Wheelchair-bound man found guilty of sex tourism

November 21, 2004

Los Angeles - An 86-year-old American grandfather was Friday found guilty of engaging in international sex tourism after he was arrested on his way to the Philippines to sleep with two pre-teen girls.

Wheelchair-bound widower and grandfather John Seljan is the first person to be convicted at trial of violating the 2003 Protect Act that punishes US sex tourists irrespective of where the crime took place.

After a one-week non-jury trial, US District Judge Alicemarie Stotler found Seljan guilty on six counts out of seven.

He now faces a minimum of 10 years and up to 180 years behind bars when he is sentenced on March 7.

"Sex tourism is a growing problem and the United States is trying to prosecute these types of crimes and these international sex tourists," US federal prosecutor Rich Lee told reporters.

"And I don't think the fact that he's 86 really has much bearing. He's still able to commit these types of crimes, and I feel that justice was served with the conviction today," he added.

Seljan was arrested at Los Angeles airport on October 3, 2003, as he prepared to fly to the Philippines armed with 45 kilograms (100 pounds) of chocolates, sex aids, pornographic pictures and sexually explicit letters written to at least two young girls, aged nine and 12, prosecutors said.

Many of the pictures show Seljan with small girls who were often naked.

Seljan is sometimes naked or has his underwear pulled down, while his letters to the girls are rife with references to their "love-making."

Prosecutors say Seljan, who authorities began investigating in November 2002 after intercepting a letter of his, also had maps to the girls' homes in his luggage.

He sent money to the families of the children and promised to educate the girls, prosecutors said.

The judge convicted Seljan on one count of attempting to travel internationally with the intent of engaging in illegal sex with a minor; one count of producing child pornography depicting two minor females; and two counts of possessing child pornography.

He was also found guilty on two counts of using an interstate facility to entice two minors to engage in sex, but was acquitted on one count of producing child pornography.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Shane Folden read from dozens of X-rated letters that Seljan wrote to girls aged between nine and 12, telling them to brace for sex when he arrived in the country.

"Having sex with girls your age keeps me young," he allegedly wrote to one potential victim.

In one of the letters found in a briefcase he was carrying, Seljan allegedly wrote that he would bring "sexy toys," magazines and videotapes with him to help them learn about lovemaking.

"Just save all your loving for me," he wrote to a nine-year-old girl in a letter that he signed "Johnny."

In another letter, he allegedly told another girl to "be ready for lovemaking" when he arrived in the Philippines.

Seljan told agents when he was arrested that he had been "educating" young girls in the Philippines about sex for the past 20 years, the court heard.

But lawyer Allan Stokke had insisted that the evidence against Seljan was too vague and that prosecutors failed to present evidence that any of the children had been sexually molested.

He said there is no proof that the words in Seljan's missives actually referred to sex.

"Is it a fantasy we're talking about?" he asked. "We have a probability of what happened here. A strong suspicion is not sufficient."

Stokke said Seljan was "a gentle old man who was once a country and western singer."

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