May 13, 2009
BANGKOK (AFP) - Thai police have arrested two Swedish men and one Briton in the coastal resort of Pattaya on charges of sexually abusing underage boys, an officer said Wednesday.
Karl Erik Berglund, 60, Lars Anders Elleman, 65, and Briton George Stanley Gibbs, 67, were paraded in front of the media after being arrested in the southeastern city.
"They were arrested Tuesday morning at their rented houses in Pattaya. They are retirees and have been coming in and out of Thailand," said deputy police commander Colonel Suwichpol Imjairach.
Thai authorities said they were tipped off by Scandinavian police who said that the men had entered Thailand to buy sex and that they had abused seven boys under the age of 15.
Police had confiscated computers from the men, which allegedly contained several pictures of minors, they added.
"They have been producing material for their own use, not for commercial use," Suwichpol said.
He said that the men were part of a gang of seven people for which a court had issued arrest warrants.
Two other foreign members of the gang had already left Thailand while police are hunting for another foreign suspect and one Thai man, they said.
