Thai underage sex tour organiser named

David Wales as he left the Manukau District Court during his trial for organising a sex tour to Thailand. He was found guilty and his name suppression has now lapsed. Photo / NZ Herald

The man who organised an underage sex tour to Thailand has also pleaded guilty to 10 charges of possessing objectionable material.

David Robin Wales pleaded guilty to the 10 charges at the Manukau District Court last month.

APNZ has also confirmed that he lost his interim-name suppression.

Wales will be sentenced in June.

The 47-year-old is currently serving a three year sentence after being the subject of an undercover police operation.

He was found guilty in November of organising a sex tour to Thailand after setting up a trip for a client, who was actually an undercover police officer.

The former real estate agent was also found not guilty of promoting the tour through a website.

Wales was sentenced to three years' imprisonment by Justice Edwin Wylie in the High Court at Auckland in February.

He is the first person in New Zealand to be charged with organising and promoting child sex tours.

The High Court trial heard how Wales told the undercover cop he could help him find Thai "boys'' as young as 13 to have sex with.

He booked flights and made hotel reservations for the trip before he was arrested.

The court was told he was initially reluctant to discuss sex with boys but later told the officer, who was wearing a wire: "I mean, the thing is, you know, like for instance, you could probably take a 13-, 14-year-old boy back to a hotel, but not every hotel.''

The man did not dispute creating the website, but his lawyer Chris Wilkinson-Smith said it was innocent and only for travel.

Mr Wilkinson-Smith said the undercover cop was the man's one and only customer in the three years the website had been operating.

In a police interview shortly before his arrest, the man said: "... firstly, he's offering me money to take him on the tour and I wanted the money. He's saying he wants something underage. I'm saying it's dangerous, but I wanted the money''.

Wales has previous child sex convictions in Australia.