Briton accused of child sex plot appears in US court

The lawyer of a British man accused of flying to Minnesota to have sex with children argued in court today that evidence against him should be suppressed.

John David Michael Brewer, 39, of Plymouth, who is charged with aggravated sexual abuse, appeared at a pre-trial hearing in the US District Court.

He was previously convicted in British courts of molesting a five-year-old girl.

Lawyer Manny Atwal argued that a customs agent at Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport who spoke to Brewer after he got off his flight from Iceland failed to read him his rights.

But prosecutors said proper procedure was followed, and Judge Jonathan Lebedoff said he would rule on the motion in about two weeks. A trial is scheduled for mid-May.

In January, Molly Parent, a babysitter, was charged with stealing photographs of twin four-year-old girls and sending them to Brewer. Prosecutors also said she told Brewer in a letter that the two could have sex along with Parent’s six-year-old niece.

Brewer was arrested on December 13.

A Customs agent who testified today said Brewer told him he had travelled to the United States to have sex with children. A search of his luggage turned up a photograph of a young girl in a sexually suggestive pose.

Letters from Parent were also found in his luggage. Assistant US Attorney Tracy Braun said the two met on an Internet chat room about 18 months before Brewer was arrested.