Aussie Man Held In Thailand On Child Sex Rap

[sriracha john]

Probably because they can act out their fantacies at home with impunity.

Or are you seriously implying that pedophilia does not occur in India or China?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Whiteshiva:

Nowhere have I said that pedophila doesn't happen in India and China.

Pedophilia, like all other crimes, occurs in every country in the world.

What I'm trying to get across (apparently without much success) is the fact that all cases of pedophilia reported in Thailand, in recent times, involved farangs.

I'm also trying to understand the reasons why certain farangs indulge in such activities in LOS, the Philippines, and in Sri Lanka and why other (sex) tourists

from India, or China, don't get caught in such activities in these countries. Am assuming that sex fantasies are similar in all countries.

Is there something unique with farangs that makes them get caught while indulging in pedophilia?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

stupid.

If you want to read stories about 12, 13 and 14 year old girls having sex with much older men then read any of the Thai "True Life" magazines and note the men are rarely Farangs.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Have NEVER come across any stories of Thai men having sex with 12, 13 and 14 year old girls . Am not denying that such things don't happen, but am sure that Thai society (which is about the most tolerant in the world) will abhor such behavior .

On many occasions Thai taxi drivers and the usual pimps, have approached me asking whether I'd like a small girl ( propositions which sicken me). Although I'm not farang, I sometimes get mistaken for one in LOS and I do believe that such propositions were made to me because the propositioner thought that I was

farang. This has also happened to me in the Philippines, which is another pedophile venue. Am sure that similar propositions have been made to many of the male farang members of this forum.

Thai (& Philippine) low life does appear to link farangs with child sex. Am told this is also the situation in Sri Lanka.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You must be either: joking, a troll, in denial, or completely clueless. The reason why there are so many foreign pedophiles here is because there is a market and ready supply here. Who are the suppliers - farang? How did this ready market and endless source of supply become so pervasive and limitless in an adverse environment? I tell you, sometimes comments like yours boggle the mind.

For your information, Japan was one of the first major suppliers of sex tourists in S.E. Asia until they figured out how to get their young sex slaves shipped in. Have you never heard of the Yakuza? Have you never learned of Chinese men who regulary seek young virgins to invigorate their health? Surely, you must of heard of female infanticide and the present desperation to smuggle young, impoverished migrant women into China for single men? Do you know that gang rape is dangerously close to becoming a national sport among young Cambodian men? Do you realize that in most if not all Asian cultures, the glorification of female-child sex has always been present in some shape or form? I doubt you know anything, based on your comments.

You should be banned just on the basis of stupidity.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

No, I'm not joking, neither am I a troll.

I am referiing to farang pedophiles getting caught for their activities in LOS and the publicity surrounding such farang related preferances in LOS.

I'm not refering to pedophile happenings in China, Japan, Cambodia, or elsewhere in the world. My query relates specifically to LOS.

Maybe you should get banned for your inability to read?

If, as you say, pedophilia occurs in Japan, China and Cambodia, AND LOS has a huge number of tourists from Japan and China AND there is a ready market of available children in LOS to cater for depraved tastes, then, why aren't Japanese and Chinese men accused of pedophilia in LOS? Why are only farangs accused?

It might be distasteful to you, but pedophilia in LOS looks more and more like a farang disease.

As for the contention that the Asian press is vindictive towards farangs, remember

that Indians are disliked in LOS and a huge number of Indian sex tourists visit LOS, but, I haven't come across an Indian being accused of pedophilia.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I was going to try and educate you further, Figaro... as you apparently did not read the post pointing out all the non-farang pedophile cases... but after reading the rest of your crap... I've decided no more free lessons. Everyone else here seems to know the score, except you. You're not worthy of anyone spending or actually wasting their time explaining things to you.

Best of luck to you in your clueless world.... you obviously need all the luck you can get.

Last thing is...

I happen to agree with Kat's pre-modified post recommending your banishment for lacking the pre-requisite number of brain cells to post sensibly.

[chuchok]

I happen to agree with Kat's pre-modified post recommending your banishment for lacking the pre-requisite number of brain cells to post sensibly.

Me too.

[meadish_sweetball]

stupid.

If you want to read stories about 12, 13 and 14 year old girls having sex with much older men then read any of the Thai "True Life" magazines and note the men are rarely Farangs.

Have NEVER come across any stories of Thai men having sex with 12, 13 and 14 year old girls . Am not denying that such things don't happen, but am sure that Thai society (which is about the most tolerant in the world) will abhor such behavior .

On many occasions Thai taxi drivers and the usual pimps, have approached me asking whether I'd like a small girl ( propositions which sicken me). Although I'm not farang, I sometimes get mistaken for one in LOS and I do believe that such propositions were made to me because the propositioner thought that I was

farang. This has also happened to me in the Philippines, which is another pedophile venue. Am sure that similar propositions have been made to many of the male farang members of this forum.

Thai (& Philippine) low life does appear to link farangs with child sex. Am told this is also the situation in Sri Lanka.

If you are not just trolling to get a reaction, you must be very sheltered or have little experience of Thailand. Rape and molestation of underaged and underage brothels catering to Thai men as well as monks abusing their pupils are all well known here in Thailand.

If you read the Thai language press you would know.

There are lots of great things about Thailand and Thai society. The tendency to not discuss these crimes is not one of them. You need to wake up.

[ovenman]

Obviously you don't know much about the news services available in Thailand, or I dare say Thailand, for that matter.

Even assuming you can't read Thai, here's just a few clips from articles from the English language paper The Nation:

Wasn't there even an incident a few years back involving either a Senator or a Member of Parliament and some young lass who had been procured for him (or am I misremembering this)?

[sriracha john]

If you read the Thai language press you would know.

Or even the English language press for our reality-challenged member... as

Post #90 references many.

[sriracha john]

Update with more background information:

27aug05

Licences allowing accused pedophile Christopher Ronald White to work as a security guard and private investigator in Western Australia may be revoked following his arrest in Thailand.

WA Police confirmed yesterday that Mr White – a state police officer until 15 years ago – was officially registered in the state as a crowd controller, security guard and investigator.

He is being held in jail in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai, after being arrested earlier this week over allegations he kept a 13-year-old girl as a sex slave for three years.

A two-pronged investigation by Thai police and the Australian Federal Police (AFP) uncovered claims Mr White had persuaded the girl's parents to let her stay with him after promising to educate her.

He then allegedly used her as a sex slave and made pornographic films featuring the pair and other girls, which were sent to Australia.

The AFP and Australian Customs are also conducting inquiries after pedophilic DVD recordings mailed to Australia were intercepted en route to Perth.

The AFP investigation is ongoing but the WA Police Commercial Agents Unit today revealed it was considering withdrawing the three security-related licences held by Mr White.

Acting Sergeant Steve Fazio said Mr White was officially registered as a crowd controller, security guard and an investigator employed by a Perth-based firm he would not name.

"Once we get the full amount of information, which we're in the process of doing, a report will be compiled and handed over to our licensing clerk with indications of having those three licences revoked," Sgt Fazio said on ABC Radio.

Before leaving the police in 1990, Mr White had been a senior constable, who had spent the latter years of his career in charge of the one-man Dwellingup police station, about 100 km south-east of Perth.

A WA Police officer for 12 years, he resigned in November 1990, shortly before an internal disciplinary hearing was to hear accusations he had sold confidential police information.

Mr White was cleared by that investigation.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Burswood Casino in Perth refused to comment on reports Mr White was involved in attempts to recover millions of dollars owed to the casino by a Thai woman.

This case is discussed here:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=42743&hl

Police sources in Thailand said the 58-year-old tour operator was allegedly paying outstanding gaming debts by Asian gamblers with cheques that bounced.

The Burswood casino was owed $3.8 million, and Mr White was linked to its unsuccessful efforts to reclaim the monies from the unnamed woman, the sources said.

Edited August 26, 2005 by sriracha john

[Johpa]

''Under the Act, about 900,000 tribes-people and their children are living as 'stateless people' in Thailand. Clearly they suffer greatly since they have no rights or access to social welfare,'' he said.

Bangkok Post 30 June 2005

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Is it just me or, if we consider the number of hill folks with Thai citizenship, has the total population of hill people in Thailand mysterioulsy grown exponentially acording to the Bangkok Post?

As I noted, the hill people here are being given citizenship. This includes just about all the Karen, Lahu, Lisu, and Mong. It does not include recent Mong refugees from Laos, many Akha who have fled the heroin wars in Burma more recently including friends of mine who were here by the late 1970s, the long neck Karens brought over as zoo attractions during the 1990s, and a few others. BUt being given citizenship does not always make them anything less than second class citizens.

My guess is that the 900,000 refers to the total number of illegal aliens estimated to be residing in the Kindom.

[cgigate]

These happen in Thai every day!

Thai is a country for sex!!

Edited August 27, 2005 by cgigate

[kat]

''Under the Act, about 900,000 tribes-people and their children are living as 'stateless people' in Thailand. Clearly they suffer greatly since they have no rights or access to social welfare,'' he said.

Bangkok Post 30 June 2005

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Is it just me or, if we consider the number of hill folks with Thai citizenship, has the total population of hill people in Thailand mysterioulsy grown exponentially acording to the Bangkok Post?

As I noted, the hill people here are being given citizenship. This includes just about all the Karen, Lahu, Lisu, and Mong. It does not include recent Mong refugees from Laos, many Akha who have fled the heroin wars in Burma more recently including friends of mine who were here by the late 1970s, the long neck Karens brought over as zoo attractions during the 1990s, and a few others. BUt being given citizenship does not always make them anything less than second class citizens.

My guess is that the 900,000 refers to the total number of illegal aliens estimated to be residing in the Kindom.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

OFF TOPIC:

I don't know what point you're trying to make, but if it is that hilltribe people are not denied basic human rights through citizenship you're wrong.

There are thousands of cases of stateless hilltribes, and they are not all migrants. I don't know if the Post's figure of 900,000 is correct, because no one really knows. They are unregistered and undocumented, due to the racist agenda of past census surveyors. That's why the article uses the term "Under the Act". Illegal migrants are estimated to be much higher, between 1.5-2 million.

I'd much rather rely on personal accounts and observations of Karen and Mon communities with whom I have worked, and published accounts. There is still an ongoing story of close to 2,000 villagers in Mai Ai that had their citizenship revoked by local provincial officials. They took it to court with the Law Society of Thailand and about half of them won, but the local officials have still not reinstated their illegally revoked status, and are appealing. There are also documented and published accounts of young hilltribe university applicants that have been denied access to education because of their status.

Please don't stand up in any forum and try to tell us that the problem regarding stateless people in Thailand is almost resolved, or appeased in some way. Because there is always someone else who knows better.

End of OFF TOPIC rant.

[george]

"I am innocent!"

Sex accused: It's a payback

CHIANG MAI: -- A former WA police officer accused of luring a young Thai girl from her poor family and holding her as a sex slave for three years says he is innocent.

In an interview while in police custody, Christopher Ronald White claimed he had been targeted to silence him over his inquiries into multimillion-dollar Australian casino stings, revealed in The Sunday Times last week.

His daughter, who returned from Bangkok in April after 12 months living with him, said he had no sexual relationship with the Thai girl.

Mr White, 46, now a private investigator, tracked down an Asian high-roller junket operator alleged to have racked up multimillion-dollar debts in Australian casinos. Among them is Burswood, which says it is owed more than $5 million.

Some security-industry sources believe it was more than coincidence that Mr White's arrest came just days after it was revealed how he tracked down junket operator Thongthip Aektrakul – a woman believed to have close connections with one of Thailand's political clans and other heavyweight contacts in Cambodia.

Another WA man, debt-collector John Dragosavic, 54, who was working on a separate investigation into the same casino stings, was found dead in a Bangkok hotel on July 14. Australian Federal Police would not comment on any link between Mr White's arrest and Mr Dragosavic's death.

Mr White, who has lived in Thailand for 15 years, faces charges including raping a girl under 13 and illegally detaining the girl – offences that could see him jailed for up to 20 years. He is the subject of two separate investigations in Perth and Thailand.

In Melbourne, Customs officers seized two computer disks in June and August which had been mailed to Perth. A spokesman said charges of importing child pornography may be laid.

Federal agents raided two homes in Como this week, seizing items including computer disks.

Thai police also raided Mr White's Bangkok home, where it is claimed disks containing pornographic material were discovered.

Thai police said the girl, known as Pan, "escaped" two months ago and told a charity, which specialises in people smuggling, of her plight.

But Mr White, speaking from the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai, said the sex-slave claims were rubbish.

"Ten to 12 months ago she was my legal ward," he said. He offered to pay her school fees and put her up, but she proved too much trouble after they moved from Chiang Mai to Bangkok.

"Three times I took her to Mae Sai (her family's home, north of Chiang Mai), but she kept coming back," he said.

"I put her through school, but she stopped going so I kicked her out of the house.

"I put her on a train to Chiang Mai in March because she had been playing around and living in a place with three boys, one of whom, I presume, got her pregnant."

The girl says Mr White is the father, but he claims he had a vasectomy in May.

He conceded that he sent two pornographic disks to Australia, but said they were purchased in Bangkok.

"I bought those at Pantip Plaza," he said, referring to a top computer centre in the Thai capital that does a huge trade in pirated software and pornographic films.

"I was in the process of bringing that to the attention of the media and police, but didn't trust the Thais and the Australian police.

"The Thai police, NGOs and the federal police, they have shot themselves in the foot. The physical evidence is not there to back these claims."

Mr White's 18-year-old daughter, who asked not to be named, was teaching English in Bangkok at the time.

"There was nothing going on, nothing at all," she said.

"When Pan was a flower girl she was probably prostituting with other foreigners, but definitely not with my dad. Dad was only looking after her and trying to help her in school."

She said her father paid the girl's hospital bills after she contracted a sexual disease.

Mr White joined the WA police in 1978 and resigned 12 years later after being charged and cleared of selling information to a private investigator.

--Sunday Times AU 2005-08-28

[carlthailand]

Looks like that famous person quote is due about here.

Let he who hasn't sinned cast the first stone.

Oh how quickly we judge.

For godness sake we should know better. We live here in the country f corruption and lies.

Where are you loyalties.

??

I mean if guillty do what you have to but you guys have npot even given a fair trial.

My dad got run out of QLD Australia because of the cops. You know its the proof that counts. And from a country that has difficulty with forensic evidence and relies on the i siad he said principle i would be worried too.

May JUSTICE be done. REAL JUSTICE AT THAT.

My 50 setang

Carl

[sriracha john]

Just the same as we shouldn't jump to conclusions against the accused when the police describe their side, we shouldn't also jump to side with the accused when he describes his side.

It seems clear enough that the evidence will dictate what happens. If the accused is on the porn discs and not just the garden-variety porn from Pantip, then we'll know. Undoubtedly, there is other evidence as well that will bear out which side to believe.

It's certainly not unexpected that his daughter (btw, odd she's an 18 year-old "teacher")... to side with her father... whether it's the truth or not.

[jomama]

Perhaps he did draw attention to himself through his investigations, but that doesn't necessarily mean there is no basis in the charges.

Just a general observation: I have lived in Thgailand for quite some time and never "adopted" a 12-year-old girl, but then perhaps I'm not that charitable.

I know an American husband and wife who run a school and assistance program for poor hilltribe children. We have given some money to them. If I wanted to help a specific child, I would probably try to work through that group...and not "adopt" the child myself.

[Lifelover]

Har! So first we read the Black (the newspaper report accusations) and now we have the White (the story from the accused). The truth as ever will lie somewhere in between. Those I spoke to who knew the girl and Chris well, gave me their story and I reported that earlier in this thread. What they said fits perfectly between the two versions.

I think that jomama has made a very valid point about farangs adopting Thai children. Many years ago, I suggested to my Thai fiancée that we adopt two or three poor girls from her village or from the streets of Chiang Mai and give them an education, a home and our love. Her response shocked me at the time, but has made perfect sense since then. First she immediately shot back: “Why only girls? The boys are just as much in need!” How true. Second she lectured me about Thai ways and pointed out that by adopting young girls I would lay myself open to all kinds of insinuations (however unfounded) from neighbours and other people I came in contact with. Thirdly she was adamant that adopting street kids would be the worst nightmare of all because invariably they had ‘minders’ (relatives or not) who would resent the loss of income that we would take from them and find a way to make a problem.

If you, like me, feel strongly about the injustices to children that are borne of poverty and lack of education, my suggestion is to support one of the many reputable charities that deal with these cases, either with your time or your money. And above all, If you are a single male resist the temptation, however well meaning, to directly support an underage girl.

[carlthailand]

To add a little more to this.

Some security-industry sources believe it was more than coincidence that Mr White's arrest came just days after it was revealed how he tracked down junket operator Thongthip Aektrakul ? a woman believed to have close connections with one of Thailand's political clans and other heavyweight contacts in Cambodia.

Another WA man, debt-collector John Dragosavic, 54, who was working on a separate investigation into the same casino stings, was found dead in a Bangkok hotel on July 14. Australian Federal Police would not comment on any link between Mr White's arrest and Mr Dragosavic's death.

Source The Advertiser.

Still not saying this guy is innocent. But the plot thickens.

[denby45]

p1p,

I figured out a long time ago that CW & AS were full of beans.

"sercurity consultants" yeah, right

As to justice getting done, keep in mind that the Thais farted around with ###### for years, finally popped him for drugs, weps, pedo and other adventures; and after all the smoke cleared, sent him back to OZ and he walked away.

.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm confused

If CW & AS were full of beans then why were the Thais farting around?

Den

[Felix Lynn]

according to the news report: ..."Her family, who belong to a hill tribe in neighbouring Chiang Rai province near the Burmese border, told police that White had offered to take their then 12-year-old daughter into his care in Bangkok" ...

Why on earth would a family allow their twelve year old daughter go with a forty year old foreigner to Bangkok to live with him?

[kat]

"I am innocent!"

Sex accused: It's a payback

CHIANG MAI: --

...  In an interview while in police custody, Christopher Ronald White claimed he had been targeted to silence him over his inquiries into multimillion-dollar Australian casino stings, revealed in The Sunday Times last week.

His daughter, who returned from Bangkok in April after 12 months living with him, said he had no sexual relationship with the Thai girl.

Mr White, 46, now a private investigator, tracked down an Asian high-roller junket operator alleged to have racked up multimillion-dollar debts in Australian casinos. Among them is Burswood, which says it is owed more than $5 million.

Some security-industry sources believe it was more than coincidence that Mr White's arrest came just days after it was revealed how he tracked down junket operator Thongthip Aektrakul – a woman believed to have close connections with one of Thailand's political clans and other heavyweight contacts in Cambodia.

Another WA man, debt-collector John Dragosavic, 54, who was working on a separate investigation into the same casino stings, was found dead in a Bangkok hotel on July 14. Australian Federal Police would not comment on any link between Mr White's arrest and Mr Dragosavic's death. ...

--Sunday Times AU 2005-08-28

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

This, too me, illustrates the problem at its finest. If this guy has been of questionable motives for some time concerning this "sex slave" of 3 years, of which the parents are more than partially responsible for giving their daughter to a grown man for "educational" purposes, why did he only now become an issue? The answer is above, in bold type. That is a quintessential Thai maneuver. The plot does thicken, and is full of all kinds of revelations, mostly for Thailand than the culprit at hand.

Har!  So first we read the Black (the newspaper report accusations) and now we have the White (the story from the accused).  The truth as ever will lie somewhere in between.  Those I spoke to who knew the girl and Chris well, gave me their story and I reported that earlier in this thread.  What they said fits perfectly between the two versions.

I think that jomama has made a very valid point about farangs adopting Thai children.  Many years ago, I suggested to my Thai fiancée that we adopt two or three poor girls from her village or from the streets of Chiang Mai and give them an education, a home and our love.  Her response shocked me at the time, but has made perfect sense since then.  First she immediately shot back: “Why only girls?  The boys are just as much in need!”  How true.  Second she lectured me about Thai ways and pointed out that by adopting young girls I would lay myself open to all kinds of insinuations (however unfounded) from neighbours and other people I came in contact with.  Thirdly she was adamant that adopting street kids would be the worst nightmare of all because invariably they had ‘minders’ (relatives or not) who would resent the loss of income that we would take from them and find a way to make a problem.

If you, like me, feel strongly about the injustices to children that are borne of poverty and lack of education, my suggestion is to support one of the many reputable charities that deal with these cases, either with your time or your money.  And above all, If you are a single male resist the temptation, however well meaning, to directly support an underage girl.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes, agreed, there are questionable motives on all sides. These are all people whom deserve each other, except for the poor and predictably wayward girl, but the foreigner is always the fall guy. Does it mean he is not a pedophile? I don't know, but he deserves a trial. Will it be fair? I doubt it. My instinct tells me he may be one of the many foreigners who come here and take advantage of exactly this kind of "education" scenario. However, that does not immediately make his case "sex slavery", and he is obviously not the only guilty party. The term "getting away with murder" is not a euphemism in this country.

Edit: And I'd like to add, instincts are just that, until proven correct by facts and evidence.

Edited August 28, 2005 by kat

[sriracha john]

Wasn't Mr. Sasser working as a journalist for a local Pattaya newspaper? He looks familiar to me.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes, he was.

Sassen said he has been living in Thailand for two years, and had worked as a translator for the Pattaya Blatt, the German language newspaper

Pattaya Mail commentary:

"Mr. Thomas Sassen from Germany was arrested by Pattaya Police at his residence in room #405 of an apartment in Pattaya Central Road on a charge of child abuse following an arrest warrant issued by a German court. The news also mentioned that Mr. Thomas was a resident of Pattaya and worked as a translator for Pattaya Blatt newspaper.

Pattaya Mail and Pattaya Blatt newspapers would like to state the fact that when Mr. Thomas Sassen came to apply for work at Pattaya Blatt he showed supporting documents with his application, which were in good order, which would allow him to obtain a work permit for the work for which he applied, as a German – English translator.

The management of Pattaya Mail and Pattaya Blatt were not aware of his personal background and in fact, Pattaya Mail and Pattaya Blatt newspapers have always cooperated with the authorities to suppress crimes committed by foreigners who cover up their criminal backgrounds, of any kind, in Pattaya City. Pattaya Mail and Pattaya Blatt newspapers are always ready to cooperate with the authorities to fight against all kinds of crime, including the event that occurred this past week."

[sriracha john]

Christopher White hides his face as he is shown at a police news conference in Chiang Mai.

Photo: AP

[george]

This topic will be featured in todays Thailand Today @ Radio Bangkok at 5pm, info here: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=43399

http://www.radiobangkok.net

[sriracha john]

Update:

Perth man living in Thailand accused of paedophilia

1 September , 2005 12:30:00

ELEANOR HALL: Now to the case of the Perth man accused of paedophilia in Thailand.

Almost a week after Christopher Ronald White was arrested along with a collection of sex videos, his 16-year-old accuser has given birth to a baby girl, only to have the infant die almost immediately after delivery.

Despite the tragedy, police have gone ahead with a paternity test, and they say if White turns out to be the father, he could be convicted and face life in prison.

From Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand, South East Asia Correspondent Peter Lloyd reports.

PETER LLOYD: Christopher Ronald White is a former Perth police officer who's worked as a private investigator in Thailand for many years. His public disgrace began last week, with his arrest on accusations of serially sexually abusing a 16-year-old Thai girl over the past four years.

A few days ago the pregnant teenager was admitted to hospital with tragic results and implications for the police investigation, as Captain Jariwan Putanoorak explained.

"The baby was born and then she died. We're conducting blood and DNA tests to see if they're related as father, mother, and daughter."

PETER LLOYD: This paternity test is crucial to both the police case and White's protests of innocence.

So far, it is his word against his accuser. Police allege he lured the child away from her family by promising to adopt and care for her in Bangkok. But Christopher White tells a different story.

She made her version official when she approached a child welfare agency in Chiang Mai, called the International Justice Mission. Its Director is American, Andre Sawchenko.

ANDRE SAWCHENKO: We do have Thai lawyers on our staff and we're able to make a detailed analysis of the evidence collected with regard to the specific laws that are alleged to have been broken and we're not going to pursue a case unless it has evidentiary merit. Absolutely.

PETER LLOYD: How vulnerable are kids in this part of Thailand?

ANDRE SAWCHENKO: I would say that children who grow up in poor homes, particularly homes where there's no citizenship in the family, homes where there's no education are extremely vulnerable to sexual predators, people offering them the promise of a wage or the provision of some sort of free service, of some sort of monetary income. That just makes poor kids extremely, extremely vulnerable to sexual exploitation.

PETER LLOYD: Before his arrest, White was under separate investigation in Australia after some of his pornographic DVD collection was intercepted in the post. For now he's being held in prison in legal limbo, awaiting the outcome of a police inquiry that could take months to complete.

[snoophound]

Some interesting linkages developing here.

Still smells bad though..

Christopher Ronald White is behind bars in Chiang Mai Central Prison, accused of serious child sex offences. To hear him talk, the former West Australian policeman, 46, tried to help a poor girl and her family but he was set up, and his actions misconstrued. Behind the brave face is a bitter man.

Just kilometres away, Pan, 16, lies in a public hospital ward. She wears a resigned half smile as she talks about her daughter, who died at birth this week.

For more than three years, from age 13, Pan lived in White's Bangkok house, attended a local temple school - and, by her account, had sexual relations with him, a charge he denies.

In an Akha hilltribe village in Burma, overlooking the far northern Thai town of Mae Sai, Pan's father, Aboya, is a happy man. Two of his daughters have foreign boyfriends, elevating his dirt poor life to one with a cement floor and colour TV.

Sitting on low stools in the tiny cement yard, he serves tea in chipped cups without handles, with green bananas and hot peanuts. "I think my daughters have a better life living with the farang," he said through a translator, showing pictures of the girls in swimming pools, at the beach and in well-appointed apartments. "And I like it materially, because I can ask my daughters for things."

Advertisement

AdvertisementAboya said the older girl's boyfriend gave him 3000 baht ($96) a month, and had paid for his cement house, but White had given little, saying it was enough he was caring for his daughter.

White's story first emerged 10 days ago, when he was paraded for the cameras in Chiang Mai. The accompanying Thai-language news reports accused him of everything from holding a 13-year-old girl as a sex slave for three years to forcing her to perform sexual acts with him in pornographic videos for export to Australia to luring other young girls from Chiang Mai to Bangkok for similar purposes. The reports said 35 pornographic VCDs were confiscated in a raid on his Bangkok home. In fact only two had pornographic content.

The claims were picked up by news agencies and widely reported in Australia.

"My face is all over the West Australian newspapers. They didn't do an investigation; they just arrested me. My career has been destroyed," White told the Herald this week.

He has been charged with having sex with a girl under 15, which counts as rape under Thai law, and sexual harassment and abuse.

"I treated her exactly the same way I treated my own daughter," he said. "I tried to help her poor family; I tried to help her better herself." Asked if he had had sex with her, he said: "No, it would be like having sex with my own daughter."

Pan has a different story. "I met him at the night bazaar in Chiang Mai. I was selling flowers and Ami [another flower seller] introduced him. He asked me if I wanted to come to Bangkok. I am Akha so I have no identity papers. He bought some for me and two weeks later I moved to Bangkok," she said in a mix of broken English and Thai.

At first, she said, he treated her well. He sent her to a local school, once a year he took her to see her father (her mother is dead), and even sent her on a holiday to Phuket. Did they have a sexual relationship? "Yes, since the first time I went to Bangkok," she said.

"I went to Phuket for a holiday, and Christopher told me not to get a boyfriend. I have a boyfriend, and he was angry to me. Then he was choking, beating me, rape. He throw something at me like a vase."

She became pregnant, and the paternity of the baby that died this week is still unclear. DNA tests are being conducted. White said she had stopped living with him by last September.

In the first half of this year she spoke with a social worker in Mae Sai and the investigation into her story began. Police say that a Thai housekeeper who lived at the house has supported Pan's claim.

White's biological daughter, who also lived with them in Bangkok for part of that time, has reportedly dismissed it as lies.

White says Pan is just an excuse and that it is his career that has put him behind bars.

The former policeman has worked as a private investigator and security expert in the region for the past 15 years.

Last year he was hired by Burswood Casino to serve a writ, listed in the West Australian Supreme Court, on Thongthip Aektrakul, a Thai woman with strong political connections in Chiang Mai, who led a high-rolling gambling tour to Perth in February 2001, then failed to pay the bill.

He finally found Ms Thongthip and presented the writ in August last year, in Poipet, a gambling centre on the Cambodian side of the Thai border.

"She said to me, 'Don't come back to Poipet or you will not leave walking'," he said.

The casino bad debts story was published in Thailand on August 22. A day later Chiang Mai police raided White's Bangkok house and arrested him. "[Thongthip's] family certainly have connections here in Chiang Mai," he said.

However, White's claims of a payback arrest are dismissed by Chiang Mai's police investigator on child sexual abuse, Jareewan Puttanuruk.

"The investigation started on June 28, after the case was reported to us by International Justice Mission. The arrest warrant was issued on August 15," she said. "I have no information about him and the casino; I didn't know he was involved in that case."

White has another problem. Last month and in June Australian customs intercepted two packages, with DVDs containing child pornography, sent by a "Ryan White" to an associate in Australia. He admits sending them, saying he was tired of trying to get police agencies in Thailand to deal with the child pornography problem, and hoped to "obtain an awareness of what was happening here".

"I did it to make a difference."

The courts, first in Thailand, and possibly later in Australia, will decide what difference White has made.

[kat]

The articles keep mentioning this guy's "sex-video collection" and "pornographic DVDs", but they do not allege that they are of the "victim" in question. It makes me wonder what kind of case we have here.

The paternity test will be very important.

[kat]

As I've stated before on other threads, the information regarding the accuser's appearnace in these sex dvds is very vague. Also, isn't it strange that this baby died right after it was born? That seems just a tad too convenient.

This should prove to be very interesting as it unfolds.

[Joey Boy]

White has another problem. Last month and in June Australian customs intercepted two packages, with DVDs containing child pornography, sent by a "Ryan White" to an associate in Australia. He admits sending them, saying he was tired of trying to get police agencies in Thailand to deal with the child pornography problem, and hoped to "obtain an awareness of what was happening here".

right ho, pull the other one..

If this DNA test comes up with a match, hes obviously guilty as charged

[meadish_sweetball]

Fascinating reading, snoophound. Wonder what the true story is, and hope to see it unfold here.

[sua yai]

Yeah,

The DNA should be conclusive.

[sriracha john]

Please.... if it is at all possible for continuity sake, can a moderator merge this with the long-standing story thread:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=42951

Things can get muddled if there's multi-threads on the same story.

Thank you.

//Done - RDN

Edited September 3, 2005 by RDN

[sriracha john]

The baby dying so soon after birth makes this murky story even more saddening.

The accused's explanation of why he was shipping porn is highly dubious....

The paternity testing will definitely shed light on things, however, it's not the end-all to the case if it disproves White as the father. This is due to the allegation that the accused was having the girl sleep with his foreign friends and one of them could easily turn up as the father of the baby.