Former Diplomat Cleared Of Thai Child Porn Charges

[dr_Pat_Pong]

Deported on a simple theft of Beach Towel???????????  Are you sure??????  It has to be more than that to get deported, cause a towel literally is of no value here in Thailand. 

Daveyo

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Oh yes!

http://www.phuketgazette.com/issuesanswers...ails.asp?id=723

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The moral is not to knock off the hotel's bath towels when you are also pretending to be a guest and using their facilities.

[marquess]

Aussie fights deportation

BANGKOK: -- Former Australian diplomat Robert Michael Scoble spent his Christmas in immigration detention in Bangkok attempting to avert deportation to Australia after being convicted for distributing pornography.

Scoble, 56, was given a four-month jail sentence, suspended for two years, after judge Suthikorn Libnoi ruled he and his business partner, American John Charles Goss, 46, had distributed a gay magazine that "had a feeling of inviting men to come for sex". He was sentenced to another three months' jail, also suspended, on charges of employing someone without a work permit. He was fined a total of 10,000 baht ($330) for the two charges.

The free Thai Guys magazine, which is published in Thailand 10 times a year and distributed in hundreds of gay bars, saunas and restaurants, contains no full nudity, the judge said, but pictures of men with naked torsos suggested the offering of sex services.

Initially, it was thought Scoble, who wore a Christmas teddy-bear tie to court, would be spending the next 30 days at his Bangkok home preparing his appeal, but in a surprise twist, he was detained in immigration custody on Friday afternoon and told he could be deported immediately.

He had gone to the immigration police as part of his weekly sign-in as a condition of his original bail. Scoble's passport was cancelled by Foreign Minister Alexander Downer after his arrest.

His lawyer, Ratprathan Tulatorn, argued that he could not be deported until the court's decision had been appealed.

When Scoble was arrested in March this year, police said they found hundreds of videos and photographs, many containing explicit images of men having sex with pre-pubescent boys, in his home.

But Judge Suthikorn ruled he was not guilty of distributing those images for commercial purposes. It is not illegal in Thailand to possess pornography, either adult or child, for personal use.

However, the judge said that as Scoble and Goss had hundreds of copies of Thai Guys in their office and they admitted they gave them to clients of their gay and lesbian travel business, Utopia Tours, they were "distributing pornography".

Mr Ratprathan said his client would probably appeal against the sentence because it was clear the magazines were not pornographic.

"His judgment believes those pictures are pornographic, but our argument is it is not, otherwise all the people in the country who have these magazines will be arrested, and they are not," he said.

"It is mercy from the judge already that the (sentence) is suspended from imprisonment and I know, deep down inside, the judge knows exactly what is the truth."

Scoble had served as Australia's acting head of mission in Hanoi in the mid-1980s before resigning after being accused of sending child pornography to a colleague in another embassy through a diplomatic bag.

I spoke to soon, it seems not matter what happens; he will end up being deported. That's seems to be the easiest solution, for the authorities.

[kat]

Perhaps I'm just more suspicious of the Australian government's motives [petty revenge for a diplomatic embarrassment?] and the Thai government/police/press reliability.  I'm with you up to the point where you refer his to current possession and previous allegations as known "facts..." at which point I raise an eyebrow.  The results [harassment without conviction] and the previous history of this case [widespread smearing and unfounded accusations] tend [for me, anyway, prone to tunnel vision as I am] to give me a bit of skepticism about what Thai and Australian news sources are reporting.  Remember the German who gave HIV to "thousands" of girls, as reported by Thai news?

"Steven"

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Yes, I can see your point also. But in this guy's case, it was more than the Thai authorities. Why would the Australian government resort to a case of this sort over petty revenge? I'm not refering to all the allegations as "facts", just the things that were also reported by independent news sources, and that Scobel himself admitted. I could be wrong, but I'll tell you why I think justice was only served in its limited definition:

There is the issue of homemade, digitally obscured videos in his possession with mature men and prepubescent boys. This was reported by various independent news sources, and if it wasn't true, given the nature of the case and allegations Scoble would've certainly sued them for libel and defamation.

In 1985 Scoble was embroiled in a scandalous incident at the Foreign Affairs department when he sent out photos of young boys on the internet at work. He admitted as much when he said it was an "innocent joke".

I suspect that the Australian Foreign Affairs Department may be after him for this incident or others like it and simply didn't have the evidence to convict.

As I said, justice was served, in the limited definition that the possession of homemade kiddie porn is legal, as long as there is no attempt to sell it. I think this case is more about the law in Thailand.

But that's just my view. I could be wrong. It's all speculation because the guy won his case.