Lawyers urge UK to do more to prevent sex tourism
Calls for greater curbs on travel overseas for sex offenders as former teacher jailed for 45 years for abusing boys in UK and Thailand
Posted on 10 February 2017
Lawyers who represent abuse survivors overseas have called for more to be done by UK authorities to make it more difficult for registered sex offenders to travel overseas to access vulnerable children.
The calls come after a British teacher was jailed for life after being convicted of 45 sexual offences against young boys in England and Thailand.
Mark Frost was jailed for life earlier this week after being found guilty of abusing nine children in Thailand between 2009 and 2012, and two children at a Worcestershire school during the 1980s and 1990s.
In his judgment, Judge Lucraft said Mark Frost’s “conduct towards each and every one of these victims is horrific and deeply disturbing”.
Lawyers from the international abuse team at Leigh Day said that they welcomed the sentence, and the co-operation between law enforcement organisations across borders to obtain justice for these children, however they called for greater safeguards for some of the world’s most vulnerable children.
Rebekah Read a lawyer in the team at Leigh Day which specialises in representing children overseas who have been abused by British perpetrators said they had seen too many cases of sex tourism.
The team brought the landmark case against the British Airways pilot Simon Wood who committed suicide before facing trial for allegedly abusing children in Kenya and Uganda.
Ms Read said “The survivors of abuse overseas, who are hugely traumatised, find it impossible to understand how and why these abusers managed to travel to their country when suspicions were raised about their behaviour in the UK.
According to the Guardian, Frost was convicted for an indecent assault on a boy under the age of 16 in 1998 and placed on the sex offenders register for 10 years.
Despite this he travelled to Guernsey and France and it seems he disappeared from the radar thereafter.
Ms Read continued: “In the past we have represented survivors of abuse perpetrated by charity workers, missionaries and individuals working for British organisations overseas who, by virtue of their status and comparative wealth have been able to exploit some of the most vulnerable children in the world.
“We hope that the conviction of Mark Frost sends a strong signal that British child abusers are not able to evade the law by carrying out these horrific acts overseas.”