Aquestionable ‘dementia’ certificate produced by Raymond Varley, the paedophile at the centre of an extradition wrangle between a UK court
and Indian authorities, weighed heavily with British judge Quentin Purdy. The Westminister Magistrates’ Court on May 8, 2014 dismissed the application filed by the Government of India to extradite him. While India appeals and continues to push for extradition, activists and concerned
citizens in India and the UK are not buying into Varley’s dementia claim. UK citizen Vivien Baptiste has used Change.org the online platform for social change to petition the UK government to extradite Varley. “This man is using every trick to avoid extradition. His guilt is obvious. Justice for children all over the world,” she wrote on the website. Her petition titled ‘Allow extradition to India of paedophile Raymond Varley’
has received over 200 signatures from people in UK, India, New Zealand and the Gulf.
“As a parent, grandparent and great grandparent, I feel all children should be protected, and as a frequent visitor to India, Goa, I know how innocent the children are and trust everyone,” Gladys Cattle, a signatory from the UK wrote. “It is the right of every child to grow up without abuse. Offenders must be held accountable,” Pooja Swaika wrote. A signatory from Goa, Binoy Hoskote wrote, “Does UK and its government
encourage paedophiles? Why the hanky panky in extradition. Save face and act immediately.”
Vivien Baptiste told this newspaper
that she and her friends who love Goa
and frequent the state, were disgusted
to hear about this case and decided to
do something about it.
“I have seen paedophiles in Goa first
hand many years ago and made the
Goans aware of them but it was difficult
to get them to realize how serious the
issue is. The man in question now deserves
justice Goan style.”
She is confident the petition will get
more support and says she will take the
signatures to her local member of parliament.
Early evidence
Back in the early 1990s after the
police raided the notorious Freddy Peats
orphanage, the material they uncovered
was so deplorable that nobody was willing
to believe that Peats with his snowy
white beard and hair, who they considered
a benevolent man, was capable of
such atrocities.
It wasn’t only the locals but police
and politicians also who defended him.
It was only when activist lawyer Sheela
Barse, based in Mumbai, camped in Goa
and worked tirelessly round the clock
gathering evidence, that Peats was
booked and later sentenced for life.
At the time the Peats case was unraveling
in Goa, in 1991 Barse was in Delhi,
ironically addressing a conference on
child labour, as its keynote speaker. When
she was told ministers in Goa were trying
to suppress the case, she got in touch
with a police official who told her the
horrors they had uncovered in this case.
Paedophilia as a crime being relatively
unknown at the time, the police were at
a loss on how to handle it.
Barse decided she needed to be there
herself. She got her Delhi-Mumbai ticket
immediately changed to Delhi-Goa and
was on the next plane to Goa with a
small suitcase and little cash in hand.
The Goa Collector helped her find an
inexpensive place to stay in Margao and
she began her groundwork.
It was the most wretched time of her
life, she recalls, and a very traumatizing
experience having to sort out the photographs,
speak to the victims and collect
evidence.
At one press conference in Goa called
by the IG police, she was accused of jet
setting for the sake of publicity. “One reporter
got up and said ‘we know her
credibility’ and everyone walked out and
the press conference fizzled out. They
tried to stall me in every way,” she said.
There was a guest house lobby who
wanted to hush up the case. An MLA
she met wasn’t interested in the case as
it wasn’t a ‘politically important crime’.
When investigating the trail of money,
banks refused to disclose transactions
of their clients. “I told them at least
give me the confidence that I’m on the
right track. If you can’t give me copies
of documents at least show them to
me.”
One mother wasn’t pleased that she
was pursuing the case. “He gave my
son a bike,” she told Barse.
Peats would lure the boys promising
he would take send them abroad.
When Barse encountered Peats outside
court after one session, his astonishing
comment to her was: “I like the way
you fight for children.”
Barse submitted formatted sheets
with the evidence and all the sections
of law applicable to Peats.
“I investigated the case and drafted
charges and got the Law Commission
to examine them. I showed the chairperson
of the Law Commission all the
papers and he was very impressed,”
said Barse.
The Goa police who were completely
at a loss on how to proceed in this case,
asked her to teach them how to write a
chargesheet in the matter.
She doesn’t believe Raymond Varley’s
dementia claim is credible and dismisses
it as rubbish.
“I always believe you can never go by
the word of one professional when declaring
someone mentally ill because
there can be all kinds of vested interests
involved. I don’t care if the professional
is the best in the whole of Europe, there
should be a panel of professional experts
taking a decision,” she says firmly.
Further, she contests how Varley is
taking decisions of his own. “A dementia
patient is accompanied by someone and
isn’t able to take decisions. Here he selected
his own neuropsychologist. The
court should also look into his unending
sources of money.”
Putting Peats behind bars was what
pushed Sheela Barse to relentlessly
pursue the case in Goa.
“The prevailing notion was that India
is a safe place to go to because they
don’t go a good job of prosecuting you
and I wanted to change this. I made
sure the system worked,” Barse says.
