David Timothy Deakin after his arrest in 2017. Photo: AP
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https://scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3086393/philippine-court-sentences-us-man-david-timothy-deakin Southeast Asia
Webcam child sex abuse: Philippine court sentences US man David Timothy Deakin to life in prison
- Deakin was arrested in 2017, having lived in the Philippines since 2000. He was convicted of using webcams to sell images of abuse to buyers abroad
- The Philippines has emerged as a global hotspot for online child sexual exploitation, with cases increasing sharply in recent years
David Timothy Deakin after being arrested in 2017. Photo: AP
A Philippine court has sentenced an American to life in prison on charges of sexually exploiting Filipino children using webcams to sell videos, photos and live-streams to buyers abroad, an official said on Wednesday.
National Bureau of Investigation official Janet Francisco said the conviction of David Timothy Deakin is a strong warning to offenders that “they could not hide even if they commit sexual exploitation crimes in cyberspace, because law enforcers are collaborating worldwide to catch them”.
Judge Irineo Pangilinan Jnr of the regional trial court in northern Pampanga province declared Deakin guilty of qualified human trafficking and sentenced him to life imprisonment and ordered him to pay a fine and indemnify his victims. The ruling was handed down online on Tuesday because of coronavirus quarantine restrictions.
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation provided the information that led to Deakin’s arrest in April 2017 in Pampanga’s Mabalacat city, Francisco said. Deakin was arrested in his flat near a red-light district.
Francisco, who heads an anti-human trafficking force, said the raid led to the seizure of the largest amount of digital evidence related to online sexual exploitation of children in the country so far. Her agents also found children’s underwear, toddler shoes, cameras, bondage cuffs, fetish ropes, meth pipes and stacks of hard drives and photo albums in Deakin’s two-bedroom flat.
Deakin was originally from Peoria, Illinois, and has been in the Philippines since 2000. He claimed in an interview shortly after his arrest that he didn’t make videos of children.
The Washington, DC-based private group International Justice Mission said its social workers have helped bring eight of Deakin’s victims to recovery and cited one as welcoming his conviction “because he won’t be able to victimise anyone any more”.
Samson Inocencio Jnr, who heads the IJM in the Philippines, said the justice system should continue protecting vulnerable children who are unsafe during the coronavirus lockdown.
A study released by the group last week said the Philippines has emerged as a global hotspot for online child sexual exploitation, with cases increasing sharply in recent years. Parents have agreed to have their own children victimised for the money.
The webcam scheme involves paedophiles in the US, Canada, Europe and Australia who pay facilitators to sexually abuse children, even babies, in the privacy of Philippine homes. They watch and help direct the abuses through online live-streaming services.
The wide use of English, availability of internet connections and international cash transfer systems have combined with long-entrenched poverty and wide access to vulnerable children to allow many abuses to happen in the Philippines.