Greyman Blog

These Armidale Class Patrol Boats are primarily tasked with border protection, fisheries patrols, immigration, customs and drug law enforcement operations, although two vessels are permanently assigned to protecting the oil and gas production facilities of the North West Shelf Venture. An Armidale class boat, the fictional HMAS Hammersley, appeared in the second and third seasons of Australian military drama series Sea Patrol.

Here at Grey Man we think the ship looks great and although Shane thinks that he and his crew are a little more rough around the edges we think they are a great bunch of guys. Shane is by his own admission “the chubby grinning submariner (more shiny gold on my patch) in the front middle, the others are my lads”

HMAS GLENELG at sea in Darwin

Captain and crew

 Shane and his crew have been some of our most enthusiastic supporters with ABLE SEAMAN Brian Mobbs being continuously creative in raising charity money. According to Lt. Cdr Doolin, “So far Brian has had a poker competition, sold the rights to a swim-ex and charges people $2 every time we go to sea if they choose not to shave …. small amounts but he never lets up”. 

Recently, captain and crew had a chance to wear their Grey Man T-shirts and the Captain had this to say: 

“Just a quick update as we have now left Colombo, Sri Lanka and as you can see we played the Sri Lankan Navy in cricket.  

Unfortunately we learnt that you should NEVER play cricket in the subcontinent and we were soundly defeated. In the end ‘cricket’ was the real winner on the day!! We put up a gallant fight and as you can see the GREY MAN shirts were worn with pride (about 20 of us) and at least made us look the part. Next stop will be more cricket in India!!

My crew wear the shirts at sea, I will get a pic from my bridge with 90% of my guys in their shirts, they love the design and colour and I have sold out of nearly everything now!!”

Sri Lankan cricket

 

 

They lost but still winners

Grey Man has been quietly sending people into Cambodia for the past 6 months in order to understand the child trafficking situation there and to see which NGO’s and police Grey Man could work with in Phnom Penh and other cities. We like to know what we are up against before we commit Grey Man operatives to any theatre of operations. As a final exercise we sent our Director of Operations from Australia to discuss our involvement with likely partners in Cambodia. He spent some time investigating the red light areas and liaising with local NGO’s (especially International Justice Mission-IJM) and the police to determine the best way for Grey Man to operate in country.

Last Sunday night our Director of Operations, ‘Tony’ approached a moto driver (motorcycle taxi) to discuss the possibility of accessing some young girls. The moto driver said he could supply the girls and took ‘Tony’ to a brothel in the countryside outside Phnom Penh. The results were inconclusive as the girls did not appear to be underage but with Asian girls it is often difficult to tell. ‘Tony’ declined the offer of being a client and was returned to the city. A few days later the moto driver contacted him and said he had two girls available who were young, so ‘Tony’ arranged to meet with him and immediately informed the local office of International Justice Mission (IJM) who arranged for the police to assist.

The Moto driver took ‘Tony’ to a nearby hotel where he met with a young Cambodian pimp who took ‘Tony’ to one of the hotel rooms. There were no girls visible but when the Cambodian was asked how old the girls were he opened the bathroom door and a 14 year old and ten year old (yes, 10!!) came out. They were Vietnamese girls who had been trafficked into Cambodia.

!4 and 10 year old Vietnamese girls rescued from Cambodian pimp

A price was negotiated but ‘Tony’ said he would have to get extra cash from his hotel room. This was in order to extricate himself from the room in order to confirm to the police that the girls were actually present and that they were underage.

The Cambodian agreed and as soon as ‘Tony’ left he signalled the police and IJM.  He returned to the room on the pretext of paying the money and as per arrangements the police knocked on the door of the hotel room soon after ‘Tony’ had re-entered it. The police arrested the pimp and the moto driver. The children were taken into custody and placed with a shelter run by a British NGO.  Grey Man will fund their ongoing recovery and education and investigations are continuing to snare other traffickers.

This is our first operation in Cambodia and by all accounts a great success. It received widespread coverage in the Australian media and resulted in an overwhelming response from the Australian public. Grey Man would like to thank our Director of Operations (‘Tony’), IJM, the Cambodian Police and Grey Man supporters everywhere for allowing us to do what we do best.   What’s more with Australia Day happening the day after I can think of no greater tribute to our country on our national day than that Australians put themselves in harms way to rescue kids in South East Asia.  We should all be proud. Well done

John Curtis

On November 11, 2009, a joint operation with the Thai CWD, Region 5 Police, Swiss Police, Forensic Police and The Grey Man resulted in the arrest of a former  Swiss banker, Cornel Josef Wietlisbach.  The arrest made the front page of a number of Thai newspapers as well as Blick newspaper in Switzerland.  After receiving intelligence from a young boy who had been abused a Grey Man surveillance team watched the suspects hotel room and noticed a number of Akha hill tribe boys going to Wietlisbach’s room.  Ethnic minority groups, such as the Akha, are a typical target of peadophiles due to their poverty.On the basis of the testimony of the young boy and the surveillance material  an arrest warrant was issued.  In the joint operation Wietlisbach opened the door and a police officer then told him that he was under arrest on the charge of sexual penetration of a child under the age of fifteen. The suspect showed some resistance to his arrest but finally calmed down. The police announced his basic rights and took him into custody. There were two boys sleeping in the bed and they were taken to the police station in a separate vehicle.

Searching suspects room

Wietlisbach denied all charges and refused to say a word until his lawyer arrived.  A search of his room found an external Flash Drive and a digital camera contained pictures of unidentified naked boys.  Other forensic evidence was also collected.

Wietlisbach was denied bail and his court case will be scheduled for 2010.  A nice christmas present for Grey Man but no happy new year for Wietlisbach.

Cheers

John Curtis

Wietlisbach arrested

You may remember that 8 weeks ago we rescued a young 15 year old girl called Peng (not her real name) and just the other evening we had the opportunity to catch up with her again here in Chiang Mai, Thailand.  She is a really shy, beautiful, 16 year old now who loves practising traditional Thai dancing and is doing pretty well at school. 

Peng on the night she was rescued

She told us the other evening that if Grey Man had not been there on the night she was sold she would never have been able to see her mother again because of the shame she would have felt.  Luckily, Grey Man was there and Peng now has a promising future if she gets access to a good education.

Presently she is attending a Welfare school which is available to people on a low income and free to attend but it means that she has to live away from her mother.  These schools do not provide a quality education and Peng has the potential to go on to University.  She would like to become a nurse so that she can help other people.

Peng does not fall under the normal Grey Man guidelines for assistance because she was not sent to a shelter.  She was able to be returned to her mother without danger and we don’t normally get involved with assistance in these cases.

However, we do not want to waste her potential and so I am appealing to you for help.  To pay for her schooling at a preferred school for the next 2 years will cost around 15,000 baht per year.  That is only $600 per year or $50 per month.  Here is a chance for YOU to make a significant difference in the quality of life of another human being. 

So I urge you to consider that for a small amount of money by western standards, you can change one life for the better.  If you want to support Peng please contact me by e-mail at admin@thegreyman.org and we will work out the details.  Even small individual contributions will quickly add up to the required amount and anything extra will go towards her continuing education.  Just let us know by e-mail that you want your contribution to go towards Peng’s education.  Thank you in advance for being in the arena with us and not just a spectator.

John

Greyman Launches YouTube Site

The Grey Man last week launched their YouTube site. This will contain all media including: video and audio on everything ‘Grey Man’. ‘Subscribe’ to the channel and leave your comments. Please note: there can be delays in posting information due to editing of censored content.

Click for here for The Grey Man youtube site