British pensioner held on child abuse charges
Roger Pettit Arrest: The accused mans face is not shown here as he in presumed innocent until proven otherwise.
Sixty-seven year old Roger Leslie Pettit from Brighton, England, was arrested at his Chiang Mai condo on Tuesday this week, charged with child sex and drug offences.
Police said that pornographic films and 42 methamphetamine tablets were found in Pettit’s condo.
The arrest could be the first in Thailand since such offences were added to the responsibilities of the Department of Special Investigations, as announced this week by the Justice Minister.
The Ministry has just published a guidebook on the prosecution of foreign alleged child sex offenders which includes guidelines on high bail sums and the seizure of passports.
Pirapan Jalirathavibhaga, Justice Minister, admitted that different Thai agencies had lacked co-ordination and foreign suspects had “used these loopholes” to flee the country, sometimes returning under new names to resume their exploitation.
The DSI had added child sex abuse to its agenda as it “falls within the frame of human trafficking” added Pirapan.
Photographs of the arrest of Pettit by 2 specialist police officers based in Chiang Mai were posted briefly on a national website forum, prior to the whole thread being removed yesterday.
Article contributed by David Hardcastle, Copyright David Hardcastle 2010
