A SUSPECTED Irish sex tourist has been arrested in Colombia after allegedly being caught in a hotel room with a young girl who said he had offered her €37 for sex.
Cops released footage of the moment they nicked the Dubliner, in his 40s, and escorted him to a police van in handcuffs.
Officers said they nabbed the suspect “red-handed” at the unnamed hotel in a neighbourhood of Colombia’s second-largest city, Medellin.
He is thought not to have started to engage in sexual intercourse with the 15-year-old minor when he was caught.
The 34-year-old hotel manager was also arrested in the police swoop.
Both men were remanded to a local jail following a court appearance.
William Castano Ramos, head of Valle de Aburra’s Metropolitan Police which made the arrests, said: “An Irish citizen has been captured for the sexual exploitation of a minor under the age of 18 in the centre of Medellin.
“A minor aged 15 was found inside one of the rooms at a hotel with a foreigner during checks at the establishment.
“The teenager said this man had offered her 160,000 Colombian pesos (€37) in exchange for a sexual encounter with her.
“As well as the arrest of this man from Dublin in Ireland, we also handed over the hotel administrator to the courts for promoting prostitution.”
The alleged paedophile is said to have handed the girl half the cash he’d promised before he was lifted.
Medellin mayor Federico Gutierrez called the suspect a “depraved person” in an explosive attack on social media on Friday, hours after the arrest is believed to have taken place.
Mr Gutierrez said: “We do not stop the fight against sexual exploitation of children and adolescents in Medellin. Zero tolerance.
“Thanks to a citizen complaint and the timely and coordinated work between police and public prosecutors, it was possible to identify a foreign citizen who entered a hotel in the centre of the city in the company of a minor.
“This person was arrested for the crime of demanding the sexual exploitation of a minor under the age of 18 and the hotel manager for the crime of promoting prostitution.
“The Irish national, from Dublin, had arrived in Colombia and had arranged to have a sexual encounter with the 15-year-old for a payment of Pesos Colombian 160,000. He had already paid her half of that.”
CLEAR MESSAGE
Mr Gutierrez warned other men against planning to practise sex tourism in Medellin.
He said “The message is very clear — those who come to exploit our children and women are not only not welcome but we will pursue them until they are caught. These depraved people will continue to fall.”
Last April, Gutierrez banned adverts offering sexual services and forced bars in the area to shut at 1am.
He acted after a 36-year-old American man was discovered in a hotel with two girls aged 12 and 13. The suspect left the country before he could be formally arrested.
DEPORTATION ROW
Colombia’s president Gustavo Petro took to X to say his government would ask the US to “extradite the Medellin hotel paedophile”.
Petro’s daughter also got involved in her dad’s row with Donald Trump by urging him to deport Americans caught sexually abusing children.
Andrea Petro, 33, waded into the diplomatic war after her father caved into the US President’s tariff threat following Colombia’s initial refusal to accept flights with deported migrants on them.
Last April, an alleged British paedo was arrested in Colombia alongside a Venezuelan woman accused of pimping out her 14-year-old daughter to foreigners in a case cops called “perverse”.
