Canadian charged for tourism sex

July 26, 2004

Vancouver - A married father of a young child, the first Canadian to be prosecuted under the so-called sex-tourism law, was hit with 16 new charges Friday involving assaults on girls in Southeast Asia.

Short and balding, Donald Bakker appeared in red prison garb to hear the accusations against him: sexual interference, sexual touching and soliciting the services of a girl under 18 years old, all alleged to have taken place in Asian countries that can't be named under a publication ban.

The sex-tourism law makes it possible to prosecute Canadians for alleged sexual abuse of children while outside the country.

No one had been prosecuted under the law in the seven years since the law was created.

Police seized videotapes after they arrested Bakker, a hotel worker, in early December as he walked out of some bushes in a grotty Downtown Eastside park.

Bakker's preliminary hearing is set for this September.

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