Saving the Victims of Abuse

Published in the News of the World, January 26, 2003
London and Ireland 

 A brave Dublin priest is leading a crackdown on Irish paedophiles who hire child sex slaves abroad.

 Fr Shay Cullen sees dozens of Irish sex tourists pour into the Philippines every month to find evil gratification.

  The Columban missionary says: "It used to be American businessmen or soldiers. But now it's ordinary Irish men as well.

 "They're coming in droves because it's so easy and cheap to buy child sex here."

 But the Glenageary cleric, who runs a refuge for abuse and poverty victims, warned the Irish sickos: "They better watch out. I'm on their trail as soon as they touch down in the country."

 The tough childrens' rights campaigner has been a thorn in the side of the Filipino sordid sex industry for 30 years.

 He has tackled the Manila crimelords who send him death threats every day.

 Along the way he has saved hundreds of young girls from the grubby clutches of perverts - and helped police to jail paedos.

 It's estimated that a staggering 100,000 children are forced to work as prostitutes in the Philippines.

 And 40 per cent of the 77 million population live below the poverty line.

 That's why dozens of the child slaves still turn up battered and bruised on the doorstep of his PREDA foundation shelter.

 They get abused up by perverts in Irish bars in Manila like Molly Malones and The Shamrock.

 These are fronts for notorious vice dens where Irish perverts come to hire young girls.

 Fr Shay says: "These child sex slaves are selected just like items on the menu. Young flesh is cheap and so easy to buy."

 Pimps steer malnourished little girls from darkened alleys to sell to the Irish beer-bellied perverts.

 The tough-talking Columban Father has been fighting against evil in the Philippines since 1969, the year of his ordination.

 He said: "The sex tourism trade is a billion dollar industry. Children as young as nine are dragged into this evil web to escape the poverty trap."

 Many of these kids are also abused in the child porn industry - where sick pictures are downloaded by twisted minds.

 But last week Fr Shay saw the fruits of his campaigning work in this area come to fruition in Ireland with the first prosecutions under child porn laws.

 Celebrity chef Tim Allen caused public shock and outrage after he was collared under the new legislation after possessing nearly 1,000 computer images of child sex.

 Fr Shay, who also got laws changed in Austria, Sweden, Australia and the  UK began lobbying the Irish TDs in 1995.

  The Dail finally passed the landmark Child Trafficking and Pornography Act  in 1998.

  But Fr Shay believes that most sick perverts cannot be cured from their twisted crimes.

 "Judges can send paedophiles into clinics all they like but most will stay the same. Statistics show that only two or three percent will be completely rehabilitated and not reoffend."

 Despite the badly-needed legislation, Fr Shay also believes that the penalties are still not stiff enough.

 He explained: "If somebody is charged with possessing child porn images,  he may as well have been abusing the child himself. He creates a market for the pictures.