VS: Follow-up from Aftenposten
Can be punished in Norway for sexual assault abroad
For the first time a concrete tip from Norwegian tourists has led to a Norwegian being charged in Norway for sexual assault in another country.

Inger Anne Olsen

Norwegians that travel to poor countries and molest children do not avoid punishment even if the police in their holiday destination do not detain them.

"Norway has legislation that makes it possible to punish sexual assailants at home for the offenses they commit abroad. The case in Gambia shows that this is fully possible," says John Ståle Stamnes. He is Crime Intelligence Officer at Interpol's secretariat in Lyon.

Aftenposten wrote yesterday about a Norwegian teacher charged with the sexual abuse of a 12-year-old boy while on holiday in Gambia. Police captain Håvard Aksnes of National Bureau of Crime Investigation Kripos says that as far as he knows this is the first time a case has been investigated because Norwegian tourists have sounded the alarm about other tourists.

"We get many such telephone calls but as a rule they are so vague and lacking in concrete facts that investigation is not possible," Aksnes says. He is the one who has handled the case of the Norwegian teacher from the time it was reported until Oslo police district took over the investigation two weeks ago.

Should teach

The middle-aged teacher is not in custody and is still working at a school in Østlandet. During the past year he has been to Gambia four times. The man has yet to ask for legal counsel. According to Aftenposten's information, the man has traveled to teach at a Gambian school on at least two of his trips. The teacher told Aftenposten earlier that he had received a leave of absence from his own school to teach "his" subjects at a local school in central Gambia. The man's school gave him paid leave. The teacher only had to pay travel and accommodation expenses. 

It was on these trips that he had checked into a hotel with a 12-year-old Gambian boy. The boy was with the Norwegian around the clock, also when the man was teaching at the local school.

Boy can be punished

Homosexuality is prohibited in Gambia. Even if the age of sexual consent is 16, in practice this does not apply to boys. Therefore, theoretically, a boy of 12 can be punished for taking part in homosexual acts.

"Gambian law does not protect boys against rape. If a boy - regardless of age - is raped by a male tourist, according to the law it is the boy himself who is to blame for engaging in homosexual activity," Jalamang Camara of the Gambian umbrella organization Child Protection Alliance told Aftenposten. Camara is extremely worried about the lack of legal protection boys have in such cases.

These conditions make it even more difficult for Gambian police to get confessions from the victim in a case like this. A boy who has been sexually abused has everything to lose and nothing to gain by telling about the assault. There is also no system of support ready to help the boy if the case enters the legal system.

Civilian patrol

John Ståle Stamnes of Interpol is worried by developments in child sex tourism.

"In Norway we focus very much on what happens in Western nations. Thus we contribute to Norwegian assailants traveling to poor countries and molesting children there instead," Stamnes says.

"This form of tourism destroys the entire society. In the beginning the assaults may perhaps occur with the family's silent assent. But when the story becomes known cultural demands may be so strong that the family rejects the child. There should be no sanctuary for Norwegians anywhere. And the more regular tourists the better. Then they will act as a kind of international civilian patrol," Stamnes says.

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