ALAMINOS CITY – City Mayor Hernani Braganza called the dramatic suicide by an arrested pedophile suspect, a German national, in his jail cell at the National Bureau of Investigation, an act of conscience.

Uwe Krause, 54, a retired construction foreman in Germany who stayed in this city in western Pangasinan secretly doing his illegal and lewd activity, was apparently bothered by his conscience, Braganza said.

“He (Krause) ultimately paid for his crimes committed against my people,” the mayor said of the foreigner’s detention cell suicide just hours after he was arrested by NBIand Immigration Bureau agents accompanied by social welfare officers in sitio Galiz, barangay Lucap, this city.

The arrest was made on the strength of a warrnt of arrest for the crime of acts of lasciviousness issued by regional trial court Judge Jules Mejia of Branch 54.

The victim was a nine-year-old girl who confessedthat she was abused by Krause earlier but her mother did not pursue any case against the foreigner as they were penniless.

The girl was found by her mother alone with Krause in his room with only her underwear on.

The raid by the authorities on Krause’s house the day before also rescued Krause’s two sons by his common-law wife, Loretta Gutierrez, who he was reportedly also maltreating

The German was found hanging inside the comfort room at the NBI detention cell at 4 a.m. Thursday using the strap of his carry-all bag tied to an iron grill below the ceiling whose other end was wound around his neck.

NBI agent-in-charge Jose Doloiras said Krause was found to be engaged in child abuse and pornography as shown by a number of photographs of boys and girls in the nude whom he enticed with money to go into his room.

Doloiras said Krause may have been sending the lewd photos by e-mail or through postal system to his contacts in Germany for a fee.

The NBI was still verifying as of last week whether Krause acted alone or had local associates in committing child abuse and pornography.