Douglas Slade Jailed for 24 years
July 11, 2016 · By SIMON PARRY IN ANGELES CITY, THE PHILIPPINES for www.dailymail.co.uk/
A 10-year-old victim of Douglas Slade has told how the serial paedophile brandished guns and threatened to shoot the terrified boys he molested at his home in the Philippines if they reported him to police.
The founder of Paedophile Information Exchange kept a shotgun and a handgun in the bedroom of his home and warned the scores of boys from poverty-stricken homes he abused that he would shoot them if they told anyone what happened.
Twenty-two stone Slade – jailed for 24 years at Bristol Crown Court on Friday after being extradited back to the UK on historic child sex charges – now faces civil action from five of his victims from the Philippines where he repeatedly paid bribes to dodge justice.
As the wealthy 75-year-old began his jail term for sex attacks between 1965 and 1980, MailOnline interviewed victims and families in the Philippines where the wealthy paedophile men bribed police, officials and families to avoid arrest and jail over three decades.
Victims: A 12-year-old boy who was abused by Douglas Slade three years ago, when he was just nine. He lives with his mother just 100 yards from the home that Slade built overlooking a primary school
Terror: Slade’s home overlooked the entrance to the Amsic Elementary School. The notorious paedophile moved to the Philippines after being branded one of the ‘vilest men’ in the UK
Fear: Slade kept guns in his home which he used to threaten the children he abused, to ensure that they wouldn’t go home and tell their families or the police
One young victim Christian (not his real name), who was 10 when Slade lured him into his home in Angeles City, described how Slade threatened him and other boys with guns and video-taped his sickening attacks, selling footage to other paedophiles.
The assaults on Christian in a house Slade built overlooking a primary school took place in December 2014, just days before Slade was tracked down and exposed by MailOnline. He was arrested for the assaults on Christian and other boys four days after our story appeared.
Sitting nervously beside his mother in an interview organised with the help of local officials, Christian said: ‘I still have nightmares about what Mr Douglas did to me.’
Slade was exposed as a founder of the reviled Paedophile Information Exchange network that lobbied to legalise sex with children in the UK in the 1970s and ran a hotline to advise men on how to abuse minors.
Branded one of Britain’s ‘vilest men’ in a 1970s newspaper expose, Slade, from Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, moved to the Philippines in 1985 where he grew rich through a business supplying meat to restaurants and hotels in the Philippines.
Young: During the investigation, police discovered an astonishing 33 children that Slade had abused living less than a third of a mile from his home. Pictured, a 14-year-old boy who was 11 when he was abused
Crimes: Slade was exposed as a founder of the reviled Paedophile Information Exchange network that lobbied to legalise sex with children in the UK in the 1970s. Pictured, a domestic employee at the door of Slade’s home
Vulnerable: Slade moved to the incredibly poor neighbourhood, where he would be free to abuse the children and just paid bribes to free himself whenever he was investigated
Target: British paedophile Douglas Slade on the balcony of his home, before he was extradited back to the UK and handed a jail sentence of 24 years at Bristol Crown Court
Repeatedly arrested and released on child sex charges, he built a home with a balcony overlooking Amsic Elementary School in a desperately poor district of Angeles City 10 years ago, luring young boys inside by giving them money and sweets.
He picked Christian out of a line-up of young boys who would gather outside his house after school and at weekends and molested the 10-year-old five times in the weeks leading up to his arrest.
‘An older boy who is 15 persuaded me to go there when he told me we could get some money from Mr Douglas,’ said Christian.
‘The first time I went to his house he gave me 500 pesos (£8). Then he gave me 150 pesos (£2.40) every time I visited after that. Two or three boys would visit each time.’
On his visits, Douglas would sit the boys in front of a giant TV set in his living room and make them take baths, sometimes taking them to the shops and a fast food restaurant before taking them home and abusing them.
Slade had video cameras fitted to the wall in both the living room and the bedroom. He would film his abuse and told Christian and the other boys he was selling the footage to friends over the internet.
‘Mr Douglas told us to do things to him and he told us we had to do it right as he told us to because it was all going on video,’ he said.
‘He had a shotgun hanging on the wall of his bedroom and a handgun that he kept on his bed. He showed us the guns before we left the house and told us not to report what happened to anyone and to keep it a secret, otherwise he said something would happen to us. I was very scared.’
Threats: Slade tricked children into going into into his home, bribing them with money and sweets. He threatened them that if they told their families he would harm them
Escape: Six days before he was arrested, Slade attempted to grab one of the young boys and drag him into his home, but the boy bit him and ran away in terror
The threats were underscored by a sinister sign on the front door of Slade’s house that reads: ‘Warning: Trespassers will be shot!’ Survivors will be shot again and again.’
On December 19 – six days before Slade’s arrest – Christian was passing Slade’s house when the paedophile emerged from the back door and tried to grab him and drag him into his house.
‘I was frightened and I bit his arm and ran away back home,’ he said. ‘When I got home I was afraid he would come after me with his gun.’
When he tearfully told his mother what had happened, she reported Slade to police who raided his house on December 26, confiscating his computer containing scores of videos of his sickening assaults.
‘Mr Douglas is still in my dreams when I am sleeping,’ said Christian. ‘In my dreams, he is grabbing me and trying to drag me into his house.’
Slade was never convicted of any offences in the Philippines, bribing his way out of trouble each time he was arrested. He was finally extradited to the UK in September last year before Christian’s case could be brought to court.
He was jailed for historic sex attacks on five victims, including one who came forward after reading the MailOnline investigation into Slade’s activities in the Philippines in December 2014.
A Manila-based child exploitation charity that interviewed families in Slade’s neighbourhood after his arrest found an astonishing 33 victims aged eight to 15 within less than a third of a mile of the paedophile’s home.
‘We believe there are probably many more victims,’ said Trinida Maneja of Ecpat Philippines. ‘It was going on for years and the community was silent about what was happening.
‘This is a very poor area and parents here allowed their children to go there. They knew Slade was abusing them but they are in denial. They do not understand the terrible psychological effect these attacks have on children.’
Vile: Slade was never convicted of any offences in the Philippines, bribing his way out of trouble each time he was arrested. He was finally extradited to the UK in September last year
Offences: Slade, from Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, moved to the Philippines in 1985 where he grew rich through a business supplying meat to restaurants and hotels in the Philippines
Jailed: Slade is presented to reporters by Immigration spokeswoman Elaine Tan in Manila, Philippines on June 4, 2015
The mother of another boy who was just nine years old when Slade abused him said she felt helpless when she discovered what had happened. ‘I was angry with Mr Douglas and I wanted to go and confront him but I couldn’t because I am poor,’ she said.
‘I only told my husband. I wanted to protect my child from gossips and rumours. I didn’t want people to know what had happened.
‘There have been so many complaints about what Mr Douglas did to the children around here but it is useless because he paid the police and all the cases were closed. Parents who went to the police accepted payments from Mr Douglas just to shut their mouths.’
The mother added: ‘I am glad he is in prison in Britain because he will be treated like a prisoner there. Here in the Philippines he would be able to pay for an easy time in jail.’
Slade’s neighbour Cassidy Medina, 42, said the paedophile paid money to the elementary school and funded a new entrance gate for the school.
‘Children around here are poor and hungry and they went there because he gave them food and toys and money,’ Medina said.
‘Some of the parents don’t know what their children are doing. Some of them knew but they didn’t care.’
Catholic missionary Father Shay Cullen, who runs the child abuse charity the Preda Foundation and fought for years to bring Slade to justice, now plans to bring civil action against Slade in the UK that may see his money and property seized on behalf of his victims.
‘We have been so frustrated over the years,’ said Father Shay. ‘What I am so angry and upset about is that the corruption of the prosecutors’ lawyers and judges has let this man walk away from so many cases.
Violence: His threats were underscored by a sinister sign on the front door of Slade’s house that reads: ‘Warning: Trespassers will be shot!’ Survivors will be shot again and again
Poverty: One mother said she is ‘glad he is in prison in Britain because he will be treated like a prisoner there. Here in the Philippines he would be able to pay for an easy time in jail’
Help: Catholic missionary Father Shay Cullen, who runs the child abuse charity the Preda Foundation and fought for years to bring Slade to justice, plans to bring civil action against Slade that may see his money and property seized on behalf of his victims
Sick: Slade had video cameras fitted to the wall in both the living room and the bedroom. He would film his abuse and told Christian and the other boys he was selling the footage to friends over the internet
‘The system is so corrupt that these people can do whatever they like to Filipino children. Slade’s case is a condemnation of the Philippines justice system.
‘We are in now in contact with lawyers in the UK and we are planning to take a civil action on behalf of those children in Angeles City. The cases go back many years and we have five victims.
‘We have signed documents form the parents making us legal guardians of the children for the court action in the UK.’ The legal case being brought against Slade by the Preda Foundation includes the assaults on Christian.
