VANCOUVER — A judge tightened the bail conditions Tuesday of a 59-year-old international art dealer who pleaded guilty last month to 15 sex tourism offences in Colombia, Cambodia and the Philippines.

Crown prosecutor Brendan McCabe was seeking to restrict the bail of sex offender Kenneth Robert Klassen of Burnaby by putting him on the electronic monitoring program and have the judge order the offender to be under virtual house arrest until his sentencing hearing on July 22 and 23.

The Crown, which will seek up to 12 years in prison for Klassen, was concerned the sex offender posed a risk to flee the country before sentencing.

Klassen has been under police surveillance since his guilty May 21.

Klassen had lived in Colombia for about 20 years and returned to Canada in 2002. He was married with three children but now is separated from his wife.

The Crown also raised a concern that Klassen has been seen boarding a ferry to Mayne Island, which is close to the U.S.

Klassen owns property on Mayne Island, which has upset local parents.

Jeff Hopkins, the superintendent of the Gulf Islands school district, said there had been about a dozen inquiries about Klassen from concerned Mayne Island parents.

"It's scary when you're in a small community," he said, adding police have assured the school principal that Klassen is being monitored until his sentencing next month.

He said many parents weren't aware Klassen owned property on Mayne Island until they learned of it online through a Facebook site.

"There is no reason to believe he is likely to flee to the U.S.," defence lawyer Ian Donaldson told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Austin Cullen.

The lawyer also suggested it would be a "Herculean task" for Klassen to attempt to flee to Colombia.

Donaldson, who is opposed to such restrictive bail conditions, pointed out that his client has abided by all his bail conditions since his arrest in 2004.

Klassen's mother lives here, as does his sibling and his children, the defence lawyer added.

The Crown asked Tuesday for Klassen to be confined to his Burnaby home for 21 hours a day, except from noon to 3 p.m. so he could deal with personal matters.

But Donaldson argued that Klassen needed more time to arrange his business and personal affairs before he begins his term of imprisonment.

The judge decided since Klassen recently pleaded guilty to 15 of 35 sex tourism offences, bail should be tightened up.

The judge imposed a daily curfew from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. each day, increased the bail surety to $125,000 from the previous amount of $50,000, which will be provided by Klassen's mother, and ordered Klassen to report each weekend to Burnaby RCMP and twice a week to his bail supervisor.

The judge, responding to an application of The Vancouver Sun and Province newspapers, also ordered the release to the media of the admissions of fact, which had been filed as an exhibit.

The document first has to be edited to remove and person details such as credit card information and bank account numbers.

David Bercovici, a Burnaby filmmaker who attended Tuesday's proceedings, said he was disappointed that the court allows Klassen to walk free in the community after he pleaded guilty to sex crimes involving girls as young as nine years old.

"He should be in jail. He should not be walking around free," he said. "It doesn't make sense."

Klassen pleaded guilty last Friday to 15 counts, including 14 counts of sexual interference of young girls -- eight in Cambodia and six in Colombia -- under the age of 14.

He also pleaded guilty to importing child pornography by mailing porn to himself from the Philippines.

The offences took place between December 1998 and September 2004.

The investigation of Klassen began at Vancouver International Airport on Aug. 27, 2004, when officers with Canada Border Service Agency identified a suspicious parcel that was labelled "quilts" but was found to contain undeclared DVDs with images of child pornography and bestiality.

The parcel, destined for a home in Burnaby, was monitored by police and was picked up by Klassen, who was then charged with possessing and importing child pornography.

Search warrants were subsequently executed on Klassen's home and a rented Vancouver storage locker, where police seized a video camera and 21 DVDs allegedly containing video clips of Klassen having sex with 92 girls in three countries. The girls were as young as nine.

Police recommended Crown approve charges involving 26 female victims and 39 international crime scenes. The Crown approved 35 charges involving 17 victims.

Up to 20 officers in Canada worked on the investigation, with the behavioural sciences group as the primary investigative unit. The group focuses on deviant sexual behaviour.

It was only the third sex tourism case prosecuted in Canada.