'No evidence against Briton'

'No evidence against Briton'

MANILA (Reuter): Philippines investigators said yesterday they had no evidence against a British tour operator accused in a British television report of supplying Filipino children for sex with paedophiles.

Mamerto Espartero of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said Michael Clarke was invited to headquarters to clarify reports about foreign paedophiles supposedly enjoying NBI protection.

"We don't have any evidence against him and we cannot charge him criminally," Espartero told reporters.

Clarke said a recent British television news program linking him to child sex tours had been "doctored". "I deny all allegations made against me," Clarke, 48, of Eastbourne in Sussex, said in a statement. "I swear to God and on my only daughter's life that I am telling the truth.".

There are an estimated 85,000 street children and 20,000 child prostitutes in the Philippines, most of them in Manila, according to government studies.