Dutch director of children's home charged with child abuse

Agency: AFP

KATHMANDU: A Dutch national who ran a centre for homeless children in Nepal's capital Kathmandu has been arrested and charged with child abuse, police said Thursday.

"Henk Molhuysen has been charged with molesting children after we arrested him as he was having sex with a 12-year-old and a 14-year-old child," said Kathmandu police chief Dhak Bahadur Karki.

Officials at the Netherlands consulate declined to reveal any information about the case, referring enquiries to the department of foreign affairs in The Hague.

The 59-year-old has been kept in custody in central Kathmandu since his arrest last Thursday, the police chief said.

Molhuysen has been charged with 'unnatural molestation of children'. If convicted he faces up to 15 years in jail, an investigating officer said.

"We are investigating him for abusing more than two children, and we will file the case in around three weeks," said Meera Chaudhary, a police officer from the Women and Children crime investigation unit.

Molhuysen was the director of Hamro Jivan, a centre where some 40 children between the ages of eight and 14 were looked after, according to the home's website.

A member of staff confirmed that Molhuysen, who has been Hamro Jivan director since it was established in 2003, was detained last Thursday.

"He has been arrested on suspicion of abusing children sexually," Eveline Smit, a project manager at the home, told. "The home will remain open," she added.

Aid-dependent Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world.