Over the last few months, we have discussed abuse in education by teachers.

Within such profession, we expect a high standard from those looking after children to have sufficient background checks and be of suitable character.

We now turn to discuss abuse overseas following the conviction of British Music National teacher, James Alexandra.

Alexandra was a former British employed teacher who had worked at Bromsgrove International School in Bangkok.  During his time overseas, he tried to orchestrate the abuse of young girls in the Philippines.

Alexandra had been subject to an investigation where it was found he had sent 15 money transactions to unidentified facilitators known for live-streaming child abuse from Iligan City in Northern Mindanao, Philippines.

Evidence was accumulated against Alexandra that he was carrying out offences between 2017-2020. His devices were seized on arrival in the UK which showed he had asked the facilitators to send him images of girls under 13 posing indecently. Investigators also said they found numerous illicit photos of minors on Alexander’s phone along with messages in which he described how would like to abuse children as young as 4.

The investigation noted, Alexander tried to arrange travel to the Philippines to abuse children in person, but there are no records of him ever traveling there.

The UK National Crime Agency’s senior investigating officer, Hazel Stewart stated “Alexander clearly tried to manipulate and exploit the poverty of the vulnerable in order to gratify his sick sexual desires. He believed he could abuse Filipino children safely from his home and wanted to visit the Philippines to carry out the sexual abuse himself.”

Several children placed under protective care.

He was convicted of plotting to abuse children in the Philippines by the Leeds Crown Court, and was banned from all foreign travel and placed on a permanent sex offender list after trying to arrange to abuse children in the Philippines.

Alexandra was sentenced to five years in jail.

Sexual abuse against children conducted in different countries continues to be on the increase with ever evolving technology.

This is not the first time we see such shocking headlines.  BBC investigations presented by Stacey Dooley documented “Mums Selling Their Kids for Sex” in the Philippines where Filipino mothers sexually abuse their own children, live in front of webcams in exchange for money.

ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), conducted a secret operation in the hope of arresting several mothers who were selling their own children for sex.

The investigation found the disturbing reality was many of the abusers were coming from the US and the UK.

Abusers can still face criminal sanctions in the UK even if the offences are committed abroad.

Hugh James acted for the claimants in the successful High Court action brought against Derek Slade who had sexually abused boys in the Philippines. Slade was found by the judge to have sexually abused five boys and ordered him to pay them compensation.

We encourage anyone who has concerns about sexual abuse to get in touch. You can contact Alan Collins at [email protected] or Danielle Vincent at  [email protected].