A PAEDOPHILE was extradited from Spain to face justice after he fled the UK to start a new life in Benidorm.

Mark Bowen, 25, went on the run after police arrested him for having a disturbing video on his phone of a 12-year-old boy being raped.

Eugene Egan, prosecuting, told Newport Crown Court how officers searched the defendant’s home in October 2017 and he was released under investigation.

He said: “Three months after the phone was seized, he moved to Spain in January 2018.”

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Mr Egan said the police were informed that Bowen also had debt problems and had no intention of returning to Britain.

A European Arrest Warrant was issued and the defendant was arrested in Benidorm on April 8.

Bowen spent three months in a Spanish jail before he was flown back to the UK last month.

The defendant, of Lon Fawr, Bondfield Park, Caerphilly, pleaded guilty to the possession of an indecent category A video of a child.

He also admitted the possession of an indecent category C imaged of a child.

Julia Cox, mitigating, said that Bowen was a man of previous good character with no convictions recorded against him.

Judge Richard Williams sentenced him to a 24-month community order and he must complete 29 sessions of the Horizon sex offender programme.

Bowen must register as a sex offender for five years and was ordered to pay a surcharge.