PETALING JAYA, May 21 — He called himself Moonage Daydream Daddy, but preferred to be addressed as just “daddy”. 

For a 17-year-old girl from the Klang Valley, conversations with “daddy”, who claimed to be a local teenager, through instant messaging platforms like Skype and KIK, seemed normal. 

Little did she know that her friend of three years was actually 42-year-old American hardened paedophile groomer, Blake Robert Johnston. 

Johnston, who was on the US Homeland Security watch list, is skilled at getting children to do things they would not normally want to do.

Homeland Security alerted Bukit Aman to Johnston’s harmful and heinous online sexual activities involving minors, including the Malaysian girl, after his arrest in 2014.

To the girl, who was 14 when she began the cyber relationship with Johnston, he was another local teenager trying to be friendly. To him, she was a curious and easily influenced child. 

She did not know his true intentions that crept beneath a veil of sweet talk, lies and a false identity. 

Starting out with ordinary teenage talk, Johnston slowly gained her trust and gradually turned to more intimate and sexual topics.   

He only had one aim: to groom her to follow his every word and demand centred around sexually exploitative acts. 

Flirting, sex-ting and ultimately, exchanging photos in compromising positions, the paedophile slowly worked his charm to feed his demented fantasies. 

Johnston was sentenced to 30 years in jail for sexual abuse involving children and possession of child pornography.

During the length of their relationship, he communicated with her while sitting thousands of miles away in his home in Martinez, California. 

In October 2014, the US Homeland Security arrested the creep and seized his computer hard drive and digital devices, which contained photographs and videos of at least 300 minors from 30 states across America and six countries, including Malaysia. 

Malaysian police were asked to verify if one of Johnston’s victims was a Malaysian child. 

Officers from the Sexual, Women and Child Investigations Division tracked down the student, who was shocked that her “boyfriend” was a child predator.  

Johnston, was later charged with crossing state borders with intent to engage in sex with a minor. He also faced charges over the production, possession and distribution of child pornography. 

On April 6, he was sentenced to 30 years’ jail and a lifetime supervised release after completing his prison term.

Bukit Aman Sexual, Women and Child Investigations Division principal assistant director ACP Ong Chin Lan said the 17-year-old victim was among 40 other children in Malaysia who have been contacted or were approached by known sex offenders. 

She said police received information from their foreign counterparts that since 2010, 41 attempts to communicate with local children were made by people from at least 13 countries. 

“After a spike in cases involving Malaysians in 2014, and with convicted paedophile Nur Fitri Azmeer Nordin returning home from the United Kingdom, the division decided to monitor such cases closely,” she said. 

Besides Nur Fitri, Ong said there were at least two other known Malaysian paedophiles. 

Engineer Yap Weng Wah, 31, was sentenced by a Singaporean court last year to 30 years’ jail and 24 strokes of the rotan for sex crimes involving children from 2009 to 2012. 

Yap was found guilty of engaging in sexual activities with at least 31 boys, aged 11 to 15, and for having over 2,000 videos of child pornography on his laptop. 

Bukit Aman was told by its counterparts abroad since 2010, 41 attempts were made by foreign sex predators to communicate with children here. — Picture by Azinuddin Ghazali

Ong said another suspect, Noor Din Chaw Fooi, 63, admitted to being in possession of child pornography, but denied charges of sexually abusing children when he was charged last year. 

Noor Din died of pneumonia in May last year, a month after being detained at the Sungai Buloh prison.

Ong said information supplied by the International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol) revealed that at least 168 known sex offenders, including seven migrated Malaysians, had passed through our borders. 

From 2009, these offenders had either visited Malaysia or were here on transit to another country. 

Ong said sex offenders travelling here would be closely monitored by authorities on both ends of their journey. 

“Once they leave their country, the authorities will alert us of their impending arrival, with their travel and accommodation details,” she said.

Once here, police officers will strictly monitor the movements of the offender. 

On Wednesday, Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said the Child Cyber Sexual Investigations unit was formed to clamp down on paedophiles looking to groom local children into performing sexual acts.Johnston was sentenced to 30 years in jail for sexual abuse involving children and possession of child pornography.