Gardaí apprehend on-the-run British sex offender

Gardaí intercepted and detained an escaped British sex offender as he was about to board a plane to Hungary yesterday morning.

Julian Myerscough, a former university law lecturer from Bolton, absconded from Ipswich Crown Court on Wednesday. The 53 year-old fled from court shortly before a jury convicted him, in his absence, of 16 charges of downloading indecent images of children. According to the East Anglian Daily Times he had pleaded not guilty to three offences of breaching a sexual offences prevention order between December 2010 and September 2013 and 13 offences of making indecent images of children. A crown court warrant was immediately issued for his arrest. British police believe he left Ipswich on a train bound for London’s Liverpool Street.

However, it stopped a number of times before that destination and when officers checked it at Liverpool Street they found no sign of him.

Gardaí yesterday said Myerscough had been identified as travelling on a ferry from Holyhead to Dublin at lunchtime on Thursday.

Officers from its newly formed Garda National Protective Service Bureau mounted an operation in conjunction with Store Street gardaí. and the Garda extradition section. They also liaised closely with suffolk police and the National Crime Agency.

“A European Extradition Warrant was expeditiously obtained and he [Myerscough] was arrested at a city centre hotel,” a spokesman said yesterday.

“Gardaí established he had booked a flight to Budapest, Hungary for later today but due to the close co-operation between the Irish and UK authorities, his efforts to evade Justice were foiled.”

Myerscough had previously been convicted of similar offences and jailed for 15 months in 2010. On that occasion, he denied all knowledge of the 1,355 images and movies found on his PC. The images and films included boys and girls aged eight to 14 being sexually abused by other children and adults.

Myerscough is the second “on the run” sex offender to be apprehended in by gardaí in recent months. Mian Shahid was located after officers launched a media appeal. He was arrested on August 31 as he tried to board a flight to Dubai. A couple of days later he surrendered himself to UK authorities at the High Court.

Detective Inspector Paul O’Brien from the Sex Offender Management and Intelligence Unit of the Garda National Protective Services Bureau said: “This is an example of close co- operation between the Irish and UK authorities.”