A CONVICTED sex offender who evaded justice for months has been arrested hiding out on a Spanish island.
The former swimming coach indecently assaulted young girls at public pools in the North-East when he was a teenager, and police feared he would pose a danger to children while on the run.
Stephen Glen Featherstone, 33, known as Glen, went on the run last December after a jury found him guilty of six indecent assaults against children.
Featherstone fled to the island before he was sentenced and it is believed he was working as a barman when police tracked him down.
Detectives were worried Featherstone, formerly of Thames Road, Billingham, would slip through their hands again when he was exposed by the News of the World newspaper's controversial campaign to name and shame convicted paedophiles.
Police said their quarry had given up his job and believed he was due to flee again after the Sunday paper's weekend story featured his picture.
Cleveland Police appealed in vain to the paper not to run the story while gaining permission from the Spanish authorities to extradite him back to the UK.
However, police announced yesterday they were sending detectives to Featherstone's sunny hideaway after Spanish police arrested him.
He will be locked up for breaking bail and put in front of Teesside Crown Court for sentencing for three offences of indecency with a child and three offences of indecent assault.
The offences happened in the early to mid-1980s when he was training with Thornaby Swimming Club.
The cases came to court after one of his victims found out he had later become a swimming coach with children. One girl was assaulted from the age of nine to 14.
Inspector Shane Sellars, of Cleveland Child Protection Unit, said: "We knew where Featherstone was and the protracted legal process to get him back to Teesside was on-going.
"It is my view that our whole operation was endangered by the News of the World. Featherstone quit his job on Monday and was preparing to flee to a new haven, where he would undoubtedly have been a danger to children. He could easily have set up a new identity and been free to prey on more victims until the law caught up with him.''
In a statement issued last night, the News of the World rejected Cleveland Police's version of events and challenged the claim its actions jeopardised a police operation.
''On the contrary, the fact is that the fugitive Stephen Featherstone, who had been sought since December 1999, was apprehended as a direct result of our report, two days after we published his picture and details. We are disappointed by the Cleveland Police account, since in our view it is not borne out by the facts.''
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