‘UK blind to child abuse abroad’

By OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

London

Aug. 17: Britain has "turned a blind eye" to sex offenders and paedophiles who commit offences abroad, a children’s rights group has claimed.

Britain has failed to prevent child sex tourism as repeat offenders travel from country to country and flagrantly avoid the stringent sex offender mechanisms in the UK, the group, ECPAT UK, said in its report called "Return to Sender: British Child Sex Offenders Abroad — Why More Must be Done".

Calling for stronger cooperation between Britain and other countries to deport and chaperone convicted paedophiles back to the UK, the group said that the sex offenders, once in Britain, should be put on the sex offenders register, tracked and where necessary have their travel restricted.

The group said in the report that Britain has only prosecuted five sex offenders for child sexual abuse abroad since 1997 and the United States has prosecuted more than 65 paedophiles and Australia has prosecuted 28 of them. Although a majority of British paedophiles operate in Thailand, the report also highlighted numerous cases of British sex offenders before foreign courts.

In India, two British nationals, who were convicted in 2006 of child sexual abuse in an orphanage, were acquitted by the Bombay high court in 2008. Currently, an appeal is underway in the Supreme Court to challenge the high court decision. The group highlighted the need for chaperones.