Privacy expert hunt

Worldwide red notice issued as alleged paedophile vanishes

AUSTRALIAN police have issued an extraordinary international warrant to arrest the world’s leading privacy, security and data protection expert over multiple child-sex assaults of mainly homeless children in Sydney in the 1980s and 1990s.

Simon Davies has for the past 30 years been a global leader on privacy laws and human rights, advising the UN and governments from London, Washington and Australia, writing a string of bestselling books and founding the influential watchdog group Privacy International.

Most recently he took on Google and Facebook and was the darling of the media and academia, placing himself at the forefront of almost every major sphere of privacy, from CCTV and identity systems to border surveillance and biometrics policy.

But News Corp Australia can reveal for the past eight years NSW Police has secretly been building a case alleging he is a serial paedophile who ran a refuge for homeless Sydney street children, ostensibly to help them but actually as a front for his private abuse and that of other high-flying businessmen in Sydney.

The 63-year-old is suspected of having sexually abused dozens of boys but his warrant lists 18 child sexual and indecent assault offences related to four boys over a six-year period between 1981 and 1987.

Four other social workers associated with the home have already been quietly charged and convicted with child sex abuse.

It has been learnt detectives from the State Crime Command’s Child Abuse and Sex Crimes Squad applied to Sydney’s Parramatta Court for an arrest warrant, which was granted in September 2016.

But it is understood Mr Davies has learnt of his imminent arrest and fled the country.

Interpol has now issued a worldwide “red notice” for his active pursuit and detention.