Canadian Businessman, Accused In Several Child Sex Abuse Cases, Jailed For 7 Years In Nepal

A Canadian businessman with a history of child sex abuse cases was sentenced to seven years in jail by a court in Nepal on Sunday. Ernest Fenwick MacIntosh, 71, was charged with sexually abusing a boy in the country and was also ordered by the court to pay $10,000 to the victim, reports said.

MacIntosh, who is from Nova Scotia, came to Nepal in August last year on a tourist visa and reportedly also targeted other children during his stay. He was arrested in December from a hotel room in the country after the victim filed a complaint with local police. Officials said that he was a frequent visitor to a children's shelter where the abused boy lived, The Associated Press reported.

A spokesperson for Canada's Foreign Affairs department told CBC News that "consular services are being provided to the Canadian citizen who has been detained in Nepal."

Other victims, who were allegedly assaulted by MacIntosh, also recorded their statements with the police, Hindustan Times (HT), an Indian newspaper, reported. MacIntosh was convicted twice of sexual assaults in Canada in the 1980s, after which he moved to India in 1994. In that decade, fresh assault charges were filed against him in Canada for sex abuse cases during the 1970s, and he was extradited from India in 2007. In 2010 and 2011, he was convicted of 17 sex-related offenses but the convictions were later overturned due to a delay in the trial, according to HT.

"The monkey's off my back," Bob Martin, an alleged victim of MacIntosh from Nova Scotia in the 1970s, said, according to CBC News, adding that the news of his imprisonment was a relief. "For them to incarcerate him and to sentence him is a good feeling," Martin added.

MacIntosh has repeatedly denied the allegations against him and, after his convictions were overturned in Canada, he was working in Asia promoting companies that sell spices, according to CBC News.