Welcome to Cambodia: the only country in the world where pedophiles can have their prison sentence reduced

Thomas Wayne Rapanos (Photo: AP)

Cambodia cuts term for convicted US child molester

2008-12-05
AP

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) - An American man convicted of sexually abusing two young Cambodian girls had his prison term reduced, a court official said Friday.

An Appeals Court panel cut Thomas Wayne Rapanos' prison term to one year for molesting two girls, aged 12 and 16.

Rapanos, 55, of Chicago, Illinois, was originally sentenced to 2 1/2 years by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court in August.

Appeals Court judge Thou Mony said he ordered the shorter sentence during a closed-door session Thursday. He refused to comment on why he made the decision.

Cambodia has long been a magnet for foreign pedophiles, and its courts have stepped up action against sex offenders in recent years.

Police arrested Rapanos in March during a raid on his guesthouse room in the capital of Phnom Penh, where they found him in the company of the girls.

Hare Krishna leader to appeal Cambodia child sex conviction

Thomas Wayne Rapanos from Florida, center, is escorted by police out of the Phnom Penh Municipal Court in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2008. The 55-year-old American national was sentenced Wednesday to two years and six months in prison in Cambodia for sexually molesting two girls aged 12 and 16. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

Aug 7, 2008
DPA

Phnom Penh - The leader of a Hari Krishna-affiliated aid organization in Cambodia was to appeal a conviction for molesting a 12-year-old girl, a Phnom Penh court said Thursday.

Police said US national Thomas Rapanos Wayne, head of a Hare Krishna aid group, was found naked in the company of two girls, aged 12 and 16, when he was arrested in a guest house in the capital in March. The age of consent in Cambodia is 15.

Wayne, alias Tattva Darshan Das, 55, was sentenced Wednesday to two and a half years in prison for committing indecent acts against minors.

'He was convicted but he said he was innocent and he will appeal,' court clerk Keing Bokhea said by telephone.

Wayne was formerly president of the relatively obscure Bhaktivedanta Eco Village (BEV) Cambodia, an educational aid organization.

He held a copy of the religious text Bhagavad Gita and a portrait of the Hindu god Krishna during his sentencing, the English-language Cambodia Daily said.

American, Frenchman in child sex cases in Cambodia

08-06-2008
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Cambodia sentenced an American man to more than two years in prison for committing indecent acts against minors, and has arrested a Frenchman accused of abusing boys, officials said.

The American, Thomas Wayne Rapanos, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison after being convicted of committing indecent acts against minors, said judge Din Sivuthy.

Rapanos, 55, was arrested in March after police raided a guesthouse and found a 12-year-old Vietnamese girl and a 16-year-old Cambodian girl in his room.

Frenchman Michel Roger Blanchard was arrested on Monday for sexually abusing four Cambodian boys aged between eight and 18.

Social worker had faced child abuse charges in 2002

19 Mar 2008
The Times of India

CHENNAI: Thomas Rapanos Wayne, alias Tattva Darshan Das who runs a NGO in Karnataka was arrested Phnom Penh for sexually abusing two girls aged 12 and 14.

The age of sexual consent in Cambodia is 15 years. "We arrested Wayne and rescued the girls. The 12-year-old girl is a Vietnamese and the other is Cambodian," Keo They, deputy police chief of the anti-trafficking and juvenile unit said.

The Cambodian police said one of the girls was naked when they stormed the guesthouse. The girls were being forced to perform oral sex on Wayne, who was trying to put on a condom when police broke open the door.Action Pour Les Enfants , a French NGO working for child welfare, said it had been tracking Wayne’s activities in Cambodia for the months and had tipped off the Cambodian police.

Wayne had travelled to Cambodia in April 2006 to set up a BEV unit. His website says he approached the Royal Government of Cambodia to register BEV as an NGO to provide humanitarian aid to street children and poor farmers.

Wayne had adopted Tattva Darshan Das as his name in the 1970s after joining the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (Iskcon) in the US. He came to India in the 80s and founded the Bhaktivedanta Eco Village in 1992; he has since renewed his visa to extend his stay in India.

His wife, a refugee from Myanmar, is named Judni Lakshmi and manages the village along with Wayne and their children Chaithanya (23) and Anuradha (21).

Confirming the arrest, Chaithanya, who now manages the NGO, told TOI that his father was framed by his enemies and that he would be going to Cambodia to hire a lawyer to bail him out.

Wayne has been in trouble with the Indian authorities in the past. By Chaithanya's own admission, Wayne was detained for questioning by the police seven years ago after a complaint of child sex abuse from an Iskcon devotee.

"It was a baseless allegation for which my father was questioned and nothing came of it," Chaithanya said. However, Hari Sauri Das, head of Iskcon's Child Protection Team, said, "Wayne had been removed from all official positions at Iskcon following similar child abuse charges in 2002."

According to his website, Wayne has been travelling extensively. The president of the French NGO tracking him said, "We found Wayne's movements suspicious and our interactions with children whom Wayne had been in touch with, added to our doubt."

US Hari Krishna leader accused of pedophilia in Cambodia

Mar 6, 2008
DPA

Phnom Penh - The president of a Hari Krishna-affiliated aid organization has been arrested in a guesthouse, allegedly in the company of two young girls in a state of undress, an anti-trafficking police chief said Thursday.

US national Thomas Rapanos Wayne, alias Tattva Darshan Das, whose age was not given, president of the non-government organization Bhaktivedanta Eco Village (BEV) Cambodia, was allegedly arrested in a Phnom Penh guesthouse in the company of two girls aged 12 and 16.

The age of consent in Cambodia is 15.

Phnom Penh Municipal anti-trafficking police chief Eim Rathana said Wayne was arrested Wednesday and investigations were continuing.

'The American has denied the charges, and we must continue to investigate,' Rathana said by telephone.

BEV registered in Cambodia as an aid organization focusing on agricultural assistance, education and child care in 2006.

An anti-trafficking group which said it assisted in arresting Wayne, Action Pour Les Enfants (APLE), said by email Thursday that the alleged victims had been cooperating with the investigation.

Rathana said Wayne had yet to be charged Thursday evening.

The relatively obscure branch of his BEV organization in Cambodia claims to assist 'little children and even university students aspiring to learn,' according to its website.

Cambodian authorities have arrested dozens of foreign pedophiles in recent years, often with the help on non-government organizations such as APLE, in an effort to shake off its reputation as a haven for child molesters.