Briton Child-Sex Tour Organiser Jailed for 16 Years
By Martin Abbugao
Originally published in Agence France Presse, October 11, 1996
OLONGAPO, Philippines, Oct 11 (AFP) — A Briton who organised child sex tours in the Philippines was jailed for 16 years on Friday after he was trapped on film by a British social worker who posed as a customer.
Michael Clark, 50, of Eastbourne, was convicted by a lower court in this northern city of "inducing child prostitution," and sentenced to 16 years, four months and one day in prison due largely to the testimony and evidence gathered by a British social worker posing as a customer.
Judge Fatima Asdala said she was convinced "beyond the shadow of a doubt" that Clark promoted, facilitated and induced child prostitution through printed advertisements and word of mouth.
Clark, dressed in a pin-striped suit, stood nervously as the verdict was read out, sweating profusely and wiping his brow with a handkerchief.
He said he would file a "strong appeal against this decision," yelling "I'm completely innocent. It's a fabrication. I've suffered enough."
Clark will be deported after serving his sentence and barred from returning to the Philippines.
The Preda Foundation, an Olongapo-based group campaigning against child prostitution, hailed the conviction, saying: "The national government's attitude has changed (from) the past few years when there was an atmosphere of cover-up, non-enforcement and denial of sex abuse."
The court documents sheet said that British social worker Martin Cottingham saw an advertisement from Clark's company, Paradise Express Travel Promoters, in a British magazine in March.
Cottingham called the telephone number in the advertisement and spoke to Clark who assured him that a girl as young as 12 would be available to him.
They were described as "cherry girls who have had sex only a couple of times."
Clark also sent him a brochure saying that with prices rising in Thailand, the Philippine cities of Olongapo and Angeles were poised to become the new destinations of "pleasure-seeking men throughout the world."
The brochures also invited investors to put their money into these places, saying that Angeles would soon become "the home of the devil himself, Satan's place," while Olongapo would become known as "sin city."
Cottingham then came to the Philippines with cameraman Adam Holloway of the International Television Network who took footage of a meeting between Clark and Cottingham posing as a customer.
During the meeting, Clark gave Cottingham a list of things to bring, including a video camcorder, fetish gear and a double-ended dildo.
Cottingham asked if girls would be cooperative if they were forced into sex and was told by Clark to "treat them well by giving them hamburgers and some chips and the girls will certainly be more open to a man's advances," the court records said.
Footage of Cottingham's trip was aired over CNN, drawing the attention of local activists opposed to child sex, including Senator Ernesto Herrera who pressed justice department investigators to act.
Clark was arrested in a beach house in Olongapo in June 1995. Also seized were graphic promotional posters.
The conviction was the latest in a series against foreigners accused of having sex with children.
Earlier this week, a Greek physics instructor, facing charges of frequenting child prostitutes, was recaptured in Manila after police recognized him from a picture in a tabloid.
In May, an Australian was sentenced to 17 years in prison for paedophilia, the first conviction under a 1992 law aimed at curbing child sex abuse.
A Frenchman and a German are facing similar charges in Olongapo and a Philippine congressman last month took the floor to angrily deny charges that he had sex with an 11-year-old girl. The congressman is still being investigated.
