The Grey Man (22 page)

Our relationship with the Thai police was such that we were sometimes invited to take part in operations away from our traditional stomping grounds around Chiang Mai and the Thai-Burma border.

In April 2009, CWD, the Crimes against Women and Children Division, was contacted by the police in Sweden, via the Swedish embassy in Thailand, with information about a ring of paedophiles operating in the beachside city of Pattaya. The men were allegedly abusing young boys they'd picked up off the street, and sharing images via the internet of the kids they'd had sex with. It looked like there were offenders from other western countries involved too.

The Grey Man was invited to join a multinational taskforce set up under the codename of Operation Snapper. Several detectives from Sweden travelled to Thailand, along with experts in cyber crime. A command post was set up in the Mountain Beach Hotel in Pattaya.

At the initial briefing we learned that an NGO working with streetkids had received reports from a number of boys that seven western men had been abusing them. The kids were able to confirm the identities of the men, whose pictures were pinned to a board in the ops room. It was brave of the young boys to come forward.

Our volunteers were tasked with forming part of the surveillance teams that tracked the suspects and established their movements and whereabouts, in preparation for their arrest. We also contributed about A$1000 to cover transport costs for the Thai police involved in the operation. As so often happened, we were the catalyst that helped get an operation moving – literally, in this case.

As the men were part of an internet-based paedophile ring, it was important that the Thai and Swedish police synchronised their raids on the men's homes. If one was arrested too soon, then another could pass the word around Pattaya – and the rest of the world – that the cops were on to them.

The operation was a complex one which lasted several weeks. Finally, when enough of the men were positively identified and their locations fixed, the order was given for the arrests to take place. Simultaneous raids were launched on 11 May 2009, in Thailand and Sweden. Two Swedes were arrested and charged with having sexual intercourse with children under the age of fifteen and inflicting physical and mental suffering. A third man, a British national, was also netted in Pattaya.

The men were taken to Bangkok and it turned out that they had connections with a group of Australian paedophiles the Australian Federal Police and Thai police had arrested a month earlier, also in Pattaya. Follow-up operations led to further investigations and arrests internationally. The operations hadn't been able to catch all seven suspects initially identified by the victims, but it had severely disrupted this ring of offenders. One of the two Swedes is standing trial as I write this, though charges against the second man were dropped due to lack of evidence. The hope was that if the other paedophiles tried to enter Thailand again there would be enough evidence gained from this operation to arrest them on the spot. They were marked men from now on.

The stereotypical image of paedophiles as dirty old men in plastic raincoats is so far off the mark it's not funny. David Weston (not his real name), an American who had lived in Thailand for most of his life, was an intelligent, good-looking university professor and Fulbright Scholar in his late thirties.

The Thai police had investigated Weston once before, after allegations had surfaced from hill tribe boys that he'd been inviting them back to his home where he got them to masturbate him, and he'd tried to have oral and anal sex with them. The local cops had dropped the ball, allowing Weston to carry his laptop out of the house, get on his motorbike with one of his victims and drive off into the sunset. It would have been a joke if it wasn't so disgusting.

Weston had made himself scarce for a while, but a British expat I knew well had seen an American acting suspiciously with young boys and reported it to the Major. The British guy was unlike many of the other expats in that he had some balls. Weston had probably assumed that the Thai police had lost interest in him, and no doubt thought that if he came under investigation again he could buy his way out of any charges, or at least find a way to flee again. The Major enlisted The Grey Man to do some checking up on Weston. We couldn't be bought, so the plan was that we could suss him out and help the Major get enough dirt on Weston to get another warrant drawn up.

As illustrated in this case, so much of what we do is simple but time-consuming investigative stuff, as well as surveillance. It's the sort of work the Thai police would do if they had the time and the money and, in some cases, the inclination. Misao and I had met an American woman named Molly at the Thai language school where we attended classes most days. We never got much chance to talk to her in class, but I met up with her by accident at a Beatles night at a local bar. She told me she had come to Thailand to fight trafficking, whereupon I told her our real reason for living in Chiang Mai. She immediately wanted to get involved in our operations, but as most of our undercover operators were middle-aged guys hanging around bars and brothels pretending to be paedophiles she didn't exactly fit the profile.

Molly was, however, a student at the university, where Weston had been teaching. Molly was able to do some checking up on Weston and found out that he had indeed been back to the university and was now teaching there one day a week, although he had been away on leave for a while. She'd studied acting and turned out to be a natural at undercover work. Claiming to be an old friend from the States, Molly had managed to get the university authorities to give her Weston's email, phone number and current address. Again, this was all very basic investigative stuff, but if The Grey Man wasn't making these sorts of enquiries and building up this basic profile on Weston then no one else would be doing it. It all added to what the police already had and we now knew we didn't have to waste resources putting surveillance at the university.

Armed with Weston's address, Tony, a field volunteer from Australia, started a stakeout. Meanwhile, Panom had contacted a teacher, Kru Om, who taught hill tribe kids from the slum area of Chiang Mai. This was where Weston had found and groomed his young victims in the past, and Kru Om knew of him. She also said she had seen him hanging around again lately. He'd been seen at an internet place where some of the local boys went to play computer games.

Things started to come together. Behind its high wall and locked gate, Weston's townhouse had appeared empty, but one morning when Tony went to check on it he was able to peer into the yard and saw a motorcycle parked there for the first time. Surveillance takes a lot of time and manpower and from then on we employed all our limited assets on the Weston case.

Finally, Weston was spotted leaving his home, on his motorcycle, and we swung into action. The Major and Mee, our resident cameraman, tailed him to a local theme park, Chiang Mai World. It was an odd enough place for a single man in his thirties to visit, but when Mee and the Major entered the complex they found that Weston had met up with two boys who looked to be about ten years old. Mee took some covert pictures of the American professor playing with the boys in the pool, throwing them about, play wrestling with them, and hugging them. Afterwards, Weston got on his motorcycle with both of the boys and took them to the slum area, near the computer shop where he'd reportedly been seen chatting to kids. Weston went back to his home alone, but we knew we were getting closer and closer to him all the time. He was being cautious for now – he was smart and he'd only narrowly avoided arrest once before – but we felt sure he'd slip up eventually, or else we would find a victim who would testify and we'd have enough to put him away.

We followed Weston for the next two weeks, building up a picture of his movements and trying to gather enough evidence for the police warrant. At the same time, Panom was interviewing some of the hill tribe boys that Kru Om thought might have been contacted by Weston.

One day, while he was being followed by our people and the Major, Weston was spotted going into an electrical goods store, where he purchased a new television. After he left the shop, the Major spoke to the store owner and organised for one of our people to install the TV. A few days later Mee went to Weston's home and took a covert video camera with him. He managed to film the inside of Weston's home as he went about installing the state-of-the-art television. Mee then left, offering to do any more electrical work Weston needed. We didn't get anything incriminating, but at least Mee had seen the inside of the place, and we could possibly find a way in again if we needed to set up a fixed hidden camera.

Tony and I were on duty following Weston a few days later when the subject stopped at a hotel in Chiang Mai. He went inside and Tony and I split up to cover the main exits. I took a seat in the foyer and pretended to read a newspaper while Weston spoke to the concierge and waited near the reception desk. A short while later an older couple, who dressed and sounded like American tourists, emerged from a lift, walked over to Weston and greeted him. They were either family or old friends, as they hugged warmly, exchanged pleasantries, and caught up on gossip.

It was odd, watching this simple interaction between Weston and the elderly couple. Here I was, fairly sure that this guy was a paedophile who preyed on impressionable young boys from poverty-stricken backgrounds simply to sate his sexual desires, but at the same time he was someone's friend or nephew or son. The old couple clearly loved Weston, but presumably they had no idea who he really was. It was a surreal moment, knowing that the work we were doing, on behalf of the police, could ruin this man's life forever.

Weston eventually left and I followed him out. Many expats don't bother with helmets when riding motorcycles, but I insist all of our operatives, me included, wear them. As I was pulling on my helmet Weston, bare-headed, kickstarted his bike and roared off. As well as losing a few seconds getting my head gear on, I then found I'd been parked in, so I had to lift my bike up to get it clear of the two motorbikes blocking me.

I headed down the street in the direction Weston had gone, but soon came to a fork in the road. I took the right-hand turning, figuring Weston would have headed onto the main street, but that's where I went wrong. After weaving in and out of traffic for a while I realised I'd lost him. I pulled over and called Tony on his mobile phone and told him to head directly to Weston's house, in case he'd gone that way. This little stuff-up showed just how hard it was to maintain constant surveillance on a subject with just a two-person team. To put it into perspective, the Australian Federal Police would use teams of twelve to carry out surveillance.

I headed to Weston's place too, coming in a back way. Amazingly, a short while later Weston came speeding down the road towards me! I looked straight ahead and ignored him and prayed he hadn't recognised me from the hotel.

During one of his shifts following the American, Panom watched Weston talking to some boys in their early teens who had been swimming in the Chiang Mai moat. After the professor had gone, Panom went up to one of the boys, a twelve-year-old, and struck up a conversation with him.

Panom explained who we were, and that our job was to protect kids. The boy said that he had first been accosted by Weston at the computer shop in the slum area; Weston had invited him to his home to play computer games. There the American had asked him if he knew how to masturbate, and if he would touch him. Weston had offered the boy 3000 baht (A$120) if he would touch Weston's penis and the boy had confessed that he'd agreed to do so. The money was a near fortune to the penniless kid. Not satisfied with being masturbated, Weston had then tried to pressure the youngster into giving him oral sex, and then tried to have anal sex with him. The boy told Panom that he had refused. Panom later introduced him to the Major and the brave boy agreed to testify in writing, and to help the police take Weston off the street.

As a result of the questioning of the boy, another boy of the same age also offered to testify that Weston had approached and abused him in a similar way. The Major decided that the evidence of the first boy was enough to get a warrant organised, and that once Weston was taken in other charges could be added.

This time the police wanted to make sure that Weston wasn't tipped off. The United States embassy was briefed on the plan to arrest one of their nationals, and the Thai immigration and customs service was also brought in on the operation, in case Weston slipped through the net again and tried to fly or drive out of Thailand. Our operatives were tasked with maintaining surveillance on Weston's home to make sure we knew what he was up to until the time of his arrest.

Weston had a habit of locking his gate with a chain and padlock on the outside, to make it look like the house was empty, however we could tell that he was at home when his motorcycle was parked in the yard. On the day of the arrest, we confirmed that Weston was in residence and then radioed the nearby police team when we eyeballed him unlocking the gate and starting his motorcycle. The Thai police swung into Weston's street and stopped him outside his house. He didn't offer any resistance and allowed the police to enter his home.