Albania jails Briton for 20 years for child sex

By Benet Koleka

TIRANA (Reuters) - An Albanian court found a Briton guilty of having sex with minors and sentenced him on Wednesday to 20 years in jail.

Judge Gert Hoxha also ordered that John David Brown, a 56-year-old who protested his innocence, be expelled from Albania once he had served his term in a high-security jail.

"The court decided to declare the defendant John David Brown guilty of perpetrating the crime of sexual relations with minors and to sentence him to 20 years in jail," Hoxha said.

Paedophilia is punishable in Albania with up to 25 years' jail, but Brown's sentence is the toughest actually imposed. It was the country's first child sex case involving a foreigner.

The judge said Brown came to Albania to bring aid to Kosovo refugees in 1999 and stayed on to take care of homeless, mainly Roma children in a crowded shelter where the youngsters slept three to a bed.

Two boys testified against Brown in closed-door sessions assisted by a psychologist. Quoting one of the boys, the judge said Brown had beaten, undressed and had penetrative sex with him. The other boy had been molested but without physical evidence of penetration.

Brown and his lawyer Gjystina Golloshi insisted he had not hurt the children, saying he had a clean record and was impotent. He appeared lost as tried to hear the verdict's translation, but could not speak to his lawyer as he was handcuffed and led away.

"I am a man of honour and I have never abused children," Brown told the judge in the previous session.