Convicted molester faces fleeing charge

LOCKPORT, N.Y. (WIVB) - He tried to run from justice, but Friday, a convicted child predator is due back in Niagara County Court. Paul Turley was flown from Arizona to Buffalo Thursday night. Around 9 a.m. Friday he is expected to go before a Niagara County judge for fleeing during his trial, and to face his sexual abuse charges.

Paul Turley never heard his guilty verdict because he fled the area during his trial. It took jurors only three hours to convict Turley of sexually molesting two girls in the mid-to-late 1990s. After the verdict the hunt was on for Turley and his wife Diane, who were eventually captured nearly a month later in Tucson, Arizona.

U.S. Marshal Charles Salina said, “The Marshals in Tucson did an outstanding job. They set up a surveillance on the mobile home and observed him smoking a cigarette; they made entry and took him into custody.”

The news of Turley’s capture and his extradition back to western New York will be welcomed by Turley’s victims who are looking forward to his sentencing.

One victim said, “It's over, but the sentencing is going to be that little bit where I get to say, you know what, I did this to you. You don't do anything to me anymore.”

Turley faces 39 years in prison on his convictions for first and second-degree course of sexual conduct against a child and first-degree sexual abuse. The sentencing is scheduled for April 19th. His wife Diane is facing a felony hindering the prosecution charge.