An American Pedophile in Cambodia

categories: Human Trafficking in Asia and the Pacific, Money and Economy, Sex Trafficking and Prostitution, Trafficking in Children

Published September 18, 2009 @ 07:00AM PT

Warning: The the videos and commentary in this post are graphic and disturbing, even for a human trafficking blog.

Despite increased international pressure and national efforts to end child sex tourism in Cambodia, it remains a top destination for pedophiles looking to have sex with children. The child sex tourism industry in Cambodia is also notoriously young, including children who are five, six, and seven years old as well as pre-teens and young teens. ABC Nightline conducted a raid on a suspected American pedophile, and what they found was disturbing.

The story of Harvey Johnson -- the man who is the subject of the Nightline sting -- is not unique. It's the story of a retired man who moves to Cambodia and sets up a gig as a volunteer English teacher, giving him access to hundreds of children. Some of the thousands of the sex tourists who travel to Cambodia each year use simialr guises to have access to children, and some just shop for them on the streets. Case in point: while the ABC film crew were researching the ease of buying kids for sex in Cambodia, the cops showed up. At first the reporters were worried, but it turns out the cops just wanted a chance to sell the kids that they had procured, and they started loading girls into the back of the reporters' van. With some police conducting sting operations and others selling children to tourists, it's hard to know who to trust in Cambodia.

It is disturbingly easy to have sex with a very, very young child as a Western tourist in Cambodia. They are being sold by brothel owners, slave brokers, and even their own mothers. The desperation of so many families is so great, that sex with children in Cambodia has become a full commodity, a resource for a family who otherwise would have no resources. And most disturbingly of all, there seems to be no shortage of buyers in this marketplace, no lack of American and European men who want to buy the youngest child possible. If Harvey Johnson is found guilty, there will be a long line of men waiting to rent his house and take his place as a teacher/abuser.

Johnson's case is still pending, but the police and reporters found his apartment to be filled with an disturbing and incriminating assortment of items that would lead most people to believe he was making is own child pornography and abusing the young girls who he taught. You can watch the videos of Nightline's sting operation here: Part1, Part 2, and Part 3 (ABC won't allow them to be embedded for proprietary reasons).

Photo credit: vivere.christus

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Comments (5)

Would anyone still like to argue that zombies are a figment of our imagination?

Posted by Oceania OZ on 09/18/2009 @ 04:26PM PT
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Nope although Im curious as to what the undead have to do with this subject.

Posted by Thomas McHugh on 09/29/2009 @ 05:08PM PT
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We live in a mighty sick world...

Thats why I say that all pedophiles need to be put down like the rabid dogs they are.

Posted by Thomas McHugh on 09/29/2009 @ 05:09PM PT
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How could these people be so sick? Sick, sick, sick, sick!!

Posted by sherri buzbee on 10/01/2009 @ 02:40PM PT
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I don't know what to say.

I am even MORE upset at those judges and court systems that let these men out after having raped a child.

Are perversions increasing due to hormones, toxins, chemicals in meat???? Or WHAT???

Is our world self-destructing????

Any society that allows for the raping and pillaging of its own young is DOOOMMMMMED.

Good fricking grief you CAN'T maintain ANY society that "eats" and devours its own young.

I'm not so sure we deserve to continue.

STOP HURTING CHILDREN. You must not know what you are doing - or you would CEASE this most terrible and destructive behavior!!!!!

AND PARENTS - No matter HOW poor you ARE - you MUST NOT EVER SELL YOUR CHILDREN!!!!! IT IS TERRIBLY TERRIBLY WRONG - something you will hate yourself for... for the rest of your life.

YOU WERE ONCE CHILDREN.. and YOU KNOW how terrible it is to be sold, then...

NO MORE.

STOP.

Posted by Cdin Org on 10/06/2009 @ 12:35AM PT
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Author

Amanda has been a full-time abolitionist for six years. During that time, she has created reports, documentaries and training materials on human trafficking in the United States and around the world.