Paul Silverthorn 43

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A sex gang leader who preyed on 15-year-old girls with his girlfriend has tracked down and jailed after fleeing Britain for Spain.

Paul Silverthorn, 36, gave one of his victims legal high '5 NEO' before stifling her screams with a ball gag and tying her to a bed, a court previously heard.

The fugitive paedophile has now been jailed for nine years after he was arrested on the holiday island of Ibiza earlier this month.

He was arrested months after his girlfriend, Leila Kassam, was also caught in Spain.

Kassam, 32, fled to the same island after admitting child sexual exploitation offences last March.

But she was captured after a local worker recognised her from a Crimewatch appeal over the summer while she was working as a farmhand and she was extradited to Britain last November.

Silverthorn, formerly of Leytonstone, east London, was jailed for nine years for sexual offences against teenage girls after being returned to the UK on a European Arrest Warrant.

He fled Britain after pleading guilty last March to two counts of unlawful sex with a 15-year-old victim, and one count each for possessing and distributing indecent images of children.

He failed to appear for trial in May in relation to an offence of administering a substance for sexual purposes to a second 16-year-old victim, and was found guilty in his absence.

He was sentenced in his absence to nine years in June; receiving four years for the administration offence; four years for each of the unlawful sex offences; and six months each for the two separate indecent photo offences.

Detective believe he fled to Spain last April with his former girlfriend Kassam who was also sought in connection with the case.

She too had failed to appear for sentencing after pleading guilty at the March hearing to having unlawful sex with the same 15-year-old victim as Silverthorn; and admitting to arranging the commission of a child sex offence.

The offences, which took place between May and December 2014, involved two victims who were purposely befriended, taken to a central London address, plied with 'legal highs' and alcohol, and - in the case of the first victim - sexually abused by the couple.

The pair were found after a farm owner in Ibiza, who had hired them as farm hands over the summer months, recognised them following appeals on Crimewatch and by Crimestoppers.

Kassam was arrested in November and flown back to the UK on December 9. She was jailed at Blackfriars Crown Court for four years.

Silverthorn and Kassam received an additional six-week sentence for breaching their bail.

The pair were described as leading figures in a sex ring exploiting young girls during 'legal high' parties at a flat in Haymarket, central London.

Another member of the gang, Daniel Trinnaman of Harrow, was sentenced to two and a half years in jail after being convicted of causing a 15-year-old girl to engage in sexual activity and perverting the course of justice.

Faham Jaffer, 34, who had sex with one girl after Kassam texted her a photo with a message which read, 'Only got me a cute little 15-year-old', was sentenced to two years in prison after being found guilty of sexual activity with a child.

Silverthorn, described by Spanish police as a Canadian national, is said to have given his victim legal high '5 NEO' before stifling her screams with a ball gag and tying her to a bed.

Det Con Rob Dewhurst, from the Sexual Offences, Exploitation and Child Abuse Command, said after Trinnaman and Jaffer were jailed and the other two gang members went on the run: "This is a shocking case of child sexual exploitation.

"The defendants targeted young vulnerable girls, plying them with alcohol and what were then legal highs in order to facilitate their sexual abuse by a number of people.

"I commend the young victims for their courage in reporting the offences and giving evidence at trial."