Thais hold Britons over sex claim

The four suspects were arrested at their home in Pattaya

Thai police have arrested two British men, an American and a German in the beach town of Pattaya on suspicion of child sex abuse.

Police allege the suspects had hundreds of photos and videos of abused boys at their homes, an hour from Bangkok.

The arrests came as a result of a joint operation between police in Thailand and the UK's Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP).

If found guilty, the men - aged 45 to 66 - could face up to 20 years in jail.

Thai police said CEOP - under the auspices of an operation called Naga - had provided them with a list of about 50 suspected paedophiles who might be in Thailand.

The police said the four men had now been taken from Pattaya to Bangkok's police headquarters.

The foreigners, all long-term expatriates in Thailand, were named by police as Malcolm Henry Payne, 59, and Robert Alexander Horsman, 45, both from Britain; Robert Roy Lond, 62, from the United States; and 66-year-old Fritz Deiter Blattner, from Germany.

The four men will face charges of sexual abuse, illegal detention for a sexual purpose, and physical and mental torture of under-age boys.

A 30-year-old Thai national was also arrested, accused of soliciting the boys on behalf of the men.

CEOP chief executive Jim Gamble said the arrests sent a message to European paedophiles who thought they could evade capture by travelling to countries where law enforcement was thought to be weaker.

He said: "Britons who travel abroad to abuse children in the belief they can evade justice are a UK problem and we have a duty to protect every child, everywhere."

Thailand has become the focus of international concerns over the sexual abuse of children, following a series of paedophile arrests.

Canadian Christopher Paul Neil was tracked down to Thailand in October last year after Interpol reconstructed a series of digitally "swirled" internet images of a man abusing boys.

The former teacher has since been sentenced to a total of nine years in jail for abusing two brothers.