Monday. Judge Sanchai Limtaibool from the Bangkok criminal court said there was "enough evidence" to warrant granting the US request. Mr Rosser has 15 days to appeal against the order, but Thai officials said that he would not do so. The extradition will come as a relief to the Thai authorities, who in recent years have been trying to clean up the country's image as a haven for paedophiles by taking action against the leading figures in child sex rings. Mr Rosser, originally from Syracuse, New York, was arrested in Thailand in February 2000 on charges of lewd behaviour and possession of hundreds of explicit images of children with intent to distribute them globally. Thai police say he skipped bail two months later and escaped on fake passports, spending 18 months on the run in Europe and Asia. He also lost weight and had plastic surgery to change his facial appearance, the police allege. In his absence, he was indicted in the US in March 2000 on six counts relating to the making and distribution of child pornography - one video reportedly shows him having sex with an 11-year-old girl. He faces 20 years in prison for each of the charges against him. In December 2000, he also became the first child pornography suspect to be placed on the FBI's Most Wanted List - alongside men such as Saudi dissident Osama Bin Laden and former Taleban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar. Mr Rosser was finally re-arrested by Thai police in August last year as he attempted to re-enter the country on a false British passport, Reuters news agency reported. He had reportedly come back to visit his Thai wife and child. Mr Rosser, a pianist who once played with the rock star John Mellencamp, once taught the piano to children of wealthy Thai families. At the time of his initial arrest, he denied allegations that he ran an operation sending child pornography around the world. But in an extraordinary confession, he admitted involvement in some sexual acts with children. He pleaded for sympathy, saying he was a child masquerading in a man's body.”

Even though report speaks about the offender having sex with a child, legal documents in this case use the term of being involved in sexually explicit conduct with a minor, rather than a sexual intercourse with a minor. These are two different legal offences. The first is a less grave crime that the second. This and also the fact that Rosser was sentenced on different counts rather than aggravated sexual abuse of a child, indirectly indicates that the sexual abuse of a child he confessed did not take severe forms. A researcher, however, cannot deduce from the indictment and the news report how grave was the form of child sexual abuse. In October 2003, a US District Court in Indiana sentenced Eric Rosser to more than 16 years of imprisonment, after the defendant pleaded guilty to producing, distributing and receiving child pornography, and also to sexual exploitation of children. Sexual exploitation of children with the purpose of producing pornography is punished by Section 2251, Ch. 110 of the Federal Code, 'Sexual Exploitation and other Abuse of Children,' by imprisonment up to 20 years and not less than 10 years. Section 2252, Ch. 110 of the Federal Code, 'Sexual Exploitation and other Abuse of Children,' imposes criminal sanction for sending, distributing and knowingly receiving child pornography by imprisonment up to 15 years(4). He was also fined at the amount of 20,000 dollars(5).

It is a noteworthy fact that the defendant was not indicted for child sexual abuse. One reason for that might be that the US federal law is applicable only when the engagement into sex with a minor involves the element of crossing interstate borders(6). If such element cannot be established, then a state criminal law should be applicable. It seems that in this case it was easier for the prosecution to establish the intent in abusing children with the knowledge that the images of such abuse would be transported across a state border as required by Section 2251 and Section 2252, than to prove the fact of child sexual abuse. Whatever was the true reason, Mr. Rosser was not accused in sexual abuse of the child mentioned in the BBC report.

Part  3

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(4) The extracts of American legislation on this topic can be found at: http://www.interpol.int/Public/Children/SexualAbuse/NationalLaws/csaUSA.asp
(5) The details of the proceedings can be found at: http://www.insd.uscourts.gov/caseinfo.htm, the indictment can be read at: http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/rosser/rosserindict.pdf
(6) See Section 2241 at: http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/casecode/uscodes/18/parts/i/chapters/109a/sections/section_2241.html