A convicted British child abuser was today being held in custody in Bangkok and is expected to be the second Briton deported under the country’s new anti-paedophile policy.
David Fletcher, 66, from Saffron Walden, Essex, was arrested at a guest house in Bangkok after fleeing Cambodia where he was running a charity for children on a rubbish dump on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.
Fletcher fled Cambodia after his conviction in July 1997 for abusing a 15-yr-old girl came to light in Phnom Penh. Jailing him for 18 months at Norwich Crown Court Judge David Mellor had said: ‘You exploited a young girl with the lure of money and the disinhibitions of drink, then videoed what happened.’
Fletcher, a former hairdressing salon manager with salons in Saffron Walden and Cambridge had negotiated a ?150 dowry to the mother of a 17-yr-old Cambodian girl at the dump for her hand in marriage. But before fleeing he had asked for his engagement ring back.
Gary Robcoy
A spokesman for the Royal Thai Police, Immigration Department said that Fletcher had been arrested under immigration rules.
‘People convicted of sexual offences of minors in their own countries cannot expect a welcome here.’
