(CNN) -- One of the FBI's 10 most-wanted fugitives, an alleged pedophile, was arrested in Bangkok Tuesday, a United States embassy official has confirmed.
Eric Franklin Rosser, 49, a professional jazz and concert pianist, was arrested in the Thai capital by FBI agents and the Royal Thai police acting on a tip from a U.S. television show.
Officers surrounded Rosser as he was walking into a school where he was enrolled to learn how to teach English.
The arrest came after Rosser was featured on the television show "America's Most Wanted" which led to leads from 53 countries, a U.S. embassy spokesperson said.
It is the second time in less than a week the show has led to an arrest of a suspect wanted by the FBI after U.S. police captured a teenager, accused of murder, in a Nevada hotel-casino.
Rosser is in the custody of Thai police and faces six charges over the production and distribution of child pornography and according to the FBI website includes "the production of a videotape in Thailand which depicts sexually explicit conduct between himself and an eleven-year-old female child".
He is charged with child sex crimes in both the United States and Thailand and was originally arrested in Bangkok on Feb. 9, 2000, on charges of lewd behavior and possession of pornographic materials.
Police had raided his apartment and found hundreds of explicit photographs and videos of girls who appeared to be younger than age 15.
He jumped bail two months later -- before his trial had been due to take place -- and was believed to have fled Thailand.
In March 2000, he was indicted by a U.S. federal grand jury in Indianapolis, Indiana, on six counts of producing and distributing child pornography, including a video that showed him having sex with a girl said to be 11 years old.
$50,000 reward offered
The FBI was offering a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading directly to Rosser's arrest, describing him as an admitted child molester who may have suicidal tendencies.
An FBI Web site notice, last updated in April this year, said "Rosser was last known to be traveling through Europe on an 'Apollo' brand red moped with a piano attached to it."
Rosser had worked as a pianist at Bangkok's luxury Oriental Hotel and ran a music school at his home where he gave lessons to children from prominent families.
In an open letter and an interview with The Nation newspaper after his arrest last year, Rosser admitted to frequent indecent acts with children and claimed he had lived a tortured life because of it. He said he would face punishment.
Rosser, who has a Thai wife and a young son, faces between five and 20 years' imprisonment if convicted in Thailand.
U.S. authorities were expected to extradite him after the Thai case was resolved.
Thailand and neighboring countries in Southeast Asia have become havens for foreign pedophiles because of relaxed attitudes toward sex and prostitution, bribe-prone law enforcement and poverty that forces families to sell their children into the sex trade. |
