blog: Action to End Exploitation

By Donna Porter
From Associated Content

Kent Frank of Miami, FL was convicted today of eight counts of sex tourism and child pornography charges following a five-week trial in federal court. His sexual victims extended to Cambodia, and after almost two days of deliberations the federal jury in Miami found Frank guilty of eight counts charged in a 10-count indictment. The trial was held before Judge Adalberto Jordan.

Child sex tourists are individuals that travel to foreign countries to engage in sexual activity with children. It is estimated that more than one million children worldwide are drawn into the sex trade annually. The victims frequently live in poor countries where the law is thought to be more easily avoided or corrupted. These poverty-stricken areas are home to children who are sold for sexual exploitation, or who sell themselves, for basic necessities such as food.

The jury found that Frank engaged in commercial sex acts with three minors during two separate trips to Cambodia between September 2003 and January 2004. Evidence showed that Frank paid three Cambodian minors money so that he could take sexually explicit and nude pictures of the girls. The jury heard evidence that the defendant took sexually explicit images of several other minors in addition to the four females referenced in the indictment. (more…)

April 4th 2007
From the Kenya Times

With her sleeping six-month-old baby daughter under one arm, 17-year-old Alice (not her real name) explains why she moved to Mombasa from ‘up country’, and how she joined the growing ranks of young girls involved in the commercial sex trade on the Kenyan coast.

“When I was sixteen, I became pregnant and my parents were very upset. They threw me out of my home and I dropped out of school, so my boyfriend and I decided to move to Mombasa to start a new life. After three months he left me, and I had to find a way to make money. There are no jobs around here, and I had no money. I had to buy food to feed my growing baby. I just carried on from there,” she said.

Serving ideally ‘mzungu’ male tourists, but otherwise locals, she does not see herself as a prostitute, preferring instead to be referred to as someone who practices ‘bangaisha,’ a ‘Sheng’ word meaning ‘soliciting for business’.

According to a United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report, commercial sex tourism is growing rapidly on the Kenyan coast, and gaining increasing acceptance as a valid way of earning an income, spurred on by a flourishing tourism industry. According to the Kenya Tourism Board, 1.68 million tourists visited Kenya in 2005. (more…)

Tuesday, March 13 2007

By Mata Press Service

The arrest of an English teacher from Canada for allegedly attempting to have sex with a 13-year-old Cambodia beggar girl has once again put the spotlight on the child sex tourism in the poor Asian nation.

The arrest has also prompted calls by anti-child sex trade activists to charge the man under Canada’s child sex tourism laws, which has only been used once before. “We are calling on the Canadian government to investigate the serious allegation against this individual, and if they are substantiated to lay charges under Canada’s child sex tourism laws,” said Sabrina Sullivan, Managing Director of The Future Group.

The Cambodian Daily reported that Richard Beaulac, a 35-year-old man from Quebec has been charged in Cambodia with the attempted rape of a 13 year-old girl, who was a street beggar.

It said that Beaulac entered Cambodia on January 1 and has been working in the tourist town of Siem Reap as an English teacher.

Beaulac allegedly picked up the 13-year old girl and three other female street children and took them back to his apartment, according to Sun Bunthang, provincial anti-human trafficking police chief. (more…)

Neal Hall, Vancouver Sun
Published: Thursday, March 29, 2007

A 56-year-old Burnaby man accused of sex tourism crimes in three countries was granted bail today by Vancouver provincial court Judge Thomas Gove.

The judge set a number of bail conditions on Kenneth Robert Klassen: that he post a $50,000 surety, report regularly to his bail supervisor, not change his residence without a court order, not possess a video camera and not to be alone with a girl under the age of 18.

Klassen, an international art dealer who is married with three children, appeared in court dressed in an orange jail-issue sweatshirt and red pants.

He was arrested March 9 and charged with 35 sex tourism counts involving six underage Colombian girls, eight Cambodians and three in the Philippines.

It is alleged the girls were as young as nine years old. He faces a maximum of 10 years in prison if convicted.

It is the first time in Canada that a person charged under the sex tourism law will go to trial, where the law may be challenged for the first time.
The previous case of a Vancouver man ended in a guilty plea. The law is intended to protect children in foreign countries from sexual exploitation by Canadians. (more…)

Thursday, March 29, 2007
From the associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal appeals court has dismissed an indictment against a Bainbridge Island man accused of traveling to Asia to have sex with minors.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled the indictment against Gary Evans Jackson only met one of two elements enabling a prosecution under April 2003 federal legislation making such conduct punishable in the United States.

Jackson faced years behind bars if convicted under the Exploitation of Children Today Act. But the appeals court said the law did not apply to Jackson because it required that he travel to the foreign country and engage in illegal sex acts after the law was passed.

Jackson moved to Cambodia in 2001, well before the law was adopted. He was accused of having sex with boys in Cambodia after the law was passed.

Jackson pleaded guilty in 2005 to having sex with children under 18 in Cambodia on the condition that he could challenge the law on grounds it did no apply to him.

To read the official United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Ciruit opinion on the case, please click here