LAS VEGAS — A man suspected of sexually abusing a young girl in a videotaped assault has a history of violence and deception, a former girlfriend said in an interview broadcast Monday.

Tina Allen said Chester “Chet” Arthur Stiles, 34, presented himself to her as a family man who she initially trusted around children, including her own grandson.

“If I could talk to him … I would congratulate him and tell him he deserves an Emmy, a Tony, whatever awards they give out for consummate acting because he fooled us all,” Allen said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

Stiles, who remains at large, is suspected of being the man in a 2003 tape performing sex acts on a 3-year-old girl. Authorities last week took the unusual step of releasing images from the tape in an attempt to establish the identity of the victim.

Deputies found the girl, now 7, safe in Las Vegas.

Allen said Stiles should surrender but “I know him to be very violent, and he’s not going down without a fight.”

Nye County District Attorney Bob Beckett said Friday that a Las Vegas attorney reported he had been told by a client that Stiles was a knife-packing survivalist who vowed that police would never catch him alive.

Allen, who knows of the girl on the tape, said she is now “fairly happy,” and apparently remembers nothing from the assault.

“Don’t dig this out of her,” Allen said. “Don’t make her say anything, don’t put her through more torture than she’s already been.”

Authorities on Sunday took into custody another man accused of holding and showing off the tape.

Darrin Tuck, 26, surrendered to Nye County deputies without incident. He originally claimed to have found the tape in the desert, but authorities said he had it for as long as five months before turning it in.

Tuck’s attorney Harry Kuehn denied his client personally showed the video to others and said Tuck turned in the tape in a reasonable amount of time.

“The sheriff’s office has exaggerated the extent of their evidence and seriously jeopardized our client’s chance of a fair trial,” Kuehn said.

The Associated Press is no longer identifying or releasing photos of the girl because she is a suspected victim of sexual abuse. It did so earlier in the interest of her safe recovery.

Stiles also is wanted on an unrelated state warrant issued last year charging lewdness with a minor under 14 years of age and on a federal fugitive warrant.

Las Vegas police have said Stiles had a string of arrests dating to 1999 on several charges, including assault, battery, resisting a police officer, auto theft, leaving the scene of an accident and contempt of court.

He was convicted in 1999 of carrying a concealed weapon and in 2001 of conspiracy to commit grand larceny, according to Clark County District Court records.