Sex 'Tourist' Gets Seven Years
Child prostitution is a big problem in Thailand

From BBC News, October 20, 2000.

A man has been sentenced by a French court to seven years in jail for a serious sexual assault on an 11-year-old girl while on holiday in Thailand.

It is the first case to be held in France for a sexual offence against a child committed abroad, and activists hope it will deal a serious blow to the sex tourism industry.

Paris public transport worker Amnon Chemouil, 48, forced the girl to give him oral sex. Under French law he was convicted of rape.

In his final words to the court before the jury retired to consider its verdict, he broke down and apologised to the girl, now 17, for stealing her childhood.

Video

"I want to tell the victim that the guilty party, and that is me, bears all the responsibility for what happened. She did nothing, either by her actions or her words, to encourage me to do anything," Chemouil said between sobs.

"I hope that these words will bring her a little peace and help her rediscover the childhood I stole from her."

The court also ordered Chemouil to pay damages of 50,000 French francs ($6,500) to the girl, whom he sexually assaulted in a hotel room in the Thai beach resort of Pattaya in February 1994.

Chernouil was caught because his travelling companion, Viktor Michel, made a videotape of the sexual encounter.

Paedophile ring

Mr Michel, from Switzerland, identified Mr Chemouil when police, investigating a paedophile ring, raided his home and found the pornographic recording.

The girl appeared in court on Thursday to give evidence against her attacker.

Chernouil could have been sentenced to up to 20 years in jail.

Jacques Hintzy, president of the French branch of Unicef, said before the case: "This is a trial that should give paedophiles cause for fear, and convince them there is no impunity."

Unicef says that in south east Asia more than a million children are subjected to sexual exploitation, and that because of the Aids epidemic, the gangs that control the prostitution rackets seek out increasingly young girls.

Mr Hintzy said: "Pressure must be brought on public opinion to stop these outrages continuing. Millions of people are having their childhoods stolen."

Landmark trial

The case is also the first of its type in France at which child protection groups like Unicef have been able to play a role as civil plaintiffs alongside the public prosecution.

France is one of several countries that adopted laws in 1994 making possible the prosecution of sexual crimes on minors committed abroad, but lack of evidence has made bringing charges difficult.

French police have launched 20 investigations, but only two trials have ended in convictions for sexual assault.

According to Unicef, Germany has the strongest record in fighting sex tourism with 37 investigations, of which six ended in convictions.

This article originally appeared online at BBC News,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_980000/980337.stm.

Cambodian Police Urge Glitter To Leave

From BBC News, May 5, 2002

Disgraced pop star Gary Glitter has been asked to leave Cambodia voluntarily.

On Sunday police informed the singer he is not wanted in the country.

"There is no prohibition on him not to leave," said Lieutenant Colonel Pol Pithey, chief of the Municipal Police's Foreigners Department.

Police say they cannot deport him because he has not broken any Cambodian laws.

Reputation fears

But the government is worried that Glitter's presence draws attention to the country's reputation as a sex tourism destination for paedophiles.

Glitter's pop career ended in 1999 when he was convicted of making indecent images of children under 16 between January and November 1997.

The singer served two months of a four-month sentence after admitting 54 charges of possessing child pornography downloaded from the internet.

He had downloaded material that included images of girls as young as two being abused.

Mr Pithey said Glitter, whose real name is Paul Francis Gadd, would "make things much easier" if he left Cambodia voluntarily.

Passport confiscated

The singer has been living in Phnom Penh for the last six months.

Cambodian authorities had confiscated his passport but gave it back to him last week after Glitter gave an undertaking that he would not travel outside the capital without informing the police.

News photographers said Glitter had not left his Phnom Penh guesthouse in days and has a hired motorcycle taxi driver to buy food for him.

A child pornography conviction ended Glitters career

Glitter was released from prison in January 2000 and is on the sex offenders' register in the UK under his real name.

The singer's visa for Cambodia, which has entry stamps into Thailand, Vietnam, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Venezuela and Columbia, is valid until October 2002, police said.

Glitter first came to Cambodia in 1997, but his most recent entry into the country is March of this year.

He achieved fame in the 1970s with such hits as "I'm the Leader of the Gang (I Am)," "Do You Wanna Touch" and "Rock And Roll (Part 2)".

This article originally appeared online at BBC News,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/asia-pacific/newsid_1969000/1969074.stm.

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