US man in Thailand childsex case jailed for 10 years

LOS ANGELES, Sept 17, 2007 (AFP) - A US man was jailed for 10 years by a federal court in Los Angeles after pleading guilty to child sex offences in Thailand, justice officials said.

Steven Prowler, 58, a former Bangkok-based English teacher, admitted at a court appearance earlier this year a string of pedophilia offences involving two teenage boys, a statement from the Justice Department said.

He was prosecuted on charges of traveling abroad with the intent to have sex with a minor and engaging with sexual conduct with minors in another country.

Prowler was arrested in May 2005 after police in Bangkok acting on a tip saw two youths leaving his apartment. The boys aged 15 and 16 admitted Prowler had paid them for sex.

A subsequent raid found more than 100 photos of naked teenage boys, and a series of journals where Prowler described sex abuse he had engaged in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Mexico.

Prowler was prosecuted under US laws which allow authorities to jail those involved in crimes against children which take place overseas.

Thursday, 20 September 2007

Teacher convicted over child porn


David Mulvey (Pic Andrew Price)
Mulvey taught biology and was head of year eight at a school in Crewe.

A teacher from Gresford, near Wrexham has been told he faces a jail term after being convicted of using his computer to access child pornography.

David Mulvey, 51, who taught in Crewe, Cheshire, denied all knowledge of how 243 images and eight video clips had got onto his home computer.

The police, tipped off by their Italian counterparts, went to his home as he downloaded two images, the court heard.

The judge at Mold Crown Court adjourned sentence for a week and bailed Mulvey.

Mulvey, who entered teaching at the age of 47, was unanimously convicted of possessing the images and making one level four image of a child by downloading it off the internet.

The jury then retired again and convicted him of a further 11 counts of making indecent images by downloading them, by a majority of 10 to two.

Rhys Rowlands, prosecuting, told the court that Mulvey had used a programme aimed at removing evidence of internet activity to try and hide his activities.

Sophisticated software

But North Wales police had been able to recover a large number of images from the computer's hard drive using sophisticated software, he said.

When police officers later visited his school and examined his laptop computer, they discovered that someone had used a search word "Lolita" on it, the jury heard.

Mulvey, who was suspended from his teaching position at St Thomas More Catholic High School when the allegations were first made, told the court he had been using software to clean up files on his computer because of problems with his machine.

When asked about the search on the word "Lolita", Mulvey told the court that he had allowed a pupil - who he later found out was banned from using computers at school - to use his laptop.

Prison sentence

But he denied he had been interrupted when downloading two images from an Italian child pornography site when police officers came to his door in December.

Mulvey, who in addition to teaching biology was head of year eight at the school, said he had worked very hard to get to where he was.

"I am not going to destroy all of that by doing that sort of thing," he told the court.

Judge John Rogers QC told Mulvey, who is married, that he faced an inevitable prison sentence.

But he agreed to adjourn sentencing for a week after Mulvey's defending barrister said it would give him time to make the necessary arrangements.

Source: BBC

Sex Suspect Described As Survivalist

Tuesday October 2, 2007 5:31 AM
By KEN RITTER
Associated Press Writer

LAS VEGAS (AP) - The fugitive accused of raping a little girl on videotape was portrayed Monday as a dangerous, knife-wielding survivalist who once vowed never to be taken alive and formerly worked as an animal trainer with Las Vegas illusionists Siegfried & Roy.

The FBI and Las Vegas police pressed a nationwide manhunt for Chester ``Chet'' Arthur Stiles, 37, who authorities say can be seen molesting a 3-year-old girl in a mysterious video that was recorded four years ago and surfaced last month.

``He's a survivalist type who isn't bothered by living without electricity or water, and always carries a fighting-type knife,'' said Nye County District Attorney Bob Beckett.

Investigators were interviewing people who know Stiles and pursuing hundreds of ``very fruitful'' leads Monday from across the country, said police Capt. Vincent Cannito, head of the department's youth and family crimes unit.

``He does have a very violent past,'' Cannito said, ``and he has a history of narcotics usage, so we do consider him to be a very dangerous individual.''

Authorities were seeking Stiles on an unrelated warrant issued last year charging him with fleeing to avoid prosecution on allegations he groped a 6-year-old girl in 2003.

Las Vegas police say Stiles had a string of arrests dating to 1999 on several charges, including assault, battery, resisting a police officer, auto theft, leaving the scene of an accident and contempt of court.

He was convicted in 1999 in Las Vegas of carrying a concealed weapon, and in 2001 of conspiracy to commit grand larceny, according to court records. Stiles also pleaded no contest in Houston in 1993 to unlawful carrying of a weapon.

The district attorney said Stiles vowed in the past not to be taken alive by police.

Beckett said Stiles has claimed to be a former Navy SEAL and a black belt in karate, and claimed to own several guns, including a rifle, shotgun and pistol. But the district attorney said he could not confirm any of that.

Beckett said he got the information from a Las Vegas lawyer representing a person who knows and fears Stiles. Beckett would not reveal their names.

However, a spokesman for magicians Siegfried Fischbacher and Roy Horn said Stiles worked as part of an animal training team for Siegfried & Roy for a few months in 2002 at the Mirage hotel-casino in Las Vegas.

``He helped taking care of the animals, and he was let go when he didn't show up to work one day,'' spokesman Dave Kirvin said, adding that Stiles left little impression on the dozens of other animal trainers.

As for whether he served in the Navy, records suggest he lived in 1989 at a Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center in Panama City, Fla. But the Navy and a clerk at a military locator office in St. Louis could not immediately confirm he was in the military.

Tina Allen, a former girlfriend, told ABC's ``Good Morning America'' on Monday that she initially trusted Stiles around children, including her own grandson. ``I know him to be very violent, and he's not going down without a fight,'' Allen said.

Allen told CNN's ``Larry King Live'' on Monday night that she worried Stiles might emerge from hiding to harm her and said she would seek the protection of Las Vegas police on Tuesday.

The video came to light last month after a man claimed to have found the tape in the desert. But authorities said the man, Darrin Tuck, 26, had it for as long as five months and showed it to others before turning it in. Beckett said Monday he planned to file pornography charges against Tuck.

Authorities last week took the unusual step of releasing images from the tape and identifying Stiles in an attempt to establish the identity of the victim. With help from the media and the public, sheriff's deputies found the girl, now 7, safe in Las Vegas, where they said the video was made.

The Associated Press is no longer identifying or releasing photos of the girl because she is a suspected victim of sexual abuse. It did so earlier in the interest of her safe recovery.

---
Associated Press Staff Writer Ryan Nakashima contributed to this report.

Source: Guardian Unlimited.

Prosecutor in Sex Sting Kills Self
Florida Prosecutor Charged in Child Sex Sting Committed Suicide in his Jail Cell


In this file photo released by the Macomb County Sheriffs Department, John David R. Atchison, 53, of Gulf Breeze, Fla., is shown in Mount Clemens, Mich., Sunday, Sept. 16, 2007. Atchison, the federal prosecutor from Florida who authorities say flew to Michigan for a sexual encounter with a 5-year-old girl, committed suicide in his cell in the Milan federal prison. Atchison was found unresponsive, taken to a local hospital and pronounced dead, according to Felicia Ponce, spokeswoman for the Federal Bureau of Prisons in Washington. (Macomb County Sheriff's Department/AP Photo)

5 October 2007

A federal prosecutor accused of flying to Detroit last month to have sex with a 5-year-old girl committed suicide Friday in his cell in a Milan federal prison.

Assistant U.S. Attorney John D.R. Atchison was found unresponsive, taken to a local hospital and pronounced dead at 10:17 a.m., Federal Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman Felicia Ponce said.

Atchison, of Gulf Breeze, Fla., was being held in a special housing unit in the prison, about 36 miles southwest of Detroit.

The administrative detention area houses all levels of prisoners, and Atchison had a cell to himself, Ponce said.

An investigation into his death is under way, she said.

He was charged with three felonies, the most serious of which was crossing state lines with intent to have sex with someone under 12. A conviction had carried a minimum of 30 years in prison.

A statement released Friday by his lawyer, James Thomas, said Atchison had "done a lot of good in his life."

"Unfortunately, he is going to be judged by his most recent charges and what we have read in the media, and not by the goodness, hard work or by the love of his family."

The statement also said Thomas would file a request to have the case dismissed.

Atchison had attempted to hang himself with a bedsheet last month in a Sanilac county jail, but another inmate alerted guards who stopped the suicide attempt. He later was taken by U.S. Marshals to the Milan prison.

Three days before that suicide attempt, Atchison had assured a judge he would not harm himself.

The married father of three was a respected figure who coached girls' softball and basketball in a park a few blocks from his Gulf Breeze home. His office was in Pensacola.

But authorities say he had been communicating with an undercover sheriff's detective from Macomb County, Mich., who was posing online as the fictitious girl's mother and arranged for him to have sex with the child.

He was arrested Sept. 16 at Detroit Metro Airport carrying presents, including a doll and earrings, and sexual materials, officials said.

As a federal prosecutor, Atchison mostly worked on tax and financial crime cases. According to court records, it appears he never prosecuted child sex abuse cases.

Source: ABC News.

Sex offender arrested in Virginia

7 October 2007



ORLANDO, Fla. - William Joe Mitchell's flight from authorities ended at a Virginia truck stop.

The 46-year-old sex offender accused of running off with a 15-year-old Florida girl was arrested Saturday by state police at the Flying J Truck Stop in Winchester, Va., according to the Polk County Sheriff's Office in central Florida.

The girl had been released at a Wal-Mart store last week.

Mitchell is wanted in Alabama on allegations including rape and kidnapping and Florida officials accuse him of enticing a child via the Internet, violating his probation and other allegations.

He is being held without bond at Northwestern Regional Adult Detention Center in Winchester.

State police were notified that the U.S. Marshals Service had tracked Mitchell to a truck stop on Interstate 81, near the West Virginia border. Four state troopers surrounded Mitchell and took him into custody without incident around 11:30 a.m.

Mitchell was standing alongside a 2000 black Chevrolet Lumina that detectives believed he had been driving throughout the investigation. Personal belongings of the girl were visible inside the vehicle, officials said in a statement.

Mitchell was being served federal and state warrants, none from Virginia, said Corinne Geller, spokeswoman for the Virginia State Police, who had no further details. She did not know whether he had a lawyer.

The 15-year-old girl spurred a statewide manhunt when she sneaked out of her house before dawn on Monday. She told friends she was running away for love, to be with a boy she met online. She believed Mitchell was in his early 20s.

The Associated Press is not naming the girl because she is a suspected sexual abuse victim.

Police believe heavy publicity in the hours after the girl disappeared pressured him into dropping her off at a Wal-Mart in the Florida Panhandle.

The girl told authorities Mitchell had a handgun and said he would kill her if she drew attention to herself in the store. He told her he was going to another part of the store and would meet her in five minutes, then disappeared, authorities said.

Mitchell had 14 prior arrests ranging from burglary and bomb threats to lewd and lascivious conduct, police said.

The girl ran away the day a new Florida law took effect making the state's sex predator penalties some of the toughest in the nation.

The law requires offenders to register e-mail and instant message handles with authorities, information that will be shared with social networking sites like Myspace.com. The state also tripled the maximum sentences to 15 years for soliciting minors for sex and possessing child pornography.

Source: Yahoo! AP.

US soldier in Iraq convicted on child porn charges

BAGHDAD, Oct 2, 2007 (AFP) - A US soldier in Iraq has been jailed for two years after being convicted of attempting to download child pornography from the Internet and using suggestive language with a child, the military said on Tuesday.

Private James Bickerstaff had pleaded guilty to a series of charges, which also included possession of pornography, a military statement said. "In August 2006, while stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas ... Bickerstaff engaged in a discussion with a 12-year-old girl in an attempt to initiate physical contact of a sexual nature," the statement said.

"Between April and May 2007, Bickerstaff wrongfully downloaded pornographic videos to a personal laptop and an iPod. Bickerstaff also attempted to download child pornography."

The statement said the court martial was held at Camp Victory, a US military base on the outskirts of Baghdad, "where a military judge convicted and sentenced Bickerstaff to two years' confinement and a bad conduct discharge."

Man cleared of raping son in his sleep

3rd October 2007

STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- A man has been found not guilty of raping his son, despite his admitting having sex with him. The man claimed he was sleeping at the time and thought he was having sex with his partner in an erotic dream.

The man, 38, told the court that the first he knew of the attack was when he woke up half way through and found that the person he thought was his wife was in fact his eight-year-old son. At this point he immediately stopped the attack.

Prosecutor Mikael Hammarstrand argued that the attack was linked to the fact that the man was very drunk before going to bed. The man's inebriation meant that he could be found guilty, he argued.

In clearing the man of the charges, the Lower Norrland Court of Appeal in Sundsvall said that the man's version of events was not implausible. If the man was not aware of his actions, he cannot be judged to have acted with intent the court said

The court added that he had never previously, when drunk, acted in a way that indicated that there was a risk he would attack his children.

The appeal court's ruling was in line with a previous judgment from the Hudiksvall District Court. Prosecutors wanted the man to be convicted of rape and sentenced to four years in jail.

The man had not entered a plea, saying he was unable to confess to or deny attacking the boy.

Source: TT

US missionary clown nabbed for child porn

WASHINGTON, Oct 11, 2007 (AFP) - A Christian missionary who worked as a clown at an orphanage in the Philippines was charged with child pornography and other offenses, a court source said Thursday.

Paul Carlock, a 57-year-old former police officer, worked as "Klutzo the Clown" alongside his wife dressed as "Smilee" at for about a decade birthdays, hospitals and partish parties. In June Carlock went to the Philippines without his wife to work as a clown and missionary at an orphanage where he was known from prior work, according to police documents.

When his bags were checked on his return to the United States Carlock was found to have images on his camera and computer of naked boys, most about 9 or 10 years old, from the orphanage.

Three youths told police Carlock had abused them. And a search of his home turned up child pornography, documents showed.

Arrested Tuesday in the midwestern state of Illinois, Carlock was charged with knowingly possessing child pornography, and engaging in illicit sexual conduct with a minor.

Interpol identifies suspected pedophile

By JAMEY KEATEN, Associated Press Writer 20 minutes ago


In this photo released by Interpol on Monday, Oct. 15, 2007, a suspected pedophile is seen in a picture digitally manipulated.

PARIS - First Interpol unmasked his face. Now it knows his name.

The international police organization, working off tips from people who responded to a global appeal for help, said Monday it has identified a suspected pedophile shown in Internet photos abusing young boys.

The man, whose face initially was disguised behind a digitalized swirl, is now thought to be on the run in Thailand, Interpol said. He is said to be an English teacher at a school in South Korea.

The man was allegedly shown sexually abusing 12 young Vietnamese and Cambodian boys, apparently ranging in age from 6 to early teens, in about 200 photographs posted on the Internet. Using techniques that neither they nor Interpol would discuss, German police recreated an image of the man's face and released four reconstructed photos of him last week.

Interpol said more than 350 people then supplied tips to authorities worldwide. Officials are still collecting and analyzing evidence to bring charges against the man if he is arrested, it said.

Interpol went public after efforts to track down the man through its network ran dry. Ronald K. Noble, Interpol's secretary-general, credited "remarkable progress" following the public response to its appeal for help on Oct. 8.

Interpol said it now knows the suspect's name, nationality, date of birth and passport number, but it did not release that information. It said the man flew from Seoul, South Korea, to Bangkok, Thailand, last Thursday, with security cameras documenting his arrival at Thai immigration.

"Thailand is at the center of an international manhunt, and authorities in the country, in cooperation with Interpol and police around the world, are hunting him down," Noble said.

In Bangkok late Monday, the deputy chief of Thailand's Interpol liaison office, police Col. Pornprasert Kanchanarin, said he was unaware of the new developments in the case. Interpol declined any further comment Monday beyond its statement.

Interpol provided two new photos of the suspect Monday. One, taken by Thai immigration officials upon his arrival in Bangkok, showed him seemingly older, with close-cropped hair and wearing glasses. The other, which Interpol said was provided by an informant, was a simple head shot of the man, smiling and ruddy-faced.

Interpol's decision to release the reconstructed photos was seen as being somewhat risky because it could have tipped off criminals to techniques police have at their disposal and prompted them to better hide their identities.

One of the pictures released last week and posted on Interpol's Web site showed the suspect with uncombed short brown hair. Another showed him with a hairy chest.

The photos date from before December 2004, when they were found on the Internet, Anders Persson, a Swedish police officer assigned to Interpol's human trafficking unit, said last week. Some were digitally stamped as having been taken in 2002 and 2003, he said.

Interpol asked people who recognized the suspect or who have other information to contact police or the Interpol bureau in their country. It urged them not to take any direct action.

Now, with the suspect at large, "we must again enlist the public's support," Noble said.

The boys believed to have been abused have not been located, Persson said.
___
On the Net:
http://www.interpol.int
___
Associated Press Writer Grant Peck contributed to this report in Bangkok, Thailand.

From Times Online
October 19, 2007
Paedophile hunted by Interpol arrested


Christopher Paul Neil is surrounded by Thai policemen during a press conference in Bangkok
(Pornchai Kittiwongsakul/AFP/Getty)

Thai police parade Christopher Neil at a press conference in Bangkok today
Image :1 of 6
David Byers and agencies

Unshaven and handcuffed, the world's most wanted suspected paedophile was paraded by Thai police before the media today after being hauled out of a remote hideout he shared with a transvestite.

Dozens of officers in Bangkok took Christopher Neil – a Canadian who allegedly placed images on the internet apparently showing him abusing boys in Cambodia and Vietnam – to the city's central police station and placed him in front of the media's flashing cameras.

The 32-year-old, from near Vancouver, was captured in the remote city of Nakhon Ratchasima, 200 miles from the Thai capital, after an unprecedented Interpol-led manhunt that had spanned the Far East.

Police said today that they tracked Mr Neil down after being tipped off by transvestites in the seaside city of Pattaya.

The transvestites – having identified him from pictures taken by security cameras at Bangkok Airport a week ago – told investigators that the suspect had fled with a 25-year-old cross-dresser called Ohm.

Thai police tracked down Ohm's real name and monitored his mobile phone calls, finally tracing the pair to a rented property in Nakhon Ratchasimam where they were both held.

Speaking at the press conference today, Mick Moran, an Interpol investigator, said that the capture sent out a powerful warning to paedophiles all over the world that abusing children in the Far East would not be tolerated.

"If you are somebody who travels to this region to abuse children, then understand, we won’t tolerate it," he said.

"The Thai police’s message is very clear today. Interpol’s message is very clear.

"We will move mountains to catch you. We will move mountains to save these children. It won’t be tolerated."

The capture marks a successful conclusion to an extraordinary worldwide internet campaign by Interpol to catch Mr Neil, using cutting-edge technology.

The search began three years ago when German police discovered photographs on the Internet which appeared to show a man sexually abusing boys in Vietnam and Cambodia.

The suspect's face had been deliberately scrambled with a digital swirling pattern, but police computer experts managed to unravel the disguise - and Interpol last month issued an appeal for information on who the man was.

More than 350 people came forward, and he was eventually identified by five sources from three different continents.

After the appeal was made, Mr Neil fled South Korea, where he was teaching, and flown to Thailand, where he was last Thursday photographed with shaven head and glasses by airport security cameras.

It is believed he went to Nakhon Ratchasima because it is a particularly remote province frequented by few tourists.

Speaking at today's press conference, Lieutenant General Pongsapat Pongcharoen said Mr Neil had so far only spoken to identify himself and had made no further comment.

"The suspect was quiet. He wasn’t agitated, he didn’t say anything at all," he said.

Thailand’s deputy national police chief, General Wongkot Maneerin, said he could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

It is not known whether Canada will request his extradition to face trial in his home country.

Trace on boyfriend's mobile leads police to pedophile suspect


This combo picture made of two undated images released by Interpol. Photo: AFP

Nopporn Wong-Anan in Bangkok
October 20, 2007

THE pedophile suspect Christopher Neil, the focus of a global hunt that ended in rural Thailand yesterday, will be charged with molesting under-age children after being tracked down through his boyfriend's phone.

Thai police appealed for more victims to come forward after they nabbed the Canadian at a rented house. Neil is also accused of raping young boys in Vietnam and Cambodia after being unmasked by nifty police computer work and hunted in a unique internet appeal.

"From pictures on the internet, there were five to seven children under age 10 who have been abused by him, including one girl," the deputy national police chief, Wongkot Maneerin, told a news conference in Bangkok.

Neil, 32, caught in the north-east province of Nakhon Ratchasima, well off the normal tourist track, refused to answer reporters' questions.

Police said Neil had confirmed his identity to investigators but said nothing else.

He was no stranger to Thailand, having once taught in a Bangkok language school, but his hiding place was revealed by a trace on the mobile phone of his 25-year-old Thai boyfriend, identified by transvestites in the seedy beach town of Pattaya.

Thai police issued a warrant for Neil's arrest on Thursday, a week after he fled South Korea, after two Thai teenagers accused him of paying for oral sex when they were nine and 14, grounds for prosecution under Thai law.

Neil could face up to 20 years in jail if convicted in Thailand. Mr Wongkot said he would be prosecuted in Bangkok, but left open the possibility he could be extradited once he had served his sentence.

Canada has not said if it plans to seek Neil's extradition.

Cambodia and Vietnam might also want to question him.

Detectives in various countries had been trying to track Neil down since German police discovered photographs on the internet three years ago of a man sexually abusing 12 boys in Vietnam and Cambodia.

His face had been scrambled with a digital swirling pattern, but German police computer experts managed to unravel the disguise and Interpol issued an unprecedented worldwide internet appeal for information on who the man was.

■ One of Britain's leading female tennis coaches was found guilty on Thursday of molesting a 13-year-old schoolgirl. Claire Lyte, 29, a former Wimbledon player, had sexual relations with the child between May 2005 and June 2006 while working as a coach at a Loughborough training academy.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald.

Illinois Sex Offender Tries to Castrate Himself

Posted on 10/24/2007 11:44:05 AM PDT
by Resolute Conservative

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — A 59-year-old convicted sex offender in Illinois tried to castrate himself using a filet knife after he got the urge to "touch and hurt children," according to the Daily Herald.

The man, who was not identified, removed one of his testickes, flushed it down the toilet and severely injured the other one.

He called a friend for help and when paramedics and police arrived, they found him bleeding profusely.

Read the full report from the Daily Herald.

The man's sex offense happened in 1984 and as a result was required to register as a offender.

Russian arrested for child sex in Cambodia

PHNOM PENH, Oct 18, 2007 (AFP) - A Russian businessman has been arrested in Cambodia for allegedly having sex with at least six underaged girls, some as young as 12, police said Thursday.

Alexander Trofimov was seized at his home in the popular seaside town of Sihanoukville on Wednesday, said Major General Bit Kimhong, director of the Interior Ministry's anti-trafficking department.

Trofimov, 41, was arrested after his six alleged victims and their parents filed complaints, Bit Kimhong told AFP.

"He was arrested on charges of committing debauchery," the major general said, referring to a criminal charge covering a wide range of sexual offenses that carries a maximum of 20 years in jail.

Police say Trofimov had sex with five of the girls in 2005, the oldest of whom was 16 at the time, and the sixth earlier this year.

Trofimov is the chairman of the Koh Pos Investment Company, which last year was granted permission to build a 300 million-dollar resort on Koh Pos or Snake Island, an area Cambodia is trying to develop as a luxury tourist destination.

His arrest comes as neighbouring Thailand hunts suspected Canadian paedophile Christopher Paul Neil, who allegedly raped as many as a dozen young boys and posted photographs of his acts -- some thought to be committed in Cambodia -- on the Internet.

Cambodia has struggled to shed its reputation as a haven for paedophiles, putting dozens of foreigners in jail for child sex crimes or deporting them to face trial in their home countries since 2003.

More than 10 foreigners were arrested last year in a crackdown on child sex crimes, doubling the total number detained in 2005.

But officials, including foreign diplomats, have begun urging authorities to also target Cambodian paedophiles, who are thought to make up a large percentage of sex offenders.

Paedophilia: Southeast Asia's sordid secret
by Lynne O'Donnell

HONG KONG, Oct 21, 2007 (AFP) - The arrest in Thailand of a Canadian man suspected of having sex with young boys has focused international attention on a sordid industry that peddles children to paedophiles across Southeast Asia.

Grinding poverty, poor policing and no shortage of demand ensure that exploitation of children for sex thrives throughout the region.

Despite some high-profile prosecutions of child sex abusers, experts say lack of cooperation among governments is hindering efforts to keep children safe from paedophilia.

The Friday arrest of teacher Christopher Paul Neil, 32, was the culmination of an unprecedented appeal from Interpol for public help in finding him.

Neil is accused of sexually assaulting 12 boys and posting 200 pictures of the crimes on the Internet.

His case is the latest to draw attention to the fact that children are readily available in Southeast Asia for sexual predators who travel from the West for the sole purpose of having sex with minors.

Probably the highest profile offender is former rock star Gary Glitter -- real name Paul Francis Gadd -- now in a Vietnamese prison convicted of committing obscene acts with two girls, then aged 11 and 12.

Campaign groups say much of the demand for child sex is homegrown and accuse authorities of often turning a blind eye, or even colluding in the abuse.

Lack of public awareness is compounded by lack of data, and punishments are rarely harsh enough to act as a deterrent. Even those caught and sentenced can often have their punishments downgraded by paying off their victims and accusers, experts say.

"There is a lack of awareness in the general public, and there is a lack of awareness among certain government officials," said Alexander Kruger, a child protection specialist at UNICEF in Thailand.

In Indonesia, authorities do not see the children as victims but prosecute them as illegal sex workers, said Arist Merdeka Sirait, who heads the National Commission for Child Protection group.

Indonesia has had a national action plan in place since 2000, and an anti-human trafficking law was introduced in 2006.

But experts say that even where laws exist, implementation is often ineffective.

Sirait estimates that about 40,000-70,000 Indonesian children fall into the sex trade each year, two thirds of them trafficked abroad, while the group ECPAT, which campaigns against child prostitution, says Vietnamese children are being sent to Cambodia, China, Malaysia and Taiwan for abuse.

After decades as a haven for child sex tourists, Cambodia has been cracking down in recent years, arresting or deporting at least two dozen foreigners since 2003.

But the country's most notorious child sex market, a brothel village near Phnom Penh allegedly closed in 2004, still operates, albeit driven underground and more difficult to monitor.

Cambodians make up a large percentage of paedophiles, according to rights groups in the field, but domestic paedophilia is treated as an ordinary crime rather than a social problem.

"We don't deny that Asian men like to have sex with children here, but we have received very little information about this," said Major General Bit Kimhong, director of the Interior Ministry's Anti-Human Trafficking Department.

Australia and Japan, sources of child sex tourists, have dealt with the issue in vastly different ways.

In Japan, criticised as the world's main producer of underage pornography, the number of prosecutions involving child prostitution and pornography has risen in recent years -- peaking at 1,080 cases in the first half of last year.

But, said Keiko Saito, a Tokyo-based ECPAT official: "The government has done nothing to stop sex tourists from Japan."

One Japanese man was sentenced to prison after having sex with a 15-year-old Cambodian girl and posting pictures on his homepage last year but his sentence was suspended after he paid the girl compensation.

By contrast, Australia introduced laws in 1994 allowing Australians engaging in child sex overseas to be prosecuted at home, with individuals facing jail terms up to 17 years.

The Philippines has one of Asia's most widely-used anti-child prostitution laws which has led to the arrest and conviction of child molesters and paedophiles.

The most celebrated case in recent years was that of Filipino congressman Romeo Jalosjos, who was convicted in 1997 for raping an 11-year-old girl who was "sold" to him by her father.

Rights groups estimate there are around 1.5 million street children, of whom more than 30,000 have been prostituted, in many cases by their parents.

Rooted in poverty, as elsewhere, the problem was exacerbated in the 1980s by US bases in the northern cities of Clark and Subic, where bars employed children who ended up as sex workers for American soldiers.

'Wiring fault' in child sex abusers

29/11/2007

Paedophilia may be caused by faulty wiring in the brain, a study by scientists has suggested.

They came to the conclusion after comparing the brain scans of child molesters and non-sexual criminals and found that convicted paedophiles had significantly less "white matter" in their brains.

White matter is composed of message-carrying nerve fibres, as opposed to the nerve cell bodies that make up "grey matter". It is what wires different parts of the brain together.

The findings, published in the Journal of Psychiatry Research, challenge the popular belief that paedophilia is triggered by childhood trauma or abuse.

But Dr James Cantor, from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, who led the research, said: "There is nothing in this research that says paedophiles shouldn't be held criminally responsible for their actions.

"Not being able to choose your sexual interests doesn't mean you can't choose what you do."

Previous research from the same team has strongly hinted that brain development may hold the key to paedophilia.

Paedophiles tend to have low IQs, are three times more likely than average to be left handed, and are often short in stature.

Source: Telegraph UK.