Oz paedophile case adjourned again

Visakhapatnam: The court of the second additional district and sessions judge here has adjourned the case against the Australian “paedophile” Paul Dean to May 10 when the case came up for hearing on Friday.

The court had remained closed due to Covid-19 since March last and is yet to be opened.

The railway court had, in March 2018, sentenced the 75-year-old Dean to three years’ simple imprisonment under various sections of IPC and slapped a fine of Rs 32, 000. He was convicted and sentenced based on the statement of a lone witness and victim, David, a blind man, who was in his teens when the crime was committed.

Paul later challenged the decision in the appellate court, the second additional district judge court.  

Paul had been arrested from his RK Beach apartment in Visakhapatnam in August 2001 following a report in these columns.

Upon hearing about the adjournment on Friday, one Peter Poat from Australia said in his email to this correspondent that Dean had made a mockery of Indian justice system for many years, adopting various ploys to avoid jail.

“He may be getting old. However, that is no reason why he should not be held to account for the damage he caused to many children’s lives over a long period,’’ he alleged.

Poat said, “The huge catalogue of dishonesty and terrible abuse of Indian children perpetrated by this Australian – who fled justice from his own country – must be held to account.

“He has ruined many lives, and there is strong evidence that some have committed suicide due to his grotesque sexual exploitations.This man deserves to spend the rest of his days behind the bars,” Peter said in his mail.

Mary Ellen Gerber, 84-year-old woman from France, said in her email: “Paul Dean changed his name seven times. He is notoriously identified for being an accomplished forger, thief, liar and charged with sexual assault of hundreds of underage children for the past 45 years. Dean was arrested several times by the police, incarcerated, but still released thanks to the help of his long-time accomplices.”

“This man should be imprisoned for life for causing sufferings to hundreds of underage Indian children,’’ she said.

Mary said she and her friends had donated huge amounts to Paul to look after children in his orphanage at Kothavalasa in Vizianagaram district, Muniguda and Puri in Odisha and Visakhapatnam.