American don at St Paul’s University detained over child pornography charges

An American don at St Paul’s University accused of child pornography will be detained for 14 days to allow police conclude their investigations.

Joseph William Black JR, 63, was charged with child pornography after he was allegedly found in possession of pornographic photos and videos of children in his laptop.

Milimani Chief Magistrate Susan Shitubi ordered the accused be detained until February 8 after the prosecution opposed his release on bail stating that he is a flight risk.

“He is a foreigner and we’re afraid he won’t turn up for trial once he is freed on bail,” stated State prosecutor Anne Mathangani.

William, who was arrested at Bishop Makarios Seminary Riruta where he resides, was accused of intentionally being in possession of pornographic images and videos of Caucasian children of unknown age in his laptop.

The images and videos depicted private parts of unknown children aged between 5 and 13 years.

He allegedly committed the offence on dates between October 20, 2020, and August 20, 2021, at Bishop Makarios seminary Riruta Satellite within Nairobi.

According to Mathangani, officers from Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) received reports that the foreigner had been involved in child pornography back in the US.

The court heard that detectives attached to children’s rights and violence department conducted a search on the teacher and recovered the laptop.

US detectives working with Interpol in Nairobi suspected that William could be abusing other boys in Kenya.

The accused however denied the charges and pleaded for lenient bond terms saying he was not a flight risk and will abide by the court rules.

In 2020, a German suspected to be a serial paedophile was charged with seven counts of child trafficking, defilement and pornography.

Thomas Scheller, 71, had been on security radar in relation to several child pornography cases in Kwale county and its environs.

He has pending cases on defilement in Mombasa and Nairobi courts.

Detective Lawrence Okoth told the court that cyber intelligence had revealed that he shared child pornographic materials to a registered sexual offender in Germany.

Charges against the accused stated that on March 29, 2020 at Nyalenda, Kisumu Central sub-county, Kisumu County, he unlawfully recruited, transported and harbored a 13-year-old boy for the purpose of exploitation.

He is also said to have defiled the same boy.  Scheller is also accused of committing an indecent act with a child, contrary to Section 11(1)) of the Sexual Offences Act No.3 of 2006.

The prosecution further alleges that between March, 2020 and May 2020 at Nyalenda, Kisumu, and Ngara, Starehe, Nairobi County, he unlawfully and intentionally exposed a child aged 13 to indecent audio visuals.

On May 5, 2020 the court allowed police 21 more days to continue detaining the accused after he was arrested for being illegally in the country.

This followed an application by Okoth, attached to DCI’s Anti-Human Trafficking and Child Protection Unit (AHTCPU) that the suspect was arrested on May 4, 2020 and they needed more time to complete investigations.

Okoth had told the court through the prosecutor that he was involved in investigations of child trafficking, defilement and child pornography cases against the suspect.

The officer told the court that the suspect was arrested on May 4, 2020 by the DCI officers from AHTCPU outside the German Embassy, Nairobi together with a Kenyan minor who was rescued and was suspected to be a victim of child trafficking and defilement.

Okoth told the court that the suspect led the officers to a lodging house in Ngara, Nairobi County, where he had been staying with the victim since April 30, 2020 until May 4, 2020.

“Despite the partial lockdown in the country the suspect managed to travel with the 13-year-old victim all the way from Kisumu to Nairobi where he was nabbed,” said the detective.

Investigations discovered that Western paedophiles are targeting and exploiting the country’s poverty and lax law enforcement to abuse children.

Reporters from international broadcast filmed children, some as young as 12, in nightclubs in Mombasa where they had gone to meet Western men who had travelled to the country for under-age sex.

Fees for sex with Western tourists can amount to almost five times what most Kenyan labourers earn in a day, and many view the industry as the only way of putting food on the table.

A UNICEF report published in 2006 found that thirty per cent of Kenyan children between 12 and 18 were engaged in casual sex for money, with over half their clients considered to be European.

According to the study, Italian, German and Swiss nationals were the most common clients, at 18 per cent, 14 per cent and 12 per cent respectively.