Police nab Dutch paedophile suspect
Acting on an Interpol tip-off, Thai police arrested a 60-year-old Dutch national at Hua Hin beach resort on child sex abuse charges, authorities said Monday.
Willem Gerard Knoppien, 60, was arrested Sunday shortly after police filmed a 12-year-old Thai boy entering and leaving his rented home in Hua Hin, 130 kilometres south of Bangkok.
"We had received a warning from Netherlands Interpol that Knoppien had a child abuse record so we were keeping an eye on him," said Police Colonel Banya Pinsuk, of Thailand's Crimes Against Women and Children unit.
"We asked Knoppien's neighbours to tell us if anything suspicious happened," he added.
On Sunday morning a man on a motorcycle brought a 12-year-old Thai boy to Knoppien's Hua Hin home. Police filmed the boy entering the foreigner's house and leaving one hour later.
Banya said the boy had confessed to having sex with Knoppien for 120 baht (3.50 dollars), while the man who delivered him on the motorcycle received another 200 baht (5.90 dollars).
Knoppien, a frequent visitor to Thailand, denied having sex with the child. (dpa)
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