Herald Sun (Australia)
A VICTORIAN school teacher cleared of molesting children in Cambodia was quietly deported home to freedom after paying Khmer officials.
The man is still permitted to work as a teacher in Victoria.
Education Minister Martin Dixon had nothing to say about the case.
The man told the Herald Sun he had paid police in Cambodia's Sihanoukville province about $100 before they released him from his cell last June.
He had been detained overnight accused of inappropriately touching local children as he played with them on the beach.
He denied the allegations and insisted the cash was not a bribe, but a fee for the food he consumed.
"They're just trying to tap a foreigner, saying it's to keep up the place - it wasn't buying my way out of the charge," he said.
Australian officials were concerned enough about the Cambodian allegations to revoke his passport and deport him in August.
Australian Federal Police investigated him here, seizing computers and cameras from his country home, but he has not been charged.
He has no prior convictions and his working with children's check remains valid, although he claims to be retired.
The Victorian Institute of Teaching said it would not comment on individuals.
The institute has the power to investigate teacher registrations regardless of whether they're charged or convicted of a crime.
Child exploitation investigators in Cambodia say that suspects routinely bribe their way out of legal trouble.
"Money talks here," said Steve Morrish, director of South East Asia Investigations into Social and Humanitarian Activities, who is a former Victoria Police detective.
The teacher was photographed playing with children on the beach by French human rights activists Action Pour Les Enfants.
"I'm innocent of these charges and it sucks they can just do this to people," he said. "If I had something to hide, I wouldn't be talking now."
An AFP spokesman confirmed child sex offences that occurred overseas could be prosecuted in Australia.
"Arrests are not the definitive measure of effectiveness," he said.
"Enhanced public awareness is equally as important."
Only 24 people have been convicted under Australia's child sex tourism laws in the past 15 years and the average length of sentence is just five years.
This is despite a maximum available sentence of 25 years, according to University of Queensland law school research.
crawfordc@heraldsun.com.au
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