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Discussion : Former diplomat cleared of child porn charges
Discussion is closed !Total 6 comments
2005-12-11 04:14:03 -
A year has gone by since the Thai Judge suspended his sentence against Scoble.
He has been in Australia for 12 months now and no charges have been filed apparently. I do see that The Australian press is still making allegations without presenting evidence. To date it looks like another Lindy Chamberlain type abortion.
Alex mentions a second arrest but this seems to have been merely a continuation of Scoble's Immigration detention for a few days following the trial. You cannot stay in Thailand without a passport, and Australia did cancel the passport of its citizen before he was even arraigned in court. Spooky stuff.
It seems that the US isn't the only first world country to dirty itself by using a 3rd world country to detain its citizens offshore extralegally. That the Australian Embassey refused to give Scoble one-way traveling papers to return home two years ago suggests they never really did had any evidence to charge him with. An Australian Federal Officer attended court all year in 1994 at the taxpayer's expense, so what was the end result of all that sitting around on the public dole?
More troubling, Australia appears to presume its (gay) citizens are guilty if they are arrested abroad. Look at the wretched way they've (not) acted in the ongoing Fiji case regarding consensual adult sex between an Australian and his boyfriend.
The lead Australian journo on the case was honest enough to admit that she only ever saw what the Thai police chose to show her, and couldn't personally vouch that any of it was connected to Scoble. She also wrote and signed a letter on her newspaper's letterhead for Scoble's travel company detailing the blatant homophobia of the Thai official who stimulated the police raid in the first place.
According to statistics, most child abusers are heterosexual and they live in the same home as the children they abuse. Chasing old, white gay man in foreign countries may make tawdry press, but its shameful if the media circus just drives thousands of real criminals deeper underground.
2005-07-25 17:08:31 -
Corrections: David - As you said a lot of mistakes mentioned in this matter. Here are the erors in your post:
It is a matter of public record that Thailand has very serious laws relating to the sexual abuse of children, punishable in some cases with life imprisonment...AND AUSTRALA eg. publication & distribution of child pornography under the Customs Act (like his 1983 Bangkok party snaps, 1983 Xmas holiday snaps in Manila, his 1984 Hanoi friend snaps - all captioned in his own handwriting - before being sent thru the Australian Diplomatic mail service to fellow 'child lovers' in January 1984 or most recently his videos/DVDs seized by Thai Police in March 2004 OR in respect of those videos/DVDs charges under the Crimes (Child Sex Tourism)Pt I and for his involvement with STT/Utopia Tours charges under Pt II of that same Act.
In his published verdict, the judge also dismissed all materials found in Scoble's home as neither illegal nor relevant to the case...in Thailand BUT ABSOLUTELY RELEVANT TO ANY FUTURE CHARGES TO BE LAID IN AUSTRALIA SOON
IN FACT, Robert Scoble was NOT deported because Autralia cancelled his passport before the trial began and he was unable to remain in Thailand...but RETURNED TO AUSTRALIA OF HIS OWN FREEWILL AND TIMING
IN FACT IT IS a matter of public record that there DEFINITELY was A second arrest OF SCOBLE, BY IMMGRATION POLICE ON 25 DECEMBER 2004, THAT IS WHY HE IS IN JAIL IN BANGKOK AWAITING HIS APPEAL AGAINST DEPORTATION VERDICT!!
FINALLY, PERTINENTLY,
It is a matter of OFFICIAL record that Robert Scoble recently returned to Australia
BUT HAS not YET BEEN arrested for any crime notwithstanding all the allegations made in the press since 1984...so lets just watch this spot and see what happens in AUSTRALIA...SOON
2005-04-12 06:54:32 -
A lot of mistakes mentioned in this matter. Here are the facts:
It is a matter of public record that there never were any charges whatsoever relating to children in his case.
It is a matter of public record that Thailand has very serious laws relating to the sexual abuse of children, punishable in some cases with life imprisonment.
The police (Bangrak District) and court (Southwest District) records show that the charge was "trading obscene material", a petty crime in Thailand, and the case was tried in the lowest court possible, not in the Thai high criminal court which deals with matters of child abuse.
In his published verdict, the lower court Judge (H.H. Lipnoi) stated that there was no evidence that the travel business or website was involved in any illegal activity.
In his published verdict, the judge also dismissed all materials found in Scoble's home as neither illegal nor relevant to the case.
The judge did find that the business had copies of Thai Guys magazine, a free English language guide to the local gay scene, available for gay guests to pick up. It is a matter of public record that Thai Guys was available to the public at many businesses throughout the Kingdom, did not contain nudity, nor any non-adult images. It does contain stories and advertisements from hotels, real estate agents, bars, restaurants, etc. similar to free gay scene magazines found here in Australia and anywhere in the world.
Scoble was deported because Autralia cancelled his passport before the trial began and he was unable to remain in Thailand.
The ruling has been appealed.
It is a matter of public record that there was no second arrest.
It is a matter of public record that Scoble returned here to Australia and was not arrested for any crime despite all the allegations made in the press.
2004-12-30 03:18:48 -
QUESTION - given the first conviction of Robert SCOBLE, has taken over 30 years, despite numerous allegations since the 1970's ...after the Thai authorities have deported him,
When will the Australian Government through the AFP press Child Sex Tourism charges on SCOBLE on his return
so he can join me in here and we can swap stories??
2004-12-30 03:10:42 -
CORRECT - here are the latest correct news reports on Scoble/Goss's convictions, penalties and subsequent re-arrest by Thai Immigration Police:
Date: Sun, 26 Dec 2004 13:02:20 -0800 (PST)
AUSSIE fights deportation
The Australian - Australia
FORMER Australian diplomat Robert Michael Scoble spent his Christmas in
immigration detention in Bangkok attempting to avert deportation to
Australia after ...
To see all 31 stories on this topic: goto
2004-12-30 02:55:46 -
WRONG - Scoble was NOT cleared but was in fact CONVICTED by the Thai Court for publishing and distibuting child pornography which promoted sex tourism to Thailand. He and his co-accused David GOSS were sentenced to 7 & 8 months jail, suspended for 2 years under a good behaviour bond and fined $350 & $400 respectively. The following day both we re-arrested by Thai Immigration police, immediately were returned to jail pending deportation in 30 days if they do not appeal their child pornography convictions.
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