A former Dymchurch arcade and B&B owner flew to Thailand four years ago – after being told by police he was to be arrested and quizzed about allegedly raping a child.

John Stageman, 73, agreed to meet officers but five days before the formal interview was to begin, boarded a plane for the Far East, a jury has heard.

He was arrested at a UK airport after his visa ran out last year– as the Crown Prosecution Service was attempting to have him extradited.

Now the former businessman has gone on trial at Canterbury Crown Court accused of raping a child in the 1980s.

Stageman, now of Exeter, has denied eight charges of rape, indecency with a child and indecent assault.

In a recorded video and played to the jury, the alleged victim claimed she and her family had stayed at Stageman’s bed and breakfast hotel before flying from Lydd Airport.

She said he befriended her family and then encouraged the child to go upstairs at his hotel to show her his CB radio.

The woman then told how she was assaulted and told to keep it a secret from her mother in exchange for gifts.

She told police officers: “He’d say: ‘If you ever tell, you’re going to get taken away. The police will take you away. You’ll never see your mummy again.

‘Nobody’ll ever want you…this is our secret. You want nice gifts don’t you? I’ll buy you some nice gifts..”

Prosecutor Tony Prosser claimed the initial attacks started when the girl was seven or eight – but she was then raped again some years later.

He said that it was only after receiving therapy the woman was able to tell people what she claimed had happened and police were alerted.

He told the jury: “On April 30 2012 police went to the defendant’s home to arrest him but the day they arrived he wasn’t present.

“So they spoke with him on the phone later that day and informed him that he was to be arrested and an appointment was made for him to attend the police station on May 8 2012.

“However, five days before that, on May 3, the defendant boarded a plane for Thailand and he remained in Thailand until his visa expired and the Thai authorities sent him back to England on April 22 last year while the British Police were seeking to extradite him, “ he claimed.

The trial continues.