What did BA know about its paedophile pilot? Disturbing questions about the sex offender Simon Wood, 54, feared to be one of UK's most prolific sex offenders Investigators in Africa fear that there could be hundreds of victims By Tom Rawstorne, Stephen Wright and Vanessa Allen For British Airways pilot Simon Wood, stopovers in far-flung destinations were rarely spent doing nothing. A day in Nassau, in the Bahamas, for instance, was passed in the local cathedral playing the organ, a task he also performed back home at the Catholic church in Hertfordshire to which he belonged. But the routes the 54-year-old bachelor preferred to fly generally took him to Africa. And it was there that Wood would devote any downtime he had to charitable work, his efforts focused on orphanages and schools that provided help to the most needy - children with HIV or those living in the slums. To entertain them he would often play the accordion, capturing their happy, smiling faces on a camera he took with him wherever he went. When he returned home, these images would be used to illustrate his good deeds and so raise further funds to distribute when he next flew out to Africa. And so it was that Wood was invited along to British churches, youth clubs, and primary schools to spread the word and encourage others to support his charitable work. They welcomed him with open arms. After all, what was there to doubt about this uniformed pilot, a man employed in a position of ultimate responsibility by one of the nation's most respected companies? The answer, we now know, was to be found on that self-same camera. Alongside the snaps of cathedrals and orphanages there were more pictures, this time of young African girls being abused by Wood. It is thought he may have targeted hundreds of vulnerable children, joining Jimmy Savile as one of Britain's most prolific sex offenders. For now, the full extent of his depravity remains unclear. According to legal sources much of his photographic archive was stored, heavily encrypted, on a computer that police experts are currently trying to access. Vulnerable: Wood at a Kenyan children's home Even if he had wished to, Wood is unable to assist them. As the Mail exclusively revealed earlier this week, he killed himself after police finally acted on a tip-off about his activities. Having been arrested and charged, the £100,000-a-year pilot was granted bail. Two days later he went to church and, after attending Mass, committed suicide by laying down on a railway line in front of an oncoming train. Because of his death, there are real concerns that a full investigation into his activities may now not go ahead. Scotland Yard has said that while enquiries continue, the police response will be "proportionate." Allegations: Wood pictured playing the accordion with a young orphan boy But as this Mail investigation reveals today, there is every reason to demand that no corners are cut in discovering the full truth. Our inquiries have highlighted a pattern of behaviour whereby Wood repeatedly gained access to young children not just in Africa, but in this country as well. How he was able to do so without arousing suspicions is a question that surely requires an answer. Not only was there a botched police investigation into an allegation that he indecently assaulted an eight-year-old girl during a charity event in North Yorkshire some 13 years ago, but it has now emerged that he was also kicked off the board of a British charity after being caught taking nude photographs of young girls in Africa in 2004. In both cases Wood escaped punishment. Now the focus falls on the airline he worked for, with many asking how nobody ever suspected what he was doing during stopovers with the company. His African victims believe the company must take some share of the blame. Amid claims that Wood may have had an accomplice at BA, a joint legal action is being considered against the airline by the victims. Just how much deeper Britain's former national airline will be dragged into this sordid story, only time will tell. Simon Wood certainly seemed committed to his career there. As a single man with no children, flying was his life. The second of four sons born to Christine and Michael Wood, an electronic engineer from Manchester, he initially trained as a helicopter pilot. After a period flying helicopters in the North Sea, it is understood he switched to planes, first with a charter airline and then joining BA as a First Officer, or co-pilot, 16 years ago. By this time, Wood had discovered how his glamorous job could be used to gain access to young children. With a child at the Nyumbani Children's Home for kids infected with HIV. No one complained about his behaviour there Between 1988 and 2000 he volunteered for the charity Diabetes UK, attending its annual summer camp for youngsters. He would arrive there by helicopter, taking guests on pleasure flights. In 2001, an allegation emerged from the previous year's camp that had been held at a school in Thirsk, North Yorkshire. It was claimed that Wood had entered a dormitory during the middle of the night and molested a young girl. Kent Police, where the alleged victim came from, interviewed the girl. Wood was then arrested and quizzed under caution. He denied the allegation, claiming it was "malicious." With no one else in the dormitory having seen or heard anything, the case boiled down to his word against his young accuser's. And, in the pre-Savile-scandal era, the Crown Prosecution Service ruled there was insufficient evidence to press charges. Too much respect was given to Wood's status as a BA pilot and key statements were not taken. But a well-placed legal source has revealed to the Mail that the initial investigation had been "lamentable." "Too much respect was given to Wood's status as a BA pilot and key statements were not taken," said the source. Although the charity banned Wood from ever working with them again, BA say it was only after he was arrested this summer that they learned of the incident. And because Wood was never charged with an offence, he did not have to disclose the arrest on any subsequent criminal record check. By then, anyway, Wood's attention had switched to Africa, where he was regularly flying with BA. In 2001 he began to visit the Nyumbani orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya. Catering for HIV-positive children, its work was supported in part by donations from a charity set up in this country called Nyumbani UK. The orphanage had informal links with BA, with staff donating money and volunteering to help. Wood was among them, a fact recorded in a news report in the Times from 2002. "Staff try to get rostered on flights to Kenya especially to help at the orphanage," he said in the report. We play, sing, organise activities and generally entertain them. In December 2003 Wood's involvement deepened when he was made a director of Nyumbani UK. Other BA staff, including a number of cabin crew, were also directors at the same time. But Wood's time on the board would be short-lived - eight months, to be precise. Simon Wood The Mail can reveal that he was asked to stand down by the now-deceased founder of the orphanage, Father Angelo D'Agostino, after he came across a number of "inappropriate" photos Wood had taken. "I never saw the photos in question, but I understand that they were of a toddler taking a bath in a tub," said Sister Mary Owens, who now runs the orphanage in Kenya. At the time, Father D'Agostino felt that these could well be innocent photographs taken inadvertently, or at least taken without intent. But, nonetheless, they did cause him to hesitate. He believed that Simon Wood should come off the UK board and, at future visits, be escorted at all times by the manager, which is what always happened afterwards. There was no evidence, said Sister Owens, that Wood had carried out any abuse at the orphanage. And because the images were "potentially innocent," she added that Wood's employers were not informed of the action taken. Whether his fellow directors - some of whom were also BA colleagues - might have heard about what happened is unclear. By then Wood was also heavily involved with another orphanage in Nairobi called Tulia Kidzone. It caters for young girls, as well as offering outreach help to the children of nearby slum-dwellers. Over the past decade Wood established himself as one of the main fundraisers for Tulia Kidzone. He did this by linking up with churches and primary schools in and around his home town of Potters Bar. Dressed in a captain's jacket - bearing four gold hoops around the sleeve, unlike the three he was entitled to wear as a First Officer - he would tell of his work in Africa, encouraging the children to raise money or donate items for him to ship out on BA flights. The Mail is aware of five primary schools that he had regular contact with, one of which he visited in a helicopter in 2007, posing for photographs with the children. He also regularly helped with a number of youth clubs in the area, focusing on those catering for children under the age of 11. These organisations insist that Wood was never left on his own with any of their children. This fundraising role meant that Wood was in a position of considerable power in Africa, often deciding which child might be suitable for potentially life-changing "sponsorship" that would pay for their education and welfare. So he would befriend the African children's parents, winning their trust by taking the girls and their mothers on day trips to parks or swimming pools. He would then tell the mothers he wanted to take their daughters to play with other children, or to stay over at orphanages. In reality, he often took the girls to his luxury hotel, the Nairobi Intercontinental, which was then used by BA for its crew layovers in the city. There, he would abuse and photograph the children. The mother of one girl told the Mail how the abuse of her 14-year-old daughter began when she was just five. The girl now feels so ashamed of what happened that she has threatened to commit suicide. While many parents and staff at the orphanage felt too scared to complain, any that did so would be silenced by Wood. He did this by either filing official complaints accusing them of theft, or by buying them off with gifts and money. BA came to tell us they had nothing to do with it. But we think they had everything to do with it. Wangui Mbatia, children's rights campaigner But some eight weeks ago Wood was finally stopped. Leigh Day, a British legal firm, was contacted by children's rights campaigner Wangui Mbatia, who requested their help in bringing Wood to justice. At much the same time it is understood that BA also received an anonymous tip-off about the abuse. BA sent a team of investigators to Kenya - a team which, it is claimed, was at pains to stress that BA as a company was not involved in what had happened. Ms Mbatia said: "They wanted us to understand that BA wasn't involved. They should be there to help us. Wood's victims would appear to disagree. Twelve families are now being represented by lawyers from Leigh Day, while Ms Mbatia says she believes that potentially hundreds of children from homes in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania could be involved. Having learned of the extent of the allegations, BA and Leigh Day both informed the Metropolitan Police. As a result, Wood was arrested on July 18 at the British Airways staff car park at Heathrow Airport on suspicion of molesting children in Africa. Child porn was found on one of his computers and, after reviewing the 2000 incident in Thirsk, police decided - belatedly - to charge him over that offence, too. Wood appeared at Westminster Magistrates" Court on August 16. Despite evidence that he had interfered with witnesses in Africa following his arrest, telling them to destroy evidence, he was granted bail on condition he surrender his passport. He committed suicide shortly afterwards. Had he not killed himself, prosecutors had planned to charge him with abusing scores of children in Africa. If convicted, he could have expected a life sentence in jail. Despite Wood's death, Leigh Day is currently considering suing his estate and BA. We would be absolutely appalled if it transpired that an employee of ours had been cynically using this charitable work as a cover for exploitation of children he was trusted to help. British Airways Martyn Day, a partner at the law firm, said they were looking into claims that Wood was helped and protected by a network of associates, including a male airline colleague. "There is a big question about British Airways and the extent to which they had a vicarious responsibility," he said. The Mail has also learned that some five years ago a senior British Airways captain was told by an orphanage worker in Africa that Wood was abusing children. According to sources, the BA captain said he would not officially report it to airline bosses unless he was provided with evidence of the abuse. No such evidence was provided, and yet again, it seems, Wood got away with it. In a statement earlier this week British Airways said it had been "shocked and horrified" to learn of the child abuse allegations. "Support for children's homes and schools in Kenya has been part of our community programme for more than 20 years," a spokesman said. Cabin crew and flight crew on stopovers in Nairobi often volunteer to visit the establishments while off-duty to help the permanent staff provide activities for the disadvantaged children in their care. All our crew undergo criminal record checks. Whether Wood's crimes will prove to be confined to Africa is another question. Neighbours living close to his £300,000 semi have told the Mail that in the past, they saw him taking young African girls into his home. One said that during one summer roughly ten years ago, Wood brought over to the UK separately two or three African girls aged about 11. Wood told neighbours the girls were from a Nairobi orphanage and that he had brought them to Britain as a "treat." The girls each stayed for around four or five nights at Wood's home. "We always used to wonder how he got these girls to the UK, how he'd got passports for them," the man said. And how did anybody let these children stay with a man on his own? But, shamefully, we didn't do anything about it. He was a pilot, and pilots are people of responsibility, aren't they? The freephone NSPCC helpline 0808 800 5000 is available for anyone to report a concern or seek advice relating to this incident. Where appropriate the charity will work with the Metropolitan Police. Calls can be made anonymously.