Karl Kraus sat alone in a cell, his blue, watery eyes following me as I entered the holding area of a Chiang Mai courthouse. Karl Kraus is ninety years old, hard of hearing, fragile and, according to the police, a threatening child molester. I'd rambled into the cells sure I'd be rebuffed.

Instead, the 2nd World War vet looked ardent to speak to me. He explained the way in which the claims against him are inspired by greedy neighbours. It's a debate he is going to make to judges in the approaching weeks. Last year, 2,888 folks were charged with having sex with kids under fifteen in Thailand. Thailand has become the destination of choice for sex travellers looking to prey on youngsters. But now the police are raising their game, anxious to turn the tide. But Col Apichart is on a mission to catch them and that is not straightforward. While he and his men could be convinced somebody could be sexually molesting youngsters, establishing it in court is another thing. Money can change a lot, it can change even the mind of the victims.

And if they change their statement, it might be different or completely different I say. " I am attempting to find them and if they believe they can escape let's try. There's no particular law about having kid porno in possession, he asserted. Thailand should issue the new law about kid porno in particular. Ronnasit Proeksayajiva is with a tiny NGO called the Counter Human Trafficking Unit. He's employed closely with Col Apichart, frequently accompanying officials on raids. Karl Kraus is claimed to have lured girls into his modest rundown house in Doi Saket near Chiang Mai. Only a few homes away, I met the mummy of the 4 girls Karl Kraus is charged with abusing. She denied his claim that she is attempting to extort money from him. Instead she breaks down and weeps as she is going into exhausting detail about the ordeal her children endured. The youngest girl Kraus is charged with abusing is just 7 years old. Such cases do tiny to deter child-molesters from coming to Thailand. Col Apichart says net forums are abuzz with talk about Thailand being a kid molesters' heaven. The police accuse him of sexually abusing small boys, something Cutler rejects. The pictures show Cutler chatting to groups of little boys in the street and taking other boys swimming at a local pool. A DVD of a police search of his flat made public semi-clothed teens in his bedroom. All this may form part of the case against him, which is scheduled to start later in the month.