RUNAWAY paedophile George Galloway was last night waiting to be extradited back to the UK after he was hunted down and arrested in Canada.

The 43-year-old is being held in a high-security detention centre in Toronto after he was caught by police with facial recognition technology.

The former cable layer, originally from Pinero Grove, in Hartlepool, fled the country days before he was due to stand trial at Teesside Crown Court accused of raping a ten-year-old girl.

The case was heard in his absence and Galloway was convicted of rape and four charges of indecent assault.

His disappearance sparked an international hunt after it was believed that he had fled to Canada.

The jury had not been told he had jumped bail after tricking the authorities in a telephone call from Heathrow Airport.

Galloway had been given permission to move from the North-East to Newquay, in Cornwall.

But three days before his trial, originally set for May last year, he rang his solicitors saying he was unable to catch a London-to- Teesside flight and was taking a coach.

Instead, he boarded a flight for New York JFK airport and later travelled to Canada.

On August 11, he flew from Toronto to the US, but he was refused entry because his visa had expired and he was returned to Canada.

Interpol was notified on August 31, and Cleveland Police's intelligence bureau arranged for his picture to be circulated in Canada.

The court heard that Galloway was alleged to have raped a ten-year-old girl and to have been indecently assaulting her since she was six.

Investigations led the police to interview a second girl, who told them Galloway sexually abused her at his flat when she was 14.

Galloway had previously pleaded not guilty to raping one girl, four charges of indecently assaulting her between the ages of six and ten, and also three charges of sexually abusing the second girl between 1996 and 2004.

He was found guilty of rape and four charges of indecent assault. The jury cleared him of three sexual offences against the second girl.

He was arrested by Royal Canadian Mounted Police in a town 50 miles north of Toronto on April 15.

Arrangements are now in hand to extradite him to the UK to face sentence.

Detective Chief Inspector Sue Coates, head of Cleveland Police public protection, said: "George Galloway's details were circulated through Interpol and we asked the Canadian authorities to do all the checks they could.

"He is a convicted child rapist. He'll be brought back to be sentenced at Teesside Crown Court."