A GLOBAL manhunt is underway for a British human rights advocate accused of sexually abusing homeless children at a charity he ran in Australia. Privacy campaigner Simon Davies, now 63, is wanted on an international arrest warrant for 18 alleged assaults in the 1980s. He is alleged to have targeted runaway boys who sought refuge […]
A GLOBAL manhunt is underway for a British human rights advocate accused of sexually abusing homeless children at a charity he ran in Australia.
Privacy campaigner Simon Davies, now 63, is wanted on an international arrest warrant for 18 alleged assaults in the 1980s.
He is alleged to have targeted runaway boys who sought refuge at a shelter in Sydney’s Kings Cross district.
Police claim he ran a sex trafficking ring from the shelter over at least six years.
The 18 assaults are said to have taken place across Sydney and span the years 1981 to 1987.
Davies later moved back to the UK and worked for leading universities including the London School of Economics and George Washington University, according to online profile.
Details of the allegations against him only emerged years later when New South Wales police applied for an arrest warrant in 2016.
British police went to his home in London but he was not there, according to reports.
Now despite extensive inquiries, officers have been unable to locate him. He is believed to be living in Britain or Europe.
Police said: “NSW Police is working closely with the Australian Federal Police and Interpol in an effort to locate Mr Davies and commence proceedings that will bring him back to NSW.”
Davies was reportedly born in Lancashire and moved with his family to Sydney aged six.
He was chief executive of Sydney charity the Homeless Children’s Association from 1981 to 1983.
The shelter was supposed to be a safe haven for the “kids of the Cross” – teen runaways who were often in trouble with the law.
Besides his charity work, he made his name as a journalist and campaigner who fought controversial plans for Australia’s national ID cards in the late 1980s.
He is said to have moved to London in 1993 and describes himself as one of the world’s leading privacy experts.
He has advised governments in Australia, the UK and the US, reports Sydney’s Daily Telegraph.
Davies also founded campaign group Privacy International, which he led for 22 years – although he is no longer thought to be involved.
It has gone on to become the “biggest, most influential privacy organisation in the world”, Mr Davies said in June 2015.
In that same YouTube video, Mr Davies describes how he has fought against “the surveillance state” for the past three decades.
He said: “My job on this planet seems to have been to cause trouble for 30-odd years, and my speciality is civil society and the fight against the surveillance state, so, the power of governments and corporations.
“And how the citizen can regain some level of control.”
Despite being wanted by police, he launched a book in January and promoted it on his blog.
Davies is described in the warrant as 5ft 9in tall, solidly built and bald.
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