Father is facing federal charges in sex-abuse case

.A convicted California sex offender is charged anew by the feds for allegedly molesting his adopted Vietnamese daughter decades ago in South Florida.
BY JAY WEAVER
jweaver@MiamiHerald.com

A convicted California child molester who in 1977 fled to Fort Lauderdale with his adopted Vietnamese daughter now faces federal charges that decades ago, when she was a minor, he sexually abused her.

George Joseph England, a fugitive who was captured in South Florida by authorities in 2005, was indicted Thursday on charges of transporting the 10-year-old girl to Fort Lauderdale for unlawful sexual activity, coercion of the victim and possession of child pornography.

FALSE IDENTITY

England allegedly assumed a false identity and sexually assaulted the girl almost daily in the late 1970s and '80s, according to the FBI.

He also encouraged her to play sex games with other children as he watched through a hole he had drilled in a wall, the FBI said in an affidavit.

Before his arrest five years ago, England had been living under the alias of a dead infant named Stephen Arthur Seagoe. England, now 64, had obtained three passports under that name -- the last one in Miami.

England's story dates back to the early 1970s, when he served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam. He returned to the United States with the Vietnamese girl, whom he informally adopted, authorities said.

England lived with her in Southern California and used her to lure playmates to their Costa Mesa motor home, according to the Orange County district attorney's office. An Orange County jury convicted him in 1977 of molesting his daughter's three playmates, but he fled with his daughter to Fort Lauderdale before being sentenced to six years in prison.

ABUSE REPORT

In 2004, the daughter reported that she was sexually abused by England while he raised her in Fort Lauderdale.

The following year, the U.S. Diplomatic Security Service caught up with England when it uncovered that he was using a false passport with the name of Stephen Arthur Seagoe, a baby who died in Santa Barbara in 1946.

The agency arrested England on passport fraud charges. After he served a 14-month sentence, he was extradited from South Florida to Orange County to serve his prison term for the molestation conviction.

Before his scheduled release from prison earlier this month, the FBI filed a criminal complaint charging England with unlawful sexual activity with his daughter and other offenses in South Florida.