Suspected pedophile held by police for 'overstaying'
By Li Qian and Zhao Wen |
April 27, 2013, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
A SUSPECTED pedophile wanted by police in the UK was last night in the custody of Beijing police.
Earlier, China's online community had been urging stricter checks on expats' backgrounds following the revelation that the suspect had been working in Chinese schools for the past eight years.
Neil Robinson, 47, was said to have been apprehended by police in the capital for "overstaying," The Beijing News reported on its Weibo account.
Police in Surrey, in the southeast of England, told a UK TV station that Robinson was wanted in connection with the distribution of indecent images of children and the rape of a child between 2000 and 2002.
"We are aware of recent reports that Mr Robinson may have been in China and are liaising with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Chinese authorities to establish further information," said a UK police statement issued before last night's development.
The suspect was featured in the BBC's Crimewatch program last September.
Several students at the Beijing World Youth Academy told a Beijing website that they recognized Robinson as one of their former teachers.
A school spokesman said "there were no formal or informal complaints made against him" in his three years at the school before he left last May for "personal reasons."
The story shocked many of his former students who described Robinson as a jovial person who was generally well-liked. They told the Beijing Kids website that he was apparently married to a Chinese woman.
Robinson has a profile on the job hunting site NetworkESL.com, last updated in 2010, showing he majored in computer studies in the UK and had eight years of experience in China, the website said.
In online comments, many people urged parents to be more careful when choosing teachers for their children and urged authorities and educational institutes to take responsibility for checking teachers' backgrounds.
One online comment read: "He might have found it hard to live in Britain any longer and so he flew to China. It's so ridiculous that we took him as a foreign expert."
The State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs has ruled that expats working in China should have no criminal history, but doesn't specify who is responsible for checking.
An official with Shanghai's foreign expert administration said it did not check as that should be a job for the police or the consulate.
The official, who didn't want to be named, said foreigners were required to make a commitment that they were not involved in any kind of activities in contravention of Chinese laws when applying for a work permit.
The international schools and language institutes that Shanghai Daily spoke to yesterday said they had their own ways of checking foreign teachers' backgrounds, including criminal records.
An official at one international school, who didn't want to be identified, said: "The UK has a criminal records bureau where the background of all British teachers is always checked.
"In other cases, recruitment agencies are used which guarantee thorough background checks. At least three confidential references are always collected for every teacher, backed up by phone calls to previous employers," he said.
Disney English, an English-learning center for children, said its teachers were asked for a police document to prove they had no criminal record.
Earlier, China's online community had been urging stricter checks on expats' backgrounds following the revelation that the suspect had been working in Chinese schools for the past eight years.
Neil Robinson, 47, was said to have been apprehended by police in the capital for "overstaying," The Beijing News reported on its Weibo account.
Police in Surrey, in the southeast of England, told a UK TV station that Robinson was wanted in connection with the distribution of indecent images of children and the rape of a child between 2000 and 2002.
"We are aware of recent reports that Mr Robinson may have been in China and are liaising with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Chinese authorities to establish further information," said a UK police statement issued before last night's development.
The suspect was featured in the BBC's Crimewatch program last September.
Several students at the Beijing World Youth Academy told a Beijing website that they recognized Robinson as one of their former teachers.
A school spokesman said "there were no formal or informal complaints made against him" in his three years at the school before he left last May for "personal reasons."
The story shocked many of his former students who described Robinson as a jovial person who was generally well-liked. They told the Beijing Kids website that he was apparently married to a Chinese woman.
Robinson has a profile on the job hunting site NetworkESL.com, last updated in 2010, showing he majored in computer studies in the UK and had eight years of experience in China, the website said.
In online comments, many people urged parents to be more careful when choosing teachers for their children and urged authorities and educational institutes to take responsibility for checking teachers' backgrounds.
One online comment read: "He might have found it hard to live in Britain any longer and so he flew to China. It's so ridiculous that we took him as a foreign expert."
The State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs has ruled that expats working in China should have no criminal history, but doesn't specify who is responsible for checking.
An official with Shanghai's foreign expert administration said it did not check as that should be a job for the police or the consulate.
The official, who didn't want to be named, said foreigners were required to make a commitment that they were not involved in any kind of activities in contravention of Chinese laws when applying for a work permit.
The international schools and language institutes that Shanghai Daily spoke to yesterday said they had their own ways of checking foreign teachers' backgrounds, including criminal records.
An official at one international school, who didn't want to be identified, said: "The UK has a criminal records bureau where the background of all British teachers is always checked.
"In other cases, recruitment agencies are used which guarantee thorough background checks. At least three confidential references are always collected for every teacher, backed up by phone calls to previous employers," he said.
Disney English, an English-learning center for children, said its teachers were asked for a police document to prove they had no criminal record.
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