Australian paedophile’s case coming to a close

Visakhapatnam: The 16-year-long criminal case against the Australian fugitive Paul Henry Dean roaming free in India for the last 40 years without passport and visa and committed sexual offenses against orphans both in Visakhapatnam and Odisha, is coming to an end.

• Case adjourned to Oct 25, when final hearing is expected to end
• Fugitive Australian committed offense in Odisha too
• Dean was arrested in 2001 on charges of abusing orphans in his care

The case is presently under trial in Railway Court. The prosecution has so far examined 13 victims, several police officials and volunteers and will examine one more police officer and passport officer this week. The case has been adjourned to October 25.

Paul Dean masqueraded as a priest, missionary and a doctor and changed his name seven times during his life time. In Visakhapatnam, he is known as Allan Rose, alias Parviraj and the orphans called him as ‘Tatagaru’ before falling victim to him.

It was in 2001, the police arrested him for the sexual offenses in his flat located on the beach road. After release from the prison on bail, he moved to Odisha where he committed the same offenses in Muniguda village and one of his victim identified as Anil Kumar committed suicide unable to bear is harassment.

The accused criminal background in Australia was exposed by Australian Broadcasting Corporation and a team from ABC visited all the places in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh where he committed his offenses.

The report said in 1976 Paul Dean, a native of Bunbury, Australia cheated a travel company to the tune of $100,000 and fled the country on a false passport. He landed in Bapatla via Singapore and began working in a leprosy colony.

He moved to several places in Andhra Pradesh before shifting to Odisha. After spending some time there, he came to Visakhapatnam and began working for an orphanage New Hope. This is the place where he lured young orphans who include visually challenged, deaf and dumb and summoned them to his apartment where he sexually exploited them without drawing attention of the neighbours.

Mary Ellen Gerber, a donor from Canada, who came to know all his activities and took testimonies from five boys, even wrote a book in which she suggested protection of unfortunate children from criminals like Paul Dean.

Reports from Odisha said Dean and his assistant Eliazar T Rose (a native of Odisha) formed New Hope Leprosy Trust where Dean without having adequate qualifications conducted surgeries and amputations of leprosy patients.

Local lawyers said the has been weakened over the years as there was no pressure from the victims. The young orphans grew older and initially refused to depose in thecourt. The case also moved from one court to another during last 16 years and some of the important files went missing.

By KMP Patnaik