The former doctor, Stefan Irving, 56, of Sunset Park, was arrested on Monday morning after a lengthy nationwide investigation led federal investigators to a guesthouse in Acapulco, Mexico, that they said catered to American men who wanted to have sex with boys. According to a complaint that was unsealed yesterday in Federal District Court in Manhattan, Mr. Irving promoted, visited and gave financial support to the guesthouse, where boys, often homeless orphans ranging from 6 to 17, were recruited off the streets and given shelter and food in exchange for sex.
James B. Comey, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, said at a news conference in Lower Manhattan earlier in the day that the guesthouse allowed ''a disturbing pedophiles' holiday in Acapulco.''
Mr. Irving is charged with traveling internationally to engage in sex with a minor, and he faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted. His lawyer, Andy Citron, did not return a call for comment. But at a bail hearing yesterday, Mr. Citron told Magistrate Judge Michael H. Dolinger that Mr. Irving ''is capable of controlling himself'' and that ''there's no reason to believe he's a danger to anyone or a flight risk.''
Nonetheless, Judge Dolinger ordered Mr. Irving held without bail, adding, ''The defendant seems to suffer from a compulsion that is not at all clear to me controlled.''
According to court papers, Mr. Irving was convicted of attempted sexual abuse of a child in 1983. During the hearing, Michael Scudder Jr., a federal prosecutor, presented Judge Dolinger with personal letters from Mr. Irving to friends that he said highlighted Mr. Irving's continued fascination with young boys and showed ''ample evidence of predatory conduct.''
In other letters found by investigators or obtained by customs officials when Mr. Irving was stopped at the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport upon returning from Mexico, he described young boys as ''body warmers'' and gave details about boys with whom he liked to play ''hanky-panky.''
In a poem Mr. Scudder obtained and partially reproduced in the complaint, Mr. Irving likens boys to ''small mangoes piled at the door.''
''Unique. Unripe. So pretty, each one,'' the poem says.
The manager of the guesthouse is cooperating with the authorities, as are three Mexican children who identified Mr. Irving, according to the complaint. The manager, whose name was not released, told investigators that Mr. Irving visited the guesthouse at least once in 1998 and perhaps twice, officials said. On more than one occasion, officials said the manager told them, he observed a boy accompanying Mr. Irving into his bedroom at night.
According to the complaint, the manager told investigators that Mr. Irving would question him about which boys were staying at the guesthouse. ''The manager stated that Irving asked for such information because, perhaps among other reasons, he wanted to be certain that his favorite boys would be at the house when he visited from the United States,'' the complaint stated.
Mr. Comey said the investigation was continuing. One other person has been arrested, he said, and more arrests are expected.
''People need to know that this goes on all over the world,'' Mr. Comey said.
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