Provincial

BI NABS US, BRITISH PEDOPHILES IN CEBU

admin November 30, 2023

THE Bureau of Immigration (BI) reported the arrest of two foreign pedophiles wanted by authorities in their country for sexually molesting children.

In a statement, Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco identified the two fugitives as American national John Tomas Minor, 42, and British national Derek Gordon Heggie, 40, who were arrested in separate operations last Monday by operatives from the BI’s Fugitive Search Unit (FSU) in Cebu province.

Minor was arrested in a condominium unit at the Cebu Business Park in Cebu City while Heggie was collared at a residential unit in Bgy. Guadalupe, Bogo City.

Tansingco said he issued mission orders for the duo’s arrest at the request of the United States (US) and British authorities, which informed the BI of their criminal records as sex offenders.

“They will be deported after our Board of Commissioners issues the orders for their summary deportation, after which they will be included in our immigration blacklist to prevent them from re-entering the country,” Tansingco said.

He further stressed that “we should not allow these wanted sex offenders to use the Philippines as a sanctuary to elude arrest, and evade prosecution for crimes they committed in their homelands.”

According to US authorities, Minor is the subject of an arrest warrant issued in May by a superior court in Spokane, Washington, where he was charged with raping and molesting a child.

As for Heggie, the National Crime Agency of the United Kingdom (UK) said Heggie was convicted of sexual assault on August 10, 2005, and committed several other sex crimes, including raping a domestic partner in 2018 and an ex-partner in 2013. He also allegedly engaged in sexual activity with a minor.

UK authorities warned the BI that Heggie is known to be violent, with an extensive criminal history that includes different types of sexual abuse, damage to property, possession of narcotic substances, among other grave offenses.

Both aliens are temporarily detained at the BI office in Mandaue City pending their transfer to the BI Warden Facility in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City.