British woman, 65, 'threw spear at officials' as she was arrested for allegedly running Philippines 'House of Horrors' where children as young as six months suffered abuse

Lillian May Thomson, 65, facing charges of illegal detention and direct assault on government officials

One child found tied to a chair in a locked room in house near Subic Bay

Another child said to be a six-month-old boy found severely malnourished

Three girls, all aged seven, were alleged to have been sexually abused



A British woman is being held behind bars in the Philippines accused of running a ‘House of Horrors’ in which young children were allegedly held prisoner and sexually abused.

Police and child care workers named the woman as 65-year-old Lillian May Thomson, who was found with an expired U.S. passport, and said she was charged with child abuse involving at least five young children.

One of the youngsters was found tied to a chair in a locked room in a house near Subic Bay, 75 miles north west of Manila, where the U.S. once had a huge naval base.

Police and child care workers named the woman as 65-year-old Lillian May Thomson (centre, wearing green) and said she was charged with child abuse involving at least five young children

Another child was said to be a six-month-old boy who was found severely malnourished, while three girls, all aged seven, were alleged to have been sexually abused.

The shocking case is being described by social workers as one of the worst recorded instances of child abuse they have seen.

Father Shay Cullen, an Irish priest who runs the Preda Foundation, a shelter for abused children in nearby Olongapo City, said Thomson is facing serious charges of illegal detention and direct assault on government officials.

She was also expected to be charged with child trafficking.

Father Cullen claimed that when child care workers and police raided Thomson’s house she picked up a spear and threw it at them.

According to the Manila-based Inquirer newspaper, police found the children in Thomson’s home after a tip off.

Father Cullen said he and social workers from Preda had been told of possible maltreatment and sexual abuse of children after foreigners were seen coming and going to Thomson’s house.

‘One of the children, aged just six months, was found severely malnourished,’ Father Cullen told the Inquirer newspaper by phone.

Father Cullen claimed that when child care workers and police raided Thomson's house she picked up a spear and threw it at them

Three girls, all aged seven, and a five year old boy were among those rescued. One of the girls was tied to a chair with plastic handcuffs when police raided the property.

Police said the children are now in a safe house, but medical examinations have allegedly revealed that the three girls had been sexually abused.

‘Thomson resisted arrest and became agitated, angry and used invectives against the arresting officers,’ said Father Cullen.

Father Cullen told the Daily Mail last night: ‘We believe this was nothing short of being a brothel in which those forced to serve foreign adults were children.’

He said investigations were still continuing because the work of finding out from the children what had happened to them had to be carried out with gentleness due to their young ages.

‘But we have been able to establish from the girls that they and a young boy were filmed naked for a camera, so we suspect this was for use on the internet for the pleasure of paedophiles,’ said Father Cullen, who has been in the Philippines for 45 years.

‘As each hour goes by that we talk to the children, the worse the details that they are able to tell us become.

‘We have learned, for example, that the young girls were taken to parties in Barretto, a red light district nearby, by this woman, although we have yet to find out from them what happened at those parties.

‘I have to say I suspect the worse. This is an hour by hour investigation and we continue to be shocked by what we are hearing.

‘The house was in a filthy dilapidated state and it must have been hell for those young children to be kept there, wondering who was going to come in the door next.’

Father Cullen said Thomson had today been charged with Serious Illegal Detention of five children aged from six months to seven years. She has also been charged with assaulting government officials with a spear.

Thompson has two passports, said father Cullen - a British passport showing that she is from Dunfermline, Scotland, and an expired U.S. passport.

When child protection officers arrived at the house, Thomson allegedly refused to let them in but then she started swearing at them before throwing a spear which grazed the arm of one of the social workers, Rosemarie Hebron.

Father Cullen told the Mail that social workers from his Preda Foundation, of which he is the President, run an official children’s home in the area - ‘a beautiful place by a river and surrounded by hills’ - and it was they who learned of the alleged horrors being perpetrated in the run-down house.



‘Even if there were no allegations of sexual abuse of the children, Thomson is in the wrong because you cannot keep children without an official licence.'



Official medical certificates alleging that the girls had been sexually abused have been prepared and will be presented when Thomson appears at the Olongapo City Regional Trial Court, said Father Cullen.

