Julian Philip Myerscough v R

Facts

The appellant, Julian Myerscough, a lecturer in criminal law, was convicted in 2010 of five offences of possessing indecent images of children and sentenced to 15 months' imprisonment. In 2015, tried before HHJ Peters and a jury at Chelmsford Crown Court, he was found guilty of three counts of breaching a Sexual Offences Prevention Order and 13 counts of making indecent images of children, but absconded to the Republic of Ireland shortly before the verdicts. A European arrest warrant seeking his surrender for sentence was issued on 1 October 2015; he was arrested in Ireland, resisted extradition, and was released after some 21 months in custody. HHJ Peters sentenced him in his absence on 14 September 2017 to a total of three years and six months' imprisonment, observing that credit for the Irish custody could be argued if he returned. He then went to Romania, where he was arrested in July 2018 under a further accusation warrant and the earlier conviction warrant, spending 17 days in custody before surrender. On 24 June 2019, before HHJ Goodin and a jury at Ipswich Crown Court, he was convicted of indecent assault, rape of a girl under 13, sexual assault of a child under 13 and cruelty to a person under 16, and received an extended sentence of 26 years. Leave to appeal the convictions was refused; leave on sentence was granted only on credit for time in Ireland and Romania.