A French national who faced death by firing squad in Indonesia has killed himself in prison after being accused of molesting more than 300 children.
He was also accused of physically abusing those who refused to have sex with him.
According to police spokesman Yusri Yunus, Francois Camille Abello, 65, was found last Thursday unresponsive inside his cell at a detention centre in Jakarta.
He has now been pronounced dead on Monday after three days of treatment, DailyMail reports.
Umar Shahab, an official at National Police Hospital in Jakarta, said doctors reported the French retiree had a neck fracture, and the injury blocked the supply of oxygen.
The pensioner was arrested last month in a hotel in Jakarta with two underage girls in his room.
He was paraded on Thursday in handcuffs wearing an orange prison shirt and black facemask at a police press conference.
Police said they found videos on Abello’s computer that showed him engaging in illegal sex acts with over 300 children aged between 10 and 17.
It is said that Abello would approach children and lure them with offers of work as models, beating those who refused to have sex with him.
Abello faced life in prison, chemical castration, or even execution by firing squad if convicted on a number of charges under Indonesia’s child protection laws.
Speaking, Jakarta police chief Nana Sudjana expressed;
He would approach children and lure them by offering them work as models. The ones who agreed to have sex with him would get paid between 250,000 and one million rupiah ($17-70). Those who didn’t want to have sex would be beaten, slapped and kicked by the suspect.
Police believes Abello had been molesting Indonesian children for years and that there may be more victims.
Over 70,000 children are victims of sexual exploitation annually in Indonesia, according to global anti-trafficking network ECPAT International.
