A pervert pensioner who took an overdose after vanishing from his sex trial has been jailed for 16 years.

George Williams-Sainsbury, 71, had been given bail after a jury retired to consider its verdicts on 14 rape and sex assault charges dating back to the 1970s.

Hours before the jury at Canterbury Crown Court returned to deliver guilty verdicts on the offences, which happened in Folkestone, Williams-Sainsbury fled to south Wales.

Judge Heather Norton told him: "There are character references which I have been given which speak positively of you.

"But the evidence I heard during the trial tells me a different story of you between 1975 and 1984. You say you were abused as a child but you re-visited that cruelty onto others."

The judge added that although the offences were committed many years ago, "the effects on the victims has not diminished".

Williams-Sainsbury, pictured above, disappeared from court last July. Police were alerted and began a search of the Bridgend area, where they found him in a quarry.

He had spoken to hospital staff on his mobile and revealed he had taken an overdose.

The court heard at the time that had he not been found so quickly "he might well have been discovered dead".

Williams-Sainsbury – who had denied the offences, which involved four victims – was later sent to a psychiatric hospital for treatment.