bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

During his annual visits to Nepal, Irish poet Cathal O'Searcaigh spent many afternoons outside high school gates, handing out business cards to male students, along with cash worth two months' tuition.
Some would receive an invitation to join him later in the evening. Back in his room at Kathmandu's Hotel Buddha, the poet received visits from 'many, many' boys as young as 16, according to hotel staff.
'He had all types of strategies,' hotel manager Ramesh Khadka said. 'He picked up boys from the street or outside colleges and maybe they were under age, we don't know.'
O'Searcaigh's habits were exposed in a documentary screened in Ireland this month, sparking  heated debate but also highlighting the existence of sex tourism in Nepal - an industry that experts say is growing unchecked.
Nischal Kunwar, who runs a trekking agency next door to the Hotel Buddha, said he saw 'not less than 50' boys going  to the poet's room.
O'Searcaigh  is a renowned Irish-language poet whose work is taught in schools across Ireland. He is also the subject of the documentary Fairytale of Kathmandu, which screened at the Dublin International Film Festival and will air on Irish television next month.
Filmmaker Neasa Ni Chianain was a friend of O'Searcaigh when she travelled with him to Nepal to make a film about his charity work.
But her role shifted from fan to whistle-blower when she began to suspect  O'Searcaigh was exploiting his position.
Chianain's film does not claim that  O'Searcaigh broke any laws in Nepal or Ireland, nor does it suggest that he had sex with boys under 16, the age of consent in Nepal. But it does question the morality of a relatively wealthy foreigner having sex with boys after giving them money, and allegedly promising education and trips abroad.
She ended up challenging him about his relationship with the boys. In the film, O'Searcaigh admits: 'I certainly had sex with some of them, yes, yes, yes. But I wasn't coercing them into having sex.'
O'Searcaigh has since repeated his denial of exploiting boys.
'If my gay lifestyle and relationships in Nepal have offended anyone, I am sorry,' O'Searcaigh said.  'But to suggest that I in any way coerced or preyed upon these young men is untrue and distasteful.'
Irish police received a complaint in 2006 and asked the Interpol office in Kathmandu to investigate, but to date nothing has been done.
Social workers and police say sex tourism involving teenagers is on the rise because Nepal has no specific laws dealing with paedophilia. Other factors include poverty, weak law enforcement and the trust that  people generally place in foreigners who assist underprivileged children.
'People here don't think that way,' said Kabir Pradhan of the children's department of the  Nepali police. 'They think that they are loving them, not hurting them.'
But shows of affection can hide dark intentions.
'We found that the paedophiles especially use street children, mostly under 12,' Inspector Pradhan said.
There are between 1,200 and 1,500 children living on Kathmandu's streets, according to Krishna Thapa, director of Voice of Children, which  deals with homeless youths and sex abuse. In 2005 they found that 85 per cent of street  children claimed to have been sexually abused, two-thirds of them by foreigners.
'After 1995, when there was a strong law introduced in Thailand, many paedophiles moved to India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal,' Mr Thapa said.
Sex tourists often used gifts of money, food or clothing to lure children into situations where abuse occurred and child pornography was produced for   the internet, he said.  Mr Thapa has seen an increase in  Nepali perpetrators, a trend he attributes to men who were abused by foreigners as boys and have become abusers themselves.
Reliable statistics do not exist, but most social workers and children's organisations describe an increase in child-sex tourism  and a  failure to combat the problem.
Police admit that child-sex tourism is a low priority in a country in the midst of a dramatic transition from a civil war with Maoist rebels.
'Political instability is something that gives space for criminal activities,' said Mr Thapa, adding that the police were worried about causing diplomatic incidents by investigating foreigners.
At least 11 foreigners have been arrested  on child-sex charges  but have not gone to trial. Last year,  French  and  German nationals were arrested, but were handed over to their embassies and quietly deported, according to a police source.
A 48-year-old Dutchman is expected to face court next month on  sex charges, after he was found naked with a 13-year-old boy a year ago. If convicted, he would be the first foreigner to be jailed for having under-age sex,   Mr Thapa said.
A guilty verdict would send a message to other child-sex tourists and would be a rare victory for frustrated child rights advocates.
'For paedophiles,  it's so easy,' said Inspector Pradhan. 'Nobody will stop them, nobody cares.'



Film exposes Irish poet preying on Nepali teens