Five pedophiles escape Bali after media hype

Five pedophiles escape Bali after media hype

Wahyoe Boediwardhana, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar, Bali

A senior police officer revealed on Friday that five suspected
pedophiles had left the resort island of Bali, following the
arrest of a former Australian diplomat last month on charges of
molesting two local children.

Sr. Comr. Boy Salamuddin, the director of Bali Provincial
Police criminal investigation division, admitted that the
suspects fled Bali due to poor police intelligence work.

"The fled Bali after the local press made the arrest of former
diplomat, William Brown headline news," he said.

All the suspects are foreign nationals and believed to be
members of an international pedophile network that preys on local
children, particularly those from destitute areas in the island's
eastern and northern mountainous regions.

"They have left Bali and we have not been able to determine
their whereabouts yet," he said on the sidelines of a workshop on
pedophilia coorganized by Bali Provincial Police and the
Committee Against Sexual Abuse (CASA).

CASA is a local forum dedicated to preventing the sexual
exploitation of the island's children.

Separately, Bali Police deputy chief Brig. Gen. Teguh
Soedarsono stated that the Australian Federal Police (AFP) had
assigned Paul Honniford, a senior officer from AFP's sexual
exploitation and trafficking team, to train local police on how
to tackle and investigate pedophile cases.

"The officer has been closely monitoring the development of
William Brown's case. He has also been assisting investigators in
preventing similar crimes from taking place in the future
considering the fact that this island is regularly visited by a
large number foreign tourists, including pedophiles," he said.

The AFP has also sent two other senior officers, Grant Edward
and Michael Kelsey, who had shared their experience in handling
pedophilia cases to the workshop's participants.

"Indonesian Law still treats pedophile cases as an ordinary
sexual crime, while there is a good probability that the victim
will perpetuate the crime when they reach adulthood," he said.

The workshop, Teguh stated, had provided the police officers
with information and knowledge that would help them in providing
the public with appropriate and adequate measures to confront
pedophilic crimes.