Louisiana TV’s ‘Mr. Wonder’ gets 5 years for child sex abuse

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ALEXANDRIA, La. — A former children’s television show host known as “Mr. Wonder” has been sentenced to five years in prison, nearly four decades after he vanished amid allegations that he sexually abused children on a camping trip.

Rapides Parish prosecutor Brian Mosley said in a statement that Frank John Selas III pleaded guilty Thursday to indecent behaviour with a child, and a judge gave him credit for the time he’s served since his January 2016 arrest in California.

In the late 1970s, Selas hosted the “Mr. Wonder” show on KNOE-TV in north Louisiana. He allegedly fled to Brazil in 1979 after parents complained to authorities that he abused their children.

Selas had settled in the San Diego area by 1985 and legally changed his name to Frank Szeles in 1992.