Friday, June 06, 2008
Finnish man takes 2 minors to motel, nabbed
A FINNISH man was arrested yesterday morning after a caller told police that he had brought in three minor girls in a motel room with him.
Relee Virte, 69, told reporters he was surprised when he was told he was being arrested, saying he was only helping the girls get dental care.
“I am a good man. I help people go to a doctor (dentist) to fix their teeth,” he told Sun.Star Cebu in broken English.
Virte was arrested at a motel on Manalili St., Cebu City at 11 a.m.
He said he did not know how old the girls were and that he was not about to abuse them.
Initially, police learned only two were minors, aged 15 and 16, while the eldest was 18.
While police have yet to establish if any sexual exchange occurred between the minors, Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Bureau Chief George Ylanan said it was
illegal for adults who are not relatives of minors to bring them inside night spots and hotel and motel rooms.
This, he said, is according to Republic Act 7610 or the Anti-child Abuse Law.
Section 6 of RA 7610 provides that “there is an attempt to commit child prostitution...when any person who, not being a relative of the child, is found alone with the said child inside the room or cubicle of a house, inn, hotel, motel, pension house, apartelle or other similar establishments, vessel, vehicle or any other hidden or secluded area.”
Ylanan said they will also study the case and see if he can also be held liable for trafficking and other cases.
SPO4 Filomeno Mendaros said initially, the girls admitted they had sexual intercourse with Virte but then changed their story when they reached the Cebu City Police
Office Women and Children Concerns Desk.
He said they have yet to determine if anything happened with the girls.
Mendaros said they learned Virte has stayed in the inn since May 28. They also learned that someone brought the girls to the room.
But Virte insisted that there was no prostitution and told Ylanan that he was only helping the girls and their parents.
He said that the parents knew where they were.
Asked what he was doing with the girls inside the inn, he said they were meeting the dentist there.
Virte said he met the girls and their parents in Asturias town. (MEA)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (June 6, 2008 issue)
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