American charged before Kenyan court with child pornography

American Terry Ray Kriegler, 59, at the Milimani Law Courts on November 3, 2014 where he was charged with child pornography. PHOTO | PAUL WAWERU | NATION MEDIA GROUP 

In Summary

• Mr Krieger denied a charge stating he circulated obscene publications depicting images of a child on the Internet.
• Interpol in Germany and America informed the local office of the presence of a child abuser in Kenya who was exchanging pictures with other “users” abroad.

By VINCENT AGOYA
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An American man accused of sexually abusing Kenyan children and circulating the images on the Internet has been charged with child pornography.

Mr Terry Ray Krieger, 59, will remain in custody pending a ruling on his bail application.

The prosecution asked for more time to present an affidavit objecting to his release.

Mr Krieger denied a charge stating he circulated on the Internet obscene publications depicting images of a child.

Local police had been looking for Mr Krieger, alias Babytoddler123, and arrested him at Olepolos in Ngong, Kajiado County.

He was arrested after Interpol investigators in Germany and in the United States informed the local office of the presence of a child abuser in Kenya who was exchanging pictures with other “users” abroad.

NUDE IMAGES

Prosecutor Duncan Ondimu asked the court on Monday to detain the suspect as he prepared an affidavit with the suspect's profile.

“This is a matter of child pornography. The suspect, who is an American, uses (the) Internet to share nude and obscene images of Kenyan children,” the prosecutor said.

According to the police, the children are believed to be between the ages of three and10 and are from the local area where the suspect resides.

Investigators have obtained copies of alleged chats between the suspect and others in Germany and America covering the period between December 7, 2013 and May 18, 2014.

CHAT TRAFFIC

Information collected during the telecommunication interception reveals 36 files were exchanged.

“In the course of investigations it has become known at this end that (the) Skype user and address can be linked to the provider Safaricom Limited in Nairobi, Kenya... according to the contents of the chat traffic, the images are of victims of sexual abuse committed by the suspect,” the Germany police liaison office wrote in a classified report now available in court records.

“We kindly request you to take immediate action to identify the child abuser operating in Kenya by checking on the IP address from Safaricom ISP to get enough information for further investigation leading to an arrest and later prosecution here in the US, if the child abuser is a US citizen,” American investigators also wrote in the correspondence to the Kenyan Government on August 20, 2014.

INTERPOL

Interpol investigators said they were ready to surrender “well prepared evidence-pictures of abused children - shred by the abuser in Kenya, full communication on Skype and Gigatribe, with his counterpart in Germany.”

Kenyan detectives have since impounded further evidence at the suspect’s house, which was searched on October 31.

A forensic report containing communications from the suspect was forwarded by a police officer in Germany, the court documents say.

In connection with investigations conducted in Germany, the public prosecutor general has also filed a case against Mr Krieger for suspected “aggravated sexual abuse of children and possession of child pornography”.

The analysis of the uncovered communication has revealed concrete leads suggesting that the user is active in the child pornography Internet scene, according to the prosecution.

Mr Krieger returns to court Tuesday.