Australian Man Accused Of Abusing Young Children In Tulsa

Tulsa Police arrest an Australian man, accused of sexually abusing girls over a period of years. the suspect is back in Tulsa after his arrest on Monday.

Tulsa's fugitive warrants squad found Trevor Rombouts living with a woman and her small children and investigators say that fits his pattern.

The investigation started with one victim telling police Rombouts abused her as a child. Tulsa Special Victim's Unit Detective Lt. Jillian Phippen says officers quickly discovered the pattern.

"And as we did that, made phone call after phone call, we found out that he did molest multiple other young girls, anywhere from 2007 to present," said Lt. Phippen.

Police say Rombouts is 52 and a native Australian who goes by the nickname "Wombats". He's accused of abusing children in 3 cities, Tulsa, Jenks and Crane, Texas. The victims were children he knew, three children, who said they were as young as 3 to 9 years old when the abuse happened.

"So, it was a pattern over the years that he finds a woman with young children, or he marries a woman with young children, and then he molests him, and we knew if he was still in that position, he might still be molesting young children and we wanted to get him off the streets as soon as we could," said Lt. Phippen.

Each victim told police the abuse was frequent, each describing similar sex acts in their police interviews. Rombouts was arrested on 2 counts of child sexual abuse and 2 counts of lewd molestation. Lt. Phippen says a check of his past in Australia found even more cases.

"So, once we made that call, they did confirm that he was accused of that there, in the late '90s," she said.

Australian authorities told Tulsa police Rombouts had an outstanding warrant for abuse of three children; the victims, five, four and two weeks old.