Child Wise

Notorious paedophile Bradley Pendragon has finally arrived back in Sydney today after being held for weeks in a holding cell in Bangkok following his release from a Thai prison with a Royal Pardon from the King of Thailand.

Bradley Pendragon was the first foreigner to be jailed in Thailand for child sex offences in 1995 receiving a 12 year sentence for raping girls as young as 8 and recording this abuse on camera. Pendragon was caught after a photo lab reported the child pornography to police.

Child Wise, Australias leading international child protection agency considers Pendragons release from jail a great mistake. CEO Bernadette McMenamin states:

Bradley Pendragon is a very dangerous man. He has a long history of child sexual abuse in Australia and overseas and his crimes against the little Thai girls was sadistic and horrific. These girls will have to live with these violent memories for the rest of their lives. While Pendragon admitted to these crimes he never expressed any remorse for his actions, never received any treatment for offending nor has he been assessed for future risk against children. Under these circumstances he should be closely monitored and his movement be restricted

Child Wise has called upon the Australian Government to cancel Pendragons passport immediately as they have the provision under the Passport Control Act to do so. Ms McMenamin believes that cancelling Pendragons passport will at least limit his movements to Australia:

Pendragons passport should be removed today. If we wait and he leaves Australia he will disappear and travel to poor and remote locations where he could harm many vulnerable children. At least in Australia there is greater awareness of child sexual abuse and some checks and balances for people working with children so he will have less access to victims. If he moves overseas he could easily get a job working with a school or another childrens program as they often do not screen staff or volunteers. We recently saw how easily John Mark Karr was employed as a teacher in Bangkok so the world is a smorgasbord for paedophiles.