Battling the 'Big Daddy' who makes seedy profit from selling
kids for sex
June 30, 2004
The Evening Herald
A FORMER RUC officer who is
one of the "big daddies" offering underage Filipino girls to sex
tourists in the Philippines is firmly within the sights of campaigning
Irish priest Father Shay Cullen.
Fr Cullen has been leading the fight against child prostitution in the
Philippines for over 20 years.
He offers the young victims hope at his PREDA Foundation refuge where
they go to rebuild their tragic young lives.
As Fr. Cullen tries to focus attention on the seedy world, Irish born
businessman Richard Agnew continues to make a fortune on Fields Avenue,
Angeles, north of Manila.
This is the centre of the Philippines' sex industry and Richard Agnew, a
former Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) officer, is at it heart.
Mr Agnew (44) runs a string of bars and clubs in Fields Avenue that
cater to Western sex tourist seeking underage girls.
He was arrested last year and deputed, but is now back in the
Philippines and operating the same businesses with apparent impunity.
"Richard owns all the clubs around here," said the friendly floor
manager at Nero's Forum nightclub.
Mr. Agnew's business partner, Steve Baker from Cambridge, was equity
forthcoming.
"Richard and I run all these clubs with an Irish guy," he said.
ARRESTED
Those statements might surprise local police, who arrested Mr. Agnew
last August after raiding one club, the Blue Nile, and discovering six
girls aged between 11 and 13.
Born in Lame, Northern Ireland, Agnew moved to the Philippines 11 years
ago, leaving behind a trail of angry investors in a time-share company
that he set up after leaving the RUC.
Some lost thousands of pounds after investing in apartments in Portugal
that did not exist.
Angeles was the natural destination for a man seeking to profit from the
Western sex tourists who flock to the Philippines.
Ecpat, a global network that campaigns against child prostitution,
estimates that 300,000 sex tourists from Japan alone visit the
Philippines every year.
Many others are British. Last week a retired University of Middlesex
mathematics lecturer, Barry Edwards, was arrested after police allegedly
found him in a hotel room in Angeles with a 14-year-old girl.
Dozens of videos allegedly showing him having sex with a number of young
girls were discovered in his room.
There are 100,000 child prostitutes in the Philippines, according to the
UN children's agency, Unicef. In Angeles, they can be hired for 1,000
pesos (10 EURO) a night. The girls receive half that sum.
Agnew, a former police sergeant, has sworn that he does not own the
clubs and was merely a consultant on renovation and decor.
He was imprisoned, but a few weeks' later police dropped the charges for
lack of evidence. His name did not appear on the clubs official
documents.
In another interview before he was deported, Mr. Agnew said he did not
own the
clubs but had been negotiating to buy them at the time of the raid.
The minutes of an interview with Bureau of Immigration prosecutors paint
a different picture, however.
The document, signed by Mr. Agnew, records that he admitted to owning a
30 per cent share in five nightclubs in Angeles. Mr. Agnew said he
earned at least 100,000 pesos (980 EURO) a month from the businesses.
He said he always insisted on seeing the birth certificates of people
working for him. police video of the raid, which followed a complaint
that he was employing young girls, suggests he had an arrangement with
local police.
"I was promised there would be no more harassment," he protested
repeatedly as he was led away.
After the charges were dropped Mr. Agnew was pursued by the Bureau of
Immigration. He agreed to voluntary deportation as an undesirable alien
and went to Bangkok.
However, he persuaded authorities to allow him to return to sort out his
affairs. He came back last Christmas on a 21-day single-entry visa and
is still in the country six months later.
Angeles city grew up around the huge US Clark Air Base and although the
base closed in 1992 prostitution is still the only industry in town. The
servicemen have been replaced by middle-aged tourists from Britain,
Australia, Germany, the US and Japan.
Many want girls as young as possible and preferably virgins - "cherry
girls", as they are known in Angeles, where raping of these children is
jocularly 'cherry-
Popping".
In Nero's Forum, Mr. Baker said the clubs employed girls "from teenagers
through to 25 or 26 - that's the retirement age,"
He said: "Most of them just turn up and ask for a job. If they look
good, we take them. They used to dance naked but the council cracked
down. Now they have to be covered up. But trade is still good."
Western men stroll along the streets with a Filipina girl hanging off
each arm. Inside the clubs, girls in bikinis and high-heeled boots
gyrate on a raised stage above the bar, watched intently by men drinking
San Miguel beer.
On a recent Saturday night, several of the bored-looking dancers in
Nero's Forum nightclub looked no older than 12 and 13.
Mr. Baker, a portly middle-aged man, extolled the virtues of Filipina
women. "Back in England, these girls would never look at me twice," he
said. "At the moment I've got and 18-year-old, a 20-year-old and a
25-year-old. All at the same time."
A customer, Brain from Birmingham, who visits Angeles three times a
year, said he had lost count of his tally of "cherry girls".
"I used to love cherry-popping but it's getting too much for me now," he
said.
Although they have been altered to Mr. Agnew's return to Angeles, local
police have declined to take action. They say they still have no
evidence that he owns the clubs.
At the PREDA Foundation, Mr. Agnew is a familiar face to one girl,
Roxanne. Shown a photograph, she said: "That's Big Daddy," the term for
a sex-club owner.
She added: "We always had to smile nicely when he was around," Roxanne
was 13 when she was rescued from the Cambodia Club - one of Mr. Agnew's
establishments.
The industry has been fuelled by the Internet. One child sex tourism
site is headed by a picture of a naked girl on a bed who looks no older
than nine.
VISITORS
It has a large collection of photographs and promises visitors to the
site: "You can actually f**k any one of these young girls. All you have
to do is make the trip."
The Philippines has stiff child protection laws, but they are only
patchily enforced.
Police and prosecutors are bought off and the girls frequently lie about
their age and hold false papers.
At the PREDA Foundation another girl, Mary-Ann, described how she became
a prostitute at the age of 13 to provide for her younger brother.
At the PREDA, she is learning skills that will equip her for a proper
job. "I want to be a singer one day," she said wishfully.
