Australia welcomes arrest of fugitive child sex offender
Australia welcomes arrest of fugitive child sex offender
Agencies Canberra/Denpasar
Australia's justice minister congratulated Indonesian and Australian police on Sunday for tracking down and arresting a fugitive Australian child sex offender on the Indonesian resort island of Bali.
Minister Chris Ellison said Paul Thompson, who uses the aliases Paul Spraggs and Paul Jarvis, was arrested on Bali on Friday and deported Saturday in the company of two Australian Federal Police officers.
He was met in Perth late on Saturday by Western Australian police and taken into custody.
Thompson, 55, was sought by Western Australian authorities after he escaped in 1991 from a prison where he was serving a sentence for child sex offenses. He will have to serve the remaining two years of the sentence.
He was also wanted in several other Australian states in relation to similar offenses.
"The rapid location and return to prison in Australia of Thompson demonstrates the close working relationship between the Indonesian and Australian police and the work of the Australian Federal Police force's international network," Ellison said in a statement as quoted by AFP.
"The Indonesian and Australian governments are both strongly committed to protecting our children from sexual abuse and bringing the perpetrators to justice."
The Australian Federal Police has assigned Paul Honniford, a senior officer from the federal police's sexual exploitation and trafficking team, to train police in Bali on how to tackle and investigate pedophile cases.
Bali Police deputy chief Brig. Gen. Teguh Soedarsono said Honniford had been assisting investigators in preventing similar crimes from taking place in the future considering the fact that Bali is regularly visited by a large number foreign tourists, including pedophiles.
The Australian Federal Police have also sent two other senior officers, Grant Edward and Michael Kelsey, to share their experience in handling pedophilia cases during a workshop held by the Bali Police recently.
Bali Police officials said five suspected pedophiles escaped from Bali, following the arrest of a former Australian diplomat last month on charges of molesting two local children, due to poor intelligence work.
All the suspects are foreign nationals and believed to be members of an international pedophile network that targets children, particularly those from impoverished areas.