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Teacher arrested in Indonesia over child sex
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Mark Forbes Herald Correspondent in Jakarta
August 8, 2006
AN AUSTRALIAN has been arrested in Indonesia for allegedly abusing at least
seven children and is suspected of being part of a wider pedophile ring.
Peter Smith is being held in Jakarta's police headquarters, facing allegations
of child molestation, recording the sex acts and being part of a pedophile
network. He is the second Australian to be arrested for child sexual abuse in
Indonesia in the past month.
Smith, 48, was arrested on Saturday after seven boys approached welfare
workers complaining of being abused in his south Jakarta home.
Smith was working as an English-language instructor at the Indonesia Australia
Language Foundation.
The foundation operates under a memorandum of understanding between the
Australian and Indonesian governments. It is controlled by a board of governors
comprising senior officials from both countries, according to its website.
Smith had taught there for four years but was on leave at present, the Herald
was told.
The foundation provides English training, largely to mature-age Indonesian
students under AusAID scholarships.
An Australian embassy spokesman confirmed an Australian was arrested over the
weekend in relation to child sex allegations.
"We have offered consular assistance but he has declined," he said.
It is understood Australian officials visited Smith in police cells yesterday.
It is believed Smith, who uses several aliases, is known to Australian police.
He has been living in Jakarta for seven years and is said to have used
computers to catalogue and categorise the children he invited home, most of
them street urchins.
The boys claimed at least 40 children had been abused by Smith, who would
place orders for children he wanted to visit by showing photographs of them.
A Jakarta police spokesman, Colonel Ketut Untung Yoga, said Smith was facing
several child molestation charges, which carried a minimum penalty of five
years' jail. Several DVDs, a video camera and computer had been confiscated
from his home, Colonel Yoga said.
A spokesman for Indonesia's Child Protection Commission, Arif Merdeka Sirait,
said seven children had come to his office on Thursday, accompanied by staff
from the Jakarta Centre for Street Children. All complained of sexual abuse,
and the allegations were immediately reported to police.
"According to the children, when they were doing oral sex their activities
were recorded by Mr P [the name he used with the children] and was transferred
to a computer," Mr Sirait said. "They said for oral sex and masturbation they
were paid $5 and for sodomy they were paid $10."
Mr Sirait said he believed Smith sold the pornographic images on the internet.
"I suspect there is sexual commercial syndicate," he said. "We suspect that
there are more victims."
Police are continuing to interrogate Smith.
Another Australian, Donald Storen, a hotel manager on the island of Lombok,
was arrested last month and accused of sodomising four teenage boys.
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