On-the-run paedophile who fled after being convicted of forcing girl to have sex with dog is found

Police have located a convicted paedophile who committed "some of the gravest sexual offences" against an 11 or 12-year-old girl who had disappeared from hospital.

David Hart failed to show up at Swansea Crown Court for the last day of his trial on Wednesday (27 September) with police treating his disappearance "as a top priority".

The taxi driver from Morriston, Swansea, had been found guilty of 16 horrific sexual offences, including 12 counts of rape, against a child over a 14-year-period.

Hart abused the girl on a live webcam, forced her to have sex with a dog and took her virginity by raping her against a wall.

It has been reported that Hart, who was present during the trial, took himself to Morriston Hospital after becoming ill that morning, although when police visited they could not find him there.

A warrant was issued for the 60-year-old's arrest and South Wales Police appealed for anyone with information and he was later arrested at an address in Morriston.

Judge Geraint Walters described the abuse Hart conducted between 2001 and 2015 as "some of the gravest sexual offences".

Hart had denied 16 charges including 12 charges of rape, two charges of indecent assault, one of assault by penetration and one of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

But a jury found him guilty after hearing harrowing testimony by the victim who said that she blamed herself for being "too afraid" to stop him, reported the Daily Mail.

During the trial it emerged that the girl, who was just 11 or 12 years old when the abuse began, was abused live for sick internet chatrooms where "a few hundred people would watch".

The victim said in one police interview: "I blame myself. I never did enough to stop him. I had opportunities to stop him but I was too afraid. I hate myself. I feel disgusted I let him do these things. I dream of it. Every single night I go through that."

The victim believed that she may have been drugged during some of the abuse.

Hart was a man of previous good character and claimed to be physically unable to have sex at the time the allegations took place in an interview with police.