Indian police Monday arrested a 54-year-old British man after three young boys at a hostel for blind children in Delhi filed allegations of sexual assault against him. “The arrested British national Murray Ward has been in India since last October,” Ishwar Singh, deputy commissioner of Delhi police, told AFP. “We have charged him under POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act”, Singh added, saying Ward was being held in police custody for further investigation.
Ward faces a minimum 10 years in prison if convicted. No comment was immediately available from the British High Commission in New Delhi. Police said Ward, who is married with a family in the United Kingdom, had been employed in a senior managerial position at a company in India before quitting his job in April.
Singh said he frequented the hostel in Delhi sometimes as often as once per week, and police were investigating his motivations and online activity. “It appears he is a paedophile based on (the content of) his laptop, mobile and personal chat history,” Singh said, without elaborating. Police will enlist a child psychologist to speak with the boys who raised the complaints — whose ages and identities have not been revealed. Authorities will also speak with other children at the hostel, which houses and educates around 170 visually-impaired students.
