A 64-year-old American man has been arraigned in a Malindi court and charged with numerous counts of alleged trafficking in persons, defilement and committing indecent acts with children.
The suspect, Antoine Alexander Zeigler, is accused of allegedly harboring two minors aged nine and 10 years in Gede area near Malindi for purposes of sexual exploitation on diverse dates between 2019 and this year.
He is also accused of allegedly defiling a 14-year-old minor on diverse dates between February and May this year and sexually assaulting an 11-year-old minor on diverse dates between January 2021 and December 2022.
Zeigler who was arrested on Friday in his Malindi home also faced a charge of using his position of authority to induce a 14-year-old minor to have sexual intercourse with him on diverse dates between February and May this year.
The suspect is facing another charge of infringing a child’s right to education by failing to present two minors aged nine and 10 years to a basic education institution in 2019.
The charge sheet indicated that Zeiglar has been unlawfully operating an unregistered private school since 2019 and also accused him of threatening a 14-year-old child using an imitation firearm in order to defile her between February and May this year.
Zeiglar who was arraigned before principal magistrate Joy Wesonga denied the charges as the prosecution filed an affidavit to have him denied bond and the defense applied to be given two days to file a response.
The prosecution also applied to file supplementary submissions and the court scheduled the case to be mentioned on September 27 this year as the suspect was remanded at Mtangani prison.
The suspect had been arraigned in court in June this year on a charge of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl but the case was closed over insufficient evidence.
Detectives from the Anti-human Trafficking and Child Protection Unit expressed confidence that this time, the case against him is airtight and will sail through.
“The earlier case had an error so we wanted to do proper investigations and this is why we are presenting him in court now. This time, we are very confident. We have the victims, experts and medical reports," the detectives who sought anonymity said.
