Child sex case dropped, but a life still left in ruins
Christopher Lee Hobbs believes he was the victim of a set-up and poor police work when he was accused of abusing two boys in Pattaya
On June 8 last year, the life that American engineer Christopher Lee Hobbs had been building for himself and his family came tumbling down. The 56-yearold was arrested in Pattaya on six counts of molesting two underage boys — a Thai and a Cambodian — and faced the prospect of 42 years in prison.
He was paraded before local and national media and police and his NGO accusers were lauded for catching a child abuser.
But more than one year later police and the Pattaya Prosecutor’s Office determined the case was a wrongful arrest. It was found that convicted American paedophile Steven Strike, wanted on sex offences in Hawaii, had been living in the Pattaya townhouse where the boys alleged they were abused on one occasion.
Mr Hobbs believes that the case against him was not only one of mistaken identity, but also a “sting” operation involving US FBI agents, local police and a Pattaya-based NGO specialising in child protection, to boost their standing. He is now trying to launch multiple lawsuits seeking hundreds of millions of baht in compensation for damage to his reputation.
Mr Hobbs had spent four years in Thailand prior to his arrest, working for a Japanese multinational which did sub-contracting work for major companies and agencies such as the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand. He earned an annual salary of seven million baht and married a Thai woman, Somporn, 36, who he has a son with.
“All I really want is a simple apology after what they have put me through,” Mr Hobbs told Spec
trum. “When the police held the press conference and spread the false information, it seemed so easy to do.
“But now that I have won that case and proved that I am not guilty, no one cares about helping me gain my reputation back.”
WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE
During the working week, Mr Hobbs’ main residence was a condo on Sukhumvit Soi 11 in Bangkok. After the birth of his son in 2011, he decided he didn’t want his child to grow up in a big city. He bought a home in South Pattaya, which was run as a guesthouse, earning income for the family on top of the restaurant they already owned in his wife’s name.
Mr Hobbs, who also holds Canadian citizenship, was busy at his job in Bangkok and says he only visited his family, who had relocated to Pattaya, every other weekend. In a police interview, a close Bangkok friend of Mr Hobbs, identified only as Stefan, said the engineer was working 12-hour days and had little time for socialising apart from “one to two beers” after work. He said Mr Hobbs was a married man who only seemed attracted to women.
Three years ago, Mr Hobbs met another friend in Pattaya, UK national Dan Clark, who he entered into a business partnership with. That friendship would lead to the predicament he is
Now that I have won that case and proved that I am not guilty, no one cares about helping me gain my reputation back CHRISTOPHER HOBBS
in today. Mr Hobbs agreed to set up a fruit juice business with Mr Clark, lending him the money to import juicing machines from China and a second-hand van for deliveries. To protect his investment, Mr Hobbs said the van was purchased and registered under his name.
Mr Clark had also made a new acquaintance: a tall, bearded, middle-aged American called “Steve”, who rented a room above the threestorey townhouse from which he operated the juice business, in the gated Pattaya community of Midtown Villa.
The American was Steven Strike, 46, who had fled from Maui, Hawaii, after being indicted there for the sexual abuse of a boy aged under 14. Eight days after his arrest, Strike obtained a new passport and fled to Thailand. He stayed in the kingdom for 21 months until he was apprehended by the US Marshals Hawaii Fugitive Task Force and returned to face trial in December 2013.
Prior to the American’s arrest, Mr Clark said he was unaware Strike, who is now serving a 10-year jail sentence in the US, was a fugitive from justice. Mr Clark told police Strike lived alone and he had never seen him take boys to his room.
RUNAWAY BOYS
In November 2012, “Oley”, a Thai, and “Fuse”, a Cambodian, were two vulnerable boys staying at the Anti-Human Trafficking and Child Abuse Centre (ATCC) in Pattaya. The centre is run by Palisorn Noja, who allows an open-door policy for part-time residents. Both boys were classified as homeless children in need of temporary accommodation and were not treated as registered full-time residents of the centre. The boys came and went as they pleased.
Around mid-November, according to police documents, Oley met a foreign man in the redlight Walking Street area who took him to the Supasa Guesthouse, where they engaged in sex acts for a sum of 1,000 baht. Over the next month Oley performed similar acts on two other occasions with the same man, who police originally alleged was Mr Hobbs, in Walking Street and Soi Sunee, a street known for underage sex workers.
Both Oley and Fuse claimed they were later taken from a shopping mall by the same man, who was riding an orange motorbike, to a townhouse in Midtown Villa where they performed sex acts for 800 baht each. Oley said a week later he engaged in sex acts with the man again for 600 baht at a residence identified as MC Place.
The boys eventually returned to the centre and told staff what had happened to them. Mr Palisorn said a complaint was filed with police.
He said it is standard procedure whenever children are admitted to the centre to question them about their recent activities.
“When I get the details, I record them and keep that in the file of that child,” Mr Palisorn explained. “But if any child has been molested before, I act as that child’s parent and file a complaint to the police against the molester.”
MAN WITH THE VAN
The only information that Pattaya police — led by Pol Lt Oomsin Sukkarnka — had to go on in their search for the abuser were the statements of Oley and Fuse. The boys said the man went by the name “Dave” or “Mike”, was American and had a beard. He had molested them at an unknown private residence in Midtown Villa which they were taken to on an orange motorbike.
Early last year, police started investigating homes in Midtown Villa, looking for an