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Swede, 76, jailed for child sex crimes in Philippines

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Swede, 76, jailed for child sex crimes in Philippines

A 76-year-old man has been convicted in Sweden for molesting three young girls in the Philippines when he was teaching English to poor children there.

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The man, who hails from Eskilstuna in central Sweden, was sentenced to 18 months in prison by the Eskilstuna District Court for aggravated sexual assault against a child, sexual assault against a child, and child pornography crimes.

The man had previously been convicted for child sex crimes in the 1990s and had been sentenced to court ordered psychiatric care, but was released after nine years.

The 76-year-old, who still owns a home in Eskilstuna, lives in a house in a small village in the Philippines where he abused young girls from poor families.

He taught English to one of the victims and began sexually abusing her when she was nine years old.

According to the court's ruling, the abuse took place twice a week, and each time the Swede gave the girl a small sum of money equivalent to a couple of US dollars.

Another one of the victims also participated in the English lessons and was abused on at least one occasion.

The third girl, who that man had taken into his home to support, was photographed naked several times by the 76-year-old.

The court found that the man's crimes deserved a punishment equivalent to two years in prison, but reduced the sentence in light of the man's old age.

According to the court's ruling, the man has a predisposition to paedophilia and he "therefore prefers young, immature girls", the local Eskilstuna Kuriren newspaper reported.

"I've often seen men move abroad and engage in schools and volunteer organizations in order to gain access to children," detective Lisbeth Tolfes of Sweden's National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) told the TT news agency.

Tolfes participated in the investigation into the 76-year-old's sex crimes as a part of the NBI's child sex crimes unit.

In the past, it's been uncommon for people to be convicted in Sweden for child sex crimes committed abroad.

But on Wednesday this week a 45-year-old man from the Kristianstad area in southern Sweden was sentenced to seven years in prison by a court of appeal for abusing children in the Philippines.

"The Philippines is an incredibly poor country. It's tragic how these men use these poor children," said Tolfes.

TT/The Local/dl

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