June 2022

Brit paedo serving time for sex attacks in UK faces life in American jail

One of the world’s most dangerous paedophiles is facing extradition to the US, where he could be jailed for life.

Brit Daren Elarmo, 52 – once on an Interpol Most Wanted list – is serving 12 years here for assaults on children in the UK.

His 29 attacks in the Home Counties were carried out while on the run from police in America, where he lived as an expat and worked as a pilot.

Elarmo was sentenced under his birth name Daren Jones at Winchester Crown Court in February 2018 for a string of attacks he carried out here.

US prosecutors say he had changed his identity in 2004 and began grooming boys online.

Elarmo, who has worked as an IT manager and helicopter pilot, is facing a total of 17 charges in the US of sexual assault.

A $1million bail warrant was issued in 2008 after he failed to turn up at court on charges for crimes there involving two boys.

He is alleged to have lured the pair, both under 14, to his home – assaulting them in separate attacks between 2005 and 2008

He was arrested in August 2008 in Riverside County, California, appearing in court three times on bail before his disappearance sparked a worldwide hunt.

Interpol listed him as one of its most wanted fugitives – alongside murderers and people traffickers – in a 2010 operation called “Infra Red”.

Officers thought Elarmo, from Wok­­ingham, Berks, had fled to Spain.

But he had actually set himself up in Britain under the name Simon Jones, carrying out a string of sex assaults.

Among his victims were two boys in Reading, Berks, and Tadley, Hants – both under 13 – who were attacked between 2015 and 2017.

After Hampshire detectives tracked him down to a Brighton hotel, Elarmo pleaded guilty to 29 charges rela­ting to sex attacks on children.

Elarmo appeared last month via video link at Westminster Magistrates Court, as part of proceedings to send him for trial in the US on the charges there.

He is due to face a further hearing in November.

The Crown Prosecution Service confirmed Elarmo’s earliest release date from jail in the UK is December 2024 – when he will become eligible for extradition.

If convicted in the States, he could face life for kidnap alone.