Fighting Europe's Paedophiles On Foot

Matthew is standing in front of VICE Romania's HQ. Photo by Mircea Topoleanu.

Back in the 1990s, Romania was the paedophile paradise of Europe – mostly due to a lack of laws that followed the fall of communism. Thousands of tourists from northern countries would travel there to abuse minors and if caught, they would usually get off with just a warning. Unfortunately things haven't changed much since then. Once every couple of years, European or American authorities arrest a different network of paedophiles or human traffickers operating in Romania. Just last year, they discovered a giant child porn network, for which the movies were made in Romania and Ukraine.

The new penal code made the situation even worse, as both the punishment and the statute of limitations for pedophilia decreased to a maximum of seven years. That means that if you got raped at five years old and reported it at 13, your assailant is basically a free man.

An American NGO called 'Stop the Silence: Stop Child Sexual Abuse' is fighting to eliminate the statute of limitations for pedophilia across Europe. They’re doing this through a campaign called Road to Change, in which a Scottish actor called Matthew McVarish travels by foot from one European capital to another, trying to convince local governments to adopt harsher paedophilia legislation. His aim is to travel a total of 16,000 kilometers.

Recently, Matthew ended up in Romania and visited the VICE Romania HQ. I spoke to him about paedophilia and Romania's attitude towards this issue. At the time that we had this chat, no Romanian official had agreed to speak to him (except for one representative from the Romanian Ministry of Labour and Social Protection), even though in other countries he had managed to get access to the podiums of Parliament.

Matthew's route

VICE: Hello Matthew. I understand that you yourself were a victim of abuse?
Matthew McVarish: When I was little, my three brothers and I were abused by our uncle. But Scotland is a very religious place and we don't usually speak about such things. My uncle was a teacher, who had daily contact with children and I realised that put them at risk. So I wrote a play about what we went through, because I am a screenwriter for theatre and television. It was played by professsional actors in Glasgow. My brothers came to see it and, for the first time in 10 years, we spoke about what what happened to us and we realised it was important to make sure he is not allowed to do the same thing to other children. He was arrested and is still serving his sentence today.

Is that how you became and ambassador for Stop the Silence?
Yes, I help people in Europe do the same thing I did. I've been walking for over 10 months; I left London on the 31st of March and Bucharest is the 18th city I've visited. I've been on TV, in newspapers and on the radio in every country and in many of them journalists have told me that I'm the first man they know who admits to being sexually abused.

What do you think about the situation in Romania?
The country seems like a target for sexual exploitation. This week I spoke to an NGO that deals with human trafficking, which also usually leads to sexual abuse. Romania is also used for sex tourism, because Westerners know that children are vulnerable here. I am fighting the statute of limitations in every country I visit, because this aspect of the law doesn't allow the victims to make reports. In the UK, we removed the statute of limitations, so you can report someone for abuse even after thirty years.

In Romania they just reduced the statute of limitations with the new penal code.
Yes, it's the worst law in all of Europe. In Slovakia I spoke in Parliament and three days later they already had a proposal for eliminating the statute of limitations for paedophilia. I met the ombudsman for Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, who are also promoting similar measures. It's not about revenge or compensation for the victim or discrediting the one responsible. The problem is that only the victim knows what the molester is capable of and only they can report them to the police.

I think it's also about the victim's peace of mind.
Yes. In Luxemburg, I met a 30-year-old victim. The man who sexually abused him was still working with children. He had made a report to the police, he had solid evidence, but the statute of limitations meant that he had needed to report it by the age of 28. That man can go on abusing children. In Germany, the statute was just extended to 31, so if he had been living a few kilometers away he would be under arrest. It's absurd.

He sleeps in a trailer with a friend of his. Every morning his friend drives 15km, then he follows on foot. Then he eats and repeats the process until it gets dark. That's how Matt covers 50 kilometers per day. In this photo, he is in Helsinki.

**In Romania, *after 1989,* we had very shoddy laws regarding childcare and many foreigners from the West took advantage of this.**
In Britain we've had this legislation for over 30 years, but from what I've seen in Central Europe it's pretty new. Unfortunately I don't understand why the situation is becoming worse in Romania. I can't see the logic.

Politicians say that we can barely afford to support the social security system and the penitentiary system, so it's cheaper to just shorten the punishment.
But that's an economic illusion, because sexual abuse affects a child much more than people think. If you compare the brain scan of an abused child to that of one who grew up normally, you'll see they're completely different. It interrupts their normal mental evolution and they have to bear these invisible scars all their life. That means that they are emotionally compromised and they end up suffering from depression, acoholism, drug abuse and can sometimes even become homeless. Governments spend more money fighting these issues than they do when it comes to abuse. If you reduce the abuse, you reduce all of them.

Have you managed to speak to the authorities in Romania?
This is the first country where nobody wanted to speak with me, saying that the political situation is delicate because of Ukraine. They're all busy, but I keep trying to contact them through the British Embassy.

Do you think they're using Ukraine as an excuse to avoid the subject?
That would be horrible. I've walked 6,300 kilomters to get here and it's frustrating that nobody wants to hear me out. Well the press and the NGOs will talk to me, but authorities have to be involved. In the other countries I've visited, I've caused legislative change and here I can't even get a meeting.

Didi you speak with any victims here?
Tomorrow I'm meeting a victim through an NGO that works with street urchins – they are the most vulnerable to sexual abuse.

Matthew in Prague.

A large part of the sexual abuse which takes place in Romania affects the Roma community, who are very ostracised. But there's also the issue that in their culture, children get engaged at a young age and start being sexually active from the age of 14. How do you defend children's rights without violating cultural rights?
In Africa, there's a tribe where women have their genitals mutilated because of tradition. Now an NGO is helping those people. The members of that organisation live with those women, so as to better understand them. But you need time and sensibility to undestrand a culture, so that you can later try and educate them. Even if it is tradition, it causes psychological trauma. I've seen many communities of Roma in homes in the Czech Republic and Hungary, and the orphanages were filled with their children. I assume it's the responsibility of the government in each country to take care of these children.

Have you ever faced any opposition to what you're doing in other countries?
There's a community called Martijn in the Netherlands,, formed out of men who think they should have the right to have sex with children. They are campaigning to lower the age of consent and the statute of limitations. Society there is very liberal and it is their right to express themselves. But I think it's bizzare that they received an office in the former Ministry of Justice, and that the government somewhat supports them. Nobody takes them seriously, but everyone knows who they are.

In Scandinavia, I've had the problem that women are educated from a very young age to avoid showing anger. But sometimes an abused child is only left with anger after an abuse. That makes their lives difficult. In Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia I've noticed that the adults are still influenced by the communist custom of keeping secrets. In other countries like Poland, where I spoke on national TV, I faced a very homophobic reaction online. The piece didn't say I was gay, but because I wore a kilt and because I was abused by my uncle, they all assumed I was. That's not right – you can't change someones sexuality by raping them.

What's next?
Sophia, Athens and Cyprus. I have to take the plane to get to Cyprus. Then Malta, Sicilly, Rome, Slovenia and Croatia. I like visiting these countries, but I don't do touristy stuff. From the donations I get, I buy food and fix the car. It's a pretty low-budget project – I mean I only have two kilts and the shirt on my back, but I reached out to millions.

What's the most difficult thing about what you do?
Every country has a certain sensibility and I have to be very careful, because I am a British man sponsored by an American NGO. I don't want to make it seem like Americans are paying me to come here and tell people how to run their countries. To me, the issue is that we are all members of the EU, so all our children should have equal rights. Whether you're in Glasgow, Amsterdam or Bucharest, if you are sexually abused, you deserve justice.

Read more on Romania:

I Was a DJ in Communist Romania

Hundreds of Hectares of Romanian Forest Have Disappeared

The Maddening Beauty of Romanian Living Rooms