Paedophile sexually abused 5 children in S’pore, 39 others in South-east Asia, Australia
By
LOUISA TANG
The AgeWhile living here, the Australian groomed children from across four countries while travelling across Southeast Asia on alleged work trips.
Published23 MAY, 2019
UPDATED 23 MAY, 2019
SINGAPORE — A man who was based in Singapore sexually abused 44 children in the region, including five who lived here, over almost two decades, documents seen by TODAY revealed.
Boris Kunsevitsky, 53, was employed as a clinical director at local medical company Esthemedica.
While living here, the Australian groomed children from across four countries while travelling across South-east Asia on alleged work trips.
Kunsevitsky filmed the acts and distributed photographs and videos of the sexual abuse, which depicted children engaged in sexual activity with each other on his instructions, or Kunsevitsky himself abusing them.
Over the course of two days earlier this week, Kunsevitsky
pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia to 59 offences.
These included maintaining a sexual relationship with a child, 13 counts of engaging in sexual intercourse with a child outside Australia, five counts of inducing a child to engage in sex with a child in the offender’s presence, and importing child pornography material.
Documents from the Office of the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions revealed that:
- Most of his crimes took place in the Philippines, and once in Indonesia.
- More than 1,000 of the photographs or videos that were found on him were taken when he was overseas at various times between May 2010 and April 2015.
Of the 44 victims:
- 36 were aged between 10 and 15 at the time of the offences.
- Eight were aged between 16 and 17.
- Five of them suffered from “persistent sexual abuse”, between June 2010 and June 2011 and again between February 2013 and June 2013. Each charge of persistent sexual abuse involved at least three separate instances, and on some occasions, up to 10 instances.
- One was a Melbourne teenager, now aged about 28 years old, whom Kunsevitsky groomed and abused in 2004 and 2005. Kunsevitsky produced 55 child exploitation images of the teen, whom he admitted to maintaining a sexual relationship with. They had met on a teen chat website, where Kunsevitsky pretended to be 19 years old. The victim said the abuse left him confused and isolated from those close to him. He reportedly turned to drugs and tried to take his own life while he was in his teens, and later lost his marriage.
Kunsevitsky had migrated to Australia with his family from Russia when he was 12 years old, before moving to Singapore in the early 2000s.
Australian police began investigating him in 2016 and charged him on May 26, 2017 when he was overseas.
He was arrested on Sept 4, 2017 on a visit to Melbourne, during which the police found five electronic devices on him.
They held more than 35,000 images and more than 4,800 videos, depicting child exploitation.
The footage, which dated back to 2001, had been distributed and one was later detected by German police, Australian federal prosecutor Krista Breckweg told the court during Kunsevitsky’s plea hearing.
Kunsevitsky was diagnosed with a paedophilic disorder after his arrest. He is set to be sentenced at a later date, and was remanded into custody.