A suspected paedophile who twice skipped bail in Scotland has been arrested in the Costa del Sol, police confirmed yesterday. Rolf Dieter-Glaetzner, a 47-year-old German national accused of abusing two young Scottish girls, spent more than six years on the run after absconding ahead of a High Court appearance.
Detectives say he will now face extradition proceedings. He faces charges in Scotland over a series of violent sexual assaults on two primary school pupils, aged six and seven at the time of the alleged attacks.
Mr Dieter-Glaetzner initially appeared from custody at Stirling Sheriff Court in October 2001, where he was granted bail.
However, he broke his bail conditions and returned to his native Germany, where he remained for nearly a year.
Upon his return to Scotland in July 2002, he was rearrested and brought to the High Court in Edinburgh.
Mr Dieter-Glaetzner was again granted bail, pending a trial at the High Court in Forfar in October 2002 but he left the country for a second time and his whereabouts were unknown until investigators in Spain announced his capture yesterday.
A spokeswoman for Central Scotland Police confirmed that a suspect had been re-arrested by police on the Costa del Sol.
She added: "Central Scotland Police is aware that a 47-year-old man, who was the subject of an outstanding warrant, has been arrested in Spain.
"We are currently in liaison with the Crown Prosecution Service and the Spanish authorities, and can say no more at this time."
Spanish police said Mr Dieter-Glaetzner was arrested at an industrial estate on the outskirts of Malaga, a popular tourist site on the country's Mediterranean coast.
He will now be brought before an investigating judge at the National Criminal Court in Madrid, which handles all extradition cases. If he agrees to face justice in Scotland he will be escorted back by police.
However, if he decides to fight extradition, he could spend months in a tough, top-security prison in Madrid before a full hearing in front of a panel of three judges.
The suspect was arrested after a joint operation involving local police and an elite unit that specialises in tracking down foreigners hiding in Spain while on the run from justice.
A statement from Spanish police said they had evidence that Mr Dieter-Glaetzner was involved in a number of attacks on the young girls, carried out between 1989 and 2001. The suspect, who has fathered children with a number of different women, is also accused of taking obscene photographs of both of the girls.
Mr Dieter-Glaetzner was sought through a European arrest warrant, a system introduced in 2003 as part of the Extradition Act. The arrangement is used to speed up the transfer of suspects between countries, and has already been used successfully on several occasions.
Police in southern Spain have been particularly proactive in tracking down foreign suspects after the popular tourist area was branded "the Costa del Crime" due to its reputation as a safe haven for British criminals.
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