Nepal Court Convicts Former Canadian UN Worker

In April of 2018 police showed up to the remote home of Peter Dalglish, 62, outside of Kathmandu, Nepal, to arrest him on reports that he had abused some of the children that he had been assisting through a charity he'd established in the 1980s named Street Kids International.

Just recently, the Nepalese court found Dalglish guilty and sentenced him to nine years for abuse against a 12 year old boy, and an additional seven in the case of a 14 year old boy. "The judge is yet to decide whether he should serve a total 16 years in jail or be released after nine years. In most cases of a similar nature, sentences get overlapped but it is upon the judge to decide," a district court official told AFP news agency.

Additionally, Dalglish was ordered to pay compensation of 500,000 rupees to each of the children, equivalent to approximately $7,300.00 USD.

An attorney from Ontario, Dalglish has, through his attorney, Rahul Chapagain, already announced an intention to appeal the ruling.

"Due process has not been fulfilled during the investigation in the case. So we'll appeal."

After creating Street Kids International, it eventually was merged with the prominent Save the Children.  Through the course of his work, presumably to  help homeless kids find work and educational resources, he went on to hold an array of high-profile position in United Nations agencies, including the head of UN-Habitat in Afghanistan in 2015. In 2016, he was awarded the Order of Canada – one of the highest and most distinguished civilian honors for his advocacy work on behalf of war victims and homeless children.

According to court records seen by The Globe and Mail, Dalglish stated that as a child, he had been abused.  He also admitted that he had abused teenagers as an adult.  In a video-taped confession he described it as a kind of revenge, one of the police officers told The Globe.  Later though, Dalglish recanted his confession.

At one point, there were three accusers, but one later withdrew the allegation.  The remaining two boys however, who were found with Dalglish when he was arrested, never changed their story.

In recent years, Nepal has also become a disturbing destination for child sex tourism according to Fox News.

“Beyond traditional forms of child sex tourism, foreigners in Nepal also sexually exploit children by setting up a shelter or running a so-called ‘orphanage’ which serve as a venue for easily sexually exploiting children under their care,” ECPAT, a US-based anti-child trafficking agency surmised in a 2016 report.