A former law lecturer who did a runner while he was on trial for downloading paedophilic photographs has been sentenced.

Julian Myerscough fled from Ipswich Crown Court in 2015 just before he was convicted on 13 counts of possession of indecent images of children and three counts of breaching a Sexual Harm Prevention Order. The lecturer, who taught crimimal law at the UEA,  was spotted on a ferry to Ireland and arrested by Garda officers in a Dublin hotel just hours before he was set to fly to Hungary.

However, Myerscough used his professional knowhow to lodge a barrage of appeals against extradition from his Irish prison cell over the next two years. He was eventually released when the High Court in Dublin decided that too much time had elapsed and that he was being unlawfully detained. Now sentenced at Chelmsford County Court to three and a half years, Judge Emma Peters said the time he served in Dublin would not necessarily count towards his sentence. 

     "Enhance...enhance...my god."

Although it looks unlikely Myerscough will be turning up to serve it. He was sentenced in his absence and has long since left the UK. Striking an optimistic tone, Detective Sergeant Simon Fitch said after the hearing, “He may currently be living as a free man, but I am confident justice will catch-up with him eventually and will we continue our efforts to return him to the United Kingdom so that he can serve the sentence handed down to him”.

It has been several years since Myerscough was allowed near a lecture hall. He was sentenced to 15 months in prison after being convicted of similar offences in 2010. A former GDL student who was taught by Myerscough at the UEA told RollOnFriday he was "Creepy, and I don't just say that with the benefit of hindsight. He'd make slightly lewd jokes in lectures, obviously not about kids - he wasn't an idiot - but they were just a bit eww. We'd come out of lectures saying, 'Is he...slightly weird?'" She added, however, "It was still a big surprise he was a paedo. We just thought he was a sexually awkward older guy who didn't get much action and lived alone in Lowestoft". 
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Comments

Roll On Friday 22 September 17 13:42

Why is Chelmsford County Court sentencing paedos? Surely that is outside of its jurisdiction - more grounds for appeal for the paedo....

Anonymous 23 September 17 09:40

I wonder why the UK could not have sent officers to arrest him when he was released from the Irish prison. Also surely a few years inside is better than 20 on the run.

Anonymous 25 September 17 17:53

I'm also a former GDL student of Myerscough - yes he came across as a bit eccentric, but not really any more so than half the rest of the lecturers tbh. He was also a very good teacher, and spent a lot of extra personal time helping the GDL pupils in particular above and beyond what might have been expected. I and my fellow alumni were very saddened when the news originally broke. Not that he deserves any sympathy, he's been convicted twice now of vile crimes - but my personal take on the bloke is not a predatory monster, but just a sick and tragic criminal.