Vietnamese police hunt Australian for alleged child sexual abuse

Police are hunting for an Australian man suspected of sexually abusing several Vietnamese children, police and state-controlled media reported Monday.

Photo: Vietnamese police hunt Australian for alleged child sexual abuse

"We have got a request from Australian police to coordinate with them on this case," said an official from Interpol Vietnam on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Monday's Tien Phong (Pioneer) newspaper reported that an American aid worker accused the 35-year-old man of repeatedly sexually abusing several girls aged eight to nine at an orphanage last year in central province of Quang Nam.

Australian Foreign Ministry officials in Canberra could not immediately confirm the report.

The case, if confirmed, would be the third over the past year involving foreigners sexually abusing children in the communist country.

Last week, a court in southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau province sentenced former British glam rocker Gary Glitter to three years in jail for committing obscene acts with two girls, aged 10 and 11.

In December, Austrian Peter Mueller, wanted for child sex abuse in several countries, was extradited to Austria after he was arrested at his rental home in Ho Chi Minh City, where he was living with a 14-year-old Vietnamese boy for the past two years, reports the AP.

I.L.