Convicted B.C. sex criminal arrested in Cambodia for allegations of child rape
WARNING: This story comprises disturbing particulars about alleged intercourse crimes in opposition to youngsters.
Investigators in Canada and Cambodia are wanting into the actions of a Vancouver man arrested for a variety of intercourse crimes in opposition to Cambodian youngsters.
The Youngster Safety Unit, an investigative group affiliated with Cambodia’s Ministry of Inside and funded by non-profit group Cambodian Kids’s Fund, says Andrew David Eyre, 43, was arrested and charged final week with aggravated rape of a kid and indecent assault.
The allegations contain eight Cambodian victims age eight to 12, mentioned the unit’s director, James McCabe.
RCMP advised CBC Information that it is usually investigating Eyre.
“The RCMP’s liaison officer in Thailand and the Nationwide Youngster Exploitation Crime Centre are wanting additional into Eyre’s actions in Canada and overseas,” wrote Sgt. Caroline Duval in an electronic mail.
“Moreover, the liaison officer is aiding the investigative workforce in Cambodia.”
Eyre, in accordance with a LinkedIn web page matching his description, has employment, schooling and volunteering connections to Burnaby.
Cpl. Alexa Hodgins with Burnaby RCMP advised CBC in an electronic mail that Mounties there “had earlier information with Andrew Eyre in 2018 through which he was convicted of sex-related offences.”
The B.C. Prosecution Service wouldn’t touch upon any previous convictions, and followup inquiries to RCMP obtained no fast response.
McCabe says investigators in Cambodia plan to forged a large internet wanting into what Eyre’s actions had been in that nation.
Allegedly visited distant village
In response to McCabe, Eyre allegedly visited a distant neighborhood in Kandal province, 75 kilometres exterior of the capital, Phnom Penh.
He claimed to be a medical practitioner and performed examinations on a number of youngsters. It is throughout these examinations the offences are alleged to have occurred.
McCabe mentioned the welfare and situation of the kids is being monitored.
Burnaby connections
The Youngster Safety Unit and the Cambodian Kids’s Fund described Eyre as an govt chef. A LinkedIn web page is on-line matching his title, culinary work expertise, time spent in Cambodia and approximate age.
The web page lists Eyre as presently working in Phnom Penh after stints working in China and several other eating places, catering corporations, and a golf course in B.C.
The web page additionally lists him as volunteering with Willingdon Church in Burnaby. A pastor there advised CBC he remembers Eyre from a number of years in the past, but it surely was unclear to him if Eyre was a volunteer. Regardless, he had heard of no issues with him.
The LinkedIn web page additionally lists Eyre as a volunteer culinary trainer at Burnaby Central Secondary College. B.C.’s Instructor Registry doesn’t listing anybody together with his title as having held a trainer’s licence, neither is there any historical past of self-discipline for anybody together with his title.
The CBC has been thus far unable to get a response from the Burnaby college district.
Human rights issues
The allegations in opposition to Eyre in Cambodia haven’t been examined in court docket.
McCabe says Eyre stays in pre-trial custody. If convicted of aggravated rape of a kid, he might be sentenced to seven to fifteen years in jail. Indecent assault penalties vary from a high quality to as much as three years imprisonment.
The U.S. State Division has famous “significant human rights issues” in Cambodia, together with issues concerning the equity of its justice system.
McCabe says Eyre has been supplied with a lawyer and will obtain a good trial, together with entry to consular helps.
“He’ll be afforded the rights beneath the judicial system, which is kind of a robust system,” McCabe mentioned, including Eyre has not supplied any clarification for his alleged actions.
World Affairs Canada says it’s conscious of a Canadian detained in Cambodia and is gathering extra info.
Intercourse tourism a famous downside
Whereas Cambodia is understood for unimaginable tradition and pure magnificence, it grapples with crushing poverty, and the legacies of civil struggle and the Khmer Rouge dictatorship and genocide.
Cambodia has lengthy held a fame as a vacation spot for “intercourse tourism.” Exploitation of minors has been acknowledged as an issue by a number of companies in that nation and past its borders, including the United Nations.
McCabe believes issues have improved over the previous 10 to fifteen years, nevertheless.
“The efforts by the worldwide neighborhood and the Cambodian Nationwide Police and the Cambodian authorities to stamp out baby intercourse tourism has been very profitable and so they’re to be applauded for that,” he mentioned.
McCabe provides if Eyre had been to be convicted in Cambodia, he may additionally face prosecution in Canada upon returning to this nation.
