A New Zealander sentenced to life in prison in the United States for crimes of child pornography, sexual exploitation and assault, and who was among the 10 most wanted fugitives by the FBI, was arrested in Madrid, the Spanish police announced this Friday.
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The 40-year-old man was arrested after being located on Wednesday in a hotel in the center of the Spanish capital, where he was staying using a false identity, police said.
Police did not release the fugitive’s full name. limiting himself to identifying him with his initials, “MJP”.
He is one of the “FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives,” for which a reward of $100,000 was offered, the security body specified in a statement.
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According to a source close to the case, This is Michael James Prattsentenced to life in prison in the United States for crimes of “child pornography”, “sexual exploitation”, “sexual assault” and “illicit enrichment”.
According to the FBI website, this New Zealander would have recruited several young women and minors in the United States and Canada between 2012 and 2019 to subject them to forced sexual acts, through advertisements offering modeling work.
The individual, who owned a production company and pornographic web pages, would have published the videos of these girls and amassed more than 17 million dollars with that activity, according to the authorities.
Michael James Pratt, who was also accused of sexually abusing several young women, fled after being sentenced to life in prison. In November 2019, an international arrest warrant was issued against him.
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According to the Spanish police, it was suspected that the man had been in Spain for some time.
A team of American investigators traveled to Spain, but “after numerous verifications, no results were obtained,” according to the statement.
AFP
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