Child Molester Guilty Of Additional Charges
FT. LAUDERDALE (CBS4) - A California child molester, who hid in Florida for years to avoid prison, has been convicted of additional federal charges that could send him to prison for 30 years.
On Wednesday a federal jury found George England, 66, guilty by a jury of five charges involving his lengthy abuse of a young girl he met in Vietnam in the early 1970s when she was just four years old. Soon thereafter, England travelled with the girl to Thailand and India, where they lived for approximately two years. While there, England sexually assaulted her repeatedly. He also taught her to never trust the police and warned her that without him she would be forced into a life of prostitution.
Around 1974, England took the girl to Costa Mesa, California, where they lived for the next three years. While there England not only sexually assaulted the girl he also encouraged her to invite her friends to spend the night in their motor home. England mounted a plastic box with a hidden camera in the bathroom of the motor home so that he could watch the girl and her friends in the bathtub. He also took nude photos of the young girls.
On October 20, 1977, England was convicted by a California jury of molesting three of the girl's friends, ages nine to ten years old. After the verdict, England fled to northern California with the then 10-year old victim. While in northern California, England obtained the birth certificate of a child named Steven Arthur Seagoe who had died soon after childbirth. England then assumed Seagoe's identity. England also gave the girl a new name before boarding a bus bound for Ft. Lauderdale.
Soon after arriving in Ft. Lauderdale, England continued to sexually assault the victim almost daily. He also drilled a hole in the wall of the victim's bedroom and watched from an adjacent bathroom the girl engage in sexual activity with her friends. In 1980, the victim became pregnant at that age of 13. She gave birth to child in September of 1981. DNA tests confirmed that England was the biological father of that child. The defendant impregnated the victim several more times over the course of the next 4 years. Each of those was aborted; the last abortion occurred in 1986 when she was 18 years old.
Two years later she moved out of England's residence when she got married. In 2004, she told the FBI about the years of abuse and provided information on England's alias.
On May 18, 2005, agents from the Diplomatic Security Service and Department of Homeland Security arrested England at his home in Ft. Lauderdale. He was charged with having obtained a passport in his false name. In July 2005, England pled guilty to passport fraud. He was later sentenced to 14 months' imprisonment.
After serving the passport fraud sentence, England was extradited to California and sentenced to three consecutive terms of three years to life imprisonment on the 1977 child molestation case from which he had fled to Ft. Lauderdale. After serving almost four years of that sentence, he was scheduled to be released from jail in California on March 12, 2010.
Before this could happen the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida filed a complaint charging England with offenses related to his enticement and transportation of the victim.
"Yesterday's guilty verdict brings to an end this international decades-long tragedy of child abuse and exploitation. Although nothing can restore a child's lost innocence, we hope that the verdict will at least help heal deep wounds and provide victims of abuse with hope and trust in our justice system," said U.S. Attorney Wifredo Ferrer in a written statement.
England will be sentenced March 24th.
