A CONVICTED sex offender who evaded justice for nearly two years has been jailed for six months.

Stephen Glen Featherstone, 34, known as Glen, went on the run in December 1999 after a jury found him guilty of six indecent assaults against children.

The former swimming coach indecently assaulted two young girls at public pools in the North-East when he was a teenager, in the early to mid-1980s.

He fled to Tenerife before he could be sentenced, but was extradited back to the UK last month after being arrested on the island.

Spanish officials transferred him to a prison in Madrid, where he spent 14 months.

Yesterday, Featherstone, formerly of Thames Road, Billingham, Teesside, appeared at Teesside Crown Court in front of his original trial judge, Judge David Bryant.

He admitted a breach of bail conditions.

Deborah Sherwin, prosecuting, said Featherstone began abusing one girl when she was about nine, and he was 13 or 14. The assaults continued until the girl was about 13.

Another victim was of a similar age. All three attended a local swimming club.

One of the victims came forward in the late 1990s to make a complaint against Featherstone, after she learned he had become involved in coaching children in swimming.

Tim Roberts, mitigating, said his client had spent 14 months in custody, and that he was a juvenile at the time of most of the offences. He said Featherstone had not committed any offences since then.

Judge Bryant said his sentencing powers were limited because of the length of time that had passed since the offences were committed, and because of Featherstone's age at the time.

Sentencing him to six months in prison, the judge said some of the time spent in custody in Spain had been taken into account. Featherstone was placed on the Sex Offenders' Register for seven years.

A prosecution application to impose a restraining order, banning Featherstone from becoming a swimming coach, or visiting swimming pools or leisure facilities, was turned down.

Featherstone's victims, now in their late 20s, said they were disappointed with the sentence.

In a statement issued after hearing, they said: "The sentence felt like it trivialised the offences. It did not compensate for all the years of pain."