A cowardly pervert who fled to Africa after being accused of a string of sex crimes will finally be brought to justice today.

Ian McLeod-McLean faces jail after being due to stand trial more than two years ago.

He abused three young girls, but before stepping into the dock in May 2008 the 48-year-old, of Canterbury Road, Ashford, did a runner.

The pervert was finally re-caught in Sierra Leone after being hospitalised by a serious bout of malaria.

Local officers realised he was an illegal immigrant and was wanted for his crimes in the UK.

It then emerged McLeod-McLean had been sleeping rough in the wartorn African country for two years.

The authorities sprang into action and he was deported back to the UK where he was arrested upon arrival at London Heathrow.

On September 30 at Maidstone Crown Court he pleaded guilty to 19 counts of sexual abuse.

The court heard McLeod-McLean forced one of his victims to watch child porn and carried out sexual acts on a girl of just nine years old.

Police said the abuse of his three victims took place in Maidstone and spanned more than a decade.

McLeod-McLean appears for sentence today.