A 69-year-old Briton and regular on the Pattaya gay forums has won undisclosed damages from the SUN newspaper after they described him a ‘paedo’ when he was arrested in a joint CEOP-Thai Police operation in May 2009.
George Stanley Gibbs was subsequently acquitted of all charges except immigration offences. At the time CEOP – the Child Exploitation and Online Protection unit of Britain’s Serious Organised Crime Agency – hailed the arrest of Gibbs and two Swedes as a ‘triumph of international police co-operation’.
All the men had been put under police surveillance at the request of Scandinavian Police, CEOP, and the Australian Federal Police who are involved in a worldwide search for paedophiles. The Scandinavian operation was called ‘Operation Snapper’.
A Thai ‘arranger’ was also arrested.
The other suspects were Karl Erik Berglund, 60, and Lars Anders Ellerman, 65. They had no connection with Gibbs, or at least none which has been revealed, and were arrested at different addresses. Several other people including an alleged ‘ringleader’ were never found.
The Pattaya Daily News subsequently publish an article‘Justice For Sale’ describing how some paedophiles apparently get off and they referred to a Swedish case.
However Berglund was convicted and jailed for four years for having sex with a 13-yr-old boy. The PDN changed Gibb’s name to Smith.
Given the extent of child abuse committed by the Catholic Church in Britain over the past 40 years which is still yet to be investigated properly one wonders just why CEOP et al are so concerned by marginal stuff in another country where justice and human rights is as incidental as it is almost irrelevant.
Perhaps it is the allowances,expenses and opportunity for travel that draws them here so assiduously to the LoS rather than delving into the depths of the dreary Home Counties?
Sorry if I seem cynical but this hunt for foreign child abusers takes up funding better spent on investifating many more offences back in Blighty that have been overlooked for too long but then,it doesn't do much for the stats, does it?
Dear Westerby
I could not agree more with you!
Although abusing a child is one of the most serious crimes against humans in my opinion, I think our governments in the western world should first ‘clean their own house’!
Not only in the UK, but all over the western world the Catholic Church has pending cases and the ‘CEO� in Rome and his “Managers� in all other countries never act, never truly condemn child abuse and never properly support investigations.
Gibbs may innocent, he may be as upstanding an example of moral rectitude as the Pope. But sex with underage boys is a mainstay of gay life in Pattaya — you know it, I know it, the police know it and the gay community knows it. The neighborhood is called ""BOYZTOWN"" not ""MENZTOWN."" Whether there is the will or the way to prosecute it is another matter.
Thanks Andrew, another enlightening and valuable report on the state of affairs many Thai expats find themselves exposed to. Seems the NGO witch hunts are all about gay men, where are the arrests and harassment for men who prefer girls? Seems every single expat online media site runs an ad for ""girls.""
Christy: I would not say witch-hunt. Normally the CEOP deals with bona fide cases. There is no suggestion that this was not a bona fide case for investigation. But the investigation left a lot to be desired as did the court presentation seemingly. The problem is that CEOP is unable to monitor these cases properly in Thailand, while there are people here that can, so they will continue to fail.
The guy from SOCA here I gather is left to liaise in their absence.
Its almost beyond belief that police could have got the dates of the alleged offences wrong.
The problem is that CEOP is unable to monitor these cases properly in Thailand, 'while there are people here that can'…who are the other people here that can ?
I have to argue when innocents are harassed for their lifestyle,it's a witch hunt. And sorry, but still, when was someone last arrested for having sex with female minors? Or- more likely, victimizing girls is far more acceptable.
Christy S: While it still goes on foreign paedophiles find it more and more difficult to find you girl victims in Thailand. And police here take a less serious view of offences against boys.
Sam: FACE: Fight Against Child Exploitation immediately comes to mind
Dear Mr. Drummond, Having read your article with interest I would like to ask the following:
1. Why did you say in the original article that ""you"" tracked down the boy, only to edit it to say the boy was tracked down by a third party?
Also why was it felt there was any need to track down the boy?
2. I attended the whole of the trial which ran from April 2010 until July 2010 when Mr Gibbs was acquitted by three judges. At no point
during the trial was a photograph produced of a naked Mr Gibbs, nor was his wife ever mentioned. There was a photo produced of a Thai man, which was taken by the Thai man's wife.
3. I can also state as a fact, contrary to your report, that in all the years Mr Gibbs
visited Thailand, he has never been to the club Boyz Boyz Boyz. I don't know
where you obtained this information from (unless it came from the ""dishonest boy"", but it is totally false, a fact that no doubt
can be substantiated by the club's owner, Jim Lumsden. Not being cynical, but is the
reason behind your mentioning this club in particular, because of your intense dislike for Mr Lumsden, and your court dealings with him?
I look forward to your resonses.
Interested party:(1) It was wrong to take the credit for tracking this boy down when in fact it was done by another party. (2)Other info comes from police. There are major discrepancies in the evidence police say they had and what was presented to the court it seems. I have no dispute with that. That is rather the point of the story (3) The boy was interviewed in front of social workers who rightly at their insistence took notes of the interview. He states that he cleaned at BBB and met GG who picked him up there. I have not suggested he work there at night time. But its clear from the interview that he says he was there at night time with Mr. Gibbs. However as you point out, the boys' evidence has been discredited by a Pattaya court. The number of judges is irrelevant.
The boy did not mention any other specific venues. Chonburi police has provided Jim Lumsden with a statement saying there is no sex trade going on at Boyz Boyz Boyz. I will give that as much weight as anything Mr. Lumsden might have to say.
Two posters have comment on Mr.Gibbs. These posts have been deleted for legal reasons.
It is not your concern why I wanted to track down the boy in question. But as you mention I have been involved in court action with Mr. Lumsden I should point out that Lumsden brought two cases of criminal libel against me which I won on appeal.
http://www.andrew.local/view-story-other.php?sid=31
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2010/03/21/scots-sex-club-kings-lose-fight-to-have-brave-journalist-jailed-86908-22127797/
Sir, one small error noted in your excellent report. The proceedings were all held in Bangkok not Pattaya.
John Jinks. Thanks for that. Corrected
Interested Party. Thai trials sit usually one day a month and can be very laborious. The fact that Gibbs trial lasted only from April to July makes it one of the quickest trials I have ever heard of and does indeed suggest very little evidence was provided.
George is 63 not 69.
Interested Party: Finally while Mr. Lumsden keeps a keen eye on punters in his premises he is unlikely to be able to say with any credence whether Gibbs went there or not particularly after telling journalists that he could not be expected to remember all his customers when they asked him years ago in relation to a news story published about him in Scotland.
More great work Andrew.Fresh from your exposing Drew and his abuse of power you have the courage to cover a story concerning abuse of a even more unpleasant kind.I am not going discuss any matters relating to this case.It seems way too confusing and best left to more expert commentators.I want to remark on the Sun Newspaper and how it behaves along with other tabloids.As a recent receiver of their journalists somewhat childish name calling Tubby Thug was one I enjoyed.I may entitled to do so.To label someone a Sex offender wrongly could be way more than offensive.Put simply careless talk could cost lives.In the U.K.those labelled paedo wrongly by the down market press have been subjected to appalling levels of abuse themselves.Child Abuse is way too serious a matter for the gutter media to use it as a headline to boost sales.Wapping lies indeed.Note to editors NOT all gay men are child abusers.For them sadly if you are queer you certainly act that way.As some writers on this forum have rightly remarked abuse of young girls is even more widespread than that of boys worldwide but fails to cause such public outrage.Even when carried out by those meant to be the protectors.UN peace keepers among those proven guilty in the past.So lets not witch hunt but ensure those tasked with ending this unspeakable offence against innocent minors go about their work in such a way the real guilty parties are successfully caught and punished.Please keep up the good work Andrew.
Jeff: To clarify my stance here I am not in the slighest against paedophiles or rather child sex abusers being tracked down by newspapers. Regulars will know for instance that after a News of the World team left Vung Tau in Vietnam. I went in with colleague Andrew C and tracked down Paul Gadd (Gary Glitter) on their behalf. More recently I have exposed teachers in Thailand and a 'charity' guy in Cambodia. My name was not used in the News of the World. I am not concerned as the story was written in such a way that I would not have wanted my name on it. The by-line is of one of the journalists currently under investigation.
The SUN has many gay staff and is not anti-gay. That it takes a strong line on child sex abusers is good. Strong headlines sell newspapers but the sentiments of most of the staff are solid. If its any consolation we are seeing some of the tactics of the so called tabloild press being ravaged every day at the Leveson enquiry. But I think even the Guardian is getting concerned now, as tabloids of the fifties and sixties honed the art of the expose, which every paper has followed in its own style. By far the majority of those exposes were valid..until newspapers starting exposing every tom dick and harry in a British TV soap for one peccadilo or another. Then it became trash. Now we are into the era of tabloid tv for the dumb and dumber. Its even less subtle and much more more excruciating.
Dear Mr. Drummond,
I would like to start by thanking you for your responses. I was not sure if they would appear or not.
Please be assured that my original post, and this one, are not intended as criticism of you or your article, but merely just trying to correct a few “errors� in your report. In fact, I praise your report for notifying the “hang ‘em high� mentality that not all people held on remand are guilty as charged. I also note that you have deleted some posts and can fully understand your reasoning.
As “John Jinx� has pointed out already, the trial was held at Bangkok Central Court and not in Pattaya, also Mr. Gibbs is 63, not 69 as incorrectly reported by several paople.
I note your comments regarding Mr. Lumsden, and although I do not totally agree with you I accept your point, even if the quote from Mr. Lumsden was said in a defensive manor at the time. I should point out that I have NEVER met, or had contact with Mr. Lumsden and my previous reference to him resulted from some investigative work of my own.
As you now suggest, very little evidence was presented by the Thai Police at the trial, and most of what they did present was discredited by Mr. Gibbs Lawyer in cross examination. It might be worth adding that the alleged “victim� failed to appear at Court on the first FOUR occasions when called, which in itself says a lot. You refer to “other evidence coming from Police�. Once again, it should be taken lightly, as all evidence presented to the Court was rejected. I would be interested to hear whether the “Police� you refer to you were Thai or from the UK. If that is a sensitive question I would be happy to receive an email from you explaining why.
I conclude with my thanks to you for the article, as something of this nature was needed, although I still have a few reservations as to your motives for (a) Reporting reporting Mr. Gibbs successful court case against the Sun newspaper in one breath, and then (b) ""appear"" to be trying to re-open the case against Mr. Gibbs, with additional inaccurate information in the next, albeit changing your original article with every post that you receive.
Interested Party: Just a couple of points on your last extended comment. I have made two corrections. The first relates to how I found the boy involved in Gibbs' case and is not a correction on fact but a more detailed explanation of how. The second relates to the court and was a correction on fact which I got wrong and knew immediately on being reminded. I am not trying to find Mr. Gibbs guilty. I am however satisfied that CEOP had enough reason to ask Thai police to initiate an investigation. So if you think this article suggests that CEOP are maliciously targetting the innocent then you have misread it.
Its more to do with careless headlines and false assumptions by CEOP in the progress of the investigation.
You state you do not know Mr. Lumsden and I presume therefore also Mr.May. At the time they claimed that they had nothing to do with Boys Boys Boys, as it was then known. They were merely looking after it and taking room bookings at the Ambience on behalf of a friend. No so much defensive, as an outright lie.
In fact the company was owned by them and a notable figure in the local Pattaya-Jomtien Rotary Club.
As for the victim not turning up in court, all you can read into that is that the police lost him and did not ensure he appeared in court, which I believe might support my view that the case was neither monitored nor pursued.
Its quite clear this was not a prosecution brought by the 'victim'. It rarely is in these Pattaya cases. Its a business.
Andrew. You seemed to have answered these points quite well. There is an evil smell in what's known as Boys Town but most of the punters do not see it. After all why should they. They are after something else.
I think he was joking Pat Angko 🙂
I think a little bit too much emphasis is being put on the validity of anything Noyes writes. Much quicker to assume its not true. I can say for sure that none of the international media went to Pattaya to watch Drew Noyes eat chicken and save the city's tourist image during the bird flu scare. Why would they when Thaksin was eating KFC in Bangkok?
Pat and Ally.. if you care to go through other posts you will see the following…
Jessica
Posted on November 19 2011 at 14:34:44
Rotary's best-known motto is ""Service above Self"", and its secondary motto is ""They profit most who serve best"". Rotary International is an organization of service clubs known as Rotary Clubs located all over the world. The stated purpose of the organization is to bring together business and professional leaders to provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help build goodwill and peace in the world. It has already been mentioned that there are some excellent members of the RC.. I wonder how quickly they would like to disassociate themselves from the obvious undesirables.
I am informed Pattaya has six Rotary Clubs. Must be hundreds of excellent members.
Thank you Andrew for your well written informative reply to my comments.I am afraid we will have to agree to disagree on this one.As despite your best efforts I remain unconvinced that tabloid journalists are those best suited to be tasked with investigating or reporting on any alleged cases of child abuse.Especially those working for a newspaper which daily features half naked teenage girls on a certain numbered page.And one which reports with obvious relish the bed hopping exploits of famous footballers z list celebrities and wannabe pop stars on a almost never ending loop.X Factor stuff indeed.To have the same editorship turn its hand to dealing with the emotive subject of those who seek to have sex with innocent minors seems worrisome to say the least.It would be interesting to find out just how much The Sun and The News International group as a whole pays out in libel damages every year.While I am in anti Sun mode unfair as it may be.It might be worth recalling how that particular publication managed to anger the entire City of Liverpool with its false reports of the actions of Liverpool Football fans during the Hillsborough Tragedy.Though the paper later issued an apology supporters were in an unforgiving mood and in some areas of Liverpool you can still not purchase The Sun as newsagents do not bother to stock a newspaper they know they could not sell.Happily with your well researched reporting Andrew you are in no danger of a public boycott.I am sure I am not alone in looking forward to your next edition!Please keep up the good work.
Jeff: No problems. I think you may have misconceptions. There really is no such thing as a tabloid journalist. There are journalists who write for tabloids. There are journalists who write for the 'heavies'. They switch around all the time. Generally a tabloid writer will be faster, and have more contacts in certain areas than the heavies. The appalling things tabloid journalists have done you can put squarely on the shoulders of the editors and the journalists, who concede or buy the stuff in. These guys don't move on much though as even within their midst they are seen for what they are. But some of the excesses are horrific not only in their nature but frequency that none of these will survive the current Leveson enquiry in the same shape or form. In the case of child sex abuse quite frankly The Times or Guardian or FT are not going into business of exposing abusers abroad or in the UK. Because of their relationship with the public the tabloids as you call them are often several steps ahead of the police and not so ponderous. I would say that relationship with the public is not the same as before. But all this has got sod all to do with Gibbs apart from the fact that the SUN acting on info and pictures too, provided by CEOP, went incautiously overboard.
Mr Gibbs was very lucky to be paid by the Sun. If they had investigated further they would have found out a lot more information regarding Gibbs.
Andrew carry on with your good work. I believe that if you go with an underage boy you should expect to be punished not paid large sums of money. There's no smoke without a fire and this statement rings true with Gibbs.
You may have to remove these coments regarding Gibbs, but I would be willing to help you regarding Gibbs as I know for a fact what he is.
Also the spoke of Hollywood, where Hollywood writers seemed to put a gay person on every single sit-com and at least one scene or character in every single movie – stating that wasn't right because there just are not that many gay citizens in our country by proportion. Then they spoke of the ""gay agenda" in our politics in Washington DC, in our entertainment manufacturing, at our college campuses, and claiming that the GLBT crowd was preying on adolescents who are going through their own hormonal awakenings, thus, in a way brainwashing them as they are confused about the changes in their own bodies.