An almost four-year pursuit of a US fugitive accused of sex crimes against minors ended yesterday in South Africa with his extradition to his home country.
Lance Layton Thomas, 45, was sent back to the US from Johannesburg's OR Tambo International Airport under the watchful eye of the police and Interpol officials.
Thomas had been involved in a legal wrangle with South African authorities about his deportation.
He entered South Africa from the US in July 2010.
Interpol issued an alert immediately after he fled from the US. A warrant for his arrest was issued in February 2011, seven months after he left California, but he was not captured until last September.
"Thomas has 13 counts of sexual abuse against children between the ages of 14 and 15 years old, committed between 2007 and 2010, in California ... an arrest was made in September 2013 by the SAPS and Interpol, in Port Elizabeth," police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Lungelo Dlamini said yesterday.
"Once a person has been arrested, the matter goes before the court to begin the process of extradition.... We had to verify that the person in question is the correct one before we could extradite him."
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