Brit priest who spent FIVE years on the run after skipping bail on child sex abuse claims arrested in Kosovo

By Lauren Fruen
Sun
May 14, 2016

http://goo.gl/2NF2uH

Laurence Soper - wanted over child sex abuse allegations - has been arrested in Kosovo after five years on the run

Soper was abbot of Catholic Ealing Abbey in London from 1991 to 2000 but fled the UK after his arrest in 2010

Soper was found in Pec, Kosovo, and was arrested last week after failing to return to a police station in London in March 2011

A BRITISH Catholic priest wanted over child sex abuse claims has been arrested after five years on the run.

Former monk Laurence Soper was found in Kosovo after skipping bail and vanishing following his arrest in September 2010.

He was being hunted over sex offences allegedly carried out when he was abbot of Catholic Ealing Abbey in London from 1991 to 2000.

Following allegations by a former pupil in 2010 Soper was arrested and questioned by cops.

He was bailed but failed to return to a police station in London a year later in March 2011 after cops let him keep his passport.

Soper had been asked to return to London from Italy where he worked but instead of flying back into Heathrow he skipped bail and vanished, The MailOnline reports.

A European Arrest Warrant was issued for him in 2012 after he went on the run.

Police in Kosovo's capital Pristina confirmed he had been arrested in Pec on Thursday.

An anonymous senior official said that the extradition process was under way to return him to the UK, according to reports.

A Met spokesman said: "The Metropolitan Police is aware of an arrest and is currently in liaison with the relevant authorities."

A Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokeswoman said: “Our Embassy is providing assistance following the arrest of a British National in Peja, Kosovo on Wednesday 11 May.”

In June 2010, a man made an allegation of sexual assault at St Benedict's School in Ealing, west London.

Mr Soper was questioned three months later and a source close to the investigation said in 2012: "He knew he was about to be charged."

Soper quit the £12,000-a-year private school - that was attended by comedian Julian Clary - leaving Britain in 2001.

He headed to Rome to become treasurer at the Benedictine Order's headquarters at St Anselmo.

Kosovo's Insajderi newspaper said Mr Soper had been living under the name Andrew, and had lived in Pec for several years.

Soper was named, along with four others, in Lord Carlile's independent report into allegations of physical and sexual abuse of children at the school over a 40-year period. Two former teachers at St Benedict's were jailed.

Concerns were also raised about Soper's time as part-time chaplain at Feltham Young Offender Institution between 1988 and 2000 by a former worker.

Ealing Abbey has now confirmed that Soper was questioned by police during this period and a spokesman said of Soper in 2012: "All efforts to make contact with him have been without success.

"He was trusted by the police in England to return.

"He has betrayed that trust."

In the mid-Nineties, Scotland Yard investigated an alleged paedophile ring visiting boys there.