A convicted paedophile from Essex, Christopher Behn, 68, has confessed to travelling repeatedly to Southeast Asia to sexually abuse children over a period of ten years. Behn was apprehended as part of a Europe-wide sting operation involving Europol and Dutch authorities.
Behn is linked to a sinister network that flew across the globe to abuse children. He was arrested at Gatwick Airport in February 2020 by the National Crime Agency (NCA) just before boarding a flight to Vietnam. His arrest followed the discovery of images connecting him to a convicted Dutch associate involved in similar crimes.
Currently serving a nine-year sentence for abusing 11 children in Myanmar in 2016, Behn’s electronic devices—many encrypted—revealed further disturbing evidence. Forensic teams from the NCA recovered photographs showing him abusing children and seized diaries containing graphic accounts of his offences.
Behn’s travel records show 18 trips to Vietnam since 2006, along with visits to Thailand, the Philippines, Laos, Cambodia, India, and Myanmar. Dutch police recovered additional abuse images from his associate’s devices, which were shared with the NCA. Investigators matched images, travel logs, diaries, and encrypted chats, confirming at least 23 separate child abuse incidents abroad between 2008 and 2018, beyond the Myanmar case.
Chats conducted on TOR and encrypted emails revealed detailed planning, payments to victims, and strategies to evade law enforcement.
In June 2023, Behn faced 23 charges of sexually assaulting children aged 6 to 11 in Vietnam. He pleaded guilty to 21 of those charges and is awaiting sentencing at Chelmsford Crown Court on 29 September 2023. The NCA has also identified five additional UK men linked to the same global abuse network, with investigations ongoing across Europe.
Phil Eccles, Operations Manager at the NCA, said: “Behn is a committed and prolific transnational child sex offender who dedicated years of his life to this criminal network. They planned every trip around abusing children, using encrypted chats to hide their crimes. Thanks to joint work with Europol and Dutch police, these monsters are being exposed. Protecting children remains our top priority.”
Originally published by UKNIP.
