Diving and pedophilia don't mix

[MoonWrasse]

Hopefully this story isn't true. I'd like to think my fellow divers are a bit better than the average Joe.

http://www.phuketgazette.net/news/index.asp?id=4745

Swiss man arrested on pedophilia charges

PHANG NGA (The Nation): A 53-year-old Swiss national, Bernhard Rudolf Hager, has been arrested and charged with pedophilia and illegal detention of three underage Thai boys, police said yesterday.

The arrest came after the US Federal Bureau of Investigation provided Thai police with a photo taken from the Internet, which showed a foreigner molesting young Thai boys, police said.

In the photo, the foreigner wore a T-shirt with the name of a dive shop in the Khao Lak area.

Hager initially confessed to the charges and, if convicted, would face up to 15 years in prison, police said.

Pol Maj Gen Kumronwit Toopkrajang, head of the Children’s and Women’s Welfare Division, said Hager has been charged with molesting three boys aged under 15.

“The FBI sent the picture to my office last month, and police spent about one month tracking him down,” Gen Kumronwit said.

Police also found the three boys pictured in the photo, and they confirmed that they had been molested, he added.

Gen Kumronwit said Hager’s modus operandi was to invite boys from poor families to stay with him and work at the dive shop, but during the night he would molest them and then give them 100 to 200 baht.

Police also confiscated pornographic materials from the suspect, including CDs and videos, as well as his computer and camera.

 

[JonnieB]

Not really sure this post belongs here...there are bad people everywhere in every walk of life so don't really see the relevance of posting about someone in the dive industry being arrested for an illegal activity. Maybe everytime I run a red-light or exceed the speed limit here in Thailand I should post a report about it :huh: :11doh: :10:

 

[Ringo]

Moonwrasse this individual was employed by a reputable dive operation in Khao Lak - unfortunate for them as they have worked hard over the year's to earn a good reputation. So not only have they had to recover from their losses from the Tsunami but now have to deal with the bad publicity through an employee.

 

[Tanked]

Not really sure this post belongs here...there are bad people everywhere in every walk of life so don't really see the relevance of posting about someone in the dive industry being arrested for an illegal activity. Maybe everytime I run a red-light or exceed the speed limit here in Thailand I should post a report about it :huh: :11doh: :10:

Slightly different situation

 

[MoonWrasse]

Not really sure this post belongs here...there are bad people everywhere in every walk of life so don't really see the relevance of posting about someone in the dive industry being arrested for an illegal activity. Maybe everytime I run a red-light or exceed the speed limit here in Thailand I should post a report about it :huh: :11doh: :10:

Pedophilia is a VERY serious crime. The damage done to the victims is often carried throughout their lives. I think that you were just being flippant in your comparison to moving violations.

Why post it here? If this person is a predator on children, and present within the diving community, there are many divers who might be concerned about exposing family members to such an individual.

 

[Ringo]

Quite agree with Moonwrasse - would you like your children to dive with such a person?

 

[MoonWrasse]

Moonwrasse this individual was employed by a reputable dive operation in Khao Lak - unfortunate for them as they have worked hard over the year's to earn a good reputation. So not only have they had to recover from their losses from the Tsunami but now have to deal with the bad publicity through an employee.

I don't think the particular dive shop was mentioned. I'm sure they are also somewhat traumatized by this revelation and I hope they recover from this second crises.

 

[The Kraken]

MoonWrasse,

Thank you for bringing this thread back into the realms of civility.

Both you and Dlndavid are correct in that bad things exists everywhere.

MoonWrasse simply brought to the surface a specific area in the world where an attrocious event took place withing the sphere of the diving community.

It would best be served to concentrate on the incident that occurred as set forth by the creation of the thread.

Thanx, guys . . .

the K

 

[drbill]

Glad that the mods stepped in on this one as it was developing along the lines of a few other insulting threads in the recent past. Hey, we're all divers and should focus on that common interest.
Pedophilia is a serious offense. In this case, I don't believe the trial has occurred so one should have the presumption of "innocence" until the perpetrator is tried and found guilty. It does sound like a slam dunk case though. Fortunately the dive operator will not suffer from this thread since the shop is unnamed here.

 

[Kim]

Final Warning.
Would everybody stop with the off topic political stuff. If it continues now I will be forced to remove the thread. Please keep any further comments to the original topic. I have removed posts which I deemed to be inappropriate.