A convicted child molester from Maui who admitted to fondling some 200 children in Hawaii was arrested last week after he allegedly fondled a girl in an Arizona Wal-Mart.

Larry Cox, 46, was charged with aggravated assault, a felony, and was transferred to the Maricopa County Jail, police in Mesa said.

Police said that on Friday a caller from the Mesa Wal-Mart SuperCenter Store reported a mother yelling that an unknown man was trying to touch her daughter in a sexual manner. Police arrested Cox at the scene.

Hawaii's sex offender database lists Cox as living in Kihei.

In 1999, Circuit Judge Dexter Del Rosario sentenced Cox to one year in prison and five years of probation for four counts of sexual assault.

Cox pleaded guilty to grabbing the breasts of an 11- year-old girl at Toys R Us in Pearlridge Center and grabbing the buttocks of a 10-year-old girl in the toy department at the Salt Lake Kmart.

While in a sex treatment program, Cox admitted to fondling 200 children.

Prosecutors had asked for an extended sentence of 10 years because of the alleged multiple offenses.

But Del Rosario said he had no legal authority to punish Cox for offenses he admitted to during treatment, but was not convicted of doing. The judge also cited reports from sex therapists that Cox was likely to respond positively to treatment programs.