British citizen Ian Paul Bower, who fled to Cambodia in 2006 while on bail for child sex abuse and subsequently committed a series of sex offenses against Cambodian boys, was deported to the U.K. on Friday and sent back to prison, a British official confirmed.
Andy Baker, deputy director of the U.K. National Crime Agency’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection Center Command, said the bureau had collaborated with Cambodian authorities to have Bower deported.
“[Bower] was deported for being an illegal immigrant, but he was wanted in the U.K. The Cambodian National Police asked us for assistance, so we sent officers over, together with Vietnamese colleagues as well, because he went through Vietnam. We worked together to make sure he was sent back and he’s now in prison,” he said on the sidelines of a regional workshop on child protection in Phnom Penh on Monday.
Bower, a 48-year-old former police officer in Derbyshire, was jailed in the U.K in 2004 for three years, but skipped bail and went to Cambodia, where he was arrested in 2007 for abusing two boys, though charges were dropped after the boys reversed their statements.
He remained in Cambodia and worked as an English teacher until he was arrested in 2011 and subsequently jailed for two years for abusing five boys aged 11 to 15.
The court also ordered that he be deported but in November, the Appeal Court reversed the decision due to Bower reportedly having a Cambodian wife. However, immigration police detained Bower on January 15 at Phnom Penh International Airport as he was attempting to leave the country.
Major General Pin Piseth, chief of the Ministry of Interior’s immigration police department, declined to comment Monday but said last month that Bower was re-arrested for living in Cambodia without legal documentation.
