A paedophile law lecturer who went on the run as he battled to evade justice has been arrested in Romania.

Julian Myerscough, 56, formerly of Alexandra Road in Lowestoft, was found guilty of possessing indecent images of children by Ipswich Crown Court in September 2015.

However as the jury retired to consider their verdict Myerscough left the court and fled.

Suffolk Police immediately began hunting the now fugitive lecturer and a crown court warrant was issued for his arrest.

They found out he was fleeing to Ireland by taking a ferry from Holyhead and quickly secured a European Arrest Warrant.

Myerscough was detained under this warrant by Garda officers in a Dublin city centre hotel on Friday, October 2 – two day after attempting to escape his sentence.

The former criminal law lecturer was subsequently remanded in custody after appearing before the High Court in Dublin and Suffolk Police began working with Irish officials and the National Crime Agency to bring him back to the UK.

Yet the battle to bring him back was far from over.

Myerscough lodged a number of appeals to extradition with the Irish Courts – leading to the High Court in Dublin ruling that he should be released from prison on August 17, 2017.

The court deemed that too much time has passed and he was being unlawfully detained.

Almost two years after he absconded from court, Myerscough was sentenced in his absence on September 14, 2017.

He stood accused of 13 counts of possession of indecent images of a child and three counts of breaching a Sexual Offences Prevention Order.

Myerscough was found guilty of every charge and was handed a three-and-a-half year prison sentence.

This was not his first conviction for such crimes.

In 2010 he was sacked by the University of East Anglia after being convicted of being in possession of indecent images of children.

As he remained a wanted person in the UK a fresh European Arrest Warrant was obtained so he could be returned to the country and finally brought to justice.

The former lecturer was detained by Romanian law enforcement officers in Arad County on Friday, July 27 and his extradition was subsequently approved by the Timisoara Court of Appeal at a hearing on Tuesday.

Arrangements are now being made for officers from Suffolk Police to travel to Bucharest and return him to the UK.