mother were brought to a hotel in Cebu City reportedly for the girl’s birthday celebration.
The mother of the victim was brought to a separate room while Herranen stayed with the girl. After the incident the accused left the country.
Ret. Col. Frank Dalawampu, chief of the Interpol field office in the Visayas, told The FREEMAN the prosecution of Herranen was through the very first video conference hearing initiated by the Interpol in Cebu.
The victims and witnesses were able to testify in the foreign court through the use of the internet. Swedish prosecutors facilitated in the hearing of the case who visited the country last year. –(FREEMAN)