A former lecturer has been returned to the UK from Romania and charged with raping an underage girl - three years after fleeing a sexual offences trial.

Julian Myerscough, formerly of Alexandra Road in Lowestoft, left Ipswich Crown Court on September 30 2015 while standing accused of possessing indecent images of a child and breaching a Sexual Offences Prevention Order.

But as the jury retired to consider their verdict, Myerscough fled the court and was found guilty of all charges in his absence.

Two days later, the 56-year-old was detained in Dublin under a European Arrest Warrant, and Suffolk Police began working with Irish officials and the National Crime Agency to return him to the UK.

Despite the efforts of various agencies, bringing him back into the country was proving a challenging task.

Myerscough lodged a number of appeals to his extradition while in Irish custody, culminating in the High Court in Dublin directing that he should be released from prison on August 17, 2017.

Almost two years after he initially absconded from court, he was sentenced in his absence on September 14, 2017, at Chelmsford Crown Court to three-and-a-half-years in prison and given a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

However, he remained a wanted person on British shores and a new European Arrest Warrant was obtained so he could be brought to justice. He was subsequently detained by Romanian law enforcement officers in Arad County on Friday, July 27 - almost three years after he initially went on the run.

His extradition was approved by the Timisoara Court of Appeal at a hearing on Tuesday, August 7. Officers from Suffolk Police travelled to Bucharest to collect him and arrived back in the UK yesterday, Monday, August 13.

Myerscough was taken to Martlesham Police Investigation Centre, where he was charged with 11 additional offences which occurred between 2001 and 2010 as follows:

• Two counts of raping a girl under the age of 13

• Four counts of assaulting a girl under the age of 13 by penetration

• Four counts of indecently assaulting a girl under the age of 14

• One count of assaulting/ill-treating a child to cause unnecessary suffering.

He has been remanded in custody to appear at Ipswich Magistrates' Court today, Tuesday, August 14.