Sex suspect caught in Alhaurin after two decades on the run

A BRITISH fugitive is finally set to face his past after being arrested in Alhaurin el Grande on suspicion of sexually abusing his own daughter almost 40 years ago.

The 69-year-old expat was detained under a European Detention and Delivery Order issued by a Liverpool court.

He is to be questioned over seven alleged offences, six of which involve indecent assault of a minor aged less than 13 and each carrying a maximum five-year prison sentence.

The remaining charge is for sodomy of a minor, which under English law carries a punishment of life imprisonment. The suspect was originally arrested in Liverpool in 1996 after his daughter filed a complaint with police claiming to have suffered ‘all kinds’ of sexual abuse and aggression between 1972 and 1978.

She also stated her father was working as a private detective from 1977-1978, an allegation he strongly denied, even providing an alibi that supported his own claims to have only been employed in such a capacity from 1973-1974.

He was released on parole pending a new hearing in April 1996, and the case was suspended for review after he appeared in court for a second time.

However, in June that year he failed to make a bail payment and disappeared, being lost to the UK authorities for 11 years, until he was picked up attempting to enter the country at London Gatwick airport in November 2007.

In court, he told the judge he thought the case had been closed and was granted parole, while his passport was confiscated. A month later he applied for and obtained a new passport before fleeing again.

The case reopened in 2016 after more evidence was obtained and an international arrest warrant issued last month.