British companies were the first to experiment with this potential new form of cheap labour in 1807, when they imported 200 Chinese men to work in Trinidad.

The coolie trade was often compared to the earlier slave trade and they accomplished very similar things.

Social and political pressure led to the abolition of the slave trade throughout the British Empire in 1807, with other European nations following suit.

Grant Geoffrey Martin, 45, lost his job at an Adelaide eastern suburbs primary school after his arrest in February.

The word coolie (also kuli, cooli, cooly, quli and koelie among other spellings), meaning a labourer, has a variety of other implications and is sometimes regarded as offensive or a pejorative, depending upon the historical and geographical context.

It is similar, in many respects, to the Spanish term peon, although both terms area used in some countres, with slightly differing implications.

He faced charges of producing child pornography, but was given a suspended sentence by the Adelaide District Court.

Police found more than 3,000 chat logs on his computer from a child sex-slave forum.