Robert Cutler Completely Exonerated

Robert W. Cutler was completely cleared on

Thanksgiving Day November 26^th 2010.

In 2009 a Thai child exploitation non-government organization (NGO) funded by an Australian NGO fabricated a story that I had abused children in Chiang Mai. On November 26^th 2010 I was completely cleared of all charges due to the blatant falsehoods of those stories. Facts revealed during the trial showed that these NGO’s had used extortion, bribery and intimidation to force children to tell the stories the NGO people wanted told. This experience was a brutal lesson in the danger of letting the ends justify the means. These NGO’s say they are trying to protect children, but exploiting children to raise money for their goals by framing and extorting innocent people defeats any good they may try to do. Even if some of the people these NGO’s have worked to frame are guilty there is no excuse for the abuses and slander they use to publicize their organizations. I want to detail a few of the blatant wrongdoings perpetrated by the child exploitation NGO's below as well as reveal the false stories told by these NGO people and made-up internet identities these NGO's hide behind.

In 2001, I first visited Thailand on vacation and was amazed by the warmth and friendliness of the Thai people. Thailand truly is the land of smiles. I met many people as I travelled from Bangkok to Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand. The further north I travelled the more I wanted to learn about Thai culture and real Thai life not just tourism activities. When I reached Chiang Mai I visited the University of Chiang Mai and introduced myself to several researchers in computational biology. They showed me around the University and gave me a local perspective of Chiang Mai during my remaining time while on that first trip.

During my graduate school career I volunteered extensively and even received the Gold Congressional Award which is the highest award given to a non-military person by Congress for volunteer work. Helping others as an EMT and working with the terminally ill gave me a great sense of accomplishment but was also extremely emotionally draining. When I learned about the difficulties facing the hill tribe people in Thailand, I felt that helping improve their lives would be a less emotionally taxing experience I could focus on during my breaks between teaching during the college semesters. Over the next few years I returned to Thailand several times to do volunteer work at an orphanage in Maesai (the furthest north point in Thailand). During the time I spent in Maesai I raised thousands of dollars for that orphanage until I found out that the money I had raised was being misused for the personal benefit of the orphanage staff. During 2004 when I found out that they were spending the money I raised from friends, family and coworkers on things like a big screen tv for their office, I refused to give them another penny of the money I brought. I spent all of the money I raised for that trip to purchase the things that were supposed to have been purchased like mattresses for the kids who had been sleeping on hard wooden floors for several years. After that I did not raise another penny for that orphanage and focused exclusively on volunteer work in Chiang Mai with the Rotary and with other reputable professional people.

The child exploitation NGO Thai man who first made the claim of child abuse against me stated in court that it was the director of the Maesai orphanage who directed him to target me. Not a single child from the orphanage said anything bad against me, it was only the director who said I might be a bad person. This man also stated in court that he had never met me and that he was given money by an Australian NGO of over 30,000 baht a month (about $1,000 US) to find and start child abuse cases.

The child these NGO people used to start the whole case against me turned out to be a complete stranger to both myself and my wife. This boy when asked in court knew next to nothing about me and said that he had never actually even been alone with me at any point. This alleged abuse supposedly occurred with a whole group of other people present including my wife. During the cross examination my lawyer uncovered the fact that this boy had actually been living with the child exploitation NGO people for several years and during that time he had made claims of being abused against several different foreigners. In all of the previous cases this boy and later one of the NGO people named “pote” stated that the charges had been dropped because the cases were settled privately between the NGO people and these alleged abusers. I refused to pay any extortion money to these NGO people and fought the accusations in court to be completely exonerated of these false charges.

During the testimony this boy was held in a separate room and communicated with the court through a closed caption tv. Amazingly at one point during a break, this same NGO person “pote” entered the secure room and rehearsed with the boy exactly what he should say and how he would know who I was. He didn’t realize that this entire episode was on closed caption tv being watched by the judge, lawyers and myself. At this point the judge had a court officer go detain this NGO person and bring him to talk to the judge during which the judge literally stood up and yelled at the man. At the end of the day the boy these NGO people had been using to start these completely false cases was removed from the custody of the NGO people and sent to a juvenile detention facility. As far as I know he is still there now three years later. I wasn’t present during the case against the NGO and the Thai man “pote” but I do know his child exploitation business has been closed down, although several of the other NGO’s like the sold project are still operating in Chiang Mai and working to raise money for their members.

The claims made against me by these child exploitation NGO people were both blatantly false and totally impossible in some cases. For example, before I moved to Thailand to live with my wife full-time in 2008, I was renting a townhouse which I only lived in a few months out of the year but was still cheaper to rent yearly than for just the time I spent in Chiang Mai. So during the times I was absent I had a previous student of my wife who was at that time 19 years old stay at the house and take care of the bills and household chores while I was away. His name is Adtru and this was one person that I was able to really help improve his life. To help get Adtru a job which he could earn money for himself I purchased a food cart for him to sell food that he had cooked and prepared. After that, each month Adtru paid me back between 50 and 100 dollars until he had repaid the entire amount I had spent to get him started. I never gave him any other money and in fact while I was out of the country Adtru paid all of the utility and household bills with money he raised working as a street vendor. Adtru eventually made enough money to get married and be able to support his twin sons who were born in 2011. When the NGO people made their false claims against me, the police threatened to arrest Adtru unless he also testified against me. Adtru told the truth that he had never seen me do anything like what these NGO people claimed and that he knew both myself and my wife to be good honorable people. After that the NGO people went after Adtru’s family members.

Another boy named Ayo is one of Adtru’s younger brothers by two years. The NGO people instructed Ayo to say that I had brought him to a hotel to stay with me for sex. They calculated back five years from his then current age to determine when Ayo was 14 years old and told Ayo to say exactly where and when this "abuse" occurred. Since the NGO people did not know me at all, once again they showed their hand since I had not once that year stayed in the hotel they instructed Ayo to say. Also since Ayo was being coerced, he failed to mention to the NGO people that during most of that year he was in juvenile prison for breaking into a telephone for money. There was no point during that year that Ayo was free and in Chiang Mai while I was also in Chiang Mai. After hearing another set of blatant easily disproven lies, the judge was clearly angry and asked Ayo strongly if anyone had forced him or threatened him to tell these stories. At this point Ayo revealed that a police officer had threatened to arrest Ayo and his family and send them to Burma if he didn’t tell exactly the story he had been instructed to tell. I was very surprised that Ayo would admit that in open court, but clearly he was more afraid of the judge at that point than he was of the police. It is disgraceful that these child exploitation NGO people force children and young adults into these kinds of untenable situations for the NGO’s financial gain.

Many of the hilltribe people do not have national identity cards and can be arrested at any time on a citizenship check and held until they can prove they were living in Thailand legally. Ayo had been arrested in hilltribe sweeps on several occasions and had previously spent a week in the local jail for just living in Chiang Mai as a hilltribe member. This is a fact of life these hill tribe people face daily.

Once all of these blatant lies had been revealed the court threw out all of the charges against me and I was completely exonerated. Unfortunately the courts in Thailand do not publish the results of their court cases online so the only information about this case is what has been posted by the NGO people who fabricated this whole story against me in the first place.

Being accused of a serious crime of which you are completely innocent is a very difficult situation especially when it is being done by people who are trying to extort money out of you. I refused to pay a single penny of money to these NGO people and even though in the end I was completely cleared of all of these false charges it was still a horrible situation to have to live through. The main lesson I have taken out of this is that there are no ends to which bad people will go to hurt others especially if it makes them money. So if you are ever tempted to give money to one of these child exploitation NGO organizations, just be aware that you are also giving them your name and if you ever stop sending them money you are possibly opening yourself up to exactly this kind of extortion racket.

Robert W. Cutler is the proud husband of Wilawan Cutler and father of two.