An individual, Christopher Behn Colchester Paedophile, who has been found guilty of engaging in sexual activities with minors has confessed to committing an additional 21 acts of sexually exploiting underage males in foreign countries.
Christopher Behn, a 68-year-old resident of Colchester, is currently incarcerated for a nine-year prison sentence due to his involvement in the abuse of 11 children in Myanmar in 2016.
The additional allegations pertain to the mistreatment of male children, ranging in age from six to eleven, in Vietnam.
Christopher Behn, characterised by the authorities as a “dedicated and highly productive transnational child sex offender”, is scheduled to get his punishment in the upcoming month.
The former engineer made a virtual appearance in Chelmsford Crown Court via a video link from HMP Albany on the Isle of Wight.
Christopher Behn was recognised by investigators from the National Crime Agency (NCA), Europol, and Dutch police as a member of a Europe-wide network that travelled together to exploit minors worldwide.
In February 2020, he was apprehended at Gatwick Airport following the identification of his presence in images alongside another individual from the network. This Dutch citizen was subsequently found guilty in the Netherlands.
Law enforcement officials apprehended Behn before his departure on a flight bound for Vietnam.
Photographs captured by Christopher Behn depicting his engagement in child maltreatment were retrieved from encrypted electronic devices.
According to the NCA, his travel records indicate that he has travelled to Vietnam on 18 occasions since 2006 and to Thailand, the Philippines, Laos, Cambodia, India, and Myanmar.
Both Christopher Behn and the Dutch national had also documented their experiences in diaries, providing explicit descriptions of the abuse they inflicted on numerous occasions during their travels.
The NCA stated that Christopher Behn and his network collaborated using encrypted communications to conceal their disgusting criminal activities.
In June of this year, Christopher Behn faced additional charges consisting of 23 counts of sexually abusing a minor and inducing a minor to participate in sexual activities. These incidents occurred between 2008 and 2018.
He refuted two of the accusations but will not be subjected to a trial for those specific offences.
According to Phil Eccles, the operations manager of the NCA, Christopher Behn was a determined and highly active transnational child sex offender who devoted a significant amount of time to this criminal network.
“Christopher Behn and his similarly inclined acquaintances engaged in their illicit activities in secluded regions of the globe and colluded through encrypted conversations to conceal their abhorrent behaviour from law enforcement,” he stated.
The agency reported that it had discovered an additional five males in the UK suspected to have connections to the network. Ongoing investigations are being conducted in other European nations.
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