Hasselt boy's PC confiscated

5 October 2007

HASSELT – Without a word to the press 19-year-old Kris A. returned to Belgium on Thursday after spending two months in prison in Kentucky on suspicion of paedophilia.

Kris A. arrived at Zaventem and exited the airport accompanied by his uncle. While he talked about his case repeatedly last week while in prison, he his keeping quiet for the time being. Family members tried to shield Kris from the cameras and do not want him talking to the press about his trip to the US that went wrong. “We just want things to settle down now,” said one family member.

Whether things will actually calm down remains to be seen. The silence of Kris and his family follows on the report that the Hasselt public prosecution department has started a preliminary investigation against Kris A. “To figure out whether he has committed any criminal offences. If that is the case we will start a criminal investigation,” authorities say.

Police already confiscated Kris’ computer and a number of other items during a search of his parents’ home. Spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office Erwin Steyls did not want to comment in detail on Thursday. He only said that Kris A. will “first be questioned in order to confront him with the findings.”

Kris A. was arrested in early August in Harlan County, Kentucky. The young Limburg man had gone to the US to meet a girl he had been chatting with on the internet. The boy claims she told him she was 16, but in fact the girl was only 13. Kris A. and the underage girl had exchanged nude photos on the internet. After almost two months in prison a Grand Jury decided he should be released.

Subject: Belgian news

Hasselt boy’s PC confiscated