A Swedish teacher working in Berlin has been arrested on suspicion of abusing children, many of whom were victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake. The 67 year-old was arrested at Munich Airport along with a 26 year-old Brazilian and a 57 year-old German, after allegedly trying to bring an 11 year-old Haitian boy into the country.
According to German newspaper, the Berliner Morgenpost, the Swedish man is thought to be the brains behind a smuggling operation which sought to sell vulnerable children to a paedophile ring within Germany.
“He is suspected for a total of 20 cases, both in Germany and Haiti,” Martin Steltner, spokesperson for the Prosecutor’s Office in Germany, told the Aftonbladet daily. “Most of them occurred between 2002 and 2003, but a few of them at least happened as recent as last year,” he added.
The 67 year-old, who worked at a school in Berlin, is a member of an aid organisation which is supposed to support Haitian orphans. According to reports, the children, mainly 11-12 year-old boys, were instead shipped to Germany, where they suffered sexual abuse.