Former special constable paid boys 8p for sex acts

A PAEDOPHILE on the run from police has been convicted of fresh offences in Cambodia, where he paid young boys as little as 8p for sexual favours.

Former UK special constable Ian Bower has been jailed for two years for sexually assaulting boys aged 11 to 15.
A group that campaigns against child sex tourism has now claimed that it warned the Home Office in 2007 that Bower would strike again but it took no action. The 46-year-old will be deported to the UK at the end of his jail term, when police will arrest him and he will be dealt with for breaching his licence conditions.

Bower, formerly of Bramcote and Ilkeston, was first convicted in 2004 and sentenced to three years and nine months at Derby Crown Court for sex offences against a boy and downloading indecent images of children.

He was released on licence in January 2006 on the condition that he lived at Burdett Lodge bail hostel in Bass Street, Derby. But he went missing the following month.

Children's rights organisation ECPAT UK alerted British authorities that Bower was in Cambodia in 2007, after he was arrested for abusing two brothers, aged 12 and 14, while in the country teaching English.

The case against him was dropped after the boys withdrew their statements. Because the UK does not have an extradition agreement with Cambodia he was able to stay there.

Christine Beddoe, director of the campaigning organisation, said: "(We are) appalled by the inaction of the UK Government who failed to negotiate a diplomatic arrangement to request Cambodian authorities to deport Bower.

"Bower is a wanted and dangerous criminal in the UK – he now should serve his sentence in Cambodia and face the full power of the British courts when he returns."

Bower came to the attention of campaigners in Cambodia, when they discovered he appeared to have inappropriate contact with two brothers.

This was reported to the Cambodian police, who arrested him on January 20, 2007, and filed his case to the Municipal Court in Cambodian capital Phnom Penh.

But later a charge of debauchery was dropped after the two brother reversed their statements.

However, Vando Khoem, project officer in the French equivalent of ECPAT – which stands for End Child Prostitution and Trafficking – said: "He kept contacting the two boys. We again reported the case to police for action. However, after police interviewing the two boys there was little evidence to prove his guilt and the case couldn't go forward."

Then in early 2011, the organisation discovered that Bower had been in contact with five boys in a community about 20km from Phnom Penh.

Bower was re-arrested on November 13, 2011. Phnom Penh Municipal Court heard he had driven his bike to a pagoda compound, a public area in which a Buddhist monk lives, when it was quiet.

He then played movies and cartoons on his mobile phone to attract the boys and then sexually molested them.

He paid the boys between 500 and 10,000 Cambodian Riel – between 8p and £1.55.

He was charged with an indecent act against a minor and convicted after a trial. On Monday was jailed for two years. He was fined $1,000 and ordered to pay each of the victims $500.

Bower's lawyer, Dun Vibol, said his client did not accept the verdict and had lodged an appeal.

Sourced: thisisnottingham