A fugitive sex offender indicted in 2002 by a west Texan grand jury on two criminal counts is married to a Bermudian and lives in Southampton, can confirm.

Franklin Wellington Fahnbulleh III, 49, who is deaf, is married to president of the Bermuda Islands Association for the Deaf Jennifer Fahnbulleh ? formerly Jennifer Jeffers Grant ? and has been teaching deaf students on the Island for the past few years.

Mr. Fahnbulleh faces criminal charges in the US of official restraint, or using force to prevent a government official from his or her duty, while a large civil suit has also been launched against him by a former female work colleague who claims he sexually assaulted her at Howard College in Howard County, Texas, in November, 2002.

Mr. Fahnbulleh allegedly fled the United States before being indicted, preventing the criminal trial from proceeding.

The woman, who is not named by the west Texan newspaper which first broke the story that Mr. Fahnbulleh was living in Bermuda, the Midland Reporter Telegram, claims she sustained neck and back injuries as a result of the attack in the college?s accounts department.

Mr. Fahnbulleh is alleged to have pulled the victim out of her chair, yanked her head back by her hair, put his tongue in her mouth and bit her breast while making a number of vulgar comments.

Speaking to yesterday from Houston, the lawyer in charge of the civil suit Kenneth McGuire said the file ? which runs to several hundred pages ? also contains additional allegations from ?at least? four female Howard College students that they were sexually assaulted by Mr. Fahnbulleh while he was the college?s dean of students.

Furthermore, the civil file provides information of two separate alleged incidents of rape and sexual assault by Mr. Fahnbulleh when he was a student at Gallaudet ? a school for the deaf in Washington D.C. ? back in the 1980s

The file also reportedly contains a quote from the Washington D.C. Police Sex Crimes Unit, who advised Gallaudet officials that it was ?not safe? to allow Mr. Fahnbulleh to roam around campus.

He was promptly expelled.

Mr. McGuire said he is anxious to have the 49-year-old extradited back to Texas to answer the criminal indictments, as he believes progress on the civil proceedings will quicken as a result.

Attempts to extradite Mr. Fahnbulleh have hit a snag, however, with the District Attorney in the town of Midland, Texas, Hardy Wilkerson, having apparently refused to submit a written extradition application to the US Justice Department.

Attempts to contact Mr. Wilkerson for an explanation yesterday were unsuccessful.

However, Mr. Fahnbulleh?s attorney Richard Morris, also based in Houston, labelled the civil case against his client ?completely groundless?.

He would not speak to the criminal charges against Mr. Fahnbulleh because, he said, he was not involved in what is a ?totally separate matter? ? although he was not willing to provide the name of the defence attorney assigned to the criminal proceedings.

Mr. Morris also raised some doubt over the credibility of the female complainant, suggesting she was using the Texan media to ?smear? his client?s reputation and force him into a substantial financial settlement.

?We are very confident that the civil suit against Mr. Fahnbulleh will be unsuccessful,? Mr. Morris categorically stated.

The civil trial is scheduled to get underway in September ? with opposing lawyer Mr. McGuire, by contrast, adamant the case against Mr. Fahnbulleh is ?very strong? and likely to succeed.

Meanwhile, the Bermuda Immigration Department has pledged to investigate the issue further ? in conjunction with the Attorney General?s chambers ? although it was pointed out that as the spouse of a Bermudian, Mr. Fahnbulleh is perfectly entitled to be here.

?Mr. Fahnbulleh is married to a Bermudian and has been so for a number of years,? said Assistant Chief Immigration Officer Rozy Azhar.

?Therefore, he enjoys the rights accorded to spouses of Bermudians under the Bermuda Immigration & Protection Act 1956. To date there is no record of any conviction.

?However, the Department of Immigration will look into the issue and liaise with the AG?s Chambers to ensure that the necessary enquiries have been made and due process is followed.?

Mr. Fahnbulleh was born in England and was a child prodigy, attending Oxford University at the age of 11 to study Russian literature. Assistant to the former president of Liberia before he was 20, he has also been a programme director at the City University of New York.

He also holds a double Master?s degree in deaf education and special education.

?Jennifer and I are role models to our students,? he told in a 2001 feature on education for the disabled.

?The students need to see other deaf people who have succeeded in the world. They come to us for comfort. They see us as one of them.?

faxed the Fahnbullehs at their Southampton home yesterday inviting them to provide their side of the story.

A reply arrived two hours later stating that all enquiries should be submitted to his lawyer.