FRANKFURT, Germany: A 75-year-old man residing in Germany has been arrested by police on suspicion of sexually abusing children in the Philippines, allegedly committing the acts remotely, reported the German Press Agency (dpa).
Police and prosecutors in Frankfurt said today that the man is accused of instructing several children on multiple occasions via the internet to “perform sexual acts on themselves, transmit these acts to him live, or record and send him the footage”.
The suspect is believed to have committed the acts against children aged between 5 and 11, with the help of adults in the Philippines.
The German law enforcement officials also said there is a “strong suspicion” that the accused committed similar acts while he was in the Philippines.
According to the authorities, “more than 13,000 suspicious image and video files had been uploaded to a cloud account associated with the suspect”.
The investigation was triggered by a tip-off from the United States-based National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).
Investigators searched the man’s home and secured extensive evidence, including eight mobile phones, two tablets, cameras and numerous data storage devices.
He was taken into custody near Frankfurt on Thursday, produced before the Frankfurt District Court, and is now in pre-trial detention. – BERNAMA-dpa
