Wouldn’t you know it, another
famous name has been charged with pedophilia! This time it’s Rolf Harris. Yes,
lovable old Rolf, children’s entertainer extraordinaire. Who could ever forget
his classic “Jake the Peg” and “Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport”? It has now been
revealed that the 84-year-old Harris has
been sexually abusing girls aged from seven years upwards since the late 1960’s.
Also implicated in the case was Jimmy Starr, another British singer and
comedian.
Before Rolf was Jimmy Saville (Sorry
– Sir Jimmy Saville) who, it was
revealed after his death in 2011, had been abusing and raping his under-aged
fans from the 1960’s on. The toll of Saville’s victims is 300 and counting.
The best known child-abuser on
the celebrity list of pedophiles is Gary Glitter, of course. After his
conviction for possession of child-porn images in Britain in 1997, went on an
eleven-year spree of child molestation in Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam.
The EFL profession attracts more
of its fair share of pedophiles. Why is that exactly? Put yourself in a pedophile’s shoes for a
moment, (as stomach-turning as that may be). You have already notched up a
couple of child-sex convictions in England, Canada, Germany, wherever. Your
name now appears on your country’s Sex Offenders’ Register. So…
where to next? Asia – yes, why not? There’s a long tradition of child-sex
in countries like Indonesia, The Philippines, Thailand and Cambodia. Law
enforcement is notoriously lax. Might as well get a piece of the action there.
And once you’ve arrived, how better to meet young people than in an English
language school? The obvious choice for
any self-respecting pedophile. So off
you go. Your record doesn’t bar you from entry to the Asian country of your
choice. Your English is ok, and schools are crying out for teachers. You don’t choose
any of the top schools of course – places like The British Council do
embarrassing background checks. No, a small school should suit you fine. Maybe
the pay’s nothing to write home about, but you aren’t here for the money, are
you? No, what you’re here for is the chance to grope a 12-year-old’s body, and
perhaps… just perhaps…
Like it or not, that is the
reality of the situation in a number of English language schools in Asia. Just
look at the shameful facts and figures on the internet.
2006
John Mark Carr, a 41-year-old
American, was teaching English at the Bangkok Christian College when he was
arrested for child-sex offences. He’d previously taught at I&S Language
School in Seoul, and in Taiwan, Costa Rica and Honduras. On the plane going
back from Thailand, Carr confessed to the police accompanying him that he had
killed the 6-year-old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey; a charge later
disproved.
2007
Christopher Paul Neil, a
32-year-old Canadian, was arrested in Thailand for under-age sex. He had
previously taught English in Kwanju, S Korea, and was currently working at a
school in Bangkok. He boasted of his sexual exploits on the internet, complete
with a head-shoulders photo of himself with the face obscured by a
computer-generated swirl. German police managed to unravel the swirl to reveal
his true likeness, and to eventually lead to tracking him down in Thailand.
Sean McGowan, a 45-year-old
Brit, was teaching English in Bangkok when he was repatriated to Britain on
charges of raping an 8-year-old Thai girl.
Peter William Smith, a 48-year-old
Australian teaching in Jakarta was arrested and convicted of engaging in sex
with more than 50 boys.
Alan Smith, a 53-year-old Brit,
used fake references to get a job as EFL teacher at Nongyai Temple School, just
north of Bangkok. He was arrested in 2007 for child-sex offences.
Ian Bower, a 42-year-old UK
national, was teaching English in Cambodia when he was arrested for child-sex
offences with two boys aged 12 and 14.
2008
Mark Joseph McDowell, American,
taught as ESL Professor at Daejeon University, S Korea, and at BCM
Academy in Seoul, and also ran the EFL resource website Mark’s ESL Wide World
AKA marksesl.com. He was arrested in Korea for child molestation.
Earl R. Bonds, a 42-year-old
American, was arrested in Phuket, Thailand for child-sex. He had been teaching
English in Bangkok, and took regular trips to Phuket to satisfy his taste for
Thai minors.
John Wrenshall, a 62-year-old
Canadian, taught at AUA Language Center in Bangkok for ten years. The director
of AUA described him as “so polite and quiet”. Unbeknown to AUA, their polite,
quiet teacher had spent his after-school hours setting up an internet website
for pedophiles, “Boy Love and Chat”, and was charging foreigners $400 per
introduction.
Karl Joseph Kraus, an
Australian, was arrested in Thailand for raping four young sisters whom he had
been giving private English lessons to in his home. He was 92 years old at the
time of his arrest, thereby setting the record as oldest convicted pedophile.
2010
Michael James Dodd, a 61-year-old
American, was teaching in Phnom Penh when he was convicted of having sex with a
14-year-old Cambodian girl. He’d previously been jailed for a similar offence
in Northern Mariana Islands.
2011
Dennis Gale Catron, a
60-year-old American, had been teaching at various educational institutes and
colleges in Thailand until his arrest on child-sex charges.
2012
Gregory James Miller, a
48-year-old American, worked as an English teacher at Garden International
School, Rayong , Thailand for eight years,
before he was arrested and
charged with sexually assaulting five boys under the age of 15.
The above list, I’m sure, is
just the tip of the iceberg. It shows only the cases that appear on the
internet, and doesn’t, of course, include the pedophile EFL teachers who have
gone (and still go) undetected.
Those pedophiles who are
convicted and jailed abroad, find that unlike Western prisons, pedophiles are
not cosseted away in special “safe” units. They are thrown in with the
murderers, rapists, thieves and what-have-you detritus of the criminal world,
and consequently have to bear the brunt of their actions at the hands of their
fellow inmates. It’s a tough old world, innit?
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EFL minus the B.S.
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