A Texas man who has played a central role in making 3D-printed weapons available has been charged with sexually assaulting an underage girl.<\/p>\n
A warrant was issued for Cody Wilson but he flew to Taiwan before he could be detained, police in Austin said.<\/p>\n
A 16-year-old girl alleged she was paid $500 (\u00a3380) to have sex with Mr Wilson at an Austin hotel, they said.<\/p>\n
Mr Wilson has been at the centre of a legal battle over publishing blueprints that instruct people on making a gun.<\/p>\n
Mr Wilson has not yet commented on the case and no lawyer has yet issued a statement.<\/p>\n
Austin Police Commander Troy Officer told a press briefing that a counsellor who had spoken to the girl informed police on 22 August that “that a juvenile female under the age of 17 had reported having sexual contact with a 30-year-old male”.<\/p>\n
The legal age of consent in Texas is 17.<\/p>\n
Commander Officer said the girl met Mr Wilson through the sugardaddymeet.com website and had sex with him in a hotel on 15 August.<\/p>\n
Police confirmed the girl’s story through “videotape and interviews”, he said.<\/p>\n
The alleged crime is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.<\/p>\n
Commander Officer said Mr Wilson had “left the country before we could seek an interview”.<\/p>\n
He said: “We know Mr Wilson frequently travels for business. We don’t know why he went to Taiwan.<\/p>\n
“But we do know before he left he was informed by a friend of the victim that she had spoken to police and the police were investigating him for having sex with a minor.”<\/p>\n
He said that Mr Wilson was not in custody and that he had “missed a scheduled flight back to the United States”.<\/p>\n
Taiwan’s National Immigration Agency said Mr Wilson had arrived on 6 September, Agence France-Presse reported, but that there had been no US request for judicial assistance as yet.<\/p>\n
There is no extradition treaty between the United States and Taiwan.<\/p>\n
Cody Wilson, a self-styled crypto-anarchist, founded the gun access advocacy group Defense Distributed.<\/p>\n
He showed off the world’s first 3D-printed gun in 2013.<\/p>\n
The US government then banned the online posting of blueprints that gave instructions on making the guns.<\/p>\n
Mr Wilson launched a legal battle, claiming the ruling infringed his rights to free speech and to bear arms.<\/p>\n
The US government this year reached a settlement lifting the ban, but this was then challenged by a number of states.<\/p>\n
Last month, a US federal judge in Seattle\u00a0blocked the release of software that allows consumers to 3D-print firearms<\/a>.<\/p>\n But Mr Wilson said this ruling applied only to free online distribution and began selling blueprints instead, leading to thousands of downloads.<\/p>\n Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"