Mark Frost admits 23 offences relating to boys in UK and Thailand, adding to 22 offences he pleaded guilty to last year

A serial child sexual abuser with a history of offending going back more than 25 years has pleaded guilty to 45 charges including rape and sexual assault.

Appearing at the Old Bailey on Wednesday, Mark Frost, formerly Andrew Tracey, admitted 23 offences relating to boys in the UK and Thailand, adding to 22 offences in Thailand he pleaded guilty to last year but can only now be reported.

Frost, then Tracey, admitted his first offence in 1992 for possessing indecent photographs of a child. He was involved in positions of trust with children in the UK for many years as a teacher and in the scout movement, leading police to believe that many more historical victims may emerge once his offences are publicised.

Investigators are also looking into whether Frost, 70, who led a nomadic lifestyle for many years, had victims in other countries including Spain and France.



Ogheneruona Iguyovwe, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “This ranks as one of the most serious cases that I have dealt with as a prosecutor and one of the most serious cases of child sex abuse.”

After his 1992 admission, for which he received a £200 fine, Tracey, who changed his name in 2014, was convicted of offences in 1993 and 1998. The latter was for indecent assault on a boy under the age of 16, for which Frost served 12 months in prison and was added to the sex offender register for 10 years.



Tracey left the UK for an address in Guernsey in 2002. He was investigated there the following year and a computer device was seized but he left Guernsey before he could be prosecuted. It is believed he travelled to France.



He fell off the radar until July 2012, when as part of Operation Spade, an international police investigation into child pornography, officers in Toronto contacted the British National Crime Agency (NCA) about Tracey but he was found not to be in the UK at the time. In February 2013, Thai police arrested him on suspicion of sexually abusing children in the country but he skipped bail later that year.

Frost was briefly back in the UK in 2014 but as Thai police had not issued an international arrest warrant for him, British officers could not arrest him as he was not wanted for any offences in the UK. He left the country before UK detectives could gather their own evidence against him.

He was eventually arrested again in March last year when the NCA located him in Spain and obtained a European arrest warrant after obtaining evidence from Dutch police, who believe Frost was communicating with one of its citizens while abusing children in Thailand.

He was extradited to the UK the following month and appeared at Westminster magistrates court on the initial 22 charges.

The further 23 offences, included some relating to historical offences in the UK against two of his former pupils between 1989 and 1992, and some stemming from interviews with his Thai victims.

One of his two UK victims, who has since died, said he was a vulnerable child in an unhappy household and was bullied at school. He said he was first raped by Tracey in a school storage cupboard and then suffered daily abuse at break times.

He said: “I have carried this burden for a long time and lived in fear ... I still to this day cannot walk past Mr Tracey’s house. I take an alternative route.”

Frost pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to a further 43 offences relating to the same victims, which will lie on file. Such were the number of charges that Frost, dressed in a lilac jumper and white shirt, had to be assisted by his counsel when stating his pleas to the 66 charges on Wednesday.

Nine boys, aged between 10 and 14 at the time, from poor backgrounds have been identified as having been sexually assaulted by Frost in Thailand between 2009 and 2012.

The court heard that the Thai victims were often given money by Tracey and some had been hit by him and/or seen others struck by him.

The mother of one of the Thai victims told the authorities that Tracey told her he was providing support to her son in his education. “He groomed my son, who’s very poor. I feel very dreadful. I can only blame myself for not taking care of my son properly.”



Another mother said her son had gone from being a “bubbly, happy boy” to quiet and withdrawn and sometimes aggressive towards his friends. “I drown in sorrow about what Andrew has done to my son and other boys,” she said. “He deserves severe punishment.”

As well as rape and sexual assault, charges included causing or inciting sexual activity with a child and making indecent images of a child.

After more than two decades in the scout movement, Tracey resigned in 1991 when he was first arrested for sexual offences against children. He was suspended three times from two different schools in Worcestershire in 1991 and 1992 and barred from teaching in 1996. It is unclear why he was not banned earlier, although he is not believed to have taught after 1992.

Andy Brennan, the deputy director of the NCA’S Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP), said Frost was a “dangerous individual”, adding: “We anticipate that once people do see Frost’s image they will recognise him as he was at the time – Andrew Tracey – and there may be potential victims who come forward.”

The NCA revealed that a CEOP officer received “words of advice” from the police watchdog in relation to the handling of Operation Spade. When Toronto police informed the NCA about Frost in July 2012, it referred to a delivery address in Thailand linked to him but it appears Thai police were never informed. Tracey was not arrested in Thailand until February 2013 and it is possible that some of his nine identified Thai victims may have been abused in the interim.

The NCA and NSPCC have set up a helpline – 0800 328 0904 – for anyone who thinks they may be a victim of Frost to call for support or to report abuse.