Just spotted this breaking story on Sky's news feed. No further details are available:

quote:

Thai police: 74-year-old British man arrested for alleged sexual abuse of children.

Also: South Cumbrian Man Quizzed

Not sure if the stories are related. Such a shame they're associated with Thailand, though.

Okay, the first story is breaking at the moment. The Daily Mail have picked it up in the last few minutes and I'm sure other organisations will follow shortly.

Here's the latest: Click Here.

quote:

Originally posted by Cliff.
Not sure if the stories are related. Such a shame they're associated with Thailand, though.

Lose the myopic vision Cliff.

IT's a SE Asia thing, not just Thailand.

It's more a world wide thing. Kids are easy targets period...don't matter what country they come from. There's just as much abuse going on in the West as there is in Asia I would imagine. You never know what goes on behind closed doors, whether it's behind a front door in your street or a front door in some town in Cambodia. It's been going on since the dawn of time & no doubt always will. It can be a sick, unfair world at times.

Thaddeus,

There are two (possibly three) high-profile cases involving the alleged sexual abuse of Thai children currently in the world news. As they're all related to Thailand, I don't think my comment is unusual or out of place on this forum.

quote:

Originally posted by SteveR here:
It is somewhat depressing that these people continually seem to be arrested in, or linked with Thailand

A colleague suggested to me that Thailand should make it illegal to have sex with children! Do you see how people are perceiving things? Needless to say, everyone who goes to Pattaya is a 'sex-tourist', whatever that is.

quote:

Lose the myopic vision Cliff.

IT's a SE Asia thing, not just Thailand.

I agree with CJ:

Lose the myopic vision Thad. It's a worldwide thing, not just SE Asia.

I also don't think Cliff is implying 'it's a Thai thing', just that it's a shame recent news events have come from Thailand.

quote:

Originally posted by maokaang:
I also don't think Cliff is implying 'it's a Thai thing', just that it's a shame recent news events have come from Thailand.

Yes exactly. Thanks for clarifying that, Paul.

quote:

Originally posted by Casey Jones:
It's more a world wide thing. Kids are easy targets period...don't matter what country they come from.

For the West, (particularly Britain) I think the sort of bogeyman preying on kids is more and more of a myth hyped up by the media these days. Over the last 30 years this sort of crime has been getting more and more attention - parents seem more paranoid and authorities are definitely more rigouous in investigating this sort of crime and also in preventing it. Just notice the Lesley Molseed murder in today's news. Child predators were less easily detected 30 years ago. However, in today's media there seems to be an obsession that these sorts of molesting criminals lurk around every corner - but Soham cases and Sarah Payne cases only happen every 5-10 years. It is an obsession that is reflected in the coverage of the McCann case where people desperately want to believe that some mysterious bogeyman has taken this girl rather than what may be the more rational answer.

Real child predators such as Gary Glitter have been exploiting the lax policing of such crimes in South East Asia to try and get away with this kind of despicable criminal behaviour. To hear that Thai police now have better methods, resources and determination to root out these predators is good news. Hopefully in another decade or so such crimes will be just as much of a myth in SE Asia as they are in today's western society.

quote:

Originally posted by Henson:
For the West, (particularly Britain) I think the sort of bogeyman preying on kids is more and more of a myth hyped up by the media these days.

Wrong, sadly very wrong.

Over 77,000 children go missing in the UK each year (source).

Not all are abducted, of course; some are runaways. But one has to ask what they are running away from.

quote:

Originally posted by Noi & Nick:
Over 77,000 children go missing in the UK each year

I find this an extraordinary figure! I can't see the source they use for these figures nor how many of the 77,000 turn up again somewhere? And the site talks about kids going missing, not kidnapped by the local bogeymen for their own messy purposes. I don't think you can speculate on the reasons?

quote:

Originally posted by Henson:

quote:

Originally posted by Casey Jones:
It's more a world wide thing. Kids are easy targets period...don't matter what country they come from.

For the West, (particularly Britain) I think the sort of bogeyman preying on kids is more and more of a myth hyped up by the media these days. ....................... Hopefully in another decade or so such crimes will be just as much of a myth in SE Asia as they are in today's western society.

Henson

I can't believe I just read that! We aren't just talking about high profile murders of children, often involving sexual abuse, though they seem to be far more of a regular occurrence in the west than you are suggesting, but also systematic sexual abuse of children who remain alive. Such as (a random selection):
Shildon

Edinburgh

Global

Denmark

Sorry Henson but they are no more a myth here than anywhere else. This kind of thing has probably always happend & probably always will. There are plenty of web sites/forums dedicated to HELP those 'adults' ( yesterdays victims ) that were abused ( physical/mental/sexual ) as children. Maybe you should spend some time reading a few of them as it may help you see what really goes on in the world for some folk. Here is but one such site. There are many many more. This site is pretty 'tame' in comparison to some.

Victims Forum Web Site

Nick,

A rough calculation shows that this is suggesting 1 in 10 go missing by the age of 16. Do you think these figures are representing what you think they mean?

BigRed

quote:

Originally posted by caller:
I can't see the source they use for these figures

From their homepage

quote:

A Police Website Dedicated to Finding Missing and Abducted Children

So I guess their source is the police!

A bit of research will probaly show how many are abducted and how many are runaways. How many are found, harmed and unharmed, and how many are never seen again.

However the figures break down, what this site, and those linked to by others, shows is that Henson's assertion that child abuse in the UK is a myth is utter rubbish. Unfortunately.

I agree, the attitude that chilc sex crimes and abuse is hyped up is naive and ignorant. Although I do not normally lilke the media sensationalising news, if high profile coverage helps just one child avoid being dragged into this world then it is all worth while.

Just a comment on that website, an overwhelming majority of them seem to come from ethnic or immigrant groups, as well as most being in their mid-to late teens.

Would be interesting to find out the real stories behind many of them.

quote:

Originally posted by ginodan:
the attitude that chilc sex crimes and abuse is hyped up is naive and ignorant.

well, I dont want to get dragged into a statistics war but Id be interested to know the figures for child sex crimes now compared with the 1980s, 70s, 60s etc. I doubt there is a significant increase to be detected yet the media certainly has seen an increased focus on these types of cases. You can certainly say that British parents/police/media are 100% honed to "stranger dangers" to an extent that other societies are not. Societies such as Thailand have had other priorities even though child protection issues here are more serious due to poverty and the influx of foreign predators with money. The increased detection of these predators is good news and maybe one day Thailand will experience the same media obsession with this as we do. Once that happens it will be a sign that the problem is beginning to be rooted out.

I still think its sad that people in the West believe that stranger danger is a serious and growing problem when the eveidence is only anecdotal. When I was a child i roamed freely all around town with my friends - my parents and other parents were not paranoid thinking that paedophiles lurked everywhere. in fact, I never knew there was such a thing as a paedophile until I saw some programme on TV about it when i was about 16. At the time we just thought it strange that there were such bizarre people around - not that every stranger or neighbour might be one. At the Danish equivalent of Halloween we knocked on every door we could find in order to get as much "loot" as possible - we had no warnings about certain stranger dangers and we never encountered such. What seems bizarre to me is that my own children cannot possibly experience a similarly carefree upbringing

quote:

I still think its sad that people in the West believe that stranger danger is a serious and growing problem when the eveidence is only anecdotal. When I was a child i roamed freely all around town with my friends

You had one sort of childhood, others have had a very different one. You ask them if their experiences were only "anecdotal". I'm afraid you & many others like you are looking at life through rose tinted glasses if you honestly believe that.

quote:

Originally posted by Casey Jones:

quote:

I still think its sad that people in the West believe that stranger danger is a serious and growing problem when the eveidence is only anecdotal. When I was a child i roamed freely all around town with my friends

You had one sort of childhood, others have had a very different one. You ask them if their experiences were only "anecdotal". I'm afraid you & many others like you are looking at life through rose tinted glasses if you honestly believe that.

Well, it can be a long argument. I guess it depends on whether you want the sad experiences of a few to dominate the world views of everyone. Just because some people have experienced child abuse why do young people and their parents today have to be brainwashed into thinking that every stranger is potential paedophile - to regard everything with suspicion? I think its a sad development. We want a 100% safe society but in creating that we are also losing something - thats all Im saying.

quote:

I guess it depends on whether you want the sad experiences of a few to dominate the world views of everyone. Just because some people have experienced child abuse why do young people and their parents today have to be brainwashed into thinking that every stranger is potential paedophile - to regard everything with suspicion?

I don't recall seeing this mentioned in this particular thread Henson.

quote:

Originally posted by maokaang:

quote:

Lose the myopic vision Cliff.

IT's a SE Asia thing, not just Thailand.

I agree with CJ.

Lose the myopic vision Thad. It's a worldwide thing, not just SE Asia.

I also don't think Cliff is implying 'it's a Thai thing', just that it's a shame recent news events have come from Thailand.

Ok, I phrased that badly.

Child abuse is a world wide phenomenon, that is a given. But when one of the low lives that perform these acts decides to make a run for it, they have a habit of choosing a location were they are either not important enough for the police to waste any time on (their attitude, not mine) or a place where their actions may not be considered 'the norm' but are certainly not unknown.

There are a few countries in the west that suit that description, but there are more than a couple in SE Asia.

Is the reason that Thailand's name appears so often in these cases down to the fact that it is the number one choice as a bolt hole, or is it down to the fact that they are better at catching them here?

Dare I mention a certain Mr Gadd.... he wasn't a one off.... but it was pressure from outside the region that was his downfall (coupled with his own stupidity) ultimately.

quote:

Originally posted by Henson:
When I was a child i roamed freely all around town with my friends - my parents and other parents were not paranoid thinking that paedophiles lurked everywhere.

Major difference between now and then, the internet. Paedophiles may have been lurking everywhere but they were isolated and alone and, in many cases, frightened. Having said that, I did witness a fairly serious assault on my cousin, without even realising it until all the adults started flying around and we had to go to the police station.

I agree with you that it's a shame that my kids can't enjoy the same kind of carefree existence that I did, though it's the casual and random violence that worries me more. However, if they can grow up without the baggage that abuse victims who I know personally have to carry around with them, then it will have been a small price to pay.