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Journey to despair

James was 12 when former outback hotel operators and failed adventure film-makers Michael Steel and Mark Bottrill first clapped eyes on him.

Although Bottrill and Steel told locals they intended to start a charter boat business in the Solomons, it never eventuated and villagers thought of them as little more than oddities who spent a great deal of time entertaining children at their home or on their cruise yacht.

No one suspected the pair, who had already been convicted of sex offences in Australia, of any impropriety.

In Solomon Islands, like communities throughout the Pacific and South-East Asia, child sexual abuse is unimaginable, making them easy targets for Western paedophiles.

After befriending James's family, Steel and Bottrill convinced his parents to let him spend Christmas in Adelaide, a chance of a lifetime for anybody in a country where a trip to the next island is a once-a-decade event.

Steel and Bottrill paid for James's air fares, his passport and travelling costs, and in late November 1996 a wide-eyed James landed in Brisbane. They met the boy at the airport and the trio spent two weeks driving back to Morgan, a small town in the South Australian Riverland, in a camper van.

After arriving home, Bottrill and Steel spent three days, including Christmas Day 1996, abusing the 13-year-old boy.

With little English, no money, no understanding of local laws and a long way from home, James was saved from further abuse only by a concerned neighbour. The neighbour, who had always had suspicions about Steel and Bottrill, phoned police on Boxing Day and the boy was immediately taken into protective custody, where he provided authorities with a harrowing account of his abuse.

Police initially wanted to prosecute Bottrill and Steel under the (Crimes) Child Sex Tourism Act of 1994, groundbreaking legislation that allows paedophiles to be prosecuted not only for crimes committed in Australia but also overseas.

At one point, two other boys were flown from the Solomons to Australia to be interviewed by authorities, but language and cultural difficulties meant prosecution under the Child Sex Tourism Act was abandoned. The boys, it was decided, would be unlikely to withstand the rigours of cross-examination.

In the end, Steel and Bottrill were prosecuted under local South Australian laws and sentenced to four years' jail, with a minimum of two, by the High Court in 1997. Both are now free men.

As for James, he was returned home, where he remained listless and struggled to come to terms with the abuse. Despite counselling, he still has not been fully accepted back by his village and has had several run-ins with the law.

Bernadette McMenamin of Childwise - a welfare group that monitors child sex tourism and was set up 10 years ago last week - says James's story highlights the problems police have in successfully prosecuting child sex tourists. Although Steel and Bottrill were convicted for the abuse of James, McMenamin says their alleged crimes against other boys in the Solomon Islands will remain unprosecuted.

Although Australia led the world when it introduced child sex tourism laws in 1994, there have been just 12 successful convictions of Australians involved in child sex tourism, an industry that continues to flourish. Four other prosecution cases were dismissed. The most high profile involved John Scott Holloway, a former senior Australian diplomat who was charged with sexually abusing boys in Cambodia in 1994.

The case was dismissed at the committal stage in 1996 when a magistrate said evidence from the boys, who were mostly street children, was unreliable.

Holloway returned overseas and when last heard of was working as an consultant to the Cambodian government.

McMenamin says Australian men are among the world's worst child sex offenders. Australians hold the dubious honour of being the first Westerners charged with sex abuse of minors in several countries including Thailand, the Philippines, Fiji, Samoa and East Timor. Australian child sex offenders have been identified in a further 20 countries.

Wherever child prostitution occurs as an industry, McMenamin says, large numbers of Australian men can be found. And it is not just the traditional fleshpots such as Thailand and the Philippines where men travel to have sex with children.

"What's notable about Australians is the sheer number of destinations they turn up in. Americans tend to appear in central America, while Germans and European paedophiles seem to turn up in pockets of Asia," McMenamin says. "But Australian men turn up everywhere. They operate underage brothels in the Philippines. They even get caught in First World countries such as the US."

More recently, authorities have identified an increase in paedophiles travelling to Bali and the Philippines.

Last month, convicted sex offender Wilfred Mentink, was detained by East Timorese police after they found a computer with child pornography aboard his yacht.

And yachts are increasingly used by paedophiles to enter many countries because they are rarely subjected to the scrutiny travellers arriving by plane are put through.

In Bali, Australian authorities are aware of anecdotal evidence that three children died after being abused by men in the north of the island, a known haunt of sex offenders.

Grant Edwards, head of the Australian Federal Police's Transnational Sexual Exploitation Trafficking Team, says although the number of paedophiles travelling overseas is increasing, new investigative techniques and education programs are combating the problem.

"We have 50 officers based overseas who are providing us with information all the time," Edwards says. "It is a global problem. paedophiles tend to be very cunning and know how to avoid prosecution."

While McMenamin applauds the work of the Government and the AFP, she says more needs to be done.

Childwise this week launched a television advertising campaign to increase the profile of the issue and will letterbox 600,000 homes this month.

Next year, Childwise will lobby the Australian Government to make it mandatory for convicted sex offenders to tell authorities when they are travelling overseas.

"These men aren't going to Cambodia or Thailand to enjoy the culture. Everybody knows why they are going. Anybody who has ever caught a flight to the Philippines knows exactly what I mean," McMenamin says. "They need to be actively discouraged before they go."

As for the dangers signs, Edwards says there are no fail-safe ways to identify a paedophile - "they could be just about anybody" - but he urges anyone with concerns to contact police.

"We want the public to know that any information will be taken seriously. If you see men gathering with young children, or you have suspicions about people you know, we want to hear about," Edwards says.

Offenders brought to justice

Anthony Raymond Carr, NSW
Carr became the first person convicted under child sex tourism laws when he was sentenced to five years' jail for sex offences committed against a five-year-old girl in the Philippines.

Andrew Justin Harman, Victoria
Harman was convicted of sex offences against his 18-month-old niece and three-year-old nephew while on holiday in the US. He was sentenced to two years and six months jail.

Raymond Colin Smith, NSW
Smith was convicted in June 2002 of committing sexual acts with two six-year-old girls in the Philippines.

John Arthur Lee, WA
Lee was sentenced to 11 years' jail in 1999 after he bragged to workmates of sexually assaulting girls in Cambodia. Authorities later discovered photographs Lee had taken of girls in Cambodia.

David John Gillard, NSW
Gillard, a Baptist Church missionary, was sentenced this year to eight years' imprisonment after pleading guilty to 12 counts of child sexual abuse while working at a church children's camp in the Philippines.

Harry Ernst Ruppert, Victoria
Ruppert was given a six-month suspended sentence after a tip-off he was organising a child sex ring in Ghana. He pleaded guilty to planning the child sex ring.