A Dutchman arrested in Prachuap Khiri Khan province for the alleged sexual abuse of a child aged 15 or under had earlier been investigated for a similar offence before leaving the Netherlands.
Songsak Raksaksakul, deputy director-general of the Department of Special Investigation (DSI), told a media briefing yesterday that Reinold Klunder, 51, was arrested at a house in Bo Fai in Hua Hin district on Sunday.
A boy aged about 10 was with him. Sex toys, eight computers, many memory cards and compact discs were seized. Bodily fluids were found on blankets and bed sheets in his room.
"Police charged Mr Klunder with molesting a child and separating the child from his parents for paid molestation," Pol Col Songsak said. The investigation is being expanded.
After being apprehended, Mr Klunder was taken in for questioning at Hua Hin police station.
Mr Klunder had moved to Thailand from the Netherlands, where he had been charged with child molestation, but was not convicted.
In Thailand, he had been in the property business for five years. He allegedly played music to lure children into sharing activities with him. Investigators said he had regularly taken children aged 15 or under to his house. Thai police are currently liaising with their Dutch counterparts about the man's history, Pol Col Songsak said.
He warned that child sex abuse was growing in Thailand and other Southeast Asian nations, and foreigners who were released temporarily after such offences in Thailand often then repeated them in Cambodia, Myanmar or Vietnam.
In Thailand child sex abuse was reported most frequently in Chon Buri (113 offences since 2010), and also in Chiang Mai (25) and Bangkok (seven).