From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok, June 15
Two suspected paedophiles have had a former Thai police volunteer arrested in the Thai resort of Pattaya for harassment and blackmail.
The two paedophiles, a Swede and a Briton, whose names have been withheld, had both agreed to pay £2000 and £3000 respectively for indulging in under age sex with young boys.
One withdrew the cash from the bank. The second paid in full. But when they realised their blackmailer was not a normal policeman, they made an official complaint.
The arrested man Khun Wansanor said that he had worked voluntarily with police and grabbed their, apparently lucrative, list of names of suspected paedophiles.
Critics, however, say he would have had to have been given the list by a Thai police officer.
Thai police were at pains to say that Wansanor was not a real policeman. Police Major General Koson Paowes said: “He was impersonating a policeman but he has not had any police training.”
Nevertheless despite one or two high profile cases many arrested paedophiles in Pattaya, a resort known for its sex and sleaze, are eventually released after paying large ‘fines’ which go to local police. Those arrested claimed they have had to pay up to £15,000.
Among those released, have been two arrested in a joint operation with Britain’s CEOP last December which was described as a triumph of international police co-operation.
“The Royal Thai Police has demonstrated an unerring commitment to making Thailand a hostile environment for UK offenders,” said CEOP’s chief Jim Gamble at the time.
One Briton, Maurice Praill, known as ‘The Ghost’ abused children for over twenty years, paying off police many times, before finally being sent to jail in January for 14 years after outrage was expressed by child protection agencies at the local police’s failure to keep him behind bars.
Tag Archive for 'Maurice Praill'
“I will die in Thai jail” says man known to children as ‘The Ghost’
Other versions of this story by the same author
Link to Daily Mail ‘Former Catholic lay preacher, 78, jailed in Thailand for raping under-aged girls
The SUN - Sick Brit jailed for child rape
From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok
A British pensioner known to street children as ‘The Ghost’ was today jailed for 14 years on two cases of child rape, after a history of child abuse complaints dating back 18 years
Maurice Praill, 78, a former Catholic lay preacher and video shop owner, was jailed for the rape of two under-aged girls, by the Thai Supreme Court.
Judge Charoenchai Assawapirya-a-nan confirmed a sentence imposed more than eight years ago.
He said there was no way the child victims could have lied because they gave so much detailed evidence including how Praill cut up his Viagra tablets and his use of KY jelly.
Praill, from Harold Hill, Essex, was led off to prison in the Thai provincial capital of Chonburi. “Paedophile I don’t use that word,” he said. “I pay to feel”
The girls were paid, he insisted.
He said he was stunned at the verdict and insisted that the elder of the two victims, aged 14, wanted to marry him afterwards.
“I expect I will die in prison if I do not get a pardon.”
Praill had been repeatedly arrested in Thailand for child sex offences, and released on bail, by the police and courts, since he sold his business in England and retired in the resort of Pattaya, 100 miles east of Bangkok in 1990.
He insisted before being led away in a blue prison bus: “I just like helping young people, sex or not, never mind, it was not the main thing’.
For the first few arrests in the 90s, local newspapers reported, he just ‘paid fines ‘at the local police station, another way of saying he paid off the police and victims.
But then Praill, the stepfather of former Irish International and Crystal Palace footballer Jon Goodman, was sentenced to 14 years in December 2001 on the rape charges of two girls aged 13 and 14.
He had been able to stay free by getting bail while petitioning the Appeal Court, which confirmed his sentence, then he went the country’s Supreme Court, a total eight year process.
Meanwhile Praill was arrested again in 2007 for the rape of two girls aged 11 and 9 and again given bail. That case has not gone to trial.
Then in March last year he was arrested in Pattaya for abusing an eight-year-old boy, and bailed again for the equivalent of £6000. That case too awaits trial.
Praill, who ran a video hire business in Chingford, Essex , called Phoenix Entertainment, was nickname Phi or ‘The Ghost’ because of his frightening appearance, said Sudarat Sereewat, Director of the FACE (Fight Against Child Exploitation) Foundation, and a member of Thailand’s National Child Protection Committee.
But local expatriates called him ‘Davros’ a fictitious villain, and creator of the Daleks, in the BBC TV children’s sci-fi series ‘Dr.Who’.
When he first arrived in Thailand Praill kept a diary, now with the FACE Foundation, which detailed his attempts to buy up schoolchildren as his ‘wives’.
But far for being their benevolent benefactor he wrote how he paid sums of just £2 and £3 for what he referred to as ‘my conjugal rights’ and baulked when they asked for more.
He also complained in his diary how British government were taxing his pension.
In February 1992 he was trying to lure a girl 12-yr-old called ‘Ann’ to his rented house but she left demanding money for her school. ‘She does not want to provide me with even minimal conjugal rites,” he wrote bitterly.
He fortified himself with the sex drug Viagra and Vitamin C capsules and trawled three locations in Pattaya, the Royal Garden Centre the Siren Bar and the ‘Made in Thailand’ market where he knew young girls hung out and found another 12-yr-old called Lek .
He wrote how he provided ‘lacquer’ for Lek and her friends , who sniffed glue in his front room, and of his desire to conquer her. But each time he tried she complained ‘I don’t want to’ or ‘It hurts’.
“She makes me horny. How long can I take this?” he asked his diary.
Then on Wednesday May 6th 1992 he announced in triumph that his grooming had been successful: “About 10 p.m. I have the best session ever. She seems to enjoy it.”
Praill went on to marry the girl in a Buddhist ceremony after she became 15 and he had paid the parents a dowry of £1000. Monks blessed and Praill later boasted: “A policeman played the organ at the wedding party.”
He had employed the girl’s parents as his household staff. But there may have been another motive for the marriage. In his diary he wrote how Lek knew a ‘virgin’ working in a local tropical garden and elephant t show tourist attraction, whom she could bring to the house.
His marriage lasted only three months before his young bride walked out to be with friends her own age.
FACE Director Sudarat Sereewat said: “The Supreme Court decision is good news for children in Thailand and for those fighting to suppress child abuse.
“Maurice Praill, I feel, should never have been given bail to continue with his abuses and interfere with witnesses and had already complained to the Regional Police. It was a difficult case because Praill would pay the families. Children are now safe from him.”
Abusers in Thailand have easily been able to play the system in the past. Police often negotiate compensation payments for the victims and for their own time. Parents do not want their children to go to court and would much prefer monetary compensation.
CEOP’s ‘Operation Naga’ provides hope for solving Thailand’s paedophile problem
Andrew Drummond, Bangkok – blog -Updated December 15 2008
Pictures: Andrew Chant
The raids this week by the Women and Children’s department of the Royal Thai Police together with officers of Britain’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre have given some hope to those who are bored with repeatedly seeing child sex abusers getting off scot free in the resort of Pattaya.
CEOP’s Press Office worked through the night in London and Press Releases were sent out to all the media in the early hours of Thursday.
After the arrests of two Britons, a German and an American, CEOP boss Jim Gamble went on television 
extolling the fact that now nowhere in the world were child sex abusers safe from their clutches.
“You don’t know which police force in which country we will be co-operating with next.”
Operation Naga was clearly being promoted as an outstanding example of successful police co-operation. In fact CEOP praised the Thai efforts in every statement issued.
I’m all for publicity if it gives paedophiles the feeling that Thailand is no longer a safe country to operate in.
In an earlier blog I wrote that it was time CEOP got down and dirty in Pattaya. It has now happened….Nothing to do with me.
They have been operating in Thailand since November 17th. So you can bet your bottom dollar that they have a lot more names in their little black book. The figure of 50 has been mentioned.
But what is interesting is what they did not say, and no doubt continuing good relations with the Thai police and authorities had something to do with it.
Of the two Britons arrested one was Malcolm Henry Payne, aged , 59,pictured above, and the second was Robert Alexander Horsman. Robert Horsman? Wait a minute, that name rings a bell.
Yes. Robert Horsman , pictured left, was arrested in Pattaya in March 2006 and accused of indecency with five boys, one aged 10, two aged 11, and the others aged 13 and 14.
It was one of the ‘bang to rights’ arrests Pattaya Police are so fond of - treated very seriously at the press conference they gave – and like many of their ‘bang to rights’ arrests Horsman, from Ipswich, Suffolk, was acquitted in the Pattaya court system in April this year.
Convictions are a rarity. And the most famous convicted paedophile, Maurice Praill, 77, from Harold Hill, Essex, is still free despite being sentenced to 14 years imprisonment for child rape four years ago. (Authors’s update: Maurice Praill was finally jailed on January 28 2004 see here
He was arrested again while bail appealing his conviction. Where is his case now? Search me!
I first started writing about the release of child sex abusers in Chonburi Province 20 years ago. There have been classic cases. One of them even gave a newspaper interviews as to how much he had to pay to get off. Others have told me how much they had to pay, but they insisted they were innocent.
My initial reaction was outrage. I still am outraged but now this has been tinged with resignation. Having a young daughter now however focuses the mind.
The system is foolproof. Any criticism of a judge in Thailand carries a heavy jail sentence. It is not for nothing that they are addressed by lawyers as ‘tai taow’ ( an abbreviation of ‘ I am mere dust under your feet’). And you cannot necessarily blame the judge. There are a number of ways child sex abusers can avoid punishment in Thailand - see note at end of story.
In many ways the recent arrests are a two fingered salute to the Pattaya Police and authorities, though nobody in authority is going to say that.
For the British CEOP officers its a case of winning hearts and minds. The same policy adopted adopted by most foreign police forces here. They play the game with a mix of flattery and encouragement and a few beers to Thai police. It’s in the rule book.
But if you’re reading this, already sold on the generalisations that Thai police are dumb or corrupt, you would be wrong. There are some very smart cops out there capable of getting information in minutes. Straight too.
But the pressure of ‘passing the money up the chain’ is very strong and is in all provinces.
Thailand’s Immigration Department records would knock spots off many police forces for the information they have at their fingertips and the powers they possess.
The strange thing is, although child sex abusers in Pattaya are more cautious than 20 years ago, I never cease to be amazed about how open they can be about their activities.
Whenever a paedophile is arrested there are usually cries on blogs in Pattaya to have them ‘lynched’ or ‘castrated’ or worse. But these more often sound like the utterances of Pattaya’s prowling or resident ‘sex tourists’ which I guess gives them some sort of feeling of normality.
So, seriously, if you do know about British child sexual abusers in Thailand and those pictured here, and are cautious about approaching the Thai police, you should get in touch with CEOP where your information will be treated in confidence (www.ceop.gov.uk) .
Or, of course, I suppose you could call The SUN!
Although this week’s news is good, I think I would have to be an eternal optimist if I thought CEOP are going to change what has been standard practice in Pattaya since, well, the local police started to bother to arrest these people, rather than just taking the money and asking them to move on or owning the bars and trading in children themselves.
(The famous ‘Charlie’s Boys’ bar - now closed - was run by a local sergeant for years and offered door to door service of children driven like Pizzas on the back of a motorbike)
But hope springs eternal.
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“The Royal Thai Police has demonstrated an unerring commitment to making Thailand a hostile environment for UK offenders.” Jim Gamble, CEOP, December 11 2008
—————————————————————————
I ,of course hope Thai police have not given the game away and that ‘Mr.Big’ has not skipped, but if he was not around for the December 11th raids, the chances are he has already.
How they get off
Child sex abusers are arrested so frequently in Pattaya, Thailand, that a cottage industry, has been built around the cases, from bail bondsmen, to avaricious lawyers, to some police ,who believe a financial penalty is the best solution all round, provided that they get a slice of the cake.
Abusers, not used to the system, may well be first approached by the bail bondsman. He offers to give the offender liberty, by say putting a land title down if the cases goes to court, and for this the defandant, pays a hefty whack.
Quite often the bail bondsman will have a contact in the police or judicial system and will continue negotiations which could result in any charges being dropped before cases get to court.
They usually warn the defendant that the longer he delays putting the cash down the more he will have to pay in the long run. If he can keep payments just to police then its going to be cheaper. Of course that’s not guarenteed and quite often the defendants still have to go to court and faces other financial charges.
Also lurking around are members of the ‘One-Stop’ shops advising foreigners on everything from visa, and land purchasing problems. They say they can do anything. One such person was a reporter on a local newspaper, who was also a local volunteer policeman, ran a one-stop shop, and would offer for extra fees to keep the matter out of the news. This does not work any more because he cannot control all the new newspapers and television channels.
But at one stage when he was interviewing defendants, on behalf of both the police and newspapers (armed with an electric stun gun for the former) and then fixing deals, he seemed to be all powerful.
There are also a number of lawyers who regular fix cases. And cases can be fixed in many cases. I know some of these lawyers but I am not going to advertise their services here. They have been known to threaten local children’s charitiy caseworkers.
1. For a consideration the police investigating officer can arrange to give such a poor performance in court that the defendant will be acquitted for lack of evidence. However somebody else in the judicial system has to be forwarned, or the judge may convict anyway.
2. Police can also screw up the case so much that the prosecutor may decide not to proceed with it. And needless to say the prosecutor can screw it up himself too.
3. Payment can be made to the victims. This is the Thai version of what Gary Glitter did in Vietnam to evade charges of the rape of two juveniles and often the easiest way out. None of the juveniles wants to go to court. None of the parents want their kids to go to court. So payments can be made as compensation, and provided the police are looked after as well, this is often seen as a good solution all round. Afterwards the children tend to go back on the streets again. If the childen are required to appear in court the evidence they give will not implicate the hands that have fed them.
This method is also easy because until recently nobody has wanted to shoulder the costs and responsibilty of provided protection for the victms in the long lead up to a trial and thus they and their families can be easily approached.
* In the CEOP cases described above I should note that CEOP say that the victims are all being ‘cared for’ by local social services and charities (Except for one child witness who recently ran away).
Not by Andrew Drummond. But quotes him. An overview of touring child abusers and some of the cases Andrew Drummond has covered
Link to Scotland on Sunday article
Published Date: 24 August 2008
By Dani Garavelli
IN HEATHROW Airport, the atmosphere was tense. As the plane bound from Thailand touched down, police officers took up their positions, paparazzi photographers raised their cameras and curious bystanders moved in for a closer look.
Then the moment they had all been waiting for: journalists hollered and bulbs flashed as a gaunt Gary Glitter, aka Paul Gadd, stepped into the arrivals hall, smiling for all the world as if he were still a rock star being greeted by his fans.
The days when Glitter’s name evoked affection and nostalgia are long gone: years touring the world in search of underage sex have transformed him from ageing glam rocker to international pariah. The unrelenting publicity surrounding his release – as he bounced like a pinball from country to country looking for sanctuary – may have been unedifying, but it has served a purpose. It has drawn attention to a global phenomenon which produces hundreds of thousands of victims a year but very few convictions: sex tourism. More specifically, child sex tourism. In Heathrow on the day of Glitter’s arrival, it is likely some of the men in the departure lounge were jetting off on holiday with the express purpose of having sex with children.
Glitter is far from alone in using foreign countries as an outlet for proclivities that would not be tolerated at home. Every year, thousands of Britons living outwardly respectable lives travel to holiday resorts such as Pattaya in Thailand or Goa in India, known for their thriving sex industries, or to Vietnam, Cambodia or former Eastern Bloc countries such as the Czech Republic and Estonia, to buy sexual gratification. A proportion will be paedophiles looking for boys and girls to abuse far away from their domestic moral strictures. It is not difficult for tourists to find poverty-stricken children willing to spend a few hours in a cheap hotel room for the price of dinner.
A report from the International Labour Office in the late 1990s found that in countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand, the “sex sector” accounted for anywhere between 2% and 14% of national income. Child sex tourism accounted for up to half of that revenue.
The impact on the children involved, many of whom are trafficked from other countries to meet demand, is enormous. US studies indicate that underage prostitutes serve between two and 30 clients per week. They live in constant fear of their pimps, their clients and the police and often suffer from STDs and TB.
Some of those who start out as sex tourists emigrate permanently so they can target vulnerable children all year round. Take the academic James Fraser Darling, from Edinburgh. The son of the famous naturalist Frank Fraser Darling, he took a cottage on Rawai beach on the southern tip of Phuket after getting a job as an English teacher on the island. Soon he started befriending gypsy boys on the beach, buying them school uniforms and books, before taking them to a nearby island to photograph and abuse them. He was jailed for 33 years in 1998, although he was released after serving just two.
Other paedophiles – like Glitter – have moved abroad after being convicted of child sex offences at home. According to campaign group Ecpat (End Child Prostitution, Pornography and Trafficking), poor record-keeping and the failure to share information between countries mean it is virtually impossible to gauge the scale of the problem.
According to the Foreign Office, 114 Britons were in detention in other countries in relation to child sex offences in the first quarter of this year, but since these statistics are based on those who asked for consular assistance, they don’t give the full picture. Ecpat director Christine Beddoe says one of the most alarming developments in recent years has been the number of British sex offenders getting involved with charity work or setting up orphanages abroad.
The Thai authorities believe Britons who engage in underage sex abroad can be split into two categories: those who are established paedophiles who come to Asia looking for children to target; and those who are opportunists who come looking for sex and think: “I’ve never had someone so young before, I’ll give that a try.”
With cheap air travel opening up previously remote parts of the globe, the internet allowing sex tours to be advertised and booked anonymously, and information-sharing between countries still inadequate, the trade is burgeoning. “Paedophiles will go to any lengths to get access to children,” says Beddoe. “There is not a region of the world which is unaffected by it.”
No place in the world has a worse international record for child sex tourism than Thailand. The country’s reputation for sleaze has its roots in the Vietnam War. Bars, nightclubs and massage parlours sprang up to accommodate American servicemen on leave. Soon the GIs were fraternising with Thai girls, often hiring “mistresses” to keep them company.
When the GIs left, the bars and brothels remained in Bangkok and in tourist areas such as Patpong and, perhaps most notoriously, Pattaya. An Ecpat report in 1994 observed: “For young men, Pattaya is a kind of macho theme park, with beer, motorbikes go-go bars, kickboxing, live sex shows, pool tables in English-style pubs and guaranteed access to dolly birds to posture with and have sex.” Pattaya caters for the gay community too – with dozens of bars, with names such as Boyz, Boyz, Boyz, where picking up a man for cash is virtually guaranteed.
Then there is the even seedier side – the trade in children, particularly young boys. In an infamous area called Sunee Plaza, they work in the bars or hang around in the streets outside waiting to be picked up by predatory farangs (Thai slang for tourists of European descent).
Writing on a gay website last year, a visitor to Pattaya described checking out of a hotel because he was disgusted by “all the grandfathers bringing back street kids into the room next door”. He went on: “Sunee Plaza… is a cesspool of underage boys and men looking to pick them up.”
Occasionally, police will raid the clubs and round up children. Earlier this year, a sweep of Sunee Plaza found 80 underage bar workers, many of them performing on stage in their underwear. But the trade goes on, often through fixers and middlemen, with the abuse taking place in gated houses with CCTV cameras outside to warn of approaching police.
Much of the attention following Gary Glitter’s return to the UK has focused on what more the UK should be doing to crack down on its travelling sex offenders (see panel], and last week Home Secretary Jacqui Smith promised new measures to keep paedophiles on a tighter leash. However, in Thailand in particular, much of the blame lies with the country’s own justice system. The British Government has paid for training exercises for Thai police officers, but the suspicion remains that many of those involved in the trade are people of influence – police officers themselves or members of the establishment. If arrests are made, money can still be used to buy off justice.
“Great play will be made of raids,” says investigative journalist Andrew Drummond. “Photographs will be taken and it will be all over the newspaper, but then the negotiations start. The quicker the offender agrees a financial settlement, the quicker his ordeal will be over.”
Even when the case reaches court, bail will often be set and paid, with the offender subsequently getting lost in the system. The few offenders who are convicted may be given ostentatiously heavy sentences, such as 40 years, but then let out after serving just one or two.
Perhaps the case that highlights the failings of the Thai justice system most clearly is that of elderly Briton Maurice Praill, known as ‘the ghost’. In the 1990s the infamous paedophile was arrested several times and released after “paying fines”. In 2001 he was convicted of the rape of two young girls, but was released on bail pending his appeal. When he lost his appeal he was released on bail again. Last year he was arrested for abusing two girls aged nine and 11 at his condominium, but within two weeks was out on bail of £8,000. Then, in March, he walked free from a police station in Pattaya after £6,500 bail was paid for the alleged sexual abuse of an eight-year-old boy.
In fact, the bail of suspected child sex offenders is paid so often, some campaigners are convinced a fighting fund has been set up to keep them out of jail.
Beddoe believes the weaknesses in other countries’ justice systems do not absolve the UK from doing its utmost to alleviate their plight. In a report published last week, Ecpat UK calls for foreign travel orders to be issued more frequently. And it wants foreign companies employing Britons to carry out the same criminal record checks we do here.
Most urgently, however, it wants to see bilateral agreements made with countries such as Thailand so British sex offenders like Glitter would automatically be returned to the UK with a chaperone after sentencing.
“Then, and only then,” Beddoe says, “will the UK send a strong message that we will not tolerate the sexual abuse of children – anywhere.”
What can Britain do?
Britons can be prosecuted in the UK for offences committed in another country, even if what they did is not considered a crime there – although only a handful of such cases have gone through the courts.
Those who are on the sex offenders’ register have to notify the authorities if they want to travel abroad for more than three days, and in some cases foreign travel orders can be issued to prevent them doing so.
The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre has an overseas tracker unit dedicated to trying to trace known sex offenders who have fled the country.
Last week, the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, unveiled a series of additional proposals:
&149 Force sex offenders to tell police at an earlier stage of their plans to go overseas;
&149 Close the loophole which allows sex offenders not to inform police if they are going abroad for fewer than three days;
&149 Make it possible to issue Foreign Travel Orders where children under 18 rather than 16 are at risk;
&149 Extend Foreign Travel Orders from a maximum of six months to five years;
• Make it possible for those subject to blanket travel bans to have their passports confiscated.
Police re-arrest ‘The Ghost’ - April 2 2008
From Andrew Drummond
Bangkok
Wednesday April 2 08
A convicted British child-rapist was back behind bars in Thailand today after police revoked bail after angry protests by a child protection agency.
Maurice Praill, 77, nicknamed ‘The Ghost’ from Harold Hill, Essex, was sent to Nongplalai prison, Pattaya, after Sudarat Sereewat a member of the country’s National Child Protection Committee complained ‘on behalf of the children of Thailand’.
Praill had earlier boasted that a local policeman played the keyboards at his wedding to a 15-yr-old child bride in a ceremony blessed by Buddhist monks.
He will appear in court on April 7th on a charge of child sexual abuse with an eight year old boy where he is expected to ask for bail again.
Praill was convicted in 2001 and sentenced to 14 years in jail for the rape of two under-aged girls in Pattaya. But he never did time. He got bail to appeal against his conviction and when he lost his appeal in 2004, he was given bail again to appeal to Thailand’s Supreme Court.
He was arrested again last year together with three other foreigners and charged again with child sex abuse. In this case it was alleged young girls were delivered to foreigners on the back of a motorcycle. One of the alleged victims in this case was the daughter of Praill’s latest maid.
Praill was bailed. But the prosecution subsequently offered no evidence against him although an American was subsequently jailed for 16 years.
Then last month Praill was arrested for sexually abusing an eight year old boy. Again he was bailed, this time for 400,000 Thai baht (£6,411).
After he was released Sudarat Sereewat, also Secretary General of FACE (Fight Against Child Exploitation) protested to Region 2 Provincial Police, which covers the resort of Pattaya.
“If we can’t put this man behind bars to protect our children, who can we (have detained)?” she said.
Local newspapers in Pattaya have reported that Praill was arrested on allegations of child abuse even before 2001 but was released after paying local ‘fines’ at Pattaya Police station.
Shortly after his arrival in Thailand he went through a marriage ceremony to a 15-yr-old girl, the daughter of a previous maid. The wedding was blessed by monks and a Pattaya policeman played keyboards at the party claimed Praill, whose stepson Jon Goodman played soccer for Ireland, Crystal Palace and Wimbledon.
Praill, said he was surprised himself that he got bail. Nicknamed the ‘Ghost’ by children who describe his appearance as scary, he said after his release: “It’s incredible. How can an alleged offender who has committed rape against two young girls on four separate occasions ever get bail for that? And how could he get bail again? It could not happen in the UK, but it happened in Thailand which is comforting for me.”
The British Government has spent hundreds of thousand of pounds on courses for Thai police, social workers, and court officials, on how to deal with child sex offenders.
Most courses have been preceded by receptions at the Ambassador’s mansion.
Thai policeman played the keyboards at my wedding to under-aged girl, says convicted child rapist - March 23 08
From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok
Police in Thailand said today they were reconsidering a decision to grant bail for the sixth time to a convicted British child rapist, known as ‘The Ghost’ who was arrested last week for abusing an eight-yr-old boy.
After protests from child-watch groups Police Colonel Khanisorn Yuwawhitaya, in charge of the Women and Children’s Division of Thai Police Region 2, which covers the resort of Pattaya, said he would send an order to police in Pattaya to ‘put things right’.
Police in the resort, infamous for its sex trade, have repeatedly released Praill, 77, from Harold Hill, Essex. He was last bailed on Wednesday for the equivalent of £6,500 within hours of his arrest in the shower of his home in Bongkot Villas, Pattaya.
Praill, the step-father of ex-footballer Jon Goodman, who played for Wimbledon, Crystal Palace, and Ireland, was convicted in 2001 for the rape of two under-aged girls in the resort, aged and 11 and 12 and jailed for 14 years. He was bailed pending appeal and when he lost that appeal in 2004 he appealed to the Supreme Court and was given bail again.
Prior to 2001, Praill had been arrested three times on child sex allegations.
Each time he was released by Pattaya police, after paying ‘fines’ to local police, according to the local newspaper ‘The Pattaya Mail’.
He was arrested again in March last year with three other foreigners who allegedly used a ‘home delivery service’ for paedophiles in Pattaya. Young girls were taken on motorbikes to the customers apartments, police claimed.
One of the three, American Glen Allen, 61, was last month jailed for 16 years in cases involving girls or 9 and 11. But the case against Praill is no longer in the court after the prosecution offered no evidence.
(One of the ‘victims’ in the case was a daughter of another of Praill’s maids. She was not called to testify against Praill. Police claimed he abused her upstairs while the mother did the housework downstairs. Praill admitted knowing her however ‘from the day she was born’)
Maurice Praill, 77, known to his child victims as ‘The Ghost’ because of his frightening appearance, denied yesterday ever paying bribes to local police.
“I don’t need to. They never produce proper evidence against me, “ he said at his Pattaya home. “They are targeting me. It’s getting a little hot. But I could be dead before they get a conviction on the latest charge, and I am confidence I will win my appeal for child rape. I have one of the best lawyers in Bangkok. I’ve seen him on TV.”
“I like young people. All my girlfriends have been younger than me,” he added.
Two years after his arrival in Thailand in the late eighties, Praill married a 15-yr-old girl, the daughter of his maid, who had been in his house for two years, in a marriage blessed by Buddhist monks.
“The parents asked me to marry their daughter. They wanted to secure her future. Her father was not too well. A policeman even led the band and played the organ at the wedding party,” he said yesterday, adding that the girl left him within the year to join her glue-sniffing chums.
“The latest charges are a set-up. This boy has been at my house but I sent him away giving him 50 baht. I sensed there was something wrong.
“The day I was alleged to have committed this offence my ex-wife, who remains a friend, was staying with me on the way to Borneo.
“Its members of a local orphanage who are setting me up. They have tried before and failed.”
Sudarat Sudarat of Thailand’s National Child Protection Committee and Secretary General of ‘The Fight Against Child Exploitation’ (FACE) said she had protested Praill’s release.
“Every time he is released children are in danger, “ she added.
The British taxpayer has spent hundreds of thousands of pounds to pay for courses for Thai police, court officials, and child welfare groups, to ensure paedophiles are swiftly and professionally dealt with. The courses have often been preceded by parties hosted by the British Ambassador.
The courses were introduced after several notable paedophiles being tracked by British police were either released without charge or acquitted in court. The most recent courses were run by Britain’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) which will shortly host more visits by Thai police to the U.K.
Added Sudarat Sereewat: “We are trying to establish why Praill has been released so many times. Is it could be corruption? Is it incompetence. I would not like to say either without proof. But police have now said they would withdraw the bail.”
FACE are in possession of a diary allegedly written by Praill in the early nineties, five years after his arrival in Thailand after retiring from running a video hire company in Chingford.
In the diary he describes how he paid children for sex by paying their school fees or buying them glue or simply giving them a few pounds. He describes his anger at their ingratitude when they refuse or when they do not perform to his satisfaction.
Left: A page from Praill’s old diary
This page describes a frustrating night at home with two young girls who are sniffing glue but refuse him. One says ‘ Dont want. It hurts’. ‘How much more can I take?’ complains Praill. The following morning he reports a girl ‘won’t touch it let alone smoke it’. But he reports happily at the end he has succeeded and had the best session possible.
‘And she seemed to enjoy it - at last’
Maurice Praill denies he has kept a diary.
LINKS
Child rapist ‘The Ghost’ arrested again - Daily Mail
Paedophile arrested for sixth time - Irish Independent
This article was updated on March 24 2008
Stepfather of ex-soccer star accused of abducting Thai girls - Irish Independent March 21 07
Sixth arrested for convicted paedophile - Irish Independent March 19 08
From Andrew Drummond, Pattaya
20th March 2008
The most notorious British paedophile in Thailand walked free from a police station again today after being granted £6,500 bail for the alleged sexual abuse of an eight year old boy.
Maurice Praill, 77, formerly of Harold Hill, Essex, was arrested yesterday while already on bail for two other child sex offences. But he has been arrested in Thailand numerous times and been released.
Police in Pattaya said today they raised the bail to the maximum amount allowed under law but Praill, known locally as ‘The Ghost’ was able to meet the fee. They declined to discuss why he was given bail at all.
Two years after his arrival in the late eighties, Praill married a 15-yr-old girl, the daughter of his maid, in a marriage seemingly blessed by Buddhist monks. The girl fled after three months.
In December 2001 he was convicted of the rape of two young girls, but the formal charge only came after a series of arrests in the resort for which he was released after the local press reported he had paid ‘fines to local police’.
But after his conviction he was immediately released on bail, and when he lost his appeal in 2004, curiously he got bail again to appeal to Thailand’s Supreme Court.
In what child protection agencies describe as a ‘scandalous state of affairs’ Praill was arrested again last year for abusing two girls aged 9 and 11 at his condominium in the resort but within two weeks was out on bail again of £8000.
Child welfare agencies have long believed that a fund exists subscribed to by an international paedophile group to pay ‘costs’ for members arrested in Thailand
Praill was arrested at his new home in Bongkot Villa, Pattaya, after a police surveillance team saw an eight-yr-old boy being delivered to his home in a motorcycle side platform, normally used by the driver for transporting goods to market.
Thai police were called in after a member of the Child Protection Centre passed on complaints from the parents of the eight-year-old boy.
Praill, who was previously arrested for abusing young girls, had now turned to young boys, said Police Colonel Khanisorn Yuwawithaya, who led the latest investigation.
The police had been contacted by Supakorn Noja, of the Pattaya Child Protection Centre, said Commander Kanisorn. “We formed a team and conducted surveillance. We witnessed the eight year old boy being delivered to his house. We arrested Praill when he was in the shower at his home in.”
Sudarat Sudarat Thailand’s National Child Protection Committee described the Praill case as ‘scandalous’.
“He could have been abusing our children for twenty years yet nobody has put him behind bars. I am shocked they have let him go again.
”We have spoken to some of his child victims. They call him ‘The Ghost’ because of his frightening appearance.”
Britain, she added, had spent hundreds of thousand of pounds on much publicized projects accompanied by Embassy cocktail parties to educate the Thai police and justice system how to deal with child sex offenders.
“This makes those efforts look very weak. The Thai justice system will have to take more notice of the safety of the victims and possible future victims. He should never have been given bail. Paedophiles are repeat offenders,” she said.
Praill ran a video hire company called Phoenix Entertainment based in Chingford, Essex. His stepson footballer Jon Goodman, was capped for Ireland and also played for Millwall and Wimbledon. He is believed now to have cancelled all contact with his stepfather.
Praill’s lawyer, Nitiwat Pattanasarn, said: “Maurice Praill denies the allegations against him.
At his home in Pattaya after being freed Praill said: “It looks like the police are targetting me. I blame the child welfare agencies for targetting me. They are setting me up. Yes I like young people. I have always had younger girlfriends.
Picture: Maurice Praill at his wedding to the daughter of his maid. He paid 40,000 baht. Then about US$1000.
A second Briton, named a Ronald David Wiener, aged 59, was also relased on bail in Pattaya for sodomy in connection with another eight year old boy, who was playing on the beach while his parents ran a food stall. Wiener, from London, allegedly offered the boy the equivalent of £12 to go with him The cases are not connected.
Police said he willingly admitted the offences and came to Pattaya because he was told he could find young boys there. They also took away a number of pornographic videos of young boys having sex.