NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (AP) _ A man who travels the United States and Canada as ″Windy the Clown″ to teach children to avoid sexual abuse has been charged with sexually assaulting a 26-year-old retarded man, officials said Thursday.

Frank Collins, 52, of Murray, Utah, was charged Wednesday with first-degree sexual assault, and was arrested hours later after appearing at a shopping center in Kearney, said Lincoln County Attorney Charles Kandt.

Collins is accused of the August assault of a 26-year-old man who is a student at the North Platte Opportunities Center, Kandt said. The center employs mentally retarded people.

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In promotional material, Collins says he has appeared on television, in movies, at circuses and at Disneyland and Disney World.

Collins has done shows in North Platte for several years, Kandt said. Titles of the shows include ″Stranger Danger″ and ″If You Don’t Know, Don’t Go.″

Kandt said the victim frequently saw Collins’ show.

″He (the victim) does not distinguish between friend and foe,″ Kandt said. ″He still considers Windy the Clown his friend.″

Earlier this week, Collins said in a radio interview that he had been molested by a baby sitter when he was 3 years old and that later in his childhood he was abducted at knifepoint. Collins said those incidents prompted him to teach children about how to avoid molestation.

Collins appeared on the program Tuesday with Buffalo County Sheriff Frank Dineen. One of Dineen’s officers arrested him Wednesday night.

Collins gave the radio station letters of endorsement from elementary schools in Bozeman, Mont., Spokane, Wash., and Prince Albert, Saskatchewan; police departments in Aberdeen, S.D., Cheyenne, Wyo., and Nelson, British Columbia; and from the Canadian Mounted Police and the mayor of Fargo, N.D.

Also in his promotional material, Collins said Windy the Clown was declared Utah’s ″Official Ambassador of Safety″ in 1981 by former Gov. Scott M. Matheson.

Collins was being held in the Lincoln County Jail. Kandt said he did not know when he would be arraigned.