American to serve 50 years in jail for child pornography
A 59-year-old American pedophile who sexually abused Kenyan children and captured the images on tape will spend 50 years behind bars for his heinous acts.
Mr Terry Ray Krieger, a repeat offender, was on Tuesday jailed for 50 years by a Nairobi court where he had pleaded guilty to a charge of child pornography.
Senior Principal Magistrate Joseph Karanja, while convicting the American, warned that the particulars of the charges against the self-confessed pedophile failed to capture “the depravity of the evidence seized from the American and which he saw in the video images and internet chat messages” he exchanged with fellow peadophiles before he was arrested a month ago in Kajiado.
The FBI had sent an alert to the Kenyan government about Mr Krieger who has previously served a 13-year-jail term in the US after his capture with photos of the children he abused in Kenya were intercepted on the internet.
PARAPLEGIC
“He was charged child pornography contrary to Section 16 sub- section (a) of the sexual offences act…the prosecution has submitted at length and given authorities in support of their request for a severe sentence, possibly, life as submitted by the prosecuting counsel,” the magistrate said.
He said that in mitigation, the defence asked the court principally to consider Mr Krieger “paraplegic condition”.
“I have perused the evidence adduced by the prosecution and I must state that the wording of the charge does not in any way exhibit his depravity in the images, videos and internet chat messages…and for lack of a negative superlative I can only say that the exhibits are horrific,” the magistrate ruled.
Mr Krieger was arrested following the FBI alert which indicated that an American was engaged in distributing child pornography made in Kenya.
He has been on the run since 2008 when he was charged in the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan, Southern District for the offences of possession of images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
EXTRADITION ORDERS
“The fact that he is paraplegic is no excuse for the crimes that he has confessed to…there are many paraplegic persons who lead lawful lives and do not engage in crime,” the magistrate said.
Prosecutor Duncan Ondimu applied for extradition orders upon completion of the sentence.
The pending extradition request was made by the US government who want Mr Krieger top face trial in a separate case of child pornography the FBI investigated in 2008.
He used a computer soft ware to receive images from other offenders and to distribute his own.
In the Kenyan case, he was accused of abusing a boy and a girl aged 3 and 6 years respectively and who police said were his neighbours at Olepolos, Kajiado.
He later sent still and video images of the heinous acts to another pedophile currently detained in a German jail.
UNDERCOVER AGENT
The case in US started on November 7 2006 when a taskforce FBI agent working undercover signed to the software network and searched for possible child pornography files which later was found to originate from Mr Krieger’s computer, according to the evidence in court.
He maintained a “large number of child pornography images and videos.”
Mtr Krieger was once arrested in 1992 by the Grand Rapids Police Department on two counts of first degree criminal sexual conduct and two counts of second degree aggravated sexual conduct.
He was convicted of the second count involving a person under the age of 13 and was jailed for 13 years but was released from prison on May 2005.
In the ruling, the magistrate said Mr Krieger targeted the most vulnerable in society, children, “who occupy a special place in our society and minds”.
“All of us in our respective positions in society became who we were because of the care we got from adults as we grew up,” the magistrate said.
ROBBED INNOCENCE
He said Mr Krieger “robbed his young victims of their innocence” and hoped that they may outgrow “this unfortunate episode in their lives”.
“It is very disturbing that these acts have been going on undetected by the parents, guardians and minders of the children, perhaps it is a pointer to the accused subtlety and perfected art of procuring minors to engage in these despicable sexual acts,” Mr Karanja said.
He said reformation for Mr Krieger was not an option since he was a repeat offender who had been jailed before in his home country for similar offences.
The magistrate said the sentence was a deterrent one but warned that Mr Kreiger “remains a risk to society in general and to children in particular.”