US teacher arrested on paedophile charges may get 30 years.

[wowpow]

"Thailand deports US teacher arrested on paedophile charges
Thailand Friday deported an American teacher who has been in jail since being arrested last year on child sex charges, the US Embassy said Friday.
Steven Erik Prowler, 57, allegedly paid money to two boys, aged 15 and 16, to perform oral sex. Following the arrest, police searched his apartment and found more than 100 photos of naked Asian boys, the embassy said in a statement.

Police also obtained his journals describing sexual encounters dating back more than a decade with underage Asian boys. Prowler worked in Bangkok as an English instructor at a government-run school. He will be tried in the United States for engaging in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places. If convicted, Prowler could face up to 30 years in jail." Agence France-Presse via The Nation - breaking news - Friday 12th May 2006

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[bucknaway]

I just saw it on the local news out of Philadelphia... The were showing footage of the alleged perpetrator struggling with Thai officers as if he was to avoid the news media.

[catawampuscat]

While this should be a "word to the wise", it will fall on deaf ears..

The age of consent in the USA is 18 years old. Legally an American can not have sex with ANYONE under the age of 18 no matter where they are on the face of the planet. If an American were in the Czech Republic where the age of consent is 15 and he had sex with a 15 year old he would be subject to American Law.

In the states we talk about the long arm of the law well it reaches all over the world in regards to sex with minors.

A good thing? I don't know for sure. but a lot of people get arrested.

ajarntrade

[Bob]

The age of consent in the USA is 18 years old. ajarntrade

Although I really don't want to get into this discussion, that statement is not correct. Each state sets the age of consent for its territory. A couple of states set it at 18, a couple at 14, and most have it set at 16.

There is a federal (national) law, however, which relates to persons going abroad for the purpose of having sex with minors (defined as under 18 years of age although possibly lower if the age of consent is lower in a particular country).

[wowpow]

Laws always make anomalies but to those of us not used to the State v Federal this seems ludicrous.

So in some US states you can have sex with a 14 year old and it's OK. However, if you go half way round the World and do the same you will get hunted down, arrested, deported and 30 years in Jail.

I am all for obeying the law and especially so in a country like Thailand where the jails are not nice places. I also strongly disapprove of anyone taking advantage of persons not ready to make up their own mind - whatever that age be. The big trouble with the huge publicity given to the arrests and jailings of pederasts is 1) it does not seem to discourage the trade much -it is still blatent 2) It gives Thailand a very bad name and also single males who visit here. When I tell people in the UK that I live in Thailand there is always a raised eyebrow which leaves me thinking that they suspect I go around fucking children.

[lonelywombat]

All the publicity seems to be about little boys. One would almost think that little girls are safe in Thailand.

Some years ago a Thai Government spokeperson admitted there were 200,000 sex workers and that 25% of all sex workers were under 16. He did not suggest they were all male

[wowpow]

Similarly to lonelywombat, I had always thought that the numbers of girls abused would be far more than boys. Then when I was prison visiting in Pattaya our leader said that here that does not seem to be the case. There were many cases of arrests, in his experience, of pederasts with boys and none i.e. zero with girls. He told me that " Underage sex is a totally gay problem". Certainly in the press it is allways underage boys. Some years back there was one case of a Government Minister who resigned over a scandal about him and an underage girls but that is only one case that I have read of in 13 years of visiting and living in Thailand.

Nobody knows how many sex workers there are in Thailand. Guess-timates vary wildly and the divisions of male or female, over or underage. The few surveys that I have read have no concrete conclusions except that by most countries standards there are a lot. None suggst that there are less than 200,000 service workers in Thailand.

I have only been in a few girl go-go bars and those certainly had no underage girls. Girl bars seem to get raided as often as boy bars but I don't read of them being closed due to underage girls working there whereas one often reads and hears of that happening in boy bars. Even the touts on the streets have never offered me young girl but often offered young boy.

What conclusions - well only that the underage boy sex incidence is significant and underage girl sex numbers are small, don't seem to be commercial and possibly do not get reported to the police.

From this very week's Stickman column:

About 5 or so years ago punters were stunned that the then owner of Midnite Bar, a Westerner, had a bunch of underage girls on the staff, including one who was 13 years old, and at least three others who were aged 16 or less. I called him on this and his response was that "if I sent the girls back to their village they would just end up in another bar, so I may as well employ them myself". Since then, Soi Cowboy at times has had an unenviable reputation as a place where underage girls are employed. Unfortunately stories coming out of Soi Cowboy right now re-enforce that reputation. One reader reports of a girl he barfined this week. He was on the way back to his hotel when she became sheepish about her ID. He quickly realised she was not of legal age and abandoned his mission. This particular girl was said to be very distinctive looking with permed hair, nose and tongue studs but no tattoos. It's all a sense of deja vu. I like to think of underage girls much the same way I think of katoeys. If you think they are, then they almost certainly are. Residents of Thailand may have seen the American who was released from a Thai jail this week after doing a year for sex crimes against young kids. He was filmed being handed over to US Government officials who were accompanying him on his extradition back to the US where he will be facing charges related to having sex with minors overseas. He was doing everything he could to avoid going, struggling and trying to resist being handed over. It was a very sorry scene indeed. You do NOT want to end up like that. Stay clear of the young ones. Surely 20 is young enough?

From this very week's Stickman column:

About 5 or so years ago punters were stunned that the then owner of Midnite Bar, a Westerner, had a bunch of underage girls on the staff, including one who was 13 years old, and at least three others who were aged 16 or less. I called him on this and his response was that "if I sent the girls back to their village they would just end up in another bar, so I may as well employ them myself". Since then, Soi Cowboy at times has had an unenviable reputation as a place where underage girls are employed. Unfortunately stories coming out of Soi Cowboy right now re-enforce that reputation. One reader reports of a girl he barfined this week. He was on the way back to his hotel when she became sheepish about her ID. He quickly realised she was not of legal age and abandoned his mission. This particular girl was said to be very distinctive looking with permed hair, nose and tongue studs but no tattoos. It's all a sense of deja vu. I like to think of underage girls much the same way I think of katoeys. If you think they are, then they almost certainly are. Residents of Thailand may have seen the American who was released from a Thai jail this week after doing a year for sex crimes against young kids. He was filmed being handed over to US Government officials who were accompanying him on his extradition back to the US where he will be facing charges related to having sex with minors overseas. He was doing everything he could to avoid going, struggling and trying to resist being handed over. It was a very sorry scene indeed. You do NOT want to end up like that. Stay clear of the young ones. Surely 20 is young enough?