Neil Robinson, 47, of Staines in Surrey, England, who has been wanted since 2002 for the distribution of underage porn and child rape, was detained by Beijing police early yesterday, according to Beijing News (which proceeds to ask many of the questions we’ve posed, and calls for increased background checks on foreign teachers).

According to Staines People, Robinson “handed himself in to authorities.” Surrey police are currently liaising with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Chinese authorities regarding his return to the UK.

More updates as they become available.

(H/T Sinofaze, Mike Cormack)

UPDATE, 1:45 pm: China Daily spoke with an education counselor about background checks. Beijing World Youth Academy, which employed Robinson from 2008 to May 2012, could not be reached for official comment.

An education counselor with the international program at a high school attached to Tsinghua University, who declined to give her name, said that Chinese agencies often do not carry out background checks.

“Schools make phone calls or write to people for references to check prospective teachers’ credentials,” she said, adding that it was often difficult for schools to do criminal background checks.

“If applicants are from the United States, we can ask them to show a criminal background check by the US government. But it’s hard to do that in China,” she added.

UPDATE, 1/15/14, 6:15 pm: He’s been sentenced to 12 years. Via BBC:

A man who was extradited to the UK from China has been jailed for 12 years for historical sex offences.

Neil Robinson, 47, formerly of Staines in Surrey, admitted three counts of sex with a girl under 13 and three indecent assaults at a previous hearing at Guildford Crown Court.

This fuckface. This fucking piece of shit is the new frog-eyed creepy rapist avatar for every foreign English teacher in China. I fucking hate him. As a reformed Catholic, I reserve vast reservoirs of contempt and genuine vitriol for authority figures who abuse their power at the expense of children. With all of my private and professional life force, I hate the bastard, hopes he gets a life sentence and dies in a Chinese prison.

For some intents and purposes, this fucko is me, now. He speaks English, I speak English. He is white, I am white. He is an experienced foreign teacher in China, and so am I. Never mind that we grew up 5,000 miles apart and one of us — the one that is not me — is an animal wanted in Britain for child rape. To many Chinese people we look the same and therefore we are the same. Once this blows up in the Chinese media, foreign teachers in China can expect to spend a lot more time in the near future explaining that they didn’t move there to molest kids. And in the classroom, they’ll have ample opportunity to second-guess themselves — am I coming across as too nice? was that high-five inappropriate?

Sleazeballs and scumbags have always been openly hiding in China’s classrooms, of course. Robinson’s case is only making the rounds because he allegedly committed his worst crime outside of this country. But if we are to salvage any glimmer of silver lining from this, hopefully China tightens its visa policy and schools begin doing real background checks (are you listening, Beijing World Youth Academy?). The current system is paperwork-heavy and low on actual verification. Rubberstampocracy at its worst. It took me five months to finally obtain a legit Z visa at my first school in Henan. Most of that was spent mailing documents back and forth between China, Denver and the visa service I was using — school contracts, government contracts, letters of invitation from the local PSB, Z-visa forms.

If I’d gone the gray-market route a lot of teachers use, I could’ve gone over almost immediately on a tourist visa, without a college degree or native fluency. After a month I’d be sent to Hong Kong with a forged BA (side note: without my knowledge or permission, my school photoshopped my college degree to obtain a residence permit for at least two totally underqualified, shitty teachers), and China would have a new “foreign expert.” At one point at my school, which is actually a pretty good training center by most Chinese standards, only two of the eight teachers actually met the requirements of being native speakers with four-year college degrees.

This is not to bash my former school or any of my colleagues; in my experience, non-native speakers are often some of the best TEFL teachers. They have an innate understanding of how they learned the language and have an easier time passing it on than a lot of the shitty native speakers who come over. But having regularly-enforced standards for foreign teachers ensures that fewer pariahs like Neil Robinson find jobs educating children.

One simple addition to the visa process from other countries, if it had been implemented in China, would have stranded Robinson back in the UK, or at least prevented him from teaching in China for five years. South Korea and Vietnam, for example, require all foreign teachers to obtain notarized government background checks in their home country in order to obtain a work visa. They also require a physical, apostilled/notarized bachelor’s degree. Someone could still force his way into the country as a sex tourist or something, but it’d be much toucher for him to find legal, long-term work there.

I don’t know if the problem lies within the foreign teacher community specifically, but I implore teachers (everyone, actually) in China to keep a look out for suspicious activity. I’m not going to write up a snarky profile of a stereotypical child molester, as it’s probably unfair and counterproductive. However, if you come across, for example, a colleague inappropriately filming 10-year-olds, or jokingly telling students he’s writing a porn novel (as Robinson reportedly did), the correct response is to alert school management, if not local authorities. It’s for the potential welfare of children, who deserve so much better.

Greg is an ESL instructor who spent two productive years teaching in China. He writes BJC’s weekly Chinagog column.

UPDATE, 4/27, 12:26 pm: Robinson is now in custody in Beijing and awaiting transfer to UK authorities.

Ed’s note, 4/28, 11:13 am: Headline amended.

Neil Robinson is wanted by the Surrey police “in connection with the distribution of indecent images of children and the rape of a child,” according to BBC’s Crimewatch. This bit of info was posted to Reddit China by user gaiushe yesterday, who claims he has known Robinson for the past five years and is certain that he worked at an international school in Beijing.

That’s Beijing got in touch with gaiushe via direct messaging and confirmed that the school in question is Beijing World Youth Academy. Robinson’s online resume confirms that he worked at “Beijing World Youth academy High School as a Business teacher for years 10, 11 and 12.”

The school’s website also shows a teacher named Robinson was scheduled to chaperone a 15-day school trip to Denver, Colorado in January 2012. That’s Beijing got in touch with an organizer of that trip:

Li Meng, the organizer of the winter camp, told That’s that he is certain that Robinson worked at the school, and that he was indeed scheduled to be a ‘leader’ for the camp but “did not go.”

Afterwards, Li contacted us to retract his statement, saying “the guy left our school a long time ago, several years in fact… the information online [that he was a team leader on the Denver trip] is wrong… many of my colleagues have been asked about this. He is not our employee.”

A spokeswoman for the Beijing World Youth Academy told us she has been working at the school for six months and that there was “no one called Neil currently working at the school.

“If you want to speak to our manager… you’d better call back after May 6,” she added.

Neil Robinson’s online resume

Those who know of Robinson’s whereabouts — he is, again, wanted by British police for child rape — are advised to contact the Chaoyang District police at 85953400 or Surrey Police at (00 44) 01483 639 862.

Alleged British Paedophile is living in Beijing – and teaching? (That’s Beijing)

UPDATE, 4:56 pm: Matt Dalton has dug up a newsletter, dated October 2010, in which Robinson, a “pastoral principal,” addresses the parents of students attending Beijing World Youth Academy:

UPDATE, 4/25, 3 am: Uh… what? Via Beijing Kids:

Former students of Robinson report that he was a generally well-liked teacher who once joked that he was “writing a porn novel”.

UPDATE, 4/27, 12:26 pm: Robinson is now in custody in Beijing and awaiting transfer to UK authorities.

UPDATE, 1/15/14, 6:15 pm: He’s been sentenced to 12 years. Via BBC:

A man who was extradited to the UK from China has been jailed for 12 years for historical sex offences.

Neil Robinson, 47, formerly of Staines in Surrey, admitted three counts of sex with a girl under 13 and three indecent assaults at a previous hearing at Guildford Crown Court.