NEWARK, N.J. — A rare international alert seeking a man shown in dozens of raw child-porn images quickly led to the arrest of a small-time actor, who painted faces at children’s parties and performed as “the best Santa Claus anyone has ever seen.”
Wayne Nelson Corliss told authorities he had sex with three boys in Thailand six years ago, an experience he described as “euphoria,” a prosecutor said Thursday at Corliss’ first court appearance.
The arrest of the bespectacled, gray-haired 58-year-old at his Union City apartment late Wednesday capped a two-day global manhunt, just the second time Interpol has sought the public’s help in tracking down a suspected pedophile. He is believed to have sexually abused at least three boys thought to have been 6 to 10 years old, according to the international police agency.
Corliss is charged with producing child pornography and could face 10 to 20 years in federal prison if convicted, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Newark.
Corliss was being held without bail pending a hearing.
Corliss’ arrest came two days after Interpol took the rare step of asking for the public’s help. Two years of investigation had failed to determine the identity, whereabouts or even the nationality of the man seen in the pictures.
Interpol’s secretary general, Ronald Noble, said 460 leads flooded in within the first 24 hours after the agency launched its public appeal Tuesday. Three of those leads pointed to Corliss.
