California-born Scott Michael Austin, 32, a.k.a. Kid Vegas, is being held at the Niagara Detention Centre, after customs officials at Pearson airport ran his passport.

Austin -- who won the Adult Video Nude Award in 2000 for Kid Vegas: Whoremaster and a year later for Kid Vegas: Trenchcoat Pornographer -- skipped bail in Nevada as he was about to come to trial on counts of felony sex assault, including with a co-star from his last film.

Patrizia Giolti, communications manager for the Canada Border Service Agency, said Austin's refugee claim was denied on Sept. 23 when he was determined "not to be a Geneva Convention refugee."

As for bail until these options are explored, Giolti said the Crown argued successfully for Austin's detainment "due to the unlikelihood that he would appear" at the proceedings.

Austin's mother, California hairdresser Kathleen Vigil, has been trying to convince Canadian authorities her son "doesn't stand a chance" of a fair trial in Beatty, Nev., population 1,200.

Vigil said two defence attorneys in Beatty dropped the case because one knew the accuser as well as her mother, and the other knew the accuser's entire family.

"No legal aid assistance, and no help whatsoever from the U.S. Consulate," she said. "Everyone is making things impossible. They want to persecute instead of prosecute."

"We have a list of countries where we have dire concerns," she said. "Countries like Iran and Iraq, for example. But the United States is not on that list."

Dye County Lieut. Frank Jarvis said the county and its main town, Beatty, are small enough "everyone pretty well knows everyone," including the fact Austin skipped bail on a number of extraditable sexual assaults that had "no relationship" with the pornography business.

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