A member of a family with large estates in Ireland declined consular assistance yesterday and said he was prepared to fight paedophile charges in Thailand.
Robert Alexander Horsman (42), who gave his address as Ipswich, Suffolk, England, will remain in Pattaya prison, 100 miles east of Bangkok, pending an application for bail. He has been remanded to appear in court on March 31st.
Mr Horsman, whose family has estates in Northern Ireland and Tipperary, was arrested at the weekend at his house in the resort. His Thai wife was away.
In her absence, Thai police said, Mr Horsman had invited young and impoverished Thai boys to his house, all under the age of 15, but mainly aged from 10 to 12. The parents had reported their suspicions to police after the boys arrived home with new clothes and computer games.
Police from Banglamuang police station in north Pattaya said Mr Horsman is alleged to have had paid them each in the region of 500 baht (€10) for sexual services. Some of the boys had allegedly paid many visits to the house.
Mr Horsman, a partner in a real estate company, said he would be pleading innocent and had contacted his Bangkok lawyers. He could face up to five years on each of five charges of indecent assault. However, paedophiles arrested in Pattaya are rarely found guilty. As in the Gary Glitter case in Vietnam, where a rape investigation was dropped, payments to the families - and sometimes also to authorities - ensure prosecutions often fail.