Burnaby man pleads guilty in sex-tourism case involving underage girls

A Burnaby man pleaded guilty Friday to having sex with more than a dozen underage girls in Cambodia and Colombia. Kenneth Robert Klassen also pleaded guilty in B.C. Supreme Court to one count of importing child pornography in the high-profile sex-tourism case, believed to be the third such case prosecuted in Canada.
The accused, a father of three in his 50s, made a brief appearance in court to enter his pleas, a week before a jury was to be selected for his trial. With his lawyer, Ian Donaldson, at his side, Klassen stood with his hands folded in front of him in the prisoner?s dock as the criminal counts were read out in court. Klassen, an international art dealer, pleaded guilty to six counts of sexual touching involving girls under the age of 14 in Colombia. The offences occurred between December 1998 and March 2002.

He also pleaded guilty to eight counts of sexual touching involving girls under the age of 14 in Cambodia. Those offences occurred in August 2001. Klassen pleaded guilty to importing child pornography between August and September 2004. The victims, referred to only as Jane Doe numbers one to 14 in the indictment, cannot be identified due to a publication ban.

The pleas were entered before B.C. Supreme Court Justice Austin Cullen, who appeared by a video link from another courtroom. Crown counsel Brendan McCabe is expected to seek a jail term of 12 years for Klassen.

 

Sourced=Theprovince