Mezbaha Uddin 42

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A fugitive paedophile was arrested by police in Dover after being found hiding in a lorry bound for France.

Mezbaha Uddin is now facing a long spell in jail after a jury convicted him of a string of child sex offences.

The 39-year-old had been under investigation by Nottinghamshire Police in relation to a series of offences between September 2018 and July 2020.

A jury has now found him guilty of 16 child sex offences including 10 counts of attempting to engage in sexual communications with a child and six counts of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.

He is due to be sentenced on October 22.

Canterbury Crown Court heard that Uddin's arrest followed an allegation of sexual communication with a child in Nottinghamshire in July 2019.

Jurors heard that Uddin had communicated with a decoy account set up by an online child activist group.

The group alerted police when he sent indecent images of himself and arranged to meet what he thought was a 14-year-old girl in Mansfield.

Uddin was arrested and his mobile phone was seized.

Messages from a chatroom website found that Uddin had attempted to engage in sexual communications with more than a dozen underage girls, in some instances with a view to meeting them in person.

On other occasions, he encouraged girls to engage in sexual activity while he watched.

Detective Constable Stuart Dolby, of Nottinghamshire Police's public protection team, welcomed the convictions.

'This was a complex and thorough investigation which included disturbing evidence for our officers to deal with.

'I am pleased with the verdicts and I hope they send a clear message that Nottinghamshire Police will do what is necessary to tackle these crimes and to protect the most vulnerable people in our communities.

'Child sex offences of any kind are taken incredibly seriously and we have a number of tactics in place to catch offenders out.

'No child should be subjected to any sexual offence and it's our duty to protect them.'