How Could You? Hall of Shame-Daniel Johnson-Cambodia’s Hope Transitions Orphanage UPDATED

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Phnom Penh, Cambodia, “an American man sought in the U.S. on child sex allegations was convicted Wednesday in Cambodia on charges that he sexually abused five boys at a Christian orphanage he ran.

The Phnom Penh Municipal court sentenced Daniel Johnson to one year in prison for abusing five boys, aged 11 to 15, at the Hope Transitions orphanage, where he served as director, the child protection group Action Pour Les Enfants said.

Johnson, 35, was arrested in December on a request from the FBI, which had tracked him to Cambodia as part of a U.S. investigation into his alleged sexual assault of minors at home, the group said in a statement.

After his arrest, Cambodian authorities launched their own investigation and a subsequent criminal case against Johnson.

He is expected to be extradited to the U.S. after serving his sentence.

Details of Johnson’s alleged crimes in the U.S. were not immediately known. An official at the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh said he could not comment on the case because it was part of an ongoing investigation.

Poverty and poor law enforcement have made Cambodia a magnet for foreign pedophiles, but in recent years police and courts have increasingly cracked down on sex offenders.”

American man convicted in Cambodia of sexually abusing children at orphanage he ran[The Republic 6/11/14 by The Associated Press]

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“The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Saturday charged Daniel Johnson, an American missionary, with committing indecent acts against five boys under the age of 15 at an orphanage he operated in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district, police said.

Johnson, 35, was sent to the court on Wednesday but prosecutors delayed charging him, questioning him for several days before charges were finally brought on Saturday, Seang Sok, deputy chief prosecutor, said Sunday.

“I charged him [on Saturday] under Article 43 of the Anti-Human Trafficking Law with abusing underage victims and then handed him over to the investigating judge,” he said.

Pol Pithey, director of the Ministry of Interior’s anti-human trafficking police department, confirmed the charges and said Johnson was now in pretrial detention.

“We sent him to Prey Sar prison [Saturday evening] after he was charged by the municipal court,” he said.

An FBI-led investigation into alleged child sex abuse committed in the U.S. tracked Johnson down to the Home of Hope orphanage in Boeng Tampun commune, which is one of a number of projects in Cambodia operated by his evangelical Christian organization, Hope Transitions.

Johnson was found residing at the unregistered orphanage, and interviews following his arrest with the 29 children and young teenagers living with him there led to the allegations he had committed abuse.

The case against him was said to be complicated because the allegations only came to light as part of the investigation by the FBI, which is seeking his extradition for crimes committed in the U.S, though police said last week that Johnson must first serve his sentence in Cambodia if he is convicted.

Johnson has been resident in Cambodia for a decade, according to Pastor Sinai Phoeuk, who is director of the government-registered Christian NGO New Hope for Orphans, to which Johnson acted as adviser for several years.

Johnson’s organization Hope Transitions also operates projects in Prey Veng and Kampot, and the next phase of the investigation is to track Johnson’s network in Cambodia, said Yi Moden, deputy director of field operations for the anti-pedophile NGO Action pour les Enfants, which has assisted the investigation.

Johnson’s alleged victims are now under the care of Hagar International.”

Court Charges Missionary With Child Abuse[The Cambodia Daily 12/16/13 by SAING SOENTHRITH AND SIMON HENDERSON]

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Update : “An American missionary who was deported from Cambodia last week after spending a year in prison for sexually abusing five boys in Phnom Penh now faces 30 years in a U.S. prison on separate charges of molesting a Cambodian minor in 2005, U.S. media reported on Saturday.

The U.S. District Court in Eugene, Oregon, has brought charges against Daniel Johnson, 36, for allegedly abusing an underage boy sometime between November 2005 and October 2006, according to a copy of the indictment posted to the website of The Oregonian newspaper.

Mr. Johnson is accused of “engaging in illicit sexual conduct in a foreign place,” according to the December 10 indictment. If found guilty, he could face up to 30 years in prison.

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court in June sentenced Mr. Johnson, the former director of the Home of Hope orphanage in Meanchey district’s Boeng Tompun commune, to one year in prison for sexually abusing five boys in his care last year.

Last week, he was handed over to an FBI attache at the request of the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh and deported to the U.S.

Following Mr. Johnson’s December 2013 arrest, a new investigation by anti-pedophile NGO Action Pour Les Enfants (APLE) found numerous claims of sexual abuse from children at his orphanage.

APLE country director Samleang Seila said Sunday, however, that his organization was not involved in the investigation that led to Mr. Johnson’s recent U.S. indictment and knew nothing about it.

“I was just aware there was an investigation in the U.S.,” Mr. Seila said, referring to earlier charges brought against Mr. Johnson in 2000 and 2001 in Oregon.

In the Oregon case, Mr. Johnson was charged with sexually abusing three children living with his sister. The charges were later dropped because investigators doubted the testimony of the children, who admitted to lying about sexual abuse in a separate case.

Mr. Johnson is scheduled to be arraigned in the U.S. District Court in Eugene on Monday.”

US Court Accuses Missionary of Child Sex Abuse in Cambodia[Cambodia Daily 12/29/14 by Chris Mueller]

Update 2 :“After a lengthy trial, a federal jury has found 40-year-old Daniel Stephen Johnson of Coos Bay guilty of repeatedly sexually abusing children who lived at an orphanage that he operated in Cambodia.

According to court documents and information shared during trial, Johnson systematically and repeatedly molested children who lived at an unlicensed orphanage he operated in Phnom Penh, Cambodia between November 2005 and his arrest in December 2013.

To date, nine Cambodian victims—who ranged in age from seven to 18 years old at the time of abuse—have disclosed Johnson’s abuse or attempted abuse, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

“The despicable nature of this defendant’s conduct is beyond understanding. Whether you are abusing children in this country or abroad, you will be pursued and held accountable in a court of law,” said Billy J. Williams, U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon. “The fact that this defendant abused children under the guise of being a missionary and orphanage operator is appalling.”

Johnson was convicted on six counts of engaging in Illicit Sexual Conduct in a Foreign Place and one count each of Travel with Intent to Engage in Illicit Sexual Conduct and Aggravated Sexual Assault with Children.

“Daniel Johnson’s promises of charity and a better life were nothing more than lies as he dragged these children into his dark world of abuse,” said Renn Cannon, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI in Oregon. “This case should serve as a warning to those predators who believe they can hide their crimes – whether here at home or half-a-world-away. We will always stand with the victims, and we will always work to bring justice in their names.”

Victims describe a pattern of molestation that includes, among other things, Johnson making them perform oral sex on him and anally raping them. Multiple victims said they were, on numerous occasions, awoken to Johnson abusing them. Following the abuse, Johnson would sometimes provide his impoverished victims with small amounts of money or food. On one occasion, Johnson gave a victim the equivalent of $2.50 in Cambodian currency, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

In 2013, a warrant was issued for Johnson’s arrest on an unrelated case by officials in Lincoln County, Oregon. Local law enforcement officers worked with the FBI to locate Johnson overseas. The FBI in turn worked with the U.S. Department of State to revoke Johnson’s passport based on the Oregon warrant.

Through the work of the FBI, Action Pour Les Enfants, a non-governmental organization dedicated to ending child sexual abuse and exploitation in Cambodia, and the Cambodian National Police (CNP), Johnson was located in Phnom Penh.

On December 9, 2013, CNP arrested Johnson. Based on disclosures made by children at the orphanage, Cambodian officials charged Johnson and detained him pending trial. In May 2014, Johnson was convicted by a Cambodian judge of performing indecent acts on one or more children at the orphanage and sentenced to a year in prison. Following his release from prison, Johnson was escorted back to the U.S. by the FBI.

Based on the sexual-abuse allegations against him, the FBI undertook a lengthy investigation of Johnson. During the course of their investigation, agents interviewed more than a dozen children and adults who had resided at the orphanage. Many of the interviews were audio- and video-taped and, in several instances, conducted in Cambodia by trained child-forensic interviewers. Some victims were interviewed multiple times before disclosing Johnson’s abuse.

Johnson was indicted by a federal grand jury in Eugene, Oregon on December 20, 2014 on one count of engaging in illicit sexual conduct in a foreign place. Seven additional charges were added by superseding indictment on May 17, 2017.

While in custody awaiting trial, Johnson made multiple efforts to tamper with witnesses and obstruct justice. Johnson contacted his victims online, encouraging them to lie and offering money and gifts, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

One message, sent via his relative’s Facebook account to an adult in Cambodia, discussed visiting a victim’s family and encouraging them to convince the victim to retract their statement, potentially in exchange for $10,000. Another message explains the need for a victim to say they were under duress and “pushed by police” to thumbprint a document.

Johnson faces a maximum sentence of life in prison and is subject to a 30 year mandatory minimum. He will be sentenced on Wednesday, August 22, 2018 before U.S. District Court Judge Michael J. McShane.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Launched in May 2006 by the U.S. Department of Justice and led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.”

Coos Bay Man Found Guilty of Sex Abuse at Cambodian Orphanage

[KDRV 5/16/18 by Jamie Pratt]