British traffic cop turns to ‘sex trafficker’ Picture left AP
From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok
May 21 2008
A former Liverpool traffic policeman was arrested in Thailand yesterday for trafficking in women to the sex slave trade in Britain.
Ian Shuttleworth, aged 42, was arrested at his Bangkok apartment after a tip of to Thai police.
He is alleged to have ‘ridden shotgun’ escorting women to Britain supposedly to get jobs in Thai restaurants.
He not only charged the women a fee but sold them on, one for £28,000, and allegedly took sexual liberties from his victims in the process, claimed Thai police.
At the time Shuttleworth was living on a disability pension – while at the same time running a private detective agency checking out whether Thai girlfriends of British holiday makers were remaining faithful.
His arrest followed Met Police raids in London which resulted in 30 Thai women being released from the sex trade.
Nine Thai citizens appeared at Westminster Magistrates Court on April 22 in connection with the trafficking ring which involved five brothels in the London area.
They were accused of running brothels, sexual exploitation and money laundering.
Many of the victims claimed they were forced to sleep with men to pay off debts of up to £28,000.
In Shuttleworth’s case he is specifically accused of offering a Thai woman a job in London. He flew with her then once they had entered Britain he forced her to have sex with him in London, Coventry and Scotland before he sold her to a brothel Madame in a London restaurant.
The victim, who was sold to Pongpoj Pitayanakul, aged 31, a married women and one of the nine facing court charges, told police that her father paid Shuttleworth the 530,000 Thai baht (£8,300) to get her a visa and job in a restaurant in the U.K.
She later gave a statement to police, said Police General Panya Maman, who added that charges had yet to be placed.
For the last four years Shuttleworth has been running a private detective agency in Bangkok called Thai-PI (www.thai-pi.com) from a rented suite in the city’s Sukhumvit Road. After retiring from Merseyside police with a disability pension due to a back proble,. He works in partnership with another former British policeman who founded the agency and who is now back in Britain.
The company website, which was closed down last night claimed that Thai-Pi was started by a former British detective with experience in investigating murder, anti-terrorism, drug trafficking and intelligence. The second partner was also a former policeman.
Among his agency’s special services are ‘Peace of Mind’ reports. Over pictures of Bangkok a-go-go dancers, he asked: ‘Wonder what she’s doing? Need Reassurance???? Thai Pi. Diligence and Confidentiality.
Shuttleworth, born in St.Helen’s Merseysaid has denied being involved in woman trafficking. But he has made no statement to police.
‘They must arrest me in the circumstances because of the allegation that has been made.
‘At the moment, I don’t really know exactly what the situation is,’ he said.
His son James, who is in Bangkok told BBC London: ‘I know my dad has nothing to worry about.’
Nobody was available for comment at his office yesterday. An English woman who answered his phone, who said she was not related to Shuttleworth said: ‘I don’t know what is happening. I don’t know where he is.’
Yesterday the owner of a bar in Patpong, Bangkok, where Shuttleworth was a regular said: ‘This is difficult to believe. Ian is such a nice guy.’
In a letter to the Bangkok Post newspaper yesterday Alayne Howard Head of Visa Services at the British Embassy in Bangkok responded to suggestions by a reader that influential agents had been able to easily gain visas for Thai girls to Britain.
‘We are aware of a number of agents operating throughout Thailand there agents are not way connected to the Embassy and have no influence over the outcome of an application,’ he said.
Ex-Liverpool CID officer arrested in Thailand for sex trafficking – Liverpool Post
Former police officer arrested in Thailand for sending sex slaves to U.K. – Daily Mail
