Asian bust nets Oregon fugitive
Child sex abuse - Cambodia is kicking him out to face charges here
BRYAN DENSON
The Oregonian (Oregon, USA)
A fugitive sex offender from Oregon, accused of filming himself sexually abusing two children above a Cambodian barroom, will be expelled from that Southeast Asian nation and flown to Portland, accompanied by federal marshals.
The expulsion of 54-year-old Terry D. Smith follows his arrest Wednesday outside the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh, according to Deputy John R. Shoemaker, who supervises criminal investigations for the U.S. Marshals Service in Portland.
Smith will be flown back to Oregon in handcuffs to face charges filed six years ago in Jackson County of sodomy, sexual abuse and using a child in a display of sexually explicit conduct, Shoemaker said.
"He won't be coming back business class sipping champagne," he added.
Authorities in Cambodia arrested Smith and his girlfriend, identified in local news accounts as 26-year-old Chea Sovannary, this summer. They were charged with debauchery in Sihanoukville, a beach town that has a reputation as a tourist destination for pedophiles.
Police accused Smith in July of having sex with two girls, 13 and 14, and filming the assaults in a bedroom above Tramp's Palace, the bar he owned in Sihanoukville, according to Pamela Livingston, a spokeswoman for the International Justice Mission, a global human rights group.
"He was brutalizing them for his own pleasure and to prepare them to be sold to others," said Livingston, whose organization sent investigators to the bar. The IJM, as it is known, is a Washington, D.C., nonprofit that seeks prosecutions of people who smuggle, sexually exploit or otherwise abuse other humans.
The IJM had sent undercover investigators into Smith's bar, where they shot video of the girls -- some of them appeared to be pre-teens -- dancing topless and being offered for sexual massage and oral sex, Livingston said.
The crimes Smith is accused of committing in Cambodia had a familiar ring to Oregon authorities.
Fifteen years ago in Josephine County, Smith was convicted of multiple charges that he used children in displays of sexual acts. He served 15 months in prison, records show. When he got out, authorities said, he failed to register as a sex offender and eventually fled to the Philippines.
"He's a perfect example of a child predator," Shoemaker said.
On Aug. 5, the Marshals' fugitive task force in Portland got word from the International Justice Mission that Smith had been arrested in Cambodia for child trafficking.
The fugitive task force here secured jurisdiction and began to make inquiries about Smith. But on Aug. 31, the Sihanoukville Municipal Court quietly released Smith, who promptly disappeared, touching off a round of finger-pointing among government officials, according to published reports in Cambodia.
Smith posted $20,000 bond, which was nearly every penny he had, said Shoemaker.
Authorities say pedophiles gravitate to such countries as Cambodia, where poverty sends many young girls into sexual slavery. The U.S. Department of State has in recent years listed Cambodia as a key player in global trafficking of human beings, many of them women and young girls.
But the nation had recently improved its status with the State Department. So publicity over Smith's alleged crimes -- and mysterious release -- troubled Cambodian officials.
"We are concerned for the social order of the country," Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak told The Cambodian Daily last week. The newspaper quoted Smith's attorney as saying that his client, who suffered from an old head injury, had been visiting hospitals in Phnom Penh and would soon be heading to court in Sihanoukville.
Sometime Wednesday, Smith appeared at the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh. He was hoping to replace the passport that police had confiscated in July.
It's unclear whether Smith got a passport, but this much is known: The State Department, aware that Smith might show up, summoned Cambodian police, who arrested Smith outside.
Bryan Denson: 503-294-7614; bryandenson@news.oregonian.com
The expulsion of 54-year-old Terry D. Smith follows his arrest Wednesday outside the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh, according to Deputy John R. Shoemaker, who supervises criminal investigations for the U.S. Marshals Service in Portland.
Smith will be flown back to Oregon in handcuffs to face charges filed six years ago in Jackson County of sodomy, sexual abuse and using a child in a display of sexually explicit conduct, Shoemaker said.
"He won't be coming back business class sipping champagne," he added.
Authorities in Cambodia arrested Smith and his girlfriend, identified in local news accounts as 26-year-old Chea Sovannary, this summer. They were charged with debauchery in Sihanoukville, a beach town that has a reputation as a tourist destination for pedophiles.
Police accused Smith in July of having sex with two girls, 13 and 14, and filming the assaults in a bedroom above Tramp's Palace, the bar he owned in Sihanoukville, according to Pamela Livingston, a spokeswoman for the International Justice Mission, a global human rights group.
"He was brutalizing them for his own pleasure and to prepare them to be sold to others," said Livingston, whose organization sent investigators to the bar. The IJM, as it is known, is a Washington, D.C., nonprofit that seeks prosecutions of people who smuggle, sexually exploit or otherwise abuse other humans.
The IJM had sent undercover investigators into Smith's bar, where they shot video of the girls -- some of them appeared to be pre-teens -- dancing topless and being offered for sexual massage and oral sex, Livingston said.
The crimes Smith is accused of committing in Cambodia had a familiar ring to Oregon authorities.
Fifteen years ago in Josephine County, Smith was convicted of multiple charges that he used children in displays of sexual acts. He served 15 months in prison, records show. When he got out, authorities said, he failed to register as a sex offender and eventually fled to the Philippines.
"He's a perfect example of a child predator," Shoemaker said.
On Aug. 5, the Marshals' fugitive task force in Portland got word from the International Justice Mission that Smith had been arrested in Cambodia for child trafficking.
The fugitive task force here secured jurisdiction and began to make inquiries about Smith. But on Aug. 31, the Sihanoukville Municipal Court quietly released Smith, who promptly disappeared, touching off a round of finger-pointing among government officials, according to published reports in Cambodia.
Smith posted $20,000 bond, which was nearly every penny he had, said Shoemaker.
Authorities say pedophiles gravitate to such countries as Cambodia, where poverty sends many young girls into sexual slavery. The U.S. Department of State has in recent years listed Cambodia as a key player in global trafficking of human beings, many of them women and young girls.
But the nation had recently improved its status with the State Department. So publicity over Smith's alleged crimes -- and mysterious release -- troubled Cambodian officials.
"We are concerned for the social order of the country," Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak told The Cambodian Daily last week. The newspaper quoted Smith's attorney as saying that his client, who suffered from an old head injury, had been visiting hospitals in Phnom Penh and would soon be heading to court in Sihanoukville.
Sometime Wednesday, Smith appeared at the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh. He was hoping to replace the passport that police had confiscated in July.
It's unclear whether Smith got a passport, but this much is known: The State Department, aware that Smith might show up, summoned Cambodian police, who arrested Smith outside.
Bryan Denson: 503-294-7614; bryandenson@news.oregonian.com
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