An 81-year-old Australian fugitive who is wanted in his country for sex offenses against children has been arrested in Cebu, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) said on Thursday, Nov. 23.
BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco identified the Australian as David John Buckley who was arrested by operatives of the BI’s Fugitive Search Unit (BI-FSU) last Tuesday, Nov. 21, in Bantayan Island, Cebu.
“He will be deported as soon as the 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,” he said.
The BI said that Buckley whose passport had expired is an undocumented alien. He is nos detained at the BI's detention facility in Taguig City while awaiting deportation.
“According to official records, Buckley, a notorious pedophile, is the subject of two arrest warrants issued by the federal police in Queensland, Australia based on charges of rape and indecent treatment of children,” it said.
“The charges reportedly stemmed from a 2021 complaint filed against Buckley in Papua New Guinea for sexual abuse he committed against the victims in the early 1990s,” it also said.
At the same time, BI said that records showed “ Buckley is known to have committed multiple sex-related offenses in various places in Queensland, aside from 26 child and sexual abuse offenses from 1988 to 2004.”