Sick ... Bower parks his bike to eye up young boy
Sleazy rider ... Bower searches the streets
Ensnared ... boy climbs on
Evil within ... bike outside house thought to be boy's home
Victim ... Bower targeted boy09 Dec 2007
From SHARON HENDRY in Cambodia
The Sun (UK)
CHILDREN around the world are being sexually exploited in record numbers.
The problem is due partly to the global reach of the internet and the ease of international travel.
Now a Sun probe has highlighted the extent of the abuse of society’s most vulnerable individuals – and the sick predators behind it.
Here, in Day One of a special investigation into the child sex trade, we follow the sordid trail of one of the many British paedophiles who, like shamed singer Gary Glitter, cross the globe to exploit poverty-stricken youngsters of the Far East.
THIS sickening snap shows British paedophile Ian Bower leering at a small boy in the streets of Cambodian capital Phnom Penh.
Moments later the twisted pervert has persuaded the child to climb on to the back of his moped and is whisking him away.
Soon afterwards Bower’s two-wheeler is spotted outside a house thought to be the lad’s family home.
The disturbing sequence of photos was taken by a Spanish children’s charity who investigated Bower this year. They were later used to prosecute him in the Cambodian courts.
At the trial, in January this year, two local boys aged 12 and 14 claimed they had been sexually abused by Bower, 42.
The former police special constable, who has been convicted of indecency offences against children in the UK, faced a charge of debauchery — the Cambodian legal term for sexual offences against children.
One of the boys, who cannot be named for legal reasons, claimed Bower had paid him just 50p to £1 a time for sex.
In a police statement, he said the British pervert made him and his brother shower before performing sickening sex acts on them.
The brothers went on to allege that Bower first befriended their father over three months, plying him with beer before luring the boys to his rented house near Pochentong market for “sleepovers”. But, astonishingly, Bower — who had been working as a teacher in Cambodia — was later acquitted of all charges after the boys changed their statements.
Now he is free to roam the streets of the perverts’ paradise that is Phnom Penh, where vulnerable young orphans sell sex for as little as 50p a time.
Bower, from Ilkeston, Derbys, was once a respectable member of his local community.
But in September 2004 he was convicted by a UK court of two counts of indecent assault on a male under 16 and two of gross indecency with a child. He was also convicted of downloading scores of indecent internet images of children being sexually abused.
During his trial, the court heard that Bower had spent hours on his computer in a loft conversion office after moving in with his then girlfriend and her two children in 1999.
The couple separated in July 2002 and police became involved in October that year when they examined a computer found at Bower’s mother’s address.
They found 38 indecent images of children under the age of 16 and two films containing images of boys performing sexual acts.
Another 91 images of children were found to have been deleted from the computer but were recovered by the Computer Crime Investigation Unit. Bower was sentenced to three years and nine months and placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register.
But in February last year he fled the Derby bail hostel where he was being held under licence and settled in Cambodia — which has no extradition agreement with Britain, making it impossible for UK police to catch him unless he is deported.
Abuse
Derbyshire police confirmed he would be arrested if he ever returned to the UK because his decision to leave meant he was in breach of the terms of his prison release conditions.
Children’s rights campaigners are outraged that Bower is not being brought home to face justice.
Christine Beddoe, director of ECPAT UK — which stands for End Child Prostitution and Trafficking — said: “Bower had been teaching English to young children when he was arrested in Cambodia on suspicion of sexual abuse with two boys under 15.
“Now it appears that he can live and work freely in Cambodia because the UK has not got the legal powers to bring him back, even with outstanding charges against him and the fact that he has broken licence while being on the Sex Offenders’ Register.
“The UK has a responsibility to countries like Cambodia to bring back UK sex offenders to be monitored rather than let cash-strapped authorities in Third World countries deal with the tragic consequences.”
Last year the British Government set up the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre — known as CEOP. A spokesman for the agency said: “We work very closely with the Cambodian police, delivering operational support and specialist training to ensure that any British citizens seeking to offend against children in Cambodia are identified, located and brought to justice.
“While we are unable to discuss specific individuals, we continue to work alongside the Cambodian police on this and other cases.
“CEOP supports the development of any arrangement which would facilitate the return of British child sex offenders to the UK where they can be properly managed.”
The problem is due partly to the global reach of the internet and the ease of international travel.
Now a Sun probe has highlighted the extent of the abuse of society’s most vulnerable individuals – and the sick predators behind it.
Here, in Day One of a special investigation into the child sex trade, we follow the sordid trail of one of the many British paedophiles who, like shamed singer Gary Glitter, cross the globe to exploit poverty-stricken youngsters of the Far East.
THIS sickening snap shows British paedophile Ian Bower leering at a small boy in the streets of Cambodian capital Phnom Penh.
Moments later the twisted pervert has persuaded the child to climb on to the back of his moped and is whisking him away.
Soon afterwards Bower’s two-wheeler is spotted outside a house thought to be the lad’s family home.
The disturbing sequence of photos was taken by a Spanish children’s charity who investigated Bower this year. They were later used to prosecute him in the Cambodian courts.
At the trial, in January this year, two local boys aged 12 and 14 claimed they had been sexually abused by Bower, 42.
The former police special constable, who has been convicted of indecency offences against children in the UK, faced a charge of debauchery — the Cambodian legal term for sexual offences against children.
One of the boys, who cannot be named for legal reasons, claimed Bower had paid him just 50p to £1 a time for sex.
In a police statement, he said the British pervert made him and his brother shower before performing sickening sex acts on them.
The brothers went on to allege that Bower first befriended their father over three months, plying him with beer before luring the boys to his rented house near Pochentong market for “sleepovers”. But, astonishingly, Bower — who had been working as a teacher in Cambodia — was later acquitted of all charges after the boys changed their statements.
Now he is free to roam the streets of the perverts’ paradise that is Phnom Penh, where vulnerable young orphans sell sex for as little as 50p a time.
Bower, from Ilkeston, Derbys, was once a respectable member of his local community.
But in September 2004 he was convicted by a UK court of two counts of indecent assault on a male under 16 and two of gross indecency with a child. He was also convicted of downloading scores of indecent internet images of children being sexually abused.
During his trial, the court heard that Bower had spent hours on his computer in a loft conversion office after moving in with his then girlfriend and her two children in 1999.
The couple separated in July 2002 and police became involved in October that year when they examined a computer found at Bower’s mother’s address.
They found 38 indecent images of children under the age of 16 and two films containing images of boys performing sexual acts.
Another 91 images of children were found to have been deleted from the computer but were recovered by the Computer Crime Investigation Unit. Bower was sentenced to three years and nine months and placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register.
But in February last year he fled the Derby bail hostel where he was being held under licence and settled in Cambodia — which has no extradition agreement with Britain, making it impossible for UK police to catch him unless he is deported.
Abuse
Derbyshire police confirmed he would be arrested if he ever returned to the UK because his decision to leave meant he was in breach of the terms of his prison release conditions.
Children’s rights campaigners are outraged that Bower is not being brought home to face justice.
Christine Beddoe, director of ECPAT UK — which stands for End Child Prostitution and Trafficking — said: “Bower had been teaching English to young children when he was arrested in Cambodia on suspicion of sexual abuse with two boys under 15.
“Now it appears that he can live and work freely in Cambodia because the UK has not got the legal powers to bring him back, even with outstanding charges against him and the fact that he has broken licence while being on the Sex Offenders’ Register.
“The UK has a responsibility to countries like Cambodia to bring back UK sex offenders to be monitored rather than let cash-strapped authorities in Third World countries deal with the tragic consequences.”
Last year the British Government set up the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre — known as CEOP. A spokesman for the agency said: “We work very closely with the Cambodian police, delivering operational support and specialist training to ensure that any British citizens seeking to offend against children in Cambodia are identified, located and brought to justice.
“While we are unable to discuss specific individuals, we continue to work alongside the Cambodian police on this and other cases.
“CEOP supports the development of any arrangement which would facilitate the return of British child sex offenders to the UK where they can be properly managed.”
