POLICE are preparing a European arrest warrant if DNA positively identifies a missing sex offender as being one half of a couple who disappeared in Jersey.

Tests are currently being carried out on belongings left by a couple calling themselves Andrew Keeble and Hannah Tye at a Jersey campsite before they disappeared after they were believed to have gone kayaking.

If the DNA matches that of missing sex offender Gerald Hayslop, 26, who skipped bail after being found guilty of child pornography offences, Lancashire police will apply for a European arrest warrant Hayslop's father, Gerard Snr, told the police he had received a phone call from his estranged son claiming that he was in a church in Lyon, France, and desperately needed cash.

Mr Hayslop, of Hollingreave Road, Burnley, said that he was sure that his son and pregnant girlfriend, Louise Howarth-Lee, 20, were the missing couple.

They were last seen at the campsite where they were staying in mid-August and their disappearance sparked sea and air searches off the coast of Jersey after they told campers they were going kayaking.

Witnesses in Hatainville, Normandy, said that they had seen two "exhausted" kayakers paddling to shore the weekend that the pair disappeared. Mr Hayslop said his son told him that he had travelled to Jersey before making his way to France on a kayak to avoid the French authorities and escape Britain, in a phonecall at the end of August.

A police spokesperson said: "He is wanted on a bench warrant issued by a court and this is not recognised over there.

"There needs to be a European warrant which we will apply for once we have established it is him.

"The pictures have been shown to the campsite owners and they could not be 100 per cent sure that Gerard Hayslop is the guy at the campsite.

"We have the DNA of anybody who comes through custody in Burnley and if there is any evidence we will be able to positively identify them."

Mr Hayslop, who has been helping both Jersey and Lancashire Police with their inquiries, said he has not had any further contact from his son.