Thai Prostitute For Teenage Son Lands Father In Court
A father in Australia has brought attention to a new Australian law after being tried and sentenced in an Australian Court. The father was convicted under Australia’s recently introduced child sex tourism law after hiring a prostitute in Thailand for his 13 year old son during a family holiday to Thailand reports The Courier Mail.
Thailand law firm, Chaninat & Leeds specializes in Thai and International Criminal Law
According to the Courier Mail, the man, his wife and their son traveled to the resort of Koh Samui for a friend’s wedding in September 2012. During the trip, and the father attended a bachelor party, where he arranged for the prostitute paid her, and even inspected the room to ensure there were condoms. The father waited downstairs while his son had sex.
The father was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment but was released on a $2000 two year good release bond.
According to Joe Leeds, a US attorney and partner at Chaninat & Leeds law firm, the case is significant for 2 reasons: first, this is an application of a new type of law that extends the jurisdiction of the government, in this case Australia, outside of the geographical boundaries of the government. Many western states have enacted similar laws that prohibit “sexual tourism” by its citizens thereby prohibiting activity that has occurred outside of the government’s physical borders and beyond the generally accepted jurisdictional limits. These laws seem to contradict traditional theories of jurisdiction and expand the authority of governments to regulate citizens’ conduct even in cases where the conduct because the conduct occurred outside of the government’s borders.
The second important point is that the application of the law in this case was unusual. Sex tourism laws normally are aimed at protecting foreign prostitutes and under age victims from sexual exploitation. However in this case the law is apparently being applied in a case where the victim of the offense is not an underage foreign sex worker, but rather an under age Australian national. The Court decision seems to liberally interpret the sex tourism law’s objective because the primary victim does :not seem to be the foreign prostitute but rather the father’s son.
Read more about the story here
Related Articles:
Guide for Tourists to Laws in Thailand
US Immigration and Thai Sex Workers
Defining Child Trafficking & Child Prostitution: The Case of Thailand
Flickr photo credit: Blemished Paradise
A story of suffering and incredible prostitution