Sun finds sex-assault suspect in Vietnam
Accused of 29 separate sexual offences dating back to 2000 and of eluding local police, Dinh Cuong Nguyen has been found by the Sun in Vietnam.
Nguyen, 53, is facing various counts of sexual assault, sexual interference, invitation to sexual touching and procuring a minor, court documents show. He's been wanted on a Canada-wide warrant since Feb. 2005.
"I didn't do anything, I swear to God, my mother, my father. That's a terrible thing, serious charge(s). I'm a family man," Nguyen said in a telephone interview from Ho Chi Minh City.
Nguyen was charged along with five other men. Court documents the Sun obtained reveal the police allege there were multiple victims -- including girls under the age of 14 -- and the alleged offences continued over a four-year period, through January 2004.
Mother deathly ill
Nguyen, a father of two, insists that's not possible because he's been in Vietnam's largest city, where his mother is deathly ill.
In and out of the country since 2003, he said he returned to Winnipeg for the early part of 2004, moving back to Vietnam at the end of the year -- where he's been ever since. Though he'd earlier booked a Philippines Airlines flight back to Winnipeg for next week, he's staying in Asia because his elderly mother's health took a turn for the worse earlier this week, requiring hospitalization.
"My mother's really sick," he said.
Cops say Nguyen has "evaded apprehension," and say he must return to Canada to answer to the allegations.
"Come on back, and we'll deal with these charges," said Sgt. Kelly Dennison, who worked on the case before becoming a Winnipeg police spokesman.
Citing the ongoing court cases involving a total of six accused, police declined further comment.
Most of Nguyen's co-accused are being held behind bars. One man, Nhu Sang Nguyen, is out on bail.
A second accused, Van Loi Nguyen, is seeking release and made a court appearance yesterday, though the bail hearing was put over to June 21.
Vu Thanh Nghia, Phuong Nguyen and Van Hiep Tiet, are in custody.
Part of a decade-long wave of refugees after the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, as were his his brothers and their families, Dinh Cuong Nguyen, who uses Cuong as his first name, said he moved to Canada in 1980 and obtained citizenship in the mid-1980s.
The self-proclaimed family man insists he lived a quiet life while living in Winnipeg, where he says he worked as a technician installing car stereos, not a photographer as police allege.
"I never went out at night, I never do drugs, I don't smoke," Nguyen said.
Though Nguyen has evaded apprehension, he insists he's not a fugitive hiding in his native country.
It's unclear if Nguyen can be extradited or if local police could arrest him overseas. In a Sun interview, he was adamant about giving a message to Canadian authorities.
"Tell them I'll be back in a month or two," he said. "My old mother needs some help."
By Tamara King - The Winnipeg Sun - June 2, 2006.
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