Sun, sea, sand…and sex - Scotland on Sunday August 25 08
Not by Andrew Drummond. But quotes him. An overview of touring child abusers and some of the cases Andrew Drummond has covered
Link to Scotland on Sunday article
Published Date: 24 August 2008
By Dani Garavelli
IN HEATHROW Airport, the atmosphere was tense. As the plane bound from Thailand touched down, police officers took up their positions, paparazzi photographers raised their cameras and curious bystanders moved in for a closer look.
Then the moment they had all been waiting for: journalists hollered and bulbs flashed as a gaunt Gary Glitter, aka Paul Gadd, stepped into the arrivals hall, smiling for all the world as if he were still a rock star being greeted by his fans.
The days when Glitter’s name evoked affection and nostalgia are long gone: years touring the world in search of underage sex have transformed him from ageing glam rocker to international pariah. The unrelenting publicity surrounding his release – as he bounced like a pinball from country to country looking for sanctuary – may have been unedifying, but it has served a purpose. It has drawn attention to a global phenomenon which produces hundreds of thousands of victims a year but very few convictions: sex tourism. More specifically, child sex tourism. In Heathrow on the day of Glitter’s arrival, it is likely some of the men in the departure lounge were jetting off on holiday with the express purpose of having sex with children.
Glitter is far from alone in using foreign countries as an outlet for proclivities that would not be tolerated at home. Every year, thousands of Britons living outwardly respectable lives travel to holiday resorts such as Pattaya in Thailand or Goa in India, known for their thriving sex industries, or to Vietnam, Cambodia or former Eastern Bloc countries such as the Czech Republic and Estonia, to buy sexual gratification. A proportion will be paedophiles looking for boys and girls to abuse far away from their domestic moral strictures. It is not difficult for tourists to find poverty-stricken children willing to spend a few hours in a cheap hotel room for the price of dinner.
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