A 61-year-old Frenchman appeared in a Paris court Monday charged with raping or sexually assaulting ten Thai girls aged between six and 11.

Jean-Claude Chamoux was arrested after police burst into his hotel room in the Thai resort of Pattaya in 2005 just after he raped an eight-year-old girl to whose mother he had paid 20 euros (26 dollars), court documents alleged.

He was detained but later released on bail and illegally left the country to return to his home in Paris where French police arrested him in June 2006.

MSN News