Murray Ward in custody for sodomising children: Accused was regular visitor of Delhi home for visually challenged

The recent arrest of a 54-year-old British national  for sodomising visually challenged children at a Delhi-based institution, with which he had been associated for nine years, left the entire nation in a state of shock. Murray Denis Ward, the accused, was booked under the Protection of Children Against Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act on Monday after the police received a call from the school on Sunday afternoon, reported News18. He was produced before a court and was sent to judicial custody for 14 days. A frequent visitor of the institute, Ward allegedly targetted blind children at National Association for the Blind (NAB) in Delhi’s RK Puram. He used to donate study material to the home for visually challenged children and taught communication skills to the children in the institute. [caption id=“attachment_4015105” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Murray Denis Ward. News18[/caption] The case was brought up after Ward was spotted harassing three visually-challenged persons on 2 September. A caretaker of the institute handed over a short video of the incident to the police. During their preliminary investigation, police discovered objectionable video clips in Ward’s laptop. According to The Hindu, Murray had reportedly claimed during interrogation that he was educating the children about “sex”. Police sources viewed this as an attempt by the accused to save himself, but they have video evidence against him. Further probe is on to see whether he was a part of a larger paedophilia network. Ward’s chat history revealed that he was in touch with more than two dozen teenagers, to whom he had sent explicit messages,  Times Now reported. He saved the names of the victims in coded language, which the foreign national admitted to the cops. Ward, a native of Gloucestershire, United Kingdom, suffered a paralytic attack in February and has been undergoing treatment since then. According to BBC News, Ward is married with a family in the UK and held a senior managerial position at Sterlite Technology Limited in Gurgaon until April 2017. He has been in India since October 2016. Ward’s arrest from his Vasant Kunj Enclave flat, where he lived with a young Indian man whom he referred to as his son, came as a surprise to the residents of the locality. According to  Hindustan Times, they described him as a “calm and peaceful man”, who was mostly immersed in his laptop and mobile phone. With inputs from PTI