Extradition of man accused in attack of Naples girl in hands of Spanish court

A Collier County family has waited 2½ years to face a man they once trusted — a man who their little girl said molested her.

After next month, they might not have to wait much longer.

Former Bonita Springs resident Joseph Ainscough, 58, was captured in Spain on March 15 after he fled Lee County following the Nov. 15, 2003, attack of which he's accused. He's being held in a Spanish prison but must decide next month during a hearing there whether he'll fight the extradition order.

"Oh, yeah, he'll get back here. When is the question," Deputy U.S. Marshal Pete Daigle said. "If he fights, it could take 12 to 18 months."

Spanish laws require Ainscough to appear before a Ministry of Justice central examining court next month. If he says during the hearing he won't fight extradition, Ainscough could be back in Lee County in about two months, Daigle said.

According to Lee County court and police records, a 5-year-old Naples girl told her mother Ainscough molested her at a home in Bonita Springs. Lee County Sheriff's Office reports said Ainscough left the county sometime before Dec. 30, 2003.

According to a March 2006 report from law enforcement in Madrid, Ainscough fled to Ireland five days after molesting the girl. Ainscough was born in Ireland. He then went to Spain, and Daigle said he was arrested in Alicante, a coastal community on the Mediterranean Sea.

Ainscough was working in a furniture manufacturing shop and was arrested there. When arrested, Ainscough was using a fake passport under the name of Joseph Norman, Daigle said.

"We'd just like to get him back here as soon as possible so he can face these charges," said Deputy Angelo Vaughn, a spokesman for the Sheriff's Office. "We definitely want the victim in this very terrible crime to get closure."

Because the names of rape and molestation victims are not released in police records, the girl's family could be reached for comment.

When Ainscough arrives in Lee County, he will be prosecuted, State Attorney's Office spokeswoman Chere Avery said. Assistant State Attorney Francine Donnorummo, who is scheduled to prosecute the case, could not be reached for comment.

Daigle said a confidential informant tipped off investigators Ainscough was in Spain. Spanish extradition records show a relative helped lead them to Ainscough.

"We found telephone numbers. We intercepted telephone numbers," Daigle said. "They located him in February, and we couldn't do anything until we got the provisional arrest warrant over. You're just hoping like hell he doesn't catch wind of it and flee because then we have to start all over again."

Daigle declined to comment on how investigators intercepted the calls. Deputy U.S. marshals, sheriff's detectives and members of Fort Myers' Fugitive Task Force worked to find Ainscough.

"We thought at one point he was in the Canary Islands because his daughter at one point was going there on vacation," he said, adding that his daughter simply was taking a vacation.

Lee County divorce records show Ainscough married an Irish woman on Aug. 25, 1975, in Ireland. He and Marion Ainscough had two daughters, who were born in February 1980 and February 1985. The couple was divorced on May 30, 1997. Marion Ainscough and the girls were living in Ireland and Ainscough in Bonita Springs when the divorce was finalized.

Ainscough owned Allsafe Shutters Corporation in Naples before Florida Department of State records show he renamed it in April 2000. Its new name was Bonita Springs Shutter Corporation. It was administratively dissolved in September 2000.

He and Anne J. Hayes Ainscough incorporated Mortgage on Time Inc., also in Bonita Springs, in April 2001. But business records show it, too, was administratively dissolved, shuttered in September 2003.

Lee County property records show that Ainscough was married to Hayes Ainscough at the time of the girl's accusations. However, no marriage records for she and Ainscough could be located.

Hayes Ainscough could not be reached for comment.

Ainscough's arrest didn't just affect a case in Southwest Florida. Investigators were told Ainscough also molested acquaintances in Ireland, Daigle said.

"This made a big splash in Ireland, too," he said.