The main suspect in the Amsterdam child sex abuse case, Robert Mikelsons, worked at a Kenyan orphanage for a month in September 2008. During his time in Kenya he wrote a weblog. But the head of the small orphanage in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, doesn’t think he abused any of the children in her care. Robert Mikelsons is alleged to have abused dozens of children at Amsterdam daycare centres where he worked.

The orphanage at which he volunteered, run by the Society of St Vincent de Paul, is located near one of the Kenyan capital’s slums. At the time the Dutch sex abuse suspect worked there, the orphanage was home to 17 children, most of them girls, aged between five and 15. Around 60 children attend an attached school.

"Idealist"
“An idealist, dreamer, philosopher, bookworm and cycling fanatic.” This is how Mikelsons describes himself in his weblog, written in imperfect Dutch. In one of his first posts he explains the idealistic motives that took him to Africa: “Since I was 14 I’ve felt that I can do a lot for people, and particularly children, in Africa. Over the years this feeling has only grown. As if Africa has called me. And I’ve seen what a difference I can make to children’s lives here in Kenya. Much more than the difference I make in the lives of children at the daycare centre.”

Later he claims, “I’ve already built a good relationship with the children, made things from paper together, sung songs and played a lot of games.” And “After the walk in the woods I played a lot of games with the children, like tag.”

“Innocent”
The head of the Nairobi orphanage and school says she was shocked to hear of the former volunteer’s arrest. Nevertheless, she doesn’t think he abused any of the Kenyan children, she told Dutch commercial broadcaster RTL. “I’m worried about it, but I don’t think he had a chance. I feel bad. To me, he was an innocent child. And he could be somebody you trust.”

Mikelsons also writes in his weblog that he had an HIV test in Kenya. “They use the Western Rapid Antibody Test, which gives a result in 7-10 minutes. In the Netherlands it would have taken at least a week. I was a terribly unsure about it. (...) If you want to know the result (...) I’m not saying :)”

The health authorities in Amsterdam have now tested the suspect for HIV, hepatitis B and syphilis. All the results were negative.

Readers have left comments on the website on which Mikelsons published his weblog. Some date from two years ago, while others have been written since the news broke about the abuse in Amsterdam. The contrast could not be greater. The old comments praise him for his idealism. The most recent comments are a tirade of abuse, wishing him disease and death.

Apart from the weblog, Mikelsons also had a page on the social network draugiem.lv, in his homeland Latvia. This featured photographs of his time in Nairobi. However, the site has now removed the page to protect the identity of the children in the photos.