PAEDOPHILE DETAINED BY INTERPOL

A paedophile who was wanted by the Spanish authorities has been detained by Interpol in London. The man fled from Spain in January 2001, three months before the Provincial Court in Soria found him guilty of 15 charges of sexual abuse of minors, and sentenced him to 77 years in prison. The incidents occurred between 1987 and 1989, when he was the trainer of an indoor football team and director of a children’s band in the town of Ágreda, in Soria. According to police reports, he took advantage of these activities to carry out a series of sexual abuse of boys and girls aged 10 and 11. When he left Spain, Interpol issued a search and capture order, and he was located in Nairobi by the Kenyan police a few weeks later but when they went to detain him he had disappeared. The authorities lost the trail for nearly two years, but towards the end of 2002 he was found in Germany, where he is alleged to have abused a nine year old girl. He then became one of Germany’s most wanted criminals, and a detailed search was carried out to find him but, once again, he disappeared before being arrested. He was finally detained in London on Wednesday, and a court will now have to decide whether he should be extradited to Spain or Germany.