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Worldwide manhunt for alleged rapist ends in HK

One of the US' most wanted sex offenders -- accused of raping his daughter and posting the film on the Internet -- has been captured in Hong Kong after a worldwide manhunt, officers said yesterday.

Former policeman and bodybuilder Kenneth Freeman, 45, injured four Hong Kong police as he struggled to escape arrest when officers swooped at Hong Kong's international airport, local police said.

A statement from the US Marshals Service in Washington said the grisly video was one of the most downloaded items of child pornography on the Internet.

Freeman, who has been described as a computer expert, went on the run last year after child pornography charges were filed against him.

Federal officers had been tipped off by Chinese police that he was in China and when he flew into Hong Kong airport on Tuesday, local immigration chiefs notified police they had one of the world's most wanted men.

"This complex international case was a challenge for the Marshals and our law enforcement partners," the agency's director, John Clark, said in the statement.

"Fugitives charged with crimes against children are our top priority. Freeman now will be returned to the United States to face the justice he deserves," Clark said.

A spokeswoman for the US Consulate General in Hong Kong said they were delighted with the level of cooperation between US and local police.

The marshals' statement said they had known for some time that Freeman had been in China but as no extradition treaty exists between the two countries, they had to wait until he left before they could nab him.

Freeman's daughter, now a teenager, went public about her ordeal on the hit TV crime show America's Most Wanted, allowing investigators to link the crime with her father, they said.
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