They met through an onling dating service that promotes Asian girls looking for foreign partners.
After clicking the website and giving personal details online about herself, the 21-year-old woman from Liloan town, northern Cebu, was introduced to an American.
They chatted online. He offered her a job.
When Richard Dunn showed up for their “final interview” last Thursday, Nov. 15, at a Chowking fast food outlet in Gaisano Tabunok in Talisay City, he turned out to be 66 years old.
He invited her to continue the “interview” in his apartment in barangay Pooc, Talisay City that evening, and then kept her there for three days.
Talisay police arrested Dunn yesterday and charged the American with illegal detention with rape based on the 21-year-old woman’s affidavit and medical findings that she had lacerations in her private parts.
The woman said she was looking for a job when she went online, and had her first Internet chat with Dunn on Nov. 5.
The criminal complaint was filed with the Talisay prosecutor’s office.
Dunn, who is seeking assistance from the US Embassy, refused to talk to reporters.
He signed a waiver of detention and signified his willingness to undergo inquest proceedings to answer the charge.
Prosecutor Hyacint Jadraque said Dunn “wishes to answer the complaint but I told him that for now, the one who will assist him is the Public Attorney’s Office because we can’t wait for a lawyer from the embassy.”
The risk of date rape and pornography through websites that allow foreign males to exploit local women, usually from low-income families looking for greener pastures, increased with popular access to the Internet.
“I hope that what happened serves as a warning to people, especially women,” Senior Supt. Patronicio Comendador Jr., Cebu provincial police director told Cebu Daily News.
“You shouldn’t easily trust a person (you just met online) especially if you don’t know his background. As much as possible, don’t talk to strangers,” he said.
When CDN logged on to the website (portal’s name withheld), it showed an album of photos of young women from different Asian countries, including the Philippines.
Click on a photo and it shows the basic profile of a woman, including her preferences “Have children” (Yes/no), “wants children” (Yes/no) and a few sentences from the applicant describing what kind of partner she wants to meet.
RUDE AMERICAN
The Cebuana’s story surfaced in a chance meeting with the barangay captain of Pooc in the Aqua Cainta Resort in Pooc, Talisay City on Sunday.
Barangay Captain Doroteo Emit owns the resort where the American and the young woman went swimming last Nov. 18.
When Emit told the foreign guest to remove his slippers before using the swimming pool, Dunn got irked and the two men ended up arguing.
“He was so arrogant in talking with me,” Emit told Cebu Daily News later.
The woman approached Emit to calm him down, and that’s when Emit got curious and asked her probing questions.
“Nag-ingon ang biktima na pasagdan na lang kuno nako kay grabe ra ba na siya manamparos (The victim told me to let the matter go because the American slaps very hard.).”
The woman is less than five feet tall with a morena (brown) complexion, and dyed brown hair. She declined to be interviewed for this story.
She earlier narrated to Emit her experience with the American and how she met him through an online site where she was offered a job.
She told the barangay captain that once she was in his apartment, the American would slap her and prohibited her from talking to other people.
Emit called in barangay tanods to help secure the girl and hold Dunn in custody. The American was later turned over to the police.
MEDICAL EXAMINATION
The woman was brought to the Don Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center for a medical examination. PO2 Violeta Godinez of the Women and Children Protection Desk of Talisay City police said they would check Dunn’s background and the website, to see if other women had fallen victim.
According to Emit, the American rented his aparment in sitio Cainta a month ago, and presented himself as a real estate broker in California.
Emit told CDN the young woman in the rape complaint said Dunn invited her to his apartment for a meal allegedly to continue their interview.
When they were inside, Dunn proposed to marry the victim instead of hiring her.
The woman refused, which angered Dunn. He barred her from leaving the aparment, and took away her wallet and cellphone.
The alleged rapes took place in the aparment during the three days they were together. /Gabriel C. Bonjoc, Correspondent with reports from Tweeny Malinao and Joy Cherry Quito