Federal court date moved for pedophile

A former Costa Mesa resident and convicted pedophile appeared in federal court in Florida Wednesday on charges that he took an underage girl across Florida state lines to have sex with her.

George Joseph England, 65, had a hearing on his possible release on bond moved to May 5, officials said Wednesday.

England is accused of taking a girl he bought in Vietnam in the 1970s into Florida’s Broward County years later with the intention of having sex with her.

The statute of limitations does not apply in this case because England was a fugitive fleeing sentencing for multiple molestation convictions in California, federal prosecutors said.

England apparently passed the girl off as his daughter. In a videotaped statement to the FBI, which released the tape to the public with her permission, the woman, now in her 40s, said England raped her for years until she got married and moved out. If convicted, England could spend the rest of his life in federal prison, authorities said.

— Joseph Serna