Pervert dad preyed on young Thai girls.. then paid pounds 1,000 for

0 Comments | Sunday Mirror, Apr 23, 2000 | by JOHN CASSIDY

THIS is the disgraced dad of former Ireland soccer player Jon Goodman with his child Thai bride.

Pervert Maurice Praill ties the knot with the blessing of Buddist monks to a marriage made in hell.

But his paedophile activities have now landed the 70-year-old in jail accused of rape, the Irish Sunday Mirror can reveal.

And it has brought distress on his stepson, Jon, who was on the road to stardom with Ireland until his career was cruelly cut short with a knee injury two months ago

We have learned that Praill paid pounds 1,000 to the girl's parents to make her his teenage wife.

However, just three weeks after the wedding in a Buddist temple in the pervert resort of Pattaya, Praill dumped his little bride, Lek, back on the streets where he had picked her up when she was only 12 years old.

But within a matter of weeks Praill was arrested after two girls made rape allegations against him.

He had gone on the prowl in the search for another victim in one of Thailand's notorious areas paedophiles.

Now he is languishing behind bars in Chonburi jail and faces a trial soon for his abuse.

His arrest is the result of a clean up of the Thai resort by policewoman, Captain Supawan.

She has recently opened a new child protection centre in Pattaya, which has been plagued for years by foreign paedophiles.

The senior police officer has been helped by English police officers trained in tracking down known paedophiles around the world.

Captain Supawan has pledged to drive out paedophiles, who previously had been able to buy themselves off serious sex charges.

Police inquiries revealed that Praill was a prominent member of 'The Family Circle' who paid poor parents in the province of Chonburi, on the east coast of Thailand, to borrow their sons and daughters with promises of cash and land.

Until recently Thai police and prosecutors turned a blind eye to the activities of paedophiles.

In return for their silence, perverts would hand large sums of cash in under-the-counter deals.

But under Captain Supawan's new regime, paedophiles were made a prime target for surveillance and arrest.

And she also vowed to stamp out police corruption in a battle to bring paedo-philes before the courts.

She told the Irish Sunday Mirror: "Things are now changing. The old ways are a thing of the past."

Maurice Praill was one of those suspects Captain Supawan had put on an intelligence watch-list.

He had been arrested three times for child sex abuse offences since arriving in Thailand in 1990.

But amazingly each time he managed to pay bribes to local police to drop any charges.

It was around this time that his stepson, Jon Goodman, was making a name for himself back in Ireland and England as a rising football player.

Jon, known to his friends as 'Elvis' because of his likeness to 'The King', was first on the books with Millwall before moving into top flight football with Wimbledon FC.

But unknown to him, the man who had brought him up from an early age had become a notorious paedophile, luring young children from the street into his home for sex in return for small amounts of cash.

Praill, who was originally from Chingford in Essex, first started out with older girls, according to his diary of shame.

The first girl he lured into his lair was a girl called 'Ann' aged 15. But she left him after she acquired pounds 200 for schooling.

"Does not want to give me even minimal conjugal rights," he moaned in his diary.

"Do not think this relationship is going to last."

Praill also meticulously logged how much money he had to pay his young victims to abuse them.

In one entry, Praill grumbled: "Had to pay 100 baht (less than pounds 2.00) for a very short time with girl".

His depraved obsession with his child bride, Lek, is recorded in his diary between April and May 1992.

Some of the entries are unprintable in a family newspaper because of their explicit and vile nature.

However, in others he wrote;

April 27: "She's bored in my company. All she wants is room and money. No honey for me."

April 28: "Decision time. Either she goes or we have sex. She decided to go. Jo (another girl) comes to my house. Stays overnight and in the morning demands 200 baht (pounds 3) for sex. I refuse."

April 29: "Noot comes to house with Yoong (two other girls). I offer 150 baht a day and food."

April 30: "Lek comes to house with friend. The aura has faded but I am keen to have her (back)."

For several days Praill invited other girls to his house while still wanting to have sex with Lek, who had refused.

But eventually the young girl gives way to his depraved advances, and in return he bought her a watch and earrings for pounds 25.

Praill finally married Lek when she reached the age of 15, but not before he was twice arrested by police for his sordid child activities in the resort.

One neighbour told the Irish Sunday Mirror how she watched a continuous flow of children to his home.

"Once I saw three very young girls dancing in front of him in his living room," said the neighbour.

"He was quite open about what he did. He even thought when he was arrested he could continue to pay bribes.