February 20, 2008
BANGKOK - An American man convicted of raping young girls was sentenced to 16 years in prison in Thailand, where he was arrested last year, a court official said Tuesday.
The Thai Criminal Court found Glenn Richard Allen, 61, guilty of raping two girls under 13 and molesting two other girls in 2007 in the resort town of Pattaya, the official said.
Allen was arrested along with two Britons -- Maurice John Praill and Stephen James Ellison -- and a Finnish man identified only by his first name Hero in March 2007 in Pattaya for allegedly sexually abusing under-aged girls.
Police claimed the four were part of an international gang of human traffickers and paedophiles in Pattaya, and seized video and film cameras containing electronic child pornography images.
A child welfare activist said Thai prosecutors had separately filed charges against the four, but declined to comment on the status of the charges against the remaining three, according to AFP.
Thailand has become the focus of international concerns over sexual abuse of children following a spate of arrests.
High-profile cases include last year's arrest of Canadian Christopher Paul Neil, 32, who was allegedly pictured in about 200 Internet photos abusing young Asian boys.
His trial is set to begin on March 10.
