Net twins man charged

The twins are in the care of British social services

A California man at the centre of the transatlantic internet twins adoption battle has appeared in court charged with sexually molesting two teenage girls.

Richard Allen was charged with three counts of lewd acts on a child under 14 and one count of indecent exposure, a spokeswoman for San Bernardino County Superior Court said.

Mr Allen faces up to 12 years in jail if convicted

Mr Allen, 49, who pleaded not guilty to all the charges, was arrested on Wednesday following complaints from two teenage babysitters who had worked for his family.

Mr Allen and his wife are currently in dispute with a Welsh couple, Alan and Judith Kilshaw, over the custody of twin baby girls both couples say they bought over the internet.

Child removed

Mr Allen came under scrutiny after a 13-year-old girl contacted police and told them she had been molested at the Allen home while babysitting there in November.

Investigators then questioned the girl's 14-year-old sister, who told them she had been molested several times beginning in 1999, the court spokeswoman said.

Mother Tranda Wecker: Wants the girls back

Police said Mr Allen was not suspected of inappropriate behaviour with the twins who were with the Allens for two months until early December.

Prosecutors said another child already adopted by the Allens had been removed from their care.

Mr Allen's lawyer, James Gass, questioned the timing of the charges, which he said may have been motivated by someone's desire to see him denied custody of the twins.

Mr Allen faces up to 12 years in prison if convicted of the charges.

He is being held on $150,000 bail and is in isolation from other prisoners because of the nature of the charges.

Court rulings

On Thursday a judge in St Louis, Missouri, ruled that the eight-month-old girls should be returned from the UK to their home state of Missouri.

A British judge, however, has ruled that Kimberley and Belinda - as they are known in the UK - will stay in state care while courts consider the case.

They were taken into care after it emerged that Alan and Judith Kilshaw had acquired them from a California-based internet baby broker last year, adopted them in Arkansas and brought them back to Britain

The Kilshaws have vowed to do all they can to keep the babies.

Natural parents

Last week British police questioned Mrs Kilshaw on suspicion of theft of travellers' cheques. She was released without charges.

The two girls, named Kiara and Keyara by their natural parents, were born in St Louis in June. Their parents separated soon after.

The girls' natural mother, Tranda Wecker, now wants the babies back.