Former Aussie cop faces Thai child sex accusations

[elef]

Aust cancels child-sex suspect's passport

Published on Sep 11 , 2005

 

 

A former Australian policeman facing charges of sex with a teenage girl in his care has voiced anger at his government's decision last week to cancel his passport.

 

 

Christopher White, 47, said that Australian officials had also advised a court in Chiang Mai that he should not be freed on bail, because he was a risk of fleeing to Cambodia.

 

"I've never heard of this happening. It's only through Thai friends that I'm out [of jail on bail]," he said in Bangkok on Friday.

 

"I'm not going anywhere. I've done nothing [illegal].

 

"As far as the Australian government are concerned I'm filth.

 

"How would you feel if you'd been abandoned by your country?"

 

A note to White from the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) said the decision to cancel his passport was based "on the grounds that you are the subject of an arrest warrant issued in a foreign country in respect of a serious offence".

 

The move appears to have been spurred by a case two years ago involving a Brisbane man, who fled Cambodia after consular staff granted him a replacement passport. Clinton Betterridge, who was charged with raping a 14-year-old girl in Siam Reap, used the replacement passport to fly back to Brisbane in early 2003.

 

Police in Chiang Mai charged White late last month with having sex with a girl under the age of 13, and luring or pressuring a minor into sexual abuse. The girl, now 16, sold flowers at the Chiang Mai Night Bazaar before White took her into his care for several years.

 

Consular officials in Bangkok said on Friday it was important to remember the presumption of innocence until an accused is proven guilty in a court of law.

 

"The government treats matters relating to child sex very seriously and will follow legal proceedings in the case closely. Consular officials are providing consular assistance," a spokesman said.

 

White concedes he sent two videos with child pornography through the post to Australia - and that these same items were confiscated from his house in Bangkok when police arrested him on August 23. But he said the material was part of an inquiry into the availability of child pornography. He strongly denies claims by the hilltribe girl. The girl, who was pregnant but lost her child shortly after White was charged, has told police and others she had a sexual relationship with the Australian.

 

White claims the girl invented the story after she became pregnant. He has spent the past couple of days seeking to gather medical evidence to show that he had a vasectomy in May last year and could not have fathered a child. He also claims to have impotency problems that would have prevented him having sex with her.

 

Police have conducted DNA tests to try to determine if White did father the girl's baby, but the results will not be known for a couple of months.

 

Jim Pollard

 

The Nation

[FAT_AUSSIE]

innocent or guilty dont look to the Aussie government for help

 

your better off asking buddah!!!