TIRANA — A court in Albania on Tuesday sentenced two Englishmen to lenghty prison terms for sexually molesting and abusing children at an orphanage in Albania.
Dino Christodoulou, 45, and Robin Arnold, 56, received prison sentences of 20 and 15 years and six months respectively for sexually abusing children aged six to nine in the orphanage.
The two, who were extradited from Britain to Albania two years ago, were also declared personae non gratae and will be deported on completing their jail terms.
In 2008 a court sentenced their Scottish charity work partner John David Brown to 20 years in prison on the same charges.
The three Britons came to Albania in 1999 during the war in neighbouring Kosovo. They set up a charity organisation, His Children, in 2001, housing orphans and abandoned children found on the streets of the capital Tirana.
But the orphanage was shut down in 2006 on Brown's arrest.
Christodoulou and Arnold were arrested in London in September 2007 and were later extradited to Albania.
Judge Shefkie Demiraj mentioned six cases of sexual abuse for Christodoulou and one for Arnold, court officials said.
The defendants were planning to appeal the verdicts as they said during the trial they were innocent of the charges.
Source:AFP
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