A convicted child abuser was prevented from flying to the Philippines after Australian authorities seized his two passports just days before his flight.
Peter Alan Swale, an Australian who also has New Zealand nationality, was due to catch an Air Asia flight from Perth to Cebu yesterday morning (Tuesday, September 12).
However, the 61-year-old, also known as Peter Adam Stanley on his New Zealand passport, was stripped of his travel documents in a raid on his home.
The Department of Foreign Affairs cancelled his Australian passport after authorities received an tip-off about his travel plans.
Australian Federal Police told the Herald Sun newspaper “an individual in Perth” had his Australian passport and a New Zealand passport confiscated after the agency was informed of the cancellation.
Peter Alan Swale convicted
Swale was convicted in Britain a decade ago of possessing thousands of indecent images taken in Cambodia and the Philippines.
He was charged with 15 offences in 2005 after police found 3,865 indecent images of children on a computer seized at his home. He later pleaded guilty to inciting a child in the Philippines to commit an act of gross indecency.
Swale also pleaded guilty to five counts of taking indecent images of children while in Cambodia in 2001, and one count of taking indecent images of children while in the Philippines between August 2003 and April 2004.
His conviction was one of the first times a UK court of law had convicted somebody for sex crimes committed while abroad.
The UK Home Office issued an order for his deportation in 2006.
It is believed that since leaving Britain, Swale has continued to make frequent visits to Southeast Asia.
In recent weeks the Australian government has implemented some tough anti child-sex tourism laws.
As we recently reported, such offenders are now banned from travelling abroad.