A convicted paedophile has admitted to committing 21 further cases of international sexual assault on young boys.
For molesting 11 children in Myanmar in 2016, Christopher Behn, 68, of Colchester, is already serving a nine-year prison sentence.
The fresh accusations centred on the maltreatment of boys in Vietnam, ages six to eleven.
Next month, Behn—whom authorities called a “committed and prolific transnational child sex offender”—will receive his punishment.
By using a video link, the retired engineer appeared in person at Chelmsford Crown Court from HMP Albany on the Isle of Wight.
Behn was recognised by investigators from the National Crime Agency (NCA), Europol, and Dutch police as a member of a network operating across Europe that travelled together to abuse children all over the world.
He was detained at Gatwick Airport in February 2020 when detectives noticed him in photos with a Dutch national who had been found guilty in his home country.
Officers stopped Behn from boarding a plane bound for Vietnam.
From encrypted electronic devices, photos taken by Behn showing him molesting children were retrieved.
According to the NCA, he has travelled to Thailand, the Philippines, Laos, Cambodia, India, and Myanmar in addition to Vietnam 18 times since 2006.
Additionally, the abuse that he and the Dutch national had perpetrated together on numerous of these excursions was recounted in graphic detail in their journals.
The NCA claimed that Christopher Behn and his network “conspired via encrypted chats in the hope of concealing their horrific offending.”
Behn was additionally charged in June of this year with 23 charges of inducing a child to engage in sexual activity and sexual abuse between the years of 2008 and 2018.
Two of the charges, which he rejected, will not be the subject of a trial.
Behn was described as “a committed and prolific transnational child sex offender, who dedicated years of his life to this criminal network” by Phil Eccles, NCA operations manager.
“Behn and his like-minded friends conspired together via encrypted chats in the hope of concealing their horrific offending from law enforcement,” he added. “Behn and his like-minded friends conducted their offending in remote parts of the world.”
The agency reported that investigations were still going on in several European nations and that it has identified an additional five males who were based in the UK and thought to have connections to the network.