In the spring of 2008, several of Scott’s friends and acquaintances in Seoul, South Korea, where they were living, were racked with anxiety. They were tormented about how to respond to the suspicion that a member of their social circle, someone who taught children, might be a sexual predator.

Like many of the expats who lived or socialized in Haebangchon, an oasis of bars, cafes and restaurants popular with foreigners, they had heard the story of Scott’s alleged run-in with the law the previous year after an incident at his house involving two underage boys.

In fact, although his circle couldn’t have known at the time, Scott had displayed troubling behaviour around minors before he ever left Canada.

“He would show me his porn stash and or tell me things he loved to do to his girlfriend Sonya at the time,” Jeremy Murray, 28, recalled of the friendship he formed with Scott, nearly two decades his senior, when he was just 13. “He was very open about his sexuality. Being a 13 year-old-boy, I was intrigued to hear these stories and see what porn of this world had to offer.”

Murray, who first met Scott in Montreal in 1999 or 2000, remembers his much older friend showing interest in other young teens, too.

“He had also become friendly with a friend of mine who was my neighbour who quickly caught on that he was a strange dude to be hanging around with kids 13–15 years younger than him and discontinued his contact with him,” he said.

“My stepfather also had a very bad feeling about this guy. Vadim had never put his hands on me so I never thought anything about it.”

In Seoul, Scott became well-known among expats within the foreigner enclave more commonly known as HBC. A charismatic showman who liked to compare himself to David Bowie and Robert Plant, he played in numerous bands in South Korea during his decade-long residence in the country.

“He’s there for the show,” said Giordan Benavides, a fellow English teacher who was friends with Scott for several years in Seoul. “He’s always doing something creative. He likes the attention.”

As word spread that he had been questioned by police in 2007, Scott confided details of the incident to at least three people in South Korea, each of whom spoke to this writer, and one of whom shared an audio recording of his former friend’s statements.

One of the three was Benavides. He says that he called and met with Scott the day after his alleged questioning, after hearing about it from a neighbor. According to Benavides, Scott told him he had come across two boys crying outside of a convenience store while he was on his way home from playing a gig.

“Vadim offered them to come with him, back to his place,” Benavides said.

There, allegedly, what happened next would see the police called to Scott’s home. “He told me that he touched their genitals,” Benavides said.

A former musical collaborator, who asked to only be referred to by his first name, Valentino, also says that Scott confided in him. In Valentino’s telling, Scott acknowledged being arrested after “touching” the boys.

“He was kind of strangely unapologetic about it, which was the weirdest part, for me,” Valentino said.

Another former friend and bandmate who, racked by guilt, set out to gather evidence of wrongdoing, secretly recorded Scott alluding to his arrest, as well as multiple instances of sexual contact with minors in other countries. Two other former acquaintances verified the voice as belonging to Scott.

“I fucked up. I’ve been exercising restrainment (sic) and I’ve been seeing women,” Scott says at one point in the recording, in response to his former bandmate’s plea that he get counseling for an attraction to minors.

Later, he claims that the contact that prompted his arrest happened on another date, after the boys returned to his home of their own accord. Denying he had sex with them, Scott admits, “I had a minor in my bed who was not appropriately…who was too close.”

According to both Valentino and Benavides, the parents of the alleged victims declined to press charges against Scott for fear of sullying the family name in a country where sexual assault remains largely taboo. Police in Seoul refused to confirm Scott’s questioning or arrest on privacy grounds.

The bandmate said his decision to make the recording was made in a desperate attempt to gather evidence after the Canadian Embassy in Seoul ignored concerns brought to it by him and two friends, including Louis Savoy, another Canadian.

“The Canadian embassy’s reaction was basically the equivalent of telling me that they didn’t have a form for that kind of a problem,” said Savoy, who now lives in Montreal. “That’s really how it had struck me. There was no subtext to the conversation. Everything was very clear.”

Apart from insisting it could not investigate the allegations, the embassy claimed it was even unable to contact local law enforcement on their behalf, according to Savoy, who said he had earlier tried to contact the South Korean police only to be laughed off the phone. “Everything I was trying to do just kept hitting a wall,” said Savoy. “So that was it. It was a pretty hopeless.”

The third person involved in notifying the embassy, another Canadian who lived in South Korea for nine years and has returned home since, recalled similar apathy.

“The Canadian embassy did not respond — in fact, they refused to. They didn’t want to have anything to do with it, which I thought was bewildering,” he said. “Why? Why wouldn’t you want to investigate this?”

The diplomatic mission’s apparent inaction raises questions about Canada’s commitment to tackling child sex abuse by its citizens abroad. A government website advises citizens who are abroad and have information about child sex abuse by a Canadian to contact their embassy for “information and assistance,” as well as to contact cybertip.ca, which receives tips about child exploitation online.

It is unclear what an intervention by consular staff with local law enforcement might have achieved — especially as, at the time, South Korea did not prosecute child sex abuse in cases where the parent or guardian decided not to press charges. But the embassy could have passed the information on to the Canadian authorities. Canada retains the right to prosecute citizens who commit child sex abuse abroad, and doesn’t require a conviction or consent from the foreign jurisdiction where the crime took place.

Jonathan M. Rosenthal, a Toronto-based criminal attorney and spokesman for anti-child exploitation non-profit Beyond Borders, says nothing in Canadian law would have prevented the embassy from notifying the authorities with a view to pursuing charges and Scott’s extradition.

“In my opinion when a Canadian embassy becomes aware of a Canadian committing offenses abroad it is simply disgraceful to not take action by doing everything humanly possible and to allow the offender to continue to abuse children abroad,” Rosenthal said.

When asked what, if any, protocols exist for diplomatic staff informed of alleged child sex abuse, Global Affairs Canada spokesperson Diana Khaddaj dodged the question, referring to the department’s recommendations to the public.

“Consular representatives at Canadian missions abroad recommend to persons reporting a crime to report it to law enforcement agencies,” Khaddaj said. “Investigating such allegations is the exclusive mandate of law enforcement agencies, and does not fall within the purview of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada.”

Khaddaj, however, acknowledged the existence of a committee — the Travelling Child Sex Offenders Committee — for sharing information with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police about Canadians already convicted overseas. Scott is not known to have had convictions at the time, suggesting this committee would not have had any relevancy to his case. When pressed, the department failed to offer any reason why consular staff could not have alerted the Canadian or South Korean authorities about the allegations against Scott. Both the department and the Office of the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner of Canada declined to confirm if they had any intention of looking into the Seoul embassy’s conduct.

“I think we have a responsibility for our citizens abroad when we export mayhem in the form of paedophiles,” said Brian McConaghy, a former RCMP officer who was instrumental in Canada’s prosecution of “Swirl Face” pedophile Christopher Neil after his release from a Thai jail.

McConaghy, who runs the Cambodia-based charity Ratanak International, laments a disconnect between the official rhetoric decrying child sex tourism and the reality of limited resources.

“Just on a national pride level and a national honour level, we need to be on top of this. And generally speaking we’re not,” said McConaghy.

After the nonresponse from official channels, Scott would go on living in South Korea for another four years, continuing to teach children in different jobs. He would eventually leave South Korea in 2012, though not because of the authorities. Frustrated by the apathy around him, Benavides contacted job recruiters en masse about Scott’s alleged history.

In an email dated March 2011, Benavides informed what he said were dozens of recruiters of Scott’s alleged arrest, warning them he was “not fit to be a teacher.” Along with the email, he sent a photo depicting what he said was Scott “inappropriately holding” a young boy while taking the bus home from the set of a local TV show on which Scott sometimes appeared. From then on, Scott apparently struggled to get work in South Korea. But within a year, he would be on a plane, planning to continue his life of making music — and teaching children — in Asia.

This time, he was headed for Thailand.