Ray Holmberg after pleading guilty to travelling overseas to have sexual relations with minors. (Joe Leier/KFGO News)
By: Amy Dalrymple
FARGO (North Dakota Monitor) – A former North Dakota lawmaker who pleaded guilty Thursday to a child sex tourism charge believed he wasn’t breaking any local laws.
But that doesn’t matter under U.S. law, says the CEO of an organization that fights child sexual exploitation.
“It is a crime to purchase a child’s body anywhere in the world,” said Lori Cohen, an attorney who leads the organization known as PACT, or Protect All Children from Trafficking. “And U.S. law is very clear about this. There are no exceptions.”
Former Sen. Ray Holmberg pleaded guilty to traveling with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct, specifically that he intended to purchase sex from minors under 18. Prosecutors allege he took about 14 trips to Prague between 2011 and 2021 to pay for sex acts with boys.
Holmberg said in court Thursday he didn’t believe he was breaking any laws in the Czech Republic.
It’s important for U.S. travelers to realize that the age of sexual consent in another country does not matter under federal law, Cohen said. In the Czech Republic, the age of consent is 15.
“I think people rationalize it and think, ‘Oh, if the age of consent is 15, that means that I can purchase this child,’” Cohen said. “But in fact, the age of consent is a separate issue from the commercial sex trade.”
Prostitution operates in a “legal vacuum” in the Czech Republic, according to the organization ECPAT International, which formerly stood for End Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism.
“The sale and purchase of sexual services by adult sex workers over 18 are not criminal, however, pimping, trafficking and running brothels are,” the organization wrote in a 2019 report about the Czech Republic.
Crackdowns by cities including Prague pushed prostitution off the streets and into “erotic clubs” or private apartments, the report said. It notes that online advertisements don’t require age verification, providing circumstances for minors under 18 to engage in sex work.
The Czech Republic continues to be a source, transit and destination country for human trafficking, with children making up more than half of the identified victims of sex trafficking, according to the organization. The sex trafficking victims identified were most commonly from the Czech Republic or Eastern European countries of Ukraine, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria.
Cities, including Prague, are popular with tourists because of the nightlife and “boy bars,” which are often owned by Czech pornography companies and are locations for shooting erotic videos, according to ECPAT International.
“The existence of a growing market for young male sex workers presents a higher risk for SEC (sexual exploitation of children), particularly in light of an increase in the incidence of trafficking of boys into the country,” the organization said.
ECPAT International issued a warning that child sexual exploitation through prostitution had reached a new high in the Czech Republic in 2017.
The Czech Republic also was identified as a source of child sexual abuse material, hosting the second largest number of URLs distributing that content in the European Union, according to the 2019 report.
Child sex tourism slowed during the COVID-19 pandemic but has become more prevalent again as people have resumed traveling, Cohen said.
Americans who purchase sex while traveling abroad need to recognize their role in promoting human trafficking, she said.
“If U.S. citizens did not travel abroad with the goal of buying young flesh, there would not be this problem of child sex trafficking,” Cohen said. “We have a responsibility to stop the demand and shut down this market, because as long as it’s profitable, traffickers will continue to sell children’s bodies.”
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