[Gvadelunar]

Man, 90, Accused Of Raping Young Sisters

2:50pm UK, Wednesday June 30, 2010
Katie Cassidy

Thai police have charged a 90-year-old Australian man with raping four young sisters whom he allegedly lured to his home with chocolates.



Kraus has reportedly lived in Thailand for 10 years

Karl Joseph Kraus was arrested at his house in the northern city of Chiang Mai, where as many as 100 indecent images of children were also found, according to officials. Doi Saket police chief Kritapol Yeesakorn said the elderly man approached the girls' family in 2008 with an offer to teach them English.

"He would lure them into his house with sweets, usually chocolate from abroad or luxury sweets, and he would ask them to perform sexual acts with him," he said. "For the eldest of the four sisters, he recently gave her 4,000 baht (£82) instead of sweets." Suspicions were raised by the parents of the girls - now aged between seven and 15 - when they no longer wanted to play outside.

After asking what was wrong, the children were taken to local police, who immediately sought an arrest warrant. Mr Kritapol added that investigators were looking into whether Kraus, who has lived in Thailand for a decade, was part of an international child sex abuse ring. The alleged paedophile was under surveillance at a Chiang Mai hospital after he claimed during his arrest to suffer from diabetes and high blood pressure.

But Mr Kritapol said neighbours had described the 90-year-old as an active man who still drove. Kraus, whose Australian passport was said to list Berlin as his place of birth, does not yet have a lawyer and was refusing to talk to police until he has one.