Orphanage owner held for uploading child porn

Orphanage owner held for uploading child porn

TNN Nov 8, 2009, 05.33am IST

CHENNAI: Chennai's cyber sleuths on Saturday arrested Will Heum, a 56-year-old Dutch man who ran an orphanage, for uploading child pornographic material on to the internet. Police recovered his personal computer and pornographic material from his house.

Heum is already facing a case in a Chengalpet court for sexually abusing children of Little Home, an orphanage he had opened near Mahabalipuram. He was arrested in May 2002. Out on bail and living in a rented house in Choolaimedu, he has been uploading pictures of children being sexually abused, police said.

This is the first case of child pornography registered in the country under the IT Act which came into force on October 27.

He was booked under Section 67-B of IT Act 2008 that deals with digital child pornography, and remanded to judicial custody after being produced before a metropolitan magistrate in Saidapet. If convicted he faces maximum punishment of seven years imprisonment and a fine of Rs 10 lakh.

It was a tip-off from the Child Exploitation Online Protection Centre in Germany through the Interpol that led to the arrest of the foreigner who has also done small roles in Tamil movies.