REVEALED: The shocking reason high-profile accused paedophile has avoided arrest for a DECADE and has freely moved around the world
- Accused paedophile Charles Batham jumped bail and fled Australia in 2010
- By the time he left Australia, his list of alleged crimes had risen to 31 counts
- Batham’s bail conditions at the time hadn’t forced him to hand in his passport
- Dual national allegedly had penetrative sex with a child under the age of 13
- Batham has now been issued a new British passport under a different name
An accused paedophile who skipped bail and fled Australia a decade ago has been issued a new passport.
British tour operator Charles Batham has been on the run since February 2011 – just a week before he was due to face court on a range of charges including allegedly having penetrative sex with a child under the age of 13.
After facing court in Broome in 2010, the dual national fled to Malaysia on a flight out of Perth and has evaded arrest by Australian authorities ever since.
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British ultralight pilot and accused paedophile Charles Batham (pictured) has been on the run since February 2011 after jumping bail and fleeing Australia on a commercial flight
By the time he left Australia, his list of alleged crimes had risen to 31, – with his charges including 11 counts of indecently recording a child under 13.
His bail conditions at the time had not forced him to hand in his passport, nor was he put on a ‘Movement Alert List’ which would have stopped him from boarding a plane.
Police only realised he had left Western Australia when he failed to appear in court for the February 28 appearance.
Despite Western Australia Police admitting they knew Batham got on a plane in France by 2014, he has not been detained or extradited to Australia, ABC News reported.
Since fleeing the country, he has been issued a British passport using a different name.
The state’s director of public prosecutions has also revealed no process to return the accused to Australia has been set in motion for his case.
Despite Western Australia Police admitting they knew Batham (pictured in 2007) got on a plane in France by 2014 he has not been detained or extradited to Australia
An Interpol ‘Red Notice’ is in place, which acts as a request to law enforcement forces around the world to ‘provisionally arrest’ fugitives pending extradition.
Batham’s alleged victim – speaking under a pseudonym – accused him of molesting her after becoming friends with her parents when she was just ten years old.
‘He was like a sort of an uncle figure, and I trusted him,’ she said.
Batham was known to those in the local community for offering tour operator services taking tourists along Cable Beach (pictured) in the remote Kimberley region of Western Australia
‘It is something that I carry with me every day, and it affects me as a parent.’
One person who knew Batham – who became a well-recognised figure in Western Australia’s Kimberley region after arriving in the 1990s – described him as having a posh colonial accent.
‘He was an unkempt, scruffy looking guy, with this annoying habit of clearing his throat all the time,’ the acquaintance Chris Maher said.
Batham was known to those in the local community for offering tour operator services taking tourists along Cable Beach in the heart of the remote Kimberley region in far north-western Australia.