A British man who sexually abused a child in Thailand has been jailed for more than 15 years after a UK trial. Robert David Hastings, 62, was living in Udon Thani when he was arrested by police last November. He was deported to the UK in February.
Hastings, of Weston-super-Mare, committed the offences against a girl aged between four and nine years old, in the 1990s. He was jailed by a judge at Bristol Crown Court, for 13 counts of abuse. The defendant, whose trial took place over three days last month, had pleaded not guilty to a total of 10 counts of indecent assault and three counts of indecency with a child.
The trial took place at the same court over three days from 14 July and he was earlier jailed for a total of 15-and-a-half years. Acting Det Sgt Martin Davies, said: “Robert Hastings is a deceptive and cruel sexual offender who took advantage of a vulnerable child and subjected her to some truly awful offences. “When he was arrested by Thai police in November 2014 he told the media “he’d done nothing wrong”.” Following his arrest, Hastings had appeared at news conference took place at the Immigration Detention Centre in Bangkok.