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Tiny Pinder back in jail

In custody: Former Perth Wildcats star Kendal "Tiny" Pinder. Picture: The West Australian

Former Perth Wildcats star Kendal "Tiny" Pinder was in police custody in Perth last night after WA police went to NSW to extradite the disgraced former basketballer over an alleged breach of parole.

Mr Pinder, who was named in the Perth Wildcats 30th Anniversary All-Star team this year, was arrested by NSW Police on Monday and taken to Burwood Local Court in Sydney's inner west.

The 57-year-old did not object to his extradition, had his bail refused and was handed to local Corrective Services officers.

_The West Australian _understands the alleged breach of parole dates back to the mid-1990s, when Mr Pinder spent more than two years behind bars for a series of sexual assaults in WA.

He was released from jail in 1994 but was on parole when he was jailed for five years in 1996 by a NSW judge for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old schoolgirl in Wollongong.

Details of the alleged breach and why Mr Pinder's extradition had taken so long were unclear last night, but _The West Australian _understands legal issues in NSW may have contributed to the delay.

It is also understood he has more than four years to serve on his original sentence.

Officers from WA Police's regional investigations unit travelled to Sydney on Tuesday to collect Mr Pinder and returned to Perth yesterday with him in custody.

Mr Pinder, a star member of the Wildcats championship-winning teams in 1990 and 1991, is understood to have been in the Perth Watch House last night and is expected to be taken to Hakea Prison this morning.

He will not face court in Perth but does have legal avenues to appeal against his sentence.

Regional investigations unit officer in charge Det-Sen. Sgt Jason Fogliani said Mr Pinder's extradition was a good result.

A WA Police spokeswoman confirmed a 57-year-old was extradited by regional investigations unit officers for an alleged breach of parole. "They returned today on a return-to-prison warrant," she said.

The former Harlem Globetrotter, now an Australian citizen, faced his first sex charge in Miami, Florida, in 1976 when he was convicted of unlawful carnal intercourse and put on five years probation. He joined the Perth Wildcats in 1987.

Mr Pinder, in separate WA court appearances in 1992 and 1993, was sentenced to more than seven years jail for sexually assaulting three women between 1988 and 1990.