A balding alleged Irish sex tourist has been arrested by police in Colombia after being caught in a hotel room with a schoolgirl who said he had offered her £31 to get into bed with him.
Cops released footage of the moment they held the 44-year-old from Dublin and escorted him to a police van in handcuffs wearing baggy jeans and a grey T-shirt.
Officers said they had nabbed the suspect 'red-handed' in a room at the unnamed hotel in a neighbourhood of Colombia's second-largest city Medellin called Guayaquil, although he is not thought to have started to engage in sexual intercourse with the 15-year-old minor when he was intercepted.
The 34-year-old hotel manager was also arrested.
Both men were remanded to a local jail following a court appearance while the investigation against them continues.
William Castano Ramos, the head of Valle de Aburra's Metropolitan Police which covers Medellin and 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 in the centre of the city with a 44-year-old foreigner during checks at the establishment.
'The teenager said this man had offered her 160,000 Colombian pesos (£31) in exchange for a sexual encounter with her.
A balding alleged Irish sex tourist has been arrested by police in Colombia after being caught in a hotel room with a schoolgirl
Cops released footage of the moment they held the 44-year-old from Dublin and escorted him to a police van in handcuffs wearing baggy jeans and a grey T-shirt. The 34-year-old hotel manager was also arrested
'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 hotel has been banned from opening as part of a measure which is temporary at the moment while the criminal investigation continues.'
The alleged paedophile is said to have already handed the youngster half the cash he had promised before his arrest.
Medellin mayor Federico Gutierrez on Friday called the suspect a 'depraved person' in an explosive attack on X, formerly Twitter, hours after the arrest is believed to have taken place.
Offering more details about the detained man who he named as Seamus, he 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 the 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.
Officers said they had nabbed the suspect 'red-handed' in a room at the unnamed hotel in a neighbourhood of Colombia's second-largest city Medellin called Guayaquil
He was remanded to a local jail following a court appearance while the investigation against them continues
'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, called Seamus, a 44-year-old from Dublin, had arrived in Colombia three months ago and had arranged to have a sexual encounter with the 15-year-old for a payment of 160,000 Colombian pesos. He had already paid her half of that.
'The hotel's commercial activity was temporarily suspended for ten days and its definitive closure was requested.
'Both the men arrested have been remanded in preventive custody.'
He added in a direct message to other men planning to practice sex tourism in Medellin: '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.'
Mr Gutierrez declared war on sex tourists in April, banning the offer of sexual services in another Medellin neighbourhood called El Poblado for six months in the absence of any national legislation making prostitution illegal, and forcing bars in the area to close at 1am.
He acted after a 36-year-old American man was discovered in a hotel in El Poblado with two girls aged 12 and 13.
The suspect left the country before he could be formally arrested.
Colombian president Gustavo Petro's (pictured) eldest daughter has got involved in his row with Donald Trump by appearing to urge her dad to deport Americans caught sexually abusing under-age children
Andrea Petro (pictured), 33, waded into the simmering diplomatic war hours after her father caved in to the US leader's tariff threat following his country's refusal to accept flights with deported migrants
An Interpol Blue Notice was subsequently issued for him and Colombian president Gustavo Petro took to X to say his government would ask the US government to 'extradite the Medellin hotel paedophile.'
Petro's eldest daughter got involved in her dad's row with Donald Trump last weekend by appearing to urge him to deport Americans caught sexually abusing under-age children.
Pretty Andrea Petro, 33, waded into the simmering diplomatic war on Monday after her father caved in to the US leader's tariff threat following his country's initial refusal to accept flights with deported migrants.
She posted a meme showing two dolphins leaping out of the water under a rainbow on X and wrote in Spanish: 'For each deported Colombian we will return a gringo from El Poblado.'
Andrea offered no further explanation of her bizarre message, but Colombian press were quick to point out that while El Poblado is one of the most popular parts of the city of Medellin for foreigners, it has also become the epicentre of sex tourism and exploitation of minors.'
