A 60-year-old Kristin Serge Henry Nagaret, a French national has been arrested from Pokhara Metropolitan City-17 Birauta Powerhouse Fursekhola Bagar on December 1 on the charge of sexually abusing and exploiting three children. He was caught red-handed while sexually abusing and exploiting three children aged 7, 8, and 12 years on a riverbank. The minors have been handed over to their parents.

He is married to a Nepali woman and is living at Pokhara-6 on a non-tourist visa. According to the bureau’s officials, Nagaret is on the record of international child sex offenders.

Pedophiles have been targeting Nepali children from poor economic backgrounds and also those belonging to uneducated families. It is easy to lure them for money and food in name of social services. The government has established Child Helpline (1098) in collaboration with CWIN Nepal (Child Workers in Nepal) in order to respond immediately to a distress call from children in need and to curb child sexual abuses across the country.

The investigation has shown that street children and those living on the outskirts of the Kathmandu Valley tend to be frequent victims of sexual abuse. According to a report of Global Studies on Sexual Exploitation of Children in Travels and Tourism, ‘Nepali children have been the easy targets of foreigners walking around the country as pedophiles.’