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SEATTLE, Washington (AP) -- The first person prosecuted under a law protecting children overseas from sex crimes by U.S. citizens has pleaded guilty to having sexual contact with boys in Cambodia, the U.S. attorney's office said.
Michael Lewis Clark was arrested last June in Cambodia and was indicted last September in Seattle. He pleaded guilty Wednesday to two federal charges of engaging in and attempting to engage in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places.
Clark was charged under the Protect Act of 2003, signed into law last spring and best known for encouraging states to set up Amber Alert systems to help track down missing children. The provision of the law under
which Clark was charged makes it a crime for any U.S. citizen to travel abroad for the purpose of sex tourism involving children.
Court documents said Clark flew to Cambodia from Seattle and engaged
in s
exual contact with two boys, about 10
and 13 years old.
The Cambodian National Police arrested Clark in Phnom Penh, accusing him of "debauchery involving illicit sexual conduct" with the boys, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said. The Cambodian authorities later dropped the charge, which allowed Clark to be indicted in the United States.
Prosecutors said in papers filed in federal court that Clark has spent a considerable amount of time in Cambodia over the last five years and may have molested as many as 50 boys aged 10 to 18. He most recently flew from Washington state to southeast Asia last May.
The complaint said Clark acknowledged he has been a pedophile since 1996 and that he usually paid the Cambodian boys $2 each for sex.
Clark faces a pote
ntial maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/LA
W/03/19/prot
ect....a.ap/index.html
Michael Lewis Clark was arrested last June in Cambodia and was indicted last September in Seattle. He pleaded guilty Wednesday to two federal charges of engaging in and attempting to engage in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places.
Clark was charged under the Protect Act of 2003, signed into law last spring and best known for encouraging states to set up Amber Alert systems to help track down missing children. The provision of the law under
which Clark was charged makes it a crime for any U.S. citizen to travel abroad for the purpose of sex tourism involving children.
Court documents said Clark flew to Cambodia from Seattle and engaged
in s
exual contact with two boys, about 10
and 13 years old.
The Cambodian National Police arrested Clark in Phnom Penh, accusing him of "debauchery involving illicit sexual conduct" with the boys, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said. The Cambodian authorities later dropped the charge, which allowed Clark to be indicted in the United States.
Prosecutors said in papers filed in federal court that Clark has spent a considerable amount of time in Cambodia over the last five years and may have molested as many as 50 boys aged 10 to 18. He most recently flew from Washington state to southeast Asia last May.
The complaint said Clark acknowledged he has been a pedophile since 1996 and that he usually paid the Cambodian boys $2 each for sex.
Clark faces a pote
ntial maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/LA
W/03/19/prot
ect....a.ap/index.html