A Colorado man has been sentenced to 210 years in prison after sexually abusing children at an orphanage he founded and ran in Haiti for decades.
Michael Geilenfeld, 73, founded St. Joseph’s Home for Boys in 1985 to care for orphaned, low-income, and at-risk children in Haiti.
According to evidence presented at his trial, Geilenfeld frequently traveled between the United States and Haiti, where he physically, sexually, and emotionally abused the boys entrusted to his care.
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According to a press release from the US Department of Justice, Geilenfeld was convicted in February of one count of traveling in foreign commerce for the purpose of engaging in illicit sexual conduct and six counts of engaging in illicit sexual conduct in a foreign place between 2005 and 2010, with each of the latter charges relating to a different child victim.
Those in attendance applauded when U.S. District Judge David Leibowitz announced the maximum sentence he could impose in a Miami courtroom on Friday.
“The defendant preyed upon some of the most vulnerable children in the world,” Leibowitz stated, according to The Miami Herald. “That is what he did.” That is not a metaphor: the trials, crises, and tribulations of Haiti, and everything it has been through.”
“This orphanage destroyed my childhood,” a 24-year-old victim told the outlet on Friday about the institution Geilenfeld founded. “No amount of love can make me forget.” The only thing that can make me forget is that I must leave this earth. “Only death.”
In total, ten victims testified in the case, six of whom were directly involved in the charges against Geilenfeld and four others identified as victims by the DOJ.
The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a United States Department of Justice initiative to combat child sexual abuse and exploitation.
“The defendant’s sustained sexual, physical, and emotional abuse of some of the world’s most vulnerable children is intolerable,” stated Matthew Galeotti, chief of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
“For decades, Geilenfeld used his position of trust and access to exploit vulnerable children under the guise of humanitarian work,” stated Assistant Director Jose Perez of the FBI Criminal Investigative Division. “We are grateful to those victims who came forward to report their abuse.”