Thaindian News

By Ranjan Bhaduri
Dec 22, (THAINDIAN NEWS) A school founder in USA who was once hailed as a savior by Haitian young men was given a sentence of 20 years of imprisonment for molesting young boys. 40 year old Douglas Perlitz was sentenced by the federal Court in Connecticut. He used to abuse a number of Haitain men when they were young and put under his care as was alleged by the investigators probing the case. Judge Janet Bond Arterton gave him 19 years and 7 months of imprisonment and the sentence included 10 years of probation. Douglas Perlitz set up a charitable school in a city in Haiti in 1997. It was named Project Pierre Toussaint where he provided the homeless boys with food, shelter and education. One of his victims named Francilien Jean-Charles told that he was picked up by him when he was only 12 years old adding “When I met Mr. Douglas, he appeared to us like Jesus Christ himself come to rescue us”.

The school set up by him became bigger over the years. Douglas Perlitz often came to Fairfield, Connecticut for raising money. He gathered $2 million from 2002 to 2008 for the orphans kept at his school. Fairfield University, his alma mater gave him an honorary degree for his humanitarian work in Haiti. The kids rescued by him regarded him as God at the beginning but later they understood his real intention. He also used sedative to seduce the young boys. He used to molest the boys at his school regularly but initially they were afraid to speak against him.

The boys were helped by a journalist named Cyrus Sibert. The US ICE agents arrested Douglas Perlitz in 2009 after several accusations of child molestation surfaced in the media. Initially he denied the sexual molestation charges but later he gave in.