A Malton pensioner who went AWOL after being convicted of child-sex crimes remains at large despite a manhunt stretching as far as southern Spain.
Kenneth Hinds, 75, was due to be sentenced for a string of sexual assaults against young girls but failed to turn up for sentence at Hull Crown Court in early May.
Humberside Police launched a manhunt following the issuing of an arrest warrant by a crown court judge but 87 days later, the convicted sex offender has still not been found.
The police and prosecuting authorities suspect that Hinds may be in Benidorm, the famous seaside resort on the Costa Blanca which is popular with Brits.
Humberside Police has confirmed that the fugitive pensioner was still at large.
A police spokeswoman said they could only say that he was “believed to be out of the county”.
Hinds, of Ashfield Avenue, was convicted of nine counts of sexual assault following a trial at the Hull court earlier this year.
He was due to be sentenced on 8 May, but prosecutor Michael Masson said there was no pre-sentence report because Hinds had not seen the Probation Service and was believed to be abroad.
Police enquiries at the time revealed that Hinds was thought to be on the Costa Blanca – where holidaymakers are currently basking in temperatures nudging 30°C – and there was no evidence he had booked return tickets from the popular holiday destination.
Mr Masson said the victims in the case had attended court for Hinds’s sentence.
He said that police had been to the pensioner’s home in Malton, but he was nowhere to be seen.
Defence barrister Matthew Moore-Taylor said he had “scant information” about Hinds’s whereabouts and why he had not turned up for his probation report and sentence.
He said he and his instructing solicitors had made their own attempts to contact Hinds, but to no avail.
“They have been unable to contact him via email,” added Mr Moore-Taylor.
“They sent letters and the phone number they have for him was going straight to voicemail.”
Following the jury’s unanimous guilty verdicts in February, Hinds was given conditional bail before sentence in May, but then he disappeared.
After learning of the pensioner’s no-show on the day of sentence, Mr Recorder Thomas Moran said: “The fact that (Hinds’s non-attendance) has caused additional distress (to the victims) will reflect in a consecutive sentence (for skipping bail) in addition to the sentence he is going to receive (for the sexual offences).”
He issued a warrant for the pensioner’s arrest which would see Hinds brought straight into custody upon his arrest. That warrant is still outstanding as the search goes on for the convicted sex offender.