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In
pursuit of a paedophile It all began on August 17, when the NCPA was alerted via an e mail from the childabuse.com website that a wanted British paedophile Michael Geoffrey Smith was living with a Sri Lankan family in Negombo. The NCPA began its own investigation which revealed that a foreigner, who matched the description of the paedophile, was living in the coastal area of Paluguthria in Kochchikade, close to many of the well known hotels in Negombo. On September 7, an NCPA team comprising three male police constables, two female police constables, an NCPA officer along with a driver began their mission in pursuit of the paedophile. Camouflaged in civvies, the team proceeded to Negombo but they were too late. Mr. Smith and the Lankan family had gone to Mannar. “We left Negombo and after about a 10 hour ride, we reached Murukkan junction in Mannar, and we stopped there for lunch. A grocery shop owner told us that he had seen a foreigner with children and two adults heading towards Silawathura in a threewheeler, paying Rs. 700 each,” a member of the NCPA team told The Sunday Times. “We
then proceeded along the route reportedly taken by the foreigner
and at Malwathu Oya (a border village between the cleared and uncleared
areas of Mannar district) we saw the foreigner with two local boys
and three girls. When the foreigner had been asked what he was doing with the children at that moment he had said that he was planning to have a bath with them. The detectives had then offered a lift to the foreigner saying that they were going towards the bathing spot. The foreigner had agreed and had got into the vehicle. But before they could take off, the children along with their parents had driven up to the vehicle, and they had asked Mr. Smith-who was now seated between two camouflaged NCPA police officers- to join them in their vehicle. The police had no option but to let go of the alleged suspect. The Lankan family had then crossed a bridge and entered the uncleared areas or rebel-held areas of Malwathu Oya. The NCPA team had proceeded to the church in Arippu north of Murunkan hoping to seek some help from the priests to locate the foreigner. However, since the priests were not there they proceeded to the Murunkan police station. “Here,
the Officer In Charge advised us not to enter into uncleared areas
and that he would seek the assistance of the Bishop of Mannar Rayappu
Joseph. He called the Bishop and was assured of his help to arrest
the paedophile. According to the officer they had once again contacted Bishop Rayappu around 8.30 at night and he had once again assured them of his assistance. Then along with the two priests thay had proceeded towards the uncleared areas. Within an hour they had reached the LTTE camps in Kokkupadayam where they had to seek permission to enter the rebel held area. Fr. Marcus had got down to negotiate with the LTTE while the others had remained in the vehicle under the watchful eyes of the LTTE cadres. Some time passed but there was no sign of Fr. Marcus. Meanwhile the driver of the vehicle was asked to get down and while he was being interrogated some other LTTE cadres had walked up to the vehicle and had asked them who they were. Fr. Dickson who understood Tamil said the other members were from the police and explained their reason for entering the uncleared area. “We were all asked to get down and all the males were checked from head to toe except Fr.Dickson. At this point we became anxious and we told them we hadn’t come to spy on them but to arrest a paedophile. They didn’t say anything but kept on checking us,” the NCPA official said. Then without any explanation the LTTE asked the three male police constables to get into the vehicle and they drove away while the two female constables, the driver and the NCPA officer were left stranded. The party along with Fr. Dickson had walked along a lonely road till they reached an abandoned house. Early in the morning the next day they spotted the vehicle parked outside the house. Fr.Marcus had then informed them that the three police officers had been detained by the LTTE for further interrogation and they would be released around 6 a.m. near the village of Malwathu Oya. The
priests had then informed the Bishop of Mannar about the developments
who had in turn informed the Murukkan police. Towards 6 a.m. the
rest of the remaining police officers and the priests had waited
near Malwathu Oya, till about 11 a.m. but there were no signs of
the three detained police officers. They had then informed the OIC
at the Murukkan police station who had in turn informed the Sri
Lanka Monitoring Mission about the missing policemen. “There have been reports that I had given a written assurance to provide assistance to arrest the British national. This is not true. When they contacted me at about 6.30 p.m. on Friday I told them I would try to assist them in their mission,” he said. “The next call I received from the team was from the Arippu area, at about 8.30 p.m. By that time I had not been able to contact anybody from the LTTE. Therefore I told them since they were already proceeding towards the LTTE controlled area, I could not help them.” He said that before they had sought his help the police party had visited the location where the British national was bathing in a river along with the children and video taped the suspect and the surrounding LTTE controlled areas. “It was during the following morning that the rest of the police team called over at the Bishop’s House and informed me that three of the policemen had been detained by the LTTE,” the Bishop said. He said he then immediately called the Murunkan police station and informed them about the incident. “I told the police party they should have waited till they had got clearance before entering the uncleared area. However, they had gone with two Catholic priests who had promised to assist them.” Bishop Rayappu said when he had called the LTTE to check on the whereabouts of the missing policemen they had told him that they had been arrested when they entered the uncleared areas. “They also informed me that they had directed the British national to leave the area and that he had boarded a bus to Colombo. This information also had been conveyed to the Police to help them to place road blocks to arrest the convict.” However the Bishop denied reports that Colombo had officially requested him to assist the police party to detain the British national. |
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