On Wednesday (Jan 29), Boris Kunsevitsky, an Australian man who was based in Singapore for a couple of years, was sentenced to 35 years in jail by the Melbourne court, after pleading guilty to having sexually abused 47 boys. Among the 59 charges he pleaded guilty to were having sex with a child, making and importing child pornography material, persistently abusing a child sexually, and inducing a child to have sex with another child.
According to Channel News Asia, the 35-year-old paedophile grew up in Russia, relocated to Australia at the age of 12, then moved to Singapore sometime around the 2000s, where he worked at a local beauty firm. His victims were between the ages of 10 and 17 years old, and his crimes were committed in the Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, and Australia.
His crimes can be traced back to January 2001, when he had sexual intercourse with a minor in the Philippines. Sometime between September 2002 and August 2003, he victimized a boy in Singapore, who was then just about 12 to 14 years old. 17 photographs were taken of the minor in Kunsevitsky’s residence.
Though he resided in Singapore, he travelled around Southeast Asia often, claiming that the frequent trips were for work. However, it was on these trips that he committed these crimes. Authorities even found 28 photographs of another male child, dating back to November 2002, which falls under the period he was still residing in Singapore. The photos were of him committing sodomy and a boy giving him oral sex. Most of his crimes, however, were committed on Filipino children.
Until 2016, his crimes went unnoticed. In 2008, German police found 55 pornographic images of one of Kunsevitsky’s victims. According to straitstimes.com, since the victim was Australian, German police referred the case to police in Australia. However, the victim was only identified eight years later, in 2016.
On September 4, 2017, Kunsevitsky was arrested in Australia, where he was to visit family. Though he initially denied having committed the crimes, he later ended up pleading guilty. Authorities discovered thousands of photographs and videos on his devices, which showed him committing sexual abuse on children.
Police officers found thousands of images and videos on a laptop and two hard drives, which showed him committing these crimes. The laptop and hard drives had been shipped over by Australian authorities from his home in Singapore.
One of Australia’s worst sex offenders, Kunsevitsky will have to serve 28 years in prison before being qualified for parole.