Privacy expert Simon Gordon Davies charged with child sexual assault offences after global manhunt

Privacy expert Simon Gordon Davies was extradited to Australia from The Netherlands on Friday night after a decade-long investigation that culminated in the issuing of an Interpol Red Notice, a global appeal for help and a police flight to Europe in the middle of a pandemic.

Police said the child abuse and sex crimes squad received a referral in December 2010 detailing allegations of historic child sex offences between 1981 and 1983.

A warrant was issued for the Mr Davies’ arrest in September 2016, followed by an Interpol Red Notice — an alert to law enforcement agencies worldwide — in December 2017.

According to police, Mr Davies handed himself in to a police station in the major Dutch port city of Rotterdam, where he was arrested.

What followed was an extensive effort to arrange his extradition to Australia before he was eventually surrendered to NSW police on Thursday at Schipol Airport in Amsterdam and charged with “numerous child sexual and indecent assault offences that allegedly occurred across Sydney between 1981 and 1987.”

Vision released by the NSW Police Force on Saturday morning shows police escorting Mr Davies, arm apparently in a sling and clad in extensive PPE, jeans and white Adidas sneakers through Sydney airport on Friday night.

“This has been a complex and exhaustive investigation for police, who have spent nearly 10 years investigating these matters and a further 16 months navigating the extradition process and the subsequent challenges imposed on worldwide travel due to COVID-19,” child abuse and sex crimes squad commander Detective Superintendent Stacey Maloney said, in a statement.

“It is a testament to the strength, bravery, and patience of the victims, together with the determination and dedication of police, that charges have now been laid in relation to these alleged crimes.”

The four detectives who travelled to the Netherlands must now go through two weeks of hotel quarantine, while Mr Davies will appear via video link into Parramatta Bail Court on Saturday.