Convicted child rapist from Montgomery County extradited back to U.S. from England

PENNSYLVANIA (WPVI) -- A convicted child rapist from Montgomery County was extradited back to the United States from England last week.

The Montgomery County District Attorney's office says 41-year-old Gerard Zalewski skipped out on his bail hearing in 2006.

It happened before his sentencing hearing over child rape charges.

Zalewski's original charges in Montgomery County stemmed from an investigation in the summer of 2004.

At that time, Zalewski had several explicit online conversations with an undercover police officer pretending to be a 12-year-old girl.

Zalewski later arranged to meet with the undercover officer, who he believed was a young girl and was arrested on August 15, 2004.

Investigators later learned he had previous sexual contact with a 13-year-old Bucks County girl he had met online in June 2004.

On November 14, 2005, Zalewski pleaded guilty to two first-degree felonies in connection with the incident. He was out on bail awaiting sentencing when he failed to appear for the hearing on March 29, 2006.

He was sentenced in absentia to five to 20 years in state prison.

"We have been waiting to get justice for our victim, who was sexually assaulted by Zalewski," said District Attorney Kevin Steele. "Now that he is back on American soil, he will not only face 5 to 20 years in prison, but he also faces new charges due to fleeing and failing to appear. This defendant, found to be a sexually violent predator, will be off of the streets for a very long time."

After being placed on the FBI's Most Wanted list, Zalewski was located 10 years later in England when he was convicted on similar charges.

According to English police, he was arrested in June 2016 and pleaded guilty in October 2016 to two counts of penetrative sexual activity with a child, meeting a child following sexual grooming, making indecent photographs of a child, and false imprisonment.

Authorities said he groomed a 13-year-old girl online, manipulated her into sending explicit images, and subjected the victim to hours-long sexual abuse in a park.

He spent 12 years in an English prison before he was sent back to the U.S. on August 23.

A preliminary hearing is set for September 4.