February 2014 On-the-run police special constable and Derbyshire paedophile back behind bars FORMER police special constable and Derbyshire paedophile Ian Bower – who fled to Cambodia and continued committing similar crimes – is back behind bars. He was arrested at Gatwick Airport this morning by detectives from Derbyshire Police and sent back to prison. The 48-year-old was sentenced in September 2004 to 78 months in prison for sexual offences against children and downloading indecent images of children. He was released on licence to a probation hostel in Derby but absconded and travelled to Cambodia. In 2012, Cambodian courts sentenced him to two years in prison for offences against children. Bower, originally from Ilkeston, was deported by the Cambodian authorities in connection with a passport offence. He was accompanied on the flight to the UK by officers from the National Crime Agency, after Cambodian authorities sought their assistance to ensure his safe deportation. Bower arrived back in the UK this morning and was immediately arrested by Derbyshire Constabulary officers and returned to prison custody. December 2013 Paedophile policeman who was convicted of child sex offences is on the loose again Ian Bower was due to be sent back from Cambodia after being jailed for molesting kids. He paid his five victims, aged 11 to 15, as little as eight pence to abuse them while watching sex movies on his phone. A judge ordered Bower to be deported after his sentence. But now an appeal court in Cambodia has ruled he can stay as he has a wife and child there. Bower was released from prison on November 16 and has since disappeared. The ex-special constable also persuaded the courts to slash the compensation he must pay his victims after moaning he was broke. Each will get just £155. Bower, of Ilkeston, Derbyshire, has been wanted by UK police for seven years after failing to finish a sentence for other child sex
crimes. He fled a bail hostel in Derby in 2006 after being released early on licence from a three-year, nine month jail term for abusing kids and downloading child abuse images. Derbyshire Police are powerless to demand his return as there is no official extradition agreement between Britain and Cambodia. Bower, who worked as a teacher in Cambodia, was convicted in July 2012 after being released for other alleged offences in the country in 2007. We have previously revealed the British Government failed to secure his deportation after his 2007 arrest, even though charity bosses begged the Home Office to act. Last night, the children’s charity Action Pour Les Enfants, which helped bring Bower to justice in Cambodia, criticised the decision not to deport him. Its spokesman Yi Moden warned: “Bower is a dangerous man and we are convinced he won’t stop harming children. “There’s no treatment programme in Cambodian jails for child sex offenders…we can only assume that he comes out of jail the same man who went inside two years ago.” Detective Superintendent Andy Stoke, of Derbyshire Police’s public protection unit, said: “We have worked tirelessly with organisations such as the National Crime Agency to bring Bower back to the UK to be questioned about the breach of his licence and sexual offences prevention order. “We are disappointed this attempt has been unsuccessful but we continue to work with colleagues in the NCA and authorities in south-east Asia to locate Bower and bring him back. “We are still in contact with his victims in Derbyshire and we are keeping them updated. July 2012 Paedophile gets prison  A PAEDOPHILE on the run from Derbyshire police has been convicted of fresh offences in Cambodia, where he paid young boys as little as 8p for sexual favours. Ian Bower, who fled a Derby bail hostel in 2006, has now been jailed for two years for sexually assaulting five boys aged between 11 and 15. Now, a group that campaigns against child sex tourism has claimed it warned the Home Office in 2007 that Bower would strike again but it took no action. The 46-year-old will be deported to the UK at the end of his jail term, when Derbyshire police will arrest him and he will be dealt with for breaching his licence conditions. He was one of five convicted sex offenders on the run from Derbyshire police that the Derby Telegraph named in an article in February 2010. The following month, the paper’s crime reporter traced one of them, Richard Guelbert, using a social networking website, and then tracked him down to a Swiss village. Bower, formerly of Ilkeston, was first convicted and sentenced in 2004 for three years and nine months at Derby Crown Court for sex offences against a boy and downloading indecent images of children. He was released from prison on licence in January 2006 on the condition he lived at Burdett Lodge bail hostel in Bass Street, Derby. He went missing in February 2006. Children’s rights organisation ECPAT UK first alerted British authorities that Bower was in Cambodia in 2007, after he was arrested for abusing two brothers, aged 12 and 14, while in the country teaching English. The case against him was dropped after the boys withdrew their statements. Because the UK does not have an extradition agreement with Cambodia, he was able to remain in the country. Yesterday, Christine Beddoe, director of the campaigning organisation, said: “We are appalled by the inaction of the UK Government who failed to negotiate a diplomatic arrangement to request Cambodian authorities to deport Bower. “Innocent children were abused because the UK was unable or unwilling to seek the removal of Bower from Cambodia. “Bower is a wanted and dangerous criminal in the UK – he now should serve his sentence in Cambodia and face the full power of the British courts when he returns.” She added that when Bower returns to the UK he should be put on the Sex Offenders’ Register for life and be subject to a Foreign Travel Order, which would ban him from travelling abroad. Bower came to the attention of campaigners in Cambodia, in January 2007, when they discovered he appeared to be having inappropriate contact with two brothers. This was reported to the Cambodian police, who arrested him on January 20, 2007, and filed his case to the Municipal Court in Cambodian capital Phnom Penh. But later a charge of debauchery was dropped after the two brother reversed their statements, testifying in favour of Bower, and he was released from custody. However, Vando Khoem, project officer in the French equivalent of ECPAT – End Child Prostitution and Trafficking – said it kept Bower on its radar. Mr Khoem said: “He kept contacting the two boys. We again reported the case to police for action. “However, after police interviewing the two boys there was little evidence to prove his guilt and the case couldn’t go forward.” Then in early 2011, the organisation discovered that Bower had been in contact with five boys in a community about 20 km from Phnom Penh. The information was reported to anti-human trafficking and juvenile protection police and Bower was rearrested on November 13, 2011. Phnom Penh Municipal Court heard he had driven his dirt bike to a pagoda compound, a public area in which a Buddhist monk lives, when it was quiet. He then played movies and cartoons on his mobile phone to attract the boys and then took the opportunity to sexually molest them. He paid the boys between 500 and 10,000 Cambodian Riel, which is equivalent to between 8p and £1.55. He was charged with an indecent act against a minor. He was convicted after a trial and on Mondaywas jailed for two years. He was fined 1,000 dollars and ordered to pay each of the victims 500 dollars. Following the hearing, Bower’s lawyer, Dun Vibol, told the Derby Telegraph that his client did not accept the verdict and was appealing. Mr Vibol said: “He claims he is innocent. “In my opinion, the sentence is acceptable but the compensation is too much.” In Cambodia, Bower, a former special constable in the UK before his first conviction, worked for the Cambodian Air Traffic Service, teaching English to adults. A Home Office spokeswoman said the Government department did not “routinely comment on individual cases”. She said there was no formal extradition treaty, though this did not necessary rule out a UK extradition request being made. Bower pictured in 2007 THE sickening snap below shows British paedophile Ian Bower leering at a small boy in the streets of Cambodian capital Phnom Penh. Pictures from 2007 Sick … Bower parks his bike to eye up young boy Moments later the twisted pervert has persuaded the child to climb on to the back of his moped and is whisking him away. Soon afterwards Bower’s two-wheeler is spotted outside a house thought to be the lad’s family home. Jan 2007 Paedophile who fled hostel arrested in Cambodia A convicted paedophile who fled a bail hostel in Britain has been arrested in Cambodia on suspicion of child sex offences. Ian Bower, who has been working in South East Asia as an English teacher, was held earlier this week, probation service officials confirmed today. The former special constable fled Burdett Lodge bail hostel, in Derby, in February last year. He was there on licence after spending time in prison for sexual offences against children in nearby Ilkeston. Bower, 42, was sentenced at Derby Crown Court in September 2004 to three and a half years in jail for four counts of gross indecency with a male aged under 16. He also received a three year extended licence. He was released in January last year under ‘stringent’ licence conditions, said Derbyshire probation service. But he was at the bail hostel for less than two months when he absconded. He was immediately recalled to prison fled abroad. A Derbyshire probation service spokeswoman said: “We are aware that Ian Bower has been arrested in Cambodia for alleged sexual offences against children. “I can confirm that, according to the police, it is the Ian Bower we had in Derby and he was at our approved premises for a period. “Travel abroad is prohibited under standard prison licence conditions. The serious consequences of this or any other breach of licence conditions are clearly explained to all offenders. “Any infringement of licence conditions results in the offender being liable to be recalled to prison.” A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: “We are aware that a British national was arrested in Phnom Penh on January 22.” The Briton was held on suspicion of offences known under Cambodian law as ‘debauchery’, she confirmed. It is reported the accusations relate to two boys, aged 12 and 14. Derbyshire Police have said it would look to re-arrest Bower, of Bramcote, Nottingham, for a breach of licence if he returned to England. It is reported the relatives of Bower’s Derbyshire victims alerted police to the similarities between the case in Cambodia and the case in Ilkeston after hearing about it on the radio. They issued a statement through the police which said: “We are relieved that he is once again in custody.”