Hanoi jails German man for sex with minor boy

By Viet Dung   November 30, 2018 | 05:31 pm PT
Hanoi jails German man for sex with minor boy
Pham Jurgen Michael (L) during a session of the Hanoi's People's Court Thursday. Photo by VnExpress/Viet Dung
A Vietnamese-German habitual offender will be jailed for two years for having sex with a 15-year-old boy in Hanoi.

The city’s People’s Court Thursday found Pham Jurgen Michael, 58, guilty of persuading the teenager into having sex in a café’s toilet in Hanoi.

Michael, whose family name indicates Vietnamese ethnicity, befriended the boy as he was walking around the Hoan Kiem Lake on April 19.

Police caught him in the café, the court heard.

Michael denied having sex with the boy, but the court was convinced with evidence presented by the prosecution, including the victim’s testimony.

Three other teenage boys also accused Michael for having had sex with them in the past, but he denied all accusations.

Michael had also faced seven charges related to sexual abuse between 1978 and 2000 in Germany. He moved to Vietnam in 2016.

After Michael serves his sentence, he will be deported from Vietnam and banned from returning to the country, the court stated.

In September, a Slovakian man was also sentenced to three years in jail for having sex with a 13-year-old boy.

Any person aged 18 or over who engages in sexual intercourse or other sexual activities with a person aged 13 to under 16 in Vietnam can face up to 15 years in prison.

The United Nations had said last year that one in four children in Vietnam is a victim of abuse and at least 1,300 cases of sexual violence against children are reported each year.

While official statistics are unavailable, the U.N. estimates the true numbers would be consistently alarming.

 
 
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