A US man on a visa-free stay who police said is a convicted sex offender on the run from US authorities has been arrested and deported, authorities said.
The man, identified as D. Timothy, had been in Taiwan since last year, taking advantage of the 90-day visa-free stay granted to US citizens to base himself in Taipei while making regular visa runs.
Timothy’s convictions were reportedly for sexual assaults on children in the US state of Alabama, and US authorities issued an international alert about him earlier this year.
A National Immigration Agency (NIA) spokesperson said that a local database search found that Timothy had entered Taiwan in October last year, and he had since re-entered the country at least 11 times, going to Hong Kong or Macau on short visa runs when his 90-day stay periods expired.
The agency assigned a special team to track him down, officials said, adding that “he posed a serious danger and was liable to assaults on boys,” and information indicated he was staying in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華).
A Wanhua resident earlier this year reported a “hefty-size Caucasian male” grabbing a boy in a public park, then rubbing against the boy’s lower parts in an apparent sexual assault.
The resident said the boy’s mother, who was some distance away, heard the noise and shouted: “Go away, you pervert!”
The perpetrator then fled the scene, the resident said.
NIA officers tracked Timothy to an apartment in the area and he was arrested on Dec. 12, before being deported on Wednesday last week, the NIA said this week.
Wanhua residents reacted with shock when they found out about Timothy’s past.
One neighbor described the 1.8m-tall man as “a very large guy, but he looked like a nice man,” while another said: “He was polite and friendly, and seemed harmless. It’s a surprise to find out he was a pedophile — a wanted criminal who escaped from the US.”
The NIA spokesperson said that due to Timothy’s robust size — weighing more than 100kg — eight of the agency’s largest officers were assigned to make the arrest, in case he refused to cooperate.
Officials said he did not resist arrest and was taken away in handcuffs.
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