[Vobomei]

Canadian jailed 25 years for running Thai child brothel

NEW YORK: A United States federal judge yesterday jailed a Canadian man for 25 years for the 'monstrous conduct' of running a brothel in Thailand where he and American men had sex with Thai boys.

John Wrenshall, 64, had admitted in 2009 that as early as January 2000, he arranged trips to his home during which paedophiles from the US and elsewhere paid him to engage in sex acts with Thai boys as young as four years old. This information came from a statement by Mr Paul Fishman, the US Attorney for the state of New Jersey.

'Wrenshall created a place where innocent children were sexually brutalised as a vacation pastime,' Mr Fishman said. 'Children represent what is best in us, and Wrenshall's monstrous conduct represents the worst.'

Wrenshall, arrested in late 2008 at London's Heathrow Airport and extradited to the US in 2009, pleaded guilty in Newark federal court to conspiracy to engage in sex tourism, conspiracy to produce child pornography and distribution of child pornography.

He drew the attention of the US authorities when in 2008, Interpol took the almost unprecedented step of releasing a photo of a suspected child predator in an effort to uncover his identity.

The image was quickly identified by people as that of Wayne Corliss, a man US officials learnt had travelled to Wrenshall's home to engage in illegal sex acts with boys. Corliss was arrested in New Jersey and is serving a 20-year term.

Two other US clients of Wrenshall's, Burgess Lee Burgess and Mitchell Jackson, have pleaded guilty to sex tourism and were each jailed for 61/2 years.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE