NABIN KHATIWADA / KAMAL PARIYAR
KATHMANDU, March 2: Lalitpur District Court on Sunday sentenced Canadian citizen Ernest Fenwick MacIntosh to seven years in jail for molesting a minor boy. The verdict also requires the 71-year-old to pay reparations of Rs 1 million to the victim.
A bench of Judge Tek Narayan Kunwar convicted MacIntosh of the crime, stating that the Canadian citizen had molested the 15-year-old through enticement and misinformation.
Kaushaleshwar Gyanwali, spokesperson of Lalitpur District Court, informed that the reparation sought is the highest amount so far in the country. The court has also ordered a special diplomatic mechanism for executing the reparation part of the verdict.
The court considered a polygraph test as supporting evidence against MacIntosh, along with the victim´s statement, call details between the offender and the victim, a statement recorded by another victim, Alex Khatri, and MacIntosh´s own statement that he clicked a nude photo of the boy. The polygraph test found that MacIntosh had lied in his statements.
The court settled the case within 48 days of its being filed, through closed and continuous hearings.
The court has convicted MacIntosh, stating he was a willful offender as he had targeted a differently-abled minor who was seeking support for a prosthetic hand, and had exploited a situation of "absence of capable guardianship" for committing the crime.
While handing down its verdict, the court also looked into the past of MacIntosh, who was convicted by lower courts in Canada in 13 similar cases of sexual offence although the appeals courts there had annulled the convictions under the statute of limitations. Lalitpur District Court also considered the verdicts of the lower Canadian courts as evidence against MacIntosh.
Post a Comment