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Foster dad molestation trial to begins today

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Foster dad molestation trial to begins today

August 24, 2010, 12:34 AM Daily Journal Staff Report

The trial of an English software designer accused of molesting a 9-year-old boy he was in the process of adopting is set to begin this morning.

Tarquin Craig Thomas, 44, previously entered pleas of not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity to multiple counts of lewd behavior with a minor.

Thomas’ trial has been postponed a dozen times since his arrest more than three years ago after prosecutors alleged he sexually and physically abused an Oregon foster child he was adopting.

Thomas is a citizen of England living in San Mateo who worked as a software designer for Barclays investment firm between September and November 2005. Thomas also had a vacation home in Oregon and arranged to have a 9-year-old boy needing foster care in that state to be placed with him in San Mateo, according to the District Attorney’s Office.

Shortly after the boy arrived in San Mateo, prosecutors say Thomas began two actions — adoption proceedings and near-daily molestation. Thomas is also accused of having the boy pose nude by himself and with other adults.

After the boy returned to Oregon, Thomas allegedly kept tabs on him through a global tracking device hidden in a framed print of them together and contacted the boy’s biological mother with hopes of retrieving the boy and returning to the United Kingdom, according to the prosecution. After his arrest, a woman cleaning his home found a computer disk allegedly containing images of three boys who had a mentoring relationship with Thomas and some of the images involved contact with an animal.

Police arrested Thomas May 24, 2007 and prosecutors charged him with 25 counts of lewd and lascivious behavior and a misdemeanor charge of showing pornography to a child with the intent to cause arousal. After a preliminary hearing on the evidence, Judge Craig Parsons whittled the charges to five counts of lewd acts on a child under 14, one count of showing pornography to a child and one misdemeanor count of invading privacy using a tracking device. In May, a judge dismissed four of five child pornography charges against Thomas. A change in law only allows defendants to be charged once for child pornography rather than one count for each image.

2010 Aug 24