Abroad
Veteran Member
A British child sex offender who paid an undercover US agent for sex with a nine-year-old boy ran an online group looking for children to abuse, prosecutors say.
Paul Charles Wilkins, of Littleport, Cambridgeshire, went to California in January to meet boys to have sex with.
He also planned to meet a group of men to have sex with boys in the UK at Easter, US legal papers show.
Wilkins, who could face life in jail, will be tried in the US in July.
The 70-year-old, who holds dual UK and US citizenship, was jailed in the UK in 2011 after pleading guilty to offences relating to indecent images of children.
He was on probation when he left the UK on 31 January this year.
An undercover agent made contact with him via an online group administered by Wilkins, and used by people with a "sexual interest in children".
The group described itself as "a safe place for dads and sons who enjoy relations".
Using a pseudonym, Wilkins told the officer he had come to California after the father of two boys, aged 10 and 12, had promised him he could have sex with his children. However, once he arrived, the father stopped communicating.
The affidavit further states Wilkins confided he was hoping to meet up with a group of men "to have sex with a minor child" in Palm Springs and had plans to meet with a similar group of men in the UK at Easter.
A second undercover agent was brought in as a "pimp", offering Wilkins a nine-year-old Mexican boy whose family needed money to pay off debts incurred coming to the US.
Wilkins was arrested on 11 February at a rented Palm Springs apartment after handing over $250 (£183) to the agent for his "share" in the child.
After claiming he thought he was meeting a 16-year-old, Wilkins later admitted he knew the boy was only nine, according to the papers.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-36606913