Swedish national faces charge of child abuse

A complaint for child abuse was filed yesterday against the 67-year-old Swedish national who was arrested in the company of a 9-year-old girl in the Cebu City port.

Jonny Lagstrem was presented by port police for inquest proceedings before Assistant City Prosecutor Noel Cellona.

He was accompanied by a woman from Bacolod City, who said she was his fiancée and that the little girl was her cousin.

The charge against Lagstrem for violation of Republic Act 7610 or the Anti-Child Abuse Law refers to section 5 b and 10 on sexual abuse and “keeping company” with a minor who is not a relative or a legal ward.

The child, a native of Masbate province, is being looked after now by the Provincial Women’s Commission (PWC), said Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale.

Magpale, co-chairperson of the PWC, said the girl will undergo a debriefing session with social workers and a physical examination.

The child’s parents have not yet shown up.

Social workers in Cebu initially talked to the girl who told them she was not sexually abused by Lagstrem.

Magpale said they were told by Lagstrem’s girlfriend that Lagstrem is a lawyer who has been going around the country for six years. This profile of the Swedish national is still being verified, said the vice governor.

“The important thing is that the girl has child psychologists (attending to her),” said Magpale, who explained that the PWC, headed by Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia,  committed to help victims of child abuse even if they are not from Cebu.

“Who knows, the next victim may be from Cebu,” she said.

The commission has been in the forefront of rescuing children from sexual abuse, including 2011 raids of cybersex dens in Cordova town, where private houses in low-income neighborhoods were used for web camera porn operations.

Lagstrem and the girl were about to leave Cebu for Masbate last Monday when they were stopped by two policemen at the Cebu Ports Authority Passenger Terminal 3 in Cebu City at 5:25 p.m.

Port police were tipped off to look for Lagstrem and the child. They contacted the PWC, which called in the National Bureau of Investigation in Central Visayas (NBI-7).

NBI-7 led by special investigator Jedidah Hife filed the complaint against Lagstrem.

The NBI cited section 5, paragraph b of RA 7610, which penalizes those “who commit the act of sexual intercourse or lascivious conduct with a child exploited in prostitution or subject to other sexual abuse.

Lagstrem was also cited for  section 10, paragraph b that prohibits any person from “keeping in his company a minor, 12 years or under or who is 10 years or more his junior in any public or private place.”

The ban applies to any person who is not the child’s relative up to the fourth degree or has no any bond recognized by law, local custom and tradition or one not acting in the performance of a social, moral or legal duty.

Lagstrem initially told police he brought the girl to a hospital for treatment in Cebu City.

The NBI said an informant in Masbate tipped off the Maritime police about the foreigner and that the girl has been under the custody of her grandparents.