Three-year jail for Australian national for sexually abusing orphans in Visakhapatnam

After a 17-year-long trial, the Railway Court in Visakhapatnam has recently convicted Australian national Paul Henry Dean, for committing a series of sexual offences.

VISAKHAPATNAM: After a 17-year-long trial, the Railway Court in Visakhapatnam has recently convicted Australian national Paul Henry Dean, who is popularly known as Allan Rose, of committing a series of sexual offences against orphans in Visakhapatnam district and several places in neighbouring Odisha. 75-year-old Paul Henry Dean, who has obtained a bail, is now learnt to be making efforts to appeal before the AP High Court against the conviction. 

The Vizag Railway Court has sentenced Paul to three years of imprisonment under Sections 377 (Unnatural acts), 292 (2) (A) of the IPC and Section 12 of the Passport Act, 1967, and Section 14 of the Foreigners Act, apart from imposing a fine of Rs 32,000. Paul, alias Parviraj, who posed himself as a priest, missionary and a doctor and the orphans who called him ‘Tatagaru’ fell prey to him. He was arrested in 2001 by Visakhapatnam police on charges of sexually harassing many orphans. Released on bail, he moved to Odisha and committed similar offences again in Muniguda village, some 60 km away from the district headquarters of Rayagada. 

According to sources, the Railway Court in Vizag convicted Paul around a week ago. Kakinada DSP PVRSSSM Ravi Varma, who investigated the case, recorded evidence and the court sentenced Paul to three years of imprisonment on charges of resorting to the unnatural act under Section 377 of IPC and imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 . He was also awarded one-year imprisonment under Section 292 (2) of IPC (exposing obscenity) and fined `2,000, apart from one-year jail under Section 12 (1A) (b) of the Passport Act, 1967, and two-year more under  Section 14 of the Foreigners Act.

During the recent hearing, the Railway Court stated that all the sentences will run concurrently. The court also said that the accused pleaded mercy and sought minimum punishment. “Paul Dean allegedly harassed sexually many orphans, but we have evidence in 11 cases and the court convicted him based on those. There is a possibility of the addition of a few more sections if more pieces of evidence are added,” Ravi Varma told TNIE over phone.

Related Stories

No stories found.
The New Indian Express
www.newindianexpress.com