British paedophile Christopher Trinnaman grins as he stands surrounded by unsuspecting kids in his new home of Vietnam.
The twisted trombone player, 41, moved to the south-east Asian country after he was released from jail in 2015 and signed up with a top orchestra. Dan Warburton reports on the Mirror.co.uk
British authorities say the fiend – a registered sex offender here but living unchecked in Vietnam – has done nothing wrong by going there.
But one of his victims slammed the snap, posted on Facebook just before Christmas, as “disgusting” and said: “It’s appalling.
“Why was he allowed to travel abroad? He’s a very manipulative man who is a danger to children. I will always remember what he did to me, it will always stay with me.”
Trinnaman targeted her online aged 13, grooming her along with a girl of 14, and she testified at his trial.
The victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said: “We were so vulnerable and he preyed on that.
“It’s disgusting he is free to go abroad with no monitoring.
“It’s appalling he’s in Vietnam with children. He must be stopped from doing this to anyone else.”
According to Mirror, after he was jailed for grooming the teen and her friend, Trinnaman was described as high-risk and made the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order – restricting contact with children and web use.
But it cannot stop him travelling abroad – and we expose Trinnaman’s life in Vietnam just weeks after we revealed how thousands of sex offenders are free to roam abroad.
The Sunday People told how courts have handed out 15,355 Sexual Harm Prevention Orders in three years but only 27 had foreign travel restrictions.
Trinnaman has played to large crowds at the Vietnamese National Academy of Music.
There is no suggestion he has acted inappropriately or broken any laws since moving to Vietnam after his 2015 prison release.
Katherine Mulhern, boss of children’s rights charity ECPAT UK, said: “Under the current framework, law enforcement are unable to apply for a restriction on foreign travel for child sex offenders such as Trinnaman if, at the time they applied for a civil order, there was no evidence to suggest he would travel abroad.
“We need more preventative tools to target offenders who begin their trajectory of abuse online and are considered low risk but whose offending will continue to escalate and they will seek to travel abroad to offend with impunity.”
Trinnaman sparked a manhunt in 2009 after he fled 24 hours before he was due to stand trial.
He had posed as a teen online and persuaded the two girls to send naked pictures before trying to lure one to a hotel for sex.
Police were alerted and found 28 indecent images of kids on his computer in a search of his home.
In 2010 Trinnaman, formerly of Dulwich, South East London, was jailed for four years in his absence at the Old Bailey for causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity in 2008 and possessing indecent images.
He was also ordered to sign on to the sex offenders register for life.
Trinnaman was caught in 2011 and within days of leaving HMP Littlehey he failed to register with police.
Scotland Yard said he was “high-risk” and revealed the Sexual Harm Prevention Order restricted his internet use and his contact with girls under 18.
Trinnaman tried to overturn his conviction, arguing that the prosecution defied “his rights to freedom of expression” under Article 10 of the Human Rights Convention.
But three senior judges at London’s Criminal Appeal Court dismissed his bid, saying it had “no merit”.
The People understands Trinnaman’s 14-year-old victim has since taken her own life.
The other victim revealed how he texted photos of his private parts and tried to meet her for sex, saying he “loved her”.
She said: “I was young and naive and didn’t understand the severity of it. I didn’t appreciate how terrible it was.
“Now, I know he was preying on the vulnerable. He tried to pretend he cared for us but he was disgusting.” In 2010, the People spoke to Trinnaman’s victim in a bid to track him down while he was on the run.
Even then, her dad feared him travelling abroad.
He said: “It’s absolutely ridiculous that someone facing paedophile charges and given bail while awaiting trial is allowed to hold on to their passport.
“It would seem such a simple thing to make them surrender their passport as a condition of their bail.
“The other concern is they could abuse children abroad and be under the radar.”
We told the Metropolitan Police of our findings and a spokesman for the force said: “A Sexual Harm Prevention Order is an order made by the court and the conditions imposed in this case do not prevent travel abroad.
“No conditions have been breached.”
A spokeswoman for Trinnaman’s orchestra said last night: “Christopher John Trinnaman used to work at the Sun Symphony Orchestra as an associate principal trombone.
“On April 23, due to his personal reason, Mr Trinnaman resigned from the position and terminated the labour contract with Sun Symphony Orchestra.
“Sun Symphony Orchestra did not know anything about his past. All the necessary information he provided to sign the labour contract was legal.”
This article first appeared on the Mirror.