Abuser gets 42 years in Thai jail
BANGKOK, Thailand -- A court in Thailand has jailed a British man for 42 years for sexually abusing a string of young homeless boys.
The court in the Thai capital, Bangkok, found 24-year-old Robert Errol Wood guilty of molesting eight boys under the age of 15 and recording the events on video.
The sentence is one of the longest ever given to a non-Thai national in this type of case.
Judges announced they were the cutting the sentence from 63 years because Wood had cooperated with the trial.
The sentence was then increased by a further two months for contempt of court after Wood shouted at judges when the initial sentence was translated for him.
Wood was arrested in January after police in Manchester, England notified Thai authorities that they were investigating him for distributing child pornography over the Internet from Thailand.
Wood, who had a flat in Bangkok, was accused of a series of offences between August 2002 and January 2003.
Prosecutors said that Wood had not only abused the boys himself but had let others molest them and conspired with others to molest them.
He was also charged with taking pictures of the abuse for distribution online.
Wood now has 30 days to appeal.
Under British law, Wood could also face prosecution by courts in the UK for crimes committed abroad.
Thailand has long been a favored destination for so-called sex tourists because of its lax prosecution of visitors who have sex with underage children.
Pressure groups have been urging Thai authorities to clamp down on the illicit trade and install tougher sentences to send a message to other would-be abusers.
Copyright 2003 CNN. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
