Clarence Edward Evers Jr, a computer teacher at a high school in Alabama, was arrested on Thursday morning for various child pornography offences and for travelling to a foreign country with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct.
He is said to have visited Thailand regularly over the past decade to have sex with boys, and repeatedly bragged about these misdeeds over email, according to AL.com.
The emails reportedly date back as far as 2004 and many are graphic in their descriptions.
In 2014, Evers confided in one email about recent related prosecutions in Thailand, saying “I still plan to go this summer, but I definitely have to rethink my playtime strategy. It sure seems more apparent every day that we were there at a very good time in history, and that those good times are exactly that: history.”
The investigation into Evers is huge, reports WKRG News, and has been over a year in the making, starting back at the end of 2014 when US Homeland Security received a tip-off from an attaché regarding the sexual abuse of a minor in Bangkok. A subsequent search of Evers’ home in 2015 uncovered “a substantial amount of digital photographs of young Thai boys in various states of undress,” reads the federal criminal complaint.
Clarence Edward Evers Jr (via AL.com)
The Thai victim from whom the complaint started was apparently interviewed by a forensic interview specialist in January. The victim identified Evers in a photographic line-up and described the dates and nature of the abuse at Evers’ residence in Amphur Klong Yai in Trat province.
It is thought that Evers, who was also a scoutmaster in Alabama, contacted the victim via Facebook using the screen name of ‘Khun Buddy’.
Although there’s no evidence that any of Evers students in Alabama were victims of abuse, local officials have asked anyone with any more information on Evers’ local activities to report them immediately.
Evers is expected to appear at a preliminary hearing today, from which the charges will be sent to a grand jury for review if the judge finds probable cause.
Featured image is of Trat province and is by bricoleurbanism
