A DANGEROUS paedophile who committed a serious sex attack on a girl has been jailed for four years and one month.

Stephen Southworth, 59, had gone "on the run" to a guest house where children were staying after his conviction for indeceny with a child in June.

Police spent two weeks trying to track down Southworth, who lived in Tavistock Street, Nelson, before he was found at the guest house in Haworth.

After the case police said Southworth was "dangerous" and said that they were delighted to get a "good sentence" for the victim.

Southworth was jailed at Preston Crown Court earlier today.

The court was told that Southworth had subjected a girl to a serious sexual assault.

Police said his victim was too frightened to come forward to police until a decade after the attack. Southworth was convicted after a trial.

While awaiting sentence, he first failed to provide an address to police, then moved away from his Nelson home in Tavistock Street, Nelson, - the address he had given to officers as a condition of being on the sex offenders register.

Police said he then began moving around homes in both Lancashire and West Yorkshire But officers tracked him down to the guest house and arrested him there last month.

On August 19, he admitted breaching court orders in relation to going missing and was remanded in custody.

Police said Southworth had claimed he was homeless after his conviction in June, and that he was no longer welcome at his home so he left Nelson with his girlfriend.

After the case, Detective Constable Lisa Jeffery said: "On conviction, he was placed immediately on the sex offenders register but he breached the requirements of that by moving to a different address without telling us.

"It was simple, good police work that enabled us to track him down. We made inquiries at the Tavistock Street address and that led us to Haworth.

"As it happened, he was just coming put of the guest house when officers went to arrest him.

"It was quite worrying because he could well have come into contact with children there, and he is banned from contact with anyone under the age of 16.

"He was only there for around two weeks, and we took very quick action as soon as our routine calls revealed that he had gone.

"The sexual assault was a very serious offence and that fact is reflected in the sentence.

"We are pleased with the result. This was an investigation that has taken a long time and a lot of hard work, as well as a lot of trauma for the victim, but we have got a good sentence."