UK paedophile suspect nabbed in Thailand
2010-12-22 22:31
Bangkok - A suspected British paedophile wanted for abusing children as young as 18 months old and selling online child porn internationally was arrested in Thailand after more than a decade on the run, officials said Wednesday.
Charles David Taylor, 66, was due to be extradited to Britain, where he was first arrested in 1998 and charged with 35 paedophilia-related offences before fleeing to northeastern Thailand, where he allegedly continued to abuse children and record the activities for internet sales, the Thai Immigration Bureau said in a statement.
When British police arrested Taylor at his home in Leicestershire, England they found more than 10 000 pornographic photographs of children on his computer - including images of boys being tortured, sexually abused by adults and having sex with dogs - and video footage of child abuse, the statement said.
Thai and British investigators tracked Taylor to the northeastern Thai province of Nakhon Ratchasima, where he was arrested on Sunday at a local post office where he had rented a mailbox, the statement said.
A Thai court had issued a warrant for his arrest and extradition in 2001, on a request from British authorities, who accuse him of sexually abusing children aged 18 months to 12 years old.
Taylor led Thai police to his apartment where they seized a computer, DVDs of child porn and explicit photos of Thai children and other nationalities, the statement said.
In Thailand, Taylor "lured children to have sexual activities and released video clips on the internet," the statement said.
"He confessed that he would find children to take pictures of and then sell the images on the internet."
Britain's Leicestershire police, the regional force where the man was first detained, said an international warrant for Taylor's arrest should allow him to be returned to Britain for trial.
"We will now be working with the Thai authorities to arrange for the man to be extradited back to the UK," the Leicestershire police said in a statement on Wednesday.
- AP
