A man extradited from Australia to face historic sex offences has died following a suspected overdose.

Leonard Sheldon cheated justice just hours before he was due to be sentenced.

A friend found the 65-year-old slumped in his rented accommodation.

The paedophile had been convicted by a jury at Maidstone Crown Court on nine of 10 sex offences dating back to Rochester in the late 1970s.

Sheldon, who has lived in the Western Australian city of Perth for many years, had denied the offences but was found guilty of gross indecency and indecent assault.

He was granted bail until October 30 when the judge Recorder David Jeremy QC was to sentence him.

Sheldon's barrister Benjamin Newton told the court at an earlier hearing that a friend had arrived at his home to bring him to court.

But he told Sheldon's lawyers he had been found collapsed after a suspected overdose.

Mr Newton said Sheldon, who had been seen on at 10.15pm the previous night, was "unconscious and unrousable" and later taken to Medway Maritime Hospital in Gillingham.

Now Maidstone's senior judge – David Griffith-Jones QC –has ordered the indictment be endorsed with the fact Sheldon died "before it was possible for him to be sentenced for the offences of which he was convicted".

No-one attended the court to hear the judge's announcement.

To read more of our in depth coverage of all of the major trials coming out of crown and magistrates' courts across the county, click here.

For information on how we can report on court proceedings, click here.

Read more: All the latest news from Medway