One of the FBI's 10-most-wanted fugitives, sought in connection with an international child pornography ring, was arrested by Thai police today after over a year on the run.
Police said Eric Franklin Rosser, an internationally renowned musician who once played keyboards for John Mellencamp, had been arrested near a residential area in northern Bangkok following a joint investigation with the FBI.
"I am not an evil man. Everybody thinks I am," the 49-year-old Mr Rosser told reporters after being detained.
Mr Rosser ran a music school for children in Bangkok until February 2000 when he was first arrested. He was charged with child pornography offences and indicted by a US federal grand jury the next month on similar offences before jumping bail, which was set at $22,270.
The FBI website www.fbi.gov/mostwant/topten/fugitives/rosser.htmdescribes him as "an admitted child molester" wanted in connection with "the international production, distribution, and exchange of child pornography . . . [and] his alleged molestation of a number of young girls in Thailand".
The FBI had offered up to $50,000 for any information leading to Mr Rosser's arrest.
Thai police said Mr Rosser had travelled on a false passport since jumping bail. They said that while on the run he had visited The Netherlands, Britain and France before returning to Bangkok.
Police said pornographic videos and photographs were found at the Bangkok house where he had been staying.