In attesa delle scuse del nostro governo, leggete qui: l'italiano David Costa Ruggero era già stato arrestato in Thailandia nel 2007 per gli stessi reati, uscito su cauzione doveva ancora affrontare il processo. Le nostre autorità non gli avevano neanche ritirato il passaporto! MINISTRO ANDREA RONCHI IL SUO GOVERNO HA PRESENTATO LE SUE SCUSE???
Tourists suspected of underage sex crimes
- By: WASSAYOS NGAMKHAM and AFP
- Published: 21/03/2009 at 12:00 AM
- Newspaper section: News
Thai, Australian police work to make arrests
Thai and Australian police have arrested three men accused of sexual offences against Thai minors while on holiday here in a joint operation.
Police escort Italian David Costa Ruggero
after interrogating him about alleged
sex offences against minors.
by TAWATCHAI KEMGUMNERD
Under the joint operation codenamed "Hercules", Australian Richard Jeremy Morrush and Italian David Costa Ruggero, both 60, were arrested yesterday in Pattaya, Chon Buri province.
The third suspect, another Australian identified as David Anthony Hadson, 41, was arrested in Australia.
The suspects were charged with plotting to lure boys under 15 to have sex with them and with the physical or psychological abuse of their victims.
The three came to Thailand as tourists in 2007 and went to Pattaya where they committed sexual offences against three 14-year-old boys, police alleged.
Police also alleged that Mr Morrush committed similar crimes in Australia before he came to Thailand.
Mr Ruggero was arrested by Thai police in 2007 on similar charges. He was released on bail and the case is pending in court, police said.
Both Mr Morrush and Mr Ruggero denied all the charges and remained tight-lipped yesterday, said Pol Col Suwipol Imjairat, deputy chief of the Crime Against Children, Juveniles and Women Suppression Division.
Mr Morrush fainted during his arrest and had to be sent to the Police General Hospital, the officer added. Police are checking a computer laptop seized from Mr Morrush to see if it contained any illegal images.
Police began looking into the case involving the three foreigners after they were informed by the Australian Federal Police that suspects in sex crimes they were investigating had travelled to Thailand.
The Australian police said yesterday the three were charged with child sex tourism, child sex abuse and child pornography offences.
Britain's child exploitation and online protection centre also assisted with the investigation, they added.
The Australian Federal Police "will not tolerate any form of child abuse in Australia or anywhere in the world, and will continue to work with local and overseas counterparts to arrest those behind child exploitation", said spokesman David Stewart.
Last year, officers arrested four foreigners accused of similar offences in Thailand. They were middle-aged men from England, the US and Germany.
Meanwhile, at the Southeast Asia Conference on Child Sex Tourism in Indonesia yesterday, Southeast Asian nations were urged to do more to tackle child sex tourism as the global economic crisis has exposed more young people to exploitation.
"The current economic crisis will increase children's vulnerability to sex tourism," participants from governments, aid groups and corporations said.
"Poverty remains a root cause of child sex tourism. Other factors include limited access to education, gender relations, and weak law enforcement capacity," the conference said in a resolution.
Asean governments should "enforce legislation to prosecute child sex offenders and where relevant collaborate regionally and internationally to ensure successful prosecution", it said.
The three-day conference heard earlier that more than 70,000 children across Asia were victims of child sex tourism and that children living in areas exposed to natural disasters, particularly orphans, were at increased risk of abuse.The conference is being held on the Indonesian island of Bali and has attracted participants from 17 countries including Australia, France, Germany, Japan and the Netherlands.
