British pedo arrested for travel documents

A British child sex offender was re-arrested yesterday for living in Cambodia illegally after completing a two-year jail sentence in November 2013, according to immigration police and a child protection NGO.

Pin Piseth, chief of the immigration police department, confirmed that Ian Paul Bower, a British national, was arrested for not possessing legal travel documents while living in Cambodia, but declined to comment further.

Yi Moden, deputy director of field operations at Action Pour Les Enfants (APLE), said that Bower would likely be deported.

“He was re-arrested by immigration police outside Phnom Penh International Airport yesterday. He is now still detained at the immigration police department and will likely be expelled out of Cambodia soon,” he told the Post.

Bower has a history of child sex abuse offences in Cambodia, Moden added. In 2007, he was charged with debauchery against two under-age brothers but the charge was dropped after the victims reversed their statements, he said.

In November 2011, Bower was arrested for sexually abusing five boys aged between 11 and 15. He was subsequently sentenced to two years in prison and ordered to be expelled from the Kingdom at the end of jail term.

Last year, however, the appeal court dropped the deportation order.

National police spokesman Kirth Chantharith and Bower’s lawyer could not be reached for comment yesterday.