Accused Australian pedophile pleads not guilty to rapes in Philippines

An Australian man accused of raping and trafficking two girls in the Philippines has pleaded not guilty.

Wearing a yellow prison shirt and handcuffs, Gerard Peter Scully, 51, puffed on a cigarette before calmly saying "not guilty" as the charges - five counts of rape and one of human trafficking - were read to him at an improvised courtroom in the port of Cagayan de Oro.

Philippine police accuse Mr Scully of repeatedly raping the two teenage girls, who were found naked and chained in his apartment bedroom in the southern port last year.

Mr Scully is also under investigation, but has not been charged, over the rape of an 18-month-old baby girl, and the rape and murder of a 12-year-old girl.

Police said they found the 12-year-old's remains in February buried beneath the kitchen of a separate apartment also rented by Mr Scully in the southern city of Surigao.

Mr Scully was arrested in the same month in Malaybalay, another southern Philippine city.

Mr Scully, reported in Australian media as a native of Melbourne, fled to the Philippines from Australia in 2011 after he was charged with fraud, according to Philippine investigators.

He then set up a cybersex business, filming girls aged 12 to 18 from impoverished families as he had sex with them or they played with sex toys, the investigators added.

The videos were allegedly sold to customers in Germany, the US and Brazil.

Philippine police also said he is under a separate criminal investigation in the Netherlands over fraud.

Mr Scully and his local lawyer, whom he met for the first time on Tuesday, smoked just before the judge made the Australian stand to hear the charges against him.

Mr Scully will remain in custody.