Deported sex offender arrested in UK

Deported sex offender Michael Andrew Bell was arrested on the tarmac at Heathrow Airport on suspicion of a historic rape.

Bell (39) was deported on July 29 after being paroled, following his jail term for two counts of sexual violation in Dunedin in 2011.

He was accompanied by three unarmed New Zealand police officers to London's Heathrow Airport, arriving on July 30 (UK time).

The Otago Daily Times understands Metropolitan Police officers entered the plane and arrested Bell once the other passengers had disembarked.

He was arrested on behalf of the Devon and Cornwall police.

A spokesman for the Devon and Cornwall police confirmed the arrest.

''A 39-year-old man from Exeter was arrested on 30th July of suspicion of rape,'' a police statement said.

''He has been bailed pending further inquiries until the 5th November.''

Police could not comment further on the details of the offending because of the investigation, he said.

A Metropolitan Police spokeswoman referred all comment to Devon and Cornwall police.

The ODT understands the arrest related to a historic allegation dating from more than a decade ago, before Bell emigrated to New Zealand.

Bell served his sentence at Otago Corrections Facility before being released earlier this year, as the Parole Board felt he was no longer an ‘‘undue risk'' to the community and as he was the subject of a deportation order.

Bell was jailed in November 2012 after a complaint by a then 19-year-old woman following an incident on September 13, 2011.

He denied the offending but a jury in Invercargill found him guilty at the end of a two-day district court trial in September that year.

His three years and nine months' jail term was to finish in June 2016.

- timothy.brown@odt.co.nz

 

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