News Americas, MIAMI, FL, Mon. June 27, 2011: A 66-year-old U.S. national, who operated the Morning Star Center for impoverished boys in Haiti, has been charged with four counts of child sex tourism.
Investigators said Matthew Andrew Carter “preyed upon” impoverished boys, forcing them to perform sex acts for food and shelter and performed acts that “defy belief.”
“Few crimes are as despicable as the ones committed against these children in Haiti,” said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement director, John Morton.
Carter, who also went by the names William Charles Harcourt and Bill Carter, had operated the center in Port-au-Prince since the mid-1990s and lived there with Haitian boys, according to court documents.
Carter also allegedly forced the boys to shower with him and asked them to perform sexual acts on him in his bedroom, according to a US investigator who interviewed several of the youths from the facility.
Court documents claimed that Carter had sex with at least eight boys, sometimes for years until they became adults and left the centre.
Prosecutors said those who agreed to his requests were given schooling, clothing, books, compact disc players and cash.
Carter was arrested in Miami on May 8th and pleaded not guilty on Thursday, June 23rd. If convicted he faces up to 105 years in prison.
