A PAEDOPHILE who travelled to Myanmar as a sex tourist used his camera to take indecent pictures of 11 young and vulnerable boys.

Retired engineer Christopher Behn, 66, allegedly travelled to the far east country in 2016 for a guided cycling tour.

But Chelmsford Crown Court heard in reality he was a “sex tourist”, interested in using his status as a wealthy tourist to abuse vulnerable boys.

He used a camera, purchased on Ebay and later sold on, to take a total of 265 indecent images of young boys.

In 2020, the police seized his laptop and analysis identified 11 different boys, in various states of undress and aged between five and nine years old.

Multiple images were taken of each victim.

One of the photographs showed Behn’s hand in a cycling glove sexually assaulting a young boy.

In 1987, Behn was convicted and received a prison sentence after he took a number of boys into a wooded area and photographed them.

Appearing in court today, Behn admitted one count of sexual assault of a child, eight counts of causing a child to engage in sexual activity and two counts of taking indecent photographs of children.

Kevin Toomey, mitigating, said Behn had admitted his guilt at the earliest opportunity.

He said: “He is a man who is ageing. He is retired, he has lost numerous friends.

“He has been for almost 40 years involved with the local gun club. He’s lost his firearms licence.

"He’s an engineer by trade and training and repairs and has repaired for many, many years guns as a sideline and for the gun club.

“He no longer has that licence, that’s another hobby of his, another group of friends that are lost to him. That is his fault. He knows that, he will have to live with that.”

Judge Christopher Morgan deemed Behn, of Mersea Road, Colchester, to be a dangerous offender and imposed an extended sentence of six years imprisonment and six years on extended licence.

He said: “The facts are really quite stark. You were known to be and are a sexual tourist.

"You travelled to the far east. You went to Myanmar, that is a country that has featured in the news on a consistent basis in the last few years.

"It is a country where the young children in particular and indeed adults are vulnerable by their circumstances, both social and economic.

“You are seen and would have been seen as a wealthy tourist.

“All your victims, those you took pictures of and indeed that individual where there was a sexual assault, were aged between five and nine. Particularly vulnerable and particularly young.

“You were to tell the probation officer, and it is a matter of candour, that you were committing these offences for your own sexual gratification.”

Behn was made the subject of an indefinite sexual harm prevention order and will remain on the sex offender's register for life.