Paedophile arrested in St Tropez

Aug 22 2008 by Jenny Wood, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

A predatory Perthshire paedophile who sparked an international man hunt will find out next week if he is to be extradited back to the UK.

Branded ‘most wanted’, sex offender Joseph Herbert Millbank of Luncarty fled to France but is back behind bars after being arrested this week in the swanky southern French Riviera resort of St Tropez.

On Tuesday he will appear in court in France to learn if he is to face extradition back to the UK where he could face years behind bars for going on the run.

Millbank – said to pose a “significant threat” to children – gave police the slip in June, seven weeks after being released from prison.

Tayside Police was sure he had travelled to France and alerted Interpol after his car was registered travelling on a cross-Channel ferry the same day the sex offender went missing from Perthshire.

This week their suspicions he was on the continent were confirmed when French authorities traced 48-year-old Millbank in St Tropez at lunchtime on Tuesday.

It has not yet been established how he was captured or if he offended while he was in France.

Predatory paedophile Millbank is considered a danger to children and his web of deceit has even previously seen him pose as a council official.

But in 2002 he went behind bars when the High Court in Aberdeen imposed a 10-year prison sentence on the sex offender.

Millbank had admitted a total of 16 indecency charges against girls in Perthshire, Dundee, Aberdeen and Inverness after he was caught in one of the largest child abuse investigations mounted by Scottish police.

He was released from prison in May this year, but went on the run on June 27 after failing to comply with the conditions of his early release.

With the dangerous paedophile now back behind bars, Tayside Police thanked the public this week for their assistance in capturing Millbank.