British charity worker released from jail after being wrongly accused of child sex abuse

Ian Charles Tracy, a British charity worker, who was falsely accused of being a paedophile has been released after being sentenced to spend four years in a Thai jail.

Tracy, 47, was released from Nong Plalai prison in Pattaya, just before the New Year on an order from the Thai Supreme Court, he had spent fourteen months in the prison where he was treated as a child sex offender.

It is thought that this was a case of mistaken identity and Tracy was confused with another man who has been arrested for child sex abuse and the attempted murder of a minor.

Speaking during an interview in Pattaya, innocent Mr Tracy from Godalming, Surrey, said: “My whole life has been ruined. I have been accused of the vilest of crimes when all I have done is to try to help people. I now have to take steps to recover my name in a case which is appalling in the nature of its corruption. I have been treated worse than scum. I would never consider abusing a child. In fact the charities I worked for had a program for children but I did not want to get involved because I did not have the training. The police knew they had the wrong man. But insisted they go ahead with the prosecution. I told them they would have to make it all up – and they did.”

According to Thai Police, Ian Tracy was originally arrested as part of an Operation Naga – an act of international co-operation between Britain’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection Unit (CEOP) which came under the Serious Organised Crime Agency and the Royal Thai Police.
Mr Tracy was acquitted of the crimes at an earlier trial and was not informed that the decision had been reversed following an appeal by the prosecution.

Mr Tracy was working in Pattaya as a volunteer for charity The Mercy Centre and another charity called Hand In Hand. Through work, he had visited foreign prisoners in Thailand. As a result he had himself had been critical of the Thai police accusing them of setting up innocent people with child sex abuse charges.

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