Humanitarian charged with child rape
Canadian’s goodwill shattered after arrest for alleged abuse in Nepal
KARTIKE, NEPAL— When Peter Dalglish, a lauded humanitarian worker, built a sleek cabin near a Nepalese village of rutted roads and hills ribbed with rice paddies, locals knew virtually nothing about him.
But over several years, Dalglish, a Canadian, endeared himself to many in the community, greeting villagers in Nepali, offering chocolates from Thailand to children playing in the forest and helping people rebuild their homes destroyed by devastating earthquakes in 2015.
The goodwill was shattered last month when police swarmed Dalglish’s home, placed a gun to his head and arrested him on charges of raping at least two boys, 12 and 14.
Suddenly, villagers were on edge, worried about how far the betrayal — and abuse — may have stretched.
“We trusted him,” said Sher Bahadur Tamang, who said he received hundreds of dollars from Dalglish to pay for his child’s education. “He treated us so well. We never knew what was inside his mind.”
Dalglish’s downfall has been a shock partly because his work, aiding street children around the world, was so widely admired. In 2016, he was awarded the Order of Canada, the country’s second-highest civilian honour.
Nepal is one of Asia’s poorest countries and thousands of non-governmental organizations operate with limited gov- ernment oversight. The absence of strict regulations means aid groups can be used as a cover for human traffickers and predatory behaviour by humanitarian workers, said Pushkar Karki, head of Nepal’s Chief Investigation Bureau, the agency overseeing the case against Dalglish.
The arrest of such a notable humanitarian has added urgency to a new effort by aid workers around the world, who are saying it is now time to investigate themselves. Late last year, they started a #MeToo-like movement called #AidToo.
“Peter Dalglish’s arrest should be a ‘teachable moment’ for the humanitarian community to understand and recognize how predators exploit the cover of ‘heroism’ to commit crimes,” Lori Handrahan, a veteran humanitarian worker, wrote in an essay published on Medium. “Let’s be clear. Peter Dalglish is not a hero. He never was.”
Dalglish, 60, was charged with pedophilia in a district court this month. He faces up to 13 years in prison.
“He sexually abused children after giving them the false hope that they would be taken to a foreign country,” said Jeevan Shrestha, a spokesman for Nepal’s Chief Investigation Bureau.
Over several decades, Dalglish, a lawyer from Ontario, built a reputation as a deeply committed advocate for children in war-torn corners of the globe. But in Nepal, where he has lived off-and-on since 2002, some of those who knew him recalled unsettling requests.
In Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital, at a school which provides free education to children from mountain communities, Dalglish was a popular volunteer in the early 2000s until he asked administrators to change a rule barring students from staying overnight with teachers. Soon after, the relationship between the school’s staff members and Dalglish soured, a senior administrator said, and he was banned from the campus.
In an interview last month with the Globe and Mail, Dalglish spoke from behind the bars of a jail cell in Kathmandu, denying the charges against him and pointing out he had never before been the subject of a criminal investigation.
“But obviously, if you do the work that I do, with kids, you leave yourself open to criticism and suspicion,” he said. Dalglish declined further interview requests.
Rahul Chapagain, Dalglish’s lawyer, said evidence collected by the police could belong to visitors who rented the home through Airbnb. “Whatever they found, it does not necessarily belong to Peter,” he said.
At a restaurant in town, the father of one of the boys in the case said he had worked as a labourer on Dalglish’s property for half a decade and had formed a warm bond with his boss. The father, Tamang, identifying himself only by his common last name to protect his family’s privacy, said he let his son, 14, occasionally spend the night at Dalglish’s home.
On the morning of April 7, Tamang was jolted awake by nearly a dozen police officers, who escorted him up a snaking path of slate-coloured tiles to Dalglish’s home, where his son was sleeping.
Inside the house, Dalglish spoke calmly to the police in English, a language Tamang did not understand.
Later, Tamang learned that plain clothes police officers had befriended his son, who told authorities that he, his 12-year-old cousin and at least two other boys had been abused by Dalglish.
In an interview, Tamang’s son said Dalglish had sexually assaulted him over a period of seven years, promising him a better life abroad if he kept quiet.
Until the boys stepped forward, villagers said there had been no signs of improper behaviour by Dalglish. He treated those who worked for him well and bought clothing, shoes and pencils for children in the village. It is unclear who initially tipped off the police about Dalglish.