Ian Charles Griffiths, 48, from south west London and his 35-year-old girlfriend Bella Santos are alleged to have taken the child on the Phillipines island of Cebu to make porn videos.
Police in Cebu City say the couple kidnapped six-year-old Ellah Joy Pique so they could exploit her as part of their online sex operation.
Cebu: The six-year-old girl was snatched from outside a school in the city
The girl's body was found at the foot of a cliff on February 8 the same day the couple left Cebu on a flight bound for Hong Kong.
Both are reported to have since returned to Cebu but Griffiths again left the country after police closed their investigation into another couple suspected of the kidnap and killing.
Investigators had been concentrating their attention on a Norwegian man and his partner for the same offence. They have ruled them out.
Warrants were today issued for both Griffiths, who is believed to be in Hong Kong, and Santos, currently in Makati, a district of Manila.
Police said they have witnesses who allege that they saw Griffiths in his car at the cliffside.
They say he was seen getting out of the vehicle, opening the back door before removing something wrapped in a white fabric that he then dropped off a nearby cliff.
They also allege that a woman was with Griffiths but they couldn't make out who she was because she slid down inside the car.
Fermin Ar-mendarez III, head of the Criminal Investigation and Detection team, said: 'It appears that Pique was abducted by Santos and Griffiths for the purpose of exploiting the victim for the suspects' cybersex business.'
Police believe that their plan went wrong, leading them to kill her and dump her lifeless body over the cliff.
Santos, a former bar girl on the Philippines island of Palawan has denied all charges.
She told the Cebu Daily News: 'I have been tossing and turning and have not been able to sleep or eat. I do not know why I have been accused of this crime.'
She added that she was not ashamed of her work because it enabled her to eat fast food, but hoped her past under the name Chloe was not brought up against her.
Immigration officer Casimiro Madarang said that even though a case had been filed against Griffiths, there is nothing stopping him from leaving the country.
He said: 'At present, Griffiths and Santos can still travel freely because there is no basis to hold them at the airport. We can only prevent them from departing if there is a court order.'
Ellah Joy's father, Renante Pique, said he hoped the case against the pair would be successful and urged other parents to come forward to end human trafficking and child abuse.
Among the witnesses are two children, aged nine and 12, who were walking with the little girl on her way home from school when a dark car stopped to talk to them.
Inside, it is alleged, was a 'big male foreigner' and a woman who offered Ellah Joy a ride.
According to officials Griffiths had visited Cebu frequently since 2006 and over the last year he had checked in and out 17 times - each time accompanied by Santos.
No comments:
Post a Comment