A German national charged with human trafficking, defilement and making pornographic videos of minors was on Tuesday, August 8, 2023, sentenced to 81 years in prison.
Thomas Scheller, 74, was convicted of seven offences after the court found him guilty of the offences.
Milimani Principal Magistrate Caroline Njagi sentenced Scheller to 30 years in jail in count one for defilement, counts two and three to 15 years in prison each and counts 4,5,6 to seven years in jail each.
"The accused having been convicted and sentenced, will be entered into the Sexual offenders record," the magistrate ruled.
In his mitigation, the accused had alleged that he was framed and pleaded for a lenient sentence.
Scheller was charged in 2020 and denied bail after the prosecution opposed saying the case against him was a serious offence and he was a flight risk.
On May 26, 2020, Scheller was charged with the offences in addition to being in Kenya illegally and child trafficking.
It is alleged that between March and April at Nyalenda in Kisumu Central, he defiled a 13-year-old child.
He was also charged with two counts of showing a pornographic video to boys.
“On dates between the months of March and April at Nyalenda in Kisumu, he unlawfully and intentionally exposed a child aged 13 years to an indecent audiovisual,” the charge sheet read.
It is alleged that he recruited, transported and harboured a 13-year-old child for purposes of exploitation by means of fraud.
Scheller was charged with three counts of defiling three minors, the youngest being 10, by sodomising them. He was also charged alternatively with committing an indecent act with a minor.
According to Scheller, he told the court he wanted to help the child and the mother agreed but anything else was a lie.
However, the state said the accused was a child molester.
Scheller was arrested after the police had trailed him for months, documents show.
It is alleged he escaped police in Kwale and fled to Kisumu where he committed the offences before he was arrested in Nairobi.
Police said he was arrested outside the German Embassy in the company of one of the victims.
