90-year-old man accused of raping 4 Thai sisters
Australian Karl Kraus (center) is escorted by Thai policemen after being arrested, in Chiang Mai
A 90-year-old Australian was arrested and charged with raping four young sisters whom he allegedly lured to his home in Thailand with imported chocolates and English lessons, police said Wednesday.
One girl was 5 when the alleged abuse began. The sisters are now 7 to 15.
Karl Joseph Kraus was arrested Tuesday at his home near the northern city of Chiang Mai, where police confiscated about 100 photographs of naked children, said Doi Saket police chief Kritapol Yeesakorn.
Some photos showed the elderly man posing naked with other children, and police are trying to identify them and contact their families, Kritapol said. He said police were investigating if Kraus was part of a pedophilia network, noting many of the pictures were emailed overseas.
Kraus, who has lived in Thailand more than a decade, approached the girls' family in 2008 with an offer to teach the sisters' English, said Kritapol.
"He would lure them into his house with sweets, usually chocolate from aboard or luxury sweets, and he would ask them to perform sexual acts with him," Kritapol said. "For the eldest of the four sisters, he recently gave her 4,000 baht instead of sweets." The sum is about US$120.
The parents recently noticed the girls had lost interest in playing outside and asked them what was wrong, and then took them to police who immediately sought an arrest warrant, the police chief said.
He was charged with rape and sexual abuse.
Kraus' Australian passport says he was born in Berlin.
Kritapol said Kraus does not have a lawyer yet and has refused to talk to police until he has one.
Neighbors described Kraus as an active 90-year-old who still drove his own car, police said.
But when police arrested him he acted weak, walked with a cane and complained of diabetes and high blood pressure.
Police took him to a Chiang Mai hospital where he remains under surveillance. - AP
Published June 30 2010
Comments (35)
how can a 90 year old frail mensch rape kids? this is impossible!
as impossible as your Anwar with a bad back raping a 20 year old healthy assistant
there have been cases in Thailand where european tourist are lured into traps and then accused of raping underage girls/boys
trust me this man will be proven innocent. yet another dirty trick crafted by untrustworthy Thais
I pray to Christ that this innocent man will be released. Thais should be ashamed of themselves. We aryan came to your country and invested money. we oil your tourist trade and this is how you repay our kindness?
I think, there was a recent article about a 90+ year old Turkish man becoming a father.
Also, there was a recent article about an 80+ year old pedophile in America.
This old man should rot in jail.
i swear to myself that i will never set foot on that godless pagan nation!
p/s : to be honest, i never close this page whole day long until i 6pm... o0o the world!
I can tell U the other side of the story if U are so retard. Well the other side is the sisters raped the old bastard.
i was there a couple of years ago and the crafty thais accuse me of having sex with their daughter
Is it alright to have sex with your daughters?
its not like us chinese people. we never do this. we just like drinking dog penis
im sorry but the sex life with ang moh is better than puny ah beng, ahmad or ramasamy
i am dating a white guy now. much better and he makes me feel superior
i colour my hair blonde now so i will look more white
Er... are you saying that you prefer your future daughters to be raped by White old men?
seriously, this is fun. effectively reduce my stress during working!