SEX OFFENDER DAVID MAWTUS FROM NEWTOWN JAILED AFTER FLEEING TO THAILAND

In September 2017, a computer technician from Newtown was sentenced to prison after a court revealed he had fled the UK despite being on the sex offenders register.

David Mawtus, 51, formerly of Lower Gwestydd Lane in Aberbechan, had taken annual leave, packed his belongings, transferred £3,500, and booked a flight to Thailand to reunite with his wife and daughter. Mold Crown Court heard that Mawtus had no plans to return to the UK. While in Thailand, he was detained in prison where conditions included being fed water and cabbage. An international warrant had been issued for his arrest.

Mawtus had to leave Thailand temporarily because of visa restrictions, but encountered further issues when Malaysia refused entry to him. Subsequently, Thailand also refused to repatriate him due to the outstanding warrant. He was held in a Thai jail for 50 days until his wife, a Malaysian national, paid £700 for his return flight to the UK, choosing to avoid extradition procedures.

He was arrested upon his arrival in the UK earlier that month and later sentenced to 20 months in prison after admitting to breaching the sex offender registry requirements by travelling abroad and changing his address without notifying police. Mawtus also admitted to breaching a three-year community order, which required him to participate in a community sex offender programme, after he failed to attend scheduled appointments in October and November of previous years.

Judge Niclas Parry ordered Mawtus to register as a sex offender with police for 10 years and imposed a 10-year sexual harm prevention order. The order prohibits him from living with girls under 16 or approaching them and also restricts his internet use.

The judge referenced a previous opportunity given to Mawtus at York Crown Court in April of the previous year, where he was offered a chance to follow a sex offender programme after indecent images were discovered on his computers. “It is right that it is in the public interest to try by appropriate training to reduce such offending and that is what the court tried to do,” said Judge Parry. “But it is also important for public perception and protection that the treatment is monitored. You deliberately chose to ignore the chance you had been given.”

He described Mawtus’s flight as "totally planned and premeditated," pointing out that the defendant had taken annual leave, withdrew money from his bank, and cleared his property with no indication he intended to return.

Criminal proceedings also revealed that Mawtus was arrested in Scarborough for offences dating back to 2013. Last year, at York Crown Court, he received a community order after admitting possession of indecent images of children. The investigation had started when police uncovered his email uploaded indecent images of a child to a Russian website, with Mawtus receiving more than 300 images in return. He pleaded guilty to 11 charges of making indecent images through downloading. The court noted that he lost his previous job because of this and subsequently found new employment in Sheffield and later in Newtown, Powys.