Arrested, convicted and freed on a technicality, a Canadian pedophile was allowed to roam across Asia leaving behind a trail of victims whose childhoods were stolen.
This month, Ernest Fenwick MacIntosh, 71, a former Port Hawkesbury businessman was again arrested for sex crimes against a minor.
This time in Kathmandu, Nepal, where he is alleged to have raped a nine-year-old boy at an orphanage.
Now his victims, their relatives and Canadians who have followed this miscarriage of justice that set Macintosh free are hoping that the authorities in the Himalayan nation will once and for all put and to the ‘monster’s’ reign.
“Macintosh has a long history of sexually abusing young boys in Nova Scotia. I am not surprised that he continues to do so. He is a sick and perverted man and has left a huge legacy of pain and devastation here and is the direct cause of many young men taking their own lives because of the abuse they suffered by this animal. Please, please, please do what the Canadian government did not do - put him behind bars for the rest of his life, where he cannot have access to any other boys,” Dana
Dana Donovan of Nova Scotia, Canada wrote in a letter to the Himalayan Times.
“My hope is that you will prosecute this man to the fullest extent of your laws. He has molested many other children over his life time and finally needs to be brought to justice so other children (both yours and ours) will be safe from his perversion!” echoed C Bell.
Bob Martin, a Canadian victim who went public last October, is preparing to send translated background materials to prosecutors in Nepal. Martin said that since he went public as a complainant in the case in October, he has been approached by acquaintances asking if there are any ways they can help. One of those people has offered to contract a private translator, local media reported.
MacIntosh, 71, arrived in Nepal on a tourist visa last August and approached the Jesuit-run St Xavier's Social Service Centre for homeless children with an offer of donations.
"The victim was one of the children living at St Xavier's. On December 13, MacIntosh invited him to his room, threatened him and molested him," police spokesman Pawan Giri said on Saturday.
After the boy filed a complaint on December 19, police arrested MacIntosh, who has denied any wrongdoing.
"We are now investigating further to see if he abused other children in the home as well," Giri said.
If convicted, MacIntosh faces a maximum prison sentence of 11 years. No date has been set for him to appear in court.
The case underscores the problems facing Nepal's orphanages, some of which have been hit by allegations of sexual abuse, corruption and fraud in recent years.
Although it is illegal to volunteer in Nepal on a tourist visa, orphanage officials often allow foreigners to spend time with children in exchange for donations. Background checks are rarely conducted on those offering to help.
Some of MacIntosh's victims in Nova Scotia have followed his travel through the years, keeping records of his time in southeast Asia. Most recently, he has worked as a spice salesman in Sri Lanka, reported CBC.
"I feel it's my civic duty to keep an eye on this man because I feel so bad and embarrassed that he's out there," said Martin, who first to come to police about MacIntosh in 1995.
It's just, I know 120 boys that were abused by him. If I know 120, there's thousands out there," Martin told CBC.
MacIntosh has consistently denied the allegations against him.
His legal saga began in 1995, when the RCMP received complaints from two men who said MacIntosh abused them back in the 1970s when they were boys.
Over the years, more complainants emerged and the list of charges grew to more than 40 counts of sexual abuse involving nine people.
Even though police knew exactly where MacIntosh was living in India, he wasn't extradited until late 2007; more than 11 years after the first complaints to police. Once back in Nova Scotia, it took almost three years for the trial.
During the first trial, he was convicted of 13 counts of gross indecency and indecent assault and sentenced to four years in prison. In a second trial, MacIntosh was convicted on another four counts and sentenced to another 18 months in jail.
MacIntosh's lawyers successfully appealed all the convictions to the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal, arguing the 11 years it took to extradite him from India, plus the three-year delay in getting to trial once he was back in Nova Scotia, violated his charter rights to be tried within a reasonable time period.
Justice Minister Peter MacKay said: "I have long held a strong interest in this file and I was dismayed to hear that another child has been victimized.”
A New Delhi policeman familiar with the case, was quoted as saying that it seemed "the whole system in Canada was asleep," when it came to dealing with Macintosh.