3 Men Accused of Sex Tourism [in Cambodia] Plead Not Guilty

September 21, 2009
ASSOCIATED PRESS

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Three men charged with traveling to Cambodia to engage in sex acts with children have pleaded not guilty in Los Angeles.

Ronald Boyajian, Erik Peeters and Jack Sporich entered their pleas Monday in federal court.

The men are being held without bail and each has been scheduled for trial Nov. 10, said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office.

All were expelled from Cambodia and brought to the United States last month under a new initiative targeting child sex tourism in Cambodia, which authorities described as ground zero for child sex tourism.

Sporich and Peeters are each accused of molesting three children and Boyajian one child. If convicted, each could face up to 30 years in prison for each victim.

Danny Davis, Boyajian's attorney, says the charges are false and fabricated. He says his client was defending himself against the allegations in Cambodia but the process was interrupted when the U.S. brought Boyajian to the United States.

Peeters' attorney declined to comment. A message was left for Sporich's attorney.

Accused Pedophiles Transferred to US

By Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
01 September 2009

Three Americans arrested for pedophilia in Cambodia in 2008 were taken into US custody Monday, arriving in Los Angeles after being held in Phnom Penh, the US Embassy said Tuesday.

All three were arrested by national police in February, having allegedly traveled to Cambodia to procure sex from underage boys and girls, the embassy said.

Ronald Gerard Boyajian, 49, reportedly traveled to Cambodian in September 2008 and allegedly engaged in sexual activity with a 10-year-old girl from Vietnam, at Kilometer 11, an area on the outskirts of the capital frequented by child sex tourists.

Erik Leonardus Peeters, 41, was accused of sexual acts with three underage Cambodian boys.

Jack Louis Sporich, 75, is accused of abusing one underage boy, and, according to affidavits against him, would ride through the streets of Siem Reap on a motorcycle, throwing money to attract children.

The charges against them “clearly demonstrate to the Cambodian people that the United States will not tolerate this type of abuse,” US Ambassador Carol Rodley said.

The cases sent a signal to the victims that the US is committed to justice, and would “act as a powerful deterrent” for would-be pedophiles traveling to Cambodia, she said.

The arrests came from cooperation between the Cambodian government, local organizations and US authorities, in an ongoing operation called Twisted Traveler, the embassy said.

Lt. Gen. Khieu Sopheak, a spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, told VOA Khmer the arrests were a “positive sign” for the reduction of sexual exploitation of children.

“I understand that this is to strengthen the law and is the result of cooperation between the concerned authorities to eliminate this problem,” he said.

Seila Samneang, the country director of Action Pour Les Enfants told VOA Khmer the group was happy “three bad men” had left Cambodia “to face strong condemnation in the United States.”

“We hope these three dangerous men will be strongly controlled in the United States, and we hope they will not have any opportunity to make relations with children abroad,” she said.

Twelve offenders in 30 reported cases of sexual exploitation of children were arrested in 2008, she said, while 40 child victims from ages 8 to 16 had been rescued. This year, 24 offenders have so far been arrested, and some 70 children rescued.

U.S. charges three men with molesting children in Cambodia

They are the first to be charged under an international law-enforcement operation that targets U.S. citizens who travel to Cambodia for illicit sex. They could face 30 years in jail for each victim.

September 1, 2009
By Raja Abdulrahim
Los Angeles Times (California, USA)

Three American men who are suspected of traveling to Cambodia to molest children have been charged in federal court as part of a new initiative aimed at cracking down on the child sex tourism business there, authorities said Monday.

Ronald Gerard Boyajian, 49, of Menlo Park, Calif.; Erik Leonardus Peeters, 41, of Norwalk; and Jack Louis Sporich, 75, formerly of Santa Monica and currently living in Sedona, Ariz., were arrested by Cambodian police in February, authorities said. They were recently expelled from the country and arrived Monday at LAX in the custody of U.S. immigration officials.

The three men, all previously convicted of sex offenses in the U.S., were charged here in absentia earlier this year with traveling overseas for the purpose of engaging in illicit sexual conduct with minors, a charge that could bring up to 30 years per victim, authorities said.

They are the first to be charged under an international law-enforcement operation dubbed "Twisted Traveler," specifically targeting American sex offenders who travel to Cambodia, a country that one U.S. immigration official said was "the world's ground zero for child sex tourists."

"These types of cases are disturbing not only because young, defenseless children were victimized in unspeakable ways," U.S. Atty. Thomas O'Brien said at a news conference Monday. "But also because the defendants went to such lengths to engage in their dark activities overseas."

Although they were also charged in Cambodia for their alleged crimes, O'Brien said the sentences they face in the U.S. if convicted are "severely stronger."

Boyajian is suspected of traveling to Cambodia a year ago and molesting a 10-year-old Vietnamese girl, according to court papers. Peeters is accused of sexually abusing at least three Cambodian boys whom he paid between $5 and $10, according to a court affidavit.

And Sporich is suspected of molesting at least one underage Cambodian boy after he arrived in November 2008, according to the affidavit. Authorities said he would drive his motor bike through city streets and drop money as a way to lure children.

Americans have been arrested in the past for having illicit sexual contact with minors in foreign countries. But under this new initiative, the focus is on Cambodia, and FBI and immigration officials are training foreign nationals in evidence gathering, surveillance and victim interviews, O'Brien said. Their goal is to obtain evidence admissible in a U.S. court, he said.

"We are committed to the difficult but necessary task of ending this scourge, despite cost, despite distance, despite international boundaries," said John Morton, assistant secretary for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "There can be no place for the abuse of foreign children by U.S. citizens."

California sex offender faces new charges in Cambodia

Friday, May. 22, 2009
Sam Stanton
The Sacramento Bee (California, USA)

Formerly a patient at Atascadero State Hospital, he is suspected of molesting four young boys

Jack Louis Sporich was living an idyllic retirement, splitting his time between a luxury condo in Sedona, Ariz., and a sprawling home he was having built in a tourist mecca in Cambodia.

The 74-year-old retired engineer appeared to have escaped his past, which included his classification as one of California’s most dangerous sex offenders, one who authorities suspect may have molested more than 500 young boys over the years.

Now, officials say Sporich, who won his release from Atascadero State Hospital in May 2004 without spending a single day in treatment, may have reoffended.

He has been charged in Cambodia with indecent acts against minors in a case involving four young Cambodian boys, according to an official in Phnom Penh whose organization helped investigate Sporich.

Cambodian news accounts of his arrest indicate Sporich denied the allegations, which included the claim he lured the children — ages 9 to 13 — to his home with toys and candies. The Cambodia Daily reported he also attracted youngsters by dropping dollar bills in the street.

He was arrested Feb. 2 and remains in custody in the tourist town of Siem Reap, according to Seila Samleang, executive director of Action Pour Les Enfants-Cambodia.

APLE-Cambodia is a nongovernmental organization that works closely with Cambodian police to target foreign pedophiles who exploit youngsters in that country, and Sporich had been under investigation by the group.

Samleang said in an e-mail to The Sacramento Bee the charges are misdemeanors punishable by a prison sentence of one to three years.

Sexual exploitation of children has been a problem in Cambodia for years, where the age of consent is 15.

Todd Melnik, the defense attorney who won Sporich’s release from Atascadero, said he knew nothing of the Cambodia charges. An e-mail to Sporich this week seeking comment did not receive a response.

Troubling history

Sporich is no stranger to charges of sex with kids.

He spent nine years in prison after his conviction in Ventura County on seven counts of lewd acts upon children under 14. Then, he was committed to Atascadero State Hospital as a “sexually violent predator” deemed too dangerous to be released upon completion of his sentence.

David Lehr, a Ventura County defense attorney who originally prosecuted Sporich, said he may have had as many as 500 victims, and he typically befriended boys through their parents and offered to take them on camping trips.

The parents frequently would pay Sporich for gas and the time he spent on the trips, Lehr said last week.

“If I had to pick from a list of former and current SVPs, he would be, by far, the first one I would be most concerned about,” Lehr said in an interview for a 2006 series of stories in The Sacramento Bee about sexually violent predators.

Sporich was released from Atascadero in May 2004, after two juries were unable to agree on whether he would reoffend, and he immediately moved to Arizona, where the only requirement he faced was that he register as a sex offender once a year.

He is not listed on the current sex offender registry maintained by the Arizona Department of Public Safety.

Sporich’s case was highlighted in The Sacramento Bee’s series, which revealed it was far easier for offenders to win release from Atascadero by refusing treatment than by undergoing the lengthy treatment program designed to prevent them from reoffending.

After The Sacramento Bee’s series, lawmakers introduced a number of proposed improvements to the system and voters later that year overwhelmingly approved Proposition 83.

That measure increased prison sentences for habitual and violent offenders and did away with the requirement that sexually violent predators be allowed a trial every two years. Instead, they now can petition annually for a hearing, but the burden of proof is on them to convince a court they no longer pose a threat.

Released Calif. Molester In Cambodian Jail

May 13, 2009
The Post Chronicle (New Jersey, USA)

A man who won a court-ordered release from sex offender treatment in California has been charged in Cambodia with molesting boys.

Jack Louis Sporich, 74, is in custody in Siem Reap, a tourist destination near Angkor Wat, Action Pour Les Enfants-Cambodia told the Sacramento Bee. Seila Samleang, the organization's executive director, says he allegedly enticed four boys to his house.

Samleang told the Bee in a e-mail Sporich could get as many as three years in prison if he is found guilty.

Sporich spent nine years in prison in California for molesting children. On his release, he was committed to Atascadero State Hospital for treatment as a sexual predator.

In 2004, Sporich was released from Atascadero, where he had refused treatment, and moved to Arizona. His sister, June Caine, told the Bee he married a Cambodian waitress after giving her a $100 tip and built a house there.

"I don't want him out anymore," Caine said. "I think he's sick, and he's never going to get well. I don't want this to go on."

American, 75, charged with molesting Cambodian boy

Feb. 4, 2009
The Associated Press

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — A prosecutor says a 75-year-old American man has been charged with sexually abusing four Cambodian boys.

Prosecutor Nuon San says the man has been charged after allegedly molesting boys aged between 9 and 13-years old. He faces up to three years in prison if convicted.

Police say Jack Louis Sporich was arrested Monday in Siem Reap, a major tourist destination 143 miles (230 kilometers) northwest of Phnom Penh.

Police say Sporich, who said he was from Chicago, Illinois, has denied the allegations.

Cambodia has long been a magnet for foreign pedophiles because of its poverty and lax law enforcement, but action against sex offenders has been stepped up in recent years.