A man wanted for child abuse in the US has been arrested a decade after he fled the country by cops who found him working as an English teacher in Barcelona.

The 64-year-old man, who was not identified, has been wanted by the authorities in the US for over a decade and he was arrested by police in Barcelona, the capital of the autonomous region of Catalonia, in north-eastern Spain.

The Spanish National Police have released a statement today (19th October) that said that the suspect was apprehended last month, on 22nd September.

According to the Spanish authorities, the man was first arrested in New York during a child abuse sting in 2010 led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

His home was raided and numerous files with child pornographic content were recovered by the cops.

Following the arrest, the suspect was fitted with an ankle monitor and ordered into house arrest.

However, he managed to remove the monitor and fled the country. Since 2012 he is believed to have spent time in the UK, Germany and finally Spain.

Spanish authorities had been searching for the suspect since 2018 when they were tipped off about his possible presence in the country.

The operation saw a team from the Team for Fleeing Justice of the Central Operational Unit (UCO) work with several European countries to locate the suspect.

They said that the English teacher first moved to Oviedo in Spain, then on to Berlin, and then on to London before returning to Spain and settling in Barcelona a few months ago.

The man lived alone in a humble apartment and taught English classes online, according to the police statement.

In each of the countries where he worked, his employers required him to present a background check, the police said.

The authorities believe that he falsified these checks by changing the order of his surnames.

Following a court hearing, the suspect admitted to being the individual wanted by the United States and accepted extradition to his country, the cops said.

It is not clear when he will be extradited.