A court hearing for a suspected Australian pedophile in Cambodia has been delayed because authorities cannot figure out how to access the hundreds of pornographic photos that are allegedly on his computer, a court official said yesterday.
"We cannot see anything. So we're trying to get an expert at the interior ministry to look at it," said an unnamed municipal court official as Damien Walker's court hearing was postponed until later that day.
Walker, 26, was arrested after the Non-Governmental Organization Action Pour les Enfants (Action for Children) tipped off police that he had fondled the genitals of at least six young boys.
The former Christian school teacher is also accused of taking obscene photos of the boys, aged 11 to 14, as well as snaps of himself and his alleged victims in sexually explicit poses, police said.
Walker is expected to be formally charged with debauchery, which covers some child sex offenses.
If convicted, he faces a lengthy prison sentence amid a wider Cambodian crackdown on foreign sex criminals.
Walker spent some of his time in the capital Phnom Penh teaching at the Light of Hope Children's Village, a school for orphaned and abandoned children run by Christian education group International Children's Care Australia, based in Warragul, Victoria.
ICC Australia director Merilyn Beveridge said yesterday that Walker had only worked for the group for "a couple of months" before the arrangement ended.
Beveridge said the organization was "in shock" after hearing of the allegations.
"We were not confident in his work and so he left us before the middle of the year and came back to Australia, and subsequently we have learned he returned to Cambodia to work," Beveridge said.
"He didn't seem to fit in well with the people there. He seemed more friendly with the kids than with the adults, but we did not feel untoward about that happening," she continued.
"He didn't like to follow the rule that no adult should be with children without the supervision of a leader," she added.
Walker had first arrived in Cambodia in February and had been in the country again for three months before being arrested, said Keo Thea, deputy chief of the police anti-human trafficking unit.
Beatrice Magnier, country director of Action Pour les Enfants, said Wednesday that they tipped police off after having monitored Walker for around two weeks, during which they interviewed his alleged victims, who she said were all street children.
At least 22 other foreigners have been jailed or deported to face trial in their home countries for child sex crimes since 2003 as Cambodia attempts to clean up its image as a haven for pedophiles.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was