Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

A Menlo Park man and two other American men accused of traveling to Cambodia to have sex with children will face federal charges in the United States, officials said Monday (Aug. 31).

Ronald Boyajian, 49, of Menlo Park, has been accused of having sex with a 10-year-old Vietnamese girl, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a branch of the Department of Homeland Security. He had previously been convicted of sex offenses in the United States, officials said. An Almanac search of both the national and state sex offender registry did not turn up his name.

Child sex tourism is an ongoing issue in Cambodia, a poor nation where some families sell their children as sexual objects to pay for food or health care, according to the Washington Post. U.S. officials said the arrests demonstrate America’s commitment to protect children from sexual exploitation abroad.

The men will be the first to be prosecuted under an operation called “Twisted Traveler,” targeting American “sex tourists” in Cambodia. They were expected to appear in federal court in Los Angeles Tuesday, Sept. 1, after being arrested by Cambodian police.

The men — all current or former California residents — are charged under an act that went into effect in 2003, strengthening laws related to predatory crimes committed abroad by Americans.

If convicted, Boyajian and the two other men would face sentences of up to 30 years in federal prison.

By Almanac staff

Richard Hine

Richard Hine

Join the Conversation

14 Comments

  1. “Up to 30 years in federal prison”

    Awesome! Sex offenders always repeat.

    Where are the photos of these men? The public should know and they should be humiliated.

  2. Posted by billy, a resident of the Downtown North neighborhood, 3 hours ago

    Same man was “convicted of 18 counts of sexual intercourse with minors in 1995 in Menlo Park, Calif”. Why was he not still in jail?

    Yea, why the hell was he not behind bars? What is wrong with are courts and judicial system?
    Sex offenders need to all have life sentences. Their are so many stories of sex offenders repeating their horrible crimes. I swear to god. If anything were to ever happen to my children. I would be in jail right murder. Screw the courts they don’t do jack!

  3. Is he a resident of Menlo Park? Were does he live. His address by law, is to be public.
    If some one posts his address I’ll go pay him a visit.

    Has anybody looked at the Megan’s Law website? Their are more than a few creeps in our town.
    We need to forum a group of individuals, who meet on a regular basis. We could go monthly, and knock on their doors. Introduce are selves, and tell them we know, WHO THEY ARE. Tell them we are keeping a eye on them.

    I’m serious with all that is going on recently. Like this case with the girl from Tahoe we all need to do something.

    arttwou@gmail.com

  4. List of sex offenders residing in Palo Alto

    sortName Address sortCity sortZIP sortCounty
    BROWN,FRED RICHARD
    More Info 633 MIDDLEFIELD ROAD
    Show on map PALO ALTO 94301 SANTA CLARA
    DAVE,BHANU N
    More Info 4339 CESANO COURT
    Show on map PALO ALTO 94306 SANTA CLARA
    DOLPH,JOHN FLOYD
    More Info 4228 LOS PALOS AVENUE
    Show on map PALO ALTO 94306 SANTA CLARA
    EVERSHED,BRANDON ROGER
    More Info Specific address not subject to disclosure PALO ALTO 94303 SANTA CLARA
    HELMER,MICHAEL ARTHUR
    More Info 3980 EL CAMINO REAL # 41
    Show on map PALO ALTO 94306 SANTA CLARA
    KEMPER,JESSE ADAM
    More Info 3980 EL CAMINO REAL # 42
    Show on map PALO ALTO 94306 SANTA CLARA
    KENT,PAUL ERNEST
    More Info 2410 ROSS ROAD
    Show on map PALO ALTO 94303 SANTA CLARA
    MENDOZA,ANTHONY WAYNE
    More Info 891 SAN JUDE AVENUE
    Show on map PALO ALTO 94306 SANTA CLARA
    ROBSON,RAYMOND R
    More Info 740 ADDISON AVE
    Show on map PALO ALTO 94301 SANTA CLARA
    SATHYANARAYAN,SANDEEP
    More Info 944 COWPER STREET
    Show on map PALO ALTO 94301 SANTA CLARA
    STEVENS,JOSEPH L
    More Info 753 ALMA STREET # 119
    Show on map PALO ALTO 94301 SANTA CLARA
    YU,QINGYU
    More Info Specific address not subject to disclosure PALO ALTO 94303 SANTA CLARA

  5. The people who really care are the ones at International Justice Mission (www.ijm.org) and Action Pour Les Enfants (www.aplecambodia.org), and all those who provide financial support for their causes. Some are motivated by the children’s plight and others just enjoy seeing perpetrators humiliated and put behind bars.

  6. Is there REALLY such a thing as Salt Peter?
    Non the less, this ugly behavior has continued throughout BC and AD times. Thank god that some of the world population has control and not such evil selfish thoughts. There are some sickos that need help and those who have been not caught up with YET…The ones that are caught are turned loose all too quickly. Especially the ones that used to work for the Palo Alto Police Department.

  7. Rush Limbaugh is a frequent consumer of Thailand and Cambodia’s child prostitution services. But of course, being an extremely wealthy person in the US makes one immune to criminal prosecution.

  8. Twisted Westerners traveling to the Third World in order to cycnically exploit poor people there. Hmm, isn’t this a re-run of a very old movie?

  9. Just explain to the children that it is better to let a thousand pederasts and rapists loose that to wrongly jail one. It costs far less to counsel them than to jail them where they are denied a chance to contribute to society. Guess where you can hear that [besides NAMBLA]? Guess why I am sorry I ever belonged to the ACLU?

Leave a comment