Olathe ? A man accused of being a sexual predator will have his trial delayed so that he can be castrated.

Herbert L. Fox, 65, was scheduled to go to trial Monday in Johnson County District Court. But he received a delay Friday until after his surgery, scheduled for March 25.

“You’re committed to this course of action?” District Judge James Franklin Davis asked Fox. “You’ve given considerable thought to this?”

Fox answered that he had.

The outpatient procedure will be performed at the Kansas University Medical Center, said Fox’s court-appointed lawyer, Bob L. Thomas.

Some of Fox’s friends have established a trust fund to pay for the surgery, Thomas said.

Experts in sex-offender treatment say that castrations are rare, and little information is available on their effectiveness. Chemical therapy can achieve the result of reducing testosterone, and consequently the sex drive, experts say.

Fox is the first sex offender to seek castration since Kansas enacted its sexual-predator law in 1994, officials said.

He has been convicted of committing sex crimes against children in 1974, 1981 and 1990, according to court records.

He was living in Shawnee at the time of his latest conviction for sodomizing two boys, ages 7 and 11. He was scheduled to be released from prison in October 2000, but prosecutors filed the predator action against him and he has remained in custody.

Doctors at the Larned State Security Hospital examined Fox, a diagnosed pedophile, and determined that he posed a risk of committing more crimes.

He could be committed indefinitely for care and treatment in the predator program if a jury found that he is likely to commit more crimes because of a mental condition that is difficult for him to control.