US military officials missed multiple warnings that allowed a top civilian commander at Afghanistan’s Bagram Airbase to run a child sex abuse racket for a decade, a report has revealed.
A senior commander at the notorious US airbase in the Afghan capital, David Frodsham, was reportedly sent home after multiple allegations of sexual harassment against him were verified.
Frodsham, who pleaded guilty to the charges in 2016 and is now serving a 17-year-sentence, led a network that included an army sergeant who posted child pornography online, says an AP report.
One of the alleged victims of the ring was Frodsham’s adopted sons – Trever and Ryan.
According to the report, Frodsham, during his time in Afghanistan, “jokingly” asked an IT technician to allow him access on his work computer to the free pornographic video-sharing website YouPorn.
He also reportedly told a female colleague that she had only been recruited because he wanted to be “surrounded by pretty women,” and regularly called others “honey,” “babe,” and “cougar.”
“I would not recommend placing him back into a position of authority, but rather pursuing disciplinary actions at his home station,” a commanding officer reportedly wrote in a US Army investigative file, recommending Frodsham be sent back from Bagram to Fort Huachuca in Arizona.
Notwithstanding almost 20 complaints of abuse, neglect, maltreatment, and licensing violations, Frodsham and his wife were allowed to retain custody of their three adopted sons, the report notes.
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At the same time, the report states, the US Army gave Frodsham security clearances and access to sensitive information, despite his vulnerability to blackmail due to his offending behavior.
When Frodsham returned to Fort Huachuca, he rejoined the army’s Network Enterprise Technology Command (NETCOM), serving as director of personnel for a global command of 15,000 soldiers and civilians, AP has reported.
“He would have been an obvious target of foreign intelligence services because of his role and his location,” Frank Figliuzzi, a former FBI assistant director for counterintelligence, is quoted as saying.
He adds that the location in which Frodsham had worked on his return from Afghanistan was “one of the more sensitive installations in the continental United States.”
Two of his adopted children have each filed a civil suit against the State of Arizona for allowing the couple to continue parenting them despite the allegations of abuse.
Ryan Frodsham, one of the three young men to file a lawsuit, claimed that his adoptive father started sexually abusing him when he was 9 or 10 and later offered him to other men to be abused.
He claims to have informed state representatives that he was a victim of abuse.
