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Singapore: An 81-year-old Australian man has been arrested in the Philippines and will be deported to face allegations of committing child sex abuse offences in Queensland between the late 1980s and mid-2000s.
David John Buckley was captured on Bantayan Island in the province of Cebu and was being held at a detention facility outside the capital Manila, the Philippine Bureau of Immigration said in a statement on Thursday.
A photograph of Australian man David John Buckley posted by the Philippines Bureau of Immigration on Thursday.Credit: Facebook
Philippine Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco said he had been identified by the agency’s fugitive search unit would be sent back to Australia imminently.
“He will be deported as soon as the [Immigration] Board of Commissioners issues the order for his summary deportation,” Tansingco said. “His presence is not welcome in the country, and he will be placed in blacklist.”
According to Philippine authorities, Buckley was the subject of two arrest warrants by police in Queensland over charges of rape and indecent treatment of children.
In a news release, the immigration bureau in the south-east Asian nation said he had been pursued by investigators after a complaint was lodged against him in 2021 in Papua New Guinea accusing him of abusing victims in the early 1990s.
It said he was alleged to have committed at least 26 sexual abuse offences including against children between 1988 and 2004 in Queensland.
His passport had expired when he was apprehended in Cebu on Tuesday, meaning he was undocumented.
A spokesman for Queensland Police said it could not comment on the arrest and pending deportation until the man was returned to Australian soil.
Buckley is to be sent back from the Philippines under an extradition agreement between the Australian government and Manila.
Australian police investigators work closely with law enforcement agencies in the Philippines and elsewhere in south-east Asia to uncover allegations of child exploitation and bring alleged offenders to justice.
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