Kiel, Germany - A 49-year-old HIV-positive musician who sexually molested boys in Cambodia was jailed Friday for six and a half years, with the German court ruling that he must be detained afterwards till he was no longer a risk to anyone else. Judge Stefan Becker said in Kiel the accused was perverted, incorrigible and unwilling to accept any behavioural therapy.
"He can't alter the fact that he is paedophile, but if he had wanted, he could have changed the way he copes with his paedophilia," said the judge in the northern city of Kiel. The defendant has a long criminal record for similar offences.
A Cambodian boy, 8, who was flown to Germany with his mother, had credibly testified about the sex acts with boys in Sihanoukville, Cambodia. The victim was only 6 at the time. The public was barred from the German court while the evidence was taken.
Other boys also flew to Germany as witnesses, but their evidence was ruled inadmissible because child-welfare workers in Cambodia might have suggested to them what they should say.
Defence lawyers said they would appeal the verdict, but judges ordered the accused kept in jail as long as it takes to appeal.
The German is currently serving a sentence for using a forged Danish passport to travel to Cambodia. His German passport had been taken away from him because of earlier offences.
The public-safety part of his sentence means he must stay detained beyond his sentence and can only be released if judges decide he has reformed. The man is infected with the virus that causes AIDS.
