Runaway date rapist is captured by bounty hunters

RUNAWAY date rapist Andrew Luster jailed for 124 years in his absence was dramatically captured in a Mexican Pacific coast resort yesterday as he clashed with bounty hunters.

Max Factor heir Luster and five men were taken into custody at dawn after neighbours complained of a loud fight in the street, apparently when he tried to escape from the bounty hunters, said Puerto Vallarta official Roberto Ascencio Medina.

At least three of the men identified themselves as bounty hunters while the two others were members of a television camera crew, a US official said. Under Mexican law, arrests by bounty hunters are considered illegal kidnappings.

Luster was to be handed over to federal Mexican authorities, Ascencio said. It was not clear whether charges were to be filed against the others.

Earlier yesterday, Ventura County California's district attorney investigator Richard Haas said the FBI notified him that Luster, great-grandson of makeup legend Max Factor, was in custody.

Luster, 39, disappeared in January during a recess in his trial.

He was convicted and sentenced in absentia to 124 years in prison for multiple counts of rape, poisoning and drug possession that involved three women.

Authorities said Luster, who lived off a trust fund and property investments, took three women to his California beach front home between 1996 and 2000 and raped them after giving them the so-called date-rape drug GHB.

A search of his home after his arrest in 2000 turned up videotapes of Luster having sex with women who appeared to be either asleep or unconscious.

In one tape played in court after he disappeared, Luster is seen on camera having sex with a woman and declaring: "That's exactly what I like in my room: A passed-out beautiful girl."

His lawyers said the sex was consensual, suggesting the women were feigning sleep to help him film porn movies.

They also disputed that Luster was a fugitive and suggest he could have been abducted or involved in an accident.

Luster's lawyer Roger Diamond said he did not know of Luster's whereabouts and had not heard of an arrest.

Just last week, a California appellate court turned aside the appeal of Luster's conviction, saying he had forfeited his right to appeal by jumping bail.